Five Dental Phrases I’m Tired of Hearing with Dr. Richard Madow

00:00
This is Dental All-Stars, where we bring you the best in dentistry on marketing, management and training.

00:11
My patients have a low dental IQ as if there’s some kind of dental IQ test that we have to give to our patients before they come in. And, you know, it’s just typical of dentists when something’s not going right, they blame it on their location or their demographics or their insurance companies or the economy or the economy’s too good, the economy’s too bad, whatever, instead of looking deeply within. And I think a real classic example is when they say, my patients have a low dental IQ. And I’m going to say to that,

00:41
Good. You should be thankful that your patients have a low dental IQ. If there’s any patient that’s the biggest pain in the butt to deal with, it’s a patient who thinks they know everything about dentistry. I want my patients to have a low dental IQ. Welcome to Dental All-Stars. I’m Alex Nottingham, founder and CEO of All-Stars Dental Academy. And with me is Dr. Richard Maddow. He’s a dental success visionary and award-winning speaker. Award-winning speaker and visionary. I’m also a visionary too. And our topic is…

01:09
the five dental phrases I’m tired of hearing. Please welcome Richard Maddow. Alex, it is so great to be here. uh A little bit of backstory, I’ve known about your work and your wife’s work for a long time and we actually met on a boat in Fort Lauderdale at a seminar. So I think I was feeling a little seasick and nauseous and then I met you guys and felt much better. And it was, so great to finally connect. I’ve really enjoyed everything I’ve seen from you.

01:36
great material, great content. know you’ve helped tons of practices and that led to us doing this podcast. So it’s great to be here. Yeah. And the same back at you. Heather and I has followed you and your brother, some of the great things that you’ve done with your big events and your speaking and so on. And I remember before we even kind of connected, my, we were at this event and my COO was watching the speakers and there was a few good ones and a few bad ones.

02:06
She says, man, this Richard Matow, he’s phenomenal. He was so entertaining. He’s a singer. He’s a musician as well, musician and a dentist. it’s so fun. You have a wonderful personality. And I’m so excited. We talking in the green room. What’s your purpose with these podcasts? Right? I’ll just sit down here. Why do you do this? And I just want to share great people with our listeners. And my ulterior motive is I just want

02:35
the listener to listen in to conversations that I have. We had a conversation on the boat. We had a good time. Let’s continue the conversation and share that with our listeners. So that’s why we’re here, from the boat to the podcast. Wow. That could be a first in your series. So it’s great to be here. I’m glad I’m back on land and uh I’m ready, ready to hopefully engage and help your listeners. I know you have many followers across the country, maybe even world. So what do you want to talk about, Alex?

03:02
I want to know what these, these five dental phrases I’m tired of hearing. asked you for some topics and I didn’t have to pull teeth because I’m not a dentist. are my dad is, but I want it. That’s a, and I saw some of the notes. I thought it was really interesting and fascinating. so tell me from the perspective of you and all the things that you do, what are, what are these, what are these phrases and how do we overcome this?

03:31
Yeah, I’m so glad you asked. It’s so funny because I was a practicing dentist for many years and I was a member of different study clubs and would go to courses, both local, national, international, whatever. And you know what happens, you get together with a bunch of dentists and you’re certainly one of us at this point and you start shooting the breeze and you’re saying, oh, I can’t stand it when a patient does this. I can’t stand it when a patient says that, when a patient says, I only want what my insurance covers. And we all, we’re all in that place. We’ve all been there, done that.

03:59
But I think I’m in a more unique position where not only was I a practicing dentist, but I’ve also dealt with hundreds of thousands of dentists trying to help them grow their practices and enjoy dentistry more. And in that position, just like as a dentist, we’re tired of hearing a patient say, only wanted if my insurance covers it, I’ve got my pet phrases that I can’t stand when dentists say all the time. So I just thought I’d put a little list together for you and maybe we about some of phrases.

