Dr James, 2s:

welcome back to the Dentists Who Invest podcast guys. We talk about everything on the Dentists Who Invest podcast, especially whenever it comes to the investing side of things. However, people will know who are fans of the podcast. I'm always banging the drum that we got to think about how we are profitable at the same time, because that allows us to boost one of the most significant things that will increase the returns on our investment portfolio, and that is our contributions. Because you can think about investing super high level like this. Understanding how to invest is basically just optimizing your returns. The very best that you can do from the stock market is like 10% a year, unless you start getting into the wacky stuff like crypto and things. Along those lines, you'll potentially run the business, but in order to do that, we need to have some money.

Dr Ajay, 49s:

We need to have some money, we need to have some profit from redemption in the first place, and that's exactly what we're here to talk about today with my good friend, Dr Ajay Verma.

Dr James, 52s:

This is Ajay's very first podcast, so we're going to have some fun today. Ajay, how are you? I'm good. Thank you, James. How are you? I'm amazing, bro. Thanks for asking. I'm always good Ajay we've got to know each other over the last few years and I know that you are a big fan of jumping outside your comfort zone as well, and that's a good thing, right, that's where all this literally all the fun stuff is in life, and you know, when it comes to making more money, one thousand percent one thousand percent comfort zones are related to that, which is something that I never really realized way back in the day. I thought it was just some sort of linear thing that happened passively over time, but actually you can be an active participant in that by finding things that scare you slightly. And I know this is your very first podcast today and we were talking off camera and you were saying, oh, I've never done it before. It's definitely a growth thing for me and that's why we're looking forward to it, and I loved your little reframe as well. You were like, hey, do you know what I get the value in this, and that is why I'm going to do it, and the only reason I'm highlighting that is because I know that on your wealth journey, there's been a lot of that at each successive level. What would be interesting to do for the listeners of the Dentists Who Invest podcast today if we could have a little bit of a bio and background as to yourself, Ajay, I think that's a nice place to begin. Yeah, sure.

Dr Ajay, 2m 5s:

Well, I qualified from dental school about 15 years ago now. No way. Oh, you look young bro. So then you know, I bought a dental practice. What it's coming up to nine years. So me and my brother we bought a dental practice about nine and a half years ago now. So yeah, nearly coming up to a decade. It was a very sort of old school nhs practice. Wasn't a lot going on in there. It's very, very sort of basic, and then we've changed that over the course of the you know, last 10 years to a very, um, profitable mixed practice um, which is doing a lot of stuff that it didn't originally do. So yeah, it's, it's been quite a journey, but a lot of things have been learned along the way. So yeah, hell.

Dr James, 2m 46s:

Yeah, it's all about the learnings, man. Those are the most valuable thing, because, do you know, whenever we're pushing through the difficult parts, the tough parts, okay, I always like to remind myself that is when I'm learning the most, and anybody who's not willing to do that, or anybody who's not, that's not happening for, and maybe they're playing too much in their comfort zone. They're not benefiting from this knowledge that I'm gaining right now, and I like to remind myself that that's how growth feels, and it sounds like we're similar in that respect. So you've got a mixed practice, mixed practices. It's interesting, right, because there's it's not just strictly private, you know, it's not just. It doesn't fit into the conventional archetype of how we make those more profitable, whereas at the same time, it's not just strictly private, you know, it's not just. It doesn't fit into the conventional archetype of how we make those more profitable, whereas at the same time, it's not fully NHS. There's a little bit of interplay between those dynamics and you can switch things around on that front. So it was you said earlier, it was always mixed, right, it was mixed from day one.

Dr Ajay, 3m 39s:

It was predominantly NHS. Actually, I would say that it was about 95% NHS NHS actually I would say that it was about 95% NHS. And you know there was very, very little private done at the practice prior to us taking it over.

Dr James, 3m 49s:

So it was a bit of a culture shock for sure.

Dr Ajay, 3m 51s:

For every one winner, we came along and decided, actually we're gonna not do the stuff like this. You know we're gonna, you know, do some new dentistry. We're gonna have, you know, new software, new technologies, and we're to provide all these other treatments that weren't being provided.

