Hey, it's Dan Brown, Senior Service Consultant of MGE Management Experts and I'm back with another power program testimonial. This is with Dr. Ryan Deppner out of Blue Ash, Ohio, which is a suburb of Cincinnati. Dr. Deppner, thank you for taking the time and being here. Welcome.

Thanks.

Dr, I would love to know what things were like prior to the power program. I know that you had a decent practice, so you weren't in any sort of ruin and oh my gosh, things are horrible. You had a good running practice, but tell me a little bit about why you considered MGE and what were some of the challenges at that time.

You know, we had plateaued for probably two or three years in terms of our collections. Like you said, we did have a big practice and it was successful by all means, but I was getting really burned out and I was only in my mid 30s, you know, 34, 35, 36, and I said, you know, something's got to change, you know, I can't keep going like this. We need more structure, more policy. We were in, as Sabrina said, you know, probably one of the worst PPO practices she had ever seen, so I hang my hat on that.

But, you know, I wanted a little more freedom, a little better quality of life in terms of work life balance. And essentially, I just wanted to really stop killing myself and just looking forward to retirement as soon as I could just to get kind of a new lease on my practice life.

Fantastic. And how is that now? Tell me a little bit about the, that's the before. Tell me a little bit about the after. Have you gotten that? Like what have been some of the effects of doing the power program?

Yeah, it's been great. You know, we've, we started in January of 2018 with our first seminar at MGE, so we're almost three years into this project and, you know, life is great. Our practice is probably going to double from where we started at the end of this year. And, and up about 18 to 20% from the last year, despite, you know, this, the pandemic that's gone, being shut down for a couple of months, you know, some patients being a little area of coming back in. You know, we've added probably eight or nine positions within the office, so I'm really happy and proud of that. I'm able to provide that many more people a nice job, a nice office and doing what they want, so that's cool. We're helping a lot of patients out.

In terms of me, you know, my life has gotten better, you know, I brought out an office manager to a lot of you guys know Randy Sears, he went through the training with me. He runs the show, you know, I used to be the main producer, the office manager and the landlord, now just landlord, which is nice. You know, that's an easy job. You know, we've got, I got two associates that, you know, I give as much of them as they want and make a handle, so they are super successful. You know, really, really doing well. I've limited the amount of patients that I see in dirt, you know, just do the cases that I want to do. You know, probably gosh, you know, I'm in the, you know, in the chair Tuesday and Wednesday and from eight to two Friday, Thursday, I do a half day with some consults and our executive meetings and I leave around lunchtime.

Well, it's gotten great. You know, this is where I want to be and I'm really comfortable liking my schedules and things are going well.

Wow, fantastic. Well, I really want to know a little bit more about 2020, you know, for a number of practices that don't know anything about MGE and the challenges that have happened in 2020. It's been a real struggle. Sounds like you've absolutely dominated. Tell me how doing the power program helped you through 2020 if you wouldn't mind.

No, no, that's a good question. You know, it taught, you know, we had systems in place that, you know, if I hadn't gone through it and we're going to do this, you know, pandemic and being shut down, I would have been just as lost as anybody else. But yeah, you know, with knowing what we know through the training that we've received, we've got control, we've got know how many different areas within the practice and outside of practice, you know, meaning the patients, you know, so with staff and with patients.

You know, during, you know, I would say what I call the shutdown, which was for us, mid March through maybe early May, so about seven, eight weeks. You know, you guys were doing a lot of live streams, you know, Jeff and Sabrina, I tuned in from my, my back porch, I watched a lot of those and really the checklist and, you know, the items that they have for us to work on to be prepared for.

Whenever that reopening was, you really helped get me focused, you know, we were probably one of the, I guess the most successful practices during the shutdown.

You know, I got so many new patients that said, wow, I called 20 offices, you know, they don't want to answer the phones, you know, when it's open, you know, when it's willing to see me, I've got this problem, you know, it blew my mind, they say, I have a regular dental office and no one's returned my call, no one's got back to me, so, you know, who knows what I've been one of those guys to shut the doors for a couple months and not answer the phones. Yeah, I would like to think not, but you know what, having my MG training, we are out of a lot of people and, you know, there's a lot of good PR and it really made a successful coming out of it.

Fantastic, well, I think it's fantastic that you were there for these people because we heard that over and over with our clients that people had been doing just that calling 10 20 30 offices, driving 40 60 miles to get to our clients. And our clients not only were there for these patients, but managed to make it through profitably or at least break even during a time when people really needed them, so well done for being there for your patients.

Thank you.

I would also like to know if you wouldn't mind, you know, you talked about you were running into burnout, you were running into overwork and so your numbers are phenomenal, your organization sounds amazing. I've had the pleasure of working with your office manager. So I know what it looks like organizationally, how has this impacted your life personally, even beyond the financial aspect.

I would say just being able to breathe a little bit, you know, and that's not, you know, that has nothing to do with the financial aspect that has grown. I just had a decent practice before, yeah, I made a comfortable living for our living standards with our family, but it's just a little, little more free time to, you know, work on myself, you know, I've got three very active kids, you know, we had five fall sports this fall.

My evenings usually consist of driving somewhere with some, some, some sort of, you know, group of our kids and neighbor kids, you know, carpool, so it's enabled me to kind of not miss or be a little more present for that. When I say present, not always just being present physically, but mentally, just being there, being in the moment, enjoying it because I'm not so fried.

