Dr. Rebecca Heiss: This podcast is sponsored by dentalmarketing.com, and they have agreed to give the listeners of this podcast a free competitive marketing analysis. This analysis is going to show you very clearly how your practice is doing compared to your competitors. It's going to give you the health of your SEO, it's going to give you a website grade, and you'll also see what your competitors are up to. This helps you know what ad strategy you should have today, how clean and effective is your marketing right now Find out by getting this free and detailed analysis, text the word marketing to 4 8, 6, 5, 9, and you'll receive this competitive analysis from our sponsor dentalmarketing.com. So how stressed are you? Stressed? Are you as a dentist when you've got hygiene waiting on you, you're running behind, your patient can't get numb, you're unhappy with the practice that you're working in, you're struggling with money and you got to go home, take care of the kids.

How stressed are you? What do you do in stress? Do you feel like the business side is causing you to crumble under pressure? How can we instead thrive, thrive in those really stressful moments of dealing with a patient we don't want to talk to, or dealing with a schedule that is stressing us too thin? This episode is about stress. It's about the physiology of stress and tips and tricks, things we can do immediately to thrive when we're feeling stress. I cannot wait for you to hear this. I think it's way overdue for us to talk about this. I'm so happy that this is our next episode, stress on the dental CEO podcast.

Alright, so Rebecca, again, thank you so much for joining us. I'll tell you that the topic that you're an expert on is a topic that I have felt, I've cried, I've sweated, I've depressed, I've also been happy about this topic. It's maybe at the foundation of what is driving so many challenges for dentists. And man, if there's one episode people need to listen to from our podcast, it's going to be this one. So thank you again for joining us. Real quick, if you could explain who you are, what you do to the listeners. I know we gave you the intro, but if you could put in your words, that'd be awesome.

Yeah, for sure. So I'm Dr. Rebecca Heiss. First of all, thank you so much for having me on. I'm thrilled to be here. And after that introduction, I'm a little bit nervous, which again, should be a good thing because I'm a stress physiologist, and so it is my job to help people transform the stress energy that we all feel and rather than trying to get rid of it, use it differently to serve us rather than have it stress us out even further. So that's my work.

Scott Leune: Awesome. And now you are a keynote speaker. So what kind of groups have you found yourself talking to about the topic of stress management and maybe performance?

Dr. Rebecca Heiss: Yeah, I mean, honestly, I don't think there's an industry that stress doesn't touch. So I have talked with dentists, I've talked with veterinarians, I've talked to practice owners, I've talked to manufacturing, I've talked, stress is ubiquitous. And so I think no matter, no matter who you are or what position you're in, stress is going to find you. And I think rather than trying to get rid of it, we can do something a lot better, which is use it to perform. My research is based around this idea that Olympic athletes aren't breaking world records at practice. They're breaking them when the stress and the pressure is at its very height. And so my hope is that we can all use that same stress mindset to increase performance in our own work.

Scott Leune: So when stress is at a peak, it's almost like someone, a dentist or anyone can kind of lean on one side and fall down the slope of depression and slowing down and inefficiencies and poor performance and victimization. Or we can kind of go down this other kind of slope that you talk about where, well, what is that? What other slope? If I'm not going to be of victim of this situation and be hurt by it or slowed down by it, what's the alternative? What does that look like?

Dr. Rebecca Heiss: Yeah, it's recognizing that stress is enhancing. So it's really easy to fall into this trap and look, we all do because we've been told for so long, stress is bad. We have to get rid of it. And so many people will end up stressing out even more trying to get rid of their stress, which is not starving anyone. So when we can lean into that stress and recognize that it's kind of like a spring, it's compressing us and pushing us downward. And what that does is it gives us energy. So instead of stress happening to you, when you can recognize that that stress is actually helping you, it's happening for you, it's preparing your body to perform at its peak. That simple story actually changes the way our stress actually responds in our body and allows us to function better, to perform better, to be more productive, and even to get out of some of that funk. So the hormones themselves change.

Scott Leune: So if we could go into the biology, that'd be awesome for sure. Yeah, I'm feeling stress and what is happening in my

Dr. Rebecca Heiss: Body? Well, the initial response is going to be that adrenaline, that cortisol, that rush that you feel where your heart is pounding, your mouth dries up, and then over an extended period of time, the adrenaline, that initial spike will dissipate. But the cortisol can remain really high. And what we have to recognize is not only is cortisol remaining high, but this flood of other hormones like oxytocin. Oxytocin is the cuddle hormone, the love hormone, the togetherness hormone. And one of my favorite things to tell people is recognizing that when you're in stress, your body is seeking ways to help you delegate, to lean on your team, to lean on your family, to lean into people that can help you in this moment. And that's a really powerful thing.

