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Navigating Dentistry with Passion, Positivity, and Purposeful Practice with Dr. Haley Schultz (Part One)
13 Plays18 hours ago
About the Guest:
Dr. Haley Schultz is a Michigan-based dentist who graduated from the University of Michigan Dental School in 2024. She is currently in private practice in a rural area of Michigan, where she excels in general dentistry. Dr. Schultz works in a thriving practice with four doctors and is part of a team known for its positive workplace culture. Besides her dental career, Dr. Schultz is a passionate podcaster — the creator of "The Dental Download Podcast," which she started while in her undergraduate studies. She focuses on sharing professional insights, personal growth stories, and other dental-related content to inspire and mentor future dental professionals.
Episode Summary:
Welcome to an inspiring episode of Beyond Graduation featuring Dr. Haley Schultz. As a dentist based in Michigan, Dr. Schultz shares her journey through dental school to private practice, highlighting the significance of workplace culture and mentorship. The episode kicks off with an exploration of her professional trajectory, revealing how she found her current practice, a beacon of positivity and community, despite the broader discourse of dental staffing shortages.
In her conversation, Dr. Schultz elaborates on the patient-centric, holistic approach of her practice, detailing the seamless experience from patient entry to care. Her practice's pillars of care—pain-free, disease-free, and proud to smile— underpin their whole-health dentistry philosophy, which even incorporates elements like myofunctional therapy and interdisciplinary cooperation among dentists. As a budding dentist, Haley discusses her exploratory journey in the varied niches of dentistry, considering where her passions might lead her future career.
As a podcaster, Dr. Schultz bridges her love for dentistry and teaching, detailing the inception of "The Dental Download," inspired by her desire to mentor pre-dental students and share her experiences. Touching on social media's impact on professional practice, she transparently discusses managing public input while fostering a positive online and offline presence. Throughout the episode, the focal themes of cultivating gratitude, maintaining an optimistic mindset, and inspiring tangible self-reflection for future successes resonate powerfully.
Key Takeaways:
- Dr. Schultz's practice revolves around a comprehensive approach to dentistry, emphasizing pain-free, disease-free, and a smile patients can be proud of.
- Her experience underscores the importance of a workplace culture infused with gratitude, positivity, and mentorship—a recipe for personal and professional fulfillment.
- Dr. Schultz embraces general dentistry while exploring specialized interests, highlighting the value of mentorship and diversity in practice.
- She emphasizes a balanced approach to social media, protecting energy by focusing on constructive engagement and personal growth.
Connect with Us:
- Savanah Craig, DDS: @savanahcraigdds
- Ronnetta Sartor, DMD: @dr_sartor
- Haley Schultz, DMD: @dr.haley.dds
- The Dental Download Podcast: @dentaldownloadpodcast
- FutureDentists Beyond Graduation: @futuredentistsbeyondgraduation
- IgniteDDS: @ignitedds and @ignitedds_coaching
- A-dec: @adecdental and https://www.a-dec.com/find-a-dealer
Join us in this enlightening discussion on living a dream life beyond graduation through intentionality, passion, and positive collaboration. Keep tuning into Beyond Graduation for more inspiring journeys and insightful lessons.
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Transcript
Introduction to ADEC's Smart Start Program
00:00:00
Speaker
ADEC's Smart Start program offers first-time practice owners their deepest discounts on equipment and furniture for two years, plus other savings and complimentary services. Ask your ADEC rep for details and start smart with ADEC.
Meet the Hosts: Drs. Savannah Craig and Renetta Sartor
00:00:13
Speaker
Join Drs. Savannah Craig and Renetta Sartor as we navigate life beyond graduation. Real conversations about forging our own paths in our early years in our careers.
00:00:24
Speaker
There's a reason it's called practicing dentistry. Welcome back to another episode of Beyond Graduation. i am Savannah Craig and with me as always. i am Renetta Sartor and today is a very special day. We're super excited.
Guest Introduction: Dr. Haley Schultz
00:00:38
Speaker
We have Dr. Haley Schultz with us. She is a podcaster. She is a fellow Lady Dennis, and she's here to tell us all about herself and all the things. Thank you for having me I'm excited to be here. Awesome. Haley, give the give the listeners just a little overview of you.
