The Dental Conference Rebuilt Like a Dating App, Not Another Trade Show Floor

0:01Dr. Jim Arnold My guest today built one of the fastest growing events in animal health, then moved that same model into dentistry three years ahead of schedule. Aaron Pugh is president and co-founder of Together Media, the company behind both Vet Together and Smile Together. He spent over a decade running operations for one of the largest veterinary buying groups in the country before he walked away after a phone call from a beach in Hawaii. Aaron, welcome to the Foundation Dental Podcast.

0:27Aaron Pugh Thanks, Dr. Jim. Excited to be here and excited to be able to have a conversation with you. Been looking forward to this for a long time.

0:34Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah, as have I. I'm glad it glad it worked out today. So we got a lot to talk about, so I'm just gonna dive right into it. But you know, before we get into dentistry, I gotta ask you something. There's a rumor that you've got a Mortal Kombat machine in your office. Is that true?

0:48Aaron Pugh So we we love to have a good time at the company. There's no doubt about it. So I won't confirm or deny that we don't have potentially that and a Street Fighter line.

0:54Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. Okay. Okay. Well, you know, another rumor another rumor is you're pretty good at it, but like, be honest. I I already had this conversation with Scott, be honest. Can you take him best out of three right now?

1:09Aaron Pugh No question. No question. And I would finish with a fatality move as well. So

1:14Dr. Jim Arnold Outstanding. All right. I love it. So, you know, you've got an interesting history. You know, you didn't like jump right into dentistry. You know, you're or even right into veterinary. You were in the automotive industry for a while, right?

1:28Aaron Pugh Yeah, that's correct. I originally got my background was in software project management. And I worked for this company called CDK Global, which was originally ADP. and we were the first company that figured out how to dial into car management into PIM systems for cars, basically. And we would extract all of their data out of there, clean everything up, and then send it over to companies like Cars.com, Auto Trader.

1:50Dr. Jim Arnold Really?

1:57Aaron Pugh That's how they would get all of their information up under their websites. And we're actually the first company that started doing video clips around that where people could click on it, which everybody sees now. Like you'll never see a car listing without one. but our company actually was the ones that founded that, created all of that, and were the first people to take it to market. So yeah, my whole background has been really all over the place, but it it was really locked in on software project management, is where I cut my teeth and then.

2:16Dr. Jim Arnold That's so interesting.

2:25Aaron Pugh Became director of operations over there, which is where I found my love for processes and everything else and saw what it take to really be able to build and scale out a company.

2:37Dr. Jim Arnold Wow, that's that's awesome. That's really that's really interesting. And how how does that impacted like how you run events? I mean, because that's a whole different ballgame.

2:46Aaron Pugh Tell me about it. At the end of the day, though, like business all boils down, in my opinion, to how functional that you can make it, right? And if you're saving, if you're trying to solve that same problem five or six times, you got a broken process, right? And I don't care if it's in the automotive industry, the dental industry, the vet industry, you name it, right? And in order to be effective and be as efficient as possible, you gotta be able to create these processes and these founding building blocks. That allow your team to be able to function without having you as the one person that is constantly checking every little thing and dotting every single eye. Like you just simply cannot exist. Well, let me rephrase that. You can exist, but it's a tough life to live that way as a CEO trying to run a company. So all of those things just kind of help feed in to let me see what it takes to pull something off like this. Now.

3:20Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah.

3:40Aaron Pugh Talking about going into the conference, there's a million things, Jim, that I never in a million years would have ever thought of that it took in order to pull off a conference, especially at the size that we're trying to pull them off now. So still drinking from the fire hose learning this game.

3:51Dr. Jim Arnold Man. Well, you know, that's that's really exciting. I mean, you guys have come a long way in just a couple of years. I mean, I know that yeah, it was I think concept to launch like four months or something like that the first time around. And that's that's really impressive, man. And you know, going back to like your past history, I mean, you were the one making sure the trains run on time, you know, right? For a long time. So what what changed for you like when you all of a sudden became the one doing the talking? You're the one on stage where you weren't always that.

4:25Aaron Pugh Yeah, I'll be honest, that's actually not a role that I'm super comfortable in. Like it's something that's real new to me. I've always played a behind-the-scenes role. I've always been the one that has promoted the team up, gotten things going. What I have learned though, when it comes to being able to talk about things, if you believe in them, like you truly buy into whatever it is that you're trying to produce, it's not that hard to have conversations around the impact that you're able to make.

4:36Dr. Jim Arnold Mm-hmm.

4:55Aaron Pugh for an industry, right? So that part's actually come real natural and real easy for me to get out there. The hardest part is for me to like put myself out there on a podcast instead of sending my team out there to give them, you know, an opportunity to show themselves, right? It's the ev every good company has a good leader. But if that leader isn't always trying to get their team in the spotlight and to rise up and to be able to be the face of the company as well, then.

4:57Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. Yeah.

5:22Aaron Pugh You're only gonna go so far as I can go. And I've only got about twelve hours in the day that I'm putting into this, right? So I need the rest of the team to be able to fill that in. But yeah, it's a different shift in role. it's one I'm definitely getting comfortable with. You know, I was the COO of VGP, so I've been an executive for a long time. I'm real comfortable in boardrooms. That's probably the most comfortable place that I'm at.

5:28Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. Mm-hmm. Look, man, your your passion always comes through. You know, your your passion for what you're doing is always very obvious. And I think that is what gives you a lot of credibility, just that authenticity. And you know, whether you're on a a podcast or one on one conversation or on stage, it it comes comes across. I think you're very consistent on all three formats.

6:06Aaron Pugh Well, I appreciate that. And it does come honestly. And I think a lot of that comes because I came from the industry. And I might be the first person that came from an industry that tried to actually create a conference out there. And so I view this from a very different lens than somebody who's been in the conference world this entire time. So I am passionate about it. I've been on that other side of the booth where I've shelled out, you know, actually six figures to be in a spot and

6:26Dr. Jim Arnold Mm-hmm.

6:35Aaron Pugh I'm getting hardly any of the opportunity or time for the money that I've invested into this company. and I knew that there was a better way that we could go about creating a platform where business could get done again. And that was that was the real aha moment for me behind all of this and trying to push it out there. And why I talk so passionately about it, because I know the impact that it's already starting to.

6:59Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah, no, I saw that impact too. You know, I was at the first event in New Orleans last fall, and I mean, I was pretty blown away and all the conversations I had with people were consistent. Everybody had an amazing experience. And, you know, I I gotta ask you though, like you work really closely with obviously your good friend Scott Johnson, but you're also working with your wife. She's involved in this, right? How's that? I mean, man, do you guys talk about anything other than this? Cause this has gotta be all consuming for you guys, I would think.

