Changing Dentistry with Curiosity and Pragmatism with Dr. Christian Coachman, founder and CEO of Digital Smile Design

[00:00:04] Welcome to Think Oral, where we connect the interconnected between oral and physical health. I'm your host, Dr. Jonathan Levine. And I'm your host, Maria Filipova. Let's get at it.

[00:00:16] Hi, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Think Oral Health podcast, where myself, Maria Filipova, and my partner in crime and co-host, Dr. Jonathan Levine, bring to you cutting-edge topics and thought leaders who are bridging the gaps across multiple silos to deliver the best possible outcomes for patients to improve their health.

[00:00:44] So today, we have a really exciting guest here with us talking about yet another cross-disciplinary topic and another entrepreneur and successful businessman and clinician on top of that. Jonathan, hi. And do you want to tell us a little bit about our guest today?

[00:01:00] I will. I will. And I'm honored to have Christian Coachman join us, Maria, on our Think Oral Health podcast. Christian and I have been friends and colleagues for a number of years. I don't need to read a bio on him, that's for sure. But he is both one of the top dental ceramists, probably in the world. He's a dentist also. And he's very entrepreneurial as he moved from that whole world of working with a famous multi-specialty group in Atlanta.

[00:01:30] Garvin Goldstein and the whole team down there to lecturing all over the world for quintessence on something that he coined, which is Smile Design and Digital Smile Design. That led to a company called DSD. He is the CEO of that company. And he has put together a group of amazing dentists. And I'm honored to be part of this group globally that talk to each other, that are looking to work with each other, and in fact, is moving into a very

[00:02:00] very exciting new venture. I'm so excited to bring Christian to this podcast. He embodies what we talk about, which is change agents, innovation, and truly moving the needle in an industry that has not been known for that much innovation. But now, today, really in the last five to 10 years, it's starting to move at a nice pace to catch up with probably medicine and healthcare, bringing new technologies to it. So, Maria, please also welcome Christian.

[00:02:28] Christian, welcome to the podcast. We're so happy to have you. And thanks for joining us from Spain, I understand, right?

[00:02:34] Thanks. Exactly. Speaking from Madrid, it's actually today's Labor Day in Madrid, actually in many countries in the world. It's a national holiday.

[00:02:44] But here I am, and I'm very pleased and happy and honored to be here.

[00:02:50] My parents called me this morning from Bulgaria three times saying, what do you think you're working? Today is no one who works in Europe.

[00:02:56] No one.

[00:02:57] We're working.

[00:02:59] My wife has the same. My wife has the same. You're going to do a podcast? You're going to do it? But we love doing this. We love sharing. We love talking.

[00:03:08] And I love connecting with my dear friend, Jonathan. You know, I miss you, Jonathan. I miss the time together in New York.

[00:03:16] I hope we're going to be together again soon. And yes, it will be a pleasure to share ideas and thoughts and see how we can make this industry better.

[00:03:25] Yes. Yes. Christian, Maria, let me jump in just a little bit with some initial questions.

[00:03:30] And then, of course, we'll go at it. You know, Christian, we have a lot of young listeners on our podcast.

[00:03:37] We have a number of industry people on the podcast.

[00:03:41] And you're such an interesting story of where you started, the concept of what gets you here, will get you there.

[00:03:48] And all these things that we learn against your journey.

[00:03:50] Perhaps you could give us a little bit of what does it take to go from kind of an academic to a businessman, to an investor, to a team leader.

[00:04:01] When you think back a little bit and look back, what does it take to do that?

[00:04:05] What do you think a little bit is that magic sauce that you could share with people that are listening?

[00:04:09] I wish I had a formula or a clear recipe to share.

[00:04:13] But, you know, incidentally, I was thinking about this, talking to some friends a few days ago.

[00:04:19] And I came up with one reason to actually try things and make things happen.

[00:04:25] And that's being naive.

[00:04:28] I think you need to be naive enough to believe that you can make a difference or that you can create something, that you can start something.

[00:04:36] Not taking yourself too seriously and being this naiveness gives you the courage to try and to do things that people think it's crazy, nonsense, and suddenly become something.

[00:04:50] You know, I think that I was always very idealistic, very creative and very naive.

[00:04:56] And that allowed me, it's like a kid when they're playing and inventing new ways of playing.

[00:05:02] So I think that's a big part of me, you know, naiveness and creativity and not being afraid of trying something that everybody's saying doesn't make sense at that time.

[00:05:14] Right.

[00:05:14] Yes.

[00:05:14] So many startup entrepreneurs say, if I knew what I know now, if I knew what it's going to take to get me here, I don't know if I would have started.

[00:05:23] Right.

[00:05:23] So that ignorance is a bliss sometimes where you say, well, you know what, why not?

[00:05:28] And then you get into it.

[00:05:30] I think also that word, Christian, that word naive to me is also curiosity.

[00:05:35] Your curiosity to really learn and then couple that with courage to take action.

