Ep #10-From Freight Trains to Dental Chains: The Meraz Family Dental Story

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to CV Hustle, the podcast created to educate,
inform and inspireentrepreneurship here in our
Coachella Valley.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hey everybody, I'm Robert Mraz.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
And I'm Fina Mraz, and I'm Fina Mraz.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
And this is CV Hustle , the podcast dedicated to
educating, inspiring andinforming local entrepreneurship
here in the Coachella Valley.
And nothing but illustriousguests is our goal on this
podcast.
And today we've got two of thefinest dentists in all the land,
the finest dentists from thewindmills to here Dr Randolph

(00:45):
Mraz and Dr Michael Mraz.
Thank you for joining us today,guys, and, truth be told, I'm a
little biased on this interviewbecause, you know, I think
they're the best, because if youknow anything about our family,
that's my father, that's mybrother, but we're going to keep
it very professional today.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
So you know, we know that, dr Mraz, you're not really
a native of the CoachellaValley.
You weren't born here, correct?
That's correct.
So how did you come to thisgreat, great place?
How did that even come about?

Speaker 4 (01:14):
Well, that's an interesting story.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Well.

Speaker 4 (01:20):
I'm all ears.
When I was a fresh graduate outof high school looking for
adventure, a friend and Idecided to hop in a freight car
in Norwalk, california, to seewhere it would take us.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Was it moving?

Speaker 4 (01:36):
at the time it was moving Just like in the movies.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Were you, wearing your.

Speaker 4 (01:39):
Nikes.
We're going someplace, likeStimey said in that great Little
Rascals episode, we're on ourway, but I don't know where I'm
going, oh, wow.
So we hopped in a freight trainin the train yards in Norwalk
and it brought us to the city ofIndio.

(02:00):
In the middle of summer, inAugust summer day, there were
dust devils flying around, itwas boiling hot and we looked at
each other.
This guy's name was Greg.
He says where the HR are we?
We found out from the hobos inthe train yard of Indio that
this is where we were.
It was Indio, California, and Ithought to myself I ain't ever

(02:23):
going back that place.
It was boiling hot.
Well, fast forward to fiveyears later.
Well, not five years more likeeight years later.
Undergraduate Cal State,Fullerton, four years, a degree
in biology from Cal State, thendental school for four more

(02:45):
years.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
Where did you go to dental school?

Speaker 4 (02:47):
Well, that was USC Woo yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
Fight on.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
Fight on and at the time it was 1980, and I needed
to find a place to work now thatwe were, you know, now
graduating from dental school.
I did a grid map of the stateof California, since I could
practice anywhere in the stateand my first choice was Laguna
Beach, and I'm sure Bobby wouldhave loved to grow up in Laguna

(03:13):
Beach.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Oh heck, yeah, we wouldn't love Laguna Beach.

Speaker 4 (03:14):
Good choice, yeah, good choice.
But the ratio to dentist inpopulation was like 1 to 10 or
something ridiculous.
It was just too many dentistsalready there.
10 or something ridiculous.
It was just too many dentistsalready there.
So I had to look for otherplaces in the state of
California that were underservedand needed dental care, and
that's where Riverside County,and specifically the Coachella

(03:36):
Valley, came up.
So in 1980, the ratios werejust off the charts that I knew
that establishing a practice inIndio I should have no problem.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
Yeah, I should have a good chance making this
business thrive.

Speaker 4 (03:51):
That was the whole thing.
I thought back to that trainand that hot, hot state.
I'm going back to Indio.
Oh no, we're going to melt.
We're going to melt, yeah yeah,it was so bloody hot here.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
So you ended up driving out here for the weekend
and finding a place to live, orhow did that start?

Speaker 4 (04:12):
It started, yeah, with an inquiry at the office
that was already here, a coupleoffices.
There were a couple establishedoffices and just walking in and
say, hey, you need help here,and I found a doctor whose name
was Dr Winneman and he had anoffice in Indio and he offered
me a position, since he's anolder guy that was getting ready

(04:36):
to get out of the dentalprofession.
And so I worked a couple days aweek out here.
I drove right, stayed at theMotel 6.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Without air conditioning I drove out here,
Wow, oh, my goodness, was momthere with you In the summer, in
the summer, whoa.

Speaker 4 (04:54):
So yeah, I had a little spray bottle of water at
the siege.
I squirted myself as I droveinto Indio and worked there in
his office for I think it wasthree days a week.
So I stayed at the Motel 6 fortwo days and then worked in his
office that day and then headedon home to La Habra.

(05:19):
We had a place in La Habra andthat's where he was born at that
time in Orange County.
So yeah, so I was driving out,spending a couple days.

Speaker 3 (05:31):
And so how long did you end up working for that guy?

Speaker 4 (05:35):
About.
It wasn't long.
It was maybe three months tosix months, something like that.
When I got together with afriend of mine who had just
graduated as well and we decidedlet's go into practice together
, let's buy this guy out, sincehe had a.
Yeah, we thought this is agoldmine.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
Partnership.
Huh.

Speaker 4 (05:55):
So you said, we had a partnership and we decided to
buy Dr Winneman out of thepractice and have a two-person
practice and go from there.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
So when I'm assuming that his business already had
like a receptionist and somebodyto do that, or did you have to
bring in your own?

Speaker 4 (06:17):
No, it was a.
It was a ready-made practice.
The practice was already up andrunning and it had a clientele.
It had a patient population.
So all we had to do was do upand running and it had a
clientele.
It had a patient population, soall we had to do was do the
dentistry.
And then that worked out formaybe a year, maybe longer, but
we decided that it was time togo, it's time to split up.

(06:40):
The practice was not yeah, itwasn't able to support two
doctors.
You know, what we found is wejust couldn't get enough
patients into the practice thatwould support two doctors.
Full time, hard time, yeah, butfull time no.
So one day we decided to flip acoin to see who would get the

(07:04):
practice and who would walk outthe door.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
You really flipped a coin.

Speaker 4 (07:08):
We really flipped a coin.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
Your fate was all on a coin flip.
Both of our futures was on acoin flip.

Speaker 4 (07:15):
We could have been born and like we were going to
DHS if he lost?

Speaker 2 (07:18):
That was the deal.
Is that what it?

Speaker 1 (07:19):
was Wow.

Speaker 3 (07:20):
I thought he won.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
We would have went to DHS that would have went to DHS
.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
That would have been it, but did you pick heads or
tails?

Speaker 4 (07:25):
I don't remember.
Did you have somebody witnessit?
So it was legal or something.
I don't know if anybodywitnessed it, but we were pretty
tight as a partnership.
He knew my likes and I knew hisand we were pretty close, so it
wasn't a question about youknow, yeah, you win, I lose,

(07:46):
kind of thing.
It was somebody gets topractice and the other guy's
walking out the door, wow, so itwas.
I got what I thought was thegrand prize, but it turned out
that it was.
Yeah, I got the short end ofthe stick actually, but we made
it work.

(08:07):
We made it work, we made thatpractice thrive and in time, you
know, it moved it to.
We thought a better location.
So, yeah, we did all right.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
So it was in India, so you moved out here.
You ended up having to move outhere, correct, right, and you
were what Right?

Speaker 2 (08:24):
I, you were what Right, I was young.
I don't even remember Four orfive.
Yeah, he was a little guy.
I don't remember too much ofthat.

Speaker 4 (08:32):
We got a place on Miles Avenue in the old section
of India on those old DelgantNoir homes development, the
homes built in the 50s whichwere, in my opinion, the nicest
homes in the Valley, but they'reyeah.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
And where?
Okay, and where was thatlocation?
That location was here in Indio.

Speaker 4 (08:55):
Yeah, where the Indio Fashion Mall is.
Yeah, right there.
Right there, it was in thesection that has right now,
what's there right now?
Jewelry Gosh, I don't even know.
There's still a dental officethere.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
There is.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
The last time it was in there In the fashion mall.

Speaker 4 (09:15):
There was a dentist.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
In one of the entry corridors.

Speaker 4 (09:18):
Yeah, this would be the street on Monroe and the
group of buildings right there,right in front of the group of
buildings, right there.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
Right in front of the Wells Fargo, right there, right
in front of the Wells Fargo.

Speaker 4 (09:31):
But that was our office.
We had something like 2,000square feet.
It was a pretty big office.
We had plenty of operatoriesand plenty of room.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
So what happened with that business?

Speaker 4 (09:57):
You said the location was no good, or what ended up
happening?
next, that's the old Indiohistory right here and that was,
you know.
Basically it was a propertygrabbed by the city of Indio to
oust a historically blackcommunity from the neighborhood,
from the land.
They used the powers of eminentdomain to condemn these black

(10:21):
family homes and, you know, tosteal their land.
So I rose up, went to the citycouncil, said you guys are
messed up, you're doing thewrong thing here.
What you're doing is wrong.
I had patients from thatcommunity in my practice and I
knew them.
They were my friends practiceand I knew them, they, they were

(10:48):
my friends and they asked me to, you know, to stand with them
and intervene in that uh, inthat whole controversy.
So bobby went on a protestmarch one day.
So you, we shall overcome tothe city hall and from nobles
range to uh to to expressdissatisfaction with the uh
powers that be by the Indio CityCouncil.
I hope this doesn't offendanybody.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
It's too long ago.
Those guys are dead.
All the city council's gone.