Scott Leune: So it sounds to me like the physiological response to stress is almost your body loading up and ready for action and change. But what I see emotionally is kind of this crumbling and not moving and changing, and now we've got the

Dr. Rebecca Heiss: Conflict. Yeah, because it's, we've learned that stress is bad. And so when we feel that, when we feel that heightened state, which we don't get to control, this is one of the things that I cannot get into people's heads fast enough. You don't get to just stay calm. I don't know about you, but the last time I told my adrenal glands not to release adrenaline, it didn't help. So this idea of trying to stay calm under stress is worthless and it causes us to stress out even more. But what we do get to control, not that heightened state, but is the emotional valence. So we get to decide what that means. What does it mean that my heart is pumping faster? Well, it could mean I'm stressed out and this is bad, or it could mean I know my body is pumping nutrients to my brain so I can think faster to my muscles so I can work faster. And it sounds so ridiculous as a hard, no scientist to say, but that story that you tell changes everything. So just that stress mindset shift really depends on how really focuses you or helps you fail one or the other.

Scott Leune: Yeah. So that reminds me of when I think about a dentist that is really stressed because they're having to work hard at a practice they at, they don't own the practice. So it's a practice that they don't control the equipment they use, they don't control the people they work with. They can't change how the marketing is and how the phones are. And so they're almost kind of a victim of what happens from someone else's decisions. And they're having to work hard in an environment they didn't pick. And stress can feel very annoying, negative, it can upset them, it can depress them. That same dentist when they build their own practice and they have the facility they like and the people they chose and the marketing they want, and the phones answered the way they like it. That same amount of level of stress though means something else. To them. It's living their vision, what they're aligned for. So is that what you mean by what we say to ourselves

Dr. Rebecca Heiss: In part? And I think you actually touched on something really important there. There's no reason that you have to own the practice for that to be meaningful. And so say you're a dentist and you're in that practice and it's not yours and you're feeling all the stress, the story that you could tell yourself is, this is meaningful, this is purposeful. Otherwise it wouldn't matter to me. Right? Stress is really a barometer for how much we care because nobody gets stressed out over their shoe coming untied. That's just, oh, it's a thing that happened. When we care, when something means something to us, that's when we begin to feel that stress and that pressure rise. So the alternative story could be, even though I don't control these factors, even though I don't have, there's something that pulls me toward this, there's something that has meaning and purpose in this.

And in fact, a 2013 study, which is one of my favorite ones to cite, was looking specifically for what leads us to live a purposeful and meaningful life. And the number one correlate was stress. So past stressful events that happened, current state of stress and even future worry and anxiety were all highly correlated to meaningful purposeful lives. So I'll pause there because if you're like me, you're probably going, no, that doesn't seem right to me. And the follow-up question that I ask people to consider is this. If you think about a project or an accomplishment that you're most proud of, and then go back in time to when you were in the middle of that project, what was your stress level? And inevitably people are like, oh, it was off the charts and going, well, yeah. So what we have to recognize is when you are in that heightened state in that moment, rather than looking back on it retrospectively in that moment, go, yes, this is meaningful to me.

Scott Leune: Okay, wow, this is great wisdom. I'm so happy you're saying thanks. So I'm thinking now to real examples in dentistry, and I'm thinking about, okay, if something happens and I feel like it's bad in my business and it's stressing me, it could be that it's a symptom that I need to change. And without that moment happening, I wouldn't know or maybe I wouldn't have the drive to do it. And so often though, at least for me, the times I've really changed for the best is when I broke. So the stress broke me and I was forced to have this kind of moment of a reset. I wish I would've had the thoughtfulness and the discipline to see that stress differently before I broke and have that wonderful change before I was in a way forced to do it. Could you talk a little bit about that?

