Shahin's Corner - The Podcast That Bites
Shahin's Corner - The Podcast That Bites
Shahin's Corner with Special Guest Justin Prince - Harnessing Resilience to Build Multimillion-Dollar Enterprises: Strategies for Confidence, Commitment, and Exponential Business Growth
Discover the untold secrets of resilience from Utah's own Justin Prince, a mastermind entrepreneur who transformed failure into a launching pad for success. Let Justin take you on an intimate journey of how he flipped the narrative of his first business collapse to build four thriving multimillion-dollar companies. This episode is a treasure trove of wisdom for the ambitious soul, unveiling the foundational pillars of confidence, commitment, and the remarkable 'rid and raise' strategy that could be the game-changer in your personal and professional life.
Prepare to be inspired as we navigate the powerful influence of belief in achieving extraordinary success. This isn't just a story; it's a blueprint for preparation, seizing opportunities, and understanding that greatness is a byproduct of dedication and readiness. From professional sports to international speaking, Justin's experiences underscore the importance of blooming where you're planted, and the undeniable impact of hard work and luck intertwined.
Finally, we break down the practicalities of growing a business with tried-and-true strategies that resonate with entrepreneurs at any stage, especially those in the dental industry. Justin offers deep dives into customer acquisition, retention, and transaction value optimization, with an emphasis on how incremental improvements can lead to exponential growth. Get ready to soak in the lessons that took Justin 17 years to master, as he shares his personal development saga through the power of reading, listening, surrounding oneself with positivity, and applying knowledge to overcome any challenge and achieve success beyond measure.
So the Shaheen's Corner podcast. I have a really special guest. He comes. He lives in one of my favorite states. We'll talk a little bit about that. I've lived there for a few years in my teenage years. Justin Prince is here and I'm really excited to grab his knowledge during this podcast. But before we get started, let's watch this video.
Speaker 2:I am Justin Prince and today I've been blessed to share my story to audiences in 20 countries around the world and to inspire hundreds of thousands of people online daily. I put everything I had into my first business and when it failed, I felt like I'd financially lost everything. My back was literally against the wall. I moved my pregnant wife and our two young kids into a loft of my in-laws garage. Man. You can't do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that and I'm not going to do that. I'm going to do that. It takes more than one year to build a loft of my in-laws garage man. You talk about a wake-up call. I was working tirelessly and eventually I went on to build four different multimillion-dollar businesses, including a business that, in just its first five years, required more than 3 million customers and generated over 1 billion in sums, and I'm driven to provide you the tools and the strategies and the motivation that you need to help you go from the person you are.
Speaker 1:Justin, how are you buddy?
Speaker 2:Man, what an honor to be with you, brother. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Well, I appreciate you taking the time to hopefully educate us, dennis, and maybe some others that are watching as well, about your journey a little bit. Well, before I start, I kind of hinted about the state you live in. You live in a beautiful state of Utah. You and I just off camera chatted a little bit. I lived there in my teenage years, went to a small high school in Delta, utah, delta Rabbit, so I love the state. But you live in the southern part, st George, where I mean there's a lot of beautiful parks there. We talk a little bit about St George and why people should go visit St George.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, this is a destination part of the country, for sure. So we've been here for just over three years now. My wife and I. We've been married now for coming up on 21 years In our first, approximately 18 plus years. We're in Salt Lake County, utah County, so back up north, about four hours from where we live now, and we've always loved down here. We've always visited down here. Our kids love it down here. The weather is incredible. I went for like a seven mile kind of walk, hike, walk today and I had a hoodie on and then I took that off and just had like a tank top on and it's right before Thanksgiving. So it's just beautiful weather, dude. It's just really, really great place. Kind of a small little town, kind of a quaint place, but great lifestyle, great place to raise your kids, and we've really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, early 2000s Las Vegas was kind of a booming place for, you know, for dental practices, and in the last five to seven years it's been St George's, it's been kind of popping up.
Speaker 2:But you've seen a lot of dental offices. It's grown like crazy, for sure, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah so, but I haven't visited for a while. So I should definitely pay a visit. But I wanted to talk a little bit about you know. You talked in this in the promo video. We talked about tools and strategies, but before we get there, I want to talk a little bit about that business that was in the video. Can you tell me a little bit about you know why it failed, how it failed and what you learned from it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that was my very first business. I started it when I was 25 years old. Just a little bit of kind of context or backstory. You know, I came from a broken home at age 12. We moved 13 times.
Speaker 2:In the seven years to the teenage years I had no really professional backgrounds making pizzas, doing construction work, I worked at a mall kiosk selling Bible videos animated Bible videos out of a mall kiosk. And then I have no college education. I have like a semester and a half of college. So what I did have is I had big dreams and big goals, like I wanted to do something with my life, and so I started a business when I was 25.
