Secure Dental_Matt Bynum.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Secure Dental_Matt Bynum.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Secure Dental Intro:
Welcome to the Secure Dental Podcast. Through conversations with the brightest minds in the dental and business communities, we'll share practical tips you can use to scale your practice and create financial freedom for yourself and your family. My name is Dr. Noel Liu, CEO and Dentist at Secure Dental, and also co-founder of DentVia. I'm your host for the Secure Dental podcast and I'm so glad you're joining in.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Hello, everyone. This is Dr. Noel Liu, another segment of our Secure Dental podcast. Today, I have a good friend and a colleague, I mean, this guy is so awesome! Dr. Bynum and I, we go back about a year and a half, where we started off with our real estate journey, and this guy has been nothing but amazing and keeps inspiring me. So Dr. Bynum graduated from the University of Iowa College of Dentistry in 1995. He maintains a private practice for the past 28 years in Simpsonville, South Carolina, with emphasis on aesthetic, restorative, physiologic, and implant dentistry. This guy is like a full-arch master. He is a co-author of an acclaimed book, The Boomerang Effect. He also serves as a consultant to several dental manufacturers as well as laboratories. But most importantly, he's a great, great husband and a father of three young men, a leader, and a man who rather call himself a dad or a coach before being called a doctor. So this shows how down-to-earth he is. Dr. Bynum is an educator, a mentor, and an international lecturer speaking on topics of restorative dentistry, implantology, practice success and development, goal setting, motivation, and helping everyone become the best version of themselves. So, Dr. Matt Bynum, great to have you here, my friend. Welcome!

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Noel, my man, it's so great to be on this call with you and so appreciative of our friendship. And thank you for having me on.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Oh, it's been a pleasure. It's great. Let's try to dive right in, right? There's a lot of stuff in your intro.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
You know, I wrote it, of course. What do ...

Dr. Noel Liu:
But, see, I've been knowing you for about a year and a half. Half of this stuff I did not even know. So tell me a little bit about yourself. How you got started in dentistry?

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Here's the truth. All my life, I think I kind of wanted to be a dentist, but at the same time I was an athlete. I played baseball in college. I went to University of California, San Diego. This was a long time ago. And I really thought I was going to play baseball, man. I, once I started playing college baseball, I thought, this is it. And then about halfway through that college career, I had a shoulder injury that changed some things for me, and I realized this is probably not going to happen. So I had to go back on what was it I want to do. So here I am. I'm living in Del Mar, California, four houses from the sand. I used to surf a couple of times a week. So, what am I going to do, right? And I went back to tea, and I thought, there's nobody in my family that's a dentist. But I knew everybody that I knew in dentistry was an orthodontist. And I loved their lifestyle. I loved that they got to go on vacation with their families. They had this nice practices. They drove these nice cars. They had a beautiful house. They had all this stuff that, you know, somewhere inside of me, I really want to acquire those things, right?

Dr. Noel Liu:
So you were in college at this time, right?

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Yeah, I'm in college, and I'm kind of, I knew people through high school, but, pardon me if my voice is a little cracky. I'm coming over this sinus stuff that's going on.

Dr. Noel Liu:
No, you're good.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
So. Yeah. So it's finally college. I gotta make a decision. So I graduate college, and I studied zero. You gotta understand, I studied zero for this. What do I got to do to get into dental school, right? I know that I have the requirements. Oh, my gosh, I got to take this test. Well, this thing called the DAT, I've never, I've not even studied for this DAT, so. I took a year off after I graduate and I'm working three jobs.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Wow. This is, reminds me of a living color if you're my age.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Are you lazy, man? I worked three jobs. So here I'm working three jobs. I wait tables. I am working at a warehouse where I'm lifting sinks and refrigerators and dishwashers and stuff like that. And then I served as a part-time electrician with a friend of mine who had an electric company.

Dr. Noel Liu:
You did three jobs, three jobs. Nothing to do with dentistry.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Nothing to do with that.

Dr. Noel Liu:
I love it, I love it.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
So here I'm studying for the DAT. My now-fiance at the time was in nursing at UCLA. And this is not my wife Ann. My wife was a dentist, is not the nursing fiance. That's a different story in itself. And we'd have to take up a couple podcasts talking about it.

