25 Reasons You Can Be Thankful to Be a Dentist – Episode 311

“I consider many of my patients as close friends.” “Great job security—people won’t floss and most don’t eat well.” “It’s the best overall job in healthcare.” This Thanksgiving, why are you grateful to be a dentist? For this episode of the Dentist Money™ Show, Ryan and Matt polled members of the Dentist Advisors Facebook Group for the reasons why they feel blessed to be in dentistry.

 

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Podcast Transcript

Ryan Isaac:
Hello everybody, and welcome back to a very special, thankful, grateful edition of the Dentist Money Show, sponsored by Dentist Advisors a no-commission, fiduciary comprehensive financial advisor just for dentists like you all over the country. Check us out at dentistadvisers.com. Today, Matt and I are doing something a little different. I reached out to the dental community at large and a lot of our friends and clients out there, and I asked, “What are you grateful for in the field of dentistry? What have you learned, What lessons have you learned that you’re grateful for, being a dentist or in the field of dentistry?” And we have the coolest responses. By the end of this podcast, I was just pumped and excited and just feeling really happy and grateful. And I’m grateful to be a part of all this, to be around.

Ryan Isaac:
We’re grateful to you for listening for so many years, or if you’re new, if you’re joining us for the first time, we really, seriously, super appreciate it. If you’d like to chat with us, go to dentistadvisers.com, click on the, ‘book free consultation’ link, have a chat with one of our friendly dental specific advisors today. Thanks for being here, everybody, enjoy the show.

Announcer:
Consult an advisor or conduct your own due diligence when making financial decisions. General principles, discussed doing this program do not constitute personal advice. This program is furnished by Dentist Advisors, a registered investment advisor. This is Dentist Money. Now, here’s your host, Ryan Isaac.

Ryan Isaac:
Welcome to the Dentist Money Show, where we help dentists make smart financial decisions and avoid the bad ones along the way. I’m a turkey named Ryan Isaac and I’m here with a fellow turkey, Matt, the Hollywood Mountain, Matt Mulcock. What’s up, Turkey Matt?

Matt Mulcock:
Yo, Ryan. Happy soon-to-be-turkey Thanksgiving Day.

Ryan Isaac:
It is a turkey episode on this turkey day for this turkey podcast, and we are just turkey excited.

Matt Mulcock:
This is coming out the day before turkey day, right?

Ryan Isaac:
I think it is, I think it is. Matt, what is your favorite Thanksgiving dish to partake of? Can you narrow that down?

Matt Mulcock:
Yes.

Ryan Isaac:
You can go a few, but I’m just curious.

Matt Mulcock:
That’s a tough one. I’ve got a couple… I’ve got, so…

Ryan Isaac:
And first of all, are you traditional, like, full-on turkey meal, oven turkey, basting, roasting, stuffing?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, not me, I’ll eat that but I’m not cooking that.

Ryan Isaac:
Someone else cook. [chuckle]

Matt Mulcock:
I’m not cooking that. [chuckle] But yes, I will eat that. But here’s my hot take, I’m gonna hit you with a hot take first and then I’ll circle back around to my favourite.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay. I got one, yeah.

0:02:13.0 S3: Turkey is overrated, man.

Ryan Isaac:
That was my take too. I don’t think it’s good.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, it’s not that… It’s not good. It’s fine, and it reminds me obviously of the holiday, which I love, but it’s not…

Ryan Isaac:
It’s not that great.

Matt Mulcock:
It’s not good. But my favorite is… It’s gotta be the sweet potatoes. Do you guys do the candied sweet potatoes?

Ryan Isaac:
I love that. We don’t, someone in my family, grandma, I think used to do that. And I miss that. Yeah. I was gonna say the same…

Matt Mulcock:
That’s controversial as well, ’cause not everyone loves that, but I am a sucker for those things.

Ryan Isaac:
Love sweet potatoes, I love me some mash. Lately, the last couple of years, just our little family, we’ve just been doing… We’ll just smoke some meats. So this year, particularly though, there is a version of tri-tip that is made at this little market literally across the street from the beach at Encinitas, its called Seaside Market. It’s like branded, it’s probably trademarked, they call it, Cardiff Crack. Cardiff is the reef that’s there. Cardiff crack, it’s this tri-tip. If you’ve ever had Cardiff crack in this area, you know what I’m talking about.

Matt Mulcock:
No, but I wanna.

Ryan Isaac:
It is the most unbelievable tri-tip meat, I have no idea what’s going on. But you just go buy it, put it in your fridge and then you can slow smoke it. So I’m gonna do that. And then if I can pronounce this correctly, my wife is an artisan of creating charcuterie boards.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, you nailed it. It’s a tough word.

