Anne: Hi, everyone. It is Anne Duffy and welcome to Dental Entrepreneurs, the future of dentistry podcast. I'm so happy that you're here with me today. And I'm very excited because I have an old friend, an old dear friend, as she's a do a dental entrepreneur woman and a new dental entrepreneur woman that I'm introducing you today. But before we get started, let me tell you a little bit about these two amazing women in dentistry. First up, Dr. Amy Wenninghoff. She is originally from Minot, North Dakota. She became interested in dentistry during her undergrad years through her sister who was attending dental school at the time. She graduated from the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry in 2012, then moved to Nebraska to practice in a wide variety of clinical settings including hospital dentistry and VA care through her residency program at UNMC in Omaha, community health and private practice. She opened her doors to her startup practice Roots Dental in 2023 and has been enjoying chasing her dreams of being the friendliest comprehensive dentist in Lincoln Nebraska in her 40s. Free time, Dr. Amy could be found spending time with her husband, Garen, and their two girls, Sydney and Grace.
Anne: Amy, welcome to the podcast today. We're so glad you're here. Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to be here. Well, it's going to be fun because we're going to be talking to Sara Hansen. And let me tell you a little bit about her. Sara says many dental practices today struggle with patient attraction strategies and differentiating themselves from the dentist down the street. The reality is, failing to connect with your community through authentic marketing can lead to missed opportunities for people to become healthier and practice growth is stunted. With Sara Hansen's expertise in developing detailed marketing plans that showcase your authentic voice combined with her track record of propelling practices to achieve success through marketing, she is committed to delivering your dental practice. The amazing Sara Hansen. Hello, Sara.
Anne: Well, it's so nice to have both of you. I think we've only done one other podcast with two women or two podcast guests before. So this is kind of new for me. We're going to go back and forth with you too, because you guys not only have great knowledge, but you've lived this experience, and that experience is everything that it takes. But I want to also say something, Sara, and I miss this about your bio, because I didn't scroll down all the way. You're committed to delivering your dental practice, an individualized marketing plan to guide your journey to becoming the dental authority in your community, so you can attract the patients you deserve.
Anne: And that is really key because yeah, there's a lot of dental practices out there and especially Amy, you have been in dentistry and it sounds like you were inspired by your sister. But then you decided after all of your experience to start your own dental practice. Why? Why did you decide to start a startup?
Amy: That's such a great question. And thank you for asking that. It's kind of interesting. I think that I always deep down knew that I wanted to do something like a startup. Every six months or so I would just get this feeling that I needed to do something different, of an itch to do something on my own. And so over the course of several years, it just started creating an office in my head. And it was a really lovely office, but you know, I hadn't done anything to actually create it. And so finally, my husband, he's like, this is a really nice office that you're running your head. Amy, like, maybe it's time that you start to think about actually taking a step forward actually creating what you have been dreaming about for so long. And the cards just fell in the right place. And we found a great location that's close to my house and close to where my kids go to school. And it just seemed like everything was pointing me in the direction of starting my own practice.
Anne: That is so cool. A couple things. I love the idea of the strategy behind having it close to your home, close to the kids school as a mom. And we'll talk a little bit about that's key to just, knowing they're right down the street. And if somebody needs you, you're honestly there unless you're in the middle of a root canal or something like that, but that's very comforting for moms. And I love the name roots dentistry. How did you come up with that name?
Amy: Yeah, so that was a name that I kept coming back to. I just thought about a lot of things. Wenninghoff dental is a little long. So that one I kind of threw out. Started reading a lot about branding and reading, you know, the shorter words, one word is very memorable. And so just trying to come up with something that people could remember, that was different in my community. That was something that I just came to be. And I've always enjoyed gardening and plants things like that. So that kind of naturally fell into some of the interests that I have outside of work, but I think mostly it's just, everything's a foundation. And so if we don't start with that foundation and grow on that, you're never going to get somebody to optimal health. And so I thought that the imagery behind that was really powerful. And I thought it really spoke to the type of dentistry that I wanted to do.
Sara: Amy, you had said, that you love gardening and Anne in her logo, there is this beautiful flower. So again, it's so much reflective of who she is, as well as tying it into dentistry. So from a marketing perspective, it's, top notch.
