Welcome to Dental Unscripted,
where Mike Dinsio and
Paula Quinn break down the
practice ownership journey,
one episode at a time.
Starting up, buying,
and running a successful dental practice.
What up, what up, guys?
How you doing?
Another episode of Dental Unscripted.
We are right in the middle
of Dental Shark Week,
bringing it back another year.
And this week is all about construction,
dental construction,
so how to build a dental office.
All the questions that go into that,
all the concerns, challenges,
partnerships and questions
that we could get into, we're going to.
And so thanks for joining us again,
Mike Dinsio,
one of the co-founders of
Next Level Consultants and
co-host of this amazing program.
I've got a request, folks,
since we're right in the
middle of Shark Week, I've got a request,
an ask of you.
I really need you to give us five stars.
Hell, if you want to give us four stars,
I'll take it.
But I want you guys to give
us some ratings.
Review us.
I talk to you guys.
There's hundreds of you out
there every single day.
I'm getting positive
feedback on the program.
Yet we only have ten reviews.
What in the heck?
Please get on your program,
whatever you're into.
If it's Apple, Spotify, I don't care.
Just hit the five stars or four, whatever.
I just need more ratings.
All right.
That's my ask of you before
we get the program started.
So without further ado.
today I am interviewing
another friend and partner
someone that I've done a
lot of business with over
the years um a fantastic
dental contractor in the
colorado market chad hill
with hill commercial
construction chad what's up
how you doing brother
thanks for being on the
program I'm good I'm good
mike thanks for having me
on I appreciate it it's good to see you
Yeah, man,
it's been it's been it's been a
minute since I've seen you.
You look great.
Chad and I did a lot of
projects while we were in
and when I was at B of A in Colorado.
So he's primarily serving
the Colorado market and he
has done some work
nationally and he's a
wealth of knowledge when it
comes to anything really
construction related.
I ask some questions all the time.
he'll he'll convouch like
Chad just saw this not sure
what that is and he'll pop
me off the answer so uh
today it's all about Chad
Hill and Hill commercial
construction so Chad why
don't you give us just like
a like a literally a two
minute like elevator kind
of pitch on you and how you
got where you got and the
company and um what makes
you guys so great
Yeah, you got it.
Uh,
I grew up with the construction trades.
My dad was a, uh,
owned a small residential, uh,
concrete company, um, and, uh,
worked for him from the
time I was until when I graduated college,
not a doctor, uh, but, uh,
took me a hot minute, um,
and got a construction
management degree from, uh,
Colorado State University
Bachelor in Construction Management.
Great program.
Love it.
It's one of the best in the
country and it's fed a lot
of high quality construction companies,
not only in Colorado,
but throughout the country.
I started with a small GC,
a friend of my dad's golfing,
like as we all know, golfing for work,
right?
That does lead to contacts.
And it's like, hey,
I want you to check this guy out.
And I
I met my mentor.
My dad was a great guy.
At the time, I realized, gosh,
I don't know if I want to
lay concrete for the rest of my life.
I liked it.
I was in great shape.
I was strong as an ox and
worked really hard.
And the best part of it was
tangible progress.
I'd show up.
There'd be a bad driveway, a bad patio,
bad steps.
When I left, it looked perfect.
And really proud of the work we did.
And I got to work closely with my dad,
which was fantastic.
So there's parts of that I missed.
It's funny.
When I started in the
general contracting world, it's funny.
You push paper all day and you're like,
I don't know if I did anything today,
but when I poured concrete,
I could walk away and go,
that's what I did today.
Yeah.
And I know that was a
special time in your life
because you and your dad
were super close.
That's special.
That's super cool.
I didn't know that story, buddy.
All these years,
I didn't know that story about you.
Yeah.
Yeah, super nice.
This is really dumb and this
is kind of a dumb movie,
but I was with my wife and
I'd met my wife, who I'm still married to,
twenty six years later.
And God bless her.
And I went to a movie and I
and I didn't know what I wanted to do.
Right.
Like when I grew up,
even though I was twenty five years old,
twenty six years old,
twenty five when I met her.
