Reinvent Yourself Without Reinventing The Wheel (6.23.21) Presented by Vatech and NextLevel Practice

Want to welcome everyone this evening to next level practice. Our session is going to be how to reinvent your practice without reinventing the wheel. I'm Jim Mayer, education team director at VA Tech America. Welcome, Len.

Hey. Thanks, Jim.

Glad to be here.

I'm Len Elgar with VA Tech America. Looking forward to a great evening tonight discussing how to reinvent your office while having to reinvent the wheel. And one of the people is going to help us guide that in that direction and is Gary Kady. Gary, welcome.

Thanks, guys. What a pleasure and a privilege to be here because certainly, you know, I have a lot of broken wheels around. So, you know, I've done all the breaking of the wheels. And, you know, one of the things we're going to do tonight is really what I see that people want is they want things simplified. They don't need another thing to do. It's like, how do I utilize what I have in my practice right now to really, really elevate it so that I can go to work, do great work, make a difference, help my patients get healthy and go home and be with my wife, my son and daughter, and pet my dog. Like, keep it simple, Right? That's where we're at right now. So thank you for having me.

Absolutely. And you talk about broken wheels, right? So, you know, in the offices that Jim and I have been to over the last 20 years, you know, we see everything, the good, the bad, the ugly, everything else in between. And we get a lot of offices that kind of struggle. You don't really know how to get past that survival mode and, and thrive in their practice, to be able to really provide the services for their patients that really want to be able to do. And sometimes it could be a number of different things, but sometimes fear can be part of that, right? In terms of doing something maybe, for.

Lack of a better word, gets lazy.

They get stuck in a rut, and so on. But they have this technology in their office, which we're really passionate about, making sure they maximize the potential for this. So the example I often give when I'm talking to my offices is going in there and they've got this great technology, but they're not utilizing it. They're not maximizing the potential. So I give the example of going to, let's say, a car dealership. You know, you buy this really expensive sports car and now you're driving around first gear all day. Well, technically you are driving it, but you're not maximizing the potential for it. So when I go in there to train these offices or interact with them. I want them to maximize the potential that this has for them and really unleash it to its fullest extent.

Ellen We've also found that with everybody coming back to work, we're going to say this post pandemic, everybody's getting back in the swing of things and maybe they haven't used their technology in three, six months. This new staff, things like that. Sometimes the doctors are just, hey, I feel like it's just me, you know, how do we, that's something else that we're finding that getting stuck in that rut. How do we accelerate to that next position or advance our offices to, like Gary said, let's, let's do a great job and go home and be able to enjoy our families.

Right? Yeah, you bet. And you know, what's happening now is the great divide. You know, there's the haves and the haves. Not have the haves and the have nots. There's the surviving people and then there's the thriving people. And we're really seeing like right now, like I'm reading P Ls all day. I probably read about, you know, 10, 10 to 12 a day. I do that five days a week. And I love every minute of it. And the people, like, we're going to have our guest. We're going to have our guest doctor, Dr. Michelle Hucky, which I'm so excited to introduce her to everybody when she comes in, in a little bit because there's people like Michelle that made the pivot. You know, they're the early adopters, guys like these were people that, that really made moves toward, you know, sleep dentistry. You know, when they had time. There were some people that, you know, lost team members and had to reinvent themselves. There's, you know, there are situations where like a lot of team members didn't come back and we shrunk our employee base by 10% and people are still not staffed up fully. There's people that had, you know, one of the things that I've seen is, you know, I'm an accidental expert at dealing with crisis. You know, I walked clients through 911 downtown Manhattan, walked, you know, our practices all across the US And Canada through the Great Recession. And then we had 1800, you guys were on 1800 people every Tuesday and walking through the uncertainty and certainty webinars that really helped people furlough employees, you know, get PPP and really guide them through a time that we never was, was unprecedented. But most people are dealing, guys, right now with like having to Pivot. And now we're in that mid adopter stage where it's like you're sitting there and you're nervous and you know you need to make some shifts. You know, you can't continue the way you're going, but it's like you tried to hold on to the old ways, but you know you can. So tonight we're going to really talk about how to pivot and some of the amazing things that are actually happening. You know, using the Vatech unit, using the type of dentistry that we're going to begin to introduce, because their drill fill and PPO mill is one group and that's usually owned right now by a lot of people in DSOs, a lot of small groups, really, you know, the great consolidation period. We're in dentistry right now. And then there's the private practitioner that really needs to reinvent themselves. We're going to talk about the great divide now and what people are doing. Did you want to add anything here? I talked a lot right there.

