Takeaways: Summit Recap with Randy Smith

The following transcription was from the Bulletproof Youtube channel. Here is the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVwne4_IoJI&t=305s

Randy Smith
0:00:00
I said that conference was a fucking blast and I only regret that I didn't stay the second day.

Randy Smith
0:00:24
Why didn't you guys tell me?

Peter Boulden
0:00:25
Well, you know, who knew dentistry could be so fun. That's a

Randy Smith
0:00:28
little bit my point Peter. Like I thought I was going out to a dental conference and it was gonna be like this boring whatever and I get there and it's like a freaking Tony Robbins event. Well the energy was quite different I gotta tell you. What did you say Randy? I said Tony Robbins runs the best events in the world so I just make sure you got that. Yeah but it's an energy thing, right? And like that's something we just never, you know, I mean, energy just kind of rules the world and run things and you know, you run towards it and you run away from bad energy. And so I think we finally figured this out. Thanks to Craig, honestly, who really pushed on on DJ and the right momentum and the right thing because, and I got so many people replying, you know, so many texts of like, dude, hands down the best one. And I think it was largely in part to, yes, the content, yes, the curriculum, but it was also just like the cool energy that was transpiring.

Peter Boulden
0:01:21
Would you agree, Craig? 100%. I think the funniest part was when Randy got there the first night, he had no idea what we do.

Craig Spodak
0:01:28
And he's looking around, he's like, I didn't.

Peter Boulden
0:01:29
He's like, fuck, guys, I shouldn't be here. You guys should be like reviewing notes. Like there's 20 people in black setting up the stage.

Craig Spodak
0:01:38
500 people are going to be there.

Peter Boulden
0:01:39
There's an awesome amount of like megatron.

Randy Smith
0:01:42
I was having dinner with you guys. And then later you walked me into the room and I saw the room and I'm like, you guys shouldn't be here. You guys should go rehearse or something. I didn't know what a big show it was.

Randy Smith
0:01:51
Hey, if you're not ready to roll by then, you ain't going to get ready in the next eight hours. It was, it was truly guys.

Randy Smith
0:01:57
I've been friends with you.

Randy Smith
0:01:57
Oh, I don't know.

Randy Smith
0:01:58
If either you and I, it was truly, it was truly remarkable. I've been going to conferences for 40 years. I've never seen anything like that.

Randy Smith
0:02:07
Well, that's awesome. Thank you, thank you for that.

Randy Smith
0:02:09
It made me proud to be a part of it. And in the future, I think I could do two days and run a couple different tracks and offer a little more content.

Peter Boulden
0:02:18
Yeah, a workshop. So just to give some context, Randy, those of you who don't know Randy, if you didn't see the podcast that he and I did, I tell Craig it was probably the best podcast ever done on Bulletproof. Kidding, I'm kidding Greg. But if you haven't heard of Randy, Randy has come to our our mastermind. He did a little bit of leaned into our mastermind and at this summit he did what's called Randy's top 20 because there's so much financial illiteracy in dentistry, just in, actually not even in dentistry, Randy, just in the world, in the public. We've never been taught all these things. And so Randy leaned in and gave his top 20 tips that he's learned over the course of, shit, Randy, you've been a businessman

Peter Boulden
0:03:03
for what, 40 plus years?

Randy Smith
0:03:05
59 years old, I started my company when I was 19.

Randy Smith
0:03:08
Yeah, and so you've had a successful exit, you've come back in, and you are a student of all things, meaning, you know, some people, you know, you are constantly learning and that's what I've got to admire about you so much. Yes, you don't really need to be learning anymore, so to speak, if you know what I mean from a financial independent standpoint, but you are, you are, you are always interested in things, you know, whether it's, you know, we've been talking about, you know, blockchain and Bitcoin and stuff like you're just admire the hell that you just are constantly learning and advancing that you don't really need to.

Peter Boulden
0:03:39
So.

Randy Smith
0:03:39
That's an interesting point.

Peter Boulden
0:03:41
What was your, what was, what is the question? Cause I got so much feedback from you. What was your, what was your most common question that you were getting? Or what was your takeaway from dental finances as people were kind of in your conference or with the mastermind or this conference? Like, what do you, what are you getting a question commonly?

