The Getting is in the Giving with Dr. Mark Costes

The following transcription was from the Bulletproof Youtube channel. Here is the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktg8CjfZyP4

Craig Spodak
0:00:00
Hey everybody and welcome back to another episode of the Bulletproof Dental Practice Podcast. Well, he's kind of a celebrity. He's my celebrity, at least anyway. He uh, today we are with the one and only, the dentalpreneur, the Mark Kossas. The Dr. Mark Kossas. I gotta tell you a little story about Mark too.

Peter Boulden
0:00:18
Thanks, yes. I don't know if you knew this about Mark, but I used to, I remember Mark helped me before I even had a podcast, he and I being friends, and I think Mark, you spent some time helping me analyze a practice acquisition. I don't know if you remember that back in 2016. Probably don't even remember. You helped me kind of go through it and say like, yeah, it's a good deal, bad deal. It ended up being a great deal. I still have it, by the way. Thank you very much. But, you know, it was never lost on me how you kind of just helped me through that for not for not wanting anything. You're just a good guy and good for dentistry. And obviously you pump out a tremendous, tremendous amount of content. It's almost like, you know, Craig and I just sit there with FOMO, like how does this guy pop out so much content from a podcast? But anyway, long time coming. We're glad all three of us are together because we are friends outside of podcasting. We are friends in the space of dentistry because we all are very passionate about it, but we're just glad to connect with you, buddy.

Craig Spodak
0:01:07
It's hard to align our calendars, but we're glad to be here.

Mark Costes
0:01:09
Well, thank you guys so much for having me, shit. I'm really, really honored to be here. And I do remember that, Peter. I don't remember what the advice was. I remember sitting down with some papers and going through some stuff. But yeah, man, you guys have just blown up. You're kicking ass. You're killing it.

Craig Spodak
0:01:29
Killing it. I'm riding with you two good stuff.

Craig Spodak
0:01:32
That's right.

Peter Boulden
0:01:33
That's what Mel tells me.

Peter Boulden
0:01:34
They're getting heavy, because you're a big boy. They're getting heavy.

Mark Costes
0:01:38
I'll ride both of your coattails if you allow me to.

Peter Boulden
0:01:41
There's nothing wrong with riding coattails. That's for sure.

Craig Spodak
0:01:45
All of us got here. Hey, it works for me.

Mark Costes
0:01:48
Coattails, that's right. And for those of you, for you, Craig, a coat is something that you put on in cold weather.

Craig Spodak
0:01:55
Yes, I've heard of this. By cold, you mean 72 and below, 72 degrees? That's right.

Mark Costes
0:02:00
So, like, imagine you wake up, it's a blustering 70 degrees.

Craig Spodak
0:02:02
Oh God, this is.

Mark Costes
0:02:03
You go into your closet, if you lived somewhere like San Diego, instead of, you know, where you live in Florida, and you put on this thing, it's like, it's an over garment.

Craig Spodak
0:02:15
Is it like a shirt, but heavier?

Mark Costes
0:02:16
Is that kind of? Exactly, and it's a little bit bigger, so it goes over what you're currently wearing. And it keeps you warm.

Craig Spodak
0:02:21
So you don't take off your shirt, you actually put layers of clothing on?

Mark Costes
0:02:24
That's correct.

Mark Costes
0:02:25
That's wild, I've never heard of that.

Mark Costes
0:02:26
And some of the old ones, some of the old ones had tails off the back of them, like back in old England. Like a penguin. Exactly. So you can imagine then, riding your coat tails would mean that Peter and I, from colder climates, would be wearing one of these with these long tails and you would just hop on. That's the way I like to. And take a ride.

Craig Spodak
0:02:47
I'm 205 pounds and 6 foot 5, so in my mind, I step on those… Bullshit what? 205?

Craig Spodak
0:02:53
I think I'd go up from there, little buddy.

Craig Spodak
0:02:56
Now I'm 205 pounds. You think I'm heavier or lighter? Yeah, you seem much bigger than that. Look at this.

Peter Boulden
0:03:02
No, I didn't say muscular.

Mark Costes
0:03:03
I didn't say muscular.

Peter Boulden
0:03:04
He just sucked it in big time there, by the way.

Craig Spodak
0:03:07
You know I did.

Craig Spodak
0:03:08
I mean, we're at like a million or something downloads, aren't we? I mean, I never really get in the way of a good story, but you know.

Craig Spodak
0:03:14
This is important.

Craig Spodak
0:03:15
But I think what I'm trying to say.

Peter Boulden
0:03:16
If we're at a million, Mark's at 10 million.

Mark Costes
0:03:18
I'm at six, I just crossed six.

Peter Boulden
0:03:19
Are you, really?

Mark Costes
0:03:20
Yeah, yeah, 1,440 episodes.

Peter Boulden
0:03:23
So I do have a question. I know we probably, this is a side conversation, but how do you think, how do you curate

Craig Spodak
0:03:28
or ideate so much content to do it daily?

Mark Costes
0:03:31
Yeah, so like, we have these weird bursts. Like today, this particular day, which is a Wednesday, I have six podcast interviews. Some are on other people's shows, some are on my shows, but that literally happens like once every two months. And then the rest of them-

Craig Spodak
0:03:48
Craig, how unimportant did you just feel just right there? We are one of six, how unimportant? I feel a sixth as important as I did a minute ago.

Peter Boulden
0:03:56
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Craig Spodak
0:03:57
One sixth, but I felt pretty important before, so being that I was only depleted by what, 12 and a half days?

Craig Spodak
0:04:03
We interrupted you, Mark. Go ahead.

Craig Spodak
0:04:05
Sorry.

Mark Costes
0:04:06
So, you know, there's traditional interviews, and then there's, I have the privilege of speaking a lot, either to our own small group, where maybe four or five times a year, I'm doing three or four hour, you know, unique content lectures, so we chop that stuff up. And if I talk on, you know, somebody else's stage. We always negotiate the fact that I own all of my own IP and all of my own content. So they'll give me that and I can chop that up. And so, yeah, I mean, there's lots of different ways to repurpose content. You can repurpose it to YouTube, you can repurpose it to socials, and you can take your live stuff and turn it into podcast.

Peter Boulden
0:04:45
Where do you feel like people's attention is? Where do you feel like the sweet spot is for, maybe you as a consumer first, when Mark looks at his own podcast thing, what do you feel like when you look at like, oh, that's a cool new, you know, Patrick, Bet David download or whatever. And you say it's like three hours long. You're like, ooh, like, where do you feel like there's the inflection point for somebody like, heck yes, I'm listening first.

Craig Spodak
0:05:03
I'll do it later from a timeline, from a time length.