And I saw a movie called Multiplicity.
which is Michael Keaton, random movie.
And if you watched it, you would never say,
that's what I want to do.
The whole premise of the
movie was Michael Keaton
was a residential
construction superintendent
slash project manager.
And-
He was just going a hundred miles an hour,
too many hats and heads and
just couldn't get it all done.
And he, and he went to bed and he,
and he made a wish and he said, God,
I wish there were two of me.
And he wakes up and there's two of him.
And so the rest is the
comedy of the two of them
never being in the same room.
And most people look at that like,
Oh my God, what chaos?
That looks crazy.
I finished watching a movie.
I turned to my wife and I go,
that's what I want to do.
And she's like,
Okay, well,
let's go up to CSU and check it out.
My brother went there for a little bit.
So went and checked out the
construction management program.
I'd always gone to college,
but never really knew what I wanted to do,
but was always helping my dad.
And then I got a degree there,
went to work for a small
general contractor in Broomfield,
worked for him for about six years.
Yeah, about six, six and a half years.
And mentor, great guy.
I wish every worker,
every entrepreneur has a
mentor like I had.
It just was a gift.
Just a giant of a man in every way.
And even though he's about half my size,
I was scared to death of him.
He was like perfect typecast
for a mafia movie.
But he owned a construction company.
But he was a taskmaster.
We were...
Low bureaucracy, high accountability,
and was really a great fit.
Okay.
And is that when Hill Commercial,
when did Hill Commercial
jump into the dental scene?
Yeah.
So it's funny.
I was doing that.
My father-in-law was expanding.
He was literally expanding from
a retail strip that he had
been in for twenty five
years to a pad site,
which is a common term in retail centers.
They'll build a retail
center and then they'll
have a handful of pad sites
out front where you can
build freestanding buildings.
So you can build a McDonald's,
you can build a yoga studio,
you can build whatever you want.
You can build a bank building.
And he bought a plot of land and he's like,
hey,
not really a lot of guys in
the market would you think
you guys would price it we
priced it we were low um
you didn't do me any favors
we were a little bitter and
uh we got the job and I
felt like it was a super
easy crossover yeah I was
you know as as much
technical things as I
learned about uh
convenience stores um heavy
infrastructure underground
storage tanks which had to
be certified in the pumps which
Fuel pumps,
just for your general knowledge,
fuel pumps are underground
where you deliver the gas to your cars,
the dispenser.
So people call those gas pumps.
Those are gas dispensers.
Just a little thing that I
learned along the way.
But and then we got the PLS system.
We've got car washes, lots going on.
And the similarity was is
I've got a ton of third
party equipment that's
provided by others that I
receive a bunch of specs on.
I coordinate with them
throughout the project.
when they show up on site
with the dispensers, the pumps,
the canopy, the carwash equipment,
the point of sale equipment inside,
the walk-in coolers,
all of that has to be
what's called plug and play.
So they plug it in,
or it gets hardwired and
hooked up and it's ready to go.
So my father-in-law trusted
us to build his dental office.
Um,
and we did that and it was a really
easy crossover.
So I kind of cultivated that market,
did a bunch of work in
there while I worked for, uh, uh, Bonnie.
And then I, uh, transferred over to, uh,
he'd merge with somebody.
Wasn't a great fit.
I was there about eight
months and I felt like the
culture shifted from, uh,
low bureaucracy to high
accountability to just the
opposite which didn't work
well with me so I stayed
about eight months I did a
couple big projects and I
just went to him I said hey
I gotta strike out on my
own if you're gonna stay
here I tried to get him to
leave but he wouldn't leave
so in oh seven uh with uh
no sense no no money uh no
idea what I was getting into uh
I started a construction company.
My wife created our logo,
which is super simple and super cool.
And here you are.
Here you are,
one of the biggest dental
contractors in dental.
I think that's a great pivot
point to really start
diving into some of these
dental projects and all the
things that you've learned
since two thousand seven
and just all the practices
that you've been a part of,
the knowledge that you have
now from that journey that
you just shared to getting into dental.