7:21Aaron Pugh She is. She's I'm sure I'm not the only person that's going to be listening to this that started a practice and brought their significant other because they had skill sets that they didn't have and they were figuring out how to pull it all together. You know, my wife actually was the reason why I got into animal health to begin with. She was the one that cracked open that door. and the hospital that she was the practice manager at, gosh, she was 21 years old when she was doing that. young, young.

7:41Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. Wow, she started young. Mm.

7:58Aaron Pugh yeah, no, we've gosh, we're going on twenty-six years together now. Yeah, we we got quite a history going between the two of us. but she had her practice purchased by this guy named Dr. Troutwine. And Dr. Troutwine ended up starting one of the largest veterinary groups out there. I think by the time he sold it, he had about 500 animal hospitals all over the nation underneath there. And my wife being the second or third practice that he purchased. Just started rising up the ranks and in Atly became their VP of operations. so that woman just knows everything about animal health, has been running animal hospitals forever. I could not have been blessed with somebody who had the experience, the passion, and every much as want as I do for this thing to succeed because our family is riding a lot on it. So it worked out to be unbelievably well. I'm Very fortunate to have my wife, there's no doubt about

8:58Dr. Jim Arnold You know, that that's great, Scott. I when I started my first dental practice, my wife left her career in in in legal. She my wife is an attorney and she left her career as a lawyer to start our first practice together. And and it was amazing. You know, I mean there are challenges when you're you know 24 seven, you know, you know, just flooring it. Like when when you're you're moving fast, it can create some it can create some stress. But I tell you what. There's nobody you can trust like you know, your own spouse. You know, nobody is gonna have as much skin in the game as as your wife. And so I think it's really cool you guys have been able to do this together.

9:39Aaron Pugh Yeah, everything you said, I second on top of all of that. I mean, there is a never time where there's not work conversations going on, whether it's ten o'clock at night or six o'clock in the morning, we wake up, right? and it definitely brings on a new set of challenges. But man, when you got the right partner, like life partner, there's nothing you guys can't figure out and work through for whatever the extra additional stuff is that comes in. And to your point.

9:51Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah.

10:05Aaron Pugh You never have somebody in the foxhole that is fighting as hard as you are to make this whole thing come together as your significant other. So

10:11Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah, I wanna go back to that first call with Scott, you know, when you came up with this idea. You're on a beach in Hawaii and you know, what was happening that day before you called Scott and and what did you say when he picked up the phone?

10:25Aaron Pugh Yeah, so that was in my initial stage of going, I'm gonna take this on. Let's go make this happen. And I know in business that you can't go alone in this entire situation, right? And people who think that they can and don't have at least one other counterpart that, like you were saying, can call you on your BS.

10:42Dr. Jim Arnold Mm-hmm.

10:52Aaron Pugh Can see windows and angles that you may not be able to see, has relationships that they've built, you know, over 15 years that you haven't had that time or don't know those relationships. Like you grow faster farther with the right partners in place. And that's true if you're running a dental clinic and you're looking for vendors to bring on. That's true for the mastermind that you're currently getting set up right now. Like we all can grow much faster together in a collaborative effort. And Scott. has been in my universe for probably 14 years, 15 years now. And we worked on opposite sides of the fence, but we just were all at the same events. And we would show up to the same fishing trips and hunting trips and all the other stuff. And the first time I met Scott was actually at the players, gosh, that would have been 2014 or 2015 at that golf tournament.

11:27Dr. Jim Arnold Okay. Nice.

11:50Aaron Pugh And a mutual vendor between the two of us had a suite and invited us both to go there. We ended up renting a house out there on the beach, and well, I had an amazing time watching the golf tournament. And the two of us were up until probably one, two o'clock in the morning just talking about family, life, business. And this guy had all the same core values that I had in life, right? And I told him that night, I said, 'Scott, I don't know when, but at some point you and I are gonna end up working together.' And

12:06Dr. Jim Arnold Awesome. Yeah.

12:18Aaron Pugh So when I was on that beach and I was going through everything and I realized I'm gonna take a shot at this and let's let's jump all in. Scott was the guy that I wanted to bring in. He was the guy that I knew that knew the other half of the field that I didn't know. I knew he had the same core values. And gentlemen and ladies, if you're out there and you're starting a business, the most important thing that you need to look for in a partner is that your core values align, right? I mean, that is just at the end of the day, you guys need to be able to have trust.

12:31Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

12:48Aaron Pugh And and what and what truly builds you as your foundation, right? And Scott had all of those. So no, I called up Scott, and I think Scott thought I was trying to sell him on showing up to my new conference. The word was kind of starting to get out there that Aaron is starting to do something again. And about halfway through, I said, Scott, I'm not trying to sell you on this. I'm actually trying to bring you in and I need you to book a flight to Hawaii, and you got two days to get out here, pal. so that's

13:16Dr. Jim Arnold my god, that's amazing.

13:17Aaron Pugh That was the initial part of it all, and that that's how I approached it with him. and so yeah, man.

13:22Dr. Jim Arnold That's one hell of a pitch. Say, hey man, I'm flying to Hawaii to talk about this. Like, who's gonna say no to that?

13:31Aaron Pugh And you know, Scott was due to actually take over as CEO for the distribution company, right? And I knew all of this was starting to go down. and so I knew I had this short window to try to pull him out of the giant corporate behemoth that he was already a part of. And my pitch to him was, dude, you've been a part of this industry forever, just like me. Why not create something that is entirely different that nobody has ever seen that is actually going to have.

13:39Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah.

13:58Aaron Pugh A massive potential impact and lift. and we get to leverage all the relationships that we've built over this entire time. And we get to call all the shots. Like, I mean, it is so much fun when you don't have the guardrails from a giant corporate entity out there to be able to create and just go, you know what? That's a brilliant idea. Let's let's just do it. Like, let's just figure it out and make it happen. And there's a lot of stress that comes with it.

14:16Dr. Jim Arnold You make the rules.

14:27Aaron Pugh But there's a lot of fun that comes with it too.

14:30Dr. Jim Arnold you guys always have a good time. I I can tell. I mean, just the event that you put together in New Orleans was such a blast and you had so many little you know things that made it fun for everybody else. And that that's really important to to be part of your your whole culture, I think.

14:44Aaron Pugh So, Jim, let me ask you about that with you because I see you all over the place on social media right now. you've been one, one of the biggest advocates for us. So, I can't thank you enough on that front. You instantly came in, you told me, Aaron, I'm gonna give everything a shot at least once, and I'm all for trying to help out this industry. So, if this is something that will have an impact, I'm gonna tell you right off the bat. And if it's not, I'm gonna tell you that right off the bat as well.

14:49Dr. Jim Arnold Mm.

15:12Aaron Pugh But you seem to incorporate a lot of that as well. Like you've got a, by the way, if you guys don't know, I'm sure you should because we're on his podcast. But he has this amazing event that's about to go down in Greece that he's pulling together right now. Go get registered for that. But you seem to incorporate all the things that you're doing kind of around that same that same value that we're trying to push as well, right? It's like.

