Episode 172 – The Secret to Building a Dental Practice Legacy

“I want to leave behind something positive. It’s my job to take the days I have and improve the lives of those around me.”

-Dr. Rebekah Browder

When you look back at your life, what do you want people to say about you? 

So many dentists go into the industry wanting to make a difference, wanting to help people.

Then the day-to-day stress and reality of running a business sets in. And it can wear you down. The sad truth is so many doctors lose their passion, lose their focus, lose what brought them into dentistry in the first place.

Which is why we are so pleased to have today’s guest, Dr. Rebekah Brower, joining us. Dr. Rebekah is crafting a legacy-grade dental practice and  “pushing the envelope of what excellence is.” 

We invite you to join us today as we sit down with Dr. Rebekah for a powerful conversation about living your passion and leaving a lasting legacy, including:

• Finding your passion and turning it into a force for good
• How to channel your passion into a viable, sustainable business
• The impact doing good has on your team and practice

Never miss an episode! Subscribe on iTunes & Spotify. Visit us at http://www.everydaypracticespodcast.com

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Regan 0:00
Hi, Dr. Regan, Robertson, CCO productive dentist Academy here and I have a question for you. Are you finding it hard to get your team aligned to your vision, but you know, you deserve growth just like everybody else. That’s why we’ve created the PDA productivity workshop. For nearly 20 years PDA workshops have helped dentists just like you align their teams, get control of scheduling, and create productive practices that they love walking into every day. Just imagine how you will feel when you know your schedule is productive, your systems are humming, and your team is aligned to your vision. It’s simple, but it’s not necessarily easy. We can help. The demand for these workshops is so high that our March 2023 workshop is completely sold out. But there are still seats available for the only remaining workshop in September 2023. Visit productive dentists.com/workshop that’s productive dentist.com/workshop to secure your seats. Now.

Dr. Rebekah Browder 0:57
It’s not just about being a green practice. It’s about you know, kind of looking at everything. Are you making an improvement in the lives of your patients and the lives of your co workers in your community, local and worldwide and in the environment? Or you’re just kind of being a force for good doing something that’s, you know, not only profitable, but beneficial.

Regan 1:22
Welcome to the everyday practices Podcast. I’m Regan Robertson, and my co host Dr. Chad Johnson and I are on a mission to share the stories of everyday dentists who generate extraordinary results using practical proven methods you can take right into your own dental practice. If you’re ready to elevate patient care and produce results that are anything but ordinary. Buckle up and listen in.

Regan 1:54
Welcome to another episode of everyday practices dental podcast. I am your host, Regan Robertson, joined by my faithful co host Dr. Chad Johnson. Chad, how’re you doing today?

Dr. Chad Johnson 2:04
Good faithful as long as I’m here. I’ve left you high and dry in the last couple of months a couple of times. So my apologies. But today I’m here and today. We’re also here with special guests Rebecca Browder. Rebecca, how you doing, Doc?

Dr. Rebekah Browder 2:19
I’m doing fantastic. Very wonderful yourself.

Dr. Chad Johnson 2:23
I’m doing well, too. Yes, thank you. Well, Dr. Rebecca and I met at the February workshop. And Reagan, have you done any work you know with Dr. Browder yet or you know, like, interacted with her in person?

Regan 2:38
I have not, but I do understand that we probably will be getting to work together in the very near future. So I’m excited. I’ve done some website crawling. I’ve taken a look and tried to virtually get to know Dr. Browder. That’s right. Yeah. So today, I’m really excited for this conversation for our listeners, Rebecca, because we are gathering together to talk about legacy and doing good in the world. Two topics that are I think, if you’re in healthcare in general, those two are very important things. But for you even even more so I think than others. So I’m wondering, Rebecca, you are a dentist practicing out of Connecticut. Is that right? Correct. Yes. Talk to me about legacy and what is legacy? What does that mean to you? What does that word mean to you?

Dr. Rebekah Browder 3:30
Um, I think legacy is, is a lot is a big word. For me, it just, I simplified, I dumb it down, it just means leaving behind some sort of positive energy. So you know, it might not be tangible to everybody, it might not be lingering. But I have come and I have left, you know, a little lingering positivity behind me.

Regan 3:53
That’s really that feels that feels good. You know, what does it mean to to kind of let’s talk about your positivity element of that and leaving that why is it important for you to be leaving a positive impact on others?

