How are you? By the way, I didn't even ask.
I'm great. How are you happy? New Year?
Happy New Year to you, too. I'm doing. I'm doing well. I think I'm I'm running a mile a minute, and and I appreciate this time to have with you, to kind of slow down and hear what you have on the horizon, and what you're excited about for for this year and and I think you visually distracted me. So if this goes into video, they'll they'll understand this. And I just Adhd trained on you and had to know what's going on with you. So all right. clap, cloud, cloud.
welcome to everyday practices, dental. Podcast I am your host, Reagan Robertson. Here with a wonderful individual which might seem counterintuitive at 1st Chris Sands is a co-founder and partner of Profi. 2020 dental Cpas. And if you are familiar with the consulting world dental consulting specifically, I hear, every year at the end of the year. you know, clients will say our Cpas told us to to cut consulting. They just see it as a line item. They don't understand it. Yeah.
so get rid of them, and you know you'll save. You'll save a couple of 1,000 few $1,000 a month, whatever it is.
And so you might be asking, you know, why would why would Chris Sanson profile 2021 to partner with Pda, and you have been coming to our Pda conferences. We work closely together, you know, with clients, and it's really exciting. When a bit of synergy comes together. So I thought I would invite you onto the podcast and teach our listeners about how what sets you apart from other from other Ceos.
and why we enjoy working together so much with with our clients, who we jointly adore. I think so. Welcome Chris to everyday practices, dental podcast.
Thank you, Reagan, I am super thrilled to join you. Excited to be here, I get to watch all of your other fantastic exciting podcasts. I was like, when's my turn? So I'm so glad you invited me to join.
This is so, and I love that you're in the New Year, too. So I if you're not watching on video, everybody, Chris is coming from A. It looks like a news desk. and it's not a little. It's not a little home office anymore. You've really, you've really expanded your your visuals, I would say, and I've always loved your message. So tell listeners a little bit about yourself and and profi. 2020. Tell me about the services you provide. And most importantly, the problems that you're solving right now.
Yeah. So this is our new studio that we've launched here in our headquarters office. Profi. 2020 is located physically headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, but we serve close to 680 dental practices in 43 States at the moment. I would say, you know, you ask the question, what makes us different, or what you know, what is profile profi was really, it was not created
for dentists. It was really after an experiment after me, having worked in a dental practice through frustration and firing a dental cpa every year for 3 years, couldn't find in the marketplace what I felt like we needed as the entrepreneurial. You know, for the practice owner that I was working with and decided to decided to build it.
Wow! What were some of those frustrations that you were experiencing in the practice when you were engaging with different Cpas?
Well, frustration number one, and the kind of the 1st pillar that made us that we created when we started this firm was not receiving financials timely. So I think we all believe.
Worse!
Believe, like innately, that we're going to sign up and work with a bookkeeper accountant, a Cpa tax advisor, and that we're going to get those financials on a regular basis, and we're going to maybe have discussions around them. That's what we all want. That's what we all need, I think. But it's not what what you get out there in most cases. So.
And I was going to say I walked a doctor a few years ago. It was she was in in actual tears, and yeah, she was crumpled in a corner at at, and some it was an event out of state, I think. And anyway, she said that she got her financial statements once a quarter
printed out, and she was so embarrassed it was like in a Manila folder. It was. She was so embarrassed she just put it in a filing cabinet, and didn't even look at it, and she just felt like, and she was producing over 2 a year and couldn't figure out where the heck it was going did not have anything at the end of the day. So I hear you with frustration number one. Okay, what was your other frustrations you were personally experiencing during this exploratory time in your life.
Well on that frustration number one, we made it a pillar. It was a company guarantee that we have that we deliver financials to all of our clients by the 15th of the following month, or they're free. Okay? So I think that should be a demand of any practice. And really, and I would say that.
you know, for serious accounting. I have this saying that accounting doesn't matter really, until it matters, and when it matters is when there's going to be a significant exchange of money, and that can be when you sell your business that can be, or you're bringing on an associate or partner that can be when you're asking for financing. But the highest frequency is every year when you file and pay taxes.
the accounting is what basically creates the tax return and helps. You see the tax picture, and that doesn't really matter if you don't have a huge tax liability. So for smaller practices, serious accounting may not be that important. I would tell you that in my experience, really, after you get over a million, but maybe even 1.5 million is a point where I would demand monthly financials because your your tax burden is being created. You know each and every month it's compound effect.
