Episode 169 – LEAKED! Mike Michalowicz Reveals How Dentists Can Take a Year Off

“This isn’t a race to the biggest company. It’s a journey to being providers for our community in a way that gives us joy and a way that we can support ourselves economically.” ~Mike Michalowicz 

Doctor, you can take a four-week vacation.

In fact, you could even take off two years from your practice, and it could perform better than ever.

“Unachievable,” you say? It’s not! Whatever your dreams, no matter how big they are, you absolutely can achieve them. 

So why do so many entrepreneurial dentists struggle so much with the abundance of their lives? 

Mike Michalowicz, a renowned author of Profit First, is on a mission to end entrepreneurial poverty…and that includes dentists like you! 

This is a system you can use to achieve the life you deserve. Learn how you can pop to the next level and gain the freedom of time so you have the freedom to do what matters to you most. 

Do not miss this conversation, where you’ll discover tools to help you get your freedom, including:

• 3 tools to help you achieve your big goals
  • The Big BANG
  • The Big Promise
  • The Queen Bee Role
• Using extended vacations as a business “fire drill”
• What to say to your team to empower them to run things in your absence

To learn more about Mike or get your own copy of Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run by Itself by Mike Michalowicz, visit mikemotorbike.com.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Regan
Welcome to the Everyday Podcast. I am Regan Robertson and my co-host Dr. Chad Johnson and I, are on a mission to share the stories of everyday dentists who generate extraordinary results using practical and proven methods that you can take right into your own dental practice. If you are ready to elevate patient care and produce results that are anything but ordinary, buckle up

Regan 1:52
Doctors, how would it feel to enjoy an uninhibited four-week vacation? One where you didn’t worry about the practice your patients or even your team? Now, what if I told you that not only this is possible, but you could grow your practice in such a way that you could take off over a year, even two years, and have your practice perform better than ever? That may feel like a dream more than reality.

As business owners, we do know what it’s like to have the prestige of business ownership but feel like we live in entrepreneurial poverty. Our guest today, Mike Michalowicz, is on a mission to eradicate just that. As the best-selling author of several books including Profit First, The Pumpkin Plan, and Fix This Next, his latest book titled Clockwork Revised And Expanded, features a system that can help you achieve the lifestyle you deserve. You can tell we’re really excited about this. Chad and I have worked with many dentists who sing the praises of profit first and we cannot wait to dive into this and learn how the clockwork system can help dentists looking to pop to that next level and gain the freedom of time so you can do what matters to you most. Let’s welcome Mike Michalowicz to Everyday Practices.

Mike Michalowicz 3:01
I like how you said Pop

Regan 3:02
So, Mike, why are you on a mission to end entrepreneurial poverty?

Mike Michalowicz 3:15
Well, okay, so getting right into the meat of it. Want me to start crying, I will start crying probably. So. So I’m an entrepreneur, my entire adult life and I thought had all figured out. I was full of arrogance and confidence, inappropriate confidence because I built some companies. But, I really didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t really appreciate how much luck came into play in my favor. My third attempt was to start 10 businesses because I thought that’s like a really smart idea and I was horrible at it. I destroyed the businesses, they were not successful. I lost everything and my daughter felt compelled to save my misfortune to support her family by volunteering her piggy bank. She said, “I’ll provide for us daddy because you can’t.” She was nine. And that moment became this defining moment for me. Not in that moment, though, that’s the key thing. It wasn’t like the next morning like, I got this. I didn’t reflect on that moment and like, “Oh my God, I know so little about entrepreneurship.” And I still know very little, hopefully, an ounce or two more but I endeavored, I’m going to learn everything about this responsibility, this job that we have, and I’m gonna share everything I know the best of what I know. So that’s why I’m on this mission because it’s painful when you mess up and I messed up really badly and I’m not gonna allow it to happen to myself or anyone I come into contact with ever again.

