Million-Dollar Blind Spot: Why Smart Dentists Are Still Missing Out

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 the studio with co-host Jarrod Bridgeman.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Casey, how are you? I'm so excited to see you for what, two days this week, because you and your team are just going to be nonstop

Casey Hiers:
Busy, busy.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Are you excited to pop out of the office for a bit and slap some hands and greet some babies?

Casey Hiers:
No, it's always good to get out and do those things. Who doesn't want to be in Florida in June?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, it's probably the best time to go. For our listeners out there who may not know, we do so many great things for our clients, but our company also does a lot of fun and uplifting and social gathering-type things for the company as well. We just did a staff social and invited some clients out to a, in Indiana. We have a local AAA baseball team called the Indians, and so we had an entire event there.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, it's the Pittsburgh Pirates feeder system.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's right. Yes, yes.

Casey Hiers:
I believe one of the better minor league ballparks in the country and then was actually also the NBA Finals game that night where the Pacers, so downtown was rocking.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
It's like what, two blocks maybe from there?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, we had a good time. We had a lot of clients and spouses come that are in this general area and-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Nobody slapped me that night, so that was a bonus.

Casey Hiers:
No, we had a lot of fun. And then yeah, this week our dance card is full.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And I've got two left feet. That's the problem.

Casey Hiers:
You're a phenomenal dancer. Don't let anybody tell you different.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
They say, I'm good for a white boy is what I hear. Casey with you going to, you're going to be at the Florida Dental Convention this week. The night before that whole convention kicks off, we're going to be hosting a social and the Citrus Club there in Orlando, which I hear is a pretty ritzy place to be.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, a lot of big cities have these private clubs. In Indianapolis, it's called the Skyline Club. Citrus Club in Orlando, Florida. We're doing a private event there. It's the tallest building downtown, very high up, great views, great everything. It's a really nice venue. We like to have these events at nice venues because this is more of a social, but when we get into our heavy subject matter, it's hard for people. It's hard for people to hear sometimes because it's challenges they've had for most of their career that doesn't get talked about, and so we like to feed them and give them nice things before then getting into some real stuff and some real topics, but that's a lot of fun.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
So we're doing that social, which again is more of a less pressure. We're going to have some bourbon, we're going to have some food. You're going to be able to chat with some people more intimately and more openly. If you're going to be in the Orlando area or if you're going to the Florida Dental Convention, there are just a handful of spots left, very few left, so go to fourquadrantsadvisory.com/events, and it's the very first event you'll see on there. And then is it too late to register for your speaking window, your speaking opportunity?

Casey Hiers:
I don't think so. And at those socials, I'll do a course overview, but it's pretty light. We have a nice time. Inevitably, the course overview is going to hit some topics where people are going to want to have some conversations. It's funny how we get pulled into the corner to talk one-on-one because people don't want to talk about their overhead, their cash flow, their debt.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
[inaudible 00:03:36] be painful.

Casey Hiers:
Their tax man. It's very personal, right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes.

Casey Hiers:
And so those are a lot of fun. Great venue. And then, yeah, we're actually doing two state meetings this end of this week weekend, we've got, I'm doing a two-hour course at the Florida Dental Convention. That's their state meeting. It's very well done on Saturday. And then we've got some folks going to the Alabama State meeting that's actually in the panhandle of Florida.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, Millmar, I believe, is the city.

Casey Hiers:
Miramar Beach.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes. And that one's called the Gulf Coast Dental Conference,

Casey Hiers:
Yep. And we're doing three hours on that. So we're actually adding, because we've got lots of courses, right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Oh, for sure, for sure.

Casey Hiers:
We try to have one or two that are pretty all-encompassing, but we're going to hit them with some more tax management things of that nature and get a lot more in-depth with that.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And that one's on Saturday at the Gulf Coast Dental Convention, so if you're going to be over there, you're from Alabama, and you're going to that convention, make sure you come see us speak on that Saturday as well. It's all on the website. On their website, I should say if you go to the conference website. Casey, let me be honest with you and ask you an honest question: why the hell do people want to do all that?

Casey Hiers:
Anytime somebody says, "Let me be honest twice," I'm wondering if they're telling me the truth.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Is that almost a double negative, almost, and now I'm...

Casey Hiers:
Now, to your point, we do a lot of events. We're at a lot of dental industry events, our own events. Why do people come to see us? Why do people come to hear this subject matter? It's because it is the most challenging thing for dentists and specialists in their lives. What do I mean by that? We talk about this. They're high achievers, they're very successful. They're good at dentistry or orthodontics or whatever. Whatever they're trained in, they're really good at. But the business and financial side of dentistry in their personal life and in their practice or practices it's so hard and challenging.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Because they kind of start off blind sometimes, not even knowing where to begin.

Casey Hiers:
Very much. And we've talked about this before. It's underserved. They don't get a lot of this. They certainly don't in dental school. When practice owners get out in the real world, they try to learn it and figure it out, which we've established costs them millions of dollars over the course of their career. So it used to surprise me when I'd walk into a state meeting and there's 140 people in the room. I'm like, "Wow." It's not me. It's the subject matter that we cover because people deep down in the pit of their stomach they know they need help with this.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I have problems getting at least three people to my own party. 140 in a room, that's fantastic.

