Beyond the Balance Sheet: Unmasking the Hidden Hurdles to Dental Millionairedom

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.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Casey, I'm so happy you're here. You were on vacation and left me all alone, and I was sad for myself.

Casey Hiers:
Well, you got some experts on and covered some important things.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I did.

Casey Hiers:
That's a win.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I had some CPAs on here.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
They know how to party.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I'll tell you that much right now.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, they can provide a lot of expertise.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Not only do they know what they're talking about and they're very good at it, and you and I have talked in the past about proactive versus reactive. These guys are so proactive in what they do. They work with our clients every day to talk about any new tax laws or how that's going to affect them in their practice. Then you've got Steve, the golden pipe sleeve.

Casey Hiers:
Well, you didn't have to spoon-feed them with content 'cause they had lots of good information for it.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. He just came to me and he is like, "Here's what I want to talk about," and I was like, "Great. I'm going to take a nap." It was awesome.

Casey Hiers:
So what do you want to talk about today?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Today I wanted to talk with you. You came back from vacation. You kind of let some of that mind clutter get out for a minute, and now you're back in it knee-deep in the world of talking to people.
We often talk about some of the most common pain points that practice owners face, whether it's staff, cash flow and high insurance adjustments. Once people start speaking with you and your team and are part of that process, sometimes different pains come up that aren't as common. Has there been any fun or not fun, but different ones that you see sometimes or can be very detrimental to the process?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. We're very good at getting to the heart of the challenges that practice owners have 'cause we know what they are. But sometimes the practice owners, it's like I'm a part-time therapist because we're getting into some waters that they instinctually know are challenging, but they haven't even necessarily verbalized those to themselves or their spouse when we're talking about these different things and then they start to kind of, once you start peeling the onion or pulling the thread on the sweater, it keeps going and going and going. There's a lot of times, there's a lot of challenges in a practice. They've never been asked about them or talked about them.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
And so it's a wild situation. But ultimately you're sick, you go to the doctor. We have a lot of people that, they're very talented, they're very skilled at dentistry, but they've got this business and they're frustrated because dentistry is not what they maybe thought it was going to be, at least.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right. Maybe their practice is a little sick.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. So yeah, I mean they're not fun. They're just challenges that practice owners have. And sometimes it's just straight money. It's overhead. It's income. It's retirement. It's debt. More straightforward tax management. But other times it can be stress, work-life balances, family dynamic challenges that cause the practice owner to have a lot of stress at home, a lot of stress in the practice, and there's not enough of them to do all these things. But it takes people sometimes years, sometimes months, sometimes decades, to have that humbleness to go, "Okay, something's got to change."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right. And when you're speaking with them and maybe their main focus might have been things are kind of rough at home, we're very stressed, we're worried about cash or just things are hard with the wife, I don't have a lot of time at home.

Casey Hiers:
Or the husband.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Or the husband, yes.

Casey Hiers:
You sexist bastard.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I know. Every time. Oh, why? Why me? My dentist is even a woman.
But still. When you begin talking with them, do you dive? I'm assuming you do, but you dive into, well, what's the root cause? What's possibly causing the friction at home?

Casey Hiers:
We're not marriage counselors.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right, but ...

