Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
Hello, everyone, welcome to theMillionaire Dentist Podcast, brought to you by
Four Quadrants Advisory. On this podcast, we break down the world of dentistry,
finances and business practices to help youbecome the millionaire dentists you deserve to
be. Please be advised we dospeak with an honest tongue and may not
be safe for work. Hello andwelcome. This is Casey Hires back at
(00:26):
the Millionaire Dnist Podcast in studio withco host Jared Bridgeman. Casey, how
are you good? It's client day, we're in suits. Yeah, you're
looking sharpe. Look good. Feelgood? That's right, feel good?
Podcast good, Yes, something likerecord. Well, there you go.
What do you want to talk abouttoday? I wanted to talk about when
you are out in the field talkingwith practice owners, talking with dentists before
(00:51):
they even start in the process withus. Are there some common questions you
ask right away? Stuff that youneed to know from them right now to
even get moved to step one?Gotcha? What what are some of the
questions that I wrote down that youhave? Oh, I see how you
are. So your first question thatyou ask is this, what are your
(01:12):
biggest challenges? So There's two reasonswhy that question is important, and again
this is not necessarily in process withus, but just conversations with practice owners.
But the first one is do theyknow what their challenges are? Some
don't know, others aren't willing toadmit them. That's a big one,
(01:33):
Okay, I mean, think aboutnone of us really like criticism or to
acknowledge our faults. And so Ithink any maybe as a kid, or
in your twenties or whatever, atsome point in our lives, we've all
probably been in denial about a fault. Is that fair? Well, for
sure? Any examples you'd like togive about your faults? If you've been
listening to this for a while,I'm sure you've picked up on some of
those. Well, if you seewhat I just did, I don't want
(01:55):
to talk about mine, right,Nobody wants to talk about them, and
so it's it's no one wants toshow weakness. They don't want to show
frailty, especially when you're in youknow, if you're a practice owner,
you're inherently in the leadership position.Yeah, yeah, no, Yeah,
we say this a lot. You'veyou've been an overachiever your whole life,
So it's it's kind of against yourworldview to need something or not know something,
(02:16):
So that that's important because first off, are you know what they are?
And because some just they know thatthey're not. Their practice isn't performing
optimally or the most profitable, butthey're not sure why. And then if
you do know, why, canyou talk about it? And can you
admit it? Those are really moreimportant than the actual what they are because
typically it falls under I don't know, half dozen to a dozen areas big
(02:39):
buckets sure, and so the actualquestion isn't as important as the things I
just mentioned. Well, let melet me ask you. I mean,
this is something that reverberates through alot of different conversations of fields. But
why is it important to know whatyour challenges are? Like? Why is
it important to reflect on that?Well? I ask folks what their insurance
(03:02):
adjustments are if they're indeed in networkwith insurances, and a lot of times
they don't know. Or what's youroverhead? I think it's sixty five percent,
it's actually eighty one. And sobeing able to identify insurance or overhead,
or employee wages or a lower incomefees, whatever it might be,
(03:23):
patients per day production per day,referring out things, all these data.
You need to be aware of them. But typically if you're not, it's
worse than you think. And ifit doesn't get addressed, what do we
say, It typically doesn't get better, it gets worse. Well, And
if you don't know what the challengesare, how do you work on them?
If you well, I mean poorexample, But is this like dentist
(03:45):
anonymous, like you have to admitthere's a problem before you can well,
low, I'm a dentist and myoverhead is terrible and I don't know why,
right, or I don't know howto affect it right, because you
should know, hey, i'm havingthis you mean not obviously you don't have
a pinpointed exactly, but you shouldknow there's an issue if that's the issue,
and potentially what your goal or whatdo you like it to be.
(04:08):
Here's another reason why they won't admittheir challenges. They'll they'll say, well,
my overhead side, but you know, I'm not getting rid of the
employees, and I want nice stuff. It's not about that all the time,
right, Most of the time it'snot about that. Or they go,
well, I have to take insurancebecause of where I live, there's
a huge employer, and you knowthat you're you're justifying the problem so that
you then don't have to address it. Sometimes there are very good reasons why
(04:31):
your challenges are your challenges, butbeing able to admit them, acknowledge them,
pinpoint them, and then determine isthis something I can fix? Is
this something fixable? Is this somethingI need to delegate my options? Sometimes
it's tough. I mean, ifyour practice is on the top of Mount
Everest, you might have low,low patient value. Actually the ones that
(04:53):
are out in the rural rural areasthat are that is saturated. But no
that that's a big one. Andyou know, again for our listeners,
what are your challenges? Have havethat honest conversation with yourself and it's okay
if you don't know and your experience. A lot of the biggest challenges tend
to be relatively the same across theboard. Like I mean, different areas
(05:15):
and different people have their own challenges, but there are a lot of times
very similar ones from practice to practicebroad strokes. You can put them in
the like I said, six toten buckets of what they are, the
reasons why, and how to fixthem. Can be very different, very
custom. But yeah, no thatwe typically know what the big ones are.
