COVID-19 and the Dental Field with Grossi Dental & Wellness' Dr. Bobby Grossi

0:00
Welcome to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. I'm Josh Elledge, Founder and CEO of UpMyInfluence.com. We turn entrepreneurs into media celebrities, grow their authority, and help them build partnerships with top influencers. We believe that every person has a unique message that can positively impact the world. Stick around to the end of the show; we'll reveal how you can be our next guest on one of the fastest growing daily inspiration podcasts on the planet in 15 to 20 minutes. Let's go.

And with us right now, we've got Dr. Bobby Grossi. And Dr. Bobby, you're the owner of glossy dental and wellness. You're the host of the destiny is not hereditary podcast, and the author of two books, which we'll talk about. Well, Dr. Bobby, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. Thank you so much. So what are dentists doing during this time?

0:58
Well, me I'm actually in the office. Now I'm actually seeing emergency patients. So in this kind of crazy time, right now we're seeing, I feel it's our obligation to help the healthcare system somewhat some of my areas shut down. But it's more important that they're coming to us for dental needs and toothaches and stuff like that even other other health needs, and keeping them away from the hospitals right now in this time, and that's, I feel it's our moral obligation or duty to do that part. So I'm here to see emergencies right now.

1:24
Yeah. And how is that going? I mean, in terms of like, Are your clients coming in? And obviously, there's probably more precautions that you want to take just to reduce contact? And

1:33
yeah, I mean, obviously, we're doing social listening the best we can we're seeing about a patient our right now. So we're trying to kind of limit it, but actually, it's been it's kind of crazy busy, which is kind of Who would have thought that right? Yeah, there's but you know, as far as us in the health field, we kind of always taken viruses and bacteria pretty serious. So I would say that you're doing something really different. No, the sad thing is, is we can't get gloves and masks when we need them. You know, we have I actually am working We're actually working on some things too. I own a dental lab as well. And we're working on creating masks. And I'm kind of using this as a problem solving time and maybe helping create better mask in the future. I think we had a, I think we all need to learn from this moment and say, okay, we didn't protect ourself enough. And so I, you know, I'm working on a solution for that as well. Just better mass better, better equipment.

2:21
Yeah, you know, what's really amazing, I think has been some of the most enjoyable things to see is how inventive people have become in solving problems. And, you know, as much as we kind of often look to our governments to bail us out and kind of fix things. I'm seeing some really amazing things come from the private sector, you know, people, you know, we just have Bosch, you know, creating ventilators and being able to produce them on mass, like and just solve major situations that, you know, that put people at risk. So So, so thank you so much for, you know, kind of your innovation, you know, and how how we can help out in our communities. You know, what are the things that we could do to support one another? And, you know, when when we do that, we'll absolutely kind of mitigate that. You know, those spikes and those, those really painful situations can affect a lot of people if we all kind of just pool our resources together.

3:24
Oh, the perfect word resource. I think I think we're all becoming a little bit more resourceful. You know, I mean, it's amazing when you get a bunch of masterminds together when you get people trying to solve the same problem of how much how much momentum you can get, you know, sometimes we take things for granted and, and that everything is just going to work out but now you got a whole I don't want to say this is kind of a blessing in disguise, because it's a terrible thing. But the country is kind of rallying around this and you get people that are trying to solve some issues that probably been overlooked for a long time. So it's kind of cool, actually. Not cool in a sense of the Coronavirus, but you get what I'm saying. Right? Yeah.

3:56
So this article, we're working together. Yeah, another question. I Is our dentist able to perform tele health?

4:04
Yes, like virtual councils and stuff like that. I mean,

4:07
yeah,

4:08
we just got it just got passed down by the ad. I mean, you know, I was talking about doing it anyway. And I kind of got yesterday we got the past town for the American Dental Association that now I guess we can do virtual health, virtual consultations, whether it's through FaceTime, whether it's through zoom calls, and we can do that and that's, I reached out to my patients already, but yeah, we can do that.

