Innovation and Bold Action in Dentistry with Dr. Anissa Holmes

Anissa Holmes  00:00 

Keep learning, right? Always the things that I’ve done like learn, invest in yourself, like you can do it. It doesn’t matter if you’re a woman, if it doesn’t matter where you come from, you know, there’s somebody else that has what you want. All you have to do is know what they will know or learn what they learn and you can have what they have. 

 

Shawn Zajas  00:21 

The future of dentistry belongs to the innovators. Welcome to innovation in dentistry. I’m your host, Shawn Zajas. And I believe that the future of dentistry is going to be unbelievably great over the next decade in two decades. But the question isn’t that, the question is, are you going to be part of what makes dentistry Great? Hey, guys, I could not be more excited today to be with the one and only n is the homes of delivering Wow, and now dental flicks. So before I set you up on this, let me just say thank you so much for letting me interview you today. 

 

Anissa Holmes  01:06 

Well, I’m actually very honored that you’ve chosen to interview me today. So thank you so much for having me. 

 

Shawn Zajas  01:13 

So Anissa, you know, innovation in dentistry, that can mean so many different things. There can be innovation on the clinical front, there can be innovation when it comes to technology, or even business models. But what I’m most fascinated by, is that before any of those innovations happen, some crazy person says, hey, why not me? Why can’t I step up, and lead and pioneer positive change? And they have some sort of belief set or mindset that fuels them? I’m so curious about you, your journey in dentistry. And ultimately, like where you’re at right now pioneering positive change with dental flicks. So just draw me in on your story, wherever you want to start me. of just, I mean, you’re you’re a crazy, visionary, crazy pioneer. And I’m just curious, has it always been this way? Did you just know from the very beginning, this is just who you were? 

 

