Deana is a Regional Territory Manager for RevenueWell with over 26 years in dentistry (She was a HORRIBLE dental assistant for a year, but really great in the front office for 25 years!) She is a Fellow & Lifetime Member in the American Academy of Dental Office Management & a founding member of the Dallas/Ft. Worth AADOM Chapter, and has been a nominee for Practice Administrator of the Year. She is a contributor of educational content for the AADOM eCampus. She is a member of the Speakers Consulting Network and has been published in the AADOM Observer & DewLife Magazine. Proudest accomplishment is her children-19 year old Sam & 17 year old (and soon to graduate high school) Hannah. Deana has been an advocate for autism awareness since her son was diagnosed in 1999 & is raising awareness for Guillian-Barre Syndrome, a very rare auto-immune disorder that causes paralysis, after her own experience in June 2017. The fuel behind Deana’s energy is to empower dental team members to continually elevate & realize their value by combining education & networking. The FOREVER optimist, her goal is to unveil the possible when others can only see the impossible. THAT is why others call her the Sunshine Spreader!
http://www.revenuewell.com/
VIDEO - DUwHF #947 - Deana Zost
AUDIO - DUwHF #947 - Deana Zost
Howard: It is just a huge honor for me the today to be podcast interviewing Deana Zost, FAADOM Fellowship of the American Academy Dental Office Managers, love that organization. Thank you so much for stopping by today.
Deana: You’re so welcome.
Howard: You might have seen her name, she’s huge on social media, but you’d think it's Deanna, but it's Deana because you were named after Dean Martin.
Deana: Correct.
Howard: How cool is that?
Deana: It's pretty cool. My parents were hippies so I could have been Petulia or Cannabis, so I will take Deana all day, but I feel my age when I speak, and I always have a picture of Dean Martin to say that's who I was named after and that's how you pronounce my name. I have people now that kind of look at me and I'm like, oh my gosh, you don't know who Dean Martin is so now I feel my age.
Howard: But we may be old but notice we're not eating those tide pods.
Deana: This is true.
Howard: Those are all generation Y, so next time you call your grandpa stupid - he didn't need to eat a tide pod for breakfast. But you know that's funny that you mentioned Dean Martin, because we had the Townie meeting in Las Vegas for fifteen years because fifteen years ago Dean Martin and gambling and martinis and cigars that was the market and now the millennials are like: “Oh, that's gross. I don't like the smell of smoke, I don't drink vodka. I drink Gatorade or whatever.”
Deana: Right.
Howard: So now we're moving to Orlando because the market I mean that's a bygone era.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: And now Vegas is having to retool because it's just …
Deana: You want to feel some old Vegas go to the El Cortez. You can double fist the martinis. I swear there are wise guys still sitting at the bar. The women who are the waitresses were probably the same women from the fifties so if you want to get a taste of old Vegas, it's the El Cortez. It is seedy and smoky and it's wonderful.
Howard: Is it downtown?
Deana: It’s downtown.
Howard: Where they cover the sidewalk?
Deana: I don’t …
Howard: Or they cover the street where it’s …
Deana: Yeah, it's right in front of the [inaudible 00:02:02]
Howard: Yeah, that’s the other Vegas that you might not know about. I mean there's that downtown section, the old town section and it's just fun to just walk around there.So, Dean Martin, A, Deana, is a regional territory manager for RevenueWell with over twenty-six years in dentistry. She was a horrible dental assistant for a year, but really great in the front office for twenty-five years. She is a fellow and lifetime member of the American Academy of Dental Office Management and a founding member of the Dallas/Fort Worth AADOM chapter and has been a nominee for practice administrator of the year. She is a contributor of educational content for the AADOM eCampus. She is a member of the speaker's consulting network, that's the Linda Miles Group, right?
Deana: It is, yeah.
Howard: And has been published in the AADOM Observe and Do Life Magazine. Proudest accomplishment is her children, nineteen-year-old Sam and seventeen-year-old and soon to graduate from high school, Hannah. Deana has been an advocate for autism awareness since her son was diagnosed in 1999 with Asperger's Syndrome.
Deana: Asperger’s Syndrome.
Howard: And is raising awareness for Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a very rare autoimmune disorder that causes paralysis after her own experience in June 2017, when you said out of nowhere you were paralyzed for a week.
Deana: For a week, yeah. I thought I'd had a stroke and I'm perfectly healthy and next thing you know I can't move. Craziest thing and it's so rare that obviously it's the last thing they checked for. So, six hours in the emergency room and bloodwork was fine, scans were fine and I just kept getting worse. They finally did a spinal tap and that’s what revealed Guillain-Barre. I was in a teaching hospital Barnes Jewish in St. Louis. I had no less than probably twenty neurologists come see me because most of them had never even seen a case of Guillain-Barre, so I was like a carnival sideshow, but I hobbled out after seven days and got on a plane and went to Texas and very thankful. Most people are paralyzed it could be six months to a year so I'm very blessed.
Howard: So were you born with that? Is it a genetic or is it a virus?
Deana: No, it's a virus, so what happens is, I may have had something. You're either sick with something and your body's fighting the virus so I may have had something and not known it and whatever I was sick with was cured, my body didn't turn itself off so then it turned itself on my nervous system and your nerves are wrapped in myelin sheets and so what Guillain-Barre does is it shreds those protective coverings so your nerves are just misfiring everywhere, so I'm still I’m about eight months out so they say it takes about a year or so. There are a lot of people who have long lasting issues with it so I'm very thankful. Every day you can get up and walk to the bathroom.
Howard: So, now can you get it again?
Deana: I could have a one to 2% chance of it coming back so it's very, very slight.
Howard: But it was something you caught though, it was a virus?
Deana: No, it's something my body did, so I may have been sick with something and it's just your body. It’s an autoimmune, it just turns ...
Howard: Okay an autoimmune, okay alright.
Deana: Yeah. Very strange I’d never …
Howard: And you know what’s also intriguing about the autoimmunes, is I was reading that they are highly genetic in clusters, like families who have Type 1 diabetes, also have thyroid issues, hypothyroidism, also multiple sclerosis same type of a deal. What was the other one, [inaudible 00:05:33] and that's amazing because not only is it genetic, but there clusters in family trees and I was reading this research deal that says like if your sister or a sibling has any one of these five, if we could expand your family tree back far enough or guess in the future all of those will show up in that tree.
Deana: Yeah. My biological dad has Type 1 diabetes so, but the funny thing about the Guillain-Barre …
Howard: What about your non-biological dad?
Deana: No, he's good. He's just fun.
Howard: So your biological dad had Type 1 diabetes.
Deana: Right.
Howard: And when you were talking about this autoimmune disorder on the myelin sheath, that’s the same kind of M.S.
Deana: Right.
Howard: And even muscular dystrophy.
Deana: Well that was one of their concerns. They even checked me for ALS. They were concerned that maybe I had Lou Gehrig's disease. It was just crazy, but I will tell you something funny about dentistry this would only happen to me. This Guillain-Barre began with what I thought was a toothache. I could have sworn number fourteen was coming out. I was ready for my first implant. I’d had facial pain for about a week or so and I’d called Dr. Martinson. I've got an appointment and I'm thinking I’ve got to have an implant now, but that's not what it was. It was just the beginning of nerve pain. So I think about the patients we've seen who have that phantom pain and I mean the good patients not the ones after the narcotics. But we can't find anything so it kind of makes you wonder what else is going on in their body that's causing this type of pain. So it's a good thing just to check on.
