Reimagining Retirement: Strategies for a Fearless Transition – Episode #496

Working with a reduced schedule as you ease into retirement allows for a smoother transition, gives you added purpose, and extends the longevity of your savings. On this episode of the Dentist Money Show, Ryan and Kiera Dent, CEO and Founder of the Dental A Team, talk about the importance that meaningful work brings to your life and the benefits that can come with extending your dental career. 

Kiera will be a featured speaker at the Dentist Money Summit on June 21-22 in Park City, UT.

Show Notes
The Dental A Team

 

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Podcast Transcript

Kiera Dent:
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I am so excited because I’ve got Ryan Isaac on the podcast from Dentist Advisors. Ryan and I have this new great idea. I think it’s going to be our new podcast. Honestly, we should try and do that, Ryan, but welcome Ryan to the show. I’m so happy to have you here.

Ryan Isaac: 
Yeah, thanks for having me. The new idea for the pod… I feel like we only have new ideas for podcasts. That’s basically what we always talk about is like, I have a new podcast idea and we have a lot of them. This one sounds good though. I really think this one would be awesome. So we’ll make it happen.

Kiera Dent:
Yeah, I’m excited. And just so you guys know, Ryan and I, Dentist Advisors, Ryan talked to them a little bit about Dentist Advisors. I want them to know, just so you know, like what exactly is Dentist Advisors? You and I talk all the time. Every time I podcast with you, I feel like everyone should know who Dentist Advisors is already, just because you and I feel like we’re siblings. We’ve known each other for several years, but I never want to assume our audience knows who Dentist Advisors because you’re literally my financial planner and advisor, like you literally are my advisor. Ryan and I have calls, I have a call with him every month. I have a call with him tonight after we podcast. I’ve got my whole little list of questions, but I’m not a dentist, so explain what you do for dentists.

Ryan Isaac: 
Yeah, well first of all, you don’t have a whole little list. Your list is usually big with questions. But it’s good, I like that. I will just say this for the audience. I think that people do get like, I don’t know if it’s like this in consulting, that people get paranoid to use you too much, like, oh, I’m using too much of your time, I’m really sorry. I actually think the problem is the opposite. People don’t ask enough questions, they don’t take enough time to like have discussions. Is that the same in consulting? Do you find, like, they just, okay.

Kiera Dent:
Well, hold on, I’ll draw a line. Because there are some that aren’t self -aware enough to know that they actually are taking enough time. But those people, I tell them, I tell everyone, I’m like, ask me. Hit me up, ask all the questions. And if you’re ever overusing me, I’ll let you know. Don’t stress about it. So it takes that stress away. Because there are, I would say, I’ve had two clients where I’m like, whoa, we need to back this up. But I tell them. I tell them, all right, we’ve had a few too many combos. But no, I agree because I think they get so scared of that exact, they don’t want to be that person. So just lay it on the table. I tell all of our clients like, use me. I want to be a part of your team. Text me, call me any question that comes up for you because then I know you’re actually thinking about it. You’re using me as a consultant. Um, and if you ever become that person, I will happily let you know, but 99 % of the time you will not be that person. A surprise bill.

Ryan Isaac: 
Yeah, I’ll just send you a bill. Yeah, it’s rare to be that. Yeah, I just didn’t want to question shame you. I like your big list of questions. So yeah, okay.

Kiera Dent:
No, I don’t stress because Ryan, I know there’s a dual purpose to my questions. I know that 90 % of the time, the questions I come to you with, you’ll say, oh my gosh, Kiera, let’s do a podcast about that because you’re like my client and people don’t know this.

Ryan Isaac: 
Yeah, everyone has the same, yes, yes, same thing. People don’t know that. Okay, so who’s Dentist Advisors? We started 16 years ago. We’re what’s called a fiduciary, no commission fee only. It means we don’t sell any financial products. We don’t earn commissions from anything and we only work with dentists. And did you know yesterday was National Dentist Day, by the way? Okay, yeah, okay, good. It’s been an interesting thing to reflect on that thinking like the one dentist that got us into dental 16 years ago. He’s still a client too. But people ask us all the time, what’s the biggest financial mistake dentists make? And it’s mostly just being really unorganized and having a life full of tons and tons of consequential decisions coming at them at all times. So we built a business around getting dentists really, really financially organized. We built some custom data metrics that tell a story of how they’re progressing financially.

If they’re behind, if they’re on track for their goals. And then we just make a priority like we were just saying to meet a lot and have really high amounts of communication because you know, those things, organization, good data and talking to someone a lot will prevent a lot of mistakes, prevent a ton of mistakes. And it’s, it’s sucks. It really sucks how much progress you can make and how long it takes you to make progress and how one mistake can derail. Like a 60 second mistake could derail like a decade of financial progress. So that’s our goal, help Dentist make smart financial decisions. That’s us. Yeah.

Kiera Dent:
I love it. I love it so much. And I’m actually so glad you said that because it tees right into, I heard you guys talk about this when you and I met probably five, six years ago. And I’m like, oh my gosh, you’re right. Dentists are disorganized. Like the teams are disorganized. And it’s just that like everything’s coming at us all the time. You’re working in the clinical chair all the time. And so Ryan, I have been working for the last five, six years to build something that’s very complimentary to what you guys do in a way that’s also about getting organized the systems in your practice, with getting your team on board, with getting your numbers organized within. So I’m so happy you said that. And that’s actually something new that we just rolled out called practice momentum, where it literally is a way to get super organized, get 24 seven access to consulting team, to be able to ask your questions, but to get the base foundation and then to be literally on a track. This honestly, my idea came from watching the elements with Dentist advisors of I need to get them on a track where every single month.

