The Man Behind the Voices of Dentistry Summit with Dr. Alan Mead DDS

Host: Ladies and gentleman, this is the Dental Up podcast, brought to you by Keating Dental Lab. A full service, award-winning dental laboratory. Each week, you’ll learn tips and techniques from real world dentists. Bringing you in-depth interviews, motivating stories, current events, and sports. Here’s your host, Sean Keating.

Shaun Keating: Hey everyone! Shaun here, welcome to another episode of the Dental Up podcast. Our guest this week is a graduate from the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry. He has lectured extensively in Michigan and across the country on various topics including social media for dentists, medical marijuana, and addiction. He’s written several articles for professional journals, like the Journal of the Michigan Dental Association, and is also one of the hosts on the Dental Hacks podcast. Practicing from Saginaw, Michigan, please welcome Dr. Allen Mead, DDS. How’s it going, Dr. Mead?
Dr. Mead: Good, how are you doing, Shaun?

Shaun Keating: Aw, dude, it’s an honor to have you on this podcast. I do these podcasts because of you.

Dr. Mead: I should apologize, right?

Shaun Keating: You should, ’cause it’s kind of a pain … No. I remember back in 2014 man, and we’ve been together for a while, doing work together and –

Dr. Mead: Oh my gosh, yeah. Since the early Dental Town days, really.

Shaun Keating: Absolutely. But dude, I just listen to you. See I moved down to Dana Point, so I’ve got about you know, 30, 40 minute drive each way. So these podcasts, I started listening to you, and you’ve just got a soothing voice that I just … It’s just weird man. It’s really a soothing, like, you could tell me bedtime stories and go to bed. I mean I listen to you in bed sometimes. My wife’s like, what are you doing? I go, I’m just catching up on a daily hack, weekly hack, you’ve got one every day now or something. And it’s like the short ones –

Dr. Mead: Yeah, we have a lot of them. We have a lot of them. We’re doing two days a week our daily, and then Friday’s the longer one. I don’t know that my wife would actually agree with you about the soothing voice, I don’t know. It’s the one I got, so I gotta use it, right?

Shaun Keating: No, it totally is. Like between your voice and [inaudible 00:02:20] has kind of got that one voice, like, yours is like, it’s just a soothing voice and it’s just, it’s weird. It’s very comforting to listen to. I mean I don’t … Like some of the stuff, I’ve learned a lot just … I know what I know. You know, making teeth and all that, I’ve worked with dentists for a long time, but I just learn a lot of different things on what you guys go through and it goes over my head, a lot of it. Like the dude, I was listening to one where, I forgot the guy’s name. Ron something, or he was doing the sleep apnea stuff. It was one of your most recent podcasts I think.

Dr. Mead: Sure, sure, sure.

Shaun Keating: From Scottsdale, the dude I think.

Dr. Mead: Yep, yep, it was probably Jeff Raus.

Shaun Keating: Jeff Raus, yeah. That dude’s a smart dude, man. He’s throwing some words out there I frickin’ couldn’t even understand. It’s like, what the heck’s this dude?

Dr. Mead: He’s amazing. We’ve had him on a bunch of times, too, and I’ve seen him speak a couple times and we’ve talked with him a bunch of times. I’ve really, we’ve gotten to talk to a lot of the [inaudible 00:03:23] guys, and they’re really high level. It’s fun, actually, I really like it. It’s fun.

Shaun Keating: Yeah.

Dr. Mead: The podcast has allowed me to talk to a bunch of people that I wouldn’t necessarily have got the chance to talk to. So it’s pretty sweet that way.

Shaun Keating: Oh, absolutely. No, and yeah, I listen up that and that one was really interesting. And it was a long one, and I don’t find myself ever, oh, let’s listen to it. It just kind of engages you. But just learning, he just has a good talk, a good bedside manner I could tell with, you know?

Dr. Mead: Yeah, yeah.

Shaun Keating: You’re diagnosing this, and it’s a service. He broke it down really neat and it’s just a very calming talk, too, with him and his voice. So it was very enjoyable, one of my better ones. I like them all, for sure, but that one’s pretty cool.

Dr. Mead: I was pretty proud of that one, for sure.

Shaun Keating: Yeah, that was totally cool. And then I love when Jason gets in there. He’s just got this dry wit about him, you know? Kind of is talking, and, well …

Dr. Mead: Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Shaun Keating: It’s a neat time, man.

Dr. Mead: So on Sunday morning I recorded a brain trust, which is when we do the Roundtable with a few guys you might know. I had Dr. Rich Rosenblatt, Dr. Frank Clayton, and Dr. Brent Young. We did a brain trust, that should be coming out on Friday.

