4 Freedoms: Time, Money, Purpose, Relationships with Chris Tuff

The following transcription was from the Bulletproof Youtube channel. Here is the

Peter Boulden

0:00:00

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Bulletproof Dental Practice

Podcast.

Craig Spodak

0:00:08

I'm Peter Bolden. And I'm Craig Spodak. Dentistry can sometimes feel lonely. Having over

45 years of combined experience and the chops to run eight successful practices, our

mission is simple. Pay it forward and share what we've learned.

Craig Spodak

0:00:23

That's why we developed the Bulletproof Pathway, to help you navigate your way to

ultimate success in dentistry.

Craig Spodak

0:00:28

And don't forget to join our community's conversation over at Bulletproof.Dental. Now, let's

get to it.

Craig Spodak

0:00:34

Hey everybody and welcome back to another episode of the Bulletproof Dental Practice

Podcast. You

Craig Spodak

0:00:39

guys are in luck today because it's going to be a super packed 20 minute podcast and we've

got three of us here. So it's me, Peter and our partner, Chris Tuff, who is just a fricking

badass. And we're talking about something that we talk about frequently amongst the

conversations we have, the four things that really focus on us, that we focus on.

Peter Boulden

0:01:08

Four freedoms, Craig. The four freedoms.

Craig Spodak

0:01:10

Thank you, thank you.

0:01:11

What are they?

Peter Boulden

0:01:12

List them out.

Craig Spodak

0:01:13

Chris.

Craig Spodak

0:01:13

Go for it, Chris.

Chris Tuff

0:01:14

Yeah, I mean, I think life can get overwhelming. And with this, these four things, just four

things, you can take it to the next level as an entrepreneur. It's time, money, purpose, and

relationships. That's what it comes down to. So, where do you guys want to start?

Peter Boulden

0:01:30

I'd say start at freedom of time, right? Because this was always been my quest as an

entrepreneur. It was where I wanted to do things when I want, with who I want, when I

wanted. It was mainly when I wanted. So I wanted the abundance of time because I always

felt so overwhelmed. So that's where I would like to start.

Craig Spodak

0:01:48

Awesome. So, I mean, tell us a little bit about how you've kind of mastered. I mean, I'd say

out of anyone, I use you in speeches in front of companies like Nike as one of my best

examples. And you know which one I use Pete is what is and I don't know how often you do

this but how how you did that exercise that Naval said which is figure out what your hourly

rate is and then figure out what you in source and what you outsource and what I tell people

when I'm on stage is that I have a friend that's a dentist and he'll actually get people to come

and fill up his cars with gas because he hates doing it and it's not worth his time. So you can

either debunk that myth or say that it's real.

Peter Boulden

0:02:29

No, that is true story. They have to have that service. Cause I did hate it and I identified, I

started writing down lists, Chris, of things that I just hated. And I was like, I'm going to

eliminate some of these things. And it's not overnight, but getting rid of them over time. And

it was also, I wanted to also create more time in my life because I had so many like

entrepreneurial itches that I wanted to scratch beyond even owning dental practices and

being a dentist. There were just so many things that like my brain was always going, I

wanted to do this and start this and get into blockchain and start this. So there were a lot of,

I wanted time. I wanted time to be creative because I feel like that's one of my superpowers.

And so until I could create that bandwidth in my life, I just, I was lacking fulfillment. So time

was a big one for me. Craig, what about you?

Craig Spodak

0:03:14

So I always had this concept, and I'm not actually sure where I got it from. I'm sure it was

borrowed. I can't be too intelligent to have thought this up myself. But I always talk about

the three currencies in life, emotion, time, and money. So I'm looking at the four Fs, the four

freedoms. I like to collapse purpose and relationships into emotion. So like before you make

a decision to pay, what is the most replenishable resource for all of us? I don't care your

financial position. It's going to be money.

