Secure Dental_Eric Studley.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Secure Dental_Eric Studley.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Welcome to the Secure Dental Podcast. Through conversations with the brightest minds in the dental and business communities, we'll share practical tips you can use to scale your practice and create financial freedom for yourself and your family. My name is Dr. Noel Liu, CEO and Dentist at Secure Dental, and also co-founder of DentVia. I'm your host for the Secure Dental Podcast, and I'm so glad you're joining in.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Hey everyone, this is Dr. Noel Liu again on another episode of our Secure Dental Podcast where we bring in different individuals, leaders, and group people like from the dental industry, to come and share their knowledge and their expertise. Today we have a real treat. I have my mentor from NYU College of Dentistry, Dr. Eric Studley. Now, before we introduce him, there is, I want to take a few minutes just to go over who this man is. Most of the success that I had in my practice, it's because of him and for all the tips that he's been giving me when I was in dental school. So Dr. Studley has a long, diverse career in the dental profession and assists dental professionals daily with challenges of building successful careers. He owns an insurance firm which specializes in insurance needs of dentists and healthcare professionals. Adding to his unique understanding of what dentists need to know, he mentored dental students as a clinical associate Professor and group practice manager at NYU College of Dentistry for over 33 years. Dr. Studley shares his expertise in the areas of ethics, insurance planning, case acceptance and risk and practice management in his professional speaking engagements. He has consistently been the highest ranked disability producer in the United States with the Guardian Life Insurance Company, and was inducted into the Guardian Disability Circle of Excellence, which is the most prestigious honor awarded to a disability income specialist. So Dr. Studley retired from NYU College of Dentistry in 2018, where he served as a Director of Practice Management, where he developed and delivered a three year curriculum to guide dental students in developing practice management skills. Now Dr. Studley is also speaker for the American Dental Association Practice Management Program. He has established articles in many dental journals, and was a contributing author of a textbook called Dental Practice-Get In The Game. So without further ado, we just wanted to take this few minutes just to outline Dr. Studley, my mentor, my guy. Dr. Studley, the floor is yours. So let's get started.

Dr. Eric Studley:
Well, no thank you. And I always say after that I don't think I should say anything more and let's just end it at this point, because this is like now the pressure is on to take it from there. But thank you so much.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Thanks for coming in. So we like to get started.

Dr. Eric Studley:
It's on the flip side. Sure.

Dr. Noel Liu:
So go ahead. You were saying something about the flip side. Let's get started with that and then we'll take it.

Dr. Eric Studley:
I was going to say on the, right, on the flip side, it's so nice for me to see someone like you, as well as so many of my graduates who have really taken it. I always say we all get the opportunity. It's a matter of what do you do with it now.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Right. told me that years ago.

Dr. Eric Studley:
When you start and take this. Yeah.

Dr. Noel Liu:
So yeah. Dr. Studley here, how did you get started with New York University? I'm taking you back 33 years.

Dr. Eric Studley:
Well, I, right. 33 years and even further. So I graduated from NYU Dental School in 1985. In my senior year, I was already being groomed to come back right after graduation and start as a part-time faculty. And back then they, you were able to come in, when I was initially hired, like a day a week. It was an actual volunteer position; you weren't even paid for it. But number one, when I graduated, and this isn't like a commercial, but I knew that was just the beginning of learning. Like, I just, they gave me enough tools to now go out there and learn more. So I knew that I always wanted to be associated academically, but I also wanted to, because I'm one of the main reasons of going into dental school, at least in my generation of dentists, where we all wanted to own our own practices, we all wanted our own businesses. Now that somewhat has changed for the new dentist. But that really was our goal and I've always been a very independent person. So it was give me the chance, give me the opportunity, I'll make it work and then you'll want to, I'll prove myself and you want to give me more opportunities. And that was, first of all, entering dental school and then graduating from NYU. And from the day I graduated, started working, didn't do a residency then, was already married and already planning a family, and also had the most amount of NYU loans you could have back then. Okay, I used to say.

Dr. Noel Liu:
We don't want to hear the number now, right?

Dr. Eric Studley:
Right, right. No, because you would think that's nothing compared to. But you know, everything is relative. But I started working, I think I worked for 3 or 4 different dentists, working like 21 days a month without a day off. And I just felt that that was only going to be a temporary situation for me. So I just learned everything, any job that I took and whether independent of the type of practice, type of patients, everybody was always treated at the highest of level. And after working for different kind of groups of dentists after one year, I decided to go out on my own, and purchased an old declining practice in Brooklyn, New York, and, which was doing maybe two days a week when I purchased it, and within six months we turned that practice into a seven day, a week practice with over 100 new patients a month.

Dr. Noel Liu:
That was something interesting you said.

Dr. Eric Studley:
That was always the plan.

