Shawn Terrell (00:04.29)
Welcome to Dentists, Puns and Money. I am your host, Shawn Terrell. A reminder, this podcast is brought to you by Dentist Exit Planning. At Dentist Exit Planning, we help dentists leaving clinical in the next five years build their financial treatment plan for life after dentistry. So as I was getting ready to record this podcast, I noticed something and that's that
This is episode 100 of the podcast that I've done for Dentist, Puns and Money. And between that and the anniversary of the pandemic being right around this time in early March when I'm recording this episode, I've been a little bit nostalgic the last couple of days. And I was sort of reflecting, especially about the podcast, how many things have changed since I started it.
Not quite five years ago. I think it was four and a half years ago when I started it in the fall of 2020. But it was sort of born or it was a brainchild of all the time off I had to think during the pandemic in 2020. So about five years ago. So as I was thinking about the podcast, just a couple of things that I wrote down that have changed since I started it.
I used to have guests on all the time or primarily the episodes were with other guests and they used to run much longer, like 30 or 40 minutes. I went back and looked and I think the all time high was an episode of 44 minutes, which is just way too long, I think, for a podcast. So currently there aren't a lot of guests right now, not ruling that out in the future, just easier for the time being to have the podcast be just me.
And as I think about the ideal time for how long they run, I sort of had this 10 to 15 minute time frame that I work off of. And I think that's a lot better and a lot more interesting for you, the listener or the viewer, which is another thing that's changed. When I started the podcast, it was audio only. And now it's video as well. We're on YouTube. If you are so inclined, you can watch us on our YouTube page at Dentist Exit Planning.
Shawn Terrell (02:24.061)
and see all the episodes there. Thank you for subscribing if you have subscribed to our channel. It's still pretty small, but we are hopefully growing. Another thing that's changed, I used to what I would call batch record these episodes, meaning I would record like, I don't know, six or eight episodes sort of in a short period of time and then edit them all. And then I wouldn't record podcasts again for a few months, which was cool.
because I didn't have to think about recording podcasts all that often, but I also felt like that sometimes there would be things that popped up in my head that I wanted to talk about during that break that I wasn't recording and I didn't feel like it gave me the option to be that nimble for things that sort of popped out of nowhere to talk about on a podcast.
As it stands, I sort of record these, I don't know, a week or two ahead of when they actually release, if you care that much to know about kind of how things work behind the scenes. So that way I can sort of interpret any feedback that I get from the previous episode and apply that to the next episode in relatively short order. Speaking of sort of the frequency of that, I used to release a podcast every week.
And currently it's every other week, which I think is a pretty good cadence. Funny story about that is before I had all my health issues in 2023 and almost died, I had recorded a lot of episodes ahead of time and sort of had them scheduled out through the summer of 2023 and into the fall. And I sort of chuckle thinking about how my podcast would have lived on for quite a while after, I had passed away.
So I don't know why that makes me chuckle, but it just does. But anyways, now they're one-to-one. So if you don't see or hear from me for a few months, then something bad probably happened. I use humor to not think about how close everything came there.
Shawn Terrell (04:31.146)
A few other things. Speaking of that near death experience and having guests, I did notice when I sort of went public six months ago about everything that happened to me health wise in the last few years, most of the feedback I got was from people that had previously been on the podcast as a guest. And I say feedback, mean, just like messages saying, hey, thinking of you. And that meant a lot to me.
And sort of reinforced what I already thought, which is when I have someone as a guest on the podcast, it sort of creates this bond that you can't really explain. I don't know how to make it any deeper than that, but these are all people that.
Shawn Terrell (05:32.476)
And the light just, I don't know where the light is cutting out on me.
Shawn Terrell (05:41.713)
Something is wrong with the light. What the heck is going on?
Shawn Terrell (06:59.993)
So one thing that I noticed about all the health issues that I had and when I went public with those a few months back was how many times or how many people I heard from that were former podcast guests, which really meant a lot to me. That was by and large the crazy majority of people that I heard from, but just like, thinking of you, didn't know you were going through all that. I'm to hear you're doing better and we'll keep listening.
