The Dr. Chris Griffin Show – Season 1 Episode 11

“You can get totally messed up trying to please everyone with what you do but ultimately, you have to please yourself.” Now who said that?

Welcome to the Dr. Chris Griffin Show. Your resource for leveraging systems and technology to easier workload, increase productivity and provide you with the time off you deserve to live the life of your dreams. It’s time to practice productivity in the passionate pursuit of a better life with your host, Dr. Chris Griffin. The Dr. is in.

Yes of course, everyone knows that quote, right? Well, I don’t expect you guys to get all these quotes and actually this time I pulled it from the world of entertainment; more so than the world of history or business greatness. You know that’s what I usually like to do on these things but however I am a gigantic fan of the person who provided us with this quote. I’m going to give you guys a little hint, okay? Forgive me for being off tune about this. Dum dada damdumdumdum .... Okay, like that was really terrible. But just imagine as the James Bond thing music and the guy that provided that wonderful quote was none other than Pierce Brosnan, the James Bond before Daniel Craig. So and that’s probably not even my second favorite Bond but hey, the guy was still awesome, you got to admit. I am a huge James Bond fan so, hey I think that quote works. And it really works well with what I’m going to talk about today.

And I am going to take you guys back to be a little fly on the wall in Oklahoma City from the lecture I gave a few weeks ago now. Because the stuff that really, I cannot duplicate what happened there. It was just a lot of it was off the cuff. I can’t even remember how I put things if I tried to but the way it came out was wonderful. I’ve gotten, really maybe more good feedback from that lecture than any lecture I’ve done in a while. So let me take you guys back there and we’re going to delve into a lot of stuff. Starting with a little bit of what happened after the fire in my office, if you don’t already know. And working our way to some other big topics like how I try to certify myself to success; my fear of marketing, fear of letting myself try to do more same day dentistry. Big things like that and what was holding me back and you guys are going to get a ton of value added today. So with no further ado, let’s travel back in time and go back to Oklahoma City.

So here’s the next, so I’m like you know, I’m seeing…I know I screwed up at this point and I know that this bonus system is unsustainable. This is pre fire. And so I went to a lecture and I heard a guy from Australia speak, Dr. Paddi Lund, everybody ever heard him talk? I’m just hating myself, these guys are referred to as popular 10 to 15 years ago. But anyway, Paddi’s an Australian dentist and his claim to fame was he was so OCD that he could, he’s just about…you know it was a struggle for him just to get to the office every day. You know, it was a struggle for him to leave everyday because he washed hands until it bled and stuff like that. He actually created a practice in Australia that is pretty much you know, I don’t know that you can do that in the states, I don’t know if you can do it anywhere. But it’s of such a boutique practice there that did not even have a sign on the door. I mean it just wasn’t addressed and you showed up by appointment. I mean everything is 5 star to the hilt and one of his big things was he didn’t want any stress in his life because stress makes his OCD just blow out of proportion.

And he wanted his team to be happy. So he created this scale, so every day, he would have his dental staff write his…their level of happiness on a scale of 0 to 10 every day. And if it wasn’t like a 7 or 8, he would go to him and say “Sarah, what’s wrong? Why did you rate us as a 4 today?” and she would tell him and he would, you know, they would talk about it and they would you now. I mean this…I mean I’m a jerk. I mean I can’t do that, I can’t go to people and just say “Hey tell me why you feel this way?” This is not going to work. But he did it, so I thought, “You know what? This sounds okay. I want my people to be happy. I want to be a nice guy. So let’s try to do it. Let’s figure out how to have a happy-centered practice.”

So I allowed pretty much my staff to dictate policy from that point forward. I tried this for 6 months to a year, something like that; I don’t know how long. But we would do that, we would do it every Thursday. You know we would take a, we would have a meeting…a big long meeting and we talk about our happiness scores for the week. And how, how’s everybody doing this week, you know. How can I make your life better? How can I make you a happier person? What could I do to help you? Anyway, this was a weird period in my practice life where I would just, I would just, for some reason, just scared to death of my staff. At this point, I don’t think I’d ever fired anybody. You know? I think I was so young, I never fired anybody.

That will do wonders for your life when you learn how to fire people right? I mean how many of you guys, how many have you fired somebody in here? The first person you fired, do you remember, like was it real scary? And you hated to do it because you felt bad, you thought you were a failure of probably too because you had to fire them, whatever? I did anyway. But you know what, after 3 or 4, it’s not that big of a deal right? So like, listen, “It’s not you, it’s me.” Right? Here’s the situation. I really think you could be great if you were working in a crystal meth recovery clinic. But right here at Griffin Dental, I think you know, it’s just not a good fit. So I think I’m going to go in and give you the rest of the day’s pay. You just get your stuff and get out. Please. But by the end, this is the mistake that I made. And this, led to this.

