Hey, Voices of the Bench community! Eric Neuhaus, Marketing Manager at Ivoclar here. Bring greater efficiency and flexibility to your denture workflow with Ivocean, Ivoclar's digital denture system. Ivocean helps labs reduce manual production steps while delivering predictable, high-quality aesthetics. With new shade options available in both Ivocean Dent Multi and our Ivocean Monolithic discs, you can broaden your offering and deliver more personalized results. Reach out to your local Ivoclar representative today and discover what I've ocean can do for your lab?
Bar, we're heading back to NOLA Lab Fest.
Again? Come on, who let us back in? That's a pretty bold move on their part.
Very bold. I'm not sure how we convince them to sponsor us, but either way, we'll be recording live from the Hilton New Orleans Riverside, October 16th and 17th.
And guys, do not forget, on Thursday the 15th, Jude Grayson is running a half-day workshop for lab owners and department leaders, also sponsored by Hyperdent.
Naturally. You know the night kicks off with the distillery.
To her right now well you are speaking my language Elvis.
Easy there Barb easy slow down anyways I promised Jordan we'd mention hyper dent a thousand times a thousand a thousand hyper dent that's five Hey, it all a heads up, man. We'll get there. So if you're coming to LabFest, come hang out with us. We'll be chilling with the best HyperDent crew, grabbing guests, talking shop, and eating way, way too many beignets.
Yeah. Are you ready to host Lab Family Feud?
I've been shopping for outfits for a couple weeks now.
I know you have, but please don't.
It's too late, Barb. It's already sequenced. It's ready to go.
Of course. I knew you wouldn't disappoint, but what should everybody check out while they're there?
Well, don't forget, Roland DGA will be there too. They're running a CAM trade-in special.
Oh, so I can finally retire that old mill in the corner of mine.
No, no, no, no, slow down. Keep the mill, trade in your old CAM software instead.
And let me guess, for hyperdent.
Aha, we've said it seven times. It will unlock the true potential of that rolling mill, new or old. You'll see better milling quality, faster milling times, and with the elevant denture solutions, ill mill Ivotion dentures too.
Now that's a trade-in that I can get behind. And although I guess it's too late, we're already using it at my lab.
Good call.
Registration is open now at Nolalabfest.com and spots are limited.
Hyperdent.
Eight.
992 to go. Let's do it. Hyperdent, Hyperdent, Hyperdent, Hyperdent.
Thank you, Hyperdent.
Hyperdent, Hyperdent, Hyperdent. Welcome to Voices from the Bench, a dental laboratory podcast. Send us an e-mail at info at voicesfromthebench.com and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Greetings and welcome to episode 444 of Voices from the Bench. My name is LVS.
Hey, my name is Barbara.
What's happening, Barb? How are you?
Eyes opening. I'm good. Thanks. What's up?
Yeah. Well, you know, even though this episode is coming out the day after the race for the future, we of course are recording it before because I get home late on Sunday. So I just want to throw out a huge thanks to everyone that donated and helped the Foundation for Dental Laboratory Technology raise some more money to give right back to our industry. I'm very passionate about this.
Me too.
Just because this race is over, you can always donate like anytime. You don't have to wait for me to post weird things on Facebook to get money.
That's right.
And I don't have to go all the way to Texas and fly back stinky. Head over to dental labfoundation.org to donate all the time.
Nice. So less than three weeks and thank you to HyperDent. We will be set up and recording at NoHack Dental Supplies NOLA Lab Fest in New Orleans, October 15th through 17th. There's still time everybody to do the famous dental tech last minute sign up and hang out with some of the greatest people in our industry. If you're still deciding on going, how about this? Send us a message on social media, Facebook or Instagram, or even send an e-mail to info From thebench.com, and we will send you a code to get a free registration. It's like $400, guys, like that's amazing. Yeah, act now time is running out and free tickets free are limited and set. to a first come, first serve basis.
What a steal. All you got to do is to get to New Orleans.
Let's do it.
So this week we finally get the third Archibald.
Nice.
We've talked to Jed, we've talked to John, and now we get to hear the story of the black sheep himself. Mike Archibald. So Mike grew up in a dental lab family, obviously, and started working with his dad at just 17. He was surrounded by some of the greatest names in dentistry at a very young age. But this story takes a lot of turns from learning the foundation of functional dentistry and eventually finding his way into ceramics to battling imposter syndrome, some addiction issues, and some pretty serious personal challenges along the way. Mike isn't afraid to talk about the stuff that usually behind the scenes. We talk about what it means to live up to a family name, why being coachable and becoming a good teacher can change your career, the importance of relationships in dentistry, and how sometimes the biggest lessons come when something gets stripped away. So join us as we chat with Mike Archibald. Hey listeners, have you ever wondered what the hell I'm doing when I'm not recording voices from the bench? Believe it or not, I actually have a regular job. I'm a client rep for Derby Dental Laboratory. So I'm in the field all day all the time. I'm either doing chair sides or I'm building relationships and rarely am I in front of a computer. Well now here's a fun fact for y'all. Dental labs grow by keeping their customers and doing more business with them. Now that's my job, keeping those doctors happy and keeping them coming back for more work. It would be virtually impossible to do that without iCortica. So how do you get visibility with your accounts? Are you exporting data vomit in the form of a spreadsheet that only gives you a small piece of the puzzle? In fact, using Excel makes me angry and you don't want to make me angry. iCortica gives me everything I need at home right on my phone even when I'm sitting in my car. I can see sales, remake rates, notes for my LMS, and it even tells me exactly what my risks and cross-sell opportunities are. I could even see if a doc just called to complain before I walk in the door. Because honestly that is a door I might choose not to walk in. The key is I'm always prepared and never surprised. I honestly wouldn't be able to do or enjoy my job without it. So head on over to icordica.com to schedule time with them today to learn more. Icordica. Stop digging for data and start taking action to keep more customers and more revenue. That's I-C-O-R-T-I-C-A.com. Love you, Rob. Attention, dental lab owners and managers! Think about your daily workflow. Are you still hunting through piles of paper invoices? Are doctors texting you to see if a crown is even finished? Are you logging into six different portals just to grab digital scans from your doctors? You didn't start a dental lab to become a full-time paper wrangler. It's time to streamline your business with Lab and Cloud. Built by techs just like you, for you. Lab and Cloud is the ultimate all-in-one platform engineered to run your entire lab. With over 90 powerful features, you can automate everything. You can track cases in real time, generate smart invoices, manage local delivery and shipping, and handle employee time tracking. All from a single cloud-based dashboard. Even better, your doctors will get a dedicated portal to submit cases seamlessly. In your digital scanner files, they route automatically into your workflow, completely secure with full HIPAA compliance. Stop burning time on administrative chaos, scale your business, delight your dentist, and take back your day! LabingCloud.com right now to book your free personalized demo. That's L-A-B, the letter N, cloud.com. LabingCloud, your lab simplified. The operating system for dental labs built for text by text. Hey, just mention Elvis is handsome and get one month free. Voices from the bench. The interview. We have another longtime conversation here, because I know we've, I mean, mentioned this a few times at shows when we were running into each other. We finally have the third Archibald.
