Why Authenticity Matters.

It’s been a buzz word at times… tossed around, and I think it’s come to mean a bunch of different things.

But where it became clear to me, when thinking about you–was that you get liberated from practicing the way you felt you had to practice, and genuinely created a culture where “your authentic self” was able to be infused into it.

What stands out to me–my notes to be able to reproduce it:

We share our experience, 19 years of practice, and my struggles with small business. Why being a dentist is uniquely challenging, because dentists are entrepreneurs, managers and surgeons.

Why we are doing this podcast–dentistry is at an interesting place. DSO’s brought business best practices to the market, making what solo GP’s need to know, quite extensive.

Wow, a bit more about Allison, the school she went to, her origin story (7 practices in 2 years–fired from one of them–the transformational moment ushering her into advocacy).

More credentials–youngest president of AZDA.

How we met each other at the Mission of Mercy event.

AT 14:15– finally mention a bit about authenticity. LOL.

“So that has led us I guess, to this place now, where we really believe that dentistry it's best for dentistry, when dentists are really practicing in a way that's, that's true to their version of dentistry that's authentic to their version of dentistry, so that at the end of the day, like the patient is going to get I don't just, I guess, a great, great experience. You know, it's all about what's best for the patient. And what we believe is best for the patient is dentists that are connected to what they really care about in dentistry, so they can live some life giving.”

70,000 hours practicing dentistry.

Is it fulfilling.

What it looks like to practice authentically.

To practice in a way that is true to themselves… help get dentists more aligned.

WOW–not clear at all LOL.

Show Intro

Welcome to the Authentic Dentist Podcast.

Join Dr. Allison House of House Dental in Scottsdale and Shawn Zajas, Founder of Zana… a company helping Dentists extend their Care Beyond the Chair, as they lead dentists deeper along the journey of authenticity – to reach greater fulfillment in their professional lives and to deliver remarkable patient experiences.

At the core of the authentic dentist is the belief that the answer to the current challenges in dentistry is dentists discovering that their greatest asset and point of differentiation is their personal brand – and that forming that brand out of their authentic selves is the best strategy for success in dentistry today.

Transcript

Mark House 0:03 Welcome to the authentic dentist podcast joined Dr. Allison house of house Dental in Scottsdale and Shawn Zajas, founder of zona, a company helping dentists to extend their care beyond the chair, as they lead dentists deeper along the journey of authenticity, to reach greater fulfillment in their professional lives, and to deliver remarkable patient experiences. At the core of the authentic dentist is a belief that the answer to the current challenges in dentistry is dentists discovering that their greatest asset and point of differentiation is their personal brand. And that forming that brand out of their authentic selves is the best strategy for success in dentistry today.

Shawn Zajas 0:42 So this is Sean, a founder of sauna. And I'm here with my good friend, Dr. Allison house.

Allison House 0:50 Good morning. Thank you for having me.

Shawn Zajas 0:54 So we decided that we would start a podcast, because we both care about dentistry, and want to see how together we can just help dentistry with our perspective. And with everything we've come to know me with what I know about business, and you as a excellent dentist, because how long have you been in dentistry.

Allison House 1:18 So I've been practicing 19 years now, I graduated in 2000. I've had my own practice for about 17 years. And I started from scratch. So it was it's been quite the journey. And I would never say I had everything figured out. I don't know if you ever figure everything out. But I figured out a couple of things. And I'd love to share. And I'd love to hear other people's opinions.

Shawn Zajas 1:40 And my experience, you know, growing up in my dad's with his dental supply company. And since then starting to other businesses, it's been understanding the struggle of having to start a business, run a business and everything that goes into that. And that's why genuinely, I think dentistry is incredibly hard, especially today. So maybe 2030 years ago, it was okay to have like a yellow pages ad, or just the listing. And that was enough. But now I feel like because of the way things have changed, you know, a dentist is expected to have clinical excellence. And at the same exact time, really no business, which is, I think, such a unique challenge these days.

