Episode 226 – Unreasonable Hospitality, Part 2

“I want to have the opportunity to grow, I want to be part of something bigger, and I want to know that what I’m doing makes a difference.” ~Regan Robertson

We all have the same 24 hours in a day, and productive dentists use their time differently than other practice owners. But, you don’t have to go back and get your MBA to find out how to run your practice better. You only need to listen to this ongoing asynchronous subseries of Everyday Practices Dental Podcast, in which co-hosts Dr. Chad Johnson and Regan Robertson discuss lessons they’ve learned from some of the world’s leading business books, and how you can apply them to your practice. 

Everyday Practices Dental Podcast co-hosts Regan Robertson and Dr. Chad Johnson add to their book review series as they continue their discussion of Will Guidara’s bestselling book Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect. In this episode, Regan and Dr. Chad discuss Guidara’s “Win-Win-Win” philosophy which encompasses customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and business prosperity. From Chipotle’s fresh ingredients to the importance of empowering employees, Regan and Dr. Chad explore examples of creating a holistic approach to success. Furthermore, you will learn why fostering a sense of ownership among team members not only benefits your business, but also enhances the customer experience. For those interested in reading the book before jumping into this episode, you can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=unreasonable+hospitality&crid=2TC7Y1E8OWNIE&sprefix=unreasonable+hospitality%2Caps%2C193&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Part two of Regan and Dr. Chad’s book review of Unreasonable Hospitality hits home valuable lessons in hospitality, empathy, and effective communication, and how understanding perceptions shapes relationships and drives meaningful interactions with patients and team members alike. 

As you listen to this episode, we invite you to think about the following:

• How can you apply the principles of the “Win-Win-Win” philosophy to your own practice?
• What more can you do to empower your team members to take ownership of their roles and responsibilities?
• What leadership strategies can you implement to foster growth and development among your team?
• How can you enhance hospitality, empathy, and communication in your interactions with patients and team members, and what steps can you take to better understand their perceptions and needs?

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Regan 0:01
Hi, Doctor. Regan Robertson, CCO of 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, visit productivedentist.com/workshop, that’s productivedentist.com/workshop to secure your seats now.

Regan
Nobody wants to micromanage. You want to inspire leaders who can take charge and, and have a voice of their own because I know daily, I talk about how amazing my own team is and I feel like I work with the Dream Team. That, that, that is not something where you just snap your fingers and you get a dream team. You have to be great as a leader. 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 1:47
Welcome to Everyday Practices Dental Podcast I am your host, Regan Robertson here with my esteemed co-host, Dr. Chad Johnson, kisses for your fans blowing

Dr. Chad Johnson 1:57
Blowing kisses

Regan 1:58
Voted bronze

Dr. Chad Johnson 2:00
Number three fans were the number one third place spot. That’s right of all dental podcasts. So thank you

Regan 2:08
I’ve, you know, you know, I heard I heard there were rumors there were little salty rumors and I my response to to the world at large was don’t, don’t be salty. If you don’t have the best fans. We have the best fans, what can we say?

Dr. Chad Johnson 2:23
I don’t have anything to say but love and peace, peace and love says Ringo Starr

Regan 2:32
We are here to deliver part two of our book review of “Unreasonable Hospitality” the remarkable power of giving people more than they expect by Will Guedera.

Dr. Chad Johnson 2:44
Fantastic and you know where we left off last time with my pants down when you asked so to speak, so to speak.

Regan 2:53
Okay, I already got a call about the calf contest with Dr. Clint Euse from a couple episodes back and forgot that we left that in.

Dr. Chad Johnson 3:03
Yeah, well, I produced my photo and I didn’t hear anything from Clint and I think he’s just trying to hope that I forget about it.

Regan 3:12
Perhaps a little embarrassed, you know, you produce the goods and I do too much glory for him.

Dr. Chad Johnson 3:19
It was, I’m gonna have to tie his, I’m gonna have to tie his wife and because she’ll make him do it. I know he wants to probably like kind of back out because he knows he’d beat me, but I’m not gonna let him just, you know, just take the loss without actually producing

Regan 3:37
It’s forfeiture.

