SPEAKER_00 0:01

This is not a podcast about dentistry. This is a call to leadership. For those who are carrying pressure, for those building something bigger than themselves, for those who refuse average, this is where discipline replaces chaos. This is where clarity replaces confusion. Where leaders are forged. Welcome to the Iron Dentist. I'm Dr. Bobby J. Grassi, and this is where dentists stop reacting and start leading at the highest level. So those watching online, I don't usually sell like Kirby the Frog. I don't usually sell like Grouch, Oscar the Grouch, whatever you want to say. Um I'm I'm here to I appreciate you watching. Those watching the recordings, understand this is not my normal voice, but these calls, I'm I'm committed to doing them. So their calls are meant to define the game you want to play, guys. This is how you truly get started every single day to get motive, motivated to do what you want to do. And it doesn't matter who is if you're a young student getting ready to go to colleges. I know there's there's people on the call right now, is that they're getting ready to go to colleges or setting their kids off. And hey, just a quick public service semester for the kids. I heard this. When your mom wants to go through all the things when you go to college, just say thank you. When your dad wants to meet all the people on your floor, just say thank you. When your mom wants to make sure she cries and gives you that last hug, just say thank you. Because remember, you're changing in life if you're going to college with some of your parents. So maybe show them a little grace. Sidebar. I'm gonna get back out where I'll go. Thumbs up and a heart for all you college students on this call. My intention, by the way, is to give you all the tips and tricks and do every single thing that I do every day. How you show up, even when you got laryngitis, how do you show up every single day in business, in your life, in your personal life, even when things are stacked against you, how you continually show up. So this applies whether you're a young student, this applies if you're a dentist trying to figure this thing out of life, this applies whether you're an entrepreneur, this applies if you work just as a janitor, it doesn't matter. All these rules apply. If you're a mother that stays at home, if you're a father who just wants to be the best for yourself, all the rules apply. And all I'm trying to do is I hope that you take some of the tips and tricks that I do and just start implementing because you get nothing out of life by stopping. I played a song on here that says the old me is dead and gone by TI. So a harder thumbs up, you know who TI is, right? The old me is dead and gone. Understand this every single day you wake up, the old you're gone. So that song symbolizes something to me. So many times we are stuck to be in the old version of ourselves. So many times we live in the past and the stories that we created way back there. The old you is dead and gone. Show yourself some grace, show yourself some mercy. It doesn't matter yesterday, the old you is gone. So I know I'm a little pumped up today, and I used I talked about it just the thing on IG just a minute ago about motivation and discipline. And I'm not on this path, but I'm Dr. Bobby Grassi, born and raised in Flint, Michigan, raised by a single mom, raising three kids, making $18,000 a year, knowing what it's like not to know what my plan is, how my vision is. I didn't know. I needed to surround myself with people in this world that could figure things out. That's why you're maybe on the call. Maybe you're one of the one percenters, maybe your calling is to be the best version of yourself. I don't know. But how do you do it? How do you set yourself up? How do you create winning teams? How do you create cultures? How do you win in life? Man, I don't look, I would love to say I had this whole game of life figured out. I would love to say that, but I I'm I'm I'm working on it. See, the old me is gone. Whatever I stood up yesterday is gone. It's how you work on today. What do you strive for every single day to be the best version of yourself? How do you do that? Deanna on the call, how do you do that? Mohita on the call, Andreas, people on the call. Greg Feemster, I think my boy Greg Feamster's on IT. What's up, baby? How do you how do you what do you work on every single day? But this week, what we're gonna talk about is building the resilient teams. I feel like it isn't easy to find other one percenters in the person. You know what, Viana, you hang around the wrong group. So Vianna just said it's hard to find the one percenters. You are with the one percenters. Maybe you got to join Zoom conferences, maybe you gotta get on things like that. Because remember, the one percenters sometimes we hang around. I'm gonna give you a little parable. I just heard this, it was amazing. I'm gonna sidebar what I was saying, but this is motivational Bobby, I guess. Ready? Maybe