Anissa Holmes  02:14 

You know, it’s really interesting, because when I was like eight years old, I remember going to the pediatrician with my dad. And I remember being there with him, and having him to actually write the check to the doctor, which is crazy, right? And I’m like, Well, why are you doing that the nurses doing all the work? And it was like, you know, that’s what happens when you own a business, right? Like, that’s what happens when you are the entrepreneur, right? And I was like, Oh, my gosh, that’s really interesting, right? And so as my journey continued to unfold and to progress, I really understood that my calling was literally to help people. Right. And so I kind of suppressed that sort of entrepreneurial side that my dad shared with me later in life. But I remember just feeling like always, I want to be a doctor, I want to help people, right? Being in high school and being very involved with service organizations, right? That’s always been a part of my DNA. And being in dental school and doing missions work, right. But as it leads to, like where I am and where I’ve been for the last 20 years in dentistry, it really started with my desire to really heal people and help people through dentistry. And I believe that no matter if we come in as a dentist as an assistant, as a hygienist, right, if we’re coming in to work in a dental practice, we are called to be healers. We could have worked anywhere else. And so what’s been exciting for me is first figuring out how to create a dental practice that really makes people feel special and really changes the community, right? My dental practice, we built playgrounds, we built computer labs for schools, we put in whiteboards and changed out whiteboards for blackboards, right. And as I started to do that, it was actually my business coach, I had a business coach, and I believe wholeheartedly in coaching, right? Getting people who already have been there and can give you a really fast journey. And she asked me what’s next for you? Right? And she actually saw it in me and she’s like, what’s next for you? And I said, you know, I have a calling to help more people than just the 2000 people in my dental practice. And so for me, it became okay, well, let me write a book. Right. And that was my introduction to this world of like, dentistry outside of my practice, right? I wrote a book, I started a podcast so many years ago, and I’m like, who’s gonna know who I am? Right? Like, who’s gonna know who I am? Who’s gonna read my book about growing a dental practice and creating amazing experiences and creating a great team started the podcast, and that led to dentists asking me to help them with growing their practice and growing like I had no idea even though I’m a visionary, it was like our actions lead to what comes next. And recently I was at I was at a, an event, and one of my mentors shared. He said, You know, it’s really interesting because whether you believe in a higher power, whether it’s God or the universe, or whatever you believe in, right? Like, you will be given something, and you have a decision, either you can move forward and do something with it. Right? Or you can stay where you are. And he shared the story of like Prince and Michael Jackson. And all of a sudden, Michael Jackson was on this big tour. And he, he woke up in the morning, he’s like, I have this big vision, we’ve got to do this thing. And his team was like, This is gonna be like, a million dollar decision, right? If we make this change. And Michael Jackson says, Well, if I don’t implement it, if I don’t do it, if I don’t put in place what was given to me, like God’s gonna give it to Prince, or God. God’s gonna give it to Prince right. And so it’s been really exciting. Because like, I was called, I was asked, I was compelled, like, how do I do this next thing? And I remember having resistance in my life, right? Having friends that were naysayers or some of my family members that were naysayers and saying, Why are you getting on that microphone? Like you’re really good dentists, right? Like, why are you doing this? Well, one, my dad reminded me you remember, you’re an entrepreneurial, you’re always going to be creative and thinking about things. But for me, it was like, How can I help instead of 2000 people in my practice, like if I start helping doctors with coaching, and marketing and profitability and case acceptance, like all the things that I can help literally like 1000s of people, right. And so I’ve been on that journey for the last eight to 10 years, helping practices learn how to grow. But while I’ve been on that journey, I’ve been doing a lot of inner growth, right, and an inner work on myself to be able to learn things that I definitely didn’t learn in dental school. And so those have been things like understanding digital marketing, right, like, What are digital marketing funnels? And how do we have people learn who we are? Right, like, I remember Sandy Pardew who many people know, she’s awesome in scheduling. She’s like, how is it that you’re not speaking on stages? And this was early on, but everybody knows who you are. And your coaching program is full, right? Like I learned how to make that happen through understanding social media and digital marketing. Right? I went in and became like, understood how to build coaching programs. I started a podcast, I had a Facebook group, right? Like, all of these different things. I owned a dental company, right. And so what’s been really interesting is that right now, I’m 49. I’ll be 50 next year, and I started to have these, like, things rumbling through my head. And it was like, Well, what are you going to do now? Like, are you going to keep all the knowledge of understanding how to grow your dental practice, how to grow a coaching program, how to grow a business, right? Like, I’ve been doing webinars with, with companies and like, they’ve been really getting more people to learn about them, right? Like, like, how do I how do I help now? This has been a question of like, how do I help 10s of 1000s of people? And so I started to think about, like, you know, I’ve been with