Dr. Paul Etchison emphasizes team inspiration, purpose-driven work, active listening, and fostering a culture of gratitude for a thriving practice.
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About Dr. Paul Etchison
Paul Etchison is the host of the Dental Practice Heroes Podcast, he is the author of two books on dental practice management, Dental Practice Hero: From Ordinary Practice to Extraordinary Experience and Dental Practice Hero II: How a 3 day Work week can give you the life you want. He is the owner of Nelson Ridge Family Dental, a large multidoc practice in the south suburbs of Chicago and Founder of DentalBusinessMentor.com, and online resource for videos about Practice management, leadership, and the best systems for Dental Practices. He lives in the Chicago Area with his wife and two daughters.
About Alex Nottingham, JD, MBA
Alex is the CEO and Founder of All-Star Dental Academy®. He is a former Tony Robbins top coach and consultant, having worked with companies upwards of $100 million. His passion is to help others create personal wealth and make a positive impact on the people around them. Alex received his Juris Doctor (JD) and Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Florida International University.
Episode Transcript
Transcript performed by A.I. Please excuse the typos.
00:01
This is Dental All-Stars, where we bring you the best in dentistry on marketing, management, and training. Here’s your host, Alex Nottingham. Welcome to Dental All-Stars, and we’re talking about how to get your team excited about everything in your practice and so on, and improve life. And our guest is Dr. Paul Etchinson, and he is the host of Dental Practice Heroes podcast. We had him before in the program. We talked about our origin stories.
00:31
Welcome back, Paul. Yeah, thanks for having me back, man. Excited to talk today. We were having fun in the green room, comparing microphones and setups, and Paul keeps upping his- Sibilance and compression. And sibilance and compression, and it’s like we’re geeking out back here. So I know many of you can resonate with Paul and the dull dental stuff or DDS, but here as podcasters, we’re comparing microphones and all the goodies and-
00:59
you have that, I have to get that technology now, right? I have to get that microphone and do what you did. So it was a lot of fun. So we definitely know where all of you are coming from listening. So Paul, tell me as a dentist, as an author, as a podcaster, as a speaker, you do a lot of things. How do we get team excited about the practice? Because that is a big issue. And actually before you even get to that, let’s talk about the problem first. I love getting to the problem. Because…
01:29
We’re having an engagement issue with team. As you know, we have a hiring program. We help, well hiring service, we help hire team members. And we’re seeing it’s very difficult to find good team members out there. We’re having an issue called quiet quitting where team members don’t wanna be there. They’re just, you know, so they’re not, they didn’t quit, but they checked out.
01:58
And that’s not what we want. Not only do we want team members, we want them engaged, we want them excited. So tell me more about this issue that you see, and then we’ll talk about how we resolve it. Yeah, I mean, it’s a completely different world now, which I mean, I remember opening my practice in 2012. And we used to have people apply for a job, we’d get a bunch of applicants. If they didn’t send a cover letter, we’d just throw their resume in the trash. We were really selective.
02:27
And we would have like maybe five or six people to choose from. And nowadays we’re lucky if we can get anyone to even call us back, if they can even show up for an interview or if they even show up for the working interview, or we’ve had people ghost us after we’ve hired them and they seem so excited. So we’re going through the process. Now we’ve changed our way that we’re doing hiring is that we are when, as soon as we decide we like someone, we are selling them on our practice, telling them how we’re different.
02:55
how it’s going to be different working in our practice because it’s not the way it used to be, but we need good people. And it’s hard to find talent these days because it just seems like there’s not as many people. So you mentioned the quiet quitting as well. And I think that’s, we’re seeing a lot of that. And I think there’s just not a lot of enthusiasm in the workplace and people can say it’s the younger generation and it’s work ethic and it’s this and that. I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I think there’s definitely been a cultural shift in that people.
