February 19, 2024 • 48 mins
Welcome to another insightful episode of The Dental Wealth Nation Show hosted by Tim McNeely, where we're dedicated to helping dentists and dental entrepreneurs maximize their net worth and care for their loved ones and community causes. In Episode 116, we address a rarely discussed yet significant aspect of the dental profession—the loneliness of dentistry—and how finding your tribe within a supportive community can be transformative.
Our special guests, Chris Snyder and Roland from Xiris Dental, join us to delve into their experiences with creating a thriving, candid community through Empowered Dentistry. They provide an in-depth look at why forming online communities is essential for dental professionals to share knowledge, combat burnout, and foster mental health and wellness.
We cover hot topics including adapting to new dental technologies, strategies for patient acquisition, tackling post-pandemic staffing issues, and the financial challenges facing dental students and young practitioners. Our guests emphasize the power of engaging with a community of peers for problem-solving and support during challenging times.
In this episode, Chris and Roland reveal the importance of meaningful engagement in dental communities and how authentic connections can aid in professional growth, learning, and well-being. They stress the significance of openness and friendly discussions without snarkiness or judgment, creating a safe space for all levels of experience within the dentistry field.
Listeners will learn the benefits of sharing issues and information within a community, fostering an environment where it's okay to ask for help, and discovering the value of resonant, smaller communities over large, disengaged ones. Empowered Dentistry's approach to free community membership and commitment to valuable interactions is also highlighted.
Whether you’re looking to expand your dental knowledge, seeking advice on practice management, or finding a network that enriches your experience, this episode emphasizes the importance of community involvement for both personal and professional development.
Discussion Questions:
- How can dental professionals overcome the sense of isolation that often comes with their practice through community engagement?
- What are some effective strategies for dental professionals to stay informed about the latest technologies and industry changes within their community?
- In what ways can being an active member of a dental community support a professional during challenging times, such as dealing with burnout and stress?
- How can dental communities help professionals navigate the complex issues of cybersecurity and patient data protection in their practices?
- What benefits can younger dentists and dental students gain from participating in communities like Empowered Dentistry, especially concerning their financial burdens?
- What role does authenticity play in fostering a supportive and constructive environment within dental communities like the one created by Empowered Dentistry?
- How can dental professionals strike a balance between actively participating in their community and managing the demanding responsibilities of their practice?
- In what practical ways can a dentist stay true to their 'north star' while navigating the evolution of their practice and the dental industry?
- Can you share successful stories of how community involvement has tangibly helped dental professionals solve problems or improve their practice management?
- How do communities such as Empowered Dentistry accommodate the variety of experience levels within dentistry, and what measures are in place to ensure that every member can contribute and learn adequately?
Join us on The Dental Wealth Nation Show as we explore overcoming the loneliness of dentistry by finding your community, and how doing so can add a significant layer of wealth to your life beyond monetary means.
Remember, in a niche industry like dentistry, the right connections can make all the difference. Don’t miss out on this must-listen-to episode that could unlock new dimensions of wealth for you and your dental practice.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
As a driven dentist, you see the world differently where
some see scarcity. You see abundance. When others
wanna give up, you keep going. You're building an amazing
life of significance. That means you can't Rely on
ordinary advice from ordinary advisers to get to your goals.
You want advice that's going to help maximize your net worth so You
(00:27):
can take even better care of the people you love, the causes you
care about, and make your dent in the universe.
But the fact is This advice remains hidden because
relatively few professionals are well versed in them, and the extremely
affluent don't care to let to know about them. Join
us as we pull back the curtain to reveal the often
(00:49):
hidden advice and strategies used by today's is most
successful individuals and families. Welcome
to Dental Wealth Nation. Here's your host, Tim
McNealy.
Hello, and welcome everyone to another edition of Dental Wealth
Nation. And I don't know about you, but sometimes, life as
(01:11):
a dentist and and life as an entrepreneur, it can get just a
little bit lonely. Those late night in the offices and working
with patients and and wondering, what do you do? Who do you talk to? And
that's why I'm so excited about today It's because by the time
we finish today, you're gonna know about the importance of having
a community and a tribe around you and how that community can
(01:33):
help you thrive. You're gonna leave with actual insights to
help you find and connect with your tribe and the people who can help make
a difference in your life. But even more importantly, you're gonna feel
inspired to get out there and search for your own tribe. And when it
comes to finding tribes and connecting people, I am so excited
to have Chris and Roland here. They're from Xiris Dental. They're the host
(01:54):
of the Dental Voice, and, wow, We have exciting stuff to be talking
about. Roland, Chris, welcome to the show. Hey. Thank you, Tim. Appreciate
being here. Yeah. It's great to be here. I love the fact that we're on
this side, And you're you're pretty cool. So, you know,
although I gotta say, your haircut Yeah. There is a big difference. There is a
big difference here, but I'm not gonna oh, look at that. I I
(02:17):
put I put my on for the day, so, you know. But,
wow. No. I I'm I'm so excited. Yeah. Role reversal, because usually, you're doing the
interviews, and it's gonna be it's gonna be fun to hear from you today, and
and community matters, doesn't it? Incredibly.
It's Something that every everyone has a community, and we don't all realize that. When
you pick up your cell phone, you have a whole contact list. You have a
(02:39):
community. It's just not everybody leans into it, Or they haven't really
developed a community that gives them what they need in their career
and in their lives. That it in in so we are in
dentistry. And Although dentistry is this massive, massive,
massive industry, it's a very tight community. And
something that we learn and and you see it all the time, Tim, is
(03:02):
that people connect, and when they connect, they it it
becomes exponential, the kinds of things that they learn and experience.
And And one of the things that we found is the this concept
of a community, although in in some instances, it's unconscious, but
when you make it conscious, It's explosive. It's amazing. And you
and it yeah. It's it's it's cool. Wealth, right, and you've
(03:25):
really kind of pressed into this and And provided some
leadership and intentionality with people finding community
because I think oftentimes we we stumble into it and that can take a
long Tim sometimes. And so so talk to me a little bit about how you
have been intentional in helping people find and connect with their
community. So It started way back before
(03:46):
Chris got here. You know, we work with Zyrus Dental, and, you know, we
make the isolate, and we have a lot of customers that
we've become incredibly good friends with, that we've become
I mean, not just rated fans, but intimate where We get to
know each other and all that type of stuff, and what we discovered was there
was beyond just the connection. There were
(04:09):
insights. There were learnings. There was wisdom
that that these individuals had, so we came up with this
idea to is it possible to create something
To give people an opportunity to kinda come in. Now
there are a lot, thousands of other communities out there, But
we wanted to start something where we gave people an opportunity to
(04:32):
share. Chris came on, and he's he's now a producer, and he
started building it. And We we launched Empowered Dentistry
a little bit over a year ago and early in the stages, we have over
a 1000 members, And what we're finding is we're
giving people an opportunity to share,
their experiences, problems that they're trying to solve, And then
(04:54):
give other people advice. And, you know, we we stay away from trying
to promote things. Although, if people use things that they like, that's great.
But the context of it is It's this idea of bringing
back Thrive knowledge. With the advent
of the Internet, with the advent of information that's so readily
available, what's What's happening is people are going online to get information,
(05:16):
but there is a vast amount, a huge
amount, of wisdom learnings that's not written in any
book that by asking people, you
can get. And we want to nurture, Wealth support that. So that's
kinda how and why we continue to do this, and that's that's
what we're doing. Googling an answer gives you a great result sometimes,
(05:38):
but Getting an answer, getting a a a resource from
someone who's done it, someone who's been there, someone who can relate to your exact
situation It's a lot more valuable and a lot more personal. It resonates in a
different way than the first 2 Google search results.
Yeah. And Real quick. Initially, we it it it's it it
was clinical, and we would get people talking about clinical things.
(06:00):
And it's expanded beyond that. It's expanded to Wealth,
matter to difficulties that people are experiencing,
in navigating day to day of a dental practice. We've
had people talking about finances and and then what
is important. We've had people talking about how to you know,
mentoring and And dealing with with staffing I
(06:22):
mean, the the breadth of it, has expanded so much
that we're quite frankly Thrilled with the kind of,
sharing that people have been giving us and how candid, the the
candor that people have When when sharing
issues, one of our guests are they they've shared that, you
know, they've gone through substance abuse. Other people are And
(06:45):
on the brink of of of quitting their practices, and they'll
actually say things about it, and people reach out to each other. That it couldn't
be happier that that's happening, and I mean, we put you through this, and it's
pretty cool because, again, you add another dimension to,
kind of the the information, that Thrive of knowledge that we're trying to
kinda keep getting out there. Well, now, right, you're kind of
(07:08):
talking in your community and the growth that you've seen. Right. I'm guessing a lot
of the community members may also be members of their dental society or maybe like
a local study club. And so why don't you think those discussions
are going on in the clubs or in the in the dental societies.
What do you think is special about the community that you've created, and and
why are those discussions different? Because I noticed the same thing too.
(07:31):
Wealth, the average person belongs to between 37 communities of
various types, And what you find is a lot of them are very
specific to a group of people or a specific
interest or something that maybe You enjoy reading. It's more of
an entertainment value, and you get a little bit of info out of it, and
it's not something you're comfortable engaging. What we've really aspired
(07:53):
to do is create a safe, comfortable place for everybody in dentistry. Doesn't matter
if you're a dental assisting student or you're a very experienced
practice owner. We want we want to have some place where everyone could
feel comfortable and safe discussing whatever
from where am I gonna go to vacations to what's new technology to
Mental health and wellness, and we've really worked hard to
(08:15):
keep that openness, that comfort, that
friendly, banter alive in there without
having any snarkiness or judgment or, you know,
roles, superiority, or any of these kind of things that Sometimes you creep in
the online the online world, unfortunately. Yeah. We we
foster this context of, you know, what's the problem that you're trying to
(08:37):
solve? And then from there, how you're dealing with that,
and why is this material not to everybody, to
you. And the context around that is we flip it around. We're not
we're not trying to advocate for people to to
promote things that they're doing or or, you
know, get people to hire and do stuff. If it happens, great.
(08:59):
What we're more about is giving people an opportunity
So just kinda share issues or or
share information that they have, and it's
the breadth is it's wonderful. What's Really, really cool is
that people are now beyond us reaching out to each other
in our community, and, other people are reaching out that they've seen on
(09:22):
the program, and They're connecting each other, and that could They're
meeting meeting in person offline, which is very cool. Yeah. So that
if if you you ask what What makes it different?
