Getting Unstuck: Breaking Free from the Rut in Life and Business

Welcome back to another episode of MOJO: The Meaning of Life and Business. Today we have a special guest joining us, Dr. Kory Wegner who is a highly successful dentist who has not only built a thriving practice but has also excelled in the business side of dentistry. We’ll be diving into the topic of getting out of a rut and finding the momentum to push through obstacles. Dr. Wegner’s journey from buying an existing dental practice to growing it from $200,000 to $2.5 million in just a few years is truly inspiring. He’ll be sharing his insights on how to identify when you’re feeling stuck, how to navigate through it, and the importance of continuously improving yourself and your business. So let’s get this episode started and discover the keys to breaking free from the rut. Stay tuned!

About my guest: Dr. Kory Wegner graduated from Marquette School of Dentistry in 1991. Instead of working as an associate for someone else, he bought an existing practice from 2 doctors ready to retire. After many trials and tribulations of being a new doctor and business owner, he turned a $200,000/yr practice into a $1 million practice in just 4 years. At the 9-year mark, his practice was producing $2.5 million. In 2012 he purchased a 2nd practice and took it from $400,000/year to $1.2 million in just 1 year.

Connect with Kory on ⁠Facebook⁠, ⁠LinkedIn ⁠and on the web at ⁠https://coachingforsuccess.com⁠

Keywords: get out of a rut, stuck, dentist, dental practice, revenue, business of dentistry, corporation, efficiency, personal improvement, continuing education

Key topics:

Topic: Dr. Wegner’s journey and success in dentistry

– Graduating from Marquette School of Dentistry in 1991

– Buying an existing dental practice instead of working for someone else

– Growing the practice from $200,000 per year to $1,000,000 per year in 4 years

– Increasing the practice’s revenue to $2.5 million after 9 years

– Buying a second practice and increasing its revenue from $400,000 to $1,200,000 in one year

– Selling the practice to a corporation in 2017

Topic: The importance of continuous learning and improvement

– The speaker’s desire to learn and apply more in their field

– Hiring professionals who are better than oneself to learn and improve

– Hiring front office people and taking classes to improve knowledge

– Understanding why things are done wrong and how to do them correctly

– Effective collaboration and progress through proper training and hiring

Topic: Efficient and effective business practices

– The importance of being efficient to keep costs down and increase productivity

– The importance of personal improvement as a business owner

– Finding information and resources for learning in the dental industry

– Implementing new knowledge and overcoming overwhelming challenges

– The significance of speed in achieving success

– The speaker’s process of increasing their speed and efficiency

Topic: The impact of proper training and communication

– Hiring trainers or finding team members who can effectively train new hires

– The importance of resourcefulness and utilizing available resources

– The impact of checks and balances in business operations

– Clear communication and understanding of responsibilities within a business structure

Topic: Challenges, setbacks, and leadership lessons

– Dealing with surprises and unexpected situations in business

– Reflecting on mistakes and taking responsibility for them

– Team management and the importance of incentives and rewards

– Learning to appreciate and acknowledge the efforts of team members

– Addressing conflicts and disagreements within a team

– The speaker’s efforts to improve patient care in a timely manner

Topic: Signs of being stuck or unhappy in business

– Recognizing signs and symptoms of being stuck or unhappy in a business

– The importance of evaluating results and trying new approaches

– The speaker’s emphasis on becoming very good at their own responsibilities

Transcript (auto-generated; may contain errors):

Jennifer Glass:

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Mojo, the meaning of life and business. Every now and then, you’ve probably heard the idea, we’re stuck in a rut. Can’t do anything. Can’t get anywhere. As the saying goes, there’s a great cloud that just seems to be traveling over us all the time, and we can’t get away from it. I’m not necessarily just talking about depression. However, that can be something that input impacts us as business owners. But where we go, how we get out of the rut is really important because we need to really have a good idea in terms of what it is that we’re doing and how we can really focus on the pieces that we need to be focusing on to be making such a difference.

Jennifer Glass:

And so I have a really great guest on the show today who’s going to help us understand more in terms of what is getting out of the rut? What does it mean to be stuck in it? How do we navigate it? How do we even identify it? And where do we go from there? Before I bring our guest on, though, let me tell you a little bit about him. Doctor Corey Wagner graduated from Marquette School of Dentistry in 1991. Instead of working as an associate for someone else, he bought an existing practice from 2 doctors who were ready to retire. After many trials and tribulations of being a new doctor and a business owner, he turned a $200,000 a year practice into a $1,000,000 a year practice in just 4 years. At the 9 year mark, his practice was producing $2 a half $1,000,000. In 2012, he purchased a 2nd practice and took it from $400,000 a year to 1,200,000 in just a single year. Doctor Wegner, during his career, was also chosen to be a national lecturer and spoke around the country to 250 dentists at a time regarding the use of the intraoral camera in dentistry and the business of dentistry. He sold his practice to a corporation in 2017.

Jennifer Glass:

In 2019, doctor Weidner was chosen to be that company’s chief clinical officer and oversee all of their clinical operations in 120 practices. Corey, welcome to the show.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Jennifer, thank you. I appreciate it.

Jennifer Glass:

Absolutely. Thank you. So let me ask you, Corey. I mentioned the whole growth and everything that you’ve done. Sure. But let’s talk about the rut because that’s really where I introduce the show today.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Sure.

Jennifer Glass:

And when it comes down to the rut, like I said, we get stuck in it in all different ways, is all different reasons. Before we get into how we get out, let me ask you though, how did you even identify that you’re in a rut? Because too many business owners just we don’t even see that we’re stuck in it.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Well, when when I get people to call me and or if they don’t call but maybe their team even calls or, You know, investigates into someone like me who can come in and coach or consult. Generally, You know, there’s there’s signs. Right? There’s signs and symptoms of somebody who’s stuck. And, I mean, one of the biggest things, It really doesn’t have to do with the technicality of the business. And I think it doesn’t take a genius to see a business owner who’s unhappy. I mean, if you’re really humming along, and you’re profitable, and things are good, most business owners would be pretty happy. But when that isn’t happening, but yet you feel like you’re doing the right things, but you’re not getting the right results, well, that’s gonna that’s gonna take you down. And the unfortunate reality is as as they say in business, right, that old adage, you can’t keep doing the same thing, expecting different results.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Right? That’s the The definition of insanity, that happens a lot, though. Right? People people do it. They were told that this works, that you do it this way, and if you do it, it’s gonna work out. Well, I’m here to tell you that isn’t always the truth. And in dentistry, and I’m sure it’s the pretty much the same and generalized for most small businesses, But I know in dentistry for a fact, when you’re in dental school and it sounds like, oh, you’re really, you know, you’re an educated person, Yeah. They don’t teach you anything about business. That is the sad fact. You’re in dental school.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

You’re in college for 4 years. You’re in dental school for 4 years, And you get very, very little business training. So you’re really good clinically at getting out there and taking care of teeth, But those teeth are attached to people. So that’s a problem, number 1. And number 2, There’s all kinds of business things you have to understand. And if you don’t, it can slip by you, and it can be it can be just a downward spiral. And, again, A lot a lot of these people just are they’re just stuck. They don’t know how to deal with their patients, real people, they really don’t know how to communicate with the team, which is hugely important, and they just don’t know lot about the business and how do I run this and how do I make this work.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

So we got we got several things to to deal with at the time.

