How to Become THE Practice for the Dentistry You Love

Narrator: This is The Thriving Dentist Show with Gary Takacs, where we help you develop your ideal dental practice, one that provides personal, professional, and financial satisfaction.

Gary Takacs: Welcome to another episode of The Thriving Dentist Show. I'm Gary Takacs, the Thriving Dentist Show podcast founder and co-host. We have a fun episode for you today. Today's episode is titled, "How to Become the Practice for the Dentistry You Love." This is something that should be of keen interest for all of our listeners. I'm excited about sharing this with you. Before we get to this episode, two quick announcements to make. Those of you that are long time listeners, you know that we regularly put on virtual events, webinars, panel discussions, conversations with leaders in dentistry, and these are virtual, we do them on a regular basis. If you'd like to find out when the next one is, go to thrivingdentist.com/events  and you'll find the next virtual event on the calendar. I would encourage you to visit that site, maybe bookmark it and visit periodically.

Gary Takacs: Because we're often adding new events. By the way, what's really cool about these events besides the content and the information you get from it, is we offer those at no cost. We do it as a courtesy and in a way for us to express our appreciation for your listenership. So if you haven't done so already, come join us on a Thriving Dentist Show virtual event. And again, you have to register for it. Go to thrivingdentist.com/events . If we're able to give CE, some topics do not enable us to provide CE, but if we're able to provide CE, you will get CE credits for attending those events. So it makes it a pretty good value, no cost. Plus you can get CE. Anyway, come join us. 

The second announcement I have is we have a returning guest. You'll recognize his name, my co-host Naren Arulrajah, and he's gonna offer a Thriving Dentist marketing tip. And the marketing tip is titled, "Why Consistency Beats Big Budget Marketing." Why Consistency Beats Big Budget Marketing. Well, with no further ado, here's Naren Arulrajah with that Thriving Dentist Marketing Tip.

Naren Arulrajah: Why Consistency Beats Big Budget Marketing. This is Naren, co-host of the Thriving Dentist Show and the founder of Ekwa Marketing. We get a lot of clients who spend 10,000 a month, 15,000 a month when they come in, and a lot of them rely on ads, mostly Google Ads, and then some of them use Facebook ads. After a few years, they're spending a fraction of that in SEO and organic marketing. And the difference between big budget, ad driven marketing and organic marketing is this, it's trust. See, when people click on an ad, they know that you have not earned it. Rather, you are desperate and you're using ads as the only way or the primary way to drive new clients. So people assume you're not good just because of the ad. So usually the average person coming from an ad is only giving you 15 seconds when it's a Google ad.

Naren Arulrajah: And if they come from a social media ad, they're giving you five seconds. Now, compare that to organic, meaning you are showing up organically on AI search or Google search, and you are now getting them to spend an average of 90 seconds. 90 seconds compared to 15 seconds is six times the difference, right? So you have to literally kiss a lot of frogs with ads. So at $4 a click, let's say a hundred people before you get a single phone call. So now it's $400 a phone call with Google Ads. Now, with SEO, it could be $60 a phone call, right? So it's a massive difference. So your marketing budget can be cut by 80%, 90% with organic driven marketing versus big budget marketing. What I mean by organic marketing, it's not just showing up for a few keywords, it's really dominating all kinds of search.

Naren Arulrajah: So that means you are showing up on Google, Google Maps, Google SEO, Google AI search, AI Overviews. By the way, Google still controls 95% of search, which is why it's the second most valuable company on the planet behind Nvidia at $4.6 trillion. So Google owns the consumer market and owns search. So you want to focus on that, the AI component and regular component. You also don't wanna miss out on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, the other AI engines. So we pay attention to all this. So if you're dominating these, you could really cut down your budget. Now the other benefit of organic marketing versus ads is that people trust you more, not just in terms of how much time they're spending on your website, but also in terms of once they become a patient or once they call your office. So the conversations are different.

