Charge Forward Podcast

28 Years of Addiction to Thousands of Smiles & Transformed Lives | Justin Lowry’s Story

• Jim Cripps • Season 3 • Episode 5

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28 Years of Addiction to Thousands of Smiles & Transformed Lives | Justin Lowry’s Story

Justin Lowry had it all—an expanding roofing company he built from the back of his truck, prestigious roles in the dental industry, and the appearance of success. But behind the accolades was a hidden 28-year battle with addiction that began when he was just 10 years old.

On July 16, 2021, everything came crashing down. After his arrest, Justin lost his home, his family, and nearly his life. In his darkest moment, he contemplated suicide, convinced the world would be better without him. But a judge’s recommendation to try Alcoholics Anonymous became a lifeline. Through attending multiple meetings daily, Justin not only found sobriety—he found a new purpose in service to others.

During recovery, he noticed a pattern: many people covered their mouths when they smiled, ashamed of the damage addiction had left behind. That observation sparked Smiles for Recovery, a groundbreaking nonprofit that provides free dental implant services to people in recovery while simultaneously training dentists in implant placement. The model is sustainable, scalable, and life-changing: dentists receive training they would normally pay tens of thousands for, patients receive transformational care at no cost, and entire families rediscover hope.

The results are staggering:
 ✨ In one day, 20 full-arch procedures worth $1.5 million were completed.
 ✨ Over 3,400 patients across Tennessee and Kentucky have been served.
 ✨ Entire communities are being uplifted through restored confidence, dignity, and purpose.

Justin’s journey proves that pain can be turned into purpose. Smiles for Recovery is not just about fixing teeth—it’s about transforming lives.

💡 As Justin says, “When somebody is going through the ugliness of addiction, others around them are being pulled down. When they’re in recovery, it lifts everyone around them.”

👉 Listen now to hear Justin’s remarkable transformation—and discover how your greatest struggle might become your most powerful gift.

Contact Justin / Smiles for Recovery
🌐 https://www.smilesforrecovery.org/
📘 https://www.facebook.com/justinklow13
📱 https://www.instagram.com/therealjustinlowry
🌐 https://www.smilesforrecovery.org/


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Speaker 1:

I had it in my mind that I was going to kill myself.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And at that moment you didn't see another way. Nope, I didn't see a way out and I thought everybody would be better without me. You know, why do I feel mentally depressed? Why do I feel this way about myself? Why can't I stop drinking Right? Why can't I stop doing drugs?

Speaker 2:

Hey team, jim Cripps here with the charge for podcast, coming to you from hit lab studios here in Nashville, tennessee. I have a fantastic guest with you here today, making real change and improving lives. Please welcome Justin Lowery with smiles for recovery. Justin, welcome to the show.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, Jim. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having us here.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely man. Well, you know, I think, to just dive into it. Please give our guests just a little bit of a taste of what Smiles for Recovery is.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so we started a nonprofit on July 4th 2024. We got organized and we actually took a vote to start a nonprofit, but we've been operating as a nonprofit for about 18 months and we really didn't know what we knew back then, when we started in April of 2023, what exactly this would turn out to be. I'm in recovery. I've been sober now four years. July 17th 2021 was my day of victory. Congratulations, man. Thank you so much. That's awesome. You know a lot of people say congratulations and I kind of laugh at that because it's like you're congratulating me for acting like a normal person.

Speaker 2:

Well, but you have to come out of that.

Speaker 1:

You have to come out of that storm.

Speaker 1:

You do, and so many don't yeah, no, you're right, and I think what, what I really, you know, I struggled from was ego and pride, you know, and that's why I used, and I was selfish, you know, and and I used for 28 years. You know, I started drinking alcohol when I was 10 years old and I'm a product of parents that were drinkers and it's genetic and it's it's something that stays with your family. It's a family disease, um, and until you break it, until something changes, until the pain is too much, um, you don't change until it's too much, and that's what I found, um, you know, 28 years into my disease. I always thought that, you know, it was something else.

