Martin L Strong: welcome back to the all in, all on X pod. I'm your host, Dr. Adam Hogan, here in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Forgive the attire, I've been off today. I just walked into my office to do this at five o'clock with my good friend, and I've been out with my eight nineteen year old son running around town, so I'm glad you can't smell me. But I'm here with my special guest, Dr. Publio Silfa, a good friend of mine. And it's just my true honor to be here with Publio looking far more professional than I am today, no doubt treating patients all day and treating them very well from what I know of Publio. Publio, welcome. How are you? Thank you for having me. Thank you for having me on the podcast. I'm super excited. I've always wanted to join your podcast, share my story. I've seen many of many friends of mine that had been to your podcast, so I've always said, one day it would be great to share my story and talk to To you and others about my my style of practice, and here we are. Pretty cool and stoked to be here. Here we are. And you've always been on the short list. I've been doing this for a relatively short amount of time. I mean 40 maybe episodes. And it just it goes fast, but it also goes so slow. Like there's so many people I want to get on. You've always been on that list. but yeah, it's just there's a lot of great people in industry, and you are exemplary, my friend. I want to I'm gonna get into that. Thank you for being here. Awesome, man. Welcome back to the All In, All On X podcast. Where we take you behind the scenes of full arch dentistry, innovation, and the people who are redefining what's possible. Here we go beyond the procedures and into the lives of people shaping full arch dentistry. This isn't just about implants or workflows. It's about the lives we build, the decisions we make under pressure, and the leaders who push this profession forward when no one's watching. Get your head straight, because we're about to go all in. The all-in all in XPod is brought to you by JB Dental Labs, the elite lab, trusted by full arch surgeons. Prostodonis and digital forward practices internationally. JB specializes in precision full arch restorations, zirconia, PMMA, photogrammetry workflows, and fast turnaround times that don't sacrifice quality. JB delivers a truly digital workflow powered by their proprietary online portal for easy case uploads, real-time tracking, and fast streamlined communication. If you're looking for a lab that understands immediate load, Passive fit and the demands of modern all on X dentistry. Learn more at jbdentalab.com. Tell them that the all-in, all on X pod sent you. Yeah. I'll give you a little introduction. because I know you to be a humble man, a great man, but a humble man. So Publiosilfa, for those of you guys who don't know, this guy isn't just about Placing implants or doing crowns and veneers. This guy is about improving patients' lives, giving them that experience. He's a third generation dentist, educator, founder of the Silfa Dental Aesthetics Institute, maybe or practice. over the past couple of decades he's built one of the most technologically advanced digital implant practices while never losing the human side of dentistry, I think. You combine robotics, photogrammetry, CADCAM, all that digital smile design in-house lab and deliver exceptionally exquisite dental restorations. You can see by your Instagram, your social media pages, your photography is second to none as well, and it matches that clinical dentistry in every way. Yet you've done all this dentistry. You have never lost the side of the emotional connection in dentistry with your patients. it's a philosophy that challenges us to think beyond teeth and implants and focus on how patients feel throughout the journey. So, you know, with that, Publio, I guess I guess my first question to you is can dentistry become more advanced without becoming less human? Let's talk about the human element of dentistry. Well I think that's the one thing that we wish should never lose in the career, you know, the profession being that human. Having that human touch With all the technology, with all the AI that's coming into the practice. Like I'm using AI in the practice like I never thought I would before. I'm creating dashboards and KPIs and metrics, but not to substitute the opportunity to connecting with patients or being with patients, but but allowing me to be more intentional when I'm with them. You know, so technology is here to stay and it's going to be part of the tools we got to do the craft, but Being human is definitely number one. And it shouldn't just come from me, from the doctor in the practices, it also should come from the team members. You know, that that team culture, that team vibe, that is one of the human elements that has to exist within within the full arch practice. Let's talk about that. Because full arch dentistry, it's not a one-man sport. It's a team sport. You know, I was I got to go to your practice and see your your your team members. They each have a role and a position and a spot. You know, when one's not clinically assisting a patient, they're actually aware of the person in the lobby and waiting room and who ate, who didn't eat, like all these transition moving parts. So it's like if one dropped one person drops the baton, the next person picks it up. So it's you know, I think at out of everything, the ego should be left at the door, you know, walking into the practice. 'cause I am bublio, you know. I have a degree, I'm Doctor Publio Sofa, D D S, but I I'm Publio. You know, when I connect with my patients, I say, Hey, how you doing? What's up? Did you have tea today? Having a hard time? What's going on with life, you know? Because at the end of the day, we want to treat people like human beings the way you want to be treated. So that's one of my core philosophies in the practice. We talk about it every day in Hotto. Yeah. And no doubt you surround yourself with teammates. How many how many teammates do you have there in your practice? We have a team of fourteen right now. Yeah, and your practice, yeah, I mean you've been in other practices, but this practice is relatively young. It's two years old, is that right? Two years. Do you really it's a baby? Yeah. Tell me about your patient appreciation day. You're throwing tomorrow. So we're having a big event. tomorrow we're celebrating our first patient appreciation day and we're going to have food trucks, ice cream trucks, music, live DJ, Raffles giveaway, and some drinks and social time with existing patients to come in and and and collaborate. But the most interesting part is that we're gonna have a dunk tank and they're gonna be able to dunk the dock. I guess they have an opportunity to to give back. To get you back a little but maybe a little bit, you know. Hopefully that they don't lose that human element as they throw that pitch and dunk it. Whoa, let's see let's see how bad I've hurt them, they say. A little bit of compassion, I hope. I think that's great. So two years into this brand new practice, What has been the biggest challenge in getting this practice going and are you there yet? You know, let's talk about that because the biggest challenge is the human element, right? The dentistry is the easy thing. It's the easiest part of building a dental practice, buying the equipment and getting getting doing the dentistry. but it's building the team. You know, my first year I had maybe eighty percent of a turnaround. And within the second year, the court's true team members stayed and We are working through that. So we're growing and it can incredible to see that we're fourteen employee staff members in the office and it's just amazing to see that the core values kind of like protect each other and kick out the the the the the the bad f bad one from the pack. So let's talk about that wolf of packs, pack of wolves. but yeah it's it's the human element is in the biggest challenge. you know, dealing with the emotions, dealing with the the ins and outs and I I thrive myself at saying that I wanna be able to create an environment where there's work life balance. Right? There was there were times that I used to work ten hour days, you know, even Saturdays all day and I didn't see my family and friends. So I don't want that among my s among myself and I don't want that amongst my team members. That by the time they you know it, Wednesday, Thursday comes in and they're burnt out. They're exhausted, right? So Finding that balance is one of the the most challenging things throughout the the the build out of the practice. Yeah, I mean I commend you for for saying that and for truly doing it. For those that don't know Publio, I know that he's truly doing it. A lot of people talk about work life balance and I mean it's almost like an overused phrase these days, 'cause I see I hear people talk about a work life balance and I know that they work sixteen hours a day. You know, so it's like, well what is that? Where exactly where is the balance point on that beam? I know you're probably sh I mean I've kept up with you in private text and I know you're you're with your family quite a bit. But how do you help your staff? 