The Power of Tinkering: How Iteration Drives Innovation and Success with Ilan Abramowitz

Ilan Abramowitz 0:00

Someone just quit, you know, should I give up? They say, no, let’s figure it out. Let’s keep going. If things didn’t change, you know, we wouldn’t have Apple Watches and iPhones. You know, it would be the old world of the old analog phones. So things change. We just got to kind of figure it out along the way.

Shawn Zajas 0:17

The future of dentistry belongs to the innovators. Welcome to Innovation in Dentistry. I’m your host, Shawn Zajas. And I believe that the future of dentistry is going to be unbelievably great over the next decade and two decades. But the question isn’t that. The question is, are you going to be part of what makes dentistry great?

Shawn Zajas 0:47

So I am incredibly excited today to be able to interview Dr. Ilan Abramowitz. And I hope I did that justice.

Ilan Abramowitz 0:56

You did awesome, man.

Shawn Zajas 0:57

I did awesome. Okay. So before I set you up, let me just say, like, Ilan, thank you so much for spending time with me and letting me interview you today.

Ilan Abramowitz 1:06

Well, I appreciate the opportunity, you know, to build on that connection we had in the past. I’m excited, Shawn. Thank you for inviting me.

Shawn Zajas 1:15

So, Ilan and I, we literally just met at the DEO, what was that, two weeks ago. And I found myself at a table with you. And I was just so fascinated hearing what it is that you’re doing in dentistry right now with Perfect Fit Ortho. And we’re going to go into what that is all about. But first, you know, innovation again. And it, like, Perfect Fit Ortho is a perfect example of, like, of an innovation that has to do with, you know, like a model and a delivery. And, you know, consumers are going to get massively impacted in a great way because of that. But I’m curious, as a dental professional, how it is that you even decided to say, yeah, why not me? Like, why can’t I be a co-founder of something like this and just step up? Like, being a dentist is hard enough. Running your own practice is hard enough. But to actually say, yeah, let me pioneer something different. Like, was that something that was easy for you? Did it come naturally for you? I’d like to know a little bit more about your process of how that even got started.

Ilan Abramowitz 2:16

Awesome. So I’d like to say over time, it did become natural. And, you know, it just didn’t happen all of a sudden. I always found myself as the one to take a situation, kind of re-evaluate and tinker with it. And see if I could find something more efficient, maybe something that would give a better result. And just keep tinkering with it over and over until, you know, something was of value. And even then, you still have to update it. You still got to tinker with it. Make it more efficient. Make it more valuable. Make it higher quality. And that’s kind of where it was. So obviously, I’m an orthodontist now. So I’ve been studying that for about 17 years. And aligners come on. So when I was a resident, aligners were the devil. You know, you couldn’t do aligners with braces. Aligners do minor things. As I started to, again, use it, I started to realize, you know, you could actually do anything you wanted with aligners. And then we come around to that quick company formation of the first direct-to-consumer company that went straight out there. And while chaos ensued in my profession, I was like, that’s a pretty cool idea. I’d like to learn about it. So instead of going to, you know, the government and the AJODO or the ADA and trying to fight it, I said, let me figure this out. Let me see what they do. Let me see how it works. So I became a patient. I learned about it. I learned the system. I could see what patients were attracted to with it. And I could see these were the things that just don’t work. And I was able to, you know, put my orthodontic mind on and my divergent mind on and say, let’s figure out a way to make this work efficiently and give it the top quality that all the consumers want. And that’s when I started to tinker around with what became Perfect Fit Ortho.

Shawn Zajas 4:00

Now, timeframe wise, how long ago was this that you just started paying attention? Because it seems like you kind of took that curiosity that you have. And like you said, that divergent thinking of like, well, just because this is how it’s being done right now, it doesn’t mean this is the best way in the market for consumers, for delivery. When did you start kind of questioning that and thinking that maybe there was something that you could create that was a better way?

