Pioneering Dental Practice Ownership: Dr. Richard Low’s Journey

Richard Low  00:00 

I think partnership is super hard. And there’s a little bit of luck. And also, you want to you want to be able to attract people who align with what you’re all about. And I didn’t realize the podcast was going to do that, for me. 

 

Shawn Zajas  00:16 

The future of dentistry belongs to be innovators. Welcome to innovation in dentistry. I’m your host, Shawn Zajas. And I believe that the future of dentistry is going to be unbelievably great over the next decade in two decades. But the question isn’t that the question is, are you going to be part of what makes dentistry great? Okay, so I could not be more excited today to have the honor to interview Dr. Richard Lowe of shared practices. Richard, before I set you up, let me just say, thank you so much for letting me interview you today. 

 

Richard Low  00:59 

Thank you, Shawn. This is exciting. I’ve been looking forward to this. And I promised you this interview way long ago and just hadn’t worked out. And I’m so happy it’s finally happening. 

 

Shawn Zajas  01:09 

So anyone that doesn’t know you if that’s possible, you are like the innovators, innovator what you have pioneered already such a crazy way. And let me just give a little bit of definition to innovation right now. Because it can mean a lot of different things, right? There’s clinical innovations that can change dentistry. There’s technological innovations that can change dentistry, and there’s different business model innovations. But before any of that happens, it starts with some crazy person that actually believes that they can step up and make a difference that the challenge isn’t just says, Hey, why not me? Like I see something. I see a problem. Why can’t I be the one that brings that answer or brings that solution? And, Richard, I believe I’ve shared this with you like, my vision, and utter conviction is that dentistry is going to be great in 10 years. But I’m curious if our listeners are going to be part of what makes it great. So I’m doing this podcast because I look to the left, and I look to the right. And I see these amazing people pioneering positive change. But then I also see these vacancies where people haven’t stepped up yet, because maybe the time is not right. They say, or they’re not ready yet. You flew in the face of all of that. Readiness. I don’t think you even know what that could mean. I feel like you just leapt. I don’t know where you want to start us off. But just in whatever way you want to respond to any part of what I just said. 

 

Richard Low  02:41 

Yeah, no, I think you’ve received those nice things that are probably not fair. But I will point to the person who I feel embodied innovation and gave me the courage to to start a podcast as a new grad who had no business, podcasting about practice ownership. I interned at Dentaltown, I threw myself at Howard Frans team when I was in dental school. And it was like dental town is this amazing online community. This is pre Facebook pages. This was pre podcasts. You know, maybe there’s one or two like, mainstream dental podcast at that point. And I ended up getting a job despite getting turned down like three times, I think, like they finally got sick of me applying for job positions that I didn’t have enough time for as a dental student. And they they hired me on as a student intern. And one of the first questions I asked when I got there it was, who does Howard’s social media because there’s these like posts at 2am. And there’s like, posts all the time and like, and they’re like, oh, no, it’s Howard. It’s all Howard. And I was like, okay, Howard is Howard is all in and getting to know him and being in his house and helping him set up like his podcast studio and his front office, and, you know, getting his guests and all that stuff. You know, I got to I got to figure out podcasting under under him. And I realized that he was exactly what you just said he was just a person who had a vision, and was like, why can’t it be me to build this online community of dentists. And he’s also not perfect, you know, like, he tends to tell his own stories over and over and over, and instead of asking as much as he could about some of the guests, and, but he’s got great stories. And so it’s like, Who can blame him? You know, I want to hear what he has to say. So it was one of those like, seeing him up close and personal and realizing, Oh, he’s just he’s a person. And he had the conviction to say, why not me I can, I can start something I can do something. And that was very liberating. It was liberating to see that and realize like, you don’t have to have it all figured out before you jump in and you solve a problem for someone else. 

 

Shawn Zajas  04:44 

I think it’s even fascinating, though, that you a identified dental town, as I don’t know an organization or company that you’d want to be part of and be that you had the resilience and perseverance to just keep on knocking. Despite the initial, I guess rejection, right, the door closed, they were like, No, Richard, sorry, there’s no space for you here. And you’re like, how about now? Yeah, no, sorry, Richard, there’s so much space for you. How about how about now? Where did that come from? 