Russell Brunson for for eight years as my coach, right. He’s the number one marketer in the world right now. I understand digital marketing, I understand funnels, like my mastermind has 100 practices in it. And I was like, either I can like die with that knowledge of what I have in my head. And all of the experience in the 1.5 million that I’ve spent acquiring knowledge, right with all of my coaching programs, like I’m a speaker, I’ve spent so much on speaking training and speaking coaching and like all that stuff, like how can I now bring it together, to be able to educate and help people to be able to, to be able to grow? And so that was kind of like the birth of DentalFlix, right. And so, for DentalFlix, you know, I asked myself, How can I help dental professionals to be able to grow? Right, how can I help Coaches and Consultants? How can I help podcasters right, like your podcasts or like I’ve spent years podcasting I’m about to start back up a new podcast, with Allison with DentalFlix, right? Like how can I help podcasters and, and really just starting to spread the message that if everybody as people right just help each other, right, like at the core of what we’re doing, why are we doing what we’re doing? One because we’re really passionate about it right? If I wasn’t passionate about helping people, or educating like I would have stopped a long time ago because believe me it’s not been easy. Right? There have been ups there’s been downs. There have been mistakes. You know, there have been money as an you know, as a business owner putting money in of your purse. smell funds like making those personal sacrifices that we all do as a dental dentist or as a podcaster. Right as owning a business, but how can we come together and it be a win win win situation where we all can share how we help. And we ultimately can help more people. And ultimately, our businesses can grow. So that now we can take care of the people that we actually love the most right, which are our kids. And so for me, like the innovation, and maybe this podcast is taking a very different spin than what it was intended to be. Right. But I just believe like, for me, it’s it’s how can we collaborate. And so for me, DentalFlix is that, you know, is that one place where we can provide education at a really low costs for dental professionals to be able to train their teams, and the innovation comes in with how we’re providing the education, right, it’s not just go and watch a bunch of videos is all based on data and analytics, which in itself is is very innovative, right, having CEE available at no additional cost. And with the CEE, there’s a learning objective. And with the number one learning objective that solves a problem, right, and so that problem is a gap. And so having team members come in having doctors come in getting an individual assessment of their particular role, and based on the education, understanding what is it that they’re most competent in and least competent in? Then now learning is literally based on analytics and data, where now they’re not just watching a lot of videos, and really wasting time because doing more like and working harder doesn’t work. But you got to be smart. Right? So So it’s that sort of learning that we’ve innovated with DentalFlix, also having the ability to be able to and that’s on the on the emotional side. But how do we learn based on logic, and so one of the things that I did in my learning journey was start to understand a lot of the models of like EOS entrepreneur operating system, which many people know, right, so I actually became a professional EOS implementer. So these are just a couple 100 People that have been trained and certified to help companies grow from one to five, five to 1010 to 100 million. And so I went through that journey, I actually ended up giving it up, when they realized I had so many other frameworks. And that was only not only what I was going to teach, I was like, You know what, I can’t just be an implementer. So I actually gave up that certification, right. But through that journey, understanding the power of data and scorecards and KPIs and setting goals. And so within DentalFlix, we do have performance scorecards, or dashboards where again, if a number is not hit, whether it’s going to be your AR goal, or your production goal, or how many people left without a future appointment, tracking that week to week, and if you’re not hitting the goal, giving specific training to be able to improve the goal, right, that is, again, innovation of how we’re actually learning, we’re not just watching training, we’re actually watching this specific training to be able to get the results faster, because that’s what we want, right? Like, we want dental practices to grow faster, we want to have the ability to grow faster. And then for all of the educators that are coming in and DentalFlix, giving them an opportunity to be able to teach and learn and help people and ultimately, to be really transparent about it. Like I’ve invested a lot in coaching, you can get in there and say, Man, I really liked this particular speaker, this particular coach, this particular mentor, and then now you have an opportunity to say, you know, what, do they have something else, like that’s one of the biggest things that I teach my coaching clients is like, cut checks for speed, like if people already know it, just move forward with them. And so giving educators a platform to be able to get exposure to what they’re doing, and how they can help is wonderful. So yeah, that’s what we’re doing with DentalFlix and innovation. And like, that’s the big why because, you know, I’ve gone from helping a few 1000 people to helping, you know, maybe 1000s a year, you know, with patients that are being impacted by the coaching, but now with dental flicks like for us to be able to help 1000s of practices with their patients, not just in the US, but also right now we’re entering the UK market and be able to help all of these educators and companies grow as well. That’s to me a much bigger impact project. And that’s what we’re all about is really creating impact, right. 