No, absolutely. I think people get overwhelmed because they know there's so many options out there that they could do. And maybe sometimes they feel overwhelmed about what direction to possibly go in. And, you know, rather than sit there and try and figure out how to do all of them on their own, let's have an opportunity to open up the dialogue and then allow people who have done it in their practice and done it successfully be able to identify how they've been able to, you know, get out of the survival mode and get more into a thriving mode, be able to, you know, incorporate ways to improve overall patient health. So it's a great topic to be able to discuss. You bet.

Jim, did you want to say something?

No, I think that is exactly right. You've got this technology and how do we use it? We may have gotten some other advanced technology in the past and those interesting ways of using that thinking outside the box, if you will.

Yeah, and really what we're seeing right now is a shift from drill fill, PPO mill into this new. It's been around for a long time, but really new for some people called complete health dentistry. You know, technology. Most, most docs think that technology drives change. Actually, it's the opposite. What drives change is the type of dentistry you want to do. And then the technology becomes the tool to deliver that. And when you take that perspective, all of a sudden, you know, all the things that get in the way, like being stuck, you know, not having your team on board or not attracting the right team, by the way, what we're about to give you is how a lot of people right now are grappling with how to attract good team members. And it's really this distinction of building a practice that encompasses not just the head and, you know, the head area and the oral cavity, but the whole body. And when you become a physician of the head and neck, that contributes to the overall health of the overall body. Now all of a sudden your purpose is higher, your value proposition goes through the roof. And then what happens is all of a sudden you're practicing the way you want. A lot of doctors say, you know what? I wanted to get off this drill, fill and build treadmill. I want to get off my roller skates. I want to do larger cases, I want to do less volume. I want to do quality dentistry. But they didn't know how to make that pivot. And so, you know, I'm really excited. You know, I've been working with Michelle Hucky, Dr. Michelle Huckey down in Jacksonville, Florida, and I really like to bring her in. I want to talk. Begin the conversation. Michelle, you out there? Dr. Michelle Hucky, please report stat. There she is. Look how. Look at the power of technology. The power of technology. Dr. Hucky, so nice to see you.

Nice to see you.

Welcome, welcome.

Yeah, we're talking about here what doctors should be doing right now. Not should, but can do and pivot into this world of complete health dentistry. And Dr. Hucky is on the forefront of this. She's a leader in inside of this community of complete health practitioners in three provinces of Canada, 45 states and the Caribbean. And she is one of the leaders of it. So that is why we asked her, thank you for taking the time out of your world, your busy world, to be here with us.

Thank you.

Yes. So we met and there was something that we connected. I will never forget seeing in the back of the room with fire coming out of your eyes. Can you, Michelle, tell me, like, what's that fire that you saw when we started talking about complete health dentistry? Tell me all about that.

Well, I was working pretty much by myself. I had 95 new patients a month. And I was really just running around in really tight little circles at the time. I had twin nine year old girls. And as usual, when I tell this story, I'm going to try not to cry.

Please do.

I was working. I was working four and a half days a week and I was really proud of myself. I was proud of what I built. I bought a practice that was underperforming. And you know, my dad and My husband are dentists, so I was trying to make them proud, right? But I was really killing myself, literally.

So.

So when I met Gary and he was talking about decentralizing the dentist and getting my life back and getting to be able to be a mom, it really struck home to me. And when I met with Gary, our first meeting was all about choosing for me what I could have in my life. And he told me that I can work three days a week. I was like, you're out of your mind. That doesn't work. Because, you know, I mean, as dentists, you are driven by that feeling, like, if you're not in the office drilling on teeth, then, you know, then you're not going to make payroll.

And.

He gave me that freedom back.

