https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njyJl1hlf1o

Welcome to the Jameson Files

Carrie Webber:

Welcome to the Jameson Files. I'm Carrie Webber, and I'm your host. Thank you so much for joining us once again for another episode. We're thrilled. If you're here joining us live on Facebook, thank you for popping in and being a part of our live stream. If you're following us on our podcast channels and listening to this through iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify, thank you for being a part of our Jameson Files community. We would encourage you to please subscribe if you haven't already to follow when we get updates, and invite your dental peers to join the community as well. We want to provide content and information that is helpful for you and your continuous growth as a dental professional. So thank you for joining us and for spreading the word. I am so excited to have with us today Jameson's founder and my mother, Cathy Jameson.

And I asked Cathy to join us today because what we have all gone through—as a community, as a society, as a whole—over the past months has been nothing less than extraordinarily stressful, both in our personal lives and in our professional lives. We’ve experienced a great deal, even continuing today, and whether we realize it or not, the results of extensive stress in our lives have a long-term impact. A lot of things that people, practices, teams, groups are experiencing now are the results of long-term experience with stress.

And for those of you that may not know Cathy, Mom has spent the majority of our lives studying stress and how to control stress. And we're very fortunate that she chose dentistry as her point of focus on how to manage stress and control stress in our daily lives. And so I asked you to be a part of today's episode so that we could speak of your lifelong study on stress and talk about not only what we are seeing happening in our dental realm, but also talk about some ways that we as individuals and as teams could do some work, manage it more effectively to get it under control. So let's start with what stress is and share with everyone, if you could, what you've learned in terms of how we could start to identify what stress is and how we may be experiencing it in our lives.

Learn to Identify and Manage Stress

Cathy Jameson:

Great. It's a great place to start. Stress. We often use the term "stress" and the whole, "I'm so stressed; this is so stressful." And so it is important to start with what is stress. Stress is a person's response, either physiologically or psychologically to anything that's impacting them from the outside. And an interesting point about stress is that each individual responds to different stimuli in different ways. Your response may be totally different than my response when we face the same thing. There's nothing good or bad about that. It's just that because we are different different people and we're individuals, we're going to have a different response. And so one of the first things that each of us needs to do is to stop and identify what causes stress for us.

Identify the Source

Now you would do this individually, but you would also do this as a practice. If you're having problems in practice. If you're having discomfort in the practice, just stop and say, “What is causing this discomfort? What's causing the commotion? What's causing the disharmony?” Because the first step in problem solving is to identify what is the problem in the first place. That's the first step in stress management to identify what is it that causes stress in the first place. Once you've identified what's causing stress, the next step is finding ways to resolve that. 

So why is so-and-so upset? Not to judge that person, but to realize that each person's going to respond differently. That doesn't make them good or bad, strong or weak. We're just different.

Types of Stress Responses

And so now let me also make one other point. One kind of response is a physiological or bodily response to stress. We know that could be headaches, migraines, cardiovascular problems, intestinal or stomach problems, sleep disorders. There's many things that can be physiological responses to overwhelming stress. Psychological responses could be irritability, inability to get along with others, a lack of energy, the lack of desire to go to work, can't get up in the morning, can't get enough energy to get dressed. It’s the inability to even function or have any kind of desire to function. 

And this can lead to tardiness. It can lead to absenteeism, which translates to a problem for the practice itself that also can lead to a dysfunction in the productivity of the practice, which becomes a problem to the practice itself. So you’ll want to identify what’s at the root of these sorts of problems. Are there problems that are going on that I really need to start taking care of? 

Because when something begins to have a true physiological or psychological impact on a person, it's then termed distress, and it's when distress begins to have a negative impact on a human being. This can become very harmful. In fact, Ken Cooper from the Cooper clinic wellness clinic in Dallas, Texas, one of the great, great wellness clinics in the world, in my opinion determined in their research that approximately 80% of illnesses being treated in America can be traced back to stress or distress in one way, shape or form. And many other programs, such as by Harvard University, have said the same.

Stress versus Distress

Carrie Webber:

I'm so glad that you brought that up because that idea of stress versus distress is something you have taught me my entire life. You know, stress under control can be good. Sometimes it can help us in our performance. You see stress under control with great athletes. It can, if we control it, stress can be a part of your healthy way of life and how you perform overall. But when you allow stress to get out of control, or if it is having that continuous negative impact on you, that is distress when you really see things start to fray at the ends.

If someone is coming to you in a state of distress, they're not themselves. And we have to recognize if you're working with a team under a great deal of distress (or a spouse or someone in your life, or even yourself) that the best version of ourselves is not coming through because you're not able to function as your best self. It’s good to be in touch and in tune with what healthy stress looks and feels like versus what distress looks and feels like. There are some things that stress you, that you don't have much control of. COVID is a perfect example. What you have to be able to focus on are the things you can control and try to make an impact on those things you can control and let those start to lead the way.

Cathy Jameson:

Right. We cannot control the fact that COVID came into our country, that there were mandates put forth. So things impacted us that we had no control over. But we can hopefully respond in positive, constructive, healthy ways. Maybe we didn't like it, and we didn't want to do some of the things we were mandated to do, but it was the best thing to do. Right. And so why pull back and push back and fight and complain and be dysfunctional about it? That isn't going to do anything about the distress.

Carrie Webber:

Yes. And, and the best way to have controlled stress that we really helped a lot of clients with at the time was to focus on the things we can do. Where can we focus our energy? We have to take a step back and say, what can I do in this situation to try and get things a little bit more under control? So let's talk about some of the things that may be impacting dentistry today, causing stress, either for dental practice owners, doctors, the leaders, even for the entire team. As we talk through this, you may say, “Hey, that’s what's going on.” We’re hearing that a lot now from doctors trying to get their teams reunified and back together. And it could be that they're experiencing the after-effects of long-term stress. So what would you say we should be looking at in our own lives and dentistry that could be impacting us in a stressful way?

Stress of COVID Logistics

Cathy Jameson:

Well, my husband is a lifetime member of the American Dental Association, so we get the morning newsletter from the ADA every morning. And I read it. It's great. And so there's good news coming from the ADA now that we’re a year into the COVID pandemic. About 25% of people who went to the dentist on a regular basis were not coming as of several months ago. But that's changing now. The vast majority of the people who were going to the dentist on a regular basis prior to COVID are now coming back.

So we're seeing that resurgence now in the numbers of people who are coming to the practice. And that's good. But some of the things that the practices have seen and are still seeing, have to do with the organization of the practice itself. Now one of the things we’re very proud of with Jameson marketing is that you have helped practices educate their patients about what you are doing in your practice to protect them. And that information and education has made a difference in keeping people coming and helping them feel safe. And research from the ADA says that patients do feel safe for the most part coming to the dental practices. So good for you.

