Stop Selling Dentistry. Start Telling Stories. (E.301)

“Patients don’t buy what you do. They buy the story you tell and how it makes them feel.” – Matt Hutchings

Brief Overview

In this episode, Regan Robertson sits down with Everyday Practices producer and videographer Matt Hutchings to explore how dental practices can leverage their why into powerful storytelling. Building on insights from Dr. Gary Sanchez of the WHY Institute, this conversation unpacks how authentic video, testimonials, and branding turn abstract marketing into trust-building patient journeys.

What This Episode Reveals

• Why patients connect more deeply to your why than your services
• How a simple 30-second video can shift trust and remove judgment fears
• Why authentic, unscripted testimonials outperform polished scripts
• The behind-the-scenes process of putting teams and patients at ease on camera

What You’ll Learn

• How to translate your brand script into video that feels natural
• The secret to creating cinematic patient stories without actors or big budgets
• Why consistency across ads, websites, and testimonials builds lasting trust
• Practical steps to repurpose one shoot into months of marketing content

If This Sounds Familiar

• You feel marketing drains time, money, and energy with little return
• Your patients delay care due to fear of judgment or cost
• You’ve tried generic ads that never captured your practice’s heart
• You’re struggling to stand out from corporate dentistry in your area

Next Steps
Ready to stop guessing and start telling stories patients believe? Reach out to Matt at matt@productivedentist.com to schedule a discovery and see how storytelling can reshape your practice’s growth.

TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] Regan Robertson: Pre-show alert. This episode is only for doctors who are interested in applying their own passionate third level of why into compelling storytelling, into their marketing, into their communication plans, so that patients say yes to care and you stop banging your head against a wall and hating marketing. If you’re not interested in that, go ahead, go on to another podcast, but if you are. Interested in being more authentic, more you in your marketing. This is the episode for you. I have invited Matt Hutchings, expert videographer, visual storyteller to discuss, uh, our previous episode with Dr. Gary Sanchez, which was finding out your own inner why and how to apply it into your marketing in a way that feels and looks natural and really represents who you are. Without you being nervous, without you feeling like you’re stiff and it’s not representing you. So that is what this episode is about. Let’s dive in. In our last episode of Everyday Practices Dental Podcast, Dr. Gary Sanchez said People don’t know what they want because they don’t know who they are, and once you discover your why, everything becomes clear. That particular s episode was transformative for me personally, because I have worked, I think, a lifetime on discovering people’s why and what drives them and what makes them passionate, and what I’ve noticed over two decades of professional growth is that people who are able to not just live in their passion or their Ikigai, if you’re into Japanese culture, whatever it is, those people that can communicate it out are the ones that end up winning. Their business and their life. Oftentimes, they don’t have to be the best clinician, but they do have to know how to communicate that message, and it’s a little bit unfair because as dentists and dental teams, you become really proficient at the clinical side of the practice, and then you’re also expected to be masters at communication on top of it, and master marketers. Everything that goes along with it. So that is why, uh, I have invited Matt Hutchings to our podcast table today. Not only is he an expert videographer, tremendous storyteller. He also happens to be our podcast producer as well. So Matt, welcome to the show. 

[00:02:29] Matt Hutchings: Hey Regan, thanks for having me today. I’m excited to be able to go through all this and, and show our listeners, you know, a little bit of what I do behind the scenes, you know, just to help share your guys’ message with all the doctors and, you know, all the fun stuff that you guys do. 

[00:02:42] Regan Robertson: I, I am, I’m honored that you are putting yourself in front of the camera for once instead of behind the camera, um, I say this without any exaggeration. Your artistry is some of the best I’ve ever seen my entire career. The way that you’re able to capture images, um, your photography, it is an art form, and to put video to it to boot you are a, just a phenomenal storyteller and you’re really great at putting people at ease, and listeners, I wanted Matt to be on here with us today because we had this great episode with Gary Sanchez of the why Institute. If you haven’t listened to it yet, it’s the one right before this. Go check it out, and, uh, he’s, he’s worked with thousands of of businesses over the years in helping them discover their why, because it makes it easier to market yourself if you know what’s driving you kind of at that core level, and, and I wanted you to be able to see additional, tangible. Examples that you can kind of put your eyes and your ears around and see what this looks like when you are marketing your practice, and, and Matt and the Phoenix Dental Agency team, they do this for a living. They are very great at storytelling, and part of our process is capturing the doctors, um, you know, under, under current, if you will, the under driving why that pulls them forward. So Matt, can you kind of give our listeners a little bit of, of your history and why storytelling is exciting to you, why, why, why do this? What drives you here? 

[00:04:14] Matt Hutchings: Yeah. I mean, I think it’s just the, the ultimate challenge of trying really. Yeah. I mean, it’s really the, it’s this. It’s this mix of things that you’re trying to organize in a clear and concise way that people can connect to almost immediately, um, and that’s tough because, you know, you can think about video and go, oh, you know, once you’ve seen it, you know, a 32nd commercial, it’s like art on a wall. You could be like, well I could do that, but the conceptual piece of what it took the hours to like mess that up over and over and over again and put it in a way to where I think that’s the ultimate like, um, you know, where people, when they say that, it’s like the ultimate, like, okay, we did a good job. If someone says they could do that, you’ve made it simple enough for people to, to connect, hear it, and then go, oh yeah, that looks easy, but they don’t realize, you know, the hours of behind the scene prep, you know, meeting with the team, meeting with the, uh, you know, either the doctors or whoever it is that you’re trying to interview, meeting with those, those testimonials that are gonna put themselves out there who aren’t actors, right? Mm-hmm. These are just people who’ve been to the practice, um, who are nervous and, and want to do a good job because, you know, the doctor really did something that changed their life. So, you know, I think really it, it’s a, it’s a strategy challenge of organizing a story in a way, um, one that. It hits the message on what the, um, the client is trying to get, but also, you know, for someone who likes to be creative, it’s got a little creative mix that, that just feels good. At the end of the day, it looks good, it looks clean, um, and, you know, maybe people think, oh, you know, there’s something in there that just stuck with them, and, you know, on a 32nd spot, people see it so differently every time, uh, so, you know, it’s interesting to see what, what stuck and resonated with people. So, uh, I think it’s just the challenge. It’s fun. 