Dr James, 4m 4s:

So, yeah, it was a bit of a culture shock for sure I'm going to ask you how did you tactfully go about implementing those changes? Because sometimes I feel with nhs practices they're very stuck in their ways, right, and there's almost like a culture there that you're up against yeah, I think it's hard.

Dr Ajay, 4m 22s:

I mean, I suppose, what it? comes down to is there will be people that want to go along with you on that journey and there'll be other people who don't want to do that journey, you know. So there's a natural. What I found is, over the first few years of having the practice, you know the journey was very much the people that didn't want or didn't see our vision or didn't want to follow that vision naturally left the business and then we recruited other people that were more aligned to what our goals were. So I think the first few years are certainly painful from a dental practice ownership point of view, because for us it was our first business. So you know, you're sort of trying to find your feet and you're trying to understand what needs to be done because, coming as an associate, you think, oh yeah, you know, dental practice ownership, that sounds like a good idea, why not? I want to earn some more money, but it's not quite that simple. The other side of that table.

Dr James, 5m 9s:

Hell yeah, man so this is the thing I think that you've touched upon something which is very valuable there. It's about framing it from the right perspective and it's not a personal thing. It's not like they don't like us and we don't like them the people who are not necessarily aligned on the journey it's just. It's just precisely that. It's just precisely what I said. It just so happens that, potentially, paths diverge at that point because here's the thing sometimes when you say no, sometimes when you say yes to somebody who wants to keep things precisely as they are, you're also saying no to your dreams. And that's really hard right, because you don't want to continuously do that your whole life and then reach a point where you're like 80 85 and feel unfulfilled. So as soon as I reframe things like that, I'm like actually, wow, we need to have this conversation, and it's not a personal thing, it's just I don't want to feel like that as time goes on. So I try to put myself in that person's shoes.

Dr Ajay, 5m 59s:

Maybe you do something similar, absolutely I mean, everyone has different ideas of you know what they want to doing, and you've got to find the people that are best aligned to your ideas. I guess and it's not for everybody Not everybody wants to do a particular style of dentistry. Not everybody is interested in pushing themselves where they get really uncomfortable, and it's a journey to even do that as well in itself. So, yeah, it's, it's all about people being in the right place at the right time so walk us through the journey, if you can.

Dr James, 6m 30s:

You came to the practice 95% NHS and you realize, okay, shit needs to change, let's go yeah, what did you do?

Dr Ajay, 6m 38s:

immediately after that so I think one of the first things we started doing I mean, it was one of these paper-based practices, so you know sort of gives you an idea of how things were. So you know, we introduced, obviously, practice management systems, you know. So that was a bit of a novelty as well, all of a sudden going from paper to computers. You know they have the old school Velopex processing units, and then we changed to digital radiography and you know, phosphopates and all that sort of side of things. So there was a huge learning curve in terms of getting used to the new software, getting used to the new processes and systems of using things. Um, and then, yeah, we started introducing private treatments, things like hygiene, which wasn't there, and you know it's, it's a basic thing now that I think most dental practices have. However, when we first took over hygiene, it was there but it wasn't so prevalent like it is now, and it was certainly a big thing at the dental practice that we took over because it wasn't there at all. Sorry, yeah, just little things like that made, you know, started to make a big difference before we started, you know, even training ourselves and starting to get into things like dental implants and, you know clear aligners and that sort of thing how did you stage that with the team?

Dr James, 7m 50s:

how did you frame it with them? How did you have those conversations? Yeah, we're going to change this because it's going to make things better, because, even though it probably unequivocally is going to make things better- a lot of people like to stick to what they know, so it all depends on how you describe that to them, to frame it in a way that they understand the advantages right. So how did you go about that process?

Dr Ajay, 8m 10s:

absolutely, I think you just have to take it you know, each day at a time, with certain things, it's, like you know, trying to explain to them that all the training's going to be provided you know it's also about making them aware that, look, it's not. You know you're going to get this information one time and that's it. You're expect to know everything. It's a work in progress and you know we take it step by step, day by day. You know if you do need to go back to revisit things, you will, and I think part of it is just them feeling the security that they can ask questions if they need to. You know there is someone on the other end of a telephone, for example. If it's support, you know, for it's support for practice management software or whatever it is. It's just about building on those incremental learnings that they have every day so they become more comfortable. And then, before you know it, it's every day, it's routine, and then it's easy enough to do and then you can introduce the next thing gotcha, so stage it and patience, right, yeah, and I'm gonna say that your time was probably pretty scarce around about that era.