Speaker 1:

Why do I have the jitters after a long night? Um, why am I getting sick, you know? Why do I feel mentally depressed? Why? Why do I feel this way about myself? Why can't I stop drinking, right? Why can't I stop doing drugs? It was because I was recycling all these things to change the way that I feel, and ultimately, it was. I wasn't comfortable in my own skin.

Speaker 2:

Well, you know, I think one of the things that, um, I've I've said this for years and I don't remember where I originally heard it, but you know, the great thing about being human and the terrible thing about being human is the fact that we can get used to just about anything.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and so we are adaptable.

Speaker 2:

We are adaptable, for both good and bad. Yeah, and so you know, as you grew up in that world and then, and then you were in that world, you, you're constantly kind of Robin Peter to pay Paul, whether it's with energy or with time or with focus, or you know all those many things and but you, most people, have got to hit a rock bottom in order to kind of reflect. And so what did that look like for?

Speaker 1:

you. So it started when I was 10, you know, I wasn't comfortable walking into a room of people. You know, didn't know that. I struggled um socially. I didn't realize what was going on. But, um, you know, I played sports, but I was playing for the wrong person. I was playing for the affection of my parents, I was playing for approval yeah and that continued until all the way through high school.

Speaker 1:

You know, I started the story there because my childhood was pretty normal. I didn't have a, my biological father wasn't around, so I had a stepdad until I was 22. He really helped mold and shape me in good and bad ways. He taught me how to be a comedian, and he'll tell you the same thing. Um taught me how to be a comedian, you know, and he'll tell you the same thing. Um, when I got into high school is really where it started to to change. You know, I was a 16 year old freshman. I didn't pass one class. I became an eligible to ineligible to play basketball or baseball. Um, I was actually kicked out of public school here in nashville. I was asked not to come back, politely, um, and then I begged and borrowed my way through and got um, I was actually enrolled into Nashville, christian.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

And those people are angels, man, um, they let me take, you know, pretty much four years of high school and just two years time, and we found out during the whole process that I had dyslexia and no short-term memory. Oh, wow. So yeah, they, uh, they taught me how to learn and I graduated on time. That's fantastic. And I had to take Bible class and my first Bible score was a four out of a hundred a four.

Speaker 2:

And so along that way, and I mean, obviously they turned, they helped you get it turned around Is is there a teacher that specifically that you're just like, oh my gosh.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there's two of them, um, coach Bishop and uh, and and coach Lincoln. You know, coach, I mentioned the Bible score because when I graduated, he gave my mom a stack of of my tests and he said the first test is, or the first sheet is his first test and the last sheet is his last test. And there was probably 200 tests in there and it went from a four to a 96. And so a four to a 90,. Yeah, to a guy that's never read the Bible, that knew nothing about the Bible. Um, they really had a, a, a pivotal point in my life, and they really gave me structure. But also I was dealing with things that were so deep that no one could touch. Sure, I had traumas that you can't see. I had scars in my brain that you just couldn't be aware of unless you knew what I was going through, and I did not like talking about it.

Speaker 2:

Right, and plus you already had a history of being able to cover it up and deflect. Yeah, I not like talking about it Right, and plus you had you already had a history of being able to cover it up and deflect and yeah, I mean I was raised let's just say I was raised by wolves, that you know.

Speaker 1:

um, you know I was. I was raised around alcohol and weed and all the things and I picked up the characteristics of an alcoholic really quick. Uh, by the time I was six, I was operating as an alcoholic. Come to find out, um, you know, there are certain things that happened to us that we don't realize as we're growing up and through a lot of trauma work now and understanding why I'm built the way I'm I'm built Um, it's helped me realize that other people's opinion of me is none of my business.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's just not. That's right. I'm not in the results game.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to be who God intended me to be and I'm going to try and do the best I can for people. But yeah, that struggle continued all the way through college. I got out of college and that ego wanted to continue to grow. So I started a business Right? And if I start a business and I grow a business, no one's going to ask me how I'm doing. That's right. They're going to say how's business? And I don't have to answer that hard question how are you doing? Yeah, Right, I could just live in a I can deflect all day long.

