Podcast appearances and mentions of Delta Dental

In Who Moved My Cheese?, Dr. Spencer Johnson uses a simple allegory involving four characters (Sniff, Scurry, Hem, and Haw) who navigate a maze in search of “cheese” — a metaphor for what we want in life, such as a job, relationship, or health. The story centers on how each character reacts when the cheese is moved, reflecting the need to adapt to change.This narrative is eerily applicable to the current state of dental insurance — particularly how companies like Delta Dental operate. Dentists and patients alike are characters in this real-life maze, constantly trying to locate the “cheese” of quality oral health care. But the challenge is that insurers aren't just moving the cheese; they're changing the maze itself. The rules are always shifting: what procedures are covered, reimbursement rates, required pre-authorizations, and even what counts as “necessary” care.For providers committed to delivering the best, most advanced care, this inconsistency is not just frustrating — it's professionally and ethically compromising.Support the show

Tom Raffio discusses the Northeast Delta Dental Foundation's oral health initiatives with Jennifer Beyer.

Kiera is joined by Dr. Christy Moore of Moore Smiles to talk about how Dr. Moore has maintained her passion for dentistry over the decades, including providing solid leadership for your team, keeping an amazing culture, and branching out to services like Botox. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today I have such a special guest. I love this woman so much. She has been a client of ours. She's been a dear friend of mine. This woman just makes you want to be a better human. And she's an incredible dentist, has some really fun ideas. I want her to come on and just share like a super unique way she runs her practice and just let you guys know this woman who I've just been so lucky to know for so long. Welcome to the show, Christy Moore. How are you today, Christy?   Dr.Christy Moore (00:27) I'm doing great, Kara. Thank you so much for that introduction. How about yourself?   Kiera Dent (00:30) Yeah,   I'm doing really, really well. It's been a podcast full day, but it's been fun. You're my last podcast of the day. So always an exciting thing. But Christy, you're such an incredible human. I feel like the world needs more Christy's. So I feel like you should tell them a little bit about who you are, where you're practicing, a little bit about your journey to practice ownership. And then like I said, she's doing something so special that so many offices are trying to do that can't do it successfully and Christy, you've done it. So.   Dr.Christy Moore (00:45) Thank you.   Kiera Dent (00:57) Just kind of tell everybody, like, how did you get into dentistry? What's kind of your path to where we are today?   Dr.Christy Moore (01:03) Yeah, so I actually started in dentistry all the way back in 1995, which was quite a few years ago. I started out as a dental assistant and then went to high-teen school, work, yeah.   Kiera Dent (01:13) That's why I like you. I had no clue you   were a dentalist. This is why we connect, Christy, all right? It says so much about you now. I get it, I understand.   Dr.Christy Moore (01:18) Yeah.   So I did, I did hygiene for about 10 years and then I went to dental school. I got out of dental school in 2012 and knew that I wanted to own my own practice and came out of the gate purchasing a practice from a previous Dr. Moore, no relation. We still kind of get people wanting to know like if that's my dad or my uncle, there's no relation whatsoever. But it came out in 2012, bought my own practice and started, started right out of the gate being an owner at that point.   Kiera Dent (01:52) That's incredible. And do you regret it? Because so many students straight out of school are like, ah, like, I don't think I'm ready. most of them are like, no, just buy. Are you so glad you bought right from the get go? Or do wish you would have like done an associate ship if you could do it all over again?   Dr.Christy Moore (02:06) I'm glad that I bought straight out of the gate. I kind of had an idea of like how I wanted to run the practice. I think being in dentistry for a few years before I even went to dental school, I knew what I liked, I knew what I didn't like. So being able to just start out and then own my own practice and then kind of build it from there was kind of nice.   You know, I didn't go in and change things immediately that the previous owner had been there for 40 years And so like I kind of slowly started implementing things and changing things like he didn't even have Computers so, you know you come out there's they were still scheduling on the little piece of you know The book we had to like erase it and all that stuff So ⁓ it we didn't have internet in the building, you know, and I come from like having internet. Yes. Yes 2012   Kiera Dent (02:50) 2012?   Dr.Christy Moore (02:53) So it was an event to get things up to par. But I'm so glad that I did it that way because the team that I lost team members, of course, but then the team members that stuck it out with me, like I still have one to this day. And she's one of my ride or dies and just levered her dead.   Kiera Dent (03:04) course.   That's amazing. I think that that's something like, I can't imagine. I mean, this is a true definition of a sleeping practice, Christy. Like I tell everybody, like, you want to buy a sleeping practice, like paper charts. I've never had anybody with no internet. And when I first started assisting, so let's think it would have been in 2003. So that's when I first heard we had a paper book and they like erased it, but that was 2003. I mean, you were multi-years post that and still   Dr.Christy Moore (03:35) Mm-hmm.   yeah.   Kiera Dent (03:41) Yeah, and I remember like erasing, like Terry was her name up front, it was my first office. They had the like suction, we're gonna spit in it. I thought it was disgusting, but I'm like, sweet, now don't have to worry about the UV light. I have no way to suction as an assistant, so that was kind of handy for me, but also disgusting. But I remember like, erase it out. I'm like, this seems so archaic, but YOLO. So here we go. Wow, okay. So then you bought the practice in 2012, no nothing.   Dr.Christy Moore (04:00) Yes. Yes.   Kiera Dent (04:09) kind of walk me through your practice journey. Like where did you go? Like how many team members? What was kind of the, I mean, you basically had like nothing but up from where you started. So that was a positive, like internet, paper charts. So kind of walk me through, you started there, where are you now today? What does your practice kind of look like? And then I'm gonna ask another question. I just wanna like get to that. Then I have.   Dr.Christy Moore (04:21) Yes, yes.   Yeah, so when I started out, I bought the practice and we had two hygienists, an assistant and a lady up front. And when I came in and told them that we were gonna go, yeah.   Kiera Dent (04:40) I wanted to die. You're like, I'm   gonna take away your paper and pencil and she's like, what? ⁓   Dr.Christy Moore (04:45) yeah, she quit immediately. Like I told her we were   going to get the computers and she turned in her notice. So yeah, that was immediate. So that was like the first change I had to overcome. So that was kind of interesting. ⁓ But yeah, so every, it was always funny because every time we had a change, things just got better. Things got better each time, you know, and like even like one of the hygienists that I had.   Kiera Dent (04:51) believe it.   Yeah.   Dr.Christy Moore (05:09) I told them we were gonna get digital x-rays, know, because we still had the old school x-rays for a while. When we went and got the digital x-rays, she prayed that Jesus would come back because she didn't want to have to do the training. I was like, seriously? Like you prayed that so that we didn't have to do the training? But yeah, there's people, people don't really like change, I found out. So.   Kiera Dent (05:19) What?   you   No, not at all.   Wow. I used to pray, I remember telling a dentist, I had a really strict dentist on our x-rays and I remember saying like, I hope I can make it into heaven if I can't pass x-rays off with you. Like I had a lot of sass as an assistant and that was what I was praying for Jesus for, but not to not have to learn it. Cause honestly, man, cause in dental school, like assisting school, I learned on film, like, which is so...   Dr.Christy Moore (05:42) haha   Yeah.   Mm-hmm.   Kiera Dent (05:54) embarrassing because I don't feel like I'm really that old but like truly I did. I remember taking the x-rays on Dexter and then when I went to a practice and it had digital I'm like hallelujah you can actually see where your misplacement of your x-ray machine is. I'm like this is so much faster like rather than waiting for it to come through then you're like oh shoot we cone cut and I had no clue like I can't imagine why anybody would be stressed to learn that because I'm like it was so much easier than film. So much easier.   Dr.Christy Moore (06:01) yeah.   Yes.   Yeah.   Yes, yes,   absolutely. But that was the thing, like I think that you were a better, you know, x-ray taker before because you did not want to have to wait, you know, five minutes and then retake it and made another one. So you're like, okay, I want to make sure that I know how to do this and do this efficiently so that I don't have to take it again.   Kiera Dent (06:39) mean, maybe that is why, because I was the one who actually trained a lot of the Midwestern students on radiology. They were having the doctors teach it and I was like, listen, guys, I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but I know you're not good at this and I'm actually really good at this. So why don't I teach these doctors how to like crush their FMX rather than you like, I'm like, you cone cut left and right guys. Like again, nothing personal. I'm just really good at this. So, but yeah, maybe that's why, cause I did learn on film originally and then went to.   Dr.Christy Moore (06:59) Yes.   Kiera Dent (07:06) by digital, but okay. So you go through this, you have an assistant praying for Jesus to come such an afternoon. Just go, okay. Now, now where are you at, Christy? Where's, where's life on the practice for you?   Dr.Christy Moore (07:12) Yes, yes.   So now   we ⁓ practice in Sweetwater, Tennessee. So it's a small rural town. I have no idea how many people are there, but it's not a whole lot. But it's funny because now we have three doctors. I think we have four assistants. We have four hygienists, a treatment coordinator, an office manager, and an insurance coordinator, and two girls up front.   Kiera Dent (07:43) So, and she has internet and likes computers. So we're good on that. That's incredible. You went from two to four and are you working on a second location? I feel like I've heard from Tiffany, like there's a mix with your friend, but like, is there a second location, just a solo location? What's kind of your plan with   Dr.Christy Moore (07:47) Yes. Yes.   It's a solo location, but I do have a friend that I went to dental school with and she actually is working in an office that's really just kind of down the street from me. And so we've been, I've been helping her quite a bit with that because she didn't really want to like, you know, run the practice or anything like that. And so I was like, well, I'll help you all that I can. So that's what we're kind of doing there, but it's an endo practice and I do not want to do endo at all.   Kiera Dent (08:26) You're like,   you will say good friends, you do your thing, I'll do my thing. And yeah. Exactly. And I know Tip just loves you. She loves coming to you. I know something that you have highlighted for me, like just in my time knowing you is one, you're always so positive and you're so fun. You make me laugh. But I think about your Christmas parties, like your holiday parties with your team. It's like sleepover at Christy's house, which.   Dr.Christy Moore (08:30) Yeah, I'll refer all my endopations to you.   Kiera Dent (08:48) Most doctors would never do that. And I just love you like, yeah, they love it. They come over, we do party, we have a slumber party, which I just think says a lot about you. So I'm curious, Christy, like something I think you do really well. Don't worry, there is a teaser. I want you guys to hear something she does really special, but I think you also do incredible for culture. What would you say to like owner doctors going from where you were to where you are today, having the culture that you built? What are some of the tips that you think you've done specifically as the owner and with your team?   to have this amazing culture that you run, Christy. Like you just have a fun culture that's amazing.   Dr.Christy Moore (09:20) ⁓ I think that my biggest thing is that I just try to treat people and treat my team the way I would want to be treated. You know, I was a team member for so long that that's all that I really knew. And sometimes I think it kind of came back and bit me a little bit just because I did allow things to go on a little bit longer in the beginning. But ⁓ I think treating people the way that I wanted to be treated has just been my motto for everything. The same way it was like dental stuff. Like I do for people in their mouth what I would want done.   in my mouth, you know? So I think if you kind of live by those rules, then how can you go wrong?   Kiera Dent (09:57) No, I agree with you. And Christy, this is just like your Southern hospitality. I'm always like, I want to go to Sweetwater and just have you be my dentist and work for you. Like just an amazing place that you do. I think kudos to you for doing that. I have a question. If you were to go back to 2012, you're buying this practice, what would be like the one, two or three, I'll allow it to three, things that you would tell yourself to get into place or things to know? Because I think so many owners are maybe where you were in 2012. Again, I have Wi-Fi.   probably have at least a computer in the practice. But you know, you never know. I'm always shocked at what I, I walked into this office, he's elite, you know him, he's in our group. And I walked into his practice, I've been coaching for a while, like this man is doing really, really well in his practice. And I walked in and I was like, you have paper charts? Like you didn't bother to tell me for a year that this was maybe an issue? And he was like, no, it's fine. And I'm like, it is not fine. Like, what are you doing?   Dr.Christy Moore (10:45) you   It is not fine.   Kiera Dent (10:51) like let's get you updated real quick. Kudos to him. I don't think usually doctors are that open to changing and he did so like mad kudos to him. I was like, Christy, I'll tell you off podcast air who this was and you will be shocked to like, wait, what? He's so like up to date on things. And I was like, okay, here we are. But if you could tell yourself back in 2012, what are like one, two or three things that you feel would just be good tips of advice for someone buying a practice or taking over a team or the growth you've had in the last 13 years?   to get to the level that you are, because you're still happy, you still love dentistry, you still enjoy it, like there's still sparkle in your eye, don't, like every time you come to our calls, I don't feel like Christy's like dead on the ground, like she hates her life. Like I know you have moments of that, but I still think you're very happy. So what would be some things you would tell yourself going back into that back in 2012?   Dr.Christy Moore (11:39) I think one of the biggest things, this is like no plug for the DLAA team or anything like that, but ⁓ I did not get a coach until about three years out of practice. ⁓ So I had practiced three years, I really wasn't growing, I really wasn't like going backwards, but I really wasn't growing or anything like that. And so at that point, that's when I actually brought on a coach. And I didn't bring on a coach because I was seeking one out. I had one just kind of show up at the office. And then it's like, he's...   He's here, you know, like I can't like say, she's busy because, you know, he's sitting out in the reception room, like waiting for me. And so like, but it was one of the best things that I did. It was hard just because, you know, they offer advice that works for, you know, like a generalized, you know, group of dentists. ⁓ And so being able to take some of that advice, but also being able to put my own spin on it.   ⁓ helped me out and I probably probably listening to the coaches a little bit more than what I did because they did allow grace for me to like drag my feet a little bit, you know, because there was things that had to be done that I didn't really want to do. ⁓ I'm you know, I've been on the disc profile for every, you know, so I'm definitely an IS. So I don't like to rock the boat and I like to have a good time. So like having tough conversations is one of the things that I do not like to do.   Kiera Dent (12:56) Yes you are.   Dr.Christy Moore (13:05) ⁓ So the other thing that I think that I would probably do is like make sure that I'm reading more books, learning how to be a leader and how to have those conversations, how to have it in a way that it's not like, I'm being the bad guy or I'm having to, you know, like be mean to somebody, but actually being able just to talk to them and just a conversation. And I've heard you say this a million times, it's a conversation, not a confrontation. And just knowing that because being clear is kind and I...   not always as clear as what I needed to be. I just wanted everybody to have fun and like me and so I let things go that probably shouldn't have been able to continue. So that's probably the two biggest things is just working on myself as a leader and you know bringing somebody in to help me a little bit earlier. I'm glad that I did bring somebody in at three years ⁓ just because like I knew I didn't know what I didn't know.   And I was like, well, I I think I need to be growing a little bit more than what I am, you being right out of dental school. So bringing somebody in, was definitely something I'm glad I did. I just wish I would have done it a little bit sooner.   Kiera Dent (14:17) Sure. And Christy, I'll take all the plugs. Like, of course, the Dental A Team, like, yeah, having a coach is always a good thing. We love you as a client. And Tip, I know I really just watched you grow. And I do think that having someone teach you what you don't know. And mean, Christy, you came in with a lot of experience. So even like dentists who weren't assistants, weren't hygienists, I mean, you already came with a pretty good dental pedigree chart to you ⁓ to have that. agree. And even for me, I'm like, I coach businesses and yet having a coach, having someone guide me that's been there, done that, done that successfully, I think.   Dr.Christy Moore (14:20) Ha   Kiera Dent (14:47) is so helpful and I agree the leadership piece it's like well you did four years of dental school to learn how to get that prep get that crown it's like well let's also do at least that amount of time to be leaders and leadership is not like something you you end up at you get your degree it's a forever journey so it's like all right here we are let's settle in like this is what we elected to do but Christy I do and Tiff will say that she's watched you grow a lot which is really fun for us to see you grow and evolve too ⁓ but   Dr.Christy Moore (15:01) No. Yeah.   Kiera Dent (15:15) I've teased this out a couple of times. Christy has the Botox practice. Like they, she actually has done it. She's cracked the code. So many offices are like, no, I only have Botox in here to do my own face. So Christy, I want to talk about this because I've been jonesing to talk about this. I secretly want to know too, but how on earth have you cracked the code to get Botox to be a profitable portion, a big piece of your practice? ⁓ Because I think like everybody wants to do this and no one knows how to do it. Like literally, I think you are my first office to ever.   actually have it be successful. So Christy, take us away on Botox. I know people, I'm I've been waiting to drop this because I'm like, it's going to be so great. No one knows how to do this other than Christy Moore. So let's let it rip.   Dr.Christy Moore (15:57) Well, the thing too is like anybody can do it. Like if I can do it in Sweetwater, Tennessee, like anybody can do this anywhere. Actually, I started with the first course that I ever took was probably, I think it was like 2016 or something like that. And the only reason I took the course was because I had the girls in the office wanted me to do it and a couple of patients. Yeah. And so I went and took the course and while I was at the course, I ended up signing up for the TMD course like the next day. Like that wasn't even on the plan.   Kiera Dent (16:15) Yep. ⁓   Dr.Christy Moore (16:26) but I went ahead and signed up for that. And that was like a true passion for me just because I was like, wow, like this does more than just, you know, helps with wrinkles. This can actually help patients. This is problems that they're having when they come in the office. And so like I did that part and then I come back to work and it's like, okay, now what? You know, so like one of the things that I started doing was I was like, okay, girls, you got to get in the chair. We're going to do some, we're going to do some Botox on you, you know? And so that was kind of how it started. We, did the team members.   Kiera Dent (16:51) Yeah.   Dr.Christy Moore (16:54) I had a few steady patients that would come in, but it really didn't go quick. It was a slow going thing at first. ⁓ And then I started talking to patients about TMD issues, clenching and grinding, they're coming in with headaches. Men typically don't have pain associated with it, but a lot of women do. And so I would say, well, you know what? What's really helped me is that I can go in here and treat your masseters.   and with some Botox there and then that can help you quit clenching and it helps with headaches. I'm going over that and then their next thing out of their mouth is, well, if you can do my massagers, can you help my face too? And I'm like, oh, well, actually, yes, we can. We can help you out there. And then it just kind of get a little bit more, a few more patients, word of mouth. And it really wasn't until probably about two or three years ago.   you know, we just doing more and more people. And then I brought in a marketing person who's actually my daughter and she's my treatment coordinator as well. And she's just really put it out there on social media. And she got these PowerPoints together and this is what we play. Like it's in the reception room, it's in all the treatment rooms. And it's just like what can be done, what all we offer. And so from 2016 to now,   Like we've moved from just doing like Botox, but we kind of do like all the stuff. You know, we do filler, we do threads, we do smooth threads, we do lifting threads, we do micro-needling. And then we recently just got a laser as well. So, you know, that's one of the things that just kind of getting the word out and letting people know is the biggest hurdle. And that was probably the biggest thing that helped us for sure about getting the word out. Now we have people...   that call in and like we just recently had a guy call in and he wanted to a coupon. I want to know if we had coupons for the wife because he wanted to give her a gift certificate for a Botox. He found us online. So just getting the word out there is probably the hardest thing, but it's the best thing to do. treating your team members because they're walking advertisements. And who better to practice on than your team members because   Kiera Dent (18:55) Thank   Dr.Christy Moore (19:11) You know, if you mess up, which you can, you know, they're more forgiving and then you get, you know, the next time around you get another little chance to do it a little bit better. And then you're like, okay, now you're learning. So not only are you getting advertisement out there, but you're learning as you go too. And I've done like all kinds of training. And I don't just go with one person. Like I've done like several different.   I've done faces, I've done metastatics, I've done the AAFE, I did a couple of different individual people because I feel like if you can learn from everybody and take a little bit from everybody and then you bring it in and make it your own and I think that's kind what we've done at our little office.   Kiera Dent (19:56) I love it, Christy. Okay, let's talk about it. A few things I've noticed is you guys have a big Botox sign in your practice. I think it's hot pink. Is this really true? I'm pretty sure. I thought about you, right? Okay, so.   Dr.Christy Moore (20:05) Mm-hmm Yeah, we have a slideshow   and it's got it's got all the talks it's got everything on there. Yeah The neon sign Yeah   Kiera Dent (20:13) Yeah, so one thing is, it's neon. That's what I'm saying.   It's like a tube neon, Botox across her wall sign that I'm like, okay, number one, yes. This is what I'm talking about. When you wanna market something and people are like, I can't get Botox. I'm like, well, nobody even knows that you even do it. So, Christy, you're like loud and bold about it. It's a hot pink sign that I remember. I saw people under it. I've seen it on your social. But one of the things, like how else?   Dr.Christy Moore (20:23) Says less talks about it. Yeah.   yeah.   Kiera Dent (20:42) I also love that you talked about you treatment plan it in. Like you as a dentist are treatment planning this Botox and looking at their masseter muscles, just like anything else. I feel like you've done a really good job of pulling that into just even do it clinically, not just aesthetically, which I think that's also really great. But what would you say if I'm a new dentist? And I also love these to have taken it from so many people because I did have someone give me Botox and I full blown got a halo.   Like it was so thick, it was so heavy. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I've never, like, I need my eyebrows off my eyes. Like get that up. It feels terrible. So I'm glad to hear that you're like just constantly going, but what would you say? Okay, new dentist, I just took the course. I'm super excited. I think one, it bold. Two, do the masseters. Cause that's a very easy way to start treatment planning and talking about it for word of mouth. But what else would you say to do? Like, I mean, you got the whole PowerPoint. So.   What would you say would be avenue one, two or three to really grow this to get it as a big portion of my practice?   Dr.Christy Moore (21:39) Working on friends and family, working on your team, that's the number one thing. And then just getting it out there on social media. Having your team, even if you're doing injections on them, videoing that, getting out there and doing stuff. like Laken, she makes me do things that is uncomfortable for me. And so she's like, oh, you'll be fine. You're gonna get out here and you're gonna do it. She did like a...   a Facebook live where I'm doing filler and she asked me a question and I don't answer her and she's like, what? was like, well, maybe I didn't know the answer. So if I don't know the answer, I'm just not gonna answer you. And she's like, well, it's okay. I'm just doing filler words here. We're just trying to make the conversation go. And I'm like, okay. But getting out there and just letting people know, that is the biggest thing. It's new to our practice. It's, let's.   do specials, like we've done Botox parties. ⁓ We did like a Sips and Scans and Botox. We've done kind of all types of little things where we've actually give people discounts just to get them in. We've actually gone out and gave ⁓ like little coupons out to like the different salons in the area, just trying to get the word out there any way that we can to let people know, hey, we're doing this. Who's gonna know your face better than anybody than a dentist? I mean, we have like a whole semester on just   head and neck anatomy. And so like that's, it's just the thing that they're like, I didn't know a dentist could do that. And you know, and it's like, well, yeah, like we're probably really good at doing it. You know, just because we do know the muscles, we do know everything as far as like this works this way, this works that way, you know, making sure that you're treating the patient, not just the face, like making sure that we're, cause I do have people come in and they're like, well I want some Botox up here.   Kiera Dent (23:15) Thank   Dr.Christy Moore (23:33) And it may be like older ladies and like they've already got the hooded eyelids. And I'm like, honey, I can't do a lot of Botox up there. Like I can take away your wrinkles, but if I do that, like you're not gonna be able to hold your eyelids up. So it's gonna make it harder for you to see. When they're like, oh, well, I don't want that. So just kind of knowing your anatomy, knowing what muscles do what, and then not being afraid to go in and just try it. Just get in there and do it. It's not.   Even if you think you've messed somebody up, I mean, it's what, three months? So it's not anything that you can't recover from. And then patients are very forgiving. They're very understanding. ⁓ In my time of doing it, I've had two people that I've actually give a little crooked smile to. And both of them are like, it's okay. Don't worry about it. And I feel horrible. And they're like, no, it's okay. It'll be better. It's not really that noticeable. And I'm like,   Kiera Dent (24:06) Exactly.   Dr.Christy Moore (24:31) I notice it, you know? So I'm just doing it because people, want it. They don't want to go anywhere else. They want you to be able to do it. And if you can do it, then why not? You know? So I think that just not being afraid just to try it and do it and just, even if you're scared, like do it scared. Like I heard, I seen that the other day and it was like, you I'm nervous every time I get up and speak in front of somebody and they're like, well, how do you do it? He said, I just get up and do it scared. I'm like, that's...   Kiera Dent (24:42) Mm-hmm.   Dr.Christy Moore (25:00) That's so interesting because a lot of people, they're like, well, I'm scared. I'm not going to do it. And so if you don't do it, you're never going to not get scared or not get you. You got to get comfortable. You got to be comfortable being uncomfortable. And that's the only way to do it is just to get in there and do it.   Kiera Dent (25:17) I agree. Christy, I love that. And I love that you just talked about, like, I think something that you did differently is you decided this would be a portion of your practice. It's not just for the ladies in the practice. You're like, no, we're going to have this as a portion. We're going to make this like it's a full procedure in our office. I'm not just doing it for like our team. And I think that that's something where you went in with that attitude. I think there's a huge passion that you have on it, but I agree. think there are girls like, Kiera, who does your Botox? I'm like, the dentist. And they're like, what?   Dr.Christy Moore (25:45) Mm-hmm.   Kiera Dent (25:46) And I'm like, yeah.   Dr.Christy Moore (25:46) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (25:47) And I also love dentists because I went to a dentist versus an esthetician versus an MD. I've gone through three different people. The esthetician gave me the most amount of Botox. That's the one where I got the hood. Like, believe it or not, she's the one who gave it to me. And like, the amount of Botox she put in me was incredible. Then I went to an MD who was doing it. And he also like it was a lot like my face was frozen solid, frozen, frozen. And I'm like, all right, so we're like,   he did bro-tox, which that's a good phrase. I think that if you wanted to target the men, he called it bro-tox for the men, which I that was super clever. But my husband even like, he could not move his face at all. So it was a little, in my opinion, excessive. But dentists I feel are more conservative on the botox level. You don't tend to go quite as much as the estheticians or the MDs, which I appreciate. ⁓ Like you said, you know the muscles, you know the anatomy super well. And I think like, go for it, have it as a portion.   Dr.Christy Moore (26:21) Mm-hmm.   Kiera Dent (26:43) So with your numbers, because Christy, I know you know your numbers, like what percentage of your practice does Botox bring in? Do you know that? I could be putting you on the spot. So maybe I'm like, you're taught her and I'm asking you questions you don't.   Dr.Christy Moore (26:53) Yeah,   I'm not really 100 % sure to be honest with you. I would say it's at least probably at least 10%. You know, I would like for it to be more. And that's one of my goals is to get that side of the business to be, you know, grow and be more because like for me, like as a dentist, we hear all the time, you know, I hate the dentist. Oh, no offense, but I hate the dentist. Are you going to stick that needle in my mouth? Are you going to stick that in my guns? You know, I've never had one person ever say,   Kiera Dent (27:01) I think so too.   Dr.Christy Moore (27:23) I hate my injector. You know, are you going to stick that needle in my face? Like, no, they love you. They want the, and they, they, they will pay money for it. You don't have to worry about insurance, you know, when you're doing that part. So I would definitely like for that to be more like, if I can have my whole day just doing like the aesthetic stuff, like that would be my ideal day, you know, because that's, it's, it's almost like, it's like a masterpiece. You know, you've got, you've got this canvas and you're not changing people. You're just enhancing what they already have.   Kiera Dent (27:43) was amazing.   Dr.Christy Moore (27:53) You know, like I don't want to go in, my goal is that when somebody leaves the practice that they don't actually look like they've had Botox or they don't look like they've had filler. I want them to look fresh, not frozen, like you said. And so like, you know, that goes back to like knowing the muscles, watching the patient, treating the actual patient instead of like the cookie cutter, you know, oh, well, to treat the glabella, you know, you need, you know, 20 to 24 units, you know, to treat the frontalis, you need 20 to 24 units, you know.   It's like, okay, well, they pull really hard here, but they don't really pull hard here. So let's treat it this way, you know? And so, like, so, cause each one of them are like FDA approved for a certain amount, you know? And that, and that's like the standard, but everybody's different. And so that's my, you know, I just want to make sure that I treat the patients, treat the patient the way the patient needs to be treated.   Kiera Dent (28:30) Yeah.   Amen. And I love that about Christy and I think like, okay, I just did some math. So let's say you have a million dollar practice 10 % that's 100 grand pulling in, which I know Christy, your practice is not the million dollar practice. You guys can do the math, you can figure it out. But like if it's 10 % think about that, that's an extra hundred thousand. The overhead on it's pretty minimal. It's a great piece. Like you said, you're able to do these extra pieces. And you're right, there's no insurance. People pay top dollar to stay looking young. It's incredible. Like   Dr.Christy Moore (29:11) the   Kiera Dent (29:12) ⁓ I also was thinking of there's people all around here and they're called like the injection queen or they're like, so it's like really on their social media. It's not just their dentistry piece, but it's this whole portion of aesthetics that people then are coming for it because they want to look good. I saw an office at dental practice and they literally have a Botox membership plan. And I was like, that is freaking clever. Yeah, tell us about it. Okay, tell more about this. How does it work and do people really sign up for it? Cause I think it's so smart.   Dr.Christy Moore (29:32) We have that. Yeah.   Absolutely,   absolutely they sign up for it. And so I, of course, I don't try to reinvent the wheel. I got it from somebody else, but it's basically a membership plan. They pay for 20 units for the year. So it's 20 units for four times throughout the year. If they don't use it, they lose it. But once they pay for that, so their initial upfront payment is probably a little bit more, but it ends up saving them about $300 throughout the year.   Kiera Dent (29:58) Mm-hmm.   Dr.Christy Moore (30:07) but it actually like they pre-play for 20 units each time. so, you know, so it's just, and then they get a discount on the actual dollar amount that they actually get. So, you know, like if you have somebody that typically gets 50 units, then they only have to pay for 30 units each time that they come in.   So it actually, and I tell them, they're like, ⁓ that's a whole lot better, because then my husband don't ask questions on, it's less, that's less about. And I'm like, yeah, absolutely. And I've had people actually even put money in, pay throughout that just so that they have it. And that's when I was like, well, why don't we do a membership plan? That makes it a whole lot easier. And also I wanted to reward my patients that have been loyal, that have been coming in. Times are changing, and so prices go up.   Kiera Dent (30:46) yet.   Dr.Christy Moore (30:56) And so like I didn't really want to have to like increase my price just because, know, you know, I've been doing it for a while. I've really not changed my price and I didn't want to have to change my price. So my people that have been coming in and loyal to me, I wanted to be able to give them, give back to them and give, you know, give them the opportunity to keep it at the price that I was doing it for. And so that's kind that was one of the other, you know, benefits for me is so that I could actually give back to those people that trusted me with their face.   when I was still learning and stuff. ⁓ And so it's worked out really well. I don't know how many people we have on it now, but we get people like just about every day when they come in, we'll have at least like one or two a week that'll sign up on the membership plan.   Kiera Dent (31:41) which is so smart because Botox is like better than profies. Like they have to come in every three months rather than every six months. ⁓ It is something where I'm not gonna lie. Like my husband, it was random. He did tell me, I got it done. And a couple of days later, he didn't know. Cause I get it on the road, Christy. I'm one of those, I mean, I work with a lot of dentists. So when I'm traveling around, I get my face frozen and I came home and my husband's like, gosh, Kiera, you look a lot better. Like what, did you change your hair? And I was like,   Dr.Christy Moore (31:45) Mm-hmm.   Kiera Dent (32:09) No, my face just looks younger and you can definitely tell and I appreciate that. And when you get that reinforcement, you're like, yes, I'm going to keep up with this and I want to. And it's the only like proactive preventative way right now. Like there's biohacking on all the levels, but just having that as a piece for it. And so I think it's just an awesome, awesome thing to do. I love the membership plan. I love that you're growing it. Like this is where I saying, like you have cracked the code on how to do it. And I was like, I've got to dig into this. And I want people to hear because   Dr.Christy Moore (32:16) Yes.   Kiera Dent (32:37) I think Christy, it also keeps your excitement for dentistry alive. I think you get passionate because it's a new passion project. It's fun for you. It's something different. I love that you said like, I want you looking fresh, not frozen. It made me giggle. like, you want me to still look alive rather than dead in my coffin? Like, God, I agree. That's how I want to feel too. So thank you. ⁓ But any other thoughts you have of practices wanting to put in Botox or anything else about your practice? Because this is like   Dr.Christy Moore (32:44) Mm-hmm.   Yes.   Kiera Dent (33:02) the nuts and bolts of what I want to talk about tonight. So any last thoughts you have around it, because I truly appreciate you just coming on and sharing what you're doing in your practice.   Dr.Christy Moore (33:11) I think the biggest thing is just, you you just have to do it. You know, like I said before, if you're scared to do it, just do it scared. You know, after so many times, it's not as scary anymore. Like we actually have ⁓ in our schedule, like we have blocks for like our tox patients for them to come in. And so, you know, those may get filled, they may not get filled. But when they get filled, like it's always like, it's usually an extra anywhere between 500 to $1,000.   for just a little extra that doesn't really take me that long. Like I come in and I look and I'm like, okay, this is what we're gonna do. The girls draw it up, they have it already. I come back in, the face is clean, the photos are taken. We did injections and then the patient's out the door. And so it's basically like a hygiene check for me. So I'm in and out quick. But the patients have been in there with a team member, so they feel like they're getting heard.   Kiera Dent (34:00) Mm-hmm.   Dr.Christy Moore (34:09) They know all of their concerns are being addressed. so, you know, just having a team there that supports you and believes in you. And like once they believe in you, then, you know, then that's how the patients start believing in you.   Kiera Dent (34:22) Awesome, Christy. I love that so much. I'm like, gosh, doctors, when you're complaining to us about your Delta Dental ⁓ exam pricing, well, maybe throw a little bit of those botox ones. Like you said, I'm like, $500 exam versus my $30 exam feels a little bit more fun, a little more fun for you. But Christy, kudos to it. And all of you listening, I hope you just took notes. You realize like you can add these as portions of your practice and not just like a small sliver, but a true like 10 % of your practice bringing that in.   having it be a big portion of it. And like you said, giving back to people. I prefer a dentist to do my Botox over an esthetician or an MD. And that's me personally, who's gone to several different people, people who are the best, people who are over that. And I mean, Botox are paying $10 to $12 a unit with Botox or Disport. That's a pretty good gig all the way around. And I just think it's a fun thing. So Christy, thanks for being in our life. These are the things, the way I found out was in our doctor mastermind. We have our doctor only, and I was like.   Christy's doing Botox, I'm gonna put it on the podcast and talk about this more. So this is fun stuff to also have you as a client, to have you in our life, to have you in our world. You just bring a wealth of goodness, Christy. So thanks for being on the podcast. I know it's the end of your day, so thanks for coming. Yeah, of course, super happy to have you. Of course. And for all of you listening, go figure out how to put Botox in your schedule. Go figure out how to do this. Do it scared, whatever it is for you, do it scared. If we can help in any way, reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening. We'll catch you next time.   Dr.Christy Moore (35:28) Well, thank you.   Thank you.   Kiera Dent (35:47) The Dental A Team podcast.  