Speaker 4 (11:15):
Yeah, you're probably right, but that was enough to
force me to start looking for anew location, because I wanted
to get out of there, that area Ididn't want to be, you know.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
Associated with that?
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (11:31):
Those powers that be there, that we were going to
move and consequently, thisopens up a whole chapter in our
background, because we were suedby the Indio Fashion Mall
owners.

Speaker 3 (11:49):
Because you left that location.

Speaker 4 (11:52):
For not only that, but being a part of the protest
against their expansion, theywere the ones that forced the
issue with the city council totake that land.
It was the owners of that mall.
I know the guy's name but Iwon't say it.
Yeah, that was the genesis ofme leaving the mall and getting

(12:15):
another location.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
So really protesting was a part of that lawsuit Just
being at the protest andparticipating.

Speaker 4 (12:20):
Yeah, we thought for a while we had a, you know,
civil rights lawsuit against thecity of indio, because that's
the way it.
It basically transpired thatwould have been.
You know, that would have beena, a legal uh you know a stand,
uh, that would have got intothat and all that stuff right, I

(12:41):
mean we, we just you know, wesettled out of court, is what I
would say.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
It was time to go.

Speaker 4 (12:47):
It was time to go, so you ended up finding it was
time to move it was time to go.

Speaker 3 (12:52):
And that's when you made the move to the place near
Stater Brothers.

Speaker 4 (12:55):
Yes, that was Stater Brothers, and we were there for
20-odd years.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (13:01):
It's been a while that you were there, yeah, and
we were very successful.
You know we did great there.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
We had a thriving practice Did you double your
size when you moved, like doublethe size, triple the size.

Speaker 4 (13:15):
Oh, triple, yeah.
We had almost over 2,000 squarefeet in that office in Stater
Brothers.
Actually it was three900-square-foot suites all put
together in one big unit, so wehad plenty of room and the
practice did real well and wewere very happy.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
And by this time, how many children did you have?

Speaker 4 (13:39):
By that time we probably had a full complement
of five kids, five kids, fivekids, yeah four boys Minivan
full at that point.
It was time to yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (13:50):
Yeah, and that was part of the joy in my day was to
see the kids show up afterschool and kind of run through
the corridors of the office anddo the hand balloons with the
gloves.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
You remember doing that.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
I'm sure I did.
I'm sure I did.
I remember being at the officequite a bit growing up.
They used to have a back roomfor us at the old one.
Remember the very first onewhere they threw us after school
and we'd be back there runningthrough the laboratories when
patients were there.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
And yeah, it was quite a scene back in the day
and and your mom started workingat the practice too right when
did that happen and how did thathappen?

Speaker 4 (14:35):
their mom has always been a part of the, the practice
.
She was always, uh, involved inone way or another with either
the you know employees and theirneeds, oh yeah, but basically
running the front office as wellas paying the vendors, the
bills that we had, the labs wehad, you know, the supplies, the

(14:59):
people that kept the officegoing.
She was the one Behind thescenes, yeah, keeping it going,
pulling the strings to getthings taken care of.

Speaker 3 (15:04):
She was the one Behind the scenes.
Yeah, keeping it going.

Speaker 4 (15:05):
Pulling the strings to get things taken care of, and
that was, yeah, that lifted somuch off of my shoulders and I
was very appreciative.

Speaker 3 (15:15):
Yeah, so you could just work and do your dentistry.
And were you the only dentistthere?
And how many?

Speaker 4 (15:28):
there and how many over time I've brought in other
doctors, you know, for eithershort periods or long periods.
I think we had one fellow drlieber, who was with us for
probably seven, eight years,maybe longer, but that's patty.
But yeah, yeah, at times we hada second doctor coming in
part-time.
Usually they were neverfull-time.

Speaker 3 (15:46):
How many employees do you think you had at your
biggest their height?
Yeah, at your height.

Speaker 4 (15:52):
Good question, I'd have to say, about considering
that our hygienists were mostlypart-time.
We had two full-time assistants, front office and insurance
maybe seven, eight people goingat one time.
It's a pretty big office, bigoperation at that point we

(16:15):
supported a few people with thepractice.
That was important to us togive people good jobs and keep
them employed.

Speaker 3 (16:29):
Didn't you take a job there for a short period of
time?

Speaker 4 (16:32):
We all worked there.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
I don't know how much work they actually got out of
us, but technically we were onthe payroll for a little while.

Speaker 3 (16:41):
You told me you were the best employee ever.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
That would be a lie, that would be not the truth.

Speaker 3 (16:48):
Didn't you deliver teeth or something?

Speaker 2 (16:51):
No, that was in high school.
My dad and my mom got me a jobwith a lab that they worked with
.
They needed a delivery guy, soit was cool because I could just
take my little car and drivearound and drop off the dental
work to all these differentoffices.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
They sent us all there.
At one point I was walkingthere when I was like nine years
old and clocking in andcleaning the floors and stuff At
nine years old.
Well, we lived right around thecorner Breaking some labor laws
.
We lived across the street.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
You needed a bigger house.
You needed a bigger house.

Speaker 4 (17:24):
More kids, bigger house.
They needed a bigger house,more kids, bigger house.
We had to get off Miles Avenueand head to the Santa Fe Homes.
Yeah, so we were right there.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
Yeah, you were literally a block away.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
It was literally around the corner.
It was right around the corner,maybe I was 10.
That's right.

Speaker 4 (17:37):
Yeah, that made it very convenient Keep these kids
busy.
We thought that they wouldlearn something about working,
what it meant to put in sometime and contribute to the
family, family business,prosperity.
That was a family business.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
Do you ever look back and go?
How did I raise a family and abusiness with all this going on?

Speaker 4 (18:08):
You've got a family of five and you've got a wife.
God bless me with a beautiful,loving wife and that was the
glue that kept this wholeoperation running running that I

(18:30):
had someone beside me to makethis happen in a way that you
know the kids benefited as wellas the family benefited.
So that's important to havesomebody by your side that you
know sees you with all yourflaws and all the you know the
sharp edges and still loves you.

Speaker 3 (18:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (18:46):
And still wants to come by your side and be your
partner in this life, and thatwas my wife.

Speaker 3 (18:54):
That was Patty, because everybody was in sports,
so you were all over the placewith multiple kids.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
I don't know we got two and I don't know how you
guys did it.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
That's why we all play football.
We can only play certain sports, though you have to follow your
brother.
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
We're not going to another field.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
There's only one stop .

Speaker 2 (19:14):
You guys are all going to the same football
practice, same basketball.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
Playing with the older kids.
I don't care if you're six orten years old.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
That's why we were better because we played with
other kids.
Yeah, absolutely.
But no, I remember that, like Ilook back and I'm kind of in
awe, like how did you guys dothat?
It was tough.
Just our one athlete that wehave, you know, he was always
running into practice.
You guys have multiplepractices going on all the time
and running a business.

Speaker 4 (19:39):
Honestly, yeah, that time for us is a blur.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
Hello, that time for us is a blur.
It wasn't.
That's what I always say.

Speaker 4 (19:48):
Yeah, to pick a certain time period that you can
actually visualize and remember.
It doesn't happen anymore forme.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
It's all just fast forward.

Speaker 4 (20:00):
Yeah, it just happens .
Okay, we got it.
Yeah, because you're right.
Some days, on Saturdaysparticularly, there were many
hats that I would have to wear.
I was the president of theorganization, I was a coach a
head coach usually at one teamor another, and I was an
assistant coach in another team.
So I'd go from one team toanother on the same day oh, my

(20:28):
gosh team.
So I'd go from one team toanother on the same day and uh,
and, and we'd have, you know,three kids playing at least you
know, uh, one game that day.
And when bobby got to highschool, it was you know now.

Speaker 1 (20:34):
Now we have that to contend with the girls always
tell me at the office because alot of them are still there that
I've been there for years thatthe only time that he really
hustled and worked super fastwas during football season.
We had to get to practice atlike 3.30.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
Production would play up during football season.
I'll work through lunch.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
Like double book me, I don't care.
Like let's go Double book me.
Wow, I'm not missing practice.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
They found the key to getting production up on a
football season year.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
Football time.

Speaker 3 (21:01):
Let's go All right.
So let's fast forward.
So you were there at the oneplace, and then how did you end
up to where you are now?
What happened there?

Speaker 2 (21:09):
I mean you were at the new office.

Speaker 4 (21:15):
You were at the old one for what?
15 years?
Yeah, that's a good question.
I'm going to have to kind ofrewind the tapes.
What was it that motivated usfrom getting out of that Stater
Brothers?

Speaker 1 (21:31):
you know, uh, you were up for a new list, probably
up for a new.
You were up for a new lease.
Okay, yeah, I think you're.
Did you fight with the cityagain on that?

