Casey and Jarrod discuss the psychology of practice owners focusing on the transformative power of mindset. They explore how one's perspective and beliefs can impact their actions and ultimately determine their level of success. Through engaging conversations and thought-provoking insights, they guide listeners on cultivating a positive and growth-oriented mindset to propel their businesses forward.
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. Jarrod Bridgeman joins me in studio. How you doing sir?
Jarrod Bridgeman:
How are you?
Casey Hiers:
Excellent. Today, I thought we could talk about a variety of topics, but the psychology of things with practice owners. I think maybe we'll start with that, but the listener may be able to hear my allergies are at peak season. I know we're recording this on the front end of the master's golf tournament. By the time this gets released, there'll be a 2021 masters champion. Do you watch golf at all Jarrod?
Jarrod Bridgeman:
I have seen it on a television before.
Casey Hiers:
Okay. Big expert. I actually got to hit the ball around a little bit this week and I think that contributed to the allergies just popping.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
My parents loved to play. I've gone putt-putting, that's kind of similar, right?
Casey Hiers:
I did some mini-golf this week. Two holes in one, my six-year-old got a hole in one. It was a big deal, but my whole 12 little ones were getting a little over it too, which I said, I agree. I think golf should be 12 holes, eighteens too many. But we actually have some pimento cheese sandwiches in office today. An homage to the masters and the pimento cheese sandwiches that are legendary.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Oh, is that really a thing?
Casey Hiers:
Yeah.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Oh, I had no idea. I thought you just liked to make those.
Casey Hiers:
No pimento cheese sandwiches at Augusta. They're a couple bucks and it's one of those really cool traditions there.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Wow. I learn something new every day.
Casey Hiers:
There you go again. But yes, my allergies are bad bear with me, but we will power on. So psychology. I mean, we didn't get a degree in psychology.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Nope.
Casey Hiers:
I think our chief operations officer did actually. But when you think about psychology, I like to think about change, right? And for our audience, change is something they have to do often what their practice and their employees and their folks. But do you like change?
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Only if I think it's for the better and it's very easily put in front of you, "Oh, here's a quarter on the ground, I'm going to be 25 cents richer." But basically I feel like no matter who you are, you're always afraid of change. You don't want to change up your relationship. You don't want to change up your house or your apartment or your occupation.
Casey Hiers:
Well, you nailed it. If it's changed for the good, you're all for it as long as it's not too hard, as long as it doesn't hurt.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
As long as you can see the future, if you're clairvoyant and you can see what's going to happen then okay.
Casey Hiers:
Now if you go from a workout perspective, hard workouts, they're painful. But boy, the pay off is really, really good. So it almost goes hand in hand. If you're going to change and change for the better, it might hurt a little bit. And that's a delicate balance. I know when we talk to practice owners, we hear that lot, that they're always evolving and changing and that's good. A lot of times it's on, we'll call it the small ball items. Maybe they need to tweak something with what their staff or their team. It's areas that are helpful, but it doesn't necessarily help the practice owner with something significant. Income.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.
Casey Hiers:
Overhead, big things. And that's what this is about. It's the psychology of change. The psychology of change within a practice where it's going to affect the listener.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
And as you said sometimes they are more apt to do the small changes because it's the least amount of work involved.
Casey Hiers:
Easier to point out things that you can change for other people but sometimes when it's change for yourself, a little ego comes into play. Well, I've done it this way and I'm pretty successful. So I'm going to keep at it. Have you ever experienced something like that?
Jarrod Bridgeman:
In my field, as a content creator, I find myself thinking that I'm better as a critiquer, that I can take someone else's video script or graphic design project and give them pointers to make it better. But on my own, I'm never happy with it. And at some point I'm just like, "Okay."
Casey Hiers:
Well I think you hit on something. It feels better to critique others and help others change. So maybe within an office to have areas where people need to change, but when it's you, sometimes you're your biggest critic. I think-
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Especially if you're the boss. Who else is going to help you, needle that down.