03:24
are not, I guess I would say they’re not tolerating a bad work environment as well as they used to. So it’s more important than ever to really, you know, we want to take courses on clinical stuff. We want to take these practice management courses, but a lot of what we do is culture. And if we could just fix the culture piece and get people, our team inspired and get them excited about going to work, I think a lot of our issues just kind of work themselves out.
03:54
Yeah, that makes sense. It’s funny, we just wish we were back in the days when it was hiring. What you said is you had this standard. But I also like, there’s always a silver lining, which is I like the fact that it’s forcing us to be better. And this is a general trend in dentistry that, and this is why corporate practices want to get in on dentistry, because you can be inefficient and still be very profitable.
04:24
And we were very inefficient in hiring and to the subject today and motivating our team and getting them excited, we were a bit negligent. So now the workplace is saying it’s harder. So when you really do find somebody that’s locked in, you want to make the experience great that they are drinking the Kool-Aid, that they want to be there and that you’re making that investment. So it’s forcing you to be better. That when the job market does soften.
04:54
or improve that you would have had those skills to do it. So okay, so we see there’s a problem. Everybody’s facing it when it comes to the demands of the workplace not providing the best people and having to work. But you eventually can get there. There are great people out there and you can find them. So now that you find, so tell me about how we get our team excited because that’s the big thing. If we can keep our team, maintain our team, get the most out of our team, we don’t have to go.
05:23
uh, rummage through more and more hires. So I think part of the reason that we, we see all these things that we’re having in the industry now, or just in dental in general, and it probably most industries, I guess, is that it comes down to that big why, like what is there to get excited about when we show up every day and we, we just do a few fillings or we do, we’re cleaning somebody’s teeth. It just doesn’t seem like we’re doing, we’re making a difference in people’s lives. And I think like,
05:52
A big thing that we really like miss the boat on is we don’t get the team inspired. We don’t let them make them realize like what they do that makes a difference. So I like to talk to my team about just look at like something very small, maybe like an occlusal filling, maybe just like we just did a scaling on somebody. And I ask them, what is the, what happens if we don’t treat this? So I like to like talk to them about like a smaller procedure, like something that we do that’s every day. That seems like it’s something we take for granted.
06:23
I think like if you look at an occlusal filling, you know, we do this all the time. If we do like scaling, we do it all the time. This is very different than that procedure where we just do a big cosmetic makeover and someone looks in the mirror and they start crying and they’re just like, oh my gosh, this changed my life. And we feel everyone in the room is high-fiving and everyone’s happy. But if we look at that little occlusal filling and we think about everything we do at the practice patient experience wise, helps that person say yes to that occlusal filling. And if for some reason,
06:52
they don’t say yes, and a lot of people have dental anxiety. If they don’t say yes to that, they might just go away, and then maybe, like if we’re talking about a 20-year-old, maybe they go away for five years, and maybe it turns into a root canal. And then maybe they come back when they’re in pain and they’re scared, so then they take antibiotics and it goes away for another maybe a year or so. And then we know we’ve got a big cavity, so that stuff spreads. And then eventually, we’ve got a mouthful of caries where someone’s covering their mouth when they’re smiling. They’re afraid to go out, teeth are breaking.
07:21
And then they finally go back to the dentist and they say, Hey, I’ve got to do something. I can’t live like this. And then they see this big treatment plan that maybe they can’t afford. So then they just put it off longer. And then they eventually, they get a tooth pulled here, a tooth pulled there until they’re finally, they’re adenculated and we’re putting them in a denture, maybe 35, 40 years old. And then we say, where did that all start? You know, is that person going to have a, are they going to live as good of a life with a denture as they would with their natural teeth? But it all started with that occlusal filling.
07:51
And it wasn’t just like the filling procedure, but it started with the way we answered the phone. It started with the way that we present our office. It starts with the way that we present the finances. All these little things, they all make a difference in if the patient’s gonna say yes, or if they’re gonna have a good experience and they’re gonna like us. So that brings the whole team in on it and gets them excited. Because a lot of times, we know the clinical team, we’re like, oh, we’re changing lives, but we’re only seeing it with those big cosmetic cases. But this is like, everybody on the team is now changing lives.