 

Richard Low  05:15 

Um, I read a book in dental school by Keith Ferrazzi. called Never Eat Alone. And it’s this. It’s a book about networking. But it’s not like shaking hands and handing out business cards networking. It’s like, how can you provide value to other people? Every time you meet them? How can you connect and have real authentic relationships with people? And I realized in dental school, I was like, I’m in Phoenix, there’s a ton of dental expertise, there’s a ton of like, people who know things. And I was like, I want to try to meet some of these people. I want to, I want to get to know Howard Fran, like dental town and online forums. I’m, I am born of the generation that trusts online forums, much more than institutional knowledge. And, you know, student dr.net got me into dental school, dental town gave me like foundational practice management kind of insights before before I could get access to them elsewhere. And, and so that, that book really emboldened me to just kind of not give up and keep going until until an opportunity basically, what happened was, they said, Fine, we’ll we’ll let you in as a student intern, and then his personal assistant, who are executive assistant quit, who was running the podcast. And I was like, I’ll pick that up. He’s like, Do you know anything about running a podcast? I was like, No, but I’ll figure it out. And he was desperate enough that he let me do it. And so for about 80 episodes, I got to produce and edit and upload and all that kind of stuff on the back end. Which then him and Alan me, they were the ones who were like, You should start your own podcast. And like, I’m just gonna listen to new grad podcast about practice management, who’s still in the army and can’t own a practice for another five years. So that I think there’s a couple like, layers of Where did you get this like, ability to do things you you have no business doing? And I don’t know. I think for me, it was it was angst and like a desire to learn this stuff for myself, and also turn around and help anyone else who wanted to know along the way. 

 

Shawn Zajas  07:18 

Well, I love the start of this because you share something and I’m like, wait a second, let’s back up. And then even your answer. I’m thinking, Richard, what were you doing? Reading a book, Never Eat Alone. Like, I know the book. And that’s not recommended reading for dentists. That’s not the whole oh, by the way, a requisite for being a great dentist is you need to read this book. It just falls under the entrepreneurship, business best practices. It’s an amazing book. But the fact that you are reading it, like, take me through there, why were you not just staying in your lane, so to speak, doing what everyone else was doing? Because I guarantee you not every other dental student was reading that book. 

 

Richard Low  08:05 

Yeah, no, I have been a chronic serial entrepreneur, since I was a kid like getting the kids in the neighborhood to bike around and announced my popsicle stand and, you know, making and selling things and mowing lawns and, and so reading self improvement, reading business books, consuming that kind of information, because I knew the dental school wasn’t giving me what I needed to be successful as a practice owner. And being a small business owner. And in particular, a dental practice owner is a very interesting microcosm of leadership and all aspects of business, but not at the MBA level, like an MBA is almost off scope for what you need for dentistry, like you need. You need, like the basics of everything you need the basics of marketing, you need the basics of accounting, you need the basics of management and leadership, but then applied and bundled together in the context of providing patient care. And so I was like, it became apparent to me that like, Okay, I don’t need an MBA, I don’t need a degree to teach me how to be a successful practice owner. But I do want to get my hands on the best information possible for self development for leadership for all aspects of this. And so I ended up just kind of chronically reading and consuming a ton of everything. And that’s why it was a podcast junkie was because I loved audio content. I can multitask. I’m ADHD. And so now I’m, I’m running, I’m cleaning the house and those things become much easier because I’m listening to an audio book or listening to a podcast. So I came into podcasting very seriously having like, listen to audio content, every spare moment of my life for like the previous 10 years before I started podcasting, so I’m dedicated to the medium and I care a lot about good audiobooks and good podcasts, because they’ve meant a lot to me in my life. 

 

Shawn Zajas  09:55 

Okay, so I can see a little bit like to me it’s clear You’re definitely wired like an entrepreneur, visionary. So if we’re looking at like concentric circles, I’m not seeing the, but I want to be an MD That’s also a surgeon. Hence, let me go into dentistry. Yeah, like that’s still like a very it’s a very specific. Like, I don’t know, did you go in because you’re like, hey, look, this is a great business opportunity, you know, to leverage my entrepreneurial, I don’t know, creativity and yearning. Because there really is the clinician. Yeah. aspect of dentistry. Not to mention, you need to know every single thing that an MD knows, and specialize in the mouth. I don’t know. I just feel like that’s very particular. 

 

Richard Low  10:48 

Yeah. I would say for me that it came from I was an econ major at first, I was a physics major, and I was an econ major. And then I was an international relations major, and I went to an international relations career panel, and one of the panelists was like, Don’t do international relations. She’s like, do something specific, and then do that internationally. So like, learn business, and then be able to help people abroad in business things and, or learn medicine and learn. And that really resonated with me until I met a dentist. While I was doing my mission trip in California for two years, I met a dentist, a dental student and his wife and they had had us over for dinner, and just realized I like working with people. I like working on my hands. I like owning my own business. And I like making money. You know, I wanted to do all the things and realize that dentistry could do that. And then in dental school realize there isn’t anyone who’s closed the gap for me between graduating with a bunch of debt, and buying a dental practice that was like, How can I close the gap for someone else? How can I go from? Should I be a practice owner? Because I think that question deserves its own attention. Because some people assume, Oh, that’s just what you do. And they jump into practice ownership, but they hate running a business. They hate marketing, they hate holding people accountable. They hate management. And they’re like just business owners, because they feel like they should be like, guilt, trip wise. But then we got really in the weeds on how do you find and by the best dental practice. And one of my biggest innovations in shared practices, and I think this is kind of all I get credit for is or that I should get credit for is that I was like, you know, what, what if we organized a podcast in two seasons, that matched the journey of this graduating dental student who wants to own a dental practice? So season one, should I own season two, how to acquire practice? And then once you’re in the practice, how do you lead it and market it and do all these things? So we had a season’s approach to our podcast, that didn’t really have happened anywhere else, we had a curriculum and that was what really resonated with people is because they were on the same journey that we were, as we started that podcast should I own? And if so, how do I prepare for it, find and buy the right dental practice? 

