Hey, Voices of the Bench community, Jessica Love here, giving me a shout out from Utah. As many of you know, I am passionate about creating natural-looking, beautiful smiles, and I also believe in simplifying systems without compromising on aesthetics. I am honored to be part of Ivoclar's development team to bring you a new stain and glaze system with structure paste. IPSEmax CeramArt. With this system, you can create beautiful works of art with depth and color in as little as one firing. Join us as we continue to innovate, simplify, and create meaningful change, one smile at a time.
Let me ask you something. When it comes to digital dentures, what's actually harder, the design or the manufacturing? Hmm.
Interesting. I'm going to go with manufacturing. Actually, hands down, every time. Designs got pretty streamlined. We all know how to do that. But once you hit production, that's where things can go sideways.
So yeah, too much variability in the results. Is that right?
Exactly. Which is why I've been pretty intrigued by the Elevate denture solution.
Whoa, that sounds fancy. Do tell.
It's basically a fully dialed denture workflow built from a collaboration between Roland, Ivoclar, and Follow Me. So you've got the machine, the materials, and the cam all working together.
Wow, that sounds way more cohesive than most solutions. Do you not agree?
I mean, that's the f***ing idea. It's designed specifically for Ivotion monolithic dentures and the oversized two-step workflow, all running on DG-shaped mills with HyperDent behind the scenes.
All right, so instead of piecing together a workflow yourself. It's already been tested and optimized.
Exactly. Why you got to be messing around doing it yourself? You're getting fully validated milling strategies, more predictable results, and none of that trial and error.
I can totally get behind that, you guys, especially for labs trying to grow denture productions without adding the crazy chaos that comes along with it sometimes.
Do you not like chaos?
No, not really.
It's not just about milling, dentures. It's about making them reliable with extremely high quality over and over and over again.
Which let's be honest, that's actually the hard part.
Yeah, it is. It's extremely hard.
So I got it. So how do people learn more about adding these capabilities to their rolling mills?
They can start by visiting rollanddga.com forward slash elevate.
All right, guys, that's easy enough. Go check it out.
It sounds amazing. Welcome to Voices from the Bench, a dental laboratory podcast. Send us an e-mail at info@voicesfromthebench.com and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Greetings and welcome to episode 418 of Voices from the Bench. My name is Elvis.
And my name's Barbara.
What's happening, Barb? How are you?
It's a Saturday, Elvis, so I'm cleaning and running and chilling. How about you?
Oh, about the same, really? That's funny. Those are the exact same plans. Isn't adulthood great?
Yeah, you look forward to the weekend so you can still work just as hard cleaning, if you like to clean and do laundry like I do, but... I think I'm going to head down south today and go on a small road trip to Anna Maria Island and go to the beach for a while. I think that sounds like what the doctor ordered for me.
That sounds nice. I was just in your area and it was not beach weather. So hopefully you get the beach weather.
Oh yeah, it's beach weather. I'm sorry. I don't even want to talk about the weather today because it's just way too nice. So what's happening?
I'm super excited because in less than two weeks, we're heading out to Dallas, Texas for the DLAC conference.
Yeah, I told you I made my. flights, but I actually have my flights now and they're the same as I told you they were.
Okay, so you are legit ready to go. Less than two weeks. And even this is early for you.
Well, they asked to meet us, so I made sure that I can get in there on that Thursday by the time they wanted to meet us. So yeah, that was my motivation. I'm there.
Awesome. Yeah, we're super excited. Yeah, to see everybody have a good time. Their lineup of speakers looks so good. They did a great job. Many past podcast guests are going to be up on stage and actually quite a few people that we've never heard of. So what? Yeah, hopefully we can sit down with some of them and get them on the podcast. That would be really nice.
Let's do it.
So this is all happening April 9th to the 11th. And you don't have to be a Texan to go. I'm not a Texan. Barb's not a Texan. It's a great meeting to go to, even if you're not in the area.
And it's one of the largest ones that, you know, kind of like FDLA. It's you've got a great board, great people. They asked us to come. I mean, we just love it. So yeah, can't wait.
Super excited. DLAT.org for all the information. Register and hopefully we'll see you there.
And just a quick mention, shirts, if you've seen them or haven't seen them, they're still on sale until later this week. I got to get on there and hit order because I've already added all the ones I want. So make sure you get them before they are gone. They are dare to say no to bad dental scans. That's pretty brilliant. Head over to voicesfromthebench.com/shirts to order one for yourself, one for your coworkers, and one for every one of your dentists. Because you know, I'm assuming all of the profits go to the foundation guys, so no better cause.
Absolutely. And yes, we need to let the dentist know that we... share to say no to bad dental scans.
Yep.
So this week we are wrapping up all the conversations we got while on the main stage in the Ivoclar ballroom at LMT Lab Day Chicago 2026. Again and always thank you Ivoclar.
Thank you Ivoclar.
Yeah for all your support in hosting us again at the largest dental lab show in the world.
You know it.
We don't need to mention how great it was to be up on that stage again.
Or how big the stage actually was for us.
It was awesome. But first up, we are again talking to Mr. Printable Partial Frame Guy, Josh Williams, from GPS Digital RPD. Josh brings along with him one of his designers, Savannah Elkins. Together, they talk all about the work of doing printed frames for only labs, and of course, all the fun that comes along with it.
Then we meet an individual that wants you to work on your lab. and not just in it. Darren McHugh has been in dental for 22 years, and with this experience and his passion for helping labs grow, he started Sales Lift Consulting. But this is not your normal, we help your workflow consulting. Darren and his team will work with you to create culture, reduce friction, grow sales by increasing the share of your wallet, and start dropping pebbles rather than boulders. I love that.
And then we're going to wrap up all of our lab day conversations with a check-in with our favorite promoter of the small to medium-sized labs, Vicki Thomas. Being in a small lab herself, Vicki wanted to band together other labs, so she started Savvy Lab Solutions.
Love the name. Love it.
Yeah, and one of the first to join Savvy, and also on this conversation, is Carrie Ling from Lifelike Dental Studios out in Texas. Together, they talk about saving money, finding a community, and of course, the strength in numbers. So join us as we chat with Josh Williams, Savannah Elkins, Darren McHugh, Vicki Thomas, and Carrie Ling. Hey, Voices from the Bench listeners, Elvis here. Ready to supercharge your digital dentistry skills? Then mark your calendar for Exocad Insights, taking place April 30th to May 1st, 2026, on the stunning island of Mallorca, Spain. We know it's stunning because Barb and I were at the last Insights, and it was amazing! Whether you're just starting your digital journey or looking to take your Exocad skills to the next level, Exocad Insights has it all. Now get this, we got keynotes from Global Pioneers, in-depth software lectures, hands-on demos, product showcases from top industry partners, and of course, voices from the bench. We're going to be there doing some on-site interviews. Plus, they're adding some more fun stuff to do too. They can count Barb and me in on the first Insights 5K morning run along the coast. That's right, a running race in another country. country, on the coast, on a nice island. A minute to win it. And we're not going to miss the legendary Exo Glam Night, which is sure to be the most epic party of the year. Tickets are going fast, so head over to exocad.com forward slash insights dash 2026 to grab yours today. You can also find that link on this episode show notes. And here for a special treat just for our listeners, 15% off. That's 15% off with the code VFTBPALMA15. That's VFTBPALMA15. And we will see you in Spain. Voices from the bench. The interview.
Don't record that. Don't record that.
Josh Williams, GPS, Digital Dental.
That's it.
Back again. Hi. But you bring us somebody new. Savannah Hawkins.
Yes.
Nice. How are you?
I'm good. How are you?
We're doing really well. We're here on our first day at LMT, recording in the Ivoclar Ballroom. Savannah, what do you do at GPS?
I am an RPD designer.
RPD designer. Where'd you learn this skill?