[00:06:08] Regan Robertson: That makes a lot of sense. Solving problems is a, is a, is a fun way to do it, and it’s, it’s kinda a creative outlet to it also. So it’s kind of a fun, a fun puzzle to, to work with, and you’re absolutely right. There are a lot of moving pieces behind the scenes that make it a reality. One of the most powerful things I have found as a leader is the ability to trust the delegation process and realize that I can’t do it. I shouldn’t do it all on my own. So could you? Yes. Will the end result be better? Most likely, nine outta 10 times it won’t be, but not only that, but you’re gonna kind of kill yourself in the process doing it. So to be able to find trusted partners that you can work with and be in collaboration with. I almost think of it like a dance, like you’re dancing together to create this beautiful end result, and let’s talk about the 30 seconds in marketing. So we know that I, I think. 10 years or so, the human brain, uh, it processed it, it like got bored after nine and a half seconds, or it couldn’t hold its attention for like, it was like the span of a gold fish’s memory. It was really, really short, and I think it’s become even shorter than that. Our attention span is really at a premium. So I’m curious, um, well one, maybe let’s start off with an example. So, uh, maybe show a video, a 32nd video of, of a client, a Phoenix Dental Agency’s client, um, that kind of embodies this, uh, why philosophy of getting really clear on your own, why as a practice to differentiate yourself and what that looks like in practice.

[00:07:38] Matt Hutchings: Well, lemme preface one thing too. So 32nd spot, you know, in this day and age of social media, you know, think 30 seconds, is that overly traditional? What I mean by that is like, that’s kind of TV esque, right? Yeah. Like still, you know, why would you do something in a format like that? Well, you know, now with like digital streaming services like Hulu and all of these other, um, uh, places where you can aggregate, you know, your, your content into commercials. There’s still a place for that traditional 32nd spot, and most of my career in marketing has been working with local, local entrepreneurs. Mm-hmm. So, even though, you know, the last seven years has been in dentistry, um, a lot of it has been in that local entrepreneur market.So. There is still a place, you know, when you see these high budgets through like a Nike or you know, these places where when you see the commercial, at the end of the day, you really don’t know what they were selling. Yeah, right. You know, some of these people, like, they’ve reached an echelon of, you know, either being a lifestyle brand, but they’ve, they’ve invested billions of dollars to make that, you know, that logo stripe, you know, the, the, the Nike so recognizable. It’s been well to 

[00:08:42] Regan Robertson: To penetrate the market too, to hit it with enough frequency over time, um, I’m happy that you called that out. 

[00:08:48] Matt Hutchings: Yeah, so, sure. 

[00:08:50] Regan Robertson: So it takes millions, if not billions of dollars over time. 

[00:08:52] Matt Hutchings: So will you as a dental practice ever reach that? I mean, we would love to say that, that that could happen, but most likely it’s not gonna happen. So, you know, some, some of the things that we have to do is really just get a good message forward that speaks to who you are, give presents the problem, um, and then invites that person in at the end of the day as we start to move them through that trust funnel, um, to ultimately become a patient. So the first part of this is, think of this as a 32nd spot. You know, this could still could be shown in social media, um, but where this will mainly sit is in some of those streaming services, and what’s been really crazy over the last. 10 years as I kind of go in a different direction, and the last 10 years is cable was so traditional, you had the tv, you had the box, but now with all of the streaming services, you know, it almost felt like everything was gonna go back to a computer or in a phone, but then the TVs became smart and now people are watching YouTube and all of these other streaming services. Like everyone watched traditional tv. 10 years ago. So we’re, we’re now back into our, our TVs, but we’re just using them a little bit different. They’ve gotten smarter, um, and so we, we still develop 32nd spots to reach that demographic, um, and we’re able to target instead of just saying, you know, play a commercial, you know, on like a, a cartoon station or you know, a, a news station. We now in some of these streaming services can say, you know, feed it to a demographic that’s in this age, in this area so we can get real precise, and then you 

[00:10:23] Regan Robertson: Really can like you. Yes. You really, really, I was, um, went to the possible event, which is a big Chief Marketing Officer event. It’s got the biggest global brand chief marketing officers there, like Unilever was there, and um, and that was the big topic, was targeting so microscopically down to the neighborhood and the interests and demographics in that specific neighborhood, and then playing them ads on their streaming services that were specific to them, and I like, like when I’m watching a show and I have an ad pop up, it’ll even give me how many seconds that ad is. So it’ll gimme the little rundown of how many seconds, and it is, it’s. I feel like I see a very select few advertisements, whereas before it was just sort of all over the board. 

[00:11:06] Matt Hutchings: Yeah, and so, I mean we, you know, it’s nice as a marketer to have all of these options, but also becomes very tough because mm-hmm. Now that’s part of that strategy, right? Like we’ve created this saying, where’s it gonna go? So, you know, when you think video. All of the, the components that go to it, you know, that initial discovery and the targeting and all that we do in the very beginning to create what is 30 seconds where someone can say, “Oh, I could do that, but it’s all of the things on the back.” So, yeah. So you know, what’s, what we’re gonna watch here is just a 32nd spot, um, the fun part about this is working with entrepreneurs. I don’t have, we don’t have big budgets for actors, you know, we don’t have Yeah. You know, like that have gone to acting school, you know, generally we have a, you know, someone in the, the practice that’s just, you know, the likes the doctor and they’re super motivated ’cause the doctor’s been real kind to them. So they’re like, I’ll get in front of the camera for you, or, you know, a testimonial. A lot of the prep work, yes, we try to prep, but also, you know, this isn’t their day job. So there’s a lot of pieces that, that go into this to try to make this as high production as as possible and nice, and the message get along or get through, um, so that’s also, 