 

Shawn Zajas  14:38 

Okay, so can I call you Anissa? Because I realized when I introduced to you I didn’t say Dr. Anissa Holmes, but for those if there is anyone that doesn’t know you, you are you’re still Are you still a practicing dentist? 

 

Anissa Holmes  14:52 

So I retired I practice for 20 years and the crazy story about that is I because we started using specific frameworks that we teach, right? So whiteboards and scorecards, and really having a global picture of what’s going on in the company, right? Like I, as an owner of a dental practice, and I still own my own practice, have a manager that runs it as CEO. It’s now a passive income source. This is what we what I teach dentists to do in our coaching program, right. But I remember that we had actually, which is insane, we had actually doubled our profits for two years in a row, based on having a global picture. And what if then, situation, if we don’t hit this, this is what we do next. And the team understands. And they can almost like teach it. Right? It’s mastery. Right? So based on that, it was December, and I came back from from Christmas break. And I asked my team, I said, How was how was December at that point, I was working like maybe two days a week or one day a week. But I had taken some time over Christmas, and my scheduler said, Doc, we doubled our doctor production per visit. And week 13. And our profit was why and I was like, oh my god, like it wasn’t even my manager. It was my scheduler, right. And so I was like, Oh, my gosh, and I said, You know what? We’re there. Like, we’re at mastery, multiple doctors, mastery of systems, and a manager, the three M’s that’s what I teach, you get there, you get leverage, you get scale, you get freedom, you get financial freedom, right. And so we did it. And I was like, I think I’m gonna retire. And they were like, when doc and I was like, next week. No, it didn’t happen in one day. It didn’t happen in one year. But I had the vision because I saw what I was doing, and making such a big, big impact in terms of helping colleagues and helping their teams and teaching them and I just realized that I love to teach, like, I love it. I love it. I love to be able to help people and, and so I actually retired, that was 20 years of clinical. So I was really in the deep depths of like cosmetic dentistry. And there weren’t many people in my community that were doing really difficult implant restoration cases and huge cases. That was me, which is why I had the resistance. It’s like you’re such a good dentist. Why? Like you’re not even where you can be in your practice. Why are you pivoting? To start getting on a microphone and like doing Facebook Lives and building a Facebook group? Like, what the heck are you doing? Right? And it’s because I saw it. I had the vision, right? Like I was the first female dentists podcaster. The delivering While Facebook group, which was years ago was like one of if not the first dental Facebook group, right? I remember talking to Alan Mead and saying, You got to you got a podcast, you should have a Facebook group. I remember talking to to the macro brothers as well. I don’t know if you remember them. But like, saying, You guys have got like, this podcast, like you should have a Facebook group. Like I was telling them all like you should have a Facebook group, right? And then like Chris’s group came off of it. And like nifty, thrifty. He Glenn was actually early coaching client of mine. And so during that time, we talked about like, what he was doing, because he was helping so many people in our coaching program, like, Oh, I got this hook up this deal with this company and was sharing, I’m like, you need to do that, whatever. And he’s taken it or innovated and run off with it, right? But yeah, I practice clinically for 20 years, I’m retired. I’m not retired, I’m just getting started with DentalFlix. But I’m retired from a dental practice. And it now is serving as a passive income source for me, which is, which is pretty amazing, to be able to have that freedom. And we’re impacting the lives of our patients and our team members. And again, it really just started with that vision. 

