The Psychology Trick That Helps Dentists Stress Less and Focus More – Episode #652

This week on the Dentist Money Show, Ryan and Matt dive into the Blue Dot Effect—a psychological bias that makes us see problems even when things are going well. They explore how this ties into the concept of hedonic adaptation, and they explain how dentists and high earners can fall into the trap of “never enough.” Tune in for some insights on managing financial stress, improving decision making, and staying motivated.

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Podcast Transcript

Intro: Hello everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Dentist Money Show, brought to you by Dentist Advisors Today, Ryan and I have a great show for you. Today we’re talking about the blue dot effect, or the actual term is prevalence induced concept change. we talk about how our brains tend to have perception and judgment creep. We start to see problems that were never there before. The more, wealth we build, the more success we have, we start to kind of find problems in our lives, and we talk about how this relates to money investing and success in our life, and we also talk about ways to be aware of it and to protect yourself from it to hopefully live a more fulfilling, meaningful life around your money. As always, we hope you get something outta the show and we hope you enjoy.

Matt Mulcock: Can I tell you a story, Ryan, that is completely unrelated to what we’re gonna talk about today?

Ryan Isaac: Yeah. Yeah. That’s actually how I prefer to start content anyway, to be honest with you. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock: Just want to tell you this story ’cause I need to get it out to the world. because I, I need people to know the, the type of person that I am,

Ryan Isaac: Okay. Alright.

Matt Mulcock: The personality that I have.

Ryan Isaac: Okay.

Matt Mulcock: Okay?

Ryan Isaac: Is, wait, hold on real fast. Has this been diagnosed yet or no?

Matt Mulcock: Self

Ryan Isaac: Okay. Self-diagnose. Okay. All right. Carry on. Carry on.

Matt Mulcock: So I go to Mexico recently and, step off the plane in Cabo San Lucas, Cabo, um, Cabo. And so, uh, step off the plane. Okay. I realized as I got on the plane to, before I even took off, I realized I had not, so I had booked a hotel all inclusive. Heck yeah. Um, but I had not figured out transportation. But so I, I literally on the plane, I’m like, oh crap. Didn’t figure out transportation, but I’m like, it’s fine. This is a big resort. It’s a tourist place.

Ryan Isaac: It is another country. What’s the worst that could happen?

Matt Mulcock: I figure it’s a touristy area. We’re gonna be fine. Right?

Ryan Isaac: That seems rational to me.

Matt Mulcock: Seems rational. So, we get there and we get off the plane, walk through whatever, and there’s just a hull of just people everywhere. Right? Just where are you going? You know, like heck, you know, the

Ryan Isaac: They’re kind of heckling you. I, I feel scammed by taxi. I’m so, they, they make me anxious, dude. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock: Yeah. So there’s taxis everywhere and we looking, I’m like, there’s Uber here. I think we can Uber. Anyway. Finally, after like 10 tries, a guy walks up to us, where are you going? We named the resort. And he is like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We got you. We got you. So he brings us over to this counter and I. I will say this guy was freaking good. He was good at his job. Really good. Long story short, he’s talking about the different options of private shuttle. Uber doesn’t come to the airport. It drops off, but doesn’t, but it won’t, you can’t pick up there. She’s like, there are laws. She’s like, you can shuttle, you can do private, you can do the shuttle. What? He gives me all those options. Before I know it, Ryan, I have signed up for a private tour of another resort and a golf course, golf course. Okay. And he’s giving me, he’s literally giving me instructions of what to say. He’s like, what’s your handicap? I’m like, bro, I don’t golf. He’s like, that’s okay for me to get a bigger commission. Let’s just say you’ve got like a 20 handicap, so you’re like, you’re not great, but you know that you golf just whenever they ask you, just say you golf like once or twice a week.

Ryan Isaac: What? What’s going

Matt Mulcock: I golfed once or twice a week, man, I’d have a better than a 20 handicap, but okay. I know enough about that to know that anyway, so he’s like, I’m gonna pick you up. He hands us this paper, he signed all this stuff. I’ve given him like $120 and yeah. And then he’s gonna come pick us up like two days later at 8:00 AM but he can’t come to our resort ’cause he is like, they won’t allow him in. So we have to like meet him along this side road. Okay. Yeah, so it happened so fast and I was like,

Ryan Isaac: Wait, it’s not the resort you’re even going to, and

Matt Mulcock: They’re competing resorts.

Ryan Isaac: You just agreed to go to that resort for a couple nights.

Matt Mulcock: No, not, I’m not gonna stay there. Just, they were gonna give us breakfast, a tour of the golf course and like a present, or not even, he’s like, we’re not gonna do the presentation thing. It’s just a tour. And I’m like, okay. And he was so good, dude. I’m telling you. I like this guy. He was really good. But the morning came, it was two days later and he was text he, I gave him my number. Ryan, this is me, bro. I’m an idiot. So he’s texting me. Okay, meet here at this time. So we’re like walking down this like walkway by the water and I’m just like, I don’t feel good about this. I don’t want to like, we’re gonna get in this guy’s

Ryan Isaac: I am in Mexico. I don’t even

Matt Mulcock: In Mexico. And it wasn’t even a dangerous thing. It was more like we’re gonna go and I’m gonna be stuck at

Ryan Isaac: Yeah. You’re gonna waste time and be stuck and not even

Matt Mulcock: Beast. I’m like, you and you. I’m like, can we go home? Like, can we go back?

Ryan Isaac: Can I go home?

Matt Mulcock: So I just texted him and said, Hey, we’re not feeling great. I think we ate some bad food. And he just, he just like ghosted me. He just, just never,

Ryan Isaac: That was a story I would’ve given

Matt Mulcock: So basically $120 to get from the airport to our hotel.

Ryan Isaac: To the wrong, to the wrong place. Hold on. I have questions. Okay. I have questions. Um, first of all, did you know what you were, you, at some point along the path had figured out you took a wrong turn and you just didn’t want to, you felt bad and didn’t wanna hurt his feelings?

Matt Mulcock: No, that.

Ryan Isaac: Would’ve been my call. I would’ve been like, I’m like, I’m 200 into this, but I can’t tell this guy no.