Howard: And several townies have a child with autism. How's that have been in your journey?
Deana: So …
Howard: Now that is genetic right? Asperger’s Syndrome?
Deana: It is genetic.
Howard: Now is that an autoimmune or …
Deana: It's not autoimmune.
Howard: It’s not autoimmune.
Deana: So it is genetic and of course when Samuel was born in 1998, autism, there was not a lot of information. This kid has taught me more and made me find my voice. I have learned more from him than I will ever learn in my lifetime. I am so thankful.
Howard: And how old is he now?
Deana: He's nineteen.
Howard: He's nineteen.
Deana: He's hilarious. So he's self-sufficient. He works, does all that stuff. To hear his view on the world it is just refreshing. He'll come in from work and “How was work”? He’s like, “I’ve got a question”. And I’m like, “What is it”? He goes, “Why is it that when one person at work has a problem with another person at work they just don’t go to that person. They go to everybody else and talk. I don’t get it, Mom. What a waste of energy.” I’m like, “You’re the smartest person I've ever met.” So to hear their take on why we do what we do in society, it's so wonderful. But his gift is music. He learned through music. He is a very talented electric guitar player. He loves classic rock. I mean the kid jams like nothing else so he's very much a blessing.
Howard: So that means that that's what you were playing when he was little. He was listening to your music selection.
Deana: Probably, but I think I was listening to more alternative music, so I don't know what was going on.
Howard: My poor boys, I have four boys and all they grew up on is seventies music, jamming out in the garage. We've never parked in the garage. We always had a wrestling mat and that's our family thing.
Deana: Oh that’s fun.
Howard: I wrestled and they all wrestled from five to fifteen, but it's so funny because when I'm hearing them pulling up in the car they're listening to something from 1970 but …
Deana: But’s it fun. My daughter is the same way, she has a record player. She's all about vinyl. She’s very sort of eclectic and kind of has that hippie vibe. Sam's very conservative, Republican, but they’re both so funny, but they love classic music and it warms my heart. They like the good stuff.
Howard: Oh yeah, it is the best stuff.
Deana: Like the good stuff.
Howard: But that's also when your son is saying, that's why you don't listen to gossip and it's not because you have altruism or you’re [inaudible 00:09:33]. It's misdirected communication because if that person, and it could be your sister coming up to you venting about your other sister or your brother or mom or whatever. When they vent they're going to release serotonin and dopamine and oxytocin. Then they're going to feel better and then they go back to their deal and they didn't get anything done and you just got to say, “no, no, no.” And you got to grab them by the arm and you got to walk them to that person.
Deana: Right.
Howard: And say, “Now tell Sam what you were about to tell me about Sam,” and sometimes they’ll bust out crying or they’re totally confused or whatever, but I'll just stop my family, friends, anybody. “No, no, no you need to be talking to Tim because if you don't talk to Tim, if you vent to me, you'll feel better and Tim’s still out of the loop.”
Deana: Yeah. If I can't do anything to help the situation, I don't want that energy. I don't want it. Let's go to the person. But it's just fun to hear his take on, “Why do people do the things they do?” and I'm, “You know I don't know. It’s just how they are.” But he's very pure in how he thinks we should communicate and his view is really spot on. I'm like kid, “You got it, you got it.”
Howard: Yeah, I have an assistant that has a child with Asperger's Syndrome and the human mind is very amazing.
Deana: It is.
Howard: And you know the founders of Google are Sergey Brin and Larry Page and your company's got some Sergey’s and …
Deana: We’ve got some Serg, yeah.
Howard: And he was a Russian.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: And Larry Page was from Wisconsin and he is autistic and the reason his father bought him a computer he says he didn't know what he could do. So he bought him a computer and what did his son do, started Google.
Deana: Right.
Howard: And then did you also hear about the autistic programmers at Google what they say?
Deana: No.
Howard: That one autistic person programming gets so into the zone they do the work at five, ten, twenty, twenty-five. And I'll never forget it was back in, way back when computers started in dentistry, Semantodontics or Smart Practice used to be called Semanto …
Deana: It’s on the tip of my tongue.
Howard: I think it was Semantodontics. A computer company started with that same name it's called Compudontics.
Deana: I remember that.
Howard: And it was by a guy out here named Tom and he had the most amazing software and I said, “Well what's the trick to it?” He goes, “You know what I only have one perfect, amazing programmer, that’s why. He's in the zone. We have no bugs.” Everybody else is trying to scale so they ramp up to five, ten, fifteen, twenty and he makes this section,but it doesn't really interface with this section and as it gets bigger and bigger it just becomes a cluster.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: And that used to happen with people who would outsource they saw well the programs in India are so much cheaper, “Oh that’s great.” There’s not going to be any problems. When you send something fifteen thousand miles around the world …
Deana: Right, right, right yeah.
Howard: And have fifty people working on it they get it done in a day, but then you'll have bugs.
Deana: What’s the bugs? What's that time?
Howard: Yeah, how long is it going to take before you debug the thing so podcasters are young, they’re thirty and under. What is RevenueWell?
Deana: So RevenueWell is a really wonderful, you could call it a patient communication system. But what RevenueWell really is, is we want to go in with our software. We want to help practices use technology to deepen patient relationships and I know that kind of sounds like an oxymoron but if we can go in and help them understand how to become a data-driven practice. And what I mean by that is we take so much information from our patients when they're in our chair. We're taking a health history. We're creating a continuing care. We've got a treatment plan. We've got all this information that it sits there and we don't really use it until they come back in and we see it. But if we can take that data we can automate some systems. You know people say your plate’s full. Work in the front office we have a turkey platter. That's how big our plate is. Things are coming at us. If we can automate it and customize it and communicate with patients, help create the balance of communication. Oh my gosh, we could have a business office that is actually working proactively not reactively every day so confirmations will be done.
Howard: And how do they confirmation, email or text?
Deana: Email and text or text. Patients get to customize it themselves. It's pretty neat.
Howard: So confirming appointments …
Deana: Confirming appointments, we can reactivate patients. Doctors, if you’ve ever looked and “Hey, run this report and call these patients and get them in.” Number one people don't answer their phone anymore, they don't. And if you leave a voicemail …
Howard: I don't it's always a bill collector.
Deana: Well nine times out of ten you don't even listen to the message and if it's a number you know you call them back or when you can. I want to use our time wisely. Don't spend sixty seconds making a phone call leaving a message if nothing's going to come of it. So let's automate that and no-shows. Somebody no shows an appointment. We can send out an automatic, “hey, we've had an unexpected change in our schedule. We’ve a 2 o' clock available. Click here for it.” Patients want to find you online. We can make it easy. They want to find you on Facebook. They want to find it on the Google search. We can help you put something there. They can request an appointment that easy. I've done this for twenty-six years. When I started we didn't have a computer we had a pegboard system.
