Episode 220 – Self Reflection & the Dental Practice, Part 1

“There is nothing more heartbreaking than to witness somebody get to the stage where they’re ready to transition or retire and they realize, ‘Oh no. I didn’t prepare.’” ~Regan Robertson

Have you ever found yourself pondering, “If only I knew then what I know now?” If you have, then prepare to be inspired as Dr. Bruce B. Baird shares his wealth of experience and wisdom gained through years of dedicated dental practice and lifelong learning. Dr. Baird and Everyday Practices Dental Podcast co-host Regan Robertson share engaging anecdotes, profound insights, and invite listeners to reflect on their own journey and consider what they can do to enhance their professional and personal lives. 

While we are on the topic of learning, Regand and Dr. Baird talk about the exciting details of the March 2024 Productivity Workshop – a transformative event that is designed to empower dentists and propel their practices to new heights of success. From practical strategies to for enhancing productivity to invaluable insights on practice transition and legacy building, this workshop promises to equip attendees with the tools and inspiration needed to practice and live their lives the way they’ve always deserved.

Whether you are a seasoned professional beginning to think about transitioning your practice, or you are a newcomer eager to learn how the best dentists practice, this episode – and upcoming workshop – are not to be missed.

As you listen to this episode, please think about the following:

• Consider your own journey and how you can leverage past experiences to fuel future success
• What lessons and insights are you excited to learn more about at the March 2024 PDA Productivity Workshop?
• What new strategies can you implement to overcome challenges, achieve your goals, and create a thriving dental practice?

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Regan 0:00
Hi, Doctor. Regan Robertson, CCO of Productive Dentist Academy here and I have a question for you, are you finding it hard to get your team aligned to your vision, but you know, you deserve growth, just like everybody else? That’s why we’ve created the PDA productivity workshop. For nearly 20 years PDA workshops have helped dentists just like you align their teams, get control of scheduling, and create productive practices that they love walking into every day. Just imagine how you will feel when you know your schedule is productive, your systems are humming, and your team is aligned to your vision. It’s simple, but it’s not necessarily easy. We can help visit productivedentist.com/workshop that’s productivedentist.com/workshop to secure your seats now.

Dr. Bruce Baird 0:46
That’s one of the things that I think is important is you know, self-reflection, you know, it’s something that I’ve really focused on as, as you get older Reagan, you’ll start to realize this, you start looking back and you start saying, ‘”Wow, you know, I wish I’d have known that 10 years ago,” but it’s not, it’s not a negative. It’s, I wish I would have known 10 years ago, but I do know it man and so, if I’m not quitting, if I’m not, you know, giving up on life, then it’s always good at some point, you know, imagine if you were 25 saying, “I wish I’d have done this 10 years ago. You know, I wish I’d known this 10 years ago or 55 or 65,” you know, so if you’re always self-reflecting and always looking back, I think that’s important.

Regan 2:19
Welcome to Everyday Practices Dental podcast, this is your host Regan Robertson here with a very special co-host. Chad Johnson is busy dentist thing right now at this moment and I have our co-founder Dr. Bruce B. Baird, also host of the award-winning podcast the Productive Dentist Podcast. Bruce, welcome to our show.

Dr. Bruce Baird 2:39
Oh man, I’m so excited to be on here. I am super pumped.

Regan 2:43
Tell me now, we were just talking off air, you’ll probably get it as a soundbite about what it means to be super pumped and that’s a show on Netflix that is the story of Uber.

Dr. Bruce Baird 2:53
Yeah, actually goober story and it’s apparently I say I’m pumped a lot because somebody said, you say that all the time. So now I’m super pumped. I’m not just pumped. I am super pumped. So yeah, it’s a great, great show on Netflix and yeah, I don’t know, it’s kind of the corporate world and all of the stuff that goes on and I found it to be really interesting and a lot of fun to watch. And it’s one of those shows where you know, like I say that the soldier maybe town, but you go through it like in one afternoon, because you don’t want us quit watching.