I should do a podcast on this. Have you ever noticed beware of the rotten fruit? And you're like, what do you mean about the rot fruit? If you have healthy fruit, I'm talking about the fruit we eat, and you put it next to a rotten fruit. What happens to the healthy fruit? It becomes rotten, right? Vice versa. A good fruit never makes a rotten fruit better, does it? Never makes it fresh again. So, what does that say, Vienna, when you say you can't find the one percenters as I'm engaging online right now? What you gotta do is you gotta hang around the healthy fruit. You gotta get rid of the toxic fruit, you gotta get rid of the fruit that's rotten, right? So, hey, speaking of that though, we're gonna talk about building teams, resilient teams, and thriving in adversity. How do you truly thrive? You know, right now I'm in a kind of a pit in my own practice. If I'm vulnerable with you, we're kind of going through adversity between staff and we're having these dialogues that maybe we're getting real with our facts. We're trying to get really real of what's really going on. So when I sit here on these calls, I don't have it all figured out. I'm not sitting here going, oh my God, I'm I'm Jesus Christ and his disciple. That's not what I'm saying. But I can tell you this we all are gonna face adversity. We need to build resilient teams. And if anybody knows about resiliency of who we are in Flint, Michigan, it must be me. My teams had to gone through a GM shutdown, my teams had to gone through a Flintwater crisis, my teams had to go through recessions, my team has gone through COVID, pandemics, just like all of us. We've gone it, but we somehow come through it on the other end. So there must be something we're doing right to building the resilient team and thriving adversity. Sorry, I gotta take a drink. My laryngitis is in the kick, but how did I first learn how to thrive in adversity? What was the first lesson I've ever learned in life? And I wanted you guys to think right now when we're talking. Like think of a time when you overcame it, but I'm gonna tell you my story. How I knew how to really dig deep within my inner self to face the darkness in my own self at a moment in time. And as I say, as I say my story, I want you to think of your own. I want to I want you to use this story that I share to you as the power you have within yourself. So it was a time in sport in sports and business, like I said, you're gonna face inevitable times. You're gonna face resilience, you're gonna have to create really teams, you're gonna have to draw from your personal experiences. Not I did it in baseball, but in dentistry and in life. You're gonna have to draw from every single thing that you have, and that's why I want you to realize after I say my story, the game-changing moment of my life, the moment that taught me everything about adversity and who I am as a person, that moment taught to me in a baseball game. And you're like, dude, how can a baseball team teach you this? Because way back in 1991, I'm aging myself, and I know 1991, some of you might have called my nine be born. I was pitching an elite travel baseball team. And we are one of the best teams in the country, and I'm playing just this average team, like literally average team. They're a local team from Source Creek. We probably beat them 20 to nothing a million times. And I was pitching, and and and I gave up nine runs in the first inning. And you're like, dude, how the heck did the coach not pull you? I understand that. Nine runs in the very first inning. I won out, gave up nine runs. One out, getting crushed. I'm going to my coach, I'm snapping my hand, like, dude, are you gonna take me out? I'm actually cussing at my coach on the mount. Cussing at my coach, like, what the? I'm not gonna stand online. What are you doing? Like, I'm dying over here. He was letting me just get destroyed. And I can remember he came out of the mound and he had this twitch in his neck. The guy, my coach is with Leon Stacy, and I don't care, he's passed away, God rest his soul. But he came out to me and I'm gonna clean it up for the online version. He says, I'm not taking you freaking out. I'm not taking you out even if your arm falls off. I'm not taking you out until even if you die on this field. And he was smoking a cigarette at the time and he blew it in my face. He says, You better figure out a way. You better figure out a way to dig deep within yourself because you're quitting. And I'm not gonna allow you to quit. You better figure out a way. So I had a choice, and we all have choices in life when you're facing adversity. I had a choice. What do I do? Do I succumb to the adversity and just quit? Do I succumb to the adversity and dig deep within myself? Do I choose resiliency? Do I regain control? Do I regain control of my life even though it might be in chaos and you're facing adversity after adversity, after adversity? And you can't see the light in the darkness. What do you do? You