'Cause the human element in the staff, I mean invariably fourteen people, you're great, your practice is great. I know I have to believe there's been some turnover that's been beyond your control. Yeah, that and that's those are human elements. That's just happens, right? But I think the biggest true factor is allowing my team members to lead. in the style in which they feel comfortable with, right? But also they have to have that self awareness how other people make decisions and how other how to lead other people. and that's just a a a learning process for everyone, even for myself, you know, 'cause I've I'm I wasn't the leader I was five years ago and I'm not the same one I was two years ago. So every time it's evolutionizing, but as a dentist the hardest part of it is letting go. You know, so like it like I said, like many dentists wanna run a dental practice and they wanna scan. They wanna take the pictures, they wanna draw the blood, they wanna mix the the the bone craft, they wanna take the impression, they wanna d everything, they wanna do the treatment plan, do the presentation, they wanna do everything. So try and find that moment where you have to let go and delegate. That's the that's where the true growth of a practice happens and and the t a team as well. I have to agree that takes a that takes a pretty strong man, woman, very strong dentist to be able to step back and let them let them do things on their own. You have you have young kids, right? How call you have children? How old are you? How do you do how old are they? I have twelve or thirteen. Yeah. And my eighteen year old, which is gonna be the fourth generation dentist, she's j she's joined the practice and she's working two days a week and she's really having her her internship in our practice. So it's pretty cool to see her witness me do a lot of the procedures that she'd never thought that should was possible, you know. For me, I was for her, I was just dad. I was just dad. dad, my dad's a dentist, right? You post cool stuff on Instagram. And then when she came into the first case, I think we were doing a double jaw surgery with the Yomi robot. And she's in the room, she's like, What is happening? You know, so it's like she's starting to full mouth extraction and double arch and she goes home. She's like Dad, I had no idea that this is what you do and this is how stressful your career is and what you do when you go home, and no wonder you need time to to to relax when you get home and like yeah, it's a big deal. So it's it's it's one of those processes that it's cool for her to see and and witness. So I'm excited for what's to come. Well, for you know, those that you know haven't been reading between the lines right there, that's tremendous. I commend you that that she wants to be a dentist because what that means, what a lot of people didn't see between the lines is that you've been a good dad and you've been a good example to your to her that you're like dentistry has been a fun profession that she wants to get involved with, you know. Otherwise she wouldn't do it. Otherwise she'd be like, no, forget that. I'm gonna go in. She wanted to be a vet her entire life. Well Yeah. But still she followed following in your footsteps. Yeah, and I never persuaded her to change careers. So it wasn't until we went to Peru on a medical mission trip. my wife is a PA and we had the medical field joining us and Isabel joined to do triage. So she rotated throughout all the professions that were were there, medical, eye care, and then she ended up in dental. And we started taking care of the kids and the family that were there and she saw that big change. That night she immediately looked at me and she's like, Dad, I this is what I want to do. You know, I can't believe y you just changed their lives in just a few minutes of of your time. And I think that was the moment she realized that was her path. yeah, but you know, still turned on for her, but to follow in her dad's footsteps. That's absolut you know, com kudos to you, brother. And you know, you're gonna get to work with her forever. You know, I'm watching my nineteen year old go away. and, you know, I'm blessed that Allie and I have another baby to keep us around, but I'm also I'm feeling like so sad he's like leaving the state and going somewhere else. You know, you're gonna you're gonna have her there to be around you. That's like a that's true wealth, my friend. That's awesome. Yeah, we took a few we took an extra two two or three more years from her just to stay by our side. So it's a it's a blessing to have her here as well. That's great. And you said she's doing an intern in your pra internship in your practice. basically that's when she has a mini internship. You know, by the time she goes to dental school she's gonna be scanning, taking pictures and doing provisionals and everyone's like, How did you learn how to do that? It's like Yeah. Yeah, so it's pretty cool. I know, switching gears here a little bit, I know that you strive to have a personal connection with all your patients. take me, take the listeners down that road. How do you do that? Where does that start? And you know, at what point in the patient's journey do you get involved as publio and do you insert yourself in the consultation process after that? Where you know, where do you become Publio at Doctor versus Dr. Silva? So What has to be very clear is the brand. You know, what is my signature? What it's not my signature, literally, no. What what do I focus? What's the style? What's the flavor? What's the touch? Where do I get my ideas from? My team members know my core value. They know what process to educate the patient on based on the service and the quality that we have. So that's the easy part. But what has to exist is the unreasonable hospitality. All right? I don't know if you read that book, but that book is amazing. unreasonable hospitality is just taking the time to listen. Taking the extra moment to listen. I'll give you an example. there was a patient throughout the his journey of going from dentures to all on X to actually an FP1 to finish the product and ev the only thing he wanted to do after he finished the arch was to eat a cannoli. This guy loves cannoli. What ended up happening that the day of the delivery, we actually scheduled him, rescheduled him to come a specific day because one of our team members wanted to be in present for that appointment. And we bought him a box of cannoli. And the guy was like touched because we remembered what he said three months ago. That he wants to enjoy cannoli. And we waited for the day of the appointment for him to enjoy cannoli. You know, so being present, listening, and it doesn't start from me. It starts from the first call. It starts from the receptionist, it starts from the tour in the office, it starts from the welcoming that person into your into your office. And I've always said that you need to treat people as if they're walking into your house for the first time. How do you greet them? You don't say, hey, you just go sit here, we'll be with you in a minute. No, no, no. You greet them, you open them, you get a cold beer, you get a cold soda, you get them water, you get them a snack, you welcome them, you seat them, you prepare them, you see if they're ready, okay, and then you start. So the most important part of it all is the handoff, right? How how do I get introduced to the patient? and then in reality, my my style is to go in through a four or five minute conversation with the patient that we talk nothing related to dentistry. You know? I'm trying to find this human part of it that we both relate. You know how many patients I've connected with tattoos because I got my first tattoo at 44? And then and then how many patients we connected cause they their dad was a cop and how many we connected because I ride motorcycles. Like we just have this find this conversation and find this magic moment and say, you're human just like me. Like yeah, I go to the supermarket with And with my son to go get ice cream. You know, it's like, really? And like, yes, you know, I'm you could you can touch me, I'm human. And that is that four five minute rule that we start talking about things that we could connect with. But at the same time I'm I'm trying to find if we are a good fit, right? 'cause maybe I might not be the a good fit for that person, and what their expectations are for their treatment. And it gives me the opportunity to then start the relationship doctor patient and then say these are the treatments, this is the journey, this is how I would recommend treatment for you, either sedation, non-sedation. So the the first approach is really connecting with the patient, understanding their whys and why they're in the office, why they're in the practice. And then I mean the after that it has to be organic. You can't fake it. You can't continue to fake it and fake it and fake it because it won't i i you you people will will smell the bullshit they'll know when you're we're all right it's enough right like you did enough pampering on me like what else people organically feel it you know and they it rubs on from the team members to the the the patient like they have also a connection in in the practice and the style so it's it's it's not it's just not me right it's it's a combination of everything that happens and at the end of the day you really have to love it. you're you really have to want to do that. Yeah, I think you and I are practicing very similar in the same way is with consultations. I I can treat everybody physically, like I don't worry about what's in your mouth. I only walk into a consult room and I have to meet all my patients because I have to select them out. But I walk into a console room to find out if we get along. That's it. Yeah, that's it. Are we do we like each other? Yeah, yeah. Because in the first appointment, if if you're fighting or or or or having a discussion about something that hasn't even happened, what will happen when the moment something does happen? You know? Yeah. Yeah. So that's the that's the reality of it. And and we might not have the right personality for everyone, you know. It's it's it's not personal. It's just it's just what it is, you know. I've That was that was one of the hardest things for me to learn as a young associate because I wanted to treat everyone. I wanted to take care of everyone. And then I