Secure Dental-Dr. Jeffrey Buske: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

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

Dr. Noel Liu:
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:
Hey everyone! Welcome to another episode of our Secure Dental podcast, where we bring in many different guests from both inside and outside our dental industry. Today we are joined by a special guest, Dr. Jeffrey Buske. I hope I said it right.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Yeah, it's correct. You're right on target.

Dr. Noel Liu:
All righty.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Good morning. Good morning.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Good morning, good morning. So, you know, before we get started, I'm just going to give a shout-out to my sponsor, DentVia, a virtual dental administration company that administered all the back-end staff staffing stuff, you know, like, virtually for dental offices to equip our front desk and our managers. So, we are called DentVia. I'm a co-founder, D E N T V I A .com. That's again www. D E N T V I A .com. Now without further ado, I got this gentleman here. He calls himself the Limitless Dentist because he helped so many people get out of burnouts. So, with that being said and further ado, hey doc, I'm going to pass it off to you.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Thanks, Noel. I appreciate it, man, and thank you for having me on this morning. I'm excited to share a little bit with you guys and share a little bit of my story, and because I think it can be relatable. Gosh, I've been in dentistry now for 27 years and I still love what I get to do. Noel, you and I were talking for a second, both of us love doing implants, and both of us love doing full arch care, and I think that's also part of what I was put here on this planet to do, which is for me, it's about my purpose is really about what drives me. And my purpose is really about creating transformation in people's lives. It doesn't matter if I'm doing dentistry. It doesn't matter if I'm doing coaching. Sure, that's exactly what I was born to do. I was born to be a divine wrecking ball in some cases, and I was also born to be transformational in other cases. So, it's a fun part of life that I get to have an opportunity to live into. And as I was saying, being in dentistry now for 27 years, I can honestly say I think I've made every mistake possible, and I've been through a lot in our profession. Our profession can be very difficult and it can be very rewarding all at the same time. So, I'm happy to share any of my story with you guys today.

Dr. Noel Liu:
27 years, my man. That's awesome.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Noel Liu:
So tell me, Jeff, how did you get started with dentistry? We would like to hear that story first.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Well, gosh, it's funny because I grew up in Minnesota, and now I'm in Texas, that's where I practice and live is in Texas. But I grew up in Minnesota, so I grew up playing a lot of hockey, and I was in a high school hockey game, and I was playing hockey, and I got hit probably the hardest I've ever got hit anyway. Nonetheless, I broke my front tooth in half, and that was with a helmet on that was with a mouth guard in. And I remember I had a date that night. It was the first date, by the way, with a girl from another school, and I had half a tooth and I thought, oh my gosh, do I show up? Do I not go? And I thought, well, I might not ever be able to take her out again, so I'm going. So, you know, you've got a 17-year-old kid who's halfway self-conscious anyway, showing up. And anyway, she was like, oh my gosh, what happened? So I told her, and she said, do you still want to go? I said, of course, that's why I'm here. So anyway, we went out, had a great date, but it was one of those things that allowed me to experience what a lot of our patients feel, which is very self-conscious and, you know, kind of embarrassed with their smile and everything. And the artistry that went into the dentist that had to got an opportunity to fix my tooth. It just drew me in. I was like, wow, that is so cool. And it was just like I was just infatuated with the artistic ability for him. I was, you know, because I had the same thing. Our patients think, I hope that they can give me back a smile that I like. And I, you know, my smile was perfect until then, and so I just wanted to make sure it was back. And once he was able to restore that, I thought, wow, what a gift to be able to give somebody, and that was that. So, at 17, that was like it. I knew that's exactly what I wanted to do. I knew that I wasn't going to play pro hockey. I'm only six foot tall and £189 at that time in high school. So I was like, probably not going to go pro.

Dr. Noel Liu:
You rule that out, huh?

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
So dentistry it was, man. It became really clear, though, at that point.

Dr. Noel Liu:
So, what dental school did you go to?

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
I ended up going to Baylor here in Texas, and so I stayed and afterwards, and then, gosh, I went to work up in Coppell, which is right outside DFW airport, for a little while and had a great opportunity as an associate up there. And, you know, it was very interesting because that was a time in my life where I had taken so much continuing education, like been through all of Dawson and Eubank and Morley and all these cosmetic guys and occlusion guys. And just like, man, I thought I had everything. And I was like, man, where are the patients? Like, I was literally like eating ramen noodles at night, wondering, can I afford my car payment? And I was like, Holy shit.