15:37Dr. Jim Arnold Absolutely. Hey man, you know, people learn I think people learn a lot better when they're having a good time and they're enjoy the people that they're doing it with. I don't really care what the setting is, as long as you're with the right people and you're having a good time. I think that things are just they they just tend to work out a lot better. You know, and when you look at Yeah, yeah, exactly.

15:54Aaron Pugh It breaks down barriers, right? I mean it just instantly opens people up. You can have real conversations, which at the end of the day is what we're all trying to get to, right?

16:04Dr. Jim Arnold That's right. That's right. You just gotta create a better vessel, you know, where people get the most out of it. And I think you guys have done a really good job of that. And, you know, when I look at you two though, you and Scott have very complementary skill sets. You know, when you came together, you said you're kind of on opposite sides a little bit. So what what does he do really well that you maybe aren't as good at? And what do you do really well that maybe he's not as good at?

16:28Aaron Pugh man, Scott has an eye for detail that just escapes me. I I don't the whole advertising, the whole social media world, all of that stuff. Scott just lives it, breathes it, gets it, understands it, understands the visual aspects to things and how to connect all of those together. It's completely foreign to me, Jim. Like I don't know why I buy something if somebody gets me on some advertisement thing. I'm just like, yeah, that's cool. so he he he manages all of that stuff. And really the look and feel of this conference, most of that is Scott's mastermind brain on the backside. On, this would look amazing if we put this here or if we did this for this activation, or this social media post needs to start doing this instead of that. he's he's amazing at that part of it all.

17:05Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. Well, that that's awesome, man. I mean, again, if if it's something you're not really comfortable with, you you pick the right partner, you know, 'cause he is he's obviously just exceptional because you guys just I mean, you hit it out of the park on the first try.

17:35Aaron Pugh The other thing is that Scott is a sales guy through in and throughout. He's been that way his entire career. Scott does a big part of running our entire sales team, setting up the processes in place for them, how they set their goals, how they go about doing their day-to-day workflows. Like Scott, Scott has been just an instrumental piece on pulling all of that stuff together. So that's definitely Scott's side of the world. my side of the world, I

18:00Dr. Jim Arnold But it's possible.

18:04Aaron Pugh Definitely came from the operational side of everything, right? So I still see everything as this giant puzzle that we all start fitting all the pieces together. And then once you get this layer built, it's time to start building the next layer. And then it's time to start building up that next layer. so I I've got a I've got a pretty decent skill set when it comes to all of that stuff. I love looking out five years in advance. I love being able to go, this is the impact.

18:13Dr. Jim Arnold Mm-hmm. Well, that's awesome.

18:33Aaron Pugh I want this to get to, but here's step one in order for us to get there. Right. And making sure that we are staying on track, but keeping a long term vision that's laid out for everybody. And and then just making sure that we're we're hitting the milestones on where we need to get to.

18:49Dr. Jim Arnold Well, and that's why your I think your history kind of lines up perfectly for that, having been so so good at operations and making sure everything runs smoothly and all that sort of thing. But I mean, leading up to that, i if if it's true that it only had you only had a few months f before that first event, like what were the biggest challenges you guys faced? Like to actually make that I mean, seriously.

19:10Aaron Pugh It was four months by the time I got Scott on. And then, of course, as soon as I bring Scott on, I was on a family vacation in Japan. So I'm doing calls at three o'clock in the morning in the bathroom trying to get things lined up. there was absolutely no time for planning or anything. Scott and I said, okay, let's do it. The date was already picked. We had to get at least 220 people to that first event. Man, we called in every favor we had in the our entire existence to pull off that first event, right? And it was just, I know you don't know about my conference, but you know who I am. We've worked together for 15 years. I've never done you wrong before. Trust me, what we are putting together is gonna be amazing. And to be honest with you, Jim, I didn't know how amazing it was gonna be. I'd never seen one of these done before either, right? So I remember

19:39Dr. Jim Arnold Wow Wow Yeah, yeah, man. Let's go back to that. I mean, you're at the first vet together and you're just like watching this, like your baby is coming to life, so to speak. Like at what point did you d realize, Holy crap, like this is this e is even better than I thought it was gonna be?

20:14Aaron Pugh Yeah, the first time the one on one meeting sessions actually started happening, you know what it's like when you walk into a room and you feel energy and you feel energy of business getting done, right? And it just kind of starts feeding off of that entire deal. And I was like, perfect case in point. You walk into that bar at Dykoma, right, at 7 30, 8 p.m., and the entire universe of the dental world is over there, and you can just hear business just being done all over the place.

20:22Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. Yeah.

20:41Aaron Pugh That's what it felt like when that was going down. And I remember when we walked into this, I was like, I don't know how we got these people here, Scott. Like I know we just called in every favor in the world. And pal, I don't know if either one of us are gonna have a job or a company by the time this is all said and done. But let's hope for the best and see where it ends up. And I remember after that first session, he looked over at me and I looked back at him and I just had the smile on my faces from ear to ear. And I was like,

20:41Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. Wow. Wow.

21:08Aaron Pugh Dude, we did something. Like we just did something, and it's a lot bigger than we thought it was going to end up being too. No, we got off of that first one. Doet we got out of that first event, right? And so, you know, one of the challenges we're running into is we've grown so fast. we thought that maybe we would be in a hotel on this third year that would fit like 700 people, maybe 600 people, right? So

21:15Dr. Jim Arnold You both gave up careers. Yes. No, go ahead. Sorry. Yeah.

21:37Aaron Pugh We got that hotel down in New Orleans and I was like, okay, you know, let's see how well we do. And we opened up registration in the first 30 days, the entire event was sold out for the space we had. And I was like, this is about to get a lot bigger than we thought it was gonna get. So we contracted out the convention center like on the spot where like we'll take anything you have. We just need to get like a hundred thousand more square feet. thankfully, they just happen to have.

21:48Dr. Jim Arnold Unbelievable. That's unbelievable. man.

22:03Aaron Pugh One of their locations open. So we were able to get into their convention center. And then similar to the vet side, I was like, we've been wanting to launch this dental piece. I was just going to wait another year before we got into it. But we had the room. And I had, I don't know, 15 or 20 vendors walk up to me that were playing on both sides of the fence and were like, Can you please launch this on the dental side? We'll make introductions for you. We'll do whatever it'll take, like just get this going. I was like,

22:26Dr. Jim Arnold Wow.

22:30Aaron Pugh Are you up for another crazy roller coaster ride? Because we got about another four and a half months. You want to see if we can do it? And he was like, let's go for it. So we jumped in, started making connections, got a hold of you, got really fortunate to get hooked up with some key players. and what an industry, man. Like, that is the thing that I will say about the vet industry. The business, all of that stuff is all super fascinating to me. I love business in general, but the people are what draw you into it, right? I mean

22:38Dr. Jim Arnold Amazing.