Shaun Keating: Aw, I can’t wait to hear that. Those guys, man, they’re funny as heck and that just [crosstalk 00:04:40] you guys all stick together like that. That’s so cool.

Dr. Mead: From old Dental Town days. Back in day for sure.

Shaun Keating: Oh, I know. Heck, I remember probably 10 years ago you came out to one of my first, well, it wasn’t one of my first but it was an occlusion course with Dr. Melkers and you brought your whole staff and all the girls, and we went out to eat afterwards, and good times, man.

Dr. Mead: Oh yeah.

Shaun Keating: It’s quite the story with you. I remember ’cause you were telling me about some of your stuff with the addictions and how you just hit it head on. And I was just sitting there thinking to myself as I’m drinking a beer and just kind of thinking about it. Going, man, this dude, he’s got a good calmness to it and we’re all sitting here kind of getting hammered and that’s just weird how that works. And everything happens for a reason, I believe. But that’s –

Dr. Mead: I think so too. Some people can handle it. Some people can, some people can’t. So there you go.

Shaun Keating: That’s so cool. Well, dude, I always start off a little bit talking about sports. Did you happen to watch that game last night, that Monday night football game?

Dr. Mead: I didn’t watch any. I have to tell you, I’m a fair weather fan of the Lions, and I will say that they, I think they beat … Who did they beat on Sunday? It was by a point. It was totally, they didn’t deserve to win. They’re not playing very well this year to be honest, so I am not even a fan. I’m more of a fair weather fan. But they won on Sunday, so that was kind of good.

Shaun Keating: Yeah, they did and I think it was, god, who was it? Was the Raiders? The Bears, they beat the Bears.

Dr. Mead: And they were six-three. Exactly, they beat these teams that they have no business beating. And they can’t beat anyone else.

Shaun Keating: Well you know what? I think our next game is not til December second, the Rams play the Detroit Lions, so. That’ll be fun.

Dr. Mead: Okay, okay. I’m just curious, how long have the Rams been back in LA?

Shaun Keating: It’s been two years now. Little over two years.

Dr. Mead: Two years. Are you enjoying having them in LA again?

Shaun Keating: Aw, dude, it’s so … I mean I’m not going to their games. The coliseum it’s a nightmare to get there. And you sit in those cement seats, but I’m going to get tickets to the new stadium that they’re building. But it’s a whole … It was 20 years we’ve been without it, and I’m a football knucklehead, I tell you. And they kind of sucked the first year. A couple of wins and a bunch of losses, and now we’ve got this new young coach. It’s just exciting to watch. In the history of the NFL, no team has scored over 50 points each, and the game went down to the last series, and we won 54 to 51.

Dr. Mead: Oh, wow, okay!

Shaun Keating: It was the highest scoring game ever in the NFL.

Dr. Mead: Wow!

Shaun Keating: And they had this Mahomies kid from … Mahonies I think is his name, 23 year old quarter back. His dad was a major league baseball player, just a great, kind of reminds you of a Steph Curry type dude. And he’s just so exciting, lights out, and then we’ve got Jarred Goph and it’s all a bunch of 20 year olds in this new NFL, and it’s just kind of sparking life into it. But it’s kind of exciting to watch where it’s very offensive and lots of scoring, you know? Whatever they got to do, they got to keep it that way because it just brings more excitement to the game. But what a game last night, it was like –

Dr. Mead: That’s cool.

Shaun Keating: Yeah, it was fun to watch, and we have all these fires in the last few weeks down here in LA and in northern California. So they gave most of the tickets away because it was like five days they had to get everyone there, because it was supposed to be in Mexico City, and Mexico City had Shakira on the field and a couple other shows that they had, and they ripped up the field, so they had to cancel the Mexico thing, and at the last minute brought it all the way down to LA and just invited all these first responders. And it was just really a neat, tear-jerker thing.

Dr. Mead: Oh, wow, I did not realize. That’s awesome.

Shaun Keating: Yeah, so last minute. And I’m actually going to do a podcast with Dr. Elloway, you probably know him. He’s been in [inaudible 00:08:21] Timothy Elloway, and he’s in Paradise. His practice, it survived but everything burnt around it. And he just, you know, is devastated. He has to get a place down in Chico, to rent a little place for the interim. Because he can’t go into the town, everything is burnt around it, and so they’re not going to let him in for a while. But what a story there, with the fires, man, and all that.

Dr. Mead: Oh my gosh. Yeah, it’s hard to even know. It’s honestly, I think they’re still trying to figure out, I mean they haven’t even found all the bodies.