Dr. Noel Liu:
That's a different episode, right?

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Yeah. Different one. So anyway, I applied to dental school and I figured I've got a connection at UCLA I'm in 'cause I knew the guy running the ortho department. I thought, man, I'm, actually I'm from LA. I can get into UCLA no problem. I went down, did the interview, and I always remember this guy. I don't know his name, but I remember sitting down in his chair and I don't know about you, Noel, if you remember these interviews that you had in dental school, this guy sits across from me and he looks at me and he says, So, Matt, do you want to know what I see here? And he's got my folder, right? This is right when I sat down. And I said, No, why don't you tell me? He says, Well, I see an ex-jock whose grades are not that great and whose test scores do this. And I looked at him and I said, So am I in? And he started laughing. He said, No, not not quite. But I got put on the waiting list at UCLA and probably could have got in if I didn't accept it where I went in Iowa. But anyway, drew me into a tailspin because I thought, like, I'm thinking I've got connections, right? So I'm in. That wasn't the case. So I went on this Midwest tour and we had five schools in five days, fell in love with the University of Iowa. And the reason was way, way back when I was applying to dental school in the like 1990 was very simply that Iowa was seeing clinical patients restoratively second year.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Oh, wow!

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Yeah. Which is so different than any other school at the time. So we were doing hygiene our first year, and we were drilling and filling and under billing our second year. That's what led me to, to the University of Iowa. But I got into dentistry originally. In the interviews, I did the normal, Hey, I want to help people and I want to do all that.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Sure, sure.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
But the truth of the matter is, it's not really probably why you get into dentistry. But the truth of the matter is, as you age in dentistry, 'cause I've been doing this now almost 29 years, and the reason I do it now is to help people. It's crazy because it's like you come full circle and you really want to do things to impact other people, leave a legacy, but at the same time you have an impact on others that, when I started in dentistry, that was nowhere near my thought pattern. I was just like, Hey, I want to get out. I want to make money. I want to have this great life. And what I realized later is as a dentist, we lead a very good living. But you're not necessarily going to make a very good life with just dentistry. So we've got to use other resources and other vehicles, which is why we met at Multifamily Conference, man. Yeah, that's basically it. That's how I got into dentistry, bro.

Dr. Noel Liu:
It's such a crazy story because when I was at that AIM NatCon, I think I met you at the event, at that real estate event, it was such a coincidence because I dropped my badge and I was walking away and you were like, Hey, bud, did you, did you drop this? And I just turned around and we just hit it off. I mean, that's, you know, who would have thought of that, right?

Dr. Matt Bynum:
I thought what was crazy is you and I were having this conversation in this group of maybe seven people after that. And the guy says, Hey, so, I asked you, I remember saying, Hey, what do you do for a living? You said, I'm a dentist. And I looked at you and said, You're a dentist. Well, I'm a dentist! And then a guy across the way in the same group as where says, I'm a dentist. And I'm thinking, what the hell is going on here?

Dr. Noel Liu:
Exactly, exactly. So this shows like there is a level of understanding and a level of people wanting to learn in our profession. Like, what else do you do besides dentistry?

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Yes, there's so much more. There's so much more to life than just dentistry. Like I said, dentistry affords you a great living, but it's not going to give you the life and the quality of life that I think we really want and that we're wanting to set up for our families. You know what I mean? And this is where you've got to expand outside of dentistry. And even if it's in dentistry, you've got to move outside of your normal realm of practice in order to seek that kind of life that you want.

Dr. Noel Liu:
So which brings up my next point. You are great with implants. You love Implantology, right? And where are you today? Like, I know with all these years that you've been practicing, when did you start placing implants? How was that journey with implants? And where are you at now?