Dr. Noel Liu:
So say that again. You were an associate, and you went through all the CE courses because you thought like, this is it.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
This is it. I was like, if I just, if I can have great skills, then everything will just line up. People will just magically come in because my name is out there, and I didn't realize that I had to be a marketer. I didn't realize that I had no advertising. I didn't realize that I had to lead.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Love it.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
None of that. So, I was left in a very frustrated place. Like, the best way I can describe it now is, like, I felt like the guy who was all dressed up for prom; like I had all these amazing skills but no date. Like nobody to use them on. I was like, I got all this stuff sitting here on the back shelf. Let's go, you know, let's go, and so, I became very disheartened with dentistry. And matter of fact, at that time, I was thinking about walking away from dentistry because I was like, golly, this is just not what I thought it was going to be. I don't know, maybe some of you have felt that way, but for me, that was a reality. I was literally thinking, Holy cow! And it's so funny because there's pivotal people that come into your life at certain aspects and certain seasons at just the right time. I don't think it's a coincidence. I think it's a God thing. And for some reason.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Law of Attraction.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Bruce Baird was writing something on Dental Town at that time, and I was like, and he was writing about like what he was producing and things like that, and it was so far out of my comprehension, and I thought, what in the world? And so I'm going to say something, pardon my language here, so I wrote him a private message. And in my message, I literally said, I said, there's no fucking way you're doing what you're doing, and it can be legal. And he didn't know me from anybody. He could have told me to jump in the lake, whatever. And so he was kind enough to write me back. He said, no, we do this month after month after month. We have systems and processes in place. By the way, where do you? Yes, I said, I'm up in Coppell. And he said, oh my gosh, I'll be over in that direction next weekend at a sleep seminar. And that was when sleep was just on the kind of the leading edge. This was back in 2004. And so he said, why don't we get together and have a cocktail? I said, sure, what have I got to lose? So I went and met him and visited. And, you know, he said, where are you at? And that is such an important it's an easy question to ask, but when you actually sit there and think about it, it made me think. I said, well, where am I at really? And I just leveled with him. I said, am I honestly contemplating leaving dentistry? And so he found out all the continuing education that I did and he just asked me a question. He said, well, do you enjoy dentistry? And I said, yeah. I said, if I go out to practice the way that I'm, you know, wanting to practice, I think I would really love it even more. And he said, maybe you just need the right opportunity. So we decided that we were going to do a practice together, and it ended up getting kind of sold out from under us, and that was okay. But then, a different turn of events happened, and he lost an associate. And so, like within a couple of weeks he called me and said, hey, I have no idea if you have any interest in this, but would you like to come to Granbury, Texas and work with me? Now, that was 72 miles away from where I was living. And I said, you know what? I said, yes, let's do this. And so I went, and then I decided, I said, you know, if I come in there, I don't want to be just another associate. I said, I want to have an opportunity to be a partner. And so we sat down and we worked everything out and then worked through with Cane Waters and got a plan set in order, and then he and I practiced together. We were partners, and then we practiced together for 17 years. And it was, it was an amazing, amazing journey we take together. He was a great mentor, you know, and one of the things that I learned significantly from him was really about integrity, and there was nothing that he said that he promised that he didn't deliver on, which was really important. And so it was something that I get to carry through with our team members. And I think that's just such an important part of life and part of what I teach and coach on, and that's our whole baseline. We call it living by a code and that's, you know, we're not lying. We're not lying to others. We're not lying to ourselves. But more importantly, we're honoring our word. Because just like you, when you're up to big things, there's going to be things that are going to happen that you break your word on, but it's about cleaning it up. It's acknowledging it and getting yourself back in integrity, and making things right. There's still going to be consequences in life, but it's really about getting back in and restoring and re-honoring your work. I think.

Dr. Noel Liu:
That's a baseline.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Very important with integrity. And integrity.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Is a foundation for everything.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Yeah. To me, integrity is really is about being whole and complete, lacking nothing, and not hiding anything in the shadows or the darkness. It's really just being full and then wholeheartedly playing all in. So that was my transition into where I am still currently practicing, which is in Granbury, Texas, which is a little bit outside of Fort Worth, about 40 miles west and south of Fort Worth. We live on a beautiful lake here. We get to go play all the time. We love to go wakesurfing and have a good time on the boat with myself, my wife, and the kids. And we enjoy life here and it's a great place to be. Great place to practice. It's fun. You know, I was talking to a doc last night, and he was saying, yeah, I practice in a town that's like 15,000 people, and there's like 4 or 5 dentists here. And he was talking about having to take all these plans and everything. And I started to laugh, and I said, well, I said, let me just paint you a different reality. I said, I practice in a town of 7000 people. And I said, there's over 30 dentists here. And I said, and we take no plans. And I said, and but we learned how to market. And so we draw in people from all over. We bring in people from Dallas and Fort Worth and from sometimes Oklahoma and everywhere. I said, so your reality is what you truly make it. And I said, so. If you're in the mindset that the only thing that you can do is be on plan and boss, which I have nothing against. But I said, if that's your mindset, then that's going to be your mindset. I said, but you do have different opportunities. I'm just going to share with you my story so you can have an opportunity to consider something different. And so just you can see his eyes open up and say, I didn't think that was possible. I said, I'm in a in a town that's half of your size, and this is what we do. I said, it just depends on what you want to do. You can write your own story. That's the big part of it.

