Ep #175: Amy Morgan and The Rise of Dental Assistants

Amy has spent close to fifteen years in the dental industry, starting as a dental assistant before moving into practice management, consulting, social media, and recruitment. In this episode, she shares what led her to create The Rise - a growing organisation dedicated to exciting, supporting, and retaining dental assistants across Australia.

Find The Rise:
Website: therisedentalco.com
Instagram: @therise.dentalmagazine
Facebook: facebook.com/profile.php?id=61584585047016

Email: hello@therisedentalco.com

Interested in taking your personal, team, and dental practice to the next level? Contact Julie and Ameena today to explore the possibilities for growth and success!

Visit our website, Dental Business Mastery, at https://dentalbusinessmastery.com.au/, and book a complimentary, obligation-free Discovery Call to discuss your specific needs and goals. Schedule your call here: https://tidycal.com/3l298p1/30-minute-meeting

If you have any questions or would like more information, feel free to contact us via email at info@dentalbusinessmastery.com.au.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You are listening to the Dental Business Mastery Podcast, where you discover management insights and strategies for your successful dental practice. There are also interviews with key people in the industry who have advice and services to help you and your team achieve great success. Welcome to this episode of the Dental Business Mastery Podcast. And I'm your host for this episode, Julie Parker. And today I've got a really interesting guest with me, Amy Morgan. Welcome. Hello, Julie. Thank you for having me. That is my absolute pleasure, and you're doing some pretty exciting things which we're going to learn about. But in the meantime, can you, or initially, can you let us know about who you are and what role you've been playing in the dental profession? Certainly.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

So a little bit about me. I have been in the industry for close to 15 years. I started out very similar to your own journey, Julie. I left school in year 11 to pursue full-time work just for the sake of getting out of school. I landed in dental, happened, and I've stuck with it ever since. So I did about eight years dental assisting, which I absolutely love. And even still throughout other roles that I've pursued, I go back and do a couple of days dental assisting here and there. So after my eight years, I was ready to move up the ranks and I went in and became a practice manager for four years. So absolutely loved it. I think I often get asked, which role do you love better? They're so equally as enjoyable to me. So I was a practice manager for four years and then I went off and started doing some consulting. I did a little bit of uh marketing for practices, lots of social media management, and then in the last 18 to 24 months I did some recruitment as well. So wow, you've been very so many different roles within the industry.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

What state are you in in Australia? Oh, you're in Queensland. In Queensland. So that's been your whole career up there as well?

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Actually, no. So I started out in a little town on the Mid North Coast. Um, so I was in Port Macquarie, and then I'm originally from Sydney, so we moved back to Sydney for a few years. Then I came up to the Gold Coast about five years ago.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Oh, fantastic. And I agree with you. I think every role that I fulfilled within a dental practice has been wildly enjoyable. And you know, the connection that you get with the practitioner and the patient when you're dental assisting, that sense of job complete, everything done, when you're you've got to do so much prep and then the action itself, but then the cleanup afterwards and making sure everything's you know in stock and orderly and all the rest. There's such a strong sense of satisfaction around all of that. Uh, but then yeah, practice management that has its completely different shift in terms of what you're doing every day, but that has its own benefits where you're getting more connected with team members and you're really part of the operation, day-to-day operation of the practice as well. Dentistry is a fantastic profession to be in. There's so many things that people can do within the industry now, too.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

There is, and I think that has been a huge conversation that's been building over the last year or two. Um, lots of new pathways being explored, and most recently we've discovered not that we've discovered these pathways, but like we've put together some information on 56 other jobs that you can do outside of the clinic, but in dental.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

