375: Self-Employment- Foolproof Ideas for Success

This episode is chicken noodle soup for the soul. Jeffrey Shaw is back on the podcast, this time joining Kiera to talk about self-employment, its challenges, and how to overcome the hurdles. Press play not only if you have your own practice or business, but if you work for someone who does, or know someone who does. Being a business owner is a lonely road, but you have resources.

Jeffrey encourages seeking connecting, utilizing technology (in a healthy way!), and the fine line between being in control and trusting support. Trust is a measure of growth and expansion. He also provides foolproof ideas to run your own business.

Episode resources:

Connect with Jeffrey Shaw

Tune into The Self Employed Life Podcast

Reach out to Kiera

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Visit The Dental A-Team website

Review the podcast on iTunes

Podcast Transcript:

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. Yep, 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.

            Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. You guys, I don't know what I did right in this world to get connected with some of the most incredible people, but today's guest is one of those people. I have been enamored with him since I was introduced to him. This man is out of my league famous, impressive, just is so incredible at who he is, and every time I leave a conversation with him I just feel inspired. I am so excited to welcome to our show Jeffrey Shaw. You guys, well, if you have not heard my podcast with him, be sure to snag it. He is a renowned author, speaker and just an incredible mentor to me. He's all about helping small businesses dream big. He's got The Self-Employed Life. So I am so just honored and thrilled to welcome Jeffrey Shaw to the show. How are you today?

Jeff Shaw:

Well, that is a glowing introduction that I now have stacks of imposter syndrome. So I'll back out now.

Kiera Dent:

Not at all.

Jeff Shaw:

No, but thank you, that was really generous. Thank you. I'm great. I'm glad to be here.

Kiera Dent:

Awesome. Well, thank you so much. I know you and I had such a fun podcast on your podcast the other day, and we talked about being business intrigued. That was kind of the secret sauce. I've been thinking of that podcast since we had it. But, Jeffrey Shaw, I'm going to call you Jeffrey Shaw because that's just who I know you as. So I'm just going to always see you [crosstalk 00:02:05]-

Jeff Shaw:

Okay. So can I tell you a story about that?

Kiera Dent:

Please do. Please do. I'm ready.

Jeff Shaw:

That's so funny that you just did that. Because, I've been a photographer for 36 years. Every child, I'm not accusing you of being a child, but every child I've ever photographed says my name one word. Every one. Jeffrey Shaw.

Kiera Dent:

Jeffrey Shaw. Well-

Jeff Shaw:

When I arrive at the house they come running outside, "Jeffrey Shaw's here." I have no idea why my name kind of blends together as one word, but there you go. Apparently, it does for you too.

Kiera Dent:

I like it. It's probably because it's just a strong last name. My husband's name is Jason Dent, and I always called him Jason Dent, like, "Jason Dent, Jason Dent." I think for you it's just Jeffrey Shaw. They flow together. Your parents did a good job of giving you a really great name that just has a nice flow.

Jeff Shaw:

There you go.

Kiera Dent:

So for people who don't know you, which everybody should, everyone should read your books, just give a background story on who you are, just that little prologue to who you are as a person.

Jeff Shaw:

Sure. So at 20 years old I went off to photography school. I came out, had ambitions to be a portrait photographer. Struggled, as we entrepreneurs do, and needed to find my way. The big shift for me was realizing who I was meant to serve. And while I grew up kind of lower middle class in a small country town, I really realized I was meant to serve an affluent clientele as a photographer, and only because of our values. I mean, to be honest with you, Kiera, I couldn't even imagine what to be wealthy meant. When you don't come from that, what's wealthy? I don't know. 50,000? 100,000? You have no idea. You've nothing to relate it to. So it wasn't the money, per se, it was the shared values.

            I was always someone who really thought very long-term, which is why I was drawn to photography. Having mementos of childhood and to hand down from generations were really important to me. So it takes discretionary income to be able to afford to buy and plan for the future. So I was very drawn to that clientele and built a really solid incredible business once I kind of clicked with that clientele, and have been doing that for 36 years. Along the way, actually at my peak years, I hired a business coach because I actually found the success I had been dreaming of, I found it very lonely. In part because there was just nobody to make decisions with, and you can't talk to your employees about all your problems, and your spouse or partner in life doesn't want to hear it all the time. You go home and you need to separate the two, or so we're told that we're supposed to separate. So I found it lonely, hired a business coach. I was with him for seven years.

