It’s a Rich World After All

Welcome to Million Dollar Dentistry with your host, Gary Katie, brought to you by Next Level Practice. Next Level Practice is the leader in dental practice management. In fact, they are the best in the world at creating happy teams that implement sustainable results. Your host, Gary Katie welcomes you to this podcast as he discusses the common concerns, challenges and shares his decades of experience in empowering dentists and dental teams to go from good to world class. Gary Katie is the visionary voice of Next Level Practice and has for the past 20 years interrupted the status quo of the dental world. He continues to bring national attention to the oral systemic connection and believes in the complete health dentistry model. He is a powerful educator and advocate for dentistry, dentist and dental teams. He is inspired every day by the courage and personal successes of the doctors and team members he has the privilege of working with. Join us today as we discuss raising your healthy deserve level. Hi, Gary.

Hey, Amber. Oh, Amber. Oh, Amber, here we are again. You know, that is a famous quote. We have people calling in and going, oh, Amber. So I really appreciate that. I didn't realize I did that. So. Oh, Amber, good to see you.

You too, you too, Gary. So let's just kind of jump right in. Last time we got really deep and we talked about how we could really be looking into what we wanted in a new way and not focusing on the means, but focusing on what the ends were and what we wanted to be at the end of our dash. So that was. It was great stuff. And in this chapter you speak of overcoming the self imposed limitations. In fact, you say something very profound. We live in a world of startling abundance, perhaps startling because we spend so little time recognizing just how abundant and bountiful nature is today. I want to dive into this concept and bring forward the possibilities and limitations that maybe those are just virtually always self imposed. They are always self imposed. And you use that beloved literary and cinematic classic, the wizard of Oz to reinforce this as well. And each of those characters already had what they were seeking and believed to be outside of themselves, inherently within. Do you believe this is true in each of us as well?

Well, heck yeah. I mean, it's really an interesting phenomenon. Imagine if the things we want, money, time, love, connection, are all abundant right now, and the only thing in the way of it is the conversations we have between our ears that keep us separate from those things. And it is really interesting. I really studied this because I came from a place where the conversations were, you know, money doesn't grow on trees. You gotta, you know, save, you gotta keep it all, you gotta hoard and it was because of the old conversation that existed because my grandfather was my hero and he was brought up during the Depression. During those times, for sure, you know, there was scarcity, right? Because, you know, money had to be gold backed. I mean, during. If we didn't have an infusion of PPP and unemployment, I mean, we would have been right back during the Depression when people starving and online and all that good stuff. But consider that all the US did was print more money and spread it out. And it's really a phenomenon that is just like if you want more, you just create more of it. And philosophically, money. The conversation around money, Amber, is that it's scarce. So you want to really identify this. Money is made to be scarce because the things that have value are scarce. Do you know that De Beers creates scarcity for diamonds so that they keep their price up?

Absolutely, yeah.

So the same is true for money. The conversation around money is that it's scarce and it's hard to get, therefore it has value. If, you know, I'm at my home today in Arizona and there's a lot of sand out here in the Sonoran Desert. And if I said, hey, if I got, I got two tons of sand here in the Sonoran Desert, here are my keys, go get it. Because the conversation around sand is it's abundant in the desert, people don't have any value to it. But if I said there's 2 million underneath my car seat on the right side in the carport and here are the keys, we wouldn't have listeners on the podcast, Amber. They'd be like going to get their.

I'm on the plane right now heading there.

Oh, Amber. So the deal is, Amber, look, it's this phenomenon of we create scarcity for things that have value. We relate to it as scarce, we create it as scarce. And then what ends up happening is we end up having this conversation between our ears. Like it's hard to get, or it's, you know, I can't get out of debt. And these belief systems keep us separate from having all the money and time. Same is true with time. You know, time. We at next level have stopped saying, I know you're busy, but because I know you're a busy guy, I know you have no time. Well, I just stop people right there. We have this mantra here, as you know, at next level that says we have time for the things that matter. And we always find time for things that matter. And actually what we do is we create, we fill time that is, you know, worthless time. For the things that don't matter. You know, there's this, there's this story in the 20 and the 2000 Sydney Olympics where the English rowing team had not won a gold medal for 100 years. And I love this story because it talks about they were determined to do it and they had this one quote or this one question they asked and everything they did leading up to the Olympics, does it make the boat go faster? Does it make the boat go faster? And so they would go out partying on Thursday and they would ask the question, should we go out? Does it make the boat go faster? Nope. The answer is no. So whatever it is that's important to you, really prioritizing what you want, if it's being debt free, if it's having more time, the question to ask is, does it give me more time? Does it make me more money? Not that it's greedy, because if you have the belief that it's greedy, you're going to stop the action. Because no one wants to be known as greedy. So there's also the limiting beliefs. So there's the question, does it, does it provide X, Y and Z? And then what are the conversations between your ears that are limiting beliefs that stop the action for you to get out of the way of the abundant time and money that's available to you? Does that make sense?