So that was the 1st pillar. The second pillar problem that we that I wanted to solve was after I did receive the financials. I requested a phone call to have them explain to me, and I asked questions to get some business advice. What could I change in this business in this practice to to grow it.
and I found a few things. Number one was that we were working with Dental Cpas, who worked with a lot of dental practices, but they just did the accounting for a lot of dental practices. I was working in the dental practice on the practice management side, and we weren't speaking the same language. They couldn't give me any advice of what to actually go and change in the business.
and that's the piece I think. Also, everybody wants. You know they want. They want to think they're working within a business advisor that can help them make some changes in the business. But do they know dentistry.
Okay, specifically. So, they may just be targeting dentistry as the one niche market. And that is valuable. I mean, I really think of anybody who's in that niche market. And I think of our company more than just an accounting company. I think of it like a data company. How can we use that data across multiple practices to see what the more successful ones are doing, what they're using. You know, it's easy to see what vendors you use, what marketing companies, what coaches and consultants.
But then you really have to get into, you know. Okay, if you are, you spending enough in marketing? This is just an example. Are you spending enough marketing? How many new patients a month are you getting? Do you know the metric for that? And if you're not, are you listening to your phone? Your phones? How your phones are being answered. The accountants I used to work with would have never thought.
I was. Gonna say, those are high end strategy questions. And it's starting to put context, like in a way that I haven't heard it before, Chris. That makes sense that bridges the gap
for me from someone looking at it from a traditional Cpa standpoint. When you put it like that, like. It's just a line item like they don't maybe take. I don't know if I'm don't want to put words in your mouth, but they weren't bridging that gap between. This is what you're spending money on. What is the return you're getting for this particular investment, or where are your benchmarks in in marketing, for example, sounds like they weren't asking those questions that would lead to high end strategy, consultation.
That's right. That's right. So basically, what we've kind of formed is, you know, we have a little over 40 total accountants in our firm, and I won't tell you that they all know the business of dentistry, but we have the ones who are advisors, client facing.
It's my job to teach them kind of the business of dentistry. It's my job to teach them some of those metrics. It's my job to. We meet as a team every week and talk about our clients, and when they're about to have a coaching call with a client to go over their financials, and a metric is out of whack. I have to teach them kind of the symptoms, so that we see the financials.
Yes.
But I have to teach them what possible causes in the business of dentistry are creating those symptoms, and we have to get the doctor, the owner, to go back and investigate those causes and come back to us with their findings. And sometimes we're recommending a change.
You mentioned quarterly financials, I do believe, at a certain size you have to have monthly financials, but I think you need to have minimum quarterly calls with the accountant. Some people want monthly calls, but they can't get enough done. They can't affect enough change in one month's time.
Yeah. so that was so. You were. I love how you were being your own hero essentially, which some of the best companies ever are created by having that frustration and saying, I'm going to go in. And I'm gonna and I'm going to solve for this. So how many years has profi been in business? And and in addition to that particular problem, what other? What other exciting, you know, opportunities have has profile been able to find and and help doctors with.
Well. So my personal experience, starting, working in a dental practice, began in 2010. We did not found profi until 2017.
So you had a you had a good chunk of time to get real frustrated.
I mean, it kind of came to it. Kind of came to a head where it's like, you know what we haven't. We've been beating our heads against the wall for a long time. There doesn't seem to be this solution in the marketplace. It was not offered. I saw it as a void. And we we figured you know what? Let's go out and build it ourselves.
That's phenomenal. You know, Pda, we have several different, you know, alliance partner, that work in in the financial space in one way or another. So we have dentist advisors which which gives, you know, financial advisory. We have Howard Polanski with financially led. He looks at debt reduction specifically, and we have you? We have profile 2020. So from and explain it like, I'm 5 years old, sort of standpoint. How I know you're familiar with with
all the entities here. How how does it all work together to serve? Because we're, you know, at Pda, if you've ever been to a Pda conference listening, you, you would know we're all about optimizing your practice. And when we say I think it's cheesy. But when we say work smarter, not harder, it's really understanding
from a fundamental standpoint how to run your business, and then how to communicate with your patients so that you can do that dentistry that you have put so much of your own effort and time into. And and that means looking at finances from different perspective points. It's not 1 1 company fits all. Each one does something a little bit different. So can you, from your perspective kind of, you know. Talk to us about that.