Jennifer Glass:

Absolutely and you’re so right in terms of school not training us to be business owners.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Right.

Jennifer Glass:

School in general is taught to have a job. So you go, you learn a particular skill, you do it, and someone else is paying you. And you don’t pay attention, to the business side. So we realized or you realized that at some point, you needed to really be making a change in what you were doing. Yep. What was the, if you will, the turning point that made you say, this is it. This is what I have to do because otherwise, I’m gonna be stuck.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Well, I was in business for Probably just the 1st 2 or 3 years. Now I was kinda gutsy coming out of school. I did not wanna work for a lot of other people in the options Coming out of even a great school like Marquette, which was at the time was rated like 2nd or 3rd in the country. I mean, this this, you know, is variable every year it changes, but at the time they were highly ranked. Came out, and again no business education whatsoever, But I just wanted to get in there, and I wanted to do my dentistry. I did not wanna work as an associate. A lot of the places around Milwaukee, Wisconsin were hiring dentists to work as hygienists. That’s not why I went to school.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

No offense to the hygienists. They’re wonderful, and they’re great at what they do. And doctors are terrible hygienists, By the way, usually, they’re just not trained to do it very well. So all of a sudden, it it was just the there are several things that happened in the 1st 1st 2 to 3 years. One thing was I all of a sudden got a tax bill for about $30,000. I didn’t have $30,000. I didn’t have half of that. And I sat in the corner and cried.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

I didn’t know what I was gonna do. I was gonna lose a practice I just started basically in the last couple years. And that right there, that triggered me. That knew That made me realize that I had to get some business training. I didn’t care where I got it. I was gonna fly around the country to learn from the best of the best. And that’s where I started, and I did. In that same time period, not being very astute as a business owner, I was, Well, for the lack of better terms, I was robbed.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

1 of my office managers at the time was On the take, she was this was back in the old this was before computers were really, really mainstream in everybody’s office. Right? Even at the front desk, I don’t know if you even recall or if any patients recall somebody opening this giant piece this book. It’s called a pegboard system, and you wrote everything down. Well, when you write things down in pencil that people paid you Or that the patient was coming in, there’s also eraser on the back of that pencil that can take that out. So you can take out the amount that that person paid you, and you can take some of the money and put it in your pocket. That was to the tune of about $10,000 that was taken from me. I had an office manager that didn’t know what she was doing, and I was so naive. I didn’t know what I was doing that for several months, I couldn’t realize why no money was coming in.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

We had $60,000 in billables in her drawer because we didn’t realize that she didn’t know what she was doing. She just wanted to bury it and hide it and got away from it as long as she could until we figured it out I figured it out. So at that point, you you go down, and when you get about as low as you think you can get, you’re either gonna do 1 or 2 things. You’re either gonna fight or you’re gonna quit. I’m not a quitter, so I fought. And I I worked my way back up. So my business now to coach and consult other dentists and even small business people for all that matters. It it it honestly, there’s so many parallels.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

It isn’t just in dentistry, although that’s become did for 30 years. There’s just there’s just an awful lot to learn, and I really, really want to not let Anybody make those kind of mistakes for a number of years before they can get it going. If they can prevent that, they can be up and profitable very quickly. So, again but if you don’t know, you don’t know. Right?

Jennifer Glass:

Right. Absolutely. And, I mean, it’s interesting because, I mean, growing up, our family dentist happened to grow up with my father. They were very, very close growing up. And so we would get special appointment times because, you know, he normally wouldn’t be in on Sundays, but that was the day we were able to go out to the Bronx to see him.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Great.

Jennifer Glass:

And so, you know, we’d go. And at the time, I personally was into myself becoming a dentist when I grew up. And so I would sit there and I would act as the assistant as Harold was working on my dad. And, so the whole thing, I mean, I learned how to wind up the amalgam and all of that in terms like the process. And here I was, you know, I was 9, 10, 11 years old. And, you know, my job was hold the suction thing in my dad’s mouth. It’s more often my dad than my mom. I have to say, my brothers forget it.

Jennifer Glass:

I wasn’t allowed anywhere near them. But, you know, it’s like, yeah, the older sibling is gonna find a way to really make it, you know, less than comfortable.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Yeah. Sure.

Jennifer Glass:

Yeah. But at least with my parents and I was able to do that, and I learned so much of what happened behind the scenes. Yeah. But, again, I wasn’t learning the business.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Yeah.

Jennifer Glass:

And so, like you’re saying, I mean, Harold was great being the dentist, and I learned the bedside manner from him because he always was talking and trying to really find out how everything was going as he’s doing everything because if you don’t think about what you’re actually doing in the mouth, it doesn’t buy you as much.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Yep.

Jennifer Glass:

So I learned that. But, anyway, getting back though to the whole issue of what happened in your situation, I mean, that’s just absolutely terrible. You know? 60,000 in billables, 10,000 stolen from you, and $30,000 tax bill. I mean, that’s just absolutely wow Yeah. In terms of that. But so let’s look though at where you started going. So you mentioned that you started traveling, trying to really understand the business aspect of running a dental practice.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Yep.

Jennifer Glass:

How did you start, first of all, figuring out who to go to, and how did you realize the pertinent takeaways that you really needed to focus on. Because one of the problems of going to conferences, seminars, and everything is overload. Right? I mean, you sit there, you take 15 pages of notes, and you come back to the office, and you’re like, what the heck do I do first?

