Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: And we're back for another week of the world's first, second, third, maybe fourth best podcast in dentistry. It just depends.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Right behind you.
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Yeah, it just depends what. What day of the week it is and who you kind of like. But I've got an amazing guest, honestly, one of my favorite people in dentistry who I admire for his tenacity, his conviction, and his relentless pursuit of excellence. And most importantly, he has agreed to join us at our 3D growth summit in Orlando on April 30, May 1, 2026. And I wanted to give everybody a sneak Peek into Dr. Grant Olson. Grant, what's up, dude?
[00:00:42] Speaker B: Hey, what's up, T bone? Excited, man. This is, you know, likewise. I admire what you've done in the education space. I remember one surgery. I got to share a quick story for those of you that haven't watched this.
This guy has some cojones. He gets up in front of, I don't know, five, six, seven thousand people, does a live surgery. Live full arch implant surgery. You know, not pre recorded, just in the moment. Goes back and forth and just chatting and answering questions. And I'm just going, I am so nervous for this guy. And I. I don't. I don't know if I had even done a full arch yet. But now, as someone who does them regularly, I'm going, that's a. That's a. That's bold. And I liked it, man.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: Mad respect.
Thank you, Grant. I remember that day very well. You know, a couple of things on that. One was, number one, they cut me off at the end when I said that. Just remember, I did this full arch surgery in the time most of you take to do a single unit CEREC crown. So they cut that one off. And then number two, what was really hard, the hardest part of that was actually the back and forth. I had certain times that they would come back to me.
So, you know, let's say I'm laying a flap and then taking out a tooth. I'd have to sit, and I got done earlier. I'd have to sit there and wait until they got back to me. And then some sections would be 20 minutes later. I'd be like, how do I get to the next section in 20 minutes? And then sometimes you'd be sitting there waiting. But it was a lot of fun. It was a highlight of my career, certainly, to do that.
[00:02:05] Speaker B: Yeah, it was cool.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: Well, Grant, you're in Springfield, Missouri, the mecca of big cities in America.
[00:02:13] Speaker B: You got it.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: And for those that don't know, Grant has built an Amazing practice.
It's probably one of the most beautiful practices in dentistry. Certainly. And I don't mean this in any negative way. It's not what you would expect to see in the flyover state. You'd expect to see something like this in a much more major city. Grant, if you don't mind, just for our listeners that don't know you, can you describe your practice, your facility, kind of give people a scope of what you're doing in Springfield, Missouri?
[00:02:43] Speaker B: Sure. Well, to. First thing I would say is anybody that gets to know our practice, know myself, I would say right off the bat like do, do what is you right. Be authentic to you. If you don't, you'll be absolutely miserable. So yes, this big practice that, you know, maybe larger than the average endeavor was something I really wanted to do. And so it was something I was willing to take on the challenge and rally the troops, so to speak, to help accomplish. So yeah, so it was basically a vision of how do we break outside of the box of general dentistry, the, the dental profession and think about things in a way that is like, okay, why do we do things this way and can we just completely do it differently? And with that in mind, we did a ground up construction that is really more of a resort that happens to dentistry. That's kind of how we landed on the kind of what's the theme of the, the practice. So it's built around a water feature, you know, floor to ceiling glass so you can get a lot of sunlight and you don't feel trapped in the rooms. Large displays in the front that help get people's attention and attract them towards the smiles that we create. So you know, it's just we, we, a lot of the practices, a lot of things we took, we're, we're honestly just, and we're not hiding it. We, we take those ideas from a lot of the resorts that we've maybe been to or fine restaurants we've been to.
And so yeah, we've, we've adopted some new ideas and ways of, of doing things that I think help give a patient experience that it doesn't feel like a dental office.
[00:04:20] Speaker A: How big is your facility?
[00:04:22] Speaker B: So we are 30,000 square feet. We look probably like 60 because the center is not there. So people that drive by probably have the assumption that it's twice as big as what it is. But the center of the office is a courtyard with a, you know, bubbling spring and a creek.
[00:04:40] Speaker A: And then the other thing is, I love is you have these surgical suites and they're not your 10 by 10 operatory. So kind of describe that, kind of describe what it is and why you did it that way. Like what was, what was the. You know, because it's look in 30,000 square feet you could probably put, I mean I'm guessing you have 50 operatories at the end of the day and my guess is you don't have anywhere close to that.
[00:05:01] Speaker B: Right? Yeah. So we've got 30 ops and so yes, we have three surgical suites and at this point I probably wish I would have done a few more of those. But they're, they're very large rooms. So they, they sit in a wing that takes below it is, is 10 general hygiene rooms. That gives you an idea of how much space the three surgical suites consume. But these rooms are really with the mindset of these longer procedures. So originally it was you know, full mouth veneers, crowns reconstruction with the CEREC same day dentistry and having a space for the patient to relax, watch some Netflix and chill while we're hopefully not Netflix and chill while we're making their crowns. But you know, anyways we make the crowns and veneers bond in that very day. Right. So that was the original thought and now we use them mostly for full arch implant dentistry. They're a certain, if you can kind of think about we've all been to a room in a Vegas hotel probably for CE or whatever. But those rooms you'll have like a living room and then you'll have the bedroom and they kind of have a little delineation somewhere and, and that's kind of how we did our surgical suite. So 1 1/2 is surgical suite clean set up there and then on the other side is basically a living room and then we put a balcony and a patio overviews the courtyard.