Mark Costes
0:05:08
It's interesting because you know, the Joe Rogan long form content feels like his dad, you know, Patrick, Bet David and those kinds of guys, And I think that's a really important thing to remember. And I think that's a really important thing to remember. And I think that's a really important thing to remember. And I think that's a really important thing to remember. And I think that's a really important thing to remember. And I think that's a really important thing to remember. And I think that's a really important thing to remember. And I think that's a really important thing to remember. And I think that's a really important thing to remember. And I think that's a really important thing to remember. And I think that's a really important thing to remember. And I think that's a really important thing to remember. And I think that's a really important thing to remember. And I think that's a really important thing to remember. know the whole length of mine but you get credit for the first five minutes if I'm listening to Joe Rogan podcast I'm listening to the chopped up version of it and I like to get the headlines yeah the clips the Jerry clips that's right and you know and on rare occasion like the Jamie Foxx one I'll listen to that all the way through and I love every minute of it but for the most part who's people have very, very little attention spans. Yeah, TikTok is 10 second videos

Peter Boulden
0:06:07
and people are like, oh, can't get through that. It's kind of training us. And not just so much as dentists being the consumer of the podcast, but also consumers being that of what you pump out for your dental practices, right? Like I've almost shifted the way you've got a couple of very microseconds to get someone's attention to get them to become a patient of your practices as well. So I think marketing, I think attention is just becoming the rarer and rarer commodity, whether, whether that's marketing for your practices or getting people to listen to your podcast or whatever it is, it's still attention, right?

Peter Boulden
0:06:38
It is true.

Mark Costes
0:06:38
People love the story though, still. I mean, I think it really depends on what you're selling. You know, if you're selling a $50,000 product, people want to hear the story. They want to believe in you as the founder and and I think people will take more time To sift through that stuff if they're a true fan and they're serious a serious potential customer, you know the Dan Kennedy style 13 page minimum sales letter and They don't tell you what the price is until the very end and you're like scrolling through like what? Give me to the end of this right and I think that's over unless you're a Dan Kennedy zealot. I mean, I still think that there's a place for it. Interesting. Interesting. So, Craig, any comments on that, Craig, before?

Peter Boulden
0:07:22
No, no. My ADD kicked off. I stopped listening to you guys.

Craig Spodak
0:07:26
I'm kidding. I'm kidding. No, I'm kidding. No, I mean, listen, for me, it's hard for me to allocate the brainpower to one of the Joe Rogan podcasts, even though I really find long form conversation really interesting, I'm lucky enough to just, you know, have a lot of those conversations with friends. I talk to friends a lot. So a conversation is just something you can get hooked into like to your point, Mark, we're wired to listen to story. That's why we can sit, even though we're all ADD now and phone and with their phones and Tik TOK, we still can sit down in a movie for two hours and totally forget about our life. We get immersed in the formula of a story. So I agree, and I do think there's something very engaging to just listen to people that you respect or value their opinion, just go through their fodder and their conversation is just, I think it's something that never gets old. Hopefully we're doing that right now for people. But also I have asked the listeners, if you've listened to the entire thing, please write in the chat, and they do. And so they do. Because I always say, like, we got to wrap.

Peter Boulden
0:08:26
Yeah, I get so frenetic about, like, taking too much time from someone.

Craig Spodak
0:08:30
I'm like, no, Peter bullshit. People are still listening to this. Do me a favor. If you're actually listen to the end, write the word and with an exclamation point if you thought it was good and you listen to the end. And sure enough, in the comments, it's like end, end, end.

Peter Boulden
0:08:41
Now, yeah, I need me.

Mark Costes
0:08:42
I need me more bulletproof.

Mark Costes
0:08:44
That's right.

Craig Spodak
0:08:44
No, I got every second.

Craig Spodak
0:08:46
Sumit.

Peter Boulden
0:08:46
All right, Mark. So if someone is listening, let's just say on the off chance that there's a bulletproof listener

Craig Spodak
0:08:52
that doesn't know who Mark Costas is.

Craig Spodak
0:08:54
And Paul, would you?

Mark Costes
0:08:55
This is a very, very strong likelihood of that.

Peter Boulden
0:08:57
I would say there's a less than 1%. It's a non-zero, but it's less than 1%. What would you describe kind of your ecosystem? Obviously, it's comprised of Dental Success Institute, right, primarily, and everything kind of falls into that. But in a couple, succinctly,

Mark Costes
0:09:11
what would you say your ecosystem is kind of comprised of? I think that the biggest audience is the Dentalpreneur podcast audience. God, it's crazy, guys. I don't know what's going on with Libsyn, and I don't know if it's broken. Every time we pull up a Libsyn kind of scorecard thing, I don't like to watch it from day to day, even week to week, but every once in a while, we pull it up and it's like, what in the hell, where are these people? Like, this is crazy. Are there bots?

Mark Costes
0:09:42
You know, lately.

Peter Boulden
0:09:43
Like listening bots?

Mark Costes
0:09:44
Yeah, I don't know. I honestly don't know. And I want to catch myself doing something right, but I'm like, I haven't changed anything for the last six years. And today we got 15,000 downloads. I don't get it.

Peter Boulden
0:09:53
So those of you who are listening, Lipsyn is usually what a lot of podcasters use to host the files that then get uploaded to the podcast app for Apple. So it's hosted just like a website's hosted. So you get statistics, like Mark's saying, based on downloads and where they're coming from geographically and regionally and age and stuff like that. So you're saying there's been a massive, Mark, you're saying there's been a massive uptick or just randomized data now?

Mark Costes
0:10:18
Yeah, but it's all over the place, right? So February was normal, and then this month is twice as much as February, like two times. And I'm sure it's going to correct itself again, but the curve, the curve doesn't go up like a smooth hockey stick. It goes up like a jagged hockey stick and then sometimes back down and then back up again. I'm just saying, I haven't changed the formula and I don't know where these guys are coming from. And I want to figure out what the formula is so I can do more of that and less of the anti-formula. But my ecosystem is probably biggest audience is probably the podcast. And then maybe live events and stuff, but the company footprint is, we're almost to 1200 at DSN, which is a different audience because they're not quote unquote consulting clients, like a one-on-one consulting clients for my higher end coaching. That's limited at 200. So we have DSN, which is about almost 1,200 dentists. We have the podcast, which is, I don't know, 10 to 15,000 very loyal listeners that listen pretty much every day, and that just racks up as downloads every single day. And then just the little one offs that the demo schools.

Peter Boulden
0:11:38
So podcast, the DSN network of 1200 dentists, that's a subscription, right? Yeah. Service or a membership, I should say. And then your more intimate feature is your kind of your masterminds. I mean, that's what we call it on our end. So I don't know what you're calling it, but you do have 200 in your coaching program.

Mark Costes
0:11:59
It's capped at 200 or 189 or 186 or something, given the day. Yeah, so this year we will hit our max and then start taking applications only and wait for attrition, kind of like the velvet rope. One leaves, one can come in, depending on the applications and kind of, the Black Belt Coaches helped me sift through that and we actually are in a place now, which is wonderful, where we can actually say, yes or no, guys, thumbs up, thumbs down, will they fit our culture? Because we're looking at this as if it was a dental practice, right? Imagine you have 200 employees in a very small community, one person can screw the whole thing up.

Craig Spodak
0:12:37
Oh, for sure, yeah, you need a good group. So what would you say, do you have a specific target, or is there a specific dentist or dental practice that you help, or do you actually just take in everybody, regardless of their size or their goals? Let me hear a little bit about that.

