← Success Story with Scott D. Clary
Success Story with Scott D. Clary
Dr. Jon Marashi - Celebrity Dentist & Entrepreneur | How a Dentist Built a $1 Billion Dollar Brand By Seeing What Others Missed
02:25:35
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- [00:00]
Scott Clary
I have to take a second and thank Northwest Registered Agent for supporting today's episode. Now listen. I know a lot of entrepreneurs listen to this show. If you're an entrepreneur, if you're building a business, you have to listen if you want to get more. When you're launching your next big idea, Northwest Registered Agent lets you establish your entire business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. For nearly 30 years, they've been the secret weapon for entrepreneurs who want to move fast while getting expert guidance. For just $39 plus state fees, they'll handle your formation, create a custom website and establish your local presence wherever your business takes you. As an entrepreneur myself, what I value most is their one stop business solution. You get everything from formation paperwork to custom domains to trademark registration all in one easy to use account. No more juggling all these multiple services or wasting time figuring out the legal stuff. So don't wait. Protect your privacy, build your brand and set up your business in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. Visit northwestregisteredagent.com success and start building something amazing. Get more with Northwest registered agent@northwestregisteredagent.com Success Prolon is a success story partner now. Long weeks and busy weekends, they can leave everybody feeling depleted and tired. We work nonstop and that's why I love Prolon's five day fasting mimicking diet. I love this company. Let me explain how it works. Basically, they have a fasting mimicking diet that rejuvenates you from the inside and out. They deliver plant based soups, snacks and drinks that keep your body in a fasting state while giving you nutrition. And when your body's in a fasting state, this triggers cellular renewal and it actually works. This is why I loved intermittent fasting for so many years. This is the magic of Prolon. And the exciting news is that they just launched a new next gen five day program. So it has all the benefits that they had before, but now they have 100% organic ingredients in their food, better taste and ready to eat meals that make the whole process easier. I've tried the original Prolon program. I felt fantastic whenever I do it. I personally cannot wait to try this new and improved version. And if you've never tried them before, you're in for a treat because the old one was great. I can't even imagine how good this new Prolon five day program is going to be. And for a limited time, Prolon is offering success story listeners, all you guys 15% off site wide plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their five day program. Just go to prolonlife.com Clary that's P R O L O N l I f e.com Clary to get your 15% discount and your bonus gift.
- [02:42]
Dr. John Marashi
Prolonlife.com Clary I did not come from an affluent family. I knew at a very early age that if I wanted anything in life, I had to go out and find ways to earn money.
- [02:55]
Scott Clary
What do skateboarding, Hollywood smiles and a billion dollar exit have in common? One name, Dr. John Marashi. Known as the Tom Ford of cosmetic dentistry, Dr. Marashi has designed smiles for some of the biggest names in entertainment. But his influence doesn't stop there. As the co founder of Bite, he disrupted the orthodontic space with a direct to consumer model leading to a $1 billion acquisition by Denly Sirona.
- [03:17]
Dr. John Marashi
I'm a firm believer that opportunity passes us by all day long and it's just whether you're open to receiving it. My path to entrepreneurship outside of working in someone's mouth, this particular patient asked me, don't you have anything nicer than the toothbrushes you sell in the office? I said, no. She looks at me, she goes, why don't you make one, man? It just hit me. That's what took me down the rabbit hole on my first project. The second year of business, we had a run rate of $100 million. So we had a 10x multiple when we got out. From artistry in the clinic to innovation.
- [03:48]
Scott Clary
In the boardroom do Dr. Marashi's story is about more than teeth. It's about vision, execution and reimagining what's possible.
- [03:55]
Dr. John Marashi
The crud that we scrape out of your mouth during the teeth cleaning, it's linked to diabetes, cardiac issues and dementia. It's 25 years of experience of doing it wrong and figuring out what works. But the shortcut that I would tell someone is.
- [04:14]
Scott Clary
Welcome to Success Story. I'm your host, Scott Clary. The Success Story podcast is part of the HubSpot Podcast network doesn't just have great podcasts, they also have great tools for entrepreneurs. Let me tell you a story I'm sure you've all heard of the Angel City Football Club. Well, you don't just become the world's most valuable women's sports franchise by accident. Angel City Football Club did it. The little help from HubSpot. When they started, data was housed across multiple systems and HubSpot unified their website, their email marketing and fan experience in one platform. This allowed their small team of three to build an entire website in just three days. The result were nearly 350 new fan signups a week and a 300% database growth in just two years. Sure, you can be a great team in the arena, but if you truly want to build a legacy, a franchise and a dynasty, you have to build a community outside of the arena. And HubSpot helped Angel City Football Club do just that. If you want to learn about how HubSpot can help your business, visit HubSpot.com there's some other great case studies and you'll learn how HubSpot can help your business grow better. And One quick Ask before before we dive into today's episode, I need your help with something important. I've just launched a quick survey to better understand what you guys want from the show, and your feedback is going to directly shape our upcoming content. It's only going to take a few minutes of your time and I made it super easy to find. Just head over to scottdclary.com survey and as a thank you for helping me out, I'm giving away a free gift card to one lucky respondent chosen at random once we hit 100 responses. So not only will your feedback help make this show even better, you might score something cool just for sharing your thought. I really appreciate your help with this one. Dr. Marashi, I'm excited you're here. You have been redefining cosmetic dentistry for over two decades and counting now, but you're also an entrepreneur. So I'm curious, what was the point in your life when you realized that dentistry could be an art as well as a platform for entrepreneurship?
- [06:29]
Dr. John Marashi
It's a great question and thanks for having me here today. And it's really one of my favorite stories to tell. You know, I'm a firm believer that opportunity passes us by all day long, and it's just whether you're open to receiving it. And my path to entrepreneurship outside of working in someone's mouth was just purely happenstance. And what happened was I was in my practice doing a checkup on someone who just finished a teeth cleaning and this particular patient asked me, she said, don't you have anything nicer than the toothbrushes you sell in the office? And at that time, my practice, just like everyone else's, you know, either had a Sonicare or an oral B and they're great toothbrushes. And I was like, well, what do you mean? She's like, well, I don't like it. I said, what is it that you don't like about it? And she said, well, it's just a cheap White piece of plastic. Isn't there anything nicer? I said, well, no, I mean, this is the best that there is. And she looks at me, she goes, well, why don't you make one? And man, it just hit me like a sack of bricks in the head. And it would have been very easy just to kind of ha ha, you know, and check her teeth and go on. But the rest of the day I was still thinking about it and I'm like, why don't I make one? I wonder if I could. And so when I finished work that day, I sat down on my computer, opened up a Google browser and said, my first search was this. How to manufacture a sonic toothbrush. And the day and age that we live in is insane because you can get so much information that you never had access to before. And the stuff that came up was just unbelievable. And that's what took me down the rabbit hole. On my first project, which was an oral healthcare company called Marashi Oral Health, I wanted to build a luxury sonic toothbrush. And this project, you know, it took me a while. It took me from start to finish. It took me two years to get to market. And it was full of, you know, setbacks and failures and challenges. You know, like, think about this. So at that point in my career, I know teeth. That's it. I know how to work on teeth, make teeth healthy, make smiles look beautiful. Do you think that my dental school training taught me anything about supply chain packaging, shipping material safety, compliance, testing, ul? Do you know how many pantones of rose gold there are? It's mind blowing. And so, you know, you get sucked down this rabbit hole. And then there's the time commitment too, right? You know, like, I have a full time job already, so I'm working on this, you know, late at night and in the mornings, on the weekends. And then you're spending a lot of money doing it too, right? Again, you know, I bootstrapped this one myself. And you know, every month that you're spending thousands and thousands of dollars developing this thing and then you're getting back product that's junk and it doesn't work and you're, you know, giving it out for free because you want to get feedback from people and finally you get to something where you're like, oh, wow, I'm proud of this. Let's get it to market and see what happens. So the process was an incredible amount of brain damage. But what it did for me is I built this muscle that I didn't even know that I had. And it was Only through trial and error. And when it finally launched, I had some good fortune on my side. And Vogue magazine did a story on it and one of their issues, and it was about a half page or so, and it highlighted the toothbrush and my dental practice and affiliation with celebrity. And so it was a really amazing learning experience.
- [10:12]
Scott Clary
It's interesting, I think, that, you know, when you talk about entrepreneurship, they always say like, oh, there's like a 95% failure rate.
- [10:20]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah.
- [10:21]
Scott Clary
But I believe that your version of entrepreneurship, where you lived in an industry for so long, then saw the opportunity, I think that you flipped those numbers on its head. It's not easy, but I think that that's, that's the secret to successful entrepreneurship. You have to have like insider information on, on a pain point that no one else would ever see. A lot of people probably don't realize that whatever was on the market or in the market at that point was not good enough for the, for the majority of people. They wanted something better, they wanted something new. You were living in it, you saw it. Now. It's still, it's still very hard to, to after having a successful career, take yourself out of the comfort zone, take yourself out of what you know every single day, and then go and become an entrepreneur. That's not easy. That's not easy at all. But you in that position had the best possible chance of success because you lived in it and you understood the industry better than anyone else. So I just find it interesting that people think about entrepreneurship in terms of like, drop out of Stanford, go build the next Facebook or Amazon or Netflix or Google. When people that were in your position, they could have been successful entrepreneurs, but they never, they're high earning. Other dentists, for example, they're high earning. They probably saw the opportunity too. It's not like you're the first person that thought of this idea, not at all. But they just didn't want to go down that, that journey. And they would have had the chance of success that you had if they had taken themselves out of that comfort zone and pushed themselves into something brand new.
- [11:50]
Dr. John Marashi
I think that opportunity exists for everyone. And you bring up a good point. It's about the ideas. They come and go in your mind and do you actually do something with it? I have a friend of mine, Scott Marlette, and he was one of the first 50 employees at Facebook. And so you can imagine after the company IPO'd, like the dude didn't need to work again. And he went on to found the company Goodrx and they do that coupon for medication. Medications and prescriptions. And that company IPO'd at 1.8 billion. The guy's doing just fine. And he's one of the nicest fellows you meet. Well, our kids go to school together, and, you know, we've spent a lot of time together over the years, and we talk about business and entrepreneurship. Now, here's an interesting thing. His dad was actually a dentist. And I was like, oh, no kidding. I had no clue. And Scott was an engineer by training, and, you know, he decided that he wanted to do something, you know, kind of more meaningful and bigger and better than what a traditional engineer would do. And that's why he went the route of doing us being part of a startup. But one of the things that we talked about one time was leveraging what you know already. So for myself, as a businessman and an entrepreneur, you know, like, I could have done anything, just like anybody else could. But for me to go into something that I knew nothing about at all, all would have required an exponentially greater lift of knowledge and expertise. Whereas at the time when I started the toothbrush company, I already knew dentistry. I already knew toothbrushes in general because it's something that everyone uses. I was very familiar with what the pain points were. And so, you know, Scott talks about, hey, listen, you don't have to, you know, invent something. You know, it's better to copy genius than invent mediocrity. It's an old saying, but really piggybacks on what you were saying about. You can take something that an industry that you're already in and start thinking about it differently. Like in dentistry, for example, you can think about, well, what are the pain points that dentists have? What are the everyday problems that your staff would have or your patients would have? And when you start asking better questions, you know you're going to get better answers. And when you can think about things that either have not been addressed ever, which could be disruption or things that could be done more efficiently, you know, you're more likely to get mass adoption of it when you.
- [14:28]
Scott Clary
Because you've done both. Yeah, now you've done both. So with bite, I would consider that disruption.
- [14:34]
Dr. John Marashi
BITE was total disruption.
- [14:35]
Scott Clary
Total disruption. So when you think about either of those businesses, if you're talking to, like, a young entrepreneur that's just getting started, which version of entrepreneurship do you recommend?
- [14:49]
Dr. John Marashi
All the above. And I'll tell you why. Because you don't know what idea is going to hit you just you flat out don't know. Share a Great story with you. Jamie Siminoff is the founder of the Ring Doorbell, really good buddy of mine, and we've talked about this several times. And as I've talked to him about my entrepreneurial endeavors over the years, one of the things that he told me is he calls it the fifth idea. He said, your first idea may not be your best, or maybe it's a great idea, but you didn't execute it properly, so it didn't go anywhere. So oftentimes it's not until your fifth idea where you've gained the necessary experience that you can actually do something to move the needle and get traction. And it's actually less and less about the idea as opposed to the execution upon it. So, you know, that was really. It was a very powerful statement. And it's wisdom, too, if you think about it. You know, to. To have the expectation that the first time you do something that you're going to be amazingly successful with it. You know that that's why you have that 95% failure rate, right? Yeah. So when you think about failure, you know, in our culture in the United States, failure is frowned upon and people. People fear it and they shy away from it. But failure is really nothing more than just, you know, lessons that you learn and, and what do you do with those lessons that you learned and. And how do you, you know, make better decisions and use that as experience, learning of how to do it better the next go around. So, you know, I think as a culture, if we embraced it as thinking like, oh, I messed this up, I failed. I'm no good, as opposed to, okay, I'm just getting my reps in and developing and building myself and my abilities and my knowledge base. I think people would probably have a higher threshold or higher tolerance for doing entrepreneurial endeavors.
- [16:52]
Scott Clary
And I wish more people thought about it like that. I think that it's very hard, especially if you don't have the influence around you, the positive influence around you that's saying things like you're saying to persevere for an extended period of time or through the first four failures to get to the fifth. I think more often than not, especially because failure is frowned upon. I mean, it's. In our circles, we hear these sayings and these, like, entrepreneurialisms all the time. Right. Like, failure is lesson. You know, you have to fail. Like this is. These are things that we embrace because we've lived through them multiple times, so we know they're true. But if you've never. If you've never built anything before, it's very hard to understand that idea because failure feels like shit. Failure feels horrible. And I'm curious, even leaning back to your or going back to your own story, what were your first failures? What were your first four, four ideas that led to the fifth that was successful? What was the thing that you tried that didn't work out? And then how did you persevere through what was the, the mental model or this strategy that even for, I mean even for building a toothbrush for two years with no understanding of supply chain and logistics and all the other things that come with creating a consumer good, what was the thing that allowed you to do that for two years when at any point you could have said, you know what? F this I make good money, I make good money as a dentist, I don't need this headache. Because that could have happened at any point on that two year journey.