Dr. Rebecca Heiss: Yeah, yeah. Let's start with the fact that yes, Scott, you are human. And I fall into that same trap myself, and I think almost all of your listeners will fall into that trap as well. It sometimes takes something to break in us before we're willing to make that change. And that's because change is scary because we don't understand the outcome. It's really, really easy for us to measure the costs of our actions. Well, if I do that, it might not work out. I might fail, I might be rejected. The business could go under. We draw all of these catastrophizing conclusions, which are all possible, but what we neglect to measure there is the cost of inaction. And that's often where we sit. We're like, well, it's safer just to, well, that too is an action. Not moving is an action. And what we have to recognize is so often that leads to that break point where, gosh, if we just taken that step forward, it doesn't mean we fail.

We just get data like, oh, that didn't work out. Now that's data. Now I can switch my trajectory. I can go this way a little bit. I can go that way a little bit. And what you're talking about, there are regrets, right? Regrets fester because we never get the data. We never get the what If I had done that, how would that have, would this outcome have evolved? And so I think one of the ways to overcome this is really taking those small steps in the stress toward the stressor itself. I call it running toward the roar, right? The roar of the tiger, that thing that is charging you instead of trying to run away, because that's fear. Fear is going to say anything, but right? Anything but failure, anything. But when we move toward that stressor, it may not be the right answer, but we have data then and we can adjust and continue our journey.

Scott Leune: So I'm a dentist. I'm having to cover two columns in my schedule. I got three hygiene columns I'm covering, and they run behind. I'm running behind. I've got a patient that's taking too long and my three hygienists are upset with me. They're waiting on me and it's like I'm stressed. Everyone wants a piece of me. At the same time, I feel stressed. What do I do? What should I think? I want to run to the roar. Where do I run? What do I do? What do I say? What do I tell myself?

Dr. Rebecca Heiss: First step? Yeah, great, first step. Is it a tiger? Here's what I mean by that. Is it a tiger? It means are you actually going to be dead in three minutes? If you do nothing, will you be dead? And I'm not trying to be like Pollyanna-ish here. People have horrible things that are happening to them all the time. I'm not saying smile through it, but if you're not going to be dead in three minutes, you have an opportunity to transfer that energy. So let's not spend any more time on that energy being negative. This is happening for me, not against me. Step two is the transfer. Okay, now we're going to transfer this energy. What does that look like? Well, we can't create or destroy energy, but we can transfer it. And that transference is the emotional valence that I was talking about before. What am I deciding this means?

This means I care. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to act as if we're going to act, if we're okay, so we're going to smile, we're going to throw our shoulders back, and here's going to have to start to happen. Your hygienists that are all upset with you are going to notice that you are smiling, you're doing the best you can. You're giving them the compliments that they deserve and they're under the pressure that they're maintaining. And your staff is going to react to that if you go in. And humans, again, are so emotionally contagious. So if you go in and you're like just anxious and moving through and trying to move quickly, your patients pick up on that, your team picks up on that, and everybody becomes more anxious as a result. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. So we smile, we throw our shoulders back, we begin to act as if we're on time, everything's going well.

And that points us along a trajectory where we actually get to serve others in this moment. Now, this is the one that gives really hard for people because when we're under stress, the thing that we want to do is serve ourselves. We feel like we've got to give ourselves something. And so we do, I dunno, massages when we get off. We do self-care, all of which is fine, nothing against meditation, all of that is great. But the number thing that actually helps mitigate stress is not any of those things that you've heard about. This is from 90 workplace wellness interventions that we looked at. None of them work with the exception of one. And that is service to others. So when we point all of that stress, energy into throwing our shoulders back, getting curious, putting a smile on our face, and then serving others in that moment, it actually helps mitigate our own stress.

Now it's easy for me to say, it's really hard for us to do. So what I'll say to each of you is sit down with your teens, have this conversation as you're managing all of these realms, as everybody's running in circles, when we can keep in mind that we are going to do our very best, we're going to throw our shoulders back. We're here to serve others. What it does is it actually becomes this contagious positive thing because humans catch feelings. And the more anxious and scared and fear-based feelings evolve, the more that's reflected in the entire practice. So yeah, that's my take.

Scott Leune: Yeah, you're reminding me of something that happened with in my life about a week ago. I had one of those days that so many people needed something from me. I was up at five working, I didn't get done until 10 at night. It was one of those back to back meeting, meeting me, podcast, all kind. It was just constant. And I was really feeling it. And I'm not someone that in the last few years has really kind of felt super stressed at moments. I was really feeling it. And my wife came up to me, it was like six o'clock or something at night, and she thanked me for everything I do and how hard I work for the family. And it was just one little comment and I was full of energy, ready to keep going. Isn't that crazy? So proud that when I got home done with everything, I was like, it was a great day because it just completely reframed what I was doing. It was actually for her and the family now. And it was recognized and that tiny little thing just changed everything. But it was the same tasks. I'm the same person, it was the same day, it was the same volume. So I connect with what you just said with that she made me realize I'm serving others, and that took away all the stress.