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Well, as a general dentist, I probably sit where everybody that's listening to this podcast as a general dentist started, where we were told in my generation dentistry, only surgeons and periodontist should be placing dental implants. General dentists should not be doing this. So the fear of God was kind of put into us in dental school that we should never touch dental implants. Well, I've never done things kind of the way that I was told to do them. I've always kind of strayed away from the path and done things my own way, I've kind of forged my own way. And for some reason, dental implants still stuck in the back of my head and I didn't do it. So I trained on dental implants, probably, God, probably 15, 16, 18 years ago. And didn't do anything with it. Zero. Didn't place one implant, went and learned it, and I thought to myself, Gosh, this is great. Why am I not doing this? And one day, I had a patient come in that one of the surgeons in my town had seen, and he was doing, he did a lower incisor implant. Well, there's one tooth here, there's one tooth here, and where do you think that implant went? It wasn't where my face was. It was like right here, like, snugged up on the tooth. And I had to restoratively make this thing look good somehow. And it was at that point that I realized, you know something, I've been trained in this. I should be the one that's taking charge of my own destiny, so to speak. So I started doing implants, probably, I want to say maybe ten years ago is when I started doing some playing around in the arena. I started placing guided implants when I first really got into it, because again, the fear of God has put in you that you're going to screw something up. I was using guides for even single implants and I, you know, it's great. It's easy. It's, this is awesome. And then I started to expand my repertoire from single implants into multi implants and started realizing, maybe I tried a guide one time and the guide was setting the implant kind of out the buckle wall. And I'm thinking, Wait a minute, I planned this.

Dr. Noel Liu:
What happened?

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Yeah. What happened? And it was then and there that I'm like, Hmm, maybe this is time to start Freehanding. And that's when I started taking charge. I jumped into the the multi-unit game, and then I got into the all-on situation with a group called Teeth Tomorrow, who was led by Michael Tishler. Michael Tishler was a dentist out of New York that was doing a whole lot of all-ons through his company that he started Teeth Tomorrow. So I went up to New York. I was with him for two days. I watched him. I trained under his wing as to what was what he was doing. Everything made sense to me. Everything, there was no surprises in anything. And I decided that it was time to start playing. So I came back, and next thing you know, I'm one arch turns into five arches, turns into 25 arches. And now we're having conversations about doing full-arch implants. And I'll tell you, this is something that I've been doing for the last, I'm going to say eight years, and this game has changed 180 degrees from when I started, like drastic, drastic. I remember in the early years doing, doing acrylic all-ons, and having them fracture. My fracture rate was like 35%, the failure rate, and my patients are coming back with this thing. They're like, Hey, and I'm going, you don't want to pull my hair out? And started realizing there's something else out there. So I started searching for it, and I started looking at zirconia, and I started looking at different types of PMMa, and I started looking at the process and what's been used. So now the thing's really flipped on its head. I do mostly zirconia screw-retained, but I've been playing in the arena now lately with the thing that's called Smileloc. Okay, have you heard of Smileloc?

Dr. Noel Liu:
No, I did not know Smileloc.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Let me tell you something. I think my, my good friend Young, who's developed this smile lock, and you guys, you can put it in the chat for the dentists out there. We'll put a link so you can check it out. But I'm going to tell you, I think this is going to be the next thing for the all-on situations that leaves your prosthetic with no holes because it's minimally invasive underneath, but no screw holes up through the top. So no weaknesses, no, no fracture points. And it uses a thermal conductor to release the proprietary abutment. It's pretty amazing this thing.

Dr. Noel Liu:
What is it? It's not screw, it's not screw-retained. It's more like, okay.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
It's not like a locator. You don't take it in and out. When you put it on, it doesn't come off unless I use a thermal conductor to release the clamp, to release the smile lock. It is, to me, this is one of the coolest technologies I've seen in a long, long time. So I'm really loving working with it and it's become prevalent in my clinic here as of late.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Let's connect after this show and let's, let's talk about it.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Yeah, I'll share some stuff with you on that. It's awesome.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Exciting because, you know, like me, I have like multiple associates. I need to make it as easy as possible. And how do you make it easy? If you have, like, a proven system that works time after time. And that's exactly what I'm looking for. So one thing I've just, I just love what you just said. Like, you've been playing around with implants for a while. You've been doing a lot of courses, but you never got started the last ten years. What was it? Was it mainly psychological or was it something where you just had that fear? Because I feel like a lot of guys, I just met another colleague, brilliant guy, 41 years old, and he's telling me that, You know what, I'm too late in the implant game, and I don't think I can get started. Do you think that's true?

