11 min read

Change Isn’t Easy—But It Might Save Your Practice

Picture of Four Quadrants Advisory Four Quadrants Advisory Dec 3, 2025 1:14:56 PM

Practice Transition dental financial planning dental accounting Financial Planning business of dentistry dental CPA cash flow Millionaire Dentist tips

Change Isn’t Easy—But It Might Save Your Practice

Change can feel exciting… or absolutely terrifying. In this episode, Casey and Jarrod dive into why dentists often resist change, even when it’s the very thing that could transform their practice, income, and sanity.

From peer pressure purchases to the fear of the unknown, they unpack the quirky, relatable reasons many owners cling to the familiar—no matter the cost. With stories from real events, laugh-out-loud moments, and honest conversations about money, habits, and growth, the hosts explore how embracing the right change (backed by real data) can unlock massive gains.

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, good morning. How are you?

Casey Hiers:
We're so flexible and adaptable. We changed the time that we recorded.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Because we had a good idea. We're like, let's get in there.

Casey Hiers:
But in the morning, we might be less sharp. This might be real sleepy.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I'm one cup of coffee in.

Casey Hiers:
Is that good or bad?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's not great.

Casey Hiers:
One cup but double espresso, typically does it. Depends on what's in that cup.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
A little bit of extra sauce. Casey, you just returned not that long ago from, you were down in the Phoenix area doing some presenting with one of our events. It was the Bourbon and Real Financial Advice for Dentists. How was that? How'd that go for you?

Casey Hiers:
The desert's great. Scottsdale is one of my favorite cities, although it's really not about me, but I enjoyed nonstop Phoenix, Scottsdale. Beautiful. People were bitching because it was 60 degrees. They're wearing sock hats and north faces and just losing their minds. It was a little cloudy and it was like 58 and the five in front of their temperature was some relief.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Sounds wonderful for us here in Indiana right now.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, it was.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
It was like, 20-something? Maybe 30-something this morning?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, the Valley of the Sun's great, but we did it at, again, one of the best venues in town. We had about 20 practice owners in the room, which was capacity. A lot of people, you have a couple that they want to come to confirm everything they hear like, oh, well I'm doing great. Sometimes that's the case, sometimes those are called little professors. Then we had some people they're like, shoot, I'm not quite maybe to your threshold of collections or I haven't owned or I'm not an owner, but this is really important. Then there's the group that looks like they've seen a ghost. They're like, how do you know?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
From their perspective, because sometimes as we've spoken before, being a dentist and being a practice owner can feel like you're on an island. It can feel very singular that you don't realize that, oh, these are some very common problems throughout the industry and they don't realize that. To them, it seems very personal, which it is very personal for them.

Casey Hiers:
No, that's exactly right. A lot of practice owners hold their cards close to the chest and it's kind of their cross to bear. Then when they hear across the country, a lot of practice owners deal with this in some regard. It's just different levels of plateauing. You can plateau making terrible money. You can plateau making $400,000. We've had people plateau where they hit $700,000 and there's an opportunity to make $900,000. It comes down to what are you leaving on the table? But as you get older, what's harder to do when you get older?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
You know what? I would say something along the lines of you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Casey Hiers:
Change.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Change. When you talk with these specialists and these practice owners and you talk to the ones that have seen this ghost that are like, ah shit, you're hitting the nail on the head right now. There's some of those that will approach you or mark down, hey, please give me a call. There's some that might not. What do you think the issue with change with them is? The ones that don't?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. Well, first off, you should sing the song. Changes.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I love David Bowie.

Casey Hiers:
Maybe put that in here in, at the end or something. Yeah, that's a good one.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I'll have Steve come on to sing it for us.

Casey Hiers:
Pipes, yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's right.

Casey Hiers:
Not necessarily from the room that I was just in, but ultimately talking to practice owners, and again, a lot of them change is hard. We had somebody in from Palm Beach area recently and they were like, dude, I did it one way for 20-plus years. He's like, this was really hard. In year one he goes, these results you guys have got us are unbelievable. He goes, print off that achievements page. I'm going to send it to my friends. I want get the word out because that's the kind of dude he is. We go, there's some highly personal financial information. He goes, I don't give a shit. He goes, you guys are crushing it and I want other people to know. But he even acknowledged that was hard for him to do, he's so glad he did it. But do you like change?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Not always, man. It can be very tough, especially once you're set in your ways, either good or bad.

