July 15, 2025 • 24 mins
What does it take for dentists and healthcare professionals to achieve true financial independence?
Join us on Oral Wealth, Prosperity and Practice as Dr. Jackson Sadler teams up with Brian Swilling, founder of NaviPath Financial, to explore this crucial question. In this debut episode, they uncover common pitfalls in financial literacy among dentists and share insights on how strategic planning can turn professional success into personal fulfillment.
Dr. Jackson Sadler and Brian Swilling discuss:
(00:03:20) The importance of bridging the gap in financial literacy for dental professionals
(00:08:45) Brian’s journey from Wall Street to helping dentists achieve financial wellness
(00:17:00) Insight into the evolving landscape of dental practice ownership
(00:22:10) Strategies for avoiding financial pitfalls and maximizing opportunities in dentistry
And more!
Connect with Dr. Jackson Sadler:
Carolinas Center For Oral & Facial Surgery
LinkedIn: Jackson Saddler DDS
Connect with Brian Swilling:
NaviPath Financial
LinkedIn: Brian Swilling
brian@navipathfinancial.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
Welcome to Oral Wealth Prosperity and Practice,
where financial planning meets the dental chair,
hosted by doctor Jackson Sadler, oral and maxillofacial
surgeon, and Brian Swillen,
registered investment adviser and founding partner of Navapath
Financial.
This podcast is your roadmap to thriving as
a dentist and beyond.
(00:24):
Each episode dives into the unique challenges and
financial strategies tailored just for you, the dedicated
dental professional.
From conquering student loans to making smart investments
and building work life balance, we cover it
all with honesty, humor, and practical advice.
Tune in and get ready to go beyond
okay to truly flourish as a dentist, a
(00:45):
business owner, and an individual
because your life's work deserves a road map
to financial wellness and fulfillment.
Let's get started.
Hi. And welcome to the Oral Wealth Prosperity
and Practice podcast. My name is Jackson Sadler.
And I'm Brian Swilling.
And this podcast was created
to help dentists and other health care professionals
(01:08):
navigate the business and financial side of practice
because clinical excellence is just one piece of
the puzzle.
Brian and I, we met, and we decided
that we wanted to work on this podcast
because we separately
recognized that there was a gap in the
financial literacy education
amongst
most professionals,
(01:28):
specifically health care professionals,
working within dentistry. We both know people who
have made expensive mistakes in their practice,
early on in their careers.
And we wanted to normalize conversations about, you
know, personal finance and money and the mistakes
that people make specifically within the field of
dentistry.
So,
(01:49):
this podcast is is mostly directed towards dental
students who are preparing for practice,
recent graduates who have just gotten into practice,
associates who are thinking about ownership, people who
have been out in practice for years, who
are planning their financial future as far as
retirement and
estate planning, wealth management,
and, really, anyone who wants to learn more
(02:10):
about financial literacy and just more better work
life balance. The listeners of the podcast can
expect, different question and answer sessions. We'll do
deep dives about financial literacy as well.
We're also gonna go into real case breakdowns
and guest interviews.
So
at this point, we wanna
let every everybody, all of our new listeners
(02:31):
get to know us a little bit. So
Brian's gonna start off telling us a little
bit about himself. Yes. Welcome, everybody. I'm excited
to be here for the first episode. This
has been a, you know, a in my
mind, this idea of a podcast
focused on health care professionals and focused on
helping people live a fulfilled life
for a while.
(02:52):
So I'm very excited to be here. To
give a little bit of background
of
why Brian
in this podcast,
I grew up in a family of dentists.
My dad
and sister
are both dentists actually practicing
in the same area I grew up in
outside of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Everybody asked me,
(03:13):
well, why aren't you a dentist? And I
was like, well, it was never really
a passion,
but it's funny. I ended up in dentistry
anyway,
kind of kind of on the outside.
So I I grew up
and continue
to have, you know, family.
Like, my dad just
sold his practice
(03:34):
semi retired.
So I've been through the whole cycle as
a kid of a dentist,
you know, all the way into the financial
planner for
my dad as he exited, you know, as
he went through his succession plan. So
it's kind of weird. It comes full circle,
but that's also why I have a passion
for for this, you know, the industry and
(03:55):
the health care industry in general.
That's the beginning. I went to school
actually in,
at UNC Charlotte.
Go Niners. Go Niners. Yeah. Go Niners.
The,
for all those 3,000
fans out there for the Niners, they're gonna
turn it around. This is your place. The
season's coming.
So, yeah, I went in for finance economics
(04:19):
And actually had a minor in psychology, which
comes in very useful. Hey, I'm majoring in
psychology. Do you know that? Yeah, we do.
Okay, cool. My first job out of college
was in
New York City, which was surprising. So on
campus hiring,
grew up outside of Charlotte,
went to UNC Charlotte, moved to New York
City.
Exciting times, eleven years in various banks on
(04:41):
Wall Street learning,
you know, crash course in everything, financial services.
But I had a passion for entrepreneurship.
And that's when
I met my wife in New York City.
That's when and we had a three month
old at the time.
I decided I wanted to start a financial
planning practice focused on dentists.
So that's when
(05:01):
we packed up, we moved, you know, closer
to my family,
which luckily my my wife was cool with
that. And I started this financial planning practice.