Dr. Chad Johnson 3:38
Yeah, he’s forfeiting because he knows he’s gonna win. But so he’s trying to be nice. No, you have to beat me fair and square pal. You have to show up and beat me to a pulp for me to take the loss. I’m not just gonna take a loss like on a forfeiture? How

Regan 3:52
about this, we all have a season so we will all be together in September at the 20th productivity workshop celebration Bonanza extravaganza? And how about all three of us work on our calves and then we can show off our calves in bull trifecta.

Dr. Chad Johnson 4:08
That’s awesome because it gives me cycling season to get it going right now swim season. I mean, you know, like my calves are just swimming and sexy. And they’re,

Regan 4:19
Right I will pump up my bike tires.

Dr. Chad Johnson 4:22
So last time, we were talking with my pants down, so to speak, symbolically speaking about the win, win win. So I went back to that chapter because you asked, “What exactly do you mean?” So I went back and listened to the whole chapter because it was four and a half minutes long, big deal. I wrote over to Staples, got a new keyboard came back and you know, listen real quick to that and he was talking about Chipotle doing fresh ingredients, and that if they cut the fresh ingredients there, then it was a win because he put the responsibility back on and not will he said he knew a guy whatever. So the store owner put the responsibility, or that maybe it was even the CEO of the whole Chipotle operation, you know, instead of having those ingredients cut up and processed in essence out of factory and then shipped for a couple days, and you can taste the difference, maybe I can’t, but he can and but if Chipotle cuts the ingredients and grills the chicken right there, it puts more responsibility on the employee, that’s one win. Why? Because then the employee steps up and has more ownership and you know, has more pride in what they’re doing. Number two, the customer wins because they are now enjoying fresher food as this example goes and the third win of Michael Scott’s win win win is that the manager/owner, visionary, whatever the upper person is also getting the benefit of having a premium product, happy employees, happy customers.

Regan 5:59
So they think that’s a good takeaway for the win win win, because, because my quick assumption to that both you and I know I originally, like went back and read that chapter again. So I also was a little confused with it. and I thought, “Okay, this makes sense, it’s a win for the customer, a win for the team, a win for the business.” So that makes that that Trifecta complete there with it. You know, speaking from my own perspective, if I, you know, in any role that I’ve been in, throughout my career, I want to have the opportunity to grow, I want to be part of something bigger and I want to know that what I’m doing makes a difference and so with the bringing in the fresh food, it I think it is a great description of the Win, win win, because the customer gets to see that it’s not prepackaged fruit, flash, frozen, rehydrated, whatever and so I like that, that it’s a win there, I like that it’s a win, because it gives you an opportunity to not feel like a robot in food service. So you’re not just taking a burger patty, like in McDonald’s and slap it in a microwave or whatever they do, have never been back there. So I can’t say and, you know, sales escalate as a result. So it wins for the business too and I like that, and it does get back to the micromanaging piece of it too. Nobody wants to micromanage, you want to inspire leaders who can take charge, and and have a voice of their own because I know daily, I talk about how amazing my own team is and I feel like I work with the Dream Team, but that, that is, that is not something where you just snap your fingers and you get a dream team, you have to be great as a leader and I think step number one, which means you are responsible, you’re accountable, you have tools, how many of us make mistakes for years, it’s a lot of work has to go into creating what you would consider a dream team. It’s a lot of work.

Dr. Chad Johnson 7:52
Yeah. Interestingly, the subsequent chapter from the Win Win Win is let them lead and when they first said that, again, I’m listening audible, I thought he said, let them leave.

Regan 8:06
And that’s appropriate.

