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VIDEO - DUwHF #716 - Julie Parker
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AUDIO - DUwHF #716 - Julie Parker
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Julie Parker was the first non-dentist to own a dental practice is Australia. She owned and managed her practice for 10 successful years, increasing turnover four-fold. Julie co-founded Julie Parker Practice Success to fill a gap in the market. She saw that the current practice management programs were often too expensive for small and start-up practices to afford. The JPPS Practice Management Program is a very inexpensive but powerful program that is specifically designed for dental auxiliaries to learn and implement, making the practices they work tremendously successful.
www.julieparkerpracticesuccess.com.au
Howard Farran: It is just a huge honor for me today to be podcast interviewing Julie Parker, all the way from down under in Melbourne, Australia, where I assume it's already tomorrow. Is it?
Julie Parker: It is. Tomorrow morning.
Howard Farran: It's 3 PM here. What time is it there?
Julie Parker: Eight in the morning.
Howard Farran: Eight in the morning? Well, real quick tell me how the New York Stock Exchange closed, so I can decide if I buy or sell stock.
Julie Parker: I wish I knew. I have no idea.
Howard Farran: Since you're already a day ahead, you've already read our newspapers. Julie Parker was the first non-dentist to own a dental practice in Australia. She owned and managed her practice for ten successful years, increasing turnover fourfold. Julie co-founded Julie Parker Practice Success to fill the gap in the market. She saw that the current practice management programs were often too expensive for small, startup practices to afford. The JPPS Practice Management Program is a very inexpensive but powerful program that is specifically designed for dental auxiliaries to learn and implement, making the practices they work tremendously successful. You know, I think it's so cool we make our own luck. So many hygienists over the years told me how they burned out, they hate their office, blah blah blah. I know a hygienist in Phoenix who quit her job. Now she owns a dozen dental offices in Phoenix, Arizona. A dozen. It sounds amazing. What made you get interested in buying a dental practice?
Julie Parker: Well, I've always been a dental nurse and dental receptionist since I was 17. I was an early school leaver. Then I'd been in the industry for many years, from 17 to 33. When I was 33, that's when I thought, "Gosh, it seems like team collaboration come up with so many solutions to the issues of bringing more patients in and raising the degree of customer service." I thought I'll own my own practice ... It was all very easy, so ... Then owned that for ten years, realized it wasn't very easy but loved the journey of learning how to do it really effectively.
Howard Farran: I've been lecturing down in Australia for almost 30 years. It's really changed because didn't they let in a lot of foreign-trained dentists?
Julie Parker: Yes. We had ... It was on the skilled services list of Australia for a long time. We also increased the number of universities that we had here in Australia pushing out new grads. We had gone through a sharp increase of the amount of dentists out there. Because of that, there's also been a sharp increase in the amount of new [inaudible 00:02:35] that are opening up. It's certainly become more competitive.
Howard Farran: How many dental schools do you have now?
Julie Parker: I think there's six now.
Howard Farran: Six?
Julie Parker: I could be wrong, but I think it's six.
Howard Farran: But it's amazing. You know Ruth Port from Port Dental Laboratories and her husband, George.
Julie Parker: Yeah.
Howard Farran: Her late husband, George. They used to bring me down there. When I first started going down there every five years, there was like no competition. The problem thirty years ago for the first two or three times I lectured there, is that everyone is booked several months ahead. They didn't know how to get anybody in. Back then, a lot of them were only working out of one chair. They were trying. Now, 30 years later, that problem is gone. Now they're trying to grow their practice. If my homies went to julieparkerpracticesuccess.com.au, what would they find there?
Julie Parker: They'll find the ways that we help practices out. The main way is modules. We've created twelve modules. They come in a binder and these modules take dental auxiliary staff through all of the different areas of non-clinical practice management and up-skills them so they can take the reigns of, for example, their recourse strategy, how to increase production, how to track key performance indicators. All these things that the auxiliary stuff aren't normally the directors of. It gives them tools and the skills and the knowledge base to be able to be the directors of those things and customize strategies for their own practice. The flip side is, thanks to Skype and Zoom and all these wonderful things, there's virtual practice management. Whether a dental practice wants some assistance in hiring a new staff member or implementing a whole new stream of systems, we can help them one-on-one. [inaudible 00:04:28] training or the rest of it so we can help them one-on-one. We do it all online.
Howard Farran: Are most of your clients in Australia? Do you also have them in New Zealand, or Canada, or around the world or ... ?
Julie Parker: At the moment, we've only been working with Australia. We're hoping to break into New Zealand as our next step. I was certainly very interested in looking into the American dental market because the number of dentists in America is absolutely enormous. If you consider our countries as much similar in size, I think you guys have got about 195,000 dentists, while we've got closer to 17,000 dentists. It's an enormous market over there.
Howard Farran: It's ... The United States, China, and Australia are all the same size, 3.6 million square miles.
Julie Parker: Yeah.
Howard Farran: You have, what, twenty-five million people?
Julie Parker: Yeah, twenty-three I think, yeah.
Howard Farran: Twenty-three million. The United States has got 323 million, and China's got a billion, 300 million. I mean, isn't that just amazing? My brother moved from Kansas to Sydney two years ago. He got a job transfer. It was supposed to be a three-year deal. Within like an hour, he applied for citizenship. I mean, you just can't move from Kansas to Sydney, Australia and then go back. I'm really excited. I'm lecturing down there next month. What is it? June or July? It's on howardfarran.com. God, I just love Sydney. It's one of the only places in the world where every time I go there, I always say, "Why am I coming back?" My brother lives there. It's just an amazing market. Yeah. The United States has 211,000 dentists who are alive with a practicing, current license. Now 150,000 of those are general dentists over thirty-two hours a week. 30,000 are specialists over thirty-two hours a week. It's an enormous, enormous market.It's haggling on Dental Town was with dentaltown.com, no dental practice solo again. They're driving to work right now. We do these shows an hour because that's the commute. They don't really know ... What to compare themselves to others, like, what are they doing right or wrong. Painting a picture, what is the average dentist calling you up for? What is their problem and what solutions are you giving them. What is your typical bread and butter dental case look like?
Julie Parker: They usually call me because there's an issue with staff training, around staff training. They want to up-skill a particular staff member or they want to get more new patients. That then pushes me into giving them a dental practice assessment that I've developed. They fill out a dental practice assessment and what that does is tell me the areas of the business that they're not either tracking or concentrating on or implementing. That's often leading to the lack of staff training or the lack of new patients coming through the door or the reduced turnover that they ... It highlights areas where they can improve every element of their practice.