Nice.
Mike Archibald, welcome to the program. How are you, sir?
Great. Yeah, the black sheep is here.
Yes. Let's go. I mean, your brother, Jed, I think has been on, I think three times. And one time we got him and the dad, John. That was an exciting conversation.
Oh yeah. No, they're awesome. Jed's such a ball hog. He always keeps me out of the limelight. He's that jealous younger brother.
So are you the younger brother or is Jed the younger brother?
Everybody thinks so because I'm better looking. But no, Jed's younger by, I think, eight years.
Eight years, really.
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
Whoops. Yeah, Jed's younger. Yeah, that's funny. Everybody wonders that. Even when we were young, when we were in our 20s, he was in his 20s and I was in my 30s, people asked him when we'd go to desert races if he was entering in the bomber class, which is the over 40 class. Oh jeez. That's hilarious. Yeah, he said he got all the bad genes. So no, it's yeah, I'm really lucky. I'm really lucky to have Jed as my brother and of course my dad, you know, but to grow up under someone like him was just what a gift.
Yeah, your name It comes with a lot of responsibility. I mean, boy, that's your call. And you're like, you got to be a killer dental technician.
It'll test your imposter syndrome at the highest level. That is a fact. I love it. Yeah, it's been a real gift. It's really stretched us and required us to perform and to show up. And yeah, I would say the imposter syndrome part, you know, you see that on clinicians' ends too, right?
Oh, for sure.
It's a lot to fill the shoes of someone who's gone out and made a good name and made good relationships. Yeah. let's hear your story.
We've heard Jed about growing up, going into Gordon Christensen's lab and everything.
Yeah.
What's your story?
But you were older, so you had to have done it first. Am I right?
I did do it first. That's right. I'm sure Jed didn't mention that. no, I started, I started at 17. At 17, my dad's brother, his younger brother was the one working with him, his only employee and his right hand man. And he decided to go back to Idaho, Rich Archibald. And he's still up there in Idaho Falls.
And so there's another one we got to get on the podcast.
Yeah, this is, oh yeah, there's a lot of us. And that's your uncle? Yeah, this is my favorite uncle, my dad's youngest brother. And Rich is 10 years older than me. And so at that point, he was wanting to move where they were from and move his family up there. And I kind of had things in an awkward spot and my dad knew I was artistic and he just said, Hey, I want you to come in and see if you can replace Rich. And I really had no desire. I had no desire growing up to do teeth. I saw my dad's lifestyle and I saw him not doing the things that we loved and that he got us into like dirt biking and sports. He was always at the bench. yeah. And I was just like, that's crazy. I'm just gonna play pro baseball and just, and have an awesome life. And my parents had been divorced of two years at that time. And I was living with my dad. And when the opportunity came up, I just, I really just wanted to be with my dad. And yeah, I got in there and it was, that was it. I would say that I didn't fall in love with it at first. For seven years I worked under him and I taught everything from model work and waxing single units, full contour, full mouth rehabilitation and functional rehab, like taught everybody up through waxing and then once and even metal frameworks and that's what I did for my father. And so I was teaching that part in his school and once they got into ceramics, then he would take over and Of course, we were in-house and I was getting exposed to getting to go upstairs and take shades in Gordon's practice and being exposed to really high profile people. And that was a real gift too, you know, that was, I mean, especially today, I look at all of that and what a gift to be exposed to that and to have somebody humble enough to let you be in that situation and to actually, And to remind you immediately, everybody is that important. we can talk about Bob Redford because he's gone now, but that was a dear friend of my dad's and a patient of 40 years. Mr. Robert Redford and the actor.
The actor.
Oh, yeah.
He just said like Bob Redford, like your neighbor.
He was one of my dad's dear friends. And you know, Jed and I were exposed to people like that, but we were reminded immediately that everybody was that important. Every single person. And you know, my dad still, he's about two to three months probably from retiring. He just turned 77 on the 9th. And still in the house with Gordon's son, still takes on number 31, still every single patient he sees. And so we were exposed to that and the school and CRA back when CRA was actually something before it turned to CR and whatever it is now. That was awesome too, because we got to see every single product that came out on the market and be part of all these tests that were in partnership with the clinical end too, with cements and materials that way. And so Jed and I got really, really versed in both sides. But I would say the biggest thing that I fell in love with and I've held dear in my career is the relationship. The relationship with the patient, clinician, And it's just without that, it's just making crowns. You know, you're making french fries and to be exposed to that and see, you know, a team like my dad and Gordon and my dad being so humble and watching how he worked through that. It was just, yeah, it's priceless. It was priceless. And he and he taught us to be teachers. We had to be teachers immediately. We had to become teachers and what a gift that was. You know, I like I.
Said, explain that like how did he teach you because he was a teacher?
He had the only private laboratory school in our country ever. There was nobody else that had a non-credited laboratory program like my father's that took people from A to Z. And they came, it was full-time, 40 hours a week. And people were there for 10 months to a year. And he put a lot of lab on, yeah, over 30 years, he had that school with over a two-year waiting list. And so we would have four to six people in there at a time coming through. And what good exposure too, you know, we had to, these people were paying a lot of money to come and be there full time. My dad was doing that while he was in house with Gordon doing 150 units a month by hand. And yeah, yeah, that's what Gordon did a month. And so we were exposed to a lot, you know, but I look at the being being trained to be a teacher. I mean, that just especially today, I think about that. And you know, the fact that my father taught us to be coachable and to continue you wanting to learn. And he, you know, my dad's ego is that, you know, such that he would, he would point us in the direction of, oh, here's why Willie was special. Here's why Hitoshi's special. Here's why Yamamoto's special. Here's why Ubisi was impressive. Here's, all of these people were dear friends of his and on the development. And, you know, my father was part of all of that development era where all of these guys, I mean, they developed Deep Denton, Opal, all this stuff that makes our systems easy today, that generation developed all of that.