There's some similarities, but it's also again, this is we
we the program we use or we do a podcast, like, It's called
Dental voice. It's give people a voice in dentistry. Like, you're
(09:44):
giving people an opportunity, around Dental wealth. It's
it's kind of that context that we that we're really leaning into and
wanna continue to to nurture. Well, you and
you mentioned something interesting just now. Right? You mentioned that you really focus on
a framework of of teaching people how to ask and and
share A problem that they're facing and then asking for help. Right?
(10:06):
What's the problem you want help with? And I bring that up because one of
my mentors and a friend, Chuck Blakeman, Says the happiest people he
knows are the people who are solving other people's problems.
Yeah. Yeah. People are sometimes afraid We ask for help. They
see this kind of weakness truly. It's a sign of strength. Mhmm. Open up and
say, hey. Can someone share some experience? It might be helping me out with something.
(10:29):
But it requires courage, and it requires knowing that you're in a place
that's okay to do that. Mhmm. We we actually tell people,
Yeah. If you have questions, ask this person. It's interesting. I I love what you
said around the solving the problem. When you're trying to solve the
problem by yourself, there's some myopia that that you have.
Mhmm. And Chris and I, we we we joke. You don't know what you don't
(10:51):
know, but you know what you know. So you think you know,
Therefore, you just know and you can't hear anything else. But having
somebody else enter that dialogue from outside,
They're looking at it with a completely different set of of of perspectives.
So there isn't a filter, and they'll go, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wealth,
Chris, why don't you guys do this? And you're like, In fact, I didn't even
(11:13):
think about that. So it's it's also that's also part of
the, kind of the the ethos or the the kind of the
sentiment that we're trying Bill here. Have somebody else look at the things you're dealing
with. Obviously, nothing really confidential or any of that type of
stuff, but as much as you're willing again, You get back
as much as you're willing to put in, and that's that's a kind of
(11:36):
a a mindset we have with community and also with with the way
we interact. So The more direct and
blunt you can be, the better the the insight and answers you
may get. There's a nuance to this I can add that, Yep. My
wife is great. Love Laurie very much, but she doesn't wanna hear about
production issues or my challenges at work or whatever drama's happening in the office
(11:58):
today. So finding people that are like
minded or have shared experiences, someone who can relate Dealing with the same
stuff. Suddenly, that opens It opens a whole world of
different options and different types of conversations that you can't have
with maybe other people in the Rolodex or other people in your life. That's an
important thing to find is that your right tribe, the people who
(12:20):
who get it, and you can talk to openly about these challenges.
Yeah. Well, Ray, and Ray kind of has the modern moderators
and the leaders of this community. Right? You've helped people focus on, you know,
Solving problems in in in doing that bit. But how do you work
with the community members, and is there a certain mindset community
members Joining a community should have. Is there a certain way they should think about
(12:43):
it, or should I be thinking, hey. I got a great group. I'll show up,
get my problem solved, and take off? That's a great question, and there
definitely are people who use a community as
a research tool or resource. I I have a singular question. I wanna get an
answer, then I'm done. And that's okay. I think the amazing thing
about communities is that it's not one size fits all.
(13:05):
Your need and your use case will be different from Rolando's need in his use
case, and that's okay to understand. When you build out a community,
Letting people know that this is here for whatever you value, you
need to get out of it, whether it's every day at 8 AM or it's,
You know, I come just when I have a specific question, and I know this
is a an okay safe resource to lean into when I need to.
(13:27):
That and I'm gonna add a little different from what Chris was
saying. Earlier on, we mentioned there are a whole
boatload of other communities out there, And these communities,
have been around a lot of them have been around Thrive, and it can be
really kind of overwhelming for people if If, you know, they're
you're if people are considering, you know, maybe I wanna join a community,
(13:49):
whatever. And the the metaphor I I liken it to, you know,
books. Right? There are 1,000,000,000, bazillions.
I use that word, bazillion. Millions? Yeah. 1,000,000,000, because that's a
technical term of books out there
that are that have some incredibly
powerful, really insightful information in them.
(14:11):
Mhmm. Which one do you read? Well, like a book, when
when you're looking for a community or if you're interested in
communities, it's important To do some research
and look at look at the ones that seem to resonate with you.
Now what's really important is You need to spend
time in this. You need to actually go in, participate,
(14:34):
and look at some of the information, post some things, and see.
Because what you'll find is, like a book, as you're reading or as
you're engaging with the community, it's either gonna capture you, and then you're
gonna go, oh, I love this place, Or it won't. If it doesn't,
our Thrive is don't force it because then it becomes fake. It it doesn't
become real. Take the time to engage, and you you
(14:57):
have to engage meaningfully. And what you'll discover is you'll start making
connections. You'll start learning things that or discovering
things that you didn't know before. And before you know it, you've
become part of that, and it and it becomes a much richer environment.
If that doesn't happen up front, like any book, you're reading through that,
get through the first 10 pages. If it doesn't capture you, don't force
(15:19):
yourself to stay in there because now It's it sucks.
It's it's kinda gnarly, and you end up in a situation where it's
not an enjoyable situation. You're not learning anything, and more importantly,
It puts a bad Nation. So that's the other piece I would have.
Take the Tim, find what you want, actually engage, and if it's
something that makes you feel good, stay. If it doesn't, don't. I
(15:42):
would also add that it doesn't have to be 1 community. You may find what
you need across a couple different and then It may each feed you different
things like any relationship. You might get a little bit of this from there,
a little bit this from here, and holistically, That gives you what you need. That's
that's an important thing to realize. It's a bit of trial and error, but it
takes an investment on your time On on each of our times to
(16:04):
find the right merely what we need. Well, Thrive, I
I love what you just said. Right? Take the time, get involved, press in.
But if, you know, if you, you know, start sensing, hey, this may not be
the right place for you, it's okay. Go somewhere else. Right? And Because it
can often take a couple times to to get this right. I know my wife
and I have certainly gone through that whether it's, you know, finding a small group
(16:27):
a church or, you know, a new community to be a part of. Right? We
dive in. We try it out. We say, hey. How do do we have something
to give, and do we have something to get? Because you we need both of
those components. So I love that advice. Right? Just jump in and start,
and if it doesn't work, go try another one. And there's there's just
there's this resonance that you'll feel when you're
(16:48):
engaging in a community because There will be people who'll reach out to you
or you'll reach back. And as you as you as
you become more inculcated, you become more involved in
it, All of a sudden, it'll feel, like, really good, and then
you'll discover that there to your point, Tim, there's
meaning in in the dialogue you're having. If that's not
(17:10):
happening, yeah, don't don't keep pushing it because then it'd
be then it's I'm I'm gonna say it's fake, and then You're like, well,
this this doesn't work. So it's easy to get sucked in by activity.
It's easy to find the busiest places and If I
don't get 15 answers to my question, this maybe isn't
the right place. But rather focus on the quality of people and the quality of
(17:33):
Nation, the quality of feedback, and the quality of relationship potential there is there.
Because you might find that a smaller, quieter community It's a more
intimate personal place for you that they be versus one that
has 60,000 members, and you're just, you know, a voice of the
masses. Yeah. Well, right, and that that's the thing is, like you mentioned, there's
a lot of different community groups out there and some have hundreds of
(17:55):
thousands of members and, Yeah. Some have 3 or 400, and so,
right, this is trial and error to figure out what's gonna work best for you.
Yeah. Dentist is also a small relatively small
niche industry. Right? If we're talking about tennis shoe lovers or runners
or something that appeals to The bulk of the world Nation.
(18:15):
Yeah. You know, sneakers. A lot of people like to run. You know, sweaty and
run. Run. You can't stop me. I'm not running anywhere unless I'm scared of being
chased. But, you know, you gotta remember that in those communities,
yeah, you have 90% of the world population are interested. Mhmm.
We're in dentistry, So we're talking about a smaller group within a smaller group
within a smaller group, and that's going to make some of these communities feel
(18:36):
different than maybe You get when you go to the Nike one or, you know,
something else. Yeah. So you said something here. This and and I I I would
lose the thought, so I'm just gonna jump in. When when you look at
the a community, any kind of community, join 1,
especially in dentistry, This this concept of tribal
knowledge. Dentist is so variable. There are infinite
(18:58):
number of ways that you can treatment plan or Different,
approaches, subtleties in the approaches on on how
you build a practice, how you interact with people, The
kinds of instruments and the the critical way you do things
by leveraging the access
(19:18):
And, especially online communities, people gain access
not just to a local population of people who are in around their
their sphere of influence. They actually gain access to
Dental other clinicians, other experts in
the country and even globally. And, you know, when you think about
dentistry, the reason people are part of study club is because
(19:41):
mentoring is a very, very big and a very powerful
aspect of of dentistry, and and it's you know, people become
friends with each other. At first Mhmm. They're colleagues, but they become friends, and
they forge these lifelong relationships and they
work together. Communities give you access to people you
otherwise would never meet. And in some instances, people
(20:03):
have created incredibly powerful Nation, friendships
with people they've actually never met in their lives other than
on a forum, but the insights, the information that they get
helps, and they get a lot of mentoring out of that. Plus, there's
peripheral peripheral learning It occurs because as you're
as you're navigating through the community, you're reading. You're able
(20:26):
to read what other people are posting. You're able to lurk, which
is something that's wonderful. Imagine being
able to sit back and just hear
or or or, you know, It Nation and
digest what other people are talking about and not have to
not have to say anything. That's One of the really powerful
(20:48):
things about a community, and people can learn simply by watching
what's transpiring between 2 other professionals, and you're
thinking, Wealth I'm dealing with that, I'm too shy or I don't feel
comfortable, you know, expressing that, but I'm running to
exact same. Then you can follow the string through and just by
Giving yourself that permission, you learn that too. So
(21:10):
it's it's a dimensionality, but, again, it's about
engaging. It's about access. It's about
expanding your your reach to literally the Wealth, and I think
that's that's what makes it so cool. Chris mapped out on our
community where people are, and they're everywhere.
You know, we could blows our mind that they're not just Everywhere in the United
(21:32):
States, I believe we've got people in Europe and down in
Mexico, Canada. You know, it's it's and it's it's really cool. It kinda
makes you smile. I don't know about you, but I wasn't an expert in
podcast or really doing anything else, the 1st time I did
it. And, yeah, YouTube is great, videos are great, but
I don't have to be the 1st one to kind of climb the mountain. I
(21:53):
can join a community, find people who've already done it, watch the
Nation, ask them questions, read their posts, I can gain insight and
wisdom before I even get started. I have to.