Matt Mulcock: So I think it was more like he, I liked him. I was like, I like this guy. So I was just like, you’re good dude. And he kept being like, like, we’re in this together. Like you’re gonna help me get this commission. And I was like, we are in this together and you gotta know me, Ryan, on when I’m on vacation, dude, I am like. Another level of like happiness and carefree.

Ryan Isaac: Yeah, I do know this. Yeah, I

Matt Mulcock: You do, we’ve traveled a

Ryan Isaac: Yeah. We’ve traveled a lot.

Matt Mulcock: Um, but you, so you do know this, like, I’m so carefree on vacation, I’m just like, whatever, dude. So I had just stepped off the plane. It’s like that peak level of like, my stress has gone from work and life. I’m just like disconnecting from the world for like four or five days at an all-inclusive resort. And this guy, his name was Isaac, he just was like, Hey man. I was just, I was lost, dude. I was lost in his eyes.

Ryan Isaac: You were feeling. So I’m really, I’m really impressed

Matt Mulcock: Reality set in.

Ryan Isaac: And then, yeah. And then you got stranded. I’m impressed at the, uh, we ate some bad food, so I would’ve had a backstory that was like a mile long about shellfish and allergic reaction from a boyhood, you know, incident that I had. And, you know, just a really, Vegan dude. I’m proud of you. Okay. So how did you get to the resort finally? It was a competing

Matt Mulcock: We went and hit shuttle. We went in his

Ryan Isaac: Oh, he,

Matt Mulcock: Just cost us an extra $50 probably. So, yeah, I had to give him a deposit,

Ryan Isaac: We ate something bad. I can’t tour that golf course with my

Matt Mulcock: So

Ryan Isaac: Oh my gosh, dude. All right,

Matt Mulcock: So there you go. There’s no, there’s no segue

Ryan Isaac: Are, no, it doesn’t matter. Those are really stressful times, those airports, especially in other countries. I the, as soon as you make eye contact, they’ll be like, that’s a $10 tip. Wait, lemme take your bags. I’ll just put ’em over here. And, and you’re like, oh, people are so nice here. No, $50. Bam. Yeah, they’re so nice

Matt Mulcock: Will say, I will say

Ryan Isaac: And they actually probably are super

Matt Mulcock: The staff of this resort, incredible. 10 outta 10 service.

Ryan Isaac: Gonna shout out the resort? They’re paying you for this? You

Matt Mulcock: No, they’re not. I’m not gonna shout ’em out, but if you want to know, just let me know. It was great. Okay, so onto the, how do we land this segue? We probably don’t.

Ryan Isaac: We don’t, the, the segue is that was fun folks. Now Matt has an even more fun story to tell.

Matt Mulcock: Um, it’s okay. That is, there it is. Um, so.

Ryan Isaac: You think you’re having fun now? Just wait until Matt starts

Matt Mulcock: We start getting, till we start getting into the

Ryan Isaac: Yeah, that’s, that’s how this works.

Matt Mulcock: So I’ve been thinking, been thinking about this concept for a while. I actually heard this on a podcast, and the concept is called the blue dot effect

Ryan Isaac: Okay. The blue dot effect.

Matt Mulcock: Dot effect. And I will give you the actual. Psychological, like the actual definition, like how we know it, that normal humans, they call it the blue dot effect, but the actual psychological, um, concept is called the prevalence induced concept, change in human judgment.

Ryan Isaac: Say that again.

Matt Mulcock: Prevalence induced concept change in human judgment,

Ryan Isaac: Sometimes I can piece things together, like just from context of a

Matt Mulcock: But not that one.

Ryan Isaac: Third grade English, but not this one. No. You know, that might be my cap. That’s my ceiling. Third

Matt Mulcock: We’ve reached this,

Ryan Isaac: Yeah.

Matt Mulcock: Um, okay, so basically what, where this comes from, why they, it’s called the Blue Do Effect, and there’s two kind of studies that are pretty famous that came from this, but what the, the original study was with. Wouldn’t, you know, blue dots? So they basically brought a bunch of people in and they, they had them look at a, a screen with all these dots, and it was, kind of the early rounds. They had to go through multiple rounds and early rounds. it was very distinct, the differentiation of color, right? So it was like very distinctly blue from like purples and other colors. But as you went through the rounds and, and your only thing you had to do was you had to go through and you would deselect the blue dots,

Ryan Isaac: Okay. Okay.

Matt Mulcock: And so you go to the next round. Next round, next round. Well, what they were doing in the following rounds is they were removing and decreasing the differentiation between the

Ryan Isaac: Oh, okay.

Matt Mulcock: Until a point where blue dots were no longer on the screen, but people, what they found were still selecting what they thought were blue dots.

Ryan Isaac: Whoa.

Matt Mulcock: Yeah.

Ryan Isaac: Be Oh, okay. You’re gonna, I have so many questions that you’re gonna get to it, so, okay. Keep

Matt Mulcock: So then there was another study, another study they did, Harvard did this. Have you ever, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Harvard. There’s another reason Harvard right now,

Ryan Isaac: Are we gonna talk about this soon?

Matt Mulcock: We will, we have a whole thread. Yeah. We should talk about this next. Um, so Harvard did a study where, same exact concept, except they did it with human faces, and what they did was they, um, it was between threatening. Faces versus like n neutral faces, right? So it’s very distinctly threatening versus neutral like expressions, right? And same exact concept. So early on they had people that had very distinctly threatening faces or like expressions and then people just looking

Ryan Isaac: Basically people like me and you like,

Matt Mulcock: People like you and me. Just very threatening and yeah, exactly. And so then what they did, same exact thing. As the rounds went on, they removed the distinctly threatening faces and started to close the gap between neutral and threatening. Until eventually it was just like neutral. But what they found was people started to select faces that previously were considered neutral and started to show them as more, uh.

Ryan Isaac: Really.

Matt Mulcock: Threatening.

Ryan Isaac: Okay. Okay.

Matt Mulcock: So the, the effect basically is when the frequency of negative events decrease, people start seeing the same event in harmless stimuli. So it’s a survival mechanism. We start to invent problems.