Randy Smith
0:04:00
I would say, Peter, the biggest thing, now, not only did I have 100 plus people in my room, my breakout, but I've received over 25 emails from people that were in the room asking for additional information and giving feedback, which I really appreciate because it helps me the next time I do this to make sure I'm spending time on the things that matter. What I find most interesting is, in the course I kind of mentioned that Craig, Craig's always, Craig's a good friend of mine, he likes everything I do and he thinks I'm magic and really what I am is a scientist and I just follow a protocol and it gets a good outcome. And so I started going through my top 20 and the questions that people were asking me are so basic and they wanna make sure they get them right about a personal financial statement, about how to think about debt, about what good debt is and what bad debt is. And a lot of basic things, banking questions. And of course, my favorite, tax questions, right? And what's interesting, guys, and you said it, Peter, is they do not teach you this in school, and I had to learn it the hard way. In school, you get the lesson and then you learn. In the real world, you get punched in the face and then you learn. And that's what I did for 40 years. And it did work out. And for some reason, I'm still interested in business and learning and whatever. And now I'm at a point where I like to learn and I like to share. And one more comment on that is, everybody in that room is an independent business person. And I think that's the problem, is you have to come together and build networks like you guys are doing with Bulletproof. I now see the beauty and the value of what you guys do. Because every entrepreneur lives like on an island. Being an entrepreneur is like being the president of your own country. You get to make all your own rules, you get to set all your own policies, and then you see what things work and don't work, and then you tweak as you go. But if you get together with 10 other people or 20 other people or 30 other people and you workshop these ideas, the group coming together like that, like your mastermind, is where the magic is. Because the guy sitting next to you is going to ask a question that's going to jog your mind to ask a question and you're going to get groupthink. And businesses should be run with groupthink. That's why companies have board of directors. But I'm pretty sure that all the dentists that came to your conference don't have a board of directors. So they sit in a room listening to a chump like me, and they're all impressed by what I have to say. And I just think there's a way that we can reach these people and help them with a lot of this basic stuff.

Randy Smith
0:06:42
Yes, I agree. I agree. And it's funny. There's sometimes shame, Randy, and there's kind of sometimes some shame in some financial stuff, meaning that, like, not just similar to maybe a kind of a dental analogy, Randy, we sometimes go into our treatment room with a patient and the patient, you say, Mrs. Jones, here's your x-rays, you understand? And they start talking and we start seeing them shaking their head. And it's, they don't really understand, but they're shaking their head. Sometimes I see the same thing in dental financial literacy is you talk about something, then you see some blank stares, but they're shaking their head thinking that they should they should know the topics or, you know, they should know all about conservation easements or or, you know, the tax depreciation or balance sheets or whatever. And they should. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But there's really not a full understanding of it. And so I think I think when you can kind of shed that vulnerability and be like, hey, I don't know what I don't really know what a balance sheet is. Like, it's okay.

Peter Boulden
0:07:39
Hey, I don't really know how to read a P&L.

Craig Spodak
0:07:42
It's cool.

Randy Smith
0:07:42
The first step to kind of getting it is being like, I don't really know. And guess what? Super cool, because no one taught you, especially like you said in dental school. So it's super cool to just say, hey, I don't understand and I'm here to learn. And that's why I love when you came and talked to our mastermind, because we got some of that vulnerability. Sometimes people won't be so vulnerable in a room of 100, they will be kind of in a room of 15, 20, 30 people, right? And it's a little more intimate environment. And that's why I love that we're really having you back at the mastermind this coming year, which was a wild, the enrollment was a wild success, by the way, I don't know if you heard, but it was great.

Peter Boulden
0:08:18
There was a lot of demand for this upcoming mastermind. So we're building something good. And this is a data point that things are trending in that direction of things being good, right? Meaning a tremendous amount of value, life-changing value, personally, professionally, financially, you know, all these things that happen from that. So really proud of that. Really, I was really blown away and humbled by the demand for this mastermind.

Randy Smith
0:08:42
I think your conference showed people like, like looking behind the curtain to see the value of the group. Think when I've joined your mastermind for podcasts and in person in some of your events like City which was awesome. I do get to drill down with people and get to get into your ecosystem and listen to the questions. And if you remember, there was a couple of times where somebody said something and I go, wait, what? Like you lose that many patients a month and you don't pick up the phone and call them. You know, it's like, because I'm not a dentist I think it's helpful for me when I'm working with you guys and listening to the questions, because I just come from a business point of view.

Randy Smith
0:09:20
Yeah, you couldn't believe, I think that context is funny. You couldn't believe from a business perspective, you're like, wait a second, you guys know when someone's becoming not technically a patient and you physically don't call them yourself and say, hey, what's going on? People are like, no, we don't do that. Like we rely on software or someone on our team. And you're like, this is crazy. How could you let this happen? Like I've been on the phone as the business owner being like, hey, Karen, how's it going? I see that you're inactive. This is Dr. Randy Smith calling you. I would be telling the patient, get your ass in here.

Craig Spodak
0:09:53
Yeah.

Craig Spodak
0:09:54
I got a funny story, guys. So I have a potential mastermind that wants to join, right? This is yesterday. And I know that we have a limited number of spots. And she's like, can I just talk to you? Because I don't think it's the right move for me because, and Peter, you saw the email, it's like, my practice profit is amazing. My team's super happy. Like, I'm just blowing and going. I'm on my third practice, about to acquire my fourth and fifth. I just don't know what the value prop would be. Well, first of all, you said you wanted to join and now you don't know what the value prop would be. So I'm like, okay, I'll get on the phone with you, right? Immediately within the first like five minutes. I'm like, so what percentage profit are you? She's like, I think I'm like 50, 60% profit. I was like, okay, well, net profit, like you'd be the most profitable dental practice I've ever heard of in my life. You sure that's what your profit is? You know, 60% or 50%? I said, well, I know it's like a million dollars. I'm like, yeah, but it's percentages. And then like, what's the percentage of your rent? Well, I know it's like $20,000 a month. I'm like, okay, and we started whittling this down and I realized you have no idea of the actual numbers of your business. And like you would do with me, Randy, like 15 years ago or 20 years ago when you were like, hey, what percentage is this? What percentage is that? When you're a business owner and you have no idea what your numbers are, you cannot actually say you're in control of your business whatsoever. So this lovely doctor is, you know, on her, going on her fourth and fifth prep, lying blind and like through the questions, I never even got a chance to like give her the value prop. She's like, Oh shit, I need you. Can you please talk to my CFO? I'm like, yes, I'd love to talk to your CFO, like bring these people to the mastermind. But it's just really, really big look into most dental practices and where they're at and the lack of guidance that they actually have.