[00:12:15] Regan Robertson:  And the authenticity, I would not want, unless it’s like Matthew McConaughey, like I’d probably hire him, but other than that, no. I don’t wanna see an actor. I wanna see real, authentic patients, authentic team. Like that makes when I, I remember when I was signing up for my, uh, primary care, I went to their website and I scrolled down and they had a YouTube video embedded, and it was like a testimonial video, and on the freeze frame was a, was a woman colleague that I knew and I really respected, and I’ll tell you, if you could have looked inside my brain, the amount of trust that was being built, and I hadn’t even hit play yet, but I recognized her and I was like, “Well, if she’s going here. I’m going to have a good experience.” So I think the authenticity in that is it works to the advantage of not having, you know, a gigantic budget. 

[00:12:59] Matt Hutchings: Yeah, and, and what’s also too is again, being a local entrepreneur, most of your staff, most likely lives locally. Yeah. So, kind of cool way to get them incorporated into some of the, the marketing that you’re doing and the materials and the videos, but also too. Like they’re putting themselves out there where people are going to see them, right? So there’s that nervousness of, you know, them wanting to look good, you trying to make them look good. This is gonna be locally aired everywhere, um, so it feels good on our end when we get really great feedback saying like, everyone notices me on tv. You know, they think it’s really great, um, so this was, uh, one of their team members, um, so this was 30 seconds and it actually took us probably over an hour to film. Yeah, that makes sense. In 30 seconds, you know, they, we’ve got a very small window of opportunity to get that message through. So generally about. Let’s say 14 seconds where she’s gotta get those lines hit, and then at the end we end it with an int tag. The int tag is an invitation to take action. So that story’s gotta take place and it can’t be a long ramble, like we’re just going through and having a conversation now because we’ll hit that 32nd marker and then you know that a’s gonna, it’ll clear out. So we had to make sure she hit all of her spots. You know, she was practiced before, but once that camera comes on, right, like, again, not professional. So she did amazing job. It was fun to do this with them. We do it time and time. It’s, it’s to try to get those nerves down, um, and then enter, you know, give them a great result at the end. So I’ll share, I’ll share this first 32nd one, and one of the things I also wanna preface too, is we will go into this, but when we go over it, Regan, you and I’ll discuss some of the language that was used. This wasn’t just written by the marketing side. This was language that was developed through them and their discovery in a lot of the work that, that you, um, and we do personally at, at PDA. All right. Is my screen sharing? Mm-hmm. 

[00:14:58] Commercial : Many of our patients come to us feeling anxious or embarrassed. They’ve put off dental care for years, worried about pain, judgment, or cost. At Barras Family Dentistry, we meet you where you are. No judgment, just compassionate care and the latest technology to make treatment easier than you ever expected. With a customized plan and flexible financing, we make great dental care accessible so you can finally take that first step. Call us today, our schedule online, and let’s walk through it together.

[00:15:32] Matt Hutchings: So there was a, there was a keyword out there, Regan, that was used, um, when they were speaking to the patient. I’m not sure if you caught it. Did you, did you catch which one that was? 

[00:15:40] Regan Robertson: I, I, I caught, well, actually I caught, I, I hung up on compassionate and then flexible payment options. Those were the, as I watched it through those things really caught my eye, um, the patient looked so endearing and so sweet, and it made me feel comfortable, um, I also heard no judgment that came up a lot. Like I caught that a couple of times and seeing it with the woman made me think, um, made me feel more relaxed. Like, okay, this is. I can probably bring them whatever my dental challenge is, and they’re probably gonna make me not feel bad about it.

[00:16:11] Matt Hutchings: Yeah. So actually you, you call it basically the three main words that that practice was wanting to, 

[00:16:17] Regan Robertson: For real?

[00:16:18] Matt Hutchings: Yeah, initially, yay. When someone hears about them through their brand scripts, they wanted to be judgment free. You know, they, they know that their patients have been through a lot, um, and they work with a lot of patients that have told them that felt like they were either felt like they were being judged, you know, with their teeth. Mm-hmm. You know, around their sphere of influence with people that are around them, or when they would go into other practices, you know, they didn’t get the vibe that. You know, because they lacked on their dental care. You know, they got that, you know, the other doctors were either, the other practices were either, you know, trying to just move them through, you know, it just felt like there was, they were being judged. So for, for them it was super important that they are a judgment-free practice, um, and so one of the things that I benefit from at PDA is there would be a discovery if. If PDA wasn’t as large as we were, there’d be a discovery on my part, right, where I would ask them through a series of questions through the discovery, because what you don’t want in your commercials or your ads, or your reels, or your social media pieces. It’s just some marketing consultant that, you know, came up with some keywords that don’t resonate who you are, but one of the things I want to go over with you, because you actually work that document that gets handed to me as I then start to formulate. So, you know, maybe can you tell a little about how you go through that discovery and then I’ll talk about how I pull it through into the spots. 

