Alexis Barclay: Hi, I'm Alexis Barclay. I'm the Vice President of Smiles Change Lives. In this podcast, you're going to learn how to help your community and help the kids around you and have some authentic content to be able to put out there. I look forward to it and please join us.
Dean Steinman: Hello everybody out there in podcast land. This is Dean Steinman from Ortho Marketing. And guess what? We are back with another podcast for you. And I am really excited today to have with me back again, Alexa Barkley, who is the vice president of operations at an incredible program for Smiles Change Lives. So it's like a way back, very great guy.
If you ever into music, make sure to check him out and he'll do a little plug as well about that as well. But Alexis, thanks so much for joining, man. I appreciate it and welcome.
Alexis Barclay: Hey, I appreciate you having me back, Dean. Thanks, man.
Dean Steinman: My pleasure. So before we jump into the stuff, you're a Kansas City resident.
So I guess congratulations, they say, as for winning the Super Bowl. And that was a heck of a game. Go Chiefs. That's amazing. So here's a little quick trivia question for you. So Patrick Mahomes right now, this is, has three Super Bowl rings. All right. So how many other NFL quarterbacks right now have Super Bowl rings?
Alexis Barclay: Are you talking about existing playing right now?
Dean Steinman: Active players right now.
Alexis Barclay: Have three Super Bowl rings, just no.
Dean Steinman: Have Super Bowl rings, period.
Alexis Barclay: Oh, period. How many, oh, geez. Just, just any, any, any position.
Dean Steinman: Quarterbacks.
Alexis Barclay: Quarterbacks. Oh, okay. Is Rogers active?
Dean Steinman: Rogers is one. There you go. .
Alexis Barclay: Let's see.
I don't now. Is Flacco still, is he still out of retirement? I guess that, that would be, no,
Dean Steinman: Flacco is not active anymore, so no anymore.
Alexis Barclay: That's, we're going to be getting pretty close to the end of the road, aren't we?
Dean Steinman: We are.
Alexis Barclay: That's Jared Goff? Nope. No, we didn't win, did he? No, he was on the other side of the team.
I can't think of anyone else off the top of my head.
Dean Steinman: Exactly. The answer is three. So Holmes has three and the whole entire league combined has three.
Alexis Barclay: Unbelievable.
Dean Steinman: I just read this this morning. So it's, it's Aaron Rodgers from the J E T S. Jets, Jets, Jets, Jets, Jets. There is Russell, Russ Wilson.
Alexis Barclay: There you go.
Dean Steinman: Okay, and the guy was always under the radar, Mr. Matt Stafford.
Alexis Barclay: Matt Stafford, that's, that's where, see, I went with you.
Dean Steinman: Isn't that crazy how little, how good Tom Brady was, but how little quarter, many quarterbacks out there have it. So a little trivia for you guys out there. If anybody else has any trivia questions, please hit us up.
I always love to do that there. So let's get back to. To where we're the meet here. So let's just tell us a little bit of update of, of Smiles Change Lives. With where you are with the program, a little background on it and why practices need to come on board.
Alexis Barclay: Yeah. We're running into our 27th year now with the, oldest orthodontic access to care program in the world.
We've worked with over a thousand doctors. We've helped over 20, 000 kids. Those are your stats. Yeah. At a very base level we're excited about 2024, the, we've had some tumultuous years. But 2024 feels like a rebirth. It feels like a little bit of a refreshing year.
I think a lot of people are coming back to the table. We've got some great new younger doctors coming in and some wonderful business partners. To help really push the idea of community access to care. We are out here helping kids 7 to 18 years old that that, need a hand up. Kids that are, facing social issues at school or parents that are facing financial issues at home. Things of that nature. We want to help people that are trying to help themselves. And there are plenty of kids and families out there that really need our help. So it's a good time for any doctor to, to get a culture of giving back in their office. And we make it very easy, very cost effective.
We've, we've been doing it for a very long time. So we, we would We would love to work with as many doctors as possible to try and help as many kids that need it as possible.
