Secure Dental-Todd Hartley: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Todd Hartley:
Where are you located, by the way?
Nazish Jafri:
So I'm located in Peoria, Illinois.
Todd Hartley:
Oh, okay. Perfect. Love it.
Nazish Jafri:
Which is if you know Chicago is airport. I am 2.5 hours in one of the suburbs.
Todd Hartley:
Thank you. Okay.
Nazish Jafri:
And travel around a lot.
Todd Hartley:
I love it.
Nazish Jafri:
And I think what I'm excited to talk to you about is the video AI marketing that you have in the WireBuzz company. It has excited me so much because dentists are people who are very meticulous, and we're always in the mouth, and we just assume that we do the best work, and patients are just going to come from someplace. And as dentists, we don't invest that much in coming out and showing our stuff or showing our face to the public/patients, very introvert type A and kids nowadays who are coming out, new graduates that are coming out, they're also kind of struggling in this space to see how they can start putting their trust in the patients, and how can they show that they're different from another dentist across the street.
Todd Hartley:
Well, it's actually pretty easy. And we can look at any other industry. Dentists are not test tubes. They're not little test tube baby. They actually are in the same world as everybody else that's standing out and making a name for themselves. And the way that we do that is we stand out, and we add value in the world, and the way that we add value for any profession is we teach. Teaching is your price of admission into future patients' lives, and the wisdom that you've got between your two ears is your golden ticket. So, all we have to really do is share our knowledge and teach. And my saying is helpful is the new viral. If you're helpful and you can talk with people about the mouth and the complexity of oral health and the connection to oral health with bodies health, and talk to them about their dental care and make it interesting because I already know you make it interesting with each and every patient that's in your chair. But once you go from one-on-one conversations and you share the same exact information one too many, now you've got leverage. And when people see it, they're like, They do what everybody needs to do before they schedule an appointment. They say, oh my gosh, they're legit. And the way that we investigate a dentist is we don't look at credentials. Credentials don't mean anything to us. A shingle on the wall is a medical thing that does not compute into patient brain. And the way that we build our credibility is by teaching. And then all of a sudden,, people say, you must be the leading authority because you teach so well.
Nazish Jafri:
You're right. I think positioning yourself as a leading authority really is very important in nowadays. When I started off my practice with my husband, like 2011, we were doing like coupon page ads in the newspaper, and we would have tons of words inside. The denture can do this, and you know, like paragraphs of it, but we were very uncomfortable putting our faces. It felt like, no, this is just for celebrities. You don't put your face in there. You put like tons of information that people are going to read it in the newspaper. Then came in postcards, then came in radio.
Todd Hartley:
Yes.
Nazish Jafri:
Nothing had our face just maybe gibberish information that people would use it as a ketchup stand or something like that. And then we moved into digital marketing,, and I've seen the progress go very different. There's no more paper marketing for us, and it's more like digital. But now you bring in this really amazing concept, which is teaching and value proposition even before the patient walks in.
Todd Hartley:
Just to give you a little background on this. In 2011, I started a breast cancer awareness initiative with the American Society of Breast Surgeons president at the time and we just started teaching and doing so, we, in one year, generated 6.4 million video views and 1.1 million followers. A couple years later, I launched a breast cancer school for patients. And the trick is. And that went crazy viral. The physician filled up his waiting room with people that were like, oh my God, I've seen you on the internet and thank you for all that information. Their guard was down. They didn't doctor shop. They came there looking because they knew after they evaluated, and the way we evaluate as laypeople is the same way that you would evaluate somebody for any other service under the sun. Do you like how they communicate? Are they honest? Do they seem like they're credible? And then when we learn from people, all of a sudden they become our leader and our guru, and we go to the next step, and the physicians that win, the dentists that win this next chapter are the ones that realize that their face is their relationship tool, it's also their brand.
Nazish Jafri:
You're right, because you've already kind of warm their feelings. You've already built a trust with that video. So, I work with a lot of new grads who are graduating in May right now, and they're going to be practicing coming up in August. That would be their first real experience with a real-time clinic. So, one skill that you think can help them start now utilizing the way you are approaching marketing. What would that be to help them?