Dr. Chad Johnson 8:08
That’s a good point. Like, are you willing to train people up and potentially they might be picked off or go into a different industry or whatever, you know, like letting them leave, as opposed to be in like, I’m not going to train my team so that way no one wants them you know, like, but it was cool. The “Let Them Lead” was the best time to give someone more responsibility is when they’re not quite ready for it yet. That was one of his and I thought that was pretty cool because it’s like, yeah, he said, you know, the guy with that’s just fresh out of school isn’t going to make the best choices on the beer, this and that, you know, within the book, but the person 10 years out, probably would make fewer mistakes, but you don’t know the growth potential of the guy that was fresh out of college, you know, helping sell that, that beer. So yep,

Regan 9:01
I think that’s a great point, letting someone lead right before they are ready for it reminds me of the hero’s journey. So in every hero’s journey, you will get support alongside you, you will suffer the highs and the lows. Just like I said in building that dream team. It takes effort, which means you’re going to skin your knees a few times you’re going to make some mistakes along the way. If you’re able to learn from them, you surround yourself with trusted support, you will get to a point though you will always have to make the leap on your own and that I think points to that there is no right time there you will end up having to stretch no matter what if you were going for something greater or something bigger or something that was going to require more experience there. There’s a first time for everything, you’re going to have to do it on your own and you’re going to have to do it a little bit before you’re ready and that sometimes that’s easier said than done. Yep. Yeah.

Dr. Chad Johnson 9:58
So last time, we before we hit record, you had a few good points that you wanted to bring up. But I hogged it all. So please share with us. Some of your thoughts from the book. Well,

Regan 10:12
Well my favorite, my favorite chapter probably was raindrops create oceans, because it’s catchy snd because I really, really love being as efficient as possible, I’ve got a lot of growth to do in that respect but when you’re running a business, it is amazing to me how much the little things stack up and can cost the company a lot of dollars. So there used to be a joke, I should look it up about companies that purchased I think was Herman Miller do remember Herman Miller business chairs?

Dr. Chad Johnson 10:46
No

Regan 1046
There was a, there was a big joke very unofficial, that if a company went at went ahead during this, just like right@the.com Boost, if they bought the company, everyone Herman Miller chairs that company was going to fold. And I think the, the, the metaphor, the parody of that, what’s the right term, is that the point of the story is, if you are not wise and stewards of your finances, and you don’t realize that everything builds up, you will, you will ultimately fail and so Raindrops Create Oceans was a great chapter in in so much as it helped them understand where to put their where to focus, where to focus their finances, and, and when to be smart with it so that they were good stewards and then the other thing, the point that they paired with it really well, that we’ll did was finishing strong, and making that last inch count. I feel like this is an episode bragging about my team lately, chat. But at PDA,

Dr. Chad Johnson 11:42
it’s tangible. Yeah, tangible examples,

Regan 11:46
We just keep experiencing larger and larger workshops and, and it is through a really intricate combined effort and what I have found in the team that I get the honor of working with is they are very good at making that last inch count. In other words, there is no good enough. It is how can we make this exceptional for the client? How can we make this exceptional for the attendee? How can we make this exceptional for our team, and don’t give up and part of that is having a mission that we feel so strongly about. So we have this kind of compass pointing us the right direction and so, you know, finishing strong and making that last inch count was impactful for me, but also he said, if you remember, there were failures that he had won when he came in 50th. As far as the best restaurants in the world, which let’s look at this. It’s just like a high performance athlete. He’s complaining that he made number 50. On the list of 50 best restaurants in the world. How many restaurants are there in the world? Oh, right. Right. How many? Millions?

Dr. Chad Johnson 12:51
Yeah, let’s, let’s lay like, this is a stupid guess. Let’s say 10 million.

Regan 12:57
Let’s google it. You gotta Google this. How many restaurants are in the world?

Dr. Chad Johnson 13:01
Hey, Siri.

Regan 13:08
Do you want it? Yeah, tell me. Okay. It says the foodservice industry is worth around 34.2 5 billion US dollars and estimated to grow by 256,3 billion in 2027. According to estimates for 2020 The worldwide number of food service establishments was around 23.1 3 million.

Dr. Chad Johnson 13:32
So here’s the deal. I’m logarithmically not that far off.

