Ever wondered about the transformational power of technology in dentistry? Join us as we sit down with world-renowned leader in CAD/CAM dentistry, Dr. Sameer Puri. We travel through time, tracing the evolution of seric technology and exploring its impact not only on Dr. Puri’s career but also on the dental industry at large. Reflecting on his role as a seric beta tester, we uncover valuable insights into this revolutionary tech.
We then shift gears, opening a candid conversation on the perils and pleasures of success. One of our guests takes us through his personal journey of wealth accumulation and the ensuing realization of the importance of living within one's means. Drawing from his plans to downsize and simplify life, we delve into the art of finding happiness in simplicity, the balance between risk and caution, and the joy of redefining priorities.
Rounding off our episode is an intriguing chat with Dr. Mike Miyasaki, a dentist turned successful entrepreneur. Dr. Mike shares his experience incorporating the CEREC into his practice, recounting the immense benefits it brought. We also hear from Dr. Sameer Puri, who shares the unique challenges and rewards of the dental profession. This episode is a treasure trove of personal experiences, professional insights, and honest reflections on dentistry, success, and the pursuit of happiness. Join us on this enlightening journey.
Ever wondered about the transformational power of technology in dentistry? Join us as we sit down with world-renowned leader in CAD/CAM dentistry, Dr. Sameer Puri. We travel through time, tracing the evolution of seric technology and exploring its impact not only on Dr. Puri’s career but also on the dental industry at large. Reflecting on his role as a seric beta tester, we uncover valuable insights into this revolutionary tech.
We then shift gears, opening a candid conversation on the perils and pleasures of success. One of our guests takes us through his personal journey of wealth accumulation and the ensuing realization of the importance of living within one's means. Drawing from his plans to downsize and simplify life, we delve into the art of finding happiness in simplicity, the balance between risk and caution, and the joy of redefining priorities.
Rounding off our episode is an intriguing chat with Dr. Mike Miyasaki, a dentist turned successful entrepreneur. Dr. Mike shares his experience incorporating the CEREC into his practice, recounting the immense benefits it brought. We also hear from Dr. Sameer Puri, who shares the unique challenges and rewards of the dental profession. This episode is a treasure trove of personal experiences, professional insights, and honest reflections on dentistry, success, and the pursuit of happiness. Join us on this enlightening journey.
Well, hello everyone. Thank you for joining us for a meaningful life sponsored by Vista apex dental materials. What we hope to do that through this program is just kind of share ideas and thoughts from thought leaders and industry those that are recognized as leaders and Ask some questions and kind of see how they did it. I hope these stories will inspire you and give you some insight into the person. So today our guest is dr Sameer Puri, and dr Puri's recognized as a world-class educator, and Even more than that, especially in the world of cad cam going back to seric. So let's just jump in. So, sam, if it's okay, well, I'll give you the program. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2:I have a long time no talk. Great, it's great to see you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been. You know it's funny, before we started we were talking about how time has flown and and I don't know, I think I was privileged enough to know you, even Right as you're starting to get into seric, right? I?
Speaker 2:you were. You were one of the first people I took a workshop from back in the day and I just want to know why do I look so old and you look so young and good? I wish, I wish, seriously. Yeah, no, I. So I took, I graduated and finished my residency and caught the CE bug and, and I think, a year out of school, went to Lvi. Yeah, we met and yeah, it's, it's Talk about time flying, it's funny.
Speaker 1:You know, and I was having a conversation with a colleague over here today this morning. I told him. I said I remember you. You come in the courses and you know you're very charismatic and and Just always enjoyed talking with you, and then, and then you're getting to seric and you were telling me how you know you got this dream for seric and I'm like seric. So this is back in the days where, you know, we still had the artisan lab technicians, right yeah?
Speaker 2:This was 99 2000 in that. Yeah, some sometime in that range.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we were paying guys, you know three, four, five hundred dollars for a veneer, because they were the artisan, all the colors and contours and they were building in. And I remember you know you talking about seric and I said seric, I go that that's not gonna work. But that just shows the show that you know how Visionary you were even back then, because not only did you then master seric, then you took it to you know um umpteenth highest level.
Speaker 2:So yeah, you know it's been a. It's been a very interesting ride for sure, with the whole seric thing. It obviously changed my life and changed my career and I don't know if there was anything visionary that I did. I just I had grown up around computers. So my, my family, my dad's a physician, but most of my family from my mom's side there, and they were, you know, in computer manufacture. So my uncle had a Company that you know they would build computers there. He had a couple of patents on the floppy drives. You remember back in the day when you, when you took the whole punch and you would punch the floppy drive so you could use the other side and get an extra 16 kilobits yeah, that was his patent back in the day. Wow. So I kind of grew up around computers and I remember I was doing my residency and this was back in 98.
Speaker 2:I went to UT for my, for an AEGD, and there was the Mid-South dental meeting and one of our Dean actually was there and and there was the serac to machine there and he said, you know, I still remember this to this day. He said, you know southern accent. He saw, you know, if I was in private practice I'd have me one of them, serac, things churn out restorations all day and it kind of like, yeah, that's kind of cool, and Obviously the machines were very limited back then but you know, if you put a little bit of effort into it you could put out a really nice crown. Margins were good and you know, and all that stuff and. But of course you know the majority of the dental world was like, oh well, you know, you don't have your six micron marginal gap and the aesthetics are not good. Well, yeah, that's, that's true. But the possibility of what was Coming, and with each software update, with each hardware update, it got better and better and better and I guess I just, I kind of just it sang to me and One thing led to another and so I started the, the towny meeting for dental town with my good friend T-Bone turn nagarwal, and Serona became one of our sponsors at the time and you know so we were asking him for sponsorship and just just because I guess you know, through the meeting Got to know the Serona guys a little bit.