Howard Farran: Is that on your website, that assessment training?
Julie Parker: It is.
Howard Farran: What's it under? Home, About, Modules, Coaching, Consulting ...
Julie Parker: On Home.
Howard Farran: On what?
Julie Parker: On the Home page. If you just scroll down to ... Underneath my ...
Howard Farran: Free dental practice assessment. It's a PDF.
Julie Parker: It's a PDF.
Howard Farran: You download that PDF. Then fill it out. Then mail it to you?
Julie Parker: Yep. Then email it back to me. I'll provide an analysis of that and a list of suggestions of actions that they can take.
Howard Farran: Nice. When we look at staff training ... So you're saying they want to increase staff training. What was the second thing that you said, more new patients?
Julie Parker: More new patients. I've heard you on the podcast many times. I love this podcast. I'm one of those people that drive around and listen. It's the first thing I put on is the latest Dental Town podcast. I thank you.
Howard Farran: Aww. Thank you.
Julie Parker: I totally agree with you. It's a very common thing for a dental practice to be saying I need more new patients, more new patients. They don't realize that they might be a ringing up and not being scheduled in, not being converted to an appointment time. They're coming in but the service that they're receiving isn't strong enough for them to remain loyal to you. You're losing them all out the back door. A lot of what I do is putting systems in place and training in place to make sure that when you're getting the new patient calls ... When they come in that they're converted to an appointment time. When they get converted to an appointment time, they had such a great experience that they want to keep coming back and refer their friends and family.
Howard Farran: It's a crazy deal that it takes four new patient calls for the receptionist to convert one into a scheduled appointment. Then the dentist has a close rate of thirty-eight percent on ... We're just talking a filling. Just a filling. He has to get three people in with a cavity before one gets it drilled, filled, and billed. To get in three, twelve people had to call so that three butts sat in a chair so that one guy got a filling. I mean twelve to one. It's insane. Then they think they need to create a Facebook ad.
Julie Parker: Yeah, that's right. That's right.
Howard Farran: It's like, dude, why don't you work on the existing funnel? Instead of twelve to one, why don't you make it one out of two? Then when they get them in the chair, increase your close rate? Do you want to go over each one of your modules? How many modules did you say there were?
Julie Parker: The modules with the binder that we've got ... Successfully Implementing Change Within the Workplace. That goes through things like ... Don't create changes for change sake. Make sure it's always for the betterment of the patient, the staff, and the business itself ... And how to get the whole team on board with that change and carry it through. Then we've got Creating a Vision and Culture for Your Practice, What Dental Patients Want, The Financial Value of Every Patient. That's just giving us an indicator of ... Gosh, we didn't realize how much these patients are worth to us as a practice. Now we understand how much we can spend on trying to attract them into the practice. It also highlights how much that value goes up when they start referring friends and family. There's another module, The New Patient Experience, of creating a new patient experience that makes sure that they are loyal. How To Increase Productivity, Key Performance Indicators. Key performance indicators is something that's a rare few practices track anything more than turnover and new patient rate. There's many more things that you can track to gauge the success of your business. Achieving Patient Engagement, both in your treatment and in your practice. Recourse Strategies, Marketing, Finding and Keeping and Getting Great Performance Out of Staff. Then the final module in that binder is a price strategy which I developed, which is called The Ten by Five Great Strategy.
Howard Farran: Nice. If your Australians ... Americans say sales or revenue and the rest of the world says turnover. That's what that means. In the United States, the average lifetime value of a patient macroeconomic ally for the country is $6,500. An orthodontist will get all that revenue within 24 months. That's a lifetime revenue of a general dentist. The average patient turns and goes out the back door using about five. Orthodontists pick up 6,500 bucks in two years. General dentists do it in five years. It just goes back to that new patient experience that we're still old school. We talk about new patients because we don't have loyal patients. We don't keep customers for life. It seems like all the Fortune 500 spends all their money on loyalty programs, whereas all the cottage industries spend all their money in marketing. What do you think dentists can do more to go from minor league, cottage industry burning and churning new patients for fifty years in the same town of 5,000, to loyalty programs to where maybe someday I'll find the first dental office in the world that no longer accepts new patients? I mean, I still haven't found one.
Julie Parker: Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. I just found one myself here in Melbourne. There's a practice that I'm working with. They're part of a demographic and competition report that I do. They are one of two practices in the suburb. The other practice ... This practice don't do any marketing whatsoever and only open two or three days a week, depending on how the patients are going. The typical thing. I'm a talented dentist. The work I do is great. I'm not quite sure why I'm not successful. I rang the competition and said, "If I was a new patient, would you accept me?" They said, "We're not taking any new patients. We're way too busy." "Can you recommend somebody else in the area?" "I would, but they're hardly ever there so I won't. Go to the next suburb."A lot of it is setting up the structure. Making sure you are available for when patients need you, and that your name is out there in some way, not just a sign out in front of a building, but doing a number of different things to make sure whenever they do need a dentist that you're top of mind. That sort of situation, everything says that he should be wildly successful just because there's an unawareness around his availability and there's no community awareness around him. He's failing. It's going to be very easy to turn that practice around. That's for sure. I was researching and have you heard of a guy, Thomas Smith? He wrote a book called Successful Advertising. It talks about these twenty exposures that we as consumers need to get from no awareness of our product to actually purchasing that product. These twenty exposures go all the way through ... Are they not even seeing the advertisement? Now I am seeing the advertisement becoming annoyed because of the frequency in which you're seeing the advertisement. Now I'm interested ... It goes all the way through to finally having enough faith in that product to purchase it. That book was also by Thomas Smith in 1885. Since 1885, we have needed these regular exposures to be able to be converted into buyers. We think it's all because now we've got so many selling messages coming to us. It's becoming overwhelming and confusing. That's not the case. We've always needed to have these protests of convincing. I tend to talk to practices about this, that ... Don't just have the sign. Don't just have a website. Do multiple things. Get in people's faces multiple times. They won't act off one singular thing. It will be an accumulation of exposures.
Howard Farran: The book was called Successful Advertising by Thomas Smith?
Julie Parker: Yeah, in 1885.
Howard Farran: In what year?
Julie Parker: 1885.
Howard Farran: 1885?
Julie Parker: Yeah. Amazing. Isn't it?