Dr. Noel Liu:
So I want to spend a little brief time with you on people who wants to go fee-for-service. And there's a lot of them out there. I see it every single time in groups, in different groups. There are like horror stories, and there are success stories. What is the best way? So let's say there's a solo guy working out from his own office, and what is the best way? He's heavily people-involved, man. What would be the best way to transition? Man, I mean, you need to share this nugget because there are a lot of people who are getting burnt out.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
That is such a great question because I will share this with you. Let me back up a second here. I had my practice with Bruce, and then halfway between Dallas and Fort Worth, there's kind of an area called Arlington and Mansfield. And for some crazy reason, I decided I'm going to just open up a scratch practice over there, too, because we serviced a lot of people there, and so I decided that'd be a good idea. Literally, I gave myself a second job, and that also invited in a lot of stress into my world. But opening it up from scratch, I also thought I better put some plans in place and then play over here, and it was kind of funny because I was also marketing. But what was funny is, I was shooting myself in the foot because, you know, I'm taking a 30% haircut at least on some of the plans, sometimes 40% haircut on some of these. And people that were coming in, they're like, oh yeah, we saw your ads and your marketing. And then we saw that you were on our plan. I was like, oh my gosh, I'm just killing myself here, you know? And it was brutal. And I will tell you.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Was this for the new location or?

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
That was for the new location where I've practiced, we've always been fee-for-service, but I thought to get things off the ground, I better.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Did it affect your current one?

Dr. Noel Liu:
No.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Okay, okay.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Because that is 52 miles away, so plenty of distance away, but man, I really learned a solid lesson there. That office was one of the greatest teaching tools for me in all my life because it caused so much stress in my world. I almost ended up divorced. I'll talk about that later. Here we can have another little conversation a little bit. But to answer your question, what I did and I had associates over there running in that office, so I had to build a culture remotely. I'd have practice, I'd have marketing, advertising. I was also taking plans, and it was a very difficult task to establish remotely. I would go over there on Fridays and work one day a week. I would do bigger cases on Fridays for me to do implant surgery and things like that. But after a while it took me a while to establish that and to kind of establish some credibility in that area, and also for me to be able to bring in that type of care. So I think one of the biggest things for a transitional standpoint is really find your lane that you love to practice in and what you love. Maybe it's cosmetics, maybe it's implants, maybe it's clear aligner therapy.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Okay.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Maybe it's sleep, maybe it's in some things. Anything. I think, just aside, you still need your bread-and-butter to always produce and to have that and to pay bills and make sure your overhead is taken care of. But when you can actually start to establish a name for yourself inside of a lane, I think then that is the time to start to double down on your marketing and your advertising in that special area, not just generalized advertising. Like, let's bring in the whole family. Advertising and marketing that is specific for those procedures that you love. Because once you've started to get the skill set required to apply that at an elite or a high level, now you can deliver on that, and now you become marketable. That gives you some ways to start to set yourself apart. If you're not doing anything in that realm and you're just doing general dentistry, and no, there's no offense to that. There's nothing wrong with that. But if you're not doing that, it's going to be very difficult to start to differentiate yourself. You need to have things that differentiate you. Like we've worked with John causes risk factors for so long. And I make that part of my talk when I'm sitting down the first time. And we use that in some of our marketing. We talk about risk factors. Nobody else is talking about that. There might be other people who are doing it, but they don't talk about it. They don't talk about it. They don't market it. They don't advertise about it. You have to find the things that make you unique. Does that make sense? So that's number one.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Absolutely.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
When those individuals are coming into your practice, it is a journey. It is an experience. They're not just coming through as a person that, you know, just coming in. I need a couple things done. You are creating an experience for this person to have everything from the phone call to what happens when they come into your office, the way that they're treated, the way that they're greeted, the way that you occur in their world when you walk in and introduce yourself, and I call it I like to think my mind thinks in frames and frameworks. And so I like to set the frame with the patient. After I greet them, we create some connection. Create three links to a chain that can't be broken. And as far as relationship meaning finding commonalities before we ever talk dentistry, sitting down with them eye to eye, just like you and I are doing. It's just eye-to-eye. Having a conversation, just being with somebody. So like, let me get in there and get in your mouth where I'm comfortable because they're in an uncomfortable place. So, let's get comfortable. Let's get to know each other and let's have a little bit of a human conversation. And then it's time to set the frame along the lines of, like, this is going to be a different experience than you've ever had. So I'm telling them that today, we're going to look at your risk factors. I'm going to analyze things for you. I'm going to tell you whether you're low, medium, or high risk along these areas. And then the greatest thing is, is I'm going to share with you here's things that you can do to lower your risk factors. Here's things that we can do to lower your risk factors. And then together, we're going to co-create a plan that works for you to get you what you want and need and desire. Does that sound good? I mean, it's just so easy.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Conversational. Right.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Conversational. So, to answer your question, I personally think one of the greatest ways to start to wean away from getting off from some of the PPOs is start to get yourself and your skill set up to a very good level, and to where you can have something that differentiates you, and then you've got to be able to apply the marketing, and you've got to be able to be willing to spend the money on the marketing to bring patients in. We usually spend between 8% and 10% on our marketing.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Wow.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
But gosh, when you're bringing in $400,000 or $500,000 a month, you can spend a lot on marketing.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Absolutely.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
And you can market anybody else. That's why it doesn't matter if there's 30 dentists where I live and there's 7000 people. It doesn't matter if there's 50 dentists here. I'm not competing with those dentists. I'm competing with the people wanting to buy a new home, wanting to buy a new vehicle, wanting to take a huge, expensive trip.