Ilan Abramowitz 4:27

Sure. So in my experience as a patient where I actually got to prove it to myself. So, you know, the mindset told me that there’s only certain things that someone can do on themselves. It’s just not the same. There’s pieces from these direct to consumer aligners that just will not give results that most people want. So what could I do to create something that I can efficiently allow clear aligners to create any possible result that some type of patient would want? Okay. And so, you know, using Invisalign for any case taught me the little intricacies of what to do and how to do it. And then through COVID, I was able to say, you know what? Dental monitoring was a great company that just woke me up to it. So during COVID, all my dental monitoring patients were still fine with treatment and everything was easy and they loved it. Patients that came direct to my office for every visit had a two-month stall. You know, they had a two-month delay in where their treatment was going. In addition to the realization of that, I was also reading a book before COVID and I finished it during the COVID shutdown here in Florida. And it was called The Future of Professions. And, you know, just having that mindset, finishing that book and actually seeing what’s happening, it just kind of took, you know, my vision and reality and said the time to do it is right now.

Shawn Zajas 5:47

So when you were a patient, was that four or five years ago?

Ilan Abramowitz 5:51

I was a patient about 2018.

Shawn Zajas 5:54

Okay. So this is relatively new and you’re a bit, I’m just saying to go from idea of like, okay, I’m starting to be aware now, I’m a patient, I’m going through this on my own, to all of a sudden finishing the book during COVID and being like, why, why not now? Like this is happening fast.

Ilan Abramowitz 6:11

Yeah, it happens fast. You know, once you get the idea and remember it started in 2018. So I was just trying to explain it to people. And then when COVID came, I was like, not only can I explain it, but let me show you the proof. And that’s just when it just went from really fast to it just, it’s blowing up.

Shawn Zajas 6:26

Now, do you view yourself as an entrepreneur?

Ilan Abramowitz 6:30

I do now, you know, in the beginning I did. In the beginning, I like to say I was in, you know, the zone of comfort, you know, in a comfort zone where when we just achieve excellence, you know, we’re happy with us. You know, that’s like a doctor. And then as I started to develop, I said, you know, I want to get outside that zone. I want to be like in that zone of, I heard termed the zone of genius where I can go above that zone of excellence and just stay there and start to do things that most people don’t see as a reality.

Shawn Zajas 6:56

Man, I mean, I just find that so fascinating, Ilan, because I mean, A, I love, I love the name because anyone that hears the name Ilan obviously thinks of like the most, what is he, the richest person in the world right now.

Ilan Abramowitz 7:10

But you know what the funny thing, Shawn, is that didn’t happen until very recently. Like before it was like, who are you? I’m like, I’m Ilan, like the skis, you know, the skis.

Shawn Zajas 7:19

You know, but to go from being an orthodontist, which you still are an orthodontist. And again, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s like it’s a pretty proven path. You know, you get your education and then you set up shop as an orthodontist. And yes, there’s ways in which you can express yourself differently. But to all of a sudden then have an idea and say, why can’t I create a better iteration of something in the marketplace that’s completely different? Like, you know, at that time, no one came to you and said, Ilan, I guarantee you this is going to work. Here’s the guarantee. This is how long it’s going to take. This is the path. And at this point in time, all of a sudden it’s going going to work. So knowing that there’s this uncertainty, how did you like, did that did that bother you at all? Was that something that you had to wrestle with that tension of this may not work? This may not ever make it to market that?

Ilan Abramowitz 8:12

Yeah, sure. It’s still it’s still resonates. No, it’s it’s kind of that internal thing. We all have that fear, that fear of change. And, you know, I think what I’ve learned is when you get to this point of like resisting the change, that’s when you can finally change it. You can overcome that resistance and now you can change. So I think, you know, the culmination of reading some rant, some book about business that talked about the future of AI, you know, culminating with, well, I’m living through it right now with this COVID shutdown to like the time is now. I mean, the time is now. I think that’s what overcame that fear, that resistance of like the time to do it is now.