Speaker 2:I was actually distributing nutritional products for a nutrition company and the main company that we worked with, the main company that we supplier, basically went out of business, and so when that happened, our business was basically toasted overnight and I learned a lot of lessons. Some of it happened outside of my control, for sure, but one of the lessons I learned is to not be naive. I remember thinking to myself I don't know if I was optimistic or arrogant or naive or maybe a combination of all of it, but I remember just thinking. I was like as long as this company's got me, because I knew they were having some issues.
Speaker 2:I was like, as long as they got me, they're going to be fine, because we were, I was growing the business and there can be forces outside of you, forces that are bigger than you, and one day we were in business, one day we weren't. The CEO of the company called me at like 7 AM one morning and he goes, the company's gone. The founder called me and it's over. I was like dang, so it was just a painful. You know, it was a painful phone call.
Speaker 2:And one of the other lessons I feel like I definitely learned for sure is there's two questions that leaders ask, and these are great questions we can ask in all areas of our leadership, whether it's in your business, whether it's in your marriage, whether it's with your children. But the questions are this how far do I fall, how long do I stay down In some of the words, how far are you going to fall when negativity hits? And then, how long are you going to stay down? So the first question is a depth question. The second question is a duration question. On a scale of 1 to 10, when negativity hits your life, are you going to fall all the way to 10, like hit rock bottom? Are you going to say you know what? I'm only going to fall to 2. I'm not going to emotionally fall apart when this happens. And then the second question is how long am I going to stay down? You know, are you going to stay down for five minutes, five days, five weeks, five months, five years, or are you never going to come back up?
Speaker 2:You want to have a resiliency when you pop back up, and so for me, I learned and built some of those early muscles of resiliency during that time Because I remember I had grown man tears rolling down my face. I'm like my business failed. It put me below ZDRO financially, back on credit cards, back on taxes. So it's kind of been a precarious financial situation when that happened and I remember thinking like I'll never do business again, I'm just going to go get a job. But I also thought to myself I want to be free and I still have those dreams.
Speaker 2:So I didn't let myself fall too far and then I just got back on the proverbial horse. You know what I'm saying. If you get bucked off, you can either lay there and bleed or you can get up, dust yourself off, pull the gravel out of your wounds, the rocks and the gravel out of your wounds and keep going. And I just said, you know I'm going to keep going. And I got back on the horse again, again this proverbial horse of business and life and just kept going. And since that time, you know you've turned it into a success. But it all starts with how far are you going to fall? How long are you going to stay down?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, and I've fallen and sometimes maybe you know, stay down for a bit and try to bounce back, and I think that's a really important point they bring up. But let's say you are now kind of falling and now you kind of build your resilience or build back up to get back into, you know, on that horse, to get going again. What are some steps right at that key moment for you that that maybe changed for you the direction, or when you pivoted out of that deep hole? What are some of the things? I mean, look, I with podcasts. What happens is you get a lot of motivational, inspirational, but you know that individual has there's got to be a trigger right. There's got to be some type of a hunger within you to bounce back, or else you would have just gotten another job or work for somebody else. So tell me a little bit about that mindset.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, look, I think you. So success is an identity process and you'll never outperform the way that you see yourself. So if you see yourself as a loser, you're not going to show up and play the game like a winner. You see yourself like a winner. You're not going to roll over and quit like a loser. You have to. You have to anchor into this identity of who am I, and one of my identities is that I'm, as a fighter. You know I was not a quitter. You know I was going to keep moving forward and you know that's been an identity that I've had really for as long as I can remember, even as a little kid. You know that that I wasn't a quitter, that I had, I was just. You know it's like knocked down six times, up seven times, like this has not come to stay, this has come to pass and I've not come this far. To only come this far, you know you start anchoring in these identities. And so that was the one thing, that was the first thing, and then the second thing is there's two questions that you can ask yourself. Tell people, you upgrade the quality of your questions. You upgrade the quality of your life.
Speaker 2:I just finished a coaching client and I was talking to him about upgrading the quality of his questions. He runs a really successful financial firm and we're walking through. How do we, how do we 10X this business? How do we go to the next level? And it starts with questions. You start asking new questions. You upgrade the quality of your questions. You upgrade the quality of your life. So the two questions you want to ask yourself particularly if you have, if you have negative momentum in your life like you're, you feel like you're, you know you're feeling like your life's going the wrong direction Two great questions you can ask.