The idea was is that high anxiety treatment. If you can have somebody there to be with you, that that helps. And then obviously a private bathroom. They don't have to go out and amongst other patients while they might be waiting for either their same day smile or their, you know, if it's a full arch implant treatment or their veneers and crowns to be bonded in that day. It gives them the privacy and the comfort of family being involved in this life changing treatment.
[00:06:45] Speaker A: Perfect. And just from a scope perspective, how big is your team and how many dentists you got?
[00:06:51] Speaker B: Right now we're right around I think 57 or 58 team members and we have five dentists, uh, so range from you know, doing pediatric care all the way from braces, invisalign veneers. We don't do a ton of endo, maybe, you know, single canal or single rooted teeth, stuff like that. But most of it is driven towards the cosmetic same day and the implant therapy treatment. So full arch implant dentistry. Yeah, that's all I do.
[00:07:23] Speaker A: Now when you say that's all you do is all you do. Like basically full arch implants, surgical work, full mouth rehabs. What. What is like your signature all in X.
[00:07:34] Speaker B: That's just all I want to see.
[00:07:36] Speaker A: If I want to see Dr. Grant Olson, I got to agree to have my teeth taken out. Yeah.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: Or I'll refer you to one of our other docs.
[00:07:42] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I got you if I want. Yeah. I'm just. I'm being somewhat funny because that's good. You know, it's what, you know, I call it being the signature dentist right within your practice. It's like, this is what I do. Our practice is amaz. It has all the culture that I created or that you created. But if you want to see me, I'm focused on doing this. And dentists get really stuck on that. They get stuck on saying no to patients. They get stuck on saying no to the people that they've been seeing for 15 to 20 years. How did you get. How did you kind of get over that?
[00:08:14] Speaker B: You know, I realized pretty early on in my career that I could only be really, really, really good at one thing. And that's not just clinically, but that's also messaging. And so, you know, the industry doesn't have a ton of patience for those that are messaging everything to everyone and then trying to be everything to everyone. So I felt a lot of stress and strain. Not that I don't. Didn't love general dentistry. I did. But it was just a progression, you know, it was a, you know, stepping into maybe. Okay, now I mostly focus on cosmetic dentistry, or now I'm doing mostly single implants with the cosmetic dentistry. More Invisalign. Invisalign was kind of the first thing I started it to kind of focus on, which was great. You know, you learn a lot of great principles when you're aligning teeth. So I don't know the step, the stepping into.
Now, this is just felt like a natural fit. I mean, I really feel like this treatment, to give it the proper respect of it. The more you can focus on it and the more reps you can get, I think you can just provide a higher level for the patient. And obviously they're trusting you with significant amount of money and mistakes or challenges. Can be pretty consequential to their future. So, yeah, it's a, it's something that I was glad about three and a half years ago. I said, you know what, I probably shouldn't dabble anymore. I'm going to go ahead and give up the general dentistry, which, you know, was a step back, honestly, but it was, it was a short, short step back with a large step forward as I was able to give the focus and energy into growing this, this idea of full architecture.
[00:09:44] Speaker A: Well, you know, thank you for saying that. I think it's important for people to see. I love a couple of things that you said. One, it was a difficult decision.
Two, it was an emotional decision, I should say. Two, it was a step backwards. All of us are so scared or afraid that it's going to be a long term step backwards. And almost always if we do things with leadership and a plan, it's a short term step back and usually shorter than we expected.
And then kind of leading me into what I've always known you as or known you mainly for is I think the next thing that most people get really or fearful of in terms of saying this is what I want to do is where do I get these patients from? It's not like Springfield is the Mecca of a full arch dentistry. So like where, what would you tell somebody that says, you know, whether it's veneers, whether it's aligners, whether it's all on X, you know, whatever it is. I mean, how do you develop that brand that people don't think of you as Grant Olson, General Dentist, but Grant Olson xyz, the different things that you pivoted over your career.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: Sure. Well, you gotta, I mean, and obviously this has changed multiple times in my career path. So I'll take, I'll take full arch and use that. Cause it's obviously the most relevant. That's probably the most, I'm most versed in it right now. But you can take the same principles and apply it to any avenue or any kind of direction you want your practice to be. But you have to first and foremost think about what's going through your, your patient's mind.
[00:11:09] Speaker A: Right.