Ryan Isaac:
Charcuterie.

Matt Mulcock:
Charcuterie.

Ryan Isaac:
I like saying charcuterie and I love just… There’s just something about a giant board of meat, cheeses and crackers, which I love crackers and chips more than anything. Dips.

Matt Mulcock:
There is something about that, its called… There’s something glorious about that, just meat cheeses and…

Ryan Isaac:
Dips and chips.

Matt Mulcock:

And dips. So lets be real, man.

Ryan Isaac:
That’s what we’re gonna do.

Matt Mulcock:
I’m flying… When am I flying out? When am I coming down to your house, ’cause… Come on now.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s gonna be like 75 degrees, Yeah. It’s gonna be beautiful. Well…

Matt Mulcock:
I’ll be out there.

Ryan Isaac:
We have a cool episode today, a little bit different than normal. We wanted to do something obviously related to the Thanksgiving holiday and around gratitude there. In the past, we’ve done some episodes around studies of wealthy people and their habits of giving and being charitable, and the kind of impact that can have, and the impact it has on people’s lives when they’re charitable, so that’s in the archives. I would just say, be charitable. [chuckle] Be grateful, be charitable.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, that’s it. We’ll wrap it up.

Ryan Isaac:
I do think it makes a difference. We said this on a Dave Ramsey episode. One of my favorite parts of the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University Course that I remember going through, was his end step, which is giving, and I always liked hearing stories from people who gave and received, and I always just thought it was a really cool part of being in a position to do so. And I think it’s a big deal, man. So today… Okay, here’s what I did. I reached out to our Facebook group, I reached out to my… On my personal Facebook page, I sent a few people in the industry some private messages, and I was asking the question, and me and Matt are gonna answer the same question too. I asked the question, what have you done or seen or experienced or learned in the field in the career of dentistry that you’re grateful for? And, so that’s what we’re gonna do. I’m gonna read some of these answers and they’re really cool, I’ve got answers from dentist, I’ve got answers from office managers, hygienists that answered on the Facebook post, which was really cool. I’ve got an answer from a… I’m not gonna name names, but I think it would be cool if I did, but… ‘Cause they’re well-known and people love these people.

Matt Mulcock:
Give them shoutouts?

Ryan Isaac:
I’d give shoutouts, but I told people they’d be anonymous, but…

Matt Mulcock:
We’re not gonna name drop.

Ryan Isaac:
One of them is a very prominent dental consultant and coach in the industry, nationally. Another one is a dentist who has a gigantic group and does all kinds of speaking and content and is amazing. And so another one who’s a really national, well-known cosmetic dentist, big social media presence, his answer was super cool. So anyway, these are the people, we’re just gonna go and read some of these things. Matt, you prepared a few things, right?

Matt Mulcock:
Yep.

Ryan Isaac:
That you’re gonna wanna share. I’m gonna hit our Facebook group first, so this is first and foremost an advertisement that you should join the Facebook group. We would be really grateful.

Matt Mulcock:
That’s a shameless plug there.

Ryan Isaac:
We would be super grateful if you went to the Dentist Advisor’s discussion group on Facebook…

Matt Mulcock:
I see what you did there. We’d be so grateful for that.

Ryan Isaac:
And joined us and then you post a question. Actually, Matt, I saw that you posted something about inflation today, so…

Matt Mulcock:
I did.

Ryan Isaac:
Look, if you’re not in there…

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, well, Finance Friday, I just made that up. I was just like, “Let’s do this.” This isn’t a thing, but now it is.

Ryan Isaac:
It is now, and so you missed it. If you’re not in there, you missed Matt’s Finance Friday on inflation. You should be in the Dentist Advisor’s discussion group. You would be grateful for it, and we would be too, so… Anyway, so this was the question, what are you grateful for? Or what have you learned about the career, being in the industry of dentistry? Maybe it’s opportunities or just things that have come along the way. So I’m just gonna start going down this list, which is super cool. This first person, I believe, is a pedodonist. He said, interactions with the kids, friendships from dental school, and he said, a full work week is often only four days long, which I’m like, “Yeah.”

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, I dig that.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, that is pretty awesome. The income potential, the relative ease of getting business funding, and of course, this is probably my favorite point of gratitude, the Dentist Money show. So he said he’s grateful for the Dentist Money show.

Matt Mulcock:
I saw that and I love that. I love the little shout out.