Dr. Noel Liu:
That was something, really something that caught my attention. You were like, after school, after graduation. You knew that it was just a beginning. Why was that? Because I see, like a lot of kids coming out of school now, they have the same thing where they have this urge, where they need a mentor. How important is that? And what was your thought process at that time? So, like, after finishing four years, why did you think that?

Dr. Eric Studley:
Well, especially because there was just so much that I could learn there. Everybody always complains in the dental schools there's a core procedure. And why do we have to do it this way? Learning the core procedure, and that's not just in dentistry, that's not just in health care, learning the core procedures of everything in finances, in the core procedures and contracting, like getting a grip of the core procedures that just gives you the groundwork to now take it to the next level. When I graduated dental school, 1985, I think we had maybe 1 or 2 lectures on implants, and it was pretty much, they fail. Like, that was pretty much here's your implant lectures. I remember we had maybe one lecture in regards to HIV, because that was just really in the forefront. But did we have all of this kind of infection control going on initially? We didn't even wear gloves at the beginning. So from the way I entered dental school and the way I finished dental school was a completely different practitioner. And that was just the beginning. I learned implants after I graduated. I learned veneers after I graduated. We learned the term Aesthetic Dentistry after we graduated. But being able to teach that one day a week and people say, Wow, you were just starting out, you still taught a day a week, you lost money you could have made introducing that day. No, in reality, if I didn't learn what I learned, then I wouldn't have been able to offer to the patients in my second year out, in my third year out, my fourth year out. Like, I was just constantly learning new stuff because I had to teach you. So before you learned, I had to learn. And when these things were just coming out, bonding agents, all these little tiny things that are just taken for granted now, they were not matter of fact and we didn't have the same materials. So are you going to be the dentist that still doing what he did when he graduated five years ago, ten years ago? I find those dentists that are holding on to so many of the old school principles, or like missing the way I was taught this the way, it was always done, this is the way it'll be is not necessarily giving, number one, their patients the optimum treatment, but themselves. And you'll find those dentists get very bored in dentistry. Like, you have to stay excited in anything you do in finance, in the insurance. I am constantly learning stuff and as soon as I learned these things, like the reason why I learned them is because I want to then be able to offer them to my clients. And here's a very important thing that I always would tell the students and young dentists first, starting out. When you're new at this job, there's so many things that you haven't seen yet, and there's so many things that because you haven't had experience with it yet, you don't know how to handle the situation yet. So it's okay to be aware of how good you are at some things and how good you are not at certain things, and you will know that you will reach a certain level of expertise, and maybe also putting the ego away a little bit to where when you were in dental school, you did a certain procedure; when you were in your residency, you did a certain procedure, you know. Now you're working in a practice and maybe you're the only dentist there some days. And maybe you want to think twice about doing that extraction, and maybe it might be better served sending the patient to the specialist for those procedures. And that's something that the general dentist, the young general dentist has to learn, especially when you're working as an associate. When you're working for other dentists, you have to be able to say if they give you a treatment plan and, Oh, can you go into room two and take out number one? And you're like, Sure. You go in and you're like, Oh my God, look at this. Partially impacted; really not great at extractions. I remember I think I told them that at the interview, but I don't want not do it. And then they won't keep me on. And you don't want to get into something that you can't take out completely. And I hear that, unfortunately, a lot with some young dentists, but also with some dentists that have been out a number of years and are doing certain procedures that they may do the procedure, but if something goes wrong, they really don't know how to take themselves out of that. And another lesson that I always taught, if we do this, you have to be able to take care of even if something goes a little off track, because it does, you need to be able to take care of that. And if you can't take care of that's like number one reason why you refer.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Don't do it. That's such a great point. Yeah, that's such a great point you just said because there are my associates right now too. And they love implants. We do tons of them, right? And everybody wants to get their hands wet with implants. And something, the minute something goes wrong, they're like, Oops! Hands washed. Okay, what do I do next? So I love that.

Dr. Eric Studley:
Right. Refer to the specialist.

Dr. Noel Liu:
I love the fact you mentioned that because if you cannot manage a complication just don't start it at that time. So when is a good time for these young grads or even dentists in a few years to start saying, Hey, maybe I want to give this a try, maybe I want to try that and I want to get better at it. What would you suggest? Like, taking more courses, getting more hands on experience, getting a mentor?