So, yeah, people think that we do consulting, coaching and training, but actually what we do is we give people's lives back. And, you know, I'm really committed that, you know, look, here's, here's what's, what's all underneath this. And thank you, Michelle, for sharing your story. I believe that dentists are not set up to leave dental school because they're really having to be entrepreneurs, and they weren't trained to be entrepreneurs. And they're trained to be care loving, caregiving people who do great work clinically. And when we can just put our arms around the business model, simplify it for you, and then utilize technology to be able to just make everything run smoothly, you know, magic happens. And now you've got a chance to spend, you know, how many years with your daughters and like, really good quality time. Right? That's really what happened, right?

Absolutely. Yeah. So now I'm at three days a week and, you know, I mean, I know a lot of what we're talking about is the biotech technology. So not only did it decentralize me, but it really, I. You know, like Gary said, you're not trained in school about how to empower people. And I was really trained because, you know, my dad's a dentist and I've been work. I worked with him from the time I was 12 years old, you know, at his front desk. But I was trained by him that I was. I meant to be in charge of everything. So when you're brought up that way, that's what you believe. And so that's disempowering to your team, which is what Gary and Next Level practice have taught me. And the great thing about that is if I'm decentralized and also if I'm empowering people, then I'm Empowering them to use things like the VA technology, empowering them to share that with patients and empowering them to do it every patient, every time. As Gary knows, I know network with lots of people, including lots of dentists. And you know, a lot of them think that they're complete health dentists, but honestly, if they're not with next level practice and they haven't been trained how to empower their team, then they're not talking about it with every patient every time. Yes, they take blood pressures occasionally. Yes, they occasionally take a ct. But the reason that next level practice dentists and complete health dentists do it more consistently is because we know how important it is to do it every patient, every time. It's not really fair to your patients to not talk about it all the time.

Yeah. And so, you know, we talked about this decentralization, we talked about empowering people, so we install a business model. But I want to really have you highlight Michelle for us this idea of purpose, the purpose behind complete health dentistry. So, so can you unpack that for us from your perspective?

Yeah, that's the other thing that will probably also make me cry is that with next level practice, it's all about working with a purpose. So I've been told my whole life, like we all have. You're supposed to have a mission statement, right? And, well, no one takes the time to do that. But that's the driving force really behind our practice is that we're committed to getting 5 million people in Florida healthier by 20, 30 and. Wait a minute.

So stop right there. Stop right there. Little Michelle Hucky. Little old Michelle Hucky, the sweet gal you got. You're playing a game called 5 Million People Healthier in Florida. Yeah, like so that just seems so crazy when you're just getting through your day, drilling, filling. And Bill and Michelle.

Well, I don't do, I don't do that anymore.

Well, see, this is what I want to highlight here, you know, because now you got your life back and you're working three days and you're spending time with your twin daughters and you're being around for that smarty pants husband that you guys. Brilliant guy, right? And you have a smile on your face and you have this going on, but now you have this impossible possibility that you're taking on. And so just briefly talk. I didn't want, I couldn't go. And when. And I, you know, I'm having fun with you when you say little old Michelle Hucky because she's a force to be reckoned with. Because she told me, she goes, if I never drill another tooth, it wouldn't make me mad. Right. You still do dentistry and you love it, but it's like you wanted a bigger game. So I just wanted, I didn't want to just step over that 5 million. Because if I'm listening to this for the first time and you're going, I'm working five days and now I'm getting 5 million people healthier. Talk to me a little bit about that.

Yeah. So we started an initiative in Florida and, you know, part of the ability to. Able to do that is working in the office three days. And I have, you know, two days for networking and being able to spend time with other dentists and with other health care practitioners. And so, so our passion is all about root cause medicine, which is based on having the technology to be able to work with people on their sleep and their complete health. And so the way that we'll get 5 million people healthier is to educate not just dentists across Florida and Georgia, but also other healthcare practitioners. And one of the things that we've all talked about is that the VA technik, the Vitek technology is amazing and it amazes people. Like, you know, my MD that I go to see, right. She's like, I can't believe you can generate this level of, you know, from the discs. Because what I do is when I'm referring people out, like to an ENT or to an MD or to a chiropractor, I send them with a really detailed report about what my concerns are along with the disc. Now I have specialists who don't have that technology in their office, referring us patients to get their patients imaged. Chiropractors really like to see the upper cervical, especially if they're atlas orthogonalist focused chiropractors. Some of those specialists are now referring their patients to me for imaging. Then a lot of times we see their patients as sleep patients too.