08:21
in every case matters. Like I presented this to my team at a team meeting and I showed a picture of this one gentleman, his name was Robert. And he was somebody that we had seen for SRPs and maybe two weeks before. He just did his second two quads. I think he put them off for like six, seven years. His period was pretty bad, but I went on his Facebook page and I found a picture of him like going to a daddy daughter dance with his daughter. And I asked them, they guys remember him? They’re like, yeah, yeah, I remember him. I’m like, do you think because of the experience that we provided,
08:50
had anything to do with him saying yes. He said he put it off for six, seven years. They’re like, yeah, yeah. I’m like, and now that we’ve treated his period, what are the odds that he’ll walk that little girl down the aisle? Like, I’m not saying we saved his life, but I’m saying, did we increase those odds that he will be in this world longer? And everybody was like, oh my gosh, yes, yes, we did. And I had two girls from the front desk text me that night. They said, gosh, I never realized what a difference I make up here. I feel like you guys are all doing it in the back. So.
09:19
I think we have to really look at, we’re doing a really cool thing and it’s even set up for us because a lot of our colleagues, they don’t provide a very good patient experience. So people have had bad experiences. So we don’t have to do a lot to really impress somebody. Now I’m not saying we shouldn’t, you know, we should half-ass it, but we can really go above and beyond and blow people away and we can change lives when we start realizing that every single procedure we see is life-changing if we don’t treat it.
09:48
If you look, if you zoom out at that macro implications of not treating that, that’s where we see that every little thing that matters. And the team understanding that will make them show up at work and be more excited to do what they do and more excited to smile and put that happy face on when they might not be feeling it on the inside, just to make that difference. People want to do good and people want to have the good intentions and people want to do things for the right reasons.
10:16
And when we frame it in that way and make it help the team to realize that it gives them all those right reasons, it gives them purpose. So I think that’s a big part missing from a lot of, I mean, you know, most industries is just we’re just showing up and it’s just another job. Well you said the word purpose, which is exactly what I was going to say is you’re giving people purpose. And many of us seek purpose. It’s one of the one of the needs I think that we all have. The need of contribution.
10:46
to giving back, of having a legacy, of being part of something. It’s interesting in the happiness studies as well, you could use dentistry in interaction with patients. It’s a great opportunity to build happiness. A lot of happiness studies show that when just having a conversation with a clerk or a waiter or anybody you see, that connection helps provide happiness and boost happiness.
11:15
And in a dental office, as a service-based industry, you have this opportunity. And you are leading by example, you’re setting as a doctor has to set the vision, the purpose for the team and saying, this is an opportunity. I think it’s also important that dentists, that’s what you’re putting out as an example as a dentist, is that you are making something greater than yourself. It isn’t, oh, hey team, you’re there to help pay for my Lexus or Mercedes.
11:44
Instead, it’s like we, the mission is more important than any one of us. Is we’re here to make a difference in people’s lives, to be a place for them. And so, as you said, not only doing the right thing from a clinical standpoint and preventing and preventing a bad scenario like dentures and saving their teeth, but also being a place to comfort them, to talk to them, to care, to make a difference.
12:14
I went to the dentist the other day. So my dad’s retired. So I go to one of our all-star dentists and the hygienist was like, oh, I haven’t seen you for a while. You look, oh, that’s nice what you’re wearing. Oh, did you lose weight? And I was like, oh, yes, I did. And it’s like all these little things are like, and my wife, her hygienist, I’m trying to get her to go to a different office. She’s like, I’m never going to leave my hygienist. I just had that great relationship, stimulating the heart of the business.
12:43
And when they’re aligned with that, they want to be there. Now I will say something about the newer generation. And I think all have a piece of this, certainly as generations go, is they want to be part of something, not just a job. That’s why they’re sitting back saying, I’m waiting for the job. So it’s not just money. Is they want to be part of a movement. And so you want to make your practice like a movement. Right? That’s what I hear you saying, that we’re aligned with purpose. So is that the trick, Paul? Is that the secret to?