Sports dominated Monday's show as we talked about Sunday's “Over the River and Through the Woods” 5K road race dedicated to the memory of the late Joe Kasper who died unexpectedly almost a year ago. For 15 years Joe served as the announcer and disc jockey for all of the Delta Dental-sponsored races in the region. His name will forever be attached to this event. John Leahy joined us to discuss the exciting Stanley Cup Final between Florida and Edmonton plus discuss baseball no-hitters and cycles. The New Hampshire Fisher Cats celebrated their first no hitter is 13 years on Saturday night as Rafael Sanchez pitched the Masterpiece at Delta Dental stadium against the Altoona Curve.

In this episode, Sarah Chavarria, CEO of Delta Dental of California and Affiliates, discusses the growing link between oral and overall health, the future of digital-forward care, and strategies to expand access to underserved populations. She also shares what excites her most about the evolving dental landscape and the leadership needed to drive meaningful change.

In this episode, Sarah Chavarria, CEO of Delta Dental of California and Affiliates, discusses the growing link between oral and overall health, the future of digital-forward care, and strategies to expand access to underserved populations. She also shares what excites her most about the evolving dental landscape and the leadership needed to drive meaningful change.

In this episode of the STEMulating Conversations, we welcome Missy Acosta, Senior Vice President of Brand Experience at Delta Dental of Tennessee.  Missy is a a purpose-driven leader with a career rooted in storytelling, strategy, and service across several industries/  She shares how her belief in the power of a healthy smile goes far beyond oral health—it's a tool for building confidence, From leading brand initiatives at Delta Dental to garnering Legislative support to address oral health in the State, to serving on nonprofit board , Missy discusses how she blends creativity with compassion, and why true leadership is about creating impact—and doing it with a smile. From early career influences to the leaders who challenged and uplifted her, Missy also acknowledges how mentorship has fueled her growth and deepened her commitment to leading with purpose.   

In this week's episode of Go Gaddis Real Estate Radio, we're bringing a mix of market insight, neighborhood charm, and a little whimsy to your Saturday morning! Join Cleve Gaddis, your Metro Atlanta real estate expert, as we take a closer look at local trends and national conversations shaping the housing market.

Steve Layman visits with Delta Dental of Tennessee Senior Vice President, Brand Experience Missy Acosta to celebrate the longstanding partnership between Belmont Athletics and Delta Dental of Tennessee. Layman and Acosta discuss the importance of wearing mouthguards during sport competition as Delta Dental is a leading advocate for Youth Sports Safety Month during April. Acosta praised Belmont coaches, such as Casey Alexander and Bart Brooks, as being generous partners to amplify the Delta Dental message, and the synergy between the Belmont University and Delta Dental missions. Layman and Acosta also discussed Delta Dental's far-reaching presence on the Belmont campus, including the lobby of the Crockett Center for Athletic Excellence, and basketball gameday in the Curb Event Center. For instance, Delta Dental mascot Marshall Molar is friends with Belmont mascot, Bruiser, and that has led to wonderful memories for children and families. The pair also highlight new initiatives for Delta Dental of Tennessee in the months to come.

