Wealth Planning for Dentists: A Conversation with Tim McNeely
Episode Description
In this episode of the Simplified Dentistry Podcast, host Dr. Richard Offutt welcomes Tim McNeely—founder of Dental Wealth Nation and author of the book by the same name—for a deep dive into wealth management for dentists. Tim shares practical strategies for financial planning, building high-value practices, and transitioning from “doing it all” to leading with clarity. This conversation is packed with insights for dentists at every stage—especially those in mid-career thinking about exit strategies and legacy planning.
Episode Navigation
- 03:00 – What real wealth management looks like
- 04:12 – “Dr. Do-It-Yourself” vs. elite delegation
- 06:15 – Financial strategy for mid-career dentists
- 07:44 – When to start exit planning
- 09:13 – Values-based advising and relationship focus
- 15:34 – Avoiding predators and pretenders
- 18:11 – Future of dentistry & Tim’s outlook
Key Takeaways
Financial Strategy & Mindset
- Get clear on your 36-month vision before building financial strategies
- Start planning your exit early—value creation begins long before retirement
- Avoid the “do-it-yourself” mindset—delegate weaknesses and focus on strengths
- Define your values before choosing financial tools
Wealth Management Model
- True wealth management includes investment consulting, advanced planning (tax, legal, estate), and relationship management
- A virtual family office brings together experts to work in harmony on your behalf
- Avoid predators and pretenders—work with elite advisors who know your space
Meet Our Guest
Tim McNeely: Founder of Dental Wealth Nation, certified financial planner, and advisor to dental entrepreneurs. Tim specializes in helping dentists accelerate value creation, exit planning, and legacy building through strategic wealth advisory models modeled on elite family offices.
Featured Discussion Topics
- Wealth building for dentists
- Exit planning and value acceleration
- Building a virtual family office
- Financial delegation and team building
- Predator vs. pretender vs. elite advisor
- Strategic planning for mid-career dentists
- Collaboration and legacy in dentistry
Connect With Simplify Dentistry
- Website: simplifydds.com
- Facebook Group: Simplify Dentistry Community
Topics: dental wealth planning, exit strategy, mid-career dentists, family office model, financial planning, legacy building, investment consulting, practice transition, dental entrepreneurship, dental finance strategy
Transcript
00:00:01:20 – 00:00:15:17
Speaker 1
Welcome to the Simplify Dentistry Podcast. Join us as we discuss clinical, operational and financial aspects of your practice. Hope you enjoy life and dare to simplify dentistry.
00:00:15:19 – 00:00:48:23
Dr. Richard Offutt
I’m Richard Offutt. I’m here today with Mr. Tim McNeely of Dental Wealth Nation. He’s also the author of the book by the same name, Dental Wealth Nation. And, Tim, it’s great to have you here and let’s get going. I’d like to have some conversation about I totally enjoyed your your book, Tim. It was, I think it’s a must read for all experienced dentists that are kind of heading into that middle decade of their career.
00:00:49:00 – 00:00:59:11
Dr. Richard Offutt
I think that that reading and and, you know, Tim, this this thing, this thing looks. Yeah. Get it in focus now. This thing was great.
00:00:59:13 – 00:01:01:02
Tim McNeely
I’m glad you enjoyed it.
00:01:01:04 – 00:01:11:16
Dr. Richard Offutt
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, I would suggest that all of our listeners, get that. And in fact, Tim, you had even offered to, to provide that for them, which is, which.
00:01:11:16 – 00:01:13:15
Tim McNeely
Was 100%.
00:01:13:17 – 00:01:36:10
Dr. Richard Offutt
So I’ll tell you what I’d like to talk about. I’d like you to talk about Tim. The, just some definitions for our for our dental, our dental folks, you know, I mean, but let’s let’s talk about, you know, one of the things that I think is, well, you know, Tim, are you a teacher?
00:01:36:12 – 00:01:39:11
Dr. Richard Offutt
Are you an advisor or are you both?
00:01:39:13 – 00:01:42:03
Tim McNeely
Yes. I’m both.
