Pathways with Amber Stitt

Building Profitable Businesses by Prioritizing Team Culture and Relationships with Dr. David R. Pearce

• Amber Stitt

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🎙️ Welcome to another inspiring episode of Pathways with Amber Stitt! 

🦷 In this episode, Amber sits down with the insightful Dr. David Pearce to explore the fascinating transition from practicing dentistry to coaching and mentoring dental professionals.

💡 Dr. Pearce shares his journey from traditional dentistry to becoming a guide for other practitioners, highlighting the importance of building strong relationships with both clients and team members.

🏦 Learn about Dr. Pearce's experiences with team building and personal development, including how rewiring his mindset and focusing on leadership transformed his practice. 

✍️ Discover insightful strategies for creating a thriving work environment where everyone is engaged and continuously learning.

👬 Dr. Pearce and Amber dive into the value of having a supportive community and the role of mentorship in achieving personal and professional growth. 

💸 They highlight the impact of investing in yourself and your team and how it can lead to financial freedom and fulfillment.

📻 Tune in as Amber and Dr. Pearce reveal the pathways to creating a thriving practice, or business, grounded in meaningful relationships and continuous innovation.

📽️ To watch this podcast:  https://youtu.be/34kDQj38zfc

🔗 To connect with Dr. Pearce:

📲 Website: https://www.ultimatesuccess.dentist

📲 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-r-pearce-dds

📲 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UltimateSuccessinDentistry

#pathwayswithamberstitt #amberstitt #davidpearce #ultimatesuccessindenistry #peaksuccess

📻 Thank you for tuning in to Pathways!

🔗 Connect with Amber on Social Media:

📲 Be sure to visit Amber's website:

www.AmberStitt.com

And remember, let's take action today!!!

David Pearce [00:00:00]:
It's all relationship driven. And I know, like in dentistry, so much stuff has become tech and so much stuff has become emails and text messages and God forbid I meet the person face-to-face. What the hell would I say, right? And that's so old school, like, "Face-to-face, oh my God, no way." And yet at the same time, my feeling would be you want to create the best basis for your business to succeed. You create amazing relationships with people where they look at and just say the age old thing, "People do business with people they like." First purchase, maybe not, "Well, I saved 50 bucks on the car." Okay, so you gave them that.

David Pearce [00:00:35]:
But they're not coming back for the second car unless there's something like, if you said I'm going to beat somebody on price, well, go back in time and look at why, "Oh, why isn't Montgomery Ward here anymore? Because Sears beat them out. Why isn't Sears here? Because Kmart beat them out. Well, how come they're not there? Because Walmart beat them out." And guess what? You go to far enough years down the road, Amazon's going to get rid of Walmart and something's going to get rid of Amazon. I mean, that's just a transition because it's all based on price. But when you look at that service relationship side of it, I mean Ritz Carlton has been around for lots of years. Lots of years, all relationship based.

David Pearce [00:01:06]:
And I'm not saying your business has to be a Ritz and all that kind of stuff. It's just when you focus on the relationship part, some of the tech stuff, you gotta be wary of it because it's tech just for the sake of tech, but it's not addressing maybe the most important criteria. But do our customers love us more, or are they just loving the way we do this process? And when that process changes a little bit to like there's no person attached to Amber. It's just a Lastname.com and I can just go to anybody else that's a .com and go to them.

Amber Stitt [00:01:35]:
Hello and welcome to Pathways. I am your host Amber Stitt, and today we welcome Dr. David Pearce to the show today. Welcome David.

David Pearce [00:01:43]:
Hey Amber. So I really appreciate the opportunity to chat with you today.

Amber Stitt [00:01:47]:
Very excited to have the audience hear how you've gone from putting practicing with patients and switching gears to help people that guide patients and managing their practices and providing team engagement along the way. At what point in your Life, did you say? I'm switching gears and I need to do something a little different than my normal practice of being a dentist.

David Pearce [00:02:10]:
You know, long story short, I would just say that the advantage of owning your own brick and mortar place, there are advantages to that. So, I was a clinical dentist. And so you earn your living when you go to the shop, and when you're not at the shop, you're losing money because the shop says, "Feed me, feed me." And we call that overhead. And so I certainly knew that, and even though as a dentist we closed the office, saw no patients, at least 12 to 14 weeks a year, so we'd work a four day week and close 12 to 14 weeks. So we had a lot of time away from the shop and still managed to be very profitable.