Regan 3:27
So just want to keep hitting the next button. I know how that feels. Chad and I just wrapped up a few weeks ago, reading the book, “The Hard Thing About Hard Things” and that I got our CEO Victoria Peterson reading that book as well, it talks about private equity and even though it’s a fairly old book, and it’s referencing private equity back from, you know, the early 2000s, it’s very relevant and it’ll be really interesting to see, even though it’s not dentistry, or even healthcare, I’m sure you were able to draw a lot of parallels with Uber and what’s going on with Uber and their journey and I’m assuming their foray into public or private equity as well.

Dr. Bruce Baird 4:05
Yeah, it’s really a fun, it’s a fun watch. So it’s one of those things where, you know, you pick up stuff, if you’re living it, which we are right now through the lampo Dental Group, and through some of the stuff that we’ve done, even going back as far as Compassionate Finance and working with a KKR and, you know, a lot of things like that. I had no clue what I was doing, but to watch the show, it kind of explained it to me, you know, three years after the fact of what it was like, so I lived it, but now I get to see it in a different light. So it’s really cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool story.

Regan 4:44
You know, I wonder if it’s by design sometimes that we have to go through the school of hard knocks, we hired a Chief Human Resources Officer, Dr. Adrienne Reynolds, as you know, as you work with her as well, and some of the tools that she’s given me as a leader in the organization. I have, I found myself saying what what PDA doctors have reflected to me over the many years, which is oh, my gosh, if I’d only known this 10 years ago, man, I would have been a better leader 10 years ago, had I had these tools.

Dr. Bruce Baird 5:15
Yeah, you know, that’s one of the things that I think is important is, you know, self-reflection, you know, it’s something that I’ve really focused on as, as you get older Regan, you’ll start to realize this, you start looking back and you start saying, “Wow, you know, I wish I’d have known that 10 years ago,” but it’s not, it’s not a negative. It’s as I wish I would have known it 10 years ago, but I do know it man and and so, if I’m not quitting, if I’m not, you know, giving up on life, then it’s always good at some point, you know, imagine if you were 25 saying, “I wish I’d have known this 10 years ago, you know, I wish I’d known this 10 years ago, or 55, or 65, you know.” So if you’re always self-reflecting and always looking back, I think that’s important. I think we’re How did I get to where I’m at today? Well, I’d like to, I’d like to get, I’d like to reevaluate or evaluate, not reevaluate, cuz you can’t do that but I’d like to evaluate how I got here. And what are the things I did that were successful? And maybe what are the things I did that might have hindered the path a little bit along the way? So yeah, that’s just me.

Regan 6:28
Well, we do what we can until we know better and when we know better, we do better. I don’t remember whose quote two kids that came from, but I think about that often. Explain it to my children first time, is what I say.

Dr. Bruce Baird 6:40
You know, I love it. I do, you know, I’m always looking, you know, always evaluating, you know, what we’re doing, how we did it and could I have done it better, because next time I do it, I’d like to be, you know, look back on the experience that I had and I think it’s important in dentistry, it’s important in life, it’s important across the board. So I become, the older you get, and you really start to self-reflect and I think it’s very valuable.

Regan 7:11
One of the favorite, my favorite things about you, in particular, and we’ve talked about this before, is your ability to use self-reflection, but also combine it with the innovation of the future, I find your eyes are firmly fixated on the future, and what’s coming down the pike and one of the requests that we’ve had over the years and running the productivity workshop is what’s what’s next, what’s next and you have been through an awful lot in the past six years, that have given you the power to help people be self-reflective, perhaps before they need to be self-reflected, and have translated that into we’ve really exploded the workshop. It’s not a workshop anymore. It’s a conference, it has multiple events running at one time. How do you feel about the new conference that PDA has put together for 2024? Well,