Randy Smith
0:11:38
Greg, I have, I have a description of what that's called. That's called letting success get in your way. I have all kinds of friends. I mentor all kinds of entrepreneurs. And when they're killing it and making money, which is really hard to do, right? Once you hit that and you're killing it and you're making money, they're making money. The bank account is building every month. They're buying the stuff they wanted, whether it was cars or trips or whatever, and it's working. And then I come in and then I look at their numbers and I find a way to get it 10 or 20% better than that, just by moving levers.

Peter Boulden
0:12:09
And I think that- Like this one particular person, you could take this person and add like five or $1,000 to her bottom line, just you alone. Forget the other stuff that we do.

Randy Smith
0:12:19
Dentistry, you know, I'm going with this, Randy, is that dentistry, when done well, especially in bull markets, when things are rocking, people do well despite themselves. Right? And so it's great. Like, you know, bull runs and everyone thinks there's an amazing stock investor, right? You could just throw a dart at a stock and all of a sudden you're like, Oh, I'm really talented at this. The same thing happens in dentistry. It's this vicarious endorsement by the market of thinking that you're a good operator. The problem is, is that when the wind stopped blowing in your favor, you know, they're not at your back anymore. And all of a sudden you're wondering what, okay, I need to fix this because it's not like I thought it was, right? My profitability's falling and now you don't know what levers to turn because you don't know what levers got you to success in the beginning, right? And so that is like, Craig, I think that's what you're saying, right? That is the next level chops of an operator is knowing, okay, this is falling, therefore do this, right? Do X, Y, and Z to equal the outcome that I want to do. But if you're not doing well and you're doing well because you're quote unquote lucky and you're hustling and you're working hard and you're getting a lot new patients, don't expect that to be in perpetuity is my point. Well also Peter, like there's,

Peter Boulden
0:13:28
there's the business that she is and the business she's becoming. She's a great dentist, places implants. She does great. She does great work. So for her, her business was always just her output. So you just figure just more of that. She's got…

Randy Smith
0:13:44
Conflating her…

Peter Boulden
0:13:45
Yeah. So practice number four and practice number five are coming online and she still wants to be a full-time dentist. Well, who's going to run it? Do you have a CEO? No. So there's what she's doing now. She just figures more of the same will create a better result. Like what I was doing when I was making three million dollar top line and earning three, four hundred grand a year. I figure when I get to six million dollar top line I'll order, I mean I'll earn 800 grand or 12 million, 1.6. It's just not a linear exchange of gross to net. When the gross starts to get really big, things get really fucking out of control.

Randy Smith
0:14:20
And the same thing about your effort. Let me say one more thing, just because I'm someone who's gone from one to seven practices, right? It's not the same effort, meaning that like practice one and two, you know, relatively easy because you're able to be, you're the thoroughbred, you're the superstar in the ecosystem. You can kind of, Hey, I'm going to go over here three days and here three days, and it's going to work. Practice three starts kicking your ass, but you get through it. But then, like you said, practice is four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, whatever you want to do that requires, like Randy said, even in the beginning a board right different positions who's gonna be your controller you cannot be all the things because then you fall into the trap like I did you think you're the nucleus of everything and all of a sudden now your life is miserable because you didn't create the systems you know you're making money and you're busy and you're quote-unquote successful in the outcome but you're miserable because you're stressed constantly you're stressed 24-7, right? Because it's all on you. And so, anyway, Craig, I love that you're bringing it up, right, because it's, success isn't necessarily the, hey, I'm doing well, I'm making a million bucks a year, or whatever, success, I think,

Peter Boulden
0:15:26
is enjoying the quality of your life. Yeah, and it also points back to that slide of you don't know what you don't know. So people, when considering, like, just for the mastermind, as a small example, there's what you know, like I know how to like be a good dentist and there's what I know I don't know. Like I don't really know the hygiene compensation plan or I don't know how to use like personality testing to find optimize my team and stuff like that. But what you don't know you don't know is like, holy shit, like even just the first couple minutes, I wasn't even trying to be rude with her. It was like, what is this?

Craig Spodak
0:15:57
What is that?

Peter Boulden
0:15:58
She has no idea. I'm like, you see, do you see? She's like, yes, I see. Like, is there still a spot and like immediately, you know Like 30 40 minutes in the conversation like oh shit, and that's what like Randy. Honestly, that's what you did That's what my buddy John did like I got my my dental business education from non dentists You know Randy remember what you were saying to me all the time like like what are your numbers? How do you not know that the first time we went to dinner? He's like he's like I want you to go home and look in the mirror, Craig, and I want you to look at yourself and say, I spend $35,000 a month on television ads. Say that to yourself in the mirror over and over. Remember you told me that, Randy?