Casey Hiers:
But the answer to most questions is money, and what people tell us is when their money's right. Other things that potentially frustrated them, frustrate them less. Staff, challenges at home or opportunities at home. There's good stress that can be hard, but yeah, it's just what's somebody's bandwidth and capacity. And unfortunately too many practice owners try to be everything to everybody, their patients, their staff, their family, and they're looking at this and they're frustrated.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
They're so used to being in charge of maybe being a people pleaser and all that kind of builds up and then all of a sudden you're weighed down too much.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, no, it's hard. It's really challenging and ultimately it's fascinating to just, for me, I'm just trying to learn what's the situation? Is this something that's even in our wheelhouse and are they in a position where they're mentally ready for change? Those things are hard.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
As part of the coveting process we've talked about before, has there been any odd things that have kind of killed the deal or at least slowed it down a bit outside of maybe their practice was just not at a certain level?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. Well, for us, we talk to practice owners and spouses, and sometimes the spouse is heavily involved in the practice, and that can be a real blessing. That can also be a real challenge. Sometimes the spouse, we joke, doesn't even know where the office is.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
And so they're not involved at all. They also have that ignorance is bliss where they're not talking about cash flow and the overhead and all the challenges. So having a spouse in the practice or not in the practice has its unique set of pros and cons.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. You've seen positives and negatives to both depending on the person, right?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. Oh, well, people that go, "Well, my spouse just doesn't like numbers and doesn't want to be involved." Well, for us, there's a lot of education that goes along with our advisory. We educate our clients, both practice owner and spouse on so many things. It's a collaboration on what's the strategy, what's the best strategy to have millions of dollars more. So sometimes it can be hard if a spouse, "I don't like numbers, I don't like money, I don't want to be involved."
For us, it's a minimum of about two or three things a year that the spouse must do. A lot of times if they're not involved, they actually like being involved because from a high level now they understand, "Oh, that's why my spouse, who's the dentist or specialist is stressed out. I didn't know these things." So there's a benefit to the level of education.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Really, and I like that point you made. It helps them understand why maybe the owner is stressed, the spouse is stressed. Because a lot of times people will just keep that in and hold it in and don't want to let their wife or husband know maybe things aren't as great as hoped.

Casey Hiers:
Oh, there's a lot of calls where we're having phone meetings and getting into the nitty-gritty of business and you'll hear a spouse go, "I had no idea that we had a shareholder loan on our balance sheet and our overhead was 76% and insurance adjustments. You're giving away hundreds of thousands of dollars a year of free dentistry." And so it actually can help. Like a side benefit of getting your money right and having a team, it can actually help because there's better communication.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Not only the money side, but it usually helps fix time and ... or sorry, work-life management as well, so you may be able to actually be home.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.
I mean, the people that must be aligned is the practice owner and spouse. And ultimately that can be, there can be discord there, and we've been told, "Gosh, you guys have helped so much where we don't have to fight each other on things. We have you all to help."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Is that kind of like going, if dad says no, you go to mom? So if they're trying to make a decision, we can help them figure that out?

Casey Hiers:
There's a lot of alignment that comes with us. But no, the spouse involvement's important, and to your point, there's times where a spouse says, "We've said we're not going to work with that person. They're not nice." And it stinks because the practice needs help. We can help them. The practice owner's nice. That happens.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
If the spouse is not willing to be there or willing to help or even be a part of it, then that pretty much ruins the entire plan, just about it.

Casey Hiers:
It increases the probability that something ...

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Isn't going right.

Casey Hiers:
Isn't going to go well because everybody's not aligned, and that's really important.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And I would say even in the worst case scenario, having the spouse there to kind of understand the whole situation is let's say there was an accident or a medical condition and your spouse is no longer able to work or ...

Casey Hiers:
Unfortunately we've dealt with that and we've always said, "Wow, during this time it's nice to have everything in one place." Now, an easy one for us is when we talk to a practice owner and they don't want their spouse involved. And a handful of times it's been, they've basically shared in so many words, "I don't want my spouse involved because I don't don't know if we're going to be married in a couple years." Or other nefarious things that we just ...

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I was going to ask, like, do they have secret credit cards?

Casey Hiers:
We eject. We're not touching that.
But then you have spouse involvement. There's sometimes where we have practice owners who maybe they're divorced or they're single, and so they have a lot of trusted people in their practice and staff. Sometimes in that scenario we have seen they're really close. They want an office manager or somebody with them. Staff involvement can be a good thing. It can also be a challenge. As an owner, you don't want the patients running the asylum and sometimes staff can have too much influence within a practice for a practice owner when ultimately there has to be some separation there. You are an owner. You are a CEO. You are the leader. It's nice to be connected with your staff and have a good rapport. But I've also seen it where staff involvement way oversteps what it should for the practice owner and they let that influence of what's the staff probably doesn't want change or the unknown.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, they learn new things.