Dr. Noel Liu:
First of all, having a mentor. And it's funny, when you're a student in school, it's like the mentor to you just means the person you could go to that's friendlier, it's like the friendlier professor you choose based on those things; if they're approachable. And then you graduate, finish residency, and now you go work in practices, you can be in different states and you really don't know anybody, and you don't cultivate that mentor relationship. And at this point, I still have my mentors, I have my dental mentors, I have my financial mentors, and I have my advisory group of the guys that I can call that have been with me forever. And some of my most trusted advisors, my attorneys that I work with, accountants that that have been with me through my studly life, like, these are really true mentors that I can turn to, and they're not necessarily going to tell me what I want to hear. They're going to tell me what I need to be told. And it's not like a sign of weakness to have your mentor. To me, I think it's a kind of the sign of strength because it just says, Wow, look who I have behind me. And I'm quite fortunate to be whether you want to call me the mentor, the go-to guy, I get so many calls. And just in our financial company, we insure more than 7,000-8,000 dentists throughout the United States. And same thing when I practiced dentistry, the same thing. It's really no different. It's just: what's my product? So my product was dentistry then. Now my product here is finances. It's no different because the principles of all of that stuff is the same. I was used to when the students would apply for residency programs, and you get the pass applications and there's a questionnaire that you have to complete. And there was one of the questions on there about ethics. And it was a four choice answer. So it was an A, B, C and D. So either you were completely ethical, somewhat ethical, just ethical, or not ethical. And I was actually on the committee back then and I posed that it should really, I didn't agree that there were grades of ethics. It's either you are or you aren't. So they actually made it a two-question. It was just an A or B check. But then I also asked them to make it the first question of the evaluation so that if any of us should check off not ethical, there's no reason to complete the rest of the recommendation. It's like, move on. Because to me that is the number one barometer. And you know what? With the students, with my employees, with our sales people, mistakes, mistakes are a great thing that as long as you, number one, own up to it, it hasn't been detrimental. And you then figure out a way how this doesn't happen again. Companies, dental practices that aren't assisted might make a mistake, front desk might make a mistake, the associate, somebody might make a mistake and they bury it. They don't bring it up. And then it just gets worse. And it's the kind of thing that if you, there's a mistake that was made, number one, you work on fixing it. Number two, you bring it up at the, at our weekly meeting and it's like, all right, so what went wrong this past week? But what systems did we put in so that this doesn't happen again? So that patient doesn't fall through the cracks that the lab workers followed-up better, like, if so-and-so is out sick that week. It's okay when these things happen. It's not okay when you don't put the systems in. And we're in, our financial firm has been in business now over 28 years and, oh my God, the way we did things at the beginning and the way we do things now is so different, so different. And it's just morphed that way. And your employees are not afraid to bring something up.

Dr. Noel Liu:
And you encourage that, right, in your own business right now with the employees bringing it up?

Dr. Noel Liu:
Oh, totally. We don't encourage, we don't encourage mistakes.

Dr. Noel Liu:
No. No. So when something happens. And I got a follow-up question with that as well.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Let's bring it up.

Dr. Noel Liu:
What's more terrible? Like, sweeping it under the rug or blaming somebody else?

Dr. Eric Studley:
I think, I don't know if we could even choose one over the other. Sweeping it under the rug is completely horrendous and wrong. And blaming somebody else is also, and that's a great scapegoat kind of thing. And I think maybe when we were little kids, you know, we look to blame somebody else because we didn't want to get punished or something like that. So I know my older brother used, and my younger brother used to blame me because I was the middle one. But I think you, like back again, you know, in dental school, they're, one of the things that when you were in school, you didn't have this formally, but the students much later on had a whole self assessment of their four years; that it was a four-year project kind of thing. But I think that, I was taught to self assess from pre-clinic on, or even when I was doing something at the house, I was cutting the lawn. It's like, Oh, how come the lawn was not growing here? Like, you're self assessed. If you really want to do things right, you self assess. And I think that is one of the most important things that we need to do. We do a procedure or you do something in the house. You do something with your family. We should always say, Could I have done that better and what could I have done better? The blame is just another way of sweeping it under the rug.

Dr. Noel Liu:
But I think, but I think that it's, a lot of times it has to do with people's own code of ethics in order to self assess them in a true way, because I see it as: if you are not ethical or you are always blaming somebody or you're a victim in every single situation, your self-assessment could be drastically different than someone who's holding themselves accountable every single day. And what you just mentioned that that ethics are non-ethical or non-ethical, I think that's great with just two choices; can't be having four. So in your thing here, you came out of college, you went to school, you did your school, you graduated, you got your own practice. Now, I know that you own your insurance firm. After how long in practice, and what made you decide to go into insurance, and what was the reason behind that? Because I know that a lot of times you love people. Your charisma is like A+ stellar all the time, and which is why everybody got attracted to your clinic group, including myself, right? So with the insurance saying, how did this all come about?

Dr. Eric Studley:
Things happen sometimes when you least expect. And after practicing a little more than ten years, I started having problems with my hands.

Dr. Noel Liu:
So ten years you were in practice.

