Lazy and Loving It: My Secret to Practice Growth

The myth of discipline has perpetuated an enormous lie about what drives success in dental practices. Drawing from personal experience, I reveal why traditional definitions of discipline aren't necessary for extraordinary practice growth. Through vulnerable admissions about my own "undisciplined" habits (25 years of smoking, late-morning wake-ups, nightly cereal binges), I unpack what actually drove my success building a large group practice.

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Episode Transcript

PAUL ETCHISON (00:02):
You ever notice how the most disciplined people
you know aren't always the mostsuccessful people?
You know, like?
I've got some friends that wakeup at 4 am.
I have some friends that loverunning marathons.
I don't understand that.
I have people meal prepping andyou know they may be somewhat
healthy, they post themotivational quotes about
hustling and all that stuff, buthonestly, they're still stuck.

(00:24):
They're not making a ton ofmoney, they're not crushing it
in business.
And I remember back to when Iopened up my practice and I
would spend all this time thereand everyone would be like oh my
gosh, you're so disciplined.
And oh my gosh, you're sodisciplined.
And you know I used to likethat.
It used to stroke the ego alittle bit.
It made me feel good, yeah, I'mreally disciplined, I'm a
go-getter, I'm successful.
Look at me.
But now I think back to it andI think about am I a disciplined

(00:47):
person?
Was it really disciplined?
Now, I did put the time in.
I'm not going to deny that Idid put the time and the work
and the effort in.
But was it disciplined?
Is that what got me there?
And that's what I want to talkto you about today.
So you are listening to theDental Practice Heroes podcast.
I'm your host, dr Paul Adjassin.
I'm the author of two books ondental practice management, a
dental coach and the owner of alarge group practice in the

(01:10):
South suburbs of Chicago.
If you are somebody who wantsto have more freedom, make more
money and take more time offyour practice and make it run
without you, well, you'relistening to the right podcast.
That's what we do here.
So let's go back to disciplineNow.
Am I a disciplined person?
Well, let me see.

(01:34):
You may not know this, but Ismoked cigarettes for like 25
years and you know how manyyears of that 25 I was trying to
quit?
Probably 21 of them, I don'tknow.
I started in high school andyou might say well, why'd you do
that dumbass?
And I'll tell you because itmade me look cool.
Man, I want to look cool andeverybody smoked when I was in
high school.
I graduated in 99.
I hope you're not thinking I'molder than you thought.
But you know what?
Yeah, I smoked a really longtime and I really tried to quit.
It was really hard.

(01:55):
I have quit.
If anything, I think it made myvoice sound a little velvety.
Oh, I like it.
Okay, anyway, you know whatelse I do.
I eat a bowl of cereal everysingle night and it's a huge
bowl.
It's like this giant bowl thatI bought off Amazon.
It's got a handle on it.
It's like a giant coffee mug,but it's huge, and you know what
.
You've heard me talk about this.
I usually sleep in till like 12, one o'clock.

(02:17):
You know what time I intend towake up Usually like 9 am.
Do you know how often thatactually happens?
Never.
So am I really disciplined, andhave I ever really been
disciplined?
I don't think so, because Idon't think it's discipline that
gets it done.
And so I really thought aboutwhat are a few things that make
a practice really grow, and thatare these internal things that

(02:38):
some people say, oh, that'sdiscipline, but it's really not.
So I'm going to give you fivepoints today.
I know you're going to findthese helpful, and I hope that
you listen to him and say youknow what he's right.
He is actually right, because Iknow I'm right, ready, all
right.
So the first one let's thinkback to when you were a kid.
Now, when I was a mean, weplayed football outside, we did
things outside, we were outsidekids too, but we also played

(03:01):
just tons of video games.
And is that discipline?
Would people say, wow, you'reso disciplined in video games?
No, you know why I played videogames so much?
Because I really loved doing it, because it was fun.
I was playing.
And when I think back to mypractice and growing my practice
, that was fun.
You've heard me say on thepodcast before I was just
engaged, I loved it, I wasgetting results, everything was

(03:24):
good.
And then it eventually becamethis horrible part of me that I
resented.
But you know what?
At the beginning, I loved itand I loved doing it.
So what I want you to do is, ifyou can find things that you
love doing that seem like playto you, you can do them all day
and you will get results.
Now you might say I'm not likethat at my office.

