Unlock Your Practice's Potential: Ditching Ego & Doubt

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 doing today? We're recording on a Friday, and it's the first Friday this year where we don't have a client in. We already had a couple earlier this week. It's been a nice, relaxing day. How's your day been?

Casey Hiers:
Well, I sound like a smoke a pack of cigarettes a day. I don't smoke cigarettes, but a little spring tickle in my throat, we'll say.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
A little allergy issues?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, we'll call it allergies.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
I had a cigar last night, which probably didn't help things.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
No, that's not great for your nasal canals.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, I've got, I don't know what you call it. A coffee talk voice, a raspy, whatever. We'll get through it just fine.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Well, Casey, it's good to have you back again this week. I know you're heading out in a day or so from this to go out and do some speaking, and stuff like that. That's pretty exciting. Where are you headed?

Casey Hiers:
Well, we've got a state meeting that we're participating in their golf outing.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Oh, nice.

Casey Hiers:
Sometimes we come in and speak.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
We'll exhibit sometimes.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Don't love to do that. But we're going to do something different; we're going to do the golf tournament. Best ball format.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Really nice course.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Have you been practicing?

Casey Hiers:
A little bit.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
I had to go to the chiropractor this morning because when you hit a golf ball, if you hit the ground before the ball-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Oh, yeah.

Casey Hiers:
... it tends to throw your back into some pain.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, I can see that.

Casey Hiers:
Guilty. Just basic, keep your eye on the ball.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
With the team that you're going with here, did you handpick who you thought were great golfers?

Casey Hiers:
No. Schedule.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Okay, okay.

Casey Hiers:
People have to earn privileges.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I was wondering why you didn't invite me?

Casey Hiers:
Well, you don't really golf.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I don't golf at all.

Casey Hiers:
One of the people I'm taking, not great around the greens, but drives the ball 290 to 315.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Okay.

Casey Hiers:
And it goes straight, so that's pretty valuable in a scramble.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
But no, a nice opportunity to spend some time with some of our clients who are on the board of the state.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right, right.

Casey Hiers:
Then just a lot of other practice owners, and go whack the ball together.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's very exciting.

Casey Hiers:
Try to have a good day.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
You mentioned you went to the chiropractor. Sometimes when you take a golf swing, and you overdo it, you're a little overzealous, and maybe you hit the ground first, and it jacks your back up a bit. That can be very unexpected.

I feel like if we parlay that into a situation with dentists, owners, and practices, accidents, and things that don't often happen, people tend to think, "Well, that's probably never going to happen to me." Lo and behold, it does.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. I once heard nobody thinks their car is going to get stolen from the parking lot until you walk out and it's not there anymore.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right, right.

Casey Hiers:
There's endless examples of a lot of times if somebody hasn't experienced something, then they don't either think about it or don't think it's possible.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right, right.

Casey Hiers:
Or it's just, "It's not going to happen to me." Conversely, we were talking earlier, so many practice owners will spend significant time in their careers practicing dentistry, but trying to get the business side right.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
It's hard. It's challenging to lower overhead, and insurance adjustments, and have good cash flow, and have higher income, and save significantly more for retirement. To get all those balls in the air, it's hard.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
They'll spend that time trying to get it right, but don't necessarily get to where they want to go, so they just don't think it's possible. I talk to so many people where, "Well, I've been at this for X amount of time, and I don't see how my overhead could go down one bit."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right, right.

Casey Hiers:
"Unless I use junk supplies and fire half my staff." That's where everybody goes with it.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right, right.

Casey Hiers:
Again, just because you haven't experienced it doesn't mean it's not possible.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
This is a good spin. I thought we were going to go negative. I like that you're the positive guy today, and I love that. Because you brought up overhead and things like that. Or possibly lowering how much you give out, and take from insurance as well. People can feel like they're stuck in this rut of constantly being stuck in these PPOs because they're afraid if they cut one, they're going to lose all their patients, and then their goes their entire base of their income.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, there's certainly a strategy to all of that. I get the privilege of getting to speak to so many practice owners one-on-one and getting to the heart of things. But yeah, so often, they just don't think, fill in the blank, whatever that thing, it can't be done.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
"If I haven't been able to do this, it just can't be done."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
The biggest thing today is that, well, maybe. Maybe it can.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
How much of that feeling of "Well, if I can't do it, it's not possible" falls back onto the ego that an owner may have? You always mention how a lot of them are do-it-yourselfers, or they're always the one that has to make the decisions, or the ones that are in charge, or they are the smartest guy in the room.