Ryan Isaac: Our brains are like, well, there’s still danger, still exists. Now I just have to make it up. I have to find it where it might not even exist.

Matt Mulcock: Yeah,

Ryan Isaac: Can you, can you repeat that first? The, um, the thing I couldn’t put into context, the prevalence, human prevalence Do, can you find that now that you’ve I, and then, sorry, I don’t wanna make you lose your place, but now I want to hear that again.

Matt Mulcock: Prevalence induced concept, change in human judgment,

Ryan Isaac: Okay. Prevalence induced,

Matt Mulcock: Induced.

Ryan Isaac: Yeah. Concept change. Okay. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock: Basically found that like and this is, we’re gonna relate this obviously to, to what we do and to money. There’s a lot of things that we can relate this to, but basically as like real problems start to dissipate in your life. You start to find problems that maybe weren’t problems before, but they’re now problems because the other problems are now gone. Like the severity of your problems has maybe like decreased drastically, but you still start looking for problems because our brain is, is wired

Ryan Isaac: We’re wired, we’re, we’re wired to scan for danger in all times. In all places. Interesting. Okay. Okay. There’s so many things that I’m thinking of of where this happens. The most recent thing, and I, were you gonna say anything about that? I don’t wanna like jump right into something

Matt Mulcock: No. Jump into it. Jump into it.

Ryan Isaac: Be curious to know. We’re probably gonna say the same thing. This is nor what normally happens. it just, that reminds me of. Like a lot of things going on lately. So what are we, April, 2025? some interesting new economic things that have happened over the last few months.

Matt Mulcock: You’re talking about, but yeah.

Ryan Isaac: And, you know, have some people worried and others not. And, um, have had markets, um, pretty averagely spooked as they normally are every about every 11 or 12 months. and it reminds me of. just a a, a handful of conversations I’m having with people right now about, danger. Okay. Here’s what I wanna say though. I don’t wanna downplay what feels scary to people in news or economies or what they find concerning about the world because we all have things that concern us. That’s totally fine. It’s totally valid. but it does feel like we j we all do this to some extent. Like there’s always something to look for, and we talk about this all the time. I relate this to clients all the time. In all of the years I’ve done this, there’s not a single year that has gone by that, you know, maybe it’s like clients, dentists, collectively the media, something in the news hasn’t found something to be scared of in the economy or the world or the markets. There’s just never been a single year, no matter what the news is, that something hasn’t been scary or something’s not. And even, okay, how many people do we. Know of, or this is prevalent in the in the news when things are actually good for too long in the economy. What does everyone start doing? Oh, we’re heading for it. Where is too good to be? True boys? We’re heading for it. This is it. We’re about to go off the cliff

Matt Mulcock: Calm before the that

Ryan Isaac: It is this’s the calm or the quiet, whatever. Calm is quiet. Quiet is calm. So yeah, that reminds me so much of just how we think about, and that’s just in terms of like. Economy and markets and people’s investments. So that’s, uh, high level. Just what I was thinking. What, what came to mind for you when you heard all this?

Matt Mulcock: I’m totally with you there. The other thing I thought of is, I think this helps explain this idea that when you are like. Outside looking into, let’s say someone that’s you would perceive as like ahead of you, right? When it comes to, let’s say, money in particular. So someone who’s wealthier than you and like drastically wealthier than you. Right.

Ryan Isaac: Most people.

Matt Mulcock: Most people are wealthier than us.

Ryan Isaac: Me? Yeah.

Matt Mulcock: Um,

Ryan Isaac: I work with. Yeah, that’s fine. It’s fine.

Matt Mulcock: Most, most of my clients, yeah.

Ryan Isaac: Everyone’s doing

Matt Mulcock: So, but like, I think this explains when you are, on the outside looking into those people and you see that they’re still stressed or having problems or, or whatever, it’s really easy to say. How are you stressed? Look at

Ryan Isaac: Oh yeah.

Matt Mulcock: Like, look how much money you make, whatever. But I think when I read about this and, and like kind of think about this concept, and I see it, by the way, as I started to like read more about this after I heard it on this podcast, you start to see it everywhere. Like it explains a lot around like. Political climate and how we approach just a lot of things. But I think it also, in this concept or in this context, it like helps me have empathy because I’m like, the feelings that you’re feeling, whether you’re just starting or you’re just starting your practice or coming out as an associate or whatever, the feelings that you feel of stress and problems and the things you’re perceiving. Your, prevalence induced concept of change and judgment. It’s the same thing that, like that dentist who’s worth $20 million,

Ryan Isaac: Same feeling?

Matt Mulcock: Same exact

Ryan Isaac: Same feeling.

Matt Mulcock: It’s, and it’s really easy to look at them and say, well, you shouldn’t be feeling like

Ryan Isaac: You got money. Why? Why are you stressed? You have more money. Yeah,

Matt Mulcock: Again, in their head and their brain, their emotional, like, uh, their way to like

Ryan Isaac: Yeah.

Matt Mulcock: Kinda like deal with that is the same as you.

It’s just different. It’s a different stimulus.

Ryan Isaac: Yeah, you’re, you’re right. Um, that’s, that. You’re totally right. It’s so easy to look around, especially to people that we think are in a, on a better level of a position of something, which could be any, it could be money, health status, like whatever. And then wonder and think, you know, why do they have problems? A and then B, if I had what they had, I wouldn’t have any pro, I’d be fine. You know, all my problems would go away, if only, which also explains a lot of behavior of how we chase things down out of fear sometimes. yeah. Can, anyway. Okay. So I, I wanna get a sidetracked too much, but I love that. Yeah. That’s, that’s so interesting.