[00:05:42] Because a lot of people have good ideas, right, Maria?

[00:05:44] Yeah.

[00:05:45] But the people, the change agents are the ones that got the grit and determination to go after.

[00:05:50] I'm so tired of good ideas.

[00:05:52] Because I think good ideas are overrated and real implementation is underrated.

[00:05:57] And the more you try to build things and make an impact and build a company, you realize like how many great ideas everybody has every day.

[00:06:07] And I appreciate now more and more the ones that, regardless of having a good idea or not, are very pragmatic and working on implementation.

[00:06:19] You know, creating the action, proactive behavior and just saying, is this what we're going to do?

[00:06:26] So I'm going to do it.

[00:06:27] And I think that that's something that makes the difference.

[00:06:32] So great ideas is not the magic.

[00:06:34] Everybody wants to have the next great idea.

[00:06:36] More and more, I like to meet people that are like, I don't need to have a great idea.

[00:06:41] I just need to take a regular idea and make it happen.

[00:06:45] Because 99% of the ideas don't happen anyway.

[00:06:47] So if I just make something happen, I'm going to be way ahead of the curve.

[00:06:52] Jonathan, could we maybe take a pause here to Christian?

[00:06:56] Tell us about digital small design and how did that happen?

[00:06:59] Not all of our listeners know about what you're doing, the magic of what you're doing.

[00:07:05] Did it start with an idea?

[00:07:06] Did it start with like, oh, I just see a problem.

[00:07:09] I'm just going to go after it.

[00:07:11] What was your journey for digital small design?

[00:07:13] I think that the best way to explain it is, again, you know, being pragmatic about the

[00:07:19] problems to be solved and challenging the status quo.

[00:07:23] I was very curious about what I was doing.

[00:07:26] Not only I wanted to become as good as I could on that one thing that I was doing, but I was

[00:07:32] always very curious about how we could become good at something.

[00:07:38] What was the process?

[00:07:39] What was the reasons why I became good at something?

[00:07:42] And how I could structure that process to be able to teach others to become as good

[00:07:48] as me or even better than myself.

[00:07:50] So I, in a very young age, I fell in love with the process of trying to understand what makes

[00:07:57] somebody become good at something and how can you teach that?

[00:08:00] So education became a passion, but useful education, effective education, not bullshit

[00:08:07] education, not show off education, not crazy scientific academic disconnected to reality education,

[00:08:15] but education that has an impact, you know, Monday morning on people's life.

[00:08:20] And with that in mind, you know, because of my dual background, I was a dentist, but I was

[00:08:25] also a dental technician.

[00:08:27] The obvious move for me was to challenge the way we were working together.

[00:08:33] And since I was seeing both sides of the story, even though I was a pretty good technician and

[00:08:39] I was working with amazing dentists, I realized that there were so many things that were not

[00:08:45] professionally organized that people were not even talking.

[00:08:48] So I just decided that I was gonna deep dive into this collaboration that is the key collaboration

[00:08:54] to transform people's smiles.

[00:08:56] The two main players, you know, the top, top dentist and the top, top technician that together

[00:09:02] will transform your life by transforming your smile.

[00:09:06] And I realized that even though we were proud of the work we were doing, there was so many

[00:09:10] things to be improved.

[00:09:11] There was so much that we could learn outside dentistry to bring and incorporate into dentistry when

[00:09:17] it comes to protocols and systems and workflows and technologies to make this more controlled,

[00:09:24] more predictable, more efficient, less stressful, and make patients happier with the outcome,

[00:09:29] right?

[00:09:30] Transforming a smile is still today a big adventure, too much of an adventure, unnecessary adventure

[00:09:36] still today.

[00:09:38] And because we don't take seriously in dentistry systems, you know, we didn't learn that in

[00:09:43] dental school, we just do things the way we think we should do.

[00:09:49] And communication is not taught.

[00:09:52] You know, we don't talk about communication systems, how to be efficient, protocols, quality

[00:09:57] control, how to forecast problems, how to anticipate problems, and how to implement communication

[00:10:03] systems to deliver more predictable outcomes.

[00:10:07] So that was the beginning of the story.

[00:10:09] I just asked myself, what can be better and what I do with my dentists and back and forth.

[00:10:15] And I started to write it down.

[00:10:16] And I was lucky enough to be at that moment with two other things happening.

[00:10:21] Technology was starting to happen in dentistry and social media was starting in dentistry.

[00:10:26] This is 2007, 8, 9.

[00:10:28] So I was one of the first ones to jump into social media and start sharing.

[00:10:32] At that time was Facebook and giving away all my ideas at the time, lectures, slides, videos,

[00:10:38] tutorials for free of all these ideas that I was having.

[00:10:41] And I called all these ideas at that time, digital smile design.

[00:10:45] And it went viral and it became very well known.

[00:10:49] The name, the concept, the philosophy itself, much bigger than my company.

[00:10:54] The name and the brand and the concept itself is something that every dentist knows today.