Kiera Dent:

Wow.

Jeff Shaw:

I know. I was a coaching client of his for seven years. When he retired, I loved what he had done for me so much that it really inspired me to step up and in addition to running my own business but to serve others in business. That's when I started receiving coach training, became a coach, speaking, writing. That's been about 12 years now, which brings me to where I am now just putting out my second book, speaking on a pretty steady basis, the host of my own podcast. Yeah. I still do a little photography, but I know for a lot of people, because I get asked all the time, it seems like a wild transition to go from being a photographer to speaker and author. But as it is for most of us, the dots in our lives just kind of connect. And for me it makes perfect sense because what I found looking back, that what I did as a photographer is I was really selling something nobody needed to the hardest market to break into.

Kiera Dent:

Sure.

Jeff Shaw:

I realized that I knew some business stuff and I should share it, and that's kind of where I'm at today.

Kiera Dent:

I love it so much. The reason I wanted you on the Dental A Team podcast, because on your podcast we talked about, do healthcare professionals really get taught business, and what are some of the struggles with that? Then I flipped right back around and asked you to be on our podcast because dentists are self-employed. You have The Self-Employed Life, and I loved, loved, loved what you just said of, you found out the population that you were meant to serve. That just struck my heart so much because that's the mindset of that's why you do what you do, that's why you're successful at what you're doing, because those are people that you want to serve and help and give back to.

            So I'm thrilled to have you here. I love your work. I love what you're doing. I know you have a book that's coming out that I cannot wait to get. If you want to send me a signed copy, I will definitely not say no to it because that would just be awesome. But tell us a little bit, because you deal with people of all different professions in The Self-Employed Life, and I have found specifically for me that, like you said, being a business owner is a lonely road. I'm like, "Who can I call and ask, 'Are you stressed ever about figuring out your overhead? Do you even know how to make business projections for your business? How do I know when I can hire somebody? Do you ever just feel like this kind of sucks, and it's hard, and I don't know where to go? What is my next step? I know there's a next step.'" And so I just love that you have The Self-Employed Life where you dive into all these topics.

            So coming from that, knowing we're dealing with dentists, all of which they're self-employed. Walk through just some of the things you see. What are some of the tips, the things that you've seen through COVID? Because pre-show you and I were talking about how you think this is actually a time of huge opportunity for self-employed people versus it being a hard time. So walk us through some of the things you've been seeing in all the works and all the different professions that you're exposed to.

            Hello, Dental A Team listeners. All right. One of my absolute favorite quotes is, "You are always one decision away from a totally different life." So what life do you want to have? Do you want more accountability? Do you want a team that's trained? Do you want to have somebody who thinks outside the box and creates just for you? Do you want to have a coach? Do you want to have team training? Do you just need somebody to kick you in the rear and get you going? Okay. Don't worry. I'm in every single one of those boxes, and that's why we created Dental A Team Silver, Gold and Platinum.

            It's going to be customized team training for you, on the terms you want. So Silver, Silver is more for accountability. Gold, Gold includes all of our online training plus the accountability. And Platinum includes all of that and in office. You guys, I would strongly suggest you go join Dental A Team Gold today because you're always one decision away from a totally different life. So what are you waiting for? Hop on over to thedentalateam.com today. You guys, we only have so many spaces, so get over there today and sign up for Dental A Team Silver, Gold or Platinum.

Jeff Shaw:

Yeah. I will tell you, I mean, having been in business for 36 years now, which is hard for me to imagine-

Kiera Dent:

It's okay. That's almost as old as I am. I know it is.

Jeff Shaw:

I know. I've been in business as old as you are. Great. Thank you. That really helped.

Kiera Dent:

But you started when you were 20, so you were really young.

Jeff Shaw:

Exactly. But do the math. But it's crazy because I was always the youngest. Because I started so young, I was always the youngest in the room, and now I'm always the oldest in the room. What I can say about that, and the reason that length of time is important, is I truly, in all sincerity, can say I love the way the world is changing. Now, do we have crazy things going on in society and in business and in the world? Absolutely. But we keep getting nudged in the same direction, which I think is a direction of more deeply connected ways of being with one another. I think every challenge, even the lockdown, I became intrigued, as I always have, about the challenge of communicating virtually. Suddenly we're doing all out work remotely, we're virtual. But you know what? When you're forced to connect virtually, you try harder.

Kiera Dent:

That's true.

