Practice Owner Distractions and Cocktail Party Talk

Casey makes a triumphant return from Houston to engage in an intriguing discussion with Jarrod. Together, they delve into the fascinating realm of psychology, uncovering the underlying reasons why certain practice owners feel compelled to put on a show in group settings.

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Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Hello, everyone, Welcome to theMillionaire DENTNIS 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 dentist 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 DEDNNIS podcast in studio withco host Jared Bridgeman. Casey, how
are you man? Last time wetalked to you were you had a different
number before your age? I did. I turned forty recently, which is
gross. It's a big one.That's a big one. I'm like,
Wow, you think i'd be anadult? Welcome to the furst jerk.
That's right, it's pretty soon.I'm gonna be getting my AARP mail in.

(00:50):
You know, I'm getting ready forthat. Enjoy every age because it's
only gonna get worse, right right, Casey, you recently got back into
town from Houston. You spoke andhosted an event out there. Why don't
you run me through how that howthat turned out for you? You know
I've heard Houston called the armpit ofTexas, and I'm not sure that's true.

(01:10):
It's a It was lovely. Itwas a nice, nice little trip.
Man. I'd like to go sometime. I've been to Dallas, and
I've been to Austin. But Ifirst of all, great things about Houston.
The food downtown was clean and uh, I mean for us, we're
you know, stay at a decenthotel. Venues were at or solid.
They have a super in front ofthe eighth the old motel. That's all

(01:34):
right, listen, Casey. Youknow, when you when you do these
events, and this was a wehad quite a great turnout for this.
A lot of people out there hungryfor advice on what they do with their
practice finances, their personal finances andhow that ties into everything you know before
you get started. Especially this whenthis was like a bourbon cocktail kind of
a tasting event. I'm sure there'sa lot of you know, uh,

(01:57):
dentists and peers talking me to eachother and having a good time and kind
of just communicating with each other.What's something you kind of notice when you're
you're floating around the room kind oftaking everything in. Yeah, good question.
And for our tasting events, thosewho do not want to partake in
tasting bourbon. That's not a requirement. But no, there's food there too,
so lots of good food. That'sright, that's right. No,

(02:21):
it's a good question. We've touchedon this before, but going to hosting
our own CE events and then alsoattending national and regional meetings, it's very
common for practice owners when they gettogether. They're excited right there. They're
not needed by their patients or theirstaff. They're actually can take it a
breath and enjoy being around peers.And it's nice for them too to be

(02:44):
able to talk about things to peoplewho also understand a lot of the same
same problems. Very very good point. So they take that deep breath and
they talk about their team or theirstaff, or patience or insurance or challenging
cases. That's typically where they goand they enjoy those. But I will
say there's a degree of posturing withinthose events as well. And you I'll

(03:07):
hear people talking one way amongst theirpeers, and then when we have one
on one conversations, they'll get intocash flow, tax management, lack of
income. In these group dynamics whenyou hear them talking or anything plenty about
the model money they make. Dothey bring that up or is it like
I you know, are they saying, oh, man, I'm terrible,

(03:28):
I could be doing so much more. You know, what I've noticed is
there's sort of a couple of differentgroups. There's the quiet people. There's
the people that want to complain aboutstaff or talk about dentistry. But then
man, there's some of those Theyget into horses and aviation and multiple practices
and multiple locations and all the technologyand ibada and what's your latest crypto transaction?

(03:52):
And it reminds me of just likecocktail party talk. Everybody's at a
cocktail party being the best version ofthemselves. And so I'll hear you all
people to like you. You wantthat girl to wink at you. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, And you know, some of the best people they're
not talking, but I hear moreand more. It's almost like a distraction.

(04:12):
They don't want to talk about allthe insurances they take. They don't
want to talk about their high overhead. It's easier to talk about horses and
aviation and right, and that's hardfor locations. And there's nothing wrong with
those things. Right. We haveclients that enjoy those things the right way
because they have plenty of money todo it. It's funny when I talk
to those people and we look attheir data and it's like wow, So

(04:36):
they don't have much going for themexcept these things, which is what their
identity is. It's almost your Sowhy do you think, why do you
think they kind of dive into thatstick to more of their high points instead
of I mean, obviously you're notgonna be like, dude, I have
so many horses, but uh,you know I can't afford rent. Yeah,
the why right? I think that? Well, I don't have to

(04:57):
speculate. Dentists and specialists tell medentistry isn't quite what I thought it was
going to be. I envisioned acertain lifestyle and I'm living that lifestyle,
but I'm not very I am ahouse of cards right now. I feel
like I'm living month the month,even though I have all the nice things,
and it's almost like almost like adisappointment. They almost feel frustrated.