00:01:42:05 – 00:01:49:09
Dr. Richard Offutt
And and and how does that how does that how does that how does that work?
00:01:49:11 – 00:02:04:24
Tim McNeely
Well, you know, I’m a teacher because you have to understand what you’re doing, right? Like, you want to want to actually explain things, just like in dentistry, right? You have to kind of teach your patients a little bit about your treatment. You know, you don’t want them to necessarily, you know, be overwhelmed by all the technical aspects of what you’re doing.
00:02:05:03 – 00:02:20:07
Tim McNeely
But you have to teach them like, hey, here’s why crown crowns important. Here’s why. As cleanings are important. So I’m a teacher in that sense, but I’m also an advisor because the doctors don’t want to get their their hands dirty. They don’t want to do their own dentistry in their own mouth. They want to hire someone, but they want to understand.
00:02:20:07 – 00:02:32:18
Tim McNeely
And then they want to get advice from someone who actually understands the things that are out there, and who can pull from all the different resources and help get them to where they want to go. So yes, I’m both teacher and advisor.
00:02:32:20 – 00:02:34:12
Dr. Richard Offutt
00:02:34:14 – 00:02:38:16
Tim McNeely
Because I think you have to be a, you have to be a teacher to be an advisor.
00:02:38:18 – 00:02:59:24
Dr. Richard Offutt
Yes, yes, that’s where I was. I was trying to I was going to structure a question to kind of get close to that area. But you, you you nailed it. Well, in, in this in, in, in your role and your you work a lot with dentists and and what I’d like just to explain is I’d like you just what is wealth management?
00:03:00:01 – 00:03:20:23
Tim McNeely
Wealth management is one of those buzzwords that gets tossed out there. And and a lot of times for most people, wealth management deals with investments alone. It’s dealing with just what’s in your investment portfolio. But the truth is that’s not wealth management. That’s investment consulting. And investment consulting certainly plays a role in wealth management. It’s one of the elements, but it’s not the whole picture really.
00:03:20:23 – 00:03:39:14
Tim McNeely
Wealth management. There’s there’s three components to this. The first component is investment consulting. The second component is advanced planning, which is all the strategies beyond the investment portfolio. And lastly there’s relationship management. And that’s having the team of people to help you build and implement all those advanced planning strategies.
00:03:39:16 – 00:04:12:00
Dr. Richard Offutt
When I listen to you and read, you know, when I hear you on podcasts and and listen and read your book, I love the examples that you give. You know, we are trying to serve, dentists that are, are, are established they or they or they’re or they at least aspire to that level, right. And and so I, the one of my favorites is, if you talk for a minute about doctor, do it yourself.
00:04:12:02 – 00:04:29:22
Tim McNeely
Yeah. That doctor do it yourself. That’s one of the the examples I give in my book because, you know, so often you start off and you have to wear all the hats in your practice. I know I certainly helped my wife and in my business, like, I was wearing all the hats, I was doing the marketing, I was doing the planning, I was doing the HR, I was doing the payroll.
00:04:29:22 – 00:04:47:00
Tim McNeely
Like like you start off wearing all the hats and that’s kind of what doctor do it yourself is. It’s the person who started off doing everything and you’ve still held on to doing everything, so you’re still trying to put together your team for investments. You’re still trying to put together your, your, your, your team for the financial statements.
00:04:47:00 – 00:05:04:17
Tim McNeely
You’re still trying to do the marketing and run your Facebook. But the truth is that all gets in the way from you focusing on what you’re great at, which is really growing and building your practice. And to hit that next level, you got to start letting go of those things. That’s what the super rich do so well, is they delegate things that they are not good at.
00:05:04:23 – 00:05:22:03
Tim McNeely
And, you know, one of my biggest mistakes in life, Richard, is I tried to focus on getting better at my weaknesses. I tried to get better at the things I wasn’t so good at. That was the mistake. I started getting better when I started making my strengths stronger, and I started delegating out the things I wasn’t so good at.