Jeff Shaw:

You try harder to break through the technical barriers to communicate better. And I found, honestly, I've been in business long enough to know I felt the same way when email came along. I mean, there was this instant reaction that, "Oh my gosh, business is getting so impersonal. People aren't calling each other." I was like, "I disagree. What I see happening is I think people are sharing more and opening up more via email. People are saying things in written form that they might not be comfortable saying."

            I mean, I also raised three kids, and I'll tell you, the magic hour of children where you're picking up... I always picked up my kids from school, because the reason is it was the best time to find out what was going on with their lives. Because you'd pick them up from school, they're just coming out of school, and they're in the back seat, and you're making eye contact at best through a rear view mirror. It's the easiest time for children to reveal what's on their mind because there isn't this intensity of being face-to-face with their parents.

Kiera Dent:

Interesting.

Jeff Shaw:

I realized it was a great time to reveal. So I actually think when there are constrictions and barriers in front of us in business, we work harder to break through them and we end up connecting more deeply. You and I have connected in such a wonderful way. There's been so many connections over the past year that you wouldn't think. The reason I believe all this adds up to being the better time for us is that I truly think in business we find that the way of doing business continually evolves to favoring the small business. It continues to evolve towards wanting to have a relationship with the people you do business with. And even right down to support.

            I mean, you're probably doing the same thing. I mean, so many of us are choosing to do business with local businesses because we know it's helping them, right? We know that the impact is greater because we're helping local businesses. And while American Express years ago started Small Business Saturday, that's now spreading to be almost a daily thing. I think an example of that is in the marketing of my book. Now, I wrote a book called The Self-Employed Life, so I didn't want all the money to go to you know who, the big behemoth of books, Amazon, because I was like, "That would be contradictory to the message of the book." So we created relationships with eight other retailers, so there's nine in total.

Kiera Dent:

Awesome.

Jeff Shaw:

Kiera, it's been so much fun to see the statistics and how many people are buying the book from independent online resellers. Some people have said to me, I mean, there was a little bit of a backlash against such a big company, like, "I don't want my money to go to the big behemoth." What a wonderful time this, I think, for small businesses and self-employed businesses and your dentists because people are looking to know the name of their local dentist now. They want that relationship. People want a sense of belonging and they want to be known, and I think more than ever.

            Every time in life something goes in one direction, the opposite becomes true. Every time. So while technology continues to advance in ways that might make us feel like life is less personal, we're going to crave the opportunities when life can feel more personal, and that is going to be when people are turning to their local hometown dentists, their local practices, local professionals, because they're going to want to be known by their name and they're going to want to know who they're doing business with by name.

Kiera Dent:

Oh, I think you just brought up so many beautiful points that I didn't even realize what I was lacking. I explained to my mom, I said, "I'm so sick of the world." I have just felt this anger in me for some reason. I was talking to a bunch of my clients this week, and, I mean, today I've had three calls of just frustrated doctors or OMs, people saying, "I just don't think I'm great at leadership and my culture." And I realize, I think, people are just wanting to be seen, to be heard, to be known. We're craving that connection, like you were mentioning. And so I even think within teams, I feel like we almost have adult temper tantrums kind of lashing out right now, because people want that connection, they want to crave, they want to be connected in these different ways, and we're not having that because it's moved into more technology.

            But also to your point, I agree, I have met more people through COVID and built stronger relationships because proximity's no longer an issue, it's no longer a barrier. I mean, Jeffrey, I don't know if you and I would have met, say, it not been... I mean, I reached out to Lee with Mike Michalowicz because I just love his book and wanted somebody to speak at our event, and that's how you and I got connected. And yet I probably, in all complete honesty, I'm like a wuss. I don't love to connect. I'm like a little chicken that-

Jeff Shaw:

Oh, I'm a total introvert, obviously.

Kiera Dent:

Right?

Jeff Shaw:

Right, yeah.

Kiera Dent:

You talk all the time like, "Yeah, but put me in a room of people, I go find my one buddy, we hang out, and that's how it goes." But just thinking of how many opportunities of people we can meet, but also for practices, now is your time to make a different experience at your practice, to call people by name, to make sure there's that personal relationship, because people are craving that more now than they were before. So I love that point.

Jeff Shaw:

Yeah. Let's stay with that for a moment because here's what I want your practitioners to feel. Here's my advice, hang on. Right? The world is changing. In my book, actually, there's a whole chapter on what I call growth jet lag, because every time there's a change or we change as a person, there's a period of time from when we've changed and the world catches up to us. But also, the world can change dramatically, as it has. Every time there's been a crisis, and I always say this is my third rodeo... I've been through 9/11, and I was living in New York City during 9/11-

Kiera Dent:

Wow.