Dr. Schultz's Career Path and Choices
00:01:01
Speaker
Oh, my elevator pitch. yeah So I am based in Michigan. i grew up here, did undergrad here, dental school at Michigan, and I graduated in 2024. So I'm about a year and a half into private practice. I didn't do any kind of residency and I've been at the same practice since I graduated. I absolutely love it. I moved a few hours away from where I grew up in more of the Detroit suburbs to a rural area. And then I drive even more rural to go to work. So I work in a tiny little town, A lot of Amish people, but we pull patients from all around our state, and then we're kind of on the state border, so we even get some patients from Indiana. And our practice supports four of us doctors and 20, well, other team members, so 20 of us total. So we have a nice big operation going. Even though we're rural, we don't really experience, like, the staffing shortages that you hear of. We have really wonderful hygienists and just an incredible community.
00:01:58
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patient community.
Living and Practicing in a Rural Area
00:01:59
Speaker
Patients love coming to see us. We love our patients. We love our team. And it's just a little gem of a environment, I would say, where I feel so lucky for the opportunity to be here. And it doesn't even really feel like a sacrifice to kind of move away from what I was used to. And then my now husband, he moved with me when I finished dental school. So that's nice. I'm not completely alone either, but that's kind of how I ended up where I am now.
00:02:24
Speaker
How did you find this amazing elephant or unicorn practice? yeah I found it through one of the dental recruiting websites that's out there. They mostly do practice brokerage matching, but they do have a small little subsidy for finding associates for
Finding and Joining a Supportive Practice
00:02:41
Speaker
practices. So that's how I found it. And then the other associate that currently works there several years back was also found through that website. So I think you kind of have to just go on every single type of platform that you can. I mean, I was on that website. I was on other recruiting websites, you know, Indeed and all the places and also like your local dental organizations. And I kind of did interviews with dentists that I connected with from all of those places. And this one just, it it was right with everything. The only real chance was just, are we going to like moving across the state and like the area? But we're really happy and we're building a house here and we plan to stay ideally forever. So it all worked out really well. That's awesome. Can you speak a little bit more about the culture of your office? It sounds like you all have...
00:03:30
Speaker
An amazing culture, especially the way the the lane landscape of dentistry in shortages of employees. I think to not have those issues, you guys have to have like awesome culture. Yeah, I mean, it's incredible. It really starts from, you know, the top down and it was set in place before
Building a Positive Office Culture
00:03:53
Speaker
I got there. So that's one thing I'm really fortunate with is that I just walked in into a well-oiled system and several team members being there 30 plus years, even longer than the owner doctor. And then there's, you know, been new people to join as we keep growing in the year and a half that I've been there.
00:04:12
Speaker
But really, it's set by the original owner doctor. And now there's two owners. So now it's a partner that's kind of evolved from when I started. I'm still an associate, though. But really, it's all about gratitude. It's about positive mindset. It's about health focus for our patients for one of those more like whole health. dental offices that you hear about.
Mentorship and Exploring Specialties
00:04:33
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And every single one of our doctors, including myself, we have kind of a scope of procedures that we're passionate about. And the other three mostly do more niche specific advanced things that we don't learn in school at all. And then they mentor me on dipping my toes and all those fun different avenues so I can find out what my interests are. And I do most of the general dentistry. So we have a really nice run system in that regard clinically, but all of our team members are
00:05:00
Speaker
Very highly trained, highly skilled, and taught me a ton, like dental assistants teaching me how to close cases and present treatment in addition to learning that from the other doctors as well. So they've had just incredible amounts of training, and that's not all only from the mind of our owner doctor. He works with the coaching program. He's been with them, I think, over 10 years. And now he kind of goes and mentors other offices. So it's that whole snowball effect of, you know, you take in knowledge, you take in a mindset, you share it with others, and you share it to other offices and try to
Holistic and Personalized Patient Care
00:05:34
Speaker
bring what we have to other places in the country because we do really think we're one of the best offices ever. Yeah.