- [18:32]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah, it could have happened with the first Google search. You know, just like, like what am I getting myself into? 100 I have always felt, and you know, maybe it's just my own internal drive that if you put your mind towards something, you know that, that you can do it. And you know, maybe I had some of the rose colored glasses on on the toothbrush endeavor and I'll tell you why, because I didn't think it would be near as hard as it actually was. And so I'm like, when I ran my first search and I'm like, okay, cool, there's offshore manufacturing and I can talk with these folks and start dealing with design and getting some prototypes. But like the first factory that I worked with was such a dud, it was unbelievable. But I didn't know until I had burned a ton of time and a ton of money and you're getting this product back, that's just not right. And you know, you're like, God, you know, you feel it, you the angst. Like how come it's not right? It's costing me time, it's costing me money. Should I still be doing this? The self doubt is always there. I think anyone who says otherwise just isn't really being forthcoming about it, you know, because you do ask yourselves those questions like, am I doing the right thing? And the reality is like you don't know. I mean no one knows if it's going to work or if it isn't. But there has to be this. And money ties into it too, right? Because if all you're trying to do is make more money, your motivation for it probably won't be as intrinsic. I think my motivation was trying to develop something that hadn't been done. And for me, the reward for that of like, wow, I created something, you know, a segment of the market that did not exist that people wanted and they went out and purchased, and my name was on it. To me, I was like, that'd be pretty dang cool. So that was more of the motivator. And, you know, what people saw was the outcome. You know, like, it went to market, it got traction, you know, got press. But the part that folks didn't see was all the setbacks along the way and how many times I had to go back to the drawing board and all the extra time and money and so forth. And, you know, if you, if you wait it out, you know, only the individual can answer, was it worth it? But for me, it was. You know, I have another buddy who's a banker, and he's been very successful, and he told me something similar to the fifth idea concept. But he also talked about what his definition of success was. And he told me, he goes, my mentor had told me that it wasn't all about making the most amount of money. It was about being able to do what you want, when you want, with whom you want. And I was like, wow. I mean, that's really freedom in life. So if you have something that you believe in that you think is going to change the world in, in some small way, right? You know, like helping people solve problems, whatever that problem is, you know, that's a strong motivator. I don't know. I don't know what else to say around that.
- [21:57]
Scott Clary
No, it's good advice. I think that that's. I think that that's what people should optimize for. They should figure out what they're optimizing for and let that pull them through all the hard times. And I think that's why money. A couple ideas. Money can never be the motivator. And I also hate the word motivation, because motivation, the second something gets hard, it's out the window. Like, it's gone, right? It's completely, it's gone immediately. And, and, and if you're only pursuing it for money or some first initial fire or motivation, when the hard times happen, which they inevitably will, you'll. You'll give up, you'll move on to something else and you'll. And the sad thing is, I mean, all these cliches are so true. Like all the successes on the other side of, of that pain and that anxiety and that stress that you will inevitably endure on this entrepreneurial journey. But the other side is worth it because then you do get true freedom and true fulfillment once you figure out how to get through all those hard times.
- [22:51]
Dr. John Marashi
Well, the failure too, on top of it are the things that build your resiliency and better prepare you for, you know, what the next project is going to be.
- [23:01]
Scott Clary
True.
- [23:01]
Dr. John Marashi
You know, Marasha Oral Health was a precursor to my larger success in life, you know, which was the company bite. And for those of you listening, BITE was a direct to consumer clear aligner company. So imagine if you could go and get Invisalign done, but you didn't have to walk into the dentist's office to do it. And I'll share with you how that became about, because it's a very interesting story. So, you know, the, the, the, the elephant in the room when it comes to dentistry is two things. One, I don't care where in the world you are, it's expensive. No one wants to talk about that, you know, especially the dentist. But it is. And I always thought access to care was an issue too. And what I mean by that is not that there isn't a dentist, you know, within a certain radius of you, but if you stop and think about it, you know, for you to go to the dentist at a, you know, an 11:30am appointment on a Tuesday, well, you got to actually carve out a pretty good chunk of your life to do that. Yeah, exactly. You got to commute, you got to do the appointment, then you got to go back to where you were. And, and not only did you have to spend money to, you know, at the dentist's office, but you also lost money because you weren't working during that time. I mean, it's, I mean, like you think about the value proposition of that at least. Thank good you're getting good oral health out of it. But, but there is an opportunity cost is my point. So I started thinking about like, okay, I've been very blessed in my career that I got to become Dr. Fancy Pants and take care of all these fun Hollywood people, but what about everybody else? And so the driving question was, could there a quality product or service that could be delivered at scale where it eliminated the high cost and it created a better accessible model. And that's how BITE came about. Clear Aligners was not new in dentistry. It already been around for a while. But what I was able to do with this company, and I always like to give credit to where it's due because I had two fantastic partners that I was able to join this team and be on the founding Team and help this thing grow. Love you, Blake and Scott. There's a little shout out was that we found a better way of doing it. We built a better mousetrap and a cooler way of doing it. And, you know, timing really factors into it. So this is. This is actually the kind of the crux of the story here. So it was, you know, we launched in 2018, and it took us a year of development to actually get to market, and we started getting some traction, and 2019 sales started picking up, and we're like, okay, cool. You know, like, we might actually be able to do something with this. And. And the company was bootstrapped, and we didn't want investor money, so we could make our own decisions and, you know, react accordingly based on what we thought. The ground conditions.
- [25:59]
Scott Clary
You learned a lot of this stuff from, again, past.
- [26:01]
Dr. John Marashi
Exactly. You know, my. I. I already had experience in product and all of this, but imagine this. You know, rewind the clock to March of 2020. What happened? Right, Exactly. Okay. So my dental practice. I had to close my doors, and as did a lot of folks. And we thought the world was over, Right? I mean, nobody knew. There was so much uncertainty. Now picture this. We're having a conversation right now, me and you. I couldn't tell you to save my life if I had a piece of breakfast burrito between my two front teeth. Why? Because I can't see myself. But during COVID outside, wherever you lived, or your Covid bubble that you participated in, how did you communicate with people?
- [26:49]
Scott Clary
Zoom.
- [26:49]
Dr. John Marashi
Exactly. Zoom. FaceTime. So now we're spending hours a day on the screen, and guess what? Everyone was looking at their face. And the number one thing people notice in conversation is. Is actually the mouth. Why? Because it moves the most. So the eyes get drawn there. So mouth and teeth. Your smile is number one. Eyes are number two. Hair's number three. And there's been numerous studies that have come to the same conclusion. So now all of a sudden, you got the whole world on Zoom, FaceTime, etc, and they're going, oh, my God, I didn't realize how bad my teeth are. And we're all our own worst critics, you know, when it comes to self. But here's the problem. Guess what? John Mahrashi's dental office is closed. I can't help anybody. Yeah, but bite could help everybody, because we were a direct to consumer model. So now you got all these people all of a sudden that don't like their smile. So they got a pain point, right? And they're driven by the vanity of it. And they're like, hey, I want to have a healthier smile but a better looking smile. And bite was here. We were the, we were the antidote, you know, we were the aspirin and the vitamin at the same time. And because the business, you know, we thought, we thought the bite was going to go under, but the exact opposite happened. That all of a sudden this demand was insatiable.
- [28:05]
Scott Clary
Why did you think that before COVID.
- [28:07]
Dr. John Marashi
No, when Covid hit is when we thought we were like, all right, we're screwed now. Like all this hard work was for nothing, you know, because no one's going to spend money and everyone's going to be, you know, like, just like everyone else thought. But the exact opposite happened. And you know, we couldn't have forecasted that. You know, that was a total stroke of luck that all of a sudden demand skyrocketed and, you know, there were not enough hours in the day, you know, to, to meet demand. It was absolutely insane. But we were in position and the company had been structured, you know, through the skill and expertise of my partners that, you know, the supply chain had already been worked out. And you know, we had, you know, we were running lean and mean so, you know, we weren't like a bloated pig with overhead and, you know, because otherwise you're just growing a brain ha hemorrhage at that point. So, you know, we were in position to really let this thing run.
- [28:59]
Scott Clary
This podcast is brought to you in part by Stash. Are you still putting off saving and investing? Because you'll get to it someday. Stash turns someday into today. Stash isn't just an investing app. It's a registered investment advisor that combines automated investing with dependable financial strategies to help you reach your goals faster. They'll provide you with personalized advice on what to invest in based on your goals. Or if you just want to sit back and watch your money go to work, you can opt into their award winning expert managed portfolio that picks stocks for you. Stash has helped millions of Americans reach their financial goals and starts at just $3 per month. Don't let your savings sit around. Make it work harder for you. Go to get.stash.comsuccess story and see how you can receive $25 towards your first stock purchase and to view important disclosures, that's get.stash.comsuccess Story paid non client endorsement, not representative of all clients and not a guarantee. Investment advisory services offered by Stash Investments LLC and SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Investing involves risks and investments may lose value Offers subject to T's and C's hey everyone, Scott here. I just want to take a second and say thanks for listening to the podcast over the past couple years. Obviously this wouldn't be possible without each and every one of you. I have a favor to ask so I would love to get some more information about you and why you listen to the podcast and why you listen to the show and why you tune in every week. And I have put together a short survey and we are using this to help us sort of inform what type of content we want to create and the direction of the podcast going forward. This information is not shared with anyone else, so this is just for us internally and I put together a link so scottdclary.com survey where you can go and you can fill in some information so we can know what kind of content you love. Also, for the first 100 people that respond to the survey, you will be entered into a draw for a hundred dollar Amazon gift card. So we'll be giving out one of those to the first people that respond. It should not take more than two minutes of your time to fill out the whole survey. It's really not that long and it will help you shape the future of the podcast. So I really appreciate each and every one of you and thank you for listening. I just want to take a second and thank Cornbread Hemp for supporting today's episode. Now, Cornbread Hemp CBD gummies have been this really nice addition to Wellness Toolkit. I don't use them every day, just when I want to unwind after those extra busy weeks, but they're perfect for those moments when you want to take the edge off and just find your balance. Really just shut off from work. And what makes them special is how Cornbread Hemp crafts them. They only use the flower of USDA organic hemp plants. That's the best part for the purest, most potent experience. No fillers, no artificial fluff, just clean full spectrum goodness in delicious watermelon, berry and peach flavor. I keep them in my nightstand for those moments when I just need a little extra help relaxing. And I love how transparent they are too. Every batch is third party lab tested so you know exactly what you're getting. And they put together a special offer for all success story podcast listeners. All listeners can save 30% off their first order. Just head to cornbreadhemp.com success and use code success at checkout. That's cornbreadhemp.com success code success for 30% off your first order. Of these amazing gummies. When, when something. When you bring up and you think of an idea and you create a company like Byte, how do you balance. So how would you balance sort of the same in office experience with innovation? Because innovation is moving fast. And I think that the reason why it wasn't done at that point was because it was. It was hard to correct someone's smile. Direct to consumer. So when you think about how do you create the best product that can still serve the customer in the same way and replicate the in office experience while being direct to consumer, what are the things that you have to think of, like, how much innovation has to be done to do it properly?
- [32:59]
Dr. John Marashi
Technology was the driver on this. It couldn't have been done in the past because the technology didn't exist for it.
- [33:05]
Scott Clary
Yes. Okay.
- [33:06]
Dr. John Marashi
So having the technology available, it was basically just a jigsaw puzzle first at that point and say, okay, if we want to do our business model like this, how do we use the available technology that we can do it efficiently and cost effectively? So, you know, before I want you to think of like this, like, if you wanted to get a clear aligner, like an invisalign tray, you had to go to a brick and mortar office.
- [33:36]
Scott Clary
Yeah.
- [33:37]
Dr. John Marashi
And there had to be a dentist or a dental professional them taking the mold of your teeth. Right. And then every time that you needed a new tray, you'd go back in and then they would remold you. But technology allowed us to send the customers, they took the mold themselves, and then we could scan it when it came back and the software could actually move the teeth. So you only needed that first mold.
- [34:07]
Scott Clary
It would, it would. It would show the progression.
- [34:09]
Dr. John Marashi
Exactly. It was like a. It was like a. It's like a virtual time lapse of the teeth movement and then 3D print each sequential movement of tooth and build trays and aligners based on that to get someone to the finish line. You couldn't do that in the past.
- [34:27]
Scott Clary
You couldn't. And also, this goes back to that very first point I made about unless you're in it, unless you're in this industry, you wouldn't have seen that opportunity.
- [34:38]
Dr. John Marashi
I wouldn't have. That's for darn sure.
- [34:40]
Scott Clary
Yeah, that's. That's, that's. In my opinion, that is the most beautiful version of entrepreneurship. And I think that's what people should think about. Don't. You don't always have to create something that you know nothing about.
- [34:50]
Dr. John Marashi
No. In fact, when people ask me about entrepreneurship, I tell them, like, like, don't go for sexy.
- [34:57]
Scott Clary
Yeah, yeah.
- [34:59]
Dr. John Marashi
Go for everyday problems that people have and figure out, are you an aspirin or are you a vitamin? If you're an aspirin and you got pain, there's nothing that people won't do to get that aspirin in. There's no amount of money they won't pay for it because they're in pain. Solve their problem and people run towards pleasure. Right. So if you're a vitamin and you want to look good and feel good, people run towards that too. You know, that's the whole market of discretionary spending.
- [35:27]
Scott Clary
100. What would be your advice for understanding if you're a vitamin or a painkiller.
- [35:33]
Dr. John Marashi
Understanding one versus the other? Well, I think it's just the, you know, it's going to be the market, you know, that you're in. Like what, what market sector are you in and what is it that you're addressing?
- [35:43]
Scott Clary
You know, are you with the toothbrush? Was that of more of a vitamin.
- [35:46]
Dr. John Marashi
Than a total vitamin? You know why? Because when I was talking with that patient in dental hygiene, she said, I want something that's beautiful and elegant, that looks amazing on my countertop. She's like, this piece of crap, I throw it in the drawer.
- [36:01]
Scott Clary
Yeah.
- [36:01]
Dr. John Marashi
So I started thinking about, all right, well, materials and premium finishes and something that's going to look elegant. And so, you know, it became a complete exercise in aesthetics and it needed to have a kinesthetic component to it. What I mean by that is a feel because people like looking and holding things that are beautiful. So I realized, like, I had to go through all different kinds of. And I used aircraft grade aluminum that was anodized, but once again, several different grades and thicknesses and finishes and, and you know, and sometimes you just don't know until you've looked at it and held it and given it to enough people to get some feedback on it.
- [36:47]
Scott Clary
Yeah, I love, I love how you have mapped out like the vitamin and the way to bring a vitamin product to market. Very different, I think also, I think a lot more difficult because again, it's not a painkiller. It's not, it's not something that people are horrified over every time they look at themselves in zoom. It's a nice to have, not a need to have. But still, at the end of the day, both can work. Both can work. If you understand your industry better than.
- [37:15]
Dr. John Marashi
Anyone else, there's that and then there's another component too. It's the power of proximity in relationships. So I'm taking A little bit of a left turn here. Part of the success that I've had has been predicated by the people that I'm around. And it's because I had. My mind was like an open vessel to receive feedback information and ask for help when Bite was in the middle of it, meaning that we were cruising through our numbers, were killing it. During the pandemic, I was back in dental hygiene again. Client of mine, guy lived about a mile or so from me. And when I get in to do a checkup on someone as a business owner, usually a hundred things going on, I, I, I just got interrupted from a procedure that I was already doing, and I got to go check someone's teeth. And then you're thinking about, like, what the staff is doing up front and so forth. Normal owner type of stuff, right? So, you know, you get in, you do the checkup, you do your pleasantries, and then you got to get back to what you were doing. So the guy that was, that needed the checkup, his name's Chuck, and, and I sat down with him and he's like, good guy. And he goes, hey, Doc, what are you working on that's cool these days? And just, you know that that was his icebreaker for me.