Dr. Bruce Baird 8:03
Well, I have to say, I’m super pumped because, you know, we were addressing increasing productivity through the productivity workshop, you know, increasing your production per hour and, and reducing stress and doing all those things but we really weren’t reflecting on practice value, truth, the true value of a business and the way that the industry, private equity, and everybody else looks at dentistry as a business and we weren’t really looking at EBITA, you know, I say the word EBITA to dentists and they go, “What’s EBITA”? You know, and, you know, because most of us, we don’t live in that world but to understand that, if I can change my EBITA, by, by $100,000, in my business, that could equate to $5 million, you know, and so, and I never looked at it until, you know, the recent, you know, the last five to 10 years, but now with Investment Grade Practices, that’s one of our conferences, you know, one of the conferenc’s that we’re doing along with the productivity workshop, you know, because you’ve been through the productivity workshop, you’re, you’re a unicorn, you’re producing at levels that no other dentists are producing but now you get the opportunity to actually true truly understand what value means in dental practice and it’s not the kind of chairs you have, although I like having good equipment. I like having all that technology, but it’s how do I run my business and what’s the value of my business? If someone outside of dentistry is looking at it, and which in turn means they may pay me for that later, you know, so, increasing my my true value of my business and that’s what investment grade practice, the entire program is, is built to grow your value and that’s huge, that’s I mean, you don’t realize it because you don’t know it but it is huge and you’re focusing on something like that and growing, like I say, 100,000 could mean 5 million and we’ve never thought of it that way.

Regan 10:26
There is nothing more heartbreaking than to witness somebody get to that stage where they’re ready to transition, or retire, or whatever milestone it is in their life and have the Oh, no button if I didn’t prepare,

Dr. Bruce Baird 10:38
Right. Oh, my gosh, and, you know, I, you know, I sold my practice to Heartland back eight years before I retired, oh, my gosh, if I knew what I do today, oh, gosh, you know, self reflection, all the things that we talk about, I wish, I wish I knew them, you know, and, you know, I didn’t, and that’s okay but I want to share that with everybody else. You know, that’s kind of what our role is at PDA and investment grade practice and everything else is, you know, we see people go through lots of different issues and if we can find ways to soften the soften the landing or to you know, because it is sad, somebody works 40 years in a business 35 years in a business, and they’ve made a great living, they they’re making money on on the go, and that’s awesome and they, they’ve lived a great lifestyle, but they retire and they have to, they have to retreat to a different lifestyle. You know, only 5% of dentists can retire at their at their existing level and gosh that’s that, that just breaks power. I mean, it really does because you should you should, you should enjoy the fruits of your labor and able to do that and the ability to do that you have to do a little bit of planning ahead of time, you have to plan for building an investment grade practice one that other people would see value in and you know, I joke a little bit I thought, you know, and we build those but when I when I left when I retired, but put away the handpiece haven’t retired, but when I put down the handpiece I thought Granberry dental center would implode because my production How was 50% of the production in the office, I thought the whole place would just fall apart.

Regan 12:37
I remember that I remember you had some tentativeness. Like you were going to bravely walk forward, but you did have those thoughts.

Dr. Bruce Baird 12:44
I was I was worried about all the team Summer and Gay and Shannon and the whole team and I was worried because if I leave, they’ll never be able to do it without me but guess what, we built an Investment Grade Practice we had, we had all the things in place, the systems, the you know, the technology, the the team, with which all of a sudden Jeff comes in Dr. Brewski and he moves over into my role as the Head Producer and all of a sudden his productivity doubles and double bliss literally doubled overnight and I’m like, “Wow,” you know, you know, and it was really good for me to see that because we’re all replaceable, but we’re not replaceable if we haven’t built a great business and so we can sell that business to somebody else and they don’t do as well as we did. Well. That’s not the kind of business I want to sell, I want to I want to leave that legacy practice to the next person so that they can take care of that legacy practice and they can grow it and so we we haven’t missed a beat at Granberry Dental Center. Matter of fact, I’m gonna put my teeth there in a couple hours. So it’s exciting, that it still is what I plan for it to be, even though I’m not there. If that makes any sense.