Casey Hiers:
I mean, that's an hour therapy session right there that you can't afford me. But it's encouraging when I hear from practice owners all over the country, "Gosh, I need to learn about this. I need to fix this." People know that, but they're looking for some help. And so we'll have lots of people, they're coming for a pearl of wisdom or a nugget. Some people come to get validated. They basically want to hear that there's no better way. And it's just the landscape of dentistry, practice ownership. People come for different reasons.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And those people that are looking for that validation when they don't get it's kind of a weird mix between like, Oh, shoot, I do need to work on my stuff," or "I need to work on my stuff. Can you help me?" Or they just get super defensive and leave the room. Just small. A small percentage.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. Most people want to learn more, but some do get defensive and frustrated. And again, we have people that come here, and prior to talking with us, they might make three, $400,000 a year. We also have people coming in as practice owners, as their income is making five, six, $700,000 already.
And so many times, people want to just put a topic in a corner or explain how it doesn't relate to them. Any and all practice owners will benefit from any and all courses that we do, but there is limited seating.
But ultimately, I mean, here's an example. We talked to a lot of practice owners, and somebody had come to a previous event, and they reached back out, and they were just saying, "Hey, I think I need to talk to you guys. I tried to convince myself that I didn't," but ultimately it's anonymous. But basically they said, "Things are not going great in the practice. I'm in the process of selling the new building that I tried to expand and add onto," which we talk about many times. If your overhead is 65, 70, 75, god forbid, 80%, and then you're going to open another location, what the hell are you doing? I mean, I don't know what analogy you want. It's like you've raised four kids who are all in jail. Let's go have four more kids. There's probably something wrong. There's probably something broken in the formula. It's not a real sweet sentiment analogy.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I like it, I like it.

Casey Hiers:
But folks, too often, they're frustrated with their cash flow, their income, so they just expand. But what they're expanding is a bad formula.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right. They're assuming that because they're building out the increase of possibility of production might fix their ailments.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. It's people whom they don't want to be stagnant. They want to grow, and they want to succeed. What happens is they'll fly too close to the sun, and their wings will melt as they're spending another one, two, $3 million for all these expansions or ideas or things. And again, those can be done in a manner that can absolutely help a practice owner, but too often they're not getting a comprehensive strategy and looking at every single detail personally, practice all the metrics, and they're doing it on instinct. Then they have a lot of cheerleaders. We talk about this. "Oh, cool, you're going to spend another 1.4 million. Well, you've got the real estate guy, and you've got the equipment company." I mean, everybody wants you to fill these out at the banks.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I mean, if I was an equipment guy and you were going to spend money and I get a commission off of it, sure.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, well, this is a great idea. You're growing.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Love it. Sure.

Casey Hiers:
You're smart. They all already think that you, the practice owner, have spent time analyzing this, going over this from every angle, and that it is a good idea. They don't realize most are going on instinct or "Well, I have a friend in another state that did it, and they've got a lake house, so I want that, so therefore I want more practices."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right, right. And then you just, again, we've talked about this often for the course of the last couple of years on this podcast, but if you have, whatever problems you have in one practice, you're just multiplying that many times out as you add more. You're going to do more adult babysitting, your overhead is going to be just as high everywhere else, and you're not going to be making any more money per practice, you know what I mean?

Casey Hiers:
Well, and on the other side of the coin, if you get one practice running really, really well, there are so many opportunities to add locations and to grow and-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
If that's your jam. Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Unfortunately, a lot of things are done on instinct. They're not done, and when you're talking that much money, it blows my mind. But unfortunately, a lot of practice owners will try it their way. They'll try an idea or two, then they'll come back to us and go, "Hey, can you guys help?"

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And that kind of goes off of, we talked about how busy we are, have been all year, all last year and how busy we're this week and coming up, and I feel like sometimes the practice owner feels that they are too busy to even spend into their five minutes, 10 minutes, whatever the case may be, to dig into stuff. What do you say to, I mean, it's not any different than when I get home from work, and I've got to make dinner and help my kids with their homework, and get them to bed, and then I find I have no time to myself to work on anything I want to do for me. So what do you say to that practice owner who just says, "I don't have the time?"

Casey Hiers:
Well, if it's important, people will find the time.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
Right? So you feed your kids when you're busy because feeding your kids is important.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And it's the law.

Casey Hiers:
There's that, but the idea is that, again, so many practice owners have these feelings or instincts, but then it's their natural behavior to go into the, "Well, I'm really busy," and to put things off and everybody has to prioritize what's important to them, but ultimately, we say this all the time, getting this right can't be more important to us than it is to you. If this is important to you, you will prioritize your time to do so. Others, they'll go out and borrow $1.6 million, so that second location, and then they're going to suffer for years to come because they didn't make the time to be sure that this was a good thing. It's just like anything.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
As you're talking to owners out there and they're engaged in our vetting process and our dual vetting that we do, when you get the sense that maybe this is not as important to them as we want it to be, what does that happen then? Is it just a quick conversation or...