4:29
You know, I wonder if the future because I've talked with some people that, you know, there there's devices that are coming out that you could do kind of basic tests, you know, certainly you know, thermometer and they're, they're connected, they're in Internet of Things devices, you know, that they have, you know, cameras and other things, you can kind of check certain things, you know, but I'm what I'm waiting for is like some sort of device that, you know, you can send out to a patient, they could put it in their mouth, and it will do like some sort of, you know, test in there to check for, you know, gum disease or whatever. It might be right. Some of the things that normally we've had to do just visually in person, you know, but you know, the future of, you know, technology and remote, you know, servicing telehealth, I think I'm kind of anxious to see what what

5:15
you know, it's funny you mentioned that just today alone, I had a patient who we don't know if they have oral cancer or not. And because of this kind of pandemic going on, she's not able to get the see the specialist right away when it's pretty serious me young girl, 18 years old, and I was able to with my technology, talk to I mean, I'm from Michigan. So I talked to the surgeon in Ann Arbor. And then, and then I got talked to another oral surgeon in Saginaw. So like, here we are, we're miles apart, but yet we're connected at the same time, we're going over this case with this patient, and we're coming up with a strategy and plan virtually really, that would have probably taken a long time, which I mentioned, excited about this technology and what we're, we're thinking of once again outside the box, but I mean, I'm able to get answers. Bank. And so these people that are living in fear of the uncertainty, I do have to wait on this, we're kind of coming up with a plan. And we're, we're expediting this plan in a safe way, obviously, social distancing, but, but we're making sure that we follow the right process. But we did it all virtually, like he could look at my 3d scan in two seconds. And it was just a really, it was kind of a cool way. And I've never interacted with doctors like that before, because we're all on the same team. You know, that's why my books called bridging the gap, right, trying to bridge the gap with the healthcare system. And so it was just really cool to see it all come to light. And you because you mentioned it, I just thought it was ironic that we just did that. Doctors, yeah.

6:38
As the you know, obviously. So you're the you're the owner and founder of glossy dental and wellness. And do you have an office about how big is your team?

6:47
We actually have Well, I have for a year now because of what's going on. But we have a staff of over 20 employees, which is me. My biggest average was about 30. But we're about 20. We have we have a man, we're We're very blessed. We have to raise and we have a great team that rallies around us in the community. So I'm very blessed

7:06
as a leader, what has this environment meant for you, for your office? And like what things have you? How have you communicated? Or how have you worked with your team? And, you know, again, kind of contingency planning, that sort of thing. I'm just wondering what sorts of activities you've done, as, you know, as people kind of look to you to kind of set the sail. You know, how, how have you dealt with this?

7:32
Well, I, you know, I mean, I kind of went into more of the the leadership role, you know, just kind of working on people's psyche, I send them messages to virtual messaging. I'm talking to my staff, just like I would talk to you on this podcast, you know, I'm making sure I'm giving them motivational messages. I'm making sure they get their mind right and making sure that they're protected financially and, and also just having the support of the community so even with my community, you know, whether it is a Facebook post, just letting people know, look at we're in this together. We're all going to get through this. We've been through darker times before, right? We're going to get through this. And just really focusing on you know, maybe I tell my staff utilize this time right now, like, I know, this is bothersome, I know we're all going to get through it, the bank, lending institutions are going to work through everybody with this. We're all going to get through this financial but utilize this time to do the things that you maybe couldn't have done before that you think you didn't have enough time or utilize this time to work on your family relationships, working on whatever it is that you wanted to work on, even if it's getting in a fitness program, right utilize this time, because we always have not enough time. Everybody said that right? Now we have time and utilize this time to to make yourself a better version of yourself. And but I do that through messaging through just a simple text message. Sometimes I'll get my phone up and do a video message to my team. Just always engaging them to make sure that they know first of all I love and appreciate them. And secondly, they're not forgotten and just because we're at a distance right now, we can do things to stay connected. And that's what I'm working on.

9:00
Yeah, you know, in addition to being a dentist and having your own practice, you're kind of a motivational speaker and you've you've taken a holistic approach to dentistry where you're actually, I mean, you're you, you know, my vibe from you is that, you know, you want to care for the whole patient, not just, you know, the, the symptoms of you know, of ginger vitus or something like that. Right? You really care for the whole patient. And and that also extends into your role as a leader can you can kind of share a little bit about that.