Todd Hartley:
Get comfortable leading in front of the lens? Funny that we bring it up because today I'm on stage for Tony Robbins teaching how to he was like, can you please teach my audience how to lead in front of the lens. And how do we get good at that? The first thing we have to do is recognize that, as Tony would say, repetition is the mother of skill. So, we need practice, just like a future dentist needs practice. Getting comfortable going into the mouth, which is not a comfortable thing. It's new and foreign. It's not like up until that point, you've spent a lot of time inside with your fingers in other people's mouths. How do you get comfortable? Repetition is the mother of skill. So, each and every day, if you are a dentist or a future dentist, teach in front of the lens. Explain to people, and you'll be surprised after a while how natural it starts to feel. It only is natural if you do today what others won't. So, you could do tomorrow what others can't, which is give yourself that repetition, and before you know it, you'll feel like you're just talking to somebody across in the office that's meeting with you feel very natural.
Nazish Jafri:
Yeah. You're so right about repetition because when I started doing podcasts and coming up on for videos and pictures, just a headshot, it was very uncomfortable. I would say, no, I'll do it later after this patient, so I can just sweep underneath it. But it takes a little out-of-body experience to be. And then when you have to talk, and you know you're being recorded, it's very uncomfortable.
Todd Hartley:
Yes. And the more you do it, like riding a bike, the more you don't even think about it. You just share your wisdom. Like if you're a dentist and you are the best kept secret, that's an indicator that you haven't opened up your wings and start communicating in the medium that your patients are looking for experts through. And we see this in the medical community.
Nazish Jafri:
Communicate constantly.
Todd Hartley:
Constantly. But you got to do it this way, right?
Nazish Jafri:
Yeah. There's another question that sometimes I get now that we get like new graduates to come up, they become very camera shy and a little bit under-confident because they think the patients would say, you're too young and you don't have enough gray hair for me to trust you kind of. How can they build that credibility on video?
Todd Hartley:
Okay, first of all, if you're that person that feels like you're too young, you put yourself in a little baby box and you're requiring yourself 15 years to incubate before you allow people to take you seriously. And shame on you for doing that, because your impact should start right now. And the way that you impact is you remove that limiting belief barrier that nobody's going to take me seriously until I get gray hair. And that is BS. Remove it right away. Second thing, if you're just learning, Just turn around and teach it. You don't need ten years to teach what you just learned. When I was a reporter on the number one station in Arizona. Every single day, I had to teach something. I just learned repetition is the mother of skill. Now I don't say to myself, how dare you teach that? You just learned it. No, I look at it like a blessing. I learned that information. Now I can turn around and share it to 100 or 1000 or 10,000 people. And it's a gift, a blessing. And you can choose the slow path. I'll wait till I get gray hair, or you can just go get your hair frosted and start teaching today.
Nazish Jafri:
Yeah, that's another option. But I think you're right, just to start somewhere. And even these new grads have some kind of storytelling through their experience in the dental school, with the patients that they're dealing every day to get the practice done. So, even with that confused patient, the scared patients, they can start pushing that authority out that, you know, I know the information, and I can be valuable to you.
Todd Hartley:
And if somebody thinks that they well, you know, I'm not a gifted communicator that starts today. Just start developing the skill. How do I do that, Todd? Instead of the limitation? Because if you keep stacking limitations in front of yourself for your own growth, you're limiting the number of people that you can impact. And I know that you got into this because you wanted to impact people's lives. And to give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift that you've been given. So, we've got to make sure. So, how do we get good at this? Well, instead of getting into the car and turning on the latest T swizzle song and singing and enjoying yourself, why not turn this on and practice like riffing? Like, take two minutes on a topic and just riff. Unpack the topic. But it won't sound good. Who cares? It's just you in the car, and use that time as growth time. Because this path from here to here is a muscle that needs to be exercised just as often as this. And you're worthy of the exercise to develop that skill.
Nazish Jafri:
That's true, that's true. Yeah. Just keep on repeating and exercising it. It is very uncomfortable to hear yourself when you re-hear the recording. But I've learned a lot while hearing myself. When I had to come out of my comfort zone, that I was saying too many ums and ahs and things like that, and I was like, maybe this is the way I'm presenting myself to the patient, and maybe that is the reason I was losing a few patients. Patients would say, okay, I'll talk to my spouse or maybe I'll come back at the tax season.
Todd Hartley:
You know why they're doing that, right? They're doing it because the only way they can get confident about you as a dentist is the way they evaluate everybody else in this world. How you communicate, how you smile and interact, the eye contact that you make, the value that you provide. And those are the areas that people should be polishing and perfecting. And don't wait until you're like, I got it. Now I can speak. That's too far down the road. Start today with wherever you're at because there's people today that need you.