Let's say, you know, in one word, the the thing that should link us together in working with any kind of coaching company like yours. That's different from working with a lot of other accounting firms. That word is growth. It's 1 of our core values. I have found that many accountants are not growth oriented both for themselves in their business and in the advice that they give. So they accountants do love, they want to be loved, and they think that they do.
They want to be loved. I don't think I've ever heard that before.
This want to be loved as well. It's it's it's it's 1 of those hard professions where, you know they don't get a lot of love out there in dentistry, or in accounting.
True.
but they they feel one of the ways that they feel loved, or they think that they're bringing good advice to someone is to, you know, if their job is to help you be more profitable. They're looking at. What expenses can they cost? And.
Yeah.
We have this kind of funny saying, and this applies both to accountants and dentists is that they tend to know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. And so they look at every line. Item that that is reported on a profit and loss statement is reported as an expense. They look at them all as expenses, but some of those things are investments. They bring a return. and 2 things that are are on that expense report that are
can be. Great. Investments are your marketing, and you're your growth consulting. You're coaching. and accountants can be very adversarial to those 2 things. It was certainly the advice that we received was, you know, why don't you spend less in marketing typical dental Cpa and the the industry average? I hate averages, because I don't want to be average. I don't want to work with average people.
They will tell you these industry averages, and in private practice you should be doing 2% or less into marketing. Meanwhile the Dsos are reinvesting 6 to 8% of their revenues into marketing. They don't have as great.
That now is, that is that the new numbers in that's fascinating.
That's that's been around for a while and continues to be the case because they, you know, they'd have a revolving back door. They don't have the retention, the private.
You were.
But you know private practices are not inviting enough people to the party. So we're trying to get any practice we work with to be in that 3 to 5% of revenue reinvestment. And there's a lot more that's tied to. Why, that number is what it is. But the second piece is is the the you know. I tell every business owner hopefully, you you have enough margin that you can leave 10% of your margin. 10% of your your total revenue as profit as margin in your business for marketing, hiring, and training.
Oh, yeah, oh, absolutely. Oh, yes. Keep going.
Right? So but you know these are small business owners. They sometimes use the business like their own personal piggy bank, or they're their own boss. They're still just doing all the dentistry any money that they do make. They're taking it all out of the business, almost sucking it dry, funding their own lifestyle. and they're not thinking of it as an asset to reinvest in and to grow and to
hire, to clinically duplicate themselves, to scale this to make it something that's really sellable, and a business instead of a practice, because a practice requires you to be there. A business does not. So I think people have to go through that kind of evolution themselves to get to a point where they they want freedom. And they decide, okay, I really need to get beyond just me being the one in the chair producing.
Hmm.
That coaching component is one of the things, I believe because coaching training is necessary. You know, they spend a lot of time training clinically, the doctors maybe their assistants doing clinical ce, but they don't spend enough time training the non-clinical team, which is the gatekeeper, you know, that starts the whole process, and maybe on the backside collects all the money.
So anyway, the accountants can be very quick quick to say, Hey, I've got a couple ideas to, you know, help you be more profitable. It looks like you're doing well, you know. Let's let's let's cut back on some of the marketing. And wow! I can't believe you spend so much with that. That coaching. What are you? What are you really getting, you know? And you have to look at the growth. And this is where this is tied all together. Your question. There are plenty of coaches. There are plenty of Cpas.
and they don't work very well together. They're they're actually actually trying to fire each other. In many cases they're adversarial. And as on the coaching side for for you guys like a Pda. you have to have some sort of financial proof to validate what you've done. and this has been my experience in in working with
dental clients through over the years is you can. You can install something that dramatically and financially changes their their business, their financial life, their outcome with taxes, and they will not give you credit for it, or they'll give it to you. Credit for it when you 1st do it. Then they will assume the credit for it.
And it's always a you know. What have you got for me? Now, what have you done for me lately? You know what's the next thing, and if you don't have the next thing they want to move on. and they think that they've they've created it. They've got it in place, and then they'll just, you know, cut it out. They'll stop it. It's what's weird as human beings. We we tend to. Once something works, we tend to quit it. It's very. It's very strange, like, once once something starts working.