From Josh.
Oh, yeah.
I just gave her some guidelines.
She's good.
Yeah? Yep. So really, what were you doing before you learned this? I mean, how did you get in?
So I started off in models, like a lot of other analog work.
Were you at GPS doing this?
No, I was at a different lab. But I moved on. Started doing design and wanted to transition into something a little bit more niche. So RPD is where I wanted to be.
Did you ever wax and cast an RPD?
No, I did not. But I always, I worked with removables. So I always thought that the casting and working with RPDs was really interesting on how they did that. And going to the easier way of digital workflow, I felt like that was the way to get in for me.
Okay, so let's go back. So how did you find out about the industry?
My sister.
What did your sister do?
She is also a dental lab technician.
Have you grabbed her sister yet?
Oh, we've known her sister for quite some time. She has worked with us. She's worked about as many places as I have now. Okay, yeah.
So she actually got me into dental work, or the dental lab.
I mean, was it hard to get you in or? Did you like it?
Or I mean, no, it was actually a job to start or no career change. I didn't really care what I was doing before, so which was. I was at a restaurant working, so I just wanted something else. I get you.
I was making pizzas when I found the lab, so I get it.
She'll tell you the real place. She was actually working out of state at a weed dispensary.
That was the last one.
She was in a good one. We were fine. All legal, all legit. I said, come on by.
All right, so when you weren't high, you learned how to pour a model. Is that where you started **** models?
I did start in models.
At a big production lab or.
Modern. Yeah, it's a medium size.
Yeah, okay.
Yep.
And you got it into removable.
Yep.
So what were you, I mean, did you... It was drew to removable.
That's just where they, that's just where they put me, which is fine.
And what were you doing? Byte blocks, custom trays, blah, blah, blah.
Yeah, cast modifications, surveying, and block out for RPDs or any of the...
That's some pretty high-level work. I mean, walking out and surveying. I mean, that's not...
Yeah, I learned all that.
Who taught you all that? Your sister.
Sister and just everybody in that room. A lot of knowledge. eligible people, and I tried to soak all that in.
Sure. And then you, what, how did you end up at GPS? They come steal you.
No, I wanted to go there.
We might have made a phone call once or twice or three times.
How did you know about it? Social media.
Nope, Josh.
At the Florida show, or I mean...
Well, we were...
We had a catty corner across the street. Yeah, we live next to each other. Her and my wife are friends, so yeah. Her husband's been friends with my wife since we were in hospital.
Yeah, okay.
Long-term small town, it's Florida, very Florida.
Yeah, okay, yeah. And then you've dragged her over.
Drag her over, just like the rest of them. Call my friends that are good, we need good people, so it's hard to find technicians that are reliable.
So how did you learn digital RPD design?
Well, I originally started A CAD design with simple crown and bridge, so that kind of got me in the foot in the door of nowhere to click, yeah, exactly, and then it was just from there I was doing what was it? teeth for removable acrylic partials.
So we were printing teeth and saddles, so we'd print, you know. Yeah, so I was designing the teeth and bases for us at first.
On the digital printed framework.
Yep, all digital workflow on that. Yep, and then I'll attach. Cold cure. We can use resin or cold cure, depends on what system you're using.
So you print the intaglio surface, the top, what?
We didn't put the intaglio. The intaglio, we don't, we've never had extra cuts. We don't do the snap system. So we do that and cold cure. We just do the top parts. So either it's IPN resin for the teeth and lucetone for the base. Or now we're working with 3D systems and we have their jetted style printer. So it prints everything in one piece and then you just cold cure the bottom.
So you started doing just that.
Yeah.
How many of the frameworks do you do? Do people request that you do that? Too many. Too many.
Too many. I like doing frames. Frames are so much easier. I've always been a frame guy.
But everybody wants, don't just send it to me back finished.
Yeah. You're absolutely right. It happens more.
It's just easier to say, just do it later.
Finally, 20% of our friends come into completion right now. So a lot of people are still good. We only work with labs, though. So we don't talk to a doctor. We don't have to talk to a doctor ever again, and it's the best thing we've ever done. So a lab normally has the ability to either print the teeth and base or mill it or process it old school.
Love it. Okay, so you started doing that. How did you learn RPD design? I mean, that's not easy.
Yeah, he thought that I needed to be pushed in a different direction.
Against your will.
No, it was just something, it was something that we didn't know if we needed a designer at that point because we were just still in the very baby stages of everything. And he just ended up getting too busy and I was just like, I'm going to learn this. So.
Was it over the shoulder? Did you do courses, online classes? How does one learn?
YouTube University and you're sitting there in the same room. Standard lab way, a.
Lot of diagram models at first, kind of follow, like sketching them out, yep, and then you kind of, after you do, do you?
Draw them on the model every time.
I still do to this day, yeah, we do. I will never stop doing it, just coming from the analog world for so long, really. And also it makes it way faster when you're designing digitally, when you're just following a line.
So you sketch it on the model, scan it, that sketch shows up on the screen, and then you just follow your line.
Yep, little bit of modification. I mean, there's a little touch up here and there. You can't follow the line exact. I mean, you're just eyeballing undercuts. But the majority of it, yeah, it's pretty much that easy. You're just coloring it in.
How easy did you pick it up? Maybe I should ask him.
Yeah, way better than I explained.
Way better than me. Let me tell you. Really? I struggle with digital. I was analog for so long. It took me years to get digital down. She was month and a half, two months. She's putting out things that I didn't have to touch.
Nice. It's good for you. Thank you. Do you enjoy it?
I do. I love my job. I really do.
You looked right at him when you said it.
Yeah, sure, I do.
No.
I know where she lives, right? We can get her house with some bottle rockets if I need to, you know.
So how many? What frames are you up to these days?
It's between 100 and 120 is what we're kind of on.
A day.
It's A lot.
How many printers do you have now? Six. I can't remember how many you had last time we talked.
I don't remember the last time I talked. I don't think you had six though. We've had six for a little over a year now. So we got our sixth one about a year ago, and I was on a large platform, 3D systems one. So we can do about 50 partials off that alone.
Yeah, I'm trying to think where I talked to you last. I don't know if it was within a year or not.
Oh, yeah, FDLA maybe. So about a year ago, I think. Something like that.
Yeah, whatever.
I see you too much, but we don't talk too much about that.
We don't get mic'd up very often. So, what's your plan, Savannah? You gonna stay at a GPS, make frames, or do you wanna broaden to other things? I'm not immediately. Don't feel bad. I'm quitting next week. I'm just saying, do you wanna learn other things, or is frames 'cause that's all you do?
Yeah, well, we're that's all we do today. We're branching out. We are making big changes. We are going to be much more standalone and not depending on the main lab much longer. We're going to be a complete removable lab just as us. GPS Digital RPD will be its own company. It takes a while and things have to happen, but we are separating.
Doing all removables for other labs.
Everything just for labs. So lab to lab resource for all removables is a goal.
That's exciting. You don't even have to leave.
Yeah. And I'd like to oversee some of the processes that go on.
You want management.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I'm Josh is like, yes, please.
Well, that's what I'm there for.
She's already doing it. She manages her whole. The whole design room is hers. She has.
How many designers do you have?
Three total.
Three.
Including me.
Including you. So you have two other people. Did you train them?
They're still training. They're still fairly new. So, yep, we're trying to get them up to speed.
But didn't you say a majority of the work that comes in, you have to design?
It's changed. It goes in waves, and I would design A lot. Yeah, and I would do a lot of the designing as well. So now we're kind of branching out, getting some younger guys in there. We have a Blackhawk mechanic we just hired.
A what mechanic?
Blackhawk mechanic, like a retired helicopter. Like the helicopter. Came from the military, worked on Blackhawks, now designing partials.
Interesting.
That's Florida for you.
I love it.
Yeah.
