Transforming Smiles with Jason & Denise Henderson

Stuart: Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Bookmore Show. It's Stuart Bell here and today, super excited because we have another author interview episode. I just finished talking with Jason and Denise Henderson. Now, they're both dentists. They've got two practices across in Palo Alto and Tahoe. Their patients are slightly different, there's a different demographic and they specialize in different things. But the book they created was really to address one of the common problems. So we often talk about this issue of what's the common question there in your customers, potential customers minds, Something that you can help them with, something you can help them overcome, something that can help them start the journey. And this is what Denise and Jason have done. The book specifically is talking about their dental practice, their approach, and really helping people overcome they might have. And it's a fantastic example of something that not only will engage new customers, the title is Transform Lives One Smile at a Time. It's obvious who it engages. There's the amplifying subheading that we talk about that really builds on the promise of what the book delivers, but it also helps set the scene for how their practices operate and puts people's minds at rest, builds comfort, lets people peek behind the curtains a little bit so their expectations can be set on the right page and just remove some of that anxiety. So fantastic to be able to catch up with them. Very interesting to get both of their opinions. I talked to Jason first and then Denise afterwards. So great to see both their opinions and how they anticipate using the book. I'm really excited to see how they're going to get this out there and the responses, hear about the responses that they've already got. So another great episode. Looking forward for you to hear it, and I will catch you on the other side.

Jason Henderson: Jason Henson. How you doing?

Denise Henderson: Yeah, very good. Yourself?

Jason Henderson: Yeah, fantastic. Thank you. Thanks for making time today. I'm excited to finally catch up. I think I usually say at the beginning of all of the calls, it's oftentimes that I see the books coming through and then I'll be talking to the team about various aspects to it. But it's great to put a voice to a voice to a book cover, as it were.

Denise Henderson: Yeah, great.

Jason Henderson: Fantastic. So, for everyone listening, Jason's just finished a fantastic book, Transforming Lives, One Smile at a Time, focused on dentistry and helping people get to the point that they're comfortable coming into the practices. They've got two practices over in California. I guess rather than me hashing through it, Jason might not give an introduction to Everyone, Yeah.

Denise Henderson: So my wife and I are Both general dentists, GPs. We have two dental practices, one in Palo Alto, California, one a few hours away in Lake Tahoe. North Lake Tahoe, California. And we do a little bit of everything from cosmetic to surgery. We do refer out some stuff to specialists. We know our bounds. We've been doing it for, yes, about 17 years each and it's been going pretty well.

Stuart: Fantastic.

Jason Henderson: So have you guys always worked together or do you meet after you were both in practice already?

Denise Henderson: Yes, we grew up in the same area in the Bay Area. Denise and I didn't know each other and I went to school back east in a school called Tufts in Boston for dental, and she went to a school in Michigan called U of M. And we met about a year after dental school. Denise actually had gone to play in Australia for a year, field hockey and did a study abroad. So we're the. Yeah, we're the same age, but dental wise, I graduated a year earlier just because she took a year off. And then, yeah, we came back to the Bay. We started working for a gentleman who owned a few practices and that's how we met. We met actually at a dental meeting.

Jason Henderson: Oh, fantastic. So interesting, the thin threads that kind of weave people's lives together. You think that's kind of like sliding doors movie. One small change and then everything changes further down the track. It's interesting how people find themselves.

Denise Henderson: That's exactly right.

Jason Henderson: The practices and the book. So as I mentioned, it's focusing a lot on that, kind of making sure that people are at ease, which I'm guessing is one of the main reasons that people don't like reaching out to dentists in the first place. So was that something that you guys had found across both practices or was more in a particular community or a particular group of patients that found it worse? Was it the. It seems like as an outsider, it's a very common thing that happens and a common problem that is to be addressed. But is that actually the case or is it pretty niche really, that people are that concerned about coming in?

Denise Henderson: Yeah, no, it's pretty universal. We have two practices. One's in a rural area, the one up in Tahoe, and the other one is in kind of more of a dot com, well, higher stressed area in the Bay. But really, I mean, heck, Denise is even my dentist, and I still get a little anxiety. Everybody kind of goes through the. The same, you know, you're upside down, somebody's working your mouth, and lots of times you just don't know what's going on. It's. For me, I'm not a very good mechanic and honestly I kind of rely on and trust the gentleman or woman that fixes one of our vehicles. And it's kind of the same thing, you know, you kind of rely and have a lot of trust and faith in that person. There's pretty much universal anxiety, I guess I would say.