Regan 13:38
I think it’s it’s incredible. So, so high performance athlete disappointed and content, you know, can consider it a failure and a disgrace that he made 50 and he mentioned drinking the best bottle of champagne on the worst day. Yeah, when I think this is a really powerful lesson. When you lose, it is important to treat the team with as much encouragement and support as if you’ve won. It’s not I didn’t take that as we celebrate and we rah rah, were we realistic about it but I think it’s it places disappointment in the right area by saying, you know, this is this was the goal and then it gives a little bit of dissociation where we are still whole and complete as humans and as a team, and we’re going to celebrate what we did put in, but we need to regroup, we need to re strategize, we need to figure out a different way so that we can win next time. He

Dr. Chad Johnson 14:32
He was raw about his losses and about the negative and stuff like that and yeah, consolation or consoling is therapeutic and important.

Regan 14:47
Yes, yes. Another takeaway that I had was create your own traditions.

Dr. Chad Johnson 14:56
Yeah, Mmm hmm.

Regan 14:59
Do you have any traditions at veranda?

Dr. Chad Johnson 15:01
Yes, we do. Oh, I’ve got one and you’ll be okay. I’ll just get to it. Thanksgiving we have team KFC lunch.

Regan 15:19
What

Dr. Chad Johnson 15:19
We have, we have KFC because there’s nowhere around us that really has like turkey or whatever, you know, like lunch or whatever. So, but so then we just get a bucket of KFC fried chicken and like the sides and stuff. And basically we

Regan 15:26
We are not being paid by kfc for this. No

Dr. Chad Johnson 15:31
Taco Bell run for the border but like so it was kind of my cheap and, you know, I started the office on my own, you know, like right out of school, just from scratch and so we would do KFC, Thanksgiving lunch, but late basically like Wednesday before the end, it kind of sounds lame, because it’s like KFC really, you know, but you know, they’ve got mashed potatoes and gravy and they’ve got you know, some sides and stuff like that. So it was like, Okay, it’s kind of like Turkey, but it’s chicken and it’s but it’s fried and that’s good and I’m sure the pilgrims and natives didn’t have Pepsi, but you know, like now you know, we’ve got you know, all this and biscuits and so it kind of seems like the cheapest Yeah, it’s like the cheapest Thanksgiving non Turkey meal but like at least it’s a, like an American effort towards it, like a like a very be class effort. And we’ve always just done it since.

Regan 16:31
Did you know I believe it’s Japan. Did you know that Japan is crazy for KFC at Christmas time?

Dr. Chad Johnson 16:39
And they should be really cool. But But yeah, so it’s an example of like, would other people adopt this tradition? No, but it is a Veranda tradition. And it’s kind of almost silly. And that’s actually what kind of makes it cool. You know,

Regan 16:56
I like that. Well, that fits your third level of why to to always bring humor to life and that I mean that is unique. I call that your unique selling position or personally, I love the humor that you bring at PDA we have I’m wearing the shirt today, but you can’t see it. I’m pulling back. I have seen it earlier. Yeah, it’s a goat. Three guys on a surfboard all teams, the greatest of all teams. So 2024 PDA is the goat greatest of all teams and we have a spirit animal that we name every year. It comes from our CEO Dr. Victoria Peterson. I believe it did start out very humorless, humorless humorously in 2011, or 2012. The first year was the donkey and I think we were stubborn about excellence and it all started from a donkey that Victoria had seen on Hawaii, and it had a big butt or something like that. It was just something really silly. So that like, had this funny little momentum and we started going, and it’s now grown into this character and I think it’s a fun tradition. It makes it different and same with the KFC. So yeah, create your own traditions but don’t force it. Don’t force it. I think it’s just something that can spontaneously happen. Yeah, another, another tip that I loved was share the spotlight by highlighting others. I can’t say this enough. There are team members who, who, you know, not everyone’s extroverted and it’s not like that but really being able to remind the team and remind the community or patients or clients that it takes, it takes a team effort, and people do want to know how they contribute to the greater good.

