11 min read

Bourbon, Gaps, and Breakthroughs: Recapping Our Carmel CE Event

Bourbon, Gaps, and Breakthroughs: Recapping Our Carmel CE Event
What happens when you mix a relaxed evening of bourbon tasting with a candid look at dental practice finances? You get an eye-opening reality check that completely changes how doctors view their financial future.

In this episode of The Millionaire Dentist, we recap our recent live event right here in Carmel, Indiana. We break down how an evening that started as a social dinner quickly transitioned into a deep, introspective discussion about taxes, overhead, and insurance adjustments.

 

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 glad you're here today. It's always a bright, shining kind of a day, even with our storms that might be hitting our area soon.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Some dicey weather rolling in.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Normally, I laugh at meteorologists because they don't know anything. But when they're all saying, "Tornadoes will be here tomorrow." It's like, "Wait, what?"

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. And I guess with the tornado, in those kind of situations, it's better to be safe than sorry to kind of pre-prep a little bit.

Casey Hiers:
Batten down the hatches.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Well, you know, we have an old, old episode on this podcast called When Shit Hits the Fan. That's kind of the same case. Sometimes you have to do that at home too, kind of prepare and sandbag some stuff, and...

Casey Hiers:
Yep.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. Casey, you and I, and a couple of our other teammates, we joined you for an event here in Carmel, Indiana, which was super cool for me to see. I haven't been to one of our events in a year or two. And I wanted to ask you straight off the bat, how was your travel? Was it tough?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, I had to travel nine minutes to the venue. It was actually nice, so yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
It's kind of on the way home, isn't it?

Casey Hiers:
I've grown to be fine traveling. But yeah, no airports. It was very nice. Nice to have a local event. Yeah, we have a lot of local Indiana clients, but we're nationwide. We have clients all over the country. So it's interesting when we do a local event, what the numbers are. We had a packed house.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
We did. And it's really cool to touch base with, again, local dentists, and also sometimes see or recognize a name or two you may have spoken with years in the past, and kind of catching up with them and how they're doing it. If they're at our event, and it's been three or four or five years, maybe there's something still not cooking in their practice.

Casey Hiers:
Well, it's interesting. Even some of our execs said, "Oh, I remember these names from X amount of years ago." And we say this all the time, timing's everything.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
Sometimes people will learn about us, and timing's not right.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
There was a lot of people in that room that have achieved success. That's another misconception. "Oh, I'm doing pretty good." We only take on successful people and make them more successful.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
We're not a rescue firm. But sometimes that timing part, right? And so we had, I think, a lot of people that knew people that have worked with us, have heard the high praise, or what have you, but what did you think of crowd reaction? Walk our listeners through. You walk in, everybody's kind of happy.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
And maybe order a beverage.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, they come in. They order their beverage. Some of these docs either are acquaintances or at least know of each other in some form or another, so everybody's kind of chit-chatting. We started with our bourbon tasting, where we had Courtney Smith, one of our colleagues, going through the bourbon tasting, which was really funny to see her do because she's not a big fan of just straight bourbon. She's more of a cocktail mixer. So her going through and kind of playing on the fact that like, "I'm not the expert here, but let's walk through this together," was a lot of fun. I think that makes it easier for people who are not bourbon aficionados.

Casey Hiers:
Well, we have good bourbon. But I mean, it's one or two ounce pours, so it's good bourbon. But it's actually there's some learning.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
There's a process to properly taste bourbon. It's funny to go through that. And dentists typically like structure, and so there's a process to each taste.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes. I remember mentioning to one of the dentists, she's like, "Do we just start drinking these now?" I was like, "Oh, no, no. It's a guided tour. She goes, "Oh, guided tour."

Casey Hiers:
Guided tour.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
"That's nice."

Casey Hiers:
Now, have I been in places where people were shooting them like shots? Yes.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
And recently. That's always fun.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And you saw people. Was that you?

Casey Hiers:
No.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
No. Okay.

