Casey and Jarrod delve into acknowledging personal growth after overcoming challenges. As they share their experiences of navigating tough times, they highlight the significance of staying mindful and not reverting to old habits even when things seem to be going well. Listeners are encouraged to embrace change and continue pushing themselves forward to prepare for the next chapter in their lives.
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 Hierss back at it again. The Millionaire Dentist Podcast. Jarrod Bridgeman joins me in studio. Jarrod, how are you doing?
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Hey, I'm Good, I cut you off there. How are you doing?
Casey Hiers:
Doing well man, doing well. Let's roll out our topic for the day for our listeners and I don't know what we're going to call it, but how about preparing for the next big thing?
Jarrod Bridgeman:
That makes sense. I mean, look at the last, more than a year and how life's been in our country.
Casey Hiers:
Unpredictable, volatile.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Some would say so.
Casey Hiers:
What I mean by the next big thing is if you look at the current economic, political health climates, they're volatile and it's been an interesting 12, 13 months as things smooth out. I look at it and say, what's the next thing? What's the next big thing?
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Because something's going to happen. We don't know what it is.
Casey Hiers:
Inevitably, and for our listeners, the hiccup that 2020 brought them was, well, you can't produce for a month, maybe two months, maybe more. That's a significant hiccup. And so there's a lot of optimism right now as a whole bunch of people had COVID. Thankfully they've got some antibodies. Then you think of all the people getting vaccines. So there's a lot of optimism. It's starting to feel good. And my mind just goes to what's next? And for our listeners, I think more specifically, what was exposed during that time.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
As you said, preparing for the next big thing, we don't know what it's going to be, and with COVID and the shutdown and everything from last year and the lingering effects of that, I feel that it really exposed a lot of practice owners and businesses all around to maybe their setup wasn't good enough.
Casey Hiers:
Well, it used to be the what-if game. What if? Well, that actually happened. What if I can't produce? What if I can't work? And unfortunately, that was experienced. And so now there's optimism. People are "getting back to normal." But to me, a wise prudent person would look at this and say, okay, I don't want this to happen again. If it does happen again, what am I going to do to insulate myself? And so today let's talk about what can you do for the next big thing, whatever that looks like.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Let's not get so happy about things "returning to normal" when you use that and forget what just happened. Like we've got to keep moving forward, but don't forget the mistakes you made in the past in case this happens again or something else happens.
Casey Hiers:
A wise man once told me there's always something. And so I spoke to a practice owner today and they were talking about their insurance reimbursements. They were talking about their accounts receivables. They were talking about how they're frustrated that their staff are not staying on top of this. And so that combination of insurance reimbursements, they typically change not for the better. And those accounts receivable. So now they're producing, but they still have frustrations. There's still issues there. And there's always something. Unfortunately last year it was a big something, but ...
Jarrod Bridgeman:
If you were a practice owner who maybe does a little too much with insurances. And so you're already may be making, I don't know, half, 50 cents of every dollar you're actually producing. And then two, three months you can't even produce it all. That probably really hurt the wallet there.
Casey Hiers:
Yeah. And again, that comes back to what's your business model? Like, what do you want out of your practice? Some people want a volume shop. That's okay. But you have to ask yourself, how can I get to my financial goals? The person taking every insurance, making less than $300,000. I hope they enjoy giving away all of that free dentistry because you can do better. I mean, let's talk about DSOs, they're growing.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah and then everything I hear is its kind of fearful, kind of people are kind of scared of when of a DSO moves into their town.
Casey Hiers:
And then I hear a lot of practice owners saying, well, I'm going to do my own little mini DSO. I'm going to get two, three, four, five, six locations. And somebody is going to buy them from me.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
That doesn't seem to work out as well as people think.
Casey Hiers:
That's a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and capital.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Capitable.
Casey Hiers:
On the chopping block for the hope. And hope is a horrible business strategy. For the hope that somebody comes in and buys that out.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Exactly. And we've touched upon this a few other times in different podcasts. If you're not running one practice correctly, what makes you think you're going to be able to handle five or six?
Casey Hiers:
That's right. I mean, if your overhead is 50, 55, 57%, and you've got the right systems and processes in place and you're humming, there are situations where it makes sense. Old man river down the road is selling his practice and strategically it aligns. Somebody should expand. So often we're telling people, be cautious, be cautious. There's many times that people should jump on these opportunities, but they need the right data. They need to understand.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
The numbers need to make sense.
Casey Hiers:
That's right. Not the instinct, but the numbers. Yeah, no, that's a very good point. And again, it all comes back to what? Your overhead, your income, your retirement savings. The scoreboard. How are your decisions affecting your scoreboard? And the next big thing that could potentially put a dent in production or those things, it's going to affect it. And so the conversation I had again, just this morning, how can I capture more from what I'm already doing? I'm not interested in producing more. I already produce one, three, one, four. How can I capture more? That's the question. And if you're consistently capturing more income and retirement out of what you're already producing, that insulates you from the next take up, the next big thing. But it's so easy for people to be busy and not think about it. We're back to normal. I'm good. I'm going to keep doing the same thing.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
And if you were really feeling that pressure last year, what makes you think that you're going to be able to handle the next crisis?
Casey Hiers:
Right. Well, as you said, people were exposed, what did they learn from it? How are they going to change? What are they going to do? It's a volatile climate. I think we agree with that.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Oh yeah. And I mean, and all of this changed and all this stuff happened all at once. We had COVID, we had a change in presidents, you know what I mean? Like there was political stuff. There was a lot of things that all happened at once. And it was all things growing up and down. And every time new policies mentioned ...