13:12
get your team excited about everything, purpose. Well, I do think that’s the secret. That’s one of them. I mean, you know, it’s like when we talk about the mission vision statements, like our mission is that we want to create an experience that’s so amazing that people are happy to tell their friends and family about it, that they can’t help them talk about it because we’ve raised the bar for what going to a dentist seems like, or for what we’ve raised the bar. But I think, you know, we give them that purpose. We give the team the purpose to show up and to feel like they’re doing something good.
13:39
And then the other side of that is we’ve got to get rid of the bad stuff too. And a lot of dentists aren’t the greatest leaders. They’re not the greatest listeners. They’re not the greatest managers. And I think if we just sat back in, I do coaching and I have clients, they ask me all the time, they go, where should I start? And I say, I don’t know. I mean, I look at your numbers and there’s some, there’s some things that will jump out, but I think the greatest information comes from talking to the team, from asking the team, the people on the front lines and saying, Hey,
14:08
what’s going on at the practice? Like, hey, I just want to have a conversation with you. Be real honest with me, what’s going on at the practice? Like, what frustrates you? Because a lot of times you’ll sit the team down and they’ll say, everything’s great, everything’s great. And just asking them, what frustrates you? You’ve got to come up with something. Give me something, I want to hear it, I want this to be the best place to work. And then another thing is, I repeat this all the time to my team. I say, hey, I’ve got two goals. One, it’s going to be a great place for patients. Two, this is going to be a fantastic place to work for us. And to stay true to that mission,
14:38
I’ve got to ask my team what’s going on. And when they tell me some things are wrong, I’m just like every other owner. Sometimes I go, I don’t really agree with that. Or like, I want to defend myself. I want to take it personally. And I want to defend the person that they’re talking about. But you can’t do that. You’ve got to listen. You got to be thankful that they’re giving you this gift of this feedback. And you’re going to take this to make the place better. And sometimes, you know, team members, they’ll have a problem that just doesn’t have a really good solution.
15:08
but they expect you to do something about it. And I like to just turn this on the team members, say, hey, if you were in my position to fix this, what do you think I should do? And then they’ll say like, okay, well, maybe this. And then you say, okay, well, what about this? Like then that might happen. They’ll go, oh yeah, yeah, okay. Well, maybe there’s not a good solution. I’m like, well, what do you think we should do to make this better? Like, I don’t wanna tell the team member just to change your perception, but I mean, sometimes that would fix a lot of issues. You know, if we could just change our mindset and our attitudes at work. But.
15:38
Even if you cannot fix the problem and it’s one of those kind of issues that’s not fixable, you’ve listened to your team member. They feel heard and they feel validated and appreciated because you took the time to sit down and talk to them and that creates a better culture. And you wanna know where to start to fix your practice, just ask your team, sit down with them and you gotta start having these conversations more often and you gotta be careful the way you respond. Like I said, don’t respond defensively, don’t.
16:06
criticize anyone, don’t ever make anyone feel guilty for sharing something. And as you do that more often, and you start setting that tone that this is like, we’re going to provide grace over guilt is what I always say. Then people will start sharing and feel a lot more comfortable. You know, it’s, it’s this whole idea of psychological safety that we want to create a safe place for people that they don’t feel like they’re going to get criticized or hurt or feel guilty for sharing something about admitting they need more training.
16:34
psychological safety is a lot like trust, you know, it’s, it can, we, it takes time to build and we can, we can destroy it in one conversation. So you got to be really careful with how you treat that. But your team will give you all the information you need for where your biggest sore spots are in the practice. You will be able to fix them and make it a better place to work. And at the same time, they will be heard and they will feel validated. So everybody wins and it’s so easy. You just got to.