Howard Farran: That's awesome. The copyright would've worn off. Right? We could just republish it 2017. Cross out Thomas Smith. We'll put Howard and Ryan. What do you think, Ryan? Our new plagiarizing business.It's amazing how the more things change, they always stay the same. It's because you can go from a telegraph to a telephone to the Internet on the exact same copper wire. You're still a monkey with clothes on. The homosapien has not evolved anything measurably in the last, I'm sure, 15,000 years. I mean, it's still just a talking monkey with clothes on. I imagine there's a lot of timeless principles with humans. If I asked dentists ... What keeps you up at night? They never say their fillings or bonding materials. They never say. It's always people. It's either the staff or the patients. How do you help? I know dentists. They're introverts. They're scientists. They're engineers or Physics majors. I mean, they're not people persons. How do you take this bizarre, natural selection of this small, weird group of people who are the only ones who could get accepted into dental school and then make them be a leader and sell dentistry and motivating coach ... How do you do that?
Julie Parker: As you know, some people are teachable and some people are not teachable. If they're not teachable, I encourage them to up-skill their existing staff to do the job for them and for them to just walk away from the HR side of things. Somebody else does it better. Get them to do it. If there are people out there that are teachable, they want to learn, they want to master that side of things. I know that was one of my challenges when I first bought my practice One of the strongest growth processes that I went through was understanding that the management of the people was going to depend on my own level of self awareness. The degree of our self-awareness is how much we understand how other people work and how other people think and why they're acting in the ways that they do. With the people that find it tricky, sometimes they just need a listening ear. They'll want to kind of vent what they're talking about, get another perspective. With the ones that actually want to do something about it, then we put a plan in place. You know, have these different communications. I give them suggestions on what to say and how to structure that thing. My experiences has always been that if you provide a consistent environment of safety for staff, then your management optimum will be a world easier. I really do mean consistent. Don't be very understanding and helpful and supportive ninety-five percent of the time. Then five percent of the time rebuff them and say, "I haven't got time for you right now." It has to be consistent. Don't say that you're always safe with me but then sometimes have them feel like their jobs on the line if they continue down a certain path. It has to be open communication, clarity in communication, and safety. Then you'll get a really good conversation happening where they'll understand where you're coming from. You'll understand where they're coming from, and you can try to develop win-win situations.
Howard Farran: I've had the same dental assistant for 30 years. Now when anybody tries to give me a high five, I always flinch because I think I'm gonna get slapped. She's been very consistent. Are the dentists who are not teachable, do they know they're not teachable? Do you just know?
Julie Parker: I certainly know. I think sometimes they do know. It's one of those sayings that ... If all of your situations end up in arguments, maybe the problem is you. Maybe it's not them after all. I think when they are constantly feeling like they're failing in these areas, getting the best out of these situations, again, again, and again. I think they do see that as a big barrier. Just them calling me is an indicator that I'm not quite sure if I'm doing the right thing on my own. There's a book ... I wish I could remember the author. You might remember the author. It's a common, well-known book ... I think it was Principled-Centered Leadership. I read this many years ago. It's a magnificent book because it brings you back. You're not dealing with problems from a situational basis. You're coming back and going, "What are my core beliefs? What's my core philosophy that I'm gonna bring to the leadership of other people?" All of a sudden, whenever a problem's cropped up, you fall back on the principles that you've developed. It makes leadership much easier.
Howard Farran: You know, it's a funny thing about marriage counselors. Every marriage counselor I've ever talked to in my practice, I think I six ... I say, "What do you think about marriage counselors? Is it successful?" They always say, "It doesn't matter if it's successful in the current marriage or not. The issue is if they don't solve it and that person then solve the problems, they're just gonna carry out that baggage in the next one." That's why you see people, every time they're divorced, their percent chance of getting divorced again goes up and up and up. It's crazy when you see people who have been divorced like six times. It's like, at what point do you realize that with six divorces that there's some skillset thing you might need to pick up on, or learn, or whatever. It's funny. All the consultants I know, they always say that they feel like, in their career, they're fifty percent of the time, they're an armchair psychologist. I think there needs to be more articles written on Dental Town that ... We always say get your house in order. Like if you can't make money on root canals, fillings, and crowns, why the hell are you adding sleep apnea and Invisalign, and going to learn how to place implants? Your house is not in order. A lot of times, the man in the mirror's not in order. I think so many dentists I know that are struggling and so many that I seen go from struggling to successful in the last three years ... A lot of them it's because they got therapy. They got counseling. They figured out what their issues were. Why were you yelling at staff? Why did you throw an instrument? How come you can't delegate? These are all internal things that lives between the dentist's ears. They got to get that fixed. Then they got to get their house in order. When they get their house in order and profitable, if you want to place implants, or buy a laser, or a CAD/CAM, knock yourself out. Boys have toys. It's got to start with the man in the mirror. Then that's got to lead the team. Then the team will lead the customers.
Julie Parker: I completely agree with you, Howard. If there are any people out there that are having troubles with stuff and they realize the communication isn't happening ... That they can't generate good conversations around how to improve performance and get better functionality from people ... Then stop focusing on them. Focus on yourself. Recognize that if I'm self-aware, if I understand myself, I will understand them. Go on that path. A lot of angst around staff is ... Unrealistic expectations. I paid them. They should just do stuff. Right? Well, no. Double-check. Get all your expectations. Write them down. Then when you look at that list, you go, "Gosh, these are weird expectations. I kind of didn't realize I'm kind of archaic in my way of thinking. Of course, I need to learn about it. Of course, I need to inspire. Of course, I need to lead." Become aware about what your expectations are. Be very clear about that and think, "Is that reasonable to expect that of another person who doesn't own the business to be so passionate about my business?"
Howard Farran: Yeah. I always believe that ... You know, like the mafia always said that 'the fish rots from the head down'. When the dentist is the last person to work and the first to leave, why does he expect the staff to come early and stay late? When the dentist comes in, sits down, and goes back and shuts his door, and doesn't want to be bothered or talked to or engaged, then why is the assistant will strike up a conversation with the hygienist? It all starts at the top.I like what you said the first. The dentist realized I'm not cut out for this. Then get an office manager. I can't tell you how many offices I've seen that were disastrous. They say, "I don't believe in the office manager." I'm like, "Well, you don't believe in organization? You don't believe in staff meetings? You don't believe ... There's so many things you don't believe in."I've seen a lot of offices that used to do the morning huddles for years stopped doing it. I've seen a lot of offices that used to always wear the Motorola walkie-talkies all day long stopped doing it. You see a lot of changes. What's hot and what's not now in organizing a well-run office?