Yeah, they were all the rock stars.
They were the rock stars. And I was just lucky enough to have a father that was respected and friends with everybody and humble enough to, even though I thought, you know, he was my hero. he would show us why other people were so much better and so great. And so that gave us the desire to really want to keep learning and keep leveling up. And boy, you learn a lot on that road of wanting to level up, right? And there's a lot that goes into that. And it's mostly mindset and the things you learn along the way and apply. And so I don't think I took my dad's place. I know I took it for granted, just remaining doing the things Like I expressed not getting into ceramics for seven years.
I was gonna ask you about that. Sorry to interrupt you, but go ahead.
Yeah, sorry. I ramble on when it comes to- No, I love it. No, it's good. I was gonna ask.
When you did get into ceramics?
Yeah, I was young. I was a punk. I was a drug addict. I was just taking advantage and screwing off. I was a high functioning drug addict. I would say that I have almost 15 years of meth. Wow, jeez. Yeah, when I was young, and yeah, people that see me today online, or they meet me, they're like, you gotta be kidding, you know? Wow. But I was, I was deep into the escape of pain and feeling like I let myself down and huge imposter syndrome. Huge, huge lack of view of self. So I was showing up really half to my dad's place and really making it off of natural talent and ability. I've always been artistic. was always able to see things that he pointed out, even at a young age. I've always been blessed with really good eyes, but eyes for art, I could see things. And I really just sat back. I never really took that and made it my own. And so at a certain point, I realized that. I went to my dad and I told him. I said, I feel like I'm taking advantage of this situation and you're letting me and I need to do something else. And that's when I got in touch with Ray Foster. down in Las Vegas at Las Vegas Aesthetics. And he had the idea of starting up the first PFM department at LBI. And he said, would you come down here and do that? And so I went down and did that. I immediately got into ceramics and the rest was history. I mean, I have a lot of experiences after that, but as far as my dental career and becoming a full technician, of what I wanted to do. Ceramics was very easy for me to apply and learn, I would say, and keep learning just because of the foundation that I had, the foundation of waxing full contour, teaching people function and just visualizing that and knowing framework design and all, just all of that foundational stuff was really, really solid. And from teaching it in my dad's school, being able to teach that and teach that over and over and over, it just, the biggest gift is becoming a good teacher. It really is, looking back on all of that. And I try, that's what I try to teach people to do today, mostly, is be coachable and become a good teacher. Cause in that there's no limit. There's really no, there's no end. You just keep going, keep going, whether it's personally or professionally, you keep going. And so.
You came into work for your dad at what, 17?
17, yeah.
And then at what, how long did you work before you were teaching others?
Oh, immediately. Immediately, like he had me, I would say by the third month I was teaching. I was able to wax stuff and I was able to teach people.
And you didn't do it any before 17? No.
So I was teaching people, I was teaching his students model work and then starting to teach them waxing. And of course I wasn't into full mouth stuff. But each individual tooth, I could see it and I knew the important things to show people, right? There's a certain way of creating morphology and creating teeth and certain things to look for. And that became very obvious to me and I learned that very, very quick. I would say immediately those things that were important to see, like the reference points of a tooth. And, you know, we worked off the linic carving manual. All the students had linic carving manual. And, you know, we taught people how to create teeth and mostly teeth and function. You know, that was the beauty of being in with my father. It wasn't just about, of course, once I got to a certain stage, I had my idea of what teeth looked like. And boy was I wrong, you know? But the very first crown I did for myself, it was a gold crown. And my dad looked at it and said, well, that's fancy, isn't it? And I've, you know, I-.
He squeeze it and break it in front of your face.
Oh, and yeah, that's the, oh, I didn't even show it to him. If he took something like what I had done to him, you know, in wax, he would take a screwdriver to it.
Yeah.
You know, just to help humble you a little bit. And, but, you know, I had created too much anatomy and all of that. And I put it in, you know, I had it in my mouth and it wasn't a week. And I went, and asked to have it taken out. You know, it felt horrible.
Because it bothered your tongue probably.
Oh, and then it caught every bit of food and, you know, just all of that. And that's when it clicked. I realized, oh, like my dad designs teeth that work. And I really started paying attention to that. And, you know, I can still go over and pay attention and learn stuff about that from him today. As far as creating teeth that feel feel better than what someone expected and function better than what someone, so it's undetectable because of the comfort. We don't think about that. As technicians, we don't think about that. We don't think about the comfort of a patient. We just think, oh, we're going to cosmetically fix them and they're going to love it. And we all know today more people are getting cosmetic redone than ever. And it's mostly because they feel, it feels so foreign, feels horrible. And nobody, digital doesn't give you functional design. It doesn't. And so, there's more of that out there than ever. And I learned that at a young age. I learned that at a young age and I really tried to key in on that for myself. And I felt like that's been one of the big things that made me happy and successful with the work that I was doing, is learning that from him, creating functional aesthetic dentistry.
Yeah, I was humbled. I do a lot of removable and doing a lot of chair sides and I'm starting, these patients, they want me to wipe out any texture on these. and it's like, but you want that. They're like, no, I don't. And I'm like, all right. And then you start to realize why so many dentures are just flat. And I mean, that's just what the patient wants. And you got to remember they're the ones, you know, they're the ones that want that.
Yeah, it's a really big deal, isn't it?
Yeah, and you see some of these dentures on Instagram and I'm like, no patient would want that.
Yeah.
It looks so great. It's wonderful, but no.
Yeah, it's beautiful art, right? Yeah. And we see people on the ceramics end too. There's people that are very, very well known for making teeth that are extremely exaggerated, right? And You know, I've seen these people in person even. And when I leave, I think, well, that was nice art.
Yeah, it would never function.
No, but yeah, exactly.
It was fancy.
Yeah.
Fancy, yeah. He had a really nice way of putting that. Isn't that fancy? Like I should be wearing a skirt.
I can't go back. So you came to the school, you went to work for your dad, replacing your uncle, who you were extremely fond of. Did it kind of break your dad's heart a little bit when you were like, I gotta go? Like, it's what's for me.
Yeah, very much.
How did you make it through that? to get to the other side. And then your growth, especially?
Barb, that was a... You know what? We made it through that a few times.
Yeah. I worked with my dad. That's why I'm asking.
It was very hard. You know, it was very hard because, like I said, he was my hero. But I knew that I was I wasn't.
Your best self.