Naren Arulrajah: They are not doubtful conversations, double checking, triple checking, quadruple checking, and you have to really work hard to convince them, but rather they trust you from day one because you were discovered organically, not because you spent money on ads. Now, social media ads are even more expensive. Typically with social media ads, you're looking at, like I said, five seconds on the website. So you also have, in addition to it being a lot more expensive, even more so than Google Ads, you also have the challenge of no shows. Why? They're watching a wonderful video. And they were not interested in implants, but an implant ad that you are running showed up. So they don't even remember clicking a button that automatically gave their information to you, and now you think they're gonna come in and they're not. So you really have to watch out for how you are spending your money.

Naren Arulrajah: So I'm a huge fan of consistent marketing, meaning consistently dominating SEO, consistently dominating AI search, regular search, Google Maps. And to do that, there's a lot of pieces to it. And if you really want to find out if you have awesome consistent marketing where you're dominating all these search engines, book a marketing strategy meeting and it's ekwa.com/td . And we will analyze and tell you if you're currently spending a lot of money on ads, how you can cut it over a period of time where you could literally save 8,000, 10,000, 15,000 a month on your ad budget, and instead get the same quality patients over time without having to spend as much money. So check us out, ekwa.com/td . If you have any questions, also go to the website, thrivingdentist.com  and contact us and we would help.

Naren Arulrajah: Hello everyone. This is Naren, your co-host. Hope you enjoyed that tip that I shared with you, why consistency beats big budget marketing. Hey guys, if you have any questions, and ladies, contact ekwa.com/td  and we will do a thorough review of your current marketing and give you some tips. Once again, ekwa.com/td . Hope you all enjoyed the 4th of July. I know it has been two weeks now since the 4th of July. And the topic we're gonna be covering today is very timely and very poignant this time of the year. You know, in the second half of the year, you are thinking about how do I finish the rest of the year on an upbeat note, how do I do something today perhaps that would not only help me finish the year strong, but perhaps even help me set up for an awesome 2027. And the topic is "How to Become THE Practice for the Dentistry You Love."

Naren Arulrajah: I wanna read it again, How to Become THE Practice for the Dentistry You Love. And the reason we emphasize the word THE practice is because we live in a world where everything looks similar, and there are a lot of corporate dental practices with a hundred, 200, 300 offices where dentistry is a commodity. And then of course, on top of that, you have PPO plans that want dentistry to be a commodity, because that way dentists have less and less power, less and less ways to set their own lives, set their own agendas, do the kind of dentistry they went to school for, the dentistry they love, right? So how do you become THE practice and still do the dentistry you love? I think it comes down to a simple idea. And Gary has touched on this, and we have talked about high value services, but in 2026, I think you have to go a step further.

Naren Arulrajah: Yes, you can have a set of high value services you're passionate about, but what is that one service? What is that one thing that makes you stand out? Why? Because people will remember you for that. People will talk about you for that. So I think in today's conversation, as we think in those lines, as you are listening to this podcast, whether you're driving or whether you're sitting with a cup of coffee listening to this weekly podcast, you are so used to thinking about that, right? How do you pick the right service? How do you build around it? And how do you make this a key part of your success? And I already teased you with a tip that talks about consistency. Once you have your story together, your plan together, why consistency is the most powerful way to build on it, even for marketing or otherwise. So, Gary, take it away.

Gary Takacs: I'm excited about this topic, Naren, because as I think about my 46 years in dentistry, there's kind of a divide. There's happy dentists and there's unhappy dentists. Yes, there's kind of a divide. And I'd like to think that our listeners are over here on the happy side. Hey, they're listening to this on their own time. But what is one of the things that separates dentists that are happy and those that are less satisfied? And I think one of the characteristics is the ones that are happy are doing more of the things they really love to do. More of the services they love to do. And maybe they have one, you kind of broached that in the intro. Maybe there's something that you're really known for. What is that? Have you ever heard that saying, Naren, jack of all trades, master of none?

Naren Arulrajah: I was thinking it when you were saying it. It's kind of funny how our brains work. I think this is more relevant in 2026, this idea of wanting to be a master of something, because you wanna differentiate, you wanna stand out, you wanna be known for something. It's like your signature, right? I know you go to these high-end restaurants and they have a signature dish, something they're known for, and it doesn't mean that every single time people are gonna have that signature dish. But that's what makes that place attractive. That's what, it's like the beacon that everybody can see and understand and wrap their arms around. So I agree. I think if we had recorded this even 10 years ago, even five years ago, I may not have been as enthusiastic about this idea of a signature service.

