DMD Staff

According to Gary Zelesky, professional speaker, dentists can be hyper focused. Sometimes, he says, that comes at the expense of the bigger picture. To live happier, more fulfilling lives, Zelesky says dentists should look to find humor in everything. That includes with their dental practice teams and with their families.

Interview Transcript (Modified for Readability)

“Here’s the irony of the life of a dentist. His whole world is this big (gesturing to show the size of a mouth). He’s working in this kind of environment — a very small environment. However, when it comes to the life of his team, and his family, he needs to see life in this environment (gesturing widely). He needs to see it bigger. I tell dentists, some of you are wound a little bit too tightly. Everything is so strategic and everything is now. You need to open it up a little bit, so that you can find – ready – humor in everything. That doesn’t mean that you’re a comedian, or that you’re not serious. I’m not saying that. But every once in a while, when stress hits, you’ve got to open up, you’ve got to see the bigger picture. When you do, you’re going to find amazing humor.

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My wife and I actually wrote a book called Big Laughs Bigger Lessons, and it’s 14 of our most embarrassing, humiliating times in our lives. When it was happening, when that thing was happening at the time, it wasn’t funny. But when we stepped back from it, it became the best story that we could ever tell.

Dentists, you need to smile. You need to laugh once in a while, not just when you’re drinking, but when you’re with your team. See the bigger picture.”

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According to Gary Zelesky, professional speaker, dentists can be hyper focused. Sometimes, he says, that comes at the expense of the bigger picture. To live happier, more fulfilling lives, Zelesky says dentists should look to find humor in everything. That includes with their dental practice teams and with their families. 

Dentists: Try to Find Humor in Everything

Robert M. Pick, D.D.S., M.S., and principal of Progressive Periodontics & Implants, says your practice absolutely must have one if you want to succeed. 

Why Your Dental Practice Needs a Unique Selling Proposition

It’s a simple question, but one that isn’t easy to answer: What does your dental practice do better than any other practice? The answer is your Unique Selling Proposition. Robert M. Pick, D.D.S., M.S., and principal of Progressive Periodontics & Implants, says your practice absolutely must have one if you want to succeed. Watch this clip as a basis for forming one for your practice.

“Unique Selling Proposition is a great word. And my suspicion is, USP is something that most physicians, dentists, chiropractors don’t know what the word is. It comes as part of branding, and again, something you come up with at a business retreat. Especially early on, you develop your brand. What do you do better than any other practice? So the USP stands for either Unique Selling Proposition or Unique Selling Point. The USP, oftentimes when there’s a dental entrepreneur, is the dentist. What does that dentist do? He’s the USP. But there’s micro USPs. Your team can be a unique selling proposition. So the USP is key, critical, you’ve got to figure it out when you develop your brand.”

“To go back to the lecture I gave today on ‘Powerful Secrets to Developing the Million-Dollar Plus Practice,’ I believe it was secret number 14 or 15, is social media. It’s imperative today. You cannot let it go. But, while so many dentists like to micromanage, they shouldn’t be managing it. You need to have a social media coordinator — a person on your team that’s the designated person in doing social media. You delegate it to that person. It’s a must-have. It could be an hour answer, which I won’t give you. But it involves video. It involves posting at the right time. When you do it right, you’re going to get a plethora of patients from social media.”

It's a simple question, but one that isn't easy to answer: What does your dental practice do better than any other practice? The answer is your Unique Selling Proposition. Robert M. Pick, D.D.S., M.S., and principal of Progressive Periodontics & Implants, says your practice absolutely must have one if you want to succeed. Watch this clip as a basis for forming one for your practice.

Over the years, the targets of identity thieves have changed. It used to be that social security numbers were prime areas for attack. However, dental and medical records have become more valuable commodities on the black market. In this clip, Pat Little, D.D.S., F.A.G.D., C.F.E., CEO, and Funder of Dental Risk Concepts and Prosperident, explains what accounts for this shift.

