The Courage to Change: A Dentist’s Story of Revival & Growth (E.271)

“My problem was I was over empathizing… you are making decisions on behalf of the patients, taking their power to decide away from them.” ~Dr. Chris Constantine

In this compelling episode of Everyday Practices, Dr. Chris Constantine shares his remarkable journey from the brink of practice bankruptcy to exceeding his ambitious financial goals, all while staying true to his values of putting people first. Dr. Constantine, who practices in Towson, Maryland, opens up about the vulnerable moment when he realized he might not make payroll, and how this crisis led him to make the brave decision to seek help through Productive Dentist Academy (PDA).

With candid insights from PDA coach Jodi Boni, this episode reveals how small changes in mindset – particularly around treatment presentation and self-worth – led to dramatic improvements in both practice performance and personal wellbeing. Dr. Constantine’s story is especially powerful as he shares how he increased production from just over $1 million to $1.5 million in less than a year, all while maintaining his commitment to ethical patient care and team development.

As you listen to this episode, we invite you to ask yourself the following questions:

• Am I making decisions for my patients based on my assumptions about their circumstances?
• In what ways am I undervaluing my time, expertise, and services out of a desire to be liked?
• What weight am I carrying alone that could be lightened by asking for help?

Whether you’re a dentist facing similar challenges, a practice owner looking to grow, or anyone interested in the human side of healthcare business ownership, this episode offers valuable lessons about leadership, personal growth, and the courage to ask for help when you need it most.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] Announcer: The Productive Dentist Academy Podcast Network.

[00:00:03] Dr. Chris Constantine: Think if you’re at that point where you feel like you don’t have control of your own destiny, and there’s nothing wrong with trying to find someone to help you regain that control. And from us, it went far beyond my expectations.

[00:00:17] Regan Robertson: Welcome to the Everyday Practices Dental Podcast.

I’m Regan Robertson, and my co host, Dr. Chad Johnson, Dr. Maggie Augustine, and I are on a mission to share the stories of everyday dentists who generate extraordinary results using practical, proven methods you can take into your own dental practice. If you are ready to reclaim your time so you can focus on great patient care without sacrificing yourself along the way, buckle up!

and listen in.

Doctor, did you know that PDA coaching doctors grew two hundred and nineteen thousand dollars on average in just the last ten months? If your revenue goals fell short this year and you suspect that patient communication and inefficient systems are holding you back, Productive Dentist Academy can help, but you have to take action.

Register today for the PDA conference March 13th through the 15th in Frisco, Texas. Go to ProductiveDentist. com to snap up your seat. It is the nation’s leading course for growing your practice and your team. Plus, while you’re there, you can set up a free 60 minute session to identify your own unique opportunities for growth.

And if you act fast, you could score a one on one with PDA’s co founder, Dr. Bruce Baird. That’s right. We’re only offering 10 and then his calendar is full. Don’t wait, go to ProductiveDentist. com right now and have a great 2025. We’ll see you in Texas.

My medical doctor, my doctor, we got in a conversation about this right before the holidays and I can relate to her obviously well because of the the business that I’m in but also because I’m in a leadership position so I’m not a business owner per se even though we’re in ESOP but my point being I was asking her what are you going to do to de stress yourself and she was like Patients don’t ask me that.

And I said, well, it’s important to, you know, you do an awful lot and you’re filling out paperwork really late. And we’d be talking about insurance and all of the woes, long story short. She said, I love to weed whack.

[00:02:04] Dr. Chris Constantine: Yeah, I get it.

[00:02:04] Regan Robertson: Yeah. And she was like, I just, she went into great detail about how much it was.

And, and I asked her, was it Zen? Did it get you in like a meditative state? And she was like, yeah, it’s just fulfilling. I know I’m making like, I can see my work and I just really like it. So when you were talking about shampooing carpets, that’s exactly what I thought.

[00:02:20] Dr. Chris Constantine: It’s not exciting for a lot of people, but when I was done.

I walked through the office and I felt really good.

[00:02:25] Regan Robertson: Did it take you longer because you had to empty the water more than you thought?

[00:02:29] Dr. Chris Constantine: Well, yeah, it took longer and then I was only going to do it in a couple spots. We had a big flood a few months ago and there were some stains in some of the residual carpet that didn’t get replaced and it’s been bothering me and I was like, well, I’ll go get one.

And then, so I did that. And then I looked at the other operatories and I thought, well, those could be done. And then I just, I just did the whole place. So it was

[00:02:48] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: meditative for you and then you just let your

[00:02:50] Dr. Chris Constantine: thoughts

[00:02:52] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: ruminate or was there no thinking at all as you were doing that? It was just like restful for your mind.

[00:02:57] Dr. Chris Constantine: I couldn’t even tell you. Yeah. It’s I think cause normally working with patients, your mind’s never at rest and it’s exhausting. Whereas this, you know, it was just like a mechanical, it was like my body took over and I don’t know what my brain was doing. It appreciated it once it was all done.

