Shahin's Corner - The Podcast That Bites
Shahin's Corner - The Podcast That Bites
Shahin's Corner with Special Guest Darius Saoudi - Resilience Through Adversity: A Journey from Wealth to Starting Over in Business and Life
Ever wonder what it's like to have your life uprooted and still manage to thrive? If you've ever thought about how to overcome adversity and still come out on top, then this episode will be right up your alley. We're sitting down with Darius Saoudi, an inspiring Iranian entrepreneur who has weathered some of life's toughest storms and still managed to build a successful business. His story takes us from the tragic loss of his father at age seven, through his journey in Dubai, dealing with the social media ban, and meeting his hero, Muhammad Ali. He then shares his transition from one of the wealthiest individuals in Northwest England to moving to Dubai with just $700 in his pocket after a traumatic home invasion.
How important is sales and marketing in our everyday lives? How does one hire motivated staff to drive business success? With his exceptional insight and resilience, Darius beautifully answers these questions and many more. He takes us through his unique perspective on sales, giving it a new meaning beyond just transactions. He also unveils his seven-step recruitment process that helps him find the right people for his business. His thoughtful approach and wisdom in employing the right verbiage and targeting the right attitude is indeed a game-changer.
Finally, we tap into Darius's financial acumen as he shares his strategies for effective financial management and investments. His experiences, from overbuying machinery to understanding the importance of financial negotiations, make for an enlightening conversation. Darius also talks about the significance of setting aside a percentage of your income for the future and maintaining a positive mindset to achieve success. So prepare to be inspired as you listen to Darius's incredible life journey and resilience in adversity.
All right, we got a special guest for all of you in Shaheen's corner today, all the way from Dubai, darius Saoudi, how you doing my man, entrepreneur, man, we're going to talk about all the things you got your hands in, including Invisalign of all things. I know all the dentists listening in are going to be excited to hear about what's going on with Invisalign in the Middle East. Darius, what's up, brother?
Speaker 2:What is?
Speaker 1:it morning there. Well, I'm in San Diego, California, and it's 10.19 right now in the morning.
Speaker 2:Good morning, good morning, and it's a good evening here in Dubai.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a what 9.29?.
Speaker 2:It's 9.29 in the evening, just so your audience know. Maybe you don't know, but here all media is banned, like, for instance, whatsapp calls, messenger calls. They're all banned, so I had to get a VPN for us to connect and the only media that we can use is Zoom.
Speaker 1:Interesting, amazing, wow. What's the reason for all of them being banned? I think it's control.
Speaker 2:I think it's control. They need to know the communication that goes out the country. It's a very safe haven in the middle of a troubled region.
Speaker 1:Yeah, social media is crazy, right? I mean, there's some crazy noise in social media these days, so control.
Speaker 2:The news and the reporters. Anymore is also social media.
Speaker 1:Yeah right, this is all reality. Social, social noise.
Speaker 2:So tell us about you, yeah look, listen.
Speaker 1:I first heard you speak on Bradley's podcast and I was like man, I'm going to send him a message and I hope he responds and you are gracious enough to respond. Thank you so much, darius. I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:I said I'm on the doc's especially you, being Iranian as well, did have a help.
Speaker 1:So that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2:I think it was just coincidence. My son came to me about five months ago and he said there's a guy called Bradley. He's really humorous and funny. I went on his Instagram page, listened to his dropping bombs and within a week of listening to him, there was a promotion saying he has an event in Las Vegas. And I just went to my wife. I said let's go, let's just go and DM him. I said do I get discount for two? And he directly messaged me back and said yeah, I'll give you five percent to 10 percent discount.
Speaker 2:And within a week I was there and I'm too much of an introvert or too good, I don't know, but I don't go around chasing people and we were having dinner and my wife said to him you know you should interview my husband. And he said why should I? He says well, he's got a really good story to tell. And he said, graciously enough, he said tomorrow five o'clock. So I took a taxi to his studio and we did a one hour podcast and he had two and a half million views in the first month.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's amazing. It's one of his biggest.
Speaker 2:It's one of his biggest viewings of any of his interviews.
Speaker 1:So I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:I was intrigued by your content. I mean, it was amazing content and we want to get into that a little bit. But I can tell you that I met Brad last year. I reached out to him and he reached out. I reached out to him and he responded and we did a few things together. One of the things he has, the sales school, and I want to talk to you a little bit about that as well, because sales is the devilish word and a lot of clinicians mind that we're doctors, we're supposed to help people, we don't sell anything, and so I want to talk about that. But I brought him on and we talked for a couple hours on a couple of different occasions on a couple of my programs, and so we've been in touch for over a year now and I enjoy his podcast. His podcast is pretty amazing.
Speaker 2:He's a great guy and, despite his images of cruelty or whatever, he's one of the nicest kindness guy you could meet. He's absolutely brilliant guy and I met him again four weeks ago in Nashville, tennessee, and we did some seminars together and he was fantastic. Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:So tell us about you, Darius. What does Darius do? I know you're in your early 30s or 40s I know how old you are Keep going, doctor, keep going. You've lived a little bit. We have together, right, I mean, we're both in our early 50s, early to mid 50s. I'm 53. I think you're 54, right, I'm 55. 55, yeah, so tell us your journey a little bit.
Speaker 2:Certainly, I think you know you don't know if you're cursed or blessed but my father, I, was born in Iran and so you know, at the time I'm sure you can remember like Iran was, everybody admired our country and the wealth of the nation and we were all looked upon as the you know, great spenders when we traveled the world. And age three, my father was on a business trip. He was 29. My mom was 19. So my mom was 23. And he never came back. He died of a heart attack, one of heart attack. He died.
