How Four Quadrants Transforms Dental Practices & Lives

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 cohost Jarrod Bridgeman.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Hey, it's me. Casey, how are you today?

Casey Hiers:
Great, thriving, wonderful.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
You're looking well, got some sun on you.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, vitamin D.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Vitamin D.

Casey Hiers:
Got a little sleep. It's amazing what that'll do for you.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. Didn't you recently take a couple days off to spend with your wife?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. Yeah, went down south, Punta Cana, I believe it's called.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Okay, okay.

Casey Hiers:
One of those, you just hold out your hand, and they just bring you stuff.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, yeah.

Casey Hiers:
All inclusive, it was lovely.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That was your anniversary, right?

Casey Hiers:
Yes.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's awesome, that's awesome. We wanted to talk today a little bit, I think you had mentioned, about engagement and engagement at conferences, and at tables, and talking with us. That made me think of your anniversary.

Casey Hiers:
Aw.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
How often at these tables and these booths, just like with you, do people get on one knee and get engaged?

Casey Hiers:
I've not seen it yet.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Okay.

Casey Hiers:
We were joking, for listeners or practice owners, what does engagement look like?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
When they engage with Four Quadrants Advisory to learn.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Do we give out rings?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, no.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Oh, okay.

Casey Hiers:
We don't. But engagement, get down on your knee, get your knee dirty.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's right.

Casey Hiers:
Ask a question, get the answer.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I've been engaged twice.

Casey Hiers:
That's it?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. I never actually got down on one knee. The first one was a bit of a shotgun. And then the second one, it was both our second marriages, we had both known each other for 20 years. We were just like, "Should we just get married?"

Casey Hiers:
Interesting.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
We just went and did it.

Casey Hiers:
The third one, you'll get down on your knee? What's the plan?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
The third one it depends on how great she is.

Casey Hiers:
Oh, my. Hopefully, your current doesn't listen to this.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, she's not a dentist, so I think I'm okay.

Casey Hiers:
There you go.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Casey, when it comes to engagement, and practice owners, and associates, and dentists that are out there at these conferences, or are looking to find your booth and engage with you guys, can you walk me through what that looks like? I've been to comic book conferences and conventions, and things like that, but I have not been to one of our Dental Society, or our state convention, or anything like that. Can you talk me through that?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. When people find us, it's word of mouth, Google search, they come to one of our events, they come to a dental industry event that we're sponsoring or we're participating in in some way. It's small talk. There's lots of just surface-level conversations.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
But once people engage in speaking with us, what's that look like? What do I see, what do I hear from practice owners? I wanted to give a peek behind the curtain what that-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, because when you initially see them, you said it's surface-level. It's not very often that you have someone who just met and, within the first 10 minutes, breaks down and goes deep on their own level, right? Sometimes?

Casey Hiers:
That happens a little more than you'd think.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Okay.

Casey Hiers:
Then sometimes people go, "Wow, you guys seem great, I really like you. I'd like to work with you." I laugh and go, "No, no, we have a long mutual vetting process to get to know you. We don't know if we can help you. We want to learn." Once we actually have those one-on-one meetings, conversations, and get to know them, there's a couple common themes.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
One is skepticism, which I like. They should be skeptical. Because most of our clients have what? Paid a lot of money for practice management or consulting. Just wrote the big check, didn't get much out of it, felt burnt. We understand that. And they probably like the people that they're currently working with.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
That they're starting to learn, "Wait, you guys do some of these things, but I like Bill or Betty who does them for me."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
Typically, that's on the forefront of people's minds.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
In terms of the skepticism, do you see people balking, or at least questioning our advertised results? Of our increased income of 25% on average their first three years with a new client, a 660-odd percent retirement savings. Are those numbers seem ridiculous to some people?

Casey Hiers:
After we talk, oddly, no.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Okay.

Casey Hiers:
Most practice owners know in the pit of their stomach that they're good at dentistry, they're doing okay, but that most of their numbers could be better. They're overhead, their income, their retirement savings. Their strategies around debt, and tax, and the future, and retirement. Most of them already know that when we get into it in our presentation.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
A lot of times, what I hear is, "Okay, you guys get it."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
"Half of what you said just hit me squarely between the eyes."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
"Can we go talk over here in the corner where my peers don't see me?" We do that onsite, but then we'll say, "Let's schedule a time to talk-"

Jarrod Bridgeman:
To really dive in deep.

Casey Hiers:
... "one-on-one."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Because, as you said, so many owners out there have been burnt by a practice management firm or other things at some other point.

Casey Hiers:
Well, it's people who they have trusted and then paid them money.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
And they have underwhelmed or under-delivered, and that's fairly common.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
A lot of these places may say they're dental-specific in some form, but we really are.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's all we do all day long.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. On the early part of this, too, a lot of them ... We'll get into brass tacks, we'll get into some specific numbers for their practice. We'll get into some of their challenges and things like that. Then what happens is they start to find reasons why these things are occurring.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Okay.