Dr. Eric Studley:
Dropping instruments. I was in practice for about ten years, and I started having problems with my hands, fingers, arms and running a very successful practice; I was actually going into my second location. I'd already, I had negotiated the space. So I was already onto the next the next project because I had a solid staff where I was, I had someone that I was bringing in as a I was elevating to partnership level, an associate who was with me for years, also a former graduate as well, which was great. He was from the neighborhood and it worked out perfect for everybody. And I started having to change the way I was doing my delivery system. I always worked true four-handed. Like, it was beautiful, it was a symphony, and it was just so efficient with the patients as well. It really was great and I could work multiple rooms and it really was really nice. But I had to stop doing that and I started doing a rear delivery because in case I dropped an instrument, things like that. So over the course of a year, I went to see a number of different doctors, specialists, and I had to have bilateral carpal tunnel surgery done as well as bilateral media nerve surgery. So just to tell you how much of a workaholic. After the year I did, I had to have the surgery, I did both arms at the same time. Simply because I can then go through three months of rehabilitation PT and then hopefully one time and then go back to work as opposed to do one arm, next arm, that kind of thing. Unfortunately, that just started a whole cavalcade of additional surgeries, and after two-or-some-odd years of going to a bunch of surgeries and I was in and out of the office, you know, I had associates working for me, it wasn't me. And like you said, like the patients, you really develop a relationship with them. And I knew everything about all my patients. I knew, their children were my patients, their parents were my patients. And I had that kind of practice. And it was like everybody wanted me to treat their family. We never asked for referrals. Marketing back then.

Dr. Noel Liu:
It was automatic. So when you were going through all this series of surgeries, what was going through your mind at that time and you couldn't see all these patients?

Dr. Eric Studley:
I was, I will tell you, in a major depression, as far as that, 'cause here was something that I built that took me like my dream from when I was in, like I looked at my junior high school autograph book and even in there where it says, what do you want to be? And I already said, Doctor or Dentist, like that was, I was going into something like that. And took me a long time to get to dental school, because I applied to NYU for two years and didn't get accepted. So I left the country and I went to dental school in Guadalajara, Mexico for two years. Then I got accepted to NYU, but I had to start all over. So I had to do those two years; they didn't accept. So I had to do another four. It was a long road for me, but I got there. And also at this point I'm married, I have two children. So to take it lightly and say that I wasn't freaking out; I really was! And I was working and we were saving. But now what, ten years, and with NYU loans? Like, that's what, you know, I had my loans down to a couple of years left, but I was still pounding those loans off, putting money into retirement, saving money for the kids' college. We had a mortgage at that point. And I was really not looking at the greatest of future. And I had a disability policy, which unfortunately didn't come through for me. And so I actually was still teaching, but, and even, I even, at that point, I was made assistant professor in three days a week. But teaching is passion and love, and education, at least at NYU. It's, you're not there for the money. If you go to teach for the money, don't teach. But what you get rewarded, like me, being able to sit in front of you and talk to you, that's like I have been so ridiculously rewarded. It's like a parent. When you see your child doing well, you are rewarded. You've been, you've succeeded as a parent. Your child is self, they're on their own.

Dr. Noel Liu:
I think that's probably like your number one superpower when you were in school, when you were at school, when you were the director, because everybody got attracted to you. So it was like, you were doing it with passion so people could see through that. That's easy. Anybody there for just for credentials or just to get their resume higher? We could tell through those kind of people. So that was a no brainer for you. So is that the time when you said, Hey, this is the time I will go ahead and start looking into insurance, opening up my firm?

Dr. Eric Studley:
Yes, it was because I knew, number one, I needed to eventually work for myself again. That just that independence is very important to me. In my family, where my parents were the first ones born here, they, nobody really owned their own business. Like, they all worked for people. And they worked very hard. And let me tell you, they did unbelievable. Considering what the levels of education and where they started and where they came from, they did ridiculously well. But my brothers and I, we also knew that our ticket out was education and that really was the propulsion. Also running my own practice. It's like, I got to do the dentistry that I wanted. I got to treat the staff the way I wanted. Like, this is what I always dreamed of doing. So when that kind of was unfortunately not available to me any longer, if somebody had mentioned even a mentor, You're a nice guy, you're smart, you should go into finances. And I was like, Yeah, it's not really me. I didn't have a good experience with insurance company. And they're like, Well, maybe you could be different. And I went back to school. Then I worked for three different companies for three years. It's the same way when I worked for dentists. I learned all the business part of it as well, and as well as gaining knowledge. And after the three years, I opened a corporation and I started it from my car; that was my office. I had a desk in my front seat, had a cell phone, and I was teaching like three days a week. And then I was running around the country the other seven days a week, days, nights. Back then, I was doing 70-plus hours a week because I never wanted to give up teaching because that was, that really fueled me. It was, it's such a passion. That's all I could say. It's one of those things and know, like when you're hiring associates or employees. You can teach people how to do your systems. You can. You could send your dentist to see courses. They'll be great learning procedures. But you, I always say, I can't teach compassion. And then there were just students that things would happen. And afterwards, after we fixed everything and I'd bring them in, it was like, so tell me, How do you feel like? And he's, Oh, glad you were able to take care of it. And he was like, But what about yourself? Didn't you feel bad for the patient initially? You should have went there.