Speaker 2:And then, as you know, in Iran, their father, the father's family, take over the children. My mom was very, very young and they felt that she couldn't look after us. I had a 30 day old sister and they, my grandfather, took care of us and three years later he died in front of me. So by the age of seven I had two male figures in my life died. And since the age of seven it was really crazy and I don't know if I'm cursed or blessed, but since the age of seven I'm counting, I'm counting days. You know, I count days of how many days has left to year 2000, how many days I have to be 40, how many days I have now I'm 55, like, how many more days do I have before I start, you know, not being physically fit, or you know, mentally sharp or whatever.
Speaker 2:So in a way, I've nurtured every day as I look around and I think that people take their family for granted. I couldn't understand why kids were outside school and calling their fathers where's my old man? You know, and I was like you're lucky to have an old man, you're lucky to have a father, you're blessed. You're blessed to have, you know, your, your parents getting old, you're blessed to have health and wealth and we lost everything. And then my mom, for, however reason, she got all her savings and everything else, just by coincidence, three months before the Iranian revolution, we went to the UK and which their revolution happened and we just stayed. Just loads and loads of coincidence. You look back and you think God, this was, this is just miracles. So I never a day goes by without me thanking God that I'm alive. I've already had two heart attacks. I had one three weeks ago. I think. I told you the entire time.
Speaker 1:Yes, how did you do that?
Speaker 2:I was actually in Nashville, tennessee, and I was having my heart attack on stage and I'm sure he was in nerves and flew back to the to Dubai. I had a heart surgery. I was in the gym two days later and I think you know it just isn't my time. I'm like a cat with nine lives and and these things are just brought upon us to test us and with a positive mental attitude, you can overcome anything. I really do. So yeah, I went to, went to the UK, couldn't speak a word of English. We went to Manchester. I was the only kid with a dark skin or a different name.
Speaker 2:So, I was bullied all of the time.
Speaker 1:You're about 12, 13 now.
Speaker 2:I was 13., 13, okay, and bullied every day, and I just thought you know what I'm not? I couldn't tell my mom because she couldn't handle more stress, so I just got beat up every day and learn martial arts and I, and then I just learned that even learning martial arts, they can be five of them, they can gang up against you, I, I, I was beaten up for mispronouncing things like Liverpool football club and I used to pronounce them Liverpool. Like you know, I learned to speak English without an accent because that would avoid me from getting beaten up. So everything was just fight, you know, it was just fighting to survive, fighting to win. And I think again I could look back and I think, you know, I had a really shitty childhood, right, but it prepares you. It prepares you for life is hard, okay, and fighting and working hard and working more than anybody else kind of prepared me for the life I have today, because I don't think I'm super smart and I definitely wasn't coached by a father figure had to be.
Speaker 2:You know, in a business world I have to learn everything through hard work. I'm one of these guys who, in every course, I'm Mr Average. I'm not the worst and I haven't been given a gift. I'm not the smartest, tallest, strongest anything. I'm just Mr Average, and I often think you know how many other people are there like me who just Mr Average or Mrs Average, you know, and we haven't had an ace dealt with us by the Almighty. We just have to work harder. So I've written a book, and it's going to come out in a few months, called Monkey Business, and I think we can teach any monkey in the room how to be successful. It's just that we haven't. I never had the education, had to learn it all through hard work. Yeah, so I think my destiny or my legacy is to help as many people to have abundance in their lives that I had to work trebly hard to get.
Speaker 1:When did you? You know you talk about monkey's business and in so many ways I do public speaking and you know we are a monkey when we graduate dental school. When it comes to running a business, and this is one of the challenges and one of the my purpose of trying to help Dennis and help people is to is to really start making people realize that it's more about business than it is about dentistry. So how can you teach a monkey to run a business?
Speaker 2:Well, in your case, very educated monkeys, right, highly educated monkeys, well you know.
Speaker 1:But that could be problematic too, because you know we think we're educated and so we think we're right. And you know, instead of being more humble and being more like sponge, the ego gets in the way many times.
Speaker 2:I think what you're saying in your, in your market, is very brave of you, doctor, very, very brave of you, and in a way, you qualify to say it right. So if I come out from the outside world, people say, well, he's a, he's a salesman. He's bound to say that. But I definitely agree with your business is all about money. If your business is not about money and you're shamed of money, you might as well call yourself a charity. So you're either in business to make money or you're a charity period. So when people argue about money and you know whether business is about making money, I think it's because they have personal issues from the upbringing about money is the root of all evil. You know money doesn't grow on trees. Rich people are bad people. You know. It's been ingrained in us. I find this few things trigger people. One is religion, one is politics, sex and money. You know these. It's incredible.
Speaker 2:I've been doing podcasts and the moment I mentioned money, what it triggers people, the defenses that come up and stuff. And it's a shame because, as dentists go, most of them are high earning individuals and about 25 years ago I was in New York and I got in Manhattan. I got toothache and I went to this. You see a Helmsley building and I went there and this guy, a young man, young dentist, and he had like eight rooms running side by side and he had the nurses and he was going from one room to another one and I was just when you're a money making machine and he goes.
Speaker 2:You know, reading the Stephen Coe's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People changed his life and they were feeding him, clients, patients, and he was making a fortune and I left the dentist and I went and bought the book and that changed my life. You know, and you can help people and make money, or you can actually put 10% of your time and do charitable dentistry. Or you know, I have people who do cleft lips and things. You know, plastic surgeons and eye surgeons or even lawyers, but you know, the 90% of the time it's all about making money and you are a business period.
Speaker 1:Well, if you're a dentist and you open up a business and your business doesn't collect money, you don't have a business. So the landlord collects money.
