Brett Allen (00:19)

Hi, Brett Allen here, host of the Marketing32 show where I connect with leading dentists, dental influencers, and industry experts to uncover the latest and greatest, the insights, the innovations, all to help your dental practice to grow and thrive. As always, this episode is brought to you by our team here at Marketing32. We are the only dental marketing team that I know of that is truly committed to your growth and performance, ⁓ truly invested in that and providing value for your practice if you’re not growing.

You don’t pay us. So we truly stand behind the work we do and who we work with. So we don’t work with everybody, but if you need help and you want to see if we’d be a great fit to work together, head over to marketing32.com. We’ll have a quick discovery call, talk about your practice and you and us and how we might be able to help. Quick shout out to the ladies of Collabricon. Recently had them on the show. I’ve got one of those ladies today to interview and we’re going to talk a little bit about that.

Tija Hunter (01:10)

Yeah.

Brett Allen (01:18)

Tia Hunter is a seasoned dental professional with over four decades of experience in the field. Since 1981, she has dedicated herself to elevating the role of dental assistants through education, leadership, and advocacy. As the author of Rockstar Dental Assistant, and I have that book, she empa- thank you for giving this to me by the way Tia. ⁓ She empowers dental professionals to gain more appreciation, respect, and satisfaction in their careers.

Tija Hunter (01:39)

You’re welcome.

Brett Allen (01:47)

Tia’s contributions have earned her recognition as one of the top 25 women in dentistry by Dental Products Report 2015. She is also a former vice president of the American Dental Assistance Association, where she holds the honor of master. Currently she serves as an office manager and dental assistant in O’Fallon, Missouri, and is the director of the Dental Careers Institute. Tia is passionate about educating, equipping, and.

empowering dental assistants to embrace their inner leaders and make a significant impact in their practices. Welcome to the show to you.

Tija Hunter (02:23)

Well, thank you. Thank you.

Let me correct you one little thing. No longer am I in clinical dentistry. I did retire from the practice and retired from Dental Careers Institute. ⁓ Love everything I do from education to everything else. But can I give you a shout out for a moment? What company?

Brett Allen (02:31)

Okay, okay

Ha

Tija Hunter (02:47)

anywhere says, hey, if you don’t like what we’re doing for you, don’t have to pay us. mean, guys, this is like try marketing 32. I mean, what have you got to lose? They’re literally offering to give you your money back. You know, your clients know you’re invested because you’re like, we’re going to give you my back. Who does that? Nobody does that. I think that’s absolutely amazing. So shout out to you and your company because I think that’s great. So

Brett Allen (02:59)

I thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you, Tia.

Yeah, we stand behind what we do and who we work with. We see too many people in the industry, too many marketers come and go and just lock people into contracts. You don’t know what they’re doing. And there’s good marketers out there. We’re not the only ones. marketing gets a bad rap. And a lot of dentists are jaded towards marketing. And so this is how we’re differentiating ourselves, for sure.

Tija Hunter (03:20)

I love that.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, see you soon.

Thank you.

Yeah,

no, I love it.

Brett Allen (03:43)

Awesome. Well, thank you for saying that. ⁓ Let’s talk about you and your journey in dentistry quite a bit of time. ⁓ Tell us how you got into it, how you became a writer and all of it. Tell us all of it.

Tija Hunter (03:56)

Well,

this is only a 30 minute podcast. mean, I don’t know what you want me say. You said four decades. I’ve never looked at it like that. I was like, oh, oh my gosh, I’m old. You know, I was young. I was I had a baby. I was 19 years old. I had a baby and I was getting a divorce. And.

Brett Allen (04:15)

well.

Tija Hunter (04:18)

I was ⁓ very low point in my life, married to my high school sweetheart and he had left me. I’m just going to be transparent in the book. ⁓ And I had to go sign up for Medicaid. You know, we’re talking 1980 here. And the woman there said, you know, we have programs where we will put you through school. And they had some choices for me of things I wanted to go to school for and for single moms, you know, type thing. And I

Brett Allen (04:24)

Hmm. Hmm.

Yeah.

Tija Hunter (04:48)

chose dental assisting because I had had a great relationship with my dentist, with my orthodontist. And I said, OK, I guess I’ll be a dental assistant. And best decision ever, right? ⁓ But worked with some amazing individuals, ⁓ dentists that taught me so much in those early years. And especially the very first dentist I worked for, I mentioned him in the book as well. ⁓

But yeah, you know, just the journey, you know, it’s life and life takes you to different places and I work for different people. I learned so much. I learned who I wanted to work for and who I didn’t want to work for. You know, you’re grateful for the ⁓ for the the dark times as well because they make you a better person and they teach you what you don’t want to do. But I certainly have had some just amazing ⁓ mentors. ⁓

in my life. And so, ⁓ you know, you meet those people, people like, you know, my former boss, Dr. Eric Hurt. Yes, hurt. ⁓ Kevin Henry, who’s just been just an amazing, amazing support system for me. ⁓ Linda Miles, I call her the grandmother of dentistry, right? ⁓ You should interview her. She you want to talk about that would be like a four part series if you interviewed Linda. ⁓

Brett Allen (06:08)

Yeah, yeah, I should have her on the show.