Matt Mulcock: Another example I’ll give on this really quick that, uh, again, when I read this or thought when I heard this on a podcast and reading, I thought of this story and I think I’ve told this maybe before. So. Sorry, we’re out of material. Um, but,

Ryan Isaac: 10 years later, this was it. We knew this day was coming. I thought it was gonna be 12 months after we started, but here we are. 10

Matt Mulcock: Here we are,

Ryan Isaac: The end. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock: By the way, I just circled back around and found my connection to this. I’m an idiot. So let’s make the, we are, this is late onset, late onset connection to the beginning of the story to now. Um, here’s the connection. I went golfing with my cousin, um, because we golf. I went to the, I was

Ryan Isaac: Oh, you actually do golf. You have a 19

Matt Mulcock: I do golf sometimes. Yeah. I was offended when he said 20. Um, okay. I went golfing with my cousin. He’s the best golfer I’ve ever golfed with. He’s amazing. Okay, so we we’re sitting there, I, I tee off first par three. That, that means a short hole,

Ryan Isaac: Yeah, I, no, I got that. I got

Matt Mulcock: Okay. Okay,

Ryan Isaac: I, I did my, my parents’ house where I grew up was in, behind a golf course we would sneak on and, you know, do shenanigans. So I remember the par threes. We were on

Matt Mulcock: You were, yeah. Par. Par. So I, I hit, I, I tee off and pretty good shot for me. Right. So hits the, kind of, hits the side of the green, or I kind of outside green and then rolls off the fringe. And I’m like, kind of pumped. I’m like, all right, sweet. So, ’cause if I, my whole game is like, if I make a decent level of contact, I’m like feeling good. My cousin stands, steps up, hits it, dude, same exact spot. Pretty much he hits within five feet of me, hits the kind of the side of the green and like rolls off the fringe. He is pissed. He like takes

Ryan Isaac: Oh

Matt Mulcock: Hits it against the ground and he’s like, hing and puffing. And I’m like, dude. That was like a good shot. Like, what are you talking about? And he just looks at me, straight up, looks at me in my face and goes, it’s all relative. Like my, your good shots are my bad ones,

Ryan Isaac: Okay. Okay. Hold on. I think about this all the time when I go surfing and I can see, let’s say a part of the waves where more advanced and expert level people are surfing. Not me, that’s not me.

Matt Mulcock: Not me.

Ryan Isaac: I do paddle around those people, but I, I’m not expert or advance.

Matt Mulcock: Say hi.

Ryan Isaac: You will see in one just view, just looking at the ocean, you’ll see. People further out, smaller boards, they’re doing tricks, they’re doing cool stuff. They, they’re surfing very well. You’ll see ’em catch a wave, maybe they fall, do something and they’re pissed and they’re mad, you know, they’re like angry or something. Then you’ll just scan you and you’ll see 10 feet off the sand. Some brand, it’s like tourist, you know, they’re wearing all the wrong stuff, you know, whatever. And they’re just in like ankle deep whitewater that’s just rolling into the sand, standing on their board. It takes ’em 10 seconds to get up and they ride for like half a second, fall sideways, stoked, out of their minds, happy out of their minds. And I always think about this because I’ll see the two contrasts and I’ll just think. It is totally relative because that person who just stood up on the board, like right in the sand and the, they might never do this again in their entire lives, they’re gonna be like, I, I surfed and I

Matt Mulcock: Me and Panama,

Ryan Isaac: It was the, it was the greatest feeling I’ve ever felt. And meanwhile, the person who’s been surfing for 30 years and they’re outside the back and they’re doing, you know, they’re getting, they’re doing all kinds of cool stuff, they’re like, not satisfied. You know, they’re not satisfied. It was just like,

Matt Mulcock: When they’re finding new problems, right? Problems that were never there before.

Ryan Isaac: Oh, there, you’re like, yeah, I just got five turns. I got totally pitted, and then I fell. You’re like, you, that other person just wants to stand up on vacation one time on their rental board, and then they’re, they’re, it’s just memory locked in for life, you know? And you did four turns, but you fell on your fifth and now you’re pissed. Yeah. You find new pro. You’re so right, man. So,

Matt Mulcock: It’s kind of this concept we’re talking a lot about here, about like expectations and all that, but it’s kind of this concept of like, and we’ll, we’re kind of jumping ahead. That’s okay. we’re kind of speaking to a concept I think of, if you continually raise, like it’s hard to notice your progress if you continually raise your bar.

Ryan Isaac: Yeah. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock: Bar just keeps raising and raising and you’re never stopping to like look back and be like, holy cow, look how far I’ve come. I’m now this dude who’s getting, who’s literally like on YouTube videos when I used to be that guy that was a tourist. Like, if you don’t stop and think about that and take and like actually put things in place in your life to like kind of reminisce, like look where I’ve come from. I think you do continually raise that bar and then things that would’ve never bothered you before all of a sudden become huge

Ryan Isaac: They’re bothering you. I mean, how many people listening are now spending more money per month than they ever thought they’d ever make?

Matt Mulcock: Oh

Ryan Isaac: You know?

Matt Mulcock: Gosh. Yes.

Ryan Isaac: I mean? I mean, there’s so many people listening that are like, I now spend twice as much money per month as I ever wanted to make. Maybe not dentists, you know, but there, you know,

Matt Mulcock: I have some, but I, I’ll give you another example. Just, uh, uh, tax seasons now behind us, um, uh,

Ryan Isaac: How’d you do? You all right?

Matt Mulcock: I’m, I’m okay. I’ll be all right.

Ryan Isaac: You’ll be alright?

Matt Mulcock: I’ll be okay. but you know, I, dude, this is even for me. I’ll, I’ll be honest, I’ll be, I’ll be

Ryan Isaac: all feel this? Oh

Matt Mulcock: My, my tax bill now is, is more than what I, my first, it’s double what I used to be paid when I first started in this, this particular industry, my first job, my tax bill has now double

Ryan Isaac: Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Matt Mulcock: Like, and I think that a lot of dentists

Ryan Isaac: Oh, they can relate to that. Yeah. How many dentists are now paying taxes bigger than they thought they’d ever make as a dentist, or they would love to have made as a dentist? Now they’re paying more in taxes than that. So, Matt, how does this, you’ve talked about this before, how does this relate to the concept of, uh. Hedonistic adaptation is, are these similar to you?

Matt Mulcock: Yeah, the Oh,

Ryan Isaac: Hedonic. He, Ooh, what did I, hedonistic?

Matt Mulcock: Hedonistic.

Ryan Isaac: I think that’s a,

Matt Mulcock: I don’t think it’s,

Ryan Isaac: I think that’s a resort for adults only. That’s an,

Matt Mulcock: resort I went to in Mexico. You just blew it.