Speaker 2:The suppliers collect money your staff collect money and you know often entrepreneurs, doctors, you know what they do, which I'm very a maverick in, you know. I say pay yourself first, don't pay yourself last, because if you're a good human being you work damn hard and you risk life and limb to open that surgery. Pay yourself first and subconsciously you work 10 times harder to pay everybody else afterwards. But too many people make personal sacrifices, pay everybody else first and themselves last, and years or months go by when they are not earning what they really, really deserve.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, one issue that I'd like to talk to you about is obviously how you make more money. The second issue I'd like to talk about is how you keep more money, and then the third is what you do with what you keep. So let's talk about step one. Let's talk about the sales process a little bit. What are, like you know, in your corporation. Let's talk about your corporation and what you do first. So we kind of have a little bit of a platform so people understand. Can you share a little bit about that first?
Speaker 2:Certainly Just quick background. Came to England dyslexic, left education at 16, worked since the age of 14, part-time, full-time, whatever I could provide living for my mom Got into sales because I felt that was the only business that I could earn more money depending on my hard work. It wasn't my, I wasn't selling my hours, I wasn't selling my time and I felt sales was something that could provide me what the quality of life I wanted and wasn't so relevant to the time I spent working, because you never get rich selling your time. So met my first wife. We opened up health clubs and within 17 years we had seven health clubs. We had over 600 staff working for us. In 2008, I was amongst one of the richest people in the Northwest of England. There was a TV program done on me. You know they follow you around your life, the rich and famous.
Speaker 2:It was actually called that's Rich, like I was thinking about it and then. But that made me a target. And a year later I'd been divorced and I was looking after my kids and there was a knock on the door. The children were too busy playing games and they had their headphones on. So I opened the door and form and broke in at knife point, put a knife to my neck, saying if you don't pay us certain amounts of money today, we'll kill your kids, kill you. This is the address of your kids, this is the address of your business. And, being a salesman, I talked to them out of it. I said I'll have you the money with you tomorrow. I don't care about that kind of cash. They left, I called the police. They got found out, put in, they went to the house arrest actually never served time. And then that night I put my kids.
Speaker 2:Because I was divorced, my kids lived in Dubai. Sorry, my ex-wife lived in Dubai. Because of the safety of my kids, I flew them to Dubai. My second wife was in Spain. So I drove from Manchester to Spain in 48 hours. Can you imagine? I went through the tunnel. I went through three countries in 48 hours. I got there I kind of like didn't want to go back to England. I never went back to the house and when I got back to England to sort my shit out, basically I had a heart attack through the stress and I was lying there on the hospital bed, age 44, thinking this is not my time. You know, this is not meant to be. And I couldn't stop crying, doctor, because I wasn't worried about dying. It was really strange. I was like, if this is my time, I can take it. But I just knew there was more and I just didn't want to die alone.
Speaker 2:So, I decided that if I was going to live, I was going to live with my kids. So I approached my second wife and I said and we had a child. Then I said right, let's go, let's go to Dubai. We moved to Dubai. I was leveraged. The bank came after me. The tax man came after me. I sold some of my businesses. The buyers heard about my predicament Because I set a date. I was very honest, told them by September 2009,. I was going to leave England. They paid me 10% deposit, never paid the balance. They said sue us, and I was too naive. I just walked away and I came to Dubai with $700 in my pocket.
Speaker 1:Wow. And from the rich to $700 in Dubai. In a matter of like one year, one year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then imagine I'm dyslexic and I'm door knocking. I'm doing copyright.
Speaker 1:So you were actually double 07, not 700.
Speaker 2:When you went to.
Speaker 1:Dubai Said you were double 07. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:So I did anything. But I'm also recession ahead and everybody thought I was crazy. 2009 was a financial recession. It was actually a perfect time for me, Because people it's like dentistry People don't come to you when they're making money or they got no pain. They come to you when they have pain. So when I came to Dubai, it was perfect time Because people were making money like they were before and I just spoke my ass off. I delivered all my promises, built the credibility and became a sales and marketing consultant.
Speaker 2:Now, how we started the conversation was people don't like sales, Because when I mentioned sales, automatically the internal dialogue imagines a secondhand car salesman selling a product or service that people don't want and they'll always come back complaining, which I disagree, because we're always selling. You know, when you put a sign on that door, you're selling. Marketing is selling. When a patient comes in and says, then doctor, I have a problem here, You're selling your expertise by giving them advice and charging them a fee and just have. We don't call it selling. So I think people should be proud of the fact that they're constantly selling. Yeah, that you sell yourself to the landlord. You sell yourself for an interview process. You sell yourself to your partner. We're always selling. So we just have a negative thought or mindset about the word sales and that's why everybody has account manager, business development, everything you can imagine on the card apart from sales. So do you hear my Muhammad Ali story? No, oh okay. Do you mind if I share it with you, Please? How long do we have Doctor? How long do we have?
Speaker 1:We have all the time you want, man. Okay, we have an hour so we're good, great, great.
Speaker 2:So when I was in Spain, I was doing my sabbatical before I went back to have a heart attack I wrote down my goals and one of them was to meet Muhammad Ali and the other one was to help children. Just help children, because I was disgusted with adults and what they can do to you and I thought if a child doesn't like it, they walk away. If they like it, they hug you. So I wrote a goal that was going to work with children. Today we have a school in Thailand with 250 orphans that we take care of. But at the time Muhammad Ali was my hero, because that's the only thing I can remember from my father, because he used to get me off early hours in the morning, put me on his lap and watch Ali Fraser fights, ali Foreman fights, and it was just amazing. And so I followed Ali's career and then his retirement, his Parkinson's disease issues, and he was my hero. You know, a black man in a white man's world and peace. It was just every one of the most greatest human beings on earth. I'm an Iranian kid who didn't know Muhammad Ali. So I researched the net and Muhammad Ali had a center called the Ali Center in Louisville, kentucky, where all they did was help children find the greatness within. So I thought this is great. I'll come to Dubai, I'll pitch one of the rulers of the country about this place. They got loads of empty buildings. I get to pitch it to the Ali Center and in between I get to meet my hero, and this was 2011. So for two years I came to Dubai and I pitched everyone you could meet about this idea and one day I went one night actually I met a kind of a junior shake of a country and I did the best pitch you could imagine and the guy just laughed and said this is rubbish. Nobody's interested in an old boxer. If it was somebody rock climbing, skydiving, yes, but nobody interested in an old boxer.