So wow, that's amazing. I did a presentation for DAPA, the Dental Assistants Professional Association, and I think I lifted listed maybe 11 different roles. It's too short. I'd be really interested to see that list. That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Yes, it took me a while to put it together, but you know, over the years I've just been gathering data and information and figuring out all the different areas that are they're so exciting too. They're very, you know, they suit all different personalities, whether you are a business-minded person or whether you are, you know, artsy and creative, or whatever it is that you like to do and what you thrive in for a work job, um, there's an option for you that's in dental.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Yeah, you're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. And I think the concept that some people, even within the profession, have of it that dental assisting, there's not much further you can go. I've always thought you're crazy, there's so much you can do. But these additional roles, they're growing in number all the time. And the latest thing that's really going to help us shift into other territory as well is AI and the use of AI. And so all of a sudden, we are looking at our roles quite differently, especially when you're getting into management and admin within a dental practice, but even the social media promotions and all the things. It's a quickly changing industry profession, and it feels like we're on the cusp of it changing even more swiftly than it has in the past few years.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Yeah, that's right. I feel like for me, there was a good period of time where it felt somewhat exciting but stagnant. It was like, you know, this is it, this is dental assisting or being a dentist, which is going to take a few years. Um, but in the last few years, it has rapidly evolved to more discussions and you know, technology evolving so that there is so many more pathways. And I think a lot of dental assistants they do see that ceiling on their roles, but it's because we're not talking about it, which a lot of people are now starting to talk about these other avenues.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

So it looks like all of a sudden all of these opportunities have opened up, and what a beautiful opportunity that opportunity presents to refill the pool of dental assistants in this country. And we did lose a chunk of people during COVID, and we haven't replaced them, and we keep opining the fact that the pool is limited. But when, as you say, start talking about all of the opportunities that you're opening yourself up to, and all of a sudden, maybe dental assisting becomes a really sought-after career to have.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Yes. That is that's been a big focus for me this year is finding ways, creating initiatives that bring excitement to the role, make people go, oh wow, what's this about? Um, and just yeah, really embracing what it is, which is more than just assisting in a clinic day to day. Um, and like you said, we did lose so many dental assistants through COVID. There's other aspects that are causing dental assistants to leave the industry. And when I was recruiting, when I was doing some recruitment recently, I loved recruiting. I found it so fun. But the big challenge was that we didn't have enough employees to pick from. So something that kind of triggered all of my um projects this year is sort of off the back of the recruitment. Like, let's re-excite people about the role and let's create new drives to become dental assistants.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

Oh, I love it. What a wonderful project to be on. So tell us about what you have been working on.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Yeah, so um essentially we are called The Rise, and that stemmed from the rise of the dental assistant. So that's our theme, and that is basically the building blocks of what our organization works off. So it's all about the rise of the dental assistant. We're not just these small people in the clinic. We actually play a huge part in the clinic, but we play a bigger part if we let ourselves. So one of the big things that we're doing is the magazine. Um, I'm an avid reader of The Bite, which a lot of people will know, but I find it very few and far between articles that relate to dental assistants. So I thought, let's do something where dental assistants have, you know, the material and you know their own publication. Um, for me, I've always been a very crafty, very creative person. The social media and graphic design side of the you know consulting that I did was it fulfilled me a lot because I could do things in dental, but I also could be very creative and not just do the same thing every day. Um, so that's where the magazine came from. And I was like, this is a way that I can stay in dental, utilize my skills, but I can be super creative month to month. Um that was just the magazine, and then as I started to build it, started to grow it and research, you know, publishing a magazine, in a very short space of time, so many other opportunities and initiatives have presented themselves that we are going to offer to dental assistants to enrich their careers, make it more exciting, and draw attention to the role itself so that people do want to come and join us in the industry.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Oh Matt, how glorious is this! Yes. I can really see you having a substantial impact on dental assisting as a career, but really bringing people into it and helping the people who are already in it, possibly feeling the pressures around it, like, oh, where do I go from here? Or, you know, one of the biggest problems, of course, which you'll be very intimately familiar with during recruitment in the past, and a lot of practices out there are also familiar with it, that with absentees and being a bit of a problem and remaining dental team members covering each other's roles constantly, whereas every now and again when it happens, no big deal. You can absorb that it's actually team building to pull together every now and again. But when it's a weekly thing, it gets depleting. And so we do need to have as many people in the profession from a dental assistant perspective being as happy and fulfilled as possible, tapping into all of their genius and getting more and more people coming into it because it is such an exciting space to be. You know, all the work that you're doing, it could be one of those things that is a 1% shift that makes an enormous difference.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