[00:10:59] My company is still a small company.

[00:11:01] I'm still working hard to try to see how I can convert this reputation into business.

[00:11:08] That's our challenge.

[00:11:10] But in terms of spreading the word and sharing ideas, we've been very successful for the last 15 years.

[00:11:17] Could we just acknowledge that, Jonathan?

[00:11:19] I mean, Christian, it sounds like you started by giving your ideas for free.

[00:11:25] You said, I have something to contribute.

[00:11:28] There are people who would find this useful.

[00:11:30] I'll share.

[00:11:31] And then what was the journey from giving content for free to realizing there is a brand here that you could monetize?

[00:11:40] This is an amazing question because it connects me to a moment that I was able to experience because of Jonathan.

[00:11:48] Jonathan, once many years ago, took me to an event in New York with some speeches from amazing philosophers.

[00:11:58] I don't know if Jonathan can mention what the event was.

[00:12:00] And I remember a lecture of a lady and she said something that I completely connected to because it was exactly my mindset at that time.

[00:12:12] She said something like, the best way to protect is to share.

[00:12:16] The best way to protect an idea is to share the idea.

[00:12:20] So it's completely the opposite of every business person will think, right?

[00:12:25] So mainly in US, when you think you have a good idea, the first thing you do is not to share with anybody.

[00:12:30] And then you hire lawyers.

[00:12:31] You spend thousands of dollars trying to protect the idea, IP, you know, and patents and whatever you think.

[00:12:39] And 99.99999% of all the ideas will turn into nothing.

[00:12:43] And the few ones that could turn into nothing will not end up helping people because at the time you protect completely your idea.

[00:12:52] The idea is not useful anymore.

[00:12:53] So when she said that, I said, that's unconsciously exactly what I did, right?

[00:12:59] I had this idea and I put all this structure together.

[00:13:04] And my friends said, you're crazy Christian.

[00:13:07] You're sharing all your slides, your cases, your ideas, your concepts.

[00:13:11] People will take advantage of it.

[00:13:13] Nobody's going to give you credits.

[00:13:14] People will say that the ideas are theirs.

[00:13:17] And I just have this instinct of saying, you know what?

[00:13:20] I'm going to just share it.

[00:13:21] And yes, on the first one, two years, there was a lot of copycats, people taking over all the ideas and that whole mass on Facebook, whatever.

[00:13:31] But what happens is that the world is made of much more great people than the bad people.

[00:13:37] There's many more people with good intentions than people with bad intentions.

[00:13:41] So you have those 2-3% of people that will take advantage.

[00:13:45] But you have 97% of the people that wants to give you the credits.

[00:13:48] And what happens midterm is that the more you share, the more the whole community will help you protect and call out all the people that are taking advantage of it.

[00:13:58] And that's exactly what happened.

[00:14:00] And after three, four, five years, copycats disappeared.

[00:14:02] And the ideas just spread and the credits were very clear.

[00:14:08] And everybody was coming back and inviting me to explain more about the ideas.

[00:14:13] So it didn't kill my courses.

[00:14:15] It didn't kill my business.

[00:14:16] But it helped me amplify everything that I was doing.

[00:14:20] So for me, I strongly believe.

[00:14:22] I know it's not a common business strategy.

[00:14:24] But for me, it's very clear.

[00:14:26] The best way to protect an idea is to share as much as you can in a world that we live now where things are changing so fast.

[00:14:35] That's becoming an even smarter strategy for me.

[00:14:39] The look back to this conversation, which is, I love it so much, is very personal for Christian.

[00:14:46] I know this.

[00:14:47] He suffers from a quality called highly competent and humble.

[00:14:53] And as that kind of person, it comes natural for him to bring people together.

[00:15:00] You know, he said the word curious.

[00:15:02] I said the word curious.

[00:15:03] And I used to call him like this amazing curator because he puts people together.

[00:15:09] He puts ideas together.

[00:15:10] And then all of a sudden with the right people, the magic.

[00:15:13] What's really interesting about this conversation also is the fact that this story is just starting to get written.

[00:15:19] That the groundwork that he has done by creating this community because of his sharing is about to really start taking off.

[00:15:28] And we'll find out what Christian's up to right now.

[00:15:31] And he's young in his career, truly.

[00:15:33] It's a wonderful road that he's on.

[00:15:36] But because of his mindset, he has already impacted the profession in a very exciting and a very real way.

[00:15:43] So if I could do a little follow-up, Christian, on Maria's wonderful question.

[00:15:48] It is take us from Smile Design and take us from those learnings and that community.

[00:15:56] And maybe where are you going today?

[00:15:58] What's your current thinking from a standpoint of building a unique business model and continuing to impact the profession in positive, optimistic ways, but also to create a sustainable business model?

[00:16:11] First of all, thank you for your words, Jonathan.

[00:16:14] You know how much I appreciate compliments coming from you because I admire you and your career and everything you built so much.

[00:16:23] So thank you for that.