(03:44):
I hate my office, I don't likerunning my office.
But what do you like aboutrunning your office?
There are things you enjoydoing at the office.
So how can you really lean intothose?
Because I'm guaranteeing you,those are strengths of yours.
So lean into those things youlike doing so it doesn't feel
like you're working and you'regoing to get really great
results from that.
And another thing I think you'llrealize is that when you start

(04:07):
putting the time into thesystems and leading and building
and creating and you're notstuck in the op all the time,
you start to feel energized andyou get engaged and you like
that.
And when you know how to do itand you start mastering it which
is what we teach in ourprograms you become somebody
that becomes very passionateabout it and people from the
outside they're going to say,wow, look how hard that person's

(04:27):
working, look at the disciplinethey got.
But you know what it is, you'rehaving fun.
So you have to find thosethings at the practice that are
like play to you.
You got to do those and if, forthe things that you don't like
doing, this next point is goingto help you with that, how do
you turn what you hate into whatyou love?
I have so many of these things.
I used to have a list a milelong of things I hated to do at

(04:48):
the practice and if you readthis list you'd be like dude,
you hate everything about thisplace and it kind of was like
that because they weren't fun,they weren't engaging, they were
about as fun as when I have toget all my crap together and
send it to my accountant everyyear for taxes.
I put it off every year becauseit's just so boring.
So what do you do to take thosethings that you hate and you
turn them into something youlove?

(05:09):
Well, well, think about this.
When I signed up with MB2, whenI sold my practice, I had to do
the expense report.
I hated the expense report.
I would get pissed off.
I'd sit driving to my car, justbe like mother effer, like I
got to do that when I get homeand then as soon as I walk in
the door, I'm like I'm not doingthat tonight, I'll put that off
for tomorrow and I would dreadit.
And I would put it off for solong until trained my assistant

(05:36):
how to do it.
And then, after her doing itfor two months, she said you
know what I love doing, thatexpense report.
And I laughed because I thoughtshe was kidding.
She wasn't, she was actuallyserious, she really loved it.
I couldn't believe it.
I'm like you sick, twistedlittle girl.
There's no way.
But she does.
So if you don't like doingthings and there's things that
you hate about your practice youneed to find somebody else to

(05:57):
do it.
I assure you, everything youhate, there's someone on your
team that loves it, and thiscomes back to the leadership
teams that we built.
If you build that leadershipteam and you give them the
responsibilities, I would hopethat you would have the same
experience as me when I reallyleaned into my leadership team.
They started doing all thestuff I hated and I loved my
practice again.
I loved it.
I loved it.

(06:17):
I loved every part of it.
It completely changed my life.
So outsource the things that youdon't like doing or find
someone on your team to do it.
Delegate right, and that's howyou stay in love with what you
do.
You only do the things you love, and all the things you don't
love, you stop doing them.
Delegate them to somebody elseor outsource them, and your
practice is going to grow withway less effort.

(06:38):
It's going to take way lesseffort because you're engaged
and it's fun.
So maybe you might be thinkinglike I want that, I don't know
how.
Or maybe you just don't havethe time to do it.
Right, you know what you got todo, but you don't have the time
to do it.
So let me help you with that.
Let me get you a little bitmore time.
Find somebody who has what youwant and do everything they've

(06:58):
done.
Don't follow anyone else whodoesn't have what you want.
Those are just distractions.
If that person doesn't have orhave done what you want to do,
do not follow them.
Unfollow.
Stop wasting your time on that.
Follow the one person that haswhat you want and just by