Naren Arulrajah: But having worked with dozens and dozens of practices over the last 12 months, mutual clients of ours, I noticed the ones who are doing really, really well are known for something. And a lot of times it is a type of service, maybe something that has a name like implants, and other times it's the type of practice, right? I know one of the practices we were talking about the other day was a type of practice that was loved by people who hated going to dentists, and now they love going to a dentist. Of course, sedation is part of it, but it's the entire experience from the very first second they pick up the phone and call that office. And how they're welcomed all the way to, and the funny thing is, after the first visit, they leave these love letters Google reviews saying, I have never in my 30 years of life experienced anything like it. And I'm never, ever, ever going anywhere else.

Gary Takacs: Well, that's where I was gonna go with this. Now, one of the cool things about being known for something is your marketing has the opportunity to be leveraged. In other words, you've got your patients talking about you everywhere they go. Yes. And how valuable is that when your patients are the ones that are spreading the great word, of all the ways to attract new patients to the practice? And I love what Ekwa does with digital marketing, with organic SEO and other forms of marketing. Love it. But I think most of our listeners would say it's really cool when a patient refers someone else into the office. And when you have something that you're really known for, those referrals can go up. So you can get more referrals because people are out there talking about it. And isn't that the coolest form of marketing when the public is out there talking about it, you're not talking about it, the public is talking about it. Yeah. So we'll go into a deeper dive today on this one.

Naren Arulrajah: Thank you, Gary. Let's jump right in. My first question is, what is a signature service and why is this important in the context of a thriving practice? For me, correct me if I'm wrong, the way you define a thriving practice is that it meets certain objectives. A practice you love, jumping out of bed and going to work with a team you love, treating people you love, being able to retire when you want to, and live a comfortable life. So there are certain attributes of a thriving practice. Why do you think this is instrumental? I know this is not something you talked about five years ago, 10 years ago, when you talked about a thriving practice, Gary.

Gary Takacs: Well, I have called high value services to be a very important part of a practice format. I think it is a brilliant practice model. And this is my own perspective, you can adapt this as you see fit, but I think a brilliant practice model for a general dentist is to have a foundation of two things, everyday general dentistry, which is a whole range of things that fall under the category of general dentistry. And also a really strong hygiene department, a really strong hygiene department. If you think of that as a foundation, there's your foundation, a full scope of everyday general dentistry combined with a really strong hygiene department. And if that's the foundation, then what we build on top of that are a carefully curated selection of high value services, of the things that are maybe more advanced, the things that you really love doing, that can provide a life changing type of dentistry.

Gary Takacs: The truth is, general dentistry can be life changing. It's less likely to be life changing. Doing fillings is less likely to be life changing unless it's involving pain or something like that. But when you add those signature services and maybe have a signature service that you're really known for, what would that be? And that can now truly change the complexion of your practice, where you have the foundation, everyday general dentistry combined with a rock solid hygiene department, and then you've added a carefully curated selection of high value services. And within those high value services, this is where I'm gonna pivot to something that our audience hasn't heard before. Within those high value services is a signature service. And the way I would define a signature service is what you would like to be known for. Dr. Pankey's signature service was helping people keep their teeth all their life.

Gary Takacs: And it became known, as many of you know, that I'm on faculty at Pankey Institute, and I get the privilege of spending time there as a guest faculty member. And Dr. Pankey was known, the public knew him, as the dentist that will help you keep your teeth. He is what many people consider to be the father of modern day restorative dentistry, modern day complex restorative dentistry. And you have to go back. He graduated from dental school in 1922, and that was an era where people were not expected to keep their teeth. And how valuable was that, Naren, when he relocated to Florida from rural Kentucky? He practiced in New Castle, Kentucky initially, but he found that that population wasn't interested in keeping their teeth. So he relocated to Coral Gables, Florida. He became known. He had a signature service. I don't know that he would've used that language. It didn't really exist at that time. But his signature service was helping people keep their teeth, and patients would come to his practice. And as he'd get to know them, he'd say, how can I help you? They'd say, well, my neighbor said that you're the dentist who can help me keep my teeth. How valuable was that, Naren, in 1930?

