105: Dentistry Needs Marketing Specialists To Compete in a Crowded Consumer Landscape

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.

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of DSO Secrets. I'm your fearless host, Emmett Scott. And today I've got some special guests. Sabina Hitchen, PR strategist and founder of Press for Success, and Jessica Abo, media trainer and journalist. Now, thank you both for being on. I want to give context to our listeners here and to those in the DSO Secrets Facebook group on why specifically I wanted you to be on here. When I look at dentistry and if someone said, Emmett, what do you think is the biggest challenge that we have on an individual doctor to patient issue? Is it clinical, is it operations? My answer would be no. And the reason is not because there isn't challenges there, but there's so many resources being put into that. If you said what is the biggest challenge in dentistry? It's all around the marketing component. And part of the reason is one, we don't have great resources. We're still gathering those, we're still understanding those. And number two, the rest of the world is, is rocking it on these resources. They have been doing this for a long time and they're experts in it. And one of the things that I've heard is we as a need based industry, something that consumers need, have gotten a little lazy. We've atrophied, we've sat on our laurels a little too long of saying, hey, people are going to have to come to us anyway. Those that were once, those who had to figure out how to convince people to come to them, they've been weaponized, right? They now have social media and marketing and capabilities where they can actually change the hearts, the minds, the perspective of people that those needs are now or those wants are now needs. And so we've got to step up. So who I have on the show here and thank you both so much for being on, I've worked with both of these women personally and for our business, but I really think of them as specialists in marketing. When we don't understand an industry oftentimes we just kind of paint it with this broad picture. In fact, happens all the time with dentistry or attorneys or accountants. You start to learn that there are specialists in these fields. And one of the places I want to educate, all of us continue to learn, is there are specialists in marketing that you'll want to consider at some point. So, anyway, first of all, Sabina, thank you so much for being on. And maybe you give us a little bit of your background first and maybe some of your involvement with dentistry or other entrepreneurs.

Yeah, so I come from the end of, like, the marketing pool, you'd say, which we refer to as publicity and public relations. And getting yourself in the news, that's the most basic way to talk about it. And we want to do that because, and I'll speak in the language of dentists, it raises us as authorities. It helps people choose our practice. But what you alluded to, Emmett, is it helps them choose you in general. So what am I going to do? Where am I going to spend my time? Even my health and wellness time, my entertainment time, anything? What does that get allotted to publicity? Helps them make those choices, Know those choices are there. Help us choose those choices by swaying us in a certain way. So that's the space I come from. I've run a publicity agency for over 15 years, and I work with. I also have a publicity school for entrepreneurs. So this is like my jam, what I'm obsessed with. And I also work with a lot of work with Evan and his team. So I know the power and something I want you to hear. And I won't belabor it, because I want to give time for all of us to speak. But there. There's never been a better time to step into publicity, which means stepping, getting your business into the news. People are tuning into it more than ever. We're watching our local news to see what's happening, our hometown, to follow the pandemic, to follow this or that politically. So we are tuned in and ready, and there's a space for you to get out there. And that's the perspective I'm speaking from. So everything we'll talk about today is from this perspective of you need to be on tv, in the newspaper, in both the industry press and your regular mainstream press.

Well, and Sabina, I think one of the places that y', all, every. Everyone kind of has to grow up into as a business owner is it's not like the news, you know, comes knocking on your door at home and says, hey, I hear you're doing really great things for patients. This is a proactive. You have to have team members who are out there doing that. Anything you read in the newspaper, I hate to like, rip off the veneer here, but anything you read on the TV or whatever, somebody paid somebody to help get that done, right? I mean, there was some coordination and then, you know, hopefully you get some of that viral effect. But Sabina, wouldn't you even say that for your work? Once somebody's on tv, somebody's in the news, then that has its own authority, you know, feedback loop, where now you can get them to another level and another level. Right.

Two things you said I want to echo. Like, number one, press begets press. So once we start getting press, people are more excited about us and it leads to other things. So that is definitely something. And what you said before that I want everyone to know that's true. If you see somebody getting news, whether they are, and I'm just going to give use you eminent CDP and your team as an example. You have dentists in your, your practices who have been in like Martha Stewart or Dr. Evans was on Bravo's website, which is huge. But that's like all it comes from. Either the payment of a PR team to help with that or the blood, sweat and tears of you spending the time proactively pushing. And it's. And Jessica will attribute to this too. Like, it's harder and harder these days because everyone's pushing for the same things. But you have to be proactively and consistently showing up in those places. And I would argue that you don't only want to be showing up in the places where you're sharing dental tips. Right? Like, you know, you want your dentist to be sharing advice. You want to be letting people see you as an authority, but you also want to be sharing just who your practice is, why you're special, because that's what helps people choose you. Like, hey, guys, we've got a Saturday coming up. What are we going to do? Well, the kids need cleanings because I read about this amazing practice down the street. Or I know it's important because I saw this dentist talking about how there's a link between Covid and teeth, like help them choose you. But all of that happens because someone was proactive and reached out to someone like Jessica.