Dr James, 9m 7s:

Am I right in saying that 16, 17 hours a day? It's the pathway of an entrepreneur, pathway of a businessman? Is that correct?

Dr Ajay, 9m 13s:

and I'm guessing that it's not. I'm guessing that it's a bit better nowadays.

Dr James, 9m 16s:

So first of all is that correct and also, how did you go about fixing that and addressing that, because that's a common one for principals yeah, yeah, I think you know originally when we first started off, definitely you don't switch off.

Dr Ajay, 9m 26s:

You know, as soon as you leave the dental practice because there's like a million other things to do and initially, for the first few years, that was a difficult thing to try and grasp. And, you know, get your head around that All of a sudden there's so much more to do, so more to do, um. So it's not, it's definitely not an easy journey, but the way to grasp that and the way that I've found dealing with it now is actually effective delegation. You know, effective delegation is really really important. You know, even if I think as a dentist and certainly it's true for me is that you become a bit of a control freak and you sort of think that if I do everything, it will be done the way that it needs to be done. But it's very, very time intensive, right, and it's not productive. If you're sitting and you've got patients all day, there's no way that you can Found is that one? You need to step out of clinical time and you need to devote time to being a business owner and running a business and having that clear in your head. And then also the bits that you are no longer doing. You need to find people to do them and even if they do them at 60%, that's still stuff that you don't need to do and you can be concentrating somewhere else and with time, hopefully they will get better at performing that task.

Dr James, 10m 39s:

Hell yeah, man, and that's a big, big limiting thing to each and every one of us, entrepreneurs and business owners, that we really want it to become. We really want every task done to our standard, our version of 10 out of 10, but it's important to remember that our version of 10 out of 10 may not be the actual version of 10 out of 10, and other people can do shit better than us. We just need to get over that, right. We actually need to get over that. Yeah, especially if they're doing it all day long and we've got 50 billion things to do and they've got like three things to do, it's inevitable they're going to master it faster than us. But you just have to bust through that phase at the start where the outcome isn't quite where you wanted it to be.

Dr Ajay, 11m 24s:

Yeah, I mean you start realizing that, actually, if this person is really good at doing X and this person is really good at doing Y, and why not utilize those skills? Because we all have different skill sets, right, and your team will have different skill sets as well, and what you want to do is you want to make sure that you've got a high performance team, and to have a high performance team, you've got to bring the best out of everyone, so why not use the skills that they are good at to your advantage or to the advantage of your business?

Dr James, 11m 52s:

And how did you go about identifying those skills? How did your skills, so to speak, of identifying skills improve over time? Was it just? Was it just a rough and ready experience thing, or any hacks on that front?

Dr Ajay, 12m 8s:

yeah, I suppose it's a bit of both. I mean some of it is, you will recognize abilities in members of your staff. I mean some, some staff members, you'll find that and, um, you know, some will show a keen interest in particular types of treatments, like you know, dental implants or clear aligners, and it's then steering those people towards managing those, those clinical treatments. So, for example, you know we have a nurse who is, you know, very keen on dental implants, you know. So we put her on some courses regarding, you know, training along dental implants and then sort of being more involved with those patients, following those patients up, and the same thing for clear aligners, you know, training along dental implants and then sort of being more involved with those patients, following those patients up, and the same thing for clear aligners, you know, following those patients up and being in charge of the patient journey there. So not only are they involved on the clinical side of things, they have more contact with the patient as well. So it's more rewarding for them. They're more involved, they're sort of seeing what's going on, and it's nicer for your patient as well because they're thinking hold on a second. I'm getting a great service here because there's someone who's constantly in contact with me, letting me know what's going on. You know is following my journey with me, so that can be very, very effective.