Anne: As a female, in the world, something like that just really resonates with me. And you know, moms are the ones that are making all the appointments and buying everything. So again, kudos to you. I just love it. So you started working with PDA. How did you find them? And tell me about that process. Where in the process of starting your own practice, did you start working with Productive Dentist Academy?
Amy: Yeah, so I actually stalked Productive Dentist Academy for a while before I actually reached out. So I had heard of them from some online communities. I was doing a lot of research in the startup phase and Productive was a name that kept coming up again and again about just a good consulting group and just great, name in dentistry. That is a good resource for clinicians wanting to grow and wanting to be just true to themselves and give their patients the best experience and really get them to the best health. Such a focus on communicating with patients. So we all go to see and learn how to do so many things. And I think PDA really fills that gap between learning how to do something, but then communicating it to your patients so that you can give them the best the dentistry has to offer. And so I always just felt like that called to me and it felt like a place that I wanted to go. And then just reading posts from people who had been to productive dentist Academy. It's just a group of dentists that I wanted to surround myself with. You know, they see potential in dentistry and they see what's possible and they just have such an abundance mindset. And so I really felt like surrounding myself and aligning myself with those types of dentists was only going to be good for myself moving forward. And it's proven to be just a great decision.
Amy: I knew that I really liked PDA. And so I reached out to them before I started my practice and interviewed them as far as the marketing goes and just really loved what they had to say. So as you're doing a startup, you're just preserving as much of that marketing budget as you possibly can. And so once I got through all the equipment purchases and the construction and I was like, okay, yes, I saved enough, then I reached back out to PDA and we got to go in.
Anne: How smart of you to do it that way. I mean, you know, you could save so much and Sara, I'll let you talk about that, by using an expert in this instead of just throwing stuff against the wall, right? They are experts. And again, I love everybody at PD. I was just at their meeting back in March.
Amy: Yeah. Yes. I was there too. I took my time.
Sara: Yeah. Yeah. Amy was there too. We met each other.
Anne: I sat at your table. I think we did. Yes, we got to meet very briefly. Yep. It was awesome. You were so young and oh my, you are so young for that. I was just a couple months ago and look at you now. But I want to swing over to Sara, tell us what your role is in PDA. A little bit about your story, how you got there and your philosophy about authentic marketing.
Sara: Yeah. So I come from the dental industry and you know this about me. I started as a dental assistant years ago. Oh my gosh. I'm getting old. And worked my way through the dental practice, having every position except for the dentist. And I fell in love with it. And after 18 years of being in the dental office, I'm like, what else can I do with this knowledge and experience? And, you know, how do I stay in dentistry? And that's when I started consulting. And I love it. It is by far my favorite thing that I do every day. So I still get to work with dentists and their teams, but in a different type of capacity, so when it comes to marketing, I have the philosophy that you really can't lead someone or teach someone if you haven't been there yourself. And so, and you already know this story, I had to figure out my authentic, why, what I put on this earth to do, how do I help inspire and teach and guide? And what am I learning from this as well? And I fell in love with marketing. I had done marketing in the dental office, but then to really expand my marketing knowledge and expertise. Public speak and all of that. I feel like this whole marketing world has been opened up. And so I always say I have the great job that I get to tell a doctor's story.
Sara: With marketing, I think we often just think of, you know, get in by Wednesday, 79 new patient special, but really it's about what is the why behind the practice? What's the doctor's story? How do you transform patients' lives every single day? And I get to tell that story. And so I am called a fractional CMO. So for example, Amy and I work together where, you know, we sit down and collaborate as partners and say, okay, what are our goals? Where are we going? How do we want to get there? And then through marketing, we fill in that gap of achieving what she wants. And we tell that through her marketing story. And what's great is we get to do things externally, but a lot of our focus really is internal right now. Right, Dr. Amy?
