Wade Sellers and Alex Nottingham JD MBA discuss the importance of crafting authentic, relatable testimonials and interviews to attract new clients, especially in fields like dentistry.
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About Wade Sellers
Wade Sellers is the founder of Coal Powered Filmworks, a five-time Southeast Regional Emmy®-nominated company established in 2008. Renowned for both commercial and documentary work, the company has earned national and international recognition. One notable achievement includes the 2016 documentary *Return to Normandy*, which was featured as the opening night film of the 2017 Normandie International Film Festival. Coal Powered collaborates with local, state, and federal organizations, as well as arts and small business clients. Whether crafting a 10-second spot or a 90-minute film, Wade Sellers and his team are passionate about storytelling through visuals, creating content that resonates with a wide and diverse audience.
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.
00:02
This is Dental All-Stars, where we bring you the best in dentistry on marketing, management, and training. Welcome to Dental All-Stars. And I am Alex Nottingham, founder and CEO of All-Stars Dental Academy. And with me is Wade Sellers. He’s a filmmaker and owner of Cole Powered Filmworks. And our topic today is the perfect interview. Please welcome Wade. Hey, Alex. How are you?
00:32
and I’m so happy to have you. Wade, wow, so I know you for many years. You, you come visit the Mastermind Group that I’m a part of with Marty Fort and Ken Hardison for many years. And I’ve done episodes about the power of the Mastermind. We have our own Mastermind at Allstar Dental Academy for Dentists that my Mastermind had been telling me I should do for a long time. And just the power of that. And it was a pleasure meeting you there.
01:02
learning about what you do. You’re so multi-talented as a filmmaker, as a business owner. And I had the great pleasure of visiting Marty’s event. I was his keynote speaker. Was it last year? This year? This year. Early this year. Yeah, April of this year. I’m like, oh my goodness. And it was so impressive seeing what you did running the whole operation for their audio video.
01:30
and the result and I said, I had to have you come to do our practice growth summit. You did it and it was amazing. We have a wonderful replay because of it. We’re gonna have you again at our next practice growth summit. And it was, and we’ll talk about that in the interview a little bit about kind of the nature of what’s behind the curtain of what you’re doing and the effect of getting the power of video, the interview, the information.
01:58
and so on. And so we’ll kind of unpack that. But I want to give people a little background about how I know you. And I’m just so happy to be working with you and continue to work with you. So I kind of, you know, mentioned your filmmaker, your background, also a musician. Anything else we should know before we kind of get into the content? That describes all of it. The other option was managing a restaurant somewhere. That
02:29
filmmaking and really from the time I was in The film program at the University of South Carolina it’s really all I’ve ever done and So Let’s let’s kind of go into some of the the topics here to be prepared for the listeners and our audience are entrepreneurs and dentists and some dentists are entrepreneurs, which we hope they are that’s the whole point of it and we
02:59
Our philosophy is to take the best in business. You have a lot of experience, and you do have experience with dentists as well, but you do a lot with music studios and across the board. A great business is a great business. We here at All-Star want to find the fundamentals of all of that. Let’s talk in terms of this perfect interview concept. Tell me about a story.
03:26
What makes a good story? And by the way, I’m really into now with Shelley, our integrator at All-Star, this idea of story brand. Have you heard of that before? Story brand? Yes. Okay. And maybe that goes into this whole idea of a story. So let’s start with that concept. What makes a good story? It really is fundamentally like we were taught if you ever took a composition 101 class.
03:56
you know, in high school or college. I mean, every good story has a beginning, middle of an end, and there’s conflict. Right. And how we define that conflict to our own personal experience, uh, is something, you know, we can think about ourselves. I mean, a good example of that is we raised X amount of dollars, uh, saved X amount of dollars to start a business. And then suddenly we’re hit with massive debt or a massive
04:26
you know, monetary obligation that takes a large chunk of that away. How do we rebuild that? Right. I mean, these are kind of fundamental stories that whenever I’ve worked with entrepreneurs or whether it’s in our documentaries over the years, these are the elements that really take those personal stories to the next level. Right. And just to kind of give like a framework here is that
04:54
we’re the the end result is a video a testimonial that we could use right for our our company.