Dr. Noel Liu:
That's what they are.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Does that make sense? Like I don't care about the other dentists. I mean, it's not that I don't care about them. I should say they're not my competition. Put it that way, so.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Love it.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
I'm looking at things and I also have a very abundance mindset. That's also a very different perspective. So when you look at moving away from a PPO, to me, PPOs are kind of more of a scarcity mindset. So it doesn't really kind of fit that aspect of it. I'm taking the scraps off from the table of what the insurance is going to feed me. Does that make sense? As opposed to me writing my own story and saying, right, this is what I want, this is what I want for my professional career. This is the type of dentistry that I want to be doing. These are the types of patients that I want to be seen. I want to have happiness and fulfillment and joy, as opposed to the life being sucked out of me and feeling like I'm on a mission.

Dr. Noel Liu:
... for them. Yeah, exactly.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
I think that's one of the problems, is dentists feel like they get on this treadmill and they start running, and they're like, hey, coach, when can I stop? Never, never. And they're on this never-ending treadmill because they're just working themselves to death as opposed to working in a fulfilling purpose, fulfilled practice.

Dr. Noel Liu:
You know what you just said, Jeff? It resonates so much with me because this is exactly what I'm trying to do with my associate dentist. When I'm trying to differentiate them, I try to work with them. Hey, what do you like? You like aesthetics? Let's talk about that. You like implants, or you like ortho, sleep, whatever. But some of them, they are so close-minded, just wanting to do bread-and-butter dentistry day in and day out. And I keep telling them, hey, this is just going to be another commodity. It's just going to get worse as time goes by.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Yes.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Sometimes I think it's just in the mindset like you said.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Yeah.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Because you're trying to differentiate yourself, it's so, so much more work, right?

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Yes, and that's why I said that one simple question that Bruce asked me a long time ago, like, what do you want, right? And not just like right now, but having those docs and you guys who are listening out here, ask yourself that question today, like, what do I really want? Like, if I look at my life now and I look at my life a year from now, and five years from now, and ten years from now, what do I want my career to look like? What do I want to have in life, not just in my dental practice? Because also there's a lot of identity problems. We identify as a dentist. Listen, dentistry is something that you get to do. It's not who you are. It's something that we get an opportunity, I think, an opportunity and privilege to do, but it's not who I am. There is so much more. I'm also a husband. I'm also a father. I'm also a businessman. I'm an entrepreneur. I'm a leader. I'm also a marketer. I'm a closer. I'm all these different things. But I'm also when I start to look at those things, like when you start to get into leadership and things like that. You look at getting into things, into your identity that can't be stripped away. Because I see, and I'm 53, but I start to see in the dentists who, when they start to retire, if that has been their entire identity, they're left in a very difficult place once they walk away from dentistry because they're losing their whole part of themselves. And so when you realize if you tie your identity to things that can be stripped away, you can have a problem with that. I mean, even with some of the things I just mentioned, like as a husband, that could be stripped away if my wife died or decided to divorce me or my kids if something happened to them. All of those things can be stripped away when you start to tie your identity to those things. You have to be careful. That's why you also have to take that identity into deeper levels. Does that make sense?