23:00Aaron Pugh On not just the doctor side, but the vendor side as well. Like it just attracts good people. Man, it is the same way on the dental side. It is just, I've, you know, got connections now that I've known for, I don't know, four or five months that feel like I've known them for years. that I can call up on a Saturday and they're willing to talk through whatever issue I have going on. Jim, you pinged us out of the blue, or like, dude, I've got an idea for you. Can you meet me down here at nine o'clock in the morning? Right. I mean, it's just it's an overwhelming.

23:05Dr. Jim Arnold It really does. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

23:29Aaron Pugh overwhelming amount of of just genuine like let's let's get good stuff happening here. I I love the people. That's that's really what attracts me to both sides.

23:38Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. Well, you know, I've been saying for years, once people get into the dental industry, they never leave. And and it really is. It's about the people, you know, the people and the opportunities. And so there are people who come in as vendors with one company or one you know, like niche. And, you know, they may change to another company or another niche, but they stay in dentistry. It's it's just amazing. I think that culture is really pervasive.

23:44Aaron Pugh Yeah. Couldn't agree more. Could not agree more.

24:05Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. So you you described it as, you know, when you guys left your careers, I mean you had careers, you have families to take care of and everything. You referred to it as burning the boats. I mean, that's a the perfect description. But what what was the scariest thing about that, man?

24:24Aaron Pugh gosh. You know, honestly, Jim, it was for me personally, it was an unproven concept. We we've been to trade shows, we know they sucked. from a networking business direct perspective. I'm not knocking any other trade shows. I'm just talking about a vendor showing up at a booth, the traffic they get, what they pay for that spot, right?

24:31Dr. Jim Arnold Mm-hmm. Yep. 'Cause you'd been that you'd been that vendor paying a shitload of money and not getting the ROI that you that you wanted.

24:50Aaron Pugh So many times. So many times. I mean, Scott was dropping a quarter million a year. No, a show for his last gig that he was at to go do this, right? So so one, I mean, I knew the funds were there, right? And I knew that this this this model has been accepted, and actually we have way too many of them. I mean they popping up left and right. I guess the scariest part with all of it, just like anything else, when you go to jump off of that deal. You're taking off all the godrails and you're starting to bet on yourself. It's like, I know the idea is good. Well, now you got to go prove it, right? Now it's like, it all sounds great on paper until you actually what does Mike Tyson say? Everybody's got a plan in before they lead into the ring till they get punched in the face. What was that punch in the face gonna be, right? I mean, was it gonna be I missed an angle and I didn't see this part of it or I didn't see that lane? Like there's a lot.

25:40Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. Yeah.

25:47Aaron Pugh A second guessing that starts to go down once you get ready to start truly making that commitment and walking away from a fat six-figure easy cush situation that had been laid out at that point. but I'm a big believer, Jim. Like if you don't continue to move in life, and I consider movement physical and mental, you stop growing, right? And there is a huge piece of me that doesn't like to sit still for too long.

26:08Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. Mm.

26:15Aaron Pugh Right. And we had gotten VGP into an amazing place. unbelievably proud of the company. We had sold that company. it it it started to become that rent and repeat cycle at that point, right? We had our product, it had been unbelievably well received out there. we got bought by private equity, right? So now suddenly those guardrails got thrown back on as far as

26:31Dr. Jim Arnold Mm-hmm.

26:42Aaron Pugh What we could create. It was all about the bottom line at that point. and I I enjoy, I mean, is as scary and all of that is, every time that I make a leap or I try to improve my capacity on how I view things or learn about things, it's always been a benefit for me, right? And so it's scary.

27:06Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah.

27:08Aaron Pugh But it's just one of those things that I mean we talk about it all the time in mastermind, right? Like it's as scary as that is, the alternative for me is far worse internally, right? So man, take the leap, go for it, bet on yourself, like make the commitment.

27:20Dr. Jim Arnold Absolutely, man. I hear you. No, I couldn't agree with you more. I agree. As soon as you stop growing, you start dying. And we all need new challenges in life. And what a huge challenge this was and and how cool to see it all coming together. But you know, it it is such a different concept. You've described it as like a a dating app for decision makers, you know, and tell me about that. Like how how do you equate that to a dating app for, you know, these dentists who are hosted to come and tell us tell us how the all that looks.

27:49Aaron Pugh Yeah. So I'll I'll I'll step back real quick and just my thought about this conference and how I hope it becomes into the industry and be viewed at. This is the one conference every owner needs to attend, right? Like you can go get your education in so many amazing places. Go to Greece with Dr. Jim if you want to go get some amazing education and all of that other stuff. I am never ever going to fill that lane. There are better speakers, there are people who've been doing this so much longer than I. But as an owner, like as an owner of a practice, it is your obligation to constantly be trying to figure out how you can improve your margins, how you can improve the amount of time that you and your team have. Like I think one of the biggest issues we have in the industry is burnout, right? Most of those issues can actually be solved with vendor relationships that are already out there right now. it's a scary thing to take on new technology and into your practice.

28:49Dr. Jim Arnold Mm.

28:53Aaron Pugh Or to try a new process or to try whatever, but you're already running yourself ragged. My conference is really built around for doctors at least once a year to go out there and test that market with all the different vendors that you're currently working with right now. If you're looking for some new AI scribe, you can meet with four different vendors at my conference that all talk about AI scribe. Find the best model that's going to fit perfectly for you. There's no one size that's going to fit all for every single person.

29:23Dr. Jim Arnold Mm-hmm.

29:23Aaron Pugh but if you're not constantly meeting or at least once a year, doing one benchmark to figure out where you're stacking up for what vendors are charging you, what other services are out there, what are the things that you can bring to enhance your own company to make your life easier and to make you more profitable, you're gonna start getting beat out by everybody else that's out there, right? So

29:45Dr. Jim Arnold Well, the beautiful thing is like in that setting, I mean, you get to vet 30 vendors. I mean, that's like a whole year or two of vetting in one place where you have a focused, focused meeting one on one with each of them. And I tell you, my experience last year was extraordinary. I mean, I had 30 meetings and I mean after the first day, I think I had 10 sort of follow up calls already scheduled because the quality of vendors at the event were so good.

29:55Aaron Pugh What's Yeah, so that philosophy is how this whole format really got created. So we're what we call a hosted buyer model, right? So my goal was to try to create the most cost-effective, time-efficient way for doctors to be able to get out of their business to work on their business. And this is what we created in order to make that happen. You get your flight taken care of, you get your hotel taken care of, most of your meals are taken care of. All you need to do is show up and get ready to work on your business and do what's best for your employees and yourself. The way that it really works, and it is that speed dating style, we have our portal that's out there, and you go in there and you actually get the opportunity to start making preferences on all the different vendors that you want to meet with. You can search them by category, say, show me every equipment chair, show me every AI, show me every PIMS. And you can start setting meetings with all of them. And they're going through and they're doing the exact same thing on their side. And they're saying, yes, I want to meet with Dr. Jim Arnold over here. And I want to meet with, you know, Dr. Elijah over here. And then we take all that information into our algorithm. And based on our pre-screen on the different questions that the doctor has answered, and based on the selections that both of them have made, kind of helps feed.