Dr James, 13m 14s:

Okay, cool. And how did you preserve your time so you could keep the over in the practice, especially in those early days? Yeah, I mean in the early days it was.

Dr Ajay, 13m 24s:

It was hard, I think in the early days. It was constant. You know you're either in clinical you're doing, you know you're predominantly in clinic. I think it was in the early days really. Um, what I found worked well for me was is stepping out of clinical time and actually reducing clinical time and I know it sounds counterintuitive to step out and reduce your clinical time, but actually devoting that time thinking about stuff in the business you know, thinking about who can do things for me. As you know, it enabled me to earn that time back. So it's about having, you know, clear goals in terms of like this is what I want from the practice. Okay, it's about having clear expectations from staff members and what they should be doing, and then that allows you to focus on what you need to focus on and doing those, let's say, more complex dental treatments and just concentrating on those, whilst other people are dealing with, let's say, the less complicated stuff or dealing with the follow up. So, yeah, it's just about breaking things down and putting systems and processes in place big question, and this is one that a lot of nhs practice owners go through.

Dr James, 14m 33s:

You want to get your team to the place where they have the opportunity to be able to do a little bit more private not just from a member's perspective, but also because generally, of course, you don't want to tarnish or diminish the NHS. The NHS is great, but also there's certain treatment options, let's just say, that are generally not available on the NHS. What it means is scope of treatment is enhanced before the ability to help patients is enhanced as well. So how did you go about helping the team to get them to that place? I think, think the first thing is.

Dr Ajay, 15m 3s:

You know if we're talking about the actual dentist, you know they normally. You know they're usually going on the courses. You know if they have particular passion for things, they will upskill themselves. The question is is how to get staff to be on board, and I think that comes down to effective communication. It's really really important from not only a patient point of view but from a staff point of view as well. If you explain to staff what you know, what the vision and the mission of the practice is, you know how the treatments that we're going to do are going to fit into the bigger picture. You know how we need to still deal with the NHS side of things. It enables you to, it enables your staff to come up with ideas as well on how to work it. So, for example, if we're looking at NHS side of dentistry making sure that is ticking over Nowadays, you've got dental therapists who can help quite dramatically with that and there's a lot of things that they can do which will take time away from associates. You know so simple fillings. You know things, know things like you know, let's say, if it's even you know placing some attachments on teeth once they've been trained appropriately to do so it can form part of a system where you're constantly reviewing the patient almost a bit like how you'd find a consultant in a hospital, really, where they're not necessarily taking the bloods and doing all the little bits together, but all the information is coming to them and they're managing the treatment plan overall. So it's just about making sure that people know exactly what they're doing, what the process is, and it's working out what that system and process should look like awesome and, yeah, I fully agree with you on that front.

Dr James, 16m 37s:

And how is one best going about communicating that to the team are? Are you a big fan of written protocols?

Dr Ajay, 16m 44s:

Yeah, written protocols are really really good. Certainly something to refer back to. I think what's worked really well is having regular team meetings as well. You know, it's really really important. I mean, we did one recently where we talked about the vision and sort of the mission of the dental practice and you know, I thought everyone was pretty much on the same page. But you know, what I've found to my, you know, um found to my benefit, I suppose is that actually people were new little bits here and there and not everybody had a cohesive picture, and once they had a cohesive picture, it was sort of an epiphany moment for them and they knew exactly. Well, actually now I understand why we're doing this this way and it's much easier for those people to then travel in the same direction as you and actually even come up with really really good ideas of their own to help achieve those, those targets that you might have or those vision that you want to achieve awesome man, all right, cool.

Dr James, 17m 41s:

Well, listen, I mean, it's interesting to know. Obviously, those are the things that you implemented, which is wonderful and if you're willing to share, if you're comfortable, how have you seen them, even if it's just a ballpark or even if it's maybe like an approximation or a percentage or something along those lines, how have you seen the numbers shift over the years, throughout that transition?