There’s something that they can work on to get their practice systematized. So it doesn’t feel like this daunting journey that I’m on. There’s no way I’ll ever be able to find the way. And so I’m super jazzed. Practice Momentum has been epic. They get eight hours of access to consultants every single month. Plus we have like deep dives with other doctors. So you guys are just getting this like really inner circle to get organized, but also like dentists, I think in the financial world, for me, it’s fun with you to be able to like talk about it.

But as an owner, I don’t want to have to like learn the systems on my own and then try and go teach the team. So that’s, I think we’re not only teams got the niche of, we literally have it where we teach the doctors what the doctors need to know for business, but then teach the team and get your team bought into this. So you don’t actually have to do it. So doctors are literally raving about it. Uh, they’re loving it. Of course we still have our private, uh, come to you consulting as well, but that the whole idea of being disorganized and it’s no fault of your own. You’re busy in the chair.

Kiera Dent:
And I think like you also haven’t seen enough practices to know what are the systems I really need to put into place. What are like the number one things I need to work on right away. Same thing when I came to you, I felt like my finances were a mess, but I don’t think it’s because we’re unorganized as humans. It’s just, we also, we lack the knowledge because I’m not a financial advisor. I’m not an office manager. I’m not a regional manager. And so having ways in the financial world and then also in your systems, um, really, I feel like it’s my great jelly to add to your guys’s peanut butter because I wanted to make it where.

I know as a consultant, we can grow a practice and we can be a miracle grow for it to literally be the jelly that then prepares people to come to you with the finances available. Like we’re going to teach you how to make the money and Ryan’s going to teach you how to keep the money and like make that money work for you even more. So super jazzed about it. Super excited to have this. And we’re just going to kind of dive into some financial literacy if you’re on board with that.

Ryan Isaac: 
Yeah, I am. But if we can just pause here for a second. I’m really curious about what made you, okay, it’s called practice momentum. Did I get that right? Practice momentum. What made you feel like there was another layer of organization at the practice level? Since that is such a huge topic and it’s like the least sexy, most boring thing to actually fix for someone that actually does make a huge difference. But where did that begin for you in like feeling like, oh, we need to get some more organization around certain subjects. And if you want to talk about what some of those subjects are, that’d be awesome.

Kiera Dent:
Yeah, for sure. I think it was when I watched practices. I mean, consulting gives you a bird’s eye advantage, which you guys have as well as financial advisors. You get to see hundreds of practices, lots of data, lots of numbers, and I have always loved puzzles and I love finding the pattern. And so I thought about like, okay, there’s obviously patterns, but every dentist just feels like they’re on their own little island trying to figure it out themselves. What if there was a way to like what you implement today would actually stick for the next like one, two years, because I also noticed in consulting, we’d go teach a team, I’d come back in six months and six months later, I’m like, whoa, whoa, how did we just fall off the track? Like you were doing this and now we forgot. And I realized like human nature is natural to forget. And so if there was a way where it’s linked in easy ways to each month, you don’t have to think about it and remember it and try and get your team to remember it. It’s literally on clockwork for you and I think it came from like Mike McCallogh’s clockwork. Like if you have things where they’re set on cadences, life becomes very easy. You don’t forget things just like with you. I mean, I know I invest every single month. This is how much I’m doing. I have a percentage, but it, it felt hard at the beginning. And now I’m like, it’s just clockwork. I invest every single month. You send me my gold star. I’m looking for it every month. So like, I think that that’s where it came up. Just one, they needed to just have a cadence of how to put into place because they all feel stuck.

Ryan Isaac: 
You are so good at it.

Kiera Dent:
It falls off the map with teams. That’s human nature. I mean, you look at goals, look at history, look at human nature. We set goals in January and by March, they’re already off the wagon if we’ve made it to March. And so just helping combat human nature, combat the stress and the need to always feel like I need to be systematized, but feel like there’s nowhere to go. Just like with you in financial, I thought like, oh my gosh, like, I don’t know what I’m missing. And then it’s also answering the question of, I don’t even know what I don’t know. Well, here’s a whole list of 12 systems in a foundation of everything that you should be putting into your practice and then a simple way to do it. But then like, I don’t know, I might be talking about scheduling in March, but my just lost my front office team. That’s why I wanted it to be access to a consultant, ask consultants every single question that’s ever come up, but then also hear from other offices so you can like avoid the quote unquote dumb tax of like we make mistakes because we’re on our own, learning from other people and seeing what other people are doing I think is one of the most beautiful things.

I always think I want that like one -on -one, which I do, I want access to be able to answer my own questions, but learning what other people do, I mean, half the questions I’ve come to you with are because I was talking to other people and I heard other things and I’m learning what they’re doing to grow their wealth exponentially. It saves me years of investment mistakes because I can learn from other people and watch them. I think it’s a beautiful thing to have a community, but also a community of like -minded people who really are committed to growing and accelerating. And then like, helping each other out too.

Ryan Isaac: 
Yeah, okay. So, man, that’s so cool. Is this something, this momentum product, is this something that goes in place of in -person coaching or do people kind of layer it on? Was this like, you probably have a huge segment of the market that for whatever reason can’t do in -person coaching. It’s all probably timing and you know, it’s got to work it out.

Kiera Dent:
Well, I noticed in in -person coaching, I love it because people come in and they have an immediate problem. Super effective and I love it. And we’ve found that it’s been awesome. And I mean, we work with a lot of your clients, you work with a lot of our clients. It’s amazing what we’re able to do in person because we’re actually able to see them. But I noticed my goal and my mission is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. That’s why we built the podcast. And so I thought, well, like physicalities of me being able to travel to practices and also price point was eliminating a big portion of the market that I wanted to find a way to serve. And I realized not everybody needs in person. Not everybody needs to have these calls all the time and also clients who think they do. I mean, even myself with my personal coaches, I don’t need calls all the time.