Yeah. Think about think about this. Right? Ready, Tim?
Without things like Dental Wealth Nation or other communities out there,
(22:14):
a a professional will sit there, And the only thing that
they can leverage is what they Nation, k, or what a
small population of people around them know. Think about the
consequences. There are technologies. There are
discussions. There are insights that
they would never get exposed to had they not joined
(22:36):
that. And by doing that, It dimensionalizes
their understanding what's happening. If not, think about it. They end
up doing what they've been doing forever. And don't get me
wrong. It works, but when you look at the evolution of dentistry
or any industry, in 5, 10 years, so much
changes. And by being plugged in and and taking the time to kinda
(22:59):
just read what's going on in in in these different forms,
you get exposed to things you otherwise wouldn't. So it's that it's that kind
of mindset. We're we're just rattling. You're just you're just watching
us. Talking about our phone boxes get up on the soapbox, so we'll just keep
going. Oh, it's alright. But, right, this is this is so powerful
because, right, I've seen the benefit in my life. There's a reason I'm part of
(23:22):
through my communities, and I participate with my peers. And and I've been doing that
for 7 or 8 years now, and it has made the biggest impact. In fact,
it's kept me in business. There was a time where I was ready to cash
out. I said I'm done. I'm frustrated, and I started calling all my buddies from
my mastermind group, And they kept me in business. They helped reignite my
Nation. That's that's wait. Right? And solve the issues I was facing.
(23:44):
That wouldn't have happened without community around me. Yeah. And so it's
so powerful. Now now with community, you know, you guys have been running your your
community for a bit now, is everything always roses, or do
sometimes member Agreements come up, and and how do you deal with that?
All perfect. Pull up. It's like a marriage. Per no. I'm
(24:04):
Like a Nation. You know? In all in all honesty, we've been very fortunate. I
Go ahead. Not had first rodeo, and I I I've certainly been part of
communities where, I say this nicely.
There's It gets crazy. It's get it's been crazy. A lot of negativity, and you've
had to really work on sensory and and dealing with some really
numbers. We've been very fortunate, and I think in dentistry in
(24:26):
general, peep there's a high quality of people
Yeah. Out there who genuinely want to help and support each other, and
those are the members of the community. Those are people who are generally joining community
and staying engaged in communities. So we've been very fortunate that we have
worked with them. But all joking aside, it there's a level of
patience that you have to have because things don't happen overnight.
(24:48):
In addition, there will be circumstances where you're like, oh, wow.
That's interesting. And being able
to being able to keep an open mind, Being able
to kinda step back and say, hold on. You know,
leaning in with good intent, you know, that to the context around that,
And then ask you a simple question of, hold on. I
(25:10):
may be misinterpreting what's going on here. Those those are important things.
So like like Nation, And I love that you asked the question. Is, you
know, is there anything it's like in a relationship. There's good,
there's bad, there's ugly, and it's how you navigate through that that's really
important. Leading into it or engaging with
with good intent is always the best way to do that.
(25:32):
Yes. Because if if if you become if You've got become
drawn to the dark side, then you bring everyone else with
you into that space. And then it it becomes hard to come out of
that as opposed to Stepping back and saying, okay. Let's take a second
here. So now it's it's not been perfect. You know, there's
there there are circumstances, like, We have members that
(25:55):
that joined and then aren't participating, and at some level, we
almost feel responsible for them. It's like, well, what did we do? And
not to do not to kinda put yourself into that.
But what what makes everything wonderful is that people when they do engage
or You discover somebody's been lurking, and, you know, you happen to run into them.
They're like, I've been following you all for x, and I get so much. I've
(26:17):
never posted. I've never done anything, But keep it going, and
it's the it's the I'm gonna say the lurkers or it's the silent
majority as opposed to the vocal minority
That can that can really, that that that
can really benefit from that this kind of forum. I have a general rule of
thumb. You you assume positive Dentist, Whether they are
(26:39):
not participating or they are engaging or they're posting something that maybe you think
is, okay. That's I'll need to keep an eye on that. You assume
the positive intent. You assume that the one that could be
malicious and and really trying to harm Nation, and it does keep things
in a much better light And assuming everybody is out for themselves.
Well and and I like what you just said about the the lurkers too. Right?
(27:02):
Sometimes, the value is just Watching those Nation. You know, if you're
at a, you know, away from the keyboard at a party in real life, you
you may feel a little awkward just eavesdropping on everyone. But all of
a sudden on that online form, you can you can watch those Nation, and
you don't have to worry about, well, what am I gonna say? How do I
enter in this conversation? And so you can learn without feeling
(27:24):
awkward. Right. You also may not be there to meet anybody. You may be
there to simply Learn about a specific topic
until you're just keeping your eye to see when that topic pops up. Yeah. That's
normal. Totally okay. Yeah. Now in your community, you find there are some hot
topics that continue to come up and up over and over again and and some
key discussions that people love to talk about? Yeah. I mean,
(27:46):
people love hearing the the clinical stuff. Right? You know, here they're
afraid they had this patient who's a case. Cybersecurity has
been a top topic. Staffing is a hot topic always.
You know, when trade shows, it comes around, there's a lot of dialogue around shows,
who's gonna meet up, and what show should we go to, and what classes, and
who's leading classes. On top of all that, though,
(28:07):
you start to see a lot of Case specific topics
where or practice specific topics. I have this one
situation in my specific practice. How what would what would you
all think? What would be your input on this? And that's an interesting time because
that's where everybody can bring in their own personal experiences and
share. Yeah. And then in the in the interviews or the guests
(28:29):
we've had on, burnout. You know? The
stress the stress of dentistry is big. It's not
just, you know, trying to be you know,
dental clinicians, dentists Dentist, Dental
assistants are are perfectionists, and they wanna do everything
perfectly, and it causes a lot of stress. So the the topic of that is
(28:51):
burnout. Thriving in a dental practice. You you you look
at it, costs are going up. The price of dentures
going up. Patients are experiencing that, so they're they
tend to forego treatment until it gets really bad.
Those are those are topics that come up quite a bit. Chris touched on 1
staffing. You know, post pandemic, that the
(29:14):
pandemic did do crazy things for us. It it kinda woke us
up, not just us but everybody to the fact
that, you know, you could think everything is perfect and all of a sudden the
entire world shuts down. And, as a as a catalyst
for people leaving dentistry, all that type of stuff, that that's
become Holy cow. Yeah. Talk about Dental Wealth
(29:35):
Nation. Tim. Debt is especially huge.
And although it's it's a it's a, you know, a duh For
dental students because they're they're saddled with a massive run of
desks that young dentists or dentists who are trying to expand,
The this concept of Dentist a very alien,
topic Mhmm. For people because they're not quite sure what it looks like.
(29:58):
And then the other one tied to finances, and this is the big one.
You know, it's only in the end when people are
looking to transition from the practice retired that
they discover that the value of their practice is nowhere
near what they thought because They you know, like, wait a minute. I'm
I'm filling myself here. My my production is fantastic. I'm
(30:21):
generating. I'm making up 90% of of this the value of this
place, And then when they go to to, you know,
transition to someone else, they discover it's worth nothing because there's
no succession plan. Yeah. Or or you look at the
you look at the, profitability of the practice, and it's all whacked
up because no one ever took the time to share.
(30:44):
So it's stress around people, stress around money, stress
around wanting to do the best for them, and then, you know, getting
Getting patients in there. So those I would say in those
4 or 5 areas, those are the some of the biggest technology that we've looked
a lot, and it ties back into what you were saying. When do I invest
in Thrive d printing, and how do I invest in that? Which one do I
(31:05):
invest? Does it make my well, Wealth, that didn't write EBITDA. How does that affect
my practice, and about my team and all these things.
You're not going to find that in a simple Google search. So you see those
topics come up, and that's a much more in-depth conversation Mhmm. People
who've done it and people who are looking at looking to do it. So
Chris Nation technology. The cost of technology is it's
(31:26):
not inexpensive, There's so much. So it
does and can get very overwhelming. What should I invest
in? And it's the you know, it's a computer conundrum, whatever you wanna call it,
where, Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I'm buying this computer in a year. It'll
be out of date. So does that mean I have to buy another one?
Oh my gosh. I have this update, But they're charging this much money. I haven't
(31:49):
so it's that type of stuff that that we're seeing as as big topics,
and and it's nice to hear from people about you know, here's what
I've Or here's the mistake that I made. You know,
we learn from making mistakes, and people in in
communities and and on our on our show are wonderful at
sharing mistakes that they've made and what they did
(32:11):
or how they overcame or
or over overdid or got past the that
you know, resolve that that issue. And Those those are other
pieces. I think we just listed everything on the planet. Right, Tim? Yeah.
Well, right and, actually, one of the most surprising things I heard
That that I think is super valuable is right when the when the
(32:34):
conference season starts. Right? Oftentimes, you show up, you don't know anyone, or you're,
like, Trying to text your buddies from dental school saying, hey. Are you gonna be
right. You're you're you're you're craving to to go find someone in a sea
of 20,000 people. Right? And and all of a sudden, it's like
you've got your online community, and you're probably gonna find someone to hang out with
and have dinner. Guys gotta be here. Yeah. Not not only hang out with,
(32:56):
but show me what you're here for. That's Exactly. The booth you wanna see and
what I wanna see and get a chance to learn and look to someone else's
eyes. Yeah. And it's a whole lot easier when you've got someone to do
projects together with and work on. Right? Just that guidance from
from someone else because you don't feel so alone. Right.
Yeah. So so the other thing I wanted to ask is, right, oftentimes, when you
(33:17):
jump into these new online communities, right, there's a profile to set up,
there's a picture to put in, a little Little headline, is that worth the
time and effort to do? My my thoughts?
Absolutely. Yes. Communities are about relationships
about people. If I'm just an anonymous blob picture with
no profile, it's gonna be tough for anyone to reach out to me and
(33:40):
say, hey. We are We have this shared experience. Let's
talk. Or, hey. This person responded to me, but I I
don't know who you are. I don't know what you're about. I don't know if
this is Valid Nation, or this is something I should really lean into
more? So absolutely. The more you can give by yourself, the more you
contribute, the more you put into it, Really, the more value you're gonna
(34:00):
have, it's it that's that's where I was gonna go.