Jeff Shaw:

... and then the Great Recession, and then this one. So when this one came along, I'm like, "Okay, buckle down." I predicted seven months. It wound up being over a year. But I was like, "Buckle down for seven months." Because some people were saying, "Oh, three months, two months we'll be back to normal." I'm like, "No, no." I could tell this had a longer stretch to it. But what happens in every case, really, the biggest change in the world is people's values. People's values shift, and they often shift in favor of the small business owner because they constantly are craving deeper human connection.

            So my point is, is that your practitioners just need to hang on, because I truly think it's going to circle back around and they're going to see that people want to do business... Again, I think the whole idea of known by name is the thing to remember. People want to be known by their name and they want to do business with people whose names they know. From a practice standpoint I'll share one of the things we did in my photography business, which is just that little detail that becomes so meaningful. Whenever someone needed to postpone an appointment, and my clientele was very busy, so postponements were nothing unusual, but whether they had to postpone the photo shoot or the sales appointment, which was more common, whoever on my team took that call, they would mark in the digital file the reason why it was being postponed.

            They would ask, "So, no worries, but may I ask why are you needing to postpone?" It was often something family driven because that's what I was doing as a family photographer. So it was, their daughter made it to the next level of the soccer championship or something came up usually involving the kids, and that would get marked in their file so that when I saw that client again I would say, "Oh, by the way, how did Suzy's soccer game go?" Right? Known by name. That would blow the parents away because I wasn't even the one on the phone. So they're like, "How did you even know?" Right? But all it took was a little effort to create that level of personalization, but that's why I had a 70% retention rate in my photography business. People came back all the time because it's a place they felt like they belonged. They were known by name. That feeling is only going to increase.

Kiera Dent:

Yes. We talk about that in dentistry all the time. You guys, there's simple ways, it can print on your route slips, it can be a pop-up on them. Docs, you literally can have this spoon fed to you just like they did with you. I mean, I guarantee you, you're a busy man Jeffrey, that you are not sitting there combing all the records, reading up on all the phone calls. And so it was literally being handed to you to say, "Hey, this is why they postponed," or whatnot, just those small details. Likewise, I have an insanely great memory. I don't know why I was blessed with that. I'm terrified to get pregnant for fear of losing it because right now I just feel I have an advantage.

Jeff Shaw:

That's great.

Kiera Dent:

But I agree. I try really hard on all of our coaching call clients to ask. Like, I have a doctor and she was attending Ramadan. I have another doctor and it was going to snow in their area. I have another doctor who their mom had an issue health-wise. I had another office and their son was going to speech lessons. Asking those things, having those connections, I think that's why a lot of our clients do super well because I'm invested. I think this ties also to our podcast we did before, Jeffrey, of I am interested in them as people, and I'm intrigued in their lives. It comes from a genuine space. It's not like I want more business because of this. I genuinely care about the people that I am working with and I know you do too. I think with doctors, genuinely care about your patients and genuinely be invested in their lives and intrigued by them as people. It doesn't mean it needs to be a long, drawn-out conversation. But like you said, it's that small, little attention to detail, the small, little pieces that people, they're just seen, they're known.

            I had an office manager and she called me, and I was giving her coaching and all of a sudden it was like, "Hold on. You just need your doctor to tell you you're doing a good job right now." And I'm like, "You just need to be seen. You just need to be known as a person that you're doing a good job." And all of a sudden I felt waterworks on the other side, I heard it come down, and I realized I also think for each of us as people, seeing people around us, seeing our team members, seeing them as people as well I think is something they're craving too.

Jeff Shaw:

Yeah, absolutely. Again, we're seeing a shift where even bigger companies are getting that, right?

Kiera Dent:

Yes.

Jeff Shaw:

Which is so much easier for small practices and firms to do, to integrate ways in a business that people can genuinely get to know each other. You mentioned earlier also about one of the challenges of a doctor or a dentist managing the office or running the business. That, I think, is the ultimate challenge of being self-employed, because what brings us into self-employment is a passion, something we're deeply passionate about. It doesn't mean we necessarily come with the skill set to run a business, right?