Yeah. So, Michelle, so the chiropractor across the street, let's just pick that up right now. So you've enrolled this gentleman and he sends how many patients over a week would you say?

He sends about two, you know, two or three patients a week over for imaging, which is really awesome. Yeah, yeah.

And if you, if you're sitting there and you're going, oh my gosh, can I afford a CT scan? Well, if, if you're getting two patients across the street, that's eight patients a month at 20, at $250, it more than pays for the loan and everything else. Is free for that unit? Pretty much. So. And how many scans do you do internally with your patients?

We do about six to. Yeah, like six to eight a day.

So six to eight a day. Just start doing the math. Six to eight a day, five days a week, you know, that's 40 times four, another 160 times 250. So you can see that not only, you know, moving into complete health dentistry, you start getting referrals, your case acceptance goes through the roof. We know that 56% of the treatment presented, and we have this in a case study, 56% of treatment presented goes up, 36% of treatment accepted goes up. And 59% of new patients, the revenue that comes from new patients goes up. I mean, just from this one little move, just this one move. Think about the exponential impact that this has, you know, and you've seen it, Michelle, right?

Absolutely. Well, and you just. The respect and, you know, the goodwill amongst other healthcare practitioners in the community is really, is really helpful. You know, when we're sending out referral letters to, to an ent, for example, you know, the fact that you can send that along and they can take a look at a CT when they're, you know, trying to look at the deviated septum, you know, they just, they can just see it and they're getting it from just a dentist, isn't that cool?

But you've elevated yourself because you're more than just a dentist. You know, the hangover movie of, you know, you're not a doctor, you're not, you know, doctor, you're a dentist, you know, you've, you've elevated yourself. It's an inside game for yourself. Now. You were able to do that and then talk to us about what happens to your team about this purpose of complete health. Because this is what, the container that holds the Vatech unit in place. You know, Michelle just didn't, you know, a lot of people get units and they set them up and then they sit there and collect dust. You know, this is the difference, game changer, which is putting purpose and complete health for you and your team. Let's talk a little bit about that. What happened to your team and as you brought this initiative in.

Well, it's funny, you know, another thing that comes from next level practice is we all have our hundred dreams, right? And so I've talked to some of my colleagues about that and they're like, great, so you're going to create all these dreams for people and then off they go, right? They're going to like, go get other careers and go do other things. But the cool thing about it, like, I was just talking to my assistant, Kia, who's amazing, is one of her dreams is to be an entrepreneur. But within the practice, she can still essentially accomplish that because we're going to do a dental assisting school. And then we have this whole, you know, with the biotech technology, we have the whole sleep program, so she can be in charge of that. It gives your team, again, something more than just sucking spit and drilling on teeth. That's just. It's just not as inspiring as having this technology, them learning how to use it, which seems like, so mysterious, even though, you know, Vitek makes that very, very easy. Thank you. So, yeah, it allows us to live our dreams within what can be a very mundane profession. You know, we all get tired of that. So, yeah, Kia and I were kidding about that. She's going to be like, you know, the sleep guru, and she's going to learn how to use all the technology and be able to use. The education thing that you guys were talking about earlier is really amazing. That's embedded in that program. And so it just gives everybody the skills to be able to be empowered when they're communicating with their patients, which impresses. They impress themselves, which is amazing.

Yeah, it looks like, Jim, you want to jump in here?

It almost sounds like it gives them something, like you said else to come to work for, like, wow, I can get involved in all these different aspects. And one other thing I was impressed with you were talking about was all of your patients get the same. They all get a scan, the same treatment, which I would think, if I'm going to work, it's not like, oh, well, here's the system we have in place and it works. Let's use it.

Right?

This is. Let's just everybody, this is the way we do it. We've trained everybody to do that, too. Not only to use the devices and technologies they have to educate our patients, but also the complete health model on there, too. So I think that's really what I'm hearing from you and your story. It's very impressive. I think I actually visited your office back in 2016 to do initial training with your staff a long, long time ago. And it's neat to see how far you've come. Yes, for sure.

Thank you so much.

