Episode 705: Are You Fueling the Energy of Your Company?

 Josh Scott of Studio 8E8 is the star of this episode! He puts his marketing mind to work and discusses with Kiera the building of energy for a dental practice, and how to help translate that to current and future patients. Josh and Kiera talk about the following:

• How to maintain individuality as your practice grows

• Why CEOs delegating marketing doesn’t work

• How to start a strategy for your practice’s brand/energy/story

• And more!

Episode resources:

Check out Studio 8E8

Follow Josh on Instagram

Listen to episode 550, “Wow Factor” Dental Practice Tips

Reach out to Kiera: [email protected] 

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Become Dental A-Team Platinum!

Review the podcast

Transcript:

[music]

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. 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, and oh my gosh, it's been far too long since I've had this incredible guest on the podcast. One of my dearest friends, owner of Studio 8E8, Josh Scott. Dear friend, brilliant marketer, incredible background as always. Josh, welcome. How are you today?

0:01:09.8 Josh Scott: Hey, I'm so good. It's always fun to talk to you. I was just telling you, I'm like, I have prepared nothing 'cause you and I can talk like pretty easy. So it's just, we'll see what happens today, but we'll talk good stuff.

0:01:19.8 KD: We always talk good stuff. Josh, I feel like our listeners, it's been a hot minute since you guys have been on the podcast. Studio 8E8 and Dental A Team, definitely are our family. Like we are... You have, it's Josh and Joanna, Kiera and Dental A Team. I need to get a Joanna in my life, so that way I... Maybe me and Tiff, right?

0:01:39.3 JS: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

0:01:40.2 KD: And I feel Studio 8E8 and Dental A Team, since day one of meeting you guys, it's just been this crazy, awesome partnership. I love what you guys do. You guys have been huge supporters of the Dental A Team. You guys spoke at our summit. I'm obsessed with what you guys do. I refer tons of people to you. If you wanna look like a million bucks and have the most beautiful website of all time, hire Studio 8E8. There's what I'm gonna say about you guys. Josh, anything you wanna add to that? Like we can wrap up there, right?

0:02:09.0 JS: Awesome. Yeah, I mean, no, I've always, gosh, appreciate your energy around introducing us for sure. No, we are definitely one of your like day ones, just kind of by your side, or like on your side from the beginning. I met you even before Dental A Team was officially there. So yeah, we've always been huge fans. The first time I saw you speak on Mark Costes' stage and Jen and I both were like, oh, she's cool.

[laughter]

0:02:36.0 KD: Josh, I am just grateful. I say this every time you and I talk and it's because I think I'm gonna pay for the rest of my life that you are my friend when I didn't even know your name when we first podcasted. The first ever Josh and Kiera podcast. I didn't know his name, nor did I know you owned Studio 8E8. So I am just always appreciative that we can like let... I should probably let that die, but I do think it's impressive to show your character, that even if you don't know Josh's name, even if you think his wife owns the business, Josh will still be your friend for life if you can make him laugh every time you get on a podcast.

[laughter]

0:03:09.9 JS: Yeah, I thought we were closer than that, and I realized very quickly like, oh yeah, she has no idea who I am. But it's all cool. We've recovered since then.

0:03:18.3 KD: We have. Josh, you and I, I think at the last time we spoke together, we were actually in Napa at Ashley Joves's event, which shout-out to that event. It's an incredible event. We're both gonna be there in November again, it's gonna be a killer time. But I realize at that moment our relationship is definitely brother-sister relationship. I have nothing prepared at all. I don't have a clicker for my slides. I don't even know how to mic myself up, and you and I are sitting on the side. Josh goes and puts on this incredible presentation, flawless as always. And I'm like, yo, Josh, I have nothing of this stuff. Can you help a sister out? And I realize, I think we really do have a brother sister relationship, which is truly magical because that's what I think you guys do for all of the clients you work with. Studio 8E8, as a marketing company, as a website, as taking pictures, I feel you guys make people feel so comfortable, that like myself, I can tell you my insecurities, like, hey, I'm not even prepared for this. And you're like, Kiera, I've got you.

0:04:13.3 KD: Always prepared. And that's something I love about you guys as a company, is just the humanized approach that you bring. And I'm curious, Josh, like where did that come? And for those of you who don't know Studio 8E8, incredible, incredible marketing company, beautiful websites, beautiful design. They tell it through your story, they believe your story is worth it, which I agree, but like you guys have the humanized approach to marketing. And Josh, where did that even stem from? Where did that come from? I need to know, like let's go back into the archives. What made you decide that that's the kind of marketing company you wanted to have? Like was that from day one or was that something that's evolved as the brand and the company has evolved?