Intend to quit it. I call, I say, going back to the fundamentals. But you're right. What popped to my head was growth, minded. Discipline and discipline and consistency is very sexy, but it is very mundane.
so you have to almost shift your perspective. I know Bruce and Victoria were really great in my early education at Pda, helping me think from a growth mindset meaning, say, top line production, and then a bottom line team, as I would say, that's your risk mitigation. And so it can be a natural place of oil and water if they don't have a strong relationship and an understanding, because your risk mitigators are going to do exactly that. They're just going to look at cuts. And and it's a shame
it is a shame, and I think it is very unjust to have anyone looking at finances and not putting any story, because you know very well that the numbers do tell a story, and you're going under the surface and asking the question, why? And it makes sense to me, because your core value being growth.
is going to give way to say there should be times when you do make the investment, when you do calculate the value, and you should take risks, and and seeing that entire picture is part of that process. So if a doctor is to come to Profi, what does that process look like over the the 1st few months, like, what does Profi go in and help the doctor understand?
So first, st we actually do a review of the last 3 years of history to talk about where you've come from to ask, you know. So we see the hard data, the financials, to tell us a story. But then we ask the story behind that what has contributed either to your growth or your decline, or and why did the profit change? Then? The next step is the accounting is kind of like the hygiene to tax. So you got to come through and get a cleaning 1st you got to clean up the account.
Ha! Ha! Ha!
You know. Get a get a a nice clean X-ray and put it into a dental chart of accounts and talk about you know what might be off. What are some of the levers that we can pull in the business that will offset another lever and and have that show up financially.
Need a deep cleaning. How how bad does it? How deep do we go here? Yeah.
The majority of what we do. So what we call onboarding is like the hygiene process we have to. Anytime. We pick up somebody's finances, or we pick up their accounting leading to their tax returns kind of like, the same as when a dentist touches a tooth, no matter what's been done, or who did the work on that tooth before
you touching it. As soon as you touch it, you assume the liability of it. And so same for us. So, no matter what time of year that we take over a new client, we have to go through the accounting all the way back to January 1st and make sure that it's accurate. It's correct.
And at the same time we've got to start downloading transactions and coding and keeping the file current whenever we pick it up. So our onboarding, we'd say we like to have it be 60 days or less. That's dependent on how clean it currently is. It's dependent on how engaged, involved and responsive and communication the doctor is. But if it's if it's a huge mess, and there's a lot of it out there in dental.
So no judgment. So we listen. But we don't judge. It's okay. If it's a mess that's that's.
An awareness. I think it's more of, an it's not judgmental, but there's a lot of it's a big mess out there in the dental world in terms of looking at business financials, and if sometimes they need an Srp. And it can take, you know, 90 days or more. So every every case is unique. It just depends.
I think you know, and fear comes from the unknown. So I love the tie between a dental visit and a financial visit to it. It can be scary. It can be something like the woman that that threw the financials into her filing cabinet and just didn't want to look.
And that to me is the biggest disservice that you can do. So having someone that's been there that understands the frustration that can hold you through that process. You know, I mean, where are the doctors that come to you? Say, pick one in your head, maybe your favorite train wreck of all that came to you, and you thought I don't know how we're going to get through this, and you were able to do that. What were some some of the behaviors and some of the key characteristics that you saw popping up throughout that story. For them.
Well, what what creates a huge mess is actually the the management of cash flow, and how, and especially if there are multiple locations
and having having a clean paper trail from one entity to another. So once you're a business owner and you kind of have control over all of this, it becomes the Wild Wild West. You have all kinds of online bank accounts, maybe for multiple different practices, and you need to pay for things, and you'll pull money from wherever you have it, and so they will pull money. Different practices take it over to the others. What they don't necessarily realize is that each. Each entity has a
a tax calculation, something called a tax basis that can be affected when you do that. So every every time a dollar needs to go to one of the other companies. It traditionally needs to either come home to the owner first, st and then they personally deposit it into the other company, or they need to have like a management company that they can
push money up to. But there's this crazy intercompany movement of cash which is causing a lot of tax issues for these entities, so they can't always depreciate equipment. If they've messed up their tax basis, they can't always take distributions in an S. Corp. If they've messed up their tax basis. And that's something that I found was
rarely, if ever, almost never, discussed by the Cpas to these dental business owners because they felt like they. They either couldn't understand it or didn't really matter. and they would sweep things under the rug. They would do some journal entries. There's this, I would say, this terrible problem in dentistry that a lot of lot of them don't know is they have a a loan to shareholder balance. Okay? And this is getting a little bit too technical here. But.