Regan 14:07
It makes all the sense. And I know that we’re not on video right now. So you can’t see me beaming audience but but to hear your message Bruce, of being the messenger and really helping people prepare so that their school of hard knocks isn’t quite as hard is incredible and so there are new components to the PDA workshop. So right now in March, I think it’s 14th to the 16th for 2024 we are going to have the productivity workshop, which has two new speakers that are going to be part of that package. Then we have the Investment Grade Summit and in order to even gain access to the workshop 2.0 If it were you have to have gone through the productivity workshops, so you have to understand the philosophy of what it means to be productive and that’s an incredible lineup, specifically for PDA clients and those that have been to the workshop. Then we have another event concurrently running called the Seller Readiness Summit and that’s if you’re reaching that line and say you’re, you know, anywhere from, “Oh, no, I have to transition soon to maybe five or even 10 years out, but you want to plan and you’ve never been to PDA before.” We’ve got you covered as well. So there are three concurrent workshops running.

Dr. Bruce Baird 15:17
That’s exciting.

Regan 15:21
It’s extremely exciting. I love how well we’re going to be able to serve people, regardless of where they’re at in their PDA journey, or their own journey in their in their career. Let’s talk about the workshop for except for a minute, since that is the flagship and that’s what started all of this. We have two doctors, and you did mention you said you’re retired, but you’re really not retired, but you hung up the handpiece, well, we have productive doctors that are there that are practicing today and we have two of them that are going to be speaking as well as yourself is Dr. Maggie Augustine, PDA faculty member, let’s talk about her for a second and her story. We both got to hear her for the first time in September, when she debuted and kicked off the event for us.

Dr. Bruce Baird 16:02
Yeah, I mean, I mean, she, she breathes life into into the program, because she’s she’s dealt with issues, she’s dealt with a lot but she’s come out on the other side and those are the folks that we want to highlight. I mean, you know, it’s dentistry is not easy. It’s, you know, no one said it was going to be easy but to bring people that have come out on the other side, and have always focused on taking great care of the patient, but maybe didn’t didn’t understand the the ideal way of going about it, not that there isn’t ideal, but to find ways to make life a little bit better and to take those little bits and to stack them on top of each other and to come out on the other side with gosh such grace, she is a, she’s a powerhouse, but Maggie is she’s somebody when you hear her speak, you will smile and have tears rolling down your cheeks at the same time, because you realize, if she can do it, I can do and you know, I know people have looked at me and go, “He can do it, I can do it.” You know, and that’s part of that’s part of what makes a Productive Dentist Academy and every and all the programs will do and makes them real to the people that are there because they go gosh, “I went through that and maybe I can have, maybe I can learn from others,” and so, you know, and the people that come to the programs are people who want to learn. So it’s not I don’t like going I’ve never been on the barbecue to beer circuit, which is going to all the state meetings, you know, and because people are there just to get C credits, and I don’t want to, I’m not gonna go lecture and talk about, you know, my life and how how the things that were good and the things that were tough, and I’m not gonna go do that in front of a bunch of people who are just punching a ticket. When you when you when you put the money down and say I’m coming to the program, they’re there to learn and I love that I don’t want to teach people that don’t want to learn.

Regan 18:13
You know, Bruce, what this reminds me of, since I’ve had the honor of attending other dental events and I would definitely not disparage other dental offense for bringing quality but one of the things that’s really tricky for an organization to do is to find a lineup of speakers that share the philosophy, the overall core, maybe the operating system. So some of the conferences, you know, it feels like you’ve got a Mac mouse plugged into a PC computer, they’re not quite talking at the same thing. They’re both really great individually but maybe they don’t work quite well together and something that I just thought of, especially since I take so much every time you speak away with from what you speak just as my own as a speaker, I’m trying to learn how to be a better speaker, both of you bring this level of authenticity that that means you’ve done both of you have done a lot of inner work, you both have been great at self-reflecting and you’re both looking out on the horizons with an abundance mindset and an optimism and I think that that makes a beautiful pairing between her what she’s doing in practice today, and how she’s used the philosophy of being productivity or being productive and what that means for her but you to blend together so well you both bring this amazing conversational quality and authenticity when you speak.