0:04:49.3 JS: Gosh, that's a really great question. I don't know that I've ever been asked or answered, but when you say that, I'm like... And I know that specific instance. I think you mistook me for the AV guy for a bit, which was fine. But I stepped in and handled all your AV needs, to [0:05:03.1] ____.

0:05:03.4 KD: No, Josh, I just knew you were my brother. Like I knew you would help me out. You always have everything, and you've got like 20 pairs of shoes every time you travel. Like I just know you're always prepared. Yeah. So why not ask? And you run how many of my summits. You will always make sure I look great on stage every time.

[laughter]

0:05:20.3 JS: Yeah, no, you know, I don't know. I think it went back to immediately with me, was like servant leadership has just always kind of been part of my values and DNA, and I think even how I lead my team is very much... It's not a top-down approach. It's very much bottom-up. I mean, right now I'm in a kind of phase where I'm walking into a week with too much personally for me to do, like on my task. It's like I can get through it, but what I'm realizing is it's creating... I'm not available for my team throughout the week for things that they need help with and to kind of move down the road. And so I'm trying to get to this place of like, gosh, I need my schedule to be 40, 50% full, just knowing...

0:06:02.3 JS: Which I don't like, 'cause I'm a planner. I want to go into the week knowing here's the things, but leaving margin because it's just inevitably now with almost 30 team members, it's... And I don't work with them all 30 directly, but there's six to eight that are... I'm invested in projects, and it's just like being there for them, setting them up for success. And so I think it's like no matter what business you're in, you're almost always in the hospitality business, regardless. So serving people, knowing how to serve people, it's that whole line of... I think it's a Ritz-Carlton where it's like we are... Gosh, what was it? It's almost like we're gentlemen serving gentlemen or things like that. It's like just treating those people around you like, yeah, Kiera, what do you need? It's not beneath me to go find a... An advancer and get your computer set up and download a driver and install it and you know, whatever.

0:06:49.2 KD: I pick my intro song because I wanted to have you play me an intro song as well... No, and I know we're making fun and having a joke of that, but realistically, as someone in the industry, knowing you have friends in the industry, knowing you've got someone on your side, I think speaks a lot about who you guys are as a company. I am a very independent person, and most people don't get to see that side of me. And yet, you as a person, as a company, I've always just felt that you've got this very genuine human approach that nothing is below you guys, nothing is out of the realm. It's always looking for service. And what I really wanna highlight, I watch your guys 's Instagram, it's very entertaining, it's very fun. I see the offices that you guys work with, so many raving fans out there, of the websites, of the beauty that you guys create, but it's always something where you focus on the individual. It's not a cookie-cutter... It's this very individualized approach. And Josh, but you're a growing business. How are you guys maintaining that as you grow? Because I think so many practices have the same thing, you start out small niche.

0:07:55.8 KD: I'm at Studio 8E8 putting on my summit, like it is your smaller niche or I'm smaller. And as you get bigger and bigger and bigger, to still maintain that same level of customer care and individualized care and love for these people, sure, you can say servant leadership to your team, but how do you still do it to people, not cutting quarters? Like the Ritz-Carlton, yeah, having a profitable business, I think people feel you can't be humanized, loving, genuine, taking care of it, and profitable. And I would say Look at Josh Scott with Studio 8E8. I disagree heavily, and the practices they help. Like how did you do it? Give me some inside scoop of what you think have made you able to carry that on as you've grown?

0:08:36.5 JS: Gosh. There's like kinda like micro answers, there's macro answers to that. On the micro side, I mean, our team, our processes are completely built around a custom experience for our clients. And so I mean the way... Like we write websites, from blank documents, we code them from a blank document. One of the really unique things about us that really none other agencies in the space do this is most website companies, when they go to build a website, they've kind of got their 15-20 different kind of templates, like previous sites that they built, that it's their IP, it's not a template, like they build it, but they'll sit down with... A developer will sit down with it and then customize that, so change colors, add their logo, adjust some writing to put their city in it, change photography, something like that.

0:09:23.0 JS: We actually... This is a very small detail, but like ours start with a designer. So it's a blank desktop. A designer basically, without development restrictions, goes, what do I think this looks like based on all these discovery tools we have from the client? From there, it goes to development to then build it in the digital space. So you get like this unique footprint of a digital presence, but it's a two-step process for us where a lot of companies, it's one step.

0:09:48.1 JS: So it takes a little bit longer. I'll be the first one to say we're a little bit on the higher end. I think we're competitive with our competitors for what you get, but it's definitely on the higher end of the investment because you're literally getting an experience that it's proven, it's predictable. My thing was on, like this is a highly creative process, highly subjective, but how do we make it predictable? It's like, Walt Disney. People are coming to Disney World expecting this amazing, happy experience. How do we make that happen consistent every single time? And there's massive amounts of systems behind it. So our team, one of our big... We're a creative agency. One of our biggest values is processes, I've got some architects on the team, and I can build some systems for you, and it's just it's awesome to watch them, and that's just been a little bit the secret behind it, for sure.

