Eric Roman was one of the owners and founders of Carolinas Dentist. We met for early morning coffee on a project last year and I quickly realized how intelligent this dude is when it comes to the group practice space. Since then, he's moved to Utah and is working on his next big thing. We got to discuss “beard-ing,” group practices, work-life balance, and marketing while taking a few minutes in between to talk teams and strategy.
Let’s set the stage - Eric kicks off our talk with the preface - everything comes together for a reason. Life has ebbs, flows, hiccups, and triumphs - COVID is just like any other crazy event that wasn’t part of your original plan that happened and you need to react and adapt through it. He talks through similar turns that took place in his first business leading him to start Carolinas Dentist with his business partner, Clifton Cameron, years after it ended badly.
In a rise-from-the-ashes type story, Eric is challenged both at work and at home to be the best version of himself and stop promising that he’ll get there soon.
“I want to live my life without regrets”
At the end of the day, he said he remembers the relationships with people - partners, coworkers, teams, kids, spouse - those are the people that matter and Eric was ready to stop promising someday and strategically move himself into a less rigorous role that fit his genius a little better. It’s not about glorifying growth or numbers, it’s about weighing sacrifice and choices to get to where you want to be as the person you want to be.
“You need to be building something that’s in alignment with you”
The Entrepreneurial Operating System is something Eric has implemented in his work and within his family - he advises choosing an operating system or plan and sticking to it for consistency and momentum in either space and maintaining the support to make it sustainable. Part of that process is surrounding yourself with the right people and he goes into depth about his experience and what he’s seen work, especially within the confines of his newest venture, joyFULL.
“The reason we run off to start our own businesses sometimes is because we’re living in an unhealthy work environment...Being part of a community is really a gift, having people aligned for a purpose and a vision is one of the greatest parts of being human”
Working in alignment with yourself and in the way you can excel will set you up for success, Eric and his team work with leaders looking for mentorship, guidance, and practical tools to find direction and insight into their businesses and life to make a bigger impact.