[00:03:12] Regan Robertson: So listeners, you might be wondering why in the heck we started this on such an odd path, perhaps, and not like my normal introductions that say, doctor, are you struggling with X, Y, or Z?

And the reason is because Dr. Chris Constantine, who’s joining us today, jumped right into what I think our topic really is all about. I did a little bit of research before we brought this doctor on board with us today, and also joining us today. By the way, welcome to everyday practices is my co host, Dr.

Maggie Augustin and Jody Boney with Productive Dentist Academy, who is one of Dr. Chris Constantine’s coaches. Welcome Jody also. So Dr. Chris, thrilled to have you here today because I went and looked at your about us page and read your bio. And I thought to myself, what if you, the listener. So what if you could combine a deep passion for art, a love of silence, and, and maybe a knack for engineering into a profession that can fulfill your heart and your mind.

I’ve said this for a long time that I see dentists as artists who are engineers and it creates a really fascinating storm in the mind because you have two sides of the coin that you’re always working on the function and the aesthetic side. And then, you know, throughout my experience, if you are a business owner, when you go into business ownership, all of a sudden, things change.

You have to engage in activities that you maybe don’t love so much, and you’re suddenly thrown into waters that can be really uncertain. And we’ve asked Dr. Chris Constantine to join us today because he’s been able to navigate those waters. And I think from my reports that I have heard done phenomenally well, past year.

And we’d love to share your story because Chris, you know, the people that listen to this podcast, some of whom aren’t even dentists, but our business owners, it can feel really isolating by sharing your story. You may give them just one piece and that piece of advice may make all the difference in the world for them.

I know I get that from listening to other people’s podcasts. And so I’m grateful that you’re here today. Welcome.

[00:05:07] Dr. Chris Constantine: Thank you. Happy to be here.

[00:05:08] Regan Robertson: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your practice? So you can kind of be our eyes and ears, and we have the scenario of what your life is like. Sure.

[00:05:16] Dr. Chris Constantine: Um, Um, well, so a practice in Towson, Maryland, just north of Baltimore, been practicing since 2013.

I’ve graduated in 2012, but I did a year residency in a general practice residency in Wilmington. And then I came in with my family dentist who neither was really sure it was going to work out. He thought he’d be retired. And I thought, I just didn’t know. I didn’t think he really wanted me there, but we both wanted it to work.

And so I came in with him and then I bought the practice from him in 2018. He’s still practicing. Uh, he’s cut down to about a day and a half a week, but it’s good having him there. Um, it’s an old practice. We’ve got a lot of generations of patients because. My former boss, his father was the one who originally started the practice.

So we’ve got like three or four generations of patients there and it’s operated like any other family practice as years have gone on. I’ve kind of tried to specialize in certain things. I really liked doing surgery and things have been kind of going that direction. Um, I was investing a lot in sort of those skills, but then had a bit of a crisis, which we’ll probably get into later, which is what kind of brought me to PDA and, uh, and it’s really helped me feel a lot better about the practice.

I feel like I’m having a real ability to control, um, the direction it’s going and also de stress a lot of the things which I don’t like dealing with when it comes to running the practice.

[00:06:33] Jodi Boni: You know, what’s, what’s really interesting is the dentist that he bought the practice on was his dentist growing up to like, he’s known him since he was a child.

[00:06:43] Regan Robertson: That is awesome. That is so touching to me. That’s interesting. You know, I, I don’t Jody often think about, which I should, why don’t I, because of associateships too. I don’t think of, um, apprenticeships or, you know, uh, legacies like that, but you were able to carry on that legacy, Chris. Did you

[00:06:59] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: want to become a dentist because of your dentist?

[00:07:02] Dr. Chris Constantine: Not, not specifically him. I had, uh, so when I was little, um, and my mom hates this, but I always kind of blame her a bit. She put me to bed in naps with a bottle of apple juice. And, uh, I had a lot of decay and I had a lot of, I saw a pediatric dentist who was really good. He didn’t use any sedation, didn’t use any nitrous, but I got a ton of work done through him, but I was never really scared of it.

[00:07:23] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Um,

[00:07:24] Dr. Chris Constantine: I didn’t think, Oh, I want to be a dentist, but it was just like, okay, this is just something that’s interesting. And then I, uh, I was always adept at art. I kind of was going down that track, but I really didn’t want to be an artist. I knew I wasn’t that good. And I didn’t have a lot of the, I don’t want to say creativity, but it just, you know, I liked making the art, but there wasn’t really much deeper meaning beyond that.

And I was much more interested in science and medicine. So I thought about going into medicine and dentistry always kind of was bouncing around in there because I thought, you know, I get to kind of use my hands a bit more. Could be pretty neat. And then I was thinking, Oh, maybe I’ll go into industrial engineering or it just, I couldn’t, nothing fit.

