January 28, 2026 • 45 mins
Dr. Field Harrison, Founder and CEO of St. Apollonia Management Group, joins us to share how he built one of the most recognizable brands in dentistry. From pulling his first tooth on a mission trip at 19 to leading Mint Dentistry and more than 60 practices nationwide, Dr. Harrison breaks down the decisions, discipline, and philosophy behind his growth.
We talk brand, leadership, and why quality always beats scale, plus the lessons that pulled him back into the CEO seat after six years as Chairman. The conversation also touches on innovation in cosmetic dentistry, treating patients like five-star guests, and what it takes to stay relevant in a rapidly changing market.
Plus, Candy Question Roulette and a candid take on the Tooth Fairy.
CEOs You Should Know DFW features candid conversations with leaders shaping business in North Texas and beyond, hosted by Chris Long, Region President of iHeartMedia Dallas/Fort Worth. Follow, Rate, and Subscribe on the podcast platform you are listening on!
We talk brand, leadership, and why quality always beats scale, plus the lessons that pulled him back into the CEO seat after six years as Chairman. The conversation also touches on innovation in cosmetic dentistry, treating patients like five-star guests, and what it takes to stay relevant in a rapidly changing market.
Plus, Candy Question Roulette and a candid take on the Tooth Fairy.
CEOs You Should Know DFW features candid conversations with leaders shaping business in North Texas and beyond, hosted by Chris Long, Region President of iHeartMedia Dallas/Fort Worth. Follow, Rate, and Subscribe on the podcast platform you are listening on!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm here with doctor Field Harrison, CEO, founder of Mint Dentistry.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Welcome, doctor Harrison.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Thank you for having me. I'm honored.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
We're excited to have you here.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
We've met a couple of times, and when we started
the series, I was really excited.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
About having you on.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
And as region president for iHeartMedia, I want to welcome
you and.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I want to give a little bit on your background.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Do it, and then we'll dive in with an opening questions.
So let me know if I miss anything. You are
founder of Saint Appollonia Management Group, overseeing Mint Dentistry, Mint Orthodonics.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Pure Oral Surgery.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Pure Dental Academy, Mint Dental Academy, Mint Insurance Services, with
over sixty dental practices nationwide.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
It's correact.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
So you're kind of busy, pretty busy. Yeah, I would
think that that might keep you. I mean at least
thirty hours a week, you know, with the rest of
the time. I think I read somewhere. Do you have
a record label?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
We do? We do? It is true music excellent.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Okay, well, we're gonna have a little bit to talk about,
but before we get started, I think it's important given
where iHeartMedia stands in the audio landscape. As the number
one audio and entertainment company. We have over eight hundred
and sixty radio stations and one hundred and sixty markets,
reaching audiences of every format, spoken word, contact and podcast genre.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I think it's important I ask you these two questions.
What was your first concert? And what podcast are you
listening to right now?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Funny enough, I don't listen to podcasts, so I'm coming
in here as a novice. I've actually never listened to
a full podcast before.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
So you're on a podcast before you ever listen to one.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
That's right, So your own I'm gonna do bad.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
So your first podcast listen will be your own podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Maybe yes, I don't know if I'll go back and
listen to myself. So I'll be experiencing it as we
do it.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Excellent.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
And my first concert was Pink Floyd, and I'm very
proud of that. We're seventh grade.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Where'd you see him, goy?
Speaker 3 (02:07):
It was somewhere in Dallas. I don't know too far.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Pink Floyd, that's a good one.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
There was too much marijuana in the air, familiar.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Remember, And that's for another podcast. So in last episode,
my guest Matt Powell Johnny Cash.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
So I know, like and I've got two really good ones.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
As I said, my last mine was none at work,
so I don't feel like I'm really in the same league.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
So we'll just move on. And I just realized something.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I did not do the appropriate greeting to you, given
your alumni history.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I should have said howdy as an agony.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Correct, Well, well, hold on, No, I don't claim A
and M because I went to Baylor Dental School, which
got bought while I was there, and so I do not.
I do not run with this first yes.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
No podcast listening ever, and someone who has some affiliation
with Texas A and M not going on a thirty
minute diatribe about the amazing I know that I now
have met guru's status to every other human that did
not go to A and M that I have refused
it as you know.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Being part of that. Okay, that group, but yes, that
is a group I do not understand. Okay, so have
no real I'm not looking to understand.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Excellent, So in our first three minutes a podcast, you
don't claim Texas A and M.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
And you saw pink floors.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Well, you know it's a wild story about A and M.
And Baylor Dental Schools. They bought us, and they kind
of kept it secret with the name. Nobody knew what
was going on. We were still Bayardal School and evidently
the head coach of Baylor had a at the time,
some scandal and like he got caught texting some girl
(03:54):
in school, and they used that as their reasonable this
is the time to change Baylor Dental School to Texas
A and M Health Science Center. And that was their excuse, like, oh, well,
you know, Bear's got such a horrible reputation that we
can't have that name on the dental school anymore. And
it changed while we were there, and we were like,
what's going on? Why did we change your name?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
So tell me a little bit. What led you to
dental school.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Well, I went on a mission trip, believe it or not.
And I was nineteen and at the time, my girlfriend's
dad was a dentist and she was telling me that
they go on these mission trips every year to Romania.
And I was like, I'm gonna check this out. Why not?
So I talked to my dad into it. I was like, Dad,
let's you got any interested in going to this Romanian
(04:37):
mission trip. We're gonna be helping a bunch of orphanages
in Romania with their teeth, and I honestly hadn't really
considered being a dentist. And I get there and for
a week I was his oral surgery assistant and it
really just changed my life. And it was when I
came back. Honestly, I probably shouldn't even tell the story,
(04:58):
but now we're all older. He was about six days
into it, He's like, hey, do you want to pull
this guy's tooth? And he was like, don't tell anybody,
And now I'm like telling everybody. But he's a legend
now too, Like he's the man. I won't say his name,
And so we switched positions and he was my assistant
and it was actually, ironically the driver of us in
Romania who need his tooth pulled. And I get in
(05:20):
there and it took me like ten minutes. I mean,
I was fresh out of high school. I had no
idea what I was doing, and the tooth was crumbling.
I was getting roots out and one route really took
me a good few minutes of I'm nineteen stronger than
I am now, pulling almost as hard as I can
for five minutes and it finally comes out and I
look at my dad. I was like, this is better
than hinting hold one, Like this is what I want
(05:42):
to do the rest of my life. And that one moment,
you know, got me to study hard go into sciences.
I wasn't very academic in high school or college at
that point.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Were for rent of your dad? Your father was a dentist.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
No, my dad was not annist. So my dad was
in advertising, and so I ended up just trying to
really work really hard in studies. And it was really
hard for me at the very beginning to make the
grades good enough to get into dental school because you know,
from not really being very academic to trying to compete
with these valve victorians, which is what dental school was
(06:17):
full of. Yeah, I really wasn't very competitive, but I
tried harder than they did. But that work ethic in
the workplace matters. So when you time, by the time
we get out dental school, and I'm working harder than
twice as hard as everybody, you take that into you
know the workplace. You just I mean, that really is
what Catapult did. I think meant in my success is
(06:39):
just the work ethic.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
So okay, so your story was interesting before adding the
Romania piece and what drove you to dental school accelerates that.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
I was almost not gonna even say. I was like,
I don't want to get me any trouble, but like,
it's Romania and it's like thirty years ago. But it
was really such a nice gesture of the dentist to
let me do that because it changed my life.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Well, I mean, but I think that's what's so interesting
is so often people in your position, people don't see
all the behind the scene things, and there's a lot
of assumptions made about uh, either they may have had
some advantage or whatever, and to see what the catalyst was. Yeah,
I mean, is something so personal really when you think
about you changed that person's life.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Probably ironically. In college, my passion was TV. I had
a public access television show in Dallas back when there
was cable. It was through DCTV. Are you familiar with
this station? No?
Speaker 2 (07:34):
But please go on?
Speaker 3 (07:35):
And so my backup plan was to be like a
TV producer and Wayne's world. It was totally Wayne's world,
but we had going on and we followed around a
high school buddy of ours who was just hilarious it
almost ruined his life because he became a star in
his own eyes. And at the same time I was
getting into Dill school, Mark Cuban's production company was calling,
(07:58):
had heard about it and wanted to buy it, and
I was like, what am I going to do? But
I was I wasn't really that hard a decision. I
was like, I'm definitely one is a lifestyle that is
not helping people, and one is a lifestyle that is
totally helping people and stable. And it was it was
an easy choice, but it was interesting. I was like pulled.
(08:20):
I was like, this seems like a lot of fun
to be a TV producer of a Wayne's World type show.
But I think I'll you know, my calling is to
be a dentist.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
So well, what's interesting as I'm watching your expression as
you're talking about this, did the big thing jump that
came out was helping people?
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:37):
So so going back to the original vision for ment,
like how did that start? Because you go from four
years of really you know, busting it to get through
dental school, segue into really entrepreneurship founder, which is it's
interesting seeing those two things meet and to see where
you are today.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
So like, what was what was the original vision.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Well, most dentists dads or dentists like you assumed my dad.
It's just kind of a family profession that gets passed down.
And having no family dentist, I had to go and
like search out mentors early. So in dinal school, I
was working hard to just get through it, but I
was also working hard to try network with successful dentists
(09:19):
to have a job when I got out, because again,
all my friends were like, I'm gonna work for my dad, Like,
you're so lucky, and I thought they were lucky, but honestly,
they weren't that lucky because I mean a lot of
dads don't have I guess they're not like in a
big hurry to give their kids their practice that they
(09:40):
worked thirty years to build, sure so they become actually
like almost handcuffed by their parents. And also that I
guess landscape also helped me succeed early as a dentist
because I wasn't having to work for my dad. I
had to work hard to find a job. I had
to lean into my mentors that weren't family, so I
got to get a bunch of different perspectives and become
(10:03):
out of the gate. I had more, I guess, mentors
than most dnnists had, and I got to see what
was working and what was new, and I came out
dentistry was changing. Yeah. Metal At fifteen twenty years ago,
people had metal in their mouth, They had amalgam fillings,
they had what they call pfms porson fused the metal.
