Secure Dental-Dr Emily Letran: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Secure Dental-Dr Emily Letran: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Hey. Good morning to you all. Good morning to the Secure Dental Podcast once again, where I share practical tips from exceptional people. Real people doing real things, meaningful things every day in life. And they're successful. And I want to create a meaningful life for you. You can get some tips out of it, get some financial freedom ideas for you and your family. Hey, my name is Nazish Jafri. I am the CEO and chief clinician still at Secure Dental and a co-founder of DentVia, which is a virtual team helping your front desk. I am so glad that you've joined in today. Today I have Dr. Emily. She is an exceptional female from UCLA trained dentist. She's a high-performance business strategist. She's a powerhouse who manages multiple practices while coaching high-level executives to achieve ultra success. She champions those who started with nothing; her best title is being a mother of three. Please welcome Dr. Emily and our podcast today. So, tell me about your best title. How do you manage the best title being a mom to three kids?

Dr. Emily Letran:
Well, thank you so much.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
... and doing so many things.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Well, thank you so much. It's an absolute honor to be here. And thank you for taking the time to do the podcast and to set up the platform so we can all share our stories and learn from each other. So, my official title is Best Mom in the world, right? And why? Yeah. Why do I say that? Well, I think all moms are the best moms. We give so much to our children. What I want the mom to do, though, is I know the children are the most important people in your life, but there's also life. There's also your business and your personal life, and I think you can do all of that. So, I'm one of those people who like to say, okay, I do it all. I have three beautiful children. They graduated from college. Nobody's on drugs. Nobody is pregnant. You know, that's success.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
It's a success.

Dr. Emily Letran:
For being a success.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
It is.

Dr. Emily Letran:
And so I have my oldest, who is a dentist. Graduated from UCLA, also 30 years after my mom. The middle one is a PharmD. He is working for Kaiser Permanente. And the third one, he did a BA at UCLA in English, and then he chose to go to California. He chose to go all the way across the country to New Haven, Connecticut. He is at Yale University doing a PhD in English.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Oh, amazing.

Dr. Emily Letran:
And one of the reasons, and I don't always share this, is why I think I'm the best mom. Well, you know what? Everybody has kids. Everybody has kids going to school and everything. I've had my own challenges. My youngest son actually went through being bullied when he was a little kid. Oh, and he actually contemplated suicide. Right, and of course, he didn't do it. He's at Yale now. But I also want to address that as a mom, you don't only have to take care of your kids when they're at home, right? What do you do when they're at school? Because he was being bullied at school. The thing is, we have to be everywhere. Life demands that of us, right? So, even if you're at work and you're worrying about your kid being in school, got bullied or whatever, now, when you're at home, then your staff call and something happened to them, right? You are always that motherly figure to everybody. And what I believe is we got our priorities straight. And I call that clarity, which is where are your values, right? If my value is family, I'm going to drop everything, right? I just need to shut down. It's okay if I need to be with the family. When people don't have that clarity, they're always torn. You know what? I have to go to work. I gotta do this. I gotta do that. I think I answered this one question on Facebook. Somebody is thinking, oh, you know, I'm making so much as an associate. Should I have my office right? And I have a very simple answer. Is independence and flexibility important to you, right? Because when you have the flexibility, yeah, you can take the time off, right? Like today, we have this podcast, right? And so, I told the staff I'm coming in late because I'm on this podcast. And then I will go to work. And I have that flexibility, and I don't take that for granted. I know I have it because I own my own office. Now, if you own your own office, you need to change your schedule. Yes, you need to respect the patient. You need to. Don't take your patients for granted. And if I had to change my patient schedule because of me, I would make sure that I do something for them. I'm not going to change my patient because all of a sudden I decide to go to a party. But if all of a sudden I got invited to go somewhere last-minute to speak, I think I need to serve that particular audience also. And we tell the patient, Dr. Emily has to be at a meeting. Can we reschedule you? Can we offer you whatever, you know, like give you a gift or whatever, so they know that they are valued to you? So, I think a lot of times when people say, I'm stressed, I'm burnt out, or whatever, sometimes it's because the clarity is not there. Because going back to the best mom, I got three kids when they were younger for 18 years, I calculated that in the morning, I dropped them off at school.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yes.

Dr. Emily Letran:
At 2:00, I take off from work, so I work from 9 to 2. Then I would go pick up the kids from school when they were younger. So, they went to the babysitter when they were a little bit older. Sometimes they went to work with me. And then I came back to work. Work from 4 to 6, and I go pick them up or, you know, they're with me. Then we go home. I would sign up for. They want to know after school sport because I am not driving people around. I already go pick them up from school. So, we would sign up for taekwondo, which starts at 6:30. And we are still coming to taekwondo late. But the point is, you know, you want extracurricular activity or whatever, this is the one that I choose, and it gives you the discipline, it gives you the exercise, and it's after work. So, I know I will make it rather than if you go to a soccer thing and I'm one of the moms and I have to drive and I'm late, you know, like, like, why would I put myself in that situation, right? So, I did that for 18 years. I finally traded in my van two years after they finished. My friends are asking me, why are you still driving the van? You're driving by yourself, you know.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Used to it.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yeah. So, I upgraded to an SUV because I still need a tall car, right? But that's me. I do it all by my choice, and I do it to the best of my ability. And I know you may have some of the younger doctors. I think that's one of the most important things to get in your head: you got to do things by your choice. The only thing that I ask is that your choice needs to be educated. So, just because somebody says do this well, you know, read some magazine, read some book, go to some seminars, or get somebody to help you work with you so you actually know what the best path forward is. Because it's just like when you're in dental school, right? You go to school, you don't know how to drill, and you're taught to drill a particular way. And then when you're in the clinic, you're going to have an instructor who tells you, okay, do this. It's faster, you know, and then you go to work, and they say, no, no, this is what you do. It's even faster.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah, yeah, but you're learning.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Right? But somebody taught us, right? And we take on that training. And so, we need to do the training for our life and for our business. Sorry. Very long answer.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
No, this is amazing. And, Emily, there are so many things I could relate to. I know your kids are older. Mine are still very young. They're still in single digits. Five, I think nine and one turned 11. Just yesterday. It was her birthday. And I remember.

Dr. Emily Letran:
You know that she knows everything. The 11-year-old.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Oh, everything. Everything they know. I think my 11-year-old is more naive. My five-year-old, she knows everything in the world.

