Mike Gusching
Hi, I'm Mike Gushing and in today's podcast you're going to learn about three great insights to better your practice. And I'm super excited to be here to share some of these insights with Dean.
Dean Steinman
Well, hello everybody out there in podcast land. This is Dean Steinman from Author Marketing and guess what? We are back with another podcast for you. That's right. I had a couple of cups of coffee this morning. So, everybody so stoked to be back for today's podcast. And uh I'm just going to cut right to it. I have I think I've ever been more stoked that to have the a guest with me than I have today. Um um I'm going to introduce and I'm not
Mike, please correct me if I'm wrong. I don't want to screw this up. Mike Gushing. Okay.
Mike Gusching
Got it.
Dean Steinman
All right. Orthodontic expert, influencer, and now proud to say author. And uh we're going to talk a little about the orthodontic industry, where he sees it. Um some, you know, get some great insight. And uh it's going to be exciting, guys. So, I'm really stoked. So, uh Mike, welcome aboard, Brad. How are you?
Mike Gusching
I'm doing well, Dean. I appreciate the opportunity to be here. So, thank you.
Dean Steinman
Oh, my my pleasure. So, um, we're gonna jump right into it. So, um, you know, tell everybody who is Mike Gushing.
Mike Gusching
Who is Mike Gushing? Well, I am a proud son of an orthodontist that has worked in the industry for a very long time and worked on the professional side, in the business side in terms of working for multiple companies and visiting a lot of practices. I'm based here in Columbus, Ohio, and I am just someone who's super passionate about helping orthodontists.
Dean Steinman
Excellent. All right. So, you know, you've got a lot of experience, you know, and what was it like growing up with an orthodontist as um as a dad and a dad as an orthodontist? Um how, you know, did they push you to get into the family business? A lot of my clients, it's multigenerational. You know, it's it's you know, so many practices. The father was a orthodontist, a dentist, a grandfather was. So, um, what was that like? You know, was, you know, to have your dad, you know, as an orthodontist, you had the best teeth in in school, too.
Mike Gusching
You do. I'm sure people can relate if they have a parent that's an orthodontist. But their kids growing up, the friends would always ask, hey, can you look at this tooth issue I have or can you check this out? And you're just like, I'm not the orthodontist. That's my dad. So, that's a very true thing. I think one of the things that I had unique perspective for and a lot of people that have parents as orthodontists or dentists can relate to is that you see things very differently as a child is your parents run a small business and the notion that a small business is this romantic idea where it's a family business, it's a small business.
There's truth to that, but there's also the reality that this business is your life. You know, a lot of people that work in the industry, they may not realize orthodontists that own a private practice, it's a 247 endeavor. It doesn't just stop at 5:00. They think about this thing 24x7. And
that's just one truth I'd like to bring out in terms of making sure everyone's aware that it's a lifestyle. It's not just a job.
Dean Steinman
Right? And they love it. you know, I mean, it's it's very rare that I'll find an orthodontist is not, you know, an artiste and is not, you know, very passionate about what what they do. And, you know, I just always like to say that we're in nothing better because I'm in the smile business. My job is to make people smile. And their job is to change people's lives and give them the smile they always wanted. So, how cool is that to be able to change somebody's life and make somebody smile? If I can make somebody smile every day, it's a good day. and orthodontists make dozens of people smile every day. So, how cool is that, you know, to be able to put your head on your pillow at the end of the night and say, "I changed eight people's lives today, you know, I made them happier. I made them more confident. I, you know, made them prouder to to smile." So, you know, I love, you know, love this industry here.
Um, so Mike, let's let's talk let's talk a little bit about where you see the industry now because you've been in this for a while. Obviously since you know you're born you you've saw things back there and where you are now and so let's tell us you know what you've seen I'm not going to go too far back but let's just go to the last five years what kind of changes have you seen you know just you know since co basically.
Mike Gusching
I mean that's it's hard to put into words just what has happened postco I mean everyone has experienced the postcoid bump everyone probably had successful 2020 2021 production years everyone probably felt the decline over the past few years. You know, where are the adults? Some of the practices that were doing quite well a few years ago, for the last three years, they've been down in production. And so, it's just more important than ever that they revisit some of the basics and they revisit what are they doing in their practice to make their practice better.