People had gray around their gums. Nobody's teeth were like
(10:25):
they are today. And the materials all changed. As I
was getting out of dental school and Dennis were learning
new materials and the old guard wasn't buying into them.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
So it's a real transition face.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yeah, And the porcelain at the very beginning was kind
of weak. People were fracturing veneers and they still do
other dental offices, but I'm just throwing that in there.
But materials changed dramatically, and I was at the forefront
using the newest materials with a bunch of great mentors.
And it's really my mentors that really helped me succeed.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
So was it that moment when you kind of had
that aha moment of there's got to be a better.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Way, Well, you know, once I got out of dental school. Sure,
it was like as I was following mentors in Dylal School,
they were already teaching me different ways. But my first
mentor was the most successful dennist in Dallas. He had
started a chain called Floss if you remember him, this
(11:22):
was fifteen years ago. He had twenty dial offices before
I had two. But I had helped him open office three,
four and five. And he was a as far as
a business person, the man as far as a dentist,
mentor not so much. And so when we were transitioning
and he he and I I told him was open.
I was like, I want to open up my own
(11:43):
practice if I ended up not, you know, partnering with
you here. And he was very confident. He's like, you
can open the next door to me. I was like,
I'm not trying to do that. I'm just trying. I'm
just trying to be like open with him about my situation.
And whenever, like we started parting ways, I searched out
another older mentor who was kind of more of his
prime and he took dentistry super serious. And it was
(12:07):
a great dentist in Richardson and kind of near where
I grew up. And he had gotten hurt temporarily. He
had ironqically banged his hand on a beer bottle in
Mexico and his hand went numb. So I'm waiting for
my dial practice to get built out, and he's like,
I need some help for just like six months until
I get the nerve.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Well, that's a problem if you're a dentist.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
So I got the privilege of having like a dentist
over my shoulder who I really respected his dentistry, and
he'd be like, you need to do this, you need
to do this, you need to do this, and a
little bit of it was old school, but I had
seen kind of the riskier new school dentistry, and so
when I started MINT, I got to combine the new
school with the old school, and it really was a
(12:46):
new school of thought of it was a new way
of doing dentistry, and it was a lot more had
the stability of old school dentistry, but it had the
look of pretty beautiful medalist dentistry. So and that now
has become more standardized everywhere, but we were one of
the first to really, you know, start it and teach
(13:07):
people how to do it. So that's interesting because nobody
knew how to work the materials.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah, so you're cutting edge.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
We were super cutting edge. I mean dental schools were
calling Mint early on like how do you use this material? Oh?
That's interesting, and we would teach them. Who would teacher
so you'd go in and lecture and my team would
So I can't account me. Staff members are either currently
faculty at dental schools or have been in the past.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
That's interesting. So okay, you you.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
You launched Mint, HM, at what point did you have
that feeling this is going to.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Work before it started?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Before it started, Well, you have to have that confidence, right, we.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Knew and my you know, between I tell everybody I
inherit everything I have because my dad knew. I didn't know.
He knew. He was an ad many like you're going
to be huge.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
I was like really, He's like, yeah, you're going to
do great.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
And all I cared about at that time, and I'm
a very competitive person. I just want to be the
best dentist in the world. That's the only thing I
cared about. And when my dad started, you know, doing
all my marketing, I was like, well, shoot, I got
I don't have a patient problem, and I'm the best
dentist in town. But if you got those two things
with your business, if you know how to get clients
(14:25):
and you're given the best product or service, you're going
to blow up. And I mean from day one, day one,
we were profitable, very profitable. Day one, I did a
like eight unit in your case, and I'd made more
money that day than I had any month prior.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
That's amazing.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
And so it was. It was we were off like
a rocket. Within two years, we were like the busiest
and love was in the state and we couldn't answer
our phones and we still to this day have problems
answering our phones with thousands of calls a day.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Okay, so this is a great segue for people listening
who haven't experienced Mint. You've talked a lot about materials
and cutting edge and that transition period as you were
getting started.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
How would you describe.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
The men experience and what do you think sets it
apart from competition.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Well, thankfully, again, I'm in a nice space where the
expectations are pretty low. When people go to the deal offices.
Nobody's really having a great experience. Nobody's like, oh, that
was the best part of my day. And so coming
at it from that angle, first, my personal viewpoint of
as a dentist, how do I want my day to be.
(15:34):
Do I want to be in a ugly, smelly, old carpet,
old material, old equipment, loud deal office or do I
want it to be plush? And I made the decision
early on. I just wanted it to be a super
plush Dallas office where there was like there was no
(15:56):
doubt this was going to be my additive to my day.
If I'm around beautiful furniture and tear decorating and quieter,
better material equipment, then I just thought, my day is
gonna be better, My patients are going to be more relaxed.
And it it felt like a hotel when you walked in.
You know, there was no sliding screen. So if you
ever go to a Mintdal office, nobody's like sliding the
(16:19):
screen closed or open on you. It's just like a
hotel you walk in. And so the vibe was more
of like, let's be a five star hotel as opposed
to let's just be a good dental office. You got
to create your own competition when your competition is so bad, Yeah,
it can't be. You can't be competing against Dennis. It's
like we need to be better than the Ritz, and
(16:41):
that's what we want, that kind of services.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
That's amazing. When I moved here twenty some years ago,
found to Dennis. You know, you don't know who to
go to.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
And the Dennis my wife set me up with made
me feel so bad about my teeth. And I would
go home and like feel beaten down and the whole deal.
And it's funny you should say that. It's like I
dreaded the experience, right, and then fast forward get.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
A new dentist who always tells me that I have
her favorite teeth, and my wife says she says that
to everybody. I'm like, no, she doesn't. But but your point,
it's amazing. You don't think of a dentist as selling,
but it is.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
I mean, we're all marketing ourselves, and you know, my
and this might be brilliant, but I thought it was
too much like my first mentor really focused in on
that experience. But you'd be sitting in Ikia furniture. But
he was given out liquor and wined his patients when
they walked in. I was like, that's a little We're
a healthcare facility. I was like, that's just maybe I
(17:40):
got yeah, Like, but I liked the you know, the
part where he's trying to be different, like the energy. Yeah.
I was like, but we can do this better. We don't.
We don't have to give alcohol out at a health
care facility to win a patient. But if you give
them excellent dentistry, uh, they feel it and know it
and it should be the service should match the vibe
(18:03):
and it usually does.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Yeah, so it this will This leads really into this question,
and it's a little bit what you're known for here
in Dallas though we make teeth sexy okay campaign. Did
you feel like you were taking a risk with that choice?
I mean I remember the first time I saw the
boards as like, oh wow, yeah, strong statement, like.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Nobody's copying that. Yeah. What's funny about that is I
did that and my dad hated it. He's like, as
an advertising guy, didn't like it, Yeah, don't do this,
And I was. But it started with, you know, a
brainstorming session and me and the creative director at the time,
my wife, we were all kind of around the table
(18:46):
and I was telling the story of I had a
patient coming Preveneers and she was kind of getting in
your console and I was like, She's like, well, are
you gonna make them too big? I was like, girl,
do not stress, I'm going to make your teeth sexy. Okay,
do them. I was like, okay, we're on the right.
We're on the right. This is the It was no
more questions after that, and it just came out but
(19:06):
that but I knew what she wanted. She wanted sexy teeth,
and as a I almost consider myself like a fashion
designer of teeth, like this is there is philosophies about
teeth that I have that I mean, And we were
doing them every day and patients were going crazy for them.
(19:27):
And we had invented a surgery that was in conjunction
with veneers that was a gum surgery that had like
a three day healing time as opposed to a six
weeks healing time. That was kind of the standard of
care at the time, and so we just became instantly,
by far, the best place to get veneers. It wasn't
even a close second. It was so much different. That
(19:48):
was the that was the base of Whydenness wanted to work.
It meant was just to learn how we were doing
these extravagant veneer cases. That were extraordinary and because it
was what we were doing was revolutionary. We were invading
another doctor's profession and doing it way better than them.
(20:12):
There is periodontists that do gum surgery. Dnists they can,
but you really can't get protection from your malpractice insurance
if you screw something up. So what we were doing
had to work. You had no bungee cord. If it
didn't work, Like, if you screw something up, you had
(20:34):
no bungee cord. Like, you were not insured for a
malpractice suit. If you did something wrong. You're in someone
else's space that that's their profession. But their profession used
rudimentary tools, in my opinion, scalpels, blades, and drills that
they would hand the patient back after gum surgery. They'd
be in stitches and say, okay, now do veneers. Their
(20:55):
gums are flapping in the wind. And I saw this
and I was like, first off, this looks so painful,
and it was. It was six weeks healing, and I
was like, I think that if I use dental drills
here and I know enough of the science because I
had taken enough CE classes on this, that I think
(21:16):
I can do the surgery way better than them with
my tools. Yeah, because I can cut teeth and they
and they shouldn't be cutting teeth, but it'd be easier
for me to cut teeth, bone and gum simultaneously, minimally
invasively with and I already knew what the The only
risk was the gum might grow back, and I'm like,
this is gonna be the easiest surgery to pull off.
(21:37):
Conceptually the science supported this. So I grabbed some friends
that needed veneers and I was like, I'm gonna give
you for free. I'm I'm gonna do something. I'm gonna
do this for free. I just want to see how
this looks. And no matter what, it would have been additive.