Shawn Zajas 8:52

Now, I know a lot of professionals that are established in their field. You know, you already are an established orthodontist. Like it’s not like this was the first year of you doing, right? Now all of a sudden you have this established identity that’s respected in the community, maybe even in the professional community, but then you’re going to embrace a new identity of entrepreneur launching a business where you don’t have a track record. You don’t already have established success. Did you at all feel like, well, I’m already respected here and it’s like safe. People know, know me. What if I fall flat on my face or embarrass myself? Like, so again, you’re, you’re human, you’re not a robot. So you were still hearing these things, but you, you just knew what the benefit would be better than like, it was worth

Ilan Abramowitz 9:42

the risk. I would say it’s just the fear of, you know, you know, our fears are based on the subconscious of that we inherited and that we grew up learning. And I was like, you know, that’s just a fear. And I accept the fear and let’s go ahead and let’s see if it comes true.

Shawn Zajas 9:57

That’s the easiest way to say it. I love that. So how many times have you already had to iterate to where you’re at today with Perfect Fit Ortho? Like how, how long has it been live in the marketplace?

Ilan Abramowitz 10:07

Let’s just start there. Officially. So Perfect Fit has been live since about March. All right. But before that, there was two other entities and that thing, we launched it. My first go around was 2019. And that’s when I would, you know, stay busy at the office and just market it to dentists I knew. And that was tough. That was a challenge because I didn’t have, I didn’t have anybody there to help me. And then I finally convinced my old director of operations from my ortho office. And he was like, yeah, I see it now. I can’t believe I questioned it. I was like, don’t worry about the past. Let’s go get it. And then we started making connections once he got on board. And then he’s since, you know, left the office and now he’s in it. He’s a believer. He’s the co-founder. Now he’s my partner and he is just spreading it like a wildfire. And it’s just been an amazing ride. So that original formation in 2019 and what it is today, is it the exact same idea, model, concept in its exact form, or has it just taken on a little bit of nuances? It’s taken on nuances. It’s modified for sure. It’s gotten to the point where, you know, I can just do mild things for you to, I can now do everything for you. I mean, everything. In other words, now it’s become kind of like, instead of a coach to consult with, I am now the virtual orthodontist from start to finish. So Ilan, the reason why this podcast exists, it’s to

Shawn Zajas 11:34

encourage anyone that is like on the fence of, should I get up? Should I start that thing? Because I don’t know the people listening right now, maybe in their own area, they see a problem and they kind of see a solution as well, but they’re in that place of maybe second guessing. Maybe they’re in that place of, but why me? Or am I credentialed? Or do I have the experience? And even the fact that you shared that is so encouraging of whatever they’re thinking right now, it doesn’t need to be the final version. It doesn’t need to be what the marketplace finally says, ooh, this is a home run. This is great. Like there’s going to be iterations, but you only get there by going, by taking that step, by starting, and then by listening to the marketplace and adapting. And I feel like you’ve just done that so quickly and with relative ease. Now, I don’t know why you decided to become an orthodontist, but did you always know, hey, I have leadership skills. I have this creative divergent thinking, and I think it’s also going to take me somewhere else. Or did you kind of just think, man, I think I’m going to be a really great

Ilan Abramowitz 12:37

orthodontist the rest of my life. No, I think I always had an open mind. You know, I had, I knew what I was good at. You know, the few things were all good at things. And I just found efficiency was something I was really good at. Tinkering with things is something I was always good at. And then I just had an interest in medicine and engineering. Those are the two. I loved medicine. I liked engineering. You know, first I was towards the medical part, talking to surgeons and whatnot. And when they told me how long school was, I was like, okay, I’m not good for that. And actually orthodontics came ironically. So a friend of mine told me about, let’s go be a dentist. And I said, well, let me make sure I like it. You know, like I said, I like to tinker with things. So in undergrad, I kind of looked on the list of volunteer opportunities and it was an opening at the school of orthodontics. So I said, let me give that a try. And that was it. After that, I knew this is what I wanted to do. So when it comes to

