Tiger’s Corner: What did we learn from a trip to Texas

Quick Warning: most likely you will see typos and sentences that would not make any sense. Please be patient with me since I refuse to use editors (except spell check) because I don’t want to lose my voice in the filtered/edited text.‍

As many of you know I simply can’t stand still or be in the office for too long. I have a burning desire to visit ALL of our ZenFamily (clients). Therefore the decision to spend 2 weeks in Texas was super simple. I called my friend Andy (Dr. Andy Tran) and asked if it was ok to stay with them for a few days.  After hearing a positive yes we were on the road!

Homemade food, 17 hours of drive, one stop in Memphis to sleep and we are in Austin.

The first Item on the Agenda Food 🙂 Adam (Zen Sales and Onboarding) was in charge of steak, Andy and Linda Guacamole and I made my signature salad. I’m reminded again why I started Zen and who in the world would’ve thought that I will ever share the meal with friends (who happened to be clients of Zen).

Next Day visit to Ikea to help Andy bring countertops. Andy is opening a startup dental practice on February 4th, 2019 and I admire his drive a lot. He has been to more conferences than anybody I know, and I’m not talking about just dental. Andy and Linda (soon to be wife) have been to all dental conferences, Tony Robbins and most likely plenty more that I’m not aware of. After we picked up countertop, we are headed to the office, Apex Dental Studio sign greats us as we are pulling into the parking lot. The brand new building, end cap, perfect location for a dental practice. From the minute we entered the space I can see all the knowledge Andy gathered from conferences, books, seminars – no side cabinets, Tip Out bins, all treatment rooms in one row, and so much more. Super proud of Andy and Linda and I can see you guys are going to achieve great results and be very successful.

From Monday until Friday Adam and I divided responsibilities and were visited by our clients in the area. So many stories to tell about our ZenFamily. Let’s get started!

‍Dr. Hector Tijerina took over a failing practice in Austin Texas about a year ago (we discovered during our get together that it actually is 1 year ago).  Through tough times, stress and lots of changes he turned the practice around. Now happy and expecting first born dr. Tijerina is smiling and itching for the next thing (common quality among Zen users 🙂

Randolph Family Dental and Dr. Fortuna Vardeman went through  lots of changes and I absolutely admire her resilience. I felt positive energy being in the office and I was happy to see Dr. Vardeman’s brother Carino helping with supplies and other things. At the end of the day dental practice is a Family Business!

Excellent Dental Specialist: Dr. Andrew Weber, DDS, and Steve. This is one of our large ZenFamily members in San Antonio with 3 offices. Steve who is in charge of supplies doing an awesome job keeping all 3 locations on track and within budget. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see Steve and Dr. Weber on this trip but I was able to show customer service the Zen way and delivered back ordered water order myself – more on this here (Watch Here)

‍Pflugerville Family Dentistry: Dr. Chris Mun and Alaa are awesome. Alaa took over Zen and ordering for a previous person and now is full control. From Tip out Bins (another common element of most successful offices) to verifying orders Alaa is doing a great job.

Lonestar Endodontic Associates: Dr. Raj Shenoy, Angela, and Valencia. I’m simply impressed with their dedication. This is my second visit to the office and every time I go Angela has questions, she is determined and super positive. Honestly, this makes all the difference in the word – Attitude. Super excited to see how Zen can help Lonestar get organized!

AcreWood Dental: Dr. Benjamin Johnson, Allison, Megan, and Kylee. https://www.acrewooddental.com/ – AcreWood Dental was our first stop on Monday and this was supposed to be a routine visit to check and see how things are going.  On the first visit we met with Alison (Office manager) and she was happy to show how they “Zen”. I was blown away. They really took the concept to the next level and got extremely organized. After an hour-long meeting, I felt I needed to come back and document the process better because it really challenged how we thought supplies should be organized. More on this we will cover in the case study and video documentary – stay tuned.

Wheeler Pediatric Dentistry: Dr. John Wheeler and Christiana. We had a pretty busy Wednesday and ended up cutting it really close to 5 pm when the office is closing. Through Houston traffic and famous Texas driving, we made it 4:40 only to find that we went to the other location that was closed that day. Adam called back the office and asked to wait for us 🙂 So drove even faster to make it on time and 5:03 we were there. Dr. John Wheeler met us we had a great chat for a few minutes. Super happy to have this office as part of ZenFamily and help them organize inventory between 2 locations.

David Rossen DDS: Brian and Kevin. Kevin (who also runs a very successful dental analytics company divergentdental.com) and I have become really good friends. I always look forward to chatting with Kevin and bounce ideas. This time we didn’t take a picture, but Dental Success Summit is coming in a few weeks and we will have plenty of opportunities there 🙂

‍Stop for Coffee: Jo’s Coffee located in the heart of Austin – South Congress and is a part of my favorite hotel San Jose, highly recommend to stay here when in Austin. This hotel has an incredible story and you can pick up a lot of inspiration from staying here. As I’m sipping my cortado I had to pinch myself to make sure it’s real life – I get to do what I truly love, meet people I truly admire and build a business that allows me to do all that. I would never imagine this in a million years and I’m super grateful to all ZenFamily (our users) who help us build the company we dream off every day. (Dr. Dave Maloley I thought about you and taking a moment to be grateful 🙂

Breakaway Practice: Meeting with Dr. Scott Leune. Scott and I first met at the Voice of Dentistry 2018 and became good friends. I truly respect Scott for his bold vision and what he has built so far. I have a feeling he has a lot more to accomplish.

Next Level Management: Dr. An Le, Aniket and Joann. Joann was our Person and Office of the Month in January and every time I’m in Dallas it’s a must for me to stop and chat. Joann always has great feedback and new challenges for us. I’m super great to have Next Level as part of ZenFamily and look forward to watching them dominate Dallas as they continue to expand (currently with 7 locations).

Michael Hardcastle DDS and Andrea. When you meet them in person you will know why I always have a big smile just thinking about this couple. My friend Ashlee calls Michael “Papa bear” for a reason. Caring hug, great dinner and really deep and meaningful conversation with a glass of wine with Michael and Andrea are one of the big reasons why Dallas is special for me. Not to mention t was Michael’s birthday and I had a chance to wish him all the best together with the entire team. Really special moment and I captured most of it just need to edit the video 🙂

Last stop on the trip Heartland Mirror Lake Dentistry with Dr. Jeff Slutskiy. I’m very impressed with what Jeff has accomplished in a short amount of time and I look forward to seeing what’s in the future. I really hope to be the part of their growing organization.

This is all, but it’s not the end. We have many more clients in Texas that we couldn’t visit on this trip but we will be back. Thank you to all for being an inspiration to build Zen!More images that didn’t make the cut :