Amy: Yes, it sure is. So it was great because when I first started, you know, you have so many systems and so many things that you have to put into place. And such a big one is how we treat our patients and how we talk to our patients about the fact that we are new and we are looking forward for new patients without sounding, you know, completely desperate, but inviting them to invite their friends and family into the practice. And so it was really nice because I was able to just offload that part of my training to PDA and know that my team was getting trained very well in how to do those things. And I think that has really shown. We have a lot of our patients coming from internal sources, from referrals, from friends and family, our reviews as well. That was a big part of our initial training is how to ask questions for a review. And you know, we reached 100 reviews shortly after I hit a year open. And I was super proud of that because we don't pay for them. We just ask patients and I feel like we've earned every single one of them. My team has done an incredible job of really treating the patient exceptionally well. And you know, you can see that reflected in their names showing up in the reviews again and again. And a big part of that was PDA just showing them how to ask. And I think that's made such a huge difference in our growth.
Anne: That's so cool. Tell us about that because, we don't learn any of that. And she got the clinical down, but how to ask, how to communicate. That's beautiful. I mean, you're not just marketing right, Sara. So tell us, how do you get, yeah, consulting with the whole team.
Sara: Yeah. It's great because again, this is where it becomes really one of my favorite parts is working with the team. Marketing is really about the patient experience. I think we often think marketing as Google ads and TV commercials, but ultimately it's the patient experience. And I loved that Dr. Amy used the term "earned the right," because when we start looking at the touch points, right? Yes, brand awareness and start to get the messaging out of, "Hey, we're open. We'd love to see you. Here's what we do every day." But then from the moment that the phone rings, my external marketing job stops, and it really is that baton transfer to the internal team, where: How are they treated on the phone? Do they have financial options? Do they have open availability? Are they waiting months to get in? Are they treated with kindness? From there it goes through every step in the patient journey process to ultimately the team being able to ask for referrals and reviews and have they earned the right to do so. And so when I work with the team, it's really helping them understand that my job from an external marketing standpoint really is to get the phone to ring, but they are the patient advocates and it really is their responsibility to keep that patient journey going and delivering expectations on the messaging that we're putting out into the market.
Sara: We believe that marketing really is from the inside out. And I love that Dr. Amy's here because she is building this beautiful foundation of marketing. Sometimes we think marketing and think these big things, but really for her, we started with building the core, right? And that is when you're new into starting your own practice. Dr. Amy touched on this. You don't have a lot of money to spend and that's okay. You don't need to have a lot of money to spend. And that's what I love about her is, we started working together and saying like, okay, here's where we're going to start. We're going to start with this foundational piece. Who are you? Let's do referrals and reviews. Let's start building a social media presence, you know, really start with that. There's so much low hanging fruit in practices that I think opportunities get missed a lot in dental practices. Yeah, we have patients coming in, not accepting treatment. They're not scheduling their six month continuing care. All those things are such low hanging fruit and don't cost really anything to add that into your marketing strategy, but yet it's so often missed because we just don't think about it when it comes to marketing. And so Dr. Amy's really building this beautiful foundation of her team knows how to ask for reviews and referrals, how to post on social media and make a great presence with that. I mean, there's all these foundational steps that they are doing beautifully and they're starting. And now it's just part of their everyday systems. And now everything that builds on top of that is bonus, right? So it's an incredible way to shift our mind really, and think more about internal, because that really is one, your least amount of cost of acquisition. And two is that beautiful foundation to build the patients you really want.
Anne: Yeah, a couple things there, Sara and Amy, what you're doing, because I remember your team. They were delightful. They were all engaged. They were sitting around everyone. Everyone. I have a wonderful team. Everybody loved each other. So Sara, what you're doing also is, again, kudos to you, a young dentist. A lot of times they don't start right from the beginning, and this is so, so important because the nuances of everybody on the team feeling valued. You know, that's a big part of dentistry right now, a challenge of, teams are leaving in droves and, you've got to fill those seats. But if you incorporate this kind of training with your whole team, then everybody's excited about the new patients that come in—the brothers and sisters, the relatives, the neighbors. It really is a family practice, which, that is so cool. And that sounds like it maps right on to how you feel about your life and goals, Amy, for the future. What do you see going on in the future? What would be your goal for Roots Dentistry, say, five years?