Shawn Zajas 13:26

tinkering, you mean like actually with your hands being able to create something, um, but it also means just with like tinkering with concepts, tinkering with models, tinkering with ideas. Like you just like working them out, coming up with it, playing with it, just

Ilan Abramowitz 13:43

iterating. Like, yeah, like I don’t even, it’s not really a competitive thing. Like I have to win. It’s more like, if you tell me, you know, here’s a recipe and here’s how long it takes, I would say, let me figure out how I can make this, which is good, taste better and make it, make me have less time to prepare it. Or let me figure out how to drive from point A to point B. I got your directions, but now I’m looking at the traffic. Let me find another way to get here at certain times of the day. That would be a little bit more of a smooth ride. That’s just what I do for

Shawn Zajas 14:12

everything. Well, when I love that, because I’m always telling people like, if you want to own your space as a dental professional, um, not just in your practice, but just in the industry, like the best place you can occupy is a place that’s unique to who you are, like original to your strengths and the things that are going to bring fulfillment to you. Because if you show up as an original with your giftings and your unique view on life, no one can ever replicate that. No one can ever outcompete you in that because there’s never going to be another Ilan that’s doing exactly what you’re doing that has the upbringing that you have, that had the triumphs and the tragedies that you had probably growing up that shaped the way that you view life. And the fact that you’re already arriving at that and distilling that and aligning yourself to that, I don’t know. I just feel like that’s what’s really awesome about the way that you’re pioneering right now. It is so inspiring. Now, I know you’ve only been at this since 2018 to 2019. And in the grand scheme of things, that’s not a very long time. But have you already had one of those moments, maybe it was a season or maybe it was just a short time where you’re like, wow, this is like really either scary or uncertain, or I think it may not work. And you you almost pulled the plug. You know, when I talk to people, I kind of almost say like a dark night of the soul where you kind of just start questioning, oh, my gosh, like, did I make a big mistake? Like, have you had one of those in this in this journey with Perfect Fit Ortho yet? All the time, man. All

Ilan Abramowitz 15:47

the time. Right. So, I mean, the journey is rapid now, but, you know, it was like 45 years in the making, right? I’m 47 now. So, it’s about 45 years in the making. 45 years of life taught me, like, this was the time. Taught me how to handle those questions of, should I stop? Should I give up? I mean, that comes up all the time. You know, that deal fell through. Should I give up? Or, oh, we have a little kink in the system here. Should I give up? Someone just quit. You know, should I give up? This is no, let’s figure it out. Let’s keep going. If, if things didn’t change, you know, we wouldn’t have Apple Watches and iPhones. You know, it would be the old world of the old analog phones. So, things change. We just got to kind of figure it out along the way. So, in this journey, over the last 10 or 15

Shawn Zajas 16:30

years, can you think of a specific mindset that you either had to embrace or a specific mindset that you had to shed in order to get to where you’re at today? Absolutely. Okay, there’s two. One of the

Ilan Abramowitz 16:41

mindsets I had to get over was, you know, the comfort zone, understanding my comfort zone and how fear is such a huge part of how most of us make our decisions. Like, fear just subconsciously dictates what we do, right? And so, I realized that fear is okay. I’m going to take the fear, absorb the fear, and just let it go. Because with fear, I wouldn’t be able to realize new things. The other thing that I think I learned is, besides fear, well, let’s just say I think fear would be the big one. Just overcome your fears. And once you can overcome those fears, there’s so much more out there. All right, here’s a second one. Now that came to my mind. It’s just being consciously aware of really what’s going on around me, right? When you stop trying to butt in a conversation and just listen, yeah, there’s so much to learn. So much to learn. So, if you ever see me and you wonder, why is he not talking back? What’s that pause? I’m taking whatever opposite I believe, and I’m just saying that makes just as much sense of what I thought. Let me make something better out of it. Let me learn from it.