(07:19):
following them and doing thethings that they're going to do,
there's something calledunconscious assimilation.
It's kind of like how we arearound or where we become a
product of all of our friends.
Just by spending time with thatperson and doing things that
they're doing, you willassimilate their success.
So if you want to work one daya week and have like a
multimillion dollar practicethat gives you the freedom and
flexibility, just do what I'vebeen doing Listen to this

(07:41):
podcast, follow me on Instagram,sign up for my newsletter on my
website, watch my videos.
I mean, there's so much stuffYouTube, you know what.
So just check that out and youwill get the results that I got.
You will get those results.
So here's what we're doing.
We're finding a way to love ourbusiness again by only doing
the things we like doing andtaking everything we don't like
doing and making sure somebodyelse does it, and now we're not

(08:02):
going to waste any more time,but maybe not.
Maybe you just feel overwhelmedwith the amount of things that
you need to do.
So I want you to do this.
I want you to take out a penand paper, sit down, give this
the 15, 20 minutes that itdeserves I assure you it'll be
worth it and I want you to writedown everything you think you
need to do to be successful inwhat that goal is.
So, if we're talking about yourdental practice, what are the

(08:23):
things you need to do?
What are the systems in yourpractice that you need to
tighten up?
What are the issues andinterpersonal things you need to
address with people?
Who are the leaders in yourpractice that you need to build
up, and what are you going tohave to do to build them up?
And write those things down ina list.
Then I want you to take thatlist and I want you to rank
those to which ones are going toget you to your goal the

(08:45):
fastest.
And start with one and don'tfocus on anything else.
Shut off your phone, put it on,do not disturb, don't check
your notifications, don't checksocial media, don't do anything.
Lock yourself in your officeand get that done and once it's
done, get the next one done andkeep going, and keep going.

(09:06):
I am not somebody who's going todo everything.
You just can't scale that way.
I find the one thing each daythat if I do just that, I'm
going to make a big difference.
Like I said, I'm not verydisciplined.
I'm pretty freaking lazy.
Sometimes I can't stand howlazy I am.
I give the illusion ofdiscipline.
I don't have it, I promise.
It's just that I really leaninto the things I enjoy doing.

(09:26):
All right, and I'm going togive you one more tip A lot of
the stuff that we teach inDental Practice Heroes, it's
stuff that you don't do in theoperatory.
So you're going to have to do inyour office, whether it's your
office at home or if it's youroffice at the practice.
Make it an office that you loveto sit in.
Spend the money to buy somenice furniture, get it repainted

(09:47):
, get some nice decorations onthe wall.
Make it a space you truly lovebeing in, because then you're
going to want to go to thatspace.
You're going to enjoy sittingthere, working on things,
working on your business,creating that freedom that you
desire, and you want that justto draw you there.
You want it to be a place thatyou can go to.
Naturally and this goes for thewhole office as well you want

(10:07):
to love where you work.
If you've got an outdatedoffice and you don't love it,
redo it.
You will get that return oninvestment.
If you don't get it from yourpatients which you will you're
going to get it in the attitudeof you and your team that's
going to love their environment.
We are meant to love ourenvironment.
So if you got somewhere, you'regoing to spend a lot of time in
make it a place you want to be.
So, summing up, it is notdiscipline, it is doing the

(10:29):
correct things, doing just thethings that are going to get you
to your goal the fastest, andthat's what we're doing.
Our 12-month mastermind iscoming up in September and it's
going to be such atransformative experience for
everyone.
If you want a leadership teamthat runs everything, so you
don't have to.
You want onboarding systemsthat you can just plug your team
into and get them trained.
You want that delegationstructure for accountability all

(10:49):
your team into and get themtrained.
You want that delegationstructure for accountability all
those things implemented intoyour office.
Go to the website, check outthe details and set up a
strategy.
Call to me, because I knowmaybe you know what you're
supposed to do, but knowing itand doing it are different
things, just like everybodyknows how to get fit.
We got to eat better, we got towork out.
Who's doing it?
Show of hands?
Nope, not you either.
Okay, me neither.
So thank you so much, everybody, for listening.

(11:11):
I really appreciate it and wewill talk to you next time.