Speaker 4 (21:39):
one too.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
I'm sensing the theme here.
I'm sensing the theme ofrebelling against authority here
.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
I think there are going to be changes in the
contract.
There you go.
Yeah, that was.
That was into the terms of thelease.

Speaker 4 (21:53):
They were going to jack the rent up and really
stick it to us for the spacethat we had.
So my plan okay, you're goingto do this, I'm leaving Found a
place, and this is where thefight with the city comes in.
We located the place we're atnow and I went to the city

(22:15):
planning department.
I says here's my plans for anew office, would you please
approve these.
And I went to the planningdepartment and then they looked
at the plans and said you know?
The head guy says I'm sorry,doctor, but we can't approve
these plans.
And I said well, why not?
This is a licensed architectwho drew up these plans.

(22:38):
They're perfectly good plans.
He said well, the lawstipulates that in the India
corridor of Highway 111, therecan be no medical or dental
offices put into this corridorof Highway 111.

Speaker 3 (22:57):
Oh, you were grandfathered in because you had
been there so long.

Speaker 4 (23:02):
That was my argument with the city.
I said, hey, I already have afootprint in that corridor and
I've been there for 15 years andyou're going to deny me access
to this part over here which iscloser to you know, La Quinta.
I'm getting moving towards thatborder.

Speaker 3 (23:20):
That's like what?
Half a mile away?
It's not that far.

Speaker 4 (23:24):
Down the street, yeah , down the street, so yeah.
So it was another, you knowanother battle with the city
that we needed to resolve.
It was another battle with thecity that we needed to resolve,
and this is one that I think thegood Lord kind of had his hand
in this whole mix.
Because I got contacted by acity council member that said Dr

(23:51):
Mraz, you must have higherpowers working for you, because
we decided, as a city council,to approve your plans.
Wow, and I said hallelujah, Ididn't have to go.
I was planning on goingactually to a city council board
meeting.

(24:11):
They only had them like once amonth on Wednesday nights, where
the public could get to themicrophone and speak to the
powers.
That be right, and I wasteaching a Bible study, so I
couldn't go.
So I said, lord, it's in yourhands.
I can't speak at this meeting,but you know what's going on.

(24:33):
And I left it at that and I gotthe call the next morning, oh
my goodness, and they hadapproved my plans at that
meeting.

Speaker 3 (24:41):
And this place where you moved was a new building.
So when you're talking aboutthe plans, you had to figure out
what was going to go where, howmany chairs you were going to
put in where your office wasgoing to be.
So this was a new adventure foryou all, right.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
Right, it was raw space, basically that suite had
formerly been a gym, so it wasbasically just wide open space
with no walls, and we got it andso we had to.
You know, then, yeah, we'dalready gone to an architect and
got the plans drawn up how todivide the you know that piece
of property into a dental office.

(25:20):
So we already, you know, kindof worked that out.
That was just part of thatprocess.
So we had the plans, we justneeded a contractor who would
build it out for us and uh,that's you know where the you
know the dental companies kindof came forward and helped us
out with that.

Speaker 3 (25:37):
Yeah, because you've got to put plumbing in there,
you've got to build walls.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
It's not a cheap endeavor You've got to protect
against radiation.

Speaker 4 (25:50):
There's a lot that goes to it.
Man, there's a lot of planningthat goes into that build-out of
that office Bottom line.
It was about a half a milliondollars to do that.
That build-out was the plumbing, the electric.
We had to have drainage fromthose rooms, the little suction
thing to get the goo out ofsomebody's mouth.

(26:12):
It's got to go somewhere, itcan't just go into the floor.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
It can't just go in this huge line.

Speaker 3 (26:18):
Were you able to take anything from the old office to
the new office or did you startnew?

Speaker 4 (26:24):
No, we did do a lot of new equipment buying but we
took some of that stuff out ofthe old office because we had to
.
It was just too much, too muchequipment that you know we'd
have to purchase it to make it abrand new operation.
So it took, you know, just somethinking.
It took some planning and ittook some good people.

(26:45):
That's the important thing thatyou have good people come
besides you to help in thatprocess.
You, you can't do it yourself.

Speaker 3 (26:54):
You've got to align with.

Speaker 4 (26:55):
It's not slapping paint on a wall and putting a
fresh coat of paint on an oldbuilding.
It takes so much more, andthat's where you need the good
people.
Sometimes the hard thing tofind is those people that will
really look out for your bestinterest, and when it's family,

(27:18):
that's all good.

Speaker 3 (27:19):
And they're supportive.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
Even better right.

Speaker 3 (27:21):
So during this time you were going to college.
What was going on during thistime?

Speaker 1 (27:29):
When they moved to the new office.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
Yes, Michael was still pretty young, so they
moved there.
What like 2008?
High school?

Speaker 1 (27:33):
Barely getting out of high school.
You were still in young, sothey moved in there.
What like 2008?
High school.

Speaker 4 (27:36):
You were barely getting out of high school.
You were still in high school,I believe.

Speaker 1 (27:39):
I was in college at that point.
It was in 2008.
Do you remember the year whenyou guys went?
I don't know, daddy, give mesome help Mom.
2009?
No, the one we're in now, 98?
.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
No, the office weren't right now, so the blur
it's been.
Anyway, it's been a while.
You've been there.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
You've been there 15 years, probably high school,
college, at least 15 years 15years at least.
I think you're like mid to midto late 05 08, somewhere in that
, somewhere, that range that'sit's about almost like 20 years
or yeah we're coming up onanother lease, yeah that's right
, actually.
Yeah, because we renewed.
Yeah, I think it was 0.
Another lease.
Yeah, that's right actually.
Yeah, because we renewed.
Yeah, I think it was all wait,I think it's around 07.
Wait because we renewed thelease.
Yeah, like 2008, so like 2008.

(28:22):
So, michael you, weren't.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
You weren't always like.
You had other like.
When you were younger youdidn't like.
Dentistry wasn't really on yourradar initially.
Right, it's on any of our radarwell, I couldn't do it.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
I was like I couldn't , I didn't think about it, I
mean, we didn't, I was not evenconsidering it.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
I don't think.
I don't think I had the.
I didn't really.
I didn't have the, the smartsto get through dental school, so
I knew I wasn't gonna do it.
But you were kind of like thelast of the mohicans, right,
because you're the youngest boy,yeah.
And so where did how did dennis?
That's a question I'm alwayslike how did dennis even jump on
your radar?
When did you say, hey, maybethis is something?

Speaker 1 (28:54):
I can do.
Well, I mean, I was in collegeat the time and I was we'd grown
up with sports, you know, andso I was a journalism major and
I was at san diego state and Iwas working for the sports paper
and I was doing my thing andkawaii leonard was there and it
was a lot of fun and everything.
But I came to the realizationlike, hey, this isn't, this is
like could turn into work.

(29:14):
You know, this isn't what Ikind of thought it was.
Not as fun as I thought it wasgoing to be.
I'm writing the same story overand over.
You know this is not reallysomething I see doing the rest
of my life, so I was kind ofjust at a blank slate at a
crossroads and then obviouslydad's a huge influence.
Like we didn't like I said wedidn't grow up, he didn.
Like I said we didn't grow up,you didn't grow up.
You never hear talk about teeth.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
You didn't come home talking.
You didn't ever talk shop.
That's one thing.
I had no idea what happened dayto day at the office.
It was never about that.
You were never grooming anybodyto succeed you, you were just
like you know.

Speaker 3 (29:46):
Letting everybody take their own path.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
Everybody kind of took their own path, so credit
to you guys.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
I guys, I mean they kind of let us figure it out for
ourselves, right, and that'skind of how we were raised.
I mean I yeah, I just never,never crossed any of our minds,
I think I know families who theyhave all of the kids are dead.
You know they're all dentistsand they all stay in the family
in the family business and I Ialways remember this, this one
memory I have.
Well, I was like in junior highand I had a friend over and and
, uh, he like I had somethinggoing on with this tooth.
And he said, oh, I didn't know,your dad was a dentist.
And I was like, so I wastalking to dad and he's like,
hey, I got something going onwith my tooth, what do you think

(30:22):
is going on?
He's like, yeah, you shouldprobably go to your dentist and
get that checked out.
He's just kind of like you know.
So he didn't cover talking liketalking shop, he didn't push it
on us.
So but when at that time incollege I was kind of it was
like a blank slate.
So I was, I was kind of lookingand I had always been
interested in medical.