Mark Costes
0:12:53
Yeah, so you know, they say if you're trying to please everybody, you're pleasing no one. Like the color beige, nobody likes beige. You can call it coffee, some people like coffee, mocha. But you know, if you're trying to please everyone, you please no one. However, we go more on culture and personality fit than we do on size of practice. We have, you know, the occasional dental student even that is like, I bought a practice, I own a practice, I scraped together $50,000 and I bought a practice that's doing $95,000. I need help so badly. I worked it into my loan. Will you take me? There's one or two of those. And then we have, you know, 25 practice groups that are doing $35 million and everything in between that you could possibly imagine. And it's funny when you sit down and you're like, the four-year dental student sits down next to the CEO of XYZ DSO group and they're having lunch together. I'm just like, I bet you, I bet you the DSO owner is getting as much out of talking to this for you, then vice versa. You can always learn dude, always.

Craig Spodak
0:14:05
For sure.

Craig Spodak
0:14:05
For sure.

Craig Spodak
0:14:06
I mean, listen, and the mentorship of the big shot next to the, you know, the startup guy is also good for them. I mean, it's one of the most beautiful things in life that you can't help somebody else without in the process, helping yourself. It does remind me of a funny story, Peter and I at our last mastermind. We have this VIP I'm sorry, the last summit, we have a VIP section, so we have breakfast, lunch with the attendees and a guy comes up, I won't out him completely, his name is Jeffrey. He comes over, he brought like five of his team and he sits down and he says, Craig, you are like one of my favorite people on the planet. And automatically I'm just like, oh shit, this guy's gonna get to know me and realize that he doesn't like me at all. You're up for his huge disappointment. Yeah, I'm like, the first thing out of my mouth is like, you need to meet more impressive people. He's like, no, no, no, seriously, man. I've listened to everything you and Peter said and I've implemented everything you said. And you know, I'm hearing this guy, I don't know what he's about to say is I'm like, so tell me a little about your practice. He's like, yeah, we're a $26 million top line, $6 million EBITDA. And I'm like, damn, like, listen, do me a favor. Let's have a small, quick conversation, but then go talk to somebody else. Cause you meet your hero. You're going to like screw this whole thing up. But it was funny, and he's just a giving human being. He has great reasons for doing it. He unfortunately lost a small child and went through a lot of personal turmoil and really refined his mission to help other people. He's just a total rock star. But it's interesting that we have the capacity to help people who are running faster than we are. And Peter and I always say, even Tiger Woods has a golf coach, and his golf coach can't play like Tiger, but still can add value. So I love putting people all together at all different levels of their cycle of development, because you find the guy who's reached, finger quote, success, and realizes that he's unfulfilled, and can learn fulfillment from the guy who's a startup. So everybody's chasing different things, and I love the camaraderie of masterminds. It's been beautiful for me. So even if there was no business attached to it, it's easily one of the things that's made me most fulfilled is being in a mastermind and helping people. I just love it.

Mark Costes
0:16:12
I love that sentiment. I couldn't agree more as well. It's funny. My advisors are like, hey, dude, like, okay, you need to get a more scalable product, right? So your time talking on the phone, one practice owner at a time is not scalable. You know this, right? You know that they are taking an hour out of a 40 hour week and you're taking 35 hours out of a 40 hour week to talk to other people and that's not scalable. At some point, you're gonna reach the ceiling. If you're gonna get into business, do something that's scalable and that's not one-on-one coaching. However, I will say there's nothing more satisfying and fulfilling than watching people apply any little bit of knowledge that you have or advice that you have and running with it, implementing and exploding. It's the coolest thing ever.

Craig Spodak
0:17:03
It is, and if you spend your life planting seeds to help people, eventually, there's a certain inflection point where you're just kind of giving, giving, giving, and nothing's really returning. And then all of a sudden, like you turn around and there's oak trees everywhere. And I'm at the point in my life, I guess, you know, at the age I am and how many years I've been at it, there's such a rewarding life cycle at this point where everybody I'm meeting people and like, Hey, we had a conversation 10 years ago and it took me on this trajectory and so it's, it's really nice to be in that point and, and you bring up something important. Sometimes the ROI is just fulfillment. And as Peter and I say in our book, it's like the ultimate life's ultimate ROI is your happiness. I know a lot of rich, miserable people and I recognize it's not scalable. We do. And the mastermind that we have currently, we invite these practices into my office for the entire day. So it is like talk about the most nonlinear exchange of value. I have like six people occupy my entire day. And I had one on Monday, ACBO is here. And it's just awesome. I know it's just really bad for my productivity because I'm with these people. It's like an entire day of me being on stage. But I love it. And sometimes- That's incredible.

Mark Costes
0:18:17
That's incredibly generous. It's funny, if it's your calling, you don't care about the financial return. It actually is, it doesn't return a dollar per hour that you put into it, and I don't care. But, you know, our mastermind is run by people that have actually quote unquote graduated through there. Our black belt coaches are all people that have earned their black belt through our organization, and that means 50% overhead as far as our assessment scores in leadership, cultural assessment, systemization, they check all those off, maintain that for six months, they get an invitation if they're willing to become a Black Belt coach. And if they get unanimously voted into the fold, then they get their stripes and they're allowed to become a Black Belt coach. For the incredible, incredible compensation of $0 to help other people, you know, by, you know, getting on a call for a half hour, you know, 12 times a week with other community members, that is their payback. And they don't need to do this. These are all multi-millionaires. These are the tip of the spear, the top 0.1% of the entire profession, and they're volunteering. They're actually competing for these spots just to be able to give back. It's incredible.

Craig Spodak
0:19:38
And it's a good idea for them. It's a good idea for them. You want to be happy, you know, dedicate your life to helping other people. The getting is in the giving. I fully agree with that.

Peter Boulden
0:19:46
Okay, stop what you're doing.

Peter Boulden
0:19:48
The Bulletproof Summit is coming at you June 3rd and 4th at the Grand Hyatt in Nashville. The Grand Hyatt is located in the Gulch, which as most of you know, is the best area of NashVegas. So we'll be featuring new, never done before Bulletproof tracks for doctors, team, and hygienists. There's going to be some VIP tickets available, but book by May 2nd and you can receive some group discounts for your team. Prices will also go up for the last 50 tickets. Tickets are already half gone for this event and it will sell out like all previous years. This is the biggest no-brainer in dentistry. If you want to elevate yourself, your team, and your practice, check it out. Bulletproofsummit.com. See you there.

Craig Spodak
0:20:32
So let me ask you, let me just kind of shift gears for a second if you don't mind, Mark. Are you still a practice owner? Do you still own your practices?

Mark Costes
0:20:39
I own four practices. I've owned 16, so I'm down to four and I can either confirm nor deny that they might be off my plate within 12 to 24 months, we'll see. But I have, I've done it all in practice ownership. Not as far as quote unquote success, but I mean I think I've seen what I need to see and I've experienced what I need to experience. I still love clinical dentistry, but I'm scratching my itch with clinical dentistry by teaching at the Colorado Surgical Institute. I'm teaching all in X and implant placement and stuff like that.