00:05:22:05 – 00:05:28:12
Tim McNeely
And so by trying to do so many things yourself, you get in the way of actually excelling at what you’re good at.
00:05:28:14 – 00:05:57:12
Dr. Richard Offutt
You talk. You talk. In your book, Dental Wealth Nation, so much about playing from your strengths. So it’s great to hear to hear you talk about that. But I guess the our focus here are not necessarily our focus but our is the, the the doctor middle, middle career. Tim, what steps does a doctor need to take when they’re hitting that mid-career say they’ve been in practice ten years.
00:05:57:14 – 00:06:15:18
Dr. Richard Offutt
They’re they’re doing pretty well. They they paid off their, you know, their school that if they bought a practice they’re done with with paying for that. And, and they’re and hopefully they’ve been, they’ve been accumulating wealth as they go along. But what key steps does doctor mid-career need to take.
00:06:15:20 – 00:06:34:17
Tim McNeely
The key steps for for doctor mid career is you’ve finally you’ve reached that pace place and you just outlined that so well is right. You’ve been in your practice for for a while. You’ve paid off some debt and now your cash flow is probably really ramped up. One of the key steps you need to do is make sure that you don’t start spending that income on things you don’t need.
00:06:34:19 – 00:06:53:09
Tim McNeely
And this is a mistake I see so often is is people get the bigger house, like go get the bigger house, like that’s cool, but don’t make it a big stretch for yourself, right? Don’t don’t stretch beyond what you can really afford because you want to take that income and you want to figure out like what’s next? You want to get a clear plan for what your eventual exit looks like.
00:06:53:11 – 00:07:14:07
Tim McNeely
And and so many people think, well, I’m not close to my exit yet. Like that’s still another ten, 20 years off. Well, the truth is good exit planning is just good business planning. So as a mid-career practitioner, this is where getting focus and clarity for what’s next is so important, because that focus and clarity is going to help you figure out how do you you invest that additional cash flow.
00:07:14:11 – 00:07:27:13
Tim McNeely
Do you buy that new house? Do you wrap it into retirement plans? You acquire real estate, but you got to have a clear plan for where you want to go. And if you have that clear plan, all of a sudden, all the strategies, all the tactics, they’re going to fall right into place.
00:07:27:15 – 00:07:44:01
Dr. Richard Offutt
Here today with Tim McNealy. And we’re talking about different kinds of doctors. We had doctor do it yourself. We had doctor middle career and we have that have to finish this segment with what about doctor exit. When should doctor exit start his exit planning.
00:07:44:03 – 00:08:05:19
Tim McNeely
So your doctor exit did things right. He started the day he bought his practice. He started preparing. She started preparing for exiting from day one by building systems, by building processes, by investing in staff so that you have a valuable, sellable business. And so often what I see in dentistry is there’s really only two kinds of businesses. And I know you’re thinking like, Tim, that’s crazy.
00:08:05:19 – 00:08:26:24
Tim McNeely
How are there only two kinds of businesses? But the reality is you have a business that’s a lifestyle business that’s focused on providing you, as the owner, a nice income, but not necessarily a lot of enterprise value. The other side of the coin is a value creation business, and the value creation businesses are the ones where you get the great multiples because you’ve actually created something that someone else wants.
00:08:27:01 – 00:08:46:16
Tim McNeely
So as the doctor preparing to exit, right, focus on like like what kind of business do you have? Be paying attention to your values and more importantly, how can you drive those values? Right? Pay attention to your cost like cost is so important in this stage. If we can add some more money to the bottom line and grow the top line, you’re going to get some multiple of that when you exit.
00:08:46:16 – 00:08:56:14
Tim McNeely
So so get that right team around you to work on that value acceleration piece. But start early. Start before you have to exit. Because if you start when you have to exit, it’s often too late.
00:08:56:19 – 00:09:13:20
Dr. Richard Offutt
What was very, very, important to me when I read your book, Dental Wealth Nation, is that your investment in really the relationship? Understand ending your client. Can you talk a little bit about that?
