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The Three Questions That Reveal Everything About Your Practice · The Millionaire Dentist™

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  Hello, everyone, welcome to the Millionaire Dentist Podcast, brought to you by
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  Four Quadrants Advisory. On this podcast, we break down the world of dentistry,
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  finances and business practices to help you become the millionaire dentists you deserve to
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  be. Please be advised we do speak with an honest tongue and may not
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  be safe for work. Hello and welcome. This is Casey Hires back at
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  the Millionaire Dnist Podcast in studio with co host Jared Bridgeman. Casey, how
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  are you good? It's client day, we're in suits. Yeah, you're
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  looking sharpe. Look good. Feel good? That's right, feel good?
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  Podcast good, Yes, something like record. Well, there you go.
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  What do you want to talk about today? I wanted to talk about when
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  you are out in the field talking with practice owners, talking with dentists before
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  they even start in the process with us. Are there some common questions you
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  ask right away? Stuff that you need to know from them right now to
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  even get moved to step one? Gotcha? What what are some of the
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  questions that I wrote down that you have? Oh, I see how you
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  are. So your first question that you ask is this, what are your
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  biggest challenges? So There's two reasons why that question is important, and again
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  this is not necessarily in process with us, but just conversations with practice owners.
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  But the first one is do they know what their challenges are? Some
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  don't know, others aren't willing to admit them. That's a big one,
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  Okay, I mean, think about none of us really like criticism or to
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  acknowledge our faults. And so I think any maybe as a kid, or
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  in your twenties or whatever, at some point in our lives, we've all
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  probably been in denial about a fault. Is that fair? Well, for
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  sure? Any examples you'd like to give about your faults? If you've been
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  listening to this for a while, I'm sure you've picked up on some of
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  those. Well, if you see what I just did, I don't want
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  to talk about mine, right, Nobody wants to talk about them, and
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  so it's it's no one wants to show weakness. They don't want to show
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  frailty, especially when you're in you know, if you're a practice owner,
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  you're inherently in the leadership position. Yeah, yeah, no, Yeah,
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  we say this a lot. You've you've been an overachiever your whole life,
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  So it's it's kind of against your worldview to need something or not know something,
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  So that that's important because first off, are you know what they are?
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  And because some just they know that they're not. Their practice isn't performing
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  optimally or the most profitable, but they're not sure why. And then if
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  you do know, why, can you talk about it? And can you
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  admit it? Those are really more important than the actual what they are because
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  typically it falls under I don't know, half dozen to a dozen areas big
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  buckets sure, and so the actual question isn't as important as the things I
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  just mentioned. Well, let me let me ask you. I mean,
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  this is something that reverberates through a lot of different conversations of fields. But
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  why is it important to know what your challenges are? Like? Why is
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  it important to reflect on that? Well? I ask folks what their insurance
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  adjustments are if they're indeed in network with insurances, and a lot of times
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  they don't know. Or what's your overhead? I think it's sixty five percent,
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  it's actually eighty one. And so being able to identify insurance or overhead,
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  or employee wages or a lower income fees, whatever it might be,
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  patients per day production per day, referring out things, all these data.
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  You need to be aware of them. But typically if you're not, it's
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  worse than you think. And if it doesn't get addressed, what do we
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  say, It typically doesn't get better, it gets worse. Well, And
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  if you don't know what the challenges are, how do you work on them?
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  If you well, I mean poor example, But is this like dentist
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  anonymous, like you have to admit there's a problem before you can well,
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  low, I'm a dentist and my overhead is terrible and I don't know why,
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  right, or I don't know how to affect it right, because you
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  should know, hey, i'm having this you mean not obviously you don't have
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  a pinpointed exactly, but you should know there's an issue if that's the issue,
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  and potentially what your goal or what do you like it to be.
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  Here's another reason why they won't admit their challenges. They'll they'll say, well,
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  my overhead side, but you know, I'm not getting rid of the
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  employees, and I want nice stuff. It's not about that all the time,
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  right, Most of the time it's not about that. Or they go,
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  well, I have to take insurance because of where I live, there's
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  a huge employer, and you know that you're you're justifying the problem so that
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  you then don't have to address it. Sometimes there are very good reasons why
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  your challenges are your challenges, but being able to admit them, acknowledge them,
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  pinpoint them, and then determine is this something I can fix? Is
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  this something fixable? Is this something I need to delegate my options? Sometimes
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  it's tough. I mean, if your practice is on the top of Mount
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  Everest, you might have low, low patient value. Actually the ones that
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  are out in the rural rural areas that are that is saturated. But no
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  that that's a big one. And you know, again for our listeners,
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  what are your challenges? Have have that honest conversation with yourself and it's okay
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  if you don't know and your experience. A lot of the biggest challenges tend
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  to be relatively the same across the board. Like I mean, different areas
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  and different people have their own challenges, but there are a lot of times
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  very similar ones from practice to practice broad strokes. You can put them in
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  the like I said, six to ten buckets of what they are, the
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  reasons why, and how to fix them. Can be very different, very
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  custom. But yeah, no that we typically know what the big ones are.
