Dr James, 1m 15s:

How's it going, James? Going going good, mate. Going good. It's a little bit of a change of scenery today, now that we've got our for our own professional studio when it comes to the podcast, which was a long time coming, just the five years of my life to get to this stage. But yeah, no looking back, my friend. And it's really cool to be sat on the other side of the chair today, which is why I wanted to bring you Aaron. So I'm the interviewee today, and you're the interviewer, so to speak. But I know that the audience, I think there's a lot of people out there who've yet to meet you, Aaron, so maybe that could be a good place to start. As ever, you can claim your CPD for this episode within the official Dentists Who Invest Smart Money Members Club. Smart Money Members Club also includes multiple mini courses and webinar series on finance for dentists, including how to become as tax efficient as possible, as well as understanding investing. All of this content counts as verifiable CPD, and you can download your certificates there and then upon completion of each lesson. In addition to this, we also include a whopping 10% discount on your dental indemnity and a 5% discount on lab bills for dental principals, amongst other perks and discounts for members. Please use the link in the description to claim your verifiable CPD for this episode.

Aaron, 2m 28s:

Yeah, sure. Just a little bit of background. So been a dentist for about seven years. Three years. We just picked up the phone about something random, didn't we? Yeah, yeah. It was uh yeah, I can't remember what it was. I think it was to do with maybe something to do with dentist to invest. I've been I've been involved in the group probably since roughly when you started it, I'd say, like 2020 time. I think um wish I had followed the advice then, I'd be in a much better position now. But uh there's still time. There's still time, yeah. Never too late, never too late. That's the that's the best thing about investing in finance, right? Um, but essentially, yeah, um obviously come on board with you. I think we we grabbed uh a drink, and obviously we're big Arsenal fans, aren't we? Both of us.

Dr James, 3m 26s:

Uh and I think I I think gave you a ticket to go to the game, and then from then we just yeah, we got talking because I obviously with Dennis Who Invest, for those who don't know, we actually have an events arm of Dennis Who Invest now, and that's business of dentistry. And one of your main roles, Aaron, is coordinating the events alongside a few other things as well. It's fair to say, and we we I was like, okay, I'm interested in I really need this person. Who could it be? Who could it be? Who could it be? And then we picked up the phone about something random, didn't we? And it was about uh I can't even remember what it was about. I just think I just called you up to just to say hello.

Aaron, 3m 56s:

Yeah, yeah, it was, yeah. It was typical of the way the universe works like that, right? Serendipity. Yeah, it's like I was thinking about Dentists and Invest and I was like interested, and I was like, oh okay, what's James up to? And then you and then you just randomly called me, and I was like, oh, this has got to be a sign, right? Like I've gotta take this call. That is that is can't screen this one, man. Have to take this call. But but then obviously we met in London. Um so it'd be good to know actually, like, you know, when when did you move to London and what was it and what was the thought process behind that decision?

Dr James, 4m 20s:

Yeah, well, you know, another reason I thought it would be fun to do a podcast the kind of other way around today was I haven't done a podcast like this for a little while where maybe I'm just speaking about the community and what's been happening and what's currently going on and what the future holds. So that's a really relevant question because for those who don't know, I was living in various different countries across the world, uh Middle East for a little while, lived in France for a little while, lived in Berlin for a little bit too, and that was fun. That had a lot of merits and had a lot of perks, and things are going well. And I I I had this to to to paint the picture. I basically about a year and a half ago, yeah, not even a year and a half ago, maybe just about 12 months ago, I had this back catalogue of people that I wanted to meet because I just met all these people through Dennis who invests, and we got talking to each other, and a lot of them lived in London. And I always remember I kept saying these people like, Oh, next time I'm in London, I'm gonna see you, I'm gonna see you, I'm gonna see you. And a lot of these were really interesting people, they'd achieved a lot in their respective areas. They're people that I felt like I could learn from, and yeah, Zoom is great, and you can get really far on Zoom, but there's a lot to be said for just meeting someone in real life and spending some time with them. I think you get more of their time and more of their attention and their focus whenever that happens, and you seem to get more out of them as well. And I'm a big believer in that, but that was a belief that I held back then. I thought Zoom was just as good as as good as being there, IRL, so to speak. But anyway, I had this big this this list of people that I wanted to meet when I was in London, and one of them was this chap, and he uh is really successful. Some people might even know him uh who are listening to this podcast. I I describe him as analogous to Stephen Bartlett, maybe not quite on that level, because Stephen Bartlett is very famous, isn't he, globally? Uh, but definitely on his way to getting there and on a good trajectory. And this chap, he was I think he had a business exit of maybe 30 something million when he was like 28, so he knows a thing or two about companies and uh online businesses and everything along those lines. And we went to London and we we went for a walk around Tower Bridge in the city of London and we were talking, we spent like two hours together, and I remember I asked him this question, and I I said to him, I said, Hey, do you know what? If you were to attribute, you know, you know, not saying that you you're not you're not going around saying that you're successful or anything like that, but let's say you have achieved some modicum of success, where would you say that's come from? If you were to attribute the reasons why that's happened, uh, you know, to anything, what would it be? And I always remember he said to me, James, you know, the number one thing was flipping being in London. He said that was the number one thing in his opinion, and that reason was the people that he met, the conversations that he had, the ideas that came his way, and that actually just really resonated with me because during that week that I just happened to be in London, I spent in London meeting all of these people and just switching it up because I was living in Berlin at the time. The uh the the ideas that came to me, the conversations that I had, the people that I met, it was crazy. And the math that I did in my head was I was like, I just want to be here, I just need to be here. Uh and yeah, I just went for it. I was like, okay, let me see how this goes. Uh, went and found a place that I booked for about two months because I was like, okay, if I'm gonna do this, let's give it a right go. And again, those two months, things just absolutely flew, and progress was made in a lot of areas. Roadblocks that I had, the the I seemed to get solutions to them. Conversations that I had, people that I met seemed to be able to really push everything forwards with regards to Dennis who invest and all the other things that I I wanted to do, being able to attend the physical events as well in the demosphere. I think there's a lot to be said for that. Yeah, yeah, that was an awakening for me. So I made the switch and I thought to myself, do you know what? If I'm really, really, really serious, which I am about growing this thing and taking it as far as I possibly can, making it as cool as I freaking um I'm able to, then if I'm really serious about that, it's not really so much about this digital entrepreneur's lifestyle where I'm living in all these different countries. Although I could choose to pursue that if I wished. If I am, if if that is my priority and if that was my priority, but for me, the priority was building something awesome and bigger than me, and something that's going to outlive me. So I was like, right, well, because I know I'm serious about that, let's go to London, let's move here, let's have some fun. And then all of a sudden, we're here in this recording studio, which has actually been I uh you know, this is in London as we speak right now. A big reason that enabled me to move up in the world and get the studio uh was the the people that I met and the you know the the opportunities I've been able to attract since I've been here. So I'm one of those people you meet, okay, and I'm not in London by default because I feel like I'm forced to be. I'm in London because I want to be. Yeah, uh, I think that it is uh really, really, really something that we should appreciate. Who are uh us Brits, the fact that we have this company this this amazing city on our doorstep, and I almost didn't take it seriously for such a long time because it didn't feel that exotic to me and it didn't feel that fun to me. But yeah, that's what I've been up to, man. That was uh that was that was that was the last 12 months in a nutshell and plenty more on the horizon, let's just say that. But we'll come to that in due course, I'm sure.

