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The Dental Marketer

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コンテンツは Michael Arias によって提供されます。エピソード、グラフィック、ポッドキャストの説明を含むすべてのポッドキャスト コンテンツは、Michael Arias またはそのポッドキャスト プラットフォーム パートナーによって直接アップロードされ、提供されます。誰かがあなたの著作物をあなたの許可なく使用していると思われる場合は、ここで概説されているプロセスに従うことができますhttps://ja.player.fm/legal
dental marketing ideas and strategies to attract quality patients to dentist.
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101 つのエピソード

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The Dental Marketer

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コンテンツは Michael Arias によって提供されます。エピソード、グラフィック、ポッドキャストの説明を含むすべてのポッドキャスト コンテンツは、Michael Arias またはそのポッドキャスト プラットフォーム パートナーによって直接アップロードされ、提供されます。誰かがあなたの著作物をあなたの許可なく使用していると思われる場合は、ここで概説されているプロセスに従うことができますhttps://ja.player.fm/legal
dental marketing ideas and strategies to attract quality patients to dentist.
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Can simply showing up in your community drive a successful marketing strategy, or is there a deeper game in play? In this episode of the Ground Marketing Series, we're exploring the fundamental tools and strategies that translate presence into meaningful growth. Contrary to the notion that just "showing up" is enough, I'm uncovering the structured, systematic approaches crucial for relationship-building and impactful outreach. I'm sharing insights into the key psychological principles that form the backbone of effective marketing—such as the law of familiarity, reciprocity, social proof, commitment, and consistency—ensuring long-term success and a steady influx of new patients. The toolkits we dive into provide a roadmap to a seamless ground marketing campaign. From the Relationship Building Toolkit, packed with business partnership essentials, to the Mobile Marketing Toolkit, which equips your team with visually impactful portable branding and lead collection tools, every element is crafted to maximize engagement. Additionally, the Content and Messaging Toolkit empowers practices to maintain consistent and appealing communication. We'll also explore systemizing processes for scaling efficiently, highlighting strategies like automated follow-ups and comprehensive team training programs. What You'll Learn in This Episode: The role of psychological principles in building sustainable marketing strategies. Essential components of a Relationship Building Toolkit. How a Mobile Marketing Toolkit can amplify your outreach efforts. Key elements of effective content and messaging for dental practices. Techniques for systemizing and scaling your marketing campaigns. The benefits of automated follow-ups and consistent team training. Tune in now to discover the foundational pillars of ground marketing and your outreach efforts! ‍ ‍ Learn More About the Ground Marketing Course Here: Website: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/the-ground-marketing-course-open-enrollment/ ‍ Other Mentions and Links: ‍ Products: My Top Tools For Ground Marketing At Events iPad ‍ Customer Relationship Managers: HubSpot Pipedrive ‍ Communities: Dentaltown ‍ Businesses: Trader Joe's ‍ If you want your questions answered on Monday Morning Episodes, ask me on these platforms: My Newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/ The Dental Marketer Society Facebook Group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/2031814726927041 ‍ Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors) ‍ Michael: All right, we're going to be discussing setting up for success, the ground marketing foundations. this is the essential tools and resources to get started. So now we're getting more tangible, right? The tools that you're going to need. Now, ground marketing is not just about showing up. It requires a structured strategy, the right tools and a systematized approach to maximize results. So throw everything out in case you thought I can just show up to a business and introduce myself and that's ground marketing. Nope, that is not ground marketing. You need a structured strategy. You need the right tools and you need a systematized approach to make sure you are effective. Now, I'm going to break down the fundamental components needed to set up a high performing ground marketing framework that ensures consistency, scalability, and long term success. Okay? Now remember, to start off, the thing you need to keep in mind is the core mindset. for ground marketing as a long term system. Now here's the thing. Many practices fail at ground marketing because they treat it as a one time promotional tactic instead of repeatable system, okay? The key to long term success is consistency, relationship building, and proper execution. Remember the psychological principles that will ensure this success. It's number one, the law of familiarity. People trust what they see repeatedly and ground marketing must be ongoing, not a one time event to the principle of reciprocity, give value first, and people will feel inclined to reciprocate. Three, the social proof effect. When people see others engaging with your brand, they assume it's reputable and worth their time. And for the commitment and consistency rule, small commitments. Increase the likelihood of larger commitments. So make sure you have those four psychological principles always in mind. Now they have to consistently see you. Ground marketing must be ongoing. And honestly, that's probably already what's going to separate you from all your other competitors, all the other practices, DSOs, prior practices in your area, especially if you're in a, saturated location, this alone, the law of familiarity will separate you if you're consistent. Here's a pro tip. Ground marketing must be a structured, trackable system, not random outreach. As soon as it starts feeling random, something is out of place. It has to be trackable and it has to be structured always. So that's why I say, throw that mindset away where you're like, I'm going to go out and ground market. We're in a busy shopping strip and there's a bunch of stuff. And I'm just going to go out there and hand out my cards and give donuts. And no, no, that's not trackable. That's not even a system. That's not structured. You're just going out there and in our treats I mean, You could do that if you want, and it might work here and there, but it's not a system. Build processes that are easy to follow and repeatable for your team. And that's what I'm going to give you right now. Okay? You're going to build a process that's easy to follow and it's repeatable for your team. And obviously, if you're in the ground marketing course, then you know how to do this and I provide you a template and everything like that. That's what you want to do. So number two for this episode is essential tools for ground marketing success. And here's the tools, right? A relationship building toolkit. This is going to be your toolkit to connecting with key community influencers. So to build strong partnerships, you need tools that help you establish report and credibility with local businesses, schools, mainly the school districts, Or the principals and specific organizations or corporations, HR services, things like that. human resources. The people who are in charge of logistics centers. If it's a warehouse, all these things, right? You're going to need number one, a business partnership kit, What can be involved in this kid is a, customized welcome packet, It's a practice intro letter. Maybe your specific business card, a small gift, testimonial sheets, that's in the welcome packet, customized. the second thing that it can have is a co branded flyer, and that can offer an exclusive discount for employees or the customers there, okay? It has to be an exclusive discount for them. And then three, it can be a sign up sheet for employees to schedule appointments directly at the workplace. it can be a glorified signup sheet, right? Just your practice name, the incentive you want to give and the name number, best time to reach you at, or text or call or whatever like that, right? Circle one. And that signup sheet is for the employees. That's going to guarantee you your second visit there. Although the co branded flyers will also guarantee you the second date too, as well. And what I mean by that is let's just say you're going to an apartment complex You're talking to the property management in the front. It might be like the manager, maybe you're talking to all three or four or ten of them, whoever, right? So you're going to give them a customized welcome packet, right? For their move ins. You're going to give them the sign up sheet for them. And then the flyers for the people there, right? Or at the event the apartment complexes have event all the time. So maybe you have flyers that you want to give out or welcome packets. You never want to give out a hundred of them. You never want to give out 50 of them, even if they have a thousand residents, a thousand employees, a thousand, whatever, just give out 10 for now, 15 for now. And then you're able to come back in a couple of days, or even come back in a month and say, Hey, we wanted to drop off some more flyers. Can I have some of your information as well? Right. Or, Hey, we want to drop off more flyers. Do you guys need more? What is the deal? And at the same time you can look at the signup sheet. So you have two reasons for this second date to see them again. It can either be the flyer like that, how I mentioned, or you can come back and pick up the actual signup sheet and, start calling people. that's always the best thing. You want to come back and pick up the signup sheet. But anyways, I digress, that's going to be in another episode. Business Partnership Kit. It should have a customized welcome packet, Your intro letter, business card, small gift and testimonial sheet, or if you want, right? Two is a co branded flyer offering exclusive discounts for the employees or the customers. If it's like a small amount of customers, right? For example, let's just say you're going to a Gymboree or a pediatric. Location. I don't know. Medical location specifically, like those customers never like to a customers, if you're going to a Trader Joe's or something like that, because that's not,their job is not to promote you. Their job is to do their job. And so that would be more for, if you're going to create a co branded flyer with an exclusive discount for the customer. And that would be more for a smaller location, like a pediatrician office, a Gymboree, a medical location, something specific, So a co branded flyer offering an exclusive discount for the employees primarily, and then a signup sheet for employees to schedule appointments directly at the workplace that's in your business Next thing is your networking and relationship log. This is huge. This I talk about, and I have a whole unit on this on the ground marketing course, but you want to track your interactions, track your followups and key contacts. This is simple guys. It's as simple as creating a Google sheet or having a CRM like HubSpot or PipeDrive to track. You want to track their contact name and business, the date of the initial outreach. Your follow up reminders and then notes on past conversations. There's never not enough information. You can put in there, put as much information on your notes, on the past conversations, your follow up reminders here is something I want to tell you. That's huge. the biggest mistake in ground marketing is failing to follow up. Relationships take multiple touch points before they yield results. I cannot tell you how many times people fail to follow up and that's the hole. That's the big hole. Where a lot of your effort will go to waste if you fail to follow up, meaning you're going out, you're dropping off sign up sheets. Maybe you forget a couple of people to pick up their sign up sheets, a couple businesses, you failed those businesses. Or maybe, a lot of the people in an event, They filled out their information and you're like, great, this is exciting. I'm going to call them, but then you get busy. You never do call them. You fail to follow up, or maybe you do call them, but then they say they're busy at the moment. And then if you can call them a little bit later, or you live a voicemail and you never call them again or reach out to them again, you fail to follow up. Following up is humongous in ground marketing and If you just follow the principle of being consistent, you're going to bring them all in, but you need to follow up. Okay, so make sure you have this networking and relationship log. You want to have their contact name and business, date of initial outreach, the follow up reminders on there, how often you want to follow up, and then notes on past conversations. Always have that on there. The more detailed, the better. Now, that's A, right? Your relationship building toolkit. You want to have those. Your business partnership kit, and that can be with your realtors, that can be with your, photographers, it can be with a lot of these, businesses that are like that. And then you want to have your networking and relationship log. Now B is your mobile marketing toolkit. Now this is what you hear a lot of people talk about, especially in Facebook groups, Dental Town, things like that. How to take your brand to the community. Now when engaging with the community, you need tools that make your brand stand out and create instant credibility. So you want to have a portable branding kit. And what I mean by that is have a branded table cover, right? For health fairs, schools, corporate visits lunch and learns just for the events. Have a branded table cover, a professional retractable banner with a clear call to action. Okay. Make sure it has a clear call to action. On what you want to do giveaway items, branded toothbrushes, floss, lip balm, mini hand sanitizers, mouthwash, things like that, right? Floss. You want to have giveaway items always with you ready portable teeth models for demonstrations, On brushing or just to make your booth look a little bit more exciting and always have memorized a quick 32nd pitch everywhere you go. and honestly, this was my quick 30 second pitch. So I'm going to just give it to you right here, right now. It was this simple. Hey, how's it going? Grab whatever you want. It's free. That's it. Was it even 30 seconds? It was like five seconds, right? Hey, how's it going? Grab whatever you want. It's free. And you just stay quiet. Now that was it when it came to booths and events and things like that. Any event, that's all I ever said. And once they came. And they did a little shopping. That's when I would start talking to them about their concerns, their needs, what we're doing, how we're partnering up with a specific location, what we got going on, the incentives and things like that. Think of a quick 32nd pitch always. Okay. That's your portable branding kit. Now your lead collection tools, how are you going to collect these leads? Now I would, and I still do have a signup sheet, just a regular signup sheet. At times I do use an iPad. I always want the ball in my court. So I would say either have a or you can have a QR code signup system. It makes it easy to capture emails and phone numbers. But me personally, I. Prefer to have a signup sheet where I'm actually writing your name and numbers down. Or an iPad where I'm actually writing your name and number down, but just on a digital form. And then the second thing you can have is raffle signup forms. People engage more if they get a chance to win something. And we're going to talk about that with events on another episode, but you're doing that, make sure everybody somehow wins something when you do a raffle. Okay? Because those are potential patients. Everyone is a potential patient to sign up, but you can have that raffle sign up. Right. And this is how you're collecting leads, names, and numbers. You're starting to get names and numbers now into your log, and you're going to start calling out to these people. Now, if you want, you can use QR codes linked to a special offer landing page to track how many people sign up from your ground marketing efforts. This is pretty trackable. Okay. So if they scan the QR code, then they're going to go to the landing page and now boom, you will see how many people at this event actually had interest, looked into the page. Maybe they didn't sign up. Maybe they did sign up and now you have even further details on who they were and stuff like that by using the QR code from this one specific event. So you can do that. Now those are going to be the two things, right? The A and B. Okay. Relationship Building Toolkit and then your Mobile Marketing Toolkit. Now the three things, C, is Content and Messaging Toolkit. So you want to pre frame your brand for trust and credibility. Your communication and marketing materials should be designed to quickly build trust and answer common objections. So have pre designed ground marketing flyers and handouts. Maybe have a general practice handout, an introduction to your office, services, and patient testimonials. Have specific service flyers. This helped a lot, especially at events. When I had one for Invisalign, there was some for dental implants. You can have some for sleep apnea treatment, things like that. Then have business partnership proposal flyers. Explain how partnering with your practice benefits local businesses. And that's all on you. How are you going to benefit them? Go into detail. Something, what we did and what you can talk about. Is once a month, we love to promote a specific, business. So if you want, you can just give us some of your information. We know you have your business cards locked up somewhere, just collecting dust. Why not give us a little bit of them and we will put them in our hygiene kits and we will talk you up and give it to our existing patients, right? Boom. That's more visibility for their business. And at the same time, once they give you a yes, let them know, Hey, would it be okay, we give you some of our information as well. During that month, they're going to see us the principle of reciprocity. Boom. So business partnership proposal flyer, you can steal that if you want, use it, but you can go deeper into that, or you can do something completely different. that is the pre designed ground marketing flyers and handouts. Then the second part of that would be customizable elevator pitch. Always have a 10 second hook, right? Hey, we help your children get the specific results they need with this unique approach, So always say we help a target audience get a specific result with a unique approach, and it doesn't have to be a super unique approach, but the way you word it has to sound unique. Okay. And then. You want to have a quick credibility statement. We've helped over 500 families in the area achieve better oral health. We've helped two thirds of our community, they love us, achieve a better smile, more confidence, right? And then just have a clear next step. You know, We're offering a free consultation. Would you like to schedule now? Actually, don't even ask them if you would like to schedule now. Just say, we're offering a free consultation. What's your name and number? I can get you in as soon as next week. Boom, And then continue that way. People trust and remember stories more than facts. So use patient success stories in your materials Okay. So remember, have a customizable elevator pitch, 10 second hook. We help a target audience get specific results with a unique approach. Then quick credibility statement. We've helped over 500 families in the area achieve better, whatever. And then a clear next step. If you want, we're offering a free consultation right now for the next 10 days. What's your name and number? I can get you in as soon as tomorrow. And boom, give them less time to think of an answer, but more give them the opportunity to give you an answer based on what their desire is and what they want immediately. when you do that, you can say like, Hey, I can get you in as soon as tomorrow. Does that work right now? They only have an option. Yes or no. Instead of like, Oh, let me look at my schedule for the next following 10 days. And Now that's the content and messaging toolkit. So I hope that helped out with the essential tools for ground market. That's what you're going to need. Okay. So real quick, essential tools for ground marketing. You're going to need your relationship building toolkit, which involves your business partnership kit and your network and relationship log. You're going to need your mobile marketing toolkit, which involves your portable branding kit. Your table cover, your table, even a chair, if you want professional retractable banners, your giveaway items, models, your pamphlets, things like that. Quick 30 second pitch. This is an event. And at the same time, I would say, add a, case that you can put everything in, I'm going to put a link And show notes below where I tell you what I use super simple stuff And it's like a case that has like wheels. You can just roll it almost like those bags you see in You know airports, but it's a lot bigger and it's a case where you can fit everything in there pretty easy You can just leave it in the trunk of your car So anyways, your mobile marketing toolkit it involves your portable branding kit and your lead collections tools And then see your content and messaging toolkit. And that involves your pre designed ground marketing flyers and handouts and your customizable elevator pitch. Now three is systemizing and scaling ground marketing efforts. So automating your follow ups for maximum conversions, most ground marketing leads don't convert immediately. A structured follow up system ensures high conversion rates. Meaning you go to an event, you get a hundred people signing up out of those hundred people. Maybe one third will come in pretty immediately. And then the other ones you're going to need to follow up and so forth, right? They're busy. Maybe they had something come up. It doesn't mean they're not interested. They're super interested. You just got to work with them. So immediate follow up same day. So send a personalized thank you message to new contacts, always right within the same day. And then within two to three days. Follow up, Hey, just checking in, send a text or email. Just wanted to check if you had any questions. We'd love to have you in for your free consultation. Remember, always have that sense of urgency. So you can say, Hey, just wanted to get you in before the month ends for that free consultation. So if you're ever offering anything for free, don't give it forever for free. Just say within this month, right? They know they have that time within this month, that it can run out. Now your month can run out in a week. If you're doing that event in a week from now, or it can run out in 30 days from now. But just make sure you say there's an urgency Then after that, if you still don't hear from them, follow up with them within seven days, right? Hey, we're offering the free teeth whining session for the next ten new patients. We'd love to get you in. It's coming down to the wire Just follow up with them if they haven't booked. And continue to follow up. and we're gonna have another episode on following up, but unless they tell you no, always continue to follow up. Don't put your feelings. Into their heart into their mind. Don't put your thoughts into their mind meaning Hey, I'm going to be bothering them. If I follow up too much. Hey, they're going to be mad at me. If I follow up too much. That's what you're thinking. They're busy. They're doing other things. They may want to do this immediately. And then boom, something else happens. And your follow up is a reminder. So do not do that. Cut that wire, cut that emotion, that connection. There's no connection there. Boom. Cut it out. You are relentless. Follow up right now. Be tactful when you follow up. Don't just continue to follow up. Every single day, all the time, but give us some space, give us some time, but some thought in your marketing messaging. And we're going to talk about that a couple episodes down the line on following up. Now that's how you want to do it with a systematizing, on your follow ups and then training your team for ground marketing success. Now, ground marketing is not a solo effort. Your team must be trained to execute consistently. So these things are super important role playing scripts for different scenarios, how to approach a local business, how to start a conversation at community events, and how to follow up out feeling salesy. Those are the three things you're going to role play all the time. I still role play. Okay. How to approach a local business, how to start a conversation at community events. How to follow up without feeling salesy, every single location, business, and so forth has a different script. And we're going to discuss those scenarios and those scripts and later episodes, but always role play. You want to train your team. And the second thing is assigned clear roles and responsibilities. Who is responsible for ground marketing, meaning they're responsible for initiating partnerships, tending events and fairs. Handling follow ups. Now we do have some members who split this up, meaning someone is responsible for building partnerships, pipelines, referrals. Someone is responsible for accumulating events, attending events and fairs. And then someone is responsible separate for handling follow ups. They're on the phones. They're doing all the follow ups because they're just ground marketing everywhere. there is people who do that. And obviously that's. The more focused on a specific thing, the better results. So that I've seen work incredible and I can't take credit for that. We have other team members and we have other members in the ground marketing course who initiated that and it works fantastic, but no harm, no foul. I did all this and you can have one person in charge of the ground marketing and they can do that, but just make sure you assign clear roles and responsibilities. Nothing should be lost. The best ground marketing teams practice scenarios weekly until responses feel natural. So the whole team should be practicing this. Everybody should be on the same page and at the same time they should also see, okay, this person's out ground marketing, they're building partnerships. The team should know where the ground marketer is at or what's happening as far as events and health fairs. Now if it's a huge event and health fair, obviously more team members are going to be involved. More people will know. Assign clear roles and responsibilities. Alright, so hopefully we understand that and coming to an end here on the episode. So by combining the right mindset, the right tools, and execution plan, ground marketing becomes a powerful engine for predictable patient growth. So in summary, you want to develop the right mindset, right? Remember, ground marketing is a system, not a one time effort. You want to equip yourself with the right tools, have your relationship building kits, branding materials, and lead collection tools. Document everything too. Okay. Three, systemize outreach and follow up. So you want to track your interactions, automate follow ups, and leverage relationship building psychology, Use reciprocity, use consistency, use scarcity, urgency, things like that. Four, train your team to execute consistently. Ground marketing thrives when everyone follows a structured approach. So train them to do that. Ground marketing is one of the most effective, powerful strategies for long term patient growth. with the right foundation, Your practice can become the go to provider in your community without relying on expensive ads anymore. So go ahead and do this, make sure you got this locked and loaded and ready. And then in the next episode, we're going to be discussing identifying your target audience. Remember the more focused you are with crowd marketing, the better. So we're going to discuss how you can focus and zone in on your target audience. Thank you so much for tuning in. And if you want more information, the scripts, scenarios, templates want to see real live action, me actually doing this and so much more be part of the community of ground marketers, then you can do so by joining the ground marketing course. You can either Google it, the ground marketing course, or you can go in the show notes below, click the first link in the show notes below, see what everyone's saying and join the ground marketing course. And if you do, I'm excited to see you in there. All right. Thank you so much for tuning in and we'll talk to you in the next episode.…
 