04:29
always fun. My favorite pastime is picking on dentists. I do it. Maybe there’s some hidden resentment towards my father, great dad, but it’s always fun to pick on dentists. tell me, Rich, what are you gonna like at? I feel like I get free reign since I’m a dentist and I’ve said all these phrases myself. So I get the free pass. My first phrase I’m tired of hearing from dentists, and this typically comes up when a dentist is saying, you know, yeah, my patients come in and

04:59
I talk to them about the treatment they need, but nobody says yes to my treatment. You know why? My patients have a low dental IQ, as if there’s some kind of dental IQ test that we have to give to our patients before they come in. And it’s just typical of dentists when something’s not going right, they blame it on their location or their demographics or their insurance companies or the economy or the economy’s too good, the economy’s too bad, whatever.

05:27
instead of looking deeply within. And I think a real classic example is when they say, my patients have a low dental IQ. And I’m gonna say to that, good, you should be thankful that your patients have a low dental IQ. If there’s any patient that’s the biggest pain in the butt to deal with, it’s a patient who thinks they know everything about dentistry. I want my patients to have a low dental IQ. I’ll tell you something, I had in our kitchen in our condo, we had a light socket go bad in our kitchen a couple weeks ago, and

05:56
I have a low electrician’s IQ. So you know what I did? I called an electrician and he came in and he fixed it. And I didn’t want him to give me a lecture about the volts and the ohms and the watts and the gigawatts and the gigabytes. I don’t need to know that. I just wanted to know that I called a competent electrician. He looked at the socket. He said, oh, I know what’s wrong. And 30 minutes later, and probably $2,000 later, I had a fully functioning light socket in my kitchen. And I liked that. So.

06:24
I think we really go astray when, and I’ll put this in air quotes, I know most people are probably just listening, but if you’re watching, I’ll do air quotes, when we try too hard to educate our patients. And I feel like it’s not our job to turn our patients into dentists and dental hygienists. And I’ve seen so many dentists, they’ve got a patient in the chair in their private office and they’re giving them a lecture in like prosthodontics 101, thinking that the patient cares or understands what they’re saying. And the patient’s sitting there going, uh-huh.

06:53
Uh-huh, uh-huh. And they’re thinking, what the hell is this person talking about and how much is it going to cost me? Because yeah, we want our patients to be knowledgeable. We want them to make a great choice. We want them to understand what’s going on with their teeth and their gums and all those great things. But the fact that they come in and know nothing about dentistry is to our advantage. And I think if we try to educate them too much, we just blow them away with information and confuse them. I like when a patient has

07:21
what we’ll call a low dental IQ, and you build the rapport, a conversation like we could have today, Alex, just a normal conversation, and ask them questions that aren’t yes or no, but open ended questions, find out what they want, what they want to achieve. You’re not gonna use dental terminology. And then just look at them very straight face and say, that’s great, I know what the problem is, and this is how we can fix it. In plain English, don’t try to raise their dental IQ. Try to get them comfortable with you.

07:51
looking forward to the treatment. That’s why I think sometimes we try a little bit too hard to give our patients too much knowledge. Of course we want an informed patient, but if we’re lecturing to them and they’re just sitting there with a blank look on their face, we know we’ve gone too far. Well, I have often heard this quote used actually somewhat of the, in a different way in terms of that they don’t appreciate the

08:20
the recommendations and therefore they have a low dental IQ. So you’re right, the ones who have a high dental IQ are often the problems because they’re actually the ones I refer to as low dental IQ and I’ll explain. Is they think they know and they don’t appreciate your work, your effort and what you’re charging and they’re not accepting treatment and so they just have a low dental IQ because they can’t appreciate what I’m doing.

08:45
I think it’s another way to use the same way that it was because it’s a very defensive way of saying it. And, and, and, and yes, unfortunately I’ve heard it and, uh, not as much recently, but I’ve heard that before. uh Uh, and there’s a saying that we have here at all star. I borrowed from our head instructor Larry gazardo. I think you know him quite well. You guys speak different places, but he uses a word, no DDS, no dull dental stuff.

09:14
So having to grow up with a dentist and hear this, and he still does this and he still tells me this stuff. I’m not interested in how you constructed the veneer. It’s interesting. It is interesting, especially in the chair. But patients don’t want to hear DDS, still dental stuff. So I think I’m just adding a little flavor to it because this is a common issue, the low dental IQ has come up, but it can be in two contexts, right? They neither know too little and don’t appreciate, and we have to educate them.