Jason Henderson: I think it's so interesting what you said, that it's not only the lack of clarity and feeling like the junior partner in the relationship and really not understanding what goes on which gives people anxiety, even if it's only their wallet that's at risk. But add in the physical element of it as well. The kind of potentially uncomfortable, although lesser these days, potentially uncomfortable nature of it. But the fact that the position's strange and just every element kind of psychologically builds on it to, to make it something that just feels awkward if nothing else. Even if you're not concerned about it, there's definitely an awkwardness that brings to it.

Denise Henderson: And I agree. And of course what compounds that is if you did have kind of not one of the greatest experiences as a kid or even as an adult that just kind of increases and adds to the anxiety level and maybe even you can talk about fear a little bit too, right?

Jason Henderson: Yeah, yeah, exactly. That kind of anchoring in a unfortunate experience years ago. It's. It's surprising how long that that carries on through. I know my, my mum for a long time was in exactly the same position. Really not, not keen on going, so just avoided it for year after year after year, so. Which I'm guessing that never makes it better. No, I think it fits itself.

Denise Henderson: That's exactly right. Which then leads to more anxiety because then you need more of a major treatment or work up where maybe if you did catch it early enough it would have been a little more of a simple procedure, but yes, that's exactly right.

Jason Henderson: So give us a kind of jump the gun a little bit there and kind of dived into some of the, some of the issues that people have and give us a quick overview of the book itself. And then kind of maybe thinking about what was it that made you come to a book in general as a tool and then specifically this book. Why pick this, this subject in the way that it's the, the, the questions that you've answered in this particular book.

Denise Henderson: Yeah, I actually got kind of turned on to the 90 minute books. A gentleman I worked for had done, I think one or two books, one by himself and one with a colleague. And I Read him and his more were surgical based. And Denise and I kind of wanted to give something to our clientele basically kind of to tell them about our philosophy. Kind of from the time you pick up the phone to make the first call to the time you leave our office, we just wanted to make sure that, you know, when you go somewhere, lots of times, some, you know, like I said back to the mechanic, you know, they're throwing all kinds of stuff out at me. And I had no idea half the terminology. And even if I did, it's in one ear, out one ear. So this is kind of something we give to a lot of our new, even existing patients and patients that aren't sure if they're ready to see a dentist will mail them out a copy. It basically kind of tells them our philosophy and, you know, how we treat people, how we're there to treat the whole person, not just their tooth. And when they do go home, if they, you know, hey, I wasn't sure if he told or she told me to do this or that. Well, they can look at a particular chapter and it kind of goes over that. And of course they have our email and our phone numbers if they need further explanation. But for us, it's just kind of a second way of kind of getting our notions and our feelings across about whatever happened that day or what we're about to do to help treat their needs more in writing. Some people like to have it in writing. It's just easier for them to remember.

Jason Henderson: And it's easy, like you were saying, to refer back to. That's such an interesting point that actually doesn't come up that often. But when you're talking about, if not the details of an individual procedure, but the ballpark in which it lives, the kind of idea and philosophy and what people can expect and what to expect even after the, after the process, having that in writing to the audience who are receptive to it as those who are slightly uncomfortable about some of the elements, but including the stuff after the procedure as well. So thinking about that longer term relationship with the patient, it's not just that you wrote something to get them in the door and then that's it. They're on the regular treadmill. This is really looking at their end to end, the holistic view of the, of the procedure, of the treatment, of what they can expect next, of maybe when they should be thinking about coming back and what issues to be mindful of and which things are normal, all of that. We start off by talking about putting people at ease, just from the procedure itself, but putting people at ease of the, of the bigger picture of the overall procedure. Not just the, or the overall issue, rather not just the individual procedure itself. That must resonate with people as well.

Denise Henderson: 100%. That's correct. Because lots of times, you know, you have one issue and then like you said, maybe month down the road they start having pain or they fall and chip a tooth. Well, then they can go back to the book and say, okay, yeah, well, we didn't have this problem back then, but this book kind of is overall health care. Well, being of my mouth. And so let me reference this. Okay. It sounds like I should give, you know, Jason or Denise a call now. It sounds like I should get on this before it's too, too late. And you're right. It's kind of an ongoing process. Dentistry is. It's. There's never a dull moment, we say, but this book at least kind of helps guide you when you are in need. And then, you know, we kind of take it from there for you.