Craig Spodak

0:03:40

Money comes and goes. We've lost it. We've made it. But emotion and time can never come

back. If you spend a three-week or three-month or three-hour period suffering an emotion,

you're never going to get that time back. You're never going to get the emotion or the time

back. So before I'm about to do anything, I'm like, if this can be solved by money, I'm not

even speaking like if you have a lot of money, but if it can be solved with money, choose not

to spend the emotion and time as well. You can actually pay with one currency. You don't

have to pay with all three. Sometimes we'll have something bad happen, you know, AC

breaks $5,000, you're gonna spend the $5,000 anyway. Spend the money, that's your

currency, save the time, save the emotion. Don't suffer all of those three currencies. You can

choose to pay with one. So I also look at it like freedom to and freedom from. That's an

evolving as well. And I wanna make sure I get that right. But like in the beginning, it's like

freedom to. Freedom to go on vacation because you have enough money. Freedom to have

employees or relationships or fulfillment. But then ultimately you want freedom from. And

that's more the time thing. So that's where you're at, Peter. So when you say I don't wanna

do this stuff, I want freedom from having to fill my balance. Freedom from. So it's like in the

beginning it's freedom to, I wanna be able to go to a restaurant, I don't wanna have to eat

ramen noodles, I wanna make a little bit of money, I wanna get a higher quality standard of

life or standard of living. And then ultimately it becomes freedom from, I think that's where

the emotion and time come in. So let's ground it into practice. I mean one thing that I've also

found myself talking a lot about is how a lot of dentists end up acting as a bottleneck. They

feel like they have to do all things at the practice and they end up being overwhelmed, they

end up being exhausted. And a lot of that does come down to time, right? So talk to us a little

bit. We saw it hands-on with the evolution of some of the people in the mastermind, Dr.

Dwight Bakora being one of those, but talk about how you guys have been able to offer

solutions to not being that within the time realm inside of practice. Well, one thing that

jumps out, Peter, I'm sorry if I cut you there, but it's like freedom from clinical practice for

those entrepreneurial dentists, and Peter, you're one of them, the bottleneck was like, okay,

I've got it. You know, in dentistry, it's unfortunate, but like the idea that you only are

working, and I'm using air quotes for those that are not watching, that you're only working

if you're seeing patients. So all the work that you do to run a practice market at HR, every

list of activities, if you're not doing dentistry, it's like, oh, he doesn't work today. And there's

a lot of shame and guilt around that. So for those entrepreneurial dentists that actually love

the art of building and running businesses, just you gotta get free from the chair because

you can't do it, you can't spend all day working in a practice and at 6 p.m. put on your

entrepreneur hat. You'll be a crappy leader because of like, you're trying to prep 10 teeth

and Sally the hygienist is upset and you don't have time for your people. You're gonna be a

bad leader. So I think freedom from dentistry is one thing that jumped out at me for the, and

you know, in the masterminders, when they declare that they want to be entrepreneurs,

they have to get free from that.

Peter Boulden

0:06:54

I think you're right, Greg. And actually the, you know, as of recently, the culture index that

Dwight's exposed us to has really even reinforced that, that, that hypothesis that I was like,

you know, I really just need to be more, more visionary, more growing, more, more staying

three steps ahead. And, and through that culture index, actually, they went through our

whole organization and actually Dr. Curry and my office manager and on the conversation

He said I'm really concerned because I'm not seeing someone who needs to be at this

position He was kind of referring to the visionary and Vanessa was like, oh, well, you

haven't had our founders You haven't seen our his yet. He sent it over and he's like, oh my

gosh. Here's the guy now I feel much better right? This guy's gonna get things done. He's not

gonna care about your feelings

Craig Spodak

0:07:33

He's gonna be you know, so to your point Craig. I kind of knew myself early on. I knew that I

needed that freedom of time. Yeah, but we got our asses kicked though. I mean, And we got

our asses kicked. Yeah, so we found out the hard way. Like, okay, those months, those years

that I did that, I hated my life.

Peter Boulden

0:07:50

Well, I loved it though. I actually loved clinical dentistry.