David Pearce [00:02:46]:
At the same point in time, when that period of time off was over, it was like, "Tomorrow morning at this hour you got to be at the shop." And so after my wife and I kind of put some things in place financially and maybe even professional goals as far as clinical goals that we finally looked at and said, you know, I had been kind of unknowingly gearing myself towards helping other dentists with some frustrations that I saw in other dentists, and I had myself. I'd been in some mastermind groups where some of my ideas, people said like, "Those are great ideas. And you, David, seem to have the ability of taking a complex subject, ask enough questions to boil it down to something simple that I can do today or tomorrow." So having been successful in my own practice and having that great feedback from the group I was in, I thought if I could help some other dentists, not get out of their own way, but get themselves and everything else. Either way, so they could truly achieve their objectives, how cool would that be? Especially where the type of dentistry that we were doing was truly life changing, like full mouth, full face, full whatever, reconstructive type dentistry is truly changing lives. And so the idea of being able to help more people get that, which is really attractive. Plus in this way I can have a house in Florida and a house in Montana and go back and forth.

David Pearce [00:03:59]:
You can do this kind of work. Yeah, you don't have to go to the shop, so it's great.

Amber Stitt [00:04:03]:
Okay, I have a note about that. Circle passive income opportunities. We'll come back around to that.

David Pearce [00:04:09]:
Yes.

Amber Stitt [00:04:09]:
Because that is ultimately financial freedom. It could be whatever you want it to be, not just some age at some point in the future. And my audience knows I talk about that. I don't go the traditional route of that retirement roadmap, if you will. So focusing on talents is really our first step, is foundational. And I feel like you loved doing your work, clinical dentistry. But isn't it interesting how these other things can evolve as you become a subject matter expert in your craft? It sounds like you're maybe a strategic thinker and sharing ideas and people are coming to you. And then here we go. Here comes a different opportunity to have you generate income, but also stay within that niche that you love.

Amber Stitt [00:04:50]:
And I really think that's neat when it happens, for sure.

David Pearce [00:04:53]:
Yeah. No question.

Amber Stitt [00:04:54]:
Was there anything specific that you and your wife had talked about that was really like, "I gotta make this leap." Was there any, like, "A-ha" moment where you go, "Okay, we're doing this."?

David Pearce [00:05:03]:
It's interesting. I think that maybe it wasn't so much an "A-ha" moment as I, without even knowing, kind of preparing for that for quite a while. Just because of the mastermind group that I was in, the success in the office and part of that success in the clinical journey, there was a lot of education courses that I would go to. And there are so many talented people there, Amber, way brighter, way more talented than I would ever hope to be. Just amazing people in the world. As you meet amazing people and it's like, "Wow, what talent that person has." And yet many of them were frustrated about...you'd ask them, "So, you're doing this kind of dentistry all day long, right?" And they say, "No, once in a while." And then they'd be like, "Well, because insurance doesn't take care of it, or patients say no," or all that kind of stuff.

David Pearce [00:05:51]:
And I thought, oh the shame of that was that the patient base wasn't getting the end product. It has nothing to do with money and other things. It's like they weren't helping as many people as they should be. And yet my team and I were helping people. So I think maybe that when it comes to talent, that first question, to me, it'd be, "How do you get the right talent?" What does that look like? And to me, I would say it's a little bit like picking stocks. The people, even the experts say, it's kind of like throwing darts at a dartboard. But at the same point in time, you can get really good at throwing darts at a dartboard. And so to me, that's that same thing.

David Pearce [00:06:25]:
And so our process was always kind of like, Jim Collins would help out here. Like a noble purpose where you just say, this is when somebody's a new person and revisit it all the time with your team, "Why does this business exist?" Like, this is why we're here. It's not about you, it's not about me. It's not about anything. It's this bigger purpose than all of us. And when you're hiring somebody, or going to your team and even yourself and you're getting a little bit sidetracked, "Why are we here? What's that big purpose? Are we truly addressing that every single moment?" So talk to that.

David Pearce [00:06:56]:
And if somebody says, "Yeah, that doesn't resonate with me and my life path," to say, "Awesome, good. Well, then you don't want to come here because we're going to hit heads." But that's the first thing. Second thing would just be core beliefs, like values and so forth, right at the interview all the time, "So these are our values." I'm clear as a bell, "This is who we are. When we are at our best, this is who we are.

David Pearce [00:07:15]:
And if those don't resonate with you, no worries. Just don't come here because we're going to bang heads." And then from there, you kind of set up org boards, accountability charts, put people in the right place and then really just trust. It was a learning culture. Every single person, "You are going to become a leader. You're going to be a leader in your own position." And what does that look like? I would say, Amber, that we are trained, maybe everywhere in the world, certainly in America. I think our education system, as good or as bad as is, it trains people to follow.