Dr. Chad Johnson 4:40
We’re excited to kind of bring this into the dentist realm that’s, you know, like, what this podcast is for. It’s, if engineers want to listen or whatever, that’s cool and all but this specifically is for dentists and whatnot and within our group, within our culture. We’ve had a couple of people that at first, I mean, a man is about five years ago, Max Payne, he was like, “You know, I’m reading profit first.” And I was like, “I am too.” You got to implement it right away and I kept on dragging my feet, will add on that more in a few minutes on that, but, so I just thought I’d let you know, you know. This is doing hopefully a lot of good for the potential listeners down the road listening to this within the dental sphere. So thank you. Go ahead, Regan. and you got.

Regan 5:21
Yeah, absolutely. There’s, I heard a little bit more about your story, Mike, at Donald Miller’s Business Made Simple Summit and it reached in grabbed my heart and I probably pulled it out because no parent wants to go in well, they don’t want to go in and say, “Hey, I’ve really messed up and this is hurting my family.” And I feel like some of the best solutions are born from that level of pain and to be able to transfer it into a system that people can actually use to better their own lives, is an incredible feat. So in the book, Clockwork, which is a fantastic book, my whole leadership team has it now. Yep. You mentioned several tools. I am a huge fan of tools, including The Big Bang, The Big Promise and The Queen Bee role. Can you briefly explain what these are and how they fit together?

Mike Michalowicz 6:11
Yeah, yes, for sure and they do work almost like gears. So the Big Bang is derived from Jim Collins’s work, he talks about the big, hairy audacious goal to be high but I found in my research is there’s couple more elements. The Big Hairy Audacious Goal is all about having something massive as every word is about massiveness, but it’s missing nobility, I think impact on humanity, as we define it, and beauty, which is also self-defined. Usually it’s rooted in joyness. That’s where beauty is. So Big Bang stands for big, beautiful, audacious, noble goal and it’s that, that beautiful nobility that I want people to focus on. Too many entrepreneurs I’ve met, said, “Oh, my God, my business isn’t big enough.” I’m like, “Well, who,according to what? According to Inc Magazine? And according to other entrepreneurs? This isn’t a race to the biggest company, it is a journey to being providers for our community in a way that gives us joy, and that we can support ourselves economically, sustainably. So that’s what the Big Bang is.

My Big Bang is to eradicate entrepreneur poverty, I found often it ruminates from a trauma we’ve experienced in our lives. And if you look back at trauma in your life, we’ve all had it, some of us, many of us, sadly, far more severe than financial trauma but, if you look at it, we have the right to say I will never allow this to happen to myself again, or anyone I come in contact with. I think it can become a stance, so we can become a victim to it or make it a stance and I just want people to explore that. It’s not perfect for every situation but trauma can be a wonderful gift and putting big air quotes around this, in that capacity. The Big Bang for me becomes a driving purpose. I don’t necessarily care if other people know I’m on a mission to eradicate extreme poverty. They may resonate with it, but they may not, but for me, this is a life mission numero uno. Now the big promise is important to my customers, my clients, the people I serve.

This is the commitment I make and my promise is to simplify entrepreneurship and what that means is, that needs to be the filter for all the work I do, including our conversation right now. Am I making concepts simple and accessible? Am I boiling it down to the assets? If I’m being too wordy, if I’m introducing complex ideas, I’m going to lose the ability to serve. So every book I write, every podcast, hopefully, parents can do, every speech I present, I want to bring to the essence and that’s what matters to the customer. So your big promise is what the customers kind of gauge your success on and the danger here is don’t over promise or don’t promise too many things. So don’t promise something you can’t deliver, that’s disingenuous. Secondly, don’t say “Well, I’m the best and the fastest and the cheapest.” You know all the things, right? Because you can’t be everything to everybody. So the big promise is, that really should be the biggest promise is what we stake our reputation on. And the last part is the Queen Bee role. In my research, I was studying Mother Nature, it’s important to study mother nature because it’s called biomimicry, when you discover something in mother nature figured out over, you know, a billion years. She’s pretty smart. If we can interpret that to business, we have something that’s likely to be successful because it’s worked for her. So I noticed that bee hives specifically have the ability to scale very quickly, very organically with low energy cost. So I said, “Is there a translation in beehives to organizational hives?” And I found there was quite a few parallels. My favorite was the thing called the Queen Bee role. Basically, there’s a single activity or function that matters most to the survivability and the thrivability of the hive, that’s the production of eggs. Well in business, I asked myself, Oh, every business has a singular activity that’s most important. So queen bee role is the role that we need to underline. Don’t confuse this with a Queen Bee person. They’re not saying an organization should have a most important person, it actually becomes a little dangerous, because if they’re unavailable, get sick, decide to move to Paris, well with Zoom, maybe it’s okay but it could be a challenge for the business. So we don’t want to be dependent on one person. But, a business by definition must be dependent on its most important activity, we have to define it. Sadly, most small businesses don’t know what the most important activity is. They just say everything’s important and therefore they keep hitting these ceilings. I can’t get past that million or whatever the number is but really, they haven’t become the masters of their craft, mastering that core activity first. Other things are important. The queen bee role is the most important. ,