Casey Hiers:
Well, we did what, four minutes of prep?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, because we're so smart.

Casey Hiers:
Because we're so good. There's change, people never will change because the unknown is too scary. There's also people that change because, well, the guy down the road did this, so I need to do this. Almost like a keeping up with the Joneses. It's interesting that with change, there is a positive and a negative connotation.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Dude, I almost bought a house once because my buddy bought a new one and I was jealous of it. I was like, great, my little starter home looks like garbage now.

Casey Hiers:
Man, that's not like you bought a new pair of shoes or a new jacket.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
No.

Casey Hiers:
Your buddy bought a house. Damn it, I better buy a house. It's interesting. Dentists, they are creatures of, oh, if my peer down the road has this, I need to do this or...

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Do you see it being a lot of times with new tech?

Casey Hiers:
A lot of times, technology equipment or, oh, somebody bought has three practices and corporate dentistry wrote them a big check, so now I'm going to do that exact same cookie-cutter thing because I saw them do it.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Without knowing how good or bad that other person may be at the business side.

Casey Hiers:
Well, there's a hundred details that if they don't align perfectly, your endpoint might be different.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Maybe, what's it called, underwater?

Casey Hiers:
Well, yeah, if you're going to do something, you need data to back it up. Our biggest frustrations are for us we use data to either say, Hey, we should or shouldn't do something. Clients should or shouldn't do something. If we're talking to new people to potentially partner with, this is a good idea because of this data, or this isn't, but it's the people that damn the data, they're going to do whatever they want because...

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I was just thinking, I just finished season two of a show called The Bear on Hulu. It's about a restaurant, opening a new restaurant, and how much work and time like you got to work your ass off. I feel like dentists sometimes have, well, a lot of times have to do the same thing, but the question is, are you working your ass off in the right ways?

Casey Hiers:
No, that's a good point because we've said this before. They're always told if you want to make more, just produce more. Sometimes that's the case. Many times it's not. But the amount left on the table, the amount that people settle in dentistry, it's incredible. Again, just like the example I was talking about from Florida. Was doing pretty good, took that leap of faith, and it's just blown away. He is like, damn, why didn't I do that sooner? But we all wish we had that crystal ball. But yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I was going to say, are there times in your opinion where a doc may have made a change, embraced the change, but it was bad? It was a bad maybe idea or bad plan, or just it fizzled out?

Casey Hiers:
I'd say the most common ones we see are there's a hot real estate. Real estate, it's like rappers want to be basketball NBA players, and NBA players want to be rappers. It's interesting with real estate because most practice owners are behind with retirement savings and don't have a clear and certain picture. They get into real estate, and they hear really good things about it, and some people have a good success.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Big real estate.

Casey Hiers:
But yeah, sometimes that one is one that I can, what was your original question?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Times of change may not be great.

Casey Hiers:
Good or bad. A lot of times, jumping into an investment venture to "catch up" sometimes that can be. Then, adding more locations. Well, your overhead's already 70 plus percent, so you're going to add a location. Yeah, there's some change. That stuff drops in insurance, right? That's one that we like around here, but the data has to back it up. Some practices aren't in a position to do it.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right. You have to do it the right way. You have to pick the right plan and all that kind of stuff.

Casey Hiers:
I mean, if there's room for growth, maybe you are an insurance shop. Again, there's a way to be very profitable that way. Most people don't know what that blueprint is. We're very good at it. If you have the room and the space and the stomach for it, you can run a profitable insurance shop, but let's be more precise with the change versus just, oh, this sounds good, or so-and-so did it. Or I read this on a dental blog, so I'm going to do it. Unless you're getting forensic with personal finances, personal goals, P&L, balance sheet, taxes, production report, all those pieces of data need to be taken into account before making change. That's the type of change you need to get behind. But it's interesting. That's our model here, but even then, there's people that just can't get out of their own way.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Well, that's what I was going to ask you. Let's say a doc from an event, you guys have a couple of conversations. You get to the consulting phase, not the consulting, I'm sorry. The consultation phase and all that stuff. Is there ever a time where you can sense that someone does want to change, but for various reasons cannot make that leap? What would those reasons be from your experience?