Speaker 2:So I became a beta tester and through that became a basic trainer and then kind of the rest is history just Just just found my niche and ran with it and it's. It's been a fun ride. It's been a really fun ride. I still remember I was taking a CE course when I took my LBI course. I couldn't afford it, I think what was the tuition like eight grand or something for the live patients up eight or nine grand, I think it was 69.95 back.
Speaker 1:All right, seven thousand.
Speaker 2:I mean it was. It was great CE because it was worth, worth the effort, and what I did was you know the patients that I brought to it. I basically said, hey, just pay for the course and you'll get your dentistry for free. And so that's kind of how I did. I couldn't afford Seven grand back then and I remember I was taking another class and there was a. There was a doctor, who was, who went to the California Dental Association meeting over the weekend and we had the, our workshop to fall the weekend. He's like, oh yeah, I Went there and you know it was awesome.
Speaker 2:I saw these new handpieces and they were just sweet and I picked up like ten handpieces for the office and you know it was what you know thousand bucks a handpiece or something. I don't remember what it was. But the guy dropped eight, ten grand on handpieces and Me, being a poor dental student at the time, like Jesus Christ man, I want to get to a point in my life where I can drop ten grand on something and not have to think twice about it. So it was, it was, it was lean days back then. I think that's what kind of motivated me to kind of just work hard and just, you know, make a name for myself.
Speaker 1:So so I know why we jumped ahead. What so? What are you doing today?
Speaker 2:so so, going back to the story, started the townee meeting. We ran that for ten years and we ended up selling it because we realized we're not meeting planners, we don't want to be in the meeting business and the only people that make money running meetings are those people that have something to sell. Right, you don't make money on the meeting, but hey, I've got a course. So you get a pinch of people who your works to your meeting and then you sell them a course. Hey, I got this new product. You get them to your meeting. They buy a product. We had nothing to sell. So we ended up selling the business off to dental town itself and that worked out really nicely. I don't. I don't think they're doing much with the meeting now, which kind of makes me sad.
Speaker 2:But around that time I also started siric doctors calm, which was an online. So we would take software videos of the siric software and the first one was literally taking a camcorder and recording the screen of the siric machine and then we put them up on the website that my family in India, my cousin, had a software company. They built us a website. We sent out a mailer and we had enough people sign up for the website siric doctors, where we paid for all the development and marketing and everything, and so that started, and then around 2007, the Scottsdale Center for Dentistry was opening, so we partnered up with them and and basically you know, started doing all of our siric workshops here in Scottsdale and I moved to Scottsdale in 2011.
Speaker 2:My company was bought out eventually by spear education. Scottsdale Center became spear education. So I'm an employee of spear education or partner in spear education now, and we recently changed our name to see docs from siric doctors. Calm, and the reason being is because we now do workshops in Siric cone beam, endo implants and clear liner therapy, and so we, we, we get about, you know well, we're projected to do about 350 workshops a year within all of those things.
Speaker 2:So I don't teach anymore, which is great. I don't see patients anymore, which is, you know, bittersweet. It's just a change for me, but I, so I manage all our faculty and workshops and kind of all the education that goes out on our website, and so that different role for me. After 20 years of clinical practice, I kind of just decided to take a different role. So that's that's what I do. We have a campus in Scottsdale which is a spear campus, see, docs is a part of spear, but we run it, you know, kind of independently. And then we have a campus in Charlotte in partnership with dense by Serona.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's pretty cool. Yeah, so three. You said 350 programs in a year.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, we were supposed so we when I was doing siric only, we would do 50 to 60 Serac workshops in a year. I taught in all of them and after 15 years or so it took its toll. You know, just working weekends, four days in a row and you've done a plenty of lecturing it. After four days of talking it, you, you're worn out. So I decided that I was going to Kind of transition out of that role and so, as we added our different disciplines yeah, we're projected 350, some odd workshops.
Speaker 2:Supposed to start last year, but obviously there was this thing called COVID. So we went from in our Scottsdale campus, between spear and seed ox, we would get 10 11,000 bodies on campus in a year. Wow, I think we had what 800 last year. So it was. It was devastating to our campus business, but I think we're going to come out stronger because our online presence grew and we had to innovate. One of the things that we had to do was we had to innovate. One of the things that we did was we've got in our company 250 some odd employees 90% of them work remotely. Now, well, like we don't, we've got tens of thousands of Square footage just sitting empty that we're repurposing, giving back lea, subleasing, etc. Because we figured out that we can be just as productive working remotely, which is which is really nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's great, yeah. So, um, you know you you've Uh enjoyed the success. I guess where do you see yourself going next? What's the next level?
Speaker 2:Kind of enjoy where you are, or I'm really enjoying what I do. I love the people that I work with. You know I've always had a five year plan and I do have a five year plan in mind. I don't know if I wanna share it right now because it might ruffle some feather.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, keep it secret I took off sitting in you know somewhere. No, my plan still involves. You know what I'm doing now, but I guess in the next step would just be to slow down a little. Yeah, you know you said I've had much success. Yeah, overnight success.
