2: THE DSO MISSION

Welcome to DSO Secrets. I know what it's like to be an entrepreneur in the dental industry. I've had my ups and downs just like you. There's so much opportunity to be excited about, but so few resources to get answers. From here on DSO Secrets, we get you those answers so you can change the lives you're meant to bless and achieve your personal success.

When I was working as an associate rat at a school, I never imagined I could own these many practices with this amount of support. So thank you.

You have helped build my marketing mind

to a whole new level. You have this natural talent, this unique ability.

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of DSO Secrets. This is your fearless leader, Emmett Scott. And I'm glad you're here on this great journey that we are taking in the dental industry. All right, so I'm not going to start off light here. I'm going to jump right in with a question that goes deep, fast. And here it is. And I hear it often. I hear it in the tone of people. I hear it directly. And that is what is a DSO and are they inherently evil? I have to tell you, I've. I've been shocked by kind of the moral energy that's applied to entity structures in this space. I mean, when I walked in I heard things like, well, I'm a sole practitioner, I'm a multi location dental practice, I'm a group practice, I'm a dso. And it kind of seemed like depending on which one you were and then who you were talking about, the tone completely changed. So, you know, obviously if you were on one side of the spectrum, so to speak, and you were talking about an entity structure on the other side of the spectrum, then there was nothing but disdain in your voice. I just, I have to be honest, I just, as an outsider walking in over seven years ago and even today, I think it's nonsense. In fact, I think it's actually really distracting from the opportunity that every one of us has. I don't care what your entity structure is. You know, I've tried to dig in and figure out where this animosity comes from, you know, because it doesn't, it doesn't just naturally happen. Something has to be driving it. And I'll tell you, I've kind of found three sources and maybe, you know, go to our Facebook page, DSO Secrets, and if you have other thoughts on this. I know I'm digging into something that people have a lot of emotion around. So I'm open to the feedback. I want to understand, I want this to be A place where we're being a lot more transparent with each other. But when I look at the true sources of the animosity, I found three. Number one, and I'm sorry to throw them under the bus, but attorneys. I've done a lot of work in the attorney space with lawyers. And the thing I don't think most people understand is they have a business model to run, too. They have marketing plans and dollars they spend around that. They look for niches and frankly, their job. And I'm throwing all attorneys into one. But really, we're honing in on litigation attorneys here. But their business model, if they're smart, if they're good entrepreneurs, is they are looking for places of contention where they can drive deeper wedges and they can create big dollar amounts. And it does need to be in spaces. I mean, there's tons of places in the world where there's contention, but most of them aren't profitable. And so if they can find players with a lot of dollars that they can get to fight about whatever thing, frankly, they're willing to play on either side of the ball on this thing. And I don't mean that to mean that they're immoral. They're running a business model, and they're looking for where those opportunities are so they can pay for their family's needs and for their employees and so forth. But I don't like being on the other side and being the victim of their model either, though I've consulted a lot in that space. So, you know, and one of the attorneys that I was with many, many years ago, he had a picture on his wall that I absolutely loved, and it had two guys fighting over a cow. One was at the head, pulling on the cow's head. The other one was on the tail, pulling on the cow's tail. And they were labeled plaintiff and attorney. And some of you may have seen this before, and the attorney was sitting on a stool labeled Attorney milking the cow. I don't like to have our industry milked. Right. So, anyway, I just think that's a source. You know, whether you agree or disagree, I'd love to get your opinion. Number two, I think, is downturns that have happened. Capitalism is built on ups and downs, but the downs still hurt. When they hurt, we do tend to look around and say, what caused this? I think that we've given probably too much power, too much perspective, that somehow certain entity structures with their might and power. I'll just call it out that we think that DSOs have somehow, with their Entity structure created downturns for everyone else. I can just tell you that that's not how capitalism works. And the math doesn't add up because everybody's felt it in some form, which really goes into that competition piece of people getting focused on their competition. The problem is that many of us think that our biggest competitor in the dental space is other dentists. And I don't think that's true at all. I think the biggest competitor we have in the dental space is the iPhone, the Android, Facebook apps, Candy Crush, distraction, distraction, distraction. I mean, let's get into the psyche of a customer of a patient. When you're sitting down during the day, having that dental appointment there in front of you, either that day or some other psychologically, aren't they thinking, what could I do to get out of this? And even before any of that happened, aren't they so distracted that they're not getting their appointment set? So do we really believe that the downturn we felt in the dental industry here and there was caused because another dentist is sucking up every patient possibility out there? Or is it more likely that patients in general have stopped going to the dentist as much? And I can't imagine that the animosity that is in this space towards different industries, entity structures, doesn't carry over into our customer experience. And so we create these self fulfilling prophecies. So I'm just putting that out there. I'd love to get your, your take. So let me give a couple, a couple other perspectives on this. I, I really have, this is basically my take. I think there's two things that are important here. Number one, what really defines you, no matter your entity structure, is what is your culture, what's your vision and what's your mission. These are going to be what matters most. No one's going to walk in and say, can I see your LLC structure? Can I see your PLLC structure? A patient's going to walk in