No go down in the weeds.
Yeah. So there's this, you know, in accounting, you can't technically have a negative tax basis. But you can kind of journal it over there as a it's a loan. Okay? So the business owner either took out too much money beyond their tax basis, which they're supposed to normally have to pay like a extra capital gains tax on extra 20%
Cpas again wanting to be loved. They don't want to deliver that bad news at the end of the year. They don't want to explain. So they just do this journal entry to something called loan to shareholder. And that's something that can affect you in the future. When you sell your business. It's also a trigger for audit but it is so common in dentistry. I would say that if I'm if I meet a doctor that's in their fifties or or older. And and I just look at their
tax returns that for their practice, there's probably an 80% likelihood. They have a loan to shareholder balance, and I see them anywhere from 3 to 400,000 range, and that I mentioned the audit risk. I mean, if they get selected for audit. the Irs will overturn that and say it's all. It's all wages, and you have to pay us ordinary income taxes, penalties and interest. So.
But that's a huge area of where there's ignorance in this. And I have a philosophy question for you also. I would love for you to be my eyes and ears on most of the dentists that you serve with that. So if the Cpa. Is putting that in there, maybe that makes the Cpa. Tell a good story, but that does give implications that are they even aware of that?
I would say 8 or 9 times out of 10 when we do consults, and we reveal that to someone. They've never talked about it before. They don't understand what it is. They've never heard of it.
See, I would be so unbelievably frustrated. And so my next question for you in this is around philosophy. So I am not a finance major of any any state ever I follow the most, I would say the basic profit. First, st Donald Miller's cash flow made simple. Dave Ramsey
very very fundamentally basic way of looking at accounts and separating them out. What is the philosophy that you see is pervasive? That accounts for things like this that people just don't know until they nobody wants to be hit with that, you know, when they're going over. Oh, I owe this much in taxes, that's the worst feeling ever. And then how do you prevent that? So kind of what is the philosophy that you see? And is there any shift occurring?
Or you know I I believe you're being that shift as well, and providing a different solution.
Well, you know our name Profi has multiple different meanings. But the foundational was a play on the word prophy.
You know it is preventable. Oh, I didn't even think about that, of course. So you're cheesy.
Care and higher frequency, you know of, of visits or care will lead to better overall financial health.
Yeah.
Business, and you know, just like you need to go to the dentist at least twice a year. You need to meet with your Cpa. At least twice a year. But we want you to, you know the hygiene to be performed on your books very regularly. and being educated on how the tax picture gets generated proactively.
You know, we live by the 40% tax rule I can do tax planning with anyone. If I have their financials from their business. I can pretty much do tax planning with anyone. And I'm not an accountant, not a Cpa just living by the 40% tax rule. And so, you know, 1st question or 1st thing to educate on the big, the big surprise, you know, like everybody feels like they get a tax surprise at the end of the year.
It's only a surprise. If you weren't meeting about it and discussing, how is it being generated, and what's it going to be? Maybe some people think they they're going to pay 0 taxes every year. That's not the case, but the
the way that it's not a surprise is that you owe 40% tax on 2 things out of your business. If you're in a business like an S. Corp. Where you can take a salary, you owe tax on that salary that's likely been withheld through the payroll. And we typically don't have to worry about that. But for every other business you owe tax on the profit. whether you take it home or not.
and so that profit is at the bottom of that P. And L. And that P. And L. That profit and loss statement is what is page one of the tax return. It's not this mythical thing about how your tax gets generated. And if you over prepare by living by the 40% tax rule, a lot of what we do in preventatively getting away from those tax surprises, those tax surprises which create cash flow problems.
The way that we actually solve for that is not through accounting. Accounting gives us the data, but it's through cash, flow management. Some of what you described. So we're a profit 1st certified firm.
