Join Casey and Jarrod in this lively episode as they draw parallels between perfecting a dinner recipe and running a dental practice. Discover how attention to detail, precision, and creativity in the kitchen can mirror the skills needed to manage a successful dental business.
Announcer:
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Millionaire 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 you become the millionaire dentist you deserve to be. Please be advised, we do speak with an honest tongue, and may not be safe for work.
Casey Hiers:
Hello, and welcome. This is Casey Hiers, back at the Millionaire Dentist Podcast, in studio with co-host Jarrod Bridgeman. How are we, sir?
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Good, Casey. How are you?
Casey Hiers:
Doing well.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Nice. You just got back into town. You were in Atlanta presenting, weren't you?
Casey Hiers:
Yeah. We like to do our academic events, but this was a Four Quadrants event we did. Had a great crowd, and as fun as Topgolf and free food and drink is, they were there for the subject matter.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.
Casey Hiers:
The business side. And really a good workshop, a good course. A lot of folks were able to come away really, really happy that they attended. Absolutely.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Any interesting questions that popped up from the crowd this time around?
Casey Hiers:
A lot of the things that were more top of mind were actually around some of the taxes, tax management. This crowd in particular, and most practice owners, tend to just put up with as well, I guess that's just how it is for everybody. And then when they learned, actually, no, that's not an acceptable standard of care for a practice owner, we really got into that I would say, more than... And again, different crowds, they want to hear about different things. How do I save $150,000 a year for retirement? Our firm helps with that, but yeah, this is probably more tax related.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Cool. That makes sense. Taxes are coming up here pretty soon. We're starting getting into the swing of that, tax season.
Casey Hiers:
Top of mind for a lot of people, no doubt.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right. Right before you left, we did have a fun little social event here at the office. We did a chili cook-off, which I was very excited about.
Casey Hiers:
Yes.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
As was our owner, and you were as well.
Casey Hiers:
Shout out to our event coordinator, Brian Oakley. There was a trophy involved.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. It was a golden wooden spoon.
Casey Hiers:
Yeah.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
I was really mad because, fun fact, I did not win.
Casey Hiers:
I wasn't even going to participate, I was just going to enjoy it. And then when I saw there was a trophy, something clicked in my head, and I said, "Well, I have to to compete. I need this trophy.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Like competitiveness. Yeah.
Casey Hiers:
And I told my eight-year-old, she's like, "What are you doing?" I'm like, "I'm cooking." "Why?"
Jarrod Bridgeman:
She'd never seen you do that before.
Casey Hiers:
No, not really. Minus my spaghetti. Daddy's world-famous spaghetti. But she goes, "There's a trophy? Well, yeah, you got to win it." So, she's mine.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. So out of the seven entries we had, you and I are both involved, neither one of us won.
Casey Hiers:
I lost the damn chili cook-off, and my Purdue Boilermakers got beat by our biggest rival, in-state rival. So yeah, a lot of-
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Bad weekend for you besides the trip.
Casey Hiers:
It's just humbling.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.
Casey Hiers:
Yeah. No, Atlanta was great, and otherwise, the defeats were very humbling this weekend.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
What I thought was kind of interesting, trying all the chilies, everybody brought their A game, that's not to say that everybody's chili was an A game, is that everybody you meet has a chili recipe, just about, right? And especially here in the Midwest, I'd say. Everybody has their own recipe, and everybody swears up and down that they have the best chili in the world. And you think that until you put it up against other people's and realize, "Oh, shoot, mine's not that great."
Casey Hiers:
Yeah. I had seven pounds of meat in mine. Italian sausage, bacon, maybe some Wagyu, maybe some molasses. I don't want to give away all of it. And this translates to practices. There's a lot of different practices, practice models, a way to go about that.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
A lot of different recipes, for both chili and for running a practice.
Casey Hiers:
Yeah. And sidebar, cook-offs are a fun thing to do in the office or what have you. It was a lot of fun, and ate a lot of really, really good chilies.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
So the winner of the whole thing had seven different types of fresh chili peppers in his. It was awesome.
Casey Hiers:
Seven different chili peppers.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
It was really good.
Casey Hiers:
While listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers while he was cooking it.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right. Mine, I tried doing an Asian thing, and I second-guessed myself and ruined it. I should probably stick to what I'm good at.
Casey Hiers:
Well, the seven different peppers, we talk about this all the time, and actually, at the last course this came up, there's not one or two ingredients for successful practice, there's many. I didn't realize there was seven different chili peppers to put in chili, but when we go around and educate the dental world on the business side of dentistry, that's one of the big topics that, the light bulb goes on. People are trying to find one or two or three magic things, and it's dozens of things to make your practice go really well. And for the winner of our chili contest, there was a lot of components that made his chili really come together.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Just like a practice, the entire recipe makes for a good chili.
Casey Hiers:
Well, like you said, there's many different chili recipes, there's many different types of practices. And there's personal preference involved.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right. I like mine spicy as hell.
Casey Hiers:
I like mine sweet on the front end, and then have some heat on the back end.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
I like to be snotty and crying.
Casey Hiers:
You like to be emotional eating chili.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's right.