Dr. Noel Liu:
1,000%. So let's lead right into Limitless Dentist, and let's talk about what's that all about, and how do you help these guys cope with themselves and cope with the environment?

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
That's a great question. And it really has to come back to, as I was saying, I've made many, many, plenty of mistakes in my life. And the practice that I was talking about, it about sucked the life out of me. Creating that scratch practice 52 miles away, as I was saying, and I didn't really have the bandwidth or the capacity at that time to deal with all the stress, because there was financial stress in that. There was managing stress in that. There's leadership stress in that. You've got to cast the vision. You've got to enroll the team in the vision. You've got to create a culture all inside of that. And then you also have to meet expectations and deliver on high levels for patients in order to grow the practice, to get away from me and just to finish up. I then trimmed out plans one at a time. Just cut cut cut cut cut. And then we just transitioned that into full-all fee-for-service practice.

Dr. Noel Liu:
So you didn't do it all at once?

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Not all at once. I cut 2 or 3.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Okay.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
And then boom. And then I cut the next. I only had five, but then I cut. I cut the first, I want to say two, and then I cut the next three at one time. So, boom, boom, done.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Got it.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
But it wasn't all five at once. It was spread out. I want to say it was spread out over about six months.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Perfect.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
And it was great. And, you know, my associates, they knew that was happening and some of them were very worried. Oh my gosh, it's going to hurt. I said, just trust me. Please trust me. You're going to actually make more, and you're going to get paid more because you're going to be paid more for what you're doing, and you're going to love it. And they they all did. They thrived in that manner. So, we end up building up the practice enough to where actually brought in a prosthodontist, and it was perfect for him because he thrived in there. And that's what ended up building the practice there and then sold it to them. So it worked out very, very well, but it was a lot of stress in the meantime. Like I said, I had been divorced already in 2012. I blew out one marriage. So listen guys, dentistry can be very stressful. And I started this scratch practice at the very, very end of 2013, beginning of 2014. By 2016, this had taken such a toll on me because again, I said, I didn't as a, as an entrepreneur, as a businessman, I didn't have the bandwidth or the capacity to manage all of that stress. So I would bring that home, and I would bring it, unfortunately, into my family. And when you take irritation, you don't deal with that. Then, that leads to frustration. And then, when you don't deal with that, then that leads to anger. And then, when you don't deal with anger, and you push that down, then that leads to rage. And rage is not something that we're meant to deal with. So when we push that down comes out, it's like the equivalent of pushing a beach ball underwater and just keep pushing it down further and further. And the more you push that further and further when you release that beach ball, it's going to come up with such velocity and force. That's kind of the way that I think about rage. And when that rage would come out, it would come out with my wife, would come out with my kids. And it generally happens around the people that you love the most. And I would sit there and think, shit, man, I give my patients people that I just met the best of me, and then my family, the people that love me the most, get the worst of me, and that was brutal. That was a brutal truth that I had to come to the realization with. I also, and I'm just sharing it like it is. You guys can look at me and you can judge me, but I'm just telling you the truth.

Dr. Noel Liu:
I want you to say that again, because this is one of those things where I hear it day in and day out. They're like, really grumpy at home but the best version at work.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Yeah, you give the best of yourself to your patients and some of your team. Not always your team, but your patients get the very best of you.

Dr. Noel Liu:
But not your family.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
The worst of you at home to the people that love you.

