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Introduction
Almost 40 years into his career in dentistry, Dr. Jay Neuhaus was burned out. The burnout didn’t come on all at once. It was a gradual thing that started appearing maybe 20 or 30 years into his career.
Nights were difficult as he thought about the cases he had to deal with the next morning. The stress and pressure he put on himself to achieve perfection started to weigh on him. The daily grind, knowing tomorrow would bring yet another dose of what he experienced today, started to affect his general enjoyment of life.
It was time for a change. At the time, the only options on the table were to continue as long as he could hold out, or look for a buyer for his practice.
In the next few minutes, I’m going to tell you the rest of Jay’s story. There are two important reasons I’m publishing it for you:
First, I want to show you that, should you be in a position similar to Dr. Jay’s situation from just a few years ago, you are not alone. There are thousands of dentists who wake-up every morning less than excited about going to the office.
There’s something about dentistry that just wears on you after a while. Yes, it’s physically difficult. You certainly pay a price with your body as the decades wear on. But the bigger issue for many dentists is how it affects your mental condition and your overall outlook on life.
Dentists perform a valuable service for the world. Dentists remove pain, restore health, and completely transform someone into the best-looking version of themselves.
But it’s draining. And the way it can mess with your head after a while is a difficult thing to deal with.
Many dentists live in dread anticipating the cases on their schedule for tomorrow. It’s not a nice position to be in. I’ve been there myself back when I was a dentist. Sunday night my mood would change to one of such dread, I had no idea how I was going to conquer the week.
The second reason I’m sharing Jay’s story is to show you that things don’t have to be like that. There are opportunities to pursue that do NOT lead to the same challenges you find
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in traditional dentistry done the traditional way.
Jay discovered such an opportunity and it completely transformed his life.
How to Be a “Successful” (But Miserable) Dentist
By pretty much all normal metrics, Dr. Jay Neuhaus was an extremely successful dentist. He was a one-man office with a hygienist and an assistant. He was the only dentist, which means the weight of pretty much everything ended up on his shoulders.
Some of you reading this can definitely relate to what that feels like.
Like many dentists, Jay is a perfectionist. And while he often times DID hit the level of performance he set for himself, the mental drain to sustain that level of work had begun to take its toll. Each night he’d start to think about the case coming up the next day and how it was going to drive him crazy.
It got to a point where the daily grind was taking too much of his mental well-being to sustain.
From the outside looking in, he had everything most people want. On the inside, it was a different story.
A few years ago, Jay had a challenge with his landlord and had to find a new location for his office after decades of practicing in the same spot. This shift led him to do some soul searching about how he wanted his future to look.
During Jay’s office transition, he came to the conclusion that he had to make a change. Something had to change because his current trajectory was killing him from the inside out.
He’d pretty much “been there and done that” in every area of dentistry. He’d pretty much tried everything. He’d been a general dentist for most of his career but then moved into high-end dentistry and did a lot of that as well.
Spending your days doing fillings is not as much stress as doing a full mouth case or a full cosmetic rehabilitation case. Those tend to come with an extra helping of stress. The money is great, but you pay a price for it.
“I started rethinking my whole life and how miserable I was getting...I was obviously getting burnt out...it was taking too much of my mental well-being... it was draining me too much.”
-Jay Neuhaus
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If You’re Looking For the Good Stuff, Including Numbers, READ THIS
I’m going to fast-forward a little bit and bring you up to the present time. I figure I only have a few minutes of opportunity to really connect with you and I want to make sure you hear what’s happened to Jay. So here are the facts:
3.5 years ago, Dr. Jay Neuhaus was burned out, stressed out, worked OUT. You’ve already heard that part of his story.
Today, Dr. Jay Neuhaus is 67. He’s working 1 day per week and netting $19,000 for that day. Projected out over the year, that’s $912K….NET.
What’s even more important is that Jay is actually excited about going to work. He enjoys it. There’s no more stress, no more obsessing about perfection, no more days full of thousands and thousands of details that have to be given attention.
