Episode 701: Find Ways to Be Unified

Happy Fourth of July! In this episode, Kiera challenges listeners to consider the countries they’ve grown up in, and what benefits they’ve received because of those roots. She suggests considering divisions in our lives and ways everyone can be unified through kindness, love, and understanding.

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Transcript:

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0:00:05.8 Kiera Dent: Hey everyone, welcome to The Dental A-Team Podcast. I'm your host, Kiera Dent, and I had this crazy idea that maybe I could combine a doctor and a team member's perspective, because let's face it, dentistry can be a challenging profession with those two perspectives. I've been a dental assistant, treatment coordinator, scheduler, filler, office manager, regional manager, practice owner, and I have a team of traveling consultants where we have traveled to over 165 different offices coaching teams. Yup, we don't just understand you; we are you. Our mission is to positively impact the world of dental, and I believe that this podcast is the greatest way I can help elevate teams, grow VIP experiences, reduce stress, and create A-teams. Welcome to the Dental A-Team Podcast.

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0:00:50.5 KD: Hello, Dental A-Team listeners, this is Kiera. And happy birthday, America, today! Oh, I love the Fourth of July, and I am so thankful for this country that we get to live in, and for those of you, 'cause I know there's quite a few of you that are not American citizens, happy Fourth of July to you as well. I hope that you celebrate the country you're in and that you're so thankful for that country.

0:01:14.6 KD: Today, I just wanted to get on and have one where I just talk about, one, the gratitude I have for the country that we live in. And again, I hope that you have gratitude for where you live, no matter what the circumstances are. Those are your roots, that's where you came from, and because of those roots, you get to be here today, and I'm grateful for you. And so that country, just give it some love. I love America. I'm so thankful for this country that has given me the opportunity to grow Dental A-Team, to be able to talk to all of you, to have freedom, to be a female business owner, to be able to just live the way I wanna live, to worship the way I wanna worship, to have the joys and the beauty that I get to have.

0:01:58.1 KD: And so, definitely wanted to hop on and think about, for you guys of what has, living in the country you have, running the business you have, how grateful are you for the things that you've been able to do? So I'll speak primarily for America, but please know for those of you, 'cause I know we have listeners all across the globe, which is truly something so special, let's just think about and let's take a moment today to really be grateful for what we've been blessed with. Because for us, let's just talk about, in America, the fact that we were able to start our own businesses and to create them and to run dentistry the way we want to, is a pretty incredible blessing that we have been blessed with, to just be able to serve our communities and to reach out. And so, on this Fourth of July spirit, on this level of being grateful for what we've been blessed with, I wanted today to kind of just be a little bit of a different podcast for you.

0:02:55.3 KD: So I want to all take a minute and to just list off what have you been able to receive in your life right now, based on where you were born, the roots that you have. So for me, being in America, the things that I'm grateful for are, and it's not due to America, but just the fact that I was born here, I have an incredible family that I'm super grateful for. I was able to go to school and have a great education that prepared me for what I'm doing now. I was able to go to college in Utah and get an incredible education there, which really helped me understand my passions and my desires and the things that I wanna have. We were able to then... I was able to meet my husband on a blind date, that's a true story, and I was able to marry him in the place that I wanted to get married. And then we were able to go to pharmacy school in an incredible state, Arizona. We were able to switch states, got married in Utah, and we went to Arizona, and he was able to get an incredible education. I was able to work at the dental college. How amazing that we were able to be there.

0:03:56.8 KD: I thought about the health care I've been able to receive in my life and what a blessing it is to be here, especially with our IVF journey and having great doctors and great connections with resources. And I think about the time when I had my appendix out. Thank heavens that we have this incredible healthcare that I was able to go in and get my appendix removed and still be alive today. And I just think about what are all the things that have happened. Even the... So I want you to go down and make a list now of all the things that you're grateful for, that the country you're born in has blessed you with.

0:04:29.8 KD: Now, I know that there are some places and there are some beliefs that we don't necessarily agree with, and I'm okay with that. I'm not here to advocate one way or another, but just for you to realize, what has this country that you are born into blessed you with? My favorite thing is truly that I have been able to be blessed to grow a business the way I want to, to hire team members, to create something that I'm so proud of. I don't love paying taxes, but honestly, when I do pay them, which I do, I take it as just my payment of gratitude for the country I get to live in, that I have paved roads and clean water and opportunities to access food and education and the internet and all these different things that we're so blessed to have, all because of the country that I'm a part of. Are there things that I don't like? For sure. For sure. But there are so many great things that we get. So I want all of you to just list off, what are all the great things that have come into your life because of where you've been able to live and grow up?

0:05:29.9 KD: Now, on the flip side, I want you to think of, and we're not gonna go dark, I've got a reason for doing this, let's have some of the things that you maybe don't agree with. I'm not going to share mine; we're gonna keep this podcast positive, but I want you to think about it. And then I wanna just ask you, so I think about the fact that I don't get live close to my family, I think about... This is such a dangerous zone and I'm not going to share my own political beliefs or my own religious beliefs or my own just in general beliefs. But there are some things that I don't agree with that our country does. And I wanna ask you, is there a way that through kindness and gentleness and love... I think back to Martin Luther King, and I think about his positive protests, what was happening was wrong. I just watched Salem and it was wrong and it was not right, and the things that they were doing were not correct.

0:06:26.7 KD: But I love how he took action to make things right. But he did it in a way of love and grace. He didn't do it in a way of malicious hate. And I feel like today, it's like, how can we unite? I love that in America, we say, "One nation under God," like we are united. And I think right now, what things are you allowing to divide you from people? I get emotional about this, because I love our country so much. I love the people that we get to be with, and I just feel that they're becoming this division in our world. There's becoming a division of religion, of class, of who we love, of all these different political pieces, and I think what made us become who we are was not by looking at our differences, but by realizing the good things about us. Think about... I love seeing when people have different races, like when they've been at war with each other, and they can offer a hand of love and forgiveness.