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Right. Well and let’s face it. A lot of those things when you go to a seminar or a symposium, some sort of continuing education a lot of it is all warm and fuzzy kind of you know regurgitated information. Right? Not necessarily gonna help you. A lot of the stuff you probably already know. So what you’re really looking for is those couple hidden gems. Right? You’re looking for some meat and potatoes. Like you said, What can I implement ASAP? What what is actually gonna make sense? So you do have to, you know, you have to use your own, You know, hopefully, intellectual being to to decipher through some of that stuff and sift through it and and make sure that you’re implementing what’s appropriate.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

So to find it wasn’t exactly as easy as it would be right now. Right now, I mean, we have so many, you know, things on the Internet and every well’s to go, and there’s reviews and ratings. Right? That helps so much. There wasn’t much of that going on back in 1991. I mean, we were, You know, things were pretty new, and there wasn’t there wasn’t all kinds of rating systems on Google and everything else that you could you could figure out. I did Just figure out that if I went to the, Wisconsin Dental Association, part of the American Dental Association, I would get some information from them, and they were helpful. They would they would give me certain names of certain seminars that I could go to on this subject, that subject, and the other. And I just tried to prioritize my own on my own that, you know, what did I need? What did I need to learn 1st or fastest? There were some clinical things in there, and mostly in the beginning, there were even more business things.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

I got to a more of the clinical things as we went to, started to realize that just because you learned how to place a really nice filling or do a decent crumb, could you do it better? And I always thought there might be a better way. Well, I definitely knew there were better ways in business because I already knew I didn’t know much. Right? And I was not gonna let that tax bill come and surprise me ever again. I was not gonna let somebody else, you know, take my money or the money of the practice. You know, in general, it wasn’t wasn’t gonna be taken down. So, Yeah. It wasn’t as easy back then to figure it out, but, like, right now, there are so many resources available to really any small business person to figure out where they could go and, again, where would be the best continuing education, seminars, workshops, whatever to to go to. So, I was I was lucky because the ones I went to when I did come back and implement again, and and to your point, the overload is real.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Right? You can’t you can’t implement absolutely everything when you get back from one of those things. And you have to be very careful because it isn’t just you. And that’s one thing business owners have to remember. I got very excited. I didn’t take my team in the beginning to those things. I didn’t have the money. I don’t think I had the money to get myself to those things, but I was gonna at least put it on credit and then work it out later because I knew I needed it. So you get back.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Now you’ve got a team of 5, 6, 7, whatever your team might be. That was mine at the time. I had to now get on board With these new ideas. That’s not always easy either. It’s easier to take your team to those things And have them be part of it so you can all get excited together because all it takes is a couple people to to nay say what you’re doing or, oh, that’s never gonna work. You’re gonna have a you’re gonna have a problem. That’s gonna be trouble. Right? You need you need your team on board.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

So so that was that was another lesson in that. But, Yeah. You’re right. You have to implement things kinda piecemeal, sort of. You gotta be careful. Couple things at a time, get them down, get them good, And then go on to the next couple things that you wanna implement. But try to do it all at once. 6, 7 big items, big, You know, things that really are good may may make a positive impact, still gonna get lost.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

It’s it’s too tough to get everything right. Next thing you know, you’re a jack of all trades, master none sort of thing. And then now you’re just all kinda swimming in this mediocrity instead of getting really good at the few things you implemented. That makes sense?

Jennifer Glass:

It absolutely does. And, I mean, it’s interesting because there’s a couple of things that I wanted to respond with that. One was it isn’t only your team in the office. It’s also your team at home that has to be behind a lot of those changes too because you don’t know necessarily how it’s gonna impact the whole life with some of the changes that happen in the office, you know, is it gonna be more time at home, less time at home? Is it gonna be more hours where you’re gonna be stuck to your phone or device now.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

So true.

Jennifer Glass:

Things along those lines. So it’s definitely how does it impact your home also. And the other thing also that I wanted to touch on is that if you implement too many things at once, you can’t gauge the return on what you’re doing and to know what you need to focus on more or less. Because if you’re doing 10 things at once, well, what really made the impact and is something pulling back on the impact that I’m trying to do because I’m not really seeing the full result. So that’s something to keep in mind. And so always implement small measure, repeat measure, and

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Absolutely. And this and as an analogy, that should make sense to people anyway. If you’re trying to lose weight, right, I’m gonna lose weight, but I increased my exercise and changed my whole exercise protocol, plus I added a couple new supplements, plus I changed my diet. You start to lose a little weight. Which one’s working? I don’t know. You just you changed everything. Change one thing at a time. Like you said, see if it’s working, see how well it’s working, gauge it, measure it.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

If you don’t measure, you have no idea. And that is that is an important lesson I learned. And and what you just said, I mean, that is everybody should write that down. If you don’t measure it, you have no idea what you’re doing. You just don’t.

Jennifer Glass:

Absolutely. Thank you. So let me ask you. When you’re going through the process and you started making these changes.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Yeah.

Jennifer Glass:

How did you convince your office, your 6, 7 people in the office? How did you convince them to be, listen. Yes, I’m the boss, but we’re a team here. We’re not, you know, the or maybe you are. The boss says this and everyone jumps, but you probably were more the team kind of thing.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Yeah. Yep.

Jennifer Glass:

So if you are the team environment, how do you really we get everyone’s buy in because very often, I’ve been doing this for so long, and no way are you gonna make me try and really jump through 30 more hoops just to do something that I’ve been doing this way for 10 years.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

That is a tough one. Right? And and just exactly what you said. Right? There’s gonna be there’s gonna be 2 different basic ways of doing this. You can pull off that old, I’m the boss. It’s my way or the highway. You can try that. I tried it. I’m gonna be honest.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

I tried that way back in the beginning. Not not super strong-arm kind of thing, but, yeah, I pulled the, like, you know, I don’t need to explain to you sort of thing, and and let’s we’re doing this. Without the buy in, it’s super tough. So start to learn is that everything and pretty much Every position, and a dentist is no different. People hate to say it, and people hate to hear it. People hate to acknowledge it and believe it. But we’re all in sales. Sales isn’t an ugly word, but people try to make it an ugly word.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Now if if you come in for a cassette and I try to sell you an 8 track, that’s a bad salesman. Right? So I’m not selling you what you asked for. That’s that’s different than ethical selling. Find out what you came in for, the problem that you have, And give an answer on how to solve it. Let you see why that makes sense and how I can do good for you. That’s ethical selling. You need to do that sometime with your team, and I figured that out too. And again, maybe the hard way because sometimes in the beginning when you try to kinda pull that boss thing.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

That doesn’t always work. And more often than not, nowadays it really doesn’t work. So you have to figure out how am I gonna sell this to them. And and quite honestly, selling Isn’t really hard if you believe it. And that’s one thing. I heard that for years years years from my patients that you know, Doc, I really like this, and I think this is gonna but you know what? Gosh. You’re so passionate about this. I mean, alright.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

I’m good. I I I believe you. I trust you. Let’s go. And I think that’s what it is. Right? You you I don’t think you can be passionate. You’d be a good liar, maybe. But, really, can you be? Can you really sell something to somebody and let them see your heart and your soul and and and how you’re thinking Just by selling something and trying to dupe them versus really believing it.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