Jason Henderson: It's so interesting because we talk quite a lot about this idea of a single target market and in writing the book and in fact, everything we do across from our side think about the single target market first. And it's very easy to take that idea and run with it a little bit too far. So either be too narrow on the people that you're trying to deal with, and then it just excludes a few too many people. Although usually the problem is people are going too wide. But also, I think the point that you've hit upon is the life cycle or the thinking about the single time market in the sense of how the book as a useful tool sits in the overall picture. So you're not just using it as a lead generation tool to get people in the door. That would be one thing. You're using it really to nurture that lifetime relationship with people and build that relationship and become that trusted partner way beyond just the initial kind of transaction and the initial procedure that they're doing. That's right, Feedback, the feedback that you're getting from people. Does it kind of reflect that, reflect a kind of broader piece rather than just, oh, this was useful information in the, in the time that I read it through. More to a longer. I was reading again, that book that you'd written kind of talked about in the past tense and them themselves referring back to it rather than you having to refer people to the book.

Denise Henderson: Right, exactly. Yeah. They use it kind of as a nice resource and, you know, kind of going Back onto the referral words. You know, for dentists, you know, our best, we always say our best referrals are the ones that are in house. There's already built in trust there. And lots of times we find that our current patients are actually giving a copy or their copy of the book. And we're getting, you know, plenty of new patients just because of that. Because before they even make the phone call, they have trust because their friend or family member goes to see us. And then furthermore, now they have a book which is somewhat knowledgeable, I feel, and they take those two and it's kind of just a nice referral source.

Jason Henderson: Before I jumped on the call, I was kind of running through some ideas of points that I wanted to cover, having seen the kind of the process go through and thinking about how other people are using their books and just jot it down a couple of notes to touch upon. And the referrals element was one of those. Because I think particularly the way that you position your organization is that very. You're very much the other end of the spectrum from just transactional. It's very much about building that relationship. And I think the whole referral opportunity of using the book as almost an expected tool that people share, separated from whether or not they become patients afterwards, but very much using it at every point for that, sharing the knowledge, making people feel more comfortable. If you hear someone talking about some concern they've got or a bad dental experience that they had, let me know and we can get a copy of the book. To them. Has that been going into it? Was that something that you were thinking about a lot, using it in that referral sense? Or has that come to come to happen now?

Denise Henderson: That's pretty much 100% why we wrote the book. We actually, we actually give them away. So we purchase the copies and we actually don't make any money on them, but we send them. And even if they never give us a try, at least when they go to wherever they decide to go, they'll have a little bit of a basis of. Dentistry itself may not be the same way we do things in our office, but you know, it's kind of a universal profession. So kind of looking at the overall well being of the patient, wherever they

Jason Henderson: decide to go, and you're giving them a benchmark against something that from your perspective, at least should be the way that it should work. So if they do go elsewhere and see kind of things not happening in that way, at least it will get them to raise a question and not just accept it. Thinking that this is the way it is, it's some information from someone else in the know who says, hey, it doesn't have to be that way, it should be this way instead, I imagine if nothing else, then that's super valuable just to give people the, the, the opportunity to ask questions even if they end up not taking any action on it.

Denise Henderson: Great. Yes, that's exactly true.

Jason Henderson: Okay, so moving on, actually going to change it up a little bit now and I've got Denise on the phone, so we're going to run through Denise's and ask a couple of questions and we can get Denise's perspective on the book as well. Which usually when we've got a couple of people who have written, very often there's kind of one lead author who's taken have most of the dealings with and then the second person is kind of in the background. So it's great with you guys having two such strong voices on the same subjects, but just with very different perspectives. So I was talking to Jason about the kind of who the book is best suited for and how it can best help them. He was talking about the opportunity to share your philosophy and how you work with people and try and get them to the point that it's very comfortable. So is that your perspective as well? It's that group of people who it's good at serving?

Jason & Denise Henderson 3: Yeah, definitely. The new patients coming in, the ones who deal with anxiety and fear of going to the dentist, maybe those who haven't come in in a few years would be ideal for the book because it just goes through step by step, what to expect when they come in and you know, how we work with them to, to ease their anxiety and make it a more comfortable visit.

Stuart: Yeah.

Jason Henderson: Talking to me, it's such a fascinating opportunity to get in front of people for the, for the long term and really establish that relationship. Not just to the point of bringing them into the practice for one particular procedure, but the ongoing and year after year care and what they should expect afterwards. That, that kind of view of the patients that you're working with, is it much more like that where they are people who you're the family dentist for many, many years rather than they're just passing through and they need some work done now?