Shaun Keating: No, it’s like a thousand people missing, dude. A thousand! I mean that’s a lot of people. Man, it’s like they’re not going to pop out and walk right out of the smoke right now I don’t think.

Dr. Mead: No, no. You only hope that they just didn’t tell anyone where they were going. That’s the only hope, right?

Shaun Keating: Yeah, exactly. And Dr. Elloway was telling me they seen a neighbor at the end of the street where everything was on fire, and they were leaving, and they could see their neighbors leaving in their car, but then they seen the whole real of it, the whole thing catching fire, and it just engulfed it. And it’s just, they’re gone.

Dr. Mead: Oh my gosh.

Shaun Keating: Him and his wife are, they’re coming down to stay with in-laws down in Long Beach, so they’re going to come by the lab today and then tomorrow we’ve got a bunch of cases we’re going to give him and help him out. But man, what a sad thing.

Dr. Mead: Oh my gosh, that’s awful.

Shaun Keating: Yeah, so, thoughts and prayers to all of them for sure.

Dr. Mead: Yeah, definitely.

Shaun Keating: Well, I know we’re short here. We’re going to talk about the Voices of Dentistry, but let me get a little bit about your background real quick. ‘Cause I always start off and ask, why did you get into dentistry, and at what point did you think, I want to be a dentist?

Dr. Mead: I’ve always wanted to be a dentist. I literally remember seeing like, when you had to do poems when you’re in third or fourth grade and I was talking about being a dentist even then. Because my dad’s a dentist, so I grew up in a dental office, essentially.

Shaun Keating: No kidding.

Dr. Mead: And I mowed the lawn there when I was like, 12. I started, literally worked there all through high school and everything. I just grew up in a dental office. And dad seemed to like it, I never realized that it was … I didn’t think about it being healthcare, I didn’t think about it being a potential high income. I just know that dad liked being a dentist, so I kind of always thought that. And then actually in college, I was sort of a … I switched to vet school, the idea for vet school for a year and a half. For whatever reason, I don’t know if it was a rebellion thing against my dad or what, but so I went and worked for two weeks in North Carolina. My uncle was actually the manager of like a bunch of pig farms. Like those big, industrial pig farms. And so for two weeks I went and kind of shadowed him, in a large animal vet. And by the time I was done in North Carolina, I think I was ready to be a dentist and I was not going to be a veterinarian. So that was kind of the … It was great, I had taken the DAT when I was pretty sure I was going to be a veterinarian. I was like, man, I can’t believe I signed up for this stupid test. I’m not even going to need it. So I went in there with no care at all. And I did really well on the test, ’cause I wasn’t nervous about it at all. It worked out really well, actually. So that was … I kind of always had been planning on being a vet, so that’s what sort of ended up with me.

Shaun Keating: That’s so awesome. Yeah I know your dad’s a dentist, and that’s so cool that you did that. God, and you got horses, and you’ve still got the vet in you kind of, because you’ve got your own like, zoo at home don’t ya? Tell me a little bit about your house and what you’ve got going on there?

Dr. Mead: Yeah, we live on 40 acres. It’s a horse farm. And if it had just been me, I probably wouldn’t have chosen to do that. But my wife it a horse fanatic, so we have anywhere between … We own four horses. And then we also have a miniature donkey. And we also have four goats, we literally just got another adopted goat like yesterday. So we have a bunch of critters. And then we have one dog right now, but we board. We have a boarding farm, too, so we board probably ten horses.

Shaun Keating: No kidding.

Dr. Mead: So most mornings and most evenings I’m feeding on some level. The one thing about having a boarding horse farm is they continue to want to eat whether you feel like feeding them or not. So it’s a lot of work, but it’s fun. My wife and I kind of share the work. We honestly need an employee, but the work is hard enough and nasty enough that it’s not an easy sell. But the reality is we like it, we’ve been doing it of so long, it’s just sort of part of our DNA at this point.

Shaun Keating: No, kidding. Now did you say four acres or 40?

Dr. Mead: 40. 40 acres. We’ve got about –

Shaun Keating: That’s a lot of land.

Dr. Mead: Yeah, I mean talking to someone from California, 40 acres is incomprehensible.

Shaun Keating: Exactly.

Dr. Mead: Out here in central Michigan, what we paid for our entire spread I guarantee you couldn’t buy a two bedroom home for where you are, so.

Shaun Keating: Oh yeah.

Dr. Mead: The cost of living here is a little different from what you guys are used to, I’m just going to say that.

Shaun Keating: I think our whole town’s five acres. No, five miles.