Dr. Noel Liu:
I love it.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
And that's just the truth. And matter of fact, as I was building that practice, I looked at my family as getting in the way of my time to build a successful practice. Now, that's difficult to say, but that, again, that's the truth. And so I didn't have the tools to manage the stress at that time. I didn't have the tools. I was starting to feel burnt out. And so the only thing that I really knew to do was to sedate. So I would come home literally every day and just start to drink. I would drink, and I'd pick up my wife, and then she'd have to drink just to deal with my stupid, crazy ass. And it was like we would then just battle about stuff. And it was really sad because, over time, that started to destroy some of what I really love. If you guys watch the picture here, I was headed down towards divorce number two, until one night when my wife and I both had enough to drink, and we were just in this explosive argument, and literally, you know, her words just stopped me in my tracks. And she said, Jeff, I didn't sign up for this shit. And I mean, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Like, boom. Right between the eyes. I didn't even have a response. I didn't know what to say. I didn't have anything to say because it was the truth. And I remember there laying in bed that night and just. I prayed, and I said, you know, God, I realize that I created this mess, but I'm asking you to help me see a way out. Please help me. Please help my family. And it's crazy how things work like that. Didn't ever do anything on social media at that time or anything like that. I had just gotten onto Facebook for some ability to be able to do some marketing and things on there. And like this next week, this crazy thing came across my feed, and it was from a coach and a mentor who I still use. Guys, crazy psychopath named Garrett White. He ran something called Wake Up Warrior. And so I was sitting there, and I clicked on this ad, and my wife was cooking up some dinner, and I was listening to this guy, and it was like he was speaking into my it was like he was inside my head. I was like, Holy shit, this is exactly the way I'm operating. Even my wife, who is cooking. She stopped, and she said, who are you listening to? And I said, I don't know, but this guy has my number, man. And she was like, this is interesting. So anyway, you could click on a thing. And we ended up, she goes, do you want to watch that together? I said, yeah, I think so. So we watched like a 45-minute documentary, and it was basically it was like a video sales letter to come in and have an experience. And she looked at me at the end of it, and she said, you're going to go do that, aren't you? And I said, I think I need to. And she said I think you do too. And so I had no idea what all it was going to entail, what it was going to cost, how much time, what was going to be. And it was like a week-long process. The best way that I could describe at that time, Warrior Week, was it would be like if you took Tony Robbins and then you put together a Navy Seals Hell Week, and then you put together Brad Pitt from Fight Club. That was the combination of what occurred there. And so it was physical beatdown. It was, we were in and out of the ocean doing log PT, all kinds of different shit, crazy stuff, and things, and literally having like full-on boxing battles. It was crazy. But at that time in my world, that's what I needed. Like, I needed to be cracked open that hard in order for that part of me to die and for me to be reborn and come back as a different version to unlock new versions of me. Does that make sense?

Dr. Noel Liu:
1,000%.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
So it unlocked new levels in me that allowed me to come back and show up as a different way, as a husband allowed me to show up as a different way, as a father allowed me to show up completely different as a businessman, as an operator inside my practice. I started to lead in a different way. Why? Because I decided to lead myself in a different way. I started to see myself in a different way, and so, it started to look at moving from a victim mentality and then creating a leadership mentality. And we have a saying that victims wait and leaders create. And so when we start to look at it from that perspective, we start to see, gosh, I'm in charge of my own story. I have self-authorization. I can take and create what I want. And so I'm going to utilize my agency. And when you start to operate that way you start to shift how you occur. You start to shift your energy. You start to take care of like I got my morning. I start working on me early because I want to fill up my cup first so my cup can overflow onto others. If my cup is empty, then guess what? Every interaction that I have with somebody else has to be transactional. Because if my cup is not full, if I give you something more out of it, I've got to get something back. When my cup is plenty full, I can give freely without any expectation in return.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Love it.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
That's a whole different animal. And I'm setting my own table. I'm not eating crumbs off the floor of circumstance.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Taking charge, right?

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Absolutely. So, out of that, as I was saying, it changed and transformed how I operate and how I occur in life. And from that perspective, now that's what was born with, okay, if this is working for me, I know this can start to work for other guys. So I started to work with some of my buddies and friends, and they were like, Holy shit, this is working great. This is fantastic. And that's when I decided, hey, let's take this to, hey, a lot more professionals inside of our our space need this. So I coach men inside of the space, inside of our dental communities, here, inside of our profession, in order to create synergy and harmony really across four domains in our world. So across our body, our health, our fitness, our being, our spirituality, our purpose, and in my position to God in my life and then also our balance. So, our relationships with our wife, our kids, and in other meaningful relationships to your team members, your friends, your extended family, and then also your business or your practice and your bank accounts. Getting all four of those areas to work simultaneously is huge. Because what I notice, and you might notice this too, most men have maybe one of those areas, maybe two at best. Working simultaneously on fire at one time. The other ones are kind of slacking. Like, man, you may be killing it in your practice, maybe producing like crazy and doing well, but there's also this stress component. So you might eat like shit and eat fast food and then not spending enough time with your wife and kids, and you're like, oh, I've got like, I was doing like, I gotta build my practice. I gotta do this, I gotta do this. I'll get to that later. Well, that later never comes. Or you might be on fire with like, hey man, my fitness is on point, a six-pack. I don't care if you got a six-pack or not. It doesn't matter to me. I want to be functionally fit. I want to have longevity. I want to be able to go outside and play with my kids and have a great time. I want to be able to go out behind the boat and surf. I want to be able to go hike. I want to have functionality in my world. I don't want my body to be deconditioned over time. Dentistry is hard on your body.

