by Karah Karah | Jan 24, 2018 | Hints for Happiness
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When it comes to pursuing your goals and your overall quality of life, few things have as significant an impact as your mindset and your work ethic. With their strong involvement in the dental community—and their shared history of growing up on farms—Cole Hackett, Luis Mariusso, and John Wesley Halliburton know this all too well.
Three of the seven guys behind the Life and Dentistry Podcast, Cole, Luis, and John strive to help uplift and inspire others in the field. In this episode, they discuss how their upbringings taught them the importance of working hard, as well as how their can-do attitudes got them through dental school and continue to serve them as they navigate their careers.
Listen in to hear how they maintain their optimistic outlooks, why it’s sometimes best to take the leap even if you don’t feel ready, and so much more.
Key Quotes:
- “Anybody who’s determined is going to be able to achieve the goals that they set out for themselves. If you don’t give up, you’ll be able to achieve whatever you want.”
- “I think the farm background definitely helped prepare for the hard work and responsibility it takes to not only be successful enough to get accepted into a dental school, but to become successful as a dentist, too.”
- “I hear more and more from the victims, and less and less from the victors. You can talk to one guy and he’ll say ‘dentistry is the ticket to the unlimited, you choose your own path,’ and the next guy will speak doom and gloom. And they both live in the same world, but they’ve each chosen different paths.”
- “I’m a huge proponent of practice ownership. I think we think of it from the tax advantages, the upside and paycheck, and being able to achieve profits, but as you guys really get into it, I think you’ll realize that it brings out the best in you.”
- “You can pull up different podcasts and search any subject that you want to, and somebody’s talking about it in the world of dentistry. Whether it be financial advising, whether it be consulting for your practice, how to become a better dentist, technical advice … if you listen to it, it gets you excited about dentistry.”
- “This is why the people we’re around are so successful and big into dentistry—because they keep lighting each other’s fires and encouraging each other.”
- “Another big thing that’s important to us is not only being great clinicians and great dentists, but also being great at life, and having that good balance between your work, your friends, your family, and your faith.”
- “There’s nothing but opportunity, but it’s the viewpoint that you approach it at that’s powerful or damaging, depending on where you’re standing.”
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by Karah Karah | Jan 17, 2018 | Maverick Mind Shifts
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There are so many road blocks that get in the way of a strong performing team and effective practice but almost all of them can be overcome through strong leadership and integrity. Paul Etchison has some great insight into this and shares some valuable advice on how to become a great leader and use integrity to make your practice better and life easier. He emphasizes the fact that seemingly small details, such as touch-points, are more important and impactful than people think.
Paul discusses the importance of doing everything with integrity and how you can use humility and honesty to become a better leader and improve your practice. He also talks about the importance of intentionality through setting goals, refining systems and always improving your leadership skills. He also talks about the unexpected complications of going from 4-3 work days and how he has navigated that experience in a positive way.
Key Quotes:
- “I think people aren’t setting goals. Once you get out and figure out what you want to do and be intentional about it, then you can reverse engineer all the steps that you need to get there. I think a lot of people never put that pen to paper.”
- “He who walks with integrity, walks securely. And he who takes crooked paths will be found out.” – Proverbs 10:8
- “If you do everything for the right reasons and you do the right thing all the time, you have nothing to worry about.”
- “Your word should be golden. Everybody should know that when you say something, you’re going to do it.”
- “The leadership information is out there and I think people don’t really seek it out because it’s not sexy.”
- “It all starts with leadership so that’s gotta be the foundation. That’s number one. If you can’t lead, nothings gonna happen – you’re not getting anything done.”
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by Karah Karah | Jan 10, 2018 | Maverick Mind Shifts
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Trying new things always has some risk involved but today’s guest, Dr. Baron Grutter, has pushed the limits and found that taking chances pays off more often than not. Listen in to get some great information and motivation from Baron as he explains how he got to where he is and discusses how he navigated his dentistry career and came out as a leader, teacher, and innovator in the field.