            The biggest challenge for me was being an employer. I just was not prepared for that. It was required because my business grew, but that was a whole other set of skills that I had to learn and to figure out what was the best style for me. I would go to classes and take courses on being an employer, and honestly, most of the styles that were taught out there weren't comfortable to me. What I realized worked for me as an employer was to just be insanely picky on who I hired in the first place and then leave them alone, right? Because I'm innately, like many of us are, a bit of a control freak. Particularly when your name is on your business, and in my case as a photographer literally my name is on the photographs, I hand signed every photograph, right? So literally my name was on it. There's a heavy weight of responsibility when your name is on your practice. So it innately makes us want to be in control.

            But here's the thing about being in control, and it's one of the things I talk about in my book. I refer to it as a daily habit, and one of my event traders challenged that. They were like, "Well, how is that a daily habit?" I'm like, "It's most definitely a daily habit." It's the daily habit of trust. It's the daily habit of living your life and being in business in a way that you trust that things not just work out but that there are forces greater than you, whether that's your faith, whether that's your spirit, whether it's just you don't know what it is, which I kind of fall into that camp. It's like I don't really know what it is. I just know that there's a net somewhere out there that continually, throughout my life, has provided support. And you have to learn to trust in it. It can be a daily practice to remind yourself that that exists.

            But it's necessary, and here's why. It's necessary to your business growth because if you try to run your practice as if it's all under your control, as if you have to get everything done, your business success is limited by how much you can carry on your shoulders. You have to believe that there's some level of support bigger than you. That includes your team. That includes feeling like you have a team that has your interests so much at heart and the interests of the business so much at heart that you can trust that they're going to carry some of the weight for you. Your business can never be bigger than you, which is limited. Your own mindsets are limited. Your business can never be bigger than how big you think it can be until you learn to trust in other people and trust that there are forces working on your behalf. That, actually, people don't talk about trust as a measure of business growth and expansion, but it really is because otherwise you're trying to carry the weight of the whole business on your shoulders.

Kiera Dent:

I don't know if you can see. I try hard to hide my emotions. I think this podcast is for me because that's how I've been feeling, of, this business is all on my shoulders, and if I don't deliver to every client and make sure every client receives these great services, and if I'm not making sure our sales calls are going in such a way that all these clients are receiving the top-notch VIP service, and then helping with the marketing campaigns and the sales campaigns, and then hiring. Then when you said that of having that element of trust, I think there's so many people listening, I think that that's what they needed to hear. I needed to hear that, of trust, because, at the end of the day, I've told so many clients like, "Tiffany and Hunter and Britney, they're actually better consultants than I am," because they're not sitting here thinking about a business all day, where I am. Trusting that I have a team right now that I know is rocking it out, and I'm not even at the office.

Jeff Shaw:

Yeah, that's the best.

Kiera Dent:

And to feel that and to know that. But I also think that that is an energy that I also convey to my team. It's funny because I had an office text me this morning and she said, "I'm so frustrated because my doctor doesn't really believe that the team is great." And I said, I think my exact message to her was... Let me just pull it up so I'm not quoting it. This I literally said to her, "Believe people are great and watch them prove you right." I think that comes right to what-

Jeff Shaw:

I love that.

Kiera Dent:

... you're saying. Because, as you said that I got emotional over it because I thought, "Kiera, you don't have to carry the weight of this." I think so many self-employed business owners feel that if they're not doing it all then the business will crash. But like you said, that's a very limited perspective of, I'm only one person, and how far one person can go versus an army of amazing people, it's a very different perspective. And I think I act differently when I can let go of that and I can trust and know, like you said, that there's just a greater force working in our favor when we're really trying to help and serve those people that we know we're called to.

Jeff Shaw:

It may be that I saw an exaggerated version of that because I was in a creative business as a photographer, right? So there was innately a feeling like it's... And I did all the photography, but I hired creative people, first of all to do the retouching. I always had an in-house retoucher. And I hired various designers. We did really high-end beautiful holiday cards for our clients that were custom designed. I hired designers, and I would communicate to them. I would share the personality of that client, right? I would share what I knew of the client.

            We would always ask the client "Can we say Merry Christmas? Does it need to say Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah?" What is the lingo by which they need to communicate? So I'd ask a few questions, and then I would share the emotional components of the client to the designer and then let it go. And we always had better results because then you have a team of designers that are using their collective minds to come up with something that was far bigger than my single mind could possibly come up with. And you know what? We had a 99.9% rate of getting it right. The first proof we would show a client, they were always blown away, right?