Nazish Jafri:
Yeah. And you have the skills and expertise to execute. Yes, as well. I know that you also advocate using a lot of video education on your website because you say website is a digital brochure. What kind of videos would you recommend putting on a dental website? Obviously not for procedures and stuff.
Todd Hartley:
Sure. Let me ask questions. Definitions. By the way, all you have to do is listen to the questions you're asked every day. Not the ones that are down deeper, like, what is my recovery going to be like after this? No, no, the early stage questions, the ones people are asking you upon first meeting, and the advice that you're giving each and every day. If you just created a journal and you wrote down the frequently asked most common questions, and if you don't know what they are, start paying attention because people are already demanding information from you. And if you still aren't paying attention. Todd, I can't do that. I'm moving too quickly. Then go to ChatGPT and ask for the frequently asked questions that first-time patients are asking dentists, and then pull together a list and just spend like a minute or two. Don't be so worried about how long. Just worry about the value of the information and answer them. Like a lot of dentists, a lot of physicians, because I work with a lot of them, mistake who they're creating the video for, they want their peers and their colleagues to think they're smart. So, they make it all clinical speak, and they lose patients altogether. Instead, recognize that the greatest medical experts on the internet explain complex medical terms in simple-to-understand, easy-to-digest ways. And that should be your specialty. Go the opposite route. You're not here to impress a fellow colleague. They're not going to be in your chair. You're here to make life super easy. So, whenever a patient is demanding supply it, supply and demand all damn day, and you put those videos on your website, in a library, and in different sections, and then on your home page, there should be a video of you. So, isn't that ego? No, that's advocating, that's impacting through the language that patients prefer to learn from, which is video. People are four times more likely to watch video than to read anything on the page after watching. They're 85% more likely to take that next step action or make a purchase. Use it to your advantage. So, that video could be about you and why you are so called to serve patients.
Nazish Jafri:
Yeah, very good points that you said do not think of your colleagues are watching it because the way they watch is very different. They're very differently oriented. They're critically it's different than on an Instagram post of your work. This is most focused to the audience, which is your patients who are actually needing the work done. And that's where you're building the trust.
Todd Hartley:
Yes, I recently did the report. I do it every year. The 2026 report of the top ten most followed physicians on social media, and none of them speak in clinical terms. If they spoke in clinical terms, their audience would be so small they'd just be showing off for colleagues, which is not what we're here to do. We're here to serve patients and impact lives, which means use analogies like you've got golden analogies that you use every day with patients. Why? Because it clicks in their head. Use those analogies in your videos, and then all of a sudden, people will see you as a translator of complexity into simple terms that they can digest.
Nazish Jafri:
Yeah. Analogies are very easy. There was a time in my initial days in my college when I said, okay, we're going to go extract this molar. Okay. Patient comes back, she's signing a consent, and she's saying, hold on, are you taking my tooth out? I'm like, yeah. She's like, no, but didn't you say you're gonna extract the cavity? So, she thought we were cleaning the cavity. I thought I had told that extraction, thinking extraction is like a universal word of extracting it. And that really changed my perspective of making sure the patients understand at a very local, easy English.
Todd Hartley:
Yes.
Nazish Jafri:
Not the academic style.
Todd Hartley:
The academic style means nothing to a patient.
Nazish Jafri:
Nothing. And yeah.
Todd Hartley:
You ever like, see a member of the military and they've got all their badges or their medals or their ribbons? Does it mean anything to you? Can you read that language? Or it's foreign, right? That's what a patient thinks of when they see the acronym. After your name means nothing. Oh, but I've got it on the front door, so they know who I am, so I know it means nothing to them. It's medical. Clinical. The shingle means nothing. The way we evaluate is what kind of information? We're in the information age. What kind of information can you share in a way that makes it easy for me to understand how you can impact my life? Get great at that.
Nazish Jafri:
Yeah. Information. Knowledge that you can give them. Value that you can give them.
Todd Hartley:
Yeah. So, no big words. It means nothing.
Nazish Jafri:
If somebody has a practice like a graduate five years down the road, an associate, now they're opening up their own practice, and they have to build a brand for themselves. And they also have to build something for themselves as a personal brand, which kind of I understand a little bit because we did it. But what would your expertise say? Which one should they focus first, or is it both together?
Todd Hartley:
I think you should focus on your personal brand first, because at the end of the day, they're not coming to Scottsdale Dentist dentistry.
