Bulletproof Dental Practice Podcast Episode 5 Host: Dr. Peter Boulden Atlanta Dental Spa   Guest: Dr. Craig Spodak http://www.spodakdental.com/ Facebook: Craig Spodak Instagram: Craig Spodak Email: drcraig@spodak.com   Key Takeaways: Dental profession can be improved by sharing best practices with each other. Dentists go through the same things - there will always be bad times. It’s how you deal with it. Idea behind Spodak Dental Group: have a dental practice with everything under one roof rather than having a single practice all on it's own. In order to have the best practice and best resources, you need to share everything with other dentists. Idea about Spodak’s spacious area: in order to make patients and dentists feel more comfortable and add value to their visit / practice. You need to be conscious of the entire patient visit from their visit in your online channel to their visit to your actual dental clinic. On Social Media: Social Media is about engaging with your patient's’ social network. If you have amazing content but no one is engaging with it, then it becomes more spam than an effective ad. Think of engaging content for your social media channels which may even be non-dental. Balance it with what you actually do. How to manage social media in-house: Find the person who is in your office and who is already in the social media channels and tap them for your social media initiatives. Create an internal page where everyone posts something interesting and the designated social media person picks the best one to share to the external audience. Social Media Content will be hard to outsource. It is best to channel that budget to internal social media advocates. Social Media training is a better investment than outsourcing it. Tip: Ask patients to check in to your practice. It is good advertising. Incentivize them for doing this. Advertising Tips: Other advertising initiatives: selective seminars with catered food for affluent communities. Advertising Tip: A mortgage for a highly visible practice can make up for big advertising budget. Efficiency Tip: Consider mobile payments where the patient doesn’t have to interact with random people they just met for payments. Business should not just generate revenue. Learn to give back and do the right thing. Construction Tips Have a purpose behind it. There will be setbacks so you need to understand why you’re doing it. Doing so will help you pull through. Hire a dental design firm who can specialize in designing your big practice. Plan how your patients will interact with your office. Being LEED-certified is the right thing to do. It’s not just good for PR. Think of it as giving back. Going for LEED-certified building increases productivity in people and shows you care for the patients. Business Expansion Tips: Vision Tip: Write a vision you have for yourself even before it happens. Believe it even if you don’t know if it’s reasonable or not. Others will catch on the vision if you believe it really well. You can achieve so much and be unfulfilled. Achievement and fulfillment are not always related. Do something because it fulfills you not because you want to do more. Do not grow for the sake of growing and when it doesn’t make sense. Identify your why. It has to make sense and it can’t be selfish. Stay productive. Don’t run after retiring then consider it as the time to start living. Resources Mentioned: Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz   Books Rocket Fuel by Gino Wickman and Mark Winters Multipliers by Liz Wiseman   Productivity Tool Calendar   Tweetables: “It improves our profession by being open and transparent to each other.” - Dr. Craig Spodak  “We can only elevate our profession by sharing.” - Dr. Craig Spodak “Social media is not about push advertising, it’s about pull advertising.”  - Dr. Craig Spodak “The most effective advertising available to us now is free. (This is social media).”  - Dr. Craig Spodak “At the end of the day if you’re blessed enough to