Randy Smith
0:16:37
Meanwhile, he's losing 20 patients a month at 18 months in a day, right? They go inactive. What is each one of those worth? And he's like, 1200, 1500, whatever, 2000. I'm like, great, so call two on the way to work in the morning, call two on the way home. If you can capture two, you make $2,500 a day on your freaking commute. And Craig goes, Randy, you don't understand, doctors don't call patients. And I know they're patients, but they also pay money.

Peter Boulden
0:17:04
I call those patients, but yes, that's an example, they won't call. They won't call for the post-operative appointment. Hey, Randy, just making sure your appointment was comfortable today. Give me a call if there's any problem. That's the single, we talk about this all the time, the single greatest hack to your dental practice is a post-operative call.

Randy Smith
0:17:19
In the meeting last week, I asked all the dentists, I kind of talked about that one because it's one of my favorite dental stories. And I have a history in the dental business, Peter, I don't know if you know, but I was the CEO of DentalVibe when we designed the product back in 2008 and nine. And I was actually, oh yeah, I was, I was,

Randy Smith
0:17:35
I had a one thing.

Peter Boulden
0:17:36
Yeah, when you give an injection, it vibrates. The problem with that business model is all the doctors think their shots are perfect. So I told Randy, I'm like, you're going to have a hard time convincing doctors that their shots aren't great. So like I was telling Randy, like on a call yesterday, I'm like, you know what the difference between a minor and a major dental procedure is? Minor is when it's happening to them, major is when it's happening to you. So they don't give a shit.

Randy Smith
0:18:05
You know, but Peter, the reason I told you that, and I forgot to tell you before, is that I had four years, I still owned my company and my real estate business, but I was kind of building this dental practice that was like a venture deal for me. And then because I'm an operator, I ended up getting involved in being the operator, you know, for about two or three years there. So I went to the dental conferences, we had booths, I talked to hundreds of dentists from all over the world. So I did learn a little bit about the ecosystem. So when Craig says that I was helpful for him in his dental career, I also saw a little bit of the other side of the curtain of the dental business back down. So I did have a little bit of dental history.

Randy Smith
0:18:41
I gotta say something else to you.

Randy Smith
0:18:42
You say something every day.

Randy Smith
0:18:43
Yes, I gotta say something else to you guys. You know, I told people, a lot of people came up to me and say, what's Craig really like? What's Peter really like? And I'm like, they're like, just like what you see on stage. But what I wanna tell you guys is, I have a lot of exposure to you guys, and I know you guys run great businesses, but when I saw you guys on stage, and I sat in the back of the room for several hours and watched you guys present, and watch you guys get into the weeds with the different tables, which was each a dentist with the chief staff and the scheduler and the head hygienist, whatever. And I saw you get into the weeds and answer questions. You guys really have, you guys have been there, done that scene at all, but you also know how to communicate to people. You know, a lot of people could read what I teach and what you teach in a book, but they need a live action model to show them that it's possible. And you guys did a phenomenal job with that. Craig said to me on a follow-up call the other day, maybe we should get this great speaker, and I forget who we were talking about. Maybe it was Tony Robbins or whatever. And I go, Craig, you don't need Tony Robbins. Peter, you are delivering that message at that level of energy in a way that makes sense. So I was super proud of you guys in that conference.

Peter Boulden
0:19:54
Well, Craig, let me say something about that. That is something, honestly, when we get down there and are able to kind of ask questions and problem solve and ideate with people. I think that's where we are in flow, Craig and I,

Peter Boulden
0:20:06
because right now-

Craig Spodak
0:20:07
Oh, I love that stuff.

Peter Boulden
0:20:08
We didn't have enough time to do that because we had all those guest speakers, which took up a lot of the time.

Randy Smith
0:20:13
And yes, Randy, it comes from experience of our own ass kicking, which we always say, but also Craig and I bring, as you know us now, we bring totally different viewpoints a lot of times to things and totally different solutions. And sometimes I'll be like yep that's actually superior like solution that he came up with and I'll shut my mouth and not give it give an option because like I'm actually sitting there learning from him as we're live on

Peter Boulden
0:20:35
the you know live kind of kind of solving there and it's just well we're just very different people Peter and that's I think what the traction is is because Peter has a he's an incredibly bright human being and unlike you and me Randy I mean Randy and I from a profile standpoint, a strength finder standpoint, we are exactly the same human being. The only difference, our dots are all in the same place, highly extrovert, want to win, you know, fast paced, you know, you're a little bit more detailed than I am, but the big difference, the Achilles heel for our relationship is that Randy is in his head and I'm in my heart. So what Randy will see, remember that famous story, I'm sure we've told it a million times, Randy had a business partner that he was trying to dissolve and exit from. And Randy was tortured on how to get through this process of valuation, how to buy him out. And I just said, Randy, the way you're telling me the story, this guy just needs to feel appreciated. You're talking numbers. And this is what he's really saying is this. And it was hard. And Randy finally was like, maybe you're right. And he went and called him and he said, you know, I value you, I appreciate you. Thank you for giving me the start in the business. Money's not the real question here. Like, let's just, I just want to know that I'm thankful for you putting the seed money in here. And then the whole crisis went away. And the point of that story is that we have, we tend to solve problems from our own bias. And Peter's, you're so smart and you're so good at the steps. And then sometimes there's just an emotional issue buried in there and that's my superpower. And the combination, sometimes I'm totally wrong. I'll be going on stage or going with an, like what we call an intervention in a live audience and I'm totally wrong. But sometimes it's just cool to have that balance and that different approach. I think that's the magic of what we do. If you really distill it down.

