Episode #377: Replacing Yourself in Your Practice to Get More Time, with Dr. Sully Sullivan

Every dentist will one day reach their transition point. But replacing yourself doesn't mean you stop doing dentistry! And for insight into this process, Kirk Behrendt brings in Dr. Sully Sullivan, host and creator of the Millennial Dentist Podcast. He shares his eye-opening experiences and learnings about what it means to replace yourself in your practice, and how to do it effectively. For this millennial’s advice on planning for your future, listen to Episode 377 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

• Build something that can buy you more time in life.
• Don't get stuck in the hamster wheel of dentistry.
• The sooner you build financial stability, the faster you can grow.
• Don't be afraid to spend money on CE and technology.
• Every time you say yes to something, you're saying no to something else.
• Replacing yourself doesn't mean you're no longer doing dentistry.
• Mentorship needs to be scheduled in.

Quotes:

• “We live in a social media world where you get on Instagram and you see people doing all this cool stuff, and you're like, ‘Gosh, I want to go and do that.’ But a lot of it is challenging because people either don't want to put the work in to go do it, or what I think is the bigger problem, is that we’re too busy doing other things. And so, when I say that, that could be you have clinical dentistry that's bogging you down, you have admin stuff that's bogging you down, personal stuff that's bogging you down.” (4:59—5:28)
• “Ultimately, as I've grown in our practice and as our practice has gone from two docs to four docs, from 3,000 square feet to 11,000 square feet, from 12 team members to 20-something team members, the one big thing that I keep trying to buy more of is time. It’s bandwidth, because what I've found is that when I get more time, that allows me to actually look at the business as a business, not as a highly specialized monkey, which is, on some level, what we are. That, to me, was the biggest “why” behind it, was how can I get more time.” (5:28—6:08)
• “What's the best way to grow a practice? Do you bring on more people to do the same amount of dentistry, or do you expand the offerings that you have? Do you put more items on your shelf? Are you going to sell the same stuff, or are you going to add more items to the shelf?” (7:10—7:24)
• “I think the other challenge we have is, and I see this globally, that a lot of dentists will look to hire somebody to do stuff they feel uncomfortable doing. Take molar endo, for example. That's a hard thing to do that you're expecting some new grad to know how to do. That's difficult. And so, [my] dad really led the way. And even into his middle 50s and his late 50s, he was still clinically taking CE, going to Pikos, trying to push himself. So, then, all of a sudden, his idea was, ‘Okay, I'm going to stop doing dental school dentistry,’ and not giving me grunt work, but stopped doing the stuff that I knew how to do to do the things that I didn't know how to do. So, early on, I was exposed to this idea that we could grow the practice with the same number of patients by just replacing the dentistry he was doing with more dentistry that I would come in to fill the gaps.” (7:29—8:28)
• “The start of 2017, I buy 50% of [my dad’s] practice. And at that point, all of a sudden, [my dad] delegated a huge chunk of the administrative duties to me. Over time, that became a huge bog-down for me, because all of a sudden, now he basically replaced the admin part and a lot of the stuff he didn't like to do to where now he’s getting to show up and just love the dentistry that he’s doing. And what a spot to be in, to show up every day and love everything that you're going to do. That's the dream, right?” (9:46—10:23)
• “One of the surest things that I learned and know is that the sooner you can build some level of financial stability, meaning, you don't live outside your means, that you save some money away, and you can get out of that survival mode, that you can grow so fast. But time and time again, what I see is that people either are afraid to spend money on CE, they're afraid to spend money on technology, and they just hunker down and try to weather those early years. And that just stunts their growth. And so, for me, the one thing that I have known and the one thing that I keep doing — and it just keeps working — is I just keep betting on myself. I keep pouring back in.” (10:51—11:42)
• “This is another one of those big, life-learning examples: just because I can process something so fast, or I can figure it out, doesn't mean my team can. That applies to case acceptance, the patients.” (12:45—12:58)
• “I tell my hygienist all the time, whenever you're talking about presenting and closing treatment the same day, three people have to be ready: the dentist has to be ready. Can you process and diagnose and communicate the dentistry in that time? The patient has to be ready. Are they ready to take that information and make a buying decision? Are they mentally there? And then, even if both parties are there, if my backend closing team isn't ready, we can totally botch the financial part of it, or the scheduling part of it, or the logistics of it. And so, whether it was treatment planning, whether it was implementing stuff too fast with my dad, with my team members, I would move too quickly. And I've lost good team members throughout the years because of just trying to implement too fast, too much.” (12:59—13:50)
• “That was the next biggest cog in the wheel for me, was finding that person who could help me relate things down to the team and help implement the stuff that I wanted to implement.” (18:04—18:16)
• “Almost every employee that we've hired has brought more or been a better fit to the table than the previous employee that was there, in some way. Because your practice changes. You change. I mean, T-Bone is such a good mentor, and he jokes and says that you should have one team member turn over every 18 months. Because if you're not having some level of turnover, that means you're probably not asking enough, or moving forward enough. Kind of like if you look at case acceptance. If you've got 100% case acceptance, you're just not diagnosing enough dentistry. You're not presenting enough.” (18:47—19:24)
• “Greatness is awesome. You could be a great doctor. But then again, all you are is just a really great monkey. You're a great employee, is what you are. You're a great employee. And so, to me, the next phase to growing a business, building a business, developing something that can run without you that can buy you more time in life, is when you're able to do that to the people around you.” (20:11—20:38)
• “Part of it about our generation is we do tend to want things, and we want them somewhat now. We’re the “entitled” generation. That's what everybody calls it. And I think that's a little bit — that’s true. We are somewhat entitled, and there's a desire to, ‘Well, if you could do it, I want to do it.’ And the flip side of that is, I think we’re unfortunate because of our resources, the access to education, stuff like this, technology. We can climb the ladder much quicker. So, maybe what it took you five years to do, we can do in one — with the effort that goes into it. But part of that, for me, where it really started happening was knowing that if I say yes to something, I'm saying no to something else.” (24:21—25:03)