realized, no, we're just not a good fit. You know, this person has a better chemistry with someone else. And how do I allow that person to to connect with them? And that's that was one of my learning points too, as a young dentist, you know, and and this is my second startup, right? I did the startup once, I did it again, and I'm like, how do I rebuild? What is my brand? How do I connect with human beings? How do I start from zero zero patient to now have over three thousand patients? You know, so how do you get to to get to that point? And that's by that human connection. You know, that's that's what's been that's my my style, that's what I I will continue to do. Do you believe that hospitality and you know empathy and compassion can reduce refunds and board complaints and lawsuits? I do think there's a special place for that. it again, it has to be genuine. you you have to you have to be always doing the right thing with the patient in mind. but it's not just you it's gonna protect you a hundred percent now. but it's definitely something that does help because if it comes from the truth of the heart, what you're doing, like like I told you, people will patients will know. Patients know the reality of it. Yeah, they can they can they can s they can sense the authenticity of you know of the doctor. So, you know, one person cannot probably create hospitality of an entire organization. You know, so how does you know how you know can a can a surgeon can they overcome a cold front desk, you know, or with empathy or can can you get past that or wow, that's let's let's talk about that. The The person greeting your patients in the front desk has to be someone who has a natural born hospitality type of personality. Right. Right? It's it's you don't want Miss Jones who's grumpy eating a sandwich in the front lobby and say, Hey, sit down and c we'll see you when we see you You know, we want someone who's bubbly, who's connecting and who could share information to the team in the back that will help the experience be more memorable. You know, and yeah, that has to change. some doctors don't have this. And some doctors are not naturally going towards the hospitality route or the more empathetic route. They're just a specialist that wants to do their job, sedate the patient, get out, get in. That works in their style, but I'm sure there also has to be a manager who might take over that part of the hospitality, you know, and and and make that that practice shine. So There has to be always that customer service. and for those who are in corporate dentistry, I think this is hospitality is definitely what's going to take over the the the future of of dentistry, not just corporate. You find it fairly easy to distinguish yourself then? you know, with all the corporate groups around and all the practices that aren't haven't been trained and haven't been hiring for hospitality and empathy? Do you find it easy that Publio stands a little bit above? yeah. I just go in my social media and I start reading the comments of what patients are saying and and and it's pretty cool to see how you know two patients that don't know each other they start f f you know connecting and and relating to the same topics. and I'm sure that many people in the community see that and and the Google reviews speak for themselves. So definitely patients notice it and and they they are expressing it. So it's pretty cool to to see like, yeah, that's exactly why I do that. I'm sure you've probably seen patients, not yet patients, prospects if you will, commenting on, you know, your page, I'm gonna get this done one day and You probably had a patient go in behind him and say, Hey, you're not gonna regret it. I'm sure you see it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You see it. You know, and and I had a patient who said, I started following you when you did a full demo of your practice and you recorded on social media and you you were on Instagram. I'm like, Wow, that was three years ago. And she just came like a month ago and we did a a a full upper restoration on her. You know, and it's like, okay, patients are seeing us, patients are watching. they're looking behind the scenes and waiting for the their right opportunity. So that's pretty cool to see. Well it's toss I mean it's you've been out there long enough. You know, you're you're on your next your your third sigma of growth at least, right? I mean, I've I'm still twenty some years in and I've got a lot of people show up all the time. I've been following you for three years, five years, seven years, twelve years. Finally made a chan made a decision to come in. So, you know, but you've been watering that plant, so to speak, and you deserve that. You deserve the rewards of that. You know, so when people come in, you said it. You know, it's a team team game. And for those, you know, brief pause. We haven't talked about a lot of dentistry, because I'll tell you Publio's dentistry is exceptional. You know, and let me just give you a web Instagram page. Maybe I I have it up here I can share. but the Instagram page for Publio, I believe, here you are, Dr. Silpha. So if you're on YouTube, you can take a look, Dr. Silpha. Phenomenal dentistry. You can see all these patient stories. It truly is about the patient. You know, he practices what he's preaching here. It's all about empathy and emotional dentistry. but I love your I love your page by the way. And your photography is I mean your your photography is like amaz you're up there with the greats, you know, Safa, Knife, Hogan, and then you, obviously. Yeah, no, we b believe it or not, I've trained my team members to take majority of these pictures and videos. So it's a constant daily task to be better every day. I re I remember we had a talk with my one of my lead assistants and I told her, Do you remember last year when you were afraid of holding the camera? And she's like, Yes, I remember. I couldn't even touch it, I couldn't even know how to press a button. And they've gotten better, you know, and it's it's amazing to see that I've empowered them to feel that confident. So yeah, yeah. And inspire me. No man, it's I told you I that's that's train your team and and that's one thing that's I've I've had so much fun on that. I've I've traveled with my team members to go to practices and coach them how to take pictures and why they are taking the pictures that they're taking because sometimes it's not just about the before and after. Like it's like what footage are you recording besides pictures? You know, you're doing pictures and video. yes, it's a daily self assessment to do better dentistry every time you look a case. Like for instance it's like the Tom Brady question, you know, which is your favorite ring? And he's like, the next one. For me, the same thing. Which is your favorite FP one case? I'm like, the next one. Because I learned so much from the from the previous case. And I'll go in, I'll call and I'll send I'll send knife a a message, Hey, bro, what did I do wrong? Here, what was the challenge? Go. Okay, this is the next step. And I talk my designer and we go into and we talk about the biology of this patient and that patient. So Every day the pictures, the video, the scans, everything makes us bre better. So that's that's it that's the constant daily task. Yeah. You've done an exceptional job. Like I say, you've inspired me a year ago. I started playing with the camera a little more until they I don't know what took me so long. Photography scared me is the is the honest truth, you know. But I I got everybody in the digital dentistry years and years and years ago, like, hey, you're not gonna work here if you don't do it but I was always reluctant to say that about the camera because I was listening to them and it You know, when you're scared yourself, it's hard to make them do that, right? It's like you can't have someone in the sales room who thinks that, you know, whatever fifty or sixty or forty or seventy thousand dollars is too much, then they have to believe in it, right? Or they can't pick it up and sell it. Same with photography. but anyway, I w I regress because you'll notice on this podcast I haven't talked a lot about dentistry. And Publio, we can talk all you want, but I know you do exceptional dentistry, but I think your calling card is you, your Your persona, your culture, your team, I think that's what people have the most to learn from you. you you practice in a big city, no? You're in a big metropolitan area? Long Island, New York. I think there's almost eight million people living in Long Island. So it's so that you're fair to say there's a little bit of competition. There's a little bit of competition. There's a lot of corporate style implant centers and practices. so yeah, it's it's Listen, there's eight million people, there's a lot of people for everyone. I already know the answer to this. Do you hear any of that commotion in your practice? Any of that noise? no, from you know, from patients that do come for second opinions, they that's what they come into talking about. But when they get to experience what what's different, they kind of like leave with a different ex sense of it. And right it's hard to for them to unsee what they already saw. so it's it's I I I I don't wanna close everyone and say you have to do dentistry with me or I'm gonna lower my price to the lowest price. No, but with the right patient, the right opportunity, we definitely want to do the best dentistry we can and that's what we thrive in. Probably along my own tune of, you know, well if you want it done here, this is by me, this is what it costs, right? Yeah. Yeah. I imagine you don't dicker on the price just because someone has a lower price somewhere. No, no, no. We try to do what what's fair for existing with patients, we have s listen, don't