[00:16:24] Yes, I always loved bringing people together.

[00:16:27] And I think that was my shortcut in every corner of my life.

[00:16:32] You know, the fact that I was inspired always by my mom and my father just to be kind, just to care and to connect people and to love being with people.

[00:16:43] I think that one of the biggest blessings in life is to be able to meet new people, you know, and to be able to connect.

[00:16:49] That's the main reason why I want to continue to be alive, you know.

[00:16:52] So because of that, I could see that doors were opening for me since the beginning because people could identify that.

[00:17:00] You know, when I was young, you know, mentors and all the people saying, I like that young kid.

[00:17:05] You know, he has a nice attitude, behavior, ethical work style and just like to be around people and likes to bring people together.

[00:17:14] So I think that's a great strategy.

[00:17:16] You know, I don't do that thinking about a strategy, of course, it needs to be genuine.

[00:17:20] But at the end, it is a great strategy, you know, being nice and making people feel valued and wanting to be with you.

[00:17:31] It's the shortcut to success.

[00:17:33] That allowed me to bring great people around my ideas.

[00:17:36] You know, I realized from a young age that without early adopters, your idea means nothing.

[00:17:42] You know, if you don't have the initial leader of fans, you're going to go nowhere.

[00:17:48] Yeah.

[00:17:49] And mainly because I don't have all the skills to make.

[00:17:51] So I need great people and their own idea.

[00:17:54] Make people embrace your idea and feel like this is ours.

[00:17:58] You know, it belongs to all of us and let's make it happen.

[00:18:01] So this genuine, humble attitude of bringing people on board and encouraging people and motivating people and making people see the light at the end of the whole through your vision, through your project.

[00:18:17] I think that was the key for me to get to where I am.

[00:18:21] But of course, I don't feel like I'm not even 30% through the whole journey.

[00:18:25] And I hope there's much more to come.

[00:18:27] But another thing that I realized through the DSD is that one thing is to have a great idea to share.

[00:18:35] The other thing is to have people implementing that idea.

[00:18:40] So education was one part that was natural for me, teaching people the ideas, the concept, the workflow.

[00:18:47] But I realized that even though huge majority was very excited about the ideas, very few were implementing the ideas.

[00:18:55] And it's not easy to implement, to change, to bring a new system into your practice, right?

[00:19:01] To onboard your staff, to convince your staff, to convince your partners, to convince yourself on a bad day.

[00:19:08] You know, when you're lacking motivation and energy and your brain is trying to sabotage you to go back to the old way.

[00:19:15] And we feel that, you know, every other week.

[00:19:18] So to really make a change, to change behavior for real, it's not only about a two-day amazing course.

[00:19:25] You need to do more.

[00:19:27] So that's when DSD moved from a course, an education program, into the service company that we have today.

[00:19:38] Meaning, let's try to imagine, you know, everything we teach and let's see all the challenges, bottlenecks and pain points that people will suffer after this educational experience.

[00:19:48] And let's pretend that 10% love the ideas enough to try to be courageous enough to try to implement them.

[00:19:55] How can we help that percentage of people?

[00:19:58] And what type of services that we need to build?

[00:20:00] And that's when we move the company from just an educational company into a service company that we have today.

[00:20:07] With different pillars and different types of services that we provide that are basically just helping people implement the ideas that they learn in the course.

[00:20:17] And that's the company that we have today.

[00:20:20] Thanks for sharing the journey.

[00:20:21] I'm curious, and I know some of our listeners would be too, that journey from zero to one, right?

[00:20:27] Where you have an idea, don't have a first customer yet.

[00:20:31] It sounds like in your case, it was all about finding like-minded, curious people like Jonathan Levine to say, hey, I think that's great.

[00:20:41] I'll use it and I won't abuse it, right?

[00:20:45] Share with us some of those tips that you've learned that accelerates that journey from zero to one that worked for you, right?

[00:20:53] Because you build a dental business, you build the education business, the services business that comes to the education side too.

[00:21:00] So what are some of those tips that work across those different businesses for you?

[00:21:04] So I think that the first thing is to find that army of great people, early adopters, right?

[00:21:12] Few initial people that are smart enough and successful enough that you have a relationship, that you have credits with these people.

[00:21:22] And you bring the idea and they are willing to actually test it and become ambassadors of that idea.

[00:21:30] So on the early days, most of the ideas that I was bringing were completely out of the box and were something that was an extra work.

[00:21:39] So it was very hard to convince pragmatic and skeptical people just to jump in and start doing like probably any new idea, right?

[00:21:48] But because of my network that at the time was not at the size that it is today, but I already had a good network and connection.

[00:21:57] And, you know, I was investing.

[00:22:00] And it's interesting to see that many things you do in life, you don't know exactly when you're going to leverage the seeds that you planted.

[00:22:08] But you just have that feeling that you need to do them because one day this is going to come back and help you.

[00:22:14] And I remember any friends and even family member telling me, Christian, but why do you waste so much time networking?