Speaker 1:

Right and live in a facade and have control and have money and have power and all the things that men want right. Until it's not working anymore. Until you, until you abuse that power, until you ruin relationships, until you take advantage of people, until you hit an emotional, spiritual, physical bottom that some people don't come back from. Yeah, At some point you can't outrun it. No, no, and you know it takes us to.

Speaker 1:

You know, there it was a blur for a long time, but I got out of my business that I started from the back of my pickup truck to you know, an amazing roofing company here in Nashville, and, um, I look back on it and I and I asked myself, um, do I regret getting out of that business? Did I just, you know, use a a long-term solution for a short-term problem? Did I really try to make it work? Yeah, Because I took this, this place, by storm and it was like overnight success. I was lead company's only roofer for about three years. Yeah, and they, they, they, they really trusted me to be that, that helping hand to their customers, and I took advantage of it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And I'm you know. I've gone back and made amends to the management and to the owner himself.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, I remember one of our very first conversations. We grabbed lunch and you said you know I I apologize to the owner.

Speaker 1:

I went and said he didn't know that I was his roofer though, right, right, he just knew that I was a part of it somehow. Sure, and a lot of people look at me and they're like you're how old, yeah, and you did that. And I'm like, yeah, man, I used social media, I used Facebook, I used Angie's list, I used all the roofing industry was that you know it's expensive to own a business and really, at the end of the day, you know you're making 10% and you're never making. You know you're never it's, it's never what you think it's going to be. Sure, and you're really supporting other people's lives. You know you're you're never it's, it's never what you think it's going to be sure, and you're really supporting other people's lives. You know you're taking care. You've given, been given the responsibility and the gift to give something back, and that's ownership. Yeah, right, but I abused that. I wanted my name in the lights, I wanted all the things that come along with it, without the responsibility yeah, and it failed.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, because you gotta, I mean it. One doesn't work without the responsibility. Yeah, and it failed. Yeah, cause you gotta, I mean it. It one doesn't work without the other.

Speaker 1:

You're right, and I didn't have the accountability in my life and I thought I knew everything there was to know and I wouldn't take suggestions. I was closed minded and I'm going to do it my way. Yeah, and I'm going to be the director of the show.

Speaker 2:

Yep.

Speaker 1:

And that got me nowhere, and so it hits South. Yeah, I went through two bankruptcies at the age of 30, you know, yeah, we got some money out and we got to pay our vendors and do certain things, but it's not the. It's definitely not the road you want to take, sure. So I learned a lot of lessons, probably 80 years of life in the, in that 10 year period.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 1:

You know, after that I jumped into the dental world and I went and somehow got a job. One of my buddies that's a dental rep, called me and said hey, there's a, there's an opportunity with, like the dental, the nike of dental, yeah, and I said I'm in. And so I applied and you know, I got a job because I didn't think like a normal sales rep, I thought like a CEO.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I got an MBA the hard knock way, you know, and any job that I've taken, you know, since 2010 or 2014,. I have been CEO minded yeah, thinking about the business pocketbook rather than my own and so dentistry gave me a gift. I got to be able to interact with some of the most incredible dentists throughout the country during my time at Dent Supply. Right when COVID hit, they furloughed a lot of people and I asked for my release. Right after that, I went to work for a surgical company that that sold surgical equipment to hospital rooms and uh dental and dental implant, surgical equipment.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so straight to oral surgeons or our dental schools or dentists practicing full arch dentistry, sure Right. So in that job I got to travel. And what in the world of dentistry? Like you, you go to school, you become a dentist and then you want to learn different modalities, you want to learn different skill sets, to grow your practice, and so and full full, if I'm.