And then my brain switched. And I thought, you know what? Dentistry just fits, let’s just do it. And it was like the week before undergraduates started and I changed my major and then I just sort of never looked back. From there,

[00:08:13] Regan Robertson: have so much passion for, um, for people who are brave enough, you know, to go into a career that fits their skill set.

So, so well, I have a few friends that are full time dedicated artists and I’ve asked myself the same thing, Chris, you know, I, I’ve always loved art and I’ve been able to apply it in really great ways. But I never felt like I had a message for full time, you know, artistry. And so I’m always amazed at the bravery for you to be able to combine all of your passion into one particular role.

Um, talk to us about this crisis that you mentioned that happened in the practice and what sort of came about from that and you realized, Oh, I’ve, I’ve got to make a change or whatever it was.

[00:08:51] Dr. Chris Constantine: So I’ve been in the practice since 2018 and I hired a consultant just cause I was like, I don’t really know what I’m doing in terms of practice ownership and long story short, that.

It was kind of a waste and I wasn’t ready for it either. They could have been the best consultant in the world, but I thought I kind of knew everything. I thought, you know, they just want me to squeeze patients for money. And, you know, I don’t want to do that. And which, you know, I learned is not the case, but I had to sort of develop some humility and owning a practice will definitely do that.

And there were a few times where the office bank account would get really low. And I couldn’t figure out why, you know, I’d say, well, I wasn’t, it wasn’t that we weren’t that busy or I felt like the chair was empty, but, and I’m not spending a lot. I don’t know what’s going on. That was a few times that happened, but then it always came back up and I thought, oh, okay, I’m doing pretty good.

And then last year I decided to really put a lot of effort into. CE to kind of develop some more of my advanced implant surgery skills. So, uh, and I thought, you know, this will be really good for the practice. I’ll be able to do some more cases. And so I put a lot of effort into that, put a fair amount of capital into that.

And then we had our worst. And I can’t, and I, and again, I don’t know, I still, to this day, I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but the accounts got really low and to the point where I wasn’t sure we were going to be able to make payroll. I mean, we have a line of credit that we got after COVID, but I’d never touched it and it was sort of a pride thing.

It was like, well, I don’t need to touch this thing. And so then, uh, you know, all those feelings and thoughts go through your head of, you know, what have I been doing wrong the whole time, you know, I’m a failure and usually I’m not a very stressed out guy. I don’t. Kind of talk myself through things, but this was a really tough time.

And I was like, this is not a feeling I’d ever want to have again. And then I was, I was looking at all options. Do I just sell to a corporate and just get out of this? I’m not cut out to be a practice owner. And then I talked to one of my mentors. Um, a very good periopros specialist out here and he talked me off the ledge.

You know, he helped kind of build me up a bit. So, you know, you’re a really good clinician and, you know, things you’d like to hear when you’re feeling down. And so then I thought, okay, maybe it’s not just me. Maybe I just don’t know. I don’t have the tools on really how to run the practice. You know, I can be a good dentist, but I have to admit that maybe I need some help here.

And that’s when I started looking into consultants again. And, uh, you know, I interviewed a bunch, uh, did a lot of research online and PDA came up pretty frequently. A lot of the things I was seeing was, not people saying like, Oh, I’m using them now and it’s going great. It’d be people saying I use them and it changed my practice forever.

I used them 10 years ago and it changed everything. And you know, that’s good. You want people looking back a decade and saying, yeah, I’m still benefiting from the things I learned through their mentorship. And, uh, and that’s when I got in contact with.

[00:11:43] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: I’d like to speak to something here because there’s so many practitioners that would have run in the other direction, because here you are, and you have leveraged quite a bit of capital into continuing education. And for those of you who People that don’t own or run a practice. When we talk about excellence and continuing education, we’re not talking about 500.

We’re not talking about 2, 000. We’re talking about tens of thousands of dollars that we spend on CE.

[00:12:10] Dr. Chris Constantine: So yeah, that year was probably about 50, 000.

[00:12:12] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: And then you talk about the investment. So here you are and you’ve leveraged a significant amount of capital and you found yourself in a place where you don’t have a lot of money in your bank account and there is that fear and then there’s that sense of failure and rather than just staying stagnant and saying, I’m going to make back the money, I’m going to figure out how you decide to find a consultant and spend more money and invest more money into both yourself in your practice.

And I find that incredibly brave. And I think that’s uncommon. And if you’ve read the book Uncommon, and Bruce Baird talks a lot about Uncommon, consider that the highest of compliments, because I think there’s a lot of dentists that would have done the exact opposite. They would have let that fear settle so deep in their soul that it would have been paralyzing, right?