I wasn't my best self, and he had a way of not communicating stuff emotionally. And so I knew that I was not gonna be held accountable the right way. And so I needed to just go and create some space and see what I was, I didn't leave with the intentions of what happened. And but I, as soon as I left, I, especially going to LVI and, the leadership down there and then coming from where I was and seeing the difference in dentistry, boy, I immediately became so grateful for that whole situation that I had left. And I was grateful for the new one too, because it exposed me to things, I thought everything was like my dad and Gordon. I really is.
Yeah, isn't it weird when you see another lab and she's like, what?
Oh my God. Yeah, it blew my mind that everybody wasn't like that and every clinician didn't just love their technician and every clinician didn't pay their technician 30% of what they made. I thought, this is crazy. I thought that's just how it was. What am I doing? And it was good. It was good. It led me down the road of looking at bigger places, thinking I'd make more money and partnering up. I went from Ray's after one year, I got an opportunity to go out and buy out Tom Kelly. Kelly and Associates in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and was there for 11 months. And things just didn't, at that point, I realized I want to do my own thing. I didn't want to buy his operation. I learned a lot from him, though. I learned a lot from every place that I went to. And I mean, we could do 3 podcasts on the partnerships that I went and tried to be part of.
And how did you find him? Or how did he find you? How did that?
Well, I actually ran into his son, Tom Kelly. Is that what you're asking about? Yeah. his son, Patrick, down in St. Petersburg, Florida, at Olivier Trick's very first course in America on design. Lonnie Lee was putting on a course for Ivoclar, and he called and he said, hey, Mike, there's this guy you need to see. He's fresh off the boat. You have to see this guy.
Real quick, I work with Lonnie Lee now.
Oh, awesome.
He was one of my mentors, so that's great.
No, he's a dear friend of my dad's, and he was always so nice to me. I mean, if Lonnie, what I'm talking about. Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, I'll always respect and love him so much for the way that he treated me and opportunities that he kind of kept me looking at.
That's fantastic.
And so, yeah, we went down to Olivier Trick's course and, And yeah, that was back when Olivia was a real phenom. I mean, he was really at his peak ceramic wise and really young and couldn't explain any of it in a teachable way. He looked pretty though. Oh my God. Yeah, I was like, holy, I was just blown away. And it was on design porcelain. And I was really fresh with ceramics at that point, but I really understood even by watching, you know, I really, I was always able to learn by watching people. I didn't have to say I was a visual learner. And so Patrick and Patrick's a real artist. Patrick Kelly's a real artist. And so he and I kind of were the only two that didn't leave at noon for the rest of the course. A lot of people went to the beach and didn't come back. And really, really, really. And we went to dinner that night with Olivier and he asked, you know, why do you think that happened? And so it was interesting didn't talk about that stuff. But we all three became very good friends. And when I got back, it wasn't about a month later, Patrick Kelly's dad called me and he said, if you can come down here and do what my boy said you can do, I'll hire you. And so that was it. I wanted the opportunity thinking, oh, well, he's got a 36 man lab. This is gonna get me money. Yeah. my God, how funny. And where was that? Where was that around? It was in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tulsa, Oklahoma.
So you left LVI to go there?
I did. Okay, got it. I did. I did. It was about double the money that I was making down there with Ray. And Ray was really good. He was really good to me. Ray was awesome. He was really awesome. And I just knew it that, I knew after, that's when I first got clean, I would say, is when I left, I left my dad's, when I decided to leave my dad's, I got clean, I went down to Ray's. And after 11 months, that's when I decided to go to Tom's. I got that offer and I went out to Tom's because it was more money. And I knew, I knew I wasn't quite ready to come back home and I definitely wasn't ready to open my own thing. So I thought maybe I'll learn something or maybe I'll just make a load more money, which of course is not the case. You know the same, you know Elvis, like a bigger lab is just as hard as... is your own thing. if you're really wanting to do peak performance and make good money, there's no easy way. There's no easy way. You know, the management of people is a lot. It is a lot. And so I enjoyed my experiences. especially at Kelly Lab, working there, thinking, I'm gonna own this place. It really taught me a lot about my teaching and how to develop my teaching to become a better teacher. And after about 11 months, I just saw it wasn't really quite gonna be my baby. I couldn't make it my baby. And my dad happened to call me and said, if you wanna come back here and start your lab out of my place, I'd love for you to come back and work out of my school. And you can run your lab out of my facility if you'll help with the school. And I jumped on that immediately. And that was it. So I went back to my dad's and I started my own laboratory. I think a year later I was lecturing for GC when initial came to the country. I was with that first group of KOLs. and Michael Bruce's first course when GC brought initial over and Richard Atnay was my sales rep, Richie from California who's passed away now and he became a real dear friend of mine and got me into the lecturing scene and that was a really good thing too because boy talk about triggering your imposter syndrome. get up there on stage and start showing your stuff. And especially me, I knew what work was really good. I knew what good work looked like, and I knew who was good. And I knew mine wasn't that. And it took me a long time to believe that I really was worth it and could inspire people with my work, because I was always looking at and admiring other people.
Is that what you mean by imposter syndrome?
Yeah, yeah, walking in a room you've been invited to and feeling like you don't belong.
Okay.
A lot of technicians have it.
Yeah. Oh, yes. That's why we work in the dark.
That's why we're all in basement.
All of us have pale skin. Yeah. Yeah, no, it's, yeah, it's very, you know what? I would say dentistry is full of that, which is why our suicide rate is the highest. And, you know, that's really, really my goal today is to attack the mindset and kind of, that's why I've come out online like I have and I talk about things that I do. It's one for me, when I was going through my divorce, I ended up going through divorce here seven years ago. I started, seven and a half years ago, I started going through divorce and I wanted my girls to see me And I wanted myself to see me, like not be afraid. And to start, and there was times where I was away from my girls and I knew they were online all the time. And that's when I had a friend of mine, he said, you know, you ought to practice the exercise of just talking about stuff online. And I thought, you're crazy.
There's the F-bomb we've been waiting for.