Casey Hiers:
So that can be really interesting as well. So we need the spouse involved. Sometimes the staff is overly involved, too.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
So with the staff, it's hard to gauge or judge, but do they have you and their practice best in mind or are they really picking and making decisions or trying to manipulate you on what's going to help them?

Casey Hiers:
Ironically, we've seen when office managers are grossly overpaid, a lot of times it's self-preservation. They don't need an outside party looking through anything because they like working four days a week and making double, triple, quadruple what they should. We'll encounter that sometimes. I mean, it's not the worst.
But for our listeners, again, it's important that you and your spouse are aligned if that is your situation, but it's also good that you and your staff, spouse first, then staff are aligned and that there's a good flow to it.
But yeah, staff shouldn't be influencing you on your tax situation, your overhead, your income, your debt, retirement strategies, how mastering your business is going to help your personal financial situation. Staff members don't need to be involved in that. Rarely are those lines blurred, but unfortunately we see it from time to time and it can be a real challenge.
The ultimate goal has to be how can you lower your overhead, have a comprehensive overarching strategy with your business, your practice and your personal life to where dentistry is kick ass, right? You're living a great life now. You're setting yourself up for a multi, multi, multi-million dollar retirement. Life is good.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And all of this because you made the right step. Whether that's talking with us or-

Casey Hiers:
Educate yourself. It's all about education, right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes.

Casey Hiers:
Podcast, events, whatever, it's about-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's why we do these.

Casey Hiers:
Hey, we have.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I am an educator of America.

Casey Hiers:
That's a bold statement. You could probably just edit it out.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
People just naturally come to me for leadership and for knowledge. I get it. This is why as a firm though, we do put on these events across the country.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. And we actually love when spouses come. It's funny. Sometimes people want to bring their whole staff. I'm like, "It's not an office party, but the spouse coming, that's great."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
For sure.

Casey Hiers:
They get more education. If we never talk to them again, that's okay. They're going to learn something at our events that's going to help them. If nothing else, they're going to question, "Hey, we need to get aligned and challenge our current team to do better for us 'cause it's not-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Well, and sometimes it's the spouse who's like after hearing our presentation, who's like he or she and they're like, "No, we need to do this."

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, yeah. So many times because they've seen for decades the challenges, the hardship, the stress and yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
These high level people, it reminds me of back in the day, driving around before a GPS on your phones. Dad's getting lost and not wanting to stop for directions. It's kind of like that mentality of like, "No, I will fix this."

Casey Hiers:
"I'll figure it out."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
"I'll take care of this."

Casey Hiers:
A lot of practice owners will figure it out, yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
You remember looking at maps? I hate those things.

Casey Hiers:
It's a great analogy.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Thank you.

Casey Hiers:
I miss those days.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, I don't. It always gave me so much anxiety to flip out the map and be like, "Oh my God, I don't know what I'm doing. Where's East? I'm so confused."
Casey, thank you so much for stopping by and I appreciate that you made time for me personally just to come in here and spit your wisdom at me. We've got some really exciting events coming up very soon. We're going to be in Wichita, Kansas, and there's just a handful of seats left for that one. If you are hoping to get into the Leawood, Kansas event that has been sold out, feel free to fill out a form on the website if you're interested in learning when we'll be in that area again. If you're close enough to Wichita, hop on over. That's open.
We're going to be in Nashville, Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee. We're looking in the Virginias, or we're going to be in Richmond and Virginia Beach. So a lot of really fun, exciting things coming up, especially as we hit the fall/autumn time this year.
So Casey, any last words of wisdom for our listeners?

Casey Hiers:
Yesterday was the best day to get your money right, so stop messing around.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Wow. God. I was sick yesterday. I missed it. Dang.

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.