David Pearce [00:07:44]:
You know, it's like if you're in grade school and everybody says, "Hey, everybody. See what a good job Amber's doing? Everybody, can you be like Amber and put your papers here?" Then Amber's like, "Oh, if I do what Mrs. Jones tells me to do, I get praise."

Amber Stitt [00:07:55]:
Yeah.

David Pearce [00:07:56]:
"If I don't do what you tell me to do, I get spanked." So follow what you're told to do as opposed to using your own head and maybe making mistakes. You know, so create that leadership area where you can allow, as a leader that you're the owner, allow your team to make mistakes. Be okay with that. Guide them, and just know that as they get better in their positions, everything gets better. So to me, that's the talent part. And as far as developing a team, I always have to keep working on that self. I mean, now the team is me, so if I don't like the way things are going, it's really easy.

David Pearce [00:08:26]:
I just gotta look in the mirror, "Okay, there's your problem."

Amber Stitt [00:08:29]:
Self reflection. So I tried to get it back to you, though, and you pushed it into the team, which kind of rolls into focusing on money and risk management. But I'll make it make more sense here in just a moment. You went back to, I was trying to say, like talents. What was the "A-ha" moment?

David Pearce [00:08:43]:
Yeah.

Amber Stitt [00:08:43]:
And you're like, "Hey, I can't move off of this thing I've been doing for, was it over 20 years?"

David Pearce [00:08:48]:
Sure, right.

Amber Stitt [00:08:49]:
"Until my team, we have scale, everyone's happy and it's profitable," right?

David Pearce [00:08:54]:
Yep.

Amber Stitt [00:08:54]:
But it wasn't about just you. And then there's this culture of leadership and learning, personal development. Everyone's going to have different learning styles. But the overarching theme, it sounds like we gotta keep learning and innovating for sure. It doesn't matter where you fall in the org chart. I think that can truly help some of the employees that might be newer. Everyone deserves the fair shot to improve themselves.

David Pearce [00:09:16]:
Yeah.

Amber Stitt [00:09:16]:
And that's better for the patients too.

David Pearce [00:09:17]:
Yeah. And I would say, that for me, the culture is you learn as you go, Amber. At least you hope you do. So for me, as a lifelong learner, probably the first two decades of my career, I probably looked at an employee and said, "Well, I want to hire somebody..." This is really pitiful, but it's my story, you know? So I would have said, "I'm going to hire people that are just smart enough to do their job. I don't want any Michael Jordans here because if I get a Michael Jordan, they're going to leave and then I got to find somebody else. So I'll get bare bones

David Pearce [00:09:43]:
people. I don't want to train them too much because you train them too much and then they leave. They get too good for the place. They're looking for a ladder and they want to grow and so forth. So don't do that." And that was so stupid. Why would you do that, David? But that's where I was. And as I grew into that, I said, "What if you create a culture where everybody's getting better and then what happens if somebody leaves?" Which happens because life takes over. Lots of good reasons why people leave a business, their spouse gets a job in another city, another...

David Pearce [00:10:08]:
Well, all kinds of stuff happens. They retire, whatever. But what I found was that when you have that culture there from the people that are still there and the new person comes in, they very quickly either self select out. Like, "Somehow I got into this place," like that throwing darts thing, somehow that person slipped through, "but I don't fit in here." And the other team that is there is going to demand it. Like, "You have to pull your load," your person wait to get told to do, or they start looking at it saying, "This place is awesome. Because I've never been allowed to flourish, I've never been allowed to grow. I've always been pushed down."

David Pearce [00:10:41]:
And so my feeling was always like, "I don't..." I said this to myself and team all the time is that, "My goal for you is that you use this dental business thing we talk about as a practice round, so you can become awesome in the rest of your life. You become a better spouse, you become a better Christian, you become a better citizen, you become better leadership and all of that stuff, then the world truly gets better and you can practice here and I'll create a safe environment where you could fall on your face here," and nobody's going to experience that. So to me that's the beauty of that thing. And so as people left, which happened, it wasn't that like, "Oh..." it was like nobody wants to replace somebody, especially if they'd been there for years. But at one point we had 3 people that had been there for over 15 years, 3 out of a team of 5.