Naren Arulrajah: It was amazing, right? I know at that time, I know today we take it for granted. I mean, can you imagine people having their teeth pulled because they don't wanna take care of them?

Gary Takacs: Yes. Well, that was the mindset of many people in Kentucky, that they were gonna lose their teeth anyway. They might as well have 'em taken out.

Naren Arulrajah: Yes, at the time it's seen as a headache, it's seen as a nuisance, as opposed to something that you cherish and you take care of.

Gary Takacs: So the simple answer to that question, a signature service is something you are known for by the public, and why it's important, I could go on indefinitely. Maybe the most important reason, I'll focus on the most important reason, because you're gonna find more enjoyment if you're doing what you love to do. And you're getting the feedback from patients that, doctor, this has completely changed my life. How does that feel? I mean, we all want to think we're doing things of significance. I'm reading a really good book, a short little book by Seth Godin. I like the way Seth Godin thinks about things. And the title of the book is called The Song of Significance, The Song of Significance. So it allows you to be significant. That's why.

Naren Arulrajah: Thank you, Gary. Let's jump into the mechanics of this. So, how does an owner, let's say a dentist owner who's running a typical privately-owned practice, let's say one location, choose the right signature service? I imagine a lot of doctors get this wrong. Of course, I've heard of a couple of horror stories, but I would like you to share your experience, even going back to that one example I teased, which is this practice that's known for people who hate going to a dentist. They love going to that dental practice. I don't think they just, on day one, said, that's who we want to be. I think they arrived at it over time, right? So maybe you can tell some stories, some examples of how people arrive at their signature service?

Gary Takacs: Well, I'm gonna be a little bit contrarian here. And when I say contrarian, those of you that know me know that I can be very analytical, and I love data, because data never lies. People do. But data never lies. I'm not going to go down the route of data and analytics. So I'm not gonna say, well, in my market, what is the signature thing that a lot of people wanna have done? I'm not gonna go there. Not that that necessarily is wrong, but I'm gonna make a different suggestion. I think I'm gonna ask you to vote with your heart, not your head, but with your heart. And what I mean by that, what is something that you know you enjoy doing? What is something you know you enjoy doing? And what is something that you would love to take hundreds, if not thousands of hours of CE on over the years to truly master?

Gary Takacs: And that's how I'd pick your signature service. Something that you already have some interest in, but the idea of going out and taking hundreds, if not thousands of hours of CE, what would be exciting to you? The kind of thing where you look forward to it on your calendar. Hey, I'm going out to take this course, and I can't wait. So it's not like a grind, going out and taking it. It's like this is what lights up your heart. So I wouldn't answer it with your head. I'd answer it with your heart. What is it? And maybe you don't know. Maybe you need to explore that a little bit. Maybe you need to expand your CE and expand the things that you know. But you might have an inkling, you might have a hint of things that you think you might enjoy.

Gary Takacs: But that's where I would start. I would start with your heart, what is it that you would imagine? And you might be able to answer that instantly. And dentistry comes in lots of different flavors. Some dentists absolutely love endo, for example. They love providing endo therapy. They love it. And other doctors feel like it's literally another day at the salt mine when they have to do endo. It's not right or wrong. This is dialed into yourself, know yourself. So one of the concepts I learned from Dr. Pankey, if you're gonna be a master dentist, you need to know yourself. So answer that question in that kind of know yourself, follow your heart. What is it that you would truly love doing? And imagine yourself taking hundreds, if not thousands of hours of CE over the years.

Gary Takacs: And that would be a joyful pursuit. That's how you pick your signature service. Now, what could they be? It could be things like cosmetic dentistry. Cosmetic dentistry is a range of things. It could be implant dentistry. It could be adult orthodontics. Maybe that's something you really love to do, and you'd like that to be a signature part of your practice. Could be complex restorative dentistry. On a broader context, it could be the field of, say, holistic dentistry and all the things that make up holistic dentistry. It could be the oral systemic connection. By the way, your mouth is connected to your overall health. All of those things could be considered signature services. And I think it should come to you pretty naturally. And maybe for some of you, you literally have that already picked in your mind, for sure.