Casey Hiers:
But it's the same way with practices. Listen, there are successful practices that are insurance-driven quantity shops. They produce a boatload of dentistry. They've had big everything, big staffs, big patient base, all of that, and they can be successful. That's their preference. There's many different models.
It's the same thing with chili, but here's the conversation I have with a lot of practice owners. They didn't really get a say. They bought a practice, inherited a practice, or found themselves as a practice owner, and half the chili was already cooked for them. The practice was already what it was, instead of, what is your dream, and what are our clients? We have that conversation.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, spend all the time doctoring it up, for lack of a better term. But they spend a lot of that time just trying to add more and more things on top of it, hoping to fix what's underneath.
Casey Hiers:
Yeah, versus saying, what do you want your practice to be? What do you want it to look like? And folks that have owned their practice for a while, we ask our new clients those things, because you can have different types of practice models to achieve massive success with our tutelage, and we have that, and we see that all the time. There's not just one way. And again, it's the same analogy, but with chili.
There was a handful of chilies that I really liked, and they were very, very different. But as a practice owner, you need to determine what you want out of your practice, and make that happen. And you don't have to stick with the one just because that's the one maybe that somebody sold you, and you go, "Oh, I guess I have to take a lot of insurances."
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Casey, you did Atlanta. I know next week we're going to be in Nashville, Tennessee for another one of our events. What are you looking forward to in Nashville?
Casey Hiers:
Well, a couple of things. We're actually going to a Maxicourse to present to a group on the East Coast. And again, those folks are typically very engaged in dentistry. If you're going to pay the tuition and take the time to take a course of that nature, I love those audiences.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's right before our [inaudible 00:07:10].
Casey Hiers:
Yeah, because those folks are engaged. How can I be better? How can I be a better dentist? How can I be a better specialist? How can I be a better practice owner? And they are engaged, their egos are done. They want to be the best, and so I love that crowd.
And then going to Nashville, we've got a big crowd, but I'm excited, you and another teammate are going.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right. I'm excited.
Casey Hiers:
Some of these I just do solo. It's going to be fun to have the paparazzi around snapping some pics, and having another teammate there to just see and enjoy. Number one, practice owners are a lot of fun, especially on a Friday at a Topgolf, but ultimately, what are they hungry for? What do they want to know and learn? And our subject matter just hits home.
Just like anything, there's always excuses and reasons not to come, but the people that do, for the most part, are so happy they did. And for some of them, it'll be a game changer for them. But there's a lot of those people that, they're the busy dentist and there's always an excuse, and it's unfortunate because man, this stuff does change lives.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Listen, if you are in the Nashville-ish area or close enough to it that you want to drive, go to fourquadrantsadvisor.com/events. There is a link there to where you can register. Please do so if you are interested in coming. For the rest of you that are not in the Nashville area, we're going to be hitting up all kinds of spots all over the country, and just visit that page and see where we're going to be.
Casey Hiers:
It's funny, I brought some company logo, Titleist Pro V1s to the event, and a couple of the golfers that actually golf, golf, they go, "Whoa, are these Pro V1s?" I go, "Well, yeah, nothing but the best." And he goes, "Man, I need these. I lose a lot of golf balls out there."
From a premier entertainment level, it's a great time, but from a depth of subject matter, and again, I'm not overstating, this can change your life or at least give you some pearls of wisdom to help you. It's a can't miss.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
I agree.
Casey Hiers:
Well, and again, for some of these events, if you want to come and learn... You watch the Iron Chef, right?
Jarrod Bridgeman:
I do. Yes. I love the Iron Chef kind of shows and cooking shows. But when we were talking about the chili thing, it popped in my head, are we the Iron Chef, in terms of helping out dental practices? Are we able to take any recipe and just, boom?
Casey Hiers:
Not any recipe.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Okay.
Casey Hiers:
We are not a rescue firm.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
All right.
Casey Hiers:
But my goodness, if you want people to dig your chili... That was a line I used to use a long time ago, I dig your chili. If you want to dig your own chili, a lot of people who are in practices, they don't like their practice. They're frustrated by it, but they feel trapped.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.
Casey Hiers:
Again, one of the first steps is coming to one of our courses or scheduling a phone call with our team, to look under the hood at the practice to see, to look at the ingredients. What do you want your chili to taste like? Here are the ingredients it takes. We know what it takes to get there. Some people have terrible chili like you said, but they think it's great. First step, realize it could be better, and then ultimately, find your Iron Chef for your practice.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
What might help out is, we're doing a little free taste test. If you go to our site and fill out one of our forms, we're actually doing a free financial assessment for practices. You can choose one option of eight, so visit our site and fill it out there or give us a call.
Casey Hiers:
I saw what you did there. Pretty good.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
All right.
Casey Hiers:
Hey, we're here to help.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Thanks, Casey.
Casey Hiers:
Thanks.
Announcer:
That's all the time we have today. Thank you to our guests for their insight, and for sharing some really great information. And thank you to you, the listener, for tuning in. The Millionaire Dentist Podcast is brought to you by Four Quadrants Advisory. To see if they might be a good fit for you and your practice, go on over to fourquadrantsadvisory.com, and see why year after year, they retain over 95% of their clients. Thank you again for joining us, and we'll see you next time.
