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Ginger Price DDS is a Cosmetic Dentist in Phoenix, Arizona. Established in 1984, Dr. Price is known internationally.
Dr. Price has been recognized as one of the best cosmetic dentists in the area and accolades come from not only her patients, but also from her peers. In addition, she is consistently featured in newspapers, magazines, radio and television segments.
A Phoenix native, Dr. Ginger Price earned her doctorate in dentistry from the prestigious Loma Linda University (LLU). What makes her the best cosmetic dentist in the area is the fact that she also studied fine arts in college.
Her talent and background in fine arts gives her a unique perspective which she uses to enhance all the services she provides. Ginger Price DDS is also able to combine her talent and passion so that it benefits all her patients.
Dental patients appreciate the fact that she continually updates her skills by investing in continuing education. Hundreds of hours of additional training comes from such prestigious and reputable facilities such as the Pacific Aesthetic Continuum (PAC) in San Francisco and The Aesthetic Advantage at New York University (NYU).
A member of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, the Academy of General Dentistry, the American Association of Women Dentists, the American Orthodontic Society, the American Dental Association and the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Price is also a dedicated mentor at the Kois Center in Seattle.
www.drgingers.com
Howard Farran: It is just a huge, huge honor to have Ginger Price come over today.
Dr. Price: Thank you.
Howard Farran: And her buddy, Brandi Sweitzer, who is named after my favorite song, Brandy. She's as fine girl. We should play it on the deal. But when I got out of school in '87 ... I won't tell you the story how I became to idolize you. I never believed in group practice with employees because I group up in franchises, where Sonic Drive-in, my dad had Sonic Drive-in franchise, where Sonic wanted each store to be own and operated by an owner. They had a relationship. So I never believed that it was a great business model to have other locations where everybody was employed with and skin in the game.
I still believe that to this day. The only time I have ever seen employee dentists really do well is when they're working with a dentist side by side, who has skin in the game.
Dr. Price: Sure.
Howard Farran: If I own the practice, and you're my associate, that associate can blossom. But if this is like three employees in a dental office, I've never really seen that to be viable, and Wall Street agrees with me, because not one of them could go public on NASDAQ, not a chance.
What I did, and I should go back to it, I don't know why I got away from it. But what I would do is I would realize they were associates and they ... They got in a comfort zone. They were making good money. They were comfortable. So what I would do is I would go to a place and ... a new, sprawling center on the suburbs. I'd rent like 2000 square feet and the landlord would say, "Okay, I want $10.00 a square foot a month for three years." And I'd say, "I'll tell you what, I'll do $20.00 a square foot for five years but you do the build out. 'Cause you built this 16 acre Safeway, Albertson's, whatever. What it would cost me to do it, you could do it for half with your stuff." So he said, "Fine."
Then I go over to ... Remember HealthCo?
Dr. Price: Oh yeah.
Howard Farran: I go to HealthCo. I load the whole thing up with [inaudible 00:02:05] I said, "I want all the latest, greatest here it all is. But I'm not gonna give you a penny. It's gonna be a five year lease to own." So the last payment then, I owned. Then I would go to my office and I would get rid of the junior varsity, the receptionist you weren't sure about keeping, the hygienist you weren't so sure about, the assistant. I sacrificed the bottom 10%. I put them in this office. Then I'd go out and I'd look for a hungry, humble, intellectually curious, someone that's motivated in dentistry, but for just some reason, just never pulled the risk trigger.
Maybe they had more ... I don't know. They just didn't-
Dr. Price: No background in it or whatever.
Howard Farran: And I found this ... the first one I did was Theresa Murphy. I put her in there. I paid her 25% of what the office collected. After just two years, I took that two monthly payments down and I took it to the SBA loan, at the time it was Valley National Bank, then I think it turned into Union Bank, or an Ag Nations Bank, and now it's Chase Bank. I showed them the number and Darlene Winger said, "Man, that's awesome." So she approved the SBA loan.
Dr. Price: Wow.
Howard Farran: One day I walked in there, I said, "Well, here's your check for last month. But if you sign here, this whole baby's yours. Here's the monthly payment of 24 years." She said, "Son of a gun." She signs. She's so excited. I used to do that because that's what I believed. I believe that it's called a turnkey. They do it in franchise, they do it in all kinds of things. That was a really sweet deal. I think the better business model would be to find a piece of real estate, so you'd own the land and building. Then, when you sold the practice, they'd sign the SBA loan, but then they'd sign a 10 year lease that goes up with the consumer's price index. Then, at the end of 10 years, then you'd own a free standing land and building. That's what Rick Kushner of Comfort Dental has done 350 times.
He has 350, that's what McDonald's is-
Dr. Price: That's what Ray Croft did, yeah, exactly.
Howard Farran: McDonald's has nothing to do with hamburgers. It's a real estate company. They'll go buy the land, the building. Put in the guts, whatever that costs, it's more expensive in Manhattan than Abilene Kansas. Whatever it costs, that's a franchise fee. You come in and give them the franchise fee, so now they have no money in the land and building. Then they sign a lease. McDonald's, every month, has 40,000 paid off real estate buildings sending them a paycheck. That's why, when everybody was screaming, "Well, your foods unhealthy, and you need to have healthier food. There's too much sugar." Their response was, "All day breakfast. We don't even give a shit about the food. That's our response to eat healthier. We're gonna give you an Egg McMuffin at midnight."
It's a real estate business. Anyway, back to Theresa Murphy. Every time I ever talked to her, she'd always say, "Hmm. I wonder what Ginger Price says. Ginger Price, Ginger Price, Ginger Price." You are her idol, her role model, so I started poking my nose and checking into you. You've been my role model and idol since 1987.
Dr. Price: Wow. Well thank you.
Howard Farran: You're a pioneer in so many ways. Thanks for coming over to the house. Sorry I did all the talking for the first minute. Well, I didn't even start my timer, so we'll start it now.
Let me read your bio. Ginger Price is a cosmetic dentist in Phoenix Arizona, since 1984. By the way, I practice in her backyard. She is a legend in Phoenix Arizona. She's been recognized as one of the best cosmetic dentists in the area, and accolades come not only from her patients, but also from her peers. In addition, she has consistently featured in newspapers, magazines, radios, and televisions. That's 'cause you're beautiful. See, I have the face for radio. They'll only let me on the radio, not anything TV.
A Phoenix native, Dr. Ginger Price earned her doctorate in dentistry from the prestigious Loma Linda University. What makes her the best cosmetic dentist in the area is the fact that she also studied fine arts in college. Her talent and background in fine arts give her a unique perspective, which she uses to enhance all the service she provides. Ginger Price is also able to combine her talent and passion so that it benefits all of her patients. Dental patients appreciate the fact that she continually updates her skills by investing in continuing education. Hundreds of hours of additional training come from such prestigious and reputable faculties such as the Pacific Aesthetic Continuum that was packed live in San Francisco back in the [crosstalk 00:06:38] days. The Aesthetic Advantage at New York University, that's Larry Rosenthal. A member of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, the Academy of General Dentistry, the American Association of Women Dentists ... who won't let me in. And the American Orthodontics Society, the American Dental Association, the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. Dr. Price also a dedicated mentor at the Kois Center in Seattle. You've been crushing it your whole life. I love that.
I want to start off in left field. We just had two dental schools in the Valley. 56 dental schools just graduated 6000 kids last week. Put on your mom hat. What if your daughter just walked out of dental school at 25. What advice would you give your daughter?
Dr. Price: Well, I guess I would give her ... him or her, the same advice that I used myself. First thing is find somebody that's doing what you'd like to do and just ask them to mentor you and copy them. Then just learn and read. Get your hands on everything you can. Of course, it's so different today. When we were coming up, there was a cost to everything. You had to buy a cassette series, all the greats, Brian Tracey, Zig Ziglar, used to listen to all that. Now, you just go on your phone and it's all ... Your program, there's thousands of podcasts. You can go on YouTube to learn how to prep a veneer. So, it's so different. That's the biggest thing I would say.
My favorite analogy that ... 'cause I do have a lot of either pre-dent or young dentists come to the office, and I welcome that. I always tell them, you have to think of it as you've just gotten your pilot's license, right? You put in your 20 hours, your ground school, and that gives you, really, the opportunity to jump in a little paper cup. It does not give you the option to fly a triple seven. But, if you hang in there and you learn and get all your certifications and some time has to go by, you can do those larger cases, and work your way up to that.
I think there's a lot of misconception that you can just pop out of school and start doing veneer cases. I do see that.
Howard Farran: Are you a pilot?
Dr. Price: My dad was a pilot. So I [crosstalk 00:09:18]
Howard Farran: I was born in Wichita Kansas, where they make all those planes. All the Cessna, Pipers and all that.
Dr. Price: Sure.
Howard Farran: Do you remember back in the day, I think it was in the '80s, where two doctors here in Phoenix shared a small plane. One went and checked on the plane and realized it needed maintenance, so he called maintenance. They took off the tail and they took the tail off. The other doctor, last minute, decided he was gonna go there with his wife and fly to Sedona for lunch and he runs in there, jumps in the jet like it's a car. Taxis out. He goes down the runway, pulls up, just goes over the fence, nose dives, and they blocked off 24th Street for all day because the [inaudible 00:09:54] like, "Where's the damn tail? We're missing the tail." It took them six hours to realize, he took off without a tail.
Dr. Price: Oh my gosh.
Howard Farran: That's ... you know what you know, but you don't know what you don't know. An experienced pilot does a pre-flight check. Walks around the airplane-
Dr. Price: Oo yeah.
Howard Farran: ... just for little things like, "Is there a tail?" So these little kids walk out ... and that's funny because you're talking about Zig Ziglar. I did not think one of the first words out of your mouth was gonna be Zig Ziglar. The movie the Founder, of the making of McDonald's, he'd bring a record player. When he was out on the road, he'd bring his own record player and play those records of those motivational speakers.
Dr. Price: Sure.
Howard Farran: So who were your motivational ... you said Zig Ziglar. Who else?
Dr. Price: Oh, boy, there's a bunch of them. One of my favorites is Jack Canfield. He's half of the Chicken Soup books guy. He's awesome. His book ... my favorite book's called Success Principles. That's just ... I still go back and re-read it. It's a great book.