My practice is called
NaviPath Financial.
And we like to navigate your path to
financial independence.
And a big focus
of that group is dentistry,
(05:22):
healthcare professionals, and owners in general. There's a
lot once you become an owner, there are
a lot more strategies
you can use around financial planning and tax
planning. That's been going on ten years,
almost two years ago. We actually launched the
second NaviPath,
which is a tax accounting
tax accounting, bookkeeping, and outsource CFO business.
(05:44):
So the Navapath brand can now cover
all financial needs
for dentists and
and definitely practice owners. Very cool. We started
the first business because I knew there was
a need, as we mentioned. There was just
a massive
need for accessible
advice.
And later episodes, we'll talk more about how
(06:06):
I structure
that accessible advice.
But then I realized there was also a
need for collaboration between the tax accounting professional
and the financial planner, and I was struggling
to find it, so we created it. Very
cool.
So that's what brings me here today.
You know, we're I'm excited
to educate
all our fans out there, all the listeners.
(06:28):
And So what do you what do you
do when you're not educating people and and
building businesses?
Well, we were talking last night. Right? And
I had to rush out to coach,
my son's soccer team. So a lot of
my life is,
you know, working with my partners on the
two businesses,
you know, you know, family time.
(06:50):
And a lot of that family time is
coaching
or, you know, coaching my son's basketball or
soccer team
or driving my daughter to her theater practice.
My son is eight and my daughter is
10. So
that is
a big part of my day to day
life. You know, other things I was in
the inaugural season ticket holder for the for
(07:12):
the Charlotte 49ers
football team.
So when it's football season, we try to
go to many of those games as we
can.
Big college basketball fan.
Charlotte has been down recently. Go heels. Yeah.
Go Duke.
So
so,
with that, which is disappointing for both of
us this season. The,
(07:35):
and then, you know,
the I like to spend, you know, I
like to spend time outdoors, horrible golfer.
Anything mountain biking, hiking,
it's hard to find time for all the
stuff I love to do. Sure. And my
passions
keep going. But, like, I'm trying to get
rid of golf, but I keep It's not
going anywhere. I can't. Yeah. You're not getting
(07:55):
rid of it. Yeah. I wish somebody would
ask me to go mountain biking for business
purposes. Nah. We're going golfing, my friend. Yeah.
So that's, you know, that's kind of me
in a nutshell.
Probably missing a lot of key things,
but, you know, what we want I wanna
be, you know, especially with the dynamic Jackson
and I have,
you know, we wanna be relatable to a
(08:16):
variety
of listeners,
different backgrounds, different experiences, different life stages.
So
from you know, that's enough about The Brian.
Let's talk about Jackson.
Well, hi, everyone. As I said at the
beginning of the podcast, my name is Jackson
Sadler.
I am an oral and maxillofacial
surgeon practicing in the Greater Charlotte, North Carolina
(08:39):
area, specifically in Gastonia, North Carolina.
I am originally from right outside of Winston
Salem, North Carolina.
Did my undergraduate training at the University of
North Carolina in Wilmington. Go Seahawks. They made
it to the tournament this year. There you
go. Yeah. We always love to see it.
And I did my dental school training at
the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
(09:00):
Again, go heels.
After that, I was very fortunate to, be
accepted into a residency program at the University
of Missouri Kansas City.
Spent six years there doing my oral and
maxillofacial surgery training before I moved back to,
the Charlotte area just to be closer to
family and, you know, get my practice started.
(09:20):
Currently working with a, dental service,
organization associated practice.
Been there for just under three years. It'll
be three years in July.
And,
Brian and I were were connected by,
some mutual acquaintances, some friends that we have,
and just kinda started talking about this idea.
(09:41):
And as he mentioned, he, through his, you
know, years of experience, recognized
that there has been an ongoing need for
further financial literacy education,
and that's been something that's been important to
me for a long time.
So I've I've been always been curious about
the business side of dentistry because a lot
of what I heard early on in, dental
(10:03):
school and also in my career was that,
you know,
yes, the business side of dentistry doesn't get
covered in dental school,
extensively for most dental schools.
There are some schools who definitely do that
who have MBA associated programs and things like
that. But for most people coming out of
school, you're just kinda told, you know, you'll
figure it out as you go. And
(10:23):
to be fair, that may have been the
case historically,
where you could get out and you could
get a loan from a bank and you
could go hang a shingle, and then patients
would just start coming in.
But, the landscape of dentistry has changed significantly,
and it's and it's evolving very rapidly.
So this, you know, figure it out as
you go,
strategy,
while,
(10:44):
dentistry is is a very stable field
and can sustain that for a lot of
people,
it's not ideal. And
there are a lot of missed opportunities. There
are a lot of pitfalls that people fall
into
that are avoidable. And that's, you know, one
of the things that I'm passionate about, trying
to learn for myself and also pass along
(11:05):
to, my colleagues because I understand what that
experience of getting into graduate school and going
through graduate school and trying to navigate your
career. And, you know, do the best you
can to take care of your patients and
and do
good treatments and and provide good care for
them.
And then to go home at the end
of the day and be stressed out because
you're not sure about your own financial future,
(11:27):
I I just don't want that for anybody.
So that's how I got here with Brian.