Speaker 2:And at the time I was fully booked as a sales and marketing consultant and I felt I was leading time at a heart attack, because when you're on your own again and you're selling your time, you never get rich. So for two and a half years, I kept asking myself the question how can I have a business where I'm not selling my business, where I'm not selling my time? And the answer for this is really, really important to your listeners. Keep asking the right questions and don't expect instant results. So here I am, says a marketing consultant, says a month and selling my time seven days a week to clients a day. And I pitched the shake. He said no, I go home, tell my friends and I'm devastated. Nearly three years has gone by. I've got nowhere and this dream is not going to come true.
Speaker 2:And I believe in goal setting. I have a visual, I have a vision board. I write all my goals and I keep changing them. Over six months and there was the only goal I hadn't achieved. And he said have you heard of this thing called Facebook? So yeah, I have a profile. He said why don't you attract a? You know a tribe on Facebook? So how do I do that? So he came around, set up a page and I wrote a heartfelt letter. This story I just told you and I posted it that night and I said if 50 people support me, I'll chase my dream.
Speaker 2:I went to bed and I woke up and I had over a thousand followers. My letter had gone viral in two weeks out of a 45,000 followers. I had a government of Egypt. I had a government of India phone me saying they want to have Ali centers. And I'm driving along one day and the phone rings, an American voice saying can he be available at 11 o'clock tonight? And so we're sitting around the dining room table, the phone rings and Mrs Muhammad Ali, lonnie Ali on the phone, nice Say Muhammad, the senior campaign, and wants to meet you. Amazing. And I borrowed money, I packed my bags, took, I think, four or five flights, got to Louisville, kentucky, and by that time I had 65,000 followers. And I'm just about to go and see my hero. I'm sitting outside the restaurant. I'm like three hours early.
Speaker 2:I'm sitting at the restaurant and I thought I owe it to these followers too, because I'm here. It's got nothing to do with me. If you hasn't been for this, masses, I wouldn't be here. So I took a picture of my second post on that page, took a picture of the sandwich board pointing to the Ali center and within minutes seven to 8,000 people replied and I thought, my God, social media is powerful, right.
Speaker 2:And I pulled out a napkin and I wrote a business plan and I thought, when I get back, I'm going to open a social media company and I want to talk to you about the business plan, something that's less than a cleaner. So they can't say no, and I already have like 25, 30 clients, so I just go to them. So I went back, I opened up a social media agency. Within the first month I had 20 clients. Within one year we had over 100 clients. And then they came back and said we love what you're doing. It was myself, my wife and my oldest son. I'm used to stay up to three in the morning posting, posting message posts, and we used to compete and it was just tiring. But it was just the beginning of social media. There weren't that many platforms then.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:And then people came and said we love what you're doing, can you do websites? As always, being an entrepreneur, I took their money and then Google had to build websites, hired my first staff and then hired more staff and they came back and said we love what you're doing on the websites, we love your designs, but we can't find it. So I Googled it and he said, oh, you need SEO. So now we have one of the most powerful SEO companies in the Middle East and people came and said it's taking too long and I said okay, let me just check. I took their money, googled it. I mean you need Google ads? Okay, and then now we've topped. Now we've topped 3%. Google Premier Partners in the whole of North Africa and Middle East and we have over 100 staff. We turn over quite a lot of money and it's come from strength to strength. We have a recruitment company, we have hospitality business, we have a training company, so now we employ 120 staff. Our clients range from Invisalign worldwide and many, many other clients.
Speaker 1:So yeah, you know it's interesting, that's an amazing story. And how I can relate this to dentistry is you know, when a patient comes into your office and you know there's a specific service that they need, you need to learn to say yes, which means you need to have a business that's able and capable of providing that service. Yeah, and dentistry, today, as a general dentist, what we do is, you know, we mark it, we go direct to consumer. The consumer comes in and let's say, for example, you know, darius comes to my office and Darius says I need a root canal. And I go to the Darius and I say Darius, I don't know how to do root canals, but I can refer you to a specialist who knows how to do root canals. So you send your pension to somebody else.
Speaker 1:That's right. So you know this is the challenge. And you know the first 10 years I was in business I was thinking, wait a minute, you know one. You know we can't do everything well in dentistry, right? I mean, we can't do root canals like we do 1000 a year, for example. We can't do wisdom teeth like we do 1000 a year or so you have to. You can't do implants like you place 500 a year, right. So you have to pick maybe one or two niche services that you provide that you can master, yes. And then, within that model, you need to make sure and this is what I have today is a multi-specialty practice. My goal is to keep everything in house. So when Darius comes in and says I need a root canal, I say no problem, I have a specialist who can take care of that for you, and you stay, you come back to my office and you get it done. So that's lesson number one, with which Darius very exquisitely mentioned, is never say no, always say yes when you're selling.
Speaker 2:And find a way, and find a way.
Speaker 1:So if you don't say you're clients and patients somewhere else, it's crazy and we get and I talk about this in my speaking is we get a $150 box of chocolate from our referral for Christmas every year, like thank you for referring patients to me, and that's a business model. And so a lot of specialists have a group of referrals that come to them, and sometimes these specialists have over 50 referring doctors and they categorize these referring doctors as top five, top 10 to the shitty five or shitty 10, more or less. So now what's happening is we're starting to get smart on the front end because we're direct to consumer, that we're keeping things in house, doing more things ourselves. So now specialists are starting to go wait a minute, my referrals are drying up, so screw it, I'm going to go direct to consumer, right?
Speaker 2:So the market is changing, but also it's like being a general doctor or being a heart surgeon, you know, or neurologist the person who specializes in things earns more money, right Period, you know, the heart surgeon earns more money than a general doctor, right? So having a multi-skilled, multi-service clinic is key to your lifeline.