And it turned out it was unbelievable for a dentist,
Like we're talking now nerdy stuff, but it was. It
was like a Nobel prize thing for a dentist. To
(22:01):
see what happened. It was like, oh my god, this
is going to change the world. I call it. Patent attorney.
I was like, Okay, I figured out a better way
for the surgery. He's like, well, if you patent it,
it becomes public record and they're gonna steal it. You
have no recourse. You have no idea of stealing it.
I was like, yeah, I should just do this to
help recruit. At the time, I had two dentists. Okay,
now I have well over one hundred and they and
(22:23):
to this day, you can't compete with our are when
you if you look at cosmetic cases and you look
at the intricacies of them, there's just there's one thing.
Everybody's using porcelain, that's not it. It's the gums that
we can we can manipulate and that no one else
can and no one else did would if they could.
Like it's not it's it's a little bit of a risk.
It's not as risk anymore. We have thousands of cases
(22:46):
that we've done and we were literally doing it on
almost every case fifteen years ago, and so now I
mean we just it's not even a thought, it's an afterthought.
But this is what the ground floor of recruit doing
the best innistry, recruiting the best dentists. It all came
together and that's how Mint just exploded on the Dallas scene.
(23:06):
And then we just started doing a slow nationwide march.
But we're not as known in other markets.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
So this is a great cart and This is interesting
because I feel like we're ping ponging back and forth
between the business and the science.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
And science was way easier.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Huh. Well, okay, so let's jump to that.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
So you know you have more than sixty locations nationwide.
What was the hardest part about scaling?
Speaker 3 (23:28):
It's all hard. There's nothing easy. I would say that
the hardest part for me is trying to get known
in an unknown space. You know, if we go to
a new city like Miami was so difficult we ended
up closing shop. It was like, there's so many dinners here,
nobody knows about Mint and our reputation. Because the reputation
(23:49):
as it grows in a city, it exponentially grows. You're
helping more people, they'll tell them more people. You're helping
more people tell more people. Now, you know, recruiting dentists
and getting patients in the Dallas, Fort Worth and now
Houston or Atlanta area is like so easy, but it
takes so long to gain that reputation. Reputations come somewhat
slowly in healthcare. I mean, I think that if you
(24:11):
go to a restaurant, it's pretty good. You'll tell people.
But I mean, you know, we're not doing veneer cases
every day in Ohio right now, and so it's a
slow processed industry is really difficult as a business to do.
And a lot I got hot in the pe world
and it's still kind of is hot. But at the
end of the day, they're seeing, oh, this isn't just
(24:34):
a plug and play, it's a There's a lot of
different factors that come into play when you're the business
of the industry.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
So with that in mind, like as you grow and
understanding reputation and growing that takes time and all of that,
how do you maintain the consistency and the quality within
any of the practices.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Like what you got to stop growing? You gotta make
the product the important piece. This year, our goal is
no growth, really, I just want to be I wanted
to take our level of service and our product, and
our doctors and our doctor training and our training of
assistance and the front desk vibe and every little detail.
I want to take the time to get better because
(25:20):
as you scale anything, if you go too fast, your
product gets diluted. And frankly, I'm like, I don't want
the product to get diluted. I wanted to take it
to a new level. And one of my favorite business
books is called Scaling Up, and it says, anytime you
double in size revenue locations. When I say size like
(25:44):
amount of employees, any doubling makes it twelve times more sophisticated.
And I've really felt that way. So I went from
one to two clinics, it was twelve times harder, two
to four twelve times harder. But when you combine all
three at once, you're now what forty eight times harder
every time? And so and you feel it. It's just
like ugh, and like little things. I'm still grinding when
(26:05):
I'm at work, like, okay, what is the wording of
our email when someone needs to come back for their
recall cleaning? And I'm I mean, that's yesterday's work. I'm like,
is that too much? Is that too insulting? When I
tell them that they have a dirty mouth, Like even
though I'm joking, well, well, well, twenty five thousand patients
really know that I'm joking. If I tell them they
have a dirty mouth, like I just take that out,
(26:25):
you know, like, let's just error on professionalism. But I
mean we've made I think as a CEO on the
business side, your goal is to make as many as
mistakes as you can make as fast as you can
make them. Yep. So you know truth, you need to
get to the rock bottom of is this work for
you or not? And so the sexy teeth thing coming back,
I moved off of it. Now I came back to it,
(26:46):
and my dad was like, he stopped talking to me
because I moved away from it. He loved it, and
I stopped liking it because I was like, I might
be turning people off. I wasn't. I'm a little insecure
about it to this day, really, but you know, people
are like, oh, you're great marketing. I'm like, maybe I
don't know. I mean, yeah, it's We're not a gimmicky company.
We take our dentistry so dang serious. I mean, I've
been looking at training films all morning about what we
(27:09):
are teaching dentists. Like it is, we are a dnnist
focused company first.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
So saying that and understanding, you know, especially when you
throw out the twelve x multiplier as you're running the
business from your position as CEO, what is your interaction
if a new dentist comes in or keeping tabs to
make sure that quality is there?
Speaker 3 (27:32):
I mean, well, we've put in place, you know, measures,
And and I came back as CEO, so I should
say this. I thought I had the business thing pretty
figured out when I was CEO, that's right. And so
I went to chairman for six years, and I would
tell everybody, never.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Do that, got it?
Speaker 3 (27:51):
And it's it's it's probably a lot of people that
sell and they have new ownership or new leadership, it goes.
It very rarely goes right, yep. Uh. And I thought
that I could, you know, I thought that that was
a good idea that could hire people smarter than me
and that they would do a better job than me.
But I just think, for the most part, as a founder,
nobody's gonna treat your baby the way you will. I
(28:13):
had a great analogy is, when was the last time
you washed a rental car? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Never have, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
And I just consider that with your company, like, no
matter who you're hiring, you're renting them well, you know,
and they can go somewhere else, but you aren't, like
that's your baby, that's your car. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
I had a mentor of mine teach me this early on.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
You know.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
He would always say, inspect what you expect.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Oh, yeah, but there's there's too many things to inspect
at one point. You know, I can't get it everywhere,
but you just got to keep trying to get everywhere
slowly and.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Having you know, good people.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
And you said something a moment ago that I think
is interesting, and I think that you see it a
lot in business, the people at your position that think
they have to do everything and that they know everything,
versus the the mindset of I will hire people who
are really good at things I'm not as good at
and trust them to do their job.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
So that don't do that, really don't trust people. I
think you just keep inspecting as much as you can
and the hiring people and not managing people. I'm like,
I mean, that would work great if people were machines,
but we're just not machines. Yeah, and I think that.
(29:27):
I think also that where America business went wrong is
making growth their god instead of their product or their service.
Growth will come inevitably, maybe, but when is enough enough
for someone to be like, hey, what are we chasing here?
(29:48):
Are we growing for the pure sake of selling it later?
And is that really what's going to be best for
your potential client or patient? I mean, my patient. I
have no intention of selling mint like I'm in it
for the long haul. I'm owning my work. I'm not
trying to, you know, just scale this quick and punt off.
(30:11):
I just care about being the best. That's all I care.
That's my That's what I preach my team. I'm like,
I'll never be the biggest, but we are going to
be by far the best. Like there, it should not
be a close second, and then we'll have enough. And
you talk about wealth, wealth is just lifestyle. I mean
if if if you have a good life, you are wealthy.
If you have good friends, you are wealthy. That what's
in your bank? I mean, if it's a gonna disappear
(30:34):
on you, I don't care who you are. I think
I don't care. If you're elon Bill Gates, you they're
one bad decision from being broke. They go all in
on Ai and suddenly he I ain't that they're broke.
I mean it, you can, you can make a bad decision.
And if but if your whole goal is just chasing
(30:54):
that pie, but your personal life goes to hell and
your uh family goes to hell, and you're I mean,
you're at hell with a bunch of money. It doesn't
they're not You're not wealthy. I don't want to trade
with anybody that just just from a bank account standpoint.
Now I've got good friends and a good time during
their day.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
I'm like, no, thanks, that's that's that's amazing that you've
grown to where you are. But you still really think
about the roots of what was important. And you know
what I what I'm hearing from you is you know,
the the providing a great important service to each each
patient is still job one.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Oh, it's one, two, three and four. Yeah, and doing
it while still making a profit.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
There's no such thing, in my opinion as economies of scale.
I think as you get bigger, your profits get lower.
I just I don't see it. I'm never and all
my entrepreneur friends we joke about that. That's just not
a thing. Bigger doesn't mean better margins. Bigger I mean
smaller margins. Interesting I found, I don't know how. I
mean you you told me about iHeart. I mean, if
you all bought a bunch of raio stations and they're
(31:59):
not really performing, you're you're gonna lose profit. Yeah, And
the thought that new radio stations are gonna outperform your
veteran ones. I mean that that'd be silly. Yeah, how
could they ever outperform the veterans that have been doing it.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Forever, correct that that are established, have a position and
all of that.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
No, you're you're right.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Thinking about Ian.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
We've talked about the Sexy Teeth campaign and you know
what you've done in the Dallas market, you know the
outdoor campaign and all that.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
You know, in general, what's your overall philosophy on marketing.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
I'm scared because I don't know it. That's that's where
I'm at. I don't know what this world's gonna throw
at me.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
So it's changing.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
You know, I've been seeing all these ai ads on
my Instagram feed. I'm like, I don't know what that's about,
but I mean seeing that I can make a song
about my childhood in five seconds through an AI app
and it'd be good. Is like, I don't know if
kids are going to be listening to anything but their
own music in five years, because you can make badass
(32:56):
music sounding like you know, Lauren Hill talking about something
personal like it's nuts. What's available now. It's just like
mind blowing, And uh, I don't know how to reach people.