In this episode of the Wise Decision Maker Show, Dr. Gleb Tsipursky speaks to Greg Donaca, CEO of Delta Dental of Idaho, about how to get stakeholder support for Gen AI adoption.You can learn about Delta Dental of Idaho at https://www.deltadentalid.com/

In this episode of Lessons in Leadership, Steve Adubato and Mary Gamba talk with Patrice Ventura, VP of Talent Development, Human Resources, Hackensack Meridian Health, about the role talent development and organizational effectiveness play in organizations. Then, Steve is joined by Karim Bennis, COO, Delta Dental of New Jersey and Connecticut, to talk about being … Continue reading Lessons in Leadership: Patrice Ventura and Karim Bennis

Dr. Andrew Lusk is a pediatric dentist from West Virginia. He started a practice almost two years ago, and he comes on the show to talk about life as a West Virginia practice owner. In our discussion, we talk about:- Should pediatric dentists work on Fridays?- Why it's tough to fight Delta Dental, and why using umbrella insurance plans worked for him- Using minimally invasive treatment options to help his patients- Why it's tough being a business owner with cash flow and income inconsistencies

The "Hygienist Inspired" chairside recruitment program launched this week – a partnership between ADHA and the Foundations of Delta Dental. Three incredible dedicated Advisory Committee members share their dental hygiene journeys with host, Matt Crespin, and explain how this initiative builds diversity in dental hygiene and addresses workforce shortages while improving access to care in underserved communities. Learn about becoming a Hygienist Inspired Ally in this movement and how dental hygienists can inspire future professionals through direct chairside conversations and person connections. Matt shares the latest ADHA news from a busy start to 2025. Guests: Marlyce James, MEd, RDH, CDA, FADHA; Richard Robinson, BS, RDH; Ryan D. Rutar, RDH, MAM, FADHA, MAADH (Hygienist Inspired Advisory Committee) Host: Matt Crespin, MPH, RDH, FADHA   www.adha.org/HygienistInspired www.adha.org/Newsroom  

Aaron Burnett, founder and CEO of Wheelhouse Digital Marketing Group, delves into the unique marketing challenges faced by the MedTech industry. He discusses the critical importance of continuous messaging and creative iteration in data-constrained environments, highlighting how accurate first-party and zero-party data strategies can drive performance in highly regulated markets like healthcare. He emphasizes the need for proprietary data solutions to stay compliant and effective amidst evolving privacy regulations. Reflecting on his personal and professional journey, Aaron shares practical insights on optimizing marketing strategies for better business outcomes while maintaining a culture of generosity and helpfulness. Guest links: www.wheelhousedmg.com | www.linkedin.com/in/aaronburnett | Aaron@wheelhousedmg.com | https://youtube.com/@wheelhousedmg Charity supported: https://www.feedingamerica.org/  Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host: Lindsey Dinneen Editing: Marketing Wise Producer: Velentium   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode 050 - Aaron Burnett [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world. [00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them. [00:00:15] Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives. [00:00:28] Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives. [00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives. [00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference. Hello and welcome back to another episode of The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host, Lindsey, and today I'm delighted to introduce to you my guest, Aaron Burnett. Aaron is CEO and founder of Wheelhouse Digital Marketing Group, a sought after digital marketing agency based in Seattle, Washington, that helps brands thrive by solving their toughest digital challenges. Every point of Aaron's career has been marked by his ability to leverage technology and his own creativity to drive growth. He has propelled Wheelhouse into working with some of the world's most innovative healthcare and medical device brands for more than a decade, consistently delivering exceptional business value through a combination of deep healthcare marketing expertise, purpose built technology, and creative capabilities. Most notably, Aaron and his team have developed technology and services that guide digital strategy for clients such as Providence, Fred Hutch, Delta Dental, and NASA. Well, welcome, Aaron. Thank you so much for being here today. I'm really excited to talk with you. [00:01:47] Aaron Burnett: Yeah, I'm excited to talk with you as well. Thanks for having me. [00:01:50] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course. Well, if you wouldn't mind starting off by sharing a little bit about yourself, your background, and what led you to MedTech. [00:01:59] Aaron Burnett: So I'm CEO of an agency called Wheelhouse Digital Marketing Group. It's a 14 year old agency. We provide performance marketing for privacy first industries. We have a particular concentration in medtech and healthcare, and have had that concentration for the last dozen or so years. We work with very large health systems like Providence, we work with some of the largest health insurance systems in the U. S. as well as large to mid size medical device manufacturers, and interestingly, we've also worked with NASA for the last six years, which is in neither of those markets but is interesting and complex and is NASA, and we get to do things on a scale that you don't get to do anywhere else. We're probably a little bit different from most other agencies, first in that everything that we do is attuned to privacy first industries. So we are, because of our long standing relationship with healthcare in particular, accustomed to working in environments that are highly regulated. So being attuned with HIPAA compliance and implications on third party tracking, working with much less data than you would work with in a typical e commerce or B2B lead generation sort of a situation. And so we have folks who are deeply expert at working in those markets, know them well, have an orientation toward performance marketing, which is what all of our clients want. They are diverse, but they're unified in that they want us to achieve an outcome with business value. It's important. It's lead generation. It's a transaction. It's something that has tangible value that can satisfy a chief financial officer. So deep expertise. We also have developed our own proprietary technologies and methodologies that help us to deliver performance marketing in these markets. So you know, in a highly regulated industry, you can't just use platform data for audience targeting. You don't get a lot of that data. You can't use platform data for optimization. You have to be very careful about what you collect and what you share and how you evaluate and commingle and analyze that data. So we've created our own HIPAA compliant data warehouse and a BI practice on top of that allows us to bring in not only platform and analytics data, but also CRM information so we can integrate it in an API level with CRM systems and first party data. So we get a lot of insight. We can see the entire user journey, customer journey, prospect journey in the context of our analysis in this platform and not share data with anyone else. So we never fall afoul of any regulations. And then our analysts can identify insights and then activate those insights in advertising platforms in sort of an air gap situation. We never have to share data. We also provide creative, but it's creative in the service of conversion rate optimization. So it's performance creative. We're not going to develop a new advertising campaign or a new branding strategy, but we are highly adept at figuring out how to get creative to perform, which is increasingly foundational to driving exceptional marketing outcomes. Now, because so much advertising is algorithmically driven and because in the absence of audience targeting, it turns out that creative variation and a really broad set of creative variation is kind of the new way to target an audience. So if you have 15 variations on a particular creative and they're attuned to different audiences and different messages, you can in some contexts rely on the platform algorithms to find your audience for you through that creative. So we're attuned to delivering that way. In terms of my own background, I started as a marketing exec. So I was a VP of Sales and Marketing with AT& T Wireless, worked for some other telecom and software companies, and started consulting and helping other folks with marketing, and found that I was good at and loved digital marketing, starting with SEO and then moving into the other disciplines. And the thing that I loved about that and that I continue to love about it is that it combines creativity, the art of marketing, with a definitive outcome which you don't get in traditional marketing. So it's there in the data, whether you did it or you didn't. And that's quite satisfying and also create security when you're working with clients. We can, at the end of a quarter say, "Listen, you're up 85%. And here's how we did it." And that creates certainty around the value of the relationship. It creates longevity in the relationship. We strive very hard to develop long term client relationships. I think our average tenure is about six and a half years now. And we find that just continuing to deliver and continuing to clearly explain what we've delivered puts us in good stead and makes for a nice, stable, and growing business. [00:06:37] Lindsey Dinneen: Nice. Well, first of all, congratulations on that business that you've successfully launched and is going strong. That's awesome. I know that's no small feat. I know a lot of our listeners can relate to that too, of being that CEO and taking on that incredible new job opportunity, and how many things you learn and the day to day ups and downs of entrepreneur. [00:06:57] Aaron Burnett: That's right. You get an opportunity to make a new mistake every day. [00:07:02] Lindsey Dinneen: Indeed. Indeed. Indeed. But that's a good thing. So that's fantastic. Thank you for sharing a little bit about that. So going a little bit back into some of your personal background, and then I'm delighted to delve into the company as well and what you do. But in the growing up, did you have an inkling that marketing would be the thing for you, or did this sort of grow out of schoolwork, or what was that thing that said, "Oh, I think I know where I want to be?" [00:07:30] Aaron Burnett: I figured out where I wanted to be by figuring out where I didn't want to be first. [00:07:34] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh. [00:07:35] Aaron Burnett: So no, the thing that I wanted to be, from the time I was seven until I was in the middle of college, was an attorney. Then the notion that I had of being an attorney was you would fight for truth and justice and fairness and all of those virtues, sort of a cinematic version of being an attorney. And what changed my mind was that I paid my way through college by working in restaurants, and in a particular restaurant in which I worked-- it was a fine dining restaurant-- there were a lot of attorneys who came in with clients or came in after work. There were also a considerable number of law school students during the summer who were taking a breather and recovering before they went back again. And I got really consistent insight and advice, which was sort of distilled. The law school students said, "Yeah, we used to think that's what this was for too. And that was beaten out of us by the second year of law school. That's not what this is for." The attorneys who were successful, particularly financially successful, they were focused on transactions and they were very conventionally successful and very apparently miserable. Then the other thing was that I came to believe that being an attorney would draw out the very worst in me. I'm a little bit competitive and I really enjoy arguing. I couldn't see how that was going to be good for me, a marriage, or being a good father, or any of those sorts of things. So, I figured out what I didn't want to do first. And then when I graduated from college, I had studied communications and then I also had studied political science and eastern philosophy and religion. And after college, I was aware that I wasn't ready to get a job, because I had no idea what that job would be. So, I went backpacking in Southeast Asia. I bought a one way ticket to Bangkok. And the plan was that I would travel for three years, and I would see in person some of the things that I studied. I would learn more and think more and get more clarity as to who I was and who I wanted to be. But that plan changed when five months into that trip, I met a woman on an island off the coast of Malaysia at a beach party during Ramadan when everything else shuts down at sundown and the only thing to do is to hang out with other backpackers. And we met and stayed up until three in the morning talking and both of us knew, like, right away, "Oh, you're the person." So we spent most of the next seven days together. Got engaged at the end of those seven days. Got married three months later in New Zealand. She's a New Zealander who was headed to Europe. And then came back to the U. S. so that she could be in the U. S. for the two years that required to establish permanent residency. And I started working for a telecom company in a temporary role. I worked there for three weeks as a temp. I was hired as an employee into the marketing department and discovered that marketing was an aptitude and something that I really enjoyed. I was also in a really fast growing company. It was a cellular company, part of Macaw Cellular at the time. And kind of the ethos there was, "Doesn't matter if you have done it, because nobody's done this stuff before. If you can do it, and you show aptitude, we're going to give you a shot." And so I got to do all sorts of things that I had no business doing, but that I succeeded at. I built a call center. I built a marketing organization of 75 employees and ran that for about three years. And I ended up becoming VP of Sales and Marketing, about seven years into that stint and just discovered that I love marketing and I particularly love marketing the intersection of marketing and technology. I love the tech part. I love developing new technology. One of the things that I did there was to develop a call completion platform for the network that we worked on that had a significant impact on revenue and a decrease in cost. So I loved identifying technical solutions and then activating them from a marketing perspective. What I also discovered, though, when that company was acquired by AT& T was that I didn't like really big companies, where you got to be VP of something very deep but very narrow, which is how that was going to turn out. And so I went from there to a series of smaller and smaller companies. And the closer I got to entrepreneurship, the happier I became, and the more at ease I became until in the year that my first daughter was born, in a job that was going super well-- I joined two years prior, the company had increased its customer base by about tenfold, things were going super well, it was five minutes from my house. It was easy, I wasn't stressed, but it was also super bored. I quit and started a company, and from there went into, I made all of the first time entrepreneur mistakes in that company. I left that company. Actually, that company left. That company didn't succeed. [00:12:32] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, no. I'm sorry. [00:12:34] Aaron Burnett: It was great. I learned a lot. I also learned that I loved that and then started to consult and learned that. No, I actually love technology and marketing, but I love more helping people. That feels really good to me. And so sort of fast forward a few years. I created Wheelhouse for a couple of important reasons. One is I wanted to create the agency that I always wished I could hire when I worked for other companies. And what I wanted out of an agency partner was that it was partnership. It was somebody who really did have my best interests at heart that didn't deploy an account manager on me who is constantly looking for opportunities to monetize the relationship, who was playing this sort of kabuki theater where we pretend we're friends, but really it's about the change order, which felt bad on a soul level to me. And I also wanted to create this sort of place I always wanted to work. [00:13:29] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:13:30] Aaron Burnett: I worked in larger and larger companies-- and actually this was true in venture backed companies as well-- in most instances, what I discovered is that people were asked to be someone different at work than they were at home. We have a set of values that we all agree to societally. We believe in being helpful and generous and kind. We would help anyone on the street if they asked us. If a friend called, and asked for help, you wouldn't figure out how you were going to get paid for that help. You wouldn't be playing the angles. If you were doing something with a friend, if you were coming to an agreement, if you were writing letters to an exchange of letters to agree on plans, you wouldn't be crafting the language, looking for the way that they might transgress, and you could take advantage of them. And yet, I found lots of instances where that was true in business, and that didn't make any sense to me. So I wanted to create a place that I wanted to work where the same values that you uphold that you believe in that are healthy in your personal life are the values that you adhere to in your professional life as well. And so the core values that have informed and continue to inform the way that we behave here are in part traditional. Integrity and stewardship are there, but so too is helpfulness and generosity and joyfulness. We say to every prospective client, every current client, everybody who works here, "We exist to be helpful." That helpfulness is not constrained by a piece of paper. If a client asks us for help, we will help first. We'll be generous with our time and our expertise and our resources. We'll almost certainly do work that we're not being paid for explicitly. We'll look out for our client's best interests, but we'll look out, we'll ask them to look out for our best interests as well. And we say that explicitly. And my experience is that in almost every instance, if you remind people of who they are at the beginning and that, "Hey, this is a personal relationship here. I know there's a contract and it's a business contract but as a person with my business I'm helping you as a person to achieve your aims as well. And anything we do that's detrimental has a personal impact and anything we do that's additive has a personal impact. And I'm going to try to make this the best experience for you and I'll rely on you to do the same with me." You know it creates a much healthier relationship, and that's part of the reason we have such a long client tenure. Our clients very quickly know, "Oh, you're on my side. You're going to help me. I don't have to walk around with one hand holding my wallet. I don't have to worry every time I call and ask for help. I don't have to review my SOW." [00:16:06] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:16:06] Aaron Burnett: Pretty quickly get to a place where neither of us remember what's in an SOW. And we're only going to go back and look at it if something really gets to the size that, "Oh no, that definitely wasn't a part of this initially. We should talk about this being a separate thing." And quite often, it's the client doing that, saying, " Doing this thing, we should pay you more for that." And I love that. I see that as an indication of health. We do other things that are unconventional as well. We do have an account team. They focus on hospitality, not monetization. And one of the metrics that we track internally is laughter. So if we're in all of our client meetings, we're listening for laughter. We're not scoring it. We're not trying to make it happen X number of times, but I see the presence of laughter as an indication of ease and trust and health, and we really care about that, and so we invest in it. [00:17:02] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. Oh my goodness. I love all of the culture that you have so meticulously crafted, and it's so interesting because as you were talking about it, I was thinking how you had mentioned early on career wise you were saying, "Well, I, I learned by discovering what I didn't appreciate." And I'm wondering then if part of the culture that you have so carefully developed and cultivated over time is also partly, "Oh, I see what hasn't worked very well in the past. So now I'm really focusing in on something that is aligned" to who you are, obviously because you're the CEO, this is your business, but also just, "this is what works well for our client relationships and everyone who works with us." [00:17:45] Aaron Burnett: Yeah, that's true on a number of levels. It's true in that, at times we see the way that other agencies or even writ large, other service organizations behave. Sometimes we bump up-- actually frequently we bump up against other agencies, particularly in large client situations. And we're really explicit in saying we're never going to try to poach business from another agency because we just don't think that's very nice. You have to behave in a very mercenary way to make that happen. You have to undercut someone. And so instead, we talk about creating the conditions that make people want to work with us. So we'll work hard to create the conditions that show us to be expert and clearly demonstrate the value that we can deliver, but we're not going to say, in contrast to those people over there. [00:18:32] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. [00:18:32] Aaron Burnett: And there's a difference. And so, we come back to our values on that. We also, you're right in that the impetus for the culture came from me, but I also have a strong belief that everyone who comes here should add something to the culture and they are free to express the culture in their own way. Some of those ways might not be comfortable to me the ways that I would think you might go about doing this, but they're great for other people, right? And there are things in the company rights that are kind of like that where I know a majority people love this thing. It's important culturally. It doesn't do anything for me, but that's okay. And then we also have learned-- I joke that you get to make a new mistake every day and that's a joke. It's also pretty true. I make lots of mistakes. I have made cultural mistakes over the years that were very well intentioned and have been costly, either financially or culturally. I think that, you know, there are byproducts of a culture like ours that are behavioral. If you're going to be helpful and generous and pursue joy in your daily work, then the byproducts should be that you also are, you know, kind and gentle, and that you extend grace to people when they mess up. And those are great things, but taken to extreme, they also can be damaging things. And there have been times when I've taken them to extreme, when I thought with a, let's say an employee who wasn't performing well, but I had a great deal of empathy for. I would want to give them many chances and think, "Well, surely, okay, if I explained it one more time but different, or if someone else gave them clearer direction, or we did something else, we're going to get there from here." thinking, "Well, this is very kind to them. I'm giving them more runway. And it's good culturally as well. This is the right, sort of the moral decision to make." And in retrospect, that was totally wrong. It wasn't actually kind to them because we also communicate frequently. They knew where they stood. They knew they weren't performing. And this just extended the non performance in a lot of instances. It was also not kind to their team members because they had to fix the work or do the extra work. It was frustrating to them to see that their merit wasn't held in higher esteem, treated differently, that they were getting less attention than a person who was underperforming. And it took a long time for me to learn that. Other people told me I was doing that wrong for years. And in fact, there's a great book that we have used, that you're probably familiar with, called "Radical Candor" that really speaks to the importance of being quite direct, but in a kind way. And there is, there are four quadrants described in that book for different sorts of styles. And there's one just for me, I think, called Ruinous Empathy. And that's where I lived for a while. Super nice, very empathetic. But sometimes a bad result. [00:21:34] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. It's a great book. Highly recommend it for anyone eager to improve communication and how to give feedback and whatnot. [00:21:42] Aaron Burnett: Right, yeah. We call it telling the kind truth. You can say a hard thing, but in a nice way. [00:21:49] Lindsey Dinneen: Indeed. Indeed. And we all need that. We need that personally. We need to be able to give that. So that's incredible. So, now, specifically with medtech companies-- which I know you've chosen to really spotlight in addition to your healthcare organizations that you work with-- what major challenges or common challenges do you see medtech companies have when they're starting to think about-- well, maybe they haven't even gotten to a really good marketing plan yet because, you know, at first maybe they're just building, building and they haven't even thought, "Oh, I'm not quite sure how we're going to communicate about this." But just in general, what are some of the major challenges or common challenges that you see MedTech companies having with their marketing and how can you help? How can we help? [00:22:30] Aaron Burnett: Yeah. Huh. There are a couple of key challenges. One is figuring out messaging that resonates and drives performance. And a mistake that we often see is that messaging is viewed as static rather than iterative. It has always been the case that constant testing has real value, outsized value, particularly in digital advertising. It is exponentially true today that constant iteration and tweaking and tuning in messaging and in creative is absolutely essential to driving performance. And what also is true is that messaging and creative increasingly help you find your audience. So, if you're in a company that is highly regulated, that is governed by privacy regulations, that is perhaps governed by HIPAA regulations, you're significantly constrained in the data you have access to, the things that you can track. In the main, you can't really use third party tracking. It seems every week there is some sort of new announcement that further restricts the data to which you have access. The latest announcement is Meta declaring that they are targeting sensitive industries and categories. And that in targeting those industries and categories, they're going to block certain types of data, and the data that they're blocking in the main is conversion data. And so, you're blind with regard to whether anybody actually did the thing you needed them to do. Did they sign up for a trial? Did they complete a lead form? Did they ask for follow up? If you're using a conventional approach to those sorts of things, if you're using certainly their tracking, which I hope nobody is doing anymore, then that data just goes away on some date. But as you lose fidelity of the data and as you take into account sort of the more meta issue, not Meta the platform, but the global issue of cookie deprecation and privacy settings in browsers and the fact that already about 40 percent of the third party data that you would have gotten through browser signals is gone. You've lost fidelity. So the way that you find an audience now, particularly in a data constrained environment, is through what you put into market. It's messaging variation, and it's through really significant creative variation, not one ad, two ads, three ads, like old school conversion rate optimization, but 15 ads. 15 different creative concepts with variation of messaging that look very different. And as you do that systematically over time, you allow the algorithm to both optimize performance, and those algorithms work very well now, but increasingly-- and this is particularly true again on Meta which we find to be really powerful when done well for medical device clients-- you find that you don't just optimize the creative. In that optimization, the creative finds your audience for you. You're able to tune your creative to the audience that performs for you and continue to iterate in terms of both audience targeting and creative. So first there's, there is a need to test into all of this. And there is intensive testing at the beginning of the process, but there's continuous testing, perhaps at a lower velocity or intensity, even as you go along. It doesn't stop. You don't get to a point where, "Oh good, we're on cruise control. We've got the ad that works. We've got the PPC that works. Everything is working well." It's just constant iteration because it is algorithmically driven and because in the algorithms, you know you can think of this in terms of social media. In social media, I think people are familiar with algorithmic fatigue. If your algorithm in a personal feed on a social platform didn't change, didn't refresh fairly frequently, you get really bored with what you're seeing. The same is true in the platforms. And so we find creative fatigue, even with creative that performs super well, happens fast-- like a week, ten days, something like that. And the fall off isn't subtle. It's you're going along and you do that. It's a big drop. So it's constant iteration. The second thing that we find is a lack of, I was going to say a lack of sophistication with regard to data strategy. It's actually more often the absence of data strategy. I think for a long time data strategy didn't need to be foundational to marketing, even to digital marketing. If you think of digital advertising or even organic forms of digital marketing, the platforms did the work for us. You targeted audiences in the various advertising and social platforms. You got all your data through analytics. You could see what was happening in search through search console. Perhaps you use some third party platforms as well. But what is true now in a data constrained environment is that the most important signal, the signal that delivers greatest value, isn't the signal that's in the platform. It's the signal that's probably in your CRM. It's the one that tells you that a lead converted, someone actually went into trying a device, or they actually became revenue generating. So you need a strategy at a system, at a platform level, to bring all of that data together and to normalize it in a manner that enables it to be evaluated and analyzed as a corpus of data that enables you to see the entire user journey. You need a strategy around naming conventions in advertising that allows you to bring that in a way that can be integrated with CRM data and other analytics data or other platform data. You need a first party data strategy, because in a data constrained environment, in a tracking constrained environment where you can't rely on third party data in the same way, audience targeting and even optimization now rely substantially on first party data. It's the data you own that you have permission to use, or on zero party data. Well, you can't put that in a public database. That has to go in a purpose built data warehouse that has been developed for privacy sensitive industries. And so, in our case, we created a HIPAA compliant data warehouse and a BI practice on top of that that gives our analysts the ability to view the customer journey in entirety, to see people as they move through sort of the prospect funnel, and to optimize for the conversion step that isn't in the platform but delivers business value. And then to use the insights that they glean there to optimize in a platform without sharing data, which is the key. You're able to know, and this is something for people to remember, despite all the increased privacy regulations and constraints, as a website owner, as long as you have the right data environment, meaning the data you collect is in a HIPAA compliant environment, if you're governed by HIPAA, certainly in a privacy sensitive environment, even if you're not, you can collect full fidelity data regarding what people are doing on your site. You can't share it with a third party platform, you can't send it to Meta, you can't send it to Google, but you're able to know everything that you knew before, so long as you collect it in the right way, and evaluate it in the right way. And our experience is, the privacy regulations, despite being uncomfortable and alarming and forcing a lot of intense activity up front to create a new systemic approach, new infrastructure connections and new data strategies, actually yield a much better business outcome. We can drive better performance with first party data. We drive more business value with first party data than we did when we were doing it the easy way and using platforms for targeting and optimization. [00:30:27] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, so your company really helps to bridge the gap between what maybe, if you're not into the nitty gritty details, say we're speaking with somebody who's developed a device what they may have learned as, as far as like Marketing 101, but it is so different when you have, like you said, very specifically protected industries and they have a lot of regulation and we have to be really careful with how we talk about things. So your company is really helping bridge that gap between what we may have all been taught and kind of know in the back of our head versus here's the actual reality of the situation today. And you're keeping on top of all of those regulations. [00:31:08] Aaron Burnett: True. And then, you know, because we concentrate on the medical device industry, we also are highly attuned to what language we can and cannot use. And we know, alright, we need creative variation, but we also understand that we can't just test anything. That we need to be very careful with language, we have to use language that's approved, it needs to come from certain sources and not from others. If it's new it has to go through a certain approval process. So, we end up creating a lot of efficiency by simply knowing how it all works and having a lot of experience with needing to create new ad variations that win easy approval and can very quickly be put into market. [00:31:50] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, of course. Now, you know, in working with MedTech and you've chosen again, some very specific niches, which I love. Have you had any moments that really stand out as, "I'm working with this client and I am in this industry and I am realizing, 'Wow, I am really in my element.' I am here for a reason." It just sort of stands out at this moment that matters. [00:32:15] Aaron Burnett: Yeah. One of the clients we've worked with for a very long time has an insulin monitoring and delivery device. We worked with them when they were sort of mid sized, but also kind of looking for market fit in their digital marketing was dormant. Almost dormant. I'd put it on the verge of dormant. It wasn't doing well. So, we started on a series of projects with them, and they started quite small, and very quickly were able to deliver a lot of performance for them. So, the first year, we increased lead generation by just under 500 percent for them, which was super meaningful and exciting, and enabled us to start this very long term relationship that is broad and multifaceted now. What I've loved about working with them, and we were talking about this when we first got online, is that the people who work there really care about the people they serve. And as a matter of fact, there is almost a universality in that the people who work there either have close friends or family members who deal with diabetes. And so it's not a commercial endeavor. I mean, it is, but it's also a very personal endeavor and they're aware and convinced-- and I think they're right-- because I also have a close family member who uses their device, that their device makes such a difference to the quality of life for the people involved. The difference that I've seen in this family member is that she went, I think, from being aware, moment to moment, "I'm diabetic and I need to keep track of this, and there are some things I need to do at certain points throughout the day," to "That's not really a main thing I have to think about. I mean, I have to be kind of aware of it, and, you know, I've got an app on my phone, and I do have this device, but this is not something that is at the forefront of my brain. I can think about other things, and this is very much in the background." And that's a really big deal. And we feel the same. I know I have been to public events. I went to a high school play and one of the performers was very clearly wearing this device and not hiding it. It was super visible just a part of her life, not anything she felt embarrassed about. And I felt proud of that, even though I have, I play such a small part in that. But, just felt proud that she felt comfortable, and she was a lead in a school play, and it was a good play, and a big deal, and there were hundreds of people in the audience. And so, to see the impact of something like that, and to have confidence that the work that we do actually makes a positive difference in the world, is soul satisfying. [00:35:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Thank you for sharing that story. That's, that is really special and impactful. And I always think, you know, we don't always get those moments of realizing the impact of our work. I agree with you, even in the small, like, "Oh my gosh, I had a tiny little piece to play in it." But it just makes you think, "Oh my goodness, what I do really does matter. It does make a difference." And so to get that opportunity to have seen it in action and in such a positive light is incredible. So yeah, I appreciate you sharing that. [00:35:29] Aaron Burnett: It's comfortable. It feels so good to market for clients when you're sure that what you're putting in the marketplace is really good for them. And what you're trying to do is just make sure they're aware of this good thing. That's so different than marketing for a client where you're sure they want to make more money and you're not sure that anybody who buys this thing-- does it matter? Does it not matter? Does anyone really need this thing? You know, that's a very different feeling than being confident that the thing you're promoting will make a positive difference in their lives. So, yeah. [00:36:09] Lindsey Dinneen: Amen to that. And that's a really interesting thing about marketing that can be divisive a little bit among people who aren't as familiar with the industry or as comfortable. And so it's really nice to know, you know, marketing can, and is very often, used in a very positive way to highlight the important things 'cause you know, as I try to remind my lovely engineer friends is you can make the most wonderful thing in the world, but if nobody knows about it, that's that. You know, that you're just, you're stuck. So, so it is important to have marketing and to have that bridge that gap and make it known. But to just know, like you said, that it's going to make a positive impact is just wonderful. So yeah, I love that. So pivoting the conversation a little bit, just for fun, imagine that you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a masterclass on anything you want. It can be within your industry, it can be totally separate. What would you choose to teach? [00:37:07] Aaron Burnett: Oh, the power of culture. [00:37:09] Lindsey Dinneen: Ooh. [00:37:10] Aaron Burnett: And if I had to focus more specifically on the power of generosity in business. My experience, our experience throughout the history of this company, is that helpfulness and generosity are our BD strategy. We're not trying to convince anybody of anything. We're trying to give as much away as we can be as generous as we can. And we find that if you help people, if you are generous and if you do it without expectation-- and I can't fully explain why this is true. I have some guesses. If you help people without expectation, you just help them because you're helpful, and that's the right thing to do, and you do that for a person, that good things happen out of that. I think I can explain it. I can understand it more mechanically. I might bump into you. We may or may not know one another, but we get chatting, and you tell me you've got a problem, and I know the answer to that problem. It's also a service that I offer. And I could certainly play the angles and try to get an engagement to get you to pay me for that service. I could just help you. And you may or may not ever become a client, but I've helped you. And my experience with that is that we've gotten referrals from people who have never been clients. And sometimes those referrals occur years later, like long enough that we only vaguely remember who that person was and what we did for them. But I think that being generous, you can't tell someone to trust you. But you can behave in a trustworthy way. You can't tell someone in a way that inspires confidence, "Look, I'm gonna look out for your best interests. I'm not gonna try and pick your pocket." But you can behave that way. And you can communicate it with your actions. So, I think it's interesting to consider what business and society would be like if the orientation was toward generosity rather than the orientation being toward protection. When we write SOWs, for the longest time we wrote the most naive SOWs. And we did it intentionally. A, because, practically, we're a small agency working with big clients. And if somebody wants to take advantage of us, they probably can because I have a limited attorney budget, and I don't really want to spend my budget on that anyway. But the other reason is that I that seems to have integrity with what we say. We're going to be helpful and generous. We're going to do work you're probably not going to pay us for. We'll look out for you. You look out for us. We're not going to get you with business terms. We're not going to squeeze you with scope of work, that sort of thing. So, let's not kid each other. Let's not now create this document that's super conventional and has five pages of terms and conditions and that sort of thing. It's honestly only as we've worked with larger and larger organizations where their legal teams won't let them sign an SOW that's as goofy as ours were. You have to have certain terms and conditions, and if we don't provide them, they send us theirs. We don't like theirs as much as we like ours, so. Yeah. Yeah. So I think generosity is a tremendous engine for very healthy business growth and very healthy personal relationships. [00:40:30] Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely agreed. And how do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world? [00:40:36] Aaron Burnett: As kind. [00:40:37] Lindsey Dinneen: The world needs a lot more of that, so I'll take that answer any day. And then final question, what is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it? [00:40:50] Aaron Burnett: Oh, I have two daughters. Yeah. [00:40:54] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, excellent. Oh, that's wonderful. Family is important and special. That's wonderful. Well, thank you so much, first of all, for your incredible insights today, for your generosity, to your generosity of your time with us and diving into some really specific areas that, that med tech companies can think about, can be aware of as they're even seeking somebody to help them with their marketing. I really appreciate you being open and willing to talk about some of those those nuances. So thank you very much for that. We are so honored to be making a donation on your behalf today to Feeding America, which works to end hunger in the United States by partnering with food banks, food pantries, and local food programs to bring food to people facing hunger and also they advocate for policies that create long term solutions to hunger. So thank you so much for choosing that charity to support. And gosh, I just wish you the most continued success as you work to change lives for a better world. [00:41:55] Aaron Burnett: Thank you. I really appreciate it. You too. It was a great conversation. I really enjoyed it. [00:41:59] Lindsey Dinneen: Good. Absolutely. Well, and thank you also to our listeners for tuning in. And if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, I'd love it if you'd share this episode with a colleague or two, and we will catch you next time. [00:42:14] Ben Trombold: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a full-service CDMO with 100% in-house capability to design, develop, and manufacture medical devices from class two wearables to class three active implantable medical devices. Velentium specializes in active implantables, leads, programmers, and accessories across a wide range of indications, such as neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation, cardiac management, and diabetes management. Velentium's core competencies include electrical, firmware, and mechanical design, mobile apps, embedded cybersecurity, human factors and usability, automated test systems, systems engineering, and contract manufacturing. Velentium works with clients worldwide, from startups seeking funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.