Amy: That's such a great question. I have goals, but I'm also just an incredibly flexible human. So it's so funny. You can ask me one day and then six months later. I'm like, well, I thought that but now this looks really interesting. And so, you know, as far as that guiding vision, I think that that part is so important. So for me, I have to go revisit my vision a lot so I don't get distracted, especially in this startup phase. And so, when I sat down and decided, okay, I'm going to do my own thing, it really came down to exceptional care for patients and treating them really, really well. And that's where it came up with "friendliest comprehensive dentist in Lincoln." It speaks very true to me. I love people, I love chatting with people, and I love taking great care of patients and I love continuing my own education so that we can continue to provide the best quality care. You know, when I first started, it looked a lot like just me. You know, I just want to be there on my own, making all of the decisions so that I can make sure that we start with this great foundation and my team knows how to treat a patient. And it's really fun because now as my team is doing such a great job with this, now as I look to the future, I think, well, what if I did want to mentor another dentist someday? Where a year ago, that didn't seem possible, that would even be a possibility. And just seeing that team come along so well and get some of these systems up and running, it's really exciting for me to think, okay, what could I do in the future? But I think it really just comes down to continuing to provide the excellent care in a friendly setting for our patients. And then how we do that, that leaves me a lot of flexibility in how I want to handle that in the future.
Anne: Oh, yes. And so great to have your partner with Sara and PDA to hold your hand and help you navigate those waters as you continue to grow. Because I think a lot of times when you get into your own practice, your head is down, you're working really hard. You don't see what is even possible sometimes until somebody sees it in you. And then they can help develop that working? Yeah.
Sara: And I'm giggling because Amy and I talked about this, I mean, we're all entrepreneurs, right? And Amy had to put a lot of trust into me, right? She has all the risk. And so bringing me in to help support her, it's a trusting process, and what I appreciate with her is she did trust the process. And as her and I were talking about, I think Amy used the word distracted. I got distracted by like, "Oh, maybe we need to switch up this or do this because maybe that would bring more patients in," and what I appreciate is she trusted it and said, "Okay, I'm going to do this. We're doing it authentically," because when we first started, it was all about her. Why? So we never started first by saying, "I want to attract 100 new patients a month," right? It was very much, "This is who I am. This is how I want to practice dentistry." And then everything else formed around that. So her marketing messages internally and externally are all about her friendly, comprehensive care. And so now what's happened a year into this process, she not only has grown tremendously by 70 percent production per patient, which means in one year—can I brag about her for just a second?
Sara: So her external advertising has grown 50 percent from 2023 to 2024. Her production per patient has grown 70%. So now what we're doing, it's not just about getting cheeks in the seat, right? It's not about just attracting a bunch of new patients. Now she's actually getting really those quality patients that she has wanted a year out. It's unbelievable. And, she's like, "I'm seeing it. Like, I see now that these patients are really who I want to be working on. This is the type of dentistry I want to practice." And so I have so much gratitude because, it's about trusting the process and we really have to trust each other, working together with a partnership of, "Hey, thank you for trusting in me," because as an entrepreneur, she is putting a lot of time and money into meeting with me and her understanding that I have her best interest and her practice's best interest as well. But it's trusting the process, right? And me like making sure I'm not letting her down and that we're growing together and building what she wants. And ultimately, to be a year out it's such a great story to show, like you can build this foundation, every dentist is capable of achieving this if you build the foundation correctly, right? It's like that famous, "If you build it, they will come," right? So I'm just really proud of her for the risk that she took, but also this amazing reward that she is really starting to see. It's like that tangible that she's been waiting for. And it's here.
Amy: What's been really cool is I would say that in the last month or two, especially, I've had a lot more patients that have sought us out because of some of the video content that we put out. So patients that just heard me talking. It's nothing new. Over the top. It's not salesy. It's just me talking to a patient that might have been a while since they came into the dentist, they might be feeling a little bit anxious. And so it's just these little bits of me talking to a prospective patient about, "Hey, it's okay to come in. We're not, we're not going to judge you. We want to help you." And I've had several patients that have come in because of those videos. And also after they see the videos, they're looking at my website and seeing the reviews. And that is, social proof that we would be a great fit for them. And I was telling Sara, the cool thing about that is that they're coming in and I already have a little rapport before I start with that patient. When you start and you've never met them, you have no relationship to them whatsoever. You have to spend a lot of time really developing a relationship with that patient and not that I don't do that. In addition to these patients coming in already knowing that they've chosen me, but it's so much easier because they already decided, "Hey, this is the dentist for me." And the cool thing, and this is really, I think what drew me to PDA is it's just so authentic. It doesn't feel salesy. It's not outside of my realm of comfort. I'm not one to always put myself out there. And so for patients to be seeking me out just because I'm who I am is just, it's really cool. I never thought that that was going to be possible. So I have a lot of gratitude to Sara and I'm glad that I did trust the process there.