Speaker 1:And to add to that, darius, you can be a general dentist or, in our profession, you could be a general dentist master. One or two services, as though you become a specialist brand yourself and then you can make tons of money and you don't have to spend any marketing dollars. Yes, absolutely so. Branding I mean obviously with personal branding is so. So first lesson is learn to say yes to everything. That's lesson number one in your place of business today, doctors, as you're listening. So now tell us. You know you obviously are very successful marketing agency. I don't know if any of the do you have any clients here in the US, or is it mostly?
Speaker 2:in the.
Speaker 1:Middle East in Africa.
Speaker 2:No, all over the world. We have clients in the US. We're actually signing next week the biggest window company in the US. Next week We've got to sign them up. We have finance. We have banks as clients all over the world, because now there's no walls, everything's reachable, right? Sure sure.
Speaker 2:And if you can put what you know offline, the know how and the knowledge offline, bring it online, that makes you very unique and my company's called Be Unique, and the reason I call it Be Unique is because, please, again, maybe second lesson is that if you don't stand out from a crowded marketplace, people are going to just judge you by price. Yeah, so, you have to find your uniqueness and you can dictate your own price.
Speaker 1:That word is like everybody else.
Speaker 2:You're just going to be competing on price.
Speaker 1:And that word is commodity. Right, you don't want to be a commodity, be uniquecom.
Speaker 2:Is that the?
Speaker 1:be unique group. Be unique groupcom. Yes.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So now let's talk about this, because here's as I did some research on you, darius, you have an interesting approach. Hr for a lot of doctors is a problem. So now the problem is the doctor doesn't have, so we call our salespeople, office managers and treatment coordinators or dental concierge. Yes, how can we find a salesperson? What is the protocol that you use when you hire someone to sell dentistry, in this case?
Speaker 2:Well, first thing is that if you hire on skill because they're not dentists, they're salespeople, right, they just have to know enough to be able to sell your products or services. So the first thing I do is don't hire off CVs, because we all know CVs are lies, thank you. I've never seen a CV where the guys or ladies says I got fired or I was caught with my hand in the till Never. They're all left voluntary. Yes, so what people do is often hire on CVs and we meet five, six people a day. We can't remember the first four or five and we hire the last person because that's the only person we can remember. It's like musical chairs and we wonder why it didn't work out.
Speaker 2:So I reviewed this and I thought you know what? What we're looking for really is motivated people, people who have goals. People have aspirations to grow in life, and if you find yourself motivating your staff, they're the wrong staff. A motivated person has got goals, haven't written down, they have time scales that quantify it. So I love hiring single moms, for instance. Okay, because, are they motivated? Absolutely, hell, yeah, because they got extra math to feed, right, and I don't care if they stay six months, three months, three days a week, I don't care, they are going to drive your business. So I'm always looking for people who have a great need in themselves, so they're taking care of someone I find out they're upbringing. Do they have parents who are entrepreneurs? How do they feel about money?
Speaker 2:And what we do is we actually, when we advertise, we advertise based on the feelings and emotions a motivated person has, because often I remember when I was looking for jobs, I'm looking at the detailed of description of the job and I'm thinking they want Superman or Superwoman.
Speaker 2:This person doesn't exist with all these qualifications, years of experience. And why do we need somebody with experience when they're going to bring all their shitty bad experiences into your business, right. But if you have somebody motivated, I really believe most businesses will hire me because I'm driven, I'm motivated, I'm honorable, I'm hardworking and because of that I'm easy to teach. I'm a fast learner, even of my age. So what we do, we do a seven-step recruitment process and replace the advert. We say your interview is first of all, the first thing we say is what makes you a superstar on the phone, and sometimes we get 800, 900 calls a day, so our phone lines are fully booked and if they come, that's the first interview process. If they say I don't know, I should call us when you're a superstar, we put the phone down.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm sorry, darryl, take a step back, because people want to know what you write. I think that's important. So, when you put that ad, because I thought that was really interesting, how you the verbiage that you use a lot of times doctors are asking I don't even know how to write an advertisement for hiring someone, so can you tell us what?
Speaker 2:you are? Are you a self-starter? Are you a team player? Are you motivated? Is your glass half full or is it overflowing with opportunity? Are you willing to learn? Step outside the comfort zone, All this stuff, all the values and emotions? If it's, you, contact Dr Shaheen for an immediate interview. Don't send your CV. Call for an immediate interview. And then at the bottom I'll put down and I'll say this is my dental clinic. That's it, that's it.
Speaker 1:Well, I tell you one thing that you did that I thought was really cool. You say we're looking for a superstar, we're looking for leaders, we're looking for happy people. Are you a superstar? We just happen to be a dental office. I think that's great, that's it. That's it. Yeah, we just happen to be a dental office. So are you that superstar salesperson?
Speaker 2:We just happen to be, because the moment you put that on looking for this experience, this is you're eliminating 90% of superstars out there, you're qualifying them out and there's so many reasons because that's not me, but I really want to get into this business.
Speaker 1:But you're I mean your protocol of what you go through to hire someone. It's pretty. It's kind of CIA-ish spying. You know you got spies in the in the waiting area. You did a. You listen to respawn. You know how people respond Everything is done on purpose If you share more detail how we do this?
Speaker 1:of course, come on, you know this is, let me tell you, doctors do not know how to hire. They don't. All they're looking for is they're looking for an excuse to go more, do more dentistry. Doctors know how they're monkeys Remember it's a monkey that you're trying. I mean it. I'm sorry to say that is the educated monkeys right with an ego. But that's that's one of the biggest problems that we have when we talk to doctors is my team is not motivated. You know, my team doesn't get along.
Speaker 2:I don't know how to hide looks they hide on looks they hide on experience, ability. They didn't hire an attitude. That's why.