9:37
Yeah, so I mean, the Quick, quick, cliffnotes version, my grandpa, the reason why I got into dentistry to begin with was because my grandfather passed away a throat cancer, he kind of raised me with my mom. And so I always wanted to make a difference. Initially, I want to be an MD, my wife's in Iran. She says, do you want to be married? You paid your whole life I said, not really. So then I picked dentistry to be more of a nine to five But what I did is what I realized is talking to my patients and, and just kind of looking at how the health and the whole body was connected to dentistry and our impact. So I think of dentistry as almost like the oil change for the body, like people that have automobiles and cars, they get an oil change so that their engine runs more efficiently. And I said, Okay, well, if dentistry is kind of like the first oil change of getting the health and immunity working out what else is tied in from sleep patterns to, to just how the body responds to certain chemicals, how the body responds to, to materials you're putting in their mouth, so then I took more of a holistic post, if I don't want to treat everyone to treat symptoms, I want to treat the disease because if I can eliminate the disease of a body, we can minimize you know medications we can really solve the problem. So I'm a more problem solver guys. And sometimes it's just solving people like there are times I want to work on a patient and they'll tell me about their personal problems and I work on their mental health and get them right because we deal with phobias everyday we deal with people that have other health issues in mind. Our role in medicine is not to always solve the problem is to diagnose, and then help them get the solution. And if it means not seeing me if that's what it is, but that's how my approach has always been is just kind of, how can I what is really going on? What are they asking for? What's their concern? And what is my role to get them there? If it means I don't treat them? It's still my role. I just get them in the proper hands. Does that make sense?

11:23
Yeah, for sure. And of course, that philosophy extends into your role as the CEO of your organization as well.

11:31
Correct? Correct. Me. So that's where my team is. So like, people always say to me, you know, my employees are just as much a part of this whole thing is I am right. So without a team that's running the same mission, I can never accomplish what I'm trying to accomplish, which is provide total health and wellness right? But I need a team that believes in that in embodies the same thing. So I focused on them as much as never, it's never about me and I'll say this, everybody else. Just because my name's on the sign is never about me. It's about us in them. And so my whole approach is if I can build up my team, if I can, if I can help them through their mental state right now, or if I can help my patients rather suffer, I can influence them in a better lifestyle, health and wellness. And I've accomplished a pretty good thing. I mean, I like I said, I can't do this alone. And I need a team that rallies around me and kind of has the same viewpoint and vision. And that's what I love about my team and my patients as we kind of have the same philosophy. So like, mine's like, like minds, right? It's pretty easy. I mean, but, but I just think it's, I think we're on a bigger mission here. And I think that's what I love about not only my staff, but even my patients, we all kind of believe the same, you know, we believe the same way.

12:47
As a dental practice. You guys have had some really good success and what do you do from a marketing or visibility standpoint that other practices might not be doing?

12:59
You know, I think I think originally it was just more of word of mouth. I first started and then I realized, you know what, there's something else out there. So I started doing more, you know, Instagram videos I started doing just putting myself out there, you know, doing community events doing free dentistry, that was probably my biggest thing I've ever done was, I've been doing it now for 12 years. So I take it for granted which I should never take it for granted because we're trying to solve a big epidemic, right? But, but I started going out in the community, just giving back to my community, making sure we're doing free days of dentistry and focusing on my staff. Then my staff started you know, marketing really marketing for us, but really making the patient or the client I like to say, feel like they're part of something bigger. So from paraffin waxing of the hands when they come into giving them the not generic water like everyone laughs like, everybody hands out water, but understand what that message says if you hand out No offense to Sam's Club, but if you hand out Sam's Club water versus Fiji water, it's a perception to the patient, right? It's all about perception. So my staff it was they wanted to cut costs and like we're going to hand out the samples water, I refused to let them hand it out, I said, that patient is not a generic patient, that patient is so much more to me, you hand in the best that you think is the best. And so I've always believed that just over delivering and all my services, I don't care if the service was free, I need to over deliver, I need to make sure we give them more the value that they came in here for that dollar amount should matter. It's, it's you're over delivering whatever it is, whether it's giving them Fiji water, the new water canadia whatever it is, but I mean, I'm just saying we always even down to the water, you hand out a handout, like you're gonna laugh like a handout, wine bottles. They don't drink it in here, but when they walk in if they like, why do you like red wine or like white wine, that's a gift. So we really are looking for ways to make sure that patient feels like this is not a dental office. This is this is a health and wellness office, so we just have to focus on dentistry. Does that make sense?

14:58
Yeah, for sure. And thank you by the way For not handing out Dasani water because that that would not be good for business. Everyone

15:07
was too acidic if you really want to know design is very acidic, those Aquafina so no this is another side note not all water is equal and that's where people have this misconception I'm drinking healthy water no you're not you're drinking acidic water and and that and so Aquafina is really acidic design. They'll probably get blasted by the water, but they're sick. So when you start you want to get more into the alkaline waters you're talking to ease the avionics, there's other ones out there but be careful not everything you read is accurate. Like they'll ever say a water pH is eight. It's not me and my daughter. She did an experiment in school and I have a list of all the waters that are actually good for you. Good, good water that's relatively inexpensive. Yeah, Nestle. Nestle is a good water from really,

15:46
it's more alkaline, then.