Aaron, 9m 29s:

Yeah, no, definitely. That's I mean that's uh it's a great explanation, obviously, as to why you chose here as opposed to anywhere else, right? Um in you know, one question I want to ask from that is what would you say your best experience has been since you've been here, um either professionally or personally?

Dr James, 9m 44s:

I think oh good, good question. You know, it's difficult to pick one. Uh, but what I would say from the point of view of Dennis who invest and me being able to move things forwards, if I was to kind of distill it down maybe into a few things that I've noticed, I think being able to attend uh events with individuals who are relevant to your industry and your path and your goal in life, the people that you brush shoulders with and the people that you get introduced to and the opportunities that come off the back of that, that's been massive. Didn't necessarily benefit from that as much when I was in other countries. I think that's that's huge. So definitely new contacts uh and welcoming those into your your your your sphere. I know people throw around that network is your net worth thing, and it's a little bit trite, but I definitely think it's true. Well, you know, on that, actually, yes, just just thing you mentioned that.

Aaron, 10m 36s:

So you talk about networking, and I wanted to ask a question around this. So for some of maybe the let's say young younger listeners um and people who maybe are just exploring their their world and dentistry or even just business in general who are listening to this, like what would your advice be for them if maybe they're a bit, I'd say, shy or they're a bit apprehensive to maybe just get out and go to that show or you know, pick up the phone, right? I think everything's online, everything a lot of things are online now. Social media, messaging, you know, we do Zoom calls, we do LinkedIn. But what would be your advice to someone who is maybe thinking about putting themselves out there, you know, but haven't actually had the like let's say the courage to do it just yet because they're a little bit worried. You know what?

Dr James, 11m 12s:

It's a great question, and I think that starts. There's there's a few practical tips that I have, but I think it starts with reframing what fear is. I think fear is our brain just trying to keep us where we are, it's telling us that it's uncertain about the unknown and that that may pose some sort of end you know risk to us as an entity. But I guess once you know what fear is and once you label it, you can then start to think to yourself, do you know what? Now that I know what that is, rather than it just being some sort of subconscious, unpleasant feeling, is that actually valid or is it not? Like a lot of these emotions and a lot of these survival instincts evolved whenever we were cavemen. Are you with me? And we still carry them to this day. The fear served to keep you alive, the fear served to stop you poking and prodding the bush that there might have been a snake in or a predator, right? Or why are we scared of the dark? Because we don't know what's in there, right? You know, back in the day, nocturnal creatures hunted and killed us, right? Yeah. You know, I read something really interesting, right? And um, have you ever noticed, and I I experienced this and I've always noticed this, but I've never really I've never thought about it and I've never known why. You know, when you hear the rain outside and it soothes you, do you know the evolutionary reason why that's the case? Okay, so basically, when it rained back in the day when we were cavemen and we were all in our caves, right, the predators just didn't come out. Oh, really? Yeah, because they don't want to get cold, they don't want to get wet, right? They might die as well, you know, they might perish. Yeah. So basically, when we were cavemen and cavemen, if we knew it was rain outside, right? Yeah, and if we could hear it raining outside, that soothed us and allowed us to get a really good night's sleep. That's the reason why. Supposedly, listen, no one really knows these things, right? But it's a plausible evolutionary basis for that reaction that we hear in our bodies that we observe in our bodies. That's super interesting.

Aaron, 13m 1s:

Isn't that crazy? Yeah, I mean, like now I know why my dog refuses to go out in the rain. This is amazing.