Speaker 2:20 years later, after you know, 18 hour days. Yeah. So I wish before we went live I was telling you my wife and I just sold our house and this has become a little hobby of ours. We built our house. This was our dream home. It has. We put our heart and souls into it, financially, with all the features, and we love this house. And five years later, both kids are gone and we're sitting in this big ass house going. Huh, we have a dining room that I don't think we've ever sat in. We have a fifth bedroom that I don't even know what furniture is in there, because I don't go upstairs in our house. So we decided, for the fun of it, we're gonna sell our house and we're gonna build another one. So that's a project that we're gonna do. And so we listed our house because I think right now the market is a little hot.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:All of the Californians are moving to Arizona and you guys are. I love it. You're overpaying for my house and I'll gladly sell it, and so we're gonna go live in an apartment for a year, just the two of us, and I'm cleaning out my closet and my stuff. I'm like how the hell did I accumulate all this crap? I did a ton of speaking engagements, so I would do 60 workshops a year. So that's what. 120, I don't know, call it a hundred plus days for 15 years, 150 days somewhere in that area. I don't even know. It was a lot.
Speaker 2:And I'm cleaning out my closet, mike, and you won't believe it, I am putting I'm selling six suits. I'm putting another 20 suits into storage, wow. And I'm looking at it and I'm like who the hell needs? And I'm keeping four, because I, you know, I don't wanna go to store something. I'm keeping four that I'm gonna have in my apartment. Who the hell needs 30 suits? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So you know, part of I guess the success we've had my wife and I have had over the years has led to a lifestyle that we're looking back on saying, hmm, do we really need all of this shit? Sorry, am I allowed to say that that's cool. Do we really need all this stuff? So, going back to your question, to tie it in the five year plan is simplify. Yeah, you know it's been an interesting journey because I'm making more money now than I ever have have accumulated, you know, a good nest egg for my family.
Speaker 2:But no matter how much money I made and maybe others can relate to this you still feel stressed. There's always that the bills don't stop Right, because you get on this merry-go-round and you build this house and then you need the nice cars and then, oh, the tag that you're wearing on your wrist is nice enough, let's get a Rolex, and the Rolex is nice enough, let's get a paddock, and it's nonstop. And we were actually headed down that road. So we were building our new house, so we sold our house, we're building our new house. The new house is still about a year and a half and so my wife you know we moved from California and she's always wanted to have a place. Back then we kept our house, but then we sold it because we weren't using it. But now that we're like, hey, we got some extra cash from selling our house, let's go, maybe buy a small place on the beach. Well, what is a small place on the beach in California cost it's not small.
Speaker 2:It's not easy, it's not small. And then we're like, well, we're gonna build our house, but it might take longer. So maybe we buy another place in Arizona while the house is being built. And I'm looking at this going you got a couple of million bucks in small place in California. We're building our new house, we're gonna buy a temporary. I'm like what the hell is going on here. Just as I get out of the rat hole of selling our house and kind of freeing up some funds and just having like no stress, all of a sudden we look at each other like what are we doing? Yeah, I know. And so no place in California. We're not buying anything here. We're gonna rent an apartment for a year and then when we build our house in a year and a half, the construction, then that's it. We're good, yeah no, that's smart.
Speaker 1:You know. I appreciate your honesty and openness because I think that's one of the things that people don't realize. That you know, I think, being in the dental field, there's a certain image that dentists have. Right, we get caught up in it, and you do. You know you make a good living, but then you buy a house that you overextend a little bit for and then, you're right, you get a nice car that you overextend a little bit for and after a while you know the reality is is, I think a lot of our colleagues live underneath that stress and it's more self-imposed than anything. You know, and now I'm the same way. I like to try to simplify things and I don't know. You know the advice, the sage advice, when finances is always live underneath your means, but you always seem to live over and it is, it's stressful.
Speaker 2:Well, there's a balance to that. Right, because I think you have to push yourself, you have to take the risks to open your office, to go, and I mean no sane person goes you know three $400,000 in debt for dental school and then goes by as a house and goes by a practice. I mean that takes some, you know, some foresight and some risk. You have to have that, but then I think we tend to extend that risk too much. Right, there's a balance. I'm not. I don't want anyone listening because I think I was successful because I took risks. I sold my practice at a very nice practice in California. I sold it. I moved to Arizona in 2011 because our SIRAC doctors business at the time was growing right and our CEO at the time, imtiaz Manji, who's the founder of the spear education along with Frank Spear, and you know, he said you got to move. I said, listen, this is all I had, like my practice is my baby. He says I get it, but if you really want this business to grow, you got to move. Like, somebody has to be here full time managing the business. Now, I'm not a business guy, by any means, so it wasn't that I was, it was my. It just needed someone's attention.
Speaker 2:Right, I took the risk. I mean I had. There was no guarantee. I mean, in hindsight, everyone looks at spear education and our center and you know I just mentioned we had 10,000 people a year coming through our doors. I didn't happen overnight, yeah, when I moved it was. There was no guarantee that education was going to happen. And imagine if something like COVID happened at the time when I moved here. So so you have to take risks, you have to push yourself a little bit. But I think in doing that and seeing the fruits of my labor and, you know, making a little bit of money, you tend to get like, oh yeah, I'm invincible and I can buy this and I can buy that. And then you know the story about the handpieces and dropping 10 grand on handpiece. So I would now go and say, oh, I can afford it, let's go buy it. What did I just do? Like it's stupid, it's unnecessary, so anyways.
Speaker 1:Hey, do you do the same thing with Amazon, like every day you get an Amazon and order something, just so you get something delivered?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a credit card statement and you never look at it. I don't know about you guys. My wife is a coupon cutter, frugal as hell, will spend two hours to save 10 bucks, and me, I haven't looked at the last credit card statement to verify that the charges are great. Oh yeah, you know five, six grand, that's about right. Pay it off. Yeah, if you can pay it, it's okay. Exactly, and it's stupid, and it's stupid.