Dr. Chad Johnson 10:53
You explained that well. We talk about and specifically in my dental office. Our core purpose is we slay disease that’s like it’s almost, you know,

Mike Michalowicz 11:02
Slave disease?

Dr. Chad Johnson11:03
We slay disease, and we’re just cool.

Mike Michalowicz 11:05
[not audible]That’s, that’s awesome.

Dr. Chad Johnson 11:09
Yeah and so it’s just, it was just kind of funny. One time in our meeting, when we were talking about what is our, our thing, and I was like, ‘We slay disease.’ And they were like, “That’s we shouldhave that be our thing. So we’ve kind of kept it. But when I think about it, like a lot of dental offices, mine included, we know who the Queen Bee is, and this is kind of whatever, gender weird, but you know, like, I’m the Queen Bee, like the dentist is the queen bee but then the question becomes, I think this is harder, and I kind of wanted, Iwanted to know your opinion, almost as consultants like, in general, what is a dental office’s Queen Bee role? We all know who the Queen Bee is, it’s probably the dentist, probably a because we’re this kind of the sole entrepreneur that gets the business going and we’re the, we’re the hub of it. But, the queen is the role? Could it,could I make that core purpose, my queen bee role? That we slay disease? Like that’s what our purpose is and that’s what our role is?

Mike Michalowicz 12:04
You’re very close, you’re very close. So the second you identify that you are Queen Bee, that means there’s a singular dependency, and that is a problem. The day you’re sick, the business dwindles. A day you can’t come,

Dr. Chad Johnson 12:04
Inherently that’s a dental problem.

Mike Michalowicz 12:14
Yeah, yeah. So we need to find a form of redundancy, we have to find it and it’s out there. The obvious thing is, can you find other doctors and so forth? But there’s probably more to it, but the Queen Bee role is the activity that supports your big promise or your big promises. If your big promise is slaying disease, my ask to you is, of all the things you do, what most ensures that you’re slaying disease?

Dr. Chad Johnson 12:38
Yeah, so more of like some of the specifics about what procedures we do? Would it be procedural?

Mike Michalowicz 12:44
Yeah. Oh, totally, because it’s always an activity. So because you’re staking your reputation on slaying disease, so we got to prevent disease from happening. So is it the cleanings? Is it, which sounds preventative? Or is the curative work, which sounds like a cap or crown? We’ve got to pick what most affects that and then we have to master it. Now I’m not saying don’t do the other things. I’m just saying they’re secondary. We have to be world-class at one thing, and then your reputation for slaying disease will precede you.

Dr. Chad Johnson 13:11
Yes. Okay

Mike Michalowicz 13:12
And then you may find out by the way, your queen bees, it’s a it’s the preventative, it’s cleaning, maybe it’s actually the dental hygienist and not be you? Great Queen Bee. Yes. You see, I

Regan 13:24
I muted myself because I was exploding over here. You’re absolutely right. I like how Chad takes slaying disease, and turns it into a completely preventative-focused, model practice. So it’s, it’s not the tooth is already broken, it’s we’re looking proactively and holistically at the entire person. I think I understand this better, Mike. So.