0:07:34.5 KD: I wanna ask you right now, maybe what is something you've been holding on to that has divided you from someone in your life? That could be race, it could be a religion, it could be a family member, it could be a friend. And I wanna ask you, and this is hard, I'm getting into a hard spot on a podcast like, "Hey, welcome to Kiera Dent's therapy day today, I'm here with you," but I believe that hatred and division causes more pain to us. And so, today, we're celebrating America's birthday, but I also wanna give you an opportunity to, one, be grateful, but two, what could you do today to not be as divided? Where could you offer forgiveness?

0:08:18.0 KD: I remember reading a book. Holy cow. It made me so hateful towards a group of people. I was angry. And I remember seeing some of those people walking, and I've not been really a hateful person, and I was just... I had so much hatred for how these people had treated another human being. And I had to realize that wasn't this person in front of me. That wasn't this person making it this way. That has been the past, and while I don't agree with that, that doesn't mean I should carry on hate and be divided from someone else. And for some of you, this podcast, you might be shutting it off, and I'm okay with that. Because right now, I do believe, as a nation and as a country and as a global society, let's start reaching out our hand to unify, to find how we're more similar than we're not, because I believe so many of us out there are lonely.

0:09:20.3 KD: This is becoming such a piece of our society that is almost becoming the silent killer because we're not willing to forgive. We're not willing to accept other people for who they are. We're not willing to say what we feel because we're afraid of judgment. We're not willing to have conversations of differing opinions through love and understanding. But instead, we're sitting there dividing. And guys, I am no politician and I am no religious guru and I am no person out there that's sitting here telling you how you should live. All I'm suggesting is, can we look to see how we could be a little kinder? Can we look to see how we could forgive just a little bit more? Can we look to see how we could unite with other people in our communities, to be...

0:10:06.8 KD: It doesn't matter what it is. Because guess what? I guarantee you: If all of us went into crisis mode, like let's thing back to COVID, people loved each other. They opened their doors. They helped each other out. People were sharing food and toilet paper, and we were united in such a weird way over a catastrophe. And I just think, "Let's not have a catastrophe be the cause to unite us." How could we be a little kinder to our patients? How could we be a little bit more servant to other people to where we serve them with a servant leadership? How could we be a little bit kinder, a little bit more forgiving, a little bit more accepting and understanding? And I'm not saying that you have to accept things that you don't agree with. I'm just saying, how can we love people and unite and see are the things that have brought us together as opposed to the reasons that pull us apart?

0:10:57.6 KD: At the end of the day, we're all humans, and most of us have the same feelings, the same fears, the same insecurities. So I'm gonna encourage you today to smile to a stranger, to say hi to someone, to reach out to someone that maybe you need to forgive and let go of, to write a letter, it could be a journal, of someone that you need to forgive. And not for them, but for you. 'Cause I know when we forgive and we let go and we unite as opposed to destroy and alienate, that fills our soul. And as a country, as a place where I love to be, a place that I'm proud of, and I'm not proud of everything that we've ever done, I'm not saying America's perfect, I'm not saying any of that. I'm just saying I am so grateful for the life that I have been blessed with. I'm grateful for my neighbors, grateful for the communities that I get to be a part of. And I know I could be a better participant in our community. I know I like to lock myself behind my door and hang out with myself, but realizing that if I just reached out to someone, I could bless them as much as it would bless me.

0:12:03.3 KD: So today, you guys, I want you to look around, I want you to smile, I want you to look for one way that you could lift someone else, to see how you're more connected to someone, because usually, and I'm not saying everyone, don't worry, I know that there are circumstances that are painful and I'm not asking you to go to that, what I'm saying is, open our hearts to love. Be a little more loving. Be a little more kind for you, and see the healing effect of forgiveness, for uniting, for loving a friend, for helping a neighbor, for being that friend that can be there to help your other friends, to be that sister, that brother. That would be so... Your family is just seeking to have again. Be that person today. I promise you, it'll lift your spirits and will ignite your soul. It might be hard. It's hard because oftentimes, and we do the right thing, we want immediate gratification 'cause it was hard, and sometimes those things can't be forgiven, so we feel like doing the right thing off and feels wrong. And we feel like, "Why? Why was I punished for that? It was just easier to not do that."

0:13:03.4 KD: But long-term, who do you wanna be at that finish line of your life, and what things can you let go of now to give yourself more space? So, as we celebrate America, as we celebrate you, be grateful for the things that you've been blessed with. Be grateful for the life that the country you were born and has given you, whether they were hard times, they made you stronger, whether there were great times, and they made you better. And then look for how can you be more united to your co-workers, to your community, to your family, to your friends, to your significant other, and extend that forgiveness and that love just a little bit more, and see who you become over the next year as we celebrate this.

0:13:39.0 KD: Cheers to you. Cheers to America. Cheers to this incredible life that we get to live. I am so thankful for each of you. Without this country, without my life, I would never been able to meet all of you, to be able to get on the podcast and hang out with each of you and to be a part of your life. And so today, I'm especially grateful for all of you. I'm grateful for the example you set to me, the kindness that you show, that you remind me that there's goodness in this world, that you remind me that even on those hard days when I'm like, "What the heck is happening?", that there are just good people in this world. That's you. You are doing better than you think you are, and there are people like Kiera Dent watching you, cheering you on, and so grateful for the example you're choosing to be. And with that, guys, I'm so appreciative of you. And as always, thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on The Dental A-Team Podcast.

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0:14:30.5 KD: And that wraps it up for another episode of The Dental A-Team Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.

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