And,
you know, just,
outside of practice,
Very similarly, I like to, I like to
golf. I've been golfing for years. I'm not
as good as it as as I would
like to be, but we're working on it.
I also love being out in nature. Any
(11:47):
excuse I can get to go hiking or,
go see a new national park, I try
to take advantage of.
When I'm stuck at home, just
lots of exercising and, watching documentaries for the
most part. But I'm excited to be here,
and I'm I'm looking forward to the journey
and seeing where this takes us and
how much we can learn from each other
(12:07):
and how much we can hopefully learn from
and interact with all of the listeners. We
want you guys to be active participants as
well, and we wanna address some of the
things that are concerning for you.
Yeah. It sounds like we have a couple
of things we need to plan. We need
to plan,
obviously, the golf trip, but we should also
plan a,
board meeting
(12:28):
in a national park. We can. Do you
know I actually I was coming back from
Isle Of Palms this past weekend where I
was golfing. I went past a national park
that I didn't realize was there. What it
was? I'm I'll find it. I'll I'll keep
on the Palm said that yeah. I mean,
that would be middle of nowhere until you
get to Yeah. Until you get to Columbia.
Out there. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if
we go there. I prefer the mountains at
(12:48):
this point. Yeah. So on Jackson's point, like,
the the why of the podcast, and we'll
go into more,
deeper in the why
for the next episode.
But, you know, you mentioned some things,
like,
when we were talking in the in the
past and kind of how your experiences, but,
like
and we'll talk about this in future episodes,
but
(13:09):
you kinda had an upper
hand on most of this because Yeah. For
sure. You went through a typical practice management
program, but you had mentors
that
highlighted pitfalls
on your way, and we'll have a whole
episode on the importance of mentors. But tell
us a little bit about
(13:29):
and how that kinda led you to learn
more about Yeah. Sure. Specifically, I did have
one, one or two interactions with,
classmates of mine who,
you know, I would just kind of be
off handedly talking about something.
As Brian mentioned, one of you know, I've
I've I've been very, very fortunate, and and
the more time goes on, the more I
(13:50):
recognize the value of mentors
and mentorship, being a mentor myself or other
people
who may not have had access to, information
or people that I've had access to. You
know, one of my first mentors was my
dad, and he happened to be a general
dentist. He's, retired at this point, still very
involved in,
organized dentistry. But,
(14:12):
you know, he would just, from time to
time, tell me about various things that I
needed to be be aware of, whether that
was within dentistry or planning for my future,
managing my finances,
participating
in investments, you know, with the stock market
and and other investments outside of that as
well.
And I would be talking about these things,
(14:32):
and I remember at least on two occasions,
some of my very good close friends
would say something to the effect of,
I wish I had someone to tell me
these things.
And for whatever reason, that just really sat
with me, because,
you know, these are people I care about.
These are people that have,
you know, taken on the
the burden of the financial burden of going
(14:56):
to a graduate school program.
Yeah. Which is not cheap. Yeah. It's not
cheap at all. And it's only getting if
trends continue, it's only getting more expensive. Yeah.
So, you know, you take on the financial
burden of attending a graduate school,
and then you also take on the psycholo
excuse me, psychological and emotional burden
that we were talking about that goes along
(15:17):
with
taking care of other people.
And, you know, it's it's a very rewarding
field, but it's not always easy. There are
very, very frequently very difficult days. And I
actually just saw a study that said, I
think it was around fifty percent of men
and sixty, sixty five percent of women
feel symptoms of burnout
multiple times on a weekly basis.
(15:38):
And dentistry
specific? Yes. It was dentistry specific. I can
find that study too. We can talk about
that one. Put it in the show notes.
For sure. Absolutely.
But, you know, just hearing my my friends,
these people that I know, that I care
about, you know, I I know their families.
I've been in their weddings. Hearing them hearing
them say these things, it was like, of
of course, I want you to know these
(15:59):
things. Of course, I want good things for
you and your family. Of course, I want
you to benefit from the work that you
have done and the work that you continue
to do. So I just got very, very
curious about,
the business of dentistry,
especially, again, with the changing landscape, the
ever growing presence of dental service organizations,
(16:21):
the shift that seems to be happening
among new grads who are
kinda trending towards working in those dental service
organizations,
for a lot of different reasons, but,
you know, some of them very beneficial
advantageous reasons, you know, including,
easier work life balance. You know? You don't
have to worry about administrative
(16:41):
things quite as much. But, you know, there
are also drawbacks to those things. You you
lose some autonomy. You lose some,
decision making ability that manifests its way in
different excuse me, manifests itself in different ways.
And like Brian was saying before,
there can be a lot of benefits to
practice ownership and,
you know, the things that go along with
that. So that's
(17:02):
pretty much the at least
the catalyst
for my involvement in this to this degree.
Yeah. And, you know, Jackson and I were
introduced,
and we were talking about
a project that you were working on with
the ADA, which we'll go into more detail
about
in the second episode.
You know, we met and actually,
(17:23):
you know, had a bar after work, you
know, had a drink.
And we Shirley Temple. Yeah. Shirley Temple. Nonalcoholic.
Yeah. Watch it. I know you're I know
you're listening, mom.