Now it’s possible you are experiencing results like Jay’s. If you are, then congratulations. It’s an amazing position to be in.
Most dentists are not experiencing results like this. Perhaps you’re one of them, I don’t know. But my hunch is that even though so many are enduring the daily grind (or “dental” grind, as I call it), there’s not too much left to show for it…except the opportunity to wake-up and do it all again tomorrow.
How do I know this? Because that’s the life I lived for years and years. But about 15 years into my career, much like Jay’s experience, I hit the wall and decided to get out.
Dr. Jay’s Reinvention Process
So how did Dr. Jay “reinvent” his practice to achieve results like this AND completely rejuvenate his mindset regarding his enjoyment of the work?
What are the changes he made that led to this drastic shift, not only in his business but in his outlook on life?
You’re about to discover exactly how he did it.
Before we get started, it’s important for you to know that Dr. Jay Neuhaus is no longer a dentist. Oh, he has the same skills, he has the same experience, but he’s focused them on a completely different target.
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In fact, part of Jay’s “reinvention” was that he sold his dental practice and started, from scratch, a dental sleep medicine practice (business.)
Now in traditional dentistry, it takes a LONG time to build up a truly successful practice. If that was the case with dental sleep medicine, I don’t think Dr. Jay would have even entertained this path as a viable option for him. He didn’t want to spend another 20 years working to build something just to get it to the point where it was on solid ground.
Dental sleep medicine isn’t the same as traditional dentistry. There’s an exponentially greater amount of leverage available to you because, as the owner, you’re not actually doing most of the work that fuels growth.
The problem with dental sleep medicine is that 99% of dentists who try it end up failing. But Dr. Jay Neuhaus didn’t fail. And he also didn’t get “lucky.” He simply followed the plan he was given and took action on a consistent basis. And he actually had a good time along the way. When you actually enjoy doing something, it’s far easier to be successful.
The Day Dr. Jay Thought He Was Crazy
Jay had dabbled here and there in sleep apnea throughout his career, but never really saw things take off. He liked the concept, especially how much it was able to help people transform their health and their lives. But getting patients wasn’t easy. Getting paid wasn’t easy. And he didn’t really have much time to work through those issues while he was still running his dental practice.
About three and a half years ago, Jay attended my lecture at a sleep seminar presented by the company I was working with at the time. I was hired by that company to teach about the business of sleep. My name is Avi Weisfogel. I’m a former dentist who left that world to become a dental sleep medicine entrepreneur.
During the lecture, my presentation was about a model for making the business work.
The primary issue was figuring out how to create sleep patients (you have to create them, you won’t get them by wining and dining people and begging for referrals.)
Jay also heard about the process for actually getting paid for helping patients.
Everyone in the room got to see that this was possible, viable, practical and potentially extremely profitable.
Near the end of the event, an invitation was extended for the attendees to enroll in a more comprehensive coaching program where each member would be supported to grow their
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sleep practice. I would be teaching the business part and the company I was working with at the time would have other experts fill in the rest.
Jay was sitting there wondering if he was crazy for considering enrolling in the program, a decision which required a hefty six-figure investment.
When Jay looked around and saw 79 other dentists make the decision to move forward, he decided the time was right for him as well. These dentists were ready for a change and they made a decision to do something about it.
They knew about the six-figure investment required…
They knew about the effort that would be required…
They knew about the “out of the box” thinking and doing the journey would ask of them…
They also knew the size of the opportunity that was before them…
And the rest, as they say, is history. Dr. Jay came to the seminar to investigate whether dental sleep medicine could possibly be his ticket OUT of the daily grind of dentistry. His goal from the beginning was to build his sleep practice so he could continue in a semi-retired state after selling his dental practice.
There were some issues that caused me to move on from that first sleep company to another. In 2016, I severed ties with all of those entities and decided to set out on my own. My goal was to revolutionize the world of dental sleep medicine.