Dr James, 13m 5s:

Oh, they well, yeah. Well, this is it. There you go. And I don't, you're quite right. That's absolutely spot on, right? Because those predators back, I know we're going like a little bit off piste here, right? But it's relevant, you know, it's knowing these things a lot, and we're like laughing at how like almost like crazy that is, right? But a lot of these subconscious drives still drive our behavior to this day. Yeah. Um, there's another one that you know when you look at a fire, everybody's had an op everybody's seen an open fire in their life, right? And they find that soothing, okay. So the reason supposedly that that is the case with us humans is because we've been evolutionary, evolutionarily had a selective pressure to be comforted whenever we see fire. And the reason is that back in the day when we were cavemen and women, okay, we were all sat around the fire. We basically knew we were with our tribe, yeah, right? We were safe, yeah, because there was loads of people there who had our back. Okay, there was some good food about to come our way as well. We were warm, that was telling our brain chill, switch off, relax, okay, get some rest again. Yeah. And people were selectively bred towards having that instinct whenever they saw fire, because those are the ones who weren't scared of fire, those were the ones who knew that fire represented safety and allowed them to rest better and be safer, basically. So they were more likely to survive and pass on their genes because they weren't scared of fire, they weren't running away, they weren't traumatized by it, they weren't scared of it. Are you with me? Um so those things, those things still live in our head, those are two things that our people can relate to, right? And fear, whether it's a uh inverted commas positive emotion or negative emotion, right? Fear is another representation of that. You've just been conditioned to think that way, but does it actually serve you, right? What are you scared of, you know? And I'm listening I'm not saying I'm the grandmaster of it, I'm not saying anything. I'm just saying that I feel lucky that I guess I was able at some point to some to some degree uh reframe that as something that even though on the surf the the the surface of it is supposedly something that is there to keep you safe, it's actually kind of keeping you where you are in a way. So I guess what I'm saying is ask why you feel that way, yeah. And ask is it truly serving you relative to your goal and to your objective? But anyway, just to make that a little bit more tangible. So I think in certain situations, whenever you hear that or whenever you feel that emotion, you have to just ask yourself, okay, cool, I feel this way, but why? And is that actually useful or is it not? And the second you're like, mmm, actually, it's probably not, because it's probably holding me back from talking to that person or putting out that piece of content or doing that thing, which is more likely to make me successful, if my goal is to be uh, well, whatever it is, you have to decide what your goal is first, right? Because everything's only relative to that. But let's say your goal is to be more to start a business, okay? Let's say your goal is to get yourself out there more, okay. Then you've got to really ignore that feeling, right? In fact, let's just use that as the example of the objective that perhaps people hold who are listening to that podcast. It may or may not be that, but we have to start somewhere. There has to be something that we navigate towards, yeah. So let's use that as an example, okay? So, in my opinion, then actually you've got to ignore that feeling. You've got to go do the do the thing and talk to that person. And you know what I really noticed? I really noticed that the more content I made, I became better. If you listen to my first podcast, go listen to my first 50 podcasts. Okay, I used to edit out the ums and uhs, and I'm sure they still happen, I'm sure they're still in there, but I'm sure I still do it without even realizing, even to this day. But I remember around about episode 60, that just seemed to happen so much less. And I remember looking at it because I remember being like, hmm, what episode are we on exactly? And I noticed that I do this way less, and that was about episode 60. And then of course I still wasn't perfect at that stage, but it gradually became less and less and less, and I'm sure I still do it nowadays, right? But I feel like that improvement of that ability to be able to communicate and talk removed a lot of that fear and anxiety around making making people meeting people and talking to people. And I also think it removed a lot of the fear and anxiety around the number one fear that human beings hold.

Aaron, 17m 4s:

Yeah, no.

Dr James, 17m 5s:

Do you know what that is?

Aaron, 17m 6s:

No, what it is. What is it?

Dr James, 17m 7s:

Okay, I'll tell you what the number two fear is. The number two fear is death itself. Uh-huh. The number one fear, according to the surveys, according to the science, I'd I'd have to I I can't quote a specific one, but so people tell me. Yeah. Uh number one is public speaking. Oh wow.

Aaron, 17m 20s:

Okay, that makes sense.

Dr James, 17m 21s:

So, in other words, most people would rather be dead than public speak, right? They of those, if if those were the two options, you know, they'd rather end their existence on this earth versus getting on stage. And again, that is another magnificent way to generate opportunities for yourself if you're willing to get on stage.

Aaron, 17m 37s:

Um just quickly on that, you mentioned reframing, right? I think that's that's the really big thing about reframing what that emotion is. I was um I was listening to Tom Hilliston talk about obviously he's a famous actor if people don't know, and he was talking about how the your body really kind of releases the same sort of kind of internal reaction, whether you're fear, sorry, whether you're scared or you're excited, right? And he just said, you know, so I choose to say that I'm excited, basically. So, you know, I'm not scared of doing these lines or scared of you know this this opportunity or this test or this exam or this driving test. I'm excited to do it. And just that reframing of that in his mind, he said, you know, really changed kind of the outcomes of what he did, you know. So it kind of, yeah, what you're saying is is true, right? Fear is just it doesn't exist really, it's just how we reframe it, really.