Marketing efforts have been so critical because there was a lag in productivity for a while. Then there was a surge of patients coming back and with that revenue came back. But with that return came another organizational problem or challenge. And that was scheduling. We have all this new stuff we have to do. We have to wear all this PPE. We have new filtration systems. We have more things we have to do for infection control. How are we going to get all this done in the timeframes that we have allocated for our appointments?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJxNygKrOXo

Carrie Webber:

Hello everyone. And welcome to another episode of the Jameson files. I'm Carrie Webber with Jameson and I'm your host. And I'm so grateful to those of you that are joining us live on Facebook, but also to those of you that continue to be a part of our Jameson files community and follow along through our podcast channels, YouTube, and even the Jameson website. I am so thrilled on this frigid February day to be joined by the one and only Dr. Richard Madow. And for those of you that, if for some reason you don't know who Dr. Madow is Dr. Madow and his brother, Dr. David Madow have founded the Madow center for dental practice success, where they continue a lifelong purpose in pursuit of helping fellow dentists in our profession, fulfill their careers to the best of their abilities. for those that work for me. 

So, my greatest memories of the Madow brothers is through their 25 year run of the best seminar ever, a KCBSC. and through that great memories have happened for many, many dental professionals, and they are continuing their pursuit of continuing education and helping to support dentists through Dr. Madow's articles webinars, and through his support in the work they do that you can find on Madow.com. but today I have him for us on the Jameson files as a very special guest. So Dr. Madow, thank you so much for being with me today,

Dr. Richard Madow:

Carrie, it is absolutely my pleasure to be here. I'm really excited. I've known Kathy and John for decades. They've always been just the most upbeat, kindest, most ethical, most meaningful people, you know, in dentistry, they're all kinds of crazy people in dentistry, of course. And, I've just always been, you know, always had the greatest respect for them. Always been so much fun to be around them. And you and Jess have done an amazing job of taking Jameson management into the future for the next generation. you know, staying relevant, all these other great things that many businesses aren't able to pull off. So congratulations on the fantastic job you've done.

Carrie Webber:

Thank you. And, you know, before we get into content and education, I do have to make a nod to the instruments in Dr. Madow's background. and just say, as a fellow musician, it's going to be all we can do to just not turn this thing upside down and start singing songs and naming off bands and music, history and trivia. So from one musician to another... much respect for you and your brother and all the work that you do and continue to do for our profession. we're honored to, to know you and to be able to have this time together, and many hopes for great success and continuing work in the future.

Carrie Webber:

You know, and if you give me about a week, I might be able to bang out a song on a piano, but then, you know, I've seen your stuff on social media. You have me be on the instrumentation without a doubt.

Dr. Richard Madow:

Well, yeah, but it's all about the Sidney and it's, I have great memories of Kathy belting out this song, Oklahoma, from the great play on stage at TBC. I think it was after she had finished an incredible lecture was about to get a standing ovation. And she said, I just want to let everybody know where I'm from. And then boom took it to the next level. That was great,

Carrie Webber:

Which was the perfect platform to do it. You and, and Dr. David were notorious for some really great musical numbers and bits during that. And you continue that now I've seen some of your great stuff that you're putting out on Facebook. So it's fun. I love that about you guys. I love that.

Dr. Richard Madow:

All right. So I guess we better start talking about dentistry a little bit, huh? Yeah,

Carrie Webber:

I know. I know. Sorry, everybody. You've just got to hang with us. We have a lot of shared interests, like music and dentistry. You don't see a lot of that. A lot of those common, common denominators, but for today, you know, something that you speak on and speak to quite frequently is from more than likely, I would assume your experience in all the conversations and work you've done with dentists over the years, but in addition to your, probably your own lessons learned over time, and we're going to talk about the dumb things that smart dentists do. and I love this. I love some of the things that you're going to share. And I want to give you some room to speak to this and chime in. If I, I have some feelings about several of these things that I think we're in agreement on. but let's talk about this from your experience and what you've learned over time, Dr. Rich, what are some of these things that you see happen time and time again, that our, that our dental friends are doing?

Dr. Richard Madow:

Yeah. You know, it's funny, I've learned so many of these things or learn how to avoid so many of these things, both in meeting so many great dentists and team members, you know, over 30 or so years, but also remember I haven't done this as well, and I had my own practice. And, I actually, after my residency in some horrible associate's ships bought a bankrupt practice. So I was not only at zero. I was below zero when I started. And, you know, it took me a while to learn many things the hard way. So I did so many of these stump things. And, you know, during the pandemic, we've all had to change the way that we teach. And, you know, I, I was doing webinars instead of live lectures, as I'm sure you are as well. And I'm thinking I need to do a new webinar, freshen things up a little bit.

Dr. Richard Madow:

So I started making these lists of things and I wasn't sure what to call the webinar. And since we're talking about music, I had our local Baltimore college radio station playing kind of blasting as I'm putting this list together. And they played the song from the late eighties called I've done all the dumb things. And I love this song. It never was by an Australian artist called Paul Kelly, never really that huge of a hit in the U.S. I'm putting this list together in the background hearing, I've done all the dumb things. I'm thinking, wow, these are all dumb things that I've done. I've done them all. So why not call this this new course we're putting together dumb things that smart dentists do. And I start, everybody can read it, you know, that would resonate with everyone cause we've all done them. So let's talk about the first dumb thing. How's that sound?

Carrie Webber:

Yes. Yes. Let's do it. I love this already. I love this.

Dr. Richard Madow:

You and your group have been consulting with dentists for many, many years. So I'm sure you know, this just like we do so many times when dentists are looking for help with their practice, they come to you or they come to us and they say, we need more new patients. You know, it's still like a mantra, like a drug. We need more new patients. We need more new patients. The addiction. If only we had more new patients, everything will be great in our practices and great in our lives. That's the fix that we need. And then of course, as you know, when you start taking a little deeper dive into it and you visit their practice, or you look into their software, do an analysis of their data, you see that sure, new patients are great, but you've got hundreds or thousands of patients who have already been through your doors, already took the effort to pick up the phone and call your office and make the appointment and come in, and they know where you are and they think you're great. But for some reason, they've just kind of fallen into this black hole of patients who have been in, but they don't have an appointment. They're not active anymore, but they probably haven't found a new dentist. They probably haven't died. You know, when the time comes, they're going to come to you, but wouldn't it be so much better. We could reactivate them and bring them back into our practice and put them on our schedule. Instead of always thinking about what are some ways where we can get more new patients. Haven't you seen that?