I think that more than ever, you have to have
the goods as a company.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Well that's the bottom line. Yeah, and it's interesting. You
know you bring up AI, which you know it's here
today and we all have to figure out how to
harness it.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
You know, I don't know if you saw a company's
announcement right before the holidays is about guaranteed human and
you know you think about that. I mean on the
broadcast space. You know, a listener wants to know I'm
listening to a real human being, you know.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
If if not, I care if it's a real human
if it's good music.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
But if I want the music, yeah, okay, there's that part.
But if I don't care, there's other platforms I.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
Can go to.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Sure, you know, and so much.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
You know, you're five You're not five years out from
having a full AI station. I bet of music.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Okay, this is another conversation. This is when you invite
me on your podcast. I'm talking about that.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
I think that, Uh, I think it's great. Honestly, I
the marketing area, I still I feel like a novice
at Yeah. Yeah, I don't. I don't really know what
the future is. It is so uncertain that and everybody
that's been in business for the last fifteen years has
been burned through online ads. I remember when Google got
(34:27):
caught with their hand in the cookie jar of they
made their own bots click on people's ads, and so
they made money from the clicks. And it was their
bots clicking on fake it was fake clicks for people.
And I'm like, I was yan at Google three days ago.
I'm like, can I even trust y'ally?
Speaker 2 (34:42):
What?
Speaker 3 (34:43):
How do I know these are real clicks? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (34:45):
With that in mind, like where what role does technology play?
Speaker 3 (34:51):
We have to play with it. We have to figure
out the next it way of getting out there in
my opinion, and I don't I don't know if I
have not solved that yet, but I can tell you
as I've focused in on the product, we've gotten busier
and busier. I'm about six months back at CEO. We're
(35:12):
busier than ever because all I'm talking about is how
are we getting you know, better as a customer experience.
How are we how are we upgrading every level of
our product for patients in service?
Speaker 2 (35:24):
That's that's that's great.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
What what was the And we've talked about this a
little bit, but like when you went to the board.
When was the moment you were just like, I'm going back.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
I don't have a board, so I'm fortunate that I
don't have to have conversations. I'm pretty much the sole owner.
I just thought as my margins got lower and lower,
I was like that this rate, like this isn't sustainable,
Like we have to have an emergency. I'm going broke,
like the owner of me is going broke. I'm like,
(35:57):
just like everybody else in the economy, like everybody can
feel it. I think that the fear got to me.
I was like, if I don't go back to work,
work and you know, steer the ship. I mean, right
now we're making a profit, but as any business owner knows,
a it's hard to make a dollar and b your
(36:17):
your one bad decision from losing it all. And see
if you see it shrinking lower and lower, you're I mean,
you bever get working fast, so like you got to
get your margins right. Yeah, So they were getting smaller
and smaller, and I think that the worst thing we
did well. I mean, we did a lot of mistakes,
but we just grew not locations and not dentists. We
(36:41):
grew the management company too fast. You know, and like
suddenly people were very singular in like roles that were
very ambiguous, and uh, you know that when I say
the management company, it's like how many lawyers do you
need full time? How many accountants do you need? How
many data analysts do you need? And we had just
(37:06):
kind of gotten quick to hire a marketing staff. I
mean we we'd kind of gotten big in places that
they weren't Dennis, you know, they weren't revenue generating. It
was yeah and so and you can just kind of
just be like, oh yeah, well hire another data analyst.
It feels like we got a lot of projects right now,
you know, like and it suddenly this sounds good. Everything
(37:26):
goes a little slower. And it's crazy as we've you know,
not replaced people that left or had to lay off somebody,
We've got more productive with less people because suddenly your
best people are a little more motivated because nobody around
them is doing very little at work.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Yeah, how in and did a little research getting to
know you, I see use a people first leader. What
is your thought process you feel is the key to
attracting the best talent?
Speaker 3 (38:03):
Oh man, I think you got to put yourself out
there and I think that nobody's going to do a
better job than you of getting the best talent. So
if some if there's a person that you're looking to attract,
I mean, nobody's gonna do a bad job than you.
Add it. And that's something that the leader needs to
(38:24):
just own. Like you can't can't subcontract out the most
important work. Yeah, you have to do something yourself. And
I just think that all these business guys got it
wrong of Delegate delegate delegate Like, I'm the opposite. I'm like,
do do do do it all? Yeah, do it all,
redline yourself. And then when you're redlining and then you're
(38:45):
about to bring out okay, then hire somebody train them
up only when you have to. The more you can
do yourself, the longer you can do it yourself. I mean,
just look at Elon. That man's living where he's working
like challenging engineers doing his own math. I'm like, that's
why they're badass.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Yeah yeah, I look at it. With my team, I
have to be the best salesperson.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Do you look at it as you have to be
the best Hell yeah, job one, I'm the best dentist.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
I mean I I damn near in the top five,
but it's been a few years since I So, do you.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Take daily patients or not anymore?
Speaker 3 (39:23):
Not anymore? Do you do I'll do like charity work
there but I but if I went back to practicing
full time, it would be easy for me to be
a top five dentist at ment if not the there's
certain things I'm not good at in dentistry that I'm Admittedly,
when I first started, I didn't like root canals. So
I hired an excellent dentist that she didn't like doing canals,
(39:45):
but she was really good at them. No, no dnnists
really likes them that much because they take a little
while and they're tedious. And I was like, I'm just
not good at root canals. And so now we hire
dennists that are excellent at root canals, and so it's
like to say I'm better than everyone's a little different,
but like I can do a filling and veneers and
all that. Like there's a lot dentistry is expansive, you know.
(40:08):
So there's certain aspects that I'm really really good at
and some of the I'm not as good at. But
as far as like in every metric that I would
think matters. Yes, I'd be one of the top dentists.
I meant easily. And there's a huge difference between a
new dentist that starts at ment, even if they have
experience in our veterans. Sure, because what we teach and
trained dentists is superior to yeah, general school does by far.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
So we have emerging right here of the best dentist
and the best salesperson in Dallas.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
I think that's very confident.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
We can say that my kids, they have the best line.
Now my team is really good.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
We can just sit there and say in the studio
right now, you invest nis and I'm the best salesperson.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Amanda may disagree, but we'll go with them.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
I'm top five, top five in a room four people, perfect. Perfect.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
So this this has been a lot of fun. I
want to start winding down a little bit.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
And but one of the things that I'm a big
believer in, and I talked to my team about is
as you grow a business or as you change a
culture and you're trying to improve every day, not very
often is that they're that big seismic thing that everyone goes,
oh my gosh, this happened. It happens occasionally, but I'm
a big believer and you win. And the cracks and
the gray spaces. You know, you were talking earlier about
(41:26):
like the email, like you were agonizing over the right
phrasing in an email, like what are some of the
things that are like your cracks.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
And gray spaces? Moment you think that, I mean, I
think email is a great ideot.
Speaker 3 (41:37):
I love that. I never heard that, and I totally agree.
I think it's a slow success, is a slow big win.
It's like it's not working, it's not working, it's not
working on its working, and then you look up and
you're like, it worked on a bigger scale than I
could have ever imagined. But you but you're just continue
to grind.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
Yeah, it it.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
You know, it's funny because uh, the you know, you
sit and people want to see these big things. But
it's every day, you know, I talk about what's one
more thing you can do or how can I get
just a little bit better today? And you know that's
what we try and think about. And as I as
I listen to you talk, I think it's the same thing.
(42:17):
It's it's a patient at the time and giving them
that experience and you know, at the end of the day,
like the billboards, I'd.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
Given them right, you know, and shocking them with a
good experience. Yes, and if you can, if you can
become what they tell their family and friends about, then
you've won in any business.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
What have you got here with those candy Yes?
Speaker 1 (42:38):
Okay, So so as we as we wrap up the
team here took a little bit of liberty with a
portion of the podcast that we call question Roulette. They
changed it for you to call it candy question Roulette.
So each candy has a.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
Question in it for you that we will let you pick.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
We have KitKat, Eminems, Skittles, Snickers, twigs. Now, I know
you like sugar cookies, so maybe you're candy guy. But
as a professional dental professional, this is probably.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
Horrifying to look at for you.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
So you need to pick one of the envelopes with
an adjacent candy, open the envelope and read the question
and answer it for Okay.
Speaker 3 (43:19):
This reminds me when I did a well. I used
to go to like uh racing events and I'd hand
out candy to get attention, and all people would give
me help Like you're Donnis. We don't handout candy. I'm like, well,
I just need to meet you to give you free
teeth lightning, like just take the candy, all right, here
you go, all right. Final ruling as America's Dentist, Are
(43:43):
you pro or anti tooth fairy? Optional follow up needed?
What's a toothpairy fairy pay out these days?
Speaker 2 (43:52):
So we dubbed you America's dentist.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
Congrat Thank you. Uh my best friend will love that.
Uh okay, Well I can tell you because I have
a ten year old daughter. This The tooth Fairy ended
around age nine. She was getting twenty dollars a tooth,
which was generous. I know, I knew I was gonna
get shit for this, and I was, but I was
(44:19):
I think I gave in telling my daughter probably early
on that there was not a tooth fairy. But at
first I felt really bad about the tooth Fairy and Santa,
and I told him as early to get away with
that I'm not lying to them. I remember being devastated
when I was like, y'all lied to me. It's not real.
Oh yeah, I believe the lie way too long, I think,
(44:42):
And I was like, oh it was, And so I
kind of like let them in early, but eased them
into it and kind of like just didn't deny that
Santa wasn't.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
Real, so you soft sold the tooth Fairy out of
the same the tooth fairy. I was like, yeah, so
my wife will.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Want me to tell you this story really quick. In
an attempt to minimize the candy with our children. The
lore around our household is you picked ten pieces of
candy out of your Halloween basket, and if you left
your Halloween basket outside your door, the tooth fairy would
bring you an in kind gift that was not candy related,
so they would.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
Get a present to unwrap.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
I should have done the next morning. I know, right,
my daughter, I swear as a sugar problem, and I'm
trying to unwind that.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
Is that like on Dentist Confidential.