In this very special, 200th episode of Lessons in Leadership, Steve Adubato and Mary Gamba talk about their journey from a hosting an audio podcast to a video series airing on a variety of broadcast and digital outlets. Then, Steve is joined once again by Dennis Wilson, President & CEO (Retired), Special Advisor, Delta Dental … Continue reading Lessons in Leadership: 200th Episode and Dennis Wilson and Paul Di Maio

I just saw an article stating the “Washington State Dental Association (WSDA) is coming for Delta Dental of Washington (DDOW).” The name of the article is called, “Putting patient Care First: Fixing Washington's Broken Dental Benefits System.” They stated that it's “the battle over dental benefits.” Well, they got it partially correct.When I read the article to this point, I started to get a little bit excited. I began to think that they finally got it. They understood that DDOW is coming between the dentist's ability to deliver quality dentistry to their patients. I began to think that WSDA finally understood what was meant by the term LEPAT (least expensive professionally accepted treatment) and how dentists could offer MEPAT (more expensive professionally accepted treatment) dental services without interference from DDOW. I was disappointed when my eyes passed to the next sentence.Support the show

San Francisco 49ers wide receivers Ricky Pearsall and Jacob Cowing joined the 49ers “You've Got Mail” podcast presented by Delta Dental to discuss closing out the 2024 season in their home state, crossing paths in AZ and rookie year takeaways.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

San Francisco 49ers linebacker Curtis Robinson joined the 49ers "You've Got Mail" podcast presented by Delta Dental to discuss his Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year nomination, share his enthusiasm for education empowerment and detail his NFL journey.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

November 28, 2024 ~ Carmen Argersinger, Head of Corporate Citizenship & Community Affairs at Delta Dental of Michigan joins Paul W Ahead of the 98th Annual America's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

San Francisco 49ers running back Isaac Guerendo joined the 49ers “You've Got Mail” podcast presented by Delta Dental to discuss his journey to the pros, the early contributions of the rookie class and answer fan submitted questions.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

November 8, 2024 ~ Mary Messana, Vice President of Communications and Community for Strategic Staffing Solutions, and Margaret Trimer, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships for Delta Dental, join Guy, Lloyd, and WDIV's Karen Drew at the Parade Company's Pancake Breakfast, presented by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

San Francisco 49ers defensive back Deommodore Lenoir and safety Ji'Ayir Brown joined the 49ers “You've Got Mail” podcast presented by Delta Dental to give an inside look at the 49ers revamped secondary, discuss their admiration for veterans Dre Greenlaw and Fred Warner and more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

10 - 22 - 24 DELTA DENTAL PARK + WHAT'S SOMETHING YOU REFUSE TO CALL BY ITS NEW NAME by Maine's Coast 93.1

San Francisco 49ers tight ends Eric Saubert and Jake Tonges joined the 49ers “You've Got Mail” podcast presented by Delta Dental to discuss landing with and signing with the team, dynamics of the tight end room and more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you're curious about how the Creatives Leadership Academy can help you to design your life and career with more intentionality so that you can take things up a notch, earn more income, do the gold-standard of whatever it is you love to do, AND have time for the rest of your life, Book a call with me today so we can discuss it! ---> CHAT WITH KATE In this special episode of the Tales from The Lane podcast, I'm joined by fellow podcast, Ayana Major Bey, host of The Artist Pivot Podcast Series for a fun and heartfelt conversation about what it really looks and feels like to make a career pivot in your Creative career.  Released on both podcasts, this conversation is a two-sided interview filled with insights and stories about our own experiences with pivots.  Hear about how the pandemic forced Ayana to pivot from a full-time Actress into the multi-hyphenate Actress–voiceover artist–podcaster–mentor she is today, and how she is full of gratitude for this beautiful expansion of her talents, and you'll hear about my own (multiple!) career pivots that have gotten me to where I am today.  If you have ever thought about doing something slightly outside of your current skillset, but were too afraid to take that first step, today's episode is for you!  More about our guest:  Ayana Major Bey is a multi-hyphenated creator, which includes being an actress, voice-over artist, mentor/coach, public speaker, podcaster, former radio personality, and world traveler. She is a New Jersey native, of Guyanese Heritage, and has loved the performing arts and theater since she was a little kid. An alumnus of two great schools, Montclair State University where she got her BFA in Musical Theatre, and The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland where she got her MA in Acting. Select stage credits include: Dreamgirls, Hairspray, Sister Act, Little Shop of Horrors, Children of Eden, 1940's Radio Hour, All Shook Up, and After Midnight. Select voice over credits include: Sephora, For Hers, Babbel, Google Chromebook, Starbucks, Ally Bank, Square, Delta Dental, and Boston Museum of Science. When she is not being a multi-hyphenate creator you can catch her cooking, baking, taking care of her plants, and of course, traveling. Having visited 27 countries thus far some of her favorite places include Thailand, South Africa, Spain, and Italy. You can follow Ayana at Insta: @ayanambey, and Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayana-major-bey/ and New Yorkers, grab your tickets to her upcoming cabaret show at Greenroom 42 on October 20th: Tickets and Info HERE.   

In this episode of Beyond the Offer, hosts Rosanna Snediker and Bill Gates chat with Sonya Heer, Talent Acquisition Operations Manager at Delta Dental. Sonya reflects on her 16-year recruiting career, her shift into TA operations, and the role of communication, technology, and data. They also discuss work-life balance, inclusive benefits, and debunk common recruiting misconceptions while sharing tips for staying connected in remote work. Tune in to learn more!

Brewers.com Writer Adam McCalvy talks about the upcoming postseason matchup and who's expected to be on the mound for both teams. Brewers playoff coverage is sponsored by Delta Dental.