Howard: Same here.
Deana: And that was the time when we had to hand write all of our interns' claims in triplicate.
Howard: Right.
Deana: And you prayed that first one got there and you prayed you put the copies in the patient's' chart so you could find it. I have seen so much change and I have used so many types of systems that what I found about RevenueWell is its intuitiveness. It's user-friendly. Don't give me more work to do. Don't give me a piece of software that's going to create work for me. Give me something that's just going to run in the background of my practice management software and is it going to help me keep patients in the chair. It's going to help keep the schedule full. It's going to help market our practice. Make my job lighter. Give me the opportunity to fellowship with my patients. Be able to educate them more. Discuss treatment plans. Be present in the moment with that patient.
Howard: Ryan, who's the founder of FAADOM? My buddy …
Deana: Heather Colicchio.
Howard: Heather Colicchio.
Deana: Yes.
Howard: And I think she's got to be Italian, Italian or lasagna Italian with that name.
Deana: She's the best.
Howard: But you know what how many FAADOMS or how many of you have earned your fellowship?
Deana: That's such a good question. I know the class I was in which was year before last I want to say there were fifty-four of us in one class and last year there were I want to say around the same number. S I have no idea. That would be a great question. Kim McQueen we need that answer.
Howard: Yeah, Heather was episode four ninety you’re going to be like nine fifty but I did you before.
Deana: It’s crazy. Yeah.
Howard: You were like an early one.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: An early [inaudible 00:16:46] what number was that two hundred or something or …
Deana: I was under five, it was two and a half years ago. It was right before I started.
Howard: Give Ryan your cell phone I want to take a selfie with you. It’s not often I get to take a selfie with a hot, gorgeous blonde. I’m not going to pass that.
Deana: I love it. I love it.
Howard: But what I was going to ask though the question was in this space of RevenueWell there's also Solution Rage. There’s Demand Force, there’s Lighthouse, there’s patient activation which is Futuredontics out there. [Inaudible 00:17:18]. You should get all the FAADOMS and then say in the category of [inaudible 00:17:26] what percent of them would pick RevenueWell over Solution Rage, Demand Force, Lighthouse, [00:17:33]. But more importantly to me is the bigger question the management information system Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental. So I'm going to back up because I was going to ask you does it seamlessly integrate with the others?
Deana: Well it integrates with Eaglesoft, Dentrix, Open Dental and Practice Works.
Howard: Okay so Eaglesoft, Effingham where Heartland is.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: Dentrix out of [Aproval? 00:18:04], Utah. Open Dental which is Oregon and what was the last one you said?
Deana: Practice Works.
Howard: Practice Works which is actually a lot because that company owns, don’t they own Softend?
Deana: I want to say it's Soft End and Practice Works.
Howard: So does it just integrate Practice Works, but not Soft End?
Deana: Not Softend, not yet.
Howard: So we switched from Soft End this year to Open Dental.
Deana: Really?
Howard: And I was on Softend for thirty years and one of the reasons it’s so hard to change because I got all these senior citizen grandmas working for me that have been there since Fred Flintstone. And if you met them you’d all think they were my mom and but actually one is two weeks older than me. But anyway the reason we actually switched at the end is because Soft ned just always crashes. It just always crashes and when I get on Dentaltown and I do a search for Eaglesoft or Dentrix or Open Dental it seems like Open Dental all the threads are raving fans and then the Dentrix and the Eaglesoft is like some kind of self-help support group of not very nice things and I was wondering what your favorite would be?
Deana: So I …
Howard: Because a lot of these girls are now commuting.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: She’s working at Aspen, she’s working at Harland and she’s going to start her own office and she needs to make that decision first.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: So what would you tell her when she's saying but …?
Deana: It's hard for me because I love Eaglesoft and Dentrix. Now I grew up on the Dentrix so I'm more familiar with it. I don't know if I would like it more. I like the reporting in Eaglesoft way better. It's just a simpler system.
Howard: You like the reporting in what?
Deana: In Eaglesoft.
Howard: Okay reporting in Eaglesoft.
Deana: It's really good. But I was in one of the first offices, Dentrix went live on Windows in 1996. I mean I went from Dos total recall on Friday and Dentrix on Monday.
Howard: So what you just said, so when I was little, I'm fifty-five and I know you’re not going to tell me your age but …
Deana: I'm forty-six. I don’t mind.
Howard: Are you forty-six? Why are girls afraid to say how old they are? I always thought it was beautiful.
Deana: I got a face full of Botox. I’m good. I’m fine.
Howard: And that smile. That reminds me of one of my favorite jokes a little boy gets into his grandma's purse and finds her driver's license and says, ‘Grandma you never tell me how old you are but now I know how old you are.” And she goes, “Don’t look at my driver's license” and he says, “And I also found out that you got an F in sex.” So when I was in high school all IBM mainframes and then everything gets faster/easier higher quality and more miniature so it got down into a personal computer. So Microsoft instead of a mainframe it was a microcomputer with Micro software and so like Softend they all started on DOS and what was genius about Dentrix is when Bill Gates, he told me he said, “When you watch these earlier doctors, like Intel started. I was born in ’68 but you look into these categories, but when you get like six or seven people or eight or ten in a space then all of a sudden one has a ten X growth that's when you know, okay these guys are going to start …
Deana: They’re doing something.
Howard: [inaudible 00:21:21] so Microsoft had a ten X bust out and the boys up in [Provo? 00:21:24] said you know what we're going to do a [inaudible 00:21:26] software from scratch on Windows. Whereas all the other DOS like Softend they tried to make the Windows look like you were on Microsoft, but it wasn't a cut and paste and all that stuff.
Deana: It was crazy. It was wild and I always tell kids these days you don't know how good you have it. I mean I do miss the function key I think because I used it for so long. And I remember when my dad bought our first home computer I mean it was this big and we were so excited to see that green flashing bar and you know we could play hangman. It’s crazy to think. Now that was a big deal. We had one and then my sister and I had to switch off on who was using it. Now both my kids are running around with their Macbooks and their iPhone's and they did have phones better than me until last week. I did upgrades. Now I have the better phone, but yeah I think …
Deana: Just go through those Eaglesoft has a better report that’s a plus.
Deans: To me, it’s just easier and it's so easy to …
Howard: I agree, I totally agree.
Deana: To customize your reporting. I mean I may not want to see everything. What do I want to see so let's make it easy for the practice to see what they want. Dentrix, again I grew up on it so I know it back and I know the whole thing so I'm comfortable with that. I've learned more Eaglesoft having been with RevenueWell going into practices and so they're very similar so I do …
Howard: You think Dentrix and Eaglesoft are very similar?
Deana: I do, I really do.
Howard: Okay and then what would you say about Open Dental?
Deana: I have never used Open Dental or Practice Works.
Howard: But do you hear much about it in the field?
Deana: I don't.
Howard: So when you're at your FAADOM buddies it's pretty much all Eaglesoft and Dentrix.
Deana: Yeah, it's big.
Howard: Is one bigger than the other?
Deana: No, they're pretty equal. It's really funny to me so I don't hear one versus the other but you were talking about my...