Carrie Webber:

Oh yes. And you know, to piggyback on that because I actually am. I love number one because something, I was actually just saying this the other day in another way that we focus so much, even on customer service on the new patient experience that we start to take our long-term patients a little bit for granted that any efforts you're putting in your practice need to go across the board for everyone, your patients that have been with you for 15 years also have they have the choice to go somewhere else. And some often do when they start to feel like you're not making them the priority. And just like you said, Dr. Rich in terms of there is so much you, something that I learned from my parents is that there's so much dentistry in your patients of record waiting to be done, that you more than likely could never complete it in the coming years. And so often we put all of our focus and I'm a huge proponent for external marketing when a practice is ready, because if you have the right systems in place and you're doing the right things, then you can support new patients while also getting the best possible result for your existing patients. So that they're not falling through the bottom as you're trying to fill it in through the top. So I couldn't agree more with you,

Dr. Richard Madow:

You know, it's funny, we have a term for what you said about all the treatment. This was waiting to be done. We call it the million dollar file cabinet. And even though we don't use file cabinets anymore, it's all in our little computers. But you know, think about the old days when we walk into a dentist's office and kind of like the way you would judge if this was successful office was if they had a humongous wall full of charts, but you know, that could, I could look impressive,

https://youtu.be/TRvTxl5f1Zo

Carrie Webber:

Welcome to the Jameson Files. I'm your host, Carrie Weber. And it's such a pleasure to be with you once again. If you're joining us live, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to join us for some thought-provoking conversation. If you're listening to this through our podcast channels, thank you for being a part of the Jameson Files community. You can find us anywhere that you listen to podcasts on iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify. I invite you to find us there and invite your peers to follow us as well. We'd love to grow the Jameson files community with professionals, just like you. So thank you in advance for spreading the word and sharing these great episodes that we are putting out in 2021. I am so thrilled today to speak with a special guest and a dear friend of mine, of my family, and of the entire Jameson team. Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Hyman. Thank you so much for being with us today,

Dr. Mark Hyman:

Carrie, what a joy to be here. Thanks for having me. And it's really nice, as I picked up my copy of the industry today, to see that I'm in the presence of dental royalty. It was really cool to see you in there again. So what a treat?

Carrie Webber:

Well, we were teasing each other earlier, and I said, you've been in there so many times that they should just have you on the cover, because it's really the honors online.

Dr. Mark Hyman:

That's a good way to drive down circulation, but thank you. What a treat. Okay. Now it's your turn.

Carrie Webber:

Well,, for today, I want to anyone that perhaps doesn't know Dr. Hyman; I invite you to go find one of his lectures in an upcoming event and become familiar with this wise and generous soul. Dr. Hyman practice dentistry in Greensboro, North Carolina, and is presently an adjunct professor at the UNC Adams school of dentistry. Besides that, he has been a thought leader in dentistry over the years, providing incredible content to publications for webinars and lecturing all across the country to dentists and teams really changing their lives for the better as a mentor for the greater good of dentistry. So it really is an honor to have you with us. You've been a dear friend of Jameson's over the years. We had the privilege of working with you and your team when you were practicing in Greensboro for many years. And through that, not hopefully we made a difference for you, but also we learned from each other and had such great admiration and respect for the dentistry you provided the practice you built for yourself and the way you lead your team over the years, it was very amazing to be a part of that and watch your journey.

Dr. Mark Hyman:

Thanks, Carrie, I got really, really lucky. You know, I won the parent lottery with my mom and my dad. I won the sibling lottery with my older brother, younger sister. I way out-punted my coverage with my wife and with my team. I had such love and loyalty and talent for these women that I worked for all these years. My main receptionist, Ms. Mary Catherine Ward, who was with me 25 years; my lead CDA superstar, Athena Escovedo Calloway, was with me 19 years; three of the hygienists—15 plus years. So that was extraordinary, Carrie. People said to me, "Dr. Mark, you just got lucky. You must've paid him a lot of money. You just got lucky getting these women." Well, the fact is that every single teammate I had, had first worked for another office, left them, and then came and joined me—and then stayed.

So I pay homage to these amazing women and Jameson Management for helping me for many parts of my career. I was a sensational boss and leader, and there were other times I face-planted flat out. So I really hired really well. We did a ton of training, Carrie, and then I got out of their way because the last thing I needed to do was hire a group of superstars and micromanage them. For me, philosophically, I tried to specialize in doctor-only, CEO,

https://youtu.be/56hOP6OyRT4

Hello, and welcome to the Jameson Files. I'm Carrie Webber and I'm your host. And I'm so glad to have you joining me once again, for another episode of the Jameson Files podcast. Now you may come across this live on the Jameson Facebook page. If so, welcome. We send out our podcast initially via live stream on the Jameson Facebook page, every other Wednesday at 11:30 AM central. I want to invite you if you haven't already done so to connect with us through the areas that you listen to podcasts, whether that's iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify, and become a part of our Jameson Files podcast community. We'd love to have you following along and learning and growing with us. So as this podcast goes live this episode, we are in January 2021. 

Now as business leaders and business owners, you may find yourself on the regular spending time in the first of the year, or nearing the end of a year, strategically planning for the year ahead, setting goals and wanting to build upon either successes you've had or lessons that you've learned in the previous year.

How to Set Goals for the Year Ahead

Now we are coming out of a most extraordinary year and it may be easy to continue on the path of recovery, or you may find it very challenging. How do I set goals in the year to come, and how am I to be successful in the pursuit and achievement of those goals? I often think about goal setting. It's a very common topic in podcasts, blog articles, and books. And if you Google “goal setting,” you can find a plethora of insights and information on how to do it successfully. But for this podcast, I studied reflecting on what has historically gotten in my way personally, or what I hear from other practice leaders, other dentists, other business owners that I work with, or I try to help what gets in their way and how can we overcome those and really shift our perspective to be more successful this year as we plan for the future.

So some things that I've struggled with over the years, or that I have had conversations with doctors or practice leaders over the years about are some areas that really impede goal setting, goal accomplishment, and making progress on your overall vision for your business and, and your efforts and making strategy to move forward.

Obstacles in Goal Setting

1. Inconsistency

Of those thoughts, I came up with four areas that are really those obstacles that seem to stop us making progress in goal setting and goal accomplishment and strategic planning. The first one is inconsistency. We all have experienced this either personally, when we try to set new year's resolutions or goals for ourselves, with our health, with our family, with our professional lives. But also inconsistency as a business in setting clear and attainable goals with our teams and achieving those goals on the regular, we may start strong, but somewhere along the way either in the busy-ness of our day-to-day lives or we maybe didn't meet a goal and in frustration and how difficult it proved to be, we become inconsistent in making this a healthy habit for our business lives for our professional lives.

James Clear wrote a brilliant book called Atomic Habits. And when I read this book, I felt it really hit the nail on the head and what causes us in a variety of ways to be inconsistent in our achievement and pursuit of goals and healthy, strategic planning. And it's really about the mindset we bring to the table, the commitment we make to whatever it is we're striving to achieve. Clear talks about how to achieve the great goals you may have for your life. It takes the building of small disciplines along the way. So the moment we embrace goal setting as a discipline and commit to its key purpose—that's the moment we can take all the things running in our head to build and improve upon this year and make them happen in the year to come.

If we want that moment, we have to take action, and goal setting and strategic planning is truly the best action planning. And so taking that and embracing that and making that inconsistent process into a consistent habit is the big change that we may want to focus on and improve in the year to come. That may be your one takeaway,.