Kiera reviews the September book club selection: Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life by Bill Perkins. She compares the Die with Zero method with profit-first, talks about applying this mindset in her own life, and how to enjoy life richly. Find the full book club rundown here! Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01.346) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and it is book club time. And this is one of my favorite books and I am so excited and I hope you read it with me. And if you didn't, hey, well, here's your opportunity to read the book club. I will give you a synopsis and hopefully I make this so intriguing and so exciting that you definitely want to go read it. So this book is called Die With Zero and you better believe that it is gonna trip your minds up. So if you're a prophet first person, if you don't even know what the heck I'm talking about,   Well, welcome, because this is the book club all about fulfillment. As always, thank you guys so much for being podcast listeners. Please do me a solid and go leave a review today. Go leave those five stars. Share this with someone that you know might be considering how are they generating the revenue in their practice? How are they? What's their fulfillment life plan? But share this podcast because my goal is to get this podcast into the hands of every dental practice to be able to positively impact and inspire offices to be the best leaders.   the best teams to serve their patients at the highest level and truly be able to give back on a level that we as far outside of our, our wildest dreams and to do it with ease. This podcast was made for people just like you who don't just understand you, but are you I've sat in your shoes. I am a business owner. I come to the table with expertise and understanding and humility and love and compassion and no judgment. And I just ask that you guys share this with a dentist who right now could benefit from having that.   positive impact in their life. An office manager who might be struggling with their team or maybe someone who's thriving. Share in a Facebook group, share in a group that you're a part of. Go in there. You guys, I had an office reach out and they're like, Kiera, we're struggling. We're dropping Delta Dental and we need some verbiage. And I popped onto our website and I went to our podcast and I typed in insurance dropping verbiage. And there's three incredible podcasts. So truly anything you guys might be struggling with or wanting to know more about, I guarantee you in our almost thousands of episodes.   you will be able to find that. And if you can't find it, email me Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. Our team truly lives to serve you and they want to make your life easy. So reach out. We love you guys. So the broadcast today is Die With Zero. You guys, I'm so excited and I can't wait to talk about this. So Die With Zero, it's funny, my brother, I actually called him. My brother is in business and finance and I said, know, Rhett, that's his name.   Kiera Dent (02:27.468) I said, Rhett, I have a question for you. This was a couple, gosh, this was probably a year ago. said, if you had an opportunity to grow your business to insane heights, would you do that? Or would you kind of like chill and coast? My brother's super brilliant. He's an MBA. He works for a really large company. His job is to go in and inspire teams and to help them out. And he's also efficiency, which means he also fires people. And my brother is someone that I think is one of the most incredible people.   Like I truly look up to him. He's two years younger than me. And I said, Rhett, what would you do? And Rhett told me, said, Kiera, you know, if I had an opportunity to serve and to give, I would make my business as big as I could possibly make it. Okay. Fast forward a year, Rhett came to me and he said, Kiera, I've actually been thinking about that conversation. And I read a book called Die With Zero. Have you read it? And I said, you better freaking believe I've read it. Let's talk about it. And he said, I actually think I've changed my mind on your business or business ideas in general. He said,   I actually think I would find what fulfills you versus slaying away for your entire life. He said, die with zero definitely gave me a different perspective. And I thought, I love this because die with zero. actually think I was talking to my husband about this morning before I got onto podcasts. And I think die with zero is such a mind trip because it's contrary to what we've been taught all of our lives. We've been taught, go to work, save for retirement, get your retirement at 65.   And then go and live this glamorous retirement life. there's profit first with Mike McAllux, which I'm obsessed with profit first. And I remember when I did a book club with our team on profit first, one of our team members, she's like, I cannot handle die with zeros mentality because profit first is talking to us about building the profit and saving and building this whole piece. And I was zero is talking about like living in the moment. So I'm here to say, I actually don't know which camp I sit in.   I actually think there's beauty in both of them. But this Die with Zero, Getting All You Can From Your Money and Your Life by Bill Perkins. So if you haven't read it, I strongly encourage you to read it. It's going to be incredible for you. But Die with Zero, I'm just gonna give you guys a couple little quick synopsis of some of the points in the book so we can book club on it. So there's 10 points that they have in here. Number one is maximize positive life experiences. Number two, invest in experiences early.   Kiera Dent (04:50.456) Three, aim to die with zero money. Four, use all available planning tools. Five, give money to kids in charity early. Don't live life on autopilot. Seven, plan in terms of seasons. Eight, no one to stop. And nine, take big risks early, not later. Okay, so lots of things in here, but really he said, gosh, I'll read you guys this quote from him.   He said, if you spend hours and hours of your life acquiring money and then die without spending all of that money, then you've needlessly wasted too many precious hours of your life. There's just no way to get those hours back. If you die with 1 million left, that's 1 million of experiences you didn't have. And if you die with 50 ,000 left, well, that's 50 ,000 of experiences you didn't have. No way is that optimal. The question we must answer is how to make the most of our finite time on earth. Ooh, like I love it.   Because that's, think, I think that's the question. And so when we look at these 10 aspects of it, again, like I'm saying, I don't think my perfect camp is here, but I think like my conversation with my brother was very much one of, right? Like we all think of the fear, like what happens if we run out of money? My conversations with Ryan Isaac of Dentist Advisors, he's my financial advisor, there are always conversations around, well, Ryan, like how do I know I'll have enough money to make it to me being?   97 years old with my cotton candy pink hair and I'm living the most fulfilling life as well. And so this whole principle, my mom and I were talking, my grandma, she just turned, I believe she just turned 90 and I talked to my mom and my grandma has like, she's done well. Her mom, so my great grandma passed away and there was this like very large fortune that was left. And I talked to my mom and I said, mom, grandma's not gonna be alive for that much longer.   and she fell and she slipped and she fell and she broke some vertebrae and some ribs. This is a 90 year old woman and my grandma is still so afraid of money and this woman has more than enough money. She's definitely not gonna be dying with zero. And I talked to my mom about this because there's also this piece of my mom, maybe there's these weird pieces of it, then she'll get an inheritance from her mom. But I talked to her about this book and I said, mom.   Kiera Dent (07:06.35) Grandma, like what if you could actually live this incredible world with her where you made her last decade of her life the best decade of her entire life? Where she's doing all the experiences. But what's crazy about it is my grandma is now 90. And that to me, I think is the premise of this book of like, why did my grandma wait until she was 90?   And who knows if she'll even be able to do it. But in the book, I remember there was like a definition of the ideal optimal life is we want to make it too. So if I plan to pass away, I hope I make it to a hundred, maybe 130, but let's just say I pass away at 97, which feels a little creepy right now to me to like put a death date on me. but the hope is that like, I'm living my fullest, most richest life all the way up until like 96 with my health and all this. And then in my last year, my money and my health kind of like,   nose dive and I go out of this world fully rich in life experiences and really living to the fullest. Now my other grandma, she's my adopted grandma and she is, I believe she just turned 96 actually and she's been able to paint and she goes on trips and she hangs out with her elderly group. Her husband passed away, my gosh, like at least 20 years ago.   But my adopted grandma, she is very vibrant and I'm looking at her and at 96 she's still walking up and downstairs and yes she's had a knee replacement and there's some things going on with her eyes, but she paints china and has like very world -renowned china painter. She teaches, she has a kiln in her house. I wish I would have taken lessons from her when I lived with her and I never took advantage of that. She reads, but just recently probably within the last, I don't know, three years   she stopped traveling, but up until then she was traveling. And I think about her and I have no idea where her financial state is, but I think about her and I'm like, that's the life that I want to be living where I'm healthy and I'm taking care of my health and I'm able to do all the things that I love doing until like my last, like hopefully six months of my life. And then like at that point we're gone. And that's what I think Bill Perkins whole point in all of this book is, which is why I love it is thinking differently of not a saving until we're out of money or saving until we're at this certain space because   Kiera Dent (09:15.95) He talked about in the book of like going to Italy, maybe when we're 40, but like if we could have gotten in our 20s, we're younger, we're more vibrant, and we have longer time for the investment of that experience in our life rather than less time with those experiences and talking about how, yes, we're always trying to save money and yes, we need money to survive. I'm not here to discredit that for one second, but is there a balance between the amount of money that we need and the life experiences that we're able to maximize? So that's why he's saying maximize our positive life experiences.   Are we spending money on experiences rather than just saving money? Now, this is where the mind trip is because we still need money to be able to survive. And so how are we able to maybe accomplish both? And that's really what I think I'm obsessed with with this book club. And I hope you guys are geeking on it with me and I hope I'm challenging your beliefs as well. But he said, expect invest in experiences earlier because that allows you to have that longer term ROI on life experiences. Like if you were to even think back on the last 10 years of your life, what are some of the highlights?   Gosh, like the last 10 years of my life, like I'm just gonna do my 30s for you. Jason graduated pharmacy school. We have hit all seven continents, which I'm obsessed with going to. We went to Bora Bora. We've been able to buy our first home. We've gone through IVF together. I love, love, love being able to travel with my parents. We were able to go with his parents and my parents, both to Hawaii. We surprised them with a trip to Hawaii. guys, really did not cost me hardly anything. took...   like very inexpensive flights, I bought them early, but it was one of the most incredible experiences to do that with my parents. Traveling with Jason, because Jason's philosophy was, we're not gonna travel until we retire. And my philosophy was, when we retire, we're gonna be old and it's gonna be a lot different to travel. Like, I wanna travel while I'm young and I can still hike up a mountain. And it's crazy, because even within our 30s, my knees and my hips actually are a lot different than they were when I turned 30. And so Jason and I, just traveled to Tokyo.   This is the life of not having children. People are like, how do you travel so much? Well, one, traveling gives me life. And two, I just, truly do believe in this, like living and having life experiences now rather than later. I remember Jason and I were in pharmacy school. I was, I am not joking. I was making $12 an hour while we were in pharmacy school. We were at that point, $65 ,000 in debt for his pharmacy school. We had no help from either of our parents.   Kiera Dent (11:36.59) We didn't have scholarships. I'm making literally $12 an hour. This was not that long ago. It was 2016, 2017, 2018. I was working at the dental college, so I did get some great health benefits that way because of it. We lived close enough that we rode our bikes every single day to and from school. And Jason told me that we were too poor that we couldn't travel. And I said, excuse me, no. So I remember every month.   like when the end of our bills would come, I would literally look around my house for anything that had a tag on it that we hadn't used yet that I could go return to the store to make our ends meet. Like this is CuraDense real life. We did not turn the AC on. We were in Arizona. We kept our house at 80 degrees, sometimes even up to 85 degrees. We slept with the fan on at night, not the AC. We're talking it's 117 degrees outside.   We decided to make sacrifices to be able to put, would put, think 20 to $25 a month away in my travel fund. I put it in a high yield savings account, so something like Ally, and I just started putting money away. Every single month I was like, okay, here's our expenses, this is where we can be, this is how we can cut costs, because I'm so adamant that we're gonna be able to travel, and I just started putting money away, like as much money as I could put away. Anytime I got a raise, I didn't live on that raise. I literally just put that money straight into our savings account.   And while we were in pharmacy school, you guys, I'm not kidding, I'm making 12. I was able to get up to 14 and I ended leaving that job at $18 an hour my last year there. But I was able to pay for me and Jason to go to Ireland and then we also were able to go to Paris with my brother who had just come home from his mission to Paris with my parents. Jason was a little nervous about that. But that came from me literally like discipline, putting money into my savings account every single month.   scrapping down like we really, I price matched, I took my little like ads from the grocery store to Walmart, thank goodness they were price matching at that time. It was the best when our cereal was on sale. But I was so committed that even in pharmacy school, I wasn't gonna go into debt for it more. So our debt was only for Jason's loans. But I also wanted to make sure I was having life experiences. I went and scrapped and I did a little window washing business.   Kiera Dent (13:51.958) I did a natural dog food business with my friend. I helped her out to get extra cash and all of that money, I just kept putting that into our savings account because for me, that was something of life experiences that I wanna have. I will never regret going to Ireland with Jason and I will never regret going to Paris with my brother and my parents. Those are some of the best highlights of our life that Jason and I have, but again, that's my life. This is Kiera's life, this isn't your life, but I wanna let you know, like for me, it was so important that Jason and I traveled while we were young.   I mean, I remember landing at midnight where jet lagged and we're both, he's hitting class kudos to him. I don't know how he did pharmacy school. And I'm going right back to work because those were the cheapest tickets that we could find. We heard about a website called Scott's Cheap Travel. We were able to get tickets round trip to Copenhagen for 250 bucks. Like when you want to do something, there's a million ways for you to do it inexpensively if you want. And so,   The reason I love this is because some people, like I was reading up articles about this book and some people were saying like, this is only for like entrepreneurs or this is only for the high wealthy. But I thought like, no, I was making $12 an hour and we were in pharmacy school and we're still able to find the way because making those early experiences, that was fuel and energy. And Jason and I still to this day talk about those experiences. And so.   But then like, then there's the flip side, right? So then we started to get more responsibilities. We think about having kids, we buy a house and then you start to think of like, Whoa, well, how much money do I need for the future? And that's what Bill Perkins talked about in here of like, when you're younger, doing some of these experiences cheaper, we'll actually have more life experience and fuel and energy that gives you to then you don't need as much money per se during that time. And also, I mean, Jason and I, we scrapped it down. lived on protein bars going all around Ireland. Like I will today stay, never eat special K.   these like strawberry protein bars. We ate so many of them and Jason and I giggle anytime we see him in the grocery store like, you want those? No, me neither. That's what we lived on. Like we went to Ireland, we were not living amazing. We were in the tiniest little car eating these like protein bars. I remember writing in my journal one day on our trip. I said, the angels saying today our hotel had breakfast that we didn't know about. So we didn't have to eat protein bars today. But the things that like those are experiences. And that's like, I think the reason I love this book is because it's   Kiera Dent (16:05.998) To me, it's talking about, I think if you merge, die with zero and profit first together about life experiences, but also preparing for the future. I think that there's beauty in that life because we're living this rich life. We're living all these things and die with zero, I think really makes you question what you want to do. So one of his pieces where he says, plan in terms of season. So if you were to look at your, like again, pretend I'm going to die when I'm 97. I hope I make a hundred. Today I'm 38.   If I look at all my life segments, so maybe from 38 to 40, what do want to do? From my 40 to 50, what do want to do? Maybe 40 to 45, 45 to 50, 50 to 60, 60 to 70, 70 to 80, 80 to 90, 90 to 100. He talks about looking at those seasons and what are the experiences that you want to be having during that time of your life. Jason and have built vision boards where we literally have like at 36, we want to do this, 37, we want to do this, by 40, we want to do this.   We haven't gone like clear up to 90 and what that looks like. But in this book, he talks about that because then we live, we're planning our life in seasons, understanding that maybe our health won't be as optimal when we're older. But that's what he also talks about is like, why are we waiting and spending money when we're like older and rather than spending money on our health now, but we're saving all of our money to get to retirement, but we're not taking care of our health today. And I think that that's like the whole mindset around this book is   Really truly planning and living on these life experiences and aiming to die with zero money. Like how cool will it be for my grandma? To have life experiences in her last decade of her life But yet how much greater would it have been if she would have spent this money earlier? Maybe spent more time with her grandkids. Maybe spent different things But like I think there's the fear and that's I think the fear of dying with zero is but what if I run out of money? What if I live longer than I planned for?   I guess we just get innovative and he does talk about that in there of how you can plan that out a little bit better. But then like when he talks about giving money to kids and charity earlier on, he said like how much better is it like pretend my parents are going to get a payout in their gosh probably 70s from my grandma but how much greater if she would have given that money to my parents in their 30s when they could have used that money for a down payment on a house or   Kiera Dent (18:20.396) Jason and were so like in debt and if my parents were gonna have money, I don't plan for my parents or Jason's parents to have any money. I keep telling them like, I want you to die with zero. I want you to live life to the fullest. That's gonna make you the most fulfilled. But just think if you're going to have extra money in surplus, give it to those people earlier on potentially as a way for them to have more life experiences earlier on as well. So, so many crazy fun things in here. But again, I love the perspective of.   I think my greatest takeaway from it is living with life. And like he said, I will repeat the last part of my favorite quote from the book where he said, finding it here, the question we must all answer is how to make the most of our finite time on earth. And that's really what I think I want to leave you guys with. I definitely encourage you to go read it. There's so much in there. And there's so many pieces about basically really trying to get our health and our lifestyle and our experiences to get the greatest ROI, just like we do with our dollars.   Again, I'm not saying if you're a huge spender, I don't think that this is the model for you. You're already living high. And maybe your job is to listen to Profit First a little more and put some more savings in there. If you're someone who's just always saving and never having those experiences, I think this would be an incredible book for you. And if you're someone like myself who's in the middle of sometimes I spend and sometimes I save, but for me, I want to end my years.   having the life where I had the most experiences. I work because I love to say yes to things that I want to go to and do. That doesn't mean I have to have millions. That doesn't mean I have to have thousands. That means I need to plan my life in seasons and plan what I want to do and really know what lights me up and what fires me up and to experience those things. Maybe it's just spending time with your family while they're here. Maybe it's, I don't know, there's so many pieces, but I love planning out the seasons of your life. So.   I encourage you guys to read it. If you read it and you loved it, I'd love to hear from you. If you read it and you hated it, I'd love to hear from you. Because I love to hear the different sides of this book because I think it does charge. But like my brother, how interesting in one year he said, go and build and slay and do all these things. And the next year he was like, actually have more life experiences and do more fun things so you do die with zero. For me, yes, I want to take care of future generations. We don't have children. I would love to have children.   Kiera Dent (20:36.898) but I have a ton of nieces and nephews that will be my legacy. And so even though, yes, I want to leave a legacy for them, I guarantee you, I would rather make memories with them than leave them a check. I mean, and I think there's a way to do both, but I also know for me, I'd rather spend so much time with my parents and my grandparents than having an inheritance from them. That makes me so emotional because I just think about, I love my parents so much and I don't know how much time I have with them.   And I would hands down rather go on trips to Maui with my parents or trips to wherever we go or spending time with them, making memories with them rather than them leaving me an inheritance. Like that's my job and my responsibility to figure out how to take care of my life, not expect my parents to leave it. Again, that's my own perception. Everyone has their own, but I think most of us would probably fall in my bucket. We'd rather have more time and more memories with those that we love rather than.   them leaving us a check. Now again, you might have people that you don't like and you'd rather them just leave you a check. But I think that's the whole premise of the book, which is why I absolutely loved it. And I hope you guys read it. I hope you loved it. And if you don't, I'm not offended. Please send me because I want to just give you guys things that make and challenge your perceptions and beliefs. So with that, that was our book club for this month. I hope you loved it. Next month, I hope you read it. It's called, let's see, the next one is going to be   The Power of Fun, How to Feel Alive Again by Katherine Price. So be sure to join us next month. I think this one's fun. It's got confetti on the front cover of it, which is why I picked it, because I believe life should be fun, if you can't tell. But definitely, The Power of Fun, going and enjoying that, How to Feel Alive Again with Katherine Price. So I hope you join us next month. As always, if there's a way that we can help you look at your business, this is what I actually am obsessed with doing, is looking at your business and your practice and...   helping you figure out what do you want your life experiences to be and what do we need your business to produce and to create while creating the most incredible experience for your team and your patients. So that way you can die with zero or die with whatever you want, but that you've lived the most fulfilled and rich life. And that's really what I do for our doctors in our consulting. And I'd love for you to be a part of that. So reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

San Francisco 49ers linebackers Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles and Curtis Robinson joined the 49ers “You've Got Mail” podcast presented by Delta Dental to detail their NFL journeys as former undrafted free agents, offseason training with Fred Warner and more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tonight, I am speaking with Animal Planet Puppy Bowl Referee and Pet Rescue Expert Dan Schachner! We'll be talking about October being National Adopt-A-Shelter Pet Month and how to find the right companion for your family. After that, I'm talking with Sarah Chavarria, Chief Executive Officer and President, Delta Dental Insurance Company. We're focusing on Healthy Aging Month in September as we discuss the impact of menopause and aging on the teeth and gums of women.

On this MADM, Delta Dental CEO Sarah Chavarria is sharing about women talking to their dentist about the effects of menopause on their dental health. Sponsor: Hydration Lounge HydrationL.com

Tonight, I am speaking with Animal Planet Puppy Bowl Referee and Pet Rescue Expert Dan Schachner! We'll be talking about October being National Adopt-A-Shelter Pet Month and how to find the right companion for your family. After that, I'm talking with Sarah Chavarria, Chief Executive Officer and President, Delta Dental Insurance Company. We're focusing on Healthy Aging Month in September as we discuss the impact of menopause and aging on the teeth and gums of women.