Speaker 1:And sometimes they just hire to have bodies so they can just go back and do dentistry. So tell us what you do. I want details, because this is we call them gatekeepers.
Speaker 2:What happens is, because I'm from my background is that industry, I meet many doctors, plastic surgeon, dentists, and you know what they're sitting upstairs twiddling in the thumb was the receptionist. The gatekeeper is killing all the business. They don't realize that the way your window is dealt with is is everything, is the flow of money into your clinic. So I would say that's critical. The person who answers the phone greets somebody face to face and unfortunately the States, I noticed, is suffering because 20, 30 years ago, I think, united States led the way with customer service, but now it's changing. I don't know why. Maybe unions are too strong and people are fed up, or they've been in the job too long, I don't know. But and I shouldn't generalize but it's not as wowing as it used to be, so anyhow. So what we say is we say what makes you a superstar? The person? If they pass, we say congratulations. You go through your first interview process, come at nine o'clock, meet Dr Shaheen and you'll have a one to one interview and bring your CD with you. That's it. If they phone up in the morning at nine o'clock, so where's your office? We say you failed your final test and we just don't. If they turn up two minutes late, we don't allow them to interview. But we tell 20 people exactly the same thing that I have a one to one interview with Dr Shaheen. They turn up and we line them up like a dentist chair and we have a spy in there. So one of the candidates in there is works for you, the dental clinic, and then they come in. We monitor how they behave when they realize that they've been lied to that it's not a one to one interview, it's a group interview, because everybody's going to come in and ask for Dr Shaheen. Now here's another thing, the reason I said 20 people because approximately no matter where in the world, 25% to 30% of people don't show up. Okay. So if you're holding six interviews in one day, separate the old, traditional way, half the day you'll be sitting there twiddling your thumb, okay. But if you make an interview process because I've been on the other side and I thought how can I eliminate all this, this bullshit process, yes, that's non productive. So I created this technique and then you say to 20 people, come, and rarely 20 come. If you're lucky, 10 or 11 will turn up. So they're sitting there. They're seeing 10 other people coming asking for the Dr Shaheen. I think what the hell is going on? They change in behavior because those people don't like change. Okay, a positive, optimistic person loves change. I love it. So bring it on, bring the challenge on.
Speaker 2:So the spy monitors their behavior. Now, for instance, if there's three women, seven men, you look at the way they look at each other. Is the man being respectful to the women? Are the women flirting? Are they Hispanics ganging up against the normals? You know, just here we have Filipinos and Indians. So are they getting together ganging? Are they on the mobile phone? Is the boyfriend or girlfriend outside keeping an eye on the interview? You know we monitor all this and then I run the interview late by 15 minutes, okay, because clients. Do patients turn up late? Absolutely. Does everything go according to plan? Absolutely not. So we again, we monitor how they behave. Do people complain? Do they talk behind our backs? Yes, and immediately, despite, eliminates those people then I come in.
Speaker 2:I set them down for a circle and I tell them this was a test. It blows them away. Some people get up and say, oh, I have a car that's parked outside, I need to pay the meter and I never come back. It's incredible. They just eliminate themselves. So in the room there's about nine or 10 people and I just say to them hey, listen, my company's growing. If all of you are great candidates, I'll hire you all, so don't compete against each other, but this is your chance to shine. So there's no right or wrong answers and I just talk. And I just talk. Get them sometimes to tell them about the background they'll have. And I'd set rules like your answer shouldn't be over one minute long and some people when they have the chance to speak for five minutes, you don't hire those people. They don't stick to rules. So all the time and you know, doctor, I'll send you one of my group interviews and if you have any listeners want to see us, I'll, you can. It might pleasure sending it to them.
Speaker 1:Well, I appreciate that, that you, that I can tell you that you know, really, one big complaint that business owners have is, you know, one, they're they can't hire probably. Well, let's put it this way, they blame the market. So, one, there's no talent. Two, nobody ever gets along. Three, I don't know how to manage my team right. Four, there is no discipline on my team, so there's leadership issues, you know. Three, people come late. Five, people, you know, are always sick. I think I think the, the strict regimen that you go through that HR process at the beginning says a lot Because really, on the front, on the front end, we're very open. You know, people just walk in. I mean we're just like, okay, come on, come on in, we hire. I mean, we guess, I mean it's what we do, we guess you know, we guess that they're going to work.
Speaker 2:Your clinic is your baby. Imagine you got this baby, the first person who walks through the door and say here you are, feed it, change it, look after it. We'll never do that as humans. Why are we doing it to our clinics, our businesses?
Speaker 1:You know, we don't deserve to be called CEOs when we graduate dental schools. We don't. We, you know, being a CEO is a skill, it's an art. I talk about this in my content and we also need to respect our business. We need to respect every aspect of everything that happens in your business. These are people that are going to be leaders. They're going to be moving the needle for you and you're just allowing them to come right into your business day one. Five minutes later they're hired. No training, nothing.
Speaker 2:Ask me how I know this is how I hire.
Speaker 1:That's how I've hired too.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, personal experience. You know, the funny thing is, dr, it's actually not just exclusive to dentistry, it's worldwide, through every vertical you could imagine. Yes, and they wonder why clients are unhappy. They wonder why they're unhappy. I don't want to go into my business or clinic and meet a miserable person at the front desk and unlock myself in the room. Why would I expect my patients to want that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean the business culture is where it leads to right. I mean, if you have a, you have a negative environment, negative buying environment, negative culture, then as a consumer that's not attractive. So you can be an amazing dentist with tremendous clinical skills and you're failing in all these other areas, and guess what that does to your sales and production Zero. That's right. So now let's go to the next topic. So we talked about production and I know we're a little bit limited with time so we can't get too detailed. But the next thing was you know, we in the three step process is how do you keep the money? So we talked about first we got to produce, now we got to keep the money. So how do you net? What are some two or three pointers that you can recommend as far as budgeting and overhead?