Craig Spodak
0:21:14
No way.

Peter Boulden
0:21:15
Yeah, so.

Craig Spodak
0:21:16
I didn't know you're an implant. You place implants? I do.

Mark Costes
0:21:20
And I teach it, but that scratches the itch for me.

Craig Spodak
0:21:24
Right, good for you. That's awesome.

Mark Costes
0:21:26
So I don't feel like I need to practice for another 25 years. I could, but I don't have to in the traditional sense. But I still love all of my people. I have over 50 employees just for the dental practices and the other companies are a different story, but I still love them. I love my patients, but it might be time to turn the page. I'm not sure, I haven't decided yet.

Craig Spodak
0:21:49
What's governing that decision, if you don't mind me asking?

Mark Costes
0:21:52
I think that when I know, I'll know. But if you guys know, if you're wishy-washy like that, one bad day or one letter from the board away or one unreasonable patient away from making kind of a rash decision. So yeah, I don't have a good answer for that.

Peter Boulden
0:22:14
I want to go, Mark, to where, you know, obviously you've been a coach to so many and you've been able to see the data from so many practices. Craig and I, you know, on a lesser scale, what we see the impact, you know, we talk about the masterminds, you have your 200 or 189, but you get to see recurring data, right? And therefore it identifies trends. What do you see as being like, what do I say, like the biggest aha moment

Peter Boulden
0:22:38
for someone when they become,

Craig Spodak
0:22:40
when they get integrated into your program

Peter Boulden
0:22:42
and all of a sudden like the lights just come on, is it a certain thing for them, for the dentist, that all of a sudden says, holy shit, it's like no more barriers, and I didn't know that was possible. And like Craig always says, we always set our thermostats for where we think we're supposed to be comfortable. And it's like, oh wait, I'm doing a little too well, something's gonna go wrong, I better cool it down.

Mark Costes
0:23:06
And that's all subconscious.

Peter Boulden
0:23:08
It's all subconscious too.

Peter Boulden
0:23:10
So where would you see, where do you see, and I know that's a very vague question, but you know what I'm talking about. Like you saw, you see someone who's kind of been mediocre for the past three years and all of a sudden, they're just like 30% that, you know, under your guidance. And it's like, and you didn't really do much. You didn't give a magic pill that said, hey, do this YouTube hack and you will be 30% better. It's just like, you know what I'm trying to say? I'm kind of rambling with this question.

Peter Boulden
0:23:35
Okay.

Mark Costes
0:23:35
No, I do. So we break things down into phases, right? So we have phase one, phase two, phase three, phase four, and it goes like 60% overhead, 55% overhead, 50% overhead, and then 45% overhead. So those are just the numerical phases. Attached with those are assessment scores, the ones that I talked about, leadership, culture, systemization, right? So they come in and they take a battery of assessment scores, assessment tests, and then we have their financial background and we work with their CPAs every month and we do their financial reporting. So we know exactly where their overhead is. So people come in at different levels. You'll have somebody that comes in as less than a white belt or a phase zero, and they're relatively sophisticated, but maybe they're in like a market that's super competitive or maybe they're just super nice person and they're overpaying all their executive team, but they have everything else except for one or two tweaks that need to take place. And then we have people that come in at black belt level where they're like, I have 48% overhead. And you look at their financial reports and you're like, this guy's got it going on or this gal's got it going on. Everything looks perfect. And then you talk to them and they're like, it's a chaos. Like, our people hate each other. Like, I'm the worst leader ever.

Craig Spodak
0:24:52
And I'm miserable, yeah.

Mark Costes
0:24:53
I'm miserable, I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off. So they need work in different areas. So everybody comes in at a different level, different pain points, different levels of prioritization. And we kind of unroot those and then work on them. But I will say the biggest aha moment typically comes when people show up for their first live event. So we have one coming up in North Carolina on the 29th of April, okay? So there'll be 160 people there. And somebody comes in for the very first time or the fifth time to one of these meetings and they get around these like-minded, super positive, energetic people that is completely 180 degrees from the people that go to the ADA or, you know, the state or regional meeting. Yeah, and they're just like on fire, not just because the people around them are inspirational and they're crushing it with their numbers, but just because of the overall energy and their love for the profession and their desire to see the people sitting around them get better. That's typically when I see the light bulb go on and say, oh, I can be that black belt coach. I could be better and he's going to help me get there.

Craig Spodak
0:26:08
So it's a lot. You see transformations happen when someone's live. And Craig, you always say this too. I think it's a Tony Robbins thing. There's so much power in proximity, right? And so you're getting in that ecosystem of like someone, it just, like you said, Mark, it's the energy that feels good. It's people saying like, hey, there's no limits. Hey, you should try this. And you get excited about your future or your direction or you want to change and you get excited about that. So I love that you just said that. There's so much power in being personal. And look, on the context, too, of us coming off of being on a million Zoom calls for the past two years, right, with COVID, it doesn't, you know, Zoom calls don't move the needle like being in person does. I'm so with you on that, bud. Yeah, I've heard about this COVID being in Florida. We haven't acknowledged it yet, but I've heard about it. What is this COVID? Coats and COVID. But it's true. The immersion is important. And that's why Peter and I like really focus on like our events are always in like really high end places. Like we're at like Tarana and Los Angeles right in the Pacific Ocean, Ranchos Palos Verdes. It was really cool. But I do think that when you go someplace inspirational, like, you know, more luxurious, your mind opens up, you know, some of my best ideas, I can remember the actual physical location I was when I was thinking about that, you know, we all the strategic and tactical brain, and sometimes in order to envision what you want, you have to get out of your tactical mindset, you have to move. Some of your best ideas to come like after class, you know, so to speak, right? Because you've carved out time to invest in yourself. Whereas like if you were home, something, this happens, this comes up, this comes up, but you're carving time for you and your business. And some of the best ideas come post the meeting, if you will, you know, in the evenings. Anyway, Mark, so I feel like we took over there for a second, but-

Mark Costes
0:27:57
No, no, that's great.

Craig Spodak
0:27:57
You're a great guest listener for that moment.

Mark Costes
0:28:01
No, please, I want to listen more.

Mark Costes
0:28:03
Mark, that is a funny story.

Peter Boulden
0:28:04
So we've had a guest on before. We invited him. I was in the scene.

Craig Spodak
0:28:08
Actually, it was Elijah.

Craig Spodak
0:28:10
Way, way, way in the beginning.

Peter Boulden
0:28:12
And all of a sudden, like Craig and I are getting into this banter. And I look down and I'm like thinking to myself, Elijah hasn't said anything in 31 minutes. Because Craig and I have not allowed it. And so we made this joke like,

Craig Spodak
0:28:23
dude, you're the best guest listener we've ever had. It was terrible. It wasn't good.

Peter Boulden
0:28:28
31 minutes isn't bad.

Craig Spodak
0:28:29
It wasn't great, but like Craig and I just kept rambling back and forth and it was like,

Mark Costes
0:28:34
oh, I had a, I had Ben Greenfield on. You guys know Ben Greenfield.