Shawn Zajas 17:50

When I spoke to you at the DEO and met you, right away, it wasn’t like I knew I was talking to an orthodontist. I was talking to someone that was a visionary. Like, that was evident. I was talking to someone that had a vision, that had ambition, that had a very excellent mind, and already had these really fine-tuned mindsets that some of the most successful people in business have. And I was just like, oh my gosh, like, how did this guy get this way? Because you don’t learn this in dental school. If anything, I feel like the default for an orthodontist or a dentist is much more, I don’t know, you’re very risk-averse, right? Like, who wants to make a mistake and embrace lots of liability when you’re dealing with someone’s mouth? You don’t want that. You want to limit liability like crazy. But when it comes to starting something new, there’s a huge liability. There’s tons of risk. There’s so much uncertainty that you have to grapple with. And that’s why whenever someone can have both of those hats and dance in both of those spaces at the same time, I think it’s incredibly uncommon. I don’t know, but it seems like you also have such a grace for it. But again, maybe it’s because of what you were saying over the last 10, 15 years, you’ve just had to develop this.

Ilan Abramowitz 19:06

I think, I mean, development is huge. It’s huge. And then, you know, learning, I told you it’s huge. So, you know, I was able to read a lot of books the past four or five years with my commutes to different offices. I mean, when you read the stories of these great successes, you know, I’ll give you Nike, for example. I mean, look at- Shoe Dog, right? Shoe Dog, yeah. Shoe Dog. And even, you know, when you read about the formation of Amazon and you just kind of, or Facebook and you just see what happened, you kind of realize, you know what, these were normal people and they just put in the work, kept working, at it, didn’t accept failure and, you know, look where they went. Now, I’m not saying we, that’s not the goal. The goal is not to be that, but it’s like, it’s there, you know, it’s there. You can hit the ultimate success or you can just get to the highest level you possibly can, but you can’t do that without

Shawn Zajas 19:56

putting in the work. I love what you just said because oftentimes I tell people like, hey, like, it’s so important that you believe. You believe in what you’re doing. You believe in yourself and your own abilities. But before you can even believe, you have to actually have an awareness of what what’s possible, you know, and the word I use is you have to be able to conceive of something like conception actually follows or sorry, is a precursor to belief. And it’s like, here you are, you’re like sowing these seeds in your subconscious, in your imagination by listening to these biographies or these stories of successes. And what is it doing? It is rapidly expanding what is conceivable. And now all of a sudden, Ilan is like, man, look what I could do. So then all of a sudden, you see a problem in the industry or you see an opportunity. And now because of what is what you believe to be possible, you now know, okay, I can do this. But I still applaud you for just taking that step.

Shawn Zajas 20:56

Well, thank you. I think that’s where so many people find would rather still lean into the comfort of, yeah, but right now I have some sense of stability. I have some sense of security. And I think we actually don’t want to have to grapple with the fact that we have freedom. I think we have freedom to create. We have freedom to co-found. We have freedom to pioneer. And there’s really no rules as long as we do things ethically and right by people and play that long game. And that’s what I see you doing now. But grappling with freedom is just, it can be really terrifying. And I love that you’ve been honest about. Yeah, that can be scary. Were there any, like, were your parents this way? Like, did you have certain heroes or models growing up that really, I don’t know, kind of had that similar fearlessness when it came to pioneering? That’s such a good question. I’m gonna have to give that a lot of

Ilan Abramowitz 21:52

thought. You know, obviously this is not just me. This is me as, you know, what was created for my life. So I know, you know, after I’ve made it to orthodontics, I had some amazing mentors who would do things different, you know? So orthodontically speaking, I don’t treat the way 70% of the orthodontists do. You know, that’s the old way. There’s a different way I treat. It makes my treatment faster. It makes the results look good. And then most orthodontists would say, you’re doing it wrong. And I would just say, you know, thanks. I think it’s pretty good and ended at that. So man, to go by my life, there’s probably so many mentors. You know, this is definitely not my creation. This is all of theirs. And I don’t think I, I couldn’t even go over all the names right now. I’m going to need some time. That’s a great thing for me to do one day when the kids are not here and just create that list of all those people that created me. I think that would be a great, great piece of work