[00:11:10] Speaker B: Any, any direction that doesn't first take into your, your patient, your consumer's conscience and what they're struggling with and why they're not choosing this care is going to set you on the right foot first. With full arch implant dentistry, as so much of dentistry, I would call it a high trust treatment.
So a lot of different ways to, to maybe discuss or categorize that But I would say I kind of think of it as anything $5,000 or more, not that less than 5 is cheap, but $5,000 or more you're starting to get into. For a lot of people that's, that's a pretty significant, for most people, that's a pretty significant investment. Usually we're getting to something that's going to be changing your bite, your smile, whether it's veneers, braces, invisalign and obviously full arch, being surgical and really restorative all at the same time. So these high trust treatments, people inherently have some skepticism and maybe some reservation with.
And so what does that mean? We've got to find ways to connect with them that helps them trust us. And social media happens to be, in my opinion the most amazing tool to connect with people outside of our practice in a real, authentic, genuine way that can build trust. And since, you know, I, I've, I've really tried to figure this out, right. How do I be good at my craft and get better at it as my skill, but also be authentic? Because you have to have both. You can't just, you know, learn lines and try to follow some what somebody else is doing. You have to really be following what you love doing and get better at messaging that.
And so that's really been my pursuit in social media. That's how I've attracted people. No matter being in Springfield, Missouri, like you point out, we do 30, 40, some arches a month and I think that might shock a lot of people, but we do it in a, in a market that's not very large. We do attract outside of our market, but I would say if we can do that in our market, I'm certain there's a lot of doctors that are doing things uniquely right. They have a passion for the care, they know how to explain the things that would help people choose them. And they're just maybe not doing it because they're concerned about maybe just picking up a camera and where do I start and all that. So
[00:13:21] Speaker A: what percentage of your, your, your, your, your individual patients come from out of town?
[00:13:28] Speaker B: Probably a third maybe, or I'd say out outside of maybe 25 miles.
So 2/3 are probably within the Springfield Ozark Nixa, which is our kind of regional space here. And then probably a third are outside in neighboring states. We did probably have a lot more traveling patients when it was, when I was doing full veneers and crowns because that is more one and done especially with Cerex. And so I was doing that probably more broadly. I Had people from every state, I think, except for maybe Alaska and Hawaii.
But now the regional reach is more of a focus for full arch implant and.
[00:14:06] Speaker A: Okay, so. All right, so Grant, I want to do five arches a month. You want to do 30 to 40 arches a month.
What I found early in my arch career, give it up four or five, three, four or five years ago, I could get that number by just doing pay per click funnel ads being, I call it being generic. But what I found in the last couple of years is that being again, generic being a. You know, I'm not saying that in a negative way. At the end of the day, I mean this very lovingly. Your skillset, my skill set, somebody else's skill set isn't terribly different. You know, we're using the same stuff, doing the same thing. But really to your point, it's a high trust procedure. How did you leverage social media to really make yourself stand out and to amplify your traditional marketing medium?
[00:14:53] Speaker B: Yeah, well, you just nailed it. So you said, how do you make yourself stand out? So you can't be saying the same thing. So there is a very large amount of studying your competition.
So figuring out what other people are saying about the procedure that you're doing and trying to get other people, more people to choose you and trust you. And you have to say something, say something they're not, or say something different than what they're saying. And it doesn't mean necessarily you disagree with what that doctor or what that office is doing. You just have to find the white space. So this is a really interesting thought, right? People, when they're searching for high trust treatment, they are, they might have something in mind that they're not getting from the generic. Right. I can, for example, full arch implant history. I'm going to give away a big secret here to you right now.
[00:15:37] Speaker A: That's what I'm waiting for.
[00:15:38] Speaker B: So here's the, Here's a big secret. I'll, I'll divulge more on this, okay.
Because I think there's more to it than just the secret of messaging you have to deliver to. Right? But for example, I can talk about permanent teeth in 24 hours. In full arch implant history. I can talk about I'm the cheapest and I can put a price out.
But he's doing that though, right? So, man, now I'm just, I'm just putting myself in line with every other evaluation.
Even if there's 70% of the market that want it cheaper and faster, what about the other 30% that want it better and more precise and better experience and more of a genuine connection with their doctor. And they understand that there's some high level of degree of expertise that needs to be put into these smiles, Right? Not everybody wants or perceives that treatment as faster and cheaper are the way to go. Now, there are definitely plenty that go in that way. But what about the 1/3 who's talking to them? And what I realize is no one is literally talking to the 1/3. 1/3. And I'm just using as example, let's call it 1 3rd, 1 4th, that are going, you know, I want my smile to be handcrafted. I want it to be detailed. I don't want it rushed overnight. I don't want overnight teeth. You know, I do want to have technology at the forefront so I can get a more optimum result. And so I talk about those things because nobody else is talking about them. And that might even not register with as many people.
But the few people it registers with, they're not hearing that from anyone else.
So that. That is really talking to the white space. It's basically like, where is nobody talking about this procedure? What are they not saying? And you'll know this, right, Because a good example, right?