(05:17):
And again, these are successful peoplewith with you know, a few million
bucks in the bank and they mightbe making three or four one hundred thousand,
but they're they're extending and over extendingthemselves because dentistry, what it's provided
is good, but not quite asmuch as they thought. So they're filling
that void with the shot of adrenalineof buying the next cool thing. Could

(05:39):
that It kind of makes me thinkabout you know, NFL or NBA stars
who first sign on and the firstthing they do is to run to buy
a multimillion dollar home for themselves,are for like their mom? Well,
I mean NFL, that's documented likeseventy nine percent of NFL players go bankrupt.
Yeah, and that's before the braindamage. I mean, you know,
I think dentistry is a little different. I think part of the psychosis

(06:00):
really is for some of these people'sbreaking it down to does it feel better
to you to pretend to have everythinggoing okay or actually have everything going okay?
Right? I mean, you canhave that surface level thing, but
are you in the back of yourmind actually wanting to fix the situation.
Do you want to be that guywho's got everything ready to go? Or

(06:25):
are you acting? Yeah? Andagain all there's nothing wrong with these things,
but it's doing it the right way. And I think I think one
point I want to get across isand we've said it before. There's a
way to be sexy, be boring. You have your one point two million
dollars practice, you make five hundred, you save one hundred, you're on
track for twelve million, and youcan have a lot of freedom. But

(06:47):
again, I think so many practiceowners they get into huge practices and multiple
locations and all the technologies and it'sa look at me lifestyle, but their
actual financial situation is hollow. It'sa it's a house of cards. Would
be like surface rich too, likeit's it's that guy who wants to buy
the four hundred dollars designer T shirtjust to make it look like he's got

(07:09):
money. Four hundred dollars t shirt. That's terrible. Now, I just
I think that's why our event isso nice, is because ultimately we get
into these topics and everybody's pretty vulnerableand pretty real and pretty I mean,
listen, we talked, we talkto people who already make seven hundred thousand
dollars in dentistry, Well, whyaren't you making a million? Because your

(07:29):
your practice should warrant that. Andthey don't know the answer, and they're
willing to find out. Well,and and what's so great about being one
of our clients and talking to usis we we are cool with your hobbies.
We just want to help you finda way to make it work.
Yeah, we have clients that livea very simple life and they don't spend
much money. Yep. We haveclients who have very expensive hobbies. We

(07:53):
are custom will help people get wherethey want to go. What they have
in common is they don't want towaste their their their practice, their skills,
their talents wasting it makes people frustrated. That's a good common denominator.
But what you know, just likewhat was you know, people used to
call each other posers or you're backin the days. Unfortunately, it's the

(08:15):
imposter syndrome. Right, you're adoctor, you're a dentist, you're a
specialist, and you're making a lot, but you're spending more than you're making,
and you're how the finances are trashand so they lead with the look
at me stuff when in reality,some of the wealthiest centiside not don't.
That's not how they communicate because they'realready confident in themselves. But ultimately it's

(08:37):
how do you know? Right,that's a big framework of our of our
events. How do you know,if you're maximizing the profitability. And there's
not one answer, but a lotof people come to us and they want
to know. A lot of peoplewant that affirmation, and we'll look at
something to go, you're doing fine. There's lots of different answers, but
we'll find but it's but it's fine, good enough. I think that's I
think that's important too. For somepeople. It is, and that's certainly

(09:00):
okay, right, if you're happywith what you've got, more power to
you. Yeah, the technology aspecttoo. It's in dentistry. So many
people they want to keep up withall their peers slash competitors down the street,
and so they'll get all the latestequipment and they really advertise it for
all the same day things. Andthat's good if you're a profitable practice and

(09:22):
if you utilize that. But ifyou're an insurance shop and you're already taking
an eight hundred thousand dollars a yearhaircut on insurance, you have the best
equipment and the best turnaround time,you can trend that out five years and
you know you're losing a lot ofmoney. Okaycy let me ask you these
folks who often at these at theseevents and cocktail parties and all that.
The ones that do tend to standout by trying to be a little flash

