From Financial Planner to Dental Industry Influencer: John Stamper’s Journey on AADOM Radio
Join AADOM founder Heather Colicchio as she sits down with members of the AADOM Influencer Program to help you get to know the faces behind the influence!
Hear from these inspiring dental leaders as they share their unique stories, career paths, and what drives their passion for leadership in the dental industry. Heather and the influencers discuss what it means to be a trusted resource in the field, offering a behind-the-scenes look at their roles, insights, and advice for success.
Join us to meet the AADOM influencers and discover what makes each of them an integral part of the AADOM community!
Read the Transcript Now!
Heather: Hey, AADOM tribe, AADOM Nation! It’s Heather Colicchio—AADOM Founder and President—here with you today on AADOM radio with a very special guest. You all know him and love him. We’re here today with John Stamper in the first of our AADOM Influencer series.
So, John, this is a bit of a switcheroo. Welcome to AADOM Radio.
John: This is awesome! This is such a treat. It’s good to be on the other side and I promised you, Heather, as we’ll share with everybody, that you’re going to kind of take the lead on this. So, yeah, I’m looking forward to this.
The Purpose of the AADOM Influencer Program
Heather: Absolutely! Yeah, so I wanted to talk with you today. So, as you know, and hopefully our members know—this year we launched the AADOM Influencer series. So, it’s still kind of, you know, little new baby program. But I really want to get it out there big time.
So, what it is—it was my way of saying, “How do we take the people in the industry, the dental industry, who we know love office managers and kind of, you know, we have one kind of joint messaging with them, right? We’re all saying the same thing. So how do we all get together and work together for the love of office managers?”
And that’s how AADOM Influencer program was built. It’s an invitation only program and you were one of the first ones we invited. And I appreciate you saying yes.
So, you know, we look forward to you sharing the message and the mission of AADOM with your people, with your tribe. But I want our people today to become more familiar with you, John—who you are and what you do.
So, how does that sound?
John: That sounds great! Yeah, it’s an absolute honor to do this.
Like you mentioned, kind of whether it be hosting AADOM Radio or a lot of the things we’ve done on social media for so many years at AADOM—it’s just kind of become a part of my week, right?
I mean, I start the week with: who are we talking to today? And, more importantly, how can we educate AADOM and bring everybody together? So, yeah, definitely a privilege to be asked to do this.
Heather: Well, thank you. And thank you for being on the journey with us. So, for anyone listening, if you go to AADOM Radio on Spotify or on Apple, or if you go to AADOM TV on YouTube, that’s John that you see there, the John I’m speaking with today.
So, John, I think what would be really helpful for everyone listening and for me as well—you and I’ve worked together a long time, but I don’t fully know your dental background. So, if you wouldn’t mind taking everybody back a little bit, letting us know how you got started in dentistry and what your dental journey has been like.
The Journey Toward Dentistry
John: Yeah, I’d love to.
So, the journey actually started—I was sitting at dinner with a friend in Southern California in 2004, maybe it was the end of 2003. And, at the time, I was working as a financial planner for a company called Edward Jones in Southern California. And, like anybody that starts that type of business, it was very difficult, very challenging.
And, so, he came up to me and said, “Hey, the company that I work for is looking to hire somebody in California and Nevada to start repping dental hand pieces. What do you think about this?”
And being in the dental industry, I was like, “Oh, it sounds like a great opportunity.”
So, I looked into it, did the interview, and got the job. So, my first entrée, Heather, into dentistry, was working for Brasseler USA, a company that many of our audience may know of, you know—diamonds and carbides and burrs and polishers and all of that.
But when I came on board, they brought in the NSK handpieces. And, so, it was a new addition to their line. And I was responsible for working with all the reps in California and Las Vegas, to be able to introduce those handpieces to dental practices.
So, my first two years, I traveled to so many dental practices in California and Nevada. I learned a ton. I was very spoiled because at the time, Heather, a lot of some of the top key opinion leaders back in that time, whether it be Frank Spear or David Hornbrook, or some of the clinicians at UCLA and USC—they were all Brassseler customers.
So, I got a chance to not only work with them, but also learn a lot from them. And, so, it was a great opportunity and that’s kind of how it all got started.
Heather: Okay, that’s crazy. I never knew you were a financial planner. So, that is very, very interesting. And I’m surprised that when your friend came to you and said, “Hey, do you want to rep dental hand pieces,” they actually said that sounds interesting? Because if you’re not from the dental world, that actually kind of sounds incredibly boring in my opinion.
But it’s not until you get into dentistry that all the things become like, you realize how fascinating they are. So, I’m happy you took that leap of faith and that you saw something shiny there. You know, no pun intended.
John: I think it was—I mean, honestly, the world of financial planning at the time—I got my license in 2001, right after everything happened with September 11th. And I remember being out there knocking on doors. I was a young kid. I was obviously, you know, asking people if they needed someone to help manage their money.