Hiring and practice management can be tricky for independent practices... So today we've brought on Dr. Sarah Blair, a renowned dental consultant whose experiences and insights offer a masterclass in dental practice management. From her early days at Ohio State University to owning a practice of her own, Sarah's story is filled with real-world lessons. She shares how her experiences at two contrasting Milwaukee practices shaped her understanding of effective dental management. One was meticulously systems-focused, while the other embraced a laid-back, blue-collar approach—both offering valuable insights into the nuances of practice operations and the pivotal role of management. Fast forward to 2020, Sarah made the bold decision to pivot from practice owner to consultant. With the co-founding of Indie Practices in 2018, she and her team have been on a mission to deliver tailored, cost-effective coaching that resonates with practice owners. Through this episode, Sarah candidly discusses essential strategies for successful hiring, onboarding, and accountability. Clear communication, well-drafted job descriptions, and intentional onboarding are her cornerstones. By implementing these strategies, Sarah argues, practice owners can enhance team efficiency and reduce stress, fostering a harmonious work environment. What You'll Learn in This Episode: The impact of diverse practice experiences on management style. How to craft effective job descriptions and onboarding processes. Strategies for hiring and maintaining team accountability. The role of communication in preventing common managerial issues. Benefits of regular feedback and one-on-one sessions with team members. How to align team activities with your practice’s mission and values. Resources and tools from Indie Practices to streamline operations. The long-term benefits of a structured management approach. Tune in now to hear Dr. Sarah Blair's tips on hiring and practice management in your indie practice! ‍ ‍ Sponsors: ‍ CareStack: Modern, Secure, Cloud-Based Dental Software for Growing Your Practice! With state-of-the-art features including Online Appointments, Integrated Payments, Text Reminders and more. Click the link here for a special offer: thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/carestack ‍ Guest: Dr. Sarah Blair Business Name: Indie Practices Check out Sarah's Media: ‍ Website: indiepractices.com Resource Library: indiepractices.com/digital-resources Get Your Scorecard: assessment.indiepractices.com/begin ‍ Love the Podcast? Let Us Know How We're Doing on Apple Podcasts! ‍ Other Mentions and Links: ‍ Education: Ohio State University Marquette University ‍ Books: Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect By the Numbers: A Guide to Buy and Run Your Dental Practice ‍ Podcasts: The Daily Dental Podcast ( Dr. Addison Killeen's podcast) ‍ People: Patrick Lencioni (Author) Brené Brown ‍ Tools/Services: The Practice Launchpad Indeed ‍ Groups: Dentaltown ‍ Host: Michael Arias ‍ Website: The Dental Marketer Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/ ‍ Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society ‍ Please don't forget to share with us on Instagram when you are listening to the podcast AND if you are really wanting to show us love, then please leave a 5 star review on iTunes! [Click here to leave a review on iTunes ] ‍ p.s. Some links are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with these products/companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money unless you feel you need them or that they will help you with your goals. ‍…
 
‍ Ever wonder why some patient interactions just click while others fall flat? In episode two of the Ground Marketing Series, we explore the powerful intersection of human behavior and effective marketing strategies. By tapping into the science of trust and first impressions, you'll learn how to craft genuine connections that resonate. We delve into fundamental principles such as the Trust Formula, where credibility, reliability, intimacy, and minimized self-interest work in harmony to build a strong foundation. Discover why mastering the art of first impressions through nonverbal cues like eye contact and open body language is your key to rapid trust-building. Harness the Reciprocity Principle by understanding the power of giving first to foster a sense of gratitude and trust among potential patients. We'll guide you through using the familiarity effect, social proof, and loss aversion to create compelling marketing strategies that emphasize connection and urgency. Transform your storytelling approach by weaving emotionally resonant narratives that leave lasting impacts. Additionally, learn how small commitments can pave the way for deeper patient engagement, setting the stage for success in practice growth. What You'll Learn in This Episode: Techniques to establish trust with potential patients quickly. The importance of nonverbal communication in making a positive first impression. Tactics for leveraging reciprocity and social proof effectively. How familiarity and repeated brand exposure foster trustworthiness. How to evoke urgency through loss aversion in marketing strategies. Storytelling methods that create emotional connections with patients. The role of small commitments in building long-term patient relationships. Tune in now to boost your ground marketing techniques with proven psychological insights! ‍ ‍ Learn More About the Ground Marketing Course Here: Website: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/the-ground-marketing-course-open-enrollment/ ‍ Other Mentions and Links: ‍ People: Joshua Scott Dr. Christopher Phelps Robert Zajonc P.T. Barnum Daniel Kahneman Amos Tversky Robert Cialdini (Cialdini’s Six Principles of Persuasion) Seth Godin "Facts tell, stories sell" ‍ Books: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion The Trusted Advisor ‍ Marketing Tools/Services: Google Ads Studio 8E8 ‍ If you want your questions answered on Monday Morning Episodes, ask me on these platforms: My Newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/ The Dental Marketer Society Facebook Group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/2031814726927041 ‍ Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors) ‍ Michael: The psychology behind ground marketing. So I hope you enjoyed the overview of ground marketing. Now, this is the psychology behind ground marketing, understanding human behavior and building trust. This is essential to know how to ground market effectively. Now, ground marketing is more than just physically reaching out to potential patients. It's about forming genuine connections that lead to long term trust. Now to master ground marketing, you have to understand the psychological principles that govern human behavior, influence decision making and establish credibility. Now here's some unique and profound and researched back insights into how psychology applies to ground marketing, ensuring a strong and lasting impact. First thing is the trust formula. Now this is the psychological blueprint trust. Equals credibility, plus reliability, plus intimacy and self interest. Okay. That's by Charles H. Green in the Trusted Advisor. Now, the key to effective ground marketing is to maximize credibility, reliability, and intimacy while minimizing perceived self interest. The moment people feel like they're being sold to, they instinctively raise barriers. However, when approached with genuine care, expertise and value, they become open to engagement. Number one, credibility, right? Can they believe what you say? Do you have expertise, professionalism and brand presentation that all matters? Credibility, reliability. Can they count on you to follow through? So showing up consistently fosters subconscious trust. This is why we say, Hey, be consistent with your ground marketing. It proves reliability and three intimacy. Do they feel safe sharing their problems with you? So that means you've got to have empathy and active listening. That's crucial. And then for self interest, if your motives seem profit driven, if you look way too ambitious, people withdraw instead. Frame your marketing as helping rather than selling. So that's number one, the first principle, the trust formula. Two is the science of first impressions. Now, this is amazing. Seven seconds to win or lose trust. That's all you have. Neuroscience suggests that people form impressions within seven seconds of meeting someone. These impressions are 70 to 80 percent emotional. And it's based on nonverbal cues, such as body language, tone of voice, and facial expressions. So keep these things in mind right now. One, eye contact and open body language. Studies show direct contact without staring, don't make it weird, this increases perceived trustworthiness. Open palms signal honesty. kind of like a hug, right? Or you're going in for a handshake. Two is mirroring. Subtly mirroring someone's gestures and speech patterns build subconscious rapport. So if they're like, yeah, you know, I'm not feeling so Mirror that, Oh, you're not feeling so well. Yeah, kind of a thing. Okay. And then three is dopamine and the power of smiling. As you know, people can tell when you're smiling over the phone, right? A genuine smile releases dopamine, increasing positive emotional associations. So how can you apply this? Well, When engaging with potential patients at local events or businesses, right? Your physical presence is just as important as your words. Approach with open energy, a welcoming tone and attentive listening to establish an instant psychological connection. So do those three things, okay? That is the science of first impressions. Number three, this is something we talked about in the first episode. The reciprocity principle. Why giving first works. Christopher Phelps is huge on this. I know that This is a book influence written by Robert Childenny and it's the psychology of persuasion. And he mentions people feel obligated to give back when they receive something of value. So one of the strongest psychological drivers in ground marketing is reciprocity, the social norm that compels people to return a favor. So in marketing, this means. Providing upfront value without expectation, which naturally triggers a desire to reciprocate. Three things on how you can do this. Number one, tangible reciprocity. So like you're giving free samples, exclusive discounts, or helpful resources, right? That's one. Two, social reciprocity. Offering a warm introduction, referring someone to another trusted business or providing helpful advice that builds goodwill and three emotional reciprocity, expressing genuine appreciation and making the interaction about them rather than you fosters deep engagement. So you can apply this like this instead of immediately trying to pitch a service, offer a small unexpected gift or insight. Maybe a dentist at a farmer's market might give away customized smile friendly snack packs while offering oral health tips tailored to the audience, right? Hey, have some snack packs on us for free as you tour the farmer's market. You're doing this principle when you apply that. And so much more, right? So that's the reciprocity principle. Now, number four. the familiarity effect, how repeated exposure builds comfort. This is huge. Okay. There's something called the mere exposure effect. Now, the more someone is exposed to a brand, the more they subconsciously trust it, this psychological principle was first identified by psychologist Robert And he suggests that familiarity breeds likeability and credibility. Now there's three things to this. Number one, repetition, which equals trust, right? People need multiple positive encounters before making a decision. His community presence, repeated appearances at local events, schools, and businesses reinforce familiarity and three consistency in messaging using the same colors, slogans, and branding strengthens brand recall. So that's huge, by the way, don't continue to change a ton of numbers based on I'm using this number to see the ROI. Now we're using this number for mailers and ads to see the ROI. Now we're using this number to see the ROI for Google ads. It's too many numbers. There's no consistency in that, be consistent. Now, when it comes to ground marketing, successful ground marketers maintain a visible, non intrusive presence within their target community, instead of a one time event. Aim for monthly engagements at key locations, ensuring Potential patients feel comfortable seeing and recognizing the brand. this is huge. So if you feel you went to an event and that event was great, fantastic. And you go another time and it was great, fantastic. Continue to show up at this event. So I'm going to give you an example. Let's just say you do an event at a daycare and every month they allow you to go in there and set up a booth and it goes good. Continue to show up to that one. Instead of trying to do a ton of other events. One time only you could do one here and there, but make sure you build a foundation in specific locations, especially if that's where your target demographic is. So that's four. That is the familiarity Five is the social proof. People follow what others endorse. P. T. Barnum says nothing draws a crowd like a crowd. Now humans are wired to follow the lead of others. A concept known as social proof. When people see others endorsing a business, they feel safer engaging with it. Three things you need to do with this. Number one, strategic testimonials. Instead of generic reviews, you story driven testimonials featuring real customer experiences. This is why video testimonials are huge. Video testimonials gone are the days where you write down the testimonial and then put the patient's name and no pictures there or anything. It's just. A word and a random person's name, that's gone. That's dead. Don't do that no more ever again. If that's on your website, take that out I guess the second best thing you can do is picture testimonials, right? Like actually having the patient's face and then the wording, but video testimony, okay. So strategic testimonials, that's number one. Two is live demonstrations, publicly showcasing a positive customer experience creates a ripple effect. So continue to do that. And three is influencer and community partnerships. And we're going to talk about this later on. In a couple episodes, but influencer and community partnerships aligning with local influencers, well known figures, or community leaders enhances credibility. And you can apply this like this. You can encourage happy patients to leave video testimonials at community events. Alternatively, showcase real time transformations right before and after smile previews in public settings to drive curiosity. So show the before and afters, real life testimonials, show the video testimonials, but at the same time, if you're at a huge event you know, some of your patients are going to be there, take advantage of that they're on a dopamine effect right there. Endorphins are running. They're excited to see you. Hey, can you do a video testimonial for us right now? So that is social proof. Number six. Loss aversions. Why people fear missing out. Now, Daniel and Amos, Daniel Kahaneman and Amos Berski, they mentioned people are twice as motivated to avoid losses than to gain equivalent. The principle of loss aversion suggests that people hate missing out more than they love gaining something new. This is why time sensitive offers, exclusivity, and scarcity based promotions work so well in ground marketing. Give me an example. It's a limited time offers, The first 10 signups get free teeth whitening. Watch when you do that, how quickly people will run and sign up. And it's up to you at that point to say, you know what? I'm going to extend it 10 more just for right now, just because of you, I'm going to give you one more free one, right? One more free one. And you can continue to add that and say that to every single person. Everybody can get it. A hundred people can get it right. But you can say, I'm going to give one more free one just for you. They're going to feel extra special. The person signing up. And trust me, they're going to feel extra obligated to show up to that appointment to limited time offers. Second is scarcity effect. We only have 20 appointments slots available this month. Scarcity, right? FOMO, fear of missing out, creating a social momentum, right? Join 200 plus families in our smile club. Things like this encourages action. So create something, the social momentum. And you can apply like this, use subtle urgency when speaking to potential patients. For example, instead of saying we're offering a free consultation, say we have a few free consultations left this month. Would you like to claim one? And you can even get specific, we have three, we have two consultations left this month for free. What's your name and number? So I can put you down, right? Because it's gonna run out. And then watch them put their name and number down. So that is the loss aversion. This you can call it FOMO almost, right? Why people fear missing out. Seven, the power of storytelling. Emotion beats logic. Now you hear Joshua Scott from Studio 88 talk about this quite a bit, So facts tell stories sell. That's by Seth Godin. People don't remember statistics. They remember stories. Ground marketing thrives on relatable, emotionally compelling narratives that make impact. Give you an example before and after patient stories. Share real experiences where treatment changed someone's confidence or life. We know it changes smiles, but how did it change their confidence? How did it change their life? Share that personal journeys. Why did you start your practice? Authenticity breeds connection. Always, if you are a startup, if you haven't opened up yet and you're listening to this right now, please share that in your social media, share that story, share your personal journey. Why did you start your practice? Ask yourself that push record and just riff. Just talk why you started your practice. This is the beginning of your journey. You're going to see a lot of connections happen this way in a lot of new patients. And then three is emotional hooks, right? Use sensory language and patient driven success stories to make your message resonate. I'll give you an example of how you can do this. Instead of simply listing services, tell a short, powerful story at community events. For example, Last year, a mother came to us worried about her son's self confidence due to his teeth. He was being bullied. After Invisalign, he now smiles in every school picture. Look at the before school pictures. Look at the after school pictures. After Invisalign. Look at his confidence. Look how his life is changing. This kid will remember this forever. He will remember what you did forever. You changed his life. That's why we love what we do. And kind of continue with that point on right stories like these create an emotional anchor, making your brand more memorable. So that's the power of storytelling. Eight is the commitment principle. Now these are all principles when I'm mentioning involved in ground marketing, okay, the commitment principle, small yeses. Lead to big yeses. This is so huge. Robert Chiodeni says people who commit to small actions are more likely to commit to larger ones later. By getting people to say yes to a minor request, they become psychologically inclined to say yes to a bigger one. And I'll give you three examples of this, right? Micro commitments, a small step like signing up for a free newsletter makes them more likely to book an appointment. So have that two surveys and engagements. Asking simple questions like, Hey, do you floss daily increases their investment in the conversation. And it doesn't have to be about teeth either. It can be simple questions, open ended questions, right? That you're asking to the patient and then you want them to open up a little bit more, getting them to say yes in those situations or prime them to say yes in bigger situations, especially in real life when you're talking to them. So I like that a lot. And then three is loyalty and follow ups, rewarding small commitments, Give them a welcome kit. Thank you for coming in. Here's your welcome kit, right? Kind of A thing. It builds long term loyalty. And you can apply this like this. Instead of immediately asking people to schedule an appointment, start with low stakes commitments sometimes. Would you like a free smile assessment to see how your teeth could look? Once they engage, they're more likely to take the next step. So that's it. Those are the eight principles involved. In, ground marketing. Now the final thought, trust takes time, but it pays off, right? The psychology behind ground marketing revolves around trust, familiarity, and reciprocity. Now, when you apply these principles strategically, you create a system where people feel comfortable, engaged, and naturally drawn to your brand. The psychology behind ground marketing when it comes to all of this is that you really want to make lasting connections that convert into loyal patients. Every decision, a potential patient makes is influenced by subconscious biases, emotions, and behavioral triggers. Always remember that. I hope this is helpful, now I want to dive into some examples right now on how you can utilize some of these principles from the get go. Right? So number one was the trust formula, right? And we discussed what it meant, Credibility, reliability, personal connection. And then you want to have Less of a perceived self interest, So if you're marketing at a local school event, you know, you're wearing a branded polo display, a well designed clutter free banner, and you simple expert backed messaging, So you can say stuff like, Hey, did you know, 42 percent of kids have cavities by age 11. Let's help your child avoid that, right? If you're doing a specific presentation and parents are there. You want to frame yourself as an expert without feeling like a sales pitch and something like that will help you, but you want to say it in an emotional way, right? From the other things that we, learned from. So that would be more of the credibility. You're establishing yourself credible when it comes to the trust formula. Remember it's credibility, reliability, personal connection. So credibility, that's a good way. Reliability is, Hey, if you partner with a local pediatrician, don't just drop off business cards. Like I've told you, right? Instead. Set a recurring schedule. Dr. Smith, would it help if I came in once a month to answer parents questions about kids dental health? Now, this makes you reliable and on top of mind for referrals. More times out of not, they will say, Yeah, you know, we can create something for the community or we can do that. We can partner up. Reliability. You're building something together. You're seeming reliable. And third is personal connection, right? Now, personal connection, an example of application for this is if a parent at a community event expresses concern about their child's teeth, don't just push a service. Instead, relate personally. Say something like, I totally understand. I have young kids too. I always remind them that brushing is like feeding their teeth good food. Now, this builds emotional trust rather than feeling transactional. You're giving them something they can use when they get home too. And then finally, self interest, An example of this is, instead of saying, we're offering a special on teeth whitening, would you like to book? Say, a lot of people are surprised how much whiter their teeth can get with just one session. I mean, Look at the before and after pictures. Do you want to see a quick before and after preview? For you, we can make that happen, right? This picks curiosity and engagement leading to an easier yes. So these are things you can utilize, especially with the trust formula. Now, when it comes to number two, first impressions are everything. Remember the seven second rule, an example on how you can apply. This is at a local health fair. Don't sit behind a booth looking at your phone. Never ever do that. I can't tell you. And we're going to discuss this in further on how to perform for optimal results at a booth in a later episode. But this is my biggest annoyance when you see someone doing this. Stand up, make eye contact and offer a warm greeting, approach people with a natural question even, You can approach them with, Hey, how's it going? That's a question. But approach people. Have you ever seen what your smile could look like with Invisalign? Let me show you a quick digital preview, right? And then you show them. This makes interactions engaging and welcoming rather than, just pushy. First impressions are everything. Stand up, make eye contact and offer a warm greeting. No. You have to turn it on for those hours. Okay. And like I said, we'll discuss that in a later episode. Reciprocity. Number three, give first and they'll want to give back, right? An example of this is at a local gym, instead of saying, Hey, here's my business card, call us if you need a dentist, say, Hey, would your members find it helpful if we provided free sports mouth cards for youth athletes? For the young ones, If this is one of those type of gyms where they have a sports team and things like that, this works fantastic. They now feel obligated to reciprocate by recommending your practice when you do this. And it happens. Be as involved as you can be. Push the limits when it comes to this. Don't just sponsor something. Don't just make free mouth guards. The name of the game is never convenience in these things, right? Have them go to your practice, have them come to your operatory, get fitted. You know what I mean? Have their families come in because you want their families to become your patients too. There's so much involved in this. And like I say, this is going to be in a later episode as well on how to do this effectively, especially with, want to sponsor like teams and things like that. So number four is the power of, Familiarity. So the more they see you, the more they trust you. An example on how to do this is if you want to create an ongoing partnership, you can say, Hey, we'll be at a local coffee shop every Saturday, offering free coffee for new patients. When you do the coffee shop strategy, which is found in the ground marketing course, you're able to set up at the coffee shop as much as you want. And when you do that, you're able to bring people there as much as you want to, and the coffee shop loves it. And by showing up repeatedly, potential patients become more comfortable with your brand. Now, that's just one thing. Imagine showing up consistently at a gym, consistently at a school, at a senior home, at an apartment, where you feel, hey, I'm going to get a lot of new patients. I saw great results the first event, I'm going to continue to go. Be consistent. You want to be familiar with them. Five was social proof, right? People follow the crowd. Instead of saying, hey, we offer family dentistry services. Say, did you know over a hundred families in this area trust us for their dental care? And this can be written in your marketing material because it leverages social proof and it makes people more likely to consider your practice. Six with scarcity and urgency, people hate missing out. So instead of saying at a school event, we're offering free dental checkups. You can say, Hey, we're only offering 10 free checkup slots for families at this event. I can save you one right now. What's your name and number that creates urgency and drives immediate action. So you can continue to do these things, When it comes to how to apply it, we're going to make specific episodes just for these events, just for these locations, just for these businesses. if you ever wondered. And wanted to know how to get into a school ground market and get the children, the teachers, the staff to come in. We're going to do an episode on that, on gyms, on farmer's markets, on partnerships, on a lot of things, This is it. revealing it all here but if you want to know now and you want the strategies written down and you want the actual real life examples, you want to see me actually call some of these businesses, you want the Excel sheets, you want it all. There's a ground marketing course, and in that ground marketing course, you're, it's like one on one with me, right? And I continue to add to that course as well. And I'm going to put a link to that in the show notes below. Or you can just Google the ground marketing course and see what everybody else is saying about it. Now it's helped their practice as well. hope you enjoy this episode. Feel free to check out the ground marketing course. If you do, I'm excited to see you in there. And the next episode, we're going to be discussing setting up for success, ground marketing foundations, and we'll dive deeper into that. Thank you so much for tuning in and I'll talk to you in the next episode.…
 