get me wrong, like I have a soft spot too. Right. Right. And the other day we did a pro bono case, was completely, you know, all next case and she was a patient that a person who was working at Starbucks, you know. And when I tapped into and asking her what has happened in her life, you know, every patient has a story. And we gifted her with a an all next I didn't I didn't we didn't post it, didn't talk about it, we just did it, you know, and took care of it. but it's it's it's not just about the money, right? It's yeah, we're running a business, you know, big team, big overhead, big practice. But when it's time to do dentistry that we could do to make an impact in people's lives, I know that what that person one day will impact someone's life. It's like it she will pay it forward, you know, and that will be the that would be the the reason the reward why we did what. Hey, if today's conversation is pushing you to think differently about full arch dentistry, that's exactly why we built the Atlantic Implant Institute. This isn't just a weekend course or a set of disconnected modules. The Core Continuum is a purpose-built curriculum. It's designed to develop full arch surgeons and prostodontists, not just expose you to a little content. From boot camp fundamentals to advanced prosthetics and digital workflow to remote anchorage and FP1. Philosophy as well. We teach you structure, judgment, predictability, didactic, hands on, type it on, live patient cadavers. Plus, we teach business thinking required to make it all work in real practice. There's nothing like it anywhere in the country because this was not built to be common. Learn more at the Atlantic Gameplane Institute dot com. Well, I mean I you know, there's a big difference between and I do the same thing, right? Like Miss Jones, whatever, Susie, Jonathan, you know, they're rebuilding their life and they just can't come up with X thousands of dollars, right? So there's a big difference between, well, we'll do this case for free or we'll come opt this much, or we'll help them meet in the middle to get it done for them versus somebody sitting there going, Well, there's three offices that are cheaper than you. You need to match their I that's a two two totally different situations, right? Yeah. So I mean what would you say? There's a lot of people out there hiring marketing companies right now and you hear this all the time. Marketing companies says, You're not selling cases because you charge too much. You need to drop your price twenty grand if you expect to get the R chase. And what do what do you say to those doctors that are hearing this song on a daily basis? it's it's hard because it's they're in the process of trying to close more and more and more because They wanna do more and more and more cases. But in reality their system might be flawed where they're not giving too much value in the beginning of the appointment, you know. yeah, you could do it for the lowest, but a year later you go to this that same practice. Is your dentist gonna be there? Will you have in coverage if something happens? Will will you have a successful five, ten years of warranty on their case? You know, what what are you investing on? You know, it's no different than than my patients that are coming from Turkey. They want to do the dentistry in Turkey and wanna come back here to do the follow up and the care. I'm like, no, it's not gonna it's not gonna happen like that, you know? So yeah, we it's it's a it's a hard process. Like you said, if the doctor is not confident pre presenting a treatment, they're gonna have a hard time trying to grow their practice with the type of dentistry that they want to continue doing. for example, my FP one cases are double the amount of my regular All-NX case. But patients do pay for it. They see the value, you know, preserving their bone, preserving their tissue. You know, last year alone I must have done maybe 30 FP1 arches, and patients are are seeing it. And that's what they're comparing. So they have friends who did implant arches in two different locations and they show up. They're let me see your teeth. your teeth look like veneers. What is that? this is an implant arch that we did. It's it's it's Dr. Sopha did this FP1. I'm like, and they come back and then they have that like, man, if I Have known I would not have done the conventional all-on-four or or would have gone to this corporate practice, you know. So definitely giving the patients a different flavor of dentistry or options of treatment has allowed me to differentiate myself. Have you differentiated yourself in your marketing specifically for FP1 in any way, shape, or form as a majority of your work, or is it just what people are finding you for? They're finding me because of the emotional dentistry part of it, like treating people like people or like human beings. but when they come to the office, you know, my treatment coordinators, they show the before and after. of one and the other. And then like, no, I've seen that one somewhere else, but this is different. You're you're preserving my bone. And You know, we're getting these patients are thirty, thirty-five years old. Man, they're they're they really need implants. Yeah. But at thirty, do I wanna go FP three all the way and reduce, you know, to like nineteen, eighteen millimeters of bone and just to try to place four implants. At thirty, what's gonna happen when they're fifty, fifty five, you know, it's gonna be zygomas, you know, and that's that's the part of where stopping to educate them and letting them know, hey, this is this is the approach, this is what we could do for you. Yeah. You definitely command And a presence of dignity and respect, I think, you know, when you're in the room, I mean I think people will believe you almost before you even speak, right? you know, can that be taught to a young associate? Or can is there a way that we can we can yeah, can we teach that? Can you can we teach the commanding presence and just this is the way it needs to be done because I said because I'm Publio? Yeah, listen, core values, should should be respected and should be there. Integrity you have to have integrity, you know, and and whatever you say and you promise. And like for instance, if I do a two D visual because I did AI and I close the fifty thousand dollar case and then I the what I deliver has nothing does not look ideally to this. Like why are you even doing that type of dentistry? So you have to be very careful because yes, the sales process could be taught. you could dive into reading books, getting trained by great salespeople. and you have to be very careful not to persuade anyone to do the wrong thing because I do have the ability to persuade someone to do something that they could regret. And especially you know how many patients come into my office and they say, I want you to rip off all my teeth. Here's here's a 30,000, I'm ready to do it right now. Like come on, bro. You're like 25 years old. You have all your teeth. All you need is one group At one implant, why would I want to do that? You know, and and if you don't have that integrity, that is where you start losing it over time, I guess. and then yeah, you you must be true to that because it could be taught, you will learn how to sell, but it's a it's an exercise, right? You know, I remember when I started doing I do a specific type of treatment plan for patients who are really really undecided of treatment. I do a second appointment where we show them a mock-up of what their teeth would look like. And in that appointment, it's a very powerful appointment because it's a very emotional experience. They're getting to see their smile like they've never seen it before. Not just on the picture, but on themselves. So at that moment, the person is very vulnerable. But when I started doing these presentations, I wasn't ready for their reaction. Some of them were getting upset at me because they're like, How are you teasing me with this and then taking it away from me after you tell me the price? And I was I was that really that really touched me because I was hurting them more than than you know, I was that dentist who was making them not want to go to a dentist again because dentists are are the worst, you know, just hurting with their emotions. But I learned how to communicate and speak with them very early after after Many attempts of doing these type of presentations. And that's why it was so important for me to have an initial connection with the patient to understand their expectations and then hopefully over-deliver on those expectations either financially or aesthetically or functionally. Right? So that's how I would present my treatments to patients. And Yeah, you we we we have to be very careful because the sales process or even even hiring team members. I don't know how you have it in your practice, but you could get some sharks out there who were in in sales door to door and they would sell ice to an Eskimo, you know. And sometimes it's too easy, right? It's too easy for them. And we gotta be very careful that we don't lose integrity throughout that process. You gotta be very careful. I I've probably told the story before, but I once hired a sales girl and she was from the car industry and she was so persuasive. She would have people signed up with deposits, they didn't even know what they were buying yet. You know, they'd be bit in the back and I t I talked to her about this, you know, I'm like, Hey, we gotta select the right kind of patient. We don't want everybody, we want these kind of people. And I mean, people would come in for consults, they'd be sitting in the reception room and she'd have booked she'd be sitting up there before either even had a scan or met anybody, they'd have like a two thousand dollar deposit checkout. