Episode #756 - Innovating Dental Practice with Andrew Turchin

Welcome to this edition of the million Dollar Mastermind podcast. This is where we pick the brains of high achievers from all walks of life and get their hard earned real world insights on winning. I'm your host, Larry Wydell.

Well, you say you've had coaches over the years. What does that mean?

Well, I've had a, you know, very early in my career I bought a pretty well established like you know, 60 year old generational practice in New York City at one point to grow my business. And I was a little nervous. It was more as bigger than I was used to. It was only a few years, you know, out of things. And, and I hired a coach, a dental coach, you know, this dental consultants. And it was, it was great. And he taught me about systems and everything else. And uh, we grew that practice. This was around 08 by the way. So we grew every year during the recession which was great and it was nerve wracking cause I just bought my new practice. But we managed to grow every year. It wasn't huge growth, but it was growth better than shrinkage that you know.

A lot of you're growing and everyone else is shrinking. That's, that's great.

That's a, you know, and so I've had, that was my first coach and, and then I think I took a few years off, you know, lots of courses on the, on, on the topic of leadership and things that took taking some leadership courses. And I think, I think that's the most important thing we could do in, in, in any business is become better leaders. And that's where, that's where I'm focusing on now is how to be the best leader. And, and certainly, you know, digging into it a little bit. So for instance.

Well, well let me just kind of please shift gears. How will that, how will that make your life and your practice better? Now you're, if you're a better leader, what's, what's, what's the payoff for you in expanding and growing and improving, Improving skills?

Yeah, I think, I think the number one thing is, is kind of like stacking, you know, right. With a great leadership. Hopefully you'll, you'll keep employees for longer and, and, and you're coaching them for them to grow.

Right.

And if you have growing employees that are learning every day, every month, every year, then your business is better and better.

Right.

And I could bring people in and they're, you know, I can bring in new, I could grow. And there's a culture of growth and expectations and responsibility. Right. Is something that's very hard in this world today that many people can't deal with taking responsibility. And I'm very clear that no, we're going to take responsibility. We're not beating people for messing up, but we're going to take responsibility. So I have a list of words of the practice, for instance, and one of them is I'm sorry. We should be able to apologize if something goes wrong for a patient like in a point we're late or something, or something doesn't work out as intended. We should be able to say sorry to each other in the. On the team. Like we don't know. Do you know? I have, I have had employees and I've seen people that cannot say the words and where. It's a place we are in society today.

I've never heard anybody mention that on here.

Oh my. I've seen it and I, because you know, I've had people I don't hear, I'm trying to coach them to taking response and I'm not trying to beat anybody up. But it all starts with I'm sorry. I'm going to, I'm going to get, I'm going to get that better. Sorry about that. And I have people that'll say you point something out that's like a huge mistake or it's a mistake. I say make an upper night guard. Says upper night guard. They make a lower night guard or whatever, something like that. And the answer is, huh?

Right.

But our society has this thing about taking responsibility. I don't know why, why don't we just all admit we're human? We screw up, it'll be a lot easier that we just say yeah, what.

Would you call that? And is that part of your one page culture? Where would that fit into your frame factors that be willing to say I'm sorry, Just something that simple. What do you call that?

Well, I used to have this pie chart. I saw the pie chart on there. Task attitude. Promote dentistry. So part of attitude. What I finally realized in a breakthrough moment, I was having trouble with my team. I was frustrated. That's where breakthroughs come from. Frustration turn into a breakthrough, I hope. Right?

Right.

Either that or we bang our head against the wall, one or the other. I've done both by the, you know, but, but I defined. I think it's important to define what attitude means. And I always thought it was just like a good mood, positive, warm, you know, all that stuff. And I always thought that that was it. But I decided to add to that and it's on the sheet next to the pie chart on attitude. Coachability.

Yeah.

You have to be coachable to be here. I can't deal with you if you're not coachable. Which means you listen, you understand, you learn and take responsibility. It's all defined in bullet points right there versus talk over, be defensive or finger point.

Right. So show the verses, you know, because that counterpoint, you know, makes, makes it very clear.

Yeah. Just because some people might not get where you're going. And that's even our core values. We used to just have five words. We gave a sentence or two each to define what we mean by world class, for instance, what we mean by dedicated, what we. And by the way, people said I was crazy. My colleagues, when I, you know, they're like ah, foo foo stuff, core values. Who do you, you know. Yeah, whatever. And, and I tell you, the dedicated thing, they helped define it and they defined it as part of it, as giving more than the usual two weeks notice if their life changes and they have to leave.