Dr. Noel Liu:
You were trying to instill that in them, right?

Dr. Eric Studley:
Yeah. Because you know what? That especially now where everybody is used to, let's say, a lack of personal customer service, okay? And whether you're in the dental industry, the hospitality industry, the finance industry, we are all in the hospitality industry because we all deal with people. So if you're going to deal with people, you have to deal with them how you decide. But if you ask me, why have I stayed with the people that I've been with for 20, 30, 40 years, people that handle all of our services, let's say, and or, they'll even, my accountant, for example. When they'll say, Oh, can you refer me an accountant? And I was like, Sure, I can find. I've been using them for 40 years. I think that's a great referral. Then they'll ask, What do they charge? And I was like, I don't know. But I call all the office calls. Boom. They're on top of it. I get a piece of paper in the mail that has initials that say IRS on it or something. I just scan it over and it's, Oh, yeah. No, we already took care of this. This was your 941, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever. All right, thank you. And then when I get the bill, it's just paid. It really is. It's, you, if you just go above and beyond and what you get impressed with customer service, that's all you want. And you can do all the marketing in the world, if people, I always say, When they first come into your office, seven seconds for them to decide with, right? If the waiting room is dirty, first of all, you're done. The bathroom is dirty? You are really done. And the front desk, if the front desk, like they're talking to each other or you see their cell phone is like under the underhang and I'm standing there trying to check in and I kind of, Hello? And I should be greeted and not because, and you don't know me. You do know me. I'm a patient and I'm going to help pay your bills. It's like, and you have a greater chance of getting more people from me. I did a discussion last week and it was a part of the discussion went to should the dental practices be taking in insurance and certain plans that don't pay as? Oh, it's a huge topic. And my opinion, if you have all of your buckets filled and all your columns are filled and your goals that you're planning for the next few months, they're already already turning and working? Okay, great. But, I was always of the, and even when I started insurance and when I started insurance, my market was dental residents. And back then dental residents, even though they're still not making a ton, they were making a quarter of what they make now. And yet I'm selling them disability policies to start and making $20-$30 commissions on these things monthly. But every new dentist that I that became my client sent me like four of their friends.

Dr. Noel Liu:
What was that secret formula? It was that relationship. That's how I see it.

Dr. Eric Studley:
100% right. It was all about relationship. And that's really how I have built the finance. And when I consult on dental practices, I give the same kinds of things, whether it's a dental practice, a financial practice, a veterinary practice, it really it's, it's so unimportant. Because the same principles, it's the same principles. And patient first, customer first. And that's one of the things that you want as a dentist. And that goes back to even know you have associates work for you. You have your hygienist. You have your front desk. When people say, How do you get your most referrals? It's from the people that are working for you. All right? If that team doesn't think that you, like, everybody has to come to you, then you are not doing something right. My office manager, she would come in on Monday and she's like, Call this person, they need life insurance. And I was like, Oh, who's this? She goes, she's my manicurist. And I heard them talking about insurance. And I mentioned, Oh, you got to go to my boss. And when I go to their houses, their family parties, because we've all been together 20-25 years, I know them, I know their children when they were little kids in the office. And when they'll introduce me and their mother or their neighbor will say, That's you, I want to work for you. And what better compliment than that?

Dr. Noel Liu:
So with practice management, this is I know that's part of your component in your core operations that you're doing now. And I'm sure you talk a lot about relationships, right? So that is another aspect that we are transitioning to because for us it's all about like how do we provide the best service to our patients. And what I did was we ventured out into another company of ours, which is called DentVia, which we do the virtual admin, the back-end work just to, again, to help out the front desk, to help out my front desk, because that's, that came out of a need. And when we were seeing like shortages, we were seeing these guys were overworked, picking up phones, trying to do the breakdowns, trying to call the insurances. So I had the same mindset and I was like, This is ridiculous because our patient was not getting the care that they needed and they were getting ignored. And like you were saying, you know, like patient walk in, Hello, are you there? And they were busy on the phone. And I was like, If you really want to take somebody off, just ignore them. And that is the kind of service we were doing, like, at that time, and it really hit rock bottom for me. And I was like, This is something which we definitely need to look into. And I completely understand, like where your whole thing is coming from. I want to dive a little bit into your practice management. So you also consult with that portion. What are some of the key takeaways that you tell like a practice that is like they're at a plateau, they cannot grow, they're doing well but they need to go to the next level? How, I know it's, I understand everything is on a case-by-case basis, but what are some of the key takeaways that you would look at a practice and you would be like, I got all these three areas where you probably need to look at? Something like an insight.

