11 min read

Not All CE Is Worth Your Time: How to Spot the Good Stuff

Picture of Four Quadrants Advisory Four Quadrants Advisory Dec 3, 2025 11:13:24 AM

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

Not All CE Is Worth Your Time: How to Spot the Good Stuff

In this lively episode, Casey and Jarrod dive into the world of continuing education and why so many dentists unknowingly waste time sitting through CE that doesn’t move the needle. From one-trick-pony lectures to courses that repeat the same idea for hours, they break down how to spot what’s valuable—and what’s just filling space in a conference booklet.

They also reveal what makes truly high-impact CE stand out, why clinical courses can’t solve every practice problem, and how to choose sessions that deliver real growth, real insight, and real ROI for your practice. With stories from Smile Con, a Vegas roulette win, and plenty of laughs, this episode will change the way you approach CE forever.

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:
Doing well. Let's talk about, I don't know.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Well, you had a really great topic, subject. Not all CE is created equal.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right. And so this stems from a conversation we had off recording of, we had a few of our teammates, crewmates out there at Smile Con over the past weekend. Yeah,

Casey Hiers:
I feel like it's CE season, actually. This was the perfect double whammy. So I was out in the desert of Las Vegas. There was an implant course that we have a nice relationship with, and so you have high-achieving dentists learning implants, and then they bring us in to talk on the business side of dentistry, which is a nice one, two punch, I think, because there's always that pull and tug.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Much better than a sucker punch.

Casey Hiers:
Much better, yeah. Clinical versus other, but I got to do that. That was fun. And then we also had three of our team in Orlando for Smile Con, which is a large meeting, but that certainly caused some conversation about CE. Good CE, bad CE, and different CE, what that all looks like, what practice owners are looking for, what they're not.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Well, starting off, what would you consider a bad CE course?

Casey Hiers:
So some of our team they would go in and listen to some different topics. As a firm, we stay fresh on those things and-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
We go to things so our clients don't have to.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. Well, to be honest, our chief operations officer went in for a day and a half of high-level meetings and ran into the four or five clients and was in an interesting CE track and saw one of our clients come in, and they said, "Hey, what are you doing here?" And our COO goes, "What are you doing here?" He goes, "I attend these minimum quarterly to get all the information so that you don't have to, that's why you pay us." And he looked and goes, "Oh shoot, I can go to the bar?" He goes, "Yes, get out of here. I've got this." That's the point sometimes that even our clients will forget, but we're going to these, we're learning if there's anything new, but bad CE is a one-trick pony. It's one idea over and over and over

Jarrod Bridgeman:
For the hour, two hours, or however long is slotted for.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. Listen, banks and practice management, they're important. But I'm going to pick on them. One of those types of entities talking about the time value of money for two hours. I got it after about 18 minutes. I get it. And so some of this CE it's-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And you're a little slow.

Casey Hiers:
That's right. Sometimes I need the full two hours to get the one big idea, but there's a lot of CE that it's just one idea over and over and over again. And it's-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And at the end of the day, it may not actually move any needles at all.

Casey Hiers:
Correct. That is very well put.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
When you could have, you, as in the dentist or a practice owner, may have been able to take a different CE course or something else entirely instead of, I don't want to say wasting your time for two hours, but-

Casey Hiers:
Well, and that's the whole, it's not all equally. Right. You get the booklets, you look at it, we're going to a pretty big event. And it was interesting, our topic, I think it's robust. I know it's robust. We were told by thousands of dentists, it's robust, some of the best they've ever heard. But-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yours also scares them.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Scares people a little.

Casey Hiers:
Because we're... Yeah, we're getting into the real deal that they don't talk about.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Spooky season, so we're going to talk about the scary stuff.

Casey Hiers:
The stuff that they have nightmares at night about and don't want anybody to know about. We're talking about it, but the constant, we're looking at the other topics, and we're just like, oh my gosh, we hope they don't take away from hours because they're at the same time. And it's just such an elementary topic from entities that they'll bring us in on their behalf to speak because they know our stuff so good. But let's go to the clinical versus the other. That's such a topic where even some well-known study clubs out there, they're just, "Well, we're clinical." It's like a badge of honor to them. So it's only clinical. And we've said this before, what do they tell us?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
They say, "We don't want clinical."