Speaker 2:Question number one is what attitude shift can I make right now that will move me closer to my goal? What attitude shift? Here's what you need to know about your attitude. Remind yourself you don't have to make a sale to shift your attitude. You don't have to have something happen to shift your attitude. You don't have this. Have someone say I love you or you're great, or you can shift your attitude. Because you can decide to shift your attitude, your attitude shift can be how do I show up with more enthusiasm? How do I show up with more passion? What can I be grateful for right now? What are three things that can be grateful for right now? What's going right in my life? Those are all attitude shift questions that you can shift your attitude. You know. How do I? How do I, uh, how do I? What can I do to be more positive right now? These are attitude shift questions. And when you shift your attitude, then that leads to question number two, which question number two is what's the next physical step that I can take that will move me closer to my goal? The next physical step, what does that mean? The next physical step is not more planning, not more preparing, not more thinking, not more, you know, hoping. Next physical step is take action, move forward. Next physical step take action towards your dream, towards the goal. Maybe for you, the next physical step is make the bed. Maybe for you, the next physical step is send the email. Maybe it's do the post. Maybe for you, it's get the courage to actually do the invite. Maybe for you, it's say I'm sorry. What is the next physical step that will move me towards my, my goal?
Speaker 2:Confidence is the found. You know, believing in yourself is the foundation of your success. Creating confidence. Confidence comes from making and keeping commitments, and there's two people we make and keep commitments, to First making and keeping commitments we make to ourselves and then, second, making and keeping commitments we that we make to others. And so you shift your attitude. You then say what's the next physical step? You take the next physical step. When you do that, what do you do? Next physical step? What this helps you to do is it's helps you to start to make and keep commitments. Making and keeping commitments build your confidence. Confidence is the foundation of you know, believing yourself is the foundation of your success and that's how you start kind of get moving, like you know, shift your attitude, don't feel, don't whine, blame, complain and make excuses anymore. You know, you shift your attitude and then, as you shift your attitude, you say what's the next physical step and you start taking action, moving towards your goal.
Speaker 2:Remember this Direction is more important than destination.
Speaker 2:Direction is more important. So you may not be at the destination yet. Maybe your goal is to lose 30 pounds and you've only lost three. But you're heading the right direction, you're taking the right steps. You've cleaned out your pantry. There's no more crap in your pantry. You, you've shifted. You mean you've hired a trainer, you're going to the gym, you've, you've, you're going for your walks, you're doing your stretches, you're getting more water, like that. You're moving the right direction. The direction is more important than the destination. Maybe you don't have the business isn't right now where you want it to be. Maybe you don't have the revenues that you want or the income that you want. Okay, are we moving the right direction? Are we taking the right steps? Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot in the right direction? Now, if you're going the wrong direction, then we need to fix it right. But if you're heading the right direction, you'll ultimately get to the destination. But the destination is not what's so important. It's the direction. The direction is more important than the destination.
Speaker 1:So powerful man. I want, I want you to keep talking because I think what you're saying here is so important and and one of the things that happened is in that moment of transition, we try to run instead of crawl. We we try to go for a, we take too many quick steps without taking just one step. We want to get to step 10, 20, 30 instead of step one, two, three, four, five.
Speaker 1:I think the word mindset is really misunderstood because everybody says change mindset, change mindset. But it really is all about you and the level of control you have over you and you know fear, judgment, what others say, those all get in the way many times and it blocks you from the confidence you need in order to do what you just said change your attitude and take one step at a time. So you know you kind of have to go deaf in a way so nobody gets in your ear, and then you have to have that confidence to be able to take those steps by yourself. And the most important part of this, to be honest, I think, is just understanding, is the perseverance of pushing through that instead of having that victim mentality of why me?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I sure, I sure I sure thought with you on that. Just to piggyback on what you're saying, it's what I call rid and raise. So imagine a pulley system, right? So a pulley system is this side pulls down, the other side pulls up. So as you rid yourself, you raise. So what you want to do is you want to rid yourself of all entitlement as you raise your personal responsibility. So you rid yourself of all entitlement that your parents owe you something, the government owes you something, the church owes you something, your teachers owe you something, or that your business partner owes you something. You just rid yourself of all entitlement. Riding yourself of all entitlement is a painful step because when we do that, we get rid of a whole host of excuses that have been holding us back. And with the excuses we want to hold on to, by the way, we're like, yeah, but it is his fault, you know, or it is their fault. Listen, I'm not saying they haven't contributed to where you're at, but remember you want to rid yourself of all entitlement. Why? Because you, once you rid yourself of all entitlement, then allows you to raise your personal responsibility.
Speaker 2:Where you go from what Stephen Covey says there's three levels on the maturity continuum the lowest is a dependent person. A dependent person is the paradigm of you. You didn't come through for me, you failed me, it's your fault. That's the paradigm of you. You're dependent on them for your success. The next level up on this pair, on this continuum is is independent, which is the paradigm of I. I'm self-reliant, I can do it, I can succeed, I can make things happen.