Craig Spodak

0:07:53

It's just that

Peter Boulden

0:07:53

Well, I'm not saying that. It's just that my pull was stronger. My pull was stronger and I

knew that I could benefit many more lives by following my true purpose, right? Of like, in

my, being authentic with my creative and my vision and knowing that I could like play a

little bit ahead of the game. Chris, I want to go back to something real quick because I think,

because we talked about money and Craig, I know you're focusing on time, but I think a cool

thing about freedom of money is that it allows you to take chances on some moonshot

things. And I think I always refer to life as being like, you get one ticket, you only get one

ride, you don't get any do-overs in this life, and there are things that sometimes we get

paralyzed to not do because we are fearful of money, not having enough. And I have this

weird, perverse relationship because at many times in my life I didn't have any. Actually,

most of my life I had none. And so I was always kind of paralyzed by the thought of, oh man,

something bad's gonna happen if I let go of this. But I think money allows you to, if you're

creative, it allows you to really flex that muscle and take moon shots. And moon shots, by

definition, only one out of 100 typically works. When it works, it's like the most amazing

thing on the planet. So I don't know why I wanted to harp on that, but when I am reading

this from the list, that's what it means to me, is that I get to take creative and bold chances

sometimes because I know that the bare needs of my family and my employees are gonna

be met.

Craig Spodak

0:09:15

Yeah, but money is one of those things too, and I agree with you 100%. Like it's potential

power and it's fuel. And it's also, it's a state of mind as well. Having the security, like a buddy

of mine once told me, he was a redneck, he said, scare money, don't make none. It's like

when you have none, you can't deploy it, you get scared, you don't wanna invest, and you

know, the fruit is on the farthest limb of the tree. You have to go out there to get it. But

money is one of those things, and Peter, you and I have private conversations where we

remind ourselves, I remember 10 years ago, if I could make X dollars per year, my God, that

would be amazing. And guess what, I'm making two X now of what I thought. And I still have

to remind myself constantly, remember when a grand was a lot of money, 500 was a lot of

money. So you lose some context from it and it requires constant art of understanding

where you are and taking inventory of where you are.

Peter Boulden

0:10:04

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are and understand exactly how to get impactful results by zeroing in on your superpowers

and mitigating your weakness. Want to find out? Head over to DentistQuiz.com now to get

your results. Let's unpack freedom of relationship, right? So there are certain people that

you love working with both inside and outside your business and you want to spend more

and more time more your time around them So I think that's another like freedom to Craig

like freedom to spend more Time with people you like and be very selective of the

relationships you have Chris I remember the one of the first times I ever met you because

you're I didn't know you this is maybe what four or five Years ago. I remember sitting at

lunch with you the first time because we were connected through a mutual friend and you

being kind of like almost somewhat guarded. You're like, look, I have limited time, I have

tons of friends already, and like I'm not sure if you're in that circle yet, so to speak, and don't

be alarmed if you're not. And I think that you were very, I loved your candor because I think

life is, again, life is short, and finding the right people on your bus at the right time is

imperative, right? Good friends and good relationships.

Craig Spodak

0:11:16

So would you say the same is true for your practice?

Craig Spodak

0:11:19

Yeah, for sure.

Craig Spodak

0:11:21

Because in the beginning, you're just happy to get someone willing to work with you.

Because you haven't really built anything special, you don't have your values, you're just

kind of winging it, you're not as busy as you should be. So it's hard to get powerful, great

people to believe in something that hasn't been created yet. Once you have an up and

running machine and the business is running, you have a reputation, it's easier to get those

people. So I think you're just less discerning with who you hire, at least I was in the

beginning. Because I'm like, look, she's nice, she seems like she can answer the phone, geez,

I need somebody. But then you get discerning with, and I don't think it's being, it's not being

judgmental, it's just being discerning of the relationships. I think the same thing is true in

my own personal relationships. I was just happy when I moved back to Florida after I got

down at a dental school. I was just happy for company. So the friends that would have, I'm

like, well, geez, you know, this person doesn't really have much in common with me, but,

you know, at least they want to go to dinner and I want to go to dinner and, you know, meet

people and stuff like that.

Peter Boulden

0:12:15

So, and I think that goes to Craig. Sorry. I think that goes to, with being very selective with,

this is the, with the thing we talk about, Chris, I, uh, you know, who will protect this house.

And I don't know if you've seen that example But I have those from the Under Armour

commercial printed all over my office It talks about like being selective with who we want

on our team Because a toxic person someone that just is feeling a seat on the bus can

destroy the community Of our company and so I think that's freedom freedom or have good

relationships You know having because we spend a lot of time with the people that we that

we work with Right, and so and those are the relationships and being able to be selective

about that. Now, Greg, right now.