Speaker 1:So let me ask you that, because as I go around today and I lecture, I tell people that dentistry because I've done it longer than you, so over 30 years right, dentistry over the last 30 years has changed a lot. I tell people, when we were in dental school we did a crown. It wasn't Sarah, it was a gold crown. You know we did a filling. It wasn't a fancy composite, it was just amalgam. And today you look at you know your crown could be, it could be an indirect resin, it could be a ceramic. You know lithium disilicate, it could be a zirconia, it could be a zirconia lithium. I mean there's. You know it's all this stuff, I would even say. But when I look at dentistry as a business, what I see is, before those of us that took insurance, you could increase your reimbursement, you know, a couple percent in a year. And California Delta Dental would let you resubmit your fees and let it you ratchet up cost of living, increase that type of thing.
Speaker 1:But today it's a kind of a different game. You know our overheads are going up because of and not in a bad way. But you know you've got your CVC team, you've got your SARIC, you've got the service contracts to take care of those. You know those machines and, but reimbursement from insurance companies actually starting to go down. You know we're asking this to take big cuts. I mean, some insurance companies are asking providers to take like a 30% cut and you know, and I tell the clinicians, most dental practices aren't even at a point where they've got a 30% profit margin. So if you're asked to give up 30%, you're actually losing money every time you serve a patient instead of, you know, being able to keep your business afloat. Do you have any thoughts on that, especially because you have this tech area and tech is again. We didn't have SARICs and CVCTs that we had to pay for even 20 years ago. So I'm interested to see where you are when you're thinking.
Speaker 2:Lots of thoughts on this, so that you know. So this was the battles on dental town that I would get into, where people are like, oh, it's too expensive and this and that, and you sit there and justify it. So a couple of different ways to look at it. One is isn't it interesting how our dental lives parallel our personal lives, where we keep buying crap, right? So one thing is be very mindful in the dollars that you spend. Make sure it has a positive ROI. That's the first thing, that's an overarching principle, and even before that, I would say that anything that you purchase, yes, it has to have an overarching positive ROI for the practice, but it better provide better patient care, because if you're just buying something so that you can make more money out of it, that's not the kind of practice that I would want personally. Okay, now I think that technology has its cost. Okay, but if you utilize that technology properly, you are actually going to be more efficient. So I'll give you an example, okay, and Frank Spear always has shared a similar example in his lecture. So let's look at placing an implant. So I do it the traditional way. I take a 2D X-ray or maybe a 2D panel, I plan out my implants, I place it by hand and make sure everything is good to the best of my abilities. And there's obviously some skilled surgeons you could place implants with their eyes closed. So those aren't the people I'm talking about. But when you're going in blind, for example, hey, what if that implant isn't quite right? Do I nick the adjacent room? Maybe I'm close to the nerve, maybe I perf the buckle place, you know some sort of complication. You might place 100 implants in a year, but if you got two or three complications, boy, that's costly, right. But then I say okay, my cone beam is going to cost me two grand a month, my CERC is going to cost me two or three grand a month, and so that's a three, four thousand bucks in payments. But just looking at the implant aspect of things, I can now take a scan of that patient, I can put it into my cone beam, I can make a surgical guide that allows me to place that implant exactly where I wanted to. And if I have some sort of a clinical skill, instead of a couple of failures here and there, I mean, I basically eliminate them. Of course you can have complications, right. But if I can now eliminate it and I can do that procedure faster because after each drill I'm not having to take a check X-ray to make sure I'm going in the right direction. Right? What is that worth?
Speaker 2:So I have friends and I used to place implants. I, like I said, I don't practice clinical dentistry anymore but, like I have friends who have invested in the technology that their implant appointment is it's five minutes. They've done all the work ahead of time. They have a guide. They place their implant, they're out, done, boom.
Speaker 2:So, yes, it can have a cost to it, and if you're not mindful of the cost, you're going to buy things you don't need. But if you buy the things that make sense and I'm not talking about CEREC and CATC, this could, you can apply this to anything. Right, it should make you more efficient. It should provide better patient care. More importantly, it provides a better patient experience. Right, if you come in to see me and you need an implant, I place that implant is a five minute procedure. I mean, what does that do for me as a, as your provider? Right, that's confidence. And really that's how I built my practice, and it was basically the same concept with CADCAM and CEREC that if someone comes in, I can provide a quality restoration and make it an experience for them, then that's money that's well spent. So that's one way to look at it.
Speaker 2:The other thing that I would say is that I think it's becoming really difficult to be a solo practitioner and have all the toys. I think it really makes a lot of sense that if you were to. Maybe you're not partners, maybe it's not an associate, but even if there's some sort of a space sharing, right, I'll put you on the spot, mike. What's your work schedule for seeing patients? Three days a week, three and a half, something like that. These are three, okay, and for most dentists that's like boy, that's enough. I'm not doing more clinical dentistry. Yet you have this office overhead of, with all the equipment and the supplies and the furniture and the leaseholds. So, four days a week, 200 days a year, that's being unused.
Speaker 2:So what I have told some colleagues of mine. They find someone that you enjoy working with. Do some sort of a space share, maybe merge a practice of some sort where you come in from seven to two straight and they come from two to seven straight, and now your office is open 12 hours a day, providing more patient care and you're utilizing the same cone beam, the same SEREC and reducing the overhead, basically, and there's a million different ways to set that up. I'm sure there's plenty of consultants out there that will help you set that up, but I think that makes a lot of sense today, in today's environment, where there is a cost to keeping up with.