Peter Boulden
0:28:37
I have, we had Ben Greenfield on.

Peter Boulden
0:28:39
We have?

Craig Spodak
0:28:40
Who's that?

Peter Boulden
0:28:41
Refresh my memory. Well, I don't know if you were involved back then, but honestly, it was like my first one and Garrett Gunderson, who's, Mark, you connected me with Garrett long time ago. Oh my God, that was such a sweaty back I had on the podcast. He connected me with Ben. Again, I think it was him because, you know, and Ben's this big biohacker and it's probably the biggest fitness podcast. Oh yeah, he was on there with me. Yeah. He had the light, the red light on him. Ben shows up with a red light behind him and like you couldn't see him other than these like LED light that he was shining on his back. Right. And he's just going crazy into data and statistics. I was like, this is not going to land well in a dental audience, but we'll keep going.

Mark Costes
0:29:17
So I had him on, right? This is so funny and so true. I know exactly what you're talking about. He was on a treadmill the entire time that we were, so he was a little bit out of breath. So it was a brisk walk. And speaking of being a great guest listener, I was a great guest host because I didn't say six words. I asked him one question. I look up and it's 45 minutes later. I'm like, uh-huh. Mm-hmm Yeah, trying to at least inject a little bit of like volume into like to break it up a little bit but man the guy went on like this this tirade of Information just vomited information all over the audience and it was incredible information But he he's I don't know man. He wasn't super awesome as far as conversation goes. He was great as far as…

Peter Boulden
0:30:06
Yeah, I think he's a good, like, solo pod, great solo podcaster, because he's so chock-full of knowledge that like, I couldn't do that, but he can just sit there and, like you said, just pontificate about his thesis, so to speak. But that was, you know, that was back in when we were trying to find our way in podcasting. I was like, oh, maybe it'll be great.

Craig Spodak
0:30:27
Have we found our way yet?

Craig Spodak
0:30:28
I don't think we've found our way.

Peter Boulden
0:30:29
I don't know, Craig.

Craig Spodak
0:30:30
I do each one of these thinking like, this is just a conversation amongst friends. And if someone finds it interesting, that's great. But I have no, it was, I maybe should pay attention to it more, but.

Mark Costes
0:30:40
I would love to know what you guys together, collectively, who your favorite guest has been.

Peter Boulden
0:30:45
Gosh, my favorite guest

Craig Spodak
0:30:52
Craig I have my answer. I use is gonna be Sage

Peter Boulden
0:30:56
Yeah, so I just love her so much

Craig Spodak
0:30:58
So Tony's wife Sage is a friend of mine personal friend of mine. I just love her Yeah, I felt like that had a lot of impact. It has the most downloads and I don't know That was just I can't that I gotta look that up. I gotta listen to that.

Mark Costes
0:31:14
Yeah, she's nice.

Peter Boulden
0:31:15
I wasn't even on it, Mark, because Craig has this great woo-woo vision power, and Bonnie is very the same, like, listen to your soul and this. And if you get – I don't like being too close and intimate with my feelings, so I let Craig take those. But it was really good, I have to say, in full disclosure. After I listened to it, I had a little FOMO not being involved with that one just because of who she is.

Craig Spodak
0:31:39
But it was great listening to them and their and their repertoire back and forth.

Mark Costes
0:31:44
OK, so Sage was yours, Craig. Do you have a favorite, Peter? You know, honestly, I need to go through. I feel like there's probably five that stick out in my mind. And I like Tommy Breedlove was a good one we had.

Peter Boulden
0:31:56
See, there's been so many.

Peter Boulden
0:31:58
I'm going to jump in.

Craig Spodak
0:31:59
So for me, outside of that guest, my favorite one is the one Peter and I are on, Just Alone. I really do believe that. It's a conformational bias, buddy. Well, Peter and I are really close friends, and half the time we're talking, we're just kind of shooting the shit, or he helps me. We have individual problems. He's one of the first people I call, and I feel the same for him. So half the time that we're just on regular phone calls, I'm like, damn, that would have been a great podcast. Just kind of working through each other's shit. We do that a lot. So I think what makes our podcast special is people can feel that we're good friends, we care for each other, even though he just constantly rags on me. They can see through that. And it's just the experience of two friends. And what I think we are to the dental community is two people who have gotten their ass kicked a whole bunch of ways and in many different fashions. And we come together to help each other. And people feel that they're part of that. We, you know, I don't know if I've told you this, Mark, but we had a guy come up to us at the end of a summit and he was all red in the face and he was very emotional. And it was right before COVID actually. It was in February, first week of March, 2020. And we're just finished with our summit in Houston. And he comes up to us, he's like, hey guys, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be here. And Peter and I kind of knew exactly what he meant by that. And he's like, I just listened to you. And he was basically going to take his own life. And it was what he said was like, we are like his counsel. We are this person that he's listening to, that when we talk about our failures, because there's so many people that are just talking about how they kick ass and we all kick ass in our own way. But we've gotten our ass kicked a lot and I've stayed in touch with this guy and he's really kicking butt now. So we poured into him. And so my hope, my, my true hope that what we're doing today and every podcast is we're just another friend for them. Dentistry is lonely. Majority of her solo, solo preneurs practicing on her own and there's no sounding board, so that's all we all need to be for is just that. So if Peter and I can actually have that real connection, and the interview process is hard because it's a stranger coming into our ecosystem. Yeah, you're a proficient at it because that's all you do. You know, do you have solo podcast?

Mark Costes
0:34:13
I do a lot. Okay, sorry. Probably more. I probably do more than than interviews, probably. Yeah. Yeah.

Craig Spodak
0:34:19
So I just think the exchange of the relationship is my favorite part. I have an answer. And I can't

Peter Boulden
0:34:23
believe I do a blank on this, Mark, so I'm sorry.

Peter Boulden
0:34:25
That was awesome, Craig.

Mark Costes
0:34:26
Thank you for that.

Peter Boulden
0:34:27
It caught me by surprise. I wasn't ready for that, and honestly, I was thinking, oh my gosh, if I don't say the right answer, then other people are gonna get mad. But Patrick Bette David was on our podcast. No shit. Yeah, I was in the breakers, let's see, let's call it two years ago, and I had followed him on Instagram and things like that, and watched all of his YouTube videos, because like you, Mark, I've been the biggest fan. I've been the biggest fan of YouTube. I don't watch TV. I watch YouTube at night and I watch videos. And so at the time I was watching a shit ton of Patrick Bette David videos. And so I'm in the breakers. We're there for – I've got to figure – was I there? Oh, it was Memorial Day, correct? We were together. We were together. So he's checking in, and literally I'm with my wife walking. She's all dressed up. I go, hey, stop for a second. I looked out the corner, I was like, I think that's Patrick Pet David. She was like, who? I was like, you know, the guy I watch on YouTube. My wife would say the same thing. She's like, please don't go up to him. She was sure as shit. I walked up and I'm like, Pet David? And he goes, yeah. Anyway, and so we just started talking. I think he was surprised that he got recognized because it was a couple of years ago. You know, he's blown up recently. So we talked for a while. He's like, what do you do? And he was so cool in person.