Could your practice be unknowingly losing money through your website? In this episode, I sit down with Ali Soufi from DocSites to unpack some of the most common yet costly misconceptions that might be holding your practice back. We dive deep into the often-misunderstood world of website costs, emphasizing the crucial roles of customization and local relevance in maximizing your online presence. Listen as we shed light on how vanity metrics can be deceiving and why a strategic partnership between marketing efforts and your website design is essential for boosting performance and cost-effectiveness. Ali shares straightforward, actionable insights, including conducting simple audits to reveal hidden pitfalls and understanding marketing return on investment. He stresses the importance of seamless collaboration between marketing companies and dental practices, ensuring that websites don’t just exist but actively contribute to the bottom line. Discover how DocSites provides clear, affordable, and honest solutions tailored specifically for dental practices, ensuring transparency and consistency in pricing and service delivery. This episode is a must-listen for practice owners eager to optimize their digital footprint and secure a financially healthy future. What You'll Learn in This Episode: How to identify and fix costly website inefficiencies in dental practices. The significance of customization and local relevance for website success. Why vanity metrics can mislead and how to focus on what truly matters. The importance of integrating marketing with functional website design. Tips for conducting simple yet effective website audits. How to accurately measure marketing return on investment. The benefits of collaboration between dental practices and marketing companies. Transparent and cost-effective website solutions offered by DocSites. Tune in to discover how a well-optimized website can transform your dental practice's financial health! ‍ ‍ Sponsors: DocSites: Do you need a new website or marketing agency with no long-term contracts? Visit DocSites' website here and be sure to mention The Dental Marketer for $500 off! docsites.com ‍ Guest: Ali Soufi Business Name: DocSites Check out Ali's Media: ‍ Website: docsites.com Email: ali@docsites.com Phone: 818-616-3919 ‍ Love the Podcast? Let Us Know How We're Doing on Apple Podcasts! ‍ Other Mentions and Links: ‍ Places: Las Vegas ARIA ‍ Tools/Services: Fiverr Google Analytics ‍ Products/Brands: Ferrari Honda iTero Invisalign ‍ Host: Michael Arias ‍ Website: The Dental Marketer Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/ ‍ Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society ‍ Please don't forget to share with us on Instagram when you are listening to the podcast AND if you are really wanting to show us love, then please leave a 5 star review on iTunes! [Click here to leave a review on iTunes ] ‍ p.s. Some links are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with these products/companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money unless you feel you need them or that they will help you with your goals. ‍…
 