Dr. Matt Bynum:
No, not at all. As a matter of fact, what I would tell him and any of the people that are listening or watching and it would be very simple, would be, I think the way to get involved would be very simply just to start doing immediate implants. Immediate implants will change your entire perspective on dental implants, because it'll immediately increase your productivity and it'll create effectiveness for your patients. And when you see that happen in front of your eyes, predictably, wow, that is a game changer. Most people are afraid to do immediate implants because they think you've got to go in and you've got to graft, and you've got to wait four months before you can go in there and drill for an implant. Why not place the implant immediately if you can? So the only place you really can't do that a lot of times is in the upper molars, because there's no structure that's left to be able to utilize any kind of thread grab at all. But I think the place that I would encourage him to start would be placing immediate implants 'cause if you can get security in doing that, then all of a sudden your game changes. You can start moving into doing more. And really capturing the, the place that you're going, the longevity of what you do and how you do it is not dictated by somebody else, it's dictated by you. You take full responsibility. I like that. I don't know, I know you like that, and I know there's some people that they don't want that responsibility. I want it to fall on my shoulders. I don't want the end result to fall on my shoulders when something's been done improperly underneath it and I don't know about it.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Now, was that your turning point when you said, You know what, I'm going to take everything in house and I'm going to start? Was that break, that turning point for you?

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Yeah. That, that implant that I explained to you that was placed right next to the lateral, it was at that point that I needed to take 'em because what I'm being dealt with, I've got to make look good somehow. Being a restorative dentist and being somebody that I taught aesthetics, and I did that for a long time. I taught aesthetics for about 17 years out in Vegas, and I learned from the gurus, the Hornbrook's, and the Larry Rosenthal and the guys that I don't even know the young dentists today even know who these people are, but.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Everyone follows, everyone follows up by now.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Yeah. And these were these were the guys that I was coming up with. And that's who I learned the trade, the craft from. But being the guy that's making things look nice, I've got to work with some things that aren't placed very well and I've got to make it look nice. So how am I going to do that? Well, I want to start controlling that environment. And that really flipped the switch for me and changed the game completely.

Dr. Noel Liu:
So next question. Office operations for you. I know you're a busy guy. You're trying to get all these cases wrapped up and get done. What is a normal office day look like? So all these, you do a lot of marketing. You have a lot of social media presence going on. What are you doing, like, with the leads coming in?

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Yeah, that's a good question. So here it is, it's Monday. I normally don't work Monday and Friday, unless I'm doing surgery. I do, I try to do my surgeries on Mondays if I can, but that all depends on whether I get anesthesia time or not, because the limiting factor where we're at is can we get anesthesia? And I don't want to do that myself. I'd rather work and concentrate on one area. So we have an anesthesia group that's basically based out of Pittsburgh that comes into the Greenville area. And they, there's only two groups in the market right now, and those guys kill it. But it's depended upon time. So here I am Monday, I'm up in my office, and if I just toured the camera around, you'd see I'm doing paperwork and I'm working on the business. I do that on Mondays. I do that on Fridays. I might do that on the evenings when I finish at 3:30, because I've built my dental career working on three days a week: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for seven hours a day. I've done that for 15 years. People said, How do you do it? Like, there's no way, you can't do that. And I've been doing it from the beginning. I've also done it as a cash practice, Noel. That's something you and I have never talked about either is I do everything I do without the influence of insurance whatsoever.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Gotcha. Okay.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
I'm a, I've been a cash practice since I started, and cash practice, to me means I'm either paid for the procedure in advance or the day of the procedure, not the insurance for 50% or 40%. We wait for it to come back and then we build the receivable. That's not how it happens. I can't, I can't buy groceries that way. I don't get to do anything else that way in my life. I don't think patients should be able to do that either. So I just don't let insurance be a factor. When patients come in, and I know there's people that are watching that are thinking, Well, gosh, that's not a reality. Sometimes insurance is a big factor. Well, it's really not when you think about the maximum allowable being $1,500 if they have a really good insurance, like really good insurance. What is $1,500? How does that play into your overall scheme of doing a smile change, or a quadrant of implants, or a full-mouth restoration? Nothing. Nothing. As a matter of fact, I give away $1,500 to do a full-mouth case or a full-arch case. No problem. And I think anybody out there would do that too. So I just, it's just not an issue for me. But going back to your question. So, yeah, we do, I do a lot of marketing. I've been doing marketing in Greenville for a long, long time. I'm a big believer in radio. I've been doing radio marketing for, gosh, over ten, 11 years now.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Oh wow. That's cool.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Yeah, it's different. And my only caveat to that is I tell people, If you're going to do radio marketing, then you have to capture the morning radio host in your town, like you've got to capture the big name. So one point I had the Country Music Morning host and I had the Talk Radio Morning host, because if you look at the demographics, talk radio is demographically more profitable for Dennis than your pop station, Okay? And believe it or not, Country Music Radio has a better demographic than your pop station. And you just have to look at the people that are listening. So you got to pay attention to those things. So I've worked on those DJs because DJs have terrible teeth. I mean, I don't know if you have any DJs in your practice, but these guys, they sleep all like through the night. They're up at three in the morning. They're doing Jolt Cola and Monsters and candy and all, just kind of stuff that is great for dentistry, you know what I mean?