Dr. Bruce Baird 19:28
I appreciate that. I mean, I’m, I’m honored to be mentioned in the same sentence with Maggie because she is somebody who is I don’t know it’s a very impressive and I love hearing her. I love hearing her share her story and where she’s at generational wealth. I mean, that’s one of the things that she said, “You know, no one ever told me I could have generational wealth with what I’m doing,” and yeah, you can, you actually can.

Regan 19:58
So we believe her. I think her heard that, what was it, like from $100 in the bank to generational wealth in three years, five years?

Dr. Bruce Baird 20:04
It’s like three years, three years, going from $100, in the bank to generational wealth and all it is truthfully, is setting the stage, or preparing the table for a great, a great meal, or a great business, you’re preparing the table for that and it honestly, is not as difficult as many people might think. You know, if you do the right things over and over and over again, pretty soon you realize, “Oh, my gosh, I have just created something that is awesome,” and you didn’t realize what you were created when you started but you finish and not that you’re ever finished. That’s not a good word. You’re you reflect back and you go, “Wow, I can’t wait for here,” and good Creek, this is, you know, this business that I’ve built, can create generational wealth but what’s more important to me than the wealth is it’s created a legacy type practice that will go on even far after I’m not, you know, when I’m gone, people will still be reaping the benefits of going into that practice, and getting top notch care, getting people that are on the same page, people that are, care more about you than the money because as we always say, the money always takes care of itself. When you take care of the people, the money takes care of itself and so, you know, I’ve been one that’s never really worried about money. I didn’t have much grown up but I never really worried about it. I always knew that I could create something or do something that would take care of me from a financial standpoint. So, but Maggie is, she’s a winner. You know, I like hanging out with winners. I really do.

Regan 22:00
Well, we have several more winners that are that are going to be at the workshop alone. Dr. Jackson Bean what was he at the first or was he later on? I can’t remember he feels like he’s been part of the PDA community and definitely embodies what it means to be productive. He’ll be speaking as well.

Dr. Bruce Baird 22:15
Yeah, yeah, Jackson was going to be talking Jackson was that the first the first program, he was my associate. He was actually my student beta and he and about three other guys and we’re, you know, you have 130 students, and I’m the senior class and he, at the end of every lecture that I did, he would come up front and ask questions, and he and his other buddies and all of those guys have just far exceeded anyone’s. I think they far exceeded their own expectations, but that’s where a curious mind and realizing that I don’t know everything. The people who don’t know everything are the ones who become the most successful. What once I realized, I don’t know everything, but Jackson is one who has embodied he worked in our practice for four years went and opened up his own practice in Greenville, Texas, amazing practitioner, he was a, he was a, he was a productive dentist the day he got out of dental school. If you don’t see that you don’t see that very soon as one who, who really embodied that he’s a great communicator. He, he enjoys being around people, he could make you feel comfortable at the drop of a hat and guess what? If you can learn to do those things, then you can be a successful dentist now. I also have to say he, he does have phenomenal margins on his crowns and the quality is amazing because there are some people who can communicate and maybe they’re not the best dentists in the world but that’s off all the all of us that really love doing clinical dentistry. This is the guy down the street that you go, “Why are people lining up on their doorstep?” Oh, man, they make them feel great and Jackson’s one when he’s speaking. You’re gonna want to listen, because he has got he’s got real life experience over the last 24 years in practice. And I’m excited to hear him. I’m really excited to hear him talk because I’m gonna learn something too. So,

Regan 24:31
It’s going to be amazing. I heard you say you’re curious learner. I think what I see across the board with with doctors that really are exceptional at being productive dentists and they care about the value of their business they have they are curious learners with a grateful heart and I see that in Jackson. He just beams when you see him in person.

Dr. Bruce Baird 24:51
He does I mean he’s a he’s a great friend and you know it’s it’s it’s just so gratifying watching his journey in dentistry it’s just been something that I’m like, “Wow,” that, you know, I don’t know. It’s something that just, you know, makes me smile ear to ear. So, you know with with Jackson and we’ve got somebody else, Wade Keifer who’s going to be be there and Wade, Colleen what a story

Regan 25:20
Wait, Oh, Dr. Keifer, Kois, Kois facilitator, humble as the day is long, I cannot believe that he’s doing our breakout session.