Howard Farran: Who wrote that?
Dr. Price: Jack Canfield.
Howard Farran: Okay.
Dr. Price: Anymore, I'm a huge reader. I hear you talk about that on your podcast. I grew up with that 'cause my dad was a family physician.
Howard Farran: Yeah, there's my library.
Dr. Price: Yeah.
Howard Farran: I've read every one of them books times two. That's why I love my homies so much. If you spend the night with all your friends and families, if they're dentists, physicians, or lawyers, they have over 100 nonfiction books.
Dr. Price: Yeah.
Howard Farran: They're just smart people.
Dr. Price: Sure.
Howard Farran: If they're not dentists, they're not lawyers, they're not physicians, they got 50 Shades of Gray and People Magazine.
Dr. Price: Sure.
Howard Farran: Then the conversation from there goes forward a bunch of talking about stuff they know nothing about.
Dr. Price: Sure.
Howard Farran: But God dang it, when you're hanging out with dentists, they know so much about everything. I know dentists that know more about Civil War History than they do dentistry. They're just readers.
Dr. Price: Sure.
Howard Farran: All leaders are readers.
Dr. Price: Exactly.
Howard Farran: Man, that is amazing. So you know my 30 day Dental MBA that I did back in '98?
Dr. Price: Yes.
Howard Farran: That was because I had bought Tony Robbins' 30 Day Personal Power. Ryan, do you remember that? My garage, I've never parked a car in my garage in my whole life because I was a wrestler in high school, so it was a full, professional wrestling mat. Our wrestling mat was custom-made in Pennsylvania. It was like $5000.00. We used to workout there. We'd play Tony Robbins' Personal Power. That was 1998. How old were you in '98 Ryan?
Ryan: Five.
Howard Farran: Five years old. They'd come up to me and ... I just love having Ryan coming into the gym saying, "Your attitude determines your altitude." Tony gave him so many one-liners. We played each one of those 30 Days probably 30 times 'cause he loved it. Then I sat there and I thought to myself, "I'm gonna do this for dentistry."
Dr. Price: Sure.
Howard Farran: That was ... What did I even call it? I called it 30 ... I just took-
Dr. Price: 30 Day MBA wasn't it?
Howard Farran: The 30 Day Dental MBA. The 30 Day Dental MBA. You're right. It was eight track cassette. If I gave you an eight track, could you even play it? Do you even have an eight track left in your home?
Dr. Price: No. No.
Howard Farran: I'll never forget when my baby-
Dr. Price: No cassettes even.
Howard Farran: ... crawled in my bed one night and he goes, "Dad, what's a CD?" I said, "A CD is the music thing." "I know. But what is it? What does it look like?" I said, "Well here, I'll show you one." I walk around the house, I couldn't find a CD player or a CD. I was like, "God dang this technology moves fast.
What are you passionate about today?
Dr. Price: Today, I've started a new oral care product company and really just kind of harnessing my dental background, what patients come to me asking for, and then of course, creativity and entrepreneurialism.
Howard Farran: The only thing my patients ask me for is their records, to be transferred. What are your patients asking you for?
Dr. Price: For sometime now ... We've always carried different products for sale in the business. I've never been 100% in love with any of them. Taste wise, some of the ingredients ... Then I noticed a shift, probably the last seven years, maybe longer, where there's a group of people wanting to get away from fluoride. So, no matter what our science brains say, these people just ... they don't want to use it. So that's interesting.
Howard Farran: You know, my science brain says that. My two older sisters are Catholic nuns, right? You think I could give them a one day seminar and they'd be Hindu or Buddhists, yeah. So, I'm your doctor. I don't care about your race, your religion, your ethnicity. I'm here to help you. So, you believe fluoride is toxic, even though you tell me you love everything natural and fluoride was made naturally in supernovas exploding. So, it starts off with hydrogen and gravity gets so much that the hydrogen converted to helium, and that's the sun. Then when the whole sun turns into helium, the weight is twice, it collapse, and explodes and that's where your heavy metals, your fluorides, your silver, gold, platinum, so it's all natural. It shows up in the ocean, naturally, at one point, four parts per million. We put it in the drinking water at half that amount, and the ocean covers 70% of the earth. When you put it in the drinking water, at half that level, .7, decay plummets. That's science.
But then they come to you and they show a molecule of rat poison, and there's a fluoride in there. I'm like, "Well, dude, there's also hydrogen oxygen, and there's ..." My deal is that you always start with humility and empathy. If you smoke two packs a day and want to implant, we're just gonna talk about it. It's your body. It's your risk. We're gonna do it if you understand that. But God, it'd be nice if you just couldn't smoke for like three days. Have you ever gone three days without smoking? Or maybe instead of 40 cigarettes, 30 is better.
Dr. Price: Right.
Howard Farran: 20 is better than 30. 10. And if 480 is a communist plot, you're still my patient. I still love you. That's what I like about these whitening toothpastes. By the way, I want to tell you something. When my other dental friend, Bob Ibsen, said he was going to start his own toothpaste company, everybody laughed and they said, "You're gonna ... Crest and Colgate are gonna kill you." Bob is fearless. He built that into a $100,000,000.00 company and sold it to Proctor & Gamble. Then four months after that, it was swallowed up by Gillette.
Dr. Price: Sure.
Howard Farran: Now he's passed on. So, what have you started with? These?
Dr. Price: There's more to it. The other thing people kept coming in and asking me was, "What about this oil pulling? This coconut oil pulling thing. I'm doing it. What do you think?" Again, our science brain goes, "Well, that's probably a load of crap." But, so many people were doing it, I decided to look into it. Guess what? Coconut oil actually does reduce bacteria. It has some properties that have that impact.
I decided ... people are people. No matter how much logic you apply, they're gonna do what they want to do, right?
Howard Farran: Right.
Dr. Price: I looked into the industry and there were no products wrapped around this idea of oil pulling. Even if you are an oil puller, that's where ... You do know what that means right? You've heard of it?
Howard Farran: Oil pulling, yeah, you swish with coconut oil for 20 minutes-
Dr. Price: Yeah.
Howard Farran: ... and it pulls out bacteria and fungi, whatever. But again, what did Zig Ziglar say? People need deodorant and motivation daily. You don't put on some deodorant and you're good for the year.
Dr. Price: Right.
Howard Farran: You don't motivate someone and they're good for a year. That's why the Christmas bonus is the dumbest thing in all of dentistry. Christmas is already the best time of the year anyway. You're gonna give them some Benjamin and that's' gonna effect them in June, July?
Dr. Price: Right.
Howard Farran: Your employees pay their bills monthly.
Dr. Price: Sure.
Howard Farran: They need motivated with cash monthly.
Dr. Price: Exactly.
Howard Farran: They pay their house payment, car payment. Everything's monthly. When we look at a country of the United States of America, where 38% of Americans did not go to the dentist last year, what percent did not brush twice a day? If my patient thinks that coconut, or no fluoride ... I don't give a shit because you know what the real science is on toothbrushing? A dry brush for two minutes is all you need. You're not going to repair any mineral ... but people don't like to dry brush because it doesn't make your mouth feel whiter, brighter, and sexier and so you wake up with morning breath. Anything that can Zig Ziglar seven and a half billion talking monkeys with clothes on to go brush and floss their teeth-
Dr. Price: It's a win.
Howard Farran: It's a win. Look at floss. It's Johnson & Johnson Floss comes out of the most boring container in the world. My granddaughter, Taylor, has watched that one movie ... What's that one movie? She's watched this Disney movie like 80 million times. Why doesn't the floss container look like that? Why doesn't the floss container look like their favorite Disney character?
Hey Ryan.
Ryan: Yeah.
Howard Farran: What's that movie that Taylor loves and watches all the time?
Ryan: Frozen.
Howard Farran: Frozen.
Dr. Price: Oh, Frozen. Sure.
Howard Farran: Why doesn't ... if the floss looked like Frozen, maybe that would make her want to floss everyday.
Dr. Price: Sure.
Howard Farran: Zig Ziglar, I mean, if 38% of America didn't even go to the dentist last year, how many of them would you say don't brush twice a day and floss once before bedtime?
Dr. Price: Well probably at least that many. I don't know.
Howard Farran: 38, I'd say it's over half. What would you say?
Dr. Price: Oh I wold say more than half.
Howard Farran: Yeah. And all my friends in Apache Junction, they ... My best drinking buddies are in Apache Junction. They need this. So you've got coconut toothpaste, based on the ancient and proven practice of oil plugging. I think it's cool. Dr. Ginger's Fluoride Free Coconut Mouthwash. I think that is cool. I think you're onto something. Coconut Oil Teeth Whitening Pen.
So, how do you go from a thought to actually showing up with a prototype. How does that happen? How long ... again, you're talking about your journey. Patients come and asking about this. How do you go from a patient asking about this to you being their doctor and saying, "I'm gonna give you what you want, supply and demand."
Dr. Price: Sure. Well it actually goes back a little bit. You did mention in my intro, I was a fine arts major in college. I was ... I'm in the yearbook. I'm gonna be that chic that throws pots in Maui, right?
Howard Farran: Throws pots in-
Dr. Price: Yeah. Clay.
Howard Farran: Clay pots in Maui?
Dr. Price: Yeah. Not the other kind. So, my dad, being a doctor ... of course, it's unspoken you're gonna go to college. But, so I'm the fine arts major. He kept going, "All right. When you gonna get a real major? This isn't going anywhere." He was getting his teeth straightened when I was a junior in college. And he goes, "Why don't you go to dental school? You're good with your hands. You can do this school." So I thought, "Well, it might be kind of cool." So that's how I got in it. But-
Howard Farran: Now, do you have other siblings?
Dr. Price: I have a younger sister.
Howard Farran: What does she do?
Dr. Price: She's been an entrepreneur and right now she's involved in the care of the aging population. She's in that whole industry in Minnesota.
Howard Farran: Yeah, oh, Minnesota.
Dr. Price: Yeah. So, she started out, she has a Associate Nursing Degree, so she kind of went that route. We're both healthcare.
Howard Farran: Yeah.
Dr. Price: So anyhow, a lot of what you do as a dentist clearly gets forced for someone with my personality type. When my son started ASU he went into industrial design. What a great school.
