A first-person introduction by Gene (Jean) St. Louis describing her career journey from dental assistant training through clinical assisting across specialties, moving into front-desk and office management, then founding a consulting firm. She explains practical experience growing and selling practices, developing training manuals (clinical and administrative), recruiting and training instructors, surviving litigation when starting her firm, and her consulting philosophy: change systems only if inefficient and always act in the patient’s best interest. The video situates her passion for startups, acquisitions, business coaching, and team development.
Chapters
Hi, I'm Jean from Jean St. Louis Consulting. I want to share with you a little bit about myself, what brought me into dentistry and why I'm so passionate about what I do and what my team does. I began right out of high school, went to dental assisting school way back in the day when you had to wear a cap and dresses as a dental assistant. And it was really fun. It was an 18 month program straight through. I loved it. I got out and I assisted clinically with a periodontist, a general dentist, a pediatric dentist, an orthodontist. I really wanted to try all the specialties clinically to see which one I fell in love with. And from there I decided that I wanted to try the front desk. I probably had a cystic chairside for about seven years, and I tried the front desk and found that that was really my niche. I loved the business side of dentistry. I loved it particularly because I could use my clinical skills to explain treatment to patients and lo and behold, they would accept. And so I realized I had a knack for it. I also had a knack for the numbers and what the business had it, how it needed to operate and how the dentist's overhead affected things. And so from there I went to office manager and then worked with a dentist, owned a practice that wanted to sell it. He, he was on the south side of Chicago, which is where I was born and raised, and I ended up helping him grow the business, sell the business. And he did a startup in the western suburbs. And that's what gave me my passion for startups and also acquisitions. And from there I helped him grow that business in three years to just under a little under a million. And said to him, john, I'm out of tools in my toolbox. I don't know what else to do. I think we should hire a coach. And. And so he said, great, look for one. And so I did. And we settled on a locally based consulting firm out of Chicago, very small boutique kind of firm, and hired them and did great with them. While I was with them as a client. I asked them, do you have any office manager support groups or anything that you can do to help me as an office manager grow? And they said, no, but that's a great idea, why don't you start one? And so I did. And from there it really, the only rule we had is you couldn't talk about who you worked for or how much you made. Everything else was on the table, which was great because as office managers we are able to really help each other get to the next level. And then I offered to buy out that firm twice. I had three other consultants under me with that firm. I was an independent contractor. While I was there, I wrote and copywrote two manuals, one on clinical education and one on administrative. And. And the reason being is I would find that I would go in to do my business coaching, only to find a dentist would say, oh my gosh, I hired Lucy and she said she was a great dental assistant. She could take X rays and she's elongating and cone cutting and she can't take X rays. And so I'd say, let's not do my business meeting, let's go ahead and let me train her. Then I'd get to the next practice and the doctor would have lost his front desk person and didn't know how to make a deposit, let alone post insurance checks. So, so I would do that. Well, I began to feel bad because I wasn't doing my business coaching, which is what they hired me for. So I decided to write and copywrite two manuals, one on clinical and one on administrative training. And then I went out and I recruited 10 instructors and trained them how to be an instructor in a practice and teach the team how to really master their skill set. And that was great. From there I offered to buy out that firm that I worked for as an independent contractor twice. They were in their middle to late 60s, they didn't want to sell. And being a young entrepreneur, I had a burning churning in my gut and I wanted to do it. And so I did. And I was slapped with a tro, a temporary restraining order. I had signed a one page document. I was sued. I went to a law firm and said, listen, I come from humble beginnings. I started my firm on $20,000. Would you represent me? And they said yes. And I promised them I would pay them half of every client I closed. Well, nine months later, after a nine day bench trial, I prevailed. Doesn't mean I got any money out of it, but I did win because I was honest and up front. And there you had my first firm. I grew my firm. I was so excited, I went nationwide. After one year, I was involved in the delivery of periodontal program nationwide for a Reston or a pharma and really had a great deal of pride in what we were doing to our clients. Our philosophy overall was to really not change a system in the practice unless that system was inefficient and also was not delivering the best for the patient. Meaning our philosophy is deliver the best care for the patient. If you're doing what's in the patient's best interest, you don't have to sell dentistry. It comes to you naturally, and the patients just gravitate towards you. So that's our philosophy that we still use today, is really do what's in the best interest of the patient. When you are creating a system, don't change a system because our egos are involved, and it's like, hey, you've got to do my system. No, if your system is working, that's great. If we're not going to change it, because, number one, is it in the best interest of the patient? Number two, is it efficient? And so that's a little bit about me and my past and my consulting firm. I hope you take a deeper dive and learn more about us.