Speaker 2:

if I understand it correctly, full arch is like the top of that yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you can't. Just you got to crawl before you walk. Right, you got to walk before you run.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

You got to place your first implant before you do a full arch surgery. So that's where where this company from Canada would send me all over the country to to be able to support these courses. So every week there's probably 10 dental implant courses that doctors are going to learn and get continuing education at Sure and they're paying thousands of dollars to these folks to teach them what they didn't learn in dental school, and that was about the bone structure, about the tissue, about, you know, 30 years of knowledge when it comes to implants. So I got to, I got to watch what works and what doesn't work, and and what the doctors were told would happen and and and the empty promises that they experienced Sure. And then I looked how are they finding their patients? Where are these patients coming from?

Speaker 1:

Right, and most of the bigger schools for dentists with ce are in mexico okay so they go out of the country to learn how to do these complex cases right. So I took all that knowledge and I said, okay, I'm ready, I'm ready to go work for an implant company and there was an opportunity with a pretty large implant company here in town. Okay, and when I, when I went to interview, the first thing I was worried about was that background check because I had hit a bottom right after I left WNH, which is the equipment company, not the implant company, but in between that job transition, right, um right after COVID or in the middle of COVID, covid, I guess it was yeah, in the middle, and really, covid exposed me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I'll come back to the, to the, to the why, here in a minute, but I want to stick on this just for a second. Covid exposed me because I was so used to moving, moving, moving, and I was the type of guy that, like I, would use my money for power, influence and pleasure. That's it, yeah. And if, if, if I didn't feel powerful, I didn't feel a pleasure. And if I didn't feel influenced, influential, then I didn't feel powerful. Yeah, right, so I used money to to gain things in life and I thought money would fix everything. I thought money would could get me out of any trouble, any amount of trouble that I would ever get into. Sure, so I got into some big trouble. I was arrested on July 16th 2021. I won't go into it, but it was one of the moments where my freedom was taken.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

My child was taken, taken away from me because I wasn't safe. Yeah, my wife was taken. Yeah, my, my child was taken, taken away from me because I wasn't safe. Yeah, um, my wife was taken. On that day I became homeless for about six months. I didn't have anywhere to go, I didn't have. You know, my only friend at that time was a coffee cup. Yeah, and that judge looked at me and he said you might want to go to Alcoholics Anonymous and I said all right. So for about three years there wasn't a day I didn't go to three to four meetings a day.

Speaker 1:

Oh wow, yeah, I still go to two a day. Yeah, I still try to hit one a day. You know, if I don't get to two, but I have to stay in the middle. Sure, you know, and I'm, I'm not special, special, right, my story is not something that is any different than anybody else's. I had to learn a new vocabulary yeah I had to hear a new way to live.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I had to take suggestions well, all of your, all of your solutions are gone. Every solution that you'd ever used, from 10 years old and up now, doesn't work.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm trying not to get emotional, but it was the most beautiful time of my life because I was. I was dodging so many bullets, I had so many cases against me that I felt like it was. You know, and I'll tell you, you know, one night I came home and to my little uh, Lincoln navigator, and, um, I had it in my mind that I was going to kill myself.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. And at that moment, you didn't see another way.

Speaker 1:

Nope, I didn't see a way out and I thought everybody would be better without me and I was seriously. That was the spiritual bottom. Yeah, um, I felt like I had failed. So many people, so many relationships, so many family members got tired of my stuff yeah they didn't want anything to do with me, and I felt like a waste. I felt like a failure and it all came from selfishness, ego and pride.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and not asking for help when I need it, because I wanted to control yeah, and at that time, at that time were you going to meetings, or this is I was starting to okay.

