When the tracks of life converge with family legacy and entrepreneurial spirit, incredible stories emerge. That's exactly what we unpack with Dr. Randolph Meraz and Dr. Michael Meraz, two of Coachella Valley's esteemed dentists from my own lineage. Embark on a ride from youthful adventures on freight trains to the foundation of a dental dynasty in Indio, a tale of resilience and resourcefulness. Witness the transformation of a practice from its humble beginnings to a cornerstone of local healthcare, weathering legal storms and the test of time.
It's a family affair as we explore the intricate dance of managing a bustling dental office while nurturing a growing clan. Delve into the personal journeys that led each Meraz to dentistry, from journalism dreams to military scholarships, and the enduring influence of kinship on career choices. Listen closely as we peel back the layers of the military's Health Professions Scholarship Program, the financial acrobatics of dental education, and the trials of stepping confidently into the shoes of a family business amid a global crisis.
Join us for an intimate reflection on the triumphs and tolls of entrepreneurship. We reflect on pivotal decisions shaped by my father's health struggles, the necessity of a supportive network, and the delicate equilibrium between personal well-being and professional ambition. In the pursuit of a fulfilling career, the wisdom of mentors becomes our northern star, guiding us through the fog of financial decisions and strategic goal setting. This conversation is an homage to the resilience imbued in those who choose to carve their own path, embracing the legacy of those before them while shaping the future with their own hands.
When the tracks of life converge with family legacy and entrepreneurial spirit, incredible stories emerge. That's exactly what we unpack with Dr. Randolph Meraz and Dr. Michael Meraz, two of Coachella Valley's esteemed dentists from my own lineage. Embark on a ride from youthful adventures on freight trains to the foundation of a dental dynasty in Indio, a tale of resilience and resourcefulness. Witness the transformation of a practice from its humble beginnings to a cornerstone of local healthcare, weathering legal storms and the test of time.
It's a family affair as we explore the intricate dance of managing a bustling dental office while nurturing a growing clan. Delve into the personal journeys that led each Meraz to dentistry, from journalism dreams to military scholarships, and the enduring influence of kinship on career choices. Listen closely as we peel back the layers of the military's Health Professions Scholarship Program, the financial acrobatics of dental education, and the trials of stepping confidently into the shoes of a family business amid a global crisis.
Join us for an intimate reflection on the triumphs and tolls of entrepreneurship. We reflect on pivotal decisions shaped by my father's health struggles, the necessity of a supportive network, and the delicate equilibrium between personal well-being and professional ambition. In the pursuit of a fulfilling career, the wisdom of mentors becomes our northern star, guiding us through the fog of financial decisions and strategic goal setting. This conversation is an homage to the resilience imbued in those who choose to carve their own path, embracing the legacy of those before them while shaping the future with their own hands.
Welcome to CV Hustle, the podcast created to educate, inform and inspire entrepreneurship here in our Coachella Valley.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, I'm Robert Mraz.
Speaker 3:And I'm Fina Mraz, and I'm Fina Mraz.
Speaker 2:And this is CV Hustle, the podcast dedicated to educating, inspiring and informing local entrepreneurship here in the Coachella Valley. And nothing but illustrious guests is our goal on this podcast. And today we've got two of the finest dentists in all the land, the finest dentists from the windmills to here Dr Randolph Mraz and Dr Michael Mraz. Thank you for joining us today, guys, and, truth be told, I'm a little biased on this interview because, you know, I think they're the best, because if you know anything about our family, that's my father, that's my brother, but we're going to keep it very professional today.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:So you know, we know that, dr Mraz, you're not really a native of the Coachella Valley. You weren't born here, correct? That's correct. So how did you come to this great, great place? How did that even come about?
Speaker 4:Well, that's an interesting story.
Speaker 3:Well.
Speaker 4:I'm all ears. When I was a fresh graduate out of high school looking for adventure, a friend and I decided to hop in a freight car in Norwalk, california, to see where it would take us.
Speaker 3:Was it moving?
Speaker 4:at the time it was moving Just like in the movies.
Speaker 3:Were you, wearing your.
Speaker 4:Nikes. We're going someplace, like Stimey said in that great Little Rascals episode, we're on our way, but I don't know where I'm going, oh, wow. So we hopped in a freight train in the train yards in Norwalk and it brought us to the city of Indio. In the middle of summer, in August summer day, there were dust devils flying around, it was boiling hot and we looked at each other. This guy's name was Greg. He says where the HR are we? We found out from the hobos in the train yard of Indio that this is where we were. It was Indio, California, and I thought to myself I ain't ever going back that place. It was boiling hot. Well, fast forward to five years later. Well, not five years more like eight years later. Undergraduate Cal State, Fullerton, four years, a degree in biology from Cal State, then dental school for four more years.
Speaker 3:Where did you go to dental school?
Speaker 4:Well, that was USC Woo yeah.
Speaker 3:Fight on.
Speaker 4:Fight on and at the time it was 1980, and I needed to find a place to work now that we were, you know, now graduating from dental school. I did a grid map of the state of California, since I could practice anywhere in the state and my first choice was Laguna Beach, and I'm sure Bobby would have loved to grow up in Laguna Beach.
Speaker 2:Oh heck, yeah, we wouldn't love Laguna Beach.
Speaker 4:Good choice, yeah, good choice. But the ratio to dentist in population was like 1 to 10 or something ridiculous. It was just too many dentists already there. 10 or something ridiculous. It was just too many dentists already there. So I had to look for other places in the state of California that were underserved and needed dental care, and that's where Riverside County, and specifically the Coachella Valley, came up. So in 1980, the ratios were just off the charts that I knew that establishing a practice in Indio I should have no problem.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I should have a good chance making this business thrive.
Speaker 4:That was the whole thing. I thought back to that train and that hot, hot state. I'm going back to Indio. Oh no, we're going to melt. We're going to melt, yeah yeah, it was so bloody hot here.
Speaker 3:So you ended up driving out here for the weekend and finding a place to live, or how did that start?
Speaker 4:It started, yeah, with an inquiry at the office that was already here, a couple offices. There were a couple established offices and just walking in and say, hey, you need help here, and I found a doctor whose name was Dr Winneman and he had an office in Indio and he offered me a position, since he's an older guy that was getting ready to get out of the dental profession. And so I worked a couple days a week out here. I drove right, stayed at the Motel 6.
Speaker 2:Without air conditioning I drove out here, Wow, oh, my goodness, was mom there with you In the summer, in the summer, whoa.
Speaker 4:So yeah, I had a little spray bottle of water at the siege. I squirted myself as I drove into Indio and worked there in his office for I think it was three days a week. So I stayed at the Motel 6 for two days and then worked in his office that day and then headed on home to La Habra. We had a place in La Habra and that's where he was born at that time in Orange County. So yeah, so I was driving out, spending a couple days.
Speaker 3:And so how long did you end up working for that guy?
Speaker 4:About. It wasn't long. It was maybe three months to six months, something like that. When I got together with a friend of mine who had just graduated as well and we decided let's go into practice together, let's buy this guy out, since he had a. Yeah, we thought this is a goldmine.
Speaker 3:Partnership. Huh.
Speaker 4:So you said, we had a partnership and we decided to buy Dr Winneman out of the practice and have a two-person practice and go from there.
Speaker 3:So when I'm assuming that his business already had like a receptionist and somebody to do that, or did you have to bring in your own?
Speaker 4:No, it was a. It was a ready-made practice. The practice was already up and running and it had a clientele. It had a patient population. So all we had to do was do up and running and it had a clientele. It had a patient population, so all we had to do was do the dentistry. And then that worked out for maybe a year, maybe longer, but we decided that it was time to go, it's time to split up. The practice was not yeah, it wasn't able to support two doctors. You know, what we found is we just couldn't get enough patients into the practice that would support two doctors. Full time, hard time, yeah, but full time no. So one day we decided to flip a coin to see who would get the practice and who would walk out the door.
Speaker 2:You really flipped a coin.
Speaker 4:We really flipped a coin.
Speaker 2:Your fate was all on a coin flip. Both of our futures was on a coin flip.
Speaker 4:We could have been born and like we were going to DHS if he lost?
