The 4 Types of Dental Practice Owners: Which One Are You?

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 at The Millionaire Dentist Podcast in studio with co-host Jarrod Bridgeman.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Hey, hey, Casey. It's me, Jarrod.

Casey Hiers:
You just woke up from nap time, right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I did. I took one of our coworkers out for a birthday lunch, and I had a really nice shaved prime rib sandwich with some au jus sauce, and it was really good, but I'm getting real sleepy.

Casey Hiers:
So I'm going to have to carry this one today?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
For the first time in your life, yeah. It's going to be all you.

Casey Hiers:
That's facts. Yeah, no, that's factual.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Casey, I know you're a big fan of just sitting down and really people watching, and that ties into you just judging people. You're loving to judge people-

Casey Hiers:
Whoa, whoa, what?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
You're always talking about my outfits. You're like, "Oh, what are you are doing wearing two belts?" Like, "Okay."

Casey Hiers:
But most of the time it's a compliment.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
But when that happens with you, when you're out in the field speaking at conferences, and doing all these kinds of things, do you find yourself... Maybe not so much really "Judging people," but maybe quickly putting docs out there in certain stereotypical buckets?

Casey Hiers:
You're going to make me vulnerable in this one, huh?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, I want you to hurt a little.

Casey Hiers:
I think the human disposition, we all like to judge and look at others and compare, and then we feel better about ourselves sometimes, or we feel worse if you get on social media and look at everybody's fake life. So I think human nature goes to that. But to your point, I've had the privilege of being able to meet hundreds of practice owners and have one-on-one conversations. So inevitably, there's probably four or five buckets that I put people in or people's profile. And I'm not immune to that. People may put me in the, "He's a jerk," bucket. I don't know.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
No.

Casey Hiers:
But yeah, no, there's absolutely different, I would say types of practice owners in terms of mindset and personality.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. Do you often find yourself surprised as you dig into conversations with people that they may have started off in one bucket and then jumped out and became something else?

Casey Hiers:
I think the idea is we all evolve with knowledge and experience and maturity, whatever that is. A lot of times people can evolve, and in their younger years, maybe they were sort of one "Type of person," and then they've, a lot of times through challenges, have grown and maybe are another type. And we can get into the four or five that I'll distill it down, but I think that's right.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.
So let me ask you, your first bucket, let's say that's maybe your dream doc you wanting to talk to. What would that bucket be?

Casey Hiers:
It's not about me. I don't have a dream bucket. We're looking for good people to help whose practice can benefit, whose... They're ready for it, right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
But really to just kind of go through it, I would call it, we have wingers, dabblers, know-it-alls, and those who are committed to mastery. Those are probably the four in terms of practice owners and business acumen and financial goals, if that's the lens we're viewing this through.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
And the first type, again, I would call wingers. They kind of wing it because trained in dentistry, so they don't wing dentistry.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
No.

Casey Hiers:
They're knowledgeable, they're passionate, they master dentistry.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
But when it comes to hiring, handling staff or scheduling out [inaudible 00:03:46]-

Casey Hiers:
Insurance.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes.

Casey Hiers:
Those sorts of things, they just wing it. There's no strategy, there's no plan, they just fly through most of their career by the seat of their pants hoping that things work out. What do we say? Hope is a terrible business strategy.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
Hopium is not a good drug.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
No. It's the worst of the drugs.

Casey Hiers:
And sometimes, geez, I just caught that. I was a D.A.R.E role model in high school. I was helping keep kids off of drugs.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Were you really?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I was always mad because I never once got the freaking teddy bear. You know, the cop would throw out the teddy bear for one of the kids to hold in elementary school? I never got it.

Casey Hiers:
Were you not a cute kid?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I was the ugliest one.

Casey Hiers:
But a lot of times the wingers, they'll try an associate or they'll try another location, or maybe they want to be a crypto bro, right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
They're like, "I'm going to get into crypto," and again, I look at my crypto, it's fun money, it's up a big number, but I know better to have that be my primary retirement strategy.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
You're not going to base of that, your whole life off that.