And, so, it was challenging. And, so, I think that the idea of getting into an industry, at least at that time that felt very stable, was kind of the catalyst for that. And now here we are 20 years later, which is crazy.
Heather: Right, which is how old AADOM is. So, we’ve been in dentistry the same amount of time. And yeah, right after 911, it probably wasn’t a great time to be talking about financial planning. The whole world was topsy-turvy.
But that’s something I’ve really come to learn and appreciate and love about dentistry is that it is so stable, right? No matter what other industries are going super high or super low, dentistry just seems to ride the wave—nice and steady. So, it’s a great industry.
So, when you were repping at Brasseler, you were actually going into the practices?
John: Yeah. So, the way that it worked is, I was—a technical name, I guess, was a handpiece specialist. And so, the reps had all of their offices that they would go into. And whenever they had an office that was interested in demoing our handpieces, I would go work with them.
In some cases, I would just spend a couple of days with them when they were going around to their practices, introducing the handpieces. Many times, they would just say, “Hey, John, if you could fly up to San Francisco for the week, I’ve got five or six different dental practices that want to demo the electric hand pieces.”
And, so, that’s what I got a chance to do. I traveled a lot in those two years and learned a ton. Of course, I went to a lot of the dental shows all over the country. And so, yeah, it was fun.
Heather: And what was your next step in your dental journey?
John: I was there for two years and then got promoted to regional manager. So, I moved from Southern California to Ohio, where I’m from, and took over a region of Brasseler reps. I think I had like 15 reps and was a regional manager there for a couple of years.
Then I discovered something. I actually had one of my reps in the Cleveland, Ohio area that was struggling a little bit. An interesting story.
He was about to be let go. And, so, I wanted to—I really liked the guy. I thought his practices really liked him. And, I thought, “Let me dig into this.”
And what I discovered, Heather, was that when the company had brought on a lot of different product lines, these reps didn’t have a lot of time to be able to talk about everything. We all know, and of course office managers know this—you have reps coming into your practice all the time and maybe you give them a couple minutes.
But, the fact of the matter is that, as the company had grown, there was a lot of smaller business that that he was losing because he was focusing on some of the product lines. And so, I had created a report for the organization that brought me down to Savannah where the headquarters were, to start an inside sales team.
We hired 40 younger people from around the country to then start calling the practices on the phone. And so that was kind of one of my projects at Brasseler, was to not only build this inside sales team, but then also build a farm system, so whenever we needed to fill the outside sales positions, I was teaching all of these individuals dentistry.
And, so, we kind of taught them there. And then when they went out into the field, they were qualified to do that. So that was kind of my last, I guess, time at Brasseler, the last three years that I was there.
Heather: That is very exciting! I mean, to just be able to be building is just always exciting. So, to be called in and be able to build something out is really exciting. In fact, that you saw the need and said, “Let me let me handle this.” Love it.
So, let me ask you: When you were doing all these different things and when you were going into the practices, back then—I mean, you were almost invited in, so it might be a little different than reps who are sort of cold calling. What was your impression, initially, of office managers?
Building a Relationship with Dental Office Managers
John: Yeah, I learned early on—I think it’s so interesting, Heather, that we’ve had this relationship and I’ve been able to be a part of AADOM, because I learned early on how important it was to build a relationship with everybody in the practice, and especially the office manager.
Yes, a lot of times I would be invited in. And, so, hopefully my name was left at the front that I was coming in that day. But it wasn’t, as you can imagine, it wasn’t always with the office manager. It could have been with the dentist or dental assistant or what have you.
And, so, right off the bat, I had to learn and understand how to build that relationship. And so, it really started early on for me.
And another story with that is with the dental assistant. You know, I learned early on that in the world of dental hand pieces, that when the hand piece is starting to fail, the person that typically hears it as the dental assistant, when the doctor is frustrated because they’re having a challenge with it.
And so, whether it was the office manager or even the dental assistant, whenever I’d get an opportunity to come into the practice, I would also try to build a relationship with those individuals because I knew that when the time came and when the doctor was ready to buy, hopefully I’d built a good enough relationship with them of trust that then they would refer me.
So, I almost kind of built my own little network of office managers and dental assistants in the practices that I worked in.
Heather: I love that, John. I love that. Because when I started AADOM, what was most glaring to me, having no dental background like you, is that all the companies just wanted to go right to the dentist, right to the dentist.
And, yeah, the dentist is important, but there’s a whole team involved and a whole team that makes decisions and a whole team who have different needs within the practice.
So, that was so smart of you to sort of align with the assistants, because to your point, they would have been the ones—the first ones to notice, “We need a new handpiece in this practice.” So, I love that you were very forward thinking on.
So, after Brasseler, then what?