Well, I think one of the things that went pretty viral was when you had Dr. Evans Chad do a conversation around what was happening with TikTok with filing teeth. Right. And what I love about this, you know, someone might say Emmett, why are you sharing this secret on DSO Secrets here? Because if all the dentists start doing this, what happens? What happens is we elevate the entire industry. That's what happens. Right? Because now we're leading healthcare, we're leading, literally, health care within America. If we don't do it, then Candy Crush gets to do it, or Netflix gets to do it, or somebody else. So, Jessica, talk a little bit about your background and how you help entrepreneurs to really elevate their presence in the marketplace.

Sure.

So I spent 20 years working as a traditional television news anchor and reporter. And with those jobs also came producer, writer, mentor, everything else. Because when you're in a newsroom, you pretty much do it all. Even though the viewer might only see you on television with great hair and makeup. That's really not the case. So Sabina can attest to that too. When it comes to pr, she might get a client on the news, but the blood, sweat and tears that went into getting that moment to happen was a lot of work that for two decades. And at the time I met my husband, signed a book deal and wrote a book called Unfiltered how to be as happy as you look on social media. We found out that we were pregnant when I got the due date for the book from my publisher. So our daughter and my book were due the same day. And somewhere in there, we made a bicoastal move. So it was a busy year. And in that time, I had started a production company several years ago and have always done media training. Because when I would interview someone that to go onto, you know, the five o' clock news, I wouldn't leave their office until I felt like they felt good. Because I thought to myself, if someone came to my dad's office and interviewed my dad about something, you know, surgically related to whatever was happening in the world, I would want them to, like, make him feel like he really had a chance to shine. Because it's not really normal to stick a camera in someone's face and just say, go. Oh, and by the way, look great, sound great, speak in a sound bite, don't talk for more than 8 to 10 seconds. So I really always took pride in how I treated the people I was interviewing when I was doing TV news, and then started to do that a lot more and more on the side. So when Covid hit and all my speeches, literally from LA to Japan got canceled, I just started leaning more into the media training work I do. And once someone has been working with someone like Sabina, they often come to someone like me because now they have to get ready to go on cn, have to get ready to talk on a podcast. And many people that I work with don't know what makes them interesting. And they also don't know how to tell their story in a way that will be memorable, relatable, tangible to whoever their audience happens to be. So that's a lot of the work I do now. It's working with everyone from entrepreneurs, startup founders, to philanthropists who are speaking on behalf of their family foundation, to Fortune 100, Fortune 500 CEOs.

You know, I always look for in business and any business that I've been involved in, where's the competitive advantage going to be? And a lot of times you look first at where can I take care of the customer in a way no one else is. And is there a financial reason or obstacle? Is there like a strategic, just mindset obstacle? And one of the things, things I found with PR and this type of marketing, the competitive advantage is the vulnerability, right? People are so nervous. I mean, hey, I'll tell you, yesterday I was in front of a camera pointing randomly at things because I have a team member who's going to put together a TikTok with those things that pop up. I felt so stupid. But in that stupidity, I knew I was going to impact some more people. Right? And I think part of it is the only way to get better is to start taking these leaps and bounds. And I think there's a huge opportunity in dental because one, we're not doing it. Two, most dentists are going to be nervous. You know, you didn't go to dental school so you could be on tv, right? You went, in fact, to do something where you're really helping patients in the back room on a surgical level. But you can't lead healthcare that way, Right. You need somebody that's out there. I don't know. Sabina, do you have anything you'd add to that?

Yeah, and also a couple of things. Remembering we were talking a lot about tv, but for those listening, there's power in newspaper. I feel like newspaper is having a renaissance since the pandemic because we turn to our local newspapers for information and to discover people. So there's places to profile, there's different kinds of stories you can proactively put out there. And whether you're sharing dental tips and advice, because again, that gives you the authority like, oh, our dental practice was seen on Martha stewart.com was seen on like healthy this.com or men's health, whatever it is. So that gives you some authority. It differentiates you. That's all done on email and stuff. So that's possible for you right now if you're feeling a little nervous. And also, like you say, Emmett, sometimes those uncomfortable parts are how we elevate. And if you're in a competitive industry, there's not just one. Maybe there is, but there's most likely not just one dental practice in your hometown. So you deciding, guess what, guys, for Q2, we're going to spend a lot of energy, number one, being seen on some local TV stations, and number two, being connecting with our local newspaper or something. And that's two potential stories where you're either serving advice or you're finding a cool hook to your story. And I'm sure Jessica can talk more about that, like finding your golden nugget about your. Why is your practice a story? It's not a commercial. Why is it a story? Those are two places you can show up that will immediately, like, if I'm looking for a dentist, I'm looking for you now, not some random person I've never heard about. And I'm sure Jessica can speak to, like, how to mine those stories as well.