Dr. Chad Johnson 18:36
Yep.

Regan 18:37
So highlighting others I think is a powerful message. Oh, and then this one, do less, but do it well, aka slow down to speed up that is that not the philosophy of productivity?

Dr. Chad Johnson 18:51
Yeah, and one of the troubles within dentistry is we want to be the jack of all trades, and do it all and increase our service mix and then there are times when it might be smart to go, “Do we need all of this service mix?” Does that make sense? Does that make sense?

Regan 19:07
It absolutely makes sense. There’s you should be thoughtful about you know what I liked what you just said there Chad, be thoughtful as a visionary about the integration of the changes you want to make. So you might have a vision for X amount of services, X amount of new procedures, methodology, modalities, whatever it is bringing it in, truly slow down and think about what your team can adopt, what you can adopt the marketing implications. So run it through the pipeline, and I have experienced this too many great ideas without thoughtful execution. You know, everything ends up being watered down, the success is not as great as you would hope it to be so slow down to speed up your deep breathing club. That was another really good tip. He ended up getting the team shirts at I think that was at Madison Park live in Madison Park, he had DVC shirts, deep breathing club shirts to help keep your cool. And I can only imagine in food service. You know, we’ve seen the Gordon Ramsay shows, where everything is really tense and hot and tempers can flare, you know, to practice mindfulness and that kind of environment that is so time bound, and meticulous, like everything has to just kind of come off seamlessly, you’re practicing that is helpful.

Dr. Chad Johnson 20:29
And dentistry is the same way. In that there’s, there’s a hallway slash, office slash sterilization area slash kitchen area. dialog where there’s sweat going on, and, you know, stuff is happening and then there’s, that’s behind the curtain of the show and then in front of the curtain of the show is in the operatory. So you know, like, all while, I might run from room to room, but then, you know, like, when I enter the room, it’s just nice and slow, casual, “Hey, how are you?” And then it might be like, “Okay, and I’ll see you later,” and then I walk out, and I kind of skip, skip, skip, you know, and get going to the next place.

Regan 21:17
Stuff when you’re in your leader Hosen

Dr. Chad Johnson 21:20
In my later Hosen but along those lines, too. So that is the, you know, the show, in front of the scene behind the scene but also, you know, there are times when you have difficult patients, and those difficult patients, you have to be professional with, and maybe not at dinnertime, or on the weekend or at the staff meeting, when you’re going to want to discuss it in detail and kind of grovel about it. and whatnot, that’s fine. I mean, I really, I don’t mind that in, in its own place but you do have to do the deep breath club, because there are some people who are extra special of patients. We were really excited because we had some difficult patients recently, and they ended up transferring and we all celebrated, we were really excited that they left and, and that’s kind of a fun thing to like, can you actually celebrate when you have turds that leave your office? You know, I’m not calling those people, turds. I was thinking of other, you know, like opportunities and that you can you can get better but like, we were actually, you know, we were they were they were a challenge and and they didn’t like the pricing of stuff and I was just like, “Well, I mean,” and yet they keep coming back, you know, to get this and that done. So it was it was actually kind of a mini very quick, but it was they said, “Oh, yeah, that couple, they transfered.” I was like, “Really?” And they’re like, “Yeah, high five right.” You know, we don’t, of course do that in front of the patient and the same thing with these people, they might have those kinds of people where they’re like, I hope they never come back to this restaurant again and yet in front of them, you know, they’re doing the deep breath club to get through those moments, because that’s understood between them, you know, like restaurant workers, I wouldn’t quite get it you know, because I’ve never worked in restaurant but I can understand from a sight of the you know, the customer that is being demanding slash the patient who’s being demanding that puts a kind of a strain on the relationship and it’s almost like they’re taking advantage of the fact that we’re both humans. You know, I’m trying to serve you let me serve you and please understand I might not get it right. Right, you know, I might not get it. I might not get it perfect every time and let me get it to excellence but you know, bear with me when I’m you know, not going to get it there the first time or my assistant or my hygienist or my front desk person you know,