2. Lack of Clarity

Lack of clarity is another big one. I've worked with a lot of doctors and leaders that have tried setting goals from time to time and doing it consistently. But more often than not when I ask, "Okay, so you met the first goal. What's next?" they don't know what goals to write for themselves. They haven't taken the time first to get clear on what their ideal vision is. If we're putting the cart before the horse and setting goals just for the sake of setting them, there will not be much motivation to drive those efforts forward.

We have to get clear on what our ideal vision for the year ahead is. If you were to find yourself in January 2022, what do you hope to see in terms of your day-to-day professional life? What's different? What's new? What's changed? What's stayed the same? What have you invested in? What have you brought to the table? And when you envision it and paint the picture of what ideal is, then you can roll it back to January 2021 and determine what is the first step I need to take to get me going toward that ideal vision for my practice in the year to come.

3. Uncertainty

That lack of clarity also marries with what I think the third one is. And that is uncertainty. Not really knowing. We may know what we want our practice to be looking like and how we want our team to be performing and the sort of dentistry we want to do, or whatever the case may be, but we still are uncertain on what steps we need to take, because we're getting overwhelmed in the big picture.

We have to look at it from the tiniest, most simplistic slivers. So once you get clear on what that big picture is, we have to get clear on what the next step can be. So we don't get so overwhelmed. We become paralyzed and nothing gets done in any meeting you have in any planning session you do, whether it's on your own or with team members. Don't leave one session without having a plan in place of what's next. What is the next step? And we'll talk in a moment about those goal-setting steps that will help you gain more certainty on what you can do to take the first step and then the next step. And then the next step toward your goals.

4. The Unexpected

The fourth area is the unexpected. We have great intentions in January of doing a lot of great things of conquering the world, so to speak. And then the unexpected throws left hooks and right hooks towards us. I think 2020 reflected the most extreme versions of coming across the unexpected. And we can never fully prepare for what we don't know is coming our way, but if we have more clarity and more processes and systems in place, and we have embraced the consistency of planning appropriately and effectively setting goals and action plans with our teams and for ourselves, we can overcome whatever is unexpected and adjust course so that we continue in the right direction. We may slow down. We may have to take the long way. But the vision is still the same. And that is what we have to become more comfortable and confident in—that through consistency and clarity, we will have more certainty on what's the next best step. And we will get through the unexpected in a more prepared and focused way.

Now, as I talk about changing course, it makes me think a lot. I'm a little fascinated right now with sea navigation. I am not a sea person. I do not sail. I do not own a boat. But I've been doing work with some clients that are lovers of the sea and of sailing. And so we use those metaphors in a lot of our work together to help paint a picture in a way that's most meaningful to them. And it sparked a curiosity for me. When you're sailing or when you're the captain of a ship and you're planning your journey, what steps do you need to make? And it made me think about planning your course. So, in today's episode, it's all about plotting your course for the year to come, like sea navigation.

Plot Your Course Before You Set Sail

The journey always starts with the, the captains of the ship plotting the course toward their destination. Now, of course, in today's world, technology has advanced that you have GPS and all these great tools to help you at sea. But it takes a lot of traditional steps too. In case you have technological issues while you're at sea, you still want to have a plotted course. And so when you look this up, how to plot a course in sea navigation, a lot of information comes at you. And some things that really stood out for me blend well with business in terms of strategic planning, setting goals. It's very similar to plotting your course.

1. Ultimate Destination

Number one is drawing your direct preferred course from the start through to your ultimate destination. That's what we're talking about—setting a vision and plotting a course of direction. If everything went perfectly, what is your direct route to your ideal vision for your practice in 2021? We want to make sure we have clarity. We have answered questions that are important for us to determine our ideal vision, and we have paired that with our team. So do you have a clear vision of what right looks like for your practice—from the type of dentistry you provide, your reputation in the community, how people are finding you, what your team is like and how they're performing, how much time off you have, what kind of technology you've invested in—all of that clarity? Once you also share that with your team, it gets you in alignment and focused on your daring destination. And that's what we want to do, create a clear, direct path all the way through your destination from start to finish so that you have a way forward and everyone has a map to follow.

2. Timing and Tides

https://youtu.be/U7z2rjgdyTw

Carrie  Webber:

Happy new year. I'm your host, Carrie  Webber. I’m so grateful to all of you that follow along on our podcast community. For those of you that watch us on the Jameson Facebook page, either with us live today or on the recording, at a more convenient time for you, we are certainly glad that you take the time to connect with us, to learn with us and to be a part of the Jameson files community. As we kick off the year, I want to invite you if you haven't already done so to connect with us through the areas that you listen to podcasts, whether that's iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify, the Jameson Files is there. And we are continuously updating our podcast channels with these recordings of conversations with great opinion leaders and industry leaders in dentistry, as well as educational information from the Jameson team. So if you haven't already joined us on the podcast, I encourage you to do so, and please feel free to share that with others. We'd love to grow our community with more like-minded dental peers. The more we grow together, the better we're going to be in 2021. And that's the goal, isn't it? 

So to kick off our year, I am so, so excited to have a very special guest, a friend of mine and a friend of Jameson's Teresa Duncan of Odyssey management. Teresa, thank you so much for being with us today.

Teresa Duncan:

Oh my pleasure. It's so nice to see you! Happy new year.

Carrie  Webber:

Happy new year. And as a brief introduction—I feel like, Teresa, in dentistry, you really don't need an introduction—but, for those of you that may not know who Teresa is, Teresa is an industry leader and key opinion leader in dentistry. She has truly taken to heart helping dentists and teams manage their insurance or accounts receivables—the business aspect of dentistry. And she is a brilliant mind that I have had the pleasure of getting to know over the past several years. Teresa, before we step into all things insurance, which is what I hope that we can cover today. I'd love for you to share a little bit about your story. What led you down the path to where you are today?

Teresa Duncan:

Well, I was an accidental dental assistant. I kind of stumbled into the job and my boss graciously realized I wasn't a great dental assistant. And when I suggested moving up front, he was like, yes, that sounds good. So I know about dental assisting. I was sort of good at it, but not great. I was a much better admin person. And so that's where I made my journey, went to manager, and then on to consulting and speaking. And that's where I found my home. So I've met a lot of good offices and a lot of good managers and doctors along the way, but I realized when I started speaking that I could meet even more and help educate as well. So that's my story.

Carrie  Webber:

You know, one of my memories of your most recent years was being at the annual meeting for Aidan. Teresa has really poured into the office manager community, the Aidan community, and you were on a panel with an incredible panel of leaders in dentistry on the main stage. And I couldn't help but laugh because it felt like every single question was an insurance question for Teresa. “I have a question for Teresa. I have a question…” And then hammering you with some really challenging questions. And you had an answer for every question. I felt like, boy, what a gift to our community to have someone that has a passion for this in the way that you do and continues to help dental professionals. So my questions are all angled towards insurance. I hope you're okay with that.

Teresa Duncan:

I am! I am blessed to be able to answer these questions for everybody. And it has been an interesting couple of years—I'd say the last 10 years—because it has been a big change in what's going on in insurance. So, do you want me to just update you with what's new with regulations, or do you want to focus on something specific?