[00:17:40] Regan Robertson: I, yeah, I’m particularly passionate about the, the interview, so, um, surprise listeners, I interview clients as well as interviewing, uh, for podcasting as well. I am, I am kind of obsessed with it because it, one people are, I have not yet met a dentist that is like really excited to do any sort of filming of any kind, and I’m also don’t typically meet a dentist that is excited about really putting themselves out there. They typically want, uh, their work to show and they. Would prefer to be kind of behind the scenes, and something that I am very happy to do is put people at ease so that I can understand what really matters to them. So I loved Gary’s um, y institute because he has a discovery process that he takes people through that they can fill out on their own to discover their own personal why. That’s one piece of the puzzle that’s really important. So for example, like the non-judgment to me. If I ran them through the Y Institute, my guess, this is a huge assumption, but my guess that doctor would probably have a better way as being one of their particular, um, you know, Ys. So because they, they, they know that they can deliver dentistry in a way that feels judgment free. They know that there’s a better way to do it. So, um, so my process that I, done for years when I, when I sit down and interview a practice is we really walk through the stage, uh, from a patient’s perspective of their transformational hero’s journey, uh, doctor, if you’re listening right now, you were not the hero of the story. You are the guide and, um, telling great videography stories or great, um, marketing collateral that go, that goes out. It really does a wonderful job of positioning you as the guide and not the hero to it. So I actually, in that video, for example, I focused on more of the patient and less on the doctor talking, or the doctor, you know, being seen and the team member talking, because I was more focused on the patient. That’s kind of the goal. So I walk them through a discovery process that does talk about what’s important to them, but I do it through the lens of, um, of the actual patient, and so it helps the doctor take themselves out. So if I have advice for you right now and you’re listing and you want to apply this to your marketing, I would say walk through the experience and write out what that person is feeling and thinking and where they want to go, and then ask yourself, how am I coming alongside them and helping them achieve this? So that kind of puts people at ease. So we go through this process together and we create what is called a brand script when we have all sorts of, I mean, it’s a, it’s a massive thing that comes from it, right? We have a tagline, an elevator pitch. We have your key characteristics. We have a bunch of different elements that come from it. Once that’s completed, then that gets handoff to our creative team as the next step. So, um, working with the team is so amazing this way. So you, Matt would get this document and you would know what’s important to them, um, you would know. So in this practice, maybe, uh, a key characteristic is non-judgment. So no judgment. You take that information and then you start to do your prep on your side of things for when you travel out and start doing the video shoot with them.

[00:21:00] Matt Hutchings: And so as that person or the, the per prospective patient as they’re walking through their journey of that discovery of like, is this a practice I want to go through? Um, you know, we may hit them with different, uh, marketing videos other than that 30 seconds, but let’s, if we just follow that through. So we talked about the no judgment. So let’s say they, they enter in through, they see that, that first 30 sections. Right? We’ve already developed their brand script. So we know that. No judgment, we know some of these, um, those key words that we pulled out in the discovery are now making it into the spots. Well, now where would you think, you know, when I, so then from there, where would you think that that patient’s gonna go? Once they’ve seen, seen a 32nd spot? Like where would they potentially be ending up next? 

[00:21:45] Regan Robertson: I would go to the website. 

[00:21:47] Matt Hutchings: Okay, so now you’re, you’re walking your way through that journey now on the website. Yep. Right, and there’s all these, these connections that we want to make along the way, um, in your brand script, make sure all of these connections are anchored consistently. Meaning the language, the, the personality, the um, the people that we’re looking to target, right? We wouldn’t want a 32nd spot that felt, you know, this way, and then you get onto a website and then the messaging’s completely different. Right? There’d be a, a drop off in that person’s experience, right? Like where they’re, the, the patient now is starting to lose, um, small, small pieces of trust, right? Mm-hmm. We talk about that a lot in your presentations. So how we continue that trust through the journey is then we interview some of the testimonials, right? And so the testimonials are still framed off of that original framework that you do in the brand script. What I do is I then create a series of questions. Where I don’t want scripted material from a testimonial. Mm-hmm. Right, um, and remember we talked about that these aren’t actors or actresses, so our goal is to get authentically them, but frame it in a way that the story’s clear and complete and, and, uh, aligns with, um, the type of patient they are because the doctor likes this type of patient. So we wanna find other people like this person. Then invite them into the practice by creating messaging that’s similar to them. So the next part that we would do is a testimonial. Can I show you that and see how it pulls together? 

[00:23:17] Regan Robertson: You can, I will. I, I wanna add one note to the other video before we move on, and that is the, the talent that you have to ask questions that pull those different, you know, brand attributes out is, is crazy to me because I’ve done, I’ve done video shoots, uh, to get, to get different types of testimonials and different information, and it is hard. It is not, to me, it’s not that easy. You have to be skilled at knowing how to put together a great story, and so I don’t wanna go over even the music, the way that it’s shot, the lighting, like it’s, it’s sort of, it’s. It is like a little mini movie in and of itself, and so there’s a lot of different elements that you are taking into account as you’re shooting it, and I am curious before we go to the testimonial video, what is your process for that? Like you get to the practice and you know, okay. Compassion and non-judgment, or are two of their important attributes, and flexible financing is like the, the data tactical piece that’ll, that’ll help people say yes to care. Like what is your process to setting that up so that it looks, it looks authentic, but also really professional and beautiful and cinematic? It’s, it’s the cinema part of it that just blows me away. 

[00:24:31] Matt Hutchings: Yeah, and that’s, I would say working in this level of videography that we do at PDA, I would say it’s probably one of the toughest because. We’re not on a studio, we’re not on a step. Mm-hmm. We’re not working with quote professionals. Right, that are, you know, trained in doing this, um, you know, we’re trained in there and, and to capture, but the, you know, the, the staff and the team, right. They’re generally. They’re just excited to take care of patients, and now a crew’s coming in and everyone’s like, gets like this. So 

[00:25:02] Regan Robertson: Well see, and I’ve, and I have recorded people and I see them still like this, like afterwards, and I think, shoot, I can’t, I can’t use this because they’re still nervous and they’re not, you know, they’re, they’re coming off a little bit stiff, but you have this innate ability to put people at ease and help them get comfortable, and I think I heard you a little bit say, I talked to them for a while to get them comfortable. So is that one of your tricks like, or like piece of advice that you can give to someone who’s maybe making their own video even. Is it, do you just talk for a while until you naturally your shoulders start to drop and more of your natural cadence comes out? 