Casey Hiers:
Right. Or a lot of people like to throw their eggs in the real estate basket. Again, they're sort of winging it. If anything sounds good and they get a dopamine hit, "Boom."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I was going to ask.

Casey Hiers:
"That's my idea. I'm going to go spend a million dollars on this commercial building because two people I admire are doing it, and they let me in on this opportunity." And with no analysis, they wing it, so-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Do you find them, that they're the ones most often driven by emotion in that case?

Casey Hiers:
Emotion and in the pit of their stomach, knowing they need to do something to make up for maybe a poorly run practice on the business side, and so they're looking for that lightning in a bottle.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, "Let's bring on an associate. Let's have another baby." You know?

Casey Hiers:
Yep. But they just keep throwing proverbial buckets of mud against the wall hoping that something's going to stick.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And at the end of the day, they're just wallowing in it.

Casey Hiers:
And their hope is that something will just miraculously work itself out. That hopium, it's a drug that's so many practice owners are taking, and it's such a hard and unpredictable way to make a living, but there are a lot of wingers out there. But you know this, a lot of these practice owners, they're doing better than most, so they think that their strategy... "It's worked out so far," and unfortunately when you're running a business or a practice winging it is not the ideal.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
It might be working out for now, but what happens when you hit 70, and you're still working?

Casey Hiers:
Well, they'll still be practicing.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
You're still working.

Casey Hiers:
That's what happens.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.
What's the second bucket we've got here?

Casey Hiers:
Dabblers.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
The dabblers.

Casey Hiers:
They like to dabble. They're the ones who, they'll buy a couple books each year and they'll attend some free events like some of the ones we put on. They're listen to some podcasts, join a Facebook group of like-minded people. They think that if they just keep consuming free content, eventually they're going to be able to piece mail together a do-it-yourself blueprint and figure everything out.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
But really only have maybe an inch deep worth of knowledge on each subject.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Life is an open-book test, right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
Internet, books, podcasts, continuing education, those are excellent ways to spend your time. It's challenging to get enough pearls of wisdom for all those things to actually be effective in your specific situation personally and as a business owner, you're taking random ideas that are general and generic and cookie-cutter and trying to do it yourself in your situation.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I would not suggest listening to this podcast and taking anything Jarrod says very hard in terms of how to run a business.

Casey Hiers:
We go a mile wide and an inch deep because we don't know our listener's situation. We say that continuously. There's a reason because we can't blindly give advice without knowing, as Paul Harvey would say, "The rest of the story."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Oh, my God, I forgot about Paul Harvey.

Casey Hiers:
He was a gentleman.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That was awesome.

Casey Hiers:
But the rest of the story, well, that happens to be all the specifics and nuanced situations in each practice owner's life.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Now, I know a lot of people you talk to out there kind of try to allude to a question that ask this, but I feel like this might be something that dabblers ask more often than not is what's the magic bullet? What's the one thing I can do? I want to dabble in that, but it's not there. Obviously, for this kind of a situation.

Casey Hiers:
That's kind of the goal. The goal of a dabbler is to trip and fall into something that actually works for them, and they're like, "Oh, finally I found that thing." But that can be a real slippery slope when the origin of expertise to run these practices and these robust lives and complex lives to try to pull different things. It can be a supplement, but ultimately you need a much better, again, game plan or overarching strategy, not just dabble.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I feel like sometimes dabblers too tend to have a mindset of they have an opinion on everything because they know just a little bit enough to try and think they have something that's real, and it's not really based on actual experience.

Casey Hiers:
We talked to somebody, they literally said, one of the components of business we were talking about, they said that their husband had read a book, and that's how they came to some of the strategies. And I thought it was a joke, but I'm glad I bit my tongue. It was like, "You read a book and that's how you're running your business," right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
That can be a nice supplement, but if that's the primary source of decision making and strategy, yikes.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
You need more than one book on the subject, first of all. And not even front to end, on and on and on from there.
Casey, what's our third bucket we're looking at here?

Casey Hiers:
The know-it-allers or we'll call them little professors.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Oh, boy.

Casey Hiers:
We all know those people in our lives. The little professor, they're the smartest person in any room that they're in, in their own mind.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That always feels like a self-confidence issue.