Mike Michalowicz 13:42
I’ll be real gutsy here. If you do that, you can change the paradigm. I don’t know, if you notice in China, I think it’s in China, doctors are not paid for healing you when you’re sick, they’re paid for keeping you well, as long, right? Why not be the dentist that says, “We pay you, you know, we, we will care for you not to have cavities or not to have whatever the disease may be. When you have that, that’s on us.” Because we’re doing everything to prevent it. If you’re here to our regimen, you better come in every month, and you better pay this, you know, fee or whatever it is. But I’m not saying it’s the perfect model, but we can start reframing it and then we redefine the industry, we become the authority.

Dr. Chad Johnson 14:17
There’s even a small possibility, like we’ve done that in our limited exams cost more than our recare regular exams and our idea is it’s just like we’re incentivizing people coming in on a regular basis rather than you know, like throwing off our schedule. So Regan, you got next because we know our time is precious with Mike keep going.

Regan 14:37
So Mike, what I love about how you take the B hag, and you combine it with the nobility and the beautifulness of it. You’re taking data, so a lot of companies take the data, that’s the transaction, that’s the number, that’s the numerical goal that you have and you’re putting a purpose to it. So I’ve always said data plus emotion equals your action. So bringing in that deep, why oh, it gets better. In Chapter eleven, is the take the four-week vacation, which is going to be exciting to every dentist. Wouldn’t we all like to take four weeks of straight vacation? And the statement from your friend of yours announced that in two years time he wants to be living in Italy. So he’s forward, casting it. And I chuckled because one of our doctors, Dr. Samuel Moss, he was able to move to Italy for a full year. We have a consulting company, if you’re not aware, with dentists, and so he was able to, he took the time off and not only did he take the time off, but his practice produced better than when he was actually in the practice. And Mike, what you do is you take it a next step further, and everybody listening, pay attention to this. Mike went in with Greg and talked about how Greg could be able to give his employees four weeks of vacation off in a row too.

Mike Michalovicz 15:50
Yes

Regan 15:51
So you turn the four-week vacation from a B hag in my opinion, what serving me as a business owner, and you took it to that noble route and said, “Okay, if I’m benefiting, how can we actually even make it so the team benefits as well?” So my question for you is, I’m big into the how, there’s a lot about the why. You put in a how, you put in a how with milestones with this, how to plan it over 18 months, which Dennis you will understand. Because if you’re wanting to drop insurance, you put a plan in place that takes time. So Mike, what do you love most about your 18 month plan that you’ve developed? And what support is necessary to make sure this really sticks?

Mike Michalowicz 16:31
Oh, great, great questions. I want to start with the whys a little bit more because there’s a little Jedi mind trick playing here. When you take a four-week vacation as the owner, yes, it serves you. When your employees go, yes, it serves them but there’s something far greater that’s invisible. It is the best way to serve a business because it’s a fire drill. At some point, we are going to leave our business hopefully it’s for retirement, but health issues do happen, emergencies and crises do happen. And I remember growing up as a child, my grade school, they had a fire drill and you didn’t know what was coming all of a sudden the alarm go off and everyone stand up and single file, and the first few times it was clunky and chunky but within a few sessions, we knew how to exit. Well sure enough, our school had a fire around seventh grade that was pretty severe and not a single person got hurt because we all knew stood up, single file, out the space.

But in our business, the four week vacation serves as a fire drill. It prepares our business for our absence and when we’re absent, who’s gonna cover for us? How are we going to do it? And most business owners, I was talking with Michael Gerber, he’s the author of The E Myth. We did a keynote together, this was about 10 years ago. He said sadly, most business owners think it’s a flip of the switch. If I just work so hard my business, one day it’s gonna run itself and it’s actually the reverse. The harder you work in the business, the more it’s dependent upon you.

Dr. Chad Johnson 17:47
It perpetuates the problem?