Yeah, No, I can let it fly. I'm trying to be light with it, but I am real too. So if I let it fly, you guys can do what you want with it. But in going through divorce, you really, I can see why a lot of people don't make it. And if you have kids and that just everything, it's the scariest, hardest, dumbest thing that anybody can go through. And I immediately wanted to start looking at where did I miss stuff? What did I do? I didn't want to ever go through that again. Part of that was really learning to show up and not be afraid and getting rid of that imposter syndrome and I realized that's what online, like talking online, that's what it was doing for me. I was doing things and starting to talk about stuff that I didn't see other people in dentistry doing. I have known for a long time, especially as a recovering, recovered addict, that, yeah, dentistry, of course, is our highest suicide rate for this exact reason and many other things. There's a lot of things that go into that, right, with the debt and everything. But I just, I wanted to help people. I mostly wanted to help myself and show my kids that I was going to win again. That's kind of where my online journey and me talking about real life **** came from. Yeah. And consequently, nobody was DMing me about my work, ever. Nobody was private messaging, hey, oh, your work, you know, as soon as I started talking about **** then people were like, your work's awesome, but what you said ******* saved my life. Wow.
It's amazing what you can do with social media if you just It's crazy.
It's crazy. Yeah, I would say, yeah, a couple years ago when I ran into you, Elvis, in Chicago, that was the most humbling Chicago I've ever been to because I showed up there. I did a table clinic with Harvest Dental. I was walking around and everybody, I had so many people come up to me and it was all the same message. Even a guy from South Africa, he stops me as I'm walking there through the bar. They're at the hotel and his friend stops me. He says, hey, my friend's here. Okay. And this guy comes up to me from South Africa. He says, you're the only person I was hoping to see because of what you said. It saved my life. That's amazing. we need to not be afraid. it's we all we all have that thing that we that makes us similar and it's and it's emotions. It's our it's our it's our core value for life and humanity and like people are afraid to get honest with their broken and And so as much as I want to teach people to be coachable and be good teachers, I really want to teach people to be okay and vulnerable with themselves because that's what's going to save other people's lives. We're never going to save someone's life with a single central with a perfect ******* halo. We're never going to save someone's life. And you can save someone's life by just talking about some real **** you know, and what an incredible thing. And that's, I'm going to start my own group. I've got my own group that I need to do it because it's going to become like a job and I need, so I need to establish and do, I'm gonna start a group called Table 52.
Yeah, talk about that. Like what does that look, what is your vision?
Mindset, mindset. I want to bring in special guests, like I want Ed Mylett, I want Andy Fusilla, I want people that are real people that can really jump people about emotion, but talk about they're broken. People that aren't afraid to talk about they're broken. And I want people in dentistry to realize like it's okay. And especially like the clinicians and technicians I'm friends with. I've talked to many, many people that have called me since I've started talking online. about real stuff that have called me because they were just ready to hang it up. And that's what made me really think about, I just never thought, oh, I want to do this and monetize it, but if I'm going to make it. I spend a lot of time on the phone talking to people, and I have to be really choosy with that today, and I don't want to do that. I would like to start a safe place where people can come and just hear people talk about stuff and maybe take something away from it. But I really want to highlight people in the industry also and bring them in and let them talk about their experiences. And I just feel like I have a relationship with enough people, and they see that maybe I'm like McGruff House, if you guys are old enough have to know what my gruff house is. The crime dog? The crime dog. I don't know what you're talking about. It's like a safe place, right? You always see the gruff house like on the firehouse and stuff. Yeah. So I think people see me like that and because I do, I get a lot of messages whenever I take the time and put something out there and I haven't been doing that quite enough lately. I've been busy rebuilding business and that takes a lot today. And to build this group. I do want to build a group and I want it to be a safe place where people can come and just get mindset type stuff, but also like have the chance to talk about stuff too. I want it to be an open discussion place where we get to actually talk and answer questions and bring special guests in and just kind of elevate people personally, you know, and you kind of see a movement of that in people today, I think more than ever, right? No, I agree.
I mean, we've been doing this podcast for eight years and I'm I don't know, Barb, if you agree with me, but I've seen this trend of more and more people talking about that work-life balance. And just not being super stressed all the time and not taking things personal. And I think it's a great idea to have a place where people can openly talk about it.
Yeah. Or even just hear other people openly talking about it, right? So they don't think, oh, I'm alone. It's just me.
Yeah.
Cause that's the thing with addiction, Elvis. You know, like that's why, I mean, I can sit and talk to anybody about my drug past. Cause it's not about drugs. It's about escape and insecurity. That's why anybody does that. That's why anybody is a sex addict. That's why anybody has 1000 credit cards. That's what, you know what I mean? Like addiction is addiction and you have to decide whether it's healthy or whether it's escape from our insecurity. And as soon as it becomes escape from your insecurity, a heroin addict and a shopaholic, there's no difference.
Interesting, yeah.
We've all seen hoarders that, like that's a heroin addict on the street, but we all want to look at a drug addict and go, oh, druggie, you're dirty. No, that, it's not. You know, I hate that people want to sit and point the finger because I mean, drug addicts are only drug addicts because they were looking for escape from their insecurity. And so if I can normalize that for people, I'll feel like, you know, especially my kids, I just want them all to see how I've normalized that and never make that choice to do that. Never be so afraid that they think they can't talk to somebody about it.
How did, I mean, do you mind talking about how you got over your addiction? I mean, was it, did you seek help? Did you do it alone?
No, the first time I had, I had gotten help, but I had gotten help quite a few times, Elvis. I was from the age of 15 to 24, I had been in and out of trouble and been into rehabs, treatment centers, and all of them seemed pretty dumb, honestly. And most of them are dumb. Most of them are really . I can be honest about that too. Most of them really suck. I mean, you have counselors that just know a book, they don't really know how to heal a human. They don't. Yeah. You know, like you get somebody that's psychologically smart that actually has been there, then you're gonna help somebody. And I happened to end up in a place down in California and this was like the year before I ended up down at Ray's in Vegas. And that's, that was my shortest treatment center I'd been in, but there was a lot of ex-addicts there and they just, they really got to me. They got to me to, they got to me on the level of attempting to really like love and appreciate myself again. That was possible. And you know, I think that that's what's lacking with these treatment centers that are just ran by counselors that are booked.
It seems to me a lot of them are just, if I take you away from a chance of getting it, will cure you. I mean, that's how it seems to me from the outside is if I lock you up, you'll be over it. And I'm like, Oh, and that's 100% not it.
Yeah. Because the simple fact, like nobody really got someone to look at. Why are you trying to escape from your insecurity?
Yeah.
Why? Like it's nobody else. And that's the number one thing. That's it. That's it. As soon as somebody, as soon as I, and then that's what I got from the last treatment center that I went to was. was I realized, oh, that's all I'm doing. And it normalized everything for me. I didn't feel like this dirty kid that had all the ability in the world and had this dad who was really well known and I was ******* off and throwing everything away. And I didn't become a professional. I felt all I saw was all these things I let people down on. As soon as I saw like what I was doing and why I was doing it, really normalized everything for me. So that's really, and I've helped, I don't know, I've helped thousands of people, I think, with that mindset.
