THE MILLIONAIRE DENTIST PODCAST

EPISODE 74: WHY DO PEOPLE WANT TO GROW?

apple podcast logo overcast logo spreaker logo pocketcasts logo tunein logo iTunes Logo google podcasts logo iheartradio logo
 

EPISODE 74: WHY DO PEOPLE WANT TO GROW?

Seems like every practice owner wants to grow. But have they really sat down and asked themselves why? Casey and Jarrod dig into the psychology of why people want to grow.

Want to stay up to date? Subscribe to the millionaire dentist podcast.

 

EPISODE 74 TRANSCRIPTION

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. Hello and welcome. This is Casey Hiers back at it again, in the Millionaire Dentist Podcast studio. We have Jarrod Bridgeman with us. How are you, sir?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Good. How are you?

Casey Hiers:
Good. Looking sharp with that. Is that magenta? Is that a hot pink?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
It's a hot pink, magenta shirt I found at one of those outlet stores.

Casey Hiers:
It looks nice, very sharp. So today, let's talk about growth. I'm going to tell you, Jarrod, I talked to a lot of practice owners, a lot of dentists, a lot of specialists, and it's almost an instinct, that they all talk about growth, wanting to grow, grow, grow, grow. And let's start it off like this. Why? Why does so many folks in all areas of the country, all have almost, a singular primary focus of, "Well, if I grow? If I can grow and get bigger." Then, what?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Well, I think the most obvious answer would be, cold, hard cash.

Casey Hiers:
The answer to most questions is money. So I threw that at you and to me, I think that's the right answer.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Agreed. But not to take away from the point already, but for most people, it's cash. A couple other people, and I feel like it almost is a status, like, "I have to do this." And so sometimes they may pursue growing in the wrong way.

Casey Hiers:
Perception. Sure. I know people that they want a handful of practices and they can't really explain why and it's not a bad thing to have many practices.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Sometimes there is an ego or a perception from your peers that you are more successful because of growth and scaling growth. But I think you're right. I think it comes down to money when people talk about growth. So Jarrod, while we're going to have some growth hacks, life hacks, growth hacks-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
... that we're going to share. I really want to dive into to that psychology of why people want to grow? And again, I think the answer is that they're not currently making the money that they want to, or they're not enjoying, perhaps the life that they expected to getting into dentistry because there are a lot of hurdles and obstacles out there that we talk about on this podcast.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Well, I feel like the average person, if they were making enough, if they were saving enough, if they were happy in their life, would just keep doing what they're doing. They wouldn't feel the need. Now that's not to say there aren't other people that are just overly ambitious all the time, which is fine. Be that way because that's how you get the Sam Walton's and the people like that, that are constantly making new buildings and places. But I feel like the average person if they're happy in their life, they're not feeling the need to change anything.

Casey Hiers:
Well, and I give this example a lot. You mentioned a lot of people want to grow or have multiple locations and again, growth, isn't a bad thing, do it the right way. But here's the point. Would you rather have that practice that collects 1.1 and produces 1.15? So meaning, your collection ratio is pretty good and you're making 400 and you're saving 150. Right? Then would you have the need and desire to grow? I think that gets to the core of it.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
And I pose that question to a lot of people because those are real numbers for a client we work with and many clients like that. And they ultimately say, "Well no, if I was doing that." But a lot of times it takes people two and three and four practices with massive overhead, to even get to that number. So I think you're right. The reason people want to grow, it's money. They're not achieving what they want to achieve. So they eliminate the idea that they can fix it and they move on to, "Let's just grow."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
So some of the growth hacks that we'll talk about, it does come down to good communication, good leadership, talking to your team, your staff. Right? And making sure everybody's pulling in the same direction to grow. But a lot of times that can come down to leadership, it's really easy to blame. Right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
People have excuses on maybe, why they're not growing enough. The first thing you need to ask yourself is, How's my leadership? Is the tail wagging the dog? Is my leadership where it needs to be? Is my communication where it needs to be? Are there clear expectations? Is there a clear, next step in communication? Because if there's not your team and staff are not going to figure it out on their own, most likely, and that might prevent some growth.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
And then there's frustration. Right? It's like this vicious cycle. So finding out why you want to grow is the first question.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
It might be money, it might be other. But then the second thing is, is anything you're doing as a practice owner, preventing that growth? And communication and leadership are big parts of that.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Huge. Communication is huge in every relationship, whether it be marriage, dating, employee, employer, anything like that, open communication tends to be the best. If you're hiding information and keeping information away from people, they're just going to get aggravated or feel the need to not perform at 100%.