Regan 24:11
My go to is when I if I can stay calm in the moment depending on what’s happening as I usually say, we we really are all humans trying the best we can. That’s right and human means that we’re we’re just not perfect as much as we want to be. So an accident is an accident. A mistake is a mistake. A misunderstanding is a misunderstanding. It does us all best if we can stay level-headed about it and that’s not always the easiest to do, that does however, slide into my last point that I took away from Unreasonable hospitality and it was touching the lapel and using sign language to communicate

Dr. Chad Johnson 24:50
That was so cool.

Regan 24:51
It was amazing and I want to bring it into dentistry immediately. I just think I think it could make the experience that must much more seamless and, and easy. So will tell us the story of they decided that they wanted to eliminate the front check in area entirely and then greet somebody by name. So you imagine walking into a restaurant and they say, oh my gosh, Chad, it’s so great to see you. We have been anticipating your visit, we know you made this reservation and then they positioned the maitre D’s in such a way so that you Chad couldn’t you would just see the host there. But the host can see someone like behind them checking to see if the tables ready and then they would use sign language to indicate whether or not the table was ready. So it’s a seamless experience. There’s no tablet book, you know, seat them at seat 23 or anything like that. Then the host says, “Oh, you know, let me you know, your tables ready? Let me take you there,” and it just feels psychic and intuitive. I thought that was so brilliant. And if it wasn’t, so if the sign language was tables not ready, then the host says, you know, “Chad, I can’t wait to see you over here at the bar, you know, I’m gonna give you a drink or whatever it is,” and and I’ll be sure to grab you as soon as you know, we have this ready for you. And I thought that was just super smart. Because Victoria Peterson often talks about ducks on the water. So on the top of the surface, everything is smooth. Like you said in the practice, everything is relaxed and smooth. And underneath, there’s you know, those little tiny webbed feet paddling so hard to get across the lake. And that’s a way to create that illusion. Yeah, that I think is just slick. And how

Dr. Chad Johnson 26:35
And howdoes that work in dentistry, it might be sign language between a pitcher and a catcher in that style, right but more likely, it’s probably messenger and messenger is a really cool tool that we have in the office where what I like is that the front desk admin people, for example, might be looking at the person who’s, you know, talking to them, and they can double click on a pre saved message over on the side that says, you know, “Ready not for or ready not for ready to anesthetize and, you know, this and that,” and I was reluctant to say it, but I’ll just say it for, you know, but like sales rep, at the front desk, you know, like stuff like that. It’s just nice to know, yes, you know, because they, they’ll fish for a while upfront and be waiting to catch someone’s eye that they can, you know, talk about their product, I understand but, you know, there are times when we don’t have time for that, right. So it’s night, or, you know, when I’m wrapping up with a patient, I’ll say, “Hey, so Sally up front is going to look over a lot of the financial details with you,” and so I’ll just shoot her a message that says, “You know, treatment plan and not for is ready for review, ” you know, that it’s coming out the printer or something like that and so that way, when I go up front, she’s already pulled it out of the printer. She’s looked at over and then she says, “All right, Jim, let’s look this over with you,” you know, stuff like that.t

Regan 28:15
That feels so good. from a patient’s perspective. It the my personal trust goes higher and higher. So it gives me confidence that everything is working as it should be. Yep. So when there’s no mistakes made, oh, there was one other. There was one other takeaway that I had of one more bonus one nd this points back to the patient, that you were kind of quasi celebrating, like, the best fit for the practice and check out, check out Bruce Behrens, he has a series risk factors in the productive dentist podcast and psycho risk is one of the one of the episodes I think, so he’s got a good, a good take on it too but, but this is good and kind of counterintuitive. I think it forces empathy it says, “Being right is irrelevant. Their perception is our reality,” and that doesn’t mean to me that the customer is right, no matter what it also doesn’t mean to me that you get to get run over and treated poorly. However, I have used the term in my head, your your perception is your reality. So I use this as a parenting hack a lot. So if a child is upset about something and I maybe don’t, maybe I don’t think it’s justified or maybe I’m tired, or maybe you know, insert XYZ excuse here on why I would want to be defensive, combative, or dismissive, because let’s be realistic, we all can get that way. You’re often so the trick that I put in my head and luckily my neurological pathways have put it as a highway is no matter what even if I disagree with it. I say this is your perception and this is your reality. It makes me stop and think, “Why would they feel that way? Why could they feel that way? What is it, where are they coming at it from?” So I can better get an understanding nd I think it forces a bit of empathy to the situation. So that was another really smart tip that that we’ll had is and Bruce and Victoria say, “Would you rather be right or would you rather be in relationship?” Which I think is a good take on that as well.