The first question, Chad, that I have,
buddy,
is when you're looking at a startup,
like a lot of our viewers
and listeners are startups, right?
And they're trying to figure
out where the best place is to go.
And they're looking at
demographics and they're
doing a business plan with
me or whatever.
And we finally find a space.
I think that one of the
highest values of a GC is
looking at that space and
really helping us determine
if it's the right space.
Can you just get into a
little bit of the things
that you look at in the due
diligence process that you
think is important for a
dentist to look at,
for a GC to be looking at
to help maybe the real
estate guy negotiate or for
a dentist to think about
before they actually take
this space on for ten years or more?
Yeah, a hundred percent.
I usually encourage
clients,
whether they come to me first or
they come to me second, I always say, hey,
pick two or three spots
that kind of meet your needs,
square footage-wise, geography-wise,
demographic-wise.
I'll visit each one.
I'll evaluate each one.
I'll produce for you pros
and cons of each.
Hey,
Need to update ADA
accessibility at location
A. Location B is a little too big.
We need to see if the
landlord will subdivide it.
Location C, gosh, great building,
good bones,
Built a little older,
probably going to run into some asbestos.
So it's going to raise some costs.
We look at what kind of
infrastructure they have.
And so when I say infrastructure,
I mean dental, sewer, HVAC units,
water tap,
what's available currently,
and then what are they
going to need to put into
the space to make it a
working dental space?
Love it.
So we evaluate each site and
then I kind of say, here's my thoughts.
This is my favorite,
but I'm not attached in any way.
I'll make anyone work.
Just know here are the pros and cons.
Some will cost you money.
Some will save you money,
but ultimately location's important,
right?
Line of sight's important.
Yeah.
So there's a, there's a business.
That's kind of how we go about it.
That's why we like the worst
thing ever is when I have a
client come to me and they say, Hey,
not a great space, just signed the lease.
And I go look at it and I'm like, okay,
well you got a three quarter inch tap.
You've got a hundred amps of
power and you've got heating,
but no cooling.
Okay.
That's a problem.
So that's why we want to be in early.
Yeah,
and that makes a ton of sense because
I love that you said multiple spaces.
I've found a trend,
and I said it in the last interview,
that some real estate
people aren't doing
multiple locations these days.
It's like it's too much work
for them to put LOIs in in
multiple spaces.
I do recognize that some markets...
it's difficult to find space.
And I do want to touch on
the due diligence of ground
up because sometimes
there's no spaces available
and we got to look at a plot of dirt.
So,
I think we covered pretty
well here on Shark Week
with the rest of the
contractors around the rest
of the country.
Top, top,
top dental contracts are in the country.
Chad,
you got like this Southwest because
Southeast, I don't know what Colorado is.
I guess it's West.
This market that we've
carved you out of for the
expert in your area.
Yeah.
We covered due diligence on rented space.
Let's talk really quick
about due diligence on
ground up because I know
you've done a lot of ground
up in the last two years.
And I think Shark Week needs
to cover due diligence of ground up,
not to open up a huge,
huge can of worms here.
We could probably talk the
entire episode just on due
diligence of ground up,
but you want to hit the
highlights on that?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'll try to highlight and keep it concise.
What you want to do is you
want to look for the right
square footage in the right
location you want.
You want to have a rough
idea of how many square feet of a foot,
you know,
what kind of footprint you need
for a building.
I think I've shared with you in the past,
you know,
an acre is forty three thousand
five hundred and sixty square feet.
A loose, loose, loose rule of thumb.
architects don't cringe when I say this,
is you take the square footage,
divide it by six,
and that tells you what
your footprint can be.
Now, depending on the zoning,
you can go up, you can do one level.
You also want to look at soil, right?
Whether you've got expansive soil,
the history of the property,
did it get a phase one report?