Casey Hiers:
Oh, there's a lot of psychology we won't get into on that, but sometimes the worst offending know-it-allers or little professors, there is some self-esteem ego things that they're fronting. We won't get into that today, but the know-it-allers, they think they know everything there is to know about dentistry, which that part, a lot of times they're pretty damn close.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
And they also think they know it all with running a world-class practice, and especially once they've owned for maybe a decade or decade and a half, their take-home pay starts to get into the mid-six figures, that ego and pride that they have. There's nothing anybody could possibly teach them about running their practice.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right, they've built up that wall of being a know-it-all. They've put that up, and even if you had a great suggestion or a great idea that could help them, they're not going to listen to it because they've already "Thought of it."

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, or they hear it, and then it's like my five-year-old, "Yeah, but..."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
"Yeah, but..." It's like-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
You need a, "Yes, and," it's like we're an improv class, not a, "Yes, but..."

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, but they've achieved a certain level of success, and again, since they're doing better than most, they'll kind of coast, they'll stop learning, they'll stop growing, they'll end up getting stagnant, and that pride and ego is typically the reason.
Now, I have met some incredibly impressive people. People, like their personality, the dentistry they practice, how they help people. Typically, the people we talk to, they've built good practices. I'm not knocking these people in a mean way.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
No, it's just a different personality to work with.

Casey Hiers:
Yep.
And then my favorite, I think you asked if I had a preference.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes.

Casey Hiers:
My favorite is probably the last group of this one, which these are practice owners that they're committed to mastery.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right. They're the kind of folks that can admit that they don't know everything.

Casey Hiers:
When they were 6, when they were 12, when they were 18, whatever age, they wanted to be the best. And so they're the best dentists. Those are also some of the best delegators, the ones that are committed to mastery because they have an awareness of what maybe they're not strong in and realize, "I need to find-"

Jarrod Bridgeman:
"Someone to fill that role for me."

Casey Hiers:
"Find the people that are committed to mastery like I am to get me to that next level." In all facets, not just clinically, but these people are committed to treating the business side of their practice with the same expertise that they treat the clinical. They're not okay with 80% overhead. They're not with tax surprises. They're not okay with just being good enough or being okay. They're always looking for ways to improve, to level up, and they're willing to invest in that year after year because they realize that they not only owe that to themselves, but everybody that depends on them, their spouse, their kids, their staff, their patients. It really comes from a place of somebody who has got enough hugs as a kid, good self-esteem.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Everybody may have gotten their knocks on their a couple of times here and there.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, but they have an awareness of their limitations. We all have them. I can't place a crown, Jarrod. There's a lot of things I can't do. I can't hit the golf ball straight half the time.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I got some video of that. Email me at jbridgeman@fourquadrant. I'll send it to you.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, you do have a pretty good video of a tee shot off of a first tee box with some of our executives and some clients. It really was an icebreaker when that drive goes was all of nine yards.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
When our clients were here and they saw that they had a sigh of relief that they were, "Oh, this is what I'm up against."

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, yeah. My game makes everybody comfortable.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's right.

Casey Hiers:
When you top your drive, meaning the top of your club or your club face hits the top of the ball and you swing out of your shoes, it's an ugly look, and I'm so happy you have it on video.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, me too. A little blackmail.

Casey Hiers:
Do you remember Michael Jordan?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I do.

Casey Hiers:
Fan of his?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
He was a great pop musician. Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Michael Jordan, the basketball player, Chicago Bulls, number 23.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes, back in the day when I had my Super Nintendo, I would play NBA Jam and I would always have him or Scottie Pippen.

Casey Hiers:
The story is he didn't make the varsity team as a freshman, right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
Then he did his sophomore year, but just think if Michael Jordan just hitting a free throw or just making the varsity team as a sophomore, thinking he had mastered basketball. How many rings do you think Tom Brady would have if after he won a second Superbowl, he stopped training, practicing, watching film, and just decided to show up on game day for the rest of his career?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
Those two extreme examples of what are they committed to? Absolute mastery. No amount of championships or MVP would make them content, but they all had help.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
They had.

