What do young dentists listen to too? 

Every time we do a demo for ZenOne I always ask people many things:

• How did you find us?
• Who do you listen to?
• What voice do you allow in your head?
• What influenced you to open/acquire a practice?
• What keeps you going when things get tough?

Of course I can’t ask all of these questions all at once, but the overall idea is that we want to know as much as possible about our practices and practice owners. Here my quick take on the most pressing issues:

1. Student Debt – most of the people i’ve talked to have less than $500 in debt, but everyone knows a gal or a guy with over $1mm in debt
2. Access to knowledge – retiring dentists are in an interesting spot financially and not that many are willing to teach the new generation the tricks. And another issue is that retiring dentists may not know as much outside of standard bread and butter dentistry procedures. People like my friend Dr. Aaron Nicholas (hands on courses are here) are rare and you can see why yourself!
3. Leadership and Confidence in yourself, in doing day to day dentistry and being an OWNER. It’s hard to own a practice, have a family, kids, and be the leader for your team. In the recent ZenOne podcast episode with 4 young doctors, Dr. Trevor Berg, Dr. Riley Hansen, Dr. Curtis Calder and Dr. Tyler Marlowe all expressed the lack of leadership experience needed to run the practice. How do you train and the “reps” before actually becoming a leader? 

This is where I see younger dentists leaning for knowledge and they are extremely hungry for guys like Dr. Mark Costes, Dr. Scott Leune, Dr. Paul Etchinson, Dr. Addison Killeen and the guys at the Lifestyle practice Podcast advice and knowledge.

I’ve heard on many podcasts that for someone who is new to a practice, dentistry is relatively easy, but the business side of managing a team is what generates a lot of stress. The leadership term has been slightly ruined over the last decade when we tried to make “everyone” a leader in the practice, but at the end the buck stops with the owner and that is the ultimate leadership.

I’m happy to say that I’ve personally known most of the podcasters listed above and they genuinely care for the new generation of dentists. 

Reference:

Podcast	Link
The Dentalpreneur Podcast (hosted by Dr. Mark Costes)	https://www.truedentalsuccess.com/the-dentalpreneur-podcast/ truedentalsuccess.com
The Dental Practice Heroes Podcast (with Dr. Paul Etchison)	https://dentalpracticeheroes.libsyn.com/2020/02 dentalpracticeheroes.libsyn.com
The Lifestyle Practice Podcast (sometimes “TLP Podcast For Dentists”)	https://thelifestylepractice.com/
The Dental CEO Podcast (with Dr. Scott Leune)  Daily Dental Podcast	https://dentalceopodcast.com/
Daily Dental Podcast	https://podcasts.apple.com/kh/podcast/daily-dental-podcast/id1672433531