All Episodes

May 27, 2025 14 mins

Ever have one of those nights where you're exhausted but someone talks you into staying up anyway—and it turns into the most fun night ever? That's exactly what happened when my family convinced me to play our ridiculous Italian-themed drinking game called "Garlic and Oil" at the lake house.

The truth is that strong practice cultures aren't built through mission statements—they're created through shared experiences, inside jokes, and rituals that bond your team together. People connect through experiences more than tasks. In my practice, we've developed unique cultural elements like our appreciation token system, morning huddle rituals, and our notorious "P2P" feedback approach where team members literally ask, "Can I pee on you for a second?" before offering constructive feedback. These might sound silly, but they create our identity.W

Text us your feedback! (please note: we cannot respond through this channel))

  👉 Register for the Free Webinar: How 7-Figure Dentists Work 3 Days or Less… Without Working Harder
Learn the exact systems top practice owners use to increase income, reduce clinical days, and finally escape the daily grind. 

Take Control of Your Practice and Your Life

We help dentists take more time off while making more money through systematization, team empowerment, and creating leadership teams.


Ready to build a practice that works for you? Visit www.DentalPracticeHeroes.com to learn more.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
You ever have one of those nights where you're so
close to going to bed, you'retired, you can't wait for your
head to hit the pillow and thensomebody talks you into staying
up and doing something and itends up being one of the most
fun nights of your entire life.
It was Memorial Day weekend andwe were at the lake house with

(00:26):
my family and my brother-in-lawsand my mother-in-law, and it
was just a busy day.
You know, we're out on the boat, we're drinking, we're having a
lot of fun, but come aroundeight o'clock at night, it's
time to go to bed.
Right, we're tired.
But then my brother said hey,let's play garlic and oil.

(00:50):
And if you're a longtimelistener to this podcast, you
know what garlic and oil is.
It is the lake house drinkinggame that me and my Italian
in-laws invented and it is themost ridiculous game you've done
ever played, and I'll explainto you what it is.
But we played garlic and oil,which essentially is like
quarters, like where you bouncethe quarter into the shot glass
and when one shot glass catchesthe other shot glass, that
person drinks.
But we throw in a bunch ofItalian rules, like instead of
saying ready set go, we sayready set spaghetti.

(01:11):
So you're bouncing your quarterinto the shot glass and it's
going around.
Now if the person in front ofyou bounces a quarter into your
shot glass, that reverses thedirection of the shot glass from
counterclockwise to clockwiseand everybody has to yell red
purple flakes and you have tospin counterclockwise.
Now there's a lot of rules tothis game, right?
And if you spin clockwise youspin the wrong way.

(01:33):
That becomes a Parmesan penalty, which you get a penalty later
after the round.
Now, after the shot glasscatches the other shot glass,
that is when it all goes down.
So that means that person haslost.
They're going to now have totake a shot of something.
This is bad when you lose, soyou've got to be punished.
And everybody pounds on thetable and yells garlic and oil

(01:55):
three times, and then we allyell shame and we start throwing
limes and bow tie cooked pastaat this person, just whipping it
at them, and they cannot covertheir face, they cannot try to
protect themselves, they justhave to take it in the face.
And it is hilarious and it's soshameful and it just it's so

(02:15):
funny.
So now, because we've beendoing this we've probably played
this six or seven times at thelake house.
We've invented so many rules.
It's like I'm laughing as I'mthinking about it.
Then you become the linguineloser and you have to wear a
strainer on your head and youhave the little sign that says
linguine loser.
You have to go around and pickup all the limes off the floor,

(02:36):
you have to pick up all the bowtie pasta and then you have to
take a shot.
It made me think some thingsabout the practice, and that's
what I want to talk about today.
So we're going to talk abouthow garlic and oil applies to
the culture of your practice andwhat you can do to improve the
culture at your practice.
I am Dr Paul Etchison andyou're listening to the Dental
Practice Heroes podcast.

(02:56):
This is where we teach you howto run a practice that is
team-driven, allows you to takea lot of time off and make a lot
more money, all while takingamazing care of your team and
your patients.
So if you're looking to workless days and make more money
and have more balance in yourlife as a practice owner, you've
come to the right spot.
Let's talk about garlic and oil.

(03:16):
Now I might have to post this.
Maybe I got some videos of it.
I think I'll post it on myInstagram.
I got to filter them and makesure there's nothing too raunchy
in there, but it was a greatweekend because we actually had
some college kids with us.
We had about four college kids.
Man, I still got it.
Guys, I can still party withpeople in their 20s.
I can still hang.
I definitely proved it thatnight.