Shawn Zajas 22:46

to create. You know, I would love to just hear actually a little bit more about what Perfect Fit though is actually doing and how it’s, you know, changing the rules because, um, I don’t know if our, all of our listeners know exactly what it is that it’s doing right now. So why don’t we just talk

Ilan Abramowitz 23:04

to that? Okay. So what I’d say Perfect Fit creates a win, win, win for the patients, for the primary treating doctor. And then of course, um, for the company and what our goal is, it’s not to necessarily say, Hey, dentist, you can’t treat anyone with clear aligners. All right. You can’t, that’s not what I’m trying to say. I’m saying you can do whatever you want to do, but you can’t get the training. You know, a DIY company can’t provide the professional service with a trained professional at the same level that I’ve worked what 20 years to get is it’s just not possible. They won’t happen. So an efficient way to do it is say, you know, patients, you stay with who you’re comfortable with your doctor, your primary dentist. That is your, you know, number one source with trust. That’s part of the family. You see them at least, you know, every six months, that’s the one your family goes to. All right. You know, dental side, you want something to take care of your patients. You know, you can send them to the orthodontist down the street. You can tinker with clear aligners, or you can say, you know what, how can I affordably take care of my patients under my house? Like I do with other, all the other things that I’m open to providing for these patients. And then for me, I’m here to say, you know what, I don’t want to just keep myself treating my couple thousand patients. How can I take what I’ve learned and just spread it out to anybody interested in providing the best

Ilan Abramowitz 24:33

orthodontic treatment to their patients? Okay. Now I’ve limited that just to clear aligners because clear aligners seem to be what’s going on in this market right now that everyone seems to be able to do. Whether you do it yourself or you’re a dentist or an orthodontist, you can all get these clear aligners. The difference is how are you creating the smile that you want? And that’s what most people don’t understand. It’s like, if you want to get the best result, you can’t just, you know, order something and you’re done in 10 trays. It just doesn’t work like that. And I’m here to make it easy for the patient, convenient for the patient and the dentist, affordable for the patient and the dentist, and like I said, and treat as many patients as I can possibly share everything I know

Shawn Zajas 25:18

in orthodontics too. So right now it seems like you, um, you are still going to be functioning as the

Ilan Abramowitz 25:27

orthodontist to these practices. Is that correct? Correct. So the way, if I don’t know the system, system that we do is there’s quite a few systems out there. So I’ll say, and I’m not going to say, you know, obviously I’m a Perfect Fit Ortho. So I say, you got to test, you got to test ours, but I say, test them all, see which one works for you. Um, what I’m trying to do is say, you know, say Dr. Shawn, you’ve got your dental office and you say, I want to do these clear aligners. And I’m going to say, that’s great. Dr. Shawn, whatever you feel comfortable with, you know, go ahead and try yourself. If you would like me to kind of help consult you throughout the case, I can take care of that for you. If your treatment coordinator doesn’t really understand how to sell the orthodontic case, well, we can take care of that for you as well. If, um, if you are struggling with how to bring orthodontics in, as far as financing goes, we can take care of that for you as well.