Speaker 2:That was the deal. Is that what it?
Speaker 1:was Wow.
Speaker 3:I thought he won.
Speaker 1:We would have went to DHS that would have went to DHS.
Speaker 3:That would have been it, but did you pick heads or tails?
Speaker 4:I don't remember. Did you have somebody witness it? So it was legal or something. I don't know if anybody witnessed it, but we were pretty tight as a partnership. He knew my likes and I knew his and we were pretty close, so it wasn't a question about you know, yeah, you win, I lose, kind of thing. It was somebody gets to practice and the other guy's walking out the door, wow, so it was. I got what I thought was the grand prize, but it turned out that it was. Yeah, I got the short end of the stick actually, but we made it work.
Speaker 4:We made it work, we made that practice thrive and in time, you know, it moved it to. We thought a better location. So, yeah, we did all right.
Speaker 3:So it was in India, so you moved out here. You ended up having to move out here, correct, right, and you were what Right?
Speaker 2:I, you were what Right, I was young. I don't even remember Four or five. Yeah, he was a little guy. I don't remember too much of that.
Speaker 4:We got a place on Miles Avenue in the old section of India on those old Delgant Noir homes development, the homes built in the 50s which were, in my opinion, the nicest homes in the Valley, but they're yeah.
Speaker 3:And where? Okay, and where was that location? That location was here in Indio.
Speaker 4:Yeah, where the Indio Fashion Mall is. Yeah, right there. Right there, it was in the section that has right now, what's there right now? Jewelry Gosh, I don't even know. There's still a dental office there.
Speaker 2:There is.
Speaker 1:The last time it was in there In the fashion mall.
Speaker 4:There was a dentist.
Speaker 1:In one of the entry corridors.
Speaker 4:Yeah, this would be the street on Monroe and the group of buildings right there, right in front of the group of buildings, right there.
Speaker 2:Right in front of the Wells Fargo, right there, right in front of the Wells Fargo.
Speaker 4:But that was our office. We had something like 2,000 square feet. It was a pretty big office. We had plenty of operatories and plenty of room.
Speaker 3:So what happened with that business?
Speaker 4:You said the location was no good, or what ended up happening?
Speaker 4:next, that's the old Indio history right here and that was, you know. Basically it was a property grabbed by the city of Indio to oust a historically black community from the neighborhood, from the land. They used the powers of eminent domain to condemn these black family homes and, you know, to steal their land. So I rose up, went to the city council, said you guys are messed up, you're doing the wrong thing here. What you're doing is wrong. I had patients from that community in my practice and I knew them. They were my friends practice and I knew them, they, they were my friends and they asked me to, you know, to stand with them and intervene in that uh, in that whole controversy. So bobby went on a protest march one day. So you, we shall overcome to the city hall and from nobles range to uh to to express dissatisfaction with the uh powers that be by the Indio City Council. I hope this doesn't offend anybody.
Speaker 2:It's too long ago. Those guys are dead. All the city council's gone.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you're probably right, but that was enough to force me to start looking for a new location, because I wanted to get out of there, that area I didn't want to be, you know.
Speaker 3:Associated with that? Yeah.
Speaker 4:Those powers that be there, that we were going to move and consequently, this opens up a whole chapter in our background, because we were sued by the Indio Fashion Mall owners.
Speaker 3:Because you left that location.
Speaker 4:For not only that, but being a part of the protest against their expansion, they were the ones that forced the issue with the city council to take that land. It was the owners of that mall. I know the guy's name but I won't say it. Yeah, that was the genesis of me leaving the mall and getting another location.
Speaker 2:So really protesting was a part of that lawsuit Just being at the protest and participating.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we thought for a while we had a, you know, civil rights lawsuit against the city of indio, because that's the way it. It basically transpired that would have been. You know, that would have been a, a legal uh you know a stand, uh, that would have got into that and all that stuff right, I mean we, we just you know, we settled out of court, is what I would say.
Speaker 3:It was time to go.
Speaker 4:It was time to go, so you ended up finding it was time to move it was time to go.
Speaker 3:And that's when you made the move to the place near Stater Brothers.
Speaker 4:Yes, that was Stater Brothers, and we were there for 20-odd years.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:It's been a while that you were there, yeah, and we were very successful. You know we did great there.
Speaker 2:We had a thriving practice Did you double your size when you moved, like double the size, triple the size.
Speaker 4:Oh, triple, yeah. We had almost over 2,000 square feet in that office in Stater Brothers. Actually it was three 900-square-foot suites all put together in one big unit, so we had plenty of room and the practice did real well and we were very happy.
Speaker 3:And by this time, how many children did you have?
Speaker 4:By that time we probably had a full complement of five kids, five kids, five kids, yeah four boys Minivan full at that point. It was time to yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and that was part of the joy in my day was to see the kids show up after school and kind of run through the corridors of the office and do the hand balloons with the gloves.
Speaker 3:You remember doing that.
Speaker 2:I'm sure I did. I'm sure I did. I remember being at the office quite a bit growing up. They used to have a back room for us at the old one. Remember the very first one where they threw us after school and we'd be back there running through the laboratories when patients were there.
Speaker 3:And yeah, it was quite a scene back in the day and and your mom started working at the practice too right when did that happen and how did that happen?
Speaker 4:their mom has always been a part of the, the practice. She was always, uh, involved in one way or another with either the you know employees and their needs, oh yeah, but basically running the front office as well as paying the vendors, the bills that we had, the labs we had, you know, the supplies, the people that kept the office going. She was the one Behind the scenes, yeah, keeping it going, pulling the strings to get things taken care of.
Speaker 3:She was the one Behind the scenes. Yeah, keeping it going.
Speaker 4:Pulling the strings to get things taken care of, and that was, yeah, that lifted so much off of my shoulders and I was very appreciative.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you could just work and do your dentistry. And were you the only dentist there? And how many?
Speaker 4:there and how many over time I've brought in other doctors, you know, for either short periods or long periods. I think we had one fellow dr lieber, who was with us for probably seven, eight years, maybe longer, but that's patty. But yeah, yeah, at times we had a second doctor coming in part-time. Usually they were never full-time.
Speaker 3:How many employees do you think you had at your biggest their height? Yeah, at your height.
Speaker 4:Good question, I'd have to say, about considering that our hygienists were mostly part-time. We had two full-time assistants, front office and insurance maybe seven, eight people going at one time. It's a pretty big office, big operation at that point we supported a few people with the practice. That was important to us to give people good jobs and keep them employed.
Speaker 3:Didn't you take a job there for a short period of time?
Speaker 4:We all worked there.
Speaker 2:I don't know how much work they actually got out of us, but technically we were on the payroll for a little while.
Speaker 3:You told me you were the best employee ever.
Speaker 2:That would be a lie, that would be not the truth.
Speaker 3:Didn't you deliver teeth or something?
Speaker 2:No, that was in high school. My dad and my mom got me a job with a lab that they worked with. They needed a delivery guy, so it was cool because I could just take my little car and drive around and drop off the dental work to all these different offices.
Speaker 1:They sent us all there. At one point I was walking there when I was like nine years old and clocking in and cleaning the floors and stuff At nine years old. Well, we lived right around the corner Breaking some labor laws. We lived across the street.
Speaker 3:You needed a bigger house. You needed a bigger house.
Speaker 4:More kids, bigger house. They needed a bigger house, more kids, bigger house. We had to get off Miles Avenue and head to the Santa Fe Homes. Yeah, so we were right there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you were literally a block away.
Speaker 1:It was literally around the corner. It was right around the corner, maybe I was 10. That's right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that made it very convenient Keep these kids busy. We thought that they would learn something about working, what it meant to put in some time and contribute to the family, family business, prosperity. That was a family business.
Speaker 3:Do you ever look back and go? How did I raise a family and a business with all this going on?
Speaker 4:You've got a family of five and you've got a wife. God bless me with a beautiful, loving wife and that was the glue that kept this whole operation running running that I had someone beside me to make this happen in a way that you know the kids benefited as well as the family benefited. So that's important to have somebody by your side that you know sees you with all your flaws and all the you know the sharp edges and still loves you.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And still wants to come by your side and be your partner in this life, and that was my wife.