Dr Ajay, 18m 1s:

yeah, I mean, I think you know, like I said to you, yeah, we was. When we first started off it was predominantly an nhs practice, you know, and sort of. Over the years, you know we've more than doubled the turnover that we initially had. So yeah, it's been a very, very effective way of doing things. And you know, like I said, the first few years were a struggle and it wasn't always that way. But once you know, you sort of make a few mistakes and you stop learning, then, yeah, it's sort of more of an exponential curve when it starts starts rising yeah, that's the sweet spot right there, when the compounding kicks in, because compounding doesn't just happen in your flipping isa or your pension, it happens in your business as well, absolutely, and it happens when you learn things as well knowledge compounds?

Dr James, 18m 45s:

it absolutely does. Yeah, it gets the more you learn about a specific field. If you literally learn one teeny tiny thing, it doesn't make you like one percent better, like it does at the start. It can make you like 10 better or a huge amount better than what it did initially. That one little gem, and the reason is you can plug it into multiple areas and use it in lots of different places so it's very powerful thing to remember is that absolutely absolutely I think, yeah, sorry, I was just gonna say that. Yeah, I think if you were to sort of compound the knowledge that you have, it just makes all the stuff that you've learned before sort of second nature it's on autopilot, and then the new stuff is where you put the concentration and you know what I'm actually curious to ask you on that one, on that journey, what do you feel the biggest epiphanies were if you had to? Maybe if we were able to pick like a top three or a top five. I know that's hard to do. It doesn't have to be the perfect top three and I get this is a little bit off the top of your head, but this will be really valuable for people who are listening I think you know, if I were gonna, let's say, put some together, what works well, a couple of them I've already mentioned.

Dr Ajay, 19m 53s:

I mean, I think having a clear vision and mission and what that purpose is is really, really important. Measuring performance I think that's a really, really important one. I mean a lot of us just sort of put our finger up in the air and say, oh yeah, I think things are going OK, but you never quite know exactly how they are. And numbers don't lie. I think really knowing your numbers is really really important so you can steer the ship you know in any particular direction that you need to. The other one that we mentioned was effective delegation. Again, looking at your processes, you know training multiple people that are doing those things you know. So you're not just reliant on one person to do that one job, because if they leave or sick or whatever, you have someone to come in to fill that gap. Technology, that's a big one, I think. Technology using that to your advantage, you know, like we've talked about, you know the basics are. You know we're going from the old school paper practices was that. You know you get these new practice management systems or you know, then it moved on to having cameras and scanners. I think the big one now is using AI. You know, I think that's the big game changer and it's the buzzword, of course. But integrating that into your dental practice is certainly helpful. Whether it's writing notes, whether it's using CRM systems, all of that is going to give you that measurement of performance and tell you whether what you're doing is effective. The most important thing, I think, is having a mentor. I think that is, you know, that for me, I think, has been really critical. I think that's been really really important because all of a sudden, initial years, you know where I was sort of spent time and sort of learning the hard way by making the mistakes. With a mentor, you can cut a lot of that out. It's a bit like having a sat nav you know, you know exactly where you're going and you know how long it's going to take to get there and you just cut out a lot of that wasted time. So that is is really really important. If you can find a mentor, you know and it can be anyone, you know anyone that you know that you that you strive to be like, or you like what they're doing or is at the place where you want to be, they can be very, very good mentors for you I definitely think mentorship.

Dr James, 22m 4s:

even that, even now that a lot more people are aware of it, I suppose I still think it's underrated. And, for context, I still think the internet is underrated as well, just for context, and what I mean by that is it's prolific, but it's still so much better than most people realize. It is on about 50 different levels, so I think those two are analogous. Basically, let's talk about AI, because I don't think that's something we've ever really properly covered on the dennison invest podcast ever to be honest with you a little bit here and there. I think when I, when chat gpt came out, we had an episode on that because that blew everybody's mind that ai was at that level. It, low-key, reached that level without anybody realizing it until jack chat gpt was released. We did do an episode back then but we haven't nearly covered it as much as we probably should have done. What AI have you implemented in your practice? Not just what AI, but also how has that helped you. And then also, as well as that, how has that affected the numbers?