Ryan Isaac: That’s why you wouldn’t say the name earlier, dude, is ’cause you went to the Hedonistic

Matt Mulcock: To, I was trying to be really, I was trying to be cordial and not share that, but thanks for blowing my cover.

Ryan Isaac: I am such an idiot. That’s why I should have just asked, instead of tried to say words, oh, I’m a professional. How does this relate Matt to hedonic adaptation, where we get used to our environments? Um,

Matt Mulcock: No, I think that there’s a huge part of this. I mean, we’re speaking to that right where, what used to be an exciting brand new car with that brand new smell, leather seats. You are super excited to get into it every time and then six months later it just becomes a car. Or that dream home is now just the home where your kids make a massive mess and you’re pissed off because there’s a hole in the wall and sick of the mortgage bill. Our brains, I think for better or for worse,

Ryan Isaac: So quickly.

Matt Mulcock: It’s a gift and a curse, right, of our, the adaptability of our brains and the hedonistic. I’m never gonna get over that dude. hedonic adaptation is a perfect example of that, of just, how quickly our brain adapts to the things around us, particularly things right? In particular things that we own, we just adapt to so quickly.

Ryan Isaac: Yeah. Okay. That, that’s such a good example. Yeah. And I think, um, if Crosby were here, he’d uh, sh shine some light on this too. Yeah. I think we’re just, we’re, our brains are wired to, our brains wanna put things in the periphery and make, as fast as they can. You know, they, they want to take anything that feels new that it has to focus on and think about. Um, there’s a lot of cool, like experiments with that. You know, things around your house that you don’t notice anymore that have been there forever because, or where you drive down the street, or even driving in general, you know, when you’ve been driving for so long as an adult, you’re like, did I, that was, that was green, right? It’s because your brain is, your brain’s, like, it’s just got everything in like autopilot so it can spend its energy on new threats.

Matt Mulcock: Yep.

Ryan Isaac: Which is so interesting. So if you were to, okay, so if we were just put that into like practical terms for what you see today with clients, maybe in today’s, market or economy or advice you want to give to people. Like how would, how would you frame this to people? you know, or, or maybe I would also wonder. Since we know that happens to us and happens to all of us in like every possible situation, how do we prevent it? How do we, you know, at least have something in place so that we can check ourselves from time to time and be like, am I finding danger somewhere where danger doesn’t exist? Am I looking at a blue dot that’s actually green and I don’t even know it anymore ’cause that’s what I’m doing? Like what do you think about that?

Matt Mulcock: Yeah, I, I think number one, like with a lot of this stuff, I think number one is awareness. Like just being aware, like hopefully, honestly, hopefully hearing. This conversation outside of the ridiculousness that is us. Um, hopefully you’re pulling out a, like a few nuggets here or there. but I think truly, like, so I’ll say for me, I’ll just give my, give my example. When I heard this concept, I was like kind of blown away. Um, and then started like reading a lot more about it. And I think just, again, just that awareness number one, I think is, is key to, To just recognizing that it’s actually happening

Ryan Isaac: Yeah, I was gonna, yeah, I was gonna say, I mean, we, we built our entire company around a financial planning process that begins with awareness, basically through organization of just getting a big, clear picture of where everything’s sitting in someone’s situation, so that when we do start talking about strategy or making decisions, where at least looking at the whole map first. Instead of being so laser zoomed in on one little piece, that seems to be the biggest problem. That might not even be the biggest problem. So I like what you said that, and you know, I think that’s true with financial planning too. I mean that’s, that’s how we begin it. You know, we’re not making any decisions, we’re not talking about any strategy until we have at least a full, clean picture of what everything looks like from a high view. I think that’s just being organized alone. I know we always say that, but just that alone will, that’ll force us to at least. You know, acknowledge and see what’s going on at all times. I think that’s totally true.

Matt Mulcock: No, totally agree. I so. I think all of that, recognizing it’s happening, no, having a clear picture I think is huge. Um, I think more tactically, I shared this with a client recently who had messaged me about all of the stuff going on, as you mentioned, April, 2025. we all know there’s, I don’t care what side of the political aisle you stand, sit on, uh, we can all acknowledge it’s crazy

Ryan Isaac: Yeah. There’s new stuff going on.

Matt Mulcock: New stuff. Lot stuff coming at us.

Ryan Isaac: We haven’t heard before, haven’t heard in a very long time. Sure. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock: So, I had a client reach out to me when the kind of the tariffs first, so a few weeks ago when tariffs first started, kind of like taking effect and people were like at their peak. and one thing that I, I shared that I think pertains to this, like kind of how, what do we do about this? Um, one thing that I do and I have running kind of in my, in the background of like my mind all the time are two questions always. So whenever I’m feeling. Anxious about something or struggling with a problem or whatever. I’m always thinking about two questions. Number one, does this matter? And then number two, can I control it? And if the answer is no to either one of those, it has to be a yes to both. If it’s a no to either one of them, I do everything I can to refocus my energy and, you know, put, put my attention somewhere else.

Ryan Isaac: Hmm.

Matt Mulcock: So I feel, I feel like that pertains

Ryan Isaac: Same, same again. Uh, does this matter and can I control it?

Matt Mulcock: Yes. Does this matter? Can I

Ryan Isaac: I’m trying to think of that in terms of like a, let’s just say a typical client call. Okay. I was on the phone with someone yesterday, and by the way, these are all good questions. I mean, I, I always want to be very clear when we talk about some of these concerns people have, I mean, these are. These are logical questions to be asking.

Matt Mulcock: Very much

Ryan Isaac: Typical questions during market volatility usually have to do with like, should we get out of investments and wait till later, you know? so number one, does that matter? That’s a good question to ask. You know, should I get out of my investments? Wait till it’s good to go, and then I’ll get back in and then smooth sailing from there. So does it matter? And then can I control it? Okay. Yeah, go

Matt Mulcock: Another, another, and maybe another question pertaining more particular to what we’re discussing right now is like, is this a real problem? Like maybe, you know, like, am I solving, am I trying to solve a real problem? Or like, I think again, taking a step back, understanding, recognizing this, this is how all of our brains work. Like, am I actually focused on a real problem or is this something that’s like in my mind? Is it a blue dot?