Speaker 2:I won't call it the standard of care, but it's the norm. Now You're opening an office, are you going to go to traditional X-rays or are you going to use digital X-rays? It's just, it is what it is, and digital X-rays cost you a lot more than a dip tank, but I don't think anyone would practice without digital X-rays. So it's just, I guess, the cost of doing business and we have to, as smart clinicians and smart business people, adopt our business model to take advantage of that.
Speaker 1:No, I absolutely agree. I think you made some great points and you really have to look at investing in technology or just, you know, as dentistry advances, you have to look at does that fit your practice and is it going to mean you're going to be more efficient? And I absolutely agree with what you're saying. And we know when we invest in something it isn't necessarily that we want to make more money, but we want to provide better patient care. And if we provide better patient care and we can cover the cost of that, then that's a two thumbs up.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I think anyone that says I'm not doing what I'm doing because I don't like to make money, I think that's just a flat out lie. We all want to be financially successful so we can take care of our families, we can take care of ourselves. There's nothing wrong with that. But when that comes at the expense of others, I think that's where the problem is. If I can be a great clinician and take really good care of my patients, I'm not embarrassed that I've been a successful clinician financially. No one should be. But when you do things that I don't care what happens to the patients, I just want to make money. That's, I think, the problem. Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's the problem. Yeah, layups right. And I think your other point about we have to change the way we run our practices, because you're obviously right Now the days that just being a solo practitioner who also has a million dollars in technology in the office and that adds up really quickly, it's hard to support that.
Speaker 2:Well, it can be done, but I mean, I think it's just, it's difficult. It's one of those things where if you're not mindful of the technology that you have and it goes unused, I think it's very dangerous. But if you purchase the technology, you get trained on it. I mean the ROI is unbelievable. I mean I've seen I've been teaching SEREC for you know, since 2006 basically and the conversation always comes up oh, it's too expensive. You know, what am I gonna do with that monthly payment? You know it's two grand a month. It's three grand a month, whatever it is Okay.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, it is, it's not cheap, but that three grand a month means that you don't have no more lab bill. That three grand a month means that you don't have a second visit. That three grand a month means that you've earned a lot of goodwill towards your patient who's like, oh my God, you mean I don't have to come back. I mean what is that worth? So the ROI is tremendous when you're trained. I guess I'm biased because I run a training center. So hey, take it for what it is. But we provide training on technology and what our experience has been is that people that learn to utilize the technology properly, I mean, there's no issues. Those people that going back to my personal life example of just like to buy stuff because they can tell their friends how much they've bought, that's a problem. That's a problem. You gotta be committed to learning to use the equipment, the technology, the new way of doing procedures. If you're committed to it, I don't see an issue.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think one of the big investments that always pays back is something you already mentioned is education. You know, you learn more, you get the confidence, but as you learn more, you see more, which means you diagnose and do more, which I think is really important. So all the points.
Speaker 2:Going back to you, you taught me veneers back in the day, right, you were my instructor at LVI. Had I not spent the seven grand or whatever it was, for the tuition I mean? So I think I took two classes there. So call it a $15,000, $20,000 investment for a broke kid out of dental school who had no practice related to speak of. So spending the 20 grand between travel and hotels and all that stuff, it was a big commitment. But that $20,000 investment, how many millions of dollars in dentistry was I able to produce because of that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great, right, I mean, I think I'm supposed to get at least 5% of that, so just send me a check. I already did. You haven't gotten it? Oh no, it must be stuck in the mail, covid, sorry. So you know what, with all this that you've done and I love your perspective on everything I think you've gone through this journey and you have a nicely centered life. You're kind of figuring out what the true meaning of life is.
Speaker 1:It's not all the things, but it's really who you are and how you spend your time, and we can get rid of all the things and what we're left with is that core person. Then we have to like that core person Absolutely. So it seems like you're pretty happy. Let me ask you a question what inspires you Anything in particular?
Speaker 2:Oh, you know, I was actually having this conversation with someone the other day who was so one of the projects I'm involved with I'm a consultant and I'm an investor and it's not something I talk about or anything. It's a group practice and this doctor was looking to join the group practice and they were a little concerned about it. And so we were having this conversation and I said, listen, I understand you're scared that you might be selling your practice to a group and joining this group because your practice is your baby, right? But what you have to do in life and I think to be successful you have to surround yourself with winners. You need to surround yourself with successful people. So I was fortunate.
Speaker 2:As I was growing up, I mentioned my uncle who was held some patents in the industry. I grew up a pretty good life because of my family. Now my father's a physician, so he personally I mean he's the greatest man on earth as far as I'm concerned, but he wasn't, has never been, a Uber wealthy man. He's done well, but I've seen success and what that does. It allows you to look at life in a little different way, because it just gives you choices right. So what inspires me is the ability to have choices. Okay. So going back to I wanna go to a dental convention and if I wanna buy 10 grand worth of handpieces because I think it would really help me provide better care, or I just want it, I wanna have that choice so I can pull out my credit card or write a check and not have to worry about it. If I wanna buy a new car for my wife or myself because my old one's a piece of shit, or I just want a new car, I wanna have that choice to be able to do it and not think twice about it. My younger daughter just started NYU, tish, which is unbelievably tough school to get into. She's doing an art and engineering degree. Wow, and me saying there's no other profession other than dentistry. Like what are you wasting your time on? Right? But I have the choice where I can write the $40,000 semester check for her because that's what she wants and I wanna be able to provide for my family like that. So I think what inspires me is the ability to just have choices in life. And I by no means have FU money at all, but my wife and I have done well enough where we have choices, where we can you know, if I decide I'm not liking what I'm doing for a living, I'm gonna take a year off. I have that choice. Now, if I like that, you know what I really do wanna buy my wife that beach house. We have that choice and I think that motivates me to no end because I've been on the other side of the spectrum.