Saving lives step by step: Puget Sound Heart and Stroke Walk, Sept. 21 and 28.Kami Sutton-Hieronymus started participating in the Heart and Stroke Walk when she was 10 years old and this will be her 26th year at the event. Kami was born a blue baby and had her first operation at 12 hours old where doctors discovered she had serious heart defects. While she started out as a volunteer for the American Heart Association, Kami now works for the organization as a Regional Grassroots Manager for its Government Relations team. American Heart Association volunteers and supporters, as well as heart disease and stroke survivors will participate. This year's Puget Sound Heart and Stroke Walk is sponsored by CVS/Aetna, Delta Dental of Washington, MultiCare Health System and Providence Health Plan.  The American Heart Association and an estimated 6,000 community members will walk at the Puget Sound Heart and Stroke Walk in Seattle and Tacoma. The walk is open to all ages with a one-mile and three-mile options.  Where and When?   Seattle – Saturday, September 21 at Seattle Center by the International Fountain. Festivities start at 7:30 a.m. and walking begins at 9:00 a.m.Tacoma – Saturday, September 28, 2024 at Cheney Stadium. Festivities begin at 8:30 a.m. and walking begins at 10:00 a.m. Register: HERE   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Saving lives step by step: Puget Sound Heart and Stroke Walk, Sept. 21 and 28. Kami Sutton-Hieronymus started participating in the Heart and Stroke Walk when she was 10 years old and this will be her 26th year at the event. Kami was born a blue baby and had her first operation at 12 hours old where doctors discovered she had serious heart defects. While she started out as a volunteer for the American Heart Association, Kami now works for the organization as a Regional Grassroots Manager for its Government Relations team. American Heart Association volunteers and supporters, as well as heart disease and stroke survivors will participate. This year's Puget Sound Heart and Stroke Walk is sponsored by CVS/Aetna, Delta Dental of Washington, MultiCare Health System and Providence Health Plan.   The American Heart Association and an estimated 6,000 community members will walk at the Puget Sound Heart and Stroke Walk in Seattle and Tacoma. The walk is open to all ages with a one-mile and three-mile options.   Where and When?    Seattle – Saturday, September 21 at Seattle Center by the International Fountain. Festivities start at 7:30 a.m. and walking begins at 9:00 a.m. Tacoma – Saturday, September 28, 2024 at Cheney Stadium. Festivities begin at 8:30 a.m. and walking begins at 10:00 a.m.  Register: HERE  

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy joined the 49ers "You've Got Mail" podcast presented by Delta Dental to share his experience of partnering with major brands, shooting commercials and answering fan-submitted questions.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Barrier BreakerSarah Chavarría, the first female CEO in Delta Dental of California and Affiliates' 58-year history, is spearheading a major transformation from a traditional dental insurance company to an innovative healthcare organization centered on oral health.With extensive executive leadership experience, Sarah has identified a critical obstacle that often hinders leadership and team performance. She shares her bold, innovative strategy to conquer this challenge and accelerate results.Tune in for this insight and her game-changing approach!-----Sarah has more than 25 years of experience in the healthcare industry, including as a Chief People Officer, and her leadership approach revolves around driving strong workplace culture and connection.She's also known for being a bold, high impact leader who addresses the problems and takes on the opportunities that will lead to positive breakthroughs for everyone.LinkedIn Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahchavarria Company Link: https://www1.deltadentalins.com/What You'll Discover in this EpisodeHow Linguistics Can Boost Leadership Effectiveness. Her Favorite Leadership Question to Ask.A Hack to Boost Customer Service and Employee RetentionThe Action that Accelerated Employee Wellness and Inclusion.Emphasizing Questions Over Direction Giving.Holistic Healthcare Power.Why Discussing Menopause and Oral Health Landed Her in Forbes and PBS.-----Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben FanningSpeaking and Training inquiresSubscribe to my Youtube channelLinkedInInstagramTwitter

In this milestone 300th episode of the Less Insurance Dependence Podcast, listeners are treated to the success stories of three guests at different stages of their journey toward reducing insurance dependence. Dale, Gina, and Peter share their unique experiences, lessons learned, and invaluable insights for fellow dentists. They discuss what has worked effectively and potential adjustments they would consider and emphasize critical strategies they wish they had implemented sooner. Their candid reflections offer listeners practical guidance and inspiration for navigating the complexities of transitioning to a fee-for-service model. They share insights on the impact of COVID-19, which unexpectedly helped retain patients who truly value their practices. Dale explains how his practice successfully resigned from Delta Dental, highlighting the importance of a thorough six-step plan and coaching support. Gina emphasizes the crucial role of patient relationships and new patient experiences in making the transition smoother. Peter discusses the role of their business administrator and the significance of strong leadership in navigating this change. For dentists considering this transition, Dale advises getting the practice in order and ensuring an exceptional patient experience. Gina suggests thorough preparation, while Peter emphasizes having a strong business administrator and leveraging coaching support. They also discuss having a backup plan to rejoin insurance networks if necessary, although they have yet to have to do so. Economic benefits are evident, as Dale shares, with fee-for-service patients bringing in better financial outcomes compared to insurance patients. Practical steps include starting with the smallest insurance plan to build confidence and preparing scripted responses for patient conversations. Gary addresses questions about specialty practices, confirming that pediatric practices can also successfully transition with the right approach.    

In this episode of the "Less Insurance Dependence" podcast, hosts Gary Takacs and Naren Arulrajah tackle the pressing question: Can Your Practice Truly Survive Without Insurance? The episode elaborates on four questions sent in by listeners, addressing various aspects of dealing with insurance companies, particularly focusing on Delta Dental. Gary shares his expertise and experience, shedding light on the evolving landscape of insurance, the challenges posed by Delta Dental, and strategies for managing insurance transitions effectively. Listeners learn about the expected changes from Delta Dental, including potential fee reductions and increased administrative burdens for providers. They also gain insights into why Delta Dental sends payments to subscribers for out-of-network patients, understanding the company's tactics to pressure providers to stay in-network. Furthermore, the hosts discuss the importance of effective communication with patients when considering dropping insurance plans, emphasizing the significance of face-to-face discussions and strategic planning to minimize patient loss during transitions. They highlight the need for a comprehensive approach, including coaching and backup plans, to comprehend the complexities of insurance transitions successfully. Tune in to gain valuable insights and strategies for success in an evolving dental landscape.

In this episode of the Less Insurance Dependence podcast, Gary Takas and Naren Arulrajah tackle a common dilemma faced by dental practices transitioning out of network: should they accept the assignment of benefits? They begin by elucidating the significance of this term in dental insurance processes, where accepting the assignment of benefits means authorizing the insurance company to send the reimbursement check directly to the dental practice rather than to the patient. The hosts discuss the variability in policies among insurance companies, particularly focusing on the restrictive nature of Delta Dental regarding the acceptance of the assignment of benefits. They emphasize the importance of checking with insurance companies about their policies post-transitioning out of the network, as some may need to allow practices to accept the assignment of benefits for in-state patients. Despite the challenges, Gary and Naren advocate for a patient-friendly approach even after transitioning out of the network. They stress the importance of making processes easy for patients and disagree with consultants who suggest completely washing hands off insurance involvement post-transition. Instead, they recommend maintaining a level of involvement in insurance processes to provide better customer service to patients. The hosts express optimism about successfully resigning from PPO plans within a specific timeframe.   

Send us a Text Message.Unlock the full potential of your dental practice with expert insights from Jennifer Lyman, our esteemed hygiene coach at Hidden Dental Profit. Together, we're cutting through the noise to bring you a comprehensive series on periodontal performance—an area too crucial to ignore. Our discussion goes beyond the surface, as we dissect perio performance percentages and their pivotal role in evaluating and enhancing the treatment of periodontal disease. We're not just crunching numbers; we're spotlighting the stark reality that many practices may be under-treating this prevalent condition. By understanding these vital statistics, dental professionals can ensure they're providing the highest standard of care for their patients.The conversation doesn't stop at diagnosis—prepare to navigate the ins and outs of insurance reimbursements for gingivitis treatments with finesse. With Jennifer's seasoned perspective, we tackle the challenge of engaging patients in their oral health, stressing the importance of transparent communication and collaboration between the front office and hygienists. We also address the delicate balance of ethical practice and practical responses when faced with reimbursement dilemmas from companies like Delta Dental. By the end of this series, you'll be equipped with the tools and knowledge to revolutionize your hygiene and billing operations, reaffirming your commitment to patient well-being and practice profitability. Don't miss this opportunity to transform your approach to periodontal care—tune in now!Want to connect with Jen? Send her an email:Jen@hiddendentalprofit.com Connect with Ericka on LinkedIn:www.linkedin.com/in/dentalbillingcoach Email Ericka:ericka@veritasdentalresourrces.comSchedule a FREE consultation with Ericka:https://link.brandbuilderai.com/widget/bookings/hdprofit/followupEricka's recommendation for PPO Negotiations:https://veritasdentalresources.com/Ericka's recommendation for Insurance Verification Services:https://verus.comWant to know what your fee should be for D4346? Send Ericka an email to ericka@veritasdentalresources.comLink to buy Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy: (not an affiliate link)https://www.amazon.com/Eat-That-Frog-Great-Procrastinating/dp/162656941X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1JV76U7XAHWEO&keywords=eat+that+frog+by+brian+tracy&qid=1707252377&sprefix=Eat+that+%2Caps%2C413&sr=8-1

Voices From the Bench is headed back to Florida for the FDLA Southern States Symposium & Expo (https://www.fdla.net/) all thanks to the great people at Jensen Dental (https://jensendental.com/). You know, the makers of MIYO! (https://miyoworld.com/). Come visit Elvis & Barb in the Jensen booth June 7 & 8 in Orlando. Register today at FDLA.NET! Most people don't like to talk about health insurance. Because it's usually with some insurance broker that doesn't know anything about the dental lab industry and is just looking to make money off of us. But one man is changing all of that. Michael Clark was the Senior Vice President of Domestic Sales and Marketing for Argen (https://argen.com/) for 10 years. Michael spent years learning, helping, and growing dental labs around the country. After some personal "events", Michael decided to fall back on another passion of his, providing good employee benefits. But because of his love for the dental lab industry, he is focusing on labs and technicians. Michael talks about his history before Argen, life at Argen, and how a few simple (and inexpensive) changes a lab can make to benefit every employee that works there. https://www.mbclarkcompanies.com/ Wanting to take your knowledge and skills to the next level? If you are looking for the best education dedicated to dentistry in both the labs and clinics, check out Ivoclar Academy. (https://resources.ivoclar.com/lab/en/academy) From on-demand webinars to in-person training, Ivoclar Academy has a program to meet your busy schedule. Check out all they have to offer HERE! (https://resources.ivoclar.com/lab/en/academy) Whether you are looking to elevate your craftsmanship or looking to cut back costs, look no further – VITA MFT Teeth (https://vitanorthamerica.com/en-US/VITA-MFT-Anterior-369,273,126133.html) are the ultimate solution for creating lifelike and stunning smiles. Crafted with precision and backed by cutting-edge technology, VITA MFT Teeth offers unparalleled esthetics and durability. And since VITA (https://vitanorthamerica.com/) believes in the power of experiencing excellence firsthand, for a limited time only, they're offering you the chance to get a complimentary case sample. That's right, a full case, absolutely free. Just visit vitanorthamerica.com/freemft (https://www2.vitanorthamerica.com/mft/) Don't wait any longer to start providing your customers with a premium tooth at an economy price. Redeem your free case sample and if you're ready to buy, VITA will even give you an extra 10% discount by shopping online on their newly launched online store. Join the VITA family today. Special Guest: Michael Clark.

FRED'S BIO Fred Rivera is as accomplished as he is a terrific human being and has had a remarkable career. He is one of the highest ranking (and few) Latinos in the business of American professional sports. He currently serves as Executive Vice President and General Counsel for the Seattle Mariners, loves the game, started pitching as a young kid (great curveball), played in college, and deeply knows the economics of sports - and their positive impact on communities across America. We talk about school, multi generational influences, LA Law (the show), community fabric, leadership, and of course, emotional connections to baseball. His Mariners role was preceded by another big role: Fred served as Managing Partner of Perkins Coie's Seattle office, one of the largest and most prestigious law firms in the United States where he spent about two decades. He started his  career in the 1990's as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and in the early 2000's he served as Vice President in charge of internal investigations at Fannie Mae. He serves on the boards of directors of Heritage Bank (NASDAQ: HFWA), Delta Dental of Washington and OAC Services, and ROOT Sports, the Mariners-owned regional sports network. He has been recognized  in the U.S. News-Best Lawyers in America and as Director of the Year (2022) by the Puget Sound Business Journal. Fred also serves, or has served, as President of the Latina/o Bar Association of Washington, Regional President of the Hispanic National Bar Association and the boards of Rainier Scholars, Trustee of the King County Bar Association, Board of Directors of the Downtown Seattle Association, ArtsFund, and the United Way of King County, where he was Chairman. FRED RELATED LINKS Talking Baseball and More Baseball- KIRO7 News & KING5 News Heritage Financial Profile MCCA Profile Luminaries in Law - Seattle University Distinguished Alum Award - California State University GENERAL INFO| TOP OF THE GAME: Official website: https://topofthegame-thepod.com/ RSS Feed: https://feed.podbean.com/topofthegame-thepod/feed.xml Hosting service show website: https://topofthegame-thepod.podbean.com/ Javier's LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/javiersaade  SUPPORT & CONNECT: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/96934564 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551086203755 Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOPOFGAMEpod Subscribe on Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/site/podcatcher/index/blog/vLKLE1SKjf6G Email us: info@topofthegame-thepod.com   THANK YOU FOR LISTENING – AVAILABLE ON ALL MAJOR PLATFORMS  

‍Are you a budding dental professional wanting to venture into an independent practice? Well, this episode has everything you need to get started. Dr. Rebecca Bradley, who made the brave leap from a high-paced chain to starting her own dental clinic, hands out the roadmap to this transition in our conversation today. Rebecca's journey throws light not just on the operational and financial complexities involved, but also the personal endeavor that went into establishing her unique place in the world of dental care.In the midst of operational factors and strategic marketing efforts, Rebecca's firm belief in personalized patient care emerges powerfully. Rebecca's unwavering dedication, despite grappling with the daunting task of leaving a stable job and young kids at home, reflects a candid and inspiring narrative. If you're dreaming about creating a practice that truly marries your professional aspirations with a deep Impact on people's lives, this episode with Rebecca Bradley might just be the push you need.What You'll Learn in This Episode:The steps to transition from an employed dental professional to a private dental clinic ownerHow strategic marketing and community engagement helps in establishing a dental practiceThe importance of social media and local partnerships in attracting patientsThe financial considerations while operating a startupThe role of personal vision and a patient-centric approach in creating a successful practiceDon't wait any longer to kickstart your dream dental practice. Tune in to this episode now.‍‍Sponsors:‍For DSO integrations, startup solutions, and all your dental IT needs, let our sponsors, Darkhorse Tech, help out so you can focus on providing the amazing care that you do. For 1 month of FREE service, visit their link today! https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/darkhorse-deal/‍Guest: Dr. Rebecca BradleyPractice Name: QC South DentistryCheck out Rebecca's Media:Website: https://qcsouthdentistry.com/Email: smile@qcsouthdentistry.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/qcsouthdentistry/‍Other Mentions and Links:‍Places/Establishments:UNC Adams School of DentistryInsurance Companies:Delta DentalProducts/Brands:iTeroInvisalignDentrix AscendMicrosoftSpectrumTransendental, LLCIdeal PracticesHDA AccountingOrganizations:HIPAAThe Beauty Boost‍Host: Michael Arias‍Website: The Dental Marketer Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/‍Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society‍Please 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/ company, 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.‍‍

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series. This week's episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and Andy Ellis (@csoandy), operating partner, YL Ventures. Joining me is our guest, Alex Green, CISO, Delta Dental. In this episode: Is it true that employees cause as many significant cybersecurity incidents as outside threat actors? Does this come down to a lack of awareness or poorly designed security implementation? And what can we do to improve this situation? Thanks to our podcast sponsor, Silk Security Silk makes it easy for security teams to resolve more critical cyber risks in a fraction of the time. Instead of toiling over spreadsheets, and watching alert backlog graphs go up, Silk helps security teams contextualize, prioritize and collaborate with stakeholders in IT to regain control over their risk posture.

Do you get hung up on the "right way" to do something in your practice? Well, today I'm speaking with, Dr. LaRee Johnson, as she shares her journey of establishing a thriving dental practice from scratch, and how her flexible and resilient attitude made all the difference in her career fulfillment. She uncover how her Southern California origins influenced her professional growth, leading her to create a dental wellness oasis in sunny North Carolina.Striking a balance between work-life and home isn't as straightforward as it seems. Especially when you are a dental practitioner like LaRee, who, despite initially believing that her own practice would afford her more family time, quickly realized the reality was far different. Today we're gathering lessons from her experiences of juggling various responsibilities and managing multiple office locations. Get inspired by LaRee's commitment to quality care, the significance she places on effective communication, and the ways she prioritizes continuing education and community involvement.What You'll Learn In This Episode:How to start a dental practice from the ground upWhy to never say "always" and keep an open mindThe challenges involved in balancing work and family lifeThe importance of effective communication in the dental professionHow to manage multiple office locations successfullyThe significance of continuing education and community involvementDon't miss the opportunity to learn from Dr. LaRee's journey. Tune in to this episode and discover the blueprint for establishing and managing a successful dental practice.‍‍Guest: Dr. LaRee JohnsonPractice Name: Carolina Pediatric DentistryCheck out LaRee's Media:Website: https://www.carolinapedo.com/Email: drlaree@gmail.comPhone: 919-247-8706‍Other Mentions and Links:‍Software/Tools:ExcelDentOpen DentalBrands/Products:Intraosseous Injection - dentalhitechCoronaEmergen-CBOPSInsurance Companies:Delta DentalTricareMetLifeBooks/Publications:If You Give a Mouse a CookiePlaces/Establishments:Raleigh Children's Surgery CenterUNC at Chapel HillResearch Triangle ParkKellogg School of Management ProgramsOrganizations:American Board of Pediatric DentistryHIPAAPeople:Dr. Larry Dempsey in Rocky Mount, North CarolinaDr. Clark morrisEvents: Tar Heel 10 Miler‍Host: Michael Arias‍Website: The Dental Marketer Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/‍Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society‍Please 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/ company, 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.

WBJ Talent Summit Panel 2 was made up of Jennifer Bauer of Delta Dental of Kansas, Carrie Cox of AGH, John Ford of Tessere, Jamie Harrison of Meritrust, and Amanda Rock of Poet Biofuels.

In this podcast episode, Gary and Naren address the top 10 questions from RIDA members on transitioning from PPO plans. They discuss the timeframe for the transition, fee adjustments by Delta Dental, costs of SEO versus Google Ads patients, secrets to low-cost SEO patients, and evaluating readiness to resign from PPO plans. Practical insights and strategies are shared for dental practitioners aiming to reduce insurance dependence.