Dr. Rebecca Heiss: Isn't that powerful?

Scott Leune: Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. I love that story. I'm not a mushy gushy kind of guy. That's my

Dr. Rebecca Heiss: Fault.

Scott Leune: I hear you. But man, man, did it work. I've got another question for you. Let's play another example. Okay? It's not that I'm running around like crazy. I've got a great practice, a great schedule. We're doing well in business. I'm really proud of what we have. But man, this patient is upset. A mistake was made and this patient is overreacting. And I don't know if I'm mad at the person that made the mistake or mad at the patient and now I'm having to talk to 'em. And I am super stressed because I hate conflict and I'm in the thick of it now. So what do I say to myself? What do I do?

Dr. Rebecca Heiss: I mean, I would walk you through the exact same process, but I think here probably the most important thing that you can hear is curiosity. And fear cannot coexist. So this is so, so important, especially when dealing with difficult patients or even a difficult moment for yourself. And the reason for this, I think this is kind of funny, so I'm going to say it. For 200,000 plus years as humans, nobody ever had a target chasing in them and stopped and was like, oh, I wonder how fast it's coming. So this mechanism that allows fear and curiosity, it doesn't overlap in the brain. So in that moment of high pressure, high stress moment, if we can get curious, if I pump to you, I'm super upset and I'm just like, you can actually dissipate that for me just by saying, Hey, what could I have done better?

Well, you could have done this and you could have, okay, alright, say more about that. Is there a specific way that I can move forward now that is going to serve you better? And slowly, not only are you regulating my emotions, but you're also doing that for yourself. And we begin to mirror one another. So curiosity and fear, it's a game changer. The more questions you can ask, even asking yourself as a postmortem, like what went wrong there? How can I do it better next time? What have I learned from this? How will I grow from this? When we stay in that curious state, it helps regulate everyone around us.

Scott Leune: Yeah, man, that is another set of wisdom there that I probably never going to forget because what I think of when you say this is we kind of take away the purpose of this interaction from being hit with negativity to I'm investigating what caused it. So now I'm not focused on how bad this is. I'm like, oh, no, no, I'm really going to solve the riddle of what happened and what we could do. And in addition to that, if I'm asking them questions because I'm curious to them, I'm validating their fear. I'm not being defensive against it, I'm validating them. I'm listening, I'm reacting, I care. And immediately I can't think of a better response in their mind, but to validate how they feel about this and to try to really in an honest way resolve it or figure out what to do.

Dr. Rebecca Heiss: Yeah, you named it. You tamed it, you named it, you tamed it. And look, I can't say this enough. Yes. And there will come a point where you are going to have that client where you could be as curious as you want. You can be as kind as you want, and at some point you need to set that boundary for yourself to protect you. And that could look as simple as which of these options is going to work for you? If none of these work for you, there's another practice down the street, I'd be happy to recommend. That's it, right? There's a clear delineated boundary so that you also protect your space.

Scott Leune: Okay? So what we're saying is we could have a stressful moment with a person or with a situation that falls within something we want or should have in our life, but we could also have people be the people we don't want in our life. We could have situations not be the situation we want in our life, and stress is communicating that to us. So there can be this kind of line that is crossed. So we're either trying to be positively, get through this moment in a way, and maybe resolve the pressure, or we're saying, oh, this is a sign, we need to cut it out. Did I say that correctly?

Dr. Rebecca Heiss: Yeah. Yeah, I think so. And people will ask me, well, what is that sign? What is that? Where do I stop? And I wish I had that answer. That is a personal decision. And you'll feel it, right? You'll feel it because when you are constantly working and you're going, okay, I'm going to stay curious, I'm going to stay curious, I'm going to stay curious. And you get nowhere, you'll feel when they don't mirror you. And at that point you just step back, say, great, I can't serve this person. I recognize it's not a tiger. I tried to get curious. I tried to act as if and they won't let me serve them. In which case, let me help you find someone who can.