We we just, like, kind of hit it
off on,
you know, I my experience is,
it's real I mean, it's hard to talk
about money. Yeah, of course. Right? And it's
(17:46):
hard to learn about money with with all
the noise out there. Mhmm. Right?
Financial news is literally unwatchable
unless you wanna cause stress in your life.
Right? Especially given the current market. Yeah. I
was gonna say especially recently. Yeah. Yeah. Like,
don't watch, you know,
my, chief investment officer calls it fear porn.
Sure. Like it's literally like news in general
(18:08):
is fear porn. Financial
news
is, you know, is even worse.
And we could do a whole
episode on this, but like our brains
are more likely to tune in to fear
than they are to positive news. And that's
why the news does that. It's addictive.
It creates a dopamine response in our brain.
(18:29):
So, like,
think about it. If you're stressed about money
and then all you see is stress
whenever you turn on the TV
or if you Google it, like, it's almost
impossible to find
reliable information. Sure. And, you know,
it sounds like from your experience,
you know, and from my experience,
like dentists
(18:50):
are more likely to ask other dentists
financial questions rather than a financial professional.
Because of that nervousness,
because of that
concern
to admit to somebody
that's not in their Yeah. Their field that
they don't know something. Yep. So that's another
reason, like, our
joint passion for providing access
(19:13):
to the information people need to live a
prosperous, fulfilled life
is is what this podcast is about. Like,
we want this to be relatable,
you know, easy to
easy to listen,
easy to understand concepts.
Some points it'll go deeper. Some points, you
know, we'll need to pull it back. But
(19:35):
we want it to be approachable. We want
the topics about,
you know, money, life, finance,
using your money to create an ideal life,
you know,
wherever you are in your profession
is we want that to be accessible to
everybody.
And this the podcast form is a great
(19:56):
medium
to give access
to
to professionals
that can provide them the information
they need
to kind of thrive in life and life
as a dentist or healthcare professional
or, you know, if you're
a listener that's outside, we we, you know,
(20:18):
outside those
that kind of dental healthcare,
you know, owner
area, practice owner area, like, this should still
be relatable.
Right?
You know, it all sounds very different, but
the the topics we're gonna talk about and
the issues
The principles are Yeah. The principles
are are very similar.
(20:39):
This is gonna be a
great podcast, so make sure It it'd be
great. It'll be it's it's gonna be a
great learning experience. Yes. Like, I think I
think, honestly, I'm I'm excited to to see
how much I learn from our discussions.
Yeah.
I'm excited to see how much better we
become as podcasters. Yeah.
Yes. It's gonna get you. Starting out starting
(21:00):
out, amazing, I think. I think we're doing
a good job. At least a three out
of 10. Yes. At least a three out
of 10 as our
as our producer will tell us after this.
But, you know, I think as we're getting
close to wrapping this up, you know, this
is the this is the first episode, episode
one
intro to the oral wealth, prosperity, and practice
podcast.
(21:21):
For all the listeners out there.
I want to thank you.
Thank you for Jackson for, you know, offering
to do this with me and same here.
Like, I think this is going to be
a great, a great combo.
Make sure
you like, you know, subscribe,
follow, follow on wherever you're listening to this
podcast.
Follow us on social media. We're on most
(21:43):
of the social channels,
my businesses personally,
and Jackson also, those links will be in
the show notes.
Episode two, we'll be focusing on deeper into
really why this podcast and the structure of
this podcast.
And then we'll start going into more financial
topics.
(22:03):
Please
comment,
provide
suggestions.
Yeah. Because we want this to be
what you wanna hear. So the more feedback,
the more
concerns you have. If you have a concern,
send us to us on social
or
our email will be also in that in
(22:24):
the show notes. So whatever your preferred
communication method.
Just do it. Yeah. Just do it. Just
do it. Yeah. Stealing it from from Nike
or wealth. Just do it. You know, so,
that will not be as I said. That's
not gonna make the gut. That's not gonna
make the gut. There's gonna be some legal
implications for those who that So again,
thank you, Jackson. Thank you everybody for tuning
(22:45):
in. Everybody. And, we look forward to
having you on the next time. Yep. We'll
see you soon. Take care.
Thank you for listening to the Oral Wealth
Prosperity and Practice podcast.
Click the follow button to be notified when
new episodes become available.
Visit our website at www.navapathfinancial.com.
(23:06):
And don't forget to like and subscribe if
you enjoyed the episode.
You can also check out our contact information
in the description below.
The information covered and posted represents the views
and opinions of the guests and does not
necessarily represent the views or opinions of Navapath
Financial.
The content has been made available for informational
and educational purposes only.
(23:26):
The content is not intended to be a
substitute for professional investing advice.
Always seek the advice of your financial adviser
or other qualified financial service provider with any
questions you may have regarding your investment planning.
Content here is for illustrative purposes and general
information only. It is not legal, tax, or
individualized financial advice, nor is it a recommendation
(23:48):
to buy, sell, or hold any specific security,
or engage in any specific trading strategy.
Results will vary. Past performance is no indication
of future results or success.
Market conditions change continuously.
This commentary reflects the personal opinions, viewpoints, and
analysis of Brian Swillen. It does not necessarily
represent those of RFG Advisory, their clients, or
(24:10):
their employees.