Carrie  Webber:

No, I would love it. You know, we're coming out of a doozy of a year—2020—and I think we're all kind of peeking around the corner of this year thinking, “Okay, what kind of optimism can we have in the year to come?” But a lot happened last year, and a lot of things have changed. So I'd love for you to just share with all of us what's happened. What do you foresee? What do we all need to have our attention on when it comes to managing insurance in our practices in the months to come?

Teresa Duncan:

Sure. So the months past 2020, thank God we've closed the door on that year, but 2020 really showed a lot of doctors and managers that there were weaknesses in the insurance system. Even the best managers have them. When I was a manager, I tried to be the best, but there were always things that fell between the cracks. And that's the challenge of being a comprehensive manager. Well, as an insurance coordinator, it's almost as busy as being a manager because things change all the time. In 2020, we had to deal with a ton of people changing coverage, losing coverage, catching up on bills. But it really showed us that we had a lot of claims outstanding. We were previously getting to claims when we could, because the cash was coming in. So we really kind of put reports on the back burner. When you're busy, you tend to do that when you have downtime. When you're sitting at home, you start thinking, “Okay, I should clean up the insurance report.”

And then you go, “Oh my gosh, I had no idea it got this bad.” That's really what I was finding. And so we did a lot of calls because I do quick consulting calls on these types of things. And the other thing was that doctors were thinking, “Why am I participating? I'm giving up so much money.” I also had people that were saying, “I'm really not going to have a lot of patients. Now I've taken a big hit. I need to get patients to participate.” And I think catching up on reports was the theme of 2020. Cash flow, of course, and thankfully that's carried on into the next year. You know, I love collecting, I love revenue, and hopefully we can all focus on making sure that that cashflow keeps going. But I do have some light. I guess 2021 is looking like light at the beginning of the tunnel.

So there's been some changes, and you're the first person to hear it in this format. I released it on my podcast, but you know, with this, I want to give you the high level. And if people want more information, they can go onto that. Cause I talk for a whole hour on it, but we have some legislation that's coming our way. And I'm really excited about it. 

Carrie, are you familiar with the McCarran Ferguson act and how it restricts providers from talking and sharing information? That's the antitrust law, so you probably heard from your clients something like, “Why can the insurance companies share information, but I can't.” So that's the McCarran Ferguson act, and that has been repealed. The White House just has to sign off on it. And that just means now that the insurance carriers are going to have to be a lot more clear in their dealings with the state and the federal government looking at it. But let me back up here. They're not going to be able to keep other carriers out of their area. So hopefully that increases competition with the carrier. So there's not quite the stranglehold on markets. I know that's a very high-level definition of it, but whenever you hear people talking about, our hands are tied, well, why wouldn’t their hands be tied? So anyway, this is the law that they're talking about. And it's been repealed. I'm surprised and kudos to ADA. They did a good job with this.

Carrie  Webber:

They've been really striving—the ADA. I agree. They’re really striving to advocate on behalf of the profession, in Washington. So that is really great news. And you said you have a more in-depth episode on your podcast, the “Nobody Told Me That!” podcast. I’m following Teresa on her podcast, and I encourage you to do so, too. She gives so many great updates.

Teresa Duncan:

Yeah, it's up now. And they should check out your episode on there with me too. That's one of the more popular ones. Cause we kind of went in depth about, you know, the emotional part of 2020 and what it's meant for offices. But yeah, it's “The Top Three Insurance Trends You Need to Look Out for in 2021.” So that's one of them. And Carrie, if you would, I would love to talk about the one section of it, which is the fact that the ADA put forth kind of like a bill of, I don't know, offices rights or something like that. I mean, basically they came to this group of insurance legislators and said, “Look, our providers are getting hammered out there. If you could adopt these recommendations, we would appreciate it.”

And the good news is that after years, and also after lots of negotiating and testimony, they did accept some of those. So we are going to be seeing in 2021, hopefully more carriers adopting this, because once the high level insurance legislators recommend something, typically the carriers will then approve it and start moving towards it. We won't see it immediately. They'll have to incorporate it, but we can look forward to network clarity, which is great. So now, before you get signed up with a network—you know, you'll sign up with one umbrella plan, right?— now they have to notify you before they just put you on another one. They have to give you time to opt out. They have to give you the option of opting out of any new ones without being dumped from the top one, which is a big fear. A lot of offices don't want to opt out of some of these lower plans because they're afraid the umbrella plan on top is going to kick them out.

And then where are they? So there's lots more provider rights when it comes to that. They're also looking at having virtual credit cards, not the mandated, which is nice. So we have to be notified if we're moving to that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlPx4lBOKbg

Welcome to the Podcast

If you're joining us on the Jameson Facebook page. I want to say welcome. And thank you for taking the time out of your day to learn and think a little bit with me on how to grow your practice in a healthy and fulfilling way. If you're not in the dental industry, I have a lot of connections outside of dentistry that this topic we're going to talk about today is not only for our dental friends and those in this profession that we call our own, but also for anyone that is leading or owning a small business.  

The topic for today is more of growing your ideal patient base by referrals. So for any of you, that are not in dentistry, insert “customer” or “client” where the word patient is, and this will definitely go across all industries in terms of how we can healthily continue to grow our businesses, our practices, patient by patient, client by client, drip by drip. In my opinion, in times like the one we find ourselves in at this point, it's crucial to go back to the basics on what are the pillars of a healthy business.

How do you grow your ideal patient base?

And one of the foundational pillars of your healthy business are referrals from those ideal patients, those ideal customers and clients that have allowed you to be healthy and stable up to this point at Jameson, we are a 30 year old company and we would not be where we are today without the continuous support and referrals from our clients. The same can be said for you. When we talk about this, I want you to think about coming together as a team and discussing how we can grow our practices, referrals in a healthy way. What can we be doing better? What can we be doing more intentionally? And what can we be focusing on starting today to ensure more referrals from our ideal patients tomorrow, we want more of that, right? At this time, I want to invite any of you that have not already subscribed to follow the Jameson files podcast you can do.

So at any of the outlets that you listen to podcasts—iTunes, Google Play, Spotify—we are there. And I invite you to go find us to subscribe and please share with your friends and colleagues if you feel like the information we share on a regular basis is beneficial to you. And more than likely it would be beneficial to others. So I'm practicing what I preach. And I'm asking you for referrals to help us grow our Jameson files community. Thanks in advance for doing so. Let's dig into some content. 

How do you get referrals?

When I think about referrals, and as I was preparing for this session, I was thinking about where we are right now, but also where historically these conversations have taken place with clients or lecture attendees, or  people in the profession that we are a part of. And what I often see happening is that we typically put band-aids on top of an issue in the hope that it's going to fix it.

And we never really get down to the root cause of why that particular system or process isn't working well enough for us or why we aren't getting the results that we desire. So it's important that we get real with ourselves about the areas we could be doing better. 

