8 Habits of Highly Successful Dentists with Dr. Trey Tippit

The following transcription was from the Bulletproof Youtube channel. Here is the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWUTb9j6R8c

Peter Boulden
0:00:00
Today we are starting a new format from time to time and it's gonna be a fearsome foursome. We have our guest, many of you know him out in Missouri City, Texas.

our guest
0:00:22
Yeah, yeah.

Craig Spodak
0:00:23
And Dr. Henry Tippett, who was on the pod with me,

Peter Boulden
0:00:27
and he and I rode solo on a recent one, Trey is getting great downloads, by the way.

Trey Tippit
0:00:33
Fantastic.

Peter Boulden
0:00:34
On our pod that we talked about,

Peter Boulden
0:00:35
like saturation is kind of not your enemy, like that's not the metric you need to look at. So Craig and I obviously are here, and these two guys, we all four go way back. You guys have been in Mastermind several years. You know, we collaborate and talk offline a lot. We all have kind of disparate, well, I shouldn't say, we have different practice models almost. Of course, everyone knows mine and Craig's. Trey, quickly, just in a nutshell, kind of why don't you just give yours? Because I think that's the emphasis

Craig Spodak
0:01:05
of why all four of us are on here.

Craig Spodak
0:01:07
So our model is based on bread and butter.

Peter Boulden
0:01:11
I would even say single-tape.

Craig Spodak
0:01:12
I'm sorry, I got to catch you for a second, brother. No, no, no. It's great, it's all good. But we know you really well, and Trey's got this microphone that makes you sound like frickin' Luther Vandross. That's not your voice.

Trey Tippit
0:01:22
I do sound like…

Craig Spodak
0:01:23
You were like four octaves deeper, or you're high or something.

Trey Tippit
0:01:29
Why can't I be Luther Vandross? Why'd you have to pick up the album?

Craig Spodak
0:01:31
Okay, I'm sorry, keep going.

our guest
0:01:32
Yeah, really great.

Trey Tippit
0:01:33
I'm Trey, pristine.

Craig Spodak
0:01:34
But no, but our guest started, because he starts smiling when he starts speaking.

our guest
0:01:39
I couldn't handle it.

Trey Tippit
0:01:40
I just couldn't handle it. I just couldn't handle it.

Craig Spodak
0:01:42
It was the title wave that caught everybody up, man.

our guest
0:01:44
Peter's questioning why we're all four on here right now.

our guest
0:01:47
He's already wondering. Yeah, I'm wondering.

Peter Boulden
0:01:49
God, what a catastrophic mistake. We should have done our intros, man. I should have.

our guest
0:01:52
I should have. We're all in intros.

Peter Boulden
0:01:54
All right.

our guest
0:01:55
Well, I didn't want to be Jason Calacanis.

Peter Boulden
0:01:56
You want me to do them? Yes, you be the Jason Calacanis. I've not seen the all-in podcast in full.

Peter Boulden
0:01:59
What? I've not seen the all-in podcast.

Trey Tippit
0:02:01
I've not seen the all-in podcast.

Peter Boulden
0:02:02
I've not seen the all-in podcast.

Craig Spodak
0:02:03
I've not seen the all-in podcast. I've not seen the all-in podcast before what yeah great I have tray have you seen it. I will I've listened to it. I haven't seen it

our guest
0:02:10
Done stuff down right here right now, so I'm gonna throw something so you get it This is how the intros are for those of you haven't seen it So this is it's just I'm trying to be nice But I'm also trying to be harsh because it's more an honor Peter because I know he and I love this stuff so all right we'll start with one of you all right he's dentistry's own Tony Robbins and is back to frequent his mega practice in Delray after finding himself in the Aspen Mountains he's our vision focus golden retriever who never lacks the chance to remind us of his feelings his heart is the only reason Peter has not turned into a white walker he's our very own trailblazer, the one, the only, Craig Spodek.

Craig Spodak
0:02:53
Wow, that was nicely written.

Peter Boulden
0:02:55
Amazing, you are the Jason Callahan.

our guest
0:02:58
You guys went to,

Craig Spodak
0:02:59
wait, you wrote that, that's why,

Peter Boulden
0:03:01
all right, keep going, our guest, keep going.

our guest
0:03:02
Well, he texted me this morning,

Peter Boulden
0:03:03
he's like, we gotta go.

our guest
0:03:04
All right.

Trey Tippit
0:03:05
Who texted you?

Trey Tippit
0:03:06
Yeah, yes.

our guest
0:03:07
All right, he's all gas, no brake, with the highest burn rate of any dentist he's ice-cold unemployable bulletproof brain behind us all that can make any practice profitable his biggest anxiety is keeping Craig focused the enterpriser himself our connector Peter Bolton thank you thank you thank you I think all right one more all right All right, keep going. One more. All right, Trey, let's see. He's the king of efficiency, the unavoidable competition in the Houston market. His drive to scale comes only second to his legendary happy hour tales.

our guest
0:03:52
He is the rainmaker himself, our very own Trey Tippett.

Craig Spodak
0:03:56
Tiffy with Tripp, Tiffy with Trippett.

Trey Tippit
0:03:58
Do I, I'm so impressed, dude.

Trey Tippit
0:04:00
I mean, I'm so impressed.

Trey Tippit
0:04:02
You threw a happy hour, man.

Peter Boulden
0:04:03
You could kill an alcoholic real quick. So Trey, just so you know, the all-in pod, like the guys, you know, Chalmers Paliapapadilla,

Craig Spodak
0:04:08
Jason Calacanis,

Craig Spodak
0:04:09
Freeberg, and David Sachs.

Peter Boulden
0:04:11
David Sachs is the PayPal mafia. All these guys are like uber successful billionaires. Like, this podcast is so popular that it's actually influencing Congress from time to time. Like, it's that big of a thing. Cool. So, Jason Calacanis does the intros like that and kind of he roasts at the same time does intros for all the guys And it's just it's kind of funny, but do I get a nice job? That's it. That was it. That was a tough one I mean, I was trying to be nice and yeah, yeah, I think you might be our resident So guys given that this is a fearsome foursome inaugural pod essentially I wanted to show up prepared as our guest would say it's my enterprise or role. So I wanted to get into something a little bit, I was thinking about something the other day as I was reading a book, and the book was Habits of Highly Successful People, okay? I said, all right, well, there's probably, let me extrapolate that and see if we can't break it down into what, I'm gonna add this here to the stream, break it down into what I feel is that of eight habits of highly successful dentists. Now that Craig, we've done now coming up on three masterminds, tons of summits, friends, we have our own experience. our guest, massive practice ecosystem. Trey, massive ecosystem. So you guys are highly successful dentists, as well as some of the data that we've seen

Craig Spodak
0:05:37
just from kind of helping and coaching other practices along the way.

Peter Boulden
0:05:42
So I want to get your feedback. You guys haven't seen this, but I want to go down some of these traits because I think it's nice to see. And if we talk about self-awareness, right, our guest, that's a big thing that you kind of teach with Craig, is kind of talking about like know thyself. Sometimes hearing things like this is like, yeah, you know, like I see that, but like I don't want to do some of that stuff because it's just not in my wheelhouse. I want to be a craftsman dentist and be the best at my craft, which is kind of, Craig, what we talk about all the time, right? Yep. So the eight habits of highly successful dentists. My first one I have is an homage to Craig and our guest. They have a clear vision of what they want and so much so that they kind of know, here's where I want to go from a revenues standpoint, here's where I want to go from a size of my practice, size of my team, number of locations, number of team members, culture should look like this, right, here's what our bonus structure should look like. When I say vision, I mean extreme clarity on the minutia even of it. Craig, can you talk about, I know you've done this several times on the pod, but you've talked about the exactness of your vision of kind of, you know when you kind of.

Craig Spodak
0:06:58
The precision, precision, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so you know, obviously clarity is power. And I think there's like a baby step just before this one. So I think there's a conscious decision that many business owners make of, okay, I'm gonna go right to this step. What's the revenue, size, location, team members, culture, blah, blah, blah, because that's going to support this other thing. What I would just challenge everybody is put that first. What does your life look like? Because your size, location, team members, and culture actually has a profound impact on your life. I think your first vision is what do you want your life to look like? Cause we have, we've had a friend, a mutual friend here that came to the practice and said, I want what you want because it's going to provide money when I don't have to be here. And he gets here.

our guest
0:07:48
You mean?