And so again when I ask thatquestion, I can hear if somebody
(05:36):
posing, is somebody in denial?Is somebody real? Does somebody want to
fix it? Like? I canpick that up pretty quick. What's something
else that I wrote down or youwrote down that I can't read? Yes,
because of my wonderful handwriting, OCasey, let me ask you.
You're the dentist right now, areyou frustrated that your income doesn't reflect your
(05:57):
hard work? Kind of goes back. That's a question we like to ask
around here because again it's a testingquestion. Are you able to admit it?
Right? What do wait? Well, you know we're doing pretty good
and I you know, I it'sin the bank or it's here. I
know why I'm not making more.So I'm gonna just rationalize or justify why
I'm not making what I should bemaking versus the practice owner that's making four
(06:20):
hundred. And they go, man, I don't feel like you know,
I've put in a lot. Idon't feel like I'm reaping what I should.
I want it to be better.Can it be better? I love
that? And I hear that allthe time, Like a lot of times,
the people that are making between fourand seven hundred thousand dollars as a
practice owner, those are the onesthat know it can be better and are
ready to do what it takes.It's the loudest cries come from the cheap
(06:42):
seats, and you know, ifI'm infending somebody, hopefully it's a catalyst
for action. But the people indentistry that don't pay themselves or make between
one hundred and twenty and say twofifty, they have got so much.
That's where I hear the loudest cries, the excuses, the justifications that denials
all that. And then I talksomebody's making six hundred and're like, yeah,
no, I snink at these twothings I need to get better.
(07:04):
Can you help? Yeah? Inyour opinion, why is it that someone
making two to fifty is more defensiveabout what they may compare to the five
hundred thousand guy who who knows hecan do better. Yeah, it goes
back to their great a dentistry.They're a high achiever. They've tried some
things and it hasn't worked. Soif they can't figure it out, it
must not be possible to figure out. That's similar to my eight eight year
(07:26):
olds mentality. Okay, and again, if I'm taking if these are veiled
shots that our listeners didn't get better, right, But my eight year old
at different sports that she's doing well, she thinks she knows everything, and
then we'll go through something or she'llshe'll fail, and then she'll go with
excuses and then I have to kindof sit her down and walk her through
it for her to get it.There's a lot of practice owners that have
(07:47):
that same mentality. It's not justpractice owners, it's all of us.
All. There's a lot of usadults that do these same techniques. But
but yeah, that's that's what Isee. It's the same as me if
I'm when I'm playing a video game, if I'm not into it right away,
I'm just like I'm done. Yeah. Well, but it's sometimes it's
I've tried everything. Again, I'vetried everything, and it must not be
possible because I can't figure it out. Right. When you've tried maybe one
(08:11):
or two avenues and not really duginto it, Yeah yeah, yeah,
Well, I mean it would belike me having you know, eating caramel
corn and having a kernel stuck inmy tooth and can't get it out with
flossing, and well, I guessit's just gonna have to be there forever
because I can't get it out.Well, I dentists can get it out
in two seconds. Same same.Also, it also has the mentality of
(08:31):
it's the money you're making yourself,so you're you're the owner versus employees,
because I feel like employees are muchmore apt to be like, where's my
raise? You know I should bemaking. Oh that's interesting. I read
something recently where it said and thiscan go to ownership. I'll kind of
tweak the annalt, but it basicallysaid as as a as as like a
(08:52):
W two employee, I just neverunderstood certain things, and I was always
I was frustrated at this or that. And then you go to being the
owner or an executive, and allof a sudden you're privy to a whole
bunch more information and you understand thewhy. And so yeah, I think
there's a little bit to that.Your third question that you that you tend
to ask is kind of a twoparter. They work a little bit hand
(09:13):
in hand, but they are areyou ready to be better? And are
you coachable. Yeah, And thefirst one kind of ties into the Really
the theme of this is it's timing, right, or somebody ready to admit
they need help it could be better. And again by admitting those things,
it can still mean you have agood practice, you're a great dentist,
you are successful right right? Um, I mean Scottie Shuffler's John Ron,
(09:37):
top golfers in the in the world, they have swing coaches. They have
they have like four or five coachesbecause they're awesome, but they know that
they can be better. Yeah.It just goes back to are are you
ready? Are you ready to seeif there's a better way to achieve more?