I love it. Well, that's exciting.
Yeah, it's different. Definitely excited to see where this goes for us in the future.
Hopefully a much bigger building.
Yeah.
I mean, you're really going to get into what? Digital dentures, milled, printed.
Everything. Mostly, we're trying to stay away from milled. I'm going to try to stay all additive. I like the additive aspect of things. Printers are getting better and better. We've got a good relationship with 3D systems and they're coming out with a lot of things where the jetted printer style is really taking off. So I'm leaning that direction and kind of focusing on that to honestly make it way easier on us. I don't have to assemble things. It just pops a part out. I slap it on it, put a little acrylic under it and it's done. I love it. Efficient.
I love it. Yeah. And then what, flexibles? That's a new thing for printing.
We're printing a ton of flexibles already.
Already.
We print with the Detex resin and we love it.
Detex. Yep. heard that?
It's strong. It's so strong. It is super flexible. Yep, it's awesome.
Yeah, that's great. You do that on the 3D systems printer.
No, so it's not validated on the 3D systems printer. We do that actually on hay gears. So we have a couple hay gears printers. Most of our model production is all just done on the automated printer, so it's just pumping out endless models.
Is this flexible? Take that hour-long salt bake that I hear about.
This is not another company that we won't talk about. No, there's no, it's a standard cure that goes in a box just like a regular. And then it actually has a bit of adhesion, so there's a chemical bond with your teeth and it doesn't just pop your teeth out like a nylon would. So it's got a lot of properties that are really nice for what we're seeing. We're not having teeth pop out like we were with our milled. It prints, you can get, Is it truly flexible? You can touch the saddles together, bounce it off. Yeah. I was, I'm going to break it guy, and we broke quite a few too. We figured out exact thicknesses and things to work with and materials.
Can you imagine how you go about trying to break things in Florida?
It's exactly like you think. We throw it hard first, we step on it, we run it over.
Give it to an alligator.
Anything and everything you can imagine is me. I tell everybody, if I can't break it, it's indestructible.
So, yeah, I've been doing a lot of those for other labs.
A ton. They've really taken off since the detox was released. It's just such a great resin.
Than frames.
No, definitely not more than frames. It's probably about 30%.
Interesting. Are you designing those? No, not yet. Why not?
So we still are part of a larger company. So GPS is at the parent company still has an entire design team and everything available. So we're just taking advantage of them. We're elbow to elbow. We are just.
And I honestly don't have time for it right now.
Yeah, you're doing that many frames.
Yeah, that's it. We are, we are, you know, just seeing.
But you're eventually going to roll that design into.
We're probably going to drag it to the main lab and just kind of pull our resources together and become one big happy family in one place.
That's great for you all. I'm excited.
That's cool. I'm ready.
Awesome. Well, Savannah, thank you so much. Nice to meet you, Josh.
Always great to see you. Good to see you again.
Let's talk next time. You'll be, what, up, 8 printers?
Hopefully.
Yeah. Awesome.
Pile them in there as many as I can get in there. I'm in there for it.
I love it. Thanks so much, everybody. Thanks a lot of us. All right, here we are, LMT Lab Day Chicago 2026 on the Ivoclar stage.
Yeah, we are on stage, so that's pretty spectacular.
Last year we had a small table over there.
We feel a little important.
The year before that, we had another small table over there.
Yeah, true.
And then they gave us this.
Yeah, they've been good to us.
It's like a late night show.
Yeah.
Darren McHugh.
That's right. Talk to us.
Yeah. Darren McHugh.
It says speaker on your badge. So tell us all about you and what you're speaking on.
Sure. So I'm with Saleslift Consulting. We're A consulting group that works specifically with dental laboratories. I've been doing this since 2024. And basically what we do is we go in and we help dental lab owners stop focusing so much on the production and understand that if you want to make sure that you have your business going forward and you don't become one of the dental labs that fail and close their doors, you've got to look at everything beyond the bench. You've got to look at your people, your team development. You've got to look at your HR. You've got to look at Your culture. Culture is a huge thing. And so, like today, we spoke on just getting the lab owners to understand that your number one job is in production. Your number one job as a lab owner is to be a leader. I think you've got to be a leader. So that's really what.
We do.
I have to really digest that when you guys say that, because I'm that, and I want to be a better leader. So tell me about how you guys interact.
So one of the first things we do is we want to find out how are things working in regards to communication. All the labs that we've worked with, I've been in dental for 22 years now.
I was going to say. You don't just walk into this.
No, no, no. I've been in dental for 22 years. I've done everything from help build dental IT companies, to dental implants, to selling scanners, to doing business development teams. And you see what happens is you see all these lab owners, they're small business owners, right?
Yes.
But a lot of them, they started their business because they're good at what they do. They can make a crown, they can make a denture, they can make a partial.
Kind of like dentists.
Exactly.
They don't have a clue about running a business. Sorry, Dennis.
That's where we'll come in and we'll say, okay, let's talk about communication because how are you working with your team members? And let's analyze to see, okay, do you have regularly set meetings with leadership and with departments, and do you have regular?
I think you probably make them have time for that as well.
I tell all my labs, when you do leadership meetings, which you should do weekly, the only time that you don't have it is if you're dying or you're dead. Like, if you refuse or if you find reasons to not take the time and meet with your team, then you're going to be one of the 36% of labs that closed in the last 20 years. Right, 2004 to 2024, there was a decrease of 2,877 labs that closed because of what? It's not because they have lack of doctors to work with. Number of doctors went up by 24%. It was 163,000 in 2004. Now it's 225,000.
Is that because they were making bad restorations?
Right, you're thinking business skills, correct?
It's business skills. And it's, In business skills, and it's surrounded by how are you dealing with your people, not only your team members, but your clients. And there's a huge gap of business dental lab owners understanding that your job, when you're going in and you're producing all the product, you're missing out on everything else. And you can't just hope things work out. You have to have open communication and put systems and processes in place. Right. I mean, we're service business. Yeah. So you don't want to be reduced to a commodity. Right. You're not going to run down to that all the time. Right. Oh, they're doing a $69 crown. They're doing a 50. Okay. Don't drop your prices. improve your relationship equity with your people and with your clients. And there are specific things that you can do to that. Because it's not rocket science. I was a C-minus student in high school. I was never real bright. So was I. I'm just saying. But this is a situation where you can really get dental lab owners, when they stop focusing on production and just become aware that if you want to be in the majority of labs that kind of move forward and don't close their doors, you've got to look at it as a business. And you've got to look at it as team development and communication. So that's kind of what sales does.
Actually ask them to pull themselves off the bench a little bit slowly, obviously, because nobody likes too much change. But it's one of those things that you've got to pull yourself off at least one, two hours a week.
Absolutely, because what you want to do is you want to find the lab owner. You've got to build redundancy in your lab, right? We can't have just one person doing one thing.
I'm that one person.
Are you?
Yes.
Very much so.
That's why I'm asking you questions. I don't know. I'm going to come back Monday.
And I'm pretty scared. I'm not kidding. So what we want to do is we want to find out the different tasks that the lab owners are doing and then look around your lab and say, okay, out of these tasks that you have, who can do some of them?
Who can take it up?
Let's start there. Okay, who's doing QC, right? Can you train somebody to do QC? Who's doing all these different things that you're spending all these hours on that you don't have to do? As long as you find somebody, a team member, that is positive and coachable, They can learn anything. Yeah. Right. I'm a former third grade teacher of seven years.
You taught third grade.
Taught third grade for seven years. Geez.
And now you're in general. That's harder.
Third graders or technicians?
Oh, it's technicians, I'm sure. I will tell you, third graders, they know they're eight years old and they know that they've got a lot to learn.
And we don't at all, right?
We know everything already.
Implied but not stated.