David Pearce [00:11:23]:
So 3 left in an 18 month period. So you have to replace that. And I thought we never missed a beat. I mean productivity, profitability, all that kind of stuff just kept going because those two people in the culture are like, "Okay, this is what we did, this is what we do." This is what we did.

Amber Stitt [00:11:38]:
Well, I've talked with you before about how I work with a lot of medical professionals and not everybody's going to own their own practice. But if you take this almost like you talked about, or you have in the past, rewiring to get this team engagement, you had to rewire yourself and your thinking and that mindset and then you pulled it into the team. So I think let's talk about that a little bit because that could apply to anyone's businesses, not just medical practices.

David Pearce [00:12:02]:
Oh, you're so right. Yeah, when you say rewire, like mindset, rewire. Yeah. And of course I think that if anybody, when I coach people, if I said to somebody, "I'm going to help you with your mindset," I think they'd say, "Well, good for you, David. Bye." You know, it'd be a short...

Amber Stitt [00:12:19]:
My husband goes, "Personality assessments, those don't work. I'm not going to do it. I'll do it for you." And I'm like, "Thank you. I'll take the information. I'll work with it." No, but keep going.

David Pearce [00:12:29]:
Yeah but, I mean, because it's hard to look at yourself with a clear lens and say, "Could I possibly be part of the problem?" And to me it's like, if there's anything about your business you don't like, it's because of you. If it's because of people in your office, either you hired them or you're allowing them to stay, or you chose not to train them, or you chose not to give them the equipment so you have nobody to blame but yourself when it comes down to it. So then if you looked at that and said, "So why are you making those decisions and what is in your brain that stopped you from doing those things?" So you're so right. It's like, "Yeah, we're rewiring." For me, that was probably in speaking like in one of your Pathways things is like network. It's being around like minded people and get rid of the naysayers and the people that are negative. Just be ruthless about getting rid of that.

David Pearce [00:13:15]:
Because if anybody's like me, I have enough bad stories in my own head without letting other people put theirs in.

Amber Stitt [00:13:21]:
Yeah, and that's where you need that tribe because we all need a little bit of help, and I've leveled up just because of my community of people that see the good that I do. And sometimes I need to hear it from them. I'm not fishing, but when they do say it, I go, "Okay, it's a compliment. Take it, don't dismiss it." And so let's talk about revenue. Let's talk about some income numbers here because you really turned it up a notch and were able to X factor the revenue.

Amber Stitt [00:13:46]:
Did this have anything to do with it?

David Pearce [00:13:48]:
Not anything. Totally. 100%.

Amber Stitt [00:13:50]:
Yeah.

David Pearce [00:13:50]:
It's funny because I can remember, money is a tool, right? That's all it is. People get all wadded up over the word "money" and "profit" and "wealth" and all that kind of stuff. I mean, it's a tool. So yeah, I heard somebody once say, "Money exposes people. So, if you're a jerk, and you don't have much money. Nobody knows about you. If you're a jerk and you got a lot of money, well, the whole world knows about you," But you're the same jerk you were before.

David Pearce [00:14:14]:
It's just more people know about. That's all it is.

Amber Stitt [00:14:16]:
Yeah.

David Pearce [00:14:16]:
And I think there's some truth to that. So for me, as far as the money part, I can remember, when my wife and I were relatively newly married, I hired the first consultant ever. And that person said, "David, how much money do you want to make a year?" So this is a number of decades ago, and you weren't even born yet, Amber. And so...

Amber Stitt [00:14:33]:
And so I don't know that we're that far off from each other, but we'll just let you have it.

David Pearce [00:14:38]:
Yeah, There you go. So you look youthful and young. Good for you.

Amber Stitt [00:14:44]:
Lasers and needles. No.

David Pearce [00:14:47]:
Right, okay.

Amber Stitt [00:14:47]:
That's a whole other episode. Wellness.

David Pearce [00:14:48]:
That's right. Part B. But anyway, at that time, I said, I pulled the number $45,000, or something like that decades ago. And my wife was like, "Wow, why not $88,000? And it's just mindset, $45,000. Because I was saying, "Well, $45,000 is enough to pay for the bills, put a little bit in retirement, blah, blah, blah, we're good."

David Pearce [00:15:08]:
And then, when you look and say, "But, yeah, if you made the difference between $88K & $45K, what good could you do in the world with another, you know, $43,000, shoot, you can do a lot of good with that, couldn't we?" So that's that tool thing, so getting my head around that and looking and saying, "You can have as much money as you can possibly get, David, because you're going to do good things with it. And as long as you earn it, where it's the outcome of all the amazing stuff you do, it's not the objective at all to make a lot of money. You do all this other stuff, right, then you're going to make lots of money. You don't do other things, right, and you make lots of money, then something's wrong, and that's going to flip and it's going to fall apart."