Dean Steinman: And why would a doctor sign up? What's it for them? What do they do?
Alexis Barclay: Yeah, so first and foremost, you're helping a kid that needs it, right?
The obvious, the obvious answer, these families are out here. Some of the, other big reasons that people don't really think about or feel weird about is, this is a great way to position your practice. This is something that can differentiate you from other practices in your area. Who wants to go to a doctor that doesn't care about their community? Or more to the point, who wants to go to a doctor that does care about their community? And there's a, there is certainly a marketing aspect there. There is something to be said about saying, Hey, you know what?
I care about our community. I am part of our community. Let's, let's do this together because the bottom line is the more successful our doctors are, the more kids, the more underprivileged kids they're able to take. So it's all a synergistic kind of situation where, the better we all do, the better we can do for people that need it.
Dean Steinman: It's all about giving back and karma. And, you and I are both big karma people, and it's the karma is going to get you, it's more of it. So it's nope. And it's all about, You're in the smile business guys. I'm in the smile business, election smile business. It's like, how cool is that to be in a business where you make people smile? My job at Ortho Marketing is to make a doctor smile and get more patients in and get them found.
Your job is to help kids get, smile and make a nice intro with the doctor. Doctor, your job is to make people smile and change their lives. It's a win win win across the board. I'm super stoked about it. i'm working with you We've been working together for a long time and i'm real excited to you know announce a little bit of a little partnership that we put together as far as helping each other out and being a a value provider for each of for each of us, and you just mentioned it's real important to be able to Differentiate yourself in the community, you're part of the community. And by giving back it's great pr it's a way for to show you care To show you're giving back and to make you different, you know when it comes to marketing Number one thing is what makes you different?
What's your differentiator? Because if somebody's looking online They're going to look at two three four different practices and what makes you stand out? You have any good stories case studies or stories about any practices that joined up and did make a difference and how they stood out in the community and really You know, it's not all guys, it's not about, monetizing this.
It's just feeling good and giving away to give back. But at the same time, why not position yourself as somebody, as a part of the community, as somebody that's philanthropic, somebody that changes lives. You want to tell us any stories about any practices and how they, were able to change people's lives and how they were able to be positioned?
Alexis Barclay: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And you said it it's, , it's more of a value add, right? The, the, the one thing that I always see, and it's never ever lost on me that the most successful doctors and officers that we work with the doctors that are able to treat the most disenfranchised kids.
I've we, one of the things that we do is we'll do Smiles Change Lives Days, which is screening days. And we don't obligate doctors to take a certain number of kids. Obviously, we want you to treat as many as possible. But we have a doctor down in Bowling Green, Kentucky, who every year does a Smiles Change Lives Day.
He'll treat ten kids. a year, but he screens them all in the same day. So it has a consultation with them and sees where they are in treatment. And with that, he's able to get, and we, we help as well. We work with them. There's nothing like having a nonprofit, being able to open doors when it comes to getting some publicity.
It's just, it's just one of those things. It's one of our keys to life. And so we were able to, talk to the local TV station there. We were able to talk to the local newspaper there. And then that way we get 10 kids treated. Which is a blessing unto itself. And then Doctor is able to get some valuable air time.
Is able to stay successful, stay in front of people. That way they're able to, consistently Be successful, more successful, and then the next year maybe it's going to be 12 kids, and then it's 15 kids, and all those, and those kinds of things. There's, , we have, hundreds of those kinds of stories.
And, and like you say, it's not about necessarily monetizing. Your give back. But the way I see it is we all have to be, we all have to do well to do good. And I think that's the old adage where, you know, the, the better we do, the more successful we are, the more we can help each other and having a business partner, the one thing that I know that we aren't we're not marketers.
You're a marketer, Dean. That's, we need your expertise when it comes to that. I'm, I'm very good at talking, trying to put people together. That's, that's my job. It's, we're a, let's connect you with this and, and connect you with that. And, and so when it comes to our business partners, even our orthodontists, our orthodontists are experts in orthodontia.