Dr. Eric Studley:
I was just talking to a client earlier this morning, and she's actually taking on a practice that is much larger than she really wants to, but it's an excellent opportunity: location, cost, she's been an associate there for two years. Like, it, which is always like the best formula. You're buying a practice that you were the associate at that the retention is going to be close to 100% because you're not a stranger coming in. But one of the things, and I think I mentioned it even earlier in a different context, and I'll use myself as an example because it's not any different. I always say, Look at, you don't always have to look at dental to say, All right, so this is what the dental world is doing. So I'm going to do this. I always looked at what is everybody not doing and I want to do that. All right? Or, What is a company like Google doing? And what could Studley and Associates do that will make my office feel like the Google employees, because they get dining and all the, like all of these things. And sometimes you get a little stale with the staff because they've been there forever, it's like a relationship, which I've always been here. I haven't done anything new, I haven't kicked anything off, I haven't done it. I don't remember the last time I took them to a CME course. I don't remember when we did an off-site kind of fun thing with the office. So before you start looking to the outside, start looking in and say, All right, what could I do right here with whom I have because and especially now staffing? Biggest headache. And I don't remember the exact numbers, but if a staff member leaves you, the amount of money it costs you, not just hiring that other person, but number one, the lost of productivity that's going to go on, the loss of productivity while you have to train somebody. Okay. And how long months when we can't afford to do that. So it's like, What can you do to keep everybody with you and doing everything that's not done? So just as some examples that I had mentioned, some off-site kind of fun things that you can do with the staff. We, when I started seeing my staff, they really never broke for lunch. And so what did we start doing? I would tell the office manager, Place an order every day. And we order a different place, it's not fancy, whatever, but it's like they appreciate it. Of course. Lunch order and that's done. I got into yoga years ago. So I got my yoga teacher to now go into my office, and every Wednesday at 12:00, and even if you weren't working that day, people came in, 15 yoga mats go out, and if you can't do floor, you're doing chair yoga. And they'd have yoga, I would have, we'd have really good months, right? So on a Friday, once I had Domino's Pizza delivered to everybody's house. Two pizza pies, right? It's, and how many people do that, Noel?

Dr. Noel Liu:
You know, I'm taking notes. I'm taking notes, right?

Dr. Eric Studley:
But really, and these aren't expensive things.

Dr. Noel Liu:
No, I love it, I love it.

Dr. Eric Studley:
But I find so many dentists will spend money to get their clicks, to get, and I'm getting people, I have a lot of friends who use Zocdoc or, and you know what? People are making appointments on those and then they cancel it under 24 hours and Zocdoc still charges you. So people are, they're shopping for availability, not for personality, for competency. They're like, Oh, this guy has a 1:00. Good, I'll take him. I'm going to cancel the 2:00. But let me first see if the 1:00 can take me, and then I'll still hold that. And then you end up paying for that. So getting your office involved in this. All right? Because at the end of the year when Dr. Studley does better financially, guess what? Every single employee does so as well. So it's not just I put in 48 hours this week. I got paid for 40. Okay. But at the end of the year when you see wow, look at what I have in my retirement plan. Look what I have for this. Like, all those things. Their kids, some need work. We always have work. And it was like, Great, let this one do that. Pay them minimum wage. But I keep it in the family. It's like, Wow, you just helped my daughter make money towards college. Like, that's, that made it easier for me. Like, I don't have to save as much right now. Like, she has a couple of dollars from working for you all summer. You know, part of the family.

Dr. Noel Liu:
It brings up an important point where I was thinking about when you said that, it just hit my head, like we always focus on what we don't have. And that's where you're talking about the external marketing, and we're talking about all those people who we never saw them, but we are always ignoring who we have. And I love what you just said.

Dr. Eric Studley:
And the strongest, and it's funny, like I learned this also and I don't know why. Like, I had to learn this in the financial industry. It's always asked for referrals. As dentists we've always hid behind like, Hey Doc, we love you. And I was like, Love me? Send me all your friends. Like, we felt shy about that.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Why do you think it's that? Is it an ego? Is it a DDS in front of it?

Dr. Eric Studley:
I think it's an ego. I think it's an ego. I think, and why you get more comfortable maybe in other forms of business, like finances. Because you know what? I did your insurance. That's great. Now you feel good. I took care of you. Great. We're all good. All right? But it's not like you walk out and you're like, Oh my God, I feel so much better after getting that insurance. It's like, but if you walked out after you came in pain and you walked out and you weren't in pain anymore, like right away, it's like you got to go to this Studley guy. He's just unbelievable. So we always felt we didn't have to ask for referrals, but I did because I guess also being brought up in Brooklyn. You're not shy. You're not afraid to talk. And when my patients would say how much they love me, and I was like, One of the ways you could show your love. And they're like, A hug? I was like, That's okay, but how about sending me your friends, your family? And they're like, Doc, you're already treating my aunt, uncle. I was like, All right, so where's your grandmother? Because once people start to refer, they let you into the club.