[00:22:20] Why do you talk to these people?

[00:22:22] Why are you calling this guy that didn't even call you back?

[00:22:25] Why are you going for dinner with these people that you don't have a clear, you're not going to make money with them next week?

[00:22:30] You know why and why and why?

[00:22:31] Instant utility has started to dominate our lives.

[00:22:34] So what you're saying is poor, instant utility for now and just get to know the person.

[00:22:40] Yeah, exactly.

[00:22:41] And I realized that today is clear that for 15 years I was investing in this community, these connections, right?

[00:22:50] And even though nobody was understanding why I was doing, I was just doing it.

[00:22:55] And it's all investment because you're putting your time, your energy, you're traveling, you're going to people, you're calling people, you're connecting people, you're doing favors,

[00:23:03] you're helping people, you're giving stuff for free, you're giving advices, you're sharing everything you know.

[00:23:09] Just sharing, sharing, sharing.

[00:23:11] And it's amazing that once you start having a real thing in your hands, once you go back, all these people are like, Christian, I'm with you.

[00:23:20] You don't even remember, but five years ago, you know, you did this for me.

[00:23:24] Ten years ago, we connected and you helped me.

[00:23:27] You connect with this other person and that changed my life, you know, and we had a meeting.

[00:23:32] And so at the moment that I had an idea and I had a business and I needed people to say, let's try this.

[00:23:40] I had this credit with these people and people just starting to advocate the ideas, right?

[00:23:47] And spread these ideas.

[00:23:48] Even before the ideas were mature, even before I, you know, my company was ready to actually help people fully.

[00:23:55] People were just saying, we're going to support and we're going to push.

[00:23:58] And something happened one day and we just feel like it's the right thing to do.

[00:24:04] And that's for me, the way I got to this point, you know, just leveraging the connections that I was able to build during my whole life.

[00:24:13] Yeah.

[00:24:14] I mean, I've seen Jonathan do the same and I'm not Jonathan, you know, I'm not that nice to say things that I don't mean just to pay a compliment.

[00:24:20] But I've seen you time and again.

[00:24:22] Very much.

[00:24:23] I've been in those situations where he would sit with people after the meeting, way after the meeting is over.

[00:24:30] 100%.

[00:24:30] And get to know them and even offer to do things that they're not even asking.

[00:24:36] Like they're not even asking for a favor.

[00:24:38] And he's like, let me tell you what I could do for you.

[00:24:41] And that's really powerful.

[00:24:43] That's it.

[00:24:44] And Jonathan has that skill and he does that.

[00:24:49] And you said the sentence before people, you're listening.

[00:24:52] You're listening to people.

[00:24:54] You're listening to conversations.

[00:24:55] You see the opportunity.

[00:24:57] Sometimes you have the solution.

[00:25:00] You have the know-how or sometimes you know people that may have.

[00:25:03] And you proactively move away from your path, right?

[00:25:09] To say that, you know, and you are like, if I say this, I'm going to have to spend time sharing some emails.

[00:25:16] I'm going to have to make some calls.

[00:25:18] I'm going to have to answer some questions here.

[00:25:21] This person may want to visit me in my practice.

[00:25:25] And you cannot hold yourself.

[00:25:27] And you say, I cannot miss this opportunity.

[00:25:29] I have to help.

[00:25:30] I see the opportunity here.

[00:25:32] And I'm just going to say it.

[00:25:33] I believe I have an idea that may help you.

[00:25:36] Or I may know somebody that may help you.

[00:25:38] And you just start to connect the dots, right?

[00:25:42] And this is so beautiful.

[00:25:43] For me, it makes you feel alive and it makes everything worth it.

[00:25:49] Yeah.

[00:25:49] We definitely share that feeling to serve people.

[00:25:53] And Christian is a classic example of a servant leader that made people better.

[00:25:57] And without even an effort because it's real and it brings the joy when you do that.

[00:26:03] Because you know that you're really helping people.

[00:26:06] It's, you know, I think it's why people just extend that hand.

[00:26:10] And it always comes back.

[00:26:11] You know, the big saying, what goes around comes around.

[00:26:14] And it always comes back.

[00:26:16] And it brings together very like-minded people who share that mindset.

[00:26:21] It's really about that kind of mindset.

[00:26:23] Christian and I, we hit it off pretty quickly.

[00:26:25] All right, let's change gears.

[00:26:27] Here we go.

[00:26:28] Let's talk about challenges.

[00:26:31] The biggest challenges.

[00:26:32] Bang, bang, bang, bang.

[00:26:33] Three-year career.

[00:26:35] Tell me, because you were kind of going there a little bit.

[00:26:38] You were kind of going there a little bit with a few things that you were talking about.

[00:26:41] When you think about these business challenges, you've got this idea.

[00:26:46] You're starting it up.

[00:26:48] You've got it going.

[00:26:49] And you start hitting these headwinds.

[00:26:52] Almost consistent headwinds from company to company company.

[00:26:55] What are those challenges that you've seen?