So if I really believe something, I don’t really feel and I really don’t think I ever had a Tough time, really, selling something to my team if I really believed it. I did try to sell a couple things along the way that I wasn’t sure wasn’t gonna work. And honestly, the the results were were hit and miss because I wasn’t sure myself. But the one couple things that I really knew over time that were gonna work, It wasn’t that hard. And when you get that person that just isn’t going along with everybody else, you might need to, and Probably will need to take them in privately, always privately, never in front of everybody else. That’s another thing people do wrong in small business. You just don’t berate somebody or argue with somebody in front of everyone you take them in, and you have a nice come to Jesus meeting. You have a you have a you have a sit down, and you find out what their objections are, And you try to get past them.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

You try to work with them because you do still need to get them. And and, again, powerful stuff is when you can get that 1 naysayer In line with everybody else. Or at least on the team. They may not buy in a 100%, but if you get them to at least try And give it a period of time, 30 days, 60 days, whatever it is that you’re trying to do to see and then talk again. That that’s super, super helpful. And again, one of those things that I’ve learned along the way that I didn’t do quite right in the beginning, but it’s it’s super impactful when you get your team going. And, again, you have to sell it if you want it, but you better believe in it.

Jennifer Glass:

Without a question, I wanted just to add to your point a moment ago when you said sales is not a 4 letter word. I don’t know if you are following Grant Cardone or not, but Grant Cardone is one of the big, sales, business, folks out there, he’s got a whole bunch of books. And in one of his books, seller be sold, he talks about the idea that we are always selling, that kids are the best salespeople in the world. Then you’re probably wondering what does that mean. And the answer is think about a 4 year old. And now you’re probably thinking there’s no way a 4 year old is a good salesperson. And they are the best salesperson because when they throw the temper tantrum, you’re buying whatever it is that they’re throwing the temper tantrum on.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

It’s true.

Jennifer Glass:

Right? You’re going in the story you’re trying to get out of there, your 4 year old is having a meltdown in the middle of the cereal aisle because they want that box of cereal because it has the toy they want. Yeah. You’re buying that box of cereal. And so they are the best salespeople, but we are selling ourselves all the time. You’re going out on a date. You’re selling yourself to your prospective partner. 100%. You’re asking for a loan.

Jennifer Glass:

You’re selling yourself to the bank. You’re asking for whatever, and you’re selling yourself. So the idea of sales does not have to be that 4 letter word, and we just have to be comfortable with that whole concept of selling and like you said, when you get someone on your team that moves from the no way am I ever going to do this to, alright, I’m not gonna say anything against it. Let’s just let the chips fall where they might. It’s a huge gain also in that whole process to really figure out exactly how you move with that. So with that said, let me ask you, did you run into situations where you had the hell no. I’m not doing this, kind of situation, or did everyone kinda, Alright.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Let’s see what we’re doing. Runs into that. I certainly ran into that a few times. Once I had to bring in another Salesperson, another person from that company that I wanted to try their protocol, their product, and it was really a protocol. It was, for hygiene, for periodontal issues. And I really needed more of an expert. Right? And I because I think There was a time and with the staff I had at the time, that team, there were a couple people who saw me as this guy who loved change, But who maybe just loved it a little too much just for the sake of change. Now that wasn’t true, but that’s how they saw it.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

And as we say, right, perception equals reality. If that was how they perceive me, then then that was it. I mean, they’re I’m not sure I could change their perception. However, If you bring in somebody else with some absolute truth, with some numbers, statistics, things and I always tried to do that as well. It wasn’t I tried to never sell anything based on just a feeling. And, oh, I really I just get a vibe about this. I really think it’s gonna be good. I I sold most things with information, with statistics, with numbers, with graphs, with charts, with, proof.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

You know, things that had happened before. I rarely jumped on a product or anybody’s protocol or lessons that were kind of fly by night. Because in the very beginning of my career, I did some of that too. I bought some some things, and dentists are notorious for this. We get really excited about a product, And then it sits in the basement. Most dentists, if you went in the basement of their clinic, have 100 of 1,000 of dollars’ worth of equipment that’s useless that didn’t work out because they bought it too soon, and they they were early adopters, and they didn’t wait for it to be really sussed out and proven. So Having having those people who wanna kinda buck what you wanna do, yeah, that’s that’s that’s really tough. Get an expert in there.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Use some proof this and that or there was a time, I’m thinking once it’s almost making me laugh a little bit, I kinda had to make a bet with them. And, you know, the thought of having a prize for themselves at the end, and I wasn’t gonna take anything from them. But if I was wrong, then I’ll get you x or I’ll pay you x for this. But you gotta try, and we gotta give this all. And the funny thing is was Everything but one thing that I did try that that we did really worked out well. Another thing that I tried was from a consultant. They sold it to me. It sounded really good, But it really didn’t even take me more than a few months to figure out.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

And and, you know, I give my team a lot of credit. They had come to me. They had expressed their doubts and their opinions over the course of it, but they all really tried hard. They really didn’t. And nobody was trying to I I would have known and it would have been, You know, a a dismissal sort of thing if I thought somebody was trying to undermine me on purpose. I don’t think I ever had that kind of team. I don’t think that ever happened. But I saw too that they were right.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

And that’s the other thing as really a successful business owner, and particularly, I think nowadays, You have to listen to your team. You cannot shut them out a 100%. You cannot take this. I’m the boss. I stand on top of the mountain, and you’re peasants, and you look up to me, man, if you do that, I just don’t see you getting anywhere. I just don’t. It just doesn’t work. And I actually got to the point where one of the big lessons I learned along the way was, yes, there were things that I I didn’t like to hear, but it wasn’t really what you told me.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

It was how you told me. But I ended up giving everybody in my practice permission To tell me when they didn’t like something, this and that. I just asked them do it in a respectful way and like I would do to you, pull me into the office privately and then express whatever you want. And I’ll tell you, I learned some really good things from that. I changed some things in the office that I didn’t even see. That my key people saw. And do you know what happens when you change something based on what your team members say? They feel so valued and appreciated and heard that all of a sudden their work level goes up even higher. It’s it’s really Quite amazing.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

And I’m not sure enough people do that because I think we do. We get frustrated, day to day Things happen and and people just get we we wanna crack the whip instead and tell everybody what to do instead of really having everyone kinda run your business together. Granted you’re the policeman. You run it overall, and you oversee and you do initiate things, but if you give you give your team members some some freedom to help you, It’s kind of amazing what can happen.

Jennifer Glass:

I have to amplify that point with an actual story that happened with someone on my team. Several years ago, I had an assistant of mine who she was given a task. I told her I need you to confirm this speaking engagement and decline another. Well, she completely got it messed up.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Oh, no.