Dr James, 18m 21s:

Well, it's it's an emotion, right? It's a construct in your head, right? But what it means is the part that you get to choose. But you know, again, I am so conscious that I've not even directly answered the question that you asked at the start, but the start, this this stuff is so interesting. I would actually take that one layer deeper, right? What feels good for most people, right? I mean, uh, and I still enjoy this to this day, I'm not hitting on this whatsoever, right? Sitting in front of the sofa, okay, watching TV and watching YouTube videos feels good, right? Okay, but that feels good. Therefore, most people frame that as something positive, right? But if you actually think about that, I would say that if your goal is to be a business person or push yourself forward financially, that that good feeling is actually the meaning that you should associate to that to some degree, okay, if you're doing it too much, is actually you should associate negativity with that good feeling because it's not actually taking you towards your goal, right? But for most people, the math in their head is I feel good, I want to keep doing this, right? But in that specific instance, the thing that feels bad, or the thing that most people a lot a lot of people are scared of, which is public speaking and doing all these things and putting themselves out there, right? Actually is a positive because it's taking you towards that. But to take it one layer deeper, the positive emotion can also be the negative sometimes as well. Are you with me? So this is the thing, you know, the meaning that you ascribe to these feelings in your head is the part that you get to choose. It's not, it's emotions are like tides, they come and go, right? Like you can't change it, you know what I mean? But what uh what significance you attach to it, that's the part that you get to choose. Yeah. So anyway, the when the the reason that we went into real depth on that one, because obviously to look back to the question that you were saying at the start is what can people do to how can I say this, uh, take positive steps towards their objectives, let's say of being more financially astute or getting themselves out there or whatever. I think it's so important to go into a lot of inf detail about that because that helped me so much. The day I figured that out, the day that I realize that actually no matter what emotion hits you, you actually shouldn't you can't fight the emotion, you can't feel good or inherently bad about fighting the emotion that pops into your head. The emotion just is right. The part that you get to choose is how you react to it. The pause, the thinking to yourself, right, I feel this way, therefore, what does that mean and how do I choose to react? That's the skill. That's the part that that really helped me the day I realized that that was a thing, the day that someone explained that to me. And then in terms of practical steps, honestly, just to go back to what I was saying a second ago, I think content really, really helped me in so many ways in my life. That that that put that's shooting the video and throwing it out there to the world. And I I I used to think about it a lot, like what will people do, what will people say, and I think that we often believe that there'll be a lot of negativity when that happens, and I'm sure that has happened at some stage. I'm sure there's some comments and some videos somewhere that probably that you know are people sharing their opinions, and maybe those would be uh can construed as negative. I I don't know. I don't I don't really look, I don't really think about it so much anymore. But what I do think about a lot and what I feel grateful for is all the good energy that came into my life because of that, and that's the part that I try to focus on. And I think that I'll make that trade all day long. If something is 98% positive, 2% negative, I'll make that trade all day long. And I think I think that until you're on the other side of that, you'll never fully uh I don't think I would have ever fully appreciated it, and I think that there's so many regard almost universally you know, universally you know, the content will help you based, you know, if someone if you're trying to do something or build something or create something, I think it's virtually almost universal that that will help you. Uh so that was a big one for me. I think that a huge one as well is and I know that it's easy to pay lip service to this, but I think we could all be better at it, and that obviously that includes me, that includes every human being who's ever walked in the face of this earth, excepting the fact that you may be wrong, yeah, right? Just accepting the fact that you may be wrong, or if you're doing a certain thing and it's getting a certain result and the result is not what you desire. I've seen so many people over the years who would be like, Oh, I'm unhappy about this, I'm unhappy about that, I'm unhappy about this outcome in my life, and then you're like, Sometimes you can even see the solution for them, and you're just like, Do you know if you literally just do this one thing that that will fix that? And in their head, they're and then then their outward reaction to you is nah, I don't fancy it, you know? And you're like, okay, cool. Well, I'm not saying I'm right and you're wrong, or you're wrong and I'm right, but like surely it's worth a go. But for a lot of people to confront the fact that they're they're not absolutely correct is too much for their ego to take, in my opinion. And I think that's a massive skill. I really do. I I don't think it's so much so much about being right continuously. I think it's so much I think people need to reframe and understand it's more about learning. Yeah. And if you make that the win, if you make the win learning. Then you're always winning, right? You're always learning. You're always learning not what to do. You're you're only you're only losing inverted commas when you're stagnant, right? You either win or you learn.

Aaron, 23m 23s:

Um it's the whole progress um and destination debate, right? About like, you know, are you obsessed with actually just getting there about the final goal, or actually have you decided that you're in love with the process about getting there? And actually, you know, the final goal is just a you know relation of that. And if you actually fall in love with doing the thing you're doing, whether it's making content or making educational content or like training or you know, like for example, like a new food channel you might have, right? The end goal is gonna come regardless because you're enjoying what you do. But if you're only ever focused on kind of the end goal, sometimes you kind of find yourself like, well, how do I get from A to B? It might be from like A to, for example, like E, but then what all the steps in between that I need to focus on, right? And if you don't enjoy those steps in the middle, you're never really gonna get to where you want to get to, right?

Dr James, 24m 8s:

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Aaron, 26m 43s:

Oh, about uh the process of the destination, right? So falling in love with the process, so like trusting trusting the process and actually um you know the things you do every day. So it's like the small boring things you do every day, right? Yeah, consistently, is what really builds success. Yeah, it's not the stuff that people see, like the high-level stuff, the flashy stuff.