Dr. Mead: I know, it’s crazy. It really is crazy. So we have about eight acres cleared. We have I think five barns, an indoor riding … It’s a spread. What’s really funny is we bought the place kind of having … The person we bought it from had built it out. And so we didn’t design it, but it’s really a great place for what we do for it. We’ve added some buildings and stuff, but it’s pretty cool. It’s a different lifestyle for sure.

Shaun Keating: Unbelievable. Dude, my hat’s off to you man. To have that. And what about the vet services on that? I remember watching pet detective, man that’s some crazy stuff going on with those pets. Who does that for y’all? The wife or have some guy come out?

Dr. Mead: We have a vet, we have multiple people, use different vets. It’s funny how it is, because vets, large animal vets get paid pretty well, but they also get paid on the per call, because they have to bring the office with them. So the trick is to get everyone who uses that vet all ready to go for checkups or vaccinations or whatever else there is. Get them ready for that day. So you pay one farm fee, like one farm stop fee, and get the whole job done when you’re there. So you can make it a little more cost effective just by sharing the burden of that farm fee. Because there actually is a place nearby us where they have, if you need surgery or whatever, they have a surgical center. But their whole model is based on going out to farms and taking care of it. So it’s expensive but it’s actually less than you would expect, as long as … Much like dentistry, if you’re taking care, a lot of times you can avoid more of the expensive things. Of course horses have two main problems. It’s their feet and their guts, their stomachs. Their digestive system and their feet. Pretty much everything else is almost bullet proof on a horse.

Shaun Keating: Really?

Dr. Mead: Yep.

Shaun Keating: What about with, I always get scared, my sister had some horses and stuff for a while, but feeding them with those big old teeth, do you ever get bitten by those things? Man I always worry they’re going to bite your frickin’ hand off.

Dr. Mead: Yeah, so we have a couple. We have one boarder that is a relatively aggressive horse, you have to keep in mind that they can bite. And what’s crazy is, you know, their jaws are super long. You don’t think of them, and the way that their chewing muscles are set up, their muscles are way forward. So they can’t open very wide, but they close really, really hard. And so I’ve gotten bitten, one time the horse got me real good. But it was through like, it was winter so I had a big thermal. I had a big coat on and a flannel shirt and all this stuff. It still got my pretty good, I had a bruise but it didn’t break the skin. But we’ve seen, they can bite you really badly but they can’t open very wide. So they usually just get a little piece of you if they bite you. It’s something to be aware of. Every horse can … Even the horses that are super tame can do things unintentionally.

Shaun Keating: Or what about like, I know a mule kick, but a horse kicks back. What about that? You don’t ever walk, I always worry about walking behind them, man. Can you imagine getting nailed by … That’s got to drop you frickin’ quick.

Dr. Mead: Oh yeah, you get can get really hurt. We make a point of teaching everyone to give them room. We had a bunch of cub scouts come out a couple weeks ago.

Shaun Keating: Oh, okay.

Dr. Mead: And of course they were all excited to see horses and stuff. And a lot of them are not real aware, so you have to be extra careful. But the trick, too, is to have … Work with horses, especially with little kids around, that are just … We have a couple of really bomb-proof horses that really are great with little kids and are very predictable. Because we actually have a special needs riding program that does their program at our place. So on Wednesday nights in the fall and the spring, they’ll have two sessions a night. They’re here for three or four hours and they actually have a bunch of special needs kids come out and they do it in our arena. So it’s pretty cool. We have a bunch of horses that are quite good with people.

Shaun Keating: Aw, that’s so cool. I love that. I remember going horseback riding as a kid, we looked so forward to that. And it was kind of on a trail. A guy would lead you. And you got to go with the rhythm, man. You can’t go … Where that horse going up and you’re going down, and crush your nut sack real quick on a horse.

Dr. Mead: Exactly, exactly. Oh, yeah. Tell me about it. I’ve been thrown a couple times, too, that’s the other thing. I haven’t ridden for a while. I’ve been thrown a couple times and that will knock the wind out of you.

Shaun Keating: Oh, I bet. Good lord help us. That’s neat, though. Well that’s so cool. Well hey, tell me a little bit about really quick on your college. Now, you went to Miami, huh?

Dr. Mead: Yep. [crosstalk 00:17:52]

Shaun Keating: [inaudible 00:17:58]

Dr. Mead: Yep, [inaudible 00:17:58], so it’s right outside of Cincinnati, it’s actually the original Miami, Miami Florida was actually named after the Miami River Valley. So this was Miamiville, Ohio has been there for a while. It’s a state school, I have no regrets. It was a great choice for me. At the time I didn’t know how good of a choice it was. I marched in the marching band for four years. So I saw a lot of football it was fun. They used to take us, for three of the four years I was there, the Buffalo Bills, back when the Buffalo Bills were playing in Super Bowls and losing.

