Dental Practice Heroes
Where dentists learn how to cut clinical days while increasing profits - without sacrificing patient care, cutting corners, or cranking volume. We teach you how to grow a scalable practice through communication, leadership, and effective management.
Hosted by Dr. Paul Etchison, author of two books on dental practice management, dental coach, and owner of a $6M collections group practice in the south suburbs of Chicago, we provide actionable advice for practice owners who want to intentionally create more time to enjoy their families, wealth, and deep personal fulfillment.
If you want to build a scalable practice framework that no longer stresses, drains, or relies on you for every little thing, we will teach you how and share stories of other dentists who have done it!
Dental Practice Heroes
The Painful Truth: How the Hardest Choices Build the Best Practices
Ever notice how those last two painful reps at the gym are what actually build muscle? Dental practice ownership works exactly the same way. Growth happens precisely when you're tired, stressed, and want to quit—but push through anyway.
Dr. Paul Edgerson shares a deeply personal journey from being a 99-pound freshman football player who could barely bench the bar to building successful dental practices. The transformation didn't come from working harder, but from working smarter and pushing through discomfort. When he hired a trainer who taught him that growth only happens during those painful final reps, everything changed. This same principle applies perfectly to practice ownership.
Through vulnerable storytelling, Dr. Edgerson reveals how he faced the uncomfortable task of confronting an associate dentist about questionable clinical work, despite good production numbers and positive patient relationships. This courage to have difficult conversations, drop insurances with outdated reimbursement rates, delegate leadership responsibilities, and say no to energy-draining commitments represents the "last two reps" of practice ownership. These uncomfortable actions yield the greatest returns and differentiate growing practices from stagnant ones.
The podcast introduces a powerful framework for identifying what you're avoiding in your practice because of discomfort. Dr. Edgerson challenges listeners to "eat the frog"—tackle your most uncomfortable task first thing each day—and consider getting a "spotter" in the form of coaching or mentorship to accelerate growth. After all, you can't build strength without stress, and you can't build a better practice without embracing necessary discomfort. What uncomfortable conversations are you avoiding that might be keeping you from true practice freedom?
GRAB THE FREE PLAYBOOK HERE - Discover 30 proven strategies top-performing dentists use to increase profits, cut clinical days, and finally enjoy the freedom they originally built their practices for.
https://www.dentalpracticeheroes.com/playbook
Take Control of Your Practice and Your Life
We help dentists take more time off while making more money through systematization, team empowerment, and creating leadership teams.
Ready to build a practice that works for you? Visit www.DentalPracticeHeroes.com to learn more.
I want to share a story with you about a trainer that I once used. Now I never really worked out in high school. I was more busy partying, talking to girls, smoking weed, playing my guitar, and I was actually really skinny, really, really, really skinny. I remember my freshman year being the only person on the football team that was under 100 pounds. They printed this program for our first game and listed everybody on the team with their height and their weight, which is crazy. They would never do that nowadays. But they listed me. I was 5'3" and I was 99 pounds. I was the only person that was in three digits and I know that somebody made that decision at some point. They were typing it out and they're like, should we give them an extra pound? And they're like, no, screw this guy, he's a little shrimp, a little weenie. F him, 99 pounds it is. And I remember lifting weights with the football team. I would be the only one that on the incline bench could barely bench the bar dude, which is like 45 pounds. It's not very heavy. I was little, I was skinny.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I started lifting weights when I was in dental school and I started really getting into fitness. Then I was in my 20s, I'd go to the gym. I would do the things that I saw everybody else doing. I was reading about it and I was really getting results. But eventually, like everybody else, like you, if you worked out, you start to plateau results. But eventually, like everybody else, like you, if you worked out, you start to plateau. So at one point I hired a personal trainer and it was absolutely insane the amount of gains I started getting. But they weren't because I was working out more. I really wasn't, but I was working out the right way to get the growth. And I remember the trainer explaining to me that when we do a set of lifting weights, all of the reps are just to tire that muscle out and then, when it's tired, we've got to get two more reps. It's those last two reps that make all the difference. If you don't get those last two reps, you don't grow. You've got to get to the zone and you've got to push through it just for two reps. And this is a lot like growing a practice and growing in practice. Ownership. I mean, we spend so much time as owners in that tired state. We went all day, we're stressed out, but we just can't push further and because we don't, we stay stuck and we don't grow. So today I'm going to teach you what you need to focus on to make sure that you continue to grow. I'm going to teach you how to become a top one percenter of practice owners, and it doesn't take a ton of hard work, but it does take getting uncomfortable. Now you are listening to the Dental Practice Heroes podcast, where we teach practice owners, just like you, how to design their life around highly efficient and profitable practice that will allow them to make more money, take more time off, and all while taking amazing care of their patients and their teams.