Tija Hunter (06:17)

So I was, Kevin and Henry started me on my journey for a book and I got so far and then Linda’s a dear friend, I go down and visit Linda at her home and I went this one particular year to visit her and I said, know, writing this book, Kevin said, think about it like a 1500 page article.

And you write, I write articles all the time. I wrote articles for him. And he said, so think about that. And you’re going to write, you know, like a 1500 word article, but you’re going to do that how many times and those are going to be your chapters. And I was like, ⁓ okay, I can do that. But then I got kind of stuck and I was with Linda visiting her one year and she said, ⁓ give me some topics. And I said, okay, well, leadership, communication, like you’re on the right path. And she was like, absolutely.

And then so we took those articles, plugged them into, and she said, now give me four articles on each subject. I was like, And when she did that, I was in her house like the 10th of December, and on December 31st, I sent it to the publisher. Because I had part of it written, about half of it written, but when she said that, it went.

Brett Allen (07:20)

⁓ yeah.

Wow, way to go.

Tija Hunter (07:38)

The light bulb went off and I went, ⁓ okay, here and here and here here here here. Boo, and now I gotta fill in this one, I need something for this one. And it was just like, ⁓ okay, I got that. So, you know, the journey is all about the people in your life and ⁓ your relationship with them and helping each other grow. So it’s been an incredible journey.

Brett Allen (08:01)

Yeah, you’ve been backed at a lot of people. You’re certainly a mover and shaker in the industry. I was just at ⁓ a few study clubs with you that you were speaking at. You certainly are well-versed, especially when it comes to OSHA requirements and all of that. yeah. ⁓

Tija Hunter (08:11)

Yeah.

I love that. Whoever

thought that anybody would love OSHA? Like we used to cry, right? And I love it. I love it. So you never know where life is going to take you. So I do.

Brett Allen (08:22)

You did a great job. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. And

I was blown away. I’ve spoken with you and a few other people on the show about OSHA. ⁓ And I’m like, my mind is blown away at all the things that our practice has to worry about and the potential for ⁓ you to miss the mark and cause some serious problems for your patients. didn’t realize.

Tija Hunter (08:43)

yeah.

No, and you know what people I still think people don’t realize and OSHA and HIPAA are mandatory every single year to be trained on and the thing about it is is that ⁓ we’re regulated now more than we ever have been ever and so when you think about you know people I don’t want to waste my time or resources money training but really it will cost you more

Brett Allen (08:59)

Yeah.

Yeah, you better get it in shape.

Tija Hunter (09:24)

And not only monetarily, but when you’re on the 5 o’clock news and you know. ⁓

Brett Allen (09:31)

and

it’s not good because your patient’s got some kind of disease infection.

Tija Hunter (09:36)

Exactly. you know, being where I am, I see it all the time. I hear the stories. And so, you know, it’s I get the phone calls. And it’s ⁓ crazy that people don’t take this more seriously. ⁓ It’s annual training and it’s a resource for people. And I love being that way. And, you know, you you might not have trained with me in two years, but if you ask me a question, I’m going to answer. I’m going to help you.

So I love that part of the education, getting to educate my clients. And not only that, but help them with the flow. ⁓ Because everybody just, we just have our head against the wall when it comes to ocean. Like we don’t wanna do it. So I love opening their mind to that and like, okay, don’t look at it this way, let’s look at it this way. And helping them figure out a better flow. And in doing that,

Brett Allen (10:05)

Yeah.

Yeah

Tija Hunter (10:32)

you ease their mind and go, okay, and when I can provide the resources for them, they’re so grateful and they understand it better. And that’s what I want to accomplish with every single office I come in contact with. And that’s just not with OSHA. I mean, I teach doctors.

Brett Allen (10:48)

No, yeah, yeah,

you, you have got expertise in variety fields in dentistry.

Tija Hunter (10:53)

so many

things and it’s just all about helping them be a better them. And so I love that. And that’s what the book is about. The book isn’t about how to pass instruments any better. The book isn’t about how to grow an extra arm to be, you know, a third arm there as an assistant. It’s about my journey and what happened to bring me to where I am today.