 

Shawn Zajas  13:05 

So Richard, that does make sense why the market would love it. Because you really did just align what every young dentist is trying to figure out, like, what do I do? When I’m in school? What do I do when I get out of school? And how do I bridge that gap? Now, just for timeline sake, did you say you were in the army for like five years? 

 

Richard Low  13:26 

Yeah, so I did. I did the HPSP scholarship with the army. And I did the two year EGD that the army offers. I was in the army for six years, and I started shared practices, the podcast, when I still had five years left of my military commitment. So I knew that I couldn’t really I thought at the time that I couldn’t own a dental practice for the following five years. And I was like, Well, I’m just gonna podcast about it for five years. And if no one’s listening, I’ll shut it off. And then a few years later, we were the number one rated dental podcast in the industry. So and still and then very much imposter syndrome of like, I still can’t put this in practice. And that’s where my partner, Dr. George Hariri. When he partnered up, he was a third year but then graduated from dental school, bought a practice straight out and started to put into practice, and formulating, I think, kind of our next big innovation, which was, okay, how do we use metrics, like we use, the first thing we did really well was use metrics to find and buy the right practice. Then it was let’s use metrics to drive practice management and systematically grow practices from one to two to three doctors, which is very nonlinear bumpy road. You know, and if done wrong, if you hire a hygienist or dentists too soon or too late, like you can kind of really do it wrong and be upside down for a while. And so we said, let’s figure that process out. And that has all culminated in the book that just came out our dental Moneyball book which goes through this journey of how to grow a dental practice predictably using metrics and using a framework that’s, that’s different than the traditional accountants who look at your p&l and say, Oh, you’re spending too much on marketing, and you’re spending too much on this. And that’s how you manage your practice. So those two innovations, I think, are the two things that I did one of them, I did the seasons, and like, let’s start the podcast. And then George and Suzanne are director of coaching, really came up with this framework of practice growth, and have crystallized it into our courses and our books and on the podcast. So it’s been it’s been fun to see my vision and dream. And now it’s had its own, like innovations and babies and dreams. And they’ve kind of grown beyond my original vision. And and it’s really cool to have partners that have bigger visions and goals than you do even. 

 

Shawn Zajas  15:48 

Okay, so Yeah, you like you flew over to like, you know, where you ended up, which is amazing. I’m just so shocked that you were willing to commit to something for five years, with podcasting. Even before you were going to have a chance to like, own your own practice. And if I remember correctly, because we met at Voices of dentistry, and we were talking and you actually ended up buying a practice while you were still in the army. 

 

Richard Low  16:18 

I ended up buying five while I was still army. 

 

Shawn Zajas  16:20 

Okay, so that’s why I don’t want to gloss over that like not recommended. Yeah. What like, okay, so I don’t want to say your, I don’t want to say there’s something unhinged about that. But to me, that seems a little unhinged, yet. Well, it just seems out of the ordinary. So what was going through your your thought process? When? So is this an opportunity that kept coming your way? Were their doors opening? Or were you just knocking? And all of a sudden, you know, stuff opened up? Like what? How do you end up buying five practices while you’re in the army? 

 