It absolutely. It absolutely does. And you know, over the years I've taken a lot of personality tests and we actually ask our clients to take some of those as well. I'm absolutely hardwired for positivity. Gary, you literally. It's ridiculous. I mean, it is. It's so hard for me to be anything but positive and to see things in that way because of the way personality I'm wired. So for me it's kind of like I can get even if I have a negative mindset, it's easier for me to change. It's not always that easy for some people and who may be wired a little bit differently and they have those automatic negative thoughts as we talk about. So when we can change that, when we can maybe really start to make some of those things, how does that change your deserve level? So not, you know, it's just like maybe saying, okay, you know, we got that getting out of that scarcity mindset into abundance mindset. You know, what happens to our deserved level at that point?

Yeah. When you have our self worth is definitely correlate with our net worth. So how you feel about yourself, if it's a low level, you're not Going to, I don't know, people that have low self worth and high net worth. It just doesn't work. And I'm the opposite of you. Um, I was brought up in a very negative environment. Nothing was possible. You work at a place for 40 years and retire, you know, don't trust people. I mean, I was brought up in the opposite world that you were, you were brought up in. And I had to unlearn and relearn and one of the tools that I used to unlearn my, my automatic negative thoughts. Like I have this thing where I catastrophize everything. So like, if someone doesn't do what I want them to do, I'm going to go bankrupt. And then I'm going to go back to living at 579 Third Avenue in North Brunswick, which is a place that no human being should ever go back to. Right. It just wasn't safe. It was really scary. It was negative. There was a lot of paranoia and there was a lot of negativity. So I invented, I, I work best when I invent something that I can acknowledge. And like negative thoughts you can't always acknowledge, but when you call them something, then you can go, oh, it's that thing. And I made up a thing called ants. ANTS is an acronym standing for automatic negative thoughts. So I was fed so much negativity as a kid, I have these automatic negative thoughts that like even when, by, by the way, I went through three years of heavy depression and what depression is and you know, this is not clinical, but these are all, this is my own experience because I share how I got out of things and put, you know, tools and distinctions so that you can apply them and get out of them. And for me, what a depression is, is taking a positive thing and catastrophizing it. Like someone saying, man, you really look good today. And then I hear I really suck. You know, I have a zit on my face, I'm really overweight. I like, I just, I just take it and pull the string of negativity. But here's how I was able to break that chain and get past depression without drugs or any. You know, I used to, as, you know, I'm an alcoholic, 13 years sober. There was, I was self medicating and then I got to a place where I was sober and I couldn't take anything. And I needed to deal with it holistically. And how I dealt with it was I created this distinction called ants. And I just go, you know, thank you and for sharing. I have this Anteater so that, you know, the team always holds the anteater up and says, dude, you know, you got automatic negative thoughts. And then you can catch yourself and shut the door of negative thoughts. Like, I can actually be the guardian of my thoughts and I never thought I could do this, but you can actually shut the door and like you can say, thank you for sharing. It's in your voice, it's talking to you and it's feeding you negative stuff. Like, who are you to have that? You don't deserve that. You know, why haven't you done it before? Like all these questions and those things don't empower you to get going. And how this manifests itself is procrastination is killing things off. Like when you go, hey, like when somebody's about to say yes, like you presented treatment and they're about to say yes and you go, you know, we'll just watch that, you know. Or you'll go, somebody's about to pay you. But like, you know, I'm going to give that to you for free. These are all like those unworthy, undeserving things that come up and you feel a sensation in your body, then it comes out your mouth and then you have no money and you have no time. And it is a cycle that you can interrupt just by identifying this thing called ants.

Love that. So tell me about poverty thinking. I love how you said it has nothing to do with how much money you have in the bank, but how you feel about how much money you have. So focusing on what we have is a prosperity or an abundance mindset. You've got some really great examples in your book and raise your healthy deserve level. You say, you know, traveling to countries where people might be poor by American standards and that kind of thing. So can you share with us a few examples of that?

