At a Crossroads: What’s Next (E.248)

“You’re at a crossroads—and that’s okay. It means you’re ready to grow.” ~Dr. Bruce B. Baird

In this raw and empowering episode, Dr. Bruce Baird continues his What’s Next series by addressing one of the hardest yet most pivotal moments in a dentist’s life: the moment when it stops being fun.

Dentists burn out. Not because they aren’t capable—but because the demands, pressures, and isolation wear them down. Bruce shares stories, practical tools, and deeply personal reflections that have helped him and thousands of other doctors rediscover joy, rebuild purpose, and design the lifestyle dentistry should provide.

You’ll learn:

• The critical role of self-reflection in professional clarity
• Why dentists hit burnout every 7 years—and what to do when it hits
• How to know if you’re building a practice around your values or your stress
• What decisions today could create the life you actually want tomorrow
• How mentorship, study clubs, and intentional rest lead to better dentistry

Whether you’re mid-career and successful or just starting to feel stuck, this episode will help you pause, recalibrate, and take your next step with confidence.

Key Reflection Questions for Listeners:

• Am I working harder than ever but enjoying it less?
• What part of dentistry brings me joy—and how often do I do it?
• Do I need help building a path forward instead of staying stuck?

Listen now to rediscover your purpose and make dentistry fun again.

TRANSCRIPT

00;00;00;00 – 00;00;04;18

Dr. Bruce Baird

The Productive Dentist Academy Podcast Network.

00;00;04;18 – 00;00;23;22

Dr. Bruce Baird

Hello, everyone. This is Doctor Bruce B Baird and you’re listening to the Productive Dentist podcast. In this podcast, I will give you everything that I’ve learned over the last 40 years in dentistry, working with thousands of dentists. I’ll tell you, it’s not that my way is the only way. It’s just one that has worked extremely well for me.

00;00;23;22 – 00;00;42;16

Dr. Bruce Baird

And and I’d love to share that with you. So you two can enjoy the choices and lifestyle. The productivity allows more time for things you love, increased pay, better team relationships, and lowered stress. Let’s get into it with this week’s episode of the Productive Dentist Podcast.

00;00;44;09 – 00;01;09;20

Dr. Bruce Baird

A crossroads in your career of, I’m, I’m not happy, or I am happy, you know, and I’m I’m. It’s time, you know, I see that with a lot of Doc’s dentists get burned out every seven years. And what I joke about that a lot of you start selling essential oils at the front desk, or you start opening up a Taco Bueno, because you think you’re going to make more money somewhere outside of dentistry.

00;01;10;28 – 00;01;39;20

Dr. Bruce Baird

Hi, my name is Doctor Bruce Baird with the Productive Dentist Podcast, and we’re going to continue with the What’s Next series. We we just, talked about on our last podcast about profitability and productivity, and you’ve gotten to where you want to be there, but what’s next? That’s always a question. I’ve had, one question that came across that, you know, I’m at a crossroads in my career.

00;01;39;21 – 00;02;02;22

Dr. Bruce Baird

What do I do next? Well, that’s a pretty wide open question. It’s, you know, are you at a crossroads clinically? Where you really doing everything that, that, you know, you’ve been trained to do previously, and now you’re trying to figure out the next course to go to or the next thing the next treatment for patients, you know, because that has one answer.

00;02;02;24 – 00;02;29;21

Dr. Bruce Baird

A crossroads in your career of, I’m, I’m not happy, or I am happy, you know, and I’m I’m. It’s time, you know, I see that with a lot of Doc’s dentists get burned out every seven years. And what I joke about that a lot of you start selling essential oils at the front desk, or you start opening up a Taco Bueno, because you think you’re going to make more money somewhere outside of dentistry.

00;02;29;23 – 00;02;55;17

Dr. Bruce Baird

But when you’re at a crossroads in your career, it’s time to spend some time. It’s time to spend some time meditating. It’s time to have a good mentor. It’s time to have a place to go to share your concerns. We have study clubs, reproductive dentist, academy we have where, you know, you get to ask questions of doctors who have been through the exact same thing that you’ve been through.

00;02;55;19 – 00;03;16;00

Dr. Bruce Baird

And and so there and again, there’s so many different crossroads. I’m at a crossroads. You know, in in the amount of time I spend at work, I’m sick and tired of being there all the time. You know, I want to have a life. I want to have both. And in the previous podcast, I said, yes, you can have both.