05:05
And then we’re kind of like deciding what, how do we set it up strategically? Because I think one of the things when it comes to any business is we say, I need this. I need videos. I needed videos on my website, any testimonials. And I’ll just put them or I’ll, you know, grab it with my phone. And we’ve done that for a while. And then we work with you and we saw, whoa, there’s a whole new level with respect to that.
05:35
So I think that’s important to keep in mind. So I’ll get to kind of the comparison at the end. But what, okay, so we talked about a good story, beginning, middle, and end. We wanna make the hero of the story, or the hero of the journey, for a dentist is gonna be the client, the patient, right? Depending on your business, you wanna make the hero, and you wanna be able to set up what happened. What was the problem, and how do we solve it?
06:04
And there was an interesting thing you said as well about something when you’re at events or you’re, you’re capturing data that you just need that one moment. What, what was that quote you said once? Oh, I can’t remember. Okay. But I, so, so I do believe, yeah, I mean, I believe
06:26
We describe it any number of ways, but basically it’s capturing the moment that the results that that individual are experiencing in front of you, that moment that they found that started everything really. Right. You know, so in this case, when we’re talking about interviews, you know, the basic idea of talking with the client.
06:54
Um, and they can set up their story and it can be, you know, if it’s a chip tooth or something like that, I mean, and how they got positive results, you can get into that and those details. But really where we like to travel, so to speak, whenever we’re talking with somebody in an interview situation is to kind of get more specific and more detailed into who they are. A lot of times where
07:21
this can become difficult is, you know, it takes a little bit longer to talk with that person to get those details. But in the end, which in the end results in a little more editing to put that piece together, but we find it’s a much stronger story, much more relatable to the audience that that individual is trying to reach and really helps, you know.
07:49
turn around things in a much more positive way, whether it’s sales or views, etc. Right. So, we told me the elements of a good story. What are the elements of a good interview or perfect interview? Well, the first thing I always tell people and every few months I try doing the math on how many interviews I’ve actually conducted in my life and I know it’s well over a thousand now. And there are a few reasons for that.
08:19
What I’ve learned is the first thing you want to establish, no matter who you’re talking to, is trust.
08:26
whatever that may be, you have to remember that even if it’s a coworker or a professional, that’s one of the most self-aware things you can do outside of public speaking is sit or stand in front of a camera. And that really, because suddenly the whole room’s focused on that person and it, you know, there’s stress involved with that, any number of things. So if you’re the one doing the interviewing, getting the trust of the person sitting in that chair across from you is critical.
08:56
But from there, whenever you’re, you know, either you’ve done your research beforehand or you get in another person in front of you on the spot, the elements of that story are really
09:07
You can create a linear narrative in your head that’s common among everybody. You know, where were you born? What did you like to do as a, you know, kid? I mean, these are generic examples. Kind of the generic story that all of us may have. In there, what you look for are little nuggets of detail that they give you that you can expound upon.
09:31
That’s where the conflict comes in, I think a lot of times. And usually it’s the conflict in that gives you details of a person’s life that really can help their story relatable to everybody else. Plus it’s a good dramatic tool to use to keep people engaged in whatever you’re presenting to them. You know, as I’m listening to you, I’m thinking I’m going to change the title of the podcast on the fly, even though I started out with interview. I like the word testimonial better.
10:02
Testimony, right? I mean, because interview, we have a hiring service, so we do interviews. That might be confusing, but I want to move to this idea of testimonial. Same thing, but the idea that you want to get, and not contrived. I think a lot of things that you do, which is great, is you’re capturing, it’s almost like filming wildlife. You want to see them in reality, not in a cage situation. So it’s like, give me a testimonial. Testimony.
10:31
Right? Write it down. And you can tell it’s staged or it’s overly edited. What you like to do is you’re like, okay, I wanna get real life testimony. I want something that has the juice. Yes, the beginning, middle, and end. And what you may have to do as the editing process, which I’ve seen you do and it’s amazing, just as impressive as your filmmaking is the editing, is now telling the story with that. But we have to get enough data to be able to.