Ryan Isaac:
One thing I like about what this person said that is really true, I’m not sure a lot of… You know when you’re in something for a while, you just get used to it and it just seems normal to you, I’m not sure a lot of dentists realize this, I didn’t realize this being an advisor to dentists until I saw some outside other businesses try to raise capital, including dentist advisors 15 years ago, trying to get some start-up business loans as a fledgling, struggling little start-up business with two people. It was more actually like 1.25 people. Reese Harper was a full person, I was like a quarter of a person.

Ryan Isaac:
But it was crazy how hard it was to get an SBA loan, get a little cash in the business or something. And the ease of getting funding in dentistry… The real driver between any growth and your ability to produce and have people and grow and equipment and all these things, and more profit, more income, is the ability to get funding for it. And I remember talking to a dental banker once, we’ve shared this before, but he was sharing… And this is probably a couple of years ago, so I don’t know how the statistics have changed after COVID, but he was saying that dental start-up loans had a default rate of about a quarter of 1%.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, it’s like a rounding error.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s like basically a rounding error, and mostly due to unforeseen circumstances like a divorce or an illness or death or something. And I just remember thinking, I don’t know what other industry you could come out of school, green as green can be and just be like, “Hey bank, I would like $500,000 for this business and another 100 to 200 in some working capital so I can just spend it.” And the bank’s like, “Yeah, cool. Here’s some paperwork, it’s…

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, let’s do that.

Ryan Isaac:
It might be an annoying two or three weeks of underwriting, but that’s how loans go, and here you go. Oh, and you can have it on a 15-year fixed rate loan at like 3.5%,” you know?

Matt Mulcock:
Basically free money. Yeah, here you go.

Ryan Isaac:
So it’s kind of insane. I think it is one of the coolest things about the field of dentistry that I’ve come to appreciate more as I’ve just watched other industries try to get money. If you’re in the tech business, we always hear stories of people selling tech platforms and businesses and making billions of dollars. But what it took to get money, what you had to give up, sell off, sacrifice, put on the altar…

Matt Mulcock:
Pitch.

Ryan Isaac:
Dude, it was so much to raise money, and a dentist can just call any number of bankers right now. And they just want you… They want your business and they’ll give you competitive rates, so… You can buy real estate, commercial, gigantic real estate buildings as a dentist with no money down.

Matt Mulcock:
It’s incredible.

Ryan Isaac:
Where else does this happen? So, love the shoutout to what he said. It’s getting business funding, relative ease of getting business funding. Here’s another response, and Matt, stop me any time. I feel like I’m just kind of rambling on this stuff, but… Jump in any time, man.

Matt Mulcock:
No, this is great. I want the people… I want us to highlight the people.

Ryan Isaac:
I know, I love this stuff. Okay, so this other person, long-time friend and client and well-respected, very successful dentist, he listed a few things, he said, “Number one, I truly know my patients and consider many of them close friends.” Matt, you and I were talking about this a couple of weeks ago on an episode, what it’s like to be a financial advisor. And we have people we call clients, but really after a while, we’re friends with these people, and it makes… We were saying this the other day, you can look at your calendar and be like, “Oh, I’ve got six meetings on the calendar today. It’s gonna be a lot of emails and some texts I got to respond to. It’s gonna be a long day.” But when you get on the phone with your friends and you’re really legitimately trying to help that person and come to some conclusions, getting them answers, ease their burdens, it just gives you energy, you know? So I relate to that first point. Anything you wanna say about that… But just having your clients be your friends, you know?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. No, I mean, you’re sharing some things probably off both of our lists.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh, these are on your list too?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, no. I mean I would imagine there are probably a lot of parallels here. But just the power of the relationships that we have, and I think that’s one of the main… Again, I may be jumping ahead here now, but just…

Ryan Isaac:
No, it’s… Totally, man.

Matt Mulcock:
The power of being able to be in a… This is a lesson I learned coming from a big, massive company on the other end of the spectrum in the industry, to then now a small niche, boutique RAA. I’ve been here for almost four years now, and just the power of the relationships you can build… And what I’m so grateful for is the relationships you can build not only with your clients, but with your team has been… The level of gratitude I have for that is indescribable.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Team is another one that got brought up a lot, but yeah, it’s just such a relationship-heavy industry dentistry is. Number two, he said, “It allows me to be in the healthcare industry and be an independent small business owner. Not many health care fields have that option left,” which is very true, and changing in dentistry somewhat. He said, “You get to fix stuff, broken, infected teeth, usually, all day long.” So, fixing things all day long. If you’re a fixer personality, I bet that’s pretty awesome. He said, “A patient can come in with a problem and usually get it fixed all in my office. Most healthcare system requires many appointments for labs, imaging, specialists, consultants.” Yeah, you think about that sometimes, you break an arm and you might be in three offices over the course of a couple of weeks. You break a tooth, and you can see one person in one afternoon and get pain resolved and get a fix for it. That’s a really cool perspective I’ve never really thought about. But I appreciate that. No one wants to go to multiple appointments and spread out their pain over weeks, He says, “I rarely get called much less work at night or weekends. Four days of dentistry,” so another shoutout to a shorter work week, “Is considered full-time.” And he said, “All in all the best overall job in healthcare.”