00:05:40
Speaker
but or and what we can bring to our team members. i mean, showing up with gratitude like every day, the owner's like, thank you for choosing to come to work today. Thank you for choosing to be here.
00:05:53
Speaker
We'll read like a motivational quote or something random, but see how we can connect it back to patients. All those kind of typical, maybe cheesy things, but We love it. And truly, just everyone is happy to be there. It's a family away from your family, like no matter what's going on in your personal life. Like I've had some hard personal days, but I was excited to go to work because I know these people are going to lift me up. And that's what I think everyone's striving to create somehow.
00:06:18
Speaker
This is so refreshing because I feel dentistry can be pretty doom and gloom and those practices do exist. And so I think it's really hopeful to hear that you can find a really awesome place to work.
00:06:33
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Would you speak a little bit more about the holistic aspect and what that looks like? Walk us through like being a new patient in your practice and and how you share those values with the patient.
00:06:44
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Yeah. So it's all very clear. Like i said, it kind of, there's systems, right? So the patient walks in the front door. we have our front office team member that's, you know, they're checking them in saying hello, eye contact, using their name, welcoming them in you know, we' offer them a water or a coffee while they're waiting in the waiting room. Lots of, you know, hospitality and making them feel comfortable. And then once it's time for their appointment time, one of our We call them health advocates, but basically treatment coordinators. We'll grab them, take them back into their little office and follow up on what their goals are. So before they even come in, they've already had at least two touch points on the phone with our team. So they've had whenever they initially called in to become a patient. If we have time, we'll kind of do their pre-appointment interview then. But typically, you know, the phones are ringing off the hook. So we just get their appointment and they know we're going to call them one more time before they come in.
00:07:38
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So usually then one of those health advocates will call them a week or two before their appointment, ask about their past experiences. What are their goals? Are they experiencing any pain points? And share how our practice works. So they're coming in and they're not surprised that you're going to be here an hour and a half for your new patient appointment. And that's not even including your hygiene. They know what they're getting themselves into. They know a little bit of what our treatment philosophies are.
00:08:01
Speaker
So typically, sometimes that can even get lost in the weeds, and we have a few patients that are very caught off guard by how we do things. But for the most part, that kind of irons that out. So they're going back with the treatment coordinator again, ideally the same one they were talking to before, but not all of our team works every single day. So sometimes they're going to meet a new face and reviewing all of that, talking about their goals, and then that person will walk with the patient into the exam room. where they'll meet the dental assistant and they will then relay everything the patient said. So that shows that they have really listened to the patient. They know their goals. Definitely getting that emotional why, you know, what do they want out of this? Even if people just say, you know, like, I'm a young, healthy person and I don't really have any problems. You can still find something like do they have some kind of life event coming up or are they someone that has seen other people have dental problems and they're really proud of their teeth so they want to continue being proud of their health and they're very health conscious. Anything like that, whether it's they have a lot of problems or they don't, something getting more personal.
00:09:03
Speaker
And then it kind of switched to the assistant running the show with the patient. So they'll go through typical things most patients most people do, you know health history, photos, imaging, and then get the doctor in. And then we do another one of those little roundups. So the assistant will report on what they learned about the patient, starting more patient human first. So this is Savannah and she's from this place. She found her practice from this other patient that referred her, their friends from yeah yoga. And her goal is this. And she has four little kids at home and keeps herself busy with this. So
Advanced Treatments and Team Collaboration
00:09:35
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like all of the fun getting to know you stuff.
00:09:37
Speaker
And then you can get into the dental. So they run it all down. So at this point, they've had two experiences of people really listening to them and listening to the concerns and knowing what they want. And then as the doctor, they've probably already heard our kind of pillars and philosophy that you were asking about in your original question from the assistant. But I'll go over that again. a little bit of small talk about, you know, oh, yoga. I've done yoga before. How long have you been into it? All that jazz. And then go through, well, today, we're going to go through our three pillars.