Jason & Denise Henderson 3: Typically, yeah, we have a lot of families, a lot of long term patients. You know, I have people in my practice that have been there since, you know, three dentists preceding me, so.

Stuart: Right.

Jason & Denise Henderson 3: There's definitely lifelong patients in those scen. But you know, I know Jason's office is different than mine, but I live or I live, I practice next to a university. So we also get a lot of people who are there temporarily, you know, as students or faculty. You know, they're there for a couple years and then they move on and they just need somebody while they're planted in Palo Alto. So I definitely get a variety of those people.

Jason Henderson: Yeah, I wonder if that's the. We were talking with Jason about the referrals and using the books with existing patients to pass to their friends, who might also be friends and family suffering from anxiety, to help those guys. But I wonder if there's also the opportunity for those more transient communities, like at the school, where there is that added anxiety of people not being in their home town, not been having their referral network around. Have you guys done anything like that with the book to look for groups of people like, go into the school and present this as an opportunity to say if some of the students here are for sure having some anxieties, his copies of the book to make them feel more at ease. Have you guys ever done any of that kind of outreach into groups of people who might cross over with that group who are anxious about dental work?

Jason & Denise Henderson 3: Sure, yeah. You know, once we start seeing trends and things coming through, let's say we get a lot of grad students from the law department that are coming in. We say, you know, hey, we've seen a lot of. Lot of people coming in from the law school. You know, have some books and pass it on with your friends, too, if they might. Might be looking for a dentist or dealing with, you know, procrastination on going to the dentist because of fear or, you know, being away from home and they just want to feel a little bit more comfortable before picking up the phone and, you know, pass the books around and that might help help ease their anxiety and maybe allow them to pick up the phone.

Jason Henderson: Yeah, like. Like you say, it really does those two things of, one, getting them to the point where there's more information to feel less anxious about something, but also the point where they do raise the phone. There's more of a relationship that you've est with them because you're, through the virtue of the book, you're the person that's got them to that point in the first place. So it definitely does that relationship building and gets people more to the place of being more likely to trust you before they move forward.

Jason & Denise Henderson 3: Yeah, exactly. They. They build the relationship before they even meet you. So, yeah, it gives them a good. A good intro to our office and how we work and you know, just that that passing off of the book to somebody else is. I think it's worth more than just a word of mouth referral or a Google review online that they read. It's definitely a lot more personal and gives them a little extra boost and confidence in picking up the phone and calling us for an appointment.

Jason Henderson: Yeah, it really starts that journey and allows the point at which you're talking to someone or the office is talking to someone to be three or four steps down the path. It was interesting that Jason was saying that the kind of aftercare elements of the information in the book. So it's really not just his ways to overcome anxiety or here's some details about getting to the point of the procedure, but there's really that longer term what people should expect to see afterwards. So has the experience in the office been anything around that, anything around the kind of length of the usefulness of the book after the procedure or is very much the feedback at the moment? Because obviously it's still relatively new. So is the feedback at the moment very much in those early stages of getting people to kind of make that call in the first place?

Jason & Denise Henderson 3: For me, it's more in the early stages of introducing people to the office. I think the aftercare helps more in his situation because he does a lot more surgical stuff and I think a lot of it goes into, you know, if you're extracting a tooth and what to expect. And so I think he utilizes that in that respect. I usually refer most of my extraction. So but it does if somebody's being sent out for an extraction or a bigger procedure that they're going to expect longer healing times from, that would probably be a good, good source for them as well. Even preparing them for what they're going to do when they go out to the specialist.

Jason Henderson: I guess that's interesting as well because in so many other circumstances you'd refer that work out and the aftercare and the follow up and the expectation settings and that part of the relationship would get handed off to the other person.

Jason & Denise Henderson 3: Right.

Jason Henderson: Even I guess it gives you an opportunity to keep a little bit closer to that loop and saying to people, you're being referred out for this particular. You've been referred out to our trusted network for this particular procedure. But you really still are patient and we're concerned about your health and wellbeing. So here's an opportunity to refer back to the book even though the procedure was done by someone else would imagine that's an interesting way of keeping that relationship alive. A little bit in a situation where otherwise it would typically people are thinking about it. It's just being passed out to someone else.

Jason & Denise Henderson 3: Exactly. And we do touch on the book as well, on when we refer and why we refer. And so, you know, people don't think we're just passing them off to somebody. It's actually a relationship that we have with the surgeons and specialists to, you know, to enhance the care that we're giving, that we're giving them to these people for a purpose and to make, you know, for their overall health. It's not like I said, you're not passing the buck, but you're preparing them for a better procedure for a specific reason. And then it can also prepare them for what they should expect after they see the specialist and then return to our office for care afterwards.