Kiera Dent:

Awesome.

Jeff Shaw:

Because it wasn't limited by my thoughts, and that is where I think it's such a challenge for self-employed businesses, especially when you're so purpose driven. And, yeah, I said, when your name is on the business it can be hard to do, but you'll do yourself a great favor and it is, you're not only doing a great favor to yourself emotionally, you're doing a great service to your business in allowing it to grow by also trusting the people around you and trusting that things are... I have a trust mantra. I'll share it with you because, like many people, I've been through some really difficult times in entrepreneurship. There's a lot of times we look for the meaning. So my trust mantra is, I literally will say to myself, when need be, that, "I trust that while it looks like things are falling apart, I trust that they're coming together for something bigger than I can imagine."

Kiera Dent:

I love it.

Jeff Shaw:

Right? That's what I need to say to myself when I need those times, when I need to remind myself that I don't know why everything looks like it's going to Hell in a handbasket right now. But I trust, and I truly do, I trust [inaudible 00:28:48]. I trust, but, okay, there's a bigger vision for me than I possibly could have seen for myself, and I'm going to trust that it's going to come to be, and it has every time.

Kiera Dent:

That's amazing, especially I feel so, I guess, just timely with where we are, with the things people are facing. I think there's so many people that this is just an exciting time for them. There's another side of people are just like, "This has been the COVID crank. I'm just done with it." I think it's just been very timely. I love that you have a mantra because I feel for so many self-employed business owners... I just talked to a new client who's signing up today. Brand new business owner. He's building out his practice. And he said, "Kiera, I'm just scared. I'm just scared." And I thought, "If you knew how many self-employed business owners would tell you that they're just scared almost the whole way through."

Jeff Shaw:

Yeah. The whole way through.

Kiera Dent:

We have no idea how it's going to work out, and I feel like you just tier up one level after another and you're still scared every time. But I love that trust mantra, and I love that you gave a tangible of something that we can take, that people can take, because I do believe, I truly do. I mean, look at all the different things that have happened in our life of proof that things are always working out better than we could ever imagine. And sometimes I'm like, "Oh my gosh. I don't think I can go tomorrow. This just feels too much." Like you said, I love that trust because it's also letting go and truly almost surrendering that like, "No, I do believe that there's a greater plan than I even can see, and I believe it's all going to come together." So thank you for that.

            I just love that you talk to self-employed people. I love that you come from so many different, various backgrounds, because I feel sometimes in dentistry we can get consumed of only thinking in dental ways. And yet I love, that's why I wanted you on the podcast, for people to see a different angle, to come with a different perspective, because I think oftentimes I know, and I mean, talking to you about photography, I see things in my own life that I would never have picked up on, but yet I can see through your lens. And so walk us through, I just want to hear maybe one or two tips that you have found that's very across the board for any business owner, something that you've just seen as something they should do, something that they should invest in, something that just works across the board. I mean, you see thousands of different business owners. What are one or two little pearls that you've found that could be helpful?

Jeff Shaw:

One of the biggest gaps, and I actually think that business is just one gap after another, right, so I think a lot of times what we're doing as business leaders is just looking for, "What's the gap?" and one of the biggest gaps, which is what I worked with in my previous book, LINGO, is the brand communication gap. Here's my process. So I have a process by which I allow people to fill out an application, and then I review their website, and then I will email them some tips on where I see a gap between what they think they're saying and what's coming across. But the reason I do it that way, very specifically, is because on this application I'm asking coaching questions like, "Well, what do you think are the top three values of your ideal customer? What do you think is most important to them? Why do you do what you do?" People write very heartfelt responses.

            Then I go to the website, and statistically after years of doing this and reviewing thousands of websites, 98% of websites are so boring and flat, flat of emotions, compared to what they wrote on the form, right? That is a huge brand message problem, and I'll bet it's true for 98 if not 99% of your dentists. And I'll tell you why. Because people that are in the most emotionally driven business tend to hide the most, and I think it's just because it becomes known in the industry. For example, I have worked with so many people in the financial industry one way or another, bookkeepers or financial firms, investment firms, and the reason I get the work with them is because when they hear me, they wake up to that reality of the gap between what they think they're saying. And the truth of the matter is, they're in money, anything to do with money it's like the most emotional business there is, right? Then how is it they have the least emotional websites?

Kiera Dent:

True.