This is when I truly refined the model and approach that Jay would use to achieve his dream. I’m honored that Jay chose to follow me to my new venture and really start to apply himself.
Jay just wanted to enjoy his life and keep experiencing success doing work he loved doing. This is a path that makes reaching that goal available to just about any serious dentist who wants a change.
Now Jay decided to leave traditional dentistry altogether and he’s much happier for it. That may or may not be right for everyone, and it certainly isn’t necessary.
It’s been an honor to watch Jay completely rebuild his life and livelihood in a way that makes him excited to get up every day.
The funniest part is that, as Jay continues to build his success, his interest in and enjoyment of the business isn’t decreasing, it’s increasing.
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So much so that here’s the text he shared with me as I was putting this together. This was his response to my request for all of the Dental Sleep MBA™ members to send in their goals for the year.
He’s on track to double the results I revealed to you earlier. Is this the behavior and outlook of any “burned out” dentists you know? Of course not. This is energy that comes from loving what you’re doing.
What Makes This Path So Different?
I already told you that dental sleep medicine is very different from traditional dentistry. How is it different?
First of all, this is not so much a detail driven type of business like dentistry as it is a macro, global, quality of life type of business. What that means is that you’re going to be dealing with patients who will come back and tell you things like...
“I can finally sleep in the same room with my husband again, Thank you!”
“You’ve literally saved my life! How could I ever thank you enough?”
“I haven’t slept in three YEARS until I met you... Thank you!”
“My health has improved drastically! Thank you!”
“I no longer have to take blood pressure medication!”
Second, dental sleep medicine (when you do it right!) is very staff driven. Remember, this is a business, not just another high paying job like dentistry often is.
In dentistry, what happens when you’re not actually working? Production takes a hit and so does your bank account.
But in dental sleep medicine, you’re actually building something that can continue and even grow with you not there. That’s because we set things up so you don’t end up carrying the entire enterprise on your shoulders like you do in dentistry.
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You might decide to be actively involved in the business, or you might decide to be completely hands off. It doesn’t matter, both ways can lead to success.
For example, as my team was interviewing Jay in preparation for putting this booklet together, he was spending time relaxing with his family for a few days. He was on vacation.
While that was going on, a member of his staff was out setting up meetings for him to go on upon his return. In other words, someone other than Jay was driving the business forward in measurable and valuable ways.
Jay’s goal of wanting a business that would keep moving and growing without him was finally realized with this approach to dental sleep medicine.
How to Go From Failure to Success in Dental Sleep Medicine
There are some serious challenges you have to face when you enter the world of dental sleep medicine. For most dentists, the biggest challenge is that they approach their dental sleep medicine practice in the exact same way they approach their dental practice. Not only is this ineffective, it is actually the quickest way I know to completely ruin your chances of ever succeeding.
I didn’t know all of this at first. In fact, I too failed for a while in dental sleep medicine. You should hear this story because it’s going to give you a deeper understanding of why so many dentists run into problems when trying this.
Here is how I went from bankruptcy to building a company that treated hundreds of oral appliance patients per month.
I graduated from dental school in 1998. I was full of ideals and morals about how I was going to build up the best practice in dentistry. It was going to be full of incredible equipment, a spa like environment, 5 star service, with no insurance.
At some point along the way, I chanced upon something I really enjoyed doing: treating sleep apnea patients with oral appliances.
My practice wasn’t setup to allow me to spend much time doing that. So I left my (very successful) practice in the hands of my associate and started figuring out the world of sleep.
“Now I don’t go to work anymore, I go to fun. I just don’t think of it as work anymore.”
-Jay Neuhaus
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The good news is that I had found something that was a truly fulfilling use of my skills. The bad news was that I was about to embark on a journey I was not qualified to take.
And I paid the price. Over the next 3 and a half years, I lost every penny I had trying to figure out the sleep business. I actually declared bankruptcy. But I didn’t quit.
In fact, I figured out the puzzle. And in the rest of this short story, I’m going to walk you through the process for making it in the sleep business. I’ll break it down into four steps.