Dr James, 27m 0s:

People see people see that stuff, but they don't see the it's just come back to me, it's just come back to me. So I just had literally a mind blank then. Okay, can we cut cut that in? Can we cut that in? Is that alright? Um great quote in what you've just said, Aaron. I love this. Someone's I heard this, someone say this a few months ago, and they said they was they were saying, I'm so glad that I didn't get in life what I thought I wanted. The reason is we come out of let's say, let's use dentistry for an example, and there's lots of people happy in dentistry. I'm definitely not critiquing that, you know. Um, I'm just saying there are but there's a lot of people who are discontent in dentistry at the same time as well, and I think that there's a lot of people if they could go back, they might have done something else, right? So, in other words, what I'm saying is that now they've made progress down that path, they've now got a new perspective that changes what they want in life. And my point is that a lot of people are in a place where they've got analysis paralysis, they've got indecision, they can't decide or pick a direction. And to me, the greatest thing you can do in that instance is to just pick any fragrance direction because at least you're mixing something up. And even if you decide you don't like that, you've learned that you don't like it. It's an option that you can now take off the table. And sometimes that journey takes sometimes the first thing you try, you flipping love. Okay, cool, great. Sometimes it takes you 10 years. Either one of those outcomes is more desirable to me than staying exactly where you are, which is completely stagnant. I just love that saying. I'm so glad that I got in life. I didn't get in life what I thought I wanted when I was younger. Yeah, bang. No, 100%.

Aaron, 28m 29s:

And I think that's the yeah, I think that's a good way to kind of move on to what you actually have right now, right? Which is um dentist who invest, which is something that you built from the ground up. I think it was about what six years ago, six years it's been now.

Dr James, 28m 41s:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me see. It was September 2020 when I made the Facebook community, and now we are in September 2026. So six years. There we are.

Aaron, 28m 53s:

And I think there's gonna be a lot of people obviously who've who know about what you do, they've engaged with your content since then. But probably my question would be for any um anyone who's maybe been a part of the group, let's say four years ago, and someone who's and that same person now who's a part of the group now, um, what's changed? So, you know, what's different in the group, and um, you know, like what what are the headline kind of points you want to make to anyone thinking about joining it?

Dr James, 29m 16s:

You know what? The very first thing I would say is when I started the community, honestly, I just thought to myself, do you know what? I think it would be really cool to have a forum where we can talk about these things, and it's ran by dentists. I made that, I started making content for it, started making YouTube videos, didn't know anything about internet marketing, didn't know anything about creating content, but just went for it and I was I was having fun, and I was in a place where I had this hiatus out of dentistry because I had this knee injury, so I literally had nothing better to do, and I was just like, I'm just gonna do this because I'm having fun, and it wasn't until even maybe a year later, I think, really, that I basically got in touch with someone who was a financial planner, and they were like, Hey James, you know you could you could potentially make this community on here which uh educates people, and you know, we could there could be content that it's possible for you to make CPD to around, and then you could have a uh program surrounding that, you know, that this could be much bigger than this. This could be a movement, you know, that this could be something that you can propel further and further from the point of view of it potentially being commercial, uh, and then that would actually enable it to be bigger and bigger and bigger because obviously you would have funds and revenue to be able to ply back into it. So it was only really then that I was like, hmm, this could actually maybe be a lot more than just a Facebook community, and where could this go? That was that was an epiphany for me, absolutely. Uh I I learned a lot along the way. Probably what people have seen change over the years is that we now obviously have a learning platform that people can join and be unsubscribed to, they get CBD as well to learn about finance, that Smart Money Members Club. We do have that available. In fact, it's actually mentioned on the podcast. That's really cool. That is that is that is definitely one of the flagship uh, I guess, methods that we use to disseminate financial information throughout the dental community. We also have a financial planning firm now, so we can actually help people invest their cash where that is appropriate for them, where that is something that's going to actually help. We can actually offer financial planning in-house as well as insurance, there's income protection and everything along those lines. Because a lot of the time, whenever you audit that, people could be saving money. You're when you have the opinion of somebody who's actually whole of market versus guided versus versus bonded to only recommend certain certain products. That is a massive thing that's really push the community forward as well because obviously that aligns with the goal and objective of the community, which is to make financial information as readily available to everybody and as many people as it possibly can, and obviously, of course, be independent too, massively important. And the third thing people have probably noticed, uh, which is only really something that we've actually started to push forwards with in the last 18 months, is that we do actually have an events brand now or an events trading style, and that's called Business of Dentistry. And the reason that we did that was because I still believe, and actually, not only do I still believe, I've actually had this belief reaffirmed to me and boosted over the years. There is a huge place for events in the dental community. Dentists like to get out and about, and also there is a huge or there was a huge opportunity or gap whenever it came to dentists learning about how to run their businesses effectively and be profitable and do it ethically. Yeah, so that was part of the thinking behind the Business of Dentistry Conference, which is something that we run every six months. So those are I've been a busy boy the last five years, you know. And um, if I could go back, I just really wish I learned more about running these things from the get-go. I had no real background in it because that would have pushed things forwards so much further, so much faster. But but just to jump in, just to finish that off, I'm not gonna let lament that too much. The right lessons present themselves to you at the right time, and I should be grateful really that I ever had the opportunity to learn them. Uh, because yeah, being sat here, it it's a lot of fun. I really enjoy doing this. We're doing this on a Saturday, just for everybody uh listening to the show. We do this at our at our free time because we choose to and because we find it fun. Yeah. So I guess those would be the biggest things that the audience will probably notice, Darren.

Aaron, 33m 20s:

Yeah, no, also I mean, I mean, um, you know, to just touch on that point you mentioned about you know, you wish you kind of had knew more before you started, right? I mean, that's always gonna be the case for a lot of people, right? Everyone wishes they knew more, but you mentioned something before that, which is that um if you haven't, if you kind of like have indecision about what you want to do, it's best to just pick something, do it, and figure out on the way, right, if you like it or not. And I think that's again how you build um a success success for yourself, you know. Um there's no one who's gonna be 100% successful in everything they do. So um yeah, I think the point is that you did it, you thought you wanted to do something, you've tried it, and I'm sure you've made mistakes along the way. Um, and then now you're at a position where I guess you're pretty happy with what we've got going on, right? Which is which is incredible. Um, and then moving kind of forward from that, you talked about your event. Um, so when is it? What what what's what's the what's the scope?