This commentary should not be regarded as a
description of advisory services provided by Brian Swilling
or RFG Advisory
or performance returns of any client. The views
reflected in the commentary are subject to change
at any time without notice.
Advisory services offered by investment advisory representatives of
RFG Advisory, a registered investment advisor.
(24:32):
Navapath Financial and RFG Advisory are unaffiliated entities.
Advisory services are only offered to clients or
prospective clients where RFG Advisory and its representatives
are properly licensed or exempt from licensure.
No advisory services may be rendered by RFG
advisory unless a client agreement is in place.
Welcome to Oral Wealth Prosperity and Practice,
where financial planning meets the dental chair,
hosted by doctor Jackson Sadler, oral and maxillofacial
surgeon, and Brian Swillen,
registered investment adviser and founding partner of Navapath
Financial.
This podcast is your roadmap to thriving as
a dentist and beyond.
(00:24):
Each episode dives into the unique challenges and
financial strategies tailored just for you, the dedicated
dental professional.
From conquering student loans to making smart investments
and building work life balance, we cover it
all with honesty, humor, and practical advice.
Tune in and get ready to go beyond
okay to truly flourish as a dentist, a
(00:45):
business owner, and an individual
because your life's work deserves a road map
to financial wellness and fulfillment.
Let's get started.
Hi. And welcome to the Oral Wealth Prosperity
and Practice podcast. My name is Jackson Sadler.
And I'm Brian Swilling.
And this podcast was created
to help dentists and other health care professionals
(01:08):
navigate the business and financial side of practice
because clinical excellence is just one piece of
the puzzle.
Brian and I, we met, and we decided
that we wanted to work on this podcast
because we separately
recognized that there was a gap in the
financial literacy education
amongst
most professionals,
(01:28):
specifically health care professionals,
working within dentistry. We both know people who
have made expensive mistakes in their practice,
early on in their careers.
And we wanted to normalize conversations about, you
know, personal finance and money and the mistakes
that people make specifically within the field of
dentistry.
So,
(01:49):
this podcast is is mostly directed towards dental
students who are preparing for practice,
recent graduates who have just gotten into practice,
associates who are thinking about ownership, people who
have been out in practice for years, who
are planning their financial future as far as
retirement and
estate planning, wealth management,
and, really, anyone who wants to learn more
(02:10):
about financial literacy and just more better work
life balance. The listeners of the podcast can
expect, different question and answer sessions. We'll do
deep dives about financial literacy as well.
We're also gonna go into real case breakdowns
and guest interviews.
So
at this point, we wanna
let every everybody, all of our new listeners
(02:31):
get to know us a little bit. So
Brian's gonna start off telling us a little
bit about himself. Yes. Welcome, everybody. I'm excited
to be here for the first episode. This
has been a, you know, a in my
mind, this idea of a podcast
focused on health care professionals and focused on
helping people live a fulfilled life
for a while.
(02:52):
So I'm very excited to be here. To
give a little bit of background
of
why Brian
in this podcast,
I grew up in a family of dentists.
My dad
and sister
are both dentists actually practicing
in the same area I grew up in
outside of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Everybody asked me,
(03:13):
well, why aren't you a dentist? And I
was like, well, it was never really
a passion,
but it's funny. I ended up in dentistry
anyway,
kind of kind of on the outside.
So I I grew up
and continue
to have, you know, family.
Like, my dad just
sold his practice
(03:34):
semi retired.
So I've been through the whole cycle as
a kid of a dentist,
you know, all the way into the financial
planner for
my dad as he exited, you know, as
he went through his succession plan. So
it's kind of weird. It comes full circle,
but that's also why I have a passion
for for this, you know, the industry and
(03:55):
the health care industry in general.
That's the beginning. I went to school
actually in,
at UNC Charlotte.
Go Niners. Go Niners. Yeah. Go Niners.
The,
for all those 3,000
fans out there for the Niners, they're gonna
turn it around. This is your place. The
season's coming.
So, yeah, I went in for finance economics
(04:19):
And actually had a minor in psychology, which
comes in very useful. Hey, I'm majoring in
psychology. Do you know that? Yeah, we do.
Okay, cool. My first job out of college
was in
New York City, which was surprising. So on
campus hiring,
grew up outside of Charlotte,
went to UNC Charlotte, moved to New York
City.
Exciting times, eleven years in various banks on
(04:41):
Wall Street learning,
you know, crash course in everything, financial services.
But I had a passion for entrepreneurship.
And that's when
I met my wife in New York City.
That's when and we had a three month
old at the time.
I decided I wanted to start a financial
planning practice focused on dentists.
So that's when
(05:01):
we packed up, we moved, you know, closer
to my family,
which luckily my my wife was cool with
that. And I started this financial planning practice.
My practice is called
NaviPath Financial.
And we like to navigate your path to
financial independence.
And a big focus
of that group is dentistry,
(05:22):
healthcare professionals, and owners in general. There's a
lot once you become an owner, there are
a lot more strategies
you can use around financial planning and tax
planning. That's been going on ten years,
almost two years ago. We actually launched the
second NaviPath,
which is a tax accounting
tax accounting, bookkeeping, and outsource CFO business.