Let me pull on one thing that you said that I think is important is when we think about customer referrals, patient referrals in the olden days, let's say we hand them the card and then they're like, ooh, I really like this doctor. In fact, I have his card here, right? And then we would pull out and like, here, give him a call or whatever. And then you dial up on your, you know, rotary phone and whatnot. That just not going to happen. What is going to happen is, oh, yeah, let me share his Facebook site. Let me share her Instagram article of her that I saw recently. Or, hey, did you guys know this is my dentist? Right? So this isn't just about DSO leaders, by the way. I want all my associates, all my team members involved in these kind of things. So, yeah, go ahead, Jessica.

I want to just add to what you both were saying, which is when a lot of people think about marketing, they think about it in terms of getting a publicist or calling up your local news. Because, you know, Dr. Chad Evans might do this. He might see something related in the news about gut health and your teeth, and he might think to call a local station and say, hey, I'm a dentist in town if you need someone to come on. So that's how most people think about marketing and getting the word out there but there's also another layer of marketing that people need to think about, and that's what's actually happening in your office. You might have a team member who doesn't feel comfortable speaking up in a team meeting, and that's a person who, A, has his or her own stories to share, and B, they are your walking billboard. When they are outside of your practice, they are the people who are representing the work that you do. And if those people don't feel comfortable speaking on behalf of your office and they don't feel comfortable sharing their story with you or their tips with you on how your practice could be better, I think you're missing a whole other layer of pr because you might be a man and your hygienist might be a female. Well, if you know Refinery 29 is doing a story about women who work in dental practices. I hate to say it, but you wouldn't be called for that interview. So you have to know the people on your team and what makes them interesting. Because I might be reading about this incredible story about someone who works on your team, and by way of reading about that person, I learn about your office, and that is what gets me in the door. Not just here is so and so dentist. Here is the work they're doing and story. There's so much more color to where you work every day by way of the people who show up to work with you every day.

Jessica, if. If you're going to, you know, there's a lot of nerves of, if I'm going to be on camera, everything's got to be perfect. Right. So if you were going to give maybe, I don't know, a top two or three things that, like, yeah, you got to nail these things. The rest of it will come in time. Right. Because people don't realize how much one, it just takes repetitions and experience. Number two, you need a bigger and bigger team to get the makeup just right and the lighting just right and so forth. But initially, people are much more drawn to content over production. Right. But is there anything that you would say, hey, you got to get these two or three things right out of the gate?

So out of the gate. If you were doing filming from home, I would make sure that you have good lighting. So right now, I am sitting with a ring light behind my laptop. The light is on my face, so you want to be well lit just so that your shot looks clean. A lot of people, the first thing that they do is they sit in front of a window. So the window light is on the back of their head. It's called backlit because your back is beautifully lit, but your face then looks very dark. So if you're going on a zoom, make sure that you are actually facing your window or you're facing your light so that you're facing can be visible to the people who are listening to you and watching you at the same time. The second thing is to be aware of how you use filler words like ah, like, because that can really take away from whatever it is you're trying to say. The third thing is when you are practicing, let's say you're going to be giving a speech because you have received an award, or you're going to be going on the Today show. Practice your talking points with the people around you, but also ask those people to keep their phone on or to take their phone out and pick up the phone and make a call while you're practicing. Why? Because you want to practice being thrown off. A lot of people when they're getting ready to talk on camera, they are so afraid because in their brain, their fight or flight system can't distinguish, am I being chased by 20 lions or am I about to talk to 20 colleagues? So we freak out a bit. We're wired to care about what other people think about us, so we want to be perfect. We care about our reputation. But if you can get in the habit of being thrown off, that's one less thing for you to freak out about. If, when you're doing your zoom interview or you're doing your podcast, if the phone, your landline starts to ring, you'll be like, oh, I totally know how to handle this. And you'll just keep going.

Yeah, I got that in real time once. You remember, Sabina, I was.

I was about to say, Emmett, that happened to you, right? Tell her.