11:00
create it and you have to have the eye because there is a science but there’s also an artistic nature of feel when it comes to that. You have to feel it, have that empathy to be able to create it and put it out there. And I think, okay, so we talked about some of the elements and then we have to just look at like the effect of a great testimonial of a great result that you’re getting. So we’ll use dentists, of course, as our analogy, as our target market.
11:30
And when dentists have on their website, they want to convey testimony from themselves while they do what they do, the empathy that they have, what they bring to the table. But also more importantly is the patients, what they experience. And like you mentioned, it’s not just the crown. It’s how you made them feel. See, that’s the thing behind.
12:00
and we do our mastermind, I say, no DDS, we’re not talking dull dental stuff. You can do that in the side. Because when it comes down to it, and you strip, because I want them to strip away all of that because I’m a lawyer, MBA, I had to strip all that away too. We’re not gonna get into legal talk. We’re gonna get into human nature. And we find we’re all the same. The dentist looking for practice management training and hiring services, they come to us, right? The patient that’s looking for
12:30
support and help for dentists. Yes, it’s the tool is the veneer or the implant, but we’re helping make a difference in their life. So same thing with you, Wade. You’re working for us. Yes, the result is the great production you produce, but it’s how you make us feel. It’s what you convey. That’s the most important job that we’re looking to create here, right?
12:55
That’s correct. So an argument sometimes can be made that, you know, if you have X number of dental practices that someone is choosing, really the X factors may be where they feel most at home. Um, with a testimonial, how we approach it. And we have to keep in mind that what we’re doing isn’t news, right? I mean, when you talk to somebody and you interview them, it’s not for the
13:25
There is a license to manipulate in a truthful way, whatever somebody said, and convey really what you, if you own a dental practice or any business where you’re using a testimonial, convey the message that you’re trying to get across to draw new clients, new partners, whatever it may be. That’s what
13:50
That’s how we approach every interview we do, whether it’s a testimonial or an interview for one of our series, etc.
13:57
I personally just like talking to people and I like interviewing people. I like getting to know them. And it’s a huge bit of advice that I always give to people that ask me questions about, you know, better ways to approach interviews or testimonials or anything for business is typically if you’re doing it, first of all, internally, utilize somebody that likes talking to people. Not just somebody, you know, I mean,
14:27
Learning the skills of being an interviewer, you know, there are some that over time you’ll get better at how to guide your interviewee when they’re giving you a testimonial, you know, you can kind of take them down this path and get what you need out of them.
14:45
But at the heart of it, you have to like talking to them because they’re going to read that from you as a positive or negative. And the safer you make those individuals feel, whether it’s in a setting of an office or wherever we may conduct an interview for one of our broadcast documentaries, the safer they feel, the more they’re going to open up to you. And quite honestly, if you make them feel whether it’s asking them
15:14
If they’ve been able to get away for the summer with their kids, if you know, they have kids or if they’re, you know, just have a partner that they, it’s just the two of them. Do you, you know, how are the dogs doing? If you know, they have dogs, something that really just disarms them as soon as possible can get maximum results right away. And the maximum results are the answers to the questions that they give you. Maybe the same, whether you’ve done this or not, make them feel safe or not.
15:43
The way they give you that answer is infinitely recognizable by somebody on the other side of a computer or phone or whatever as something more relatable. It’s something really to see whenever you kind of see how people feel when they feel safe in talking to somebody. And a lot of times when they’re talking about, in this case,
16:12
an experience at a dentist’s office, you want them to be really open because something as simple and from personal experience I know as a cracked tooth and not being able to drink a mildly warm glass of water and having somebody basically save your day because they slid you right in, when they could communicate that in a way that’s, that anybody watching can relate to.
