How One Year Can Transform a Practice: Real Clients, Real Results

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, how are you?

Casey Hiers:
I did the weirdest thing yesterday.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
What? What'd you do?

Casey Hiers:
I worked out.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I was going to say, you're looking pretty buff this morning somehow.

Casey Hiers:
If that's one and done, that's amazing. I need to be more consistent with it, but-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
... My body is fighting me on it.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
So if I cramp up in the middle of this.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's what it is. Got it, okay.

Casey Hiers:
It was just a simple workout.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I always say I want to go to the gym, and then by the time I get home from work and pick up the kids and do all that stuff, I don't have the capacity or energy to do it. I just got to make myself do it.

Casey Hiers:
As a single man in Southern California, my gym was very nice and had a full bar, but I would spend two or three hours working out four or five days a week, playing basketball, lifting weights, socializing at the bar. It was awesome. I didn't have any responsibilities.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
I just had to get the beach body ready.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And now you've got a lot of responsibilities.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. And so-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Kids and spouses-

Casey Hiers:
Chill or work out? Chill gets the nod more often.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I need to find a way to combine them. You know what I mean? Is there something I can do where I can just like... My body does the exercising for me while I'm sleeping, maybe. That'd be nice.

Casey Hiers:
Hey, there's an invention idea.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's right. Casey, you just got back into town recently. You went down to San Antonio.

Casey Hiers:
Yes.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
How was that? I know we hosted an event. It was our Bourbon and Real Financial Advice for Dentists event at... What was the restaurant again?

Casey Hiers:
Cured.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Cured.

Casey Hiers:
I was deep in the heart of Texas.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes.

Casey Hiers:
Really cool venue. An area called Pearl Street. They've revitalized it. It's really an epicenter of restaurants and bars, and fun.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. That's awesome.

Casey Hiers:
Really nice place. We had some really great people in the room, but a couple were not meat eaters.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Okay.

Casey Hiers:
Vegetarian, vegan.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And this is a full steak place?

Casey Hiers:
When you walk in, there's animals hanging.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Okay.

Casey Hiers:
Like getting dried out, smoked, and cured. Cured.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Oh, not just 'cause they were sad?

Casey Hiers:
No, no.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Got it. Okay.

Casey Hiers:
So I was like, Oh my gosh. And then we did the bourbon pairing and tasting, where they talked about the food and how they don't waste any part of the animal, and got into great detail, and I'm just like, these people are very sweet. They were great. We got them some food that was good for them, but they didn't expect to hold the room to their-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right, they weren't militant vegetarians.

Casey Hiers:
There you go. Yeah. Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
But I was like, oh, this is the most intense pairing and description as I've ever heard of animals, and these people are so sweet. But it was nice. It was nice.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's great.

Casey Hiers:
A lot of people really locked in. And again, some are going to go challenge their team. Others come and go. Hey, can we talk?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Over the course of this podcast for the past couple of years, we've gone through and covered the things we look for in clients, things that people should look for when they're either coming to talk to us or talking to maybe a new accountant or a new financial planner. Let's kind of fast-forward in time just a bit. After we know we've signed the client, we've gone through all the information gathering and all the planning and stuff like that. Let's talk about, for example, we had a client in just the other day who was celebrating their first year with us. Let's look at how that first year panned out.

Casey Hiers:
So, in the spirit of February and Valentine's Day, after the courtship and the dating part is over and we commit to helping somebody.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right. Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, it's interesting. We had a specialist in.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Okay.

Casey Hiers:
And we're based in Carmel, Indiana.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
These folks are from Southern California. And I think it's always interesting when people try to say, well, you don't understand our geography. We have clients in all-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Over the place.

Casey Hiers:
... Geographies.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I did feel bad 'cause it was chilly here for them, but...

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. Yeah. SoCal is nice in February, doesn't compare to Indiana. But ultimately, what does somebody who they've worked with... They've got their financial house in order, specifically, they've worked with us and let's call it for just over a year.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
And we were just going over some of the accomplishments.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
And it was fun. We go to lunch and have a nice lunch and have some celebratory cheers and all of that, and that's important.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
And they even said that.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
They said, we really appreciate this part of it to get to know our team outside of talking all these numbers.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I will say during each planning meeting each year, I'm actually in the lobby right away. I introduce myself, and I take some fun action photos.