So if you have a goal for 2021 that you want to be seeing more new patients, you want to be getting more referrals from your existing patient family, then it's important that we do the work to refine our efforts as they are now for a better tomorrow. So what we're going to talk about today are four areas that I want you to focus on, refine, do better about, be more consistent in, and be more intentional with. I want you to ask. I want you to deliver. I want you to track. And I want you to appreciate. So let's dig in.

One: Ask

Let's start with asking. Often when I get in conversations with dentists, with practice leaders, and with business owners about the desire to see more referrals coming from those that already work with you or already consider you their dental home, we start thinking immediately about gimmicks. Well, a gimmick is a band-aid, people. If you aren't already getting the types of referrals you desire, chances are you aren't doing the basic necessities to get those results. 

Be Consistent

So the first thing I want you to do is to ask, are you really consistently asking your patients when they're with you to send their friends and family to your practice? Sometimes we worry that it might sound desperate. Sometimes we worry that it may be an uncomfortable ask. Well, the more you practice it, the more you become comfortable with those conversations, the more likely you'll be consistent in it, and the more likely your patients will indeed refer. Practice makes perfect. 

Practice

We have a team member here at Jameson that is also a practicing hygienist. I love to tell the story that she shares regularly—asking for referrals from her patients at first was very uncomfortable for her. But what she did was, she wrote out how she ideally would want to say it and put it on a post-it note and stuck it on her steering wheel. So driving to work every morning, she practiced the verbal skills that she needed to effectively ask and comfortably ask for referrals. That practice in turn made her more comfortable in the realtime moments with patients. And then they finally would start to become more of a habit for her. We had to take small steps to create those big habits. And so by doing those little things to remind yourself, little triggers to practice and get more comfortable, we'll ensure that you're more consistent across the board.

Daily Huddle

Consistency, consistency, consistency is key. So whatever little triggers and cues you can put into your day to day as a team are going to help you create these healthy habits of asking for referrals more regularly, talking about it in your daily huddle, determining who on the team is going to ask whom for a referral. When are those ideal beloved raving fan patients coming in, and who's going to be talking to them? This must be mastered. 

And this must also be talked about. We need to be making time for those conversations in your daily huddles—a great time. As you're orchestrating the most productive day possible together, that would be a great thing to orchestrate as well. Choreographing, who is asking your patients for referrals at the right times when they're with you in the practice, giving your patients the tools to talk about you, social media, and your online presence is a perfect opportunity to use those raving fans and those amazing dental stories to help you gain more attention from your community.

Testimonials and a Digital Presence

Having those raving fans that are already referring to you by sharing their testimonials and video, using before and after stories, and using these stories and videos in your website, on your social media platforms—these are very connective and meaningful, real life experiences that your potential patients out in your community are going to connect with. I see a lot of our clients doing amazing, amazing before and after stories and using video testimonials to really strengthen the trust level of their practice within their community. And this can be said for any small business using your clients and customers as the story. 

It’s the real life connection that people are looking for when they're trying to make decisions for themselves on who they want to go to for their dental home. On our marketing team, we use video, we use photography. We use this all the time in our digital presence for our clients because that is such an emotionally connective piece.

So thinking through your ideal patients, those amazing stories and, and getting permission from them to use their story in your communications efforts can be very, very powerful. So when you're doing this, making sure you're giving cards to friends and family members that they can share, giving them to your patients, posting on social media, having as many of your team members that are comfortable in doing so, promoting your business, asking at appointments, it's going to start to be more and more important and giving your patients the tools to talk about you. 

Ask for What You Need

What is it that you're wanting from your patients? We want to make sure that we are giving them the tools to talk about us. So whether that's wanting more referrals, whether that's wanting more reviews, whatever you're working for in the months ahead, start getting comfortable with asking your patients. They may not know that's something you need from them.

And if they love you, they want you to be successful. If they love you, they want you to have the grapes. Patients have their friends and family coming to you as well. So get comfortable with being uncomfortable practice, practice, practice, use your team meetings, your daily huddles, use your social media and external outlets to make room for yourself and make this a habit in your practicing days. 

Two: Deliver

So that's ask and the next one is deliver. If you aren't delivering an exceptional new patient-experience or overall-patient experience, it's going to be very difficult to hit any new patient or referral goals. Because if you're not delivering something exceptional, why would anyone want to talk about you? So it's time to take a good hard look at how you treat your patients from the get-go, creating an experience that's worth talking about. As Kim Blanchard says in his book, Raving Fans, one of the primary goals that you will have as a business, as a practice is to deliver everything that's expected plus a little bit more.

Patient Experience

So it's going to be important that you, as a team, really hone in and take a good long look at what your patient experience is like right now and how you can make it better and how you can make it buzz-worthy so that they do want to talk about you and share with their friends and family,

Carrie Webber (00:13):

Everyone. Welcome to the Jameson files. I'm Carrie Weber, and I am your host. Thank you for joining us. Live on Facebook where we do our Jameson files live via live stream every other Wednesday through the end of the year. So thank you for joining us if you're on live and we'll also be sharing this through our podcast channels: iTunes, Spotify, Google play. So thank you for subscribing when you have the opportunity and being a part of our podcast community.

Carrie Webber (00:46):

Today, we have a big topic, a hot topic, and a very patient and gracious host and guest. So, Grace Godlasky of CEDR HR Solutions. Grace is the solution center manager for CEDR, and has been with them for many years. And in my opinion, CEDR has been an HR firm for the dental profession that really led the way in giving incredible support through 2020, through all of the issues that we were faced with as practice leaders with the coronavirus. CEDR has been there every step of the way. So I want to take a moment and say, thank you for the great work that your entire team has done, Grace. And then once again, thank you so much for joining me on this podcast. As we talk about hiring and firing the best practices and the mishaps that we can find ourselves in day in and day out in the dental profession. So Grace, thank you once again for joining me.

Grace Godlasky (02:00):

Thank you for having us and thank you for that kind introduction. It's been quite a year and we were happy to be along for the ride with everyone and hopefully, did, did help out as where we could.

Carrie Webber (02:13):

Yes, we were kind of laughing about it before we went live, I was saying, all of you are probably well overdue for a nice long vacation cause you guys were working around the clock. I know that for a fact. But this topic that we're on today for this episode is something that's an issue and an ongoing hot topic in dentistry even before coronavirus. And it will be long after. And that is—how do we hire more effectively to protect ourselves through that process? How do we fire more effectively and protect ourselves through that process? So we're going to talk a little bit about both of those areas, even though we could go for hours on these. I know that we could.

Carrie Webber (03:06):

So, Grace, I have some specific questions for you that we get frequently, but let's start on the broader landscape when it comes to hiring. Let's start with that one first. What do you find with your clients that you work with and you discovered over time that are some of those common mishaps that practices stumble through during the hiring process?

Grace Godlasky (03:34):

Yeah, and they fall really into two categories. So I think I'll discuss them that way. There's the practical considerations and then the legal considerations. And on the practical side, I see hiring being frustrating or fruitless for folks when they don't have a set process or if the process that they're following is not necessarily strategic and well-thought-out for their end goals. And it could be something as simple as a checklist. But a lot of the time it's really examining what am I looking for with my next candidate and not necessarily that last person was a nightmare.

