by Karah Karah | Mar 21, 2018 | Bold Biographies
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
It’s no secret that building a successful dental career is hard work. But when that hard work gives you the opportunity to create the career and lifestyle you want, there’s no question that it’s worth it. Just ask Dr. Josh Cochran.
The owner of Dr. C Family Dentistry, Josh saw his share of hardships as he worked to build his practice from scratch. In this episode, he shares the most important lessons he learned along the way, as well as what he’d do differently if he had it to do over again. Listen in to hear how he overcame the major struggles he faced on his journey to success, his advice for dentists still building their careers, and what makes it all worth it in the end.
Key Quotes:
- “As I’m building a business, I’ve learned how important core values are. … I don’t care how attractive an applicant looks, or a vendor to work with; if their values don’t meet mine, I’m just not interested.”
- “Dentistry is like a clay you can mold to fit what you want, your life how you want to live it.”
- “I went in with private practice doctors who were fantastic doctors—great with their patients, great with staff members, just the nicest people—but they didn’t have a model for growth and success, so I was kind of like that appendage attached to the practice, and not actually part of the practice.”
- “If you can find a corporate gig where your morals aren’t feeling compromised, I think that’s the quickest path to success right out of school, and you’re going to do better financially.”
- “As long as the practice you’re working for is patient-centered and not profit-centered, I think you can be very successful right out of school.”
- “If you want the results, you have to be comfortable with the labor it takes to get there. … People ask me, ‘how do you work a three-day work week.’ Well, I started with 28 days a month.”
- “Really figure out what you want—how you want your life to be, what your focus is—and then you can find the path to get there.”
- “Customers, they want it all: the low price and the good service. And if you can differentiate yourself from the dental market by providing both of those—and convenience, as well … you’re going to be successful.”
- “You’ve gotta trust your gut when you’re interviewing people and when you’re working with people, but you also need to be real clear about what your values are. That way, when someone starts to not follow your vision and your values, you can identify it and talk to them.”
- “You don’t know what you don’t know. And so if you connect with other dentists in like an open forum where you can just chat … you’re going to see what else is going on out there, and you can get a really good feel for what’s available to you and where you want to go.”
Featured on the Show:
by Karah Karah | Oct 4, 2017 | Bold Biographies, Prescriptions for your Practice
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Being self-employed and running your own business can bring some incredible rewards. It also tends to bring many dilemmas and issues your way that other people may not understand. There are things that entrepreneurs tend to sabotage themselves and their business with that can easily be managed and avoided.
Peter Shallard, the “Shrink for Entrepreneurs” is here to share some insight on common issues entrepreneurs have and how to fix them.
On this episode, Peter tells us his story on how he ended up working mainly with self-employed entrepreneurs and why he loves what he does. He sheds some light on issues like self-sabotage, perfectionism, over-optimization syndrome, and discomfort avoidance. Peter explains how these issues can negatively affect your success and how to avoid thinking and acting in ways that bring on these problems.
Key Quotes:
- “The problem with self-employment has always been that it’s this very lonely place to sometimes be because you’re doing an incredible amount of work and you’re wrestling with problems and challenges that other people by nature of what they do just can’t quite connect with or understand.”
- “There are a huge number of small business owners that have an execution problem.
Who just don’t have the capacity or focus to take action on all the good ideas they have.” - “The self-sabotage kind-of kicks in because the human brain isn’t really that well optimized for operating in a state of kind-of social isolation.”
- “Perfectionism is a danger because it’s a false narrative, sort-of a self-deception, that we tell ourselves as a way to sort-of keep ourselves in the comfort zone and prevent ourselves from having to do work we fundamentally find scary.”
- “It’s more comfortable to be working on something than it is to finish it and put it out there in the world and find out, Oh this didn’t go quite as well as we thought it would go.”
- “Entrepreneurs learn and get the best kind of insights and experience from executing.”
- “There’s nothing of value or substance created in the business world without somebody leaning into discomfort and uncertainty and doing courageous work to make it happen.”
- “We’ve almost gotten so comfortable that we believe it’s bad to feel uncomfortable.”
Featured on the Show:
by Karah Karah | Sep 27, 2017 | Bold Biographies, Legendary Leadership, Magnificent Marketing
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
In this episode, Dr. Dave Bender (Fishers, Indiana) shares his entrepreneurial journey with us and explains how he balances both managing his three dental practices with living a healthy, active lifestyle. 
His early-set goal to own multiple practices was challenged with the difficulties of clinical dentistry, but he shares how his bigger vision for what he projected his business to become was the driving force for his success.
Dave carries with him a powerful message that can transform the way we run our practices. His progressive thinking coupled with his early childhood influences pushes him to always “be comfortable with being uncomfortable”.