And so I just really want to commend you, but, but talk to me, I mean, wasn’t there the, a fear of spending more money when you found yourself in a place where it was hard for you to make payroll? I

[00:13:19] Dr. Chris Constantine: mean, it was, but I made a decision that it wasn’t up to just me to help fix. whatever problems that got me there, meaning that this has been my whole practicing life is I’ve always had a real problem with delegation and, and sort of not putting everything on my shoulders, no matter how big or small the problem in the office, it’s just, Oh yeah, I can do this.

I’d still struggle with it, but it took what I was feeling in that really dark place. That was sort of the wake up call. That was the rock bottom. And it was, look, no matter what I do, I’m going to end up here again. I know it. And I don’t want to ever feel like this again. I’m not the only person in the world that goes through this.

And I’m not the only person in this world that owns a business. What do people do when they have a problem they need fixing? They hire a specialist to help solve that problem. And I needed some specialists to help me solve my problems. That’s what did it. It just, it was basically just getting out of my own way.

And then I thought, you know, if I spend this money and I go bankrupt, well, I was going to go bankrupt anyway. So it was, it didn’t really matter. Put

[00:14:22] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: that on a t shirt. Yeah, yeah, that’s right. We need to do a special page for merch. Okay, every podcast episode should have a t shirt.

[00:14:32] Regan Robertson: Yes. Okay. Bookmark that. Uh, this is a great segue, uh, over to Jodi Boney because, uh, you know, thank you, Chris, you found PDA.

You took the leap, you decided to join and, and hopefully transform. And you actually have a team of support around you at PDA. So Jodi is, is one of your advisors and coaches. Jodi, could you, from your perspectus. Bring us into the story. So what was your initial assessment and, um, you know, of the practice and what were your thoughts leading into this?

How were you going to help Chris?

[00:15:03] Jodi Boni: So my initial thought was he really needs us. This guy really needs us. Um, what I saw was someone that had the weight of the world on his shoulders. And, you know, he was, you could see it in our first meeting how, like, crushing it was. I also saw somebody who was extremely kind when he talked about his team and how he came into the practice and he’s motivated and he really wanted to make this work.

Like, this is someone who is going to benefit. so much from coaching because he was so motivated and the first thing I knew is we had to get money flowing into that practice fast.

[00:15:40] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Talk to me what it, what it means, what it looked like, how it presented when you say he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Like was there the way that he looked on zoom? Was there a body language? Was there a tone of voice?

[00:15:55] Jodi Boni: All of the above. All of the above. You know, you, you, you know, when somebody is seeking help and they’re very sincere about it and they’re talking from the heart, even on Zoom, you, you can see that with somebody.

I don’t think we recorded our Zooms back then, but I wish that we could have because the, the changes just in Dr. Constantine’s confidence, his demeanor, his, the stress level you can see is lifted. It completely, physically lifted.

[00:16:24] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: You can see it. Chris, what is your memory of that

[00:16:27] Dr. Chris Constantine: of that time of starting?

[00:16:29] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Yeah, like if we were to talk about, you know, Jody saying he looked like he carried the world on your shoulders. If you think back to some of your first meetings with PDA, if you were to look at yourself in the mirror in those days and take a selfie and then Okay. If, like, like, I wonder if you could even tell if you looked at pictures of yourself with your family back then and pictures of yourself today.

And I’m sorry I didn’t stalk you on social media, maybe I could have to find my own evidence of that. But I had a similar journey of myself with PDA and I know that I can see it in my face before and after when that weight was starting to come off. Do you see that?

[00:17:07] Dr. Chris Constantine: I mean, if you, I’m sure I could have seen it if it was that month where I was feeling down.

I mean, like I kind of mentioned before it, most cases, I’m not, I’m a pretty try to be stress free, you know, patient stuff to stress me out, but I’m lucky enough in my life where I haven’t suffered for much in terms of worried about running out of money or things like that and having that fear for the first time of my life was really heavy.

And, and that was like, Oh my God. And it wasn’t just me. It was okay, I’ve got these eight other people that depend on me to keep the practice going. If I can’t do that, then, then they, they’re not making money. They’re not going to be able to make what they need to live. And so it was, it was like, it was feeling a ton of responsibility for them, meaning our staff and our team.

So that was a big thing too. And I, I wanted to protect them from me. If that makes sense or from

[00:18:00] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: your from your energy

[00:18:01] Dr. Chris Constantine: just know for me not they were trusting me to provide them a place of work and to pay them and to and if I couldn’t provide that what kind of leader is that yeah I was I definitely say you could probably you could see it and hear it in me and I was very candid when I Started my interviews with, with Brent and, uh, and then when starting with Jodi, there wasn’t a time where I was going to hide how I was really feeling about myself and what I wanted to do.

[00:18:25] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Jodi, I know that it’s a fact that not all doctors are coachable. And I know that PDA doesn’t accept every doctor. And I know that, um, that you said that, that Chris was motivated. How could you tell that he was going to be coachable? How could you tell that he was going to be willing to make the changes that were necessary in growing his practice?