0:10:38.9 KD: I love that, and I do love... One of my favorite quotes of all time is from Walt Disney, where he says, "The magic, it's from predictable systems behind the scenes are what create the magic." And I've thought about that a lot, but I'm curious, I wanna go further back, Josh, because that's a very potentially risky business move. There's people who dream these big lavish higher end, high end dental practices, for example, and they flop, and they don't turn out. And so I'm curious, from your perspective, and I'm doing this intentionally because I love you guys as a company, but I think what you guys do are what so many people aspire to do, but they don't know how. So one, I'll break this out into a few questions, did you always know from the day one of starting Studio 8E8 that you were always going to have a higher end experience, or did that evolve as the company about? That's question one.

0:11:31.2 JS: Yep. Yes, and yes, I knew. We started... We never have built anything with stock photos. So the very first website, we did photography. And for me, that was just a defining thing of how can we do authentic marketing if we've got stock photo? That didn't make sense to me. So that right there drove cost up, and then it just became a game of can we make money on delivering what I think is the best experience, and that was probably the journey. But realizing like, yeah, man, I'm not like a... I'm not a bargain basement guy. I'm not the go in and... I'm not McDonald's Dollar Menu guy, I'm not the like buy one, get one free. That stuff just doesn't speak to me. So I think it's also just being true to myself, of I understand... I wouldn't call us a luxury brand, I'd call us a premium brand. And so I think understanding that space, studying it, and a lot of people will tell you, oh, websites are a commodity, this and that. Man, look, I think you can build premium in any space, you just have to be able to do it right and deliver on that. And in the end of it, Kiera, I think, honestly, this is what people want.

0:12:45.0 JS: People have had such bad dental marketing experiences. It's just like crazy. I hear about it all the time. It's not okay, and part of that is 'cause we're trying to pay 2500 for a website or 5000 for this, whatever, ad campaign that just doesn't go anywhere, and then it's just all wasted money.

0:13:01.3 KD: Totally. And you know my opinions about marketers, so the fact that you... I consider you like brother-sister relationship here is quite like impressive in my world because I really have struggled with marketing. I don't know, I think I've shared this with you. Maybe I didn't. My first marketing experience, I spent $80,000 with literally a zero dollar ROI. And I'm like marketers are a freaking scam. Like, I am over this. Y'all give me the pitch of we need to change your website, and then it's gonna take three months. And if it doesn't work, well, that's your fault. And we never are going to work on someone else's dirty laundry. We're gonna build our own. Like, it's the same freaking pitch from every person. And so I agree. I think you are really brilliant to come in and to do something different, but what I love the most, and this is what I feel ties so perfectly to you guys, is you are true to who you are.

0:13:49.0 KD: And I feel dentists need to be true to who they are. Like, don't try and have this imposter syndrome and be something that you're not. If you're the dollar bargain guy, there is a dentist and I know he knows who he is 'cause I've called him out before, he is, in the most loving terms and he knows that this is the greatest compliment, the cheapest dentist I have ever met in my entire life, and he lives for it. He literally lives for it, and I love him for it because he knows that about himself. He works with us, and I just think he's adorable because of it, that he's true to himself.

0:14:19.2 JS: Well, it's like... In one of my presentations, I compared this, its Walmart and Louis Vuitton. Like, it's not right or wrong, good or bad. That's not what the conversation is. Walmart knows what they're supposed to be doing, and it's low prices, affordability, like for everybody. Louis Vuitton knows what they're supposed to be doing, which is status, scarcity, handcrafted. So it's going back to your question, here's here's why I think that happens. Like why you spend whatever, doesn't have a good experience. I really think... This is something I've been thinking about in my head. I'm not sure how it's gonna play out. I kinda need to like give it some thought. But it's like when CEOs or business owners delegate marketing, I rarely see that go well. And I think it's because it's almost like... It's like who you are, it's the messaging of your company, it's your brand, it's how people think about you.

0:15:05.0 JS: And when you give that to somebody, and it's almost like, if I pay you X, you'll generate this amount of business, they're like, yes. I don't know. You have to have more of a handle on it than that, than just going... Throwing money at something and expecting a problem to be solved. Marketing is something that a CEO and a business owner, I don't know that I've seen them delegate it real successfully. If they do, it's like somebody there needs to understand what they're doing with it, because it's like your heartbeat. I actually... Marketing, for me, is the energy of your company, it is your energy, so that's a really hard thing to delegate, if you think about. Now, advertising tactics, like, hey, do Google AdWords, 100%. But the energy, the story, the messaging of your company to kinda give money and just be like, yeah, here, make us grow, it's rarely gonna work.