Howard: Well Eaglesoft’s Patterson and they sell a quarter of all the supplies.
Deana: Right.
Howard: And Dentrix is Henry Schein. They sell another quarter of all supplies and the smartest one was [Venco 00:23:00] who said we're not even going to go there.
Deana: We're not doing it.
Howard: We're not doing that thing and because a lot of times when reps would show up for an offer for twenty/thirty euros if the computer had gone down or the computer had crashed and now here’s the Patterson lady,” Hey how was your day?”
Deana: Right.
Howard: “Your damn computers,” so yeah ...
Deana: What happened? Yeah, so it's crazy but my FAADOM buddies it's funny if we got them on a group a large percentage you would find RevenueWell would slide right off their tongue if you ask them what their favorite is. It's really fun to see especially on Facebook there's all these open dental management forums and closed forums and it's refreshing for me to kind of watch and those people say, “hey what do I do?” Do I do Solution Rage or Lighthouse?” And immediately you've got some of my girls going RevenueWell. You've got to do RevenueWell. You got to do it. You just have to see it and it's just so easy and so efficient. And why would you not do it? We don't have a contract. Why would you not try us?
Howard: And I know you’re going to think I’m biased, because I own Dentaltown.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: But that's the problem with the Facebook and those communications social media started for me in ‘94 with that endless e-mail group. And the only thing all the social media’s did like Myspace and Friendster and Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn and Pinterest and that, they just pulled out your e-mail. But like they’ll have a great discussion on Facebook.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: But I'm message board because if my homies listened and he said, “Oh I'm going to go to your Facebook page and I'm going to find where you had that … “ What am I supposed to do? Just go back there and scroll back for a million years.
Deana: There's so many. Yeah, there’s so many …
Howard: Whereas if you went to Dentaltown and you did … like I’ll say this I'll go to Dentaltown in all the different message board and everything else …
Deana: But you can just type it in and search something.
Howard: It’s searchable.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: So I will type in RevenueWell and see instantly all the threads on RevenueWell. Now if I went to Facebook and I went into the toolbar and typed in RevenueWell …
Deana: You'd see the business page and any support group, but it’s all the different message boards. All the different pages I should say.
Howard: And I just started this for [00:25:42]
Deana: Really.
Howard: Yeah that was my project this year. I thought to myself it's the same thing. Because these this [00:25:51] group, but when you've got a massive class-action lawsuit with a golf course that’s going bankrupt and what used to be a beautiful golf course is now weeds, three foot tall. And then the city’s going to build a two 0 one through here, you can't go D, I always say that endless newsfeeds like e-mail groups, Twitter, LinkedIn you can't change a freeway exit on Twitter or Facebook.
Deana: Yeah, I say that about politics too you're not going to change my mind.
Howard: Yeah, so I cut and pasted the five hundred thousand words of Dentaltown code that we've worked on since 1998 and we called it [Tuki town? 00:26:30]. And it's great because it's a different deal but …
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: But so you didn't comment on Practice Works?
Deana: Never used it.
Howard: Never used it, so you’ve never used Open Dental and Practice Works.
Deana: No.
Howard: But when you entered the market it's pretty much all Eaglesoft, all Dentrix. And would you say it's fifty/fifty?
Deana; Yeah I would. I can't say oh I see more Dentrix or more Eaglesoft. It’s really about fifty/fifty and to me those are the two big players.
Howard: Yeah, so I thought we were the two big players.
Deana: We are.
Howard: My God now you’re saying it’s …
Deana: We’re not software we’re people.
Howard: So that was the question RevenueWell totally syncs with that?
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: Okay. This is dentistry uncensored. What's it cost?
Deana: Two ninety-nine a month.
Howard: Two ninety-nine a month?
Deana: Yes, there is no installation fee. There's no contract so the last thing we want is if we're not a good fit you don’t have to keep us. We have amazing support.
Howard: And just through life in general, a contract is always a big red flag. Say she [inaudible 00:27:26] and she said you’ve got to give me two ninety-nine a month for a year, but what if after one month we don’t like each other and we don’t agree with anything and I were to end this. And you know the craziest place to sign a contract?
Deana: Where?
Howard: Marriage.
Deana: I agree on that.
Howard: It is.
Deana: I agree.
Howard: Imagine if I went up to my best friend and say, ‘Hey are you really my best friend?” Well here sign this contract and if we break up and I’ll probably get half your shit. Why would you sign this? Especially you're the doctor, you're the richer. Who do you thinks going to take more of your money? The rich doctor or the waitress from the Apple, from the Ihop. I mean don't sign contracts and these dental companies that have been tarred and feathered the most on Dentaltown it always seems like their contract. And then I'm sitting there thinking that business guy, why does he want these people all upset posting on Dentaltown …
Deana: Right.
Howard: That are locked into a contract. A dental contract is huge.
Deana: Yeah, when they auto-renew the contract and you're trying to get out and you can't get out. I mean I just don't want you to be stuck with us. And I've done many a demo with doctors and I have no problem if they want to sit and go line by line with what they have versus us and I don't mind doing it, but I will close my laptop and I'm like I just don't think we're going to be a good fit. It surprises the hell out of them. They're like wait.
Howard: And let's talk about that because what you said is very profound so like Apple is a closed system and Android Google is an open system so this [inaudible 00:29:02] everything. I noticed when people want to get into CBCT’s and CAD/CAM and went with the whole Sirona system since it's all closed it was all seamless and all the staff knew how to do it.
Deana: Right.
Howard: But then the doctor gets on Dentaltown. He says, “No, no, no the best CBCT is the iTero and the best is over this,” and he gets six or seven pieces and he may be completely right but unless you're a tech freak it can't be used.
Deana: It can’t be used, yeah.
Howard: And too many times when dentists look at these products they’ll say, “Okay well which one's cheaper, which one’s more expensive?” Dude, the only expense you have your number one expense is a 42% adjusted production off your fee and the PPO. Think about that.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: 42%. Next Is Labor 25% think about that. So my deal is usability. If you hand your grandmother an iPhone or an iPod she's going to figure it out.
Deana: Absolutely.
Howard: But you go buy her some fancy schmancy deal from, some other deal, she might not figure it out. So my critique that I'm going through is [Inaudible: 00:30:06] time for the staff. How long would it take to train my staff and everybody thinks they have uniquely, gifted staff but at the end of the day we’re all average staff.
Deana: Right.
Howard: So training time?
Deana: Training time we do an hour online, seperate training every …
Howard: So you do it?
Deana: I don't do it.
Howard: Okay you don’t do the training?
Deana: I have a team who does it so it's the initial training, so I travel the country I’ll do master training's but what we have for our practices is kind of like a recall system. So every thirty, sixty and ninety days our success team is setting up a time, like we're going to turn this on and then in thirty days we're going to turn a few more features on. So you're trained on that. If we turned everything on and I have had practices, I've had doctors who are like turn it all on and I'll look at them and go, “No way,” because then Betty is going to be calling me every day so mad because there’s so much going on. So turning a little bit on at a time and we don't have to turn this on first and this on second. It’s what do you need? What are you looking for right now? Those are the campaigns, that's the features we're going to do and turning a little bit on at a time and we have a complete success team that's amazing. And then of course for my practices when I go in or I talk to somebody on the phone, I mean anybody has my cell phone number they can text me a question.