[00:26:57] And how did you take those challenges and not so much facing them, but how you reacted and creatively solve them?

[00:27:05] Oh, I didn't solve not even 10% of the problems that I'm facing.

[00:27:11] But I think we need to solve problems forever.

[00:27:15] In the health industry, I think there's two big challenges.

[00:27:19] There's maybe three.

[00:27:20] The first one is that if you start a business in healthcare and you come from the clinical side, right?

[00:27:28] First challenge is that you know nothing about business.

[00:27:32] And whatever you think you know, you don't know.

[00:27:34] And you need to understand how you're going to learn or how you're going to find the people that will be real partners and support you in this journey.

[00:27:45] Because you can be a professional clinician, but you are an amateur business manager.

[00:27:52] And there's no room for amateurs in business.

[00:27:55] Absolutely.

[00:27:56] It's a disaster, right?

[00:27:57] And I saw that happening over and over again.

[00:27:59] Beautiful ideas, great intentions.

[00:28:02] You don't have the business know-how.

[00:28:04] You know, you destroy your life, your family's life.

[00:28:07] You're going to lose everything.

[00:28:08] So that's the first challenge.

[00:28:10] The second challenge is that healthcare is a completely different animal because you're taking care of people.

[00:28:16] It's different than everything else when it comes to business because there's a very hard ethical line that it's hard to combine making more money with providing better care.

[00:28:27] And they usually go in opposite directions.

[00:28:31] So how can you scale with quality in healthcare?

[00:28:35] I still don't know the answer.

[00:28:38] And I still believe that quality in dentistry cannot be scaled.

[00:28:44] Now everybody's trying to fail.

[00:28:47] And I have a business that needs to scale.

[00:28:49] Otherwise, my business will disappear.

[00:28:51] If I don't scale, my business will disappear.

[00:28:54] And I'm telling you that quality in dentistry cannot be scaled.

[00:29:00] You have the gold standard.

[00:29:01] And I would say a practice like Jonathan's practice is very close to the perfection of what a gold standard should be.

[00:29:10] Anything that beyond that, that is slightly bigger, will slightly drop the quality.

[00:29:16] Period.

[00:29:17] There's no way around it.

[00:29:18] Could you just double click on that for a little bit?

[00:29:20] Because we're in a community that, and currently in a cycle probably, where AI, technology, televisits are allotted as the panacea for a lot of the ailments in healthcare now.

[00:29:35] So maybe walk us through some of the things you tried that didn't work, that landed you in that conclusion that quality doesn't scale.

[00:29:45] Because that's a pretty big statement there.

[00:29:47] Yeah.

[00:29:47] And I totally believe on that.

[00:29:49] And the more I know about this and the more I do it myself, the more I believe in that.

[00:29:56] Quality in dentistry is not scale.

[00:29:57] And if I need a big treatment myself in my mouth, I would go to a dentist that has a more similar practice to this gold standard that I know allows.

[00:30:08] Because it's a combination to make the best decisions for your patient.

[00:30:12] It's a combination of keeping your passion, owning your practice, having the freedom, not being owned by corporations, being able to select the materials and the equipment.

[00:30:23] But being successful enough to buy the best materials, to hire the best professionals, but as a clinician not having more than 10, 15 people to manage where you can still be the top clinician that you are.

[00:30:37] So it's very obvious, right?

[00:30:40] So of course there is the temptation.

[00:30:43] You know, as soon as you have that amazing practice and you're doing amazing work, your reputation will grow and the temptation will come.

[00:30:51] You know, open a second location, hire more associates, try to make them as good as possible, never as good as you.

[00:30:59] And it will take 10, 15 years for them to get there and so on.

[00:31:03] So that's whatever people say differently is BS.

[00:31:07] Because the fact is that quality is not scalable in dentistry and you have the gold standard, right?

[00:31:13] Now, marketing can be so amazing that you can fool people and you can fool even very smart people and very rich people.

[00:31:20] But at the end of the day, quality is not scalable.

[00:31:24] And if you want the best treatment, you would go to that practice that is keeping the quality and staying at the same size, right?

[00:31:32] Staying at the same size, holding the temptation.

[00:31:34] Because if you want to own, you know, private jets and be a billionaire, don't pick dentistry.

[00:31:40] Dentistry is super generous.

[00:31:42] Dentistry is one of the best professions on earth.

[00:31:44] And if you're a good dentist, you're going to have an amazing life, period.

[00:31:49] But you're not going to be a billionaire through dentistry if you really care about your patients, right?

[00:31:54] If you want to keep the quality.

[00:31:56] That's it.

[00:31:57] I don't judge.

[00:31:58] And I know many friends, good friends, you know, growing and expanding and becoming a DSO.

[00:32:03] And I think that there's room for everybody.

[00:32:05] But my mouth, I know exactly the dentist that I would go because I know this industry from inside out, every little corner.

[00:32:12] And I know what quality means.

[00:32:14] And I know what it takes, you know?

