Year-End Advice for Practice Owners – Episode #464

On the final Dentist Money Show for 2023, Ryan and Matt are joined by keynote speakers from the recent “The Making of ___” conference, Kiera Dent, Josh Scott, and Dr. Ashley Joves who offer their million dollar advice for dentists. And to get a sample of what’s in store for you at June’s Dentist Money Summit, hear how they answer the question, “What does it mean to live a rich life?”

Show Notes
TheDentalATeam.com
Studio 88
Dentist Money Summit

 

 

 

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Podcast Transcript

Ryan Isaac:
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Dentist Money Show, brought to you by Dentist Advisors, a no commission fiduciary, fee only, comprehensive financial advisor. Enjoy the show.

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

Ryan Isaac:
Hey everybody, welcome back to the Dentist Money Show, brought to you by Dentist Advisors, no commission, fee only, comprehensive fiduciary, just for dentists, decades of combined experience, only working with dentists, helping them make smart financial decisions, check us out, dentistadvisors.com. Today on the show, we’re actually live from Sonoma, California, and we are at the Making of Retreat from Dr. Ashley Joves. This was a fantastic CE event in the most beautiful location. We were so happy to be there and podcasting live. On the show today, we actually interviewed Dr. Ashley Joves and two of her top sponsors of the event, Kiera Dent from the Dental A-Team and Josh Scott from Studio 8E8. They were keynote presenters and key sponsors of the event and good friends of the show. We asked them some questions, million dollar advice. We asked them some other highlights of the week, what did they learn, and some other business life and entrepreneurial advice from these folks that is very, very valuable. They have a lot of experience working with dentists for a long time. Thanks to Dr. Ashley Joves again for having us out in beautiful Sonoma at the Making of Retreat. Thanks to Josh Scott, Kiera Dent, as always, and Matt and myself and Victoria on the show asking some questions. If you have any questions for us, dentistadvisors.com, thanks for being here. Enjoy the show. Okay. All right. So, Kiera.

Kiera Dent:
Ryan.

Ryan Isaac:
Well, I think everyone’s going to have to say their name and what company they’re with. So first, name and company.

Kiera Dent:
Hi, I’m Kiera Dent with the Dental A-Team.

Ryan Isaac:
Yes.

Matt Mulcock:
Hello Kiera.

Kiera Dent:
Hello Matt.

Ryan Isaac:
Kiera Dent, Dental A-Team.

Kiera Dent:
Who are you with?

Matt Mulcock:
I’m with Dentist Advisors.

Ryan Isaac:
All right. Well, what are the questions we’re going to ask today?

Kiera Dent:
Oh, Kenzie’s going to hate this.

Matt Mulcock:
Number… Kenzie, we’re back. We’re all together.

Ryan Isaac:
Kenzie. Hey, Kenzie.

Matt Mulcock:
Hey, Kenzie.

Kiera Dent:
I miss you.

Ryan Isaac:
Love you.

Matt Mulcock:
Number one question. First question, not number one. It is a number one, but there are no particular order of importance. What is your million-dollar advice.

Kiera Dent:
Oh man.

Matt Mulcock:
For younger dentists?

Kiera Dent:
I’m supposed to think…

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, you’re supposed to think about it. I even prepped you.

Kiera Dent:
All right. My million-dollar advice for younger dentists… Are we talking about someone who already owns a practice or who wants to own a practice or just general?

Matt Mulcock:
Should we get more specific on that?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Kiera Dent:
Well, ’cause I think it’s different. If they already own, I’ve got different advice than if they don’t own.

Matt Mulcock:
Okay. How about this? Practice owner.

Kiera Dent:
A Practice owner. So I think million-dollar advice for a new owner… Gosh, I got a lot. I think the biggest piece is I feel they just take off and they don’t realize that it’s a marathon and not a sprint. And at the end of the day, you are your greatest asset. And so if you are burning yourself out from the get-go, trying to hustle, grind from, like, burn the candlestick from both ends, you’re never going to be able to get to that million-dollar mark. And so that would be number one is just really making sure that they know this is going to be a long-time thing. It’s a long process. You’re in this to build a legacy, you’re not in here for a quick start unless that’s your goal.