- [38:40]
Scott Clary
Yeah.
- [38:41]
Dr. John Marashi
And normally I would have said, oh, you know, the usual smiles and I'm making teeth, you know, look beautiful and everything is good. Okay, open wide, right? And then I do my thing and something, and I don't know what it was because I was in the middle of a procedure in another room. It made me slow down and I said, you know what? I'm working on this cool project. And I started telling him about Byte. Now, Chuck Adams at the time was a healthcare banker for Goldman Sachs. And he goes, what's your exit? And so I talked to him about where we're headed with the company. He goes, are you guys ready to sell? And I said, well, if the number's right, of course. That's every entrepreneur's dream. He goes, I might be able to help with this. So. Really? Well, you know what, Let me connect you with my partners because they're more on that side of the business and see where it goes. So this was maybe mid to late October 2020. December 31, 2020. Fast forward. Was that 45 days or wait? No, no. Two and a half months later, a month and a half later, last day of probably the shittiest year that everyone had, right? The deal closed, and Chuck connected us, the sellers to our buyer, which was Dentsply, Sirona, and at the time they were the juggernaut of the dental industry. $12 billion market cap, and they purchased our company for a billion dollars in cash. So you talk about the power of relationships and proximity. You know, like, I built this one company because someone in my teeth clean said, you should build better, but make something nicer. And the thing with Bite is that our exit was predicated on a chat that I had with some guy while he was getting his teeth cleaned. And I could have just blown right past it, thought nothing of it. So I don't think my story is unique in terms of having these opportunities. I think just most people are blind to them. And I don't mean that in a derogatory way. I mean, people are not being receptive to what's going on around them and being open to what possibilities could be.
- [41:03]
Scott Clary
Yeah, I mean, how nuts is that?
- [41:07]
Dr. John Marashi
That's incredible, you know, because we were shopping the company at the time, but this ended up being the one that got the deal done and for an insane number.
- [41:17]
Scott Clary
So that was quick. Yeah, that was quick to a billion. That's. That's. I don't think I have a lot of entrepreneurs on this show, and I don't. How long was it from when you started?
- [41:28]
Dr. John Marashi
So it took us a year to get to market, and we were in the marketplace for two years.
- [41:33]
Scott Clary
So three years to a billion.
- [41:35]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah. And in the second year of business, we had a run rate of $100 million. So we had a 10x multiple when we got out.
- [41:42]
Scott Clary
Incredible. Absolutely incredible. The fur, the toothbrush did not do that well.
- [41:48]
Dr. John Marashi
No, you know what? I was happy that I didn't lose my shirt on it. And, you know, and I easily could have. And honestly, it wouldn't have mattered because the experience that I gained and the things that I learned about building and running a business, had I not done that, I wouldn't have had the wherewithal, the experience, even the fortitude to have been involved with Bite. It literally would have been biting off more than I could chew. So things lead to things. That whole fifth idea thing, Marashi, oral health, and the toothbrush never would have been a bite because I didn't have the skillset necessary. But when I got to that, to the opportunity with Byte, I was ready, I had experience and I was able to contribute to help this company grow.
- [42:43]
Scott Clary
How does your life change after having a billion dollar exit?
- [42:47]
Dr. John Marashi
So let me tell you something. So I just told you the New Year's Eve, right? New Year's Day, I'm back in my office seeing a Patient who had a tooth emergency broke his tooth. And most people on New Year's Day don't want to be back at work doing anything.
- [43:06]
Scott Clary
Yeah.
- [43:07]
Dr. John Marashi
And probably even fewer people that had just had the good fortune that had been bestowed upon me, they'd say, gone fishing.
- [43:14]
Scott Clary
Yeah.
- [43:15]
Dr. John Marashi
And I was back in my office and I was smiling ear to ear, and I was so happy doing what I was doing, because my calling in life has always been about serving people. I've been very clear about that from a very young age, that that's what I'm here on this planet to do, is to help people. And it told me at that moment where here I am on my day off taking care of this guy with a broken tooth. I don't even have a dental assistant helping me or anything. That I had chose wisely. Like, this was a good decision, that I was a dentist and I could have retired. Right. But I decided, you know what? I want to keep doing this. And my core business has grown over the past few years, and I'm probably working harder now than even I was prior because of the growth in my business. And I'm very thankful for that. It just tells me that I. That I chose wisely.
- [44:08]
Scott Clary
I mean, I think that that means you're, You're. You're in your zone of genius when even after an exit like that, you're still choosing to put in work.
- [44:15]
Dr. John Marashi
You know, my friends that I've mentioned so far, they've all gone on to do other things. You know, my partners from Bite, they're doing a fitness mirror now, and they've got other companies that they're involved in. And, and these are things that led to more things for them. You know, my good friend Bastian Lehman, he founded Postmates, and he's already on another company. And so I think what it is with the entrepreneurial spirit is that there really is no destination. Because for them, for me, money wasn't the driver. It was just doing cool things and trying things and working hard. And I'm 51 years old now, and the idea of sitting around and doing nothing is actually pretty scary. What am I going to do? To sit around and do nothing? And maybe when you're busy. Busy and stressed, it sounds nice, but that's what vacations are for, you know, and then you recharge and you want to get back to work and do things. I. I don't even see a world where I'm not doing something. I mean, there's going to come a time where my eyes are no good and My hands aren't as nimble and, and I won't be in someone's mouth. But that doesn't mean that there aren't other cool things to work on and, and to challenge myself with.
- [45:26]
Scott Clary
No, I was just going to say this is such a common theme with, with entrepreneurs that I, that I speak with. Doesn't matter how big the exit is. There's. They're always moving on to the next thing. Some of them do take more than 24 hours off. Yeah. After they, after they have an exit. But a lot of them are, they get anxious because it's just a personality type that wants to keep building and keep. Where did that for you? Where did that come from? Was that something that was bestowed upon you by your parents? Did you have an entrepreneurial upbringing? Is entrepreneurship something that you learn over time or is it something that you're born with? What are your thoughts?
- [46:04]
Dr. John Marashi
You know, I think it's, it's a combination of several factors. You know, I think some people are wired for it, some people have an appetite for it, there's others that don't and you know, no judgment. That's just, you know, people, there's just different personality types. You know, how I grew up and how I was raised. You know, I did not come from an affluent family. You know, it was probably a lower middle class family. My folks worked as hard as they could to do what they were able to do. I never didn't have food. So it's like I'm not painting this picture of extreme poverty, but I wasn't the kid with the fancy bicycle either. And so I knew at a very early age that if I wanted anything in life, when I wanted toys, in fact, when I wanted my bicycle, we didn't have discretionary income for that. So I had to go out and find ways to earn money. And so I was always hustling since I was a kid. And there's limited ways to make money as an 8 year old, but I figure out I got two hands and a strong back so I could shovel sidewalks in the winter and I was able to mow lawns and weeding and a paper route and things like that. So I started very early. Like I was always working and doing something and the first time I was able to get a job as a busboy, know, like. And so that's, that's kind of where from an earlier age I think some of the hustle came from, it's just like, okay, you want something, you have to work for it. That's how life is. And, and I'd always lived my my life that way. You know, I don't think I was the smartest kid. I mean, I. I like school. It's probably debatable if I'm the best dentist on the planet. I mean, my mom thinks I'm pretty good. Maybe that counts for something thing.
- [47:59]
Scott Clary
It counts for a lot. Moms are important.
- [48:01]
Dr. John Marashi
But what I was not afraid to do was to roll up my sleeves and do the work I knew. I knew if I was willing to work hard, probably something was going to turn out right.
- [48:10]
Scott Clary
Lingoda is a partner of success story. Look, I'll be real with you. My French used to be solid. I learned it in school. I even had decent pronunciation. But when I booked a trip to France last year, it was a total blank. I could barely order a croissant without sounding like a tourist. So I jumped into the Lingoda Sprint challenge and man, it changed everything. I'd take live classes late at night after podcasting. Only five students, max. Real teachers, real conversations. And in just two months, I went from bonjour to holding full conversations at a Paris cafe. Confidence unlocked. Now here's the play 30 or 60 classes in 60 days. And if you finish them all, you get 50% cash back. That's basically €4 or $5 per class. That's insane value. Go to try.lingoda.com success_ sprint and then use my code Scott Sprint for an extra €20 off on top of their current deal registration closes May 5th class of finances start May 12th. Let's get fluent. FreshBooks is supporting today's episode. And if you've ever wondered how successful entrepreneurs stay on top of their finances while growing their business, the answer is FreshBooks. The numbers don't lie. Over 30 million people have chosen FreshBooks, processing more than 60 billion in invoices and saving an incredible 192 hours every year on accounting tasks. Think about it. That's nearly eight full days you could get back to focus on what really matters. Growing your business FreshBooks is more than just accounting software. It's your all in one financial command center. Create professional estimates limits, track time, automatically, bill clients, and capture expenses on the go. Plus, it integrates seamlessly with over 100 business tools you already use, all backed by award winning customer service. If you're ready to stop drowning in receipts and you're ready to stop chasing down payments, here's what I want you to do. Head over to freshbooks.com to start your 30 day free trial. No credit card required, and for all you success story listeners out there, I've got something special. Get an exclusive 60% off for six months when you visit freshbooks.com pricing offer transform your business with freshbooks today. That's freshbooks.com pricing offer for 60% off. Today's episode is brought to you by Vanta. Now listen up. This matters for your business. In today's digital landscape, security isn't optional, it's essential. Without it, deal stall sales cycles stretch on and scaling becomes very difficult now. Why? Because investors, customers and partners all expect businesses to demonstrate strong security practices before they commit. If you can't prove trust, you lose opportunities. So whether you're a startup founder trying to land that first big client or an established company scaling your security program, Vanta helps businesses of all sizes prove that they're trustworthy by Automating compliance across 35 frameworks like SoC2, ISO 27001 and HIPAA, the exact certifications your prospects are demanding. Here's why you need to pay attention. Vanta gives you back precious time that you're currently wasting on compliance. Their platform automates up to 90% of the tedious compliance work. It helps you respond to those endless security questionnaires up to five times faster. And it connects you with experts to get your security program running immediately. The results speak for themselves. A recent IDC report found that Vanta customers achieve over $535,000 per year in benefits and the platform pays for itself in just three months. So you're going to join over 10,000 global companies like Atlassian, Quora and Factory who use Vanta to manage risk, improve security in real time. And don't miss this for a limited time only my listeners can get a thousand dollars off Vanta. That's real money back in your pocket. Visit vanta.comScott right now before this offer expires. That is V A N T A dot com Scott I think that's I think that's probably the best attitude. I I am a firm believer that if you put enough time into something, you do figure it out. Some things will come easier than others. But put 10 plus years of your life into something and you'll find a way to be semi good semi good at it. At the bare minimum, what was the just sort of going into sort of your thought process about how you navigate life. I I understand where the entrepreneurship side of you came from and I understand the opportunities you you sort of pursued in entrepreneurship when you these businesses. Where did the passion for cosmetic dentistry come from? It's a Very unique niche.
- [52:46]
Dr. John Marashi
You know, when I started noticing girls in seventh grade, yeah, for some weird reason, the ones that I gravitated towards were the girls with braces. And you know, I didn't have braces, we didn't have money for braces. So for me that was something aspirational. But I also saw it as like, boy, they're going to have this incredible smile and those things come off. I know it's kind of, kind of weird for a kid that young, so.
- [53:09]
Scott Clary
Well, you, that's the way you thought.
- [53:10]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah. And as a kid, there were only two things I wanted to do in my entire life. It was going to be a dentist or professional skateboarder. That's it. Those are the only two things I was interested in.
- [53:21]
Scott Clary
Skateboard on YouTube.
- [53:22]
Dr. John Marashi
So, you know, I'm still doing it. I have been skateboarding for 39 years. I never stopped. And so it's, it's, it's my passion in life. And you know, the way the cards felt probably for the better, you know, being amateur skateboarder and professional dentist. But cosmetic dentistry when I was a kid wasn't a thing. And getting into dental school, I thought I'd probably just end up being an orthodontist because I had the thing for smiles. But that's where I got the first exposure to cosmetic dentistry. And I was like, holy moly. Like, no, this is what I want to do. And once I saw what the possibilities were, how you could transform someone's smile. Because straight teeth don't always necessarily mean good looking teeth. And that's what cosmetic dentistry does, you know, so whether the procedure is teeth whitening or fixing a chip on the tooth, or using porcelain veneers, which is the bulk of what I do, and a veneer for the listeners is a little sliver of porcelain that's bonded over the front of the tooth and you can control the shape and size and color. And when you treat the full range of visible teeth in your smile, you can really make a smile look incredible. So I got that exposure to it in dental school and I was hell bent on learning as much as I could. And turned out that the guy who basically invented this procedure was an instructor at my school. So I followed that dude around everywhere to get the information and he ended up starting the first honors aesthetic dentistry program in a dental school. And I was student number one admitted into it.
- [54:49]
Scott Clary
Really?
- [54:49]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah.
- [54:50]
Scott Clary
So you were an og. You were one of the, the original cosmetic dentists.
- [54:56]
Dr. John Marashi
So I mean it for, you know, people had been doing cosmetic denture out in private practice. But, but in terms of it being like a formalized type of program with a structured training, yeah, I was student number one. And that set me up to start doing these advanced procedures that not even very many people were out there in private practice doing. And here I was as a student doing it. And through that I was able to connect with the dentist in New York City. I went to nyu, who at that time, he was like number one in the world for doing this. So I followed this guy around like crazy and you know, like showing up at his office and following him to conferences and all this stuff until I convinced him to hire me. And you know, I was 27 years old working in this top cosmetic dentistry practice, learning how to do all these procedures. You know, like, you know, talk about the 10,000 hour rule. And some people spend a career trying to get to there. And I had done, I had, had, had achieved that in less than a couple years with this guy. And then at that point I said, you know what, I want to, I want to go do it on my own. And so that's when I moved to California in early 2004. And you know, I've, I've been there since and, and so, you know, professionally, my ride in dentistry, you know, I had a really, you know, fast and quick ascent. But, but it was because of all the hustle that I did at the time where I was thinking about, you know, the big picture as opposed to many students just live sort of test to test and exam to exam to get out the door.
- [56:31]
Scott Clary
But when you, when you first start. So one common thread between all of your successes has been relationships and being around the right people. I, I see it again and again and again, and even, even how you created your practice, that you work with celebrities and obviously that's a great clientele. But to your point, having that high end clientele also leads to business opportunities that you were just treating your teeth, but then all of a sudden you have a guy sitting in a chair that can help you exit for a billion dollars. So again, your network is created, not created outside of your own work, but your network has been a huge multiplier.
- [57:08]
Dr. John Marashi
Absolutely.
- [57:09]
Scott Clary
In your success.
