1: WHY WE NEED THIS NOW

Welcome to DSO Secrets. I know what it's like to be an entrepreneur in the dental industry. I've had my ups and downs, just like you. There's so much opportunity to be excited about, but so few resources to get answers. From here on DSO Secrets, we get you those answers so you can change the lives you're meant to bless and achieve your personal success.

When I was working as an associate rat at a school, I never imagined I could own these many practices with this amount of support. So thank you.

You have helped build my marketing mind

to a whole new level. You have this natural talent, this unique ability.

Welcome, everyone.

This is Emmett Scott, your fearless host of DSO Secrets. And I am so thrilled to be doing this podcast. You know, in my career, I've been in a lot of different industries. I've had radio shows. I've done a lot of consulting. I've been able to dig deep into a lot of different spaces in different industries, and got into this space of dentistry over seven years ago and just saw so many great opportunities. And I felt in those seven years, the excitement people have about where we could go with this dental space. The opportunities for entrepreneurs and dentists and dentist entrepreneurs, they're just tremendous. There's also a tremendous amount of challenges, and I think both sides of those just have not gotten the airtime and discussion and maybe the transparency around what it really takes to build a quality organization and everything that goes into that. And that's what I want to bring here to DSO Secrets, a place where we can really talk about what it takes to build a quality organization. To me, when I walked into this space, the analogy I'd like to use is it was like being given a huge plot of land where everyone knew that a ton of houses was going to be needed to be built. And I got to be the general contractor to build those houses. And initially, it felt like a dream come true. How did my life line up with such a great opportunity at such a good time? And then once I got into the project, I realized there was one big issue, and that is there was no Home Depot. There was no lows. There was no way for me to get the tools, the supplies, the resources that I would need to actually pull off the project. And so what I really had to do first is go find rock to molten so I could make my own hammer and nail and every other equipment that I need to actually take on this opportunity. And in the dental space, that's exactly what I felt. So much opportunity out there. But when you go to dig in when you go to capture that opportunity, whether it's around getting the right team members or the technology, oh, man, the technology piece on an enterprise level, trying to get all of these things to work together, the systems, the processes, the call centers, the billing teams, whatever it might be, there was no great resources. Everything had been built around that single office solution. And nothing against a single office solution, but that's not the bigger opportunity that everyone is getting excited about. And so trying to align those resources, trying to create those resources has led me to have to build business after business after business just to get to the opportunity that I think each of us are trying to capture. And let me just say about the opportunity, I think we continue in this space to think too small, the contribution that we can provide to the world. And it might sound dramatic, I know sometimes it gets reduced down to, hey, it's just dentistry. But think about the biggest challenges on a global scale for developing nations right now. I mean, it's around health care, the health care spend, and really, where is it all stemming from? It's stemming from nutrition. And if you keep following that, where does nutrition start? It starts in the math, right? And in the healthcare industry, who's seen the patients the most? I mean, truly, if you went through every healthcare industry, who stands and says, come in every six months? Now, I'm not saying patients come in every six months, but no other doctor, healthcare professionals even trying to get that to happen, because it just doesn't make sense. And so here the dental industry stands at the beginning of everything, and frankly, we do nothing with that. And I just think there's so much more to be done. And I'm not saying everybody should do everything, but hopefully, through these conversations, we can really get somebody doing each part. I think this is less about competition and a lot more about cooperation. The pie can always be so much bigger through innovation and figuring out what else can we bring to the patient? What else is there to provide that we're not even scratching the surface on? How can we really change people's lives?

We already do such great work.

I mean, just focusing on the smile I've seen in my career, the impact that dentists have on patients. I mean, you change the trajectory of people's lives oftentimes, you know, we get the bad rap around the root canal and how painful it is to go to the dentist. I mean, entire idioms are built around dentistry, right? Oh, man, it was as bad as a root canal. Oh, it's like pulling teeth, right? So, yeah, we definitely have a marketing problem. We have a stigma associated with our industry that's not positive. But the reality is that changing someone's smile, giving someone confidence to smile, changes their trajectory tremendously. Think about, even if you start like at the. At a young kid's age, right, what happens when they don't feel confidence to smile? Well, then they close off their face just a little bit. And how does the teacher interpret that? How do the kids at school interpret that? Do they look a little bit more introverted? Do they look a little bit more snobby or not want to interact with others and that leads down a certain path, and then how does that come across in the interview process, etc. Etc. Etc. And then what happens when you change that? And it can be for kids, it can be for adults. It's really the same. When someone has confidence around a smile, their whole world starts to change. They attract people differently, they interview differently. So so much opportunity just around those components. And I know many of you are attacking that and figuring that out. But again, the challenges to do it on any kind of scale is tremendously difficult as well. We need a platform and a capability so that we can have these discussions, so that we can figure this out together. I've noticed in this space that everything feels so competitive. Not in the healthy capitalistic sense, but more on I need to drag everybody else down for me to feel better. I think there's a higher level we can all be reaching for. There are things to share with one another. There are ways to support each other and still have our part of the pie. My hope is here in DSO Secrets, we can start ripping off some of the veneer, create the transparency. I'm not saying that I know everything, but if I can open up the discussion, if I can create a place where instead of there's these guys over here doing their thing and maybe they figured a bunch out, but they don't want to share it with anyone else because that would hurt their competitive advantage. There's these guys over here struggling along the way. I think both have something to contribute and that both sides and all sides get lifted through this process. So here's why I want to challenge you. Join me on our Facebook group at DSO Secrets. Where we can be real, where we can be transparent, where we can talk about the vision, maybe lift each other up on new ideas, where we go next. But also we're really honest about the challenges in delivering great quality dentistry. I think as we work together to really get to this next level, that everyone will get lifted up from it. Now There are painful parts to be figured out and there's a lot to be organized. I mean, this is not simple. I think out of all the entrepreneurial endeavors that, that I've engaged in in the, the, the different industries and platforms I've been a part of, health care and dentistry especially just has unique challenges. I mean, again, what other health care professional drills on the bone of the patient while they stare into their eyes? It just. No one else has to manage these kind of things, but the dentists do and they do it daily. And so, again, I think we have some unique challenges. I also think we have some unique opportunities. So, again, I hope you join us on our Facebook group, listen to these podcasts, engage with us, ask questions that we can talk about, and get these overcome so we can take this entire industry to the next level. It's going to be an awesome ride. Thank you for listening. And until next time, keep smiling.

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