Kiera Dent:
So really defining what your goal is, I also think a million-dollar advice would be to define what success looks like. I think we often chase other people’s success and their definition of it and not our own. And we’re often climbing up different ladders that aren’t leading to our ultimate success. And then, Matt, you know I’m a tactical person, Ryan. I think my tactical piece is you’ve got to know your numbers 100%. If you don’t know those numbers inside and out, you don’t know them right now back of your hand. Like, what is your overhead? What does it cost you to do this? What does it cost to bring in a new patient? What does it cost? What’s your case acceptance? What is your phone call missed rate? If you don’t know those KPIs and your numbers of your business, you’re going to be constantly chasing and running harder than I think you need to because the secrets to your success are literally lying on your P&L and your numbers.

Matt Mulcock:
Okay. Here’s what I love about Kiera. She’ll be like, oh, I wasn’t prepared. I should have thought about this more. And then drops so many freaking nuggets of wisdom.

Ryan Isaac:
Ten minutes, TED Talk, no pauses.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. TED Talk, no pauses. Like, she just had it locked and loaded.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay. I’ve got one. What was your… What’s a favorite moment here at the Making of retreat with Ashley Joves?

Kiera Dent:
Oh. A favorite moment with Ashley. I honestly think, so I have a little bit of a different perspective than most. And I got to see Ashley in her practice about a month and a half ago consulting her practice. And so I got to see the, I think all of us who put on events know the pre-event jitters and the stresses and trying to make it be absolutely perfect. And then to watch her and Colin truly sitting there, seeing their masterpiece come to life was honestly my favorite moment, because I think I got to see the before and the after, which I don’t think many of us are privy to. So to really watch them just relish in this beautiful event, to bring their friends together, to put on something that they’ve worked so hard to do, was absolutely beautiful. And to hear Ashley share, and I mean, they had a killer speaker lineup this year. I felt like I was the small fish in the big pond this round. And she really just had an incredible lineup of people that I think inspired, resonated. But really to watch Ashley and Colin see their beautiful masterpiece come to life was my absolute favorite thing this entire time.

Matt Mulcock:
She feels like she was the little fish. I think she was the great white shark.

Ryan Isaac:
The great white. Yeah.

Kiera Dent:
Well, that’s kind of you guys to say.

Ryan Isaac:
Joke’s on you.

Kiera Dent:
Maybe it’s ’cause you guys know me. But no, it was a humbling speaker lineup this round.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, talented people.

Kiera Dent:
I mean, shoot, I’ve got to get my social media up to par. Those people have like 30, 60, 100,000 followers. And I’m like…

Matt Mulcock:
They’re locked in.

Kiera Dent:
Five over here. I mean, whatever, we’re five and thriving over here. 5,000, we’re good. We’ll just keep going.

Ryan Isaac:
5,000?

Matt Mulcock:
I’ve got another one.

Ryan Isaac:
One more question?

Matt Mulcock:
Speaking of events, we’ve got the Dennis Money Summit. We’re not going to get through this without pumping our own.

Ryan Isaac:
No, yeah.

Kiera Dent:
Of course as you should. Pump it up.

Matt Mulcock:
Right?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Pump your own.

Matt Mulcock:
We’re going to pump our own.

Ryan Isaac:
For sure.

Matt Mulcock:
Pump our own.

Ryan Isaac:
For sure.

Matt Mulcock:
Pump our own.

Ryan Isaac:
Pump up the jam.

Matt Mulcock:
We’re going to say that.

Kiera Dent:
I think you have to pump it up.

Matt Mulcock:
We have the Dennis… Pump it up. Dennis Money Summit, June 20th through the 22nd of 2024. Kiera, you are going to be one of our main speakers there.

Kiera Dent:
Better believe it.

Matt Mulcock:
We are very excited to have you.

Kiera Dent:
Small fish, big pond again?

Matt Mulcock:
No, definitely not. The theme of that event being, learn how to live your rich life. So my last question is, what is your definition as of today, knowing it could change, what is your definition of living a rich life? What does that mean to you?

Kiera Dent:
Matt, this one is a… This is like a philosophical question. This one’s deep and I like it. So I have two answers. I think I know the one that I should say. Like Ryan and I actually talk about this often. He’s my advisor. I love and appreciate him so much. He has talked me off of many ledges, and as I’m learning more and more it truly is fulfillment. And it’s like my rich life is, and Jason’s really good, my husband’s amazing at this. Like, we are so rich. He keeps telling me and reminding me, like, you think back to the fact that we have Instacart that delivers food to us. [laughter] We have a hot tub, we have people that can clean our houses if we want. We have a dishwasher, a washer dryer. Like those things used to be what the kings and queens had in their homes. And we literally have that, all of us. And so I think my perception of a rich life, Jason reminds me, it’s like those simple moments. And Ashley actually told a quote in her presentation yesterday from Brene Brown.