What was it maybe a decade ago?
How many yogurt places were there? Frozen yogurt?
[00:17:28] Speaker A: There were. There were like six. Every shopping center had a yogurt place.
[00:17:31] Speaker B: But, like, you know what I'm saying, Like, somebody started, let's do frozen yogurt. And then, like, everybody goes, oh, crap, it's working. Frozen yogurt. Let's talk about frozen yogurt. So everybody, like, tried to find the white space and desserts at night for, you know, our hangout spots. And so they jumped on that. And so it's. It's this messaging thing that, you know, everybody kind of seems to jump on. They see Nuvia or ClearChoice saying permanent teeth in 24 hours. And the perception might be that, well, I need to. I need to kind of do that, but do it better. And I say, no, do. Do something different.
[00:18:03] Speaker A: Do it different. Do it different. Do it different. Yeah. Well, it's interesting you bring this up. There's this.
I just spoke at a full arch conference a few weeks ago, and there's two things I took away that I didn't love. Not about the conference itself, but the messaging that some of the other people were doing. One was there was this beating of the chest about how many arches they do. And my question is, okay, so how much do you make per arch? Because I can do half and be as profitable. So why do I have to work so hard? So what that, what I heard there was, everybody talked about, well, what are you selling it for? And I'm like, so it's a, it's become a race to the bottom. A race to the bottom that probably most general dentist, traditional, single, you know, the mom and pop general dentist won't win because they won't have the infrastructure to bring in labs. They won't have the infrastructure to negotiate pricing.
Uh, and then the other thing I heard that actually shocked me a little bit. I'll get your take on this last one. And, and the first one as well was somebody actually said from stage that you're not a real full arch dentist if you don't do zygomas and pterygoids.
[00:19:08] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'll, I'll, I'll talk to both of those. One is, you know, I'll, I will give you some insight. We've grown from three, four, five arches, you know, very few, probably. I started about seven years ago to, you know, I said the range right now is somewhere between 30 and 40amonth. That's our target. That's where I feel, I feel really in my sweet spot because it's all I do.
And I can deliver an excellent level of care with technology. So I'm using some things to make that efficient.
You know, like I said, we do about four arches a day and do that about two to three times a week, depending on travel schedule and everything. So we've got a schedule that has a good, good rhythm to that, but we've done it without compromising on our fee. So we didn't just go, let's be the cheapest. We haven't changed our fee at all. It's the same fee it was when we started.
We do offer maybe a little less expensive option, but very few people take advantage of that.
[00:20:00] Speaker A: Well, people won't choose the cheapest option.
[00:20:02] Speaker B: Right, right, yes. So, so that, that I would say that, you know, you don't have to be cheaper. And to your point, that's a miserable place to go and it's not sustainable. A really simple example. I have an awesome friend, he's a caterer, and he got out of catering weddings. Why do you think he did that? Because weddings are transactional. They're one and done. And guess what? We're doing transactional. So one of the challenges we are, is if, if done well, full arch dentistry is one and done. But the problem is some of these people get into it, they go in and they undercut the price, right? They come in and they go I'm going to be five grand cheaper for the, for the wedding or whatever it is. And sure enough they cover their fixed costs or sorry, they're variable costs but they don't cover their fixed or they don't have any money left over to invest in the future. And so they're not able to keep good team, they're not able to satisfy all the technology and everything we need to be at our best. And so they can't sustain that level of care. And so it always suffers. You can do a lot of research by looking at Indeed and Glassdoor and you can see just about any company out there what the internal doctors and assistants, treatment coordinators, what they have to say. And it's very eye opening so that I've learned a lot by digging in into that and it's really given me conviction that my fee is fair. I want to stick to something. I know that I can, I can maintain the level of care I'm always going to be proud of. And it does mean that sometimes you're going to lose people because they're, they want the cheapest. But I can tell you what our experience has been more often than not somebody else. Great, great example. Nuvia had a competition or a patient that came to us for a second opinion.
This patient was called three times. They kept lowering the price. Nu did. They went from each time to 45 to 35. I think they got all the way down to $35,000. The patient chose us for 15 grand more.
And they basically told us it felt very gimmicky, felt very scammy. They didn't like the idea that they didn't just have a price that they were proud of. They. And then after the consultation they felt very trusting of us, which I obviously believe they made the right choice. But to your point about zygos, this is going to be unpopular opinion and I'm going to, I think I can support it. But so where do zygos go? They go subantral. Right? Right. So sub antral. And you have to eat up at least even with the best components you're probably like 5, 6 millimeters of space. And I'm telling you, most of the patients I might be able to drop that sub antral a little bit further as I go.