00:09:13:22 – 00:09:37:06
Tim McNeely
Yeah. This is where I see a lot of advisors go wrong. They sit down with someone, and the first thing out of their mouth is how much money do you have? What’s in your IRAs accounts? What’s in your for one case, what your asset allocation look like and and all that is really, really important. But if you don’t actually understand why those assets exist and and what like what’s important to the person behind you, you’re going to end up with a lot of wrong answers.
00:09:37:08 – 00:09:55:01
Tim McNeely
So for me, I always start with values like what’s important about money to you? What are the what are the views? What are the beliefs that should help shape those things? Then? Like what are your actual goals? What are you trying to achieve beyond the investment portfolio? Like? Yes, that’s all important, but we got to figure out what is that big picture plan look like.
00:09:55:03 – 00:10:14:05
Tim McNeely
Then we dive into the most important relationships in your life. Relationships matter. That’s why many of you get up every day is to help support the people you love, the causes you care about, and make a meaningful impact in the world. And if the advisors you’re working with don’t know what those things are, you’re going to get the wrong kind of results because they’re not tied to your most important values of goal.
00:10:14:05 – 00:10:36:01
Tim McNeely
So for me, that discovery process is not just an event that happens one time. It happens throughout the relationship. So you want advisors who are spending the time getting to know you. And interestingly enough, this is why the super rich, this is why they build family offices. They want a team of advisors who actually understand them, understand their goals, and honor devoted to helping them achieve the results they want.
00:10:36:06 – 00:10:49:06
Tim McNeely
Not trying to pitch product, not trying to push them in a direction or take them down. This strategy or that strategy. You have a team dedicated to understanding that family and the results of the family want. Then all the strategies flow out of that.
00:10:49:08 – 00:10:53:01
Dr. Richard Offutt
Team is the simplest part the investment consulting.
00:10:53:03 – 00:11:10:24
Tim McNeely
So these days the investments have become kind of commoditized. It’s harder to add value through investments alone. It’s not saying it can’t be done there. There’s still some unique things in the marketplace, but a lot of advisors, they have the same portfolio and they don’t necessarily like talk about that. They’ll try to wow you with all the, with with all the pie charts.
00:11:10:24 – 00:11:28:06
Tim McNeely
But the truth is, like, let’s say we do get an extra 1% a year, like, like that’s meaningful. But how does that compare to saving you a quarter million dollars when you sell your business? Like like where are you really going to get the results? And and what’s interesting is when we look at advisors, they’re mainly focused on the investment consulting part.
00:11:28:08 – 00:11:50:09
Tim McNeely
And a lot of them aren’t providing the wealth enhancement, which is the tax mitigation strategies. They’re not working on the tax reduction piece. They’re not working on asset protection. And they’re certainly not doing a lot in the charitable gifting realm and tying all those together in a holistic plan. So yeah, the investments tend to be commoditized, even though, like I said, there is some opportunity to add value through alternative ISVs and and other things that can be done.
00:11:50:12 – 00:12:04:08
Dr. Richard Offutt
Tim. So let’s we cannot play every instrument in band, right? You can’t play our instrument. I can’t play every instrument. So talk to us a little bit about the virtual home office, if you would.
00:12:04:10 – 00:12:23:21
Tim McNeely
Yeah, absolutely. So years ago this is this is the situation I found myself in. I just married a beautiful dentist. You know, I was a certified financial planner. I thought I knew it all, I had all the book knowledge. I had passed the test. But, you know, what was interesting is, as I got to know my wife and her practice, I realized they actually didn’t have any real knowledge in what was going on.
00:12:23:21 – 00:12:32:17
Tim McNeely
Right? I was a musician who had studied musical theory, but I had never actually played in the band. That doesn’t lead to really good results, as you are right.
00:12:32:19 – 00:12:33:24
Dr. Richard Offutt
You are right, sir.
00:12:34:01 – 00:12:54:12
Tim McNeely
And so I realized, like I had to fix this problem. Either I was really going to step up and become a wealth advisor, or I had to find another career because I was miserable, right? Imagine me, that band member who can’t play a band instrument. It’s it’s insanity. So I actually reached out. I hired some of the best coaches and consultant sultans in my industry and started building a team.