Dr. Noel Liu:
That's such a great point.

Dr. Eric Studley:
When I refer anybody, if I referred you to an accountant, to this advisor, you would be like, All right, that's a good referral because, and the referrals that I get from you guys are the referrals that I want. Because what are the referrals? So the referrals that you get from those patients that these are your best patients, even though I consider every patient a best patient. It's like, I want more like Mary. Like, we need patients like that. We present treatment plans, she understands, her husband we treat. And it's just such a pleasure to treat her. She's so appreciative, actually comes 15 minutes early for the appointment, understands my fees and like appreciates the cost. And that's where you want to really tap into those people. And another thing that I have found that doesn't go on in the dental industry, but in the financial world and all others, how often do you contact with your patients? Once every six months? It's a week? Or once a year, maybe? Then maybe if they don't show now you have the list of those, and then you have the other person calling them to get them back in. How come we don't connect with our patients on a monthly basis? All right? I send out a newsletter. I send out not all educational stuff. This isn't scheduled yet to come. My patient become my client. No. This is I'm sending out something on mortgages and interest rates and I'll get people is like, Wow, I didn't even know that. And I was like, I know. And I actually had this written, so I understand it. It's not written like one of these financial things that are also above your head, and it only takes 3 or 4 topics. Period. So it's a ten-minute read. But how many people then refer that and then they become our clients? So as a dentist, you should be putting out an article every month; either have your own newsletter or you can go to the ADA. They have all these services. They'll give you ADA-approved material. And you also have to, when you send that, you have a send to a friend, you have to have that built in there. I'm telling you, because people then just have to push a button, through their friend's name and do it. Because they have found that when you do that with invitations and stuff too, people are more likely to send. Because now it's just a call-to-action button.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Man, you give away so many good tips.

Dr. Eric Studley:
I'm glad. I love this. Next time we should prepare what we're going to talk about.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Oh, definitely. Definitely. I think we touched base on so many different topics and it was so much more, I'll call them gold nuggets. You were just dropping a lot of gold nuggets. One question for you. What is the future of dentistry and what is a future of Eric Studley?

Dr. Eric Studley:
Oh wow. Okay. The future of dentistry is probably easier for me, which you would think would be more difficult. The way the market of dentistry is, this is not something new to our landscape. It's not. When I graduated in '85, I worked for three franchises. One was Times Square Store Dental, one was Dental World, and what was the other? I don't even remember. Oh, Greenacres Dental. These were all franchises. And everybody was saying, Oh my God, they're going to take over everything. There's going to be no room, no space for us. And I have always felt we follow the physicians. We do. So now all the medical groups try to find a private doctor that's not associated with one of the big companies. Very difficult. Dentistry is a little bit different than medicine, because dentistry is still at least a 50% where the population gets to choose because there's just, they're just not covered for it. Where medicine more or less, hopefully at least more than used to, everybody has some type of medical coverage of some sort, even for an emergency or worst case. And hopefully, we eventually have, every single person has coverage, but we always lag behind. So will there only be DSOs now? Definitely not. Definitely not, because you will still have your patient base that still understands a value. I will tell you, my dentist, you know, is he's one of those, once again, if you have to ask how much, then you can't, you shouldn't go. You ask my dentist, Can this be done? And he says, Yes. And they can do it. And you know what you say at the end? Thank you. Do you know what I mean? And I'm like, maybe I'm a little more educated with the cost of dentistry. I went to a lot of dentistry, classmate of mine, but, and whatever he had to do and he never discussed dollars or anything like that. It was just, this is what's going to be done, take about this is the phases. Everything mapped out beautiful. And then I would go up to the front desk to schedule my next appointment. And then it would be like, she'd say, All right, so it's going to be X amount. And it's like, Okay, do you want to put something down? Do you want to pay for the whole thing? And I always paid up front because I just so appreciated what they were doing for me. And I also had the total trust that because sometimes and you then have to question yourself. If a patient doesn't pay you up front, or you really have to drag the money out of them and affects the patient, the relationship, maybe it wasn't explained well enough to the patient that they really, truly have to understand that this is what it is. It's not like medicine where you go in, you pay your $15, the doctor gets paid his $12, whatever he's getting paid. And you may not have to co-pay for that because they're in network, and you may have your in-network patients and that's they're phenomenal and they should be treated no different. And they should also be given the options of doing anything that out of network that you can do. So if implants aren't covered, you still present that. I've always presented to every patient, to every client as if they were multimillionaires. You got to let them know what can be. And when you build that kind of trust, because we've had this and where even the assistants or back at school, the students, I can't believe that they're going to. It's like, they understand the value. You see how miserable they are with what they've been going through, with what's in their mouth. Like, they've made this commitment and they will do this because how many times have you seen a patient and then disappear and then two years later comes in and then says, You know what, Doc? Now let's do it. This financially. A lot of people in the way I was also raised: if you can't pay for it up front, you don't buy it.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Many people have that mentality.