Dr. Noel Liu:
You're dropping some serious nuggets here. Oh, shoot. I mean, here's the thing. I was marketing via radio when we first started, like with 1 or 2 locations. But we were marketing the wrong station and we were attracting the wrong crowd. What I learned from you just now is who to market and when to market. That's amazing.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Yeah. And if you're going to go to market, then own the market. Like, literally own the market. So that's like if you're going to go, if you're going to go in a magazine in your local area, okay, of course they pitch you magazine. You could be on the 10th page. You can have the inside cover. Why not have the cover, Noel? I mean, let's say you're going to go into the inside cover for four grand for a one magazine. Why not pay 12 grand for one shot? Because I guarantee you it's available if you ask for it. And where are you going to be seeing more on the cover of the magazine or the back inside cover? You tell me. If you're going to do something, you've got to command it and you've got to own it. And I'm a big believer in that. Be it radio, be it print, whatever it is. I've got some billboards at the airport here. Now Greenville, Greenville Spartanburg is an international airport I want you to know. Okay? Two small terminals either way, but we've got BMW, we've got Michelin, we've got Fluor, Daniel, we've got GE. We've got all these big companies here. So they have people that fly in and out from the countries into Greenville, sometimes through Atlanta but sometimes directly into Greenville. Either way, I've got billboards on each terminal that talk about full-arch implant replacement.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Love it, man, love it. You're on fire, dude. On fire, man.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
And all I want is I want people to see it. Whether they, it might not be the call to action, but I can't tell you how many times through the years people have said, Gosh, and this is funny, I saw your TV commercial that's, that was so awesome. And I'm like, Thank you so much, I'm glad you liked it. I don't have a TV commercial. The reason why they think I have a TV commercial is because I've been branded in so many different places that when something else dentistry comes up, they think it's me. It's just the way that it's been put out there because I've commanded enough on the space and I think it's really important.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Brilliant. So you're like, like omnipresent everywhere.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
We try. I'm not, that's a big word I wouldn't use that.

Dr. Noel Liu:
I think what you're telling me, man, these are some serious nuggets. I would say to all the listeners out there, even if we did half the marketing what Matt is doing, I think we can still kill it with the full-arch game.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Oh, you could, the full-arch game is for the taking. I mean, let's be honest, it's, it really just started becoming popular in the last two years, right? Exactly. So more and more people are starting to gain access to this because they're getting the training and they're getting, because there's patience, guys. This is the whole deal is, there is so many people that are in need of this product and this service. Their alternatives are removed the teeth and do a denture, or remove the teeth and do some implants, whether it be a locator, whether it be a smile lock or whether it be screw-retained zirconia, I don't care. They want alternatives for security. As long as you have an avenue for that and a means to finance it, they'll find a way to make it happen.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Exactly. I think it's just about changing the patient's lifestyle. If we can paint this picture onto the patients, I think they would just, without doubt, they would be running up front and just being ready to pay a deposit and getting it done.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Yeah, for sure.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Because if you can relate that message like what you just said, like what you can do for the patient, what else? If it's not you, then who else? And if it's not this, then what else? Right?

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Yeah. And I think another key important thing to, to have in your arsenal in regards to your practice is you've got to have some people inside of your facility that know how to sell. And I know probably half the people watching out there just kind of went, Oh my God, sell? So you know what? We're all selling people. I got news for you. You start selling from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed. How many of you wake up in the morning go, Hey, honey, good morning, how are you doing? Hey, what do you think about for dinner tonight? I don't know, maybe just consider this. Maybe we go get some Chinese tonight. So you're trying to sell right there. And we can get more explicit than that and be like, Hey, honey, it's bedtime. You know what I mean? You're trying to sell yourself. That's.