STEP 1: Stop Thinking Like a Dentist
The first step in this process is to stop thinking like a dentist. Dental school taught us a lot about how to be a dentist. It taught us very little about how to succeed while being a dentist.
What dental school also taught us is that there are accepted ways of practicing dentistry. If you venture off the beaten path, not only are you programmed to feel weird and “out of your element,” but your colleagues will think the same thing and be sure to let you know.
You will never make it in the sleep business unless you “re-train” your mind and take off the blinders that keep you thinking the ONLY way to make it in dentistry is to spend a lot of time behind the chair or have associates who do that.
The bottom line is that dentists are business owners and salespeople. There is no one that NEEDS a crown. So without selling, nothing happens. Most dentists don’t think this way, but it’s the truth.
The good news is that there are far smarter and more direct routes to success as a dentist. But if your mind and your conditioning keep you from exploring them, you lose. Just look around at the current state of the industry for proof.
STEP 2: Look At What Most
Dentists Are Doing and Do Something Else
The accepted way to “make it” in the sleep business is through referrals. Just get doctors referring sleep patients to you and you’ve got it made. This is a fairytale. This solution does NOT exist.
While I was struggling to figure out how to be successful in sleep, I tried a lot of things. But early on, I could never attract more than 2-4 patients a month. There’s no way to
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make it on that.
So I asked my top referrer: “Why aren’t you sending me more patients?” Her answer was blunt: “I don’t have enough patients myself. If I send you a patient for an oral appliance I no longer have this patient under my care. Plus, those are some of the easiest patients I get.”
Duh. This is obvious. And yet, countless dentists try to make this referral based system work. It doesn’t. It is a flawed model at a fundamental level.
STEP 3: You Succeed Not By Luck
But By Design
If you want to succeed in the sleep business, and you’ve worked through the brainwashing that keeps most dentists struggling, then you’ll finally get to doing the real work. And the real work is finding the patients. Or better yet, creating a system that finds them.
Without an effective system to generate a steady stream of patients, this business doesn’t happen. That should come as no surprise.
Almost everybody who is currently teaching sleep has two things in common: they know a lot about sleep and almost nothing about getting you patients. They know even less about getting paid properly for doing the procedure.
In the interest of full disclosure, it took me years to figure this part out. And things got pretty dicey along the way. It was really a struggle for a while.
Once I figured out how to get the patients, then I had to figure out how the whole reimbursement process was going to work. It was like navigating through a dark forest with your eyes closed walking backwards. There were landmines everywhere. And only after spending countless hours on the phone with insurance companies and Medicare (as well as talking to every billing specialist I could find,) did I find the best way to bill and get reimbursed really well.
Soon I had unlimited amounts of patients coming in every month and the insurance process had been all worked out before they even came to my office. Everything was great.
But that’s when I realized I was about to hop out of the frying pan RIGHT into the fire. And that brings me to the final step of this process:
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STEP 4: Prepare Yourself For Blowback From the Herd and Then Succeed Anyway
You would think that your colleagues in dentistry would be genuinely happy to see you succeed. But when you do it in a way that goes counter to their brainwashing about what it means to be a dentist, you will find out the truth.
People like to see you succeed, provided you do it in a way they find acceptable. When you succeed in unconventional ways that others don’t really have the guts to pursue, it’s a different story.
Things were really quiet in my life until I made the decision to start teaching this. I was seeing way more patients in sleep than every sleep dentist I knew (and I knew a lot of them.) I was also doing this completely under the radar.
I knew that once I started teaching, I was going to be in the public eye. I knew people were going to question me. I knew they would mock me and knew it would cause others in the sleep field to feel threatened.
It’s really just a natural human response to lash out when you feel threatened. The reason I’m telling you this is so you can prepare for it should you decide to explore the sleep business according to the way I do it.