Working Along with a DSO
John: So, I moved from Savannah, Georgia to Louisville, Kentucky, where I live now. And I’ve been here since 2012. And this is kind of where the dental world for me started to connect.
I then worked for Mortenson Dental Partners, which is a DSO here in Louisville, Kentucky. And they brought me on to help the dental practices with unscheduled treatment.
And it’s kind of an interesting story, Heather, because at the time, my wife had a very good family friend that was a practicing dentist at Mortenson. And, he had just kind of let me know that the owner at the time, Dr. Wayne Mortenson, was looking for an outsider—somebody in the dental industry, but maybe that was in sales that could come in and maybe infuse some different ideas into this DSO.
At the time, they had, I guess, maybe, I don’t know, 75 practices. But my job was, as I went into a couple of the offices—I got into Open Dental and I got into the practice management system unscheduled treatment list—and it blew my mind!
I was like looking at this thing. I was asking people in the practice. I’d be like, “So, let me just get this straight. So, these are all patients that were in here and then treatment got diagnosed, and what like what’s the status?”
Because, coming from a sales background, Heather, right? Like, everything is like opportunity, opportunity, opportunity, right? Like, if you get a lead, you go, you know?
And so, it was very interesting to be in a dental practice and to see all this treatment that could get done to help these practices grow and get these patients, you know, closer to dental health.
And so, I brought that to the, to the leadership team at Mortenson. And so, I said, “Okay, in these six practices that I went to, there are millions of dollars of unscheduled treatment.” And so basically my job for the next two years, as they were both growing, was to go around to their practices around the country and work with their teams on innovative ways to figure out how to get that unscheduled treatment done.
So that was kind of my next three year stint was working for a DSO.
Heather: I love that. I never knew that either. I knew you were with Morrison, but I didn’t realize that was your responsibility. And yeah, I mean, that must’ve been eye-opening, right?
You go in and see all this unscheduled treatment. And like you said, two things: One, millions of dollars being left on the table. And two, all the untreated dental procedures that need to be done for everyone’s health.
Helping Dental Practices to Experience Growth
John: I was just going to say, and this is 2012, Heather. So, think back of, you know, a lot of the newer patient engagement tools and a lot of the newer technologies, certainly AI was not going on back then. So really, what it was, was that working with them to print out that list and them on top of their already busy day, finding a time to make the calls, which wasn’t easy.
And one of my favorite stories, and this goes back to what you were asking about. Any company truly understanding everybody in the dental practice—the office manager, the dental assistant, the hygienist, you know, all of them and how important the role that they play—is I got a chance to go present for one of the practices and show them the unscheduled treatment. And I was talking about goals and the practice.
And one of the hygienists came up to me afterwards and she said, “Okay, John, listen. I don’t really know who you think you are, but nobody’s going to come into our practice. I come in this practice every day, working in a patient’s mouth. I don’t want to be thinking about money in production.”
And I remember that so vividly, Heather, because I went home that night, and I thought to myself, “Okay, right?” Like, even though, yes, that was kind of part of her job and what I was there to do, I really had to go back to the drawing board and think to myself, “If we’re going to help this practice grow, we’re I’m going to have to think of a different way to frame it.”
Because the whole idea of going in and talking about production and money doesn’t always work.
Heather: No. And was that a dentist or an assistant who said that?
John: That was a hygienist that had said that.
Heather: Hygienist. I’m sorry. Okay.
John: So, that was a hygienist, but there were office managers as well, right? Kind of the same thing that, as you know so well, they were just trying to kind of figure out a way to kind of make the practice move, let alone having somebody come in here and share with them—there’s all this opportunity and now build these systems and figure out a way to get this treatment done.
There’s a lot of pressure, you know?
Heather: Yeah. I’ve come to know a lot of practices don’t like outsiders just stepping in and telling them how to do their job, which I can respect and I’m sure the same in any industry.
And, like you said, this is probably just, you know, a decade or a little more than a decade ago, but in dental years, like a century ago, when you look at the technology that has come about in the last 10 years. It’s like you said, automated patient reminders and things that we maybe take for granted.
So, what were some of the solutions you presented?
John: It’s a great question. I went back to the drawing board and here’s kind of the way that I looked at it.
I drew a graph and on the graph was 0 on the left side, 100 on the right side. And I would get on this white board for the practices and I would come in there and say, “Okay, I got a bag and in this bag is all of your patients in your practice, right? And I’m going to flip this bag over. We’re going to drop these patients on this graph. Okay?”
“Now, 0 is meaning they’re not healthy at all and 100 is that they’re a hundred percent dental healthy, just coming in for cleanings. Right.”
“So, when I dropped this bag of patients on this graph, let’s go through here. What percentage do you think are like, you know, 0 to 10 percent healthy and 10 to 20?”
And, all of a sudden, Heather, what I recognize is that like, they started to get engaged because now it was like, we were speaking their language, right? Which is, “Oh yeah, we got a lot of patients that are barely healthy in this and that.”