00:12:54:12 – 00:13:11:19
Tim McNeely
I realized I wasn’t the band member, I was the band conductor. That was my role was to bring in the best musicians to play the different parts in my wife’s life. We had to bring in the right tax advisor. We had to bring the right consultant, we had to bring in the right retirement plan experts. We had to bring in the right marketing people.
00:13:12:00 – 00:13:32:08
Tim McNeely
And I didn’t know it at the time, but I was really building a family office for us. I was trying to assemble a team of the best of the best individuals to help us not just optimize her practice, but also or financial world to and and everything that we have going on. And through that process, things start to get a lot better because we had people working for us, helping us achieve our goals.
00:13:32:14 – 00:13:48:23
Tim McNeely
And it wasn’t just a referral back and forth. This was the collaboration of actually team members talking to each other. Right? Imagine once again, going back to your band analogy, which I love, right? You say, hey, I can refer you to a bass player. Well, what part are they supposed to play? I don’t know, they’ll play his part.
00:13:48:23 – 00:14:08:12
Tim McNeely
The trumpet player is going to play their part. The tuba player is going to play. It’s going to be chaotic because no one’s collaborating together. That’s what most of the financial world is like today is you have the CPA who’s not talking to the wealth advisor, who’s not talking to the estate planner, he’s not talking to the insurance specialist who’s not coordinating with the retirement plan advisor.
00:14:08:18 – 00:14:15:02
Tim McNeely
No one knows what’s going on, and they’re all playing different notes. And that’s why so many people have chaos in their financial life today.
00:14:15:04 – 00:14:20:11
Dr. Richard Offutt
So, Tim, the strategy you pull in the expertise when you need it is that.
00:14:20:13 – 00:14:46:05
Tim McNeely
Yeah. Yeah. Great question Richard. That’s one of the benefits of a virtual family office is for most driven dental entrepreneurs, you’re going to need a top notch exit advisor once, twice in your career a family office. Who does this? You may need an exit advisor couple times a year because you’re always involved in these transactions. So what a virtual family office does, is it really takes that assessment of your current team what’s working, what’s not.
00:14:46:05 – 00:15:03:10
Tim McNeely
Do you need to replace someone and do some strategies with them? And then it’s the ability to bring in those experts on an as needed basis, which helps keeps costs low. And it really helps bring down that strategy of the super rich, of having a family office, and makes it available to a lot more people without having to have a ten figure network.
00:15:03:12 – 00:15:34:11
Dr. Richard Offutt
Tim, in your book, which I totally enjoy and I recommend to all of our all of our viewers or listeners, there is there’s one part that’s tremendously humbling or there’s many parts, but there’s one part that’s that makes me sad. And that’s when you talk about the present pretender, the predator and the exploited. And without casting stones, talk a little bit about, those three The Pretender, The predator and the exploiter.
00:15:34:13 – 00:15:55:09
Tim McNeely
Yeah. Thanks for asking that, Richard. And these are really real types of advisors out there. And the first one that that predator, they are out there. So I will name names on that one because you all know a lot of these names, like Bernie Madoff. He was a predator, right? One of the largest Ponzi schemes ever ran. He was in the industry not to benefit anyone else but himself.
00:15:55:11 – 00:16:12:02
Tim McNeely
That is a predator. They’re out to take advantage of you. Then you also have pretenders and pretenders. There’s a lot more of those than predator. So the predators are rare and and you have to be aware of them. But I don’t think most people are working with predators. Most people are actually working with pretenders, though. What’s a pretender?
00:16:12:04 – 00:16:36:03
Tim McNeely
A pretender is a well-meaning advisor, someone who wants to help you out, but they just don’t have the technical expertise to really serve you well. So, for example, if one day I decided, hey, I like this dentistry thing, I think I want to go practice dentistry, I would be a pretender because I would be well-meaning. Like, I really want to help improve your oral health care, but I have zero technical expertise and zero reason to be in someone’s mouth.
