Create Opportunities For Yourself And Master Them With Dr. Bill Dorfman

Welcome to the Conscious Pivot Podcast with international speaker, business mentor, best selling author of Pivot, and your host, Adam Markell. The Conscious Pivot shares the stories and wisdom of people who have successfully reinvented some area of their business and personal life. You'll gain powerful insights into how you can fully embrace new opportunities, increase your performance, and master the art and science of innovation and resilience. So please join Adam as he guides you on your Conscious Pivot.

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Conscious Pivot podcast. And I'm feeling really great this morning. Got an incredible guest, somebody that's got pretty magnificent Pivot story and actually several. And I have a. You know, my heart is really very much aligned with this gentleman, both because he's an entrepreneur, he's somebody that came from nothing, just like I did, and worked his way up, but not so much working hard as really defying conventional wisdom, which I think is one of those things that is a common denominator in some of the great Pivot stories that I've been able to share with all of you. And it's part of my own stories, just not sort of taking things that other people say as the gospel. And so this gentleman really is in many ways a great example of that. And what I also love is not only that he created this very successful cosmetic dentistry practice. So in his space, in his zone of genius, he's done something pretty remarkable. But then he was really called to service, to give back. And that's where our paths crossed, because we have four kids, three daughters and a son, and our son Max has actually been a part of a program called leap, which is a leadership program for, for young people. And it's a not for profit foundation that was started by this gentleman. And he's got an incredible team of people that support him and others that come, incredible business leaders from all over the world that come and support this foundation. It's really remarkable, but I'd much rather you hear it from him than from me. So without further ado, I want to welcome Dr. Bill Dorfman to the show. And Dr. Biller, if it's okay, I'll call you Bill for the next little while. Tell us, if you would, just a little bit about your background. And we have a lot in common. But again, I'd love to hear from you what, you know, just, just how you see yourself at this point in your life, what's important to you and what you want people to kind of know about your, your own experience in business and, and as a, as a someone that has created something that is changing the world, you know, with, starting with, with our adolescence. So it's just remarkable. Bill, thank you so much for joining us.

And thanks. Well, I mean, in short, I'm a dentist. I started as a dentist. I'm still a dentist, but along the way I didn't just practice dentistry. I kind of used dentistry as a springboard to a lot of other amazing things in my life. I'm a dentist. New York Times best selling author. I started a company with a few friends called the Discus Dental, which was the largest manufacturer of tooth whitening products in the world. We did Night White and Day White and Zoom and Bright Smile. We sold that company to Philips in 2010. I also was very fortunate to be asked by ABC to be on a primetime TV show called the Extreme Makeover. And now I'm on a CBS show called the Doctor. So I've done a lot of things that most dentists don't typically do. But one of the things that we started early on at Discus was giving back. We gave over a million dollars to the Children's Dental center in Los Angeles. We helped raise over $38 million for children's charities with Garth Brooks and the Smiles for Life Foundation. And personally, I started a called LEAP, a nonprofit 501c3 that your son has then attended. And it's an amazing program. It's a one week long summer program every year at UCLA where we get about 400 students from all walks of life and we bring them into this and we bring in great business leaders. We bring in doctors and lawyers and entrepreneurs and entertainers and politicians. In fact, this year we'll have Eric Garcetti there and Mark Wahlberg, Anthony Hopkins, Paula Abdul and Julianne Huff, hopefully, and a few others, and maybe even that guy that invented the Tesla. So anyhow, we'll see. But it's going to be a great, great time. It'll be July 23rd to the 29th at UCLA. It's called LEAP. And if you ever want more information, you can just go to www.leapfoundation.com. we're signing up students now. We have about 300 students signed up today, so we have room for about 100 more. And I know we'll sell out as we always do. So if you do want to go, now's the time to do it. But in addition to that, I have my beautiful three young daughters there. My twins are 19. Ana is 24. She graduates Sunday. I'm very proud of her. From Occidental, Charlie goes to usc and Georgie goes to Wisconsin. And that's kind of my life in a nutshell.

Yeah, that's a busy life, for sure. So I would love for us to dive right into your pivot story, and then I want to circle back. And what I mean by your pivot story is where you distinguished yourself as an entrepreneur initially in dentistry, because I think that's pretty telling. A lot of people are. Are wanting to take more control of their lives, to live life on their own terms, and part of that involves entrepreneurship. That seems to be the great direction. And to be in that space, you've got to be incredibly creative. And I think you did something very creative and very intuitive at the beginning that allowed you to distinguish your practice. That's the first pivot, and then the second is really in regard to leap. And I want to circle back to that as well, because it has a profound impact on so many young people, including our son. So let's start with your practice of dentistry to begin with.