Craig Spodak
0:07:49
Yeah, he came, yes.

Craig Spodak
0:07:50
He came to my practice saying, I want what you have. And the reason why was it's going to create money while I'm not here. Uh, when it money, when I'm not working rather, and he came here and it's very clear by the end of the day. He's like this is super exhausting I don't want this at all and like our friend Bonner and stuff like that with a football analogy So I think like just figure out like, you know, Pete you always say there's one ticket in life. What do you actually want? Because the greatest Travesty is getting everything you think you wanted and being unfulfilled So I think there's a step before this like dentistry as we always say is a snowflake and it can accommodate multiple visions, what do you want your life to look like? If you look back at my slide of the cover, it's talking about in the context of dentists. Yeah, of course. But like having what does your life look like, because all these things, revenue, size, location, team members.

Peter Boulden
0:08:40
It's daunting though to say that to someone like, hey, not only figure out what you want your life to look like, but now figure out the vision of your practice.

Craig Spodak
0:08:47
Well they kind of go together, so it's like eating the same, it's like chunking the same thing. So it's like let's just say that there's a person who likes to coach high school football, like one of our masterminders. He loves it. Having 15 locations across 100 miles of spread would probably not add up to creating rules that would sustain his life well. Or people that are introverts, you know, you really, you know, maybe you want a smaller team. I mean, we just conflate the vision of the business and what we really want in our life. And I think that's important. Great. our guest, any comments on that? I agree. So that's one of the big questions I always ask is what kind of lifestyle you want to lead? So the integration of it, it's not a balance. It's an integration of they intertwine a lot of things that you have from a business standpoint can be applied to your personal life. It's your voice again, right? Is that what people are thinking?

our guest
0:09:41
I have a problem.

Peter Boulden
0:09:43
Thanks, guys.

Craig Spodak
0:09:44
I think you're sexier than ever, Trey.

our guest
0:09:46
That's what you're doing.

Peter Boulden
0:09:47
I mean, masculinity.

Trey Tippit
0:09:49
That's right, man.

Trey Tippit
0:09:50
I don't know what to say about it.

our guest
0:09:51
I'm with you. I would say that the biggest thing is that successful people rely on being self-motivated. And self-motivation comes from your own personal vision of who you are, who you naturally are, who you wake up every morning wanting to be, and therefore creating an environment and specifically your business, your practice, how you interact with your team that motivates you to get to continue to be who you want to wake up to be every morning. And so for me, it goes back to the vision is based on your self-motivation. I would agree with Craig that that's, it's gotta, your core has to come from somewhere and that's where that comes from.

Craig Spodak
0:10:28
I guess too, in the context of this slide and saying the eight habits, what I've seen of dentists who are ultra successful is there was not ambiguity in their vision. Like, well, let's just see what happens. I never really heard that. It was like I was laser beam focused toward X, Y, and Z. And they had massive specificity in that X, Y, and Z. You know what's funny? Sorry, Pete. Success is different for each of us, too. So what you're hearing, and again, I love this conversation because when I hear success, I'm not thinking of the eight things that led them to get to a high level of economic reward.

Peter Boulden
0:11:07
I'm not saying that either. I'm saying that there are commonalities and attributes that you see just as a trend. So if you have enough data points, you start seeing, huh, a lot of people in this bucket are sharing some of the same attributes, is all I'm saying.

our guest
0:11:22
Let me give an example. So like, the thing about the clarity of vision is that nobody can come up to you at any point in time in your day and knock you off that vision and change your path. You are so clear, so laser focused that you're knocking it out. As crazy as Elon Musk is and things to that degree, he's got this absolute focus towards Mars so much so that it goes to an absolute extreme that most of us are like, this guy's a psychopath, but he knows what he's going for. The other day they asked him, because he had had children with multiple women, things to that degree, and they asked him point blank. They said, so you're nearing 10 kids like you know you're gonna be a father to multiple different families like what's going on blah blah and his answer

Craig Spodak
0:12:08
the second they finish it was like how many more kids will you have is the question to how many more you have any second they finish they didn't even finish the statement he immediately said well someone has to populate Mars his vision is so wasn't getting either was a no he's not getting anywhere does it either. He was almost biblical. It was like Abraham, like I'm creating and I'm populating. That clarity is so freaking powerful. It's so powerful. I went to a business consultant in Texas named Roy H. Williams. He's called the Wizard of Advertising. I sat with him and I think Michael Dell had gotten him at one point. Wizard of Ads. Wizard of Ads, correct. Sorry, I don't know what I just said, but anyway as I'm telling him my vision He's like just like yawning and making fun of me as I'm talking He's like here's what you really need to do and he tells me these five things that I really need to do and I went back to the hotel and I read like my vision statement of what I wanted and it brought me to tears and I Was like I can't do that. I feel like you know, it was a way to make a lot of money There's a really cool concept a business concept, but I felt almost like a prostitute of my – like it was like prostitution of my dreams selling out. And I went to the Salt Lake that night and I didn't realize that they didn't sell alcohol and I had to like bum beers off of people with Yeti coolers because I had to just drink – I had to have a beer. I was so upset about it. But thank God it was West Texas and everybody was really nice there, at least they were at the time. But that's the point. When you have that level of clarity and you really have done the work, nothing can stop you. And the unsuccessful people we know, they're wishy-washy about what they want. So like, you know, the problem is you can't get employees, you can't get this, and this is going on. When you really boil it down, you don't know what you want, man. You don't. You never, you skip step one. You skip the habit.

our guest
0:13:55
And then it's impossible when stuff like COVID, economic downturns or recessions come in. There's no North Star.

Peter Boulden
0:14:01
There's no North Star.

our guest
0:14:02
Yeah, and then it's like, well, let's move here, let's move here, but in the end they continue to just give it up. And that's, yeah, that's a good point.

Craig Spodak
0:14:09
So the gist of what y'all are saying is basically a vision's a filter. It keeps you on track, keeps you driving forward, and that gives you the clarity that what Craig

Trey Tippit
0:14:18
was saying was, yeah, clarity's power.

Peter Boulden
0:14:21
Yes, I think that a filter is a great way. You guys may look at it that way. I like to look at it more like a roadmap, right? Because I'm a step-by-step methodical, and I'm like, look, I need to fill in the pieces to this roadmap, so to speak. So I guess it doesn't matter how you interpret it, you know, for trading.

Craig Spodak
0:14:37
I think all of them are valuable. I think it's a roadmap, but ultimately a road leads to somewhere. So if the roadmap is going to Detroit, and you hate Detroit, don't get on that road. I think that's the way to kind of put it all.

Peter Boulden
0:14:47
And have the freedom. Like, you know, so many people, Craig, I think, we go through these exercises, and like, it is a dynamic thing, meaning what you may have wanted when you were a 26-year-old dentist could be categorically different, because now you have a little bit more experience in life, could be categorically different to your vision now. You are allowed to change and modify, is my point. So many people get stuck in that. Well, I wrote this down at a seminar, and therefore I have to live by this. Screw that.

Craig Spodak
0:15:15
Right, you guys know the feeling like when you realize that you're only stuck because you've decided you're stuck. Like wait, wait, I don't have to do this at all. Wait, wait, I could just throw this whole thing away. And then you have this freedom. I don't know if that's just a me thing or if you ever feel that way. Like you've told somebody something that you wanted something for so long. Like well, maybe I just start over. And it's actually really freeing. And dentistry allows you to do that which is super cool. So I agree with what you're saying Peter. If you wrote something down and you told your team and it doesn't fit and feel good anymore, change it. That's the best part. You know you got to change and grow a lot during life. Number two, habit. The second habit we see a lot is they spend tremendous amounts of time building their teams up, right? So it is not the doctor is the hero scenario where the doctor is going through hundreds of hours of CE and just getting someone to suck spit and answer the freaking phone and all this stuff. They are building a culture. And I think this is probably one of the hardest things to do, I would venture, in growing and scaling is keeping your team happy, keeping them engaged, keeping them growing. And the bigger you get, you know, obviously the harder it gets because you have to then now and you have a mass of 50 people, 100 people versus when you're five people it's it's quite easier because you're in integrally involved intimately involved in almost all of those conversations. But I'd like to hear

Peter Boulden
0:16:43
y'all's feedback on you know on this second habit. I get asked all the time they say hey what do you do and the first thing I tell them is I build teams who happen to do dentistry. Wait, like, hold on, our guest. Someone comes into an elevator and you sit and someone says, Hey man, what do you do? Yeah, that is me. That's my talking point. And then the conversation ends. Exactly. So here's the thing is, I do, I get passionate about building teams. Like to me, it's the greatest process because so much of us in dentistry think that our business is so different from every other industry for some reason, but really it's all the same. You build an incredible team, whatever industry you're in has certain caveats that make it easier, more profitable, different things to that degree, less competition, more competition, but it all comes down to your team. At the end of the day, you build that first and you go from there.

our guest
0:17:32
I talked about this at the start.