17:01
ask questions, make people feel comfortable, and you just listen. And you brainstorm, and you collaborate. You don’t have to have all the answers. So I would say anyone listening that’s, I mean, I wouldn’t say like anyone listening that’s having trouble with their practice. I think anyone listening should sit down with their team. And as your team gets bigger, it gets harder and harder because there’s more of them. But when we were growing, and this was probably once every two months, I was sitting down with every single person. And I think that is what has gotten our practice the edge.
17:29
to really create solutions for all of the issues. And anytime something went wrong, anytime we dropped the ball on somebody, on a patient, we never made anyone feel guilty about it. We just said, hey, I don’t care how it happened. What are we gonna do going forward so this doesn’t happen again? What can we come up with? What’s our safety so this doesn’t happen again? So that’s the other part, just fixing those frustrations. It’s interesting, I think about how simple what you’re saying is.
17:57
And I think a lot of these solutions are simple, but I just realized what we need is reminders. That’s why coaching’s out there. That’s why you’re out there. That’s why All-Star Dental Academy is out there, is it’s reminders. And sometimes it’s the basic stuff. You’re talking also about emotional intelligence EQ, and you have a high EQ. And some dentists are just, they do work at it, but some are more born with better EQ than others, and they do very well, because
18:27
Patients love them because they’re kind and teams like them. And such a simple thing. Listen, people love to tell their story and be heard. It’s amazing. One of my business partners, Tom, doesn’t talk a lot. But whenever I speak with him, he listens so well. And then after that conversation, I’m like, Tom, wow, what a great conversation. So nice speaking to you. He didn’t say a peep. He just listened to me. And.
18:57
Our director of our hiring service, Robin, she did a talk about stay interviews. Instead of focusing so much on exit interviews, focus on stay interviews, which is exactly what you’re saying. Interview your team periodically. Have a seat. How are you doing? Not just, hey, here’s your app to improve. How are you doing? How’s it going? What can we do better? How can I serve you? How can I make your job better?
19:25
How can we serve these patients? So it’s a servant-based leadership where the dentist is there to help everyone do their, not do the job for them, but support them to be able to do their job and fulfill their purpose and look forward to coming to the office and making a difference. So it’s beautiful. Yeah, and I’ll add too, Alex, is that, I’ve had a number of conversations in my, almost 12 years of owning a practice where I’ve said to people just flat out like,
19:55
I just feel like this vibe, like you might not be liking working here anymore. Is that, tell me I’m wrong, tell me I’m right. Like, I just wanna explore that. And I’ve had people just be completely honest with me, like, yeah, I’m kind of thinking about, you know, looking for a new job. I really am, I’m not happy. And every single time I’ve had that conversation with somebody, that person has stayed. And it’s because I listened and because we addressed whatever it was that was bothering them because-
20:21
I mean, people are going to leave a practice mostly because they don’t like the management. They don’t like the leadership. That’s going to be a big thing. They don’t like how things are run and they don’t like the way that things are going. It’s going to be something that happens repeatedly over and over and over again. They might voice some concern to management and it doesn’t get addressed. Then they’re getting frustrated. Then they feel like there’s nothing else they can do. They reach a final frustration level and now they’re looking for another new job. I remember reading in a book somewhere that…
20:49
People will stay at a job they hate for a very, very long time if they like the people they work with. They will put up with a lot. But I think to the point is to get somebody to reach that level that they’re leaving because of a frustration that they’re having, that’s a continual thing. I mean, how could we not address that if we’re not asking questions? How could we know about what’s going on and not address it? The problem is we just don’t know because we’re not asking.
21:15
And we’re finding out that maybe we’ll have someone drop a bomb on us and say, Hey, I’m putting in my two weeks and you just can’t believe it. You’re like, I can’t believe they’re leaving. And you might even ask them, like, why are you leaving? Like, I don’t understand. Like I, you’re like one of my best employees. I can’t believe you’re leaving. This is like, it hurts. It feels like a breakup. And they might just make up some BS excuse saying, you know, I just feel like I got to, I don’t want to work at night anymore. I’m going to work less hours. I’m thinking about doing something different, but it might be that they just don’t feel safe telling you the truth.