Jeff Shaw:

Literally, the brand messaging does nothing to create compelling emotions. It doesn't speak to the person visiting. It's as if they fall victim to this industry standard of looking a certain way. Well, guess what? Same thing in dentistry. If you fall victim to a mindset that you have to look a certain way, then you're all going to look the same.

Kiera Dent:

Right.

Jeff Shaw:

So to me, here's what I deem as the number one competition buster. And believe me, being a photographer, photography can be an extremely competitive business. There's a photographer on every corner, let alone everybody has a camera on their cellphone, okay?

Kiera Dent:

That's a good point.

Jeff Shaw:

Right? And truthfully, beyond that, photography for the most part, particularly what I did as a portrait photographer, it's a luxury item. So my competition were also jewelers, right?

Kiera Dent:

Good point.

Jeff Shaw:

Because there's a matter of where are people going to, and restaurants and vacations, like where are people going to put their discretionary income, on what luxury? So any business is full of competition. How you separate yourself from everybody, and the cool thing is everybody can use this same strategy, is what I refer to as your unique perspective. Do the inner work to understand how you look at what you do differently. I think I may have mentioned to you when you were on my podcast that one of my daughters was heading in the direction of dentistry, because she was going for nursing, and then she switched towards dentistry, and I was fascinated by that.

            I'm like, "Where did that come from?" It's nowhere in our family. She's switched again now, she's heading towards veterinary, but that's just who she is until she finds her way. But when she does, she's fully committed.My point is, is that I wish, and I have to go back now and ask her, like, "Why? Where did that perspective come from?" Why, from out of the blue, would something about dentistry... That's what people find most compelling. What people find most compelling about you as a professional is how do you... It's not just what you do, and that's what people get wrong, it's how do you see what you do differently than other people?

            In fact, today's episode that we released for our podcast, perfect example of this, actually, he's a funeral director who wrote a book called Everyday Legacy. Now, that's fascinating to me, right? Because there's a lot of books out there about legacy and I probably would have found most of them boring. But if anybody can teach us about legacy, it's a former funeral director. Because what I wanted to know, and this is the conversation we had in the podcast, what was interesting is, what did you hear families say that they wished that they did differently before this person that they're picking out a casket for died, right? I mean, what a fascinating perspective. That's how you separate yourself. What people want to know is why you do what you do as a dentist. Where did that come from? What are the roots of your why? Not just your why, but the roots of it. Because how you see what you do differently, your ideal patients either see the world that way as well, or even if they don't, they're compelled by it.

Kiera Dent:

Right.

Jeff Shaw:

I'll give you one other example because I think this is such an important point. A friend of mine in California, in Laguna Beach, he paddleboards every morning. Over the years of doing this, he has literally developed a relationship with the whales and dolphins in the area, to the point that, I'm not kidding you, he goes out, he's got a Jimi Hendrix paddleboard underneath, I'd swear the whales and dolphins recognize Jimi Hendrix. How do they know it's him? But he, for years, has been taking cellphone video of whales and dolphins coming up to him-

Kiera Dent:

That's so cool.

Jeff Shaw:

... and whales giving birth and bringing their calves. So he finally complied these photographs into a book called Blue Laguna: Whales and Dolphins from a Paddleboarder's Perspective. Now, there are, because I Googled, I searched in Amazon, there are over 10,000 books on Amazon about whales and dolphins, but there's only one book about whales and dolphins from the perspective of a paddleboarder. Now, I don't know about you, I find that more compelling than a researcher or a scientist's perspective-

Kiera Dent:

Totally.

Jeff Shaw:

... about whales and dolphins, because I heard that in elementary school. This is different. That's the value of your practitioners getting in touch with why do they do what they do? How do they look at what they do differently than everybody else? Share that story. I shared on my photography website. I used to share the story of the fact that I was the youngest of three boys. There's one photograph of my entire childhood, right? Because I was the third child, I was the third boy. They were bored. My parents ran out of money by the time I came along. They had to buy a legitimate house. They had to move out of my grandparents' apartment and actually pay for a house. My father had to leave construction and take a corporate job. So all things combined, I was the typical American third child that got hand-me-downs, and there's one photograph of my childhood.

Kiera Dent:

Crazy.

Jeff Shaw:

I shared that story, and you can't imagine how many parents when I met them to photograph their family said that that was also their experience or, "My gosh, you pointing that out made me want to make sure that I didn't do that to my kids, so they all have photographs." That's why you share your perspective, because it separates you from everybody else. No two people have walked through the same path in life.

Kiera Dent:

I love it.