Dr. Emily Letran:
I remember when my kid was a teenager, they would tell me, mom, you don't know anything about relationships. And I'm like, okay, I agree, that's it. I'm not gonna even fight.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah, well, I do Kumon with them; they hate Kumon. And just like you, I have activities that I can do at home. And after six. And they think that Kumon is the worst thing in the world, and they think that I don't know how hard it is for them, how hard their life is for those 30 minutes, because I never did Kumon.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Right.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
But I do resonate with what you were saying about your office and your kids is when we build our first office. I had my daughter after two years, and she was so small I couldn't put her in daycare at that time. I didn't know there was a waitlist for it, so I had to bring her to the office every single day.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Wow.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
And I would keep her near the sterilizer, because that is warm. And I live in Chicago, so bundle her up and put her near the sterilizer so I can also hear. And the sound of the sterilizer made her go to sleep a little bit. But the funny part is that being the mom, you just know your priorities. And sometimes I forget what the priority is because, as a female, a mom, and a business producer, you just have to juggle certain things every single day. Your priority is different.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Well, you know, it's funny you talk about kids. I actually bought my first office when my kid was almost two, also.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
And she was so small. I carry her in the thing. When I went to check out the office, I walked in with her like that. And the selling doctor goes. What is that? Well, he knows what it is. And I said, it's a baby, and you can't leave the baby at home. I said, no. I pick her up already, and she's napping, you know, so she's in the little basket with a towel over it. And that's why my kid never went to daycare. Because, from what I heard, you had to pick them up on time, right? And, you know, the dental office you're trying to get out of, and the patient has one more question. So, that's why they went to the babysitter. So, it could be more flexible. Like, sometimes I pick them up late, sometimes I pick them up early. You know, I'm still paying them the same. And my kid went to work with me sometimes. And when Jennifer, just first, I remember she was in. Is it a kindergarten? Yeah. We never went to preschool either. I'm not going to be driving people around unless I have to. So, she went to kindergarten, and we used to have the appointment card.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
And I would put her on the counter and say, Jennifer, you know, your next appointment. So, she would write your name and whatever. I don't know if she even knows she doesn't have to write your name, but she has to write down the date, right?

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Okay.

Dr. Emily Letran:
And the patient would patiently stand at the counter watching her like she does this. So, when she first finished dental school, sometimes she comes in and helps me a little bit. And the patient hated it because she said the moment the patient came in, they would say, I remember you.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
You were writing the date.

Dr. Emily Letran:
And when I first bought that office, the doctor was opening on Friday, half a day. So, when I bought it, I bought an existing office. I keep the same schedule, right? I'm just going to fit myself in. I had little kids who booked Friday to see Jennifer.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Oh.

Dr. Emily Letran:
You know.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
And she was your marketing person.

Dr. Emily Letran:
I know.

Dr. Emily Letran:
They come in, they go. Where's Jennifer? I said, well, Jennifer has whatever today; she's not here. And then the mom said, you know, we booked Friday to see Jennifer. And I said, no, if you told me that, I would make sure that Jennifer is here.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
She was here.

Dr. Emily Letran:
So, I think that's the part about flexibility, right? If you're that kind of person, if you need, or if you want to put family as a value, you let your patients know. I had a patient one time, wrote a bad review, and I thought it was really funny because the review went something like this. What kind of an office is this? The doctor is late picking up her kids from school. You know, I'm just like I told my staff, that's a real patient, you know. Because only a real patient would know that I come back from picking up my kids late.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Are you coming back?

Dr. Emily Letran:
I know you know how sometimes you go to. You're in the line. I don't know if you do that in Chicago,

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
But when the kids are younger, you have to stay in line.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
And then they take your kid to the curb, and then you put the kid in. Well, sometimes you're behind 30 cars, right?

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yes, yes.

Dr. Emily Letran:
And so you can't really time that very well, that's why I gave myself two hours, you know. And sometimes, I still come back late because maybe I got in the very end of the line.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
I understand the patient complained, but at the same time, I know the rest of the patients, and they know that this doctor is committed to family, right? So, you indirectly tell your patients that you take care of people, that you're a caring person. You don't need to be saying that to their face. You can do things that signify that that's who you are.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah, I think it goes very hand in hand with the word that you use. Hinge moves, small decisions that you make. And I think those small decisions, when I was reading about it, really made sense. You don't have to make a single decision. Oh, I'm gonna walk every single day for 45 minutes. No, you just do it today. You do one today for 15 minutes, then you go. Small decisions make it easy. And I think that might help with the burnout a little bit. So, talk about your hinge moves. That's a very.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Very good saying come from I believe Dan Kennedy. And he is my personal mentor right now. Little hinges swing big doors, right? So, it's when people, and I'm a very simple person, I think that's why it's easy for me to understand that and to adopt it when some people are, you know, every detail is important. Sometimes you get stuck in that paralysis by analysis, right? And you don't do those little changes. So, one of the things I recommend for people who work with me is to do the Kolbe assessment. And it is an assessment, I think it's like $35, right? And it tells you your natural strength. So, if you're somebody who's very detail-oriented, and I'm talking to you, I'm just going to give you maybe 2 or 3 things and give you the reason why you should do it, and hopefully you do it right. If I give you a whole list, you're going to go home and study the list, and then you don't do anything because you're too detail-oriented.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yes, when you tell somebody like me, I'm what we call a quick start. So, I make very quick decisions. I watch one video. I remember, like in the early 90s, Dr. Woody Oakes, who started The Profitable Dentist, the magazine right now, he used to have a newsletter, and he used to do seminars. And I remember him saying, do you want to grow fast by another office, right? What do I do? I went and bought another office.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Quick story.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
I know.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yeah, he said to grow fast. Let me go back in office. And it is because if you think about it, if you spend the same amount of time, the five years, but you have three offices, that's a very good chance you're going to grow faster than having one. For me, it's easier to do that than to do one; everybody is a little different. But my point here is to simplify things, the little hinge to simplify things, right? For example, if you say I want to increase 20%, okay, you look at how to increase 5%. Let's start there first. And I would start with something that doesn't take me to do. For example, tell all of your hygienists, tell all your assistants, I don't care if you have one staff member, tell the one staff member, I want you to talk to everybody about aligners.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Correct.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Right. I'm partnering with a gentleman, that have a smile simulation app thing, right? All you do is you just take a picture of the person, and it gives a video of the smile. So, like, if I take a picture of you, then you're gonna look 30s or a minute later, there's a video of you smiling like this. So, it looks very real. That does not take a nitero. It doesn't take you expensive stuff. Yeah, nothing is expensive. And it's only. I think it's $200 a month and 2000 for the year.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Okay.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Which I think we can all afford, right? But my point is, it doesn't even take me to your front desk. Or even if you have one staff member who does front and back. I don't really care. They can talk to the patient when the patient checks in. Hey, you want to see a new smile, right? And if the front person hasn't done it, the patient gets seated. The assistant can do it.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Can do it.

Dr. Emily Letran:
If they go to hygiene, the hygienist can do it, right? And so, these are the little hinges, right? And what is the big door? Well, if you do one of these, almost everybody needs clear liners, right? Because a lot of people have crooked teeth. Almost everybody will need veneers because the smile that they're going to show is a full white smile.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
White smile. Yeah. Hollywood smile.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Smile would look full. You know what I'm saying? Like.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
They smile with all teeth. So, the only way to achieve that is with aligners and cosmetic dentistry, right? That's the only way they actually, I think I'm pretty sure this is the system. Even if you don't show the teeth with AI, they can make it. Could you show the teeth? So, do these little things. I mean, I don't want you to go and buy an iTero so you can scan the whole mouth, and then it's going to give the patient a simulation. Now the patient has been in the chair for 20 minutes.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Correct.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Right. And they're trying to talk to them about clear aligners. And they go, what am I going to get my cleaning, you know.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
They're not even paying. They're not paying attention to the $5,000 case that you're sharing, right? So, these are the little things. And I would challenge you to say that it takes somebody like me to share that with people, to convince them that this is the way you should do. Like, I don't want you to go buy the thing.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah, make it easy, yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Make it easy for your staff. Make it so that your staff gets excited because they just helped sell a case. And that's the model that I use: give a bonus to the staff when they sell a case. If you don't know how to do it, let's say it's going to be an all-on-four, and you don't know how to do it. Well, bring somebody in to do it. I don't know, I don't need you to. Then go. Okay, now I gotta go learn how to do all on for. If it's not your thing. And take the staff on a vacation trip, like a CE right off trip, whatever you want to call it. But now you've got the staff excited. The staff is going to brag to the patient, right? Hey, doctor. Taking us to Cancun. So, the patient is like, why, oh, you know, we're doing blah blah, and so everybody's talking for you. You don't even have to talk.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
But you need to change the culture.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yes, but you're the one with the strategy, right? And when I'm working with people, that's what I tell them. What don't you do this? They come back and go, oh, I got five more new patients. Well, okay. Well, that's just paid for your consulting, you know?