00:16:36:05 – 00:16:57:01
Tim McNeely
That’s a pretender. And unfortunately, and the data shows this in the financial advisory world, there are a lot of pretenders. My wife worked with one early on in her career, was an insurance agent who sold her a disability policy, but didn’t have the technical expertise to help her set it up in a way that created tax free income, missed opportunity because it was a pretender.
00:16:57:03 – 00:17:13:21
Tim McNeely
And, and so, yeah, pretenders, predators. And, then you also have elite wealth advisors, and the elite wealth advisors are the ones who have the technical expertise. They want to benefit you and they want to help you get the right advice. So so you really got to make sure you’re working with the right kind of advisors out there.
00:17:13:23 – 00:17:21:20
Dr. Richard Offutt
Tim, I’m going to put it to you in a straight up. What do you wish you had done differently with your career?
00:17:21:22 – 00:17:41:00
Tim McNeely
Oh, you know what? I kind of alluded to this earlier with one of my biggest mistakes I ever made, and that was trying to focus on making my weaknesses better. Right. You want to acknowledge your weaknesses, know that they’re there, but hire the right people to step in in the areas where you’re weak, like like just focus on your strengths.
00:17:41:00 – 00:17:57:07
Tim McNeely
Make your strengths as strong as possible. And that was a lesson that took me a long time to to learn, right? I was trying to hire the right people. I was trying to build the right team, and I wasn’t really any good at that. But when I finally said, you know what? This is not my strength. I’m going to find the person who is good at that.
00:17:57:09 – 00:18:11:01
Tim McNeely
Things started getting a whole lot better. Client results started getting better. I started enjoying my business more so you really got to focus on what’s important. And that to me is the thing I wish I would have done differently is is focused on my strengths a whole lot sooner.
00:18:11:03 – 00:18:16:21
Dr. Richard Offutt
Tim, I’m going to ask you a question. How do you see the future for dentistry?
00:18:16:23 – 00:18:48:01
Tim McNeely
Oh, I see the future I think is bright, really, really bright. I still think it’s one of the greatest industries out there. But in terms of some specifics. So so my crystal ball is usually wrong. But I’ll, I’ll toss out a couple guesses. I do see a lot of the M&A activity continuing to to speed up. I think we’re in this great wave and this great quote, this kind of great space right now with a lot of opportunity being created for for doctors who want to build and grow practices, massive opportunity out there that consolidation wave is still happening.
00:18:48:03 – 00:19:12:14
Tim McNeely
And I think that there’s really going to be a growth of kind of what I call kind of like the super GP and the privately owned practices, and with a doctor who’s able to really build the niche, know their clients and serve them well, that practice is going to flourish more than ever before because you know what, you’re going to have that opportunity to go next to that big DSO right next door, or get some really personalized care right next door.
00:19:12:20 – 00:19:30:09
Tim McNeely
And there’s going to be people say, no, I don’t want that. That Walmart experience. I want the private practice. So so I think for the right private practice out there, there’s going to be a major, major opportunity. I also see a lot of growth just in terms of kind of, you know, outsourcing the services, because running a business is hard.
00:19:30:11 – 00:19:42:11
Tim McNeely
And so you’re going to see some growth of platforms out there that really enable doctors to offload a lot of the management of dentistry and a lot of the business of dentistry. So they can just focus on being dentists.
00:19:42:13 – 00:19:57:15
Dr. Richard Offutt
And I think what I would say, Tim, what would be one thing that our listener, when he wakes up tomorrow, what is one thing that he can put into place tomorrow?
00:19:57:17 – 00:20:17:22
Tim McNeely
Well, I would have to say it’s get clarity, right? Without knowing each one of you know what’s important to you. It’s hard to say, go do this or go do that. But the thing I can tell will benefit. Every single one of you is getting clarity on what’s most important. And. And the way you can do this is simply take a moment and say, where do I see myself in 36 months?