[00:25:37] Matt Hutchings: Yeah, and I think you do it. You may not even know you did it. Like when we started the podcast, like we just had a general conversation and is structural. Right, but then as the structure got looser and then we got comfortable and we started to flow, mm-hmm. It was like, all right, we found our vein. Like, I was like, I’m gonna turn off, hit record, let’s go. I turn off my AC and like, let’s go. So it’s not picking up on the, you know, on the mic, and then we, right. You know, one of the first things that I do when I get into practice, like if I came in all business, I come in and I look professional. If I came in all business and tight, people are gonna start getting business and tight, right? They’re like, oh, you know, so there is a balance between professionalism, um, being loose and getting people to, uh, start to act like themselves throughout the day. So it’s acting, you know, laughing with them, telling them jokes, you know, maybe just having the camera in my hand, but then walking around without taking pictures. So then when the camera is there, it’s subconsciously, it’s not there to them. Right. It’s just me. That makes, makes sense. Room makes sense. 

[00:26:38] Regan Robertson: They’re just used to it being there. 

[00:26:39] Matt Hutchings: Yeah. So I spend, you know, that first I try to get there early. I scope out, you know, I’ve seen pictures, but I haven’t been in there yet, and, and dental practices are tough ’cause they’re long and narrow. Mm-hmm, and they’re often for, so it’s a little, it gets difficult to film in there ’cause you don’t get a, you know, the angles. It’s a hallway and a door, right? Like, so what we see, because we can move our head on a swivel, you can’t necessarily get that full perspective when you’re on a camera. So, you know, you’re, you’re just looking for angles. You’re looking for where you could potentially shoot, you know, generally it’s gonna be in there, um, you know, the first room when you come in, you know, the, the, uh, I’m sorry, I forget it. The, the reception, the welcome, the reception. Yeah, the reception office when you first come in ’cause that’s our, that’s usually the biggest room, right, and practice. So it’s scoping that out, but I personally go through and I try to talk to everyone and say hello to them and then kind of laugh with them and be there, um, and then naturally I’ll gravitate to some people that, you know, you can tell they’re having a good time. So then. You can stick with that. 

[00:27:44] Regan Robertson: They’re not hiding in the break room. 

[00:27:45] Matt Hutchings: Yeah. Now they’re having fun and now people that know them are like, okay, Matt’s having fun with them. Like, maybe I’ll come join. What are they laughing about? And as you know, as it starts to build up, you know, generally at the end of the day I get like a.  If I’m there two days, I get that it feels like you’ve been a team, like you’ve been with [00:28:00] us this whole time, and that’s usually the goal, right? Is, is to get them to feel so comfortable that I’ve always been there, and then it’s hard because then I just leave like as if it was, you know, that’s hard for me ’cause now I’m leaving and I’ve created all these, you know, fun experiences with them. So, you know, it’s come in. It’s kind of scope out the lay of the land, see how everything’s gonna look, break the ice with everyone, get them feeling comfortable and confident. Small little tricks I carry the camera around, um, and then, you know, we’ve got a great team that’ll come in while I’m doing that is either setting up where I want them to get the locations so they’re getting gear and lights, you know, and so when you see that spot, there’s generally two cameras that are running at the same time. There’s three or four lights that are over and lighting everything up to make it real soft and, and clean, um, there’s a mic that’s sitting right above their head so we get good audio, um, and generally these practices are open. So like not only the chaos of what’s like trying to be done, and when I say chaos, like no matter what, if we were to come into your practice, your practice is designed for dentistry, not a video to be there. So there is going to be, you know, a little bit of friction in your day-to-day. Not a bad friction, it’s just different than what you were designed to do, and we try to work around that, but also practice is live. There’s drilling and sucking going on in the background and right, we’re working in between, and then you try to let the staff know and you know, now they’re laughing in the background and the one person who like finally gets the good line, you know, it got killed because you know, someone slammed the door. You know, so there’s so many moving parts that are happening in that. Where we’re trying to capture so much because this is a big investment for our doctors, um, we’re trying to get as much as we can in there so we don’t miss out on anything for ’em, and that’s part of that puzzle, like where I talked about that strategy and the, and you know, it’s not only strategy and creating the video, it’s the strategy of being there. It’s the strategy of the moving pieces.  It’s the strategy of if a testimonial doesn’t show up, like what are we doing on the spot to fill that? Um. So, you know, it’s a, it’s a lot of fun in, in that strategy. So my goal is really just to get people calm, ease, you know, think of me of like a producer behind the scenes, um, and then once they’ve established that trust in me, you know, I work through the interviews with them, um, and one of the, the things that I always have to be aware of is when I’m interviewing people, you can see either the stress or the pressure start to build on them. Meaning like, where they’re trying to either remember lines or, you know, they feel like they’re not doing because they have no perspective. So maybe they feel like they’re not hitting it, but they really are. Mm-hmm. So it’s, it’s in between some of those is just reassuring them, “Hey, you’re doing a good job. Like, this is great. Keep that. I love what you did there.” You know, or you know, let’s dig a little bit deeper, and there’s some times where in the interviews I’ll even kind of just stop out of the questions and I’ll gone through all of my questions and then they think that it’s done, and then now once they think it’s over, I know what all the questions are. We’re still rolling, and then I’ll be like, well, tell me about that. So they think they’re done. Now the pressure’s off. 

[00:31:03] Regan Robertson: Oh, there’s your secret. There’s your secret. That’s brilliant.

[00:31:07] Matt Hutchings: Now we’re doing, and I’ve got ’em, and so now I know the structure and subconsciously they know the structure ’cause they went through the questions with me. Mm-hmm, but now I’m coming back and there’s that, like when I used to do sales, when an objection comes and when someone says, send me an email, it was always like, yeah, I’ll send you an email. No problem. What’s that email? Mm-hmm. Now they think the sale is over, the question is done. They just send me an email, but then I would roll into other things.  So it’s the same kind of tactic of, you know, walk through it. They’re like, okay, I’m done, and I was like, and then I would go, you know, “I really love what you said here. Can you just tell me a little bit more about that?” And we’re still rolling and, and we’ll catch it. 