In this podcast episode, Clay Callaway shares his journey of bringing about digital transformation in Delta Dental of California. He talks about their challenges due to siloed data within the organization and how the approach pivoted towards enterprise-wide data management. They began resolving these issues by implementing data governance and building a solid data foundation. Clay emphasizes how combining this data with the right technologies has allowed Delta Dental to think about its business in new ways and improve customer service. Highlights: 01:26 Start of the Digital Transformation Journey 01:44 The Problem of Data Silos 03:15 Shift to an Enterprise Approach to Data 03:46 Role of Data Governance and Strategy 04:57 Importance of Understanding Business Use Cases 06:01 Evolution of Data Strategy and Roadmap 07:46 Impact of Data on Business Outcomes 10:44 Role of Technology in Data Transformation 14:13 Future of Data-Driven Decision Making 18:14 Impact of Data on Customer Experience Clay Callaway is the Director of Ops Data Insights and Analytics at Delta Dental of California. He works with business leaders to make data-driven Insights a critical step in decision making. Clay has been with Delta Dental for more than 15 years of his 25+ year career; previously, he was in DDC's Technology Organization as the Director of Applications Development for Data and Analytics. In this role, he directed data strategy, data architecture, and data management to build and deliver technologies, tools, and solutions, including the implementation of a data governance office and a modern cloud data platform. He was previously an Architect and Manager, where he developed analytics, business intelligence solutions, and tools to help customers, providers, and employees navigate business challenges. https://www.linkedin.com/in/claycallaway/ ---- Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.comHave questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

‍‍Are you wearied by the low reimbursements from Dental PPOs and considering if there's a different, better way to improve your practice's profitability? Then you need to tune into this compelling episode of The Dental Marketer, as I interview Dr. Ben Burkitt, who's been in your shoes and emerged victorious. After implementing a revolutionary change in his own dental practice, Dr. Burkitt demystifies the process of dropping dental PPOs and its potential ripple effects to the bottom-line profitability of your dental practice. Learn how you can switch from being insurance driven to being patient-centric and multiplying your revenue in the process.What You'll Learn in This Episode:Why dropping Dental PPOs may benefit your dental practiceHow to perform effective analysis of profitability for different proceduresThe significance of the 20 code collection score in this analysisHow dropping low-paying insurance plans won't necessarily lead to a loss of your existing patientsEvidence-based tips to attract patients from better paying insurance plansAnd not just that, Dr. Burkitt takes us through his own experiences - the reservations, the risks, and how he managed it all while driving remarkable growth in his practice's revenue. Queue this podcast episode up today and dive into a data-driven approach to revamp your dental practice!‍‍Guest: Dr. Benjamin BurkittPractice Name: We Care Dental CareCheck out Ben's Media:Website: https://www.raisingdentalincome.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/benjamin.fowlerburkittEmail: ben@raisingdentalincome.com‍Other Mentions and Links:‍Dr. Burkitt's Other Podcast Episodes:MMM [INSURANCE] HOW TO STRATEGICALLY START DROPPING INSURANCES WHILE MAINTAINING A HIGH PRODUCTIONMMM [INSURANCE] BEHIND THE SCENES OF DROPPING PPOS AND DOUBLING YOUR PRACTICE'S PROFITABILITYWHAT IS HYBRID SCHEDULING AND WHY IT IS KEY TO MAXIMIZING PRODUCTIONHOW TO DROP PPO INSURANCES (SO YOU CAN GET PAID FAIRLY FOR YOUR SERVICES)226: DR. BENJAMIN BURKITT | DIGGING OUT OF THE "CORONA CRATER"‍Software/Services:Google AdsMeta AdsGoogle My Business‍Insurance Companies: CignaHumanaUnitedHealthcareConnection DentalUnitas DentalDelta Dental‍Books/Publications:The Dropping Dental PPOs Playbook: A Guide to Going Out of Network Without Going Out Of Your MindThe Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement‍Establishments/Brands:ToyotaInternational Brotherhood of TeamstersUPSCVS‍Host: Michael Arias‍Website: The Dental Marketer Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/‍Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society‍Please 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/ company, 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.‍