“One of the biggest drivers that we’re seeing in the increase in identity theft is that in the old days, social security numbers is what people were after. If I could get your social security number, then I could open up a credit card in your name, or open up a loan. What identity thieves have found now is that the medical and dental records are much more valuable than social security numbers.

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On the black market right now, a medical chart or a dental chart is selling anywhere from three to 10 times more than a social security number. The reason is, in that medical chart is not only a social security number, but addresses, birthdays, everything that an identity thief needs is right there in that chart. But there’s also medical insurance information, dental insurance information. Now that opens up an entire world of insurance fraud. That’s one of our big issues there as well.”

Why Dental Charts are Especially Appealing to Identity Thieves

Scott Parazynski, M.D., is the only astronaut to have also summited Everest. From his perspective, there is such a thing as being too risk-averse. Parazynski says that risk often forces us to rethink certain situations and how we approach them. Consequently, this also often leads to innovation.

“I think it’s absolutely possible and I’ve seen examples of people being far too risk-averse. It’s important to have a vision of what you want to accomplish and to develop a plan to get there. There are certain objectives that may be a bridge too far, too overreaching, but I think it’s important to challenge ourselves always.

In the context of clinical care, I think it’s always important to be thinking about, are there ways in which we can do this better? Can we develop solutions that improve patient outcomes to minimize pain, reduce cost, the whole gamut of thinking about innovation. We always have to be asking the question, are there ways to do things better? And typically, that involves some risk. Doing something for the first time is inherently risky. Understanding what those risks are, asking questions,  referring to colleagues, developing a multi-disciplinary team to look at the problem, is very important and has certainly led to a lot of innovation in my medical device practice.”

RELATED: Know Your Goals when Dealing with Risky Situations

“Having a core set of goals for your practice, or for whatever your pursuit is, is paramount. In the setting of an expedition, the ultimate goal is for everyone to come back healthy and as friends. It’s a pretty low bar, if you keep that in mind. In a dental practice or a clinical environment, you’re worrying about patient comfort and clinical outcomes. I’m certain that there are many examples where the case becomes more challenging, you realize that perhaps this is something beyond your level of training, and you need to refer to another specialist.”

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How Risk Can Lead to Innovation

According to Gary Zelesky, a professional speaker who has spent years helping professionals use passion to improve their businesses, the hardest thing for dentists to do is accept change. When dentists do commit to change, however, Zelesky says they see that change through to the end. In this clip, Zelesky gives reasons for dentists and their teams to embrace change.

“What do dentists need to change in their practices? I think that the biggest things they need to change is themselves. Everything starts with you. The thing about a dentist that I’ve discovered over the years of speaking at all of these conferences is a dentist is probably a rock star, or she’s a rock star, because you have a dentist who is linear because they move in a very succinct way in a scientific realm. So they have to be linear in their thinking. But they’re also right-brained because they’re artists at the same time.

How to turn Your Passion into Productivity and Profit

When you’re talking about passion, most of the time, dentists — especially if they’re in my session – the first thing they’re thinking is where are the handouts. How come there are no handouts. That throws them. I’ve got to have handouts.

But the second thing is, when it comes to their linear, the hardest thing for a person who is linear is to accept change. People that are left-brained, the hardest thing for them to do is accept change and to change. But here’s the good news, once a dentist decides to make a change, they will be committed to do whatever it takes to make sure that change moves its way all the way to the end. In other words, what they start, they finish.

The right-brained person on the team, they’re totally different. A right-brained person, they’re changing all the time. I talk about passion, and they go, ‘Yeah, passion! I want to buy your book.’ I go, ‘It’s $15,’ they go, ‘Oh, it costs money?’ And then they go find a left-brained person so they can borrow some money.

So right-brained people, they change all the time. But there’s a problem. They have a lot of starts, but very few finishes. And so I tell them, that’s why dentists have doctorates, and right-brained people don’t.