(03:37):
So why is garlic and oil so fun?
Because it's a ritual, right,you've got this.
Almost like.
I was so tired I didn't want toplay, because I know garlic and
oil is a lot of shouting andthere's a lot of screaming and I
didn't have the energy.
But you force it, you put theenergy into it and then that
energy becomes contagious andwe're doing this shared ritual.

(03:59):
Everybody knows what to do.
We all yell red pepper flakesand you rotate counterclockwise.
Everybody yells one, two, threeready set spaghetti, the
linguine loser.
It's a bunch of inside jokesand it's just fun and
everybody's doing the same thingtogether.
So I ended up going to bedthinking man, that was so much
fun.
I can't believe.
I wanted to go to sleep and Ididn't want to play that, but it

(04:22):
made me realize that is thatculture, and especially culture
at our dental practices.
It's not really built with themission statements.
It's built with the moments,these rituals, the inside jokes,
the chance, the things that youdo at your practice.
These are these moments thatwill build that culture and
people will always bond moreover shared experiences than

(04:45):
they really do over shared tasks, like they will bond more over
the experiences that happen atwork rather than the things they
do together at work, if thatmakes sense.
So you've got a role as aleader of your practice to set
that tone and you've got to playand you've got to participate.
When you're showing up and youdon't have energy and you want
to go to tone, and you've got toplay and you've got to
participate.
When you're showing up and youdon't have energy and you want
to go to sleep, you just got toget in there and fake it until

(05:08):
that energy arrives, becauseyour energy is going to be
contagious and your team isgoing to model your behavior.
So if you're showing up, you'rebringing enthusiasm, so will
your team.
If you're showing up like agrump and you're all pissed off
like I have been at some pointsin my career and probably not
that long ago I probably had aweek like that.
It's going to show up in yourteam as well.

(05:31):
But leadership, it really meansyou got to lean in, even when
you're tired.
So let's think about the ritualsand things that you do at your
practice.
What about your morning huddles?
I mean, can that become aritual?
Can you add something?
My associate coach, dr HenryErnst, they do like a pledge of
allegiance for the morninghuddle and it's just, it's not a
pledge of allegiance, but theyrecite their core values and
it's like a pledge I am going totake care of people and this,

(05:52):
that and this.
And it's like this oath thatthey take every day and it's
something they do as a team.
It's something that bonds themtogether.
What kind of ways are you doingthings that are ritualistic at
your practice that you can makespecial and build the connection
with your team?
What about?
How do you like appreciate yourteam?
Do you call people out and saydo you recognize when people do

(06:12):
something great?
You know we do something in ourpractice called appreciation
tokens.
Everybody gets threeappreciation tokens each month.
You hand it to a team memberand you say today, I'm
appreciating you because of this.
At our monthly meeting,everybody turns in their
appreciation tokens.
Each month you hand it to ateam member and you say today I
am appreciating you because ofthis.
At our monthly meeting,everybody turns in their
appreciation tokens for tickets,which we then put in a raffle
and we raffle off prizes for theteam.
So the more appreciation tokensyou get, the more likely you

(06:35):
are to win a prize.
But it's really about it'sabout the way of calling out
each other and saying hey, Iappreciate you.
Another ritualistic thing wehave at our practice is I say
grace over guilt.
I have mantras.
These are things that I say andthese are words that I use with
my team.
They use them as well.
I know they make fun of mebehind my back sometimes, but
they're not making fun of me ina mean way.

(06:56):
It's just because I say it somuch no-transcript.
So we call this peer-to-peerP2P.
So the way we open that up isyou go to someone.

(07:17):
You say hey, can I pee on youfor a second?
So you're going to P2P on them.
So can I pee on you for asecond?
That is what we say can I peeon you?
And it's kind of a nicelighthearted way.
But then the person goes ohokay, what did I do?
You know what?
It's just a, and it's somethingthat we do at our practice.
I mean, we've got words thatwe've just made up, like you

(07:38):
cannot say retainer, or you cansay retainer to a patient, but
if you're going to talk to meabout retainer, you better be
saying retina, because we don'tcall them retainers, we call
them retinas, and I haveconvinced so many people that
come work for me that it'salways been commonly
mispronounced as retainer.
It is actually retina, but thatmispronounced as retainer it is
actually a ratana.
But that is just something, theinside joke that we just
started a long time ago, and wecall them ratanas.