Nazish Jafri:
Correct.
Todd Hartley:
And nobody bonds with a company brand name. Oh, I love Scottsdale dentistry. No, they love the dentist person. It's the person. So, always start with your personal brand. And if your personal brand grows faster than the practice brand, great. Put it on your personal brand, share it over to the practice brand, lift up the practice brand. Or if the practice brand grows faster than your personal brand, do the opposite. Post it on the larger audience first. Regardless. Share it over to the smaller location, and a rising tide will lift all boats.
Nazish Jafri:
That's a good one because obviously, your personal brand stays with you. It's you, your credibility, your value that you're putting out. And all the doctors in the same office are very kind of different. They might have an associate that's probably has their own personal brand or just a very shy.
Todd Hartley:
1st May not be willing to share their information because they think that might be self-promoting and ego-driven. Now, what I would like everybody to think about is one core word for all of your content, for all of your videos, for anything that you share, it needs to be altruistic, meaning it's coming out of the loving goodness of your heart. You are advocating and serving people out of the loving goodness of your heart. And if all your content is altruistic, nobody will ever think that it's about you, because it'll be about them, your audience, that you're there to serve. Whenever it becomes about you, then it becomes ego-driven, and people are repelled by that. So, instead, just operate out of your heart like you're already doing with each and every patient, and just do that in front of the lens.
Nazish Jafri:
Yeah. Keep your own personal agenda away.
Todd Hartley:
Yeah.
Nazish Jafri:
Give value. Yeah. Give the information for resilience and personal mastery. New undergraduates or new business owners, entrepreneurial dentists become very overwhelmed with running the business, running the day-to-day. And I know you have a two-minute growth game that you talk about. Can you talk about that?
Todd Hartley:
Yes. And I'm up against a hard break, so I'd love to do this. It's one of my favorite things. When you get into the car, I want you to riff for two minutes. Honor where you are. Take any topic. It could be about cavities. It could be about gingivitis or flossing, which I love to floss and make it fun. Like you're in the car. Don't judge yourself. Allow yourself to riff for two minutes, because you'll exercise from here to here, from your head to your mouth. And before you know it, that pathway will grow strong, the muscle will develop, and every time it's your time to create content, it'll flow out with the greatest of ease. Because you did your two-minute growth game. That is the value of the car, or when you're at home, and nobody's there. Riff a little bit, two-minute growth game that'll change your life.
Nazish Jafri:
Riff a little bit. And that opportunity, you don't need to set yourself up. You're just in your car. You're just by yourself in your scrubs. And you can do it.
Todd Hartley:
Yes.
Nazish Jafri:
Yeah. You can do it.
Todd Hartley:
Coach yourself like you would your best friend. Instead of saying, this sucks. I'm bad at this. Tell yourself you're like a polishing stone tumbling down the river. You're going to be beautiful the more you tumble. Let's go.
Nazish Jafri:
And I think you can critique yourself better because you're alone. To do it. To do it for your own self. Yeah. Well, Todd, I know you have to run to. This is very valuable. And I think I have a lot of information too. Especially that two-minute riffing. I'm sure I would probably need it a lot of practice. And it was just an incredible session that you gave it enough encouragement to dentists to go in and give value. Just put your stuff away and don't think about yourself. Don't think about the colleagues. Think about the patient and think about the value and the information you're giving out so people can get attracted and get warm before they come to the office. Yeah. If you would like to see deeper into Todd's strategies and like video proposal strategies and things that he teaches, he has an amazing book called Accelerating YES! And we will have the link to all his items at the show notes. And thank you, Todd. This was really powerful for us. And hopefully we can have you again for a little one-on-one session with some strategies.
Todd Hartley:
Perfect, I love it. For more information, just visit my website, ToddHartley.com. And thank you so much for having me.
Nazish Jafri:
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Todd Hartley:
Ciao.
Automatically convert your mp3 files to text (txt file), Microsoft Word (docx file), and SubRip Subtitle (srt file) in minutes.
Looking for the best Speechify alternatives? Read our in-depth best AI transcription tools and compare top picks in our guide to TranscribeMe. See how transcription app stacks up, plus our full breakdown of translation software.
Our customers range from academic transcription to transcribe Microsoft Teams meetings — and everything in between. Explore our capabilities for podcast transcription, legal transcription software, and transcribe Zoom meetings.
Try Sonix free today. No credit card required.