16:41
it really makes a huge difference as opposed to just answering the question. That’s a great point. You know, as, as you’re saying that, I’m thinking about my experience with you at the event is just feeling so at peace that you held that space for everybody versus me, the CEO of the company saying, give me a testimonial. They say, say something. It’s like, Whoa, you know, it was funny. We were interviewing the coaches and they had to kick me out of the room because I was making them nervous. So
17:11
And that goes to the other point, which is the, do I do this myself and what’s involved? Or do I work with a professional, let’s say like yourself, to put together something like this? So walk me through the two. If I were to wanna do it myself, what would I do? How could I capture it? What would make sense? And then if I would wanna work with somebody else or what would be something to consider, if I were hiring somebody kind of…
17:39
walk me through because everybody’s at a different space with respect to it. I mean, I’ve certainly tried doing it myself. I did an okay result. Then I saw working with you and I’m like, Oh gosh, I should have been doing this 10 years ago. It’s phenomenal, but it’s good that we have the knowledge behind it. And, and I just love whenever I find something wonderful that’s working for me. I want to share with everybody in our tribe, if you will, that are following us, that they have access to the best of the best. So
18:08
Walk me through those two options. So I’m going to kind of work backwards in a sense. If you are, whatever you define your, I guess, the way that you’re going to get this content out there, if it’s on television or streaming, let’s just say, you know, kind of at a higher level than just something.
18:37
A quick TikTok clip. Sure. I would say hire a professional. You know, hire somebody who…
18:45
knows just outside of the basics of conducting an interview and lighting and all the technical aspects. And your website too, like you would want a professional for that. Correct. Because there’s, I guess that gap in the middle that when it leaves your computer and goes to the television station or it leaves your computer and goes to somebody else’s website, there’s just language there that yes, you can learn yourself.
19:15
if you have that time, but why would you want to spend the time going through that, especially if you’re in a business? Yeah, hire a professional. The other kind of sub point of that is that find somebody you like working with. I mean, quite honestly, I mean, this is an obvious answer to things, but meet with these people before. You know, if there’s three companies you’re thinking of working with.
19:44
Sit down, have lunch with all of them. Just enjoy that process because in my experience, our clients, we tend to have a really good relationship with all of our clients.
19:59
I think that bears fruitful creative product and content at the end of the road for everything we do, because it opens up communication, et cetera. You know, they, of course, they hire us, they retain us, but it is a relationship. I think a lot of times.
20:16
that if you own the business and you’re looking for someone to produce content for you, you really have to have that open dialogue. I would always suggest that if you ever get a feeling like somebody at a production company is talking down to you or being a little too aggressive with this is my world, let me worry about this and you do what you do. I would say never.
20:45
work with that person. It’s like everything else. I mean, and it’s not transactional either. Like I’m paying you, you should tell me and keep me involved in the process. It really is just based on that relationship.
21:02
If you want to do it yourself, I would say, first of all, just educate yourself on, if you haven’t already, just kind of the basics. There are plenty of YouTube channels. There are plenty of materials out there on the internet.
21:17
that you can really get a good idea of how to shoot video on your phone by yourself. Have a good phone, have a good microphone, you know, have a little, at the minimum, a light that you can either mount on your phone or a ring light, something like that. But then you get into the idea of how do I talk to, you know, people and really get what I need out of them. And this is typically why I say hire a professional or at least somebody who has done this before.
21:45
If you’re getting your feet wet into this area and you eventually want to do it yourself, just maybe there’s monetary ceilings that you have to deal with or other issues that come into play. Find somebody who, you know, a local newscaster or maybe somebody that used to work for the news and they’re a public relations director for a state agency. You know, now, I mean, a lot of times people, even if you give them a little
22:13
stipend or honorarium, just come in and help you. It’s critical to really kind of understand those basics. I’m happy to talk about those too. I mean, it’s, you know, the simplicity of how to answer a question, how to frame a, you know, the video on the screen, what type of video, horizontal, vertical, which one should you use at the moment. There’s a lot, yeah. Yeah, I mean, but those things you figure out over time, right? I mean.
22:42
When it comes to, I like where you explain like where’s appropriate, where’s not. I mean, if money is an issue, so step one, if you’re dentists, there are some dentists that are pretty techie. I mean, I’m very technology savvy, a CEO of All Star, but it’s not always the best use of my time. So that’s to be outsourced. But I think if you happen to be the rare person that’s just phenomenal on videography, you know how to edit videos and get high quality audio.
23:12
Um, that’s a technical side and the editing and then maybe have a background in, in theater or whatever, but then it’s just learning, like you said before about crafting a good story and so on. And there’s probably a few out there, but for most people, they don’t have a technical or, um, background. Okay. Now I like what you said, like quick Tik TOK or videos or shorts for YouTube or Instagram, those are wonderful doing your own.