What I need is a set cadence. I need to be reminded. And then I need to have someone I can quickly ask when problems arise. And so that’s where it actually stemmed from. So some offices do layer it. Some offices just do it independently. But like, as I built this product, and I mean, we spent hours recording and I worked with like smart people and we had our whole consulting team build it. And I talked to other people about different conversations and just trying to break it down and make it really fun and simple. I realized a lot of my private clients come in in such reactionary mode. And I also wanted a way as a company to make sure I take them out of the reactionary mode and give them more systems so that way they stay out of the reaction and be proactive in their approach as well. So I’m excited for our consultants to have it as a resource now too for the in -person clients. But gosh, like I said, we released it in January and the doctors that are in there are telling me like,

Thank you for like forcing us to actually be disciplined and get this done because I think about it all the time, but I never have to do it. And then you come and you hear other doctors doing it. I make them all post their numbers up. I don’t let them hide behind a wall. So every month numbers get posted kind of like in school and it’s never ever, ever done with like shame, it’s done with education. Like literally, cause I’m like, if you have to post them every single month in front of other people, that’s great. And of course like you can be anonymous. I don’t care. I just want to make sure they’re tracking their numbers, but then also use that data. We go through it. We find all the offices that have the lowest labs. Let’s share the ideas of why do you have the lowest labs? Why do you have the lowest supplies production? And then you can actually start to see your progress. Cause honestly, Ryan, when I see my progress with you of like my investments actually making a difference, like the work I’m doing today, actually making a difference, that’s the momentum you’re looking for, which is why I named it Practice Momentum. Because it’s the small, like you just need the little snowball and then you build the momentum and then it becomes very easy, but it’s like getting started, I think is the hardest part.

Ryan Isaac: 
Yeah, and sticking to something, I’m wondering as you’re talking about this, does the, does like turnover and some of the team issues that people are having in the industry, does that affect the implementation of coaching and the systems you’re trying to put in? Like I imagine you show up and everyone invests so much time and effort and money into building something in a practice but then if one or two key people leave which seems to be a recurring issue a lot of people are having that could disrupt like months of progress or even years of progress. Do you find that like turnover and it sounds like this momentum thing actually would kind of stop some of that problem if that if that was happening. Is that a thing?

Kiera Dent:
So I think it’s an excuse. And I think it’s where it’s just the easy path. And I’m very pro and everything I coach on is we build systems that are not dependent upon people. I hope those people stay with you for 20 years, but that’s also where it does need to be a system and it does need to be written. Like I cannot imagine, I’ll just use McDonald’s as an example. Maybe we’ll go to Chick -fil I prefer Chick -fil -A. Over. Okay, Starbucks. No, you start.

Ryan Isaac: 
Can we go Starbucks? Oh, or Chick -fil -A is fine. Starbucks or Chick -fil -A? All right, let’s go Starbucks. All right, OK.

Kiera Dent:
Starbucks being like, well, we just lost Kiera as our barista. Shut it down.

Ryan Isaac: 
Yeah, sorry, we don’t even know what a latte is. Kara’s gone. Yeah. Not the system itself. The delivery comes from the human. Yeah, that’s the art of it, but yeah.

Kiera Dent:
Exactly. So I think that that’s where I’ve just noticed. Yes, it can be. And yes, it does disrupt culture a little bit, but I’m like, if other industries can do it, why can’t we? And so everything that we coach on every single thing, it’s a written document. It’s a form. It’s laminated. It’s a process. It’s on a cadence. So if that person leaves, the data doesn’t go with them. The knowledge doesn’t go with them. We work really hard on getting your operations manuals built. So if they ever do leave, because I’m like, the reality is people are going to leave. Like, I don’t know why we’re still in this day and age. I mean, I do it too. I’m like, oh gosh, someone just gave me a notice. Like, but I don’t know. I mean, humans go on vacation, humans have babies, humans want to travel, humans change jobs, humans move. Like that’s nature of humans. So I don’t know where we get this idea that people aren’t going to leave us. I think we hope and pray that they’ll stay with us. And maybe it’s because like marriages, we think about marriage is lasting, but I’m like, not all marriages last. And we think about families like, oh, well, my family, we’re forever a family. But I think we almost take that personal side and apply it to work, but we have to remember this is a job and it isn’t a family and it’s not there. They choose to work there. Yes, but they’re not, it’s not something where this is a family, even though I think sometimes it has the illusion of feeling that way. So if I know and I can prepare that the reality is team members will turn over. That’s a fact. And that’s, that’s proven just like the stock market has proven that it will have ups and downs but historically speaking, it will always have X percent of return. Like I think it’s like a what, 10 % return? Is that historical? I was gonna say 12, but I don’t wanna be optimistic about my investments. So, okay, let’s go 10, I mean, let’s go 10 % because, but you know, Ryan, how I operate. I’m like, I’d rather plan for 10, cause that’s my worst case scenario. And then if I get 12, it’s a great week. Like,

Ryan Isaac: 
Yeah. That’s fine. Be optimistic. Long term is optimism. Nothing but optimism in long terms. Yeah. Yeah. 10, put 10 in any financial calculator, it’ll shock you how fast money grows at 10. It’s insane. Yeah. Yeah. Hmm.

Kiera Dent:
It’s insane. So I think like, if we know that that’s what’s going to happen, plan for it, prepare for it, and then hope and pray that your culture and that your team does stay with you, but realize they’re going to turn over at some point, being prepared, having the system so we can quickly replace, we can have someone come in and not disrupt, I think is where you actually get a lot of security and confidence and certainty while running a business with uncertain and unpredictable human beings there. But I mean, Starbucks, can you imagine? They’re like, we’re just going under. It’s ridiculous. And I understand, cause it’s easy to be like, yeah, but Starbucks, right? Only has so many drinks. I’m like, no, they actually have like a bajillion drinks. Like you’ve got to memorize a ton. All of them.