And it doesn't take a lot of fancy new tools. It doesn't take a lot of fancy changes. It just takes some of the fundamentals. And that's part of the reason I wrote this book of the peak orthodontic practice to revisit some of those fundamentals.
Dean Steinman
Let's talk about that. What would you say are the three main pillars or you know fundamentals that a practice should have or others should be looking at every day?
Mike Gusching
I think the three main pillars if I could put the entire book into a meta lesson would be one what is your business about? What's your vision? What's your mission statement? A lot of doctors, they get drawn into all these different ideas of where we need to go or what we need to bring into this practice, but they don't really understand what makes them unique, what makes them different, and what sets them apart. Something that you do, Dean, very well with practices. And I think that that's a fundamental just to stop and say, okay, what are we going to do that's not chasing? What are we going to do that's sort of unique in this industry for us?
That's one of the first ones. I think the second one is just revisiting all your systems. I mean there's really five KPIs and I put that down in the book of just saying okay do I know my key performance indicators from calls in to conversion rate to production numbers to my value per visit to my collections those five just revisiting that where am I off with those just basic basic fundamentals with your KPI not getting too fancy just lay those out and then I think the third thing that every practice needs to revisit is what's my culture and how is my team connecting with patients you know in today's AI world I think so much is happening with regards to how we interact with patients, how we communicate with them, but the fundamentals is really just the human connection. What are we doing when we're in the office? What are the staff saying? How are they relating to patients? And I put some great stories together just to show that it's a human business. The secret sauce, as Michelle Schum would say, is the people.
Dean Steinman
Really is. Good quote. you know, know Michelle very well and you know, she's awesome, you know, and that's um great quote and great three great pillars there. You know, I talk about KPIs constantly with with clients and you got to know, you know, and if you ever watch Shark Tank, the first thing they always say is what are your numbers? And if you don't know your numbers, you know, shame, shame on you. And it's unfortunate that most practices don't do that. And look at you have to look at the big picture there, guys. So, you have to know, you know, I said, how many leads are you getting every month? How many of them are showing up? You know, that's what I look at as Well, I have my four KPIs and how many leads you get, how many appointments are booked, how many people show up, and then how many starts you you get out of that and just look from that right across the board. And you know, and I can't tell you how many people, you know, just use an old spreadsheet or hope that somebody in the office is updating it there. And you just got to have the right strategy in place, the right in the right program.
So, well done, man. That's real important as you got to know your numbers and have that as part of your your pillar there. Um, you know, one thing you mentioned before is about culture. You know, one thing that I always like to find out from a practice I work with and my job which makes it the hardest is how do I make a practice stand out in a crowded market, you know? So, you might have the best culture ever, but how do you get that out to the world, you know, but you could throw I would say you could throw to the cows come home how great you are, but the the key is having your patients become salesy before you and let them spread the word, you know. So, how would you um give advice to somebody that's you walk in, you're like, "Wow, this is the coolest practice ever, but nobody knows about it." You know, what's how would you tell them to maybe see if they can get outside the four walls?
Mike Gusching
Like are you referring to how I would instruct them to connect with their patients or more about what they would market?
Dean Steinman
market just connecting with the patients and then as I said you know because most pe most practices from a social media perspective every say why would anybody in the right mind follow an orthodontist on business on on you know on Instagram
because you know so if you market yourself and you post it on social people who are seeing it already patients so you're going in circles how do you get it out there you know so how would you say that you know to have your patience be stoked about your internal you know processes and your culture and how would you get them to be embrace it you know because it's about them past putting the word out there so that's one thing I always ask them is doc how would you if you could have ask patient to do one thing today what would you ask them to do and for my eyes I say have them tell their friends how great you are?
You know so how would you know so let's try couple on that how would you tell a practice to tell to ask their their patients to tell their friends how great they are without them sounding desperate.