Casey Hiers:
You're the paparazzi.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
The paparazzi. And it's really interesting for me to be able to hear and see the differences from year to year with each client. And this particular doc, right away, it's like meeting family again. We talked so much, I talked to everybody so much. It's like family. They hugged different people as they came in. And then I noticed just myself, the general mood of the room was a thousand times happier. Not that it was bad the year before. The very initial meeting might've been some nervousness and not quite sure-

Casey Hiers:
People don't know what to expect, and they've consistently been underwhelmed by their team and their external help for decades. And so to your point, not only the feeling that we give our clients, but let's get into some of the results.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, let's do it.

Casey Hiers:
When you can affect numbers and help change lives. Being nice is one thing.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right. I was going to ask you, what's-

Casey Hiers:
Getting results is where it's like, give me a hug.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
So throw me some results as to why we think they were so happy and huggy.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, I mean, I think it's all the above, but ultimately just in, and a lot of times that first year, it's a lot of blocking and tackling, a lot of cleaning things up, establishing baselines, things of that nature. A lot of times, the real juice that we get excited about that's more year two, year three, year four, but we're able to clean up a lot of tax management, improve cash flow. But ultimately, anytime somebody has a lot of stress.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
And somebody has on their shoulders the weight of the world when it comes to money, finances, practice, all of those things; that's hard.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
And so being able to have a team to dump that on, Hey, I need help with this. That was so big for her.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I mean, people can sometimes get paralyzed with decision-making, and as you've said before, a team of people. We've got some of the brightest people putting their heads together to help work these things out. It's not just you on your own.

Casey Hiers:
Well, our average improvement or average income jump within three years is about 25%.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
That's what new clients can expect. And for her, for this specialist, yeah, it was right on track, sort of right around that eight, eight and a half percent in year one.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
That doesn't get us as excited.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
Sometimes we want to see that 25 and 30 after multiple years, right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
But that really helped cash flow at home.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Okay, so for the first year, there's a lot of cleanup. Sometimes your entity structures may have to change. So again, as you said, after three years, we do on average about 25% income increase. We did about eight and a half 9% for this doc just in the first year alone. There's so much more things that we are so excited to do for them.

Casey Hiers:
We get excited when we double people's income, and that happens a fair amount. But also being able to double your savings.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
And in year one, to go from saving around 49,000 to now a hundred thousand.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Again, when I go around and present and hit on some of these specifics, I'll get some looks of, there's no way that can happen.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I was going to ask you if people actually question sometimes the success numbers.

Casey Hiers:
Some people go, Wow, that'd be amazing, but I don't believe it. Prove it. Others get angry because they've spent decades under saving. But for these folks being able to double retirement, and they were already saving 49, giving a pay raise, taking stress off, that was really for us, that's what we expect of ourselves, and that's what we work to deliver. But for the client, they were just very ecstatic and over the moon.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right, right.

Casey Hiers:
Because they had hoped it would be good.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And it was great instead.

Casey Hiers:
We proved it, yeah. And again, we're just getting started.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
But yeah, that's a good snapshot, I think of just for us, just what we do, how we hold ourselves accountable. There's a ton of things on the back end that we do around tax management, cashflow, and systems that doesn't get the glory. It's like the offensive linemen, right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
They're in the trenches making the gap for the running back to go score a touchdown. They don't get a lot of glory. There's a lot of that we do that doesn't get the notoriety. But ultimately-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
See, my example would've been the bass player in a band.

Casey Hiers:
Well, yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
You know?

Casey Hiers:
I get it.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Nobody cares about the bass player, but they have a very important job to do.

Casey Hiers:
There you go. And then for others, another thing we were talking about is somebody recently was in, a great client. And this is within five years, this is probably a four-year relationship, and this talks about somebody wanting to retire and transition out, find an associate-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
Go to partner, and all those things. And so 80% of associates never become partners.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
That's statistic. I mean, it's really hard, and we tell people you need to start thinking in terms of a decade to transition out.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
But we were able to help somebody in a significant way on that end of things.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
So kind of talk me through that. From what I understand, it was someone who was an associate who then became a partner, and then will soon-ish become the actual full-time owner. So would that be the doc that's transitioning out? They're winding down?-

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. I mean, that's the cliff notes right there. And I think the neat thing about this one is this is somebody who, yes, we were able to help in a ton of different ways, but ultimately had somebody that it was like a mentor-mentee relationship, really liked each other and respected each other. So there was an emotional attachment there.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
And that's great. Typically, that's where practice owners stop, and then they go into this whole let's work together, and it doesn't go well. But we were able to really help this to put everything above board, look at all the numbers, and make sure it's structured in a manner that they are still friends after.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
We kind of helped the entire process of that, right?