Jeff Shaw:

So that's how you separate yourself.

Kiera Dent:

I love that so much, and I think that we often don't feel that our stories are unique or we don't feel like, "Oh, what's my perspective?" The reality is, I was hoping, because I remember you telling me the paddleboard story when we first met, and I was sure hoping you were going to tell that, because I remember that, and it's such a small story, but I'm like, "Oh, please tell the one with the dolphins and the whales." I loved that one. Because, we never know what's going to connect with other people, and, at the end of the day, we want more people that resonate with us. So I love, love, love of coming up with your perspective.

            You've listed so many pieces. You guys, I can't even wrap this up. You're just going to have to go back and listen to it. I'm like, we went from having the perspective of different business people, to technologies actually making us closer, to moving into the mantra of trust, to moving into your own different perspective, so many different areas. I love this because I feel that the people who listen to our podcast, this is a different angle. This is an angle that's not just your typical dentistry. We're not talking systems today. We're literally talking about life and being a self-employed business owner.

            So, Jeffrey Shaw, you have a book coming out really soon. You have a podcast. If people want to connect with you more, how can they get your book? I am so excited for this to come out because I feel you speak to me. You've captured your audience. I am your audience. A self-employed business owner is your audience, and I cannot wait to read this to learn the things that you've-

Jeff Shaw:

Some.

Kiera Dent:

... found. So If people are like me want to connect with you, how can they do so?

Jeff Shaw:

Sure. Well, a couple of things. They can go to theselfemployedlife.me. That's my world for self-employed business owners. It's the book, a two day online summit I just completed but will be doing again next year, and articles I write. I have an advocacy group to look out for the political rights for self-employed business owners, of which there are a few that are on the table right now that are important. So that's the entire world for self-employment, is theselfemployedlife.me. There's also a tool there that they might take advantage of, which is an assessment tool. They can also get that at selfemployedassessment.com. I'm really excited about that because I've always wanted to give people a tool to help them identify where, in what I refer to as the self-employed ecosystem, where they need to apply some work, because all change begins with awareness. So the goal of the selfemployedassessment.com tool is to give you the awareness of where you're weaker in your business, where you need to apply some effort towards. So I find that can be really helpful.

            And a parting thought, if you will, because we did, we covered a lot of ground, but I think it all adds up to this, which is, I truly believe and want to encourage your practitioners to just hang on. I've been in business long enough to say, this is tipping in our favor. It really is. I mean, I did my first live speaking gig yesterday, and I thanked the organization not just for the education they were providing but for being a vehicle for reconnecting. Because right in the beginning I asked the audience for how many in the audience, and there were a few hundred people there, for how many people in the audience was this your first event out? And almost every hand went out. Right? So people are going to be craving their neighborhood dentist to be where they can go to be known by... Look at the whole Cheers... Remember the whole Cheers TV show?

Kiera Dent:

Yes, yes.

Jeff Shaw:

Like, "Why, Norm!" Everybody else, "Norm." I don't think there's ever been a time that I have been on this planet that I have seen a time when people more than ever want to have a sense of belonging. And small businesses have the opportunity to give people a feeling that they belong there. I think, and I've been saying since the beginning of my work as a coach, that it's kind of like my secret mantra behind the scenes, if you will, but it's like, I truly believe we can change the world one entrepreneur at a time.

Kiera Dent:

I agree. I love that.

Jeff Shaw:

I don't want to do it one at a time because I'll be exhausted. But you know what? Any of us could be having a great day and then have a bad interaction with a business and it can ruin our day. But the opposite is also true. How many times has your day been picked up because you ran into a local store and you had a conversation with somebody that made you feel like you belonged there and who appreciated you being there? I actually think this is just a wonderful and meaningful time for small businesses. So hang on there, wait for the world to catch up to you, and you're going to win.

Kiera Dent:

Oh, I love it. You tied it up so perfectly. I appreciate your time. I know you are busy. You're just such an incredible human, and I think the more that we remember that there are great people in this world, the better off we all will be. So thank you, Jeffrey, for your time. Thanks for being here. Thanks for being a part of my life and mentoring me as well. It's such an honor to know you. So guys, go check out his book, check out his website. I can't wait to take the self-employed assessment. I mean, and if nothing else, connect in, and, like you said, hold on. So all of you Dental A Team listeners, thank you for listening. Thank you, Jeffrey Shaw. And we will catch you all next time on the Dental A Team podcast. 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.