Yeah, it is a, there's such a need and I think that I have such a passion for this because you don't want to see a small business go out. My dad started his business six-tenths of a mile from where we sit right now, his own advertising company. Him and my mom, they started it up. He did the graphics. She did the content. He never looked to bring somebody else in to help on either side.
So he just stressed and...
Stressed, got sick, and then the business failed and we all ended up on food stamps. So like you gotta... I don't want to see business, I don't want to see dental lab owners.
Was that where your passion evolved when you saw that with your dad and you're like, listen, that much stress and that much dedication actually will kill somebody?
Absolutely.
And I mean that, I don't know what happened, but it will.
It will definitely tear you down. And I think what happens is if dental lab owners can work with their teams and put systems and processes in place, to help reduce points of friction in the lab. I mean, think about all the conflict that happens, right? A case is turned over to somebody to go out, but it's late. And UPS is coming in 5 minutes. And that person is like, you just dropped a boulder on their head, right? We may think it's just a little pedal.
So much pressure.
Yeah, it's still on. And then what does that do to the culture? But if the lab owner is only focusing on production, you know, these are where leadership meetings.
So how does a lab know they need you?
That's a great question, Elvis.
Sales are bad.
So you can. Oh, no, you need you. don't, because same with dentists, right? Dentists will do their dentistry and just sort of continue on for years.
Being stressed and miserable and yeah.
That's just the way it is. I don't have an option, right? So I would say the answer to that question is it all goes back to education, right? As a third grade teacher, I think education can solve and move people. And when dental lab owners, like they come to this, how many classes are there on business?
Not many.
None. I don't know.
Very true statement.
It's all on technology. It's all on materials. It's on AI. It's right. There's now some this year, there are more on social media. Last year, there were like 2 marketing classes.
Yeah.
Okay. So if we as an industry don't start to put efforts forward to educate lab owners, These are things you need to do, otherwise you're going to end up as 36% of labs that fail in the next 20 years.
So when you presented, it said speaker on your thing, and people come to your, are they all of a sudden realizing, oh, wait a minute, I do this.
Well, I tell them as soon as they walk in, like, this is going to be different than the other seminars you've been to. And I get a little passionate about it, but I also give them a whiteboard and a dry erase marker because I don't want them just sitting there and letting the information flow over their heads. I'm not saying that.
What you mean, so you have them write their own problems down so that they can visually see it?
Absolutely. I ask them, How many, what keeps you up at night? How many salespeople do you have? How many of you are doing leadership meetings? And you get people holding them up. As a teacher, you learn that if you just speak, you're speaking to people, the message is going to get lost. Right, when you get people to sort of engage and interact, then people really start to think and process, and when you can take something like that and you bring those people in, I told them... When you go to an event, you've got to come out with at least one nugget of information that you can apply to your lab. You are spending thousands of dollars to come to Chicago.
I said that yesterday to Cal Lab. If there's one thing you can take, hopefully you'll take something back and you'll be able to implement it.
That's right, because otherwise, what are we doing? Yes, we're getting together, having a good time, right? But we're not... We're not furthering what we're doing. And if we don't start to continue to push ourselves to a spot that's uncomfortable, right, we're going to stagnate and die.
So what are the common things people are, what keeps them up at night? What are you seeing?
Team members leaving, like the frustration that team members have, the clashes.
Or the possibility that someone might leave.
Yep, absolutely. That's always a stress. Sales is always a stress.
Sales as in like making more money of a lab or sales as in their staff, their people?
Sales as in trying to find new clients?
Got it, okay.
But what's funny is the trick is in finding new clients. The trick is actually going after what's called a share of wallet and trying to get that doctor to send you instead of two types of cases, three types of cases, right? But it only can happen if you're constantly being proactive as a lab and reaching out to your doctors and saying, how's it going? Having regular check-ins. How did that case work?
So how do you teach that to someone that spent their 40 years on the bench? You know, and like, you want me to call and just be Yes, with them, kind of.
You kind of do it. So, sales, we'll actually take a lot of the sales and marketing responsibilities on ourselves. So, like, labs will bring us in and we'll go to their territory and actually do sales and do events and everything for that.
I didn't realize you had that service.
Absolutely, absolutely. So, like, I've got a.
You go out as a representative of that lab in that area.
Absolutely. And we keep it.
Wait a minute. With them.
No.
I don't know.
No. So, I'll go out. Like, I've got a lab up in... Adirondack, New York. And so I'll fly up there on Tuesday and I'll go and visit a bunch of unknown accounts to them and go and visit some of their existing accounts. Absolutely. And we start a process. Okay, you cold call, that's your first touch point. Then we follow up with an e-mail. Then we follow up with a phone call to make sure they got their e-mail. And then you send these constant touch points. Because sales doesn't happen in one movement. It takes on average 8 touch points.
So you already developed like some sort of bullet points. You do A, you do B, you do C, you do.
Absolutely not.
So how do you represent an ad or a lab you don't work for?
I was in the lab.
For four years before I felt.
Comfortable enough to answer the phone.
I don't believe that at all.
I believe it.
Look, I think, I mean, you guys interview people all the time. And you can get a pretty good sense of who people are. And that's really what you're looking for. Because when you're out there selling for a lab, you're not selling product. You're selling to people. And because the lab relationship with the doctor is so special that it takes, the lab really has to mess up in order for that doctor to go find another lab, right?
That's so true.
Yeah.
I mean, big time you have to mess up because if they're loyal and you're communicating with them and you're talking to them and they're not going to leave you.
They're not.
Just because you F'd up something small, it's consistency of screwing up and not talking to them and figuring it out.
You put on a shirt with that lab logo on it.
Are you serious?
In my closet at home, I've got a different lab. I do.
You ever had the wrong trip with the wrong shirt? You're like, oh, **** that's a different lab.
Better go buy a cover-up. I haven't done that yet, but there's a duct tape right here.
But we so only you, my friend.
And we'll also keep geographical space in between our clients. Sure.
Wait a minute, weren't you in here last week with Smith Dental Lab?
That is very smart, though, to do that.
The whole objective isn't to take and work with every lab in the world as far as doing their sales and marketing. The whole thing, the whole reason why I started this is because I wanted to figure out how we can educate these lab owners so they don't go through the same. torment and stress and what I saw my mom and dad go through.
I knew you were going to go back to that. But it's such an emotional time, though.
It is.
So I think that when you say you never work a day in your life when you're passionate about it, I kind of get that from you. It's really not a job. It's something that you really are passionate about.
And certainly there are job aspects to it, right? Yeah, of course. But I think that's what we got to get the dental lab owners to kind of go back to. Right. When somebody's good at something, they gravitate towards doing that. And that's why they really spend the time on the bench, is because that's what's comfortable. Yeah. So they don't allocate time to be uncomfortable. So they avoid all these other buckets of like HR and marketing and accounts receivable and accounts payable.
Does the owner have to start doing that or can they hire people to do that and you help them? Some of them might not just be comfortable.
That was my dad, to be honest with you.
Really? I never got that.
He was good at the bench and he hired people to do all of those things and then they took care of it all for them.
Yeah.
So I guess you can go either way.
You can go either way. I think whenever, just like we, I've got three kids, right? They're older now, but when we teach the kids, it's what is the problem, right? What is the possible result of not dealing with a problem? And then what's a possible solution? All you can do, again, I always go back to educate. You just educate lab owners on where's your current situation, right? Where do you want to get to? And then you have this gap in the middle. Like, how are you going to get there? Some lab owners will just say, I'm good.
I was going to say, do they sometimes have a hard time with digesting that?
Yeah.
Maybe I'm not doing as good as I thought I was doing.
They do. And then when you kind.
Of got to be a therapist.
You absolutely. Or a third grade teacher. Yeah, you absolutely sort of play. You want to be a good listener?
Yeah.