Dr James, 34m 8s:

Yeah, you know, I just wanted to say one quick thing. Have you ever seen that it's like a meme, right? I hope we're not uh alienating too many people who listen to this podcast, right? When I when I reference this meme, it's kind of like a bell curve, right? And you've got the the the normal IQ person in the middle, you've got the Jedi guy on the right hand side, and then you've got this rather unfortunate looking chap on the left hand side, and it it's uh that it's implied that that person isn't necessarily the cleverest, and it shows you the it'll the the the the title of the meme, it'll be uh some sort of question, and then it's it basically wants to point out, okay, that sometimes the low IQ move is actually the high IQ move, right? Yeah, okay. Hopefully, hopefully people, even if people didn't recognize the meme that I was talking about, just I think they know what you're talking about. Yeah, we've both seen it. We're millennials, right? We've always seen it, right? Maybe the Gen Z have seen it. Hey, maybe people who are older have seen it as well. I don't know. I don't want to speak out of time. But anyway, my point is I think I think um sometimes the more intelligent you are, you overcomplicate things, yeah. And I think that sometimes the the the the low IQ, easy, obvious thing to do is actually the Jedi play. Yeah. And I definitely think that that's what you were just what we were saying a second ago, with regards to just literally just picking something and doing it. It it resembles something that doesn't have that much thought behind it, right? But actually it's a very smart thing to do because you'll just learn something and you'll free yourself from that inertia rather than being overly analytical about our our past in life. And I think dentistry teaches us to be that way, and it works, it works in dentistry, it works whenever it comes to having protocols of doing work and it uh protocols to undertake procedures, but I just don't think it always applies to our life, and I I think there's a lot to be said for that. So, yeah, anyway, on that that was actually what led me to create the event basically because I thought to myself, I'm pretty sure this is a good idea. I want to see how it goes down. Let's just do it. I'm gonna have fun anyway. I'm gonna have a blast doing this. Yeah, so let's see what happens. The next event that we have coming up. So, well, let me let me let me set the scene first of all. So, our very first business dentist show event that was in October 2025. 250 dentists in a room, really pleased with it, seemed to go well. Yeah, I was there. It was a great, great show. That was uh that was again, that was how we got dude.

Aaron, 36m 23s:

That was before you came.

Dr James, 36m 24s:

Yeah, that's before you it's coming back to me now.

Aaron, 36m 27s:

That was it because we actually hadn't met properly in person yet, right? Yeah, and then I think we saw each other. I mean, I think we both were surprised of how tall both of us were. We were like, okay, actually we're both quite tall. Um, yeah, that was the first time we actually go, it's coming back to me.

Dr James, 36m 39s:

And again, serendipity, right? Being in rooms with people, okay. The the good energy in the seeds that you plant just from being around people, nuts, all right? And you gotta someone free someone phrased it to me in a way that I really liked the other day, and they were like they they said increase the surface area for luck in your life. How does that look? That looks like talking to people, that looks like leaving a good impression and good energy on people because they're more likely to want to help you at some stage. It's not why you do it, because if you if you let that be the reason why you do it, you're giving with expectation. Yeah, and then obviously, if you're giving with expectation, you're tapping your wrist like this, when's it going to come back to you? Which which it may not do. And then obviously you might uh hold ill will against someone for that. So you can't let that be the reason why you operate, but it you can let it be, you can uh let it be your philosophy in life. You you you you can you can give from the point of view with understanding that you're helping people and also that some of that will come back to you at some some stage, you just can't let it be the expectation, but anyway, um, because and that's that's another reason why I think there's a lot to be said for attending physical events and dentistry and just getting yourself out there with dentists and what have you. Yeah, but yes, so that was our first show, 250 dentists. That went so well, we were super thrilled with that. So we were like, okay, we've got to do V2. The next one we held was Business of Dennis Beyond the Chair. That was in May, that was on May the 9th, I believe. That was this year. 450 Dennis. And you can see a trajectory here, you can see a tangent, the numbers seem to be going up. Hopefully, that will continue. Touch wood, touch wid. The next one we have on 7th of November. The twist this time is that it's gonna be D'Entrepreneur's Den. Okay. And when I say D'Entrepreneur's Den, what I mean is that people will be pitching their startups on stage in front of a huge room full of Dennis. But of course, we're going to keep all the features of the previous events that Dennis seemed to know and love. In that we'll have people talking about business, people who've achieved phenomenal things whenever it comes to profitability, commerciality of their dental practice, and who are representative of our core ethics as well, who'll be speaking on stage, sharing their wisdom, sharing their knowledge, and uh some brave startup founders who wish to be part of that too, and an all-star panel of dragons, dental dragons, who a lot of people listening to this podcast will probably know and have come across. And I'm super excited to announce announce more about that in due course. I have announced it on the email list. Uh, I don't think it's it's probably the right thing to do to name drop people on a podcast today. Yeah. Uh, but uh yeah, super excited, mate. Unprecedented in dentistry, the entrepreneurs den.

Aaron, 39m 19s:

That's amazing. No, I mean, looking forward to it, right? It's gonna be uh it's gonna be an awesome show. I think it's gonna be something that's quite unique. Um what's uh you know, maybe a piece of advice you'd give to someone who, let's say, um is used to maybe more of the traditional shows, so you know, more of the trade shows. Um what can they expect that's gonna be different from a show like that?