 

Shawn Zajas  18:58 

So Anissa, I know, I could take anything you’ve worked on over the last decade, and you’re guilty of innovating, like meaning. It’s just it’s so so the what of innovation is something that that I can just go along this list of you really have pioneered, but I’m so much more curious about the who of innovation. Yeah. And that’s you. And so I’m just wanting to know, in what ways are you human? So let me 

 

Anissa Holmes  19:31 

I’m very human. Let me tell you. In major ways, in mayor ways 

 

 

Shawn Zajas  19:38 

So So here’s the thing, I believe, like as, as I’m interviewing you, I believe listeners are thinking about the dreams have their heart, right. So between the lines, they’re picturing the book that’s not written that they haven’t. They haven’t doubled down on their thinking about the dream, that problem that they’re Meant to solve. And my whole goal is that through this, they will just get in the game. And they’ll realize that the time is now, even if they’re not ready, because they’re going to have more regret in a decade, looking back on the things they didn’t do, than the things they did that may have fallen short, or whatever. So I want to know, let’s go back to the genesis of a Anissa, stepping out of the convention of dentistry, your coach, which I think it’s crazy that you’ve been had a coach, so well done, the coach says, What’s next for you? Now, is this scary when she’s asking this question? Is this like, you kind of 

 

Anissa Holmes  20:40 

scary? And if you want to bring human into it, you know, it’s like, right now, I have my dental practice, which, because we set it up, right, and we did the frickin work, right? Like, it didn’t happen in one year, like it was three, four or five years of right, building the systems and doing the things right. But you know, right now, with Dental Flex, like, there is crazy amount of development costs, right? Like, there’s a ton of legal, right, even doing due diligence on the name and like all of the things and the legal contracts and agreements with all of our speakers and concentrators like we’ve spent a fortune. And typically for me, you know, I take a salary for the coaching program, I love just like, just keep it real, like I take a salary. And then typically every quarter, when there’s extra money, there’s profits that I can make a decision of what I’m going to do with that profit, right? Like, I can take my family on a nice vacation, I can put it into a retirement account, like I can do something with it, right? Like, like, right now, there is nothing, right? Because I’m making a decision to pour everything that I have right now. Incidental clicks, right. And that’s the decisions that we make, when we are knowing and seeing that what we’re going to do is really going to leave a mark in the world, and is going to help so many people and bring significance and make our kids proud. And like all of the reasons why. Right? And so for me, I think like Napoleon Hill was BFFs with with with W Clement Stone, right? And they created Success Magazine and like 100 times a day, W Clement Stone said, like do it now. And he became a billionaire 100 times a day, do it now. Do it now. Do it now. And it’s going to be scary. And there’s going to be ups and there’s gonna be downs, right? And absolutely leaving my dental practice to like, go and get on a microphone. That was scary. Like, I didn’t know how to write a book, I found somebody to help me write a book, like I just put out to the universe, this is what I want to do. And then I had to figure it out by finding the mentors and the people because, like, people look at me, you’re like, oh, but you, you’ve achieved. I’m like, I didn’t know how to like, my first this is crazy, right? Like I decided, okay, we’ll make a podcast. Alright, how many they bought a podcast, you know that I found this guy, Chris Ducker. He was talking about branding Ukraine and a podcast. And next thing you know, he’s like, I’m gonna go be at Sprout Social Media Marketing World, a clever guy. He’s like, anybody who wants to come for a one day mastermind, it’ll be $1,000 to sit around the table with me, right? And honestly, was super smart, because we ended up paying for his suite. Right, like, so he was able to get an upgrade, right? So anyway, long story short, I’m sitting at the table with him. And Chris says, what are people asking you for right now that you’re not doing? Because I had no desire to create a coaching program to sell a Facebook bootcamp. Like to, I had no desire to do any of that, right? And I said, Well, these doctors are asking me to teach them Facebook. I don’t teach Facebook. And he’s like, Well, do you know what you’re doing? I’m like, yeah, like, we get 50 patients a month. And we’re spending like, $500. And like, it’s not hard. And he’s like, I’m like this doctor in California. Dr. Robert Malone keeps emailing me. And he’s like, Well, you need to go make a course. People are asking you for it. Right. So next thing, you know, he’s like, do it now. Okay, so I go back to my hotel room. And I start sketching out if I were to teach a course, okay, I’m gonna teach a course. Right? I’m telling myself that. What do I need to teach? What is it that people need to learn? And I created an outline. I went back to my hotel room, and I literally started recording it. I didn’t have a camera. I didn’t have a microphone. Like it was literally me in my, in my my laptop, right? And I put together some PowerPoints, and I started recording it right? The next week because I knew Facebook, right? I knew Facebook is and how do I know Facebook? Because I was taking some courses to learn about Facebook for my dental practice, right, the ads part and like all those things, right? Next thing you know, I know Facebook, so I’m running Facebook ads for myself, right? Next thing you know, a month later the money starts like, I’m getting money. I’m like, What the heck, like people are buying it like crazy. Right now the crazy Interesting thing is a month, sorry a year later I was in dental town and somebody tagged me or actually didn’t even tag me. I was just looking, I guess. And it said, there’s anybody that anybody had buy on this course. And this was like 10 years ago, right? Like, and this one guy’s like his her content was really good. Like, it was really good. But it sounded like she was recording in a barrel. And he’s like, but she went back, and she recorded it again. And I appreciate that. Right? And like, there’s so many lessons in that right? And then even when the next year I went to Funnel Hacking live, why did I go there? Because my Facebook course was in Click Funnels, I thought it was going to learn better how to use the tech side of the software, right? To go to the conference. And I see Russell, who I wound up joining his mastermind that year. But I saw a thread everybody on stage. They all had it was a pattern, I see pattern. So that’s how my mind thinks right? So my Oh, everybody on stage, they’re all helping 1000s of people. I want to help 1000s of people, right? They all were giving money to charity. And I was like, I want to give money to charity. Like that’s who I am in my DNA. Right? And they were all like, super successful, like, their companies were like booming, they were profitable, right. And they all have one thing in common. They were all in Russell Brunson inner circle. Now, his inner circle was $25,000 at the time, it’s a lot more now. But that’s how much it was then. And I didn’t have the money. Right? Like, I did it anyway, I was like, like, what is it going to cost me? I never asked and I start asking getting to the point where what’s an analysis DNA? I typically don’t say how much it costs so much is how much is it going to cost me not to get the knowledge, right. And so I’m like, Alright, so put it on my credit card. And my first time I went to see Russell a month later, he says, again, what are people asking you for that you’re not doing? That’s my question to you, as you’re listening to this podcast, like, what are people asking you for? And it might be in your practice, it might be like, people are asking you if you do sleep apnea, help with sleep apnea, people might be asking you like, do you do this particular type of ortho? Like, whatever it is, or maybe you’re a coach or consultant like people are asking you like to do something. And I was like this, Dr. Saba Rizvi actually saw her a couple of weeks ago at Len Tau’s event, right. And Saba came to me because she had done some business boot camps. And she’s like, can you coach me all year round, like, the stuff you’re teaching is fire. And I want you to coach me, and I was like, I don’t do that. I just do business boot camps that are like four months programs. I’m not a business coach. I’m just, it’s just like, but I want you, I need you to coach me. I’m like, but I don’t do that. Right. Russell, what happened? He’s like, well, then you need to go send out an email to everybody. That’s been to your business bootcamp. And you need to let them know that now instead of having a call every other week or once a month, or whatever it was at the time, you’re going to now have a call every month. So you can just keep learning, they can keep learning and you can keep teaching more things. Right. So I did it. Went back to my hotel room. And I sent the email. Okay. And I had 12 people, including Dr. Glenn Vo, he was one of them. That said, Yes. And the coaching program was born from that. And I think at the time it was 20 grand or something like that, again, I had zero money, I put on a credit card, I paid $25,000 and one nugget of what I got from my coach, my mentor, who’s seen people in the same journey of where I am many, many, many times just said this is what you need to do. I listened I was coachable. I took action. Right. And based on that we had 12 people, right pay $20,000 Right. So I made 

 

Shawn Zajas  29:22 

a run run the numbers on that. It’s a pretty good return. 