Howard: Dammit, I don’t have your cell phone number. I get assigned to everybody. Let me see if you’re in there.
Deana: I thought I was in there because I’ve texted you. I should be number one.
Howard: Dean, yes you are.
Deana: I told you.
Howard: Okay here's one of my big pet peeves in [inaudible 00:31:36], one of my huge pet peeves.
Deana: Okay.
Howard: Is that dentistry still this cottage industry. By definition, a cottage industry is when one person doesn't have 1% of the market. There's a hundred twenty-five thousand dental offices, Hartland is the biggest but they just hit eight hundred. They would need twelve hundred and fifty to be 1%.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: And then you go into these cottage industries they’re always talking about wanting new patients, new patients, new patients. I’m like, “Dude, you've been in a town of five thousand for forty years and you still need new patients?” And then when you go to the fortune five hundred...
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: They’re into loyalty programs. Southwest Airline’s like...Look who hasn’t flown Southwest Airlines. We don't want a new patient.
Deana: Right.
Howard: We want to get you coming back.
Deana: Thank you.
Howard: And I told dentists they need to switch from spending money on advertising to loyalty programs.
Deana: Thank you. It's so much more cost effective to take care of the people you've already seen. Now yeah we do want new patients. We want to care for others but I can't tell you the amount of practices I go into and I'll do a practice analysis and they are so tunnel vision on new patients and but you've got twelve hundred people that you haven't seen in two years. How have you reached out to them? I mean don't we want them to come back? And that's another reason I love RevenueWell because, and I'm from the south so I like warm fuzzy’s and I like to make people feel good and if I could have baked you a casserole I would have today. I think giving those teams the gift of time to create that patient experience, to have that time. We're why they should want to come back. They should want to come back. They don’t know good dentistry.
Howard: Right.
Deana: They don't know that crown marking is so spot on you can't even stand it, you dream about it at night. They know they had a great time with us that you got them out of pain or you didn't cause pain. They love how we make them feel. That is the cheapest marketing you could absolutely do in your practice is just to care for your patients the way you would care for your mother, the way you would care for your daughter, the way you would care for you. To get off dentistry, I love my gynecologist. I love her. She's just like me. She's this person but she's got this blonde curly hair. I feel so good when I go in and go see her. She's just so nice and she's like, “I wish all my patients were like you,” and I feel special. Now I’m sure she says that to everybody. But if we could make our patients feel like number one. They're it. You're my number one patient if I could clone you and work on you all day, dammit. I would do it because I like you. Now you got [inaudible 00:34:11] when you say it don't give B.S. because I can smell it. That is what it's about. That's what brings that patient back in and that's what gets them to talking about you. When someone mentions oh yeah I'm looking for a dental, oh my God, you’ll love Dr. Grant. I love that guy. Was he a good dentist? Yeah, I think so. I love that guy. I mean it didn't hurt. I get fixed up, look good. I love that guy. They talk about the dentistry. He did this composite bonding. Oh, my God, he layered that thing so, they don't know but they know you and they know your team. When I go into practices I will walk in and I immediately feel, wow, you guys are doing it right. I want to stay here all day. There are others I back away and then I pray to Jesus when I walk out. They have these faces that are just, I don't go in with a bag looking like a salesperson. I could be a new patient just kind of walking in to feel it out. It's incredible what you get back from them. So let's give our teams that time. Let's automate the systems. Keep patients coming back in, but let's remember why they come back in. It's for us.
Howard: So give me percentage. What percent of them do you walk in you just feel the energy, the karma and love it and what percent of them you don’t?
Deana: I want to say there's probably about fifty/fifty. There’s about fifty/fifty.
Howard: It’s that good?
Deana: And I do call them out so when I walk in I’ve got this …
Howard: But you say fifty/fifty is that because they've asked for a demo on, you’re talking about a random cold call?
Deana: Just random when I walk into any practice.
Howard: So half you can feel fun, happy, nice and half you feel stress.
Deana: Yeah, it feels good and I mean …
Howard: So half that means you’re going to walk in and back when we’re saying get away from advertising and get into customer loyalty you hear the same thing. Well let’s have this new patient experience, how about an everyday experience.
Deana: Absolutely.
Howard: And you walk in and every consultant is the same thing you walk in these offices you just fill it instantly which makes you secrete dopamine, serotonin and the money one oxytocin, which is what a dog secretes …
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: When you need your dog but a cat won't.
Deana: That's why I’m a cat person.
Howard: Your cat does not love you. If your cat loved you you’d be a dog. And you know when people are now, their spouse dies and they're in depression they’re actually FDA approved now you can give them oxytocin, because you're with this person who like a dog was making you secrete oxytocin, so not only did you just lose your spouse you lost your drug of choic.But see when they walk in and that's why some salespeople are naturals because when they talk to you they're making you secrete dopamine and oxytocin and serotonin and you buy. And then if you don't have that what you don't realize is they're going to secrete noradrenaline and epinephrine and they're going to go into fight or flight.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: And when they start studying customer service things like I want this iPhone and I don't want a Samsung.
Deana: Right.
Howard: That's a product. But in a service, almost every time we stopped having the service is because one human, one human put me in fight or flight.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: One person made me feel bad and I thought well really you're not the only dentist in town and they leave. So how does ReveneueWell make me switch from advertising to loyalty programs? How does it keep more customers for life?
Deana: Well number one we're going to communicate with those customers you haven't seen. Those patients you haven't seen in a while and again I'm old enough to, if you're my age or a little older you know the term purging of the charts and I had to go through and go two years back and find the stickers. I’d go this year I’d go back to 2016 pull all the charts have a big stack in my office which drove me crazy because I'm very OCD. Everything has to be neat and I’d call [inaudible 00:38:13]. Then I’d write a postcard and, that process is unbelievably crazy and then I’d boxed everything up after making two calls and postcards put it up in the attic and what happened. That's when they call and then I’d go back up to the attic. So every day, if I can make a manageable amount of communications which what I'm saying is, is if RevenueWell today can look two years back and go who haven't we seen two years ago today? Maybe three people, so I'm sending out three communications. The next day it’s the same. We're sending out manageable communications with the data in your software. I don't have to think about it it's just happening. Instead of sending out this huge blast to twelve hundred people and then they all want to come in which is great but where the hell am I are going to put them. So it's manageable communication. I don't have to think about it. I don't have to run a report because you doctors are all about run that report and call those people. It sits because I'm reacting to the day and a proactive team has energy. They might be like me they're all smiling and happy to be there, but you're going to go home with energy. Dentistry is dentistry and I love it and I eat, breathe and sleep twenty-four hours a day. I don’t know if you know this, but you sleep with me every night. I mean the Dentaltown magazine. I read it. And all these magazines I go to bed and I fall asleep and they're on me and I wake up with it twenty-four seven. I love it. I am not the norm. I want you to go home, care for your patients, go home have energy. Whether it's for your family, your kids, your dog, your Netflix. Wouldn’t that be great to go home at 5:00/5:15 and you still got energy to go coach your kid's football game. People are, “Wow, can I do that? Yeah, it’s possible I see it. I've done it. We can get there.