Dr James, 39m 39s:

Interesting. You've actually made me reflect on this podcast, and I for for context, Aaron and I haven't scripted this, we just we're just literally just shooting, we're just shooting the breeze. But you know, a lot of the things that I said, I actually feel are a good energy to take into that event as well. Be open-minded, accept that you could be doing things better, we could all be doing things better. Yeah, and then when you're operating out of that energy, just come and absorb. And if someone's talking about how they've achieved this amazing thing in business, it doesn't mean you have to exactly emulate them because the formula that works for them is not gonna be the formula that works for you. You're a different person, you're good at certain things, they're good at certain things, fine. But what you can do is take little pearls of wisdom, bang, bang, bang, like this, okay. Uh, take those away, implement them into your own life for massive benefit. And I feel like looking at things through that lens or perspective has helped me a lot over the years, and I I just wish to advocate that. And that actually is the spirit of the day, I would say as well. Come and learn as much as you can, see it as a fun thing. It is supposed it is intended to be a fun thing. Yeah, use it as an opportunity for networking, be excited about uh the uh the the people that are gonna be in the room, the dragons as well, some really famous faces in there. That's what that's what I would say.

Aaron, 41m 2s:

Yeah, no, I mean I think probably the thing that I'm I'd say um I'm most excited for is to learn, and I've I've done this obviously now working with yourself, and we speak to a lot of people now, right? We speak to a lot of people who are doing some really cool, interesting, amazing things in dentistry. Um, and I think probably if I was someone who hadn't gone to an event like this before, I mean most people haven't, right? It's first for the UK, it's gonna be learning more about what people are doing in dentistry. You know, there's a lot of really smart, fun, cool people who are doing some really interesting things, um, whether it's software, whether it's materials, whether it's equipment, or you know, whether it's like um financial services in the UK and they're trying and they're really innovating. And I think that's um it's motivation for yourself. I mean, like I said, we speak to people every day, um, and I'm like blown away really with you know how smart and intelligent some people are and the ideas they're coming up with, you know, and how they're looking to forward dentistry and actually just improve the the whole cohort cohort, you know, and just you know give them more means to be successful, um, do better work, improve patient care, improve themselves. Um, so yeah, like I said, I'm super excited for that, man. I'm super excited to actually just like sit there and listen to people and their ideas. Um, I think most people will be.

Dr James, 42m 11s:

For sure. And some of the best lessons, some of the best things I've learned over the years, have just been being around people who've achieved amazing things, and me not necessarily coming to them because I want to learn exactly what they did and emanate it in my life, but almost just having my eyes opened, almost just having my beliefs shattered about what is and isn't possible. That is what makes you vibrate at a higher energy level, and that's what pushes you forwards. And I'm not saying that being commercially successful or making a load of money, to put it bluntly, is the only thing that will make you happy in life. Absolutely far from it. What I would argue is that we should prioritize that to a degree to the degree that it will aid us in our happiness by way of having more free time. Because to me, I see I see I see earning a little bit more as something that you can do in order to exchange to get back more of your life. And if if if anybody wants me to kind of pull that out of the ethereal and allow them to understand, you know, if anybody is listening to this podcast and you're thinking, oh, well, that's not me. Well, what I'd say to you is think about it, if you if you were able to add an extra 30 grand to your, you know, what you turn over every single year, is there a uh is there a higher likelihood that you would drop a day or half a day in the clinic? Of course there is, right? Because you're getting exactly the same output once you drop that day versus what you had before via via less input, or at least you could consider it. So I would say that that's directly exchangeable for time. Obviously, you'll get to a point where you're happy, you're in the goalie lock zone, you're you're doing the perfect amount of time in clinic and you've got the perfect family life and you're you're you're achieving the perfect amount of money to to uh aid you to facilitate your goals in life, and that's fine. If you're there already, fine, you don't need more money. Are you with me? You you really, really, really don't. If you are on that journey, then I would say to you that perhaps you should consider it and not not let it be something that you dismiss or diminish by way of its importance. That's all I'm saying. That's all my message, that's all my message is. So that is actually the school of thought or philosophy of the day as well, because obviously, if we can talk about these things, we enable people to be more happy in their life. Obviously, we have to be able to do it ethically too, of course. And that is actually the mission of Dennis Who Invest. That is actually the mission of Dennis Who Invest and the mission of Business of Dennis and pretty much everything that I've done actually over the last four, five years. And I really feel like when you can empower people from that perspective, that is that is something we're fighting for right there.

Aaron, 44m 38s:

No, amazing. I mean, I again I think it that resonates with a lot of people. I think there's probably a lot of people out there who engage with your content or they know who you are, uh, to name, and I think maybe they're thinking about doing something themselves and they're thinking about innovating, you know. So I think it's a it's a it's a nice kind of segue to for motivation for them to see what's going on and and just just how dentistry is changing, I think. I think dentistry is changing a lot in the UK, right? Um people are understanding that uh working together is is much, much more fruitful, um, and doing things together is much more much much more fruitful. So, on that, really, um, is there anyone that you've worked with, I'd say uh I know you mentioned some. Someone that you met, but is anyone that you've worked with in the past year which has like you know really helped you change your thinking?

Dr James, 45m 20s:

Great question. I I honestly feel like this last year in London has been so beneficial that it probably is really difficult to say, oh, here was this one person. There's there's there's there's a litany of people, and I'd I'd hesitate to name those people because then there's a chance that in the heat of the moment I might forget one basically. And I don't want to cause any beef because there's a lot of people that I owe a lot to.