09:43
But I think often the context that I’ve heard is you’re just not doing what I want and I’m not getting my way. Either you’re not appreciating my work, right? Because dentists have ego. Look how beautiful I did. It’s good. It’s I heard my dad, I’m picking my dad and he’ll say, look at this bonding, what I did. And the patient will go, oh, it’s good. Good. This is great. Good wasn’t good enough. mean, so, but that’s the, okay. And bless his heart. That’s the dentist.

10:13
that is an artist and all of you are artists that typically get in there for the, the, for the beauty of what you do. And you want that, uh, loving connection and appreciation. And then it’s the context of you’re just not doing what I propose. And therefore you have a low dental IQ. You can’t appreciate the type of treatment you’re doing the cheap and you’re not taking the full recommendation. So that could be a kind of a defense way of saying it. agree. That’s a really different and interesting way of looking at it as well. So in two ways, I hate that phrase.

10:40
when dentists say right. So do not say low dental IQ and and accept the patients as they are and where they are and get your ego out of it essentially. Right. And just again, typical of dentists when things aren’t going our way, we blame the patient and it’s very rarely the patient’s True. True. Okay. Should we keep moving on? Yes, let’s keep going. I like that. Okay. Check. Check. Okay. Number two, you’ve probably heard this a lot. Um,

11:09
I find that when somebody contacts us to see if we can help them, whether it’s through coaching or private seminars, whatever, one of the first things they typically say is, need more new patients. We need more. If we only had more new patients, everything would just be awesome. And look, there’s nothing—I have nothing against new patients. New patients are great. We love new patients. As you know, Alex, new patients typically are more— m

11:38
valuable if you want to put that term on a patient more income per patient and their first year when they’re new they’re more likely to refer because it’s a brand new experience for them and they’re all excited someone who’s been loving your office for 10 years Isn’t as likely to refer so new patients are great and without new patients your practice can plateau and go downhill everybody listening knows this but So many times when a person says we need more new patients So we go and we do a little analysis of their data and really learn about their practice we find that they’ve got a

12:07
back door that’s so wide open, it’s like a busload of new patients pulls in and they all march out of the bus and they walk into the office and they stop in the dentist treatment room and they stop in the hygiene room and 90 % of them just keep on walking. And before you know it, they’re out the back door and we spend so much energy, a lot of times so much money to attract our new patients. People even say, what’s the acquisition cost of a new patient? How much am I willing to spend on SEO and providing the experience to get a new patient?

12:36
And then we get these new patients in and we just let them leave and we let them leave. So yes, new patients are great, but I guarantee you just about every practice that I’ve ever seen has what I call a million dollar file cabinet. Now, Alex, I’m a lot older than you, maybe closer to your dad’s age. When I first started practicing, we had the big metal cabinet in front of the front desk, jam packed with those paper charts. And in the typical office that had those, now we have the same thing, but it’s just electronic.

13:06
way too many of those patients are inactive. And chances are, they liked you. They know where you are. They took the time and trouble to come in to begin with. They’re comfortable there, but for some reason they just fell through the cracks. And we don’t bother to find out what happened to them. We just concentrate on that new patient fix. That makes sense. You know, what’s interesting is I remember my father’s practice is that he had

13:35
How about new patients? We had this one month, which like record new patients. I don’t know. I’m saying 200. That’s a lot. Holy moly. It may be too much, but, um, it was a lot and it was the worst production month in years. So sometimes, and some didn’t convert with a good marketing, good conversion, but that’s the point too, is when we talk about, want new patients that stay and refer, not just new patients.

14:04
Not just more marketing. It’s, and that’s why, as you know, we specialize a lot in phone skills and conversion and doing it right. That they, they’ll make the appointment, but then they’ll show up for the appointment and accept treatment. So it’s the quality of that. And you’re totally on point that, and this is common in all business too. Whenever there’s a slowdown, we immediately go, I need more. I need more new patients. I need more business.