So phase one is going to tell you,
okay here's what the space
was before it used to be a
uh and the big scary one is
used to be a uh dry
cleaners well historically
dry cleaners yeah gas
station's easy because you
can never sell contaminated
soil so and I ran into that
my father-in-law's job and
helped him get rid of that
through uh uh shell they
were fantastic uh he had some
tanks leak into his property
and they remediated all
that no questions asked so
that part's easy but um you
know you're kind of taking
the ground as is and you've
got to take the good with
the bad right so ideally
what you want is some good
stable soil that lends
itself to shallow um
footings and shallow walls
where you can do a slab on grade um
and then uh it's zoned
properly for medical use
and you're able to park it
right it's got the
visibility you want so
those are the kind of
things that that that we
look at and then also just
price point right because
that's a huge factor in uh overall cost
I love that.
So soil and the right amount of space.
I think that's an important thing.
And you're right.
We just more recently talked about that.
And I think startups are
getting more inquisitive about
about owning their buildings.
They're listening to
podcasts just like this and
the benefits of owning your
building right out of the
gate versus literally
giving a million dollars to the landlord.
So if they can find
something they can purchase
right out of the gate,
they're interested.
The lending is a different conversation.
It's always a very big part
of the conversation with lending.
But if you can get
yourselves the right amount
of money and Chad can build
the building for the right
price that fits the budget,
hell, that's the best deal you can get.
But then it turns into some
kind of investment
conversation about renting
half the building.
And gosh, like I said,
we could go down a crazy path here.
I want to transition this
conversation to this idea
of plans to permit.
That's the next segment of the program.
And I think, again,
we've had a lot of conversation about it.
There's like this idea where
you hire an architect to
drive or architect space
plan or whatever to drive
the whole project or the
contractor to assist you or
even have in-house this
idea of plans to permit.
So there's these...
these sections along the way
that you've got to get it
from plans to permit.
And then Chad, the GC picks up and builds,
but the plans need to be created to,
Chad,
walk us through your collaboration
with designers, architects.
Obviously,
you're a big fan of working with them.
You don't want to alienate that,
but is there a preferred method?
Is there challenges,
pros and cons of working all in-house?
What's your take on it?
yeah so step one would
always be if you find an
existing building get a
dental equipment rep that
you trust and they will
give you a initial floor
plan for free I mean it's
implied that they do that
upfront work that you're
going to buy equipment from
them so they'll do a layout
and I'll tell you what those guys do
Each one of those CAD
draftspersons does dozens a day.
So they've seen way more than I've seen,
right?
As far as layout works, as far as access,
as far as flow of the office,
as far as squeaking number of ops in,
making sure you account for
All the treatment areas and
patient areas that you want
to incorporate into that space.
So that would be the first
start is to just, OK,
let's see if this pencils
because let's say I got a
site in downtown Denver.
Right.
Well,
that price per square foot is going
to be way different than if we are in.
Timnath or we're in Colorado Springs.
It just it makes a big difference.
So it doesn't cost anything.
You find a GC that you trust
and you like and you can say, well,
that's two thirty five a square foot.
Downtown Denver,
you're probably two seventy
five a square foot because
I've got parking requirements.
I don't know where to put a roll off.
So I've literally got to
haul trash every night.
um and I can't uh parking
you've got to pay a premium
for parking those things
now granted there's a
premium you can charge for
your services but again
that goes along with really
the space diligence but as
far as the process and the
flow once we get a floor
plan we like hand that off
to an architect that that
they enjoy working with um
and it understands their
vision I always encourage
dentists to create a
pinterest board to say and
They seem to focus in on things they love.
And I love for them to put
things they hate.
So I want them to have two folders.
I love this.
I hate this.
Because that's good.
What they don't like is just
as important as what they like.
Right.
because you want to steer clear of that.
And the architect then takes
that vision and you want to
make sure that the
architect you hire is
somebody that is a good
listener and is building
a practice that speaks to a
your budget be your level
of service um and then um c
speaks to your vision right
uh I've never I've never
met I've I've never met an
architect that talks too
much about budget that's a
joke that's a joke uh but
you're you're spot on
absolutely right I love I
love that feedback on
what makes a great architect in your mind?
It's one that communicates
super well as creative and
does have a general sense of the budget.
Is that what I heard you say?
Yeah.