Peter Boulden
0:17:34
I would agree with that, our guest. You do do that. You know what's interesting about you, I don't want you to keep going, but you build autonomous teams, which I love to see, right? It's almost like an autonomous organization where you encourage people. You are not the tip of the spear. Like, people are making decisions in the absence of our guest, right? And that is an amazing thing to see when you empower your, Craig, your team is the same way, Trey, I haven't seen your team, but I'm assuming kind of the same.

Craig Spodak
0:18:00
Oh yeah, they haven't seen him either, so of course it's the same.

Peter Boulden
0:18:04
Says the guy who's been on vacation for eight weeks.

Craig Spodak
0:18:07
our guest, I mean, Trey's way, way out of the way in your organization, right Trey? You're way out, you got a real autonomous team. So our guest, I interrupted and I apologize.

Peter Boulden
0:18:17
We do that a lot here.

our guest
0:18:18
That's what it's all about. I mean, for me, unfortunately, if you're a good entrepreneur then you feed off of momentum, which also tends to be based off of distractions. We can get distracted very easily. And so we have to build infrastructure around us to be like, I make these decisions, and I move on from there, and I let the team, I decentralize decision-making by having a good team so that the machine can move forward regardless of where I'm at. And that tends to be what locks you into a single practice, what locks you into one small economic practice, a really small practical practice and it feeds you and is what it is. We talked about all these profile types, at the end of the day you are who you are, but heavy entrepreneurial successful dentists get distracted, they need a good team to kind of hone in on the vision and stick to it, so they knock that out. But at the end of the day, yes, awkwardly, yeah, I would say, I tend to build teams, I love, I have a passion about putting people together and I build teams so that business can happen, so that ideas and development and entrepreneurship occurs. And that's what I love about it.

Trey Tippit
0:19:22
Trey.

Craig Spodak
0:19:23
I think building teams is, to pretty much second what our guest was saying, there's you as an individual, there's departments in a practice if it's big enough, there's a single practice, there's multiple practices, there's all these entities that scale up and get bigger. Think of it kind of as an inverted pyramid. And the building of the team is basically a way to scale, whether it be yourself or the team or the protocol or the practice or the business, whatever it may be, but it gives you the ability to keep going, it gives you an ability to exponentially expand your time, or your work time, we'll say output there. So yeah, it's key, it's key.

Peter Boulden
0:20:08
Do you guys feel that you can scale,

Trey Tippit
0:20:10
I'm just gonna flip this on its head,

Peter Boulden
0:20:12
do you feel that you could build a big organization without building your team? No. You feel it's undoable.

our guest
0:20:26
Undoable.

Trey Tippit
0:20:27
Well, it's quite big.

Peter Boulden
0:20:29
All right.

our guest
0:20:30
Ten plus practices.

our guest
0:20:31
I don't believe, yeah, I don't believe that the vision can be accurately attained on the shoulders of one visionary. I don't think that that visionary actually, A, gets to the point of achieving their vision or B, gets to the point of enjoying the achievement of their vision. Because if they've gone and scaled it all on their own shoulders, they've gotten there and then it's a non-fulfilling vision.

Craig Spodak
0:20:58
Well, it still can be done. I think it can be done. I think there's a lot of toxic talk about it.

Peter Boulden
0:21:06
At the cost of what, Craig? And I'm not filling the blank. Possibly the cost of massive attrition of employees, or massive retention, I should say, or lack of retention. People come in, they come in as hired guns, they leave unfulfilled, and they look for something else, right?

Craig Spodak
0:21:20
Well, I'll use myself as an example. our guest Shuker said this. I was a very poor team builder. I was a team destroyer for a good portion of my career. I wanted it so bad. I wanted to grow, I wanted to get this thing done so bad, but I was walking around scared. I was walking around scared the entire time, like, these people don't know what they're doing, and I'm the only one holding the bag. It's what you silently tell yourself that has the biggest outcome on your future, and that's the shit I was feeding myself. So I drove people away, and I caused problems. The fact, to the extent that certain people that want to work here have asked people, I look at myself like we all should, I guess there's versions of ourselves. Prior versions of myself that other people worked with have told current employees You should never work there and they're like, I don't know what they were talking about. You're the greatest I'm like then and then and now not version 1.0 not that early guy when all that debt, you know So so what I why I say it's possible to do it like anything's possible. Like Is it walking distance? Yeah, I mean it might take you fucking six months But you can walk there if you want to do it You can get there, but I think it's going to be really really costly and not fulfilling So I'm a people person, but I was so scared in my early days of my career that I destroyed many good teams and I had to learn the hard way. This is not in order of importance to you by the way of these eight I was just kind of brainstorming But they do feed in each other by the way because your vision will build your team if your vision is to revolutionize dentistry if your vision is to you know Change dentistry and make make it a caring compassionate office You know then your team will actually rally around that a lot of teams don't build because they don't know where they're going And it's like that Sun super equal that I would say like if you want to build a ship You don't tell people to gather up sticks. You teach them to go explore the sea. They have to have more meaning than just a paycheck. I think if you're really good and you create a compelling vision for the organization, the team will backfill and you have to then create the space. So at a certain point, you build your team by getting out of the way. But the first step has to be done. One hundred percent. I hope you do. And you told me that too. You told me that, Peter. When I was telling you that I'm going to go away and all this stuff, you're like, it's going to feel weird for you. I'm like, nah, it won't. And it does, actually, Peter. It does feel weird to go to an exact organization that's working well and just think like, okay,

Craig Spodak
0:23:50
how…

Craig Spodak
0:23:51
Despite you. Despite me. Well, actually, I see it as because of us. Of course. But now…

Peter Boulden
0:23:57
Let me clarify that, Greg. Not despite you, not despite you.

Craig Spodak
0:23:59
In your absence.

Trey Tippit
0:24:00
Right.

Craig Spodak
0:24:01
But it's a very… So then it's like, okay, what do I do? And I know Trey, you felt this way a lot, you know, like what do I do now? Because you really at a certain point a leader has to change, you have to evolve, you can't be up in everybody's business or else you'll destroy that team that you built. That's weird. Yeah, so it is a weird paradox, Craig, to leave and then your organization do better than when you were present. Right. It kind of, it's a my self-awareness it's the first thing you said okay so then you have to take a long look and say okay what are the things that I add intrinsic value and what are the things that I do that actually subtract value and then things that fill me that now potentially I may have more time for right going back to one day if you will or even worse where I'm at if the office fulfills me I don't want to just use it for my personal fulfillment. The business is here to serve its patients and grow. And I don't want to influence the direction strategically of the business just to satisfy my own personal needs, which is even a bigger one, like a bigger one, you know?

Craig Spodak
0:25:03
This is quite the enigma, buddy.

Trey Tippit
0:25:06
The rabbit hole.

Craig Spodak
0:25:07
Yeah, the rabbit hole.

Peter Boulden
0:25:08
Okay, number three, our guest McCord, you will like this one. They know their numbers, right? They know data in their practices. They know new patients. They know average production for patient visit. I'm not saying they are like human calculators, but they are very cognizant of reviewing things on a regular basis. I can't tell you, and I am not throwing shame at anyone, but I can't tell you the number of times I've asked dentists, as we just had conversations, whether it's at summits, whether it's on phones, whether it's at other people's summits, and we just get in a conversation and I ask just general stuff, just conversational information. And the dentist is like, you know, I don't really know that, I don't really know how many new patients we get a month, or I don't really know what my production is per visit or what our attrition rate is, you know, like it's mind blowing. And it's okay because they're probably there. I don't wanna throw shade, but I also think that the dentists that I've seen that are really growing and being ultra successful and all the things, they know, they treat their practice like a business, which it is.

our guest
0:26:17
Right, absolutely.

Craig Spodak
0:26:18
Well, for us on this, the Fearsome Four, our practices are businesses, but many of our colleagues do not have businesses whatsoever. They think they do, but you really don't.