I'm sure questions are coming in. I'm sure there's people out there saying to myself, my goodness, I didn't even know that chiropractors could even be a resource that I could tap into like, wow. So again, you know, why reinvent something you can learn from other people that have already done it successfully? And that's a great example.

Yeah, you bet. I also want to highlight one thing that you might not have understood. You know, right now is the toughest time, the toughest. Number one concern is recruiting, hiring and retaining team members. Number one in dentistry right now. And when you have a purpose. And then Michelle talked about a dream program. We invented a dream program. It's where you have to fill out 100 dreams. And if you think that's easy, try doing it. Because it ends up being goals. Like, I'm going to weigh this, I'm going to do this. And dreams are like, I want to travel to Cuba and roll a cigar and have a flowered shirt on with a cool hat and smoke a cigar in Cuba. Just like, like really fun stuff, whatever that is for you. Like, I, I added something on my dream to catch a salmon in Alaska and cook it that night watching the sunset. We did that. And so, like, here's, you know, you might be going, what does that have this have to do with anything? It has to do with everything. Because if you don't reinvent programs that engage your team to have their life be lived full out, if you create an environment like that, this is how you get your team on board. And this is like Michelle, she found out that one of her team members, he wants to be an entrepreneur. She created an intrapreneur. She created that so that inside her own business, she's going to retain that, this talented, amazing human being and show her how she's going to operate inside of the business and run a business inside her business. I mean, this is how inventive we need to be in today's world. We also have bonus systems. And when there's increased case acceptance, when there's increased retention, when there's utilization of technology and you put bonuses in place. Think about it, Michelle. If you run the numbers 4000, 160 times 250, I couldn't even do the numbers fast enough. You have 40,000 bucks right there. And scans, then the cascade of that, that goes downstream with case acceptance and so on. Now all of a sudden there's enough revenue to share. And this is how you get out of the drill, fill and bill and you have high purpose. Look, how many, how many lives have you saved, Michelle? How many lives have you saved by looking at a scan that you've been able to send people to get, get care? How many times does that happen?

It's I mean, it's going to make me cry too, but.

I mean, I love it. You're. Because you're real. You're totally real and swinging out there and open people's eyes and hearts. That's what you're doing.

Honestly, since, since we started the sleep training and you know, like, I have already repeated a bunch of times, we, we do what's called a healthy mouth baseline on every patient every time. And when they check something like snoring or any of those things, and we do the scan and we show them, you know, you can show them, look, this is your palate. It's completely blocking your airway, or this is the back of your tongue. A lot of times with the, with a snoring complaint, you would just say, okay, well, we'll make you a snore guard or we'll just do this one treatment. But now I can do the scan that shows them visually like people immediately and visually that their airway is blocked. And so now we're doing, I don't know, three to four sleep tests a day. I've sent probably five or six people out in the last three weeks to get a CPAP machine. It's just, it's constant saving of people's lives. It's every single day, thanks to you guys.

It seems like those patients are going to talk and tell their friends and family, like, hey, this made a difference. I went to the dentist, but now, wow, it was complete health care. The health dentistry there.

Yeah. And what happens here is you have to have a systematic process. Because if you don't have a systematic process to engage the patient, their expectation is, I'm coming in for a cleaning. But there's a step by step process to elevate the listening of the patient. And it's, you know, this is our position. We're a complete health practice. What it means to you is we not only look at your oral health, but we look at your overall health. Let me share a proof story or a patient story about someone that, just like you, they had this medical history form, they had these conditions. We did a scan, this is what we found. And now here's where this patient is today. Do I have permission to speak to you this way? That four step process elevates you and elevates your team and elevates dentistry on a whole new level. That simple process, and that's what's available to everybody. It's already been figured out. The wheel's been already invented. There's no additional dollars here at all. There's actually money being made while you're helping people. This is doing good by doing well. You know, you're gonna do well by doing good things in the world. We have questions.

Yeah, we do have a number of questions coming in. Jim, you want to tackle the first one that came in?

Yeah, I actually have one that's, you know, let me look on here. Got one says, really? This one's free. Gary, you know, what are you telling doctors who want to grow their business but are overwhelmed with all of this information? I mean, I think you kind of foreshadowed to it a little bit there of having a set process in place.