Randy Smith
0:22:23
And Craig, and two heads are better than one and three heads are better than two. And that's why this, you know, one of my steps in my Randy's top 20 is peer-to-peer learning. And I congratulate everybody in the room, my breakout, that you're here because you recognize that you want to come in as a group and learn as a team and get educated. And some of these people are going to build a relationship, break off, make friends, help each other, that sort of thing. You know, Napoleon Hill in his book, One of the Laws of Success, which is a book I highly recommend. It's really hard to read. It was written in the early 1900s. But he talks about the mastermind. And I thought it was funny when you guys named your group the mastermind, because I thought you guys read Napoleon Hill and kind of based it off that. But I realized that it was a common, you know, term used these days. But the truth is when you put heads together, like Henry Ford claims it was him and his engineers that built the company and his ability to lead and motivate them, not his prowess in large-scale manufacturing. Thomas Edison said he couldn't have built the light bulb without the team, right? So we look at these people like they're individual masters, but in reality, they all on a team because they all understood the value of putting two, three, four heads together or 20. So I applaud you guys for what you do at the conference level and what you do at the mastermind level and then the individual help you guys give even with this podcast throughout the year. You guys are really doing a great job for your industry.

Randy Smith
0:23:54
Thank you, Randy. You know kind of how that the whole mastermind was born. Like we didn't set out asking you this as being a thing. at the thing is that we got, we wanted to jam pack as much in these conferences, the summits as possible, Randy, but almost like it was almost so much information that people got paralyzed when they got home. And so many of us are not good implementers or we don't have someone that can help implement. And so we just determined that like, look, there's so much content, right? Going through the pathway, you can't, you can't master the Bulletproof pathway in a weekend. I'm just, you can't. And so that's where it was kind of born from is right, like finding people who wanted to go next level and us being able to spend months on a certain topic to kind of create mastery on their deploy, create some accountability, talk about it, listen to your peers, what they're struggling going through. That's why people, you know, you heard it over and over again and Randy, I don't know if there, but people with getting up and talking about it in terms of how it transformed their life more than they thought. Because they were looking back where they were 12 months ago or 24 months ago. We have a lot of people who go through it for two years because the first year is, okay, I'm going to master it, I'm going to master it. And they get exposure to it, Randy. And it's like, wow, it's still a lot. And then the second year, they get to actually kind of feel like they've kind of created that mastery because they had awareness the first year, kind of beta tested some things, and then now it's like this fine tuning of these levers. And the swagger that I've seen from people from year two is unbelievable, almost to the point where I'm like, wow.

Randy Smith
0:25:24
Who is this person?

Peter Boulden
0:25:25
Let me sit down and listen to you now.

Craig Spodak
0:25:29
You know?

Randy Smith
0:25:31
Peter, I read a lot of books, right? I devour them, and I read business books, and I read, you know, I'm not a fiction guy, I'm a nonfiction guy. And when I read a book and it's good and I got a great message out of it, whether it's about interpersonal skills and dealing with people or business or finance or whatever. If I read a good book, I literally finish the book and I turn it over and I read it again. And the reason I do that is because you can read a book and not know a book, right? When you read a book that's transformational, like Rich Dad, Poor Dad, or Napoleon Hill, you know-

Randy Smith
0:26:07
Or Psychology of Money.

Randy Smith
0:26:08
Or Psychology of Money, that's my favorite. If you read one of those books-

Peter Boulden
0:26:11
High five.

Randy Smith
0:26:12
You turn it over and read it again, and you'll find how much more you got the second time. So when you told me you had people joining the Mastermind for a second year, that to me is what it is. They're gonna get way more the second year. Even if they broke it up in between, you know, like did a year, did a year on their own and then did it again as a refresher, it'll be like a whole new course the second time.

Peter Boulden
0:26:33
Look at Dr. Mimi, first year 700, working in two different practices, you know, driving around as an associate from one and moving to another one and then first year 700, 800, second year, a million and a half, third year, 3 million. So one of the traps I think for masterminds is, as human beings, we like to be surrounded with like-minded people. And in order to get alpha, in order to get some sort of change in your life, you have to hang around with people who are further ahead in certain domains than you are. So I was talking to another person yesterday, and she's in a female mastermind. She was like, how was the conference? Blah, blah, blah, I couldn't go, my female mastermind. I said, that's awesome, good for you. What, tell me the dynamic of the group. We're all like-minded dentists, you know, we all have this. I'm like, are there any entrepreneurial dentists? She said, yes. I said, can you describe what you mean by an entrepreneurial dentist? You know, just a business person. I'm like, I'm like, let me rephrase the question. Are there any female dentists in there that have grown businesses that do not rely upon their own dental production to make the operation work? The answer was no. So there's entrepreneurs, you know, I'm using air quotes for those not listening, but I don't know what that means. Because if your business needs you to be there to operate, it is not a business. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh. Randy, would you agree? Like if a business cannot run without you, what do you call that thing?