Ryan Isaac:
So yeah, and this is kind of a repeated pattern we’ll see from people. This shorter work week is one of the biggest powers we talk about in someone’s financial planning future. Because you can work in dentistry a couple of days a week and make a six-figure income, and have longevity do it, if you’re physically, mentally, emotionally equipped to keep going, I mean, you can be a dentist for a long time, and that income-earning potential is just so powerful with your future financial planning and investment strategy, so if you can, Matt you say it all the time, balance over burnout, achieve that somehow and go for longevity. Go for it if you can get it. Okay, so I’m gonna switch to another list, this was on my personal… There are so many good answers here. Some of these are your clients, Matt.

Matt Mulcock:
Are they really?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, I like this. This one comes from my personal Facebook page, just ’cause I wanted some more people to see it. One person said, the top answer better be Halloween candy. Not a dentist, it was a friend of mine, and I was like, “Yeah, good call,” ’cause they have all the kids turn in their Halloween candy every year. You get to help people. So you’ll see some common themes here. This is someone’s list. “You get to help people, you can make a great living if you wanna work, you can be your own boss, you’re not controlled by hospital admin staff, insurance companies, Medicare, government, like medical doctors are. This is huge, given current climate of just how the medical industry runs, intertwined with big companies, government, that kind of stuff. You can pick and choose procedures you want to do from a huge list of options.” I haven’t thought about that, actually, especially as a GP and… Yeah, that’s very true. You can be a specialist as a general dentist, really, in a lot of different ways. Job security from now until the end of time in general. People in general won’t floss and most don’t eat well.

Matt Mulcock:
Touché, touché.

Ryan Isaac:
I love that. I actually didn’t… I didn’t read through all these ’cause I wanted it to be fresh when I read through them, and this…

Matt Mulcock:
You’re live tweeting these right now.

Ryan Isaac:
For me, yeah, this is great. There will never be a time when a dentist isn’t needed, and… Oh, this person says, “Holler at me if you wanna make a podcast. If you want me to make a podcast cameo with Mountain Matt.”

Matt Mulcock:
Oh alright, I haven’t seen this list.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. And another person said… Yeah. Go to my… It’s on my personal Facebook page, I just made it personal, it’s a public post, so you can go see who said that. They said they wanna come on the show with you.

Matt Mulcock:
Alright.

Ryan Isaac:
That’s why I wanna be here, it’s ’cause Matt’s here. So, I agree. Someone said, there’s another person, she said mentors and great teachers, and then she named a couple of dentists that are her mentors and teachers. You can relate to that, Matt, in this career. I certainly can relate to that. The power of having a mentor and a teacher bring you up in the world of your career, it might sound cheesy to some people sometimes, but I think once you’ve gone through that course of action or just that relationship with someone where… Someone more experienced, wiser, smarter, can see the road a little bit better, and they walk you through the beginning phases of your career and get you launched, I had that in Reese Happer and still feel like I do, and then as we’ve added more team, I feel like I’ve got that, and it’s just… That’s a huge one, man, it means a lot to have other people that care about you, who see things you don’t see, teach you along the way. And you’ve probably had the same thing in your career too, and it’s cool that dentists relate to that.

Matt Mulcock:
100%, yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
That’s a very relatable thing. Okay, mentors and teachers. Here’s another one, connecting with patients here. I liked what he said, he said he loves to hear the amazing things people do for work and how they pivoted in their careers. I like that this person says that they like connecting with their patients and hearing what they do for work and how they pivoted in their career. You think about big dental practices, thousands of people that you just get to see, what do people do for life and work.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, that’s no mystery for us, we wouldn’t have that same luxury of wondering what people do for work.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, what do you do for work?

Matt Mulcock:
When it comes to our clients. What do you do for work? Okay?

Ryan Isaac:
Something with teeth. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, I think this might be one of your clients here, we’re not naming names still. I can’t remember if this is you or Will. I’ll just read what he said here. I hope I haven’t read these because I wanted to keep them fresh, so if someone snuck anything in here, I’ll try not to read it.

Matt Mulcock:
Well, you’ll just brush over it.