00:10:08
Speaker
So that's pain-free, disease-free, and proud to smile. So we go through that with every single person, and we go through all of the images, CBCT, bite wings, whatever that would be, and then I'll start my actual clinical exam, head neck exam, diagnosing anything on the teeth, existing surfaces, perio chart, all that good stuff, set them up, and then go through any additional findings and have their game plan. So a lot of times because there are multiple things that doctors do. Like I said, I'm kind of the general dentistry. Oh, you need a few fillings and a crown or a root canal. That's probably going to be with scheduled with me in the end. But I also noticed you have had a neck pain and you have tori. You didn't know that you're in kind of constant chronic stress, but maybe you are. So we're going to get you a consult with Dr. Chad, who does our TMJ treatment. So that's kind of their next step of treatment. So when I say whole health, it's that. It's dental health. It's sleep. It's airway. Airway is a huge kind of foundation, we almost call it, of those three pillars. So we have a myofunctional therapist on one of our teams with our hygienist. And then Dr. Chad, I mentioned, is one of the owner doctors. And he does sleep TMJ airway treatment. And then Dr. Bono is one of the other owners. And he does mostly implant-based surgeries. But he also does cosmetic smile makeovers as well for people that are able to keep their natural dentition and do full mouth rehab. But most of the patients coming in are
00:11:39
Speaker
ex-drug users or just very poor diet habits that pretty much don't have anything left to work with, extreme perio, things like that. So he's mostly doing all on extensures probably 80% of the time. And then some with people keeping their teeth just based on you know who's coming in our door.
00:11:58
Speaker
And then Dr. Libby is the other associate. And she's actually married to the owner doctor. So different dynamic. They all kind of have a level with the ownership. I'm down at this point. yeah But she is really passionate about pediatric development. So we talk about airway with a lot of our patients. And you know why did all your teeth relapse after orthodontics and getting to the root cause of things? So we have adults even going through myofunctional therapy or again, sleep apnea TMJ treatment because they didn't have access to this information and resources when they were a kid. to get expansion as a child in a more natural way and actually work on their airway and their tongue position and their breathing so that they can grow correctly and not experience relapse when they're older. So that's what Dr. Libby helps with in conjunction with the myofunctional therapist. So we have her doing different oral appliances. Some are fixed and then some is removable, like the myomunchie, we call it for the myofunctional therapy and things. And then patients are coming in to see the hygienist who is the myofunctional therapist, almost like PT or OT, they come like once a month and they're working on exercises at home under their parents supervision and things like that. So we have all these little different buckets running in the practice and whether you're an adult patient coming in or a pediatric patient, you know, oh, we haven't seen you yet, mom. or Are you interested in coming in? Or, oh, that mom I said has four kids. Have we seen all of them? So really looking at like patient families in addition to whole health and through
00:13:30
Speaker
The TMJ treatment, that is, as you guys know, some of, like it's also inflammatory, right? So Dr. Chad, when I say whole health, you know, his protocol involves not only just sticking an appliance in their mouth, but it might be daytime, it might be nighttime, it might be both. There's a diet protocol. They're starting blood testing soon for more supplement support. So there's a lot going on. And it's very, very cool for someone newly out of school to get to learn from all these people that have spent thousands and thousands of hours learning about these specific niches. Plus, I mean, they're further along in their careers. So they did plenty of general dentistry. So they give me a lot of wisdom when it comes to that as well. I'm
00:14:14
Speaker
Amazed. Me too. They're the best. I could brag forever. I could just sit here for two hours straight, talk about how great everything is. Yes. um couple things I wanted to highlight. The three pillars, pain-free, disease-free, and proud to smile. that's so That's it. That's why we all do what we do, right?
00:14:31
Speaker
And I love that you tell the patients that up front. What has there been any surprises for you or areas of dentistry that you're now interested in by being in this practice? Do you have aspirations to specialize in one of those avenues or do you like being the general dentist in your office?