They want to be,
you want them to be budget
minded and you also want
them to capture the vision
because there's really, you know,
guys have, you know,
doctors have ideas in their minds of,
okay, this is my ideal practice.
I absolutely want this.
I want a toy, you know,
a pediatric dentist.
I want a prize bin right here.
I want it to be this kind of theme.
I love these colors, all those things.
And then you get a design back and it's,
You know, when you got the wrong architect,
when it's like, OK,
I don't see one element I
spoke about and I don't see any, you know,
there's none of my vision in this.
Right.
It's more of a monument to themselves.
And there's a lot of those out there,
a lot of them.
And so you want to steer
clear of those guys are
usually more expensive.
And it's going to drive the
cost of the space up.
So and we're always cognizant of, OK,
is this a startup doc?
Is this a second location?
Is this man?
I've had two offices.
This is my Taj Mahal.
Right.
And I always try to find out from them, OK,
what's your what's your hot
button points like?
What?
What do you hate at your current office?
Like what aggravates you?
Is your sterilization way
too far away from hygiene?
Do you not have a place for cart storage?
Is your x-ray too close to the front?
So you want to think about
those things that don't
work because a lot of docs, you know,
some of them do this once,
some of them do it twice.
three times in their whole life.
They'll do a startup,
they'll do a mid-range,
and then they'll do a
freestanding building.
That's the evolution of them.
Then you've got the DSOs who
Just kind of go to town on those things.
But we really kind of focus
on patient impact areas and
then try to make some shush there.
You want to balance the
level of the finish of the
office with the level of
service they provide.
So if it's a cosmetic dentist,
that build out is going to
be different than if it's a
general dentist or if it's
an orthodontist.
I just literally had a
conversation with one of my clients,
a pediatric dentist,
and he's going to be
serving a Medicaid population.
And I looked at his Pinterest board,
and it looked like one of
the most high-end websites.
uh cosmetic dental offices
I've ever seen before and I
was just like hey maybe we
need to talk about what
what what what this looks
like I I think that's
perfect chad that you're
getting into a lot of this
stuff my my my key
takeaways is do what you
don't like I I find that a
lot of clients don't go to
like a dental assistant
friend or another dentist friend
and get their opinion
because those poor dental
assistants are doing are
they're putting the steps
in they're going to the
sterilization they're
they're they're doing all
the hard work and and the
dentist has their feet
kicked up in the back room
waiting for their next
hygiene exam um you know
what I mean figuratively
but but yeah you don't have
too many cooks in the
kitchen but you want to
yeah you where I was going
with that was to your point
you don't want to you don't
want to have too many cooks
in the kitchen but you do
want to involve your key
staff to say okay where
we're at now or in past
offices what worked well
what didn't work well right
again you don't want ten
opinions but if you could
get two or three of your
top people to say
Hey, front end,
what is the most efficient
way for us to do check in, check out?
What's the most efficient
way for us to present treatment plans?
When we're doing treatment,
what does the layout look like?
Do you want a counter on both sides?
And tell me why you want a
counter on both sides.
You got to push them because
these things cost money.
And is it a want to have or need?
so uh it's important to
involve the whole team if
you've got a trusted team
around you to really want
Well, I want to kind of pivot then.
So what we've covered is due diligence.
We've covered architect and that process.
I'd love to ask the question
of this idea of a hard bid.
Hard bids are becoming few
and far between these days.
There's a lot of reasons for it.
Back in the day,
there used to be what I
call the negotiated bid
where you could just talk
about a percentage and then
it would be open book.
That's old school.
But this idea of hard bid,
I think there's a lot of
challenges with it that
we've kind of already
talked about this week.
What...
What do you find when you
get like this high-end
architect that isn't sensitive to budget?
How does that impact the hard bid process?
When it hits your desk and
you bid it out based on
what was provided to you,
and then the number
obviously isn't really
where everybody wanted it to be.
Can you go through that
process or how you
communicate that to the
dentists out there?
Communicate that to the
dentists out there?
Yeah.
Yeah, communication is key.
I always say C is the most important.
C for communication is the
most important C in construction, right?