- [57:10]
Dr. John Marashi
You know, if you practice dentistry in Los Angeles, it's a statistical improbability that you will not land someone who works in entertainment because that's the entertainment hub of the world. But it's not like, you know that you're going to have everybody all of a sudden. Right? So it's a, it's a slow process over time Of. Of building relationships and networking and hustling and, you know, until you finally get someone on the D list. And slowly, over time, I've had people ask me. They're like, how'd you get everybody and all these famous folks? And I'm like, well, it's only a. You know, it was an overnight success of 25 years. People forget about that part. But the people that I've been able to meet and take care of and spend time with, I mean, they're. They're. It's pretty mind blowing and pinch me moments. I'll share a story with you. It's a funny one. You know, I'm known for doing beautiful smiles, right? But. But sometimes you get hired to do an ugly smile, and it's not like the normal thing that I do, but Joaquin Phoenix, who's a friend of mine and client, just a gem of a human being, I just couldn't say enough good things about him. He did this movie called the Joker, and I don't know if you saw it, but it's a real dark character to have about this guy who loses his way. And you're rooting for this guy to do horrible things. It's mind blowing. And he came in and he's like, doc, I'm doing this role and I need my teeth to look terrible. And so it was really. It was, you know, doing the opposite of what I do to people to. Instead of making teeth look nice, making teeth look crappy. So it was appropriate for this role.
- [58:50]
Scott Clary
Does he change his actual teeth?
- [58:53]
Dr. John Marashi
So, you know, Joaquin lost a lot of weight for this movie. You know, he went very method in this. I think he lost, like, you know, it was like £60 or something like that. He's not a big guy to begin with, and, you know, he was down to like a hundred and. And twenty pounds. And, you know, for a guy who's like, you know, 5 foot 10, that's really, really skinny and what we did to his teeth and, you know, he's allowed me to share the story because it's pretty cool. So I had fixed his teeth years ago, not with veneers, but, you know, with, like, teeth whitening and, you know, some chipped edges. So you do this stuff called bonding. And it's like a putty. You can, you know, you can harden it and repair the edge of a tooth. Like if you had chipped your fingernail and you had to repair it. And what we did is we took all that stuff off the teeth to reveal the cracks and the chips that had Been there for a long time. So it's kind of like reverse dentistry.
- [59:45]
Scott Clary
Yeah.
- [59:45]
Dr. John Marashi
And that's what made the teeth look so unsightly for the role.
- [59:49]
Scott Clary
Oh, my goodness.
- [59:50]
Dr. John Marashi
And then when the movie was done, we fixed it back up, and then I had to do it a whole second time because they had Joker Part two.
- [59:55]
Scott Clary
Yeah.
- [59:57]
Dr. John Marashi
So, you know, you really got to do fun things like that and comes in unexpected places. Ryan Seacrest, dear friend. I mean, he's just. The guy's just awesome. I don't think I've ever met anyone harder working in the business than this guy. And I've been crank called more times than you could possibly believe by this guy in the office to meet, to talk on the radio or the TV or whatever about a tooth problem that he had. And so there's a lot of pinch me moments. I mean. I mean, one of the best ones, while we're talking about celebrity, is for probably about the last 10 years or so, anytime that Vin Diesel has come in, we always go and get a cup of coffee afterwards at the end of the day. And it's funny, we'll be walking down the street and he goes. You know, he's like, I'm not out in public too often. Obviously, he's one of the biggest celebrities in the world. And so I'll go into Coffee Bean and grab two cups of coffee, and then I walk out and hand him his cup. And then we go behind the building and sit down on a curb and. Because it's private in the alley, and it's just two old guys with kids just shooting the breeze. And so this must have been maybe like a year or two ago. And he goes, do you want to go to Rome? And I was like, yeah. Can I ask why? And he goes. He goes, well, I'm having the. The premiere for. For my latest Fast and Furious movie. I thought you might want to come. I'm like, yeah, I definitely want to come. I'm like, well, when is it? He goes, next week. And I'm like, can I have a day to work on this?
- [61:26]
Scott Clary
Yeah.
- [61:27]
Dr. John Marashi
And I go to work the next day. I'm like, cancel my schedule. I'm going to go to Rome. And, you know, there I was a week later on the red carpet in Rome for this big movie production. And. And, you know, like, I didn't get into dentistry to do these things. But what has happened and why these relationships have been so successful is because when I take care of celebrities, I don't treat them any different than I do any other person in my office. I don't care what walk of life you came from, you know, you're going to get the best of me no matter what. And celebrities in general, oftentimes, you know, they have their Persona, but when they come to my office, they can let their guard down and you get to know the individual and the person. And dentistry is very intimate, so you develop friendships with folks. And I really do count my blessings that I have been so fortunate to, to do and experience so many cool things. Like, who would have thought, like as a dentist, you know, that you got to do things like that?
- [62:33]
Scott Clary
No, but that's so, that's just, that's just a lot of fun. And, and I, and I do agree, I mean, I think that if, forget the average person is not going to be running into celebrities every single day. But like, just think about, I'm thinking about an entrepreneur that is listening to this, that is speaking with some big business, you know, exited entrepreneur. I think the lesson is you just treat them like regular people. It doesn't matter how successful they are. I think that the people that you want to work with, you want to spend time with. If they can't be normal and regular with you, they're not people that you want.
- [63:07]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah, those are the folks who want to do business with anyone.
- [63:10]
Scott Clary
Yeah, no, if people have egos. And so I like, I listen, I get, I, I have a podcast, I, I interview people that have had wild success. Very fortunate that people are, you know, 100 million dollar exit, 500 million dollar exit, several billionaires. Fortunately, the majority of them are very down to earth, very regular, real people. And I don't think they like when they're treated any differently.
- [63:35]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah.
- [63:36]
Scott Clary
And I think that those are the people that you want to spend time with, you want to have in your circle. And, and again, it's not celebrity for me, it's more business celebrity. But still, if you are trying to build relationships with these people, just treat them like regular people. I think that's, I think that's how you, that's how you build a real relationship with them.
- [63:53]
Dr. John Marashi
The relationship. Yeah, I mean, they really are. I, I, I, I look at my successes that I've had and, and you know, the being able to build and cultivate meaningful relationships has absolutely been part of the success formula.
- [64:14]
Scott Clary
Yeah, I think that just because of the people that you surround yourself with, like you said, that has led to all the success in business and life and everything.
- [64:22]
Dr. John Marashi
Did you ever hear that saying, like, it's better to be the dumbest person in the room.
- [64:26]
Scott Clary
A thousand percent. Yeah.
- [64:27]
Dr. John Marashi
You know, and listen, to this day, I still try to be the dumbest person in the room because I actually have a chance at learning something.
- [64:36]
Scott Clary
When you think about the work that you do, I'm sure you see a lot of bad work, because I see a lot of veneers that blind me. But if somebody is just looking for your advice on how to craft the perfect smile per se, what is your advice to them? What should they be thinking about if they want to get some work done?
- [64:55]
Dr. John Marashi
You know, everyone when it comes to aesthetics. Right. It's subjective in nature. And the niche that I've carved out in cosmetic dentistry has been the quiet luxury of smiles. You know, doing things that are tasteful and look appropriate and not flashy. And some people want that other look and no judgment. You know, they want those big white choppers. But there's a lot of folks that unfortunately get an unintended result.
- [65:21]
Scott Clary
I think that's what I'm trying to avoid for people. Yeah.
- [65:24]
Dr. John Marashi
So, you know, my advice is, look, look. If you're out and you're looking to have cosmetic dentistry done and I can't take care of everyone, it's just one of me. There's a lot of fantastic dentists everywhere. Some of the questions you should be thinking about, are you going to interview your dentist? Ask them, what do they think? What's their aesthetic? What's their opinion on it? But more importantly, ask them to show you before and after samples of their work, because there's actually smile libraries you can purchase of before and after.
- [65:58]
Scott Clary
So that's not even their work.
- [65:59]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah, it just shows examples of what cosmetic dentistry could be. So you want to say, show me examples of your work where the starting point is similar to my condition and the endpoint is something similar that you think would look good for me. And if someone has done enough of this, they'll have an extensive library to show you. Like, hey, look, look, here's what I did for this person. Here's where they started. You can see the similarities, and here's where I was able to get them. And if you see enough of that, you're going to have a good sense of this person's design and abilities and aesthetic and determine if it's right for you. If you keep seeing cases where you're like, I don't like that one, I don't like that one. I don't like that one. And their only answer is, well, we'll make yours different, you know, you might be rolling the dice a Little bit.
- [66:42]
Scott Clary
So yeah, yeah.
- [66:43]
Dr. John Marashi
You know, just by or if you have a friend that, that, you know, you like their treatment that they receive, then, you know, that might be a good starting point. You know, better than picking a name out of a hat.
- [66:53]
Scott Clary
I see these examples of veneers where they shave the tooth down to nothing.
- [66:59]
Dr. John Marashi
Ah, it's not supposed to happen.
- [67:00]
Scott Clary
Well, can you explain what's happening in those cases versus what it should be?
- [67:05]
Dr. John Marashi
Okay, so let's start with what a veneer should be. A veneer, once again, by definition, is just a covering. That's it. And it goes on the front of the tooth. Tooth. Now, if you think about it, if your tooth is already in the correct position and you put a covering on it, it's thicker than what it originally was with me. And you can only increase the thickness so much before it doesn't look right. So if your tooth was smaller or normal size and you bump the thickness just a smidge, chances are you won't notice. Which means when the veneer goes on, you don't need to do any drilling because it's additive in nature. Or if the tooth has kind of a weird shape and you can't get the thing to fit on it, maybe you got to modify the surface a little bit so the thing can lock on properly because there's a geometric shape that's required. But generally speaking, if that's required, the amount of modification and when I say modification, this is what the layperson would call lay. Like shaving or tooth grinding is a half millimeter or less. Realize how tiny a half millimeter is. It's almost imperceptible. So that's how it's supposed to be done. How it ends up being done a lot of the time is by dentists that haven't had appropriate training because there's not a lot of really great training out there. And it's very quick and easy to whack a tooth down because they say, oh, just let the lab guy worry about it. And that's more of like a crown preparation, not a veneer preparation. A crown is where the tooth gets whacked down to like 50% of the size. So they put a covering on it. But the reason why that's being done is because there was some major structural durability issue of the tooth that they had to basically grind away the broken down parts to cover the thing and make it durable again. But if your front tooth or your front teeth didn't need that, why on earth would you want them whacked down to nothing. And then my be working with a dental laboratory where the technician is not as well trained. They don't even know what the client looks like. And they just. And on the model the teeth might look really good, but it's like seeing a dress in a window. And then the woman tries on and said, no, this doesn't fit me very well. So it's rampant in our profession to a fault. And you know, truth be told, I rarely meet a dentist that purposely is trying to do a crummy job. But if you don't have the training, then, you know, you don't even know that you're not doing a good job. Right. You just think like, oh, this is okay. So half of what I do these days is revision dentistry where someone went somewhere else and they got that unintended result. Now I'm the fix it guy.
- [69:46]
Scott Clary
You can't, if your teeth are shaved down, you can't fit.
- [69:49]
Dr. John Marashi
You're right. Well, you can't make the tooth grow back. You're right. That's a one way street. But what I can do is get rid of the crazy horse teeth. Remove them. They actually have a laser and the energy from the laser goes through the porcelain and it debonds it and it falls right off before they had to drill it off. And in drilling off the porcelain, they drill off more of the tooth unintentionally. And then the shaved down tooth got even smaller. Like, how crazy is that? So I have a laser that can remove these things and then I can bond a new set of veneers on that are smaller, thinner, yet stronger. So at least the tooth looks normal again.
- [70:31]
Scott Clary
I understand. So what's happening when people get that little like shave down nub thing going on compared to what you do? If you put on veneers, you could take off the veneers and they could still have fully functional teeth.
- [70:48]
Dr. John Marashi
If you have done a no prep design, meaning no surface alteration, you just bonded the veneers on it 100% correct. The veneer can be removed, the surface can be repolished. And it's like going back to square one.
- [71:01]
Scott Clary
Do you see a lot of this with medical tourism? People trying to get cheaper veneers in all these different countries?
- [71:08]
Dr. John Marashi
Oh yeah, I had this guy that, this guy named Jeff, he went to Colombia. And the funny thing is is Jeff is really rich already. He just got bad advice and he flew down there. And the crazy thing is is they knock him out. They have an anesthesiologist while they're doing the procedure and something went horribly wrong. And he woke up in the hospital with no teeth. They shaved them all down and they couldn't finish the procedure. And he's like, well, I can't leave the country without teeth. So he recovered for a couple days and went back and they put him under again to finish the thing. I mean, he could have died. And he got back up to the States and the guy lives down in South Orange county, and half the teeth broke because they weren't engineered properly and they weren't bonded properly. And his teeth were shaved down. It was a mess. And long story short, he got referred to me and he's telling me the story and I'm just like, as shocked as you are. I mean, I thought I had heard it all. I was like, oh, my God. So it was a full revision case. I mean, I had to remove all the porcelains and rebuild the bite and get him the aesthetics and everything is fine now. Now. But, you know, there's a lot of folks who, who travel because once again, the stuff is expensive. And that's not to say that if you go abroad somewhere that just because you practice dentistry in a foreign country, that you're a lousy provider. Of course, I think what it is, it's a cautionary tale that sometimes you get what you pay for.
- [72:41]
Scott Clary
I think so, too. I think that forget teeth. Just medical tourism in general is very scary to me. I mean, you see all these horror stories about all these injections and all these plastic surgeries that go horribly wrong. And also, I mean, the anesthesia, the anesthetic part of it, there was just a case. Anesthetic is not good to go under again and again and again and again either. I think that this is not your field, but somebody just died from having an anesthetic for a full back tattoo.
- [73:10]
Dr. John Marashi
Oh, gosh.
- [73:11]
Scott Clary
Yeah. Because now they're doing full anesthetic, general anesthetic for some longer tattoos. Use.
- [73:16]
Dr. John Marashi
Okay.
- [73:16]
Scott Clary
So I mean, if you, if you, if you don't have to go. Do you have to go under anesthetic for veneers?
- [73:21]
Dr. John Marashi
No. No.
- [73:22]
Scott Clary
Oh, so this is, like, very strange that.
- [73:24]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah, no, it's elective in nature. I mean, like, look, you don't have to go under for a colonoscopy, but a lot of people prefer.
- [73:29]
Scott Clary
Understood. Yeah, yeah. And obviously, if you're. If you're. The point is, if you're doing something where you're going under, maybe do it in the US at least where you're a little bit safer and have a.
- [73:41]
Dr. John Marashi
Board certified anesthesiologist doing it.
- [73:43]
Scott Clary
Yes. Not just a technician.
- [73:45]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah.
- [73:45]
Scott Clary
Because the standards of care are different in different countries and that's what you have to be careful of. That's it. It's not that there's not good doctors all over the world, because there is, but you just have to make sure that you know what you're getting yourself into. Have you ever had to turn a patient away for a request that they had?
- [74:04]
Dr. John Marashi
Oh, all the time. Yeah.