Peter Boulden
0:26:36
That's not true. They have businesses, Craig, but they are the number one employee.

Craig Spodak
0:26:41
Right. I think that's a very important thing. That nuance is significant. So if you were to invest in a business and you said that it runs on this one person, you may not want to invest in that business. What if said person gets hit by a bus? It's something I hear a lot. Or if you're considering buying a practice and there's a really amazing solo practitioner and he's doing two million with his own hands and it's fantastic, you're really just asking if you'd want to buy his job from him. There's no intrinsic value outside of goodwill and I think it's really important. Even we had two iconic speakers at our last summit and they're really awesome guys. I was saying about stress in business and how business can stress you out and he looked at me and said, �I've never been stressed about my business.� I was like, �You don't have to rely upon yourself. If I didn't have to rely upon anybody, I wouldn't be stressed either. That's the leap of faith. But to the topic of number three, if you don't know your numbers, you don't know anything. You're just going to go on feelings. And it always does amaze me, too, when I ask simple things, just like what's your average production? What do you produce with your own hands? What do you spend on advertising? What are your percentages of salary? They have no idea most. If you can, if you're listening to this and you don't know that, get a handle on it and get someone in your practice to provide you those snapshots of numbers at least once a week.

Peter Boulden
0:28:13
And my advice, and I want to hear what the guys have to say, my advice to that was don't get overwhelmed with thinking that you have to know 30 or 40. Pick the four that move the lever. So what are those four guys? Let's talk. I you know I think it differs

Craig Spodak
0:28:28
I mean we can write the let's hear our guest just real quick. What are the four and all your four?

our guest
0:28:33
You only could say four yeah, well first I also want to say like when you're looking at numbers like I would be embarrassed I'm at the level now what I would be embarrassed if any one of you are in one of my practices And you ask somebody on my team They don't know the number I would feel embarrassed, much less myself, right? So it is a daily morning huddle process, every location. It goes much deeper than just us knowing some of these numbers. And sure, there's profit and loss numbers may not be necessary, but like new patient numbers, our daily goal, average production per visit, we're rolling through these, these hygiene numbers, the recall numbers, those types of things should be part of your day to day and some of you out there get a little concerned, it's like oh well why are we talking so many numbers, is it purely a business driven dentistry or is it patient care and blah blah blah. For me it's still and this is how I tell it to my team, it's like you're standing on a scale in the morning, it helps you make better decisions throughout the rest of the day. If I stand on the scale I know man I've put on five pounds from the partying this weekend, I'm taking the stairs, not the elevator. I'm choosing the salad, not the burger and fries. Like that's the mentality. And that's the mentality for Morning Huddle. That's why we do it.

Peter Boulden
0:29:46
Does everyone on this conversation share your numbers with your team? Trey, do you share your numbers with your team? Financial numbers? Yeah. Craig, I know you do. our guest, I know you do and I do as well. I've actually been stunned by that. I've had people push back on that. Says, well, I don't want the team to know how well we're doing, which is interesting, right? Like, well, and back to your point, our guest, about the scale, how do you know what a good day and a bad day is if you don't have calibration?

Trey Tippit
0:30:12
Right.

Craig Spodak
0:30:13
And by the way, the scale means something, too. We're a noble profession where we're actually helping people, too. So the money means we've helped more people. New patients mean they didn't have to go to the unfortunate experience that most of our colleagues are offering them. We're serving our profession. So yes, if we can influence and help more people, yes, let's do that.

our guest
0:30:33
Excellent.

Peter Boulden
0:30:34
It's a measuring stick of your ability to deliver care. Exactly right. That is exactly right. I just sound good. I just sound good.

Trey Tippit
0:30:42
I don't know what you're getting at.

Craig Spodak
0:30:43
I've kind of gotten to where I'm kind of digging it now.

our guest
0:30:44
Yeah, but don't talk to him on the phone because he'll sound like a pipsqueak on the phone.

Peter Boulden
0:30:45
Do not change that.

Craig Spodak
0:30:46
He'll sound like a pipsqueak on the phone. Like when you're in seventh grade and you talk to your girlfriend. But the next time you sit there with helium like… You put some helium on that mic you sound normal buddy. So our guest, run down your, I mean, if I don't keep you guys on track we're gonna burn for the next hour of just being… Talk fast, what are the four for you guys? Production per visit.

Peter Boulden
0:31:13
Production per visit, got it.

our guest
0:31:15
All right, everybody do one, go.

Peter Boulden
0:31:17
Oh, okay.

Craig Spodak
0:31:18
Oh, okay.

our guest
0:31:19
Oh, we're a foursome here, right?

Peter Boulden
0:31:21
All right, I mean, I'm just gonna go with straight, like, know your collections.

our guest
0:31:24
Collections?

Craig Spodak
0:31:25
Yeah, that's huge, by the way. And then comparing it to the year prior, so June of 2022 versus June of 2021.

Peter Boulden
0:31:31
Year over year, month over month.

Craig Spodak
0:31:32
Love it, love it.

our guest
0:31:33
I'll throw retention in there.

Craig Spodak
0:31:34
So whether it be reappointment rate or pre-appointment rate. Net patient growth, is that what you're saying?

Peter Boulden
0:31:40
Nope, that's not what he's saying. He's saying the thing from kind of when we talk about dental intel, Craig, the pre-appointment rate of your hygiene, people leaving from your hygiene. So you just gave the last one, you're saying net growth, Craig, I guess.

Craig Spodak
0:31:52
Yeah, I'm saying net growth. Well, I like, an order of all of them, I like, if I had to pick one, I know that's not a question, but Tray's would probably be the greatest single one for me.

Peter Boulden
0:32:02
Well, of course, I agree. I wanted to save that for you. I wanted to save the softball lobs for y'all. Any others, our guest, that you're looking at in terms of things that you, I know you kind of look at production per operatory. You mean like utilization rate? Yeah, your utilization rate, right? Yeah, the dork numbers that our guest gets into.

our guest
0:32:21
Yeah, yeah. What's the production per operatory, by the way?

Craig Spodak
0:32:24
What's that good one for you, our guest? I'd love to hear that. I love how we are all over.

our guest
0:32:30
So yeah, I would say utilization rate, which is what he's talking about. Like at the end of the day, you've gotta figure out, and this is more for if you're looking at acquiring, if your world is in mergers and acquisitions and you're figuring that out, that's where you end up. So if I would say 125 to 175 production per chair per hour. You heard that, production per chair per hour.

Peter Boulden
0:32:56
Okay, so you break it down in hourly. So what's that breakdown in an annum?

Trey Tippit
0:33:00
On a what?

our guest
0:33:01
I was here for a year.

our guest
0:33:02
Oh, dumb it down for our guest, buddy.

Craig Spodak
0:33:04
1400 per day times. The truth is, is utilization rate. Somebody who knows mergers and acquisitions

Peter Boulden
0:33:09
and not know the word annum, like.

Peter Boulden
0:33:10
No, I actually didn't hear you

our guest
0:33:12
because I prefer to hear it in a lower voice.

our guest
0:33:16
Okay.

Peter Boulden
0:33:17
I should have gotten Trey to say it.

Trey Tippit
0:33:18
Let me take it in there.

Trey Tippit
0:33:19
Let me show them where it's at. I do. It might come off as a little bit more awkward though. I know.

Trey Tippit
0:33:23
What did you just tell me?

Craig Spodak
0:33:24
What does that break down to in a yearly? Come on, you have to figure this one.

Peter Boulden
0:33:39
I'm kind of curious because I actually have had this conversation.

Craig Spodak
0:33:42
250.

Peter Boulden
0:33:43
Where someone said like, hey, how much production should I be doing per operatory?

Craig Spodak
0:33:49
I think where is the upper limit? It's such a broad, because you can do per operatory per chair.

Trey Tippit
0:33:57
Yeah.

Trey Tippit
0:33:58
We're never going to get through this.

Peter Boulden
0:34:01
Per square foot.

Craig Spodak
0:34:02
I mean, come on. But it has to do with your ability to take a practice for it as opposed to the day-to-day running of the actual numbers,

Peter Boulden
0:34:09
is what I would argue on that number.

Peter Boulden
0:34:11
Which is what it was.