Casey Hiers:
I think in dentistry, clinically, a lot of practice owners are probably critical of themselves and really do want to improve. But then we talk about a lot on the business side of dentistry, the other part of dentistry, that's a little bit harder. Because they're not sure because it might hurt just like working out, just like any big changes, really good things can happen.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
What have you seen when you're out there speaking with our current clients or potential clients, what are some changes you've seen people either done on their own or have really taken our advice in [inaudible 00:04:59]?
Casey Hiers:
I like that question. I'm going to go big with the answer. People that maybe just keep doing what they're doing, staying on the hamster wheel. Maybe don't have the business side of the practice as strong as it should be. A lot of times they're not achieving what they want. And so rather than fix or change something, they will then just go out and buy into the practice. In their mindset, they've tricked themselves to say, "I'm really good at dentistry." They don't really want to admit they're maybe not as good at the business side. And so they'll go buy another practice, they'll have these projects that almost deflect what the real issues are, which is most folks didn't major in business, have an MBA in finance and study accounting.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Well, that's a future me problem. So, for example, I spent almost $500 on a 18 LP set. That's Vinyl Records. It's all the Godzilla soundtracks. I spent almost $500 on that. And you know what? Should I have? Probably not. But that is a problem for future Jarrod to deal with.
Casey Hiers:
Well, you just hit on something because our listeners are buying $150,000 machinery and equipment to potentially pay off later. But it's something that it scratches that itch of, "I'm going to add this, I'm going to spend this money. It's going to be good." But a lot of times they don't know. They don't know if they're really going to need it, use it, if it is going to help or they just going into debt because it feels like the right thing to do. Because again, the psychology of, "Well, my friend down the road is doing it and I know this big office across town does it. So I better do it." Right? It comes back to that psychology. It's almost easier to go buy something to fix it than to really look at your systems and processes and say, "You know what? This might hurt. But if it's for the greater good, let's do this."
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Oh, I agree.
Casey Hiers:
So in terms of what do I see out there? Again, people will go buy a practice versus someone who says, if there's a better way. And then when they do get their financial house in order and master the business side of their practice, you can have a million dollar practice. One point one, and we've seen it. In comes $425,000, they save $150,000 for retirement. They're on track to retire at age 58, with $14.3 million. When you start quantifying what change can actually mean I think that can help somebody, right?
Jarrod Bridgeman:
I think so.
Casey Hiers:
You can say, if you go work out, you're going to lose 10 or 20 pounds.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
You're still going to have a little bit of that drive though. You know what I mean? You have to want to change or this may be a really poor correlation. But think of, in my mind, the first thing that popped up was AA meetings. Not that I've ever been in one, but I've seen enough movies and TV shows, but the first step is to-
Casey Hiers:
What does that stand for?
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Alcoholics Anonymous.
Casey Hiers:
Okay.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
But the first step is to admit you have a problem. And if you can't even admit to yourself, if there's an issue going on, you were never going to fix it.
Casey Hiers:
I think that's a very good point. And again, change is hard. And the thing is, it's a seven or eight digit decision. I mean, some people change because they want to, because they want to achieve, like you mentioned others change because they have to. They're 52 and they realized, "Oh, I've been living a heck of a lifestyle. Haven't been capturing much. My overhead's high. What's my end game?" It's not fun to think about. And so you either change because you want to, or because you have to, if you change because you want to, and you do it early and young, you can reap some amazing benefits.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
So I think it's just tough because most people do really think about yourself being older, not around to put it bluntly, but it's not something that sits on your mind.
Casey Hiers:
And that's the difference between a $14 million retirement and a $4 million retirement. And it is a big deal. Even with the stakes that high, I talked to a lot of practice owners and they just... I don't know. That sounds hard. Right?
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.