How

[00:18:46] Jodi Boni: I think in just knowing that he had hit his rock bottom and what he’s been doing in the past hasn’t worked to move forward. So, you know, anytime we would talk about things and, you know, we always make it clear, I’m never going to tell you what to do. That’s not my, my place, but anything that we talk about, he’s like, all right, I’m going to, I’ll try it, but let’s, let’s try it, or it might take a little while where you have to marinate on things a little bit, but then, you know, he’ll always come back to that conversation.

And remember when we were talking about this, um, and, you know, sometimes it’s just a matter of being ready and he was ready. Like you said, Dr. Constantine, you didn’t sugarcoat anything. You didn’t try to paint a different picture where, when we walk into the office and we’re like, wait, you didn’t tell me about this.

Um, you were just very out front.

[00:19:36] Regan Robertson: What I love about your question, Maggie and, and Chris, your candidness with us is you are correct. PDA doesn’t take every doctor. And, and one of the things that we’ve said, as long as I’ve been here is if you commit to your growth, we’ll We commit to help you. And I know in 2025, we are reintroducing our 300 an hour pledge, which is the company’s commitment to, to grow you.

And I think that that’s a really promising thing, you know, to, to provide. I want to give a spoiler alert though here. So spoiler alert. I get a report every year and this report lets me know who of our clients is on track to hit their, their annual mission, their goal, who is, is not, and if not, why or who has surpassed it.

And Chris, your name was very, very high up on our list of folks that have met or exceeded their goal ahead of time. And that brought my attention in place. And the first thing I thought, I’ve never met you before, Chris, which is, and Maggie hasn’t either, which is why I get so excited about these interviews.

I don’t know why I have. I didn’t hear why. I just heard. I saw it and thought to myself, this doctor must be really committed to change, which is, I think, even almost as brave, if not more brave, or maybe just more difficult than facing bankruptcy face, you know, head on and saying, well, what have I got to lose?

I’m going to go through this anyway. But neurologically speaking, from a scientific standpoint, to rewire your brain and do change is incredible to me. So I don’t know if you’re comfortable sharing your goal for the past 12 months, what it was. And, and why, why that mattered to you? What, what it meant to you to have that goal?

[00:21:06] Dr. Chris Constantine: So our goal that we worked out at the beginning was to achieve 1. 5 million in production before the end of the year. And I remember, I think I was in a meeting with Brent deciding on that number and he said, you know, what do you think of this number? And I thought, tell you where we were before. So I think we finished the year before it just over a million.

[00:21:24] Regan Robertson: I

[00:21:27] Dr. Chris Constantine: thought he was insane.

[00:21:28] Regan Robertson: Brent, Brent Hogan, our vice president. Yeah.

[00:21:30] Dr. Chris Constantine: Yeah. And I thought, sure, we can say whatever number it’s going to be, but we’ll, we’ll never hit it. But if we hit half of that, I’ll feel, I’ll feel happy. I’ll feel like, okay, you know, We’ve made some positive impact. It was like the first two months, you know, not much was going on in terms of the numbers and watching the numbers was something I had never done before either.

This was all new, which is why I was so not in tune to the practice before, you know, we could have a great month or we could have a bad month. I had no idea until the end of the month or when I just looked at the

[00:21:59] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: dental Intel,

[00:22:00] Dr. Chris Constantine: this before down. So we, we got that, but even just as simple as. Tracking our production per day or production per week never, never crossed my mind.

In fact, I always was kind of afraid of it because I thought, was this going to make me push stuff that isn’t necessary or, you know, patients don’t need. And, and I was missing the point. I hadn’t had it discussed with me to really think about it in a way as, you know, it is money, but it’s, it’s dentistry.

So the more that we produce, the more dentistry we’re able to do. And the goal is to be able to serve our patients. So anyway, back to that number. Yeah, I thought it was crazy. I thought we’d never reach it. And then halfway through the year, Jody mentioned that we were on track to maybe meet it. And, and I thought, okay, well, that’s great.

We’ll probably have a couple of down months. You know, it always evens out, you know, we’ve had some really, we had like four really good months. Like each month was better than we’d ever done. And I thought, you know, we’ll have a few empty months. We’ve sort of done everything and it just sort of kept going.

And then. I think we hit our production goal early. I think we hit it in November. Hit it by the

[00:23:00] Jodi Boni: end of November.

[00:23:01] Dr. Chris Constantine: Yeah, and then we hit it with collections before the end of the year, which really, that was way more impressive to me. And even then it’s still, it feels really good, but it’s, it just feels better that this whole time I never increased any of my, my pay.

I didn’t do anything. It was just nice. that the practice had such up to practice, have made everyone to work and not be there next year. It’s it’s more of my practice, mine for five years. I’m Like I said, it was my former boss’s practice for 35 years. And there were a lot of things that I was doing that I picked up from him.

It’s good and bad habits. So it’s, it’s helped me kind of shape the practice into more of my identity.