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
And it's simple things and the things that you can do. I'm one of those people. It's not about whether you need to buy this. You need to buy that. Unless you really don't have whatever minimum that you need to have. Like a lot of people, I mean, I can't believe I still have patients who sit in my room and say, wow, did the digital X-ray. I don't want to ask, where did you come from? You know what I mean? Because why would you not have digital? I don't get.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
It. You're right, you're right.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Right.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah. Some people don't have it. We bought an office that still had that old X-ray machine that we had to dial in back and forth.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Okay.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
I was like, how do you use this? Well, obviously, we changed it, but he was using it, and I was right. Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
If the staff can use it. Yo, it's good because I'm not using it, right? You know, when I. Let me tell you a funny story. The first time I bought Dexus was many, many years ago when Dexus first came out. I think I have my staff from all the offices come to one office, and the next person is doing a demo. Oh, this is how you put it in and whatever, whatever. So, then I picked the slowest assistant. Like, everybody knows she's slow, right? Just slow. Not mentally. You know, she's just a very slow person. And I go, Maria, you take the full mouth. And everybody just looked at me like, okay, you want to waste time or something, right? So, of course, Maria, I don't know. She took 15 minutes or whatever. She took the full amount. So, when the rep left, I said, okay, if Maria can do it. And this is by no means putting Maria down, but you know what I'm saying, right? I said, If Maria can do it, you guys can all do it. And I said, I give you a week to do digital, right? And in a week, of course, people are still doing, you know, like some do film. Oh, you know, she's using it. So, I'm just going to do the film. So, I just took all the films.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
And to get away.

Dr. Emily Letran:
I took it away. It just disappeared. So, there's no if or but, right? And the reason is that I know it's better for everyone. There is a learning curve, I get that. But I know it's better for everyone. And that's the other thing, you've got to know what's better for you. Because. Yes. Because if the office does better, of course, you do better. So, you need to know that. And once you know that, and okay, that's proof, right? That is better. I need you to push. I need you to be that boss, right?

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
You're not pushing people to do something unethical. You're not pushing people to do something that they're not capable of. So, that's why I said if Maria can do it, then the rest of you guys can.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Absolutely.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Because she's the slowest person, right? And she can figure it out. She can put it in the holder, you know, because I think in dental school we have the film holder when we come out. Nobody uses a film holder, right? It's just a little thing. And then now we go back to using a film holder. So, everybody is like, wow, this is too bulky, etc., but everything evolved. So, once you have that belief in yourself, you have to push because people ask me, how did you achieve this? How could you do that? How did you get your stuff to do this? I said, because I know that this is the right thing to do, and I will push my staff.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
And you made it simple. Instead of making it hard, as you said about the camera. So, if the app can do it, why would I put my staff in that big Nikon camera, which I have a hard time understanding, and then I'm asking them to understand it and put those flashes with this nice app? Can do it within 60 seconds.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Well, I mean, the Nikon camera is for a different purpose, right? Because that's for you to document your digital smile. That's different. I'm talking about how to get the patient interested or engaged in the reception room, right? Or maybe when they were seated, especially when they're in recall, you know, correct. In recall. While you're setting up, you can just take the picture. I mean, you can take the patient's camera and take the picture, and then they just have it. I remember one of the shocks for me was during COVID, I have this lady come in and say, I need to have Invisalign. And I'm all, you know, I'm in California. So, we were shut down for about two years. I said, you know, we're only supposed to do emergencies. We were seeing one patient at a time anyway, so it doesn't matter. We could talk about whatever because nobody else is around. And I said, and you know, I've been talking to you about Invisalign, and they've only been three years or whatever, right? She was one of those patients who were with me for 25 years, right? The family. So, guess why? Because now she's on Zoom, and she can tell that her smile is not good enough.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
She's watching.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Now. She is looking at herself, and then she knows other people are looking at her on the camera. So, honestly, she came in, and she wanted to do Zoom during COVID. Right now, I want to just say two things. Number one is that it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't talked to her before that. So, going back to being pushy, right? You talk to the patient. The patient came back six months later. You talk to the patient. You talk to the patient.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Right.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yeah, because, you know, that's right for her, though. I'm not trying to sell. So, you're gonna look better or whatever. You know, you do have crowding. You can have perio problem, all that stuff. And then secondly, make it easy. Somebody is coming in during COVID and wants to do clear aligners. Okay. Nobody is going to report me right. Am I just going to do clear aligners during COVID, right? I had another old lady who came in and said, I want new dentures, right? And the same thing. I said, you know, we're only supposed to do emergencies. You have a set of dentures, like new dentures. Not. I'm just teasing her, right?

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
And of course, you know, she paid for it or whatever. But my point is, again, being flexible. And because it's your own office now, if you're working for someone and they say it can only be an emergency, guess what? That patient will not even get in the door, right? Let alone the patient being able to see you. So, these are some of the flexibility that I think you can have. And besides, you know he, my daughter is singing today for Christmas, I'm going to come in three hours late. And then we have a whole bunch of stuff, right? So, another person has their daughter. So, she's going to come in late. So, we all go through that during Christmas?

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Because we all have kids and we all know that that's what happened. Or it's going to be a patient, not patient. You know, parent-teacher conference. Yeah. For 30 minutes.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
But it's going to be in the middle of the morning. Yeah. We all,

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yeah.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
A lot of things. And still the business part of it.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yes. And that's where the flexibility comes in. I can't put a value on it. I think it's priceless. If you want to put a value on it, you do that. But I think the only way for me to stay sane, I think since 1997, which is when I bought my first office, is because I have that flexibility.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
You created it for yourself when you prioritize what you want during the day, and then your culture. You developed that culture. It was just not given to you. You made things happen around you. So, everybody was comfortable in small, you know, decisions that you made.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yeah. And I'm sure you have the same experience as me, because I know I talk about things that everybody experiences, right? But I'm sure a lot of us, as associate as we're working, we keep telling ourselves, when I have my office, I'm not going to do that right. Whatever the owner is doing, you don't like, right? I remember telling myself, when I have my own office, I will not send my staff home when there's no patient, right? Like these are my pet peeves, right? And so, when I have my own office. Hey, if you work in the front and there's nothing to do, well, go help the back. So, all the staff are cross-trained for that reason. If there's no patient, the back office can do. Recall what the front office can do. Recall. You can send a text through. We've, you know, like do whatever. You're not sitting around because when you sit around, that's when I go, and I harass you, right? Like, did you do this? Did you do that? Can you help with this? Can you help with that?