Baron talks in detail about the effect digital dentistry has had on his practice and how he has integrated cutting edge technology into his business. He also talks about mindset and the importance of delegating tasks and keeping a great team around you. The effect on clients and the money saved by his innovative practice is also discussed and analyzed. Baron elaborates on some incredible orthodontic software that could quite possibly be a game-changer in many practices.
Key Quotes:
- “Don’t be afraid to try something because worse thing that’d happen – you’d go back to what you were doing.”
- “Maybe I’m digitally claustrophobic or whatever- I want to be able to interact with other people.”
- “If I know an answer I’d love to share it.”
- “I want things to not look so complicated- because it is so intimidating for most people.”
- “All you do is bring in the model, move the teeth where you want to, press go, and it sets all the movements for you.”
- “I can do a 10 aligner case (10 upper and 10 lower) and it’s under $100 for me.”
- “If you can save $1500 on your lab bill, you could literally hire a whole assistant, do two cases a month, and she/he would have 4 hours of work that entire month and the salary would be completely covered.”
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by Karah Karah | Jan 3, 2018 | Bold Biographies
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Today’s episode is going to be a little different; instead of hosting an interview, I’m going to share an interview I recently did with Reese Harper from the Dentist Money™ podcast. The conversation we had really highlighted the message I want to spread about how to achieve high-performance days in our practices and what it takes to create the lifestyle you’ve always dreamed of.
Listen in to hear my discussion with Reese about the habits that have helped me stay focused on my goals, make time for gratitude, and achieve my own epic life.
Key Quotes:
- “I think most people are really shortsighted because they want to get through the week, the day, the quarter, whatever it may be, and those building blocks may or may not build the superstructure they want for a life.”
- “It is clear to me that the achievement mindset really gets in the way of fulfillment because we’re always chasing that next goal, and it’s something that I really have to work at.”
- “High achieving dentists want to be like the hall of fame quarterback of their business, but they’re not taking care of themselves like a hall of fame quarterback.”
- “The demands that dentists I know put on themselves are extreme because they’re usually hardworking and kind-hearted, and so they want to be everything to their team and to their patients and to their families, and if you’re not devoting that time for self-care, that’s where we get into all those spirals that we hear about—substance abuse, suicide and things like that.”
- “One of the things where I see dentists taken a lot is marketing…We’re being oversold on marketing, so that really concerns me about dentists outsourcing too much of that and not really understanding where the ROI lives.”
- “When I was seven years old, I couldn’t have dreamt this life, and I want [my son] to not have those mental barriers.”
- “Deceiving yourself that the status quo is going to serve you is delusional, and so my challenge to listeners is when you come to that fork in the road, to choose courage over comfort.”
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by Karah Karah | Dec 27, 2017 | Bold Biographies
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Today’s guest has followed an unusual career path, to say the least. From going into undergrad as a football player to training to be a fighter pilot, Tim Rauch hadn’t even considered working in dentistry when he was growing up. Yet nowadays, he has the kind of successful dental career—and lifestyle—many dreams of, including shorter, flexible work weeks, frequent travel, and more.
In this episode, Tim shares the inspiring story of perseverance and intentionality that led him to where he is today. Listen in to hear how he created his ideal work-life balance and how you can overcome excuses and start designing your own epic life.
Key Quotes:
- “[In] about a four-year stretch, I went from brand new startup owner to multi-practice with associates owning a practice management guy to selling everything and starting over.”
- “A ton of professional and financial success—really more than I ever thought was possible as a dentist—and I had this total come to Jesus moment with how and why and to what end.”
- “I wanted to be able to stop and say that if I died any day now, I’d be doing exactly what I wanted to be doing.”
- “My new mantra was: I’m going to live every week, every day, every month, and plan every year like, hey, this could be it because things slip away quickly.”
- “Start today. Think very clearly about what your ideal week, or your ideal month, or the ideal year of your life could look like, and then identify what you need to do to get there, and then work your ass off until you get it.”