(30:42):
I've always been interested in,like, becoming a doctor or
doing something you know to help, just for the community, to
help people you know, public,public service type situation.
That always kind of appealed tome.
So that was always in the backof my mind.
Like you know, yeah, maybe I'llgo for medical school though be
some kind of doc or somethinglike that.
So then at that point in time Iwas kind of just open to

(31:03):
everything and then I don't knowwhen, it kind of clicked.
But I just, you know, I don'tremember if I was a bit more
observant, kind of like what youwere doing or kind of you know
what, you how, you guys, but Ijust remember being in the
office more and seeing how hewas with the patients, you know,
and seeing the relationshipsthat he would have with his
patients and I mean, even tothis day, like the patients they
love him, you know, andpatients do not love their

(31:25):
dentist, like they love this guy, like that's not a common thing
, right, forty years of service,man, I mean, but just like the
uniqueness of that right.
And then so the more I looked atit like that it was really a
people, it's really a peoplebusiness.
You know you're taking care offamilies, you're taking care of
your community, you know youhave open doors, you just take

(31:45):
care of the patients who areinfighting, and so that was the
thing is him and mom and thewhole office would treat
everyone like family, being inthat environment and um, and
you're really doing positivethings.
You know people are coming toyou in trouble and pain, they
have problems and you, you justyou try to help them.
You know the dentist aspect hasa negative kind of connotation
for most people, but you're justtrying to help.

(32:07):
You know, you're just trying totrying to help people out, and
so all of that kind of startedto appeal to me, and then the
wheels just started turning andand then I didn't even know if I
was going to make it or do it.
It's hard, you know, it's a lotof science.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
It's a lot of studies .
I mean, I was already into it.

Speaker 1 (32:23):
I was already three quarters into my major of
journalism at the time, so I hadto completely like change
course, you know and so it tooka lot of adjusting and kind of
help along the way differentclasses and stuff, but that was
really where it just kind ofswitched.
You know, I was still inschool- so you made that
decision in college like to kindof move forward with the whole.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
And I mean, what was it like to kind of carry on his
legacy, or was it more just to Ihave a, I have a ready-made
business that I can run, likewhat was like kind of the
driving factor of making that?
I mean that's a big change fromjournalism to dentistry.
That's a big shift, you know.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
It was more just the aspect of coming and taking over
the business and doing that.
That didn't really.
That never played into it.

Speaker 2 (33:12):
It wasn't a legacy play then.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
No, and still, it was always.
That was always something I washesitant about, just because I,
I wouldn't.
I don't want people, you know,to look at something like
nepotism or just like, yeah,you're coming in and you know
your dad, you know what I'msaying.
You're just like this it yeahyou know, you want to blaze your
own trail, like when I went todental school, you interview.

(33:36):
When you go to dental school,you submit your applications and
you have to interview atdifferent schools.
So you submit the app first,you take all the tests, do all
the classes, then, if you'relucky, you get an interview at a
school.
You have to go to the school,do an interview.
So I got like five or sixinterviews and I went and I

(33:58):
interviewed at temple in phillyand that was a big one that I
did.
I did a couple other ones Iregret not doing like nyu and
some of the more fun ones, buttemple and usc were my big ones
and I got into both and I reallywanted to go to usc but dad
went to usc legacy play though,exactly and so it's so I mean
yeah, so I.
So I was really close to goingto Temple you know, Philadelphia
.
Yeah, just to just to kind ofchart my own path.

(34:21):
They have a differentexperience, but my girlfriend
and wife now currently was herein Southern California.
So that was yeah, I'm going toconsider that she wasn't, not as
my girlfriend she wasn't, sothat was a big factor too.
But I but that, yeah, that partnever really fact.
That didn't motivate me likeI'm gonna become a dentist

(34:42):
because you know there's yeah, Ihave this path charted for me,
like that wasn't, that wasn't,uh, really on my radar a lot.
I was there, obviously.
I mean, he's a dentist and youknow if I, if I'm a dentist, you
know, makes it easier, it helps, right.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
Well, I think too.
I mean, I always think aboutGrandma.
Grandma always wanted attorneysand doctors in the family,
right, yep.
And so if I had that little,she probably planted that seed.
Maybe a little too, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (35:14):
That was Mom.
You're right, yeah, and shetalked to us about that growing
up, that we were going to dowell in school.
School was our number onepriority.

Speaker 3 (35:30):
And it was also to help the family, right.
So you had a doctor in thefamily.
Something happened and you knowwe all go to Dr Mraz for our
dental needs and it's just kindof continued.
And so you're helping not onlyyour community but you're
helping your family as well.

Speaker 1 (35:45):
I think that played into it too.
You know, I think you made agood point.
Like you know us growing up,you know, I think both our
parents my mom and my dad did agood job of instilling
confidence in us and there wasthis expectation, like you know,
when I was doing journalism waslike, hey, I, I can do this,
but I gotta be damn good at thisand I gotta like make it on

(36:06):
espn and I gotta have a careerout.
You know I can't like billsimmons, I can't be slumming
around and like beingfreelancing you know, like you
gotta do good, and I think thatwas the expectation on us is one
you can do whatever you want todo, you can be whatever you
want to be, and you have thesmarts and all the tools to do
it.
So I mean, I think for me thatwas a big motivator too.

(36:27):
It's like I know I need to dosomething important.
You know I got to go out and dosomething.

Speaker 3 (36:32):
We always say Michael was the smartest.

Speaker 2 (36:34):
Well, I mean, I don't understand.

Speaker 3 (36:36):
Is that what you're saying?
You're the cutest.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
My sister might disagree with that, You're the
cutest but, Michael's thesmartest, this is true, and I'm
the wisest too.
I'm biased, you are biased.
So USC, you get into USC.
You're kind of following thattrajectory.
Yep, get out of USC and thenwhat, what kind of?
What kind of career path kindof took you off the path a

(36:58):
little bit.
Right's expensive, you know,tuition is really high, there's
not a lot of loans, there's nota lot of government you can get
fast-fund a lot of stuff forundergraduate degrees, but you
got to I mean dental school.
You need, you got to graduatehigh school.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
You got to get a bachelor's, then you get a
doctorate.
So you're talking about eightmillion years post-high school
to even start your career as adentist right.
And so that last four yearsusually is pretty expensive.
The cost of the dental schoolis really really high right now,
and so I had done some researchand I kind of was.
You know, that was the biggestthing is applying to dental
school.
I'm going to have a couplehundred thousand dollars in debt

(37:48):
and these student loans thatI'm going to have to take on.
How am I going to pay for thisright, like, what are we going
to do?
And so our brother, billy, wentthrough the Naval Academy.
He was in the Navy and so wehad a little bit of exposure,
you know, to the military sideof things, and so I don't
remember who plugged me into it,but the military has health
profession scholarships, and soit is not just for dental, it's

(38:10):
for medical, vet, dental,nursing.
So they have scholarshipprograms that will basically pay
for your tuition to go toschool.
So the way it works with dentalis you have to get into the
school first, then you have toapply for the scholarship and
you have to get and be approvedfor the scholarship before you

(38:30):
start school.
So you have this little windowof getting into school and then
getting the scholarship.
And so when I got in I hadalready known, I told everybody.
I think I told my parents.
I said the second I get thatacceptance letter.
I'm going right down to thatArmy recruiter, that Navy
recruiter, just like sign me up,here's my acceptance, sign me
up today.
And that's what you did Yep andI couldn't find the Navy guys

(38:53):
and I couldn't find the AirForce guys.
So I had to go Army because theArmy guys were like come on in,
like we'll take you, let's flyhere.

Speaker 2 (38:59):
Come on, the Air Force takes everybody.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
Dude, the Air Force guy was out golfing.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
I know now.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
I know now what it was Like.
Navy guy was MIA.
So yeah, the Army guy was readyto go, Brought me in it
approved and I initially didn'tget it.

Speaker 3 (39:14):
Um, I was gonna say, like, do you go into it knowing
you're gonna get the scholarship?
Let me, they don't.
You're taking a chance.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
They don't give it.
Yeah, they don't give it toeverybody.
Now the army.
So when I was doing it, thiswas, mind you, this was like 12
years ago, so it's probablychanged for sure, because cost
of tuition's gone up.
But you, yeah, they were, thearmy had the most, the navy had
the second most and the airforce had the least.
So they had the most.
The Navy had the second mostand the Air Force had the least.
So they were the most selective.
And so it's a whole process whenyou get it, when you're in

(39:42):
school, you have to maintain acertain GPA, you have to serve
like so many weeks active duty.
For you there's a lot ofstipulations when you get it.
So it's not a guarantee at all,you know.
And so you have to, like,formally be offered the
scholarship, and then you haveto formally be offered the
scholarship and then you have todecide if you want to take it
before you even start yourschooling.
So you have to take it beforedental school or medical school

(40:03):
even starts.
So you already know.
You already know, after you'redone, you're getting shipped out
to the Army.
Yeah, the day you graduateyou're getting shipped off to
basic and you're starting yourtraining and you're going to
whatever base that they send youto.
Like you already know, butthat's already I mean, but it's
you know that going into it, yousigned up for it, you know so
you know that going into it it'sa big commitment.

Speaker 2 (40:23):
You're talking years of your life, right?

Speaker 1 (40:25):
But I mean, in my career path, I think it was one
of the best things I did, thesmartest things I did.
You know, I know people who gotscholarship and, mind you,
dental school is even more sonow when I was there it's like
three, four, five hundredthousand dollars.