What I tell dentists is, you’ve got to be open to change. You have to be willing to change. And I think that’s the hardest thing that you’ll ever experience with a dentist is to convince them that there needs to be a change and it will be worthwhile.”

Why Dentists Need to Embrace Change in Their Practices

Some dentists tend to micromanage, says Robert M. Pick, D.D.S., M.S., and principal of 

. Responsibility for social media, however, is one thing that dentists should delegate. In this clip, Pick suggests assigning a team member in your practice the role of social media coordinator and having this team member prioritize posting strong content at the right time.

How to Build a Strong Dental Practice Team

“Team relationship-building is an incredible, multi-factorial event with many things coming from many different directions. It starts with hiring the right team members with the right personalities for the right position. Then, it’s a matter of morning huddles, it’s a matter of business retreats, it’s a matter of monthly meetings, it’s a matter of leading and leading that team. It’s no different than, think of a successful band or a group: everybody on that team works together. And when the team is great, the whole experience is phenomenal.”

Some dentists tend to micromanage, says Robert M. Pick, D.D.S., M.S., and principal of Progressive Periodontics & Implants. Responsibility for social media, however, is one thing that dentists should delegate. In this clip, Pick suggests assigning a team member in your practice the role of social media coordinator and having this team member prioritize posting strong content at the right time.

Delegate Responsibility of Your Dental Practice's Social Media

According to Pat Little, D.D.S., F.A.G.D., C.F.E., CEO and Founder of Dental Risk Concepts and  Prosperident

, many dentists don’t take this simple step to make sure their patient data is secure. In this clip, Little discusses this common error and others that dentists are making.

“One of the more common oversights I see in the dental office setting is password security. As simple as that is, and as long as we’ve been dealing with passwords, it is amazing how lax we still are in our password security. I would say, first and foremost, make sure you have secure passwords. But what’s amazing is I go into so many dental offices and they’re either not using passwords, or everyone in the office is using the same username and password because it’s more convenient that way. The problem is anybody can get access to that computer — potentially even a patient. Sometimes, when patients are left unattended in a treatment room, they have access to the computer.

But really, a lot of hacking that goes on exterior to the dental office, they’re not really brilliant hackers. They just have to be able to guess simple passwords or simple security questions.

That’s an issue. Being overheard saying things on the telephone so that someone in the reception area can overhear it. Just leaving charts out in the open. Phishing attempts — one of the more common ways to have identity compromised now is receiving emails from somebody you think is from a bigger company, for example, or maybe an attorney. It looks official, and because they’re in such a hurry, they just assume it’s OK. They click on the link and now they’ve opened themselves up to exposing all of their data on their server.

Really, I would say passwords and phishing attempts are your more common methods right now of getting hit with identity theft.”

Password security: It's a simple concept. Make sure each member of your dental practice team has their own password for accessing patient information. 

Managing that risk, according to Scott Parazynski, M.D., the only astronaut to have summited Everest, boils down to knowing what your goals are in advance. 

Know Your Goals when Dealing with Risky Situations

Whether you’re heading up Everest or placing a crown, there’s a certain amount of risk involved. Managing that risk, according to Scott Parazynski, M.D., who is also the only astronaut to have summited Everest, boils down to knowing what your goals are in advance. Those goals often involve everyone going home safely. To that end, doctors need to know when they’re out of their league.

“Making critical decisions in life-or-death situations is very challenging even with lots and lots of experience and training. I think, first and foremost, you have to think about the ultimate goal, which is brining everyone back safely. It has to be the highest-level order for the team. When you have to make a decision whether to pursue a summit or a mission goal in a spacewalk, for example, versus getting everybody back in safely, it’s a pretty simple thing to do. You put all of your resources to crew safety. Most of the time, those decisions are kind of insidious. There’s one setback that happens after another, and the real challenge to a leader is identifying, ‘Things are starting to turn south here. I’m detecting a pattern. We need to stop and rethink or retreat.’