Casey Hiers:
The stock market.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Stocks gets a hit, where it goes up or down. And it's kind of hard to even take educated guesses sometimes. At least for me. That's why we got people on staff who are way better at this now, me personally.
Casey Hiers:
Right and go into volatility, everybody wants a quick fix, everybody wants a magic bullet if you will. And so right now, I mean, you have people from all walks of life, getting into things like the cryptocurrency. The cryptos and you and I are joking for some fun money, we're having fun with some cryptos as more of a hobby.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. It's not something I wouldn't put my savings into.
Casey Hiers:
Well, the scary part is what if you have a practice owner who they know that they've under saved for retirement. So they say, I'm going to put hundreds of thousands of dollars into crypto right now. The volatility of it. Listen, there's three-month periods where you can look at that and go, I am amazing. I should be a stockbroker, Wall Street, financier [inaudible 00:07:37], whatever you want to call it. But the problem is the volatility.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
The new apps out there, Robin Hood, and things like that have made it seem easier to buy and sell crypto, to buy and sell stocks. Stocks were something I never quite understood. And then I got the apps and I started playing with them. But I do very, very little personally, just because I seem to have the worst luck on when I should buy, when I should sell, I've lost money. But I'm only playing with couple hundred dollars. I'm not out there throwing thousands of dollars at stocks.
Casey Hiers:
Sure. Small amounts.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
For my retirement stuff, I let our people handle that.
Casey Hiers:
Yeah, well, the turtle wins the race. There are no magic bullets. The volatility is incredible, everybody's happy when they're in the green until one day they're not. 2008, went down 38, 40%, the market, all of a sudden, all these people that think they've got the market beat. They weren't prepared for the next big thing. And that's really the spirit of today's talk is if you're out there, what did you learn from 2020? What did you learn about yourself? What did you learn about your practice? Where do you need to get better? And then ultimately, what steps are you taking to get better? Be excited that things are leveling out. But don't revert back to ...
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Old habits.
Casey Hiers:
Head in the sand, kick the can down the road, whatever analogy you want to use, don't keep doing the same things. If you're overhead's sub-60s, mid-50s, then you're doing a lot of the right things. But if your overhead, if you don't know it, if it's in 65, 70, God forbid higher than that, you need to do something about that. And what we always say, either figure it out to confirm you're doing the right things or start to do the right things. But that status quo and a volatile national, political health, economic climate, it's hard. So again, prepare for the next big thing.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
What would you say to someone who doesn't know how to handle their overhead? Maybe it's not their strong suit or they've exhausted all of their own personal resources on trying to control their overhead? What would you say?
Casey Hiers:
I've never been to an AA meeting, but the first step would be I'm Dr. So-and-so and I don't have control of my overhead. The first step I think is awareness and saying, I need some help. That's the first step. The second step is them realizing they probably can't do it on their own. So then look to your external team, the people that you pay to do your tax management, to manage your finances, all those things that we talk about. Accountant, financial planner, business advisor, investment person, can they help you? What are their strategies? Unfortunately, a lot of those, they are in a myopic singular vacuum doing their one job really well, but they don't have that universal picture. So the first step is realizing there's an issue. The second step, who can help me? If your current team can, awesome. If not, find one that can.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Well, I was talking to one of our clients last week and I was interviewing them for an upcoming video. And I asked them, what was their experiences like with professionals before they became a client of ours?
Casey Hiers:
Consultants, practice management, yes.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes. And they said some of the hardest things they had to deal with was just getting their people to connect with each other. I can email my accountant and I could email the financial planner, but trying to get them two to talk to each other, like they had to send email after email, after call just to get them to connect.
Casey Hiers:
The universal plan versus the singular focus plan. So you might have your practice management working on one project, your accountant, and like you said, that's a good point. So that model, does that help you? Or does that hurt you? Typically, it just takes more time.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, and what could you be doing with that time? You could be producing more or at home with the family even.
Casey Hiers:
Well, most of our listeners know that. That's what we do all day every day. We master these things for our clients so that they can capture more from what they're already producing so that they have the decision. Do I want to spend more time on things I want to spend time on? And unfortunately when we go back to the business model preparing for the next big thing or what the hiccup is, sometimes the current business model of our listeners is the problem. That's the hiccup. They don't have strategic direction around insurances or patients per day, production per day, their supplies or their chart of accounts. So many things.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
Especially if they bought another practice and that was already the problem with the old practice. Like you kind of come in and then you're too afraid to change the model, shake the boat a little.
Casey Hiers:
Oh, young associates out there. They're full of piss and vinegar that'll probably get cut, but they're full of energy and they don't know any better to buy a practice early and it's outdated. I'm going to update some of the lipstick and the practice and maybe a new practice software.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
But if you've never ran a business before, you don't know what you're doing.
Casey Hiers:
They just think that's how it is. They get caught in that trap of, well, I guess this is the way, so there is no improvement, there is no preparing, there's no insulating. They wake up 20 years down the road. And they're like, where'd all my money go? I should have multiple millions of dollars in the bank right now and I don't.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
And the thing is, in their mind, they're thinking if it's not broke, don't fix it. But here's the thing. It is broken. You just don't know.
Casey Hiers:
Listen, the word prepper. Like there's a funny connotation to a prepper, but if you're a practice owner, be a prepper. And what I mean by that is prepare the 20, 25 years, it's a blink. And I know that because I talked to folks in their mid to late 50s and they weren't prepared. They didn't prepare for anything. They worked really hard, but they're going, wow, that went really, really fast. And again, for our listener out there, more volatility's happening. It may be on a local level in your practice. It may be on a regional level, maybe on a national level, but don't settle for status quo.
Jarrod Bridgeman:
I would agree with that.
Casey Hiers:
Thanks, Jarrod.
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.
