In this week’s podcast episode, I had the pleasure of talking with Dallin Gomez. Dallin is a 3rd year dental student at the University of Utah School of Dentistry. He is the president of his dental school's entrepreneur club and is the creator of the Facebook mastermind group, “Making Money After Dental School,” which he created to help students and new grads prepare for above-average business ownership.

Dallin lives in Sandy, Utah with his wife and two beautiful daughters, Rosie (3), and Chloe (1) and his favorite thing to do is go camping with them.

We discussed:

• Dallin’s journey to where he is today and why he set-up a Facebook group for dental students
• How dental school doesn’t focus enough on teaching new dentists about business and practice management
• Why he thinks new dentists are shying away from owning their own practice
• The resources that Dallin has used to improve his knowledge with regards to running a dental practice, business and entrepreneurship
• The steps that dental students can make now to help them be prepared after they have completed dental studies
• The importance of honing patient communication skills
• Reaching out to leaders in the industry
• Why Dallin started his Facebook group, Making Money After Dental School, and what it’s all about

Click here to request to join Dallin’s Facebook group: Making Money After Dental School Mastermind.

Dallin’s Recommended Reading:

The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money - That The Poor And Middle Class Do Not! 

The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime 

In this week’s podcast episode I interview Dr. Joanne Block Rief.

Joanne is a third generation dentist that started in the dental field when she was 13 years old. She has a Bachelors in dental hygiene from University of Rhode Island as well as her DDS from University of Maryland. She worked as an associate for her father for 18 years before buying her own practice in 2004. Since that time she has built the practice, moved the practice and expanded the practice.

She started out with one computer, about 200 paper charts and two employees. She now has 2,500 patients, 18 computers and 12 employees in 13 years. Her collections have more than quadrupled in those 13 years and she has no paper charts.

Her passion is marketing her dental practice and sharing ideas with her colleagues. She enjoys going to lots of dental CE courses especially when it pertains to the business of dentistry. Dr. Rief has started lecturing to numerous dental study clubs on how she runs her successful dental practice and has consulted with dental practices also. Her motto is that she does not just work in her practice, she works on her practice.

In this episode we focused our discussion on the steps that you can follow to create a thriving, profitable practice.

In particular, we discussed:

• The importance of defining and communicating the vision, philosophy and goals of your practice
• Hiring people who have a passion for dentistry and a shared philosophy
• Team communication within the practice and team building outside of the practice
• The techniques that Joanne has used to build such a profitable practice
• Highly effective patient recall systems and why they are so important
• The ‘out of the box’ internal and external marketing strategies that Joanne and her practice have been using with great success
• The accounts receivable systems that Joanne has in place
• Why marketing is the one thing that is really helping her to grow her practice right now

To get in touch with Dr. Joanne Rief you can email her at dr.jbr@crossroadsdentalarts.com and click to her dental practice website.

In this week’s podcast episode I interview Gina Dorfman and Adam Bailey from Yapi.

Gina and Adam share really valuable insight into the features of Yapi - a paperless software solution for dental practices.

The Yapi software has been designed as a complete suite of solutions dedicated to maximizing efficiency and profitability of any dental practice. Yapi’s goal is to install truly automated processes that enhance the business side of dentistry, leaving busy doctors and their teams more time to concentrate on patients.

We discussed:

• Gina’s background and why she has always strived for a paperless practice
• What paperless means to Gina – her focus on efficiency and putting patients’ first
• The features of Yapi and what Yapi is known for, specifically:
  • Mobile Solution: The Yapi app syncs with all devices in your office in real time providing a fully mobile solution
  • Forms: Yapi can be used with consent forms for your patients
  • Communication: Yapi’s communication module which sends notifications to iPhones / mobile devices
  • Patient engagement: Yapi automatically contacts patients via text message, for example, when they are due to make an appointment, appointment reminders, same day text reminders
  • Emails: Yapi has the functionality to send emails to patients
  • Review feature: The Yapi review feature enables you to generate positive reviews

If you would like to learn more about what Yapi does then this episode is a must!

To find out more about Yapi click here.

In this week’s podcast episode I had the pleasure of speaking to Dr. Arun Garg.

We talked all about how you can maximize the profitability of your practice by implementing dental implants.

Arun is already very well known by many of the Delivering Wow audience.

He is the founder of Implant Seminars, the nation’s largest provider of dental implant continuing education. He is considered the world’s preeminent authority on bone biology, bone harvesting and bone grafting for dental implant surgery.

Dr. Garg earned engineering and dental degrees from the University of Florida and then completed his residency training at the University of Miami Jackson Memorial Hospital. For 20 years Arun served as a full-time Professor of Surgery in the Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and as Director of Residency Training at the University of Miami School of Medicine. He was frequently awarded faculty member of the year by his residents.

He has written and published five books which have been distributed worldwide, and he is the past president of the ICOI and is the current president of the American Dental Implant Association.

Arun is a highly respected clinician and educator. He has been a featured speaker at dozens of state, national and international dental association conventions, and he has received numerous awards including outstanding educator by the ICOI and an award for best article published by the Implant Dental Journal.

I was so pleased to have Arun on my podcast.

We discussed:

• The increasing number of dentists who are interested in learning about dental implants and how this is largely patient-driven – patients are more aware of this option and expect it to be offered to them
• The positive impact that his dental implant program has had on the profitability and growth of the dental practices that have participated
• Marketing dental implants and how internet marketing and referrals have proven to be the most effective
• What is involved in his entry level program – how it is designed and delivered
• The many other courses that he offers on virtually all aspects of dentistry
• How the courses that he offers have been developed due to demand from Drs, and they have been enhanced by forming partnerships with leaders in the industry
• His ‘why’ and the amazing work the he does in the Dominican Republic

Click here to find out more about Arun and Implant Seminars

In this week’s episode I interviewed Dr. Shakila Angadi.

Dr. Shakila Angadi is the owner of Palmer Smile Design in Easton, PA. As a mother, dentist and wife, she has strived to achieve balance in her personal and professional life for many years.

After practicing dentistry for over 10 years, Dr. Angadi realized that the empathetic communication and self-awareness techniques were the key to expanding her practice exponentially.

After being coached by leaders in dentistry and emotional intelligence, she was determined to expand her professional expertise to combine the two. Bridging the gap between professionalism and emotional agility, she is working on many projects to help dentists (and women) communicate and react with emotional awareness to improve the quality of their lives.

We discussed:

• Why hitting rock bottom was the best thing that could have happened to Shakila and the mindset shift that it takes to bounce back and up-level in almost all areas of life
• How perfectionism and the fear of failure can stifle creativity and problem solving – and why this is very prevalent problem amongst dentists
• The importance of having a mindset of admitting that you don’t know everything and seeking help where you need it
• Why investing in yourself is so important and how Shakila invested in herself
• How essential taking care of our minds and exercising our mental skills is in order to identify emotions and be open and aware of our surroundings
• The changes that Shakila has made in her dental practice to foster an environment based on positivity, empathy, gratitude and fantastic communication
• Social media strategies and how Shakila has used social media to grow her practice by attracting like-minded people in both her patients and team members

Shakila runs a Facebook Group called Emotional Intelligence for the (modern) Mom – a group where like-minded moms (not exclusively dentists) share tools and tips for shifting mindset to improve their lives.