Speaker 3 (45:27):
I guess so, I mean literally, it's just embarrassing. I'm like,
you got but she has he has perfect teeth. I
don't know how that's going to change. She on the stopping.
It's not sugar, but she somehow gets away with sugar murder.
And with that.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Yeah, America's dentist doctor Harrison appreciated for joining Top five.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
This is top five.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
No, we have five people in the room house so
you can start.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
Working your way up the ladder.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
I really enjoyed it. Thank you for your time, Thanks
for having me. We'll be talking soon.
Speaker 3 (45:57):
Appreciate you.
I'm here with doctor Field Harrison, CEO, founder of Mint Dentistry.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Welcome, doctor Harrison.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Thank you for having me. I'm honored.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
We're excited to have you here.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
We've met a couple of times, and when we started
the series, I was really excited.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
About having you on.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
And as region president for iHeartMedia, I want to welcome
you and.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I want to give a little bit on your background.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Do it, and then we'll dive in with an opening questions.
So let me know if I miss anything. You are
founder of Saint Appollonia Management Group, overseeing Mint Dentistry, Mint Orthodonics.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Pure Oral Surgery.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Pure Dental Academy, Mint Dental Academy, Mint Insurance Services, with
over sixty dental practices nationwide.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
It's correact.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
So you're kind of busy, pretty busy. Yeah, I would
think that that might keep you. I mean at least
thirty hours a week, you know, with the rest of
the time. I think I read somewhere. Do you have
a record label?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
We do? We do? It is true music excellent.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Okay, well, we're gonna have a little bit to talk about,
but before we get started, I think it's important given
where iHeartMedia stands in the audio landscape. As the number
one audio and entertainment company. We have over eight hundred
and sixty radio stations and one hundred and sixty markets,
reaching audiences of every format, spoken word, contact and podcast genre.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I think it's important I ask you these two questions.
What was your first concert? And what podcast are you
listening to right now?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Funny enough, I don't listen to podcasts, so I'm coming
in here as a novice. I've actually never listened to
a full podcast before.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
So you're on a podcast before you ever listen to one.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
That's right, So your own I'm gonna do bad.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
So your first podcast listen will be your own podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Maybe yes, I don't know if I'll go back and
listen to myself. So I'll be experiencing it as we
do it.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Excellent.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
And my first concert was Pink Floyd, and I'm very
proud of that. We're seventh grade.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Where'd you see him, goy?
Speaker 3 (02:07):
It was somewhere in Dallas. I don't know too far.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Pink Floyd, that's a good one.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
There was too much marijuana in the air, familiar.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Remember, And that's for another podcast. So in last episode,
my guest Matt Powell Johnny Cash.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
So I know, like and I've got two really good ones.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
As I said, my last mine was none at work,
so I don't feel like I'm really in the same league.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
So we'll just move on. And I just realized something.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I did not do the appropriate greeting to you, given
your alumni history.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I should have said howdy as an agony.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Correct, Well, well, hold on, No, I don't claim A
and M because I went to Baylor Dental School, which
got bought while I was there, and so I do not.
I do not run with this first yes.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
No podcast listening ever, and someone who has some affiliation
with Texas A and M not going on a thirty
minute diatribe about the amazing I know that I now
have met guru's status to every other human that did
not go to A and M that I have refused
it as you know.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Being part of that. Okay, that group, but yes, that
is a group I do not understand. Okay, so have
no real I'm not looking to understand.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Excellent, So in our first three minutes a podcast, you
don't claim Texas A and M.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
And you saw pink floors.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Well, you know it's a wild story about A and M.
And Baylor Dental Schools. They bought us, and they kind
of kept it secret with the name. Nobody knew what
was going on. We were still Bayardal School and evidently
the head coach of Baylor had a at the time,
some scandal and like he got caught texting some girl
(03:54):
in school, and they used that as their reasonable this
is the time to change Baylor Dental School to Texas
A and M Health Science Center. And that was their excuse, like, oh, well,
you know, Bear's got such a horrible reputation that we
can't have that name on the dental school anymore. And
it changed while we were there, and we were like,
what's going on? Why did we change your name?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
So tell me a little bit. What led you to
dental school.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Well, I went on a mission trip, believe it or not.
And I was nineteen and at the time, my girlfriend's
dad was a dentist and she was telling me that
they go on these mission trips every year to Romania.
And I was like, I'm gonna check this out. Why not?
So I talked to my dad into it. I was like, Dad,
let's you got any interested in going to this Romanian
(04:37):
mission trip. We're gonna be helping a bunch of orphanages
in Romania with their teeth, and I honestly hadn't really
considered being a dentist. And I get there and for
a week I was his oral surgery assistant and it
really just changed my life. And it was when I
came back. Honestly, I probably shouldn't even tell the story,
(04:58):
but now we're all older. He was about six days
into it, He's like, hey, do you want to pull
this guy's tooth? And he was like, don't tell anybody,
And now I'm like telling everybody. But he's a legend
now too, Like he's the man. I won't say his name,
And so we switched positions and he was my assistant
and it was actually, ironically the driver of us in
Romania who need his tooth pulled. And I get in
(05:20):
there and it took me like ten minutes. I mean,
I was fresh out of high school. I had no
idea what I was doing, and the tooth was crumbling.
I was getting roots out and one route really took
me a good few minutes of I'm nineteen stronger than
I am now, pulling almost as hard as I can
for five minutes and it finally comes out and I
look at my dad. I was like, this is better
than hinting hold one, Like this is what I want
(05:42):
to do the rest of my life. And that one moment,
you know, got me to study hard go into sciences.
I wasn't very academic in high school or college at
that point.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Were for rent of your dad? Your father was a dentist.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
No, my dad was not annist. So my dad was
in advertising, and so I ended up just trying to
really work really hard in studies. And it was really
hard for me at the very beginning to make the
grades good enough to get into dental school because you know,
from not really being very academic to trying to compete
with these valve victorians, which is what dental school was
(06:17):
full of. Yeah, I really wasn't very competitive, but I
tried harder than they did. But that work ethic in
the workplace matters. So when you time, by the time
we get out dental school, and I'm working harder than
twice as hard as everybody, you take that into you
know the workplace. You just I mean, that really is
what Catapult did. I think meant in my success is
(06:39):
just the work ethic.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
So okay, so your story was interesting before adding the
Romania piece and what drove you to dental school accelerates that.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
I was almost not gonna even say. I was like,
I don't want to get me any trouble, but like,
it's Romania and it's like thirty years ago. But it
was really such a nice gesture of the dentist to
let me do that because it changed my life.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Well, I mean, but I think that's what's so interesting
is so often people in your position, people don't see
all the behind the scene things, and there's a lot
of assumptions made about uh, either they may have had
some advantage or whatever, and to see what the catalyst was. Yeah,
I mean, is something so personal really when you think
about you changed that person's life.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Probably ironically. In college, my passion was TV. I had
a public access television show in Dallas back when there
was cable. It was through DCTV. Are you familiar with
this station? No?
Speaker 2 (07:34):
But please go on?
Speaker 3 (07:35):
And so my backup plan was to be like a
TV producer and Wayne's world. It was totally Wayne's world,
but we had going on and we followed around a
high school buddy of ours who was just hilarious it
almost ruined his life because he became a star in
his own eyes. And at the same time I was
getting into Dill school, Mark Cuban's production company was calling,
(07:58):
had heard about it and wanted to buy it, and
I was like, what am I going to do? But
I was I wasn't really that hard a decision. I
was like, I'm definitely one is a lifestyle that is
not helping people, and one is a lifestyle that is
totally helping people and stable. And it was it was
an easy choice, but it was interesting. I was like pulled.
(08:20):
I was like, this seems like a lot of fun
to be a TV producer of a Wayne's World type show.
But I think I'll you know, my calling is to
be a dentist.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
So well, what's interesting as I'm watching your expression as
you're talking about this, did the big thing jump that
came out was helping people?
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:37):
So so going back to the original vision for ment,
like how did that start? Because you go from four
years of really you know, busting it to get through
dental school, segue into really entrepreneurship founder, which is it's
interesting seeing those two things meet and to see where
you are today.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
So like, what was what was the original vision.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Well, most dentists dads or dentists like you assumed my dad.
It's just kind of a family profession that gets passed down.
And having no family dentist, I had to go and
like search out mentors early. So in dinal school, I
was working hard to just get through it, but I
was also working hard to try network with successful dentists
(09:19):
to have a job when I got out, because again,
all my friends were like, I'm gonna work for my dad, Like,
you're so lucky, and I thought they were lucky, but honestly,
they weren't that lucky because I mean a lot of
dads don't have I guess they're not like in a
big hurry to give their kids their practice that they
(09:40):
worked thirty years to build, sure so they become actually
like almost handcuffed by their parents. And also that I
guess landscape also helped me succeed early as a dentist
because I wasn't having to work for my dad. I
had to work hard to find a job. I had
to lean into my mentors that weren't family, so I
got to get a bunch of different perspectives and become
(10:03):
out of the gate. I had more, I guess, mentors
than most dnnists had, and I got to see what
was working and what was new, and I came out
dentistry was changing. Yeah. Metal At fifteen twenty years ago,
people had metal in their mouth, They had amalgam fillings,
they had what they call pfms porson fused the metal.
People had gray around their gums. Nobody's teeth were like
(10:25):
they are today. And the materials all changed. As I
was getting out of dental school and Dennis were learning
new materials and the old guard wasn't buying into them.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
So it's a real transition face.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yeah, And the porcelain at the very beginning was kind
of weak. People were fracturing veneers and they still do
other dental offices, but I'm just throwing that in there.