14:34
I think the first step should be like, how are we dealing with our current clients, our current patients? Are we doing it well? Are we efficient? Can we use this time to improve our customer service? Right. And then focusing on quality that that’s sustainable. A practice should any business, Brian Tracy, I love this quote, that any business should be able to, in theory, rely only on referrals and never have to get new. Of course we want new, but

15:02
let’s not use that as like our excuse from doing the hard work. So I see this trend here. We’re blaming others in the first step that you don’t understand what I do. And that’s why you’re low in the market. You don’t understand me. We’re not getting up to patients, spend more money on marketing and just turn the open up the floodgates. So again, nothing is pointing to us. It’s always something else. The external it’s a patient’s fault. They’re not coming in and they’re not doing what I want them to do. Wow. Wow. You know, pacifier time.

15:30
So I’ll you a really quick tip to since I mentioned that so many practices have a million dollar file cabinet and the typical thing that happens is the dentist Realizes this which is a great thing. You always have to realize something in admit something and then they say okay Madge Madge is my my typical front desk persons to internet I love Madge Madge and I’ll use the nerdy that Madge This is what I want you to do when you have some free time I want you to look through the charts, you know on those on the software and go from

15:57
A to Z start with Aaron Ardvark and then with Zelda’s Y back and Contact everybody who hasn’t been in in 18 months and try to get them back in so Two reasons that doesn’t work one when you say imagine when you have some spare time Nobody likes this job. It’s a crap job So mad is never gonna find spare time to do it. So it only works if you say Madge We’re closed on Fridays. Would you like to come in Friday from 9 to 12 and dedicate yourself to this reactivation job?

16:25
And of course I’ll pay you incredibly well and here’s my Grubhub account and you know, have some lunch sent in or whatever, make a very attractive, know, dedicated time to do it. But also, you don’t have to start at A and end at Z. You can triage, say, let’s start with the patients who have been away the least amount of time and as you said, let’s look through that list and find the patients that we really want to have. You know, somebody that no-show five times, we’re not gonna call them. Somebody who complains every time they open their mouth, we’re not gonna call them and then you’ll find that.

16:53
You know, you’re going to start with the patients who haven’t been away that long, who you really want to have back in. And this project can be very successful. And lastly, before we move on to the next point is there’s nothing more dangerous than a dentist that is not busy. So my father would hover uh and he started to go to Heather. Heather would run uh the office and she handled all the new patients and she would, he would like stand in front of her and she’s like, what are you doing? uh Not working. It was like, go away. I have work to do.

17:23
So again, it’s dentists gotta keep busy, it’s dangerous. uh again, part of the temperament, but what we are uh asking the dentist is step back, take a breath, take a moment to, and it needs these points too, before jumping the gun and just pushing the new patient flow, which you can. You always should be working on new patients, but say, how’s the entire patient experience? And can I use this time to train, to study?

17:52
You do your online training, your online training with All-Star or go to a seminar with us and with Richard, but do something with your time when there’s a slowdown. Sometimes it’s good to work on the business, not just in the business. that’s a number two. You’d be better off going into your private office and meditating and bothering everyone. Yes, absolutely. And you got to always come from the right place. If you are desperate for people to…

18:21
to give you approval. We call that approval addiction. teach in our case acceptance seminars. If you are so needy that you have to get always, you know, something in front of you every moment, something to write, meditate, take a moment. Why do I have that the need? What is, when is enough enough? If you’re coming from a place of expansion and care, um, then you’d be amazed how the, practice works in your favor as it goes versus fighting.

18:51
the ebbs and flows. Totally agree. Okay, next one. I don’t think we need to spend that much time on this one, but I’m not thrown millennial Dennis under the bus, but I hear this from millennials all the time. And that is, are you a millennial Alex? don’t know. I’m actually the last year of the millennial. Last meaning you’re the oldest or the youngest? I’m the oldest millennial there is. Okay, that’s I thought. so if you were one year older, what would you be?

