Welcome back to dentistry support the podcast, your go to resource for all things, leadership, business, and of course, dentistry. I'm your host, Sarah, Beth Herman. And today we are continuing on our series on mentorship and it's transformed. formative power in the dental profession and dental community.

Last week, we had an incredible conversation with Krissy Andres, and obviously you see her back today. If you're not already catching the video recording of our podcast, you can head right over to YouTube and watch us interact together, or you can just listen wherever you stream your podcasts. I'm really excited to share with you guys that last week's episode was actually our number one downloaded episode.

Since we started the podcast, we've remained number one for 14 weeks in a row in five different categories. And I'm so excited to see you. We are still number one, all time in dentistry and number one in this month for dentistry. Thanks to all of you who continue to listen week after week. If you missed last week's episode, just remember it's episode number 17. 

So go back, take a listen and hear what Krissy has to say about the one thing you need to look out for. If you're trying to get a mentor. Today, I'm so excited to welcome Dr. Simper from South Ridge Dental. Dr. Simper's journey is a testament to the power of mentorship and strategic partnerships. His practice has grown from a small team of four and a four operatory building to a bustling 31 member team and a 13 operatory practice.

And it's a story you're just not even going to believe. In just six years, they went from producing 800, 000 a year in production to an astonishing 8. 3 million.  I can tell you whenever Krissy and I get in the phone, it is so fun to talk about this practice because they are  doing amazing things.

They are seeing an average of 150 new patients and Dr. Semper, I'm so grateful you're here. Welcome to the show. 

Thank you.  

 Dr. Simper, I want everyone to get to know you. So tell me a little bit about your background, maybe the early days of South Ridge Dental so we can  get to know you a little bit.

Alright, uh, so we bought the practice back in 2017 and we bought it off a guy who was. We're pretty sure the practice was going to go under if he didn't sell it because he sold and took off to New Mexico and kind of what we were promised and what it looked like on the books was not exactly what we got into.

 It was a little bit of a rough start, but it's all turned out pretty okay.

I think that happens in business. You know, we get really excited. We're like, I want to have my own business. I think it would be really fun to go buy an existing one so I can reduce the amount of overhead that I have to put out right away.

And then you get into the nitty gritty of buying a business and you learn all of the skeletons that were in the closet. Sounds like that was your journey. 

Yeah, that was very much it. I mean, as far as we could tell from the books, the last office manager was embezzling from the practice. None of the numbers added up.

It was, It was pretty wild at the beginning. 

You hear it more and more over the years that you're just like, how can this be foreseeable? And it's not.  We happen to have one of those situations,

we've all been there.  I've looked into purchasing dental practices multiple times, and you get into the numbers and you realize there's all these different things going on.

 Wait, what,  what's happening here? And you're like, Oh no, I can't do that. Dr. Semper, did you want to purchase a practice right away? Did you want to start something from the ground up? What was your initial thought when you went into this journey? 

So is that another practice for five years and it was supposed to be a partnership that just never came to be.

And I just got sick of waiting for that to come. So I just decided I was going out on my own  the practice was up for sale and the timing was just right. So I bought it. 

 You started off with four operatories and what did that look like? Did you have an office manager at the time?

Was it just you? Did your spouse work with you? What was that dynamic? 

Krissy from day one, I hired her before I even bought the practice. 



How did you even meet Krissy? Was it like, mutual?  This is going 

back a while, but uh, Craigslist actually replied too.

I didn't know where else to find people, so I put up an ad on Craigslist. She replied, we met at Starbucks and my favorite part of that whole meeting is, I kid you not, she brought a PowerPoint presentation to that meeting. Yeah.  She left the meeting and just sat there and go, I have to hire her. I had no choice.

Yeah. I couldn't do anybody else.  

I love it. That's awesome. Krissy, that would be like you.  You're gonna talk to me. You're gonna listen to what I have 

to say. I think the verbiage actually was, we're gonna meet for  a second meeting. Bring you on.

And present that to me. And I quite literally presented that to him, complete with a copy of a printed document for him, for those PowerPoints in case he forgot what we discussed.  

So if you are not a dentist listening to this episode and you're looking for a really amazing opportunity, set yourself up for success.

Is that what you mean, Krissy?  So Dr. Simper, let's talk about those early years for a minute. If you think about who you were when you made the decision to purchase , you made the decision to hire Krissy, how do you feel like mentorship influenced your personal and professional growth from then to now? 

Oh, huge. I mean, I had a game plan in my head of what I wanted from day one.  It's just Figuring out how to get here, but I got really lucky. I had some great jobs before. I had some great mentors along the way and  sponge absorbing all that  

 If you you have to do the extra of dentists, they're on e not doing those things.

A from day one really set 

I speak to on average seven to 800 dentists a year. I have calls all week long learning about dental practices, growing them,

and one thing so common is many dentists that start off with their own dental practice, the very first one, the very first time they do it, I feel like they think they know everything. That's not to say anything bad about someone who buys a business or starts a business. I believe that mentorship is key because it gets you out of your own head and it starts to open your eyes to see things perhaps a different way so that you can be more successful.