Well, I mean, it's kind of a simple story. I graduated dental school. I was 24 years old. I was one of the youngest graduates ever to finish. And, you know, I grew up in a pretty impoverished area. We, you know, I never got to travel. I never got to go anywhere. And I thought, you know, even though I was going to be a dentist, I wanted to see the world. And I looked for an opportunity that would let me see the world. And there was this clinic in Switzerland where, you know, I'd never been to Europe. I didn't speak a language, whatnot. So, you know, I applied to this. There were 400 applicants. They should never have hired me, but I was probably the most persistent applicant they ever had. I had 20 letters of recommendation. I called the director every week. And finally, when I realized there's no way in the world this guy's going to hire me, I asked him if I could take him to lunch, and when I did, he hired me. So, you know, that was a really.

Now, hold on a second. I didn't interrupt you. You didn't just take him to lunch. There's more to the story there.

Yeah, I mean, come on, what did you do? And here's the crazy thing. I was poor. I didn't even have money. I borrowed money to buy an airplane ticket to fly there because I felt like if he met me, at least I'd be a living being in front of him as opposed to a piece of paper. And it worked. He hired me.

So, again, I know our folks get it, but I want to reiterate this. So you had very little money, very little resources. You were very persistent, but you didn't stop there. You asked to take them to lunch, and you flew to Switzerland on borrowed money to do that, with an expectation, really only that you'd be a real person instead of just right.

And that he'd hire me and I'd make money and then pay back my friend who would loan me the money. But I did, and it worked. I'll tell you the two things that I really have lived by and that I really try to kind of expose young people to. Number one, don't wait for opportunities. Make them. You know, if I had waited and waited, I would have never gone to Switzerland. You know, don't wait for opportunities. Make them. And number two, even more important. When you do get an opportunity, don't take it, master it. And there's a big difference. When ABC gave me the opportunity of a lifetime to be on primetime tv, this is the first time a dentist ever got to be on primetime TV in a positive way. This wasn't Little Shop of Whores or Marathon man or any of those crazy things. I actually got to be a real dentist doing real dentistry, changing people's lives, right? And when that happened, and I watched the first episode, I wanted to throw up. I was so bad. I was so unprepared for this. I'm lucky they didn't fire me right off the bat. But instead of sitting there and crying like a baby, what I did, I took classes. I took acting classes, hosting classes, teleprompting classes. I hired a media trainer who literally sat there and beat me up. Sit up straight. Turn this way. I mean, she really cracked the whip and made me realize the things I needed to do in order to be more effective. Because my presence on that show directly correlated with an increased growth in our company. Our sales doubled the first year I was on that show and then doubled again. And I knew that if I could get the message across in the right way, it was great for our business. And so instead of just taking that opportunity, I wanted to master it. I wanted to be as good as I could be. And I worked really hard. You know, I was never somebody who wanted to be on tv. That was never my goal. You know, my goal is to be a dentist. But when I got this opportunity, I realized it could be so much more. And one of the things that my company did from the very inception was to give back. We gave over a million dollars to the Children's dental center in LA. We raised $38 million plus for smiles for Life with Garth Brooks. And this is a charity that gives back to children's charities and hospitals, St. Jude's Hospital and a lot of others. So you, you know, it was a really great road. I mean, for me, being successful means I now have an opportunity to help other people be successful. And that was the greatest part of success, you know, and if you can raise everybody else's life with yours, that's the best thing. And that's why we became so passionate about Leap. We started Leap 10 years ago. And I've seen how this program has changed kids lives, and I've seen how they've gone out, become successful and gotten married and started families and done all these things, you know, that they wanted to do. But the thing that I think resonates the most is teaching young people to do what I did when I started my practice. And that's copy genius.