Matt Mulcock:
I wrote that down. Yeah.

Kiera Dent:
I did too. It’s where like we’re so consumed of chasing these extraordinary moments that we often miss the ordinary moments that have taken away would literally destroy our lives. And so I think like that’s what I know is a rich life, but I can’t help feeling the oftentimes social pressures of like a rich life means my employees are this many and my business is of this size and that I’m traveling on a private jet to all these exotic places. And so I think for me, I’m trying to balance out the social stigma of a rich life and not feel like my life is subpar, even though I know it’s like so perfect for me.

Kiera Dent:
And of course I think that comes back to, I tell Ryan this often. I’m like, Ryan, if I just become content, I’m gonna become a schmuck and my whole life will fall apart. [laughter] We talk, this comes outta my mouth often with when I talk to him. And I think that that for me is what I’m super excited about your guy’s summit of giving those different perspectives that a rich life really is our own perception and our own definition. But how often do we feel embarrassed by our own definitions, not thinking it’s enough compared to everyone else we’re around. And so not really my best answer on that for you, Matt, but…

Matt Mulcock:
Those are actually perfect. No joke. I love that you acknowledge both sides of that. So I think I love that you said this is the answer I’m supposed to have. And then here’s like also a very human part of me, which we all want. Like we all need to admit that it’s okay to be driven by some of those external things. I just love that you highlighted perfectly that push and pull and that balance.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. Thanks for sharing. Kiera Dent, Dental A-Team and they can find you at, what’s the website?

Kiera Dent:
At the… ’cause I still can’t…

Ryan Isaac:
The?

Kiera Dent:
Thedentalateam.com or check out our podcast, or hello at thedentalateam.com. Definitely super pumped to be a part of it. You guys are putting on something that I think the world of dentistry needs. My job is to bring the positivity to it. Your guy’s job is to bring the financial realness to dentistry.

Ryan Isaac:
Thank you. Thanks Kiera.

Kiera Dent:
Thank you.

Ryan Isaac:
Thanks team.

Matt Mulcock:
Thanks Kiera. [laughter]

Ryan Isaac:
All right. We’re having everyone introduce themselves. Who are you, where are you from? What you doing here? [laughter]?

Joshua Scott:
Hey Man. Joshua Scott with studio 8E8, making a retreat here in Wine Country. It’s been amazing.

Ryan Isaac:
First question. Matt.

Matt Mulcock:
Am I going?

Ryan Isaac:
Go.

Matt Mulcock:
All right, Josh, we’re asking everybody, what is your million dollar advice for a younger dentist?

Joshua Scott:
Million dollar advice for a younger dentist, man! Believe in yourself. Yeah. I think, if I had to go back and tell myself as a young entrepreneur, I would tell, that’s what I would say. I would say believe in yourself, ’cause a lot of other people do. And I think learning that confidence early on to trust your gut, like trust that vision, those ideas, and go after it, I think a lot of times we hedge because we’re just not quite sure and we’re scared. So it’s like, trust yourself, go after it, man.

Ryan Isaac:
Dude, thank you.

Matt Mulcock:
I love that.

Ryan Isaac:
Favorite moment from the, Making of retreat here. [laughter] There’s a lot to choose from.

Joshua Scott:
Man. Favorite moment? Meeting so many people together, hanging out. Yeah, I don’t know. I enjoyed speaking yesterday, that that was fun. Ashley really pushes you to kind of bring something different to this crowd. And she pulls all of her speakers aside and says, you cannot do your normal like keynote. So we’re all like, oh, okay. Okay.

[laughter]

Ryan Isaac:
I’ve won her, and then is like therapy in a group.

Joshua Scott:
Let me put together a whole new presentation and be vulnerable. She’s got this amazing ability to be authentic and vulnerable.

Ryan Isaac:
Incredible.

Joshua Scott:
And she probably takes for granted that you can do the same thing. She’s like, of course you can, get up and be vulnerable.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s not that hard.

Joshua Scott:
Yeah. It’s not that hard. Scrap your presentation and do all you want.

Ryan Isaac:
Talk about your traumas. Like it’s totally Fine.

Joshua Scott:
Yeah. I’m expecting you to cry.

Matt Mulcock:
: Let’s talk about your childhood.

Joshua Scott:
She literally told me like, you didn’t cry, but it was good. I was like, okay.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay. So yesterday, why don’t…

Matt Mulcock:
That’s a barometer right there.