Casey Hiers:
Well, yeah-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I mean, a lot of the actual users.

Casey Hiers:
We've got a lot of the clinical. Right. And so-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Clinical to me sounds like it's very beneficial if you are on a path of deciding, Hey, I want to learn a new technique.

Casey Hiers:
Like the implant course. That's a big deal, right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
I don't know what the analogy is, but it's like if you're trained in something and you do something all the time, why would you go travel to a course where you get it kind of reinforced or you learn a little hack that saves you, I don't know. It's fascinating, the badge of honor that clinical-only CE has. Yet, what practice owners don't have is typically the nonclinical. Now I get that when you're, again, nothing against these people, but when your local insurance company or your local banker or your local Edward Jones person wants to talk about their little niche thing, that's frustrating, right? But my gosh, they want to hear something that's new, something that's fresh, something that's robust, something that challenges them, something that they go, "Oh, crap, they know my dirty little secret that my overhead's high-"

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Something at the end will actually have a large benefit.

Casey Hiers:
Well, I always tell them, I'm not so arrogant to think I can solve all your problems because I don't know you or your practice. But some general takeaways, picking at the scab a little bit, getting into insurance adjustments, getting into overhead, getting into employee wages, so many systems and processes and efficiencies. I think that's the... And we're not the only one that does that. But that's-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
We are the best, though.

Casey Hiers:
That's good CE. Dude, I've set in some CE courses, and when I was starting this journey of presenting, I don't want to say I doubted myself, but you're a little unsure. And I'd sit in about 10 different ones, and I'm like, "God, these are God awful." That kind of propelled me to be able to... The information needs to be shared. I'm simply the vessel. It's not about me, but boy, did it help me feel much better about presenting it. But we still get pushback. "Well, it's not clinical. And it's talking about-"

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Do you think it's because they're only seeing it at the surface level, judging the book by its cover?

Casey Hiers:
They're used to the one-trick pony that's talking about personal financial planning because they need more clients, sort of thing. Versus, we source the money, we find the money, we help the... So when you have hundreds of thousands more a year, well, we're going to probably invest it and save it and help your income. And so those things, those are like the lightning rods that when the committees look at it, they'll go, "Oh, well, we don't want anybody talking about that." But our pushback is, sorry, when you do these 27 things over two years, or when we do them for our clients, they have hundreds of thousands of dollars more. That needs to be discussed because that means debt reduction, save more cash flow at home, and ultimately a better retirement. So it's like we get into the work and the why, but if you create the money and the wealth, you want to talk about that too.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
What recommendations do you have for somebody who's going to a conference of maybe sniffing out what's good versus bad in terms of CE?

Casey Hiers:
I wish I had some advice. I look through booklet, the one we go to. I look at all the programs, and you can get lost in it, man. And again, we're pretty honest. Hey, I am paid by Four Quadrants. I am presenting. We do these things. I'm not hiding that. But the point is, we can't help everybody. I want most people to go back to their teams and demand better and go, "Here's a blueprint. High level, I need y'all to execute it." But it's hard to decide which ones are good or bad. And we get a lot of students that come to ours like, "Oh, I don't get any business training. I've got all the clinical, I want to learn." Well, that's great, but we're helping practice owners. So sometimes that doesn't even translate.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
The students may not fully understand the numbers coming out of it. They won't know their debt and how much they owe, and all these other things.

Casey Hiers:
Well, they don't have a practice-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
They don't manage people.

Casey Hiers:
... and they're not going to remember it four years later when they do. But I respect that they know that there's value to the topic. S

Jarrod Bridgeman:
If you've already been and you're a student, we'll see you in a couple of years.

Casey Hiers:
I always tell them-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Come back and see us.

Casey Hiers:
... "Take my card, throw it away in some drawer. And then when you buy your practice, and you're pissed after 12 to 18 months-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Just look for that bright orange card.

Casey Hiers:
There you go. Yeah. No, but I mean, CE is beautiful, and kudos to the dental community. These shows know what the draw is. I mean, they need good CE. There is a lot of good CE. It's easy too. It's online. I don't recommend it. Let's be honest. You don't pay attention as much.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
No, I'm actually doing a course right now. I'm trying to learn a software, and I have a really hard time paying attention and working on it.