Speaker 2 (40:41):
Wow, so right now it's three hundred thousand.
Now it's more, it's more.

Speaker 1 (40:42):
Now it's more now it's more, now it's over half.
I mean even the, the affordableare over half a mil.

Speaker 2 (40:49):
How could you even so ?
I mean how does that work it'scrazy there's a lot.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
That's a whole.
I mean that could be a wholepodcast on the cost of education
, crazy man, I mean.
Yeah, there's a whole can ofworms there, for sure.
But I knew people who got thescholarship and turned it down
because they didn't want to dothe military Really.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
And now they owe $300,000 times three you know,
like a million dollars.
Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, how doyou so?

Speaker 3 (41:17):
when you, when you get the scholarship, do you get
a choice of where you're going?
Like you said, you knew youwere gonna get in the military?
Yeah, do you get the assessment?
You gotta say, I heard peoplesay you could pick your top
three.
Yeah, so what they?

Speaker 1 (41:31):
did?
What they did was they you haveyour recruiter, you have
whoever.
They contacted me Like this islike my third year of dental
school and these are going intofourth.
You're getting close, right.
And so they're like hey, we gotyou down, this is when we're
going to have you go out tobasic, blah, blah, blah.
These are the bases where we'regoing to need dentists, and so

(41:51):
we're going to ship you to oneof these bases.
They say like 15 to 20.
They're like we want you torank these bases based on where
you want to go, and so this isjust, but it's like a military
thing.
You know they're asking, butthey're not really asking.
They're just kind of likethey're giving you the
perception that, like you, youhave you got?
something to say.
You know you have something tosay about it.
So so they gave.
So I gave my list and I was,and I had gotten married at the

(42:12):
time.
So I did it with my wife, alina, and so we ranked all of them
and she didn't want to puthawaii on the list, which I
still couldn't present to theday, you know.
But I got to serve in hawaiifor four years and you know that
we left that off the list.
But so we made our top 10 and Iput fort lewis, washington, as
my first one.
It seemed like a really nicebase and, um, luckily, the

(42:35):
recruiter called me months laterwhen it was time and they said,
hey, they're going to PCSU FortLewis in Washington.
So we actually ended up getting.
So it actually worked out.
It actually did work.
One of my good friends I wentto dental school with.
He had the exact same list Ihad, and so I called him really
excited, and I'm like, hey, Igot Ford Lewis, you know.

(42:56):
So we're going to be theretogether.
You had the same list, right?
What did you get?
And he checks his email he'slike, ah, I got El Paso, texas.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
Yeah, it was a little different for him.
Yeah, it was a little differentfor him.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
So I mean it just happened that way that we got it
.
So you get a, say I.
You get a say I mean they takeit into consideration in the
military.
I enjoy the military they're,you know, they there's a lot of
things that go into.
But I, you know, I mean I'msure someone looked at it and
gave us, you know, kind of gotit.

Speaker 3 (43:24):
Absolutely so, like when you go to so then they say
okay doing.
No, it wasn't dentist, yeah, itwas army, it was army basic
training.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
It was like a regular grunt.
You're running.
I mean, yeah, rucking.
You know I call it rucking um.
You know you put on strap upyour boots, you put on your
rucksack middle of the night.
You know you're sleeping out inthe army.
The army actually like they dofield training so you actually
sleep outside.
You actually like go out.
There's rattlesnakes in thetents and stuff there's communal
showers and baths, yeah, yeah.
So I mean.
So the nice thing about it isyou go in and there's a

(44:01):
hierarchy in the military.
So you come in and you're anofficer, and so what that means
is you're actually, you're on,you have a little more respect,
you know.
Usually officers have degrees,they have advanced training, you
know.
So they have a little more pullso you automatically commission
as an officer.
It's not even just usually youstart as an o1 or lieutenant,
you actually start as a captainat o3, because they actually

(44:22):
count your years in school astime of service in the military.
So you actually come in as acaptain.
So the rank you have is nice.
You have a little pull.
You know you're not like agrunt, you're not, you know,
you're not like a enlistedinfantryman going out there.
But it is basic.
We had to go through the basictraining, sleep out in the
fields.

Speaker 3 (44:44):
It was basic, but it was basic for doctors and
officers and stuff.
But didn't you have to learnguns and all of that.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
No, you go out and you shoot and you qualify.
You have to do the militaryminimums.
But I think that's themisconception is, you know,
everybody in the army is likespecial forces and they're doing
this and they're jumping out ofplanes and they're doing this
and I, you know we weren't doingthat.
You can.
I, one of my good buddies was amajor.
I wish I did one of my buddieswho I share an office with

(45:09):
enough he was what they calljump master.
He jumped out of a plane once aweek, you know, and he it's, but
he didn't do a lot of dentistry.

Speaker 4 (45:16):
He was a dentist you know he wasn't cutting a lot of
teeth, but he was.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
But he was doing that , he was with special forces.
Um, that was his kind of careerpath.
It was super cool, you know,but we were.
But we were dentists, you knowwe were.
So when we got out we practiceddentistry, you know.
And then the doctors do theirtraining as doctors and they
kind of see their patients andeverything.
So the basic training isanywhere from six to 12 weeks,

(45:40):
so that's the minimum.
You do that and then you getsent to your station and then
you start your actual career.

Speaker 3 (45:47):
And you're working on people in the Army.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
Working on active duty military members.
So basically active duty Armysoldiers, potentially families,
but mainly in most places justactive duty.

Speaker 3 (46:00):
And the way that works is you are also getting
paid correct.
So not only are they taking outsome of your student debt,
you're also getting paid.
So that kind of seems like asweet deal.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
Yeah, you're also getting paid while you're in
school, so you actually get astipend while you're going to
school.
You know, I mean it wasn't much.
I mean I went to school in USC,I got married, you know, and so
we had to have a decent-sizedplace and you know our bills
were more than what they werepaying, but it was a couple
grand a month.
It'll cover a big chunk of it,right.

(46:34):
And so I mean mean it was great.
I mean it was like I said, itwas one of the best decisions I
made, just to not be drowning indebt when you're graduating
from school.
I mean there's other ways to doit.
There's a really famous clip ofdave ramsey talking about a
dental student.
Calls him and asks him hey, Igot into dental school and it's
going to be five, six hundredthousand dollars just to go to

(46:56):
this school.
Should I take out a loan and doit?
And Dave Ramsey says no.
He says go find another career.

Speaker 3 (47:03):
Wow, so, Randy, how did you feel knowing your son
was going to be in the army?

Speaker 4 (47:10):
We had an agreement with all five of our children
that we would cover theirexpenses as undergraduates.
They'd get a free pass.
Basically we'd pay theirexpenses for that degree, a
bachelor's, in whatever theychose.
But after that and it came tograduate school, yeah, we're out

(47:32):
you gotta find a way to do it.
And with michael that becamethat military scholarship.
And you know, Bobby had thesame deal, Did I have the same
deal?

Speaker 1 (47:44):
I just finished paying off my student debt so I
don't feel like I have that samedeal.

Speaker 4 (47:48):
I think that deal would have skipped me.
I don't know what papers you'vesigned.
I've got to look at my contract.
I want a refund.

Speaker 3 (47:56):
I need to look at that contract, you know.

Speaker 4 (47:59):
Then we would owe you money.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
Yeah, I'm a little old to be paying student debt.
So, michael, when you came outof the Army right, it was
already predetermined that youwere going to go start working
in the practice right and getyour teeth cut in the private
sector.

Speaker 1 (48:14):
I think so.
I mean, I don't know if we hadany formal, um big meetings or
anything.
I think it was pretty muchassumed I would come and just
kind of start working there andjust kind of ease in and then
just slowly, kind of, you know,get my feet wet and then just
take on a larger role as we, weboth got more comfortable with

(48:35):
it.
So I don't, you know, I don'tthink it was a big, a big thing.

Speaker 4 (48:42):
I think it was more just an understanding, like,
okay, when you're done, justcome out here and help me out.

Speaker 2 (48:45):
You know kind of place to work a place to keep
doing my time to get to seeingpatients, you know.
So was it intimidating walkinginto his, his clientele, knowing
how much they love this guy, Imean.
And and now they got the punkkid coming in fresh off the boat
.
Michael's no punk, well, I know, but from their point of view,
the young whippersnapper comingin there and Dr Mraz ain't going

(49:09):
to see him anymore, it's DrMichael now, or?

Speaker 3 (49:12):
did you start with your own?

Speaker 2 (49:14):
clientele.
No, that had to be kind of atransition right.
That was something that youguys did.

Speaker 4 (49:19):
It has to be.
People are used to a certainprotocol in any medical or
dental office setting and youchange it, yeah, but the fact of
the matter is Michael's anoutstanding dentist.
He came with the skills and thepersonality to take care of the
patients we had.

(49:40):
People love him.
They thank me all the time.
You've got a good son there andI appreciate that that he was
able to transition into thatrole where he's the head man
here.