Julie Parker: I think Australia has gone through different things. I remember myself, I was a facilitator for a number of years. Sandy Roth from Pro Synergy used to come down here and lecture as well. I was one of her devotees. We've gone through different things, whether the receptionist, the facilitator, patient coordinator, practice manager ... I mean, we've got a wide variance in the responsibilities of a practice manager. It goes from receptionist since being there for a long time. Someone feels like they should have a promotion of some kind. They just label them practice manager now. All the way through to somebody that does every part of the running of that business ... Goal setting, strategies for growth, all the HR, recruitment, staff training, everything. That's what a true practice manager actually is. If someone ... Quite often, I'll get phone calls saying, "I've got issues with my practice manager." I have to first ask, "What are her responsibilities? Is she a receptionist or is she actually running the whole show?" There's everything in between. I agree, having an office manager is fantastic. You just need somebody of a natural leadership capacity within the business, whether it's the head nurse, the dentist, an employee dentist, the receptionist. You need somebody there that is very aware of the culture that you've developed and drives that culture. All the staff, as you were saying, if the dentist turns up late, then why do you expect the staff to? The staff will perform to what they see most of the time. Regardless if you've got a list of rules, and instructions, and practice protocol, if the behavior of this staff as a group is different to that, then a new staff member, for example, won't come in and start doing the right thing. They'll do what the rest of the group do. That's what we do. That's group dynamics.
Howard Farran: You said it was Sandy Ross with Pro Synergy?
Julie Parker: Yeah. Have you heard of Sandy? Sandy ... Where did she come from? Sandy Roth. R-O-T-H.
Howard Farran: Oh. R-O-T-H.
Julie Parker: Yeah. Her husband, Doug Roth, is a dentist.
Howard Farran: Oh. I just lectured down there with her.
Julie Parker: Yeah. She's a mastermind. She's just magnificent. She used to come here much more often. She started to come back again now under a group called ... Marketing Dentistry. She's a tremendous speaker. She's very talented. She's more on the communication side of the relationship that you build with patients.
Howard Farran: Yeah. I just lectured down there. Last time I lectured, she was in the other room. We went and had dinner that night. Lovely lady. Is she a friend of yours?
Julie Parker: Oh. I'd like to consider her a friend. Just from being part of her groups and when she came down and trained. This was when I was doing training with her twenty years ago now, a long time ago.
Howard Farran: One thing she told me that just whacked me upside the head. Her husband's a dentist, and they always say ... I think it was David Ogilvy, who was the father of modern marketing. He used to say something. Sandy basically paraphrased it where you say, "The hardest thing is not making a great ad because you make all kinds of great ads. The number one thing of marketing is testing it. You might think this ad is horrible. I might think it's horrible. The market might love it." He said, "The absolute most hardest thing in marketing to ever do is to leave a good, working ad alone because monkeys always want to change stuff." She said her husband had just this little, bitty black and white ad that said Dental Implants. I think it was like $999 or something like that. That's all it said, and a phone number. Dental implants, under $1,000, $999, and the phone number. She says that she's left it alone for like twenty years because every single month four or five people call in. They're looking for implants. That is so fascinatingly genius how everybody always want to tinker with something that's good and it's working.
Julie Parker: We're fiddlers.
Howard Farran: Yeah. That was amazing. How can you start to reduce the funnel with staff training? Four people calls in before receptionist get one in the seat. How do you help train that problem?
Julie Parker: The very first thing I always get receptionists to do is ... I give them a very simple, new caller log sheet. It's just got the first name of the patient, how they came to call ... Did they find us through online, or did they just know that we're there through our external sites. Are they a referral source? What their query is and did they book. What we'll find from that is ... Gosh, we tend to never book the people that ring up for whitening. What information aren't we giving them? How can we refine what we say to those patients to actually convert them into an appointment time?You can start seeing where the receptionist really needs to have the training. What specifically do we need to talk about with that receptionist? She can say okay ... Well, if I answer these queries more effectively, of course, you're going to get a higher conversion. That one tool provides an enormous amount of information.
Howard Farran: Interesting. When people call and they want to come in, what percent of the time do you think it's a capacity problem where the dentist just doesn't have either an operatory, an emergency room, X-ray room? I mean, are the dentists in Australia, do they usually have capacity? I mean, if you called up or just walked in off the street, they could seat you? Is it a capacity issue?
Julie Parker: Certainly, in rural areas ... Outside the major cities and things when you get more into country areas, it's a capacity problem. There's a much higher demand to dentists than there are dentists in those areas, as always.
Howard Farran: I know. I get it, because, God, Sydney ... That is the coolest city. My brother, he still doesn't have a car. He's lived there three years. He's like, "You just don't need a car in Sydney." It's just so amazing. I'm so jealous. When I say to him, I go down to the elevator to the first floor and walk out, I mean it's just a bar and restaurant, grocery store, subways. The truth of the matter is, they don't need one more dentist in Sydney. They don't need one. It's the same in America. They don't need one more dentist in San Diego or San Francisco. Everyone crushing it is in the rural. The dental schools are trying. They think their panacea is to try to only accept kids from small towns. If I accept you to dental school from Sydney, you're not gonna go out in the Outback. If I accept you from a small town of 5,000 people, you're more likely to go rural. Do you ever, in coaching a dentist, say, "This is really a bad area. No one really needs you here." Have you ever tried to convince someone that he needs to go three hours out of town or ...
Julie Parker: I haven't. I really believe that all you need to do, is do every element a little bit better than your competition and you'll win out. Have your customer service ten percent better. Increase the number of services you provide by ten percent. I don't think fees come into it strongly as everyone thinks they do. I mean in areas, I know that you got preferred ... What do you call it? PPOs you call them. Don't you? Over there in America. We call them Preferred Providers here. The number of preferred providers has increased a lot over the last ten years. It's a huge element of competition. It's really that scarcity abundance mentality. If you think it's gonna be an enormous problem, it will actually be an enormous problem. I always encourage my clients to assess it. Do an assessment of the competition in the area, put in place a strategy to help address that, and then forget about it. Don't keep focusing on that. Focus on what you're doing, not so much what your competition are doing. Really, evidence is all over. Look at clothing, and cars, and homes. We definitely pay more money than what we need to to get the things in our life that we want. Where if you could afford, if you've got the funds there, you are going to buy a better home, even though you don't need that better home. You still have shelter in the standard home. You buy a better home because you want something better in your life. You want your standard of living to go up. Same is true for dental treatment as well. I don't want to just get a filling. I want to feel good when I'm getting a filling. I want to be treated well when I get the filling.There's going to be a portion of the population that says if I just simply don't have the funds. That portion of the population is always there when they're buying clothes, when they're buying homes, and all the rest of it. Even in areas that are larger socioeconomic areas, there's still money there. You just have to look at the other stores that are in the area that are in talks of the new developments that are going on in encroaching areas, to understand that there is money out there. You just perceive it from an abundance perspective. There are an enormous amount of patients. There's an enormous amount of money. There's not a finite amount of anything that if you have something then that means I can't have it. No. We can all have it. This mentality to carry through life is much more prudent ... Is much directed towards your happiness and you actually achieving the kind of success that you want in every aspect of your life. There's so much of love, of wealth, of learning. There's so much to go around. It's not at the cost of you that other people have it. They inspire you to get more as well.
