Unrealistic Expectations and Silent Suffering with Tiger Safarov

Unrealistic Expectations and Silent Suffering with Tiger SafarovComparison and unrealistic expectations are often not talked about, but both happen frequently in dentistry. Today Tiger Safarov, founder of dental inventory management software ZenSupplies, joins the show to discuss the worrying topic of depression in dentistry and how to handle the stress of debt after schooling.

Listen in as Tiger shares what he thinks you should delegate to your assistant so you don’t feel overwhelmed, as well as why you should value your dental assistant. You’ll learn the importance of allowing yourself to make mistakes, how to connect with your team, and more.

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Key Quotes:

  • “Just do the right thing. Keep moving and keep building.”
  • “There is a huge disconnect of your expectations and what happens when you finish dental school.”
  • “We take this identity of expert and we put it in all these places where we have no expertise … That’s where dentists end up in this place of burnout.”
  • “My biggest concern is that there are too many people suffering in silence.”
  • “The longer you’re sidetracked, the harder it is to course-correct.”
  • “Permission to make mistakes is so important.”

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Powerful Lessons Learned from the Dying with Tom Grass

Powerful Lessons Learned from the Dying with Tom GrassThis episode features the incredibly insightful Tom Grass as he recounts the story of how he found dentistry and the path that led him to this career. This is one of the most powerful conversations I have ever had on the show, as Tom delves deep into the importance of being present and how to avoid always looking to the future or your next achievement.

We discuss what Tom calls the UFO method and how to use this when approaching unpleasant discussions or delivering difficult news. You’ll learn how to create satisfaction out of inherently unsatisfying experiences. Listen in as we share personal stories about making connections with the people in our lives and touch on the responsibility you have to yourself to do the same.

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Key Quotes:

  • “The minute you turn your patients into problems, tasks, or room numbers, you’ve failed.”
  • “Dentistry checks all my boxes; you get to take care of people for a long time, you get to know people, and you get to be hands-on.”
  • “Hospice is really good at showing you all the pieces and parts that surround someone’s life.”
  • “You don’t know what people are living with, what people regret.”
  • “Tell people what you need from them and give people what they want from you.”
  • “When you are caring for people, you are giving away your emotional energy to them.”

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Getting Clear and Doing the Things You Fear with Dr. Gina Dorfman (Pt. 2)

Getting Clear and Doing the Things You Fear with Dr. Gina Dorfman (Pt. 2)This episode is the second of a two-part series featuring my friend Dr. Gina Dorfman, host of the Behind the Smiles podcast and someone who helps people learn to lead and run their practices successfully. In this episode, we continue our conversation with some valuable tips on being an incredible leader and bringing growth and fulfillment to your practice and your team.

We discuss the power of strong leadership and how taking extreme responsibility is actually freeing. You will get a glimpse of how important it is to focus not on external motivations like money, but rather on fulfillment and what makes you excited to come to work. Listen in to learn how assigning more responsibility to your staff and finding people around you with a similar mission will help you create a powerful practice and epic life.

Key Quotes:

  • “The fact that you’ve been able to envision this best life ever and then reverse engineer and build it is really incredible.”
  • “As much as I tell them what they need, I tell them what they don’t need.”
  • “There’s a critical mass that gets hit, and then reputation in a small town takes hold.”
  • “To create a sustainable product of my practice, I had to understand the culture at almost a perfected level because I knew a paycheck wasn’t going to be enough to stay competitive in the market.”
  • “Stop thinking that leadership is compliance-based; stop thinking that leadership is this hierarchy.”
  • “I’m going to stop creating followers. I’m creating that everyone has to be a leader and owner in something.”
  • “It’s very love based—they have my back and I have their back.”
  • “Every time I’ve cut down days, harvested days out of our practice, production doesn’t go down—it goes up. And so, you can do that when people are performing.”
  • “Within our environment, we are in charge. It’s not painful, it’s freedom! Realizing that you’re responsible for everything is truly freedom.”
  • “My practice is not limited by its opportunity. It’s limited by its leadership.”
  • “The collections and the production seem to just happen as a byproduct of trust and this culture that we built.”
  • “In a give-give society there’s no upper limit, but in a give-take society you … reach the bottom really quick.”

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Retirement and Work-Life Balance is B.S.

Retirement and Work-Life Balance is B.S. - Relentless Dentist Podcast

What comes to mind when you hear the term “work-life balance”? How about when you think about retirement? I get a fair amount of questions about these two topics—likely because this podcast is all about engineering a practice that provides for your epic life—but I’m here to tell you that I think both work-life balance and retirement are complete b.s.

In this episode, I go on a bit of a rant about why these two ideas really bother me. Listen in to hear why I don’t agree with the thought that we should have a clear distinction between work and the other aspects of our lives, the reason I think retirement is a bad idea, and how we should all go about designing lives that give us purpose and fulfillment.

Key Quotes:

  • “Is ‘work-life balance’ implying that one is bad and that we should balance it with the other one? I don’t know—I have a hard time with that. Most people get their purpose and a lot of their identity from their work.”
  • “Why can’t we have a vision that blurs the lines between work and play?”
  • “I think that’s a common theme in 100% of people, that you should be growing and evolving and serving. And most people do that through their work.”
  • “My life is fueling my work, and my work is fueling my life. So can we just all call it life and integrate it?”
  • “I, quite frankly, want to work the day before I die. I want to work until the end, delivering value.”
  • “You’re serving the patient by being influential. You’re serving your team by giving them a culture, a place that they enjoy and collaborate and have a shared vision. All those components fuel your life.”
  • “Five years we’ve been talking about designing an epic practice to fuel your epic life. It’s a vehicle to get what you want—to live the life that you want—but it all has to be engineered with intention.”
  • “Can we stop talking about retirement, and can we stop talking about work-life balance? I think they’re both complete bullshit, and I think they take people down paths that they shouldn’t even consider.”
  • “Design a work schedule that gives you purpose, that gives you meaning, that gives you challenge and allows you to grow, and let that fuel your life.”

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Influence and the 80-Year-Old Man

Influence and the 80-Year-Old Man - Relentless Dentist Podcast

Today’s episode is all about the power of influence and living in a way that inspires others to do their best work. Leadership is all about figuring out who we have to become for our teams, and it’s up to us to ask ourselves if we’re really walking the talk—or if we’re all talk.

Inspired by his father’s recent 80th birthday party (where celebrating the way his father has lived his life drove home the fact that making an impact is all about integrity and honoring your word) Dr. Dave discusses why we all need to think about how we’re showing up in our practices. Listen in to hear what he says makes a great leader and his advice for all dentists to level up their lives, as well as their practices.

Key Quotes:

  • “Leadership is influence; nothing more, nothing less.”
  • “If you want hard workers, be the hardest worker in the room. If you want integrity, you have to honor your word and do what you say.”
  • “If you walk a straight line, if you practice what you preach if you develop a mission and core values that are very clear and you embody those values, it may take some work, but you’re bound to have a team that supports you in that mission, that vision, and those values.”
  • “As dentists, we often get wrapped around, how do we do this? What’s the strategy? What’s the recipe? Because that’s how we’re taught dentistry. … But leadership and running a practice and having an epic life is much different from that.”
  • “I think it’s important that, first, we know exactly what we want; that’s the clarity piece of high performance. Then, it’s important to know why we want it.”
  • “Goals are important, but the who—who do you have to become?—is probably the most important strategy to leveling up your life and leveling up your practice.”
  • “Think about what you want from your practice. Get that clarity. But realize who you have to become, what sort of leader and influencer you need to be, and start walking that.”

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