Peter Boulden
0:35:41
So what do you do?

Peter Boulden
0:35:42
I was like, I'm a dentist and I got a podcast. And we kept talking. He's like, I was like, maybe one day, you know, I know you'd have to go low, but you can maybe come on our podcast. He was like, yeah, hit me up kind of thing. And sure as hell, you know, maybe a year later, he did it and came on. Of course I shit the bed though, Mark,

Craig Spodak
0:35:57
because he got on and I got started. He was so nervous about it. And I was so nervous because, you know. And I didn't know who he was the funny thing I didn't really know at that moment I found out afterwards and you want to hear how life comes full circle so he came in and he came in as a patient here so he's my you know so he walks in the hipper permission to say this Craig I took a picture of him and he's that implied consent is that implied he's a friend of mine Patrick it's all good buddy. Yeah.

Peter Boulden
0:36:27
Patrick is not listening to our podcast.

Craig Spodak
0:36:29
Well, I've seen him a couple of times now. So I walk in the console, I'm like, do I look familiar to you? I know you meet a lot of people. And I literally have Apple TVs and all the console rooms. So I had the podcast like up on the screen. I'm like, remember this guy's like, oh yeah. He's like, yeah, I remember you guys. He's a cool dude, man, awesome guy.

Peter Boulden
0:36:45
That's a big get.

Peter Boulden
0:36:46
The other one.

Peter Boulden
0:36:47
That's a big get. It is a big get. I got a bigger, an as big get, but a different industry.

Craig Spodak
0:36:51
So, do you know who Anthony Pompliano is? Oh, that was awesome.

Mark Costes
0:36:56
Ah, the name sounds so familiar. Well, why am I- He's a big time guy.

Craig Spodak
0:36:59
He's a pop.

Peter Boulden
0:36:59
He's like the biggest influencer in all of cryptocurrency on YouTube. Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Peter Boulden
0:37:04
Anthony Pompliano.

Peter Boulden
0:37:05
So he's blown up too, but he's been on the pot and he was awesome and I wasn't as like stage fright by him or I shouldn't say I didn't have like stardom stage fright with him.

Peter Boulden
0:37:14
But that was a good one too.

Peter Boulden
0:37:15
And that was just to really engage because one of my loves is crypto other than dentistry and biohacking.

Craig Spodak
0:37:20
Mark, there's the answer.

Peter Boulden
0:37:21
There's the long winded answers. It's funny how you said you kind of shat the bed a little bit with him.

Mark Costes
0:37:25
I had Robert O'Neill on, the dude who shot Bin Laden. Oh, that's awesome. Seal Team Six. And I was so nervous and prepping for it. And I was like, everybody set all my stuff up. I had actually another camera crew so we could get different angles and stuff of me interviewing this guy. It was a huge deal. And we're talking and he's getting into his story and stuff. And I look up and I freaking didn't hit record for like the first 15 minutes.

Craig Spodak
0:38:03
That's the truth.

Mark Costes
0:38:04
That doesn't matter.

Peter Boulden
0:38:05
Sorry.

Peter Boulden
0:38:05
I just did that recently.

Mark Costes
0:38:07
So if you listen to that episode, like the audio is really rough in the beginning because we had to go from the audio from the actual, thank God I had somebody recording me, video recording me.

Peter Boulden
0:38:19
The backup?

Craig Spodak
0:38:20
Yeah.

Mark Costes
0:38:21
So the audio is from the video recorder first and then we switched over to the to my mic but I was so freaking nervous and then in the middle of it he's like getting to this really heavy part and I was like dude stop stop right there I'm not recording I'm trying to like like push all these buttons and and like actually be in the moment and hear about you know him pulling the trigger on the biggest thing so here is the breakdown can we watch this like ultimate panic in your face in the video there's a video out there we can actually see yeah but it but it not recording it comes in after I press record because you're recomposing yourself at that point yeah but I got it I got him to cry he was time away I was like Peter to cry

Peter Boulden
0:39:08
that'd be awesome no it's impossible that's the old team six got a cry like you can't hurt my feelings because I don't have it I asked him I'm like, so you pretty much thought that you were going to die.

Mark Costes
0:39:15
He's like, yeah, all of us thought we were going to die. We knew where we were going. Nobody else knew where we were going. I couldn't even tell my parents, my dad or anything. I go, what was the hardest part about it? And then he just started crying. He's like, well, I had to say goodbye to my daughters, and I wrote them letters for them to open up on their wedding day. And I was like, oh, and he started crying. And I was like, all right, that'll get you. That'll get you.

Craig Spodak
0:39:43
What a power.

Peter Boulden
0:39:43
Because he knew that the probability,

Peter Boulden
0:39:45
like he has a high likelihood he might not come home, huh?

Craig Spodak
0:39:47
Yeah, they all thought they were going to die.

Mark Costes
0:39:50
It was interesting too, because he was talking about the chopper on the way over there. And he's like, you want to talk about some dudes with ice water in their veins. He's like three quarters of the guys, it was a 45 minute Black Hawk or I think it was a-

Craig Spodak
0:40:08
Apache, whatever.

Mark Costes
0:40:09
Apache, probably Apache, because Apache carries the larger payload. So they're in Apache. He's like, yeah, like most of the team fell asleep. And the seal dog fell asleep. They're just like, oh, it's just another day. I'm probably going to die here, but just going to take it out.

Craig Spodak
0:40:23
Yeah, I have a good buddy as a SEAL. It's an interesting process, huh? It's a different human. That's for sure. Yeah, well, they make you different. The unfortunate thing, and that's a good tangential, is that they kind of make you into this machine, and there's no disintegration process to go back into. So my buddy I grew up with, he went out of Iraq and then went back into Blackwater and special ops and stuff like that. He couldn't get enough of it, because that's what you know. And there's not a real great unwinding process to reintegrate you into society, so there's a lot of fallout, unfortunately.

Mark Costes
0:40:58
It's kind of like the Jason Bourne stuff. It's like you can't unprogram that.

Craig Spodak
0:41:01
It's like dental school, but more intense.

Peter Boulden
0:41:03
Yeah, I was going to say, it's like being a dentist. You can't unprogram that.

Mark Costes
0:41:06
Yeah, it's like D1U, yeah.

Peter Boulden
0:41:09
Biochem test.

Craig Spodak
0:41:09
Yeah, wax off, yeah.

Peter Boulden
0:41:11
So obviously that was probably your favorite gap,

Mark Costes
0:41:13
I'm guessing. Him and Ryan Holiday, you know, obviously.

Craig Spodak
0:41:16
Oh, no way, you had Ryan Holiday, that's awesome. I've got to become a bigger Mark Costas fan than I already am.

Mark Costes
0:41:22
Is that possible?

Craig Spodak
0:41:24
I don't know, talk to me about Ryan Holiday.

Mark Costes
0:41:26
That was special.

Craig Spodak
0:41:28
That's special to me because I love the stoic stuff.