Shaun Keating: Yeah, four in a row.

Dr. Mead: Exactly. We were their good luck charm, we were always there. Their opening day, they would bring the Miami marching band to play their halftime show. So they would literally pay for us to come from outside of Cincinnati to Buffalo to march. It was a blast, I mean it was really fun to march at NFL games, and the Bills had a soft spot for Miami. So it was very cool.

Shaun Keating: Aw, that’s so awesome. What did you do in the marching band? Did you have an instrument, or how does that work?

Dr. Mead: Yeah, yeah, I played saxophone all through high school and college. So I marched with the saxophone. And it was probably one of the … I didn’t know, like you don’t know these things. But as I look back, it was one of the best things I ever could have done. I liked marching band because all my friends were in it in high school, but in college, it’s such a different level. It’s so great. Miami has a terrific marching band and of course they’re always overshadowed by the fact that Ohio State probably has the best marching band anywhere. But Miami’s right up there, they’re very good. We had a great time, I loved it, and to this day I look back. It’s so funny when I have dreams, if I dream about my past or anything like that. I still have marching band dreams. Maybe more so even than dental school dreams. I don’t know exactly what that’s about. Marching band was a huge, huge thing for me. And I would recommend … I got my 11 year old who just started playing the baritone. And we went, we got a chance to see one of the high schools in town rehearse to go to a semi finals game a couple days ago, and oh my gosh, he was enthralled. So I’m excited he may well be doing the same thing.

Shaun Keating: No, kidding. That’s so cool, dude. And a sax, that’s like Kenny G, man. You’d be smooth.

Dr. Mead: Yep, yep.

Shaun Keating: You still play it a little bit, or no?

Dr. Mead: I haven’t really played for a while. I’ve been threatening, now that Sean is playing the baritone, I’ve been threatening to get a horn and play again. I probably should, because again, it’s one of these things where I didn’t realize what a huge influence it was on my entire life. It was such a positive thing for me. There are times when I’m sure I complained about it, but it really was. It was a big deal when I was growing up, like that’s what I did. I was a saxophone player. I was always in the band. So it was, I sort of abandoned it and I look back and I think maybe I should pick it up again.

Shaun Keating: [inaudible 00:20:38]

Dr. Mead: Because [crosstalk 00:20:34] Yeah, totally, totally. It would be a good time. I’m wondering what the horses would think of it, too. They may or may not be into that, I’m not sure.

Shaun Keating: I still think of Bart Simpson’s sister always playing the sax, or the dude in E-Street band, that sax player.

Dr. Mead: Clarence Clemons. Sure.

Shaun Keating: Yeah. I could see you doing it, dude! I mean it’s like riding a bike, I bet you’d get right back on that horse.

Dr. Mead: I totally should, I totally should. I’ll let you know.

Shaun Keating: Or Bill Clinton, we don’t wanna talk about him. Remember Clinton? Hey so tell me a little bit about your practice. What do you got going, how many staff you got, how many ops, tell me a little bit about your practice if you could.

Dr. Mead: I have a relatively small practice. We have four ops, five plumb, but we work out of four. Two hygiene ops and two for me. I have two assistants, two hygienists and a front desk. And actually one of the assistants sort of floats between front desk and assisting. So it’s kind of a small-ish practice. I like it that way, to be honest. We do a lot of bread and butter stuff, we do … I do a little bit of endo, a lot of crown and bridge, lot of fillings. I love direct restorations, everyone listens to podcasts and I’m kind of a sucker for that. Although I do use a scanner, I have a 3M scanner, I really like that. I’ve found that to be a really good thing. And I know that’s kind of where everything’s going. And so like I said, I do a little bit of endo, I do some surgery. I’ve placed some implants, don’t really love doing that, don’t have a ton of confidence. But we do do a fair amount of implants with our surgeons and our periodontists and stuff around here. So it’s a bread and butter practice.