Speaker 2:Financial, financial discipline is key, right? So sometimes you can have too much of an entrepreneurial hat and start buying machinery left, right and center and you don't have the capacity to cope with it, right? So it's a chicken and egg situation. So I will make sure that is enough demand before I commit to buying any expensive equipment and dentistry equipment is is usually expensive. I'll make sure, if I'm going to have a commission based structure for my dentist, I'm not giving the kitchen sink away and then I'm losing money. Okay, they're making all the money in the rooms and I'm losing money. I would learn financial negotiations. Okay, I'll be very clear exactly what is acceptable and what is not. In my terms of trading, I would increase my prices. When you increase your prices, you eliminate the crappy patients Period. So increase the quality of service. Increase your prices. Have incentives for your client, your patients, to come more often than they do, okay, and have incentives to sell more to them when they do come in. So look at, maybe, monthly payments policies, look at all sorts of ways to make sure that that money comes residual incomes to you more often and more regularly.
Speaker 2:How you spend it. Here's the thing. I'm a terrible spender. I get motivated by having nothing. So I just keep buying. I buy properties, I buy cars, assets, liability, because the worst thing for me is being relaxed. The full stomach is the worst thing. So I'm constantly pushing myself. But then always have enough money. I mean Bill Gates from day one, he had enough money in Microsoft to pay all his staff for one year if they stopped trading. And that's true today, with hundreds of thousands of employees, microsoft. So always have enough money so you can breathe because your energy changes. So, but then I'm okay about spending, but be wise with it, okay, well, that's the problem is always put 10% aside of your incomes for your future.
Speaker 1:So 10% of your production, or 10% of your net of your revenue. Okay, gross revenue you're talking about.
Speaker 2:Gross revenue. Put it all aside for, say, because we unfortunately we start putting 10% aside in our 30s. It's already too late. You need compound growth in your mid 20s and just keep saving that discipline and then, whatever happens, two things happen in life. I know taxes as well, but in Dubai you don't pay taxes. But you know, time goes by, time moves on and change happens. So always be prepared for those two things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that 10% financial discipline of putting money aside is a problem, right, because you know when you get a little bit of money you want to go buy the nice car and the big house and that's not always the smart thing to do.
Speaker 2:So keeping up with the jewels is it's downfall Right. Stop caring about what people think.
Speaker 1:And I can tell you that financially, I've gotten really aggressive, because I was very I mean, look, this whole concept is because of all my failures, right? So all the things that I didn't do. So now, in my early 50s, I have to be aggressive on financial growth.
Speaker 2:So, if you need to, we don't have that much left. Most of our life is behind us, like it or not, so we have this time. Pressure on us now to be more efficient, be more effective, right, but we're never going to quit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I mean, and you know, the challenge always, I think also is the mindset right is when things are down. You can't be down, so you always have to have. You know it's interesting. As I've matured and I'm sure as you've matured in this journey, the more negative you are, the more negative mindset and energy you have, the lower your numbers are. You're not productive and and you know you're you're just looking at everything from a negative perspective and you know everything is going to fail and the world's going to crumble on you and you know that's certainly not the way to scale your business.
Speaker 2:And you attracted. Now, desperation is a terrible energy and yesterday I had a pretty bad day. I hate even today, I hate losing the years, and yesterday I kind of felt that the prospect was lying to me and they were just finding a way not to buy, because I tried every close and the answers weren't good. And I hate losing a deal and I truly, when I sell something, I truly believe I'm benefiting them, I'm bringing them value. Sure, I was pretty feeling pretty down on the way home and you know, I thought you know, the day hasn't changed, the day hasn't changed, it's just my mindset. So I'm going to be really optimistic. I'm just going to have hope for tomorrow. But today was a bad day.
Speaker 2:I got up this morning this is true, this is my personal trainer and I do believe in miracles. I do believe in. You know. Look what happened to Muhammad Ali. Right, that's a miracle and miracles happen every day. And I was with my personal trainer and he said to me don't you remember last month you were in the gym, in the cafeteria, and this guy walked by and he said hello to him. He's been asking me about you since then. Every day I have sessions with him. He's a billionaire and he wants to meet you. He really wants to meet you. I went, okay, so should I pass you his number, your number, so sure I didn't think anything. An hour later I pick up this random call and he's him on the other line. So I really want to do business with you. Can I meet you today? I said I can't today, meet tomorrow at 11 o'clock. So, out the blue, the universe brings me a prospect that's a hundred times bigger than the one I lost yesterday. Yeah, well, let's listen.
Speaker 1:Well, listen, let's be clear on something About five out of 10 people in Dubai are billionaires, so let's make sure we understand that Dubai has a lot of billionaires, doesn't it? It does In the capital.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, not all of them are legitimate because they don't pay taxes and nobody asks questions. But over 50% of the population are workers here. They're not paid very well in services and in the construction business and the local population who, wealthy, only make 12% of the population Got it. It's the only country where the locals are outnumbered by the expats. Interesting, but we are very, very, very good at marketing. Abu Dhabi, which is the capital of this country, has got $1 trillion in cash and $1 trillion in investments. They have the biggest wealth fund in any country in the world. The Norway is second. Norway has almost a trillion dollars and Abu Dhabi is first.
Speaker 1:It's amazing. It really is Investments. What do you invest in today? What are a few things that you're besides? You just mentioned real estate and cars can't be in investment.
Speaker 2:I don't like real estate, to be honest with you, because you can't cash it quickly. I like certain stock. Okay, funny enough, I actually like cryptocurrency Because, if you imagine, I own shares in a crypto exchange and we're doing extremely well. If you imagine, if you were in the business of bartering and I came along and I said, hey, I got this yellow pebble things called gold, and this bartering thing doesn't really work, because how many sheets do you need for this amount of grain and this negotiation taking ages and days to happen, and you guys are arguing and fighting each other. But I tell you what if I flatten this yellow thing called gold and make it coin and give it a value, you could easily trade it with each other.