 

Anissa Holmes  29:27 

Yeah. 250,000 from from my first year coaching from one email now obviously, I had done the work to give them value, or they would have not said yes. Right. But but the point is this like not how much money came out of the coaching, like the point that I’m making here is like those are two examples of what are people asking you for or what is something that you see that you can do, right, that you’re not doing? And, and and moving into I can do that. Right? I can create that. And it’s not going to be where you know all the steps and you know what to do. Like I did my podcast, I didn’t know that there was even a such thing as a professional microphone. Like I didn’t even know that. Right? Like I didn’t know anywhere about software. Like when I started my coaching program I was using out of the box things right to be able to deliver and I explore Kajabi and think if IK and like click funnels that my earlier courses, were in Click Funnels, and like, eight years ago, I’m like, This is not good enough, not for what my vision is, I need to have performance scorecards, I need to be able to have communication threads, I need to be able to have gap analysis that lets people learn based on that, right. And so eight years ago, I started developing software. Right? A lot of people didn’t know that because it was held for my coaching clients to be able to learn, right, but I was preparing for this moment of DentalFlix for the last 10 years, right? Because really thinking about again, what do doctors need? What a doctor needs to look nice to learn, right? Like I’ve been coaching and teaching online for a long time. And so like this next level of innovation is like, Okay, what do I need to learn? And I’m at that stage, again, I’m back as a beginner as a student saying, Okay, how do I build a company that scales to have, which is my vision, like 30,000 users of DentalFlix, right, which is a much bigger goal than I’ve ever set before for myself with obviously a coaching program, right? And so how do I do that? So finding mentors, right, whether it’s coaches or advisors, that I can be humble enough and say, I’m not sure I’ve never done this before? Like, can you help me? Right. And so I think that this is something that is important for all of the listeners to know is that you don’t have to do and you cannot do things alone. Right? Like, if you want to start a podcast, reach out to that person, say, Hey, would you mind giving me just 30 minutes of your time, right? Like, we want to be able to educate, for example, in more than just the solo practice space. Right? You know, I got on a call with Brian Kalia with DICOM. I’m like, Hey, can you give me 30 minutes of your time, I just want to know what the DSOs need, right? So that we can build it, right, like speaking to a mall from patient prison, like he has a very successful software, like what have you done to become so successful in such a short time, because we don’t want to take the long route, like we want to over deliver from the beginning. Right. And so it’s being humbled to like not have your ego get in a way and think that you know, everything, right. But again, at the same time, making the decisions to make the investments and things that are going to help move your business and your family to the next level. So I think that’s what innovation is about. It’s like knowing you’re going to make mistakes, knowing it’s not going to be perfect. Right, but doing it anyway. 

 

Shawn Zajas  32:59 

So is that listening to you, there’s a few through lines that I keep hearing. And obviously one of them is the massive humility, like to have the wind that you’ve had, and still have that beginner’s brain, when you approach a new thing and still say like, Hey, I, I need help. Not being afraid to ask for help, and not letting your ego get in the way that is unbelievable. But the one thing that I’m completely shocked by is your bias for action. So the fact that you took action in hotel rooms, like, like, this is where I think you have some uncommon disposition. Because if someone that a lot of people I know, if they’re hearing about something at a, at an event, they don’t go to their hotel room, and start recording with their laptop. They they they plan, aka they stall. They want it to be perfect. They overthink it, then they realize what they don’t know about the next thing, and then the next thing and then it just takes them on this wild chase of whatever’s not ready or not good enough, instead of getting to implementation. Now, just before you respond. One other thing is that my biggest mistake over the last decade, in essence is that I tried learning in the boardroom, instead of in the marketplace. And that means I didn’t let the marketplace say oh, that’s a good idea. Just change it a little bit. I shot things down in the boardroom that could have worked, but I was like it’s probably not ready yet. And I just kept stalling kept stalling instead of launching. Have you always had this bias toward action? 