Casey Hiers:
No, no. I don't shoot much of anything.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
So, of course, there was a dinner provided as well. But once everybody's kind of had their hi's, they kind of gotten a little bit loosened up with the whiskey and the food and feeling pretty good, you come out, The Hammer. Casey, The Hammer, Hiers. And you kind of start laying down, you say, "We're going to go an inch deep but a mile wide." We cover a broad variety of kind of topics without going super deep into it because, otherwise, that'd be a seven-day seminar. But when people start hearing these things, people start to quiet down. It got real quiet in there. You even have a section in the beginning where you're trying to get them to-

Casey Hiers:
Interact.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
... interact with you, and people really weren't. Once that one person raised their hand, another person started in it, people started to live in up a little bit that way. And I wanted to ask you, do you think that people are just afraid to raise their hand in a room full of people for saying like, "Yeah, taxes is hard for me," or whatever the case may be.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. There's a lot of dynamics to it, right? The subject matter is tough.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
That's why we'd like to do a fun bourbon tasting. It is a good time. But what we're talking about is pretty serious. I see the smiles go to different facial expressions. I will say, in that room, I think a lot of things hit people pretty hard.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I think so too.

Casey Hiers:
Because it's easy to get into, "Well, I'm doing pretty well, but these other people I know may need that." So you start to internalize it.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
And go, "Oh, wow. Maybe I'm not doing as well as I should be doing." People that say, "Oh, I've been using different people that do the services you do for decades, and they're great. They're the best." And I'm always like, "Compared to what?"

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
Because I can't tell you how many people had that sentiment that come here, and they're like, "Ah, I burned too many years of mediocrity that I thought was excellence."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
But no, I don't feel bad when I take the happy room and end up making them look like they've seen a ghost. But ultimately, again, underserved topic costs these people in every room I'm in multiple millions of dollars. And when they have the awareness and a light bulb goes off, that's a beautiful thing.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
Because, again, you take a call, you engage in our process, you either confirm you're doing great. Or you learn, no, I can be doing better, and you retire with more money. Both are good outcomes.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And you walk away with potential questions to ask your external team, whether that's your planner or your accountant, and you can walk away and be like, "Oh, have you heard about shareholder loans? Do I have one of those? Oh, I do. Oh, boy." So that was a pretty fascinating thing for me to hear from some of these people there that... Because they would ask me about, "Do I give you the form?" You know? "I really like my CPA, and I think they do a great job." And I said, "Well, you're here though. What's the harm going to be in a 10, 20-minute phone call to at least get some baselines and kind of talk to Casey and his team?" Again, as you said, whether you're on the right track, maybe you're not doing so well, or maybe your CPA has been stuffing money in his pockets.

Casey Hiers:
Well, and we had the fortunate opportunity to have a couple clients join us.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Two great clients. I love those people.

Casey Hiers:
I mean, periodically around the country, we're in the general area. We alert people. Our clients drive multiple hours to come to this course, not just to hang out with us and drink bourbon, but ultimately because we have helped them in the manner in which we said we would over these years. Because I mean, one client was like eight years with us, another one was 20 years with us.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
And they just want to share the good news with other people, which I really like. And interestingly enough, these people, one of them at age 49, retired from dentistry. And some people in that room were the same age or older, and they have 10 more years to go.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
And great dentist, great guy. You know? He didn't have five practices.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
He had a strong practice, decent production, but mastering these areas, retired at 49. That hits people pretty good.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. And then our other client that we had there, is a former president of the Indiana Dental Association who... She just retired, didn't she?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Recently?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. And the process of unwinding have helped her through a lot of things. But when I think, call them local dentists here, a guy retires at 49 and sees a past IDA president, you've kind of got these areas covered where they don't... Audience members are looking for reasons why this doesn't apply to them.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
Pick anything. Go to a self-help seminar, go to church, you hear something. Ideally, you are dying to try to figure out how you're good, and everybody else isn't. But when you have your peers of that stature and results excellence saying those things, holy cow. So now, we have a new problem.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
What's that?

Casey Hiers:
How do I talk to the 40 dentists that don't want to talk? Right? I mean, it's a good problem to have. But ultimately, just like a good dentist who does amazing fill-in-the-blank cosmetic whatever procedures, well, word gets out, and you get busy, and you get booked out, and that's where we're at. We have a lot.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Luckily, you've decided not to take any more days off the rest of the year. More power to you, buddy.

Casey Hiers:
We don't do weekends.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, I know we don't.

Casey Hiers:
However...

Jarrod Bridgeman:
For you listeners out there, we do take our weekends.

Casey Hiers:
However, we can get creative with scheduling.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right, right.