This is a big reason you’ll find a long list of hate scattered throughout the internet about the work we do with dentists in the sleep business. At first, it bothered me. But then I decided that I could either spend time “defending” myself or I could spend time finding undiagnosed OSA patients, getting them tested and treated and teaching others to do the same.
I chose to focus on the patients and ignore the hate. And that’s what I’d recommend you do as well, should you ever encounter it.
The only way to win the “hate game” is not to play. So should you decided to follow in my footsteps in the sleep business, my recommendation is not to engage with those who will lash out at you. Simply keep your focus on treating patients and adding value to their lives.
How to Continue Your Investigation Without “Betting Your Future” on It
So we’ve come to the point where you get to make a decision about what’s next for you.
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Do you learn more about the sleep business and the systems we’ve created to help you become far more successful than most dentists even believe is possible? Or do you simply go back to your old life and practice the way it is now?
That’s not a question I can answer for you.
What I can offer is a low-risk way for you to continue your investigation into this approach to succeeding in dental sleep medicine.
Each month, my team and I travel to a new location across the country to present what I call the Dental Sleep MBA™ Preview Event.
The Dental Sleep MBA™ Preview Event is a multi-day training in the BUSINESS of dental sleep medicine. Yes, you’ll learn about the science of sleep, but only what you need to succeed. The majority of the focus is on covering the entire system we use to turn the traditional dental sleep medicine model upside down into something that works.
Many dentists who come to the Preview Events leave saying something like, “Wow, this course is different than I expected it to be.”
This is called a preview event, because that’s exactly what it is. We will SHOW YOU the entire process, step-by-step, and have you in a room long enough that we can clearly and meticulously explain every part of the system we’ve taught to some of the most successful dental sleep medicine practice owners in the country.
What we cover during this event is not something you will find anywhere else. No one else could present this to you because no one else KNOWS IT.
You also get to hear from a dentist who built a seven-figure sleep practice in just 18 months. If his story doesn’t inspire you about the possibilities here, I’m not sure what will.
We’ve pioneered a complete system for getting sleep patients, getting paid and everything in between. You’ll hear more details about that at the Preview Event. (NOTE: Each attendee will receive 18 CE credits.)
What is this event a “preview” for?
It’s a behind the scenes tour of the four-year Dental Sleep MBA™ program where we hold your hand every step of the way to help you build a successful dental sleep medicine
“I’m actually excited about growing the sleep business... it was just the opposite in dentistry... I was kind of letting the practice just fade away...”
-Jay Neuhaus
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practice. There’s a complete educational training program with coaching and mentoring the entire time.
The Preview Events offer a low-risk way for you to really dig into this business and get your questions answered from people who are actually succeeding.
New members are joining each month and we are experiencing an enormous amount of momentum. I’m not surprised, but I AM delighted.
We’re consistently publishing the real world results of our members, so I generally let those speak for me. If you reach out to my office, you’ll get a steady stream of this proof coming back at you.
Helping someone build a million dollar sleep practice in 18 months is a pretty compelling proof point.
How are results like this possible?
The problem with the traditional approach to dentists succeeding in sleep medicine is that the model (when there is one) is setup for you to fail.
It’s a model that was setup by dentists, with “dentist thinking.” Remember, dentist thinking has one flavor. That flavor is that more money comes with more work.
If you can be honest with yourself, my hunch is that you can think back through your life and find places where this belief has created obstacles for you. The Dental Sleep MBA™ model is very different. It’s more strategic, it’s more practical, it’s more reliable, it’s more systematic.
We go through all of this at the Dental Sleep MBA™ Preview events. (There’s a link at the end of this to check the schedule for those and when we’re coming to an area near you.)
When I say our approach is comprehensive, it’s hard for people to really understand what that means.
But once you’re in the full Dental Sleep MBA™ program, we really leave no stone unturned.
We help you change things right from the start. We show you how to create a brand new (separate from your dental practice) company built to bill oral appliances and how to utilize that structure to get reimbursed more than double what you were originally getting. (If you’re not averaging $3k per appliance, including Medicare, on your reimbursements, you don’t know what we know. Our approach knows all the rules. And when you know all
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the rules, you have a huge advantage when it comes to getting reimbursed.)