Ryan Isaac: 
And you can customize all of them. Yeah.

Kiera Dent:
But I think it’s just like the simple standards. And I think we oftentimes try to make dentistry too hard. Where my reality is it’s pretty simple. We have our billing systems, we have our scheduling systems, we have our treatment plan systems. That one, I do things a bit more of an arc, cause you’ve got to talk about money. And like that, I think is there’s a little more art to that setting up dental, like our procedures, they all are the same. Dentists are very predictable. They do basically the same thing every time. The tooth is different and the patient’s different, but we really do about the same things. Doctors use the same shading almost all the time. Like it is very, very predictable hygienist. Hello, let’s take your x -rays. Let’s do your FMP. Like, let me chat with you about your family. I’m going to scale your teeth. Like we do things so similar and very consistent, but we think it’s so hard and complex that I’m like, let’s make it more simple. Let’s do more simple systems that everybody can follow. That’s, I think, where the beauty lies.

Ryan Isaac: 
Some of this reminds me or makes me think of the subject we were just talking about of burnout. And people leave jobs because of burnout. I mean, that’s a thing. And then when people leave jobs, the people who are still there can feel that a little bit more. This subject, I think about this all the time. Let’s talk about it for a minute. I don’t know if this is something you, if you want to tease what you’re going to talk about at our summit, the Dentist Money Summit in June, if you know yet, if you know what your topic is, if you, it’s the inside joke between you and I.

You don’t really know yet. And I don’t really know yet either. You gotta feel it out. You gotta be closer to the event date and you’re like, then you feel the vibes of what the subject needs to be. But I imagine this is a big one. Okay. Okay. We don’t let you? Oh, we forced you to… Yeah. Yeah. It’s like two weeks though. We’re gonna record for your summit in two weeks or something. So that’s pretty short notice. Okay.

Kiera Dent:
No, Ryan, that’s how it used to be. Dentist advisors has upped their game and I’m not allowed to do that anymore. Just like you’re not really allowed to do that with me anymore either. So Ryan and I are both at each other’s summit. So know you’re going to. It is short notice, but I already had your information mapped out just like your team had their information of what they wanted me to do. Hey, I love it though because.

Ryan Isaac: 
Yeah, very corporate these days. Yeah, very serious.

Kiera Dent:
I mean, I think so. Dental A Team Summit, Ryan, you’re speaking of that. That’s on April 26th. Ours is the Prosperous Dentist, Strategies for Wealth and Wellness, which I really love. And that’s about this burnout topic. And then at your guys’ summit, it’s Living Your Rich Life. It is, what is it? June 25th, I think, if I remember right. Is that right? 21st and 22nd.

Ryan Isaac: 
It’s like the 21st and 22nd. Yeah.

Kiera Dent:
And you guys are having living your rich life. And I’m so excited because what I’m actually coming for is we’re going to be speaking. I’m actually really, really jazzed of the topic is my content is going to be basically of, um, you’re actually going to ask me questions. And so I was like, all right, less slides, more pictures that way Ryan can ask me anything he wants. But, um, I’m going to do like four to five case studies of different, like practices and highlight them of what they’ve done to live their version of a rich life. And so like it’s on production, it’s on collections, but really how every one of these, and I’m going to have some like really large practices and really small practices and what they did, like highlighting their offices of the themes. And so like of the thousands of offices I’ve consultant and like, what is the balance that these dentists are looking for and like, what do they all actually have in common? So I’m going to pull out some common threads between all five of the practices.

And then like these are the top five things that I’ve seen to give that like these dentists have it all together. They’ve got a balanced rich life because I think you and I would both be able to say it is very easy for me when I meet a client to know are they going to be living their best rich life or are they going to be struggling and it’s crazy because I do believe that there’s a DNA of successful practices and I believe that these leaders have very similar traits, but they aren’t born that way, they develop them. And that’s what I’m so excited about because I think so many of us look at people and think like, oh, they’re the only ones that can do this. But to show that they evolved over time, I guess they did have some natural talents, but all of them have very similar patterns amongst all of them. So that’s what I’ll be chatting about in June with you guys. They made me. Chip, Chip, he’s on it. I get emails from him.

Ryan Isaac: 
Yeah, chip it back here. Yeah, they’ll make it. They won’t let it slide. It was up to me. I mean, I got to know what anyone’s talking about. We’ll see you tomorrow. Yeah. And it’ll be awesome. OK. So let’s go back to burnout then. It feels like such a thing as I, man, I’ve been in this career for almost it’s been 15 years and watching my clients get older and through their career hit mid career, later career. It becomes a thing. I don’t think I ever understood how much the burnout affects the field of dentistry. Physically, it’s been shocking to watch people deteriorate so quickly physically, mentally, emotionally. It’s a conversation you have all the time. I have with my clients. What do you want to say about burnout? And man, how do you even address that? Because it feels so multifaceted. It comes from so many directions.

Kiera Dent:
I feel quite impressive on the Dentist Money Show today because I’m actually bringing an article and I don’t usually do a lot of research that’s more you than me. I know, shocking. And it’s actually from PubMed. So like I actually have an article that talks about burnout and it’s called Understanding the Burnout Experience, Recent Research and Its Implication for psychiatry and this was written in June of 2016 and what I found from it is that burnout like there’s three pieces and when I heard this on another podcast I was like I gotta go do some more research on it but there’s actually three pieces that are like the signs of burnout because it’s like well am I actually feeling it am I not am I just tired and so the first one is they’ve like found it’s like this little trifecta and when they’re all in place like you really are at burnout and then some solutions for it.