So, I would draw them on that graph. And then I would just ask them one question. I would say, “Okay, collectively as a team, with the reason why you came in the dentistry, would you say that your goal is to move as many of these patients from 0 to 100 percent dental health on a daily basis?”
And it was a unanimously, YES, right?
So, I said, “Okay, here’s the thing: If we move a good majority of those patients and get this treatment done from 0 to 100, what do you think happens to the production in the practice?”
And that’s what turned things around, right? And, so, that was kind of the new story that I had to craft. And of course, when I went into all the different practices, I had created a goal tracker to help them hit their production goals, but it all started with that story.
And, you know, it’s kind of like what you said. Until I could really, truly understand the challenges that they had and craft a solution so that they were on board, nothing I said was going to matter.
Heather: No. And I’m just so impressed that you were able to take that. I’m glad the hygienist spoke up—but take that and then reframe it. Because all you do is just reframe it, really. It’s just a different psychology, a different why. Same outcome.
That’s not something everyone can do or see. So, kudos to you for that. And that’s, wow, that’s really impressive.
So, I would imagine a lot of these practices started seeing their re-care appointments fill up.
John: They did. And just getting a lot of the treatment done. I think they were a little bit more excited about it. Like I said, we had built a goal tracker for a lot of the practices and they, you know, they started to create programs in the beginning of the year where if they wanted to do something at the end of the year, go on the trips. I mean, all kinds of fun things, obviously that we’ve heard, you know, AADOM practices do over the years to really kind of get everybody engaged.
But it was great. It was a great experience for me. And here’s the one thing that I realized, and it’s funny how I sit in this seat now because spending years selling practice to a dental practice and then being on the other side of the desk and working with the teams—one takeaway that I will always remember is that how both sides genuinely wanted the other one to listen. Right?
So, meaning like a lot of times dental companies can feel like the practice is so busy, they’re not really interested in their technologies.
They are! They’re just busy taking care of patients.
And likewise, dental practices may feel like a lot of the reps that are coming in or just, you know, going on their milk run. But the reality is that like, if they have a product that they believe in, they really want the practices to at least know about it.
So that was kind of the world that I got to live in the center of that, which I really believe is kind of the root of why I do what I do now, you know, which is to showcase companies and be a connector.
Heather: You are. That’s a perfect word for you. You are such a connector. And, yeah, what a unique position to have seen all sides of it. And truly, at the end of the day, everyone is doing their job because they’re passionate about their job. But we are busy. It’s a busy world. And the fact that you can kind of break through that and connect is wonderful.
And I would imagine going back to the practices, you know, oftentimes in dental marketing, it’s all about bringing in new patients, new patients. But we know it’s, you know, you, quote “low hanging fruit.” You want to bring in the patients who have already seen you and like you and trust you.
I would imagine they had a mind shift after working with you for some time saying, “Wow, this is easier to fill the schedule with patients we already know than always trying to bring in new patients.”
John: No question. And you know, it’s interesting—that really, even to this day, Heather, it’s difficult for me. I mean, I understand what a practice has to do and some of the things they incorporate to bring in new patients. I realize that’s kind of like the lifeblood or what have you.
But, you could look at probably any dental practice in the country and we all know it and the practices know it. Like how many patients are currently there that have been there for one, two, five, ten visits. They need treatment to get done.
And if they could figure out ways to connect with those patients and help them, it takes a lot of the load off of them feeling like they always have to have these high levels of new patients. It’s just the nature.
Heather: Yeah. And then, you know, the more the patient comes back and receives good treatment and sees improvement in oral health, more loyal they are and the more consistent they’ll be in their dental visits.
John: Absolutely.
Heather: So, from Mortenson, then I guess I knew you then. You are an entrepreneur at heart, and I’ve known you in different entrepreneurial role roles. So, all of them so important to the dental industry.
If you could give our listeners some highlights of some of the things that you have created, that you have brought to dentistry, as John Stamper.
Helping Improve the Dental Industry
John: Yeah. So, this is where the seatbelt comes off.
Heather: I’m putting my seatbelt on.
John: That’s right.
Yeah, this is where I go home to my sweet wife, Hillary, and I say, “I’m going to start a company.”
And, well, “Are you going to leave Mortenson?”
And I’m like, “I’m going to try to stay there as long as I can.”
But yeah, this is kind of where the journey really began. And here’s kind of where it started.
Two hygienists at Mortenson were audited by their dental board and they didn’t have their certificates. And I thought to myself, “Wait a minute. Is there not a place online? This is 2013, right? Is there not a place online where you can automatically kind of house all your certificates? And then therefore you have them all in one place in you ever get audited?”