Allison House 2:27 So I remember I told you kind of what I was doing and what my practice was like. And you looked at me with a shocked look, and said, So you're an entrepreneur, and you're the business manager, and you're the surgeon, how, how is that even possible? And we just do it. But it doesn't mean that we do all three? Well, it's very difficult. I was trained to be a dentist, but I have no business education whatsoever. None. And this is all been learned on the fly.

Shawn Zajas 2:54 Would you say that's true? Most dentists? I would say most of us, like how common would it be for a dentist, let's say to have an MBA, very uncommon. And that's just because the time and money you invest in your dental education,

Allison House 3:10 well, if I was going to invest more money, I want to invest in my clinical skills, I probably wouldn't invest in my business skills, even though I recognize I need those skills.

Shawn Zajas 3:19 So I guess that leads us to why we're doing this podcast is because we recognize dentistry is at this interesting place. And I think as we've talked about, because of DSOs in the way that they've entered the market, and brought business best practices to bear in the industry. It's not okay anymore for a small group practice or a solo practice to simply just open up a shop and practice dentistry.

Allison House 3:48 I think you can. But it's, you're gonna run into a lot of challenges. Like I said, the learning curve is really steep to run your own practice, you have to know all the things you just said with marketing and branding. But you also have to know all the CDC guidelines on how to keep your practice clean, you have to know all the guidelines on how to run your insurance. And you have to have all your clinical skills. Oh, and then you have to manage your your team, which is quite the challenge. So it's a lot, it's a lot to learn very quickly.

Shawn Zajas 4:19 So I know with my team, you know, I have specialists in most of those areas, and I entrust them with those areas. But I know most of the team that a dental office would have, you know, is specialized to actually providing good oral care. You know, I know there's a office manager, but even the office manager like how often is it that they have a degree in management or even like like I said, some higher level education like an MBA in business.

Allison House 4:49 I would say that was very rare. Most of the time your office manager is someone you've promoted, who used to be a dental assistant. Okay, so it's rare probably for them to have a bachelor's degree.

Shawn Zajas 4:58 Wow. Yeah. I see. So I think that's like unfathomable to think that again, they're charged with having to just do business great. Like you need to attract eyeballs today, you need to be able to handle online reviews. Well, you know, your online presence with a website, just hiring correctly, all the HR issues, just managing your whole brand. But at the same time, if you have an option to continue learning, you're probably going to invest that in your your clinical expertise, right.

Allison House 5:29 I think you want us to right as Yeah. Yeah. So it's it's created some real challenges for all of us. And it's made it so our younger dentists have trouble breaking into becoming owners.

Shawn Zajas 5:43 So tell me a little bit more about maybe you where you've come from, even where you've served.

Allison House 5:52 Yeah. So I grew up in Flagstaff, and I went to Northern Arizona University, because I had a scholarship. And then I went to the University of Alabama, Birmingham for dental school, which was quite the adventure. And I have wonderful things to say about it. But my husband, I moved to the south. And then I came back, and I started practicing in a corporate practice here in Phoenix, Arizona. And I ended up working in seven practices in

Shawn Zajas 6:18 two years. Wow, why?

Allison House 6:22 I didn't like where I was. And I couldn't figure out why. Why I was so uncomfortable. I got fired from one of them. Yeah, that was devastating. And the reason I got fired, I had a patient come in, and I was supposed to pull all of her upper teeth and put her denture in. And this is back when we had folders with notes in them. Now, of course, we have computers can't work in dentistry without a computer now. Yeah. But we used to have these charts that I opened up and I couldn't read the handwriting, and I couldn't see who had taken the impression and made the denture. So there were four of the doctors in the practice. And so I went to every one of them and asked them. Okay, so who made the center? Well, we I finally figured out that an assistant had taken the impression, and the lab had made a denture out of it. And I just couldn't pull her teeth and deliver the debt. I just, I couldn't,