Speaker 3 (49:58):
Right, and I would imagine at that point you had
been doing dentistry for so long.
You were probably gettingtowards the end of your term,
right, and kind of relieved thatyou had a knight in shining
armor.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
Well, I think what helped with that aspect of it
was because I did go to themilitary and so I had three
years.
I basically had a three-year.
In medicine they call it aresidency.
Like you know, you go tomedical school, but you still
have to do your residency, andthat's where you get your chops,
that's where you actually seepatients, that's where you make
your mistakes, unfortunately,and you learn, you know.
So I was practicing as adentist for three plus years.

(50:35):
I had I worked in a clinic thathad 15 dentists, had all these
specialists.
We all shared an officetogether, so I mean I can
literally come and like, pullsomeone, like hey, what do you
think of this?
You know, and I had thesecolonels.
These guys have been dentistsfor 20, 30 years, and so I
learned a lot in the Army justabout being a dentist.

Speaker 2 (51:01):
And you know, know, because when you go through
school, you know, you know, youalways joke that you know, they
teach you just enough, justenough like to get, but you
don't know anything.
You don't know a lot, you knowright.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
When you come out, just enough to kind of get
through and get in trouble, butyou gotta still learn, you know
you still have to practice.
That's a joke.
That's why I say practicedentistry, you know, because
you're still always learning.
And so, had I not done that, Ialways.
I think we've talked about itlike if I just came in out of
school, you would have not.
I think that transition wouldhave been much different,
because because when I came in,you know that you know dad's a

(51:26):
dr moran's and so it's like,well, we can't both be dr
moran's, but I was dr moran's inthe army for three and a half
years like.
So I was comfortable being drmor rens, but so I took on dr
michael when he kind of came in,but but I had just more
confidence and more, you know,comfort, a comfort level, you
know, and I think you know hethat's probably good too,

(51:47):
because I'm sure he didn't wantto correct any mistakes that I
would have made or things thatyou know that could have came up
.
Um, you know, and, and goodthing, the military is a good
place to just just expand yourknowledge and, you know, gain
mentorship and everything.
So I think it worked outexactly how it should have, you
know.
So that transition was a lotsmoother just for that reason

(52:09):
because I already wascomfortable, you know, with
myself as a dentist, you know,as opposed to like I didn't, I
didn't feel like he wasovershadowing me so much where I
was nervous to cause you hadyour own identity at that point
right, you were ready to kind ofput your own stamp right, right
at a different level ofconfidence, you know pretty
smooth transition, I think

Speaker 3 (52:31):
yeah, so like, because so you said like you
were talking about how you hadalready been practicing
dentistry, but you did.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
You know how to run a business right so there's
you've got that kind of learningcurve as well, so how did that
thing right?

Speaker 3 (52:43):
it's uh how did that?

Speaker 2 (52:44):
happen production and then actually turning a profit.

Speaker 3 (52:48):
That's still that's still happening, right now I
don't know if it's happened yetif the light bulbs turn on, like
exactly how it's happening, you, but I mean you have the staff
right Once you guys startedsaying, okay, you know dad's
going to start, you know workinga little less here and there,
and so you said the staff'sstarting to see you as the Dr
Mraz taking over the businessright.

(53:09):
So you've had that transitionas well.

Speaker 1 (53:12):
Well, we had.
So I came on in 2018 when I gotout at the end of 2018, when I
got out of active duty, startedworking, and then we had an
agreement at the beginning of2020 that we were going to make
the transition and I was goingto like basically take over, you
know, and kind of do everything.
I don't know if you rememberabout 2020, but about march of
2020 is when covid happened, andso that was the first year

(53:36):
where I was supposed to be theguy and all the decisions were
going to come on me, and then,the middle of March, everything,
everything shut down, andespecially dental offices.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
They said you are not allowed.

Speaker 1 (53:49):
California was one of the worst offenders and they
said don't see anybody, lock thedoor and we'll tell you when to
open it.
And we don't know when, wedon't know when you're supposed
to open it.
But nobody knew.
Nobody knew what this thing was.
There was this whole like scareof Dennis, because this illness
is a respiratory illness.

(54:10):
We work in the mouths and wehave a high-speed hand.
We have this suction and spitflying around everywhere and
this thing is in people's mouthsand it could kill you if you're
exposed to it.
Yeah, you know, and so nobodyknew.
So nobody knew that, and sothat was like trial by fire that
year, starting a business.

Speaker 3 (54:28):
I remember that year we were using all your N45 masks
because we had to use those atthe dentist.

Speaker 2 (54:34):
We had to get the masks from you guys that even be
working in the office.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
Yeah, right, and so I mean that's.
That was the first time where Iwas I felt more responsible of
taking over the business and anddental school.
They, you know you pay all thismoney for an education.
They don't have any businessclasses in dental school.
They don't teach you.

Speaker 2 (54:52):
You come into this thing not knowing what top line
revenue and bottom line revenueis.
You don't know how to balance.

Speaker 1 (55:01):
You need to do a spreadsheet and balance all your
bills versus costs and I don'tknow if you absolutely need to
know every little detail likethat.
Luckily for both of us me anddad we had mom was our saving
grace with that.
She knew the books and shebalanced everything.
She's double checking oneverything you know and she's
making sure all the bills arepaid.
You know, that was both of oursafety nets, because all we know

(55:23):
how to do is work on teeth, youknow, and everything else you
know it.
Just, we put out fires as theycome up.
You know, we try and figurestuff out.
But you, you know, in in aprofessional, in a professional
environment like that, you gottahave support.
You gotta have people got yourback, people who know what
they're doing.
You know especially that you'vegot to have support.
You've got to have people atyour back, people who know what
they're doing.
Especially that year that wassuch a whirlwind of a year.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
A year of change for everybody.

Speaker 1 (55:46):
that year, For both of us.
She's constantly been therehelping guide through those
storms and everything.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
Absolutely, absolutely, wow.
Well, covid, your first year,huh.

Speaker 3 (56:01):
Your dad got sick.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
He got sick With COVID.
No, oh, with surgery.
Oh, that's right.

Speaker 3 (56:08):
Right.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
You want to hear that I mean that's kind of a downer
story.

Speaker 3 (56:12):
No, I think, I think, no, no, no, no, because he's
great now.

Speaker 2 (56:17):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (56:19):
He's better than before, that's right, but I mean
that took a play into not earlyretirement, but you know,
working less you had to takecare of your health.

Speaker 4 (56:33):
Yeah, obviously I needed to take a rest from what
I was doing, but again, the factof the matter is that I had
somebody here that was ready totake over the burden.
Sure, that's what beingself-employed is.

(56:55):
It's a burden, but it's a burdenwith benefits oh yeah you're
working I think bobby said it,and the first podcast that
you're working for yourself.
Now you may spend, you know, 20hours every day working for
your business, but it's yourbusiness, it's your baby and

(57:16):
you're going to do as much asyou can to make that business,
yeah, you're responsible for.

Speaker 3 (57:23):
Not only are you responsible for the health of
your clients, you've got staffthat rely on those paychecks, so
you know it is a burden You'vegot labs that are expecting to
be paid.

Speaker 4 (57:35):
Sure, you've got a landlord who still, you know,
expects his, his pay, you know,for that building you're
occupying something like youhave all that on your shoulders,
it becomes like I said, itbecomes a very wearisome burden,
but knowing that there'sthere's a payout, that's right.
Right.
You're going to benefit fromall that, depending on how much

(57:57):
you're going to work for that.
It's all self-driven.
It may be a leaking dinghy, butit's your dinghy.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
That's right.

Speaker 4 (58:07):
It's yours, you're going to sink or swim on your
own and you're not looking togovernment paychecks or handouts
.
You've got to do it yourself,and that takes a special person.

Speaker 2 (58:21):
Yeah, it's not easy, not for everybody.
It's not for everybody.

Speaker 1 (58:26):
Yeah, it was interesting.
I listened to you guys' episodeand one of the things I thought
you know, you talk aboutentrepreneurship and you're
saying anybody can do it and Iwas like, yeah, you know,
anybody could do it.
You know anybody can do it.
And I was like, yeah, anybodycould do it, Anybody can do it,
but not everybody can do it.
Not everybody can actually Noteverybody should do it.

Speaker 2 (58:44):
It's a mentality it really is Once you take that
leap of faith.
When I was a 9 to 5 employee, Igot off the clock on Friday.
I didn't think about thatoffice until Monday morning.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
I was like I don't care if something went wrong,
that's not my problem.

Speaker 2 (58:58):
I'll deal with it when I'm on the clock Now.
I mean, it never leaves youright, and you guys can probably
test that it never leaves you.
You're always thinking abouthow to better it, how to make it
more profitable.
It's just always something, andthat's part of it.
That's part of theentrepreneurial experience, and
you've been doing it for 40years, so it's got to be kind of

(59:20):
a nice break to not have to,like this guy, handle all that
stuff and you.
He's coming to see the patientsnow, right?