And so the trifecta is overwhelming exhaustion, feelings of cynicism and detachment from the job, and then a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment. So being super, super exhausted, feeling like detached from your job, like just a little cynical about it, and then a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment. And as I heard that, I immediately thought of my husband at his job and I was like, oh my gosh, he’s checking every box. Like…

Jason comes home every single night with zero energy. He’s just like, here, I need to veg out and watch TV. He’s becoming more critical of his job. And Jason has always loved his job. He’s always been like really happy with his profession. And he loves being able to like treat patients that have like really, really, really life threatening conditions. And then like feeling like you’re ineffective and never getting things done. And I’ll hear him say, like, I just like, I can’t get things done. I just feel like I’m never checking the boxes. And I was like, oh my gosh, like you’re like textbook from what it is. And so Jay, I’m sending out the life route because then what happens is then people get more and it just gets deeper and deeper and deeper. It compounds. And so in the article, they actually did talk about some solutions for it. So like with exhaustion, take more breaks, which I feel like we all like, and all of these things, I think it’s very easy to quickly say, Oh my gosh, no, I’ll never be able to do that. Or I can’t do that. And I think like, let’s reverse that and say, how can we do this? How can we actually find the solution? So can you create more breaks? Put in vacations.

Ryan Isaac: 
I mean, how many high performing dentists do you know who don’t even take lunches, let alone like, no, like no breaks. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Hmm.

Kiera Dent:
They don’t even pee. Like, let’s talk about it for real. I didn’t take, like we didn’t pee. We got, you got to do, I didn’t even drink water because if you drink water, then you got to pee. And it’s like this like whole thing of how do I actually do this? And so adding in breaks. And I think it’s crazy because we have this illusion that I’ve got to work hard to work more, but the opposite is actually true. I see dentists who work three days a week and they’re making more than dentists who are working five or six days. But, so I think more breaks scheduling your vacations and what I love and like we teach this in practice momentum. I teach this to all my doctors is like scheduling your vacations that you want. And then let’s figure out how much time you have off. We actually have a really cool calculator where you put in all the projections of like, I’m going to be off this many days. I’ve got these providers. This is what we’re producing on average or hourly production. And it will tell you what you’re actually projected to do for the year. So it’s, uh, we have it. People can email in hello at the DentalA team .com, but it’s something super really rad. We should put it on the website. I should have more of these.

Ryan Isaac: 
On your website somewhere? Okay. I don’t know, just hello, what are the email? Hello @ TheDentalATeam .com. The. Okay. Email them and get your calculator, folks. Yeah, that’s cool.

Kiera Dent:
I’m gonna make a note of that. Hello at the Dental A Team. We’re really fancy. But yeah, it’s awesome. So go put in the vacations you want to take, and then we figure out your production, and then we figure out your overhead. And then you can actually see like, oh my gosh, I could actually take these vacations. And so that’s a way to help with the exhaustion, walks outside, exercising, they’ve proven it. And then even like working less, like sometimes they’ve proven that four days of work are more productive than five. And…

Ryan Isaac: 
You’ve probably seen that over and over, right? The doctors who like get better systems, more efficiency, they scale back their time, they’re like, why am I making more money and life’s better and my job’s fun again. It’s crazy. Yeah, it’s the, yeah.

Kiera Dent:
But Ryan, here’s my question for you, because this is where my caveat is, and I think it’s just a fun discussion between you and me. This is what I bring to my financial calls with Ryan. Ryan is more, I think, a therapist that convinces me not to make dumb decisions than he is about advising you where to go. It’s just like, no, no, no, just don’t mess it up. Keep the cash. Don’t botch it. Once you get to this level, just don’t lose it.

Ryan Isaac: 
I don’t feel like I do a lot of convincing. I feel like I just have a million questions every time you ask me stuff and then I’m like, I ask you a million questions and then we just kind of forget about it, move on, go back to the basics and keep going. And it’s working for you so far. So you’re doing good. Yeah. Hmm.

Kiera Dent:
I love it. So here’s the question. And I think you are such a different perspective than me, which is why I want to ask it of, we say like work less, take more vacations, but there’s two pieces I think people feel, which is where I think burnout often stems from is one guilt, like I’m gone from it, which I actually think it’s not guilt. I think it’s ego. If we’re being completely honest of thinking like, Oh, it can’t run without me. Like, no, no, all of us are replaceable. Like we are. Um, but also like, I think it gives you purpose, right? If we think we can be replaced and like, what is my purpose here?

And then two, hypothetical, because you and I talk about this often, like, okay, I’ve got my financial freedom, I’ve got everything, like, what the heck am I gonna do with myself to have purpose? And that I think is a fear, I at least have. I think you would surf, so I don’t think you have the same fear, but like, what would I honestly do if I cut back that time? Because I think it feels very scary if you don’t even have a plan of what you’d do.

Ryan Isaac: 
Yeah, this is such a timely question actually. It’s such a huge topic we’ve been talking about. First of all, people say that to me all the time, like, do you wish you were retired so you just surf all day? I’m like, can you swim all day long or run all day long? Because I couldn’t surf all day long, even if the conditions were fine, which they’re not all day long in Southern California. So no, I couldn’t do that all day long. But this is so timely. We just went to a conference, Elevation Association? I can’t remember who it was.

Kiera Dent:
Oh yeah. Jared Hill.

Ryan Isaac: 
Yeah, right. You know, those guys, um, they, it was like, uh, yeah, Jared Hill, um, life balance kind of discussions for a week. And, uh, the two most common, Hmm. I’m going to say this wrong. Either the two most common times in life of death or extreme sickness. One of those two was birth and retirement within a year of retirement. We’ve been talking a lot about, there’s a ton of data on the decline of people’s so many factors, their health, their mental, emotional wellbeing, their purpose, and when they’re done working. And like I was saying earlier, the longer I go on this career, the more I’m convinced for me personally, and for my clients that no question the best thing we can do for ourselves financially, like our biggest asset, especially dentists, is to work as long as possible. It doesn’t mean five days, it doesn’t even mean clinical. It just means how long can you extend your career as long as humanly possible? Any little bit of income is such a gigantic help financially. Not everyone wants to hear that because not everyone loves being in their career. Just get like punched in the gut, you know, like.