Mike Gusching
I think you answered it. I think I would start there. Are the patients even saying anything about your practice? Are they even going out and doing any type of word of mouth, which is one of the excuse me, one of the most important marketing devices out there is what they're saying to their friends and their family,
Dean Steinman
Right?
Mike Gusching
And many doctors and many practices and many staff members think that the patients are doing that, but they may not be. And it's a basic basic fundamental as we were talking about. But Ryan Moyan, former CEO of Gage, in the book he mentions that one of the things he would implement is just putting um putting just survey cards, you know, just the basic things. Are we actually asking patients if they're going out and what are they saying about our culture? What are they saying about our practice? And are we reviewing that data? And those are the tiniest, littlest fundamental things that just give you advantage to say, "All right, if our culture is X and our patients are enjoying it, how do we make sure that they're actually saying it? What are we doing to make sure that they're endorsing us?
And even going back a step further, are they even doing that in the first place? Are we even asking that question? And I think those are the fundamentals, Dean, that you have to go back to to just revisit to get your word of mouth out there.
Dean Steinman
Exactly.
And you know guys, there's only one way to get a a review from people and that is ask. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to ask. Just ask. You ask 10 people, patients, moms to give you a review.
Nine of them will say, "Yeah, of course." Just make it easy for them. Nobody's they say, "No, I'm sorry. I won't give you one." You know, unless they don't have a unless they have a Gmail, then they can't do it on Google. You know, but then at least put it on Facebook. put it on, you know, um, wherever, you know, they give it, there's there's options, but Google is the most important one there, but just ask. And that goes a long way, guys. You know, I'm just quickly, you know, going a little tangent here. you know when it comes to marketing that that review has a lot of weight besides obviously you know them telling their their friends about it helps with your SEO and now it helps even more importantly with AEO and that is AI you know marketing and they look at at reviews as one of the most important things there so the more that your patients give you reviews the more that you're showing up on chat GPT and and all the other you know AI programs and you know from my perspective I get I get practices every single day that are getting new patients from Chat GPT every day. All right. And that's a big marketing program there. So that's again asking and showing your culture, you know, just showing how how fun you are. You're in the smile business, guys. Smile, smile, smile.
Um so let's talk a little bit about this book here. All right. So little little shameless plug
here. So great great book. Um you know, and I'm also very proud and thank you for quoting me in it, interviewing me on it. I have you know a chapter on here so read it. You also find a link guys um in the um notes shows here as far as how to how to get this and buy it. But let's talk a little about the peak orthodontic practice. What was your passion behind this and why did you decide to become to write the book?
Mike Gusching
Well, the passion behind it probably stems from being the son of an orthodontist and wanting to do something that would help the industry as a whole. Um, that's just a value that's been ingrained in me my entire life. And unfortunately or fortunately for most of the people in in the industry, it led to a fire to say, what can I do that would provide the most value to the most number of people? And that's a lesson Chris Benson actually gave me a few years back. And that was if you want to be impactful, you just have to consistently ask the question, what am I doing that's serving other people? And the book was sort of an idea that came from that.
The other thing that came from this was the idea that I go into practices every day. You know, one thing that I get to do that many people can't do, specifically orthodontists, is walk into every other practice in the city and just observe and see and watch. And it's not meant to just take competitive data and share it with everyone. It's just meant to raise the entire industry and just say, "Hey, these guys are doing something that I think is special." and I think that there's enough patience in the entire community to go around in the sense of growing every business here. I want to see if I can help you now. And I put those ideas together. And then the second part of the book is I think there's some really, really insightful, valuable, and great key leaders in this industry. And I took the time to interview as many as I could over the past 18 months.
And I wanted to put their insights on words on paper together so that it's almost as if you're having a conversation with them for an hour. And to get all these people in the same room, it would be impossible. There's no way you could do it. But for 14 bucks, you can have a copy with everyone's answer right there in your hands, right?