Dive into the world of ground marketing with our inaugural episode of the Ground Marketing Series, where I reveal its powerful impact in the dental industry! Unlike traditional digital marketing strategies, ground marketing leverages face-to-face interactions to cultivate trust and boost brand awareness by meeting potential patients in their natural surroundings. This episode explores the psychological and behavioral triggers that underpin ground marketing's success, including the mere exposure effect, reciprocity principle, social proof, and emotional connection. These concepts are not just theoretical; I'm bringing them to life with compelling real-world examples, such as strategic daycare partnerships, corporate lunch and learns, and impactful community health fairs. Tune in as I navigate through the tangible advantages of ground marketing, shedding light on how this approach consistently outperforms paid advertising in terms of cost-effectiveness and conversion rates. Ground marketing's sustainable practices pave the way for long-term growth, giving your dental practice a competitive edge. This episode is a treasure trove of insights that are not only actionable but designed to transform the way you think about patient engagement. Don't forget to tune in next week, where I'll delve deeper into the psychology that drives these successful ground strategies! What You'll Learn in This Episode: The distinctive value of ground marketing in the dental sector. How face-to-face interactions enhance trust and brand awareness. Understanding the mere exposure effect and its application. Insights into the reciprocity principle in marketing practices. Utilizing social proof to strengthen marketing efforts. Building emotional connections with potential patients. Successful case studies of ground marketing initiatives. The cost advantages and high conversion rates of ground marketing. How ground marketing ensures long-term sustainability over paid ads. A preview of psychological aspects in marketing strategies. Let's jumpstart your practice's growth by listening to today's episode! ‍ ‍ Learn More About the Ground Marketing Course Here: Website: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/the-ground-marketing-course-open-enrollment/ ‍ Other Mentions and Links: ‍ Terms: EDDM PPC ‍ Marketing Tools: Facebook Ads Google Ads ‍ ‍ If you want your questions answered on Monday Morning Episodes, ask me on these platforms: My Newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/ The Dental Marketer Society Facebook Group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/2031814726927041 ‍ Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors) ‍ Michael: All right. So let's dive in to the first and foremost topic, which is introduction to ground marketing. We're going to get an overview of what ground marketing is and why it works. And then I'm going to give you real life examples of the success that ground marketing brings to a lot of our members. But I mainly want you to understand what ground marketing is. So ground marketing. Is the practice of directly engaging with potential patients in their own environment, such as schools, gyms, coffee shops, and community events, and so forth, to create trust and increase brand awareness, unlike digital marketing, which relies on online advertising and social media ground marketing thrives on face to face interactions. Relationship building and personal touch points that make businesses more approachable and trustworthy. It makes your practice, the go to practice in the community. It's approachable. They trust you. And there's a science behind ground marketing. Okay. It's not just, Hey, this is what a lot of us experience. There's actually four specific things that ground marketing does now ground marketing leverages, several psychological and behavioral triggers. That make it uniquely effective. But the foremost are number one, the mere exposure effect. Now people develop a preference for things they see frequently. The more often potential patients encounter your brand and their daily lives, the more familiar and trustworthy you become so. This also doesn't rule out any social media ads, any Facebook marketing, things like that, Google ads. It just helps as well. Just like ground marketing helps those types of marketing, mediums as well, it's touch points, but this touch point ground marketing. It's insanely strong. It's a human to human interaction touch point. It's in their life in real time like in person. So this is an insanely strong touch point that often converts within just one touch point. So the mere exposure effect is one to reciprocity principle. When you give people something valuable for free. For example, maybe something educational, free dental consultation, branded giveaways, things like that. Your time. They feel obligated to give back. And a lot of the times, it's done so by booking an appointment. And so, you're going to see a lot of the reciprocity principle. And ground marketing. It happens. This is a beautiful principle that never ever fails. Never once in the history of history has anyone said, yes, I love that you're doing all this for me. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. No, I don't want anything of yours. Just help me out. That's it. Boom. It's not human. The reciprocity principle works and that is delved deep into ground marketing. Three social proof. When people see others engaging and trusting your practice, they're more likely to do the same. So if more people like on social media, you start becoming popular on social media. They're like, Oh snap, people are following you. My friends are following you. My family's following you. They go to you more than likely. The other person is also going to go to them too, right? The person who's talking. So social proof, same thing in ground marketing. When you're at events, when you're at lunch and learns, when you're at. specific locations and your booth or whatever is popping and more and more people are coming to you and everything like that, more and more people are talking about you in the community. Social proof more in your community will go to you guaranteed. Social proof is huge So ground marketing does provide a lot of social proof. I'm just going to give you an example. If you're out at a school, or at a daycare and you're doing an event there and then you decide to post. Pictures and things like that and tag some friends, tag some teachers. I mean, That's just creating a lot of social proof right there that not only are you a dentist in the community, are you an established practice in the community and you're helping out the community and you're helping out the children in the community now, but at the same time, other people are talking about you and how in that one event. You did so much for the school, the daycare, the community, the children, all that stuff. And so that brings a lot of awareness, a lot of social proof, and it builds up a lot of credibility. And of course you get appointments and you get people coming into your practice. So that's number three and four, it builds an emotional connection. So meeting someone in person, as we know, creates a stronger, more memorable impression than an online ad. And I'm going to take this out of context a little bit. For example. My wife and I, it was a long distance relationship. I'm from Texas. She's from California. And when we would date, right. I met her in person first, obviously. And then after that we would email back in the day, it was more emailing and then, writing letters and then it became texting, that became like a huge thing. do you remember when you had to push like four, four times and then three to three and then two to two, just to like, you know, back then BRB, LOL, all that stuff was a lifesaver. But anyways that was cool and all, but then when you saw each other in person, the emotional connection was a lot stronger. so same thing, right? A lot of the times they may see you on social media, they may see your ads, they may see all these things, but when they see you in person, the emotional connection is a lot stronger. Same thing with concerts, events. That's why we have in person events when we go to a lot of these symposium or events or summits for our industry. But at the same time, concerts, same thing, right? You can listen to the band, you can listen to their album. As soon as it drops, you can be their biggest fan, but if you're never at a concert, are you that much of a fan, right? But when you get there at the concert, you experience a whole different environment, a whole different vibe. When you get there at those events, for CE credits and stuff like that, you experience so much more, a stronger connection. So meeting someone in person, creates a stronger, more memorable impression. And so that's huge when it comes to ground marketing. And that is probably the biggest thing is you want to create that connection with each person you meet while you're ground marketing. And it's powerful and there's a lot of real life examples of this, right? We have a lot of members in our ground marketing course who, give us examples on what they're doing. And honestly, they become extremely fantastic at ground marketing. And here's some real life success stories with ground marketing, right? There was a pediatric dental boom through daycare partnerships. Now the problem was pediatric dentists, they were struggling with low new patient numbers despite running social media ads, specifically Facebook ads. But the solution, instead of spending more on ads, they developed a ground marketing plan targeting daycare centers and pre K schools. Now here was the execution. They offered free tooth talk sessions for kids, right? It was quick, fun brushing demos and so forth provided free emergency dental care for school injuries, right? Positioning them as a trusted expert. And they left signup sheets for parents at the front desk with an exclusive deal for their first visit. Now the results were incredible. 42 percent of parents signed up for an appointment within 30 days. The practice gained 110 new patients in six months. And the cost, get this, the cost, 0 in ad spend, only time invested and personalized out in ground marketing. Case study number two, the Lunch and Learn Takeover. This was a corporate partnership. The problem was general practice in a competitive urban market was struggling to attract and share patients. The solution, they shifted focus from online ads, Google ads, to direct engagement with local companies. Offering dental insurance benefits and a breakdown to help them understand more of the insurance. And you're going to see that with corporations, especially employees from corporations. They just want to understand their insurance a lot more and a lot better. Now, the execution was we set up free lunch and learn sessions at companies, educating employees about maximizing their dental insurance benefits, offered a free whitening session or discounted, right? For those who scheduled an appointment on the spot and then created a direct contact within the HR departments to become the go to practice for the employees. So a lot of the times the HR department wants to answer their questions, but they can't, they don't have all the knowledge. Especially when it comes to this, you do, or someone on your team does, and now you're the direct contact. You can even mention, hey, we're the direct contact, even if they don't come to us. We just want to help you out when it comes to these benefits. And then boom, people will get sent your way immediately. Results, 18 scheduled appointments per session on average. I mean, This wasn't just a one time lunch and learn type of deal. It was consistent. The practice added over 230 new patients in a year. Became the official dentist for three corporate offices, generating steady patient flow, they honed in and targeted corporation partnerships, right? Specifically corporations. And then number three was, community health fair domination. And I love this one. This happens all the time, by the way, a startup, Practice with zero brand recognition needed new patients immediately, and they needed new patient momentum. The solution. Instead of expensive mailers, they partnered with local health fairs, setting up an interactive booth. So they offered specific things, right on the spot, oral healthcare screenings, fun, educational games. They use specific giveaway, signup sheets. They captured emails and phone numbers for followups, for raffles and things like that. The results doing these health fairs, right? Which health fairs happen all the time in your community. Be a part of them, please. But the results were 97 patient leads in one weekend, 51 percent conversion rates to scheduled appointments. And the cost for this, I mean, the booth and the materials and everything was just a one time thing, right? Once you get the table, the cloth, all the other fun stuff you want to get in later episodes, we'll discuss the necessities of what you need to get in your booth. All that was under 200 bucks for booth materials. And it yielded over 30, 000 in revenue. Health fairs are extremely profitable, especially when it comes to new patients coming your way. So these are just a couple case studies of what some of the members in our ground marketing course have experienced. But I mean, there's many, many more experiences. Facebook and ask what. Have you experienced with ground marketing? You'll see, or just type in ground marketing in any of these Facebook groups or, community forums, right for dentists and type in ground marketing, you'll see just exactly what these partnerships and health fairs and community events do for their practice and continue to do. So it's amazing. By implementing ground marketing practices can create trust, build stronger patient relationships, and see measurable growth without relying solely on expensive digital ads or billboards or EDDM or traditional marketing methods, right? Not to say that don't do all that stuff, but just see ground marketing as a strong, powerful arm in your marketing plan. Now, ground marketing isn't just an alternative. Two digital marketing. It's a psychological driven human centric approach that leverages face to face interactions. It's building trust and community integration to drive business growth, right? It doesn't rely heavily on ads or passive outreach. So I want you to keep that in mind. It's not about passive outreach. Ground marketing taps into real world engagement. You're forming lasting relationships that lead to higher conversion rates. Stronger loyalty and lower patient acquisition costs. It does require energy and effort and time. That is one thing. Okay. It will require energy, effort, and time for you to go out there in your community and do these specific strategies. But ground marketing will always succeed, especially when you have those four things always in mind, right? The principle of reciprocity, the mere exposure effect, trust through personalization, right? The emotional connection and then the power of social proof. These things are incredible, highly, highly, highly, integrated into ground marketing. as you're going to see, there's a lot of factors in this, right? I'm going to give you pros and cons on this. Why ground marketing works better than paid ads. A lot of the times, trust building, ground marketing, right. it has high personal interactions. It creates deep trust and paid ads is low on that. On the trust building ads are often ignored or distrusted, right? How many ads have you ignored today? Probably a lot. You don't even keep count. But then how many people have you ignored who try to interact with you? Maybe less than the ads, right? So especially if it's something that you need, the cost ground marketing is low. The only thing you need is time investment, but minimal spending, paid ads tie costly PPCs, right? Social media ads, mailers. That's high. So the cost is high on that. Ground marketing conversion rate is high, extremely high. You get personal connections. You increase the likelihood of booking. And at the same time, you increase the likelihood of not just booking one person, but their family in that moment. When it comes to paid ads, it's low to medium, Ad click through doesn't guarantee conversions a lot of the time. again, the cost is high and then the longevity of results. Ground marketing is sustainable. It has to be sustainable. I mean, They need to see you all the time. It's a relationship based marketing and it has long term value. Never stop ground marketing. Even once you're doing fantastic, you're doing amazing. You're getting in as many new patients plus 10 every single month that you want. Continue to ground market. Maybe you can tone it down a little bit. But continue to ground market always, right? It's just good for the community. It's good for them to see you. And obviously at the same time, it's building stronger loyalty. Now, when it comes to paid ads, longevity of results, ads stop working once the budget runs out. So as soon as your budget runs out, your ads. Won't be working. But ground marketing will always work, even if there is no budget there. So ground marketing is not just an alternative. Like I said, it's a fundamental shift in how your practice engages converts and retains customers. It's a low cost, high impact and backed by human psychology. Okay. So that means it's not just the study of marketing. It's the study of humans and those two things, the study of marketing and the study of humans is what's implemented in ground marketing. That's why it works. Real world interactions create stronger trust than any online ad ever could. So whether you're launching a new practice or you're looking to expand your patient base or solidify local dominance in your community, ground marketing should be a core strategy in your playbook. I hope you have a better view of what ground marketing is, and I'm excited to bring this series to the podcast. next episode, we're going to be discussing the psychology behind ground marketing. And once you understand this, once you understand the formula, you can pass it on to whoever you're also teaching the formula to and ground marketing too. But at the same time. Once you understand the psychology behind ground marketing, the principles, it will be a lot easier for you to do every single day, whether you're doing the specific strategy, or whether you're just engaging in your everyday life outside of your practice, you'll be able to start attracting new patients to your practice. So I'm excited to discuss that with you in the next episode.…
 
‍ Want to hear from someone who's been through it all, from associateship to acquisitions to a successful startup? This episode dives into the remarkable journey of Dr. David Rice, who masterfully blends the art of dentistry with entrepreneurship. Based in St. Petersburg, Florida, Dr. Rice travels to East Amherst, New York, where he practices, providing a firsthand account of his dynamic lifestyle. He openly shares his transformative journey from being an associate to expanding through strategic acquisitions and establishing his own practice. Dr. Rice highlights the critical role of diverse experiences in refining his professional skills and how meticulously planning his career steps, from securing loans to choosing practice locations, formed the backbone of his success. In our conversation, Dr. Rice provides valuable advice for budding dentists eager to navigate starting their own practice. He underscores the necessity of loan pre-approvals and efficient demographic targeting for marketing success. Teaming with trusted partners like Patterson and utilizing solid cash reserves are among the pillars he emphasizes for achieving sustained growth. Dr. Rice dives into common pitfalls, such as emotional attachments to locations and shallow decision processes prompted by social media allure. As the discussion nears its close, he turns adversity on its head by advocating for practice startups during economic downturns to capitalize on reduced costs. What You'll Learn in This Episode: The intricacies of balancing career and location for optimal practice function. Proven strategies for successful dental practice acquisitions. How to leverage loans and cash reserves for business growth. Importance of detailed demographic targeting in marketing. Building beneficial partnerships and reliable business relationships. Essential preparation steps to avoid practice ownership pitfalls. The unique opportunities available when starting a practice during a recession. Tune in to discover strategies and insights that could redefine your journey in dental practice ownership! (This episode originally aired on 03/02/2023) ‍ ‍ Guest: Dr. David Rice Business Name: Ignite DDS Check out David's Media: ‍ Website: ignitedds.com Instagram: instagram.com/ignitedds Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/igniteddsinsiders Email: david.rice@ignitedds.com ‍ Love the Podcast? Let Us Know How We're Doing on Apple Podcasts! ‍ Other Mentions and Links: ‍ Podcast episodes: David on Episode 159 ‍ Groups: The Making Of Facebook Group ‍ Businesses/Services: Henry Schein Benco Bank of America Patterson ‍ People: Sandy Pardue (Classic Practice) Jon Miller (Patterson) ‍ Host: Michael Arias ‍ Website: The Dental Marketer Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/ ‍ Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society ‍ Please don't forget to share with us on Instagram when you are listening to the podcast AND if you are really wanting to show us love, then please leave a 5 star review on iTunes! [Click here to leave a review on iTunes ] ‍ p.s. Some links are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with these products/companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money unless you feel you need them or that they will help you with your goals.…
 