Ryan Isaac:
I’ll try… He said, grateful that I… Let’s see, grateful that I get to choose the rock star team I see and work with everyday, yeah. Grateful that I get to create and cultivate the team culture and patient experience to be one that’s positive and uplifting. As a practice owner and dentist, this is one of the things I’m most grateful for each day because it’s something that brings me joy. Each day walking to the practice I created and treating patients the way I want to treat them with the people I enjoy treating them with, very cool… Yeah, you create of course, the team that you’re around, the thing I like that he said there that I relate to a lot, is the creation of culture, and that can be hard when you buy an existing business or you join an existing team as a team member, but when you’re someone who’s beginning a company, maybe it’s a start-up, maybe you’re buying a practice, and a lot of the old staff or doctors are leaving, you get to create that culture and here at Dentist Advisors, I’ve loved being able to shape a culture that I think…

Ryan Isaac:
Still, we do a good job of being educators before we’re sales people, which is the opposite in our financial industry, usually it’s sales people first and then not really educators at all. [chuckle] But I really like that, I relate to that because it’s something that makes me very happy in a company we have been a part of and seen grow, that we get to create that culture and we get to bring people in and I feel like the people we bring in Matt, that’s their personality too. That’s their desire. They wanna come in and teach people and educate people with the assumption that if you have an opinion and a philosophy and you teach it to someone else, and then you share that philosophy, you’ll work together ’cause it’s gonna be mutually beneficial.

Matt Mulcock:
I mean, I’ll be honest, that’s exactly… People will ask me, when we’re interviewing, let’s say new advisors or new team members, I just… This just happened recently, ’cause we’re obviously growing and we’re starting to interview and try to be forward thinking in bringing team members on. I got into a conversation with someone recently. And this person asked me, “What was it that brought you to Dentist Advisors? What was it that brought you and then what’s made you stay?” This whole time, and my first answer as far as what brought me here was exactly what you have just said when I met you and I met Reese and I met Justin and the whole team. I remember there… And it’s funny, what you just said about education and leading with education, I remember vividly standing in the office and we were kind of going through… We had done some interviews and whatever, and I remember, he just looked at me and said, “Matt, the difference between us and anywhere else you’ll ever work in this industry is that we truly sell with education,” and I was like, “Oh my… ” This is exactly what I want. Like you said, like-minded people that are doing this… Trying to do this the right way. Not perfect, obviously. Well, maybe you are… But we’re working on it…

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Totally, yeah, exactly. Most people describe me that way. Perfect. [chuckle]

Matt Mulcock:
I do, yes, I do. But no, it’s a great point. It’s just when you find a team that is love like-minded individuals trying to do it the right way and all kind of build around this foundation of, like you said, or like he said, selling with education, selling via education and having that kind of heart of a teacher, I think it is. I can tell you it is very rare in this industry.

Ryan Isaac:
So this is a good time to be selfish, this is an advertisement, live advertisement.

Matt Mulcock:
So with that…

Ryan Isaac:
With that, oh it’s a good time to say, as you listen to these episodes and you get comfortable with who we are and the way we think and the way we talk, you wanna chat with one of us, dentistadvisors.com, you can book a free consultation, any time and yeah, if you’re looking for a financial relationship where you will be taught, sometimes I feel bad I get on client calls and I could just talk for hours and I’m like, “Let’s dive into the weeds on every subject ’cause it’s fun to talk about it and let’s nerd out together.” This is an important announcement from the dentist Money Show Podcast system, go to dentistadvisors.com, and click the big green book free consultation button, schedule a time for your free consultation and save your financial future.

Matt Mulcock:
Ryan, don’t you think it’s a bit much?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, it’s probably a little bit much, but I think some of our listeners might find getting a consultation should be more like an emergency.

Matt Mulcock:
They probably should. We are saving financial lives.

Ryan Isaac:
I’m gonna share, I have one more on this Facebook post, but I’m gonna jump in and share one that I think is relevant. I sent a message to a really prominent national… He is a cosmetic dentist, but nationally known, a huge social media, especially Instagram presence, kind of pioneered some really…

Matt Mulcock:
Points, if you can guess.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh, yeah, really smart…

Matt Mulcock:
Gold star.