Howard Farran: We're talking about not having to move. We're trying to fix something. You know, I routinely seen hundreds of times where there's two dentists in the same building. One has a thirty-eight percent close rate. That's one out of three. He's doing 750. The office in the next door, same town, same president, same country, same everything, is closing two out of three. They're doing like a million two. The dentist is taking home 350. After thirty years, I'm convinced that when three people walk in the store, one is never going to be anything. One is always going to buy. It's just that middle, that one out of three in the middle. The problem is, back to that natural selection, where the only people that get in dental school are the ones who sat in the library and got A's in Physics and Calculus so they're nerds. They'll tell you, "I don't like to sell. I don't like selling. It's a four-letter word. I don't like it." How can you go into an office, where they have a one in three close rate and try to get it to a two to three close rate, which that alone would double the entire practice? Not to mention, you'll be twice as good as a dentist. I don't care what materials you're using. I mean, if you're a fireman and you only put out one out of three fires, and I'm a fireman. I put out two out of three, I don't care what you say, I'm a better fireman than you. I mean, if I'm a policeman, I catch two out of three bad guys. You only catch one out of three bad guys, I'm a better policeman. They would double the success of them as a personal dentist if they just doubled their close rate. How do you help an office double their close rate when the dentist says, "I hate selling"?
Julie Parker: It's education. We don't rise to the level of our expectations. We drop to the level of our training. If you're not happy to where you were dropped into, increase your level of training. It will be a higher degree of acceptance rates that you get. I often ask practices when was the last time you ask the patients what they're opinion was. Why didn't they buy. Why did they buy? It's a very difficult question. People aren't comfortable asking their patients that.In every practice, there are a group of patients that you could comfortably ask that question of. Why do you keep coming back? Why do you accept the treatments that we offer you? Also, don't think about why aren't they accepting. Go to people that are accepting and say, "Why do you accept?" It's that implementing training around that so all of the people within the practice get that. That becomes one of the systems that you use to fully engage the patients in their treatment plans.There's also around the selling concept. I understand and I totally appreciate that I personally don't like selling either. As you know, it's just a mindset shift providing value rather selling something. You're improving their life and all the rest of it. When we're working in a medical industry, there is a responsibility for us to impart upon that patient the education, the information, and the impact that not receiving proper dental care is going have on their life and for them to provide informed consent. Sometimes dentists are so scared of the selling perspective they fail to indicate to the patient what the impact on their life is gonna be if they don't go ahead and get that tooth replaced with something that was just extracted, for example. The patient is unaware. Because of the dentist resistance around selling, it can actually affect the patient's ability to provide informed consent ... Because they think they don't, they still don't know. They're still unaware of what the impact on their life is going to be. There's a responsibility for dentists to become educated around it, to become comfortable and change their mindsets around it. Only at that point can they move freely, just give the information without any expectation of a yes or a no. Just freely give the information so that patient can provide informed consent.
Howard Farran: How common is having a hygienist now in Australia? Does every-
Julie Parker: Very.
Howard Farran: Does every dentist usually have one?
Julie Parker: No. I wouldn't say every dental practice has one. More and more practices are implementing hygiene programs actually.
Howard Farran: What percent of the dental offices in Australia you think have the 70,000 have a hygienist?
Julie Parker: I have no idea. It's going to be a pure guess from my perspective. Quite possibly, it may be reaching up to half now.
Howard Farran: It's about a half? Actually, when you're talking to Americans, you can say it's absolutely half. We love fake news. We just love fake news. We only want to read what we want to believe. Just say, "It is exactly .5012 percent." That was Julie Parker at Ultra Fake Dental News. It's about half. It's so sad because so many dentists love their hygienists. She's in there all day long. She's talking about her children, and her husband, and her sewing, and her knitting, and her hobbies, and her church. Then you go into another office. The hygienist just passionately talking about gum disease, and oral health, and oral systemic league, and this and that. At the end of the day, one hygienist is generating two or three or four times the production of the nice little, lovely Betty Sue. I think the dentist doesn't know it because he only knows his office. He thinks she's an adorable lady. Hell, she runs the church choir. Then you go next door. It's a two million dollar practice because they're just ... I know a hygienist ... Some of these hygienists are just obsessed with teaching oral health and all that stuff like that. How do you approach that? How do you go in there and say, "I listened to your hygienist all day long, and she talks to herself all day long."
Julie Parker: I've seen some fantastic hygienists in action as you're describing now. They really do promote hygiene all the way through to the appointment time and others that are much more relationship-driven. I think there is a lot of fear, just from the feedback that I get from dentists when they do call. "I want you to come on board, but don't upset the staff. I want you to come on board, but let's not put too many changes in place. Let's do this very, very slowly." I get that. That's totally understandable and great. It depends on how desperate and dire things are. Sometimes you have the flexibility to be out and have a bit of time and roll different changes out and slowly shift the mindset around the hygienist and their approach to their appointment times. Other times, it's more desperate. Quite often, dentists bring in as a last resort. You got to get change happening really quickly. The number one thing is that we have to make the patient happy. We need to make the staff member happy. We need to make the dentist happy. The most important thing to keep happy though is the business. If the business fails, nobody's happy. Everyone's losing a job and going to look for work somewhere else. If it's not viable for the business, the business ends up making a decision for you. If the person ... You do your very best to make sure that person feels supported and they're going to receive the training that they need to be able to change the conversations that they have in their practice. Help them by role playing. Get them really comfortable with providing a different type of experience before expecting them to snap their fingers and go ahead and do the different experience on the very next patient that comes in. Role playing is an enormously effective way of team training. Provide them with as much support and conversation and clarity around expectations as you can. If that person's going to be too uncomfortable and ends up leaving, that just tends to be the way it is. She'll find a job that she's much more comfortable with. Quite often, people don't want to extend themselves out into that space. That's totally fine. The business viability, if that's been deemed that we need a stronger performance in the hygiene room, then this is the kind of person that we need to deliver that performance. You just need to do that.
Howard Farran: First impressions are set. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. What tips can you give on that new patient experience so that their first impression just crushing it?