have choices. And most people in this world quit. They'll succumb to the darkness and stop. They will not embrace the adversity. I had a choice. I said, Well, shit, better figure this out. It ain't gonna take me out. I better figure it out. What am I made of? What am I made of? So I embraced the adversity. I embraced it. So the coach decided to keep me in, demanding I overcome. I had a pivotal moment in my life. Succumb and tap into my inner strength. So many people are looking from outside help, saviors, if you will. Somebody to save them. That's the problem with this world we live in right now. We're looking for somebody outside to save us inside. We're looking from a gift outside to give us happiness inside. We're looking from strength from the outside world to give us inner strength. It can't happen. The strength lies in you. The strength lies in your darkness. You gotta choose to fight and lead to triumph. What ended up happening in that game is I ended up throwing a no-hitter after that. Found a way to win in the adversity. My team came back and won. And I I sat back at the end of the game, and you would have thought I'd been so mad at the coach. And I realized at that moment, I didn't realize at that time how pivotal it was. But what excuse me, what ended up happening was every tough situation. Guess who got to pitch in the game? Me. It was a life-changing event that changed my whole baseball career. I went from being a nobody to getting Division I offers at 18 years old. Because somebody forced me to dig deep with myself. That's what these calls are about. That's what building businesses are about. That's what building Williams teams are about. That's what surviving through pressure and resiliency is about. One of my buddies, Ken Kay, he might be on the call. I think he's on IG Live right now. He said, You should be the relentless dentist. Like that should be your title, dude. The relentless dentist. Because you succumb and face so much stuff in your life and you just don't stop. But it stems from that baseball experience. Now I'm going to pause. Is this tracking with you guys with a thumbs up, with a heart? Is there a story in your life right now that you know that if you use it, use it as your badge of honor, there is something that you know you survived so much adversity and you can take as a weapon, as a badge to catapult you for? Is there something that is gravitating you when I speak this? Are there things in your life that has changed you? Have you discovered resiliency? So when I embraced that resiliency on the mount, refusing to be defined by my setbacks, refusing to give in to my fatigue, refusing to do anything besides keep going pitch by pitch. When I did that, and I took a deep breath and I controlled all my emotions, not feeling victim to my circumstances, feeling like, oh my goodness, I'm getting killed. Look at everybody's looking at me. I suck, I'm not good enough. How many times in life do we hear that? When we think of the judgment that people might have because I'm not getting something right the first time. When you think of teams that if you're not doing something right, they take it so offensive when somebody challenges you to become better. That's what's going on in my business right now. I'm that coach, I'm that CEO challenging people to become the best version of their self. And I'm getting hit with resistance and collisions. It's the collisions and the resistance and the defiance and the pressure and the strain that you put on yourself or others put on you that make you win. It's the discovering of the resilience and your power within that's gonna help you do things to now apply it. How to try beyond a scoreboard in life? How to win when you don't even know what to do besides breathe and take the next pitch. So many times people are trying to hit home runs versus hitting a single, they're trying to hit it out of the park, if you will, besides just taking a step every day in the right direction. How do you wake up? I mean, I get resilience even at home at times, and I still gotta show up. I get people that don't have the same vision I have. Maybe you got people around you growing at different paces. Maybe you're trying to build a winning team and cultures that might be different than others. How do you survive during that? What do you do? What are your habits? What are your rituals? How do you get that inner strength? How do you go through the darkness and find your light? And sometimes all you can do is keep moving forward. Keep moving forward. And when you apply resiliency and you apply the lessons, whether it's in dentistry or business or in your own personal life, when you when you challenge your workers, you're like we had the we had resiliency in dentistry, and I talked about that. Like that baseball lesson showed me I will not stop until I die. You'll have to kill me to stop me. Even if my, let's say we're not, I'm not getting along with one of my co-workers. You're gonna have