I am losing prosthetic thickness to a pretty large degree. Whereas with chrome gutted smile I can sneak my implant right up next to that sinus wall and I Can give that. Place that implant at the depth right at. So where my platform is at the base of the sinus and so on my prosthetic thickness, yeah, I might be sticking back five or eight more millimeters, but that prosthetic thickness gives me all the support I need to give all the way back to first molar. So I rarely miss first, you know, you know, three teeth, two premolars, and a molar. And I'm able to give somebody a much less. And we now we have something to fall back to should they ever need it. Right. But I do think that it's overused. And I think I've. I've talked to enough doctors who probably are starting to see what I'm saying about that. Especially when. When you look at all on four cases and they leave five, six millimeters in between their implant and the sinus wall, I go, man, that. That was real estate. That if you were guiding that implant in place, you wouldn't have left there or with just better measurement. I know there's freehanded techniques to get closer, but that. That would give you a lot better spread without the need of a more risky, more complicated.
[00:23:46] Speaker A: Well, I always look at it. I look at it very. Maybe even more simplistic than that. I look at it as. At this stage in my life, I don't need that risk. It's. I don't need to say yes to those cases. And I. I believe that while it adds nine months of treatment time, a bilateral sinus lift is a great choice to get people the results. But let's not argue about that. Okay? Yeah.
[00:24:07] Speaker B: Did I share with you?
[00:24:07] Speaker A: You aren't arguing me, by the way. No, no.
[00:24:10] Speaker B: And I. I'll share with you. I placed two of them. They were w. They were very successful, didn't have any problems. And I. I was like.
It was after I finished my second one, I'm like, what am I doing? I'm, like, trying to prove to myself I can do it. And I'm going, I'm not very fast at it.
What if I have complications? You know, is this really something I need to do? Or can I provide patients a better service? And then in the rare instances that I have to refer out, I'm happy to do so.
[00:24:35] Speaker A: Yeah. And again, I'm not saying that they're bad choices or bad services. I think for the truly terminal dentition, I've seen patients that there is no other choice.
[00:24:45] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:24:45] Speaker A: And I am happily, I'm happy to refer them to surgeons or other general dentists that really like, doing that. I just don't think that there's a need to shame people. Like, that's what really bothered me about it is this. This our profession just wants to shame people all the darn time about things like how many arches I'm doing, how low can I go? It's. It's unnecessary. But I digress.
All right, so how do I get on? How do I get comfortable building trust? How do I get on camera? How do I justify the expense?
And for this one grant, I do want you to go back in time a little bit to five, six, seven years ago.
How did you do it? I mean, it's not like you set out to build what you built.
Certainly you didn't set out to do 30 to 40 arches. It wasn't even on your radar that long ago.
[00:25:37] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So it's just. It's just like how you'd eat an elephant, right? It's one bite at a time. So you just kind of. You kind of do. What's the next natural thing for. For you? So there's a lot of people that I'm sure watch your podcast and, you know, they're wanting to maybe grow, let's. Let's say single implant dentistry, and maybe they use some of the guided approaches you've. You've shared with. I know you teach some great courses on. And the messaging they could easily just focus on how do I get more people to realize that I'm not just placing implants, I'm using 3D imaging. Right. And again, maybe their neighbor's doing that. It's just they're not messaging it. And we're using guided technology to make sure the implant's not just optimal for surgery, but better for you to keep clean and floss and, you know, you could think about things like, you know, anybody out there hate packing food and their teeth. Right? Well, guided implant procedures allows us to give you a better result with less of that. Right. That's a simple idea of messaging. Maybe nobody's speaking to a pain point that patients deal with with just their natural teeth. And you start dropping these little hints like, hey, if implants aren't placed right and you have giant overhangs and improper, you know, emergence profile, you're going to have a lot more problems. Right. We all, we've all experienced those with implant dentistry, and I don't think we message that to ask you or to answer your question about where to start. Honestly, I think a lot of people see, they might see myself, they might see you, and they see good Communicator. I'm gonna. I've seen you for a while, you've always been great. But I can tell you I've. If you go back and watch the first videos on my channel, I got probably 150 videos on my channel, maybe 200 now. But you go back and watch some of the early ones, you can tell I'm a lot more reserved, I'm a lot more shy, guarded with what I say. It's not as it doesn't flow. I'm definitely more in my head when I'm trying to talk to a camera. And now those are natural things, I think, for most people to deal with.
And you just have to practice. It's like, you know, it's kind of funny, right? We come to, well, marketing, right? Why can't I just, you know, why can't I just pay somebody to market and message for me? And again, they're just gonna rubber stamp it. If you want to really message effectively, you're gonna need to be largely in part of the a part of the message and so in the messaging. And I think it just takes practice, lots of repetition.
[00:27:48] Speaker A: I.
[00:27:48] Speaker B: Another really valuable point is it's not about being so polished as it is about you being real and relatable.
So keep in mind one of the reasons people avoid high trust treatment is, is largely because they don't trust dentistry or they're nervous, really nervous about who to trust. And so if you're connecting to them on, you know, think about it, they're in there laying down, go to bed, and they're scrolling through social media and they land on a video of yours. Where else can you get a consult in their bedroom while you're. They're going to sleep, they're learning about how you do veneers, right? That's such valuable real estate that I think a lot of us as practitioners don't realize we can have. And it's not a numbers game, right? This is not about going viral.