Richard Low  16:53 

I feel really bad for anyone listening to this, who’s still in the military who then thinks like, okay, Richard did it, I can do it. And the problem with owning dental practices, while you’re still active duty is that number one, your deployable. So if you deploy, you bought a dental practice, and you’re then gone, you are the definition of an absentee owner, and cannot be running your practice from Afghanistan or Iraq or anywhere else that you may have deployed. So not recommended if you’re deployable. Also, it’s hard because usually, a lot of times when you’re at an installation with a military, there’s a surrounding community that has insurance from the army, the families have insurance from Army. And there’s sometimes referrals from on duty, dentists to off duty, you know, like civilian dentists. And they really frown on if you’re working over here and you’re referring patients to yourself, or you’re taking TRICARE like, it starts to get complicated, and your commander, your boss in the army can stop you from practicing off post, you have to get permission to practice off post. So like if you are buying a dental practice with the intent of practicing some number of days per week, and that that’s going to keep the practice afloat, it is a very risky proposition, you have to be aboveboard, and be getting approvals from everyone and knowing that you might deploy. But the army can’t stop you from buying an asset. The army can’t stop you from buying a house or from buying a car from buying an investment. And a dental practice is a business and it’s an investment. And if you don’t have to work there full time. They can’t, they can’t stop you from doing that. So what can stop you is getting financing to buy practices, being able to put out fires and manage that. So I found myself in a non deployable position. I did medical recruiting for the Army for dentists, doctors, nurses, out of Indianapolis, which was our hometown for my last two and a half years that I was in the army. So I was in a unique situation, where I’m not clinically practicing for the for the military. So there’s no conflict of interest there. I’m not deployable. So there’s no risk that the practices fall apart while I’m gone. And then I bought them with some partners who had a group of practices and we added these three practices to that group. And there was dentists in all three of those practices who were doing the dentistry and we’re staying on board full time. So I wasn’t replacing anyone’s schedule, but this was then during COVID So I got to run through them I got to take on the stress of running three dental practices while I was still full time active duty through COVID and got a real taste of like I don’t know I don’t know if scaling to multiple dental practices is the the golden land that people make it out to be you just aggregate problems and fires and drama and issues. And it actually formed a lot of my opinion that I tell young hungry dental Auntie Newars which I don’t think most dentists should own multiple practices, I think if you can own one practice and grow it to a two or three Doctor practice, you’re gonna have more money and more problems than you ever thought you could could handle. And if you still want more money in problems, then you can expand to that second or third dental practice, but do a large one first that has enough infrastructure to support itself and have a leadership team so that you’re not needed. And you can hire your replacement, you can have true office manager and team leads and all of these things, because otherwise, you start getting stretched real thin on practice number 2345. You enter this like Ugly Duckling zone of trying to grow a group until you’re past like eight dental practices. And then you can start to hire a central team and take that burden off of you. But really, I just think, if you like clinical dentistry, and you’d like being an entrepreneur, the fastest way to do really, really well is own your own practice and grow it to two or three doctors. And if you can do that, you’re gonna have options, you’re gonna have lots of options at that point. Okay, so 

 

Shawn Zajas  21:11 

I think you just shared a lot of what you learned and discovered in those early years, and I can’t even say early years, because you just mentioned COVID. And that was like a stone’s throw away. So you’re not 20 years into this. And yet you’ve already had years, or possibly even decades of experience crammed into a very small amount of time. I don’t know, I just feel like this. This seems like a pace that would crush normal people. You mentioned the imposter syndrome simply on the side of the podcast of like, well, I’m not actually practicing right now. So this seems a little odd. Did you ever encounter it when it came to owning multiple practices where all of a sudden you’re like, Oh, my God, you woke up and you’re like, this is happening so fast. And there’s so much I’m not I’m not sure. I’m enough, or I can handle this. Did you ever have like a moment of struggle like that? 

 

Richard Low  22:07 

No, I still, I mean, okay, so then then, our last innovation, I think, I was thinking about for this episode, there was the innovation of the seasons, there’s the innovation of our model of practice growth. And our last innovation is a model of dentistry. That’s a denture and implant model. So about a year and a half ago, me and my original two partners, Dr. George Hariri Dr. Matt Marino, and three additional partners, listeners, friends that we had had and had been involved with shared practices in our Mastermind and other things. They partnered, all of us partnered together. So we have done we’ve done the coaching we have, we still do we have over 80 coaching clients who are part of our shared practices, proper is what we call it, our podcast, our courses and our coaching. But we partnered together our practices and brought together our 10 practices to be able to get the financing and debt to open new dental offices that are denture and implant only. So a patient comes, they need all their teeth polled. And we’re offering them dentures over dentures and all on for full mouth implant rehabilitation. So we figured out a way to make this work and to grow it fairly quickly. And we opened 10 offices our first year, and we’re going to be opening well over 20, this year in 2023. And we open five in August. And so that that sensation of like waking up and being like, what am I doing here? Am I enough? Is this like, how did how did this happen? That is that’s like a daily occurrence. So, you know, we’ll end up around 3335 dental practices. And right now I’m the CEO, George has been the CEO in the past and might but between the six of us we have this fairly flat leadership structure of truly partners who are good at different things. And those roles and responsibilities have shifted around, they’ll continue to shift around. And so at this time, I’m, I’m the CEO of this Dental Group. But really, I’m more like chief podcaster, and educator to dentist, I really like teaching team members and dentists supporting our offices as they grow. But ya know, I have that sensation all the time. And the pace is, is sometimes way too fast, and sometimes just right, and we’re figuring out what’s the sustainable way to do this without without crashing and burning, and it’s been a pretty wild ride. It’s been pretty amazing. And now all of a sudden, like you said, you look up and you’re like, What is going on? What are we doing? Yeah, it’s exciting. 