Randy Smith
0:27:54
Yeah, so I agree, but the caveat to what you just said though is somebody's got to build it. Somebody's got to- No, understood. Understood…. for 10 years and bang their head against the wall every day, figure out problems, build your systems, policies, and procedures. You can't hire yourself out of the work.

Peter Boulden
0:28:13
Right. You can't just go two years and hire a CEO and she takes your place.

Craig Spodak
0:28:17
Yeah.

Peter Boulden
0:28:18
There's 10 years of that.

Randy Smith
0:28:19
It's like entrepreneurs start a company with an idea. They think that they're going to have the idea and then they're going to run around have fun being the CEO and that they're going to hire an ops person to go in and actually build the business. If you look at the greats like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs, yes, they had ideas, but what they were really great at is building companies. Once you get it built, then you have to build your way out of it. Now, I took a long time to do that, Craig. I didn't- I did too.

Peter Boulden
0:28:47
I did too, but it's just valuable to have someone that's gone through that, is all I'm saying.

Randy Smith
0:28:51
Yeah, it took me 30 freaking years.

Craig Spodak
0:28:52
But it took me 20.

Peter Boulden
0:28:53
It took me 20.

Randy Smith
0:28:54
It could be a little alienating what you just said though, Craig. Let me unpack it just because I want to spend a little time on this. Someone hearing that may say, well, that's crazy because I am definitely, you could make someone feel like a failure, potentially, right? I'm necessary and I'm putting the things. And I would say that it's not that you're trying to fully extricate yourself from your business. What it is means is that when you are there and present, right, you are augmenting the business. It doesn't mean that it works best when you're gone kind of thing. It means that it's an autonomous organization. Your presence is unnecessary, but it is augmented by you being there because you're creating the vision or you're creating the next steps or you're handling this. But it could run without you if you wanted to go to Europe, right, for three months. Maybe it's not as profitable or as good as when you're there, but at least that's a good

Peter Boulden
0:29:44
first goal as opposed to just total.

Randy Smith
0:29:48
That was also, that was well said. It was a good clarification of.

Peter Boulden
0:29:52
And it's also to just to add, it may not be what you want. The point of my comment was, is that you have, in my opinion, you should have people that are actually doing what you think they're doing. So when she told me there's dentists and entrepreneurs, the word entrepreneur needs clarification because in her mind it's just someone who's running a very great practice. And I think that's fine. I mean look at my dad. He had a great career. He never had anybody else besides a hygienist producing for him. And I think no matter what you want, dentistry can provide that. And I just think there's importance for clarity of the term of business owner and practice owner.

Randy Smith
0:30:33
I'm always beating out of that drum. Entrepreneur just simply means that you didn't jump on someone's corporate thing. It basically means you took the risk, you took the loan, you took the thing, you jumped out there on your own. You took all the risk and successes rely on you kind of thing in the beginning.

Peter Boulden
0:30:47
That makes sense.

Craig Spodak
0:30:48
Ultimately.

Randy Smith
0:30:49
Peter, I have a question. So I'm new to podcasting. Now I know that you have a really big audience. You know, I'm trying to be on my best behavior, but I really need to grab a cup of coffee.

Peter Boulden
0:30:58
Am I allowed to wait? Yeah, this is how it's done. Randy, if you didn't see from our summit, we make fun of each other on stage. We interrupt each other just like the pod, just like your questions people ask.

Randy Smith
0:31:09
I have a really important thing I want to talk to your listeners about in regards to

Randy Smith
0:31:13
tap. Can I come back? And you're going to need some coffee to do that? You're going to need some smart charge?

Peter Boulden
0:31:17
Look at how his virtual background gets all over the place.

Randy Smith
0:31:20
But your virtual background is really a picture of his house.

Peter Boulden
0:31:23
It is. I'm not on that chair many days playing guitar with him. But anyway, you know what's cool about having Randy is he's going to be part of the mastermind.

Craig Spodak
0:31:30
I know.

Peter Boulden
0:31:31
I want him like, you know, I'm having a conversation with a CFO. I'm like, Randy needs to be having that conversation. Like I'm playing my, I'm like channeling my inner Randy

Randy Smith
0:31:39
about like profit and loss. What is that word that I can't pronounce, consigliere, Craig?

Peter Boulden
0:31:43
Is that what it is?

Peter Boulden
0:31:44
That's what I call it, consigliere.

Randy Smith
0:31:46
I think I said that too. So I think just like 80X bucks, I'm gonna claim Randy too, is that cool?

Peter Boulden
0:31:52
Yeah, I mean, listen, you can usurp 17 years of friendship because I think I'm your longest friend, by the way.

Craig Spodak
0:31:57
I'm really proud of that.

Peter Boulden
0:31:58
It's like a house plant staying alive in like a teenager's dorm or a college dorm room.

Craig Spodak
0:32:04
Yeah.