Casey Hiers:
Wow, what a question. Fear or stubbornness, typically. Sometimes it can be ego. I mean, we've talked, getting people on the back end of their career, it's harder for the change. The ones that do go, man, I wish I would've done it sooner, but sometimes that can be hard.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
We've got quotes all over our website from docs saying, I wish 35-year-old me had signed up.

Casey Hiers:
We have the benefit of having this national perspective of many clients and seeing their before-and-after snapshots. For us, and oh, by the way, there are 45 testimonials of your peers on our website with their spouses sharing their experience. That's always funny, that fear of change. Oh, can I talk to one of your clients? Well, no, we guard and gate our clients' time.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
We don't sell their information.

Casey Hiers:
Here's the funny thing. When you think about this buying pattern of dentists, when you ask for a reference. Said company they're going to give you, who are they going to give you?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Their top dogs.

Casey Hiers:
Their all stars. To me, it's comical, but it's a buying pattern that dentists have as well. I need three references. Well, here you don't get them because we have too many tire kickers, and we are protecting our clients. It is a high-level experience here.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
What I do when I'm looking at reviews for say something I want to buy on Amazon, I look at the worst ones, not the top reviews.

Casey Hiers:
We've got what, 40, 50 clients talking, but how we help each of them is going to be different than so it comes down to that trust factor. Can they be trusted? But ultimately, people, why doesn't this work? It's so easy, coachability. If somebody wants to make a change and work with us and receive advice, but they're not coachable, and they're not going to take advice, then that's the formula where it doesn't work. They're so used to saying, I've been burnt before by this company or that company, and why won't this...? Well, actually, for us, we turn it around. If you're coachable, my gosh, we can help you make more and save more.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Well, I mean, look at pro sports players on different teams. If you don't listen to your coach and you're not willing to be coached, you're not going to be playing well.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. I've got people I know who maybe play poker with this, that, and the other, and they've had professional careers, and they weren't necessarily the biggest, fastest, strongest, tallest, most skilled, but they were a team player. They worked hard, they were coachable, and people wanted them around. That's a different kind of example. But ultimately, culture-wise, if you're having a hard time grabbing a hygienist, money's part of it, and the landscape's part of it. But are you a good leader? Are you a poor leader?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I have a friend right now who's job hunting and is at least in a position to not have to take the first job that comes along. For her, it's a hundred percent about the culture right now. She's like, I've had some terrible places I've worked and now I'm looking for something that obviously will pay the bills, but if I can hold out and find a company that I fit well in with, then I'll do it.

Casey Hiers:
No, that's good. I mean, change is inevitable.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes.

Casey Hiers:
Put yourself in a position to have the most data before making change. It's incredible how often dentists will drop $150,000 on technology or real estate.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
On a whim, almost.

Casey Hiers:
But then other things, they have that fear or that stubbornness to not move an inch.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And not sign a check to an advisory team that knows what they're doing.

Casey Hiers:
That's a little self-serving, but ultimately...

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Oh yeah, I was talking about us.

Casey Hiers:
Oh, okay. But yeah, change can be a bad thing. Change can be a good thing. It's inevitable. You want to have as much data and as much knowledge, and go on instinct and gut less. That's secondary. It's important. But let's get some David Bowie bumper reel and call it.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Casey. Next week, we will be in Louisville, Kentucky, at Bullets and Billets or Barrels and Billets. I'm sorry, Barrels and Billets.

Casey Hiers:
Do you mean bullets?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Billets.

Casey Hiers:
Billets.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
B-I-L-L-E-T-S.

Casey Hiers:
I got a lot to learn.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I looked it up. It's a whiskey thing, but yes, a bourbon thing. We will be there on the 13th and 14th. We're having two nights of bourbon tasting, and you can make your own recipes, and at this place, you can even bottle your own custom whiskey, which is pretty cool. But the important part is, Casey will be there slinging the information.

Casey Hiers:
That's not that important, but it sounds like a fun doubleheader.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Dude.

Casey Hiers:
The subject matter's important.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
The subject matter is super important. I will also be there, so if you...

Casey Hiers:
Snapping glamour shots.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's right, and if you love hearing from me and want to see what I look like in person, which you shouldn't, I will be there. Hey, go on fourquadrantsadvisory.com/events. Click on either event that you want to attend, and make sure you register because we like to know who's coming. Thank you, Casey.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, we fill up. Thanks, bud.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's right.

Announcer:
That's all the time we have today. Thank you to our guests for their insight and for sharing some really great information. 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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