15:49
Yes. Ah, now, the more elderly you can get your bloodstream, the more alkaline you can get, whether it's water, whether it's eating greens, I know we're not going in this direction. 60% greens just like you do 60% waters, the more alkaline your blood can be or neutral, the less chance you ever have of getting infections.

16:07
Wow. So now compared to like a coffee, so coffee is going to be significantly more acidic than, like a water right?

16:15
Yeah, I mean it. Well, it depends, I guess what what are you running through your car? Yeah, right. Right, right. Oh, I mean, if your water at your house is pretty good or depends on the water they're using really, you know,

16:25
so now do do this. By the time this podcast episode airs, do some social media posts about the acidity of what you drink. And I think that would be a fun chart to see. I'm sure. I'm sure someone's already designed it out there. Pass. I'm gonna look for that after our conversation because now I'm really curious about you know, kind of the acidity of the things that I'm consuming. You know, it's funny that you say that somebody went out and did a lot of people have done a lot of things. You just don't reinvent the wheel. You just do it over. It's about a week. airness, right? And so, you know, and oftentimes, and this is one thing that I've experienced is, you know, we might think of something that we know, and assume everybody knows it, because that's just kind of the world we live in. The reality is, you know, it's like, you know, my wife and I each studied family science, family therapy and in college. And so we assume that it's easy for me to assume that people know, like, what reflective listening is, and usually like nine times out of 10, I mentioned that people I, like, you know, where you say, you know, someone says, You allow someone to say something, and then you say, you repeat back to them. So what you're saying is dot, dot, dot, dot, dot,

17:39
and people like, Oh,

17:42
yeah, it's like, no, that is. Yeah, so it's, you know, but But yeah, oftentimes, you know, when when we are perceived of as an expert, or a thought leader or subject matter expert in something like that. You generally don't need to get very advanced with your audience and in fact, You know, I generally will sometimes, you know, whatever it is I'm teaching about I try to keep it at a, you know, fifth grader level, like if a fifth grade class could understand and kind of track with me that's kind of the level that I want to speak at because you know, that people can kind of follow along and there are politicians that actually do this very well. You know, and you know, it's it resonates. If people can feel smart when they listen to you.

18:54
Well, awesome. So, so Dr. Bobby, what would be a great way for people to engage with With you your website, is there any particular piece of content that you'd really love people to check out?

19:06
Well, I mean, obviously you're talking about my my podcast. Destiny is not hereditary, but also just just Dr. Bobby j Grassi is my Facebook page, but glossy dental wellness, you got all my links to all that stuff. My personal website is Dr. Bobby J. grassy calm has more than motivational side of me in the dental side of me. So there's a there's a few ways you can get a hold of me. Yeah, you

19:26
have some really great social media content. And again, the podcast destiny is not hereditary. What do you talk about on that podcast?

19:34
You know, it originally started out as that was my kind of story. You know, I kind of gave my story where I came from, like I said, I had a single mom and Flint, Michigan raising three kids make $18,000 a year. My dad was a drug addict. And so it was one of those things where I kind of put myself through school and it was basically giving people originally started with just telling my story, given them hope, understanding that you know, you're not the one there's a future steps I can teach you a bit through my life of how to do it. So I believe that people can plant their own seed. So many times I hear from people in life that, you know, I'm this way because my mom was that way. I'm this way because my dad was this way, right? I don't know how to love because I wasn't loved and I don't want to call bs on people. But the reality of it is, is you're that way because you choose to be that way. You know, you're making a choice to stay that way. And so I believe that just because you are destined, or you're in you're raised in this family doesn't mean that that's what your destiny is meant to be. How many people have you heard that go from rags to riches story or go our homeless Josh Jacobs from the from the Raiders, they're running back. He's actually homeless, but now he's a professional athlete. So what what is in somebody's mind that gets him to go from here to here? And why are people that have come from a great, you know, financial backing or a family life? Why don't they start here, but then here, so that's kind of what my podcast is kind of working on how to what makes that person tick one way or the other and how can we help solve the solution, then I can definitely In morphs in a little bit, too, I have a lot of family and friends that suffer from anxiety and depression. So yeah, it also talks more about how to handle those situations.