Well, that's right, and that's the way that I look at it. Like every business or project that a small business owner takes on, you get to points in the journey where you're like, Why did I do this or why did I start this? Um, it is for the greater good, but that's sort of the thing that I keep telling myself all the time. There is a lot to do, but it is all that 1% and that small thing that if I'm doing something small in the space and you're doing something small, and then we've got other people in the industry doing little bits all together, that will collectively make such a huge difference over the next few years. Um, some and DAPA too, DARPA is working so hard on changing things and researching, and so I think if we all just do a little bit here and there together, collectively that makes a difference. Um, something I've focused on as well this year is trying to get information from different perspectives. Um, for example, throughout the recruitment, I was like, you know, at some sort at some point in the pipeline, this is where the issues are starting, or this is where we're losing people from the industry. Let's try and figure out where all those pain points are. Um, so something I've done recently is I've spoken to a lot of TAFE teachers, education providers, RTOs, just to find out what they're seeing on their side with their cohorts and their students, and a lot of the feedback has been amazing, and it was not what I expected. So, some of the feedback is that they've seen doubled cohort sizes in the last couple of years than ever before.

unknown 11:53

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

So their cohorts are actually doubling for every intake. Um, so there's people interested, and there's people wanting to do it. And granted, there are some that are just doing it for the certificate, they don't intend to pursue it, but for the most part, there is a lot of people wanting to do it throughout their course as well. They're staying really engaged, they're getting excited when it's coming up to placement. So the feedback that I got from RTOs and TAFE and educators, they are seeing a huge interest. So I thought, you know, okay, great. So the training side of it's working well, it's producing dental assistance, so that's not a problem. Let's move further up the pipeline to once they come into the industry, which I think we all know, you know, there are problems in clinics here and there that cause the pain points and cause, you know, people to leave. So this is part of what we're doing is trying to look at all of these different areas rather than a whole, but in small sections, to figure out where we can make it better, you know, turn things around and provide more support.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Oh, everything you says is resonating so strongly and makes me feel so excited as well. Thank God you're doing all this work. Because it is, I'm thrilled that more people are going in to cert threes and stuff. That is a magnificent thing. But you're right. So many things in life for me is a 50-50 deal, right? One of these that's one of those things is employment. And so when you have somebody starting to work at a dental practice, whether that works in the sense of making that employee excited enough to stay in the industry, that's a 50-50 deal. Yes, they have to bring great attitude, a willingness to learn and evolve within that practice and make a true contribution and be caring and professional and all the things reliable, all the things that make up a great employee. And they need to look for reasons to love it. You know, life doesn't just deliver us happiness, it's up to us to get that happiness, tap into that happiness. But the other 50% of the responsibility and the impact of that outcome is the employer. And there are some terrific, like in every part of the corner of the world, there's a spectrum really terrific to really terrible. And so part of that work also is recognizing what makes a terrific place to work and bridging that gap for people who may not be aware of how to create an environment where the team members are going to really love it and thrive and want to stay.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