Julie Parker: I tell this story. A lot of people think if I dress up everything beautifully, then we're going to make that wow first impression. Other places say I've got limited funds. I can't make my waiting room look like the Taj Mahal. I'll have to work with what I've got. There was a practice that I walked into. It was a relatively new practice. It had only been open for a few months. I walked in. It was absolutely beautiful. The waiting room was laid out like a café. Rather than couches and individual chairs, had coffee tables with a couple of chairs ... Six of those around. Had an industrial size coffee machine by the walls. You could have your proper coffees and cappuccinos and the rest. Had an iPad station with four iPads there. If you wanted to go online and search and things you could do that. The floor boards were all these rustic, lovely, homely feeling. There was oils burning. You had the beautiful music in the background. Everything was top-notch. I looked over at the reception area. There was a chalkboard underneath. It has all these beautiful messages written on there. Very welcoming. Impact was enormous. I felt like number ten. I felt like this is ten out of ten. There were two receptionists at the reception on their computers. Neither of them had a patient in front of them. Neither of them on the phone. Both of them ignored me. I stood there like a bit of a ... A bit of a bunny. I counted. Eight seconds is how long it took one of them to acknowledge me. It wasn't with a big smile. It was just, "Hello. Can I help you?" I felt ... That enthusiasm that I originally had when I walked into that space, I could literally feel it drop, drop, drop, drop, drop with every second that went by. The new patient experience isn't about spending a whole lot of money. The new patient experience is literally all these things that you keep hearing over and over and over again. When the new patient walks in the door, smile broadly ... Very welcome. "Howard, how are you? Come on in." Make them feel very welcome. Have a tea and coffee. Have a conversation with them. Make them feel included in this space now. Try to tap into their subconscious minds. Consciously, they're aware of the things around them. There's going to be a whole bunch of subconscious stuff that's going on for them.We've got our five senses all working. We're hearing. We're smelling. We're tasting. We're touching. We want to make sure that the smells that they're smelling are pleasant. That what they're seeing is pleasant. When they're sitting on the couch, that's a pleasant experience. It's not a hard chair. It's a nice, soft chair or a couch. If you can't get rid of sterility smells and the sound of drills and stuff like that, start introducing different stimuli into the space that makes them feel good somewhere else. This is where coffee is fantastic. Normally, when you're having coffee, it's a pleasurable experience. The smell of coffee is in that subconscious brain as something pleasurable. Introduce that into the practice. You're trying to get them to feel relaxed and calm and harmonious and things like that. That element and that new patient experience and how you make them feel will have an enormous impact on how quickly they trust ... Whether they find you likable and their acceptance of the treatment. That [inaudible 00:45:22] that you're talking about that need to be ... That will be influenced either one way or the other ... Just constantly do things to try to get them to be in a space. You're creating an environment for them to accept the treatment plan and to engage with you.
Howard Farran: You know, every restaurant knows that the hostess with the mostess. You put your best people person right up front. Even Wal Mart does it with a greeter.
Julie Parker: Yes.
Howard Farran: Even Sam Walton knew that in 1962, that the first person you should see should be a greater ... Even some old man making minimum wage to smile and wave and press the flush. What's amazing is I know of a few offices where the receptionist, not only the hostess with the mostess, she's the worst person on the entire team. Another signal for that is she's been there for twenty years. None of the assistants or hygienists stay two or three. It's like the doctor and the receptionist have been there for probably twenty-five years. Everybody around knows that she's a disaster. He thinks she's the greatest person in the world. That is another sign. If you're having staff turnover problems but there's only ever one employee in common, maybe it's you.
Julie Parker: Yeah. There's been a number-
Howard Farran: Maybe the dentist is the problem.
Julie Parker: Yeah.
Howard Farran: If you've got another person on the team that's been there twenty-five years and no one else made it five, that might be Jekyll and Hyde.
Julie Parker: There's a fear. In those sort of situations, I've definitely come across two type of situations that I always encourage people to try to change. There's the bad employee. He's not really performing very well and alienating patients and staff is the person that's been there for twenty years. Because they've been there for twenty years, the dentist thinks, "If that staff member leaves, I'll lose patients." It's simply not true. It's simply not true. The damage that you're doing in the meantime is not worth it. It ends up ... I feel like it blackmails in the sense. I have to keep this bad person. I know they're bad for business. I have to keep them. I'm going to lose even further. They're already losing. It will only improve when you have a great team involved.
Howard Farran: On that new patient experience, you said you like to hear music playing. Would you go with the Bigis or Men at Work?
Julie Parker: I'd go Men at Work. I love Colin Hay.
Howard Farran: I'll tell you what. I'm not even kidding. When I went to Australia ... Four, five, six times ... One time, I was just walking around. They had a ministry of tourism.
Julie Parker: Yeah.
Howard Farran: I went in there. I told the lady, I said, "As an American, you should have the Bigis hall of fame down here." There should be a museum for just the Bigis. That was truly one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time.
Julie Parker: For sure. For sure.
Howard Farran: Just crazy. What are they down to? Just one Bigi left?
Julie Parker: Yeah. Three brothers have passed.
Howard Farran: There were five altogether or four?
Julie Parker: Four altogether. Three have passed.
Howard Farran: Wow.
Julie Parker: It's only Barry now left. Now, Barry's doing music tours with his son.
Howard Farran: Did Barry do the ... Best drugs or the least amount of drugs.
Julie Parker: That's right.
Howard Farran: Higher quality drugs or did he just not do as many? Who's the better ... If you could only have one new patient in your dental office, would it be Mel Gibson or Russell Crowe?
Julie Parker: Well Russell Crowe would be a problem if we got him upset and he was close to the telephone.
Howard Farran: Oh my God. Those are just two legendary actors. I can't tell you how many times-
Julie Parker: Yeah.
Howard Farran: They just crush it.
Julie Parker: Russell Crowe was born in New Zealand. We claim him as our own. Mel Gibson, I think, was born in America. I think he was born in America. We claim his our own. Australians claim many people.
Howard Farran: It's funny. You tell dentists all the time when they're managing staff is you don't shoot the messenger. You know? Your team can't be afraid to come tell you some really bad news. A lot of people don't tell anybody. Then, when they go to Hollywood, use your iPhone. Steve Jobs, that was an incredibly messed up guy. It's weird how some of the greatest actors in the world ... Personally are almost bad shit crazy.
Julie Parker: Yeah.