Casey Hiers:
Time and money are valuable resources. Our goal is not to waste their time or our time, and so when people engage in conversations with us that are very efficient, if I sense that, well, then that's okay. Timing is everything, and so we are looking for reasons why this won't work and then to move on because we have a lot of people that are itching to get to learn more, to engage with us.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
To get on the phone call with you and, yeah.

Casey Hiers:
To either get validated, they're doing the right things, or be shown, "Wow, I can improve this much. I don't have to change the way I practice dentistry." They actually want to know my vision for my practice, and they tailor a plan around that to then make more, to save more, to have lower overhead, to have better cash flow, to have less stress. What do we hear all the time from our longtime clients? "Man, you guys have changed our life financially, but more than that, our marriage is better. Our life with our kids is better. Our-"

Jarrod Bridgeman:
"I wish I had found you 10 years ago."

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, work-life balance, stress, that's a secondary benefit of getting the primary things fixed, goes back to the original thing, why in the heck do people want to come see us talk? Because it's underserved. It costs you millions of dollars if you don't get it right. Most people, hearing this in the pit of their stomach, know something's up. We've had people making a million dollars, and they come in and go, "I need some help because my life's falling apart because I'm making this." They need help. Well, we can still help you, but go from making a million to making 1.4, which helps when Uncle Sam's taking so much that extra 40 percent's important.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I'll take a 40% raise.

Casey Hiers:
But more so, it's getting people aligned. There has to be balance in life, and you can't be all things to all people, and a lot of practice owners try it, and it's really tough. I mean, that's why you hear horror stories, right? They close up shop. And every once in a while, we'll see someone quote like Star Wars, they can come back from the dark side. Maybe they engaged with us kind of early on, and they said, "No, this is not for me. This is not the right time," blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then every once in a while, kind of like the email you just read off, even a year from now, look at the email and be like, "You know what? You were right. What I was doing was not working. Can we please talk now?"

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I've told this story once before in our almost 300 episodes. There was somebody who started with us, and again, with us is fine, but just taking the business and financial side of things seriously and really working hard. Somebody who did that from day one and somebody who tried to figure it out, and we were at the same event, and the person who had a team master this, they retired at 49 years old, and the other person in their dental class who tried it themselves goes, "I made a monumental mistake. I'm going to have to work at least 13 more years than my peer." And he joked and said, "And I know I'm a better dentist than this asshole," and they were laughing, but the jokes on him because the person that took this seriously and got it right, 13 years sooner and so at that point, it's almost too late, right? It's like that memory where I see a guy slowly putting on a clown wig and clown makeup. It's like, "Who's the clown in this situation? I guess it was me."

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. I don't know that I've seen that one.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I'll show it to you. I'll text it.

Casey Hiers:
But yes, that sounds exactly right, Jared.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Thank you. I went to clown college. Casey, again, we kind of explained why the hell people want to go see this and hear you speak and get involved with us. Again, there's a dual vetting process to find out if what we do and what you can do, and if we can work together and-

Casey Hiers:
Spoiler alert, we don't take everybody.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's true.

Casey Hiers:
That blows people's minds. They're like, "Wait, what?"

Jarrod Bridgeman:
We tell people no.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's kind of a monumental but kind of a shocker for some people.

Casey Hiers:
If we can't help somebody in a significant way, we just say, "You don't need to employ us." Making lateral moves is worth nobody's time.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. We're not here to just take your money and let you not do what we worked on together.

Casey Hiers:
We're not interested in the transaction of doing somebody's taxes or doing personal planning or consulting. It's all connected. It's all together, and the result needs to be significant or there's no point to move forward.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Because a lot of dentists out there don't realize how much all that really is connected.

Casey Hiers:
Bingo.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep. Casey, thank you so much for coming in today. I hope you have a great time down in Florida. Please don't melt while you're down there. I hear it's usually pretty humid in Florida in the summer. Again, folks, if you want to see us in either the Gulf Coast Convention or the Florida Dental Convention, or our Orlando Social, go to fourquadrantsadvisory.com/events. We're also going to be in three cities in Indiana in July. We're going to be in Fort Wayne, we're going to be in Bloomington, and we're going to be in Dyer, which is kind of Merrillville, Gary, Valpo...

Casey Hiers:
Northwest of the state.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Northwest.

Casey Hiers:
People that work in Chicago, but don't want to pay Illinois taxes that live in Indiana.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
It's called The Region.

Casey Hiers:
There you go.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
It's people who pretend they're from Chicago, and then at the end of July, we'll be in Wichita, Kansas, and Leawood, Kansas, which is a suburb of Kansas City. So please get on there, and if you want to learn more and make millions of dollars, well, you'd better show up.

Casey Hiers:
That's not just tongue in cheek.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
No, for real. Thank you, Casey.

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 Dentists 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.