Dr. Rebekah Browder 4:07
So for me, I think it’s just really, really I think it dates back to when I was in college, and Chad’s heard this before, but um, when I was in college, I went to NYU, and it was during 911. And so that was a big part of my formative years, just being there for that. And it affected everybody, obviously, worldwide, and in different ways. And I continue to live down in the southern tip of Manhattan in the financial district. So through the cleanup process through the building of the memorial, it was always just part of my life and would affect me in different ways. And one of the things that I found kind of long term was that, as I would cross through the memorial, just to do something as simple as grocery shopping, I would always walk by the names of all of the people that had passed. weigh in at the World Trade Centers. And a lot of there are 11 different women. But there are someone’s names where it says so and so and their unborn child. And at the time I was trying to get pregnant, and it just went all the way to my soul. And so it was something that I thought like, you know, what, enough is enough, I can’t just sit around with a mediocre life, I have this gift I have days, as simple as that I have days I have time, I have something to do. So every day for me, just transformed into a gift. And I all of a sudden became this super idealistic striving for not perfection, but just improvement and fulfillment. And so on a daily basis, you know, I was working in advertising didn’t like it. So I had an epiphany and went to dental school, and you know, everything that I do has to be just no compromise, to a certain degree, like, I’m realistic, you know, I’m not a perfectionist. But if somebody says, No, this is as good as it’s gonna get, I don’t, I don’t take that that’s not good enough for me. And for every day that I’m here, it’s my job, I feel to take this time that I’ve had and somehow live it up for everybody that can’t, and then improve the lives of everybody that’s around me. So my job every day is to each person I need just in some tiny little way, even if it’s just a smile, or holding the door open, or just a thank you, when you know, they do something for me try to make it a little bit better for everybody. And it makes me feel good. So you know, that’s, it’s, it’s totally selfish in nature, you know, gives me a really deep sense of fulfillment and happiness. And that’s, that’s, I guess why I do it, which is selfish. I

Dr. Chad Johnson 6:51
guess, there was a lot there, I want to back up, you said epiphany. I think that’s a good spot. Because I think of that being like the pinnacle, or the rooftop peak or something like that, where it’s like, wait a second, it’s good to teeter there. And not take for granted that I understand what you meant. So when you said that you noticed that you wanted excellence, and that you wanted to push yourself to strive to better. And then you had an epiphany and then dental school. It’s like, wait a second, what, what was the epiphany?

Dr. Rebekah Browder 7:25
Yeah, well, I just, I was, as I said, I was working in advertising. And so I was putting in some pretty hefty hours and a lot of time away from my family and not a lot of personal time. And I was just feeling toxic. And I thought I have to make a change, I need something that is going to be good for me good for the world, something that’s going to matter and make my days matter. And I had a gotten engaged and I was going to be leaving my job and transferring back to Manhattan. And so I was using on my my insurance, my health insurance. So I was going down the list, doing the doctor thing doing the optometrist and doing the dentist and so I went into a dental appointment. And something about that particular day, my struck me and I had this oh, well, we were working together because I’d always had a background in science and really love science, but never thought about dentistry, despite the extreme amount of time I spent in the dentist chair as a kid. And I just looked up at this guy who was probably about my age and had clearly been out the night before and was not in great shape. And you know, just seemed to be kind of coasting along, and I thought I could do that. I could do better. Yeah, I could do that. Yeah, you know, he’s just chillin, I could do that. I could do it better. And so I called my husband, fiance at the time when I left. And I said, I’ve had an epiphany to which he replied is common, like, Oh, God, what is it? You know? And so I said, I think I’m gonna go into healthcare. I think I’m gonna go and become a dentist. And so then I did I quit my job. I think the next week I applied for Postback and went back to close back two months later, and then luckily, after Postback and four years of dental school on a residency, I really love it. So I’m happy with the decision. Wow,

Regan 9:11
you’ve got this competitive achiever? Drive home.

Dr. Rebekah Browder 9:15
Yeah, so I’m the youngest of four kids. I have three older brothers who are very, very, very they’re always protecting me. She can’t go to New York. She can’t do this. She can’t and not that they don’t have confidence in me, but they’re very protective. And so are you. Sorry, I am the baby. Yes. So

Unknown Speaker 9:33
yeah. Yeah,

Regan 9:35
I can picture it with the dimple so listeners you can’t you can’t see Rebecca she is I wouldn’t say she’s adorable professional. She is a hardcore professional. But I see the dimple and I can just picture three older brothers being around you and surrounding her being like you know, protective in nature for sure.