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah, yeah. Or you go home if you don't have anything to do. But there's.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Oh okay. But I don't want to give them that option.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Correct.

Dr. Emily Letran:
You know what I mean? Even if I leave early, there's another hour in the day you stay, and you work. And if they understand the value, why are they there? And we all want them to make money for their family. Even if you leave them there an hour by themselves, maybe they're gonna waste 30 minutes, but they will work the other 30 minutes.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah, true. Those are very important things, especially thinking from a different perspective from an associate mindset, because you don't have to worry about all the hiring, firing, inventory, and things like that. Just go in, do your part of the work. But when you're thinking about owning an office, or now that you are an owner of an office, you talk. Do you have a book doctor-to-doctor, and you talk about clinical skills and the business mastery of it? Do you want to talk about it a little bit? Like, what is the most expensive mistake sometimes these transitions can make?

Dr. Emily Letran:
Well, you know what. I have a new book. It's called The Dentist Manifesto. And I would give it to you. I can give everybody a digital copy, and it's really, it's a declaration that I think every dentist should make. For example, the first one is being a great clinician. I don't mean that you have to be a dentist. I don't mean that you have to do everything. What I mean is, you have to really give it 100%. If you don't know how to do " ". Well, please do not do open admit and then refer to somebody else. You know what I'm saying, right? Know your limitations. Know what you hate. I think that's very important. Because when you do what you hate, the first thing you go to is you get stressed, and then you say, I'm burning out, right? But you choose to do it. So, being a great clinician is serving the patient and making sure that you are trained properly to do whatever you say you know how to do. So, these are the declarations you make to yourself. I think the biggest mistake that people make is not to trust their gut. And by that, what I mean is to trust your values. Every time I do something because somebody kind of pushed me, you know, and even though my gut tells me, don't do this because you're guided by a certain value, yes, it always turned out to be a disaster, right?

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
I think that happens when the patient needs a root canal. And you know, it needs a root canal. You're going to expose it. And they said, no, no, please save it. I don't have the money. Please save it for right now. I'm going on a trip. And you get into that tooth, and then you're stuck.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yeah. Oh, very simple. You know, they need a crown, but you're going to do a filling. Like.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yes. That's it.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Okay, let me just do a little bonding, and then they come back again. Well, the bonding that you put in fell out, right? And I said yes. Remember, I told you you need a crown. Well, I'm going somewhere. Can you just fix it again? You know, like these are. This is the time-waster, money-loser kind of thing that you do because you're listening to the patient and you know better than the patient, right? Sometimes you're listening to your boss. I'm like, this is years ago. I remember we had a person who came in to put people to sleep, right? And then I'm doing dentistry because I was the fastest one in the office. So, I remember the boss. Go. Okay, patient's ready? Go do it. And I said, but the patient needs pre-med. And he said, just do it. And I said, but the patient needs pre-med. And he said, well, you know what? You work here, and you know you need to do it. I go, okay, so I'm going to write down here, doctor so-and-so wants me to do this without pre-med. Okay. You sign. You know, he never signs. He knows better, but he will push, right? And I don't think it would have killed the patient or anything, but that's what I'm talking about. When your gut feeling tells you, you know, don't do it because you know better. Like you actually have more potential than you know. Or you trust yourself. So, you give yourself credit for, and you actually have that courage. But yes, sometimes somebody's gotta push it out of you. Like if somebody tells me, okay, I did this and it was wrong, if I ask them a few questions, I can almost guarantee that they know the answer. They know that they shouldn't have done it right, even if the answer is I shouldn't have done it because I don't know, right? But they still go ahead and do it. And this is one of the pet peeves that I have. People say, oh, because they make me do it right. The office manager made me do it. Whatever I've been through, I was an associate for three years before I had my own office. I was very nosy. I was going to the front, looking at people, doing billing, and I was talking to them. And I was listening to the doctor, the owner doctor, doing the diagnosis. And then it was one of those office where the doctor do the diagnosis, and you do the treatment. You know, those kinds of offices, right? And you know what, I do whatever I don't agree with, I didn't do, I did everything. It was one of those offices where you sit down, and you have to do the whole full mouth. And if there's something I don't agree with, I tell the patient, okay, you come back for this. Okay? Then I go to the front, and I tell them to schedule the patient on the day that I'm not there. Okay, so I know if the patient comes back and you do it. That's on you, right? But I'm not going to do what I know is not right.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Correct.

Dr. Emily Letran:
So people ask me, well, were you unhappy as an associate? I would say I was unhappy in the sense that, you know, maybe they didn't have enough instruments for me sometimes, right? I remember one time, late in the evening, we had to do a post-build-up, and we ran out of small clubs, right? Here I am with the medium clubs, and I'm trying to hold the hemostat to hold the post, right? And I'm thinking, I don't want this, like I don't want this is basic stuff. I understand sometimes you can just, for whatever reason, you know, you run out of gloves and nobody's keeping inventory because the next day we have the right size. But the determination and the conviction that, you know, this is the right thing to do, and this is not the right thing to do. It always rests with you.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
So I don't agree when people say, well, my boss made me do it. I can't change my job because it's hard to find a job. There are jobs out there. They may not fit you perfectly. They will fit you temporarily. And if that's how you feel. Okay? Nothing fits me well. It's time for you to open your own office, right? And those are all personal decisions. Personal things that you desire, right? And I think every one of us has that power. It's just, I don't know, people decide to delegate it to somebody because you work for someone. You have to listen to them. Now, if you're doing, you know, if you work in a factory, you don't have a choice. But we are in a professional setting, right? If you know that this is wrong or you don't agree with this, just have the balls to go and talk to the manager. Go talk to the doctor. Yeah. Worst-case scenario, they're going to fire you. But better yet, maybe you don't have to do it. Well, they're going to give it to another associate.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Somebody else to do it. Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yes. And they will give you what you do best. Let's say right. They used to have me do pedo because again, I'm fast for whatever reason. And I remember one time it was like a full mouth stainless steel crown. Okay, this is 1994/95, right? Wow. Full stainless steel crown. And I'm sitting there, and the speaker said, doctor, are you almost done? And because we put the patient under sedation, and my answer is no. And then 30 minutes later, doctor, are you almost done? So, think about this. It's like doing a full mouth, and they're rushing you, right? But I'm not going to rush because the little kid is being put to sleep. I mean, it was like sedation. It wasn't general.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
But if the kid is sleeping, then I need to do actually I need to take extra time and do a good job. I need to be fast enough, but I need to make sure whatever I stick in there, it's going to stay, right? So, those are personal decisions that sometimes you make under stress, right? Under pressure. That's why I say it's very important to have that clarity. What's most important to you?

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah. And I think what you said to make decisions and distress is, is really important because when you do become an owner, I'm sure you probably saw it from the first time you got the keys or signed the contract, or you saw that those are very hard situations. Those were the first times that you were experiencing it. Sometimes we don't know what we're getting into. So, that is hard. And you're making those decisions to the best of your ability. And keeping a clear and simple mindset really plays a key to being a good business owner. I think every day you're making these decisions, and obviously, now you're a business owner for a long time, you must have taken like tons of decisions which were like, right now you have to think of something, firing right now, buying something right now. Something expensive broke. You have to do it. So, if we can't make decisions when we're in a position and stand up for ourselves, I think it's hard to make decisions when you are an owner, and everybody is looking at you now.