Some people aren't. It's okay.Some people need to stub their toe
for a couple months or a coupleof years. Others need to stub it
for a couple of decades before theytry to get better. I also think
(09:58):
it's a case of the idea,yes, why wouldn't you want to be
better? I think everybody would sayyes until they realize, oh shit,
there's change involved. Yeah, Ihave to I as a golf I have
to listen to my swing coach.Well, I just went out and shot
a sixty five on a tough courseand then this guy's telling them I need
to tweak something and it's ego right, and it goes to coachability. You
know. Again, all we workwith is high achievers. Can you hear
(10:22):
criticism backed up with that and bechanged and change and be coachable? That's
important. Great example, we're insuits because we have a new client in
from Boston. Uh. This issomebody who is in their load of mid
thirties and they go, uh,second generation Dennis. But they said,
yeah, I don't know. Idon't want to be the person that figures
it out at forty five. Iwant to do the right things. Now
(10:43):
had the pleasure of meeting them atan implant course. So look at that.
A young person doing implant course becausethey want to be better. That's
a good sign. But just gotit and ultimately doing the right things,
having a team, being good atdentistry, and growing wealth in your early
to mid thirties, this person isgoing to be knocking on the door of
eighteen and a half million dollars.Now here's the thing. Retirement age goal
at sixty one, sure probably notgonna get the eighteen million because at fifty
(11:07):
five gonna look up and go,yeah, I'm good with thirteen and a
half. Right, But well,but I mean again, it's a great
example. This is a wonderful dentistlearning implant had as a stud could be
an egotistical person that tries to doit himself for ten years and looks up
and he goes, But love thatawareness, and ultimately it's going to be
(11:30):
massively successful. Work life balance isgoing to be great. We'll work four
days or less to get that,and just so so grateful to have a
team. You know that that coachabilityis important, but so again, what's
what? Why is coachability important?It makes sense in the initial question,
got a great example. Yes,hey, I found this practice. I've
(11:52):
drive by it every day the headlunch with the dentist. I want to
buy it. Okay, great,we'll look at all the data and give
our opinion. Well if our opinionis, hey, we found some things,
this would not be a great practicefor you to purchase for these reasons
and the timing for these reasons,And somebody goes, okay, thanks,
I'm gonna buy it anyway, andthen a year later it's a train wreck.
Well that's just a waste of everybody'stime versus you bring that to us.
(12:16):
We go not to good practice.Why you might be outwardly frustrated or
emotional about it, Because you likeit, you go. I'll respect the
process. A year and a halflater, practice comes by thumbs up from
us, your team, no mistake, you buy it, you flourish.
You've saved yourself so much heartache.That's an example of the coachability that just
get out of your own way,right. I don't go into paying us
money and to not listen to us. When my dental professionals tell me I
(12:39):
need something done, I appreciate alittle bit of explanation, and then I
do it, yes, because I'mcoachable to their expertise. Same situation.
Just flip. Yeah, Oh mygosh, Casey, you're leaving this week
to go to the Florida Dental Convention. Yeah, yeah, great meeting.
Are you excited for that? Yeah? Yeah, get a lot of clients,
get to see them. It's afun meeting. Gosh, I think
(13:01):
I have to present ce for threehours. Three hours, it's a lot.
Wow. Yeah, Well, yousure know how to talk, so
I think it'll be okay. It'sabout asking questions. Thanks Jared, thank
you. That's all the time wehave today. Thank you to our guests
for their insight and for sharing somereally great information. And thank you to
you the listener for tuning in.The Millionaire Dentist podcast is brought to you
(13:22):
by Four Quadrants Advisory to see ifthey might be a good fit for you
and your practice. Going over tofour Quadrants Advisory dot com and see why
year after year they retain over ninetyfive percent of their clients. Thank you
again for joining us and we'll seeyou next time.