Dr. Chad Johnson 30:20
There are rare times when you, oh, man, okay when you really want to be right, regardless, it’s like burn the relationship. You know, I’m not talking about with a significant other, but you know, well, I suppose there are people that feel that way but it just okay, so it actually, it reminds me recently, and I’ll have to tell you after the episode, if you are ever listening to this, I suppose in good company, I could share this, but I don’t I it made me think of a patient and I would hate for them to think that, you know, like I was speaking specifically about them. So I’ll spare that person, you know, but why I paused because I was like, “Oh, man, I’ve got a really good story for this,” but at the same time, it’s it’s so salacious and good that I was like, I really shouldn’t share it.

Regan 31:22
Was it? Was it an example of when you wanted to be like, you just went for it and decided I want, I

Dr. Chad Johnson 31:27
want it to be right over? Yes. I’ll just say the guy. How about this, I’ll give generalities the guy wanted money back. He wanted. Like is he thought that the insurance should cover payment for something. We’re not in network and so he ended up having a an annual deductible that made it go from him owing $50 to $250? Well, he paid all of it upfront and was expecting to get back a good chunk of it from his insurance. His insurance said, “No, you have to pay 250. So we’re only going to be paying you this much,” and that’s what’s cool about a fee for service office is the patient has to be more aware that their insurance really can hose them over. When your PPO the office gets hosed over and the patient just goes well, you know, I’m glad you’re in contract with that insurance, you know, and, but so this guy was really upset. I was, I was very upset, because he was being very demanding. And I told my office manager, you know, what, for the, for the, for the purpose of it for the What’s the word for it, just for the example of it, I will fight this guy for this, you know, 200 bucks, versus, you know, and I was just like, it’s not. I said, the last week I gave someone else but you know, 4000 bucks back, and it’s just like, “Well, here you go.” So it’s not that I don’t, you know, like, I can’t see the value of just being like, Yeah, sure. buy guns. Let’s just move on. You know, I even wrote Bruce about this, Dr. Bruce, and was like, What do you think about this? He said, “Just give the guy the money back,” and I was like, “Absolutely not.” So I wanted to fight this guy about it. Well, in the to this is the part where it gets tricky, because it gets messy. His you know, his story gets messy and come to find out. I wrote him and I on Christmas and I and I said Smith. Yes, you did. Yep and I said, “Tell you what, I’ll just give you the money back and it sounds like you’ve got a lot going on in your life. Yeah. It because the like the details came out that it was this is almost like short story. Chaucer book worthy like because in a turn of events, he thought I was someone else for a while. So then he’s like, “You owe me money for this and that,” and I was like, “What even? What are you talking about?” You know, I was so I was right and I still am right about his insurance but then I finally realized you know, when when it came down to it, he was getting me also confused with someone else and then it come to find out he’s got so many people that he’s in problems with and stuff like that. I just wrote I said, “You know what? I’ll send you the money. Just let’s let’s get this behind us,” and I, the other dentists in productive dentist academy that are in a text, they know about this. I told them they could see the red coming out of my ears. I just said, “You know, there’s no way I’m paying this guy. I will go to court and fight him. I will go down to the courthouse. I will fight this guy every dollar,” because he was versus

Regan 34:58
This is the $4,000 I just say yes, no problem. Yep.