Dr. Emily Letran:
And I want to expand on that a little bit. That's one of the reasons why I'm a high-performance coach, right? And what that means is I help people become another person, a high-performing person. So, that same clarity decision-making thing, right? What a power that you think about right now, as, oh, I'm only an associate, right? And then, oh, now I'm an owner. It's the same mindset that you should take in life, right? When you're talking to your spouse, maybe you guys don't agree on something when you're talking to your kids, even when you're talking to your extended family, my extended family, they firmly believe that I'm crazy. Okay. They would tell me, okay, you've been a dentist for 30 years, and you still don't know what you're doing. Like, you're going to the seminar, and I said, I don't know. Every time I go, I just feel more stupid, right? Because they will say something that I say, how come I don't know this? And anytime you have a conversation with somebody who is successful or more successful than you, maybe somebody going through a challenge, you feel like, how come I don't know this, right? And then you have that drive, which I think all of us, and I challenge all of us to be lifelong learners. Don't think that, you know, the most you could be very successful as a business owner. But if you want to learn which is what you help people, right? To think bigger, you're not just in your dental office. You can do more. You can invest, you can grow your wealth while you sleep. Essentially, these are things that if you are willing to learn, you can grow faster. You can be more successful. As an example, maybe a few extra thousand doesn't make a big difference in a dentist's income, but that could make a nice vacation. It may not be life-changing, but it would be that. Now, if you take that few thousand and you give it to your staff and you take them on a trip, it is life-changing for them, correct? And I actually learned this on one of the first trips that we took them. We took them to Hawaii. I said, okay, let me tell you, I made this mistake of telling people the first office. I hit a million. I'm taking them to Hawaii. Okay. Everybody was cranky, right?. This is. Wow. This is. I think it was 1999. Everybody was cranking, so guess what? We hit a million, right? So? So, now I gotta take people to Hawaii, right? So, here's the thing. I didn't have to pay for that trip until we got to a million, right? And then when they were there, we. I took them to a luau. All of a sudden, somebody on stage says, oh, and we want to come up here, and I'm in the middle of a luau. So, I'm coming up, and they go, oh, I just wanted to let you know your staff said to thank you. No, because they may never take this trip without you.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Absolutely. So, you just changed their life?

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yeah. It doesn't mean that they don't have a couple of thousand to go. But if they have a couple thousand, they probably put it somewhere else.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Absolutely.

Dr. Emily Letran:
You know, they're not going to go to Hawaii. And so, for me, that was a big eye opener, because sometimes something that we think is not that big, because, okay, if you spend a couple thousand, you can always make it back.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Right.

Dr. Emily Letran:
But it made a big difference to the staff. And this is where you talk about, and I talk about this in my book. This is where you start looking at this is a job. This is a business. No, this is a legacy that you want to build. And then dentistry becomes more fulfilling because you know you touch way more lives than you think you do.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah, absolutely. You are so right in the value proposition. It's not always the money. It's how you push people and mentor them and become their leader. Or maybe just a visionary, and they become the executors, but they know where you're heading, and they become part of your mission. And it's sometimes not the money because they understand that you're doing this part of the job. We do this really something that started off with just 1 or 2 patients, and you have a foundation for it. You have, like Emily Foundation for.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Children, Foundation.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
For veterans. And we started it off like five years ago with 2 or 3 patients, me and my husband, we started our implants, and we would just do it for free for veterans. And it just snowballed and snowballed into an event that now we do it twice a year, and my whole team participates in it. Even my doctors participate in it, and there's no production for those days. It is just all given, right? And we had the NYU assistant dean come in to be with us last year. It was just, and we didn't have to do any other effort. Because people were talking about it. That's how they got to know about it, and other people have known about it. So, just giving that value is so profound. So, how did you get into the veterans treatment and stuff? I know you have a full story.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Oh, well, you know, I'm originally from Vietnam, so I came to the US in 1981 as a refugee. So, there was a Vietnam War, and obviously, the Americans were involved. And then in 1975, the Vietnam War ended, the communists took over, and our extended family was my aunt, her two kids, me, my brother, and two other cousins. Every family sent a couple of people, and we escaped. We ended up in Malaysia in a refugee camp, and then eventually we came to the US. So, for me, whenever you talk about war, even though I was a kid, I was born during the war, and I was a when the war ended, I was eight, but you had those images.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yes.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Right. And then when I finished dental school, I actually did a residency at the VA. I did a tour at the VA, and back then, I saw World War Two soldiers coming in. Back then, they were still alive, right? The amount of dentistry they get is based on their service. If you were a POW, a prisoner of war. Anything you want. Okay. If you're a new enlistee, you only get cleaning, but what if you need a crown?

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
You know. So, when the doctor does a screening exam, the main doctor who everybody there pretty much has served in the service except for us, the resident we're rotating through. He gives you a chart and says this is the category. So, you know how much you can do for the person. So, you see the system. I mean, I'm not criticizing the system.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
It's very limited.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yes. But I'm just saying that you see there's a discrepancy, right? So, on our free dentistry day is veterans and families from disadvantaged backgrounds. Because when we first came to this country, we were refugees. We got welfare, food stamps, free housing, you know, like all of those things. I've been through that system, right? And so, I understand that part of it. And so, remember going back to values when you do something that is in alignment with your values. It's very easy to do, right? Because I have that story, it's easy for me to say I want to do this right. Let's say a dentist has come from whatever background. Maybe she was abused. I'm just making this up. Then open it up for abuse patients. Patients who have been through that because it's a personal thing to you. And you want to hear a marketing secret. Okay. The marketing secret is that your advertisement is something like that. Your advertisement is going to be philanthropy. Your advertisement is going to be that the office is very goofy. You know, they always have fun. They have these events, that whole office goes to Hawaii together. That's your advertisement between you and me. You know, I don't want people to go and look and say, hey, Dr. Emily has 32 years of dentistry, and, you know, this other office has so many years, and then you have all these certificates. It's like nobody understands what it is. No, no. So, in my office, when you walk through, you go to the first reception room. I just have goofy signs, right? One of the signs says, In God we trust, all others pay cash, right? So, people are like, what? I have an older patient.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Human?