Casey Hiers:
Not just kind of, we led it. Yeah, yeah. And again, for our clients, we'll help them do that. The younger dentist is always leery, oh, it's my guys and your guys, and why would I use your guys? And that's traditionally how it's been. That's not like how it is here.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
So first off, it's getting to that situation where we look at all the numbers, data practice, and valuations and things of that nature, but in a short period of time, going from an associate to then a partner, which is again, doesn't happen the majority of the time. And then to get the older client transitioned out and the younger person who works with us, as well as the owner, and doing that in kind of a less than five-year window successfully.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's awesome.

Casey Hiers:
It was beautiful.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
It's beautiful. And the older being able to enjoy retirement and kind of start to scale back, but everybody's in agreement with all the details. There's so many details with these, and they're typically done wrong.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
And people contact us to just do transition. We only do it for clients.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
We do not do it à la carte.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, 'cause I mean it's obviously not an easy process. Even if you find someone, there's a lot of-

Casey Hiers:
You're dealing with money.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
And you've got multiple people and multiple spouses and multiple opinions, and everybody values their practice as much or more than it should be. I shouldn't say everybody, many people.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
And so it's really weeding out all of that and just making sure that everybody's on the same page, looking at the same pieces of data, and understanding the rationale for how things are structured.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And we want the best for everybody involved. And I understand that-

Casey Hiers:
It sounds like a Hallmark card, but you're right.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Because for the older person, we've been working with them for a while. We want to make sure that they are awesome and great and-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Taken care of.

Casey Hiers:
... Lucrative in retirement.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
But then this younger person, we want to work with them for decades to come.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right. Yep, yep.

Casey Hiers:
So for us, it's to make it-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
We're not his guy, we're your guys in gen... We're both your people.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
You know?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. Which it's a unique lens to view this through, 'cause people are so used to the hardcore negotiations.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
They're used to that or seen it in movies and things like that. And people are always... It's fair. Don't mess with my money. You know what I mean? People are always worried about... I almost used the F word there, Franklin, but don't F with my money.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, no, I think that's a big part. But with both these examples, in a year, somebody doubling their retirement, getting a nice raise, and stress levels where they are so much better at home with their family and three kids, that's amazing.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
And then somebody at a little longer footprint, getting the right person to come in and partner, and then buy your practice and transition out. Those are awesome, big once-in-a-lifetime things that again, we master every day, all day, for so many people. That's why we like to go and meet and speak and educate because we work with a small amount of people.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
We love meeting and speaking. We love helping people when we can, especially if it all works out becoming a client of ours. And then, as you mentioned earlier in this episode, we also love when our yearly annual planning meeting comes up, and we fly you guys in, we go to lunch, we spend time with you. It's just a great way to... To me, it's amazing to see again, year after year, how things have improved and keep on improving and building that relationship.

Casey Hiers:
Well, it's beautiful. But again, we meet way more people that we don't work with.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
But we want to educate and empower those people as well because dentistry is a beautiful profession, it's a beautiful industry, but it is tough.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
And we help people in those areas. And even if we don't work with them, there's things we can help them be better with and empower them to challenge their current team to raise the bar.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep. And listen, folks, if you know someone out there, if you're friends with another practice owner or just even an associate, and they're not listening to us, you should recommend the Millionaire Dentist Podcast to them because again, this is free education.

Casey Hiers:
Free, and they get to hear us. Isn't that great?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Casey, you're going to be traveling again very soon, or at least us as a team are. Do you know where we're going?

Casey Hiers:
I don't like pop quizzes. Yeah, we've got a couple of dental societies that reached out, and they want to invite us to speak to their members.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
Which we sprinkle that in.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Sprinkle in. And then we're going to be at the Chicago Midwinter.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, we're doing some exhibiting.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
GAO.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. Georgia Association of Orthodontics.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's right. That's coming up.

Casey Hiers:
Chicago Midwinter. And then heading down to Tampa.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
We're going to be in Tampa. That's awesome. Nashville, Tennessee, will be coming up in about six, seven weeks, I believe.

Casey Hiers:
We go to great Cities, we find the best venues.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep. I heard Nashville. We're going to Kayne Prime, which is supposed to be out of this world.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, it's pretty strong.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Dang.

Casey Hiers:
They're pork belly bacon with cotton candy on it. Hits just right.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Dude, it's almost lunchtime. You're killing me here. All right, Casey, anything else to add?

Casey Hiers:
All good.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
All good. All right. Folks, don't forget fourquadrantsadvisory.com/events. If you feel like checking out where our events are, not if you feel like it, check it out. Do it, click that button, fill out some forms, give us your information. You know I love you. Also, if you're on iTunes, be sure to rate us and leave us a review, a positive one, hopefully, that really helps us out, and so thanks again, everyone.

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.