Ryan Isaac:
Can you recap in a couple minutes what did you talk about yesterday and how was that different kind of preparing for this event than normal Presentation you give?

Joshua Scott:
Yeah. It was, that was brand new. That was first time material. It was, I titled it, am I Okay. Leading Myself While Leading Others. And it was really kind of my journey of getting into business kind of almost like, ’cause I had to like survival to make it happen. And then experiencing the success of a growing business and kinda what that does to you. And it starts moving fast. And just that self-awareness along the way, how I’ve had to really figure out how to take care of myself because there’s a lot of people depending on me, depending on our company now. And there’s pressure with it and it’s hard to figure out how to deal with that, navigate it. So this crowd here, man, if one thing they’re ambitious. They are achievers. This is high level startup crowd right here. So I know they’re dealing with the same stuff. They put the pressure on themselves naturally. So I think if I can just help somebody kind of walk away with how to handle that, that was the goal.

Ryan Isaac:
So a follow up to the question, the title of your presentation, Am I Okay. Something we talk about in our industry a lot in the financial industry is not just how to create a wealthy life financially to be okay in the future when you’re done working and everything, but what does it mean for you to have a rich life in the meantime? Like, how would you define what a rich life is?

Joshua Scott:
Yeah. I really loved, Kyle Stanley’s, illustration about identity diversity.

Ryan Isaac:
I loved that. Diversification of life?

Joshua Scott:
Yeah. Diversification. Like who…

Ryan Isaac:
It’s so good.

Joshua Scott:
And, I’ve done a little…

Matt Mulcock:
As financial advisors, we love when you make references too.

Ryan Isaac:
I think you said diversification.

Joshua Scott:
Yeah. Diversification. The word diversification.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh my gosh, I’m listening. I’m listening.

Ryan Isaac:
I’m A nerdy money analogy?

Matt Mulcock:
Exactly.

Joshua Scott:
No, but I’ve done a little bit of that with like my CrossFit community. And family and friends and some of that. But it challenged me to just… I love what I do so much. It just becomes consuming. And, but I think that… I love having this like CrossFit community of friends. It enriches my life. I love my family. It enriches my life. Thinking yesterday, like, oh, there’s some other areas where I know I could, that could enrich my life more. So I think it’s that, I think it’s margin. I think it’s like the business should let me design the life I want not the other way around. And when you grow fast, that gets hard. So yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Cool, man. Well, thank you very much. Where can people find Studio 8E8?

Joshua Scott:
Yeah. If you wanna connect with me, Instagram @JoshuaScott is the best place. I’m still in those DMs, hit me up. All right. Otherwise it’s, www.saea.com.

Ryan Isaac:
All. Right. Thank you very much, man. Have a good weekend. Appreciate it.

Matt Mulcock:
Thanks. Josh.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay. We’re here. You’re introducing yourself. So who are you? What is your name?

Dr. Ashley Joves:
My name is Ashley Joves.

Ryan Isaac:
Yes. [laughter] That’s it. That’s the whole thing.

Dr. Ashley Joves:
That was easy.

Ryan Isaac:
That was it. And the next person, Ashley Joves. And this is your event though. What’s it called? Ashley Joves. Of Where are we? What’s going on?

Dr. Ashley Joves:
Okay. So, hi guys. I’m Ashley Joves.

Ryan Isaac:
There we go. [laughter]

Dr. Ashley Joves:
I am the CEO and founder of the Making of, and we are sitting overlooking the most picturesque view of vineyards that are changing colors.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s amazing.

Dr. Ashley Joves:
I see orange and reds and browns and greens, and it’s just incredible. We’re here at the retreat and it is day…

Ryan Isaac:
What? 17.

Dr. Ashley Joves:
Day 17.

Victoria Ferguson:
We’ve been here for a week.

Dr. Ashley Joves:
Day 17.

Ryan Isaac:
Day Four. Day three.

Dr. Ashley Joves:
Yes. No, it’s, how are you guys doing?

Ryan Isaac:
We’re here, we’re doing so good. We’re having so much fun. Thank you for letting us be here. We are loving this. We have two questions for you. The first one comes from Victoria. Yes. Victoria.

Victoria Ferguson:
My. Question that I’ll ask, what is your million dollar advice to younger dentists?

Dr. Ashley Joves:
Oh, good one. Don’t go into dentistry.

[chuckle]

Dr. Ashley Joves:
Wait. I’ve been drinking [laughter] A million…

Ryan Isaac:
Hey, can I coach this a little bit?