[00:31:43] Regan Robertson: That’s beautiful, um, that’s really, that’s really beautiful. One of my favorite things about, uh, testimonials is so many people go to reviews. Like, I’m a huge review girl. I will go and look at the reviews and read the reviews carefully, and there are words that your patients will use that are specific. It’s specific to your region, it’s specific to the generation, um, it’s specific to the, even the, the type of demographic and service that you want to provide and nothing can compare to that, and I think the other thing that sits with testimonials for me that is so important is so many doctors that I know I work with you, work with, they are, they are really high performing and they’re very hard on themselves, and I don’t know, even if you’re a middle of the road doctor, I, you know, it, whatever, I, I don’t know how many times we stop and we look back at, at how far we’ve come or what we’ve done, and remind ourselves that, that what we’re doing is changing lives and that, that it’s really well received. So, um, you know, so instead of just staying on the treadmill or, or keep outproducing ourselves. There is a lot of power for ourselves, not just for the material that it produces to attract new patients, but to remind ourselves that what we’re doing really does make a big difference, and I think it’s incredible to have a patient say, I will, I will give a testimonial and sit down with you. So I’d, I’d love to. Is it for Dr Barras’ office or is it a different practice? Yeah. So we’re gonna 

[00:33:10] Matt Hutchings: show pull through. Well, yeah, we’ll pull through. Okay. So we did the 30 seconds, you’ll, you’ll, you’ll see someone on there that was in the 30 seconds that she was on there. Okay, um, and then we’ll look at to see if just some of the language like you, so you talked about reviews there for a second, right?  Mm-hmm. So part of, in that discovery, I think you go through and you review their reviews. Mm-hmm. So you see mm-hmm. What people are saying, right? So that ends up in there, um, and this, so then we talked about that 30 seconds, like judgment free, um, now I’ve framed questions in a way that I would think, you know, through my pre-interviews that I’ve done with, you know, to develop this if judgment free and these components are important to the practice, does that resonate with the person that we’re, we’re about to interview?  Right? So. When I do the questions, I don’t ask them to, to give me a line that’s not authentic, and that’s just us now feeding someone to say this, um, which could be good, but like, that’s cheating. That’s, that’s not really, you know, that’s not right. 

[00:34:04] Regan Robertson: You want it to be authentic. You don’t want to, yeah. That’s not, you don’t, you really don’t want it scripted.

[00:34:08] Matt Hutchings: No, so, so the script is in initially some of those in the 30 seconds, but now they’ve made the discovery and they’re on the site. Like, we want to know as a patient, we wanna know what your experiences are and does it align with my core values and should I take the next step to schedule? Right? So I’m still thinking if I should schedule Knot at this point.  So I’ll share the screen now. I’m gonna show a video of now from just the testimonial perspective, right? So now we’ve. We done the pre-interview, meaning I’ve got all the questions, we’re there, we’re gonna move through, um, and then this is what comes out in one of our testimonials.

[00:34:44] Commercial 2: I’m Susan Livingston and I’m from Lafayette, Louisiana. I first, uh, came to Barra Dentistry in 2009. I have had issues with my teeth since. Birth [00:35:00] probably. Dentistry has always been in my life. I needed someone trustworthy, dependable, and qualified. It’s a pleasure now to walk into Dr. RA’s office, no anxiety whatsoever, and, um, a pleasant surrounding with professional services. So the staff is great. After I had all of my crowns in place, top and bottom, AMRO was handed to me to look, and the, the pleasure of that first smile is pretty indescribable. It’s a new experience you’ve been given, a life changing experience that carries over my confidence have has really been boosted, and that that’s so important in life. It lets you be who you are on the inside, and that’s priceless. My name is Susan. I’m a patient at Boras Family Dentistry. I love my smile.

[00:36:05] Regan Robertson: That’s beautiful there. There’s so much to be said for matching. You’re outside, matching your inside, and I know, uh, you know, a lot of dentists do target, um, especially in anyone who’s in a transition in, in their life, so whatever age they’re, but maybe they’re in some sort of, you know, age transitionary thing, and it’s, and it’s difficult, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s difficult and challenging to see yourself age, and you and I talk about it all the time, not a lot, but we do talk about it. Like, “Oh, okay, I am getting, I am starting to get the crow’s feet here and this is happening,” and, and yeah, and we want, you know, we know who we are on the inside, but matching that to, to be on the outside is a really big deal that I, I don’t know that a lot of people, um, address on a day-to-day basis, it just kind of exists, and she just gave a really beautiful story. Like she, she got me excited about that by explaining it, um, you know, in that, in that context of what they were able to do for her. 

[00:37:03] Matt Hutchings: Yeah, and what’s awesome about that is like, so in that framework, right, we’re able to go through and ask those questions and pull all that out, um, but as a producer, right, like. There is a world of like, we’re, we’re producing a scene, right? So her story is initially interviewed, so they’re there, they do the interview, um, but to make it, uh, so the, the patient as they’re watching it, you know, it’s no fun to just watch a face talking. It’s nice we get to see that, but what we like to do is then based on that person’s story, then when she talks about, you know, Amir was handed to me in the conversation. We’re literally recreating moments like that on the fly based on what came out and then now producing that. 

[00:38:35] Regan Robertson: Oh, that’s how that happens. 