Mike Michalovicz 17:48
Yeah, it perpetuates the problem, it becomes bad. So I have a business coach, his name is Barry and he said, “You know, Mike, sometimes the best way to get out of the weeds is just to walk out of the weeds. Just leave.” When you leave your business for a period of time, the problems will expose themself, some of them you can premeditate. I’m the only dentist here I leaved well, we know dentistry, what am I going to do? In the 18 months rollout plan, what I suggest is, don’t take a four week vacation tomorrow, that’d be absurd, your business is not prepared at all, it would be a jolt. But I find that if we scheduled something a year, a year and a half 18 months out, it gives us enough time to feel the shock value of a new commitment, but also the time to prepare for it. Book this vacation. So literally, it’s a calendar event, it must be four consecutive weeks, we’re gonna have a full digital and physical disconnect, no access to the office and if you want to be held accountable, tell your loved ones, your friends, tell your mother-in-law, shoot it all over. Like just tell people you’re doing this and tell your team. Now live entrepreneurs that go through this have told me, “Gosh, I’m so afraid to tell my team. They’ll think I’m on the beach, drinking Mai Tais, they’re sweating in the shop, and I’m making all this money off their back. The reality is, is in empowerment, you’re trusting your employees with the keys to the kingdom. So when you tell them I’m taking a four week vacation, say, “Because I trust you to run this business. My vision for myself and for our company is I’m a business owner, not the operator and I think you guys can elevate up to the operating level or managerial level or higher, but I’ll never know if I keep on intercepting everyone and being the micromanager here. So I’m out of town and I trust you with the keys.” Tell them, then we start doing these tests. So you scheduled for a vacation eight months out or 18 months out. I’m gonna take our first vacation, maybe in about three months, do everything I can to prepare for my absence and leave for one week. Again, a full disconnect from almost any business I’ve studied. Even if things go to hit the fan, you’re A okay after a week. You can recover from that even if you’re away for one week, but what it does when you leave, it starts exposing the weaknesses. That backup or alternative dentists we had coming in couldn’t hold the standards we adhere to, or our clientele were shocked that you weren’t around because they are so dependent on you. Okay, we just are arming and preparing our clientele, to work with other doctors or something like that. We go through cycle, then we take a two-week vacation is now six months out, try a three-week block that’s maybe a year, year and a half out and then we go for the ultimate four weeks. Last thing I want to share is why four weeks, for every business I’ve studied, it was true for every business. Every business goes through monthly cycles to close out the books at the end of the month. We have new patients and clients coming on board, maybe some people leave us, we have HR issues, we have invoices, collections insurance, all this stuff happens every single month. So if you’re absent for a full month and run it, it runs successfully, the business will likely run successfully into perpetuity and now you have a business that I call clockwork.

Dr. Chad Johnson 20:47
You know, it never clicked to me, like when I was listening to this on Audible until you were just explaining it. When I was in high school, I worked at a water park and the business owner would go on these motorcycle trips and go off and I remember one time this mom came up and said I want to talk to whoever’s you know, in charge of this park and I was 16. I said, “Yeah, that’s me.” And she says, “No, I want to talk to.” Because I was the boss. That’s it, you know, but he, he put me in charge and he, she was like, “No, I want to talk to the person who’s in charge of this whole place.” And I said, “Yeah, you’re looking at him. How can I help you?” And I thought, it’s so interesting, because he would leave and it just clicked to me. It’s like it was on purpose and the cool thing is that raised me into becoming an entrepreneur, a business owner with my mentality that I am today because he led me to that. Yes, he was elevating me.

Mike Michalowicz 21:38
Yeah, and the key is, I don’t know if he did, but, the key is to communicate your objective. Yeah, I’m leaving, and I’m gonna do stuff that I define as fun for me but I’m leaving because the business needs to run without me. There’s one kind of critical note I need to make. The number one job of entrepreneurs business owners is to not do the job. It’s to be a creator of jobs. Only 3% of population ever starts and maintains a successful business. Others try start and fail but 3% net, run a business successfully and sustainably. That means the other 97% of the global population is looking for a good job with a good company. That’s our job, the company’s good job. So don’t do the work. If you are, you’re stealing the work from someone that wants to do it.

Dr. Chad Johnson 22:24
So Regan, you had a question? You want it to go and then I’ll finish up with mine. Go ahead.