Dr. Ashley Joves:
Yes. Always.

Ryan Isaac:
Because you gave us a presentation yesterday that was so, just real. It was so real. One of the things that stood out was when you were like, I haven’t posted on Instagram for a while, because everything’s just kind of hard and it doesn’t feel right to just show you the highlights. So you talked for quite a while about a lot of things that people don’t talk about. So maybe I would love to hear to Victoria’s question, like, million dollar advice for someone, but maybe it doesn’t even have to be business or finance. Maybe along the lines of something you talked about yesterday that had more to do with just acknowledging some of the rough stuff. It’s not always a highlight the whole time.

Dr. Ashley Joves:
I would say my piece of advice is find your tribe as soon as you can. And the way you do that is you show up and you let yourself be seen all the ugly parts, all the highs, but mostly the lows, because that’s what’s going to connect you. And anybody who says that they’re always killing it, and everything is always sunshine and roses, they’re lying. And it’s not a fair view of what dentistry is like, because once you open a practice, and even when you have all of the zeros in your bank account, at the end of the day, if you’re not fulfilled, if you’re not loving what you’re doing, if you’re not happy with your team, if you’re not happy with yourself and you have nobody to talk about that with, then it doesn’t really matter. So find your people, find them soon, and love on them.

Victoria Ferguson:
Well I wanna add to that too. I’ve talked to so many people, here today, and they all say that same thing, like finding your community. Don’t do this alone. This is way too hard to do alone. And you’ve created such an incredible community. Like everyone says that. Like it’s not just you. And so I wanna commend you for that. Like you’ve created such a safe place for people to come together to talk about this.

Dr. Ashley Joves:
Oh, thank you. I mean, it was all… I swear like I think that our industry is amazing. I think there are fabulous people, but there’s a lot of smoken mirrors.

Victoria Ferguson:
Sure.

Dr. Ashley Joves:
And it’s hard to weed through what’s real and what’s not. And that’s why I think it’s incredible that you guys are here. I think it’s incredible that dental A-Team is here. I mean, I’ve found my tribe and good people are always going to refer their good people too, so thank you for saying that. This, besides the dentistry, I mean, Smiling Co is one thing that I’m immensely grateful for, and it’s been a highlight for sure. But this community, the Making of, it’s what lights my soul. And I talked about it in my speech that was totally off the cuff. I had no idea what I was really gonna share.

Ryan Isaac:
All of it, the whole thing.

Dr. Ashley Joves:
I chose some pictures, but I literally was like, how deep do I go? [laughter] Do I go with this talk? Apparently I went pretty deep.

Ryan Isaac:
It was great. It was awesome.

Victoria Ferguson:
It was amazing.

Dr. Ashley Joves:
Thank you. It’s… I don’t even remember what I was going with that.

[laughter]

Ryan Isaac:
It’s okay. You found your tribe and we’re all here. It’s just getting better.

Dr. Ashley Joves:
: It’s just getting better. Oh, I was gonna say that the Making of, I shared some really low stuff that have been happening in my life and in my practice for the past few months. And I was in not the best situation. Not the best place. And coming here and hanging out with these people who are also sharing their highs and lows with me, I can’t even tell you how that feels. It’s been like something has been ignited again and I feel like alive when, I feel so passionate about this community. So, thank you.

Victoria Ferguson:
Wow. That’s amazing.

Ryan Isaac:
Well thanks for building it. Thanks for having us here. We appreciate it.

Dr. Ashley Joves:
Thank you. You guys are the best people to daydream with.

[laughter]

Dr. Ashley Joves:
It’s been amazing.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay. Where, this is happening again in 2024. How do people find the making of.

Dr. Ashley Joves:
Oh yeah. It is definitely happening in 2024. We just released the dates and locations. So it’s September 19th to 21 and it’s gonna be at the Four Seasons Vail, Colorado. ’cause we are bougie af.

Victoria Ferguson:
Woo. Woo.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay. Don’t miss it. Thank you.

Dr. Ashley Joves:
Don’t miss it. Oh, and you can find more information, when we have more information to give to you which we do not.

Ryan Isaac:
Which we do not [laughter], but we will.

Dr. Ashley Joves:
We just have a location and then girl call and will give you all of these [laughter]

Victoria Ferguson:
Perfect.

Ryan Isaac:
Thanks Ashley.

Victoria Ferguson:
Thank you Ashley.

Dr. Ashley Joves:
Thank you guys. You’re amazing.

Practice Management, Work Life Balance