Howard: Talk about the user experience or the new patient experience versus the everyday experience, but Netflix is so huge it's part of the thing. It's Facebook Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google, but what it is since they’re not interrupting you with commercials every fifteen minutes …
Deana: I love some Netflix.
Howard: Everybody you talk to since they get such into the zone because you're not interrupting with these stupid ads.
Deana: Right.
Howard: That when it's over they feel so better because just like sleep you need this whole hour of deep REM cycle sleep that can’t be interrupted and you're watching this thriller and then they switch to some commercial about some pharmaceutical pill, and they're never targeted commercials so it doesn't apply to me. Why am I watching a commercial for a chair going up the stairway or have I been injured by this?
Deana: While you're watching Amazing Race or something.
Howard: Yeah. It's non-targeted, stupid, ignorant commercials and cable television have lost the entire fifty under crowd and their market share just like Japan, every day in Japan there's less people than the day before because birth rate is two point three kids per family and they’re a point nine.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: And the reason I'm going off on this is because it's the same thing with a dental office. It’s the experience. They’re not getting in the zone and what I can’t understand the most, this is what drives me the most crazy. I'm going to go lecture tomorrow I'm in Tempe and then Saturday I'm in [inaudible 00:41:27] the dental school and when you go to dental office every seminar some girl [wally? 00:41:34] to me and goes,‘“When you talking about this, this,” …’ I’ll say, [inaudible 00:41:38]. And I’m like how do I know your assistant’s a toxic nightmare in one second and she's been on your payroll for five years and you don't know that. And then you're saying when you walk in these offices half of them you feel the karma.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: And half them you don't feel the karma, so my question to you is do you think when you don't feel the karma it's because there is some person toxic in there?
Deana: Well it could be a toxic person, but it's really more of a stress. It is the stress of the day. I mean the amount of workload that your front office have, and then it could be to you’ve hired the wrong person for the wrong position. I mean that happens a lot. I walk in I'm thinking, I went into one practice she didn't acknowledge me, it was the big window with all the stuff on it and I’m kind of looking through like, “hey, I’m out here.” I just open the window and I’m like, “Hey.” You could have hired the wrong person, but every dental office has that toxic person.
Howard: What percentage of the time is that toxic person the actual dentist versus the staff?
Deana: I want to say that is a low percent. I’m going to say thirty, 30%.
Howard: 30% percent of the dentists are toxic?
Deana: Here's what’s going on.
Howard: Is that what you said?
Deana: Yeah, I would say 30%. Here's what I see when you have a toxic person whether it be business office or hygiene or assistant, the dentist doesn't want to confront it. You've got a lot of introverts, you’re very rare. You're an extrovert unless you're an introvert but you're really good at hiding it. And u don't want to deal with it. Even your best assistant. She’s so good clinically. She’s been here twenty-five years, but you can't stand the sight of her and no one else can either. You're allowing that toxicity to go on in the practice so it is the dentist who won't confront it. So I see that a lot and I've experienced it having somebody in there. I'm ready to let them go. I mean they are bad apple and everybody knows it and you feel it so, but a lot of dentists don't want to confront it. They don't want to deal with it.
Howard: But here's the point that I'm trying to school you on is that you always sit there and when you're mad at the assistant because she didn't run this report right or she didn't balance a bank statement right or she doesn't mix right or anything like that. That's all the technical stuff that the patient doesn't see.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: The number one thing is, how does the human make your team and the customers feel? My number one thing I would put up with a mountain of shit.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: If everyone loved you.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: But if you were the world's best tech or whatever you did but nobody likes you, you're gone right now.And on dental skill first of all when you start asking for advice on Dentaltown about whether you should hire a [inaudible 00:44:19] person, man that's the most elite part of any game is HR.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: And what advice could you give them to ramp up their H.R. skills because after you've been around the block …
Deana: Oh gosh.
howard: After you've lapped the sun some forty/fifty times you start to understand people and at twenty-five you think you know everything.
Deana: Yeah, no, I still don't know everything. I'm forty six. I don't know it all and thank God.
Howard: But people’s the hardest game. How do you get better at managing staff?
Deana: First of all you've got to take some CE. You've got to get into classes about H.R. One of my favorite people to listen to is Jenny Haggerty. She's amazing.
Howard: We’ve had her on the show.
Deana: She's amazing. I love to hear her talk.
Howard: [inaudible 00:45:00]
Deana: Love to hear her talk. I love to hear her perspective. I love to hear the law. I'm all about the law. What's the law about? But also psychology, you can find lots of presentations, lots of speakers. Even online you can find a lot of things, go to YouTube, go to TED talks, find something. You can find a lot about the psychology of people. Know the communication of your team whether it's a disk profiler or whatever you got to use, but figure it out and it's kind of like the love languages. Your spouse, your significant other, you're going to communicate in a way that they receive it and it's vice versa, so know that. Don't be afraid to let people go. That's the thing. You cannot be afraid to do it. Oh well, then the patients will leave. Well if those patients are going to leave because you’re going to let the assistant go they're not there for you anyway so let them go.
Howard: But the patients are all leaving and 100% of the people say what you think about corporate dentistry? I say, “Well, what do you think about the fact that you're sixty-five years old and you still need new patients and you live in a town of twenty-seven hundred?”
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: The entire county only has six thousand, so you'd need new patients every month for forty years you still need new patients and you think corporate dentistry has a problem.
Deana: Right.
Howard: They can't keep their customers. They can't keep their spouses. They can't keep their staff, and the fastest way through this journey of life is to master people.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: I'd rather master people than chemistry, calculus, geometry, and physics, which I spent ten thousand hours in a library mastering all that shit and I've never used it a single time.
Deana: Do you remember our teacher she used to say …
Howard: Never.
Deana: Do the math equation in your head because you'll never walk around life with a calculator and what do we have on our iPhones? We have calculators.
Howard: Talk about cheating your at math, do you realize on Google which was started by Sergey Brin and Larry Page and two guys in a Stanford postgraduate program in algorithmic mathematics. You can actually just go to voice and you can just read the most complex Math equations.
Deana: And it just, right there.
Howard: You don't even have to enter it on your fingers, it's voice-activated again.
Deana: I love it.
Howard: So, what do you think the dentist, if they said these are the top three problems you see? When you talk to your dentist, bing, bing, bing, what are the top three that you're hearing in the field?
Deana: Top three I hear is: not enough new patients. Number one I would find out what your attrition rate is. How many people are you losing per month? It's really simple on Eaglesoft. You’ll have a practice analysis report in the reporting, but it’ll show you your attrition. I think every one of these software systems has that, you can definitely take a look at that. Number two it is staffing problems, team problems. It is the communication. Is everybody on the same wavelength that we all communicating correctly. That causes bad attitude or good attitude. The third thing, and I think it’s the most important, is I go into probably 90% of the practices they don't even have set systems in place. Do you know if you have a system for everything, everything has a system. And if everybody knows how to do what they're supposed to do it just kind of runs like a well-oiled machine and there's no, “Hey what would we do about this or what do we …” It's in the systems manual. If you don't have a systems manual you are flying by the seat of your pants. If you're not training new team members and they're failing it is your fault. It is not their fault.