23:38
You don’t want them heavily edited. They wanna look kinda amateurish and fun. That’s the whole point of it. The ones that are too production heavy don’t perform as well. That’s a good place to do that. And then there might be some short testimonial clips that you can get that are fun. But for something professional like your website, because dentists are professionals. Now it’s different if you’re like, it depends on your industry, if you’re a dance club or something, you can be more fun and silly. But…
24:08
You’re going to a dentist to solve a problem, to save your life, to make a difference. It’s a professional service. And so you want to be professional. And if you’re not being professional, just get written testimonials. But if you’re going to do it right, so the cheapest way is, I would say, is you can find an intern somewhere or a college kid that can do something and set it up. And I think that, but for most dentists, and we talk about ROI, return on investment, I mean, dentists running a dental practice are producing thousands of dollars an hour.
24:38
So their time’s very valuable. And every patient is worth tens of thousands of dollars over the lifetime of the patient. And I think most importantly is that, and we’re not gonna have time to go through this, but spending time to consider what Wade said about the story of who you are, what you’re looking to create in a testimonial. You wanna have that ahead of time. But it’s also great to have a professional, like Wade and others, that
25:07
know what they’re doing. Now here’s an important distinction. There’s a distinction between, and I’m a little techie so I know this stuff, between a videographer and like a producer or documentarian filmmaker like yourself that one is I’m just capturing, I’m editing, but you know exactly, and I’ve seen it in your edits, you know what you’re looking for. And so you know how to interview, you know what you’re looking for, create the result. So I think really listening to this podcast and this discussion is
25:34
make sure that you’re armed to interview people and know what to ask. It’s not just a technical output, but like you said, do you know how to interview them? What are you gonna say? How are you gonna make them comfortable? What’s your background? Show me some of your examples of what you created. So I wanna make sure I don’t forget this, but if you go to alls or alls and make sure you click on events. And I believe right now we have the Practice Growth Summit. That’s our main event, that’s there.
26:04
Click on that and you’ll see one of Wade’s videos. And I’ll double check. Let me make sure that that one’s up there. As I’m talking, I’m looking now, and I’m gonna say, make sure it’s up, because I don’t wanna say it, and then people are like, that’s not Wade’s video. Let’s see, I’m scrolling down. Yes, the first video is Wade’s video. So, and we’ll make sure, and some of the testimonials there are Wade’s videos. So any of the high quality ones are Wade’s.
26:31
But what’s good about that is you can see an example of what a quality testimonial looks like, a quality edited program looks like. And so I would use that as kind of an anchor to say kind of what you’re looking to create. So that’s very important just to put it out there that you have different levels to go there. But I would say most dentists do it right.
26:59
you want to convey, you only have to do it once or twice in your career, is create the story, get some testimonials with risk, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So wait, tell me, what would it look like if I was a dentist and I wanted to work with someone like you? How would that work? Would I have to have patients come to my practice? How would I capture all this information?
27:28
to be able to do the testimonials and stuff. The first thing to say is really, you know, you don’t have to find yourself in it. If you already have a relationship with an ad agency or something like that, fine. And they typically have people they work with. This is not something you really have to find an ad agency to help you with. If this is the first time you’re looking for a company, production company to work with, you know, like I said.
27:58
ask for people’s, it’s called a production reel. So you typically it’s on the landing page of a lot of people’s websites. If you go to any, like, if you go to our website, there’s kind of a web hero. It has some cool shots that we’ve gotten over the years of different projects. But once you hire that company, essentially for testimonials, we try to make it. Or any kind of production, you know, as helpful to the budget of.
28:27
the, uh, in this case practice, cause we have done some dental practice testimonials, uh, as helpful to them as possible. You want everything to happen in one day. It can, whether it’s in their office or not in their office, sometimes you don’t have a choice or it can be an outside location based on, you know, what you’re going to be talking about. Um, I typically.
28:52
This is my own personal opinion. You want it to be in an environment that has as little distraction as possible, both for the viewer in the end, but also the people that are going to be sitting in the chair doing that interview. And then really it’s just, at that point, you just kind of schedule the day. You have people step in. You have a set number of questions. Typically the individuals that are going to be sitting in the chair across from you, or the sitting.