Speaker 2:The last, the highest form on the maturity continuum is interdependent. Interdependent is what we. It's the paradigm of we. We can collaborate, we can make things happen, we can work together as a team. So that's when one plus one equals, you know three or more. In other words, you create synergy, you, you work together as a team. So the way you want to think about it is this Covey says you can't become interdependent until you become what. You first have to become independent. So you want to leave dependency, where you blame everybody else for your life. You blame everybody else for your situation. You want to rid yourself of that entitlement, raise your personal responsibility, become independent. And then, once you become independent, then from there you can become interdependent and you can really start to accelerate your life because you can tap in the collective genius of everybody.
Speaker 1:So good man. I'm on social channels and dental paid. You know social pages and everybody's talking about it. I got $5,000. I got $20,000. I got $50,000. I want to invest in something. What you just said here in the first 10, 15 minutes is what you need to invest into. It's your best investment and that personal development.
Speaker 1:You know words are easy and when you're around a bunch of people or listen to a podcast or in a community, it's easy. It's when you're alone is when it gets hard. It's when you're alone, nobody's watching. Those are the moments that you have to step up to the things that you're talking about right now. It's those moments that you personally develop and you personally grow and it's those moments that you become more independent.
Speaker 1:And that discipline, I believe, is the difference between an entrepreneur pivoting out of a bad situation and moving into the right direction versus just staying in that dark room and not being able to get out and then maybe going into a completely different direction. But personal development is huge. Mindset, in my opinion, is misunderstood, because you can talk about mindset, you can talk about change, you can talk, but it takes discipline and you can be motivated, you can be inspired, but then when you're alone, you're not disciplined. I think that word to me resonates very deeply right now. As far as what you're talking about right now is, you've got to have that discipline. When nobody's watching to do exactly what you're talking about, and entitlement in this country is rampant, I mean, everybody is a victim and nobody wants to point the finger at themself. And that opportunity to point that finger at yourself is the challenge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it becomes an identity. To say this is what happened to me. There's a formula you can think about, but I think it's helpful. It's what I call E plus R equals O. So E plus R equals O is event plus response equals outcome. So it's the E plus the R equals the O. So it's not the lessons. There's at least three lessons we can learn. The first thing is that the E does not equal the O. In other words, the events of your life don't create the outcome of your life. Why? Because you're not a victim to the events of your life or the outcomes of your life. You're a victor to your response to the events.
Speaker 2:Victor Frankel, in man search for meaning, he called it the gap. Now this is a man that's hauled. He and his family are hauled away to Oswich during World War II. It's the. It's the some of the darkest, if not the darkest time in human history of what humans can do to humans. And he said no matter what they took from me, no matter what the guards took from him, he said they couldn't take the gap. The gap was his response. He got to own his response, how he chose to show up.
Speaker 2:The second lesson we can learn is that the R is not react, the R is respond. And it's because great leaders don't react, great leaders respond. So you say to yourself I'm going to leave a world of reaction to distractions in my life and enter a world of intentional creation. I'm going to respond to the world by intentionally creating the world that I live in. And then number three is that your R creates an E for others.
Speaker 2:Your response to the events of your life will create an event for other people in their life. The way you choose to respond will create events for other people. Whether it's so you say to this what kind of event am I creating for my children with the way that I'm showing up and responding? What kind of event am I creating for my spouse and my marriage with the way that I'm choosing to show up and respond? What kind of event am I creating for my customers, my clients, my employees, my friends? What kind of event am I creating for other people with the way that I'm choosing to respond to things? You know the events that are happening in my life, and is that a positive, a net positive event that you're creating, or is that a net negative? If it's net negative, how do we respond, you know, and change the way that we're showing up?
Speaker 1:You know, as you were speaking, deon Sanders came to my head here and he's obviously he's coaching Colorado now and one of the things that he talks about is he talks about keep making plays. Keep making plays when nobody's watching, keep making plays. And you know, this formula that you've presented here is the concept of maybe nobody's watching but keep making plays is going to put you in a situation, over time, that people will start paying attention to you. So that's that's so. It's just so clear to me that that, as an entrepreneur, you've got to keep making plays right.
Speaker 1:And I also think that the response to the event is really important and your outlook on life, your values, your core values, your belief system, your upbringing. You can either use it as a as a tool to respond in a positive direction, or you can use it as a negative to respond maybe in a negative direction. And one of the things you find is that if people are more the yes but people, they're going to be more in in the side of the victim side, and the yes and people are more the people that are more on the optimistic side of the coin of yes. And what else can we do instead of yes but just turn it into a complete negative. So I think, as you talk about these events, to kind of just jump on that a little bit, the response has to be yes and instead of yes, but, and I think that can help push people in a little bit more of a positive direction as well.