19:20
You wouldn’t be a baby boomer. That’s me. There’s something in between. There’s no sorry to offend you with my label. No, that’s that’s very offensive. I’m not that old. ah It’s funny. My my we went out this dinner. My my wife is a year older than me. Well, three or four months older than me. And I remember we’re at dinner and somebody was like they well they thought that I was her her father. And I’m like, oh, man, like, that’s not good. Well, she takes good care of herself. Or I don’t. I don’t know. But it was kind of funny. But uh

19:49
So I don’t know what is you have generated you have have gen X. I might see it. I don’t know. I Jen’s younger than you. So so my wife, my wife, I think is Gen X, which is she’s older. So she for a few months. So I hit the millennial and then it’s Gen X or something. So but I am a millennial. You’re a cussable millennial. OK. Yeah. So I did hear this from the millennial and my kids are on millennials. I love millennials. you go, dad.

20:16
Exactly. A phrase I hear is, want to scale my practice. And I think what that means is, I own a practice. It’s not enough. I want to own two practices, then three, then four, then five. Then I want to own 18 satellite practices that are revolving around the sun. And then I want to conquer the world. And OK, that’s great if you can do it. And I know many dentists who have done it, who have owned two, three, four, five, six or more practices.

20:45
who have done it successfully, and that’s really cool. But what I found is that many dentists that say I want to scale my practice have a mediocre practice, and they think they’re not making enough money, and they think, well, then the key is going to be to open up a second practice, because then I’ll make double what I’m making now, and that will be enough. But what they wind up doing is replicating all the things they’re doing wrong in this mediocre practice. In the meantime, their overhead doubles, their headaches, like quadruple.

21:11
and they regret ever doing it. So I’m going to say, if you want to scale your practice, open up multiple locations, awesome. But first make sure you have a super kick-ass practice that is busy, that is rocking, that is profitable, that has great systems, that has all these things that are worth replicating in your second practice. And until you have that, slow down cowboy or cowgirl. Let’s take it easy here. Well, I like the comment on that. I’ve heard that too. These are great.

21:41
I love it. I was so delighted to see your, your, so entertaining and your choices are very entertaining. And this is down to earth. mean, it’s, you hear it and it can be a mini context scale. Uh, once practice, could be the one location. You just want to get bigger. I want to scale. want to scale. You could, you, you may want to be your, like a mini DSO empire. And what I would say as well is stop for a second. And I would ask why.

22:08
Why do you, what, why, what, what’s motivating you? It’s all motivation. And it’s amazing. And I say this, I’m speaking from myself, my own experience. It’s like, not that I want to scale and local practice it, but I’m saying like, all of us as humans, know, when is enough enough and when, and when can we be comfortable? And this is also society ingrains us in us. And I’m not saying that, listen, being going and putting the work, but to what end, right?

22:37
And, and I think what are we trying to do? And I’ll tell you this, right. It’s back to high school. We’re trying to be loved and accepted and be cool and, have to look, look how good I am. Look at car I’m driving, you know, whatever that might be. And then I’m going to success. Right. Uh, so, so I think be careful before you take on this big, big endeavor that you are clear with your objectives. Now I have some clients that.

23:07
And this is rare. This is like 2 % that are like, I don’t want to practice. love business and I want to build multiple practices. And I love doing that. And again, there’s systematizing, they’re built in businesses. That’s a whole nother can of worms. And as you build more practices, as you know, you, if you want it to be successful or you’re the one doing it, you will be doing less than less dentistry. Most dentists want to do great, beautiful dentistry. Most dentists have this dream that I’m going to do beautiful dentistry.

23:35
get paid very well, have a wonderful work-life balance, and everybody’s happy. That’s mostly their dream. You have few oddballs like, I wanna be a business person or a musician, whatever that is. You can be both. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, but normally something’s gotta give, right? And your family may give as well, where you’re working so hard, do you want a family? So these are things that one has to grapple with.

24:03
Now, most entities that are listening don’t want eight practices, but they do want to scale their practice. They do want to grow, right? They do want to get bigger. I’m 1 million, I want two. I want three, I want four. Look what they’re doing. Okay, fine. Right. But just like you said, you’re the nail on the head, right? Um, is that if you aren’t going to scale your practice in any way, make sure you’re scaling well. You have quality, you have systems, you’re, you’re making more of a good product.