Speaker 3:That was Patty, because everybody was in sports, so you were all over the place with multiple kids.
Speaker 2:I don't know we got two and I don't know how you guys did it.
Speaker 1:That's why we all play football. We can only play certain sports, though you have to follow your brother. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:We're not going to another field.
Speaker 1:There's only one stop.
Speaker 2:You guys are all going to the same football practice, same basketball.
Speaker 1:Playing with the older kids. I don't care if you're six or ten years old.
Speaker 2:That's why we were better because we played with other kids. Yeah, absolutely. But no, I remember that, like I look back and I'm kind of in awe, like how did you guys do that? It was tough. Just our one athlete that we have, you know, he was always running into practice. You guys have multiple practices going on all the time and running a business.
Speaker 4:Honestly, yeah, that time for us is a blur.
Speaker 1:Hello, that time for us is a blur. It wasn't. That's what I always say.
Speaker 4:Yeah, to pick a certain time period that you can actually visualize and remember. It doesn't happen anymore for me.
Speaker 2:It's all just fast forward.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it just happens. Okay, we got it. Yeah, because you're right. Some days, on Saturdays particularly, there were many hats that I would have to wear. I was the president of the organization, I was a coach a head coach usually at one team or another, and I was an assistant coach in another team. So I'd go from one team to another on the same day oh, my gosh team. So I'd go from one team to another on the same day and uh, and, and we'd have, you know, three kids playing at least you know, uh, one game that day. And when bobby got to high school, it was you know now.
Speaker 1:Now we have that to contend with the girls always tell me at the office because a lot of them are still there that I've been there for years that the only time that he really hustled and worked super fast was during football season. We had to get to practice at like 3.30.
Speaker 2:Production would play up during football season. I'll work through lunch.
Speaker 1:Like double book me, I don't care. Like let's go Double book me. Wow, I'm not missing practice.
Speaker 2:They found the key to getting production up on a football season year.
Speaker 1:Football time.
Speaker 3:Let's go All right. So let's fast forward. So you were there at the one place, and then how did you end up to where you are now? What happened there?
Speaker 2:I mean you were at the new office.
Speaker 4:You were at the old one for what? 15 years? Yeah, that's a good question. I'm going to have to kind of rewind the tapes. What was it that motivated us from getting out of that Stater Brothers?
Speaker 1:you know, uh, you were up for a new list, probably up for a new. You were up for a new lease. Okay, yeah, I think you're. Did you fight with the city again on that?
Speaker 4:one too.
Speaker 2:I'm sensing the theme here. I'm sensing the theme of rebelling against authority here.
Speaker 1:I think there are going to be changes in the contract. There you go. Yeah, that was. That was into the terms of the lease.
Speaker 4:They were going to jack the rent up and really stick it to us for the space that we had. So my plan okay, you're going to do this, I'm leaving Found a place, and this is where the fight with the city comes in. We located the place we're at now and I went to the city planning department. I says here's my plans for a new office, would you please approve these. And I went to the planning department and then they looked at the plans and said you know? The head guy says I'm sorry, doctor, but we can't approve these plans. And I said well, why not? This is a licensed architect who drew up these plans. They're perfectly good plans. He said well, the law stipulates that in the India corridor of Highway 111, there can be no medical or dental offices put into this corridor of Highway 111.
Speaker 3:Oh, you were grandfathered in because you had been there so long.
Speaker 4:That was my argument with the city. I said, hey, I already have a footprint in that corridor and I've been there for 15 years and you're going to deny me access to this part over here which is closer to you know, La Quinta. I'm getting moving towards that border.
Speaker 3:That's like what? Half a mile away? It's not that far.
Speaker 4:Down the street, yeah, down the street, so yeah. So it was another, you know another battle with the city that we needed to resolve. It was another battle with the city that we needed to resolve, and this is one that I think the good Lord kind of had his hand in this whole mix. Because I got contacted by a city council member that said Dr Mraz, you must have higher powers working for you, because we decided, as a city council, to approve your plans. Wow, and I said hallelujah, I didn't have to go. I was planning on going actually to a city council board meeting. They only had them like once a month on Wednesday nights, where the public could get to the microphone and speak to the powers. That be right, and I was teaching a Bible study, so I couldn't go. So I said, lord, it's in your hands. I can't speak at this meeting, but you know what's going on. And I left it at that and I got the call the next morning, oh my goodness, and they had approved my plans at that meeting.
Speaker 3:And this place where you moved was a new building. So when you're talking about the plans, you had to figure out what was going to go where, how many chairs you were going to put in where your office was going to be. So this was a new adventure for you all, right.
Speaker 4:Right, it was raw space, basically that suite had formerly been a gym, so it was basically just wide open space with no walls, and we got it and so we had to. You know, then, yeah, we'd already gone to an architect and got the plans drawn up how to divide the you know that piece of property into a dental office. So we already, you know, kind of worked that out. That was just part of that process. So we had the plans, we just needed a contractor who would build it out for us and uh, that's you know where the you know the dental companies kind of came forward and helped us out with that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because you've got to put plumbing in there, you've got to build walls.
Speaker 2:It's not a cheap endeavor You've got to protect against radiation.
Speaker 4:There's a lot that goes to it. Man, there's a lot of planning that goes into that build-out of that office Bottom line. It was about a half a million dollars to do that. That build-out was the plumbing, the electric. We had to have drainage from those rooms, the little suction thing to get the goo out of somebody's mouth. It's got to go somewhere, it can't just go into the floor.
Speaker 1:It can't just go in this huge line.
Speaker 3:Were you able to take anything from the old office to the new office or did you start new?
Speaker 4:No, we did do a lot of new equipment buying but we took some of that stuff out of the old office because we had to. It was just too much, too much equipment that you know we'd have to purchase it to make it a brand new operation. So it took, you know, just some thinking. It took some planning and it took some good people. That's the important thing that you have good people come besides you to help in that process. You, you can't do it yourself.
Speaker 3:You've got to align with.
Speaker 4:It's not slapping paint on a wall and putting a fresh coat of paint on an old building. It takes so much more, and that's where you need the good people. Sometimes the hard thing to find is those people that will really look out for your best interest, and when it's family, that's all good.
Speaker 3:And they're supportive.
Speaker 2:Even better right.
Speaker 3:So during this time you were going to college. What was going on during this time?
Speaker 1:When they moved to the new office.
Speaker 2:Yes, Michael was still pretty young, so they moved there. What like 2008? High school?
Speaker 1:Barely getting out of high school. You were still in young, so they moved in there. What like 2008? High school.
Speaker 4:You were barely getting out of high school. You were still in high school, I believe.
Speaker 1:I was in college at that point. It was in 2008. Do you remember the year when you guys went? I don't know, daddy, give me some help Mom. 2009? No, the one we're in now, 98?.
Speaker 2:No, the office weren't right now, so the blur it's been. Anyway, it's been a while. You've been there.
Speaker 1:You've been there 15 years, probably high school, college, at least 15 years 15 years at least. I think you're like mid to mid to late 05 08, somewhere in that, somewhere, that range that's it's about almost like 20 years or yeah we're coming up on another lease, yeah that's right, actually.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because we renewed. Yeah, I think it was 0. Another lease. Yeah, that's right actually. Yeah, because we renewed. Yeah, I think it was all wait, I think it's around 07. Wait because we renewed the lease. Yeah, like 2008, so like 2008. So, michael you, weren't.
Speaker 2:You weren't always like. You had other like. When you were younger you didn't like. Dentistry wasn't really on your radar initially. Right, it's on any of our radar well, I couldn't do it.
Speaker 1:I was like I couldn't, I didn't think about it, I mean, we didn't, I was not even considering it.
Speaker 2:I don't think. I don't think I had the. I didn't really. I didn't have the, the smarts to get through dental school, so I knew I wasn't gonna do it. But you were kind of like the last of the mohicans, right, because you're the youngest boy, yeah. And so where did how did dennis? That's a question I'm always like how did dennis even jump on your radar? When did you say, hey, maybe this is something?