0:15:57.2 KD: That's interesting. I had never thought about that because I'm sure there's quite a few listeners that are like, Josh, you're up in the night, do not know that I'm in people's mouths, I'm prepping teeth all day long, and now you want me to be the marketer. But as you said that, this is a connection I don't think I've ever made because I've been guilty of delegating that. I'm like, I don't wanna go beyond social media, Josh. I don't want people to know my entire life. And you guys have helped me realize, like, share what you wanna share, be who you wanna be. There's no right or wrong. But I think it's something very, very, very interesting, that when you said that marketing is the energy of the company, I realize, interesting, the energy and the culture needs to be set by the CEO.

0:16:38.5 KD: Therefore, that's the branding, that's the messaging, that's the tone. And if we can set that and we can create processes, fantastic, you can lead it. But that to me, I never connected that. I feel our marketing messaging and energy is truly our culture. And what we're trying to do through websites, through social, through branding, are to relay that culture to attract the people we wanna be attracting and they should be synergistically combined. I don't know if I said anything that just made sense. In my mind, it made sense. I'm hopeful that as it translated out. But just, thinking of it more as a culture builder, as opposed to a task I have to do might change some CEO's minds 'cause it just changed mine.

0:17:14.4 JS: Yeah, it's like marketing is growth. And so it's the responsibility of the growth part of your company, it's almost like the growth department of your company. And when you think about that, it's really hard to just detach from that. And I get it. Dentistry, it's almost like I am a clinician 98% of the time. I'm barely handling payroll and whatever. Man, I get that all day. You're gonna struggle with marketing if it's not... It's just one of the place that's gonna have to come from you, or it's gonna have to come from somebody, that energy, that story, that messaging, that these are the places we're gonna be.

0:17:50.3 JS: Are we in the community at all the parades and farmers markets and high school football games, or are we big on social media? It's some of those decisions, 'cause if you're not, what happens is the latest greatest marketing agency comes along and says, hey, are you geofencing? And you're like, no, what is that? Give me $1500 a month, and we'll geofence ads around your practice. And you're like, okay, 'cause you don't want to handle it and you don't... You haven't defined what that energy and that growth strategy is for your practice, and you're setting yourself up to be disappointed. And so I think it's some of these questions, of like, yeah, it's... Going back like, what's the story? What do we have energy around? What do you guys see? How do you want this practice to grow? And a lot of times that's probably enough to just start that conversation and turn it over to people. Yeah, like I said, I'm still kind of thinking about this, but it's like a thought in my head of... When I see that happen, I'm kind of like, there's some disconnect there.

0:18:41.4 KD: It's very interesting to me because I think that... And this is why I like to podcast with you, you and I will talk in a lot of ideas, a lot of pieces. We're not gonna dive into your nitty-gritty marketing today, guys. If that's what you wanted, check out past podcasts. Today, we're gonna talk about energy and figuring out how to build this, because, Josh, I think that that's the next question of how do you even start this strategy? Like I think it's easy. As a dental practice, they know I want X amount of production, I wanna make these revenue numbers. All right, fantastic. We at least have a like box checked. But then I think so many people don't feel that by being authentic or story marketing like you guys share of like, let's talk about it, let's build the energy, let's create that, that feels hard. It feels easier to just pay for it.

0:19:25.4 KD: But as you said that, is this fair to say? I would think yes. That in doing so, by actually deciding what kind of a brand we wanna have, what kind of energy we wanna have in our business, what our story is, where we wanna be, that actually becomes a very easy filtering process to determine what kind of marketing we wanna do or not do. Like geofencing doesn't fit this, we're not gonna do that. Social media doesn't fit this, but all the internal parades do fit this. Or, like the community, I don't care how many people come and ask us to like contribute to it, that's not our jam. We're more social presence. Does that help become a filtering process? Like, yes, it might feel like hard in the beginning, but long term, it does become a filtering, easier process to know how to market, know what to say, know how to do it. Does it actually save time long term?

0:20:08.9 JS: Right? Yeah. And this is... Like if it was me and I'm in a practice, where I would probably go from here is almost start a little like growth team in the practice. And maybe it's you and one other person, maybe it's you and like two other people that you think kind of get... Like that they're invested, right? They're not ownership, but it's like they feel, like they take the practice personally, they care about it. And start a little growth team, and just even start with the questions of like how... If we were gonna try to grow more, where should we go? Where should we be? What should we... If we had a thousand bucks next month, where do you guys think we should put it? And I think if you do that and kind of use those parameters of like, what do we have energy around?