00:20:17:22 – 00:20:36:14
Tim McNeely
Not ten years, not 20 years? Like, like where do you see your practice? Where do you see your life in 36 months, three years from now? And start dreaming through that, right. What is your office staff look like? What are the people saying? What are your patients saying? Get some clarity on what is your practice and what is your life look like in 36 months.
00:20:36:14 – 00:20:44:01
Tim McNeely
So don’t create a business plan of how to get there. Just create the vision of what you want. You can do that first thing tomorrow morning.
00:20:44:03 – 00:20:48:08
Dr. Richard Offutt
That’s what I’ve got. I’ll answer anything for you. Anything you’d like me to answer?
00:20:48:12 – 00:20:59:07
Tim McNeely
Well, I love that question. Right? You are so connected to the industry and really wanting to help the the, you know, the dentist out there, you know, progress more. So. So where do you see the industry going?
00:20:59:11 – 00:21:27:14
Dr. Richard Offutt
I think it’s a golden industry. I do, and I don’t mean golden meaning monetary. I think that it’s an industry that has has given so many people a tremendous opportunity. And I think that that what each of us, each practitioner does with it is totally it’s it’s whatever they want it to be. It’s what they can imagine. Whatever they imagine, they can make happen just by building blocks.
00:21:27:18 – 00:21:40:15
Dr. Richard Offutt
You put one foot in front of the other and you follow a plan. I can’t, I can’t stress enough the idea of making a plan, working the plan. I think that’s so important.
00:21:40:17 – 00:21:50:19
Tim McNeely
Yeah. Now, also in the industry, right. You’ve had a fair amount of success. You’ve seen a lot of stuff. If if you can go back and talk to your younger self and give yourself some advice, what would you tell yourself?
00:21:50:24 – 00:22:14:07
Dr. Richard Offutt
I’ve thought about this a lot, and what I would do is I would start collaborating. Much earlier in my career, I ran a specialty practice, so I had a lot of collaboration on a daily basis with with other practitioners. But what I would have done is I always had satellite offices and I always worked on myself. I would have brought in partners much, much earlier in my career.
00:22:14:13 – 00:22:23:24
Dr. Richard Offutt
They might not have been full partners, they might have been a so, but I would have brought in more doctors into into the practice. I just was hesitant to do that.
00:22:24:01 – 00:22:35:03
Tim McNeely
Okay, I love that answer, Richard. So good. And then then Richard. Right. Thinking about the future of simplified needs. Like, like where do you see this going? Well, what’s what’s your hope for the community that you’re building?
00:22:35:05 – 00:23:08:19
Dr. Richard Offutt
Simplify is quite unique. What we are are people that are the founders, are people that have done a lot of things in dentistry, practiced for a long time, built companies, built the sold companies, sold their shows. We have we’ve seen a lot of the tricks, or what goes on in the space. So first, for, for simplify, what we want to do is provide a voice for those that dentists that don’t have it, you know, being a dentist, you’re out by yourself many times in your practice.
00:23:08:19 – 00:23:32:04
Dr. Richard Offutt
A lot of doctors do not collaborate. As we as we talked about with other doctors in their practice. And it can be kind of a lonely deal. So what we try to do is bring industry expertise, both both clinical and operational, to to the group. And that because then people can ask questions, we can, you know, we can bring in CEOs from companies.
00:23:32:04 – 00:23:55:20
Dr. Richard Offutt
We can bring in leading clinicians because we have relationships with them from all these years of being in the business. So are we the right group for the the the young gal or guy in dental school? Probably not. You probably need to have had a few miles in order to, to really be able to check in to what we’re talking about, just like like with with with talking with you, Tim.
00:23:56:01 – 00:24:02:22
Dr. Richard Offutt
You know, you got to have done a few things to be able to understand that you do need people like Tim.
00:24:02:24 – 00:24:18:16
Tim McNeely
Yeah, exactly. Well, you know, you mentioned something earlier to it in that statement, right? Just that that idea of right kind of kind of pushing forward in the collaboration piece and it made you wonder, why don’t you think you see more collaboration in the industry?