Naren Arulrajah: Once the owner picks the service, what are some next steps dentists can do to build this component of their practice?

Gary Takacs: Yeah, really great question. Now we're gonna get in the weeds. So let's get in the weeds about this. And I'm gonna use as an example, cosmetic dentistry. I'm not saying that should be your signature service, but I'm gonna use it as an example, and that can be extended to whatever your signature service is. But one of the first things that I would do, once you feel like you've got the skills to deliver cosmetic dentistry, and cosmetic dentistry can be a lot of things, but I'm gonna talk specifically about smile design. Smile design would be defined as typically an eight or 10 unit upper anterior porcelain veneer case. Now, that's not the only thing that makes up cosmetic dentistry, but that would be something that would be considered a signature thing you were known for.

Gary Takacs: One of the things, as you're building your skills, I would encourage you to find a couple of patients, find a couple of cases. So now we can start to build our library. And I would encourage you to schedule, let's say we're gonna do a 10 unit upper anterior veneer case. Then I would find a couple of patients that you could do that case on. And if you're a Monday through Thursday practice, you have a day off, I would encourage you to do that on Friday. Not that I want you to work Fridays at all, but now you're gonna be able to do that case and deliver the attention that you need to really dial that case in. You, an assistant and the patient. That's all you need. Notice you don't have to get up. You don't do hygiene checks, you don't have all the other hubbub of the office going on.

Gary Takacs: You have the ability to just focus on that patient. And you might have a patient in your practice that would be a good candidate for that. But if you don't, because you haven't done that type of case before, find someone that can be the right patient for this service. And you might even, I'm gonna be a little controversial here, you might even offer it to a patient at a special arrangement. So maybe that patient would like to have a 10 unit veneer case done, but they can't afford it. So depending on your fee, the average fee for a veneer today is between $1,800 and $2,000. So if we're doing a 10 unit case, it's 18 to 20,000. Can we agree, Naren, that that doesn't work for everybody? I do agree, Gary.

Gary Takacs: Not everyone. So maybe there's someone in your practice who would like to have it done, but they can't afford it. So a patient we choose, and maybe we offer it to them at lab fee only. Lab fee only. We're not gonna make any money on this. But meanwhile, what is this gonna do for us? That's gonna help you refine all your in-office processes, how you work with your assistant, the tray setups, everything with that. But then hopefully we'll also pick someone that can be an ambassador for you. Be an ambassador for you. And I would like you to do, as soon as possible, get a couple of those cases under your belt. Get a couple of cases under your belt. The ideal patient would be someone that can't necessarily afford it. If they can afford it, wait until you have your skills down. Let 'em pay full price. Does that make any sense?

Naren Arulrajah: It doesn't get, it doesn't—

Gary Takacs: Yeah. Makes perfect sense. Wait till they can afford it.

Naren Arulrajah: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I understand. Right?

Gary Takacs: Yeah. I mean, then they could be your third case and they could pay for it, right? But pick someone, I'll give you an example. A client of mine. It was this very case. It was aesthetic dentistry, cosmetic dentistry. And the patient that he selected was a patient of his practice. She was a single parent school teacher, high school teacher. And she happened to be the doctor's kids' high school English teacher. Now you can imagine, Naren, the income of a single parent high school English teacher with no other resources, it might be difficult to pay 18 to 20,000. And so he did this case on her. She was absolutely ecstatic about it, was so thrilled that she went out and told everybody. Everybody she contacted came and complimented her on her smile. And she said, I've got to tell you about my dentist. And she ended up being a great referral source. So pick someone that has the clinical condition that you're looking for, maybe that can't afford it, and would also be the kind of person out there in the community that has contact with other people. Naren, what personality type are we looking for on the DISC personality style?

Naren Arulrajah: Someone who's a strong I, correct, Gary?