to kill me, bro. I ain't stopping. I'm not stopping. I'm not stopping to show people I love them, I'm not stopping to show people I care about them. I'm not stopping if if there's some pandemic, another pandemic that comes out. I am not stopping until I live the legacy and impact I have. I will not stop. I will not be the weakest link. I will be a freaking warrior savage. But that baseball lesson is what taught me that. When you find inner strength in those setbacks and resilience resistance in your life, you really think you're invincible. But it's when we rely on your inner power. People don't even try to take a step, people don't even try to hit a single, people don't even try to pitch another pitch because they're so afraid of the adversity and the resilience, they're so afraid of the pressure. When you are able to adapt, when you're able to move, when you're able to change, when you're able to lead through the resiliency, that's when you're going to create vital teams. Vital teams could be in business, vital teams could be the team that's in your family life, vital teams could be the Ken Case or the Richie Doans or the Garrett J. Whites or the Andreas or people that are in my corner, and from Annalisa, who does a lot of my stuff, and the dentistillo from Vinnie, who helped me with my marketing, those winning teams that you surround yourself with. From my wife, who's my core, who's my queen, from my kids, those William teams, when you survive through the resiliency, that's where the power lies. And as a leader, I fostered it. Sharing experiences, promoting open communication and instilling resiliency. We're having a thing in my office right now that we're saying we're gonna get clear with the facts. What are the facts? Where are we really at? How do we really thrive right now when we know there's a shift in dentistry? We know there's gonna probably be a recession, we know that there's probably gonna things happen. We get caught up in the world, in the nuance of the world of what the media tells you. But we've already done it once, we know we can do it again. That's why there is no doubt in my mind that I will come on the top of it eventually. I might be in a peak, and you might be in a peak, and you might be in a peak, and everybody online on LinkedIn might be in a peak, and you might not know how to get out of it. Or remember, there's a excuse me, a pit. I said peak. You might be in a peak a pit, I might be in a pit, other people might be in a pit. But remember, there's always a peak. You got to go down into the pit to see the darkness, to be resilient to overcome. So no matter what the world changes at you, if you have this confidence that you've already done it once, you can do it again, that's gonna produce the results. You have no question about it. No question about it. No question you're gonna win. Because you can stack these medals on top of things. People trust people that produce results, period. People know that when I show up, I might be a jerk at times, I might be a hard leader, I might not get along with everybody, I might tell you the truth that you don't like, I might do a lot of these things, but the one thing they'll never say, he wasn't honest with me. The one thing he'll never say is he's not gonna win the game of life. They know I will. I know I will. It's not a cockiness or arrogance, it's because of the things I've already gone through. I had the courage to fight during resiliency. I have a courage to start over even if I had to. How do I know? In 2008, in September 12th of 2008, before I bought Grassi Dunn, I had $12 to my knee. $12. Nobody knew about it. $12. Got a $2.4 million loan with $12. How is that possible? Grace of God. But that's another sidebar. So when you don't, if people look at me and say you can't be resilient and win, you can't overcome it. It all stems back from that baseball and that mound. That coach taught me a lesson that never quit on yourself. Dig deep within yourself because you all have that power, you all have that inner strength, you all have the power to be the greatest version of yourself. You all can do this. Mario, Gabby, Guy, my boy, Shay. Right? Every one of us have the power within us to face the adversity in triumph. When you pitch another pitch, when you hit another, swing the bat, as Ken K would say, as my buddy would say, swing the freaking bat, bro. Swing the bat. He looks at me with the samurai swords in the background, just swing the bat, do the reps, right? Do the reps. So when you have open communication, when you show your resiliency, when you have effective leadership and support a culture of build resilience, when you support that culture to build that resiliency, you have that clear vision, you communicate it, you learn, you empower people, you adapt in your self-care. That's when you dominate. Growth and transformation always comes through adversity. Sometimes it's not by choice. It could be you get hit with a sickness and you have to find a