[00:23:45] Regan Robertson: Well, you’ve now gone through, it’s almost like a, I think vasopressin maybe is the term for it. You’ve gone through a struggle. You’ve gone through a journey and a quest, and you’ve come out successful on the other side.

And that definitely locks in that feeling of, I think, ownership. You know, you’ve battled it and can come out for our listeners. This is for Jodi Ann. Chris, what do you think the most impactful changes you made throughout this year that has helped drive that growth and helped you relax and feel a little bit more confident with the financial buffer you now have?

[00:24:16] Dr. Chris Constantine: That’s easy for me. There are a bunch of things, but the main one was coming up with a, a standardization for the treatment of our patients. And so what that means to me is. is not like a pen to paper. This is, you know, this is our graph of how we treat everyone. It was just getting out of my own way. So, like I said, we’ve got a, like a family practice of decades old.

Uh, you know, every dentist, you know, your patients really well and you empathize with them. Well, my problem was I was over empathizing and I know all these patients What their sort of financial situation, or I thought I knew what their financial situations are, or I know what they’re dealing with their families, you know, someone sick, whatever.

So I was going into my mind before I would present treatment to them.

[00:24:56] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: You are making decisions on behalf of the patient. I was

[00:25:00] Dr. Chris Constantine: taking their power to decide away from them. I was saying, you know, say there was a tooth, the easiest example, you know, it’s a. fractured tooth. It’s got a big filly. It really needs a crown, but I perceive that that they’re not going to be able to handle that.

And, you know, I look, you know, I don’t, I don’t know if I could take whatever 2, 000, their money for a crown. So, you know, let’s just do a big filling and see how it goes. And sure, it might be fine, but that’s not, that’s not the ideal treatment. And what I started doing with PDA was look, presenting ideal treatment and presenting options and letting the patient decide.

And it wasn’t that I was always doing that, but it was enough where it certainly had an effect. And then the other big thing that from PDA was sort of valuing myself. Um, I put really little value on my time, meaning we, I would write off a lot, you know, whether it was, you know, Patients come in for a limited exam, and if it was just diagnostic stuff, I might just not charge the patient.

And, and things like that, in my mind, I’m like, oh, you know, they’ll, they’ll appreciate that, but they might not have ever seen that they weren’t charged. They’re like, oh, maybe this isn’t something he charges for. So it’s not even, they’re not even seeing it as, oh, he did this For me, for he likes me or whatever, I don’t, cause I’ve been in a lot and he’s giving me a break.

So valuing my time has been a big part of things too. Meaning if I decide to do things, you know, generally I’m, there’s going to be a fee for it. Or if I want to courtesy it down or something, there’s always going to be enough to not devalue my services and my time. And I think that helped my mental health too, because it’s not helped my self esteem as a dentist and to feel more like.

You know, I’m providing a good service here, just like everything else. You know, you, you expect to be compensated for it. You want to compensate those that form service for you. So it kind of, those two things together have certainly really helped us with meeting our goals for the year.

[00:26:41] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: When you learn about these PDA tactics of not making the decision on behalf of a patient, because when I did that, I wanted to be liked, you know, um, and when you started to make the realization that, okay, I should.

charge for these limited exams, did you worry that when you were going to make that shift, patients were going to possibly give you pushback or you would, you know, that you would maybe lose patients in you making that mind. Set shift, there was going to be some sort of a turbulence in the way that your patients have always been treated.

Totally, yeah. Right? Yeah. And, and so, and did that happen?

[00:27:22] Dr. Chris Constantine: No.

[00:27:23] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: Exactly. That is like, that’s the freaking magic right there. It doesn’t happen, it’s in our head. Right? Yeah,

[00:27:31] Dr. Chris Constantine: and there’s a few specific cases where there were new patients for things that came in with a single issue. And, They, whether it was, you know, a single implant consult for one tooth, and it was, this was when we really started kind of working harder with Jodi and I thought, well, I could just treatment planner for this single thing, but she had these other problems and I thought, well, I’ll discuss with a more comprehensive plan thinking.

This is crazy. It’s a 20, 000 plan. This again, it was me prejudging. This person is not going to want it. They just came in for this one thing. And I presented it and I presented the alternative single implant. And she says, she says, Oh, well, no, I can vote. This has always bothered me how my bridge looks on this side.

And I want to do this one. And I think she’s scheduled like two weeks later. And it was like one of those. A ha moments of, oh my god, I’ve not only been doing a disservice to me most of my career, I’ve been doing a disservice to a lot of patients by not giving them the autonomy to make their own treatment decisions, by giving them the most ideal treatment options.

[00:28:28] Regan Robertson: Goosebumps, right? Well, that is one of the best like physical tangible examples I’ve ever heard of what it means to get out of your own way. I always ask like my peers, like, what’s my blind spot? Or I’ll ask Victoria or Bruce, do I have a blind spot here? Help me see what I don’t see. And gosh, like when you say it like that, it feels like it wouldn’t be that big of a deal.

