Diving into the Deep End: Taking Calculated Risks in Dentistry

RuTaking big decisions in dentistry can feel like jumping into a pool blindfolded. In this episode, we'll explore the importance of taking calculated risks and avoiding impulsive decisions.

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 today?

Casey Hiers:
Thriving.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Thriving? You look great.

Casey Hiers:
Thanks.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
You've got a whole new persona going on about you. You just came in today looking fresh and ready to rock.

Casey Hiers:
What does that mean?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Just so you folks that are out there, you can't see us, obviously, Casey's kind of pulling a practical joke on his wife and is pretending to grow a mustache.

Casey Hiers:
So I kind of forgot to shave for a couple of days, and then I was off for a day, didn't shave. And my parents were over last night, and my wife comes in and looks at me and goes, "What is that?" And I go, "What do you mean?" She goes, "Are you growing a mustache?" And I'm noticing how she was a little bit aggressive with that, and I go, "Well, not really, but you know what? I might grow a lip sweater now. I might get some waxes and a comb and just really go for it, like am homage to Magnum PI. This is the Tom Selleck."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I got to say, it's a courage, it's a step of courage to willingly grow something on your face when you never have before.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, I'm pretty clean-shaven, but I'm going to let this ride for about three more days and see.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
You'll let that mustache ride?

Casey Hiers:
I'm going to let it ride and see how many ... Yeah, but eventually, I'll-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
How many dirty looks you get from your wife?

Casey Hiers:
I don't think it's going to be that great. I don't think it's going to be a thick, robust lip sweater. I think it's going to look like I'm 14 just hitting puberty, and there's some thick peach fuzz, and, "You got some dirt on your mouth."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes, yes.

Casey Hiers:
But who knows? Maybe next week, I'm just going to be ...

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Come rolling in with your little mustache comb and just ... Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
I don't know if I'm ready to be a mustache guy, but we're going to try. But it's mainly just a mess with my wife at this point.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's right. Well, again, what I love about that is last year, I grew one as a joke, and then my wife actually liked it, but I hated it. But today, we wanted to talk about courage and having the courage to take the next step or take the dive you need to take and ...

Casey Hiers:
I'm having the courage to mess with my wife. I might get in trouble.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. And so you came up with this title, which I love, which is, "Jump in the pool. The water's warm."

Casey Hiers:
"Jump in."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Jump on in.

Casey Hiers:
"The water's warm."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right. That's right. And so let's kind of break that down in how that applies to dentists. What made you think of this idea, and how do we think it applies?

Casey Hiers:
Well, think about maybe when you're a kid, maybe as an adult, you go to a pool and you want to get in, and you know that just jumping in, and again, a nice clean pool that is in good shape. You know it's good, but there's still that like, "Ooh, do I just kind of sort of jump in?" You want to put it off, but when you jump in, it feels so good, and when you get out, you want to get in again. It's awesome.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I'm a creeper.

Casey Hiers:
What does that mean?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
It takes me about 30 minutes to get into a pool, one inch at a time.

Casey Hiers:
Okay, a creeper getting into the pool.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes. Also, a creeper in life.

Casey Hiers:
Well, you know ...

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I got my little pencil mustache and everything.

Casey Hiers:
But ultimately when you jump in, you'll cannonball or go off the diving board, it's exhilarating, it's fun. You're in, and you're like, "Oh, my gosh. Why didn't I just jump in?" And there's a lot of crossover and similarities with that mindset. We were just talking briefly, and this is kind of random, we'll get into dental in a little bit, but let's say, financially speaking, it made sense for you to buy your dream house at whatever dollar number that is in 2019. Interest rates were under 3%.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
They were pretty nice.

Casey Hiers:
And let's say again, it was a good decision, but you just couldn't quite do it, and so you didn't. Well, now you look up four or five years later, interest rates are more than doubled.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. What? Seven-ish?

Casey Hiers:
That cost you a lot of money by not doing it, and I think that we can just continue this analogy and really get into some robust conversation.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I think so, too. When we were talking, so I'm a nerd, and I like to do-

Casey Hiers:
Hold on. Are you a creeper, or are you a nerd?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Usually, one and the same. Not going to lie, but I collect things, because that's what I do. I have comic books, I've got Lego sets. I have records.

Casey Hiers:
Wives.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And wives.

Casey Hiers:
Sorry, you may want to edit that out.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
No, that's fine. I'm working on four and five right now. And there are certain things that I wish I had bought at the time, and I was not worried about it, especially with some of the records I collect, and they have since then sold out and are not going for hundreds of dollars. It's probably pennies in a thinking process compared to a house, but it's still something I am mad at myself for not doing. And so what's a really great example of something where a dentist had the opportunity in his practice or her practice to take that dive, to take that jump, and then didn't.