Howard Farran: The best university. Three of my four boys went the ... fell of the road and went to NAU in Flagstaff. Only one of my four boys followed dad-
Dr. Price: Is a Sun Devil.
Howard Farran: Yeah. So, back to ASU.
Dr. Price: Anyhow, I go to the orientation. He was industrial design, which is Herberger School. Actually, it's kind of interesting how he got there. ASU does a great job of these pre-classes for high school students. He did this design primer where every week for five weeks you're in a different design discipline. You get to visit a real firm and do a project. So industrial design, he hit that week, he was like, "Oh, this is it." You get to draw, but it's computers. You're building products, 'cause he likes to make stuff.
Anyhow, I go to this orientation and the dean was talking about the arts and, "Don't let anybody tell you this isn't important." I thought, "Oh my God. I'm gonna go back to school. These are my peeps." I'm a dentist ... it's been a great career. I gotta get back in this creative gig. So that happened. These things happen in your brain. Then ... I love consultants, too. My husband jokes that he doesn't know how I get dressed in the morning without a consultant. Always used them. For the last, I don't know, at least seven or eight years, I've gone to non-dental, because you kind of exhaust a lot of the dental out there. They're great for the team, but for your own learning ...
Anyhow, I've been doing the program with Strategic Coach Dan Sullivan. I don't know if you're familiar with him.
Howard Farran: Dan, is that the Dan Sullivan from dentistry?
Dr. Price: No.
Howard Farran: Oh, that was Dan Kenny.
Dr. Price: He's not a dentist.
Howard Farran: Okay, Dan Sullivan. What's the name of his company?
Dr. Price: It's called Strategic Coach.
Howard Farran: Can you send me Strategic Coach with Dan Sullivan? Strategic Coach. Where's he out of?
Dr. Price: He's in Chicago and Toronto.
Howard Farran: By the way, I want you to know, I went back to ... and got three more degrees-
Dr. Price: Oh you did, I didn't know that.
Howard Farran: ... because if you just drive by U of A with your windows down, they'll throw a diploma in your back window.
Dr. Price: Sweet.
Howard Farran: I didn't even have to stop or get out of the car. That's how crappy U of A is.
Dr. Price: That's good.
Howard Farran: How did you ... Where is Dan Sullivan out of?
Dr. Price: His main base is in Toronto, but they also have courses in Chicago and some in Santa Monica. I want to go to Toronto.
Howard Farran: So he's been your Strategic Coach now for awhile?
Dr. Price: Like four years. Its a small group, maybe 25 people. His whole thing is, at a certain point in your life, it's easier to go 10x than it is to go 2x, which is true 'cause you acquire all these different skill sets. But when I first started, I kept asking my ... 'cause they hook you up with a coach in between your quarterly meeting. I'd say, "I'm kind of like a little line worker. How am I gonna go 10x?" I don't really want to go that route where you're buying practices. That's not my deal. She goes, "Oh, don't worry. It'll come together."
Anyway, that starts the wheels turning. The other thing that I do quite a bit, I have kind of a rich fantasy life. Some people set numeric goals out there. But, at a certain point, I've been comfortable for some time. It's not about that, really. It's about just the challenge and seeing if you can do something different. I always imagine myself to be ... a goal is to be interesting. Interesting enough for that Marc Myers guy who does this house call column in Wall Street every week, they interview interesting authors, singers, athletes, the house you grew up in and how it impacted you. So my belief is these things all work on your unconscious, 'cause you're just kind of setting up this arena that is gonna ... your brain works to make this true.
So one day I'm sitting there reading the Wall Street ... you know how they have those articles about, again, some interesting person. I think it was a restaurant owner. They do a knowing on these are the things they travel with in their bag. This was after patients had been asking me ... and it just hit me. "This is a real idea." So, that's really when the idea was in my head.
I got down in the weeds a little bit, buying coconut oil in my kitchen, trying to mix it. I realized quickly, "Okay, I need a chemist." I found a dentist/chemist.
Howard Farran: A dentist who's a chemist?
Dr. Price: He's a super cool guy. They're very rare. He's a PhD Chemist. His name is Martin Giniger.
Howard Farran: Martin Giniger?
Dr. Price: One letter off from my name.
Howard Farran: G-I-N-
Dr. Price: I-G-E-R.
Howard Farran: DES PhD?
Dr. Price: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Howard Farran: Where does Martin Ginger live?
Dr. Price: Martin Giniger-
Howard Farran: Giniger.
Dr. Price: ... is-
Howard Farran: Is he gonna change his name to Ginger?
Dr. Price: It's so funny, isn't it?
Howard Farran: Where's he at?
Dr. Price: He's in Florida and New York.
Howard Farran: Florida and New York. He just does dentist chemistry?
Dr. Price: That's all he does.
Howard Farran: I want to so meet this guy.
Dr. Price: He's a super cool guy. I'll let you know next time he's here.
Howard Farran: Yeah.
Dr. Price: He's ... most of the dentist chemist's work for somebody else. He started out life working for Colgate. But at this point in time, he's called upon pretty frequently as an expert witness in these cases. So-
Howard Farran: Like what kind of a case?
Dr. Price: Oh, there was a big one recently where a ... it was between one of those mouth rinses that a periodontist developed and ... you know, I can't remember. It's so complex. Somebody bought the formula, but then tweaked it so they thought they could use it without paying.
Howard Farran: Oh, so it was a patent violation.
Dr. Price: Their patent violations, formulas, all that.
Howard Farran: So you found Martin, I assume on the internet.
Dr. Price: On the internet, yeah.
Howard Farran: Just Google searching?
Dr. Price: Yep. Emailed him, he called me within an hour. I had a nondisclosure agreement the next day. And had some samples a couple weeks later.
Howard Farran: So you made him sign an NDA?
Dr. Price: It's a mutual NDA, yeah.
Howard Farran: See, I won't sign one.
Dr. Price: I've heard you say that.
Howard Farran: Yeah, I refuse to sign one. Number one, 99% of all patents never generate enough money to pay for the patent. Every single person that asks me to sign an NDA, the first year, I get legal fees, this, that. You're starting to start a legal relationship. None of their ideas ever works out. No one's ever came up to me and told me an idea and finally, I talked to an older, smarter CEOs and these dental companies and says, "Don't sign an NDA. You're already starting the lawyer game. There's one million attorneys and you're just ... it's a slippery slope." If you don't want to tell me, don't tell me.
I tell people when they want to have me sign an NDA, I say, "Well, you know what? Be counterintuitive because it's a 99% chance it will never work." I would go on Dental Town and tell the whole fricking world. The way I look at is is look at McDonald's. They get the best intersection on Main Street and First Street. They sell a hamburger, fry and a coke. They have a drive-thru 'cause 60% of Americans are too fat and lazy to get out of their car. What's the secret recipe? But only Wendy's has been able to compete. Burger King, In and Out, Sonic. It's never the flathead like, "Oh, I wish I would've thought of that." Dude, it's never that.
Dr. Price: Right.
Howard Farran: It's always operations and logistics, operations, and logistics getting up every day and doing the 10 mile march all day, every day, decade after, decade after decade, after decade. They always think it's an idea. Your idea is so full of shit. And the shittiest idea behind a master executioner will get it done.
Think of how many crappy products are at Walmart.
Dr. Price: Yeah.
Howard Farran: How many products at Walmart ... you wouldn't even put in your basket if it was free. But they're making it. They're marketing it. They're distributing it. There's a big market. Look at this. If you just got 1% of Americans to use this, Holy, Holy Moly. If you got 1% of the planet, so then he designed the chemistry for all this, and you own the patent. So you hired him. So you own the intellectual property?
Dr. Price: Right.
Howard Farran: Are you the sole owner right now?
Dr. Price: I'm the sole owner of the patent. He actually has a small percentage of the company because he's really been huge guiding me through the mixing and filling companies. There's a lot to figure out.
Howard Farran: You know why I'm asking you these questions?
Dr. Price: Why?
Howard Farran: I have no idea. Just Mark Cuban on Shark Tank asked them. I figured if Mark Cuban asks a question, there's a reason. I don't know.
How far along ... on the journey, how far along was it from idea to this stage? Where are you at in the game now? How long did it take? Where you at now?
Dr. Price: From the time I connected with Dr. Giniger, it was about nine months before we had actual product.
Howard Farran: That's moving fast.
Dr. Price: Yeah.
Howard Farran: Good for you.
Dr. Price: My son did all the branding and packaging. He's actually a part owner too.
Howard Farran: Your son.
Dr. Price: Which is cool, yeah.
Howard Farran: That is awesome.
Dr. Price: He's 5%. He wanted 10, I said, "No, five is good."
Howard Farran: How many children did you have?
Dr. Price: Just one.
Howard Farran: Just one. And what's his name and how old's he?
Dr. Price: Reid.
Howard Farran: Reid?
Dr. Price: Yeah.
Howard Farran: Did you name him after Omar Reed?
Dr. Price: No. That's funny. That never occurred to me. My dad's middle name is Reid.
Howard Farran: Well just, whenever you're on a Dental Program, say it was Omar Reed.
Dr. Price: Okay.
Howard Farran: He's from Phoenix.
Dr. Price: I love Omar.
Howard Farran: I know. You should tell Omar, you should send him a card and say, "You know, Omar, I named my son after you and you never acknowledged me one time." He'd probably believe it and feel bad.
Dr. Price: I misspelled it, but, you know, hey.
Howard Farran: So how do you spell his name?
Dr. Price: R-E-I-D.
Howard Farran: Oh, R-E-I-D. Why did you spell it R-E-I-D instead of R-E-E-D?
Dr. Price: It was my dad's middle name. It's actually a Scottish surname that my parents gave ... or my grandparents gave my dad 'cause it was an old friend.
Howard Farran: America has a lot to owe the Scots. It was 1776 when two different 32 year old Scots, one wrote the Declaration of Independence, Free People, one wrote, Adam Smith, the Wealth of Nations Free Markets. All America was was the first time free people collided with free markets. It was a thermo-nuclear economic explosion that, we're a quarter of a millennium later, America has 5% of the world's population, and out of a 79 trillion dollar economy, they got 19 trillion of it.