Speaker 1:I can do. Well, I mean, I was in college at the time and I was we'd grown up with sports, you know, and so I was a journalism major and I was at san diego state and I was working for the sports paper and I was doing my thing and kawaii leonard was there and it was a lot of fun and everything. But I came to the realization like, hey, this isn't, this is like could turn into work. You know, this isn't what I kind of thought it was.
Speaker 1:Not as fun as I thought it was going to be. I'm writing the same story over and over. You know this is not really something I see doing the rest of my life, so I was kind of just at a blank slate at a crossroads and then obviously dad's a huge influence. Like we didn't like I said we didn't grow up, he didn. Like I said we didn't grow up, you didn't grow up. You never hear talk about teeth.
Speaker 2:You didn't come home talking. You didn't ever talk shop. That's one thing. I had no idea what happened day to day at the office. It was never about that. You were never grooming anybody to succeed you, you were just like you know.
Speaker 3:Letting everybody take their own path.
Speaker 2:Everybody kind of took their own path, so credit to you guys.
Speaker 1:I guys, I mean they kind of let us figure it out for ourselves, right, and that's kind of how we were raised. I mean I yeah, I just never, never crossed any of our minds, I think I know families who they have all of the kids are dead.
Speaker 1:You know they're all dentists and they all stay in the family in the family business and I I always remember this, this one memory I have. Well, I was like in junior high and I had a friend over and and, uh, he like I had something going on with this tooth. And he said, oh, I didn't know, your dad was a dentist. And I was like, so I was talking to dad and he's like, hey, I got something going on with my tooth, what do you think is going on? He's like, yeah, you should probably go to your dentist and get that checked out. He's just kind of like you know. So he didn't cover talking like talking shop, he didn't push it on us.
Speaker 1:So but when at that time in college I was kind of it was like a blank slate. So I was, I was kind of looking and I had always been interested in medical. I've always been interested in, like, becoming a doctor or doing something you know to help, just for the community, to help people you know, public, public service type situation. That always kind of appealed to me. So that was always in the back of my mind. Like you know, yeah, maybe I'll go for medical school though be some kind of doc or something like that. So then at that point in time I was kind of just open to everything and then I don't know when, it kind of clicked. But I just, you know, I don't remember if I was a bit more observant, kind of like what you were doing or kind of you know what, you how, you guys, but I just remember being in the office more and seeing how he was with the patients, you know, and seeing the relationships that he would have with his patients and I mean, even to this day, like the patients they love him, you know, and patients do not love their dentist, like they love this guy, like that's not a common thing, right, forty years of service, man, I mean, but just like the uniqueness of that right.
Speaker 1:And then so the more I looked at it like that it was really a people, it's really a people business. You know you're taking care of families, you're taking care of your community, you know you have open doors, you just take care of the patients who are infighting, and so that was the thing is him and mom and the whole office would treat everyone like family, being in that environment and um, and you're really doing positive things. You know people are coming to you in trouble and pain, they have problems and you, you just you try to help them. You know the dentist aspect has a negative kind of connotation for most people, but you're just trying to help. You know, you're just trying to trying to help people out, and so all of that kind of started to appeal to me, and then the wheels just started turning and and then I didn't even know if I was going to make it or do it. It's hard, you know, it's a lot of science.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of studies. I mean, I was already into it.
Speaker 1:I was already three quarters into my major of journalism at the time, so I had to completely like change course, you know and so it took a lot of adjusting and kind of help along the way different classes and stuff, but that was really where it just kind of switched. You know, I was still in school- so you made that decision in college like to kind of move forward with the whole.
Speaker 2:And I mean, what was it like to kind of carry on his legacy, or was it more just to I have a, I have a ready-made business that I can run, like what was like kind of the driving factor of making that? I mean that's a big change from journalism to dentistry. That's a big shift, you know.
Speaker 1:It was more just the aspect of coming and taking over the business and doing that. That didn't really. That never played into it.
Speaker 2:It wasn't a legacy play then.
Speaker 1:No, and still, it was always. That was always something I was hesitant about, just because I, I wouldn't. I don't want people, you know, to look at something like nepotism or just like, yeah, you're coming in and you know your dad, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:You're just like this it yeah you know, you want to blaze your own trail, like when I went to dental school, you interview. When you go to dental school, you submit your applications and you have to interview at different schools. So you submit the app first, you take all the tests, do all the classes, then, if you're lucky, you get an interview at a school. You have to go to the school, do an interview. So I got like five or six interviews and I went and I interviewed at temple in philly and that was a big one that I did. I did a couple other ones I regret not doing like nyu and some of the more fun ones, but temple and usc were my big ones and I got into both and I really wanted to go to usc but dad went to usc legacy play though, exactly and so it's so I mean yeah, so I.
Speaker 1:So I was really close to going to Temple you know, Philadelphia. Yeah, just to just to kind of chart my own path. They have a different experience, but my girlfriend and wife now currently was here in Southern California.
Speaker 1:So that was yeah, I'm going to consider that she wasn't, not as my girlfriend she wasn't, so that was a big factor too. But I but that, yeah, that part never really fact. That didn't motivate me like I'm gonna become a dentist because you know there's yeah, I have this path charted for me, like that wasn't, that wasn't, uh, really on my radar a lot. I was there, obviously. I mean, he's a dentist and you know if I, if I'm a dentist, you know, makes it easier, it helps, right.
Speaker 3:Well, I think too. I mean, I always think about Grandma. Grandma always wanted attorneys and doctors in the family, right, yep. And so if I had that little, she probably planted that seed. Maybe a little too, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:That was Mom. You're right, yeah, and she talked to us about that growing up, that we were going to do well in school. School was our number one priority.
Speaker 3:And it was also to help the family, right. So you had a doctor in the family. Something happened and you know we all go to Dr Mraz for our dental needs and it's just kind of continued. And so you're helping not only your community but you're helping your family as well.
Speaker 1:I think that played into it too. You know, I think you made a good point. Like you know us growing up, you know, I think both our parents my mom and my dad did a good job of instilling confidence in us and there was this expectation, like you know, when I was doing journalism was like, hey, I, I can do this, but I gotta be damn good at this and I gotta like make it on espn and I gotta have a career out.
Speaker 1:You know I can't like bill simmons, I can't be slumming around and like being freelancing you know, like you gotta do good, and I think that was the expectation on us is one you can do whatever you want to do, you can be whatever you want to be, and you have the smarts and all the tools to do it. So I mean, I think for me that was a big motivator too. It's like I know I need to do something important. You know I got to go out and do something.
Speaker 3:We always say Michael was the smartest.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I don't understand.
Speaker 3:Is that what you're saying? You're the cutest.
Speaker 2:My sister might disagree with that, You're the cutest but, Michael's the smartest, this is true, and I'm the wisest too. I'm biased, you are biased. So USC, you get into USC. You're kind of following that trajectory. Yep, get out of USC and then what, what kind of? What kind of career path kind of took you off the path a little bit. Right's expensive, you know, tuition is really high, there's not a lot of loans, there's not a lot of government you can get fast-fund a lot of stuff for undergraduate degrees, but you got to I mean dental school.
Speaker 2:You need, you got to graduate high school.
Speaker 1:You got to get a bachelor's, then you get a doctorate. So you're talking about eight million years post-high school to even start your career as a dentist right. And so that last four years usually is pretty expensive. The cost of the dental school is really really high right now, and so I had done some research and I kind of was. You know, that was the biggest thing is applying to dental school. I'm going to have a couple hundred thousand dollars in debt and these student loans that I'm going to have to take on. How am I going to pay for this right, like, what are we going to do?
Speaker 1:And so our brother, billy, went through the Naval Academy. He was in the Navy and so we had a little bit of exposure, you know, to the military side of things, and so I don't remember who plugged me into it, but the military has health profession scholarships, and so it is not just for dental, it's for medical, vet, dental, nursing. So they have scholarship programs that will basically pay for your tuition to go to school. So the way it works with dental is you have to get into the school first, then you have to apply for the scholarship and you have to get and be approved for the scholarship before you start school. So you have this little window of getting into school and then getting the scholarship. And so when I got in I had already known, I told everybody. I think I told my parents. I said the second I get that acceptance letter. I'm going right down to that Army recruiter, that Navy recruiter, just like sign me up, here's my acceptance, sign me up today.
