Episode #380: Don’t Wait So Long to Do This, with Dr. Rob Ritter

Creating a successful practice of your own is a long process, so the sooner you get something right, the more beneficial it is—don’t take so long to start improving your practice! To help you learn from past mistakes, Dr. Rob Ritter joins Kirk Behrendt on today’s episode. Bringing along a wealth of knowledge, Dr. Ritter explains his personal journey with building multiple practices, what he should have done differently, and why you should learn from his examples. To find out why you shouldn’t wait to improve your practice, listen to Episode 380 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways: 

• Stand up for where you want your practice to go.
• Know what you’re good at, and refer out everything else.
• Patients know when you’re trying to sell them something. 
• You can train skills, but you can’t train a personality.
• Don’t compromise on your health.
• There’s no shortcut to greatness.
• If there’s no joy in it, don’t do it.
• If you want to do something, do it.

Quotes:

• “I did everything wrong the first three years—everything you could think of, right? And learn from my mistakes, I have no problem sharing it—you want to ask me a question, ask me the question—I’ll tell you. I gave in to patients’ demands; I let them say things to me that I would never let somebody say to me right now; I let my team members do things that I would never let happen right now; I did not have a clear, coherent message. I tried to kind of hone it all together early on, but it really didn’t come together until Chris [Ramsey} became my associate, that we formed this partnership, that we had this vision of what we wanted to do, what we wanted to be known as, how we wanted to do it for the next 20-25 years.” (13:04—13:47)
• “You can’t make decisions when you’re angry, right? You have to take some time to chill out. So you go in the back or the office and you think, ‘What am I doing wrong?’ And so you’ll eventually have these individual meetings with your team members, and say to them, ‘This is the vision I have for the practice. This is the type of dentistry I want to do. This is the way that we’re going to do it. If this is not what you’re comfortable with, then maybe this is not the right place for you.’” (14:24—14:46)
• “Figure out in the first year what’s working and what’s not working. Figure out the team members who buy in to the vision that you have for the practice and empower them, and then let the others get weeded out over a period of time, because the truth is, most of the people you start with are probably not going to be with you five years down the line if you start to make changes to the practice that you want as far as your big vision of the type of dentistry that you want to do.” (15:59—16:27)
• “If you’re very good at what you do, and you treat patients really well, the right patients will find you. I’ve always said ‘Just do the right thing for people; the money will always follow.’ Whenever you put the money first, you’re going to have problems. You’re just going to have a ton of problems. The money will always come to you as long as you do the right thing.” (25:25—25:45)
• “You’ve got to get a person that has a good heart, somebody that actually wants to be there, that wants to improve—both personally and professionally—I love those people. Because I’ll teach them the skill set. As long as they want to be there, they’re trustworthy, they’re forthright, they believe in what you’re doing, they enjoy what they’re doing—that’s what you want. I really believe hiring people that have very few skills for the position, but hiring the right personality, is everything.” (31:35—32:03)
• “My advice to young dentists—get the best quality loops that improve your posture and your ergonomics early in your career. Do not make exceptions for patients who will not go back in the chair, because you’re just ruining your neck. And stick to your guns.” (42:19—42:35)
• “I want the young dentists to do the right thing. I want them to do the right thing, and I want them to make the patient happy, but remember, those patients, when they leave the practice, they forget about you. They don’t care if your neck hurts when you go home that night, they don’t. You have to be selfish with your health.” (43:15—43:30)
• “When you graduate dental school you walk out with a degree that allows you to start learning. That’s what it is, because there’s no way that dental school can teach you everything that you need to know. It’s just not. So now you’ve got to come out of school, you have to start practicing, get your speed up, learn the business acumen—that’s very critical in your long-term success, to be financially stable—that allows you to do the things both in your office and outside of your office that make you happy so that you’re not doing things just for the money. And that all comes from education. (45:28—45:56)
• “You know, at the end of the day, I’ve achieved what I wanted to achieve in my profession. I set certain goals for myself, and it’s not about me anymore. I really enjoy the dentistry, working with patients; when I’m working with them a long time, I get to know their stories. It’s all about the stories, getting human emotion—it’s wonderful. And then helping the young dentists, because as you know, it’s so difficult right now.” (57:32—57:57)

Snippets:

• 00:00 Introduction.
• 03:13 Dr. Ritter’s background.
• 05:24 Dr. Ritter’s journey.
• 12:09 Making mistakes while figuring things out.
• 15:10 Standing up for yourself.
• 17:02 Dependence on insurance for a new practice.
• 18:27 Complimenting Dr. Margeas
• 23:56 Communication challenges within the team.
• 25:25 Treating patients well
• 26:41 Hiring problems and the Great Resignation.
• 32:27 Training.
• 37:54 Future of Dr. Ritter’s team.
• 41:31 Keeping an eye on your health.
• 45:20 Education in dentistry.
• 46:36 The Protocol course.
• 56:34 Reaching out to Dr. Ritter.
• 57:22 Final thoughts.

Reach out to Dr. Ritter:

Dr. Ritter’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robert.g.ritter.3

Dr. Ritter’s Instagram: @drrobritter

The Protocol course: https://www.theprotocollive.com

Dr. Ritter Bio:

Dr. Robert Ritter grew up in Palm Beach prior to attending Medical University of South Carolina College of Dental Medicine. Practicing since 1994 and logging more than 200 hours of continuing education per year, Dr. Ritter is an extremely proficient doctor of restorative dentistry.  He has had the opportunity to research, write, and publish several articles on adhesive and cosmetic dentistry in several professional publications, including Practical Periodontics and Aesthetic Dentistry (PPAD), Signature, Spectrum, Dentistry Today, DPR, Contemporary Esthetics, and he is on the editorial board of PPAD, as well as Spectrum, The Journal of the Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry and The Journal of Esthetic and Restorative Dentistry.

Dr. Ritter is an editorial board member of REALITY, a publication to keep dentists up-to-date with advances in the products, techniques and research of esthetic dentistry. He is a product consultant to numerous dental manufacturers, and has lectured nationally as well as internationally on cosmetic dentistry, adhesive dentistry, porcelain veneers, and restorative implant dentistry.