Speaker 1:I think your point is very well taken and these are a couple of things that resonate with me. As you're kind of talking about that, tell me a little bit. You've been traveling the world, 20 countries, international speaker. What are you talking about with people? Are you talking about the tools, the strategies, self development and mixture of all the above?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I remember when I was driving in my white Toyota Corolla. I have 250,000 miles on it, I'm below zero financially, I'm back on credit cards, I'm back on taxes, I'm living. I have my two kids and my pregnant wife living in the loft above my wife's parents' garage. And I remember I'm working two part time jobs one I would do in the weekdays, one I would do in the weekends. And I remember listening to an audio series by a guy named Jim Rohn.
Speaker 2:Jim Rohn was Tony Robbins' original mentor and he has all these great speakers this was 2004, so this is 20 years ago of who the speakers were, but kind of these really well known, successful speakers, and they were all going up on stage sharing their success stories and their principles and their tactics and so on. And I remember at the end Jim Rohn stands up and he says we now have enough testimonials and enough personal experiences to conclude that it's possible to create and to design an extraordinary life. And I remember thinking to myself I knew it was possible for all of them to do it because I was. I was, you know, listening to their stories and their testimonials. I just didn't know if it was ever going to be possible for me to do it, you know. And so now I get to go all over the world and I've spoken now in 30 plus countries around the world. I've spoken to entrepreneurs and leaders and high performers from you know, I built, you know, businesses that have generated billions of dollars in revenue. And I get to go around the world and share my own personal experience and my own personal testimonial. I get to like add my name to this, this proverbial list of people that remind people that it's possible, that their dreams, their goals are possible, that it's possible for them to create and to design an extraordinary life. And at one point I wonder if it was possible for me and now I get to be a witness to them to say hey, listen, not only is it possible for me, but, most importantly, it's possible for you. So that's, that's one of those messages, because here's what I would share with you.
Speaker 2:If it's impossible, guess how much time and energy and passion you're going to put into something. That's impossible, not very much, but if it's at least possible. Maybe it's possible for others, maybe not for you quite yet, maybe you don't believe that. Okay, but it's at least possible. That's the beginning place of certainty that I can, I can achieve dreams and goals. I know it's at least possible, you know it's worth the chase and you know you can go up from the levels of certainty from there, from impossible to possible, to improbable, which means the deck stacked against me to probable, which means the deck stacked in my favor to inevitable. And it all starts with believing that your success is possible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, and I played pro sports and you know sometimes we talk about being just a little bit lucky Right that you kind of fell into the right situation. And you know, I think of the NFL right now, the backup quarterbacks, for example. I mean they got to be ready to play every game because you never know what. Just takes one snap, 30 seconds, you're the, you know, first string is done for the season and here you are right. Did that ever happen for you? Or was it a period of just grind, grind, grind and it was just a gradual process? But was there a pop for you and what you know? We talked about 2004 being in the white Toyota. What was that period for you that you did get the pop, or did you ever yeah, that's a great question.
Speaker 2:I did, I did get the pop, but I, you know, there's an old saying that says it's better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war. Or you've heard it said that it's better to have opportunity and not, or it's better to be prepared and not have opportunity Than to have opportunity and not be prepared. What happened for me is going back to the coach. Prime concept, the way I, you know the make-up play, the way I talk about it, is bloom or you're planted. Bloom, where you're planted, means Succeed at what you're doing right now. Become the best at what you're doing right now. If you're making pizzas, make the best pizzas. If you're cleaning toilets, clean them the best you know. You want to, you want to sweep street. Sweep streets like Picasso painted, painted paintings, like you want to really become the best bloom or you're planted. Why? Because then you can start stringing wins together. You learn the success principles and you can string wins together. So, as I went from that original sales job to my first business, even though that business failed, I was, I was succeeding in that business. When it failed, then you go to that next business. It took me a number of years, but I ultimately succeeded. You know I sold that business. Now I had an opportunity when I was 32 to become originally a consultant, had to help transform a 25 year old company a failing company and in that process I became an equity partner. I went into the field and led distribution and sales and team building, built teams all over the world. We know we did a couple billion dollars in sales in that business. That was, that was. That was a win.