Speaker 1:I'm Dr Paul Edgerson. I'm the author of two books on dental practice management. I'm a dental coach and the owner of a large group practice, while I only practice just two or three days per month, and I want to teach you how to create a true business from your dental practice so that you can get off the hamster wheel and enjoy your life Now. Back in the day, I remember I had this associate and she was a great producer. She had great numbers, her patients were happy, she was providing a good experience. But slowly, day after day, I started to notice these little things happening. I started to check in on cases that she was doing maybe check an x-ray or something and I started, seeing these things, that I was getting suspicious of how competent she was. And here's the thing that makes it hard when you see that is that the numbers are good. The team liked her personally. So did the patients. It wasn't like she was getting one-star reviews, she was doing really well.
Speaker 1:But I started wanting to check in on more and more of her work and I remember one day I was at a wedding and I'm standing around the bar I'm drinking one vodka soda out of one of those little tiny glasses that are like eight ounces. So when they put vodka in it and ice there like a little splash of soda. Which is why and this is my theory why you always get too drunk at weddings is because they don't give you enough mixer. And sometimes, sometimes you got to dance. You know you just got to dance it off. And where does that come from? It's because there's no mixer. But Anyway, I was talking to somebody and you know what they do they're showing me some tooth, they're saying they got to get this thing fixed. They're asking where my practice is and all that. You know how it goes. So they're like oh yeah, I got to come in and see you.
Speaker 1:Now at the time I was trying to phase out seeing practice. I was trying to phase out seeing patients. So I let them know you know I'm not, I don't see new patients anymore any more clinically. And the person said, well, who do you recommend at your practice? And I said honestly, you know, they're all great, I mean you can see anyone. And then I paused for a second, I thought and I said you know, actually make sure you see this doctor or this doctor, don't see this one. She's new. And the guy was like, okay, no big deal whatever. But then when we were going home that night, my conscience started talking to me how can you keep someone at your practice who you wouldn't send a friend to? And I'm like, well, her numbers are good, the team likes her, the patients like her too, and maybe I just saw a few questionable cases, but overall I mean she's doing really well.
Speaker 1:And then eventually this happened I saw a case in which there was decay still under the buildup after the final crown delivery. Now in my practice we do same-day seric crowns and we always take an x-ray to check the margins before we cement it. So I went back to see that x-ray and wouldn't you know that decay was there. It was super evident in the picture. So what I'm saying is that the doctor saw this, looked at that there's no way she didn't see it and she said it's okay, I'll just cement the crown instead of going back and finishing it. I don't know if she was busy that day, who the hell knows but that was kind of the defining moment for me. I was like, dude, you looked at this, there's no way you didn't see this. And you said I feel comfortable cementing this crown on this person. What the hell do you think is going to happen to this tooth? Are they going to need endo? Are they going to lose this tooth because of you? So I had to have a difficult conversation and it was very uncomfortable talking to her about this, but we had it out and, surprisingly, going forward, she actually approved a ton and she did much better after that. I don't know if it was just her knowing that I was checking on it, but that's not really the point.
Speaker 1:The point is is that most owners avoid the hard decisions because things just aren't that bad and comfort. It's a trap, and the longer you avoid something, the worse it becomes. But once you address it, it becomes easier to address other things like that in the future, both with that same person that you addressed it with, but also with anyone on your team. It doesn't matter who you're addressing it with, because you're getting better at getting uncomfortable and you become a better leader and then let your actions start to align with your values more often. And it's a lot like that weightlifting example. The progress only comes on the hard reps, those last two. We gotta go a little further than comfort and perform action in that uncomfortable zone. It's those hard things that move the needle. So here's some examples of the hard reps that you might be avoiding.