[00:38:37] Matt Hutchings: Yeah, so she, I mean, so again, this is not a scripted conversation that came out. I knew generally I’m getting that journey from start to finish and there’s things that I want to make sure. She emphasizes as we talk about her story, right? I’m guiding that, but I’m letting her talk, and what comes out in those sections are authentically hurt, right? Like it wasn’t a say it like this for me. I don’t go back and be like, oh, emphasize this, you know? So I’m just opening the door for her to speak and I give ’em that moment and hopefully, hopefully they feel comfortable and confident and they share it, and then afterwards, you know, that’s about 30 or 40 minutes with them going through that. Then we go through and we create all of those little touch points and those scenes that were talked about. Right. You know, the staff was great. They’re always smiling, right? We we’re able to cut to something where the staff is, they’re smiling, you know, um, you know, I was handed a mirror. She’s got the mirror, she’s looking at herself. So all of those moments are, like I said, there’s so much that gets compiled into that day and into that, you know. The testimonial. We have about an hour and a half to shoot that, you know, we’re, we’re moving, running and gunning and getting as much as we can, but the 

[00:38:54] Regan Robertson: The end result doesn’t look running and gunning, doesn’t look rushed, doesn’t look forced. It feels comfortable and it’s pace really. Well. I would love to talk about the cadence of it. This is, I have never had this conversation with you, and now I know how you make it cinematic. That is brilliant. So you put them at ease, you interview them, and you set up these shots, but this, the 30 seconds felt very relaxed. It did not feel forced at all. How do you, um, pace, like do you even, do you even make tweaks to how fast they’re talking or slow they’re talking and editing or do you just kind of go at their pace, whatever their energy is? Walk me through that. 

[00:39:32] Matt Hutchings: So the 30 seconds is tough, right? So those are two different parts, right? So the testimonial, you know, if that’s a minute 20 or a minute 30, that’s okay. ’cause there’s no real time constraint on that. That’s the one who’s on the website looking at it, that 30 seconds, we’ve got markers that we have to hit. So when I build out the questions and, and script that, I’ll do a general read through at like my pace to go, okay, I’m there, and when it’s built, you’ll see that in that 30 seconds, the camera will cut so it’s not one rolling scene. So what I’ll do is I’ll have it built in chunks, you know, in basically chapters you could say, right? Like I’ll have her or the person memorize just that first sentence, and I get a good clean read to that, and then I could hop to the second camera, which zooms in a little bit in our mind. There’s no disconnect and change. It just went to another topic and so there the camera cuts in and so as long as we kind of follow that and we get good clean, not slow reads on that, those pauses in between, like we can shorten those up or lengthen ’em out and it gives us a little bit of padding or a little bit of room to, to speed it up or slow it down as long as we stick close, you know, to the, the cadence that’s needed, you know, in that initial read. So, and I try to time while I’m there, so I gotta, like, if I’m within, you know, 18 seconds, I know we can cut it down, remove it. Mm-hmm, and got it. 

[00:40:56] Regan Robertson: I, you know, I, I cheated and I just went over and googled the, uh, the Barras Family Dentistry to kind of see what kind of reviews did they get, and are they matching up with what she said, and then, you know, what that initial ad was too, of making you, you know, feeling compassionate and being nonjudgmental, and right away they. They have well over 605 star reviews. So they’re, they’re doing a great job on their, on their reviews, but, um, it’s really the first one that was just four days ago, uh, the ending sentence is, I truly had a great time laughing with all of the staff, so you’ve brought up laughing multiple times. So my assumption is at that shoot, they were laughing and, and that’s reflected Justin in a, a review that happened four days ago, and another one says they make you feel completely comfortable. So obviously they are good at, at reducing your nerves and helping you, um, people have typed all in caps amazing with lots of exclamation, and it was the best experience I’ve ever had at a dentist office. The staff is very kind and understanding. So if you’re listing right now, go to you know, your own reviews and start to pay attention to the words that people are using to describe you because that is. That is your culture and that is your brand. You can’t really dictate what it’s going to be. It’s going to be what your patients tell you it is, and, um, and, and so I think connecting your why with your brand story and then telling that story that feels authentic. You have all of this homework behind you, Matt, and all of this research that helps you guide the conversation without scripting it. 

[00:42:30] Matt Hutchings: Yeah, and, and so. That’s just one part of the day. Right? So that’s one testimonial. So when we go through these, generally, there’s a strategy that’s been built out. So a practice has particular types of patients that they wanna serve, right? So the practice has either, either specialized or maybe the doctor’s been in dentistry for a long time, and you know. Part of what they want to do is if there’s this one patient that exists, and if I could get that person, you know, once or twice a year and we can market to them, and it just makes me happy as a person, right? Like, can we do something that’s built around that type of, um, you know, demographic? So the testimonials. I might not resonate with her that was on the screen, but there’s another testimonial that’s a husband and wife and their children, right? So there’s their story. So everyone has a story in a window, um, that’s built for Think about as those testimonials are invites to your practice, right? You’re I’m showing them to you. Does that align with me personally? I like the story that I’ve seen, right? I, I went online. I saw either the reviews, I saw that 32nd ad. All these little touchpoints. Now I see this testimonial. You know, naturally the next thing if I’m in that discovery phase is most likely I’m either gonna look around on the site or I’m gonna take action and I’m gonna make a call. Right? Um, and we hope that we do enough, good enough job capturing authentically who you are. So now when the patient comes through the door, you know, you maintain the story, um, that you’ve been telling, right? So if the patients are talking about, you know, when I come through the door and the staff is always smiling, right? You better have a team of staff that’s always smiling. ’cause that person has kind of built this expectation in their head that this is, you know, this is why I committed to come this way. Right? So, all of those little subconscious cues that they connected to. You know, I hope as a storyteller, I, I tell that in a way, um, because it was authentically you and then it just maintains, you know, with all of the, the great things that they’ve done and built, you know, over the years, you know, I just got to show it for ’em, which is, which is fun and exciting, and I got to, you know, when I say chaos, I got to come in and create a little chaos of fun, um, you know, to, to share their story ’cause you know, you talked about dentistry, you know, dentistry, there’s. In every community, there’s multiple pillars and mm-hmm. You know, doctors happen to be in the pillar of health and their community, and that’s what’s great for us is, you know, there are four walls, a lot of amazing things that happen for them, um, but generally it’s, sometimes it’s, it’s hard for them to get that story beyond their four walls. So, you know, by capturing these moments and then sharing them, you know, that’s, that’s what gets really exciting, I think, for all of us and me too. 