Grace Godlasky (04:22):

Let's completely swing the pendulum this way and get the complete opposite, but more stepping back and considering what does our ideal teammate look like? Who do we need in our business? What skills, what personality, things like that. And sometimes people do have core values or attributes that they're looking for. but maybe that is different per position. You know, your admin folks might be different from someone who's an associate. and so really tailoring that process for what you're looking for and then doing it consistently for each candidate each time can get better results.

Carrie Webber (05:00):

How you described that Grace, because that really falls right in line with what we believe to, is if you don't have any real clarity of what those core values are and in the kind of that framework that you're looking for, that lines up well with the work that you do specifically, you're really throwing a dart at a dartboard in some ways, but the more specific you can be in those values, those shared values, those, those shared approaches to the work and philosophy, especially when we're talking associates that philosophical alignment, while it doesn't feel like that is important to you, when you think of it, in theory, it actually is very important to find the right fit for the long run. So I really appreciate your statements about that.

Grace Godlasky (05:58):

That's great. I totally agree with that. you know, one of the practical tips that I think for those who are in the room when hiring is also taking off your rose-colored glasses. Hiring is exciting. And it's really neat, you know, it's tempting to want to say this person's gonna fix what was wrong and seeing that in your candidate. And that's one of the things I've learned over the years, doing hiring at CEDR, and helping our members hire is to set those aside for that meeting and to really actually look for holes, you know, in your candidates.

Grace Godlasky (06:36):

So that's just another, it sounds like a really cynical, jaded HR person thing to say, but, look for where's the crack in the dam here? Did that not line up, did their resume say this, but now they're saying this. So, that's another one, but, on the legal side of things, we see it, it dovetails nicely into having your set process. One of the legal traps we see is accidentally treating your candidates differently because you don't have a set process, which the legal term for that is discrimination. I mean, it's, it's usually not on purpose. but subjecting one candidate to an extra step, like a background check or a drug test when you didn't subject your other ones to that step can accidentally get you into hot water. So that underscores the importance of having that process on the legal side as well.

Carrie Webber (07:31):

And to speak to that question a little bit deeper Grace, when you think about questions that are, best practices to, to ask or even to avoid, how do people learn the right things to ask and the right things to not ask?

Grace Godlasky (07:54):

It's a great question. So our rule of thumb, and this can be applied in any state, no matter where you are is you don't want to ask anything that would indicate protected class or protected activity. And those are two categories that we could again, do a whole other podcast on what those are, but typically, you know, race, religion, pregnancy, disability, national origin, status, military status, things like that that are protected. and then protected activity, even an innocent question, like how was your attendance at your last job? That could accidentally lead to someone saying, Oh, I had a medical leave. So I was off for six weeks and that's not information you want to have in the hiring process.

Grace Godlasky (08:39):

So we actually recommend, for questions, to have whoever is in the room interviewing, working from a pre-vetted list. And maybe you don't ask them in a rote manner. It can still be an organic conversation that is tailored to the person in front of you. But if you know that we have 15 questions, you're picking from this list of 15, you can avoid accidentally blurting out. What part of town do you live in? And then, oops, you understand now they're, you know, in a part of town that would be low income or, you know, I have a certain national origin and then you've got information that you don't want to have in the hiring process.

Carrie Webber (09:24):

Right. Yes. That's a great recommendation for anyone that really plays a role. A lot of office managers that may watch this recording, those of you that are a part of the hiring process, make yourself a list. If in doubt, have your playbook right in front of you, that you can reference to keep you in the safe zone until you become more accustomed to that process. I think that's a great recommendation.

Carrie Webber (09:52):

Another thing in the hiring process that we get a lot as a question, Grace, revolves around working interviews. a lot of practices would like to have working interviews, especially when they're hiring a clinical team. So what are your recommendations in that realm? Is it dependent upon certain things, or what are some best practices that people should make sure they're lining up with in that?

Grace Godlasky (10:19):

Yes, this is a hot topic and we get this question so frequently at CEDR. so a lot of people think that working interviews are illegal. You know, you might hear that, but they're not, they're just hard to do legally. There's a lot of steps you need to take to do legally. So my answer for folks is kind of pick a lane with working interviews. That's the simplest answer that I can give. So if you're gonna do a working interview and you're going to have someone come in and actually do productive work in your office, the federal laws say that person is your employee. And so you do have to hire them and onboard them as a provisional employee, even if it's just for one day. That is not the answer that makes me the favorite person for anybody because that's a lot of work.

Grace Godlasky (11:13):

So I get that that sounds a lot easier than it is. and it can be an abbreviated hiring process, but there are some key things that you need to do to really legally hire that person. Some of the misconceptions or folks that say, that's not true. You know, this is, there's a loophole here that we just don't see. A lot of people say, you know, what if I hire as an independent contractor or just pay them, you know, for the day kind of out of my petty count or something like that, wouldn't that be fine. And unfortunately it's not, you know,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSWI5vAySgI&feature=youtu.be

Carrie Webber (00:23):

Hi everyone. Welcome back to The Jameson Files. I'm Carrie Weber and I'm your host. And I am here with two of my teammates. Nate Porter is back with me this time around our chief marketing officer here at Jameson and our teammate all the way from Vermont is Dan Cristelli our chief of client success for our marketing services. So Dan Nate, thanks for joining me in our last session, we talked about marketing and I want to carry that conversation forward in today's session. So we're going to be talking about from a marketing and a practice perspective. Are you putting the work in to build the value? So as we allow people on our live stream, we are live streaming on the Jameson Facebook page. That's our intention, every other Wednesday at 1130 central. we're going to be doing that through the end of the year and then perhaps indefinitely.

Carrie Webber (01:28):

We'll see how it goes. but we also are available. This podcast is available wherever you're listening to podcasts. So I encourage you to go find us on Spotify, iTunes, Google play, and subscribe to follow this podcast. So you can stay tuned in not only to our interviews and podcasts that we have already. but the ones that are, that are to come, we want to keep you, as a part of our Jameson podcast community. So I invite you to go find us wherever you listen to podcasts. If you love to watch us live, you can watch us in the live stream. And if you have questions or comments, you're welcome to share those. We've got our teammate Ashlyn tracking all of our, all of our social media right now. So we will be able to take questions if you have any live, but you can also view the recording of this video live stream later on, on Facebook, whenever it's convenient to you.

Carrie Webber (02:31):

So marketing and management, are you putting the work in to build the value? Now in the last session we talked about, ways that you can incorporate some short term marketing solutions to get a, a quick result, and also some things to start planning for. And considering in terms of your long term marketing efforts, Nate and Dan both do a lot of work day in and day out with our Jameson marketing clients to help them with that one run plan. helping them to not only implement substantial marketing efforts for their practices, but to help these practices see ways that they can get the best result from their efforts. So that's what we want to speak about today, but something that we see frequently and Nate and Dan, I'm sure you agree in the work that you do with your clients is a lot of times we see practices put the cart before the horse, when it comes to their marketing efforts.