00;03;16;01 – 00;03;46;20

Dr. Bruce Baird

You can have it all. But you’re going to have to follow a certain set of, milestones or a certain set of indicators that says, this is what I want to do. Jeff Boesky, my partner for years, does a great program on health and finance and just, and family. These are things that these are courses that you can take to get you fired up again.

00;03;46;25 – 00;04;09;19

Dr. Bruce Baird

Usually when I find people that are at a crossroads, they have lost their way. You know, do I go left or I go right? I don’t know. I tend to I’ve always taken the road less traveled and that’s made all the difference. I think I heard that once. But I’ve always done that. It’s because I know there’s got to be a better way of doing this.

00;04;09;24 – 00;04;35;01

Dr. Bruce Baird

There’s got to be a better way of doing that. And my suggestion would be, sit out on the back porch with a glass of wine. If you drink wine or cocktail or glass of water, whatever you whatever your preference is and just contemplate, you know, reflect. The most important thing I’ve done in my entire career was self-reflection.

00;04;35;04 – 00;04;58;27

Dr. Bruce Baird

Self-reflection is what did I do ten years ago? What did that lead me to get to here? What did I do five years ago to get here? I’m at a crossroads now. Are there things that I can make a decision today that would make all the difference in the world for my future? And you may not have all the answers, but self-reflection.

00;04;58;27 – 00;05;20;29

Dr. Bruce Baird

I do that in the mornings. You know, when I get up, I do that when I’m working out. I’ll sit in a sauna and I’m thinking to myself, okay, and I’m, I’m at a crossroads in, in my life now. I’ll be 70 this year. And I’m sitting there going, gosh, what do I do now? Do I keep doing podcast for dentist or I keep, lecturing to nada?

00;05;20;29 – 00;05;40;21

Dr. Bruce Baird

Sir. Is it time for me to do something else? I will tell you. I hope you guys don’t tell me to do something else, because I love what I do. But, you know, there are things that, you know, at at crossroads in my career where I have friends that are dying. You know, having cancer and dying.

00;05;40;24 – 00;06;02;00

Dr. Bruce Baird

And I’m going, okay, what are the things that I want to do with my life that I haven’t done? What are the thing? And you know what dentistry can give you the opportunity because you’ve made great revenue. You’ve hopefully put money away. You’ve got the financial stability to be able to do whatever it is you choose to do.

00;06;02;07 – 00;06;29;12

Dr. Bruce Baird

If you want to rent a yacht in the Greek Isles, like I did 15 years ago, when I wasn’t 15, it was, 11 years ago for three weeks in the Greek on. And you can do it. Why? Because I chose to do that. I chose to save up money to do it. It was a lot more expensive than I thought I was going to be, but, I will never say that trip wasn’t worth it.

00;06;29;14 – 00;06;52;29

Dr. Bruce Baird

So having the financial means to do the things that you choose to do is great. If you’re at a crossroads where I’m just not making money, I’m working my ass off, and I’m just. I’m frustrated. You know, we can help you. Productive dentist Academy can help you. We can get you to a place where you can begin the process of growth and reduction of stress.

00;06;52;29 – 00;07;15;16

Dr. Bruce Baird

Because usually when a lot of times when people are at a crossroads, they are stressed, they are so stressed. And, you know, let’s help you get away from that stress level. Let’s help you come up with a clinical philosophy or a set your core values. Do those things to get you where it is that you want to go.

00;07;15;19 – 00;07;36;20

Dr. Bruce Baird

So when I for whenever I look at that crossroads, you know, mid-career, what’s next and what should I be thinking about that I’m not thinking about? You know, we talk about that a little bit because, you know, I have a lot of great friends that are in dentistry, and I had no trouble calling up friends like Doctor Stewart.

00;07;36;20 – 00;08;01;17

Dr. Bruce Baird

And, they’re down in Marble Falls and just shooting a ball, talking about why you’re doing what you’re doing and what are you doing new. And, you know, that’s where study clubs come into play. It’s nice to have other professionals to talk to, to share with, to say I’m frustrated about XYZ. Don’t just live it alone. Don’t just let it.

00;08;01;25 – 00;08;29;26

Dr. Bruce Baird

I mean, that’s heart muscle and stomach lining, you know that. That’s why when docs finally I mean, they just they give up. Well, self-reflection is the most important thing I have ever done for myself. Of course, I didn’t do it for the first 15 years in practice. I was too busy just with my nose to the grindstone. But I think it’s really important what I did, what I used to do, and I still do in January every year.

