While in dental school, I was obsessed with learning about practice ownership. It wasn’t out of the ordinary to find me skipping class, spending time in the library reading business books, following mentors, and networking with many dentists and experts in practice management.

I created a group on DentalTown, “Ambitious Dental Students” that helped me find many other students and dentists, across the country with a similar mindset. I organized a week long trip to Breakaway Practice in San Antonio, TX. There, myself and other dentists spent our days training with Breakaway staff, learning the ins and outs of day to day tasks of front office dental employees. It was then that I made the decision to push myself to own a practice right out of school.

After graduation, I purchased a practice in East Texas. Like many other ambitious new grads, I had the mindset that I would become a multi-practice owner and build a mini-DSO. I knew I had to hit the ground running and decided to hire a practice consultant. But it didn’t exactly go as planned. The consultant came into the practice, had a binder full of their protocols they helped all their practices put into place and started running the show. At first I thought it was nice that someone else was taking control.

I also didn’t want a binder used for all practices. I wanted specific feedback and advice for my own individual practice. Needless to say, I started looking at other coaches.

I met Justin and felt for many reasons that he was the right fit. He spent a lot of time listening and learning about my practice before making recommendations on what to change. He also wanted to know about my family and what my lifestyle goals were.

In just a year, with Justin as my coach, I took a practice previously collecting $570k per year, to $1.3M. I put hours and hours into learning the systems and becoming the leader my team needed. During this time period, I cut back from 4.5 days to 3 days per week, paid off over $300k in student loans, and began investing in passive streams of income.

My original plan to own multiple practices was put to the side. I realized that I could maximize my return in my single practice and have an excellent lifestyle, spending as much time as I wanted with my family.

I have four daughters and ultimately, this is what it all comes back to for me. Having the freedom to spend more time with my family while having the success I want in my dental practice.

Over the last several years I have been networking with hundreds of dentists to work toward successful ownership. It is a subject I’m super passionate about. I’m very excited to continue this as I work with TLP members to reach their goals.