 

Anissa Holmes  34:47 

Yeah, I have. So I remember like 20 Whatever years ago, like when the internet just kind of came out and there were websites there’s like there’s thing called websites like oh my god, pet so cool, right? Um, and I remember dentrix Many people don’t know this, they actually offered free websites. So it was a templated thing and you go in. So I saw that was, oh, this is so cool. Like, I love to be like the early adopter. Right? So I go in and like, next thing, you know, dentrix is like this is, you know, again, I’m a tech like, I build funnels, I build websites, like I’m in a back end developing where my developers, right, so, so I did that. And next thing, you know, like, they’re like, can we put you at, you know, I’m at the Hanged Man and walking around is like photos on my website, right? Same thing with Facebook Live came out, like I was one of the first people to do a Facebook Live. And I truly believe that the success that I have, is because I’m willing to go for and try new things really early, as a result of it. Like the SEO of my practice is hard for people to keep up with me, right? My early Facebook group, like it was growing faster than other people’s Facebook groups, because I started first, right? So like, just take action. But the other thing that’s really interesting is that one of my coaches says, and this is Russell, right? So so he’s a marketer, right? And he says, the reason why he goes, I’m no different than anyone else. And I’m going to share this with you, right? As if it was him speaking through me to you. I’m no different than anyone else. Right? The difference between me and other people, what he said, is that I willing to test more than anyone else is willing to test. Right. And so I will test like, you know, I had a doctor I was talking to I also have co founder of a marketing agency called Digital floss. And I was talking to one of the doctors and I said, Would you be willing to test? Right, because he had had some no shows coming in very good ones. But some no shows. I said, Would you be willing to test a note a fee for booking the appointment? You guys all that’s not gonna, you know, people are not going to want to book because of that. Right? And that was what he believed. And that might be true, actually. Right. And so last year, we don’t know. I don’t know. Like, would you be willing to test it for 30 days to see if it’s successful or not? Because if you’re willing to test, you may realize that this is phenomenal. And it drops no shows. And we’re doing implant ads for him, right? So he’s like, oh, yeah, I’d much rather get four people. And then we’re also like pre approving them for like financing, right? Or rather get for people that are pre approved for 30 grand that have 10 people, right, that are in three of them are no showing, right, like so if putting that in place qualifies people for ready to go and serious, then that might be good. So well, we don’t know. Like, are you willing to test it? He goes, You know what, let’s do it. Right. That’s how we get our answers. Right. So I have done like DentalFlix is like the fifth version of an online low cost education platform that I have launched, like, this is not my first merry go round. Like when Russell talks about Click Funnels. This is like his seventh business, right? Like, his other ones were like, you don’t even know what the names of them are, right? But what happens is that like you, you learn, and you test, and then you say, oh, and then now for me, it’s like, okay, what will make this different than anything else. And what makes it different is unlimited access to see what makes it different is that we are collaborating with all the speakers and coaches in a dental industry. Right. And so now you can learn from everywhere, we’re having conversations about collaborating with dental conferences, to be able to put recordings. So now, practices can leave the event with two members going coming back. Now the rest of the team can learn what those two team members learn. And the killer moving from awareness at a conference to implementation like that, to me, is now changing a game changer. Right. And that game changer is why DentalFlix will be so much different and better than any other version of an online education platform that I built. Right. And that comes from innovation and testing and tweaking and saying, Okay, what works, what doesn’t work? So, yeah, I mean, it’s just a matter of being willing to just go and again, like dental flex, I truly believe is going to revolutionize and change education and the dental industry forever the partnerships or collaborations of companies and, and organizations and speakers and dental professionals right. But again, like we had to be willing to think out of the box and move forward and take action. Like what if I didn’t decide to move forward with this is kind of my question, right? Like, when I look forward five years from now, and I can look back and I’m like lord. I’m saying Lord have mercy. Like that’s all I talk right Lord and mercy. Like, we’ve helped like 10s of 1000s of people. What if I didn’t do it? Right, like, what if I didn’t do it? So yeah, the key is really just just my advice to everybody. It’s just like, just do it like do it now. Do it now find a mentor reach out to somebody I’m always available to help share expertise with anyone, especially what what I’m doing with Donald Blake’s. Like, we’re mentoring coaches and people who want to be coaches and podcasters who want to understand how to get the word out about their podcast, like Dental Flex can help them with that as well. So yeah, it’s pretty cool stuff. 

 

Shawn Zajas  40:23 

Okay, so I just need to know really quick. When did you find out about Russell Brunson? 