- [74:06]
Scott Clary
Why is that?
- [74:07]
Dr. John Marashi
You know, what happens is you get to a certain level of proficiency in your career and then word gets out. And so you get a lot of people that want to come and see you, which is exactly what every business person wants. But sometimes, as a result of it, it attracts the crazies. And in my world, the crazies are the ones who come in and they bring a folder with them and it's about this thick, and it's got their records from 5, 10, 15 different dental offices. And they've been to multiple dentists and had their procedures done over and over again. And as you start to listen to the story, you realize that it actually wasn't the dentist, it was the patient's expectations. And there are some folks that no matter how good you are at doing something, you're not going to be able to deliver because their expectations simply just. Just aren't possible. They're unreasonable expectations. Now, earlier in my career, I didn't have the people management skills or even the experience to sniff that out. And, you know, you're hungry to do the work and you do it, and then you just end up getting your ass handed to you, and it sucks. But now that I have more gray hair on my head, you know, I. I learned to read the signs and, and I've had to tell people, you know, you sit and you listen because they've paid you for a consultation and they are there for you to tell them the truth. And that's what I have to do. And sometimes it's very difficult. And I tell them, I say listen, I hear what you're saying. And after listening to you, what I believe to be true is that I can't help you because I'm not going to be able to give you the outcome that you're looking for. And what I don't want to be is the next name on the graveyard list that you're carrying with you of someone who couldn't deliver favor. It's not fair to you to spend that time. It's not fair to you to spend that money. If I Already know right away I'm not going to be able to do that. And most of the time when I'm saying that, it's because what they're asking for are like crazy big, thick, white teeth, and that's just not my thing. I don't do that.
- [76:25]
Scott Clary
But it's not like, I don't know what else. What do people get, like, any, like, like jewelry or stuff in their teeth.
- [76:32]
Dr. John Marashi
Or, you know, I get those requests once in a blue moon. There's actually some dentists that have built very successful practices. I got a buddy of mine who does like the, the grills and the diamond stuff in the teeth and they charge a fortune for it. So, you know, people don't really come to me for that sort of thing. It's, it's more for the veneer thing and, you know, for, for, you know, having a beautiful white smile. But there are versions of it, you know, the chiclety teeth and the horse teeth, that. That's just not my thing. And some people want that and they want it on steroids.
- [77:03]
Scott Clary
Yeah.
- [77:03]
Dr. John Marashi
And so, you know, that's where I find myself saying, hey, listen, you know, I, I don't provide that service. So. And it's funny, it's like the second you tell someone no, they want you 10 times more. And they think that, they think it's. And they, and they'll beg and plead and it's very, you know, it's very kind of them. They believe in you that much. They say, and, and they'll offer you any amount of money. I don't care what it costs. And you're like, look, it's not about the money, you know, it's just that I'm. I can't do this.
- [77:30]
Scott Clary
Are there, are there any procedures that people do, requests that could be bad for your oral health or just health in general, that you would say, don't do this kind of procedure?
- [77:39]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah, I would say, you know, I have this actress, I love her to death. She's been a client for about 15 years and she has one of the most gorgeous Factory original smiles that you have ever seen. And every year she, she'll come in and say, okay, I'm ready for my veneers now and I won't do them. Them. And she's. And the first couple years, you know, she was a little off put that I wouldn't do them. I said, it is impossible to improve upon what mother Nature gave you. I can only fuck this up, you know, and sometimes you just have to know and, and over the Years, you know, she has thanked me, you know, for not doing an unnecessary procedure for her. Now it brings up an interesting conversation because need and want are two different things. I mean. I mean, who am I to pass judgment on someone who has a healthy, functioning nose that I think looks nice, and they want to alter the appearance of it? That's up to the individual. And so what she did is she listened to me and trusted my opinion on it, because she could have just gone to the dentist down the street. There's always someone who's going to say yes. So I try to steer the people in the right direction and based on my belief system, and I say, look, if, if, if I think that they'd be better served not doing treatment, I. I got plenty of work to keep the lights on. I don't have to try to sell someone something just to, you know, to, to, to make a few bucks. And it's a good moral compass.
- [79:06]
Scott Clary
I think that's why people respect you, because you make those decisions. Right. That's really. That, that is, that is the hallmark of somebody who you want to take advice from when they don't just say yes to everything you ask them.
- [79:17]
Dr. John Marashi
You don't want to be a yes fan.
- [79:20]
Scott Clary
You speak a lot about the connection between oral health and just health in general. Yeah, I think I've never really had. And I've never had any dentist on this show before, ever. So what are some things that people should be aware of in terms of oral health? Oral hygiene, taking care of your oral health, how that affects the rest of your body as well?
- [79:40]
Dr. John Marashi
It's a great question, and it highlights the lack of, of widespread knowledge to the masses and what a terrible job dentistry has done promoting this. Because the Surgeon General came out, I think it was somewhere around like, it was like in the early 2000s, or maybe it was even the late 90s. You know, I'm, I'm drawing a blank here, but I, I mean, I think I was in dental school when this happened. And Surgeon General at the time said, the mouth is the gateway to the body means what you put in here is going to have an effect elsewhere. And this many years later, we now know that plaque and bacteria, you know, the crud that we scrape out of your mouth during the teeth cleaning, when this stuff has buildup over time, it's linked to diabetes and cardiac issues and dementia.
- [80:37]
Scott Clary
Really?
- [80:37]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah.
- [80:38]
Scott Clary
How?
- [80:39]
Dr. John Marashi
Because the bacteria that's in your mouth can circulate through the bloodstream and it can cross the blood brain barrier. So we now know this to be the case. And it's not just dentistry, it's the whole medical community. And that's why there's been a massive push from the health and wellness community. Get your teeth clean. That's like the number one prevention. So if you think about this, like, life gets in the way and it's a longer interval from getting a teeth cleaning, I'm even guilty of it. But if it's hammer and chisel for the dental hygienist to get that crud off your teeth, what does that tell you about the level of buildup that's in there and the. Yeah. Whereas between your home care and getting periodic teeth cleanings, in my practice, I try to get my patients to come every three months for a cleaning. Okay, why is that? If you're coming in and your mouth is in a perpetual state of cleanliness, what do you think the chances of you having those types of problems are? It's full risk mitigation. You know, like. Like you don't get fat from the one potato chip that you ate. Right. And. And you don't get a big bicep from doing an arm curl one time. Right. There's a consistency and discipline associated with your overall health and oral hygiene and oral health is related to your overall systemic health. Andrew Huberman, he's got a phenomenal podcast. They did an episode on oral health, and I think it was almost three hours long. And I listened to it. And, and he met with people way smarter than me. You know, people who have PhD and do research on this. And so for anyone who's listening and wants to get like, like the real solid info and the deep dive on the science, listen to that. It was a phenomenal resource.
- [82:37]
Scott Clary
You mentioned that people should be coming in once every three months. What does the average person do for their oral health? I don't think it's once every. I. I don't think the dental community has really informed people of what you just told me. No, I've never heard that.
- [82:52]
Dr. John Marashi
That's what I'm saying is that, is that our profession has done a lousy job, plain and simple. And, you know, the most that the average person will hear is you should go twice a year. And look, if you can keep your mouth clean enough that when you go twice a year, there's minimal buildup, that's fantastic. It's just not most people. And western diets are just horrific when it comes to getting buildup on the teeth because of how carb heavy everything is. Carbs stick to teeth, plain and simple.
- [83:28]
Scott Clary
So if you had a lower carb diet, a paleo diet, a keto diet, a Mediterranean diet, whatever diet that is a little bit less carb heavy. Does that actually help your oral hygiene?
- [83:40]
Dr. John Marashi
Well, yeah, because you'd have less residue on your teeth. But the other facet of it, too is what are you doing to keep the surfaces clean. So if you're eating stuff that is less sticky, gooey, sticking on your teeth, that's going to help. Right? And then there's the component of brushing and flossing. And I get asked this question all the time. People are like, well, what's the best way to keep your teeth clean? Like, look, this is not a sexy recipe.
- [84:03]
Scott Clary
Yeah.
- [84:04]
Dr. John Marashi
You know, you got to clean your teeth. And you know, if. If you're going to be lazy about it, at least be strategic about it, because the best time to do it is at nighttime. Okay, well, why is that? Because you're done eating at that point. Get all the crap off of your teeth. So when you go to sleep and your mouth is the least active, you have the most amount of protection. Because the residue that's in your mouth, like if you brush and floss in the morning, eat all day and go to bed at night, you got all this crud in your teeth. The bacteria, like, party, you know, because they got a. They have a food source now that they eat and they metabolize it and they secrete an acid and the acid causes disruption to the health of the gums and it also causes cavities. So because it's burning a hole in the enamel and then the bacteria go in and colonize and starts rotting your. Rotting your teeth. But if you don't have a food source for the bacteria to use to wreak havoc in your mouth, you're a step ahead of it. Okay. Also, your mouth. Mouth is less active at nighttime. When the mouth is not moving, you're not generating as much saliva. Well, saliva has two functions. One, it's to coat your food so you can swallow it and you don't choke on it. And the second, it's to bathe the surface of your teeth and gums, and it has protective enzymes in it that actually kill off the bacteria and help food from sticking on your teeth. But when your mouth is producing less saliva, you have less protection going on. So you want to have your mouth in a cleaner state at that point.
- [85:37]
Scott Clary
What would be the best outside of brushing and flossing and. Yeah, brushing and flossing at night? What are some other things that people can do? Like think about Mouthwash. Is that useful? How useful are electric toothbrushes versus regular? Do they make a huge difference, the different kinds of floss? You have like the regular floss, then you have the floss on the little plastic.
- [86:00]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah.
- [86:00]
Scott Clary
Thing. So I don't think many people really know what they're doing. They're just kind of trying to do it all and hopefully something works out. The different kinds of toothpaste are. Do any of them do anything differently? You know, paying more for toothpaste? So all these different things. Can you, like, go through.
- [86:17]
Dr. John Marashi
Sure.
- [86:18]
Scott Clary
And tell people what's actually useful?
- [86:20]
Dr. John Marashi
Okay, I gotta add one more thing first, because you're talking about what are the things that people can do to damage their mouth? People will walk around with a can, you know, like Lacroix, you know, like these carbonated lemon waters. These are acidic, and I like that stuff. It tastes good.
- [86:37]
Scott Clary
Yeah.
- [86:37]
Dr. John Marashi
But carbonated water has a lower ph, therefore it's acidic. And a lot of stuff that we eat that has sugars in it are acidic. Lower ph. The lower the ph is in the mouth. Now what you're doing is you're are. You're having an acidic environment which can cause erosion of your tooth and nail animal, plain and simple, and make you prone for cavities. So that in itself, like, people are like, well, I have to drink water all day. Good. Drink water. It's good. It hydrates your mouth. It's healthy for you. But, you know, dumping lemons in it is a really bad idea. Really, really bad idea. So hygiene maintenance, you know, what works, what doesn't. Okay, brushing and flossing. We talked about that. I have always said sort of tongue in cheek, cheek. The best toothbrush and floss are the ones you actually use. That's kind of the crux of it. Technology has gotten so good with the sonic toothbrushes that if you spend, you know, 30 to 50 bucks, you'll get something that'll do way better than a manual toothbrush. And you can spend as much as, you know, three, four hundred dollars on some of the fancy ones. Yeah. When I created my own toothbrush, I ran the other direction of not having all these buttons and lights. And now they have an app and all this stuff. And I thought it was a little overwhelming. And, you know, just using a toothbrush correctly and one that has a sonic motor to it, you know, the. The vibration of the bristles is what helps bust the plaque up off your teeth. So I do like the idea of having a sonic toothbrush over a manual one. Flossing I'm, you know, I'm kind of, you know, non preferential in that department because as long as you're using it effectively, a lot of people just go up and down real quick and they don't go up and around the gum line, you know, to get the stuff out. So. So manual dexterity actually plays a larger factor into the efficacy of flossing than the type of floss that you're using itself. Now there's other aids that have been developed that can help it. You know, you've probably heard of like a water pick and so forth. And you, you can hydro wash your teeth and they work if you use it and get it in the crevice. One of the complaints people have about water picks is it's just messy, it sprays everywhere. And now there's this other device, it's called a Proclaim, where it's a custom fitted mouthpiece and you put it in your mouth and there's a little hose that connects to a 22 ounce canister of water and solution. And your teeth have been digitally scanned by the dentist. So the mouthpiece was custom fitted to you. And all the water ports line up with your exact crevices. So in seven seconds it blasts all the plaque off. And I've been using this. They actually sent me one to use. I was really cool. And in full disclaimer, I actually invested it in the company.
- [89:26]
Scott Clary
It was that good.
- [89:27]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah. I was like, this thing is awesome. So that's another entrepreneurial hat that I'm wearing now too. But it's a sign of just like how technology is taking. It's like really, floss is a string is the best thing that we have. And so I don't think Proclaim replaces floss because if you got something wedged in there, you have to mechanically and manually get it out. But the residues that can get up around the gum line and under the gum line that people struggle with getting out with dental floss. You know, things like Proclaim do a fantastic job helping solve for that.
- [90:04]
Scott Clary
What about different kinds of toothpaste? Because there's toothpaste. Yeah. There's charcoal.
- [90:11]
Dr. John Marashi
Charcoal.
- [90:11]
Scott Clary
Charcoal. But then they just regular like levels of toothpaste. And then I've seen toothpaste that claim to remove plaque. I don't know if that's a real thing or there's toothpaste that claim to fix cavities. Yeah. What do you think?
- [90:26]
Dr. John Marashi
The question about toothpaste is this. So I generally tell people I'm, I'm on Team Fluoride and there's, there's debate in, there's debate on the Internet, unless in the scientific community about the efficacy of fluoride and if it's toxic. And look, you can go down the rabbit hole on that, on that conversation, but what I'll tell you is this is I have patients in my practice, people who are in their 80s and 90s who've been using fluoride their whole life, drank fluoridated water, have zero health issues. You know, they didn't become mentally impaired, they didn't get cancer. Like, so I, I, I look at things empirically, you know, like, or, or pragmatically. I, you know, I see people who are healthy that have used this stuff for decades. It does not concern me, I think the benefits of remineralizing your teeth because that's what fluoride does, especially on a western diet that has, it's highly acidic and lots of carbs. There's a lot of benefits for that. So I do like a fluoride toothpaste. Activated charcoal does a fantastic job dealing with surface stains on your teeth. So we're talking about like coffee, tea, red wine, you know, cigarettes, stuff like that. Those are external stains. And it does a good job binding to the plaque and taking it off. My favorite one, I'll give a shout out. I have no financial interest in the company. Is a company called hello. Like, like, hi, hello, how are you? Yeah, yeah, I love their toothpaste. I think they make a really good product because it does, it's not chock full of preservatives. So I try to, to tell people to steer away from that. And you know, the ones that claim to remove plaque and so forth, you know, there's, there's ingredients in it that have a higher probability of binding to the sticky stuff on the surface, but it doesn't do its job unless the mechanical action of brushing helps bust up the surface layer. So it's kind of a one, two punch. You know, you want to have the toothpaste and the toothbrush and the correct mechanical action to do the most effective job.