Aaron, 45m 50s:

This is like when you're at an Asian wedding and you've got to thank everyone who's come abroad to come to the wedding, and you forget someone and then you get in the year from your mum and your grandma after. So I understand.

Dr James, 45m 58s:

Yeah, you know what? Deeper question. I'd actually like to know how people in that position navigate that. Do they have a list? Oh, yeah. Is that my list?

Aaron, 46m 6s:

Yeah, and you take the you take them off uh periodically to make sure you've you've acknowledged everyone. Yeah, and you do what I did, which is name everyone and then forget to actually talk about my actual mum and then and then stare around and she's just like. Surely it's implicit for the actual moments, it's implicit, yeah. You can say that to her, and uh she'll forgive me one day, but yeah.

Dr James, 46m 22s:

No, I've got it. You know what? You know what? I'll I'll I'll let her know that you love her deep line. I'll let her I'll let her know that because uh because we we've talked about her in this podcast today. So there it hasn't it isn't like you've just brushed it off and forgotten about it. No, no, it is still in here. Three years in, I'm still there. It's still in here. So hopefully that goes somewhere to mitigate it.

Aaron, 46m 40s:

But yes, uh what I was let's say less gate, so you know what, I'll change the question. Let's say less than um not a person specifically, but is there anything that you've worked on, I'd say then this year that's changed or you thought it was been quite better?

Dr James, 46m 53s:

Yeah, actually, that is that is actually easier to answer, and the reason why is I believe that one of the best things that I said yes to happened in the last 18, 18 to 12 months, and that was running events. I I mean I ran events over the years, but they weren't really on the same scale. Okay, they weren't really with the same number of people in the room, and I I feel like one of the things that I said yes to that that was one of the best things was that, and the reason why was because it just brings so much it's one, it's fun as hell, and two, it brings so much good energy into your life, it's actually crazy, and it generates so much opportunities. So big epiphany for me, even though it sounds very obvious, and even though I'm the the the supposedly the big advocate for getting yourself out there a lot, I fail to appreciate how much that can help, and I failed to appreciate that that is a massive important thing that everybody should prioritize. Yeah, I I would I would really say that I would, and like I say, it's those conversations of people that you have that elevate your own beliefs as to what's possible, they're so powerful, like that is worth so much money. It's hard to put it's hard to put into figures, even just some one random conversation, but you don't know who that person is. That's the thing, you have no idea who they are until you start talking to them. It just happens by opening doors, so to speak, and having conversations, and it just happens by getting yourself out there and speaking to people. You can't predict who that is, but you can maximize your odds, or just like I was saying earlier, increase the surface area for luck by communicating, by speaking. Yeah, where the content thing helps is if you're obviously out there and you're speaking and what have you, people are more likely to gravitate towards you. You know what I would do just to round off this podcast? There's a really great book called The Almanac by Naval Ravakant. Have you read it?

Aaron, 48m 48s:

Uh you mentioned it to me and it's on my list.

Dr James, 48m 50s:

I frigging love that book, and I won't get into this today, but in that book, he gets granular about the concept of luck, and he's like, most people believe that luck is just this random thing, it's like fate, it's either gonna happen to you or it isn't. Are you with me? You have no power over it, so to speak. But actually breaks it down into the four types of luck, and one of them is that blind luck that we talked about just a second ago, but then the other three ways are actually luck that you have some ability to create the circumstances for in your life. Okay, therefore, if you focus on engineering these three areas of luck in your own life, you will be in Verticoma's more lucky, as in you can increase the likelihood that luck will find you. Yeah, and you know what? Those three ways, I'm going to let people read the book to find out what those are. And that's the first reason, but also because I'm a little sketchy on remembering too often, right? Yeah, so I don't want to do it an injustice today, but I just remember they were all things that I was kind of doing anyway, that I was like, oh, maybe I just need to do more of those and focus on those. But the key thing, the key message for me was that you can actually be intentional about creating your own luck in your own life. Yeah, right. So, like I say, really I would advocate everybody to look that up, The Four Types of Luck by Naval Ravacant. And then I also think it was Gary Player who said, The more I practice, the luckier I get. Yeah.

Aaron, 50m 10s:

There you go. Boom. Well, listen, James, man, it's been great chatting to you, and it's been really amazing just hearing about all the new things you're doing. And you know, obviously, for everyone who's listening, um, you know, what the last question I was gonna ask actually before we ended was, you know, um, if someone wanted to talk to you, right, and someone wanted to get in contact with you, um, how would they best do that? I know we've got the event coming up in in November, November 7th, um in Nell's Court, but let's say if someone wanted to reach out, how would they do that?

Dr James, 50m 35s:

Yeah, sure. So my my my Facebooks, my Facebook and socials and DMs, they're all they're they're they're an open one basically. So if anybody was to get in touch with me, Dennis whoinvest Facebook community, Dr. James Martin, you'll be able to find me on there. In addition to that, we do obviously have a podcast that we that we that we run as well. Obviously, we release two of those every single week, which is a bit of a commitment, but it's very much fun, so I do enjoy it. And then the third way would be via the website, which is www.dennis whoinvest.com. In fact, there's actually a little link on there that you can use to submit a question or reach out, so that is also possible as well to get me through there.

Aaron, 51m 11s:

Nice. Awesome. Well, thanks, James Man. We'll uh hopefully speak soon and uh yeah, take care, man.

Dr James, 51m 16s:

Sounds good, my friend. It's been fun. Talk soon.