Scott Leune: It reminds me of something, I had a coaching call today, a one-on-one coaching call, and we got to the topic of delegation. What should this person no longer do? And we came to the conclusion that if it's not enjoyable and not productive, we should probably not be doing it. And so stress, so often we could react initially as this is not enjoyable, but that stress could be a productive way for us to grow. But if it's not productive, I'm now reminding of this person, I can't help them, I can't serve them. This is not a productive effort and I don't enjoy it. And maybe that needs to go. Did I say that correctly?

Dr. Rebecca Heiss: In the scientific field sometimes we talk about this as fun. So bear with me on this. Type one fun is like I get together with my girlfriends, we go out, we have a drink, it's just fun. It's what you describe as fun. Type two fun is like, I don't enjoy it at the time. I'm in the middle of this really tough surgery, or I'm climbing a mountain, or I'm running a marathon. And then I finish it and I look back and I was like, yeah, let's do that again. There's, there's a story there.

Scott Leune: That's me on a row machine. I hate the row machine, but I feel so good when I've conquered it. Yeah, alright, type two. Perfect.

Dr. Rebecca Heiss: So that's the kind of stress that we're like, oh, in the moment, it doesn't feel good until we train our brain that it can feel good and that this is meaningful and purposeful as we're doing it. And then type three fun. Is this fun? It's not fun. It's not fun when you do it. It's not fun afterwards. It's not fun in retrospect. There's no good stories that come of it. Type three fun is the Let's cut and run.

Scott Leune: Okay, so if I take this down one last little path, you said something that I wrote down from one of your lectures and you talked about Don, don't tell yourself to calm down or don't tell someone else to calm down. It's not about calming down, and this is a continuation of what we've already been saying, but could you kind of describe that a little bit?

Dr. Rebecca Heiss: Sure. Yeah. I mean, one of my favorite things to ask people when they ask What should I do? And most people will say when they're stressed out, the advice they give to themselves is to calm down. Which first of all is physiologically impossible. I've never looked and spoken to my adrenal glands and had them respond by not releasing adrenaline. It's not physiologically possible. And the second thing is we're actually continuing this cycle to stress ourselves out more. Because if you've ever gone to your wife, for example, after a long day and is like, oh my gosh, this happened and this happened and I'm so stressed out. And she looked at you and was just like, oh, well just calm down. I can't even imagine what you would want to do or say to her. And yet, this is the advice that we give to ourselves all the time.

We're like, oh, we'll just calm down instead of trying to calm down, which actually creates more anxiety because we're trying to fake out. We're really lying to ourselves. I'm feeling this heightened state and we can't get rid of that energy. Instead, we can choose to transfer that energy and say, oh, I'm excited. Now what a lot of people will get wrong here is they'll think, well then my stress and my anxiety just goes away. No, it doesn't. Doesn't go away. It's still going to be right there. The only thing you've done is added an alternative, an element of, oh, maybe there's excitement here as well. And again, because humans one another, if you a level of excitement to people see that and reflect back to you, oh, maybe this is an adventure. Maybe this is something that I can learn and grow on, rather than just reflecting back to your own anxiety and fear.

Scott Leune: So if I kind of think about everything you've said on this episode, which has been freaking incredible, and I try to apply it to just me personally, which I don't know if I'm like other people or not, but I think to myself, alright, I need to trick myself in a way. I need to train myself to approach stress from a different angle. So when I feel stress, maybe I need to first know that's what it is. Oh, this is a moment of stress. Not label it as, oh, she's a bitch, or That's not fair, or no, I'm just like, oh no, this moment of stress. And then I need to say, this is my time to rise. This is my time to serve someone or to achieve something. This is my time to lift up and get to this better level, this better moment. And that would take advantage of my heart rate going up of my hormones. That would take, I'm ready. Okay, I'm ready. We got this. And I go, and that attitude could trick myself into not being negative, and it could infect others with positivity potentially. So that together we're like almost a snowball effect. We're feeding off of each other then in this moment and getting out of it, which is what my life, what the universe wants me to actually do to get out of it, not to be run over by it and just splattered on the ground complaining that I'm a victim. Did, I

Dr. Rebecca Heiss: Mean, yeah, you nailed it. In fact, I encourage people to run to the roar, right? That thing that is stressing you out, that tiger, what happens when you run at it? And that's exactly what you just described. I know what you are. I see you. I see the fear. Let me go after it and know that my body is here supporting me in this stress, that seeking of discomfort. And this is, I'll go down this rabbit hole really quickly and then you can use it or not, but you hear all the time, well get out of your comfort zone. Seek that discomfort. Yeah, that's fine. But recognize you're not ing down. This is not exposure therapy, right? You're not trying to reduce your stress response in those moments. You're actually seeking that stress and teaching your brain to operate and think differently in it. So that stress response is still going to come great. Let's use it.