Casey Hiers:
If people don't understand and what's being communicated, they will start to come up with their own reasons why something's being communicated. Great example, text messaging and emailing. Right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
Don't interpret emotion into that. And if you do, sometimes you're down a path that wasn't even meant to be. And so if the communication isn't clear, if you just say, "I want this." Without explaining the origin of it, people will jump to conclusions. Right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Well, for example, this is something I've had to do a few times in my professional career. I may get an email that I read as being vicious or just mean when maybe that person I was talking to is just a straightforward shooter. So I would get angry and I would type out a real long nasty email and then delete it and then rewrite it, to something that's extra professional, but sometimes-

Casey Hiers:
So chalk that up to therapy. Right? You just need to say it out loud.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
... yeah. But that's like the miscommunication of me, misreading their intent.

Casey Hiers:
There's a great Key and Peele.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Oh, yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Those are two names that they're basically, texting and one guy thinks they're great and the other guy wants to fight. It's a Key and Peele text message. Google it, it's hilarious.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Hilarious.

Casey Hiers:
It's a little vulgar, but it's hilarious. All right. So creating a culture of growth. Right? That needs to come from the top down. As the practice owner, if you're blaming everybody else, but you, you're the problem.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Well, that made me think of, you are either the hero or the villain in the team's eyes because you're the one person that they all can complain about or all praise. It's them against you or it's them with you. Because a hygienist is not going to come and complain directly to you, about you.

Casey Hiers:
Right.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
You know what I mean?

Casey Hiers:
Sure.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I feel that's just common in most businesses.

Casey Hiers:
Looking at yourself and your practice objectively. Right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes.

Casey Hiers:
If it's your practice, you love your practice and you might not look at it objectively. But again, why do you want to grow? What's preventing you from growing? Do you have a culture of growth? Are you growing the right way?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
One of the things, I think can often help with that is, involve team members. Why not have a monthly meeting and get together and brainstorm, no idea is a bad idea. Write everything down, put everything out there, and then, actually look at it realistically and be like, "Okay, well we can't donate $10,000."

Casey Hiers:
Well, a lot of people do daily and weekly meetings-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
... but maybe a more higher level monthly meeting is what you're-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I feel a lot of employees are much more apt to accept and implement an idea if they had a hand in it. They feel pride that they were able to help something out, instead of just being told what to do, which, I mean, that's what a job is.

Casey Hiers:
... understanding the why.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
The clear picture. No, I agree. Now listen, stretch goals. Right? That there's a whole lot of things. And listen, just like attorneys, there's a lot of them, some are not great, but there are some good ones. Same thing with practice management. There's a lot of practice management out there, some are good, some aren't. Some of this is going to sound a little practice management. And I say that as a disclaimer of, a lot of these hacks for growth, it's nothing that you may not have heard of, or don't know, but you're not implementing it. Right?

Casey Hiers:
That's where it comes down to, looking at yourself, understanding the why, understanding what are the obstacles? But then, if you're set for some growth, to your point, is there delegation involved? Is there a sense of ownership from your team? Does it feel like more of a dictatorship or does it feel like that team feel? That's important, those meetings are important. Stretch goals are important. Understanding what that looks like. What does success look like? What do you want? Too many leaders just complain.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
But they haven't stated, what's the stated goal?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Now, let me ask you, we're talking about a couple of ways to grow here and it seems like a lot of communication and then mental. But is there a possibility, I know the answer is yes, but I'm asking you, is there a possibility of growing too much, too quickly?

Casey Hiers:
Interesting. There's actually a hygienist shortage of sorts, we're hearing a lot of shortages. Right? Supply chain and all these things. Well, unfortunately, with COVID, a lot of older hygienists have just retired. They said, "I'm out." And that there is a little bit of a shortage there and I'm hearing that more and more from practice owners. And I was talking to somebody the other day and they're producing 1.4, they're collecting just under a million and they feel like they're too busy. They feel like they are busting at the seams.