Ryan Isaac:
Really smart, and pioneered some technology that is changing the industry completely, very well known, very loved and respected guy. I asked him the same question, and he only responds in voice memos, which I love… I love voice memos, but he was saying, this morning, he was telling me that there was a point… He’s been a dentist for quite a long time, and there was a point about four years ago where he was just getting a little frustrated with… He had consultants and people telling him how you’re supposed to do dentistry, and this wasn’t a knock on them, but there’s, in everywhere in life, I guess, expectations of what you’re supposed to do, dentistry is supposed to be taught like this, or sold like this, and then when a patient comes through, you have to do this, and here’s what happens next, and he said, he remember hitting a point four years ago where he was like, “You know what, I’m kind of tired of selling the dentistry or the treatment plans like this, this way,” and he totally switched it up where he was getting more personally involved with the treatment presentation, treatment plan presentation, and sitting down with people and just telling them very directly like, “Look, this is what I personally think is best for you, and you’re here because you trust us and you liked us and you drove here and you wanted to be here, but this is what I think you will be the happiest with.

Ryan Isaac:
Here are some other options. If that is not the best option for you, but I think it is. Here’s other course of action you can take, let’s find a way to get you there,” and I’d have to replay it to do it justice in his own words, but just along those same lines of just kind of coming to that conclusion of like, I’m just gonna be real and authentic and honest, and I’m just gonna teach what I really think is best, I implement this stuff, I believe this stuff and I’m just gonna teach it and give everyone all of their options on the table, and let’s lead them to the best path for them, let them choose and lead them to the best path with as much education as possible, so.

Matt Mulcock:
I love that. We’ve kind of intermingled at least you’ve literally hit my whole list.

Ryan Isaac:
Your whole list of things?

Matt Mulcock:
Which isn’t surprising but, ’cause I think there’s a lot of… And again, one of my things was, one of the lessons I’ve learned is what you just hit, which is how many parallels there are to our industry serving dentists and how dentists serve patients, and I don’t think that’s some incredible epiphany. Everyone’s like, “Oh, I never thought about that before.” It’s because we’re in the relationship business and we’re in the education business, but I love that quote in that story, ’cause that’s exactly how I feel we approach our business and our clients, right?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Yeah, totally, man. It’s so many parallels. I’m gonna read one from a long time… I had to look this up. I apologize if she listens to this because I didn’t know what the acronym meant, EDDA Expanded Duty Dental Assistant. So I think it’s a very highly trained dental assistant that has expanded duties. [chuckle]

Matt Mulcock:
I can’t believe you didn’t know what EDDA meant.

Ryan Isaac:
EDDA.

Matt Mulcock:
EDDA.

Ryan Isaac:
She’s been that for 21 years.

Matt Mulcock:
Wow.

Ryan Isaac:
And so she said, I’m not a dentist, but she chimed in here and said, I have been doing this for 20 years. What I thought was really cool is she said, helping a patient regain their want to smile, we’ve all seen the patient who comes in, hasn’t been in years in pain, won’t crack a smile for any reason and just wants to address what’s hurting, and she says, “All it takes is some compassion for who and where they are, a conversation to their why and boom, you’ve got a patient who wants to not only get out of pain but also address their other struggles, and when you finally get them to smile, you show them what they look like, now, it’s priceless.” She says, “Many have asked why I’m not a hygienist or even a dentist at this point, my answer is always, I care more about my patients, and I’m really happy with what I do on a daily basis. Daily basis. It’s never been a job.” She’s just super cool.

Matt Mulcock:
What a killer story…

Ryan Isaac:
What a great response man, I don’t… Well, I can’t say that I don’t know what that would feel like. Matt, you’ve had clients who had financial situations that were causing them like absolute anguish and probably had bled into parts of their lives that were destructive and harmful and making them unhealthy in some ways, and so I can kinda relate to that feeling of… When you get to be a part of a solution that eases someone’s pain and burden, it’s just really cool. And I love that she said that, that’s a really great 21 years, man, I mean [0:27:42.9] ____ ways to go to get there.

Matt Mulcock:
It’s amazing.

Ryan Isaac:
Let me share a couple of more and then maybe we can hit our quick list really fast… I have one, I wish I could name names ’cause everyone loves these people, but this comes from a practicing dentist, but a big time national speaker, everyone knows, he’s got a great nickname, and his group has a great nickname, but that’s all I’m gonna say, ’cause I told everyone it would be anonymous.

Matt Mulcock:
Gold star if you guess that one.

Ryan Isaac:
If you guess these, you can just message me privately and say what you think they are, and I’ll say yes or no, ’cause I don’t think they would really care, but probably they won’t. He says, “I’m super grateful for the opportunity to help human beings chew and smile with confidence. This is way more important than most people think that have no issues with their teeth.” I was just thinking this reading the previous one from the EDDA, having the chance to be a part of the solution for that must feel amazing. So this is another part of that. “Yeah, this is way more important than most people think who have no issues with their teeth like me, not having teeth that work right, affects self-esteem, the ability to get a job, make new friends and much more a great article on this is the Moral-Hazard Myth by Malcom Gladwell. I’ve never read that, but this is highly recommended from a smart person who recommends it, the Moral-Hazard Myth by Malcolm Gladwell simply put the ability to help people feel better about themselves and create an opportunity for them to feel less alone, is what I love about being a dentist.” Freak yes.