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa I'll tell you that relationship that that sounds great. But it's actually, you know, it's kind of a nightmare because a lot of people are upset, they don't know what they're buying, you know, and then you know, they're it's like you gotta be really careful. Then you're getting some crazy people in the door that you don't want to treat. You don't want, it went too fast, yeah. Yeah. I once had one that was also closing too fast, very fast. You know, she even virtually she was closing the and committing the leads and all of sudden the patients will come in and they're like zygo cases that I was so y young into it, I'm like, I'm not gonna touch a yacht zygo, I don't even know how to approach it. I can't I can't do this. You need to do the right thing. Yeah. So people are really important. So how do you hire? You know, so where do you find your your salesperson? And are you even allowed to say the word sales in your office? I don't think we talk about sales, you know, we talk about committing, engaging, closing and and and connecting and moving forward with treatment. But yeah, selling is what we do. it's frowned upon in the in the in the in the career in the medical field. but at the end of the day, like we spend so much money on CE courses and training and advanced surgery courses that we wanna be able to put into practice what we've learned, you know, and the only way we able to we're able to do that and get paid well is by selling, you know, and that's the art of persuasion. You know, my kids sell to me every day. Dad, can we go to the get ice cream or can we go to 7 Eleven? Like they're winning anyways, right? So they're always putting up a position to me to sell. everything we do in in in in in in life is it's about a give and take in the sales process. But how do I hire the team members and I have basically the last say in in in hiring. I let my team do a round table of interviews. For example We hire the receptionist. The receptionist meets virtually with my manager, then they get invited for an appointment, but then they meet and they rotate five-ten minutes through each team member in the office. At the end of the day, we have a consensus from one to three. How was it a good fit or not? They were like, one, two, three, three, one, two, three. At the end of the day, like, okay, this one made made the fit. What did you like the most? And we start connecting because At the end of the day, if you're spending eight to ten hours with a human being in the office, you have to be able to connect, not just with me, with everyone. Yeah, because what happens when I'm not in the office and I was the only person who they really loved being and talking to? Like, no, it's the the dentistry has to happen with the other team members as well. Yeah, have you ever found a little bit of degree of danger in that? Or maybe you have to maybe you have to educate your team and say, What are you really hiring for? Because there's this danger, you know, when I when I have done that in the past, there's this danger for them to hire people that they think will be good drinking buddies and hangout buddies and you know, like you know, they'll get they'll be able to gossip with a little bit and you know, get the get the tea and and I always say, look, the person, you know, when you recommend someone for a job here, you have to you have to Be sure that you're not gonna be picking up the slack for per that person can be sitting next to you, you know, so you gotta make sure that they're actually gonna come to work too. Not just be really cool to go out and have a beer with or whatever, you know. That's the first that's the first gate because nowadays with Chat GPT and everything, their resume looks impeccable. Like those resumes are coming like, my god, like why are you haven't been hired in a month? You know? but we have started to implement the two day working interview. The first day they're they're faking it till they make it. The second day, the true colors start coming out, you know, and that's when that's when we really find out, like you said you've been doing, you know, all next surgeries for the past three years. What happened? You can't even pass an instrument to me. You don't even know what a cover screw is. and they're like, okay, you know, we we got you. but yeah, no, I've I've let the team members they know because they they've experienced it in the past where they they hired the wrong person and they they say like alright that one because a good fit. I think we were excited because the person looked pretty, she was kind, she was amicable, but I don't think it's gonna work in the long run. I have I have I think the longest working interview that I've I've heard, by the way, you know, it's Guinness Book of World Records as far as I know. My working interview is ninety days. Really? Ninety days. Let me tell you, my god, I've learned this the hard way, but I've been doing this for ten years. So at my practice, nobody gets hired. Like right away. Like you don't just get hired. You get a you get a ninety day temporary you know, basically it's like a temporary work permit, right? Well, like and I tell and they get a letter they're like, You're not being hired permanently, you're getting hired for ninety days. So why? Because in our s in the Commonwealth of Virginia, after thirty days you can file an employee. And you know, I think it's so hard to know anything about anybody in twenty four or forty eight hours or even thirty days because how many times, you know, I just got you just start to get to noti get to notice that somebody's like they're past the honeymoon stage and they're slacking and it's like next thing you know it's been thirty one days. So I give a ninety day temporary work status in a letter that says you're not permanently hired, this is basically seasonal. So that's a nice workaround for it. Yeah. So then they go Wait a minute, I'm not permanently hired and I go, Well listen, I literally I'll say this. If you can do half of the stuff that you listed on your resume and you are an honest person and you prove it and you're easy to get along with, this will be forever. You just have to be you everyone ha you just have to be able to fake it for ninety days. And be honest. And you know what you'll find is that bad apples cannot fake it for more than thirty five days. They can't do it. They can't. They really can't. They start slacking, they start get coming in late, they start missing days. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's so true. Thirty days is easy because before you even they've been in the office for twenty two days before you even notice And then it's a weekend and then you're like, Well, I'm gonna get rid of that person, but then it's Thursday and now they've been here thirty one days. I I recommend everybody do the ninety day working interview. Never never thought about that. Yeah, yeah. I mean the Fastest I let go someone was day three, you know, and it was because day two they didn't come in and I'm like, all right, it's it did and the in the chemistry. And we had an interview, interesting. I mean, people sometimes they just share too much information. we had a working interview for the day, she's assisting in the back, and she tells one of my lead assistants, like, why did you leave the other job? because I'm I'm toxic and I know it. And I And I'm like, all right, thank you. Goodbye. Here's your check, you know. So that's out that's out of the question. That's all I the hardest part of the practice is running it's people, is running the people. I don't remember exactly what was I had an employee I had somebody that applied for a job and it was like lunch and lunchtime and she was available to start immediately, but I don't know, I got this feeling and I basically said, Look, go to lunch and You know, come on back, you're hired at two o'clock, whatever. But if you feel like you can't you know, be non toxic. I can't remember what I said, but if you feel like you can't do it, just don't come back, no harm, no foul. Guess what? She didn't come back. She didn't come back. I fired a doctor on what day one. On day one. back when I had satellite offices, I Saturday working a Saturday by nine AM and I already had like three calls from the staff about his behavior. And then I had a couple patients that I knew that had already texted me about his behavior by ten AM. And then he's on the phone like just moaning and bitching and complaining about something. And I was like, you know what? Just put everything down and just walk out of the building. Go home. Yeah, yeah. It could get worse. I'm like, I I've heard enough. Yeah. So Adam, I have a question, 'cause you I remember you shared your story. you had a general G P practice. And then you transitioned to four arches. how's that transition gone for you? What's big the different biggest change from running general dentistry to doing what you're doing now because you also have your institute? what what do you enjoy the most and how different is it for you? Yeah, you know, it was I didn't take the easy route. So, you know, I did my general practice that was heavy in implants, whatever, etc. etc., until about twenty sixteen or so when I started getting referrals for implants. And then I started doing more and more full arch. So I decided to specialize my practice basically on implants and full arch. because I was I was getting referrals from other GPs and then later getting referrals from specialists. but the the hard part for me was I didn't have the heart to kick everybody out, you know, like so I was split and very divided and very busy between general and arches. And I I will tell you it's not an easy place to be. there's no time to deal with you know, the little general dentistry stuff while you're