Well, there wasn’t. And so that’s kind of what kicked things off for me. Started my first company called the Dental Exchange. It was this big platform. It was all rooted in a CE tracking tool that any dentist and hygienist and dental assistant across the country, based on what state they were, could log in. They could upload their stuff. It would track them against their state hours.
And what happened was—I had a real big vision. Like, I built a job board, I built a sub hub, which is where, at the time, you know, if a practice needed subs, we had like forums on there. Like, I mean, I really went in big, right? So, a lot of lessons. Built this big, massive website and spent a lot of money.
But what happened was that I partnered with the Kentucky Board of Dentistry. And they said, “Wait a minute. We’ve had a hard time kind of like looking at our licensees to seeing like where their certificates are. Could you build us backend access to all of our licenses as they upload their stuff? And if you do, we will have all dentists and hygienists in the state of Kentucky on your platform.”
And I thought, “This is amazing.
And so that all happened. And in a matter of a month or two, we had 7, 000 dental professionals on the site using the tracking tool. And I thought to myself, “If I can get four or five more dental boards to do what Kentucky did, I’m going to have 40 or 50, 000 subscribers on here. I’m going to be able to monetize it.”
Like, that’s how that whole thing started.
I only got one dental board and that was, you know, It just the politics of it all. It was very difficult as you went state to state or what have you. And that’s kind of when I needed to really start to pivot. And that’s kind of what led me to the media space.
And then, in 2016 is when I started to podcast. And, I mean, I think our relationship started when I had the Dental Exchange in the early days, right? I remember that.
So, like, mid-journey media, podcasting, and then, of course, we get into 2019, where I started John Stamper Media, and I was going around to all the different dental shows and live streaming and interviewing people. That’s kind of where this, I guess, last chapter all started.
Heather: All of it is so brilliant. I remembered the CE Exchange and what a brilliant idea.
It’s frustrating that the different boards are so—I get that they’re autonomous, but man, like, if they all just followed each other’s good ideas, it would be different for everyone.
But, you really shine in the media space. I feel like that’s what you were born to do. Like that just comes so naturally for you. I mean, so many times you’ve taken me out of my comfort zone and you are such a leader in the media.
There wasn’t no dental media before you. It didn’t exist. There was no such thing. So, tell our listeners what dental media is. When you say that, it’s a broad term. What do you do and how did it impact them?
How Dental Media Impacts Dental Practices
John: Yeah. You know, I think the interesting story is, and you know this. I mean, I’m always going to give a lot of credit to you and Lorie and the AADOM team for being some of the early adopters onto this.
I mean, if you remember, Heather, we started AADOM radio, which was just the audio podcast, which still it is today. And the whole idea of it was to showcase the partners, the companies that you all work with and bring their stories to the AADOM members. And that started at the AADOM conference and then it evolved to using video and all of that.
I think the whole core of it goes back to what I was sharing with you, which is that my life and my career in dentistry was time on the manufacturer side, time in the dental practice side, and this emergence of media. The emergence of the podcast, the emergence of video, the emergence of social media.
All those things were just kind of coming together and I’m kind of a nerd and I just love all that stuff. And so, I dove in. I wanted to learn as much as I could. And it happened to be that I was in this space, and I liked doing it. And so how could we bring this all together?
And, more importantly, how could we get people’s stories out to more people and leverage these resources? And that’s, you know, when I think about it, that’s kind of where it is.
And when I started the podcast, I think there maybe was like four or five podcasts in dentistry. Now, there’s so many people doing it, which I love to see. And, of course, social media has changed the game. But yeah, it’s become a big deal.
Heather: Yeah. But all of those things, down to the podcast, the video, the social media, you are always 10 steps ahead. Like, the things that we discover, you were talking about a long time ago.
So, I don’t want you to give us your secret sauce, but what is it? Is it just the nerd in you? Like, you said that you know everything before everybody else, as far as what is the new technology or what’s next.
Like, you’re kind of, you know before everybody, or you just make it happen before everybody could be really what it is.
The Key is to Never Stop Learning
John: So, I think a lot of it is—I think once as a professional, regardless of what professional you are, whatever you do, and you find your craft. You find what it is that you love to do. No secret Heather, right? The, anybody in their craft spends hours amongst hours to learn it, to study it, the like.
And that’s just what I’ve always done. I mean, even to this day, I probably spend 15 to 20 hours a week watching YouTube videos, following people that have built brands on social media, understanding that whole landscape. Like I’m always learning.
And I think that that’s just kind of what it was. Once that bug bit me and I really understood it—and I think the big thing that really hooked me, I tell people, is that I forget what, maybe it was 2019. I had gone to maybe 30 to 35 different dental meetings. And I was just going through the motions. I didn’t even kind of realize that.
Somebody came up to me in a meeting and they’re like, “John, I’m seeing you everywhere.”
I didn’t feel like that was the case, Heather. Like, I knew I was traveling, but I didn’t kind of feel that that was the case. But then when I actually looked back and realized, I mean, everything that we were doing, we were putting out on social media.