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yeah, I have an older patient. They're telling me your signs are very offensive, right? And I say I'm sorry. You know, some people like it. Yeah, but in the back of my head, I'm thinking this is my house. I can put up whatever I want. So, we have a picture of, for example, the maze. You know, the pineapple maze in Hawaii, right? Like we have a fun picture. I don't have a beautiful smile picture on the wall. Okay. In the reception area, then you go through the hallway, the first part of the hallway, you just see a bunch of certificates and plaques, and it's the newspaper who feature our free dentistry day. And it's a plaque of, you know, the local high school band. I give money to so it's community, right? So, I don't need to tell people I care. People walk through that wall, and they go oh she does this, she does this. And then you get people knocking on your door for a donation, right? Which is okay. If they are my patient, I will support that. And then you walk a little bit longer. And there are a bunch of my certificates. They just see courses that I have to take anyway. But now the patient realizes, wow, this doctor goes to school, like this doctor does education. So, by the time they get in the back, they already have some information about me. I understand people can Google you or whatever. Patient review. Whatever, I don't know. I'm talking about the patient who is already in your office.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
How do you wow them? Right now, if you remember, they were to do that smile simulation in the front. Now they're all excited. Oh, this doctor is really nice because they, she does community service. Oh, here's a picture of her and her staff. They go to Vegas and Hawaii, and then she takes a lot of classes. So, when they sit down, they have some understanding of who you are. And unless you go in there and screw it up because you're not nice or too sexy or whatever you want to call it, right? Again, going back to my point, if you know that they need it, I would push. If they don't want to do it, then they don't care about themselves. It has nothing to do with you, right? And so, I know I've done my job.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Correct. And you've already made the trust from that hallway that they've seen what kind of person you are. Yes. Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
And if I have a younger associate. I introduced the associate to the patient. I would say, oh, this is Dr. Jennifer. She's really good. I trust her. Whatever you say, a few things. It's up to her to build a rapport. But the patient already understands that she's coming into this office. She walked through this hallway. If I'm this person and this is somebody I trust, it can't be that bad. Maybe they still don't like the associate. That's not the point. Because at that time it's between the associate and them.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Correct.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Right. But I've done.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
My job is to take care of it.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yes. But I've done my job. Yeah. Up to that point, right? And I think that's where people need to understand when you're an associate or when you first have your office. If you're an associate and you are in that environment where trust is being built, and it's from everybody, you know, I tell people this is a brand new associate, just tell them, give her a try, give him a try. You don't need to endorse them. Because what if they're not good, right? I'm just saying, you know, because you never know. Correct, right? But tell the patient to give that doctor the benefit of the doubt, and then you build it from there. I mean, let me tell you a funny story. My daughter just graduated two years ago. So, a couple of months ago, she went to New Zealand backpacking, right? So, I'm there in the office with the staff, and the patient comes in as an older gentleman, and he goes, I'm here to see Dr. Jennifer. That's my daughter. And we say, well Dr. Jennifer is not here today. Okay. And I said well you know what I can see you. So, we brought him in and I diagnosed I don't know a crown or something. And then he said okay I'll come back to see Dr. Jennifer. So, this is where my ego got in the way. Yeah.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
I think two things are happening. Ego. But you're proud.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yeah. Exactly right. And then I go, you know, I'm Dr. Jennifer. Mom, right? And he goes, oh, that's really nice. Okay. Can I have an appointment to see Dr. Jennifer? And, you know, I tell you, this is where you know that you're being successful.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
That you've done the right job. Yeah, you've been a leader.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Because I'm not in that office that often, to be honest with you. The office. I bought that office for my daughter. That's her graduation gift. Oh, right? It's an acquisition, but it was a smaller office, like, kind of like a startup. But the point is, she got to build it herself. Correct, right? I'm not there to say, you know, this is my daughter.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
And she built a rapport. And for somebody who is older to come in because, you know, I tell my staff all the time, do not lie to the patient. If they're older, they know you're lying.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Don't tell them the temporary fallout. No. They have other crowns in their mouth. They know.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
They know, they know.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Right. They know how. If you have experience or not. But when you have something like that and and it's funny because my daughter could be the associate. Yeah. I said, no, I'm coming back to see doctor so-and-so. That's good because they trust whoever work in the office. The only other thing I would do is collect the money and then send it over, right? I would say why don't you just prepay for the appointment and come back and see Dr. Jennifer.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah, but that's where you know that, you know, all your hard work and the mentoring is paying off.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yes. And this is where dentistry becomes more fulfilling. It's because it's not just about you because now it's about the culture of the office, and the services that you can do, right? Like I would rather go to the office because there's a complication, you know something difficult like, like sometimes you go. Dr. Jennifer she'll be, are you going to be in the office today, right? Because they don't really schedule patient for me. And I go, why? Oh, I was coming in, and we put in six crowns, and we're going to take whatever impression, you know. So, then, okay, I'll be there just in case. Okay. For support, right? A lot of times what we forget is, like I said earlier, that we already know a lot because as an associate, you took four years for the education. You're just gonna have to trust me that you did learn a lot. And sometimes when it's difficult, you just have to take a deep breath and think, what do I do in school? Unless you've never done that procedure before, which I don't recommend you do the first time by yourself, you really should have somebody help you, right? But in general, sometimes, you know, we just forget things.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah. It's not coming or you're so stressed at that time how to do it. That simple things. You're making it complicated.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yeah. And then it's always bad when your boss went to the same school as you. So, she knows exactly what's taught in the school. So, if they say, I didn't learn this, I said, oh, no, no, no, no, they teach this and you sell it. You know, you learn it. I just need you to just stop. Just pause and think. What did they say?

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Correct?

Dr. Emily Letran:
Correct. What did the teacher.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Deep breath.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Take a deep breath, right? And a lot of times you find out that you do know a lot. You just have to trust yourself. And I would say, if you don't know, then ask for help. Please don't just wing it when you really don't know.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Correct.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Right. Correct.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
So, going back to being a student, you're learning.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
I'm also like every day learning from different associates, different procedures. I think every patient I learn something different. Personalities, thought processes, the way I work, the way I handle everybody. It's very, very different. Not one patient like it's not the same. Every room is.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Right.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
A little bit different. So, I know you also do passive investing besides your headpiece. What would you say to a new dentist coming out to start doing so? They can save something for the future. Not save, but just in case. If the handpiece ever stops. What other options do they have now? Invest in themselves that can help them later down the road. A parallel to their dentistry?

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yes. So, I think if you live for a long time, have more than 50 years, right? You've seen the ups and down, and as I mentioned earlier, I'm a very simple person. You have those options of doing your retirement plan, your 401K, whatever you have with your existing workplace, do that. Start there. I'm a big advocate. If you have a dental office, you should own your own building because, again, going back to flexibility, you can do whatever you want. You're in a complex. They say you cannot put up a sign. You cannot put, you know, words on the window, whatever. I use it in the complex where you cannot do anything like that. And then when I have my own building, somebody comes around and says, do you want me to paint your window for Christmas? And I'm like, what? We can paint the whole thing, you know, and everything, right? And you never had that privilege, right? Like, because you're in the complex where nothing like. Yeah, yeah, we cannot even put our phone number on the thing. It's really dumb. Oh, yeah. So, when you have your own building, you can do whatever you want. You can turn it into a marketing piece if you want. You have a little lawn, you can put flowers so people drive by and say, what is that building, right? Yeah. We had a building years ago. We just painted the whole thing blue, you know? So, if you drive by. Yeah, it's gonna be a blue building, right? Yeah. So, on your real estate, right? The other way is if you're not ready to invest, like, make a big investment, I'm sure you can do syndication. You can be part of syndication, but do your own due diligence and understand what you're supposed to get out of it. What makes me very frustrated sometimes is that people say, yeah, I put whatever money in there. And okay, so when are you supposed to get it out? What is the return? And they were very vague about it, and I'm pretty sure they were probably told. But they never take it seriously because now you're gambling with your future, right? Because you're putting your money in there. Some people just want to put it, some people want to do that themselves, or I'm going to save money to buy my own apartment complex or whatever. And to me, that's like a whole new career. Is that your value? Is that that important? You know what I mean.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Can you handle it?