‍ Did you know that up to 40% of calls could be going unanswered even during working hours in your practice? In this Monday Morning Episode, I chat with Miles Beckett from Flossy, whose challenging the status quo with an audacious question—should you fire your staff to make way for cutting-edge AI technology? We explore the persistent staffing hurdles in dental offices and unveil how AI can redefine efficiency and service quality. Miles introduces us to Flossy's AI receptionist, Fiona, who skillfully handles appointment scheduling and patient inquiries while significantly reducing no-show rates. This conversation promises a riveting insight into the practical and financial advantages of incorporating AI into dental practices. We examine how incorporating AI like Fiona not only economizes but also enriches team dynamics, fostering a more cohesive and productive work environment. With Miles’ expert insights, we tackle the looming question all dental entrepreneurs grapple with: How can AI propel my practice forward while maintaining high standards of human interaction? As we explore the potential future developments in AI, Miles provides a visionary roadmap that could very well be the blueprint for modernizing your practice. Get ready to rethink your staffing strategy, elevate your service offerings, and embrace the future of dentistry with open arms. What You'll Learn in This Episode: The rationale behind considering AI technology in dental staffing. Challenges faced by dental practices regarding staffing and scheduling. Insights into Fiona, Flossy's AI receptionist, and her functionalities. Strategies for integrating AI to enhance team dynamics. Potential future developments of AI in dental operations. Tune in now to discover how AI could augment your dental practice operations! ‍ ‍ You can reach out to Miles Beckett here: Website: Flossy.com Twitter/X: x.com/mbeckett ‍ Other Mentions and Links: ‍ AI Tools: ChatGPT Gemini DeepSeek ‍ Education: Board Exam ‍ If you want your questions answered on Monday Morning Episodes, ask me on these platforms: My Newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/ The Dental Marketer Society Facebook Group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/2031814726927041 ‍ Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors) ‍ Michael: Hey Miles, so talk to us. What's one piece of advice you can give us this Monday morning? Miles: Thanks for having me, Michael. My piece of advice that's controversial is fire your staff. Michael: Interesting. Fire your staff. Why so? Miles: I'm obviously being a little bit facetious, but I think you should raise your bar. I know that one of the biggest issues in dental right now is staffing challenges, both finding good staff, retaining staff, dealing with churn. And you know, it's oftentimes a rotating door at dental practices. And the way we think about things at Flossie is that we can help bring AI workers to help you out. And those AI workers really make you reassess How good is this person doing? Do I really need them on this task? Maybe I can have them do something else instead. Michael: So then what was the specific problem that you saw in practices that inspired you to create? I guess or the suite of it, right? Like Fiona and how does AI solve challenges that traditional front desk systems can't? Miles: the new technology around generative AI, which is really the most recent type of AI that we're seeing out there. We've had things like machine vision and learn machine learning and stuff for a while now. It's created voice technology that allows you to build these agents that really sound like you're talking to a human. So I would say over the last year the technology has improved dramatically such that a year ago we were looking at some of this stuff and it didn't really work. But within the last six months or so, all of a sudden, you could really build these agents that you could talk to that sound like you're talking to a human. So we were kind of playing around with this technology. We had already built out a dental discount network that was kind of our core business before. so we were looking at it for some of our own uses. And we sort of had this aha moment where so many of the dentists that we work with were complaining again about this rotating door, particularly with the front desk. And we were like, wow, actually, we could build a receptionist that would sound and function basically like a human. And so that was the first pain point that we really wanted to solve. And it's kind of shocking the amount of calls that go unanswered. not just nights and weekends where typically people are just getting a voicemail that kind of just goes nowhere. But also during the day, about 30 to 40 percent of the calls coming into a dental practice during the day actually go unanswered. Michael: Really interesting, yeah. That's a good, stat right there. Now when it comes to that, did you kind of see, okay, hey, these calls that are being unanswered, the nights and weekends and everything, it can kind of cover all this? Or was there hiccups, problems with that? I mean, I would assume there's like a ton of questions that AI has to be prepared for, right? That a human can do, but I mean, how did you kind of overcome that? Miles: it already works for nights, weekends, overflow. We have practices that, are starting to use it to fully replace the voice reception duties and to be able to have that staff focus on people that are actually in office. And oftentimes front desk workers aren't just answering the phones. They're usually doing a ton of other things. So, I mean, the short answer is that there's an approach in AI development called rag, which basically allows you to marry, Specific proprietary technology databases to the LLMs that are already out there. So things like chat, GPT or Gemini, for this new model that China released deep seek, these are all generic models. And then there's other. Companies that have built specifically models that generate voice for the conversational aspect of the call. But obviously they don't know anything about dentistry. They don't know anything about your specific practice. and they certainly don't know anything about scheduling or scheduling software. So a lot of what we've built is leveraging those generic LLMs. And then adding in dental specific knowledge that comes from, hundreds of thousands of data points that we have from patient visits and patient interactions with dentists over the years. And then also with the practice, ingesting their data to fine tune it even further to their practice. Both in terms of taking, like all their call log data and actually use that as part of the training for the model, and then also basically taking their rules around scheduling and their rules and information about the practice when they're open, when they're not, when the dentist is there. And all of that is loaded into a database that is available to the AI in real time as a person is talking to Michael: them. Have you seen any. Like hesitation on this as far as people taking it on were you kind of hesitant a little bit as far as taking it on And then like it, blew your mind out of the water kind of a thing Miles: Yeah, I think definitely there's a lot of interest. So, you know, we immediately had people signing up for the product right off the bat. However, in the initial conversation, for sure, there's a lot of skepticism. Part of that is because the technology is so new that if I were to tell you what I'm telling you now, that There's an AI you can talk to, and it knows everything about your dental practice and can book you. Sounds a little bit science fiction. And then second, there are, you know, a lot of people broadly in the industry saying, Ah, we have an AI receptionist for this vertical or that vertical, for dentists, for doctors, for plumbers, blah, blah, blah. And frankly, a lot of that technology is not very good, so if people have had some prior experience, they've maybe had sort of a negative experience. And the big reason for that, again, is that if you just sort of slap together a receptionist on top of a generic model, it's not going to work very well. You have to train it on the data brought for that industry. And even specific, like, the model that we have for a pediatric practice is different than the one for an orthodontics practice, as an example. And then again, Providing other data, that is specific to that practice itself. So there's some like initial skepticism, but once they hear it, once they interact with it, once they talk to other customers that have been using it, they're like, Oh, wow, this is pretty awesome. And then once they actually get it live, you know, they're pretty blown away. Michael: Yeah. So patients now expect, and you've seen this I'm sure, 24 7 communication, right? Right. Whether it's like, but on their time. Like, hey, I need it now, emergencies, whatever. So then, how does Fiona personalize patient interactions to improve that satisfaction of patients? And also, how does it help reduce no shows, or does it do that? Miles: Yeah, no, for sure. Yeah. So I mean, there's kind of a few ways that she works. So, most calls coming into a dental practice are for scheduling. majority of the calls are about I need to schedule an appointment. So the primary use case for Fiona, In general, but then really specifically for after hours and overflow is There's a huge amount of call volume that dental practices are getting that literally goes unanswered and goes to voicemail. And what is that person doing? They're calling the next dental practice. That's what we all do. You don't get an answer. You go to the next one. You go to the next one. And so it's giving these dentists an opportunity to actually capture that patient and book them for appointment. Yeah. And she can perfectly book appointments for new patients, answer questions about the practice. Again, it's, uncanny. The second is, as you're saying, no shows. So, people call in a lot and say they're running late or saying they need to reschedule or whatever. typically, that, happens during the day. It also happens, interestingly, a lot before the practice opens in the morning. So, practices will often see a lot of morning no shows and it's because they didn't, hear from the patient. So, She's also capturing those and rescheduling the patient, and so when the doctor gets in, their calendar is actually correct. So I would say those are kind of two of the main use cases. And then there's a lot of question answering, right? So there's, in a pediatric setting, there's, know, how's the first visit going to be? Is it going to be painful? What's it going to be like for my child? They've never been before. If it's a person that has like an immediate issue, can you get me in today? What is your schedule look like? What's the procedure going to be like? I've never had a root canal before. And she can answer all that. So she's actually trained on again a massive clinical data set as well. In fact, she technically passed the board exam. so she's very knowledgeable about dental information as well. Michael: Wow, that's incredible, man. So then I can see how this improves the call, right? It also, I'm assuming saves the practice owner, the business, a lot of money. in some many ways. So can you share a quick example of numbers that illustrate how fast practice could see the ROI? With Fiona. Miles: Yeah, I mean, the ROI with Fiona, literally, if you get one patient booking that you otherwise would not have gotten, she pays for herself that much. Okay. also to give you another example, Fiona costs about one tenth of What a human employee would cost, okay, to answer the phones. So we're talking about a massive cost savings. Above and beyond even the alternative that some practices do, which is like outsourcing to other countries. It's less expensive than that as well. So, the ROI is effectively immediate, especially given the are getting such a large percentage of calls going unanswered. Michael: Interesting, man. So is it like tiers? So, Miles: yeah, we, and again, we really think About these A. I. S. As employees as co workers. And so it basically comes down to like hours of utilization effectively. But you know, like the lowest here is basically nights and weekends and overflow coverage. The middle tier is sort of during the day in a copilot capacity. And then the highest here is just fully taking over all the calls being the first point of contact broadly. That's how we sort of think about it. Yeah. And as we think about all these agents too, I mean, the thing that's kind of cool is that you can interact with them as well. So you can actually have a one on one with Fiona, just like you would with an employee where you can provide her feedback in chat or in talking to her. And then that feedback that you give actually gets incorporated to how she functions going forward. Michael: Interesting. I like that. So then how does this, I mean, maybe you might've seen it miles. Maybe you haven't, does it improve like the team dynamics? Is it more like, Hey, this may take over your job and then the team members are iffy about it, you know what I mean? Miles: Yeah, no, I think it's been fine. I mean, we think of each of these A. I. S. as being co pilot to the workers that are there. And I think the reality is for any practice in particular that's growing or if you're buying other locations, you're constantly hiring more staff. You also, again, there's, a huge amount of churn with dental employees. So oftentimes you have people quitting and then you're hiring new people. So I think what this really lets you do is have a leaner team, not because you're firing people, but because you don't have to hire quite as many people. And for the staff that's there, they can focus on what they, you know, ultimately got into the business for, which is on patient care. You know, most of the staff in the practice are dental techs or hygienists. And oftentimes even front desk people like might even have a credential like that, and they're sort of doing double duty. And so now they can really focus on delivering patient care and also the in office interaction. So talking to the patient that's actually there at the front desk and that you know is getting a treatment, right there in the practice Michael: Yeah, I can definitely see this also a benefit for the startup practice, right? Like somebody who's on a lean budget starting up and then They just need to have someone in the front right now, kind of covering, maybe somebody last minute didn't show up for work because that happens quite a bit. They ghosted him, right? Or something like that. Yeah, right. They just show up and this, is a really good, do you feel like this can a hundred percent replaced? The front desk or more like, Hey, no, we're still going to need somebody there. Miles: I would say that within six months, 99. 9 percent of the phone calls will be able to be handled fully by Fiona. cause she's already can handle. 80 percent of the use cases right now, because again, most of the calls are scheduling related. There will be some edge cases, of course, and those edge cases will require a person, but it's going to be very few and far between. I think it'll be a question of how the practices want to use her and some may be. Just want her in an overflow capacity, regardless of her capabilities. And that's fine. And obviously there's very large DSOs that have call centers. I think we're going to see heavy adoption by them. You know, we're talking to all the major DSOs, rapidly. Yeah. And I think as we think about these other agents that we're building, we really think of it as a suite. Of AI agents for dental practices that all work together. So as a simple example, we'll be launching an insurance verification AI that will automatically verify insurance either through direct connections with insurers, or actually by calling, because sometimes you still can't get the data via their APIs or publicly available sources. And you actually need to call well, great. We have call technology where that AI can just call. The insurance company and now get the verification. And so you can imagine where a patient calls. They talked to Fiona. They're booking to give their insurance info now behind the scenes. Our insurance AI is verifying that data and providing it to the dentist. So they now have a package all ready to go for when that patient shows up. And so for each of these different ones, we're thinking about them working together. And I think in different domains, they'll be able to do, you know, more or less of the work. Some things are more complex, the one that we're thinking about for helping you run your practice, which is kind of like, Sort of a business intelligence product. But again, in the form of like an AI that's actually giving you recommendations, it's not going to be perfect and you're still going to have to run your practice, but it may actually take over the work of, you know, some of the consultants that you use and maybe you can do it a little more efficiently. Michael: Wow, man. Oh, so you guys got a lot, got a lot going on, which is great. It's exciting. So for practice owners who want to explore this further, where can they learn more about Fiona and Flossie? And do you guys offer any type of like demos or trials? Miles: Yeah. Yeah. So they can just go to flossie. com F L O S S Y. com. there's a bunch of info about Fiona on there right now. We offer demos. And we have like Sort of a trial period that we can offer people in, some cases as well. Michael: Awesome, Miles. I appreciate your time. And if anyone has further questions, you can definitely find them on the Dental Marketer Society Facebook group, or where can they reach out to you directly? Miles: I am on Twitter or X, I guess it's called. I feel like we'll always call it Twitter. Um, and my handle should be M Beckett on Twitter. Michael: And so all that's going to be in the show notes below. So definitely check it out. And Miles, thank you for being with me on this Monday morning episode. Miles: Awesome. Thanks so much, Mike. I really appreciate it.…
 
‍ Navigating the complex world of practice ownership isn't just about mastering the clinical side of dentistry. In this insightful episode, strategic wealth specialist Ross Brannon delves into the less-discussed trials faced by dentists, focusing on the often-overwhelming challenge of people management. Brannon reveals how these difficulties can push some dentists to the brink of considering selling their practices, shedding light on a critical issue that affects countless individuals in the field. His expert guidance is particularly timely given the additional pressures faced by new dentists, who not only contend with professional stressors but also juggle substantial educational debt and delayed career starts. Ross explains these late beginnings in professional life mean dentists often find themselves playing catch-up in financial planning—an endeavor crucial to securing stability and success. Emphasizing a proactive approach, he offers valuable strategies to mitigate these concerns, underscoring the importance of foresight in financial and career planning. By addressing these challenges head-on, dentists can pave their way to long-term success, avoiding the pitfalls that have ensnared their peers. Tune in to discover actionable insights that could redefine your path in the dental profession. What You'll Learn in This Episode: The stress and implications of people management in dental practices. Why some dentists consider selling their practice due to management challenges. The financial impact of entering the dental profession with significant student debt. How delayed career start affects long-term financial stability. Essential strategies for effective financial and career planning in dentistry. Listen now to transform your financial future and career path in dentistry! ‍ ‍ Sponsors: ‍ CareStack: Modern, Secure, Cloud-Based Dental Software for Growing Your Practice! With state-of-the-art features including Online Appointments, Integrated Payments, Text Reminders and more. Click the link here for a special offer: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/carestack/ Guest: Ross Brannon Business Name: Ross Brannon Financial Advisor Check out Ross's Media: Website: rossbrannon-8128715.hs-sites.com Phone: 850-566-7999 ‍ Love the Podcast? Let Us Know How We're Doing on Apple Podcasts! ‍ Other Mentions and Links: ‍ Florida State University Merrill Lynch Morgan Stanley RIA - Registered Investment Advisor Parkinson's Law Ally Bank Bank of America Costco Usain Bolt 12,000,000 Savings Lost Dave Ramsey Dan Sullivan - Why I Don't Believe in Retirement Bitcoin Dogecoin Essentialism ‍ Host: Michael Arias ‍ Website: The Dental Marketer Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/ ‍ Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society ‍ Please don't forget to share with us on Instagram when you are listening to the podcast AND if you are really wanting to show us love, then please leave a 5 star review on iTunes! [Click here to leave a review on iTunes ] ‍ p.s. Some links are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with these products/companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money unless you feel you need them or that they will help you with your goals. ‍…
 
‍ Is your dental practice ready to break free from the ordinary and embrace new marketing strategies that truly make a difference? This episode features Shane Simmons from Crimson Media Group, who walks us through unique approaches that transform how dentists connect with their local communities. By leveraging the power of local Facebook groups, Shane shares the secrets to building meaningful relationships and promoting dental services through community engagement. Whether it's through exciting collaborations like organizing yoga sessions or axe throwing events with fellow local business owners, the insights shared in this conversation will open your eyes to the potential of grassroots marketing. But it’s not just about joining any group—it’s about authentically positioning yourself as a part of the community. Shane shares the value of engaging with these groups using a personal profile to foster trust and connection. These small steps can lead to significant benefits, including cross-promotion with businesses boasting strong social media influence. To cap it all off, Shane extends an exclusive offer to the audience—a complimentary marketing analysis aimed at unveiling the intricacies of local advertising and helping you position your practice for maximum impact. What You'll Learn in This Episode: Innovative marketing strategies tailored for dental practices. How to effectively use local Facebook groups for community engagement. The benefits of collaborating with local businesses for mutual growth. Why personal profiles are better than business pages for building trust online. How Shane's marketing analysis can help you understand your local market. Discover new marketing insights that could reshape your dental practice—tune in now! ‍ (This episode originally aired on December 26th, 2022) ‍ ‍ You can reach out to Shane Simmons here: Website: crimsonmediagroup.com Facebook: facebook.com/crimsonmediamarketing ‍ Love the Podcast? Let Us Know How We're Doing on Apple Podcasts! ‍ If you want your questions answered on Monday Morning Episodes, ask me on these platforms: My Newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/ The Dental Marketer Society Facebook Group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/2031814726927041 ‍ Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors) ‍ Michael: Hey Shane. So talk to us about uncommon marketing methods. Tell me one or a couple tactics or strategies that will help bring in new patients. Shane: Yeah, so Michael, we've got one that a everybody can do. So if you've ever been in, you know, these local, like Facebook groups in your communities, you'll find that there's a Facebook group for everybody, moms, dads, but one in particular is small businesses in the area, and it's usually like shop small business or shop, you know, the community that you're living in. And one of the things that we're starting to have clients do is get into these groups and find someone who has a small business in that group that's in your community that could come to your office and do some sort of, Event or just like team building exercise at the practice. so I'll get where, how this kind of comes into getting new patients in a bit. Mm-hmm. . But the first way that you can look at this, is like as a team building opportunity. So think of people like, Yoga instructors or think of someone who maybe teaches people how to meditate. Invite that person to do a session at your office for your team one day. And one, it's gonna be a great team building exercise. It's gonna be something that's beneficial to, you know, everybody on the team. But what you can then do is say, Hey, we would love for, you know, you to post this on your Facebook and your Instagram account. You know, talking about how you had this session here. We'll share. To our audience that way in case you know, people can go check out your yoga studio or whatever the case may be, but then if they're sharing that they came to your practice, they're going to be putting your practice in front of their entire audience too. So it's obviously ideal. To find somebody who has a decent social media following, like, you probably wouldn't wanna do this with a yoga instructor, or somebody who teaches medication who's not on social media. Mm-hmm. . But, finding someone who has an audience and, and cross promoting with each other, um, through that. But then the second piece of this, which is, you know, really the cool thing is if you're in with the Facebook group where you found that individual, you can then, Pictures and videos of that day where that yoga instructor or whoever came to the practice and give them a shout out and tag them in their business in that post saying, Hey, we wanna thank, you know Michael's yoga studio for coming to our dental practice and Rancho Cucamonga and doing a full day, you know, or a half day session or whatever the case is. It's like definitely go check them out. And oh, by the way, if you guys need a dentist in the area, we would love to, be your dental home. So it's a way that you can promote yourself, but while doing so, you're promoting another business and you're not going to get kicked out of the Facebook group because it's not like you're just going in there. And dropping a promotion, it's like you used somebody's services in that group. You supported another local business. So it looks, you know, it shows that you're supporting the community while also just putting yourself out there that, hey, you know, we're also here. We would love to, to help those in the community. So that's really what we're starting to find is Almost like a ground marketing technique really, but just doing it through these Facebook groups, and again, there's so many different options that you could do with this. You could do an onsite, somewhere else where you actually go and do like, a obstacle course. You know, somebody like that owns like an obstacle course thing in the area, whatever it is. I know one thing that's like really popular right now in the Midwest, I don't know if, it's like nationally. Ax throwing is like a thing Okay. That a lot of people like go and do now. So, you know, it's, it's all about just how can you get and support other businesses in the area and then talk to that person and ask about how can we, cross promote each other to our audiences to drive more business. And the great thing about it is, it's free with the exception of whatever you may pay to get the person to come out and do the event, or if you go do. , activity at their place of business. Yeah. Okay. Michael: So then how would you recommend we go about doing this? From step one, we're going inside the Facebook group. We're looking betting, and then we're like, okay, let's see who has a good following. So would that take some time, I would assume, right. . Shane: Yeah. So, yeah, it's just a little bit of groundwork at the beginning. Mm-hmm. . So the first thing you wanna do is, you know, go to Facebook and search small business and then type in whatever, city, town you live in. That's the first thing. And join all of those groups, um, and you would join those from your personal, profile, your Facebook profile, but make sure it has. Listed on your profile, owner, dentist at such and such practice, so that that's listed in there. So first thing you wanna do is join the group. Once you've joined the groups, you can then search the group members. And the first thing that I would personally do I would scroll through the Facebook group and look at. Who's actively posting in there? You know, who are people that are regularly posting or promoting something in that group and looking at what it is that they, do. Are they real estate agents? Are they gym owners? what is it that is their profession? If you find somebody who's really active and you can. , that person could really benefit. my team, we could do something fun with them, have them come out to the office, do a day session, whatever the case is. Then that would be the person, you're trying to, reach. So I would just scroll through the group, look at, see who the active posters are, and then just make a list of, how could we use this service? Could we use this service? And, and then, you know, from there you can check out their. Page profile and see how many followers they have, and then it's from there, Michael, it's just about sending a message to them, on that group and introducing yourself as a fellow small business owner in the community who had saw one of their posts and was like, Hey, I would love to, do this or have my team do this. How can we, get set up with you guys and maybe promote each other, um, in the community. So it's really kind of three steps joining the. Researching the group and finding out, who would be a good fit to kind of partner with. Mm-hmm. and then just reaching out to that person and so far the offices that have done this that we work with, nobody's been turned down because everybody wants to partner with another local business if they can to help mutually benefit each other. Michael: Yeah. Do you think they should also kind of like once they come in, let's just say it's like the ACT's throwing, right? You go to them. We ask like, Hey, is the manager here or the owner here, kind of thing. Like that. Or, Shane: that's a great question, Michael. Usually what we're finding as of right now at least, is it's usually the owners or like the main, manager, branch manager, who is like the member of these groups. Mm-hmm. , um, because they're the actively, the ones that are trying to. Grow their, footprint in the community. So if for these smaller businesses, it's usually, you know, the owners that, that we're seeing in the groups. So it's a lot easier to, you know, be talking to the, the main person rather than going to their website and then having to see, you know, hey, who's the owner or the manager and contacting them. That way you may have a hard time getting through. that initial gatekeeper, but if you're reaching out to the owner directly on Facebook and you'll be able to find that out, you know, obviously by clicking on their profile and it should say if they're the owner slash operator or whatever the case is of mm-hmm. such and such business. Michael: I like how you mentioned join from the personal Facebook because that, I mean, I get that question. Everybody gives that question like, should we, they wanna join with their like business Facebook? Why is that Shane: not a good idea? Yeah, because I think we're the business. if you create, you know, business page and you try to join through the business group, it just doesn't have that personal connection that, you're looking for. And it can sometimes raise red flags with group admins. I mean, you know, Michael, you're group admin. It can raise red flags of us. This person just gonna come in and spam the group, nobody wants that who's running one of these Facebook groups. So when you join in from your personal profile, it's showing that you're actually there trying to. Meaningful connections. You're not afraid to hide your face right, or hide behind the business, and you're just more likely to be looked at as like a legitimate person or poster contributor to that group, rather than going in and joining through the business page where in that case there's just no personal, touch to that. Michael: Yeah, I can see that a hundred percent. Awesome. And then so when we go in there, we're talking to them, let's just say we're going in there, talking to them and then, The owner's like, Hey, yeah, yeah, come on in. Should we do something where're like, Hey, if your employees Or like, wait and then have them, you know, until you guys interact more. What? What do you Shane: think? Yeah, no, I'm glad you asked this because we would, suggest, or the way we're suggesting it right now is go in, you know, u utilize their service, whatever the case is, kind of use that the first time. And, and that's kind of it. but then follow up, a month down the road and saying something like, you know, Hey, we just wanna say how much we appreciated you guys. Maybe you drop off. to go whitening boxes, you know, crest whitening strips, something along those lines to the, business and to the group, and put some membership. If you have a membership plan, which hopefully you do in the practice, practice, put some membership plan, graphics or a QR code that goes to your membership plan in that gift box as well. And so when you give that to the, the manager there, let them know, you know, Hey, we just really enjoyed, you know, utilizing your service. Obviously, you know, we're another small business in the area. If you don't have, currently any like dental insurance that you're offering your team, because, you know, we understand small businesses, a lot of them don't have that. here's an option for the people who work here where they can come to our office and join this membership plan. And so that's a way where you can then start to. Build that, relationship a little bit more, taking it to the next level and kind of showing them how you can, you with their team and, and provide those type of benefits. But I would say wait at least a month after you've kind of really connected with that person, utilized their services already. That way it doesn't look like you're trying to get something from them. and that's it. You know, you want to look at this as, you know, how can we show them we're wanting to utilize their services as much as possible, we value them. And at that point, reciprocity just comes into play where they're gonna wanna be able to do whatever they can for you to help promote you and your business, um, because you've shown support to. . Michael: Yeah. Awesome man. Awesome. I appreciate this, Shane, and I appreciate your time and if anyone has further questions, you can definitely find 'em on the Dental Marketer Society Facebook group, or where can they reach out to you directly? Shane: Yeah, no. So they can, uh, always find us@crimsonmediagroup.com. It's a great way to reach out to us, through that platform. And yeah, we'd be happy to answer any questions you have about your current marketing or what marketing maybe we, you wanna explore doing, you know, definitely reach out to us and we'd be happy to be a resource. Michael: Yeah. And real quick, you, y'all still do the free analysis, right? For. Shane: Yes. So we do, just for Michael's audience here, we do a free marketing analysis for, any practice owners in this group. So we'll go through, we'll look at, what people are looking for when they're, when they're searching for a dentist, who's advertising in the area, what are they advertising? That way you get a really good glimpse of the kind of landscape in your community, and it's just really great insight, if anything. So, yeah, if you wanna check out. what that's all about. You can reach out to us through, again, crimson mediagroup.com and just let us know in the comments that you'd like to request a marketing analysis and, uh, we'd be happy to to do that for you. Michael: Awesome. So guys, that's gonna be the first link in the show notes below, so go check it out, get your free analysis and shin. Thank you so much for being with me on this Monday morning marketing episode. Thanks Michael.…
 