24:33
not more of a crappy product, right? Exactly. I was, oh sorry, was trying, I was once, I was looking at their data and they just, their hygiene department was just, it was just all what we call the cleaning lady model. know, bloody profuse, just no perio treatment, blah, blah. And the dentist kept saying to me, I want to scale my practice. And I said, you want to scale your practice? Let’s start with having your hygienist scale some teeth before even talking about scaling your practice. And I think he was like, oh yeah, maybe that’s a good idea.

25:02
But that’s the point. think that’s what I love. These are a great discussion is that I think sometimes it’s just like, Oh, I never thought about that. Sit back there and go, Oh yeah. Hmm. Maybe I guess the point is why and what I would give to the audience and a lot of these questions is why are you doing what you’re doing? What is your motivation? Some might be too deep for you. Others that might be perfectly depth for you, but think about before you act because every hour you spend in planning, you say four hours in execution.

25:31
You start going down a path that you only want to go. Now, you know, you’re, creating yourself more chaos. Right. So reversing is tougher. Yeah. A great point. scale practice, do it. I hear it. You can do it if you want to do it, but do it well, scale quality. What’s number four. Number four of the, the five phrases that me and you are tired of hearing is have a seat. We’ll be right with you. A lot of times when I’m doing a seminar.

26:00
We start talking about new patient experience and how involved the front desk team is when a patient walks in your office for the very first time and I just start playing with the audience Constructing a phrase like what is what are some great things to say when a new patient comes in and everybody’s so good at this people will yell like Welcome to our practice or you know, sure you call them by name. Thanks for coming in You know, we appreciate you all these great things great great great and we start stringing together a sentence like hey Alex so great to meet you welcome to our practice We’re so glad you chose us and

26:30
Everybody gets these questions right, because it’s easy to construct a sentence like that. But I always say, those are great. But my favorite thing to say at the end takes a lot more work. And that is after you say, hello, Alex, it’s so great to meet you. Thanks for choosing our practice. What if you can say, don’t even sit down. We’re ready for you. And everybody’s going, oh. And they all start pointing fingers at one another. It’s like, if you can say, don’t even sit down. We’re ready for you, every single time a new patient walks in, wow.

26:58
That’s powerful, right? So the phrase that I don’t like is have a seat, we’ll be right with you. And that usually means kind of like if you call, uh, you know, for tech support and they say, we’ll be right with you. then 10 minutes later, you know, um, your call is very important to love what he’s told. Yeah. They say, they say, oh, we will, we will, I’m happy to, what did they say? We’re to get this resolved. They never do. There’s that’s like a, yeah, everybody in every call center. That’s the first line they ever use. We’re going to get this result. So.

27:27
I guess what I’m getting at to put it simply is there are so many things you can do to just exemplify incredible customer service, patient service, all those things. And we all, can each make a list of a hundred of them. But if every time a patient comes in, they have to sit in your reception area for 15 minutes or 20 minutes, it just negates everything you’ve just done because nobody likes that. And it says to the patient, we don’t value your time. And even if that’s not true, that’s what it says to them.

27:57
and they may leave, they’re certainly not gonna refer their friends and family members. Running late is, I have a pet peeve against the word pet peeve or the phrase pet peeve, but running late is my pet peeve. If you take patients back on time and give a painless injection, you’ve done so many things right. um Those are just two simple things to do, right? So don’t run late, don’t run late. Now you and I could both probably teach a five hour course on how to not run late. Clearly we don’t have time in this podcast to do it.

28:26
But I’ll just say the only way to start your project of never running late is to say, this is our policy. This is internal team meeting. We do not run late. This is our policy. Then when a decision has to be made, a patient shows up 20 minutes late for a 30 minute appointment, a procedure goes bad. um The doctor’s trying to, you know, up at the front desk, like you said, when they should be in their private office saying, oh, I know we only have 15 minutes, but squeeze this patient in. They need two crowds. We can do it.