0:20:51.9 JS: 'Cause if you're like, I hate social media, I'm like, don't put a $1000 in social media. But if you're like out, riding your bike down to the farmer's market on Saturday, picking up a basket of strawberries, like why not be there? That makes a ton of sense. And your team has energy around that. And so, like for us, one of our... The things we do every year is, we call it our swag drop. And look, everybody has swag, so that's not nothing new, but I like cool swag. Like stuff I would actually wear is the filter with which my team creates stuff. Like if we can get Josh to wear it, we're good. 'Cause I mean, I'm like in a plain white T-shirt, I don't usually wear logos and stuff. But we create fun stuff, like cool hoodies, socks, whatever. And then we drop them in boxes to our friends throughout the space. And so what it does is it just like... There's energy around it. Kiera, like, you get it. There's a like...

0:21:46.9 KD: I love it. Do you know my team asks, they're like, Kiera, can we buy their swag? And I said, no, this is like, only if you're in their group. Like, I felt like a jerk. But it did make... It's so cool and it's such awesome. I wore it. I didn't tell you this, Josh, I should have tagged a picture. I didn't love my hair, which is why you didn't get a picture of me. I definitely wore your guys' swag to Puerto Rico when we flew there for my birthday, hoodie on, hair up in a bun, Studio 8E8, repped the whole way there and back, because your swag is awesome.

0:22:16.2 JS: No, that's awesome. But for us it's like, it's fun for our team. So there's energy around it. You get it, you're probably not feeling like, oh there's energy in this box. But then like what happens is everybody kind of shares it on social media, and we actually staggered it over three months on purpose. So there's almost like every week, like there's these posts of people posting their stuff. And then our team loves it, the people getting it love it, so now there's energy. And that is really, at its core, what marketing is about. And so it's just like, what are we doing to create energy here? What has energy? What are we giving money to that doesn't have energy? I mean 'Cause this is what like bigger practices, DSOs, this is one of the things that start, like as you start, getting seven, seven, 10 practices, now you're building a marketing department.

0:22:58.9 JS: So that's one of those keys that like DSOs know, is like, okay, that point you have to have somebody in a small team in-house that's actually managing the marketing. So you just gotta figure out how to bring that down to a lower level and go, yeah, we don't have a marketing team, but I probably got a couple people on my team that would take 15 minutes a week or an hour a month in a meeting to help me think through some of this, get them on board, get them excited and start doing some of that stuff.

0:23:23.5 KD: I love it. I wanna... Let's make this simple, because I'm all about simplicity. We know like I'm a systems queen, I like things to be very easy. Ease is actually one of our core values. So I'm a dentist, I'm gonna go work with my team, we're gonna figure out what brings us energy. Josh, what are all... This is gonna put you on the spot, and it's okay. I'm sure you'll miss a few. And I expect that 'cause it's not scripted. What are all the different ways that we can market? Can you just like rattle off, so we have a laundry list and that way listeners can come back to this, and then they can also hear like, oh my gosh, I'd love to do that, no, I don't wanna do that. Like, what are all the different mediums that we can do that are considered marketing to grow our practices and to help us become that elite practice in our community and in our spaces?

0:24:05.6 JS: Yeah, I mean, gosh, this list could go on probably forever, but it's... Yeah, I think it's like, what's going on in your community. Dental practices are still community-based. So I think for me, it's almost like start home. Like start there and kind of work your way out. But like, are you a community practice? I'm sure like what events are coming up through the summer? What athletics are you sponsoring? What different places are you at with signage? Think about your signage. Like is there anything else we can do? A lot of times when we build a building or we acquire a practice, the signage is just there, we get stuck with that we never even think through it again. Like is it internally lit? Is it in a good location? Can you talk to the landlord and actually increase the size?

0:24:44.2 JS: Is that a city requirement? Like where are we at with that? Like for me getting... Signage is such a huge, huge marketing piece. I would choose buildings based on signage versus the building. Me personally.

0:24:55.5 KD: Same.

0:24:57.6 JS: You're sitting at a... The building across the street is a Starbucks and people are sitting in a... The to-go line or whatever, the drive-through, and they're looking at your practice. Should be a huge sign there. So I mean I've had practices where they've had a sign on one side of the building, but there's kind of this road on the other side, and I'm like, get a sign on the other side and they're like, that's another $12,000. I'm like, I know. But that's literally like four patients a month coming in because of that other sign.

0:25:20.1 JS: So I mean signage is one. I mean obviously social media, and just... And how fragmented that is, right? Like maybe you're Facebook and Instagram, but you don't like LinkedIn and TikTok and Reel. It's fine. Like do your place. Your just online presence, your reviews. There's a whole marketing strategy around, reviews. We have a practice. Right now, it was just in yesterday, went from 274 reviews to 413 in three months, which is a really good jump in reviews.

0:25:48.5 KD: It's huge.