Amber Stitt [00:15:43]:
A lot of executive coaches that I've used myself. If you are believing in it and throwing out some pretty high goals, you put it out there. It's pretty amazing how things start to happen when you dive into personal development. You give it away to the people around you. And when talking about focusing on money and risk management, really you talked about it with the overall culture of the team. You don't miss a beat. That's risk management. It's not insurance products.

Amber Stitt [00:16:08]:
It's are you laying the groundwork that when there's a fire drill, the boat's not going to tip? Because even if some people are leaving, they're off the team, or just not there where they're sick, everything else is going to keep running because everyone's been cross-trained and believe in the cause. And I think that's a huge part of having resilience when we have obstacles. And we will.

David Pearce [00:16:28]:
Yes, we will. You're absolutely right. Yep. Yeah. Nobody said it's gonna be easy. If they did, they're lying to you.

Amber Stitt [00:16:33]:
Yeah.

David Pearce [00:16:34]:
I say the money part, so like if you're talking to business owners like, "So you're earning, what do you do with the money? So you want to make money, pay attention to that, there's so much to invest that the number one investment that every single business owner has to do, kind of back to that looking in the mirror thing, is how do we make you a better version of you? Like anything, because your business is never going to be any better than you. It just, that's not going to happen unless you make yourself separated from the business and you have nothing to do with it. You're strictly a silent partner in it now, or you have no say. So you can't possibly influence it negatively, and you hire amazing people. So short of that...so that's not really small business anymore that's getting multiple levels higher.

David Pearce [00:17:12]:
So first, how do you invest in money to make you better, so you think better? Buy a book, go to courses, get around people. All that stuff to me takes time and money. When I get around people, it's like, they're not going to come to my house. Maybe a couple, but most of them aren't. They're out there someplace. So it's like, "Okay, get an airplane, fly there, get around those people."

Amber Stitt [00:17:30]:
Yeah.

David Pearce [00:17:31]:
You brain up, put good stuff in and then make sure you do that every 90 days, or sooner. And then second is investing in your team.

Amber Stitt [00:17:37]:
Yeah.

David Pearce [00:17:37]:
Get the right people and then pour money and time and effort and hard love and all that stuff into your team to show them that you care. And yet, at some point in time, you care enough that you're just going to push them when they need a little push, you're going to nudge them when they need a nudge. You're going to give them a hug when they need a hug. But it's a constant journey of getting better, to become better versions of themselves.

Amber Stitt [00:17:54]:
Perfect segue into step four being looking at marketing and technology. Which sounds like, "Oh, we're going to teach a marketing class." It's no, it's about this constant evolution of innovating, any age. And you talk about how you've kind of pulled together the team to be more accountable, but you yourself have to give them some tools and resources. Some of that's personal development, the book, the course. But are you giving them the tools that can help them be successful? The reason I'm going this route is I do a lot of speaking with some nonprofits in financial services and the younger generation that are maybe not even coming into our business anymore. We're trying to recruit more interest into this world because we need a lot more people to help others with money and finances. Not like you had said, not just follow the leader, but truly let's get people some information so they can do what they're good at and then we can handle the rest.

Amber Stitt [00:18:42]:
But a lot of the practices, or firms, they just don't have the technology that's necessary to keep things moving. And that's the biggest grievance with some of those that are transitioning into that more senior veteran position, transitioning succession plan, like that owner. This is maybe more my world, but maybe you can help speak to it. We're just not bringing in the tools and resources to make things more efficient and to allow the team to be more accountable because we have systems and processes. So I know that the younger people, younger than me because I'm in my mid-40s and then my 30 year-old old counterparts, they're saying a lot of times that sounds great, but they're not investing in what we need to be. And then the patients can feel that too, or the clients can feel that. Any thoughts on just that aspect of it?

David Pearce [00:19:25]:
Yeah, I probably have, I think it's an old school mentality and I'm probably not going to be able to be the best person to tell you what's current state of the art technology to help support this. But every single business is based on sales. If you don't sell anything, you're done. I mean, how ever you...okay, so therefore everybody at some level has to know you're in a sales position, doesn't matter where you are, you're supporting, either you're directly in it, or you're supporting that sales process. So everybody has to get used to that. And to me that our dentistry is maybe in some ways, is a good example, and maybe it isn't.