Casey Hiers:
Oh, you're always napping in here. And so-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I am. I sleep all the time.

Casey Hiers:
But you're actually doing an online CE.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I am.

Casey Hiers:
It's just there's no energy to it

Jarrod Bridgeman:
At all. 100%.

Casey Hiers:
I'm joking with you, but that's true. Don't settle for, "I'm just going to do it online because it's easy." There's no energy. Our clients, we recommend certain CE to them, and they go meet people, and it's ideas, and it's energy, and there's a lot to that. Half the value is who you meet at some of these events. The other half is what you learn. But we don't give people a blueprint that fix it themselves. That's a full-time job. They're already a full-time dentist and CEO, COO, chief marketing Officer, chief technology Officer, chief everything officer.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Babysitter.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, adult babysitting. They don't have time to do it themselves. But anyway.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
So I really feel like it's, I mean, the best you can do and hope for in terms of sniffing it out would just be research. Not only look at the title, look at the program, but may not hurt to look up that company or person.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, look at the company. If it's, again, some banks have good stuff, but if it's a bank, most likely it's maybe going to be one idea. A lot of financial planning. That's why it gives a bad name because there is a portion of that to ours, but most financial planning it's a one-trick pony. You're not learning anything. You're hearing it repeated for an hour. But yeah, that's probably the best advice I could give. By the way, quick story.

I'm in Vegas. I've got a couple hours to kill before dinner now by myself. And I go, "I'm going to lose X amount of money. How do I want to lose it?" That was my mentality. And normally I'm cup half full, but let's be honest, it's Vegas. I like roulette, and I like blackjack. So I decide that's where I'm going to go lose my money. And I had accepted that. I sit down and they "Go, sir, would you like to play roulette?" Straightened up the tables. It was just me. I go, "Yeah, yeah, I think I would. And bring me a Budweiser while you're at it." And so I put $10 on a color on roulette. I put $10 on two numbers on roulette because the minimums are obscenely high.

First spin, it hits my number for $350. And I just look at the guy, and he goes, "Wow, that didn't happen often." And the pit boss goes, "First spin?" I go, "Yeah." I go, "I don't really know what to do or say." And he goes, "Take your money and run." He literally said that. And I did. It was so weird. I was ready to lose. Now I still had two hours to kill. So I called my wife, and I told her what happened, and she's like, "Oh, that's great." Didn't really get the reaction I wanted. And then I go play blackjack-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's why you should have called me.

Casey Hiers:
I should have. You'd have been like, "That's awesome." Then I go play blackjack. Well, over the next two hours, I still probably up a hundred bucks, but pissed it away. Real quick, playing with these two young dudes. It was a weird vibe. They're from Cornell. They do a class trip. "Where'd you grow up?" "Beverly Hills." He's got these sweats. He's doing $300 bets on blackjack, and he's putting the hundreds in his sweats, sounds like he's got $5,000 in it. Well, he's counting cards. They actually kicked him out. I'm like, "This is like a movie. The kids from Cornell are coming to take down Vegas." I'm sitting here like, "Whoa." And then once they left, because I was stacking them up because they realized they knew how to play blackjack. But then once they left, my stack-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Started going down.

Casey Hiers:
... went down.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
So you were benefiting from someone else counting cards.

Casey Hiers:
I played blackjack, how I play blackjack, and whatever the hell they were doing, it was all working out for all of us. And then they changed dealers, and they changed decks, and then they kicked the guy. Said his time had expired. He's unable to play. And I'm like, "Are you guys from Cornell taking down the Bellagio?" And he's just looking at me with this death look. And I'm like, "I don't know what the hell's going on. Time to go eat some dinner."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Casey-

Casey Hiers:
If people-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Is story time over, Jerry?

Casey Hiers:
It is over.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Casey, if someone wanted to come and get some CE and hear some really important and beneficial information work and they go?

Casey Hiers:
Don't you run a website for us?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I do. It's called fourquadrantsadvisory.com. Go to the events tab. We've got our upcoming events that we host ourselves. It does not show some of the bigger ones, but we're at a lot of things out there. Just check us out, subscribe to our events newsletter, and we will send out emails letting you know where we're going to be next in person. All right, thanks, Casey.

Casey Hiers:
Don't play roulette. It normally doesn't happen like that.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
All right, I won't.

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.

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