That's right. I agree. And I think another huge factor, sort of alongside that, um, something that I found through my years as a dental assistant was there was always a time or always some moments where you'd be in situations or you'd have you'd face certain things where you're like, oh man, XYZ would be really great right now, or I wish this existed for us, or where can I find such and such information? Um, and I thought maybe it was just me, but then when I became a practice manager, I seen it a lot in the staff that I managed. The same sort of things that I felt or thought, um, and one of the big ones for me was that once the dental assistant, whether you've done your certificate before entering the industry or you've entered the industry to start with, those first few years are really crucial to whether you do stay or not. But for me and many other dental assistants, we didn't have or we couldn't find the right support, whether it's questions that we needed answered or just finding material that relates to our jobs, things like that. So something that with the TAFEs that we're doing, we're partnering with some of the TAFEs and the education providers, once those dental assistants are certified and then they come out to get a job or they become a dental assistant in the industry, for those first couple of years, we are actually offering mentorship to them so that we can support all of those areas of where they're unsure, where there's conflict of interest, whether they can't talk to the practice owners or the managers. Um, you know, you've got fair work, which is lovely, and I think they do a really good job as well. But sometimes you can't always get an exact answer, so you're still left answering or trying to get an answer to your question. So from our perspective, having mentors is a huge thing for dental assistants because you have people to turn to who have that lived experience who can tell you different ideas or different scenarios to your problem or point you in the direction of providers or person like the training providers and people that offer training, like there's Rochelle from Dental Assisting and Beyond, who do those extra, you know, courses to skill your extra, sorry, upskill yourself. Um finding those when I was younger, it was a little bit hard because you didn't know where to look or who was the who would provide you the best sort of information. So that's something that we want to do is bridge the gap for newer dental assistants specifically so that they do feel that extra level of support to stay in the industry rather than feeling like, oh, this is all we've got. Um you know, it's take it or leave it.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Gosh, you're absolutely right. And I'm you're forcing me to reflect back over my journey when I first became a dental assistant. And the only people you had to speak about it was your team members. But there are certainly some instances where it might be risky to speak to your team members as you don't want to. And so, where do you go from there? And certainly um I actually caught up with Rochelle for lunch just a couple of days ago, which is lovely. And people like her weren't available back then, and even though all the clinicians, you know, they've got URA and um the dental board and the ADA to be able to support them in their space. That's right, with dental assistants, there is no support. And unless you've got some practices, and certainly in my era when I was growing up as a dental nurse, you always had older people in the practice who were still dental assistants or um receptionists or what have you. You could go to them, and they'd been around for years and years and years, and they were number one leading by example. So they were a great example to look at to go, oh, that's what professionalism looks like. That's what, as a young, growing person in the workforce, that's what I'm supposed to be doing and how I should be behaving. But as a consultant going into dental practices, more and more you're seeing a far younger group of people in place, and there is so much to learn about not just enjoying your dental practice life, but just enjoying life in general. And we do look to our parents and grandparents and people who are older than us uh for inspiration, different perspectives, guidance, and advice, but to be able to find that within your own workplace where you haven't got that ease of communication or the availability of that for that level of communication, all the people actually involved, where do you turn? You're kind of just stuck there. And if you have found yourself in a job fresh, new to the profession, it's not a great place, then that's your that's the entirety of your experience. You haven't got anybody else to sit there and say, Oh, you know, you know, this is just a stepping stone. You can go on to other practices and you will get different experiences. And, you know, stick with it, stick in the profession because there's all sorts of different practices and you'll find your niche.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

That's right, yeah. I think so. That's the other sort of thing that we're doing with The Rise is we've got the magazine, we're creating this mentor program to see these dental assistants through the first few years. Um, like myself, up until I think five years ago, embarrassingly, I also didn't know about DAPA. So I talked to dental assistants even now, recently, I spoke to a couple who weren't aware that DAPA's around and they are becoming more um known, but having you know trusted contacts that aren't sort of government bodies or people that don't really know the industry, where we can point them in the direction of like, hey, you've got this problem or you need this support, there's this organization here, or these people over here are great to talk to. I think for me, over the years, early in my dental assisting journey, I was in and out of dental assisting for a couple of years. I loved it, but every now and then I would burn out or I'd feel like you know, there's a lack of support. So I would go out of it, come back after a few years, and I'm still noticing that with some dental assistants, they do that too. Um, so having the that support, um, I think would yeah, it cements the the workforce for the future and it makes it more enjoyable for people as well. They definitely, you know, the roles themselves are high stress, but being able to have that extra layer or knowing that there's people here that, hey, you guys get what I'm going through, that also just gives you some sort of relief to go the next day and then do the next day, and like you said, stepping stones to that next practice or that next level.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Yeah, that's it. And there's a lot of creative thought amongst the people who are dental assistants, and so you know, I like to think there's solutions to every problem and every challenge, and it's just about finding what those solutions are, and quite often these the the the people that are involved or the entities that are involved in creating the conditions of employment, it might just be a matter of this is our box and this is what we work within, and we don't tend to have too much creative thought. There's no room for it in here because of the structure of it all. But I remember when before I bought my own practice, and you would appreciate this too. Is as you were mentioning before, you're sitting around with a bunch of other people who are also working in the practice, and you they come up with problems. And you go, yeah. And together you come up with all the solutions around that. And you take the solutions to the boss and they're not interested. And so you're like, oh, I'll do it myself. Which is what I did with a dental practice, which you know, obviously running a practice was way more challenging than what I had imagined it was going to be. But thank goodness I didn't know how much challenge it would present to me because I would never have done it in the first place, and I loved it. But what I'm saying is that a collection of dental assistants who are living and breathing all of the stuff that's going on, they're the ones that need to have a strong voice of this is how we make it better. This is how we keep people in the industry because they're the ones that know. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