Shaun Keating: No, but you guys are crushing it. You’ve had your staff with you forever, just real top notch office, top staff, and you guys are always happy. One thing about you, dude, you’ve always just been an upbeat, happy … I don’t think I’ve ever seen you mad, man, ever. You’ve got a good disposition –

Dr. Mead: Oh, I have my moments. I have my moments, but I will say that being a recovering person, I sort of have a … Okay, so I was in treatment in 2002 for four months. I had a real problem with drugs and alcohol. So one of the things that I feel like regular people kind of get shafted on this deal. Four months where I got to learn how to take a look at myself, and how to deal with emotions. I think a lot of people right now don’t really know how to deal with emotions. They’ve got really bad mechanisms of coping that they’ve had for a long time, and just because they’ve gotten them this far, they haven’t had a chance to look at them. So part of the reason that I really benefited from that is I had time to really learn kind of what emotions are and how to help deal with them. And I will say what I lot of people know of me is post that. So like, my Dental Town days, the podcasting, I’ve been in solid recovery. So I have a chance to … I just learned some tools, I guess it what I’m saying.

Shaun Keating: Yeah.

Dr. Mead: That’s the benefit. So am I always happy? No, but I actually have … I think I’m more resilient and I bounce back from emotional stuff way better than most, and I think I owe that all to the fact that I was in treatment to be honest.

Shaun Keating: You really are, it’s almost like you’re a psychiatrist. You really just have a way about you, and you’ve found that inner peace, and I think a lot of people look for it. As we get older, we get a little wiser and we think a bit more with our heads, at least I am. And it just, the stuff we worried about before in life it’s like so minimal.

Dr. Mead: Yeah!

Shaun Keating: And you can, like you said, you can make it a great day. You can.

Dr. Mead: Yeah, you can. It generally is a choice, and I’m not going to say every day I make that choice, but you can kind of turn things around. The other thing is you have to look hard at what you need. I think in dentistry it’s tough. I graduated early enough where I’m sort of in a golden age position, where I didn’t have to go into so much debt from going to school. And so I don’t feel a lot of the pressures that some of the younger dentists do, financially in that way. But I don’t need as much as I think a lot of folks think they need. And that helps, having a smaller practice works great for that, because I don’t have to have that much stuff. Part of it is just, I don’t know that … Happiness is something you sort of create for yourself. And it’s great to have financial ability, don’t get me wrong. But I think in some cases we’re not … I think a lot of people don’t understand where … I don’t know. Happiness is more important to me than having the biggest practice in the world or something like that.

Shaun Keating: Oh, absolutely. No, it’s so true. And it is, you know, they say how money can’t buy happiness, and there’s so much more to it. And you know it’s the pursuit of happiness and everyone’s trying to find it you know, and it’s just something you’re going to go down that journey. I just love listening to your voice and hearing you. You’re always positive and it’s always been a great thing to listen to. And your podcast, tell me a little bit of how and why you started a podcast. And it’s like the number one dental podcast out there, and I just, I got a lot of options to listen to a lot of different podcasts, and now yours is right up front, and just a couple others, and it’s not even in dental.

Dr. Mead: It’s weird because like I listened to podcasts early on. Like in 2006 I was listening to podcasts. This was way before I had … iPhones didn’t even exist, and I had an mp3 player early on, and you know what I used to do, I was one of the … I think I was one of the charter members of audible dot com. I mean I had, I was on audible before anyone even knew about it. So I listen to audiobooks all the time. And I had this commute since 1998 that’s 40 minutes one way, twice a day. So I’ve got to fill my time with something, and music can only go so far, so I listened to audiobooks. And then these podcasts came on, and the first couple podcasts I listened to, one of them was called The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe, which actually is still going. It’s kind of a scientific skepticism … It’s a pretty good podcast. And they had that Roundtable, they would always have like five kind of co hosts on at the same time, and so that was one of styles that I listened to a lot. Another one was called Muggle Cast, which was really funny. It was basically a bunch of high school kids that had done this Roundtable on Harry Potter.

Shaun Keating: I love it!

Dr. Mead: It was really good, it was really good. That’s when all the Harry Potter books were coming out and everything. So I was reading the Harry Potter books. Well, I never thought at the time, you can imagine if I’d gotten in at 2006 how, you know … I never thought about doing anything like that. I never thought about being someone who would actually create these things, but after a while, hell by the time 2012, 2013 came around I was on a couple other people’s podcasts. I was on Jason [inaudible 00:26:57] and Grant Richie were doing one together and I was on his. I was on theirs, and then I was on [inaudible 00:26:59]. I realized, you know, I could do this. I could definitely do this. And I had run into Jason, actually he had been lecturing a lot on social media, and that sort thing. And I was doing a lecture for the Michigan Dental Association, and I was doing pretty well, but some of the Google local stuff, I just wasn’t really familiar with it. And we’d met on Facebook a while ago, and I was just asking him about it. You know, he gave me a bunch of stuff to use for my lecture and all this. So we were friendly for a long time. And I finally bugged him into the idea of starting a podcast, because there weren’t really a lot of dental podcasts out there at the time.