Casey Hiers:
Lots of people around them that were the best at what they did. Weightlifting, nutrition, technique to help them elevate their games. Even though they are the stud, they are the talent. Practice owners are the talent, they're producing the dentistry, but you need a team, you need people, you need to be committed to mastery, you've got to get out of your own way sometimes. Man, that's hard.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I love your note about the dietitians and that kind of thing too because I wouldn't come to you for a diet advice because your body's different than mine, and it's the same thing with a practice. The right recipe for your practice is not going to be the same as your neighbor.

Casey Hiers:
No, it's got to be custom. If a high level athlete's going to hire, like we've talked the golf analogy, a swing coach, the first thing the swing coach needs to do is analyze your golf swing. Tiger Woods had a dozen golf swing coaches. Well, they're not going to go to Tiger and just tell them what they think and, "Here's how you fix it," if they don't fully understand their current situation, their current golf swing. Same thing with this.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Casey, with all of these folks and all these different buckets like this, have you ever come across a situation where you have been surprised by somebody in terms of maybe you've known them, maybe you've met them a couple of times over the last 10 years or so you've been with this company, that you've seen them evolve? Maybe eight years ago you had a conversation and then you had one last week, and all of a sudden they've become a different kind of entity.

Casey Hiers:
We have a fair amount of people that will be familiar with our firm in some regard. They'll attend an event, maybe they'll engage in our process, but the timing wasn't right, and then I'll speak to them 9 months, 18 months, 3 years later, and they have grown typically because they have had struggle and adversity and obstacles. And it got them to a breaking point where then they were not able to just be the know-it-all, the little professor, the dabbler, the winger. They realized, "Something's got to change."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
It's almost the people that have, at least as you mentioned earlier, some level of self-awareness.

Casey Hiers:
Oh, yeah. We could all use more, me included.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes and me.

Casey Hiers:
Oh, boy, you can really achieve great things if you at least admit what's wrong and that's not weakness.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
No.

Casey Hiers:
Because with everybody we talk to, there's a lot that's right. A lot. But if you can get that next 30% right, again, those committed to mastery are going to retire years earlier with millions of more dollars. I don't know how else-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
We're not talking nickels and dimes here.

Casey Hiers:
No, I don't know how else I can say it. It's significant. Significant.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And we get folks who just upturned their nose because again, they think they know everything or they just are here to try and get some free knowledge out of us.

Casey Hiers:
I was like that for a time probably when I was 14. For me, when I'm talking to a 45-year-old that's like that, it's kind of a bummer because I can't want success more than they do.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right, 100%.

Casey Hiers:
They have to want their success. I can't want it more than they do, but-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
No, that's a recipe for failure right there for everybody.

Casey Hiers:
Yep. But yeah, no, we love everybody. Nobody's perfect, but the four-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Some are close.

Casey Hiers:
The four profiles that we have learned over time, the-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
The dabblers, the wingers, we've got our know-it-all, professors, and then the ones who want to master.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, those are some big buckets, but a lot of times some people fall and like you said, they can evolve or things can happen and they can change. But I just encourage everybody, don't be stagnant, don't be okay with mediocrity. And dentistry and mediocrity, you can make 250, 300 and that's better than most, but pretty mediocre when they should be making double.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.
Casey, you and your team are going to be out and about a lot the rest of this year. I know we're coming up on some events for Virginia Beach. We're going to be in Richmond, Virginia. We're going to Grand Rapids, Milwaukee, Madison, San Antonio, Houston, doing a little Tennessee swing, but a bunch of them are selling out. So if you're listening to this and you have not registered for Nashville or Knoxville in Tennessee that's coming up, please do so because those seats are just about gone.

Casey Hiers:
Well, we sold out and then we talked to the venue and got a larger space, so there's-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Slightly larger.

Casey Hiers:
There's a handful more.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
There's just enough space, you won't have to share a seat or hop in a lap, so it's going to be nice. Again, go to fourquadrantsadvisory.com/events and check that out.
Casey, thank you so much for popping by. Any last pearls of wisdom for me or for our audience?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, do not settle for mediocrity. Be committed to mastery.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
All right. I'm not going to settle at all ever again.

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.