That's exactly right. And I think there are a huge chunk of dental assistants in our industry who they have the passion and they have the drive and the creativity and they do want to make it better. They're trying to sort of share that same vibe to the other dental assistants they come across of like, hey, this is a great career. If we do this, this, and this, or let's support each other. Um, but then we've also got ones we have to face the reality that there are ones that are just negative Nancy's the whole way through. Um, so trying to sort of filter those out and be the leading voice for those dental assistants and keep that hope alive and keep the I guess the motivation to, you know, not only do your job, but yes, find things that you can do, very small inputs as a collective to raise the raise the standard of our careers.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

Yeah, absolutely. So the magazine is is that one part of the whole initiative? That is one part of what do you see? What's your what's your vision moving forward?

SPEAKER_01 23:42

Our vision is huge and it's expanding every week that goes by. Um, so at the start of this year it was just a magazine, and now we are essentially we're going to have the magazine, we will have mentorship programs available. Um, we're working on a uh partnership at the moment with the training organizations and the TAFES and things like that. But I think it's also a member a mentorship program that's going to work for dental assistants who are already in the industry. Um, whether they're still newish to the industry or they have been around for a few years but they do crave that extra support, it will be open to them too. So we've got the mentorship, we've got events. So we're looking at doing some community and social events for dental assistants that they'll incorporate education and career, different parts of our career. Um, but they're also going to be while I love some of the events that we've got for dental assistants, sometimes they're very clinical focused or just career focused, and it's like, okay, we're here to do more work stuff. So we want to incorporate that in our events, but we also want them to be a fun community social sort of event, too. So you can find other dental assistants, create a community of like-minded people who know what you deal with day-to-day. Um, again, outside of the mentor program, you could turn to those people for advice or share stories or just anything where you're building that community. So we've got lots of exciting events on the horizon. Um, and then on top of that, we've got we're going to have a membership part of our organization too that it's under wraps at the moment, but I can tell you there are so many initiatives that we are about to put out in the next few weeks that dental assistants will find really useful. So, one thing that I've kept in mind and that I sort of do, I just work by through this whole organization building, is we want to be on the same level as dental assistants and we want to be talking with them rather than to them. So we want to show them that we can relate, we want to offer them things that genuinely excite them, they genuinely find useful, and they'll genuinely use, whether it's in the clinic or in their personal life. So we are being very intentional about all the things that we're bringing out, but I think a lot of things they've not been done before in this space, especially for dental assistants. One thing we're mindful of is not bringing out something that someone else is already doing, or you know, we don't want to duplicate courses or we don't want to duplicate events that are already out. Um, we want to bring out something fresh that fills a lot of gaps.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

Oh, that is terrific. And I love that you're thinking about doing social events as well. It just feels like that certainly during COVID, the online space was wonderful because that's how we could all continue to work together. That's how we all of a sudden could learn new skills. There were free webinars going on like crazy, but a lot of different uh professions and jobs and skill sets, they're all doing been doing a lot of, as we know, training online. And it's been so super convenient, a lot cheaper, all the things, but it feels like we've had our feel of that now, and people are wanting to get back into having actual connections with people. Amiga and I have certainly found that whenever we do a live person event, we're getting more and more numbers coming along, and people saying, Thank goodness it's a live event. Thank goodness we're in person uh with everybody, and so I love that aspect of it because a true community, you do meet up personally, one-on-one with each other rather than just relying on online.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

That's right. I remember when I was probably two years into the industry, the practice that I worked at at the time was a small country practice, so you were only really seeing your co-workers day to day. But at the end of the year, one of the specialists actually put on a big Christmas party for all of the practices in the region. So we got to go and we actually met a lot of other dental assistants. And I thought that was the coolest thing in the world because you know, I was meeting other assistants and yeah, shop swapping stories, creating connections. Um, now, sort of in this current day-to-day, people are bombarded with tech this, download this app. You need to use this app and that program. And as if we're not overwhelmed already in the clinic's day-to-day, then you've got all this tech stuff in your face creating anxiety. So people are actively switching off and trying to get away from tech where they can, where it's outside of work, or you know, they want those old school values of going to the park and reading a book with your friends, or you know, going for a coffee date, or anything, depending on what preference you have. You want to try and be off the technology when you're not having to be on it. Like at work, we use it. When people something that I found, you know, I talk to dental assistants all the time, and they're always talking about how you know they're actively getting off social media here and there, or they're, you know, de-digitalizing certain parts of their life. So that for me, I also do that over the last couple of years. I found it, you know, much less stressful not being, you know, so connected all the time, you know, in the digital world. So I resonated with that. So I thought, you know, let's bring back these old school, you know, connection techniques, and we're going to do a digital version of the magazine and we're going to have online initiatives. But a lot of what we're doing is, you know, very connection-based and very in-person. Um, yeah, I think it's while technology is always going to be there, I think a lot of people are craving that connection again.