But materials changed dramatically, and I was at the forefront
using the newest materials with a bunch of great mentors.
And it's really my mentors that really helped me succeed.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
So was it that moment when you kind of had
that aha moment of there's got to be a better.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Way, Well, you know, once I got out of dental school. Sure,
it was like as I was following mentors in Dylal School,
they were already teaching me different ways. But my first
mentor was the most successful dennist in Dallas. He had
started a chain called Floss if you remember him, this
(11:22):
was fifteen years ago. He had twenty dial offices before
I had two. But I had helped him open office three,
four and five. And he was a as far as
a business person, the man as far as a dentist,
mentor not so much. And so when we were transitioning
and he he and I I told him was open.
I was like, I want to open up my own
(11:43):
practice if I ended up not, you know, partnering with
you here. And he was very confident. He's like, you
can open the next door to me. I was like,
I'm not trying to do that. I'm just trying. I'm
just trying to be like open with him about my situation.
And whenever, like we started parting ways, I searched out
another older mentor who was kind of more of his
prime and he took dentistry super serious. And it was
(12:07):
a great dentist in Richardson and kind of near where
I grew up. And he had gotten hurt temporarily. He
had ironqically banged his hand on a beer bottle in
Mexico and his hand went numb. So I'm waiting for
my dial practice to get built out, and he's like,
I need some help for just like six months until
I get the nerve.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Well, that's a problem if you're a dentist.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
So I got the privilege of having like a dentist
over my shoulder who I really respected his dentistry, and
he'd be like, you need to do this, you need
to do this, you need to do this, and a
little bit of it was old school, but I had
seen kind of the riskier new school dentistry, and so
when I started MINT, I got to combine the new
school with the old school, and it really was a
(12:46):
new school of thought of it was a new way
of doing dentistry, and it was a lot more had
the stability of old school dentistry, but it had the
look of pretty beautiful medalist dentistry. So and that now
has become more standardized everywhere, but we were one of
the first to really, you know, start it and teach
(13:07):
people how to do it. So that's interesting because nobody
knew how to work the materials.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah, so you're cutting edge.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
We were super cutting edge. I mean dental schools were
calling Mint early on like how do you use this material? Oh?
That's interesting, and we would teach them. Who would teacher
so you'd go in and lecture and my team would
So I can't account me. Staff members are either currently
faculty at dental schools or have been in the past.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
That's interesting. So okay, you you.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
You launched Mint, HM, at what point did you have
that feeling this is going to.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Work before it started?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Before it started, Well, you have to have that confidence, right, we.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Knew and my you know, between I tell everybody I
inherit everything I have because my dad knew. I didn't know.
He knew. He was an ad many like you're going
to be huge.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
I was like really, He's like, yeah, you're going to
do great.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
And all I cared about at that time, and I'm
a very competitive person. I just want to be the
best dentist in the world. That's the only thing I
cared about. And when my dad started, you know, doing
all my marketing, I was like, well, shoot, I got
I don't have a patient problem, and I'm the best
dentist in town. But if you got those two things
with your business, if you know how to get clients
(14:25):
and you're given the best product or service, you're going
to blow up. And I mean from day one, day one,
we were profitable, very profitable. Day one, I did a
like eight unit in your case, and I'd made more
money that day than I had any month prior.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
That's amazing.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
And so it was. It was we were off like
a rocket. Within two years, we were like the busiest
and love was in the state and we couldn't answer
our phones and we still to this day have problems
answering our phones with thousands of calls a day.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Okay, so this is a great segue for people listening
who haven't experienced Mint. You've talked a lot about materials
and cutting edge and that transition period as you were
getting started.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
How would you describe.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
The men experience and what do you think sets it
apart from competition.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Well, thankfully, again, I'm in a nice space where the
expectations are pretty low. When people go to the deal offices.
Nobody's really having a great experience. Nobody's like, oh, that
was the best part of my day. And so coming
at it from that angle, first, my personal viewpoint of
as a dentist, how do I want my day to be.
(15:34):
Do I want to be in a ugly, smelly, old carpet,
old material, old equipment, loud deal office or do I
want it to be plush? And I made the decision
early on. I just wanted it to be a super
plush Dallas office where there was like there was no
(15:56):
doubt this was going to be my additive to my day.
If I'm around beautiful furniture and tear decorating and quieter,
better material equipment, then I just thought, my day is
gonna be better, My patients are going to be more relaxed.
And it it felt like a hotel when you walked in.
You know, there was no sliding screen. So if you
ever go to a Mintdal office, nobody's like sliding the
(16:19):
screen closed or open on you. It's just like a
hotel you walk in. And so the vibe was more
of like, let's be a five star hotel as opposed
to let's just be a good dental office. You got
to create your own competition when your competition is so bad, Yeah,
it can't be. You can't be competing against Dennis. It's
like we need to be better than the Ritz, and
(16:41):
that's what we want, that kind of services.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
That's amazing. When I moved here twenty some years ago,
found to Dennis. You know, you don't know who to
go to.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
And the Dennis my wife set me up with made
me feel so bad about my teeth. And I would
go home and like feel beaten down and the whole deal.
And it's funny you should say that. It's like I
dreaded the experience, right, and then fast forward get.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
A new dentist who always tells me that I have
her favorite teeth, and my wife says she says that
to everybody. I'm like, no, she doesn't. But but your point,
it's amazing. You don't think of a dentist as selling,
but it is.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
I mean, we're all marketing ourselves, and you know, my
and this might be brilliant, but I thought it was
too much like my first mentor really focused in on
that experience. But you'd be sitting in Ikia furniture. But
he was given out liquor and wined his patients when
they walked in. I was like, that's a little We're
a healthcare facility. I was like, that's just maybe I
(17:40):
got yeah, Like, but I liked the you know, the
part where he's trying to be different, like the energy. Yeah.
I was like, but we can do this better. We don't.
We don't have to give alcohol out at a health
care facility to win a patient. But if you give
them excellent dentistry, uh, they feel it and know it
and it should be the service should match the vibe
(18:03):
and it usually does.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Yeah, so it this will This leads really into this question,
and it's a little bit what you're known for here
in Dallas though we make teeth sexy okay campaign. Did
you feel like you were taking a risk with that choice?
I mean I remember the first time I saw the
boards as like, oh wow, yeah, strong statement, like.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Nobody's copying that. Yeah. What's funny about that is I
did that and my dad hated it. He's like, as
an advertising guy, didn't like it, Yeah, don't do this,
And I was. But it started with, you know, a
brainstorming session and me and the creative director at the time,
my wife, we were all kind of around the table
(18:46):
and I was telling the story of I had a
patient coming Preveneers and she was kind of getting in
your console and I was like, She's like, well, are
you gonna make them too big? I was like, girl,
do not stress, I'm going to make your teeth sexy. Okay,
do them. I was like, okay, we're on the right.
We're on the right. This is the It was no
more questions after that, and it just came out but
(19:06):
that but I knew what she wanted. She wanted sexy teeth,
and as a I almost consider myself like a fashion
designer of teeth, like this is there is philosophies about
teeth that I have that I mean, And we were
doing them every day and patients were going crazy for them.
(19:27):
And we had invented a surgery that was in conjunction
with veneers that was a gum surgery that had like
a three day healing time as opposed to a six
weeks healing time. That was kind of the standard of
care at the time, and so we just became instantly,
by far, the best place to get veneers. It wasn't
even a close second. It was so much different. That
(19:48):
was the that was the base of Whydenness wanted to work.
It meant was just to learn how we were doing
these extravagant veneer cases. That were extraordinary and because it
was what we were doing was revolutionary. We were invading
another doctor's profession and doing it way better than them.
(20:12):
There is periodontists that do gum surgery. Dnists they can,
but you really can't get protection from your malpractice insurance
if you screw something up. So what we were doing
had to work. You had no bungee cord. If it
didn't work, Like, if you screw something up, you had
(20:34):
no bungee cord. Like, you were not insured for a
malpractice suit. If you did something wrong. You're in someone
else's space that that's their profession. But their profession used
rudimentary tools, in my opinion, scalpels, blades, and drills that
they would hand the patient back after gum surgery. They'd
be in stitches and say, okay, now do veneers. Their
(20:55):
gums are flapping in the wind. And I saw this
and I was like, first off, this looks so painful,
and it was. It was six weeks healing, and I
was like, I think that if I use dental drills
here and I know enough of the science because I
had taken enough CE classes on this, that I think
(21:16):
I can do the surgery way better than them with
my tools. Yeah, because I can cut teeth and they
and they shouldn't be cutting teeth, but it'd be easier
for me to cut teeth, bone and gum simultaneously, minimally
invasively with and I already knew what the The only
risk was the gum might grow back, and I'm like,
this is gonna be the easiest surgery to pull off.
(21:37):
Conceptually the science supported this. So I grabbed some friends
that needed veneers and I was like, I'm gonna give
you for free. I'm I'm gonna do something. I'm gonna
do this for free. I just want to see how
this looks. And no matter what, it would have been additive.
And it turned out it was unbelievable for a dentist,
Like we're talking now nerdy stuff, but it was. It
was like a Nobel prize thing for a dentist. To
(22:01):
see what happened. It was like, oh my god, this
is going to change the world. I call it. Patent attorney.
I was like, Okay, I figured out a better way
for the surgery. He's like, well, if you patent it,
it becomes public record and they're gonna steal it. You
have no recourse. You have no idea of stealing it.
I was like, yeah, I should just do this to
help recruit. At the time, I had two dentists. Okay,
now I have well over one hundred and they and
(22:23):
to this day, you can't compete with our are when
you if you look at cosmetic cases and you look
at the intricacies of them, there's just there's one thing.
Everybody's using porcelain, that's not it. It's the gums that
we can we can manipulate and that no one else
can and no one else did would if they could.