Howard: I want to rant on each one of those.
Deana: Okay.
Howard: Not have new patients. Why do you need new patients because you're losing all your old patients? God dammit, quit, I watch people thirty years ago spent nothing on advertising. Then after fifteen/twenty years it was like 3%. Now there’s a lot of people think you should be spending 7%. Why don't you spend time on figuring out why they don't come back? Is it you? Is it Mary Ellen? Is it your hygienist? Number two …
Deana: And ask them, call them. If someone's not coming back pick up the phone and say, “Hey we haven’t seen … what's going on?” If you hear they're not coming back, dentist, pick up the phone. Now if you don't want them to come back that's a totally different thing.
Howard: But look at their natural reaction they'll get a bad [inaudible 00:49:196] deal.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: So their first phone calls to an attorney.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: When anybody from the hood where we grew up from Texas to Kansas my first call is to you. “Mary, why did you say that?”
Deana: Yeah. What’s going on?
Howard: And then before she comes back it's taken down.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: How many times you going to tell the [inaudible 00:49:37] “You know what I’d like to tell my hygienist. I’d like to tell her … “ Why are you posting on Dentaltown?
Deana: Go tell her.
Howard: Why don’t you go tell her and my God. I mean they know in their gut but they don’t listen to their gut.
Deana:Yeah.
Howard: They're always arguing with their gut. Their gut’s saying, “Just let her go.” And then you got this frontal cortex saying ...
Deana: All this self-talk.
Howard: Yeah.
Deana: The funniest thing I ever heard was a doctor got a one-star review from one of his best patients and he called me he’s freaking out. He’s like, “I don't know what to do. She only gave me one star.” I'm like, ”Did you call her?” “No.” “Why don’t you call her?” He calls her. I don't know how old she is a little older and she thought one star meant great so she got confused so it’s like …
Howard: Well our solar system has a one-star rating.
Deana: Yeah, there you go. Poor Pluto [inaudible 00:50:18]
Howard: My God, so she just thought one star was the best.
Deana: She thought one star was the best. So he fretted for like a week freaking out and I’m like have you called her. Picks the phone, calls her. If he would have done that initially, he would have saved him seven days of …
Howard: And you’re a specialist. I had one lady I remember it was a board complaint because she thought we were trying to sell her deep cleaning and she just wanted a regular cleaning and so I called her, called, it was a man and he lives one block maybe, he's screaming, yelling all that stuff. So I work with a periodontist so I said well you call him and I told my periodontist, I said you got to call this guy.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: And because you're all introverts I want to go back to Algebra class and sit in the library and party with the librarian. And just by having another person, a periodontist call them up and then say come in my office. I'm right up the street. I’ll show you.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: I mean Howard doesn't tell people they have gum disease when they don't. I mean you're either saying he's a pathological liar ...
Deana: Right.
Howard: Or he's a bad communicator and didn’t explain it to you well enough, but if you and Howard have issues come by my office I’ll … and they by just that stop the whole board complaint.
Deana: Yeah. Well, so I have to tell you something about that. I'm not a dentist nor will I ever be one but I've had the privilege of working for some amazing dentists. Those people who just want a cleaning and they have periodontal disease don't give them just a cleaning. It's supervised neglect. That's what you're doing. Educate them. Show them the radiographs. Show then scans, show them pocket depths. Educate them and stop calling it a deep cleaning. It's nonsurgical periodontal therapy. I mean the next step is surgery. They need to know that’s what this is. That includes your team. That is a part of how we communicate. You've got to make it important, but stop giving them what they want when it comes to that. “I just want a cleaning.” “Okay great, that's what we'll do.” What do you do? And then they're going to go to someone else six months later and it's not going to look good and it's wow, now you have these eight-millimeter pockets and there's nothing we can do. “Well why didn't tell me six months ago? “ You did but you gave them that regular cleaning.
Howard: But what percent of dentist actually buckle and shut up. Their staff aren't allowed to teach or sell dentistry I mean there's dentist on Dentaltown where if the hygienist starts showing them cavities on the x rays they go ballistic. Legal you’re not a doctor you’re diagnosing …
Deana: Suspicious areas. I mean here’s what I see.
Howard: I mean,but what percent of dentist do you think muzzle the staff?
Deana: That's a good 80%.
Howard: 80%
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: And the ones that are selling all the dentistry is because of staff and I'm not going to tell you to sell a crown [00:53:06]. Talk about what your passion. You know my older sister who's been a nun longer than I've been a dentist read every major religion on men and the oldest one is Hinduism, then Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam. And she said the only common word or line in all religion. There’s is not a name of a person in all seven, a city, a state, there's nothing except for one line, they call it the golden rule. Treat other people like you want to be treated.
Deana: Exactly.
Howard: And she says, and she could read in those languages.
Deana: Wow.
Howard: So she says it's pure plagiarism. So that's why she believes in this invisible hand that wrote all seven major religions.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: Because she says Howard, you would get plagiarism at any university.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: And these were written in different times and that's what I tell my hygienist. I mean talk to that patient like that was your mouth. I'm not telling you a criteria that I want to do ten bleaching’s a month. I mean could you imagine if every time I walk in the doctor he said, “Hey would you like earplugs? We got a special on earplugs and we're trying to move ten a week on earplugs,” or every time you went in to get your haircut they said, “No you need to be a redhead, you need to be ...
Deana: Right.
Howard: I think it's insulting to tell a girl, oh you need to bleach your teeth.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: She's probably looking at me saying yeah you got to lose fifty pounds. I mean it's not my place to tell you need whiter teeth. Hell, women have enough problems without being told they need to be more objectified …
Deana: We do, preach that.
Howard: By bleaching and gums and veneers. I would never tell a woman she needs veneers, but I tell a lot of people they need ortho because I think it's easier to clean the teeth or healthier or something. A ton of orthodontic reasons.
Deana: But that's different than …
Howard: But not bleaching, bonding, veneer reasons.
Deana: If the best thing you could ever ask your patient and do it, don't just do it with your new … so I did a podcast with Gary [Tactics? 00:54:59] oh gosh this was four/ five years ago, so I think of patient like dates. Your new patient’s like a first date you want to do your best forward. You really want to have a really good impression on that patient, but your patient who's been your patient for thirty years you still have to court and whoa them so you treat everybody the same. There should be no definition between how we treat a new patient, how we treat our existing patient. It should be amazing right across the board, but the best question you can ask your patient I don’t care who it is, [inaudible 00:55:26]. “Is there anything about your smile you’d changed?” Ask them. You never know. We had a patient and this was probably ten years ago he pulled his partial out and he's like, “I’m sick and tired of putting this in a cup. Can you do anything about it?” Had we not asked that question he would have walked around with a partial. He ended up being a full mouth rehab. We did implants and porcelain bridges and it was amazing but had we not started asking questions we never would have known.
Howard: The other thing that I've learned over thirty years is that the guy missing his front tooth. You'd think that'd be the easiest sell.
Deana: Right.