Howard Farran: Mel Gibson, Russell Crowe, Tom Cruise. I mean how could you be a nuttier fruitcake than Tom Cruise? When you go to his movie, it's like the best movie. You need to treat your staff to the same standard you do your Hollywood actors. You just can't shoot the messenger, whether it's in music, whether it's in movies, whether it's in your staff team. Do you think ... I'm going to ask two questions. Do you think for the average person ... I know there's no average person. Do you think they'd be better off with an office manager instead of the dentist doing it? Do you think they'd be better off with a treatment plan coordinator presenting the dentistry instead of the dentist doing it. I know there's a lot of variables in there. On average, you think the office manager runs the office better than the dentist?
Julie Parker: Yes.
Howard Farran: Do you think a treatment plan presents and sells and collects the money better than the dentist?
Julie Parker: Yeah. An office manager is definitely more effective, not because they may have better skills or better abilities. They're available. The dentist isn't available when they're in a surgery during the dentistry. To be a manager, you need to be out there to manage. It's too much of an expectation, I feel like it's unfair to expect the person who's got their head in someone's mouth ... The majority of the hours for each working day to have the ... To be able to shift that focus from clinical to human relationships ... To be able to do it in very short snippets of time and to be able to do it really effectively. I mean, one of the strongest things that I always did as a leader was when people come to me with a problem ... More often than not I would say, "Leave it with me for a few minutes or a few hours. I'll get back to you." You need time to ponder and to evaluate each particular thing and the ramifications of each particular problem, to be able to very intelligently lead in that space. To expect dentists to do it when you're catching a snippet of moment here, there, and everywhere in between patients and you have to come up with solutions, I think it's unfair. I definitely think an office manager. An office manager, as well, [inaudible 00:51:55] she's going to be doing is around the [inaudible 00:51:58] of the practice. The further learning that the dentist is going to be doing is around fillings and adhesives and cements and everything else like that and technique. To be able to be a great performer is what Tony Robins says. The [inaudible 00:52:12] principle. Constant and never ending improvement. To be able to constantly ... To perform at a constantly improving space, you need to have that training. It's the office manager that's going to be spending her time doing that.
Howard Farran: Probably eighty-five percent of everybody listening right now is driving a car. What I like to do is I like to retweet my guest's last tweet. If they're on Twitter, then go to my @HowardFarran and find you there. It's @jpppracticesuccess. She's JPPractice. Then she spells succe because she ran out of space. I also like your blogs. You said you're trying to enter the American market. You should start posting your blogs on Dental Town.
Julie Parker: I will.
Howard Farran: There's a neat thing on the Dental Town blog. We've made it so if you like the blog or you're reading Dental Town magazine online, I think the greatest gift a dentist can give someone writing an article for free is hit the share button. You can share it on your social media ... Your Facebook, your LinkedIn, your Twitter, your Pinterest, and Google Plus ... I think is the only ones we have. It's really nice to see how the shares are going up. What's amazing is before we start doing the shares it's hard to tell how popular the blogs were by the comments. What's amazing is so many people ... Like there will be a blog. There will be no comment. It will have twenty-three shares.Someone will write an article on Dental Town magazine, which you can also read on your smart phone. There was no comments. There were 127 shares. I think it's part of that sharing economy where people read something. They say, "You know what Julie? That was a great blog." They just share it to their friends. I found this good. I want to share this with my buddies. You people out there think about that. When someone writes an article on Dental Town magazine or blog and you like it, share. A lot of people spend a lot of time writing these blogs and a lot of these articles. I see that on Dental Town. You would not believe what goes into these articles. Some of these guys worked on it for a year.
Julie Parker: Wow.
Howard Farran: They didn't like the pictures. They're getting the patient back in for more pictures ... And this and that. I mean there's a lot going on behind that. I do like a lot of your tweets. Use this time management tool to tackle the projects that really matter. Five ways to boost your enthusiasm. I thought that was a great article. I did not know all of them were just five different types of beer. Just alcohol, that's what you're recommending to increase enthusiasm ... Just plain old alcohol.
Julie Parker: Yeah. [inaudible 00:55:03] enthusiastic with alcohol. With the blog ... I do suggest people ... I do post them on Dental Town. Thank you for that invitation. I do encourage people to take a look at a few. There are helpful hints in time management. How to get more from your patients, how to be more successful with records. A lot of my blogs are behavioral. It's a study of why certain things upset us, how we can change our behavior, how we can become a better leader or a better performer and getting the best out of ourselves. Clarifying and understanding about why we do the things we do. They're always short. I always try to restrict them under 400 words. They don't take long to read. I do encourage people if you are in a space where you are managing other people and we all are the minute we're working in a team. We're managing a team. We're playing a role in it. Have a read. See if you find them useful. I think you will.
Howard Farran: Yeah. I enjoyed several of them. Last but not least, sometimes on Dental Town ... When you go under practice management and you read the forms, it seems like one of the most common scenarios is the dentist can't decide whether he should let someone go or keep them. Are there any parameters or ballparks when they're trying to wrap their head around a decision? I think The Clash called it should I stay or should I go. Any advice on when you're sitting on the fence? Employees are most important, whether you own a hockey team, a cricket team, a football team ... I mean if you have the five best players on a basketball team in a dental office, you're going to win the championship. They know that in sports.
Julie Parker: Yeah.
Howard Farran: They don't really think like that in a dental office. What would you say to some dentist ... She's driving to work and she's saying, "Gah. I just can't decide on Sally."
Julie Parker: Yeah. Really easy. This is really, really straightforward. If you provide Sally with clarity around what you're expecting her to do ... "This is how I want you to behave. This is the kind of results that I want you to give. This is the kind of performance I want you to deliver."What training do you need in order to do that? I will provide that for you, as well. We'll meet up again in three months. We'll have an assessment how well you're growing with that. If you're not growing well, we'll tweak everything. We'll give it another go. If it doesn't improve then, then ask them to move on and get somebody else for that role. I see too often people being fired for bad performance. There hasn't been strong clarity or strong training to support that person. Provide clarity. Provide training. Check in again. Make sure tweaks are made, modifications are made if needed. After that, if it's still [inaudible 00:57:37] then switch that team member over.
Howard Farran: Well said. Very well said. I always say it another way. I say, "If you fire someone and they're in shock, you're not only a bad boss. You're a bad person." They had car payments, house payments. Their life is leverage. This just hit them out of nowhere.
Julie Parker: Yeah.
Howard Farran: Just a complete lack of communication. The problem is social animals want to be nice to each other. They just find it very, very stressful to have an uncomfortable conversation, which is kind of weird. When you look at success, I think a lot of successful people are not right in the head. They're willing to have the most highest number of uncomfortable conversations. When you really read these autobiographies, some of the greatest CEO legends of all time were insane, like Steve Jobs.