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by Karah Karah | Dec 20, 2017 | Legendary Leadership
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Dr. Karah Maloley, wife of Dr. Dave, joins on the podcast this episode to discuss and reflect the incredible changes in the practice over the past year. They go through the goals that were set for the past year and discuss the outcomes and how they worked out so well. One of the big things discussed was how they managed to go from four-day work week to a three-day work week while still growing and having a record year.
Dr. Dave talks about how taking more time off has improved his leadership skills and in-turn helped make his team and his clients happier. He also talks about the habits he has been working on and his obsession with high performance and sustainable growth and success. They emphasize the importance of accountability and leadership by example and they share ways to breathe life and passion into your practice.
Key Quotes:
- “I made the decision we were going to go from four-day work weeks to three-day work weeks.”
- “It’s about impact and intention and knowing what we’re there for and being hyper-focused to get results every day.”
- “Despite the reduction in days and hours, we grew probably more than we have in 6 or 7 years.”
- “A happy team creates happier patients.”
- “The extra time that I have, those days where I can work on different projects, have allowed me to I think, be a more focused leader and work a lot more on myself.”
- “Self-leadership always precedes great team leadership.”
- “A lot of turning points in my life have come from trying times and tragedies, what if I just engineer it this year?”
- “Most dentists are working in their practice, high level dentists are working in their practice and on their practice, the highest level dentists I’m convinced are working on themselves.”
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by Karah Karah | Dec 13, 2017 | Maverick Mind Shifts
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Dr. Graham Dersley is back on the podcast! A prosthodontist with a clinical focus on dental implantology, Graham owns and operates two startup practices in the suburbs of Maryland. In this episode, he shares how he has grown these practices using a concept not commonly discussed in dental circles: the Pareto Principle.
Also called the 80/20 rule, the Pareto Principle states that 20% of the invested input is responsible for 80% of the results obtained. Throughout his career, Graham has seen the truth behind this concept and has adjusted his own practices to focus on the top 20% of patients. Doing this allowed him to not only grow his practices, but also improve his overall satisfaction with his work in dentistry. Listen in to learn how he did it and how other dentists can do the same.
Key Quotes:
- “A lot of us might get to a point where we plateau, and really focusing on the things that have the greatest impact is so important.”
- “I have a certain type of practice model that I’m moving my practice toward, and that doesn’t just happen by treating everybody the same or trying to bring everybody in off the street into your practice. You have to be very intentional about it.”
- “The bottom 20%—and really even the bottom 50%—are such a small percentage of your profit, and if you can clear up some time and some headspace to focus on the top 20% … you’d really come out a lot ahead.”
- “Early on in my practice, I wanted to be the dentist for everybody, and I’d lose sleep at night from that patient that complained about the outrageous cost of that single filling … Now, I just see it as a blessing—they’ve identified themselves as the bottom 20 type patient, and I don’t have to worry about focusing on them.”
- “These patients, when you find the right ones who are motivated and ready to go, you know, one of these patients can be worth 100 typical average new patients.”
- “Initially, you might be working with a dental marketing company whose main goal is increasing the gross number of your patients without much regard to the quality level of those new patients … If they could instead bring in two really awesome patients, you’d have a better ROI.”
- “[Defining your top 20%] is really about increasing your skillset and being able to deliver services that your competition is not, and being able to articulate that you can do that through a marketing message.”
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by Karah Karah | Dec 6, 2017 | Wealth Wisdom
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Today’s guest, Jordan Goodman, has spent the last 40 years focused on one mission: to help Americans do better with their money. Known as “America’s Money Answers Man” and a nationally recognized expert on personal finance, he’s had a vast career, spanning newspapers, magazines, books, radio, podcasts, and television. He also offers plenty of resources on his website, www.MoneyAnswers.com.
Thankfully, Jordan has experience with dentists, and he has grown knowledgeable about things that are unique to the profession. In this episode, he offers practical advice, websites, resources, and strategies to help dentists do better with their finances. Listen in to hear his valuable advice and learn what actions you can take today to secure your financial future.