(05:44):
So the Navapath brand can now cover
all financial needs
for dentists and
and definitely practice owners. Very cool. We started
the first business because I knew there was
a need, as we mentioned. There was just
a massive
need for accessible
advice.
And later episodes, we'll talk more about how
(06:06):
I structure
that accessible advice.
But then I realized there was also a
need for collaboration between the tax accounting professional
and the financial planner, and I was struggling
to find it, so we created it. Very
cool.
So that's what brings me here today.
You know, we're I'm excited
to educate
all our fans out there, all the listeners.
(06:28):
And So what do you what do you
do when you're not educating people and and
building businesses?
Well, we were talking last night. Right? And
I had to rush out to coach,
my son's soccer team. So a lot of
my life is,
you know, working with my partners on the
two businesses,
you know, you know, family time.
(06:50):
And a lot of that family time is
coaching
or, you know, coaching my son's basketball or
soccer team
or driving my daughter to her theater practice.
My son is eight and my daughter is
10. So
that is
a big part of my day to day
life. You know, other things I was in
the inaugural season ticket holder for the for
(07:12):
the Charlotte 49ers
football team.
So when it's football season, we try to
go to many of those games as we
can.
Big college basketball fan.
Charlotte has been down recently. Go heels. Yeah.
Go Duke.
So
so,
with that, which is disappointing for both of
us this season. The,
(07:35):
and then, you know,
the I like to spend, you know, I
like to spend time outdoors, horrible golfer.
Anything mountain biking, hiking,
it's hard to find time for all the
stuff I love to do. Sure. And my
passions
keep going. But, like, I'm trying to get
rid of golf, but I keep It's not
going anywhere. I can't. Yeah. You're not getting
(07:55):
rid of it. Yeah. I wish somebody would
ask me to go mountain biking for business
purposes. Nah. We're going golfing, my friend. Yeah.
So that's, you know, that's kind of me
in a nutshell.
Probably missing a lot of key things,
but, you know, what we want I wanna
be, you know, especially with the dynamic Jackson
and I have,
you know, we wanna be relatable to a
(08:16):
variety
of listeners,
different backgrounds, different experiences, different life stages.
So
from you know, that's enough about The Brian.
Let's talk about Jackson.
Well, hi, everyone. As I said at the
beginning of the podcast, my name is Jackson
Sadler.
I am an oral and maxillofacial
surgeon practicing in the Greater Charlotte, North Carolina
(08:39):
area, specifically in Gastonia, North Carolina.
I am originally from right outside of Winston
Salem, North Carolina.
Did my undergraduate training at the University of
North Carolina in Wilmington. Go Seahawks. They made
it to the tournament this year. There you
go. Yeah. We always love to see it.
And I did my dental school training at
the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
(09:00):
Again, go heels.
After that, I was very fortunate to, be
accepted into a residency program at the University
of Missouri Kansas City.
Spent six years there doing my oral and
maxillofacial surgery training before I moved back to,
the Charlotte area just to be closer to
family and, you know, get my practice started.
(09:20):
Currently working with a, dental service,
organization associated practice.
Been there for just under three years. It'll
be three years in July.
And,
Brian and I were were connected by,
some mutual acquaintances, some friends that we have,
and just kinda started talking about this idea.
(09:41):
And as he mentioned, he, through his, you
know, years of experience, recognized
that there has been an ongoing need for
further financial literacy education,
and that's been something that's been important to
me for a long time.
So I've I've been always been curious about
the business side of dentistry because a lot
of what I heard early on in, dental
(10:03):
school and also in my career was that,
you know,
yes, the business side of dentistry doesn't get
covered in dental school,
extensively for most dental schools.
There are some schools who definitely do that
who have MBA associated programs and things like
that. But for most people coming out of
school, you're just kinda told, you know, you'll
figure it out as you go. And
(10:23):
to be fair, that may have been the
case historically,
where you could get out and you could
get a loan from a bank and you
could go hang a shingle, and then patients
would just start coming in.
But, the landscape of dentistry has changed significantly,
and it's and it's evolving very rapidly.
So this, you know, figure it out as
you go,
strategy,
while,
(10:44):
dentistry is is a very stable field
and can sustain that for a lot of
people,
it's not ideal. And
there are a lot of missed opportunities. There
are a lot of pitfalls that people fall
into
that are avoidable. And that's, you know, one
of the things that I'm passionate about, trying
to learn for myself and also pass along
(11:05):
to, my colleagues because I understand what that
experience of getting into graduate school and going
through graduate school and trying to navigate your
career. And, you know, do the best you
can to take care of your patients and
and do
good treatments and and provide good care for
them.
And then to go home at the end
of the day and be stressed out because
you're not sure about your own financial future,
(11:27):
I I just don't want that for anybody.
So that's how I got here with Brian.
And,
you know, just,
outside of practice,
Very similarly, I like to, I like to
golf. I've been golfing for years. I'm not
as good as it as as I would
like to be, but we're working on it.
I also love being out in nature. Any
(11:47):
excuse I can get to go hiking or,
go see a new national park, I try
to take advantage of.
When I'm stuck at home, just
lots of exercising and, watching documentaries for the
most part. But I'm excited to be here,
and I'm I'm looking forward to the journey
and seeing where this takes us and
how much we can learn from each other
(12:07):
and how much we can hopefully learn from
and interact with all of the listeners. We
want you guys to be active participants as
well, and we wanna address some of the
things that are concerning for you.