Speaker 2:Now here's what's interesting. What was interesting is it took me about 17 years of my career To become in the top let's call it 1% of earners in my profession. Right, and that was an annual, you know, an annual number. What was interesting is it took me one year, so 17 years, to get to the top 1% annually. In one year I went from what I was earning annually to earning monthly. And that's the power of compounding. You do all the right stuff Not for 17 minutes or 17 days or 17 weeks or even 17 months, but for 17 years. In this example, to where you start to compound, the consistency compounds over time and you find yourself in situations where All of that work that you put in to get to that stage Start. You know at first you're you do more works than you're paid for in the beginning to be paid for more, for more worked in you're putting in at the end and that is that is was very true with with you know my, my journey and my experience.
Speaker 1:So I always say the first million is the hardest to make and then after 10 million it gets easy. I think that's kind of what you're referring to. But I think for me what resonates with what you're saying is is I'm still in that grind. I'm still in that 17 years, right, and To be honest, I've never thought about quitting Because it just doesn't resonate well with me as far as my own personality. But you're always just thinking you're just three, three feet away from gold Greg Reed says this and and you're just three feet away from gold, right, you, that moment will come. When is the question? That Moment when you get your pop will come, and I've had a few small pops, right, but nothing that created that opportunity where I get the top 1% and then catapult the next year into what you had mentioned. So that's that's part of the joy, that's part of the journey, that's part of the grind.
Speaker 1:But those 17 years, I'm sure at some point I mean you have to go through periods of like Is this really where I need to be? Is this really what I need to do? Is this like, even in the right direction, to a zone you know? Obviously it's uncertainty, but am I going in the right direction. I mean, you have to ask these types of questions and when you have gone deaf, when nobody's, you're not listening to anybody's points of view, and judgment and fear and all those things, sometimes you're just alone, right? So did you have a coach, or did you have a mentor that you followed or that supported you during those 17 years that you bounced ideas off of? Or was it just really, you know, on your own?
Speaker 2:You know it's so interesting. Some of my best mentors and best coaches are people I've never met. You know, it was literally as podcasts like this. It was books. Back then it was CDs. I was so hungry to learn Leaders, don't wait for the information to find them. Leaders run to the information. I was. I ran to the information. I was hungry to absorb it and to understand it and to advance in my life and in my career. I didn't really have great mentors and coaches specifically at that time. I've had different mentors in my life. I mean, aristotle says if I've seen further, it's only by standing on the shoulders of giants. I've definitely have had that as well, but really during that, those grind years, it was a lot of. It was just through the CDs and the books that I was reading.
Speaker 2:You know, obviously, events I was attending and you know someone asked me once I did a magazine interview. It was like the article was like on leadership or whatever it was. But I told the guy my story behind the scenes, the guy. We finished the interview and it kind of like we were off record and the guy says to me he goes. How did this all happen? He goes. How did this happen for you. He goes how did you go from broken home, no college education, no professional background, business, failing loft above your wife's parents garage, two part time jobs, to like five different multimillion dollar businesses and you know, billions of dollars in revenue? I was like what the heck just happened and I thought.
Speaker 2:But you know, if I had to summarize it like, put it into like simplest terms possible, those four things read, listen, surround, apply. So number one is read great books. Number two is listen to inspiring information. Number three is surround yourself with great people. And number four is apply what you learn. And so you want to read great books. The books you read will define you. You know you want to have your nose in great books. You're constantly investing in to the knowledge base. You know I wrote the book. Be the One, this book. People have been asking me how long did it take you to write Dude? It took me 43 years. You know 43 years. Tell people. People will write the 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years of knowledge into a book that you can read in a weekend. You know you can read in two or three days or in a week, so you just absorb all this information.
Speaker 2:Second thing is. You want to listen to inspiring information. So, whether it's a podcast like this or you know a positive YouTube or an Audible or whatever it is, you're pouring into your mind. The weeds of negativity will grow automatically. It takes you have to proactively plant the flowers. I don't know if you've ever noticed, but weeds will grow in the concrete. You don't see rose bushes in the concrete, and so in your mind, the weeds of self-doubt, the weeds of discouragement, the weeds of fear, the weeds of do I have what it takes, the weeds of self-limiting beliefs. That stuff grows automatically. You've got to pour positive stuff into your mind. You want to just have your mind be a conduit of just. You're constantly pouring all the positive and planting all the positive into your mind.
Speaker 2:Number three is surround yourself with great people, listen. If you asked, a parent who has teenagers said listen, particularly a mom. You could say it to a dad too. Hey, mama, if there's only one thing you could choose and one thing you could control about a teenager, what would you control? Guess what? Mom would say I want to pick their friends Because a mom's smart.
Speaker 2:She knows that if she can choose who her kids hang out with, she's going to choose how her kids end up. Les Browns was raised by Mamie Brown and she says baby, she says if you hang out with losers, you're going to be a loser. She said, if there's nine smokers, you'll be the 10th. You want to choose who you're surrounding yourself with, proactively and intentionally. Surround yourself with positive, happy, bright people that share similar values and principles as you, people that encourage you and lift you up.