Dr. Noel Liu:
And you better hope you're a good salesperson at that time.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
You got that right because you got to be able to close, right? But here's the deal. If you don't have the right people on board with your team to be able to talk to patients about options and alternatives and possibilities, there's the keyword, possibilities. If you don't share the possibilities with somebody, they'll never know. So why not it be you? Why not you do it? Why don't you sit down and have that conversation? So I think getting some kind of sales training is critical for all the team. Big time.

Dr. Noel Liu:
1,000%. So, Matt, one thing, one last thing here for you. What's your future, man?

Dr. Matt Bynum:
What's the future? Wow.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Future for your practice, for your personal life, for your, everything.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Yeah. So.

Dr. Noel Liu:
In a nutshell. What are you, what are you, what are you looking?

Dr. Matt Bynum:
We were talking about the podcast that Blaine and I do called Happy Trails.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Happy Trails. Yeah.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Happy, Happy Trails and Real estate. So here's the reality, Noel. And I know you've been practicing less time than I have, but I've been doing this for going on 29 years. I don't know about anybody else who's been doing it that long, but you probably have some shoulder issues. You probably have some back issues. You probably have some neck issues. And there comes a point in your career where you step back and go, Wow, I probably can't do this for another 20 years. Well, I'm there. And it's something that Anne and I have had to look at and decide, what is it we want our careers to finish like, and what do we want our lives to look like? And the majority of what we've been taught in this generation is you work hard all the way to the end, and then you retire on what you've built and you just, you finish your days out that way. Well, I don't see it that way. I think when I leave dentistry, leaving dentistry for me probably still puts me in the office about a day a week doing full-arch or restorative or cosmetic or, 'cause I love doing it, man, like you. I know you do. Because you have to love dentistry, man. Dentistry is one of those things that when you get the power to impact and change somebody's life, there's nothing like it, right? So that's my thing is, I want to continue doing it until I can't. That's one thing. But the reality is, is I'm not going to be able to do it in dentistry. So I've got to find another avenue, and be it in multifamily real estate, be it in any kind of syndication or commercial. I'm looking for alternatives to make this so vacation for me and Anne, when we're done with dentistry, means we can go away for 2 or 3 weeks. Right now, if I go away for a week, I feel guilty. Like, I've got it back, right? I got patients to see. When, when's my time? And I think my time is now. So I think building this full-arch practice and seeing and impacting the patients has allowed me the luxury to step back and go, you know what? This is the avenue that I'm going to step away in. I'm not going to leave it completely until I have to, but I'm going to play in the arena and still have fun doing it. But I'm going to start going out this way and really turning the money that I've made in dentistry into bigger dollars without having to work it. Because, like, being here on Monday and Friday, I have to be here to oil this machine. I've got to grease the wheel. I got to do all this stuff. Well, wouldn't it be nice to have something where you can make money and you don't have to do that? And that's what you and I are both looking for.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Exactly. You and I, we both know we're still trading time for money, right? And what happens is, I think we can relate to a lot of people who are listening to this, they can relate to your story and my story is that you got to find an alternative. Now we're not talking about like, transition, like, you completely leave dentistry. We're talking about expansion, right? Expansion in the sense that you're expanding your personal lives and your financial life from dentistry, but you still have something running parallel so that you know that one day when you stop making money in terms of doing it yourself, you got something else going on. I know, like, from a dental school point, when you started before dentistry, like the whole thing, you said you had a goal, you saw orthodontics, you saw a lot of people. Do you feel at this point in time that you hit your goal?