Yeah, I have, you know, I have this friend, Bill, and Bill has. He has a. Well, he just sold his car dealership and for Mega and this cat thinks he's. He, he has. He doesn't have enough money to go to a trip to Italy. And it's in his head. Like if you look at the zeros and the pixels on a screen, you know, the guy has eight figures, right? And he has eight figures and you can easily go to Italy. But his relationship to his money is that he doesn't have it and it's real for him. Right? And so, you know, he really lives. Like you would never know. This guy is like, couldn't spend all of his money in a lifetime because he operates like he has none. And then I have people that now are responsible. They're not, like, banging out dead, but they, like. You know, I have a guy, my best friend Anthony, you know, this guy, money is not his primary currency. Free time is connecting with people, is traveling. And he has this, like, paraglider, and he loves doing that. But, like, money doesn't drive him. And he lives a full life. He has a boat, he has a paraglider. He takes care of his daughters, takes care of his wife, but he doesn't, you know, like, he lives an abundant life, but he knows how to manage his money responsibly. He's not in debt, he's paid off his house, but he can live fully out in the world. And so these are two people that have two different numbers in their bank, but they live differently. And if you look from the outside in, you're looking at it and going, holy crap. Like, this guy. This guy must be extremely wealthy. And he's, you know, by standards of, you know, how much, you know, wealth one person has, their bank accounts don't match. So what I'm saying to you is that it's the relationship that we have to money that allows us to be free to create more of it. You know, you often heard, like, you know, the rich gets richer. The reason is because they get put into opportunities that a person who's in poverty thinking does not get put in the same opportunity like tax advantages or, you know, there's all kinds of opportunities that come to people who stand in prosperity living versus poverty living that it just keeps accelerating the growth of wealth around them or time or connection or whatever it might be. So it's really, really powerful. And, you know, where I learned this was my happiness was only as good as my bank account. So, like, when my bank account was low after a payroll and after American Express came through and it was low, I would walk around and I'd be angry and I'd be upset, and I realized that I am not my bank account. And I get to be in the world separate from that. And poverty thinking and prosperity thinking are ways of being not what you have. See, that's the other distinction. It's like, I can be happy and fulfilled and have a low number in my bank account. I never thought that was possible because my whole makeup was he who has the most cash and prizes is peaceful, joyful, and all that. And that is not true. I was miserable, and I had more money than I ever thought I would have in my life. And I'm like why there's something bigger than just getting cash and prizes, and that's really knowing that there are other things for getting abundant, like being of service to people. You know, service is the pathway to happiness, not zeros in your bank account. And. Yes. Does it make life better and easier? Yes. But if it's not, on top of being of service to other human beings, I know a lot of miserable wealthy people.

Absolutely. It kind of reminds me of a story, Gary. A few years back, my husband went on a mission trip, and he went to Panama, and he was up in the mountains of Panama, and they were building a medical clinic is why they were there. And the. The people that were in the area actually would come and help them. And so my husband kind of connected with one of the guys that was helping him, and they were putting in these. Not even actual glass windows, but screens in. In frames to make some windows. And, you know, my husband got to talking to him, and he's, you know, and he was, like, saying that he was building a little house, and so he was describing it to Raymond, and Raymond's like, wow. And he's like, so, you know, what are. You know, are you almost finished? And he said, well, yeah. He said, it's going to take me about $20 to finish the house. To finish the house. These are people that were making about a dollar at that time, about a dollar a day. So $20. And my husband is standing there, and he said it touched him and affected him so deeply because he thought, I literally throw $20 away on a lunch. He said it, never even thinking about it. He said, the difference in. And the happiness. He said the. The level of absolute, like, joy that this guy just exuded. He was just beautifully happy, and he had so little. And it was going to take $20. And it's like, you know, Raven's like, oh, my goodness, I could make. I can change this guy's life. He said, I can give this man $40. He can finish his house, and he can put a floor in or he can put screens in. It was. And he said it was the seeing the difference in that it wasn't the money. It was about being. Having that mindset that that it's okay, that there was enough, that he had enough. And he was like, you know, it's going to be great, and we're going to have this medical clinic, and there's going to be. There's. It was. Everything was enough. And that was really the true. To me, that true difference in mindset of, yes, $20. To him was more than he would make in half of a year. But for Raymond, it was something you would drop on lunch. It was just, you know, that was that kind of thing. And you know, and even more than that sometimes.