way to get better. So you're faced with adversity. But it's the when you can face the adversity by choice, most people have to fall into a pit to change. What if you could accept the adversity, the pressure that you feel, and use it to growth? What if you could use it to become a better version of yourself? What if you can use it to make the greatest impact in this world? What if you can use it to make a difference in your team's life and not only your life, but your family's life? Resiliency is what strengthens your team. That's why I laugh at the world we live in right now. That people will bitch and moan about what's going on. People will complain and be victim to their own circumstances. People will say to them, I can't build a team in this economy right now or a winning team because it's not possible. It's simply not true. Most rich people, believe it or not, thrive during this stuff. Now, why do they thrive and others don't? It's the 1% mentality. It's they know to invest back in themselves when there's adversity. Invest in assets. You're an asset to who you are. You should be an asset to who you are. Your resiliency should show you how to win the game of life. Most people become their own liability. And you're like, Well, what do you mean? An asset puts something in. Money comes in, a liability, money goes out. Most of us don't even look at our quality of who we are in our life, our journey, our stories, what we've told ourselves, how we became as a true asset. The resilience, the pressure, the pain, the struggles that you've gone through. It's an asset, not a liability. Quit treating it as a liability. Use it as the strength to overcome or succumb anything. Get on that mound, as you will, as I'm using my story to become the best for yourself so you can dominate. Get real about what it is and what you got to change and then adjust. When I was on that mound and struggling, I didn't have any weight, and I gave up nine runs in the first inning. I had to make an adjustment. And I had to make an adjustment on a fly to win the game of life. I had to be resilient and find a different way to get the same outcome I wanted, which is to win the game. And you might say, why do I say life is a game? Because quit taking the damn thing so serious. It's a game. And if you could wake up every single day knowing it's just a game, if you can wake up every single day and know this is what I have to do, creating warriors and systems and savages is my boy Andreas said, dentist warriors. Hell yes, I'm a dentist warrior. I'm a warrior. But warriors don't crumble in adversity. Let me give you an example. We're we in your life, you're about to go to war with yourself. Your truth about yourself, what you're truly made of. How resilient are you? Are you succumbing? Are you a liability playing victory? To your life and your circumstances, or are you going to be an asset? Are you going to be a warrior working in a garden or a gardener that's a warrior? And you're like, What did you just say? Are you going to be a warrior in your own life that can work in a garden? And what is that? Somebody who's a beast. Somebody who can control their outcomes in life and be resilient, but yet be peaceful and calm and compassionate and create life. I can be a warrior internally and still create life over here. And I can go to war if I had to, in myself and in my business. But if I'm a gardener that has to go to war, I'm done. Too soft. I'm weak. I can't stand adverse. I won't be able to handle the resiliency. I won't be able to handle the adversity that comes to me every single day. Whether it's a staff member that doesn't like my tone, whether it's a whether it's a sales rep who doesn't like my attitude, whether it's a patient who doesn't want to live, do the things I want them to do in dentistry, whether it's my family life at home, we are going to be faced with adversity and we've got to make choices. Let the resilience strengthen your teams. Embrace the adversity. So to summarize this whole thing, man, if you don't have a resilient team that surrounds you, I don't care if it's just you and God. If you don't have people around you that can make you better and help you get through the resiliency, you'll never win. Adversity is what spurs your growth, transforms, and unites. It's all these pain points we go through. Getting clear about where we're at, finding out who we're all made of is what's going to create the greatness. When you foster resiliency, it's going to empower you to face all the challenges you have in life. It's going to help you grow stronger. It's going to help you thrive. So the importance of forming winning teams that thrive despite adversity, whether it's in sports and business, navigating challenges, determining your success, whether it's your personal experiences, whether it's your business experiences, having effective leadership skills, opening communication, being adaptable and supportive, that's when you're going to be able to