Dean Steinman
And some great answers, great insight, guys. Read it, you know. But more specifically, make sure to to check out chapter page 169. That's where the best interview is. That's where you'll find me in there, guys. And uh you and you'll see some great quotes and learn a little bit about, you know, what we do here at Author Marketing and my thoughts on the industry. But this is a you know, love it. I've put this this has been next to my bed for the last few days and uh you know, every day reading a little bit and it's great done. real easy read and just real really really insightful man. So congratulations on it. It's great great book there.
Um so we'll talk a little bit about I'm going to put you're going to put on your X-ray vision and crystal ball glasses and let's look two or three years down the road. Where do you see this industry going?
Mike Gusching
That's a good question, Dean. That's a really good question. Um I think the big trends are going to continue. I think that there's still going to be more conglomeration over the next three years. And I think that's going to do two things. One, if you work on the DSO or the OSO side of the business, figuring out the intricacies and the balances and making sure that the practice is the best shape it can be in. If you're not the owner and you're the doctor, you're a team member in that practice, that's going to be important. But on the flip side, if you're a private practice and you're seeing this around you, how are you going to reach for help? How are you gonna expect to do all this yourself when you know that everyone else has a support team or a support system around them?
And I think answering those questions is going to be imperative over the next next three to five years and even beyond that because I think the biggest trend that's happening is that the birth rates are down and that the starts in terms of what the clientele for patients has typically been is flat. So learning how to market differently and attracting adults which are essential for growth and understanding the entire economic landscape. Those are the big big trends that are going to be important over the next few years to figure out and just consistently ask how can we improve this? How can we make this better? That's how you're going to be a great practice.
Dean Steinman
You you got to look through see the forest through the trees guys. This is not 2015 not 2010 or even beforehand. If you if you're experienced practice and you've been around for a while, you see
how your numbers have changed. And you know, last in the last year or so, practices that are successful are flat. That's that's how things have have gone. So, you have to re-evaluate what makes you successful. And again, as mentioned before, what makes you stand out? Think about your differentiator. You need to stand out in a crowded market, you know, and you got to be able to get your name out there, you know, and that's where we come in. like in author of marketing.
We, you know, we work with practices all over the world. We got practices in Australia and Germany and and Europe and and in Canada as well states. And my job is just to figure out how to make you stand out differently than the guy down the street or the DSO or OSO or you know um somebody very very aggressive in the market there because you know if you don't stand out somebody else will you know so it's real real important. Um two more three more questions for you Mike.
Number one, if you could give somebody, sit down with somebody and say, "Do do this one thing today for your practice." What's one thing they should do right now after listening to this podcast?
Mike Gusching
Uh, go to Amazon AND BUY MY BOOK.
Dean Steinman
YES.
Mike Gusching
Shameless plug. Shameless plug.
Dean Steinman
Well done.
Mike Gusching
No, I'm gonna go back to uh I'm going to use another Chris Benson quote here because I think that he's wise beyond his wise beyond anything else in the industry in terms of giving what I think is the most important advice and that's just to sit by yourself or sit with your team and say, "What are we about? What's our vision? What are we doing that's different? And how are we going to live that value every day?" That probably would be it if I had to say just one thing to make your practice that much better.
Dean Steinman
I'm going to take that one step. Then once you figure that out and know what that answer is, then you got to go to your marketing company and say, "Here's my differentiator. Here's what makes we're all about, put it on my website, put it on my social media, let people know what we're about." Because you look at at most websites, they're all cookie cutters, all the same thing. And you just can't just say, you know, great orthodontics, great orthodontists in New York City. Well, that's not a differentiator. That's not your culture. That's just, you know, so when somebody goes to your website right away, they want to know who you are, what you do, where you're located, and what makes you different.
And you got to say that there. So, you know, once you have this, then figure out what are you going to do with it, you know, and that's that's super important. Um, all right, two more questions. Um, next question is, um, besides this book, you're going to go to Amazon. What's the one thing you're going to add to your cart today?
Mike Gusching
Oo, that's a good question.
Dean Steinman
Anything. Anything that in Amazon, which you know, you could, it could be a pen, it could be a computer, it could be shoes, whatever, a book, album, name it. You know, Amazon's got everything. So, what's the one thing you've got a unlimited credit card? What's the one thing you add into your cart today?