I wholeheartedly believe in that philosophy. I've expanded it beyond just the 5 main accounts, and beyond moving percentages into something we call daily transfers for a single location practice. We use about 9 bank accounts. That sounds crazy when you get started. You know. You tell that to your banker. They're going to look at you like you have a 3rd eye. but it they're all very purposeful and intentional.
and it organizes the money. It's like flossing your finances daily. Okay, so that the financial bacteria of expenses don't cause any financial decay in your business like requiring you to take out debt, or for you to owe taxes and be behind. But a big big part of what we do, Major. Major, big part of what we do is education so educating? And how did it? How does it get generated? Then you can talk about some of the possible things you can do to, you know, mitigate or lower your taxes.
So that was one of the beautiful questions you kind of asked as an assessment tool for for those of you, you know that are listening, I can tell you, in my own
personal finances over my professional career, simplifying to that. And and it does sound crazy at 1st to have multiple bank accounts for multiple reasons. But if you you know, when you talk about muddying, where where you're applying, where you're paying things, especially with the explosion of small group practices. So it's not the Dsos that have 600 practices under the belt. There's a lot that have 2, 3, 4 5 practices, and I can see
from your stories just how easy that can get confusing so fast and
in areas of our life when we talk about working smarter, not harder. It's it's about being able to contextually shift quickly. So follow me here. So if you have bank accounts that are diversified, they have specific purposes for them. You don't have to think so hard, you know what's going to go where and what's allocated to? Where? So one question you just asked me in my health. Assessment from a practice standpoint would be, am I prepared like? It's the end of the year did I prepare several times that I meet with my Cpas, and I'm not going to have a surprise.
So question number one, I'm not going to be surprised. What other questions do you think doctors should be asking themselves, and if that answer is no, you know, perhaps they're not as prepared as they think they should be.
Well, the meeting with the Cpa. Yes, is a key part. The movement of the money and the cash on a high frequency, preferably daily basis that creates a mindset each and every day as you go into the business. The the way that you think about how you
withhold those taxes, I think, is important. So there should definitely be a tax account in the business, and you should pay your taxes to the Irs out of that account in your business. That's 1 thing that one way the Cpa. Can actually see that you pay. You made those payments. I think that's a missing piece. A lot of people take all this money home. The Cpa. Cannot see what you have in your personal accounts.
Oh! Oh! Right!
So they might make a payment from their personal account. They have to notify the Cpa. And give them some sort of transaction documentation, but a lot of times they forget, or the Cpa. Will ask, Hey, remember, I told you to make those quarterly payments. Did you make them? They'll say, yeah, yeah. I made them when they didn't.
Oh no!
They will submit the tax return, showing or assuming that they made that payment. The Irs doesn't have any any receipt of that payment. The finger gets pointed back to the Cpa. Oh, you messed up. and so there's, you know. best practices, and how to get the most out of your accounting relationship, and not have those kind of mistakes filter the tax. So no gross money, no pre-tax money, should ever hit your personal bank account.
you know. So if you take $10,000 out of the business, filter 40% tax $4,000 into the tax account in your business and only take 6,000 home to save, spend, invest, do whatever you want that other 4,000, the tax account. You would do that process every month for 3 months, and just let it accumulate, and then you could empty the tax account to the Irs.
And and you can do that the 1st 3 quarters of the year I actually playing a game against the Cpas and trying to beat them clients like.
Sometimes overpay in their taxes the 1st 3 quarters by just behaviorally making sure they're withholding 40% of every distribution they take empty that account, even if the amount the Cpa. Said to pay was less in the 4th quarter. If we do that. whatever is in your tax account in the 4th quarter, you're likely going to owe a less of a last payment. or possibly nothing, depending on how your year turned out, and you get to take all that tax money home as a nice little surprise, you know. Bonus.
I was. Gonna I was gonna go back to the over preparing because I love this as somebody myself who has love. I love to spend right? Love to spend that over preparing. You can make this game fun. You can. Your future self will 100%. Thank you. It helps you with that behavioral mindset shift. So if you, if you just set your rule in your head, I'm just going to contribute this much to this account, and
and I'm going to do it consistently. I'm not going to wait, and I over prepare you. Get a delight at the end of the year, and you're tired at the end of the year. You want to have time with holiday family. You don't want to be stressed out. That is one of the best ways, I think.
to be excited and thankful, and, boy, you will love your Cpa. For that, too. I know that when I over prepare I'm so delighted and happy. Nobody ever wants to get hit with oops. I owe a ton of money ever so. It's a really nice way to sort of force yourself, I think, and shift your mindset.