Tim, the advice, if anything, for people watching this or
Considering it, be genuine. Right? You're you're you're gonna
run into those people who make up these bogus profiles. It's, you know,
like anything, they exist. But you can kinda get a sense for that.
You will get out of a community,
(34:23):
a forum, a consultant, company,
whatever, what you put into it. When you when you, you
know, engage with with good intent and meaningfully,
then you'll get some really good stuff. The more honest you can be about
who you are and what you are and what you do, The the better it
is now. If you join a community, you do that, and then you start getting
(34:45):
pummeled in in in like, crazy
pummeled with with ads and all that, community because
that's just the lead Dentist if you do that and you start
having meaningful dialogue or discussions with people, that's a good place
to be. If you go to community and everyone is absolutely ripping
on everyone and you've got people completely, you know, pissed off
(35:07):
at everything, You're gonna become pissed off at everything. Step away if
that's not who you are. So, you know, it's it's that kind of stuff.
Again, the control or the authority
The participant or not sits with the person joining, not the community,
but it's an investment. And, ideally, if if you deposit more
than you withdraw, Long term, you're going to reap the benefits
(35:30):
of that. Yeah. But it does take time. It's not something you're gonna see. I
created a profile today. I posted a question today. My world would be great. I'd
be patient. So so how do you recommend the
the busy dental professionals out there balance the The ability
to to be part of in members of the community versus, you
know, all the other demands in life. How do we find balance to do this?
(35:52):
So I'll I'll start so first of all,
I don't even know who shared this with me. It was an old mentor of
mine. I read it somewhere.
You will find the time to do things that add
value In other words,
you know, if you go into any endeavor
(36:15):
Thinking I don't have the time to do it, you're predisposing yourself to failure.
The the advice I'd give is, you know, make a commitment
Short term even. And then it's about committing to a a rhythm
and a cadence. And by that, you join a community. You don't
have to be wed to that thing 247, you
know, 3365. Make a commitment. Say,
(36:39):
alright. Every I'm gonna check it once a day, and I'm not gonna spend
more than x number of time on it, and then stick to that. And then
do that this cadence and the rhythm and get in a habit doing
that, And it becomes part of what you do. You know, you go into a
dental practice or you go to work and, you know, there are certain set of
things. Add that to it. If you have too many, you have too many. Pull
(37:01):
Dental out that don't matter. Yeah. But it's it's about, again,
making the commitment And then establishing a
act a doable cadence and rhythm of doing it, and you'll
discover that It will become it it just becomes part of what you're
doing. There's there's a practical aspect to it as well.
If you don't if you're not a Facebook user, don't try to force yourself On
(37:24):
the Facebook, these are Facebook group. It's not gonna feel natural. It's not gonna feel
organic or authentic. If you're a cell phone person, you're on your
phone, fine when it has that So that you can engage with it
and connect with it and you use it. It it it's more seamlessly fits into
your life rather than trying to learn a new technology,
Overcome any fears or, you know, reservations about
(37:46):
this platform or that platform. So find something that fits with you organically.
That's gonna be a better and more Organic transition rather than trying
to completely change the way you think and the way you go about
it. Well and I love that you keep Interesting. Right? You're gonna
get out of the community what you put in. It's probably a bit like my
gym membership. It only works when I'm 4 of them. I don't get anything
(38:07):
out of mine. I'm done with it. Now if you ever find me the gym
that I can just pay my membership for and get all the benefits from without
showing up, I will pay whatever they ask. You you would
be a very, very wealthy man. Yes. So but but I haven't found that
one yet, and the same is true with communities or marriages or Any relationship
Yeah. Any out of it what you put into it. People are people
(38:29):
online, in relationships, in business. Now this it's all
about the Nation between Nation to many or 1 to
1, and it it is about a value exchange. Yep. And, you know,
the the other thing I love about both of you is, right, you are you
are entrepreneurs. You you've got, you know, industry expertise in
really helping people Overcome challenges. And and and one of the things I
(38:50):
know you talk about is the importance of having a north star. And and
can you talk a little bit about why that is so important?
Easy really, really easy to get a stretch. It's really easy to forget the
reason why you started and start changing the next Shiny thing
or hop on the next trend or look what that guy's doing. I wanna do
that too. It's so easy to get off path, and
(39:13):
It's really difficult to get back on track sometimes, especially
online where things happen so quickly. Once you've gone down the road and you're 2
months down the road, suddenly, there's so much Built out.
Reverting back can be really challenging. So having that north star and keeping
yourself attuned to it is really, really key. Yeah. We, as
humans, as individuals, and this is an observation I made,
(39:36):
we, and I include myself, are notorious
For manufacturing perceptions that don't exist.
Because we do that, we believe we have to be a certain
way, Or we believe we have to do something
or we believe we have to compare ourselves to somebody else.
And when you think about it, Me comparing myself to you
(39:58):
or Chris is so inappropriate or somebody my
age because I didn't live their life. I
didn't experience what they've experienced, and I haven't
learned what they've learned. I've learned what I've learned. I've experienced what I've
experienced. I've lived my life. Use your
life. Use your experience. Use your learnings to
(40:20):
establish, put a stake in the ground And go for
it. Here's what's beautiful. If halfway there, you discover it's not what you
want, it's so simple to change it. But commit to
that, and don't let manufactured perceptions
or a belief system that's been put on you by somebody
else or a commit somebody telling you that you have to be a certain way.
(40:43):
Define who you are as a person because The only person who can
define who you are as a person is you, and it's it's that it's that
advice about communities. Go into a community. If If this community
doesn't accept you as who you are, that's not your community. Stick
it out because you're going to try like a relationship. Right? You
meet someone, and they they like you because of perception. So
(41:05):
because you like this person, you change. At some point, you're gonna get tired, and
you're gonna default to who you are. They're gonna go, wait a minute.
Wanda, who are you? I I mean, that's not who I met 6 months
ago. I'm I'm just exhausted. I can't be the person
you You think or want me to be because this is me. So that's
that's why find your north star based on who you are and
(41:27):
then, you know, commit to Success is a lot of
success is really powered by authenticity and Nation. But going
into it with that Intent of what my goal is even if it
changes along the way and being authentic about who you are and how you wanna
get there, there's always gonna be a better path than Going in with no
real idea what I wanna do. I'll just throw some stuff against the wall, figure
(41:48):
it out, and I'll pretend I'm something I'm not. And
so with finding that north star, is that something that, once again, the the
community can can help you with in terms of Of of
of bouncing ideas off people or actually even holding you
accountable for your North Star. Absolutely. Tim, that it's this.
You know, folks, I'm lost. I need help because I'm
(42:10):
I I'm struggling to figure out what to do.
Don't you don't want people to tell you, Let them share with you what
they did, and you might discover, you know, that's really good
advice. Mhmm. So it's okay not to know what
it is, And it's okay to share that you're struggling to get it because that's
part of who we are. Right? That default on by the way,
(42:33):
this is context, And I share this with a lot of our community members.
You know, we solve problems every day. That's what we do
as clinicians, as business professionals, as individuals, Humans,
the key to solving problems is not planning or thinking
or talking or analyzing all that. The key to solving problems is
acting. Right? You need to act on it. Otherwise, you don't learn.
(42:56):
And when you learn, that's when you discover what I did. Did it work or
not? But the one thing that people struggle most is so what you
act on what you how how can you make that decision? After
what you know, because you can do something with what you know. Don't.
Please don't try to act on what you don't know or speculate because you're making
decisions on guesses. And when you make decisions on guesses, guess what?
(43:20):
You don't know. And if you ever made a decision on something you don't know,
you are incredibly unsettled. But if I know it's raining
outside, The decision I'm gonna make is I'm gonna go out. I'm gonna get wet.
When I get wet, I'm not surprised. You know, it's
raining outside. I'll go get an umbrella. I might get a little wet, but at
least I'll stay mostly dry based on that. I think it's raining. Well,
(43:41):
I'm not sure. I don't wanna get wet. Well, fine. You know, you're you're
Nation a funky place. So there you go. It's a great it's a great question
because, really, we all face that whether you're in a job search or figuring out
investments. We don't know. We don't know. We don't know. So reach
reach out to a community of people who you're comfortable with and have that
experience and saying, Yeah. I'd love some advice. Share some experiences.
(44:04):
It it's what community is for. It's why we have people in our lives, but
we're not living alone in the cave. I know. So so true. And
so how can we find your community? How can we find Empowered Dentistry
and and and and decide if that's the community and tribe
for us? Sure. Empowered dentistry.com is the easiest way to
do that. You can find us there. You can go to our xyris.com
(44:26):
website and find a link there. You can also tune the Dental Voice on
Spotify or whatever, and from there, there's links always provided to these as
well. Nation are there any monthly membership charges or Fees to be part of
the community? No. No. This is free. Actually, there there is
1 Uh-oh. Charge. Okay? You have to participate,
And if you don't want to, then don't. I love
(44:49):
it. Well said. So so, Chris, Roland, Wow.
I mean, I am more excited about community than I've ever been, and I and
I was pretty excited before. But before we sign off here, any closing
thoughts or or or last kind of Ideas for our listeners
today. You know, my McNeely closing thought, my ask to everyone
watching, would really be to take some time and
(45:11):
give it a shot. Spend commit a month and say I'm gonna visit every
day or every couple days, whatever you can do within your life, and and give
it a shot and engage and contribute and get involved And
the what value it brings to you and how that could impact your life. You
you never know if you don't try. That first step is a hard one. Wow.
And I would add and it it goes back to this lurking
(45:34):
thing. Spend If if if this is
something that people wanna pursue, go into a community. Join
it. Mhmm. And then with without having to
just Read. Take the time to see what what's
on the forums, what people are participating, what they're talking about. You
will feel it. You will go, wow, Or you won't, in
(45:56):
which case, it's your choice. Find another one or
give it more time. But if after a while it's not working,
Just accept, and it's it's neither here nor there.
It's not for you. So it's it's that type of thing.
Again, it's It's what you put in it. It's what you get out
of it, and it it it is an incredibly powerful vehicle
(46:18):
for just learning. And If you enjoy doing that, I I lurk on a lot
of different forums, not just in dentistry. I love cars. I love
motorcycles. I like Carpentry. I like working on electronics.