It's about impacting deeply somebody's trust and creating a relationship through social engagement.
[00:28:41] Speaker A: Yeah, you mentioned something that's so important. A couple of points to back up what you said. And something that you said was very important, number one. You know, I used to, when I was. Decade ago, when I was still speaking at that time, it was. I would. People would say, how are you doing? More than the others. And I'm like, well, I want you to understand this. There's literally eight general dentists on my street corner. All eight of them have Cerec, have CBCT, take MetLife, take whatever insurance. Like I'm literally. We're all commodity. The only difference is, is I just happen to tell people this is what I do and this is what I use. And we assume that patients know what this stuff is and they don't. They have no earthly idea. And really, really, all of it's really about just shouting from the rooftops. This is what I do. And when you shout from the rooftop, I do this, this, this, this, and this. People don't remember any of it. When you shout from the rooftops, even if you, let's say you do veneers, you do full arches. If you just shout, I make beautiful smiles. People will come to see you for beautiful smiles. Whether that's. They're missing one tooth, whether they're missing all their teeth, or whether they just want porcelain facades put on their teeth, they'll come to see you for that. You know, So I think, I think that's so important.
The other thing that you mentioned so many times is trust.
And all of this is a trust based procedure. And I remember, I can't remember who I heard this from, but people buy from people, okay? At the end of the day, all things equal, people buy from people. And so the more somebody can see you with warts, with mistakes, with a stutter, with a. My God, I didn't mean to say that. The more they see themselves in you and the more they say, that's the person I want to do this. The example I give to help dentists understand this is one of the most important comments I used to get early in my speaking career was I appreciate that you show your failures in your work.
You know, from a speaker perspective. They said it made me feel relatable to you.
[00:30:44] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:30:44] Speaker A: Now, I'm not saying you need to go out to your patients and show all your failures, but it's, it's that human side of it, that authentic side of it that becomes so important to, to all of that. All right?
If I want to get on YouTube, do I have to be on there? Every single, like you pointed out, the viral thing. Like that's. Everybody thinks of social media as getting 10 million viral hits. And really, if you have 10 views on your video and eight of them are patients looking for that work like that is a very successful video by any chance.
What, what is the cadence that you would recommend to somebody?
[00:31:20] Speaker B: So I, I do think just to, just to continue to be relevant and to. Obviously, I not just think about it as trying to message, but make yourself, you're you're gaining skill yourself. You're getting good at relating to patients. Right. You're using the verbiage that they would understand. You're trying to navigate how to speak. Say things like we were talking earlier about different than what your competitors are saying. So I think you need to be doing this regularly. So I always think of things as a weekly schedule.
And so I think bare minimum, once a week, you don't got to go too crazy. I think some people set unrealistic expectations, they fail and then they don't. I can't do it. So I think once a week is a great way to start. Think about something you want a message on.
Be consistent. Do it every week.
What I've done, just give you a little insight to what I do. I. I go onto forums, I go into groups where people are talking about implants. I learn what they're thinking, what they're asking. I try to make sure that I say things that are relevant to, to those individuals. And so study your customers, study your competition, and, and continue to just beat the drum. I think, you know, to answer another really valuable question is, well, how many videos you gotta do before it really makes a difference? And the sad news is I don't have that answer. What I can tell you with certainty is if you do this consistently for, let's say, a period, a reasonable period of time, I would say six months, a year, you're going to see substantial results. The problem is, you know, you and I both know this. Hardly anybody commits to something that doesn't give them results and sticks with it for more than one month. And they're like, it didn't work. And it's like, you know, you gave up too soon. And that was the way it was with YouTube. I think it was like my 70 or 80th video somewhere in that range. And then all of a sudden, YouTube algorithm decided, you know what this channel's talking about, this guy's not gonna quit. And it just. Yeah, and they, and they went nuts. And, and I got. Was getting millions of views on YouTube that I wasn't getting just a month prior. You know, it's really not a matter of YouTube or Instagram or. I play a little bit on all of them.
I do. I would say this. I see too many people trying to be viral, using culturally funny stuff, and you can dabble a little bit in that, but honestly, if it's not natural to who you are, don't try to again, let somebody else do that. Make your channel something that's relative to the work you want to do. Unless maybe you just want to have a channel that's entertaining and that's fine. I guess. I mean, I don't dog on somebody who just wants to have an entertaining channel. But if you're really trying to move the needle and do more dentistry with your social channels, then I would, I would say don't get bogged down in stuff that maybe doesn't feel like you and don't be driven by the latest craze. Just stick to relating to people in a way that, you know, helps them trust you with treatment.