- [92:36]
Scott Clary
Do you think that people are taking their oral health seriously when they come into your office for the first time, or do you think that people are more concerned? Is it a priority? Is it still a priority? Or are people more prioritized with. Because you mentioned something interesting about brain dementia, cardiovascular health. I don't think that people correlate the two. So I'm curious if you're noticing like a younger generation is taking their oral health as seriously as definitely I was told when I was growing up. Went to the dentist all the time, we were told.
- [93:10]
Dr. John Marashi
Just because of cavities.
- [93:11]
Scott Clary
Yes, exactly.
- [93:12]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah. But there's, you know, I still agree with your earlier comment that it is not widespread enough. But the, you know, where I practice in Los Angeles, I think that there's, you know, there's a heavy emphasis in Los Angeles about health and wellness in general. So, you know, this is part of it. So, you know, the folks that are coming in to see me, I think are more versed in this and they do take it more seriously and we give recommendations and we do our best to try to educate people so they do have the knowledge and then it's their choice, you know, how they want to manage it at that point.
- [93:48]
Scott Clary
A big thank you to Indeed for supporting Success Story because hiring people is one of the hardest things you're ever going to have to do as an entrepreneur, as a founder, as somebody who's trying to build a business. It's important to hire well and find the right person. But it takes so much time and it's so labor intensive because like most entrepreneurs, you have a thousand things going on and there's a good chance that you just realized your business needed to hire somebody yesterday. So how can you find that great, amazing right fit candidate fast? It's easy. Just use Indeed because you don't have to waste time struggling to get your job post seen on all these other job sites. If you're using Indeed, you can just use their sponsored jobs to help you stand out and hire fast. Your post jumps right to the top of the page for relevant candidates so you can reach out to exactly who you're looking for faster and the results really speak for themselves. According to Indeed data, sponsored jobs posted directly on indeed have 45% more applications than non sponsored jobs. And you know what I love most about Indeed? It really just makes hiring so fast because everything is streamlined in one place. No more juggling multiple platforms or waiting weeks for the right candidate. And how fast is Indeed in the minute I've been talking to you, 23 hires were made on Indeed according to Indeed data worldwide. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed and listeners of Success Story will get a $75 sponsored job credit. To get your jobs more visibility@ Indeed.com Clarie terms and conditions do apply. Just go to Indeed.com Claire A huge thank you to NetSuite for supporting today's episode. Now what does the future hold for business. If you ask nine experts, you're going to get 10 answers. Bull market bear market Inflation up, inflation down. Honestly, at this point you just need a crystal ball. But until we get one, over 41,000 businesses have found the next best thing. They future proofed their businesses their operations with NetSuite by Oracle, which is the number one cloud ERP. Imagine having your your accounting, your financial management, your inventory, your HR all flowing together in one fluid platform. And here's what makes NetSuite different. It gives you one source of truth for your business. You get the visibility and control to make quick, confident decisions while others are guessing. You're working with real time data insights forecasting. You're basically looking into the future of your business with actionable data. Whether your company earns a couple million or even hundreds of millions, NetSuite helps you respond to immediate challenges and helps you grab your biggest opportunities. And speaking of opportunities, they put together the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning@netSuite.com ScottClary this is the playbook for understanding how to use AI for your business. The guide is free. That is NetSuite.com ScottClary I just want to take a quick second to thank HubSpot for supporting today's episode. Now. Success Story is one of the many podcasts in the HubSpot podcast network, which is the audio destination for business professionals. If you like Success Story, you're also going to like Billion Dollar Moves, another incredible podcast hosted by Sarah Chen Spelling. Sarah is an incredible interviewer. She asks the hard questions on her show. You're going to learn about the triumphs, the failures of all her guests, the hard lessons of the best and brightest in business so that you too can make billion dollar moves in venture and investing, in business and in life. I want you to go listen to Billion Dollar Moves wherever you get your podcast. It is one of my favorite favorite. Sarah is one of my favorite hosts. If you like Success Story, you're going to love this show. And a quick pause if you haven't had a chance yet. I'd love your input on our listener survey@scottdclary.com survey. It takes just a few minutes and one lucky respondent won a gift card. Once we hit 100 responses. Your feedback directly impacts what we cover on the show. I really appreciate it. Is there anything that as you age and get older, there's other things you you should start to consider for your oral hygiene?
- [97:34]
Dr. John Marashi
Absolutely. Because as you get older. Okay, here's what we see. So for people who are not Healthy as they get older. Oftentimes they're on medications. And, and a lot of the medications that people take as they get older have the potential to have side effects to it. It. And one of the common side effects in a lot of medications is reduced saliva production, and that causes a condition called dry mouth. So now you take away your number one defense system in the mouth, you don't end up with one cavity, you end up with a mouthful of cavities. So the benefits of being healthy and not being on medications is not just for your overall health, but your oral health. So too. No question about that.
- [98:28]
Scott Clary
And when you look at somebody's. When you look in somebody's mouth, can you tell if they have other serious health conditions, like between the teeth and the tongue? Like, have you ever caught something or made somebody, you know, aware of something that maybe they haven't been to the doctor in a couple years and they should go, yeah, you.
- [98:48]
Dr. John Marashi
Fortunately, in my practice, I don't see that often, and I think that's just a facet of. Of the socioeconomic group that I'm taking care of. But you do see stuff. The scariest one to see is oral cancer, because oral cancer doesn't care if you're rich or poor. And unless you've seen it and you know how to recognize it. And sometimes, like, I've seen some oral cancer that have come in where it's just like you would have recognized, you would have saw it and said, hey, that doesn't look right. Yeah, but sometimes it's literally like a dot and there could be saliva over it, hiding it. So you have to look really careful, you know, or you'll see like a papilloma. It's kind of like a papilloma is almost like a. Like a blister or a wart type of appearance. And it's way back in the palate, you know, or in the throat. And that can be a precursor for a cancer her. So you have to. You got. It's like when you're looking, you're looking with intention. Like I know it's there somewhere.
- [99:55]
Scott Clary
Yeah.
- [99:55]
Dr. John Marashi
You know, the certain laundry list of things because it's about early detection for treating it. And I'm not an oral medicine specialist, but if I see something that looks suspicious, I always refer it out to the appropriate specialist to get a second opinion.
- [100:11]
Scott Clary
And this is why that three month, that three month, month window is so important, because you're not going to go see your doctor every. Every three months. You're not going to go See your GP every three months unless you have a condition. But if you have somebody who's educated enough to at least sort of raise a flag, I mean, that can save lives.
- [100:29]
Dr. John Marashi
Totally.
- [100:30]
Scott Clary
That can save lives. When should people say somebody is not going to the dentist right now, because in their mind they're thinking, well, my teeth don't hurt, so, you know, I'm fine. What is the thing that they should be concerned about when they look at their smile?
- [100:44]
Dr. John Marashi
So, you know, if you're talking about the aesthetic component of it, because it's visual looking at your smile, you know, if your teeth are not straight, if they're not as white as they used to be, if you're seeing signs of damage on the edges, you know, like busted up edges, which could have come from like teeth grinding or teeth clenching, things like that, you know, know these are the early warning signs, like, hey, you know, you might want to have some, something, you know, some interception on this to keep it from running down the wrong direction.
- [101:17]
Scott Clary
Yeah, okay. And that's when you start to say, hey, I should go to a dentist.
- [101:22]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah, I should go. Yeah. And you know, because if it, if.
- [101:25]
Scott Clary
You see something, if you notice something different, it's only going to get worse. If you see the same behaviors, when.
- [101:30]
Dr. John Marashi
It hurts, it's already too late. Late. And you know, I tell people, I say, look, my job is to never be known as Dr. I told you. So. I'm trying to, you know, if, if here is everything looks good and here's, oh, shoot, what are we going to do now? I said, you know what? I'm going to do everything to keep you over here. No matter how much kicking and screaming you're going to do. You'll thank me that you didn't end up over in this side.
- [101:58]
Scott Clary
I love it. Okay. I want to go back to sort of where you're at now in your life and sort of, what's the future for you? And I think that one thing that I, I'm just curious about because now I know that you're investing in a new company. So you're always, you're always trying to become, you're always trying to get back into entrepreneurship. How do you manage pressure and stress of building companies while still maintaining the practice? Obviously you have, you have it down to a science, to a degree. Why do you keep doing this to yourself when you don't have to? But also how do you do it?
- [102:31]
Dr. John Marashi
So the how part is, you know, it's 25 years of experience of doing it wrong and figuring out what Works, but the shortcut to the front of the line that I would tell someone is the power of the word no. In order to do certain things exceptionally well, you have to be willing to say no to a whole lot of other things so you can put your time and energy only on the things that matter. I wish I had been better at that earlier in my career. You know, I probably wouldn't have had as much stress or you know, burnout or challenges along the way. But now with the gray hair and the maturity and the experience comes the ability to prioritize things in my life and not feel bad about being able to say no or choosing to say no, rather to the majority of things that come along so I can focus on the things that matter. There's an art and a skill and.
- [103:33]
Scott Clary
A discipline to saying no outside of saying no more. On a day to day level, everyone sort of has their own practices or routines that sort of set them up for success. So again, when you're, you do say no to a large amount of things that don't serve you, but you still say yes to some very cognitively draining and just time consuming things that you have to manage throughout your day. Your dental practice, your ventures, your businesses and now some investments with the billion dollar exit. You have a whole portfolio, I'm sure of things you take care of. What are some sort of daily practices and rituals that have served you really well?
- [104:11]
Dr. John Marashi
Well, I'd put that in two buckets, right, because just to even have the stamina to do these things and the physicality and then there's a mindset that's associated with it as well. You know, to have a 1% life, it requires 1% behaviors. And I have prioritized in my life, diet, sleep, exercise and my mind as well. So you know, I sleep track at night to make sure that I get my minimum seven and a half hours. And with the exception of flying out to Miami, I had to get about 4 o'clock yesterday to catch that flight and do that, that thing last night. But generally speaking, you know, I'm very disciplined with making sure I get that sleep. And we now know I used to be I'll sleep when I'll die when I die kind of guy, squeeze out more work during the day. But we now know it's like after hours 6 and 7 where the body gets the benefits of the deep sleep and the REM to do all the repair to your body and then the detox to keep it healthy. And my diet, I'm two and a half years in now of I've always had basically a clean diet, but I do intermittent fasting now and I eat between 11am and 7pm that's my window. And the 16 hours that I'm not eating. It's that chance for the body to become more efficient in metabolizing fat instead of muscle and all the other good stuff that comes with it. And exercise, it's like you gotta keep moving and being active. And I've had the Same trainer for 19 years.
- [106:01]
Scott Clary
Wow.
- [106:02]
Dr. John Marashi
I work out with them twice a week and I still ride my skateboard. And so finding time for me to do things that make me happy but also keep my body moving is really important. And getting my mind right is a real big deal for me. And I have a therapist that I go and see and a lot of people. There's been a stigma in the past about having a therapist, but folks, I'm the first one to say I got the same damn problems as everybody else. This is life. Life. And you know, relationships are challenging enough and work and business and how we feel about ourselves. And to be able to work with someone just to help you process and get through and get the, and, and get the unnecessary stories that you have and the clutter out has been a life changing thing for me. And I have so much gratitude around that. And so, you know, you combine it, you know, sleep, diet, exercise, getting your mind right. This puts you in a position where you live better, you feel better, you are smarter, you make better decisions because you're not burned out. You know, I showed at the conference I was speaking at last night. I have a slide in it and it shows a picture of me at age 23 and a picture of me now. And at age 23 when I walked in the door at dental school, I had kind of like scraggly hair and I had braces and glasses and I was smiling really big. And it's the most unflattering photo that you'll ever see of anyone. And I put that up on there and I said, you would you have bet on this guy right here? Because it's really, it's that bad. And, and everyone's laughing at it and, and it's just such a horrible photo. I said, but the guy on the other side, this is John now. I said, he didn't go from here to here. It wasn't accidental. It wasn't my birthright either. It was built by design. It was very intentional along the way. And this kind of goes into another thing because along the way, on my business Travels. I cannot not underscore the importance of having coaches and mentors, you know, the mentors things. I've had fantastic mentors, you know, as dentists, but I've also sought out the knowledge in the business world. I, I got a communications coach so I could learn how to talk more effectively with my patients. And I've also have a business coach to this day that helps me look at the numbers in my practice. Most dentists just look at, you know, know, top line profits and overhead and maybe new patient flow, and that's about it. And, you know, I understand how to read a profit and loss and a statement of cash flow and a balance sheet. And, you know, all my accounting is done in accrual, not in cash. And I understand what deferred revenue is. And, and I could look at someone else's business and tell you if I would invest in it, you know, because I understand how to read a scorecard. But these are, I didn't know shit about any of these things, but I went out and had to learn more in order to become the person that I wanted to be. So, you know, when I talk to groups now, I talk about, you know, kind of like my three takeaways. I said, look, know your outcome and you're allowed to change your mind, but start moving towards something. Immersion. Learning through having coaches and mentors is the fastest way to get cuts to the front of the line. And number three, and it's not sexy, is discipline, inconsistency. See, you know, if you live your life with those three principles, it's a guarantee that good things are going to happen.
- [109:45]
Scott Clary
I agree. That's so smart. Very, very wise. I think that again, now I see how you've applied those principles to your own life and in your own stories like this is, I love that, that built by design, right? Nothing is just up to chance. It's all built by design. And if you maintain those three principles for a long enough period, period of time, like, you'll get to where you want to go. Yeah, you really will get to where you want to go. For you, if you look at all the, the lessons that you've learned, the growth lessons, the we're joking about how sort of at this stage in your career, and even why we even started this podcast, is to help people navigate some of the stressful moments in their life so that maybe they have a little bit of wisdom that helps them navigate them a little bit more effectively. If you think about one lesson that stands out that was particularly difficult for you to learn from what was that lesson and why?
- [110:38]
Dr. John Marashi
Oh, I can tell you that one for sure. January 7, 2025.
- [110:44]
Scott Clary
This year.
- [110:45]
Dr. John Marashi
This year. Yeah. Life will throw you curveballs. I live, duh, past tense now in Pacific Palisades, California. My house burned down. Yeah. I lost everything. Life will throw you curveballs. And what I've learned from this is that no matter how successful you are, the only guarantee in life is that whatever hasn't happened before is probably going to happen. And how you respond to it is a culmination of everything you've done up to that moment. And are you in position or are you out of position? I mean, I didn't walk out of my house that morning thinking, like, all right, well, it's nice seeing all this stuff. And, you know, that's not how I thought my day was going to start. And but how my day ended, I was like, oh, my God, like, it wasn't just my house, it was a whole community you wiped out. You know, that's actually the hardest part of this whole thing is that your friends and your neighbors and your community is gone. I mean, it's just. It's not like you haven't seen a house burned down before, but multiple square miles, like they said, surface area wise, double the size of Manhattan burned out. And so you look around and you see, see nothing. There was a fire that happened five years prior in Malibu, and most of the community had to evacuate. And there were people that didn't have anywhere to go. And the day of the fire, I realized I'm homeless, and if I don't do something right now, I'm going to be homeless. So by 8:30 the next morning, I signed a lease on an apartment that was furnished and pet friendly because I knew with 30,000 people being displaced, there were not enough rentals between homes, apartments, condos that could, could support what the demand was going to be.