00:14:50
Speaker
So far, I like doing the general dentistry, I think, because, of course, you know, you have the confidence in it. So I dip my toes in to like the more simple cases. Like I've had a patient from new patient to now go through all his general dentistry things. He also had his sleep study done that showed he had apnea. So I was working kind of with patients. Dr. Chad on his sleep appliance protocol and what his follow-ups are going to be because he's pretty simple. You know, he's not super high risk. He doesn't have pain or other problems. So things like that, I'll kind of collaborate with them to learn more. And then I think you just have to go through the process multiple times and different complexities to see if it's something that you are
00:15:34
Speaker
intrigued with the challenges or if you're like, this is just not for me. Like seeing all of the full arch surgeries, I do single implants and restorations. but I think they're cool. They don't like gross me out, but it's the medical complexity of the patients that freaks me out and stresses me out a little bit. But I mean, I'm a year and a half out of school, so that could change. I can tell my confidence levels are so much higher than when I first started, of course. And even from, you know, the first six months to a year to now, I really feel like I am so excited and like just geeked out to go to work when I have a little bit harder of a case. I actually really get excited about the challenges versus a year ago. you know, you'd be stressed. It'd be hard to sleep. You'd just be like shaking before you go in the room. Like, oh, boy, we're going to do We're going to do it. Now, like you still have that adrenaline, but it's more like and I know kind of what I'm doing. Like it's going to be good even if it's hard. I'm excited to like work through all the kinks and learn.
00:16:35
Speaker
So I could see it keeping evolving. But right now I really like seeing all ages doing a little bit of everything.
Creating The Dental Download Podcast
00:16:42
Speaker
So far, none of what they do seems like something I would want to do all day. And even they do all still do like general dentistry here and there. But most of what they're doing is kind of their niche. That's amazing. Can you speak a bit about what inspired you to begin your podcast? You you started this when you were a dental student.
00:17:03
Speaker
I actually started it in undergrad. So it's been a long, long time. Yeah. Five and a half years now. It's called The Dental Download. And I started it I didn't feel confident to start it until I was accepted to dental school, which is fair because it's like, who's this person giving advice that has no... street cred, but I had my street cred because I got in. it was my last semester of senior year of college.
00:17:26
Speaker
And i had already been posting online and other platforms. And at that time, you couldn't really post anything long like a podcast. You kind of had time limits for videos and things. But I was starting to grow my network and grow my community of younger pre-dental students at that time who had questions. You know, how did your application go? Interview advice, DAT advice. And I could only post like a five-minute video, but I had so much to share. So that's why I started the podcast was the opportunity to post long form content. And it's really evolved with me sort of like a personal diary of lessons learned at work, how I got through this life experience and this milestone. And I quickly realized after maybe like 10 episodes of just myself, Okay, I shared everything I have to share at this point. Now what? So that's when I started bringing on guests. So pretty early on, the format was episodes every single Monday. One week would be me talking about lessons learned that month in preclinic or wherever I was in my journey and now with work. And then the next week will be a guest and then me and then the guest and that's your month, right? So that's kind of how I got started was all mentorship and wishing that I had something like this. Someone that was vocal and sharing the highs and the lows. I'm very transparent of, you know, I've been down in the dumps because of the situation, but this is how I'm working through it. You know, I'm not someone to just give all the doom and gloom with no solution or no way forward. But I definitely share times that I've failed at work, times that I've struggled, because I think that's important. But generally, I have a positive, motivating tone. So I like to put that into our industry. Like we said, there's a lot of negativity. So I like to share that there's good out there too, and there's lots to
Selecting Guests with Impactful Stories
00:19:13
Speaker
learn. So now it is really focused on what I'm learning as a private practice dentist, what I have to share, some bit of overall lifestyle, a little bit of like finance, budgeting, and just really, i call it like creating your dream life and loving what you do inside of work and outside of work, curating your whole ecosystem to be something joyful and positive and fulfilling. That's amazing.
00:19:37
Speaker
Very similar to why we started our podcast too, is to, yeah, let people know they're not alone and there are ways to get through this crazy job we all have. Would you speak a little bit more about like how you choose your guests and how those connections have been made for you?
00:19:55
Speaker
Yeah, it's usually a mix of things. Sometimes it's people reaching out to me and sometimes it's me reaching out to them. Usually, you know, if I'm going to find someone, it's because they have a social media presence, right? So it's whether I saw their videos on TikTok and I think what they do is really cool. So I'll send them a message asking if they'd be willing to be a guest on the show or it's people reaching out to me and I find their story to be intriguing and something that my audience would like. It's mostly different types of dentists, but I have had you know practice brokers. I've had disability specialists. I'm going to have a dental physical therapist on soon, which will be cool. I really want to get into nutrition and a few other things, but I have like specific people I want on and they're busy. So I'm waiting my turn. But really, it's anything dental or dental adjacent that I think people would find interesting and how they can, again, improve their lives or implement something with their patients. So it's, again, anything that's going to add value, then i say, yes, let's do it. And we get them on the show.