‍ What does it take to have an unmistakably excellent startup? In this episode, we're exploring the world of dental practice management with Alan Withall, a seasoned dental consultant with Henry Schein Dental. Alan shares his remarkable journey from Wisconsin to New Jersey, tackling the initial hurdles of the dental supply industry that led him to establish the F.Y.I. Study Club. This initiative has blossomed into a vital resource for dentists, aimed at educating and equipping them with the tools needed to start and expand their practices successfully. Alan reveals how he bridges the gap between dentists and key industry resources, enhancing their business acumen and operational success. Through this engaging conversation, Alan offers an insider's view on critical aspects of launching a dental practice—covering everything from the essentials of obtaining bank loan pre-approvals and managing budget constraints to avoiding pitfalls like underinvesting in equipment and marketing. The episode brims with practical advice, including the benefits of 3D printing technologies and the significance of effective systems and billing for sustained growth. Alan's commitment to his clients shines through as he discusses fostering strong networks, systematizing operations, and leveraging tools like the Henry Schein Practice Analysis to uncover untapped opportunities. What You'll Learn in This Episode: The journey and challenges faced by Alan Withall in the dental industry. Strategies for starting and growing successful dental practices. The role and benefits of F.Y.I. Study Club for continued learning. Importance of creating a resource network for dentists. Tips on securing bank loans and budgeting for dental startups. The need for investing in quality equipment and strategic marketing. Advantages of adopting 3D printing and scanning technologies. Insights on systematizing operations and managing employee turnover. How to utilize practice analysis tools to boost financial returns. Tune in now to learn with Alan Withall and elevate your practice! ‍ ‍ Guest: Alan Withall Check out Alan's Media: Phone: 262-389-0532 Instagram: instagram.com/newyorkdentalconsultant Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/326618684157415 ‍ Love the Podcast? Let Us Know How We're Doing on Apple Podcasts! ‍ Other Mentions and Links: ‍ Businesses/Services: Henry Schein Bank of America Wells Fargo WeCare Practice Advisors Google Ads WeCapture Media Group LLI Advisory Clinician's Choice vVARDIS ‍ Tools/Resources: PowerPoint Henry Schein Practice Analysis Kasper Indeed Dentrix ‍ People: Justin Ditkofsky (WeCare Practice Advisors) Dr. Kareem Osman Jerry Iaconvano (LLI Advisory) ‍ Groups: The Making of a Dental Startup (Facebook Group) ‍ Products: Curodont Perio Restore Primescan Scanner 3Shape Scanner ‍ Insurance Codes: D0120 - Dental Exam Code D0140 - Emergency Exam Code D9110 - Emergency Palliative Code ‍ Host: Michael Arias ‍ Website: The Dental Marketer Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/ ‍ Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society ‍ Please don't forget to share with us on Instagram when you are listening to the podcast AND if you are really wanting to show us love, then please leave a 5 star review on iTunes! [Click here to leave a review on iTunes ] ‍ p.s. Some links are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with these products/companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money unless you feel you need them or that they will help you with your goals.…
 
Can focusing on just ONE aspect of your life or practice truly enhance your overall fulfillment and success? Join me as I delve into a fascinating conversation with my return guest Dr. Avi Patel, an expert in the concept of singular focus. Avi eloquently unpacks the transformative power of honing your energy on one dimension of your life or practice. From personal anecdotes of bettering his marriage through therapy to using this single-minded approach in his dental practice, Avi provides a fresh perspective on achieving unparalleled results through the art of simplification. As we explore this captivating topic further, Avi demystifies the age-old conundrum of juggling multiple goals. His advice? Shift the lens from defining a myriad of large objectives to establishing non-negotiable standards. By laser-focusing on mastering one skill at a time and leveraging consultants or mentors who've tread the same path, we can optimize our efforts and enhance our personal and professional lives. Avi shares his current focus which involves expanding his scope beyond the clutches of conventional dentistry and into the intriguing realm of content creation in the dental industry. What You'll Learn in This Episode: How channelizing your energy and resources into one facet of your life can reap more fulfillment and success. The power of simplifying your goals into non-negotiable standards. The benefits of seeking advice from consultants or coaches who have experienced similar situations. The importance of focusing on one KPI at a time and allowing your brain to problem solve and improve other areas organically. Avi's current career pivot - stepping away from clinical dentistry and moving towards content creation. Ready to dive in and discover the untapped potential of singular focus? Tune in now! ‍ (This episode originally aired on February 5th, 2024) ‍ ‍ You can reach out to Dr. Avi Patel here: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doctor.avi/ Avi's Clear Aligner Course: https://www.clearaligneradvisor.co/launchpad ‍ Other Mentions and Links: ‍ Podcasts/Publications: 438: DR. AVI PATEL | CLEAR ALIGNER ADVISOR ‍ If you want your questions answered on Monday Morning Episodes, ask me on these platforms: My Newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/ The Dental Marketer Society Facebook Group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/2031814726927041 ‍ Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors) ‍ Michael: Hey Avi. So talk to us. What's one piece of advice you can give us this Monday morning? Avi: So I, my piece of advice would be to kind of simplify, I. Everything you're doing and focus on one thing. And I think a good place to start is with yourself. So, and then even with yourself, right? There's different aspects. There's your mental self, your physical self, your emotional self. And I think if you first focus on your mental self and you do what you can to get that in order and get that into a place where. You have more control. Uh, I'm not talking about mind control, but something, something close to that. But if you, if you focus on your mental self, everything from that point I believe flows. So, um, for example, myself, about two and a half years ago, I started doing therapy. I was doing it because I wanted to improve. Um. My relationship with my wife. Mm-Hmm. And I just wanted to be a better person. I wanted to be able to support her better, but then also myself, just be better. I think that was like the goal. Mm-Hmm. And what I noticed from that point on was I started creating these habits because my focus was on improving. Essentially my mental health or myself. I started creating a morning routine. And so that morning routine was journaling, meditating, stretching. That then led to me being more organized, more focused during the day, uh, less stressed. so that's kind of how it went into the business way of how it helped me in life. But then physically, um, I got into the best shape of my life. I started being more intentional about what I was eating, what I was kinda spending my time on in terms of working out movement, stuff like that. And so just by starting on focusing on one thing by myself or on my mental health rather, all this stuff flowed. And I think you can translate this to other aspects of your life, your business, and everything. Because whenever you're focusing on too many things, right, and I think especially this time of year in January, everyone's got a million goals going on. Probably by the time this thing airs, most people won't have any of their resolutions continuing. But, ' cause I made the same mistake, right? And everyone hears it. Mm-Hmm. And I think I, I felt. So much relief when I looked at the multiple goals that I wanted to basically achieve this year personally and business-wise. And, uh, I felt so good when I eliminated like 90% of them because. I think people get confused on like, having a goal and then actually having something to do, right? So when you have too many goals, then there's so many things to do to achieve all of those goals. You're never gonna get it done. Mm-Hmm. And I kinda just went back to my roots of like, when was there a time in my life where I was growing rapidly, feeling good about myself, achieving a lot of success, and it's back when I was just doing, or focusing rather on like one thing. and so. I kind of remembered that and then I went back to it. Uh, simplified the morning routine again, these days to we're not trying to do 10 things before I start. It's more so just keeping it very simple, very efficient, because what happens is when you start getting those wins, those wins start to stack, and then next thing you know, when you look at it, you know, a year in review, you've achieved so much more just because you were focusing on one thing at a time and kind of chipping away at it. Michael: Gotcha, man. So right now you're kind of mentioning or you're letting us know that have one thing to focus on. Mm-Hmm. so in a specific aspect, we have to have one thing to focus on or like just in general, like, I want a better life, Avi: I would say. So if you are someone who is trying to, like, if you feel lost and you actually don't have a sense of direction or whatnot. Yes, only one thing because what's gonna happen is you're gonna pour, you know you're gonna pour more resources, more time into that one thing, your one big thing, and then from that other things will flow. Right. So if you wanna have a better love life, if you are spending a lot of your free time, you know, focusing on your business, focusing on your health, and like having all these diets working out and all that stuff, and then you're then trying to find time to like do things that would help your love life, you are, it's gonna take you longer to achieve that. Where is, if you say okay. The priority for right now is my love life. That doesn't mean don't do anything for the rest of your, you know, the other aspects of your life. Yeah. But that should be the thing. That should be the main thing. And then once you have that, you, I. We'll find that when, if that is truly what you want to accomplish and like improve your happiness, and there's almost gonna be like a spillover effect, right? Because we're human beings, we're dynamic. It's things are not just, you know, in solitude, but when you're able to focus on one thing, you're able to see, um. More results in that area. And then from that there will be an overflow. Because if you feel more fulfilled in your love life, you are gonna probably have higher energy levels. When you have higher energy levels, you're going to be able to probably do more things, whether it's in your business or for your own health. but it all flows from that one thing where if you're trying to take your limited resource, which is energy, and then spread it out all over the place, a lot of things are just not gonna really move. Yeah. Michael: Could I ask this this year? Like what is it? You're, the thing you're focusing on. Avi: So it's, right now it is, I'm doing it kind of in, in chapters or phases. So we're expecting our first kid in two months. Oh, nice. Okay. Yeah. So I know that's gonna be a huge change. Um, yeah, so basically I was like, cool, well, since life is gonna look different after that, what do, what do I need to do now to be in a place to where I can, 'cause my big thing is all about optionality. I love having optionality. I love, you know, not having to be limited by things. And so the biggest thing that I hear from parents is, you know, the biggest thing that. They get a a, there's a big crunch in time and your energy because now you are kind of giving to this human being. and, and you, you also, and everyone also says it's the most rewarding thing and it's, they always wish they had more time when their kid was younger and they could be there. So I'm like, cool. I need to simplify. Other things in my life to create that space so that way when the baby is here, I can receive that. So for me, from a business standpoint, I have, or I'm trying to currently simplify all the processes in the business. So right now, um. My business is the online ClearLiner Education Program. and a big arm of that is supporting the doctors in the program, but then also creating content on social media to provide free value for people. So I am working on simplifying the content creation part and also simplifying, um. The program itself, so that way it provides the most value for doctors in it. but then also doesn't take up, an extraordinary amount of my time to deliver that support and that value. Gotcha. Okay. Michael: So this, are you only doing now the online Uh, course, yeah. Or are you also working at a practice still? Avi: Nope. So I, I stepped away from clinical dentistry back in September. I was doing it full-time and then slowly went down to part-time, and then with the growth of the program and I. Content creation, social media and all that. I decided to go all in on it because it's just, it's the passion of mine and it's, I feel like it's my calling to help innovate and, um, help move the industry forward And, mm-Hmm. I feel like a quote that kind of stuck with me, or I don't know if it was a quote, but basically someone told me it's like you're either working in an industry or you're working on an industry. Mm-Hmm. And it's hard to work on an industry when a lot of your time is kind of. While you're working in it, right? Mm-Hmm. I think there's kind of like a balance. So I'm kind of using this chapter in my career to kind of step away from the chair and, and dedicate more time and resources into ways that I can help kind of work on the industry. Michael: Yeah. Okay. Man. I like that though. I like that. Um, part of simplifying goals because I feel like goals is like a, sometimes like a shiny, fast, cool word, right? Like, Hey man, I wanna have these goals when it's more, um. Non-negotiable standards. Right? That's what it is. Like I wanna have a non-negotiable standard. This is it. And then I gotta reverse engineering on how to make it happen. And it's easier to do that if you have one, right? Mm-Hmm. One specific one. Boom. Did it next. Right? But if you have all these big, shiny goals and you're like, man, I wanna lose a ton of weight, and you don't know how to do it kind of thing, right? Avi: Correct. Correct. And even just like. Relating it to dentists, right? Like if you've got a practice and you, you have a goal if you want to increase the revenue, right? Mm-Hmm. Where then it's, everyone always tells you, okay, well cool, you pick a number, then you reverse engineer it. How are you gonna get there? Um, from my personal experience, when it came to just like leveling up as a clinician, I found that when I was trying to learn how to do multiple procedures clinically at once, like when I wanted to become a better clinician, I wasn't like. Immersing myself in it, so I wasn't actually able to get as good as I wanted to. The example here is when I started with like implants and aligners, I pretty much learned them both at the same time. and so I was splitting my time between it. Implants. It was a little bit longer for me to kind of get going just because it is surgery and it just, you know, it's very, I mean, it's surgery, so it's, it's, it's pretty crazy. Mm-Hmm. Yeah. Um, but then with aligners I also just started to see, um, more success with it. And then I slowly started to like, immerse myself in that. And so when I was focusing on that one procedure, it wasn't just about moving teeth. It's how do you talk to the patient? How do you get the team on board? How do you schedule them? What do you do? So I was able to like work through all that by being focused. Where if I was trying to like iron out implants, learn it, implement it, and do aligners and like, you know. Do other procedures and, and work with the team and all that, it would be too much. And I know a lot of dentists probably feel that way, but I think the answer is, is like until you're like proficient in something, you should pick like one skill, whether it's business right, or clinical, and focus on that for the year to grow. You will know when you get to a point where you can kind of now choose a different area to focus on. So that's why it's like. I think a lot of dentists, right? Stress comes into play. There's always a lot of hats to wear. but I think kind of taking the pressure off yourself by just wanting to focus on one thing, knowing that other people are going to tell you, oh, you need to look at the KPIs. You need to look at this. You need to look at that. Yes, you do. But what you have to do in the beginning of anything new is focus on one thing. Get good at it and then move on to the next Mm-Hmm. Gotcha. Michael: So then how does that kind of play a role in, for example, software? Right? They're like, Hey, all these features and everything like that, and you're gonna be able to look at your dashboard and your analytics and then you're like, cool. 'cause that contributes to the goal that I wanna make more collections. I wanna make a million dollars this this year, right? Like I wanna be Mm-Hmm. A million dollar in collections this year. And then you look at it. I feel like there's too many features of everything. You know what I mean? To just be like, uh oh, we'll focus on this one thing. 'cause then like, what if your new patients drop 'cause of the time, or you know what I mean? And all this other stuff. How do we, I guess, keep our blinders Avi: on? So I would say the best thing to do in that situation is talk to someone who's done it before. Right? Talk to the, there's a bunch of dentists, coaches, consultants, people out there who already know what these like successful practices look like. Talk to them, ask them, Hey, if you were to start over again, or if you had to go back, what is one area that you would focus on for 90 days? What is one KPI metric that you would focus on that you feel like has the highest leverage? Right. When you say that, now you're able to lock in for 90 days, you're able to see that metric. And the thing, what's gonna happen is once you go down that rabbit hole, you're gonna find all these other things along the way. So it's not that other things are gonna drop off, you're just, you're shooting your shot. To get better at one KPI, but then when you're doing that, your brain will start to problem solve for ways to improve that KPI. And when you're doing that, you're gonna touch other parts of your practice. Does that make sense? Yeah, that makes Michael: a lot of sense. I like that question. What's the one thing you, you know what I mean? Like for, for you looking back, right? Starting out? Yeah. Because I think you told me one time we in one, a previous episode, and I'm gonna put a link to it in the show. It's below, but. You were looking to do practice ownership, right? But then you're like, uh, I don't know. Or kind of thing, right. Or an acquisition, I wanna say Avi: no. I don't know if I went that route. I think it was more my, my story kind of high levels. I was always an associate, but I'd worked in a bunch of practices and so it was like I was looking at okay, like what can practice ownership give me that I don't currently have? Mm-Hmm. And also like. Is it worth for me to go down that route with all the resources, time and everything like that? And I think, I don't have a knock on practice ownership. I think it's great if you're, you know, doing it the right way. But for me, this route of going into like education and like uplifting other doctors to learn this procedure was like the bigger kind of pull for me in terms of my career story. Yeah. So Michael: looking back. What's one metric you focus on for 90 days? If you had to start over, Avi: uh, as a dentist wanting to like do aligners or just as like a dentist in general, Michael: as a dentist wanting to do aligners, like what you're doing, education. Going down that route. I Avi: would, yeah, if I knew, if I started back and knew nothing, I would get with somebody that knows how to do it. Pick their brain to know what cases are easy to treat, what should you not do, right? And then, um, how to get patients to do it. I would focus on those three strategies. And then the actual, like metric, I would hold myself accountable to the point where every week I would start tracking how many patients did I talk to about it, and how many patients said yes. Like very simple. And then. I guess over time I would see like how many patients on average am I talking to a week? How many you're saying? Yes. And then from there, try to figure out, okay, why aren't they saying yes or how can we get more patients to say yes, or how can I talk to more patients, you know? Mm-Hmm. Like that's how I would do it, but how many people I talk to and how many people said yes would probably be the two metrics I'd focus on. Michael: Nice. Okay. Awesome. I mean, thank you so much for being with us on this Monday morning episode. If anybody had any questions or concerns, where can they reach Avi: out to you? Uh, Instagram is the easiest. My handle is doctor.avi and uh, yeah, just shoot me a DM and I'd be happy to chat. Michael: Awesome. So that's gonna be in the show notes below. And Avi, thank you for being with me on this Monday morning episode. Avi: Thanks Michael.…
 