[00:34:07] Speaker A: I want to add to something. So Grant talked about something very important there. He said what he essentially said was the hero is the patient, it's not the dentist. The patients don't want to hear you talk about what drills you use and what implants you place. They want you to help solve their problems. And something that was fascinating to me when I kind of looked into all of this was I went to this website called Reddit and if you go on Reddit and you search, you'll see what people are thinking, what they're saying. And those are the amazing topics for your videos. Like, people, is this for real? Is this not for real? I got shammed this way, or I felt like I got shammed this way. And, and basically, as long as it fits in your culture or your personality culture, just, just go, go with those things, answer those questions. And sites like Reddit and Facebook groups that there's like literally implant Facebook groups, like support group for people missing all their teeth and stuff.
And those, those are the amazing places to really go to find out what's going on, to stand out, to learn the messaging and do all of that. Do, do I need fancy equipment and fancy team to do? Do I have to spend a ton of money doing all of this?
[00:35:16] Speaker B: I think one of the biggest lies and it's going to be a, I think it will be a big. I'm, I'm just predicting this. I think it'll be a big pitfall. A lot of service industry is turning to AI artificial intelligence as the solution for all of our challenges of hiring engagement. And I feel like, and I'm just, I'm baking my. I, I'm kind of betting my whole business around not just yes, use AI for certain things, but artificial intelligence. I want to replace it with and keep it always being actual interaction.
So AI to me is making sure that it's, it's constant real people engaging with other real people. Like you said, that's how we trust People, if we were doing a commodity, then, yeah, I get it. Let's go more AI, you know, trim the fat. Try to make it as clean and simple as possible and high impact. But I think for us, providing services like we do, we're always better off to really lean into real people answering our phones, real doctors doing the consults. Right. Not having salespeople do it for us. And we're going to find a lot better enjoyment in our careers. We're going to sustain through this AI influx. And I think there's a lot of tools we'll get out of it, but I think a lot of people are going to wrongfully rely on it to do something that just is not possible and it can't replace you.
You know, I think it's really critical that. That we. And I wanted to throw out one other thing that you mentioned, because I hear this all the time. It's like, we gotta educate the patient.
And patient education is kind of tricky.
[00:36:45] Speaker A: Right?
[00:36:46] Speaker B: So I think it's probably one of the biggest lies we're told is that patient education convinces people to do treatment.
[00:36:52] Speaker A: Lie, lie, lie, lie.
[00:36:54] Speaker B: Yeah, it really is. And so I would say that, you know, yes, in the sense that it builds trust and only in that sense. So if it's really you just telling them how much you. And how you've got it all figured out, there's nothing to that. A simple example is I asked a patient what she really wanted to do with her new smile, and she's like, well, I wanted to smile.
[00:37:14] Speaker A: And I.
[00:37:15] Speaker B: And I was like, okay, that's the generic answer, right? I just want to smile when I. When you do my implants, I'm like, okay, there's gotta be more. It's like, well, do you have, like, certain friends or family that you're looking to smile with? Did you have a photo with your grandkids? I know you mentioned your grandkids earlier. Is there something that. Like, what do you really need to smile for? And it took me three or four different approaches asking the same silly question. Because I'm like, there's gotta be more to this answer. She finally cracked. She finally told me that she goes and sell. And she got really emotional. She goes, I go and sell goats. She's a goat farmer. And she's like, every time I go to this stockyard to sell these goats, I don't feel confident. I have the. She's like, she was proud of what she created. She's like, my goats are amazing. I put a lot of effort into it. Yet When I go there, I cannot smile and share my joy and passion for what I do.
And it was just dawned on me, it was like a light bulb. So I spent the next five minutes just talking about how I was going to help her be able to have this upcoming goat sale. I just use that because it's, I think, to most people, I think, well, that's kind of silly. But it was everything to her. And when I. When I found that, that. That point of connection where I could solve her real, true problem, the trust was built like, like that. I could have talked forever about guided implant surgery and cone beams, and, you know, she would have never resonated.
[00:38:31] Speaker A: So you could have said, we make a lot. We make it all here, blah, blah, blah. Like, I had a patient just like this two weeks ago. She was a nurse. We were talking to her, and I, in the middle of the consultation, I caught myself talking to her about how we place implants. You know, I'm going to do an angle because you got a big sinus here. I literally just stopped in the middle. I said, I'm sorry, what brought you. Like, I stopped middle way. And I go. And I pivoted. I go, so tell me. Your teeth aren't that bad.
Obviously you're looking for a different result. Tell me, tell me what's going on, what brought you in? And, you know, same thing. You gotta ask four or five questions. And, you know, finally I said, when was the first time you realized that you are unhappy with your smile? And she said to me, she goes, I'm a nurse. We wear a mask all day long. And I hear the other nurses make fun of patients who don't have a beautiful smile.
And in my mind, I'm afraid they're also making fun of me.