Shaun Keating: Exactly.

Dr. Mead: And so we took a course together, we actually took a course, Jason [inaudible 00:27:41] was giving a course in Chicago at [inaudible 00:27:45]. And we took a course together, and basically I finally pestered him into starting it after that. So I think our first episode went out in June 2014. And we had recorded in May 2014, and we didn’t really have any expectation. We just put it out there, and it took off pretty quickly. It didn’t take long. I think the trick is, is we were there at the right time. I mean it was pretty early on the dental podcast thing and I think that helped.

Shaun Keating: And you guys got a huge Dental Hack nation, I mean it’s a neat thing.

Dr. Mead: Yeah.

Shaun Keating: And you kind of got pricing, and it’s a neat thing. I see it, I mean I’m pretty new to Facebook and all that, and speaking about Jason, your partner there, Jason, helped us back in 2010 with all our social media, and he came out to the lab, and he had some other guys, and I was doing a keynote speech in Chicago at Cal Lab. And he put together this video, and it was the most interesting dental technician in the world. And he did all that stuff.

Dr. Mead: Yeah, yeah, I’ve seen it.

Shaun Keating: It’s so crazy, and that went off so great. And he’s just a sharp dude, real smart dude, and he was ahead of the time with the whole social media stuff, and I just, yeah, hats off to both you guys. I think it’s meant to be that it’s coming together.

Dr. Mead: He’s the ultimate idea guy. The two guys I think of in dentistry that have always been big idea guys would be him and Howard Veran, those two guys are … They’ve got stuff flying out of their head constantly. It’s just almost amazing to be around them.

Shaun Keating: That’s so cool, no, that’s true. That’s so awesome, dude. So tell me about your big baby you’re nurturing, and it’s called Voices of Dentistry, and I think you’re on your second or third year now? Or is this going to be –

Dr. Mead: This is our third year. It’s coming up January 25th and 26th. It’s in Scottsdale, Arizona again at the Double Tree Resort. The hosts are Jason and I, and then Dr. Mark Costas who does the Dental [inaudible 00:29:37] podcast. And Dr. Justin Moody who does dentist implants in worms, so we’re all podcasters. And what it is, is we do have a CE program where we have presenters. It’s really cool, this year we’re doing primarily like sort of Ted Talks, so it’s shorter, probably 20 or 30 minute presentations. And they’re kind of rapid fire which is cool, we’ve not done that before. That’s kind of exciting. A little scary, because as you know speakers like to go over and take their time. We’re not letting anyone do that this time.

Shaun Keating: Good job.

Dr. Mead: It’s going to be rapid fire, it’s going to be fun as hell, actually. So they have to bring their A game, alright? They have to bring their good stuff. But it’s a lot of podcasters, or a lot of people who have just been in the podcasting space. A few of them are people that we’ve had on the show multiple times, kind of our favorites. But also, we have, this is so cool, we have what we call the podcast lounge, which is basically all the exhibitors and sponsors are in this big room, and kind of in the middle of it is a bunch of tables. Like high top tables. And all the podcasters are in there creating podcasts throughout the breaks and during the show. And so the exhibitors get more access just to people because they’re all around where all the podcasts are being made.

Shaun Keating: Perfect.

Dr. Mead: Like last year we had a reception on Friday, and like no one left. They all stayed for everything, it was crazy, it was really cool. ‘Cause it’s fun. You can jump on and be on podcasts, or you can listen to podcasts being created. And this year, we’re switching out too, we used to have two stages where we were doing two different presentations at the same time. We didn’t do that this time. The second stage which was in, it’s in Arizona so it’s in a tent, the joke was that it’s in a tent. It’s like one of those giant tents that they do for wedding receptions and stuff like that.

Shaun Keating: Yeah, absolutely.

Dr. Mead: You could do that in Arizona, you can’t really do that in Michigan. You can do that in Arizona. So that stage, there’s a stage out there, and that’s going to be the live podcasting. So during the breaks where we don’t have speakers going on the main stage, a bunch of the podcasters, some of them may not have been presenting in the main show, but are there, are going to have the chance to present live at the … It’s going to be so cool. It’s the most interesting and innovative [inaudible 00:31:37] you’ve ever been to, it’s totally different. So it’s really, it’s a very good time.

Shaun Keating: I tell you, we’re excited. We went to it last year, and it was just a great thing. And we’re going to do it again this year. But right now we have a little soundbite we can put on, and let you hear about that.