In this episode, he shares how his experiences in corporate dentistry at Heartland Dental surprisingly counter the attitudes shared by most practicing dentists. He describes his continuing education courses with Heartland Dental as a value that he, otherwise, would not have experienced in a smaller practice. He later explains how he was unhappy with starting an associate driven practice because of the demanding high capital it required. He now thrives, in multiple aspects, with a co-partnership business model.
Key Quotes:
- Let us live so when we come to die, even the undertaker will be sorry. – Mark Twain
- With my early struggles – I was forced to be a better marketer, I was forced to run my practice a better way.
- I was forced to do whatever it took to make the patient experience what it could be so that they would tell their family and friends – and that’s honestly how we grew.
- The difficulties we had in the first couple of years forced me to be better and more intentional about our growth process.
- In 2013, I started an associate driven practice and that was a major mistake.
- Some will be good, a few will be great, but only one will be the best.
Featured on the Show:
by Karah Karah | Mar 1, 2017 | Bold Biographies, Magnificent Marketing, Prescriptions for your Practice
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
This week, I’m thrilled to bring you an interview with fellow podcaster Dr. Peter Boulden: dentist, marketer, and businessman extraordinaire. Peter is the brains behind the Bulletproof Dental Practice podcast and the owner of several dental practices.
Peter is here to talk about why he loves the business side of dentistry and what attracted him to the profession in the first place. He’s also one of the best advisors on dental marketing and systems out there, so be sure to tune in for that advice!
We chat about Peter’s first job out of dental school and why he offered to work three months for free – seriously! – just to be at a practice he admired. We then cover entrepreneurship and the ups and downs of owning your own practices. Peter shares some of the quotes and books that motivate him now and in hard times, and why he thinks perfectionism is a detrimental concept. He’s also chock-full of actionable marketing tips you won’t want to miss!
Key Quotes:
- I knew that my chances of being successful were more enhanced by coming back to the place where people knew and loved me.
- As a new grad, you have the tools but you are by no means ready to roll.
- People told me we were gonna fail, which is kind of a blessing because it fuels you every morning.
- I like the multiple ownership model because it keeps me busy, and I get to flex my muscles with marketing and systems and all that stuff.
- I’m a big fan of reverse engineering – visualizing what I want and then filling in the steps going backwards.
- I don’t strive for perfection; I strive for progress and value.
- People have depth in so many areas that I don’t and I just want to pull all the pearls I can from their brain.
- No one has a vested interest to grow your practice the way you’re going to.
- People will pay for value – and the same thing can transcend for dentistry.
- The only sure thing you have in this world is you. You are your best investment. So don’t doubt for a second that you can do it.
Featured on the Show:
- Dr. Peter Boulden: [email protected] | (678) 887-1005
- Bulletproof Dental Practice
- Atlanta Dental Spa
- It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
—Theodore Roosevelt - Tim Ferriss
- Dr. Rich Creasman
- David Hornbrook
- Dr. Debra Gray King
- Dr. Trent Smallwood
- Dr. Mark Costes on Bulletproof Dental Practice: Expanding Your Practice Through Acquisitions
- Dr. Steve Rasner on RDP: Dr. Steven Rasner’s Bold Biography
- Dr. Steve Rasner on BDP: How to Have A Thriving FFS Dental Practice
- The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber
- The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies by Michael Gerber and Chet Holmes
- Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Tim Ferriss
by Karah Karah | Aug 14, 2015 | Bold Biographies
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Quotes & Notes:
- Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.
- The possibility of being more of an entrepreneur as a dentist was really what made me go that direction [of being a dentist].
- There are a lot of different models in dentistry. I think one of the more popular models is to build your practice the first few years to a comfortable size and then basically maintain that exact practice for 30 years and then retire. For me, I just sort of push into the next level every year and try to do something new and different.
- I found a good, nice visible location, and then had a marketing plan in place, made it into a nice attractive practice, had smart insurance participation. A lot of planning went into it to make the practice look different from the rest of the practices out there.
For the dentist that is struggling to get into ownership, one of the things that I have learned over the years is pursue multiple paths at the same time.
- In my career, the two points of frustration were definitely when I first graduated residency and did not have a very successful associateship path and during my first startup, I really learned a lesson. I found this area that had high demand, but they’re really weren’t commercial spaces available.
- What are you scared of? The little old lady who has been wearing her dentures for decades and just wants a nice replacement.
- What have been the main barriers to your success? Mainly mindset, what’s in between my two ears.
- Go out there find the dentists that you want to spend time with.
- Dr. Graham Dersley would recommend that every dentist read How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, as well as The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox.
If you would like to learn more from Dr. Graham Dersley, you can reach him with his email, [email protected] or even on Dental Town. If you would like to learn more about the meeting you can go to practiceonfire.com where you can also register.
If you enjoyed this episode, we would love a 5-star review on iTunes:
