On this episode of the Raving Patients Podcast, Len sits down with Holly Anne Mitchell to discuss stress and the impact it has on leadership and case acceptance.

Stress impacts the brain which impacts case acceptance, leadership, and profitability. Burnout is causing the talent shortage. The antidote is to use fun to improve the employee experience (hire fun people with good senses of humor), dopamine drives motivation and reduces stress, people learn more and make better decisions and are more engaged/empathetic with patients which drives up case acceptance. When you're having fun, you demonstrate more recognition and appreciation which reduces employee turnover.  A fun patient experience separates you from the competition and makes people want to come back. A good way to drive the value up in patient conversations is to finish the sentence "In our office..." highlight your unique value proposition (dopamine!) to capture their attention and justify the price. If you want to have a profitable practice, fix culture, if you want to fix culture, fix your perspective and go on a mission to spread joy.

Takeaways from this episode include:

1. For Dr. Jekyll and Dr. Hyde: stress and its impact on leadership and case acceptance
2. For The Talent Shortage: why people are leaving our industry, why staff are leaving for more money (burnout, lack of appreciation because the doctor is stressed)
3. For Boring Is Expensive: boring practices can't distinguish themselves from their competition (commoditization drives price down), dentists who are funny make more money, if you're not having fun, you're not making money because your team gets in a funk and goes into autopilot, dopamine's impact on the brain and how it reduces stress improves empathy and case acceptance, fun helps people learn and retain information, get out of your funk and have fun to improve culture and employee retention.

Holly Anne Mitchell is a speaker, coach and hypnotist in the dental industry. Her life can be summed up in two words: post-traumatic growth. Holly moved to New York City from rural Florida at the age of 18 with dreams of Broadway. From actress, to homeless, to dental C-suite, to struggling entrepreneur, after a crisis of burnout and existentialism, she found her way to hypnosis and neurolinguistic programming, forever changing her brain, and her life. This was the catalyst to start her own business, the LeadWell Network. Holly trains dentists and their teams on mental health first aid, helping practices become more trauma aware, to prevent burnout, and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression with simple tools based in practical neuroscience. She is a faculty member of the Dental Speakers Institute Fellowship program, and is excited to announce her first book "Try Self Hypnosis" will enter the world in September. In her free time Holly is a singer/songwriter with her lifemate and bandmate Javier in Nashville.

>>For a free episode of Holly's online course visit tryselfhypnosis.com