Speaker 1:And that's what you did Yep and I couldn't find the Navy guys and I couldn't find the Air Force guys. So I had to go Army because the Army guys were like come on in, like we'll take you, let's fly here.
Speaker 2:Come on, the Air Force takes everybody.
Speaker 1:Dude, the Air Force guy was out golfing.
Speaker 2:I know now.
Speaker 1:I know now what it was Like. Navy guy was MIA. So yeah, the Army guy was ready to go, Brought me in it approved and I initially didn't get it.
Speaker 3:Um, I was gonna say, like, do you go into it knowing you're gonna get the scholarship? Let me, they don't. You're taking a chance.
Speaker 1:They don't give it. Yeah, they don't give it to everybody. Now the army. So when I was doing it, this was, mind you, this was like 12 years ago, so it's probably changed for sure, because cost of tuition's gone up. But you, yeah, they were, the army had the most, the navy had the second most and the air force had the least. So they had the most. The Navy had the second most and the Air Force had the least. So they were the most selective.
Speaker 1:And so it's a whole process when you get it, when you're in school, you have to maintain a certain GPA, you have to serve like so many weeks active duty. For you there's a lot of stipulations when you get it. So it's not a guarantee at all, you know. And so you have to, like, formally be offered the scholarship, and then you have to formally be offered the scholarship and then you have to decide if you want to take it before you even start your schooling. So you have to take it before dental school or medical school even starts. So you already know. You already know, after you're done, you're getting shipped out to the Army. Yeah, the day you graduate you're getting shipped off to basic and you're starting your training and you're going to whatever base that they send you to.
Speaker 1:Like you already know, but that's already I mean, but it's you know that going into it, you signed up for it, you know so you know that going into it it's a big commitment.
Speaker 2:You're talking years of your life, right?
Speaker 1:But I mean, in my career path, I think it was one of the best things I did, the smartest things I did. You know, I know people who got scholarship and, mind you, dental school is even more so now when I was there it's like three, four, five hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 2:Wow, so right now it's three hundred thousand. Now it's more, it's more.
Speaker 1:Now it's more now it's more, now it's over half. I mean even the, the affordable are over half a mil.
Speaker 2:How could you even so? I mean how does that work it's crazy there's a lot.
Speaker 1:That's a whole. I mean that could be a whole podcast on the cost of education, crazy man, I mean. Yeah, there's a whole can of worms there, for sure. But I knew people who got the scholarship and turned it down because they didn't want to do the military Really.
Speaker 2:And now they owe $300,000 times three you know, like a million dollars. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, how do you so?
Speaker 3:when you, when you get the scholarship, do you get a choice of where you're going? Like you said, you knew you were gonna get in the military? Yeah, do you get the assessment? You gotta say, I heard people say you could pick your top three. Yeah, so what they?
Speaker 1:did? What they did was they you have your recruiter, you have whoever. They contacted me Like this is like my third year of dental school and these are going into fourth. You're getting close, right. And so they're like hey, we got you down, this is when we're going to have you go out to basic, blah, blah, blah. These are the bases where we're going to need dentists, and so we're going to ship you to one of these bases. They say like 15 to 20. They're like we want you to rank these bases based on where you want to go, and so this is just, but it's like a military thing. You know they're asking, but they're not really asking. They're just kind of like they're giving you the perception that, like you, you have you got?
Speaker 1:something to say. You know you have something to say about it. So so they gave. So I gave my list and I was, and I had gotten married at the time. So I did it with my wife, alina, and so we ranked all of them and she didn't want to put hawaii on the list, which I still couldn't present to the day, you know. But I got to serve in hawaii for four years and you know that we left that off the list. But so we made our top 10 and I put fort lewis, washington, as my first one.
Speaker 1:It seemed like a really nice base and, um, luckily, the recruiter called me months later when it was time and they said, hey, they're going to PCSU Fort Lewis in Washington. So we actually ended up getting. So it actually worked out. It actually did work. One of my good friends I went to dental school with. He had the exact same list I had, and so I called him really excited, and I'm like, hey, I got Ford Lewis, you know. So we're going to be there together. You had the same list, right? What did you get? And he checks his email he's like, ah, I got El Paso, texas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a little different for him. Yeah, it was a little different for him.
Speaker 1:So I mean it just happened that way that we got it. So you get a, say I. You get a say I mean they take it into consideration in the military. I enjoy the military they're, you know, they there's a lot of things that go into. But I, you know, I mean I'm sure someone looked at it and gave us, you know, kind of got it.
Speaker 3:Absolutely so, like when you go to so then they say okay doing. No, it wasn't dentist, yeah, it was army, it was army basic training.
Speaker 1:It was like a regular grunt. You're running. I mean, yeah, rucking. You know I call it rucking um. You know you put on strap up your boots, you put on your rucksack middle of the night. You know you're sleeping out in the army. The army actually like they do field training so you actually sleep outside. You actually like go out. There's rattlesnakes in the tents and stuff there's communal showers and baths, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I mean. So the nice thing about it is you go in and there's a hierarchy in the military. So you come in and you're an officer, and so what that means is you're actually, you're on, you have a little more respect, you know. Usually officers have degrees, they have advanced training, you know. So they have a little more pull so you automatically commission as an officer. It's not even just usually you start as an o1 or lieutenant, you actually start as a captain at o3, because they actually count your years in school as time of service in the military. So you actually come in as a captain. So the rank you have is nice. You have a little pull. You know you're not like a grunt, you're not, you know, you're not like a enlisted infantryman going out there. But it is basic. We had to go through the basic training, sleep out in the fields.
Speaker 3:It was basic, but it was basic for doctors and officers and stuff. But didn't you have to learn guns and all of that.
Speaker 1:No, you go out and you shoot and you qualify. You have to do the military minimums. But I think that's the misconception is, you know, everybody in the army is like special forces and they're doing this and they're jumping out of planes and they're doing this and I, you know we weren't doing that. You can. I, one of my good buddies was a major. I wish I did one of my buddies who I share an office with enough he was what they call jump master.
Speaker 1:He jumped out of a plane once a week, you know, and he it's, but he didn't do a lot of dentistry.
Speaker 4:He was a dentist you know he wasn't cutting a lot of teeth, but he was.
Speaker 1:But he was doing that, he was with special forces. Um, that was his kind of career path. It was super cool, you know, but we were. But we were dentists, you know we were. So when we got out we practiced dentistry, you know. And then the doctors do their training as doctors and they kind of see their patients and everything. So the basic training is anywhere from six to 12 weeks, so that's the minimum. You do that and then you get sent to your station and then you start your actual career.
Speaker 3:And you're working on people in the Army.
Speaker 1:Working on active duty military members. So basically active duty Army soldiers, potentially families, but mainly in most places just active duty.
Speaker 3:And the way that works is you are also getting paid correct. So not only are they taking out some of your student debt, you're also getting paid. So that kind of seems like a sweet deal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're also getting paid while you're in school, so you actually get a stipend while you're going to school. You know, I mean it wasn't much. I mean I went to school in USC, I got married, you know, and so we had to have a decent-sized place and you know our bills were more than what they were paying, but it was a couple grand a month. It'll cover a big chunk of it, right. And so I mean mean it was great. I mean it was like I said, it was one of the best decisions I made, just to not be drowning in debt when you're graduating from school. I mean there's other ways to do it. There's a really famous clip of dave ramsey talking about a dental student. Calls him and asks him hey, I got into dental school and it's going to be five, six hundred thousand dollars just to go to this school. Should I take out a loan and do it? And Dave Ramsey says no. He says go find another career.
Speaker 3:Wow, so, Randy, how did you feel knowing your son was going to be in the army?
Speaker 4:We had an agreement with all five of our children that we would cover their expenses as undergraduates. They'd get a free pass. Basically we'd pay their expenses for that degree, a bachelor's, in whatever they chose. But after that and it came to graduate school, yeah, we're out you gotta find a way to do it. And with michael that became that military scholarship. And you know, Bobby had the same deal, Did I have the same deal?
Speaker 1:I just finished paying off my student debt so I don't feel like I have that same deal.