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yeah. Can you handle it? Or do you know well enough where you can just delegate, and then you just supervise, right? Like they say, trust but verify, right? So, right now I'll give you an example. I'm in an investment project with a company called Lambo Sky, right? So, it's luxury real estate inspired by Fabio Lamborghini. So, now there's a trusted brand, right? And the people who are involved in this, they're building Luxury towers and their main team are people who build resorts. All over the world. I know nothing about this. I got into this project. I became a founding member. I introduced some of my dentist friends to come in, and now we're investing in the equity. It's sort of like you're buying a dental office and you're expecting ROI to come out, right, because it's equity. Yes, I did take them to a piece of land in Los Angeles, and they went there. They look at it, they're gonna make an offer for, I don't know, a couple of hundred million or whatever it is. I'm there so I can tell. Yes, this is real. This land is real. They already have a proposed 60 stories or whatever. So, I will educate myself to know enough to make a smart investment, right? Like we would buy a building gutted and build that office. So, I know the whole procedure.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Of that.

Dr. Emily Letran:
One right. I'm not building a foundation, but I build everything else. I'm not gonna say I know how to build a tower. Correct. I'm not even gonna attempt to learn how to build her. So, understand that at some point. That's for the experts.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Experts?

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yeah. Yes, but you're involved. And you being a smart investor just means that you're educated, right? And you understand the journey. Like, this is not something that you put the money in, and you're gonna get the money out in six months. Yeah, they're building a tower. So, you're looking at three years or something like that, right? So, what I'm saying is there are a lot of opportunities to get into. And that's where your passive investment comes in. Know your tolerance of risk and know your margin, right? Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
One basket.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yeah. And then they're going to be certain things that you like for me. I understand real estate because I own my own building. So, if you say, okay, let's go buy this piece of land and build a tower, I can understand that because I have owned my own building and I built it up, and I understand it takes forever to finish it because of the city. Yeah, the city and the permit and all that. You and I built it in different cities, so I know, okay, the city is easier than that city, that kind of thing, because I educate myself. And then I have gone through a certain process. So, my advice is, yes, when you have that money, obviously save for yourself, save for your kids. It's called a five, two, nine. I don't know if there's another name for it, but that's for education. Yeah, you can put more money in. You can actually pay your kids and put money in for them. So, you write off so you don't pay as much in taxes. And those are the basic stuff, though. That's not even like going anywhere. That's the basic stuff. And then you go into investing in real estate. And there are really a lot of ways to make money. Let's just put it simply that way. The key thing to me is to make sure that you're making a lot of money in your dental office.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
That is your main bread and butter that's coming out of.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Because you're going to take that money and go do something else with it. Something else. Right now, if you want to get out of dentistry and just go do something else, that certainly is up to you. But what I find is that it's a very small number of dentists or doctors who do that. The majority of people still have an income. Yes. Like a little anchor, right? And then they can take this money and go make a gazillion dollars or whatever. But also understand that it comes from their, you know, your trust factor when you go and invest, and they go, okay, are you an accredited investor? Your trust factor is because you're a dentist.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
You're a dentist that makes you an accredited investor.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yeah. Well, I mean, you own certain things, but do you know what I'm saying? You're different from a pizza owner. I'm just giving it as an example.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Correct. Correct. Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
There are a lot of things that, if you understand how to leverage yourself as a dentist, opportunities show up.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Utilize it. Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Opportunities show up because they know that it's not. I was talking to Dan Kennedy last month, and I said, yeah, so these two investors are coming in, and we're gonna do a DSO kind of thing. So, they want to go buy offices, and then I'm going to be the one overseeing them. The two investors are not dentists, right? So, we were looking at a couple of offices. Each one of them is about a million. You know, this is to acquire, and we're in the process of closing the first one. But anyway, so I told Dan, I said, you know, one of the investors, he used to own 15 car washes, right? That's what he told me. And then just started laughing. And he said, it's probably easier than owning five dental offices.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
You know, so staffing. Yeah. But you know what I'm saying. Yeah. I mean, your car wash people, they're just going to wipe the window. They don't even talk to the customer.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
No.

Dr. Emily Letran:
And then your dental office. I don't care if you use AI or not. They're going to talk to every single staff member in your office, and sometimes they complain to you, you know, and all that. And he made a point, you see. So, because we run a healthcare professional practice, we actually know a lot about a lot of things.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah. Especially human behavior.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yeah. Because we are forced to do that. Yeah. And sometimes, if nobody reminds you, you don't remember. You think, oh, I want to be the sophisticated investor. Whatever. Well, you're already sophisticated. Yeah. Investing is just one more thing if you want to do. I. I got involved in film production. It's a long story, but I ended up in film production. And then there's another film production. And now there are people who are pitching me to do film production. Okay, right? And I tell them, you do know I'm a dentist, right? And they go, yes, okay. But I got into media, and now I'm running journals and media platforms. But all of that business understanding comes.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
From coming from his dental office? Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
I know that's not my background. Yeah, but it's because of the business, and I don't brag about it. It's just that if they ask me a question, I have an answer, but I'm not in that space.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
But you think as a business owner. Yes. Because of how a business. Because core principles are the same. Keep it simple, dear leader. Build culture, give value. Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
And then people just make it sound so difficult. A book by Dr. Howard Ferren. Uncomplicated business, right?

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Such a good.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Word. Yeah. Just like uncomplicated.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Uncomplicated. Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
I talked to, you know, potential coaching client, you know, over the phone because I coach virtually, and then somebody goes. So, do you have a manual?

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Manual.

Dr. Emily Letran:
And I'm. Do you have a manual? If you have a manual, I can take a look at it. And I can help you figure out how to use your manual and actually implement it. But. And then they would say, oh yeah, I just work with so and so for five years or whatever. And I said, okay, so did you implement whatever so and so said yeah, not really. Okay. Well, maybe that's a challenge we don't want to say, you know doctor you are the problem, right? So, I don't care how many men you have. I mean, your credentials, I can talk to you, and I can kind of tell, okay? You are the problem. Okay. So. Yeah, if I can help you or you refuse to change, maybe I can talk to your manager and get your whole team to change.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
You know, the main thing, as I said earlier, is to understand yourself, to trust yourself. A lot of us want to trust other people to solve our problems. Now, I understand that if I'm working with the doctor, there are a lot of things I can help them solve because I know the answer. Because I've been around, right? And I've done the training, high-performance coaching, and NLP. You know, I study investment, etc., the main thing is that I can give you the strategy. Are you going to do it or not?

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Are you going to execute it? I can tell you.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yes, I can tell you. I know the shortcut. I'll tell you the story, real quick, by chance. This is back in, I don't know, 19 something. I went to a bookstore, and I picked out the book by Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within. I just thought the title was pretty cool. So, I read the book, and then I went to the back, and I read the references. So, I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I read Think and Grow Rich. I read all of those books. So, then I go, oh, this guy's pretty cool. So, they had an LA Expo Real Estate Expo in LA, right? And I live about an hour away, and Tony Robbins is coming to speak. So, I go, oh, I'm going to go to the expo. I want to see Tony Robbins because I read his book, right? I got there bright and early at 9 a.m. He's speaking at 5 p.m. Okay. They didn't share the schedule, so I'm okay. I can either just go home and come back, or I'm just going to hang out here. I went to real estate classes. Then, of course, you're sitting in the class. Then they're going to sell you a program. So, now you're going to go to a two-day class, right? So, I went to see Tony Robbins, and I signed up for two different courses. Buying a home, flipping a home.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
There you.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Go. Buying apartments, right? Like for investment. And I went home, and I told my husband oh it's a two-for-one. So, you need to go with me. So, we both went, and he wasn't interested, but I was very interested. It was just because oh, this is another way to make money. And what do I need to know? But it came from me reading the book.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
I didn't go read a book. How to Invest in Real Estate. I was reading the other book. So, my point again is to be that student, you know, when you read a book, you're learning at your own pace. If you want a fast track, then you work with somebody like me. As a coach and consultant, we are a success strategist. I want to call it a catalyst. That's the word I like. Yeah, right? So, if you want to do it fast, that's when you have somebody help you.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Absolutely.

