Welcome to the shared practices podcast.

I am joined today by a doctor who has been part of shared practices in our world for a little while now, two and a half years.

And I'm excited to get to know his story before and while he's been in practice ownership.

But first, if anyone's wondering, he's not

being held hostage in a Middle Eastern dungeon. This is the attic of your dental practice. Is that

where you are? This was a storage space that we converted to the doctor nook, if you will. So we

have three computers now and we have a space for doctors to do their notes. And it's great because every time we interview an associate, I get to bring them up here. And that's immediately when they say, well, this might not be for me. So it's a good gauge of, hey, is this going to be a good fit or not for you? Are they high maintenance? If they're okay with this being their office, then they're a good fit. Right, right. Welcome to the show, Austin. I appreciate your willingness to hop on and share. Yeah, thanks for, Richard. I'm glad to be here. I've been to SB for a couple of years now. So we've had a lot of success because of you guys, so I'm glad to be here. So tell us a little bit about yourself, about where you're practicing and your journey to practice ownership. we bought this practice about two and a half years ago.

So when I graduated down school in 2018, I did the old military thing. So the HPSP, went to the Army.

Did my four years. Had a great time. Met some great people. Learned a lot. But didn't do a day more,

didn't do a day less. Did my four years. And then I transitioned out, found this practice. What brought us to East Tennessee, so my wife, she's also dentist. We met in dental school. She was very clear when we met that she would follow me for the Army period, but as soon as the Army was over, East Tennessee was where we were going to establish our home base and our family. So I was totally on board with that because I wanted her to marry me. I'd never been to East Tennessee, so I didn't know anything about anything. So I was like, yeah, sure. That's how I found my way out here. I was very clear with my wife, Whitney, that I was very passionately wanting to be an owner at some point, ideally sooner than later. She's an amazing person, amazing wife, and she's always let me just chase those trains. Did you already say where in the army you ended up going? Where did she have to go? Well, so she was still in dental school, so we were, it was a long distance, you know, situation. They stationed me in Fort Leonardwood, so hardly anyone would.

Yeah, exactly. So they told me I channeled the world and I went to Missouri and never left.

All four years? All four years. And then COVID happened. So, yeah, no, nothing. I just sat there and did my thing. But I honestly had a great time. I learned a lot, met a lot of great people.

It's not a desirable location. So anyone that's not military background or understand how that,

you know, different. Some bases are more desirable.

Poverid. This is not a coveted one. And nobody wants this one.

Well, and some of them, it's hard to moonlight even. It's hard to, like, get private practice experience on the side or during the weekends or holidays. And if I remember correctly, there is some opportunity there, but it's not abundant. Yeah, and I was able to moonlight, which was fortunate. Again, when COVID happened, everything kind of got crazy. So I was able to do some of that, but that's where they put me. That's where I did my four years.

At that point, did you find the practice straight out of the Army?

Did you transition out and buy, or did you have a period in between?

No period in between.

So that last year of the Army did a lot of just legwork, and it feels so long ago. It wasn't that long ago, but it feels so long ago now. A lot of just legwork and it feels so long ago it wasn't that long ago but it feels so long

ago now a lot of phone calls a lot of mailers a lot of things that i pulled from the s p

podcast on how to try to find a practice just getting the feelers out there and then just

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