Because they, nobody understands what they're going through except people that are lab owners or people that are in the industry. You know, sometimes their spouses don't even really understand the full stress if they're not involved in the lab. They see one side.
Oh, there's no way. My mom hated my dad. She's like, why the ****? I don't mean hated it. She hated the hours and she didn't understand why. There was that dedication to stay there so late every night, be late for dinner, not call because you were so stressed because you were busy and you were focused that we lose sight of all of that important stuff, like family and life and balance.
I mean, you guys know lab techs, the lab owners, they go in at 4:00 in the morning and they're there till 7:00 at night. I've seen lab owners, just we're operating that way and you're missing the whole point of why you're doing this, right? We're here to serve people, right? So find a way to serve people, serve your dentist, serve your team members. But don't forget about serving your family.
Yeah, what is it? You work for your life, but not life live for your work or something.
Yeah.
No, you got to repeat that. Do you know the saying? Because I don't think it was that right? Do you want to?
Work to have a life and not live to work? I don't know. If it's new.
That was close. And if so, made by Elvis.
Yeah, there you go. High five on the same time on that one.
Make it up.
Yeah.
So what are some other things? I mean, you talk about sales, but what about all that other noise that happens? I mean, the follow-ups.
So, on that side of it, and all that, I mean so much, so you basically, you wanna do what's called, you wanna do a self-audit, right, and figure out where's the lab. You do a lab, we do what's called a lab analysis, so we'll go on-site for one or two days, depending upon the size of the lab. And we look at everything. We look at five different areas, really. We look at financials, we look at team development, we look at the customer experience, we look at the sales and the operations, the sales and marketing, and we look at operations. And those, kind of going back again to my teaching aspect, is we do like a report card. Here's where you're strong, here's where you're weak, it's pretty detailed, and these are the things that You can, if we never speak again, that these are areas that you should work on.
You literally give them like an A, B, C, D.
Or F. I give them feedback.
That sometimes hurts.
It does. I know. I've had lab owners that have not agreed with it, right? But it's fine.
I mean that graciously.
Yeah, but it's a situation where it's fine. Kim Scott, the book Radical Candor, right? And it talks about, you can't sugarcoat the truth. You can't be a jerk about it when you deliver it, right? But you got to deliver the truth. So you may not want to face and hear what's actually going on. And we do a survey of the team members, an anonymous survey. So like, what do they think about the culture? Yeah. That really hurts. And you get some, sometimes you get some really surprising responses.
Interesting.
So you take all that and I do, I give them a literally a report card of percentages and how they do in each of those areas. Yeah. And then say, okay, if you want to go ahead and address these, this is what the roadmap would look like to do that.
And what do you do? Pick like top two that are most important and then drop down to the next two and then drop down.
We have a discussion to figure out what's important to them. Because again, the whole point of everything is just serving what their needs are. Some people may be comfortable starting with working on the team and the communication and trying to find, how are we talking to each other? Do we have good communication skills? Are we dropping boulders on people that we think are pebbles? Right? Like, or they'll say, you know, we're fine here.
Hold on, dropping boulders on, what does that mean? Dropping boulders on people that we think are pebbles. I love that.
So there is a gentleman named Andy Stanley. That was just as confusing as my saying I made-up. I know you. So there's a gentleman, Andy Stanley, out of Atlanta, Georgia, a pastor down there. And my wife and I, when we first got married, we listened to him and he talks about pebbles and boulders. He said, we're always dropping things on people, right? It's just, is it a pebble or is it a boulder? And the person- Is it?
Little or is it big?
Is it little or is it big? So when I call my wife at 7.30 and I say, hey, I'm going to be late for dinner, I think, bloop, that's just a little pebble. No big deal. To her. To her, the dog threw up, the kids are going crazy. If someone's combing over, it is a boulder. And so when we talk about it in the lab scenario, right, a case is linked. I love that. And you bring it over, like, okay, you brought this case over to the person who's doing all the packaging. and you think it's no big deal. It's supposed to be in at 4 o'clock. You brought it over at 4 or 5, right? UPS comes at 4:10, and you think it's no big deal, but you have no idea what that person who's handling that is dealing with. So you may think it's a pebble, but you just dropped a boulder. And when we talk about culture and we talk about the number one jobs of dental lab owners is to be a leader, They have to understand that there are boulders being dropped on people. And when we talk about leadership meetings that happen every week and the department meetings that disseminate from the information, this is what we're talking about. Anybody dropping boulders on people? did you have a boulder dropped on you? Because the only person that can say if it was a pebble or a boulder is the person.
That got dropped on.
Absolutely.
But do you teach those people to give feedback? And be like, dude, that was a boulder to me.
Absolutely.
You might have thought it was insignificant, but to me, it was huge.
Absolutely. So what we'll do at SalesLift is we give the labs as many resources as they want. If they want to use us for just sales and marketing, giddy up, we'll do that. If you want to have us come in and work on communication with the team, fantastic. We're going to work on that. We're going to work on, you want to learn how to do employee reviews. And I don't like employee reviews, we call them timely check-ins. Great, we'll do that. You want to learn how to get your team motivated and put goals in place? Awesome. We do something that's called a 3-1-3. Three-month, one-year, three-year goal system. I love that. And you document all this stuff. And so whatever the lab needs, because They need, most of them need a lot, right?
I think most of them, yeah, we all do.
So you take little bits at a time, right? How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. And it's that same mentality. But if they're not aware of what's going on in the lab, if they're not changing their perspective from looking down at the work in front of them on the bench to all the things that are around them, you're going to end up as that 36% of closure.
Is there a sweet spot for the size of lab this works for?
So, I have a lab that is 3 people, and I have a lab that is 60 people, and I have everything in between.
And are you just you, or do you have a team of like twenty-five?
I don't have a team of twenty-five.
I know that's funny, but I'm sure it can't be just you.
No, it's so I have a whole marketing team that works.
So, you have specialized teams for different teams that we just discussed.
Yeah, I bet. They tell me. They tell me. My wife says, she's like, How come you're so good at like expressing all this to the lab? She's like, We still have some of this stuff we got to work out. So it's like, yeah, it's 23, almost 24 years of marriage. I don't think we'll ever be done with that.
No, you won't, actually.
You figured that secret out.
Yeah, exactly.
We'll do a whole new podcast.
So do you get to go into every single lab and head it up and then have your teams?
So right now I'll go in and like we'll do all hands meetings and we'll say the topic is going to be Points of friction, boulders and pebbles. The topic's going to be communication. The topic's going to be, hey, we're getting ready to do a new sales and marketing initiative. Here's what it's going to be. So I'll go into the labs and do all those things. Right now it's myself, my marketing team, and I've got a couple of part-time people, full-time person coming on in May that she'll take over and she'll do a lot of the sales for whatever labs I assigned to her. And build it out.
So she's going to go door to door cold calling.
She will. That's cool.
What do you think about this whole male versus female, going out to cold call, how they look, how they dress? How do you? So.
That's never come up. Where did you come up with that?
We talk about that quite a bit. Even when we talk to Jay on the podcast, you're like, You're the salesperson? Yeah. Are you hot? Remember.
Yeah, I know, but I didn't think about male versus female. So that's the only reason I was asking.
I've heard from a lot of people, they say females have a harder time going into the dentist office because of that front desk.
Because they're all females.
Yeah.
I don't know if it's true. Now I'm feeling you.
I'm not taking it aside.
That's why I asked.
Yeah, I'm just saying.
Yeah. I think it's long... when you go in, they're busy, that front desk, and their job is to be gatekeepers, right?
Yeah, oh yeah.
So they're already, you're going into a situation that they've got their guard up. So how do you do that? You're not going in, you're never selling anything. You're just... Providing information that maybe one time they'll find useful.
That's my goal.
That's it.
If I can just get this price sheet somewhere near his desk. Along with the donuts.
Along with his coffees and donuts.