David Pearce [00:19:59]:
But we might have people come into what kind of dentistry we did, and they might spend tens of thousands of dollars to do what they're going to do. Okay. But then at the same point at 6 months, you go to dentist at 6 months they might come in again. And then at 12 months, now they're regular checkup cleanings, that kind of stuff. And so there's some revenue in that. So I think any business you look and said...even a car dealer.

David Pearce [00:20:21]:
Well, is it a one-off? Are you looking to have this person buy more cars there and then their kids buy cars there and then their grandkids buy a car? What are you looking for? And if that's what you're looking for, I can't think of too many businesses that are strictly one-off and we never want that customer again, like whatever we sell is going to last for 100 years. And then they're gone. It's all relationship driven. And I know like in dentistry like so much stuff has become tech and so much stuff has become emails and text messages and God forbid I meet the person face-to-face. What the hell would I say?

David Pearce [00:20:50]:
And that's so old school, face-to-face. Like, "Oh my God, no way." And yet at the same time, my feeling would be you want to create the best basis for your business to succeed and you create amazing relationships with people where they look at you and just say the age old thing, people do business with people they like. Yeah, first purchase, maybe not, "Well, I saved $50 bucks on the car." Okay, so you gave them that. But they're not coming back for the second car unless there's something like if you said I'm going to beat somebody on price. Well, no, go back in time and look at why isn't Montgomery Ward still here anymore? Because Sears beat them out. Why aren't Sears here? Because Kmart beat them out.

David Pearce [00:21:27]:
Well how come they're not there? Because Walmart beat them out. And guess what? You go to far enough years down the road, Amazon's going to get rid of Walmart and someone's going to get rid of Amazon. I mean, that's just a transition because it's all based on price. But when you look at that service relationship side of it, I mean Ritz Carlton has been around for lots of years, all relationship based. And I'm not saying your business has to be a Ritz and all that kind of stuff. It's just when you focus on the relationship part, some of the tech stuff, you gotta be wary of it because it's tech just for the sake of tech, but it's not addressing maybe the most important criteria. But do our customers love us more? Are they just loving the way we do this process? And when that process changes a little bit to like there's no person attached to Amber. It's just that Lastname.com and I can just go to anybody else that's a .com and go to them.

Amber Stitt [00:22:14]:
In this category of marketing, I talk pretty specifically to people or groups about the branding. And even if you're not the owner and you've talked about your team being that well-rounded, everyone's getting the same treatment. As far as this investment, or education, there is this branding and that's kind of what I think you're saying is it's not just about technology, but making sure there's that feeling attached to the experience. So make things efficient for people to be able to have the reminders and different things as they're busy. But there's got to be that overall feeling walking through the door. And it starts with the person at the front, all the way to the back. And I think sometimes people, or employees feel like, "Well, I'm not going to do that. I don't own it, it's not my company."

Amber Stitt [00:22:55]:
But I think it goes back to the original steps we were talking about. They have to feel really integrated into the core values and the mission that's going to help that overall brand. And that's in a sense like you talked about all these other companies way back in the...I know what Montgomery Ward is and the catalogs that we used to look through, but we can't lose that feeling, that experience. And so kind of putting it all together. But that branding is so important and we can't miss that out there as we advertise. But also that feeling it's going to be right when the services are being provided.

David Pearce [00:23:28]:
Yeah, exactly. And you know, I would say it's so core to human relationships is that when I do something nice to somebody else, it's like, oh, well, they feel good, right? And we say, well, when it's done for the right reason, which is I'm just doing it for somebody. And like, they were truly appreciative. Like, "Thank you for that note you sent me." That written note about whatever is going on. Thank you for that. The real benefactor of that is me, the sender. I'm the one that is, like, "Wow,

David Pearce [00:23:53]:
that just felt good to do that." So, I would tell business owners you want to be totally selfish? Well, then do a lot of good stuff for other people because you're going to benefit way more than they are. Not down the road, immediately. You look and say, "That was just like a good pay it forward that it just did just them. And I feel good about it," and then not trying to get like all soft and whatever you might want to call that. I just think that's this real world business thing. Like that the engine, just tell your team, "Do something super nice for somebody today, you'll feel a lot better about yourself."

Amber Stitt [00:24:25]:
There's that gratitude. If you can give that out, or even just put a smile on your face, it can change a lot of things for a lot of people. As we talk about community and there's a reciprocating...or if it's not being reciprocated, get in a different group. But there's this trade off of mentorship and menteeship. And was there anything instrumental for you that maybe from a mentorship perspective that you'd like to share with the audience?