Now somewhere along the middle of 2000, I was starting to figure this out; that, yeah it’s interesting. When I have nothing on my schedule, and I diagnosed a coronary root canal, I can usually get the person to stay. But if I reschedule them, oddly enough, they’d tend to not come back. Hmmm, I started to just twirl around in my head. So I thought, “Hey guys, why don’t we start this big promotional program where we like promote that we can do their vice dentistry while they're here today. Let’s figure out how to do that.” But my staff did not like it at all. So I actually developed this ad, which I think it’s a cool ad, right? You know, you don’t have to put off dental care and get seen today. I mean, I don’t know.

We developed it but we never ran it because my staff’s like, “Listen, you can’t promise people we’re going to do their dentistry today and there’s no way, it’s never going to work. We’re maxed out as is.” I said, “Maxed out? We did $50,000 a month. What are you talking about, maxed out.” Right? But anyway, they said that word to me multiple times. “We’re just maxed out.” What does that mean, maxed out? So if we’re doing 50,000, now we’re doing a 150? You said you were maxed out at 50? What’s that mean, I’ve gone back and asked those who were still there. “You know you never told me you were maxed out for doing like 50,000 a month? What was going on?” And she’s like, “I don’t know. I thought I was maxed out.” So anyway, I don’t know that there’s such a word as “maxed out”. It’s kind of a joke.

You know what, I even went to the trouble of saying if in order to be seen today, you must call the office prior to 10 am local time and be willing to accept available options. I don’t know, that’s some lawyer junk, it’s probably better I never run that ad, it’s a little cheesy looking. But the reason I think that I was noticing that people wouldn’t come back every time when I reschedule them is this. So if you already, I don’t know how it is in Oklahoma City, now you guys are maybe so affluent. The people just have time on their hands and all the money in the world, it don’t matter. But in Ripley, if they got a job, you know they’re pretty proud of their job. They don’t want to lose that job.

The factories in Ripley have all got some kind of point system. I don’t really know how that works but like you get 10 points a year and if you missed part of the day it's minus a point. You miss a full day it is minus 2 points or something and it’s like a 'no questions asked, no crap policy.' If you get 10 points, you’re out! You know, good luck. And so they don't want to use up those points on teeth, you know. And then there’s not that many teeth on Ripley, not many as there are in Oklahoma City, I’m sure, but a few there are, they just hate to use that up. and so they’ve taken off work to come to your office. They’re there.

Now if you can figure out a way to see them and do at least some of their work today, then there’s a reasonable chance in their mind that’s worth money to them, right? That’s worth even more than a discount. The fact that if they’re here, I’ve already I’ve taken off, I can get it done right now. I don’t have to miss anymore work or get any more points on my record. If I can just get it done today, I’ll think I’ll stay. I think I found that to be true. Now just think of all the stuff that hits this person the second they leave your chair side that you diagnosed. Okay? So the second that they get up on the dental chair. You know, cell phones going off, they’re texting the kids you know, they get a babysitter. Hey if they got kids and they got a babysitter for the day, do you not think that’s not worth something for them not to have to try to get another babysitter? And line all that up again?

They get up front. Maybe they start thinking about how much it cost and they’re like, “Oh man I have to come back you know and pay 10,000 bucks” blah blah blah. They leave your office, you know they get in their car and so they get back to work. Maybe their boss gets on them, you know where I came from, bosses are kind of mean. Maybe they get on them and fuss at them for missing. That’s actually happened, I mean it actually happens. So the boss is probably trying to fuss at you when you miss work. So then they’re thinking “Oh gosh, I probably can’t make it back for that second appointment.” What about when they get home? What about when they have to try to tell their husband that they’re not going to be able to buy their bass boat this year because they need to get their teeth fixed. Or their new hunting rifle or stuff like that. Okay? All kind of stuff.

And so I called that the butterfly effect because you know there’s that theory that circulated years ago that a butterfly flapping its wings over the Galapagos Islands could cause a hurricane that hit the Gulf of Mexico. And so that’s what I say, you know if somebody leaves your dental chair, just the tiniest little thing can push them off course. And they are very likely could end up not coming back to your appointment. And it really, I don’t know how it is here, but in Ripley, a lot of times people will schedule that appointment, something weird happens to them, makes them think they don’t want to come back. They won’t really tell you they’re not coming back. They just won’t show up. Right? That happens all the time.

So, oh this is a good one. Then I think we probably attest on a lot of these. So I thought “Well if I can’t really make it doing all this stuff, let’s just try to do everything and just get certified at it, right?” So actually at cosmetic dentistry I went to all Dr. Gerety’s courses. I did the you know, the fast brace stuff. You know, so I do, I actually do a lot of braces. I tried to become a general dentist/ortho kind of guy. We’d talk about sedation dentistry, the implant dentistry you know, I would tell you, I don’t…the slides never got here, dog gone it! But I have, I would tell you guys I don’t get anything out of it but you guys may have a wonderful implant training course here. But if you guys ever need an amazing hands-on implant training course, there’s a great one at UAB. It is really tremendous, Dr. Michael McCracken.