Speaker 4 (59:29):
It's a real pleasure and a joy that Michael's that
person.
I love him, but he's a greatdoctor and he takes care of the
people that we have in thepractice.
But it's a balancing act whatyou're talking about.
You do have the responsibilityof the business and it's a
weighty responsibility on yourshoulders.

(59:50):
You're always worrying aboutsomething.
There's something that you'retaking home with you Always,
every day, and the balance withyour family, you know, with your
husband or wife and thechildren if you have kids, Kids
too.

Speaker 3 (01:00:07):
It's a huge thing.

Speaker 4 (01:00:08):
You've got all these balls in the air.
To me, it always comes back tohaving the support that you need
to do that, and for me it wasmy wife.

Speaker 3 (01:00:23):
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 4 (01:00:25):
Michael's the same way.
He's got a supportive, lovingwife, some great kids and he can
go home and see his little Noahand Nico and Jemmy and Juju.
And that takes your mind toanother place right now,
instantly.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
It's like, yeah, that's where you reap the
rewards of being an entrepreneurand the freedom that it gives
you.
Michael can take a day off andgo to Jemmy's thing.
That's the tradeoff.
That's the tradeoff, right,there is that freedom.
So, um, we're running upagainst time here, guys, so
there's a couple questions wewould always like to ask at the
end.
So for michael, since you'rethe main, you know the boss man.

(01:01:09):
Now, where do you see thepractice going?
I mean, do you see yourselfexpanding?
Do you like?
What's the, what's the kind ofthe goal for for, uh, you know
the business and uh, mor, familyDental in the next couple of
years?

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
That's a really good question.
Yeah, that's a really goodquestion.

Speaker 4 (01:01:25):
We only have the hard-hitting stuff here.
Can I email you?

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
back in a couple of weeks.
I mean, you've got to have someidea, right?
Yeah, it's tough.

Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
I've been a part of some coaching groups.
I've had a lot of mentors anddentistry there's a lot of
different avenues you can take.
You know, um, I was having aconversation with mom the other
day like we're kind of dinosaursin the industry.
Dentistry is being overrun bycorporations, by big
conglomerate corporations.

(01:01:52):
They buy dental practices likeours.
They come in the pacific dentalservices aspendale, they come
in and they buy and they don'teven change the name.
Sometimes they'll just buy itand they'll keep the doctor and
they'll just keep it running asusual.
But they're behind the scenesand they're actually kind of
making the making the decisionson um, everything, patient care
and kind of policy andeverything like that.

(01:02:13):
So having an actual mom and popfamily owned single doc
practice is almost the way ofthe dinosaur you know, it's
actually going, it's actuallyyou won't really know unless you
were in the industry.
So it's actually yeah, it'sactually all going towards
corporate and so that's thetransition we're in right now as
an industry.
And so for us trying to figureout you know I, you know I'm

(01:02:36):
going to be a dentist.
I tell patients all the time,you know the biggest thing, new
patients like I want, I wantsomeone who's going to be here.
Everything is like yeah, I gotfour kids, I'm going to be here
an all time I'm going to be mybaby's one.

Speaker 4 (01:02:47):
You got 20 years you got at least 20 years, you know
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:02:57):
So I mean, so I, you know, I don't, I think, working
on it the last couple years, Iknow what I don't want.
I don't want to conglomerate, Idon't want to expand into this
giant corporation.
You know I don't want to kindof go down that path that it's
currently going, you know, andget caught up in that corporate
world.

Speaker 3 (01:03:12):
I think you lose touch with something and with
your patients.
You don't have the same burdenon your shoulders but, it's kind
of almost what's different.

Speaker 1 (01:03:21):
You know we're in health care, so you know they
talk about HIPAA like theHippocratic Oath.
It's like do no harm to yourpatients.
That's what the HippocraticOath is.
And so we're there to take careof patients.
We're there to serve thecommunity, take care of people.
You know we have bills and wehave a.
We have numbers and a bottomline we can look at.
But a lot of the coaches, a lotof the people out there in the

(01:03:43):
dental world, that's all theywant to look at and that's all
they want to talk about, andthat's not what I want to do.
That stuff doesn't reallyexcite me.
So I mean, I think, ultimately,growing at a healthy pace,
keeping up with kind of thetrends we have a lot of, we're
blessed to have a lot ofpatients, and so some type of
expansion is going to be inorder, maybe bringing on another

(01:04:05):
doctor.
But it has to be the rightdoctor, you know it has to be
the right person.
You know very hesitant to justbring on.
You know I don't want to growjust for the sake of growth.
You know, just to.
You know it's the commonquestion they'll ask in, like
the coaching groups Would youhave, would you want to have a
you know, $3 million practicethat does all these numbers but

(01:04:26):
your bills are 90% of that?
Or would you rather have asmall practice that does a lot
less half a million dollars andyou know your bills are 50% of
that?
You know you run your businessa totally different way.
You know.
And so where do you want to go?
You know, so I know where Idon't want to go.
I know I don't want to expandjust for the sake of expanding,
become busier.
I know doctors who own fivepractices, 10 practices, you

(01:04:49):
know, and a lot of them do okay,some of them do great, some of
them not so good, and you'remanaging the people and you're
managing a lot of differentthings, and so you're not a
doctor and that's not what I,what I got into it for in the
first place.
You know, I just I'm realsimilar to dad.
I just kind of want to show upand take care of my patients and
do right by my, my patients whoare there, and then go home to
my family and you know, and makea decent living in the process.

(01:05:12):
So I mean, um, yeah, I thinksome some type of growth is
going to be warranted andhealthy, just to keep up with
the trends.
But I don't see this massive.
Yeah, I can see Mraz FamilyDental popping up.

Speaker 2 (01:05:24):
You know five, ten different little shops all over
the valley One in Palm Springs.
That's not in the cards, yeahbut I mean, I think you're right
, you want to hit that balanceyou know there is some potential
growth.
But you know you don't want tooverextend yourself and we've
even worked with it at thatpoint.
So last couple questions hereand we'll get out of here, dad,

(01:05:47):
best business advice you'vegotten over the years, the best
business advice.

Speaker 3 (01:05:55):
I ain't got to think back for this one.

Speaker 4 (01:05:58):
Interesting question.

Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
Michael, you're going to be next the best business is
pay yourself first.
That was grandma, that wasgrandma.
That's a grandma quote, rightthere.

Speaker 4 (01:06:12):
Pay yourself first, because if you're not paid then
nobody eats Right.
If you have to put off thatbank loan just another five days
, ten days a week a month, goahead with a good conscience.
And that was another thing yourgrandma, my mom, always

(01:06:35):
expressed Pay your bills on time.
She used to tell us that sheenjoyed writing the checks out
to the gas company, to theelectric company, to the
mortgage.
She enjoyed that because theywere getting paid and she had
the money in the account to dothat.

(01:06:55):
That was satisfying.
That was a very you know,peaceful feeling.
It relieved that anxiety and theworry that you were taking care
of business there.
But remember to pay yourselffirst.
Very good, Because it is yourbusiness, it is your practice.
You know take care of yourneeds up front first.

(01:07:18):
So best of the first.

Speaker 2 (01:07:20):
So best business, grandma strikes again.

Speaker 3 (01:07:22):
Well, she continuously said that you know
she would got to keep 10% alwaysRight.

Speaker 1 (01:07:28):
Michael, set aside Best business advice.
I have two.
They're kicking around in myhead.
That'll work.
It's going to start with theend in mind.
So you know, you steal thatfrom me.
Is that one of yours?
Is that what you say?
A lot?
I do say that a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:07:44):
One of the yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:07:45):
So one of the exercises I've done is kind of
your, you know your two, five,ten year kind of map and you
write out where, exactly where,do you want your business and
what do you want it to look likein two to.
You know, at certain intervals,two years, you know two, at
certain intervals two, two years, five years, 10 years, Um, and

(01:08:06):
you'd be as specific as possible.
You know, like, where's itgoing to be, what's it going to
look like.
You know as many things as youcan, as you can imagine, and
then, um, you just get very,very specific, because if you
don't define your goals and youdon't define what is basically,
what do you want?
You know it's like, what do youwant?
And it's not the same foreverybody.
Like, for me, I don't want thesame thing as a lot of others.
I don't want to own a lot ofdental offices, I don't want to
make a ton of money, I want to,you know, have a healthy

(01:08:26):
business and I want to haveenough time to be with my kids
and live a comfortable life andtake care of my family, like
that's pretty much it, you know.
So you start with that in mindand then you reverse, engineer
everything from that, you know,and that's constantly going to
evolve and change as you go.
And you can do this every yearand you can do it with the big

(01:08:47):
stuff, but you can also do itwith the little stuff too.
You can also do the stuff inyour business and in your
practice.
Like, I'm going to start thislittle side venture, I'm going
to do this.
What does that look like?
You know, it doesn't have to bethese big, glamorous things, so
that's always really helpful tokind of have that mindset.
And then the other one is justfind good mentors.