Casey Hiers:
Well, yeah, I'll go positive with that, too. I don't think it's ego in a bad way, I just think that we've talked about this, most of the time, practice owners have been the highest achievers in their classes and in life. They've rarely found people who were smarter or could do more things, so it's their worldview is, "Well, if I can't figure this out, then it can't be done."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
It doesn't come from a bad place necessarily; however, the point is, we see that all the time. People tell us, "Well, this just isn't possible." We look back four years, their overhead's down 15%, their income's up 40%, they've quadrupled their savings, and they have a plan.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
It's funny because as we chip away at that year after year, they almost forget where they were three, four, five years ago.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right. It seems like a bad dream.

Casey Hiers:
Because there is no magic bullet. There's no magic wand that just does this; it's just a lot of work that our firm puts into this.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Well, that's because we're the experts in this. Our people went to school for this, they have experience in this, and they've been working hard. It's all they do, all day, every day. I don't look in the mirror and see that I have a cavity and try to fix it myself. I didn't go to school for cavities.

Casey Hiers:
Well, let's use golf. If you'd never gotten a hole-in-one, most likely you're like, "I know people who do, I know it's possible, I just don't think it'll ever happen to me."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
I fall in that. Now, maybe that'll change this weekend. That being said-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I'm praying for you. I hope it does.

Casey Hiers:
Use your prayers for other things.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Okay.

Casey Hiers:
A hole in one does not need to be on that list.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I've already shared it with the entire company. I made a GIF of you trying to drive the ball and biffing it entirely.

Casey Hiers:
Oh, it was fantastic.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
We had clients in, and we took them out to the club golfing. Literally first tee, talk about making people feel comfortable about their golf game.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
I took a big old swing out of my shoes, topped the ball. It went, oh, four feet. You captured it on video. That'll keep you humble.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's right.

Casey Hiers:
No doubt about it.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's right.

Casey Hiers:
But yeah, I just like that hole-in-one thing. Again, some practice owners might know somebody with three practices that appear to have it all figured out.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
They just decided, "Well, I'm just not going to be able to get there." Like for me, I'm never going to get a hole-in-one. I may.

The point with all of this is you have to give yourself a break as a practice owner. As you said, you're not trained in it.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
You're good at one thing. How in the world are you expected to be good at both? There's very few professional athletes that play multiple sports. There are some.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Dionne Sanders, Bo Jackson, and Danny Ainge, but it's rare. It's rare that practice owners can be excellent at dentistry, excellent at home, and excellent on the business side of things. That's a lot to handle.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
But it's okay to acknowledge "I need some help here."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
For a lot of people, the best bet is hopefully getting two of the three down.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. Yeah, I hear a lot, "I just don't understand how it's possible."

To extend the other point we were making, the ego does get in the way because you couldn't figure out how to do something, then it can't be done.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
You have to go, "You know what, maybe it can. I need to explore those options."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
The best people I talk to, that's their mentality. Their mentality is, "I've tried this, I'm not good at it."

Meaning the business's financial side of things.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right. How much of that comes down to self-awareness?

Casey Hiers:
Oh, sure. No, it falls under that.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
But for them to be able to go, "But it could be done, I want to see if it can."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
That's the beauty of when we talk to practice owners. We're engaging in a mutual vetting process that I've been talking about. It's about seeing if it is possible, because we want to prove internally that we can make significant improvements.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
But somebody has to be open to it. If they're, "It just can't be possible," then if it is possible, it hurts their ego, and they feel bad about themselves. That's a waste of time, too.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
The best people delegate those things that they're not great at to others who are, and you accomplish so much more. I just hate that limiting belief of, "Well, it can't be done. I've been trying this for 10 years, 15 years, 20 years."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
"There's no way I can save that much. There's no way my overhead can be this low."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
For those, in your experience, those docs, those practice owners out there that have tried, tried, tried, and they don't think it's possible for them, yet they see their buddy across town killing it and getting most of the things right, if not all of the things right. What do they equate that to? Why do they think Doc X is doing better than they are?