31:25Dr. Jim Arnold Mm-hmm.

31:34Aaron Pugh What is what our hundred point scale system on what's gonna make the best possible meeting take place? It's

31:39Dr. Jim Arnold Well y and I tell you what, y when you you're paying for the doctors to go to Vegas and stay at a an amazing property. You're you're paying their airfare, you're paying their hotel, and you're providing them with this incredible opportunity. I mean, like what what's the biggest challenge to get dentists to say yes? Because it it seems like we should have a thousand of them there in October.

32:00Aaron Pugh From your lips to God's ears, my friend. no, I have the same you know what? I have the exact same challenge that every other vendor that I'm trying to solve for him is. How do you get that guy on the phone? Right? How do you break through all of the noise to actually get them to be able to have a conversation? Because if I get a conversation with the doctor, we got like a 90% close rate. They're like, this is an amazing thing. And actually the hardest thing is.

32:05Dr. Jim Arnold Who wouldn't take that deal? Yeah.

32:29Aaron Pugh What's the catch? That's what I hear every single time. What's the catch behind this? Like, are you selling me a timeshare? Do I have to sign up with no, you don't have to sign up with a single vendor at my conference? I know you probably will because we have so many quality vendors that are gonna be there. There's gonna be something that you need in order to fit in your business that there's gonna be the solution for that problem right there at that conference, probably scheduled and set up directly for you to meet with one-on-one, right?

32:32Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah, right, right.

32:58Aaron Pugh So it's getting over the hurdle of one, nobody's heard of me over here on the dental side. Like we do have almost a thousand over on the vet side right now because they know who we are. yeah. yeah. Yeah. Yeah. but yeah, you know, it's it's so much easier for a doctor to hear this message from you or from Elijah, from Dr. Glen Vaux, any of those people that they've already had an established relationship with. They're like, hey man, this.

33:05Dr. Jim Arnold No kidding. That's amazing. In three years. That's incredible growth, Aaron.

33:28Aaron Pugh This is actually real. Like you should come check it out. You can knock out to your point, Jim, a year to two years worth of vendor meetings all in one fail swoop and the whole thing is taken care of. and you know, we're honestly, like for having no background, no history into this industry whatsoever, I think we're gonna end up with a little over 300 this year. And it's only been gone for about a year and a half. So

33:49Dr. Jim Arnold Wow, that's incredible. Wow.

33:52Aaron Pugh I'm ecstatic with the growth. Honestly, I don't even know if we could scale that much faster as we're getting all of our ducks lined up over on the dental side. Next year we're gonna go really big and we'll be pushing to hopefully match the vet side next year. But

34:06Dr. Jim Arnold man, that's that's amazing. I have no doubt that you'll hit those numbers. I mean, cause you pick great venues. I mean, who doesn't want to go spend a few days in New Orleans? Who doesn't want to go spend a few days in Vegas and, you know, learn and network and get all this ROI from the relationships? I mean, it's it's really cool. And it it's how often do you get this situation where you get a just a true win win for the practice owners and for the vendors?

34:30Aaron Pugh That's kind of one of my core values, Jim. Like I call it the win-win-win. Like if you're creating a company, whoever you're servicing on either side all needs to be winning as well. Like, and I'm a big believer that all boats rise with tides, right? And so the more we can lift everybody up, I know the doctor needs to meet with these vendors. I know these vendors and what they pay in order to have to try to swing open a door to have that conversation with that doctor.

34:42Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

34:58Aaron Pugh Why don't we all just get together and have a good time and create the right platform where we can all formulate all that together? I can take a little tiny piece, you can get a little piece, you're gonna get a little piece, we're all gonna walk away full. So

35:11Dr. Jim Arnold tell you last year when I was there for three days, I I kind of forgot who was the vendor, who was the the buy it was it was just a a really cool environment where everybody I think felt really comfortable. All I heard were positive reports on all the all the opportunities they got.

35:27Aaron Pugh So maybe you could talk a little about your experience there, Jim. So we actually had you as a hosted buyer, right? So you got to go through the whole experience on everything. you had never seen it before. So for a lot of people that are looking going, hey, I'm a first-timer, like, did you find it overwhelming? Did you find the process somewhat cumbersome? Like, what what did you find in all of that and and your entire experience through it all?

35:35Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. Look, the first time I heard about it, I was all in. I mean, I knew I knew that if you delivered what you were saying you were gonna deliver, it was gonna be an extraordinary experience. And that's exactly how it was. I mean, it was really seamless. Came into the room and you know, saw a lot of people I knew, saw a lot of people I didn't know. And as far as the the meetings go, I mean, it was really, really interesting. I mean, to have that focused one on one. That never happens. I mean, on an exhibit floor where, you know, you got Thousands of people running around. There's just so many distractions. There's so much going on. But in this format, you just one after another after another. And and I I loved that focus. It was just massive value for me.

36:35Aaron Pugh Well, appreciate the feedback on that. This year we're actually opening up an exhibit side on the smile side, like we did on the vet side. really excited. The goal behind all of this is to be able to create a one-on-one meeting situation, be able to carry those conversations on that take longer than 10 or 15 minutes back into a booth where you can actually sit down, show them whatever you need to show them on a laptop or be able to just have a more in-depth conversation. to really build that connection between the two. But as always, I want this to be a really, really good time. So we've got all kinds of activations on our floor. We're gonna have an open bar on our floor. We're gonna have golf simulators on our floor. We're gonna have ice cream parlors set up, like 50 style ice cream. We got latte stations set up so you can sit down in like a cafe that we've built out, have conversations around business, drinking coffee. we're gonna have puppy lounges there.

37:21Dr. Jim Arnold Come on, really? shit.

37:34Aaron Pugh we're giving away huge prizes on the floor for all of the doctors that are gonna be attending. So we're trying to just really juice this up, make it an event where networking and building connections is at the forefront with a lot of fun to help boost it up behind.

37:51Dr. Jim Arnold man, I music to my ears. I can't I can't wait to get there. And really I mean, as much fun as I had in New Orleans, I think this is gonna be even better. I mean, there's more people in the room. you know, you've got the got the whole formula worked out. And again, who doesn't love a trip to Vegas once in a while?

38:07Aaron Pugh Couldn't agree more. Could not agree more.

38:09Dr. Jim Arnold So yeah, so going into this one, like are is there anything major that you're changing from last year? You know, did you learn anything from last year's experience that fed into this this new one?