Hold on right there, because I think that's a super important point. You know, you started leap, you had this desire, as you're, as you're explaining, to really impact the lives of young people. And one of the things that I think is really important is that we model. You have three kids and we have four kids. And our kids, I don't know if this been the case for you as a parent, but our kids hardly ever listen to us, you know, wink, wink. But what they do is watch. They've always watched everything we do. And I think that's the way parenthood is. You know, your kids watch and you model and they follow. They follow what you do versus what you say. And one of the things that's really impactful is when you as a teacher, as a leader, that you're modeling what it is that you're sharing, that you're teaching, that's work for you. So LEAP is a foundation. You've got 400 or so kids that come from all over the world to stay on campus at UCLA and get this week long immersive experience, this incredible thing. And you're, I'm assuming, you know, Max has come back every year with a notebook filled with notes and all kinds of things. And he really, you know, loves the process, loves the program and idolizes a lot of the people there, including yourself. And one of the stories that I think is really profound is the way you started out in your own dental practice. And I know it's a, it's not a. You know, you may not think it's a big, big deal, but to me it's profound that There's a process that, that you teach that helps young entrepreneurs get started. And it's the thing that you did when you were going to go start a cosmetic dentistry practice in probably the Mecca or the epicenter of cosmetic anything, which is California, Los Angeles, California in particular. So tell us a little bit about how it was that you broke into that field and what it is that you're teaching and modeling for those students in regard to that, to that process that you use to distinguish yourself.

Well, I mean, quite simply, when I came home from Switzerland, I had an opportunity to work in the Beverly Hills area. And the last thing that Beverly Hills needed was another cosmetic dentist. So what I did is I did some research and I found the five most successful cosmetic dentists in la. And I called them up and I said, look, I'm a nobody. I just graduated dental school. I don't know anything. I don't know anybody. Can I come in and shadow you? They all said yes. And I sat there like a sponge and I just soaked up everything that went on in that office. The good, the bad, the ugly, everything. I tried to never do the bad or the ugly, but really focus on the good. And I took the best of five practices and made one practice. And I used that as kind of my starting point. And from there I, I started trying a lot of new things that, you know, that they weren't doing and that they weren't comfortable doing with. For instance, advertising. You know, 30 years ago, it was considered unethical for a dentist to advertise. I'm like, why? You know, I'm in Century city. There are 80,000 people that work within a five block radius of my office. We know that 50% of the general population doesn't have a regular dentist. So that means there's 40,000 people that work within walking distance of my office that need a dentist. What's wrong if I tell them I'm here? And I didn't have a lot of money to go advertise, so I made flyers. It cost me $350. And I had all my employees go out to Century City and pass out flyers. They went up and down the towers. I mean, you can't do that today because of 9 11. You're not allowed in those buildings. But back then you could. I was getting like 80, 90 new patients a month just from that. That's called external advertising. Then when those people come in, we kill them with kindness. I mean, you know, if a patient comes into your office and you meet every expectation they have, they walk out satisfied. If you exceed those expectations, on average, they'll tell 10 people. And with social media today, instead of 10 people, they'll sell, you know, they'll tell hundreds of thousands. But back then, we didn't have social media. So, you know, they come in and then we, you know, ask them to send in, you know, their.

Their.

Their co workers. And. And my practice grew and grew and grew, and within a year or two, I had the busiest practice in all of Beverly Hills and Century City, and it just kept growing from there.

Yeah. I got to tell you, and this is part of. So let's go back to leap, because tell us a little bit about the structure of the program and where it is that wisdom and experience in business shows up in that program the way you've just been sharing with us.

Well, I'll even go back a little further, Adam. How did LEAP even start? So there was a program prior to LEAP that we bring in entrepreneurs to share their story. They would have me come every year because as a dentist, my career is not your typical dental career. Right. And so I would talk to them about, you know, being a dentist, about starting up Discus Dental, about, you know, all the charity work that we did. And, you know, and it was an amazing program. Well, the founder of that program passed away, and of all the philanthropic things that I've been involved in, that was the one that was nearest and dearest to my heart. I thought, you know, this can't die. It needs to live on. And so we recreated it, we rebranded it, we made it a 501C3 nonprofit, and we launched Leap 10 years ago. And the idea behind LEAP was give students an ability to meet great, successful people and copy the genius that they had that made them successful. So we get these people to come and share their stories with the students. And in addition to that, we teach them a lot of core skills. We teach them networking, we teach them study skills, we teach them communication skills, we teach them etiquette, we teach them job etiquette, dating etiquette, eating etiquette. I mean, there's a lot of things that we cover in this program that you just don't get in any other program. I mean, this program is solid. It's 10 years long, and it's going to keep going if I have my way forever, you know, and the thing I love about the program is that students will come in first as a student, then they'll come back as a coach, then they'll coach a few years, then they'll come back as a speaker. You know, and, you know, whereas in the beginning I probably delivered 80% of all the content in the program, now I probably only deliver about 20 or 30%. And I'm having the students kind of take the program over. In fact, the executive director of Leap, Charlie Gallagher, was a student. Ten years ago, at 16, he came to the program, he's running the program. So it kind of runs full circle. But you know, there's an old thing where it's like, if I tell my kids what to do, or you tell your kids what to do, they're probably not going to do it. Now if I tell your kids what to do, or you tell my kids what to do, they might do it. But if 10 of their friends tell them what to do, they will do. And the idea behind Leap is to surround kids and young adults with other like minded kids and young adults to encourage each other and help each other grow.