So, yeah, like really, that's a great story and great lesson that Raymond learned and shared here. You know, it's really interesting too, because, you know, I always think that poverty thinking is waking up and having reoccurring conversations about what you don't have. Prosperity thinking is I have. Seeing what you have and are grateful for it. And then if you choose to build wealth above that or have more time above that, or have a different experience, it's on top of a foundation of gratitude for what you have versus being at this deficit, thinking of, I don't have enough, I'm not enough. And I'll tell you, I went through a process where I was defined by the car I drove, the how long my driveway was, the ring on my wife's finger. You know, all those things in the grand scheme of things don't, don't matter. You know, they may really matter. It's the keeping up with the Joneses. If, if you're looking for validation of a self esteem or self worth, like when I had, I was bankrupt spiritually, no self worth. And I tried to prove to the world by having things externally, nice clothes, nice car, nice house, that, that, that was my identity. And as you mature, you realize that that's really not so. And I love the next generation of millennials who aren't governed by, you know, ponies with a polo stick on a shirt or, you know, a Louis Vuitton bag. Like, they do the nod, they do the opposite because they're not coming from a place of proving. And where do I stand in society? It's interesting because I study, you know, cultures and, you know, what happened in the 80s, you know, it was all about the me. It was all about, you know, living in a material world. Madonna being the best, you, Tony Robbins, me world. We're living in a we world here now where that's like pooh poohed upon. If you know you're selfish and you know, you have all that going on now. What's going on in China right now was there, there's now classes that's like different classes. So that's. And the way classes are discerned is by what you have, the car you drive, the horse on your shirt, the logo on your shirt, stuff like that. So what happened in the 80s here is now happening in China. You can't get any labeled stuff there. You know, first of all, the government doesn't let it in, but there's. I have a friend who sends stuff in through Hong Kong, and they get like 10 times the value of what they would normally pay for it because it's such a driving force of societal hierarchy that is being built in China right now of that middle class. And it's really an interesting phenomenon. And I love learning about things that have already happened here and that are going to another place because you get to see Amber, how it affected poverty thinking and prosperity thinking. I think the next generation of practitioners and people, the, you know, the millennials, really have a good perspective and a good relationship to. Into this distinction of not being defined by things, but being like, not what you have, but who you are and, and, and that kind of stuff. So, yeah, really profound changes going on.

So, Gary, can you share with us, without mentioning names, of course, a little about some transformations that you have seen happen with your clients when they embraced that poverty mindset?

I can't get this guy out of my head, Amber. Dr. Jim is just like one of my biggest heroes, and there's many who came after him, but he was one of the first. After I wrote the sequel to million dollar dentistry, which is raise your healthy deserve level. And I distinguished it for him and the guy so whip smart, he's so badass. He got to see that his low reserve level manifested itself. You ready for this? In discounting fees, number one, in giving away free dentistry, number two, he had $450,000 in accounts receivable. Wow, three months worth. He was doing one, 150amonth. Three months worth. And I like one month worth. He had three months worth. He also, his fee schedule was at the 60 percentile. So he didn't think he could charge, you know, the. At a certain amount. He didn't think he could collect it. He didn't think he deserved to get paid for it. So he would give it away. He would also watch things. He had a watch factory. We'll watch that. And think he's doing his patients a favor by watching disease get worse. And it was really profound when after I had this distinction, he read the book. He's like, gary, I did what you told me. I hired a person, locked her in a room, and in 30 days, he collected $375,000 of the 450. So number one, he gives dentistry away, but he has days where he does pro bono work once a quarter. He doesn't give it away to the guy, the CEO, you know, who has a job and drives a Porsche, you know, he's giving it away to guys like that. So he does, still likes to do pro bono, but he gives it away. He raised his fees to the 90 percentile, didn't lose anybody. You know, some people, by the way, if people aren't complaining about your prices, you're too cheap. You know, if you get a complaint or two, like you're, you're, you're, you know, a little bit more expensive and say, look, I mean, are we worth it? We see you on time, we educate you, you know, I use the best materials. I mean, you can. Again, can you see if your self worth sucks and you're like, have a low deserve, deserve level, you're not having that conversation back. Here's another one. He couldn't, his dream was to have a Tesla and he couldn't own one because he didn't think he deserved it. And he thought his patients would make interpretations in a small rural town. And he finally got one and he drives down and they go, hey Doc, I love your car man, it's awesome. And thanks for taking care of me because you deserve it. You work hard and you help a lot of people. I'm glad you got that car. And like all the beliefs that he had about all this stuff were just beliefs that limited his whole existence. Now, by the way, this is why doctors can't retire financially free. Because they have these belief systems that they get caught in and if they just catch themselves and reinvent them, they'll end up retired financially free. By the way, it's nine years later, it's now 77. It used to be 61 average dentist retired, now it's 70. The average dentist, according to the ADA is flat in terms of their income. And it has to do with what's going on between the ears in life and in practice. You don't get what you deserve, you get what you think you deserve. If you don't think you deserve it, if I try to give it to you as a practice development coach, a person dedicated to getting people debt free, frustration free, and have the free time to do what they want to do. If I try to give it to them, here's the way it shows up. It shows up in, I didn't get it done, I didn't keep my agreement, I procrastinated. So what's underneath it is when I go to work and take responsibility for why they are procrastinating, they get to see this. As long as they're willing Amber. And then they end like, end up like Jim, you know, financially free. Frustration free. Yeah. It doesn't mean he doesn't have problems, but he's not frustrated with the same problems reoccurring because he's ultimately responsible. There's a responsibility that you have in the matter. It's not insurance companies, it's not DSOs, it's not the damn coronavirus. It is largely between your ears. And if you get that, then you're going to be set free because you can control what goes on between your ears, even though you don't think so. There was a time that I didn't think I can control my thoughts and beliefs until I didn't. And then all of a sudden I'm never going to go back to 579 Third Ave again because I now learned how to operate in the world and it was really getting me out of the way of myself, killing it off.