21:44
that you practice socks and they’re sick of it. Isn’t this though like all relationships, there’s no difference. I mean, the extreme example is a partner or spouse that you don’t talk, you don’t communicate. And one day there’s divorce papers. What happened? And friendships, they just fall away. You have to cultivate these relationships. You have to, just because you have it, doesn’t mean it stays, it requires effort. It requires…
22:13
requires care. And if it’s important, you’re going to be doing these things. Now some of these steps we’re talking about, some of these ideas, as simple as they may seem, don’t come natural for all dentists. And that’s why it’s a constantly practicing. And what I love with Tony Robbins, my mentor taught us, was modeling the best. See what Paul, Dr. Paul is doing in his practice. And see this week, so that’s kind of action steps.
22:43
Can we do that in our practice? So let me, let me end with that kind of Paul, give us some action steps as we take away what you spoke about. What are some simple things that we can do? Now they sound simple and you’re going to do them, but the trick is can you stick with them, have a reminder to keep doing it over and over again. So what are some activities? What are some action steps dentists can do to help?
23:13
provide more purpose to their team and get their team more excited about being in their office. Yeah, I’ll give you three because all good things come in three. They do. First was talking about everybody makes a difference. Every single touch point with a patient makes a difference. That’s answering the phone. That’s the way we seat the patient. It’s the way we address the patient. It’s the way we say goodbye to the patient. It’s when they walk by their front desk when they leave and everybody looks up and says, have a great day. It’s every little thing.
23:40
and that makes a difference in whether or not they say yes, and that makes a difference in their lives and their health. So that would be the first thing. The second thing would be to go and just, I used to do this, I used to have a checklist for myself, and it was a monthly checklist, and I would do a one-on-one with everybody every other month. So I would do half the team one month, and I would do half the team the other month, just to stay on top of it. And I would say, just make yourself a list, just commit to like the first time, you’re just gonna sit down with everybody, you know? And they’re gonna be like, what are you?
24:09
As soon as you say, Hey, can I talk to you in my office? They’re going to go, Oh no, what did I do? What did I do? And you just gotta say, Hey, I just feel like you could apologize. There’s nothing wrong with humility and just being vulnerable and say, Hey, I just heard something last week and it just kind of made me think that I should be asking you guys how you guys are doing more often and if there’s anything I can do as a leader to make this a better place to work, I do want you guys to love here and is there anything I can do? Tell me what’s going on. I don’t, I don’t know all the problems that are going on. I’m just looking for some help.
24:39
Be honest with me. I would just love if you could be candid. And sit down and do that with everybody. And the third thing I would say is just simple thank yous. You know, I used to have, I had a chart that was on the wall in my office and it had every team member’s initials and it said FB and I would check it off and people would say, what is FB? And I’d say, that’s for me, that’s owner stuff. And they’re like, what is it? And they never knew, I never told them. And eventually they did find out.
25:08
But for me, it was filling buckets. Is that my daughter had this book about filling buckets and it was like, if your bucket’s full, you can fill other people’s buckets. If you’re feeling good, you can make other people feel good. So I would make this thing and I would try to get two checks next to everyone’s name each month. Because I mean, I know two compliments a month seems like, oh, that’s nothing. But if you do it on a checklist, you will realize that as a dentist, you will tend to neglect the front desk people, the people that you’re not spending a lot of time with. And…
25:37
Like I always think I love this analogy. And I don’t remember where I heard this or I read it. But if we think about like how we go over and beyond for like our kids birthday parties, like my daughter, like I got two daughters, my wife just, it’s themed. We got to have cake. We got to have matching cake. It’s got to match all the decorations. It’s got to match the cookies. We got to have gifts to give the kids that show up. And it’s all like themed and all this stuff. And I just, I’d stop asking questions. I don’t get it. I would never put that much energy into something like that, but she loves it. So I just like say, oh, that’s great. Yeah. What do you need me to pick up? You know?