Love that, love that, you know, I want to ask you a question about your office manager, you know, you brought him on, he had no dental background. He did pretty much right from the beginning, he jumped on the MGE training, what is that meant to have an office manager that's MGE trained, you know, that had no dental background, how has that worked out now that you've seen and go through the program and his value in the practice.

Oh, it's, it's amazing, you know, he came on, I started with MGE and I didn't have an office manager, you guys told me I needed to get an office manager and I was a, you know, luckily able to find him the next month, so I didn't take long.

You know, he bought in to everything and travel and the training and he took to it, he was actually doing business school at night, getting his college degree and after about a month or two, going down to MGE said, "I'm learning what MGE about running a business college." So, you know, it's been great having him do the training right along with me, but we don't know, we have a little travel hanging out together about his ideas off of each other because he knows what I know.

So, I'm not trying to, you know, having to get described and teach him everything that I've been learning because he's doing it too, and he's really coming. It was a little bit in terms of kind of running the practice, managing the staff, you know, marketing the whole night, you know, so he's just doing a phenomenal job.

Fantastic, well done, really well done. I would love to know a little bit about the office culture internally, how are things now, you know, with the MGE program and all the training that you've done, what's it like, what's the climate?

You know, then you guys warn us of this, you know, not everyone likes change, so you're going to replace some employees, and that's fine. You know, you got to work at finding that right team that wants to buy in and be successful. We've got a pretty darn good group now, you know, we had our rough patches where, you know, it just wasn't for some people, they just want to keep doing what they're doing and that change and not be held accountable. You know, that just doesn't work for us now.

You know, with that, you know, we were able, even, even though we're going through a pandemic, I paid a lot of money and bonus is pretty cool to be able to do that. They love receiving other bonuses, you know, we're doing really well, you know, my associates, they talk to their, you know, their dental school friends and some of them, you know, aren't doing so great. They're just due to the area that they're practicing and areas hit hard and shut down, things like that.

So we're fortunate to be where we are. Do a little good team, they really kind of, you know, the brace, you know, what we're doing and, you know, everyone's kind of doing the thing and crushing it right now.

I know that when you came on to MGE, just like every other client, there were concerns about MGE, you know, the travel or the cost. What were your concerns and, you know, truly, honestly, what were some of the things that you were maybe on the fence about.

Having to go on some of the missing missing work, essentially, it's like, how the heck am I supposed to do better if I'm, you know, take a time off, you know, had to convince my wife to do that, you know, I'm going to be doing this for a couple of years to block a lot. So she, you know, she understand, you know, she saw where we were with the practice. Very much the time away is how, you know, just to wrap your head around coming down for, you know, I didn't do a full week each month. I did usually, you know, flew out Wednesday afternoon and was at MGE, most of the time, you know, Thursday Friday Saturday. That's what worked for me because like I said, I didn't have an office manager when I started.

I was the main producer, I had another associate at that time, but I was still the main producer and I just didn't feel like I could be away for that long of a time. But we got, we got a schedule that worked for me and, yeah, I mean, we were, we were down there every month and, you know, you know, that was, you know, that was my biggest hesitation, just the time away.

Okay, good, totally understood. Really one of the last things I want to ask you is if, you know, I'm not paying you to do this, you're not being incentivized to do this, you can confirm that correct.

Yeah.

Okay, so what would be from your heart, what you would tell another dentist, who's on the fence, should I do this power program or should I not, what would your advice be and why?

I would say hands down to it, you know, it gives you the tools to not only get your practice in the right spot, but it trains you and teaches you to have to self diagnose yourself and self diagnose your practice door, you can figure your own problems out.

Yeah, I'm sure if Mary was in on this call, if I work with quite a bit at MGE, she doesn't hear from us for months at a time, you know, we feel that we're very, very, just, just able to do our own thing. We call them and ask questions here and there if we need some help, but you guys truly trained us to do it on our own, so we're not. You know, we're not rely on you guys for everything, but you're there if we need you, which is great.

Awesome, awesome, well, doctor, I really appreciate you taking the time to do this, congratulations to both you Randy and really truly the entire team because I know your team and it's a stellar team. Congratulations on what you've achieved well done on expanding despite COVID and all the best for 2021 and continued success.

All right, thanks, man.

Now, for you watching this, you two could have this same success. The MGE power program has helped over 1200 of your dental colleagues make a combined $9.9 billion in additional revenue, and yes, that's billion with a B.

And to give you an idea, after the first year of doing the program, the average power client sees an 89% increase in collections within five years, it's a sustained 232% increase. What would that mean to you?

Well, if you're collecting $50,000 a month on average, that's about $95,000 a month after one year, and $166,000 a month, four years later.

And better, these doctors are doing these numbers while focusing on patient care, doing the type of dentistry they love to do, not just with the insurance covers, having a great team and enjoying coming to work in the morning, assuming control of their practice and schedule, being able to take time off and not working excessive hours, being able to sleep at night because they feel secure about the future of their practice. And knowing that they always have unlimited access to a top MGE consultant to get help and solve problems together.

And what makes this all possible? Revolutionary education and coaching on practice management systems that not only work, but that continue to work again and again as their practices grow. It's truly a case where some extra work now, make sure life and the rest of your career, far more rewarding.

So what's next? Well, you need to find out if the MGE power program would be a good fit for your practice. And listen, don't wait enrollment for this year is limited.

So go to mgeonline.com/powerprogram and fill out the form today to learn more or call us now at 1-800-640-1140. We're here and we're ready to bring these same results to you. We want you to succeed and we know how to make that happen. [Music]