[00:45:15] Regan Robertson: One of the things that, that I know, uh, you know, can often make you hesitant or nervous, especially with shooting video in the practice, is one, it’s, it’s not, it’s not the cheapest of advertising. It is an investment that you wanna make, and, um, you know, and so, and, and you might, so if you decide to run the practice. While you’re shooting or do you shut it down? You know what prep work’s involved and, and so for example, I absolutely love interviewing a guest that has a lot of knowledge because I can take that one podcast episode and I can turn it into a white paper, I can turn it into an article, I can make social media posts out of it. I can take it and I can diversify that message out to different channels, and so one say, 30 minute interview can get me a lot of channel distribution and traction in different mediums. How, um, how do you apply? How would you apply that to going in and doing video shoot? I know for example, you often do, um, photography with it, which is what I drool over all the time, is these absolutely gorgeous shots that you get ones of like candid in-office images. Maybe it’s a doctor with their family or maybe even, even the head shots you do are beautiful. So I know like you’re there to video shoot, but you also end up doing this as well. Could they take the audio from the video and like turn it into a radio script, or what are some ways that they can expand and get the most out of doing a video shoot with someone? 

[00:46:48] Matt Hutchings: With us. One of the things I personally give them afterwards is an editorial calendar of how to apply everything that’s been done. So there’s already been a strategy of where their marketing consultant is gonna put. So the testimonial, right? That testimonial, if it’s about implants, like it’s going to be on the implant page if I’m in discovery, and I want to know what you do on implants, right? I want the technical or the, you know, the, the, the content copy, but I, there also should be the video there so all of those get placed in the appropriate place on the site, um, they’re also shared through social media and things like that, but also too, you know, depending on, you know, the level of service that they’re working with me on is that editorial calendar could be anywhere from six months to 12 months of all of the pictures that I took, basically kind of framing the scene of like, you know, go grab a picture of Dr. You know, x you know, working with patients. Here’s a caption. So it, it, it, it gives it in a way that has simplified it to where. You know, I still want them to authentically change it to be them based on that scenario, but I give them enough, let’s just say, like 85% complete and then they can go in and customize, you know, throughout the year based on the scenario or the things that are happening in the practice. So, you know, again, I don’t want to be the, the a hundred percent the words for you, like it shouldn’t be that way, but knowing that you’re a, you know, dental practice and a team and other things that are going on, you know, why not leverage some of the experience we have, make it easier for them, um, so that’s one of the things that we provide too, uh, which is nice. You know, it, it, you don’t just now have this big, bright, shiny thing and go, well, what do I do with it? Now your shoulders are back stuck up and you don’t know what to do. Right? Right. 

[00:48:30] Regan Robertson: Like, so if you, and if you, if you have video already in your practice, if you haven’t taken the transcript, that’s something that you could certainly do. There are a lot of tools out there where you can upload your video and it’ll transcribe for you, uh, as well, and you could turn it into, you know, so shorter social media clips or like I said, you could, you could give it to your marketing team and they could make blog posts out of it. They could use specific, uh, you know, insert some keywords, and so there’s just, I think there’s a lot of different ways to get mileage out of, uh, one particular shoot. So it can go a long way. Yeah. Matt. I appreciate all of, uh, the hour that you’ve spent with us talking about this, and is there anything that we didn’t cover that you really wish that we had covered that you want people to know about how to take your why? Take your core beliefs and turn it into a compelling story. 

[00:49:26] Matt Hutchings: Well, what I would say is, you know, I already kind of prefaced in the beginning where once you see something you think, oh, I can do that. You know, I just challenge yourself, like, do it. I want you to say, I can already do that. Like we today have our phones and we’ve got so much technology in our hands. What’ll only make you better is just practicing. You know, get it as part of your practice. Pull your phones out, incorporate some of what you’ve seen today. Try it, um, you know, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to produce some authentic, uh content yourself, um, but also too, um, there’s a very big reason why it should align with some of these, you know, bigger produce packages that’ll last you, you know, a year or two with a lot of marketing collateral. So, you know, what I’d say in the end of the day is, you know, get out there and start producing some practice. Figure out your voice and your why. The better you do this, um, the better you’ll get at even presenting to patients, right? Just putting yourself out there. So, you know, um, if any of this interests you or you like this, or you want to know more about what it looks like behind the scenes, or you just wanna see some of these videos, you know, we’ve got, you know, reach out to us. We can share. You know, we can share ’em with you, we can share some of the pictures, um, and also too, at the end of the day, just don’t be afraid to get out there and just try to produce it yourself. Like, and, and we can support you in that and kind of walk you through, you know, what those steps would look like and then how we would transition, you know, to maybe something that’s a bigger production.

[00:50:50] Regan Robertson: How, uh, what is the best way for people to get in contact with you if they have a question or they wanna work with you? What do they do? 

[00:50:57] Matt Hutchings: They could just reach out to my, my personal, uh, work email [00:51:00] at Matt at productive dentist. 

[00:51:01] Regan Robertson: M-A-T-T-M-A-T-T. 

[00:51:03] Matt Hutchings: Yep. At productive dentist.com, and, uh, you know, if you got any questions or you want to get into, you know, a discovery or you know, just. You just wanna know more about how this works and see if it’s right for you, I’d be happy to, to schedule a discovery meeting with you, um, and that’s where we could dig down into the, the why component, you know, help you discover that or maybe you already have and you have a really good idea of what that why is, and now you’re just looking to leverage what that is and, and put it in a format, um, to expand out your reach. You know, I can help you with that too. 

[00:51:35] Regan Robertson: Well, thank you Matt. Thanks for being on the show.