Speaker 1:Maybe it's confronting a toxic team member. How many times have you or someone you know say I don't know why I tolerated this person so long? It was so much better when I let them go and so much better after I addressed the issue. Yeah, we say that a lot. Maybe it's dropping an insurance carrier that hasn't upped their fees since you graduated dental school back in 2009. It's painful, it hurts, it's hard to go through, but it's so much better now that we did speaking from personal experience, delegating leadership tasks to team members who maybe you're not sure about their leadership skills or their capabilities, but you've got to train them, you've got to guide them, you've got to guide them, and it's hard to let go of that control.
Speaker 1:But ultimately this is you leveling up your leadership, doing the hard stuff and dude one of my favorites saying no to the things that drain your energy. What or who in your life are you trying to please? Because it's easier to please them than to say no. You can say no and be polite about it. I assure you this is part of being true to yourself. Now, I don't know who said this once, but it stuck with me. They said something like letting someone choose for you is being passive, choosing for someone else is being aggressive, but choosing for yourself, that's being assertive, and I love that. That's always stuck with me. So don't get complacent with comfort.
Speaker 1:Practice ownership it's supposed to be uncomfortable at times. It's supposed to be hard. That is how we grow and as you start your journey into practice ownership, there's going to be a ton of situations that are going to be like the last two reps Payroll. I mean learning how to schedule at the beginning. How do you manage people? Everything at first is going to feel like the last two reps, but eventually you move to the next level and when your systems are running and your practice is performing fairly well, that now, like the next two reps, changes. Now it's like delegating your leadership, training the other providers. And then that last level of discomfort is when you remove yourself completely from the practice if you want to I mean only if you want to be removed and maybe you open an additional practice, maybe you step away clinically, you gain that true practice freedom, and that comes from putting in the reps. So this discomfort, this last two rep thing, it's always changing, it's always evolving, but the principle stays the same You've got to get uncomfortable. So when you feel that discomfort and you feel like ownership sucks, I want you to reframe that discomfort as a signal of your growth. Discomfort, it's not danger, it is that green light, bro. If it feels easy, that means you're just maintaining. If it feels hard, you know you're growing and you're doing the right thing.
Speaker 1:So here are your tactical takeaways for this episode. I want you to identify what are your last two reps right now. What is the one thing you've been avoiding because it's uncomfortable. I want you to pretend that you're coaching yourself. Okay, you are a dental coach, like we do at Dental Practice Heroes, and I want you to reflect and say, if I was my own coach, what would I tell myself to do? And I guarantee it, you know what you're supposed to be doing and you know what you should be doing, and you are not doing it because it's uncomfortable and you don't want to do it. So I need you to do that.
Speaker 1:So what's that one thing that you've been avoiding? Do that and do it first. Do it early in the week, do it early in the day. They always say eat the frog first, tackle it early. You got to eat the frog. Eat one frog a day, every single day, before you do anything else. That way you don't have to dread it all day long, you don't have to dread it all week, you just get it out of the way. One frog a day. And sometimes I mean, just like lifting dude, get a spotter, just like in the gym.
Speaker 1:Growth comes faster when you've got the support of a professional who has been where you are, has the scars to prove it and can push you in the right direction. So if you are thinking that you want a spotter to help you create true practice freedom that allows you to take off a ton of time and to live a better life because of it. Reach out to us at dentalpracticeheroescom. We have programs. We will teach you how to do that. And in closing, dude, you can't build strength without stress it's not possible and you can't build a better practice without discomfort. So what are the last two hard reps in your practice right now? Why are you skipping them? Get curious and make a commitment to yourself that you're going to push through that discomfort and you're going to feel true comfort that comes from knowing that you're growing as a leader, as a person, as a practice owner. So thank you so much for listening and we will talk to you next time.