Speaker 1:

But that pain when you first get sober and you take the alcohol away from the alcoholic, you still got an alcoholic, you still got somebody living with alcoholism yeah but without the crutches, without the solution.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I had to find a new solution and I remember I'll tell this real quick I remember one of my first meetings. My sponsor said all right, I need you to go to, you know, three meetings a day for 90 days. Blah, blah, blah. And I was like, yeah, okay. And he said one more thing I want you to show up 15 minutes early and leave 15 minutes late. I was like what do you want me to do? He said I want you to make coffee. I said I don't drink coffee, I don't know nothing about coffee. He said well, ask somebody, they'll teach you. Yeah, so I learned how to make coffee and I started doing that every day and I was the first one there and the last one to leave cleaning up the coffee. And that was my first act of service for people that needed it more than I did and people you didn't know, yet yeah.

Speaker 1:

And then one day I went to him and I said why do I sit around the meetings and watch people drink my coffee, Wondering?

Speaker 2:

if they like it.

Speaker 1:

He said that's your ego and pride, because you think you did something.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 1:

You know and it's not something that I did Anything that's happened since I got sober is because of them. Yeah, it's because somebody cared enough to pass the message along to me. Their recovery is okay, it's safe. Yeah, and they're the stigma that you have, like I always thought it was either a rock star or a guy with a brown paper bag. Right, that was homeless. And here I am thinking I would never be homeless, right, and I had my daughter taken away for nine months, my dog was gone and it was just a bad, bad situation.

Speaker 1:

Ended up getting divorced, moved into a townhome in Spring Hill and continue to go to meetings and no one would rent to me either because I had felonies, sure, right. And so I had to go through a friend of a friend that had, you know, new construction, so I was paying a premium. Sure, right, I got a job with an implant company, and that was that was really. You know, a lot of my sponsors asked me how I got a job with the record that I had at the time and I said I was honest. Yeah, I just tell them I'm honesty is always the best way to go. And my first interview with the hiring manager, I took them the stack of court papers and I said you can read every one of them. But I'm fully recovered. I've been sober two years and I'm trying to do the best I can for my life. And this is my only offense. These are my only offenses, you know.

Speaker 1:

So, long story short, I got a job into the implant world and I walked in with $0 in the territory, zero right, they haven't sold a thing, you know, because other implant companies there's 400 implant companies out there and so what I did is I found this beautiful implant that does miraculous things that no one really knew about, and I went to one of my best friends and I said hey, I want you to try this, tell me what you think.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and it was Dr Pryor. Okay, and Dr Pryor is the first dentist, 10 years from that point, that I stopped and talked to as a dental rep. It was my ride along dentist, so he was the first stop that I ever met and I remember his, the way he carried himself. I remember the, the, the care that he took for his patients, and I remember the attention that he gave me. Yeah, he really wanted me to understand what he does and what he's doing and where he wants to go and all the things does, sure, and what he's doing and where he wants to go and all the things.

Speaker 2:

So this story was built way before I realized it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, the foundation was yeah, and he always liked me. He liked what I had to say. He never bought anything from me because I never really tried to sell him anything. I went there to gain knowledge and take from him yeah, pretty much. And so over the course of of the year that I was with this implant company, um, dr Pryor really liked the implant and I said what can we do to help the recovery folks get teeth back? Like? What I'm noticing in the meetings is that people are talking to you like this or, you know, laughing or smiling with their hand over yeah Right, self-conscious, very.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And there was not a lot of joy. You know there's a lot of worrying about what other people think of them. Yeah, you know, because they are at their bottom, sure. And so with that he was like well, why don't you bring me dentists Cause I'm working for an implant company that I can teach how to place implants? Because if you place an implant, you got to do an extraction, you got to pack bone, you got to do some of the beginner type things to be able to get a result Right. So what I didn't know is how much CE Dr Pryor had done over 15 years and that he is one of the top dentists, not on not only in Tennessee but in the country. Yeah, and he's followed by 10,000 other dentists and what he does, because he has everything under one roof. He's got a lab that makes all of his prosthetics, he's got milling machines that make his teeth. He can do everything pretty much in one day. Yeah, okay, and he's very successful.