You know, a good coaching relationship and a good accounting relationship are really what we're talking about here today, Reagan, which are, we're in the same business. We you might do, you might. Do, you know, practice management, dental coaching we might do accounting. But the true business we're in is human behavior modification.
And it's it's, you know, financial behavior modification. That's actually the key. So it's not just finding the right coach just finding the right accounting relationship is not is not the full gig I mean, it really does take you as a person, you as the the doctor owner. Only implement listening and implementing some of what you're taught. But it's a consistent redundant, you know, behavior that changes your outcome. you know. So that's.
So let's talk. This, I agree. All I can think of is the donut story, you know. You put the donut on the table and you walk away. Who's going to eat it? And who's going to wait the appropriate time like that? Get that? Pull out that dopamine, and that's that's the piece of that, too. I think of everything in dopamine hits. How do we stimulate that primal brain?
Talk to us a little bit about? Why you come to the Pda Conference and what it is about the dentists that come to Pda, events that you've worked with over the years. What's what's you know? What's exciting to you about that? And and what's you know? What makes you come back year after year?
Well, I'll go back to that core value of growth. I just, you know there's a saying, if you're not growing, you're dying. And when, if our business isn't growing, I know that I kind of get depressed. I'm like, you know, that's that's where I live. I live in the future, and the goal setting, and I think it takes a certain level, maybe a certain experience level before any small business owner, particularly in dentistry, though, decides that to take on, you know.
Take, take, take it by the by the reins, and really say, Okay, I want to grow this thing.
Hmm.
So a conference like yours is focused on, how can you grow? And it's not just grow top line revenue. It's it's it's grow profitability. But it's also, you know. grow as a doctor and as a professional expand beyond. Just, you know, thinking about the dentistry, the clinical work that you're having to do. It's taking more of kind of, you know, helping you see your business. I love how
most the entry point at most. Pda conferences is with Dr. Bruce Baird, and you go through scheduling first.st I was sharing with you that I just came back from an on-site visit to a large practice that I work with. It's 1 location. They have, I believe, 6 total general dentists and one oral surgeon, and of the general dentists. 4 of them are associates.
and they can't see their schedule, or, if you ask them, hey, do you? Are you scheduled every day to your number next week? Or do you know how much, how much production you have on your your books next week. They don't. They don't have ownership of that yet. It's not. It's not a muscle that they've learned how to train. And most conferences that are out there. The vast majority are focused on just the clinical component. You know.
Oh, yes, if you take a visual, I thank you. If you take a visual of a hub and a spoke okay. And so at the end of the spoke represents a level 10. That's your expertise level. And I want you cut it up into 8 different ways, right? So you got this wheel and this wheel circle hasn't been drawn yet down in the middle towards the hub. That's where you're least experienced. When I look at so many doctors. They are so passionate about dentistry itself that
they're clinical. You can put way up on the board right, depending on how many years and how many advanced courses you take. But let's say, put that at an 8,
and then you look at the other elements of the business itself. So you put communication with patients, and you write in where you're at from one to 10, the business elements of it, the financial accounting, the insurance, the administration, the hygiene, and you start to draw in. Okay, I know from one to 10. This is where I sit. Typically, you have a pretty chunky wheel that's not going to get you very far, and I think you've done a really beautiful example of explaining
how you help educate and guide dentists so that they can fill out those other pieces of the wheel, and maybe. And why? Pda and profile 2020 work so well together because we have the understanding that that it is, it is behavioral modification, and it is doing that with the mindset that your future self will be so much less stressed. I have to write marketing copy all the time, and I always say, decrease stress. How
to me this is how going in with with no blinders on having a clear picture with somebody who can say I've been there in your shoes. I got super frustrated in a dental practice, and that's exactly why I created this organization to help you increase your your proficiency.