Gary Takacs: A high I. Yeah. They know everybody. Yeah. And hopefully they know everybody and are in contact with people. Right. Don't pick the guy that works the midnight graveyard shift at the ball bearing factory. He may be an I, a frustrated I because of his job, but he's not gonna come in contact with others. So do a couple of those cases. And what are we gonna do? What's the biggest flaw you find when clients start working with Ekwa? What are some of the biggest flaws you find with their website? What don't they have?

Naren Arulrajah: I think, I don't want to get too caught up in the weeds, but the first thing I think they're missing is they don't really understand who their ideal patient is. So usually they don't start with that end in mind. Usually they're running ads, they're doing all the wrong things, and then they don't understand what marketing is at a fundamental level, which is—

Gary Takacs: You're going way deeper than I am. I'm going through the fundamentals. They're missing before and afters, folks. They don't have before and afters.

Naren Arulrajah: Oh, I see what you mean. Okay.

Gary Takacs: They don't have before and after photos. Right? So meanwhile, yeah, I'm a cosmetic dentist. Well, would before and after photos help?

Naren Arulrajah: Of course, because if I'm gonna spend $30,000 or even $20,000, and I can't visualize myself being in the shoes of the new patient in the form of a full face after photo, why would I give you that $30,000? I wouldn't. You wouldn't. Imagine you want to spend a hundred thousand on a kitchen and the person you are trying to hire has no examples of the kind of kitchens they have done, and you can't visualize it. So why would you take a risk? Same thing here, right? You might be somebody with a lot of reviews. They may have heard of you, maybe you're showing up on Google, maybe they even like you because they saw your video and you seem down to earth. But at the end of the day, they're coming to transform their smile, and they need proof that you have transformed smiles like this.

Gary Takacs: Now, using my next steps, you're gonna take before and afters. You're now gonna have befores and afters on these two cases, right? And now they go up, and Ekwa is gonna create, if Ekwa is your marketing firm, they're gonna create a landing page for you, right? Don't make people work for it. Make it easy. Yes. Make a landing page around cosmetic dentistry and prominently display these before and afters. So this isn't your first rodeo, right? So let me continue another step. Another next step as you start, I don't want you to always do these cases on your off day. As you start doing more of this, I want you to think about how you build that into your scheduling template. And maybe what that means. And I'll give you a great example of a client of mine I've worked with for a number of years.

Gary Takacs: And this is exactly how he does it. And I'm asking you to think about how cool this would be in your practice. Three days a week, he is a happy general dentist. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. He loves doing general dentistry. And his schedule, as you might imagine, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, he has two hygienists. On Thursday, he changes hats, takes the general dentist hat off and he puts on his cosmetic dentist hat. And on Thursday he chooses not to have hygiene, because he doesn't wanna be distracted. And he has either one patient or two patients. If it's two patients, he's gonna do maybe a 10 unit prep in the morning on one patient and a different 10 unit seat in the afternoon. If it's one patient, it might be a 20 unit prep or a 28 unit prep in the morning, and that's it. That might be the whole day, by the way. And that's it. What day do you think he likes most there, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday?

Naren Arulrajah: The day that he is doing those big cases, Gary.

Gary Takacs: Yeah, he loves it. Now it didn't just happen like you snap a finger. It happened over time. But that's where he is today. And he truly loves his model, absolutely. It's a very carefully adapted model to where his heart is. Absolutely. So those are some next steps you can follow. But the key is to get some cases, get some cases, whatever it takes to get those cases. And I would think it'd be a good investment. You want the patient to have an investment in the case, have the patient pay the lab fee. Great way to get started.

Naren Arulrajah: Right. Thank you, Gary. Let me go to the next question. I have heard you say getting the schedule right is critically important, and that if you get the schedule right, many positive things happen. Please share some scheduling tips that'll help our listeners succeed with adding this signature service.

Gary Takacs: I truly believe with every ounce of my DNA that it's important. We've got 24 systems, and all 24 systems are important. I truly feel like all of 'em are important, but man, you get the schedule right and a whole bunch of things happen in a positive way. Get the schedule right. So as you're adding these high value, as you're adding, let's stick to the language, signature service, develop a template for your team, develop a scheduling template for here's how I want that scheduled, for my own sanity, for the end result that we're looking for and for the patient experience. Here's how I want it. Don't expect your team to know this if that hasn't been part of your practice in the past. So you might have to explore this a little bit, but get a template. Get a template. And by the way, don't try to cram a bunch of things in there as you're trying to deliver a very high level of customer service to your patient for that signature service. If you have to get up three times during the hour and do hygiene exams, how's that patient experience gonna be, Naren?