(01:09:08):
You know, just latch on tocertain people, and one of the
things I've realized being indental is there's a lot of
people who will tell you what todo.
There's a lot of people who aregoing to offer up information.
There's a lot of podcasts.
There's dental podcasts.
You can start a dental officefrom podcasts.
You can go on a podcast andthey'll tell you exactly
everything that you should bedoing in your dental practice
and, I'm sure, plenty of otherindustries too.

(01:09:28):
But what I mean by finding amentor is find one mentor, you
know, find one person, maybe twomax, because a lot of times
what happened with me is.
I had all these people kind ofin my ear telling me certain
things like you need to work onthis and you need to do on this,
and the next month I'm going tomeet with this person, I'm
going to work on this, and thenyou get so jumbled up and all of
that information you don'tactually move on a lot of it

(01:09:50):
because now you have all thesecertain things.
And so what's been moresuccessful for me these last
couple of years?
I have one person that I meetwith and they're knowledgeable
about everything in the industry, not super specific, but just
overall, you know, and they canpoint me in the right direction.
And if they don't know, theycan hook me up with somebody
else who can help me with thatproblem.
And that for me has been mucheasier to focus and kind of

(01:10:13):
because when you have too manycooks in the kitchen, you know
they call it, you know,paralysis by analysis.
There's so much and you can'tmake decisions and you can't
really, so so, narrowing thatdown, just a couple voices, you
know, in the room, um, andthey're not always right, you
know.
That's why you have to find agood mentor and you don't.
I'm not the guy I have, I'm notgonna do it.

(01:10:33):
You know, he tells me and I'mlike okay, I may or may not do
that, you know, we'll see, youknow.
But I mean, I hear you, I hearwhat you're saying, I'll take it
into consideration.
Thanks for weighing the prosand cons.
For me, that's just been muchmore beneficial for me because
it just allows me to focus andreally you just start to gain
traction that way.
It just simplifies things a lotmore.

Speaker 2 (01:10:56):
Excellent advice.
Last question, dad Worst advice, worst business advice you've
ever gotten?

Speaker 4 (01:11:08):
Let's see the worst.
It probably had to do with aninvestment in a very well-known
financial.

Speaker 3 (01:11:16):
I thought you were going to say the partnership oh
losing the coin.

Speaker 4 (01:11:21):
Taz partnership oh losing the coin toss Actually
winning the coin toss.

Speaker 1 (01:11:25):
Agreeing to do the coin toss.
Yeah, agreeing to do the cointoss.

Speaker 4 (01:11:28):
Was that the worst advice you took?
Well, you know, it changedpeople's lives, changed our
lives.
It changed my partner's livesbecause he moved down to Desert
Hot Springs and relocated topractice.
We still had a covenant not tocompete, which was a 20-mile
covenant, and that wasn't farenough that he was able to

(01:11:50):
practice.
Yeah, and we both benefitedfrom that Bottom line.
We both did.
He got a new office.
I took the one here in Indio,so that wasn't too bad.
Anyway, I lost my train ofthought.

Speaker 2 (01:12:08):
So that's the worst piece of business advice you've
ever heard.

Speaker 4 (01:12:15):
It's got a rank up there.

Speaker 2 (01:12:18):
It's a top five.
It's a contender, michael's atop five, it's a contender.
There you go, it's a contender,michael, where's the business
advice you've gotten?
I know you've gotten some badadvice.
I sure have.
I get bad advice all the time.
You get bad advice.

Speaker 1 (01:12:31):
Yeah, we try to think Do you get bad advice?
The jury's still out.
You know, I I don't even thinkso.
This is a little more specific.
But for for us, um, you know,I've had a lot of people really
push us to to get on socialmedia and really, like me, the

(01:12:52):
gary v's of the world, reallyreally get a presence out there
and really kind of put you know,promote yourself and and it's
industry specific right, ifyou're starting a brand new
business, you're starting acoffee shop, you gotta be on, so
you gotta be on tiktok yougotta be doing stuff consumer
based you're going directly toconsumer.
You have to, you know.
But or a dental office, youknow, or a professional office.
You know I'm for I I like tokeep a level of professional.

(01:13:13):
You know patients are going tokind of respect us and
everything.
If I'm there doing dances onlike social media and stuff like
that.

Speaker 4 (01:13:19):
It's like you don't need your dentist to be
lip-syncing a song.
It's fine, no, I?

Speaker 2 (01:13:22):
have I have friends, I got a good buddy who's always
dancing on instagram.

Speaker 1 (01:13:30):
He's, he's awesome, like he's.
But for us as a business, youknow, I don't think that's
helpful for us, but mainlybecause we're already
established you know we have ourclientele, you know, but we
don't, we don't need to, to kindof be that if we were to do
marketing and kind of get outthere, you know, it would
probably even be more focused.
Anyways, you know, and you know, we're going to practice what

(01:13:53):
we always do and be safe.
We've had these precautionsthat protect us and do all these
things.
We treat patients very sterileenvironment, anyways, right and
so, um, you know, but it is more, it's more just to be, you know
, it's more of a lesson, just tobe, um, just to take ownership
of your bit.
You know, don't, don't, justdon't just close your doors just

(01:14:13):
because somebody all of asudden says you know, like, this
is, this is what we're gonna,this is what we're gonna.
There was, there was never anymandate.
There's never any Californiamandate to actually close.

Speaker 2 (01:14:22):
There was no policeman checking to see if you
guys were not taking patients.
It wasn't even well.
We were essential workers.

Speaker 1 (01:14:28):
We were, for sure, essential workers, so there was
never a mandated.
There was guidelines like onlyemergencies, type things.
But it was more just, kind ofjust not just accept that
information, not just take itand accept it and say, all right
, we're closing, like let'scritically look at this and
actually figure out.
You know, and that's, that'swhat we ended up doing, we
closed for about four weeks.

(01:14:48):
You know, we did what we weresupposed to.
Then we started to seeemergency patients, but it was
more just a lesson and like hey,let's not just automatically
shut, you know, at the blink, atthe drop of a hat right, like
let's let let this play out,let's see what's going on, let's
be smart.

Speaker 2 (01:15:01):
Let's do some more information before we start
taking people's livelihoodsRight.

Speaker 4 (01:15:06):
And the fact that people could die from an
infected tooth.
You'd think that'd be animpossibility in this day and
age, but it's still a realpossibility.

Speaker 1 (01:15:18):
Sure.

Speaker 4 (01:15:19):
Once that infection crosses a certain point in the
throat and mouth, it shuts offthe airway, you can't breathe
anymore and it kills you.
So for us to lock our doors,knowing that this is a reality
of a dental infection, Knowingthat this is a reality of a

(01:15:44):
dental infection, that it cancross a midline and shut off the
esophagus and somebody's airway.
We couldn't do that.

Speaker 1 (01:15:51):
Wasn't an option.
Well, that's not what we signedup for.
We're going to see patients whohave the flu.
We're going to see patients whoare sick because they need to
see us right.
So COVID is no different.
We're still going to takepatients in.
We're going to wear ourprecautions and be safe and do
everything we need to do, butthis is the industry we're in
healthcare.

Speaker 2 (01:16:07):
You guys are safer than anybody, because you'd
already been dealing with flusand colds all these years.

Speaker 4 (01:16:11):
Right, we treat patients as if they're in
landmines of infection.
We glove up, we put the mask,on safety goggles, we protect
our staffs and we protectourselves from a possibility of
an infectious disease.
We've always done that.

Speaker 1 (01:16:32):
Yeah.
So I mean, I don't know if thatI wouldn't say, you know, that
was just an experience, just alearning experience, like, hey,
let's you, you know, let's takeownership of the business and
let's uh, let's make an informeddecision, but not drop
everything at the drop of a hat,you know, like we're more
important than that.

Speaker 2 (01:16:47):
This is, you know yeah, this is a met.
Yeah, this is a situation,right, even like people don't
think it, but, but it can happen, right?

Speaker 1 (01:16:53):
right and so that you know and they're, you know
they're.
Nobody knew what was right andwrong, and so it was just more
just a lesson to be learned.
Right kind of situation, amen.

Speaker 2 (01:17:08):
Thanks for coming in, guys.
This was fun.
Yeah, appreciate you coming in.
I like to get the insight ofyou know how stuff really goes
down in your guys' office.
Thanks for listening everybody.
Where can people find you,michael, if they want to get in
touch with the office, maybethey're looking for a new
dentist.

Speaker 1 (01:17:25):
Yeah, so we're right on 111 in Jefferson, right
across from Shields.
There's probably about fourother dentists right in that
same area, so it's Dr MrazM-E-R-A-Z.
The DBA says Super Smiles isthe office.
Yeah, so if you Google SuperSmiles, Dr Mraz Indio, It'll
come up.

Speaker 2 (01:17:42):
It'll all pop up right there 40 years of being in
the desert and helping thecommunity the proof is in the
pudding on that.
I don't even think you guysneed to sell it.
So thanks for coming in.

Speaker 3 (01:17:53):
Thank you so much.
We appreciate your time.

Speaker 2 (01:17:55):
And, as always, like share and subscribe and we'll
talk to you guys next time.

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