The Dirty Secret: Breaking Dentistry’s 'Status Quo' Retirement

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 tone 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'm so happy to see you today. You're all dressed up, snazzy in a nice suit and a little purple royal tie here.

Casey Hiers:
It feels like it's been a while since we recorded, and you've rearranged the studio. It looks powerful.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Thank you.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Um, I need to... I'm overcompensating... as you know.

Casey Hiers:
That's a whole 'nother podcast. We won't get into today.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
No, but I wanted to tell you one of my secrets. And I wanted, I mean, for real, though. Do you like secrets?

Casey Hiers:
The resort in the Caribbean that's called Secrets, I think that's nice. Uh, secrets from people... ooh, this is dicey.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I know, the one little line: "Secret secrets are no fun. Secret secrets hurt everyone."

Casey Hiers:
Hurt everyone.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right! But that's only if you're keeping secrets from people and not communicating. There's a different kind of secret when we're talking about successful practice owners. And what could that secret be? Is there just, what’s that one magical secret, that one magical bullet that just does it for everyone?

Casey Hiers:
Even in our logo, don't we reference a secret?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, we're the multi-million dollar secret...

Casey Hiers:
The multi...

Jarrod Bridgeman:
...multi-million dollar secret...

Casey Hiers:
...million dollar secret in dentistry.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
...in dentistry. And if you're listening to us, you're one of the lucky few.

Casey Hiers:
Are we going to talk about the secret? Yes!

Casey Hiers:
That famous book, The Secret? Can we divulge the secret?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
The true, honest answer is... there's not just one secret. There might be, you know, a secret, but there's a lot of little things and little secrets that all build up to one giant secret.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, I think there's some truth to that. I will say, and we'll use the word "secret" loosely...

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes.

Casey Hiers:
...many times. Thankfully, this podcast is not a drinking game, because there'd probably be 28 shots taken by saying "secret." But...

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Hey, if you're at home and it's a weekend, go ahead.

Casey Hiers:
But, yeah, it's... we like to bring curiosity out in practice owners that we speak with.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
And a lot of these, they're not secrets. But we—a lot of our information or material, even on this podcast, comes from practice owners, comes from the dental industry, comes from our listeners' peers.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right. When you're out presenting, you're talking about information that dentists themselves are like, "Oh, this is my secret. This is my internal thing that I've been keeping of not having great cash flow, my poor investments, overhead is out of control." And then we come in and say, "Well, it's not really a secret. We all know this. You're just..."

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, those are a lot of practice owners' dirty little secrets, is sometimes it's a house of cards. Sometimes they come off one way, and in reality, like you said, the cash flow, the overhead, the financial situation, that is the dirty little secret a lot of practice owners carry. That's heavy. That's hard.

We unpack that in our presentation, but, you know, we’ll, again, we'll call them secrets... the standard of care for accounting and tax management in practices is typically abysmal. Like, it's damn near an epidemic how bad it is, even when people like their CPA.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Especially for a field that it seems like it's standardized in terms of like, "Oh, they just use spreadsheets and equations, right?"

Casey Hiers:
I can't tell you how many conversations I have with, "I get all these things, and I have these conversations, but my QuickBooks, my taxes, and my financials don't tie out, and I'm not really doing any planning. They're just..."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
"...regurgitating statistics to me that don't tell me anything." That's one secret, is a lot of practice owners don't feel like they know what's going on in their practice. They don't totally have their arms around it, because—shocker—they're busy producing dentistry. That's certainly one of them.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And that goes on even beyond just accounting. That goes with their potential, their financial planner, or their advisors. Or maybe they've hired out and had a thought they can make more money by getting a practice management company in there.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. But I mean, yeah, the first one is certainly the weight that practice owners carry...

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
...that they keep to themselves. That's tough. That's hard. That's heavy.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And what happens when they stumble upon people like us, that may have been a secret just because they hadn't heard of us until they attended one of our events or our lecture when you're at the Florida Dental Convention? And all of a sudden they're like, "Hold on, this seems too good to be true."

Casey Hiers:
Dentists and specialists tend to have a target on their back.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
Right? People view them as wealthy and have money, and they want to try to get their money. And so there's lots of, air quotes, "consulting," practice management. And what we hear is: "Nice people. Maybe some efficiencies or processes were improved, but I wrote a lot of big checks, and I don't feel like I got any..."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
"...recouped any..."

Casey Hiers:
"...money back in my actual pocket." So there can be PTSD from... in the past, a lot of people we work with, prior to us, they have written big checks and have not gotten anything back. And so then when a good opportunity comes around, that PTSD or the feeling of being burnt is a real thing.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
They’ve, it's harder for them to extend that trust.

Casey Hiers:
Absolutely.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Because they've been burned.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, no...

Jarrod Bridgeman:
If not more than once.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, we had a retired client talk about that.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Well, and this was honestly the last podcast we just did. We had a client in here, and he had mentioned, you know, at first, 'cause he was kind of a skeptical dude, and he at first thought, "This might be too good to be true. Is it too good to be true?" And he kind of said, "Yes and no. Yes..."