Craig Spodak

0:12:52

I mean, it's amazing.

Chris Tuff

0:12:54

I had a deep dive with a doctor and his head of, a team lead. And he was, they were talking

to me because they were like, I think we might have a culture problem and here's what's

going on. And they started to explain basically this one employee who's their head hygienist,

right? And she just crushes it with goals, but she is not a team player. She always wants

things that are on her own kind of timeline and rule system. She's the exception every single

time. And after they went and explained it, I was like, you, both of you, you're kidding

yourselves. You've got to get rid of this toxic employee. And right now we are living in an

environment where, you know, call it the great quit, call it whatever you want to call it, but

everyone feels like they are struggling to attract good talent, but yet we're not looking

inward and asking ourselves whether or not we have the right culture where relationships

can truly thrive, right? And Craig, I call you out as one of my favorite examples of you can

see the fun and camaraderie within everyone's social feeds because they're posting these

fun Instagram. You're having fun at work. And if you are not doing that, you are not going to

be able to attract that talent. And you're going to have to hold on to those toxic employees

that make relationships or they're just poisoning that well of relationships. I think it's

important what you're pointing out guys because a low producing toxic person is a no-

brainer No one ever thinks about those people you you you're toxic and you suck That's

easy the blind spot for all of us and this is the commonality is like these Amazing producers.

They're like racehorses when they run straight They're fast, but racehorses throw you off

and they run sideways and they're really hard to manage So there's a blind spot in in my

own experience. The ones that were most toxic were also the highest producers, and I was

fearful around that. Really appreciate you, Peter, for being there during those tough times.

But no matter, we're talking to you. If you have someone that you know has to go, but you

think that you can't lose their revenue, that's never the case. You've got to lose that person.

You will open up space, and you will grow leaders behind in that wake. That toxic person is

costing you a lot. So that's like freedom, that's the emotion, time and money. You think

you're gonna pay with money or you think you're gonna pay with time, you're not. You're

gonna make more money, you're gonna have more freedom, motion and more time,

Craig Spodak

0:15:31

less management of that person.

Craig Spodak

0:15:33

So what about purpose then guys? Like, so I mean, I think that's one missing piece of this.

Peter Boulden

0:15:38

Is right. I think it's the final freedom. It's the final freedom, and I think it's the hardest to

define, because most of your life, you're just kind of going through what you thought you

should do, or maybe what was driving you because you thought you'd make a great living,

or an income, or whatever. It's not till, I don't think you get to really find true purpose.

Maybe some people do, but those are the lucky ones. I don't think you get to find true

purpose until you've kind of met all the aforementioned, right? When you had some time to

kind of get to know yourself, right, when you've had some money to kind of experiment,

when you've had relations that can support your purpose. You know, I think that's the final

freedom is knowing your authentic purpose. And if it's being an entrepreneur, that's

impactful because you can impact tons of lives on this planet. And I think entrepreneurs can

be the greatest contributors of money and opportunity and capabilities and all the things.

Chris Tuff

0:16:26

So-

Craig Spodak

0:16:27

Well, they're the ones that change the world.

Peter Boulden

0:16:28

They are the ones.

Craig Spodak

0:16:29

Everything that we enjoy, that's it.

Peter Boulden

0:16:30

So I think that's why Craig, we, you know, you always talk to me, you always, I hear you

saying, knowing myself. I think the ultimate knowing myself is knowing my purpose.

Because there's no, you know, I know I said this already in the podcast, but there's no redos.

There's no like, ah shit, I'm eight years old. You know what I should have done? You lot, you

don't have time to do that anymore. It's over. The ride is over. You're getting off of the roller

coaster.

