https://youtu.be/499eBRMKtv4?si=4Ly36FNrI-hRQ34y

This transcript with our Jameson Files host Carrie Webber has been lightly edited for flow. To enjoy the audio, you can watch on YouTube or listen to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify.

Carrie:

Welcome to the Jameson Files. I'm your host, Carrie Webber, and it's always so great to be with the Jameson community introducing you to amazing people in our profession that are doing amazing things for dentists and teams.  I'm really happy to have Geri Gottlieb on my podcast today. Geri, if you don't know Geri and, and her company, GG Practice Coaching and Development.... Did I get it right, Geri? 

Geri Gottlieb:

You did.

Carrie:

…she's doing amazing things and has been in the dental industry for, goodness, almost 30 years.

Geri Gottlieb:

32

Carrie:

Over 30 years. So doing great things throughout that history.

Geri Gottlieb:

Started in ortho.

Carrie:

Oh, wow. So, this is a woman that if you don't know this person, you need to know this person, if for nothing else, then if you need a good dose of energy in your life, Geri's the person to bring it to you. So, Geri, thank you for being with me today. I appreciate you.

Geri Gottlieb:

My pleasure. My pleasure. As soon as I got the invitation, I said, of course, I would spend time with Carrie. You kidding?

Carrie:

I have a feeling this conversation may go off the rails at least three times, but I'm gonna love every minute of it. 

Geri Gottlieb:

Exactly.

Geri Gottlieb’s Beginning in Dentistry

Carrie:

So obviously I need to learn a little bit more about your story into dentistry, too. So let's start there. Tell me a little bit about how you started, how you found yourself where you are today. I'm sure there's a lot of interesting stuff in that journey.

Geri Gottlieb:

So, I was recruited into my first dental practice, which was an ortho practice, while I was in college pursuing a degree in psychology with a minor in music.

Carrie:

Oh my gosh.

Geri Gottlieb:

I know Miss. Singer,  we're twins, like, we're spirits.

Carrie:

Okay, keep going. 

Geri Gottlieb:

So I was, and I was working full-time for Macy's. It wasn't Macy's at the time. So I'm from Seattle area, and at the time it was actually called the Bon Marché, and then Macy's bought them out. But I was managing a Clinique cosmetic counter and going to school, and one day I was helping a gentleman with skincare products, and he said, “I want you to come work for me.” And I said, “What do you do?” And he said, “Well, I'm a dentist.” And do you know that little Christmas story cartoon thing where the little elves and the one little elf that wants to be the dentist? And then he says that at the table and everybody goes, “Ah dentist!”

This is what's happening in my brain. And I'm like, I have teeth. I go to the dentist. Never, never had it ever been a thought in my brain of possible career choices or jobs that I would look to have. And he said “You know, I’m an orthodontist and I'm opening a practice, and I could train you on to be an assistant and  everything. I could train you to do everything I need you to do, but I can't train you to be you.”

And I thought, well, I gotta really think about this. And I was newly married at the time, and I said, “Well, tell me a little bit more.” And he told me to come visit the practice, kick the tires, see what it's like. Here's what I knew. They worked four days a week, no evenings or weekends. And my whole life, and even going to school, I was working in retail, and working that evenings and weekends and holidays. So for me, I was like, “Oh, yeah.”

Carrie:

This sounds cushy.

Geri Gottlieb:

And he said, “You could still finish school. Work around it.” And I was like, “Okay.” Long story short, I started off as an assistant. A couple of really unexpected things happened, Carrie. One is I fell in love with dentistry.