Do you feel when you started, you either had that kind of mentality and you grew out of it or that you were always open to just doing whatever it took to be successful?  

A bit of both. I mean, you quickly realize you don't even know what you don't know what doing it on your own. It always looks easy from the sidelines when you're working with somebody else, hopefully get enough lessons along the way to start figuring out, get good coaches along the way. 

hard work and it all works out.  

Did you ever have a specific mentor that you can think back on that had a really significant impact on your practice of success? For example, you could think of someone who  gave you an idea or a strategy that was a game changer. That is exactly what we need to do.

And that kind of catapulted you guys into getting where you are today. 

Oh, I've had lots along the way.  I work with different coaches on just some of the groups, just listening to some of their stories. It's  Amazing what you can accomplish.  

What are some things that you started doing in your practice that really set you apart from everyone else in this local dental community?

 That  set you apart?  

I've got really, really lucky with staff. I've had incredible staff along the way.  Good marketing.  It's hard work. 

It's good hiring. Is 

it luck? Because people  say that about people that are wealthy, right?

If you have two people in a room and one person is really wealthy and one person is more middle class. And you were to say to the middle class person, what do you think about this really wealthy person? They would probably say something like, they're really lucky, it must be nice to be you.

I love to argue that I don't think it's luck at all. I think sustaining that relationship and growing the culture of your business, it takes so much effort,

it really does. . 

And it's one of those things.

You throw it out in the universe and the universe responds, right? I think it's being picky and vulnerable enough to know what you do and what you won't tolerate on the team and who you want to bring into that culture and making sure you're protecting that culture at all costs.  

 When you think about where your business was when you first had four operatories to the building you're in now and what that even looks like, I mean, your building is fantastic.

So anyone who's listening to this, please go check them out online. Their website's beautiful. Their office is beautiful. Do you guys do anything within your community that you think contributes to South Ridge Dental success. 

, we get involved in all sorts of things throughout the year. We just became the official team dentist for the local hockey team.  Always having your name out there, good marketing, just making the right connections. 

 Just showing ourselves enough that we are a pivotable aspect in this community that  we do want to give back where a lot of industries they're in it for themselves these days.  I think their, why isn't strong enough where ours is very much about our patients and the experience we give and that word of mouth. We have great referrals that they all come from word of mouth, great experiences. 

 Krissy, this could be a question more towards you, or maybe one that two of you could collaborate on for a moment.  If you were to consider how mentorship rather has, shaped the mindset and leadership style of your entire team, how do you think you would define that?

When you first start in business. Everyone on the team might not be on the same page. Maybe you hire a lot of really great personalities  together. They're not quite jiving. There requires a lot of mentorship, a lot of setting expectations on how we handle problems, resolutions,  growth or new patients or working within the community.

 That mentorship is super important. It's a requirement. It's not just a suggestion, especially if you want newly hired people to jive with existing team members. Share with me, how has mentorship shaped your team's mindset and your team's leadership style?  I mean, I have an 

idea, but I kind of want to hear what, from your standpoint, what you think.

Just 

for everyone, like we all. Getting everyone on the same page,  working towards goals, having a vision, like in a break room every make everyone make their own vision board for the year of what their goals are and what we're trying to achieve. Always knowing what the goals are. I mean, it's one of my favorite sayings, you know, if you don't know where you're going, how do you know you're not already there?

It's just constantly having that. I could walk up to anyone in this office. They know what our goals are. They know what the vision is for the whole place. Keeping that focus there.  

 I love that you just said, everybody has a vision board.

And if you walked up to anybody, they'd know your goals. How do they know your goals? Do you guys talk about it every week, every month, every day? What does that look like for your team? Is it something that they shy away from because they don't want to have to sell dentistry because you know, we get a bad rep for that

 Every dental office that I talked to, they say things like that. But living it out is so different. So what does that look like for you guys? 

It's all posted. There's like, we don't hide any numbers. Everybody knows all the numbers. They're posted in the break room.  I don't know. I've always told, like, you're not selling it if it's something somebody needs. 

That's good. I like that. 

Thank you. 

Krissy, I know that you've been part of a dental office,  where you've dealt with employees that might say something along the lines of, if they knew what the revenue was in the office, they might say something like, Oh, it must be nice to be the dentist who just has all this money.

He should pay me more because he makes so much money or, you know, they just kind of get. rude or disrespectful or there's, the side chatter about the success of the business and how people a money because the dentist   does your team  prevent those conversations by setting the stage for what you represent as a team.

The biggest thing  is we're very, very transparent.  In transparency. People can see vulnerabilities,  they can buy into the vision of the practice without feeling that they own it, 

they own it without owning it.  That's  a blessing in disguise because we have people constantly pushing the boundaries of what we think is possible and just constantly going out of their way and chasing each other's goals and cheerleading them on and saying, Hey, I saw that on your vision board.

I know you're this far. We actually just talked about it this morning. He's F A G D. And I'm like, when are you going to change that sir to M A G D because this has been on your list for a couple of years. When is this happening for us?  Knowing each other's goals, we helped surely each other into that.