28:57
The scheduler needs to have this power that our policy is we do not run late and every scheduling decision is made based on that. And you will upset the patient who’s 20 minutes late for their 30-minute appointment. I’d rather upset them than the 10 patients who are following them. Yeah, it’s all about respect. It’s showing respect for the patient, for their time. You what we talk about is broken appointments. You can’t have a broken appointment process if…

29:25
and expect your patients to be on time if you’re not right. You’re not, you’re setting a hypocritical situation. Now it gave me goose bumps. Gums won’t you boost gumps on it. That boo goose. I like that. It’s a new one. Uh, so, so goose bumps. When you said, uh, the reverse to have a seat, I’ll be with you. It’s like, what did you say? Don’t say that again. The, don’t even sit down. We’re ready for you. Don’t love it. Sit down. We’re ready for you. The free every patient wants to hear it. This is, this is beautiful.

29:54
I love that care. Well done. Good version. Okay, we’ve got one more left. And Alex, I hate to say it, but it’s a phrase that you said during this interview and I’m going to say I hate it. Oh, I didn’t know. Is that allowed? You’re not going to censor me, are you? Oh, I’ll just cut it out. Edit. Let’s hear it. Okay. But I know you said it in the best way possible. The phrase that I don’t like is work-life balance. And I’ll tell you why. Because look, you…

30:24
You did, but it’s okay. We’re gonna file, but let’s do it. Well, no, because as is defined, we all do want a good work-life balance. So I’m with you there. I say it almost tongue in cheek, but here’s why I don’t like the phrase work-life balance. Because this balance, to me, some may disagree, it insinuates that we need this balance because life is good. Work is bad. Life is fun. Work sucks.

30:53
So we need to have the balance, almost like I’m willing to put in the time and be miserable at work because that allows me the income that I deserve, which gives me the freedom to do the things I want when I’m not at work. I call it a negative happiness equation. I love my weekends with my kids and my trips and my whatever you do, go to movies, play golf, go on little mini vacations, all the things that we love to do. A lot of them cost money, let’s face it. So you need to work to earn money. That’s just the way life is.

31:22
But if it’s all about the work-life balance, meaning I’m trying to balance these because I don’t like work and I love life, well, that’s no good. But what if you actually loved your time off work and your time in work, right? If you love going to the office and you love your time not at the office, you don’t have to worry about a balance. So I think it’s really important that

31:46
Of course, you know, everybody likes to spend their spare time differently. Some people love alone time. Some people love being in big groups. So, you know, some people like taking a hike. Some people like being indoors, watching Netflix. I don’t care what you like doing, but what if you could like being in your office as much as you liked your downtime? Wouldn’t that be awesome? And if that’s true, we really don’t worry about a work life balance so much. Well, it’s interesting you say that because I remember I was at a Tony Robbins lecture. Many of you know, I used to work for him.

32:15
uh In didn’t know that graduating. I was a Tony Robbins coach uh for many years. The one is the top business coaches and And that was before working for my father and so that’s I was didn’t have plans listeners No, I didn’t have plans to be going into dentistry, but my father’s practice was facing bankruptcy I was Tony Robbins coach. I said, me see what I can do brought my wife in from Bloomingdale’s We took a 1 million dollar practice brought to 2.4 million 18 months. Well, there’s shopping at the timers

32:45
She liked the shop for sure, absolutely. Still does. She told my son, she says, I don’t tell daddy what I spend. I’m like, you don’t? I just look at the credit card. and it’s interesting, Tony said something like this as well about balance, worth like balance. I would actually, I’m gonna get very mystical with you here. There’s this little book that I’ve been listening to called The Tao De Ching. And there’s actually a cool little uh

33:13
take on that called the Tao of Pu, what is the Pu? And so the whole thing with the Tao is balance, yin and yang, right? So you say, we often identify work as good or as bad and life as good or vice versa. And really it’s just elements, right? So work-life balance, the way I look at it is, and it could be balance in general is important. Homeostasis, our whole body works in balance. Now everybody’s balance is different, right?

33:41
And even you may enjoy being at work all day long, as long as your partner does, as long as your kids do, if you have kids. Now, if you have a couple power couple, they’re dentists and they just love working and they’re at the office all day long, that becomes their work and life. Yeah. But in most situations, there is a, but, but I like what you said. I think you, I think what we will agree on this is that, and you gave me a good out here for this is that.