I'm fascinated by AI. I love space, you know, and
I and I I'm not a, You know, rocket Dentist, but I
love reading the context around that and all those types of things. I lurk a
(46:40):
lot on those, and and I find that I've learned a lot,
and sometimes I don't even have to talk to anybody.
Wow. Fantastic. Well, hey. Thank you both for serving you so generously. Thank
you for For helping doctors and those within the dental
industry find communities so that they can be empowered and find
their Thrive, and and in that process, make the whole world of dentistry Just a
(47:02):
little bit less McNeely. So thank you for your positive contribute
contributions that you're making. And, also, thank you for what you're doing
again at the Wealth. You shared with us. Wealth is not
just about money, and I love the context of that and
sentiment behind that. Wealth is about What
what be obviously, money's a part of it, but it's also it's a
(47:24):
much more dimensional context and that the Wealth nation is all about
that. So thank you for that too. We appreciate you having us, giving us the
time, and we do appreciate very much what you're doing for, you know, so many
people. Likewise, and we'll, we'll chat again soon. Thank you everyone for
tuning in. We'll see you again here soon on Dental Wealth Nation.
Bye guys. Bye guys. See you. You've
(47:45):
been listening to Dental Wealth Nation. We hope you've gotten some
useful and practical information from the show. Join us next
time as we pull back the curtain to reveal the often
hidden advice and strategies used by today's most successful
individuals, and families, and help maximize your net worth
so you can take even better care of the people you love. Till
(48:08):
next time. Make sure to hit the website at Wealth Nation.
As a driven dentist, you see the world differently where
some see scarcity. You see abundance. When others
wanna give up, you keep going. You're building an amazing
life of significance. That means you can't Rely on
ordinary advice from ordinary advisers to get to your goals.
You want advice that's going to help maximize your net worth so You
(00:27):
can take even better care of the people you love, the causes you
care about, and make your dent in the universe.
But the fact is This advice remains hidden because
relatively few professionals are well versed in them, and the extremely
affluent don't care to let to know about them. Join
us as we pull back the curtain to reveal the often
(00:49):
hidden advice and strategies used by today's is most
successful individuals and families. Welcome
to Dental Wealth Nation. Here's your host, Tim
McNealy.
Hello, and welcome everyone to another edition of Dental Wealth
Nation. And I don't know about you, but sometimes, life as
(01:11):
a dentist and and life as an entrepreneur, it can get just a
little bit lonely. Those late night in the offices and working
with patients and and wondering, what do you do? Who do you talk to? And
that's why I'm so excited about today It's because by the time
we finish today, you're gonna know about the importance of having
a community and a tribe around you and how that community can
(01:33):
help you thrive. You're gonna leave with actual insights to
help you find and connect with your tribe and the people who can help make
a difference in your life. But even more importantly, you're gonna feel
inspired to get out there and search for your own tribe. And when it
comes to finding tribes and connecting people, I am so excited
to have Chris and Roland here. They're from Xiris Dental. They're the host
(01:54):
of the Dental Voice, and, wow, We have exciting stuff to be talking
about. Roland, Chris, welcome to the show. Hey. Thank you, Tim. Appreciate
being here. Yeah. It's great to be here. I love the fact that we're on
this side, And you're you're pretty cool. So, you know,
although I gotta say, your haircut Yeah. There is a big difference. There is a
big difference here, but I'm not gonna oh, look at that. I I
(02:17):
put I put my on for the day, so, you know. But,
wow. No. I I'm I'm so excited. Yeah. Role reversal, because usually, you're doing the
interviews, and it's gonna be it's gonna be fun to hear from you today, and
and community matters, doesn't it? Incredibly.
It's Something that every everyone has a community, and we don't all realize that. When
you pick up your cell phone, you have a whole contact list. You have a
(02:39):
community. It's just not everybody leans into it, Or they haven't really
developed a community that gives them what they need in their career
and in their lives. That it in in so we are in
dentistry. And Although dentistry is this massive, massive,
massive industry, it's a very tight community. And
something that we learn and and you see it all the time, Tim, is
(03:02):
that people connect, and when they connect, they it it
becomes exponential, the kinds of things that they learn and experience.
And And one of the things that we found is the this concept
of a community, although in in some instances, it's unconscious, but
when you make it conscious, It's explosive. It's amazing. And you
and it yeah. It's it's it's cool. Wealth, right, and you've
(03:25):
really kind of pressed into this and And provided some
leadership and intentionality with people finding community
because I think oftentimes we we stumble into it and that can take a
long Tim sometimes. And so so talk to me a little bit about how you
have been intentional in helping people find and connect with their
community. So It started way back before
(03:46):
Chris got here. You know, we work with Zyrus Dental, and, you know, we
make the isolate, and we have a lot of customers that
we've become incredibly good friends with, that we've become
I mean, not just rated fans, but intimate where We get to
know each other and all that type of stuff, and what we discovered was there
was beyond just the connection. There were
(04:09):
insights. There were learnings. There was wisdom
that that these individuals had, so we came up with this
idea to is it possible to create something
To give people an opportunity to kinda come in. Now
there are a lot, thousands of other communities out there, But
we wanted to start something where we gave people an opportunity to
(04:32):
share. Chris came on, and he's he's now a producer, and he
started building it. And We we launched Empowered Dentistry
a little bit over a year ago and early in the stages, we have over
a 1000 members, And what we're finding is we're
giving people an opportunity to share,
their experiences, problems that they're trying to solve, And then
(04:54):
give other people advice. And, you know, we we stay away from trying
to promote things. Although, if people use things that they like, that's great.
But the context of it is It's this idea of bringing
back Thrive knowledge. With the advent
of the Internet, with the advent of information that's so readily
available, what's What's happening is people are going online to get information,
(05:16):
but there is a vast amount, a huge
amount, of wisdom learnings that's not written in any
book that by asking people, you
can get. And we want to nurture, Wealth support that. So that's
kinda how and why we continue to do this, and that's that's
what we're doing. Googling an answer gives you a great result sometimes,
(05:38):
but Getting an answer, getting a a a resource from
someone who's done it, someone who's been there, someone who can relate to your exact
situation It's a lot more valuable and a lot more personal. It resonates in a
different way than the first 2 Google search results.
Yeah. And Real quick. Initially, we it it it's it it
was clinical, and we would get people talking about clinical things.
(06:00):
And it's expanded beyond that. It's expanded to Wealth,
matter to difficulties that people are experiencing,
in navigating day to day of a dental practice. We've
had people talking about finances and and then what
is important. We've had people talking about how to you know,
mentoring and And dealing with with staffing I
(06:22):
mean, the the breadth of it, has expanded so much
that we're quite frankly Thrilled with the kind of,
sharing that people have been giving us and how candid, the the
candor that people have When when sharing
issues, one of our guests are they they've shared that, you
know, they've gone through substance abuse. Other people are And
(06:45):
on the brink of of of quitting their practices, and they'll
actually say things about it, and people reach out to each other. That it couldn't
be happier that that's happening, and I mean, we put you through this, and it's
pretty cool because, again, you add another dimension to,
kind of the the information, that Thrive of knowledge that we're trying to
kinda keep getting out there. Well, now, right, you're kind of
(07:08):
talking in your community and the growth that you've seen. Right. I'm guessing a lot
of the community members may also be members of their dental society or maybe like
a local study club. And so why don't you think those discussions
are going on in the clubs or in the in the dental societies.
What do you think is special about the community that you've created, and and
why are those discussions different? Because I noticed the same thing too.
(07:31):
Wealth, the average person belongs to between 37 communities of
various types, And what you find is a lot of them are very
specific to a group of people or a specific
interest or something that maybe You enjoy reading. It's more of
an entertainment value, and you get a little bit of info out of it, and
it's not something you're comfortable engaging. What we've really aspired
(07:53):
to do is create a safe, comfortable place for everybody in dentistry. Doesn't matter
if you're a dental assisting student or you're a very experienced
practice owner. We want we want to have some place where everyone could
feel comfortable and safe discussing whatever
from where am I gonna go to vacations to what's new technology to
Mental health and wellness, and we've really worked hard to
(08:15):
keep that openness, that comfort, that
friendly, banter alive in there without
having any snarkiness or judgment or, you know,
roles, superiority, or any of these kind of things that Sometimes you creep in
the online the online world, unfortunately. Yeah. We we
foster this context of, you know, what's the problem that you're trying to
(08:37):
solve? And then from there, how you're dealing with that,
and why is this material not to everybody, to
you. And the context around that is we flip it around. We're not
we're not trying to advocate for people to to
promote things that they're doing or or, you
know, get people to hire and do stuff. If it happens, great.
(08:59):
What we're more about is giving people an opportunity
So just kinda share issues or or
share information that they have, and it's
the breadth is it's wonderful. What's Really, really cool is
that people are now beyond us reaching out to each other
in our community, and, other people are reaching out that they've seen on
(09:22):
the program, and They're connecting each other, and that could They're
meeting meeting in person offline, which is very cool. Yeah. So that
if if you you ask what What makes it different?
There's some similarities, but it's also again, this is we
we the program we use or we do a podcast, like, It's called
Dental voice. It's give people a voice in dentistry. Like, you're
(09:44):
giving people an opportunity, around Dental wealth. It's
it's kind of that context that we that we're really leaning into and
wanna continue to to nurture. Well, you and
you mentioned something interesting just now. Right? You mentioned that you really focus on
a framework of of teaching people how to ask and and
share A problem that they're facing and then asking for help. Right?
(10:06):
What's the problem you want help with? And I bring that up because one of
my mentors and a friend, Chuck Blakeman, Says the happiest people he
knows are the people who are solving other people's problems.
Yeah. Yeah. People are sometimes afraid We ask for help. They
see this kind of weakness truly. It's a sign of strength. Mhmm. Open up and
say, hey. Can someone share some experience? It might be helping me out with something.
(10:29):
But it requires courage, and it requires knowing that you're in a place
that's okay to do that. Mhmm. We we actually tell people,
Yeah. If you have questions, ask this person. It's interesting. I I love what you
said around the solving the problem. When you're trying to solve the
problem by yourself, there's some myopia that that you have.
Mhmm. And Chris and I, we we we joke. You don't know what you don't
(10:51):
know, but you know what you know. So you think you know,
Therefore, you just know and you can't hear anything else. But having
somebody else enter that dialogue from outside,
They're looking at it with a completely different set of of of perspectives.