Dr. Bruce Baird 25:30
I know, I know, Wade, Wade is one of those guys, he’s gone through the entire course, course curriculum and interesting, you know, he was in his gosh, I don’t even know how I everybody that I look at is younger than I think they are but Wade is, he is, is, you know, had some medical problems, medical, you know, he literally had had a heart problem and, you know, in the middle of his career, you know, he has a smart problem but he came out of that, and continued his journey and learning and continued his journey of taking great care of people and he is, you know, one of the great things about Wade, is he kind of embodies the John Kois in, you know, John, and I have been friends for, I think, gosh, I don’t know, over 30 years and John is one of those guys that I’ve listened to. Every time that I hear him speak, I learned something different. You know, he’s one of the guys that knows, you know, he knows so much about everything, you know, I don’t care if it’s dentistry, I mean, he’ll, he’ll tell you. Well, you know, the reason these coffee beans from this part of the world is so good is because the pH in the soil is XYZ. Alright, do you ever sleep? I mean, do you do you do to live, you know, but But Wait is that way he evaluates things. He’s extremely intelligent and he’s personable and he is somebody who you can actually ask questions and not feel. I remember asking a question. Pete Dawson years ago, I was at Pete’s course and Pete was one of the he was the John Kois in his area and, you know, I asked, I asked Pete a question and Pete wrote the foreword to my book on implants back in 91. You know, and he, Pete was one of those guys, if you asked a question was kind of a little bit, you know, he would say, “Well, Bruce, if you were to read my book in chapter three, on page 46, the answer is clearly there,” you know, but, but it is like, you know, he’s gonna walk you through every step of the way. So, you know, we’re, I mean, I’m honored to have such amazing dentists.

Regan 27:54
Now have you, have you been paying attention to wade smile designs to I’ve been peeking on head, the practices Facebook, there, I mean, your smiles, Bruce. Unbelievable, it feels, you’re gonna laugh at me for this but when I saw weights, I thought of the statues in Italy, the fine craftsmen that did them. I mean, it is so beautiful. The smiles, I cannot tell that they are works of synthetic art, I mean, that they are not actual teeth. Absolutely stunning.

Dr. Bruce Baird 28:25
I mean, and he, you know, but to get to watch him grow over the last 15 years and I mean, that’s the people I want to that we want to put in front of our dogs and the people because, you know, if Bruce can do it, I can do it. If we can do it, I can do it. If Maggie can do it, I can do it and that’s the that’s the story. Now, if a person comes to the program with a belief that I already know, everything that I might pick up a pearl, those aren’t the ones who were productive. They’re not the ones who who really take it to the next level. People that take it to the next level are the ones who listen to people say, “How does that affect me? Just, you know, how is this going to change my life?” You know, and I like putting people in front of an audience, that when people leave, they go, I will never think about this topic the same way ever again. You know, and to me, that’s critical. That’s important. If I don’t have something that’s going to change somebody’s perspective, and I don’t really need to be talking, you know, you know, I’m not just sharing a bullet list of things that you need to do to do the perfect veneer. That’s not yet.

Regan 29:41
You know, I don’t know what it was in my life that made me change my thinking on this. I encourage and I get really, really excited when my perspective is shifted. I think I’m going down the path and I know what I know, and somebody comes along and says, “Have you tried looking at it from this perspective?” And I learned something new, it’s probably the biggest dopamine hit, I get I am so thrilled. But my hack has been in order to get me in that mindset, especially going anywhere, I’m learning anything, you know, what problem am I solving? Instead of thinking about my career track or, you know, anything that’s kind of sitting in the ego place? It’s it’s what problem am I solving? And I and you know, when we go into talking about Investment Grade Practice Summit, and the Seller Readiness Summit, both of those things? How, in your mind, Have you shifted that that curriculum, I mean, I know, we need to give credit to Victoria Peterson and all of the presenters there, because that’s a whole other host of presenters but what are some of the things that you feel we do an exceptional job at helping people be able to have more of a soft landing and prepare?