I tell you hundreds of hours of implants CE and I can tell you, I never ever got trained in like that. It’s at…it’s at a crystal meth recovery clinic, it’s what it is. So I guess UAB has got some sort of grant where they actually employ people that have recovered. They fix their teeth and then they work on the teeth of the people that have come through the crystal meth recovery and like Dr. McCracken says, if you’ve been on crystal meth a few years, you probably need to see your dentist. Right? So there’s plenty of work to go around. And it’s really cool because they have not only a couple of doctors but they…well, they’re all doctors. But they have 12 first year residents running around helping you.

So you know you’re there. Somebody’s got your back 24/7. You can do really complicated cases. First time that I ever reflected you know the flaps enough to expose the whole lower jaw, I was there. And you know, it’s just something that I just would be scared to do in my practice without somebody just right on my shoulder. Actually it’s cool the residents were actually on a hard case, they’ll actually be your assistant. And you know and he’s like, he’s like “I wouldn’t cut right there.” You know. He said, “You might want to get a finger asked if you’re going to reflect right there now.” You know, okay. Alright now hey, that’s the way to learn. Right? You don’t learn by cutting on a pig’s jaw. I mean it’s okay but you just don’t learn as well.

So now it’s cool just right there. I never would have learned about…how many of you guys have ever done any…do you guys do any bone grafting and membrane placements? Anybody? Have you ever used that PRF, platelet rich fibrin? Have you heard of it? It’s amazing! It is so easy to do. You just draw 4 vials of blood. I guess my IVs, that’s the one thing I still use, drawing blood right? IV Training. But you draw 4 vials of blood and you spin it in a centrifuge; a cheap centrifuge, a $500 centrifuge. Spin it for 12 minutes and you basically then you get you know, what looks like red water and then snot at the bottom. So you don’t follow your snot into a compress, and then you compress, you squeeze all the liquid out.

And I’m not kidding you guys, it’s like, it’s like creating skin. It is amazing! You get the most bio compatible membrane that ever existed on the planet. You get this big old sheet of membrane and then you get all the juice you squeezed out. You mix it in with your freeze dried bone and then also you know, it helps the bone stay put better, long enough for your body to create a new bone. So I mean you feel like you’re, you know, a Dental god you know, doing that right there is a really cool technique and this is one place you can go learn and find out about it.

Anyway, as fun as it is to geek out about dentistry, I still don’t believe you can build a proper foundation of your dental practice or make as much money as you’d like to make by just focusing on that kind of stuff. And this is the last big mistake that I’ll talk about this morning. So lunch is at 11:30? Okay? So let me go over this one and then we’ll take a break. If that’s alright with you guys. The last big mistake that I can tell you guys that I made that I see a lot of people making is, I had one employee who I thought was so good. And one of the reasons I thought she was so good is because she consistently told me “I’m so good.” Right? I pretty much let her dictate policy for most of the office. I kind of gave her the keys to the kingdom. Not only did I hire her but I paid her 50% more than I ever paid anyone. Right? To come in and also I brought her in and I just transplanted her to the position of office manager; completely removing a couple of people who have been in the position similar to that and now immediately creating friction there.

But I’m thinking, well if she’s so great, it won’t matter. It will all solve itself. So well first off, let me just tell you, this hardly ever works. It didn’t work for me, it’s not going to work for you probably. As time went on, I started to figure out. A. She’s not nearly as good as I was led to believe and B. You know it’s Ripley, it’s just the way it s down there. And what did I do? Well I still thought, okay so I can’t fire her. What could I do? So maybe there’s some knowledge that I could impart that would save the situation. Who knows who this guy is? Come on, basketball fans, what’s his name? There you go. Yeah do you like him by the way? Okay yeah, that’s good, that’s good. I agree. He probably is.

But I’ll tell you a good story. It’s a good story. Now so I’m a big basketball fan, right? So I thought, okay who would know how to coach because I still thought maybe she’s a superstar and I just don’t know how to coach her. Who would know how to coach a “superstar” person on a team? And I said there’s no way, there’s no way this guy’s going to write back to me. But I busted out 50 handwritten letters right? On a really nice stationery to who I considered 50 top coaches in college basketball at that time, right? So I was writing down the list and I’m a big junky, I wrote them all men. I wrote Krzyzewski, I wrote, you know, I wrote everybody you could think of. So out of 50 letters, I was you know, I thought I was being smart. I waited until the off season, you know after the final four, early summer; they’re just doing camps and stuff. So they’re not really you know, they might potentially could read this, they might reply. How cool would that be if they replied, you know.

So out of 50 letters, how many do you think I got back? How many? Oh man! Okay, so who said 30? Down. No. No. No. No. Keep going down, keep going down. You guys are awful at this. Forget it. I’ll just wait…It’s 3! You guys said every number but that. Man, you guys are very terrible Bingo players. Alright so there were 3 people that wrote me back. Number 1, is anybody in here a Texas Tech fan? Well right now Texas…nobody? Okay. Tubby Smith, alright, at that time he was in University of Minnesota. So I get back this nice...