Next time his lab ****** him off, and this is right there.
That's very true though. You're not ready until you're ready. And if you get yourself into somebody's face enough times when they get irritated, they're going to move into this direction.
Every lab that gets a new account It's when they're mad. Is when another lab falls short. Simple as that.
Yeah, it's when they're mad.
Yeah, at their other lab.
Yeah. And they'll have a tolerance for that. There's something called relationship equity, right? And so with the lab and the doctors, you need to make sure you're building that relationship equity bond so thick, because there's going to be somebody coming in and knocking on the door, and they're going to try to snip away that relationship bond like, hey, here, we're down the street, we're low. Let's go and do a case, right? If your relationship bond is weak, it's easy to cut through. But if you're in there all the time.
If they feel like they're supportive, upsetting a friend, right?
Oh, my God, yes.
I work with an office that I do a lot of surgical guides for. And if I go in there and I see a surgical guide I didn't do, you could tell they're all like, oh God, I hope he doesn't look.
Don't show him, don't show him. Hide it, hide it, hide it.
Listen, I don't get into all that, but they almost feel embarrassed.
I kind of do. If I see another box, I'm like, who are they using?
What the hell? Wow. So how do people get a hold of you?
How does this work?
I was going to ask. So sure. They can visit our website, salesliftconsulting.com. And all of our- Or to.
Come up with that name, Sales Lift. Because it's not necessarily sales, but it's lifting for sure.
Sales are a byproduct of us doing the right thing, right? They're a byproduct of us serving. We should never be chasing a quota. I mean, how many reps do we have here, right? And everybody's got a quota, and they always feel like they've got to chase the quota. Stop chasing the quota and start serving. Sales just sort of lift on its own. Sales is a byproduct. of you doing the right thing and you being consistent and honest. That's all it is. It's not rocket science. Consistent, honest, process-driven. And so when we look at why sales lift is what it's called, that's why. It's like you've got to sort of elevate what you're doing, you've got to be consistent in what you're doing, and serving people, and the sales will lift on its own.
Nice. Love it.
Have you ever met a lab that was unconsultable?
That's a really good question.
He always asks the hardest questions.
Yeah.
And you're like, yeah, maybe, but I'm not going to tell you.
I need a name. Don't tell me who. No, I think I've run into labs and conversations where they hear it, they hear the message, but they don't do anything about it. And that's what we talked about this morning is How many labs have come here with the same challenges that they had last year? And they're like, oh, let's go ahead and try and fix it and try to fix it. But there's never action. Because if there's no documented plan and there's no one holding anybody accountable, you don't move forward. I could tell my kids to make their bed all day long. If there's no accountability, they ain't making the bed. Right? And so the sales owners, the lab owners that are not really sort of understanding you have to have action, Five years, they're going to have the exact same concerns and problems, So, there are people, change is hard, no matter what we're doing. We hurt that all we can so far.
Yeah. So, nobody likes it.
Yeah.
And it hurts a little bit.
Yeah.
Darren, that's some cool stuff, man. Thank you.
Well, thanks for having me on. Yeah, that was awesome. Really appreciate it. Yeah.
I think you're fighting the good fight.
Yeah.
Keep it up. We'll get the word out for you.
High five.
I appreciate it. Thank you very much. All right. Have a great day. Thank you.
You can tell you're awesome at marketing. I love it.
That's right. Stay Savvy.
I know. Stay Savvy. You need a shirt that says Stay Savvy.
Stay Savvy.
Okay.
Because like we are Savvy, you stay Savvy.
Yes. Okay.
So you're a customer of Savvy just before we start. So we're going to introduce you.
One of her first customers, right? Wasn't I?
One of your first? One of my first, yeah, like least top five.
Because she launched last year in Chicago. Okay. And then we joined right after that.
So that's kind of the.
Yep, I got this.
You probably already know the story, but I just.
Wanted to know that. All right, let's do it. Vicki Thomas, savvy, what's happening?
Just living the dream.
Was it last Chicago we talked? Yeah, because Barb wasn't here. So it was last year you came on to talk about this new. smaller lab buying group you started called Savvy.
Yep.
I did. I launched last year on my birthday. If you all don't know if you remember that. So I remember that.
And I remember the shirts and the code on the back. The Stanley shirts. Yes. It was genius.
Yes, so I launched last year on my birthday. And so yesterday was actually our one year anniversary for Savvy and then my birthday as well. So we got to celebrate the 23rd. Yes, actually on the 29th. I'm not going to lie to you.
Yeah.
So we should say 2026 at the Ivo Club.
Oh yeah, Ivo Club Ballroom. We're on the stage.
LMT 2026.
Thank you, Barb. But also joining us is Carrie Ling. Hey.
Hi, how are you?
Ling Bing. Texas Lightlike Studio. And you're the first customer of Savvy.
One of the first.
Yeah, one of the first. At least top five.
Okay, so tell us how she approached you with this idea.
Well, she told me she had big news that was coming in Chicago. And I I couldn't wait to find out what it was. And then when I got here, she told me all about it. She kind of filled me in on what it was and what was happening. And I was just like, I'm in. I can't say more about supporting someone who's trying to support small to medium-sized labs because I feel like, and I hate to say it, but the big labs get all the everything. You know, they get all the pricing, all the anything. They have the buying power, right? So it's if small labs can get together.
Were you trying to negotiate pricing with companies? How big is your lab again?
We have nine.
Okay, so yeah.
It's like small to medium size.
Oh, definitely medium size.
But we, yeah, I mean, negotiating prices is hard, and especially in this time that we're in right now. So to have somebody like Savvy on my side, she does all the legwork for me.
So talk about that.
First of all, I missed last year. So how did you realize that we needed this and that you were the one that was going to be launching it?
Well, I've owned a lab for 17 years, been in the industry for 30, and I would see it.
We already established that you're 23.
Okay.
You just ruined it for.
Me. All right.
Okay.
I'm a terrible liar.
Which is why we love you so much.
No, okay, sorry, go on.
But no, just by having my own lab, I saw there was so much, the big labs were getting all the bulk pricing and all that, as they should, don't get me wrong, I mean, no shame, but the more you buy, the more you save, exactly, but... But what about us, right? Exactly. We're 78% of the market and we weren't getting the discounts.
Seriously, 78% of the market is labs.
78%, that's pretty cool. Small medium. 22% are the larger, larger labs. Yeah, so.
But the other part's loud. They make a lot of noise.
They are. And so, and I'm loud too. So I thought, you know what?
I will reach you at your level.
Yeah, I'm loud too. So I thought, you know, I'm going to go out there and. It was an idea, and I approached my vendors before I ever had members saying, Hey, I have this idea, can we do anything with this? Because I know I kind of felt like I was doing a little backwards, just because most times you gotta... Multiple labs together, then you approach it, say, hey, we got this many labs, give us a discount.
Oh, and you went singular saying, hey, I want to do this.
Right. Wow. But the vendors saw it as an absolute win for them because like we were saying earlier, a lot of people don't go out there and negotiate their pricing. A lot of reps don't go to small to medium-sized laboratories because they're going to go to the bigger labs because they're going to get a sale. And if they do get a sale, it's going to be a large. Yes. Yes, in a lot of small labs, they may work out of their basement or their garage or whatever. So I wanted to be that voice for them. So I went out there and did kind of the concierge service. And I did out there and said, hey, if I brought, give me some time. Let me build this thing. Let me see if it works. What kind of discount would you give us to start off with? As our buying power increases, Let's renegotiate and see what kind of what we can do because they recognize too, there's 78% of them, that they're not using, they're not going into these labs. And my whole thing was I don't want labs to have to sell out because they have to. I want them to retire one day and then be able to sell to one of these larger groups and make money. I don't want them to just have a job. I want them to actually make some profits. So that's what I did. And this year has been, I'm so grateful and thankful for the community. The support I've gotten from my members and my vendors has just been, oh, I got goosebumps. It's just, it's absolutely amazing. So we did our first Savvy meet and greet Wednesday night. And I just kind of, it was like one of those last minute things. Like, come, you know, it's Savvy's first birthday. Let's just mingle. The vendors that came, mind blowing. I honestly, I did not understand.