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  And so again when I ask that question, I can hear if somebody
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  posing, is somebody in denial? Is somebody real? Does somebody want to
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  fix it? Like? I can pick that up pretty quick. What's something
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  else that I wrote down or you wrote down that I can't read? Yes,
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  because of my wonderful handwriting, O Casey, let me ask you.
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  You're the dentist right now, are you frustrated that your income doesn't reflect your
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  hard work? Kind of goes back. That's a question we like to ask
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  around here because again it's a testing question. Are you able to admit it?
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  Right? What do wait? Well, you know we're doing pretty good
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  and I you know, I it's in the bank or it's here. I
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  know why I'm not making more. So I'm gonna just rationalize or justify why
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  I'm not making what I should be making versus the practice owner that's making four
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  hundred. And they go, man, I don't feel like you know,
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  I've put in a lot. I don't feel like I'm reaping what I should.
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  I want it to be better. Can it be better? I love
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  that? And I hear that all the time, Like a lot of times,
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  the people that are making between four and seven hundred thousand dollars as a
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  practice owner, those are the ones that know it can be better and are
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  ready to do what it takes. It's the loudest cries come from the cheap
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  seats, and you know, if I'm infending somebody, hopefully it's a catalyst
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  for action. But the people in dentistry that don't pay themselves or make between
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  one hundred and twenty and say two fifty, they have got so much.
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  That's where I hear the loudest cries, the excuses, the justifications that denials
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  all that. And then I talk somebody's making six hundred and're like, yeah,
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  no, I snink at these two things I need to get better.
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  Can you help? Yeah? In your opinion, why is it that someone
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  making two to fifty is more defensive about what they may compare to the five
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  hundred thousand guy who who knows he can do better. Yeah, it goes
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  back to their great a dentistry. They're a high achiever. They've tried some
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  things and it hasn't worked. So if they can't figure it out, it
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  must not be possible to figure out. That's similar to my eight eight year
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  olds mentality. Okay, and again, if I'm taking if these are veiled
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  shots that our listeners didn't get better, right, But my eight year old
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  at different sports that she's doing well, she thinks she knows everything, and
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  then we'll go through something or she'll she'll fail, and then she'll go with
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  excuses and then I have to kind of sit her down and walk her through
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  it for her to get it. There's a lot of practice owners that have
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  that same mentality. It's not just practice owners, it's all of us.
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  All. There's a lot of us adults that do these same techniques. But
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  but yeah, that's that's what I see. It's the same as me if
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  I'm when I'm playing a video game, if I'm not into it right away,
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  I'm just like I'm done. Yeah. Well, but it's sometimes it's
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  I've tried everything. Again, I've tried everything, and it must not be
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  possible because I can't figure it out. Right. When you've tried maybe one
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  or two avenues and not really dug into it, Yeah yeah, yeah,
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  Well, I mean it would be like me having you know, eating caramel
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  corn and having a kernel stuck in my tooth and can't get it out with
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  flossing, and well, I guess it's just gonna have to be there forever
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  because I can't get it out. Well, I dentists can get it out
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  in two seconds. Same same. Also, it also has the mentality of
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  it's the money you're making yourself, so you're you're the owner versus employees,
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  because I feel like employees are much more apt to be like, where's my
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  raise? You know I should be making. Oh that's interesting. I read
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  something recently where it said and this can go to ownership. I'll kind of
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  tweak the annalt, but it basically said as as a as as like a
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  W two employee, I just never understood certain things, and I was always
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  I was frustrated at this or that. And then you go to being the
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  owner or an executive, and all of a sudden you're privy to a whole
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  bunch more information and you understand the why. And so yeah, I think
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  there's a little bit to that. Your third question that you that you tend
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  to ask is kind of a two parter. They work a little bit hand
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  in hand, but they are are you ready to be better? And are
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  you coachable. Yeah, And the first one kind of ties into the Really
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  the theme of this is it's timing, right, or somebody ready to admit
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  they need help it could be better. And again by admitting those things,
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  it can still mean you have a good practice, you're a great dentist,
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  you are successful right right? Um, I mean Scottie Shuffler's John Ron,
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  top golfers in the in the world, they have swing coaches. They have
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  they have like four or five coaches because they're awesome, but they know that
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  they can be better. Yeah. It just goes back to are are you
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  ready? Are you ready to see if there's a better way to achieve more?