Like it's not it's it's a little bit of a risk.
It's not as risk anymore. We have thousands of cases
(22:46):
that we've done and we were literally doing it on
almost every case fifteen years ago, and so now I
mean we just it's not even a thought, it's an afterthought.
But this is what the ground floor of recruit doing
the best innistry, recruiting the best dentists. It all came
together and that's how Mint just exploded on the Dallas scene.
(23:06):
And then we just started doing a slow nationwide march.
But we're not as known in other markets.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
So this is a great cart and This is interesting
because I feel like we're ping ponging back and forth
between the business and the science.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
And science was way easier.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Huh. Well, okay, so let's jump to that.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
So you know you have more than sixty locations nationwide.
What was the hardest part about scaling?
Speaker 3 (23:28):
It's all hard. There's nothing easy. I would say that
the hardest part for me is trying to get known
in an unknown space. You know, if we go to
a new city like Miami was so difficult we ended
up closing shop. It was like, there's so many dinners here,
nobody knows about Mint and our reputation. Because the reputation
(23:49):
as it grows in a city, it exponentially grows. You're
helping more people, they'll tell them more people. You're helping
more people tell more people. Now, you know, recruiting dentists
and getting patients in the Dallas, Fort Worth and now
Houston or Atlanta area is like so easy, but it
takes so long to gain that reputation. Reputations come somewhat
slowly in healthcare. I mean, I think that if you
(24:11):
go to a restaurant, it's pretty good. You'll tell people.
But I mean, you know, we're not doing veneer cases
every day in Ohio right now, and so it's a
slow processed industry is really difficult as a business to do.
And a lot I got hot in the pe world
and it's still kind of is hot. But at the
end of the day, they're seeing, oh, this isn't just
(24:34):
a plug and play, it's a There's a lot of
different factors that come into play when you're the business
of the industry.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
So with that in mind, like as you grow and
understanding reputation and growing that takes time and all of that,
how do you maintain the consistency and the quality within
any of the practices.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Like what you got to stop growing? You gotta make
the product the important piece. This year, our goal is
no growth, really, I just want to be I wanted
to take our level of service and our product, and
our doctors and our doctor training and our training of
assistance and the front desk vibe and every little detail.
I want to take the time to get better because
(25:20):
as you scale anything, if you go too fast, your
product gets diluted. And frankly, I'm like, I don't want
the product to get diluted. I wanted to take it
to a new level. And one of my favorite business
books is called Scaling Up, and it says, anytime you
double in size revenue locations. When I say size like
(25:44):
amount of employees, any doubling makes it twelve times more sophisticated.
And I've really felt that way. So I went from
one to two clinics, it was twelve times harder, two
to four twelve times harder. But when you combine all
three at once, you're now what forty eight times harder
every time? And so and you feel it. It's just
like ugh, and like little things. I'm still grinding when
(26:05):
I'm at work, like, okay, what is the wording of
our email when someone needs to come back for their
recall cleaning? And I'm I mean, that's yesterday's work. I'm like,
is that too much? Is that too insulting? When I
tell them that they have a dirty mouth, Like even
though I'm joking, well, well, well, twenty five thousand patients
really know that I'm joking. If I tell them they
have a dirty mouth, like I just take that out,
(26:25):
you know, like, let's just error on professionalism. But I
mean we've made I think as a CEO on the
business side, your goal is to make as many as
mistakes as you can make as fast as you can
make them. Yep. So you know truth, you need to
get to the rock bottom of is this work for
you or not? And so the sexy teeth thing coming back,
I moved off of it. Now I came back to it,
(26:46):
and my dad was like, he stopped talking to me
because I moved away from it. He loved it, and
I stopped liking it because I was like, I might
be turning people off. I wasn't. I'm a little insecure
about it to this day, really, but you know, people
are like, oh, you're great marketing. I'm like, maybe I
don't know. I mean, yeah, it's We're not a gimmicky company.
We take our dentistry so dang serious. I mean, I've
been looking at training films all morning about what we
(27:09):
are teaching dentists. Like it is, we are a dnnist
focused company first.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
So saying that and understanding, you know, especially when you
throw out the twelve x multiplier as you're running the
business from your position as CEO, what is your interaction
if a new dentist comes in or keeping tabs to
make sure that quality is there?
Speaker 3 (27:32):
I mean, well, we've put in place, you know, measures,
And and I came back as CEO, so I should
say this. I thought I had the business thing pretty
figured out when I was CEO, that's right. And so
I went to chairman for six years, and I would
tell everybody, never.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Do that, got it?
Speaker 3 (27:51):
And it's it's it's probably a lot of people that
sell and they have new ownership or new leadership, it goes.
It very rarely goes right, yep. Uh. And I thought
that I could, you know, I thought that that was
a good idea that could hire people smarter than me
and that they would do a better job than me.
But I just think, for the most part, as a founder,
nobody's gonna treat your baby the way you will. I
(28:13):
had a great analogy is, when was the last time
you washed a rental car? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Never have, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
And I just consider that with your company, like, no
matter who you're hiring, you're renting them well, you know,
and they can go somewhere else, but you aren't, like
that's your baby, that's your car. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
I had a mentor of mine teach me this early on.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
You know.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
He would always say, inspect what you expect.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Oh, yeah, but there's there's too many things to inspect
at one point. You know, I can't get it everywhere,
but you just got to keep trying to get everywhere
slowly and.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Having you know, good people.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
And you said something a moment ago that I think
is interesting, and I think that you see it a
lot in business, the people at your position that think
they have to do everything and that they know everything,
versus the the mindset of I will hire people who
are really good at things I'm not as good at
and trust them to do their job.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
So that don't do that, really don't trust people. I
think you just keep inspecting as much as you can
and the hiring people and not managing people. I'm like,
I mean, that would work great if people were machines,
but we're just not machines. Yeah, and I think that.
(29:27):
I think also that where America business went wrong is
making growth their god instead of their product or their service.
Growth will come inevitably, maybe, but when is enough enough
for someone to be like, hey, what are we chasing here?
(29:48):
Are we growing for the pure sake of selling it later?
And is that really what's going to be best for
your potential client or patient? I mean, my patient. I
have no intention of selling mint like I'm in it
for the long haul. I'm owning my work. I'm not
trying to, you know, just scale this quick and punt off.
(30:11):
I just care about being the best. That's all I care.
That's my That's what I preach my team. I'm like,
I'll never be the biggest, but we are going to
be by far the best. Like there, it should not
be a close second, and then we'll have enough. And
you talk about wealth, wealth is just lifestyle. I mean
if if if you have a good life, you are wealthy.
If you have good friends, you are wealthy. That what's
in your bank? I mean, if it's a gonna disappear
(30:34):
on you, I don't care who you are. I think
I don't care. If you're elon Bill Gates, you they're
one bad decision from being broke. They go all in
on Ai and suddenly he I ain't that they're broke.
I mean it, you can, you can make a bad decision.
And if but if your whole goal is just chasing
(30:54):
that pie, but your personal life goes to hell and
your uh family goes to hell, and you're I mean,
you're at hell with a bunch of money. It doesn't
they're not You're not wealthy. I don't want to trade
with anybody that just just from a bank account standpoint.
Now I've got good friends and a good time during
their day.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
I'm like, no, thanks, that's that's that's amazing that you've
grown to where you are. But you still really think
about the roots of what was important. And you know
what I what I'm hearing from you is you know,
the the providing a great important service to each each
patient is still job one.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Oh, it's one, two, three and four. Yeah, and doing
it while still making a profit.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
There's no such thing, in my opinion as economies of scale.
I think as you get bigger, your profits get lower.
I just I don't see it. I'm never and all
my entrepreneur friends we joke about that. That's just not
a thing. Bigger doesn't mean better margins. Bigger I mean
smaller margins. Interesting I found, I don't know how. I
mean you you told me about iHeart. I mean, if
you all bought a bunch of raio stations and they're
(31:59):
not really performing, you're you're gonna lose profit. Yeah, And
the thought that new radio stations are gonna outperform your
veteran ones. I mean that that'd be silly. Yeah, how
could they ever outperform the veterans that have been doing it.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Forever, correct that that are established, have a position and
all of that.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
No, you're you're right.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Thinking about Ian.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
We've talked about the Sexy Teeth campaign and you know
what you've done in the Dallas market, you know the
outdoor campaign and all that.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
You know, in general, what's your overall philosophy on marketing.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
I'm scared because I don't know it. That's that's where
I'm at. I don't know what this world's gonna throw
at me.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
So it's changing.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
You know, I've been seeing all these ai ads on
my Instagram feed. I'm like, I don't know what that's about,
but I mean seeing that I can make a song
about my childhood in five seconds through an AI app
and it'd be good. Is like, I don't know if
kids are going to be listening to anything but their
own music in five years, because you can make badass
(32:56):
music sounding like you know, Lauren Hill talking about something
personal like it's nuts. What's available now. It's just like
mind blowing, And uh, I don't know how to reach people.
I think that more than ever, you have to have
the goods as a company.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Well that's the bottom line. Yeah, and it's interesting. You
know you bring up AI, which you know it's here
today and we all have to figure out how to
harness it.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
You know, I don't know if you saw a company's
announcement right before the holidays is about guaranteed human and
you know you think about that. I mean on the
broadcast space. You know, a listener wants to know I'm
listening to a real human being, you know.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
If if not, I care if it's a real human
if it's good music.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
But if I want the music, yeah, okay, there's that part.
But if I don't care, there's other platforms I.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
Can go to.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Sure, you know, and so much.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
You know, you're five You're not five years out from
having a full AI station. I bet of music.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Okay, this is another conversation. This is when you invite
me on your podcast. I'm talking about that.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
I think that, Uh, I think it's great. Honestly, I
the marketing area, I still I feel like a novice
at Yeah. Yeah, I don't. I don't really know what
the future is. It is so uncertain that and everybody
that's been in business for the last fifteen years has
been burned through online ads. I remember when Google got
(34:27):
caught with their hand in the cookie jar of they
made their own bots click on people's ads, and so
they made money from the clicks. And it was their
bots clicking on fake it was fake clicks for people.