Casey Hiers:
Because ultimately, it's important. And I've already spoke to some people from that event that just occurred and...

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep. It's not even been a week.

Casey Hiers:
You never know how things hit. But apparently, it hit pretty square in the nose because there's some people, again, that were under the assumption, "Well, I'm doing better than most, so this doesn't apply to me." I'm like, "It actually applies more."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And are you fine with being complacent? If you're happy being that way, that's not a bad thing. But if you do feel like there's... You know?

Casey Hiers:
Sorry to interrupt. Contentment in life is a beautiful thing. Pissing away opportunity to have millions of dollars more...

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
You know? Stop fooling yourself. That's pretty important. Because then I'll hear the, "Well, I don't spend money, and I'm..." That's great.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Cool.

Casey Hiers:
You're just a charitable organization, your kids, your grandkids. Somebody missed out. Don't use that excuse, right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
But yeah, we had a lot of packed house, a lot of great people who have done great work. I suspect we're going to be able to help a couple of them in a manner that is going to change their life just like the people that attended.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
But it was nice not to have to fight the airports and airways and hotels and what have you.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Bad news for you, though.

Casey Hiers:
It was a joy.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
About two more weeks, you're going to have to. We're going to Orlando.

Casey Hiers:
That's right.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
That's an easy flight, right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That'd be an easy flight. I mean, it's direct from here to Orlando.

Casey Hiers:
Just jinxed it.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I know. My bad. We're doing Orlando. We've got Minnesota events coming up. We're coming to Naperville. We're going to be in all kinds of really great places.

Casey Hiers:
O-H-I-O. Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
O-H-I-O. Those damn Buckeyes, you know where they're at. I'll be in an airport and hear somebody yell, "OH." And somebody yells, "IO."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Really? That's a thing?

Casey Hiers:
Oh, yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I don't think I just pay attention to people.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. You'll hear it in the next month.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Okay.

Casey Hiers:
Just somebody has an Ohio State shirt on, and that's the chant.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Ah.

Casey Hiers:
And then, I'd just yell, "Boiler Up," and throw something at them.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And run.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's right. Casey, for those people listening who are maybe in the Orlando area or in the Minneapolis area and all those places who haven't signed up, I mean, what are we going to do? Is there a final pitch that we can say that's just like-

Casey Hiers:
No.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Guys, nod up.

Casey Hiers:
I think their overhead's going to magically lower on its own.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Nice. Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Insurance adjustments. It all just fixes itself. If you ignore it long enough and just produced dentistry, it all works out.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And the insurance people are there to help you, not make money.

Casey Hiers:
Hopefully, it came across that I was being sarcastic there.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes. Yes, it did.

Casey Hiers:
Listen, when you achieve results, we have the luxury of, if somebody doesn't want to go or can't go, that's okay.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
We hope it gets better. Maybe you'll catch us the next time around.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
And we have plenty of people that want the help. But ultimately, it's a good time. We love packed houses. And it's a really nice offering that we have been doing and are going to continue to do around the country. And the subject matter consistently, people just go, "Man, I wish I would've heard this sooner. I wish I'd have heard this earlier. I wish I'd have heard it." And then, I'll have the people that go, "Well, I just bought."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
I'm like, "You probably need to experience ownership for two or three years to fully appreciate what it could be." It's all good.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I mean, it's a hard subject. It can hurt people just in terms of their pride, but I love how entertaining you make it. I think you do such a great job of getting people to talk, getting people to laugh at stuff that's just hard. And so, it's not some boring ass presentation you're coming to.

Casey Hiers:
I've been getting a lot of compliments, which is a slippery slope. My wife can tell when my head's getting puffed up a little bit.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I meant to say you're terrible. But I think you do such a great job, and your team does such a great job. And all these great venues and restaurants we go to with killer food, killer drinks, and you're going to learn something. And at the end of the day, it's not going to cost you really anything. You pay 50 bucks to reserve your ticket. You show up. We give it back. Same as a no-show at your practice. So what's the harm besides an hour and a half of your time?

Casey Hiers:
It's a good time.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And it's a good time. Casey, thank you so much. Folks, fourquadrantsadvisory.com. Click on the events button. You can see our upcoming events. If you want to listen to more of the episodes of the podcast, they're on there. If you want to look at pictures of me, I'm on there, too. So thanks again for listening, and we'll catch you next time.

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.

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