Speaker 4:I think that deal would have skipped me. I don't know what papers you've signed. I've got to look at my contract. I want a refund.
Speaker 3:I need to look at that contract, you know.
Speaker 4:Then we would owe you money.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm a little old to be paying student debt. So, michael, when you came out of the Army right, it was already predetermined that you were going to go start working in the practice right and get your teeth cut in the private sector.
Speaker 1:I think so. I mean, I don't know if we had any formal, um big meetings or anything. I think it was pretty much assumed I would come and just kind of start working there and just kind of ease in and then just slowly, kind of, you know, get my feet wet and then just take on a larger role as we, we both got more comfortable with it. So I don't, you know, I don't think it was a big, a big thing.
Speaker 4:I think it was more just an understanding, like, okay, when you're done, just come out here and help me out.
Speaker 2:You know kind of place to work a place to keep doing my time to get to seeing patients, you know. So was it intimidating walking into his, his clientele, knowing how much they love this guy, I mean. And and now they got the punk kid coming in fresh off the boat. Michael's no punk, well, I know, but from their point of view, the young whippersnapper coming in there and Dr Mraz ain't going to see him anymore, it's Dr Michael now, or?
Speaker 3:did you start with your own?
Speaker 2:clientele. No, that had to be kind of a transition right. That was something that you guys did.
Speaker 4:It has to be. People are used to a certain protocol in any medical or dental office setting and you change it, yeah, but the fact of the matter is Michael's an outstanding dentist. He came with the skills and the personality to take care of the patients we had. People love him. They thank me all the time. You've got a good son there and I appreciate that that he was able to transition into that role where he's the head man here.
Speaker 3:Right, and I would imagine at that point you had been doing dentistry for so long. You were probably getting towards the end of your term, right, and kind of relieved that you had a knight in shining armor.
Speaker 1:Well, I think what helped with that aspect of it was because I did go to the military and so I had three years. I basically had a three-year. In medicine they call it a residency. Like you know, you go to medical school, but you still have to do your residency, and that's where you get your chops, that's where you actually see patients, that's where you make your mistakes, unfortunately, and you learn, you know. So I was practicing as a dentist for three plus years. I had I worked in a clinic that had 15 dentists, had all these specialists. We all shared an office together, so I mean I can literally come and like, pull someone, like hey, what do you think of this? You know, and I had these colonels. These guys have been dentists for 20, 30 years, and so I learned a lot in the Army just about being a dentist.
Speaker 2:And you know, know, because when you go through school, you know, you know, you always joke that you know, they teach you just enough, just enough like to get, but you don't know anything. You don't know a lot, you know right.
Speaker 1:When you come out, just enough to kind of get through and get in trouble, but you gotta still learn, you know you still have to practice. That's a joke. That's why I say practice dentistry, you know, because you're still always learning. And so, had I not done that, I always. I think we've talked about it like if I just came in out of school, you would have not.
Speaker 1:I think that transition would have been much different, because because when I came in, you know that you know dad's a dr moran's and so it's like, well, we can't both be dr moran's, but I was dr moran's in the army for three and a half years like. So I was comfortable being dr mor rens, but so I took on dr michael when he kind of came in, but but I had just more confidence and more, you know, comfort, a comfort level, you know, and I think you know he that's probably good too, because I'm sure he didn't want to correct any mistakes that I would have made or things that you know that could have came up. Um, you know, and, and good thing, the military is a good place to just just expand your knowledge and, you know, gain mentorship and everything. So I think it worked out exactly how it should have, you know. So that transition was a lot smoother just for that reason because I already was comfortable, you know, with myself as a dentist, you know, as opposed to like I didn't, I didn't feel like he was overshadowing me so much where I was nervous to cause you had your own identity at that point right, you were ready to kind of put your own stamp right, right at a different level of confidence, you know pretty smooth transition, I think
Speaker 3:yeah, so like, because so you said like you were talking about how you had already been practicing dentistry, but you did.
Speaker 2:You know how to run a business right so there's you've got that kind of learning curve as well, so how did that thing right?
Speaker 3:it's uh how did that?
Speaker 2:happen production and then actually turning a profit.
Speaker 3:That's still that's still happening, right now I don't know if it's happened yet if the light bulbs turn on, like exactly how it's happening, you, but I mean you have the staff right Once you guys started saying, okay, you know dad's going to start, you know working a little less here and there, and so you said the staff's starting to see you as the Dr Mraz taking over the business right. So you've had that transition as well.
Speaker 1:Well, we had. So I came on in 2018 when I got out at the end of 2018, when I got out of active duty, started working, and then we had an agreement at the beginning of 2020 that we were going to make the transition and I was going to like basically take over, you know, and kind of do everything.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you remember about 2020, but about march of 2020 is when covid happened, and so that was the first year where I was supposed to be the guy and all the decisions were going to come on me, and then, the middle of March, everything, everything shut down, and especially dental offices.
Speaker 2:They said you are not allowed.
Speaker 1:California was one of the worst offenders and they said don't see anybody, lock the door and we'll tell you when to open it. And we don't know when, we don't know when you're supposed to open it. But nobody knew. Nobody knew what this thing was. There was this whole like scare of Dennis, because this illness is a respiratory illness. We work in the mouths and we have a high-speed hand. We have this suction and spit flying around everywhere and this thing is in people's mouths and it could kill you if you're exposed to it. Yeah, you know, and so nobody knew. So nobody knew that, and so that was like trial by fire that year, starting a business.
Speaker 3:I remember that year we were using all your N45 masks because we had to use those at the dentist.
Speaker 2:We had to get the masks from you guys that even be working in the office.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, and so I mean that's. That was the first time where I was I felt more responsible of taking over the business and and dental school. They, you know you pay all this money for an education. They don't have any business classes in dental school. They don't teach you.
Speaker 2:You come into this thing not knowing what top line revenue and bottom line revenue is. You don't know how to balance.
Speaker 1:You need to do a spreadsheet and balance all your bills versus costs and I don't know if you absolutely need to know every little detail like that. Luckily for both of us me and dad we had mom was our saving grace with that. She knew the books and she balanced everything. She's double checking on everything you know and she's making sure all the bills are paid. You know, that was both of our safety nets, because all we know how to do is work on teeth, you know, and everything else you know it. Just, we put out fires as they come up. You know, we try and figure stuff out. But you, you know, in in a professional, in a professional environment like that, you gotta have support. You gotta have people got your back, people who know what they're doing. You know especially that you've got to have support. You've got to have people at your back, people who know what they're doing. Especially that year that was such a whirlwind of a year.
Speaker 2:A year of change for everybody.
Speaker 1:that year, For both of us. She's constantly been there helping guide through those storms and everything.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely, wow. Well, covid, your first year, huh.
Speaker 3:Your dad got sick.
Speaker 2:He got sick With COVID. No, oh, with surgery. Oh, that's right.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:You want to hear that I mean that's kind of a downer story.
Speaker 3:No, I think, I think, no, no, no, no, because he's great now.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:He's better than before, that's right, but I mean that took a play into not early retirement, but you know, working less you had to take care of your health.
Speaker 4:Yeah, obviously I needed to take a rest from what I was doing, but again, the fact of the matter is that I had somebody here that was ready to take over the burden. Sure, that's what being self-employed is.
Speaker 4:It's a burden, but it's a burden with benefits oh yeah you're working I think bobby said it, and the first podcast that you're working for yourself. Now you may spend, you know, 20 hours every day working for your business, but it's your business, it's your baby and you're going to do as much as you can to make that business, yeah, you're responsible for.
Speaker 3:Not only are you responsible for the health of your clients, you've got staff that rely on those paychecks, so you know it is a burden You've got labs that are expecting to be paid.
Speaker 4:Sure, you've got a landlord who still, you know, expects his, his pay, you know, for that building you're occupying something like you have all that on your shoulders, it becomes like I said, it becomes a very wearisome burden, but knowing that there's there's a payout, that's right. Right. You're going to benefit from all that, depending on how much you're going to work for that. It's all self-driven. It may be a leaking dinghy, but it's your dinghy.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 4:It's yours, you're going to sink or swim on your own and you're not looking to government paychecks or handouts. You've got to do it yourself, and that takes a special person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not easy, not for everybody. It's not for everybody.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was interesting. I listened to you guys' episode and one of the things I thought you know, you talk about entrepreneurship and you're saying anybody can do it and I was like, yeah, you know, anybody could do it. You know anybody can do it. And I was like, yeah, anybody could do it, Anybody can do it, but not everybody can do it. Not everybody can actually Not everybody should do it.