Shawn Zajas 7:14 yes, that's not acceptable. Right? Well, I didn't know how that

Allison House 7:17 would fit. And I'd left I mean, I would leave her was no teeth. Right? Right. That just seemed unfathomable to me. Patient was pissed at me. Really, really, because she taken the rest of the week off. She was ready for this. And my boss was not happy with me either. And I got fired for it. I wasn't fired that day. But I was fired soon after. And it was quite obvious. This was why. And my husband was not amused. I had never been fired from a job before. And we had student debts and two little kids. It was it was not fun. And, you know, now I look back. And it was this ethical decision. But it was also really a financial decision. But I had support. My husband at least had a job. I can't imagine if I was the primary breadwinner? Could I have made that decision? I don't know. And I worry about young dentists are they put in that position still? Anyway, so that's one of the reasons I started my own practice is because I want to have control. But when you own your practice, you still have to pay the bills. People expect you to pay rent,

Shawn Zajas 8:21 and the struggle is real. I mean, just just hearing his story. It's like, yeah, like, what what were you supposed to do when faced with this ethical decision early on in your career? And deep down inside, you just knew like, you couldn't pull the teeth. I just couldn't get the consequence of that could like the vulnerability in your professional. I mean, you had like you said you had debt. And I'm sure there's challenges that current dentists and young dentists are facing today that's very similar to that.

Allison House 8:54 I hope it's not on that scale. But I do think that they're facing some challenges like that. And I'm hoping that this podcast will give them some hope that they could start their own practice, or maybe they make just a change in the practice environment. They're in stand up for yourself. If we all stood up for ourselves, I think we can make a change and it would it would benefit patients to not just us. Oh,

Shawn Zajas 9:16 absolutely. So being that I've known you now for three to four years. I know a little bit more about, you know, some of the things that you probably don't want to tell everyone just because it might come across like you're bragging but you're kind of a big deal. And, you know, if you just like to share I know you were the youngest dentist to serve as the president of the Arizona Dental Association. Is that correct?

Allison House 9:42 Yes, I was the youngest state president.

Shawn Zajas 9:44 So what is what even led to you wanting to pursue that?

Allison House 9:50 Well, so back to the the two years in the seven practices. I wrote a letter to our Dental Association back then, and I told them the whole story it because I assumed that they didn't know, nobody could have known this. And they reached out to me. And after we'd worked on it for a while Kevin Earl came along, and he's wonderful with legislation. And he wrote some legislation here in Arizona, about what needed to happen. And we have business owners have to be registered and licensed here in Arizona, in order to have advanced dental practice. I know that shocks a layperson that they weren't before. But they weren't, you could just open a practice.

Shawn Zajas 10:30 So partly, your letter helped influence that actual legislation getting passed. It did. And you I mean, you probably had no idea that just you know, you taking the time to write a letter to the association could actually have such a profound effect.

Allison House 10:47 Well, a lot of people listened, I got to help write the bill, I got to testify. And suddenly, I understood the power of a group.

Shawn Zajas 10:57 So you kind of got thrust into that? I did.

Allison House 10:59 I did. Um, my parents are very involved in their Physical Therapy Association. So it was something I would have done anyway. But I was really young to start

Shawn Zajas 11:07 for sure. Yeah. So that just kind of ushered you into wanting to continue to just make a difference. Be aware of how you could like how your voice mattered when it came to just legislation. And I guess just leading and directing the direction of dentistry,

Allison House 11:24 I think that you want to be in charge of your own destiny. And as I gotten older and watch this industry change, I'm recognizing that a lot of people are making decisions about our lives, dentists lives, that are not dentists. And we need to have control of our dentists destiny. So yeah, so I've really tried to put myself out there and talk about it. Which is scary, of course. Absolutely.

Shawn Zajas 11:48 So just really quick. I mean, we probably get into this more in future episodes. But how is it that we ended up coming to meet each other?