When I'm in Scotland, I went to where there are monuments to these guys. The joke on Scottish people, which is true, I'm sorry to throw you under a bus, 'cause, I'm a superior Irishman-
Dr. Price: Oh, I'm Irish.
Howard Farran: Oh, you're Irish and Scot?
Dr. Price: I'm not Scotch.
Howard Farran: Oh, your dad was?
Dr. Price: No. It was just a friend's name.
Howard Farran: Well then the biggest joke in Scotland is that copper wire was invented when two Scots were fighting over a penny.
Dr. Price: Yeah.
Howard Farran: Those dentists in Scotland, just like their reputation, they are more focused on overhead than any countries I've ever seen. It is something in their culture, economics, [crosstalk 00:35:35]
Dr. Price: Yeah, it's in the gene pool.
Howard Farran: It is. It is.
Dr. Price: My husband's got a fair amount of Scotch in him. Oh yeah.
Howard Farran: Yeah. Yeah. Now, where are you at now? Who's making that? Where is it made?
Dr. Price: It's mixed and filled in Minnesota. A company called DMC.
Howard Farran: DMC.
Dr. Price: Diversified Manufacturing. That's their gig. They do mixing and filling. They actually do formulating and that.
Howard Farran: How did you find them?
Dr. Price: Through Dr. Giniger.
Howard Farran: Giniger recommended them?
Dr. Price: Uh-huh.
Howard Farran: DMC.
Dr. Price: Uh-huh. Yeah, it's a huge outfit.
Howard Farran: In Minnesota?
Dr. Price: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Howard Farran: Minneapolis, St. Paul?
Dr. Price: Just outside, like Newport, just outside of Minneapolis.
Howard Farran: My sister's convent is in Lake Elmo.
Dr. Price: Oh, no kidding?
Howard Farran: Have you ever been there?
Dr. Price: I don't think so. My sister lives in Rochester.
Howard Farran: You can't make this up. One time when I went to visit my sister, I dropped down 100 degrees. I think I left here, it was like 89 and got there and it was like minus 11.
Dr. Price: That's crazy.
Howard Farran: But I dropped 100 degrees fahrenheit-
Dr. Price: Yeah.
Howard Farran: ... going to visit my sister. What's the marketing distribution plan? How are you gonna ...
Dr. Price: Of course, we started selling in the dental practice. Patients love it. That was ... and we can sell wholesale to other dental practices. Anybody that wants to do that can get ahold of us. But then, we ... through reading a book ... you know, that reading stuff, I just happened on the biography of the guy who started the KIND Bar. Have you ever heard of that guy?
Howard Farran: The kinda bar?
Dr. Price: The KIND Bar. It's the clear wrapping that has all the whole nuts in it?
Howard Farran: It must be a health food thing.
Dr. Price: Yeah.
Howard Farran: I don't eat any health food.
Dr. Price: You've never stumbled onto it.
Howard Farran: If it's not bad for you, I've never eaten it.
Dr. Price: Okay.
Howard Farran: But anyway, it's called the KIND bar?
Dr. Price: Uh-huh.
Howard Farran: The KIND Bar.
Dr. Price: Yeah.
Howard Farran: And there's a book on marketing this?
Dr. Price: Yeah. A new book had come out, just about him, and how he got the company started. In that book, he talked about this natural product expo. If you have a natural product, this is kind of where you have to go. I looked that up. It's in Anaheim every year. So we had a booth there this past March. It's really hard to get into, 'cause first they scrutinize your product and then they really ... the thing is sold out for months ahead.
We got in. That has blown everything up. It's been really exciting.
Howard Farran: Well there are some rule of thumbs on natural products. I think ... the ingredients, let's go to the ingredients. Yours are pure water, coconut oil, hydrated silica, glycerine, xylitol, Irish moss, sodium, coco sulfate, aloe vera juice, titanium dioxide, natural mint flavor. We left out fluoride, triclosan, artificial sweeteners. Find all of our products at gingerprice.com.
Did any distribution pick you up at this Anaheim?
Dr. Price: Yes. As a matter of fact, this last 90 days has just been like a nuclear explosion. We just got in UNFI, which is the largest natural distributor. They do whole foods and-
Howard Farran: UNFI?
Dr. Price: UNFI.
Howard Farran: What's that stand for?
Dr. Price: I think it's just United-
Howard Farran: United Nation's Fluoride for ... The F stands for fluoride.
Dr. Price: Food.
Brandi Sweitzer: Food International, I don't know? That's a great question.
Howard Farran: So they picked you up. So they're gonna try to start getting this on the shelf space?
Dr. Price: Yep.
Howard Farran: Back to Shark Tank, what would your boyfriend Mark Cuban say? He really likes the online sales.
Dr. Price: Right.
Howard Farran: So he likes the online, online, online. If you're selling everything online, Cuban will throw money at you. If you're selling it at ... How is online going? Do you have your own website?
Dr. Price: Yeah. We are selling online.
Howard Farran: What is that website?
Dr. Price: It's just Dr.Gingers.com
Howard Farran: So Dr.Ging- so, then what's your dental office website?
Dr. Price: GingerPriceDDS.com
Howard Farran: Okay. So you're gonna get a Twitter on here for me.
Dr. Price: Yes.
Howard Farran: How do you market online? Basically just all search engine optimization?
Dr. Price: The online thing, we're currently ... That's a tough proposition, 'cause there's so many web masters out there and such a huge range of fees. Anywhere from 2500 bucks to 200,000. That's one of the things that we're working on right now. But, you can't really sell a company if you're not in a fresh time [crosstalk 00:40:38]
Howard Farran: You know what the best marketing you could do to get the most search engine optimization is go down to the Phoenix Zoo and shoot one of them lions. When Walter Palmer did it, he got like 100 million hits on his website. I could crash DrGingers.com. [crosstalk 00:40:59] I'll have Ryan drive you down to the zoo because my car's not working very well. So I'll have Ryan to actually be the driver.
Dr. Price: Oh, sure. Yeah.
Howard Farran: But, have you thought about shooting an animal [crosstalk 00:41:11]
Dr. Price: Howard, we are cruelty free at Dr. Ginger's.
Howard Farran: Oh, your cruelty free.
Dr. Price: I'm trying to say.
Brandi Sweitzer: She's a huge animal lover.
Dr. Price: That would be against the brand.
Howard Farran: That'd be against the brand.
Dr. Price: Yeah.
Howard Farran: I think all natural's gotta be ... Again, when you're 20 years old and you're piss and vinegar, you're trying to change the world.
Dr. Price: Yeah.
Howard Farran: When you're a grandpa of two kids, you gave up so many decades ago. Now you're just trying to go with the flow.
Dr. Price: Sure.
Howard Farran: When people always say to me when they come to the office, they go, "Is this filling all natural?" I'll say, "Oh, you want the all natural? Because the silver filling, is half mercury, the other half silvers and copper, all made in an all natural imploding supernova. Now the tooth colored fillings are all made in a test tube with a bunch of manmade artificial chemicals. The chemicals are in sacks. You want the all natural silver filling?" "No, no. I want the tooth colored filling."
"Okay, well, why did you ask me when you said all natural? What is all natural? A tornado? A hurricane? HIV? Hepatitis? A mosquito?" The number one killer to humans every year is still mosquitoes.
Dr. Price: Seriously, I didn't know that.
Howard Farran: Malaria kills over one million people a year. Its so funny how the news will cover. It's always a car wreck or a murderer, or a terrorist deal that kills two or three. It's like, "Uh, excuse me. Mosquitoes kill one million humans a year. And it's all natural." Now all natural is just like ... Whenever someone says all natural, it's just a buzz word. "Okay, you don't believe in science, but continue. Continue. 'Cause pretty much the universe is the most violent ..." the universe is the most violent environment in the world. Stars exploding. Radiation. It's just brutal. But all natural's good.
I want to say one other thing.
Dr. Price: [crosstalk 00:43:13] brand manager now. This is gonna be good.
Howard Farran: Have you posted to some dental ... have you asked your homies to help you?
Dr. Price: Actually we need to do that.
Howard Farran: Yeah. So on Dental Town, you can't spam and this and that. But everybody who's a dentist is allowed one thread. Let's say that you were a lecturer, or you have a consultant, or there's guys on there like Tommy Murphy who teach you how to do attractions. He's had one thread. My God, it's hundreds of pages long. Probably a hundred thousand views. So you can go on there. You're a white blooded dentist. You can go on there and start denture price. But I would ask them ... the humility part. Ask them for their feedback. Ask them for their thoughts. Get them involved. The more you post on there, the more you're going to find the spheres of influence.
But I want to tell you another interesting thing that I've seen. I know dozens of dentists who are multi millionaires from stuff like that. One of the common things they have in common is America has a very fragmented dental meeting market. All 50 states have an annual meeting. These annual meetings, none of them are profitable because they're subsidized by the dentists paying dues.
Dr. Price: Sure.
Howard Farran: Whenever you have an industry where all these people can have a meeting run at a loss, or some of the bigger meetings, like say the Serona Deal, they can have all the extravaganza 'cause they're selling $150,000.00 machines. But Europe is consolidated. They have one big monster meeting every other year in Cologne. Over 100,000 dentists show up. The booths, if you just were walking like you were walking on your morning two mile walk, in five days you couldn't even just walk past the booths.
Dr. Price: Wow.
Howard Farran: I know dozens of dentists who were at a booth. Someone had a product like yours. But, usually it was maybe a bonding agent or a composite or one of those. It was like, it was made in Korea. The Korean is there and you're saying, "You selling this in North America?" And they say, "No." And then you say, "Okay. I'll buy the US distribution rights for North America for $1.00, if I meet the minimum sales of lot." Then this North Korean guy will say, "Okay. Well, if you sell $100,000.00 of this a year, I will give you exclusive North American distribution rights for in perpetuity if you jump over that $100,000.00."
Then they'll come back here. They'll send it to Gordon at CRA, or they'll send it to Michael Miller Reality, or the Dental School. Sometimes it's like no good. It's over. You only lost $1.00. Sometimes it's really good, but again, if you just got 1% of the bonding market. If you just got 2% of it. Now, they were dentists. But now, all that product from Korea goes to their dental office and then from there, it goes onto Patterson, Shine, Benco, Berkardt. They just make cut, whatever that may be. Some of the biggest brands ...