There was like, you know, tens of thousands of views and all the different shows and things like that. And that’s what really kind of struck me as the power of like where we are right now and how I look at some of the old school ways of marketing and some of the things that the larger brands did in that time. It’s all changed now.
And, so, I’ve just stayed on top of it. And I think that, yeah, I mean, I feel like it moves so fast that if you’re not like 10 steps ahead, you’re kind of falling behind.
And so, I’ve kind of taken that badge of honor. Like, what can I continue to do to educate people in this space? And that requires being ahead of the game.
Heather: Yeah. And to your point—if something is your passion, you love learning about it, right? And you love just soaking in all the knowledge and it’s just evident in the work that you do.
And yeah, there were times where I was like, “Oh my God. There’s 10 Johns because you were just everywhere, everywhere and, you know, always so enthusiastic about it. But it was so great. You did such a good job.
And you continue to do that, bringing the company’s message to the dental industry, which is hard to do, but you’ve done it and you’ve done it in a way where it’s conversational. It’s not salesy. It’s not techie. It’s just conversation.
And I think that that’s probably your greatest gift is that you make everything so relatable that people want to learn.
John: Thank you for that.
Real fast—I think that let’s go back to what you asked earlier, which is like spending a lot of time at the dental practice. So, either I was in the dental practice, setting up handpieces, Heather, right?
So I was a little bit different that maybe the rep that came in and was there for 15 minutes, took an order and left, right? I mean, sometimes I spent a whole morning installing electric handpieces, working with the team doing training. So, you have that.
An,d then, of course, you know, at Mortenson. And so, I spent a lot of hours inside the dental practice. And to your point, like once you do that and you really understand everybody that’s in there, then you hopefully understand how they need to be communicated to.
And so, I think that’s kind of where a lot of this came from. Let’s find a way to craft conversation so that people are going to actually take the time to listen.
Heather: Yeah, and you deliver it in a way that it will be heard and understood and felt. So that’s so important.
And, I’m on your website right now, John. And just to share with our listeners. So, you’re on a mission to help companies get their story in front of more people Next quote, “Building trust one post at a time.”
And that, I think, is something anyone who’s worked with you can say you’re just so trustworthy and so fair and in your delivery and the information you bring. You’ve really done an amazing job, just earning everyone’s trust in the industry.
So ,what’s next for you? Or, what’s now for you, I should say? What are you working on now that you love the most? What do you love the most about what you’re doing?
Using Social Media and Video Content to Help Companies Build Trust
John: So, I’ve had my hands around a lot of things in the media space. I think I finally have come to, I mean, I like to, I guess I kind of like to use the word lane. It’s just kind of like a visual word. I think that kind of works with people, right? Like, you find the lane that you’re working in where you can help people.
And the lane that I’m in right now is kind of like what you said, but it’s really helping companies leverage organic social media and video content to build trust and familiarity.
I feel like, Heather, that we are in what I like to call a trust recession. And I think a lot of it is unintentional. I think that for whatever it’s worth, I think that there’s just been a barrage of information thrown at business owners and businesses, you know, for many years now.
And I think again, in a lot of cases, we’ve all been in situations where something didn’t go well with a business. And so, we’ve all become a little skeptical.
And so, like now here we are, there’s a lot of great information out there, almost too much. And we’re all trying to kind of find our way through the weeds of like, we still need help from companies, but who do we go to? And I just feel like there’s never been a better time to leverage organic social media for a company to consistently share how they’re helping their audience solve their problems.
And so, that’s kind of where I’m focused, you know, helping companies either craft the video content. Ideas on how to either build their own system, if they have their own internal social media team, or in some cases I work with their, with their teams. That’s where my focus is right now.
And like you mentioned, I mean, I’m on a mission. I want more people to be able to get their story out in front of others.
And, you know, AADOM is a great example. I mean, I think let’s go back, Heather, to COVID. A lot of stress. We went through this together.
And, I’m going to throw the trophy back to you for a second, because, I mean, at that time, you had a big responsibility to the membership to be able to at least kind of like guide them and direct them on kind of with so many unknowns.
And I think this is a great example of what you all did at AADOM, which was to kind of band together with your resources, the companies that you built relationships with and be able to bring that to the AADOM membership.
And I know the AADOM membership doubled.
I know there was thousands of people weekly on social media. I mean, I still have people to this day, Heather, that say to me that, you know, AADOM helped me get through COVID.
That is a big deal!
Heather: I did. And you know, sometimes we don’t take a moment to give ourselves like a little pat on the back. But yeah, I mean, I have members tell me often, you know, AADOM saved their practices during COVID. Nobody knew what to do, where to turn.
And, you and I jumped in like kind of the hand-in-hand, jumped in. And that is a perfect example, John, of how you help companies deliver the content in a trustworthy way, in a consistent way.