Host: Don’t miss the biggest dental podcast event of the year. The Voices of Dentistry Podcast Summit at the Double Tree Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. Join us January 25th and 26th and earn up to 16 CE credits over two days. It’s your chance to experience some of the most popular speakers in the dental industry, and meet your favorite dental podcasters. It’s all hosted by doctors Allen Mead, Jason [inaudible 00:32:15], Mark Costas, and Justin Moody. Find out more and register today at Voices of Dentistry dot com.

Dr. Mead: Nice.

Shaun Keating: Boom. No, so we’re excited about it for sure. Me and Shannon are going to try to get out if we can, I know a couple of my guys are going to be out there for sure, and we’ll give away some tee shirts, some Dental Up tee shirts, have to get probably a couple hundred to bring.

Dr. Mead: Yeah, really, exactly.

Shaun Keating: How many people you think are going to be showing up this year?

Dr. Mead: Well, we had over 200 last year, we’re hoping for 300 this year, we’ll see.

Shaun Keating: Beautiful. Nah, it’s so exciting, and it’s so close for us. California but, we’ll shoot this out to a lot of our doctors, too. And we’d love to get a bunch of people out there for sure, and it’s a beautiful hotel.

Dr. Mead: That’s great.

Shaun Keating: Little Hilton hotel, prices for rooms are real reasonable, and yeah, it’s a neat place to be.

Dr. Mead: If anyone’s looking for more information, Voices of Dentistry dot com is the website. You can sign up, you can see who’s going to be there. So the speaker lineup is second to none.

Shaun Keating: That’s so cool, yeah it is. And there’s a lot and [inaudible 00:33:17] 16 CE credits which is pretty huge. It’s pretty neat, man, for sure. Well that’s so cool. I know your lunch time here, what else we got here? What about driving people to your practice, what do you do there? A lot of social media, are you doing any mailers? How are you doing that?

Dr. Mead: I’m horrible, I honestly … I mean I write my own website, I’ve been writing the blog forever. But since the podcast started, I’ve really not been writing as much. We do do quite well with reviews. We’re in an area that’s small enough that it’s not super competitive. So I don’t have to … My marketing budget is next to nothing. So it’s mostly word of mouth, and the website, and reviews, that sort of thing. And we do some Facebook stuff, too. So it’s great, we’re happy with it.

Shaun Keating: I think you’re busier than ever with your podcast and everything but I think your practice is booming, the best it ever has. I mean I think –

Dr. Mead: We’re doing okay, yep.

Shaun Keating: I think the best of both worlds are with you, man. Dr. Allen Mead, man. Thank you so much. I just can’t thank you enough. I’d love to do a little podcast in the future a little longer just to hear about you more and about your practice and all that. But dude, hey, thank you for what you’re doing for the dental industry. You really are bringing a lot of doctors together. And you’re helping and teaching them and putting things out there that a lot of people didn’t realize, and I think it’s just a real, real neat thing that you’re doing for the whole industry. And I even heard you had a lab, voices from the pen, that was a funny one. I’ll listen to that, and those guys are just, that’s cool. I know mine’s just kind of working with dentists when we started this, I had Dr. Hornbrook as my clinical director, and I said hey, Dr. Mead’s doing this, I want to do one. So he was with me for like a year and a half, and did it. And then he left and I said, heck, I guess I’ll just do it. But I just kind of talk to my dentists, and it’s a neat thing. Thank you so much for giving me –

Dr. Mead: Absolutely.

Shaun Keating: The idea to do what I’m doing, and for all the years of the work and the support. Whatever I can ever do for you, your family, god bless you guys. And I just can’t thank you enough, man.

Dr. Mead: You bet! I’m glad to do it. You come out and feed the horses for me some time.

Shaun Keating: I’m there, baby. Thanks so much
Dr. Mead. It was great talking to you, and I’ll see you, hey, I’ll see you in a couple weeks out in Arizona, Scottsdale, to the Voices of Dentistry, led by Allen Mead. You’re the man, dude.

Dr. Mead: Alright, thanks a lot.

Shaun Keating: Alright dude, thank you so much

Dr. Mead. I’ll talk to you real soon.

Dr. Mead: Alright, bye-bye.

Shaun Keating: Bye-bye.

Host: Thanks for joining us on the Dental Up Podcast show this week. Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Or search the Dental Up podcast on iTunes for our weekly feed. Don’t forget to visit Keating Dental Lab dot com slash promo for exclusive offers. Keating Dental Lab is a full service dental laboratory and we’re nationwide. We’d love for you to send us a case so we can show you the Keating difference. If you dig what you heard, please leave a review on iTunes and we’ll be back next week.