Jason Henderson: And that's such a fantastic way of kind of laying the ground. You've kind of given them the roadmap ahead. When Jason was talking, he was comparing it to a mechanic and saying that once you've got the trusted partner, the fact that you don't understand the language necessarily or understand how one bit of an engine connects to another, but it doesn't matter because you've got that trusted relationship. You guys are doing exactly the same in laying that groundwork and setting the expectation that this is all perfectly normal. This is the best way of doing it. There's nothing to be concerned about. It's not extraordinary. This is just this stage of the process and then after that you come in straight back to us and we'll be here to take care of you for the rest of that. The rest of the journey.

Jason & Denise Henderson 3: Exactly.

Jason Henderson: It's such a. So often we're talking with people about the books as lead generation tools and people think about it or the conversations that we happen to have, because this is often the problem that people are trying to solve is just in that initial getting people to raise their hand and then being able to start the journey. But this has been a great call for people to think about really that relationship building. So even if you're not interested in, and not saying that anyone is, but even if you weren't interested in any more customers, being able to kind of nurture that relationship with them and make the most of the relationships you've got. One element of your book is a fantastic example of being able to do that and giving people something of value that helps them be in a better position, but really sets up the long term relationship with someone. Not just that initial, initial, initial transaction, the initial meeting.

Jason & Denise Henderson 3: Yeah, Exactly. Yeah. We want to keep them comfortable and keep them informed every step of the way.

Stuart: Right.

Jason Henderson: Fantastic. This has been a great call. Thanks a lot for your time, guys. Really appreciate you sharing your experience. And this, I'm sure, has sowed a lot of seeds as we're heading into kind of 2020 in the year ahead. We've got lots of people who have kind of not necessarily pulled the trigger this year, but have been thinking about it and really dialing in their ideas, waiting to get started. So this has been a really great way of bringing in an extra element that I don't think many of the calls this year have managed to hit upon. So just wanted to say thanks again for your time. I was going to. I usually put a link to people's websites in the show notes. Are you okay if I reference the two practices?

Jason & Denise Henderson 3: Yeah, absolutely.

Jason Henderson: Perfect. So that's just for anyone listening and not looking. Denise, yours is the Tahoe practice.

Jason & Denise Henderson 3: Jason's is the Tahoe practice.

Jason Henderson: Oh, Jason's is the Tahoe. Oh, sorry. Yours is the Palo Alto, right?

Jason & Denise Henderson 3: Correct.

Jason Henderson: On the east coast and losing my west coast geography.

Jason & Denise Henderson 3: Yes.

Jason Henderson: People can visit denise's@d hendersondds.com and that's Palo Alto and the Tahoe practice is kingsbeachdental.com so definitely recommend people check out those two and take a look at what's going on. Obviously, if you're in the area, give the guys a call. We'll wrap up there.

Stuart: I'll let you get.

Jason Henderson: As I mentioned, we're kind of recording this in between Christmas and year, so let you get back to the holiday settings. So just want to say thanks again for your time and look forward to checking in again and see what you guys are doing with the book.

Jason & Denise Henderson 3: All right, sounds good. Thanks a lot. You have a happy new year.

Stuart: And there we have it, another great episode. I always enjoy talking with people that we've worked with because it gives that real life case study, that real life element to the things that Betsy and I or Dean and I talk about in the other episodes. It's always useful to see how people are really using it in their real life, their examples and the kind of journey that they go through from the start of the idea to the completion of the book to then how they're using it and the responses that are coming back. That feedback is always valuable and always appreciate the opportunity to share that with you guys. In the episode, we talked about the book blueprint scorecard, the eight mindsets that we've got to really measure your book against our framework for developing a book to build your business. So you can go through the exercise yourself@bookblueprintscore.com and that's a great way of really, across these eight mindsets, developing each of them so that they build and create the best possible book depending on the individual outcome that you've got in mind. So that's over@bookblueprintscore.com and then of course, the easiest way to get it completed is to work with us, and you can do that by heading to to 90minutebooks.com and following the get started links. So again, appreciate Jason and Denise's time. Always glad to be able to share people's stories with you. Looking forward to working with you guys over 2020 and hopefully be able to share your story in an upcoming episode. So with that, thanks everyone. Enjoy the weekend and I will catch you in the next one.