Trey Tippit
0:34:11
So you don't have a number here.

our guest
0:34:12
Well, because it's kind of skewed, it also depends on the type of chairs, the specialty care, the hygiene chair, all that other, which is why we look at it on a per hour per, so as an office, in an acquisition,

Peter Boulden
0:34:22
you can order that number. Let me put this another way for everyone at home.

our guest
0:34:25
Yeah, go.

Peter Boulden
0:34:26
our guest, I have an eight operatory practice. I'm doing $1.6 million a year. Do I have more room to grow, you think, or am I reaching capacity? You shaking your head yes. Okay, our guest, I have an eight operatory practice. I'm doing $2.4 million a year. Do I still have more room to grow, you think?

our guest
0:34:46
No.

Peter Boulden
0:34:47
Yeah, okay.

Craig Spodak
0:34:48
Well, 175 per hour per operatory is about 250, by my math.

Peter Boulden
0:34:52
250, right.

Craig Spodak
0:34:53
Per year. That's the advance that we saw five or seven minutes ago.

Peter Boulden
0:34:57
I understand. Craig, I understand. I'm going through. And actually, I agree with that number about 250. At the level you've reached 250 of all the operatories, I think you should be able to look at another location or increasing capacity.

Peter Boulden
0:35:10
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Craig Spodak
0:35:11
Okay.

our guest
0:35:12
Interesting. So that should be your natural cap. So it depends on the type of dentistry you're doing, yes, super GP work, whatever, blah, blah, blah. But yes, that's a good roundabout number. If you're within that 200 to 300 and you know your business model, see where you tend to rely and any more juice that you're trying to squeeze out of that practice will most likely turn into turnover and burnout on the team, which is better to just say, let's move on to the next location or the next acquisition or build more capacity

Craig Spodak
0:35:41
Yeah, I completely agree

Peter Boulden
0:35:43
You've expanded tremendous

Craig Spodak
0:35:45
You know I agree on that and not only do I agree on that I want to put a little pin in that And you should do an entire we should do an entire podcast Yeah, that's that's a great topic because I've been at 500 plus for op for a long time And I know practice is far greater than that.

our guest
0:36:02
So.

Peter Boulden
0:36:03
Yeah, but you're going back to number one, your mission was not multiple locations, it was I want to build the dental hospital. So you did very efficient, you became more efficient with your space versus trying to grow your footprint.

Craig Spodak
0:36:16
But Peter, you're like, your Buckhead location is pushing that, you know, five hundo, six hundo, I'm sure.

Peter Boulden
0:36:24
So, you know. Maybe, maybe on average, right? There's a lot of hygiene, of course. Hygiene numbers potentially can,

Craig Spodak
0:36:31
could potentially bring that down versus the African. But I don't need to know your gross right now, but how many chairs in that bucket? Because I remember at one time. 12. Yeah, so you're, yeah, yeah.

Trey Tippit
0:36:41
But yeah.

Peter Boulden
0:36:42
I wish it was 500, but I hear you, I hear it. I just think that the people, look, it's always a question hot in dentistry. When, you know, it starts with this. When should I look at expanding? And I think that when you reach the 225 to 250 operatory mark per operatory per year, I think it's feasible. I think you have enough cash flow and enough profit to look forward to either expanding capacity or expanding locations. That's all. See, like right now, for example, yes, we should all be able to get on this podcast and say all right as an eco as a global Ecosystem amongst all your practices or all your operations where you generally at within that as you like say and you Utilization rate right so fine and right now. I'm around 400 which means guess what right now my only focus is expansion and building. I'm building a building and I'm expanding another. That's because I sense that. The good thing about what we're talking about that most people need to understand is that we're not making emotional response. Most of us would probably say you emotionally know you need to expand, but how much or how little you need to expand is based on actually knowing your numbers. You're saying emotionally driven decision versus data driven decision. Exactly. And that's what we have to focus on. And so I love talking big numbers and say, all right, well this is where we're at. I'm at this scale and that number. I've got room to grow if I expand this one and this one and this one,

our guest
0:38:12
we make that happen. But it's numbers related. So that's number three.

our guest
0:38:16
Number four.

Peter Boulden
0:38:17
Number four, they build systems of operations, right? So I am of the mindset that every dental practice on the planet has standard operating procedures. They just might not be the ones that you intended your office to have, right? In an absence of you being the director of creating step-by-step methodology and the way you should do it, your team is allowed to go rogue and figure things out on their own, which could be highly inefficient, highly non-productive and actually be contrarian to number one which is your vision. So, the teams that I have seen, the dentists that I have seen being very successful are very purposeful with the way in which they run things. The way that we answer the phones. Here's how we answer the phones. I'm not saying that you become robotic, but it creates guardrails for people as opposed to letting people just be free-range chickens. I agree. Build it or it will be built for you. There you go. I mean yeah and and like that

our guest
0:39:22
sounds like oh I just rather be built for me but no it's gonna be built in a catastrophic manner. A thousand percent. Yeah. You got to be careful about the fact that you know who builds your vision for you. Yes you're building a team but are you letting them take it off in different, this is the brand killer, as I call it, especially in multi-locations, or even department to department if you have a mega practice, central mega practice, right? Like, if you go into one part of the building, or you go into one location, it feels very, very different. Not because of, like we've got some practices that are out towards the country versus those in town. Yes, they have a different feel because the clientele attaches, but the brand, the feel, the practice, the walking in, the walking out, what it smells like, what it acts like, how things are checked out, how those treatment plans are done, the quality of care, that should be consistent. That comes off of building systems and processes, and it also keeps you stable. It makes your, it has to be built off of numbers too.

Peter Boulden
0:40:19
And you become less of the cog, the most important cog, because you're not now the chaperone of making sure everything is answered right. Did we do this and we do this insurance verification right and how do we treat Mrs. Jones and what was the filling we put in it right you don't become the nucleus of everything like I said right there's a there's a way you just adopt things and it's written down and everyone abides by it and it makes everyone happier and so the dentist that I see that are that are obsessive about this they have big organizations and they're able to scale a little bit easier in a non-chaotic manner.

our guest
0:40:56
This is what I think about when I hear people saying, I can't find anybody good for my practice. It's because they're recruiting people that are pre-built and ready to be successful. Well, there's probably 10% of the market out there for recruitment. If they're coming into assistance and processes and onboarding and consistency and they hear the same thing from everybody on the team, guess what? More of the applicant pool is able to come and be successful in your office. The goal is are we looking for pre-made people? Are we looking for the understanding that anybody can be successful in our environment or the majority?

Peter Boulden
0:41:33
One of the biggest reasons people quit, you guys,

Craig Spodak
0:41:36
is because they didn't get enough training.

our guest
0:41:39
Absolutely.

Trey Tippit
0:41:40
One more.

Craig Spodak
0:41:41
They go through a disillusion learner stage where they're walking around the practice

Peter Boulden
0:41:44
unaware of what to do. And how many times have we heard this? I've even probably been guilty of it myself. Just get someone on the phones to answer the things. The most important job in the practice, I say, just put someone on there to get a warm body to answer the phone. And that is not bueno.

our guest
0:42:04
Dangerous, yeah.

Peter Boulden
0:42:05
Dangerous, right, but like, you know.

Craig Spodak
0:42:08
Well, and the same, like, I'll give you an example of the opposite end of it. So I know very successful dentists that are producing millions of dollars a year with their own hands, and they're just like, I just wanna do the dentistry, I'm gonna go hire the CEO. And they're gonna run everything for me. I'm gonna pay this person.

Peter Boulden
0:42:26
That CEO is building systems, Greg.

Craig Spodak
0:42:27
Right, but it's also that CEO may not know dentistry and there's no transference. You can't plug and play a CEO, as we all know, or a director of operations, plug them in and just walk away and do your dentistry.

Peter Boulden
0:42:42
Right, but they come from a world of more of like a checklist manifesto where things happen sequentially. So I know we all think dentistry is unique, and it's not. It's business, it's processes. Yeah, we're dealing with clinical, yeah, we're dealing with human bodies, yeah, we're dealing with other things. But at the end of the day, it still is operationally…

Craig Spodak
0:43:05
We're managing other dentists at that level, the high level, where you're ready to hire a CEO, you're managing other dentists, not just team. And dentists have a fatal flaw that they only like to listen to dentists, which is interesting. That's an accountability piece, which is kind of the second part of this whole concept of building systems operations. You can build the systems, but you've got to build the accountability on the back end of the systems too to keep them. It's a self-perpetuating system of systems so the systems stay in place. It is. It's checks and balances and making sure that they are getting done. And once the systems are in place, it is. So where's the fine line between that and like micromanaging?