How did you stop beating yourself up? It just became clear what you were doing, so you just stopped.
Yeah, that becomes a choice, you know? I mean, one, when you look at it like what I just said, like why are we doing it? Then you have the choice, right? You have the choice of whether to keep looking forward, which requires a lot of faith. It does. People that lack faith, I'm scared to death for them. I don't know how they make it. You have to have a lot of faith in every aspect of life. You do. And you need to want to surround yourself with people that have real faith. And because you need to look forward even when you think you're not going forward, you know? But I knew in my mind what I had figured out and what I was told and shown gave me the choice to love myself again, gave me the choice to appreciate myself, gave me the choice to not see myself as this black sheep who had totally, you know, blown every chance and all of that. And yeah, it's amazing how you can turn your life around in a very, very, very short period of time. Wow. You know, because nobody cares about what you did. I have some real silly experiences that are really embarrassing, really well-known, really, and And people don't even care. People don't care about that at all. They care about how you show up and if you continue to show up the other way. That's all they care about. And so I. I try to keep helping me, and helping people with that and sharing your story like I am today. Yeah. That's the type of stuff that takes a lot of bravery, but that's the type of stuff that just reconfirms, hey, I'm ******* doing it. You know, I'm doing it. Like, who can, nobody can really hurt me today. I just sat and talked online with two really, really well-known, awesome people about some really scary ****.
Who are they?
Seemingly scary **** right? people are gonna judge me. And you know what? Like I haven't lost accounts online for swearing like I do or talking **** or like I think I, whatever, whatever I've done. I haven't lost people. And if I did, like they didn't really see me. So that's okay. You know? Yeah. And we need to be okay with that too. We don't want to please everybody. We want, you know, we don't want to, but we do want to be honest with ourself and we'll surround ourself with that core group of people and those same value people that'll keep us looking in the right direction. And that's a really is to just resurround yourself with people that uncomfortably bring to your life what you're needing, right? And a lot of times that's accountability and that's with a partner, that's with a work partner, you know, life partner, that's with friends too, right? We should surround ourselves not with people that give us hugs when we're on ourself, but actually hold us accountable and they bring that back to our life in which we're like not seeing or bringing to our own. And so I've just kept doing that. I've kept doing that. And especially in my darkest and hardest times.
You mentioned online. What are you, is there a forum that you've already created where you're doing this? Or is it Facebook? Is it, where is it?
Oh, no. I, you know what? So yeah, it's funny. Instagram is what I, never really did Facebook. I think my Instagram goes over to Facebook sometimes and sometimes it's screwed up and it doesn't. But.
And that might have been me saying Facebook. I can't. I can't tell which one I'm on.
Yeah, I'm on. I mean, I just happened to go over there, luckily, and caught your messages, because I was used to going over there and talking to my daughter, who was out of the country for a while on Messenger. But I got on Dagmara, who I'm with now. She's the one that really pushed me to start showing myself online and showing my work. And so I chose to do that on Instagram. And so, I would say I built my community off of Instagram, but my group, Table 52, that's gonna be a private, that'll be a private coaching group that I just, I have people actually joining. And I'm not exactly sure exactly where we'll do that. We'll have it settled here in the next month.
What's the significance of Table 52?
Well, thank you for asking. It was always the number on my race plate. It was always my favorite number. Like it was, it wasn't my baseball number. It went, but like my favorite number that came up in a lot of sayings and the number on my dirt bikes and stuff was 52. And when I finally decided how and what I wanted to do group wise and this past year, I realized like this, the year I turned 50, I turned 52 in November this year. And I just thought, that's what I'm calling it. I'm calling it table 52. And I want it to be a table so that it's a place that people visualize they can gather and sit around. It's close family type deal, just that there's a lot of significance with a table. I love it. Yeah. It's just, it feels like that's not what somebody would call it, but it's perfect for me.
Like how do I find you if I wanna join that? Like what do you do?
I'm gonna blast it on social media here in the next two weeks. So yeah, I'm gonna blast it out there. And there's just been a lot of things that I've been trying to get wrapped up with that. I was real hot and heavy on that here about a year ago, started working on dialing that in, how I wanted to do it, how I wanted it structured. And then I got doing this thing and became active with teaching again and dentistry, right? And I've been doing a bunch of stuff with Harvest and some other companies. And that took a lot of my focus business-wise. And that's been really rewarding too. It's put me back in front of people and I was kind of looking at actually getting out of dentistry, to be honest.
What the hell would you do? Baseball? Come on.
Well, I was really faced with that. I had my biggest partner, Joe Willardson in Vegas. He was my biggest clinical partner and he was a dear friend and he was a real partner, like a real, like I would have worked in-house with them. We talked about that. And when we moved back from Indiana and Dagmara closed her doors, she went on maternity leave at 8 1/2 months with Roxy, our second child. We decided to come back to Utah because I had twin daughters here that were graduating, but Joe was my biggest account. And I was really looking to build a big education thing with him and he unexpectedly passed away, you know, at 53. Wow. Yeah, he raced dirt bikes, mountain bikes, everything. Super well known, super credited and educated, and one of the best clinicians I've ever worked with, period. And the nicest dude in the world, I mean, you never guessed on his work. Everything was just flawless, but we communicated well And he really was awesome. But he was about 70% of my work, I would say. And he came home from a mountain bike ride and he laid down for a nap and didn't wake up.
Yikes.
Yeah, just didn't feel that good to lay down and that happens. And that left me about a year, I guess that was a year and a half ago now. And that really left me thinking and realizing relationships are much different in dentistry today, And that wanting to sit back like Geppetto in your workshop, that's too vulnerable of a spot. And, you know, I wasn't recreating my version of these other bigger laboratories that I went in. And so it just had me really looking at stuff and what I wanted to do. I didn't want to be left vulnerable like that again. You know, I have a significant amount of bills and stuff and-.
70% is a lot.