Dr. Emily Letran:
If you want to just figure it out yourself, you can do that. Nobody said that. You have to have a coach or a consultant, or you need to sign up for a program. But when you do that, when you work with someone to help you, you're really investing in yourself.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Correct. And try to make harder things simpler, because I think the coaches kind of make it simpler. They've gone through a lot of processes, and they can digest it much better, and they can explain it much in simple terms, if you like simplicity, right?

Dr. Emily Letran:
And if you want to read a lot, I can always give you all the references where you can go read.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Or this is like I'm working with a Lambo Sky project. There's a 90-page pitch deck about a project. Somebody read it and say, okay, I want to put money in. And somebody reads it and says, I want more information. And I said, but there are 90 pages. You know, you talk about the founder, the executive team, the architect, the lawyer, the founding members. They give you all the floor plans, they give you the proforma, I mean, and you want what else do you want? You know. And they say, I want to see your track record. And I said, this is a new company, and we're building it. So, everything is projection. So, now we go back to your risk tolerance, right? And if you believe that, hey, I want to hold equity with a brand name, then this is for you.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
This is for you, right?

Dr. Emily Letran:
Because the whole thing is equity, and the whole thing is brand name.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Name. Yeah. That's behind the whole thing. Yep yep.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yeah.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Keeping it simple is a hard thing sometimes for people. They think.

Dr. Emily Letran:
It's very hard.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Hard.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yeah.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
The thing is, it has to be very complicated, very hard. It should take time. And if it's not taking time, it's not hard. It's not right.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yeah. So, we have this joke in the speaker's world. Okay. If you want a 30-minute talk, I need this much time. If you want a five-minute talk, I need more time. To prepare, right? Like. Yeah. Yeah yeah. The shorter it is, the harder it is. You're right. But it goes with the preparation, you know. But if you want me to be succinct in five minutes, I can do that.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
But it actually takes more preparation time. And I just need to make sure that every point lands.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Correct.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Right. And that's where it's different, right? And that's how you. It's the same thing when you present a treatment plan, right? Yeah. You can give them three bullet points. These are the key things that you need. Or you can sit there and tell them the whole thing, right? Very true. And which one will get them to give you the credit card? I mean, that's how I kind of look at it. Okay. How can we get started today? No. Okay. You have to think about it. Let's clarify some points, right?

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah. Or I have to ask my spouse, right? Or I'll do it when my taxes are ready.

Dr. Emily Letran:
I know, I know all the same thing.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
And that's excuses.

Dr. Emily Letran:
And that's why the skill is in communication. Yes. That's why the skills with the flexibility, I know, for example, we don't just talk real quick about patient financing, right? There are offices that are still not doing patient financing. And if you're an associate and you really want to get started with this, the patient can only pay $300 a month. You need that patient financing to be able to start. And then your boss is just adamant about, no, we're not going to give away 10% or whatever of the fees. So, again, this goes back to having that flexibility when you have your own office, because that will drive the cash flow, and the cash flow, you can go do your investment.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Very true. Absolutely. Keeping it simple is so dynamic and exciting, and I don't know how it kind of gets complicated. You're right.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Well, it gets complicated because people don't have the clarity. Because if the goal is to get, you know, how when you buy an airplane ticket, and they give you the choices, do you want the lowest fee or do you want the shortest route, right? If you don't know which one you want, you will be sitting there reading the whole list.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Whole list. And they have menus after menus, right?

Dr. Emily Letran:
But if you know, if you say no, I want to get there as fast as I can, then it's going to narrow the choices.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yeah. And then you just need to do. Exactly. But you need to have that clarity.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah. Absolutely. You need to have that clarity. What? Dr. Letran. It was so much fun talking to you. It feels like, you know, like I can understand what you're saying so clearly. You're just a simple, very simple person. Don't complicate things. Very easy.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Easy, right, right, right.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Yeah. So, I think the core message that I got from today is, man, you arrived when you were 13. Such very unique, hard circumstances that you had. And look at where you are. You've become like a world-class dentist, high-performing coach. You work with really high performers, speakers. You're the best mom who has the best kids. Yes. And bless kids who are not on drugs or pregnant. So, that's a really good, I can resonate with that. And you know, you're a living proof of just keeping things simple, making your alignment and not the hustle culture. There is priorities. Keep it aligned, and burnout and hustle are on the side. So, I like the fact that you talked about. I like your word of hinge. Movements. Hinge moves the big door. Small hinges, the big doors that change your trajectory. And why giving back is important. I really align with that. Giving back is such a charm. It's such a blessing to be a business owner. I just like how you are. I am very blessed to give back. Every time we get a chance to do it. So, that's humbling. So, doctor, I'm I loved it. I'm so humbled that, you know, we had you as a guest here. Very excited. Hope that I can have you again. And we can maybe talk a little bit more on the investment and the passive investment side for our listeners, because I would really love to get that more in-depth education for them.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Yeah. And, you know, people have questions. I have a page they can go and they can watch. Yes. It's actually a it's like a 15-minute talk about the dentist mindset and what you should do. So, the website is CoachROI.com. Okay. C O A C H R O I. com. And they can watch that. They have a question. They can put in some information, and we can get on a call, right?

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Absolutely.

Dr. Emily Letran:
I love to be able to help, especially the younger doctors. And by younger, I mean you know, maybe you just started your business a couple of years ago, or you're an associate, and you really want to transition. I mean, I can even talk to the doctors who want to transition out, because I've done practice acquisition eight times, and there's a certain thing that goes with it. And again, the question of clarity. Do you really want to get out, or do you just really like to be busy, and you don't like it, right? Like, you're overwhelmed, or is it actually time to transition out? And a lot of this, I think, when we have a conversation, people get clearer. Same thing with the investment sometimes. I mean, I had a doctor years ago who said he's into everything, like he's done Jim. Club and sandwich shop. And, you know, you mentioned everything, but the largest margin is dentistry.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
You're right.

Dr. Emily Letran:
If you do it right, you can do 50% or maybe somewhere between 30 and 40. And a lot of the other businesses you don't have that margin.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Correct. Very, very true. You're right. Sometimes brainstorming and just talking out loud with somebody who has the same kind of knowledge and walked through the same path really helps to clear your mind. You're like, yeah, I wanted to do it, but now I can think more clearly.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Right, right?

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
You're right. All right.

Dr. Emily Letran:
Well, thank you so much.

Dr. Nazish Jafri:
Thank you. Appreciate it. And until next time again, my name is Dr. Jafri, and see you on the next podcast. Thank you.

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