Ever felt stuck in your professional journey despite years of experience and education? This episode dives deep into the transformative story of Dr. Jeff Buske, a dentist whose career took a turn for the better after overcoming early frustrations and burnout. Jeff candidly shares his experiences with un-fulfillment and low patient volumes, painting a vivid picture of how connecting with mentor Dr. Bruce Baird reignited his passion for dentistry. This pivotal relationship steered Jeff towards a profound realization: success isn't merely about hard skills but also a mindset shift. Together, we explore Jeff’s profound transformation from feeling overwhelmed to embodying a holistic approach to life and work. Integrating physical, emotional, and mental well-being into his practice, Jeff uncovers strategies for coping with stress and achieving both personal and professional fulfillment. He highlights the power of daily routines centered around four key areas: body, being, balance, and business. Through these insights, Jeff illustrates how clarity and specific objectives can drive lasting growth, supported by practical leadership and conflict resolution skills. What You'll Learn in This Episode: Jeff Buske’s journey from burnout to renewed passion in dentistry. The importance of mindset shifts alongside skill development. Strategies for integrating holistic well-being into daily practice. The role of daily routines in maintaining integrity and empowerment. Effective leadership and conflict resolution techniques for team dynamics. How to set clear targets for substantial and sustainable growth. Tune in now for transformative insights from Dr. Jeff Buske’s journey in dentistry! ‍ ‍ Guest: Dr. Jeff Buske Check out Jeff's Media: Instagram: instagram.com/dr.jeffbuske LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dr-jeffrey-buske-12201010a Coaching: stan.store/Jbuske ‍ Other Mentions and Links: ‍ Education: Dawson LSU Dr. Steve Buchanan (Courses) ‍ Groups: Dentaltown ‍ People: Dr. Bruce Baird Garrett J White Tony Robbins Brad Pitt ‍ Movies: Fight Club ‍ Events: Warrior Week ‍ Host: Michael Arias ‍ Website: The Dental Marketer Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/ ‍ Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society ‍ Please don't forget to share with us on Instagram when you are listening to the podcast AND if you are really wanting to show us love, then please leave a 5 star review on iTunes! [Click here to leave a review on iTunes ] ‍ p.s. Some links are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with these products/companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money unless you feel you need them or that they will help you with your goals. ‍…
 
‍ Having trouble hiring and retaining GREAT hygienists? In this episode, we're exploring how to redefine your approach to attracting and retaining valuable team members like dental hygienists. I'm here today with Kari Carter-Cherelus, who shares transformative advice for creating more welcoming and inclusive work environments. By advocating for flexible work schedules, Kari sheds light on how dental offices can better accommodate the diverse needs of their staff, particularly women navigating caregiving responsibilities. From job sharing to customized shifts, our conversation delves into practical solutions that satisfy both employee and employer needs. Kari brings a wealth of insights drawn from her interactions in various professional online communities, where she observes the power of communication and fairness in fostering productive workplaces. She emphasizes the importance of respecting cultural diversity and personal commitments, encouraging dental practices to embrace policies that are not only beneficial but also compassionate. What You'll Learn in This Episode: The impact of flexible work schedules on staff retention. Practical examples of successful job-sharing arrangements. The role of open communication in creating a fair workplace. Strategies for respecting cultural diversity and personal commitments. How to cultivate an inclusive and supportive office environment. Unlock strategies for a happier, more cohesive dental office workforce by tuning in today! ‍ ‍ You can reach out to Kari Carter-Cherelus here: Website: Bit.ly/burnoutdentalhygienist Email: cherelussmiles@gmail.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kari-carter-cherelus-rdh-da-65094b49 Instagram: instagram.com/kmc.smiles Facebook: facebook.com/kari.cartercherelus ‍ Other Mentions and Links: ‍ TV/Characters: Michael Scott The Office ‍ If you want your questions answered on Monday Morning Episodes, ask me on these platforms: My Newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/ The Dental Marketer Society Facebook Group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/2031814726927041 ‍ Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors) ‍ Michael: Hey Carrie, so talk to us. What's one piece of advice you can give us this Monday morning? Kari: I'm going to say that if offices can be more flexible with their team members, then they probably will be able to attract more and retain more team members. A lot of dentists complain about not being able to find a dental hygienist. Where, statistically speaking, most hygienists are women, even though it is a diverse field, so there are different genders in the field as well. However, that's just the fact of the matter, and most women are caregivers, they may have children they have to take care of, or someone in the house that they have to take care of. So if they can actually make that schedule more flexible, instead of just being straight eight to five or eight to whatever it is, or whatever that time is, and actually maybe job share, then they actually will probably be able to fill that position that they've been trying to fill for a year or two. Michael: Job share. You mean like sharing the position? Kari: Basically. Yeah. for example, I'm a mom. My child is three. I have to drop them off to preschool and pick them up within a certain period of time, or I would have to pay for aftercare before here. And so there's many people in the same positions and they would dream of having a schedule from eight to three where somebody else would like to have a schedule where maybe they could work. 12 to five Or seven. So you would be able to have someone who could fill that initial bulk of time that you need. And then if you're trying to accommodate patients by having the office open to a later period of time, then they may be someone who is actually looking for that schedule. Michael: Hmm. Okay. Gotcha. So can you share examples of flexible work arrangements that have resonated most with team members you've worked with or your team members? Kari: Online, I have a Facebook group of about almost 10, 000 people, but I'm in a lot of Facebook groups, and a lot of hygienists would love to have that schedule from like 8 to 2 or 8 to 3, whereas other people need more hours, and so they would like to have a longer period of time I've worked All different types of schedules. And so maybe I've worked full time five days, six days a week sometimes, or I've only worked three days a week. And then there's been times where I had worked from eight o'clock to five. And times when I worked from 11 to seven, sometimes that was broken up throughout the week, and sometimes that was consistent. So when you have different changes in your life, such as being a Becoming a mom or some are widows or different things, then they may need some variations. So not having that cookie cutter schedule, of course, a dental office is a business and they need those hours filled and patients need to be seen. However, just finding something that works. For everyone really has helped a number of hygienists that I've spoken with and dentists have been happy that at least they have someone filling their Chairs, and they're not just having to continue to have temps or to not have patients being seen They're not turning away patients because they have no one to see them. Michael: Got you. sounds awesome would a practice owner or someone be hesitant to do this? Kari: Probably because they just want someone to feel that time. So they just, you would have to be open minded and sometimes in dentistry, not all dental professionals are open minded. They want a certain person to fulfill that job, or sometimes it's a certain look, or a certain gender, and so you would have to actually be open minded to be willing to have a schedule that isn't the normal schedule, and then also we're open Sometimes they're afraid of other employees being upset. Recently I had someone upset in my Facebook group because they had kids and they had to negotiate that schedule. So they felt that the hygienist who had negotiated that schedule, who got off at two 30 to go pick up her kids was a slacker and lazy, so they may not do it because they may feel like other team members may feel jealous. So why does this person get to get off? I have family too. I have kids too. So they're. Jealousy or just treating everyone the same, but in that sense, then you don't have someone who's filling that chair. Now, some practice owners have seen that if they don't do this, then that loyal employee who's been there for a long time is going to leave. They're going to find other employment or they're just going to choose the temp. So it really behooves the office to come up with different ways to make everyone happy, which is pretty, pretty important. Difficult to make everyone happy, you know, that's very hard to do, but to think of different ways to be able to attract and retain team members, because that is hard. People constantly complaining about the dental shortage. instead of just complaining about it. And complaining about maybe having to pay more in wages or not being able to find someone or name calling, actually coming up with different solutions that are going to help the office out as well as the team member and showing that you care that you actually would work with someone allows them to be more loyal to the practice because they see that the office bent over backwards to really help them to maybe have that flexible schedule for whatever the reason is that they've had it. Michael: Yeah, that's true. That's a good point. What happened in your Facebook group too, because I feel like if that starts happening, you start noticing disunity, right? Like, Oh man, the one person's like angry at another person. Is it just because of this reason? Or was there an underlying solution there? Did y'all guys really not like each other this whole time? Kind of A thing, right? Kari: I mean, The whole post got deleted because so many people were like do you just not like the person because of the schedule or are they actually slacking? Like, What is the actual things? Because some people said that's my exact schedule. That's the schedule I have. My doctor bent over backwards. I do a lot of remote work now. And all the different things that I do. So I temp because of having my child, you know, it's very hard to find that schedule. It's very difficult to find it. When I do look online like, what will happen if everything falls apart and I need to get a clinical job? The jobs, they want you to work four or five days a week from eight to seven. So how am I going to raise my child? And that's one reason there is a dental shortage among hygienists because of that offset of the work life balance. Many people feel that they are not actually paying attention. playing an active participant in their child's life or in their own life. So they're wanting to have more balance. So somewhere we got lost in the profession. Quite honestly, I've been in a dental profession for 25 years. One of the reasons I chose it is because it was built to me as a great job for moms. So if everyone wanted to have a kid, then, it was flexible. I can maybe work three days a week and somewhere, maybe because of the insurance industry, I don't know. We kind of lost sight of that and that we are trying to cater to patients so much that we're not really allowing the team to get what they need out of life as well. Michael: that's Something we've been seeing a lot too, but I feel like whenever we talk to a lot of practice owners, hygienists, things like that, right? And dads too. Dads too, but like moms specifically there's a lot of that. Have you heard of mom guilt? Kari: Come on, don't mansplain it. I just gave a course on mommy bird out from mommy dentist and business. Yes, mom guilt is thing, You they have a special thing for my son Friday at his school, he didn't go to school the other day, but I saw the volunteer thing, and they only had three volunteer slots, and it was already filled, and I was like, I would have wanted to go to that, I wish I had, So yeah, we deal with a lot of guilt and a lot of moms who are dentists or hygienists or assistants or whatever, they're missing out on key things with their kids lives. So key events that the office is saying they can't go to, or one dentist she wrote in a Facebook group when I was doing some like research she wrote that she missed the kid's first day of school. And so she asked the kid, how was your first day of kindergarten? And then you're like, Oh, I told dad already, ask him. Michael: no, yeah, you miss out those key moments. You're absolutely right. So then you have to have a team that also wants to support that as well. Not just for the practice owner, but for like the hygienist for even assistant for everybody. Right. Like Understand Hey man, that's, She has to go see her child or something has to happen right, with the child. So how do you train them to be like leaders, to truly support an inclusive and flexible work environment? Kari: It's gonna have to be really having that flexibility. Open communication and then making sure that everyone is on board. So having a positive office environment, does have to be fair, so if other people aren't able to leave or they can't have that schedule, then what are you doing for them? So if they don't have kids, it's not fair that they never get to leave early sometimes too. So how are you allowing them to leave or allowing them to take PTO and things? So that's what's important, making sure that you're there for everyone. Because when I didn't have a trial, sometimes I face like discrimination in a way at the office. Because maybe I didn't get to see a patient that was as productive and I'm, if I'm being paid base and on bonus structure, I was told well, you have a husband, he's got a good job. It's like, what does that have to do with anything? Or I'm a single mom. So it has to be fair because that coin can go both ways. So you have to be able to understand how someone can feel that it's unfair that someone gets to leave every day. But at the same time, do they ever get to leave or can they come in later? How are you accommodating everyone in the office, which although difficult to do, with good communication and making sure that the team, feels that they are part of the practice. They all want the practice to do well. They're invested in the practice almost like an ownership, then they're going to be more inclined to support one another. Michael: Okay. I like that. So then how do you make sure, I guess your diversity and flexibility policies. Are truly felt by the team and not just formalities. Kari: That takes time. So it may be having someone like a coach or consultant come in and make sure that you're actually implementing those different policies, because I'm sure we've all worked in places that said that, Everyone has that little federal guideline that they're supposed to acknowledge as far as we don't discriminate against race or religion or everything like that. But I've been on plenty of interviews where it's not said, but you know, oh, that is actually discrimination going on. So for that to actually not happen or for it to be a diverse environment, then they have to make sure that they're recognizing all the team members. So Think about the holidays. So not just recognizing one particular religion's holidays, recognizing that other team members may celebrate different holidays. If the office has someone, let's say, who's Muslim and they're, dealing with Ramadan, then are you respecting that and what takes place during that time or Jewish or Christian, whatever. So making sure that you're respecting everyone in their Particular beliefs making sure that you're giving people grace just constantly learning about it. One thing that the office could do is to take continuing education courses together, and that way it's not just put all on one person and everyone's not. Awkward and everything, ideally outside of the office, probably, unless you have someone who's training that to come in, you don't want it to be like the office situation with Michael Scott and how it like goes, I love that show, but how it goes contrary to the whole thing. It's like, this is worst uh, example. So actually making sure that everyone feels supported and included. I know even yesterday. I saw on a Facebook post about is it okay for people to take the day off or a mental day and everything? And so sometimes people need to take a mental day. Sometimes what may be affecting one person isn't affecting the other person. Or you may not understand what's going on. you know, there was a lot yesterday since it was the day after election. So just seeing that there are so many different, Thought processes. So recognizing that obviously not everyone may feel like you feel. Just giving everyone grace and being kind is important. So fostering that team is important. Sometimes having team building exercises can definitely help. Going places as a team conferences are the best, making sure that the office is supporting the team. If they're mandatory going somewhere, they should be paid so that you don't have people who are resenting this mandatory. Event is important as well. Michael: Interesting. Okay. Yeah. When you were mentioning the example of different, make sure you acknowledge it. I thought of the office to media was like, Oh yeah. And Michael Scott. So that brings me to one of my last questions besides like the holidays and stuff like that, how do you celebrate different cultures while making everyone feel equally important? Kari: I guess bringing it up, but not bringing it up. I don't know if it's done regularly, then it's not going to be cringe. Because we know it can be cringe around like certain months it's Black History Month. It's like, uh, you know, so why aren't we just doing it all the time? So why are we just celebrating everybody all the time instead of waiting to a particular month and week and it's like, okay, we got that checked off and everything. We got Asian American month checked off. So it's like, stop just checking boxes and actually just living it. So regularly doing it. And One cliche way is to do potlucks, but I don't necessarily like potlucks, honestly, because see on Instagram and TikTok, not everyone has the same standards. So one way is to maybe go to different restaurants. Yeah, you know, they're, the Board of Health has to come in and everything like that. But at least talking about the differences the food and exploring talking about differences and how ones grew up is a way that can be helpful. I think talking about different culture, I've learned from, different colleagues and, talking about different languages, talking about different places that we visited. So just actually being open to having different conversations where we can talk about things that aren't going to be controversial, but just respecting one another, because when we do that, then we can see things from other's side of the coin or different opinion or perspective. Michael: Awesome. I appreciate your time. And if anyone has further questions, you can definitely find her on the dental marketer society, Facebook group, or where can they reach out to you directly? Kari: Social media is really the easiest thing. So they can follow me on Instagram. KMC dot smiles. My name, Carrie Carter Shirelles is on LinkedIn, Facebook, all those different platforms. And then my email is shirellessmiles at gmail. com. And my link is Bitly Burnout Dental Hygienist. Michael: Nice. Okay. So that's going to be in the show notes below. And Kyrie, thank you so much for being with me on this Monday morning episode. Kari: Thank you for having me.…
 