When we talk numbers, I think there are a lot of practices that they want to gatekeep that and they want to own their own success, but not realize that it's actually the team behind them that's helping them power through to propel them into success. Instead of harnessing that power, they gatekeep it.

 In doing so,  we sit back and we think, Okay, well they must be rich. They're driving the fancy cars. They're doing all these things,  and we're doing all the work, and we're down here, but this is what I love about Dr. Semper is that he very much is  If I'm producing and we're doing well, you're going to be doing well.

 He very much loves to share in that success. And so I think a lot, a lot of the community sees that. And that's why we attract great talent in this area  it's not taken advantage of. It's very gratifying to have an amazing team that pushes and works day in and day out and works really hard for you.

 It makes them want to work harder because they know the vision of the practice and what we're going for.  It's a collective effort and not just  for dr Simper and salvage 

 Having big goals at the e hit all our goals. And li from Mexico two weeks ago  

when you have a team that's high performing like yours, I could imagine that someone listening to this episode would probably say something like, they're lying.  They really aren't that happy. They really don't all care about the goals. The doctor is probably crazy.

That's the way people talk in dentistry. Right? I mean, it's sad and I'm not trying to bring down our industry at all,  a lot of people are like, there's just no way.  Someone could have a great month every month. They could always strive for their goals. They would always encourage each other.

That's There's just no way.  My question for you is,  teach me how you get over that , some employees might come in and they had a death in the family. Something bad happened. Maybe they just aren't feeling it today. They just don't want to work that hard or they're just exhausted. Those things happen.

How are you preventing burnout?

 A couple different ways. we always talk a lot about , you know, the bubble mindset. You walk in here and just, you've gotta block out all the noise of the outside world when you're here just focusing on what you have to deal with here.

I mean, I don't know. I think we have a lot of fun at work too. It's, you always hear people laughing,  you know, it's trying to balance work and play at the same time. 

If you're having those distresses, sharing them, taking a five minute breather to bring somebody in to even just have a vent session and then get right back at it.

 Then they can help you cheer along in the day too, right? It doesn't have to be so bogging. You can come in and enjoy the day, but still try to forget some of the pressures that might be really be bringing you down. It's just loving on your team more importantly, and loving everybody as humans and not just coworkers. 

What advice would you give to another dental office or dental professionals that are looking for mentorship or growth? 

It's just finding like a really good coach and hang around people that are doing way better than you are. You never want to be the biggest person in the room.

Oh, I like that. So give us a little bit of teasers. What are you most looking forward to in the next phase of Southridge Dental's growth.

Completely filling this building. We're getting pretty close 'cause  how fast we've done. It was beyond my wildest dreams. 

  Your building right no 

use. How many 

filled. We use 11 pret  So still two more ops to built 

this location, how you to fill 11 of those r 2.

5  

years.  

That's so good 

 I want to talk about our, that's good moment. We always end every episode about what is our, that's good moment.  Dr. Simper, I'm going to ask you to share one more time, the thing that you say to everybody,

can you say that quote one more time for me? From 

Alice in Wonderland, where she first falls down the rabbit hole and meets the rabbit. Yeah. And they asked her, you know, where are you going? And she goes, I don't know. And he goes, well, how do you know you're not already there?  

Oh, see, that's good. 

That's good. I want to talk about, I want to mention and just rehearse one, one more time. How good it is to number one, learn to trust your team. I'm learning just in talking with both of you that you teach your team, something that is generationally applicable. When I talk about generational leadership in this podcast, it's not, can you work with someone older or younger than you?

It's what are you doing now as a leader that's going to impact the future generations of leaders that come after us? Southbridge Dental is a clear example of that. You are constantly trying to inspire Still in your team, how to be successful together because you do it together. It's not, how do we make Dr.

Simper really wealthy? It's how do we make everybody as a team more cohesive, understanding, loving, caring, kind, generous. How do we spread that to our community? I think you do that also through being the sponsors you are with the local hockey teams. You guys are doing amazing things over there.

And our that's good moment is. Find yourself a mentor, surround yourself with people who are stronger, bigger, larger than you are at because you never want to be the biggest person in the room as Dr. Simper taught us today.  Thank you for joining us today and giving us the wisdom that we all need to have confidence and not only starting a business, but the skillset to recognize the benefits of mentorship.

Collaboration and determination to stand out no matter what.  You guys are all doing that as Southridge dental, and it's something to not just pat your back on, but to actually hug your team because they're all doing it with you. Before we wrap up, I want to give a sneak peek into next week's episode.

We'll be joined by Tara Dunn, who is a branding expert and executive level professionals. She's also an executive level branding photographer. She's going to be discussing. Entrepreneurship, branding, and mentorship, how all of this transforms your brand and business. You won't want to miss it. Thank you so much.

Dr. Simper for joining us on this week's episode of dentistry, support the podcast. I \ encourage you to seek out mentorship partnerships that will be facilitating a great growth for you and your business. And until next time, I'll catch you on the next episode of dentistry, support the podcast.