Speaker 2:And at first you're going to say who the fuck means gold? Right? What is this yellow shit? Yes, and this is what crypto is right now. It's bypassing all the banks and governments and everything and making trade simple and instant and contractual and traceable. It's amazing. It's amazing. You just can't tax it. Okay, and I would support the crypto market.
Speaker 1:Does it? Need to be regulated or is it not regulated? No, because regulation kills.
Speaker 2:What happens is the contracts between the computers. It's all logged. So this business of if you actually went, if all of us went to the bank of US bank and said we want dollars or we want gold against our dollars, they don't have enough gold to give it to you. So we're being brainwashed and bullshitted every day anyway. Yeah Right, they're printing money. They're printing so much money they don't have enough paper, doctor, they just add zeros on a computer, yeah, Right.
Speaker 2:So the whole population is in debt at $40,000 per household per head. It's freaking ridiculous. The student's loan is heavier and greater than your credit card loans. We're getting kids coming out of university in debt. We teach them how not to manage money. Now a guy in Africa does an amazing digital drawing and he can sell it to somebody in the US instantly.
Speaker 2:The disbursement of money and energy. It's incredible what's coming. Just open a crypto account, open a wallet and invest $50, $100. Watch it fail, watch it grow. But this is right, the beginning of something big. The world can't stop it, doctor, no matter how much governments try even China tried you only need one laptop in China the whole thing starts all over again. Nobody can stop this. Yeah, and we are the threshold. We are the beginning of everything. So I would disperse my? I would distribute my investments into different buckets. Yeah, and I have crazy. I have 15% of my investment into crazy buckets. I buy the Ferraris, I go on crazy holidays and I just kiss it goodbye. So what? Yeah, money's all over. I don't want to be the richest man in the graveyard.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, that's a great statement. What's next for Darius?
Speaker 2:You teach your kids how to make money. Teach your kids how to fish. Don't give them fish. Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know that's. You know my story is somewhat similar to yours. You know, we came here on a three month vacation in 1978 from Iran and we never left Same as in the same True story. And you know, one of the things my dad never taught me is the the, the word money in our, in our culture and on our government, in our, in our every day, doesn't really exist. We focus more on family, we focus on love and health and you know money is, is, it is a devilish word, right, it's an evil.
Speaker 2:Security, safety because of our nature of being you know what's happened to our country we become very safety oriented. That becomes very important. Be safe, be safe.
Speaker 1:And my dad made a lot of money in Iran. He was a surgeon, a medical doctor surgeon, and so it wasn't. That was never an issue. But you know, now you come to America and money. There's a strategy to money right, and I think there's a. It's a skill to manage your money, it's a skill to make money, it's a skill to keep money and it's a skill to use money as an asset to grow.
Speaker 2:And you know what's money, doctor, you know what's money. Money is energy.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Money is energy. What I say is that if you look at your current bank statement, that's how much you think you're worth in the universe. Because you get paid what you think. You were screwed. I'm going to swear. Screw the ego. Okay, Screw the ego. Let your bank statement be your job.
Speaker 1:You wanted to say fuck the ego, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the biggest killer. It's the biggest killer. Today I was in a shark's tank I'm a shark in a shark tank thing in Dubai and there was 20 kids pitching and two of them had such an ego no money, shitty idea, ego and I thought, you know, even if your idea was good, I wouldn't invest in you anyway because you just your ego's, you're having your judgment, everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's cost me millions, my ego, and but you know what that's. To be honest, it's okay too. You know you have to lose to win. You have to learn to lose to win. You just have to become smarter. And today, I think you know there's plenty of content. There's no excuse for you to not have the opportunity to have success.
Speaker 2:So true, dr Marimo. We have to drive to the library right and wait for the guy who had our book to put it down, and sometimes they help us with the book all day.
Speaker 1:And we were kids. This right here didn't exist, Right, I mean, this right here didn't exist. I mean me on a microphone talking to you in Dubai are you nuts Like? Come on.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Well, it's been an absolute honor, dr, and we have so much to talk about. If you want me on again, just more than welcome to yeah.
Speaker 1:No, that's awesome, Darius. I listen. I know it's late for you in Dubai and I appreciate your friendship. There's a lot that you've done for me behind the scenes that I have to thank you for. You do not have to do this. You are a busy man and you are a famous man. You're on the Shark Tank type show in Dubai, so maybe I can come pitch to you in Dubai, man.
Speaker 2:You don't have to come to Dubai. You can pitch me anywhere, dr, you can pitch me anywhere. But listen, I want to thank you for your time. What you do in is incredible and my hats off to you. My credit goes to you and I'm here for you if anything, and I truly see you as a friend now, so I look forward to connecting with you more often.
Speaker 1:I love it. Thank you, Darius. I appreciate it. Be unique groupcom marketing agency, if I can say that, and you. If you need any help, please reach out and they'll be able to help you, Darius have a great evening.
Speaker 2:If you can write down my personal Darius, you're the official that would be really good. And then, thank you so much. And, darius, you're the official, my social media pages will be amazing. Thank you so much. Darius the official on Instagram, facebook yeah, and they can DM me with any questions yes, Love it.
Speaker 1:Darius will be in touch, my friend.
Speaker 2:Thank you, god bless, you have a great evening, thank you to Aaron in the background as well. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Thank you, buddy. Have a good night. Well, I tell you what that was amazing. Darius Saudi Suudi, excuse me entrepreneur, famous individual in Dubai, has an amazing following, darius Suudi official on Instagram and Facebook. Please follow him. If you have any questions regarding any marketing help, go ahead and just reach out. Reach out to him on a DM and just let him know that you met him on Love Bites Denial with Dr Shaheen Safarian. And until next time, we will see you soon. Have a great day.