Allison House 11:58 So you came to the mission of mercy. And what's funny is I was the president of the Dental Association at the time, but that had nothing to do with the mission of mercy. They just told me go over and talk to those people. So I did, I came over and I met you, and you were just so inspiring. It's like, you just got what we were doing. And most people don't, they're overwhelmed by all of the things at the Mission of Mercy. But you got it. And you've developed this amazing product with the toothbrushes. I just am so impressed by you. Well,

Shawn Zajas 12:30 so the irony is here I was with this company and trying to figure out how we could help you know, the underserved communities just across the country that really weren't getting the oral care they needed. And my head, I hadn't met too many organizations, or even too many specific dentists to kind of identify with this is what dentistry is like, in this area. And I met you. And then I met Dr. Voltec. And I was just like, these have got to be like the two most inspiring people to really care about dentistry. Dentistry stands for. And unfortunately, it was a little misleading because some of the organizations I met after that are nothing like Cas, you know, now right away. They didn't care the same way that Dr. voltric did. And unfortunately, you know, some of their dentists may not have been as connected to caring as you were either. So I was thinking that everyone I was going to meet was going to be as amazing as you. But that's, that's when I met you. And again, just right off the bat. I was like, wow, Dr. House is just amazing. The way she's serving the way she's making a difference. So yeah, that is that is how we met. And that's, I guess, let's

Allison House 13:43 check is one of the most amazing people I've ever met. I mean, I gotta give him a shout out. He is an amazing person. When you met Yeah, that bar was high.

Shawn Zajas 13:52 It was so if you're listening in, you don't know anything about brighter way or a Dr. Chris Vilcek. look him up. It's just amazing, amazing what he's doing. So that has led us I guess, to this place now, where we really believe that dentistry it's best for dentistry, when dentists are really practicing in a way that's, that's true to their version of dentistry that's authentic to their version of dentistry, so that at the end of the day, like the patient is going to get I don't just, I guess, a great, great experience. You know, it's all about what's best for the patient. And what we believe is best for the patient is dentists that are connected to what they really care about in dentistry, so they can live some life giving.

Allison House 14:46 Yeah, so they're fulfilled. You said something the other day about 70,000 hours that we spent practicing dentistry that you've done the numbers over 40 year career 36 hours a week. That's a lot of hours that we spent and it does need to be fulfilling at the end of the day, you want to know that you've contributed. You also had asked me well, what if somebody's personality is different than than mine or some of the other doctors you work with? And I think that's, that's the wonderful thing. There's lots of different personalities. And you do want to practice in that authentic world, and the way that you want to practice and attract the patients that need you. I'm not the right fit for a lot of people. Maybe you're not the right fit for a lot of people. And that's okay. That's why there's so many of us out there. But that I think that's the philosophy and the way that you want to practice to feel fulfilled.

Shawn Zajas 15:38 Absolutely. So we're excited that we're starting this podcast. And we're excited about just the upcoming weeks and months to sharing more about what that looks like to practice with authenticity, to practice that version of dentistry, that's really true to who you are, because we want every dentist to be connected to that, you know, if they're going to spend 70,000 hours in their profession, we want it to be something that is fulfilling that is on mission that's on purpose. That is true to that, that vision of dentistry that they had, maybe when they got into dental school, and they're like, this is what I'm excited about. And maybe there's there's dentists out there that really aren't in alignment with that right now. And if there's any way that we can encourage them, or inspire them or just help provide, whether it's a mindset change or tool sets to help them, I believe that's what that's what we're wanting to do.

Allison House 16:30 That's what we're wanting to do. And you haven't said the the money part, but yes, you can live a very fulfilled, life giving dentistry and you can also make money. It all can go together. I think sometimes you hear that it can't. And that's an important piece that we're gonna talk about too.

Shawn Zajas 16:49 Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, thank you. I'll send I'm excited for again, the upcoming episodes. This is gonna be fun.

Allison House 16:56 Thank you, Sean.

Mark House 17:02 Thank you for listening to the authentic dentist podcast to join Allison and John on this journey. Hit the subscribe button to never miss an episode. Here's to your success. Express yourself fully. Live authentic.