Speaker 2:It's a mentality it really is Once you take that leap of faith. When I was a 9 to 5 employee, I got off the clock on Friday. I didn't think about that office until Monday morning.
Speaker 1:I was like I don't care if something went wrong, that's not my problem.
Speaker 2:I'll deal with it when I'm on the clock Now. I mean, it never leaves you right, and you guys can probably test that it never leaves you. You're always thinking about how to better it, how to make it more profitable. It's just always something, and that's part of it. That's part of the entrepreneurial experience, and you've been doing it for 40 years, so it's got to be kind of a nice break to not have to, like this guy, handle all that stuff and you. He's coming to see the patients now, right?
Speaker 4:It's a real pleasure and a joy that Michael's that person. I love him, but he's a great doctor and he takes care of the people that we have in the practice. But it's a balancing act what you're talking about. You do have the responsibility of the business and it's a weighty responsibility on your shoulders. You're always worrying about something. There's something that you're taking home with you Always, every day, and the balance with your family, you know, with your husband or wife and the children if you have kids, Kids too.
Speaker 3:It's a huge thing.
Speaker 4:You've got all these balls in the air. To me, it always comes back to having the support that you need to do that, and for me it was my wife.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 4:Michael's the same way. He's got a supportive, loving wife, some great kids and he can go home and see his little Noah and Nico and Jemmy and Juju. And that takes your mind to another place right now, instantly.
Speaker 2:It's like, yeah, that's where you reap the rewards of being an entrepreneur and the freedom that it gives you. Michael can take a day off and go to Jemmy's thing. That's the tradeoff. That's the tradeoff, right, there is that freedom. So, um, we're running up against time here, guys, so there's a couple questions we would always like to ask at the end. So for michael, since you're the main, you know the boss man. Now, where do you see the practice going? I mean, do you see yourself expanding? Do you like? What's the, what's the kind of the goal for for, uh, you know the business and uh, mor, family Dental in the next couple of years?
Speaker 1:That's a really good question. Yeah, that's a really good question.
Speaker 4:We only have the hard-hitting stuff here. Can I email you?
Speaker 2:back in a couple of weeks. I mean, you've got to have some idea, right? Yeah, it's tough.
Speaker 1:I've been a part of some coaching groups. I've had a lot of mentors and dentistry there's a lot of different avenues you can take. You know, um, I was having a conversation with mom the other day like we're kind of dinosaurs in the industry. Dentistry is being overrun by corporations, by big conglomerate corporations. They buy dental practices like ours. They come in the pacific dental services aspendale, they come in and they buy and they don't even change the name. Sometimes they'll just buy it and they'll keep the doctor and they'll just keep it running as usual. But they're behind the scenes and they're actually kind of making the making the decisions on um, everything, patient care and kind of policy and everything like that. So having an actual mom and pop family owned single doc practice is almost the way of the dinosaur you know, it's actually going, it's actually you won't really know unless you were in the industry.
Speaker 1:So it's actually yeah, it's actually all going towards corporate and so that's the transition we're in right now as an industry. And so for us trying to figure out you know I, you know I'm going to be a dentist. I tell patients all the time, you know the biggest thing, new patients like I want, I want someone who's going to be here. Everything is like yeah, I got four kids, I'm going to be here an all time I'm going to be my baby's one.
Speaker 4:You got 20 years you got at least 20 years, you know All right.
Speaker 1:So I mean, so I, you know, I don't, I think, working on it the last couple years, I know what I don't want. I don't want to conglomerate, I don't want to expand into this giant corporation. You know I don't want to kind of go down that path that it's currently going, you know, and get caught up in that corporate world.
Speaker 3:I think you lose touch with something and with your patients. You don't have the same burden on your shoulders but, it's kind of almost what's different.
Speaker 1:You know we're in health care, so you know they talk about HIPAA like the Hippocratic Oath. It's like do no harm to your patients. That's what the Hippocratic Oath is. And so we're there to take care of patients. We're there to serve the community, take care of people. You know we have bills and we have a. We have numbers and a bottom line we can look at.
Speaker 1:But a lot of the coaches, a lot of the people out there in the dental world, that's all they want to look at and that's all they want to talk about, and that's not what I want to do. That stuff doesn't really excite me. So I mean, I think, ultimately, growing at a healthy pace, keeping up with kind of the trends we have a lot of, we're blessed to have a lot of patients, and so some type of expansion is going to be in order, maybe bringing on another doctor. But it has to be the right doctor, you know it has to be the right person. You know very hesitant to just bring on.
Speaker 1:You know I don't want to grow just for the sake of growth. You know, just to. You know it's the common question they'll ask in, like the coaching groups Would you have, would you want to have a you know, $3 million practice that does all these numbers but your bills are 90% of that? Or would you rather have a small practice that does a lot less half a million dollars and you know your bills are 50% of that? You know you run your business a totally different way.
Speaker 1:You know. And so where do you want to go? You know, so I know where I don't want to go. I know I don't want to expand just for the sake of expanding, become busier. I know doctors who own five practices, 10 practices, you know, and a lot of them do okay, some of them do great, some of them not so good, and you're managing the people and you're managing a lot of different things, and so you're not a doctor and that's not what I, what I got into it for in the first place.
Speaker 1:You know, I just I'm real similar to dad. I just kind of want to show up and take care of my patients and do right by my, my patients who are there, and then go home to my family and you know, and make a decent living in the process. So I mean, um, yeah, I think some some type of growth is going to be warranted and healthy, just to keep up with the trends. But I don't see this massive. Yeah, I can see Mraz Family Dental popping up.
Speaker 2:You know five, ten different little shops all over the valley One in Palm Springs. That's not in the cards, yeah but I mean, I think you're right, you want to hit that balance you know there is some potential growth. But you know you don't want to overextend yourself and we've even worked with it at that point. So last couple questions here and we'll get out of here, dad, best business advice you've gotten over the years, the best business advice.
Speaker 3:I ain't got to think back for this one.
Speaker 4:Interesting question.
Speaker 3:Michael, you're going to be next the best business is pay yourself first. That was grandma, that was grandma. That's a grandma quote, right there.
Speaker 4:Pay yourself first, because if you're not paid then nobody eats Right. If you have to put off that bank loan just another five days, ten days a week a month, go ahead with a good conscience. And that was another thing your grandma, my mom, always expressed Pay your bills on time. She used to tell us that she enjoyed writing the checks out to the gas company, to the electric company, to the mortgage. She enjoyed that because they were getting paid and she had the money in the account to do that. That was satisfying. That was a very you know, peaceful feeling.
Speaker 4:It relieved that anxiety and the worry that you were taking care of business there. But remember to pay yourself first. Very good, Because it is your business, it is your practice. You know take care of your needs up front first. So best of the first.
Speaker 2:So best business, grandma strikes again.
Speaker 3:Well, she continuously said that you know she would got to keep 10% always Right.
Speaker 1:Michael, set aside Best business advice. I have two. They're kicking around in my head. That'll work. It's going to start with the end in mind. So you know, you steal that from me. Is that one of yours? Is that what you say? A lot? I do say that a lot.
Speaker 2:One of the yeah.
Speaker 1:So one of the exercises I've done is kind of your, you know your two, five, ten year kind of map and you write out where, exactly where, do you want your business and what do you want it to look like in two to. You know, at certain intervals, two years, you know two, at certain intervals two, two years, five years, 10 years, Um, and you'd be as specific as possible. You know, like, where's it going to be, what's it going to look like. You know as many things as you can, as you can imagine, and then, um, you just get very, very specific, because if you don't define your goals and you don't define what is basically, what do you want? You know it's like, what do you want? And it's not the same for everybody. Like, for me, I don't want the same thing as a lot of others. I don't want to own a lot of dental offices, I don't want to make a ton of money, I want to, you know, have a healthy business and I want to have enough time to be with my kids and live a comfortable life and take care of my family, like that's pretty much it, you know. So you start with that in mind and then you reverse, engineer everything from that, you know, and that's constantly going to evolve and change as you go. And you can do this every year and you can do it with the big stuff, but you can also do it with the little stuff too. You can also do the stuff in your business and in your practice. Like, I'm going to start this little side venture, I'm going to do this. What does that look like? You know, it doesn't have to be these big, glamorous things, so that's always really helpful to kind of have that mindset.