Ryan Isaac: Yeah. Is it a

Matt Mulcock: Blue dot or is it, is it perceived blue dot?

Ryan Isaac: Wait, Perce, it wasn’t perception, one of the words in that string of words that you said in

Matt Mulcock: Yes, it was. I’ll go back to it. Uh, I have it right here. Um, hang

Ryan Isaac: Perception inception.

Matt Mulcock: Prevalence induced concept change in human judgment.

Ryan Isaac: Okay. Perception wasn’t in there,

Matt Mulcock: No. Uh, yeah, it was not. You’re right. Prevalence was.

Ryan Isaac: Prevalence?

Matt Mulcock: But another way to put this in the same study, so this is right from science.org. Um, perceptual, they call, another way to put it is perceptual and judgment creep.

Ryan Isaac: There you go. Yeah. Yeah. It, well, it just start, the lines, start getting blurred of what b, what we think is dangerous and what is not. And it is interesting. All right. Again, a politically, I don’t care, it’s not, it’s not the subject here, but it is interesting how when, um, political climates shift how the different opinions in, in politics and policies. You’ll just see this wave. It’s like the wave in a stand, you know? It’s like, oh, the, the mad section is over there. And then I’m sitting down like, oh, there’s the upset section. It’s over there now. Like it just is always moving, but depending what’s going on and what the perceived problems are. And that’s not to say there’s not problems either at all. It’s just interesting how it flows and it moves.

Matt Mulcock: And the thing that was a problem for one side is no longer a problem. Yeah. It was no longer a problem, even though it’s the same exact

Ryan Isaac: Same thing.

Matt Mulcock: But now that it’s shifted, it’s now a problem for the Yeah, exactly. Right. You’re totally

Ryan Isaac: It’s, yeah, it’s totally interesting. Yeah. Uh, whatever’s causing the, and here’s the thing. I don’t think people, people, we, I mean it’s hard to separate these two things. The what’s happening in markets doesn’t always exactly correlate to the news we see in social media or tv. You know, they’re not always the same thing or cause and effect. But it is interesting how, like, let’s say a a 10% market correction, which again happens almost every year for the last century. That’s a 10% drop in markets. Will bother some people based on a certain climate, political climate or issues going on. And then the next time it’s like the opposite of the political climate’s, the other side of things. And a 10% drop happens. You’re, it’s, it upsets different people and then other people don’t care anymore or they don’t notice it, or they don’t even notice.

Matt Mulcock: To that exact point you take what happened in 2022, right? 2022, just three years ago, totally different. Administration market was down, market was down, s and p was down 20%. Nasdaq was down nearly, nearly 30%. There was not even close to the level of struggle, um, and narrative. I, from my, from what I can remember, it wasn’t like it was 10 years ago, it was three years ago. The, the level of like, what’s, and you know, I know there’s different factors of

Ryan Isaac: Other factors. Speed of things. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock: But to that point, I think there is a lot of like, it just depends on its perception.

Ryan Isaac: Because at the end of the day, we all are just humans reacting to our environments, and our brains are just trying to keep us safe constantly. No matter what our opinions and preferences are. Our brains just want all, all of us are just have these little brains inside of our ecto skeletons. We,

Matt Mulcock: Hedonistic act, Acto skeleton.

Ryan Isaac: Heated, thick ex skeletons. That’s my next punk band name actually. It’s, that’s of

Matt Mulcock: Be a good one.

Ryan Isaac: a.

Matt Mulcock: That, that’d be a good one though.

Ryan Isaac: It’s Ryan and the Hedonistic. Exco

Matt Mulcock: X ghost

Ryan Isaac: Exo.

Matt Mulcock: I’ll be like your, I’ll be like your, your brand or your, your

Ryan Isaac: I feel like you would play like a mean trumpet in a ska band.

Matt Mulcock: I probably would.

Ryan Isaac: Around. Yeah. But I mean, we’re, we all just, we all want to be safe. That’s, our brains are just seeking safety all the time and we all perceive safety to be different things. They mean different things. Different things bring some of us comfort and then the same things that bring some people, comfort, freak some of us out. And that’s just, I mean, we’re just, that’s humans, you know. But it is really interesting how reactions happen like that. And the same, let’s say the same drop in markets. Can be perceived differently by different groups of people as danger or like, yeah, it’s fine. You know, ah, it’s fine. This is, this is no big deal. I’m like, well, you made it a big deal two years ago when, you know

Matt Mulcock: But it’s not a big deal now. Yeah,

Ryan Isaac: Not, but that’s just how we are. It’s how we’re

Matt Mulcock: Vice versa. Yeah,

Ryan Isaac: Versa. Yeah, it’s totally how we’re wired. Mm-hmm.

Matt Mulcock: I think another thing to be thinking about here is kind like how to protect yourself from this. Uh, so we talked about like recognizing it’s happening. I think another thing to be thinking about is like, you, you mentioned too, like, I think you were saying like getting organized,

Ryan Isaac: Having a

Matt Mulcock: A clear, having a clear picture. I think having a planning process or a planning system in place, um, I very much hesitate to say like a plan because we don’t

Ryan Isaac: A static thing. That just exists forever. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock: It’s like have a planning process in place and one that’s, I would say founded in like your specific personal financial

Ryan Isaac: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Matt Mulcock: Like one that you’ve actually defined. What is enough, what is success to me? What does money mean to me and my family? Like what is this all for? I think taking the time and putting in the energy to like figure out what that actually means to you, like what is the personal. Personal finance for you.

Ryan Isaac: Hmm.

Matt Mulcock: Like don’t like the spreadsheet. Is the spreadsheet, but what’s the other stuff that you, you need to, you need to take time to figure that out. Yeah.

Ryan Isaac: Uh, yes. And then I’ll say also, we used to have t-shirts that said this better with a buddy. Remember those t-shirts? I still have one. Do you have one? Still

Matt Mulcock: I think

Ryan Isaac: Better with a buddy? I’ll go

Matt Mulcock: Better with a buddy. Yeah.