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I mean, that's so. I only want to go to conferences like yours that are focused on growth. It's beyond just doctor growth. It's to be a better entrepreneur. you know, and
business ownership is not a. It's not a right or an entitlement. You know. You're very fortunate if you get to you, own one, and the question is, you know, what are you going to do with it? It can be an asset, that is, that you can grow and is worth something, but it has to be that you want to grow beyond just being your own boss, you know, and not and not just beyond just your own production. Because so
I I'm in the pursuit, I think, like many people of of this this buzzword of financial freedom.
and it 1st begins in your business, or changing it again from a practice which requires you to be there to a business which does not and not everybody's at that level of mindset yet, and I think it takes a little bit of time. And so we're the best fit. And you know, if we're in alignment, if I'm in pursuit of that. And the people I'm working with are in pursuit of that we're in the best fit, and I look for. Where do those people go for their information? And
Pda is one of the great places I've found. And and actually, you know, we get to look under the hood right of all the practice that you work with. and I'll give a shout out that you know I see practices of all different kinds, and and working with different coaches. The practices working with Pda by far are the most profitable.
Hmm.
And they still each one has different things that they have to work on. But by and large they're the most profitable. And I think that begins with again learning how to schedule to the number. That's kind of your introductory point that I've seen with Dr. Baird is just a game changer.
Dr. Lippian said it best. I think I've mentioned it in another podcast. Episode. He gave us a 5 star review on Google, and and he said, You know, I held off for so long. I'm just paraphrasing. But it was basically the sentiment of it was I held off because I just thought it was.
you know, faster fillings and working harder, and it is the complete opposite of that. And I think there's always the 2 sides of the coin being profitable is great. You have to be to have a thriving future and to feel great, but when you can do that and provide better patient care along the way and care for your team. You just are winning across the board, and I do think that that's rare, and I think it takes intention. I think it takes
business owners that are. You are right. Growth mindsets probably what you would put on paper, but there is just a deep sense of of servant leadership to not just the community, but but to themselves, and creating that longevity. It's it's gorgeous. And and I'm thrilled. I'm so excited that you were going to be with us in March.
I, too, when I hear associates, I hold my breath doctors as individual contributors. They can actually end up growing really, really well in their own practice. And then they make that switch and say, Okay, I'm ready now. And I always want to hold their hand. I'm gonna say, let me hold your hand while I tell you this.
when you do that you are transferring knowledge, and then that's the other side of the piece, so your your puzzle gets more complex, but when you surround yourself with the right guidance it can be, it can be in a less painful experience, and it can give you great results. So, Chris, we are.
I come from my Pda visits twice a year every March and September, and I think if you're listening, you should, too. The doctors that I've seen repeat. I think I've been attending the events now for going on 4 years, and the doctors that I've seen repeat attendees, and then, you know we had some consults with, some early on. We've had some repeat consults. You can definitely see the change once they're once they're committed and implementing.
Really so from an outsider kind of perspective, you do you notice the difference.
And you notice a difference in their behavior and confidence. You know they show up to the 1st event if it's their 1st time, and they're just kind of like.
you know, very weary and kind of cautious and scared to, even, you know. Come up and talk to people at the different alliance partner tables, learning about what they do. I'm sure they're they're kind of very weary listening to the content being given to them. They come back if it's their, you know, 3rd or 4th time that I've seen them. They're just walking a little bit taller, you know. You can just tell. They feel like they're a different language.
Well, thank you. Thank you. Chris. Yeah. We are very intentional about, you know who who sits at the table and and why why we bring the partners in that we do, and it is philosophy. Alignment is so important. And, doctor, if you're listening right now, thinking about the external groups that you work with philosophy. Alignment is really, really important. We can't say it enough. So if you are growth minded
and and want to decrease your stress by being prepared financially in a way that can be fun and sexy and rewarding. I promise you that this is a great conference for you. Reaching out to Chris is also a great option. How can people get in touch with you and your organization.
You can check us out online at Profi 2, 0 2 0.com, PROF. I, 2, 0 2 0.com, and you can find us on all forms of social media at Profi, 2,020.
And are you? Are you gonna announce? Are you kicking off a new? Podcast? Are you ready to announce that publicly.
Quite ready to announce it. But I will say, yes, we are kicking off a new podcast here in 2025, one, that we're revamping from several years ago with new name, new brand and new concept. And I will be inviting you back, Reagan, to do.
Awesome. excellent! Well, I look forward to that. We'll keep an eye on it and announce it when it goes. Live. Thank you for your time today, Chris.
Thank you, Reagan. Thanks so much.