And you and I, we were on live—Facebook Live, LinkedIn Live—every day. But, you know, the technology was there and, you know, we didn’t even think about it. It was just like, we have to do this.
I think if we thought about it too much, we would have gotten scared. So, we did it. But yeah, what a great example of information delivery in a trustworthy and consistent way. And you helped AADOM do that. So, perfect example.
Oh yeah, I forgot. But, it was a wonderful time in that we were able to pivot or we didn’t really even pivot because we’re a virtual organization and kind of take advantage of, “Okay, here are the facts. How do we make the best of it?”
So, thank you for helping us do that and helping our members through it.
Let me ask you this. So, in your 20 years in dentistry and, sitting on so many sides of it—in the practice, in the corporate world, in the DSO world, in the media world—how has your opinion, I guess, of office managers evolved? Has it evolved?
I mean, 20 years in and working with AADOM, what are your thoughts on the position, the people who manage the business side of the practices?
Empowering Dental Office Managers Through Appreciation
John: Yeah. You know, it makes me think of a couple of things, right? One is, I often say to myself—this just happened at conference just, you know, last month, right?
You had brought up a member and their dentist, and we did a little interview with them, and it was like, I sat back and I watched the dentist talk about her office manager, right?
And I was like, you know, the first thing that comes to my mind, Heather, is: why aren’t more people, you know—I mean, and I think in a lot of cases there are tons of practice owners is out there that appreciate their office manager.
Maybe it’s just kind of my love for media and my love for people wanting to share their story that like, I want to bottle that up more, you know, like I want more people to know that because the second part of your answer or your question is that the success of the practice when the office manager is empowered and they’re delegated to—what that means for their career, and then what that means like ten-fold, twenty-fold for the practice—I’ve just watched it firsthand.
I’ve kind of like had this courtside view of being a part of AADOM and the way that I have, of like the actual impact on a practice when that position in the practice is able to be empowered to do what they do.
And so, there’s a part of me that sometimes I take for granted that every office has that. And I know that’s not the case.
Heather: Well, in the AADOM world it is. But yeah, in the non-AADOM world, it is not.
And I remember the duo you’re talking about—the practice owner and the manager. I think, when that dentist brought the manager on, the practice was something like a half a million dollars in accounts receivable, something insane, and through the training she received via AADOM, cleaned that up and made them super profitable.
You know, but your point about empowerment, that’s a word that comes up a lot with AADOM. And it’s such a simple thing with such massive results that doesn’t happen enough. Probably not just in dentistry, but in any industry.
I think if you empower someone and let them run and let them do their special unique ability is, what their special talent is, amazing things can happen.
So, that’s really probably a message for any business owner.
John: Yeah. And, you know, you said, “John, what’s next?”
And I can’t help myself. So, like, here’s what’s next along the lines of empowerment, right?
This is a good way to kind of bring us home, is that we hear a lot about empowerment. What has to happen next is we start to showcase the impact that an empowerment has had, right?
It’s Time to Show Off the Results of Empowered Dental Office Managers
Because as you know, Heather, we hear it, right. It becomes kind of like this, you know, 30, 000-foot word. And especially, of course, within AADOM Nation, it’s just like a given. There’s no question that the doctors, you know, and the practice owners support their office managers, the resources are there. There’s a lot of empowerment.
I think it’s time to start showcasing the actual results that empowerment actually producing for these managers.
Because the second thing about this trust recession, and I talk to companies about this a lot, is that it’s one thing to go out on social media and to create content, to get people to buy your product or service. It’s a whole other thing to get them to stay with you.
In times that are a little bit of our unknown versus businesses, like your, you know, your customers that you have obviously could be the lifeblood that get you through some of those challenging times. And so, if they’re coming and leaving.
So, one great way to leverage, you know, social media and video is to start showcasing your team so that your audience, if you’re a dental practice, right? Like your potential patients or your current patients can see, “If you come to this practice, this is who you’re going to work with.” And, you know, this is our team and this is what they do.
And I just feel like if more and more, you know, in this case, practices actually showcase that, and in the case of AADOM, you know, we start to showcase what this empowerment has done, the impact that is made for these practices—I feel like that’s kind of what’s next.
Heather: I love that. I love both parts of that. I love showing the results of the empowerment because that’s where the rubber meets the road. You can empower all day long, but until you see the results, you don’t know. So if we can show proven results, that’s amazing!
I love the concept of meet the team, not just on a website, like a little two sentences—meet the team!
It’s a very vulnerable situation as a patient going into a practice where oftentimes you’re scared, you’re nervous, people are going in your mouth, they’re asking personal questions. To get to maybe sort of know, meet the team, before you go in after you go in, via trusted source—trust recession—very interesting term.