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  Some people aren't. It's okay. Some people need to stub their toe
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  for a couple months or a couple of years. Others need to stub it
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  for a couple of decades before they try to get better. I also think
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  it's a case of the idea, yes, why wouldn't you want to be
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  better? I think everybody would say yes until they realize, oh shit,
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  there's change involved. Yeah, I have to I as a golf I have
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  to listen to my swing coach. Well, I just went out and shot
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  a sixty five on a tough course and then this guy's telling them I need
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  to tweak something and it's ego right, and it goes to coachability. You
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  know. Again, all we work with is high achievers. Can you hear
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  criticism backed up with that and be changed and change and be coachable? That's
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  important. Great example, we're in suits because we have a new client in
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  from Boston. Uh. This is somebody who is in their load of mid
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  thirties and they go, uh, second generation Dennis. But they said,
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  yeah, I don't know. I don't want to be the person that figures
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  it out at forty five. I want to do the right things. Now
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  had the pleasure of meeting them at an implant course. So look at that.
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  A young person doing implant course because they want to be better. That's
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  a good sign. But just got it and ultimately doing the right things,
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  having a team, being good at dentistry, and growing wealth in your early
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  to mid thirties, this person is going to be knocking on the door of
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  eighteen and a half million dollars. Now here's the thing. Retirement age goal
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  at sixty one, sure probably not gonna get the eighteen million because at fifty
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  five gonna look up and go, yeah, I'm good with thirteen and a
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  half. Right, But well, but I mean again, it's a great
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  example. This is a wonderful dentist learning implant had as a stud could be
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  an egotistical person that tries to do it himself for ten years and looks up
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  and he goes, But love that awareness, and ultimately it's going to be
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  massively successful. Work life balance is going to be great. We'll work four
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  days or less to get that, and just so so grateful to have a
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  team. You know that that coachability is important, but so again, what's
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  what? Why is coachability important? It makes sense in the initial question,
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  got a great example. Yes, hey, I found this practice. I've
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  drive by it every day the head lunch with the dentist. I want to
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  buy it. Okay, great, we'll look at all the data and give
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  our opinion. Well if our opinion is, hey, we found some things,
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  this would not be a great practice for you to purchase for these reasons
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  and the timing for these reasons, And somebody goes, okay, thanks,
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  I'm gonna buy it anyway, and then a year later it's a train wreck.
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  Well that's just a waste of everybody's time versus you bring that to us.
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  We go not to good practice. Why you might be outwardly frustrated or
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  emotional about it, Because you like it, you go. I'll respect the
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  process. A year and a half later, practice comes by thumbs up from
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  us, your team, no mistake, you buy it, you flourish.
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  You've saved yourself so much heartache. That's an example of the coachability that just
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  get out of your own way, right. I don't go into paying us
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  money and to not listen to us. When my dental professionals tell me I
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  need something done, I appreciate a little bit of explanation, and then I
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  do it, yes, because I'm coachable to their expertise. Same situation.
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  Just flip. Yeah, Oh my gosh, Casey, you're leaving this week
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  to go to the Florida Dental Convention. Yeah, yeah, great meeting.
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  Are you excited for that? Yeah? Yeah, get a lot of clients,
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  get to see them. It's a fun meeting. Gosh, I think
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  I have to present ce for three hours. Three hours, it's a lot.
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  Wow. Yeah, Well, you sure know how to talk, so
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  I think it'll be okay. It's about asking questions. Thanks Jared, thank
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  you. That's all the time we have today. Thank you to our guests
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  for their insight and for sharing some really great information. And thank you to
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  you the listener for tuning in. The Millionaire Dentist podcast is brought to you
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  by Four Quadrants Advisory to see if they might be a good fit for you
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  and your practice. Going over to four Quadrants Advisory dot com and see why
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  year after year they retain over ninety five percent of their clients. Thank you
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  again for joining us and we'll see you next time.