David Pearce [00:24:48]:
Well, I think that it's interesting that again, some things in my past, I'd probably say, "Gosh, you're lucky you got as far as you got, David, because you just put up so many barriers to your own success. Like hiring people that are just marginally good enough. What were you thinking?"

Amber Stitt [00:25:04]:
Because you're saving money. Right? That was the point, right?

David Pearce [00:25:06]:
No, honestly, some of it was like, "Well, if they get too good, they're going to leave. And then I got to hire again same week, I'm going to hire..."

Amber Stitt [00:25:11]:
Just preventing turnover.

David Pearce [00:25:13]:
Yeah, right.

Amber Stitt [00:25:13]:
I think a lot of business owners worry about that. Absolutely. It's not just you.

David Pearce [00:25:17]:
And I always did. But once I looked and said, "Yeah, but if you get a strong culture there, it's so easy to bring a new person in because the culture's already in place and there's people. Not you, the owner." Because you're always going to say, this is how we do it. Oh, yeah, good. But when the team is there it's, "No, this is how we do it." Like, "This is why you do that? Because of him?" "Well, yeah, because of him, but not really because this is who we are."

David Pearce [00:25:39]:
Like, "No, this is just the name of the business. This is who we are." So that just sucks people in to that so much faster than any business owner could do with a whip, or a carrot or anything like that. It's just that culture of people, because they're their peers, the owner, no matter how big a relationship you have with your employees, there's still...you're the owner and I'm here, and there's that difference. It's always going to be there. You can't deny that. But their peers, when they're saying, "No, this is who we are," that's just so helpful.

David Pearce [00:26:05]:
So for me, though, I probably didn't look for a mentor. I was like, "I'm gonna do it myself." That was always kind of my thing. Well, if it's broken, I'm gonna fix it myself, you know? So now, if I was gonna say this to any of your listeners, I used to tell this to especially younger...younger being, well, anybody at any age, but certainly somebody that's in their 30s and 40s and so forth. But at times they say, "I wish I could do this, or sometimes..." I was on an airplane the other day, and the guy sitting next to me and he was describing this CFO in his business and said, "That guy's amazing.

David Pearce [00:26:32]:
I wish I could think like him and be like him." And I said, "How old is this guy?" He said, "I don't know, mid-60s." I had no idea something like that. Said, "Oh, so I bet you..." And he described this guy, and so I said, "I bet you..." just message your listeners. There are a lot of people out there that would like nothing more than to have part of their legacy be helping people like you get to where you want to get and being able to mentor you. But they're not going to come to you.

David Pearce [00:26:58]:
But you just see something, you think they're amazing. I think people would be just absolutely amazed when they go there with humility and say, "I've watched you, I've seen you, I've heard you meetings. I would give anything just to have a little bit of your time on a regular basis, to be a mentee of yours. Whatever you can spare, I would love. Whatever you told me to do, I'm going to do it, because I would just love to learn just a little bit of what you know, a little bit of who you are in the room." Yeah, right, exactly. And I think there's this...I might

David Pearce [00:27:22]:
maybe I'm kidding myself, but I know I'm not. Because at some point in time people, they are where they are in life, and they start looking at it and saying, some way earlier than others and some way later, and they look and say, "When it's all done, how do we want to be remembered?" And, "What's going to happen?" It's a ghost that disappears. And some of that legacy may be a building, maybe all that stuff. Great. But some of it might be, especially somebody like me, it's like, "If I can improve the life of one person in a significant way...

David Pearce [00:27:46]:
Sure.

Amber Stitt [00:27:47]:
Yeah.

David Pearce [00:27:47]:
Why not do that?" And so humble yourself, find people, approach them, and then do the work. Like when they say, "Here's a good book to read." Don't say, "Yeah, I don't like to read." No, read the book, get the audio version.

Amber Stitt [00:27:58]:
Yep. There's no excuses. Yeah, gotta put your time in.

David Pearce [00:28:02]:
Right. Just go do it. So I didn't do that. But if I had to repeat that. Cause there are people on the way that if I had approached them, I'm sure they would have been like, "Oh, Dave, I'd love to help you out. No problem." But anyway, so...

Amber Stitt [00:28:13]:
I agree with you. Putting yourself around the people, it truly does change your life. And sometimes you have to really look at your inner circle to say who's maybe the naysayer that doesn't see the vision. Even if they don't understand the ultimate goal, are they supporting you? Are they just not believing in it in their own mind and shutting it down. It's not good. And that can be really tough sometimes to identify and move forward from that.