Casey Hiers:
Here's an example. "Well, my insurance adjustments, gosh, they're probably over 30%. I don't know, really high. However, I'm not sure if you're familiar with my exact county, and city, and longitude, and latitude, but it's very challenging."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Sure.

Casey Hiers:
Basically, they're trying to sell us that their numbers are why they are because of these unique situations that they deal with. Spoiler alert: We help practice owners around the country.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
We hear a lot of the same challenges.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
It's not geographical, typically.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Those sound almost like excuses or a story that they've sold themselves.

Casey Hiers:
A little bit. Rarely are there reasons why we cannot help or why their numbers are not where they want it to be.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
Those excuses, again, everybody's unique and custom.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Correct.

Casey Hiers:
So I'm going to listen and make sure I fully understand the mindset. Then people will go back to, "Well, I'm doing pretty good, I'm doing okay." Then we go, "When has okay ever been good enough?"

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
Because most practice owners are what? Super high achievers.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
They've been the smartest kids in their fourth-grade class, and in junior high, and they got an award in high school.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
And kicked ass in college. But all of a sudden, like you said, they've sold themself, "Well, I'm doing okay, and because of these reasons, I don't know if I can do better." We really get into that and help them understand we're looking for why this won't work. We're looking for why we don't want to offer to help you. It could be personality, it could be mindset.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
It could be their practice is just not a practice, their challenges are what we master. We're trying to find that out as quickly as possible because time is a valuable resource. I don't want to waste theirs, I certainly don't want to waste mine.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
When they understand, "Oh, you're talking to a couple hundred minimum practice owners a year, one-on-one like this, engaging formally in your process, and you only offer 20 invitations to join the firm." Then they realize you're wanting to learn about my numbers prior to even offering to work together.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
Versus, "Let's work together and see how it goes."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
All of that typically levels out a lot of the excuses that people have built up in their heads, or the bad experiences they've had with other outside entities they're trying to employ to help them.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, we're not selling you a fake bag of goods.

Casey Hiers:
No.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
We show the proof in the pudding.

Casey Hiers:
Well, we're not a volume shop. Again, we're trying to get people either in or out as quickly as possible. A lot of people, it does not make sense.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Then, as a higher integrity firm, they realize, "Oh, these guys, they are a little different."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
But those are a lot of the things we hear on the very front end, in terms of where the mindset is for the practice owner.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
In terms of, let's say a dentist out there is talking with you very, very initially early on. What is one of the most common questions you may get from them in terms of, "Well, how do I save more?"

Casey Hiers:
Well, the most common question is, "How much do you cost?" If somebody doesn't ask us that early, that's a red flag. If they're not asking, they're not serious.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, a lot of people want to know early, "Well, how are you going to do this? How are you going to do that?" How, how, how, how, how?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
Especially early on, it's very simple. We don't even know if we can help you.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
That's the point of engaging in a mutual vetting process because people are so-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Or, courting, we could call it courting.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, courtship.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Froggy went a courting.

Casey Hiers:
But people are so used to having people just tell them how they're going to help them.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
We don't know if we can, that's the point. Let's learn about the practice owner and the spouse, their vision for their personal life, their vision for their practice.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
Look at a lot of analytics, numbers, data, documents. All of that before we even consider really going down the path of showing them, "Here's where you're at. Here are challenges that you have that need to be overcome. Here's how you overcome them and let's quantify that." Not a blueprint for them to go do it themselves.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
We're not just fueling the DIY-er around here.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
But basically, building that credibility ultimately to where people look up and go, "Okay. I realize that they're not trying to help everybody. They only work with people if they can help them significantly."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Not laterally. "They're actually going to go through, and show and do this together before offering to work together." To me, that's how most companies should work.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
It's very rare that they do. That goes back to the skepticism.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes.

Casey Hiers:
Why are they skeptical? Because they've experienced the same BS.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
And been underwhelmed the whole time.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
For our practice owners that are in engagement with you and our team here, what would say is the most work that they have to do? If they are considering calling us and talking to us, how much work do they need to do on their end?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, that's good. I'll tell you this. The hardest call is the one where I go, "Hey, you don't need to pay us because what you need, we don't do or offer."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
Or they don't qualify, or there's something ... Those are hard because most of the time, practice owners haven't been told-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
No?

Casey Hiers:
... no.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Those are the hard ones because they're shocked and then dismayed, and all of that.
Then, back to your question, practice owners they wear a lot of hats, they're super busy producing dentistry. I've talked to a handful of people this week, and the common theme was, "Oh, vacation was great, but I haven't even had a restroom break for three days as I've been producing dentistry." There is going to be some-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Should I be wary of the Gatorade bottles on the floor?

Casey Hiers:
No, no. I think there's ... No.