SPEAKER_00 29:38

Yeah. It's just, I keep my brain just keeps moving to all these different aspects of why what you're doing is just so important. And, you know, one of the thoughts that I did have may not relate what whatsoever. But, you know, growing up in Melbourne and we always, you know, and it happens in every state of Australia, that when, you know, people were coming into the country in the 40s and 50s and 60s and 70s and all the things, and they would they would want to remain part of their own culture. They want to connect with people who they could resonate with, that they had the same experience of, that could really truly understand each other and help each other and support each other. So you do get these pockets. Like I I the sub suburb that I live here, live in here in Melbourne, was very much a Greek suburb. And it's still got a lot of Greek, beautiful Greek backyards with veggie patches and citrus trees and all sorts of things, and these wonderful Greek restaurants and all the rest of it. But it does make me think about just the value of being in connection with like-minded people who have got the same kind of challenges, the same sort of issues, the same sort of joys, and the same kind of celebrations, things to celebrate. And uh to be able to share this, has been my experience and what I have found helpful. Let me share that with you. Now, you share what with me what you have found really helpful, and this will absolutely help people to see outside of their own perspective, appreciate all the wonderful things that they've got going on in their own practices that they're working in, find solutions to things that aren't working so well, but this will absolutely raise the standard, raise the bar for dental assistance.

SPEAKER_01 31:24

Definitely. I think as a society, we've, you know, over the last few years, we've been disconnected from one another. Um so dental assistants are like that too. They are disconnected from other dental assistants or from people in their practice, and the confidence, the the lack of confidence or losing the confidence that comes with that, um, it's a huge thing. So I think the confidence and the disconnect and anxiety around all of that plays a huge factor in the staff retention for the industry. So um certainly something that we want to do is help dental assistants. So at the end of last year, when the rise started to become an idea, we actually got a couple of dental assistants together at the end of the year, and I hosted a little event just as a trial to see what the response would be. Um, so we all got together and we had a few nibbles and drinks, and we did vision boards for 2026. And just something as simple as that. We incorporated personal lifestyle things into it. We then incorporated career aspirations into it, and it was really lovely to, you know, you part of it was career oriented, but a huge part of it was just connection and refilling your cup and doing something outside of work. A lot of people now they don't do a whole lot once they go home, or you know, they work full-time, so you know, you've only got the weekend. Um, and then another thing, sort of in relation to that as well, is and and it's not just related to dental this part, but as a whole in society, the number of females that are you know 25 to 35, and I say females because most of our dental assistants are female, um, and it may happen to men too, but I'm seeing this is sort of what I see from my end, is they don't have very many close friends outside of work, even. Wow. So they'll have associates or people that you talk to, but there's no one that you can actually turn to or spend time with outside of work. So there's this unspoken, I guess, loneliness pandemic that's happening created by the disconnect over the last few years. So just having these events for dental assistance is huge because it creates that opportunity for connection. It's a little bit awkward trying to make new friends, particularly at I guess 28 or 30. Um, you know, it's hard to make new friends, it doesn't come as easy as it does when you're a kid. But having these events, I seen just the couple that I've sort of hosted in the last 12 months, they're actually going to be really beneficial because the connections that were made at these events, they're still going now. So people have started to make proper friendships out of these little events where you start off with a common um something common, which is your dental assistant career, and then from there you can build on that. And it is less less hard to you know connect and get offline. Wonderful, glorious.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

I see that. I really do see it. So with the magazine itself, The Rise, I love the you know, the rise of the dental assistants, magnificent. Uh, how do people get that magazine? How do they subscribe?