Casey Hiers:
That's a good question, and here's the assumption. These examples we're talking about, strategy, analyzing, it's a good decision yet sometimes you can delay it, put it off, or not do it, like jumping in a pool. We talked about learning a new procedure. There's a lot of general dentists out there where they've thought about it, but they don't quite do it. Maybe some years pass, and then all of a sudden they go, "You know what? I'm going to go out to Scottsdale or somewhere. I'm going to learn implants. I'm going to learn this procedure, that procedure." They finally do it. They come back, they find out they enjoy doing it, and it's profitable, and they look back and go, "Oh, I wish I'd have done that sooner."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Could you imagine that? Adding something to your job, not only that you really like doing but also makes you good money doing it? That's a win-win.

Casey Hiers:
But there's still courage, there's a leap of faith, right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
It's, "Ooh, can I do this?"

Jarrod Bridgeman:
"Can I do this? What if it doesn't work out?"

Casey Hiers:
What if?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
What if? What if? What if? That can paralyze people, that decision process, sometimes.

Casey Hiers:
The boogeyman. Does the boogeyman exist? No. When you're a kid, you think it's in the closet. You can get your mind to a place where you think there's a monster in your closet.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
It turned out to be a pile of clothes, but since-

Casey Hiers:
You can feel like if you jump into the pool, you're going to vaporize like, "Oh, it's so scary. I don't know."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, yeah. It's a crazy thing to think about, and as I say, hindsight is 20/20. We were talking about, for example, we're not really a company that promotes cryptocurrency all that much, but could you imagine having gone back to, what, 2010 and buying some Bitcoin?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. If somebody said, "Hey, you should buy this and here are the reasons." Yeah, financially, we're not promoting crypto.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I remember someone telling me, posting about it back then, and I didn't-

Casey Hiers:
"You should get into this."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And I didn't, because I didn't know what I was doing or how to do it, and so I was like, "Eh."

Casey Hiers:
Put $500 bucks in, you would've had, I don't know, carry the $9 millions? I mean crazy. Now back to dentistry, here's another one, dropping an insurance. So many practice owners I talked to who have a lot of insurances and they're booked out and there's all these other debt end metrics that point to something's wrong, the practice isn't running as well. They know they should probably drop one or two. Even if they get strategy and advice and they know it's the right decision, we've talked about this before, dropping an insurance can be scary. Why? What if nobody likes me? What if nobody comes? But yeah, learning a new procedure, dropping insurance, those are things that typically when done right, they look back and go, "I should have done that or I should have done it sooner." That happens all the time.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I can see that one being a very scary one in general, because that's potentially losing patients.

Casey Hiers:
And I'll zoom out a little bit. The people that get their financial house in order and their practice running optimally, sometimes when you're in your mid to late 30s, they're like, "Yeah, I think I need help in this, but I'm going to try it." And then they'll talk to somebody that tried it for 10, 15, 20, God forbid, a whole career going it alone, and we have people that got some help on the back nine towards the end of their career, and they go, "Why didn't I do this sooner?" And they'll even give us the answer, "I didn't have the courage to make a change. I didn't have the courage to address this elephant in the room that I knew I needed help with." And there's so many analogies that we've thought of, but like we said, the assumption is research has been done, and it's a good decision, but you don't have the courage to make it.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Again, you've looked at the pool. You can see it's clear, it's clean, everything is in working order.

Casey Hiers:
People are in there having fun.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes. Now, let me ask you, what happens in a situation where someone might be overzealous or overconfident jumping into the pool? For example, I was thinking either like they jump in, and it's still slimy and green from being closed all winter, or there's not even any water in there.

Casey Hiers:
You run through the gate to whatever pool, and you just do a cannonball, and you're in the air, and you're like, "Oh, no. There's no water in it."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
There's all allergy in everywhere.

Casey Hiers:
Extreme example, but you've got to have some basic research. We talked about the line, "Ready, fire, aim," if you're talking about maybe going to a range or something. Typically, you need to aim then fire, and that's our point with research, because there are knee-jerk reactions that practice owners make that they take a leap into a pool with no water, and they look back and go, "Why did I do that?" And so that's the other side of the coin.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I feel like a really good example of that could be is hiring an associate when it's not applicable, for what you're making in your time.

Casey Hiers:
We see that a lot in dentistry. It's hiring the associate, hoping, which is a terrible business strategy, hoping that it's going to make things better, not really digging in and making sure, "Is this the right person? Is this the right relationship? Do they practice dentistry the same? Let's look at numbers, let's look at overhead. What's the structure of the compensation?" All those things done before getting associate instead of, "I want one. I'm going to go hire one. Ooh, I have somebody that likes me and is interested. Let's just try it."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Let me ask you, how often have you heard a dentist or practice owner who hired an associate is in effect losing money on said associate?

Casey Hiers:
I'd say there's two negatives. One, 80% of associates don't become partners, and so it ends up being a short-term project. And then the other one is their overhead and cash flow weren't good to begin with. They bring in somebody, and it doesn't necessarily improve. You've added some headaches. And that's one of those where, again, you're overzealous jumping into a pool that you haven't done the research with. Another one we come across, which again is a bad example of taking a leap without proper data, "Well, I'm going to open a second location. I'm going to open up a third location. I'm going to create a mini-DSO." That sounds great. Going to a nice pool sounds great, but you have to have your shit together before doing that, or you're taking a leap that you shouldn't take.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Or, "I built three pools in my yard. Now I've got three to take care of." You know what I mean?