You know who also did that? My roommate in Cretan, his dad was a gazillionaire. He came to Cretan with a Ferrari, because at the end of World War II, when every ... when so many people were there, he was in Japan. He was in Okinawa. But he noticed this ballpoint pen. He said he wasn't leaving until he found out where this thing was made. Found the guy. Found the actual guy who made the ballpoint pen-
Dr. Price: Really?
Howard Farran: ... that he had never seen. Bought the US distribution rights from him for a dollar. And then every Bic pen that came into this country, came through his dad.
Dr. Price: Wow.
Howard Farran: He got a cut on every one of these Bic pens. I don't know how long it was. That was Cretan, that was '80, '83. It's probably not a lot. There probably no longer is a Bic pen. It's probably all flint. But you know what I mean?
I would get a booth at the next IDF meeting in Cologne, where 100,000 dentists, because ... just say that this just takes off in say Romania.
Dr. Price: Sure.
Howard Farran: Or, Indonesia, or Philippines. There's just ... that's a good meeting to go to for two reasons, because number one, for the vacation. The Roman Empire was like 57 AD to 600 AD. Cologne Germany was its furthest northern outpost. There's a wall around the city. It has a lot of Italians leftover. Italian food. It's kind of where Italian food meets the bratwurst and the hamburger, and the beef stroganoff. It is the coolest city. But the other coolest thing is the city of Cologne knows that everybody going to this dental convention isn't from around Germany. They know you're all ... don't know how anything works. The whole time you're there, all the locals helping you get on the subway, helping you to the train.
Dr. Price: Oh cool.
Howard Farran: They're all trying ... It's just like the whole city is your tour guide. Everybody in the city knows you ain't from here that week, you're a dentist. Everything's sold out. You couldn't be in Cologne Germany if you weren't a dentist. We've already booked our hotel ... I mean, when you leave, you book it for two years later because when 100,000 dentists around the world come, you ... it's hard to go there. I would definitely-
Dr. Price: When's the next one?
Howard Farran: It's odd years. So this '17, they just had it in March of this year. So this is '17, so March of '19.
Dr. Price: Oh, plenty of time to plan.
Howard Farran: And if you buy me a plane ticket, I'll be your baggage boy. I'll carry your mouthwash and all that.
Dr. Price: Oh sure.
Howard Farran: So I would work the online. I'd start posting on Dental Town.
Dr. Price: Yeah.
Howard Farran: What could my homies do to help you launch your new product? Just tell them what you want them to do.
Dr. Price: Well, I would say the main thing is ... Give the products a try. Go to our website. We're happy to provide wholesale pricing. It's great to have these kind of products along with whatever else you have in your dental practice.
Howard Farran: I had a full head of hair before I swished with it. I swished with it for 60 seconds, now look at me. Was that the coconut oil?
Dr. Price: Did [crosstalk 00:49:22]
Howard Farran: Your name's Ginger. Is there ginger in it?
Dr. Price: Interesting you say that. We had a small percentage of people that were confused by that. In fact, we're redoing the packaging a little bit so it's more clear that there's no ginger in it.
Howard Farran: Because that would be a bad thing?
Dr. Price: Well no, it actually would be a further ... as we develop the line more and add more flavors, it would be a good flavor.
Howard Farran: I always think of ginger as eating sushi, right? They give you the ...
Dr. Price: Yeah.
Howard Farran: What is it the-
Dr. Price: Wasabi and the-
Howard Farran: Wasabi, which is horseradish. And ginger. Yeah, it seems like I know so many people who think garlic, ginger-
Dr. Price: Sure.
Howard Farran: ... horseradish, all really good stuff for you.
Dr. Price: Exactly, yeah.
Howard Farran: So what else do you want to talk about? What else do you want to talk about? You're ... come over here, Brandi. Has she been working together for 25 years.
Dr. Price: No.
Howard Farran: No, she's been a dentist for 25 years.
Dr. Price: She's been in dentistry for 25 years. We've been working together ... what five years?
Brandi Sweitzer: About three and a half.
Dr. Price: Okay.
Brandi Sweitzer: It must seem like so much longer.
Howard Farran: Where were you born and raised?
Brandi Sweitzer: Ohio, Columbus Ohio.
Howard Farran: Columbus Ohio.
Brandi Sweitzer: Yes.
Howard Farran: My gosh, there were some cool business things I saw in the last ... I've been in Columbus for luncheons several times. One was the coolest restaurant ever. You know how those water towers were built for ... water is eight pounds a gallon. A lot of water towers they got have pumps and other things. This water tower was done, some entrepreneur bought it. Cut out a window all the way around it. Put in an elevator, because the water towers are always put on the highest area, and made a bar called the Water Tower.
Dr. Price: Oh, seriously?
Howard Farran: And drinks are ... when you go to a steakhouse, the margin on food is single digit.
Dr. Price: Right.
Howard Farran: The margin on drinks is 80%. If you go there, and everybody has water and ice tea, they're not too excited. That was cool. Another one I saw was one of the most amazing restaurants. I think I ate there with Sally McKinsey. A lot of the Catholic churches have gone bankrupt or closed down. This guy bought a Catholic church and turned it into a restaurant. I think he called it the Refractory.
Brandi Sweitzer: Refectory. Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Howard Farran: So you've been there.
Brandi Sweitzer: I have been there.
Howard Farran: You've been there.
Brandi Sweitzer: Yes, it's very nice.
Howard Farran: Is that not a brilliant idea?
Brandi Sweitzer: Mm-hmm (affirmative). And it's very classic. Very quaint.
Howard Farran: I ended up ... being raised Catholic, I didn't think it was sacrilegious or anything. I just thought it was just damn cool. But it's amazing how everybody can drive by some blight in their neighborhood, an abandoned building, an abandoned church. But an entrepreneur, always sees something that no one else sees.
Brandi Sweitzer: Sure.
Howard Farran: What have you been doing in dentistry for 25 years?
Brandi Sweitzer: All front office. I don't do any of the assisting or anything like that, but all front office. Treatment planning is what I love the most. All front office. I love the treatment planning. In Dr. Price's practice, here, we do a lot of the full mouth cases. I love that. We have the patient come in and we go through everything. Give them the PowerPoint and just do that Smile Design for them. I love putting that all together, working with the patients. Following up. Everything front office. Greeting patients, talking on the phone to new patients. Bringing them in. Making them feel welcome. Anything I can do on the front end to help out.
Howard Farran: You know it's so funny because you're the dry hand up front. She's the wet hand in the back. The only dentists who crush it get an A in the dry hand. They could be horrible wet hands, it doesn't matter. They could be the best wet hands in the world, but no dry hand ... they don't get off.
Dr. Price: So true.
Howard Farran: In a nutshell, here's the only problem I see in dentistry, is that we know for a fact that three new customer opportunities have to call your office before your front desk ... I mean, she's named after a piece of furniture, can convert one of those three to come in.
Then we have to have three people come in, each needing a cavity. I'm not talking about veneers and implants. I'm not talking about ... I'm talking about a fricking cavity. Three people have to come in for a cavity before one gets drilled, filled and billed. So then you go back and say ... and then the guy said ... then you say, "What's wrong with your practice?" Oh it's always Obama, the Putin, the economy, the Federal Reserve. It's never the man in the mirror.
Then you backtrack and you say, "Well, I believe this. Three people come in with a cavity. The United States does 38%, it does one third. I firmly believe one person will never get it done 'cause people are bat shit crazy. I'm convinced I'm the normalist person alive on earth.
Dr. Price: Oh, we're in trouble then.
Howard Farran: One will never get it done. But the other offices, they'll get the guy in the middle to do it. They get two out of three when the market gets one out of three. Then that three people call for one convert. You couldn't get that to two? If you sit there, three people called, and you got two in, now we have six people and if you can get two out of three do it, now you did four fillings. So you just went from a practice collecting 650 to a two million dollar practice. And we're talking about cavities.
So then what happens at the backdoor? It's the reverse funnel. You sit there and your hygienist cleans eight people, but only six of them schedule for their next cleanings. So you just lost 20% right out of the gate. Then when those six come in, one had to reschedule. No one ever called her back. There's another one gone. They just keep falling off, falling off, falling off, so that by the time the average American dentist gets through 5000 charts, only 1000 have been in the last time in 24 months. What does he say to me? "What bonding agent do you use?"
I mean imagine a fireman couldn't put out two out of three fires, asking me what type of water I use. What type of hose do you ... Who cares buddy? Put some-
Dr. Price: Put the fire out.
Howard Farran: Put some water on that fire. So, then we look at the online CE. If it talks about the soft stuff, no one will watch it. But you put something on there about root canals, and it turns into ... Dental Town turns into Dental Porn and it'll get 10,000 views. I have always wanted to find a treatment plan coordinator. Someone who just focuses on the front to build an online [inaudible 00:55:56]. We're here in [inaudible 00:55:57] you could come down and give your presentation at Dental Town. Ryan will film it here, whatever.
My homies, I love them, I do. I really love my homies. I get it. I'd rather pull a wisdom tooth and golf or go to Pebble Beach or any of that crap. I'd rather pull a hot tooth. But, I'm trying to lead them to what you do because what you do ... if you didn't do what you do, she couldn't do her full mouth rehabs.
Brandi Sweitzer: Right.
Howard Farran: What do you think they don't know? You're mostly talking to kids under 30.
Brandi Sweitzer: I think what you have to realize is first of all, you have to have a really good synergy and you have to be able to support each other. So, I'm gonna do the front. I'm gonna get them in the door. She's already the legend. She's already branded. A lot of my work, when they do call in is done for me, because they've already seen her name all over town. It's pretty easy to get them in. Then from there, it's making sure they have that great experience and they feel well cared for.
I'm gonna give them that good greeting. Pass them off to the assistant, who's gonna do our full new patient experience. Then we're gonna have them meet with Dr. Price. She's gonna go tooth by tooth, talk about everything. Answer any questions. I'm gonna be in the room the whole time so that they get that continuity. If we have them come back, to go over options, we're going over options. Dr. Price is there to add value to that appointment. Review everything. And then she steps away. She doesn't do any of the finances. I'm gonna do that part.
But really, she's already ... They came in for a reason. They want the full mouth rehab. The want the veneers. So, in that way, we just have to prove that we're the best person to do it. For them.