Dr. Rebekah Browder 9:49
Very much so yeah, so I definitely the moment somebody says you can’t is when my inner nature kicks sentence and watch me. So I like

Dr. Chad Johnson 9:59
you can’t Send me $100,000 as a gift.

Dr. Rebekah Browder 10:02
Ah, yeah. You found it. It was out there somewhere.

Regan 10:12
You know, I find, you know, in working with, I should say being surrounded with fellow competitive achievers, and I love the rebel spirit and drive in that I can definitely personally relate to that. Oh, you say that I can’t Well, let me show you that I can we get to a point, especially as leaders where we can’t do everything we can, it really is impossible to be an A plus, with everything. And as a dentist, you wear multiple hats. So you get to be the clinician, and you get to be a business owner. Was there anything that surprised you? You know, in getting the degree becoming a dentist that surprised you about going into business ownership?

Dr. Rebekah Browder 10:52
Everything. Okay. But I think one of the things that I had to come to grips with was that I am not a great multitasker. And that’s okay. Because I think you know, we are in this day and age constantly feeling like we have to be doing six things at once. We’ve got to be, you know, on social media, we’ve got to be tending to our patients, we’ve got to be growing our business, we’ve got to be doing our finances, we have to be tending to our children, all of these things. And we have to be doing it all at the same time. And I can’t do that. I don’t know if it’s after my kids. I don’t know if I once could. But at this point in my life, I can’t. And so what I have figured out what is my talent is that I may not be able to multitask. But when I’m doing something, I’m doing it with a laser focus. So now my team knows that if they come in, and they tell me something, if I’m not there in 30 seconds, it’s because I’ve totally forgot about it, because I am in it. And my patients know that when I’m with them, I’m with them. 100%. So if they have to wait five minutes more, and we try not to keep anybody waiting, but if they have to wait five minutes more they know it’s okay. Because once I get in there, I’m 100% There’s, and my kids have figured it out, too, that when Mommy’s gone, she’s gone. But when she’s home, everything else is on the backburner. And I’m 100% of mom, and that works a little bit better for me than trying to multitask that was really helpful. And then for everything else, cue PDA.

Regan 12:13
Let’s talk about that. That cue PDA part are what? What roadblocks were you hitting where you realize that multi like being singularly focused, which by the way, I’m a huge advocate for I agree completely as a mother, as as someone who’s deeply involved in business, you can’t do everything at once. Were there some areas in your practice where you hit that roadblock, and said, I need to have some support? I can’t even if I dedicate full focus, maybe this isn’t the best use of my time, or I don’t have the answers.

Dr. Rebekah Browder 12:41
Exactly. I think it was not the best use of my time. Because in the past, I bought my practice and took closed on it the month before we closed for COVID. And so it was tough and scary at first, but I took those two months. And I was like, awesome, I’ve got two months of no patience, I am going to do it, I’m going to get finance in order, I’m going to do all of these things. And at the end of two months, when we started seeing patients again, I realized that I had done a very small number of things on that big to do list because like many of us, I’m a perfectionist, I overanalyze, I research everything. And so if I was going to do it, I needed to do it well and I needed to do it from the ground up. And that’s where it started to become problematic because you know, when you’re in it and you’re seeing patients, you don’t have all of this excess time, as much as we would like to you have everything else that you’re doing. And so for two years, a year and a half, I did the best that I could and I stayed above water and I you know I made it through and I put out the fires and that was really great. But as it seemed like it was time for COVID to start to fingers crossed wind down I thought this is my year where I’m going to start being so stop being so reactive and start being a little bit more proactive and starting to get some systems in place and starting to get some things and I thought you know what, instead of me suffering through this and doing trial by error and learning from my own mistakes, let me just bring in the professionals and so I you know, I had that, that epiphany on a Tuesday and by Friday I had a consult and I had signed the following day I think

Dr. Chad Johnson 14:14
look at you getting things done that’s awesome.

