The 22-Year Playbook: Mastering the Constant in Dental Business

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, I would say it's a good morning, but I am very tired today. My ex-wife is out of town for three weeks for work, and so it's me with my kids, and my son likes to do every sport that's ever been invented, and my daughter's doing volleyball, and so every single night I've had something to do and-

Casey Hiers:
Aw, you get to be a full-time dad. I'm so sorry.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, it's rough.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. You thought you were going to get sympathy out of that?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I did. Yeah. I was like, that's the benefit for divorce, you only have the kids half the time.

Casey Hiers:
Well, I don't know where you were going with it when you started off with your ex-wife, so that was probably a decent-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. But anyways, good morning. I'm glad you're here today. I know you're flying out here pretty dang soon.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
You're heading to Bozeman.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
We've been talking about it for a while, but that's going to be fun.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. One of our colleagues goes, "Where's Bozemon?" I heard somebody go, "Whoa, it's Bozeman." but yeah, no, Bozeman, Montana. It's going to be great.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And she's not Jamaican, right?

Casey Hiers:
No.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Bozemon.

Casey Hiers:
No, I like that.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. No, there's a large state dental society that's having a meeting at Big Sky Resort.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Big Sky, yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Brilliant, right, to go skiing.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
It seems like a cool place. Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
They wanted us to come up and present. I think we're doing two two-hour courses.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
And then we're doing our own event-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes.

Casey Hiers:
... which we've got a really good crowd. Again, some of these geographies that we go to, they're underserved, right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
They don't get a lot of this.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
A lot of love.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, there's a lot of demand for this event. I won't want to say standing room only, but yeah, it's going to be good. With the Department of Homeland Security cutting funding with TSA, I'm hearing four and five hours before your flight. My flight's at seven, so do I have to get there at 2:00 AM, Jarrod?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Probably. You should get out there.

Casey Hiers:
Indianapolis Airport's pretty friendly.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
It is. It's the number one in the country. It's been voted multiple times.

Casey Hiers:
We are number one.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. Number one.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Hopefully, between Indiana and Bozeman, Montana, those airports aren't going to be five-hour waits like Houston is, but neither nor there.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Are you going to hit the slopes while you're there?

Casey Hiers:
No, I'm not a big skier. I've skied a handful of times in my life. The last time was June 11th, 2000.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Wow. Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Long story short, in June it's 70, so you can wear shorts, but the double black, triple black diamonds are the only ones open, and my buddy and I are like, we're athletic. We're young. No sweat.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
We're immortal.

Casey Hiers:
I about died.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, nonsense.

Casey Hiers:
I unclipped and hiked down a mountain. Then I said, "I shall choose not to ski anymore." Now, I may take it up-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Sure.

Casey Hiers:
... down the road, but no, no skiing.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Last time I went was probably 2002. I went twice that year, and the first time I probably fell like 40 or 50 times.

Casey Hiers:
Now, after ski, A P-R-E, apreski, after ski? I'm good at that.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
When you go in the lodge and-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
... have a hot toddy and kind of warm up.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Ooh, a hot toddy does sound good. It's been very rainy here the last week or so, and so a hot toddy might hit the spot.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
We've mentioned here and there that we play around with the ideas. Let's talk more about it. Let's start with our presentation and why people want to come, but extrapolate that and go back and let's start maybe with the wide view of people listen to us, they've heard us say Four Quadrants they know we work here, but what the hell does all that mean?

Casey Hiers:
Most people's favorite topic is themselves-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
... so I guess this is the Four Quadrant Advisory Millionaire Dentist Podcast, so let's talk about ourselves. Now again, we talk about our events and all those things, but we want to really get into that a little bit more and get into some background because I think this is going to make sense if people stick with this one.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
First off, Four Quadrants Advisory has been doing this for 22 years, going on, I believe our 23rd year-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes.

Casey Hiers:
... only helping dentists and specialists who are practice owners-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
... and our founder and CEO, right, grandfather, uncle were dentists, married an orthodontist. We are as dental specific as you can get. The old saying that I'll say from time to time is, "Those who can't do, teach." Have you heard that?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. I love saying that around college professors, neither here nor there. But Four Quadrants Advisory has been doing this for over 22 years.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
What's this? Mastering the business and financial side of dentistry, the areas that they're not trained in. Mastering that and doing it is the foundation.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
What, for the last six, eight years, we've had a heavy emphasis on educating the dental community, and our founder and CEO wants to do that, likes to do that, and it is an underserved topic that costs practice owners millions of dollars, and there's a high demand for these.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Well, and as you said, this isn't us regurgitating things that we learned from textbooks, maybe like a teacher would do.

Casey Hiers:
Real life, real world.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
This is real life, real world, and these are things that we do, and this is from our collective experiences of working hand in hand with every single-

Casey Hiers:
Well, and over the decades, listen, dentistry's changed, right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes.

