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The Mint Door: Financial Mistake
46 Plays1 month ago
This week on #DentalFuel Tanya Sue Maestas, Laura Schwindt, and Karen Tindall delve into pivotal financial mistakes made early in their dental careers and the invaluable lessons learned. Laura shares her story of hiring the wrong consultant by ignoring her gut feeling, highlighting the importance of adhering to one's values in practice management. Karen discusses the challenges she faced as a new associate in the UK, stressing the need for due diligence and legal advice before committing to contracts. The episode also covers the financial implications of transitioning out of clinical dentistry and offers practical advice on maintaining financial stability during such transitions. Tune in for these essential insights on navigating financial pitfalls and fostering financial resilience!
Key Takeaways:
- Trust Your Gut Instinct: When making significant financial decisions, always listen to your gut feeling to stay true to your values.
- Due Diligence is Crucial: Seeking legal advice and consulting with a mentor can prevent potential pitfalls, especially when entering new agreements or contracts.
- Financial Planning for Transitions: Streamlining expenses and making informed decisions can ease the financial burden when transitioning from clinical roles.
- Support Systems Matter: Having a strong support network, including mentors and family, can make challenging transitions smoother and more manageable.
- Control What You Can: Focus on what you can control and let go of the things beyond your reach to save energy and reduce stress.
About the Guest(s):
Karen Tindall: Karen Tindall is a former dentist and orthodontist who qualified in England in 2000. After nearly two decades in family dentistry and orthodontics, she moved to the U.S. in 2015 and transitioned to being a stay-at-home mom before retraining as a professional life coach. Karen now focuses on supporting dental professionals through life coaching and co-founding The Mint Door, an organization dedicated to the well-being of people in dentistry.
Laura Schwindt: Laura Schwindt is a former dentist with 21 years of clinical experience. Having served as an associate in various practices and eventually owning her own practice, Laura faced severe burnout, prompting her to seek life coaching. Inspired by her transformative experience, Laura became a professional life coach to help other women in dentistry. She co-founded The Mint Door with Karen to focus on the holistic well-being of dental professionals.
Connect with Ignitedds and Dr. David Rice: @ignitedds Free Intro Call
Connect with Tanya Sue Maestas: @tsmaestas.dds
Learn more about 90 Day JumpStart : https://ignitedds.com
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
Dental Fuel, the podcast that focuses on what no one else is talking about. Mistakes. The dental world is full of before and afters and no one is talking about the middle. Dental Fuel brings you the unspoken in-between. Welcome back to to another episode of Dental Fuel. Dental Fuel is brought to you by 90 Day Jumpstart, a program to help you increase production and break free from financial stress. We are back with Dr. Laura Schwint and Dr. Karen Tindall. You might know them as The Mint Door. In this episode, we talk about some pivotal financial mistakes that both Dr. Schwint and Dr. Tindall made early in their dental careers. These mistakes gave them both valuable lessons. We also talk about the financial implications of transitioning out of a clinical setting and offering practical advice to maintain financial stability.
00:00:52
Speaker
yeah Well, moving on to our our next mistake, I would love to know a financial mistake that you all have made. And, um you know, if it's dental related, that would be great. If it's more towards the mentor and maybe some things that you've learned in transitioning from not being in a clinical practice, I would love to learn that as well, too. But ah Laura, i'll send I'll send it to you first this time. Awesome. Fantastic. um You know, early on in my practice, I decided that I wanted to hire a consultant.
00:01:21
Speaker
And so I you know started doing some research and looking around and i I found one and I met with who I thought was the consultant. um Really hit it off with this person and and just thought that this was this was really making sense, what he was talking about, really felt like a good fit. um And then he explained how the payment would work.
00:01:46
Speaker
And he explained that it needed to be paid all up front in one lump sum and it was a big amount. And he he knew that because it was a big amount that he had an option that we could take out a loan to to do this. And at that moment I had that kind of funny feeling in your tummy where you go, I'm not sure if this is resonating anymore with me, but I really liked him and I really liked what he was presenting and I thought this you know this could be a ah good move for our practice and take it to the next level. um Well, anyway, long story short, um it ended up being that he was a closer for a program. He wasn't who I was gonna be working with. and And I ended up getting into a situation where sort of like a cookie cutter approach where you do things their way, doesn't you know they don't really
00:02:43
Speaker
pay attention to the nuances of your personal practice. And it just, it was it wasn't that it wasn't successful for my practice, but it left me um feeling a little like I hadn't been true to my values. And we all know that when we're not true to our values, things don't feel as easy, things don't feel as um as coherent as they could.
00:03:10
Speaker
And so, um, that taught me a lesson that that funny little feeling is something telling you that you're moving away from a value that's important to you. Uh, and so it really taught me to listen to that funny feeling a little more, pay attention to it. Um, and certainly I've, I've made that mistake, you know, even to this day, sometimes not listening to that gut, that gut feeling, but I will say now I do listen to it much more.
00:03:38
Speaker
And whenever, you know, we're looking at big decisions, you know, Karen and I too, we rub up those decisions now with our values. You know, and does this align with our values? And um I think that that's really important. Very important message as well. And, you know, those got feelings, man, they're there for a reason sometimes, but they're so easy to ignore even when they're really strong in there. But yeah, I resonate with that as well too. Karen, how about yourself?
00:04:08
Speaker
I'm thinking back to my first true associate's job. So in England, you go to dental school, then you have to do a year of, well, at the time it was a year, it was probably two years now of vocational professional training. Then you get an associate's job. And my associate's job at that point in time handed me this, a deal, basically. So I've done, it was the same practice where I'd done my training.