Peter Boulden
0:43:42
Micromanaging, if I was to answer that question right now, it's on that's people managing people, systems managing people is not micromanaging.

Peter Boulden
0:43:50
People managing people is micromanaging, systems managing people is just a systematic. Yeah. And not always, but a system isn't going to micromanage someone because they can't do more or less. But it does define, I think like I was saying, it defines the guardrails. Like here's what's acceptable, here's what a touchdown looks like, here's, you know, here's what a fumble looks like kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. I like it. All right. This one, this one comes up a lot for me. Successful dentist, the fifth habit of successful dentists is they understand marketing. And let me put a disclaimer on this. I'm not saying that they do their own marketing, but they understand their marketing. How many of us have seen some of our colleagues be taken advantage of in this field because they, like Craig's saying, they just wanted to do dentistry, I hired this marketing company and they get, and they, the marketing company could quickly ascertain the level of acumen they have from a marketing perspective and they set it and forget it, your practice. Meanwhile, you are paying them on a recurring basis. because it is one if growth and continuing to grow and growing your practice getting more successful in your town is predicated on awareness for you not to understand how to get more awareness startles me.

Trey Tippit
0:45:31
Yeah.

Craig Spodak
0:45:34
When we talk about marketing to Pete it's not just the message you're displaying out to the public, it's how your brand is perceived. So your location, your receptionary, your finishes, your uniforms, that's all marketing. And even if you never spend a dollar, and you're busy, it's probably because your brand is great. You're talking about the marketing of patient experience, right? Right, right, but it's all Understanding it's all marketing. They don't go to you even though you don't think they go to you for Your location and your facility the way it looks they do people actually choose I go to places because of the way they look and feel That's the branding piece of marketing that I think a lot of people ignore because they get too side they get too hung up on SEO and social media marketing and Google ads and all these other things and then they leave the part that exists. Right, which is even worse.

Peter Boulden
0:46:34
And they wonder why, right, the retention rate isn't high. Like, oh, they're low quality patients because they came to my practice and never came back. That might not be a low quality patient. Potentially it could be the way, the experience they got when they got there, right? Your office was dirty, the team was grumpy, you had terrible bedside manner, didn't know how to talk to them, right? It's not just like, oh, I hooked them as a new patient and now I have them in perpetuity. It's an ongoing courtship, in my opinion. So let me keep unpacking this just a second. Again, when I say they understand marketing, it's only so that they know enough about each scenario, whether it's, oh, I know how Google Ads work. I know how to run ads on Facebook marketing. I know how to maybe make my own ad on Canva or something like that. They have enough acumen in all sides of what they're doing where they can have qualified conversations with the person that they're deploying with so that they can, on a regular basis, audit what they're doing. If you know nothing about it right you know nothing about marketing then you will

our guest
0:47:41
accept anything as a result I think of all the things besides my weekly operational cadence meeting that we do Monday morning or whatever this is the one other department I meet with every single week because for me it's holding accountability especially if you're outsourcing anything, holding accountability to those dollars used and that stuff output. But to me, it gives me the greatest limitless test to the pulse on the practices, how things are going, how the community sees this, how the brand is being carried, and what are we thinking about. Because it is the most flexible, it's the most dynamic portion of our business that we can turn those faucets on or turn them off.

Peter Boulden
0:48:25
On and off.

our guest
0:48:26
On and off. And we should not just let it just run because it floods and then we lose sight of understanding our efficiencies. It should be the ability to throttle it forward and back because maybe you're gaining better efficiencies or you're doing better work and you need less of certain types of marketing

our guest
0:48:44
and things to that degree.

our guest
0:48:45
But to me I think-

Peter Boulden
0:48:46
But our guest, to be able to titrate that based on knowing your numbers, going back a slide, is like a freaking superpower. I'm sorry to get so heated here, but it's amazing. I know my numbers. I actually have a great month. I don't really have great three months. Maybe I can tone down my marketing, which will enhance my P&L, which will only enhance

Craig Spodak
0:49:06
my EBITDA, which makes me more valuable.

our guest
0:49:08
Right.

our guest
0:49:09
Well, it's like my favorite story. I always hear every dentist say, oh, September and October, okay, I'm just gonna sit back it's just

Peter Boulden
0:49:16
crappy months I'm like so you know this every year and you don't make any pivot in three months prior you're not doing something categorically different right

our guest
0:49:26
right how are we not prepping for this how are we not holding off on specials and you know financing options for Invisalign or whatever the heck you're doing you try to build them up and getting prepped I mean for us it should your team should be anxious to make sure that these things are getting plugged and played when they need to be taken off because that is the throttling you need to do if you're just throttling it all year long then yes those months are going to continue to be but there are times when you need these ways to stimulate your practice and that's when you use them you don't just say well I need them all the time no you actually don't and so I think it's really healthy to Understand the the metrics by which we implement

Peter Boulden
0:50:05
I think one of the biggest and I'll shut up on this but obviously everyone knows I like the marketing one of the biggest Joys of my career in Coaching other dentists has been turning the lights on in this capacity capacity for them Right meaning that like it doesn't have to be this like box where you don't know what goes in and out like training them or having them go to courses and learn about it and then feel this like emboldened sense of like nothing can stop me now, right? And like that's been just, I've seen it and now, and I can think of four intimate guys and gals actually, three guys and one gal that have done this and it's changed the direction and the enthusiasm of their entire career. Well, you've also taken all of our practices

our guest
0:50:47
at a deeper level, a lot of categories. I mean, I know we've all influenced each other, but in many, many ways, I mean, Peter, you've taken a lot of the stuff that was a niche for me and you're like, stack it in a different way or think of it in a different way and double check your ROI. Like, how many of us had all this SEO being spent? You're like, oh, really? Or, you know, and just understanding it just at a higher level. It's kind of like your, the podcast we did with regards to crypto. It's like getting off zero. For me, marketing is the same way for everybody. The fact that you haven't tried it, and you didn't follow through with it, and you didn't go back and track it to the actual ROI of production within your business and understanding it was a worthy avatar to pursue or all these other things, seems overwhelming. But you don't get to that point until you get off zero with marketing.

Craig Spodak
0:51:36
marketing that you've got to do. This brings a really good, this is a, marketing is a perfect microcosm of the whole thing in that it's goal oriented. You don't market to market, you market with a very specific goal of whether it be new patients or whatever attention, whatever your goal is from a marketing standpoint. Then you need to delegate from a position of authority. So you need to understand it enough to know what you're talking about to have those high-level conversations. And then you need to track your numbers so you know, I heard this one time that I always loved, it was half my marketing dollar is wasted, I just don't know what's happening.

Peter Boulden
0:52:11
Therefore you can't change a thing, right?

Craig Spodak
0:52:13
Yeah, exactly. So then you spend the time looking at, okay, well how do we minimize the wasted half and maximize the, and you do that by numbers, follow through, and continually basically just evaluating that system. Right, and in the absence of understanding your business, understanding your vision, what you'll do is you'll just market two special offers, a $15 new patient examined cleaning or whatever else. That's why you slip down into that sea of undifferentiated competition. It's just a sad place to be. So, it's all-

Peter Boulden
0:52:44
I'm gonna keep the bus moving in an effort of keeping this pod somewhat condensed. Number six, they learn how to delegate. On the come up, all of our come ups, right, we had more time than money, right? I remember those times all too clear, right? I was the guy putting TVs up in the ceiling, learning them, all the things, right? Now I'm not trying the walking to school snow both ways scenario but like we all remember those times yeah in the come up you have you have more time money successful dentist I think then start learning that they can buy their time with the money by learning how to delegate and get out of the way that we can talk about the beginning and and hiring or hiring for their inadequacies, leaving them to do their superpower, but not being afraid to hire and delegate and being like, you're the best person for this job. Whether you believe it or not, it frees it from your plate. I'd like to hear some of your comments.

our guest
0:53:51
I like to say with regards to this, the focus, I'm gonna say this slowly because I actually went over this with a couple of leadership teams. The focus is to realize my fully exploited strengths are more valuable to the team than my marginally improved weaknesses.

Trey Tippit
0:54:12
You see what I'm saying?

our guest
0:54:15
You said that's my team.

our guest
0:54:16
You said that's your team. That's beautifully said.