Yeah, it was a really scary time. Really scary time. And so in that, I wasn't quite sure. I tried to rebuild a lot of stuff. A lot of things didn't work, but I look at my experience over the past, like from a year and a half ago for that following year, and God had me on ice for a reason. He wanted me to be okay with being stripped of things and be okay with all of those little things I was hiding behind with my work. Honestly, that's how I see it. And that's honestly what I feel. I was, it's easy to hide behind work if you get good at what you do. And, you know, there were little things I was doing that and I identified with stuff too much, all my toys and all my this and that and all these things that made me feel like I looked better than I really viewed myself or may have been. And, you know, we're going in, we're definitely in the hardest times that we've ever had in society, right? And I think God wants all of us to rise up and become a better version of self and be cooler to people and be a better leader. And I know that there's a certain part of that I was born with. I was born to do more with myself and I wasn't going to do more with myself if I didn't get real honest with being okay, with being stripped of everything. And so I went through that and I feel like I was stripped of all material things. I wasn't able to replace things. And I became okay with that. And in becoming okay with that, I got opportunities to put myself out there business-wise again and doing some stuff. And I wanted to do that a certain way. Like I said, I've already lectured before. I don't want to go in with some company that's going to ***** me out. You have to put our name on your post. that. Get out of here. Get out of here. Get out of here. I've been doing this 34 years. I'm going into my 35th year. I'm not putting someone's name on just because they tell me, like, keep your material. You know what I mean? Get out of here. A lot of people fall in that trap, right? And I coach a lot of those people privately online. And we have some of our most beautiful artists, right? And they all struggle with that because at a certain point, you realize you have more to offer than just this post that you're required to make with a company name on it. So the people that I represent today, I represent them because I love and respect them and we have real relationships and they don't ask me to do that goofy stuff. They love me for who I am and how I actually inspire people and the product is the second.
And it comes across more genuine to the audience.
Yeah, thank you.
Harvest is amazing, that's for sure.
Yeah, Harvest.
Yeah, those are great people there.
Great people, relationship people, you know, like Sasha, anybody that knows Sasha. I mean, that's, he and I have been friends for a long time and he's always been good to me. And he, I mean, look, he's an artist too. You know, nobody has come out with more impactful, sexy, dental stuff than Sasha and that he's very intelligent. He's a creative and I've always loved that about him. And so the timing of, you know, he approached me. He approached me and just said, would you be willing to do stuff and like teach people, teach people and have harvest be the second to you teaching people? I said, yeah, put me out there. Yeah, it's easy. It's been awesome. It's been really fun to get reconnected and actually get back out and get across the country and see a bunch of different laboratories that I didn't even know. I hadn't been out lecturing for over 15 years. just getting a better idea for the industry too, the industry and where we're at.
Lots change in 15 years.
Holy hell. And sitting in with the biggest printing companies and these companies that are going after the clinicians and the clinicians are our market now, right? Like they are the modern technician. And these companies coming out, like that's their market. It's not the technician as much anymore. It's the clinician. And so sitting in and getting to be part of meetings and stuff with these people also and realize, they need help with education. They do because they're just developing stuff and putting it to market. And I want to be that voice. I'm not afraid to speak my truth and speak how I feel about something and tell them your sales reps suck. Yeah. They don't know anything. Your sales reps suck. They're just they're out there trying to just get numbers. They regurgitate the white sheet. Yeah. And there's no education. There's no support. Who's doing that? Like, why are we doing that? That's, you know, I would say if there's anything that's damaging the industry, it's the sale before the integrity and the education and the support, you know, like dentistry was really cool mom and pop type thing, right? With companies and technicians and laboratories before. And we've seen that really go away. And that's the other reason I love Harvest too. It's like they really do. They're a relationship based company. And I, and yeah, so that's to do stuff with them. And you know, like they've come up with some cool stuff. We've got the maker series, we have open bench that we do every Tuesday. And what's open bench?
What is that? Open.
Bench is just me sitting down ripping on a couple products, techniques and, and like just kind of showing techniques, whether it be like micro layering and, and, you know, we're using some we're using harvest products, but the harvest product is the byproduct is the secondary to the actual like giving value to the technician. And so I just had Jed on. Jed was my first special guest talking about printing and digital.
How'd you book him? No, I'm just kidding. Yeah.
Yeah, I don't know how I got him away from everything he's doing. But yeah, it was awesome because Jed on the digital end is just a monster. He's a monster. And what a gift to have someone that's taken analog, as we were taught, and been able to convert that over to, this is a dude writing code for the biggest companies in the industry. So he's a real asset, but I'm gonna, yeah, open benches. Is this something we've started? Yeah, just showing techniques and materials and how to use them and how to try to elevate. Just give somebody a little something and then we open it up to the people that attend. They can ask questions and we answer questions. That's cool. So we're going to start. I actually have Nina coming on, Fed, Nina Silon and Stefan Robach. Yeah. You know, good friends that actually are real people that can bring some massive value. I'm bringing on special guests like that can bring a lot of massive value. And so we'll see what it turns into. I don't know. It's cool. It's cool.
How do we find it?
Open bench. So you can register for free. I think it's on, I think it's on Harvest website.
Okay.
I'm gonna check it out. Yeah, please do. It's every Tuesday. And then we're gonna, we're starting a secondary education thing called practice room. And I'm gonna call it panic room because it's the end of the day. Every other, every other, and that'll be bi-weekly, like every other week. And that'll be towards the end of the day. And we're gonna start that up on the 16th. Just for people, because I do, I go into a lot of laboratories that are big and do some education. These people can't really break away. Right, exactly. Right, at 9am, 10am on a Tuesday. You know, I'm not even gonna ask them, but, so we're gonna start a secondary thing that's kind of bi-weekly where people can join in towards the end of the day. And so yeah, it's been fun. And in that, like, I mean, Harvest sent out a kid that filmed like me doing some content stuff here. And we went for a walk. We went for a walk down the path here by the river just to go get some lunch and back and just got talking ****. And we got back, he said, dude, I'm going to make a whole series out of that walk. I was like, whatever, dude. And then like a week later, we hop on a call and he's like, hey, look at this maker series. What do you think? I was just like, wow, dude, someone just caught me like unscripted, un... Like didn't even know. Like we were just walking to go get lunch, and it's really cool. Cause it's like, it's talking about emotionally, like how I am and how I look at stuff and how I feel and the escape to truth. I do, I seek nature often, and it's, we like to wrap up that word nature with teeth. But I really do love nature. I'm a big, big outdoorsman. And today more than ever, I'm not just up in the mountains. I literally make it a point to get out of cell phone service multiple times a week. Wow. And that's the reset for me, you know? I'm obviously, I've been talking the whole time and this isn't even my show.
No, we love it.