00:20:59
Speaker
That's awesome. We at Ignite talk a lot about our self-determined futures and how we create that life, that dream life, which is very similar to what you're talking about.
00:21:11
Speaker
How, i mean, you're a year out of school. We're young dentists too. And I feel like there still older dentists who don't know what they want in life and what they're doing. How have you created that vision or who inspired you in your life to start working at that at such a early part in your life and career?
00:21:32
Speaker
It's a great question. And I think, of course, the way to go about it is going to be different for every single person. yeah For me, I do think I've had this kind of innate little like satisfaction with like curating an awesome life since I was a little girl.
00:21:48
Speaker
like My dad in my wedding speech was like, Haley had said she wants to move to a farm and be a pediatric dentist and have four kids and be married by 28 since she was a little girl. like i just in like a daydreamer as a kid. And, you know, I'd play with my dolls or play my little video games and like imagine what's possible. Right. So it grows into us as adults. Like we all have our inner child. Right. And I've known what I've wanted to a degree. And throughout your journey, like I joined my pre-dental club in undergrad and that's what I learned. Oh, wow. I need to get a better GPA if I want to get into dental school. Like I learned what it took to accomplish what I wanted.
00:22:30
Speaker
And since that meeting, I got a A's, I got the DAT I needed, I got into the school I wanted to go to, right? When you know what you want, you're not going to let anything stop you. And if you're having trouble with that, it might be because you aren't clear on why you want it or maybe you aren't wanting it for the right reasons. Maybe you're wanting it for society's impression or your parents' impression and you don't have a true internal and innate drive for something.
00:22:57
Speaker
I see that with myself. Like I'll set a goal and I won't actually make the steps to accomplish it. So i have to reflect. I obviously haven't connected it enough to a real why. So it's a lot of internal reflection. And for some people that's journaling, some people that's reading improvement books and kind of just sitting with what it says. Some people that's listening to these podcasts, for me, it's a lot of just like sitting quietly and reflecting with my thoughts or if I'm driving, maybe i won't have any sound on. At this point, I am pretty clear on the direction I'm going. But when I was younger, that's how I fine-tuned my initial idea as a child. to what I'm
Inspirations and Childhood Dreams
00:23:35
Speaker
going to do now. That's so inspiring. And I feel like you're such an old soul. like
00:23:44
Speaker
Your dad said it at your during your wedding. That's that's awesome that at such a young age, you were you had that mindset and just are a dreamer. Yeah, I think that's what a lot of people aspire for. And it's nice that that's an innate thing that is just in you.
00:24:02
Speaker
And I think, like you said, with the the values, if you don't know why you want that, you're not going to actively pursue that. Talk with us. You were saying with your podcast and your life in general, you're open about the the hard, vulnerable things talking.
00:24:21
Speaker
money, talking failures at the office, or you know we always say the dentistry failed, you didn't fail. How has that felt for you? Is that something you've always been comfortable with? Or as you've created this platform, do you feel a little more connected to your audience that you feel like you need to share those things? Or how does that look? Because I think as dentists, we feel, and you know the age of social media, we feel like we have to show this perfect life.
00:24:48
Speaker
And you can create a dream life, but you you have to get through the hard stuff too. So tell us a little bit more about that experience. I feel if someone's going to listen 10 minutes into my podcast, they're part of my bubble and they can know versus my pre-dental intern that makes a social media post. Sometimes she'll put something in the little like pre thing to get people to watch. And I'm like, Actually, could you leave that part out? Like I know I said it, but I don't really want it like for the general public. Okay. I love this. It's not – obviously, I wouldn't put it in there if I absolutely don't want someone to hear it because I know it's on the internet. Anyone can hear it.