00:04:35
Speaker
went to, they signed me over to a new contract. So these were people that I thought that I trusted. And I just knew dentist, not really very much experienced in the real world after only a year out of dental school. They present me with a deal that basically said, you owe a third of everything in this practice. You're going to pay a third of everything, but you're going to get so much money for it. Look at everything we're making.
00:05:04
Speaker
the two of them, is this is going to be a great success. Well, a brand new dentist just starting off is not quick, they're slow. It was really, really hard and looking back on it and reading the things that I do now and seeing what support is out there, I would just urge people to have a mentor, have somebody that they can go and talk to who is separate from a decision that they're making with a contract to somebody else. um Seek legal advice even before you sign a contract. Because I got stuck in something that for three months I earned less than my assistant by the time I had paid for the third of all these practice costs.
00:05:55
Speaker
um And when I actually took it to the British Dental Association at the time, they were like, what where how have you got yourself into this? But at the time I trusted people and I just went with that. So naive, probably, of my certainly naive. um Would I make that mistake again? No way, but I think I'm a lot more confident.
00:06:22
Speaker
But I think when you are a new dentist going into something, you don't give yourself the credit that you think I'm new, therefore I have to do something the way these experienced people are telling me to do it. And that isn't the case. You can do your due diligence. You can take advice. You can check things out. And I didn't. I was very fortunate that I put together a case to show them that this was not working out for me.
00:06:49
Speaker
um and they did manage to change it, um but it wasn't some weather then I felt comfortable staying for long term. that's ah That's a sticky situation. And and you know maybe not to that level, but not super unheard of, especially for new dentists who you know are are going into an associate ship, or maybe they're looking at a corporate office. And um it is very easy, I would say, to want to fall into the potential trap that a pretty shiny penny may show you, you know that an office may offer you the moon in the sky. But the reality of it may be completely different, especially once you start.
00:07:28
Speaker
And it can be very challenging to get out of a situation like that. Yeah. I think at the time, it was probably the biggest, most stressful thing I've dealt with up until that point in my life. I think life equips you with the skills to deal with challenges at different points in your life and that you get the skills. So you become more adept at dealing with some things, but it will always throw you another challenge. But yeah, at that point in time, I did not have the skills to deal with that in a very capable way.
00:07:59
Speaker
I'd like to talk a little bit more about finances and and more in the in the setting that you all are now. and you know i I think that leaving clinical dentistry probably was a ah difficult decision for you all to make individually.
00:08:12
Speaker
and um you know Financially, perhaps knowing that you have that financial support behind you through that clinical revenue that you would be bringing in. How was that decision for you all, um from a financial point, how how was that for you to make that decision to leave clinical dentistry? um Karen, why don't you start us off? I think my situation is very unique um and maybe not so common was the fact that I was leaving my job behind because we were moving to the United States with my husband's job.
00:08:49
Speaker
And I didn't even have a work visa to to work at all over here in the United States. So financially for me, we had to work out, okay, with our expat deal that we're getting, does this cover the fact that Karen's not working? And and that would that was a big decision for us to make, to put one salary down. But It's hard to turn your back on something you've done that's provided you with a good income. um And to turn away from that was difficult. But I didn't dwell on that for too long because there was nothing I could do about it. and Laura and I, we have a system that we work through our clients with where we have some rings of control. And it's all about learning how to categorize
00:09:46
Speaker
Um, something that a challenge or a situation or an issue or something that needs or task even, and putting it in a ring of, can you you ask yourself the question, how can I control this? And the one of our rings is I have no control over this whatsoever. And if something falls into that ring, then you have to put it down because you can't dwell on it because there's nothing you can do. It's wasted energy worrying about something.
00:10:14
Speaker
you can't do anything about. So for me, that's where that had to go in that box and that ring of I can't do anything about this. I just have to move on and look forward to something else. I bet that that system and that process is very helpful to your clients. I i like that. That's something to I'm going to remember. What about you, ah Laura? Yeah, you know, I think that um similar to the rings of control, what can you control? And so certainly leaving did present financial challenges, ah but what can you control? And for us, it was how can what can we control of our expenses? What are we what are we doing that we can streamline? For instance, we had a big house on a lake, we had cars, we had stuff, we had um you know ah a lot of
00:11:11
Speaker
things that we could trim. So I mean, we actually sold everything and moved in with my dad and for it for a period of time. You know, that was a decision. And so um I think was it easy? It wasn't easy. It was scary and kind of kind of, you know, you lose your identity a little bit during it. But was it the right decision? You know, you talk about health care versus sick care, you know, you can either pay for a gym membership and healthy food and supplements now, or you can pay for sick care later. And so, you know, we kind of did that weighing of, you know, the way we're living right now is setting us up for, you know, burnout again, um maybe even issues within our relationship. And so let's do the hard things now and change and
00:12:10
Speaker
And that's what we did. And yeah, it was, it, it was definitely a challenging road, but also a very rewarding one as well. So. Yes. I'm sure that while you're going through it, it's probably really, really tough. And I'm sure it was a big transition to move ah back with your dad, but, uh, I'm sure that it was fun and probably rewarding. And when you look back, probably something that was necessary for you to kind of develop and move forward. Yeah. Yeah.
00:12:38
Speaker
So my dad was a retired dentist, so he got the whole dental thing. And he knew them that was a nice, it was a nice, yeah, he was a good, he was a good level of support for us at the time. That's great. Yeah, that's that's definitely what we need is is just a good support team around us. That's right. Our conversation with Dr. Schwint and Dr. Tyndall continues next week with a team mistake. You can find them on Instagram at The Mentor Club. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at IgniteDDS and at DentalFuel. If you're looking to grow your practice and need some help along the way, be sure to check out 90 Day Jumpstart. You can start for free by contacting Dr. David Rice. Check out the link to his account in the show notes.