Ryan Isaac: I think it’s nice to have someone to talk to. It feels good to have someone that you can talk to. I mean, again, this is the, in a financial planning, investing context, organization, having a big picture, personal plan. What’s the personal and personal finance and who can you talk to when you do feel emotional and maybe irrational? Maybe you are like really, really upset or scared about something. Is there someone that you can reach out to that can give advice or just listen that isn’t selling you something. Makes a huge difference. And I know this, I mean, we know this from data and statistics all day, but you know this from personal experience too. The amount of times that you’ll take a call and it’s not because like, you know, secrets that no one knows out there. Matt knows things that nobody knows, you

Matt Mulcock: I mean, I might, no, I don’t. Absolutely not.

Ryan Isaac: You know, a few, but it’s because. And you, you know this from your experience, so clients will call, you know, if they didn’t call you, they’d probably make a decision that they might really hurt them, maybe permanently, if they didn’t just pick up the phone and be, and just voice and express what they’re feeling and like, I wanna do this thing. And I’m really freaked out. them having the ability to call you and talk to you about that, maybe talk them off the ledge, may, maybe even just slow them down or maybe help them make a decision that’s a little more measured. Maybe they still do a little bit of the thing, but not quite as much, you know, that is saved. Countless people. Um, net worth, maybe irreversible mistakes that could have happened. I mean, we just know that this happens all the time. We know this from the data. Um, I think just having someone to reach out to it is better with a buddy, you know, someone you can reach out to, to just like hear your concerns and hear the things that scare you currently. And then revert, let’s go back to, let’s point you back to. The big picture, the personal side of personal finance. Let’s point you back to the organization of like, see these things here. See the progress you’re making here. See the money you’re saving here. see how your investment accounts are actually structured to prevent the thing you’re really scared about right now. Yeah, I like, I like the thought of all these things. I mean, these are things we’ve talked about forever, but

Matt Mulcock: I got it. I gotta try to find this quote. and, I’m gonna try to find it. Well, so, and I can’t remember who it was, but this super successful person. was asked about like, why they, it wasn’t like an advisor specifically, but why they had like a, it was like a business coach or something like that. Maybe an advisor, whatever, super successful person. I’m gonna try to find it, but, um, I, but he said something to the effect of, I’m the worst, like, the worst person to give me advice is myself.

Ryan Isaac: Oh,

Matt Mulcock: I think that’s the case for all of

Ryan Isaac: Oh yeah. Oh

Matt Mulcock: We, we need someone to step outside to be able to step outside of ourself. See, see the, see what’s happening from a different perspective. ’cause we are the worst people to give ourselves advice.

Ryan Isaac: Just, we, I mean, we’re just not, we’re not, we’re so biased. I mean, we can’t, we can’t even remotely get some kind of like objectivity when we’re feeling, when we’re just like really emotional about things. And again, that’s how, that’s what’s so dangerous about us humans, man. Like our brains are constantly trying to scan for danger. But then we’re also like wildly emotional. know, and we don’t notice it. That’s where all the cognitive biases come from. We don’t even notice these things are happening and going on in our own bodies. Did you find it? Did you find the quote?

Matt Mulcock: I can’t find it.

Ryan Isaac: Yeah, it’s true though. Why? Why do you know? Why do fitness professionals have trainers? I. I mean, they do all the time. You know? Why do, um, accountants have accountants? Why do like professional, you know, basketball players have coaching things. Is that what it’s called?

Matt Mulcock: Coaching things

Ryan Isaac: Have coaching things for like the, the one shot and then the long shot, and

Matt Mulcock: Do I have a coaching thing, which is you like, why are you my coaching thing? You know what I mean?

Ryan Isaac: Successful people have successful people around them because they, what was the quote again? The worst person to give, uh, me advice is me.

Matt Mulcock: Yeah, something like that.

Ryan Isaac: I mean, there’s a, there’s a definitely a level of your own gut instinct about certain

Matt Mulcock: Oh, of

Ryan Isaac: And I would say reserve those for like the nature and the character of something. Gut instincts do not tell you, uh, which stocks to buy and don’t do that, you know?

Matt Mulcock: Uh, but just to that point, I just had a, I just had a conversation with a client yesterday. Super complex situation. We spreadsheet multiple variables, all these different things that could happen. It was super complex. Like we’re talking like. multiple family members involved, really complex financial stuff that he’s dealing with, and it’s like emotions tied with money and all this

Ryan Isaac: It’s so

Matt Mulcock: So we went through all these different scenarios. We talked it for like 45 minutes and it got to the end and I said to the, I said to him, I said, what’s your gut telling you? Like, what, what do you, what’s your what? Like where, where are you feeling is the best? Here and, and he already kind of knew what he wanted to do and then we were just trying to figure out the trade-offs of that decision. But I very much am like, no, let’s talk about what your gut tells you. ’cause in most of these cases, it’s not like a, oh, this is the right thing to do and that’s the wrong thing to do. It’s just, let’s understand trade-offs. But I think that process, we walk through it and by the time we were done and he, you know, still things to figure out, but he was just like, holy cow man. Thanks for like talking this out with me. Just that process of talking it out, talking about the trade-offs, even just like hearing yourself say it to someone that you can trust that is, that alone is huge.

Ryan Isaac: How many times have you been in a client call where they’re, they’re like, I don’t know what to do, and they, they kind of unload the scenario and by the time they’re done talking, just hearing it, they’re like, oh, I

Matt Mulcock: Know what they do.

Ryan Isaac: Yeah. They’ll be like, uh, I actually know what to do.

Matt Mulcock: Yeah.

Ryan Isaac: And you’re like, ah, yep, you’re welcome. You

Matt Mulcock: Yeah. Nailed it. Freaking

Ryan Isaac: You’re welcome.

Matt Mulcock: Another one here. I’d say, just along these lines of again, like how to protect yourself kind of goes along with what we already said, but I think specifically what we mentioned earlier, tracking your progress, I think, I think it’s super critical to like, kind of put these lines in the sand, kinda log your winds. at every level,

Ryan Isaac: How far you’ve come.