00;08;29;29 – 00;08;52;21

Dr. Bruce Baird

Actually, I didn’t do it this year. And I’m I’m going to I’m going to force myself to do it now. But every January I look around me and I say, who am I hanging out with? Who are the people that I’m around which is good or bad? Who are my employees and how are they? How how are they doing?

00;08;52;21 – 00;09;16;29

Dr. Bruce Baird

Is there somebody here that causes me massive stress? And besides my golf game, which causes me massive stress, pretty much everything else I’ve. I’ve tried to eliminate, you know, golf. I’m going to keep playing. So, it’s it’s just one of those things where self-reflection, when you get to that, what’s next? What do I do next?

00;09;16;29 – 00;09;38;06

Dr. Bruce Baird

I’m a mid career. What do I do next? It depends if you’re if you have been profitable, what do you do next? That’s when you begin marketing to specifically the things you love to do that are the highest profit. You schedule properly and all of a sudden your hours go down, you’re working lash, you’re making more, and you’re enjoying life more.

00;09;38;08 – 00;10;02;23

Dr. Bruce Baird

We’re only on the planet for a short amount of time, so we only get one shot of this. What? I’m so proud of productive Dentist Academy and Victoria Petersen, my partner and my entire team of people. We’ve been doing it for 20 years helping docs find out that dream. You can ask them, you can go online, you can go on, Dental Town and look, and they’re going to look at and I’m going to say, wow, you know, these guys did it.

00;10;02;29 – 00;10;27;12

Dr. Bruce Baird

Why can’t I? And I promise you, if Bruce Baird did it and you can ask my buddies from dental school, they’ll tell you if Bruce Baird did it. By golly, we can do it. And, not that I’m the be all. I don’t mean to. I don’t want to come across that way. What I want to come across is I’m still learning, but I’m willing to share it with any doctors that are out there.

00;10;27;14 – 00;10;49;04

Dr. Bruce Baird

And there’s so many different things to look at. And, you know, if I don’t have an answer for you, I’m not going to give you some can talk. I’ll say, I don’t know, but I’ve got three buddies that might be able to help you. And I’ll say, I don’t know, but we have a course. I think that could really change your trajectory.

00;10;49;06 – 00;11;11;24

Dr. Bruce Baird

I’ve got a great friend. Like I said, Doctor Bruschi, his course will be a great course for you to go to. You know, that’s what I would tell you if I thought that that would fit. So that’s one of the experiences that I’ve had through years of being in dentistry is what what my jam is, is to help Dennis get to the next level to get dentistry.

00;11;11;26 – 00;11;39;04

Dr. Bruce Baird

Where it’s fun again. And if you’re practicing dentistry, where it’s not fun, well, excuse me, you’re at a crossroads. You are at a crossroads, and you have a determination now, whether. Okay, I’m either going to find a way to have farm and do do doing good while doing good. I’m either going to find a way to do it from a give up, because that’s all you can do at a crossroads.

00;11;39;06 – 00;12;17;29

Dr. Bruce Baird

I can go left or I can go right, but there are Dennis out there that can help you. There are people out there that care about you, and I am 100% committed to helping dentists who are in that struggle, in that crossroads, to at least give you things to think about. Other people can’t give you answers for what’s going on with yourself, but they can give you enough information and communication that you’ll be able to make a great decision for yourself, and that that’s really the goal we have at Productive Dentist Academy and Clinical Calibration Institute, which we’ve just started.

00;12;17;29 – 00;12;32;26

Dr. Bruce Baird

So, reach out to Brandt at Productive dentist.com if you want to come see one of our programs, you can do can do clinical calibration. That would be awesome. So I look forward to seeing you next time in our next, What’s Next series.

00;12;32;26 – 00;12;59;05

Dr. Bruce Baird

Thank you for joining me for this episode of the Productive Dentist Podcast. If you found this episode helpful, make sure you subscribe. Pass it along to a friend. Give us a like on iTunes and Spotify, or drop me an email at podcast at Productive dentist.com. Don’t forget to check out our other podcast from the Productive Dentist Academy of Productive Dentist podcast.com.

00;12;59;08 – 00;13;15;14

Dr. Bruce Baird

Join me again next week for another episode of The Productive Dentist Podcast.