Casey Hiers:
Three practices, three pools. I see what you did there.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. And that one can be really hard on your long-term plans, even if you even have one, of your money, your cash flow, your retirement, staffing, all kinds of things. And as we talked before in several other podcasts that if you have some core issues with your original business, that it's going to not going to fix itself, it's going to multiply as you spread out.

Casey Hiers:
Your problems are only going to get worse or get magnified. But back to taking a leap of faith, for what we see, practice owners, who, any of these examples, learn a procedure, drop an insurance, or get the right team to help you master the business and financial side, normally when they take that leap of faith and the timing is right and data backs it up, there's still that feeling of, "Oh, but the water might be cold. This is scary. I'm going to spend 10 more years," to use your word, "creeping into the pool," finally getting in going, "Oh, this was great. It would've probably been better to have just jumped in."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
"I could have had more fun for the last hour."

Casey Hiers:
Versus when you're on the diving board, and you're like, "Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. All these people are having fun. The pool looks crystal clean, but I don't know that I can do it."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Dude, I'm telling you right now, I creep in, and my kids jump right in, and then they try to splash me, and I have to get mad at them. I'm like, "Stop splashing me. I'll get in on my own time."

Casey Hiers:
You need more courage.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I do need more courage.

Casey Hiers:
Got to take that leap. But in all seriousness, in these examples that we're touching on, they can all be scary, learning a new procedure, dropping an insurance, or finally getting your financial house in order. Again, so many practice owners, they don't fully know basic numbers and complex numbers. They don't know why their tax situation is always being extended or they're getting a huge refund or a significant additional tax bill. They don't know.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. They're just taking it at the face value and hoping maybe next year won't be as bad.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. "I feel like I should make more, but I don't know." Well, again, as these start to add up, there's your sign. Deep down in your pit of your stomach, you probably know you should get this in order, but you're an achiever. You should be able to figure it out.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And that's not always the case. Everybody needs help with something somewhere.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. If my tooth hurts, I'm not going to take a leap of faith and start poking around. I'm going to call the experts to fix it. And hopefully, if you have 20 new patients a month, that's what those patients are saying, "Hey, I need this fixed."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Your tooth doesn't fix itself.

Casey Hiers:
And then as a dentist, you're able to use your expertise to solve the problem. So many parallels there with our firm and people we've helped, and, "I wish I would've done this sooner. Why didn't I do this sooner?"

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Again, it comes down to having the information, and if the information and the data points to, "Yes, this is the time, and yes, this is a good idea."

Casey Hiers:
And again, some people need to sit on the sidelines, sit on the side of the pool, and watch everybody having a ton of fun and baking in the heat to get uncomfortable where you finally go, "Oh, I've got to get in," and it's typically the same. "I should have done that sooner. This feels great. I'm having fun in the pool. It's not as bad as I thought." But leaps of faith are hard, courage is hard, but there's so many parallels that I thought would be interesting to talk about with dentistry. And ultimately, when we present CE around the country, there's many people we never see after that evening, and we share so much with them, but we encourage them, "Do not settle. Do not accept a lower standard of care for those doing your external functions, accounting, financial planning, investing, advising, practice advisory."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Don't settle for mediocrity.

Casey Hiers:
Don't settle for it. Demand more from who you're working with. Again, that takes courage, that takes a leap, and it comes back to what? "Just jump in ...

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Just jump in.

Casey Hiers:
... the water's warm."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
It's so warm. Casey, thank you so much. Listen, folks out there, speaking of when we go out there and we speak and we may or may not hear from people again, it doesn't matter. Come to one of our events. If you want to learn more about this, you need to come to this. We're going to be in the Los Angeles area. We're going to be in Huntington Beach in Calabasas, California. Soon, we're also going to be in San Francisco area, which is Lafayette, California and South San Francisco. We're going to be in Detroit and Grand Rapids as we get closer and closer to the end of the year.

Casey Hiers:
We've got some large study clubs that have asked us, pleaded with us to come in, and we like to sprinkle those in as well.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
We do.

Casey Hiers:
And we're going to meet some great people.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Listen, if you have a study club you'd love for Casey or one of our other speakers to come in and speak at, you can always visit our website at fourquadrantsadvisory.com. There's a Speaking button.

Casey Hiers:
Now, I will say we love doing that, but we're not going to go to 80 study clubs in a year, but we want to talk to you, we want to consider it, and ultimately the members of the study club say, "Wow, that was our best in-person attended event because they covered something that clearly hit home."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right, right. Just reach out, folks. We've got forms on the website. Go to the Events page, and you can register for one of our events if you're in that area. Casey, thank you so much for being here, and I hope you have a great day.

Casey Hiers:
Play the Van Halen Jump.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's what you [inaudible 00:16:07]

Casey Hiers:
Just laced this whole episode with that song.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I'll get Steve Pislevy to come and sing it on the mic for us.

Casey Hiers:
Ooh, I like it.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
All right.

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.