Dr. Eric Studley:
You have patience. They're not going to use a credit card. My parents didn't have a credit card until I got them their first one.

Dr. Noel Liu:
One of the things that I learned from you while I was in school was: in the absence of value, price always becomes an objection. If you, and I feel like if a dentist or a dental office, they're not able to convey that value to that patient what they're getting, of course, even if it's 20 bucks, it's going to be an objection.

Dr. Eric Studley:
Oh, completely. But what you also as the practitioner, you also have to do, you can't do: I'd like $20 worth of jelly beans. You can't do dentistry like that. Those cases always fail. If you needed to do three implants, but the patient can only pay two, so you're going to try to make the case work on two: it's going to fail. And the patient will not remember. Or when you said, Look it needed three implants, but you said you really can only swing two. Can I do it with two and cantilever and everything? Yeah, I could. Well, then Doc, let's do. Oh, thank you. You're the best, Doc. And once this fails, you're not the best Doc anymore. And that's where you have to, and this is not an ego thing. This is you go to a cardiologist, the surgeon, the heart surgeon, and they say, Unfortunately, you need to have a quadruple bypass, you know, and say you think you can get away with just doing three valves? It's like, no, you still won't live if we do three. Like, we don't make a deal.

Dr. Noel Liu:
I love the analogy.

Dr. Eric Studley:
But it really is. And that's how, and it's not being a hard-nosed with the patient, but it's saying to them, In order for this case to be successful, this is what I have to do. And in the interim, we can do something as a temporary measure because I need to hold the space and the occlusion so we can do something removable right now. And while you're saving to really do this properly. We'll do this. And let me tell you, if the patient doesn't come back, that's okay because that's doomed for failure.

Dr. Noel Liu:
I feel you just did them a favor.

Dr. Eric Studley:
Yeah. And there's enough parameters when you're working in somebody's mouth that can go wrong, that we really need to control the parts we can.

Dr. Noel Liu:
And that's from experience.

Dr. Eric Studley:
Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Noel Liu:
So, Dr. Studley, your last question. What is your future? What are you doing right now and what's coming ahead for you?

Dr. Eric Studley:
Well, fortunately, as I mentioned, when we were talking off-screen, a few months ago, we merged our company and now partnered with another financial firm, which includes my entire staff. Because whenever you tell people that you're partnered, it's like, Oh, so when are you leaving? When are you going? So I have no plans for me to go anywhere. If anything, this is reinvigorated me, because now I have so many more resources at our fingertips. It was also quite important to me that in doing this move, that I didn't just think about myself, my entire company. And it's all my employees from start to finish. Everybody is, we're all the same. And our clients, like I always mention, bringing in the specialists, will have access now to a greater host of financial products, wealth accumulation assets. And my partners are, first of all, phenomenal in their space. I've been working with them, subcontracting for more than 20 years. And Studley has no plans to go anywhere. Where we're a virtual company, at least I am, and 7 or 8 of my employees all virtual.

Dr. Noel Liu:
What's the name of the company?

Dr. Eric Studley:
It's a northeast private client. NPCG. And my company is Eric Studley and Associates, Incorporated.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Nice.

Dr. Eric Studley:
So you could find us all together.

Dr. Noel Liu:
And anybody can just Google?

Dr. Eric Studley:
Yeah, they can go to our website: www.DrEricStudley.com.

Dr. Noel Liu:
We'll have the link below.

Dr. Eric Studley:
Email us, email us at Insurance@DrEricStudley.com.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Awesome, great. Well, Dr. Studley, we're going to land the plane. It was a great honor and a pleasure seriously to know. I think I got a little bit more insight about you today than I was when I was in dental school.

Dr. Eric Studley:
That's what nice about keeping a relationship.

Dr. Noel Liu:
The one thing that I really cherish, and I really appreciate now that I'm so grateful for, is elevating my mindset throughout the years so I can connect with you on your frequency now and understand what you're going, what you're thinking. Because if you would have asked me, if you'd have told me all this stuff, like when I was in dental school, I don't think I could have related to you at that time.

Dr. Eric Studley:
Right. No, you got to get in it.

Dr. Noel Liu:
And I truly appreciate that. Your time, your efforts, everything that you've been doing. I love it. Everyone, this is Dr. Noel Liu. I'll be checking out. Make sure to like and subscribe. We will be coming up with more episodes. And again, thanks a lot, Dr. Studley.

Dr. Eric Studley:
Thanks, Noel. Thank you all.

Dr. Noel Liu:
Thanks for tuning in to the Secure Dental Podcast. We hope you found today's podcast inspiring and useful to your practice and financial growth. For show notes, resources, and ways to stay engaged with us, visit us at NoelLiuDDS.com. That's N O E L L I U D D S.com.

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