Casey Hiers:
And sometimes it's all about timing. People have to have the timing to want to do it, but again, as a dentist or a specialist, if you kick that can down the road, I've had some desperate conversations with people where they say my spouse isn't even really aware of how great our lifestyle has been and how we're going to have to make some changes because we have not made those changes because it hurt in our minds. So we just didn't do it. And I'm guilty of that. I'll get to it later. I'll get to it later. And then you look up and you're a certain age. And you're like, "I never did that project." And again, that's a small example because again, this is a seven or eight-digit decision sometimes for practice owners getting that business side right.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
I think you're right. Even to put that on a personal level, in terms of being afraid of change, I stuck out a really, really terrible job for almost three years. It was very toxic because I was too scared to... What am I going to do without a salary? I've got young children. Again I have a lifestyle I want to maintain it may not be dentist level, but I like the things that I like. And when I eventually got fed up and I was like, "No, I need to make a change." Not only was my mood immediately better. My health was too.
Casey Hiers:
That's interesting. And you just touched on something, what are some of the big areas that when people change it helps. And insurance is another one. Somebody has a lot of debt. They take every insurance. They don't like it, but they don't know what to do. And so then the folks that have a team to help them make those decisions to potentially restructure things, have strategic direction that makes sense to perhaps dropping insurance that's not working and really focus on certain procedures and certain patients and things of that nature bottom line to take that power back. The psychology of change is frightening. It can make people anxious.
Casey Hiers:
But then once they do it, you just said it you're empowered. You feel good about yourself. You feel better. You're like, "Okay, I can do this." Right? And there's small examples and big examples. For our listeners, these are big-time decisions. Deciding to eat one less doughnut, or go run an extra mile. Those are small decisions that can help. But in dentistry, some of these decisions, do I implement some of these things? Do I work with somebody who can really understand my business or do I just stick with my friend or somebody that's really nice that I've known for a while? Huge impact. But it comes back to what? Mindset. Can somebody dig down deep and make those changes? Are you achieving everything you want to achieve? And I think back the clients who-
Jarrod Bridgeman:
I mean, this is what you do on your phone calls with clients, right? You're trying to figure out their mindset.
Casey Hiers:
Do they think there's an issue? How much is it costing them? Are they committed to fixing it? Those are the three questions. And if somebody doesn't realize there's an issue to your point, the first step is admitting it.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.
Casey Hiers:
And then, okay, well what's it costing me? Well, I don't know, but it's a lot. Okay. Do you want to fix it? Some people say, "No." I mean, in their heart of hearts, they say, "No, not right now. I'm just going to keep winging it." And that's okay. It's okay because you have to be ready for that change.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
And this is America and I feel like a lot of people also feel that there's always a chance of that magic lottery ticket hitting my way.
Casey Hiers:
Yeah. I mean, those are good odds, right? One in 300 million.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. Why not? Why not?
Casey Hiers:
Yeah. I think a lot of these practice owners with again, the debt that they have and the hard work they are producing amazing dentistry. And so they do feel good. They feel successful. But man, they need to be reaping the rewards of that success and so many of them are not. I think for today we just wanted to touch on the psychology of change and everybody's evolving. Nobody likes big change, but you have to look at it with an honest eye and say, "What's the impact? If I quantify this? What is it? Is this a $10,000 decision?" Or, "Is this a five to $10 million decision?"
Jarrod Bridgeman:
And we're not saying all change is great. But if you feel like you need to change, look at the pros and cons.
Casey Hiers:
That's it.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
And if the pros are way better than the cons-
Casey Hiers:
Get a piece of paper, draw the line pros and cons, and list it out. But anything else you want to leave our audience with in terms of psychology and change versus complacency?
Jarrod Bridgeman:
If you are feeling bad, if you've got a knot in your stomach, if you are finding yourself constantly stressed out, maybe it's time to change and you don't even know it.
Casey Hiers:
Yeah. That's a good point. A lot of times your body tells you, right? The stress of that. Well, Jarrod, this was fun talking about psychology and change and complacency and it's things we all need to get better at. Hopefully, our listeners got something out of it. Thank you, sir.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Thank you.
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.