 

Anissa Holmes  40:28 

Yeah. So I was searching for a way to deliver my Facebook course. And somebody said, oh, there’s this thing called Click Funnels, right. Which allows you to be able to have a page where people can go in and buy the course. So it had a payment page. And it had a section in the back where you can actually have your courses stored so people can take the course. Right. And so for me, it was again, just putting my course in there and going to the users count conference. I didn’t really know who Russell Brunson was. And then I realized like he was teaching and he was so smart. I’m like, Oh, my gosh, this is great. Right. And do you remember what year though? Yeah. It was like 2017? I think 2017 2016? Something like that. 

 

Shawn Zajas  41:14 

Yes. Okay. So this is this is the crazy thing. And this is embarrassing for me to say, I was following Dan Kennedy in 2008. But unlike you, and I never made that financial commitment to go all in, I stayed on the peripheral and kind of just got the books, maybe got the bronze newsletter and $97 a month. And I struggled to implement quickly and implement big. And I didn’t learn as much. So if you look at, like, the reason why you beat everybody is that you’re not afraid to again, test, iterate, get things out there, get things out there fast. And because you get 10 times more things out there, you learn so much quicker than anybody else. So I bet on you 100% Every day, I’ll bet on you that you’re gonna keep succeeding, you’re gonna keep winning, you’re gonna keep overcoming simply because of your mindset simply because of the way that your heart is made to continue to move forward, iterate, innovate, overcome, and you’re centered around value. I absolutely love it. So I know we got started late, but we were only scheduled till 10. And you’re crazy crazy booked out? So let me just ask one more question. Sure. So Anissa up today is walking down the street. And off in the distance you see 18 year old version of yourself. So 18 year old Anissa. And you only have one moment to communicate a sentiment to her? What do you share? 

 

Anissa Holmes  42:45 

Yeah, I would just say like, Absolutely. Keep learning, right? Always the things that I’ve done like learn, invest in yourself, like you can do it. It doesn’t matter if you’re a woman, if it doesn’t matter where you come from, you know, there’s somebody else that has what you want. All you have to do is know what they know or learn what they learn, and you can have what they have. So like, that would be the biggest thing that I would say to myself. And those words actually came to be from my dad. And based on that is really where I’m at, you know why I am where I am, because I didn’t come from a family with much money or anything. But I had somebody that just believed in me and said, you know, why not you like, you know, why can’t you have what they have? Right? So I think that those words, I would say back to myself because it’s really served me well. 

 

Shawn Zajas  43:42 

That is beautiful. And it’s a beautiful like bow on this entire episode of To everyone listening like Why Why not you? Why not you and why not now. Anissa you are a powerhouse. And again, I love the humility you walk in. You are an innovator, like so everything you do is innovative. And that’s why I had to interview you. It’s just been easy. Honoring you, as someone that’s pioneering positive change. DentalFlix is changing the way dental education is happening. And that’s exactly like when we look back 5/10 years from now we’re gonna be like, Oh my gosh, there was a time when it it still took time to get traction because it’s so far ahead of the game. But 100% What you’re doing is changing the game. Thank you so much for letting me interview you today. 

 

Anissa Holmes  44:36 

And I appreciate you right like you know at the end of the day, you know you have your business you have your company you know and you know for you to make a decision to to take the time and energy and effort because it’s not easy. Right running a podcast getting it to edit it pushing it out there getting host a guest to come on like it’s not It’s not easy, but like this work really matters. And so I just want to thank you for the work that you’re doing. I know the work that it takes to put in and I appreciate you. 

 

Shawn Zajas  45:11 

Anissa thank you so much. I’m in your corner. Anything you need you let me know. And for oh, okay, so for people that want to reach out or connect to dental plugs, where do you want them to go? 

 

Anissa Holmes  45:22 

Yeah, super easy, dentalflix.com. And that’s the place where everybody can go if you’re looking for dental education. We’ve got clinical training, marketing, training, marketing, calls, marketing funnels, practice management, training on insurance scheduling for the entire team. And if you’re a content creator, that’s where you can also go to start the process to connect with us to submit a course. Just simply go to dental flicks.com 

 

Shawn Zajas  45:51 

I’m doing it. I’m gonna do it and it’s good for everyone right now. I’m letting everyone know I’m joining because I believe in it. 100% And I’ll do it today. Okay. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much in this. 

 

Anissa Holmes  46:05 

Awesome Take care. 

 

Shawn Zajas  46:08 

Thanks for listening, and be sure to follow so you never miss an episode. To learn more about what’s going on in dentistry. Check out innovation in dentistry.com