Dr. Rebekah Browder 14:17
takes me a while to get there but once I made the decision right

Regan 14:21
so you Rebecca have done something that only I believe three other prenup practices dental practices have done in the United States. So speaking of competitive achiever, combining that with your true deep heart of doing good and leaving a positive impact I found out that you have been your business is set up as a B Bravo right B Corp is that correct? I’ve never heard of this before. Can you tell if you’re a one of four dental practices in the United States what does this mean?

Dr. Rebekah Browder 14:52
Yeah, um, so the other there the two of the others I need to be specific about this to the others have multiple locations. So I just need to put With a little asterisk asterisk. So, now that you’ve heard of B Corp, you’re going to start seeing it everywhere. It’s a lot of packaging. So like Tom’s of Maine is a B Corp Corp. Patagonia is a B Corp Corp that a corporation Athleta, Ben and Jerry’s. So I had heard of it. And one of my patients and I were having a discussion one day, and she I said, Oh, what’s your new job? And she said, I’m a consultant for for companies that want to become B Corp. And I said, Yeah, I’m out of town. I’ve been thinking about that. And so we started a conversation and started looking at it. And I thought, you know, if this is a really good exercise, I know it’s going to be long, I know, it’s going to be arduous. And I know, I don’t necessarily, I’m not necessarily going to be successful at it, because a lot of people that go through this program aren’t. But I thought, let me as a new business owner, go down this journey, and it’s going to help me look at the different aspects of my practice and figure out am I really walking the walk talking to talk? Am I really, you know, performing in the way that I want to? And after looking at it, it turns out, no, just because I was a nice person didn’t mean that I qualified for being a B Corp. And so it really, it was a great challenge to look through and say, Okay, we need to commit 2% of our revenue is going to go to charities, and that’s not like, I thought, okay, we could do 2% of profits, but they were like, no, no, now, percent 2% that? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And so that’s a lot, but it’s great. So what we start to do is, like, it works with the whole company, because now not only do my employees get paid well, and have a good, you know, working living wage and good work life balance and everything. But also, each month, one of them gets to pick a charity of their choice. And then we donate to that. And so it gets everybody on that fulfillment training that I was talking about before, and our patients really love it. And you know, we’re able to be as eco friendly as we can being a dental practice. But it’s not just about being a green practice. It’s about you know, kind of looking at everything, are you making an improvement in the lives of your patients and the lives of your co workers in your community, local and worldwide? And in the environment? Are you just kind of being a force for good doing something that’s, you know, not only profitable, but beneficial to the world? And so that’s, that’s a nice thing.

Dr. Chad Johnson 17:28
How often is this audited? I mean, you know, like, is this an annual thing that the few are? Three years? Okay. Yeah. Wow.

Regan 17:39
So were there any sort of stumbling blocks or roadblocks that you hit along the way to becoming a B Corp? For anybody else? Who’s hearing that and going? Well, maybe that’s what I want to do.

Dr. Rebekah Browder 17:49
Yeah. So there were a couple of things, a lot of it, my, we are at a disadvantage in the medical field, because so much of our stuff has to be single use, or, you know, we don’t have we can’t cut down on a lot of things, they have to be FDA approved. And they have to, they have to be meeting certain guidelines. So we can’t, and there’s just not a lot of green focused dental company, dental product companies out there. So because we couldn’t really focus as much as we would want to on the environment. Yes, we have a recycling program. We’ve partnered with TerraCycle to recycle, you know, toothbrushes, we do our internal recycling, but we couldn’t be as eco focused as we wanted to. So that had to transition to seeing how we really impacted our community patients and world in in other ways. And so a lot of that became our workers quality of life, and our charity. And so in small practices, we’re kind of used to, and I think people are used to getting an hourly rate and maybe not having as many benefits as you would at a corporation. So maybe they don’t have a 401k. Maybe they don’t have health benefits. And so that was something where we had to look at what we were paying, everybody and everybody got raises. They were excited about that.

Regan 19:14
Did you did you use like a, like a cost of living calculator? Okay.