Yeah, that's, that's been, and the, the genesis of it, as you said through the story, is that you want them to copy genius. So you're surrounding them with genius of all kinds, including genius among their peers. Because as you said, when they're seeing it reflected back in the, in the presence of somebody that's around their age or has been sitting in their seat recently, it's pretty impactful.

And the program culminates on Friday with something we call a mentor workshop. So we bring in 100 different professionals, doctors, lawyers, firefighters, psychologists, I mean, you name it, actors, writers, and the kids get an opportunity to sit at a table with that person for 20 minutes. We rotate through cycles. It's like speed dating. They can just ask questions. What do you like about your job? What don't you like about your job? You know, what would you do differently? And blah, blah, blah, blah. I mean, it's, it's pretty amazing.

Yeah, it's pivotal. How about that?

It's pivotal.

Awesome. Well, Bill, it's been an absolute pivotal moment, I think for everybody that's listening to this and watching for them to learn about not only these nuggets that you've shared with us about how you distinguish yourself early on. I mean, there's no question that the tenacity that you showed is a big deal to me. That's in the recipe for success for myself. That's always an ingredient. Tenacity, the fact that you would fly to Switzerland on someone else's on borrowed money to have lunch. Really, you know, it was a catalyst for your own, you know, for getting the job, but also for your growth and Then to come back and to ask five of the most successful cosmetic dentists whether you could shadow them in practice. I mean, what if they had said no to you?

You know, know what? Then I would have gone to the 6th and the 7th.

There you go.

And, you know, one of the things that young people need to realize is all you have to do is ask. The most powerful word in the English language has three letters, A, S, K. Ask.

And when you don't, you don't ask. The answer is automatically no.

That's right. And if one of those five guys had said no, I'd go to the sixth or the seventh. You know what I mean? I mean, I had nothing to lose. The only time you do lose is when you don't ask.

And there's humility in it as well. And this is what you know, because a lot of the people in our community are pivoting in different areas of their life. And Probably I think 83% of the pivots are business related, money related. And to have humility, as in to ask for support, to be willing to reach out and ask somebody who's doing it well or is doing it the way you think, you know, you might be able to, you know, would like to do it and ask them what's working, what's not working. You know, what could we, you know, what would you do differently? Or to just be able to, like you say, observe. Shadow is so impactful. So I appreciate that you, you share that, those nuggets with us today. And for folks that have, you know, either have kids that might be. What's the age range for leap give.

Us the leap is 15 to 25. Some of the kids are actually older. It's one week at UCLA. The price includes everything, the housing, the meals, everything. You just drop them off on Sunday. We give them back to you in a veteran on the following Saturday. And it is, it's life changing. We get like tens across the board from the ratings by the kids. And then they love the program.

Yeah, I was a middle school English teacher for a couple of years way back when, and I could say kids. One thing about kids is they will not lie. They just don't like when you get a rating of a 10 from them, it means a 10. It's not, hey, you know, I really, you know, Dr. Bill, he's such a nice guy. I just want to make him feel better.

Right.

It's like none of that bs. That's just the way they're wired. So give us the organization's website so people want more information, they can go right there.

So it's www.leapfoundation.com. and the program again is July 23rd to the 29th at UCLA. And if you fly in, we will pick you up at the airport and we will bring you right to the campus. And it's amazing. It's just amazing. Go on our website and you'll see all the stuff we do.

Yeah, it's incredibly diverse because you've got students coming from all over the world. Some very, you know, just. Yeah, it's more than. More than checking it out. If you've got a kid that's in that 15 to 25 or plus, and you don't want them living in your basement, at some point, you want them out there. You know, they're launching, they're doing incredible things in their life. This is something you want to actually get them into, involved in. So we support it, we see it. Max, there's been a huge shift, and he's so enthusiastic about it. So, again, Dr. Bill, thanks so much for being on the show. We really appreciate it.

Thank you. Thank you.

What a blessing. Awesome.

Thanks for listening, everyone. We hope you now have the tools and greater insights to navigate your own pivot. Help us inspire others by sharing this episode and leaving your comments over@adammarkel.com podcasts for more tips, strategies, and support as you consciously pivot into a new business and lifestyle you love, join our Pivot community on facebook@pivotfb.com.