Yeah, for sure. You know, I would look at the easiest way to deal with growing a practice today is really flipping the script. If I asked, you know, 100 doctors, how should I build my practice? 99 of them, Jim would say, I need new patients. And in this model, when you're focused in on people's health, there's two other ways to grow your practice. Oh, is that me?

Your video feed cut out. I can still hear you, though.

There you go. Let's go here. Let's go here. So there's three ways to build a practice. You want to flip the script, and if we don't flip the script, you're going to end up just like everybody else, because what they're doing is they're going after new patients only. And so in this case, when you're focused in on complete health, you care about two other ways, and that is patient retention. Most people don't look at retaining their patients, and the reason why they don't look there is because they think the next person that's going to say yes is the person that's coming in new. You have tons of new patients, and they're all dying to get healthy. And, well, it's just how you approach them. So if I were stuck right now, what I would look at is I would move from drill, fill, and build the transactional presentation to the transformational presentation, which means you're going to talk about how you're going to help them live a better, healthier, longer life. That's where the riches are in dentistry. And today, unless you want to go into the DSO world, you could just sit there and drill teeth all day. You'll never be able to get ahead of yourself because there's so much dentistry to be done, especially post pandemic. But if you really want to be fulfilled, you want to be highly profitable, you want to do larger cases, and you want to elevate into complete health dentistry. Focus in on retention and case acceptance. And one of the root, root cause creations of that is if you can't diagnose it and see it, you can't. It's never going to be presented and it's never going to get closed. Right, Michelle? I mean this is what you've experienced, right?

Absolutely. Even with sleep. Like I say that the VA tech machine has been a game changer. Just to be able to see the airway and show it to people instantly is amazing. And it motivates them to do something like a sleep test that's so important for their health.

Yep, yep. So retention and case acceptance are two areas rather than focused in on the new patients. Websites, social media. You have so many patients that need care. 50% of people need some form of airway device. And you know, how many are you treating? We're seeing the average practice that has been doing sleep is doing two sleep tests per month. Two per month. And if they have 2,000 patients, a thousands thousand of their patients need some form of care. So it's, you know, there's so much here. If you just re look at and re strategize to go inside your practice rather than externally. That's how I would answer that question. That's, I could probably answer that question a thousand different ways. That's the core of how to build today.

Awesome.

I have another question here. I'm not sure if we got to it yet or not. Asking about doctors who run themselves as one man bands and how to decentralize themselves in an office. Have we discussed that yet? Or if not, can we expand on a little further?

Yeah, we touched on that. Michelle, do you want to talk briefly? Because this is also important on how to get implementation. You know, we talk about the line in the sand conversation. Can you unpack that a little bit? I think it'd be great for doctors to hear this. This line in the sand conversation. What is that?

Well, we had a line in the sand conversation when, you know, we transitioned from me being by myself doing $29 exams, 95 of them a month, to a partnership and doing the complete health dentistry model. And if you think about it, that's a huge shift for your team and many of them are understandably freaked out. So we got them together and my partner and I, we had a line in the sand conversation and just let them know this is what we were doing before and it was successful, but we're not going to do that anymore. And these are the things that are going to, you Know, we're going to do newly. And you know, we just talked about that, that was what we were going to do. And did everyone want to come with us? And you know, not everybody ends up coming with you, but the people that did, I think are a lot happier.

Well, yeah, and right now people are afraid to make that move because they're like, I'll never get new people. And by the way, you get A players rather than B and C players once you make a position and make a stand for something. I think this great poet said, when you stand for nothing, you fall for everything. It was Katy Perry who said that. I mean, she's a special poet, right? So. But here's the thing. When you, it's so counterintuitive, right, Michelle, Like, I'm going to stand for this narrow niche of whole body health and then, you know, we're going to like the general dentistry. We're not going to let it go, but we're still going to do it. But our niche position is that. And then all of a sudden when what Michelle's saying is so many doctors have their teams running the business versus their doctor saying, this is how it goes, you know, I can't, I can't tell you how, how often, you know, because look, I'm a people pleaser too. I want people to like me. And you know, we often hear like doctors go, well, let me, I got to talk to my team about really seeing if they want to do this or not. Well, but meanwhile, they can't pay their, they're not paying their bills, they're not living their life. They can't be home with their twin nine year old daughters and they're being run by fear of people not wanting to change. And when you make the move and you say, look, we're going this way, the bus is leaving the building. The train, the Ferrari train is leaving the building. We, we want you to join us. Please come join us. I'm going this way. If you guys want to come, I want you to join us. And you know where I learned this, by the way, was 13 years ago. I'm sober 13 years. And my wife came to me, she said, gary, you don't have to quit drinking, but you can't stay here. My son was diagnosed with autism. I was like, I was so distraught. And I really have a lot of compassion for people that are dealing with their stuff. Right. And when you come face to face with your stuff, magic is on the other side. It's not always easy initially, but it is worth it. Because you'll start living a life like Michelle has. She's been through it, she's done the hard work. She said, that's it, I'm done. And now I'm going this way. And when you do that, it may seem fearful and courageous, but when you do it, it's liberating, it's freeing, and you'll start loving life, like, in a brand new way and have the money and time to do what you want to do.