trying to handle these big reconstructive cases, right? And I don't think it's fair to the reconstructive people either. So, you know, you know, I had an out because I was fee for service already, but basically my team started coming to me and started cutting people, you know, and I'd I'd always be like, No, keep that person, keep that person. They're like, You gotta let go. You like, you gotta let go. You gotta let go. And so my practice has gotten, you know, from five thousand, six thousand people down to under a thousand. And mostly what we have is the full arch. But I would not recommend it for anybody. I mean, I think the easier way would be to like not have a heart and just be like doors closed, go find somewhere else to go. I mean, you were you were in it already for what, twenty years of your career? It's like fifteen, twenty? twelve, thirteen years in at that point in time. So you know, plus the practice I bought had been here since nineteen seventy. And I mean I had so the people that I never kicked out were the ones that had been here for more than, you know, fifteen, twenty, thirty years. I'm like, I'm not gonna make that ninety year old woman go find a new practice. So but I do know people that have had full arch practices that they went to full arch and they just closed the door and like with no like barely an apology letter. Just like nope. And I just I don't know, I knew my peop I knew these people too long and I just couldn't do it. So I tried to bring in associates to handle it. That's a whole nother story and that that worked for a while. But you know, do you have associates yet other you know than your Soon to be done. Yeah. I do ha yeah, no, I do have an associate set. They do help me with those type of cases. Yeah. It's 'cause it's as you said, it's not fair when you're treating a full arch case. you need to get out of the OR and and go insert a crown. Like, it's not fair. No. You know? Not fair at all. Yeah. You can't you can't be both. You can't be in both places at the same time. So yeah. If I could do this all over again, I would open up a practice from scratch and you know, just do whatever, you know, full arch. you know, a few days a week and I'd be I'd be good with that. You know, I'd be fine with that. you know, you talk we talked earlier about marketing and people that, you know, they want the arches so they discount the prices to get more arches. Well if what you're looking for is arches, great, mission accomplished. But if you're looking for is a value based life and a fun life, I don't think it's in the quantity. I feel like you're the same person. Yeah, yeah. It's there's I don't have a goal to do forty arches a month. You know, that's that's not if I do forty arches, 'cause I have maybe four doctors pro providers, and they're each doing ten, but we're doing it at a at a rate and a pace and the quality that is delivering excellent. You know, they that's it. That's that's kind of like where I've seen it and and I don't know how many centers do it. They do forty arches, one solo doctor. I think the human touch gets there's a disconnect there. but hopefully, you know, they're they're doing, they're thriving, they're doing what they need to do to take care of the patient the best way. in my experience it's it hasn't happened. So just just one of those little things that why I continue to choose and niche niche down my practice and focus more on on the high valued cases that we provide our patients. Well it's a better life I mean I you know, we used I used to be at a point in time where I thought more implants, more count the implants, count the arches, like that matters. I have a slide actually I put in some of my lectures and presentations where it's got my family and it says, My family has never asked me how many arches, how many implants did you do today, Daddy? Never. Never asked when I came home. It was never it's it's never even a thought. Right? They're just happy that you're home. Yeah. Yeah. Right now, I'm I'm dad. When I get home, I'm dad. That's exactly right. Yeah. Yeah. I've thought you know, to some people it might sound like you know, the implant companies hate to hear this. We're not driving the numbers. But, you know, is it that we've given up or we just have we've seen the other side. I mean, you've seen the side of production, right? You know what the where the evil is, right? You know where the bad times are. Yeah, yeah, that's that's I've seen some ups and downs. I see the I've seen the changes. We've seen it now with the changes with corporate dentistry, you know, and and the implant centers. So Yeah. Well, you're teaching now. you've been teaching for a while. Where where where are where are you teaching lately? I know I've seen you with a group of people at, you know, these magnificent places. Tell me about it. Well, I've been teaching with Doctor Dean Bafiades and his team and faculty. we used to be part of all day Friday events, year long. Course at NYU. Now we've branched out to do and host his his course in his practice at one Friday every month throughout the year. And we have the ability to do comprehensive cases in the practice. And the doctors get their New York State license, they get the license in New York, and they're able to do the rehabilitations either from veneers, from implants, smile designs from wax ups from temporaries like they learn the techniques to rehabilitate a patient not necessarily doing all on x right so it's finding ways to do that type of full mouth reconstruction and it's pretty cool to have it one on one because there's one doctor one one student you know it's not It's not one one doctor and five students. So it's it's the opportunity to to be more one-on-one and you get pearls from each provider, from each faculty that's with the doctors. So it's pretty cool. the opportunity to lecture and talk about emotional dentistry and smile design is also one that I've enjoyed lecturing at NYU. I've lectured internationally, so it's pretty cool to share my story with other people so that they continue to do the density that sparks the the fire in them. so that's that's been my experience with lecturing, you know. Yeah, yeah, it's been it's been fun. It's been a good opportunity. And w say the name of the institute or the or the teaching program that you're people can maybe apply or look it up? It's FMR. fmrnyc.com. it's with Dr. Dean Bafiatis. So it's definitely if you're ever interested, shoot me a message, shoot me a DM, and I would guide you to the right spots for our four day course or for the year long course that we have. And so this is more of a comprehensive whatever the Patient needs type training, all dentistry, comprehensive dentistry, not comprehensive dentistry. Yeah. Everything everything, everything that's aesthetically driven, digital driven. So it's it's trying to bring the GP who's intimidated on changing BDO, opening the vertical, taking care of a class two, allowing them to understand how the occlusion follows the aesthetics and then taking the patient to to the right path, you know. it's pretty cool. It's It's a it's a way to do dentistry for those doctors who've have been doing, you know, six veneers and don't want to do more because they're afraid of opening the vertical. And that's where that's where we come into play. The All-in-All Linux Pod is brought to you by JB Dental Labs, the Elite Lab, trusted by full arch surgeons, prosodontists, and digital forward practices internationally. JB specializes in precision full arch restorations, zirconia, PMMA, photogrammetry workflows, and fast turnaround times that don't sacrifice quality. JB delivers a truly digital workflow. Powered by their proprietary online portal for easy case uploads, real time tracking, and fast streamlined communication. If you're looking for a lab that understands immediate load, passive fit, and the demands of modern all on X dentistry, learn more at jbdentalab.com. Tell them that the all-in, all on X pod sent you. Why why do you teach then? What what's the motive behind the teaching? Because I remember when I didn't know what I didn't know and I had a great mentor of mine who Taught me, who put me under his wings and said, Hey, you have what it takes, you just don't believe in yourself. Let me show you what you're capable of doing. many times I'm lecturing, I'm in the room and I'm and I'm treating a patient doing a small veneer case, and I look up and I have a doctor who's like 65, I have another doctor who's like 26, and I'm like looking at the different ages, I'm like, my god, like knowledge is doesn't, it's not just for one person. I have a sixty-five year old patient. with a doctor who's in the room learning from me and I'm humbled just for that opportunity to continue to to mentor and coach someone who's been practicing dentistry for 40 years. You know, so seeing that that person continues to have the drive that motivates me to teach them about the technology, the digital workflows, photography, scannings and techniques and material. While I have the young doctor who's still working in a corporate office or an associateship that is intimidating to do a smile design on the patient. And then I get a text message a month later, hey I just closed my first veneer case. Thank you for teaching me that technique while you we were in that course. You just paid for all my other CE courses for this year. I'm like all right and and that is exciting to see that you spark that little fire And you, you know, it's it's it's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. It's hard work. It's hard work, but it's it's pretty cool. Teaching is hard. You know, I but I I love it too, just like you do. yesterday I got a call from somebody in the and I was off. I've been off this week. but I get a text message. Hey Adam, do you have a minute