Scott Leune: Yeah. The most productive people I know the most, I'm thinking through my Rolodex, people, the really emotionally mature people. I mean, shoot, I'm describing my wife. She's insanely intelligent and emotionally mature and super productive. They handle stress differently. They handle these moments of pressure in a way that can almost look like a superhero sometimes. And it's like a positive part of who they are, and they can laugh about things. And I now see the connection between that and what you're describing here. I cannot thank you enough for being so open and direct and honest and helpful and sharing wisdom with our little dental community. Before we wrap this up, how can people connect with you, learn about you, read about you, where would they go? Online or on social media? Could you explain that please?

Dr. Rebecca Heiss: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks Scott. Yeah, the easiest place to go is to my website, which is just rebecca heis h EISs com. You can find me on all the socials at Dr. Rebecca Heist, and you can read more in any of my books. I've got a forthcoming book coming out in September, so very excited about that.

Scott Leune: That's not your first book?

Dr. Rebecca Heiss: That's my second book. Yeah, my first book came out in 2021.

Scott Leune: What was the name of the first book?

Dr. Rebecca Heiss: The first book's called Instinct, and the second one is Springboard. Very excited about it.

Scott Leune: Awesome. Well, before I give you one last chance to say some final parting words here, again, dentist and the industry listening to this, I hope this was super helpful for you. I think it applies so well to the day-to-day things that we feel. Rebecca, again, I cannot thank you enough for doing this. Any last words you have for the audience?

Dr. Rebecca Heiss: Yeah, thank you so much, Scott. And my wish for you and for your entire audience is simply that you live tremendously stressful lives because I genuinely see that as a blessing, not as I curse. And that means you'll live audaciously, purposeful lives as well.

Scott Leune: Wow, that is incredible. Alright, thank you so much for that. And to my audience, thank you so much for tuning in and subscribing and leaving reviews and commenting and supporting us so we can keep supporting our profession in this way. Thank you, Rebecca.

Dr. Rebecca Heiss: My pleasure. Thank you so much, Scott.

Scott Leune: What a cool episode. So let's do the dental download here. How does this apply to dentistry? We kind of already applied it to dentistry with those two examples, but things that she said, she said, we got to lean into the stress. We have to lean into it. We have to recognize that stress is actually, it's a purpose for us to become better or good or have a positive result. So when we feel stress in dentistry, we're feeling stressed because of our posture. Hey, that's a positive thing. Let's change our posture. We're feeling stressed because our schedule, okay, well, let's either know that this is expected and acceptable to happen every now and then lean into it, serve other people. Be calm. Well, hold on. She said, don't be calm. She said, don't calm down, but be slow. Be positive is what she said, and that will be infectious to others.

She talked about how if we allow stress to get us jittery and breaking and crumbling and where we have these harsh reactions that will cause others to freaking out, right? Our freak out causes others to freak out. She said, when we feel these moments of stress in the dental practice, we need to recognize that this is a positive thing. Okay, now's the time for me to excel. Now's the time for me to perform. Now's the time for me to serve other people. And I'm going to do it in a positive way to help everyone if we're running behind in hygiene, got it. Hold my beer, I'm on the way. I am going to help you hygienist. We are going to do this positively. And by the end of the day, I hope that I helped you. I hope that you can recognize that if a patient is not getting numb, got it, they're not getting numb. You know what? Let's just get them. I'm going to do everything I can to get them numb. We're running behind. No problem. I'm going to serve my patient though, as though we're not. And when we see the next patient, I am going to explain to them how we're taking care of someone and how sometimes that happens and how if they need my help, I'm going to be here for them. I'm going to make it positive. If I've got a patient mad at me, you know what? I'm going to be an investigator. I wonder where this is coming from. What could I have done differently? And I'm going to be very open and vocal about this. Patients mad because of something we did or didn't do. Let's talk about it. I'm going to ask him questions. Ask him questions. I'm going to put my focus on finding the answer instead of being mad and emotional and letting that emotion kind of run me over.