- [112:56]
Scott Clary
Yeah.
- [112:57]
Dr. John Marashi
And so immediately, you know, I went from, you know, starting my day top, like, okay, I'm on top of the world, to like, okay, I am not on top of the world right now. And this wasn't a problem that money can solve and something like this. But being proactive instead of reactive is what allowed me to reorganize lightning fast and create safety for my family because I have a wife and two little girls. You know, the first couple weeks was pretty rough. It was rough on, on every level because, you know, you've lost your community, you've lost everything. I mean, like, when I left work that day, all I had with the clothes on my back.
- [113:41]
Scott Clary
That's it.
- [113:42]
Dr. John Marashi
That's it. Literally. So I stayed at a friend's house in Beverly Hills that night, and on the way over, I'm like, holy crap, I gotta stop at the mall and go buy some socks and underwear. So. Something I haven't done in a while. And I made a decision very early in this that I needed to live, not just exist. And what I mean by that is I have watched my whole community get devastated and watch friends of mine lose everything. And people from all different walks of life, people, you know, who are better off than me and. And people not as fortunate at me. And it affects everyone differently. And what I saw was some folks who, you know, have it pretty good, and it rocked them to the core, and understandably so. But I was like, oh, my God, I don't want to feel that way. I don't want to. I can't let this run my life because, you know, you can't change what happened, but what you can control is how you think about it. It. And so it was a very conscious decision for myself and for my family. Like, the show must go on. And so, you know, the first few weeks, it was just kind of getting our footing again and just buying basic provisions and things like that and. And keeping my business going. And fortunately, you know, like, my business was the next town over. We thought it was going to burn down for a minute, but it didn't. I'm very, very grateful. And, you know, so you kind of go from, you know, from survival mode to like, okay, you know what? I just have a new set of problems that I got to deal with. That's it. You know, this year, business wise, I had certain things that I wanted to do, and now I have to say no to them because I have to allocate time and resources because I'm building a house that I wasn't planning on building now. And so things like that. And so. So, you know, life is throwing a curveball my way. But look, I got two choices. I could be like, oh, woe to me and fuck and all this stuff.
- [115:49]
Scott Clary
And no one would blame you.
- [115:50]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah, and justified. And I could let it rot me to the core and eat at me. Or I could say, okay, this is the hand that was dealt. Now let's figure this out and move on. And I'm very thankful that, that, you know, I have. I have the resources to weather the storm, but the thing that really matters, you know, in addition to that, I would say, is. Is the mental attitude. And, you know, my. My My mental attitude is, I think, is predicated. It's like mental toughness, but it's predicated on these 1% behaviors and the discipline that I've had in my life. Life.
- [116:35]
Scott Clary
And it allows you to approach something this horrific with that same mental toughness.
- [116:41]
Dr. John Marashi
You have to. It'll. It'll destroy you otherwise. And, you know, fortunately, most of the folks that I know, they want to rebuild. They want to come back to Pacific Palisades. They want to see this community flourish again. I'm not leaving Pacific Palisades. It's my home.
- [116:55]
Scott Clary
And it's going to be like 10 years.
- [116:57]
Dr. John Marashi
I don't think it'll be 10 years. You know, like the government, which. I'll give it some credit where it's due in this. My lots already. They already did the EPA testing, and that was phase one and phase two. Army Corps of Engineers has already cleared out my lot. So all I need is a stamp, set of plans, and my contractor can start building.
- [117:19]
Scott Clary
Is it okay health wise to. To be the ground is not.
- [117:23]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah, they. So they do soil samples. The water's already been tested. And actually, you know that. So this dwp, you know, they've been flushing the lines for two months, and they came out and said the water's fine, but. But I had it tested privately.
- [117:38]
Scott Clary
Yeah.
- [117:38]
Dr. John Marashi
You know, and I found this company that does like, the highest trace level testing clear.
- [117:44]
Scott Clary
Okay.
- [117:45]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah.
- [117:46]
Scott Clary
Okay. I mean, that's not an easy thing to go through.
- [117:49]
Dr. John Marashi
It isn't, man. It really isn't.
- [117:52]
Scott Clary
I can't even imagine, like, we always talk about, like, you know, like, stressful things that happen in business. It's nothing. It's nothing because your home is your home. Your home is memories. Your home is there. There's emotion. If you have a bad day in.
- [118:03]
Dr. John Marashi
Business, it's not like, so worst like in business. You know, the worst thing that can happen is. Is you go out of business or you die. But you can always start again, Right. Well, if you.
- [118:15]
Scott Clary
If you don't die. If you don't die, you can start again. There's unlimited opportunity.
- [118:19]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah.
- [118:20]
Scott Clary
But it's. It's. It's hard to overcome the emotional connection that you have built with your house and your things and your memories. It's not. It's not business. It's not cold. It's like it's something that is part of you that you can never get back.
- [118:33]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah.
- [118:35]
Scott Clary
But I guess if you have the right. If you have the right reason in your family and you understand that, you can build new memories and you can build a new home and, and you have that mental toughness to get through it so it doesn't break you. You, things will be better on the other side. But that's not easy.
- [118:50]
Dr. John Marashi
It's not easy, but it's a choice, you know, it's, it, it's, it's a choice that I've made.
- [118:56]
Scott Clary
Yeah.
- [118:57]
Dr. John Marashi
To adopt this attitude and like even being here was a, is a choice. Right. Like I, like, I could have canceled this and said, hey man, just, you know, my life's been turned upside down and you would have been like, holy crap, I'm really sorry that happened. And but for my own mental well being, it was really important for me to be here because it's part of what I would have been doing anyway. And by me doing the things that I would normally do makes me feel like my life is normal, not disrupted.
- [119:30]
Scott Clary
I think that's super powerful because the bad event happens to people. Bad events happen all the time. But you can't let the rest of your life's story be rewritten by that one bad event event. It's going to, it's going to be difficult, but life does go on. And the sooner I think this is very, very powerful, the sooner you can get back to where you're happy, you're normal, you're doing the things you want to do. I think that's like part of the healing process.
- [119:58]
Dr. John Marashi
Absolutely.
- [119:59]
Scott Clary
It has to be. Because if not that, that trauma and there's going to be, there is like a level of trauma whenever stuff like this happens. And that's probably where the therapy comes in and thank goodness. But I think that trauma can last forever if you're not careful.
- [120:17]
Dr. John Marashi
Totally. I mean, all it takes is one life changing event that can ruin someone.
- [120:22]
Scott Clary
Yeah.
- [120:22]
Dr. John Marashi
You know, the, the, the difference is, is just, you know, how do you process and how do you move on from it? Yeah. One thing I would say about, you know, mass, you know, catastrophic events like this, it has shown the true colors of the residents of Los Angeles in the most unexpected and beautiful way. Because I had folks reaching out to me from, you know, friends, neighbors, people who were even affected, just saying, are you okay? Is there anything we can do? And you know, the truth of the matter is like I didn't need anybody to do anything for me. You know, like I still had the ability to provide food for my family and I got, got a roof over our head. That was basically all that needed to be done at that moment. But it didn't stop people from reaching out. Repetitively and what I found is just the outpouring of love and support from the community that you're receiving made you feel like, hey, I'm not alone in this. There's other people going through this too, and I feel supported and I'm going to make it through this is a huge part of it.
- [121:35]
Scott Clary
I know that your whole life and business is in la, but what makes you want to go back to that particular area that obviously has been a stressful area for fires again and again and again?
- [121:48]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah. So Pacific Palisades, in my opinion, was the last of the Leave it to Beaver communities. It's very small and it's very family driven and you can walk everywhere in it, you know, and it's a very, you know, beautiful, upscale area. Like, it's sort of like the Hamptons of the West Coast. And, you know, I've lived there for 15 years and when I walk out my door there, you know, I run into my friends and my neighbors and my patients. And so the community feel that you get from the people who are around you and just it's scenic like you wouldn't believe because it's a coastal community, you know, and it's right next to the ocean. It's 10 minutes from my office. I mean, just, you know, most people think in LA you got to drive one to two hours everywhere. And the trick to living anywhere is just having your life in a small, small radius. So I've been very blessed that home and work are so close to one another. And like I said, the people that are closest to me in my life, wife, you know, are my patients and friends and we all live in the same area. And the disruption now is that we're all spread out like buckshot. Of course, you know, so, you know, people have moved to, you know, Santa Monica, Brentwood, Beverly Hills, you know, the South Bay, people have gone up to Santa Barbara and just, you know, we're all spread out and because we don't intersect in that close proximity, you feel a hole in your heart as a result of it, you know, that, like, where are my people, people? And we all want to get back. And that gives me hope, it gives me something to look forward to. Last night my wife and I were talking and she goes, can I build my closet bigger this time? And it was so funny hearing that because it was kind of like throwing a middle finger up to the tragedy. And that's how I saw it. I was just like, hey, you know what? Like, if that's not making lemonade out of your Lemons. Like, I don't know what else is.
- [123:56]
Scott Clary
Have any priorities in your life shifted since the fire?
- [124:00]
Dr. John Marashi
Totally. Yeah. You, you know, life throws you curveballs along the way, and this is like the biggest curveball that I've ever received where, because things like this, like, like, like what happened to us here is like when, when you guys here in Florida get rocked by these hurricanes.
- [124:20]
Scott Clary
Well, the, the Sarasota and basically the Gulf side of Florida has been demolished at two or three times.
- [124:29]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah. And it's like year after year and you see these homes submerged and everything. But when you live on the other side of the country and you're just watching it on tv, it's like you feel horrible about it, but it's not as tangible because you don't live there. Right. Right. And then it happens to you and you're just like, oh my God. And you, you feel the, the fragility of, of things that you can't control in your life. Right. Like how things can change like that. So, you know, what's changed for me is twofold, is one is that my priorities in 2025 have shifted because like I said, there's, there are things that I wanted to do business wise and work wise that I have to press pause because I got so, some, some family and, and life rebuilding to do and that's okay. And then the other thing I started thinking about for the first time too is, you know, like, even after selling Bite, you know, I've been like working hard and killing myself and grinding and everything like that. And I told you earlier, I said I never see myself not working, but I started thinking about like, well, how many hours do I really want to work and should I be spending more time doing things that I enjoy than I currently do? And you know, just so, and that's a, for me, that's a really tough conversation because I love working. And then I started thinking about like, you know, maybe I, maybe I do work too much.
- [125:59]
Scott Clary
You know, maybe you think you work too much.
- [126:02]
Dr. John Marashi
I don't know. You know, they say it's not work if you, if you enjoy doing it. And, and I smile when I talk about it. You know, that's how much I enjoy doing it. But you know, so, so you know, what I would say is I'm having conversations with myself that I haven't had before. And, and the main reason before is because I was just too immersed in what I was doing. And maybe even when I was younger, I was too afraid to have conversations because you're, you're Sort of in the building and, and acquiring stage of your life and, and when you lose your house and everything you own. And I've been very blessed because I have nice things or had in the past tense. And now all my worldly belongings fit in a duffel bag. And you realize very quickly, like, I really don't need that much to live. It's nice having all the other stuff. And even my wife and I were kind of joking because I like clothes and fashion. I had a lot. I like, like, you know, I'll probably buy less clothes this next go around and you know, maybe the trade off will be just buying like nicer clothes that better quality, that last longer and so forth. But, you know, do I really need 12 pairs of jeans, you know, at this part? So. So, you know, you start thinking about consumption and how much you need. And there's a trickle effect to that too, because it ties into, well, how big of a house do I want this time? And how many cars do you really need? And maybe I want to have more time for traveling. And so I'm examining these now because of this traumatic episode that's happened and I don't have answers for it yet. It's probably going to be work in progress. But it's the first time that I'm having these conversations and I'm like, hey, you know what? These might be some cool things to explore.
- [127:54]
Scott Clary
I think that a lot of people, if they don't have this major life event, they'll make money. They'll be lifestyle creep and they won't even, they won't even think about what they're spending money on and if they actually. Why they're making those purchases. Right. Yeah, I think that happens to everybody.
- [128:10]
Dr. John Marashi
Lifestyle creep is dangerous. It doesn't matter how much money you have because the tendency is to always sort of, you know, get to that next thing, whatever that is.
- [128:20]
Scott Clary
And it's very easy to spend more money. It's always very easy to spend more money money. But it makes you reevaluate. Like maybe you don't need all the stuff. And maybe it does make sense to travel more and enjoy more experiences. And maybe Instead of working 80 hours a week, even if you love it, maybe, you know, maybe the family is like, I wouldn't mind if he spent another 10 hours, you know, with us.
- [128:44]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah.
- [128:44]
Scott Clary
Throughout the week to do stuff.
- [128:46]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah.
- [128:47]
Scott Clary
Just be present, be around, be around. Yeah. I hope that, I hope that people ask themselves these questions without having to go through what you went through.
- [128:56]
Dr. John Marashi
Oh, well, there's an Easier way to get to that answer or those questions, rather. Yeah, don't have to lose everything to do it.
- [129:03]
Scott Clary
Yeah, exactly.
- [129:04]
Dr. John Marashi
Do it more strategically.
- [129:06]
Scott Clary
How is your. I like to understand, you know, you've gone through over your life, a huge identity evolution. You have evolved since that kid embraces to, to where you're at in now. How has your definition of success changed over your life?
- [129:23]
Dr. John Marashi
Massively. When I was younger, you know, as a, as a kid, you know, it's funny, like one of the motivators for me, when I worked at the grocery store in high school, I was, I was a bag boy at the grocery store. And in the summers I'd work there 48 hours a week and you know, you help people take their groceries out to their car and I would, you know, put the groceries in. People had like really nice cars. We didn't have one. I always liked cars. And so for me it was kind of this motivator. Like one day I'm going to have a really nice car. And so, you know, there, it was a motivator and there was an element of the pursuit of success and things, right? And I realized if I work hard, I could have things and I could be successful professionally. And then as I said earlier, things lead to things, right? Because I didn't think that by being a dentist and having a certain level of income that would allow you to have certain things. But I ended up taking it to a totally different level. And it actually more important than the things were the experiences and the people that I got to meet and the relationships that I got to have. Well, the evolution of it came from my friend Jeff Sebold, that's my banker friend that I told you. And he was the guy who said to me, success is not about having the most amount of money. It's about doing what you want, when you want, with whom you want. And that's what I think about more now, now than any than I ever have in my life. Especially with what's transpired with the fires where I'm just re looking at everything and saying, you know, just because that's how I was doing it up until this date doesn't mean I always have to continue to do it a certain way. You know, like that's the power of choice, right? And you know, the reality is that I paid my dues. You know, I'm very aware of that. Like I paid my dues, I did the grind, and I wouldn't have changed it for anything. Like if I, if, if you said I had to go back and redo. Maybe, maybe there's some things and mistakes that I made that I could have avoided and done more efficiently, but the effort that I put into it and the intensity, I would not have traded that. I wouldn't have traded in the sacrifices and, and all of that. I think it was worth it. But there's probably a certain point where I would say, look, no matter how much more hustle that I do, I won't eat in a better restaurant. There won't be a nicer vacation that I can take. There won't be a nicer shirt that I can wear. So you start thinking along those lines and then you start thinking about your time and how you're spending it and so forth. And it just raises interesting questions and philosophical things to think about. Like, hey, you know, I actually, I am in a position where I can have my cake and eat it too because of the hard work that I've done over the years.