Casey Hiers:
"It sounds too good to be true, and..."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes.

Casey Hiers:
"...it has been that good."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
"Yes."

Casey Hiers:
"And my previous PTSD almost kept me from the one good team or situation that can actually elevate me, my money, to retire early."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
Right, but that PTSD thing can keep people very cynical.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Any time there's money, emotion, you know, relationships, anything like that, something can burn you in the past that has then changed your trajectory on who you trust and what you think you can do. And then you got, you know, a lot of dentists are DIYers, so at this point, they're like, "Well, I might as well just do it myself."

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And they don't always know, uh, a lot about the business side.

Casey Hiers:
Well, it's just more weight on their shoulders to try to solve yet another challenge in their already challenging, uh, you know, life. Now...

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I mean, I don't run a business. I'm not a business guy. That's why I'm just here for my looks.

Casey Hiers:
Just a pretty face.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's right. Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
But, you know, if we cut through this, I mean... You know, what's the secret? When a practice owner has a practice, let's call it $900,000 in collections or above, number one, the secret is they have everything they need to have a lot of money and retire well. Sometimes they don't know that. They continue to throw money at things and go in more debt, and grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow. That's no good. But when this gets mastered, they have the opportunity, and really, it's like what, 14 to 18 years? If people have this mastered, they're in a position for, you know, if not an eight-figure retirement, $7.5 to $9 million kind of minimum, and typically more of an eight-figure retirement.

That's one of those things that people will go, "Ah, that sounds too good to be true."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Well, number one, it's not easy. It takes a lot of time. The first step is identify and have the awareness of, "I need some help. I need a higher standard of care. I need an upgrade. I've got to get this right." Too many people wear rose-colored glasses for decades thinking, "It's all just going to work out. It's going to work out. It's going to work out." And it doesn't.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
No, and not only do you need to make this change and bring in some potential outside people, but once you hire them, you're talking to these experts who have studied your practice, you know. We study your practice, study everything about you, and we probably have some good things that you should probably follow. It's not just, you know, hiring us and just saying "Thanks" isn't going to do much. You also have to be a participant.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, it's collaboration. You have to be consistent, um, year in and year out. But it's easy for us because we live it and we see it, and we see the lives change and the results. But, you know, to use the word again, you know, the secret is: if you don't master this, you're going to practice longer and retire with less. If this does get mastered, the business and financial side and good decision-making and all those things that we've mentioned, um, you're in the driver's seat. You have the freedom to retire many years sooner than your classmates in dental school...

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
...with significantly more money. The ones that just kind of do the status quo, you might be the one that sells a practice, buys another one, sells that one, and you're an associate for five years. You look up, you're 70 years old, you're still practicing.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
You're half crippled...

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
...complaining.

Casey Hiers:
I mean, the secret there is that's really sad.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes.

Casey Hiers: You know, I've met... I can count on one hand how many people past the age of 70 really, really, really wanted to practice. It's not very many. Most have to out of necessity.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yep.

Casey Hiers:
But the exterior reply is, "Well, I just love dentistry. I want to practice until I die." No, you don't.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's the lie they tell themselves.

Casey Hiers:
And again...

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Honestly, how is this any different than when I go to the dentist, and she's straight up like, "You don't floss every day. Get the hell out of here." Like...

Casey Hiers:
You get kicked out for not flossing?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, very fancy, too. No, the thing is, it's because, like, that's something I can do myself if I'm helping and being collaborative, and it's like, I'm not taking care of my stuff as well as I should be. It's the same with the owners not taking care of their practice as well as they should be, you know?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, no, there's no doubt about it.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's something...

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. I mean, ultimately, our clients experience the results of the multi-million dollar secret in dentistry.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
There's not just one; there's a lot of aspects to it. But, again, how a lot of practice owners feel on the front end of trying to tackle mastering this is there's a lot of shame, there's vulnerabilities—vulnerability. There is PTSD from being burned in the past. And, if done right, it puts you in a much better position. Like, all those things are truths that a lot of people don't want to think, admit, or talk about.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's right. Casey, if people want to learn more about what we do and just maybe get some baseline information that could be helpful with their practice, you know, they can always go to one of our, uh, events that we host across the country.

Coming up in August, we're going to be in the Chicago area. We're also going to be in Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee. Coming in September, we're going to be in Grand Rapids and Lansing, Michigan. Following after that, October, looking at Kansas City and Springfield, Missouri. So, we're going to be all over the place, and we're already starting to plan where we're going next year. So if you love listening to us and want to attend one of our events, and you're like, "Why haven't you come to me yet?", let us know! We'll come!

Casey Hiers:
And if they're not sold out, if you can get a seat, then, uh... yeah, love to see you.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Love to see you. Thanks, 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 Dentist podcast is brought to you by Four Quadrants Advisory. To see if they might be a good fit for you and your practice, head 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.