38:23Aaron Pugh Yeah, so we are constantly tinkering with the schedule, right? Like I really want people to be able to be present when they're having their one on one meetings, right? And so finding that proper timeline, how many is the proper meetings to be able to run back to back with all of that? We're gonna adjust that up a little bit. They're not gonna be quite as long of a stretch of back to back one on one meetings.

38:27Dr. Jim Arnold Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

38:48Aaron Pugh We're finding that that dead time throughout the middle of the day, right? How do we bring more excitement? How do we drive more traffic and networking opportunities? That was one of the reasons why we're rolling out our new trade show floor over on the smile side to help boost that entire part up. so that's some of the things that I gathered from it. The other thing that I'm really working on, and and you know, we'll be releasing this soon, so everybody will hear about it. I want our speakers to be heard while they are there. We have some really good people. Glenn's gonna be Dr. Glenvo is gonna be speaking there. We got Dr. Rad speaking there. We got Elijah speaking there. we got Neo Positivity speaking there. So I'm gonna do some amazing cash raffle for everybody that attends the CE session this year, right? Hear what these people have to say, but if you show up and you attend the CE sessions,

39:24Dr. Jim Arnold man. Yeah. Love it. man.

39:43Aaron Pugh I'm gonna do like a five thousand dollar raffle for everybody that has attended the C E sessions at the end. So

39:48Dr. Jim Arnold Amazing. that's brilliant. I I love that. I mean as if the golf simulator and ice cream bar and all the other stuff wasn't enough. That that's amazing. I love it. Hey

39:58Aaron Pugh Appreciate it. Yeah, we've got Gucci wallets going out. We've got Traeger smokers that we're gonna be giving away. Like it's not just ear pods or headphones. Like it's gonna be a really, really cool gift that you're gonna be able to get.

40:13Dr. Jim Arnold So you guys had a big win last year. You had Nicole Kidman come and and do a whole thing. That was amazing.

40:17Aaron Pugh We did. That was a lot of fun having Nicole. She was she was a good sport about everything. Man, Joe, I had no idea how tall that woman was. She was like 6'3 or 6'4. I walked up to meet her and I was just looking up, going, holy smokes, but what an amazing, just genuine individual. It was it was a lot of fun getting to kind of know her and have her come out and talk to the audience.

40:44Dr. Jim Arnold that's awesome. Yeah, she was really she was really compelling. Obviously she's one of the most talented actresses out there, but just as a human, you know, I had a few minute a couple of minutes to chat with her and yeah, she was just she was fantastic. Now, do you have a headliner this year?

40:58Aaron Pugh Not that I'm gonna release

41:00Dr. Jim Arnold ooh, I love it. So a secret headliner. I boy, that's something to look forward to. So, you know, when you look at dentistry, obviously there's consolidation that's been going on for a while, private equity's involved and all that sort of thing. So when you look at that, how does the curated access to the right decision maker matter more now than it did five years ago for a vendor?

41:27Aaron Pugh I don't know that having that relationships matters more now than it did five years ago, but I think getting that relationship established is a heck of a lot harder now, five years later, than it was five years ago, right? I think the days of people being able to walk into a clinic, we're starting to see those pretty much over, right? I mean, if you're not one of the distribution reps that they s plan on seeing every Tuesday to put their order in, that they plan on you having come in.

41:41Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah.

41:56Aaron Pugh They've got their gatekeepers locked in place since COVID hit down. and it's just impossible to walk in and get that done, right? And I think the other thing that we've really seen shift with all of this is the sales forces on the vendor sides have really started to shrink from where they were, right? The days of having 500 reps out there and having this massive amount of team that is on the streets and hitting it all up.

42:01Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. Yeah. Huh, interesting.

42:24Aaron Pugh Like I think that we are seeing more online ordering purchases go down than we ever have before. just getting that is just becoming more and more tricky, right? And there's always going to be the shines and the Pattersons that have a really good size sales force. Don't get me wrong. But again, those are the guys that are showing up, getting that scheduled, you know, order that keeps coming in from, you know, their entire client. So, you know.

42:31Dr. Jim Arnold Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

42:52Aaron Pugh Think that we're seeing a bit of a consolidation when it comes to that. We're obviously feeling somewhat of a squeeze in the industry from that standpoint as well. And actually, I would love to ask you that question because you've been in the industry forever. Like, what do you think has made the biggest impact on private equity coming in with this giant consolidation phase that has gone down? And then the second follow-up question is: how bad has it been since interest rates skyrocketed and all these people who bought this EBITDA with?

42:59Dr. Jim Arnold Mm-hmm. Yeah.

43:22Aaron Pugh Cheap money is no longer cheap anymore, and we're seeing that whole backside start to come into play again.

43:28Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah, look, there's there's a lot there. And I I think as consolidation happens though, and you've got these bigger groups, decisions take longer to make. You know, you got a longer sales cycle. And that's why, you know, as a vendor, coming to an event like that where you've got the actual decision makers right there sitting across the table from you, that makes such a huge difference. I mean, I was I was a DSO exec for a year, and tell you what, people would reach out to me all the time, like, hey, who do I need to talk to in the company? And if you don't know who the decision makers are, it's really hard to get decisions made. And that's why at Smile Together, when you're sitting across from those decision makers, you're having real conversations that can shorten that whole sales cycle. And to your point earlier, it's all about relationships. It's all about that trust. And I mean, it's no different in dentistry than it is in veterinary. But when it comes to private equity and it comes to I think a lot of the consolidation where they're trying to do these three to five year, you know, aggregate and then flip sort of thing. So a lot of times it's it's the the interests aren't always in alignment with the dentists and the teams that that are there. But you know, in this kind of a scenario, you get everybody in the same room together having real conversations. And I I think it's easier to get people on the same page. And and that benefits the whole industry, I think.

44:53Aaron Pugh Well said. Well said. Yeah, my only concern with the whole consolidation deal is really care, right? It's like that's what we saw on the animal health side. There are some really good private equity people that came in, infused some capital that was really done well, and we've seen a lot of those flourish. And then we've seen the other ones that came in, and all they were trying to do is race to the bottom number to figure out how.

44:54Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. So

45:22Aaron Pugh How much can we grow what we just bought this thing for? And at the end of the day, they don't really care about the patient experience, right? And every vet and every dentist out there, that's that is their mission life. Like that is what they're drawn to. That is what drives them to show up every day, is that patient relationship and care and what they're able to provide. And I I just saw this disconnect start to happen with that over in animal health. And oddly enough, not oddly enough.

45:25Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. Yeah.

45:52Aaron Pugh We're starting to see the guys who exited out back in 2018, 2019, and they're now they're done with their three to five year commitment getting right back into the deal and saying, you know what, I'm doing it my way this time.

45:59Dr. Jim Arnold Mm. Is that right? Interesting. Well, I you know, I was gonna ask you about that. Like what what's the biggest kind of difference between the vet industry and the dental industry and what what do they have most in common?