Mike Gusching
That's a really good question, Dean.
What's the one thing I'm adding to my um Amazon cart today? Probably more books. You know, I'm a nerd for books. I think that and the physical copy of books, not just the e-reader books. I just think that there's something great about having a physical copy. And now that I've written one, I just have tremendous respect for authors in general, just because what you may pick up for $8, someone has spent eight years working on.
Dean Steinman
Okay.
Mike Gusching
And truthfully, that's probably in my Amazon cart right now is five different books. And so, I would buy something from a author that put his heart and soul into something that I believe could add value. That would be my answer, Dean.
Dean Steinman
All right. All right. So, let's let's keep make this answer. Question 1. A. What is your favorite book of all time?
Mike Gusching
What's my favorite book of all time? My favorite book. I don't know if I could answer the all time,
Dean Steinman
non-fiction, whatever.
Mike Gusching
I'll say, I'll say one book that I revisit a lot. It's a book that Scott Hansen and the orthodontic book has mentioned as well. It's the Almanac of Naval. And it is a book that I just think is a fantastic book on wisdom. It talks about wealth, health, happiness. It's called The Almanac of Nibal. It's on Amazon. You can look it up. And it's a book that literally I think gets picked off off my bookshelf once a month. And I just read a passage or a page of it every day just
because I think that the wisdom in this book is beyond its years. So that's the one book I want to throw out there.
Dean Steinman
All right. All right. Now, I've got one one more question for you. I'm going to give you a gift. You're going to be able to have beer, coffee, whatever your your drink of choice is with anybody in history. >>
Mike Gusching
Wow, these are some good questions, Jean, for an ortho podcast. Um, coffee or beer with anybody in history?
Dean Steinman
What? Is it a beer or coffee?
Mike Gusching
I guess that's a fair question. Is it a beer or coffee? Let's clarify that.
Dean Steinman
Your your call.
Mike Gusching
My call. Um, beyond the spiritual leaders because I think that would probably be everyone's one or two based on their preference. I think if I had to pick a I'll go with beer. A beer with anyone in history. You know, I would probably pick, this is going to sound cliche, but I'm gonna pick President Abraham Lincoln just in terms of why I would do it with him. I just think that what he went through and if you read his biographies and if you read a little more about him,
nothing about his life was easy. Nothing about what he did or said was anywhere near what he probably thought his legacy was going to be. And yet, he kept showing up and he had probably one of the hardest presidencies ever. And so I think that if I could sit with him for an hour and just pick his brain and just say, "How do you do this?" Like, "What are you going through? And how are you navigating all these changes that are happening in the country and keeping your own sanity?" I think I'd walk away from that conversation a better person, a better man, and probably a better leader. So again, I know it's probably weird to say a president, but I'm picking Abraham Lincoln. And that's my final answer. And that's we've got the spiritual leaders,
Dean Steinman
Right? Good answer. That kind of reminds me of Fight Club if you remember that in that movie. You know, that's what, you know, Brad Pitt said he wanted to fight one person in history. He he picked Abraham Lincoln, you know. >>
Mike Gusching
I wouldn't necessarily want to fight him, but I'd probably be a better leader and a better person.
Dean Steinman
Yep. Yeah. But he went through, if you ever see his movie, um where boy to have to deal with, you know, Civil War and slavery at the same time. Wow. You know, you know, incredible that he that he that he was able to conquer both of those. So, great great job. All right.
Um, Mike Gosh, thank you so much, man. I really, really appreciate this. Was so insightful, so you know, fun. I And guys, pick this up, learn, smile. Great book. And I put you'll see the link, you know, in in the notes here. And um, Mike, thanks, bud. I really appreciate everything. Thanks for, you know, being being a friend here, you know, thanks for my quotes. Thanks for interviewing me. Um, and best of luck with the book.
I really appreciate it. And guys um in podcast land, thanks so much everybody for all of your support, for you know watching, listening this podcast, for all insights, uh for comments and really appreciate it. And um just keep on smiling and as I always say, go Jets. All right, thanks everybody. Thanks Mike.