0:25:49.7 JS: And yeah. And I was like, did you guys automate it, like you're using Birdeye, Swell? And it was my idea, so I kind of knew it. But they are giving away a Big Green Egg grill. And then they put it right in the like entryway. So you walk in, we made the sign, it says it's big, it's green, it could be yours. And there's this massive Green Egg Grill. And they're like, patients are tripping out. Like everybody wants this thing. And there's a little gray area with asking about reviews and incentivizing it, like you can't pay for them, but could you do a raffle and get... Like, yeah. So don't, don't, message me later and go that's unethical and all this stuff. 'Cause yeah, we know, but...

0:26:29.2 KD: It is gray. We're not in Canada. Canada, you'll get written up in a newspaper. And don't ask me how I know this. I may have learned that lesson the hard way. Only one time. But the US is different.

0:26:39.5 JS: Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, gosh, I think we could go on and on, just even publications locally. I don't know that those are dead, especially on a local level. There's really good opportunities there. So I think it's just kind of creatively looking out and going... I don't know. I literally asked the question like, put everything on the table. Go, okay, we've got 18 different options here. What do we get most excited about? Because that's gonna be the stuff that's gonna last. People are gonna feel that energy through there, and it's gonna be more effective.

0:27:05.3 KD: I love that because as you just said that it made me think of like, okay, how can we make this tactical of get everybody... Like let's get our team in a room or the, the marketing champions in our practice, and let's just do a massive like fun brain dump of all the possible ways that we could market, and just see what they are. And then I remember I did an exercise one time where we did a graph, and it was like cost, value, and time, and we plotted all of these ideas of cost because what we're looking for is lowest cost, greatest ROI impact, with the shortest amount of time possible. And so if you even like 18, 20 ideas, like let's just have a massive brainstorming, then let's plot it on a graph and then let's choose our three to thrive, of which three are we going to implement over the next three months, and what are we hoping to expect from that?

0:27:51.1 KD: But I think Josh, so many people... Like you just said, like a sign. I remember putting a sign there. We got 90 new patients from one sign. I didn't market at all. I think so many things are what are the simple low hanging fruit that's fun. And for me, what excites me is the least amount of time, effort, and energy. And therefore, we're gonna move forward on that one. But for other people, like they're... Like, Josh, you get so excited about creating beautiful things that lights your fire. Like you don't care about efficiency. Like, yes, you have processes, but for you it's like the experience, and if I get to hang out with these people and I get share my wine, love with them, I will be so happy. And that's your style of marketing.

0:28:29.7 KD: Mine is what's like the most witty, fun, like clever type of marketing? That's what I get excited about. And so just really also knowing yourself. And I'm curious, Josh, how do people figure out their, like why or their story? Because I think you guys do such a good job of really encompassing that. Like, do you have any tips of how to like, okay, we've got our ideas of how we can market, but like you said, the energy of the company. What are some tangible tips or ways to figure out like what we really are passionate about and why we're here? Any tangible things that people can take away to start even brainstorming in this world?

0:29:02.8 JS: Yeah, and this becomes the tough work 'cause this is like the backup and, and kind of solve this, but when you do it, it saves you so much time down the road. I remember, like, I've been around dentistry for 20 years and always on the marketing side, and 15, 18 years ago, I remember people coming to me like, hey, the the yellow page rep was just here and wants to know what do we want in our ad this year? And I was like, I don't... Like, I don't know, what do you... 'cause marketing is a message, so if you haven't defined the message, then we're kind of like, yeah, the yellow page rep just tell them to do the same thing this year. So it's really taking two steps back to be able to answer that.

0:29:42.9 JS: Marketing is magnifying a message, so it makes sense that a message has to be there to be able to magnify that. And so backing up to go... Yeah, my presentation right now is kinda like the three best questions for that. One is like, what relationships or experiences have shaped you? Just being here, being a dentist, what do you have energy for? I think that's a huge piece of this story. And then what do you see? And so I think if you just took those three questions and really sat down and kind of wrote some answers to them, you would have a real simple skeleton around the marketing, message. And that's like step one, is beginning to define some of that narrative. And really whether it's your values, a lot of people start with values.

0:30:26.6 JS: Like, here's the seven values of our practice. Okay, what do those mean? Let's start to build that out. Let's build a website framework from that, let's... Which value means the most. Can we craft a sentence around that? Well, now there's a tagline. Let's lead the website with that. Let's put that in the yellow page ad, right? When, now when he comes, he's like, oh yeah, here's our tagline, our tagline, our logo, our website. Boom. Now, we have a yellow, a yellow page ad. And I'm saying... I realize yellow pages are very outdated. I'm just kind of talking back to that point, but...

0:30:53.2 KD: I like it. We can all remember those pages.