Casey Hiers:
So yeah, in that regard, look at your insurances, look at your patients per day, your production per day, your fee schedule, the insurances. What's their reimbursement? There's some strategy around that because all of a sudden you can grow, grow, grow. If you've got the right attitude. You understand why you want to grow, your team has the right attitude. They've got their goals, they're involved, they feel ownership. You're rewarding, some growth. All of those things fall into place. All of a sudden, your issue isn't the growth, your issue is my hygiene's booked out six months.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
I don't have enough chairs. I'm working too much. I don't really want to move. What do I do? Then you're starting to get back to the question of, "Well, you wanted to grow, now you did. You've got a bunch of insurances." You traded one set of problems for another set of problems. The patients are coming through the door-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
... but now, it's prioritizing them. And potentially looking at insurances, do I need to drop one? What can I improve? Right? Am I spending enough time with my patients? You don't want to short-change that. So to your point, yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
The answer, you can grow too fast. What then? And so I always say, "Be careful what you wish for because you trade one set of problems for another."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
And again, if you don't have the systems and processes in place, you're going to find yourself in the same place, the place of frustration, right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep. So I mean, and this is a tough thing to conceptualize is, you can get lost in the forest or lost in the trees, but you kind of need a micro and a macro sense of your practice. You don't want to get too bogged down trying to save every dime you can get.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. Well, yeah. Our Founder and CEO, Jason Smith, he loves to say that, "Don't don't trip over nickels on your way to dollars." And a lot of times as a practice owner, and we've talked about this on previous podcasts, right? You're the primary producer of your practice, but you're also the hub of most things unfortunately if you don't work with a firm like us. And so as the hub, there are so many things on your plate, your day-to-day activity, you got in that woods, you are swatting away so many things, that it's hard to get that macro view. Right?

Casey Hiers:
And so you're looking at, we'll call it a small balls, right? You're looking at some little things that aren't necessarily impacting your bottom line, but man, if you can just get help with your staff or some scheduling, and those things are important. But ultimately, yeah, you can get really bogged down by the minutia.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Really the goal is, to produce. I'm sure most people out there listening, do not want to look at spreadsheets all day and look at finances and trying to connect their accountant to their financial planner and dealing with scheduling issues and things like that.

Casey Hiers:
It comes down to efficiency. You need to be efficient. Your team needs to be efficient. You want efficiency for your patients. Right? You want efficiency for your production, your work, your efforts, your compensation. If everything can be efficient, you're pulling in the same direction. Growth can help it, growth can also hurt it. Don't just want growth for growth, want growth for the right reasons, understand what will ultimately come from that, and be able to handle it. But yeah, you're a small practice and you grow, new set of problems.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep, yeah. And it really comes down to, you want to grow? That's great, to what end? What's the plan? And make sure that's clear. But again, there are a lot of growth hacks. Right?

Casey Hiers:
Yep.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Create the culture of growth, reset your daily production goals, so that they reflect what you want. Involve team members, delegate, ownership, reward that growth. Right? And it doesn't have to be some big thing, but listen, team goals, your good team members will want to achieve some things and they will pick up the-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
The slack on those?

Casey Hiers:
... yeah, yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Maybe not bad, but not so great.

Casey Hiers:
Maybe the ones that, they either need some training and education or potentially, there needs to be a change in that position.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
But those team goals help. Right? Rewarding that growth. Those are all things to do. But what I want our listeners to say here is, why do you want to grow? What issues will that potentially bring up? And if it's the answer for most questions, which is money. Do you need to grow, to potentially make more in savings?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's what I was just going to point out? I mean, yeah, you're growing more, but are you accepting more? Is it the same percentage or are you losing the insurances?

Casey Hiers:
No, that's exactly right. Magnifying your existing issues. Well, I think talking about growth is important because that's a topic that a lot of practice owners are sometimes, singularly focused on.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
Growing will not solve your problems. You will trade in one set for another. They're good problems to have, but you're going to have to overcome new hurdles-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
... in order to make more and to save more, there's no magic bullet. But doing some of the blocking and tackling on this growth, is something I wanted to share with our listeners. And I'm glad you brought it up.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Well, 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.