David Pearce [00:28:34]:
Yep. And I think, some of it may be expectation, Amber, that if you're looking at it saying, "I'm here and I want to grow to here, because the only way I can get to where I want to get to, what I did to get here, I have to do something different to get there." As you move from here to there, people on the way are going to try to stop you and there's going to be naysayers. Not out of spite, not out of anything. They just don't understand where you're going. Sometimes even family members think that, "Yeah, but if you fail, it's going to hurt. And I don't want you to fail." They don't...

David Pearce [00:29:02]:
They said you shouldn't do that. "That's not like us. We don't do that. Why aren't you happy where you are? How much money is enough?" All that kind of stuff. And you're still right, Amber, that you just have to stay away from people.

Amber Stitt [00:29:12]:
Especially if they're not as successful as the other person you're trying to get around. Maybe don't take advice from them.

David Pearce [00:29:18]:
Right you are. Yeah.

Amber Stitt [00:29:21]:
So let's wrap up with you.

David Pearce [00:29:23]:
Yeah.

Amber Stitt [00:29:24]:
How can people find you and potentially work with you?

David Pearce [00:29:27]:
Yeah, well, I'm easy to find. You know that. Probably the easiest thing I know...I've written a couple books. One of them's available now at Amazon. So "Peak Success". You just Google that. Amazon that.

David Pearce [00:29:37]:
You can find that. The name of the company is Ultimate Success in Dentistry. Website: UltimateSuccess.dentist. A little different, there's no .com there, so: UltimateSuccess.dentist, but if you just Googled, spell my name right, P, E, A, R, C, E - David R. Pearce.

Amber Stitt [00:29:51]:
We'll link it up for everybody.

David Pearce [00:29:53]:
Pops up. We got a YouTube vlog every single week, so they can look at that and see what creates their fancy there. And yeah, easy to find. And anybody that wants to chat, how would I say, happy to take people's money, but I'm not in it for the money. Fortunately, my wife and I are in a really good position that this isn't a business that we have to make money in this a business that we want to do, so that we can create a better life for some people out there. And if we can do that, then that just fits.

Amber Stitt [00:30:19]:
And it's not just in one state. You're probably nationally, maybe globally available.

David Pearce [00:30:24]:
Every client I have, I always meet them for a day. So the folks that we meet, I just look and say, "No worries." Now, before we have signed any agreements, you're going to fly to my house, we're going to spend two days together. I'm going to wine you, dine you, take care of all your expenses, all that kind of stuff, on me. And at the end of that day together of planning and looking at things, if the blueprint that we come up with, if you look at that and say, "I love it, David, but I want to do it myself," I'd say, "No problem. There you go. It's all yours."

David Pearce [00:30:48]:
Everything's still on me. No worries. If you ever need me, great. And for people say, "I love it and I want your help," then off we go, we kill it. So, yeah, so I'm easy. I'm easy to work with.

Amber Stitt [00:30:59]:
And you got good places to fly to.

David Pearce [00:31:01]:
Yes, indeed. That we got.

Amber Stitt [00:31:03]:
Warm or cold. Would you pick? You can pick.

David Pearce [00:31:05]:
That's right around the sunny beach right here.

Amber Stitt [00:31:07]:
I like it.

David Pearce [00:31:08]:
And we're in the Rockies, so we're good to go.

Amber Stitt [00:31:10]:
Well, thank you for sharing your story and your insight into just that, making a good experience for everybody that you work along with, collaborate with, and take care of. So I really appreciate your time.

David Pearce [00:31:21]:
Yeah, thank you, Amber. You have a wonderful show here. I'm so glad...

Amber Stitt [00:31:25]:
Thank you.

David Pearce [00:31:25]:
Because I know where I'm sitting, this is easy part. Where you're sitting, that's where all the work takes place on a podcast. So I appreciate your willingness to put in the time and the effort and keep us organized. And it's a great show. So my kudos to you.

Amber Stitt [00:31:37]:
Thank you. Thanks to everybody joining us today. And then we'll be following you here, Dr. Pearce, into the future. Thanks again.

David Pearce [00:31:44]:
Thank you. Bye, Amber.

Amber Stitt [00:31:45]:
Thank you for joining us on this episode of Pathways. For more information about the podcast, books, articles, the blog, and so much more, please visit my website at: www.AmberStitt.com And remember, let's take action today! Thank you for listening!