and they're going to feel whatever that drive is within your practice. If it's a bunch of negativity, they're going to feel that. If it's a bunch of positivity, if there's a bigger thing happening there, they're going to feel that. They can't always articulate it. It's not always in the logo and in the color scheme and in that brochure and in that mail out and in that website. But a lot of times it is, it kind of just permeates through. And in today's world, people are looking for authenticity. You know, we just have too much access through social media to cut through a lot of the crap. And so people want to feel your character and they want to feel that there's a bigger purpose happening there. So here's what I believe. I think there's only two structures based on this perspective of mission and vision. There's one, the owner operator structure. And the owner operator structure is someone who says, my mission and vision is to be the best clinician ever. I don't want anyone else in my space. And I believe that with me and my team, I can change the world one patient at a time, and I can create a quality work in a niche place, or in that niche could be their community and their area, or it could be some kind of specialty or whatever it might be. But that's what's driving them. And they love every day keeping it simple, keeping that patient focused, that one on one. Okay, so I think that owner operator model is one model, and I applaud it. I think every other model is a DSO is some form of a dental support organization. As soon as you say, I'm going to bring an associate in, the last thing that associate wants to hear is, by the way, I'm not supporting you. Okay? So I'm not talking about entity structure here. I'm talking about mindset. Now you might say, well, there's evil DSOs, there's good DSO. Again, that comes back to mission and vision. Well, I'm a dentist and I'm the CEO. So therefore. Therefore, what if you're bitter, if you hate people, if you hate your job, how does that make you somehow better? Right? And we can get into what the clinician should control and what they should give to other people. But I'm just telling you as an outsider looking in and now an insider looking through it, there's really only two structures. As soon as I say, I love my front desk people and my office manager, I expect him or her to run this like a machine so that I can have an associate. Then I'm thinking like a dso. Now, we can also talk about different scales, you know, well, having an associate is different than having several practices is different than. I just think that as you start looking through that, if you really get down to the core, there's a group of individuals who are owner operators who are worried about them and their care to the patient, and they're fine with that. Then as soon as you step out of that, it just kind of depends on what scale that you want to bring more contribution to the world. As soon as you bring that associate in, you're saying, there are more people I want to impact than I can do on my own. That's the statement you're making. And when you open up that second practice, you're making that same statement. You're also bringing on new complexities based on location and marketing demand and everything else that goes into that, the accounting piece. And we'll get into those things. And so you're signing yourself up as soon as you bring that associate on. And everyone who's brought on an associate knows that feeling, those butterflies in the stomach, that feeling, I'm going to throw up. Can I really bring on enough patient flow, provide the support? What does this mean? Accounting wise, what does this mean? X, Y and Z. And every stage you feel that that second practice, that third, that 10th, that 20th, etc. Etc. But it's really driven by mission and vision, isn't it? Isn't it driven by this core belief that I want to contribute more? They say, no, no, no, no, people are just in it for the money. Well, that can apply to the owner operator model just as easily to any other entity structure. This is an industry built on humans. And the character of those humans, from the very top all the way to the bottom does make a difference. We're not an industry built out of manufacturing machines. And the quality of those machines kick out the quality of the product. Humans are at every stage of our process. How those humans feel and what their mission and vision is, yes, it impacts and you can have good this and good that. There is my take on the industry less about entity structure and more about the humans and the mindset and the character they have. And I think that if we change the discussion, this to me is the secret. If we change the discussion to be around the mission and vision, if we force people and pressure test, why are you in this game? What are you trying to contribute to the world? Who are you trying to impact? Whose trajectory in life are you trying to take to the next level? Every entrepreneur. I don't care what industry you're in. Those are great questions to be asking because that gets you to a place of passion and motivation that really starts to drive a totally different perspective and opportunity than being over here in some operational mess or over here in some entity argument or legal argument or lobbying argument. All of those things to me are just complete distractions from the real opportunity that every one of us has. So I told you this was going to be real, this is going to be transparent. I'm interested in your perspective Is this something that you agree with? Is there another perspective out there? Maybe I'm ignorant, too. Here's my. Here's my last thing. Be careful on focusing on competitors. When you're focused on competitors, you're just staring at somebody else's butt and you're following behind them or you're really distracted by it. Okay, get your head up, look out there and say, what is it that I'm supposed to do in this world? And if I do that big enough, and if I do that awesome enough, the great thing is that patients and every customer in every industry can vote with their feet. They are not slaves and stuck into one option. The best way to make your statement is to bring something awesome to the world. All right, so those are my thoughts. Love for you to join us at on our Facebook page at DSO Secrets and thank you for listening to this episode. Until next time, keep smiling.

Thank you for listening to DSO Secrets. Join our community on Facebook at DSO Secrets and get answers and resources to some of your most challenging questions. If you want to get a copy of the seven secrets of any DSO, go to our website at DSO secrets.com and we will get that emailed to you. Remember, don't go at this alone. Let us be your team while you build your team.