Speaker 2:When I started my first practice, it was a very small practice in LA. I don't know that about the right practice, but I just wanted a practice to own and there were a couple of months. I'm either paying the rent or I'm paying my assistant. I'm certainly not paying myself. So I've been through the lean times and I never wanna be in those lean times again. And so I've surrounded myself with successful people. I have my family to look up to as inspiration. One of my biggest mentors is Imtiaz Manji and he has guided me and has had faith in me. I mean Uber successful, built up and sold multiple companies and I see that and it inspires me. So I don't do it for the money. I think I have enough money now where I don't have to worry about it. I do it because it's the choices. I wanna be able to do what I wanna be able to do when I wanna be able to do and not have to answer to anyone, and that is my ultimate goal. Well, I'll always interest to my wife, so that'll never go away.
Speaker 1:But yeah, no, I think that's a great answer. It's funny in a timely way that last night I was messaging my kids and I told them the same message. I said it's really who you hang out with. You become like those people. And I've got kids from teens to the 30s and I told them just choose your friends wisely and I want them to have the opportunity to have financial success, and that could be at different levels. I just don't want them to have to struggle. I don't really. You know those relationships that you build up, one one relationship will lead to one opportunity which will lead to another opportunity and just kind of snowballs up. So that's great. It's great to have a family, that that you can look up to. You know, father, it's there, but then uncles and everything that show you kind of set higher aspirations.
Speaker 1:I guess you know even over being a being a physician, you know which, for a lot of people they think, oh, that's. You know the epitome. And yet you were looking beyond that and you had that influence which I think you're lucky to have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I was. I was very fortunate, and I think one of the things, the biggest lessons that I've taken is don't set your goals to be attainable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, because if you reach it, then what? Yeah, my dream is to have a Mercedes. Okay, well, here you go. Shit. Now what? Yeah, I say that as an example. You know nothing, it could be anything. You know. You know, if you set your goal to something that you know you're going to reach, what's the point? You're going to reach it, set your goal to something that you aspire to reach, that if you truly do reach that goal, you've done something special. Yeah, that's. I think that's been my biggest, I think, lesson over the years is and my wife's, the complete opposite. My wife says I came from a middle class family and I don't want anything, and she keeps me grounded. Yeah, but you know as much as I've talked about. Hey, you know, I have a bunch of. There's certain things that I I will freely admit I am extremely frivolous on. It's just one of those things that choices. It allows me to be stupid when I want to be stupid.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I mean, I think you've done. You've done amazing things. So let me ask you about what I know. It may be this a repetitive question, because you've given us through this time today a lot of great tips, but today, if you had to give a colleague some advice on how to have a meaningful life, anything in particular, Wow, that's a good question, because I think it's it's so different for everyone, I think.
Speaker 2:I think the the, the meaningful life is contentment, and I'm sort of starting to learn that right now. You know you get your. You get your first big check. You want more. You get your first house. You want more. You buy your first nice car. You want more, more, more, more. Is this never enough? You're never content, because whatever you have now, you're aiming for the next thing.
Speaker 2:I think, if you want a meaningful life, certainly set your goals to a place where you're aspiring to do great things, whatever that means to you. But it also means that that it's a journey and it's not a destination, right? Because if I go back to the Mercedes example, I don't know why I'm choosing Mercedes. I got nothing against Mercedes. I think they're brilliant cars. But let's say, my goal is I want a Mercedes, and that's your goal. And you hit that Mercedes. And now, as soon as you have that Mercedes, you're like oh man, that was easy. I got my dream car, you know, after just a little bit of hard work. Now I want the next dream car. You're not content, right? So the Mercedes isn't your destination, it's a journey. You, you say I want that Mercedes. And at some point in your life and your career early, late, whatever you you aspire that goal. You reach that one goal of getting your dream car. Enjoy that car. Yeah, Drive the hell out of it. Like like love it, take care of it. Don't just now that I've got what I wanted for 20 years all of a sudden, ah, that's not enough.
Speaker 2:Now let me go to the next thing, and that's you can say that about relationships. Right, you have your relationship with your wife. Enjoy that relationship, nurture it. I mean, you know, build upon not that. Oh, yeah, my, you know, oh, my wife is awesome. But look at this other chick over here, right, yeah, I mean traveling in the, in the lecture circuit. I saw so much of that. And you know, my wife and I have been married 23 years and we've had our ups and downs, but I couldn't be a more fortunate individual to be married to her because, like I said, she keeps me grounded. So I think, contentment, contentment with who you are, what you have and just when you, when you reach whatever goal you set for yourself, just just cherish it, soak it in, not not that. Oh, now that I've reached it. And now I'm going to the next one. I mean I speaking from my personal experience, it's, it's, I've, that is something that I have. You know, this selling the house and downsizing has really made me look inside and say, boy, be happy with what you have. It's not, you know, if I was building our new house. So I'll share our new house.
Speaker 2:So I mentioned I have some vices. One of them is cars, one of them is watches. Okay, so I those. Those are two things that I don't think I'll ever stop spending money on in the near future. But if you buy them right, you can actually make some money. So that's my excuse. Right, you can flip them for a little bit more. So our new house. I have a big ass garage and overlooking the garage is my office, right? So that's kind of my, my frivolous thing.