Well, I mean, my main camera here, just like, I mean, literally, they said. And now as a special guest on our show or however they introduce me, you know, we'll have Emmett Scott and, yeah, live tv. And my camera, literally, it was like she was talking to. My camera goes overheating, turning off, and they say, emmett. And my camera goes off. And so luckily, you know, I had another camera on my other computer. I mean, just like the Mac camera, right? So cool. Anyway, I'm like, I think the topic, Sabina, wasn't it like managing through hard times or it was like leadership during

turbulent times and your camera goes off while you're talking, but you, like Jessica said you kept it together and that was such a solid point. About because people practice in perfect conditions, thinking that's what TVs like. And now that you're shooting virtually, sometimes they bring you into a green room and you've got a bunch of people yelling. You're staring at cameras. You're like, they want me to talk now. Like, you need to be prepared for that. And that helps if you've got chaos around you. And I wanted to just throw in something that I've heard Jessica teach and I teach as well as. When you get those first opportunities, it is within your right. And you should ask, like, is this live or taped? How many minutes will this be? Will this just be one on one? Like, what will the interview setup be? Will I see the person? You're allowed to ask those questions. A pro would ask them. And knowing that in advance will help you feel more confident and calm. Even if it's a newspaper interview saying, are we doing this on zoom? On camera, is he calling me up? Because those things help you prepare. I feel like for me, the more prepared I am, the less freaked out I am. Right? Because I know what's coming at me. So those are questions you should all know, since we know you're going to be going to get pressed after this, that you should show up and ask so you can be the best you can be.

And I want to just piggyback on Sabina. So Sabina hosts weekly clubhouse rooms. And it's funny how if you are on Clubhouse, which is this new audio platform, if you need an invite, you can let Emmett, Sabina or I know, I'm sure at this point we have a bunch. But if you want to be a part of this online community or audio community, what I hear so often is when people have the opportunity to unmute their mic and speak, the first thing they say is, oh, my gosh, I'm so nervous right now. And the crazy thing about it is that people can't see you. You are not looking at all the people live at the same time who are listening to you. It's really just your little tiny picture that shows up and that's all people see. So if you are someone who needs help, Sabina is doing these weekly meetings and sessions and conversations where she's giving all this advice away. But practice with her. You know, raise your hand to speak. Start getting more comfortable in that kind of platform, because then maybe that will inspire you to take your message from there to Instagram or Facebook or TikTok, and then that will be one step closer to going on a podcast, on TV or On a stage.

That's so smart.

Yeah, that was good.

Give people permission to, like, practice in places that are so public. Clubhouse. And you can do it any room. Not even if you don't want to be hang out with me. There are, like, topics on anything you can talk about dog. Like how you love your dog. Because all of a sudden you're practicing in a room. You don't realize there can be thousands of people listening and. But you're right. And then maybe practicing doing a Facebook live or an ig, which also. And Emmett, you alluded to this in the beginning. There are lots of like, if you pictured your marketing, which we love to clump, is like, everything's marketing as a stew, right? There's not just like one ingredient in a stew. There's salt, there's pepper. I mean, I don't. I don't know how to make a stew, you guys. I'm not gonna lie. But there's potatoes, there's onions. I'm just making up a stew.

Luckily, we have you on here for marketing, not a cooking.

Right. I'm like, I don't know what you

guys do, but in the same way, there's like pr, there's social media, there's your blog, there's your things. And all of that helps you elevate as not just, oh, there's this dentist I might go to next year if I can be dragged there or I love this brand. They excite me. I want to show up for what they're doing. Like this dentist, Dr. Evans, Chad does tiktoks about, like, really fun facts about dentistry. I love watching those. And I'm afraid of the dentist, but he teaches me. So then I'm like, learning all these fun facts. Like, do you know how much often you should throw out your toothbrush? When should my kids start dental flossing? That then connects me to him. And now I want to be a part of whatever else he's doing because I trust and I know him. So that's all part of that. Do not just the press.

Well, and this is where your marketing chef can really help you, right? Because oftentimes, too, Sabina, it's not about dentistry. Like, people want to connect with people, right? They want to have that experience. So they want to see if Dr. Evans is involved in CrossFit. They want to see these other outside activities that you're doing on a consistent basis. And I love. At the end of the day, Jessica, I think you gave the entry point, which is start right? Just do something. Because there is A little bit of, like finding your voice and your methodology, like everything else in life, and then just building from there. And I think, you know, for every entrepreneur, I've said at a deep level, the business is really like a personal development gym. And this is another way when you're ready to take that next step of personal development. And the reason I want to continue to push this is it elevates the entire industry. If we're out there, we've got to compete with things like Netflix, going to the water park, et cetera. If it's replacing something as critical as oral health that has that systemic of an impact, because you don't not do health, you just defer it. And then we end up in ER clinics all the time. If I stop playing Candy Crush, like my life's probably a little better, you know, I mean, it's not. But if I stop a routine of going to the doctor, I'm just building up an account for later having to go to the doctor. So this is where I get very passionate around it. I'd love just some closing thoughts from you all and also if people are ready for a specialist to help them around some of this or they just want to brainstorm with you, you know, where's the best ways to reach you, including Clubhouse or any other platform. So, Jessica, you want to start?