Jennifer Glass:

She did the opposite of what she was supposed to do. She declined the wrong one and confirmed the wrong one. Luckily, because she copied me on all of the messages that were being sent, I was able to undo the harm before the harm was written in stone. So I was able to deal with that. But then when I spoke with her about it, I told her, I said, you know, I need to speak with you and I’m gonna lay it out on the table and I’m gonna make you be the one that’s gonna tell me how we’re gonna handle this. I explained the situation. She understood exactly what happened. She understood that she was wrong and that she was unclear on what needed to really be done.

Jennifer Glass:

I told her, you tell me though, how do we move forward? Do I end the relationship or do we continue? We ended up continuing, and I told her when she has any questions from now on, I don’t care how mundane the question is. You’re gonna ask me first.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Yeah.

Jennifer Glass:

That way you’re crystal clear on the outcome if it was somehow ambiguous, to begin with. And like you said, she was so much better in terms of the process moving forward from there because she understood that I wasn’t the boss, you know, the mean lady who’s coming down and saying, no. No. No. No. No. It was the one who’s really look. And I tell all my people when I bring them on, I say, you’re my family.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Yeah.

Jennifer Glass:

And that’s how I treat you. You too. I expect the same in return, but sometimes family has to show tough love. Yes. And so listen. This is what we need to do. Tell me how we handle it. And that’s exactly what I did.

Jennifer Glass:

So we were able to make that happen. And, thank you for bringing that idea because we really need to hear it sometimes a little bit more. So thank you. So let’s pivot for a moment here. You went from $400,000 to $1,000,000 practice in 4 years with your 1st practice.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Yeah.

Jennifer Glass:

First of all, the growing pains on that.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Oh, yeah.

Jennifer Glass:

And the, scalability that you were doing. I mean, you had a 5 x return in 4 years.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Mhmm.

Jennifer Glass:

How were you managing the growth? Because sometimes you have that kind of a growth, and the business can implode.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Yeah. Honestly, you know, that that seems sort of fast, but it didn’t seem that fast at the time. It seemed a lot faster when I bought the 2nd practice when I, you know, quadrupled that or tripled that in just 1 year. But by then, a lot of lessons were learned. Now it’s just taking those systems and applying them. Right? And I think I think that word that I just said, systems, is very crucial in most businesses. It doesn’t have to be dentistry, any small business. You have got to figure out your systems and and and really live and die by those systems a little bit.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

You have to write things out. You have to know What that person’s doing, what that person’s doing, my assistant is doing here, my front desk receptionist, what are the tasks? And and that’s And, again, all these little things that I that I’ve written on and I’ve learned along the way, that’s that’s one of them. Right? So don’t just put people in In a position and say, there you go. Get at it and, you know, and we’ll talk later and good luck. I mean, what? You can’t do that. You have to train your people. Train, which Kinda segues into something else a little bit in you, the business owner. You do not have to do everything in that business, But you better understand every facet of your business.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

And when I had money taken from me, when I had Somebody in a position that was hiding billables because they didn’t know what they were doing, that isn’t just on them. That’s that’s on me. Right? Because I wasn’t checking. Checks and balances are everything in business. You’ve got to understand your business, And whether, again, you’re a dentist or something else, and I’ll just use dentistry, you have to know what the receptionist is responsible for, and you need to write it out for her. She needs to understand clearly in bullet points, whatever, what her responsibilities are. Otherwise, how is she to know? How is she to know how to start the day, work the day and finish the day with all the proper responsibilities being being finished, you know, accurately. And then There, the the office manager and your assistants, I mean, you have to know what each of them are doing.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

So that takes some time, and that takes That takes a little bit of work on the business owner’s part, but it really really simplifies your life than later. So Gotta get through it. Little tough in the beginning, but then it it makes everything a little easier. But those people need to understand what what they’re doing and how to do it. So once we started doing that, you know, that made all the difference in the world. So everybody had their things and then for me was easy to go back in and check little things every day. Did this person do this, this, this? Because they understood, and I understood. It was easy for checks and balances.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

That’s a huge that’s a huge part of being successful and making that making that happen. Also on the on the clinical side for me, I realized that, you know, I was a little slow. So whether, again, whether it’s something else, I’m other business, or something like dentistry, you kinda need to get your speed up. So in in anything you do, if you can do something without cutting corners, But do it a little faster. Not only for me was the patient happier, no one wants to sit there for an hour and a half When you could have been in and out of that mouth in 20 to 30 minutes without cutting corners. And that sounds that sounds like, well, how do you do that? Well, you get good. Right? You get better at it, and you have to be serious about that. You have to be serious about hunkering down and you need to train yourself.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Again, whatever it is that you do, you have to become very good at what your responsibilities are. So nobody else in the office could touch teeth. Only I could. Now you’re gonna be better at the billing than I am. I need to understand it, but that’s your job. You’re gonna be better at assisting and setting up all these things because that’s what you do. But when it comes down to my job, boy I better be good at it because how are they gonna feel about how they’re supposed to be so great when I’m not great? So that was a big thing for me. And, again, I I not only did the business classes, but I flew around the country to learn from a lot of the best of the best With, clinical techniques too so that I could service patients much better, much better care, in a much timelier manner.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

And honestly it it actually even helps to keep the cost down because then you just you’re you’re doing more and you’re getting better at it. But I think that Again I think that relates to a lot of businesses. I mean if you’re taking too much time to do one thing well then you almost feel like you have to build more for it, right? But if you can do it in an efficient manner, maybe you don’t have to charge people as much, and then everybody’s happy because you’ll still make money because you’re doing more. So I would rather work a little bit on volume than just really hitting somebody for for a big thing. But I think that, again, I think that spans along all kinds of businesses. You gotta get good. Not just expect your staff to get good, but you gotta get

Jennifer Glass:

good. Right. The other point I would throw in there is the idea that before you even bring someone on, you need to know the job before you even bring them in because if you don’t, you can’t come up with the system that they then have to follow.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Right. Right. I I I love that. You should spend some time. Spend some time writing down what their responsibilities and duties are. Right? Because how are you gonna put them in a spot or sit them at a desk and then, like I said, just there you go. There you go. What? And I hear this all the time.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

I hear this from from, Clients and and and they just some of them don’t get it. I mean, they’re great people. And, again, they’re great at what they do, great dentists. But they don’t really understand How to work these other things and work in these systems. And it’s, you know, it it it’s not that hard to learn, but it’s getting that down. And you’re absolutely right. I mean, If if people don’t know, they don’t know. So I’m not sure how we expect these people to do a great job if we don’t lay it out.

Jennifer Glass:

Right? So let me ask you because you mentioned speed

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Yeah.

Jennifer Glass:

In terms of one of the things that you realized you needed to work on. So how did you or rather, what other KPIs, key performance indicators, did you choose to focus on to be making that difference, if any, in terms of the overall growth, especially I mean, the 400 to 1,200,000 Yeah. Increase in just a year is a, you know, sizable increase too. And, again, just 1 year, but you already went from the first practice, you kinda knew how to navigate some of those, growing pains, but was there any other KPI that you were really looking at in terms of moving forward?