Yeah.

Right. Because this town, people come and go in Aspen.

Right.

And they defined how long they were and they decided one month. But for the hygienist, who's a more very specific skill harder to find in a small town, you have to, I have to import people.

Right.

Two months. And most of them have held to that in the many years since I. We define that as we're going to give one month. And you know the other part, they're going to give two months. And that's unheard of in today's society. So I think, I think resonates with people to make a promise to, you know, and, and, and they'll, they're more likely to keep it. I, I really do believe that. I, I don't think that like, oh, people are just going to do what they want anyway. They might, but they're much more likely if they've committed.

Absolutely. You know, you've got put the issue on the table. And again, that goes back to our thing about being specific. You know, when you're specific, you're more likely to get the results you want. You know.

Exactly.

So, yeah, hope. And let me ask you this. Yeah. Fourth, I get. What side of town did you build on? Where did you build?

Oh, we're way. We're the, the east end. We're out towards Independence Pass, about a mile and a half.

Okay.

Yeah. In Mountain Valley.

Okay.

Yeah. I love it up there. Great views, less traffic. Don't tell anybody. Yeah, we like it quiet over there.

Now, being an Aspen, you met a Lot of other, you know, super successful people. You know, see, you know, my attitude about Aspen is a lot like yours. It's like, you know, I used to major on skiing a variety of places, and that was before I went to Aspen. Right. All of that stopped, pretty much ground to a halt. I said, no, Aspen's enough for me. And so when you are in that town, there's a lot of people who could be anywhere that decide to be an Aspen too. And a lot of these are pretty competent people, and I'm sure a lot of them come through your door and, you know, you. You develop a lot of friendship. Now, one you were telling me is the gallery owner, Chris Martin. And you were telling me. Oh, yeah. That the similarities you noticed in the different. His business and your business. Talk about that.

Yeah, I always find it interesting. Different business is business, isn't it? It's about people. It's about trust. It's about, you know, delivering what you say you're gonna deliver. But Chris, Christopher Martin is an amazing artist and his clients are, you know, we're here, we are in Aspen. His clients are just like mine, CEOs and everything else. But when we talk shop, you know, it's like, oh, you know, we're best friends, so we'll start talking numbers. And, and his numbers are very similar in that, you know, our margins are similar and it's a completely different business. I just think it's amazing that his margins could be so close to a dentist. And he's an artist and, you know, not many artists are business people, but he is. He, you know, he has multiple galleries all over the country and his clients are the who's who. You know, I was, I actually had a, like, not a joke, but I was, I planned on saying, like, you know, who am I as a dentist? You know, I am the dentist of the people that you should have on this show, usually the CEOs and the really super uber successful people. I'm their dentist and they come to me because it's. We do something so predictable and, you know, they want the best. They want efficiency of time and they want predictability of outcome. Right. And. But realistically, it's quite an honor to be here because I really think that, you know, my. All my patients should be on here.

I'm going to probably be hitting you up for some recommendations, too.

Absolutely. I'd love to.

And as you go forward, what energizes you at like you say you turn 50, what excites you about your possibilities? Because you've climbed A lot of mountains, not only in business or in your profession, but in life. And what kind of new horizons are you aware of now that are possible that maybe you weren't aware of five, 10 years ago? And I'm talking about possibles for you.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think I'm very focused right now on locking up our ip. I think IP is a great asset to have so that. Well, you know, our algorithm and our process, I know it's, it's like a vague area whether it's protectable, but I'm working with a really great firm that thinks they could protect some of our process and some of what we could do with our ip, like automate things to take out a lot of the human components in designing these smiles based on our mathematical formula, things like that.

Is that something you could license? Yes.

And so there's where the value, I think, will come from, not even to the individual dentist, but to the software company. Whether we create our own software or do it this. I think the almost easier way is there's plenty of CAD programs, computer design programs out there in dentistry and licensing the algorithm to them to automate it. Now, their software is not. They're not really there yet. So we'll see if we're going to develop it or we're going to see if they're close enough to being able to use an algorithm. And I think AI, I think it could play a large part in. In speeding up that. The development of that software. So that's where I'm focusing besides on my practice and teaching and. But I'm always. I just, I don't know, I get more and more excited about what we're doing uniquely, and I've always been relatively quiet about it. And I don't know if you've gone through this yet, but I'm doing it earlier. I know most people in their, you know, 70s and 80s say whatever the they want. Can I say that? Yeah, right. You know, yeah. Beep. You know, they say what they want because they've lived long enough that they figure, what the heck, why shouldn't I speak my mind?