- [132:42]
Scott Clary
What do you think was the most significant personal price that you've paid for something?
- [132:50]
Dr. John Marashi
Oh boy, you know what it is? It was family relationships. Yeah, it's funny I say that. I just felt like all my energy just leave me. You know, when I was building my practice and running Marashi Oral Health and involved with bite, I didn't have a lot of free time. You know, I was getting up early in the morning. I mean I was, I'd get up at 4:45 in the morning, you know, and then 20 minutes get ready out the door to the office and start grinding. My first patient wasn't until 8am So I had to have that time in the morning to work on stuff because then I had to run my business and see patients and then I wouldn't get home, you know, until, you know, seven o'clock at night. And then I eat dinner with my family and then go right to my desk and start grinding away again, again. And it was rinse, wash, repeat, for years doing that. And you know, when you, when you believe in something so much and you're going to put this, you know, herculean effort into it, something has to give. And look, I have, I pass no judgment on anyone of what they choose as long as they're aware of what the outcome of their choices are. And in doing this, the outcome during that time was that relationship suffer. My kids were this big at the time. So how I justified it to myself was they won't remember they're too little. They won't remember that dad wasn't around. And you know, like marriage isn't easy and, you know, me not being around and being able to help raise and, you know, I was a good provider, but I don't think I was a good husband during that time because I wasn't around. And I'm tired and stressed and irritable. And, you know, the one thing I would say, you know, to her credit, my wife, is that she never said, stop doing this. She knew how important this was to me and that part of my drive in doing this was to give my family a life different than what I had growing up. And you win some and you lose some, and there was no guarantee that all this effort that I was going to put into it was even going to work. And so I'm glad that it did. And as a result, I've been able to give my family this really beautiful life. Life. And I'm still young enough and healthy enough now to partake in it. And back to your original question about how do catastrophic events change you? I think this long winded answer is I want to be a more frequent participant with all of it.
- [135:58]
Scott Clary
Yeah. It's interesting how. A couple thoughts. I see this a lot where, first of all, I do agree that for seasons of life, there has to be imbalance. If you're going to build anything enormous, there does have to be imbalance. Partner is one of the most important business decisions you'll ever make. For sure. Totally for sure. For sure. But also sometimes you have to wonder, like, this is something that I struggle with too. I also say, like, I work a lot, you know, for us, for, for, I don't have kids yet, but for, for her, for our future kids. Like, this is why I work so much. And she, I mean, she always, it's it. She always says, like, well, I never asked you to like, work this much. So really, who are you doing it for at the end of the day? I've thought about that a lot and I think that sometimes it's for me.
- [136:50]
Dr. John Marashi
And of course it is.
- [136:51]
Scott Clary
I say that it's for.
- [136:52]
Dr. John Marashi
It's a personal drive and a validation that you want to have.
- [136:54]
Scott Clary
Yeah.
- [136:55]
Dr. John Marashi
Proving you can do something. You know, we all have stories about wanting to become someone bigger and better than who we think we are.
- [137:04]
Scott Clary
Yeah.
- [137:06]
Dr. John Marashi
But your family gets to be beneficiaries of it.
- [137:09]
Scott Clary
Yeah.
- [137:09]
Dr. John Marashi
And what it tells you is that you partnered with someone who's fantastic because she didn't have that as an expectation.
- [137:15]
Scott Clary
Yeah, exactly. So if you look 20 years into the future, what's the impact that you want to have with your work, with your Life, all of it.
- [137:25]
Dr. John Marashi
I think, you know, this next phase is, is definitely going to be predicated on mentorship. And what I mean by that is, is, you know, on a professional level, the practice of clinical dentistry is just really tough because it's hard enough working in someone's mouth, mouth who's squirming in the chair and, but running this business and it's, and it's a tough business on top of it. And one of my superpowers is running a great business. I know that. I know the business of dentistry really well because I learned how to run a business and apply it to dentistry, and most dentists do dentistry, and the business is just whatever happens. So I see a world where, you know, I would have my own program where someone who's ready to get serious about their business and wants to learn how to make their, their dental practice run efficiently, smoothly, profitably. Yeah, that's exciting to me. I know there's a demand for it. I, I, people from all over the world reach out to me and they're, you know, as the free helpline. I try to, you know, help people where I can. And I think about, you know, like, myself, having a coach in business. This could be applied towards dentistry. And I also think about doing this for my kids, too. Neither of them want to be dentists, which I think is great, you know, like, pursue what they want to do. But I've learned a lot about business, life, success, and a lot of what not to do's where, you know, as a father, you think about, like, you know, I used to joke, I said my goal for my daughters was to get them out the door with good manners and no cavities. That was it. I was like, if I've done that, I've done my job. And now I think about, you know, how can I educate and inspire my kids that they could have a better life than what I had and that they can, you know, go on and be successful in whatever it is that they want to do. But I can help them avoid the pain points and, you know, be there to guide them and coach them and mentor them, you know, not just in life, but also in business and in career and so forth. And, you know, I didn't have that kind of guidance, you know, as a kid. I had to, I had to figure it out myself. So being able to give them some shortcuts to the front of the line would be tremendously rewarding. Now I have to put an asterisk next to that because I'm very aware from Being a kid myself, you know, was that sometimes you don't give your parents their, their due credit. Yeah, like my kids, they look at me like sometimes like I'm the dumb, dumbest human that ever walked the, the planet. But so that might be more of a pipe dream for me.
- [140:33]
Scott Clary
I have a question. So how do you balance, when you've had such massive success, how do you balance, you know, giving your kids a little bit of an advantage versus giving them too much and almost just ruining, like ruining them to a degree because you could, you could make it so that they never have to stress about work and, and especially when they're, you know, just starting out, getting a job and they could have, you know, little allowances that could let them live their life and not go through all the struggles that you went through.
- [141:08]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah, they'll be highly unfulfilled and they'll probably end up, you know, with depression and all kinds of horrible things. It's a, it's a slippery slope.
- [141:16]
Scott Clary
I see it in, I see it in LA a lot. I see it, I mean, I see it everywhere. But on a very serious, I see kids that are like trust fund kids that do drugs.
- [141:27]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah.
- [141:27]
Scott Clary
Overdose, like it's, it happens in LA quite a bit.
- [141:31]
Dr. John Marashi
It's real.
- [141:31]
Scott Clary
It's very real. So I've always wondered how people that are, are very successful and wealthy manage raising their kids properly. Because I think it's hard to figure out that line.
- [141:42]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah, it's a delicate line. And my wife and I, we constantly talk about it ourselves because part of the reason I work so hard is because I did want to give my kid a good life. But I think the idea is that there has to be guardrails and where you want them to have certain comforts and strategic advantages. Like, you know, like my kid gets to go to private school. You know, like that's a blessing, you know, that she gets to go to this really great school and get access to a top notch education. So, you know, I'm very thankful for that and that's something that I'm willing to invest in. And that's not to say that public schools aren't good or there aren't good teachers there. I just want to be very clear about that. But you know, a really good private, private school offers a lot of advantages that many public schools don't have. So I see that as a strategic advantage. And what I'm doing is I've created this opportunity and I spent a lot of money doing it. That's going to hopefully help my Kid in the long run, you know, because it's going to make them smarter. But we also spend a lot of time, especially now that the kids are a little bit older. You know, I have a 12 year old and a 17 year old and my 17 year old. I have a lot more adult conversations with her now about what happens with choices that you make in life. And the concept of the conversation revolves around whatever you choose, there's going to be an outcome or a consequence associated with it. Some are good and some are bad. And so if you can think about what those outcomes are going to be before you decide, yeah, you'll probably make better decisions. And so that's the edge that we've been leading with, you know.
- [143:43]
Scott Clary
How old is she, though?
- [143:44]
Dr. John Marashi
She's 17.
- [143:45]
Scott Clary
Yeah. She's 17.
- [143:46]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah.
- [143:46]
Scott Clary
These are gonna be. These are real.
- [143:48]
Dr. John Marashi
These are real. Yeah. Now, I'll tell you something right now. I mean, I love my kid to death, but my God, like, like age, you know, 12 to 15 was a rough ride. You know, it's just, you know, she was, you know, becoming a teen and going through the roller coaster, and I think, you know, it's like no parent is immune from that, but she's coming out on the other side of it and she's working really hard in school. And, you know, I mean, maybe even what I want for her is not what she wants. You know, I don't have any control over that, but I can at least control the narrative while I still have her under my roof. And, you know, we've tried hard to teach her that, you know, your family is the most important thing and that, you know, we have a lot because we worked hard and we sacrificed. But that also creates an obligation and responsibility for us to take care of other people because our family is very philanthropic and we give time and we give money to all sorts of charities and causes that are important to us. And my kids have watched us do that. They don't know any different. You know, like when they were. When they were a lot younger, you know, I made them every year in order for them to qualify for getting gifts from Santa Claus. I made them donate 50% of everything they owned. And they would pick and choose and they'd put the stuff into trash bags and then we would go to, you know, to Salvation army and the fire station, all this stuff to make the donations. And I would make them go up and introduce themselves to the person and say, you know, my name is Ava Marashi and I'm here to donate my, my toys to the kids that don't have any.
- [145:32]
Scott Clary
Amazing.
- [145:33]
Dr. John Marashi
And so one year we're packing the stuff and, and she was kind of lollygagging and, and, and I just threw something in that I didn't think that she played with. And she goes, goes. She broke into tears and she's like, daddy, not Spider man, please. Anything but Spider Man. And she pulled him out of the bag, hugged him, and Spider Man's actually, well, actually Spider man burned down in the fire. But up until now, Spider man was still around. He survived the cut every year. And so, you know, like, I'm not going to be able to teach my kid probably how to go without. To the same level, you know, that I did. But I sure as heck can control, you know, teaching them the importance of family, the importance of if you're well off. Like, that's, that's not, you know, it's not just like, okay, great for us and to help everybody else.
- [146:22]
Scott Clary
Like, you can't take it for granted.
- [146:24]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah, you have to go out and it's your job and responsibility to help other people because not everyone is, is fortunate and lucky. So that's a big part of, you know, the, the parental philosophy that we have. And, and you talk about trust funds and so forth. And personally, I think that too much too early is a bad thing. So you have to kind of be careful about how much and when and try to set your kid to the expectation of if you want to have, if you want to live your life, life like how you've lived it thus far, then you're going to need to work hard to have, you know, the type of career that will afford you that type of life. And that's going to affect the choices that you make of how you study and college and jobs and so forth.
- [147:20]
Scott Clary
Very, very good. I think that's. I mean, listen, there's a lot of ways to screw up parenting. I don't know how to do it. I don't have kids of my own, but I'm, I'm. I'm incredibly scared of, of messing that up. And I think that, like, some of these ideas of, of keeping them accountable, helping them understand that, you know, money can never be taken for granted. Just because you have it doesn't mean everybody has it. You have to work for this and sort of not giving them too much too young. I think that's a good, a good formula. At least it sets them up on the right path.
- [147:50]
Dr. John Marashi
Well, you try. I mean, like, I've, I've probably screwed them up a hundred other ways but.
- [147:55]
Scott Clary
Like every other parent, if you think about something that you know now that you wish you knew when you first started your career, could be a life lesson, could be a business lesson, could be a dental lesson. Doesn't matter. What would that thing be? What things stands out? When I say that, I think what.
- [148:12]
Dr. John Marashi
Stands out to me is that in the height of all the chaos, whether it's your personal life or professional life or outside events that, that have caught you off guard, it's going to be okay. Generally speaking, unless you have a terminal health illness, generally speaking, it's going to be okay. If you work at it and you keep plugging forward, things do have a way of working out. And in hindsight, most of the things that caused you the greatest amounts of stress and pain and you look back on them, you're like, yeah, that sucked. But it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. And that's what I would tell my younger self. Easier said than done, but it gives you a little wisdom and perspective moving forward for dealing with hard times, hard things, hard challenges that you don't have to let it eat at you to.
- [149:15]
Scott Clary
The same level if people want to connect with you, first of all, where do you want to send people so they can sort of like outside of coming to your office and getting their teeth done, like, what are you, are you going to work on anything in the future? Any new companies, book, podcast? What are you, what are you putting out into the world that people can consume?
- [149:34]
Dr. John Marashi
I mean, right now it's what we're doing. You know, I'm doing like a lot of speaking engagements and podcasts, you know, talking about this very thing. The title of my presentation last night was From Broke Ass Dental Student to Dentist to the Stars to Billion Dollar Exit.
- [149:52]
Scott Clary
That's a good, that's a good title.
- [149:53]
Dr. John Marashi
It's a good hook for, you know, if you're a dentist, I suppose. And, and so this, you know, this is, this is where I'm at at the moment, you know, outside of my clinical practice and is having these speaking opportunities. And I'm the keynote speaker for this big, the, the statewide dental convention here in Florida. Not this year. They booked me a year in advance, so I'll come back in 2020.
- [150:14]
Scott Clary
Amazing.
- [150:15]
Dr. John Marashi
That was just kind of neat. And then, you know, I connect with people a lot on social media too. You know, I have a nice following and, and, you know, it's fun to storytell, if you will, you know, through that medium because it's just, you know, on my page. It's. It's. It's. It's more than just teeth.
- [150:31]
Scott Clary
So what's your. What's your Instagram? That's your main one? Yeah. What's your handle?
- [150:36]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah, it's rjohnmarashi. So D R J O N M A R A S H I. Amazing.
- [150:42]
Scott Clary
Amazing. Last question. I like to ask. Out of all the things that you've sort of learned over your career, you've sort of given over a whole bunch of wisdom and lessons. If you had to pick one thing, you only had to pick one. You can only pick one thing that you can teach over to your kids. The most important lesson. What would that lesson be and why?
- [151:03]
Dr. John Marashi
Yeah. Raise your standards. If you hold yourself accountable to standards higher than anyone else could hold you to, stuff works out, you usually come out on top. Things will happen. You'll do far greater things than you even thought was possible. You'll get in less trouble.
- [151:25]
Scott Clary
I love it. I've never had that answer before. I've never had. That's an amazing answer. Thank you so much. I appreciate you for coming on.
- [151:38]
Dr. John Marashi
Ra.