Howard Farran: Maybe you guys should do an online thing. The business of dentistry from the new patient experience to selling them mouthwash, toothpaste, out the back door.
Dr. Price: There you go.
Howard Farran: Be a nice ... It'd be a soft sell. It'd be explaining A to Z. And you think she's branded now, wait til she shoots a giraffe.
Brandi Sweitzer: Oh, now, I thought it was a lion? Now we're gonna do a giraffes. My goodness.
Howard Farran: Well, someone already did a lion.
Brandi Sweitzer: Okay.
Howard Farran: Ginger's never been second to anybody. She's not gonna be-
Brandi Sweitzer: That's true. She hasn't.
Howard Farran: ... second to Walter [crosstalk 00:58:01] Walter shot him first then Ginger was second. I don't think any dentist has shot a giraffe.
Dr. Price: Not that I've heard of. No.
Howard Farran: Especially at the Phoenix Zoo.
Dr. Price: No.
Howard Farran: Definitely, you'd definitely be the first dentist who shot a giraffe at the Phoenix Zoo. Yeah, I wish you would do that because these kids, they come out of dental school. They think if you got an "A" in calculous and physics and endodontics, and you got a 98 on your exam, that you're gonna be successful. I've seen no correlation between where you graduate in your class with success ... The biggest correlation I saw was, like you, dad owned their own business. Nicer, if dad owned their own business in healthcare or dentistry, because now they grew up seeing the business of dentistry, and they knew about dentistry. Same thing in dental school, if dad owned a wheat farm, or small grains, soy beans, pigs. It was a business. So many times at dinner table, when mom and dad are talking about the price of overhead, the soy beans, the mercantile futures exchange.
But where they come into the most trouble is when mom and dad were employees. They come home at 5:00 and they're very well rounded. They have hobbies. They go do all these things. They get all the way out of dental school, and they don't even know how to make payroll on QuickBooks online.
Brandi Sweitzer: But you have to be willing to take that help from someone. You have to be willing to let people-
Howard Farran: Humble.
Brandi Sweitzer: ... yeah. You have to get over yourself, over your ego.
Howard Farran: Yeah. And humility, being humble, so you listen to your mentors, your patients, your staff. If you went up to anybody in Phoenix and said, "Describe a physician, a dentist, or a lawyer," how many people would you have to ask that question before someone said, "humble, humility."
Brandi Sweitzer: Probably quite a few.
Howard Farran: You think so?
Brandi Sweitzer: I do.
Howard Farran: You think Americans would describe a dentist, a lawyer or a physician as humble?
Brandi Sweitzer: Well, I thought you said how many do I have to ask before somebody said-
Howard Farran: Oh, okay. How many would you have to ask?
Brandi Sweitzer: I'd have to ask a lot of people 'cause that wouldn't be the first thing out of their [crosstalk 01:00:12]
Howard Farran: When I'm sitting next to a stranger on an airplane, I'll say, "I'm just gonna ask you a random question. You don't have to answer it. Just a random question. If you could describe a lawyer in three words, what would it be?" And it's usually arrogant, liar, you know-
Dr. Price: Cheat.
Howard Farran: Yeah. And then I'll say, "Okay, what about say a dentist?" Same, arrogant, know-it-all, condescending, talk-down. And then I know all these dentists, and they're nice. They're sweet. They're adorable. They went to school for eight years to help you with their hands. That's how they really are. But the market sees them as arrogant, condescending, talking down, making me feel bad. "Well, yeah, yeah you need a toothache. I told you need a cavity three years ago. Three years ago. Did you get it done? No. Now you walk in my door, without an appointment, and what do you want me to do? Stop the train and give you a God dang root canal. Now it's gonna be $1500.00. Go get out your credit card and give it to Agnes." Like, dude, dude. They're human. They're not perfect.
Brandi Sweitzer: Yes. Dr. Price is a communication expert. We ... no guilt trips whatsoever.
Howard Farran: So what would you tell an arrogant, cocky, millennial who just walked out of dental school, the secret to success is.
Brandi Sweitzer: The secret to success is ... What is it? People, time and money. You have to be able to let people in. Take the time to do it, and establish where your finances are.
Howard Farran: I really hope you guys build some online C.
Dr. Price: That'd be cool. Yeah.
Howard Farran: I really do. And then another thing, I'll tell ya, my number one problem for me, personally, is whenever we ... It started off like five or six years ago. I was in dental school, New Jersey. This female dentist walked up to me and she said, "What's this?" And it was Dental Town magazine. I said, "That's Dental Town Magazine." She goes. "Yeah. The entire editorial board is men." And she tossed it at me, and turned around and walked back. I thought, "Damn." So I opened it up, and it's just all men. So I call my Dental and they go, "Howard, we're well aware of that. You know how hard it is to find a woman dentist?" If you're a man dentist, at the evening, you can go and do all this stuff 'cause your wife is taking care of all your stuff, even though your wife is a dentist. It has been hard.
My number one complaint in this podcast, "How come every time you interview someone, if it's a dentist, it's a man. And if it's a woman, it's a consultant or a hygienist, or treatment plan." Those girls ... We have the data on Dental Town. We know who you are. You may be anonymous on Deal, but we have two full time people, 'cause we don't want press, journalists, New York Times. This is a private property. Dental Town is not a government agency. You don't have freedom of speech on Dental Town. Dental Town is private property. I'm the only owner. You're in my house. I know who you are, but I allow them to be anonymous, even though it's the most controversial thing on Dental Town, because there has to be a place to ask a stupid question.
Dr. Price: Sure.
Howard Farran: Lots of people aren't gonna go show a messed up root canal if everybody knows, "Oh, that was by Ginger Price. And here's her address." Especially if you're a specialist.
Dr. Price: Oh yeah.
Howard Farran: Endodontists can't show. What if all your girls find out he's the guy on Dental Town posting all these proof cases? There's gotta be a place to ask a stupid question. I put up an article by a woman and the women are all clicking into it. So, that dental school is half women. Young 25 year old women want women role models. They don't want grandpas. They want to know, "How did you do it?"
Dr. Price: Sure.
Howard Farran: By the way, I'm gonna ask you that. We've already gone over and we're in triple overtime. A very controversial ... you're living in a country where there's never been a woman president.
Dr. Price: Right.
Howard Farran: Only 5% of the Fortune 500 are women. Is it different ... When women graduate in dental school, are they going into an all male profession? Is it a man's world in dentistry? Or is it really not? Are those barriers gone from the people like you, broke it?
Dr. Price: Truthfully, 'cause we're on Dentistry-
Howard Farran: We're on Dentistry Uncensored.
Dr. Price: ... as much as things have changed, nothing has really changed. However ... I mean, that's why I've carved out my own niche, or my own spot, because I didn't want to go toe to toe, 'cause it still is really a male dominated field. But I'm okay with that.
Howard Farran: What does that mean though? That it's still a male dominated world?
Dr. Price: How do I explain that?
Howard Farran: Here, Ry, get her a beer. Get her a shot of Fireball. Let's loosen her up a little bit. Let's ... I want her to just let it out. Here. Pretend you just had a shot of whiskey.
Dr. Price: Whiskey. Well, I'll give you an example. Recently, this is a couple years ago. I was invited to be a part of this study club and teach. I've done teaching before. This is veneers, you know. It was actually through a lab that I was sending a lot of units to. They make me do a audit weekend. They don't want to pay you anything. Actually, it was two weekends. Then, when it really came down to it, they didn't really want me ... They just wanted me on the list. They didn't really want me doing anything. It was pretty interesting.
Howard Farran: Which lab was that? If you don't want to say it out loud, just write it down. I'm just curious. I'm just wondering if it's local or national.
Dr. Price: No. Anyhow, there's little things like that. Another time, that lab was actually sold and another outfit started a new lab. They were gonna do this model where you go and take a course and it's free, but you'd have to send x number of cases to them. Each city is gonna have a study club. You get a percentage, blah, blah, blah. So I go to this thing, and the cases that they have are totally inappropriate for beginners, from every aspect: bite, deteriorated teeth, oh my God.
I was never asked, "Oh, you want to look at this case? What do you think of this? Can you show somebody about this prep?" It was like, "Okay. I'm out of here. I don't need it, you know?"
Howard Farran: Yeah.
Dr. Price: Part of that ... you know the old statistics. I don't think it's changed that much. You probably know what the average work life of a female dentist is. Do you know?
Howard Farran: Well, okay. Go back 30 years ago, class of '87, they're telling those girls to their face, "Well, you're all gonna get married and have babies and you're only gonna work six or seven years." So now, fast forward 30 years, those ... their average office was bigger than the boys. They're still cranking. There were some big monster practices. Now they're only saying it again.
So, I believe this. I think the best thing to predict the future is ... I didn't see the cell phone coming. I remember the first time I saw the ATM machine. I thought that was the dumbest idea known to man. The first cell phone, it was a brick. If I would have thrown it at you, it would've killed you. I didn't see any of this stuff 'cause I spend more time looking back over the last two million years. Homo sapiens had 100 billions have come and died. That's the shoulders we're standing on. 100 billion people have come and died. Every generation thinks the next generation's going to hell in a hand basket.
I can still remember my mom always opening up the basement door saying, "Turn that shit down." That was the Rolling Stones and The Beatles. Now, when I listen to my four boys ... this rap music. I haven't heard one good song since the year 2000. I used to like your song, Brandy. I like songs with lyrics and this hip hop, it's garbage. It is garbage. But, there's a reason they call him Ludacris. It's 'cause his music is ludicrous. That was just a joke. And I like Ludacris.
Brandi Sweitzer: [crosstalk 01:09:03]
Howard Farran: But the bottom line is, I don't think homo sapien has evolved anything since the pyramids. Cleopatra, to me, graduating dental school, was a short of time period than Cleopatra, when they built the pyramids. People aren't changing. I don't believe ... when they say, "Oh, the girls are gonna be employees." I've never seen a homo sapien in my life that wants to be under your thumb, under your control. They don't want to live with their mom and dad. They want their own house, their own car. They hate transparency they want their own cave. If you walk in their cave without knocking, they're like, "Dude, this is my cave."