Yeah.

So one of my new passions is actually being very open about whatever I'm thinking and, you know, humility and this stuff that I used to think I needed. I know my course is 10 times better than anything out there. I'm now. So now I'm streaming from the rooftops. We're going digital with it. In other words, there's an online version coming out, and I do believe that this will be it should be one of the leading education systems for complex dentistry because it's simpler than anything else. Why would anybody go through two years and over $100,000 if they could learn it better in four days and $10,000? So I'm very excited. I don't want to speak poorly to the others, but why would I not be honest? Like, why would I not be promoting the actual truth, which is people walk out of my course after having taken all those others. And that's the day that they start doing the big cases after my course and they get a 10, 15 times rox in the first six months. Usually there's not many things in life that you get that kind of return. You're an investment guy, you're a genius on investment. Wouldn't you invest over and over again on something that you get if you. 15 times RX in six months? Yeah, yeah.

And so, and so the, the sky is basically the limit because you have no idea where that would lead. Because we're talking about a global situation. I mean, you know, this dentistry, you know, we've got to go to. We, we, we've got to go. We, we got to take care of England as quickly as possible.

Oh, yes, yes, yes. Well, you know, by the way, I specialize in the English. I mean, that's easy.

Okay.

Yeah, I just, I once had the ex finance minister of the UK come in and gave me two and a half weeks to redo his entire mouth front, you know, every tooth in his mouth. And we, we got it done because we have a laboratory in house so we could pull things off like that that most dental practices can't. And our process is so predictable, it's not even a concern.

Yeah, I mean you, you know, you got experts at every level. I know the, the just getting the X rays there was, was quite an experience. The detail that you went to in, you know, just getting the X rays, just getting started.

Yeah, we like to start with a plan, begin with the end in mind.

Yeah, well, as you, you know, look to your, you know, you think about all the things we've covered, we've talked about here today, a lot of people are listening. You know, they can find you at, if they're dentists, if they want to find you, if they're patients, they want to find you. They want to fly into Aspen, they want to get a consult or whatever. But how do they find, find you as far as information? What, what's the website or what.

Absolutely, you can find me at Andrew Turchin.com on Instagram @Andrew Turchin DMD or, you know, I'm a, I'm a very like personable person, like person, one on one kind of person. I have a whole team here. But if anybody wants to ask me anything specific or just hit me up on my personal email, it's, It's Andrew Turchin, DMD, David Mary david gmail.com. okay. And I don't mind anybody has a question, whether it be a dentist or a patient or, you know, I'm happy to help in any way I can.

What would you, if I gave you a chance, which I always like to do, to have a final word, something that you might have in your mind to pass on to people who are climbing the ladder and want to do great things in their life? You know what I love about you is you've done great things coming out of a profession. Something people would not think, maybe not be aware of the possibilities other than have a good profession and have time off, get it to the minimum number of days per week where I can go play golf, the other thing, but not realize all of the things you can do with a profession. And so anyway, is there anything that you want to pass on that.

Well, we kind of touched upon it, but it's just a simple idea is simplify, then multiply. Before you multiply, you have to simplify or else things get really, really complicated and life gets harder. So whenever you're thinking about growing something, first simplify it. And to me that systems and all this other stuff and you know, being real clear and simple on, on, on it and then you can multiply. Once you've simplified something, it's so much easier to multiply and I think we should all think about that sometimes.

That is so true. And it's so great to hear that concept coming from you in the dentistry world because since I've been so familiar with it in, in training and building organizations, well, you know, it's how we.

Do more full mouth reconstructions than any other dentist in the country right now. And that's considered complicated stuff and we simplified it, so it's simple for us.

Wow. Yeah, fantastic. Well, I'm, I'm hoping we get a chance to talk again. Do this again. I'm seeing you out in Aspen. Hopefully I'll be out around the 22nd.

Oh, perfect.

This month. And, and hopefully we have a whole lot more snow by the time I get there.

I know we could use it.

Yeah, thanks so much. Appreciate you taking this busy time of the year and prime time of your day to get in and share with us. So great, great information. Thanks so much.

Thanks. Thanks a ton, Larry. Really appreciate it.

All right, goodbye.

Bye.

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