And I'm like, I was yan at Google three days ago.
I'm like, can I even trust y'ally?
Speaker 2 (34:42):
What?
Speaker 3 (34:43):
How do I know these are real clicks? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (34:45):
With that in mind, like where what role does technology play?
Speaker 3 (34:51):
We have to play with it. We have to figure
out the next it way of getting out there in
my opinion, and I don't I don't know if I
have not solved that yet, but I can tell you
as I've focused in on the product, we've gotten busier
and busier. I'm about six months back at CEO. We're
(35:12):
busier than ever because all I'm talking about is how
are we getting you know, better as a customer experience.
How are we how are we upgrading every level of
our product for patients in service?
Speaker 2 (35:24):
That's that's that's great.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
What what was the And we've talked about this a
little bit, but like when you went to the board.
When was the moment you were just like, I'm going back.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
I don't have a board, so I'm fortunate that I
don't have to have conversations. I'm pretty much the sole owner.
I just thought as my margins got lower and lower,
I was like that this rate, like this isn't sustainable,
Like we have to have an emergency. I'm going broke,
like the owner of me is going broke. I'm like,
(35:57):
just like everybody else in the economy, like everybody can
feel it. I think that the fear got to me.
I was like, if I don't go back to work,
work and you know, steer the ship. I mean, right
now we're making a profit, but as any business owner knows,
a it's hard to make a dollar and b your
(36:17):
your one bad decision from losing it all. And see
if you see it shrinking lower and lower, you're I mean,
you bever get working fast, so like you got to
get your margins right. Yeah, So they were getting smaller
and smaller, and I think that the worst thing we
did well. I mean, we did a lot of mistakes,
but we just grew not locations and not dentists. We
(36:41):
grew the management company too fast. You know, and like
suddenly people were very singular in like roles that were
very ambiguous, and uh, you know that when I say
the management company, it's like how many lawyers do you
need full time? How many accountants do you need? How
many data analysts do you need? And we had just
(37:06):
kind of gotten quick to hire a marketing staff. I
mean we we'd kind of gotten big in places that
they weren't Dennis, you know, they weren't revenue generating. It
was yeah and so and you can just kind of
just be like, oh yeah, well hire another data analyst.
It feels like we got a lot of projects right now,
you know, like and it suddenly this sounds good. Everything
(37:26):
goes a little slower. And it's crazy as we've you know,
not replaced people that left or had to lay off somebody,
We've got more productive with less people because suddenly your
best people are a little more motivated because nobody around
them is doing very little at work.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Yeah, how in and did a little research getting to
know you, I see use a people first leader. What
is your thought process you feel is the key to
attracting the best talent?
Speaker 3 (38:03):
Oh man, I think you got to put yourself out
there and I think that nobody's going to do a
better job than you of getting the best talent. So
if some if there's a person that you're looking to attract,
I mean, nobody's gonna do a bad job than you.
Add it. And that's something that the leader needs to
(38:24):
just own. Like you can't can't subcontract out the most
important work. Yeah, you have to do something yourself. And
I just think that all these business guys got it
wrong of Delegate delegate delegate Like, I'm the opposite. I'm like,
do do do do it all? Yeah, do it all,
redline yourself. And then when you're redlining and then you're
(38:45):
about to bring out okay, then hire somebody train them
up only when you have to. The more you can
do yourself, the longer you can do it yourself. I mean,
just look at Elon. That man's living where he's working
like challenging engineers doing his own math. I'm like, that's
why they're badass.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Yeah yeah, I look at it. With my team, I
have to be the best salesperson.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Do you look at it as you have to be
the best Hell yeah, job one, I'm the best dentist.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
I mean I I damn near in the top five,
but it's been a few years since I So, do you.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Take daily patients or not anymore?
Speaker 3 (39:23):
Not anymore? Do you do I'll do like charity work
there but I but if I went back to practicing
full time, it would be easy for me to be
a top five dentist at ment if not the there's
certain things I'm not good at in dentistry that I'm Admittedly,
when I first started, I didn't like root canals. So
I hired an excellent dentist that she didn't like doing canals,
(39:45):
but she was really good at them. No, no dnnists
really likes them that much because they take a little
while and they're tedious. And I was like, I'm just
not good at root canals. And so now we hire
dennists that are excellent at root canals, and so it's
like to say I'm better than everyone's a little different,
but like I can do a filling and veneers and
all that. Like there's a lot dentistry is expansive, you know.
(40:08):
So there's certain aspects that I'm really really good at
and some of the I'm not as good at. But
as far as like in every metric that I would
think matters. Yes, I'd be one of the top dentists.
I meant easily. And there's a huge difference between a
new dentist that starts at ment, even if they have
experience in our veterans. Sure, because what we teach and
trained dentists is superior to yeah, general school does by far.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
So we have emerging right here of the best dentist
and the best salesperson in Dallas.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
I think that's very confident.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
We can say that my kids, they have the best line.
Now my team is really good.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
We can just sit there and say in the studio
right now, you invest nis and I'm the best salesperson.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Amanda may disagree, but we'll go with them.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
I'm top five, top five in a room four people, perfect. Perfect.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
So this this has been a lot of fun. I
want to start winding down a little bit.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
And but one of the things that I'm a big
believer in, and I talked to my team about is
as you grow a business or as you change a
culture and you're trying to improve every day, not very
often is that they're that big seismic thing that everyone goes,
oh my gosh, this happened. It happens occasionally, but I'm
a big believer and you win. And the cracks and
the gray spaces. You know, you were talking earlier about
(41:26):
like the email, like you were agonizing over the right
phrasing in an email, like what are some of the
things that are like your cracks.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
And gray spaces? Moment you think that, I mean, I
think email is a great ideot.
Speaker 3 (41:37):
I love that. I never heard that, and I totally agree.
I think it's a slow success, is a slow big win.
It's like it's not working, it's not working, it's not
working on its working, and then you look up and
you're like, it worked on a bigger scale than I
could have ever imagined. But you but you're just continue
to grind.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
Yeah, it it.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
You know, it's funny because uh, the you know, you
sit and people want to see these big things. But
it's every day, you know, I talk about what's one
more thing you can do or how can I get
just a little bit better today? And you know that's
what we try and think about. And as I as
I listen to you talk, I think it's the same thing.
(42:17):
It's it's a patient at the time and giving them
that experience and you know, at the end of the day,
like the billboards, I'd.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
Given them right, you know, and shocking them with a
good experience. Yes, and if you can, if you can
become what they tell their family and friends about, then
you've won in any business.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
What have you got here with those candy Yes?
Speaker 1 (42:38):
Okay, So so as we as we wrap up the
team here took a little bit of liberty with a
portion of the podcast that we call question Roulette. They
changed it for you to call it candy question Roulette.
So each candy has a.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
Question in it for you that we will let you pick.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
We have KitKat, Eminems, Skittles, Snickers, twigs. Now, I know
you like sugar cookies, so maybe you're candy guy. But
as a professional dental professional, this is probably.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
Horrifying to look at for you.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
So you need to pick one of the envelopes with
an adjacent candy, open the envelope and read the question
and answer it for Okay.
Speaker 3 (43:19):
This reminds me when I did a well. I used
to go to like uh racing events and I'd hand
out candy to get attention, and all people would give
me help Like you're Donnis. We don't handout candy. I'm like, well,
I just need to meet you to give you free
teeth lightning, like just take the candy, all right, here
you go, all right. Final ruling as America's Dentist, Are
(43:43):
you pro or anti tooth fairy? Optional follow up needed?
What's a toothpairy fairy pay out these days?
Speaker 2 (43:52):
So we dubbed you America's dentist.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
Congrat Thank you. Uh my best friend will love that.
Uh okay, Well I can tell you because I have
a ten year old daughter. This The tooth Fairy ended
around age nine. She was getting twenty dollars a tooth,
which was generous. I know, I knew I was gonna
get shit for this, and I was, but I was
(44:19):
I think I gave in telling my daughter probably early
on that there was not a tooth fairy. But at
first I felt really bad about the tooth Fairy and Santa,
and I told him as early to get away with
that I'm not lying to them. I remember being devastated
when I was like, y'all lied to me. It's not real.
Oh yeah, I believe the lie way too long, I think,
(44:42):
And I was like, oh it was, And so I
kind of like let them in early, but eased them
into it and kind of like just didn't deny that
Santa wasn't.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
Real, so you soft sold the tooth Fairy out of
the same the tooth fairy. I was like, yeah, so
my wife will.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Want me to tell you this story really quick. In
an attempt to minimize the candy with our children. The
lore around our household is you picked ten pieces of
candy out of your Halloween basket, and if you left
your Halloween basket outside your door, the tooth fairy would
bring you an in kind gift that was not candy related,
so they would.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
Get a present to unwrap.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
I should have done the next morning. I know, right,
my daughter, I swear as a sugar problem, and I'm
trying to unwind that.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
Is that like on Dentist Confidential.
Speaker 3 (45:27):
I guess so, I mean literally, it's just embarrassing. I'm like,
you got but she has he has perfect teeth. I
don't know how that's going to change. She on the stopping.
It's not sugar, but she somehow gets away with sugar murder.
And with that.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Yeah, America's dentist doctor Harrison appreciated for joining Top five.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
This is top five.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
No, we have five people in the room house so
you can start.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
Working your way up the ladder.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
I really enjoyed it. Thank you for your time, Thanks
for having me. We'll be talking soon.
Speaker 3 (45:57):
Appreciate you.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!