Speaker 2:I got into cars as a hobby and my dream car was a Porsche GT3 RS. Love that car. Saved up, bought the car a couple of years ago and it was sad because I was going through a period in my life where I was experiencing some financial success and as soon as I had that car, mic, I was ready to buy the next one. Like what? What can I trade this in an upgrade to the next one? And I ended up selling that car and I and I regret that to this day because, yeah, there's the next one, but is it any better, is it? Yeah, it might be a little bit more expensive. It might be a two RS instead of a three RS. Those of you that aren't Porsche fans, a two RS is actually more expensive than the three RS. Don't ask me how that works.
Speaker 2:So you know, had I been content with that car, I would have owned it today, I would have enjoyed it, I would have been putting a ton of miles on it, but it it. I look back on it and it was, it was. I don't. I'm not happy with that period in my life where it was just, oh yeah, buy this, buy that, because I had a little bit of financial success, because that financial success can go tomorrow, right? So my goal in my new house I have my garage with my office. It's an eight car garage and I'm going to spend the next 30 years putting the most beautiful, fun, meaningful to me cars in that garage. That's just my thing, right? And it's not that they're expensive cars, I mean it could be a $20,000. I'd love to buy my first car that I got when I turned 16 and put it in that garage an Acura Integra that my dad bought me. Probably can't even find them anymore, they're still out there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're still out there, but that was, you know, 30 years ago or whatever it was. So. But I'm going to, I'm going to. It's not going to be just go. So I have. I have some very successful friends. We've got a group of buddies that collect cars and stuff, and so you know, they've got some very nice cars. And this, this one guy, he's just, I would say, three times a year, four times a year, he's just buying like a you know, lambo, ferrari, etc. I'm just like dude, and he's got so much money that the cars aren't even meaningful to him. Yeah, it's just, look at my garage, I got lifts in there and you know, just the cars just shoved in the corner. It's like, hey, when do you, when do you drive that Porsche? What was the last time you drove it? Yeah, it's been about a year and a half. What's the point?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, he's a great guy.
Speaker 2:He's a good buddy of mine. I don't I'm not talking smack about him, but he's. He's just in a different phase of his journey and I think you have to be content with what you have. Yeah, cherish it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know good advice, so I've got some notes down here. One I hope you'll take a personal note and give me a hundred-year mortgage on the house you're selling, because it sounds like it fit my needs really well. So I got that on, okay, thanks.
Speaker 2:And then you have to. If you buy my house, you have to love fish tanks. Oh, that's fine. I have a thousand gallon saltwater fish tank in my house, in the middle of my family room, so I could go scuba diving in that. You literally could swim in it. Oh cool.
Speaker 1:All right, let's go take it.
Speaker 2:When I was building that, my wife said you're doing this and nobody's ever going to buy this house because this fish tank. And down the road I ended up taking our home theater. After I stopped lecturing and I had my weekends I took up golf again. So I've been playing a lot of golf. I put a golf simulator in our home theater. Nice, I did the home theater and put a golf simulator in. So my wife says you know, you've turned this house into such a personal thing that nobody's going to buy it because the fish tank and the golf simulator nobody's going to. And so the couple that's buying our house, the wife, says the only reason I want to buy this house is because the golf simulator. I mean, they love the house, but that's like the only reason. And the only reason my husband wants is because the fish tank.
Speaker 1:Wow, two for two, you're a visionary, you're a visionary. So and just let you know, you know we did get an aceric and we got up and all that and I, you know, see it several world and everything at that. And yeah, you know, I think for our practice it was a good decision to get into that, but it's, it's a big investment financially and then just on the education side and getting it all down, you know there's there's, you know it's not.
Speaker 1:it took guys like you develop the education, so the guys like me can buy that, figure out how to even practice without it now, right, yeah, yeah, we can't practice without it now, yeah, so so that was a great influence as a visionary, Awesome. And I think one of the other good things that you said, just kind of recounting what we've covered is, you know, having good influences. And please give my best to MTS Monji and to Frank Spears, because, well, that's right in our industry They've done a lot of great things and, and you know, whether it be on education, professionally, as dent you know Frank's case being a dentist or MTS developing all these businesses I mean they've really impacted us. So, yeah, please give them 100%. And I think you're really, you're really lucky they have had guys like that around and they're lucky to have a guy like you around.
Speaker 2:I'm blessed beyond belief and blessed beyond belief.
Speaker 1:Well, I have to get Frank on to do one of these. Sometimes, yeah, you have to come a hookup the. You know, I don't know if this what this goes back, oh, probably about 25 years or more. Yeah, I'm in Sacramento and there's a little town about 45 minutes away called Fairfield and my buddy was a dentist in this little town and he calls me up and says, hey, there's this guy coming in to speak. He's supposed to be pretty good. I said, okay, who is it? He goes, frank Spears. I don't know who Frank Spears is at that point, and so so, my butt, so I drive down there.
Speaker 1:It's a early morning lecture. I tried down there early and meet up with my buddy and we're having breakfast there and we're seeing our little booth at the restaurant is in the hotel where Frank is gonna be lecturing, and I'm like, wow, you know, I hope this is a good lecture, because it was a full-day lecture. And I go I don't even know who this Frank Spears is, and so so we get into the lecture starts on, my buddy and I. We sit right in the middle of the lecture hall, probably about five rows off from the, from the front row, and Frank, you know, they introduce them and Frank gets up there on stage and he goes. You know what he goes.