[00:32:16] So you said how to explain that.

[00:32:18] For example, diagnosis.

[00:32:20] The process of diagnosis is the starting point of good quality of care, right?

[00:32:25] How can you standardize?

[00:32:26] How can you multiply this?

[00:32:29] Can you use AI?

[00:32:30] AI is doing 0.1% of the process of diagnosing a human being from the dental perspective.

[00:32:37] 0.1%, right?

[00:32:39] So people, they like to fool themselves that digital can make the magic and, you know, you can scale with digital.

[00:32:46] Not with the same quality.

[00:32:47] You still need people making the decisions, interpreting technology, connecting the dots, connecting the specialists, onboarding the patient, explaining, educating, motivating, you know?

[00:33:00] So having a holistic mindset, integrated interdisciplinary thinking process, visualization and decision-making, collaborative structure, communication, standardized, efficient, guided clinical execution, communication with the manufacturing centers and fabricating all the devices, ethical patient onboarding.

[00:33:21] For me, these are the seven key aspects of the ideal goal standard practice.

[00:33:27] And it's going to be scaled.

[00:33:28] Today, no way.

[00:33:30] In the next 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, no way.

[00:33:34] Maybe in 50, 100.

[00:33:35] But for me, that's my point.

[00:33:37] That's why business-wise, you need to make the decision.

[00:33:41] What is your main goal?

[00:33:43] What is the ultimate outcome that you want?

[00:33:45] Do you want to be proud when you're about to die because you built a billion-dollar company?

[00:33:53] Or do you want to be proud because of your legacy as a caretaker?

[00:33:56] I got a double click on it.

[00:33:57] What do you think here?

[00:33:58] Yeah, please, Jeremy.

[00:33:59] You're building off for a second.

[00:34:00] I got a double click.

[00:34:02] Yeah.

[00:34:02] Everything Christian's saying, those seven things he laid out, I live and die by them.

[00:34:06] I'm an overnight success in 35 years.

[00:34:09] And it's all about the people side of the equation.

[00:34:13] Life is a team sport.

[00:34:15] Dentistry is a team sport.

[00:34:17] To be able to hit those seven points takes a hiring-inspired, high-performance team with

[00:34:25] strong leadership.

[00:34:26] So what happens, he's, Christian, I believe you're describing a gold standard, which is

[00:34:31] a North Star.

[00:34:32] What it does in a very positive way is it says to the DSOs, it says to these young dentists,

[00:34:40] this is what's possible, build this.

[00:34:43] But the opportunity to scale falls on the people side of the equation.

[00:34:47] And that's where it becomes difficult to take your systems and create scalability.

[00:34:52] What you can do is take that North Star, what I think you can do, and create versions of it

[00:34:59] from that incredible boutique and create versions of it that you understand.

[00:35:05] It's not going to be exactly that, but it could also answer the next quality of care.

[00:35:11] 100%.

[00:35:11] So I think you nailed it.

[00:35:14] You know, I know that ideal dentistry is for the elite.

[00:35:19] Very few can afford this ideal dentistry.

[00:35:21] So how do you take these ideas and you help dentistry become more democratic, right?

[00:35:27] So if DSOs and corporate dentistry is taking over, they will never do the kind of work that

[00:35:33] you are doing, Jonathan, in your practice, period, right?

[00:35:36] But since DSOs are a reality and you have a corporation that owns a thousand practices,

[00:35:43] how do you take these ideas and you help these 1000 practices do a little bit better

[00:35:49] care for a little bit more people?

[00:35:52] So that's the other side of what we are doing, right?

[00:35:55] At the same time that we are appreciating and empowering and complimenting the few courageous

[00:36:02] doctors that are sticking with what is ideal, we also need to use our ideas and see how we

[00:36:08] can help the general dentist and the mass, you know, to do a little bit better.

[00:36:13] 100%.

[00:36:14] Yeah.

[00:36:15] The notion of really taking a little bit downstream and taking that North Star.

[00:36:20] Okay.

[00:36:21] We got to start to think about wrapping up, but this is like an incredible conversation

[00:36:25] because I really want young dentists to hear this conversation.

[00:36:30] Christian, innovation in dentistry, what you're personally doing as some next steps.

[00:36:36] Tell us a little bit about your thinking from an innovative standpoint and from your own personal

[00:36:42] career where you'd like to share with people what the future is going to look like for you

[00:36:48] in dentistry.

[00:36:49] So my biggest mission at this moment is to help people shift their focus from how to execute

[00:36:57] things better to how to make better decisions.

[00:37:00] Our biggest mistakes are not on the execution, but it's on the decision-making process.

[00:37:05] That's the hardest part of dentistry.

[00:37:08] And dentistry, education, and corporations are completely biased towards execution.

[00:37:14] Software are developed to help us execute technologies, materials, instruments, courses, literature,

[00:37:21] books, articles, lectures.

[00:37:24] Everything is towards execution.

[00:37:26] How do you execute better?