 

Shawn Zajas  24:38 

When you were talking about your education, and this kind of path into dentistry, I was just even thinking like, who is Richard Lowe? Like, you could do a whole series on like, so is he the economist, like, is he the guy that does international business? Is he the entrepreneur is he You know, the clinician? And it’s like, yes. Is he the podcaster? Is he the author? Yes, 

 

Richard Low  25:07 

I think ADHD entrepreneur is is the most appropriate title, and ADHD, chronic entrepreneur, which means that you always there has to be something new, exciting to chase, and growth and potential, and also new challenges. And the same challenges and same commitments get stale, unfortunately, too quickly, like. So I think the the flip side of that is like, when you’re when I feel like I have to be obsessed with and fixated on something new. And then my existing commitments and my ability to communicate and run all my existing projects and commitments, suffers. So I think both the good side of what you described also has its dark side of man, I sometimes I’m like, how am I adulting at this point, like if it weren’t for the support around me and my partners, and the amazing people that we have at Shared Practices, like none of this would be possible. And somehow, somehow I started a podcast in my closet. And now I’m the CEO of a Dental Group, is how I tell the story to people when they asked for the short version. 

 

Shawn Zajas  26:16 

Well, so that’s interesting, because that’s exactly what I was formulating in my mind, right? When you started talking about your team, like I don’t want to gloss over. The part that I really want to bring like elimination to is like, this isn’t like you’re not Rambo, right? You’re not the one man show. You’re not the Superman that somehow has these. You’re very gifted, we’re not, we’re not saying you’re not, I’m just saying like, I almost think the greater gift is the ability to broker trust at the level that you have, in at the same exact time know who to trust so. So like, the fact that you were able to successfully identify and come together with other partners that have different strengths. And together, the synergy emerges, that’s greater than your individual parts. That’s borderline miraculous. Like, there’s no guarantee when you meet someone and someone else meets someone else, that any idea and ideas are cheap, is going to be executed at such a high fidelity that it’s actually going to work. And that’s, that’s what shared practices is a story of people coming together. And the what is it, the sum is greater than the parts. And again, that’s nothing short of a miracle. So like, demystify that a little bit. Because if I’m listening, and I’m a dentist, I’m thinking, Well, Richard, I don’t know who to partner with, like, I don’t even know the first thing about partnering. I don’t know if it’s like an emotional intelligence issue. I don’t know if it’s, it has to do with integrity. And like, I don’t know, it sounds like I could get burned. Like, it sounds like this could be a disaster. And I’ve heard of the dentist that right? Like, join another dentist and they buy a practice and all of a sudden they’re like, Oh, I didn’t know. That’s who you were. What? I don’t know. Like, let’s delve into that for a moment. Like, just take me there. What what was that? What was that like? 

 

Richard Low  28:17 

Um, there’s there’s a couple of things. Number one, definitely an element of luck. Like you said, it is really hard to know ahead of time, if someone is going to be a good partner. And I partnered with Dr. George Hariri. Originally, out of desperation. I was kind of burning the candle at both ends. I had two young daughters, I was in my residency in the army. And I was like, You know what, I’m, I don’t know, if I’m gonna be able to keep doing this. There’s after a season of the podcast and my wife had confronted me it was like, hey, family podcast residency, you got to choose two out of the three. And I told her that I was willing to drop the residency. Because I felt like this podcast was going to open more more doors than than my army commitment, which, by the way, if you if you drop out of residency, it’s kind of a scarlet letter of like, you took a residency spot, you didn’t fulfill it. Now you’re like, the most deployable, like we’re going to send you to the bad locations. We’re going to we’re going to send you abroad to not not Germany but to other places abroad. And so like when she saw that I was willing to drop residency, that was like, Okay, wow, he I guess there’s something about this talking in a closet to himself. And and now out of the closet. I have I have my own office. 

 

Shawn Zajas  29:38 

Title of the podcast, Richard comes out of the closet. 

 

Richard Low  29:41 

Yes, yes. acoustics in a closet are really good for podcasting. 

 

Shawn Zajas  29:45 

Because of the all the clothes, the sound dampening. It doesn’t the reverb is so low. I agree. Genius. 