So there isn't a filter, and they'll go, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wealth,
Chris, why don't you guys do this? And you're like, In fact, I didn't even
(11:13):
think about that. So it's it's also that's also part of
the, kind of the the ethos or the the kind of the
sentiment that we're trying Bill here. Have somebody else look at the things you're dealing
with. Obviously, nothing really confidential or any of that type of
stuff, but as much as you're willing again, You get back
as much as you're willing to put in, and that's that's a kind of
(11:36):
a a mindset we have with community and also with with the way
we interact. So The more direct and
blunt you can be, the better the the insight and answers you
may get. There's a nuance to this I can add that, Yep. My
wife is great. Love Laurie very much, but she doesn't wanna hear about
production issues or my challenges at work or whatever drama's happening in the office
(11:58):
today. So finding people that are like
minded or have shared experiences, someone who can relate Dealing with the same
stuff. Suddenly, that opens It opens a whole world of
different options and different types of conversations that you can't have
with maybe other people in the Rolodex or other people in your life. That's an
important thing to find is that your right tribe, the people who
(12:20):
who get it, and you can talk to openly about these challenges.
Yeah. Well, Ray, and Ray kind of has the modern moderators
and the leaders of this community. Right? You've helped people focus on, you know,
Solving problems in in in doing that bit. But how do you work
with the community members, and is there a certain mindset community
members Joining a community should have. Is there a certain way they should think about
(12:43):
it, or should I be thinking, hey. I got a great group. I'll show up,
get my problem solved, and take off? That's a great question, and there
definitely are people who use a community as
a research tool or resource. I I have a singular question. I wanna get an
answer, then I'm done. And that's okay. I think the amazing thing
about communities is that it's not one size fits all.
(13:05):
Your need and your use case will be different from Rolando's need in his use
case, and that's okay to understand. When you build out a community,
Letting people know that this is here for whatever you value, you
need to get out of it, whether it's every day at 8 AM or it's,
You know, I come just when I have a specific question, and I know this
is a an okay safe resource to lean into when I need to.
(13:27):
That and I'm gonna add a little different from what Chris was
saying. Earlier on, we mentioned there are a whole
boatload of other communities out there, And these communities,
have been around a lot of them have been around Thrive, and it can be
really kind of overwhelming for people if If, you know, they're
you're if people are considering, you know, maybe I wanna join a community,
(13:49):
whatever. And the the metaphor I I liken it to, you know,
books. Right? There are 1,000,000,000, bazillions.
I use that word, bazillion. Millions? Yeah. 1,000,000,000, because that's a
technical term of books out there
that are that have some incredibly
powerful, really insightful information in them.
(14:11):
Mhmm. Which one do you read? Well, like a book, when
when you're looking for a community or if you're interested in
communities, it's important To do some research
and look at look at the ones that seem to resonate with you.
Now what's really important is You need to spend
time in this. You need to actually go in, participate,
(14:34):
and look at some of the information, post some things, and see.
Because what you'll find is, like a book, as you're reading or as
you're engaging with the community, it's either gonna capture you, and then you're
gonna go, oh, I love this place, Or it won't. If it doesn't,
our Thrive is don't force it because then it becomes fake. It it doesn't
become real. Take the time to engage, and you you
(14:57):
have to engage meaningfully. And what you'll discover is you'll start making
connections. You'll start learning things that or discovering
things that you didn't know before. And before you know it, you've
become part of that, and it and it becomes a much richer environment.
If that doesn't happen up front, like any book, you're reading through that,
get through the first 10 pages. If it doesn't capture you, don't force
(15:19):
yourself to stay in there because now It's it sucks.
It's it's kinda gnarly, and you end up in a situation where it's
not an enjoyable situation. You're not learning anything, and more importantly,
It puts a bad Nation. So that's the other piece I would have.
Take the Tim, find what you want, actually engage, and if it's
something that makes you feel good, stay. If it doesn't, don't. I
(15:42):
would also add that it doesn't have to be 1 community. You may find what
you need across a couple different and then It may each feed you different
things like any relationship. You might get a little bit of this from there,
a little bit this from here, and holistically, That gives you what you need. That's
that's an important thing to realize. It's a bit of trial and error, but it
takes an investment on your time On on each of our times to
(16:04):
find the right merely what we need. Well, Thrive, I
I love what you just said. Right? Take the time, get involved, press in.
But if, you know, if you, you know, start sensing, hey, this may not be
the right place for you, it's okay. Go somewhere else. Right? And Because it
can often take a couple times to to get this right. I know my wife
and I have certainly gone through that whether it's, you know, finding a small group
(16:27):
a church or, you know, a new community to be a part of. Right? We
dive in. We try it out. We say, hey. How do do we have something
to give, and do we have something to get? Because you we need both of
those components. So I love that advice. Right? Just jump in and start,
and if it doesn't work, go try another one. And there's there's just
there's this resonance that you'll feel when you're
(16:48):
engaging in a community because There will be people who'll reach out to you
or you'll reach back. And as you as you as
you become more inculcated, you become more involved in
it, All of a sudden, it'll feel, like, really good, and then
you'll discover that there to your point, Tim, there's
meaning in in the dialogue you're having. If that's not
(17:10):
happening, yeah, don't don't keep pushing it because then it'd
be then it's I'm I'm gonna say it's fake, and then You're like, well,
this this doesn't work. So it's easy to get sucked in by activity.
It's easy to find the busiest places and If I
don't get 15 answers to my question, this maybe isn't
the right place. But rather focus on the quality of people and the quality of
(17:33):
Nation, the quality of feedback, and the quality of relationship potential there is there.
Because you might find that a smaller, quieter community It's a more
intimate personal place for you that they be versus one that
has 60,000 members, and you're just, you know, a voice of the
masses. Yeah. Well, right, and that that's the thing is, like you mentioned, there's
a lot of different community groups out there and some have hundreds of
(17:55):
thousands of members and, Yeah. Some have 3 or 400, and so,
right, this is trial and error to figure out what's gonna work best for you.
Yeah. Dentist is also a small relatively small
niche industry. Right? If we're talking about tennis shoe lovers or runners
or something that appeals to The bulk of the world Nation.
(18:15):
Yeah. You know, sneakers. A lot of people like to run. You know, sweaty and
run. Run. You can't stop me. I'm not running anywhere unless I'm scared of being
chased. But, you know, you gotta remember that in those communities,
yeah, you have 90% of the world population are interested. Mhmm.
We're in dentistry, So we're talking about a smaller group within a smaller group
within a smaller group, and that's going to make some of these communities feel
(18:36):
different than maybe You get when you go to the Nike one or, you know,
something else. Yeah. So you said something here. This and and I I I would
lose the thought, so I'm just gonna jump in. When when you look at
the a community, any kind of community, join 1,
especially in dentistry, This this concept of tribal
knowledge. Dentist is so variable. There are infinite
(18:58):
number of ways that you can treatment plan or Different,
approaches, subtleties in the approaches on on how
you build a practice, how you interact with people, The
kinds of instruments and the the critical way you do things
by leveraging the access
(19:18):
And, especially online communities, people gain access
not just to a local population of people who are in around their
their sphere of influence. They actually gain access to
Dental other clinicians, other experts in
the country and even globally. And, you know, when you think about
dentistry, the reason people are part of study club is because
(19:41):
mentoring is a very, very big and a very powerful
aspect of of dentistry, and and it's you know, people become
friends with each other. At first Mhmm. They're colleagues, but they become friends, and
they forge these lifelong relationships and they
work together. Communities give you access to people you
otherwise would never meet. And in some instances, people
(20:03):
have created incredibly powerful Nation, friendships
with people they've actually never met in their lives other than
on a forum, but the insights, the information that they get
helps, and they get a lot of mentoring out of that. Plus, there's
peripheral peripheral learning It occurs because as you're
as you're navigating through the community, you're reading. You're able
(20:26):
to read what other people are posting. You're able to lurk, which
is something that's wonderful. Imagine being
able to sit back and just hear
or or or, you know, It Nation and
digest what other people are talking about and not have to
not have to say anything. That's One of the really powerful
(20:48):
things about a community, and people can learn simply by watching
what's transpiring between 2 other professionals, and you're
thinking, Wealth I'm dealing with that, I'm too shy or I don't feel
comfortable, you know, expressing that, but I'm running to
exact same. Then you can follow the string through and just by
Giving yourself that permission, you learn that too. So
(21:10):
it's it's a dimensionality, but, again, it's about
engaging. It's about access. It's about
expanding your your reach to literally the Wealth, and I think
that's that's what makes it so cool. Chris mapped out on our
community where people are, and they're everywhere.
You know, we could blows our mind that they're not just Everywhere in the United
(21:32):
States, I believe we've got people in Europe and down in
Mexico, Canada. You know, it's it's and it's it's really cool. It kinda
makes you smile. I don't know about you, but I wasn't an expert in
podcast or really doing anything else, the 1st time I did
it. And, yeah, YouTube is great, videos are great, but
I don't have to be the 1st one to kind of climb the mountain. I
(21:53):
can join a community, find people who've already done it, watch the
Nation, ask them questions, read their posts, I can gain insight and
wisdom before I even get started. I have to.
Yeah. Think about think about this. Right? Ready, Tim?
Without things like Dental Wealth Nation or other communities out there,
(22:14):
a a professional will sit there, And the only thing that
they can leverage is what they Nation, k, or what a
small population of people around them know. Think about the
consequences. There are technologies. There are
discussions. There are insights that
they would never get exposed to had they not joined
(22:36):
that. And by doing that, It dimensionalizes
their understanding what's happening. If not, think about it. They end
up doing what they've been doing forever. And don't get me
wrong. It works, but when you look at the evolution of dentistry
or any industry, in 5, 10 years, so much
changes. And by being plugged in and and taking the time to kinda
(22:59):
just read what's going on in in in these different forms,
you get exposed to things you otherwise wouldn't. So it's that it's that kind
of mindset. We're we're just rattling. You're just you're just watching
us. Talking about our phone boxes get up on the soapbox, so we'll just keep
going. Oh, it's alright. But, right, this is this is so powerful
because, right, I've seen the benefit in my life. There's a reason I'm part of
(23:22):
through my communities, and I participate with my peers. And and I've been doing that
for 7 or 8 years now, and it has made the biggest impact. In fact,
it's kept me in business. There was a time where I was ready to cash
out. I said I'm done. I'm frustrated, and I started calling all my buddies from
my mastermind group, And they kept me in business. They helped reignite my
Nation. That's that's wait. Right? And solve the issues I was facing.