And then it equates to an enormous deal on the other side of it. But when you’re in the moment day to day from patient to patient, I can just see how naturally it would happen. And so to make that shift is to me, quite I’m wondering from your perspective, so put Chris in the hot seat here. Where do you think he adopted or was eager for change the most of the things that you, you know, you and the team recommended, uh, we should give Angela a shout out here too, who is Chris’s business advisor at PDA.

Yes.

[00:29:15] Jodi Boni: I wish Angela were here to talk with us. I think really the most easily adopted was a point while scheduling to have more consistency for himself, for the teams, for the patients. And, you know, I think that was number one when we spoke the first time with the whole team, you know, what stresses them out the most, the schedule, you know, falling apart, being too busy one day.

Being busy, but not productive. So getting the team and Dr. Constantine on board to implement that was probably one of the easier offices that I’ve ever worked with to get that going. And they ran with it.

[00:29:57] Regan Robertson: I’m so happy that you just brought in the team. Cause that, you know, we’ve talked a lot about, uh, Chris, who talked a lot about you and your struggles and your goals, what changes did either of you in the team over the last year.

[00:30:08] Dr. Chris Constantine: We have made so many changes, but a lot of changes in the front office. We were doing a lot of things from our handoffs that were inconsistent. Passage of information was really poor, sort of record keeping from back to front. It just made the front office’s job much more difficult and it was wasting a lot of their time.

Those have been tightened up quite a bit. And there was a lot of, Tough days of getting used to that. They’ve said to me how much happier they are and how much better things are going up front now that we’ve made all these changes and it’s just helps with consistency, you know,

[00:30:42] Regan Robertson: do you think that this has impacted your culture at the office?

[00:30:45] Dr. Chris Constantine: Yeah, I think so. We’ve always had a pretty close culture, but I think it certainly empowered a few different staff members that really stood out as. kind of their own leaders in the practice. And that’s been part of me to try to my problems of giving up that power. So I think they’re more fulfilled that they can take things either off my plate or make, you know, their own decisions in terms of certain things in the office.

So I think it’s helped a lot.

[00:31:09] Regan Robertson: Hypothetical here. Why don’t you get back into your heart space for a minute? Think back. To right before you decided to take that leap with PDA and time travel 12 months into the future, you had, you decided not to go down any sort of consultant route. Where do you think you would be today?

[00:31:25] Dr. Chris Constantine: I mean, I’d be at the same place I was 12 months ago, probably not much growth, probably quite a bit more stressed out than I am now, probably would have gone through another of those dark times because it seemed to be, you know, every year. So it wasn’t often, but they. It was happening enough and still just not knowing why.

And I think it would have worn me down even more.

[00:31:46] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: And then the, the building back up would have been that much more difficult because you would have continued to decompensate.

[00:31:52] Dr. Chris Constantine: Yeah.

[00:31:53] Regan Robertson: What is on the future for you? You’ve made your Goal already, uh, first part in November, collections in December, big congratulations as I’ve heard you speak.

And we’ve all listened to you speak. Now it’s not just about the money. The money just provides that ease and that freedom. I know Dr. Bruce Baird always talks about the freedom that comes when you have the financial means. You can relax a little bit more. Your body just shows up a little bit healthier.

The energy flows easier and you have just accomplished no small feat. And you have enlisted support to help you get there. And you know, in any hero’s journey, there is always a guide. There is always someone go to any movie and watch it. And you will see that there is a guide that steps in. There’s a Yoda that will come in and provide that necessary guidance.

You just have to take the step and be brave enough to do it to Maggie’s Testament. What you’ve done is very brave. What is the future look like for you and your practice? Where are you going now?

[00:32:48] Dr. Chris Constantine: I guess the future is I’m really looking forward to Tightening up a lot of the things that we’ve already implemented.

Now that we’ve got all the little things, it’s just sort of making everything even more cohesive, taking more of the administrative and little things off of my plate, getting to do more of the advanced kind of surgery cases I want to do and, uh, and also looking to expand likely adding an associate this year, adding some more hygiene and, you know, just making it more of, I guess, taking me out of the equation for the practice.

And what I mean by that is. It’s less of so dependent on me being an active part of it every minute of every day, whereas they’re having people there that can take care of the things that can do things better than I can. So that if I do want to take time off for CE or be away for this or that it’s the whole time, I’m not thinking, Oh my God, when I get back, I’m gonna have to double my schedule just in order to make up what was lost when I was gone.

So that’s one big thing I’ve liked about PDAs is. And Jodi mentioned it, which is just sort of evening out the, the numbers or the production on the schedule, whatever that is, it’s just getting rid of the peaks and valleys. So you get rid of those extremes of emotion, you know, and I’ve noticed that too, because even before PDA, we had really, really good months and you think you’re the best dentist in the world, but it’s the same thing.