Matt Mulcock: Personal, professional, like take the time to think about. So we’ve talked about this, Ryan, one of the most powerful things that we do, and I encourage people, I don’t care if it’s us doing it, another advisor doing it yourself. One of the most powerful things we do is our quarterly reports, right? Sending out quarterly reports and showing tracking progress for, for clients. Just showing like, here’s, like, here’s

Ryan Isaac: Where you’ve been.

Matt Mulcock: Here’s where you’ve been. Here’s where you are now. It’s amazing how excited clients get at the end of the year, and we’re just like, look how much debt you’ve paid off just from your normal

Ryan Isaac: Look at your progress. Yeah, look at your progress. And it’s, I think it’s easy for dentists to get stuck in the day to day. You know, we always, we always joke about this, like, three months for a dentist, feels like three days to them. They, they’re just so busy. They always have stuff going on. I think time is warped for dentists, you know, um, when they finally come up for air from their busy lives. And I, I understand why they can feel like I’m not getting anywhere. And it might feel that way, especially if you don’t have any tracking or any data to back that up. You’re right. When you can point a client to like, Hey, I understand how this is feeling right now, but let’s look at what you’ve been doing, you know, and point out. And when it’s been long enough too, you can point out, easily look at the progress you’ve made and let’s remind you about, you know, maybe this is over five years. Let’s remind ourselves about the crazy stuff that’s happened in the world in five years, that you’ve made it through, you’ve made it, and you’ve made progress through this time. So yeah, I love that. I love pointing people to data that’s showing progress over time. That’s super good, man. What if people, oh yeah. No, go ahead. Go ahead.

Matt Mulcock: Well, to your point of like coming up for air and, and this time war is so true, also recognize what we’re talking about today, this actual identified psychological issue that we all face, which is perception drift, right? And so again, if you are busy and in the day to day and you’re not taking the time, like you said, just take a step back and be like, holy cow. Look, what I’ve done even this year, is let alone five years or 10 years. Again, I think if you don’t do that, those problems that were never problems before

Ryan Isaac: Become

Matt Mulcock: Get magnified.

Ryan Isaac: Totally right. Yeah. And, and, and they’re magnified. Think of, um. It’s always like, what’s stressing you out this week or this month becomes the problem, you know, where maybe let’s say a debt that a dentist has, didn’t bother them before, but for some reason this month, this quarter, this year, there’s something about the debt that’s bothering them more than anything. And if left unchecked they might go ch chuck, like big chunks of money at a debt that might not even do anything for their situation. But momentarily just feels like I did something, you know, I gotta take action, I gotta do something. Yeah. So you come back like you’re saying, and you just, you check yourself against like. Where we’re at. Let’s slow it down. Let’s look at where we’ve been. yeah, which takes organization. It takes some time, it takes some involvement. It takes an, it’s usually gonna take for a busy, successful dentist, which is the paradox. The, the more successful you become, the, the less time you have. And it’s probably gonna take a third party to help you with this stuff, which, if you have questions, there is a website. You can go and figure this stuff out. It’s dentist advisors.com and you just go there, book a free consultation, and then chat with a friendly dental specific advisor about these issues. It’s simple as that. It’s not a big

Matt Mulcock: A very, a very non-threatening face.

Ryan Isaac: It is, well, not ours, but

Matt Mulcock: I mean, not Yeah.

Ryan Isaac: You get, will you get Will or Jake or Taylor on the, it’s like you’re fine.

Matt Mulcock: Jordan. Holy cow. You would most likely talk to Jordan.

Ryan Isaac: Oh, yeah, you’re right. Yeah, just get Jordan on the phone. You’ll be, you’ll be at,

Matt Mulcock: On the phone, chat with him. Exactly.

Ryan Isaac: Smooth. All right. Any, any parting uh, parting thoughts here, Matt? Um,

Matt Mulcock: You

Ryan Isaac: Other Blue dot connections? Oh, connect the

Matt Mulcock: So one, I mean, I’ll connect the dots between, between, I think an event and just pure elation and joy and fulfillment and success and tons of money and all the things. If I connect those dots, I’d be connect between all of those things. And the Dennis Money Summit,

Ryan Isaac: They point you, they point you in that

Matt Mulcock: They would point you in that

Ryan Isaac: Matt? What is the, what is the Dennis Money Summit? You’re connecting these dots

Matt Mulcock: The Dentist Money Summit is a two day event, June 20th and 21st. It’s our second annual summit. The theme being planned for the present. we have speakers from all kind of different walks of life and experiences. Our, our keynote is a, is a Harvard trained doctor and she’s a burnout specialist. We are super

Ryan Isaac: Gonna be so

Matt Mulcock: Have her. So good.

Ryan Isaac: Yeah. That’s gonna be such a relevant topic for, for this, uh, audience. So good.

Matt Mulcock: We’re super excited. We had some incredible speakers last year and we’re like equally or more excited for this year. So, um, honestly, it, for us, it’s, it’s a way to, we explain this as like a way to kind of get away, get into the mountains of Park City, hang out with some like-minded doctors and, you know, dentists, meet the dentist advisors team and, and honestly. Get a ton of great knowledge and d different perspective, like shift your perspective, you know, with all these different speakers and the knowledge they have to share. So it’s gonna be cool. It’s a, it’s

Ryan Isaac: Where did they find

Matt Mulcock: DentistMoneySummit.com

Ryan Isaac: Dot com. Dentist money summit.com. Dentist money summit.com. What was that old commercial? There was like

Matt Mulcock: Buy now. Buy now,

Ryan Isaac: There was like an old commercial where someone repeat their website three times. I think it was a Utah company too.

Matt Mulcock: Probably.

Ryan Isaac: PC laptops.com. We love you. Something like that.

Matt Mulcock: Oh yeah. We love you.

Ryan Isaac: We love you. Anyway. We do. Uh, okay. Thanks for everyone you’re joining. Be careful. Those blue dots out there, folks, they’re not as blue as you think they are. Um, Matt, thank you.

Matt Mulcock: Thanks, Ryan.

Keywords: blue dot effect, perception, wealth, expectations, hedonistic adaptation, financial growth, problem perception, storytelling, personal experiences, hedonic adaptation, financial planning, awareness, tracking progress.

Behavioral Finance, Finance 101