So now all of a sudden, they want to live in an aquarium. They went to eight years of college to be an employee. They just like to follow orders. Are you kidding me? A human following orders? Look at democracy. Everything they believe is a myth. Back to all natural, you know what's all natural in the wild kingdom? The 4000 ... the 400 pound gorilla. There's no democracy. We got here based on the 400 pound gorilla. Now they're all saying that ... and I've lectured all around the world. China and Singapore is the most too organized, prosperous countries building the most wealth, the fastest.
Dr. Price: Yep.
Howard Farran: They don't call ours democracy. They call it undisciplined. So, Americans say ... Imagine if everybody at school said, "you know, we don't want the teacher. That's totalitarian dictator. We want a democracy. Okay? Let's vote. Do you want to study math, or go to recess? Oh recess! Okay. We'll go to lunch. Do you want to eat ice cream or broccoli? Oh, we'll take ice cream. Do you want to pay taxes? No. Do you want everything for free? Hell yeah."
I see democracy as undisciplined. Same thing with marriage. You go to Asia, India, it's an arranged marriage. The two parents say, "This is a good match." They have a 10% failure rate. America, we have love marriages. So you go out and find the hottest thing in a pair of Jordache jeans, and how's that working for you five years later? We have a 50% failure rate because we have "freedom and love". Everything is based on mythological bullshit. It really is.
Dr. Price: It's true.
Howard Farran: Whether fluoride in the water, whether it's democracy. So you're willing to die for democracy when every four years I get two choices between red and blue, and they're both lying, cheating, stealing sociopaths? Really? You want to die for that? Why don't you die for it. I've been to Singapore. In Singapore, everyone in government is like an engineer. In America, everyone in government is a lying lawyer. I don't want to get into politics, sex, religion, violence. But I just sit there and say that humans are bat shit crazy. They're completely bat shit crazy.
Dr. Price: That's true.
Howard Farran: You need ... if you master the human, you master why ... They didn't need Delta Dental to buy an $800.00 iPhone. How many people walk in with a brand new $800.00 iPhone, then tell you, "Well, I don't have money for a filling." Oh, she can make them realize that they need a filling. Steve Job has made you think ... I mean, he sued Samsung because they copied the rounded angle and he said that was intellectual property of the iPhone. I mean, it's all insane. Really? A rounded corner? Pretty sure they had table with rounded corners in the Roman Empire and in Egypt.
The people who realize that, "I can't do hands on surgery in my operatory all day, unless somebody up front figures out how to get this crazy monkey to part with their money." The reason I like them parting with their money is 'cause the statistics are clear. All humans spend more money than they make every month until they die. So if they're gonna spend all their money, my goal is, why don't we get you to spend it on health and the oral systemic link, as opposed to ... because when they run out of money, then they'll say, "We can't go to Mackiel's tonight. We're gonna go home and it Kraft dinner and Rice-a-roni." Or, "Well, I was gonna get the new iPhone 7, but, I just dumped $800.00 at the dentist for three fillings. I'm just gonna have to get it next month. Or maybe I'll get it for my birthday. Or maybe Christmas."
But humans are ... when you go to the zoo, the human is the only animal wearing clothes. All the other animals are natural and the human is the crazy one. I think that ... I think what you're doing is you're serving one fourth of the market who thinks fluoride is a communist plot. It's toxic, it's found in rat poison. Coconut oil is better. Artificial ingredients are ... and by the way, I want to say one thing about the food chain. When you're 54, and you start looking at this obesity epidemic, when we were little, food was 30% of your disposable income. Through successful farming, manufacturing, agriculture, now food is only 10%. So, this whole problem is from our generation's success in farming. We took the cost down from 30% to 10%. Government taxes didn't go from 30% to 10%. Healthcare didn't go from 30% to 10%. The farmers kicked ass and took names. Now we have to deal with the problems from their success, which is called in economics, the law of unintended consequences. Every time you make a move, you don't realize what chain reaction this could set off.
Dr. Price: Sure.
Howard Farran: So you made food two thirds cheaper, which the supply and demand means there has to be three times as much for one third the price. Now we have to deal with, "Okay, well now, everybody can afford ..." like when I was little, I'm not making this up. When I was little, I was 10 years old. I was working at my dad's Sonic and he'd see a station wagon pull up, and a couple Catholics with five kids eating hamburgers, I'd turn to him and say, "What do they do for money? How could you afford?" Because when we were little, taking your family to a Sandy's or Sonic, you were the rich. Now the poors, homie and Phoenix can go by a cheeseburger, fries, and cokes anywhere.
Dr. Price: Sure.
Howard Farran: That was ... same thing with airplanes. I didn't know anybody who got on TWA or Eastern or Brenna. That's what rich people did, or they worked for a big, rich Fortune 500 company. Those guys used to get on the plane. Everybody was wearing a suit and tie or dress. It was like you were going to church. Now, Southwest Airlines got it so people from Apache Junction can fly.
Dr. Price: With or without a shower.
Howard Farran: That's an inside joke. Apache Junction. [crosstalk 01:16:03] it's a true story. Apache Junction, every time they find a meth lab, the policeman never find it. The fire department always finds it. It always catches fire and burns down. The running joke is that in Arizona the fire departments will close down three meth labs for every one the police will. They're always in Apache Junction. The thing I like the most about Apache Junction is the Renaissance Festival. They always have the Renaissance Festival out there. You can't tell the Renaissance actors from the locals. It's like they all kind of blend in together.
But, seriously thank you for ... Can I ask you one last overtime question?
Dr. Price: Sure. And we have to do our live sample.
Howard Farran: Okay. Here. Well I'll do a live sample. What is the live sample? Let's do it.
Dr. Price: Well, this is the coconut oil mouthwash. Just a little swish and spit.
Howard Farran: How long do you recommend the swish?
Dr. Price: Well, for this purpose, you can do it 10, 15 seconds. Normally it's one to two minutes. It's one way to keep him quiet isn't it?
Brandi Sweitzer: It is. It's about the only way, right?
Howard Farran: You know something's wrong with you when your own mother used to tell me all the time, "Howie, if I tape your mouth shut you'd fart to death!" Think, "Damn, that's my mom. Isn't she supposed to love me the most?"
One last question.
Dr. Price: What did you think though?
Howard Farran: I think it tastes great.
Dr. Price: Okay.
Howard Farran: I think it tastes great.
Dr. Price: Good. So yeah, one last question.
Howard Farran: Start a thread on this on Dental Town. Ask them to try it. Ask them for their feedback. Ask them. Say, "Come on. I'm a homie. I'm going against Colgate, Crest, Rembrandt."
Dr. Price: Sure.
Howard Farran: "I'm going against Proctor & Gamble." Ask your homies for help. Ask and you will receive.
Dr. Price: Okay.
Howard Farran: One last question. Very sexist question that I get all the time. Young girls tell me that I got out of school. I went and worked for this old man in Beaumont Texas for three years. He'd walk in there and all the dry hands would jump and go do what he said. She bought it from him for 750.000. He's gone, and now no one will do what she says. She's saying, "Is that 'cause I'm a girl and he was a boy?" What would you say to that?
Dr. Price: Well, everything is about-
Howard Farran: I mean, have you heard this?
Dr. Price: Oh yeah.
Howard Farran: Am I making this up?
Dr. Price: No. There's a lot ... there's a tiny bit of truth to that because people are used to a certain thing. However, really what it boils down to is developing your confidence. It's all about confidence. It's harder for a young dentist ... I mean, that just comes with learning and being more skilled than someone who's been doing it for many years.
Howard Farran: How can a 25 year old woman dentist speed up her leadership development?
Dr. Price: I would say a lot of the things that we talked about in the beginning. Learning, the Dental Town stuff is great. I would get a mentor in that town or wherever you can find one. Just try to learn as much as you can.
Howard Farran: Do you think her mentor should be a female? Do you think leadership skills in this day and age are a little bit different than men than women?
Dr. Price: I would say ... a lot of it goes back to ... You talk about this all the time. We're in a people business. Young dentists are so focused on the tech of it. "I know what to do. I know these two things of crown. Let me explain what a crown is." Instead of realizing you have to connect with the person before you can ever start talking about a dental procedure. That gets left out a lot. Those are the things that have always helped me. It's about people.
Howard Farran: It is all about people, isn't it?
Dr. Price: Yeah. If you can't make that person ... if you can't instill confidence in what you're about to do, or connect in some way, then Brandi doesn't have a chance in closing the crown or whatever you're trying to do.
Howard Farran: I want to tell you one dig that my drinking buddies say. That's just Phoenix dentists over 55. They're all ... you probably know them all.
Brandi Sweitzer: They're Apache Junction.
Howard Farran: They're all the fattest, baldest, oldest dentists you know. I never said this. But, I always hear them say, "Well, the problem with her is after work, I go drinking or hanging out with other dentists watching the NBA series. She goes out and does the same damn thing with all of her staff. She's going out and watching the NBA game and getting drunk with her hygienist, and receptionist. Then 8:00 the next morning, now she wants to be sergeant you know ... hey why are you 10 minutes late? She's like, why am I 10 minutes late? You were buying me jello shots at 12:00 last night. Now you're asking me why I'm 10 minutes late?"
So, I guess the exact question I have is, one of the greatest anthropologists of all time, it was obviously Desa Morrison, and Abraham Maslow. I'd say that's Albert Einstein's rising moon. I don't even know a third name I'd put on that list. Abraham Maslow said that, "You cannot be a friend with an employee because you can fire them. You can't fire your friend. When you cross the line ..." look at in the military. Talk about the military. I just gave you a mission, and there's a good chance you're gonna die. Think about Ike, when he gave D-Day. One fourth of those boys died the first day. Another one fourth died the next week, and another one fourth, one out of four, never came back home.
Everybody he threw on that beach, only one in four ever made it back to America. The bottom line is could Ike be friends with his infantry? Can you be friends with someone that you're going to throw out the boat in front of machine gun? Can you be friends with your staff? This is my specific question. Can you be friends with your staff? And do you think young female dentists cross that line with their staff? Or get too close as opposed to males?
Dr. Price: Well, it's a fine line. There's a difference between camaraderie and being able to check in with somebody, "Hey, how's the plans for the honeymoon coming?" And probably going out, like you said, with the jello shots and [crosstalk 01:22:42]
Howard Farran: When was the last time that you smoked pot with your staff?