Mark Costes
0:41:31
That dude was so cool and so engaged and so just like into it the whole time. He was awesome. And then I had David Sinclair, the Lifespan guy that's been on Joe Rogan. He was, that was a funny one because you could tell his booker booked it and he's like, I'm talking to a bunch of dentists. He was like so apathetic and like not into it in the beginning. And I started asking him like really, really good questions about his book, because I had read his book a couple times. And then you could just see his like demeanor completely change. Like sits up straight.

Craig Spodak
0:42:03
That's the unfortunate thing. They think they're gonna be, they don't understand that dentists were business owners, were humans. And like when Scott Galloway was on, Scott Galloway was making fun of us. He's like, where have, how did I get on this fricking thing? Like what am I doing here?

Peter Boulden
0:42:18
As long as my career consisted of that now I'm on a dental podcast.

Craig Spodak
0:42:21
He was so good. He's like, let's get this shit show on the road, guys.

Craig Spodak
0:42:24
He was the one.

5
0:42:25
Actually, he was my favorite. I agree, that's great.

Craig Spodak
0:42:27
Yeah, he's a buddy of mine. He's like dude, how far have

Mark Costes
0:42:30
I come in my career to be in a podcast. This is the highlight of my career for sure. Yeah. It's funny. So yeah, I just love kind of looking back. And the funny thing is, is like the bigger names. A lot of times for me, Sage was your biggest download episode. For me, it's like Robert O'Neill, dude at that shop in Lodden, didn't get the highest downloads. It's weird. It comes down to, I think a lot of it is like if you have a bigger name guest, like I had Robert Kiyosaki on, he didn't get a ton of downloads either. Oh man, I didn't know you had him either.

Craig Spodak
0:43:03
But you have to do a class 5 composite, got the highest downloads?

Mark Costes
0:43:08
No, it's true, it's random. It's all in the headline, right? It's just like email open ranks. You say Robert Kiyosaki, and they're like, I've seen him interviewed 25 times. Robert O'Neill, oh yeah, I just saw you on Fox News. So I don't need to listen to that, but.

Craig Spodak
0:43:24
Yeah, that's what it is about Sage Robbins. She's not a public person. She does not do that. She's like, admittedly, I don't do any of this stuff. I'll do it for you, but I don't do it. So if you're looking for content specifically from her and you search her, that's the only thing that I'm aware of. So it was a really great glimpse into who she is, and she's so powerful. I mean, obviously, Tony's the headliner in the recognition world, but she's an equal powerful force just in a different opposing way, but she's transformed my life and helped me so much. It's great to have her as a friend.

Mark Costes
0:43:58
That's really nice to hear that she is that way, because I know Josh and I met Tony but I don't know Sage. I've never met her but it's like a rock star brother. It's like she had to have been to be accepted into that family.

Craig Spodak
0:44:12
Yeah.

Craig Spodak
0:44:13
Awesome.

Mark Costes
0:44:14
You still talk to Josh?

Craig Spodak
0:44:15
I haven't talked to Josh in over a year. Yeah, he's a good friend. I know we're one of six today so I want to be cognizant of your time. Yeah.

Peter Boulden
0:44:27
Just taking a little jab at you, but you shouldn't have told Craig, you hurt his feelings.

Mark Costes
0:44:31
Yeah, I do have one in four minutes, I just realized.

Craig Spodak
0:44:33
OK, well then. Yeah, it's with Oprah, it's no big deal, Peter.

Mark Costes
0:44:37
I'm glad that we changed, you know, we've basically changed the trajectory of all dentists listening to this episode, right? I mean, we talked about such hard hitting,

Craig Spodak
0:44:47
Like Lipson, Lipson's really important for dentists.

Mark Costes
0:44:51
Yeah, yeah.

Craig Spodak
0:44:52
I didn't even know what the hell that was.

Peter Boulden
0:44:53
All right, let me end on this.

Peter Boulden
0:44:55
Okay.

Peter Boulden
0:44:55
Bullish on dentistry right now, Mark?

Craig Spodak
0:44:58
Or, or, or just-

Craig Spodak
0:45:01
Well, let me, let me, that's a hard one to say no to. Let me ask you in a different way.

Mark Costes
0:45:05
That was hard. You want me to end on that?

Craig Spodak
0:45:07
No, no, I just want to, but I know where Peter's going. Do you feel like, let's just say two to three years, obviously everything's on fire, how are you feeling globally on dentistry over the next three years? Are you feeling like we're gonna take a minor setback like the pundits are saying, or do you think it's full steam ahead?

Mark Costes
0:45:25
You know, I'm one of the few people in podcasting that actually went through the last recession. And it was, and Peter, and I don't know if you did, Craig, you're younger than us, but for me, for me, the last recession was-

Peter Boulden
0:45:43
Frank was 40 in 2009.

Craig Spodak
0:45:45
I was 46 in 2009. I'm sorry, I was 56 in 2009, I did the math wrong. Yeah, yeah.

Peter Boulden
0:45:50
Good, sorry, Mike.

Mark Costes
0:45:51
Aging in reverse. Yeah, so that was a big time for my group. We went from like six practices to like 11 practices during the last pandemic. It was a defining time for us. I'm sorry, during the last recession, not last pandemic. And so, yeah, I'm not scared of it, but I do believe that the consumer sentiment is going to be strained for sure. I think that inflation is gonna affect a lot of things as far as the way we spend money, the way we borrow money. So yeah, I am still bullish on dentistry. I'm still bullish on dentistry.

Craig Spodak
0:46:29
Yeah, me too.

Mark Costes
0:46:30
I think we have some challenging times ahead, but I think it's gonna be-

Peter Boulden
0:46:33
The only reason I ask that is because you always hear like, oh, those are the golden years in dentistry. And you hear people like pull back. They're like, well, the golden years are gone,

Craig Spodak
0:46:40
so I'm gonna pull back.

Peter Boulden
0:46:40
I'm like, the golden years are ahead, I promise you. It's always ahead. And so it's just this doom and gloom sometimes we get in dentistry. Like, well, I'm gonna save for this. I'm not going to risk that. And there is some macroeconomic things that you should pay attention to. But in general, we have the biggest blessing ever is to be in the vessel of dentistry as business people. And I always say there's a barrier to entry. Usually, unless you're in Arizona, you have to be a dentist, own the practice. Most states you do. So there's a barrier to entry. And so the competition isn't that fierce. It's not like a restaurant where everyone can buy one and get one and compete. There's a barrier to entry. And if you're kind of all in, then it's really easy to do well. And if you're a good human, it's really easy to do well. Especially if you are continually learning like masterminds or summits or in-persons, like you're just destined to succeed in my opinion. So I think it's one of the greatest professions

Craig Spodak
0:47:34
in the world for that capacity.

Mark Costes
0:47:36
Yeah, and if you surround yourself with people like you guys, like our group, pick one, but pick one.