(23:44):
That wouldn't have happened without community around me. Yeah. And so it's
so powerful. Now now with community, you know, you guys have been running your your
community for a bit now, is everything always roses, or do
sometimes member Agreements come up, and and how do you deal with that?
All perfect. Pull up. It's like a marriage. Per no. I'm
(24:04):
Like a Nation. You know? In all in all honesty, we've been very fortunate. I
Go ahead. Not had first rodeo, and I I I've certainly been part of
communities where, I say this nicely.
There's It gets crazy. It's get it's been crazy. A lot of negativity, and you've
had to really work on sensory and and dealing with some really
numbers. We've been very fortunate, and I think in dentistry in
(24:26):
general, peep there's a high quality of people
Yeah. Out there who genuinely want to help and support each other, and
those are the members of the community. Those are people who are generally joining community
and staying engaged in communities. So we've been very fortunate that we have
worked with them. But all joking aside, it there's a level of
patience that you have to have because things don't happen overnight.
(24:48):
In addition, there will be circumstances where you're like, oh, wow.
That's interesting. And being able
to being able to keep an open mind, Being able
to kinda step back and say, hold on. You know,
leaning in with good intent, you know, that to the context around that,
And then ask you a simple question of, hold on. I
(25:10):
may be misinterpreting what's going on here. Those those are important things.
So like like Nation, And I love that you asked the question. Is, you
know, is there anything it's like in a relationship. There's good,
there's bad, there's ugly, and it's how you navigate through that that's really
important. Leading into it or engaging with
with good intent is always the best way to do that.
(25:32):
Yes. Because if if if you become if You've got become
drawn to the dark side, then you bring everyone else with
you into that space. And then it it becomes hard to come out of
that as opposed to Stepping back and saying, okay. Let's take a second
here. So now it's it's not been perfect. You know, there's
there there are circumstances, like, We have members that
(25:55):
that joined and then aren't participating, and at some level, we
almost feel responsible for them. It's like, well, what did we do? And
not to do not to kinda put yourself into that.
But what what makes everything wonderful is that people when they do engage
or You discover somebody's been lurking, and, you know, you happen to run into them.
They're like, I've been following you all for x, and I get so much. I've
(26:17):
never posted. I've never done anything, But keep it going, and
it's the it's the I'm gonna say the lurkers or it's the silent
majority as opposed to the vocal minority
That can that can really, that that that
can really benefit from that this kind of forum. I have a general rule of
thumb. You you assume positive Dentist, Whether they are
(26:39):
not participating or they are engaging or they're posting something that maybe you think
is, okay. That's I'll need to keep an eye on that. You assume
the positive intent. You assume that the one that could be
malicious and and really trying to harm Nation, and it does keep things
in a much better light And assuming everybody is out for themselves.
Well and and I like what you just said about the the lurkers too. Right?
(27:02):
Sometimes, the value is just Watching those Nation. You know, if you're
at a, you know, away from the keyboard at a party in real life, you
you may feel a little awkward just eavesdropping on everyone. But all of
a sudden on that online form, you can you can watch those Nation, and
you don't have to worry about, well, what am I gonna say? How do I
enter in this conversation? And so you can learn without feeling
(27:24):
awkward. Right. You also may not be there to meet anybody. You may be
there to simply Learn about a specific topic
until you're just keeping your eye to see when that topic pops up. Yeah. That's
normal. Totally okay. Yeah. Now in your community, you find there are some hot
topics that continue to come up and up over and over again and and some
key discussions that people love to talk about? Yeah. I mean,
(27:46):
people love hearing the the clinical stuff. Right? You know, here they're
afraid they had this patient who's a case. Cybersecurity has
been a top topic. Staffing is a hot topic always.
You know, when trade shows, it comes around, there's a lot of dialogue around shows,
who's gonna meet up, and what show should we go to, and what classes, and
who's leading classes. On top of all that, though,
(28:07):
you start to see a lot of Case specific topics
where or practice specific topics. I have this one
situation in my specific practice. How what would what would you
all think? What would be your input on this? And that's an interesting time because
that's where everybody can bring in their own personal experiences and
share. Yeah. And then in the in the interviews or the guests
(28:29):
we've had on, burnout. You know? The
stress the stress of dentistry is big. It's not
just, you know, trying to be you know,
dental clinicians, dentists Dentist, Dental
assistants are are perfectionists, and they wanna do everything
perfectly, and it causes a lot of stress. So the the topic of that is
(28:51):
burnout. Thriving in a dental practice. You you you look
at it, costs are going up. The price of dentures
going up. Patients are experiencing that, so they're they
tend to forego treatment until it gets really bad.
Those are those are topics that come up quite a bit. Chris touched on 1
staffing. You know, post pandemic, that the
(29:14):
pandemic did do crazy things for us. It it kinda woke us
up, not just us but everybody to the fact
that, you know, you could think everything is perfect and all of a sudden the
entire world shuts down. And, as a as a catalyst
for people leaving dentistry, all that type of stuff, that that's
become Holy cow. Yeah. Talk about Dental Wealth
(29:35):
Nation. Tim. Debt is especially huge.
And although it's it's a it's a, you know, a duh For
dental students because they're they're saddled with a massive run of
desks that young dentists or dentists who are trying to expand,
The this concept of Dentist a very alien,
topic Mhmm. For people because they're not quite sure what it looks like.
(29:58):
And then the other one tied to finances, and this is the big one.
You know, it's only in the end when people are
looking to transition from the practice retired that
they discover that the value of their practice is nowhere
near what they thought because They you know, like, wait a minute. I'm
I'm filling myself here. My my production is fantastic. I'm
(30:21):
generating. I'm making up 90% of of this the value of this
place, And then when they go to to, you know,
transition to someone else, they discover it's worth nothing because there's
no succession plan. Yeah. Or or you look at the
you look at the, profitability of the practice, and it's all whacked
up because no one ever took the time to share.
(30:44):
So it's stress around people, stress around money, stress
around wanting to do the best for them, and then, you know, getting
Getting patients in there. So those I would say in those
4 or 5 areas, those are the some of the biggest technology that we've looked
a lot, and it ties back into what you were saying. When do I invest
in Thrive d printing, and how do I invest in that? Which one do I
(31:05):
invest? Does it make my well, Wealth, that didn't write EBITDA. How does that affect
my practice, and about my team and all these things.
You're not going to find that in a simple Google search. So you see those
topics come up, and that's a much more in-depth conversation Mhmm. People
who've done it and people who are looking at looking to do it. So
Chris Nation technology. The cost of technology is it's
(31:26):
not inexpensive, There's so much. So it
does and can get very overwhelming. What should I invest
in? And it's the you know, it's a computer conundrum, whatever you wanna call it,
where, Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I'm buying this computer in a year. It'll
be out of date. So does that mean I have to buy another one?
Oh my gosh. I have this update, But they're charging this much money. I haven't
(31:49):
so it's that type of stuff that that we're seeing as as big topics,
and and it's nice to hear from people about you know, here's what
I've Or here's the mistake that I made. You know,
we learn from making mistakes, and people in in
communities and and on our on our show are wonderful at
sharing mistakes that they've made and what they did
(32:11):
or how they overcame or
or over overdid or got past the that
you know, resolve that that issue. And Those those are other
pieces. I think we just listed everything on the planet. Right, Tim? Yeah.
Well, right and, actually, one of the most surprising things I heard
That that I think is super valuable is right when the when the
(32:34):
conference season starts. Right? Oftentimes, you show up, you don't know anyone, or you're,
like, Trying to text your buddies from dental school saying, hey. Are you gonna be
right. You're you're you're you're craving to to go find someone in a sea
of 20,000 people. Right? And and all of a sudden, it's like
you've got your online community, and you're probably gonna find someone to hang out with
and have dinner. Guys gotta be here. Yeah. Not not only hang out with,
(32:56):
but show me what you're here for. That's Exactly. The booth you wanna see and
what I wanna see and get a chance to learn and look to someone else's
eyes. Yeah. And it's a whole lot easier when you've got someone to do
projects together with and work on. Right? Just that guidance from
from someone else because you don't feel so alone. Right.
Yeah. So so the other thing I wanted to ask is, right, oftentimes, when you
(33:17):
jump into these new online communities, right, there's a profile to set up,
there's a picture to put in, a little Little headline, is that worth the
time and effort to do? My my thoughts?
Absolutely. Yes. Communities are about relationships
about people. If I'm just an anonymous blob picture with
no profile, it's gonna be tough for anyone to reach out to me and
(33:40):
say, hey. We are We have this shared experience. Let's
talk. Or, hey. This person responded to me, but I I
don't know who you are. I don't know what you're about. I don't know if
this is Valid Nation, or this is something I should really lean into
more? So absolutely. The more you can give by yourself, the more you
contribute, the more you put into it, Really, the more value you're gonna
(34:00):
have, it's it that's that's where I was gonna go.
Tim, the advice, if anything, for people watching this or
Considering it, be genuine. Right? You're you're you're gonna
run into those people who make up these bogus profiles. It's, you know,
like anything, they exist. But you can kinda get a sense for that.
You will get out of a community,
(34:23):
a forum, a consultant, company,
whatever, what you put into it. When you when you, you
know, engage with with good intent and meaningfully,
then you'll get some really good stuff. The more honest you can be about
who you are and what you are and what you do, The the better it
is now. If you join a community, you do that, and then you start getting
(34:45):
pummeled in in in like, crazy
pummeled with with ads and all that, community because
that's just the lead Dentist if you do that and you start
having meaningful dialogue or discussions with people, that's a good place
to be. If you go to community and everyone is absolutely ripping
on everyone and you've got people completely, you know, pissed off
(35:07):
at everything, You're gonna become pissed off at everything. Step away if
that's not who you are. So, you know, it's it's that kind of stuff.
Again, the control or the authority
The participant or not sits with the person joining, not the community,
but it's an investment. And, ideally, if if you deposit more
than you withdraw, Long term, you're going to reap the benefits
(35:30):
of that. Yeah. But it does take time. It's not something you're gonna see. I
created a profile today. I posted a question today. My world would be great. I'd
be patient. So so how do you recommend the
the busy dental professionals out there balance the The ability
to to be part of in members of the community versus, you
know, all the other demands in life. How do we find balance to do this?