Trey Tippit
0:54:18
I like that.

our guest
0:54:19
So, focus is to realize my fully exploited strengths are more valuable to the team than my marginally improved weaknesses. weaknesses and for some reason leaders think that in order to be a good leader I need to be a well-rounded leader and that's a bunch of BS what you need to be is a well-rounded team and we need to exploit my strengths by having team members who carry my weaknesses and we can exploit those are their strengths and don't don't spend some because leaders try to spend so much time trying to like marginally, incrementally better their weaknesses. And the truth is, why? It's an absolute waste, right? And that's where I think we get caught the most in our business and we spin our wheels more than anything else trying to be like, I got all of this, I can carry all of it. It's why our vision ends up being unfulfilling if we carry it all on our own shoulders. Not to mention our business ends up being not profitable. Like Craig was saying, I carried it on my shoulders for so long. Well, guess what? He produced a high top line revenue, but he wasn't as successful in the profitability margins because he didn't get out of the way of his team to be able to do it the right way and

Peter Boulden
0:55:26
decentralize decision making.

Craig Spodak
0:55:28
By the way, the delegation comes to dental work as well. One of the top questions we all get answered is, when do I add an associate? When's the right time to add an associate. Well, if you've added an associate and you're paying that dentist $500, $600, $700 a day guaranteed minimum and you're running around like a maniac doing the dentistry and they're sitting at their desk twiddling their thumbs, you've got a big problem on your hands. You've got to really figure out what you're doing. Yeah, I agree. Learning to replace is really important.

Trey Tippit
0:55:55
Okay.

Peter Boulden
0:55:56
Anything else? Okay, awesome. Awesome. Number seven, they become specialized on the things that they want to do. And I do mean this in a clinical aspect, actually, guys. So there are things that we do in our day, in our clinical day, and they would pull from your battery. I don't want to use some energy units, getting into our guest's world. They would drain some energy units from you because you hated doing extractions like raise my hand on that one. If you want a dry socket come to me. But they would drain you make you anxious because you would see it on the schedule you have this anxiety all day long. So it's nice being able to to get to a place where you can you can stand for something and say you know what I'm going to work towards I'm not going to just one day declare this I'm never doing that again, but my goal is to work towards Specialization of the things I want to do not specialization inside the career of dentistry. I'm not saying you know I know we have specialties I'm saying get to get to do more things that lights you up during the day clinically whether it's veneers Maybe it maybe you get lit up by class two composites or occlusal composites with stain. Who knows? But like become the master of that in your practice and let go of some of the things that you may be doing

Craig Spodak
0:57:22
that are draining you,

Peter Boulden
0:57:23
even though they are productive for you, quote unquote, even though you're collecting money from them, quote unquote, they are still draining you on the daily, which is then going to potentially shorten your career because you are going to burn out.

our guest
0:57:35
Yeah, but this is the throttle of every entrepreneur, right, I mean, if you don't get out of your way, if you don't get out of that seat that is not made for you, and you've got to be able to, and particularly clinically, like, when you add a doctor, like Craig just said, you've got to be able to purge that off, and then guess what, you become more daily fulfilled. If you don't think the team feels that negativity and that cruddy attitude about wanting to get up and do an MOD, DO, DO, MOD, and that's not your game plan, guess what? You've now built something worth, start fulfilling and enjoying your practice as you're growing it.

Peter Boulden
0:58:13
This is one of the ways in which you get to do that. I mean, Craig, you're the poster child for this, right?

Craig Spodak
0:58:18
Like, you've loved for a while.

Peter Boulden
0:58:20
Yeah, because you were doing shit you didn't want to do, and now you have this, you were like, look, I should only be doing my Invisalign practice, because I really like it, I'm really good at it.

Craig Spodak
0:58:29
And then that changed though, too. So we have to give grace for what we say and what we do. Because at one point, I was the only guy that would do the all-in-fours and the high-level stuff. And no one else would want to come into that ecosystem. And I hated that. Because when you're doing FMRs, like you were, Peter, you cannot pick up for one minute and go talk to Sally, your hygienist?

our guest
0:58:52
It's pretty binary.

Trey Tippit
0:58:53
It's a seven-hour procedure.

Craig Spodak
0:58:54
It's pretty binary for you, Peter. You had a very… You went… You were at 9.9 on the Deno scale, 10 being the highest intensity. You were always at 9.9. I stepped down to Invisalign, which is like 4.2 on the Deno scale. Then even that became too much. Now I'm only one day a week, one column a week Invisalign. It's just nice to select and change over time. I think that's what… A good point you got to make, Craig, you touched on this earlier, but you have to be a generalist to then become a specialist.

Peter Boulden
0:59:25
A hundred percent. That's actually what I'm saying here, Trey. You have to eat all the glass until you can get to that point.

Peter Boulden
0:59:32
Yeah, you do.

Craig Spodak
0:59:35
But the growth and the drive then, to echo what our guest said at the beginning of it all, this is your driver.

our guest
0:59:43
Just enjoy it.

Craig Spodak
0:59:45
Yeah, this is what takes it forward because now you're focusing on the strengths, you're delegating the weaknesses, you've built a team around that, and now you have synergy.

Peter Boulden
0:59:54
And now you've created abundance in your practice where someone else can now fill in for you and help you out. You are now not the most important person in the room, or maybe you are, but at least now like, hey, I can hire an associate now because I want to give all of these things to them, as opposed to I'm going to hog it all and take it because I need to collect everything and be, you know, I want to go on vacation, whatever it is, right? You become specialized in what you want to do, your team knows that, you become the best at that, and then you delegate the rest of those clinical procedures to someone else in your organization. That's actually a large part of how kind of we grew at Atlanta Dental Spa honestly was was dividing and conquering and doing some things and doing cross referrals to help embolden our little micro practices within the practice. So okay guys last one I don't even know what it is. Oh my favorite one of all that's why I saved it last it was in the order of importance. They, number eight, they learn how to enroll. Let me pause for a second. When I say learn how to enroll, they learn how to communicate. Not that they become salesperson-y and they learn how to enroll, but they learn how to communicate. Warren Buffett, it's a funny quote I just saw recently. Actually, P-B-D, P-D-B, wait, no, P.B.D., Craig. I get his initials and my initials confused. P. Diddy?

Craig Spodak
1:01:20
No, my initials are Peter Dawson Bolden.

Peter Boulden
1:01:23
His is Peter Dawson.

Craig Spodak
1:01:24
Wow, no wonder why he became a dentist. Right, he's my granddad.

Trey Tippit
1:01:27
No, he's not.

Trey Tippit
1:01:28
But I get those initials confused.

Craig Spodak
1:01:29
My point is he posted something that was talking about Warren Buffett.

Peter Boulden
1:01:32
Warren Buffett was said, the $100 speaking course that I went to at the US Toastmasters was is worth ten times more than any degree that I've ever earned. And I say this all the time I know it's probably beat this horse but like the communication being able to take something complex, Craig we talked about FMR, right? Being able to enroll in FMR and distill it down to something that the patient can understand without 20 years of having dental knowledge. And it goes back to even the conversation, Craig, you and I had a couple days, a couple podcasts ago, talking about the words to use and words not to use. Like this all rolls into it. The enrollment is an art. The communication is an art. Learning body language, learning all these things, the patient experience, how do we make them feel? That's all people remember. But the dentist, the highly successful dentist that I know, can enroll dentistry.

Craig Spodak
1:02:31
You put someone in a room that's quasi-interested in X procedure and they will enroll it. And by the way, those dentists that are that phenomenal at enrolling typically can enroll people in their vision, by the way. And they can enroll team members to build the team. So what you're speaking to is a larger construct that kind of ties all these eight habits back, and it's a confidence and belief in yourself. Yes, it's a swagger, for sure. You have to figure out what makes your heart happy, and I know that sounds real woo-woo, but if you really believe in something, like even if it was a pizza shop, I'm going to build the best ingredients and we're going to change pizza, your team will be behind you. Your numbers will be great whether you choose to listen or not, but if you stand for something big, there's a gravitational pull to beautiful ideas. The enrollment factor comes from a dentist that's actually built a vision. It's different. We do it differently. I just believe that all—

Peter Boulden
1:03:37
I agree and disagree with this, Craig.

Peter Boulden
1:03:38
Here's why.