Shawn Zajas 26:22

So are you setting up any training side on the orthodontic side so that you can have a whole arsenal of Perfect Fit Ortho trained orthodontists that, that see the way you see that, um, do it the way that you do it? Like, are you going to come up with almost like a methodology so that this is,

Ilan Abramowitz 26:40

even more scalable beyond the hands of Ilan? Yes, definitely. We’ve already got that in the process. Um, we’ve got two other orthodontists on board already. So that’s, you know, that’s really taken care of. And the beauty of the aligners is unlike with braces, which is a kind of a visit to visit clear aligners that’s done up front. So we got it. We got the setups down pretty much to that, you know, like I said, that treatment philosophy that I learned in orthodontics with braces. And then we’re working towards now what’s out there with, with our system, with our dental monitoring virtual system. And we’re able to look at things and treat things and pass on that experience to those doctors that just don’t have that guidance without us. Okay. So see, I just, I love what you’re

Shawn Zajas 27:26

doing. Um, so just really quickly back to like the whole mindset thing. I think again, what holds up a lot of dental professionals is because of the unknown, because of that fear, it, it, there’s just like this idea of worst case scenario is going to happen. I’m, I’m scared of what I don’t know is about to happen. Um, like how scary has this actually been? Like, I know you still have to battle with, Hey, is this going to work? And you’re believing and you have that conviction, but I’m just saying like fear ends up masquerading in these really general and ambiguous sense where it’s like, Hey, Ilan, it’s going to be horrible. Like, like it’s going to be the worst thing ever. And they just, it just stays ambiguous, but I don’t like, it hasn’t been that bad. Like meaning it’s like, I just want you to almost speak to, Hey, you know, to those people out there that are still waiting because of some unknown fear. Like the second you step out, I almost feel like that fear vanishes, you know? So there’s equations, there’s an old, there’s a couple of equations out there,

Ilan Abramowitz 28:25

but the one that like the best basically said fear. All right. Now let me rephrase that. It was your vision times your fear plus your first steps. Once that’s greater than your resistance, then you can create the change. Wow. And that, that just rang true. You know, we all have our visions. If you can really take that vision and start to over. And then when that vision is multiplied by your fear, that’s that number. When you add your first steps, you know, we all take first steps, right? Or baby steps or the crawls. We do that. But when we can get that number to be greater than, um, greater than that, I think it was at a chat. Was it a fear times the suffering plus first steps greater than, um, I just blanked out on what that last one was. I’m going to have to think about it, man. Cause I just blanked on it. It’s a good thing. Fear is fear times the satisfaction plus first steps greater than something equals change resistance. That’s it. All right. So when we can overcome that resistance, that resistance was usually once you open your mind, yeah, the vision number becomes very high and it becomes enough to overpower you over that resistance to create your

Shawn Zajas 29:42

change and then just get more comfortable doing it. So, so what I say all the time is like, I look to the left and the right of me and I see that there’s so many people that are enlisted in doing what, they can to make dentistry great. But if I look close enough, I also see vacancies. I see places where people haven’t stepped up and taken their spot. If you hadn’t stepped up back in 2018 or whenever that specific thing was, which I know that’s when it started, like I wouldn’t have seen you at the DEO. That’s right. Because maybe in your head, you’re like, well, again, who am I? Maybe I just need to play it small, play it safe. And nobody wins when you play it small and you play it safe. You know, and because we met now, all of a sudden I’m getting a chance to try to use whatever platform I have to educate the marketplace about what it is that you’re doing. And it’s like, that’s where the abundance mindset comes in. I really believe that everyone can, needs to own and occupy the space that only they can occupy. Like we’re not competing. We’re all out to be the fit and be the answer and be the light that we can be. And together we make dentistry even better. So I just want to even honor you,

Shawn Zajas 30:52

Ilan, for the fact that you did step up and that you did step out and that you were willing to dance with that tension of what, what was uncertain. Um, because as an orthodontist, you already had a sure path to, to success, you know, to provision, to fulfillment. It wasn’t like you had to do something else. There wasn’t some urgency of, oh man, I got to find a way to take care of my family. It’s an optional thing. I think it’s an optional thing for most dental professionals to step up and say, you know what? Yeah. Is it okay for me? Like, should I embrace something uncomfortable? Should I embrace something new, something difficult? And my message to them is please, like, you don’t know the impact you can make and you don’t know those people that need you to make that impact. So please step up, step out. Um, what, where do you want people’s eyeballs to go right now? So they’re listening and they’re like, okay, I want to find out more about Perfect