Dr. Noel Liu:
1,000% man.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
And if you don't take care of it, it will destroy you, and it will shorten your career so you can have your body on point but then be slacking in other areas, too. So we want to create that harmony around all areas so that you can actually have a life that works, and we call having it all built on the foundation of integrity. Does that make sense?

Dr. Noel Liu:
I love it. So Jeff, here's a problem with our profession. Not only our profession, but people in general. We hear great advice. We really want to do it. But there's always this one thing that stops us, which, from taking action when you deal with your clients. How do you make them overcome that procrastination that, hey, I got to do it because if I'm not doing it, I mean, the only shortcut is getting it done, right? We all know it's good for us. We all know about the exercise routine and eating healthy, but why don't people do it?

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Well, I'd say the one way that we get past all that is it starts with you getting honest with yourself. And because if you can tell yourself the truth about where you're at today, then there's a possibility and a future that's available for you and that you can and be willing to chase. But if you bullshit yourself and you lie to yourself, then there's no fucking way on earth. Anybody else, myself, anybody else can included, be able to motivate you to some bullshit existence that, you see?

Dr. Noel Liu:
Nothing's gonna work, right?

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Because now, everything then is built on fiction and fantasy, and that's the way that most of our world operates is in fiction and fantasy.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Right.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
And so it starts with getting clear with yourself and telling yourself the truth and looking at the true facts of today. Once that's established, now you can envision a future that is truly possible because it's based in the reality of today. And I think that's one of the reasons that people stay stuck is, is the fact that they're living in fiction and fantasy, and everything that they're envisioning is just this total, other extended version of that fiction and fantasy. And so it just gives them a dopamine hit, and they don't move. They don't take action at all. But when they look at the true reality of where they are today and if they like where they are today, great. There's still another possibility of what's waiting and what can be upscaled and leveled up on the other side of that. So when we look at the possibilities, we start to see, oh, that's available in between. There is where we're at today and where we want to be. Or we can look at it like this: where we are today and where we want to be. And there's always a gap in there. And once we can see the gap of here's where I'm at and here's the new possibility, this is kind of my pit if I'm not loving where I'm at in life. This is my new peak up here. In between there, there's the gap. The gap is scary. And that's why also a lot of people don't want to move because it's like we've never been there. We don't know. We've never been. So it's easy, like, if you look at scale of life on like 1 to 10, and you're like playing at a level one, and you're like, oh shit, life sucks here, man. And somebody's like, hey, just do this and you'll be at like a level three. You're like, okay, let me do that. What's hard is when you're like playing at level six, level seven and life is comfortable, and then you're like, ooh, to get to level ten, I've got to let go. I might even have to put level 6 or 7 at risk to get to level ten. Holy cow! Like with what you guys are doing with real estate and everything like that, you guys do things very calculated, but in some people's minds, it's like, oh my gosh, that sounds going to be risky, right? And so, how do I take that leap of faith? How do I do that? And you have to look at it from okay, what am I letting go of? And what's the new possibility over here? There's always going to be some risk associated with things, but we want to take calculated risk. And guess what? We're not taking the big jump from here all the way to here in one leap, because you'll leap, and then you'll get a little short, and then you'll fall down and then come back and go right back into the comfort zone of where you're where you're loving life, right? So what we look at doing is, hey, what is the best next step that you can take to move forward in that? Let's just take that first step, their first step, to move us forward. I'm not even worried about hitting the home run. Let's just talk about, let's hit singles, man. Let's just hit singles. Singles aren't big and sexy. The home run is big and sexy, right? Let's hit the home run. But that's like making the leap from here to here. Let's just hit singles, and then pretty soon, after four hits, you've got to run. Now, it's not sexy, but it gets results. And to me, results are sexy. I'd rather have results than hey. Oh, that looks so pretty when I hit the ball far, but I got out. But it looked pretty when it came off the back, man. I think getting results that to me is sexy. When you look at my fruit, that's what I like to look at because it comes down to results. That's it. Everything that we're after in life is about creating the journey and after chasing down amazing results that are meaningful to us.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Love it, man, love it. So, what is the onboarding like, and how can people get in contact with you? Because they probably will have some questions. Okay, if they want to work with you, what does the process look like, and who are your ideal clients? Let's put it this way because you just said, like, you know, you got to stop bullshitting with yourself.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Yes.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Right? I mean, would you like, take somebody who is like, still like, kind of like in the zone where they're fantasizing or somebody who's ready to go?