Casey Hiers:
That's a good question. I don't know the specific answer, but I think that brings up some other good points. We have seen a lot of numbers. Sometimes, what on the outside looks like massive success with the cars, and the homes, and the multiple practices, and the big life, we've looked at those numbers, and those are some of the most tragic numbers ever.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Because a lot of times, it is a house of cards.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
It's that surface-rich. They're trying to look like they have more money than they do.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
There's an idea in their head of how someone in their position should look and act.

Casey Hiers:
I like nice things, but you could have somebody in Italian loafers and a Rolex watch look great.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
You could have somebody else in shorts and a T-shirt.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Well, there's many times in my life I've met somebody in shorts and a T-shirt that sold a business for 30, 40 million bucks.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Appearances are whatever, but that comparison part. So many practice owners look at people they graduated with and are on Facebook, and they see that they've bought this house, or this car, or this aircraft, or whatever that is. Then they instantly just feel bad about themselves, not knowing the rest of the story.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
For us, it's about making people as successful as possible given their situation. As a practice owner, be a good steward of your tools, your resources, your platform, and your practice. Because the other excuse is, "Well, I don't need that much money."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Okay.

Casey Hiers:
We've talked about this before. You're pissing away your time, and skill, and effort, and using that as an excuse not to have the finances right, cash flow right.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That really is just an excuse because if you've felt like you didn't need that much money, you could find things to do with that money. Whether it's investing in local nonprofits or if you want to donate to charity, there are things you could do with your money-

Casey Hiers:
That's right.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
... if you are wanting to cap yourself into that certain model.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. The most successful people that we've seen have been vulnerable at some point. They've humbled themselves and basically said, "Hey, I'm going to learn. I'm going to set out to learn." Our goal is either one: we confirm you're doing all the right things, and it's not possible.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
Because of your unique situation, there's just no way. Or, yeah, we can help you by some significant numbers, but you've got to be coachable, and you've got to be ready for it, and the timing, and all that.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Casey, you've been here for what, eight years now with the firm?

Casey Hiers:
Nine in July.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Nine in July. In those nine years, have the common pain and issues that you see with dentists across the country? Has that changed, really?

Casey Hiers:
No.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
No.

Casey Hiers:
No.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
It doesn't matter where you're at. You're in California, you're in Michigan, you're down in Georgia.

Casey Hiers:
I'll speak out of both sides of my mouth. Broadly speaking, the same challenges were around decades ago. How you get there, correct it, and the strategy has maybe changed.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Sure.

Casey Hiers:
That can be different.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Especially on the tax management side, I feel like taxes change every year.

Casey Hiers:
Oh, no doubt. We're custom. Everybody's situation we view as custom, unique, and special. But no, cash flow, income, tax management, strategy for retirement, strategy for debt. Lowering overhead, lowering insurance adjustments, but still having a kick ass practice that you like going to, that's nice, that you're compensating your people. The mind goes to, "Well, I must just have to fire people and use bad supplies, and stuff I don't like."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right.

Casey Hiers:
That's not it.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
If that was it, we wouldn't offer to work together.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
For sure, for sure.

Casey Hiers:
That's not what it's about.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Casey, thank you so much for stopping in today. I hope you have a great time golfing at the conference you're going to. Then I'll see you a week from then. We're probably going to take a break from you while you're gone. I hope all my listeners are really excited about that.

Casey Hiers:
Oh, that's a gift. A gift, yes.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Folks, if you're interested in joining one of our events, meeting Casey in person, or giving us a call, go to our website, fourquadrantsadvisory.com. At the link at the top, there are events, and you can see where we're going to be coming up next. I'm loading up those all week long and getting things ready.
Casey, again, thank you so much. We'll talk to you soon.

Casey Hiers:
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. 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.