Discover how a dentist from Minnesota merges art and science to create a thriving rural practice. In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Heather Holt, who shares her unconventional entry into the dental field, driven by her love for both art and science. Heather candidly discusses the key moments and influences, including her inspiring mentor, that propelled her into dentistry. Her narrative underscores the crucial role of passion and support in shaping one's professional journey, illustrating how a strong foundation of encouragement can pave the way for success. Heather takes us through her evolution from an associate dentist to the proud owner of a bustling practice in Long Prairie, Minnesota. She reveals the challenges and lessons learned during this transition, highlighting the importance of both positive and negative experiences in associateships. Heather provides a detailed look into building a team that values trust, how simple gestures can enhance patient relationships, and the unique hurdles of running a practice in a rural setting. Throughout, Heather's story remains a testament to dedication, the power of community, and the intricate balance between professional demands and personal life. What You'll Learn in This Episode: How art and science can inspire a unique career path in dentistry. The impact of mentorship and family support in career decisions. Insights into transitioning from an associate to a practice owner. Strategies for effective staff management and efficient office systems. Tactics for building strong patient relationships through personal touches. Unique challenges and benefits of practicing dentistry in a rural community. The importance of trusting the process and maintaining empathy in patient care. Balancing professional responsibilities with a fulfilling personal life. Exploring future expansion and the significance of personal values in business. Tune in to uncover the captivating journey of turning passion into a thriving dental practice that leaves a lasting impact. ‍ ‍ Guest: Dr. Heather Holt Practice Name: Prairie Family Dental Check out Heather's Media: Website: longprairiefamilydental.com Instagram: instagram.com/longprairiefamilydental Facebook: facebook.com/LongPrairieFamilyDental ‍ Other Mentions and Links: ‍ Businesses/Services: Wonderist Agency Avon Dental Snap Fitness ‍ People: Leanne Mathieu Kramer (Statements Plus Compliance Solutions Inc) Dr. Kathleen Moen ‍ Books: The Starfish and the Spider Everything is Marketing ‍ Insurance: Delta Dental ‍ Products: A-dec Dental Chairs ‍ Organizations: OSHA ‍ Education: University of Minnesota ‍ Host: Michael Arias ‍ Website: The Dental Marketer Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/ ‍ Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society ‍ Please don't forget to share with us on Instagram when you are listening to the podcast AND if you are really wanting to show us love, then please leave a 5 star review on iTunes! [Click here to leave a review on iTunes ] ‍ p.s. Some links are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with these products/companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money unless you feel you need them or that they will help you with your goals.…
 
‍ What happens when patients don't pay their bill? In today's episode, I'm diving into a revealing conversation with Andy Grover Cleveland, the expert behind Collection Agency Ninja. Forget everything you've heard about the conventional timelines for involving collection agencies. Andy advocates for a proactive approach, suggesting engagement as early as 60 to 90 days post-EOB. This strategy not only streamlines financial operations but also nurtures patient relationships through clear communication. Andy reveals the secrets to choosing reputable collection agencies that enhance, rather than hinder, patient rapport. You'll learn why early intervention is a game-changer in maintaining your practice’s financial health without compromising on patient satisfaction. From identifying common pitfalls in the collections process to crafting effective patient communication strategies, this episode equips practice owners with pivotal insights for balancing financial well-being and patient care. What You'll Learn in This Episode: Why early intervention with collection agencies can benefit your practice. The importance of notifying patients about balances promptly. How to choose the right collection agency for positive patient interactions. Best practices for encouraging patient payments gracefully. Common mistakes dental practices make in collections. Strategies to balance financial health with patient relationships. Listen now to master the art of patient payment collections in your practice! ‍ ‍ You can reach out to Andy Grover Cleveland here: Website: collectionagencyninja.com ‍ If you want your questions answered on Monday Morning Episodes, ask me on these platforms: My Newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/ The Dental Marketer Society Facebook Group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/2031814726927041 ‍ Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors) ‍ Michael: Hey Andy, so talk to us, what's one piece of advice you can give us this Monday morning? Andy: I'm going to give something that probably goes against everything that everyone has ever heard in the dental business. I Believe you should use a collection agency at 60 to 90 days. After the EOB, which is probably very unpopular, but it's really crucial in the business of dentistry. Michael: Interesting. there specific communication strategies that we should implement at 30 or 45 days mark or to avoid escalating to the 60 days? Andy: Yeah, great question. Of course you want to notify. You don't want this to be blind. you do want to notify them that they owe the balance. And even before that, you want to try to collect it at time of service so that you never create the problem. However, you know, you have a real world and you have the perfect world. And sometimes those planets are just not aligned. So if someone does not pay that full balance, After that service is provided, you definitely want to notify that patient at least a couple of times that they owe, letting them know to please pay, but about 60 or 90 days, that's when the tide turns, Michael. That's when people decide, Hey, I'm either going to take care of this obligation or I'm not. So that's the ideal time to use it. Now, if you had interviewed me five years ago, Or 10 years ago, I wouldn't be as staunch on this opinion. It's kind of like merchant services. I don't know if you've seen this trend where now merchant services fees are being passed on to the patient. Have you been keeping up with that? Michael: Yeah, I've seen that. Andy: Okay. So if you asked me five years ago, I would say that's the worst idea. It's cheesy. Don't do it. It totally devalues your practice, but guess what? Every time I order tacos, every time I go to the doctor's office, every time I go to the car dealership, and now every time I go to the dentist, it's passed on. So we're in that kind of spot where it was unpopular, but now everybody's doing it. So why shouldn't the dentist? Michael: Okay. Interesting. So then three steps points or takeaways that you have to streamline this or make it easier, smoother. What would be number one then? Andy: one of the first takeaways is by implementing some type of collection agency strategy that's going to reach out. Number one, it doesn't make you the bad guy anymore. When you think about it, do you want to be known for chasing people for money or do you want to be known for treating patients with clinical excellence? So it's nice to have a scapegoat that you can blame for reaching out for the balance because it's strictly a financial driven practice. So I guess the number one is, it's much more convenient to blame your billing company. Then is for people to complain about someone in your office reaching out too frequently. I think we can both agree the optics aren't that great. Michael: Yeah. I think that's where I guess the patient relationship can get iffy, right? how do you do that then Andy? How do you balance maintaining patient relationships with the need to use a collection agency? Andy: there's no one right answer, but at the end of the day, if you hire someone to help you with the financial part of the practice, you can basically, just stay out of it. So if you're clinically driven, to help patients. That's your focus. Let someone else basically deal with the headache. Now, another part of how that works is it will motivate a certain part of your patient base to come back to be a patient of record. So a lot of times when dentists are doing these procedures, patients will say anything to get out of pain. So once you make that pain go away, it's sometimes could be a little too convenient to not pay. So by having a company reach out, you can actually help motivate that person to communicate with the practice and pay. And ultimately, You want that patient to be a valuable member of your clientele. So you have a divide where you can motivate people who generally value the service you're providing and keep them as a good patient of record. Also, if people choose not to pay the bill, they probably don't value the services that you rendered anyway. And arguably they're going to go somewhere else. So that kind of helps push them in another direction to maybe go down to the practice down the road and not pay them rather than come back for more service and not pay you. Michael: Does that make sense? yeah. So then I guess break it down for me. How does it motivate the patient versus sometimes like, stress them out or irritate him or anything like that? Andy: So it's pretty simple, Michael. If you, you got two phone calls today, once from someone, you owed money to. And it's just their office calling you, Hey, Michael, please pay. And then you get another phone call, Michael, from a collection agency. Again, same thing, you know, you owe the bill, but the collection agency is calling. Who are you going to pay first? Michael: one's a friend and the other one's the collection agency. Andy: They're both the same. you owe two parties. You have no preference one or the other, but one is that business calling you for money, the other one is a collection agency calling the question is, who are you more inclined to pay first? Michael: Oh, I don't know. That's a good question. What are the, data show? Andy: Generally speaking, people are going to pay the collection agency first. Middle class America wants to protect their credit. Michael: So Andy: generally speaking, people are going to pay the agency first. They're going to give it more importance because there's nothing negative that happens if they choose not to pay that original vendor, they'll get another statement or call next month and they'll address it Michael: Interesting. Okay. I like that. So then can you walk us through the process of selecting a reputable collection agency? Like What key factors Should we consider? Andy: Yeah. I mean, You really want to, interview multiple agencies. I would say the number one most important thing that you can do, assuming that people are being ethical, providing good service and being cost effective, which most are is having an agency that works directly with. Your practice management software. So we're in, a digital age and the collections business as a whole has done a very poor job on getting involved with technology. So I would definitely steer any dentist to work with the company that works with the technology. Well, You might ask, why is that important? There's numerous reasons. That's important. Number one. You're going to ensure safe and secure and rapid exchange of information. So accounts will be sent by their team by pointing and clicking, not manually updating a web form. The second thing it's going to do is it's going to tell who's paid. So in the collections business, Michael, and it's obvious you haven't been in collections from some of your responses, which is great. We don't want that for anybody. But sometimes the patient will actually pay as a result of that collection company contacting them. So with companies that work within the software, they should be notified when that happens. So let's paint a picture. Let's just say you're working with a collection company manually. Okay. You've sent patient ABC over for collection and the collection company has been calling them and they will call them incessantly to motivate that person. And let's just say that person paid the bill. Well Guess what? If your front office doesn't contact that agency by logging into the website, calling them, emailing, however that feedback loop is. That agency is going to continue to call that person for money. And it's going to further damage that relationship when they did the right thing and paid. So you want to have like an automatic feedback loop so that if someone does pay, it's automatically reported to the agency. So the agency doesn't cause any further harm. Those are probably the two top biggest reasons. There's many more. Michael: Gotcha. Okay. So collection agency is just essential to have in this process, So number two, what would that look like? Bullet point number two. Andy: Yeah, so that was identify and motivate your ideal patients coming back into the practice as opposed to people that are just dentist shopping So we want to motivate people to pay and also be a patient of record. So when you turn people over to collection Granted, they're not happy about it, but it will motivate people that value that relationship with you to communicate and pay the bill. It will also motivate some people to leave the practice because they had no intention of paying to begin with. Michael: Okay. Got you. Got you. Now, how do you measure any of the success of a collection agency? What benchmarks or KPIs do you track? As a practice owner. Andy: So any agency that has technology to support you is going to give you metrics on how you can judge their efficacy. I will share with you as weird as this is, it's not all about the money. I specialize in working with independently owned dental offices. So it's a little more holistic and how they judge you. I would say that most independently owned practices, it's not about the money. That's more of a group practice thought process. Yes, money's important, but not the most important thing. Independent dentists, they don't compete. With corporate offices on cost, right? They can't, the economies of scale are not there. The flip side is also true. corporates can't compete with independent dentists on culture, right? They have turnover, you're getting new associates every six months. It's just a constant churn. So they don't really compete with one another, but at the end of the day, I think most dentists, will gauge the efficacy of their collection company, not only on the money recovered. And of course it has to be cost effective, but even more importantly than that, does it generate negative reviews? Does it motivate people to accept treatment? Does it allow their staff to focus on other things that are more important? So there's an opportunity cost To chasing your own accounts receivable. So it's much more multifaceted than just dollars in dollars out. Most dentists will hire a collection company basically to make their office run better. Michael: Have you seen that a lot, Andy, where some are hesitant to, bring on or call or ask about, money more for the review. Like, Oh man, I'm going to get negative. Andy: Yeah, of course. But in my experience, if you continue to chase your own money, you're much more likely to generate a negative review for yourself. If you hire somebody else to do it for you, they can give a negative review on that collection agency. Michael: Yeah. Andy: And certainly they could tie it back to you, but you can always, claim indifference, right? Hey that's what our billing department's for you know, you need to deal with them and it absolves you from some of that responsibility. Michael: Interesting. Okay. So then what are the financial risks and rewards of sending accounts to collections at 60 days versus waiting longer or not using collections at all? Andy: Great question. So you have this kind of traditional paradigm with collection agencies working with dental offices and that one is a very traditional approach where the office will work the account for months and months and months and years and years and years. And then they turn it over to collections, and then that company's working on a percentage basis. That's the way it's always been, but that is just not an effective way of running a modern or contemporary dental office. Sometimes you cause more harm than good there because if you wait that long, the accounts aren't collectible anyway. Right. If you wait a year or two, they're basically uncollectible. So I'd recommend just writing the accounts off if you're going to do that. The advantage to turning it over at 60 to 90 days is that's a very fresh account. It's still top of mind for that consumer and from a statistical perspective, it's much more collectible than something if you wait a year or two down the road to go after. So it's more about being proactive with that balance. The other thing you also have to measure in here, Michael. is a lot of times these practices are already getting hit with the PPO fee and basically reducing their billable amount. So they're already losing 30 or 40%. And then if you let that patient balance go unpaid. You're losing the rest. So in this environment, it's just too competitive to run a business like that anymore. You have to be responsible with not only the insurance portion, whether you're in network, out of network fee for service, but you also have to address that patient portion. It's crucial because again, you're taking such a big write off a hit in the beginning. It's really not cost effective for you to take another hit later down the road. You're essentially giving it away. Michael: Interesting. So then what common mistakes do practices make that you've seen when sending accounts to collections and how can they avoid these pitfalls? Andy: one of the things that clouds all of our judgment is emotion. So a lot of times, People get upset, and listen, if someone owes me money, I get upset about my own business, right? It hurts, but people still have that mammalian part of their brain that wants revenge, or maybe the patient was really rude last time they came in. So you have this, Emotional part of being owed money that clouds our judgment. that's a big mistake I see some practices, they just want revenge. That's usually where bad things start to happen when you think along those lines. So as a practice owner matures and goes through practice ownership, there's developmental stages where right in the beginning, it really hurts. Then you can start to kind of objectively step back and look at things more objectively. But at the end of the day, recommend the practice owners look at this from a very non emotional, like a CPA would, right? If you're producing a million dollars in revenue annually, and you have less than 1 percent of the people that owe you money, not pay you, write it off. You're collecting 99%. No one gets a hundred percent. I don't care how cool it is to say in the Facebook groups, nobody gets a hundred percent. There are times where it makes sense to write things off rather than pursue it. Especially if those services are disputed or you're dealing with a really difficult person, a lot of times it's just not worth it and you just have to let it go. Michael: Interesting. I love that. Thank you so much, Andy. I appreciate your time. And if anyone has further questions, you can definitely find them on the Dental Marketer Society Facebook group, or where can they reach out to you directly? Andy: Probably the best way to do it is going to my website. collection, agency, ninja. com spelled just like it sounds. Michael: Awesome. Collection, agency, ninja. com. that's going to be in the show notes below. So if anyone's interested, want to pick Andy's brain a little bit more and so forth, definitely reach out to him there and Andy. Thank you so much for being with us on this Monday morning episode. Appreciate you having me. Thank you very much and keep up the great work. I'm honored to be here. Andy: Thank you.…
 
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