to go over your final protocol for final records? I have our my first final records in the chair. I want to make sure we're doing it right. And I was like, I called him, I Hey, you're lucky I'm off today because I wouldn't have seen this text message until about nine PM tonight. But but we went through it and he's like, Yeah, uh-huh, that's what I'm doing and we went through it and w and then maybe forgot one little step and we went through it and went through it. And he's like, Thank you so much. And then his tech got on the phone was like, Dr. Ogan, I'd love to go to your course You know. I said, I've been watching you on social media. I've been seeing the work you're doing. It's amazing. And she's like, my God, you're watching That's like payment in enough. That's all that's all the payment you need for e educating right there. It it's so rewarding and and and Trust me when I tell you like I there was a time in my career that I didn't believe in myself or I wasn't aware of how knowledge how much knowledge I had, right? So when that opportunity was given to me, I was like, wow, this is this is great. Thank you. Thank you. So I will forever pay it forward, you know, and that's what I just do. So maybe I'm the only one, but does teaching ever reveal to yourself a weakness that you didn't know you had? Yes, communicating. Every time I I I I need to learn how to communicate better, and everyone has a different communicating style. for instance, you and I we shared the podium and we spoke in front of a thousand people. That is the easiest stage to speak on. For me, has been all hands down the most easiest stage to speak. You're sharing your knowledge, you're talking, and you're you're showing off what you know and hoping that you impact someone in the audience, right? Because you're speaking to that general audience. The hardest ones. are the study clubs where you have 10 doctors at different age grade, you know, a retired dentist, one that does not have an ITERO, one that does not have an office, and you try to pick and choose how do you connect with each one in the audience. So that is the most challenging part in in educating. but my favorite is when I get to do one-on-one to do that one-on-one and showing the techniques and the tricks and and I tell them hey it took me 25 years in five minutes to learn how to do this trick. You just learned it in in one minute. You know, so it's kind of like cool to give that seed and let them know that they have a a future to to continue learning and growing. Mm-hmm. I couldn't agree with you more because a stage of a thousand people seems daunting at first, but you're j generally not gonna get challenged, right? And you're just kind of giving a broad general motivational message of some kind. but I love the one on ones. We have the full implant experience where you bring doctor comes in, brings his team, they all like follow their respective people around. And I love that 'cause I can tailor it exactly to what they need. You know, they can get whatever pearl they're looking for, whatever level they're on. That's the best. Yeah. And what's cool about you, you you give them your phone number immediately. Right? You you immediately are like, hey, this is my group. Contact me. Any questions you have. That is worth more than anything. I I've been to many courses. I don't get a phone number from the director or the course or organizer to do a follow up. Hey, when you get this hiccup, call me. Let me let me get you out of the the hole. You know? So that's the one on one. That's really where the gold ha is, you know. That's that's the pearl. I appreciate that, my friend. I wanna be there for everybody. Talk I also, you know, to be fair, I follow that with If you need an immediate response then you know, don't expect it 'cause I'm probably in the operatory. And that's that's that's respected. Yeah. I will get to it eventually. But if you want but I also say we have this WhatsApp group chat or whatever, drop it in there 'cause someone has the same question probably and maybe it'll get answered five times over before I get there too. But yeah, but thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah. I do want to say I'm not like the nine one one. I've had calls, have you? have you calls from across town. And it's seven forty five in the morning and whatever. First thing in the morning and somebody calls you, who probably doesn't refer to you yet, and says, I'm about to do this implant procedure, da da da. How do I do it? They're coming in in ten minutes. I just I just got a surgical guide. I ordered it from Gladwell, I just arrived. What do I do? How do I do it? I say, well how do you do it? You tell them to get out of the chair and come over here. Yeah. Also, you should have taken my course. That's where you do the one that's where you pitch the one on one. It's probably it's comical, but has it happened to you? I'm s I don't know. what what I've enjoyed is having the one on one class. So I've had three doctors come to my office, spend one or two days in the office where I teach them the entire workflow of what I do and how I do it. Their biggest takeaway is with the FP1s. So those one-on-ones they really get to push the limit when they go back to their practices. sometimes they bring their own patient and we treat their own patient in in my office and then I show them this is how I design it, this is the the mindset behind starting the treatment. So those are those are cool experiences. But I haven't had those listen, I'm a GP placing implants and restoring patients. I don't get that many GPs referring patients to me. I would love to be there. That way we could be a liaison to them and help them grow their practice. and and make impact in their community. but I that's one thing that we have not done yet. So maybe in the future, maybe doctors see what we're doing in our office, we'll be able to to collaborate more. But as of now, we just have the one on one trainings. I would put a paycheck on it, my friend, that if you started inviting GPs to your office to see what you're doing, you're gonna open up some referrals because you know, that's what happened to me. I had I had one G P come and say, Hey Adam, can you do these implants for me? Because I'm not really happy with, you know, the specialists in the area. Either they're really good and they don't treat our you know, they're not nice to my patients or you know, they're whatever, they're not good at what they do, but they're nice. Whatever. And and I and I started inviting doctors in to see how I was doing it and they were like, Wow, you're way ahead of you know, and you treat people well. And I know you're gonna do the same. So I think you could probably open up that business a little bit, you know, and say, Hey, come into my practice, watch me do surgery, watch me do process. I think they're gonna be impressed my friend. I think you're gonna get some referrals. That's that's that's a good tip. I mean Yeah That's that's that's the best way to approach it. I'd never thought about that, but thank you. Yeah. I was commending You can do it. And I I started with, you know, five and then you know, five really good all star referration and then, you know, the five or ten that are sometimes and then a couple of specialists started to take notice and I invited him in, oral surgeon. I said, Come wat hey, watch me. I could probably learn something from you. It's fine. Speak up if you don't like what I'm doing. They they'd watch me operate and they'd say, You're doing this on par with anybody. You're doing this is great. Plus you understand the restorative and what the oral surgeons that refer to me would say is they'd be a little frustrated because they the patient would go back to their GP to get the props done. You know, two years, three years go by, not done, then they end up back in the surgeon's office, please help me. Then the oral surgeon has to spend time trying to coach the G anyway, it would be a big mess and they so they'd say, You know what, I'd rather you just do it. You know, just do the case. So I know I know you have the technical ability, you know, to do it, you know, at a very high level. So I think you should be proud of that. So that's my tip for you. Be you know, you can become a referral for people in need. Anyway, my soapbox didn't really end with a question, didn't really anything to say, but I know you have the c capability of doing that. so anyway, we're going on about an hour. what el what else do we need to talk about? What what have I left on the table that you really want to chat about? you know, this is this is this is definitely a great opportunity to to maybe talk to to the young doctor who's considering four arch and maybe a fee for service practice or or the opportunity to be different. And that's that's the goal, you know. You know, what what do you do to be a little bit more human? You know, you really have to wanna do it, like I said. and then be intentional with what you Promise, you know, that's that's kind of like the the key to to my success. and that's that that's it. I mean there's no secret recipe. it's just it's just an exercise that you have to do every single day consistently. Yeah, you've got to water you've got to water the plant every day, but not overwater it, right? No. yeah, branding is a big i it's you know, my business course seminar next one's in October, I believe. But we start out well, we start out with systems and metrics and things like that, having systems in place before you start spending money on this and doing, you know, whatever. But a big part of it is your brand. Like, look at that painting on the wall behind you. That is magnificent, by the way. I does that have a story? actually my trigger coordinator selected that one and she likes it because she knows that if I were to show you we have a graffiti lip in our in our hallway and it's been a signature of our practice. It was actually the first you know, concept that we had in our practice and patients always loved it. So that type of graffiti art or abstract art and what we're trying to achieve is to start a conversation. Yeah. 