00:25:26
Speaker
But, you know, there's a lot of trolls and haters out there. You see all the people that post like anonymously in all these groups and people that are out there just to like ruin your day. So I don't want to subject myself to those type of people who don't know me, who don't know what I'm doing, who don't know anything about me giving opinions because I don't want their opinion. So I will share it to the people that I know are going to take it in the right way.
00:25:50
Speaker
So I'll say it in the podcast, but I'm not going to make a TikTok for anyone to see about like start to finish. Here's everything I've ever done wrong. like But I'm still happy to share it. And again, the people that are listening in, those hundreds of people that listen every week, I want them to know and I'm comfortable for them to know because I know they're listening to it with the lens of understanding where I'm coming from. And they're not some random troll bot on the internet.
Handling Online Negativity
00:26:17
Speaker
Can you speak more about, speak more about earlier, you talked about how your practice is led with gratitude and positivity. And as you were talking just now, that's exactly where my mind went. Like when you talked about the trolls and the haters and that sort of thing, can you speak about how you keep yourself, especially, you know, podcasting and being a brand on Instagram and TikTok and everything, you're going to have some people that don't like it.
00:26:47
Speaker
or some people that have something negative to say, or just in life in general, can you speak more about how you keep a positive mindset and practice gratitude daily? Absolutely. When it comes to the online component, it's kind of short and sweet. They're probably like not even a real person. If I can click on their profile and it's like you and you left like a constructive criticism question, I'm not going to block you and be like, I don't want like any yeah any pushback. Because obviously we're all open to criticism from like a fellow colleague who's saying it in a respectful way. Like, yeah, then I would respond to your comment or maybe DM you and we'd talk about like why i redid that case or why I didn't or why I use that material or whatever. Like you'd be asking something productive for both of us to learn from.
00:27:31
Speaker
But if it's just like a true hater or someone that doesn't even have a real picture and they have zero followers and they're just being an angry person, social media just blocked. Don't engage. When it comes to real life, whereas we should spend more of our time and energy, right? Less time on our little phones. Yeah.
00:27:48
Speaker
I really do every time I go to work because it's at this point it's a cycle. It's like a snowball effect that I just am grateful and I love it there. But I try to leave whatever I might have been dealing with or stressed about at the door because I know that my team needs and deserves for me to be showing up as my best, best self and And so does every single patient. I think we see so many patients in a day and you see so many different personalities. You see someone having the worst day they've ever had. Switching in your head to engage with different personalities and people that are in different emotional states.
00:28:27
Speaker
So I try every single time I finish one patient, I'm going into the next room. Maybe you're rushing. Maybe all three hygienists say, I need an exam right now. I try to make sure that This person that I'm going to see is an individual person. This is their only experience with me. And I'm going to make sure that they have my undivided attention and a positive attitude.
00:28:47
Speaker
So I have that in the back of my mind all throughout my day, every single touch point that I'm doing. And same thing with our team. And like I mentioned, we've had some new team members come in. I've been working with the same five-year seasoned assistant up until November. And now I have an assistant who's never been in dentistry before. so you can imagine That's making me reflect a lot on, wow, I still have a lot to grow because this other assistant was kind of holding my hand and making things easier for me. Now I need to be the one to mentor someone else. So that made one of my goals for this year.
00:29:19
Speaker
i want to be able to mentor my team on communication the way that some of these seasoned assistants and doctors can mentor me. So that's something I'm working on, being an example for her of how we can get patients to understand the value of their treatment make a positive patient experience. So it's something I've been slowly picking up on. And now, like I said, I'm able to share more of it as well.
00:29:42
Speaker
From what you were saying in all of those aspects, it feels a lot like you're protecting, might not be the white word, but protecting your energy and what you allow into you and and all of those things.
00:29:53
Speaker
Do you have any like day-to-day practices that help you? you know Gratitude journaling or you know how do you transition from work to home and home to work? What does that look like? Because all of these things feel so intentional and you've made a choice for this to be how you interact with the world.
00:30:12
Speaker
Spot on with intention. And I know Renata was kind of asking that in the first question, but I didn't really answer actual tangible practice. That's okay. But I don't particularly do any of those like really specific things.