Speaker 2:And then, lastly, is apply what you learn. You can read all the books, you can listen to all the information and you can surround yourself with all the right people, but listen, if you don't apply what you learn, it's really all for naught, because life is not an information process, it's an application process. Da Vinci said it's he that doeth the deed that hath the power. If you want the power, you've got to do the deed. You can't just read about it, you can't just listen to it, you can't just hang out with people. You've got to go do the deed, you've got to apply it. And that's where all the power comes, in the application. But those four things read, listen, surround, apply changed my whole life and I still do them today, like literally I'm a student all the time.
Speaker 2:It's a Shoshin mentality. I talk about it in my book. Shoshin mentality is a Japanese word which basically means like a beginner's mentality, a white belt mentality. You never think that you got this thing all figured out, you're still curious, you're still hungry. I tell people you can't teach hunger, you can't teach heart and you can't teach hustle, and I don't ever want to lose those. I don't ever want to lose my hunger or my heart or my hustle to want to improve and to want to serve and add value to other people.
Speaker 1:This is so good. I've talked to you for a long time, man, but I tell you what? Knowledge is not power, it's the implementation of the knowledge that you gain. That's where the power is, and I think it's important for people to understand that applying component, because if you don't apply, I mean, what's the point? That's right, what's the point? I think one of the other things that you mentioned that, dr Strudelin, is access and network.
Speaker 1:Um, we doctors, dennis, um, some people don't think we're doctors, so I just said Dennis, but um, we, dennis, we're very much, you know, clinically oriented and we want to kind of be in our bubble in our 1500, 3000 square foot office and just in and out, in and out, in and out, and over 80 of us barely get out outside of the office just to control, just to get their license Uh, uh, continuing education for their licensing every two years. Um, I think that's really important in our profession, to understand that. You got to get out and shake hands. You got to get out and meet people, um, and you got to get out and listen to what others are doing, um, and you learn a lot of things. Um, one of the things that I've committed to with these podcasts is. My goal is to 90 95 of my guests on these podcasts not to be Dennis, because I want to get Doctors to listen to people like you. Talk about self development, talk about the perseverance, talk about the pain, talk about the dark moments. Um, we're, we're smart people and we just don't know how. We're not. We're not business smart, Um, because we just didn't get business training. Um, and, to be honest, not many of us know how to hustle Right, because Clinical dentistry can make us money. Um, so there's a fine line between it's not and I've done.
Speaker 1:I've been a dentist for 22 years and I can tell you Clinical dentistry hasn't failed me. I've made a lot of money doing clinical dentistry. What's failed is the money that I make and the decisions that I make with that money, how I manage my team, how I manage my payroll, how I manage my Front desk and my hygienist, how I invest, how ego has gone in my way, how greed has gone in my way. Yeah, that's what's hurt me, but not clinical dentistry. So the license itself of being a licensed dentist is a very powerful license. It's this that's what's messed up, and this component for dentists is the how to run a business Is a component of everything you're talking about here, because, by definition and this is kind of what I press is the concept of being a dentist.
Speaker 1:I press is the concept of being a dental CEO Is you first are running a business, then second, you're a dentist, where we're dentists thinking like dentists running a business like a dentist, and that's the problem. And so all of these components that you're talking about, to be honest, in our profession it's lacking. It's lacking for us not to fear judgment, it's lacking for us to go deaf and want to Build resilience. Now Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying 100 percent, but there's definitely five, six percent that are kicking ass doing great things in dentistry. But there's a large majority of our profession that struggles in these areas because we're clinically smart, we're book smart, we're not hustle smart, right, um, and if we get hungry, we just go do clinical dentistry and get away with it.
Speaker 1:I mean I I've said this on a few occasions dentists can make 250 000 a year and be lazy, um, that's the beauty and the power of dentistry. So I think it's important what you're talking about here. As far as the outreach, dentists need to have more outreach outside of their own cocoon or outside of their own community, and that means they need to meet people like you. They need to go to these types of events, and these books be the one. I mean. 43 years of really grinding as an entrepreneur there's a lot to learn there. Is it an audio, by the way?
Speaker 2:It's unspotified right now, it will be unaudible literally any moment now.