She said, harness the power of stress. Harness it to boost performance instead of getting run over and splattered on the road with it. And remember in the very beginning she said something like, world records are broken, not during practice, not during practice. The greatest achievements don't happen during low stress, easy practice world records are broken in those highest stress moments. And that stress elevates 'em up. It boosts 'em up, it boosts their performance. They can harness that. She mentioned this kind of framework said recalibrate, reframe, realign. So when we have that stress, we kind of recalibrate ourselves to be ready to harness it. We reframe the situation to be a positive situation and we realign our actions to then do what's needed in that moment so that the stress subsides and goes away and we've achieved and accomplished something great. And all of that kind of makes sense I think for the stresses we expect.

And we accept the stresses that are normal, that need to happen, or the stresses that make us better, that enable us to have the energy and focus and drive to change. But sometimes the stress comes from an unacceptable situation, a situation that stress can be a wake up call that we need to stop or cut out. And we kind of talked about that where we can have people in our lives that they're not productive for our life and we're not happy with them. We can have tasks in our life that are not productive, that don't bring us happiness. We can have tasks in our business that are not productive, that don't bring us happiness. And if those non-productive, non happy areas are causing the stress, it might be best to say, I'm going to separate from that. We are going to cut that out of our life of our business.

So the example of the wrong person or the wrong kind of system, sometimes we have to get knocked down and broken. We have a heart attack only to realize, God, we got to cut this bad habit out of our life. It's not productive, it's hurting us. But so often though, our stress isn't heart attacks, our stress isn't the wrong person. We need to cut out of our life and the wrong system we have in our business. So many times, stress and especially in dentistry, comes from the ebbs and flows of the day. It comes from the natural pressures that can happen because people impact our day variables. Are there things are out of our control. Can we be the positive person that's super productive when stress happens so that the stress goes away and we got a great outcome? I mentioned for me, that's what I need to be.

When stress happens, I need to brainwash myself. Okay, this is my time to rise. I feel stressed. Alright, I got this. This is my time to rise. I am going to positively perform. I'm going to use the elevated heart rate and this kind of the markers of stress to my advantage. I'm going to positively perform And look, I can look back and say, I want less moments like that. So maybe we do need to tweak this system or train that person. There are lessons to learn from the stress for sure. But in the moment of stress, I'm in that battle. I may not want to be there. I may not like it. I may not have thought it would happen, but when I'm there, I need to win. And winning says I'm lifting myself up in a positive way and I'm using this moment to perform and achieve.

And when we're through that moment, when we're through that pressure, let's kind of finish this out by looking back, by understanding and saying, okay, is there a lesson here? Do I need to change a behavior, a habit, a decision, a person, a system? Do I need to change my business? Is there something that I need to learn from this? To me, that all happens without us having to go so far with stress that we break. Because when we break, we could do irrational things. We can have very unproductive results, detrimental results, or we just had so many years of unresolved and unproductive and negative stress that we finally broke. We could have had those years of positivity and growth and achievement and accomplishment and lessons. We got to be on top of this. So I think a lot of times in dentistry, when we think about stress, we think about, okay, how do we minimize stress?

How do I de-stress? But I loved her philosophy. She said, it's not about de-stressing, it's about accomplishing through the stress, about being productive through it in a positive way. So let's maybe try both. When we get hit with stress, which we will, we always will have those moments. Can we become the next version of ourselves that achieves in that moment that stress is the bell of the race of achievement. It says, go positively, run through the stress. And then can we be intelligent and say, okay, can I reduce the number of times I feel this pressure? That's what I need and want. Can we be smart about it? Such an awesome episode. I think. I hope this is speaking to someone here. I hope that this helped you. Whether it was a tip or a trick or a tool or a hack or a realization or a big change, a life change, or maybe an acceptance, an acceptance, a reframing of what you expect.

All of those things might've been possible from this episode. I know that it's impacted me. I hope it's impacted you as well. I want to thank you guys for listening and for subscribing. And if this was something, if you like this particular episode, I'd love for you to post an online review or comment about it. We'll try to find more experts like this and talk about these types of topics more, if that's what you respond with. So please do so. Thank you for supporting us so we can support dentistry in this way. And look for our episodes every week, at least once a week. So look for the next one. Subscribe if you haven't. And until next time here, my name's Scott Leune, and this was the dental CEO podcast.