[00:37:28] But the problem is that the execution is only as good as the plan.

[00:37:32] And the plan depends on high-level decision-making.

[00:37:37] So how can you become a better decision-maker?

[00:37:39] And how can new solutions and new technologies help you make better decisions?

[00:37:46] Basically, the three main pillars that we've been focusing, diagnosis, planning, and selling.

[00:37:53] I call it diagnose, plan, and sell.

[00:37:55] If you can master, diagnose, plan, and sell, the sky is the limit.

[00:37:58] And diagnose means you deep dive into that human being sitting in front of you.

[00:38:03] And you understand that human being much better than any other dentist.

[00:38:07] And you use all the tools possible to go much beyond the obvious, right?

[00:38:14] Then you leverage technology to expand your treatment planning,

[00:38:19] to expand your communication with specialists,

[00:38:21] to expand the process of visualizing your ideas and checking if your ideas are the best ideas.

[00:38:29] So leveraging technology to treatment plan better.

[00:38:33] And then leveraging technology to educate and onboard a patient better.

[00:38:37] So diagnose, plan, and sell.

[00:38:38] These three things need to happen before you even touch the patient as a clinician,

[00:38:42] before you even touch the patient as a executor, as a performer.

[00:38:46] And as I said, 99% of everything we see, it's about execution.

[00:38:49] So, you know, I've been in a mission not only to bring this story to people,

[00:38:54] make people think about it, hopefully make people agree with me,

[00:38:57] and then inspire the industry to start developing solutions and technologies

[00:39:03] to help us make better decisions.

[00:39:05] So every time a company comes to me and say,

[00:39:07] Christian, we have this new technology, this new instrument, this new equipment,

[00:39:11] you should have this.

[00:39:12] My next question is, how can this new thing, that looks pretty cool by the way,

[00:39:17] how can this new thing help me diagnose, plan, and sell?

[00:39:20] Because that's where my problem is.

[00:39:23] I know that I can always be a better clinician, better executor, better performer,

[00:39:28] but that's not where the main problem is.

[00:39:31] I need help at the beginning, not at the end of the process.

[00:39:34] I need help at the beginning, not at the end of the process.

[00:39:38] Bam.

[00:39:40] What do you think there, Maria Filipova?

[00:39:42] Well, I'm just taking it all in and excited that we were able to bring that different perspective.

[00:39:47] There's a lot of truths that you shared with us, hard-earned lessons from life,

[00:39:52] and a lot of myths that I believe we debunked today.

[00:39:56] Jonathan and I love bringing guests who help us demystify things and bust myths.

[00:40:02] And today we've heard quite a few of them.

[00:40:04] So I'm very grateful for the conversation.

[00:40:06] I'm very grateful for your words of wisdom.

[00:40:08] And we will share with our listeners ways that they could get involved

[00:40:14] and follow you on social media and be part of the great work that you're doing.

[00:40:19] So what is the best way for them to follow you and get in touch?

[00:40:22] Very simple, two ways.

[00:40:24] One is my Instagram.

[00:40:25] I'm very active on it, Chris Coachman.

[00:40:28] And I'm always answering all the questions there.

[00:40:31] Second, my podcast as well, Coffee Break with Coachman.

[00:40:34] Nice.

[00:40:35] Jonathan was part of it in the past.

[00:40:37] And hopefully I will maybe bring you guys again on board of my podcast as well.

[00:40:42] And our website, digitalsmiledesign.com.

[00:40:46] Digitalsmiledesign.com.

[00:40:47] We invest a lot of energy putting a lot of cool information on the website.

[00:40:51] And you can find everything that we do over there.

[00:40:54] Fantastic.

[00:40:54] Well, thanks for sharing us your shortcuts to success and your card.

[00:40:59] Shortcuts.

[00:41:00] Until, and again, 35 years in the making, right?

[00:41:03] It's a shortcut.

[00:41:04] I love that word.

[00:41:06] Christian, that's it.

[00:41:07] Thank you so much for sharing.

[00:41:09] Thank you.

[00:41:11] Maria, you're the best.

[00:41:13] Because, you know, it's such a journey life.

[00:41:16] And it's not, as we say, it's the destination.

[00:41:20] And it's so much, we are the company we keep.

[00:41:22] Christian's such a thought leader in the industry.

[00:41:24] Christian, thank you so much, really, for sharing your thinking with Maria and myself.

[00:41:29] We so enjoyed this conversation.

[00:41:31] And we hope our listeners will also.

[00:41:34] And until next time.

[00:41:36] Until next time.

[00:41:36] Great.

[00:41:37] Thank you.

[00:41:37] Good job.

[00:41:44] Thanks for listening to the Think Oral podcast.

[00:41:47] For the show notes and resources from today's podcast,

[00:41:50] visit us at www.outcomesrocket.health.com.

[00:41:57] Or start a conversation with us on social media.

[00:42:00] Until then, keep smiling.

[00:42:02] And connecting care.