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
That's such a great question. So part of the onboarding process is for me to sit down, and we have a one-on-one conversation for anybody coming into the game with me. It is an interview, and it is an application to come into the program because, A, I want to keep the program operating at a very high level, and B, we don't want to compromise that, and C, I want to see again if you're able to be coachable, because if you can't tell yourself the truth, then there's no way that you can tell anybody else the truth.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Exactly.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
And then there's no way to really, truly coach you. I would be doing you a disservice. That puts me out of integrity. Because if you can't be honest with yourself, there's no way that I can know truly where you're at and where you want to go. And if I can't do that, then there's no way that I can speak into that gap. But when I know and we know together, and we're excited about where we can go now, we can speak into that gap all day now, we can put the frameworks in order to get into work, and now we can go ahead and start to get the results to start to collapse that time to make that happen. So the best way to get ahold of me literally, is just find me on Instagram. It's D R . J E F F B U S K E, so Dr. Jeff Buske. Send me a DM on Instagram. You can also find me on LinkedIn. Jeffrey Buske on LinkedIn, easy to find there. You will find me on both those spots, but that is absolutely the best way to contact me.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Perfect.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
As far as the onboarding process inside of there, like I said, we'll go through an interview, sit down and just have a conversation just like this. It's very easy. Just find out where you're at, where you want to go, and if I can help you, and if I can't help you, I'll at least look at it, pointing you in a direction where I think that you can find. I'm very interested in that. But our process is great. It's virtual for most of the learning. We do calls every week on Zoom, and it's with me. And so we're just tearing through things. We set up 90-day challenges and all four of those areas, and we just knock them out and have a great time along the way, and it's an awesome way to live. It's such a unique way to live. I want to throw one last thing in here because I think this is important. When you start to look at we were talking about results and fruit and this just came to mind. So I will tell you guys this with the framework of the core for the body being balanced in business that I was sharing with you, adding in that framework and then the framework of the code by living in integrity, those two things alone, that was it, period. Between 2016, when I started to apply this in my life, and 2021, I went back and ran the numbers because we bought a whole bunch of new equipment in 2022 for all of our full arch stuff; we got all our digital stuff. But between 2016 and 2021, I want you guys to hear this. I bought zero new equipment in my practice, and I didn't change anything about the way that I practiced. I added in no new procedures, no new technology. But check this out. I added an additional, not a total, an additional seven figures to my own personal production because of what I'm teaching, because of the code, because of the core four; those two frameworks alone added an additional seven figures to my production, all because of the way my mindset shifted and my leadership shifted. Our team was so became so powerful. And it, it's just is a culture that is pretty phenomenal and I'm proud of that. But I want you guys to hear that. I'm not saying that in a braggadocious manner, but I want to be able to quantify something for you so you can see, hey, this is possible. Well, is that possible for you? I don't know; I don't know how driven you are. I don't know any of those things. But what if even half of that was possible? What if even 25% of that is possible for you? Would that be meaningful to you? Would that be helpful to help put a kid through college? All of those things start to come into play, and again, without having to buy a $100,000 laser without having to buy, you know, whatever it may be. I mean, the price of equipment keeps going up and up and up as we continue to give our patients the best. Why not give yourself the best, best version of you?

Dr. Noel Liu:
That's one part we all neglect, you know. Yes, that's a fact.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Yes.

Dr. Noel Liu:
And last thing I want to ask you is, what does success mean to you?

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Man, that is such a great question. I love that question because it's different for everybody, right?

Dr. Noel Liu:
Right. It's totally your version.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Yeah, for my version, it is truly measured with my happiness and joy and waking up to a life that I am happy with. That, to me, is success. And so when I can wake up, and I'm happy with where I'm at professionally, where I'm at in my marriage, my marriage is on fire and not burning down on fire in a great way with my wife and having great relationships with my kids. Man! And my health is great. My connection with God is great. When those things are on point, that, to me, is success. And that also, as success increases, that gives you freedom. And so that's I think what we're also all after is freedom.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Love it. Hey doc, thanks a lot. So much for coming on, man.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Yeah, it was fun, man. I appreciate it. It was a good time. I enjoyed getting a chance to visit with you. And thank you to the listeners, and hopefully, something that I said was going to be useful for you guys. If it sparks a conversation, I'd love to have a conversation with you and see if there's something that I can help you with.

Dr. Noel Liu:
100%. I learned a lot, too, so I mean, that was really insightful. Well, thank you.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
Yes, absolutely. Thanks for having me on as a guest, Noel.

Dr. Noel Liu:
All right. Well, ladies and gentlemen, thanks for joining. Make sure to like and subscribe now. We will land our plane and check out our next episode. We all know where to reach Jeff at and I will definitely put the link down below. All right. Thanks, Jeff.

Dr. Jeffrey Buske:
See y'all.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Thanks for tuning in to 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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