(09:45):
here and kind of talking about theirsuccesses more do you find that they tend
to open up quicker, Like whenyou catch them off to the side,
are they more likely be like,oh shit, I would say? And
in our process, what do wesay? We have six steps and a
whole bunch of things. But yeah, a lot of times the first step
and a half it's it's fluff.But ultimately we you know, we get

(10:05):
to down to it real quick orwe just you know, stop talking.
But no, a lot of timesthis is hard. These are things that
people they've been successful their whole life, so not being able to figure out
lowering overhead and bettering their income andhaving cash flow. But they're frustrated,
and so there's shame involved, there'sguilt involved. There's a lot of these
things that keep people from talking aboutit, and money is not an easy

(10:28):
subject in general. No, Idon't find no nobody can counter. I've
got a McLaren, I've got ajet, I've got a horse fighter.
That's great. If your deal's bigleaguing everybody Now, the people we know
with those things don't lead with them. Yep, they're good people. They
were their horse trailer with the McLarenthat's fine. No, I mean I

(10:50):
you know the people we know withthose things that they're great people. They've
worked hard and done it the rightway, got out of their own way
and put themselves in a position whereyou want that. Yep, you can
have of that because you have doneit the right way. And it's what's
ego cost you, right, Solet's get back to that. At the
cocktail party, you everybody wants tosound good and feel good, and so
they're talking about all this stuff.If you get your ego out of the

(11:11):
way, and you run your practicethe right way and you have a good
team to help you, you putyourself in a position real quick to be
able to decide what color of saidthing do you want and be and be
set. Yeah, it's not goingto wreck your retirement. We talked to
so many people that they'll have thisthing or this dream and it's a shot
of adrenaline, is what it is. And materialism never fills the void.

(11:33):
But they want that shot of adrenaline. So they're going to screw up cash
flow and retirement and legacy to getthe thing, and then they get the
thing and it sets them back,and it's this whole cycle, and then
you need the next cool thing,the next shot of adrenaline. Yep.
There's a movie called Neighbors, whereaslike zac Efron has a fraternity house and
next door it's a newlywed couple witha small baby seth Rogans in it.

(11:54):
But the friend they have the friendsof theirs, they're a disaster marriage,
and so their idea is, well, our marriage is almost on a disaster.
Let's have a kid that'll fix it. Yeah, let's have a kid
that'll fix it. Are you kiddingme? But so many practice owners are
like, well, I'm just gonnabuy this thing and it's gonna fix it.
Yeah, I'm gonna buy another practice, or I'm going you know right
there, that's it. I wantto you know what I'm gonna. I'm

(12:15):
gonna talk to a practice broker becausethey're gonna make me feel good about how
great I am to go buy anotherpractice. Ye, yeah, it's again.
Distractions and cocktail party talk. Listen, if you want to come and
distract Casey, do you know whereyou're gonna be next do you know?
Or an next event is you're gonnabe in Charlotte, buddy, September twentieth
and twenty first busy week. We'vegot a Dental Society and U State New

(12:39):
York and then a little Charlotte action, yea, a little Charlotte action.
And then in October we're gonna bein Chicago Naperville area doing another bourbon tasting
and see event again. If you'renot a drinker, you don't want to
drink, you don't have to.That's a Gibson steakhouse. You can get
a great filet and some you know, poking a smile there, I'll be
there. I'll be coming, andso keep an eye. I'll go to
four Quadrants of Advice dot com slashevents. If you have not subscribed to

(13:03):
our podcast, you can always dothat on the site as well. Please
give us a review and give usa like and it always helps us out.
And if you know another buddy outthere who owns a practice, maybe
doesn't just wanting to and looking forsome good advice, turn them onto our
podcast. Thanks so much, Casey. That's all the time we have today.

(13:24):
Thank you to our guests for theirinsight and for sharing some really great
information. And thank you to youthe listener for tuning in. The Millionaire
Dennis podcast is brought to you byFour Quadrants Advisory to see if they might
be a good fit for you andyour practice. Going over to four Quadrants
Advisory dot com and see why yearafter year they retain over ninety five percent
of their clients. Thank you againfor joining us and we'll see you next time.