Julie Parker: Yeah. Yeah.
Howard Farran: No one was saying he was a nice guy. He lead the entire thing. It was communicating expectations. If he didn't like it, you would know it. He might throw it at the wall and yell names and all that. It's amazing. It kind of reminds me of that basketball, Jimmy Knight ... Was it Jimmy Knight? Who was the basketball coach in Indiana that got fired? Anyway ... No Bobby Knight.
Julie Parker: Yeah.
Howard Farran: They fired him. He was like one of the most winningest basketball coaches of all time. They fired him because he threw a chair at a player. The bottom line is, he's dealing with a lot of twenty year old boys from the hood. When you look at his record, he was getting it done. I raised four boys. Some of them needed to have a chair thrown at them a few times. Leadership is just bazaar. Some of the most dysfunctional have the most winning records. The one thing they all have, whether dysfunctional or functional, they're letting you know what they think. Some may be screaming it. Some may be yelling it. The bad managers aren't communicating. They just don't want to have an uncomfortable conversation. They don't want to be upset.
Julie Parker: Leadership is bravery. You have to be brave and bold to be an effective leader. You're going to feel uncomfortable. Your level of discomfort in various situations reduces as you tackle these situations head on. It's the avoidance of the uncomfortable situations that make your anxiety around it grow and grow and grow. As you are tackling these situations again and again and again, even if you don't get the ideal result, you've got to tackle it boldly and bravely with a lot of thoughtfulness. Then the anxiety around it approaching future situations reduces down so much. It's not a sleepless night anymore. It's worrying five minutes prior to the confrontation, not confrontation ... The discussion. What helps for me has always been Jack Welsh. I admire Jack Welsh enormously. I'd rather think to myself, "I feel so uncomfortable in this space. How can I make it more comfortable for me in approaching this particular situation? What would Jack Welsh do?" I go in with that intention, with that level of leadership. Model yourself on someone better than yourself.
Howard Farran: He's someone that ... Business people love him. One of his policies ... At the end of the year, December thirty-first, he tallies all the salesman's sales. He fires the bottom ten percent.
Julie Parker: That's harsh.
Howard Farran: He says, "Well come on. You're in the bottom ten percent. My HR hiring, screening ... I've got millions of applications." Certainly, what are the odds are that I'm going to get rid of someone in the bottom ten percent and get someone higher. It's a genius strategy. It works. He proved it. Many companies do it.God dang it. December thirty-first ... That's between Christmas and New Years to find out ... "Well Julie, you've been with us for fifteen years. I know it's Christmastime. You did not make the top ninety percent. You are out of here! You are fired!"
Julie Parker: I'm not a particular supporter of that process.
Howard Farran: A lot of these policies are brutal.
Julie Parker: Yeah.
Howard Farran: I think part of it also is it on what the employees want. If you don't want to win the Super Bowl, then you shouldn't go play for the hardest coach in the NFL, who expects you to be there on time, who expects you to pee in a cup and be clean, and expects all these things ... If you don't ever want to win the Super Bowl, then go play on a loser team. I notice that when a dental office gets bigger and more exciting and more fun ... People just come to our office and leave resumes. People say, "How do you find a hygienist?" Well, we have five or six applications all the time.
Julie Parker: Wonderful.
Howard Farran: When you go to a dental course all by yourself versus the office bringing their entire team and then some hygienist sitting there looking at her team and thinking ... Okay. The dentist isn't a leader. He's not going to change anything. He's not going to get any new technology. Then they see this vibrant staff over here that's taking up two rows. They're all wearing some shirt that says [inaudible 01:02:49] dental or whatever. Success attracts success.
Julie Parker: It certainly does. I think sometimes leaders out there think that if I'm generally good all the time, if I put a really good effort in all the time, I'll be forgiven if I blow up every now and then. Unfortunately, that's just not the case. It leaves its residue mark within the staff and employees. It makes them feel safe for a staff. It's not a consistent work environment. Also it builds up a bit of resentment.You were speaking a bit earlier about the marriage counselor. I've read an article about a marriage counselor. If I get a couple when they're angry, I can do something with that. If I get them when they're resentful, it's a lost cause. You never want to leave situations alone too long. The staff member becomes resentful. The only way they're going to open their mouth up when they're angry is if you provide the environment that's safe to do so.
Howard Farran: Yeah. I think the biggest disastrous red flag ... Some [inaudible 01:03:49] you just said is the moody person. If you're up eighty percent of the time, then they're down twenty percent of the time, the damage they do when they're down, the damage they do when they blow up ... It's not puffed back up the other eighty percent of the time. I got employees where one hundred percent of the times I have ever talked to Lori or Ken or all these people, it's always the same person you're talking to. Then throughout your life, you just know people sometimes you talk to them they're all up, sometimes you talk to them and they're all down. Just that stable mood is probably the most valuable thing you can have on a team.
Julie Parker: For sure. For sure. I liken it to a body of water. Picture this body of clear, beautiful, crystal clear water. That's all the goodness you do. That's all the good stuff that you bring to your leadership space and your team. They have one bad mood. It's a drop of red dye. It just permeates all the way through and taints all that clear work that you've done. Do what you can to be self-aware and how to control yourself. It's okay to get [inaudible 01:04:52] and angry and frustrated. Walk outside the practice. Go for a walk. Go for a bit of a drive. Do something. Go to the office and close the door. Do something. Make sure that part of your philosophy around your leadership is I never let them see the dark side. I never let them see the worst of me. They only ever get the best of me.
Howard Farran: Does Australia still have the age limit? I'm fifty-four. Do they still have the deal that you can't move there after age fifty?
Julie Parker: I don't know. I hope not. It would be nice to have you as part of our Australian team.
Howard Farran: I think it was after fifty. You guys have single payer national health insurance. They don't want a bunch of seventy year olds retiring down there getting a bunch of hip surgeries and cancer and all that. I think fifty was the cutoff. If Trump wins the second election, I think I'll just move to Sydney if they'll let me, if I can. Thank you so much Julie for coming on the show. The only reason this show is so successful is because I'm able to get guests on like you. I really appreciate you getting out early in the morning and coming on this show.
Julie Parker: Oh thank you very much for the opportunity. I'm so thrilled. I listen to you all the time. I suggest to everyone I come across in the dental industry to listen to your podcast. It's very powerful. You've done so much for the industry, not just in America but over in Australia too. Everything comes over across the border. Thank you very much.
Howard Farran: Have a rocking holiday Julie.