Naren Arulrajah: It's not gonna be fun, Gary. If I'm the patient, I'll get annoyed. You're irritated.

Gary Takacs: Well, I think they might be thinking, hey, I'm investing a lot in this. I'd love to get your focus on this. By the way, you're a lot more productive per hour when you're doing your signature service, whatever that is, right? So you can afford to do that. So yeah, get the schedule right. And really help your team members understand what that means. What does that mean? What shouldn't be put opposite it? And you can be very idealistic with that and let them know what that looks like, and then coach them. And maybe as you're doing some of this, go back and revisit those days with your scheduling team members to say, hey, here's where I might have been able to use a little more time.

Gary Takacs: Here's where I need less time. And compliment whenever possible. Boy, you scheduled this really well. Let me show you what you did well here. And then let them, through real time feedback, get your feedback on this. And have some grace, understand that this is new for you and new for them, for your team members. Give them some grace as you're doing this. I wanna pivot because this discussion is really great, but it'd be really cool if you had patients actually looking for your signature service. And that would be marketing. That would be marketing. So Naren, imagine that a listener now has chosen a signature service. And you could get your first cases from your existing patient base, but can we agree that we would expand the universe a lot more to let the community know that this is your thing? Yes. Yes. But if the community doesn't know, then nothing's gonna change. So from the marketing side, how do you become known marketing wise for that signature service? What do you do to become known marketing wise for that signature service?

Naren Arulrajah: Great question, Gary. Dentistry is not something people are forced to do. They choose it, right? For example, I don't like my crooked teeth. I might be looking at Invisalign. Maybe I don't like my smile. I might be looking at cosmetic dentistry. Maybe I'm afraid to go to a dentist, but I know I really need to go to a dentist. The older I get, I might be considering sedation. So step one is, when you have picked your signature service, let's say sedation, are you the one they're finding when people who are looking for that type of a solution are on Google, which happens to control, I was looking at some stats today, Gary, this morning, Google is used 500 billion times a month, 500 billion, half a trillion times a month. And when you compare that to the other AI platforms, they're at less than a billion, maybe 2 billion.

Naren Arulrajah: So Google still is like 98% of the market. So when people are looking for that type of service in your community, in your area that you're targeting, are they discovering you again and again and again? And it could be a conversational query, like, I'm afraid to go to a dentist. Who should I go to? That's a conversational query. And Google would give you this AI Overview answer. Or it could be like a sedation dentist near me, where Google Maps might show up. Or it could be painless dentist Chicago, where your regular SEO might show up. Doesn't matter how they're communicating with their search engine, including ChatGPT and Gemini and all the other platforms, but mainly Google, either one, they keep seeing you consistently. Because if they keep seeing you consistently, one of the things happens. Have you heard of the messy middle, Gary?

Gary Takacs: Messy middle is nowhere anyone wants to be.

Naren Arulrajah: Yes. That's a

Gary Takacs: A colleague of mine coined a phrase, yes, many years ago. And this is a colleague that absolutely loves dentistry, and has high appreciation for dentists. And although he wasn't a dentist himself, he worked in our profession, and he said, doctor, you don't wanna be a DIM. A DIM. And he said, let me give you, it is a dentist in the middle.

Naren Arulrajah: Right?

Gary Takacs: So there's a T in there, but he left the T out in the acronym. DIM. You don't wanna be DIM. Yeah, because when you're a DIM, again, the jack of all trades, master of none. You bounce from one thing to another. You don't have, yeah, there's no grounding. You have no passion. You have no signature thing. You don't wanna be a DIM. Yeah.

Naren Arulrajah: So imagine the messy middle in the sense of searches. You show up, but not all the time. So pretty much, it's like those people never remember you. Those people don't come back to you. Those people don't choose you, right? Why? They don't see you consistently.

Gary Takacs: Not repeatable.