Dr. Bruce Baird 30:50
Yeah, I mean, I think, again, knowledge is power. You know, if you look at it that way, you know, and if you actually do the things that, you know, it’s kind of sad, people buy books and self-help stuff, and they never read them but they bought them because of the infomercial. Well, you know, for us seller readiness is, it is getting you ready to sell at some point, not, it may not be 50, it may be 15 years from him, right but if you’re, you’re at a point where you’re, you’re focusing on being ready, and then what ends up happening is, you don’t know what the offer is going to be until you get it, you don’t know what your value is, until you get it but we can, we can accelerate that we can actually let you know what your business is worth today, and what it will be worth in four years, and what you can expect to get from that business. Whereas most of us, we seller readiness, “I’m ready to sell when I’m tired, and I’m over and done”, but that’s, that’s why 95% of dentists can’t retire at their pre-retirement lifestyle and that’s sad. So we’re actually both programs, the investment grade practice has been is building your, your, you know, practice so that it is ready to sell subtle readiness is let’s get together all the things that we need to get together. So that it can be a smooth transition and that is nobody’s nobody’s teaching, you know, who’s teaching that are the 1600 private equity groups that are coming in trying to buy your business, and they’re telling you what your value is? Well, that’s pretty stupid. That’d be like somebody, you want to sell your house and somebody else tells you what it’s worth, you know, and I’m like, “Oh, no, this house is worth XYZ,” but you know, that’s with Seller Readiness, that’s where Investment-Grade Practices can make, can make your journey much better and much more predictable because when you retire, you want to go I mean, I was in Cabo for two weeks, just got back last week. I’m busy with private equity groups now and working over the next three to four weeks, but I’m gonna go down again to Cabo for a week, I’m going to spend a little time down in Key West, I’m traveling, I’m living, I’m living my life, that and I’m able to do that because of the preparation we did five years ago, or 10 years ago and so most of us don’t think about it until it’s time to retire. I’m telling you, let’s think about it now. Not that you’re ready to retire but let’s do it so that you’re predictable. Let’s do it so that you know where you’re headed because there’s always a lot of security.

Regan 33:40
You know that made me think of Bruce a lot of times with people that I look up to and I aspire to and I know this is gotta be the same for you people everybody listening right now you’ve got to be on that same mindset you always seem to be Bruce like you’re one step ahead. Like and that makes it fun because it gamifies it so if I’m if I want to be a Bruce Baird, I’m always like, “Man, that guy is one step ahead. One step ahead,” and it’s because of you preparing back and get that allows you that space in that runway, maybe that gives you that freedom to to be constantly innovative and thinking about the future that way.

Dr. Bruce Baird 34:17
Yeah, it’s been really fun for me. Cynthia has told me she was like, “Why are you watching that video on printing technology?” And you know, Monday, all day Monday, really researching AI and dentistry. Why? Because I don’t know, because I really want to know how AI is gonna affect dentistry because I don’t want to find out after the fact I’d like to kind of know where it’s headed and are there things that maybe I can do to help it get here quicker if it’s something that’s a value? So when I, I don’t know, I always, I’m always trying to find ways to do things easier. I tell Cynthia, “I’m the laziest man in the world,” and she laughs at me, but I like finding better ways of doing things. You know, just because somebody says this is the way to do it. That doesn’t resonate with me. What resonates with me is, “Well, okay, in ou’re amazing at doing what it is you do,” but I wonder if there’s an easier way of doing it. You know, and I’ve always been that way from the time I was in dental school, I, you know, I’ve always just looked at a looked at a situation and said, “Okay, well, that’s awesome but how can we do it easier or how can we make it easier?” It’s probably not the right word. How can we do it more effectively? How can we do it? You know, whatever that word is, but and that’s just been my mantra for 68 years, you know, I never really look at things saying, “Well, that’s the way it’s done. I need to learn to do it that way.” Yeah, you have to know how to do it. So you learn and then you say, well, I bet you there’s a better way of doing it and so I know that’s always been my mantra.