Dr. Price: I can't remember.
Howard Farran: See, see. So any advice on where you see that line to cross? You said there's a difference between camaraderie and friendship.
Dr. Price: Oh yeah.
Howard Farran: What's the difference?
Dr. Price: I don't think you can get people to work for you ... Well, this is my motto. I know all my team. Well, you know, our job, really, it's a car ride. That's how I-
Howard Farran: A car ride. [crosstalk 01:23:15]
Dr. Price: Maybe we're driving to San Francisco today, if it's a long appointment, or LA, right?
Howard Farran: Right.
Dr. Price: I'm not gonna sit there and not talk to them. Camaraderie is really important. However, a leader always ... everybody knows the buck stops there. Stops with me. It's a different vibe.
Howard Farran: Whose line was that?
Dr. Price: I don't know.
Howard Farran: Harry S. Truman.
Dr. Price: Oh.
Howard Farran: What did the S stand for?
Dr. Price: I don't know that either.
Howard Farran: Just S.
Brandi Sweitzer: Learn something new every day.
Howard Farran: That's ... you know you're from the backwoods of Missouri. I'm from Kansas. Only in the backwoods. You know what my cousin's name is?
Dr. Price: No.
Howard Farran: Bud.
Dr. Price: For real. Not a nickname?
Howard Farran: That's his name. Any ideas what that's named after? Budweiser. Harry S. Truman. The S is just an S.
Brandi Sweitzer: If I can say ...
Howard Farran: The buck stops here.
Brandi Sweitzer: If you're an owner of a dental practice, I think the most important thing is you have to want to be an owner. You have to behave as an owner. You also have to be a leader. If you come in there and think that everything else is gonna run itself and you don't act like an owner, then does anybody else really care? Not that much.
She's a great motivator in the way that, anything she owns, she is gonna give 120%. She's a great leader in that she's always going to be motivating. She's always going to be present. Because we look up to her, because she does have a lot of ownership and is a great leader, then we want to be a good team for her. It gives you pride in what you do. But if the person that you work for doesn't have pride in what they do or pride in themselves, it's hard to strive for more, or strive to be better.
Howard Farran: Should the doctor present the fees or the [crosstalk 01:25:02]
Brandi Sweitzer: Absolutely not. Nope.
Howard Farran: Why?
Brandi Sweitzer: The doctor's completely out of it. The doctor does the dentistry. You didn't graduate from finance school. You graduated from dental school. You start talking about money, number one, the patient wants to negotiate with the doctor. "Oh, come on, doc, you know, come on. We just had this great conversation. Surely you can do better." mm-hmm (negative).
Howard Farran: I've never had a patient ask me for a deal where I didn't say yes.
Brandi Sweitzer: Exactly.
Howard Farran: My assistant-
Brandi Sweitzer: That's why she's not allowed to talk money.
Howard Farran: ... knocks my teeth out. Yeah. So many times, I had a problem with Guadalupe because someone will come in and they have this amazing case. I genuinely get so mad because if it's an extraction, I'm doing it free every time because I'm not gonna let that fund walk out the door saying, "Well, she doesn't have any money. She [inaudible 01:25:48]" "Okay, okay. But I would've pulled that tooth. I can pull it in one second." Oh my God.
How long have you been in dentistry?
Brandi Sweitzer: 25 years.
Howard Farran: If she's saying, "I'm setting up a Denovo. I'm going back to my town I'm sitting up [inaudible 01:26:04] any practice model you'd lean towards?
Brandi Sweitzer: Dentrics.
Howard Farran: You like Dentrics?
Brandi Sweitzer: Mm-hmm (affirmative). I just think they're the up and coming. I think Self-Dent was Kodak. It's phasing out. Eagle Soft has limitations. I just think Dentrix is more widely accepted. It is also, when you are bringing on people or hiring people, a lot of people do know the Dentrix software. That does make it easier with new employees knowing the software.
Howard Farran: How many employees are in your car?
Dr. Price: 12.
Howard Farran: 12. Do you do a morning huddle or not?
Dr. Price: Normally yeah.
Howard Farran: You believe in the morning huddle?
Dr. Price: Yeah.
Howard Farran: How long is that usually?
Dr. Price: It's really short. We don't go through each patient. We go through where opportunities are or if something special's going on with somebody.
Howard Farran: But how long is short?
Dr. Price: Five minutes.
Howard Farran: Five minutes, okay.
Dr. Price: Wouldn't you say?
Brandi Sweitzer: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Five ten minutes at the most and everyone should be there and be ready to go. We know what time we start.
Howard Farran: How often do you have a staff meeting?
Dr. Price: We're bad on staff meetings. In theory, once a month. But they're usually quarterly.
Howard Farran: Yeah. No, but this is why Dentistry Uncensored. Just because. A lot of people say they answer with the thing you're supposed to say. Like, "Yeah, we have a morning every morning." But I know lots of offices they're doing don't have morning huddles. So there's proof that you can do with or without. It's only five minutes. Staff-
Dr. Price: Especially if you've got new people that are new team member. The morning huddle is more valuable.
Howard Farran: Okay.
Brandi Sweitzer: Just to get everybody there and give a "Let's go team." I think there's a lot of value in that.
Howard Farran: Then last question, what's your best return on investment for marketing if you're trying to attract and acquire new patients?
Dr. Price: Currently or ever?
Howard Farran: Currently.
Dr. Price: It's probably ... everybody goes to the internet now, but I would say the TV show is still ... it has such-
Howard Farran: The TV show?
Dr. Price: Yeah, the infomercial.
Howard Farran: Your infomercial?
Dr. Price: Yeah.
Howard Farran: How many of those do you have?
Dr. Price: I've been doing them 11 or 12 years. We do a new one every three or four years. This last one was-
Howard Farran: How many do you have now?
Dr. Price: We just run one. We shelve the old ones.
Howard Farran: Why don't you email me that.
Dr. Price: Okay.
Howard Farran: I'll start your thread.
Dr. Price: Okay.
Howard Farran: I'll start your thread. I'll upload the YouTube today. On YouTube what's really cool is, on Dental Town, you can take a YouTube and then hit share and it shows a link.
Dr. Price: Yeah.
Howard Farran: But the next button over is embed. You click embed, and it's got the code for the video. So then you go to Dental Town and when you go to make a post, there's a little YouTube icon. You click the YouTube icon, drop the embed, now the YouTube video is Dental Town.
Dr. Price: We can replay this, right? I can replay this.
Howard Farran: So let's do that. Let's ... send it. We'll put it at the end of this podcast and I'll start the thread. Then you'll say, "Howard told me to come on and tell you about that." Then they're not thinking it's spamming or whatever.
Dr. Price: Right.
Howard Farran: I guarantee you, not one tenth of 1% of all the dentists alive today have ever done a television infomercial. Again, a pioneer. That is amazing. Tell us about that journey and how that worked.
Dr. Price: I'm the person that went to the admin office and dropped speech the second I got in dental school. I had to really work on that from just joining a little breakfast club and having the confidence to stand up and say literally your name and what you do.
Again, anything you can do like that.
Howard Farran: Where did you film the infomercial?
Dr. Price: The one that's running currently was filmed in San Diego with Randy Albaraz.
Howard Farran: Oh, okay. Randy Albaraz. How long ... you went to Randy Albaraz, and how long of a segment are you putting on the TV? Is it -
Dr. Price: It's a half hour.
Howard Farran: 30 minutes. Usually when you go to Randy Albarez, he does what, a 30 minute, a three minute, a minute? Doesn't he give you a couple different-
Dr. Price: He can do whatever you want. He usually does some little videos that you can email to people. That kind of thing. Tell me about-
Howard Farran: You went out to Randy Albarez and what's his company called? Is it just Randy-
Dr. Price: It's WellnessHour.com.
Howard Farran: TheWellnessHour.com.
Dr. Price: Yeah.
Howard Farran: My other most ... My favorite orthodontist, Ann Ray Gorksin, I can't every say her name right. Gorsika. I'm so sorry Ann Marie. I actually, in high school, when I had that lecture on Polish last names, I skipped class that day. Gorsika.
By the way, I gotta tell you, I only got one "D" in my life, and it was in Spanish. San Martin told my mother I was linguistically retarded. Then, my piano teacher fired me. She said, "Howie couldn't carry a tune in a lunch pail." Then I ... I tried out for the Chippendale's and they wouldn't even let me dance. They said the pole was not made of titanium.
You went out to the wellness hour with Randy Alvaraz and Ann Marie Gorsika has gone out there two or three times. Then you take that 30 minute show and you call, what, Cox Cable?
Dr. Price: They actually buy the time for you.
Howard Farran: Wellness hour buys the time.
Dr. Price: Yeah, that's part of it. They get a little something for it.
Howard Farran: They do your distribution.
Dr. Price: Yeah.
Howard Farran: How often are you running that?
Dr. Price: It's just running ... what?
Brandi Sweitzer: Twice a week right now on the weekends. It goes right after the morning news one day and then after the evening news one day. So you try to capture that.
Howard Farran: You track new patients conversions from that.
Brandi Sweitzer: Absolutely.
Howard Farran: Absolutely. And has it been a return on investment?
Brandi Sweitzer: I feel like it has.
Dr. Price: We actually have patients that come in and they say, "I've been watching the show for the last six years and here I am. I knew I was gonna come here. I just wasn't ready."
Then when they come in, they feel like they already know you. You're already over a big hurdle.
Brandi Sweitzer: Much easier conversion.
Howard Farran: So you ... when I said what's your best marketing you said best marketing ever or best marketing now. What's other best marketing that you've done ever?
Dr. Price: The website. You have to continually be present on the web, which is ... I'm not expert on that. I think it's really tricky and hard. It's ever changing. [crosstalk 01:32:41] yellow pages anymore.
Howard Farran: Ryan just texted me, "Shut the hell up. Get out of here. You gotta go." Hey, seriously, it was just an honor and a privilege that come over to my house.
Dr. Price: Well same here. Thank you Howard.
Howard Farran: I hope-
Brandi Sweitzer: Thank you for including me.
Howard Farran: I hope you both have a very safe drive back to Apache Junction.
Dr. Price: Oh sure. We're going there for lunch.