• “There's a lot of that traditional grind, that hamster wheel stuff. And that's the kind of dentistry that you get to the end of the day, you look at your number, and it’s like, ‘Gosh, I feel a lot more tired than the number is.’ Then, I go home to my family and I'm exhausted. And part of it was, I started seeing what the potential was with dental implants and some of the stuff. I was like, ‘I want to do more of this type of dentistry.’ So, if I keep saying yes to all the stuff that isn't, which, at the time, was a lot of fillings, a lot of single crowns, some minor extractions, and stuff like that. If I keep saying yes to all this stuff, I'm making a good number, but it’s not making me tick professionally. It’s exhausting, and I don't feel like I'm bringing a lot of joy. The patients are happy, but they're not thanking me — I'm not changing lives with the dentistry I was doing.” (25:44—26:43)
• “I was getting so busy doing — it was just busywork, like the busy dentistry, crowns and fillings, lots of general dentistry. And I wanted to do more surgery. I wanted to do more implants. And so, I had the skillset. I was taking CE to do it. But I wasn't being serious about scheduling appropriately. So, the first thing that I really started doing was saying — I remember it so clearly — I went up to my front office team and I said, ‘I only want to do two patients of fillings a day. I'll do one in the morning, and one in the afternoon. But that's it.’ So, that was how it started. And they’re like, ‘What if there's nothing to fill that spot?’ I said, ‘Leave it.’” (27:09—27:52)
• “It’s amazing. All of a sudden, I'd have a two-hour block that no one would show up. And now, all of a sudden, I had time to think. I had time to walk around. I've got time to listen to hygienists, talk to patients. I had time to walk up front and see what they were doing, how they answered the phone. And very quickly, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. I spend no time working on the business outside of just running payroll and getting stuff for my accountant. Everything we were doing was reactive. It was catching. There was no proactiveness to it.” (27:55—28:34)
• “Tuesdays are my admin team day. So, Tuesday, I work on the business. I come in at huddle with them and meet, and then leave at huddle at the end of the day. Usually, it’s scheduled because, otherwise, it would kind of get random stuff. But typically, the first two hours of the morning, I'm meeting with my main assistants to look at the next two weeks. If assistants were listening to this, they'd be like, ‘Oh my gosh, what an amazing thing to actually sit down with your doctor and know what the heck you're getting into.’” (29:31—30:02)
• “You've got to put your money where your mouth is, and you've got to go learn to do it. This isn't YouTube University. That can only take you so far. Online content can only take you so far. Investing in a core curriculum, Kois, Spear, Pankey, if you want to do something, invest in more CE to do it. I think that's the big one, is people just want to do it without putting in the work.” (31:48—32:13)
• “What I don't advocate is building niche practices. Replacing yourself doesn't mean you stop doing it. It means that you keep it, you give it to someone else, you mentor them, you teach them. It builds something, it builds community, it’s good for our industry, it’s good for your practice.” (32:17—32:42)
• “I think that's a fear I have, is that people want to build these either big implant practices or these big cosmetic practices. And my generation, in dentistry, hasn’t really lived through a downturn. Now, you could say the pandemic was a downturn — and it was a downturn for dentistry for two months. And there are certain parts of the country that struggled to rebound. But for most of the country, 2020 ended up being a really good year for dentists. They’ve rebounded well. And so, the challenge is what if, all of a sudden, we really do have a long-term drop in something and patients don't start showing up, and you build this niche practice and you don't have this base. So, that's another thing I worry about or don't want people to do.” (32:43—33:33)
• “It’s been really eye-opening to me, to now be on the other end, to having gone through a practice where I was getting mentored, mentored to the point where my dad would do wisdom tooth number 1, I would do wisdom tooth number 16. He would do 17, I would do 32. Like, that kind of mentorship, hands-on. That's how I progressed so fast. Now, I've seen dad on the backside with our other two associates get away from some of that and just put his nose back down to the grind. And it’s been one of those moments where we’ve had to step back as a business and say, ‘Hey, you can only grind so much.’” (34:21—35:03)
• “This, to me, is the question to ask or what you want to gather, because you may not be able to get this information, is what does the senior dentist or the dentists that you're getting mentored from, where is he financially at? Is he doing it because he still loves it? Is he thinking that you're going to be a financial benefit? How far is he from retiring? Because I think what happens is, when the dentist is financially still in a position where it’s scary — or in our case, I noticed this when we built this building because, all of a sudden, it pushed dad back into survival mode a little bit, just the nature of big payments and stuff like that. And so, what does he do? Well, his survival is, ‘Do what got me here. What got me here is grind. Head to the handpiece, we’re getting after it.’ And I'm like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa. That got you where you were. But what built this was scalability, was you investing in me. And what the future is is investing in them.’” (35:05—36:05)
• “I would go so far to say that I would like to see mentorship as scheduled time. There's time they literally say that the doctor will be available to either help with the procedure or something like that.” (36:08—36:22)
• “My goal is that by 38, I would love to have the ability to see that our business makes enough money for me to work 75 days a year, clinically. Very, very little. Because right now, what I know is, again, the problem is we built this thing. But guess what? The majority of my income still comes from Sully the dentist. So, now, my goal from a practice standpoint is, how can I transition my income from Sully the dentist to Sully the business owner. So, everything I'm doing, at this point, is I'm giving away dentistry. I told my team I'm not doing any crowns unless they're associated with $5,000 treatment. Single crown? Can't see me. Don't do them anymore. Because I saw it work with one thing, and then it worked with the other, so I'm getting so religious about it.” (37:31—38:28)
• “If I had to put my finger on what was the number-one thing that's made me successful, it was this: I surrounded myself with people that were better than I was. I became the dumbest guy in the room. And I got so lucky because I got so many good mentors. And then, I got to hang out with their friends. My dad took me so far. He says all the time, ‘I could only take you so far,’ and then these other people, the T-Bones of the world for me literally have taken me to a place — so, my number-one piece of advice would be, try to surround yourself with people beyond the dentists in your area, beyond your classmates in dental school, even beyond the social media interaction that we get. Meet these people, hang out with these people. When your peer group becomes a mover-and-shaker peer group, or that peer group is doing what you want to do, magically, you just do it. You get there. They bring you up. The tide rises all ships.” (39:32—40:34)