'Cause I what what else am I doing? You know, so it's cr being creative, showing them that the practice we built does not revolve about the tools that we have in our office but but the conversations and the stories that we share within it. and that's that's the reality at the end of the day. You know, so I'm curious to see, is this your consult room or this is your your your special man cave? This is my office over here. This is my garage band pod studio. I've got You know, my my desk is over here on my right, my wife's desk is over here on the left. And this used to be my lab before we out or part of my lab before we outgrew it. There used to be ceramics sitting in here. But now they're a half mile away in a bigger facility. But yeah, this is just I don't know. It just grew. I was like, where am I gonna put those swords? That's the Marine Corps scabber, that's the Navy. This is this is what the patients see when they go to your console to see that? No. Almost nobody sees this. No. Nobody sees this. They're like, Okay, how much is the arch? Okay, I get it. These are these are challenge coins from some military days and patients still bring me challenge coins, right? I've got a Marine Corps I've got a Marine Corps cover there. I've got a K bar knife up here from the Marine Corps. These are all fifty cal sh I was a fifty cal gunner in the Marine Corps. So these are fifty sh fifty cal shells. And I got Jesus right here, baby Jesus. So, you know, I don't know. It's just people would call this my love me wall. I don't know, I just I didn't know where to else to put it, so I put it in my office. I love it. I love it. Yeah. No ribbons or medals up there, but that's technically should be on the love me wall, but no. This is not what they normally see until they come back and visit with me here. No. In the practice though Like your painting on the wall there. I I think this might be a good kinda final point to make. Everything in my office is designed for a reason, right? And it attracts a certain type of clientele. Every picture on the wall, every diploma, every patient photo, your graffiti wall, it all s has a specific purpose in my office. Is it the same in your office? Is everything there by intelligence? So when patients come to our office they get greeted with a tour. And every station in which my team members stop to share a story of what we do has a reason, has a purpose. Whenever they stop in front of the Yomi robot, we talk about the technology and the benefits that robot has for them. When we talk about the CT scan, it's the benefit that the C T scan has for the patient. When we talk about the semi private rooms, these are the recovery rooms where the patient has her moments of silence. Like the console rooms where they have the one on one. the one that patients really find different is that when they see the photo studio with a big lounge couch that we have, they're like, What's that room? this is where we sit down and talk about your treatment. Wait, a lounge couch chill with coffee and drinks and then looking at a T V, I'm like, Yeah, this is different. This is not just sit in a chair and Let me show you the treatment and here's a clipperboard. No. So every every process that we go through, every tool, like the ITERO, we have the Itero, and because it has a cool visual and time lapse that we can show the patient the s a simulation of their bite and their teeth and movement, it has a purpose in which why we scanned it and what we say after we scan it, you know, because How many times have you ever been gifted a bottle of wine and all of a sudden you're just chugging it like it was, you know, like a six-dollar bottle of wine, and then when you go take a picture and you Google it, you're like, wow, this is a reserve special. And you know, I had this bottle gr in my garage. I didn't even take care of it. Because no one ever educated you with the value of what this bottle is and what it meant means, right? Because you're not a wine connoisseur. And and that's kind of like what patients are. They're not dental connoisseurs, they don't know. it is. So building that value throughout everything that we do in our practice on on purpose and with purpose, that's that's kind of like the the real secret to to everything. I agree. I think you and I must have read the same book or study from the same had the same coach, whatever. because I'm the same way. Get a tour, know what you're here for, you know, build value before you, you know, talk dentistry and throw out price and all that stuff, you know. Amen. For sure. This is actually a play a a play out of my playbook at the business course as well. So yeah, good for you. You're you're doing everything right, Publio. It was one of the reasons I wanted to have you on the show. Just you know, to inspire people to be more like you, you're you can find profit you can find good profitability in hospitality and emotion. And I think that that's I think that's what I want people to take away from this. Is that is that w your message or y you know, what it is there more to it? No, I think from what I've seen, it's where I've had the most fun. Yeah know, I've I've seen dentists who are successful business owners and CEOs and they're behind the scenes. They don't want to be patient-facing. but they have twenty locations where they run efficiently. they've been able to lead their practice and their style like that. do I want to have multiple locations? Yes. Whenever I find the recipe and the right person to to replicate myself within that industry or or that practice, yes, that would be. would I want to retire in Dominican Republic having like ten complex buildings and and and and and renting them and going to the beach every day that has been also in my my plans you know so at the end of the day like I'm I'm enjoying what I'm doing I'm building a legacy for my daughter as she goes through the path in her career. But who knows maybe in six years she's like that I'm moving to Florida I'm not coming back to New York. You know so many things could happen but throughout the process I trying to avoid burnout. I'm trying to do what I need to do. Don't get me wrong, there's been some stressful times in in this in this past two years. But I I count the goods and the bads and I the good outweighs the hard times. You know so having a support system at home is crucial, is key. You know sometimes if you want to bark too much you might not realize that you're you're trying to hold too much in in your hands and you're not ready for it. So you have to have a good support system at home. but at the end of the day, like you went through the transition too from GP to to full arch and it was it was hard that transition, but you found your recipe, you found your time. throughout that mentorship that you give doctors and provide doctors, you know they you've been able to help people go through that process. For me, I think to stand stand apart and be different than corporate dentistry is. I think my hospitality and my way of style of practice will continue to allow me to be better and happier. So that's all. Amen. I couldn't have said any better myself. great place to leave off. I wanna speaking of making the best for our family, it's probably time we both get home to our kids. And I wanna thank you for being here and I'll let you go if you promise to come back again one day. Yes, yes. I promise you I gotta go teach your d team how to take photography pictures and set up. it's gonna be life changing for your practice and your style. 'Cause you do amazing surgery and amazing work and we just have to document it and 'cause that's at the end of the day when you're teaching you're like I had a case like that I just couldn't take the picture the iPhone wasn't ready for the you know for the picture but when you give that empowerment to your team members I mean you know about it it's all leadership it's all giving them the opportunity and going through it but yeah I'm excited to go back to your practice and be there one day. We're gonna do it. All right we're gonna get off here and we'll schedule it, okay? Sound good? thanks for spending the evening with me after your hard day of work, okay? All right, we'll s we'll see you listeners next Hey, if today's conversation resonated with you and you're looking to sharpen not just your technique, but your judgment, your discipline, and your long term vision, then this is exactly why we built the Atlantic Implant Institute. This is not just some collection of disconnected modules. This is the core continuum for education and full arch workflow. It begins with module one, core bootcamp fundamentals, where we establish surgical foundations, diagnostic discipline, and repeatable decision making under real-world pressure. And then it continues with module two, advanced prosthetics and full digital workflow, where occlusion, vertical dimension, aesthetics, condyles, and execution all converge. And then we have module three, which tackles remote anchorage, pterygoids, zygomatics, complex anatomy, taught through biomechanics planning for predictable outcomes. And after the continuum, we have modules in FP1 fixed media load and also business, how to five, 10-20. This is business leadership and operational strategy so that you can build surgically what actually works in practical business. If you're ready to go into full art, Dentistry with intention, structure, accountability, and purpose. You can learn more at the Atlantic Implant Institute dot com.