Anne: First of all, if you're listening and you're a dentist thinking about this, you are coachable, honestly. And that's a gift. So if you're not, try to be coachable because that's going to really help you implement. And the other thing I love about this, the authenticity of your videos. Obviously, great trust before they even walk in the door and you're the same person. So like a lot of times if you see a video and everybody's all dolled up and in this fancy suite and blah, blah, blah, they'll come in there. Oh well, you're not—I don't see the connection here. Right. But it's based on your authentic self. And then you have this team of authentic marketing behind you. And the other thing that I love about PDA, and for you too, Amy, is that when, Sara, when you get stuck, all you have to do is pick the phone up and call somebody in PDA because there's a big group of people that you're working with, instead of like, I do think there's a lot of great consultants and experts out there that work alone. What do they say? If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others. Yeah. And you've got this whole good community, not only within PDA, but then again, all the dentists that I met in March, hate to say it. Everyone is drinking the Kool Aid, but I don't think that's what it's about. I think you attract people to your authentic self. I always say good people find good people, but it seems like that's always with your company. And also Amy, with your practice, yes, you're getting different kinds of patients, I guess, since when you first started because of the authentic marketing they're putting out there. The people would never know you if it weren't for that.
Sara: Yeah, exactly. And really marketing, it's about a relationship, right? We all have mouths, we all have teeth, we all need dentists and there's so many to choose from. And what is that one thing that gives somebody that pause, to find out more about them? Or usually it's something that, reaches to them that they can connect with. And so what we teach a lot of doctors to do is have your patients tell the story. If your goal is to attract more implant patients instead of marketing, "Hey, we do implants," have the patient tell the story about, "I was embarrassed of my smile. I had put my kids first. Now I invested in myself and I'm a different person," you know, that story resonates with other people in that situation. And I'll share with you. And Amy knows this because I shared it from the front of the room on stage about how we got our dog. My girls had been begging for this dog for years. I'm like, I'm not a dog person. We're not going to have a dog. And we were watching the Super Bowl and the farmer's dog had a commercial and it showed this woman. This little girl getting a dog. And she says to the dog, "I'll always be by your side" or "I'll always take great care of you." And it showed this dog being by her side through all these big events in her life, going to college, getting married, having a baby, you know, all these things, right? This little girl was growing up and. When this commercial ended, my daughter who was 10 at the time was sobbing and she looks at me and says, "That's me and my dog one day." And I share that story because that is marketing. She saw herself as that little girl getting a puppy and having that dog through her entire life. That's the power of marketing, is you being able to connect with that. And so what Dr. Amy is doing is she's filming an authentic video, just being herself, letting patients know, "Hey, we're here to help. This is what I believe as a dentist. And here's how I want to help patients every day." That's connecting with somebody, right? So she has nailed it on that perspective. And that's why authentic marketing is so important because it's not just about the tactics, but really it's about the messaging behind those tactics. What is your message saying? If it's generic messaging, people are going to scroll on by, but when you can really be your authentic self and share that story of transformation or have your patient share that story of transformation, that's where that hook comes. It's the magic.
Anne: Yeah. And also, you know, just knowing Amy as little as I do, but now I feel like I know you a lot better, and see you in action with your team. I mean, it really helps to have that innate authenticity to begin with to show. And it made me think too, Sara, like your next commercial, Amy, you'll be—you got grandma, you got grandpa, you got the mom, dad, you got the kids. And then, they might bring their service dog in and have a treat, a pet bowl of water there, which would be really good. But, Amy, what advice, okay. So, ladies, we could talk forever here. I'm telling you, there's so much good stuff.