Peter Boulden
0:32:04
You should play a friend game with Survivor. But anyway, Randy is the guy that when the shit hit the fan in 2012 for me, and I was building my building, I got scared shitless that I called up Acme DSO and got an offer from them. And Randy was the one that sat down with the deal and reviewed it all and wrote me this most beautiful email. I'm going to send it to you, Peter. But the subject of the email was like, you know, or the basic premise of the email is like, look, Dennis and doctors are who we want our daughters to marry. Dennis, never go out of business. And he wrote this thing. I want you to charge on like an entrepreneurial wrecking ball. And I want you to enroll patients, scale up, fill the chairs. It was the most beautiful email ever. And it was when I read that email, I called Acme, I said, not today. And I went back to work and it was literally, Randy, I'm talking about that email you sent me back in 2012, charge on like an entrepreneur wrecking ball.

Randy Smith
0:33:04
You thought you were a doctor and I called you an entrepreneur and I just told you to act like one. I like that you like that email and I like that you never forget it. And just so you know, you send it to me every year and I read the whole thing every time. Man, am I verbose.

Craig Spodak
0:33:18
And the final thing was he's like,

Peter Boulden
0:33:19
that and $1.75 will get you a latte at Starbucks. So the only difference that the letter's not appropriate anymore or dated is it's now $7 for that latte.

Randy Smith
0:33:29
I told all your group in my breakout the other day, you know, I'm like, hey, I'm not a professional speaker and I'm just doing this for fun. I said, everything I'm about to tell you in $3 will buy you a grande coffee at Starbucks. So…

Peter Boulden
0:33:43
You have to update that, by the way. Yeah. I think it is like $7 now.

Randy Smith
0:33:46
Yeah. So, Peter, just want to jump in really quick and you know I'm on a time frame because I have a Zoom call with a couple of senators. Isn't that sound cool?

Peter Boulden
0:33:54
Oh my God, what a flex.

Randy Smith
0:33:57
That was such a flex.

Peter Boulden
0:33:59
Hold on one second, Oprah Winfrey's calling me. Real quick, I'll call you right back. I'm doing a pod. Okay, go ahead, Randy.

Craig Spodak
0:34:05
Put Obama on hold.

Peter Boulden
0:34:06
Put him on hold.

Randy Smith
0:34:08
So anyway, I'm a member of No Labels, as I've told you guys, and we have a kind of important call this morning that I'm gonna jump for in a minute. But anyway, so here's the thing about tax, right? Tax is something that people think is not negotiable, right? And it's certainly not, you can't cheat, but it's highly negotiable. And most people don't put enough time into tax. So one of the interesting things I found in my breakout, when I asked everybody, raise your hand if you have a tax strategy, no hand goes up, all right? Think about that. You're all business owners, your biggest expense in your life is tax, and nobody has a tax strategy. Then I asked how many people had read their tax return. And I said, and I mean every page, even the schedules where it's like a whole page with 60 lines and on line 32, there's a minus $11. Like highlight that and ask yours, prepare what is that, right? Why is that on my tax return? Only two people in the room had read their tax return. So then I gave people this magic information. Most of your people are gonna be somewhere between a 25 and 37 percent tax bracket. So let's just say 33 percent, okay? So that means a third of every dollar that they earn in profit gets paid to the U.S. government, 33 percent. And the tax code is 6,000 pages, and only 30 tell you what you owe, and 5,970 are government incentive programs, even though on the TV they'll call them loopholes, they're government incentive programs to incent behavior. And by doing those behaviors, they help you reduce your tax bill. So everybody got that, like got it, okay. So it's not, we're not cheating or whatever. And so then I went through some steps on how to reduce taxes. And then I told everybody, when you look at your adjusted gross income on the first page of your 1040, that's your AGI, right? That number, if you can make it go down $1, $1, if you can make it go from 500 grand in profit to 499,999, if you save $1, you save 33 cents in tax. Now, where do you guys make 33% profit? I don't make 33% profit on anything, but if I can lower my income 100 grand, I get paid $33,000 through less tax to the government. If I can lower my income a million dollars, which I've done before, I can save $333,000 legally. I can reinvest that money in my business. And the funny thing is, carry it out to the nth degree. When you guys say your mastermind, whatever the price is, what's the price, Peter?

Randy Smith
0:36:45
35,000.

Randy Smith
0:36:46
Yeah, so 35,000 at 33% means it's really $23,500.

Craig Spodak
0:36:51
Okay?

Peter Boulden
0:36:52
By the way, the average dentist grows their top line by 33% through the mastermind. So a million dollar practice grows by $333,000. Yeah. So you're spending $23,000 to graze it.

Randy Smith
0:37:05
So, you know, tax planning isn't done in December. Tax planning is done January 1st.

Peter Boulden
0:37:12
Well, it depends on who you are, because that's the way I'm doing it, Randy.

Randy Smith
0:37:14
The insurance planning should be done January 1st, and it should be all year, and it should drive most of your decision-making, because it is your biggest opportunity and your biggest expense. I'd like to drop the mic on that, because that's something we're going to dive into next year.

Randy Smith
0:37:29
I'm excited. I'm excited. I know you've got… Are you dropping the mic, because you have to go too, Randy?