Thankfully, I’ve been trained and developed a lot of experience in a lot of different environments that have given me the sensitivity see some of those raising the hair on the back of the neck situations and making the decision to waive off early.

Recently, I went to Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua — the youngest lava lake in the world. It’s a very dynamic, eruptive environment. We were looking at magma from the inner parts of our planet and lots of eruptive activity taking place nearby. Making the call to notice the subtle differences in trends and pulling the team out early is just one example that comes to mind.”

RELATED: More Advice from Scott Parazynski, M.D.

Whether you're heading up Everest or placing a crown, there's a certain amount of risk involved. Managing that risk, according to Scott Parazynski, M.D., who is also the only astronaut to have summited Everest, boils down to knowing what your goals are in advance. Those goals often involve everyone going home safely. To that end, doctors need to know when they're out of their league.

Gary Zelesky works to help dentists and other professionals use passion to make their businesses more successful.

“I think, first of all, you have to define success. The definition of success is so dependent on the individual. But I’m going to give you a quick story that I think will answer that.

I was speaking at a conference a while back, and after I spoke on passion, a dentist, he came walking up to me and he was huge. He had to be like 5’ 6”, 5’ 7”. The guy was very massive. He also had this thing called an attitude. You could see it in the walk. And he had his little posse behind him. Everybody was in pajamas. He comes walking up to me and he said these words and when he said these words, he completely blew my mind. He said, ‘You know what, if I didn’t have anything negative to say, I wouldn’t have anything to say at all.’

And then his team — I would say his staff, because staff is an infection – his team looks at me and gives me an attitude look like, ‘Yeah, so what are you going to do about that.’ And it was this feeling like the air left the room. And then he looked at me and said, ‘What do you suggest I do?’

Well, I was filtering that day, a little bit, but I didn’t at that moment. And I looked at him and I said, ‘I suggest that you find a cubicle in the middle of the desert somewhere and maybe go stay there for the rest of your life and never communicate with another human being for the rest of your life.’

Now I know that sounds extreme. But I’m telling you, life is way too short to live it in pragmatic all the time. To be the leader of a team and think that the best way to communicate is with negatives is absolutely ridiculous. When I teach on passion and I talk about passion,it’s not a matter of just, ‘Yeah, I’m just happy.’ We don’t come into the dental practice and think it’s a therapy session.

Passion is powerful man. It’s a thing that motivates you from the inside out. It fires you up. No job is too little or too big when you are passionate. The biggest thing about a person who is passionate when it comes to the team, they don’t stab each other in the back, they watch each other’s back. Passion makes a difference in the team.”

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Gary Zelesky is a professional speaker on the subject of passion. He works to help dentists and other professionals use passion to make their businesses more successful. In this clip, Zelesky talks about how passion can make or break your dental team's successes.

Robert M. Pick, D.D.S., M.S., says you need to put these strategies in place with your practice's team as soon as possible.

“Relationship is a great word. We were talking earlier about my lecture on ‘Powerful Secrets.’ One of the things that came up is Powerful Secret Number Four: Developing the Relationship. When you have a relationship, the whole bar rises. Patients are going to be more apt to go through treatment when they have a relationship. When you have a relationship with your team, you have better team dynamics and better team development. The relationship is something that doesn’t come easily. It’s built over time. It’s built with trust. It comes from starting at the website with proper videos to talk about what you do, what you’re about, your brand. The relationship is key.”

If you want your dental practice to operate like a Fortune 500 company, you need to build your practice's team from the ground up. That starts with taking culture-shifting actions, such as corporate retreats and monthly meetings. These aren't just for the Wall Street titans. Robert M. Pick, D.D.S., M.S., and principal of Progressive Periodontics & Implants, says you need to put these strategies in place with your practice's team as soon as possible.

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