Everybody has to be reading
from the same sheet of music.
And you want to make sure
that as you've got design development,
you're seeing this kind of
come to fruition.
And yeah,
this speaks to what we talked about.
You go back and yep, this makes sense.
uh because the worst thing
you want is okay we started
here uh startup dentist
medicaid um you know to
your point earlier why do
we have a fountain in the
waiting room like who's
who's that for like I'm not
sure this is the plastic
surgeon's office let's what
are we doing um so you you
want to speak to the level
of service they provide um and
Uh, so what we do when that happens and it,
it does happen is we
identify those things.
And like, I always use a simple example of,
uh,
our particular architect who is
phenomenal.
They do a crazy laundry area
that's built in.
It costs like forty five hundred dollars.
It looks beautiful.
And I'm like,
let's spend your money front of house.
Let's spend your money on
lab sterile treatment, reception,
patient waiting room.
and let's make sure that we
spend your dollars in the smart places,
right?
It doesn't mean that the
back of house areas are
dumbed down or that the
break room needs to be subpar.
It just needs to be nice enough, right?
Because really what's bringing you back,
what's bringing patients
back are your staff and
then just the environment
that you bring them into to
do practices and selling cases.
I'll just use the example of
my father-in-law
He practiced for twenty five
years in a retail center.
Great dentist.
We built him that building.
I could throw a football
from his retail old
location to the new location.
He quadrupled his practice in two years.
And he told me one time at a holiday party,
you know, it's funny in my new building,
he goes, people walk in and it's nice,
but it's not over the top.
But all of a sudden,
the level of my office
finish tells people I'm a good dentist,
right?
So it gives them confidence
to spend big money on larger cases,
right?
So the environment you work in is great.
And again,
speaking to Medicaid and Medicare,
you want those to be very nice.
You want to be back a house to be hard,
durable surfaces, very functional,
long lasting.
But, you know,
maybe we don't have a coffee bar.
Maybe we have just a beverage bar.
Maybe we have a water filler.
you know water fillers since
covet are huge those ones
that tell you how many
plastic bottles they say
and nobody wants to put
their mouth on a drinking
fountain anymore anyways
right so um that's uh
that's a problem but yeah
we just pull those things
out and we say hey doc I
love this what you don't
want to do is get into
to let the architect,
if you're working as a team,
you don't want them to get
so far down the road that when you say,
hey, wow, this is a great design, but
You're here, you can afford this.
And then you get design regret.
And then the rest of it
feels like a compromise to
them because the architect
has gone bananas with, oh, well, yeah,
you like that wallpaper?
We can do this wallpaper
here and there and there.
And let's do this niche and
let's do this artwork and
these vaulted ceilings and
all those things that cost money,
but take away from their patient base,
take away from their vision,
take away from their bottom line.
Yeah,
I think that's exactly how I would
describe the situation
because you can really get
off kilter quick with budget.
That's why I made that joke
earlier about do architects
really pay attention to budget?
Of course they do.
But when you're a startup
and if an architect,
I think that's a good
question to ask an
architect space planners.
How many startups do you do a year?
dental startups do you do a year?
Because if the number is a lot,
let's just say five.
Let's just say I do five startups a year.
Then they know how to design
a budget-friendly startup.
They also know that you
can't afford all glass and
you can't afford the curved
walls and all that.
So
And it's really tough for a
contractor to have that
conversation because
they're already thinking
that Chad's the guy that's
making all the money and
with all the margin.
But really,
a lot of it is the design features.
All right, let's pivot.
Let's pivot to the last question,
the last topic here.
And that is,
where do you see construction right now?
Kind of like a market watch situation.
Where are we at with construction?
I mean,
there's a lot of conversations that
people ask me all the time.
I definitely don't want to
get political on the show,
but with the tariffs and
there was a problem with
inflation a minute ago.
My eggs are still ten bucks.
I don't know what's going on there.
But whatever.
Is that affecting construction right now?
And are you seeing projects slow down,
pick up?