(35:52):
So I'll I'll start so first of all,
I don't even know who shared this with me. It was an old mentor of
mine. I read it somewhere.
You will find the time to do things that add
value In other words,
you know, if you go into any endeavor
(36:15):
Thinking I don't have the time to do it, you're predisposing yourself to failure.
The the advice I'd give is, you know, make a commitment
Short term even. And then it's about committing to a a rhythm
and a cadence. And by that, you join a community. You don't
have to be wed to that thing 247, you
know, 3365. Make a commitment. Say,
(36:39):
alright. Every I'm gonna check it once a day, and I'm not gonna spend
more than x number of time on it, and then stick to that. And then
do that this cadence and the rhythm and get in a habit doing
that, And it becomes part of what you do. You know, you go into a
dental practice or you go to work and, you know, there are certain set of
things. Add that to it. If you have too many, you have too many. Pull
(37:01):
Dental out that don't matter. Yeah. But it's it's about, again,
making the commitment And then establishing a
act a doable cadence and rhythm of doing it, and you'll
discover that It will become it it just becomes part of what you're
doing. There's there's a practical aspect to it as well.
If you don't if you're not a Facebook user, don't try to force yourself On
(37:24):
the Facebook, these are Facebook group. It's not gonna feel natural. It's not gonna feel
organic or authentic. If you're a cell phone person, you're on your
phone, fine when it has that So that you can engage with it
and connect with it and you use it. It it it's more seamlessly fits into
your life rather than trying to learn a new technology,
Overcome any fears or, you know, reservations about
(37:46):
this platform or that platform. So find something that fits with you organically.
That's gonna be a better and more Organic transition rather than trying
to completely change the way you think and the way you go about
it. Well and I love that you keep Interesting. Right? You're gonna
get out of the community what you put in. It's probably a bit like my
gym membership. It only works when I'm 4 of them. I don't get anything
(38:07):
out of mine. I'm done with it. Now if you ever find me the gym
that I can just pay my membership for and get all the benefits from without
showing up, I will pay whatever they ask. You you would
be a very, very wealthy man. Yes. So but but I haven't found that
one yet, and the same is true with communities or marriages or Any relationship
Yeah. Any out of it what you put into it. People are people
(38:29):
online, in relationships, in business. Now this it's all
about the Nation between Nation to many or 1 to
1, and it it is about a value exchange. Yep. And, you know,
the the other thing I love about both of you is, right, you are you
are entrepreneurs. You you've got, you know, industry expertise in
really helping people Overcome challenges. And and and one of the things I
(38:50):
know you talk about is the importance of having a north star. And and
can you talk a little bit about why that is so important?
Easy really, really easy to get a stretch. It's really easy to forget the
reason why you started and start changing the next Shiny thing
or hop on the next trend or look what that guy's doing. I wanna do
that too. It's so easy to get off path, and
(39:13):
It's really difficult to get back on track sometimes, especially
online where things happen so quickly. Once you've gone down the road and you're 2
months down the road, suddenly, there's so much Built out.
Reverting back can be really challenging. So having that north star and keeping
yourself attuned to it is really, really key. Yeah. We, as
humans, as individuals, and this is an observation I made,
(39:36):
we, and I include myself, are notorious
For manufacturing perceptions that don't exist.
Because we do that, we believe we have to be a certain
way, Or we believe we have to do something
or we believe we have to compare ourselves to somebody else.
And when you think about it, Me comparing myself to you
(39:58):
or Chris is so inappropriate or somebody my
age because I didn't live their life. I
didn't experience what they've experienced, and I haven't
learned what they've learned. I've learned what I've learned. I've experienced what I've
experienced. I've lived my life. Use your
life. Use your experience. Use your learnings to
(40:20):
establish, put a stake in the ground And go for
it. Here's what's beautiful. If halfway there, you discover it's not what you
want, it's so simple to change it. But commit to
that, and don't let manufactured perceptions
or a belief system that's been put on you by somebody
else or a commit somebody telling you that you have to be a certain way.
(40:43):
Define who you are as a person because The only person who can
define who you are as a person is you, and it's it's that it's that
advice about communities. Go into a community. If If this community
doesn't accept you as who you are, that's not your community. Stick
it out because you're going to try like a relationship. Right? You
meet someone, and they they like you because of perception. So
(41:05):
because you like this person, you change. At some point, you're gonna get tired, and
you're gonna default to who you are. They're gonna go, wait a minute.
Wanda, who are you? I I mean, that's not who I met 6 months
ago. I'm I'm just exhausted. I can't be the person
you You think or want me to be because this is me. So that's
that's why find your north star based on who you are and
(41:27):
then, you know, commit to Success is a lot of
success is really powered by authenticity and Nation. But going
into it with that Intent of what my goal is even if it
changes along the way and being authentic about who you are and how you wanna
get there, there's always gonna be a better path than Going in with no
real idea what I wanna do. I'll just throw some stuff against the wall, figure
(41:48):
it out, and I'll pretend I'm something I'm not. And
so with finding that north star, is that something that, once again, the the
community can can help you with in terms of Of of
of bouncing ideas off people or actually even holding you
accountable for your North Star. Absolutely. Tim, that it's this.
You know, folks, I'm lost. I need help because I'm
(42:10):
I I'm struggling to figure out what to do.
Don't you don't want people to tell you, Let them share with you what
they did, and you might discover, you know, that's really good
advice. Mhmm. So it's okay not to know what
it is, And it's okay to share that you're struggling to get it because that's
part of who we are. Right? That default on by the way,
(42:33):
this is context, And I share this with a lot of our community members.
You know, we solve problems every day. That's what we do
as clinicians, as business professionals, as individuals, Humans,
the key to solving problems is not planning or thinking
or talking or analyzing all that. The key to solving problems is
acting. Right? You need to act on it. Otherwise, you don't learn.
(42:56):
And when you learn, that's when you discover what I did. Did it work or
not? But the one thing that people struggle most is so what you
act on what you how how can you make that decision? After
what you know, because you can do something with what you know. Don't.
Please don't try to act on what you don't know or speculate because you're making
decisions on guesses. And when you make decisions on guesses, guess what?
(43:20):
You don't know. And if you ever made a decision on something you don't know,
you are incredibly unsettled. But if I know it's raining
outside, The decision I'm gonna make is I'm gonna go out. I'm gonna get wet.
When I get wet, I'm not surprised. You know, it's
raining outside. I'll go get an umbrella. I might get a little wet, but at
least I'll stay mostly dry based on that. I think it's raining. Well,
(43:41):
I'm not sure. I don't wanna get wet. Well, fine. You know, you're you're
Nation a funky place. So there you go. It's a great it's a great question
because, really, we all face that whether you're in a job search or figuring out
investments. We don't know. We don't know. We don't know. So reach
reach out to a community of people who you're comfortable with and have that
experience and saying, Yeah. I'd love some advice. Share some experiences.
(44:04):
It it's what community is for. It's why we have people in our lives, but
we're not living alone in the cave. I know. So so true. And
so how can we find your community? How can we find Empowered Dentistry
and and and and decide if that's the community and tribe
for us? Sure. Empowered dentistry.com is the easiest way to
do that. You can find us there. You can go to our xyris.com
(44:26):
website and find a link there. You can also tune the Dental Voice on
Spotify or whatever, and from there, there's links always provided to these as
well. Nation are there any monthly membership charges or Fees to be part of
the community? No. No. This is free. Actually, there there is
1 Uh-oh. Charge. Okay? You have to participate,
And if you don't want to, then don't. I love
(44:49):
it. Well said. So so, Chris, Roland, Wow.
I mean, I am more excited about community than I've ever been, and I and
I was pretty excited before. But before we sign off here, any closing
thoughts or or or last kind of Ideas for our listeners
today. You know, my McNeely closing thought, my ask to everyone
watching, would really be to take some time and
(45:11):
give it a shot. Spend commit a month and say I'm gonna visit every
day or every couple days, whatever you can do within your life, and and give
it a shot and engage and contribute and get involved And
the what value it brings to you and how that could impact your life. You
you never know if you don't try. That first step is a hard one. Wow.
And I would add and it it goes back to this lurking
(45:34):
thing. Spend If if if this is
something that people wanna pursue, go into a community. Join
it. Mhmm. And then with without having to
just Read. Take the time to see what what's
on the forums, what people are participating, what they're talking about. You
will feel it. You will go, wow, Or you won't, in
(45:56):
which case, it's your choice. Find another one or
give it more time. But if after a while it's not working,
Just accept, and it's it's neither here nor there.
It's not for you. So it's it's that type of thing.
Again, it's It's what you put in it. It's what you get out
of it, and it it it is an incredibly powerful vehicle
(46:18):
for just learning. And If you enjoy doing that, I I lurk on a lot
of different forums, not just in dentistry. I love cars. I love
motorcycles. I like Carpentry. I like working on electronics.
I'm fascinated by AI. I love space, you know, and
I and I I'm not a, You know, rocket Dentist, but I
love reading the context around that and all those types of things. I lurk a
(46:40):
lot on those, and and I find that I've learned a lot,
and sometimes I don't even have to talk to anybody.
Wow. Fantastic. Well, hey. Thank you both for serving you so generously. Thank
you for For helping doctors and those within the dental
industry find communities so that they can be empowered and find
their Thrive, and and in that process, make the whole world of dentistry Just a
(47:02):
little bit less McNeely. So thank you for your positive contribute
contributions that you're making. And, also, thank you for what you're doing
again at the Wealth. You shared with us. Wealth is not
just about money, and I love the context of that and
sentiment behind that. Wealth is about What
what be obviously, money's a part of it, but it's also it's a
(47:24):
much more dimensional context and that the Wealth nation is all about
that. So thank you for that too. We appreciate you having us, giving us the
time, and we do appreciate very much what you're doing for, you know, so many
people. Likewise, and we'll, we'll chat again soon. Thank you everyone for
tuning in. We'll see you again here soon on Dental Wealth Nation.
Bye guys. Bye guys. See you. You've
(47:45):
been listening to Dental Wealth Nation. We hope you've gotten some
useful and practical information from the show. Join us next
time as we pull back the curtain to reveal the often
hidden advice and strategies used by today's most successful
individuals, and families, and help maximize your net worth
so you can take even better care of the people you love. Till
(48:08):
next time. Make sure to hit the website at Wealth Nation.
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