And so just to your point, at that point, all I talked about was, we're going to show those other nurses how beautiful your smile is. She didn't care If I put one implant in, six implants in, 20 implants in it. It just didn't matter. And really, it's about that emotional connection that AI will never undo for us. It'll never connect. It'll never look somebody in the eye. It'll never be able to show empathy the way we can show it as human beings. Yeah, it's. It's. Yeah, look, I leverage AI It's. It's an amazing tool, but it's not going to connect with patients in any meaningful way, certainly for high trust procedures.
All right, Grant, I got a couple more things, and I'll I'll leave you alone. So an interesting fact I learned about Grant that I want to share with everybody is that he is a master beef ager. So tell us more about what kind of, what's your favorite cut of steak?
I'm starting to get into steak a little bit.
[00:40:21] Speaker B: Yeah? Yeah. Well, I mean, probably if you're asking me what my favorite cut is, just like, you know, a prime New York strip with a nice. That nice thin fat along the edge. And then I didn't realize this, but there's actually a way you're supposed to eat that, but you're supposed to eat it by cutting all the way across. And you always get that thin crust of fat at the edge and that. That's probably one of the best flavors without just being maybe overly heavy. I would say the ribeye is great, but it, prime ribeye gets like, it gets a little bit on the fatty side and you gotta, you know, can't have as much of it. But one of the things I got into is dry aging. And so with dry aging, it kind of gives you the best of both worlds. You can get this very flavorful, but less fatty, more rich. Just steak flavor, beef flavor.
So I know a lot of people have had dry, aged steaks, but I got into dry aging my own. So you just go buy a big roast and throw it in your. There's. There's multiple dry agers, there's dry aging bags you can get so you don't have to have a, you know, a specific dry ager refrigerator like I use now.
I started off with just bags, but it's, it's kind of a fun little hobby. You give it 30 to 60 days, depending on how, what flavor you like. You can look up the flavor profiles that develop during that time period.
Yeah, dry aged steaks. Pretty, pretty fun.
[00:41:40] Speaker A: I've recently found the cowboy ribeye.
[00:41:44] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
[00:41:45] Speaker A: And I've really enjoyed that steak. When cooked really well, it's quite, quite a good. The other thing, I don't know why I'm talking about beef suddenly. Why? Because it's almost dinner time. But I am not a fan of a 5 Wagyu. It is too fatty and too rich for me. I'm like the American wagyu a little bit more. It's a little bit kind of in between your prime and your A5, but. All right, Grant, what else do you want to share with our, our listeners and our audience?
[00:42:11] Speaker B: You know, if you can, if you can make it to the summit, I would love to connect with all of you there, obviously. I think dentistry is such an amazing tool to transform people's lives. I can't be thinking of any other career path that gives so much joy to be connected with people every day, selling something they really need, that brings lots of value. It's always fun to connect with other doctors that are doing the same. I learn a lot from just conversations. I've learned a lot from you.
So, no, I appreciate your time and looking forward to this spring.
[00:42:44] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And just to kind of give people. Like, we've just scratched the surface with Grant. I mean, he's got an office lab. He's got, as he mentioned, 50 some team members. He's got an amazing culture of people. And these are the things that Grant's going to be there sharing with us. Not just, hey, how do I attract patients? But, you know, attraction is one thing, conversion is another thing. And how do you create. Create a. How do you create a culture of people that are, you know, in a world where it's harder and harder to find amazing people? Grant, you found 50 of them. You know, if you're pointing them to
[00:43:18] Speaker B: your point, I'm going to. I just give a little sneak peek. I am going to give most of my time focusing on how do we systematize our culture, Right? How do we create one systematically? Because it is a long, laborious process to create a culture that will represent our messaging the way we want and really be something we're proud of. And obviously, social media engagement is a big part of that, because that's all going to be how we market and represent ourselves. So I think, you know, if I go back in time 10 years, I probably could have created a lot more impact in a shorter amount of time. So I kind of want to. Want to share what I've learned, and I think it'll be relevant to any time period.
And like I said, I kind of wish I would have had this all handed to me early on, and hopefully I can help some people out.
[00:44:04] Speaker A: Well, we're excited. Like, I believe this from the bottom of my heart. It's.
If you want to fight the price war that we face in dentistry, create a culture of excellence for your team and a culture of excellent experience for your patients.
And you will not have to worry about being 2,000, 3,000, $4,000 cheaper. In fact, people will pay more if they trust you, love you, and really connect with you. Grant, where can people find you if they want to get in touch with you and do all of those things?
[00:44:33] Speaker B: The best way to connect with me is going to be through Instagram, probably, or Facebook. So you can go to Innovative Implant, I think we call it Innovative Implant. Smile centers on Instagram and Facebook. Just look me up there. You can also just text in, put in Grant Olson. That's my private.
I'll respond to you there. So I love to connect, help you any way I can to learn what I've learned.
[00:44:57] Speaker A: Thank you, Grant. I appreciate your time. Thank you, everybody, for listening. We'll see you guys next week.