SPEAKER_01 34:40

Yeah, that's a good question. So I'm actually very busy over the last week or so. We are putting the final touches on our website. Um, so that'll be the main area. You can go, whether it's through Facebook or Instagram or even just straight to our website, um, you can actually subscribe for the magazine. And you can either choose the digital option or you can choose the hard copy version so you've actually got something cool, tangible to read. Um, I'll also be doing a few little things where we're going to offer it out to practices as well. So the practices can opt to buy it so it's at the practice, all their staff can read it. Um, that way, you know, it's as accessible as possible.

SPEAKER_00 35:20

And I tell you what, on that point, practices should subscribe and get a copy and put it in their waiting room. So all the patients that get to flick through it can see what an exciting career dental assistant can be. And maybe that, you know, I I've often said that if you are looking for a trainee dental assistant, speak to your, you know, put it in the local community Facebook group, tell talk to your patients about it, because there is nobody more motivated to get somebody a job than the parent of the child sitting at home not doing anything.

SPEAKER_01 35:50

That's really true. That's very true. And it's actually funny that you mentioned that because one of the initiatives that we are doing, um, I like to look at it as all of the initiatives that we're doing to create the hype and the excitement and the insight into our careers is you know, a long-term plan to building that workforce back up. And it's funny that you mention about the parents and wanting the kids to get a job because one of the initiatives that we're actually working on and we're starting to roll out over the next month or two um job fairs. So, job fairs, careers expos. I actually, there's a lot at the start of the year, but then they happen again around June and July. And I've been looking at all possible job fairs that occur across Australia, and I think maybe three of the job fairs have had maybe one or two um dental-related booths there. So um I know that one was, I think it was the Australian Dental Association went to one job fair, and then somebody else in the industry went to one job fair. So that was two out of about 35, I think there is. There's even more than that because there's all the small job fairs. Um, but something we're doing is we're gonna start attending job fairs from this year onwards, not only as the rise, but to represent dentistry as a whole. So we want to come as, you know, this is dentistry, we're representing the industry. Come and talk to us about the different roles that you could get as a dental assistant, or you know, we can give you advice, although we're not dentists or hygienists, we can tell you about what their day might look like and whether that interests you. Um, so things like that. We're reaching out to other people who might not have even thought of it as a career before, but we want to get in their face and plant that seed, and hopefully, over time that might bring some more faces to our industry.

SPEAKER_00 37:40

It will, I think it really will, because oh gosh, when you think about the evolution of the role of dental assistant, I mean, back in my day, the biggest change was um moving from amalgam to composite, and that composite was A and B paste mixed together. So we'll why. And but look at the role of dental assistants now. There's scanning and there's um 3D printing and AI stuff and um AI note-taking and all the things, and I still remember I can't remember the wonderful man's name that did one of the presentations at the the recent or last year's DAPA event, but he was speaking about AI note-taking, especially when it comes to perio. And I said, Oh my god, like the the amount of people out there walking around back when I was a dental assistant with the wrong charting of their period is extraordinary because I kept losing track and I I felt bad to say to the dentist, can you start from scratch again? I missed all of that.

SPEAKER_01 38:39

I still do that sometimes, they go so fast, and I'm sort of like, Oh, I hope that's right. Fingers crossed. It's good though. I've started to, I think a lot of dental assistants, that challenge is good because you start to learn how to memorize really quickly. You do, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 38:56

There's nothing like being thrown in the deep end, and so that's how people subscribe. How about mentorship? If there's people out there that go, oh, I would love to be involved in mentoring dental assistants, are you seeking other mentors? Are you finding them and locating them? What tell us tell me a bit more about that?

SPEAKER_01 39:14

We are so we're actually in the final stages of putting together all the material and the application process and everything for the mentorship program. So um, whether you want to get a mentor so you can apply through the website or you want to be a mentor, there is also an application process for that. So that'll be all up on the website. It'll start rolling out in the next two weeks. Um, so I'll put out a lot of announcements through social media. Um, I do a lot of practice visits too, so I like to go out and again relating to the connection side of things, a lot of stuff is done online now, or you know, you just get automated emails for things. I'm a very social person and I love to connect in person. So I'll often go out to practices, even if there's nothing specific that I want or need or you know am offering, I'll go out and check up and say, Hey, how are you guys going? What's new in your practice? Um, so that's another way that people can start finding out about it. Is I'll go and I'll mention updates and what what's happening here, or this has just launched if you're interested. Um, but yeah, so the mentor applications to either be a mentor or become a mentor will be available online.