It finally got some clarity to the hugeness of it.
I mean, they were busy on Wednesday. That's when they set up their booths and do all this, but they still took the time to.
Yes, and it was just like four or five of each vendor.
Oh, really?
Yeah, or provider. They were all there to support me. And then I had my members come by that were able to come in that their flights weren't delayed. **** a lot of people's flights weren't delayed. But it was such a great turnout and it was just heartwarming to see that everyone sees a need. But I will say this about the vendors. They see savvy as a tool, because now they receive this list of members that we have once a week, and they can use that as a kind of an open-door system for them, for their reps to say, Hey, well, they're a savvy member, go visit with them, use this as a tool to go in there and negotiate and talk to them.
I was going to ask you, so how does that work for you?
So I will say I was a member of another group and I never saw a single vendor reach out to me from that group.
Interesting.
Yeah. And since I joined Savvy last year, I can't tell you how many emails I get somebody introducing themselves. Hey, I'm with this company and I know you're a Savvy member and here's what your discount's going to be. They reach out to me and that's all because directly from that vendor. And that's because that's the way that Vicky set it up. So I don't have to do the work of trying to figure out, hey, I use this product. and calling them and saying, hey, can I get a discount? I'm A Savvy member. They reach out to me and they're like, hey, I know you're a Savvy member. Here's your discount. Not only that, but I've switched a couple products around because of that.
So have you moved some of your problem?
Yes, so I've switched some of my stuff. We switched our cement. We were using a cement for years that we loved, but it was really expensive. I found a new cement that I love just as much, actually better, and it's less expensive, and I get a nice discount because I'm A Savvy member. And I would have never found that. That's right. That's exactly right. I would have never found it without it. So just in one year of being a member, I can think of three different products that I've tried, new products that I've tried because someone's reached out to me through Savvy. So that's been really great. Something different.
Yeah, something different for sure.
More than what it costs to be a member.
Absolutely. I already know that. In my cement alone. In my cement alone, yes.
That's insane.
That's for sure.
And I do encourage my vendors. I was like, you know, don't harass my members. I don't want to get an e-mail every day, okay? But, you know, monthly, quarterly, you know, or send it to me because I do a monthly newsletter. So I can put it in the newsletter, say you run a promotion this month or you're doing this or that, you know, but just don't harass them. But Please reach out, introduce yourself, because luckily you're a larger, slightly larger than some of my members, but they don't get that communication, they don't get that, so I do encourage them to do that, so it makes me happy to hear that they are reaching out to you and introducing.
So a lot of your new members are probably word of mouth also because I see you on Facebook, I see Carrie on Facebook, and is it just a lot of referrals also?
It has been a lot of referrals, and my vendors have been really good too. They have said, hey, we've got a couple clients that we think would benefit from this. They're not upset with losing that discount. They want to help support me. They're like, what can we do to help you? Tell us what we can do. Like, we'll put you on our website. You tell me what you need. Wait a minute.
The vendors are like, hey, I have someone for you that I'm actually going to get less money from.
Yeah.
But I want you to help. That's interesting.
I know. I think they see it as the word of mouth thing.
It's a long-term partnership also.
That's what they keep saying. This is a partnership. You know, you're part of our family now. And, you know, I'll bring them to you. They'll tell their friends about it. And they'll just keep on, it's just going to revolve and door, you know, continue to help each other. So Yeah, it's, I'm telling you, it's mind-blowing the support and the things that they're doing for me that I feel like as a business person, I'm thinking, I'm like, why are you going to give them X amount of percent off when you don't have to?
Yeah, you already got their business. You already got it. That's interesting.
Yeah, but a lot of them, you know, well, yeah, with them, yeah, you know, so, but like I said, I think they use it as a tool and they see it as a partnership and they. It's just a win-win for everybody.
So your first, like, tell me about your first month or two. I'm sure you had a grind, and it was tough. When did you, like, realize that, okay, I'm moving in a forward direction? I mean, it's a startup company. Everybody knows those are tough.
I remember talking to you.
You got to be a ******. Yeah.
Why wouldn't she be? That's a scary thing to do. Like, take a risk like that. Yeah.
It was very, you know, I don't... I don't know if nervous is the right word. I think it was the fact that I didn't know enough about this part. You know, I've been a lab owner forever. I don't know this business side. It was like a totally different animal for me.
Yeah, because you're a bench. You're surrounded.
Yeah, and I still am. OK, let's not forget that. Multitask. Yeah, so you're talk busy. So, you know, yeah, so I all day, like at least Monday through Thursday. I'm at the bench. And then on Friday, I try to focus on Savvy. And then on the weekends, we're doing, I do my emails and I schedule to go out on Monday.
So you have no time.
And she's been at every show. Every show I've been to, Vicki's there because she's, yeah, because she's really, you know, trying to get the word around.
I'm trying really hard, but to answer your question, I feel like Yeah, at the beginning, I was kind of in it blind. I knew I had a great idea. People were pushing it and thought it was an excellent idea. And I was just kind of running on energy. And then later I realized, God, this is freaking hard. This is a lot more than I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be just as simple as get people signed up, done. I know, get my vendors, get them signed up. It's a no-brainer. They're going to sign up. Why would they not sign up? No, it's not that simple. So you have to get out there and then use testimony. Just be out there every meeting and talking and doing podcasts with you guys. And I appreciate you all for having me on again. But things like that. But yeah, I don't know. Now that Savvy is a year old, I'm like, OK, now I need to do more.
No pressure there. Now I only three days on the bench, right? And now Thursday, Friday.
Yeah, so I'm kind of-- actually, I've had a lot of conversations this weekend. I'm thinking I'm going to start revamping, try to let some of my control go at the lab.
A little hard, how much we love that, right?
So we'll try to. I've got excellent technicians that work with me, so I'm just kind of like, Oh, fine, just do this a little bit, do this, and hopefully I can free myself up a little bit from the bench so I can do a little bit more, because I want to revamp Savvy. I want it to be more. I mean, it's already a community, but I want it to be a safe place where people can come. We can communicate with one another if there's problems, if somebody's center number goes down. Yep, I love it. And I know we have platforms out there on Facebook, but I want this to be a private group to where they can just talk amongst each other. And I can have my vendors on there too and say, when they say, well, my center number is broken, that vendor can say, oh, well, let me tell you what, you know, we got a loaner or whatever it may be. But I also want to start offering consulting and education. And, but honestly, my vendors and my providers are excellent with that.
They're going to help you with that.
Yeah. They like get them to sign up with us or purchase from us and we will train them. We will teach them how to do X, Y, and Z. So it's kind of falling into place. My idea keeps growing and there's always an answer. I've just been, I'm telling you, it's just, I'm just. I don't know, just shocked. Kind of mind blown a little bit, but yeah, it's working out great.
Do vendors come to you now?
They sure do. Yeah.
What are some?
So you can keep changing products if you see some different things on the list. And then as a laboratory owner, you can say, hey, I'm going to try this.
And it brings a great opportunity into the lab. And among even my technicians, because my technicians know since we've tried these different products that we're Savvy members and they're like, hey, I want to try this. Can you get a discount through Savvy on this? And I'm like, yes, because this is sold by so-and-so. So that's kind of nice. through the whole lab.
Do you want to talk about some of the vendors you have or do you want to leave that off?
Sure. No, we can definitely talk about the vendors we have. Let me get my Instagram.
I can tell you where I got my cement.
We've had them on the podcast.