Naren Arulrajah: You're not repeatable. So one of the things you wanna do is you wanna make sure, at least for 20, 30 different ways people are looking for that service, you keep showing up organically in your community. So that's number one. Number two is some of the things you already touched on. Now, they know that you exist. You can do that. And you are the one who shows up consistently. So now you have captured their imagination, captured their thought. Now they are curious. They go to your website. When they go to your website, do they see a welcoming video talking about that particular service that is your signature service, why you are passionate about it, why you have been doing this for a long time, and asking them to see some of the outcomes you have been able to produce in the form of those before and afters with full face after pictures?

Naren Arulrajah: So get them to then like you and trust you with pictures and reviews. And now a lot of these things, Gary, it's not like one and done. You have to stay on it. I know people think SEO is something they do well, and then they don't need to worry about it, but Google is changing its rules 10 times a day. Why? Google doesn't want you to get free traffic. And they restrict it to 3% of the people who do get that consistently. Everybody else has no choice but to buy ads. So are you doing SEO consistently? Are you getting those before and afters added to your website consistently? You don't wanna just forget it. Are you getting those paragraph love letter reviews? By the way, they also have become more important in the world of AI. Why? They are great signals for search engines, especially AI engines, to know if you are who you say you are, because we all can say wonderful things. We all can rank on SEO, but what if those reviews don't have the depth, the words to describe that you indeed are the thing that the patient thought you are? So these are the things I would focus on. Now, if anyone is struggling with this, they're not really doing well, again, book that marketing strategy meeting, ekwa.com/td . Anything you want to add, Gary, in terms of what I just said?

Gary Takacs: Yeah, I wanna add one thought on that, and that is that not every signature service has credentialing. But if there is an opportunity to credential yourself, I wanna give you strong encouragement to do that. Yes. For example, I used the example of cosmetic dentistry. Join the AACD and work on becoming an accredited dentist. It's a very small percentage of dentists that are accredited. And if you really wanna credential yourself, become a fellow in the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. To become accredited, you've gotta present five cases. To become a fellow, you've gotta present 50. And now that'll not only, the work that you do is worthwhile by itself to do that, but Google also recognizes credentials. And by being recognized in terms of credentials, you'd be much more likely to be presented as the choice for those signature services.

Gary Takacs: And I wanna close with a hopeful thought. And I'm gonna do so with a case study. One of our Thriving Dentist coaching clients, I'll leave his name nameless for confidentiality. But he had been kind of piddling around with Invisalign, kind of piddling around, and was doing three starts a year. Three starts a year when we started working together. And I said, yeah, I notice that you do Invisalign, but not much. He goes, yeah, I really love it, but we're just not getting much traction. And he said, I'm a little embarrassed to tell you this, but I feel like we do the starts so rarely that I've gotta go back and study my training materials to learn how to do this. Anyway, and we decided in the context of this episode to really make that a signature service in this practice.

Gary Takacs: And as we started to focus on and do all the things we talked about in this episode, he went from doing three starts a year to one start a week. One start a week. So instead of three at the end of the year, he gets 50 starts a year. And that was just the beginning. It's now changed. Actually, the numbers are a multiple of that today. And it became his signature service. And he went from a general level of satisfaction, it was, I was feeling okay, to where now he loves going to work because this is something that he's really incorporated in his practice. It's become his signature service, for sure. So you can do this. Let me reinforce what you said, Naren. If it's marketing help you need, to attract people for your signature service, contact Ekwa at ekwa.com/td .

Gary Takacs: If you'd like help on the coaching side, to really make this an embedded part of your practice, we are accepting new clients at Thriving Dentist. Go to thrivingdentist.com/csm . That stands for Coaching Strategy Meeting. That would be a one hour Zoom meeting with me where I get to learn more about your practice. We can talk about your signature service and talk about how we make that from concept to reality. In any case, I would love the opportunity to talk to you if that was your wish. Well, Naren and I, in conclusion here, thank you for the privilege of your time. Hope we've stimulated some thinking around your signature service. And here's to incorporating that in your practice, for your benefit and also for your patients' benefit, and for people in your community. We look forward to connecting with you on the next Thriving Dentist Show.