Anne: There's a lot of young dentists that listen to our podcast. What advice would you have for a new dentist that's like you? First of all, I can't believe you have been practicing 12 years. Cause you—that's all the stress they're taking off of you from your marketing plan. And you're—what advice would you give to new practice owners who are looking to achieve similar success? And I dare say if Amy can do it, I'm not going to say everybody can do it, but if you're coachable and you're working with the right people, it's possible. So what advice would you give?
Amy: Yeah, so I guess to the person who's thinking about doing something and they're just sitting in their seat. I think as dentists, we tend to get in our own heads about a lot of things. And we try to perfect the process before it ever starts. I mean, that's a huge part of our training in dental school. And so my advice for that person would be to start. You know, you actually have to just start and then let the things come to you as they're coming. Because if you never start, it's always going to be in your head. That practice of mine, I could have started it five years earlier, and I still think it could have been great. I mean, I learned a lot in those five years that I think helped my practice grow. But sometimes I'm like, man, I should've done this earlier. This is great. I'm doing what I want to be doing with my life. And so I think that's a big thing is like just believing in yourself, knowing that you don't have to have all the answers and that's where things like PDA come in, surrounding yourself with people that can help you if you don't know what you're doing next and just having the vulnerability and just the ability to say, you know, I don't know, but I'll find out. That's something that I think is helpful. And so you don't have to have all the answers. You don't have to have a perfect plan, but you do have to start at some point if you want to do something like this.
Amy: And then the other thing, if you have started already and you're feeling overwhelmed—when I was in that process, you just get so many things rolling around in your brain. And so taking what's in your head that you're constantly thinking about, if you're ever overwhelmed, is actually just writing it down all on paper. One of my mentors, she just told me to do a brain dump, you know, what's in your head of things you need to do. And I think I had over 300 things in my head of things that I had to do. And just taking it and putting it on paper, organizing it by what part of the startup process is this, and then prioritizing what comes first, because a lot of times we want to focus on things that really are not that important yet. They will be, for whatever reason, it's taking up space in your head. So taking that time to prioritize and get yourself organized, I think it makes you a lot more efficient. And then what can you delegate? 300 things in your head, you cannot possibly do every single one of them. And so that's where I think things like coaching, things like having an external team help you with marketing, something that I'm not an expert in, that's been really helpful to just take that weight off of my shoulders so I can focus on things that I'm much more equipped to do in my office.
Anne: Oh, man, that is priceless information right there. And then, good that, you know, Sara, you're not just marketing, you guys are a team and you're a partner, you and Amy are partners now. I'm sure you learn so much from each other. That's beautiful. Love that. And good on Garen saying, come on now, honey, it's time.
Amy: My husband is my biggest cheerleader. I'm very lucky to have him in my life.
Anne: Okay. So we have our dues—a man that supports a woman in dentistry is called a dude and I'm going to give—it's Garen, right? Is that his name? Garen? Yep. He's number 108. We'll give Garen 108 dudes. So you can later on, but Sara, one last question. I want to end with another question for both of you, but Sara, what advice would you give to other dental professionals looking to like boost their marketing efforts?
Sara: Two things. Like Dr. Amy said, dentists wear many, many hats and it can be very overwhelming. Again, taking off some of those hats and bringing people in who can help support you absolutely gives you more time to focus on the business where you need to focus. And so I love, you know, that it's like, just take a step, just see what's out there, there's so many people out to help take some of that weight off as entrepreneurs. But the second thing is really look internal. I think that is the biggest secret in marketing when it comes to how do I market? We'll go through the steps of the patient experience. Does the doctor ever listen to the phone calls? How are patients treated? Has your team earned the right to ask for those referrals and reviews? How many past due appointments are there? How much do you have in unscheduled treatment? Those are all things that are key, easy to help boost production within the practice to help with patient flow coming in at slow times. And something you don't really even have to pay extra for. So again, there's a lot of marketing opportunities within the practice. And I say, start inside first before you start a marketing budget that's external. There's a lot of opportunity inside the practice.
Anne: That just sounds very simple, very logical, it's doable. Good point on that. So you both have two daughters—future dues. And I'll start with you, Amy. Tell me, how do you balance it all? And be with them. Yeah. Love on them. Yeah.