What are you seeing out there?
uh we've got a great back
backlog um I'm seeing about
the same right um number of
projects it was funny right
around the first of the
year we got all these scary
tariff notices and I had a
steel guy on a on a vet
space we were doing and he
said well unfortunately
because of the tariff this
has gone up thirty five
percent so quick ai search
the tariff is twelve
percent and and the twelve
percent tariff does not
mean a twelve percent
increase in cost right
There's many factors that go
into that that I won't deep dive into.
It usually boils down to by
the time it gets to that guy,
a three to five percent increase.
So I sent it back to him and said, hey,
I'm only seeing the twelve
percent there if he never got back to me.
A lot of suppliers will use
that as an example, right?
One of the best things that
came out of COVID was it
made us more creative.
So that was a bigger blow to
everything because
literally we had rooftop
units that were eight months out.
You've got a twelve to
fourteen week build that doesn't work.
So
What we learned to do there
is we've got a rooftop unit
and it's brand A. We would
find brand B that is same performance,
might cost a little less,
might cost a little bit more.
You never know.
But, you know,
the opportunity cost of not...
being open makes a big
difference so we just go
out and we source things do
that all the time did that
with doors we do uh we have
a large veterinary practice
we do in town um and simple
doors and we work with the
biggest door manufacturer
in the western united
states they could not get
these eight foot maple doors for
Fourteen weeks.
I bought the doors from
Minneapolis and same cost with shipping.
It's fine.
Same door looks great.
So it just makes you more creative.
Keep showing your toes.
And same thing with tariffs.
You just got to be creative
and try to find other alternatives.
And that's why that's the
difference between a
We talked about delivery
system a little bit.
We might get more into that later,
but there's the traditional design, bid,
build,
a model and then there's the
design build model where me
and the doc and maybe the
equipment rep and the
architect for sure are
sitting around a table and we're going,
okay, what do we want to do?
How many ops are we going to equip?
What's the feel of the office?
What's your vision?
Give a Pinterest board.
And then we're all, like I said, again,
reading from the same sheet
of music and we go down the road.
Yeah, we collaborate.
It's a collaboration.
Yeah.
I love that.
At the end of the day...
No, no.
At the end of the day, go ahead.
Well, I was just going to say.
Well, at the end of the day.
Go, go.
It's your turn.
Well, at the end of the day,
it's going to cost what
it's going to cost for a startup.
a specific location and it's
going to cost what it's
going to cost for a oral
surgeon at a specific
location right to be done
by a qualified um
contractor who knows what
they're doing um you know I
know a lot of guys give
teaser rates for oh square
foot wise yeah when when
the whole market is
to fifty, they'll give a teaser rate of,
well, this guy's to fifteen.
And, you know,
I never sell myself on my competitors.
I always sell myself on service.
I look at my job as
education and communication,
and I want my clients to
know everything about the process.
I want them to be as
involved or as uninvolved
as they want to be.
but still make sure they get
the right finished product they want.
Yeah.
I love, I love that, Chad.
Um, I, this is, um, one thing that's, um,
I think you nailed that.
I think, um, I agree with you.
Projects are not slowing down.
They, um, startups are happening.
Established doctors are remodeling, uh,
expanding, relocating, you name it.
So, um,
I think the overall mood is
if you want to make a move
with your business, expand,
make it better, get into business, do it.
There's no better time than
now because it's probably
only going to go up from here.
This is the last part.
We're at a forty minute mark
and I hope we haven't lost
anybody on the drive.
You know, Chad,
you're one of my go to's
for leadership tips.
I know you're constantly reading stuff.
You can see these books behind me.
I've probably read
Most of them, not all of them.
Chad,
what's your leadership tip for the day?
You're a big leadership guy.
You own your business.
You took the risk and now it's paid off.
For the listener right now
that's thinking about
getting into ownership, isn't sure,
not sure if they want to
bet on themselves or whatever,
what might have you,
what's your tip for them?
What advice do you have to
business owners or future business owners,
leadership-wise?
Well, just do your homework.
Communicate clearly with the team.