Matt Mulcock:
I love it.

Ryan Isaac:
Man I wish I could just name his name, ’cause that’s just beautiful. That was super cool. Okay, one last one. This is from a national dental consultant. If I say too much, everyone is just gonna guess who this is, everyone loves her, and she’s just all over the place for years and years, and so many dang offices. It’s crazy, she said, “Things I’ve learned are to be insanely thankful for the team and offices that I get to be a part of, I used to take them for granted thinking I could replace people easily, sometimes.” She said, “Over the last couple of years has taught me to appreciate them so much and show them, and also for other industry leaders who inspire me to keep going, to give advice on how they are doing it, when I feel all is lost, they keep inspiring me.” So team people and just other mentors and teachers in the industry, a lot of people resonate with that, so… That’s my list, Matt. That was some responses.

Matt Mulcock:
I love it.

Ryan Isaac:
I think I covered them all I wanted to actually say everything that someone took the time to respond to, it’s just…

Matt Mulcock:
Those are some good responses in there2.

Ryan Isaac:
I feel like just really happy and super pumped up now because just hearing everyone be grateful for this stuff, Matt, we probably covered your whole list… I had one, I had one on here that actually wasn’t mentioned, but it’s because it’s kind of specific to our industry working with dentists, but any on your list that we didn’t cover?

Matt Mulcock:
Let’s hear it. Again, we pretty much hit, not verbatim, but I’ve got other things that I could certainly add of lessons that I’ve learned.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, if you want to.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, so one thing that I wrote down here, really the first thing is that… This maybe sounds kind of weird, but I was… The first thing I wrote when you and I started talking about this was a lesson I learned is that like we’re all in this together, and what I mean by that is, every single person we talk to, whether they be a client, someone, we just talk to in an event, whatever it may be. And the same rings true for us as well, we all want the same thing, which is peace of mind around our money and all the different areas of our life that money touches, which is pretty much everything. And so that’s the lesson that I’ve learned and why I’m grateful for that, and kind of learning that over the years is kind of the parallels, a lot of these same comments that have been made that you’ve read is how insanely grateful I am to be able to help even in some small way to bring that piece of mind to people and play some role in that, even if it’s just showing people where they stand, I’m beyond grateful for that.

Ryan Isaac:
I think the thing I was gonna say that I’m really grateful for, and I’m still learning this lesson, it’s still kind of ongoing, and there’s probably not a point where it’s totally learned or experienced the other way, but early in a career, I think it’s really easy to set your sights on the milestones that you think you’ll achieve happiness. Especially when you’re in 20s and 30s and you’re just scrambling and grinding to make something happen in your life and for your family, it’s easy to set milestones, whether it’s maybe a house or certain material possessions or a certain income level. We’ve talked about that before, “When I make X, then I’ll be fine” or whatever.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s so easy to do that and it’s really easy, especially when you’re younger, because sometimes you have more time, less demands on your time from other things and other people to really maybe obsess about it or just work so hard towards some of these milestones that you might overlook things along the way. And not that milestones or goals are bad or anything like that, that’s great, and everyone has different things that motivate them completely. I guess what I’m saying is, over a long period of time, I’ve been able to watch people’s careers grow and mature. They’ve hit the milestones, they’ve bought the houses, the cars, the vacations they wanted, they hit the incomes levels they’ve wanted, the liquidity levels, whatever, and watching people say no to some opportunities and in place and being able to have more balance in their lives, pursue hobbies, do scary things that were… Maybe made them make less money, cut back hours, say no to growth opportunities because they really wanted to coach little league or they just wanted to spend more time at home or pursuing a hobby.