Randy Smith
0:37:34
I have three more minutes, Peter.

Randy Smith
0:37:35
Okay. Well, look, when you said that you…

Peter Boulden
0:37:37
Can I take up 60 seconds with this? Because I think every dentist should hear this email that you wrote me in 2013. I want everyone to hear this because I think it's powerful.

Randy Smith
0:37:46
Is this…

Craig Spodak
0:37:47
No, March 29th, 2013.

Peter Boulden
0:37:49
Every dentist should hear this.

Craig Spodak
0:37:50
Okay.

Peter Boulden
0:37:50
It's all woo-woo. Is my connection crappy again?

Randy Smith
0:37:53
You're good.

8
0:37:53
You're good.

Peter Boulden
0:37:54
Go.

Craig Spodak
0:37:54
Okay.

Peter Boulden
0:37:54
Well, Randy, you read it because I sent it to your inbox. No, you can go. You sound fine. Go ahead. Randy, you read it. Go, Craig. Okay, got it. Doctors don't go broke. I'm going. Doctors don't go broke. Doctors don't fail. Doctors can forge ahead with immunity. Everyone knows that a doctor always has customers. Everyone knows that if a doctor can't pay his bills today, he will be able to down the road. Doctors are the only profession that can get out of school and buy the million dollar house up front with a big mortgage because there's no questioning their ability to pay. Doctors are who we want our daughters to marry. Doctors are who we want to rent in our buildings. Doctors are who we want to borrow money from, or borrow money. Forge ahead like an entrepreneurial wrecking ball. Sign up doctors, sign up patients, build your building, fuck anybody who questions you. Those are just my thoughts. That and $2.12 will get you a grande coffee at Starbucks.

Craig Spodak
0:38:57
Randy.

Randy Smith
0:38:58
That is awesome. I love the pithiness of it, by the way. Right to the point and you just, you land it. You land the plane quickly and that's great.

Randy Smith
0:39:06
You know what he did, Peter? He signed the loan, he borrowed, I don't know, like $5 million, $7 million, whatever. He built that building and I'm sitting there going, God, I hope he didn't do this based on my email.

Randy Smith
0:39:15
Yeah, right.

Randy Smith
0:39:16
And he had troubles, right? He had doctors coming and going and I mean, it was drama for a while. But man, when he got that thing going and it spooled up, he started making money with the happiest team and the happiest patients. I am a patient of Craig's office for anybody who doesn't know. And it is a magical experience. I love going to the dentist, and most of your customers look for a reason to cancel. I look for a reason to make an appointment because of the experience I get there.

Randy Smith
0:39:47
Well, that's where Craig and I, you know, not knowing each other since 2016, Randy, when we got together and compared notes, our journey to get to where we were was quite different. Our ecosystems looked quite different, but the thing that we had commonalities on is that we were obsessed with the patient experience, right? From soup to nuts, from when it began online and our marketing, the patient experience and the friction of them scheduling, all the things. It was entire thing, the referral process, all of the things that we just talked about at Summit, right, the steps. And that's still, like he gets ideas from me where we're continuing to tweak that thing. Like, oh, put this card on the patient's table during COVID, let them know that it's been sterilized just for them kind of thing. Like, so we get to keep upping our game because of each other. Right. And that's really, that's really cool. It's really cool. I know you've got to go, Randy. Craig, I think that we should wrap. It's about 43 minutes. I'm not sure. Do you want to say anything else on that as a final, as a final close for kind of, this is our wrap up, our summit wrap up and things. Do you have anything else to say?

Peter Boulden
0:40:47
Well, how do people, how do people get into the mastermind? I don't even think it's asking legitimately because people were asking me.

Randy Smith
0:40:53
I'm not, yeah, we'll have to verify. Okay, I'll just answer the question. It's bulletproofmastermind.com. And I think there's fully commitment for this year, but you and I are low detail, so we don't know, but Lacey's on the back end of that Bulletproof Summit website, and she will

Peter Boulden
0:41:10
be able to tell someone whether or not this year is fully… Yeah, I think there's a couple spots.

Randy Smith
0:41:16
I think there's a couple spots actually. If somebody wants to join, don't keep them out or don't force them to next year. Find a way to get it.

Randy Smith
0:41:22
Okay, all right, fair enough. You heard it from Uncle Randy.

Randy Smith
0:41:26
You've motivated somebody to make that decision. Don't put it off, find a way.

Randy Smith
0:41:31
Okay, fair enough. Randy, good luck with your senators, right?

Randy Smith
0:41:35
Thank you guys.

Randy Smith
0:41:36
Power to the people.

Randy Smith
0:41:38
Granddaughters, so I'm kind of like large focused on government and the future of this country right now. God bless you.

Randy Smith
0:41:46
Godspeed on that one, buddy.

Randy Smith
0:41:47
Thanks.

Peter Boulden
0:41:48
Okay, guys.

Randy Smith
0:41:49
Over and out. Another episode of the Bulletproof Dental Pod. Randy, thanks for showing up. I always enjoy talking to you guys. Okay. See you guys.

Randy Smith
0:41:55
Bye. Bye.

Randy Smith
0:41:56
Thanks, guys.

Transcribed with Cockatoo