The training and support you receive is extremely detailed including support staff training, meticulous office protocols, plus help to overcome any obstacle you encounter getting the system in place and putting it to work.
Our approach follows ALL the rules (which others won’t teach you because they don’t know the rules themselves!), which allows you to get the highest reimbursement possible while ensuring you get to keep it all.
And of course, part of the “cookbook” you get is everything you need for billing. All of the forms, all of the processes, everything. (Plus, we work with the best outside billing company I’ve experienced that only works with our referrals.) But that’s just the program of study and support systems. Then there’s the whole accountability and HUMAN support that you receive as you actually walk through the process of getting your sleep practice up and running. Everyone’s situation is different, everyone’s exact experience is different, everyone is working with a unique set of goals, values, personality, a unique skillset and a unique list of hopes, dreams and fears.
Should you ever become a member of Dental Sleep MBA™, you’ll receive a level of customized attention that you haven’t experienced before. Why do we go to the trouble? Because our mission isn’t to “sell sleep courses,” our mission is to help dentists build truly successful sleep medicine practices.
There’s Just One Catch...
If you’ve been a dentist for more than a few months, you’ve already been subject to the endless barrage of consultants, gurus, practice growth wizards and silver bullet guys all promising the world to you.
Sometimes those promises come with a low price tag, other times, there are a LOT of zeros attached to their advice and counsel.
I was on the receiving end of that for a long time. And what I discovered is that rarely, (very rarely) did the size of the results ever match the promises.
Dental sleep medicine is a business that is setup for dentists to enjoy a level of success that is not possible in the world of traditional dentistry.
That success, however, does not appear overnight. It also does not appear without focus and effort from you.
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So if you’re looking for a silver bullet solution where you can just enter your credit card number and click a button, this is not for you.
The opportunity that Dental Sleep MBA™ offers to dentists is real. But it requires work to make it happen.
How long will it take to see success? There’s no one answer. We’ve had members catapult to seven-figures in less than two years, while others have taken longer.
It’s reasonable to expect that this is a three-five year investment of time.
You can’t build a dental practice from scratch in that amount of time and end up with something that could realistically be sold to an investor for $3-$8 million. That’s impossible in traditional dentistry.
But dental sleep medicine is completely different.
Getting OFF the Work=Money Train
If you remember nothing else, remember this: in dentistry, more success means more work. In sleep medicine (done the way WE do it), the more success you have the less work you can do. And over time, the nature of your work will change.
You’ll go from being the “technician” to being the CEO.
And that’s the path to a new type of freedom-one that very few dentists will ever get to experience.
To see something working like this and completely transforming dentists’ futures is both an honor and a privilege.
It Is Never Too Late
Dr. Jay Neuhaus is an amazing man. And it’s an honor to have played a part in helping him achieve the dreams he had for his practice and his life.
Most dentists in his position are forced to either stick with the daily grind or hope and pray they find a buyer for their practice...AND that they get enough to fund the lifestyle they want to live.
“My goal when I signed-up was to phase out of dentistry and just do sleep apnea... about three months ago, it finally came to fruition where I sold my dental practice.”
-Jay Neuhaus
Jay was 63 years young when he started to build his dental sleep medicine practice!
And in less than four years, he now has a REAL asset that can continue to grow even when he doesn’t want to work! What he’s accomplished over the past two years in particular, now that he’s free of the stress and burnout, is simply off the charts!
Will you experience numbers like Jay’s if you ever pursue this? I have no idea. It would be doing you a disservice to make you believe that would happen for you. You might do less. Then again, you might do much more.
Should you want to learn about the work we do at Dental Sleep MBA or check the schedule for upcoming Preview Events, please don’t hesitate to reach out at www.dentalsleepmba.com.
I wish you the brightest of futures,
Avi