Ryan Isaac:
Trying to implement those things in my life has probably been one of the most impactful things that I’ve been able to have in my life, to try to have some balance around chasing a career and trying to make money and save money and do all these things we know we’re supposed to do, so I just think I’m super grateful for watching people and having good examples around me of what you always say, balance over burnout. I’ve seen some incredible examples of both sides of that phrase, and I’ve just… I’ve been able to learn from that, and I’m really grateful for that. And grateful just for all these people, man, like the career of a financial advisor is you kind of get this unfair peek into so many people’s lives that no one else sees.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. And their psychology. Their belief system, their emotions around money, yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Yes, all of it, man. And you see the realness of it all, because it’s easy to look at someone who appears successful and they might be successful, but maybe there’s other things on the inside that other people don’t get to see and we kinda get to see that and it makes what you said so real, we’re all in this together, we’re all just humans, we all have our strengths and weaknesses, and it’s cool to feel relatable with that. So, anyway.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, it’s funny, just really quick, it’s funny that we didn’t share our list with each other.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, I know, yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
And you were just going over that and I’m looking down at my list ’cause we didn’t… Again, I didn’t share verbatim, ’cause a lot of the stuff you already hit was stuff that obviously we had on our list, but it’s funny, as you’re going over that, I’m looking at one of these things on the list, and I wrote down a lesson I’ve learned is, “A step often missed or forgotten is first of finding what success means to you.” This needs to be revisited regularly throughout your life.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh, yes.

Matt Mulcock:
And it’s just so funny that… It’s not surprising, obviously, we do this, you and I talk multiple times a week. We’re doing this podcast all the time, so it’s not surprising that we’re gonna have the same list, but it’s just funny that like you said, “Hey, write down these things, here’s what we’re gonna do.” And we pretty much have the same…

Ryan Isaac:
Same stuff. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
The same stuff. The same mindset around this. Is just… It’s cool to see.

Ryan Isaac:
It is cool, man and I… And it’s cool that a lot of people are experiencing these things and yeah, I feel incredibly lucky, insanely lucky to be where I’m at, and the people that I’ve met along the way, and all of you, and seriously, I think our producer said we’ll be coming up on our millionth download or something?

Matt Mulcock:
0:36:05.8 S4: Yeah man, I saw that. It blew me away. [chuckle]

Ryan Isaac:
There’s much, much, much bigger podcasts even in the dental world than this one.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Our tiny little…

Ryan Isaac:
This lowly little project.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
But that’s just my…

Matt Mulcock:
But that’s pretty cool, man.

Ryan Isaac:
Unbelievably mind-blowing to me.

Matt Mulcock:
A million downloads, yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
And I’m just so grateful for people who listen and they purposely choose to spend 30 minutes and listen to our voices, talk about things we think are important to us and that we think are helpful to other people, so thank you for listening. If you’re new, thanks for being here, if you’re not new, thanks for sticking around all these years, and I love hearing the messages and people text me and be like, “I listened to this episode,” or they send me screenshots of it playing in the car or something, and it’s really cool. Matt to you.

Matt Mulcock:
Can I?

Ryan Isaac:
Yes.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh sorry, go ahead, please.

Ryan Isaac:
Well, I was just gonna say, man, I’m grateful that you stepped in. I don’t know when it was a year and a half ago or something…

Matt Mulcock:
Something like that.

Ryan Isaac:
And for freaking Reese Harper for just being… [chuckle]

Matt Mulcock:
I was gonna say… I was just gonna… How do we go a episode like this without saying thank you to Reese.

Ryan Isaac:
Just thanks to Reese. He started this business in ’07, with nothing. And he took a chance on me when he had no payroll to pay me, and I’m just so lucky and grateful to be here so many years later for him as a mentor and a teacher, and Matt, you jumping in, I’m so glad you joined us, man. So this is just awesome. Appreciate that.

Matt Mulcock:
Talk about luck. Talk about luck, man. We won’t go into details of how I ended up here, but yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s good, man.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, it’s unbelievable. And like you said, Reese Harper, taking a chance on you, taking a chance on me and building this team out, it’s incredible. I don’t know if you have anything else, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t have a quote that we finish on.

Ryan Isaac:
Finn, I don’t. That was it. I was gonna close it all up, say thanks to everyone, so let’s just… Thank you everyone for joining, and Matt is gonna end it with this quote, I have no idea what it is but I’m stoked.

Matt Mulcock:
I’m just throwing this out there, so I just saw this come through. If you have not… One thing I’ll say is, if you have not subscribed to James Clear, his email, weekly email, I highly recommend it. Just go to it, I think it’s jamesclear.com, but… So this is just… This just seems very fitting, it’s a short one, but it says, “When in doubt, just say thank you. There’s no downside. Are you honestly worried about showing too much gratitude to the people in your life?”

Ryan Isaac:
“When in doubt, just say thank you.” Okay, thank you. I have no doubts, but thank you for everyone for listening and being here. Thanks Matty, happy Thanksgiving.

Matt Mulcock: Thanks Ryan.

Ryan Isaac:
We’ll catch you next time. Take care everybody. Bye-bye.

 

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