Speaker 1:And then the other one is just find good mentors. You know, just latch on to certain people, and one of the things I've realized being in dental is there's a lot of people who will tell you what to do. There's a lot of people who are going to offer up information. There's a lot of podcasts. There's dental podcasts. You can start a dental office from podcasts. You can go on a podcast and they'll tell you exactly everything that you should be doing in your dental practice and, I'm sure, plenty of other industries too.
Speaker 1:But what I mean by finding a mentor is find one mentor, you know, find one person, maybe two max, because a lot of times what happened with me is. I had all these people kind of in my ear telling me certain things like you need to work on this and you need to do on this, and the next month I'm going to meet with this person, I'm going to work on this, and then you get so jumbled up and all of that information you don't actually move on a lot of it because now you have all these certain things. And so what's been more successful for me these last couple of years? I have one person that I meet with and they're knowledgeable about everything in the industry, not super specific, but just overall, you know, and they can point me in the right direction. And if they don't know, they can hook me up with somebody else who can help me with that problem.
Speaker 1:And that for me has been much easier to focus and kind of because when you have too many cooks in the kitchen, you know they call it, you know, paralysis by analysis. There's so much and you can't make decisions and you can't really, so so, narrowing that down, just a couple voices, you know, in the room, um, and they're not always right, you know. That's why you have to find a good mentor and you don't. I'm not the guy I have, I'm not gonna do it. You know, he tells me and I'm like okay, I may or may not do that, you know, we'll see, you know. But I mean, I hear you, I hear what you're saying, I'll take it into consideration. Thanks for weighing the pros and cons. For me, that's just been much more beneficial for me because it just allows me to focus and really you just start to gain traction that way. It just simplifies things a lot more.
Speaker 2:Excellent advice. Last question, dad Worst advice, worst business advice you've ever gotten?
Speaker 4:Let's see the worst. It probably had to do with an investment in a very well-known financial.
Speaker 3:I thought you were going to say the partnership oh losing the coin.
Speaker 4:Taz partnership oh losing the coin toss Actually winning the coin toss.
Speaker 1:Agreeing to do the coin toss. Yeah, agreeing to do the coin toss.
Speaker 4:Was that the worst advice you took? Well, you know, it changed people's lives, changed our lives. It changed my partner's lives because he moved down to Desert Hot Springs and relocated to practice. We still had a covenant not to compete, which was a 20-mile covenant, and that wasn't far enough that he was able to practice. Yeah, and we both benefited from that Bottom line. We both did. He got a new office. I took the one here in Indio, so that wasn't too bad. Anyway, I lost my train of thought.
Speaker 2:So that's the worst piece of business advice you've ever heard.
Speaker 4:It's got a rank up there.
Speaker 2:It's a top five. It's a contender, michael's a top five, it's a contender. There you go, it's a contender, michael, where's the business advice you've gotten? I know you've gotten some bad advice. I sure have. I get bad advice all the time. You get bad advice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we try to think Do you get bad advice? The jury's still out. You know, I I don't even think so. This is a little more specific. But for for us, um, you know, I've had a lot of people really push us to to get on social media and really, like me, the gary v's of the world, really really get a presence out there and really kind of put you know, promote yourself and and it's industry specific right, if you're starting a brand new business, you're starting a coffee shop, you gotta be on, so you gotta be on tiktok you gotta be doing stuff consumer based you're going directly to consumer.
Speaker 1:You have to, you know. But or a dental office, you know, or a professional office. You know I'm for I I like to keep a level of professional. You know patients are going to kind of respect us and everything. If I'm there doing dances on like social media and stuff like that.
Speaker 4:It's like you don't need your dentist to be lip-syncing a song. It's fine, no, I?
Speaker 2:have I have friends, I got a good buddy who's always dancing on instagram.
Speaker 1:He's, he's awesome, like he's.
Speaker 1:But for us as a business, you know, I don't think that's helpful for us, but mainly because we're already established you know we have our clientele, you know, but we don't, we don't need to, to kind of be that if we were to do marketing and kind of get out there, you know, it would probably even be more focused. Anyways, you know, and you know, we're going to practice what we always do and be safe. We've had these precautions that protect us and do all these things. We treat patients very sterile environment, anyways, right and so, um, you know, but it is more, it's more just to be, you know, it's more of a lesson, just to be, um, just to take ownership of your bit.
Speaker 1:You know, don't, don't, just don't just close your doors just because somebody all of a sudden says you know, like, this is, this is what we're gonna, this is what we're gonna. There was, there was never any mandate. There's never any California mandate to actually close.
Speaker 2:There was no policeman checking to see if you guys were not taking patients. It wasn't even well. We were essential workers.
Speaker 1:We were, for sure, essential workers, so there was never a mandated. There was guidelines like only emergencies, type things. But it was more just, kind of just not just accept that information, not just take it and accept it and say, all right, we're closing, like let's critically look at this and actually figure out. You know, and that's, that's what we ended up doing, we closed for about four weeks. You know, we did what we were supposed to. Then we started to see emergency patients, but it was more just a lesson and like hey, let's not just automatically shut, you know, at the blink, at the drop of a hat right, like let's let let this play out, let's see what's going on, let's be smart.
Speaker 2:Let's do some more information before we start taking people's livelihoods Right.
Speaker 4:And the fact that people could die from an infected tooth. You'd think that'd be an impossibility in this day and age, but it's still a real possibility.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 4:Once that infection crosses a certain point in the throat and mouth, it shuts off the airway, you can't breathe anymore and it kills you. So for us to lock our doors, knowing that this is a reality of a dental infection, Knowing that this is a reality of a dental infection, that it can cross a midline and shut off the esophagus and somebody's airway. We couldn't do that.
Speaker 1:Wasn't an option. Well, that's not what we signed up for. We're going to see patients who have the flu. We're going to see patients who are sick because they need to see us right. So COVID is no different. We're still going to take patients in. We're going to wear our precautions and be safe and do everything we need to do, but this is the industry we're in healthcare.
Speaker 2:You guys are safer than anybody, because you'd already been dealing with flus and colds all these years.
Speaker 4:Right, we treat patients as if they're in landmines of infection. We glove up, we put the mask, on safety goggles, we protect our staffs and we protect ourselves from a possibility of an infectious disease. We've always done that.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I mean, I don't know if that I wouldn't say, you know, that was just an experience, just a learning experience, like, hey, let's you, you know, let's take ownership of the business and let's uh, let's make an informed decision, but not drop everything at the drop of a hat, you know, like we're more important than that.
Speaker 2:This is, you know yeah, this is a met. Yeah, this is a situation, right, even like people don't think it, but, but it can happen, right?
Speaker 1:right and so that you know and they're, you know they're. Nobody knew what was right and wrong, and so it was just more just a lesson to be learned. Right kind of situation, amen.
Speaker 2:Thanks for coming in, guys. This was fun. Yeah, appreciate you coming in. I like to get the insight of you know how stuff really goes down in your guys' office. Thanks for listening everybody. Where can people find you, michael, if they want to get in touch with the office, maybe they're looking for a new dentist.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we're right on 111 in Jefferson, right across from Shields. There's probably about four other dentists right in that same area, so it's Dr Mraz M-E-R-A-Z. The DBA says Super Smiles is the office. Yeah, so if you Google Super Smiles, Dr Mraz Indio, It'll come up.
Speaker 2:It'll all pop up right there 40 years of being in the desert and helping the community the proof is in the pudding on that. I don't even think you guys need to sell it. So thanks for coming in.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. We appreciate your time.
Speaker 2:And, as always, like share and subscribe and we'll talk to you guys next time.