I wake up with anxiety, you know? I'm just that person. I'm extreme most like ADD and they probably would label it something else. And ADHD, all of that. Whatever. They can label it whatever they want. But I wake up anxious and wanting to perform thinking I'm going to miss stuff. And I'm like that all week. I really go hard. And the only way for me to really take care of myself is to make sure that I take a break. And I take my whole family with me. Dagmara's been awesome. She and I, we go, and we have a five-year-old and three-year-old, and ever since they were born, they've been in backpacks going with us. And we just go, and there's something about, we're really lucky out west. We have BLM land. We have all this open land that's free. Anybody can go enjoy. And I've lived out in the Midwest and back east. You don't have it. You don't have it. You don't have it. You guys can die. You need to come out here.
As I sit in Indiana, where I know you used to be, I get it.
Yeah, and then Indiana was, yeah, Indiana was tough to find it. was really tough. We hit every single lake and river possible, Dagmar and I in Indiana. We go to Lake Michigan all the time. We go kayaking. And that was cool. But like being here where, I mean, we can go, I have a spot here up the canyon that's 15 minutes away and I'm out of cell phone service. And there's something about as soon as you get out of cell phone service, you're able to breathe and eventually start to feel. And I really, ever since Joe passed away, I've been very grateful for that. But just me and my recovery and all of it, I grew up in the outdoors and loving the outdoors, but today more than ever, I know it's just that balance because I really do want to perform and give a lot to everybody throughout the week. And it's very important. Like, I don't know about balance, Elvis. Like if I showed you the way that we pack our vehicle just for a day trip, you'd say, Jesus, this guy plays harder than most people work. And we do. We do. I don't know about balance, but the balance of the reset, like that reset, we have to seek that reset. We do. And working out is okay. Going to the gym, whatever, that's okay. But there's something about getting to silence where you're actually able to feel and witness nature, right? There's something about nature. Here's the thing about nature. Every single thing you see is true. Every single thing you see is true. If you get attacked by a bear, Who gives a ****? If you go in the ocean, you get attacked by a shark, great. Yeah, that's something that, it's true. Even the very worst things, and that's why they're so beautiful, right? Every single thing that we see, it's true. And that's how I see it. And we're surrounded by all this **** today. We have to perform and we have to watch how many times we say ****. And we, you know, we have to, I stopped watching the news as soon as the pandemic hit. I really did. I stopped watching the news and I don't need You know, we're surrounded by chaos and that that that seeking and finding that reset where we're able to just sit and feel and listen to the water or listen to the wind and breathe like it's it. That's what I without that, I think I'd be dead.
You make me want to turn off my cell phone and go stand in a cornfield. Do it.
Let's turn this mother off.
Yeah, I can't get out of cell service, but just just having it there, knowing it's on. Oh, I got to get. out of it. And I'm the worst about it.
Yeah, no, we're always looking right. We're always looking to see Oh, did I miss him or panicky.
Every vibration is something. And then I'm like.
Oh, yeah, I wake up like that. Oh, Jesus did a doctor message me. I hope I get back to him in time.
Oh, yes.
Yeah. It's crazy. It's crazy. And so that, yeah, that seeking. Yeah, that seeking solitude and silence in nature where you're surrounded by truth. However people can do that, I really would push people to try and find that for themselves. And in Indiana, we found escape. We did, but we'd have to go down some muddy little river. Sure. But we got a kayak and we would go do that. And yeah, you witness beauty, right? Like you see baby ducks with their mom and birds and you hear the water and it's a different feeling. It gives you the chance to reset. The opportunity to choose, right? And I don't really get that. I don't find that in society. I don't find that for myself. I'm always trying to navigate correctly and make it, right? I think we all are. Yeah, and I always want more. Like, I want too much out of myself, too. I realize that. I want, there is a lot to making it today. And it's good for us to force ourselves to take that break. And, you know, at all of my kids and I'm showing them how to do that. And I'm really grateful because I would never want them to see me and see, oh, we just need to work hard. You know, like old school mentality of like, just work hard. Like, great. Thanks. Thanks a lot.
Like that does not equal success in life.
It does not. It is not people that just work hard. I like great. Good for you, bro. I'm really happy. Everybody can learn to just work hard, but to work hard and then to like take care of yourself and to show your family like a healthy lifestyle away from work. that's going through one marriage already and into another. Like I realized for me, that's the most important. I really want to show them if I'm gone tomorrow, I want them to know the things that were most important for them to make it. And it isn't just work hard.
Awesome. Well said.
Mike, that's beautiful stuff, man.
Thank you.
Guys are so awesome, man. You know, I have to tell you, guys are the only reason that I held back from Dagmar and I starting our Real Dentistry podcast. And when we started Real Dentistry, it was cool because that was during the pandemic and we really wanted to do a podcast. And I started really noticing and following you guys and then met you in Chicago. And I was like, you know what? I think you and I even had a conversation about some of the other cheese balls that were out there trying to do it.
Yeah.
And I was like, I'm not going to do that. I really love and respect you guys a lot. And And yeah, you've made it an art. You've made it an art. And it's a real, and it's a gift. It's awesome. It's awesome. The industry needs it. And I surely wasn't going to do it if I wasn't ready to do it for real. And you guys are doing it for real. And I just appreciate you guys for that so much and the info that you brought and shared to the industry. And I appreciate you so much for believing and trusting me to bring the black sheep of the Archibalds on your podcast.
It was awesome.
It was. This is a conversation. It's one that I think I'm always going to remember, Mike, and I appreciate you.
Well, I appreciate you too. Thank you so much, man.
Thank you.
Table 52. We're all going to be looking for it.
All right, guys. Love you.
All right. Have a good one.
Have an awesome weekend. You too.
A big giant thanks to Mike for coming on the podcast and telling us your story. It's pretty incredible reminder that even when someone looks like they have everything figured out, the talent, the experience, the family name, the career, there can still be a whole lot happening underneath the surface. So do a check everybody. We covered a lot from functional dentistry, teaching, imposter syndrome, recovery, relationships, mindset, to the importance of giving yourself permission to step away from the noise every once in a while. We definitely want to keep an eye out for table 52 and he explains that obviously as Mike continues building that community around mindset, honesty, and real conversations. Y'all should go check out Open Bench and Mike's continued focus on education and helping technicians become better at what they do. He has clearly found a way to turn a lot of his hardest experiences into something that can help other people. That's a pretty awesome thing. He actually helped me, honestly. So find a link on this episode's show notes.
All right, everybody. That's all we got for you. And we'll talk to you next week. Good luck, Elvis. Bye. The beignet.
Beignet is like a nice little yummy donut.
Oh, I think it is called a donut. 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.