Ilan Abramowitz 31:49

Fit Ortho. Where do you want them to go? Come on our website, perfectfitortho.com. Take a look, just read through it. If you want to schedule a meeting with me or my partner, you can do that on our Calendly. Just click on the links at a time that works for you. We can explain it in as much detail as you need it. Um, I’m here to consult you. I’m here to let you create the best smiles using your comfortable clear aligners on your patients. Um, and I want to build on something you said, you talked about the abundance mindset. And I think that that’s a key point because, you know, the opposite of living in that life in abundance is living in that life in scarcity. And so many of us fall in that trap of the scarcity mindset where we think, you know, there’s only so much money. We got to go fight to get it. Or there’s only so many patients. We have to go fight to get it. And no, that’s not true. Everything is out there. Everything’s abundant. You know, there’s only so much I can do. I got to do as much of what I know how to do. No, you can do whatever you want to do. You know,

Shawn Zajas 32:47

we just have to change our mindset. And that’s why I’m so grateful. We sat at that table together with that group. Believe it or not, that group is pretty, pretty much been inspirational. And you know, it happened for a reason, man. We all collaborated for a reason. It was destiny. That’s just the way it works. You know, and back to what you were saying though, about abundance mindset is like, I can understand the scarcity mindset when someone is not living aligned to who they are because you feel like you have to fake it or be like somebody else. So then all of a sudden it’s like, well, you are competing because you’re just trying to be like that person and you’re trying to be better at that person than, than they are, but that’s actually just who they are. So I can

Shawn Zajas 33:27

understand why, like when we’re not mature and when we’re not starting to like identify, well, this is who I am. These are the gifts that I have. These are the unique perspectives I have. And like you, you’re aligning your, your curiosity, aligning, there you go with the aligners, your, your ability to tinker the natural leadership giftings that you have. And all of that in the confluence comes together with Perfect Fit Ortho. Like it makes sense. You’re not having to try to be somebody else. You’re not trying to model someone else’s success and try to perform because that’s exhausting. And I could then understand where the comparisons come and why people are like, well, there’s not enough room for all of us. It’s like, well, there really is when you identify who you are and you just own that space. And then

Shawn Zajas 34:12

it’s not as much even work. It becomes so much more of like, I don’t know, not, it’s not like it’s always play, but like, I love doing these podcasts because this is, this is part of who I’m called to be. And I don’t have to work at it. I don’t have to struggle at it. And, and that’s exactly why, like when I met you, it was just like, man, I love where Ilan’s going. I love the energy that you had,

Shawn Zajas 34:35

the vibrancy. Okay. So here’s a question, Ilan, in, in closing, if you were to walk past 18 year old version of yourself, let’s say you see him off in the distance and you know, you just have a really brief moment to communicate one sentiment to him. What do you share with 18 year old Ilan?

Ilan Abramowitz 34:53

Oh, this is a good one. I’m going to share with him that, you know, life is likely ocean is like the beach. There’s going to be waves, big waves, little waves, calm waters between waves, sometimes not so much. Everything happens for a reason and the way it works is absolutely perfect. Just enjoy the ride.

Shawn Zajas 35:12

That is awesome. Ilan, like seriously, thank you so much for taking the time today. Thank you for saying yes and pressing through those obstacles, pressing through the voices that were telling you like, don’t do this. Thank you for stepping up and allowing dentistry to just receive the gift of what Perfect Fit Ortho is doing. Thank you so much. And again, thank you for letting me interview you today.

Ilan Abramowitz 35:37

Oh, Shawn, you’re so welcome. And I look forward to further collaboration with you. You’re an amazing person and thank you for helping our profession. I appreciate it. Awesome. Thank you.

Shawn Zajas 35:48

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