Craig Spodak

0:16:51

Go ahead, Craig. Well, I think one thing is that everything, the time, the money and the

relationships, there's a scientific approach, there's books, there's a recipe, there's a formula

how to do that. There's ways to kind of almost hack your way through time, money and

relationships. I think the art of influencing people or whatever those books are, I don't know

all those older books, but purpose is the one thing that you can't hack. It's the conversation

you have with yourself. Everything else is an external conversation. So the purpose is you

gotta do your own work. I was going to lunch with someone who's very valuable to me as a

person and an employee today, and she's like, look, I did this, I did that, I'm getting burnt

out, and I reminded her, she's going on a two week vacation, I reminded her, like, look, what

you need to do is not get away from what you do, because that'll give you some distance, but

you gotta use this distance as a contemplative time to do the work. Purpose requires

internal work. That's the one that you can't hack your way. There's no book like, the three

steps to purpose. It's like you gotta, you gotta have, it's the conversation you have with

yourself is your purpose. And you've gotta put a stake in the ground. And I always tell

people when they're asking me about purpose is every single person around me knows

what my purpose is because I scream it from the rooftops, which is to inspire and connect.

And I just put a stake in the ground. Everyone listening, put a stake in the ground. Be

truthful with who you are and just plant that stake down and then start marching towards

it. And one thing that has astounded me with dentistry is I've become, I mean, through this

whole process and being immersed in the mastermind and bulletproof is that there truly is

something for everyone in dentistry. And it's not one size fits all, it's exactly what you want

it to be. And that's the beautiful thing about it. It literally can be anything you want it to be.

You could be, like we were talking about earlier today, you could love blue collar people

because your uncle was a blue collar guy and you could open up a practice bar, a car factory

or whatever and you could serve those people. It's literally whatever you want it to be. But I

love, you know, you touched on something, you know, your purpose is to inspire and

connect and you scream it from the rooftops. It's like there's a saying, before you make the

first lie, you have to first agree to lie to yourself. So when you make a lie to the world, you

first have to con and lie to yourself. And you say, this is okay, I'm just going to cheat, I'm

going to do it, and you let it go. So in order to communicate your purpose to the world, you

first have to convince yourself. So authenticity, having integrity, is just believing your own

BS. It's not a bullshit. It's BS, bullshit, or belief system. You actually have to believe what

you're doing. So purpose requires an art. There's an art to purpose. It's not a scientific

formula, recipe-based approach. It's how you live your life and how you deal with things

and the conversations and how you maneuver in tough times. That's actually what creates

purpose. And it's a creative process. If you're feeling unfulfilled, wiggle it.

Craig Spodak

0:19:48

Make it different. Massage it.

Craig Spodak

0:19:50

Move it a different way. And you can actually get to the point where you have that purpose

back. I love purpose. And I live for that. I love getting to do what I do. But I recognize that it

was not scientific.

Craig Spodak

0:20:04

It was very much an art form.

Craig Spodak

0:20:05

All right. So take us home, Pete and Craig, take us home with as we look at the four pieces,

like how do you want to leave listeners right now?

Peter Boulden

0:20:16

I would say audit of the four things you heard, take inventory of where you are, right? If one

of them is paralyzing and you don't have enough of it, meaning let's say you don't have

enough time in your day. I'm so busy right audit your day like become less busy If you don't

have enough money there are ways to figure out how to make more money, right? I mean,

that's what kind of what what we do have to be more successful. We teach that in dentistry

You know if your relationships are all suck or they're very parasitic or they're very one-way

It's time to audit those relationships and look for a symbiosis where you're feeling, where

you're getting something from that relationship. And then I think last would be just the

purpose, right? Are you truly, authentically living your true purpose in what you're doing? If

you're not, it's okay. Like I, for so long, I think literally for the first 40 years of my life, I

didn't know what the hell I wanted to do or what I was really good at or where I should

focus the rest of my life. But I think it's a great place to just sit and audit your time.

Craig Spodak

0:21:16

Agreed.

Craig Spodak

0:21:18

I have one more thing to add. I think choose the currency you're gonna pay in. Choose which

currency you're gonna pay in. Sometimes time is the easiest way, but don't pay in all three.

Don't pay the money, pay the emotion, and pay the time. Just be done with it.

Craig Spodak

0:21:32

Release yourself from the other two

Craig Spodak

0:21:33

if you're gonna choose one. Choose one, I like it.

Peter Boulden

0:21:36

All right, everybody, let's wrap for tonight All right, everybody, let's wrap for tonight Thank

you everybody for tuning in to the bulletproof dental practice podcast and we'll see you

next time over and out see you guys

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