thrive through resiliency. That's when you're going to weather all the storms that light throws at you as it's raining outside as I'm doing this. Having laryngitis tried to speak, fostering growth, creating innovation, transformations. Life's about transformations. TI, when I started this conversation, says the old me is dead and gone. If you're the same person you are 10 years from now than you were today, you did fail. Life is about transformation. Life is about becoming a better version of yourself, finding out who you are, using your setbacks as CROC would say as rocket fuel. Using your adversity and pain points as learning points. Understanding when I had $12 to my name in September 12th of 2008, five years after I graduated dental school. Understanding how great it felt to now possibly be winning this game in life and now coaching other dentists. How does that happen if I don't transform? How does that happen if I don't adapt? How does that happen if I don't have a kick-ass team around me to help me get to where I want to get to? Life is about building that winning team that will help you through the resiliency and adversity. One baseball player can't win a game. It takes nine others, eight others, accounting. I'm the pitcher. A football team, one man on a football team can't win it by themselves. So why do we try to go life by ourselves? Why do we try to face adversity alone? Now the inner strength comes from within. The inner strength comes from within. You say, why do I keep talking about building a winning team? Because if I didn't have coaches, if I didn't have mentors, if I didn't seek guidance outside of my circle, because remember, the circle you hang around with, is it the rotten fruit or the fresh fruit? Are they giving you new insight or old insight? Are they successful or non-successful? Have they done it or not done it? So you got to be careful who you share your attention with, because the mindset that they have is what you have. So surround yourself with people that know have already been there. If you're struggling in business, you want to know it, dude. Email me at the info at the dentistal.com. If you want to be a warrior dentist, I mean a dentist that dominates this world, dominates. Truly how to dominate win the game of life, email me at info at the dentistal.com. Send me a DM on IG, Bobby Grassi DDS. Send me a DM in the dentist CEO. You got many avenues. Reach out to me in LinkedIn. Do whatever you got to do. If you need coach and mentorship, hey man, I'm here for you. Right? Making positive change is this just before I end this thing. If you don't take time to know the facts about your life, if you don't take time to really write a fact max about who you are, what your strengths are, and you don't use your adversities as rocket fuel, then you only have yourself to blame. You are the strength of this story, you are the master character of this story. You can use setbacks as fuel. You can use setbacks as the gains. Only you know what you want out of this. So, hey guys, if this is touching your life at all, if this is changing or helping you, just this talk, give me a heart. Give me a thumbs up. For every one of you that share your time with me on Tuesday at 1 p.m., that is consistent in showing up, that follow me on YouTube, that follow me on LinkedIn, that support every single thing I do, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Because I can't live the life I want to live without you sharing it in the journey with me. My mission is to serve not only my wife, my beautiful wife, who's a savage and a queen, not only my kids, but believe it or not, contrary to what sometimes what people believe in my own business, I'm here to serve them. But I want to give them tough love just like I get my coach gave me. I'm gonna give people tough love just like I had tough love, because that's what's gonna create the warrior within you. That's gonna what's gonna create the king and queen that you are. So hey, thank you so much for the support. If you have anything, please email me at the info the dead to CO.com. If you need help in your planning, hey, let me know. But next week, guys, we're gonna talk about effective communication strategies, the key to cohesion and collaboration. I hope this touched your heart. Thank you so much for sharing with me. If you know anybody that needs help, share this link, man. Share the live. Tell them to like subscribe to YouTube, the Dead to CO. Reach out to people because you can be a difference maker. We all are. Thank you so much. Much love. We'll talk soon, guys. Have a great day. This episode challenges you to think differently or lead better. Share it with someone who's committed to growth and personal responsibility. Subscribe so you don't miss future conversations on leadership, discipline, and performance. And remember, leadership isn't a title, it's a daily decision. This has been Dr. Bobby J. Grassi, and we'll see you next time on the Iron Dentist Podcast.