Amy: It's really hard. I mean, it's so important. And I think that what we do at the office is so measurable and it's so fun because you can see a direct result in marketing. You can see a direct result of talking to patients about comprehensive care. With kids, it's not as linear. Again, going back to prioritizing and going back to your own vision of what you want, a big part of what I did when I started my practice was, okay, part of why I'm doing this is so that I can be there for my kids. That always has to be at the focus of decisions that I make, and it always has to be at the focus of my goals. And so we've grown very quickly and I'm happy with the growth, but instead of saying what more, what more, what more, it's, we're growing at a great rate. We don't need to be any faster than that, because if we do grow faster, that means that I'm going to have to sacrifice from my kids. And so knowing when to stop and say, that's enough for this month. And we're going to spend that time with the family. And I did that in a couple of ways. One is just blocking some time off in my schedule. So like on Wednesdays, I get done at three and on Fridays, I get done at three. Those are times that are just built in that my kids are typically at school that I can do admin work or I can do something that's not going to take away from the family time later. I could absolutely see patients there and yes, my production numbers would look a little bit better, but it's not worth the trade off of not being with my kids at night.
Anne: And that's so smart, Amy, because they're young. And I just met a dentist recently that just bought her practice after the kids went to college. So, I mean, your life is different. Parts of it and segments of it. And they're not going to be young again as young as they are today, tomorrow. So that's so smart. When you look back, you'll be so happy that you did that. Sara, how about you? How do you balance?
Anne: You're both probably wearing 300 hats. Going to just say...
Sara: I think that's probably one of the things Dr. Amy and I first bonded over is having two girls and being a mom in the dental industry, but what I love seeing and being a part of this industry is there are more women graduating from dental school than ever. I giggle because I have to have the conversation sometimes with newer female doctors that are coming out of, "Hey, make sure you wear a white lab coat or something because they will think that you're the assistant," so trying to change the narrative within the industry of this cute young female doctor. She is the doctor, not the assistant, breaking the narrative there. But I love being able to see the growth of the dental industry being so robust with such phenomenal male and female doctors.
Sara: And really what it's doing is setting our children up for the success of, "Hey, there's not a one size fits all," you know, it really opens up the door. And for me only being a mother of girls, you know, for my girls, what I do and how I show up in my career is really a direct result of that, teaching them to follow their dreams, have strong voices, change the industry, whatever you're passionate about, do it, you know, get it done and change the world while you're in the process. And so, you know, I will forever be grateful to have you in my life as part of the do community and all of the support and everything that comes with that. It always will hold a special place in my heart. So I appreciate you.
Anne: Oh, I appreciate you too. I just, these are the rich conversations that we get to have. And I'm so thankful for do and for you and, meeting Amy. And then the circles get bigger and bigger of really all good people just come in. If you don't like our circle, then you just go find another one. And that is just fine because everybody has their authentic self. It's the only way to live, isn't it? It's the only way to live, in that authenticity. And that's when the fruits come back to you and we have time and you know, Amy, it's like, it's so great to have a pal, same things here, that knows the struggles of being a mom and a businesswoman and a sister and absolutely get a daughter.
Anne: It's great to be able to pick that phone up and call a do, as we like to say. So, can thank you both for this time. I can't wait to see the summer edition. If you're listening, this is probably going to go out before, so we're going to tease it out. Amy and Sara will be on our cover and sharing more of their story that you can learn from and reach out to because all are welcome to PDA and to do because Amy is the friendliest dentist in—I just love it.
Anne: That is just so sweet. And it fits on you beautifully. Darlene.
Amy: And thank you so much for all you do for the dental community, the women. I mean, we just, it's such a great community and it's so awesome to see women supporting other women. We need each other more than we know.
Amy: More...
Anne: ...than we know. Doesn't matter how old you are. We need each other. So ladies, have the best day. Keep that going. I know that your practice is going to continue to succeed. And, most importantly, if anyone's listening to us today, please remember to keep doing you.
Anne: Thank you, Dr. Amy. And thank you, Sara, for being with me today.
Amy: You're welcome.
Anne: Okay, so we're gonna wrap this up. Everybody with a big part. Love you.
Sara: Love you, love you, love you.
Anne: Alright. I'll see you next time.