Casey Hiers:
Interestingly enough, the core challenges that practice owners face, those haven't changed a whole lot.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
Ultimately, we can talk about those areas a lot in our presentation, but dentistry's changed incredibly. I mean, we're evolving all the time. Technologies and software, and Ais, and insurance, corporate dentistry, all those areas, yeah, big changes, but the core root problems and the ultimate lack of achievement and financial gains that practice owners face, that's been fairly consistent.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
It has. Again, we've mentioned so many times in the past, but people go to dental school, and they learn to become a dentist. They learn the clinical side, or a specialist, but maybe they take a six-week course on business.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. I mean, there may be some of the dental schools out there have a course, and it's pretty watered down. It was interesting. I was talking to a neighbor, and he's like, "What do you do again?" and the weather's nice sometimes, and so you get out, and you start chatting.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
I told him what I do, and he looked up, and I was like, "Well, think about it, right? An ER doc, an orthopedic surgeon, they're 1099. They go to the hospital, they're not buying the equipment, they're using the equipment, they're using this staff. Dentistry is the last bastion of entrepreneurialship where-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
In the medical field, for sure.

Casey Hiers:
... you have payroll, you have overhead, you have a business, you are the CEO, which is a beautiful thing." The guy was like, "Oh, my brother-in-law's an ER doc. Yeah, that's right. I guess that is really important." Then he started being like, "Well, I know some dentists. Can they call you?" I'm like, "Sure, that's fine. Don't know if we'll take you." And that goes into my next point.

We talk about coming to our events, and just like any business or company, you want to achieve a lot for whom you serve, and you want to grow. We present in front of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of practice owners every year. We end up having conversations with hundreds of practice owners every year.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
We work with 15 to 20 new people, and so a lot of times when you come to these events, it's like, "Oh, is this a sales pitch? Is this, this, that, and the other?" The feedback is always really good because they walk into it going, "Well, you have a bourbon tasting, and it's at a nice steakhouse. And so I came, but I'm shut off to this. " Then ultimately they go, "Well, shoot, I've been struggling with these challenges for a long time. This is at least worth the conversation." But here's the funny part, we're interviewing people.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes.

Casey Hiers:
We do not work with very many people, and so you have to have the right mindset, personality, the right practice. We have to see a path to help you at minimum, a couple million bucks more than you're on track for, most of the time, many, many millions more.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And what's great about the focus we've made to helping to educate more to this population is some practice owners, maybe they're too green, or whatever the case may be, they're not at a good enough place yet.

Casey Hiers:
Timing is everything.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Timing is everything, but some of the education that we provide, if they implement some of that, it's going to help propel them at least in the proper direction to begin with. We want people to be successful.

Casey Hiers:
A lot of new practice owners, or folks who are about to buy a practice, they love coming to our events because they go, "I don't want to make all these mistakes. How can I? " We have a lot of good conversations with people, and we donate our time to the dental community in some regards. We just, "Listen, what kind of practice do you want? What do you don't want? What's your vision?" Don't just be like, "Well, Old Man River's selling his practice across the street, so that's the one I'm going to buy." We help those people avoid a lot of mistakes. No doubt about it. But yeah, the point of you will learn a lot, you will have a good time, given a little background of our firm, because again, giving back is important, but yeah, we're going to find some good people, and we're going to help them, and that's how we meet new people.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
That's part of the equation. But a lot of times, if you go to a, I don't know, banker, an insurance little CE, it's one little nugget, and it's heavy on please, please, please work with us. We're kind of the opposite. We're open to talk to everybody-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
For sure.

Casey Hiers:
... but you've got to be, and you don't have to have some monster practice. If you're over 900,000 or more in collections, it's worth the conversation-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
For sure.

Casey Hiers:
... but it's personality mindset.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
As you said, compared to the banks where it's just going to be a banker or whatever, we've got an entire team of CPAs, CFPs, and all these people who bring so much knowledge and experience, and then they're only focused on the dental world. I mean, that's where it grows from, too. It's me and you listening to some of our other cohorts and then applying those aspects either here on the podcast or a blog or whatever the case may be.

Casey Hiers:
Oh, newsflash. A Lot of our content comes from the really smart people that they only do these things. Then it's interesting, yeah, we help people in probably over 40 states, and it's like, "Well, my disjointed team that helps me externally with these things, do you know fill in the blank state's tax code?" Our guys study and know any and everything, tax, investing, planning, practice advisory, all of it.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Are you telling me, Casey, you can't recite that off the top of your head right now?

Casey Hiers:
Recite what?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I'm going to pick a state, and you just tell me their tax laws right now.

