Dr. Aaron Vickers Discusses His Practice and Lifestyle Transformation

Dr. Aaron Vickers | Flower Mound, TX

“But what has proven out over these years is that I’ve expanded my vision for what was possible beyond what I would have ever thought.” Dr. Vickers

The first time I ever heard of Scott, I was at a talk that he was giving, and it was all about the lifestyle practice and making your practice work for you instead of just running your life. It was a really timely message for me, because at that time I was really burning out.

I needed to gain control of the hours I was putting into the business.

That was a huge part of my motivation, because I have four young children. I needed to really work on my home and work balance. So that was a huge motivator for me to look for a better way to do things.

I love oral surgery. I really love it. But when I got so busy with patient care that it was interfering with my ability to be a good leader that took a lot of the fun out of coming to work every day.

When I first met Scott, my goal was to cut back a clinical day a week. I was in the clinic five days a week, and I wanted to go to four days a week and try not to shrink my income.

He said that we can easily go to four days a week, but we’re still going to grow your income. I thought that was impossible.

But what has proven out over these years is that I’ve expanded my vision for what was possible beyond what I would have ever thought.

Since I started working with Dental Success Today, I went from five clinical days to four clinical days a week. I finish patient care earlier than I did before. I start later than I did before. So, I’ve significantly changed my hours to suit my lifestyle better.

Just having the extra clinical day off has been a huge help to me on a personal side. My wife and I grab lunch, it allows me to participate in school things for the kids, and do that kind of stuff, and even simple things like just get a haircut.

It’s good to be able to have a little bit of time where every single minute is not scheduled, like it is every other day for me. So that’s been great.

All the things that were like my bucket list things when I first met him have all been accomplished and replaced with new things on my bucket list, and so I’m grateful for that.

“What I love about DST is that they really incorporate your team.”

One of the first things we kind of recognized early on, is that we needed more people. We’ve done that. We’ve added great team members to the team, and Dental Success Today was helpful in that process and bringing them on board and getting everybody going.

The team is way happier. I would say the team is also a lot closer between the front and back office than they ever were before. There is a lot more cooperation, and everybody’s sort of pulling in the same direction in general.

I love that my team loves DST. I’m grateful for that kind of experience for my team, because then it’s so much easier to get things going the way they need to go when the team’s engaged.

I really respect and admire Scott so much.

You feel like you need to have a notebook around so that you can constantly remember what he said.

He has a genuine care for my family that I couldn’t have even understood when I first met him, but it’s very sincere. At the end of the day, he’s a mentor, but he’s also a friend.

The biggest thing I would say is that, yes, it’s worth it!

When you’re thinking about bringing in help or taking on a coach or whatever, you worry about how much is it going to cost, and is it going to be worth it. That’s ultimately the thing that most small businesspeople run into with these kinds of decisions. That is where I was. I was like, ” I don’t know how much it’s going to cost, and no matter what number it is, I don’t know if it’s going to be worth it.”

I’ve continued to be a client for probably going on eight years at this point, and if it wasn’t worth it, I wouldn’t have done that.

– Dr. Aaron Vickers