Speaker 1:

So we I started bringing in guys that were in pain at first. Yeah, guys, I you know my friends that would complain about their teeth, and so I started bringing them singles. We call them right, just one tooth extractions. Yeah, and I would bring a young dentist to watch dr prior watch him do this procedure, sure to learn from, so that dr prior can pass it along right? So then we started graduating these guys over the past year and a half, like, and we've we've taught over 300 dentists how to place implants. Okay, okay, so to this date. But when we started we didn't really know what we were doing. We didn't know the magic that was happening. After a year at that implant company, because of smiles for recovery and the people we were helping and the doctors that were learning in the area, we went from $0 to $1.2 million in one year and there's only about $5 million in this market share. Yeah, okay. So all of a sudden we become a major player.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And just as a implant company, right. But what the implant company didn't know is that smiles for recovery was the one driving it, sure, right. So that's when I started to get honest with the company and say, hey, this is how I'm growing, these are the people that I'm helping, I'm in recovery. They had me speak at a company convention. I told the whole company that I'm an alcoholic, you know. But that's the difference between who I was and who I am today is that I used to be one way during the light of day and another guy at night. And then I tried to merge them and it just didn't work. Yeah, one of them had to go, yep.

Speaker 1:

And so smiles for recovery was born on April of 2023. And we helped in that first year. We helped over a hundred dentists learn how to place their very first implant. Oh wow, that's huge. It was amazing. And these guys are, you know, two, three years out of school, or even 20 years out of school. You know, because we were offering a solution for their practice to grow during a really tough time economically.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, I think some of those dentists, when they were in school, what you're offering was not available, right? And then it's also, even if they had just come out of school, it may not have been taught, or definitely not taught to the degree that you're offering.

Speaker 1:

They don't learn implants in school.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

They learn root to crown Right. They don't learn implants in school.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

They learn root to crown Right. They learn all the things that are important, the foundation of being a dentist, and I'm not a dentist.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Right, but I've seen over a thousand procedures of this, whether it's singles, doubles, overdenture or full arch, yeah, okay, so about a year goes by and we get to about January of 2024. And I just Dr Griffin and I had an idea to, to to get our study club into action. So we had 30 doctors that were in the study club. We all communicated via text all the cases they were doing. I brought a community of doctors together and really had them bonded by their work and their good works and that, what they're learning and all the new things that are coming out in the industry of what to like and what to use and what to try.

Speaker 2:

So just what's coming out of that mastermind group because of those different ideas and what they see every day and all that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So I built a following for us and I didn't really realize what I was doing. But, um, at the time, yeah, but what I did is I challenged these doctors. I said, can I get 10 of you guys to come here and teach 10 other doctors how to do a full arch extraction, surgery and replacement in one day? Oh, wow, and in one day. After all the planning, after all the procedures, we served 20 patients, we did 20 arches in one day. Wow, one day with one lab and we gave away about a million and a half dollars in free smiles in one day. And that was the pivotal moment for smiles, for recovery, because people started hearing about that in the rooms in in recovery and professionally, yeah, they're like, whoa, what are these guys doing? They're not charging doctors to come learn. Yeah, you did what you did. You're, you're, you're going against a a, you know, a hundred billion dollar industry, right, right.

Speaker 1:

Cause these guys are usually paying $30,000 a weekend to go learn to do this.

Speaker 2:

Oh, yeah, I charged them zero.

Speaker 1:

Right, right, because what I learned is that if everybody wins, they'll keep coming.

Speaker 2:

That's right. Right, it's that whole concept of win, win or no deal.

Speaker 1:

It's a win, win, win.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, everybody gets what they need. Yeah, and somebody served like, like you know. Yeah, somebody's life's changed a hundred percent.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and and that was what was cool to see, was that the dentists that were coming were reminded why they're dentists. Again, right, they're, they're a little jaded because of what you know, our, our society tells them they should be and what these you know career coaches tell them that they should charge, um, who they should be working with. Yeah, you know the rich people and I'd rather I honestly, I learned this, you know so far, so long ago, that you know my, my most simplest jobs were the most profitable, the most complex, were a train wreck, you know, and it took, you know, a longer period of time to get paid.