 

Richard Low  29:51 

no echoes. cheapest way to have no echoes is true. But I will say the thing that I didn’t expect to come out of The podcast is that by serving a very thin slice of dentistry, I decided I said at that time, and we’ve changed now, but at the time I said, I’m only going to care about the young dentists kind of my generation and younger, because anyone older than me is not going to listen to me anyways, you know, so I’m going to care about my generation, who wants to be a practice owner and doesn’t know how to get there. And I’m going to fulfill that journey and support that dentist better than anyone else ever possibly could, I’m going to do it for free on air, I’m going to be authentic and real and dig and not sell out the stream to sponsors and let you know, sell off my airtime to people that I don’t trust. And by serving that slice of dentistry, it attracted entrepreneurial dentists who are really driven and committed and amazing people. And that’s who joined forces with us. And so the thing that I didn’t expect was that the podcast served as this beacon that brought amazing people who also shared a very giving vision of like, let’s contribute, let’s give back let’s teach, let’s educate let’s podcast. 

 

Shawn Zajas  31:09 

Wow. So it was like this recruitment, right? You can recruit people of your similar heart, spirit DNA, that believe what you believed and cared about what you cared about. 

 

Richard Low  31:19 

Exactly. And even had a higher vision than I did. So, you know, like, here’s, here’s kind of the what I thought we could do with this. And we’ve done all of those things. And now we’re doing all sorts of other things like we started a law firm last year, we’re now the first dentist own law firm in the country. We’ve, I don’t know there’s all these things, we keep doing this this book that we’ve written. Dental Moneyball, I talked about it a minute ago, but like, this is all exceeded, far exceeded what I thought was possible. And now the six of us, as partners, are committed to let’s create a space where we as visionary entrepreneurs, can continue to play within the field of dentistry and create things that provide value and do that together. And that’s what our shared practices partnership is. And then we get to bring more people into that more dentists, more partners, as we open up practices with dentists and they earn in and all of these things. So yeah, I think partnership is super hard. And there’s a little bit of luck. And also, you want to, you want to be able to attract people who align with what you’re all about. And I didn’t realize the podcast was going to do that for me. And it is hard to do that without really kind of working with someone and like experiencing yours with this person. But my partners who are now some of my best friends in the world, they were listening to the podcast. So they had been, you know, part of this for years. And they had implemented what we’d said on the podcast, and they were kind of part of that core, like, you know, we love this, let’s do more of it. So that would be one recommendation is if you can really serve a community, then out of that community and out of that service, hopefully you find people that you would want to partner up with and join up with. 

 

Shawn Zajas  33:13 

Okay, okay, so three things First, oh, my God, why did I say three? Now I have to do three. First, let me honor the fact that you actually showed up though authentically, in With that courage to be authentic. Because if you wave the banner, and if you start a podcast and you start sharing stuff, people can kind of like tell that it’s not you. Eight wouldn’t have taken off and be it wouldn’t have actually attracted people in that same exact way. So it took a lot of courage to just be like, this is actually me, this is completely aligned. And I’m just going to put myself out there. So if that piece isn’t there, you don’t attract who you attract it. You don’t I mean, because so many people, they model what they think success looks like and ends up being some sense of performance. But people when their BS meters are like, that’s not really me. That person is. Yeah, so you didn’t do that. Like, that’s amazing. 

 

Richard Low  34:08 

Which, which, let me let me add to that. I think the, the people that I took influence from and actually on my wall in the back here, you can’t tell because I’ll lay it out. But there’s a bunch of different podcasts that I’ve like put as my wall art in the background. And one of the podcasts I listened to, which is no longer around, it’s called The Fizzle Show. They talked about being a leading learner and being authentic in that like, this is where I am in my journey. And it’s okay that I’m not further along in my journey. But if I can help someone who’s three steps back for me, I remember what it feels like and those are still my problems and I still care about solving those problems with that person. And so that being in it, and podcasting about it as we were in it and sharing the the ups and downs and the pros and cons and all of that has gone always been a part of shared practices and something that I naively thought I thought, once we were building a group and scaling further, we could continue to have as much transparency. But now I’m at the point where I’m like, oh, like, running a business is hard. And there are things I can’t talk about an on air because they affect people’s lives. And that’s still like a core part of what what we want to be, I try not to sugarcoat what it’s like to run a Dental Group, and give people some false sense of like, this is this is the way to go. And I’m like, Oh, this is hard. And if I can tell you off air, kind of the things that you end up having to hard decisions you have to make and when you gotta let people go, That’s never fun. And the stress and the problems in the fire, so but that authenticity has been core to who we are. And I think why why we got traction in the first place. 