Regan 22:27
Yes, thank you for honoring us, Mike. With all of your time we have like 10,000 questions. We’re gonna keep it brief, though. You speak about, to the following, to following the clockwork system but you also make a nod to Profit First, we know as dentists if you, there’s profit first for dentists so there’s a whole system and that’s really about getting your, your cash flow in order, getting your, your system in place for how you manage your money. So which comes first for dentists? Which would you recommend Profit First or Clockwork?

Mike Michalowicz 22:55
Good question. My response is with another question. What is your most imminent need? Are you running around ragged and making tons of money? And you’re okay, financially? I would read Clockwork. Are you struggling financially? Surviving check by check? Then I would start with Profit First. If you’re running around like crazy and not making money, I would still start with Profit First, because it will force the hand of running an efficient business by taking your Profit First.

Dr. Chad Johnson 23:19
When you talk to most people about Profit First, what do you, I’m gonna, It’s a loaded question, because I’m gonna give you what my answer was but when you’re talking with people about Profit First, and they say, you know, “The hardest thing for me to do was.” What is that?

Mike Michalowicz 23:35
Shockingly simple in retrospect, but it’s the biggest impedance is simply going to their bank and setting up the accounts.

Dr. Chad Johnson 23:41
I have it split like, I for the listeners, I, Regan knows, I wrote that and I was like, “Do you know I said to Mike, do you know what? What do you want to guess what the hardest part for me implementing Profit First? Going to the bank, basically the first action step. And so I was just kind of curious, like, yeah, if that’s it, that’s, that seems to be universal, right? Just the first step and then once you get it going.

Mike Michalowicz 24:06
Yeah, it’s universal is necessary. It’s called the behavioral intercept. Most entrepreneurs log into your bank account to manage your money. We need to have something there to show what the money is intended for. So people try to improve the system saying I’ll do the spreadsheet, my accounting system will use it. Well, the question is, do you go there on a daily basis to look how much money you have? If the answer is no, it’s useless. It has to intercept your behavior. So you must set those accounts. You do that you’re 9% of the way there to a profitable business.

Dr. Chad Johnson 24:35
So I took a picture with like, I took a picture of the new accounts at the bank appointment and said that to my accountant, that was my accountability method to be like I was here and it was so belaboring I’m serious. Why that step was so hard, I explained to someone it’s like this huge person going to the gym and not even working out but just like setting their foot in the door and that’s what it felt like to me. I was just like, This is stupid. This is embarrassing and this is hard, I don’t have time for this but, after that it was like, then it all just fell into place. So my recommendation to everyone, just like Mike said, yes, it’s super hard to go to the bank, but get that step done and then you can go from there. Mike, thank you so much for joining us today. Very cool. The people that are going oh, I just I can’t wait to get the feedback and you’re too busy to you know, ever listen to the awesome feedback that we’re going to get and enjoy from you know, them saying too, that was so awesome. So on behalf of them, thank you very much.

Mike Michalowicz 25:34
Thank you for Chad. Thanks for you can appreciate both of you.

Regan 25:36
Absolutely. Mike, what is the best way for people to one get clockwork or know where you’re speaking at? Or how to get in touch with you? Where do we where are all the URLs drop them all here?

Mike Michalowicz 25:47
The mecca for Mike it’s really simple. It’s mikemotorbike.com. It’s a nickname from grade schools is the only real bike.com . Really because who can spell Michalowicz? mikemotorbike.com It’s a G-rated nickname from grade school. I don’t drive a motorcycle. There you go but mikemotorbike.com. Everything’s there.

Dr. Chad Johnson 26:05
That website. The opening skit is everyone has to go just at least see that. Mike, have a good rest of the day. Thank you very much, Regan. We’re out Everyday Practices Dental Podcast.

Regan 26:18
Thank you. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Everyday Practices podcast. Chad and I are here every week. Thanks to our community of listeners just like you and we’d love your help. It would mean the world if you can help spread the word by sharing this episode with a fellow dentist and leave us a review on iTunes or Spotify. Do you have an extraordinary story you’d like to share? Or feedback on how we can make this podcast even more awesome. Drop us an email at podcast@productivedentists.com And don’t forget to check out our other podcasts from productive dentist Academy at productivedentists.com/podcasts See you next week.