26:07
But it’s almost like, here’s what we do as dental practice leaders, is we have my daughter, it’s her fifth birthday, and we say, oh, look at this party, I love you so much. Look at what we did for you. And now the other 364 days, we don’t have to tell you that we love you, because you know, because we gave you this party. You know how much I love you. And that sounds ridiculous. We wanna tell them all the time, we love them so much. But this is what we do with our team. We have a once a year performance review. It’s really short.
26:36
We say, hey, I really appreciate all you’re doing here, man. Straight fives, good job. And then we don’t talk to them about anything. We don’t give them a single compliment. We don’t notice the little things. And we don’t cultivate this culture of thank you. And in my practice, it’s something that I model, but it’s also something I talk about. And I remember saying to my team once, like, do you guys like that? I show a lot of gratitude that I notice when you guys are doing little things. People are like, I tell my friends all the time what a great boss you are because you do that.
27:05
And I said, you know what I noticed? None of you guys do it together. None of you guys ever do thank each other. It’s always me thanking you, noticing you. You guys are a team, you guys gotta work together. And I’m like, and I don’t wanna sound like a baby, but sometimes I need it too. Like sometimes something’s done for me, I gotta do an all right job, you know? And- Well, that’s also you’re showing vulnerability that you’re part of the team, you’re not immune. That’s important. Right, but see, like that’s what we do is we don’t say thank you. So, you know-
27:33
Make them, give them a reason to show up to work. Make them feel inspired, let them know they’re making a difference. Two, sit down, ask them what’s going on. Three, start having culture of thank you and making it a checklist so you can’t screw it up of filling those buckets, of giving it a compliment. And that can be like, like you might wake up the front desk and say, hey, hey, Karina, yeah, I just noticed like, man, when you answer that phone, you are so nice to the patients. Like you just sound so friendly on the phone. And the first time you say that,
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they might say, what did I do wrong? Why are you saying this to me? And it might be weird and it might be awkward, but that’s okay. Like that’s gonna go away. That awkwardness is gonna go away. You just, this is the new you. And if people ask you, what’s up with this new thank you stuff? Just say, hey, I’ve always appreciated you guys so much, but I just realized that I don’t think I show it the best way. And I want to show it. I want to express it more. So if anyone notices this change, there is nothing wrong with just being completely honest and saying, I mean, you’re not saying,
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I never appreciated you guys. I heard this thing on a podcast and now I want to appreciate you. No, you always did. You just didn’t vocalize it. You just didn’t express it. And now you’re giving yourself permission for changing and say, and I want you guys to be like that with each other too. I want this to be a great culture. Start talking about what you want with your team. Start priming them to like, this is what it’s going to be like here. And start modeling that because it starts at the top. And, and like you said, Alex, it’s, these aren’t hard things to do. They’re very simple. They’re.
29:00
out of some people’s comfort zones. I do get that. But you know, we got to get out of our comfort zone. You got out of your comfort zone a lot in dental school. I mean, you trained for that first occlusal amalgam million times, but when you got to the patient’s mouth, you weren’t ready. I’m sure you weren’t ready. You were like, what am I doing here? I’m not ready for this. And you just got in there and you did it. And it became where it was like now it’s like driving a car, riding a bike. It’s just like this. Get out of your comfort zone a little bit. It’ll feel comfortable eventually.
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But I think as soon as you start doing this, you’ll see a complete 180 change in your culture within a month. I mean, it’s fast. Like when I do this with my coaching clients, they can’t believe how many issues get solved just by this culture piece and talking to the team and making them feel appreciated. Well, Dr. Paul Etchinson, thank you so much for a wonderful podcast. Very inspiring. And I’d like to direct the listeners to check out his podcast, which is…
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Dental Practice Heroes podcast. Great podcast, check it out. I think we’re gonna be talking soon as well. And remember to follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, get episodes as they are released. Share with your friends. This is a great episode to share, share. And until next time, go out there and be an All-Star. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Dental All-Stars. Visit us online at allstardentalacademy.com.