Speaker 1:

So all the knowledge that I collected, not only did I impact, the dentists from uh, you know, an implant wise and spiritual wise, like I was able to give. And that's I think that's why I did so well in the dental industry was because I was able to give them a perspective like, hey, if you don't pay attention, you're going to be in the same spot I am. Yeah, you know, you're going to have a zipper down your belly from the stress. Yeah, Right, You're going to live the consequences. I live that. I.

Speaker 2:

I hope you don't have to yeah, well, you know one of the things that I see, because you know, I think I think dentists and doctors sometimes they fall into the same traps. You know, um, being a business coach, you know sometimes I get a call and they're they're ready to exit their business and really all they have is a client list and they're like they expect this to be worth a lot of money.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And I'm going. You got a minimum of two years. We didn't fast track this and probably do it in two years. I wish you'd have called me five years ago. Why? Well, because nobody wants to buy your client list, correct? What we need to do is we need to bring in a couple other dentists or a couple other doctors and you start offloading and then you start running the practice. And the win for me is and the reason I brought this up is because you you touched on it without quite saying it is the win for me is when they go. I no longer want to exit.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I want to do this for the rest of my life. Yes, but it's. They get in that rut, you know. They get in that rut of you know. Somebody is telling me to do this, I think I should do that, and there's no. There's no handbook for dealing with employees.

Speaker 1:

There's no action. Yeah, there's all suggestions. That's right, but unless you can walk it out with them, unless you can give them direction and connect and what you and Nick have done a good job in teaching others, and especially me, is that connection piece Is that I'm not just going to give you a phone number to call. No, I'm going to make a direct introduction for you to be impacted by this person this way. Yep, right, and I'm going to personally make sure and I'm going to follow up with that as well. Yep, to personally make sure, and I'm going to follow up with that as well. And that's something that separates you from these other guys that are out there just telling them what to do and leaving them alone.

Speaker 2:

Well it's, it's real easy. I mean, in fact, I think sometimes about, um. This is what I find most comical in our education system um is you might have a teacher or a professor that teaches entrepreneurship and they've never owned a business in their life, right, right I had one of those oh yeah, and you know, to be honest, I, I clearly have never been a dentist but.

Speaker 2:

I have run a business, yeah, and it's. You walk through that with them. You really got to be like kneecap to kneecap when we start and then you got to walk with them. We're walking this and sometimes and it's somewhat like recovery and like they're going there's no way that works. Yep, I'm telling you, there's a process here, just and again, the win is when somebody goes. You know what? I will never not own this business.

Speaker 1:

Right, they're reminded of why they became a dentist, or reminded of why they started that business to start with that is exactly right, and's that takes me back to recovery, because when I walked in the rooms, the first thing they said was you have to change your mind. It's a spiritual malady, right You're. What you're going through is not because of you, is not because of of you know, the rest of the world is because of you, and so I had to be. I had to have a willingness to change yeah right.

Speaker 1:

I had to be open-minded and I had to be honest and I look at that those principles in business. Anytime I'm talking to a doctor and I ask them if they have a trust fund, because their hands are what make a money right that, that's right. And the first thing they say is no, that's for other people and I'm like you don't have a trust that's protecting you and your family from all the things that when you die. Yeah, and I said you're, you're, you're really setting your family up for a bad experience.

Speaker 2:

Well, they really own their job. Now, they own a really good job, correct. But if you do not run a practice, if you just own your practice, that you are the doc or you are the dentist, then the day that something happens to you, there is no business.

Speaker 1:

It's a depleting asset.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And until you put processes in place to be sustainable without you. I mean, that's what I've seen a lot of dentists try to do, but they lack the leadership or the knowledge to be able to put it all together, you know, and make it work.