Dr. Rebekah Browder 19:20
Yeah. So MIT has a living wage calculator where you can look up based on the if they’re married, single children, no children and the zip code or county, you can look it up and see what the appropriate living wage would be. So I’m happy to say that we all not only met that but surpass that with everybody met and so that was really that that feels good to know that they’re doing well, especially now too, because when everybody else was having difficulty with employees kind of looking for other opportunities and going other places, ours were all quite happy because they were making a good wage already. And in addition to that, they have the other aspects of fulfillment. So going and looking at that stuff is a little difficult because we didn’t have health, we don’t have health insurance benefits. So instead, I do a contribution to them, because it’s difficult to get a great health plan as a small business. So that was a bit of a hiccup. And then finding the, I guess, becoming at peace and okay with the fact that my salary was going to be a bit lower, because I was going to be more charitable, and my employees were going to be making more. So instead of really squeezing blood from the stone, I was having to lower my salary a little bit. And know that I was working hard towards something. And I wasn’t necessarily seeing the financial benefit initially. But knowing that I was I was growing towards something. And now that we’ve settled into it, I’m happy to say I’m living comfortably. Yeah,

Regan 20:57
that’s great. Have you have you noticed? Has your team retention been? Well, has it made an impact that way for you?

Dr. Rebekah Browder 21:04
Yeah, yeah. We don’t lose. You don’t lose anybody. We only in fact, we have, you know, our latest hires brought friends. So

Regan 21:13
that says a lot. Yeah,

Dr. Rebekah Browder 21:15
you know, where we have a lot of a lot of personality and a lot of love here. Wow.

Regan 21:22
So what does the future hold? You’ve inspired me, I think you’ve been, I can tell you already, you’ve inspired our listens, or listeners for this, what? What does the future hold for you the next five years or 10 years?

Dr. Rebekah Browder 21:36
I don’t know. I’m sure I’ll have another epiphany. I’m doing a leadership program. Now through Glidewell, which has been amazing. I’ve only had one weekend. But there are 24 other women in it. And I get to see them a weekend, a month for the next four months, five months. And we get to we get executive coaches to develop our leadership skills and things like that, which is going to be really valuable. But I can tell you just going in the first weekend and listening to everybody else’s stories, it’s been crazy amounts of inspiration. So I’m looking forward to see what sort of like partnerships and ideas are generated there. And just all the new stuff that we’ll learn. But hopefully, yeah, five years from now, I will have spread the the joy of B Corp practice ownership, and everybody else will be feeling as good and happy at the end of the day as I do most days.

Dr. Chad Johnson 22:25
Well, cool. You know, yeah, we kind of went full term, talking about, you know, how you got involved into dentistry. And I mean, shoot 20 years ago, even 20 Plus talking about how 911 impacted you and how that led you to, to dentistry, and then how you have been taking charge of your office and really setting the bar for best practices. And I hope that the audience that listens to this, and what’s cool is not everyone’s gonna listen to this week, a good amount of people might, but there’s gonna be, you know, a few that might listen to this a couple years from now, and that they’ll hear excellence, and whatever that standard of excellence is, even three years from now, the point won’t be obsolete, that you’re still pressing to that we have you back on. And you’re three years from now going to be pressing the envelope for what excellence is. And for that, just like Pascal, mine, yeah, that’s what I appreciate about him is he sees the beauty of excellence. So you get the Chad Johnson, Pascal manye award of the day for showing and demonstrating excellence. So thank you on behalf of dentistry, and all things that are PDA,

Dr. Rebekah Browder 23:43
my day was good now it’s great. I appreciate that. taken our home,

Dr. Chad Johnson 23:50
gold star gold star. Well,

Regan 23:53
thank you, Rebecca, for being on the show with us and sharing all of your knowledge. Chad, I give testament to you. Let’s let’s have Rebecca on again, in another two years. Play catch up and see, see how far you’ve come. I’m very excited. She was on

Dr. Chad Johnson 24:08
all the listeners. Thank you very much for coming on. And we appreciate you listening to Dr. Rebecca Browder from near New York City in Connecticut. Dr. Browder. Thank you.

Dr. Rebekah Browder 24:20
Thank you so much.

Regan 24:23
Thank you for listening to another episode of everyday practices podcast. Chad and I are here every week. Thanks to our community of listeners just like you and we’d love your help. It would mean the world if you can help spread the word by sharing this episode with a fellow dentist and leave us a review on iTunes or Spotify. Do you have an extraordinary story you’d like to share? Or feedback on how we can make this podcast even more awesome? Drop us an email at podcast at productive dentist.com And don’t forget to check out our other podcasts from productive dentist Academy at productive dentists.com/podcasts See you next week.