Yeah. It sounds like we have a couple
of things we need to plan. We need
to plan,
obviously, the golf trip, but we should also
plan a,
board meeting
(12:28):
in a national park. We can. Do you
know I actually I was coming back from
Isle Of Palms this past weekend where I
was golfing. I went past a national park
that I didn't realize was there. What it
was? I'm I'll find it. I'll I'll keep
on the Palm said that yeah. I mean,
that would be middle of nowhere until you
get to Yeah. Until you get to Columbia.
Out there. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if
we go there. I prefer the mountains at
(12:48):
this point. Yeah. So on Jackson's point, like,
the the why of the podcast, and we'll
go into more,
deeper in the why
for the next episode.
But, you know, you mentioned some things,
like,
when we were talking in the in the
past and kind of how your experiences, but,
like
and we'll talk about this in future episodes,
but
(13:09):
you kinda had an upper
hand on most of this because Yeah. For
sure. You went through a typical practice management
program, but you had mentors
that
highlighted pitfalls
on your way, and we'll have a whole
episode on the importance of mentors. But tell
us a little bit about
(13:29):
and how that kinda led you to learn
more about Yeah. Sure. Specifically, I did have
one, one or two interactions with,
classmates of mine who,
you know, I would just kind of be
off handedly talking about something.
As Brian mentioned, one of you know, I've
I've I've been very, very fortunate, and and
the more time goes on, the more I
(13:50):
recognize the value of mentors
and mentorship, being a mentor myself or other
people
who may not have had access to, information
or people that I've had access to. You
know, one of my first mentors was my
dad, and he happened to be a general
dentist. He's, retired at this point, still very
involved in,
organized dentistry. But,
(14:12):
you know, he would just, from time to
time, tell me about various things that I
needed to be be aware of, whether that
was within dentistry or planning for my future,
managing my finances,
participating
in investments, you know, with the stock market
and and other investments outside of that as
well.
And I would be talking about these things,
(14:32):
and I remember at least on two occasions,
some of my very good close friends
would say something to the effect of,
I wish I had someone to tell me
these things.
And for whatever reason, that just really sat
with me, because,
you know, these are people I care about.
These are people that have,
you know, taken on the
the burden of the financial burden of going
(14:56):
to a graduate school program.
Yeah. Which is not cheap. Yeah. It's not
cheap at all. And it's only getting if
trends continue, it's only getting more expensive. Yeah.
So, you know, you take on the financial
burden of attending a graduate school,
and then you also take on the psycholo
excuse me, psychological and emotional burden
that we were talking about that goes along
(15:17):
with
taking care of other people.
And, you know, it's it's a very rewarding
field, but it's not always easy. There are
very, very frequently very difficult days. And I
actually just saw a study that said, I
think it was around fifty percent of men
and sixty, sixty five percent of women
feel symptoms of burnout
multiple times on a weekly basis.
(15:38):
And dentistry
specific? Yes. It was dentistry specific. I can
find that study too. We can talk about
that one. Put it in the show notes.
For sure. Absolutely.
But, you know, just hearing my my friends,
these people that I know, that I care
about, you know, I I know their families.
I've been in their weddings. Hearing them hearing
them say these things, it was like, of
of course, I want you to know these
(15:59):
things. Of course, I want good things for
you and your family. Of course, I want
you to benefit from the work that you
have done and the work that you continue
to do. So I just got very, very
curious about,
the business of dentistry,
especially, again, with the changing landscape, the
ever growing presence of dental service organizations,
(16:21):
the shift that seems to be happening
among new grads who are
kinda trending towards working in those dental service
organizations,
for a lot of different reasons, but,
you know, some of them very beneficial
advantageous reasons, you know, including,
easier work life balance. You know? You don't
have to worry about administrative
(16:41):
things quite as much. But, you know, there
are also drawbacks to those things. You you
lose some autonomy. You lose some,
decision making ability that manifests its way in
different excuse me, manifests itself in different ways.
And like Brian was saying before,
there can be a lot of benefits to
practice ownership and,
you know, the things that go along with
that. So that's
(17:02):
pretty much the at least
the catalyst
for my involvement in this to this degree.
Yeah. And, you know, Jackson and I were
introduced,
and we were talking about
a project that you were working on with
the ADA, which we'll go into more detail
about
in the second episode.
You know, we met and actually,
(17:23):
you know, had a bar after work, you
know, had a drink.
And we Shirley Temple. Yeah. Shirley Temple. Nonalcoholic.
Yeah. Watch it. I know you're I know
you're listening, mom.
We we just, like, kind of hit it
off on,
you know, I my experience is,
it's real I mean, it's hard to talk
about money. Yeah, of course. Right? And it's
(17:46):
hard to learn about money with with all
the noise out there. Mhmm. Right?
Financial news is literally unwatchable
unless you wanna cause stress in your life.
Right? Especially given the current market. Yeah. I
was gonna say especially recently. Yeah. Yeah. Like,
don't watch, you know,
my, chief investment officer calls it fear porn.
Sure. Like it's literally like news in general
(18:08):
is fear porn. Financial
news
is, you know, is even worse.