Speaker 1:I was at breakfast this morning. I heard these two docs talking about me. Hope you that this lecture was gonna be a good lecture. There's right at us. So that's. I later went up, I think at the end of the day, and I just said, hey, great lecture, really enjoyed it. But it was just so funny because, yeah, he was like in the booth next to us and heard his talking about I hope this guy's a good lecture.
Speaker 2:I mean you know, to your audience. If you haven't heard Frank speak, I mean just phenomenal. I've learned a lot from a, from a speaking perspective from him. I'll share my favorite Frank's tears, your story with you.
Speaker 2:So years ago, as we're doing, starting to the Syrac stuff here, they put a Syrac in Frank's office and they say, sam, go train Frank and his team so he can learn to use the Syrac in his office. I'm like, wow, awesome, like what a you know what a privilege. I'm super nervous because I'm this young kid gonna go teach Frank Spear right. And Frank is, you know, reserve guy, is a little quiet, he's like he's out of his element because he's never used cat cam before. And so we go up there and we're doing this thing and so he works on his I think his stepson. He's gonna do a crown prep. So he preps the crown and he looks at me and he says, sam, what do you think of my prep? And I'm like, what do you say that? Your Frank Spear, what the hell am I? So your prep sucks. Frank like redo it.
Speaker 2:That was, of course it's great. I mean, it was immaculate. Of course it's gonna be perfect. Yeah, so that was. That was a humbling experience for me to have to go train Frank back in the day.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I really appreciate your time. I've had a great time. I appreciate your honesty, your openness about everything, and I'm just so happy that life has worked out so well for you and I appreciate it, mike.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. It's been fun. I hope people enjoyed the story.
Speaker 1:No, I hope so too. I think people can be inspired at different levels. You know what. So how do people Get ahold of you? How can they hear more about what you're doing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you can always find me on Facebook, but my email is s puri at CDocscom. Or you can go to CDocscom, which is our Website, where we have discussion boards and videos and all our educational curriculum and everything. And I'm here in Scottsdale and you know. Shoot me a message, facebook me. Don't call me. Most people when they call me and I don't. If I don't recognize the number, I'm not picking up. And if you leave me a voicemail, I'm not. I'm not even listen, though I like. Who the hell listens a voicemail anymore?
Speaker 2:but as peri at CDocscom. You're welcome to email me and I do my best to respond to everyone and, you know, happy to help in any way that I can. And hopefully there's some young docs out there who Maybe are struggling a little bit and they've had a rough year with COVID, and I will just Tell you that there is no, there is no shortcut. It's, like I said, overnight success. 20 years later, yeah, we tend to see these stories like game stop. Have you been falling the game? Stop stock, yeah, I know, like millionaires being minted overnight Bitcoin and you tend to think, oh, my god, that's the only way to success. No, yeah, no, there's a very few people that that are getting successful that way. Don't lose sight. Be, have goals, be content with what you have and, just you know, be happy. There's no shortcuts. That's all. That's, I think, the main message.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's all great advice. I mean, oh yeah, you know you're getting to be a young sage now, so you can get a good advice.
Speaker 2:You got, like you said, of hard knocks, my friend. I've had my ass kicked one too many times in many ways in different situations, so well, you know, it's funny because you preface what you last said.
Speaker 1:You know there's any young doctors out there. I think it's a lot of old doctors out there. It's that same advice. So, yeah, you know, so they're listening to. Yeah, you know, believe me, those of us that are young and old work We've gone through a lot of the hard knocks as the economy's gone up and down, the profession's gone up and down and you know, on a daily basis. I know we sometimes we have some great days and we have some challenging days, and I just thought that's also part of this is, you know, just let people know that, hey, that life is a real life.
Speaker 1:It's not all what you see on Facebook and everything you know. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I think Instagram and social media and some of that is probably the worst thing that has happened to our society, because you think that's how Life is just perfect every single time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no pressure on us. I think, yeah, it's not.
Speaker 2:Life is tough. Life is tough and it's a. It is us. You know it's a sludge to get through your career, your life, your marriage, your kids. Yeah initially everything Gotta persevere, just keep going Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Good to see you, mike. Thanks for having me. Oh, good to see you. I'm gonna just say a couple things here at the end. Just our listeners, you know. I hope you enjoyed listening to dr Peary.
Speaker 1:He's a man that had a dream and he worked hard to see it come to fruition. And I think those of us in dentistry have to respect that. Each of us has a different vision of success and I think we saw that in happiness. But I know, in dentistry I think we're able to create that life that that all our friends are a little bit different. We kind of create that life that we want to be, and I think that's another important aspect, and I guess I look at it as you know, talking about technology is our dental life is almost like a stew. You know, it's kind of what you throw into it that influences what we finally have. So some of us throw a lot technology in it. Some of us, you know, when you look at dentistry day, there's airway, there's implants, as you mentioned, there's aesthetics for so many different parts, and nobody necessarily has all those parts in their one practice, but they find the parts that they enjoy to do.
Speaker 1:And so I, you know, I think, as professionals, we need to work together and as colleagues, I think we should stand together. You know we are in the same profession. We have all the same challenges. It doesn't matter. You know, those of us that have had the opportunity to lecture the doctors all over across the globe, all across the world, have all seen that we have similar, similar challenges. It's all the same. So I think it's been great to share all this insight. So, on behalf of myself and this day, pecs dental materials, I just want to thank you, sam, very much for your time and for your insights, just being so honest and open. It's been great, thank you. Thanks, mike.
Speaker 2:I appreciate it. Hope it wasn't too hokey or corny. No, it's all good. Thanks, buddy you.