21:09
Yeah, yeah. And it's, you know, and I think that, you know, my approach to that is, you know, if you can find purpose in that, you know, we all have our things, right. We all have, you know, our disadvantages we all have, some of us have circumstances that are just tougher than other folks. But can we find purpose in that? And it's kind of like the Viktor Frankl Man's Search for Meaning. It's, you know, what is the purpose that you get out of that you that you get from this experience? And, you know, having spoke for Tony Robbins organization and, you know, attended a lot of his events. You know, this, you know, that if we want to blame, that's okay, but blame elegantly. In other words, if you had a rough upbringing, you know, you know, my my view of it Today is, you know, my parents did the absolute best with what they knew at the time. And it was a perfect No, of course not. I'm not a perfect Dad, I'm not perfect dirt. I'm far from perfect. And so you know, but for me to look back and my parents, it's really easy for, for me to blame them for things. But in reality, you know, it's like, I kind of like who I am right now. And so because of my upbringing, and who I am, that made me who I am today. And I'm actually pretty grateful for that and so if my dad was a little tough on me, you know what I survived and I'm pretty thankful because it made me you know, whatever personality traits I have right now that I think served me well. So that's that's kind of my view on it. So I'm

22:50
a subscribed it sounds really interested. Cool. And that's kind of how I did it. So it's funny. I have a brother and I have a sister and we all look at things totally different. I have a twin sister, my twin session I look at things the exact same way. Like if somebody says would you bring a table? No was awesome. I mean, the fact that I had a dad who is a an alcoholic, the fact that I had a mom that struggled financially, I knew exactly what I did not want to do. Like, instantly I knew exactly what problem I was going to solve my own life. Okay, I'm not going to do this. So every decision I made people say, how did you become a dentist? I literally every decision I made in my life, I would say, What would my dad do? And I did the opposite. really corny, like that. But understand that the reason why I have as much drive, yeah, utilized. What's the so called weakness. I don't even know if it's a weakness I utilize in my life in my upbringing, and I utilize it as my strength and going okay, I know exactly what I want where my brother, God loves movies. Listen, this is what it is. He will not let go of that past and instead of embracing the past as a positive, he embraces it as a negative and we're the same family, same upbringing. So yeah, I you know, I just, it's all how you put meaning to things. You know, Tony Robbins said the two it's what do you associate your meaning with? And is the haters at pleasure and I can associate that downside as pleasure because I know that it's, it's made me who I am today. And that's, I think everybody including you, Josh, who goes to that next level because we all have stories. It's can they link pleasure to it versus pain, and if they can link pleasure Twitter or good learning from it and just move on, then you can become successful, but am I like it? I'm just more of a cheerleader. On the podcast. I give people some ideas. I try to tell them real life situations of even in my practice to the day, you know, but that's all I just want to help. At the end of the day as well.

24:38
Some good David Goggins philosophy, you just shared that as well. So yeah, well, Dr. Bobby, again, Dr. Bobby Grossi, thank you so much. Again, you're the owner of Grossi Dental and Wellness and the website for that is Grossi Dental and Wellness.com, G R O S S I Dental and Wellness.com And and then as well, you got some great social media. And then of course, the podcast you can listen to right now is destiny is not hereditary. And you could search for that right in the podcast app that you're doing. We didn't even get to the books. We'll have to bring out another time.

25:16
Thank you.

25:17
Yep. Dr. Bobby, thank you so much for joining us.

25:19
Thanks, everybody. Stay man. Thank you.

Thanks for listening to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program, please visit UpMyInfluence.com slash guest. Now if you got something out of this interview would you share this episode on social media? Just do a quick screenshot with your phone and text it to a friend or post it on the socials. If you do that, tag us with the hashtag UpMyInfluence. Each month, we scour Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. We pick one winner from each platform, and you get crowned king or queen of that social media. What do you win? We're going to promote you and your business to over 120,000 social media fans totally free. Now, can you also hook us up now in your podcast player right now? Please give us a thumbs up or a rating and review. We promise to read it all and take action. We believe that every person has a message that can positively impact the world. Your feedback helps us fulfill that mission. And while you're at it, hit that subscribe button. You know why? Tomorrow, that's right, seven days a week, you are going to be inspired and motivated to succeed 15 minutes a day. My name is Josh Elledge. Let's connect on the socials. You'll find all the stuff we're doing UpMyInfluence.com. Thanks for listening and thank you for being a part of The Thoughtful Entrepreneur movement.