Dr. Matt Bynum:
I don't think so. I don't think so. I think I think by all standards, people looking in at me and my practice and the life that Anne and I have built, I mean, everybody would say by all standards that we've made it. But I think the day that you decided that you made it is the day that you lose. There's never going to be a day that I stop and go, Man, I've arrived. Because that just stops the journey. So for me, it's just what's next. Every day is what's next. Like, how do I, how do I do, David Goggins, man, how do I dig deep and just give it to me? What's the next thing? How can I make this better? How do I refine this? How do I improve the quality of this? How do I reach more, like, you're trying to figure out like me, how do I reach more people with this full-arch game? This is, full-arch is, is very profitable but I've got news for you. It's very expensive too. It's expensive to do and it's expensive for patients to do. So can we find a way to make this more affordable and less expensive on our end, so that we can see more people and impact more lives? I think that's the ticket. When we learn how to impact people's lives, then the money just comes. So that's not a factor for us anymore. But man, I've enjoyed dentistry all the way from the beginning to the end and I don't see myself leaving it. But I do want to have a life outside of dentistry. And there was a life that I used to have where I used to do a lot of speaking and a lot of teaching, and I did that for a long time, and I stopped doing that. I could see myself picking that back up here in the next several years and trying to impact other people, not only patients that we do in our practice, but like you said, how do I impact the dental profession? How do I impact these young dentists that are coming out of school, or they're getting burned out and don't know how they do it? I really like the debt service that they come out with, I'm amazed. Like, I didn't come up with that, people. I got news for you. I didn't come out with that. They're coming out three, four, $500,000 in the hole if you do extended specialty or GPR. Maybe you go up and you're six, six, 700,000 for residency. Holy Crap. There's no way. How do you start with that kind of deficit? I think it's insane. But I think the way that you build on that is you got to have a plan, you got to prepare for it, and you've got to lay it out in front of you. But at the tail end of it, the legacy that you want to leave and the amount of people that you want to impact is what's going to help drive your success. So I don't see myself leaving dentistry ever. But if I could go into, let's just say, if I could go into your group, Noel, you've got a group of dentists. How many people?

Dr. Noel Liu:
About 16.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
16 dentists that range from a year out of school probably up to, probably nine years out of school, something like that. How can I, as a guy that's been doing this for a long time, who's experienced ups and downs, the ins and outs and the little things, how can I have an impact on those people's lives so they don't have to make the same mistakes that I did? That's, that to me is the key to being a successful dentist, is how do I help influence other people to become better than I ever was, and do it in a fashion that they profit more than I did, and they don't have to work near as hard? That's my goal. My goal is for my associate that's been with me for a year, Dr. Molly, Molly, or my son that started his first year of dental school, Luke down...

Dr. Noel Liu:
Congratulations!

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Thank you, man. So we got one that's in the fold. But I want more than anything in eight years after he starts, I want him to be able to step back and go, You know what? If I didn't do another thing in dentistry, I'd be okay. Because now you do dentistry because it's something you want to do and it's fun. You don't do it because you have to, and it's what you trained on, it's your only way to make money. I want to create that kind of freedom for other people. So that's really what drives me, man. I know it's what drives you.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Exactly, because what you just said is so powerful that once you start shifting your focus from the money and dentistry into people, like your people, like your patients and your staff and your doctors, that changes the whole paradigm. For me, it happened like about four years ago. I was all into like, Hey, what's a profit and loss? What is the production? What is all the numbers, right? But then sooner or later you realize that, hey, it's people that make up the business, not the other way around. And when I found that out, it was like an eye-opener for me there, Matt. I mean, I cannot explain the powerful impact it had upon me and my business, because at that time, everything switched over. Yeah, that is the same exact thing, I can kind of relate with you what you're saying, you've got to focus on people.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
It can't be about you, man. Dentistry can't be about you. It's, you're just. One of the things I'll tell your listeners, Noel, is you're just a vehicle, and you're the catalyst in what's going to spark somebody to go from here to here and that jump is life-changing. The ripple effect that you have the potential to have in the profession, but not only that, in your communities and in families. I take it down to the granular level is, let's just say that you have an impact on a mom that builds back some self-confidence and self-esteem. So now when she comes home from a job that she's actually making more money because she's happier, she now gets to be home with her kids. She's not splintered anymore. She's not, Oh, woe is me. I gotta pay the bills. They get to be themselves with their kids, and now their kids lead a different lifestyle because everybody's happy. That granular level and that ripple effect that you started is the reason. Well, you can see it up there. See that little ripple effect right there? That's one of my little things I have in my office, a little painting. But man, being the vehinle, being the thing that starts the catalyst to improve somebody else's life and I guarantee you the success will come when you make it, not about you, you make it about other people. It will come to you in a flood. And I know you've experienced that, Noel. I've watched your success in the last year and a half and so awesome to be friends with you and watch you grow. And I feel that same way about Blaine. And watching your friends be successful is so cool.