‍Guest: Michelle JorgensenPractice Name: Total Care Dental and WellnessCheck out Michelle's Media:Practice Website: https://www.totalcaredental.com/Living Well with Dr. Michelle Website: https://livingwellwithdrmichelle.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/livingwellwithdrmichelle/‍Other Mentions and Links:‍Tools/Resources:IAOMT - The International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology‍Companies/Brands:UPSDelta DentalMetLifeNuCalm‍Terms:IVF - In Vitro FertilizationChlorella‍Host: Michael Arias‍Website: The Dental Marketer Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/‍Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society‍‍What You'll Learn in This Episode:The real reason behind Dr. Jorgensen's transition from associate dentist to leading her own practice.How she navigated her mysterious health issues and the valuable lessons she learned along the way.The impact of her health journey on her approach to dentistry, in particular safe procedures for mercury filling removal.How unexpected challenges fueled her decision to shift to a fee-for-service model, and why this could be a game-changer for patient care.The power of joining trend topics in mommy groups on Facebook as a marketing strategy and how to optimize the promotion of your practice.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/ company, 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.‍Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors)Michael: All right. It's time to talk with our featured guest, Dr. Michelle Jorgensen. Michelle, how's it Michelle: going? Great. Thanks for having me today. Michael: No, thank you so much for coming on and being part of the podcast. If you don't want me asking, tell us a little bit about your past, your present, how'd you get to where you are Michelle: today?Yeah, so mine's definitely an interesting story and I know you shared with me, you know, largely part of your audience are people who are starting out and I was a lot like them, you know, I was a lot like all of the, all of you who are listening right now. My father is actually a dentist. So I was an associate for four years in a practice where I learned a lot, but I wasn't a very good associate and that I really like to be in charge and I like to call the shots and I like to, you know, do my own thing.And so. Uh, my father and I actually started a new practice together and all we had were a few patients that came from my associateship. So it was definitely, uh, um, you know, starting from ground zero and, and building it up from there with two practitioners. So we started building and our focus was really on extreme care.That was, this was in the early two thousands and, uh, the kind of the spa dentistry and all those things were really the focus. And the practice group, it grew well and it grew quickly and people liked what we were doing. And thing was, things were great. You know, I, I just thought I would probably practice like that for my forever.My father's still practicing in his seventies. And unfortunately, that's not what happened for me. So at about eight years or so in, I started getting really sick. And I didn't know what it was and I had, uh, really, I started looking for answers everywhere, everywhere, you know, doctors, chiropractors, MRIs, physical therapists, you know, I just went everywhere and my big ones, really, that was it. we're, uh, career ending, potentially, is my memory. I literally couldn't remember a patient's name from room to room. Didn't know why. I've always had a really good memory. And the second one was numbness. I had such numbness in my hands, I was actually not able to even change my burrs anymore. So I didn't have the dexterity to even push the back of the handpiece and pop a burr out.I'd have to hand my handpiece to my assistant. She would change the burr out. And then I thought, Maybe I shouldn't be doing dentistry. You know, if I can't, I can't actually change a bird or perhaps I'm not doing my best work here. So I actually had the practice for sale, my portion of the practice for sale.And I didn't know what I was going to do. I was in my mid thirties and I was the sole breadwinner for my family. My husband was actually working for the practice too, at the time. And we had four little kids and it just looked really bad about that time. So I started reaching out to a whole bunch of different practitioners and finding out You know, what else could I do in dentistry?Could I coach or consult or, you know, all the different options. And finally, one of them just said, you know, have you ever, have you ever thought about mercury? Could it, could that be your problem? And I said, well, I don't know what you mean. I don't have any amalgam fillings. And he said, no, it's not the ones you have.It's the ones you've been drilling out. For the last, you know, decade between dental school and practice, and I'd never given it a second thought ever had never been told that that could be a problem for a dentist ever, but I didn't have anything to lose at this point. You know, the practice was already for sale.So I got tested and that's what it was. There's mercury toxicity off the charts. So all of a sudden, all of my symptoms made sense because mercury is a neurotoxin. And so all of a sudden, my brain issues, my memory issues, my nerve, my hands, everything. Made sense. And the doctors just said, listen, if you're going to keep being a dentist, you can't keep putting this in because it's what's making you sick.Finally, we have an answer for you. You have to figure out, can you do it in a different way? So I had to find out, was there a different way? Was there a different way inside of dentistry? And I'm really glad I'm actually sharing this with young practitioners because I didn't know. That this could be a problem, that this could be a, you know, a hazard in this, in this profession, but it's a very, very real hazard and there's a certain genetic predisposition to not being able to detox things well, and I have that.My dad has one. My mom has one. I have two. So how many of us have that? Well, research is showing 30 to 40 percent of the population. So 30 to 40 percent of the dentists that are listening could also have the same genetic variant that doesn't allow you to dump mercury very easily. So I figured out I could remove this with certain precautions.There was an organization I found that was already doing this. I didn't even know they existed. And I just started doing it for my patient or for me, I started doing it for me, you know, for my own health. And, but patients started saying, What are you doing? Like, this is, you know, this is a little different here.You've covered me up, and you're wearing a different mask, and we've got a big vacuum by my chin, and you know, what's happening here? And so I would share my story, and they were very intrigued, and started saying things like, you know, my doctor might be interested in that. So they started sharing what we were doing with doctors, and all of a sudden doctors started reaching out saying, You know, I've been looking for someone that does this, because I have patients that are looking for it.Can I send them your way? So the practice started growing in a very unusual, unexpected way. All of a sudden, people were coming and asking for this procedure that I was doing just because of my own health. So then they started asking, well, if you do this, do you also do this? And they would ask me other things.Do you do ozone? Do you do PRF? Do you do, you know, and they were asking things that I had never heard of. Again, these doctors were more educated than I was. So I would have to go to some course somewhere and find how to do the thing they were asking about. And then I could start saying, yeah, that's what we do now.We do that now. And the practice continued to grow and continue to grow as we started offering more of these services. And now I have six doctors. And we're multi specialty. We have a full time periodontist, a full time sleep specialist, two full time restorative specialists, a pediatric dentist, all working under the same roof, providing care that's focused on how does the dentistry affect your health?And the practice has grown exponentially because of this. We're one location, but we have Three kind of standalone offices all in one campus, we call it. So, uh, we have, uh, we're just working on building our 19th operatory right now. big location, big office, all focused on one thing. And it's basically a practice I never intended to have.you know, I didn't come out of dental school thinking I would do this. And now I found that this is an incredible opportunity for dentists to talk about health. Yeah. All because Michael: of Really interesting. Yeah, what, what happened? So look, if we could rewind a little bit, um, rewind a lot of it when you decide to be an associate, right?And then you're like, okay, I'm gonna, I'm looking at it. And I'm like, I'm not a good associate. How did you know you weren't a good associate? How did you know you just didn't have to be consistent and stick with it? Michelle: Because I was the one that was now doing all of the staff meetings. I was, uh, I was organizing the supply cabinet.I was doing, I was like setting up all of our off site meetings. I was doing all of those things. I remember I was pregnant with twins and I was sitting in a staff meeting and had like this Big old belly out here and I'm the one running the show and I'm thinking, wait a minute, I don't even own this practice.I should be home sitting in bed right now. Why am I, why do I have so much ownership in this when I don't have ownership in this? And that really was the, the answer for me. Like, all right, you're, you're, you're owning too much to not own here. And that's just my personality. You know, that's just who I am.I'm super bossy. You know, I'm the oldest of five children. I have four younger brothers. I'm used to telling people what to do. it didn't work for me to, to not do, you know, to not be the one that was calling the shots. And I had grown up inside of dentistry too. In fact, I joke that, um, I knew all of only old timers are going to know this, but Linda miles and Paul homily were two practice consultants that were in the, in the eighties and I would ride to school with my dad.And all the way on the way to school, he would listen to Paul Homily and Linda Miles on cassette tapes on my way to school, on my way to high school. And it was a half an hour drive, we lived a long way from the high school, so I could run a dental practice by the time I graduated from high school.Because I had listened to all of those consultant cassette tapes for two years or three years, you know, driving to high school every morning. So I knew what should happen, and I was in this practice, and it wasn't. And it was really hard for me because I was always trying to change things and do things, but I wasn't the one that was really in charge.So that's how I learned. That's how I figured it out. Michael: Did they ever sign with you, like an agreement, like, Hey, stick around and you'll be a partner or anything like that? I don't know. Michelle: No, wasn't something I wanted to do either. I knew that I would have my own practice. I knew that I wanted to be able to practice the way that I wanted to practice.And I didn't see that practice ever going that direction. Michael: Okay. And then we fast forward a little bit. You said, y'all, you and your dad wanted to focus on extreme care. Mm hmm. What, what is Michelle: that? So, what we decided is we said, what are all of the reasons people don't like going to the dentist? Like, list them off.So we just started listing them off. What are they all? Well, pain. Uh, it's expensive. It smells bad. You know, people will say, Oh gosh, it smells like a dental office in here. The noise. You know, all of these things. The chairs are uncomfortable. Our mouths are uncomfortable holding open. We listed off everything.Your hair's messed up when you're done. I mean, even this. My makeup's all washed off when I'm done, you know. Even just little things like that. We listed everything and we said, okay, how can we reverse that? How can we reverse those concerns? So we did things like massage chair pads on the chairs. We had, you know, mouth props all the time for anybody.We used all sorts of, uh, new columns called new calm, kind of a natural sedation. We had. Headphones, you know, noise canceling headphones. We had makeup and hairspray in the bathroom so that people could freshen up after. We had cookies, we were giving away cookies every single day, and fresh bread. We have, and we still have to this day, silver platters with hot towels and chapstick and a mint that goes to every single patient after care. just things like that, that you would get at a high end we're a high end restaurant or high end spa. We incorporated all of those pieces into the dental practice. And this is kind of cool. Actually, we applied or were nominated. I think we were nominated to, for something called best of state in the state that I live in, which is Utah.And we were in the category, I think of healthcare and we actually won in the category of healthcare, which was really cool. But then we were invited to a, an awards banquet. It was televised. I mean, that was in the days when television was like a thing, you know, and, uh, you know, there was, there was a real like, like the newscaster that everybody knew because people watch the news, you know, they were the ones that were running the whole show and we were at this big banquet and it was so cool.And we didn't know, but there were overall categories for also best of state things. So we were under the category of consumer services. So we're in the same category as hotels, um, car lots, like, you know, car sales place, hospitals, everything that served the consumer. So we didn't realize that we were going to get our, you know, our little healthcare award, but that we were also in the running for these bigger awards.And we laughed when we looked on this, the program, because we saw we were against an enormous, very high end hotel in Salt Lake City. We were up against a huge car dealership, a huge hospital, like all these things, we were up against them. And we were like, well, we'll never win. We did. We won. We won the entire category for the state of Utah that year.Because this was so revolutionary. Because this was something that no one was doing. No one was talking about it. No one had seen it before. It was so cool. And so, we really figured out that you can make a difference inside of your Inside of your profession by just being different, just saying, what do people want and how can we actually do it?And so we did that and we have since carried on. We don't make cookies anymore. That's one thing we did give up, unfortunately. But, um, we, we, we went through, I can't even tell you, probably hundreds of thousands of cookies over the, over the span of time that we were making cookies. Even, you know, the UPS guy would pick up his cookie on the, on the drop off his boxes.But, um, we've kept a lot of those high touch services in the practice. And it enabled us, this is a whole different thing. I never even talk about it enabled us to go fee for service about five years into that practice, into that startup practice, we completely went off all insurance, everything. And it's because people were coming to us for a reason and it wasn't because we were on their plan.So years and years ago, that was a long time ago. We made that switch because there was a reason to come a reason other than we were just on their list. And we've continued that way. We're still fee for service today. So we've been that way for about 15 years. Michael: Interesting. So when you went into fee for service, did you have that?Like, okay, we're going to drop Delta now. And then we're going to drop next. Or were you more like, we got it. We can drop it all at once if we wanted Michelle: to. No, we took out the worst ones first, but you know, there was a day when I realized I had to do this. I'll always remember this day. I was treatment planning on a woman, and she wanted some cosmetic work.Well, I, at the time, and it probably still to this day, I don't know, MetLife, even if it wasn't a covered service, so Veneer wasn't a covered service under MetLife, but even if it wasn't a covered service, I was still required to adjust my feet. And I knew that. So even though, you know, let's say 1, 000, you know, it was 1, 000, I had to adjust my fee down to 700, even though they paid 0.So, I was treatment planning this woman, she wanted some veneers, and I knew she had MetLife insurance. And I was hesitant to actually treatment plan her. And that day I said, I cannot. Be true to who I am. I cannot be honest with my patients and myself if I'm treatment planning based on the dollar. I will not do this anymore.So that day was the day we decided we're going to start taking these down one at a time. So, you know, we took the one that we had the fewest patients on or was the worst compensation, you know, had the lowest compensation. That one went first. We kept building up everything, like everything we increased, we increased our service.We increased our high touch. We increased the, you know, we real huge focus on the way we cared for patients in the reception room, on the phone and everywhere. We just really ramped up the service as we started dropping those. And did we lose patients? Absolutely. But you know what? We kept the large majority.So we just started dropping them. And there's some studies, really interesting studies that show that. If you are adjusting off a certain amount, you know, of the fee, let's say you adjust off 30 percent of your fee and I don't, I'm going to just make up the numbers, but it's something like you can actually do like 40 percent less work and make the exact same dollar amount if you get full fee.So we could lose like 40 percent of our patients and not see one drop in our bottom line because we weren't giving the money to the insurance company. You know, we were giving the money to the insurance company at this point, and then we decided, well, let's just, like, give money to our patients instead, or give, you know, money to our team, and let's give it to somebody else.We could see a significantly fewer number of patients and make the same amount because we weren't writing off for every procedure. These are just things that we realized, and it was, it was really a practice changing thing for us. Michael: How did you, I guess, how did you tell your patients, and then how did you increase your high touch points at the same time?So for example, I know you said you dropped off the cookies, right? But like, what Michelle: else? Then we have the cookies.Michael: Yeah. Like right there, you up the cookies, which I was thinking like, it's pretty brilliant because it covers the smell too, you know what I mean? It's absolutely Michelle: right. That's exactly Michael: right. Yep.So what were you turning the knob on drastically? And then while you were kind of like turning the knob down on, or how were you telling your patients? Michelle: Yep, so we weren't telling them through a letter. We were just telling them as they would come in. And so it was a real honest conversation and I've really prided myself on just having those real honest conversations.I just say to the patient, you know what? I care about you. You're the one that I care for. And unfortunately, the way the insurance company has, has set themselves up as they are between you and I, and I don't want anything between you and I. I want to be your care provider. And so in order to do that, what we're going to do is be a out of network provider for your plan.So we didn't say we're dropping it. You can't come. You know, we just said you were an out of network provider for your plan. What does that mean for you? It means that if we were writing off previously to provide the care that we're going to provide for you. Then that will now be a charge that you will have.We're going to explain it ahead of time. We will help you know what that means. We're going to offer discounts, cash discounts, that sometimes it's all going to come out in the wash for you. So we'll give you a discount at the time of, you know, paying at the time of service and. We want to be the place you want to come for forever.So in order to be able to provide the kind of care that you've come to know and love, this is something that's going to be really important for us to do. So I just have that conversation, need a new patient. And you know, one of the things that I've really stood by is in this world, there are wanters and needers.This is kind of an interesting concept. So wanters and needers, and if you need this patient, they will feel it and it repels them. So if you need them to stay, you're going to, you're going to phrase it differently. You're going to come off differently, your energy is going to be different, you're going to feel very desperate.And typically patients are going to be like, I don't know why they're so desperate and so clingy and needy, or you know, I'm going to leave. So, versus wanters. A wanter is what do you want for your practice and what do you want for your patient? I wanted to be able to do better care for them. And that's how it came across.I don't need you to stay. I want you to stay you're not going to get better care than what you get here. So we, that was what we communicated is I want you to stay. So what are we going to do? Well, we are going to do some pretty dang cool things around here. If you haven't noticed, we're already pretty cool as it is, but we are even going to take better, you know, and so we would do things like every time a patient would leave, we would write a quick little note.They're going to Hawaii next week or, you know, whatever it is, and every patient before they got seated, the team member would check that note. They would sit them down. How was your trip to Hawaii? I'm sorry. But if you remember that next time they come, that 20 they have to pay in your office versus the guy down the street doesn't really matter as much anymore, because especially today, like this was, this was 15 years ago, especially today, who gives you customer service?Mm hmm. No one. Yeah, you're right. Like, it's AI anymore, you know, I mean, that's like, it's, nobody cares for you. Nobody gives you extraordinary service. If you do extraordinary service today, nobody, you have no competition. Zero. Michael: No, that's true. That's true. When, now, that's an interesting, uh, concept, the wanters and needers, because. I feel like especially at the beginning phase you're in so much debt and then you're like I need to break even I Need to do all these things right and so you're even Major discounting sometimes like your services and all these things. How do we fight that I guess, and change our mindset because waking up the next day, you're like, Oh crap, I need money.Right? Like I need income here coming in. Michelle: Have you ever heard the quote that says that those that have get more? Yeah. Why? Because they don't need it. Needing is a very negative emotion. And you know how when you walk into a room and you can tell somebody's been talking about you? You know how you can just feel like the energy?You're like, somebody's been talking about me. Or, you know, what's going on in this room? You can just tell. There's energy based around the way that we present ourselves to the world as well. If you present yourself as a needy person, you know, have you ever met a needy person? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you want to hang with them?No. No. Do want to give them what they want? Not really. So if you present yourself as needy, it's actually going to repel patients. So how do you avoid this? Do you need them? Change it to a want. What do you want for them? For them, not for you, for them. What do you want for them? Man, I want to provide the best crown I can get anywhere.Guess what patient, I am so excited you're here because that tooth is cracked and I do not want that happening when you are on a cruise. So the cool thing is, is we have the most amazing lab you're going to absolutely love. The crown that we're able to provide for you because no more emergencies on a, on a cruise.You don't have to worry about it anymore. So excited you're going to get scheduled for this. You know what? If you can get this in next week, that would be great. Does that sound needy? No, that's not. I want something for them. Michael: Yeah. It sounds very like nonchalant. Like you're like, okay, yeah, yeah. Thank you for thinking of my cruise.Right. Michelle: Kind of thing. Yep. You're wanting something for them. You're not needy. It's not about you. It's about them. You have to phrase things in a way that's wanting instead of needing. Michael: Okay. That's really good to keep in mind. Every time we're like treatment except, you know what I mean? Like planning and talking and checking out, handing off all that stuff.Awesome. Okay. Then if we fast forward a little bit more, the symptoms and how you got sick. So starting off here. And I'm sure like this can go real interesting, real quick, but like, how did you start realizing? Because I feel like we all kind of experienced that sometimes, Michelle, where we're like, Oh, I forgot.Oh, I don't know. I forgot. And you don't think about it. Right. But, and it can be something real quick. Like, okay, I got to remember the license plate. L2, And then you look at it and you're like, Oh, what was it again? What Michelle: was it? And I never Michael: think about it like it's, if it's a memory issue, numbness maybe, but anyway, so how did the symptoms, when did it start becoming alarming for you?Yeah. Michelle: So, again, good old days, we would have, traditional film x rays. And on occasion, in our charts, you new guys don't even have charts or film x rays, but in those days we did. I'm so, I sound so old, don't I? Uh, so we would have a real chart, and occasionally those film x rays would fall on the ground.And so you'd see a film x ray falling on the ground. My team would always bring it to me because they would say, who is this? I could look at that film and I would know which patient it was, like nine times out of 10. And they'd be like, what? How do you know? You're right. How do you know this patient? How do you know?Cause they didn't know which chart to put it back into. But I just had that kind of a memory. I have a very visual memory. If I see something, if I read it on a page, I know exactly where it is. If you know, that's just the way my brain works, which is I think why I'm a dentist. And I think a lot of dentists have the same gift.We're very visual, which is why we're good at what we do. We can reproduce. Something visually, you know, so I had a very good memory. I've always had a good memory and it got to the point where I would see a patient. I would go to a next room and somebody would come back and say, um, what do you want to do for the lab?You know how they come. Oh yeah. By the way, you know, what did you want to, what did you want to do for that crown? And I'd say what crown? I didn't even remember that. I just done a crown. Like it was bad. Yeah. So I got from, I could identify any x ray on the ground too. I couldn't even remember the procedure.I just did 10 minutes ago, but those were the bad, bad days. The semi bad days were just why can't I think, you know, and people use words like brain fog and, you know, in fact, or brain fart, you know, brain, but, you know, did you, or is your brain actually not working as well as it should. So I really do want to go to the mercury piece just for a minute because I didn't know.And I wish someone had told me when I was five years out of school. You know, I wish someone had told me we learn in dental materials, right? We learn that those fillings are 50 percent mercury. Well, they are. So when we drill them out, what you're doing is releasing mercury vapor. Well, where's your head?Right? Smack over the vapors, right? Vapors go up. So, mercury deposits, I like to think of it in neighborhoods. It goes to different neighborhoods. One of its favorite neighborhoods to go live in is the brain. So when you have mercury in the brain, I mean, when you, if you break a thermometer, you got a hazmat team coming to your house, right?We have mercury separators. We can't throw those away in just normal old places. But yet we can breathe it in just fine. They have no issues with us doing that. But you can't get rid of it when it goes down your suction. You can't just throw that away. That'd be terrible. It doesn't make sense. That we don't think of mercury the same way as it's being thrown up into the air and splattered all over.I mean, you know, when you've been doing dentistry, you're like, covered in your mask. I mean, you're gross when you're done. Why don't we think of it the same way? Why do we need a hazmat suit when we break a thermometer? But yeah, we can breathe it in all day long and it's not, no problem. There's no problem with that.There's no way that can make us sick. It makes no sense. So I think a lot of this comes from years ago when doctors were telling people, I'm going to be able to cure your MS. If I take out your mercury fillings, this was the talk I got in dental school was if you tell a patient that you'll lose your license.And that was the truth. Well, I don't tell people that I don't tell them that, you know, I'm going to cure their MS because I take out their mercury fillings. What I say is that those have fillings have mercury. Do you still want them? Well, no, I don't know. People know about mercury. They're not supposed to eat fish anymore, you know, because it could have mercury, but you're at, you're walking around with big old hunks of it sitting in your mouth.Really? So then. Do you really want to be breathing that in? I mean, really, do you want to really sacrifice your brain for that? I don't want to sacrifice my brain for that. And there's an interesting statistic that you've probably heard that dentists have one of the highest rates of suicide in any profession.Guess why I think it is? Because our brains are being fried by mercury. So we're not thinking right anymore. Really? I mean, is dentistry that much worse than other jobs? I can think of some other jobs that are way worse. Yeah. Why are we, you know, so why are we committing suicide over other people? Why are we doing it?Because our brains are fried. They're filled with a toxic neurotoxic substance. That's Michelle 101, but I lived through it, so I don't want anybody not to even have this little inkling of a thought in their head like, Oh wow, could that, could she be right? Michael: No, it's good. It's good that they're interesting because you're right.All that stuff is true in the sense of like you are over it, you are breathing it, there is precautions for everything else but that. Yep, and Michelle: guess what else? I never had a baby, naturally, never, in all my years. I was, I was able to have twins through in vitro and then I adopted two more children because I went through multiple, I mean years and years and years and years of fertility treatment.Guess what I think it was? Mercury. And how many women are sitting in our dental offices? Between the dentists, the dental assistants, the receptionists, the hygienists, and if mercury could potentially affect fertility. So my, partner, also a woman, she went for years without being able to have a baby. And she changed practices, stopped removing mercury fillings, was doing other, just other procedures, and was able to get pregnant.Then got back in, started removing a bunch of mercury, then she came to my practice, and, surprise, surprise, was able to get pregnant! Every single time she removed herself from mercury, all of a sudden, even though she'd had years. Uh, fertility issues. In fact, she just got pregnant again for the third time.Her baby's only a year old. She thought it would take forever, but because she has no mercury exposure anymore, surprise, real surprise. She's going to have babies a year apart now because she did not expect. That she would be able to get pregnant like that, but I strongly believe it was because she didn't, doesn't have mercury exposure anymore.So these are just little nuggets that I like to throw out to say, just think about it. Michael: That's so crazy you're talking about that right now. Literally two hours ago, I was talking to a friend about that, how they have to go through another version of a IVF because they All right. You know what I mean?They're just like trying and Michelle: I went three, one to get twins, two more failed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The money, the emotion, the toll on your body, all of the above, it's not worth it. Especially because removing mercury safely, all you have to do is use that big vacuum you bought for, for COVID, you know, everybody bought the vacuum.Good. That's, that's what you're going to do. You're going to put that thing in front of you and all you're going to do is just put a few barriers and you're just going to put a higher filtration mask. Like it's nothing hard, literally it costs almost nothing to do this. Why would you risk it? Michael: So then let me ask you, Michelle, from the moment you started doing that.I guess from the moment you realized, Oh my God, it's mercury. And then the moment you started implementing all the procedures and protocols and right, like the vacuum and everything. How quickly did you see a Michelle: change? Oh, it took for a while. It took a long time to get a hundred percent back. Like it was like eight years before I went, I think my brain's back.But I started noticing incremental change immediately. You know, immediately I would, okay. You know, the numbness is a little better. Numbness is a little better. I'm able to, you know, do a little bit more fine detail work here now. And, and I was just so conscious about it as well. So if I was going to be removing mercury, we were like, man, we, you know, everything precautions.And I was working really hard systemically with my system to detox as well. So I was doing two things, making sure nothing was coming in, but also getting things out very, very, you know, vigorously. And I also think that's important for dentists to know is we are around, think of the, think of the toxins we are around, you know, it's not just mercury radiation.How much radiation? How many times do we just hold that x ray? Yeah, go ahead. Just go ahead. You know, how many times? All the time. Holding that x ray. Just go ahead. Yeah, just go ahead. Take it. It's fine. Um, you know, so radiation, mercury, nitrous. All the BPA stuff, all those chemicals, I mean, nothing stinks that we're using, does it at all?I mean, have you ever smelled porcelain etchant? My gosh. You know, any of those things. So all of those toxins are just swimming around in the world we're living in. Yeah, you ought to be probably working to get all that junk out. Michael: Interesting. Okay. So then, and now, does that, when you say getting it all out, does that also mean like, so for example, are you still eating fish and stuff like that or Michelle: no?Sure. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just, I'm conscious about it. You know, obviously I'm not going to eat all the, they talk about, you don't eat the big ones, you know, you don't eat the tuna very often. You eat the other stuff. So we, you know, salmon, we eat halibut. Yeah, we absolutely do. But getting it out is more about giving your body.So there's two things that you need. You need a grabber. It's called a chelator. That's the word that medicine uses. But it's basically a substance that'll go in and grab the toxin. Then you need somebody that escorts it out of the system. So really the detox component is those two things. So there's some chelators that are very simple.Chlorella, which is just like a little single cell green, you know, thing. You can throw it in a smoothie. Um, cilantro. Is a great one is a great help for detoxing. Mercury. Um, pectin, pectin is an apples. So apples and dates are phenomenal for helping to detox, you know, so there's just little things like this that I'm just real conscious pumpkin seeds that I'm just conscious about throwing into my diet and adding extra up.Now, actually, interestingly, when I was going through this, the doctor said, you need to have 97 Ivy chelation treatments, And I said, I don't have time. I've got four little kids. I've got to practice. It's like slowly sinking into the, into the, you know, the, the black sea right now because my health is suffering.And I don't have time to sit here for an hour, 97 times in a row. So you're going to have to give me another option. So there were other options that I took mostly oral, you know, pills and things that I was taking. I've since learned that those IV chelations didn't do what we thought they did. So I'm really glad I didn't get 97 hours of my life away.I'm actually quite, quite happy about that, but there are things to do. And I really recommend that you work with a functional medicine practitioner because they're going to find out, okay, are your elimination systems working? Basically, are your kidneys and your liver and your gut? Are they operating as they should be?Because that needs to happen first. Otherwise you're going to grab all this stuff and just dump it there and it's not going to go anywhere. And then you're just going to get sick in a different way. So they need to make sure everything's moving first and then they can help give you the supplements to actually grab and move it out.Michael: Gotcha. Interesting. Okay. So right now, if we're in year one to year five of our practice ownership, what precautions would you coach us with? It's Michelle: easy stuff, easy stuff. So that big COVID vacuum. You know what I'm talking about? The big like the elephant nose thingy. Yep, stick that in front of the patient's nose or patient's mouth.Why? It's just gonna suck the vapors, right? It's just gonna pull everything their direction. You can get a very simple mercury filtration mask and I can give you, uh, I'll give you the sites that you can put on show notes so people can check it out. But the I, I'll say it fast, they'll have to look it up probably, I A O M T.is the organization that I went and found. So I a o m t. org. That's the organization. If you go on there, they have so many resources for dentists. They have entire kits. You can buy, they have mercury filtration masks. I started out with like these giant crazy talk masks. I couldn't fit my loops over them.I couldn't even like get close enough to a patient to actually like. See what I was doing. It was terrible. So I, I backed off that. And so I wear a regular mask with this special mercury filter mask over the top. And it's just a cloth mask that fits right over the top, but it has, it has added filtration for mercury.Absolutely. Do that for the patient. Then that's really big one for those. Those are the two for you. Big vacuum mask. For the patient, use some coverings. do something to cover their body. Make sure you're using either an isolator or a rubber dam. Keep it out of their mouth. Make sure you're suctioning.Your assistants know, suction every single last bit of that junk when you're drilling those babies out of there. You know, just make sure that everybody's very, very conscious about what they're doing. It's easy. But here's the other thing I would do. I would talk about it. Because when you're year one to five, guess what?You need a market differentiator. You need a reason that people are going to find you because they're not going to find you because you have experience. They're not going to find you because you have, you know, 10, 000 Google reviews. They're not going to find you because, you know, they've been seeing you for 10 years.They're not going to find you for those reasons. So you have to find a reason. You have to create a reason that they can find you. There is an entire Subset of the population that's huge, that's looking for a more natural health focus in all of medicine. You know, you're probably talking about it too.Every single person on here has probably been hearing or thinking about this also. COVID switched this narrative. They switched this narrative where all of a sudden we all start questioning. Maybe everything that people tell us isn't exactly as it really is. And, um, are there things I could do to keep myself safe that wasn't?The vaccine or wasn't a pill or what? You know, people started looking and started asking these questions and A large portion of the population are still doing that saying, I kind of like that approach. Not just taking everything at face value that the medical, you know, world tells me. So what else could I be doing natural?This is why all these Instagram or influencers are taken off like crazy because they're all selling all this information and these products. You know, they're selling the natural, the no dyes, the no chemicals. I guarantee you, you know, it's. Mostly driven by women. I'll tell you that. So most women listening or most men listening have a wife that's also in this thing, you know, and women make health care decisions, right? You've probably been told this. Women make health care decisions and guess the health care, the health care decisions they're making right now are those that are better for their body. So if you can say we have health focused treatments here at our practice, then all of a sudden you're different than the guy down the road.There's a reason to come see you. Interesting. Michael: Okay. And is that what you're kind of, cause I know your Instagram Pretty big, or actually all your social medias are pretty big, well like your Instagram I want to say you're at over 100, 000, right? Michelle: Yeah, 146, 000 actually, as of yesterday. I know this. Yeah,Michael: do you just handle that or does that, you have a team Michelle: who handles that or how does that work?I did for a long time. I now have a social media coordinator that answers most of the things on there because it's a lot, all day long. Michael: Yeah, and what was the strategy behind that, I guess, to grow it that way? Michelle: I started talking about things that people were talking about. And for me, that's all marketing has been.So if you look even through my career, all of a sudden, you know, clear back at the very beginning, this high touch environment, people were talking about that. They were talking about why they hated dentists. Well, let's join the conversation. Then when the economy fell out of everything in 2008, all of a sudden, cosmetic dentistry was not the thing anymore, right?Because nobody had extra dollars. So what was the thing? We turned to disaster dentistry. So I said, well, gosh, if people don't want their teeth to be pretty, they at least want teeth. So let's start taking care of all these people who have a bombed out mouth because they will put their dollars towards that because they can't chew.So then we started, we joined that conversation. Now we've joined the conversation of health because it started in 2020, March of 2020, that conversation started. So we said, well, if that's the conversation, let's join. Let's be part of it. Let's say we can contribute. So that's what I do on my Instagram.That's what I do on all my social sites is I just contribute to what People are already talking about. If they're talking about health, I talk about how dentistry contributes to their health, either in a detrimental way or in a positive way. So I talk about all sorts of things. We talk about procedures, we talk about materials, um, we talk about, you know, things as far as growth and development and ways you can prevent things. all the crazy talk questions that, you know, dentists roll their eyes at, like, can you heal a tooth? You know, can you, can you, you can regrow, you can regrow a tooth. People roll their eyes and I'll say. Yeah, you can actually depends on the size of the cavity, but absolutely let's talk about how and let's talk about this product that you should use that I can sell to you that will help you do it.Yeah. Just join the conversation. Michael: Okay. So then how are you finding these conversations? Cause I feel like sometimes we, we, you know what I mean? Where you started up and you're like, should I just post a new patient special? Right? Like, or something like that. And then Michelle: what's different about that? That's so boring.Yeah. Everybody does that. So instead of a new patient special, what you should post instead is, did you know the mercury is a neurotoxin and that there's mercury in those fillings and here in our dental office of X, Y, Z, we know how to remove that safely. We'd love to talk to you, talk to you about it. And by the way, if you come in today, we will throw in that mercury removal fee for free. this is a huge one too, huge one. Don't discount your procedure, discount a thing. If you discount a procedure, they're never going to want to pay full fee for the procedure ever again. It's just like when you go to a restaurant and you use a coupon. You get 20 percent off to that, to that restaurant.Well, you don't ever want to pay full fee at that restaurant again. Cause it's like, Oh, I've got 20 percent off last time. I don't want to come unless I, it's 20 percent off. So don't discount your procedure discount a thing. So I'll say you get a free tube of toothpaste when you come in for your new patient appointment, or you get the mercury removal fee.That's like 25 bucks a tooth for free. If you come in on this, because they're not going to need that again. They're going to need a cleaning again. They're going to need an x ray again. And I don't want them to keep wanting a discount. I want them to pay the full price the first time. And I want them to keep paying the full price.I'll give them the free stuff. Come in and get free cookies. Get, you know, whatever. So discount a thing. Don't discount a procedure. That's always been my philosophy. Michael: Yeah. No, I love that. That's fantastic. And so I see now for you, especially on Instagram or on your social media, you're, you're starting a lot of these conversations, right?Uh, with that. But when you're starting out, how can, when nobody's watching or anybody's listening really, where do you find these conversations and how do you become like a part of it so where you start gaining traction? Mommy Michelle: groups, mommy Facebook groups, because remember we talked about the mommies are the ones that are talking about this.So mommies are talking about BPAs and sealants. What would you say if somebody came and said, do you have sealants? They're talking about it on their forums. So you go and join their forum, you find out what they're talking about, and then you comment now and then. You go, oh my gosh, we just found out that BPA, the sealant material we were using, did have BPAs.Good news, here at XXY Dental Office, we now have BPA free filling material. It is a low impact ad. Do you know what I mean? It's a free ad, basically. You're, you're doing a service. But you're also advertising your service. So get team members on those mommy Facebook groups. There's gonna be some in your, in your community, I guarantee.But also, if you just start talking about things on social media. So just put a camera in front of your face, or if you're not good at it. Somebody on your team is I guarantee you there's someone on your team who's on Instagram way too much. That's the person you want. That's the person you want. You say, okay, guess what?You're already on Instagram way too much. So I'm going to utilize that skill you've got right there. And what should we be talking about? Have them put it on Instagram. Is it, nobody's going to see it at the beginning, but that's when you use hashtags. So if you put hashtag BPA free sealant, dental sealants, kids dentistry, now when somebody searches that in your area, it's going to pop up. Michael: Interesting. So mommy Facebook groups, but have your team involved in it and so forth. I like that a lot. Okay. Michelle: They know how to use it. You don't know how to use it, but they do. Michael: Yeah. Yeah. And then, I mean, like, it's good to always chime in, right? And Michelle: in the comments.You should be on there. You should be doing it. But they are the ones who are going to tell you what to do. Because they know way better than you do. So they're going to tell you, you're going to talk about this. Yeah. Michael: Interesting. And then did your practice ever sell or no, you never decided because you said you put it up.I didn't Michelle: sell it. I stayed with it. So I stayed with it. Yep. Michael: Were you, were there buyers where you're like, I think I'm about Michelle: to or no? Yep. I actually had my practice for sale three times. That was time. Number one, time. Number two was when my dad sold his portion of the practice and I was going to just exit at that point as well.And again, didn't know what I was going to do. Third time is I had a DSO buyer. And we were a week away from sale and it fell through and it was the best thing that could have happened because the practice then doubled that next year and doubled again, the next. Michael: Wow. So the moments where you decided that you were thinking to sell, why?Michelle: This is actually a really important point, I think. And I love to talk to new dentists about this because a lot of times there's different personalities obviously in the world, but my personality is one that's a fast start, quick start. So I like to start stuff. I love to start stuff, new stuff. And um, when you do personality profiles and things, you can find, is this you?Well, quick starts. Aren't very good at finishing stuff. we typically would get to the point where I'd be real dissatisfied and I thought I was just dissatisfied with the practice. Like just dentistry in general. I just hate it. You know, I just hate this. I just want to get out. I'm so tired of it. I'm so burned out.You know, nobody's ever used any of those words before. You know what I found every single time? Is that it was because it wasn't anymore. It wasn't exciting anymore. I had nothing to start. Like it was so done and over. So, really for me now, this is a really interesting evolution that's happened inside of practice.I, I would go all in on something. So I would say, okay, I'm gonna bring Clear aligners into the practice, you know, whatever it might be. And I'm going to go all in and I'm going to learn all about this. And now all of a sudden, every single patient you see needs clear aligners. You didn't realize before you took the course, now they all need clear aligners, but that's exciting.And that's something new. And it's something that the whole team can get behind and change is good. And then you do that for a year or two or whatever it is. And then you need something else to kind of give you that little bit of a rocket boost, a little bit of, you know, to, to get you excited again.Where am I now? I'm at an entirely different place. I am only in the practice one and a half days a week now. All I do is see new patients and I have two businesses that I'm building on the outside of dentistry. They're still integrated, but they're really on the outside of dentistry. I still contribute and I still have a ton that I bring to my pract