Craig Spodak
1:03:39
I just think they're all intimately tied together is all I'm saying They're not a pet my dream of hitting home runs. Okay, but I don't go and practice that Oh, yes, of course, but the first thing is the dream The dream is the home run. I want to dream is a small faction of that in my no Because you won't practice you won't have that you won't have the follow-through, the desire, the grit. It's hard to go to the batting cage all freaking day. Yeah, you can't. And take what Craig's saying and bring it into the clinical aspect of it. I would argue that you have an ethical obligation as a clinician of any type in health care to enroll because good for that. That is going to be something that shows you that you believe in what you do if you don't believe that your dentistry is worthwhile or that this is a

Peter Boulden
1:04:30
Salesy right how many times we heard that Yes, that person has a problem with their own belief system

Craig Spodak
1:04:35
Not an enrolling for people even what you have and what you do You will enroll and then you will get good at enrolling because you know that people are benefited by What you do by your skill set whether it be dentistry or you know surgery, but whatever whatever clinical aspect of health care you are You should be able to enroll you you should be constantly focusing to get better because you believe in what you do And if you don't then you should really reevaluate what you're doing all the changes and and take a sidestep and pivot that But it's true I mean the US government Spends tens of millions of dollars in advertising campaigns just to get people to put on their seatbelt. We know it saves lives, but they still have to market that. So it's like if you believe what you're doing is akin to the seatbelt saving lives and helping people and all that stuff.

Peter Boulden
1:05:26
Here's why I'm bringing the baseball analogy, Craig.

our guest
1:05:28
Sorry.

Craig Spodak
1:05:29
Okay.

Peter Boulden
1:05:30
I like baseball. You spend massive amounts of money building a practice, growing a team, figuring out the marketing, finally to get a butt in the chair. And then you shit all over yourself sometimes because you can't communicate what the patient really needed and they leave more confused than ever. Now they go to the next office or don't enroll or you hit them up like, hey, Sally will take care of you and then they'll say, hey, we'll call you later and then you never call. My point is it takes so much effort to get an at bat in dentistry, don't blow it. And don't blow it by not learning how to be, talk to someone and communicate and make them feel amazingly special for that small tranche of time that you have with them.

our guest
1:06:14
And all of us have a ton of docs on our teams. And it's not just the doctor, it's a hygienist that,

Peter Boulden
1:06:22
and they're the one with the relationship and they have a conversation and I get that there's whole

our guest
1:06:24
dynamics in enrollment but it is about as Bruce Barrett used to coin it the one-act play of enrollment meaning you can walk in and you can connect with that one individual and where they're at so that they understand their needs so they commit and build a relationship with the practice build a relationship with you and kind of be able to go from there and then you follow up on your systems and processes all that to kind of hand off of that. But I'm with you, we spent a lot of dollars in marketing, spent a lot of efforts to get them in the chair and then we botch it simply just coming in and acting too you know clinical or too academic, not connecting with them, not asking about them. Making them wait 45 minutes in your

Craig Spodak
1:07:11
or stepping on a trigger, or like just making it clunky to come and sit. Or making them physically uncomfortable and putting them back in the back, reclining in

Craig Spodak
1:07:20
a chair.

Peter Boulden
1:07:21
Or not calling them after you give them an injection, like things like this.

Craig Spodak
1:07:23
Right, there's those that are tactical, and I know your brain goes there, and that's what makes the four of us so powerful together, is that we all have different perceptions on it. The thing that's magically, like I'm using magic, that's helped me help other people, like Amimi, or like Amimi, who's a former mastermind, or the doctors in my practice, is actually like a worthiness conversation, where like, when their margins are really good, and they're really good at dentistry, and they've taken all the CE, I'm like, these patients are lucky that you're there, you have a heart, you care, you wanna do the right thing for them, that unlocks a lot of people too. So it's the at that, it's a self-esteem thing, plus the tactical, if you have great self-esteem, and you leave them in the chair for 40 minutes And you botch the whole freaking thing and like hey, it's gonna be a lot of money You know I don't even know what it's gonna be But it's gonna be a lot of money like people say stupid shit and really screw up their their human plans

our guest
1:08:15
But that's that's it. I mean that's where they come from right is those craftsmen that are hyper focused and they're incredible clinicians Guess what they're also the ones who are most likely to get sued because they're too non-relationship, very granular, all these other things. And you know the ones come out of these relationships, these people, they could actually screw up, but they told them all about the risks, all the things, and they've got a relationship, be like, you know I'm gonna take care of you, you know I'm gonna stand by it. And I think that's where the difference is. And it is coachable. It's something that you can spend time on, and you can learn, and you can spend time getting to know and do better. We just have to put time in, we have to put the practice in like you said, try and hit it out of the park,

Trey Tippit
1:08:52
that's what it takes.

Craig Spodak
1:08:53
I love it, I love it, I learned a lot actually guys, anything of the eight that you would either add or anything that you would add to the eight things of a highly successful

Peter Boulden
1:09:08
dentist, anything else you would add that we didn't cover you think?

Peter Boulden
1:09:13
The biggie for me is that you need to end cap. You need to put an end cap on that, rinse, wash, repeat.

Trey Tippit
1:09:20
Okay.

Craig Spodak
1:09:21
You get to the end, you start over, you keep going.

our guest
1:09:24
I like that, Dre. I was worried you were going to knock out the communication, but I'm not surprised that

Peter Boulden
1:09:29
that's the way it went. No, no, I actually said it. I said it wasn't in order of importance, but I think there was some of that. I wanted to end on something that I felt very passionate about because honestly it's funny like people I am inherently an introvert all day long going to work and rolling patients drain the absolute shit out of me but I had to learn my way out of that meaning I had to practice and record myself in mirrors and act like this you know I would record myself on an operatory with miss fictitious Jones and I'd listen to myself doing a treatment presentation I mean like I sound like an absolute buffoon right and then I do it again I was like I sound like a little less of a buffoon. And then I'd do it again, and be like, all right, it's getting a little bit better, right? But to your point, Greg, about the swagger, then ultimately, after doing it for 10 years, you walk in with a different swagger. And now, you can't unenroll people, right? Because you have such confidence, and you're so passionate about what you're doing, that people just are gravitationally pulled to that. And they're like, he's my guy, you know? And so, that's, I don't know, I guess I'm talking to that because most dentists, or a lot of dentists I know are introverted as well, and they get uncomfortable around either money conversations, or enrollment conversations, or clinical conversations, and it drains us. But practice makes progress.

Trey Tippit
1:10:44
Not perfection.

Peter Boulden
1:10:45
I agree.

our guest
1:10:46
I love this.

Craig Spodak
1:10:48
I think there are a couple of recurring themes like the art of it and I think that your career is meant to be an artistic expression. Life, a good life is artistic. The art of making friendships, the art of building relationships, the art of communication, all these things, if you're an excellent communicator, you will learn this but they overlap so it's not just making your career better. When you become an exceptional communicator, your whole life gets better. If you can build a team, you can build your relationships with your family. I look at business almost like a religious thing, just add value, help people. It all keeps going. I like the outro music, by the way. I mean, I was like, what you said was dreamy there. So going out with dreamy guys, I want to say I really enjoyed this format.

Peter Boulden
1:11:37
I like, you know, that was a good time. Maybe Craig and I had just too much of each other. And we we just end up we know what the other person's going to say. So maybe maybe it's nice having to throw a curveball. Yeah, I'd like to I'd like to say this for you. All right. Kudos to you for the intro and all the all the stuff.

Craig Spodak
1:11:53
You are you are now the new resident.

Peter Boulden
1:11:56
Bring in the water.

Peter Boulden
1:12:04
I have the rights to know.

our guest
1:12:06
Anybody wants me to put their uh… voicemail on for them, I'm happy to do that.

Peter Boulden
1:12:12
Ladies, it's a lady.

Peter Boulden
1:12:14
Craig, who are we about to go to the pod with? Let's get everyone hyped for who it'll be.

Craig Spodak
1:12:18
This guy is a big deal.

Craig Spodak
1:12:20
Not you too, not you too. Yeah, Dr. Thomas Rodry.

Craig Spodak
1:12:24
Dr. Thomas Rodry out of UK. I'm excited about this dude. I feel like I should rap this outro one time. Check it.

Peter Boulden
1:12:33
Take us out, Craig. Take us out. Take us out. Take us out, Craig. Take us out. Take us out. Alright everybody, thanks for listening to us. We enjoyed this talk and we'll see you next time on the Bulletproof Pod. Over and out.

Transcribed with Cockatoo