Speaker 1:Okay, because that's what I'm a little bit more audible today with audio but these are the areas our profession struggles in. So, with the goal of this podcast is to reach out to entrepreneurs like yourself, successful coaches like yourself, and listen to these moments that you've gone through. But now I want to talk and I know we have just a few more minutes, justin but tell me a little bit about. We talked about tools, self development, those aspects. Tell me about strategy. What are some business strategies that an entrepreneur needs to pay attention to? You have, like, a short term, mid term and long term plan, or how does that play out and how often does it change?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean the short answer is yes. I mean, look, there's three. There's three kind of key targets, three KPIs that any business owner in this case, if I'm a dentist there's three KPIs you want to be looking at. Number one new customers through the door. What are we doing to drive new people through the door? Number one. Number two how often are those people returning? What can we do to have them come back? For what services do they need? Do they come back once a year, twice a year, three times a year, et cetera? Number three how do we increase the cart size or the checkout size per time? So are there services that we can add that add more value to the customer, more value to the consumer, to where they don't check out for $100, they check out for $110, right, and I'm not saying to gouge them in any way. I'm saying how do we add more value? How do we serve at a higher level? Those are the three questions. How do I get new customers? How do I get new customers to come back and repeat and increase my frequency? And then also, how do I increase cart size and cart value? Those are really the three questions.
Speaker 2:If you increase, you ask yourself this what I want to increase my business by 33%. Would you want your business to grow by 33%? Whoa, what would happen if your income grew by 33%? What would happen to your business if you had a compounding 33%? You want to know how simple it is. It's 10% tick up in those three areas. Instead of 10 people coming in your practice, you can find the 11th. You know 10% growth. Right, you find the next person Instead of the person. You know. How can we increase the people coming back 10% more? So if they come back, you know, once every 10 months, can we get them to come back one more time? Then the next question is how can we increase the cart value, the checkout at 10% by 10%? You do those. You increase those three new customers coming in 10% higher new customers coming back 10% higher new customers. A cart size increasing by 10%. That's a 33% growth over you know, annualized over a 12 month period. And so those are really the three questions you want to ask yourself as a business owner. Are those three? And focus on those three key areas and say how do I add more value?
Speaker 2:Remember this service to many leads to greatness. How do you go to the next level in your career you got to become great. How do you become great? You got to serve more people. You need to add more value. You need to show up at a higher level and do things better. Become unforgettable. You know I tied that old chapter in my book about becoming unforgettable. Become unforgettable. Become the kind of person that is unforgettably good at what you do. You know people say I like me best when I'm with you. I want to see you again. You're so good at what you do. It's unforgettable, yeah.
Speaker 1:Um, great, great stuff. I mean I talk about branding a little bit. I think this is kind of in line with that a little bit as far as that is concerned. But you, you set up very well, it's not. And when you talk to doctors they talk about I just don't have time. I don't have time. I don't think that's the problem. I think there's inefficiency with their time and I also believe they just don't know what to look for. It's the how. I just think we lack the how. We're smart people. We just need that guidance right there.
Speaker 1:Now the question is you just, dennis, listening to this, just learned something by those KPIs? Now, are they going to apply it? Well, most likely not, because they don't know how to apply that by creating strategies within themselves. And I think this is where some coaching can be helpful. Or, or, like you said, read and apply. And those four, four subjects or four topics they were talking about, you do have to put some work into it. You do have to learn to be more efficient with your time. That's a certain component. You know, I talk about time and and and in the clinic and wasting the time and many times not having spending time on social drama and other aspects of your business, I think takes you away from what's really important as far as the assets of where you can grow as an entrepreneur, as a business owner. Justin, what's next for you, man?
Speaker 2:You know I'm I'm like I said, I'm in the middle of this book launch with my book be the one. You know I've got big goals and big dreams for kind of these next steps of where I'm going in my, in my life, into my career, raising a family and, and you know, just looking to serve at a high level. So a lot of my best days, my best days are still ahead of me for sure, and so I'm excited to to do what I can to serve at a high level. Do you know what I'm saying? Do what I can to to serve people at value and and continue to increase my ability to influence, inspire and impact people's lives.
Speaker 1:Well, listen, justin, and very powerful 45 minutes of time with you today. I really appreciate your time. I know you got a busy schedule and you got to go, so thank you for spending time with us.
Speaker 2:I'm honored to be on with your brother. Love what you're doing, keep it up. You're, you know, just an honor to be on with you and if I can ever add value or support you or your audience, let me know.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it. Thanks, Justin.
Speaker 2:Thanks, buddy.
Speaker 1:All right, wow, I tell you what. Just watch this podcast again, over and over again, and do exactly what he said. And all of those things you can apply, all of those things you can implement, all of those things are very important components of self development and, as I said early on in the podcast, it is the best way to invest with any money that you have is to invest in yourself, and I really enjoyed this podcast. I you know we've had a lot of guests. This was, I believe, my 36th podcast with Shaheen's Corner and it was one of the more powerful ones, so hope you all enjoyed it. Justin, thanks so much, and I'm Dr Shaheen Safarian. Until next time.