Going through our process, the first couple steps, there's not a lot of work, it's just getting to know each other. Being honest and really getting to the straight juice, we're pretty good at detecting when people are just giving us the cocktail party answer. If they don't have any issues and they're content, then it's a short engagement.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Short call. But ultimately, if we're going to look under the hood at numbers and data, they have to provide those documents.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right, right.

Casey Hiers:
Ironically, just going through that process tells us a lot, but it tells the practice owner a lot. Where if they can't get those documents from their current CPA or whomever those external people are, if they can't find them, if they can't get them.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
They start seeing the holes everywhere.

Casey Hiers:
If they're incomplete. Or if they're like, "Well, my taxes are extended." Just that process is very educational. That's probably the biggest thing. They have to honor appointments.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
In terms of when we have meetings scheduled. There's a few little things to fill out, but it's mainly compiling their own data.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
That shouldn't be that hard. People have done that in 24 to 48 hours. It takes some people a week and a half, two weeks. They look up and go, "Huh. I should be able to get to this faster." Even that starts them to the place of, "This isn't good enough, I should be better."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, "There is something off about my current system."

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. For us, really, it's just practice owner and spouse being engaged in the process.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
This can't be more important to us than it is you. Meaning I'm hoping you make more, save more, lower overhead, have a plan, reduce stress, all the things we talk about.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
We can't want that for them more than they do. But if they're engaged, and they can get us data and documents to analyze, it's fairly simply, it's fairly straightforward.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I'm a busy doctor, and my practice manager, front desk lady, knows way more about the numbers than I do; she controls all that. Can I just have her call you instead?

Casey Hiers:
No, that's a great question and a great way to position that. If you have a great officer manager, him or her they're great assets for practice owners. But typically, the profile with that is the practice owner is really good at dentistry, they're not good at the other stuff. They get a trusted person that they like to help them, but typically, that officer manager or practice coordinator they don't have maybe the training, the know-how, the expertise, or the time to do all of that.

But yeah, in terms of your question of can I just delegate that to them, absolutely not. Practice owner and spouse must be involved. The reason is yes, the practice is the centerpiece of improvement, but it's connected to the personal. Do you want your staff knowing all the intimate details of your finances? Some go, "Yeah, I'm an open book, they know me." But ultimately, in those situations, if we can help the practice owner, that trusted office manager or practice coordinator, their time is freed up to actually go do other things that are very valuable within the practice. Instead of trying to look at insurance adjustments, and profit and loss statements, and balance sheets, and a lot of those things.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
It really frees them up.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
For practice owners out there, the whole deal is, and what Casey's saying here is we do play nice, but we play smart and we play with actual real numbers and figures that don't have odd emotions attached to them. They are a number to us, but you are not. When you are our client, we white glove treat you respectfully and well. We're to the point with some people where maybe they're expecting a new child, and they've told us before they even told their own parents.

Casey Hiers:
Oh, sure. When you deliver results and help change their life, you become very trusted in all that. I always joke, "Man, you remember that second meeting we ha,d and we weren't getting along? You were unhappy with the way the meeting was going." They go, "Yeah, you know why? Because nobody has ever asked me and confronted me on why."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
They thought that maybe they were getting beaten up a little bit?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
But we just call that the straight juice. If you're not going to get down to it, then what's the point?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, yeah.

Casey Hiers:
We're trying to help people in a big way, we're going to have to talk about some uncomfortable things.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
No, we're very nice.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
You and I talk about this every podcast. We've got our own events that we sponsor, host going on throughout the country throughout the year. We've got several coming up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Merrillville, Indiana, we're going to be in Bloomington. We're also going to Wichita, Kansas, Kansas City, Kansas, some of the Carolinas. We've got so much stuff coming up. I know you've heard us repeat this over and over again, but if you're in those areas and either you yourself would like to learn more and need the help, or you know somebody who could use some help or some education, just go to fourquadrantsadvisory.com/events and check out where we're going to be.

Casey, when they sign up, when they show up to the event, they may enjoy a nice bourbon tasting, they might have some really great steaks and some food, or some appetizers that go with it. Then your speaker goes through their presentation. What would really be the next step? You've already signed up, I'm already here.

Casey Hiers:
Oh, yeah. Once they attend an event?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Oh, that's very simple. From our content, they're going to learn a lot. It's either going to hit them squarely between the eyes, or they're going to get defensive and walk out annoyed, but full. No, it's just setting up a time to talk. This is not rocket surgery.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Again, folks, visit fourquadrantsadvisory.com. There's an events button. There's also more episodes of the podcast. If you're behind, you should really listen to us. Give us some ratings on whether Spotify or Apple Podcasts, subscribe, tell your friends. Then mention how handsome Casey is and how good I am for radio.

Casey, thank you so much for coming in. I can't wait to see what we're talking about next week.

Casey Hiers:
Thanks, Jarrod.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
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. 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. We'll see you next time.