00:24:18:18 – 00:24:46:11
Dr. Richard Offutt
I think some of it is, you know, doctor, do it yourself. You know, the the dentists, are very independent. They, they it’s it’s kind of a cottage. Cottage, business, you know, you’re out by yourself doing your thing. I’m not sure I know in, I know in my personal situation. And I’ll be happy to share that is that I was I was adverse to the financial risk of bringing in other doctors.
00:24:46:11 – 00:25:16:16
Dr. Richard Offutt
You know, I had a pretty big life. I had, you know, four kids in private schools and prep schools and private colleges and a couple of houses and all these things. And I just and I was doing phenomenally well, and I just didn’t want to build risk that I couldn’t manage into that formula. So that was the big reason I didn’t collaborate many years ago within and have a partnership and bring in other doctors and, and build out a platform that was much larger.
00:25:16:18 – 00:25:27:05
Dr. Richard Offutt
But, you know, we all live and we learn and, and that’s why when you said, what’s the you know, what would be my mistake? If you ask me that, it would be that it’d be failure to collaborate earlier in my career.
00:25:27:07 – 00:25:40:02
Tim McNeely
Well, it reminds me of one of my favorite proverbs that says, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others. And I’m such a big believer in that. Right. The the journey is a lot more fun with other people.
00:25:40:04 – 00:26:09:07
Dr. Richard Offutt
No, you’re exactly right. If you want to run fast, you go alone. If you want to go far, you go with others. And, I think that that that is true in so many, so many parts of of of life. Right? I mean, it’s it’s kind of one of those life lessons that, you learn, you have to learn, but you have to have seen both sides of the coin to know that, you know, we don’t automatically have that, you know, inherent knowledge.
00:26:09:09 – 00:26:14:23
Tim McNeely
Yeah. It took me a couple laps around the racetrack to, to figure out way that this isn’t working. So well.
00:26:15:00 – 00:26:17:18
Dr. Richard Offutt
Yeah. Many many times you have to get banged up a little bit too.
00:26:17:18 – 00:26:32:03
Tim McNeely
Right. 100%. So well hey now I love what you’re doing with the community. So many exciting things there. And I love that you are bringing that collaboration piece and and helping the doctors not have to operate in a silo and be alone in this journey.
00:26:32:05 – 00:26:56:21
Dr. Richard Offutt
Tim, thank you so very much. It’s a pleasure to be talking with you. I respect your knowledge, and I think I think you’ve you’ve presented such a such a unique opportunity to our profession, regardless of where you are in your career, I imagine that the doctor middle career is probably the wheelhouse. But it doesn’t mean that if you’re new in practice, that you can’t aspire to build the team that that Tim is talking about.
00:26:56:23 – 00:27:03:12
Dr. Richard Offutt
And, I appreciate your sending me your book and letting me read it and talk about it. And it’s been a great day.
00:27:03:14 – 00:27:17:05
Tim McNeely
Yeah, absolutely. And I’d love to do something special for all your listeners too. I will send you a digital copy of Dental Wealth Nation and anyone who wants it, they can contact you or however you want to make that available. Happy to make that available to all your listeners.
00:27:17:07 – 00:27:49:02
Dr. Richard Offutt
Tim, thank you so much. I look towards getting that and then and hopefully we can send that to a good bit of our people and because I think your message is, is really is really quite, quite, quite on target, especially as doctors try to accumulate I mean, accumulate wealth, grow their, grow their wealth. I think the coaching, is so important that you talk about I think the men being mentored is so important and, and I really appreciate what you do for all of us, Dennis.
00:27:49:04 – 00:27:53:18
Dr. Richard Offutt
And, and hope that that that that you have a wonderful day.
00:27:53:20 – 00:27:55:06
Tim McNeely
Thank you very much.
00:27:55:08 – 00:28:07:01
Dr. Richard Offutt
If you would like a copy or you would like to receive a digital copy of Tim McNeil’s book, Dental Wealth Nation, email your name to Richard at Simplify deeds.com.