 

Shawn Zajas  35:49 

Okay, so then let me add another one. Um, again, honor you again, for the courage to share who you are in the midst of the process, I tell our listeners, the one of the excuses for not getting in the game is I can’t show people my life yet, because I haven’t climbed, I haven’t reached the top, I haven’t reached the pinnacle. And yet, people won’t care about you, then because they won’t know how you got there. They won’t know about your struggle, they won’t know about that. So the fact that you shared that. That’s amazing. Another thing you said that I think the listeners I just want to circle back to is that you said and you said it, I think a few times, I never would have known that we’d arrive where we’re at today, based off of kind of our plan or the onset. And that’s where people put so much pressure on themselves. I need to have some grand plan. It’s like, well, no, you just need enough clarity to take step one. And trust yourself and just take that step one. And as you’re in motion, and as you start sharing what you’re doing or what you’re wanting or what you care about. People have no no ability to help you. If you’re not saying this is what I stand for, this is what I care about. And you’re not showing the world. If you’re not in movement, or in motion, you typically don’t end up anywhere, and you just stagnate. So I just think that was really profound like you. I know you have the ability to plan, and mastermind and blueprint. But the fact that you have the humility to be like, Look, did I know we were going to own a law company, a law firm, when I started shared practices? Heck, no. And that’s the beauty of the ride and enjoying the ride. Okay, so the last thing I want to say, and I want to throw it to you is I don’t even know if I’ve ever thought of it this way, Richard, but it just, you’ve inspired me between intellect and instinct. In which way do you rely on them as you’re leading, and as you’re going because you’re a man of great intellect. incredibly smart. But at the same exact time, I have a feeling you also trust your instinct. So how do you describe the tension between the two? And when you rely on one versus the other? 

 

Richard Low  37:59 

Well, I’m not going to do a good job of answering this question. So authenticity here, I think I actually think in running a business instinct can get you in trouble. And that’s why like our framework around metrics is really important, because it keeps you objective, it keeps you honest, it helps you focus on like, what is the true bottleneck and that, like, that’s how we’ve grown practices. I think instinct, in two ways, gets you in trouble. Number one. Instinct, when you assume you understand why people are doing, what they’re doing, what they’re thinking, why they’re behaving, the way they’re behaving, you tell yourself a story about their intentions. And then that colors, your emotions and your interactions with that person. So I have to fight. Like my instinct of like, a some dramas going on at this office. And the team lead is saying this about the doctor and the doctor saying this and, and it’s like, I actually have no clue what’s going on here. But my regional manager is getting all of her information from the team lead, and they like this person, they seem to trust this person. So like, they’re like, oh, it’s the doctor. That’s the problem. But it’s like, okay, I need to go into this and be objective and say, Okay, I’m gonna collect some data from the doctor, I’m gonna collect some data from the team lead, I’m going to try and like understand all sides of this, and not let my instinct color my decision making there. So I think that’s one area where instinct can get in the way is when it comes to emotions and difficult conversations. I think another area that it can get in the way is running your business on instinct, rather than on metrics and data. Because everyone kind of like everyone thinks they’re better. They’re in the top 50% of drivers, and there’s got to be 50% of people who are not in the top 50% of drivers. And unless the metrics tell you there’s not a real easy way to like, quantify that, but how we’re running our practices like, there is ways to quantify that. And we’ve figured that out. And we’ve, we’ve said, Okay, these are the bottlenecks you got to address first before you scale and grow and add a hygienist and add a doctor. And that data? I wouldn’t say it’s, it’s the sheer intellect. It’s like data is objectivity. It’s, it’s making decisions, knowing where you’re going, and the metrics that matter and are going to hold you back from getting there and focusing relentlessly on those few things to unlock that next step for you. So yeah, so I don’t know, I would say intellect, I choose A 

 

Shawn Zajas  40:39 

copy. So when the metrics and the data take you only so far, let’s say it takes you to like 60%, clarity or certainty. What percentage of uncertainty are you willing to act on? 

 

Richard Low  40:56 

I mean, this is this is the like, committing to open 20 dental practices in a year. And and, you know, very early on, I was like the wet but I am the wet blanket of the six of us in the partnership. I’m like, Really, should we be doing this? What if we, what if we just did 10? What if we did 15? I think I said publicly like, I don’t know if I’m a great CEO depose me if I’m getting in the way of the growth of our company. But there, there are these moments where you’re like, Okay, I think this can work. And these are the moments of entrepreneurship that I do think instinct has to win where you’re like, I see the model, I see how this can work. We need to execute on it. And we’re going to take some risk. And we’re going to do things that maybe other people don’t do. And we’ve been doing a lot of that over the last two years. And it is it is paying off. And it’s also been hard. And you know, there’s people think like, oh, yeah, just hand over fist. And but it’s like, well, no, it was pretty tight summer, when you’re growing that aggressively. There’s not a lot of extra money floating around. So I’ve felt the consequences of leading a business by instinct and making risky calls and coming out ahead because of them. But also, sometimes you get burned. And so I think as often as possible, I would prefer to lean on the metrics to kind of, if you’re, if you’re like, I think we have this, make sure you’ve got data to backup your instinct, that I mean, across the board, I’m not going to back off that message of so many people. So many times people fall in love with their own ideas. They fall in love with like how good of a leader they are, how good of a practice owner they are. And we do dentistry in a silo like it’s just us. That’s the hardest part is there is not typically a manual or a playbook that is handed to us in dental school of how to buy the right practice, how to be a good leader, how to scale and grow. And there’s so many different voices, there’s so many different ways to do these things that we’ve tried to say, Let’s build a framework of how to think about this. And let’s let data guide our decisions. And that’s what our coaches use. And that’s what our dentists use to systematically scale and then, at some point, like I said, it becomes like, Okay, this is formulaic. Like we know how to do this, and can do it over and over and over. And it kind of becomes fun. 