Kiera Dent:
I literally felt like I just got shackled with bags of like I have to seriously work time 90 Ryan. We have a plan That’s not my plan. But is it because like I see the financial benefit but I’m wondering because I mean a lot of people get their wealth Ryan they don’t need the money and Okay, tell me more I’m listening.

Ryan Isaac: 
And even that, even that, even that so much data, and I think everyone’s got an anecdotal story of someone, even if they’re wealthy, who pretty close to the time when they were done working within a year, they could, they could notice physical, mental, cognitive declines. We all know people like that, man, they used to be so young and spry and fit and they go outside and then they retire, they’ve got their money. And then all of a sudden, like nothing, their health fails, they get sick, they’re not doing the traveling they thought they were gonna do. There’s a ton of research and data that just shows how meaningful work is to us. And I don’t, it doesn’t mean your career, but it definitely means there’s a piece that work fills in our lives that I think as society sometimes we get a little bit like, I have to get out of this as soon as possible, which might be someone’s thing, but it does need to be replaced with something else that’s meaningful that challenges us, that keeps us involved with other humans, that makes us think, challenges our brains, makes us be physically active, so, yeah.

Kiera Dent:
Can you give me some ideas of like what those things are? Because I think I hear that, but like in my mind, gosh, confessions of Kiera Dent on the podcast today, here we go. These are our calls. But like, gosh, I feel disgusting saying this out loud. So just know this is real raw today. It feels like I oftentimes really struggled doing things that aren’t financially like bringing in money. Like it feels like a waste of time. It feels like a waste of effort. I’m like, well, I can spend 30 minutes watching TV or 30 minutes and I’d make X amount. And so how do you like one, what are those things that are going to be mentally stimulating with people? I’m like, you know, the gym, like you can pick up a hobby. You can play pickleball.

Ryan Isaac: 
As Kiera rolls her eyes through all of these examples, by the way, sorry to all you pickleballers. It’s a big group these days. It’s pretty fun. Yeah, same. I don’t know. It’s fine. Yeah, I know what you’re asking. Yeah.

Kiera Dent:
I don’t even know how to play pickleball. It seems really fun. I mean, I played it one time and I was sore and I was embarrassed that I was sore because I’m like, well, clearly I need to do this more. But like, how do you, how do you trick your mind? And maybe you just have to go do it because to me, it feels like such a waste of time, even though I know I’m in burnout and exhaustion, but it feels like a waste of time because I feel like I’m taught that time is money. And if I’m not making money and I’m not producing, I’m a freaking schmuck that’s getting lazy on the couch. There’s honest. Here we go.

Ryan Isaac: 
Yeah, well, this is, we pro, no, this is good. I think we should patch in a therapist here, because I would like to know some of these answers too. I think a lot of this stems from probably just assigning something to good or bad, right or wrong. And I don’t think that’s true. And I actually have a lot of clients who have retired and they are, it’s just a value thing, right? You have a value somewhere, and I don’t know what the word would be around this value. There’s probably a lot of words. There’s a value somewhere around creation, around wealth around entrepreneurship, around building things, that’s a value and it’s a strong value and it’s very strong in some people. And usually we see that show up in entrepreneurship and business success. I don’t think for a second that means that until you’re 90, you can’t keep making money in something. I have a lot of clients who had all the success in the world, sold their practices in dentistry and then they got into like real estate or other ventures. They started other businesses, ice cream shops, charities. I just got off the phone with a client yesterday who has a very large community charity run. So you know people who do this. So I think what you’re asking is more of just aligning your values and then staying busy in those values. And so for me, yeah, I would eventually love to just be hopping around to warm oceans around the world and surfing warm water.

For you, you’ll probably be like 97 year old Kiera, like running some businesses and some charitable organizations and like staying very business oriented, very involved in entrepreneurship, in leadership, in running teams and organizations. But that’s just a, it’s not a right or wrong. That’s just a value. And I think the whole point is just always having something in our lives that respect and honor our values and feed those values and that give us fulfillment and purpose and then keep us busy, keep us thinking and busy so that our decline isn’t as rapid as, you know, data shows when we’re just like, like you said, a lot of people work for 40 years and then they watch TV. And, and then it’s like, well, if TV watching isn’t your value, which it might be no shame, then you will feel a gigantic impact on your health. And I think that’s my opinion on the subject. I don’t know if that covers what you’re saying. It’s very deep.

Kiera Dent:
It is deep. And again, this is why I love to podcast because you get to have these deep combos with smart people.

Ryan Isaac: 
Such a good discussion. And you started talking about this in the beginning too, which is everything’s finite. Nothing’s permanent. Nothing lasts forever. It’s funny, like we all know where this is headed in life. I mean, it all ends.

Kiera Dent:
Ugh. All right, so I need to have my day off on Thursday. Got it.

Ryan Isaac: 
But we do live life as if that’s not true, or we just ignore it the whole time, as if nothing changes, as if we don’t know where all this is headed eventually. Not to be dark, but it’s true. And you do have to come to grips with that and then see how that fits in your life and what decisions you’ll make when you do acknowledge that it’s not going to be that way forever.