SPEAKER_00 40:26

That's terrific. And you know, people, practices that are local to you up in Queensland, they should reach out to you and say, Yeah, pop by our practice. We're gonna make sure we have you over for a lunch, you get a chance to speak to all the dental assistants, they can speak to you, share their highs, their lows, find out how you can help them as well. That would be a fantastic thing. And of course, all the events and the membership details as well will though as they come up, they will be all listed on your website, Instagram and Facebook.

SPEAKER_01 40:55

Yeah, so um three main sources will be webster website, Instagram, and Facebook. I will I do a lot of travel, so I go out on the Gold Coast, but I'm often going to Sydney and Melbourne, and then later this year we'll start visiting Perth a lot more too. So I'll be dropping things off to practices, whether it's flyers of information or just going in and popping in and telling them the details. Um, so those are the kinds of ways that we're reaching out to people. We've also got a couple of industry organizations and businesses who are partnering with us to help spread the word. So if you follow certain people in the industry or certain suppliers and organizations, you'll start seeing us pop up on their social medias and their emails as well.

SPEAKER_00 41:37

Oh, that's terrific. And hopefully you'll continue coming back on this podcast with anything new that's coming up and how the whole organization is evolving. I would love to stay abreast of everything.

SPEAKER_01 41:48

I would love to come back. I was very excited to come on today. So I would definitely love to come back and give you updates as as they're coming out.

SPEAKER_00 41:56

Beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 41:57

And is the website live at the moment? Is there a website address you can read out? Yeah, so we've got a website live at the moment. Um you can subscribe so that you can get updates through email. So it's www.therisedentalco.com.

SPEAKER_00 42:15

Beautiful. I'll make sure that that is in the show notes as well as your contact details too, so people know how to reach out to you directly. Is there anything else that you wanted to mention about the rise at this point? I do.

SPEAKER_01 42:28

I so the rise sort of we've touched on it, but again, the rise is created with dental assistance in mind. So our tagline, if you will, is made for dental assistance by dental assistants. So one of the big things that we want to focus on, you know, this year and then over the next few years throughout our journey is incorporating as many dental assistants into the different areas of our organization as possible. So it's not just going to be myself or someone else who sits back and we're like, you know, we're representing you guys. We actually want real dental assistants coming on board and helping us with different aspects, giving their voice and telling us what they want to see. So dental assistants, again, we'll be putting out more information on you know what's available and how to apply. But dental assistants of all skill sets and experiences can, you know, join us, whether it's as an ambassador, whether it's a mentor, helping to shape the magazine each month, helping at events. There's going to be so many opportunities for dental assistants to actually get involved. Oh, that is fantastic. I love it, I love it, I love it.

SPEAKER_00 43:33

Well, I wish you every success with it, and I'm so eager to look at what kind of impact you guys are going to be able to have on the career of dental assistants and the perception of dental assisting as a great career to fall into, but also just the impact across the whole profession because you know it is a struggling space at the moment, and you're doing something very proactive to make sure that you're making things better. So, congratulations and I honour you for all of your hard work because I know it takes a lot of time, any money, money to get these sort of things happening.

SPEAKER_01 44:05

It does, but it's going to be so worth it in the end.

SPEAKER_00 44:08

Haha, it certainly will. Well, thank you, Amy. You're an absolute superstar. Come back on regularly, let us know what's happening, and I'm definitely going to become a subscriber straight away to The Rise. Amazing. Thanks so much, Julie. Let us know if there's anything that Dental Business Mastery can ever do for you to make sure that this is really as you know, we can play a tiny role in whatever powerful impact you're going to have. Amazing. We appreciate that. Good idea. Thanks, Amy.

SPEAKER_01 44:36

Have a great afternoon.

SPEAKER_00 44:40

If you enjoyed this podcast, then I encourage you to head over to Amina and my website, dental businessmastery.com.au. You'll find all the information that you need. If you would like to gain our assistance in helping you and your team achieve great success. If you would like to find out more, you can also email us directly at info at dental businessmastery.com.au. Thanks so much for listening.