I love that. So I love that this change isn't all just about money, but it is about quality of life as well. And I love that we can see that change that we need, that it'll start first with looking within. Then we can influence and create happiness, prosperity and abundance without. So it's like those things, once we start to make those changes internally, the external is going to change to meet that. I think that's the one thing that, that we don't think. When those automatic negative thoughts pop up, you have those. And if the, if you allow those to stay externally, all of those negative things are going to come. That's. They have to. There's. It has to be that way. But if you bring in the positive, you take out that, you're like, okay, I hear you. Move along, replace it with a positive. Then the positive has to be what, what is your external as well.

Happiness and prosperity is an inside job. People have heard this before, but like actually doing it actually works. And it's not like the simplest thing. You know, you have to take responsibility for it. And you know, I always go to the drum, the, the drama triangle. You know, what happens is, is people become perpetrators, victims or rescuers. And I was all three. It's a really powerful tool. Like, I would create upset in the space. Then I would say, well, the team can't get it done. So I got to, if you want it done right, you got to do it yourself. Rescue her. And then I would go home and complain to my wife and say, honey, you know, I'm exhausted and I'm tired and, you know, if people Just did what I asked them to do, my life would be better. And all that does is places blame on somebody outside of yourself. As long as I was blaming or people blame someone outside themselves and they don't take 100% responsibility, you're never going to be free. Never. Because you're controlled by that outside factor, right?

Absolutely.

Yeah. It's the someday whens, maybe nevers. Someday when I have money, then I'm going to be happy. Someday when I have time, I want to be retired. Well, you're going to be retired. You're going to have the average person. If you retire at 62, you're going to have, I think it's like 12 years to live life. Why should you live life in an increment of 12 years when you could start right now and have it all? Time, money, reducing the frustration. It's just taking ownership of it all. And if this kid from a street, kid from Jersey can do it, I mean, any freaking body can do it. And I, and you know, I work with 6,000 direct, you know, practitioners, and, you know, 90% of them get it. And so when you, when you shift how you relate to money and time and happiness, prosperity as an inside job, you get set free to create anything and everything that you choose to create. So it's pretty awesome. It's a big, it's a, you know, and the methodical thinker is like this little airy fairy, theoretical stuff. And yes, part of our teachings are you can't do step one, step two, step three. You have to, like, go to work on something other than a linear thought. Right. To really have exponential results. Exponential results don't always come from linear thinking. And so this is exponential thinking. And it takes something to go inside yourself. You're not just going, step one, step two, step three, cut a crown, you know, and then put, you know, slap a crown in. It's not that it's a little bit bigger in the thinking concepts. And once you have this, then you apply those tools.