Craig Spodak
0:47:42
Yeah, for sure. And also, don't try to be something you're not. Don't compete with something that you think you should be. There's many different ways. Each dental practice is a snowflake. Have it be authentically what you want to create, and no one can mess, no one can compete with you. So, if you don't have to be the guy who owns two and three practices, you can still just do what you want. I love those breakthroughs, by the way, when someone comes to our group and said, I want to open up 10 practices, and through all the visionary workshops and stuff like that, they're like, actually, I just want to be in my own practice.

Craig Spodak
0:48:09
That was not what I wanted.

Mark Costes
0:48:10
Yeah, I love that too.

Peter Boulden
0:48:12
I love that too. That's a breakthrough. That's a breakthrough one way or the other, right? Mark, tell us where your big summit is for the year. I know you're having one the week in June, as well as our big, well, we only do one, but tell us where it is and the dates and such.

Mark Costes
0:48:27
Yeah, thank you guys so much. June 10th and 11th at the JW Marriott, Desert Ridge, Arizona.

Peter Boulden
0:48:34
I have been a speaker at one of Mark's events and I can tell you it is top tier, awesome. You talk about that energy in the room, it's awesome. I would encourage everyone listening to go. And you know, Mark, and if you can be, and you know, ours, like I said, is in Nashville and the weekend before. So if you could make it, I'm sure people would love to have you there. I know you're a busy man, but…

Peter Boulden
0:48:55
And where can people go to learn more?

Peter Boulden
0:48:56
Sorry, don't you have a website address for that? Yeah, truedentalsuccess.com

Mark Costes
0:49:01
and click on the summit or the event icon and it'll get you there. Still 40% off tickets. Nice. We are going to sell out. They're only letting us have 700 people in the room this year. 700 you do?

Peter Boulden
0:49:12
Well. Holy shit, that's a lot.

Mark Costes
0:49:16
They limited, last year they limited us to 500 and we sold that out really quick. This year they allowed us.

Mark Costes
0:49:21
Good for you, man, that's awesome.

Mark Costes
0:49:22
They bumped it up a little bit, so yeah.

Peter Boulden
0:49:24
What are we capping at, Craig, 300? I'm sorry?

Craig Spodak
0:49:27
What are we capping at, 300? Yeah, we're gonna sell it too, but we are capping at 300. We were over 300 last year. Do you like how he slid that me too in there, Mark?

Peter Boulden
0:49:35
We're gonna sell out too, me too.

Craig Spodak
0:49:38
No, we're gonna sell it for sure we always have the problem I say that is I'm getting the text in the call at the end like hey man can you bubble bubble bomb you know it's like hey can you guys please yeah the hotel block is over by the almost over to so if you're like oh I have to get an Airbnb I'm like yeah they

Peter Boulden
0:49:55
think they think cuz if you know I've got your cell phone number which means

Mark Costes
0:49:57
the rules don't apply right you're like well I can't do anything now seriously No, seriously, it's like when it's sold out,

Craig Spodak
0:50:03
it's like really sold out.

Mark Costes
0:50:04
Yeah, of course it is.

Craig Spodak
0:50:05
For real.

Craig Spodak
0:50:06
Yeah.

Peter Boulden
0:50:07
So don't delay. Well, buddy, I enjoyed this. I know you gotta go. You gotta go, awesome. It's always good to connect with you, man. And yeah, Craig and I are always rooting for you as I know you are. Big time, brother.

Mark Costes
0:50:17
As you are us, so. I'll be right back at you. I'm so blessed to have you guys in my life.

Craig Spodak
0:50:21
Thank you guys so much.

Mark Costes
0:50:22
Oh, you're awesome, buddy.

Craig Spodak
0:50:22
You're awesome. Seriously. How's that pilot's license going?

Peter Boulden
0:50:25
You got it yet?

Craig Spodak
0:50:26
Did you show a load?

Mark Costes
0:50:27
Oh, shut up. It's a long story. I went up yesterday. I dusted off some ring rest.

Craig Spodak
0:50:32
Okay, good.

Mark Costes
0:50:33
You would have been proud of me.

Mark Costes
0:50:34
Why is that?

Craig Spodak
0:50:35
You kept the shiny side up?

Peter Boulden
0:50:37
Yeah, I had, I had.

Craig Spodak
0:50:38
That's how you know.

Peter Boulden
0:50:40
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mark Costes
0:50:40
I had the same number of landings as takeoffs. So that was.

Craig Spodak
0:50:44
That's important.

Craig Spodak
0:50:45
You're always gonna land. It's just the question is how hard.

Mark Costes
0:50:47
That's true. That's a very good point.

Craig Spodak
0:50:49
That's a good point.

Mark Costes
0:50:50
Yeah, you're always gonna land. Yeah, but I'm refining. I had to take a couple months off because of some personal stuff. My dad got sick, but…

Craig Spodak
0:50:55
I'm sorry to hear that.

Mark Costes
0:50:56
But yeah, we're back at it. I did the simulator two days prior to getting back in the air, and I was like, I'm going to kill myself if I get in the air right now.

Craig Spodak
0:51:06
God forbid, brother. Don't say crap like that.

Craig Spodak
0:51:08
Just be safe.

Mark Costes
0:51:09
Yes, I was safe. I was safe. Yeah.

Craig Spodak
0:51:12
And things are looking good, so thank you. Yeah, good. You look like you look intact to me. I haven't seen your biceps. It's hard to see them What is that wait Dwayne Dwayne Dwayne talk to me Dwayne the rock Johnson, what does this mean? There's a lot of deep meaning to this. There's a there every every icon in line and column is having to do with my ancestry.

Mark Costes
0:51:41
We go back to-

Craig Spodak
0:51:41
Are you Samoan?

Mark Costes
0:51:42
I am Filipino. This is a Filipino warrior tattoo. So we go all the way back to my great, great, great, great grandfather and what they did for a living, the languages they spoke, the islands they lived on.

Craig Spodak
0:51:55
No way.

Craig Spodak
0:51:57
Yeah.

Craig Spodak
0:51:58
You're a Filipino rock.

Peter Boulden
0:51:58
That's awesome. Did your wife give any pushback to a sleeve at this stage of your life?

Mark Costes
0:52:04
She loves it.

Craig Spodak
0:52:05
Good.

Craig Spodak
0:52:06
That's awesome.

Craig Spodak
0:52:07
That's great.

Craig Spodak
0:52:08
My wife would hate it. No, my wife, yeah, I don't know.

Craig Spodak
0:52:10
She'd be like, what's wrong with you?

Craig Spodak
0:52:12
I don't have enough room on my arm to fit that much stuff.

Craig Spodak
0:52:14
My arm is too skinny.

Peter Boulden
0:52:15
You don't have the biggest arms in dentistry.

Peter Boulden
0:52:16
I have to do that. He's got the biggest arms in dentistry. I have to put that one on my thigh.

Craig Spodak
0:52:19
All right, buddy. Nice to see you. All right.

Mark Costes
0:52:22
Thanks, you guys, so much. Great to see you.

Craig Spodak
0:52:24
See you, buddy. I'm in.

Mark Costes
0:52:26
Take care.

Peter Boulden
0:52:27
Bye. That was awesome. That was awesome. That was awesome, huh?

Transcribed with Cockatoo