Dr. Noel Liu:
You and I, we should collaborate on an implant center because that is my next, that's my next gig. I'm getting, I'm getting a little bit tired with general dentistry. So let's talk, man.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
We got, we got lots to talk about.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Right, right, right. Yeah. I'm going to leave it up with this. Your success is not about the destination. It's more about the person you become and trying to achieve this, that goal, that thing that you want. So it's just the year after year after year of transformation that we go through. And you always a better version. And I love your bio when you said to change everyone for the best version of themselves. That is so true.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Let me tell you, when you're, as a leader, as a boss, like, you, you lead your practice and you lead your group. You can be seen as a boss, as a tyrant, as somebody that you're driving people to be successful. But when you get to be integral in a change because you want to see them be the best version of themselves, and that changes the dynamic in your practice, guys. If you just invest in the people that are with you so that way you don't have to hire more people and lose people and hire more people, think of all the money you got to pour into training. What if you train that core group and you brought them along with you in a fashion that says you cared about them, and then you watch them grow? I'm telling you, it's worth any bit of money that you could spend on any course. But success also leaves clues, right, brother? Success is dropping clues along the way. You either pick them up, or you walk over them. And I think to the degree that you're willing to pick them up is how you're going to transfer that onto other people.

Dr. Noel Liu:
No, absolutely. You're so right. Because success leaves clues. It's up to us to identify the opportunity and pick it up and let's go.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
You got that right. Let's go!

Dr. Noel Liu:
Let's go, let's go. So Matt, lastly man, how do people get a hold of you in a podcast? We're going to put that by the way too.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Yeah. We'll put the link for the Happy Trails podcast you guys and give it a watch. Give it a rating. Send questions. Like, I told Noel, I think Blaine and I have more fun doing it than maybe the people watching it, but, that are listening to it, but it doesn't matter because we're, we do it every Friday. We crack up.

Dr. Noel Liu:
It's just contagious, man. It's contagious. You guys have fun. It will, people will watch.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
So you got all the social Dr.MattBynum.com or Bynum Aesthetic Dentistry. You can hit me up. My email is Matt M A T T at DrMattBynum.com. So Matt@DrMattBynum.com. And I'll throw this out there to everybody else man because I'm never afraid to have somebody contact me. My cell (864) 414-9790. Shoot me a text. Give me a call. I'm happy to share anything I can with anybody, because if I have even a small ounce of influence in your success and your future, then I'd love to be a part of it. So, I just, I'm grateful to be on here. Noel, thank you so much.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Man, that's awesome. You're giving out your cell number. That's huge.

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Yeah. Don't take advantage, but I'm here for you. I'm not afraid to do it. It's just something that, I don't know, I feel strongly about this profession. I love it. And I feel strongly about, about helping other people, because that's the only way that I'm going to become better is if I'm helping somebody else. And I'm just honored and I'm grateful and just happy to spend time. And to have met Noel and the fact that we came across each other, man, I still think that's crazy. Like, I told Blaine the story. Yeah, I told Blaine that story, and he said, Really? And it's just the way that it works, man. That's a great thing. That's, those are called, those are God ways, man. And I'm a I'm a big fan of whatever God puts into my heart, so.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Amen to happen, right?

Dr. Matt Bynum:
You got it. Always.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Alright, Matt. I appreciate you coming up. Thanks again. Well, ladies and gentlemen. This is great. This is great. I don't know what else to say. I'm so overwhelmed with all the information I got from my buddy Matt today. So this would end our, another episode of our Secure Dental podcast. Stay tuned. Like and subscribe. We'll have more coming up. In the meantime, everybody go and make it happen!

Dr. Matt Bynum:
Make it happen!

Dr. Noel Liu:
Kill it!

Secure Dental Outro:
Thanks for tuning into the Secure Dental Podcast. We hope you found today's podcast inspiring and useful to your practice and financial growth. For show notes, resources, and ways to stay engaged with us, visit us at NoelLiuDDS.com. That's N O E L L I U D D S.com.

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