Dr Ajay, 23m 5s:

Presumably increased the numbers because it makes us more efficient, but I'd be interested to know yeah, I think in terms of you know, because it makes us more efficient, but I'd be interested to know yeah, I think in terms of you know, because it's so new in terms of numbers I don't know yet, uh, what impact it has, but in terms of time saving, it has a massive impact. I mean, even things simple. Just like you know, there's a lot of programs out there these days where you know you can use ai to help write your clinical notes, and you know how I don't know how many lunch times or how much time I spend after work. You know typing away notes because you know you had mrs x in, who was a bit more complicated, and you want to write down every single last detail and get your thoughts down. Using ai has made that process so much simpler, and using you know software that helps you do that. Put that in your notes just saves you time and hassle. Yeah, you can do something else. You can switch away, you know, from dental practice if you know you want to spend time with your family or whatever it is that you want to do. It just allows you to make things more streamlined. So that's certainly one way. I mean the other ways are now. You know you're getting these really, really impressive. You know sort of crm systems that you know you will talk to the bots on your website and you know follow an inquiry through and then you know, even down to your receptionist. You know you'll have a conversation and all of a sudden you know that conversation's been summarized by AI and it tells you even how effective that conversation was. So you know, it's really really making things so much streamlined. So when I was telling you about, you know, measuring performance, you performance. Gone are the days where you have to sort of sit down and put that on an Excel spreadsheet and sort of manually do it. It is now, with technology, becoming oh right, I can look at the numbers. It's going to come up on a portal in front of me and we know exactly what's happening.

Dr James, 24m 43s:

Yeah, it's crazy, isn't it?

Dr Ajay, 24m 46s:

We're living in the future officially, absolutely.

Dr James, 24m 49s:

We're living in the future. Man, I remember watching iRobot and I can't remember that when that movie came out, but I'm going to say like 2003 or 4 or something like that. Will Smith's in it, I believe. He's like the protagonist, yes, and there's one point where he is in his house, I believe, believe, and somebody they're unconscious. I can't remember the exact scenario, but there's somebody unconscious and he brings them to their house and they wake up in his house and there's music playing and Will comes into the room and he says something like speaker off right, yeah, and the speaker turns off right and I remember that 12 year old me was like whoa whenever that happens, we're in the future, right, and that happened like 10 years ago with alexa and uh, but anyway, not to digress too much. But I mean, like, some of the stuff that I can do now is insane and I'm just curious, right obviously it has all these features. Yeah, and it rates the conversations and what have you? Have you ever have you looked at the AI's rating of the quality of the conversation and then listened to the conversation yourself and compared just to see how valid that rating is? I'm curious.

Dr Ajay, 26m 0s:

Not yet, because it's very new to us as well and we're sort of at the moment in the process of implementing it. So we did when we do listen to our phone conversations, because we have a recording software at the moment, but that doesn't summarize things. But I'm looking forward to seeing how that works now, because we have sort of signed up to it. You know, we're sort of ready to go. So, yeah, it'll be good to see how that all integrates and, of course, it's only getting better. That's the thing with AI. It's only getting better. There's new stuff that's coming out. It's only getting better. There's new stuff that's coming out. Um, so, you know, even for me I've probably just only scratched the surface of you know what time, efficiencies and systems and processes that it can offer. Um, I think I'm sure, as time progresses and you know new features are released and you know you start learning how to use it more effectively, it will only get better well, this is the worst it's ever going to be right now and it's already insane.

Dr James, 26m 49s:

Do you know what I mean? So that's a crazy thing to think about.

Dr Ajay, 26m 52s:

Have you ever heard of?

Dr James, 26m 53s:

what's that law where it's like murr's law, where, computer, the maximum number of transistors per surface area of computer chip, it doubles every 18 months. Do you know what I mean? So we were talking, we were literally talking about exponential stuff earlier. Right, moore's law is exponential and obviously, by its nature, this applies to computers, and AI is exponential as well. Effectively, because then the machines get to a point where they can design themselves to be better. Okay, and we, just, we just literally just let them design themselves to be better. Anyway, listen, let's, we're, we, we're, we're in danger of venturing, venturing into some sort of exploration of a dystopian reality of, uh, what could happen to us all? And let's not do that. We're here to talk about demonstrate. But yeah, I know this and I think it's. It's really cool what you're doing with ai and all of the things that you've implemented into your practice and what is you've, you've, you've embraced all these changes, which is amazing, and I actually think that's a huge part of it. Right, it's just being willing to do stuff, because it's so easy to get caught in inertia and I think once upon a time you could run a business and not really change that much for like 10, 20 years. I don't think that works nowadays because the pace of change is so rapid absolutely.