0:30:55.8 JS: Yeah. But even like a Google ad, like you're gonna put that out there. Like what should the headline be? Well, maybe it's, it's your tagline, which is what starts the narrative. We're at a place right now, we just kind of reworked our... We actually reworked some of our packages, which I think is... It's a really great move on our company's part, to serve clients better. But it forced us to think through some of our messaging. And it came back to values. It came back to story, like, what do these packages mean? Like what's the story? Like, why did we change packages? And what does that mean for clients? So there's a whole story there, and it forced us to go, well, here's the four reasons. Okay, that makes sense. We've spent about four months crafting these one word sentences with a... Another like subheading sentence. And we're actually... It's all... Well, we unveiled it kind of last month and we were at a conference last month. But we've got like new signage and all that stuff, but there are storylines, and it's part of that narrative of just going, here's why we do these packages because we think it serves dentistry better because of this. And it creates a story.

0:32:03.8 KD: Well, Josh, don't leave us hanging. What are these, like what do they look like? 'Cause I know you guys do websites, I know you do photography, but agreed, like industry's changing and people's needs are changing. And I love those questions. So all of you, I hope you wrote that down. I hope you're planning to do the brainstorm dump. But what are the things like if I'm a practice looking for marketing, I wrote down a note of what I want Studio 8E8 to do for me. Don't worry guys. They help me a lot with my own marketing and my branding and our images. So Josh, what are those things? If people need marketing help, what do you guys, what are you offering right now? I don't even know, so don't leave me hanging. I mean, I'm in your swag drop box group. Don't leave a friend hanging.

0:32:41.4 JS: Well, I'll tell you, like if somebody said, hey, what makes you different? This is really kind of our positioning. And I would tell them there's really four things that make us unique. Number one, we say it's the best of both worlds. And so for the first time in dentistry, I think, which is... It's kind of like a silly statement to say, but really for the first time in dental marketing, you don't have to choose between a beautiful website and performance marketing. We've been able to bring both of those together. And what I mean by that is the first chapter of Studio 8E8, look, if our competitors, they would take... If they were gonna take a shot at us, they would say, oh, beautiful website. It's not gonna perform well, Google's not gonna index it. Well, it's not gonna get the click-through rate you want with digital ads, whatever.

0:33:18.7 JS: So they would always take shots of the performance of them. And they would create this thing of like, well, what's gonna be better? A website that looks beautiful, like amazing photography, sure. Nobody's gonna find it. And so I think dental practices have really had to choose. That's been a lot of the marketing agency conversations. Oh, I think they're really good with SEO. Oh, I think they're really good with telling my story. So the last year, we on purpose, we've hired, we've made a big investment into very talented SEO people, digital ads specialists, social media specialists, to build out those services of our company, because I didn't... I had a theory of, I'm like, I don't think that has to be the case. I think we can build something that's beautiful, that connects on a psychological level with patients, but also behind the scenes can score very well with Google. We put that in the play. We've got now stats and data around it, and it's super exciting to go, I think you can do both now.

0:34:06.6 KD: That's awesome.

0:34:07.0 JS: So that's number one. Number two, we say we have free production for life. So we give our clients a free photo or video session every 24 months that they're with us in a marketing package. And one of the big pain points we saw was you build a site, you put it up, you've got amazing photography of the team. Well, then team members change. How do I keep the website fresh? How do we get new photography up there? And so we've just built this in, like, so it's every 24 months, you're gonna... New photography, you refresh the site. It's gonna look amazing, feel brand new. I mean, Kiera, our... We started nine years ago. Our clients from nine years ago still have the same website. Like literally, they've just updated photography. And I think this concept of building a new website every three, four years is just... It's crazy. And it doesn't allow you as a business to gain momentum. You as a business, the best thing you can do is solve your marketing. Like solve your marketing, solve your agency, solve what you're trying to do, get on the right track, build your digital space and allow it to gain momentum over time by not switching gears like every three or four years.

0:35:14.7 KD: Well, I think that's brilliant. I mean, do you wanna know how many websites I've built and we're doing another one. Like Josh, marketing is my Achilles heel. So agreed. If you can get that set up on track and not have to constantly redo it. It's a lot of time, effort, energy, and money. And I feel emotional stress. Like I do not enjoy having to constantly do a website, constantly thinking about the marketing. It's can't be a set it and forget it, but I do think it can have a lot of the bones and structure. And then I love the photography for life. It's like dentistry, free whitening for life. It's a similar thing. Like these are the things they... Like we call pictures the kiss of death. Every time we do... Like every time, without fail, someone will leave. But you guys help me realize, like just take the pictures of where you are at this time and appreciate that that was your team at that time, who helped you get there and then be excited for the next batch of people that come through too.

0:36:03.8 JS: Yeah. Well, and what's crazy right now is these AI tools, we're taking people out of team photos. It's ridiculously crazy.

0:36:10.6 KD: AI is nuts.

0:36:11.5 JS: I think it's like...

0:36:13.1 KD: Quick side tangent. Are you guys afraid of AI taking over marketing as my like most big side tangent and then come back to the packages, like three seconds? Yes or no?