Speaker 2:

Well, in some of them you know somebody said this, maybe y'all were talking about this before we started talking about dentists who fly, yeah, planes, airplanes, and it's. It's this idea of I can do anything, yeah, and I'm not trying to tell somebody that they can't do something.

Speaker 1:

But just because you can does not necessarily mean you should, you're right, just because you have a degree in dentistry, and I mean that's the thing. That's the sad part. Is the ego right? Yeah, and I think that you know I've had some doctors come up to me after our courses and be like man, I might have a problem. I'm no different than these people.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm drinking every night, yep, you know, and there's been some doctors come to me and say, dude, I got a prescription problem. And I said there's been some doctors come to me and say, dude, I got a, I got a prescription problem. And I said, no, you got a, you got a, you problem. Yeah, and I was taught by old school guys, like in my, my home group. There's like the four horsemen in the corner that are just watching me. Yeah, you know, and I had one of them come up to me when I picked up my four-year chip and he looked at me and he goes four years. I said, yes, sir, and he said I remember day one and it was bad.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And one of my sponsors was there and he's 20 years older than me and he goes. It was bad and I said, rick, you didn't know and you won't know just how bad it can be. I said you hit a pretty healthy bottom, but I hit a breakthrough bottom. Yeah, everything was destroyed and my life today is giving back yeah you know, and I think about the, the people that we've been able to help. Right now I have 1400 active patients in Tennessee alone.

Speaker 2:

I've got 2000 in Kentucky but here's the thing I got to pause right there because, okay, so, you're right, there's 3,400 lives, right, yeah, but it's not just about them, it's about all the other lives that are connected to theirs. Yes, because when somebody is going through the ugliness of addiction, yeah, others around them are being pulled, yeah, and then when they're in recovery, it's lifting the. You know that that hope, that that time, that effort, all the things that you put into that person, that that didn't work. Yeah, you know you're now getting paid back a little bit because you see that you see them rise. So it lifts other people too.

Speaker 2:

So, so it's not just 3,400 people. It's way more.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, and we're definitely trying to help the winners here. You know we see three types of patients. We see a pain patient that's someone that just entered detox, that's in pain, that had a tooth blow up, and I have what's called the pain train. It's a pain train of doctors that help those patients get out of pain and back to recovery. Okay, because they're in a 30, 60 day program that they cannot leave. Yeah, um. The second type of patient is an overdenture patient and the third type is a full arch patient. The difference between overdenture and full arch is that the overdenture patient has already had their teeth removed and have a denture, and the full arch patient, um, they have all their teeth removed, usually in the same day, or staged, or however the doctor wants to do it, but it's screw. Retained prosthetics.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

The overdenture. The patient walks in with a denture and what we're doing is we're giving stability to that denture.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

All right, we're able to put three to four holes in that denture and connect it to an implant that's in their jaw Right and give them stability. And a lot of our problems are from the Medicaid doctors that you know. Medicaid started paying for dentures Right, and so these doctors would take people's teeth out. Not thinking functionality, they were thinking aesthetically, like what do you want? Yeah, and so we have really struggled to find that magic bullet that would be able to be the Chick-fil-A, the McDonald's, the Wendy's, the Uber or Lyft for a dentist Like what process can we put in place for all of these patients? Yeah, that it works for everyone? Sure. And so this past month we found it.

Speaker 2:

Team is Jim Cripps here with the charge for podcast. I just want to tell you I love you, I appreciate you listening, I appreciate you for subscribing and sharing the Charge Forward podcast with people you know and you love, because that's what we're here for. We are here to share the amazing stories, the things that people have been through, the ways that they were able to improve their life, so that you can take little nuggets from theirs and help improve your story and be better tomorrow than you were today. I hope that this is the tool you needed at the right time and that you find value in the amazing guests that we bring each and every week. Thanks so much and don't forget new episodes drop every Thursday.