Casey Hiers:
Well-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
See, that's exactly like at your presentations, people try to stump the chump kind of a situation, but you're not the tax guy.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. We don't fly the brain trust all over the country to evangelize the message and educate. They're here. If you get access to them, that's because right timing, right personality, right mindset, right practice, right opportunity. I have to be judicious on the time that our team gets. It's interesting, once practice owners come to our event and maybe talk to us, they quickly go, "Oh geez, this is way different than I thought. Of course I'm interviewing you and learning and considering what you offer, but you're actually also interviewing me?" Yeah, we are because we're not looking for a volume, serve thousands of people, and do a transaction. This is about life change, but a little of that background I think was important, just on, oh, we're going all over the country. Why? Because it's important and we're going to help people and, yeah, we're going to meet some good people and help them. And that's-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Casey, you've been here, what, nine, 10 years now?

Casey Hiers:
10 years in July.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
10 years in July. I mean, that's a testament to not only your own personal success, but your belief in the company as well. You strike me as the kind of guy that if you didn't really believe in what you were trying to sell, it wouldn't come across well.

Casey Hiers:
Well, and it's funny the word trying to sell. Ultimately, it's bridging the gap that exists, right? There's lots of things that you can promote or evangelize or educate people on, but yeah, you got to be principled, you got to believe it. I mean, as a dentist, so many dentists, their case acceptance isn't great because they don't have the confidence to have that conversation, or they're fearful that they won't do it, or maybe they're not comfortable doing some procedures. That's true with anything. You have to believe in it, and it has to come from a place of, I want to go help people.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Ultimately, if you can have that as the foundation, it's going to help, and I think this firm has done that over the decades. People call us all the time, "Will you sell my practice?" Go find a practice broker. We're not doing one-offs. We're not looking for all these little revenue streams. We're looking for people to help change their life over the long term. People that were with us from the beginning, again, our founder and president will tell you, they retired at 48, 49, and people-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And we're still working with them, helping them throughout retirement.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. There's no practice advisory anymore, but ultimately, we're going to help them have enough money until the end, and that's really important. A lot of people don't have that. They have a disjointed team that they talk to very infrequently.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I mean, how many of our clients will call our guys and tell us first before they even tell their family that, oh, they're expecting, or you know what I mean? We've got such a close relationship now with so many people.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. I mean, the big things in life, good and bad, right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Some of them are unfortunate.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Sure.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, "I'm probably going to be getting divorced here in the next 12 months." and "Oh, have you had a conversation with your spouse?" "No." And again, if you're a client listening, that's rare, but I don't want to scare anybody.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right, right.

Casey Hiers:
No, to your point, results build trust, and the trust that we've built with the people that we helped, it's real. Yeah, we have the most raw, straightforward conversations you can have, and, again, when you help people get their money right, and you reduce their stress, and their life is better-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. You see tears of joy. I see our clients hugging some of our employees just because they just love to see them.

Casey Hiers:
Well, some of my suits I'll have deodorant or blush on the shoulder, and my wife's like, "What client was in hugging you because I know you're not out running around on me."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, for sure. There definitely was a client.

Casey Hiers:
No, but the-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
There's glitter, too.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. Geez. Yeah, it's the real deal. Again, a little background on, come to our event, meet us, you'll have fun, you're going to learn something, but we're not out there prodding and pushing people to make a change. It's square peg, round hole. If it's meant to be, things are serendipitous, you're going to come to our event, the timing's going to be right, how we help and what we do is going to click. Yeah, where are we going? Montana and the East Coast and-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes.

Casey Hiers:
... all over the place.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. We're going to be in Cleveland, Ohio. We're going to Pittsburgh. We're going to the Buffalo, New York area. We're going to Rochester, New York. We're hitting so many cool places, and so many different areas, and it's exciting for us. I hope it's exciting for our listeners out there who are in those areas, and like, "Finally, you finally came this way."

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. We're not just going to the Houston's and New York's of the world. We like going to some different places, and it's interesting because I have the objectivity to have that national view, but everywhere I go, people are like, "Well, it's different here." And it's true, but again, holistically-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
... the core challenges have been there the whole time; the headwinds are just bigger.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep. Casey, thank you so much for stopping by. Folks, if you do want to attend whatever events, you need to register. You can head to forquadrantsadvisory.com/events, and there's an upcoming events tab there as well. If you have any other further questions, you can always fill out a form on our website, just shoot us an email. We're always happy to direct you to the proper way if you are having any kind of troubles, or want us to come to your area. Please feel free to let us know, and we'll see what we can do.

Casey Hiers:
And we do vet the jokers who are-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes.

Casey Hiers:
... in financial or accounting or practice, whatever. We want dentists and specialists in the room.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Oh, yeah. People that try to sneak in and network that way and-

Casey Hiers:
Oh, yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
... I can come out.

Casey Hiers:
Thanks, man.

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, 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.