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Yeah. Actually, there was. So for me, there’s there’s a lot of stats in dentistry that will tell you, you know, what the average Length of time is to do this procedure, that procedure, and the other procedure. Right? And then I started to commit and I was I’m always been a huge researcher. I don’t even buy Christmas Unless I research the heck out of it and figure out what’s the best thing and where to get the best everything else. I’ll spend way too much time doing that. But I figure out some really good stuff, and I get great information. So I did that with myself.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

I had my assistants time me. So they were literally like, why? Because I just need to know. Because I think dentists in general, I think we all think we’re really fast at what we do. But until you get somebody to actually time you, you realize that you think you’re faster, and this gets dentists in trouble all the time Because they start booking too many people in thinking and and, again, it’s it’s a great thing. One of the things I learned is that you don’t just have to see a patient, wait till they’re done, then see another patient wait till they’re done then see another patient. You can kinda stagger this, but you have to stagger appropriately. Right? And you can’t sit 3 or 4 patients in your office While 2 of them been sitting in the 1 room for 2 hours waiting for you, you can’t do that. They’re never coming back.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

People are very, very cognizant of the time they’re giving you these days, and they’re not gonna waste their time. They’re certainly not gonna do it more than once or twice. That would be So, we just we had them time me. And then I looked at those times, compared them against the the information I had gotten and researched, then realized, Wow. I’m a little slow at this. I’m pretty good at that, but I’m a little slow at this, this, and this. So what courses can I take to learn better how to do this? And and, again, that’s where I started to go around and learn, okay, I can do a root canal way better with this guy’s technique. Again, Dental school and I’m sure anything you get.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

I’m sure it’s law school. You name it. Whatever you’re going for, what you learn in school is the basics. Right? You still are never done learning. You have to expand your knowledge base. And if you don’t, then you kinda get what you get. You’re just gonna kinda sit there. But I was I’m always been hungry for that.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Always wanted more. I always wanted to learn more and be able to apply more, and it’s it’s so much more fun when you really have a better knowledge base because more questions that get asked to you instead of, well, I don’t know, now you actually might know. So I became very much quicker at root canals. Patients were much happier because now instead of, like I said, sitting in there for an hour and a half, I can maybe get this done, and I’ve got really good at them, really good success rates. Patients weren’t hurting, and there is something in dentistry that’s, a very viable idea is that the less time you are on a tooth, drilling it, and playing around with it, The more chance you have of not having that patient have any post op problems or pain. Right? So we don’t wanna heat up the tooth. We don’t wanna be on it too long. So time on tooth is a big thing.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

If you can get clinically efficient, you’re gonna give that patient a much better experience. Well, Who doesn’t love that? Right? I mean, I’m a patient just as much as I was a doctor. I mean, I go see my my dental friends too for work, and, I mean, I do not wanna sit there longer than I have to. I want them in and I want them out and feel good later, and that’s the deal. Right? So, you know, nobody wants to go to the dentist. But if you go to a decent dentist and they know what they’re doing and they can efficiently get you in and out, I mean that that that helped the success right there. So it’s just a matter of looking at, you know, and being honest with yourself of where your shortfalls are. And I knew I had them.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

I just had to figure out where they were, and that’s where the timing The timing of all my procedures made all the difference in the world because then I could hone in on what I needed help with to make me better, which made the practice better, which made more people wanna come to see us, And that just made us more successful. And then all of a sudden, those that number got bigger. Right? Then I could do more In the same amount of time, I didn’t up my hours. I actually, over time, funny enough, my consultant said, okay. You’re burning out. I was working 6 days a week. I mean, almost a full Saturday. And it after about 3 years or so, yes, I was burning out.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

And then he said, I need you to take, Saturday off. And then it wasn’t more than a year after. He goes, I need you to take Friday off. I’m like, really? How am I gonna ever make that? He goes, you wait. You take that extra day off and work 4 days hard, but have 3 days off, and your team does too. Wait to see the energy know how everybody it it worked. It was the weirdest thing. Our production went way up very quickly too.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

People just weren’t burned out, and they were so happy coming back on Monday because they had such an amazing weekend, which was now a 3 day weekend every week. That was that was that was a big, big, dealmaker for us. That really helped catapult us too, is weird. I didn’t I didn’t see it coming, but consultant that I had at the time actually was was very good. So

Jennifer Glass:

burnout is real.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

And Yeah.

Jennifer Glass:

We need to keep that in mind. But I’m wondering, do you when you do go to your dental friends

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Yeah.

Jennifer Glass:

For your own dental treatment Yeah. Do you time them? Like, do you have not officially, but do you like thinking?

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Subconsciously, I absolutely do. I I mean, I haven’t I haven’t said anything like, gosh. You’re slow or you’re this and that, but, Yeah. I have an idea of how long I should be there, and, and I’ve all I’ve been told and this isn’t you know, I’ve been told by an accountant and by several, consultants I had, they said, you know, you are you are kind of ridiculously fast at what you do. You’ve really honed in your skill and not everybody’s gonna do that. It doesn’t make them bad.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

It just they’re they’re not you. And, you know, as an owner dentist, and I’m guessing any owner in any business we do have to remember that too when we bring on associates, partners, whatever it is. We want skillful, yeah, but They’re not gonna necessarily be you, and you have to be careful of that. You have to be careful of thinking that you’re gonna have these clones. That’s not really how it works. We’re all we’re all individuals, And, you know, we all have our strengths and weaknesses, and and you you put them all together so your strengths combine And that maybe maybe some of the things they’re good at is some of the things you’re weaker at. And that and that’s kinda how I chose my associates over time too, and and that helped. So yeah.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

I mean, they may not be as fast when they work on me as as I was, but, again, they do such a nice job that I’m just I’m just grateful that it was comfortable. No.

Jennifer Glass:

Absolutely. So let me ask you, another thing. As you were going through all of the growth Yeah. And the training for your front office, or front desk people especially

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Yep.

Jennifer Glass:

Did you ever mystery shop the front desk?