You don’t know why they were so good. You’re just the best. And so when you’re at the bottom, you feel like you’re the worst. It’s much more comfortable being in the middle somewhere all the time and just not having to. Focus so much on what’s going right. And what’s going on. Cause you know, you’re, you’ve been watching it every day, talking with the team about it.

And when you see things that need to be addressed, we know what to do to try and address them.

[00:34:24] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: And to Victoria Peterson’s advice and Testament, how much time can you take away from your practice or it’s still to continue running and being successful. And it sounds like you want to be able to stretch that from one or two or three.

Or a week to just making it longer and longer and longer so that you can continue being able to provide services to your patients and continue being able to earn a living and maybe allow somebody else other than you to clean those carpets. And if you need to be in a meditative state, I suggest woodworking.

[00:34:58] Regan Robertson: I was going to say he gets to keep cleaning the carpets. He loves cleaning the carpets. That’s okay.

[00:35:03] Dr. Chris Constantine: There’s a lot of other stuff I can offer.

[00:35:04] Regan Robertson: Your new adventure is I’m sitting here smiling and nodding and it looks to me a little too bubblegummy. Because. Having an associate is absolutely major and I’ve seen all the ways that it can go wrong.

And I know that it’s like having a baby to me. I mean, I’m not a dentist. I don’t own a dental practice, so take it for what it’s worth. But from my humble outside opinion, it is very serious. to do this and I’m so proud that you’ve got your practice to a point where you can create that predictability and you are allowed that option to take the next step.

Congratulations on that. I think it’s going to be an exciting new quest for you and we look forward to hearing your story next year and seeing, you know, all, all that’s transpired in that time. One last question I have for us today. for you specifically, Chris, is if you have any piece of advice you’d like to leave with our listeners today.

So if they’re, um, you know, staring down the face of bankruptcy or, or they’re just completely stalled out and they just, you know, they need their motivation back and they’re not sure what to do. Could you share any words with us?

[00:36:03] Dr. Chris Constantine: I think if you’re at that point where you feel like you don’t have. control of your own destiny.

There’s nothing wrong with trying to find someone to help you regain that control. And from us, it went far beyond my expectations. And even the, the goal production part of it aside, it was really nice as a sole practitioner. So I’ve only practiced by myself to have someone like Jodi there, even just to bounce ideas off of, or just to talk to about things.

On the business side, you can’t talk to a lot of your staff about certain things or certain anxieties and the way the practice is. And it was just nice knowing that there was someone there I could talk to, like a dental therapist. And it’s not just about improving the numbers. It’s about the medicine for the whole body.

[00:36:47] Jodi Boni: I think that’s, that’s an important thing to notice because a lot of people have such anxiety around numbers to realize that there aren’t many ways for us to measure the care that we’re delivering to our patients. And the production, the collections, those are all side effects of delivering great patient care and comprehensive care and giving your patients options, you know, so numbers are numbers, but, you know, they carry a deeper meaning of helping people.

[00:37:16] Dr. Maggie Augustyn: I think we equate numbers with self worth, and that’s why it’s so difficult to start looking at them. But the hope in that is that. There’s opportunity to change that and we don’t have to remain static at that same numbers as is evident in Chris’s story. What I would like to do is I would like to, you know, elevate you and put you on display because we’re stuck in this cycle of seeing a lot of.

Profit over people, um, in the way that we are, well, seeing dentists develop. And I find you to be the very opposite of that. I mean, as soon as you showed up on this podcast, the first thing that you talked about was I have these eight people that I have to take care of, right? This is why I want the help.

You weren’t saying I want to make her house. I want a boat. I want a Rolex watch. And I doubt that you were even thinking that, right? Like some people don’t say that, but they might be thinking that. And so what I have found in this podcast, I mean, basically with every sentence you. said, and I think the listeners are with me on this.

We just fell more in love with you. And it’s really an honor to be a dentist alongside of practitioners like you. And I just pray that we can see more dentists. Thank you. And this is one of the reasons that makes me so honored and proud to be on a podcast with PDA and to be faculty on PDA because your story is extraordinary, but it’s extraordinary because you’re extraordinary.

And I know sometimes it’s hard to listen to people say these things about us, um, but really. I mean, you’re truly a gift to, to the people, to your patients and, um, to your team members, to PDA and to our industry, to our community.

[00:38:54] Regan Robertson: Thank you, Dr. Chris Constantine for joining us today, being open and vulnerable and sharing your story.

And, uh, we are going to follow up with you. In a year.

[00:39:02] Dr. Chris Constantine: I hope so. I look forward to it.

[00:39:05] Regan Robertson: Thank you for listening to another episode of Everyday Practices Podcast. 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. com. At productive dentist.com. And don’t forget to check out our other podcasts from Productive Dentist academy@productivedentist.com slash podcasts. See you next week.