46:14Aaron Pugh most in common is their business models are from one to another almost identical. One's dealing with animals, one's dealing with human mouth, all that other stuff. but it is a doctor running an office that has technicians, has staff, has to deal with vendors. all of that stuff just lines up identical between the two. There's no doubt about it. the passion, the care.

46:21Dr. Jim Arnold Really. Yeah.

46:44Aaron Pugh The genuine qualities of all of them, they are both the same on both sides of it all. surprisingly, not quite as much, but actually still the case. Both massive introverts on both sides for the most part, on the document side. Like vets are extremely introverted. most of the dentists that I have come in contact with are like you and Glenn, and they are outgoing. But as I've started to get in this world, actually not the case.

46:50Dr. Jim Arnold Mm-hmm. Is that right? Huh. Right.

47:12Aaron Pugh A lot of a lot of you guys are very introverted with all of that, right? so that was kind of interesting for me to learn. I will say the biggest difference between the two doctors, and this is just the kind of way I say it vets like to drive Subaru Foresters and dentists like to drive Corvettes. Like there's a there's a different look and feel to how they walk around and glitz up and all that other stuff, which which I find extremely humorous. but yeah.

47:16Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah.

47:42Aaron Pugh Outside of that, I honestly, man, most of it is very similar as far as their core values, their qualities, and what their business is that they're trying to do. The biggest, the biggest difference that I see on the vendor side is you guys don't have the pharmaceutical part of your game into everything like we do over on the vet side, which is a massive driver, right?

47:50Dr. Jim Arnold Mm-hmm. That's right.

48:05Aaron Pugh The other side of it is, you know, you guys could do a million to a million and a half in a practice over on the dental side. And if that's a one dot practice, that's a really good clinic, right? I mean, but on the gross revenue side on the vet, like we're like two and a half to three million before you kind of get into that same category. So they yeah. So they sell, they sell more, you know, individual products over there, right? You've got all the vaccines that end up going down.

48:15Dr. Jim Arnold Mm-hmm. Is that right?

48:35Aaron Pugh You've got flea and tick and all those other things. Not the same thing over on the dental side.

48:41Dr. Jim Arnold Huh. Well you you did you did mention earlier that a lot of your friends in the vet space throughout your career were also in the dental space. What kind of what kind of companies are are doing both?

48:54Aaron Pugh man. well, you know, all the big guys are there on the distribution. Patterson's over on both sides of it. Henry Side plays on both sides of it. the the easiest one that I see really play on both sides. One is software, right? It's like the models are very similar. They got to change up some field names in order to match over whatever is going on, but like.

49:02Dr. Jim Arnold I had no idea. Huh.

49:22Aaron Pugh PIM systems can go from one side to the other side real easy. phone systems. you guys call them PMS over on your side. So the vets just call them PIMs. It's your practice information management system versus just your practice management system. all your phone technology, people who are doing social marketing play on both sides of the fence quite a bit, right? So,

49:27Dr. Jim Arnold What's a I'm sorry, what's a PIM system? I'm okay, there we go. I gotcha. Okay. All right.

49:52Aaron Pugh I equipment companies mid-mark plays on both sides of the fence. I mean, it's surprising how many of them actually go to both sides. It is.

49:57Dr. Jim Arnold Okay. Well, that's beautiful for you and your business model. I mean, when you are holding vet together and smile together kind of in the same location at the same time, that must be really nice for these bigger vendors to be able to kind of, you know, cover both.

50:16Aaron Pugh That's one of the things they say they love about it. It's the only event where both sides of the of the house get a show up together, meet, collaborate together. yeah, no, it's it's a really fun thing to see. And Jim, I would love to figure out how to at some point bridge these doctors together. Like there's stuff that you guys should be talking to the other one about. It's not gonna be about how you do a root canal or how someone's doing whatever over on the vet side, but from a business standpoint, there is so much that these two can learn from each other and support one another.

50:48Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. Well, you know what? Maybe that's the next project. Maybe we collaborate on that because I I actually love I love that idea. And you know, it you alluded to it earlier. I run luxury dental retreats, you know, take dentists to really cool locations and world class education experiences, all that sort of thing. dude, last summer, Dubai, last summer, the Ritz-Carlton Dubai, and you know, we we had it we had a blast. but I have been planning, at least down the road.

51:08Aaron Pugh Really cool. Like unbelievably amazing five star.

51:22Dr. Jim Arnold bringing it into medicine, you know, having a physician, luxury medical retreats, because I I think there's an appetite for that. And to you know, what you said earlier, it's like creating an environment where people don't want to just be there, but they're outside their normal comfort zone. And I think it expands your thinking and you know, you don't have the normal everyday distractions. And in small groups you get that opportunity to really communicate on a human level. And so yeah, hey, I hadn't even thought about veterinary, but why wouldn't veterinarians want to do that sort of thing?

51:52Aaron Pugh They would love it, Jim. They would absolutely love it.

51:56Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. Well, yeah, I I think you know, getting vets and dentists into the same room is something that you've already mastered. I mean, you've you've done it. And I would bet next year you will ha you'll be up to a thousand dentists too, just like you are on the vet side. So that's that's pretty exciting in terms of looking ahead to growth.

52:13Aaron Pugh That would be amazing, Jim. I would be over the moon with excitement if that all comes together. And I think it will too. all all the right signs are pointing there. You know, we started this off summer of 24, and we had 218 people at our first event. And I think we'll have over 2200 combined at this one. So it's it's it's catching fire in a big way, and it's a really fun, really fun wave to ride right.

52:15Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. Well, yeah, and when you pick great destinations like that, I think it's easier to get people to, you know, you know, buy into that. So what what kind of feedback did you get from vendors from New Orleans?

52:55Aaron Pugh completely different than anything we've ever walked into. Have never had that many conversations that were that focused. have never had an event where the owner of the event said, I want you to base me on your ROI and what you actually close at the event. And between us, 80% of the vendors that were there in New Orleans have increased their budget by 50% with me this year.

53:24Dr. Jim Arnold Is that right?

53:24Aaron Pugh just from one conference going down, right? So I think that speaks for itself. Vendors put their money where their mouths are. There's already a million conferences that they're putting their money in. So the fact that they're doubling down on mine I I think speaks a lot. But they love the format. They love the fact that there's only decision makers on the floor. There's not people that are just, and don't get me wrong, you guys are the backbone of the industry. The technicians,

53:37Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

53:53Aaron Pugh the, you know, front office staff, like this doesn't run without them. But in this style of a conference, not having that distraction as a vendor showing up and just grabbing your candy or your t-shirt or whatever, every conversation can lead to a deal being done. so most of them are like, this was amazing. I've never walked this much in my life and been this exhausted from all of the leads that ended up taking place. I'm going to bring double the amount of people because I just did not know it would be this empathic.

54:06Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah.