Snippets:

• 0:00 Introduction.
• 1:54 Dr. Sullivan’s background.
• 4:34 Why this is an important topic.
• 6:13 Filling the gap at his dad’s practice.
• 8:28 Having a voice in his dad’s practice.
• 10:24 What Dr. Sullivan has learned.
• 11:42 Consequences of trying to implement too much, too fast.
• 14:53 Managing and prioritizing ideas as the visionary.
• 18:16 Turnover every 18 months?
• 19:26 A good leader develops other leaders.
• 21:21 Becoming more empathetic.
• 23:33 Don't get stuck in the hamster wheel.
• 26:43 Learning to schedule appropriately.
• 28:35 What else Dr. Sullivan does in a week.
• 30:03 Proactively fixing future problems.
• 31:19 What dentists get wrong about replacing themselves.
• 33:34 Mentorship needs to be scheduled time.
• 36:44 The future for Dr. Sullivan.
• 39:10 The future for young dentists.  
• 41:17 Dr. Sullivan’s podcast and contact information.
• 42:10 Dr. Sullivan’s episodes with his associates.

Reach Out to Dr. Sullivan:

Dr. Sullivan’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sully3

Dr. Sullivan’s social media: @millennialdentist

Resources:

Millennial Dentist Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/1c1EeLi9XrrpQ9zPsLiT7P

Millennial Dentist website: https://millennialdentist.com/

3D Dentists website: https://3d-dentists.com/

Dr. Sully Sullivan Bio:

Dr. Sully is a fourth-generation dentist from Nashville, Tennessee. After receiving his Doctor of Dental Surgery from the University of Tennessee, he moved back to Nashville to practice with his father. By continuing to invest in his education through adult orthodontics, soft tissue grafting, dental implants, third-molar extractions, and obstructive sleep apnea, he helped double his practice in just 24 months.

As a millennial, he truly believes in working smarter, not harder, which has led him to utilize technology to not only deliver better patient care but more efficient care.

Dr. Sully regularly uses CEREC, 3D imaging with Galileos, 3D printing, and multiple lasers. In addition to his practice, he started the Millennial Dentist Podcast in February of 2017 to help push his fellow colleagues to take their dental careers to the next level. Dr. Sully lectures around the country on cone beam technology, CAD/CAM dentistry, obstructive sleep apnea, and practice management. He is also an ambassador for the 3D Dentist teaching facility in Raleigh, North Carolina.