Yeah, I was going to give the floor to Sabina, but. So the one thing I will say is knowing your story is important. Knowing how you want to tell that story, deliver that story, market that story, all of that is key. But for the people listening, you are all journalists because the minute a patient walks in your door, you are there to ask questions and you are there to ask follow up questions. And then you have to make sense of all of that information, just like I do when I interview entrepreneurs every week. So by being able to ask thoughtful questions and actually listen to the answers that people are giving you, those skills are actually really well transferred over to when you're asked to moderate a panel. Because most people think, well, I can't moderate a panel because I never do this. Well, you ask people questions and you ask follow up questions and you listen well every day. You absolutely should be saying yes to those opportunities because that is what will also give people an opportunity to get to know another side of you. And if people are ready to do some media training or storytelling coaching, they can find me on jessicaabo.com and my last name is Abo. Like all three blood types, most people think I'm Jessica Alba or if I give my married name, which is Shanefeld. They'll call me Jessica Seinfeld. So it's simply Jessica Abo. I'm Jessica Abo on Clubhouse. Jessica Abo TV on Instagram, Faye Facebook, LinkedIn. Happy to chat with anyone at any time. And let the record state, my 3 year old I think might be a hygienist or a dentist. At least that's what she tells us every day. We have fake teeth and toothbrushes that go with all these crazy toys.

Awesome.

All over this house. So we're big fans of the dental industry over here. And I might know your next intern.

Awesome. Thank you.

That is so awesome. I'm like the opposite. I'm like, I still, I have a dental fear. But when you show up in the press, you'll help me stop that. Guys, I think one reminder for me is like, when you start showing up in the ecosystem you want to be a part of, it becomes less scary. We learn more about it. So easy ways you can do that is start consuming the press with a different hat, like your PR hat on looking at your local news, looking at more the health and wellness sites and seeing where people like you are showing up or getting ideas in terms of how you can show up. And then again, like Jessica said, there's lots of resources these days to learn more and to get empowered to take those proactive steps so you can find people online. I do a clubhouse, like Jessica said every week. I do one on Thursdays and Fridays where I talk about pr, I talk to my media friends and we talk about how people can get in the news. And so when you show up and listen to those things or show up anywhere and participate, it becomes less scary. The more we know, the more possible it becomes and the ways you can follow me. My PR school is pressforsuccess.com I live for Instagram. I love it. I'm always there. Obenanows K N O W S and then I'm on Clubhouse Sabina Hitchin, which is my last name. And I, yeah, I love showing up. And I'll just say one more time, like, things like clubhouse, things like Instagram have opened up the playing field for a lot of us to connect with the press, to learn from them. So when you show up, that's like the big key. I feel like that's what we both have been saying. Like the minute you start showing up, the rest of the steps appear. But a lot of times we're just showing up here. We have to show up like action wise as well.

It's awesome. Thank you both wonderful specialists. And Jessica, did you have one more thing?

My one really, really quick tidbit off of Sabina is follow the press because you can reach all of these reporters and hosts and writers right on your phone. So engage with them there, comment on their stories, and maybe they'll, you know, see you and engage with you and then think of you the next time they're working on a piece.

And that's a press person saying that like a press person, be the passion.

It's fun when you have specialists because they're just, this is all they want to do. This is all they think about. So, yeah, get on now. You all are also in DSO Secrets. So on the Facebook site, if you're listening to this, come over there. You can look them up on Facebook as well and reach out to them. So thank you all very much for being on. I love moving this industry forward. I want to go out there and compete against everybody else and just have everybody love going to the dentist and have great oral healthcare. So thank you all both again. If you are not over on our Facebook site, come join us on DSO Secrets. And until next time, keep smiling.

Thank you for listening to DSO Secrets. Join our community on Facebook @DSO Secrets and get answers and resources to some of your most challenging questions. If you want to get a copy of the seven secrets of any DSO, go to our website at DSO secrets.com and we will get that emailed to you. Remember, don't go at this alone. Let us be your team while you build your team.