Howard: But when you say is there anything you like? It seems it's always the prettiest women with the prettiest teeth, with the most perfect smile, there could nothing be wrong with this and she's the one that, “Oh there’s a black line on this crown back here.” So you don't know what that person’s seeing when they look in the mirror.
Deana: Right.
Howard: I mean it's …
Deana: And don’t assume.
Howard: And by the way, I want to tell you something. The founder of AADOM Heather Co …
Deana: Colicchio.
Howard: Colicchio she was for four ninety, but you were one seventy-nine.
Deana: Wow.
Howard: And of our first thousand podcasts we don't bring anybody back twice but the legends.
Deana: Wow.
Howard: So I don't think I've ever done or podcast anyone that didn't want to come back or this or that and I mean because we can only do one a day. You know what I wish you’d do?
Deana: What?
Howard: I wish you’d do, on that search for RevenueWell I wish you would go in there and answer or comment on all those threads.
Deana: On all the threads.
Howard: Yeah. Just do a search so see you’re in Dentaltown, so we'll do a search because the reason Revenue …?
Deana: Well.
Howard: Dentaltown has a quarter million dentist and they post five thousand times a day.
Deana: That’s crazy.
Howard: And every one of them is on Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn, but what this is it's about the search ability of an FIQ. It says can RevenueWell be used with Open Dental? Now see you could answer that one time on Dentaltown and it’ll be there for eternity and anybody can find it.
Deana: And I’ll be like call me.
Howard: That's why I like the message board format over the newsfeed Revenue and Dentrix, but I wish you would opine on these.
Deana: I will.
Howard: And then also what's great it's great leverage. It's like the podcast. By the way you know why we're thinking about ending the podcast?
Deana: Why? Have you interviewed everybody?
Howard: No, it's the fact that I only did it to start a genre. They were asking me that you know a quarter million dentist sixty thousand hour they have an hour commute to work and they're tired of listening to the news because it's so toxic.
Deana: Right.
Howard: And it puts them in a bad mood and all this stuff, so I said yeah I'll do this to start a podcast section. Well now I have forty people in dentistry, podcasting.
Deana: Isn’t that crazy.
Howard: And look at the views. People don't understand Dentaltown. Look at this guy's, how to open a dental office. Six hundred and eighty-five thousand three hundred seventy-nine thousand views.
Deana: That’s crazy.
Howard: There's two million dentists so the internet doesn’t know if you’re Canadian or in Cambodia and me and Ryan have lectured in fifty countries. I mean there's people listening to us right now. I bet you'll have more people listening to this right now out of Asia than North America because North and South America combined only has one billion people.
Deana: Only?
Howard: Africa has one billion. China alone has one point three. India has one point one I mean it’s three and a half billion are in Asia, but I'd really like you to go there in person.
Deana: I will, I will absolutely.
Howard: And by the way, if you have a dental podcast you should put it on Dentaltown. I mean it's free. It doesn't cost anything. Why would you put on iTunes for free and not put it on Dentaltown?
Deana: Right, not put where it can really count.
Howard: Because what they're doing, I know my homies, they get in the car and they go in to the app and they go in to the podcast and they're saying, “What do I need the most? It's about me. I mean how to open a new dental office? Am I working in Aspen and I want a dental office?”
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: Then they’re listening to how to open a dental office podcast. Is it, “I'm a dentist, but I want to invest all my money in real estate?” Then they want to listen to a dentist who's made millions investing it all in real estate.
Deana: Right.
Howard: But with forty different shows… I mean these podcasts are...
Deana: Well I'll let you in on a little secret. So a good friend of mine, Dana Watson, she is a wonderful fellow in AADOM and also a great speaker. She lives in Nashville with her husband Dr. Terry Watson. She and I are in cahoots to, which cahoots is what we do in the south when we’re planning stuff. So we're in cahoots on doing our own podcast and it's going to be fun. It's going to be good.
Howard: So is it going to be sound or sound and video.
Deana: It’ll be sound and video.
Howard: Because you see my mom told me I had a face for just Itunes and I bet your mom told you, you should just be on YouTube. So and by the way, to the other podcastsers out there, I mean why do you do a sound only file when the two biggest websites are Google and YouTube.
Deana: And YouTube yeah, which are the same thing.
Howard: And what did Facebook immediately, what was one of the first things they pioneered? The video.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: So when I upload all my podcasts onto Facebook. We've had ten, on Facebook they had over a hundred ninety thousand views.
Deana: Wow.
Howard: Just on Facebook so, but today 95% of all the podcasts are audio only.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: And so you're missing Facebook video, YouTube.
Deana: It's good to have both. Have something to listen to in the car but have also the video with it because …
Howard: Well I notice when I'm listening to a lecture on YouTube its fun to look at and see ...
Deana: Right.
Howard: But before long you just set your iPhone down and you're just listening or you put it in your pocket and you're walking around the house. It's fun to look at it for a minute to say well who is …
Deana: You want to see who it is
Howard: Who is this Ted talk teacher?
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: And you get a little feel for and you know a little bit about because age affects the content. I mean obviously, an eighty-year-old person thinks differently than a twenty-year-old person.
Deana: Right.
Howard: Yeah I'd really like you to go into Dentaltown and answer all those questions.
Deana: I will.
Howard: I think that will be amazing for my homies and I think in all seriousness it is a huge honor to have you come back twice.
Deana: It's my pleasure.
Howard: And, but thank you for all that you do for dental. I can't believe we're already in overtime.
Deana: I know it’s crazy.
Howard: My shows an hour and we’re an hour five and we and that’s another thing I do with your podcast. It doesn't surprise me that you figured to do audio and video and then a lot of people say well the shorter ones are better you should do five-minute segments. Well the longer the podcast the more of those groups. If you want a five-minute commute you listen to the first five minutes and then decide if you want to come back listen some more. If you have a half hour commute you can listen to half to show come back, but our brand’s an hour.
Deana: Yeah.
Howard: And, but oh I was telling you why we think we would end the show. [Inaudible 01:02:33] it’s because now when we go on these long lecture trips to Asia and Africa and things like that if we don't put out any shows our views are the same.
Deana: Really.
Howard: Yeah, once you get to about six /seven hundred shows, I mean right now have a thousand shows.
Deana: That’s a lot.
Howard: So if you like the show it’ll take you a thousand days that's two and a half years so the marginal return of one more show its kind of like Netflix. If you saw a series of say Breaking Bad, well does it matter if it's thirty-six shows or forty-six shows or fifty-six shows?
Deana: No you want to get there.
Howard: But as far as someone getting into the show.
Deana: Yeah, no.
Howard: I mean so now every additional unit of podcast has no measurable effect on the show.
Deana: So it's kind of like dentistry no more new podcasts. We're just going to keep the attrition high with the existing podcast.
Howard: Yeah so you heard it from her. You say you don't have enough new patients I say you lose your patients.
Deana: Absolutely.
Howard: Dean A, Dean Martin A Zost says that RevenueWell for two ninety-nine a month will keep your existing patients.
Deana: Absolutely.
Howard: These are never commercials. She didn’t give me a dime or a dollar neither did RevenueWell. Dean A, Deana Zost thank you so much for coming by the house today.
Deana: Thank you. I appreciate you.