Carrie Webber (03:38):

What I mean by that is many, many practices. I would almost venture to say most practices. If you ask, what are some top goals that they're looking to achieve in the months or the years to come, increasing their new patient flow is frequently on the top of the list. The problem is some of those practices are ready to successfully invite and bring new patients into having a tremendous experience in their practices. Some are not. So they start investing in external marketing before their practice is truly ready, prime systems and skillsets to successfully receive those new patients. So when you start thinking about your patient experience, I want you to start understanding how integral that patient experience is to your marketing. It really is a marriage for you to get the best success, overall, for your practice growth to not only attract your ideal patients, but to keep them, I want to just get the phone ringing off the hook.

Carrie Webber (04:49):

We want those patients to be scheduling appointments, keeping those appointments, accepting treatment and staying active in your practice, and ultimately having such an experience that they want to refer their friends and family to you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0a8bvSZPyQ&feature=youtu.be

Welcome everyone to the Jameson files. I'm Carrie Webber. And I'm your host for the Jameson Files podcast. I'm joined today by Jameson's chief marketing officer, Nate Porter. So Nate, thanks for joining me today and thanks to all of you that are either joining us live in our live stream on the Jameson Facebook page. We do present the podcasts alive via Facebook every other Wednesday through the end of the year. So we invite you to, to stay tuned and join us live every other Wednesday for the podcast. Otherwise you are going to be able to access this as a recording on the Jameson Facebook page, as well as if you are subscribing to the Jameson files podcast or you're interested in doing so. We invite you to find us on your preferred podcast outlet, whether it's iTunes, Spotify, or Google play, we are there. So we do invite you.

Carrie Webber (01:12):

If you haven't found us as a podcast to please do so and subscribe, we want you to stay connected with us, and we want to build this community and present information and thought provoking content that is important to you. So we want to hear from you as well on what you're most interested in hearing from us. You can email us at [email protected] and share with us your questions, your requests, the guests that you want to hear from whatever the case may be. We want to build upcoming podcast episodes that are the right fit for our Jameson podcast community community. So we invite all of your feedback and we welcome it. So please do subscribe and Mark your calendars. If you'd like to be with us live, we are here live right now on Facebook. So thanks for being with us. And today, our topic is on marketing.

Carrie Webber (02:06):

Where do I even begin? And for those of you that may be familiar with Jameson as a coaching firm, we've provided business and hygiene coaching across the country and in multiple countries for 30 years. And in addition to that, what you may not know is that for well over a decade now we've provided marketing services. Nate's now our chief marketing officer here at Jameson, and we have an extraordinary team on board right now. That's doing extraordinary work in the world of dental marketing for our dental marketing clients. And I know because I talked to a lot of doctors week over week that are looking for solutions and support in various aspects of their practice. I know that marketing has been and continues to be a big topic because wanting to grow your practice with the right types of new patients for you is important. And oftentimes we get frustrated because we don't know how to get the best results out of the efforts we're investing in.

Carrie Webber (03:11):

And so that's why I've asked Nate to join me is to not only talk to you about the great things that are happening with the Jameson clients, even in the midst of 2020 and everything that that brought to the table, I'm excited for you to share that with us, but we're also going to talk about things that you can do for short term results. Right now, if you're looking for some help and some ideas in that realm, but also wanting to give you some coaching on what you need to plan for and what would be worth your while to consider for that long term marketing effort and the results that you ultimately want to be achieving in your businesses. So, Nate, thanks again for being with me.

Nate Porter (03:54):

Yeah. Glad to be here.

Carrie Webber (03:55):

And what I want to start with is where we are right now, in terms of what practices we work with, what we've been managing to achieve when it comes to marketing in 2020. I think it could be safe to say that some may assume we know that dental practices are just struggling through getting new patients or whatever the marketing efforts may be, but actually that's not really the case when we, when you do it right and you do it well. Would you agree?

Nate Porter (04:25):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-OVb0oE0lw&feature=youtu.be

Welcome to the Jameson files. I'm Carrie Webber with Jameson and I am your host for this podcast. I'm so glad that you're joining us again today for this episode. And today, what we're going to be covering is something you may be feeling coming up for you in the fall. We are in September, 2020 now. And so looking forward to the fall, we're going to be talking about your scheduling practices. Are you planning for feast or famine? I hope that if you haven't already, that you would consider subscribing to this podcast. You can subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. iTunes, Spotify, or Google play. You can also access videos of past podcasts on the Jameson blog at jmsn.com/blog. If you'd like to see the video aspect of this episode, you'll be able to find it there in the future. So I hope that you will subscribe.

Carrie Webber:

And if you would like to participate in live streams for the remainder of 2020, we're going to be live streaming our podcasts on Facebook, live on the Jameson Facebook page every other Wednesday at 11:30 AM central. So make sure to follow us on social media, either on the Jameson Facebook page or on our Instagram page, so that you can get those updates and notifications when we're preparing for our next live stream. I'd love to see you live with me in one of our future podcast episodes. So again, for today's episode, we're talking about your schedule. Are you preparing for feast or famine? When we talk to our clients right now, as we're several months into recovery from the shutdown of current, from coronavirus, we find many of our practices in one of two scenarios either. They really did a good job in honoring foundational scheduling approaches and there, but at the same time, they're trying to recover and bring in patients that they had to reschedule because of the shutdown.

Carrie Webber :

So you may find yourself very full if you're in feast mode. So you're very full, you're very busy. In fact, you may be struggling with where can I even put new patients or restorative work or something down the line. You may be booking so far out in advance that that's becoming a concern for you, or you're looking into your fall schedule and you're seeing potential famine. You're seeing a dip in your scheduled appointments, more than likely in the hygiene realm, because we brought in a lot of our patients really quickly at the very beginning of reopening. And perhaps now we're seeing that six month dip because of the missed opportunities in the spring. So are you in that famine mode? So what we're going to talk about today are both of those scenarios and some approaches that you can take either feast or famine, whatever the scenario is to help you stabilize, recover, and start back on a path for growth.

Carrie Webber (03:20):

We want to make sure that we're not too busy, being busy or too busy, being overwhelmed to work on the systems of our practice to help you be healthier and happier in your practicing lives. When I was preparing for this episode, I thought about a trip that my husband and I took with our two sons. We have two young sons and a couple of years ago, we took a trip to the far corner of Oklahoma. We live in Oklahoma to a state park called black may says state park. And at black Mesa state park, there are dinosaur footprints embedded in sand stone in a ravine. I was there when I was a kid. And so I remember going and finding them and taking pictures with them. And we thought our sons would really enjoy that as well. So we go, it's a little difficult to find. It's really difficult to find the footprints. They're not marked very well. There's not much signage out there. And so we were aware, we felt like they would be, and we were looking and looking in this ravine and we couldn't find them anywhere. And we knew that erosion had caused many of the footprints originally discovered in the eighties to have been washed aw...