Those messages meant a lot to me when I sort of revealed health information and it was interesting that these were all people who were former podcast guests and these podcast guests that I had in the last five years, I think almost all of them or the majority of them I have never actually met in real life. It was just a relationship that I kind of formed online and then they were a guest on my podcast and
I learned that having someone as a guest on the podcast sort of creates this bond with that other person where you feel this connection, even though you only talk to them for like an hour or two, recording the podcast the whole time, between, even though you only talk to them for maybe less than an hour and recording that podcast. So sort of an interesting takeaway that I had. And as I started thinking about
And looking back at the hundred episodes of this podcast, one more thing before I forget, I did not even remember that the name of this podcast used to be something else. It was not Dentists, Puns, and Money for the first 40 episodes. I actually called it The Practice Growth Podcast up until 2022. So that was just something that I completely forgot about. And maybe you were a guest back when it was called the practice growth podcast.
but just sort of interesting the things that you can forget and all the things that change over the last five years, over a five year period. And sort of when I was thinking about this idea that things can really change a lot in five years or over a five year period, I think that's applicable to your life after clinical dentistry. So if you're a dentist and you exit clinical and
Shawn Terrell (09:25.205)
move on to retirement sometime in your 50s or early 60s. That's potentially 30 years or half of your adult life that you will not be in practice and you will not be working as a dentist. So that's like six times five. That's five, that's six five year stretches if you want to think about it in terms of that. So sort of as I was thinking about all this and working through it,
it occurred to me that it's a heck of a lot easier to look at the things that haven't changed or won't change in the future than it is to go through all the things that have changed over a few years. So as I thought about that, then I started thinking about the podcast and what hasn't changed and how maybe we could apply that same concept to life after clinical. for the dentists in our audience.
And as it relates to the podcast, when I started it back in 2020, I love the idea of sharing my thoughts and the thoughts of guests with other people and for the benefit of many other people. And I also liked the idea of doing that, of sharing those thoughts and doing it in a way that would be easy to distribute. And so I could distribute it digitally in a really easy format.
and do it in a way that I could share that information asynchronously so I could share some thoughts and ideas and share the thoughts and ideas of guests and do it in a way that other people could consume that at a time that was most convenient for them, like on a podcast app or a YouTube channel.
That's a couple of the big things that haven't changed. And I don't envision that changing as long as the podcast keeps going. I still think it will be my way of sharing thoughts and ideas. And maybe I'll bring some guests back in eventually and doing that for the benefit of many. It's like, so we can all crowdsource the way to live life after a clinical dentistry. I just kind of like that concept. And that's one of the benefits of living in the 21st century is the
Shawn Terrell (11:41.222)
amount of information that is readily available to all of us. And so if I thought about it really hard, I could probably think of a few more things that have not changed in the last five years, especially as it relates to the podcast. But for the sake of brevity, I'll keep it at those two. Just the idea of sharing thoughts and doing it in a digital asynchronous way, think are two really big things that won't change. But that also begs the question,
What are the big things that will not change for you as it relates to your money and your life after clinical dentistry? And you think about your retirement, try to spend some time. If you're looking for my unsolicited advice, I think it would be really helpful for a lot of people to spend some time in thought or spend some time journaling on the things that are really important about money and life to each individual person.
I think it would be really important to think about the things that are important with money and with your life and think about that, spend some time and thought on that, spend some time journaling on that. And those can be a really good guidepost as you start to build some thoughts and ideas for what your life after clinical will look like. So that's my unsolicited advice for today and for this podcast.
If you have been following along since the beginning, I really appreciate that. I noticed that we do have a group of loyal listeners and viewers, and I definitely do not take that for granted. So thank you for being along for the ride with me and providing feedback from time to time. I don't know how many episodes I will do. I didn't really have some grand plan to make it to 100, but I think I can do another 100, hopefully. sort of.
as I tweak it and iterate it moving forward. But thank you for following along. A couple reminders to wrap it up. Again, Dentist Exit Planning is a financial planning firm specifically to help dentists leaving clinical within the next five years, help them build their financial treatment plan for life after dentistry. A couple reminders to wrap it up. Dentist Exit Planning helps dentists leaving clinical within the next five years.
Shawn Terrell (14:04.101)
build their financial treatment plan for life after dentistry. And the other reminder is that dentist exit planning is a registered investment advisor. The information presented here should not though be interpreted as investment, legal, tax, financial planning or wealth management advice. It's for educational purposes only and past performance is not indicative of future results. I am Shawn Terrell.
Thank you for following along for 100 episodes and we will talk to you again very soon.