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Show Notes

Ask a patient why they picked their dentist, and you’ll hear the usual answers. Google, the website, was a friend’s recommendation. A few days ago, we ran a survey and left a blank box for answers. The most common write-in wasn’t any of those. It was chairside manner. The catch? There’s no way a patient could have known your chairside manner before their first visit.

That’s the thread running through this second conversation with Andy Acton. Most independent practices are trying to out-corporate the corporates. Andy’s argument is that it’s a losing game. You’ll only ever be a poorer version of them. The move is to get exceptional at the things they’re structurally bad at.

This conversation about why the introverted clinician is the product, why niching down feels terrifying and works anyway, and why great marketing on top of broken operations doesn’t solve a problem – it creates a bigger one.

Here’s what we get into:

• Why it’s important to get exceptional at the things your competitors do badly
• Why trying to copy the DSOs’ streamlining and systems makes you a poor imitation
• How to become the face of your practice when you’d rather be doing the science, and why being a bit unpolished works in your favor
• How identifying your ideal patient makes every other marketing decision easier
• How going private is a growth strategy, not a bin-everyone-and-start-again strategy
• Why brilliant marketing on top of a team that can’t answer the phone doesn’t solve a problem
• Why you should be pro-independent, and what this actually looks like