 

Shawn Zajas  43:21 

Okay, so I’m in dentistry right now. And I’m listening to this. How do I know if I’m a perfect fit for either checking out the book or working with shared practices? Like, who who aligns with that like, like, who should be listening and going, Oh, okay. Let me reach out to shared practices. 

 

Richard Low  43:37 

Yeah, there’s two people, a dentist who, okay, the two people one of them at a couple different points in their journey, a dentist who wants to own a dental practice and hasn’t gotten there yet, we can help them find and buy the right practice, a dentist who owns a practice and wants to grow and scale it and is willing to invest in that practice to scale it over the next two years. So that when if they buy an $800,000 practice, they can grow it to a $2.5 million practice. And we have case study after case study after case study of that exact person. But you have to be willing to go through the discomfort of growth and of change. So if you’re not wanting to grow, and you’re not willing to go through that discomfort, like okay, like we’re not the consulting coaching company for you. And then the other side is the dentist who decides they don’t want to do any more hygiene checks or fillings or crowns, and they just want to do dentures and implants and lots of surgery and extractions. And we’re opening practices for those dentists. And it’s a lot of fun. It’s the model that I’m in you know, I, I tell family members, if you want me to pull your teeth, I can pull your teeth but if you want to fill in your crown, I just literally don’t even have the staff to do it at my office. You have to go somewhere else. So if you’re that kind of dentists if you like surgery, if you like implants, if you’d like these comprehensive cases and challenges, then absolutely reach out to us and we’ll see if we can open an office for you 

 

Shawn Zajas  45:00 

So if that is me, and I’m like, all excited now because I want to work with you, where do you want my eyeballs to go? 

 

Richard Low  45:06 

Yep. So Sharedpractices.com Dental, Moneyball, book.com, and sharedpractices.group.com would be the three places. 

 

Shawn Zajas  45:17 

So, Richard, this is the last question. I think you’re ready for it. So here you are, you’re walking down the street. And off in the distance you see a 18 year old Richard. And you know, you only have a brief moment to communicate one sentiment to him. What do you share? 

 

Richard Low  45:38 

I mean, I was gonna tell them, like, start mining Bitcoin. I’m like, 

 

Shawn Zajas  45:45 

the next seven Super Bowl winners are 

 

Richard Low  45:48 

just just start mining, just start mining Bitcoin? Um, no, I think, 

 

Shawn Zajas  45:54 

like a true investor. I love it. 

 

Richard Low  45:56 

No, I think that the, that it’s that it’s worth it to be an entrepreneur. And I know that I knew that. But it’s like, the confidence like it’s gonna pay off, like, just just head down, grind, you know, have your vision. And at some point, it will create opportunities and value that were not possible otherwise. And I love entrepreneurship. I’m a chronic entrepreneur. And and you know, just that, that confidence, like, okay, just just keep going on that entrepreneurship pathway. Maybe I wouldn’t have done the army. But if I hadn’t done the army, I wouldn’t have had the angst to start Shared Practices, like it’s all kind of this weird cyclical, like chicken egg type situation. But I just love entrepreneurship and helping other dentists who want to be business owners and do it the right way. 

 

Shawn Zajas  46:48 

Well, I love the way that you love dentistry. I really admire the courage you have, and have had to just be authentic and be transparent and lead that way. And serve people with such a generous spirit. And at the same exact time, just have such a humility. So I want to thank you for saying yes, and all those difficult moments, a continuing to go. And then I just want to honor everything you’re doing with her practices, which is really just pioneering such amazing positive change in dentistry. And like I was saying, it’s it’s rather miraculous that you and and five other partners came together to create the synergy that you have. I think it’s an amazing model. It’s an amazing blueprint. I’m 100% of your guys corner. I love what you’re doing. Richard, thank you so much for letting me interview you today. 

 

Richard Low  47:42 

Thank you. This was a blast. Thank you. 

 

Shawn Zajas  47:47 

Thanks for listening, and be sure to follow so you never miss an episode. To learn more about what’s going on in dentistry. Check out innovation in dentistry.com