Dr Ajay, 28m 8s:

I think there's so much going on, there's so much new stuff coming out. I think you don't keep up with it. You're at a risk of being left behind, um, so I think it is really, really important that you do try to embrace and, like what you were saying earlier, it's about stepping out of your comfort zone. You know everything is just lies beyond. You know everything that you want to do, know everything that you want to do. You know everything that you want to achieve is always just slightly outside of your comfort zone. So it's just about having that reframe, about stepping outside of it to achieve the things that you want to achieve, rather than thinking, no, it's not really for me, or I don't want to do it, because you don't want to step outside of that comfort zone. So, yeah, absolutely, it's about pushing that boundary.

Dr James, 28m 46s:

I think the reframe is about making that voyage outside your comfort zone into a fun thing. You know it's to reframe that fear or inertia as excitement with regards to what you could find. Are you with me?

Dr Ajay, 28m 59s:

Yeah absolutely.

Dr James, 29m 0s:

You could potentially find the treasure chest. You could potentially find something incredible. You know, maybe it will work, maybe it won't work, but it's that one out of ten times where it's this absolutely revolutionary change, that's. That's the reframe. The reframe is less, uh, implementing change and it's more searching and if you're reframing as a searching process. I like that, I like, I like that perspective a lot more because you're changing. You're changing the focus right. You're focusing on searching for something really cool, rather than being forced to implement things constantly which you may not be that eager to do because it's more of a how can we say? It's not as fun a process as the searching process, the searching for the amazing thing. You shift the perspective as to what amazing things you might find, more than anything else.

Dr Ajay, 29m 46s:

Absolutely. You know they say nothing ventured nothing gained. So you know they say nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Dr James, 29m 51s:

So you know if you don't try, you won't know, will you?

Dr Ajay, 29m 52s:

that's what they say, that's what they say, bro, what does the future?

Dr James, 29m 54s:

look like for aj. Then what's the next move?

Dr Ajay, 29m 57s:

um next moves. I think, yeah, we're just sort of carrying on, you know trying to make the practice bigger, you know, hopefully, you know, maybe even look at expansion. Um, yeah, it's just trying to just keep moving forward with the momentum that we've built and, you know, helping to not only grow the practice but also building that higher performance team. Yeah, so that's kind of really where we are with things at the moment.

Dr James, 30m 22s:

When does the mini corporate happen? When do you take all the learnings and expand and make the empire? Is that somewhere on the plan? Is that somewhere on the the plan? Is that somewhere on the plot?

Dr Ajay, 30m 32s:

um, yeah I mean I think we definitely want to look at expanding um, but I think it has to be, has to be right um, you know. So at the moment, we're just toying with what that, what that um path looks like, um, so it's. You know, it's not something that you, we, want to do, something that's a little bit different, you know, and something maybe not like what we've done before, and simply just by an NHS practice, and you know, that's not always the way to go. You know, we're sort of looking at even doing things like a squat practice, which I think could be an interesting new challenge and certainly would put us outside of our comfort zone. So, yeah, I think it's just we're just in the sort of midst stuff point with what the path looks like moving forward, love it.

Dr James, 31m 13s:

What's this space? In other words, what's this space? All right, well, Ajay listen. Thanks so much for coming on the Dentists Who Invest podcast today. I'm sure there will undoubtedly be lots of things that were valuable in that conversation for the listeners that they can go ahead and implement in their life. I'm looking forward to touching base again maybe over the next few months and see seeing where you're at, because I'm sure there'll be even more learnings by that point that'll be beneficial for the audience to hear about absolutely well.

Dr Ajay, 31m 37s:

Thank you for having me, James anytime, my friend, all right.

Dr James, 31m 40s:

Well listen, I hope you have an absolutely smashing wednesday Ajay, and we shall see each other soon. Much love my friend in a bit bye, see you soon.