54:23Aaron Pugh So

54:23Dr. Jim Arnold Wow, that's that's amazing. I mean, because obviously companies gotta be really careful about how they spend their money and they gotta make sure they're getting ROI. And the fact that eighty percent from last year have increased their spend. So when they increase their spend, what does that mean? Does that mean they're having more meetings with more decision makers or or what are they getting for that?

54:40Aaron Pugh Yep. Yep. They're increasing their one-on-one meetings, which means they gotta bring more people to be a part of the event. They're starting to put signs up now on the showroom floor so people can start to see outside of just their one-on-one meeting. but yeah, no, it's it's all about increasing the amount of conversations they get to have.

54:48Dr. Jim Arnold Mm-hmm. What's what's the max a vendor could have?

55:06Aaron Pugh I've got a vendor taking two hundred and fifty meetings at this event. Yeah.

55:09Dr. Jim Arnold What? Two hundred how do you do two hundred and fifty meetings? That's incredible.

55:13Aaron Pugh They are they are doing 250 on both sides, one on the vet side and one on the dental side. And they're bringing a team of twenty-two people to the event.

55:20Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. I was gonna say they gotta have a whole army there. And they were at last year's event, I assume.

55:29Aaron Pugh We're at last year's event, showed up, had 30 meetings at my meeting. I ran into them afterwards and he said, I've never been to an event that we got this big of an ROI. How big can I go with you? I will write you to the check now. And I was like, Here we go. So we made him an unbelievable package and he jumped right on in. I've got multiple ones that are doing 200 meetings on both sides of the fence. but the standard, the, the Biggest bang for the buck that we're seeing is really the 90 meeting package, right? You can effectively run that with about four people. most companies got about four people that they could comfortably send to an event like this. You get 90 one-on-one conversations directly. you should be able to pull an ROI.

56:04Dr. Jim Arnold Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, you know, I know I shared with you last week at Daikoma, I shared that as a dentist, I owned multiple practices and when I went to conferences, I'd have like two or three vendors I wanted to talk to. And I would just get on the floor, put on my blinders, and make a beeline to them and sort of ignore everybody else. But my experience last year at your event, it was really different. I I really embraced that speaking to vendors that I may not have thought of previously because they all had such interesting you know interesting products and services and they send just great people. I I really, I really enjoyed that. And and I might not have ever experienced that without without having gone.

56:57Aaron Pugh So it's it's kind of why you do these retreats in these amazing locations, right? Every doctor that is attending my event isn't showing up to the normal trade show floor going, How do I just not get harassed by every single person because I need to have this conversation? They're showing up with an open mind going, I'm here to do this at this event, right? So it flips the entire mindset around. And then we put them in the driver's seat, right? It's like usually it's you guys running around.

57:12Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. Mm-hmm.

57:26Aaron Pugh To what booth are they at? How do I get through the mad hall? No, we sit you guys down and we make the vendors run the gauntlet and go around to all of you so you guys can get comfortable, get in your space, know where you're gonna be at, and be able to have a real good conversation with them. That's all done by design, right? I mean, we if if if if the two people aren't in a comfortable place, a good conversation can never really happen, right? So

57:36Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. Yeah.

57:53Aaron Pugh We know vendors are used to selling. So how do we get the doctor as comfortable as possible? Let them know what they're up for in the beginning. Let them know how what the opportunity is too, right? I mean, to your point, it's like, guys, like get on board. You're gonna be able to knock out a year to two years worth of meetings and potentially come back with a huge impact. Like use that time wisely. and so I I think that's the I think that's the shift that ends up happening when doctors attend our event versus other events, right?

57:57Dr. Jim Arnold Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, no, I I saw that. I saw that in in motion in New Orleans. And honestly, like I would take 50 meetings if I could. I mean, that's that was the the caliber of vendors. And so, you know, any dentists listening to this right now, I can assure you that if you sign up, come to Vegas, you're gonna have an exceptional experience. I mean, they're gonna take good care of you. There's gonna be a lot of good people there, a lot of great vendors, and you're gonna be in a position to make some some decisions and to compare this company. To that company and have conversations after the fact that are very focused without a lot of distractions.

58:59Aaron Pugh If you sign up and you heard about it through this podcast, put Jim's last name, Arnold, and who referred you. My company will give you an extra $500 gift card just for listing it on this podcast that he was the one that brought you over to it. There's no other offer going around like this. So you get all the extra benefits that come with signing up. Sign up, use Arnold, and I'll make sure you get an extra $500 gift card that you can go spend in Vegas to have a good time.

59:10Dr. Jim Arnold no. that's man, I love it. You're paying them to come and have an amazing experience and get ROI, not only on their practice and the the investments, but also on the relationships. And I I tell you, I one of the things I loved last year, Aaron, was you know, we had a couple of evenings free where vendors were taking Dennis out, you know, and that that was really cool too.

59:52Aaron Pugh Yeah, so we always host a huge event the first night, but this is all about networking. And it's not me that needs to be doing the networking. It's all the attendees that are going to be there. So our goal is to always leave time and availability for you guys to be able to take out your clients, for you to continue to host your own happy hours. you know, those are all the things that we want to encourage as well. Our goal is to get the entire industry to start noticing this event and having

59:56Dr. Jim Arnold Mm-hmm.

1:00:22Aaron Pugh Everybody's team starts showing up to it. Not just the salespeople, have their executive teams. Have the executive teams that may not need to meet with the procurement people, but may need to meet with the CEO of the DSO while they're there. Like we want this to be the most impactful business networking conference in the industry.

1:00:40Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah. Well, I I think you hit the nail on the head last year and I'm really excited to go this year. So, you know, any dentists or vendors who are thinking about this who think, man, that that sounds like exactly what I want to do, what's the best way for them to reach out and get more information?

1:00:55Aaron Pugh Yep. So Smile Together Live is our website. and then you can always send an email. Gosh, what is that supporting email? I'll just give you mine. You can just shoot one over to the president, Aaron at TogetherMedia dot com. Shoot me an email. Let me know who you are. I'll get you in contact with the right person to get you set up. So you can either go to our website, register through there, or shoot me an email and I'll be happy to assist.

1:01:23Dr. Jim Arnold well that that's awesome. Hey man, I'm glad you I'm glad you crossed the line. Okay, from vet over to dentistry and we're we're really lucky as an industry to have you guys you know, jump into the jump in the mix with us. So really appreciate everything you're doing, man.

1:01:37Aaron Pugh Jim, dude, you just opened me with open arms since the second I met you. You are just an amazing person out there. Everybody that's listening to this, go check it out. Go get to his event in Greece. It's gonna be absolutely incredible. but thanks for having me. Thanks for spending the time with me. Look forward to our next conversation, my friend.

1:01:57Dr. Jim Arnold Yeah, as do I. Thanks for giving us this insight. And man, look look forward to seeing you soon. Thanks, buddy. All right. Well, if you're a dentist who found value in this conversation, please share with friends and like and subscribe. Have a great day.

1:02:03Aaron Pugh All right. Take care, buddy.