I am not. I, that's, Smiles Change Lives works to be able to put the experts together. Whether it's getting American Orthodontics to donate brackets to have you give , marketing advice, have the doctor do the treatment, all of those things, we are partnering together literally to put a smile out and there is nothing like a smile, especially in today's, , world where, you know , fighting negativity with positivity.
Working together, it really is it's, it's, it's very much a passion project and, and, and like I say, we try and make it as easy as possible with as much value add.
Dean Steinman: Read the perfect recipe between us, it's between the three of the three parties Really?
It's a perfect story if done correctly, you where you're, helping kids change lives Doctors are doing good. They're they're changing somebody's life as well Then they're and they're being giving back to the community And then from there, but what do you do with it? And that's where you some marketing is is how do you?
You differentiate yourself and what we'll do is we'll come come in and work with practices It helped them figure out how to use this this content to promote yourself doing good again It's not about monetizing it. Don't think of it as something that's you know you know Get to put money in your pocket, but it's a way to stand out and you have to stand out these these days You can't just you know, put up a website and say, we offer invisalign come on in or we do You know, we do braces that doesn't do it anymore.
You have to have Differentiator. All right. And this is a credible way to do it because it's given by making people smile. You, it's good news. And you said to get press out of it and, working with a market company, we help you facilitate that. And we help get the videos going and we help come up with strategies that are going to make a difference and give you content to put out there because you don't want to have just generic stuff on your Instagram page.
You want to have things that are organic, that are. Real authentic content. You want to have things on your website or YouTube, Tiktok or whatever it is that is authentic. And that's, great because you've got content being done. You might as well make a difference and use it.
And, when that's something that I'm proud to be able to offer, this, this opportunity for practices. We're giving back and now why not guys now you might as well figure out a way to use it. That's going to make everybody happy, and nothing better than making people smile, so I'm real stoked about that.
Alexis Barclay: There's not much you could, I love the word, one of my favorite words is authentic. It's, it's, there's, the reason I love it is because there's no arguing with authenticity. You can't, and the bottom line is, these kids smile. We were able to all work together to make it happen, and there is not a better feeling in the world.
And it's just wonderful to be able to partner with you guys to be able to get these out there. To, to be able to, to explain that a little bit. A lot of offices do not have the time to think about these things. And we, and I can totally under, appreciate that. So let us think about it, let's see, let's, let's all work together to make it all happen.
Dean Steinman: Exactly, and it's all about smile. I can't say that enough, as the great Jerry Garcia said, nothing left to do.
Alexis Barclay: Smile, smile, smile,
Dean Steinman: smile, smile, smile. Exactly. And boy, man, if you could make somebody smile today. You did a good deed. Closing up here if somebody wanted to get more information to learn about Smiles Changes Lives wants to get, involved, what's the best way for him to do
Alexis Barclay: Best way first and foremost is our website at www. smileschangelives. org. You can also contact me via email at alexis, a l e x i s, at smileschangelives. org. And I have a direct line as well. 816 786 7000. 3309. I'm always ready to have a conversation about this stuff. This is what makes the world go around as far as I'm concerned.
So feel free to contact me anytime and just, even if it's just a conversation about figuring out What community give back looks like
Dean Steinman: it's great and giving back is so important guys. It's it's about karma It's about doing the good thing and I really appreciate it. I'm really stoked about working together with you on this and again you know if anybody Is ever looking for different ideas on how to differentiate yourself and when you do get involved Please reach out to us at marketing.
com and we'd love to be able to learn how we More about you and a little bit how we can make you stand out and help you, pass the word out. And it's great to be able to take this content that you have and use it because content is so hard to get now. And, and to be authentic and to be legit is, it's a game changer.
So Alexis, thanks so much for joining. I appreciate everybody out there in podcast land. Thanks so much. Please, reach out. These guys are great. Make a difference in somebody's life today. They'll never forget you. Think about it. You're changing somebody's life, plain and simple.
So Alexis, thanks, man. I appreciate it. Everybody at podcast land. Be safe, be happy, keep smiling and change a life today.