(08:00):
It just sounds better, right?
So these are the kinds ofthings that create this, how we
do things here, and I can tellyou we're having an all day
meeting coming up this Fridayand one of the things that we're
going to talk about is how toapproach somebody and have more
peer to peer.
How can we pee on each otherbetter?
Because it's something that Isee my leads doing, but I don't
see the team doing it as much asI like.

(08:21):
So we're going to role playsome situations on how to
pee-to-pee on each other withthe idea of being hey, we want
to interact this way, we wantour culture to be this way.
So, rather than just hope itturns out that way, we are going
to model it, we're going toexplicitly say it and we're
going to practice it.
And that is how we createculture, not by just having a

(08:42):
mission and vision statement,even though I do think those are
very important.
But you've got to be clear withyour team what you want.
And another part of culture thatcomes up is I remember back
when we closed for COVID andthen we came back and we opened
back up and we had all theseprotocols and we had like the
mask fitters on because we werein the N95s and we had the mask

(09:04):
fitters because we just feltlike they were more comfortable.
But it was like you walked intothat practice with the mask on
and you didn't take it off untilyou left.
I remember like leaving thepractice and I get into my car
and I'm sitting there and I'mrunning.
I'm saying you know what?
I just walked out of thatpractice and I don't think I
said bye to more than two people, which is very weird to me, and
I was just sitting there.

(09:24):
I'm looking at my back door ofmy office, wondering if I should
go back in there and say bye toeverybody, and it just brings
this idea to me that that is notwho I am.
I feel like we've got to haverelationships with the people
that we work with.
So you've got to say goodbye,you've got to say good morning,
but when I'm just walking out ofmy practice and not saying bye
to anyone, it's become atransaction.

(09:46):
We have a transactionalrelationship and what I noticed
is that when we came back fromCOVID, we weren't allowed to get
together and do anythingoutside of work.
We weren't allowed to go placesand have meetings and have a
few drinks after work or do anyof our events that we usually
did.
Those relationships theysuffered.

(10:06):
So then we decided you knowwhat, we are going to get
together and we're not going totake any pictures of it and
we're not going to tell anyoneabout it, because we felt like
someone would post online hey,look at this office, they don't
care about protocols, they'reall having fun in this.
When we finally got together andspent time as a team, like we
always did, you felt thoserelationships reignite and you
felt the culture feel different.
So this is the thing we shutdown our practice for meetings.

(10:28):
We shut down two hours a month.
We shut down one day everyquarter, full day and we do
things that are fun together asa team.
And you might look at that andsay, oh my gosh, how much does
it cost you to shut down for aday?
How much does it cost you toliterally pay my team Like I'm
going to pay them this Friday,I'm going to pay them all for

(10:49):
four hours of work.
We're going to be sittingoutside at a picnic place having
drinks and barbecuing, so I'mpaying them to hang out with
each other.
So there is a cost involved init, but I think it's much less
than the cost of not doing itand having a crappy culture.
You want your team to get alongtogether, to have great

(11:09):
relationships, and that requiresyou, as the leader, to give
them situations where they canget to know each other and you
encourage that sort of behavior.
We're there to take care ofpeople, but we're also there to
have fun.
So that is my challenge to youthis week.
I want you to look at yourpractice.
I want you to think about whatam I doing to shape the culture
here?
What am I doing to createrelationships with my team and

(11:30):
make sure that they haverelationships with each other.
And what am I doing to bringpositive and enthusiastic energy
that is contagious, much likethe energy that you have to
bring when you play garlic andoil after the ready setty
spaghetti and you don't want tobe the linguine loser.
That energy is contagious andeverybody gets into it and you
might just have one of the mostfun nights of your life.

(11:51):
So if you like tips like thisand you want to learn more about
how to run your practice so youcan have more time off and make
more money and have moresystems driven practice that
gives you peace when you laydown at night, knowing your
practice can run without you,please go to
dentalpracticeheroescom and lookat our training options, look
at our coaching options.
We can help you do it.
That's what we do and that'swhat we love doing as coaches.

(12:15):
So check that out,dentalpracticeheroescom, and
check that out, because I'mtelling you, come around August,
we got something new coming upand the offer that is up there
right now is going away verysoon.
You will never get it as cheapas it is right now, but more on
that in the future.
We're gonna do something prettycool this summer.
So thank you so much forlistening.

(12:35):
You guys have an amazing week.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Crime Junkie

Crime Junkie

Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.

24/7 News: The Latest

24/7 News: The Latest

The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.

Stuff You Should Know

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.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.