Kiera Dent:
Like I want those later years to be rich. Like I think I read in the book, it said the goal is to get to those later years of life. And maybe your last like six months, two months are where like your body starts to deteriorate. But up until that point, it’s very vibrant. It’s rich. Like your mind is still strong. And so what can I be doing today? And I actually think burnout takes a toll on you. And I think not having your systems in place, not having a financial plan, those things are gnawing at the back of your mind. And so it’s like cynicism and then it’s the ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment where I’m like, you can actually put things into play. You can hire people. You can have like dentist advisors take care of your financial, like the amount of stress reduced, Ryan, by knowing I have a financial plan with you is something that I didn’t even realize was causing the stress because I didn’t know what that stress was being caused from. But I’m like, I know that we’re on a path to where I want to be long -term that it alleviated it. And doctors who have teams that have systems and they don’t have to worry about all of that. And it’s on a path and it’s, it’s like, cool. I’ve got that checked off. I’ve got this checked off. I’ve got a team that I can delegate to. I’m doing things that are in my zone of happiness that I love. And I’m not taking on all these extra pieces that really.

I think is where true success and happiness lies. But I think we’re often so afraid of changing, but I’m like, everything’s changing and maybe we just need to embrace change and realize it’s beautiful as opposed to scary and start executing on the things we know we need to do.

Ryan (41:11.559)
So much of this feels like so above my pay grade, but they’re really beautiful questions and very deeply philosophical. Yes, to circle it back, you were just saying something that I was just thinking, which is there’s a lot of stress in our lives that don’t necessarily have to be there, that are easily outsourced to somebody else that can fix it immediately. You’ve built an entire business around people outsourcing problems they don’t have to carry, and to be honest, can’t even carry well themselves because they don’t have the time, interest, or experience, so they can’t. And there’s a lot of these that you can just get off your plate. And then there’s a ton of them that no one can do for you. And that’s all the personal work. That’s a lot of the health stuff. And you should be focusing only on those things, mostly on those things, because yeah, if you don’t now, they will pay, like health will pay dividends later on. You want to be pink haired and, you know, riding dirty in a jazzy scooter or being fast and, or furious. I don’t know, but it’s true. Uh -huh. Yeah. Yeah.

Kiera Dent:
Fast and furious.

Ryan (42:05.671)
Good questions. This feels like setting up for a part two. I don’t know the answers yet, but we’ll find the answers and we’ll part two all of this. All the answers to life, yeah.

Kiera Dent:
I love it. So I think, I think like, as we wrap up all the pieces, Dentist Advisors has the financial freedom path. And that’s what we’re going to talk about at our summit on April 26th of, um, I love how you asked me, what am I going to speak about? But I’m going to tell you what you’re going to speak about. No, I really wanted you to come and speak to our audience of how they’re going to be able to like keep the money because I think maximizing your money making machines so you’re not dependent upon your business is beyond freeing, where you have other revenue streams that don’t rely on your hands and dentistry to make you the money. And I think that’s what I really want you to, because I feel like that’s where the wealth and the wellness comes. Like that is really how you’re going to build incremental wealth. And so I’m so excited about that. And I would say as a wrap up to all of this of like, if you’re on the burnout, if you’ve got the exhaustion, the cynicism, the effectiveness and lack of accomplishment,

Look to see what you can delegate now. Get a path with the financial advisor. I know I was terrified. Ryan, you were so nice to me. I had no clue. I’m pretty sure I asked you questions that probably were a smidge embarrassing if I were to look back because I had no idea what I was asking. But I think you were so kind and I never felt dumb. And I feel like that’s what I love about dentists advisors is you guys just are so kind, but then you also set us up on a path of like, this is what I’m going to do. And it’s very simple. And it’s not a cookie.

It’s like you ask me what are my interests? What are the things I’m interested in investing in? What are the things I’m learning about? And then you give me tactical knowledge. I’m like sending you all these things like, hey, there’s this investment opportunity. There’s this. And I’m like, but am I going to get burned from this? And having someone that I know I can trust and count on to help me have my truly rich life as tying back to your guys’s summit is something I cannot put a number of the freedom I feel working with you. And so that’s just why I would recommend like,

Kiera Dent:
Reach out to Ryan, reach out to Dentist Advisors. It’s Ryan at DentistAdvisors .com, right? Yeah, Ryan doesn’t take on private clients guys, but he will take on anyone I send him. So definitely call and ask Ryan. Yeah.

Ryan Isaac: 
That’s it. Email me. Yeah, email me. Yeah, I will. That’s true. I appreciate that. I’m really glad, it’s really timely actually, the subject that you’ve kindly assigned to me for your summit. Which by the way, what are those dates again and where do people register for that?

Kiera Dent:
It’s April 26th and everybody head on over to The Dental A Team .com. So The Dental A Team .com backslash summit 24. Um, it’s totally free. It’s two hours of CE this year. It’s shorter this year is not our normal summit. It’s our fourth year doing it. And I wanted to shake it up to where it was a shorter one, more condensed Ryan and I will be speaking. We’ve got a few other things come in your way, but two hours of CE free. It’s a Friday, April 26th. Um, be there. I’m super excited.

Ryan Isaac: 
Okay, thedentilateteam .com. Okay, so I love this subject because it’s been on my mind a lot in my own career, watching my clients. We’ve been reading a few books as a team, just coincidentally, that have lined up on this subject. And literally, this is the least sexy thing ever that you could tell someone for success. But it’s crazy how true this is in so many areas of life. It’s just survival. It’s just the amount of people who don’t make it past five years in entrepreneurship, the amount of people who don’t stay invested in their stocks or mutual fund past a few years, the amount of people who don’t stick with a debt pay down schedule or a workout program. It’s insane how many highly, highly successful people can attribute to just surviving the masses, just not being one of the statistics that didn’t make it along the way.

So I love this subject because the subject of keeping all the money that the Denali team is helping people earn and make, keeping it has so much to do with survival, which is about mitigating your risks and not taking too much risk or making dumb choices. I love this subject. There’s a lot of really good stories and some good books that we’ve read recently that I’ll have to just share with people when we do this. So I’m really excited. Thanks for having us. It’s gonna be fun.