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Oh, yeah. I would I would make up voices and things that I would call in to see how they’d the phone because usually based on someone coming to me, usually a patient who was not trying to get anybody in trouble, but said, you know, when I called in the other day. I really didn’t get greeted the nicest way. Thank you for telling me. I’m on it. So, yes, I would do that. I would mystery call. And if it wasn’t me, I would have a friend or wife or something call in and and find out just exactly what was going on.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

And sometimes, yeah, sometimes it was maybe a fluke That day. But sometimes I did find out that things weren’t going exactly the way they should have, the way that things should be handled and patients should be treated. So yeah. And then you’d have to you’d have to address it and go in and change it. But, you know, when you’re you also have to know, like, for me, I’ve learned a lot about the front office. Now the dental things, I went to dental people. But, again, the front office stuff, that’s not anything I knew. So I could’ve just, you know, struggled through that and and made my own way to figuring out, but I also hired Somebody.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

I think we also know we need to know when to hire other professionals that are better than us at what we’re trying to learn. So I hired a couple front office people, But then I got in those classes as well as they taught my front, and then I got taught. So then, okay. Now I know why you’re doing it wrong, but now I know too. So now now we can all work together to go forward. And then when you have somebody leave you or if you have to make them leave you, Now when you hire the next person, either you can get bring that trainer back, which is fine, or one of your other people know how to do it so well they can train, but now you can check, And you know if it’s actually being done right. And, again, that was that was so huge for me because it’s such a big mistake, And dentists do it all the time. I’m finding the clients now that they just they’re you know, I do dentistry.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

I’m not interested in the front office. Yeah. I get it, But you kinda have to be a little bit. Again, you don’t have to do it, but you have to understand it. That’s huge. You have to, or you’ll get robbed. There’s extortion. There’s all kinds of things happening in these offices that people like, I didn’t know she took all that money.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Well, k. I get it, and that’s horrible. It shouldn’t happen, but if you did your daily checks and balances, it probably could never happen because you’d see it right away.

Jennifer Glass:

Absolutely. So let’s take a turn again and

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Yeah.

Jennifer Glass:

You went from having 6, 7 people in your on your team

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Yeah.

Jennifer Glass:

To now overseeing a 120 practices, how did you handle that dramatic change.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Well, to be quite honest, and and I hope I didn’t mislead when I when I put that on there. I was chosen to be the clinical director of that corporation. I did not take it. When I went through oh god. It was 6 to 9 months of constant meetings and, interviews and all kinds of things and then I got the job. And when they offered it to me, I was super excited. I had, all this all these ideas, and I was ready to PowerPoint and teach all the doctors. I was gonna Oh my gosh.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

It was I was all ready. And then we finally got down to, the money, my my wage, my salary. And it was about Half as much as I was making for about double the time I had to put in for what I was putting in.

Jennifer Glass:

Isn’t it always that kind of

Dr. Kory Wegner:

That didn’t make sense.

Jennifer Glass:

I thought it

Dr. Kory Wegner:

and, honestly, when they told me, I thought I got kicked in the gut. I I thought I was on, like, candid camera or something. I was waiting for somebody to jump out and and start laughing Because I mean I just had this awful sinking feeling as I stood there and I had to ask them twice. Can you repeat that? I I didn’t think I heard what I heard. I mean, they knew exactly what I made, they knew exactly what I was doing, and this was a ginormous list of responsibilities And tasks that I had to do for about half. It was very nice to be offered that, and and yes, I thought I deserved I thought I could’ve done a great job for them, but I did not understand why I was being lowballed, and nobody would explain it. And I honestly Took me about a week to just struggle with the idea of where I was going, and then I just figured, nah. I’m not gonna do that.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Not gonna do it. I would have loved to do it. So I was chosen, but I didn’t take it.

Jennifer Glass:

Okay. So let me ask you. As you look at the things that you’ve been doing over the last 30 plus years that you had your dental practice and now your consulting practice, what would the single biggest takeaway be that you can say contributed to where you got you today?

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Take care of your team take care of your team I mean there’s all kinds of things there’s many we talked about already that are important, you know, continuing education, all these things, but really taking care care of the team. And and we talked about before, you know, making Them part of everything, right? Listen to them, but one of the things you have to do to get there I talk to all my clients you have to incentivize. Incentivized people are the best workers, they’re powerful people because they’ve got a reason, right? You can’t ask everybody to do all these things for you for an attaboy at the end of the day. A little pat on the back. That’s important. I did realize that too. I didn’t appreciate my people in the beginning years. Not enough.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

And I realized in the second half of my career, I wouldn’t go home at the end of the day without stopping in by each person, asking if they needed anything from me, And thanking them for their service for the day. I thought that was huge and actually they even told me later it went over huge. It was big for them. That’s what they wanted. What they wanted appreciation. But don’t we all? Don’t we all wanna be appreciated? Right? But I learned, and I learned this again from one of my consultants over time, to incentivize. Incentivized people are just the harder hardest working people. Now that doesn’t mean you need to be their best buddy.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

That’s a mistake. Right. But you need to show respect and appreciation. You need to be consistent when you reprimand, but you need to address the issue and not a personal attack. But when you empower those people and give them goals and then incentivize them when they hit the goals that you make up whatever business you’re in, whatever goals you want to set. And don’t make the goal TOO high, but make it something that isn’t so easy because if you already hit this every year, You don’t make the goal this. You eke it up a little bit. Right? Let’s do a little better than we did last year.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

And whatever parameter that is. And different businesses are gonna have different things. But I’ll tell you, once I incentivized my team, business just skyrocketed. And and they worked so hard. And and you start that you’ve started to see it in their faces and in everything they did. They felt the business, the practice was part of them and they were part of it. They had a feeling of ownership. You may not be giving them ownership, but if you give them the feeling of ownership, man, life gets life gets so much better as a business owner.

Jennifer Glass:

Just does. Absolutely. So let me ask you another question just in terms of how you see things, and that is success. The word success, I mean, what does it mean to you?

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Well, success is definitely a a a blended Definition. Right? It’s there’s there’s a lot of parts to success, and it really depends on what it means to you. But if you’re asking me, you know, financial financial gain and growth is issued. We all need to have a little extra money more than we spend for our house, food, clothing, this and that. Right. But there I learned I learned fairly quickly there was a lot more than that. Success really is, You know, a feeling that you are providing something of value, that made me feel successful. In the beginning when maybe some of my clinical things maybe didn’t go as great as I thought they should.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Again, I was a new dentist. Was it bad? No. But did I think I could do better? Yes. But when I finally got my skills honed in enough to where I really was doing what I thought was just a a quality work, not c plus, b minus work, whatever. That was passable, but, right, but really good and then really giving value to that patient. That’s success. Having a blend of, you know, home, work, recreation, you have to you have to balance all those things. And I think I think balance having the balance that’s good for you and your family, I think that’s the biggest success because it isn’t just about money.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

I mean, I I’ve seen some of the biggest houses and These giant boats, down around, like, Florida, like, say, Naples. They’ve got a channel, and there’s all these giant houses and these giant boats, and you never see anybody there. You never see anybody on them. Why? Because they’re probably working themselves to the bone, and you’d see some of these, shows. Like, I’ve watched Suits. I’m gonna be watching Suits. Those lawyers work from late 6 in the morning to, like, 10 at night. Is that balance? I’m sorry.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

I don’t care how much money you’re making. If that’s good for you, good for you. That’s not balance. I don’t think that’s a successful life. I think you burn yourself out, and you are missing all kinds of things with family, Friends, social, you know, health. You have to you have to figure out a way to have all of those. Now the one may not be higher than the other. You may not then make as much money as you could have.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

But if you’re making that much money, but you can’t Spend any of that money on anything, or don’t have time, or never see your family, or your wife, or your husband, or friends? What in the hell are you doing? I’m sorry. That’s not success. Not to me.