Make sure you've got the
right people in place that
are looking out for your interests.
um do your research make
sure you understand things
we love to look at leases
we love to be involved I do
a lot of free work up front
so you know I I've done I
can't tell you how many
jobs I've taken to the goal
line and not and never
gotten and I don't care if
my partners in the market
get it and it's a winner for the doctor
I'm good with that.
But what I don't want them
to do is is go down the wrong road.
You know,
business ownership is not to be
taken lightly.
And you want somebody who
you want a contractor who
is not afraid to tell, you know, because,
you know, example, I had a doctor say,
gosh, you know what?
We got four ops.
I've got two equipped.
I've got those other two.
And there's a little embarrassment.
Right.
Which you shouldn't be.
those other two ops are
empty and I just kind of
feel like you know it
wouldn't cost me much to
equip those and I go doc
that money right now is
going to look way better in
your account than it is in
my mill workers account and
the dental equipment guys account.
And trust me,
if you want to equip those ops,
we build them to the point
where they're plug and play.
So literally all I need to
do is send an electrician
to wire the light.
Other than that,
dental guys can hook up
everything and they can go.
So I'm a big, big part of the bucket,
but I know there's other
parts of the buckets.
There's operating capital,
there's marketing, there's staff,
um you know there's signage
um all those things that go
into the picture so you
want a contractor who's not
afraid to tell you you know
what not now and when I go
to cut things I try to cut
things in a way that cut
things that we can add later right so man
This this niche at the end of the hall.
I really want this to be a waterfall.
Right.
Water runs all the way down.
Or I saw this really cool
geode in Santa Fe and I
want to buy that and hang it down there.
And I'm like, hey, Doc,
let's get a print for now.
Right.
And hang that up.
And that'll be your gift to
yourself at month three
when you're killing it and
you're expanding other ops.
So I love that.
That's the important thing
is just be honest with you
and just and find somebody
who's solution minded.
I always pride myself on
never sending a doc an
email or a text at a Friday and say, oh,
man, bad news.
Rooftop units are another
three months out.
I know we're supposed to
open in two weeks.
I'll find out more Monday.
You know, that's why I have the gray hairs,
because I figure out how to
make that happen.
And then I'll bring them at
least one solution.
So if I know there's no way around it,
it's going to cost them money right now.
I tell them.
If I can do that sausage
making and then present
them with the challenge and
then the solution,
I'd much rather do that
than them to worry because
I know whatever I worry about day to day,
they got a hundred other
things because more times than not,
they don't know what they don't know,
right?
About business, about construction,
they're good dentists.
It's no different than being
a contractor when I started, right?
I didn't know what I didn't
know about being a GC.
I knew what it was to be a
great project manager,
but there's all this other
accounting piece,
there's this marketing piece,
and I did a lot of that before.
I love that.
Really,
that's where the education piece
comes in and just find
somebody you trust.
I think that's great advice.
I love that.
I don't think enough
professionals out there say no, Chad,
to your point.
And I think that goes for all of us.
My biggest job is to tell
people no all the time.
But I would love to share
that responsibility with the contractor,
the equipment people, all the people.
And I think that's really good advice.
And that tells you you've
got a partner in this.
It's not just a vendor, but a partner.
And I think that's really, really key.
Well, with that being said,
we're forty five minutes in.
Great interview, Chad.
Thank you so much for your
time and your knowledge and
investing in all of us today.
Folks,
I just want to give you another
reminder that we need some reviews.
Please pop us off a review
if you can for a quick second.
If you're
Spotify or Apple Tunes.
And stay tuned.
We're gonna keep Shark Week
rolling here this week and
continue to give you great
information about this
whole idea of construction.
Thanks so much, Chad,
for being on the program.
We're gonna put his contact below.
If you have a question for Chad,
I know him.
He would love to invest in you more.
If you've got a question,
he'll be happy to answer,
so we'll put his contact info below.
Thank you so much, Chad.
I appreciate you, brother.
Yeah, thank you, Mike.
Good catching up,
and thanks for the opportunity.
Appreciate it.
Yeah, absolutely, man.
Be good.
Talk soon, guys.
Bye.
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