Kiera Dent:
Yeah, it’s going to be amazing. So be sure. And then Ryan, how do people get connected to come? Yours is in person, Dental A Team’s virtual. So ours is virtual two hours of CE. Dentist advisors is their first one in person. How do people get registered for that? It’s going to be epic. I don’t, Ryan, I don’t go to many events anymore and I am on the docket. I cannot wait to be there. It’s going to be amazing. You guys put on incredible stuff. So I’m super excited to support.

Ryan Isaac: 
Thank you. Thank you. You can just go to DentistMoneySummit .com. It’s all in DentistAdvisors .com too. It’s June 21st, 22nd in Park City. So the summer in Park City. I’m really excited for this because we have like world -class like industry leading people like Kiera and the Dental East, A Team that are going to be talking business, entrepreneurship, and like surviving in your businesses. A couple of our headline speakers though too are, they’re non -dental. They’re like, of the motivational type and like really, really incredible storytellers have some really just like powerful things to share. And they’ll be just like fun and good times. And it’s park city in the summertime, which if anyone’s ever just familiar with like the skiing part, like I like the summer and the mountains better than the snowy time. So I’m really excited. Yeah. Yeah.

Kiera Dent:
You and me both. I was like, good job on picking an amazing location. Park City is just stunning. So if nothing else, come for a beautiful getaway.

Ryan Isaac: 
Yeah. Does he come hang out? Yeah. I think there’s going to be a lot of stuff going on. So excited to have you. Thank you very much. And the Dental A team. Oh, by the way, I think I would probably be in trouble if I didn’t say this. The Dental A team actually has a discount code to our summit. 25 % off and the code is DAT25. Dat 25. Go register. Join us. So go register. Dat25. Dat25 join us. It’s going to be fun. I’m going to be there. Ryan’s going to be there. Like I said, I don’t make many appearances in person right now. We’re building up. We’re building up. I just love to serve our clients right now. And so I’m having you hunkered down on the business, but this one’s going to be awesome. I think it’s going to be great. Me and Victoria, which is one of your advisors and Ashley Hobas, we’re going to have a women’s like fire talk basically. Yeah. I’m super excited. Yes. Money circle. It’s called the money circle. Yeah. And I, I’m not going to be able to do it justice like Victoria could, but this is an actual program that’s been trained from an investment research firm called dimensional fund advisors, DFA. Um, and they train these different like, um, advisors, they’re all, it’s all women. And so they train these different women advisors to do what they call, uh, money circles. And it’s like a pretty intimate money discussion and the groups really small but you guys are gonna do that on like the Friday night or something with a small group of people It’s gonna be that’s so cool. Yeah

Kiera Dent:
It’s going to be awesome. And I’m what I’m excited about as a female. Um, I didn’t feel confident investing and I didn’t feel like I remember going to Ryan and just feeling, gosh, I get emotional about it, right? Cause I think it just felt so inadequate. I felt dumb. I felt like I didn’t measure up to men. Um, I was super embarrassed and I don’t know why men intimidate me in the investing world. Cause I just feel like, I mean, I go to these conferences and I’m like, right, I don’t know what the heck they’re talking about. I’m just pretending like, yep, I’ll just go ask Ryan, but to be able to give women the confidence be able to invest. I love that Victoria said that women are actually better investors than men. We stick with it longer. But I mean, I feel so much more confident investing and that’s huge kudos to you guys. And so I’m super jazzed, especially for women, because we can invest and we can have financial success. And I think it’s just a shift. For so long, women were dependent upon men. And I’m very pro. I love men. I love women. I think it’s a beautiful synergy that both have. But to be able to give women the confidence when it comes to their financial freedom. I feel is just one of the most beautiful gifts. So I’m super excited about it. It’s going to be awesome. And it’s going to be a beautiful week.

Ryan Isaac: 
So cool. No, thanks for sharing that. I mean, since you just mentioned it, statistically, long running forever. This is just proven with data. Women are better investors. They get higher returns than men. They tend to take less risk than men in their investments, but they stick with them longer, which again, it’s just survival. And women have this instinct. They’ve got it figured out. And it’s probably why men are usually on stage like yelling lots of complex, complicated things to just confuse people to buy investment products all the time.

It’s cause they know we’re not as good of investors, but so cool. I’m glad you mentioned that. I’m really excited for you guys to do that. That’ll be, Victoria’s going to do a killer job. You guys are going to do so awesome. It’s going to be fun to see. So I won’t be able to see it, but uh, it’s, you know, you’ll have a great time. Yeah. Love you to hug us. Yeah. All right.

Kiera Dent:
It’s gonna be awesome. Hey, I’ll let you know. I’ll let you know how it goes. All right, so you guys have two things. We’ve got Dental A Team, head on over to thedentalateam .com backslash Summit at 24. Join us, it’s totally free. Bring a buddy, I think it’s awesome. We just wanted to do something to give back to the dental community. If we can help in any way consulting, by all means reach out. Hello at thedentalateam .com. And then we have June 21st and 22nd in beautiful Park City. Head on over to the dentist money.

Ryan Isaac: 
DentistMoneySummit .com. Yep.

Kiera Dent:
Dentistmoneysummit .com and use DAT 25 and come and be with us. It’s gonna be a good time.

Ryan Isaac: 
Yeah. If you have any questions, email me directly. I’m happy to answer your questions. Ryan at DentistAdvisors .com. Let’s have a conversation. Thanks, Kiera. Yeah. Likewise.

Kiera Dent:
I love it. Ryan, thank you for being on the podcast today. Everyone, thank you. But go execute. Get rid of the burnout. Get rid of the stress. Hire a financial advisor. Get the systems in place in your practices. These are things that you have within your control, and there are people that can help you that have been there, done that, and done it successfully. So go reach out. As always, thanks for listening. Catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

Practice Management