Jennifer Glass:

Thank you. I asked that question because I’m always wondering I mean, it was part of my keynote, presentation to success equate to happiness. Yeah. And I’m always wondering talking to my guests and talking to other business owners, I mean, what is success? Do you consider yourself a success? Very often, I mean, one of the things I will share it is a lot of times, we say we’re not yet successful. Like, we got to this point. We thought we were gonna be successful, but we’re not. It’s the next step and the next step and the next step. You know, whether you’re making $1,000,000 an hour and you wanna get to 5, you wanna get to 10, you wanna get to 50, whatever that number is, that sometimes is there.

Jennifer Glass:

Where we ultimately end up seeing the success is looking back on our life and seeing, yes, I actually did it because you have nothing more to do. And so that’s really where sometimes it is and other times, it’s really, I know at this moment, I am successful. I’ve covered my kids. I’ve education. My kids got married, grandkids, Whatever whatever and, you know, all good. Sometimes, though, is that really enough, and is that happiness? And that’s the whole point of the keynote. But

Dr. Kory Wegner:

But but wouldn’t it be nice too to check-in and reflect more often during the journey so that you enjoy the journey? Right? And I’m gonna tell you, I was guilty of this for a while. There was probably and and I even tell my kids, honestly, I think there was a period of about 5 to 7 years and more in the beginning or at least once I got things going, I don’t remember much. I really don’t. I was so busy and so focused. I ate, slept, and drank for that dental office. That’s all I did. And and I feel a little bad about that when I look back now because I didn’t I didn’t really pay attention to the journey at the time. Luckily, I caught myself Early enough in the game I guess.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

It didn’t happen my whole 30 years. But you you really do. You have to check-in once in a while and and and you know success is Just because you didn’t make that next level doesn’t mean you’re not successful now, but you’re successful for the little goals. And you have to make those goals little. Don’t make them don’t make them to here and say I’m not successful till I hit this. That’s ridiculous. Little steps, and then enjoy those wins. Right? Little wins, they all add up over time, and you’re just as successful.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

But you’ll do even better when you feel that success. But you gotta allow yourself to feel that along the way, not just not just for the pinnacle of everything that you might achieve. Because if you wait and then you get there, you might go, I don’t feel that great, really, and you missed all the stuff in between. So Right? Yeah.

Jennifer Glass:

Absolutely. And you’re so right. I mean, it’s sometimes you gotta stop, smell the roses because eventually, you’re not gonna have the ability to. And you wanna have those moments where you can go back, you can reflect. And the other thing also is that if you don’t really reflect, you don’t know what you are not even seeing because we’re so driven by blinders. Like, this is a focus that we have. Like you said, you ate, drank, and slept the practice. And if that’s all you’re focused on, you can’t see if there’s a potential danger that’s around the corner because you’re so just like the horses riding around New York City, they got those blinders on so that they don’t see the cars.

Jennifer Glass:

And we have to remember sometimes we have to focus on this. So, yes, thank you for Yeah.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

We only live once. Right?

Jennifer Glass:

Absolutely.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Yeah. You can’t go back, so you better enjoy it on the way.

Jennifer Glass:

Yes. So doctor Corey, let me ask you. People have been spending the last bit of time with us in this conversation. And they’re really interested in connecting with you. How can they get more information about you?

Dr. Kory Wegner:

You can go to my website coachingforsuccess.com And there is a link to book a call with me. And it is a complimentary, no fee call. And there’s no obligation. It’s just so that we can talk and see if I may be able to help. If I can help your business, grow, help you with any of the obstacles that you’re facing, and and we’ll just have a, honest 1 on 1 for 20, 30, 45 minutes, whatever it takes, To see if we’re a good fit. Because we you know, let’s face it. I might not be able to help everybody, and I certainly don’t wanna go down that road, have anybody pay anything, and find out that it was a waste for them Or I couldn’t help. I’m gonna be able to help.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

I want you to be able to feel that I can help and and and trust that we are a a good connection with each other and go from there. So coaching for success .com.

Jennifer Glass:

Thank you. And so as we wrap up our conversation, Corey, again, I wanna thank you again so much for being my guest.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Thank you.

Jennifer Glass:

And it’s really important to keep in mind that when you think you’ve hit rock bottom, sometimes you really have, and there’s nowhere to go but up. Sometimes there’s still room to still go down. But it’s up to you to really figure out though what is it you’re going to do to be making that change, how quickly and easily can you pivot? Are you in a position to say, you know what? I’ve gone down this path long enough, and I realize at this point it’s not going to work, or are you going to be the person that says, I’m gonna go down with the sinking ship.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Yeah.

Jennifer Glass:

You ever look at those comics where you have the guy who’s digging, and he stops an inch before the gold. Sometimes, we understand exactly what that means. He stops because he just went way too far, And the science doesn’t say it’s going to be any deeper than this point. And so he walks away based on educated understanding. Other times we walk away because we get a feeling of dejection. We get, a feeling of worthlessness. Yeah. We have to understand sometimes what that means, and do we have the right people at our side in the journey too.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Yeah.

Jennifer Glass:

Knowing that you have a good coach, a good mentor that’s there for the journey is really gonna be a key piece, and I think that both you, Corey, and I are certainly very familiar with that feeling that our clients walk away with as they’re dealing with those ideas. But it’s really up to you to know and seek out those people who can complement what you do, not necessarily be a carbon copy of you. And when you’re hiring people, like you said, Corey, you don’t necessarily want to hire people exactly like you. You want people that if you stink at sales and you’re in marketing, get somebody that does sales. Because if you don’t do sales, you need that sales person, so you can do the marketing

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Yeah.

Jennifer Glass:

And vice versa.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Yeah.

Jennifer Glass:

Hire those people that are really gonna complement the problem areas that you have and then grow your team that way. The more that you can do that, you’re going to have a much better chance at getting out of that rut and finding the gold and keeping on going from there. So again, doctor Corey Wagner, thank you so much for being my guest today.

Dr. Kory Wegner:

Thank you.

Jennifer Glass:

On that note, this has been another episode of Mojo, the meaning of life and business. And until next time, here’s to your success.