0:36:20.0 JS: No. No. Look, I... Man, 100... So, literally 100 years ago, 1910, 1920, it was like 92% of the population worked in agriculture. A hundred years later, it's like 4%. That turned over in a hundred years, which is massively fast. And yet, humans all still have a job. We all still have a purpose. So I'm like AI comes through... We keep having these conversations, I'm like, AI comes through, it just changes. And then in the '40s and '50 everything was manufacturing, and then everything starts to go overseas. Oh my gosh, what are we gonna do? So I've just, I've seen this narrative like three, four, five times. It's just a tool that's gonna be used, it's gonna make life efficient and it's gonna create more jobs actually.

0:37:00.9 KD: It's really so cool. Yeah. Okay. So you guys now do a website, photography for life. Like you can have both, best of both worlds. Yeah. Photography for life.

0:37:11.0 JS: And then, the last two, I'll send them quick, but it's the last agency you'll ever need, building a digital experience that can grow with your practice. And, yeah, it's this concept of like, you hire your... Probably your first agency and build a website for like a couple thousand dollars, 'cause I get it, like it's DIY, it's a startup, you just want something. But then you really don't like it. So a couple years later, you finally get tired enough about it, you go back through it again. Like you said, it's a process, man, to just keep figuring that out. Oh, what do you want the website to say? Well, I don't know. Do I have to write it? All that stuff. So you do it again, maybe it's a little bit better, you spend a little bit more, but I'm like, you think about that missed opportunity, of it might have been more upfront, but if... Man, if you landed with the right company and over the next 10 years had a website that could grow, the structure of it was right, we could implement these, all the communication tools now that are giving patients convenience through that experience, like we can implement all that stuff.

0:38:05.9 JS: So it's what... It's not what's the cost of all that over 10 years, it's what's the missed opportunity cost to not have that and to keep trying to solve it. And then the last one is we just say we serve the best. We love the clients we work with. We feel like they're the best clients. We're also working with some of the top practices around the country. And because of that, we've built a different experience. We only take on so many new clients a month. We cap it. Like, today, Kiera, we were done, it's June 8th, we closed June. We were, we had all of our new clients. And I... We had another one come through this afternoon, and Mike, our sales director will let them know, hey, we're super excited to work with you on July 1st.

0:38:45.7 JS: Our account managers will reach out right away and get your project started. And they kinda know that ahead of time, but I... We've all seen companies that grow fast and what happens? It's, well, the customer service starts to suck. They're not getting back to me. Like I've changed account managers three times. We, we see this story all the time. I decided we're not gonna grow our company that way. I know what we can handle creatively to have an amazing experience. And so we shut it down and go...

0:39:14.0 KD: That's awesome.

0:39:14.4 JS: And I'm like, you would rather have our full attention on July 1st than to be just one of a flood of clients right now in June. And most people are completely fine with that.

0:39:26.9 KD: That's incredible. I love that. So Josh, if people want... This resonates. Like, again, Studio 8E8, and I tell everybody they're not for every practice, nor do they... Nor do you want to. Josh, you know who you wanna work with, you know the practices. I think about Ashley Joves, her website, I feel landed her, her success early, early on. She knew what she wanted, you guys helped her build that, the name of her practice. And so I do think that there is so much value in landing that correctly. So if people resonate with you guys, if they love the humanized approach, if they love the telling your story and having it to optimize, how can they connect with you guys? Because I truly do feel you guys do this so well and such an awesome thing. And also, if you tell them Dental A Team sent you, you definitely get better treatment. Like they treat everyone awesome, but Dental A Team people... Remember, I'm like his little sister, okay? So Josh, how can they connect with you?

0:40:13.9 JS: Best place for me, I'm at Instagram at Joshua Scott. I'm still in all my DMs. So if you hear this episode, see it, drop me a message, let me know, would love to hear from you. But then also, S8E8.com. Letter S, number eight, letter E, number eight dot com. Where you can find out all about us and set up a time to talk.

0:40:32.8 KD: That's awesome. Well, Josh, I appreciate you personally and professionally. It was real fun to just kind of go through all the pieces. And for all of you listening, I hope you take away something like. Let's not just consume content. Let's take action because just consuming content is definitely a sign of procrastination, and none of you listening are procrastinators. You're definitely doers. So brainstorm your marketing ideas, be sure to figure out your why. Answer those questions he said, of what's the, relationship or experience, what's the energy, and then what do we see? And then make sure that you're building websites and photography and experiences that really are resonating who you are for the patients you want. So Studio 8E8, incredible. I love them. I love Josh and Joanna, I love their team, I work with their team often. Great people. Check them out. Studio 8E8, message Josh. I love that he's literally saying like DM me, I'll respond to you. That's who they are. And they'll always be that way. And as always, thanks for all of you listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

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0:41:29.8 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.