And we could do a whole
episode on this, but like our brains
are more likely to tune in to fear
than they are to positive news. And that's
why the news does that. It's addictive.
It creates a dopamine response in our brain.
(18:29):
So, like,
think about it. If you're stressed about money
and then all you see is stress
whenever you turn on the TV
or if you Google it, like, it's almost
impossible to find
reliable information. Sure. And, you know,
it sounds like from your experience,
you know, and from my experience,
like dentists
(18:50):
are more likely to ask other dentists
financial questions rather than a financial professional.
Because of that nervousness,
because of that
concern
to admit to somebody
that's not in their Yeah. Their field that
they don't know something. Yep. So that's another
reason, like, our
joint passion for providing access
(19:13):
to the information people need to live a
prosperous, fulfilled life
is is what this podcast is about. Like,
we want this to be relatable,
you know, easy to
easy to listen,
easy to understand concepts.
Some points it'll go deeper. Some points, you
know, we'll need to pull it back. But
(19:35):
we want it to be approachable. We want
the topics about,
you know, money, life, finance,
using your money to create an ideal life,
you know,
wherever you are in your profession
is we want that to be accessible to
everybody.
And this the podcast form is a great
(19:56):
medium
to give access
to
to professionals
that can provide them the information
they need
to kind of thrive in life and life
as a dentist or healthcare professional
or, you know, if you're
a listener that's outside, we we, you know,
(20:18):
outside those
that kind of dental healthcare,
you know, owner
area, practice owner area, like, this should still
be relatable.
Right?
You know, it all sounds very different, but
the the topics we're gonna talk about and
the issues
The principles are Yeah. The principles
are are very similar.
(20:39):
This is gonna be a
great podcast, so make sure It it'd be
great. It'll be it's it's gonna be a
great learning experience. Yes. Like, I think I
think, honestly, I'm I'm excited to to see
how much I learn from our discussions.
Yeah.
I'm excited to see how much better we
become as podcasters. Yeah.
Yes. It's gonna get you. Starting out starting
(21:00):
out, amazing, I think. I think we're doing
a good job. At least a three out
of 10. Yes. At least a three out
of 10 as our
as our producer will tell us after this.
But, you know, I think as we're getting
close to wrapping this up, you know, this
is the this is the first episode, episode
one
intro to the oral wealth, prosperity, and practice
podcast.
(21:21):
For all the listeners out there.
I want to thank you.
Thank you for Jackson for, you know, offering
to do this with me and same here.
Like, I think this is going to be
a great, a great combo.
Make sure
you like, you know, subscribe,
follow, follow on wherever you're listening to this
podcast.
Follow us on social media. We're on most
(21:43):
of the social channels,
my businesses personally,
and Jackson also, those links will be in
the show notes.
Episode two, we'll be focusing on deeper into
really why this podcast and the structure of
this podcast.
And then we'll start going into more financial
topics.
(22:03):
Please
comment,
provide
suggestions.
Yeah. Because we want this to be
what you wanna hear. So the more feedback,
the more
concerns you have. If you have a concern,
send us to us on social
or
our email will be also in that in
(22:24):
the show notes. So whatever your preferred
communication method.
Just do it. Yeah. Just do it. Just
do it. Yeah. Stealing it from from Nike
or wealth. Just do it. You know, so,
that will not be as I said. That's
not gonna make the gut. That's not gonna
make the gut. There's gonna be some legal
implications for those who that So again,
thank you, Jackson. Thank you everybody for tuning
(22:45):
in. Everybody. And, we look forward to
having you on the next time. Yep. We'll
see you soon. Take care.
Thank you for listening to the Oral Wealth
Prosperity and Practice podcast.
Click the follow button to be notified when
new episodes become available.
Visit our website at www.navapathfinancial.com.
(23:06):
And don't forget to like and subscribe if
you enjoyed the episode.
You can also check out our contact information
in the description below.
The information covered and posted represents the views
and opinions of the guests and does not
necessarily represent the views or opinions of Navapath
Financial.
The content has been made available for informational
and educational purposes only.
(23:26):
The content is not intended to be a
substitute for professional investing advice.
Always seek the advice of your financial adviser
or other qualified financial service provider with any
questions you may have regarding your investment planning.
Content here is for illustrative purposes and general
information only. It is not legal, tax, or
individualized financial advice, nor is it a recommendation
(23:48):
to buy, sell, or hold any specific security,
or engage in any specific trading strategy.
Results will vary. Past performance is no indication
of future results or success.
Market conditions change continuously.
This commentary reflects the personal opinions, viewpoints, and
analysis of Brian Swillen. It does not necessarily
represent those of RFG Advisory, their clients, or
(24:10):
their employees.
This commentary should not be regarded as a
description of advisory services provided by Brian Swilling
or RFG Advisory
or performance returns of any client. The views
reflected in the commentary are subject to change
at any time without notice.
Advisory services offered by investment advisory representatives of
RFG Advisory, a registered investment advisor.
(24:32):
Navapath Financial and RFG Advisory are unaffiliated entities.
Advisory services are only offered to clients or
prospective clients where RFG Advisory and its representatives
are properly licensed or exempt from licensure.
No advisory services may be rendered by RFG
advisory unless a client agreement is in place.
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