00:30:26
Speaker
I just have my routine at this point that again is supporting the way I want to live. And like you said, like things just don't, they don't enter my bubble the best I can. Obviously some days, you know, you're down a little bit. But it's like it's a day.
00:30:40
Speaker
I never have two bad days in a row. Like I will not. Like if I have a hard day and I talk about it to someone or I post a video about this is why I'm feeling down because this happened at work, I know I am waking up the next day and that's not happening again. Like it's just not. It's a fresh start. It's a new day. There's no reason. Like we've seen, I've seen at least on social media, like those little graphics where it's like this like a thousand little dots and they're like here's one black dot of like this bad day and the other days are yellow. And it's like,
00:31:10
Speaker
okay, you can't let 1% ruin the other 99% of good. And I focus on things like that. So it's a lot of things I've taken in over all the years that have let me choose to live this way. It's not like it just naturally happens without any effort, right? Like you have to make a conscious decision.
00:31:29
Speaker
to be positive, to have gratitude, to let things sort of roll off your shoulders or have a way to process through hard days and hard times. So not necessarily any specific practices other than taking care of my health, having close people that I can rely on when I need support. Those are things that I do in my daily life, but not anything specific like gratitude journaling at this point.
00:31:55
Speaker
Yeah. So kind of in the same vein, you've been podcasting for, what'd you say, five years and building a social media brand.
Social Media Boundaries and Meaningful Interactions
00:32:04
Speaker
How do what does your, your relationship with social media look like? How often are you on there to build your brand?
00:32:12
Speaker
You said you have an intern. How is that? I'm sure that's changed from pre-dent to now. What does that look like and how does that intentionality and protecting your energy work for you?
00:32:22
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, early on, of course, in just being a younger person, you're a lot more susceptible to input and opinions from others. And i definitely cared more about what other people thought of me based on what I posted online four years ago than I do now. I think also though, unfortunately, like it just comes with, well, like, look at me now. I have a few thousand followers, so I'm not so dumb now, am I? Like when you have a hundred followers, it's easy to quantitate that as like your worth as a content creator and someone trying to
00:32:59
Speaker
help people. So now I feel like I have, like I said, more years under my belt, more people in my community, more like street cred. So if someone says something, I'm just like, well, that's not true. Because at this point, I feel like I've like established myself a little bit. But back then, it was really hard. And I had a lot – I would hear like classmates like snickering about me in dental school and stuff and like making fun of me. But I didn't let that stop because like I get those messages from people at other schools or pretense telling me how much something I did help them. And that's one person, but that's a life changed, you know, and you don't need thousands and thousands, like 10,000 followers. Like I don't have a follower goal. I just genuinely want to help actual people. So in terms of consuming content versus creating and growing my brand, it's something I'm definitely working on the past few years. Like I don't need to be on social media watching random stuff, but I definitely do I'm a girl in my 20s of more taking in my ideas, being more creative, posting more, sharing more, engaging in messages, and then not consuming a bunch of other stuff that people are putting out.
00:34:08
Speaker
But I'm definitely not part perfect on that. So that's kind of something I'm actively working on. And I got one of those, if you've heard of them they're called bricks, but you can like lock your phone from social media apps. So I got that like a week ago. So it's something new I'm trying out to Be like, i'm going to sit there, do my post, and then lock it. And I'm not going to use it for the rest of the time I'm home because I need to be present with my husband and they my hobbies that I'm trying to do. Yeah. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Beyond Graduation.
00:34:35
Speaker
If you enjoyed this week's episode, be sure to share it with a friend. Connect with us on social media at Savannah Craig DBS and at Dr. Sartor.
00:34:47
Speaker
And remember, you are not alone on this journey. ADEC certified pre-owned equipment is a sustainable, affordable choice that makes genuine ADEC equipment available to every doctor. Each package is sold on a first-come, first-served basis. So if you see one you like, contact your dealer. For more information, go to www.adec.com backslash findadealer. Thank you for listening to Beyond Graduation brought to you by Ignite DDS and Future Dentists. This episode was sponsored by Ignite DDS Coaching.
00:35:18
Speaker
We build self-determined futures. For more information, please reach out to the Ignite DDS team.