Yeah, that's where I found this wonderful cement and also some lab putty that changed. Yeah, great. And the Savvy discount was cheaper than the putty I was buying before.
Yeah, we tried their putty years ago and I was like, I didn't Didn't know I could get excited for putty. Yeah, I know.
I was like, this stuff is so good.
There's something about using a putty that doesn't make your fingers stain. I just love that part of it. Yeah, I like the one-to-one ratio, so it's kind of... Yeah, I can't, but we have Comet USA. Oh yeah.
Gotta love you some good burrs.
That's right. Digital Arches came on with us.
Oh yeah, that's been big for us too because we do a lot of OptiSplints. So we, yeah, so we've had a big discount with them since we started that.
That's great.
It's a really good discount.
Yes, we've got Elos, who's one of our new ones as well.
Yep.
I'm sorry, I'm scrolling through Instagram here.
That's fine, yeah. It's a long list.
It is. Well, you know, amongst all my other stuff in here on this internet, it's not very good either. So we've got Vita.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, we've got Vita, got Strawman.
So when they give you these discounts, do they open their whole catalog or do they say only these certain words?
Yeah, that's a good question. Just across the board, and then some is like, okay, this is what we're gonna do on this, this, and this product, and then we'll do this on that. So everybody's a little different. The way you order is a little different through all of them. I would like to, that's part of my revamping. I would love to make it a little bit more streamlined across. Yeah, but everybody's purchasing is different. It's different.
So do you solicit customer feedback? Because I know Kerry loves. having your opinion is so important. No, I mean that respectfully.
That's not true.
But like asking people for their feedback so you can help her.
I always ask people for feedback. I ask that. Because you can't learn and you can grow if you don't get the feedback, right.
I do. I think I'm constantly having talks with people.
Good.
And everybody comes to me with constructive criticisms like, hey, have you thought about this? I'm like, I have not. Like, that's an excellent idea. So I do. I do ask her. I know I talk to people. What can I do different? What do you want from me? What do you want to see Savvy in this next year to be? What vendor do I not have that you won't? Working on this, I won't say it out loud, but I'm working on this. Yeah, you should. Yes. So, you know, it's just, I think that's really, I've come a long way from that because I'm open. Like, I'm not that person that's not going to take instructive criticism. Like, it may sound negative when they're coming to me like, girl, you need to do this. And I'm like.
It's an art to accept constructive criticism. You have to be open-minded so that it doesn't make you angry. You might be like, you know what, you have a point. And I think that makes a special leader. Because if all you're doing is being like, no, I don't like that, I don't want to hear it, and I don't agree with it, then how do you grow?
And you can't change and you become stagnant and you become irrelevant if you don't, if you're not open to that.
Exactly. And I know that I don't know everything. And so when someone comes has been a business, this type of business or another business that's been in it a lot longer than me, and they say, Have you thought about this? I'm like, I have not. I don't know. Maybe I'm just a technician brain. So we're just kind of like, I get focused on one thing. I'm just like... But I think having my friends and the vendors and I have that conversation, it's kind of like having a board table, like having a conference at a table, and everybody's just sitting around talking and everybody's kind of got different ideas, and you're just like, Oh, that resonates with me. So I have had a lot of just help by people saying, Have you thought of this? Excellent. So yeah.
And as a lab owner, if you're going to be a part of a group like this, you want to get a good ROI on it, right? Like you have to have... Yeah, right. So it's good that you can come and talk to her about those things and she's willing to work for you, which is be a partnership together. And I haven't had that always in groups that I've been in. So I really love that about Savvy.
Right. I do have a lot of people call me and technicians call me say, listen, I know this is going to sound really silly, but how do you fill out a three-shape form for a custom abutment that you want to be sent to this place? And I'm like, oh, okay, this is how I do it. See if that works for you. This is how I do it. And I get things like that a lot. Like, what meal do you suggest? Or who do you think I should get this meal from? And I'll tell, hey, these are who my vendors I have that sells it. This one might have a loaner program or this one. So I kind of do like Kind of lead them in the right way, exactly.
I was thinking mentor when you were talking, like you're mentoring them, because some of these smaller labs don't have access to all of that. They don't, so they do have a lot of questions, and who are you gonna ask?
That's right. That's why I really want to create that platform where people can...
You're gonna ask Savvy.
Yeah, ask Savvy.
Why Savvy?
Yeah, what's the name? I just thought it kind of fit with, a buy-in group. You're being savvy, you're, you know. And then of course the V in the middle is bigger because Vicky. And it kind of sounds silly. I mean, but I was like, oh, my name is Vicky. We'll make that V in the middle bigger. And but yeah, I just think savvy is just kind of was a catchy and it's kind of a sexy like savvy. Yeah. It's bougie.
Which is why I like to say stay savvy.
She's like stay savvy. I love it.
That's what I always say.
More marketing, more marketing.
Love it.
What's a, you going bigger next year for Chicago? I mean, you had your little Wednesday, I don't want to say little, but you had your Wednesday meet and greet.
Yes.
You going bigger?
Possibly. Like a booth. Yes, I think next year I will definitely try to have a booth. I enjoy walking around and talking to everybody. But at the same time, I feel like maybe if I was at one place, I might actually see more people. and I can hand out my shirts a lot easier because I brought 100 shirts to Chicago and I was trying to pass up.
You brought 100 shirts this year?
I did, because I'd always want to have a meet and greet. How many do you have left? I don't know, but it's more than I thought I would have left. So I think if I had a booth, you know, because I mean, carry them to a big bar. I'm going through four different sizes and try to find new extra large, you know, so it's a little hard to pass out.
I can barely fit myself in a.
Big bar, let alone a bunch of shirts.
Exactly, So I'm pondering on that. I'm thinking. Good for you.
I hope so. Yeah, I hope so.
Awesome.
Yeah, thank you guys.
So excited for you.
Thank you.
So excited for the labs that get to take advantage of this because you're right, it's not fair. Power in numbers.
There is the support of all of our friends and your friends and the way that we came together to support you. So congratulations.
And Barb and I would like to officially announce for all Savvy members discounts to the podcast episodes.
Oh, nice.
Anybody that wants to listen, Savvy only. Savvy.
Only, I love it.
Amazing voices.
Now I'll finally listen.
Now that I have that discount. We're happy to support.
I love that so much. That's awesome. Well, awesome.
Thank you guys for having us. Thanks for coming on.
Thank you. I appreciate you both. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Bye.
Gosh, Elvis, I'm so sad this is our last interview, but a big thanks to everyone that came to see us sit down with us in the Ivoclar Ballroom until next year. We'd love to catch up with Josh and his frameworks. Sorry I missed that conversation, but I only imagine all that Savannah is learning from you, Josh. Here's a quick little secret. The folks at GPS are such fans of our podcast that they're sponsoring Elvis and I to be at the FDLA meeting this year in Florida. That's awesome. And more on that soon, of course. It was great getting to know Darren and his approach to help labs in aspects that not a lot of companies are doing. If you're looking to improve culture, which is a buzzword right now, reduce friction, give sales lift consulting a call. And you know what? What can we say to Vicki and Carrie except thank you guys for all that you do. And if you're a smaller lab struggling with rising costs, go check out Savvy Lab Solutions to see what they can do for you. I mean, they've done so much for Carrie's lab in such a short time. So check it out.
Power in numbers.
You know it.
All right, everybody. That is all we got for you. And of course, we'll talk to you next week.
Happy Easter.
Is dinner ready?
Yeah, it's this Sunday. Bye. See ya.
Power is on.
Power is on.
And that's my little robo vacuum.
Oh, do you have one of those? The views and opinions expressed on the Voices from the Bench podcast are those of the guest and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the host or Voices from the Bench LLC. The views and opinions expressed on the Voices from the Bench podcast are those of the guest and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the host or Voices from the Bench LLC.