It sounded like with Dr. Hucky, you were saying that, you know, when you do draw that line in the sand, you're also not making that a fearful thing. You're saying, hey, here's the opportunity. I'm empowering you and you're being rewarded. So really, a three step. You know, often I hear drawn lines saying like, oh, my gosh, that. That's a frightening thing. But you're enabling your team at the same time was the example. I kind of took away from that.

Yeah, it's great. Very cool.

Yeah, they're excited. But, you know, if there's any team members listening to this, you know, it's. Change is scary. So.

But yeah, and Gary, you talk about this in some of your pivot videos that you do, talking about being able to confront the confrontational. You know, there could be have one person in your office that could be holding you back to be able to implement this plan. You know, there's a term I learned back in college. You know, the fish rots from the head down. Right. So, and often, you know, you hear the rotten apple in the bunch and so on, you know, but really, you want to have a team functioning as a true team where everybody's on board to make sure that this dream can be fulfilled. Absolutely.

It's great, Len. And you know, we call it All Boats Rise because people play down to the lowest player.

Sure.

That gives them permission. When you allow a B or C player down here, the rest of the team goes, I'm safe as long as I do something better than that person. The minute you pluck that and say, look, you got to step up to that individual and everybody moves up. And when everybody moves up, then you can then have take on complete health. You can put in technology, and now you're unleashed. It saddens me, and I want to cry when I see a doctor who spends 20, 30 years, you know, being held back by one individual. And it's not their fault, it's not the individual's fault. They're just allowing that to happen, and it's okay. Just to say, you know what? We're not playing this game anymore. We're playing this game and let's go. Because there's people's lives at stake here, you know? Yeah.

So do we have enough time for another question?

Let's do it. Heck with it. Let's run over. Let's. Let's really just.

Okay.

Awesome.

People.

I've got Dr. Chang up there in Virginia asking a question, you know, because she sees a lot of this stuff is kind of like mid to long term type of goals to reinvent themselves. But I have offices that want to know what can I do starting tomorrow morning that I can generate increased case acceptance and generate better overall patient health for my patients.

Yeah, I'll pick that up. One of the things that I want to just thank VA Tech for. VA Tech is going to sponsor me to chat to anybody who's on this session to get onto my calendar. Just, no obligation, one half hour. Just let's talk via Zoom. Bring whatever questions or thoughts that you have that were prompted by tonight or anything that you want to bring. And I'll just donate a half hour sponsored by vaatech. So I want to thank you guys for doing that and your generosity for your existing clients and potential clients as they look at a VA Tech unit. So first, thanks for doing that. And, you know, when you get with me, you're going to get nonjudgment, you're going to get love, you're going to get possibility. I listen for what's possible. I listen for what you want and pull it out of you in a way that maybe somebody hasn't. And you'll leave that meeting like, like knowing who you are and what's possible to step into, just like Michelle did. Right. So that's my joy. Joy. That's where. That's my sweet spot. So thank gentlemen for doing that and there'll be a link.

Thank you, Dr. Hockey.

Yeah, yeah. And then, you know, I would jump on the console tab. If you have a Vitek unit, I would be jumping all over that thing because, Michelle, you were. You touched on it earlier. Let's give some specific highlights of how you use the consult tab.