Dr. Chad Johnson 35:01
Yep, I just I was so upset about it. I was just like, “No, this guy is wrong and I was right and I am right about it.” I gave him his money back because it was about the principle at first and then I realized, “Okay, yes principle aside, that, what a difference two weeks made or a week or so,” because at one point, I was like, “Nope, over the principal, I will win in court and then afterwards, tip his attorney 200 bucks,” you know, out that going out the door, I was that mad. I was just like, “I, you’re gonna prove a point, you’re, oh, my goodness.” I was like, “You know, let’s do attorneys. Let’s go down to small claims. I will waste a whole week if necessary, we will do this, because you’re wrong,” and then come to like, over time, I started, he didn’t even plead his case. He indirectly pled his case, by what like, it was obvious what was going on after a while in his life that I was just like, “You know what, man? You got a lot going on. Sorry to hear that. You know, so why don’t why don’t we just, I’ll just send you the money,” and he actually then got, you know, what’s funny. So here’s the close to the story. So he’s just like, “Thanks, man. Merry Christmas to you know, like, I really love coming to you guys. This place you get all your team was just, is just the best,” and I thought, “Well, I hope to never see you,” but that’s awfully nice of him to say because I just I don’t ever want to see him again. It’s such a hassle. So there you go. Listeners enjoy that story. Yes. Even Chad gets upset with people and you know, whatever finds resolution,

Regan 36:46
There’s a resolution around it, I It’s been a trip. Not a trip, it’s been a trick, definitely to always think back to what, what is going on underneath the surface. So if I’m not in a lizard brain, meaning I’m not like my amygdala isn’t hijacked, and I’m not emotionally compromised. When I’m emotionally compromised, it’s really rough and that’s when I will go right down that route of nope, I’m right and I’m going to I’m going to die on this hill and I’m going to go for it and if I can’t get out of that I still work on that I will always work on trying to be then if something gets me in that type of state, but it is a definitely a good pattern interrupt to say, “Okay, what is going on with this person in this moment? Is it really about the $200 or is something else contributing to it?” And I find nine times out of 10, like you likely found out in your story there. There was other things going on that contributed to it. It’s not just the $200 that this person was concerned about. There were other things probably happening and, and I have used that in communication over the years and said, you know, is there is there you know, it sounds like a lot is going on, like you said or it sounds like there might be a lot of things going on? How can I, how can I help you know what will what will make this right? If we’re able to make that move strategically? I think that’s when we can stay in relationship. But we’ve all been guilty of pushing forward and just going for what’s right. Yep. Yeah. Well, that is my take on unreasonable hospitality. I thought it was exceptional book. I can’t wait to 95 Five win win win. Raindrops creating oceans. finishing strong all of it.

Dr. Chad Johnson 38:25
Yep. We’ll get there wrote a great book and more books to come, everybody. So we have not chosen what is it?

Regan 38:36
What’s our next one?

Dr. Chad Johnson 38:37
Yeah, that’s that’s that we need to look at our list.

Regan 38:41
Name it now. I can’t hold your feet to the fire. This was my choice. Thanks to Dr. Adrian Reynolds. So it’s your choice now?

Dr. Chad Johnson 38:48
Yeah. I know, I don’t I don’t remember what’s i I’m very methodical about this. I want to go down our list and I forget what one’s the next one. So okay, you all are just going to have to wait to see the Clint Euse’s calf picture and what book we’re going to do next. So with that,

Regan 39:06
If there’s a book that you want listeners to email, email us.

Dr. Chad Johnson 39:11
Yeah, we probably won’t listen, but it’d be great to hear from you. I’m just kidding. I bet there’s a there’s a slight chance that that book might be on our list but nonetheless, we can certainly work it in because we have audible. So today, thanks for listening, everyone until next week.

Regan 39:34
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@productivedentist.com and don’t forget to check out our other podcasts from Productive Dentist Academy at productivedentist.com/podcasts See you next week.