29:22
across from the interviewer, they’ve already been emailed the question so they know basically what they’re going to be talking about. They also know why they’re there. And in this case, if it’s a dentist, he’s already either spoken with that person. And they kind of have an idea of where it’s going to be used and why they’re sitting in the chair in the first place. Typically, in everybody we’ve ever worked with that uses testimonials for the
29:51
they ask are they’re rock stars, basically. They’re true believers. You know, you definitely want people, you definitely, you don’t want, uh, a wild card. So you could have whatever you want because you’ll edit it out. So you’ll get the best out of it. True. But one thing that we’ve run into, we, you want people that you know, uh, that you have a relationship with, um, not to say it has to go back years and years, but
30:19
you do run into, even though it’s rare, situations where you use somebody for a testimonial and for some reason they just stop going to you or they have a history that maybe you don’t know about. I mean, you, not to say you have to have a personal relationship with everybody. You got to vet these people pretty well. So let me just say this because you’re so sweet, you’re so generous. I get right to it, right? So I want to put your website up there.
30:48
Give me your website and I’ll put it it’s coal. What is your website exactly coal? Yeah coal powered film works calm CEO a Cold powered film works calm coal powered film works calm and we’ll put it in the show notes as well but check out Wade’s work check out all start dental Academy events the practice gross summit you can see some of his work and Wade’s amazing. I mean look the premise of this everyone is we gave you the testimonial framework is what you need
31:18
We gave you different options of what has to go along. And I’m just going to summarize here that for most of you listening, you’re going to get a professional either your marketing agency will work with it. We’re big fans of Omni Premier Marketing. I believe in many of their packages, they do videography and some great work. And I agree. Yeah. And Wade is an independent filmmaker and does this and does amazing. He works with me. He comes to be at our mastermind event.
31:48
And by the way, for Mastermind members that are listening, and I’ll remind them and tell them to watch this podcast, but you’re gonna be there and we’re gonna do a little testimonial, we’ll have to get, I need instructions way to give them to Mastermind to prepare, but we’re gonna do a little clips there for them that they’ll be able to take home for their practice. But that’s like a little sliver of what you do, you do entire days. But I would implore everybody reach out the way, this is just, now I’m gonna talk about your buddy Alex.
32:16
kind of recommending, because I don’t get anything from this, but I’m just such a big fan of Wade. This is what happens when people are fans of something they have, they want to share it. And I just felt in such great hands working with Wade and running our event, the audio video, you dentists probably aren’t doing many. However, those that are running study clubs and want them recorded, Wade is amazing for that. So definitely those we have friends at the AACD, AGD, Dawson and so on, they do a lot of events. Wade’s a great one
32:46
produce those study clubs. Wonderful. But for the independent practice, I would reach out to Wade, talk to him, get some advice, interview him, right? And kind of see what goes on. But I can tell you this, he’s amazing, super affordable. I would put my stamp on everybody to use Wade as long as it doesn’t interfere with my time when I have Wade. That’s the only deal everybody listening. As long as I get preferred time with Wade to do my videos, you can utilize them.
33:14
other times. I’m a big fan of Wade. Reach out, talk to him. He’s a sweetheart. And wait, I’m just so happy to have you in the program. We’ll put the links in the show notes and we’ll communicate, you know, sharing social media and I’m going to see you in a few months anyway. So thank you, Wade, for being on the program. Of course, we love, I mean, we travel the country doing what we do and happy to answer any questions anybody we have and look forward to, you know, what the future lies ahead. I just want to thank you, Alex, for
33:44
asking me to be on the pod and look forward to seeing in a few months. My pleasure. And you’re a musician, so one time we’ll have to have you play at one of the events, right? That’s something we’re working on. I’d love to. Yeah, I’d love to. All right, well thank you. I’d love to. Thank you, Wade, for joining us as always, Wade Sellers, Kohl Powered Filmworks. And remember to follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and all the social media channels. Get the episodes as they are released. And make sure you share with your friends of all this great stuff that we’re learning.
34:13
And until next time, go out there and be an All-Star.
34:20
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Dental All-Stars. Visit us online at allstardentalacademy.com