Well, we do take a scan on all new patients as just part of our new patient exam. Then Batech has this amazing thing where you can just do screenshots of the important. We quickly look through the scan if we want to look at airway or their upper airway issues, or there's a lesion on tooth number 19. And then we put all the snapshots in their chart, but in the room too. We can pull up the Vatech live on the screen and then whatever procedures might be attached to. Like if you have a lesion on the apex of tooth number 30 and you might have to do a root canal or an implant, then you can click on a video that explains and shows what that procedure is going to look like using some of the imaging all at the same time. So it's amazing. It's really amazing technology and very easy to use. Take it from me, I'm not a techno person.

I know that for sure.

Yeah, there's almost 300 videos in there as it is. So there's a huge, you know, library to choose from. But you can also import your own custom videos then as well. So I have some patients that are sitting there in the exam chair. You can bring up testimonials from other patients, have you recorded. You can have that play while you're waiting for the patient to come in. There you go. And our treatment coordinator or yourself to come in and present the case to them. So you do all kinds of things. Really expand it and, and starting it first thing tomorrow morning.

You're going to let me know how to do that, right Len?

Absolutely.

That's what we're here for.

Going on. That's also a way to customize your, you know, your VA tech product to your office. I think that's what the valuable part is of having that branded to Dr. Huckey's office in your own videos with your own staff in there. Really. If you wanted to, you can upload and do audio and everything. It's good stuff.

Go Vatek.

Yes, Go Vatek, indeed. Take it to the next level.

Yes.

All right.

Well I think Len, I think we have any other questions in or about to our timeline. I believe on there we covered a lot.

I'm sure there'll be more questions coming in but I'm sure they can say them for Dr. Or Dr. Hucky has questions and for Gary as well if you want step those individual consults would be awesome. I'm sure they'd greatly appreciate that as well. For sure.

That 30 minute session. I think what we're going to do is we're going to have a follow up email for everybody.

Right.

That will have everyone's contact information in there to be able to interact with Gary and his team, the Bottech team and probably even if you want to get a hold of Dr. Hucky, I'm sure she wouldn't mind some testimonials because she's the pro here on the experience Dr. Implementing everything we're talking about, really.

And if I could just, Jim and Len, just honor this woman. I mean, goodness gracious, you are incredible human being. What you stand for, the difference you make. Your generosity of helping other practitioners, Michelle, seriously, is so moving to me. I'm so touched by who you are and what your vision is for the possibility of dentistry being like up here and not the discourse of down here. And you know, that pioneer like that is like, that's like clearing brush for the next practitioners. And you know, there's going to be a lot of practitioners after you that are going to go, this is just the way we did dentistry. And it's because of the stand that you made for these human beings and this great industry that we have the privilege of working in. You know, I mean, I just can't thank you enough for the courage that it took to like, jump out there. And now, like, this is the new norm for people. So you are amazing.

Well, thank you, Gary. I would not have been able to do it without you. And next level practice and also the VA Tech technology, you guys are amazing. And Gary, thank you for helping me be a mom and a great practitioner. And also, you know, a great leader couldn't, could not do it without you.

Yeah, well, you know, no one wins alone. There's a great quote that I love that says, never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens could ever change the world. And indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. And for me, it's like, you know, to get together on this session and put this out into the world. We know we have an opportunity to contribute to communities of people because when you think about dentistry, it's the only practice of healthcare that patients come to at least twice a year. And we have an opportunity as a hub for healthcare to change the way people relate to not just dentistry, but their own health and wellbeing. And when you take that on and we create more of these complete health practices all around the U.S. you know, 5 million people is totally doable after, you know, we start looking at, like, the impact that we can have. So, gentlemen, I also want to thank you for just your incredible work. I mean, VA Tech has always been so generous and just does great, incredible work. I mean, the difference that you guys make as well is just nothing short of extraordinary. Because when people can see better, they can do better. And that you help give you cure blindness.

Exactly.

You know, and also cause, you know, an intention on people to change people's lives. And. And help them save lives. So thanks, guys.

Absolutely appreciate it. Thank you, gary. Thank you, Dr. Hucky. I greatly appreciate it. It's awesome, awesome stuff.

Thanks, guys. Have a good night. Good night, everybody.

Thank you for joining.

Thank you.