Key Quotes:
- “If you have private loans—8, 9, 10%—as well as the federal loans, which may be at better interest rates, combining them all into a 2-3% rate is going to save you some money and hopefully help you get out of debt a little bit quicker.”
- “Another thing a lot of people are not aware of is you can refinance your student loan debt to typically about 2%.”
- “Older dentists are finding it harder to find people to sell their practice to because the younger ones coming out of dental school are so indebted that they just don’t have the money.”
- “Dentists may be surprised; they may be able to get financing that in the past, they didn’t think was possible.”
- “Buying a home in the first place—there are all kinds of discounts available that you might not be aware of because you as a dentist are considered an American hero.”
- “The real question you want to ask your bank (and they don’t want to answer it) is, ‘How fast do I pay off my principal?'”
- “Make your money work for you. A lot of people have money sitting in the bank—in CDs and savings accounts and money market funds—earning zero, and it’s going to stay that way as far as the eye can see.”
- “I’m trying to give things that are in favor of the dentists, not the financial institutions.”
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by Karah Karah | Nov 29, 2017 | Wealth Wisdom
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On today’s episode, Reese Harper joins us to talk about why many dentists are not retiring or scaling back on working as early as planned. Reese explores the different financial areas where dentists tend to go wrong with their planning and why dentistry in general has an issue with misunderstood and mismanaged finances. He really gives an interesting perspective on why dentists should be focusing on their net worth when it comes to achieving their long and short term goals.
Reese emphasizes why making small, incremental changes will be better for your business in the long run. He also discusses different traps dentists fall into and how to know a good financial advisor from a sales-person. We wrap up with a conversation on what exactly net worth is and explore various ways to keep track of it and make sure your practice and spending are in line with your goals.
Key Quotes:
- “We’re so focused on improving the practice that we don’t even care what our own personal wealth is, but man, we know our collections so well. And our personal wealth is not subjective, it’s a number that is as tangible as collections.”
- “Personal finance is 80% about behavior and only about 20% about knowledge.”
- “Not only are they high achieving, but they’re actually, really kind of giving, benevolent people, so they end up giving to their patients, giving to their teams, giving to their families, giving to their communities.. and not really being a good steward with self-care, whether that be health or finance and that causes a lot of struggle and strife.”
- “When we feel like there’s something wrong, we want to make a big adjustment.”
- “They become really big targets for people that are selling things to them.”
- “When you hire a financial advisor, you just hope you’re hiring someone that can really help you make sense of all your finances, not just sell you stuff.”
- “Making a lot of money is not the same as being worth a lot.”
- “The definition of financial freedom is just being able to replace your lifestyle without having to work.”
- “Look at what you need based on what you spend.”
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by Karah Karah | Nov 22, 2017 | Legendary Leadership
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Dr. Dave is excited to reveal and discuss the secret weapon that has helped his team unify, work collaboratively and excel as a productive team in today’s episode with Shannon Waller. Shannon joins him on the show to discuss the main ideas, principles and action steps from her Team Success training that have worked so well for many teams. She gives some really wise insight and easy instructions and explanations that make it easier for you and your team to be as effective and supportive as possible.
Shannon starts off by defining and describing the importance of the term, unique ability. She expresses how crucial it is to know what this is and how to use the various unique abilities of your team to complement and support each other better. She wraps up with a discussion of why it’s important that your team doesn’t look to you for all motivation and support and why you should value results over time and effort.
Key Quotes:
- “If you’ve made a difference in one patient’s life that day and you made what was perhaps an anxiety producing experience a better one – That’s a win!”
- “An entrepreneurial team is one that is focused on growth, it is focused on results and is focused on maximizing the core value that every individual brings to the business.”
- “There’s a limit to creativity and the reward system is often based on how well do you fit in the system.”
- “Unique ability, at its essence, is what you love to do and are best at. So it’s where you have superior skill.”
- “We often are trained to think that, oh if I can get better then I mustn’t be very good. And that’s not true.”
- “If you want to get really great results with the minimum amount of time and effort, unique ability is the way to go.”
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