34:10
Identifying one as good or bad is a misnomer. I still believe that balance is critical. don’t see any, I don’t think any doctor would, you know, working out too much is bad, right? You have to moderate everything you do. Playing the guitar too long, you’ll break your fingers. So everything needs balance. Work should be, and that’s what Dr. Richard Maddow, visionary.

34:39
Okay, speaker musician is telling us is that everything can be good. Work should be good. Life should be good. Everything you touch should be goodness. And it’s not one, it’s not that I have to go to work and suffer in order to have a life. everything is great. And you bring your guitar and everything you do, you make it your own.

35:04
And so I think that’s a very inspirational message that we both can agree. It’s a way to kind of like wrap this podcast up. It’s wonderful. Is that everything you do should be good. And if it’s not, if you’re not loving what you do at work, if it’s not fulfilling, if you have to scale to, to feel better, if you have to get high IQ patients, right? Or tons of new patients or whatever’s going on or make sure they’re sit somewhere. Okay.

35:31
these, these five, I think this brings all the five together is that at the end of the day, whatever you do should be good. And you, and you’re expansive, you’re enjoying it. If it’s not, then you’re not doing it the right way. You’re not doing it. Um, you know, one, one coach that I work with once talk about expansion and contraction. We’ll put it instead of good or bad. Those are kind of like half connotations, but if you don’t feel expansive, open, openhearted in what you’re doing, then you ain’t doing it right.

36:00
If you feel contract, mean, yeah, and reverse, if you feel contracted, anxious, fearful, desperate, then you doing it. You know, then you’re doing it right. You want to feel big. You want to feel like you’re, making a difference. And back to Tony Robbins, Tony Robbins is a great model. Those can look at, I’ll call the six human needs, the need for certainty, variety, significance, love and connection, uh, contribution and growth. And if you’re able to achieve those needs, they can be achieved at work, at home, at play, whatever it is.

36:31
Right? So I think, yeah, have good work, have good home life and whatever you do. So. Great. Great way to wrap it. Alice, this has been so much fun. Oh, I don’t know. Are we wrapping? I don’t even know. It’s your podcast and I’m starting to the… No, know. That would be great. obviously you have experience as a podcaster. No, you have sensed well, young grasshopper.

36:56
Is that yes, it has come to that time. It’s a very sad time of the podcast. must end. could do this another hour. No, we’re going to do it again. I know you warned me on the boat. You’re like, oh, we do about 20 minutes. This is already 30 something. And you’re like, uh, 20 minutes. I just warm up in 20 minutes. I’m like, all right, we’re going to do it. So you were good to your word. We’re under an hour, uh, under 45 minutes or so. Um, and we’ll definitely do it again. You were so much fun to, to, to talk to. So we covered the five.

37:24
Great ending. What I’d like the listeners to know is for those to get to know more about you, you are a phenomenal speaker. You’re a lot of fun and exciting in terms of your experiences. For those who want to get to learn more about you and your coaching and your seminars, where can they find out more about you and follow you? Well, thanks so much for asking. Our website is just simply matter.com. M-A-D-O-W.

37:50
There’s just one D in matter a lot of people try to put the second D in there But it’s madow.com if you go in there you can see my speaking schedule. There’s just a little thing to click I Don’t you know I used to have so many speaking dates. I cut back a little bit I’m gonna do the ones I really want to do these days, but I think in the upcoming few months I’ll be in ten different places across the country or North America. So check it out I’ve got a book that just came out called creating your ideal dental practice how to boost your income

38:19
love what you do and build a winning team. And that’s available on Amazon, hardback, paperback, electronic. You could just go to matter.com slash book, or if you want a signed copy matter.com slash signed. So that’s how to find me. That’s awesome. Well, thank you. The great Richard Maddow and we’ll have you back. Remember those listening and watching. have a good watching following as well.

38:47
is remember to follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, get the episodes as they released, share with your friends. And Richard, do me a favor, all your friends, I tell people this, go to their phone, click all the subscribe and follow buttons for all the stuff that is social at us All-Star. We’re on Instagram, we’re on Facebook, everything. Just get those following over to us, all right? So I hope you all enjoyed, we’ll be back and until next time, go out there and be an All-Star.

39:15
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Dental All-Stars. Visit us online at AllStarDentalAcademy.com.