But putting it out in a trustworthy way—you might not connect with the dentist. I mean, you know, some of them—like being in your mouth, right? Maybe not the most optimal, but you may see an assistant or hygienist or a manager who you just really feel a connection with. And that could be the pull into the practice.
So, I’d love that idea.
John: Yeah. And then the last thing on that note, a lot of people ask me, they’re like, “John, okay, there’s all these social media channels. Like, what do we do?”
Well, here’s the other unique thing, right? So, you know, when you look at the demographics of the TikToks and the Instagrams versus the Facebooks and the LinkedIns, here’s the way that it works, right?
I mean, you create content for your dental practice and, you know, you put something out on TikTok or Instagram and maybe, you know, the younger person in the family sees that. And then you put something out on Facebook or maybe even on LinkedIn and maybe th older people in the family see that.
And then they’re at the dinner table and then you start to build this familiarity. Yeah. I saw something about that dental practice. And then the teenager talks about it.
You see, you see where I’m going, Heather. It’s kind of like, this is what I mean by this. This is the power of all of that, you know. I mean, everybody is kind of like choosing their own lane of where they want to watch and learn and where their attention is. And so, from a dental practice perspective, showcasing that team, like you mentioned in building that trust, it’s just something to think about.
Heather: Yeah. And, to follow that up, showcasing them across all platforms. You don’t know who’s watching where, absolutely!
So, let’s bring this home. If you could leave our listeners, our AADOM Nation, with any words that you have for them, what would that be?
Take Pride in Being a Dental Office Manager
John: First of all, it’d be, “Thank you!” You know, for anybody that’s listening to this podcast and you download them, you listen to them—it means a lot, right? I think, I tell people every time I get a chance to talk with the companies and bring them on as guests, I’m always very proud to say that there is this built in AADOM Radio audience that like we upload an episode and there’s, you know, 300 or 400 people that listened to it right away, which is a big deal, right?
Heather, if you’re a company and you want to kind of, you know, connect with this audience. So big thank you, I think, to the audience.
And I would say the, the future is so bright for office managers. It’s so refreshing to see that the light has gone off in the industry. Yeah. I mean, every time I come, I mean, I know we’re just kind of a bunch of AADOM nerds here, right? You know, cause we love it.
But every time I come back from conference, I hear the same thing. It doesn’t change. It’s like, “Yeah, like we went there and they actually talk to us and they want to know about what we did.”
And, of course I think to myself, “Well, isn’t that how it should always be?”
But as you know, it’s not how it always is. That’s not how it always is.
Heather: That is how it always is at AADOM.
John: I would say that, you know, be proud of what you do on a daily basis to help that practice run.
And, not only do you have a lot of support behind you, as you all know, with Heather and the amazing AADOM team, but you also kind of have a little bit of a tailwind behind you because now the word is getting out of how valuable what you do is. And that is very encouraging.
I think that would be my message is that like, I listened to a lot of this on the peripheral. And a lot of people are now recognizing just how damn important the office manager is in a practice.
Heather: Amen to that, John.
Alright, last question, but you have to promise not to edit it out because you have editing powers here. So, what is your—give us one—hidden talent or party trick, that is unique to you?
John: Is the DJ a hidden talent or cause more people know about that?
Heather: It probably is. No, I don’t think enough people do.
John: So, I mean, I love to mix music. That’s kind of the other, that’s the energy part of me love music. I’ve been listening to him since I was a kid. And so I would say probably that would be the party trick, right?
Like, if I’m at a party and the energy’s going downhill, I’m always ready to be able to…
Heather: Your get behind the turntable
John: If necessary, dare we take it to the next level.
Heather: I have witnessed your DJ skills firsthand. They are world class.
John: That and cooking. A lot of people don’t know that I was in the Navy. I was on a naval submarine and I was a cook. So, I do love to cook.
Heather: Very interesting. Didn’t know that. Wow. I learned so many things about you today. Very fun!
And where can our listeners find you John? We’ll link it in the show note, but just while I have you, let everyone know where they can find you.
John: Yeah, JohnStamperMedia.com, you know Thank you for referencing that out. Just updated that actually this weekend. So got a lot of the newer information on how I’m helping companies.
But I think that’s probably the best place, would just be the website and there’s information on there if they want to set up a call or even just kind of chat, you know, for 30 minutes to kind of get some insight on where they are and maybe some things they could do.
Heather: Sounds great. Well, thank you, John. Thank you truly for everything you do for AADOM, for our members, for being an AADOM Influencer and for everything you do for the dental industry. So, it’s my honor to work with you, honestly.
John: Yeah, likewise. And this was so much fun to flip this around. You did an awesome job!
And so, we do want to tell everybody, I think, Heather, you’re going to be interviewing the other influencers. So, you’re going to want to continue to stay tuned for what Heather has in store next with the rest of this amazing group.
Heather: More to come. Yeah. Alright. Well, thanks, John.
John: All right. See ya!