So book number two is already in the works. ⁓ I don’t know when I’m going to have time for that, but I will make time. ⁓ It’s already, I’ve already got notes and stuff, but ⁓ it definitely is, know, life is a journey and it takes you to so many places with so many amazing people. And I got to tell you, I’m in offices every week. I was in two offices last week, one in Tennessee and one in Virginia. ⁓ Tomorrow I’ll be in Kentucky for two days and

Monday through Wednesday, I’ll be in Dallas. I meet amazing people. know, mean, dentistry has some amazing individuals and I really think in the core, people wanna do the right thing. They just need help getting there and I’m happy to be that help.

Brett Allen (11:50)

wow.

Yeah. Yeah.

That’s awesome. Yeah, dentistry, it’s a big world, but it’s a small world. We’re all connected. ⁓ I love the premise that, you know, how do you create value as a dental assistant? ⁓ Oftentimes they may feel like that’s a role in the practice that’s not ⁓ respected or ⁓ doesn’t have, under, you know, whatever it is, you talk about it in here. So go check out the book.

Tija Hunter (12:10)

Yes, you are right. Yep.

Brett Allen (12:36)

Rockstar dental assistant. ⁓ Yeah. You can get on Amazon. That’s right. Well, let’s talk. So we talked a little bit about OSHA and you got this calendar coming out. You showed it to me at ADOM in Austin last month. I was blown away at what you’ve compiled and the resource that it is and how it helps practice track all of that and stay compliant, all of that.

Tija Hunter (12:39)

Find it

Yeah.

Brett Allen (13:05)

to talk to us about this calendar, how did you come up with it, what’s in it, how do they get it, all that.

Tija Hunter (13:10)

Everything I do

is truly a labor of love. The cafe is a labor of love. The calendar was a labor of love. So basically what I do, I’m retired from clinical dentistry, and basically what I do is I go into offices and I help them get compliant. And so I was in a couple of offices one week, and I used to go two days, and I used to go at the end of the first day to Walmart and get a calendar. It’s like a puppy dog calendar or something.

And then I would write on it, you know, I need you to do, this is the day you want to test your water. This is the day you want to check your plaster trap. This is the day. And I would take that evening and I would go through and I’d write the whole year and notes and so that they understood. And then I had done this like three weeks in a row and I was like, my gosh. So I called my girlfriend and I said, I have a really stupid question. Can I print?

Brett Allen (14:00)

I’m not gonna write another one of these calendars.

Tija Hunter (14:08)

a calendar with all this stuff on it. And she was like, absolutely you can. And I was like, what? I I’ve been doing this. And so, you know, we are trademarked, we are copyrighted, we are all the things. And I started and it was in 2022 and it’s it’s it’s gotten bigger every year. We add more things every year. And up until this year, we were paper only. But now we are digital and from our website.

Brett Allen (14:12)

Yeah, yeah.

Wait.

Tija Hunter (14:37)

you can print out the

Brett Allen (14:37)

That means they can have it on their phone and they can get it.

Tija Hunter (14:41)

editor. So many people ⁓ kept saying, well, you need to be digital, you need to be digital. And I thought that because I’m a dental assistant and I’m not at a computer all day. I’m in the operatory, I’m in the sterilization room, I’m in the lab. I’m running around all over the place.

Brett Allen (14:49)

Mmm.

Tija Hunter (14:58)

I’m not at a computer. The computer is not my thing. Yeah, we take notes at the computer, but we’re not stuck there. And I said, no, it has to be paper. I was insistent on that. And then I found this developer this last year that said, we can do both. And I was like, what? So it is a subscription that you subscribe to. You have access to it for one full year. So you get on there. The calendar is on there.

Brett Allen (15:07)

Mm-hmm

Tija Hunter (15:25)

We is available November 1st, so don’t go yet, but you can I guess you can buy it yet, but it starts November 1st and It’s there’s resources. There’s front office resources on there now There’s checklists like OSHA checklist and HIPAA checklist infection control checklist maintenance checklist I mean, there’s tons of stuff. There’s front office checklist. There’s back office checklist. There’s We have forms on there consent forms on there we have forms

Brett Allen (15:32)

Okay.

Amazing.

Tija Hunter (15:54)

that talk about a ⁓ successful morning huddle. We have forums that talk about insurance verification. You can download these forums ⁓ and kind of make them yours. ⁓ I have a lot of HIPAA resources on there. ⁓ where it used to be just clinical, it’s kind of evolving into the front office. It’s a whole office manager tool that they can use.

Brett Allen (16:19)

That is awesome.

Tija Hunter (16:21)

And the checklists are really good for the office managers that, well, this is for the back office team, but for the front office managers, that maybe they didn’t come from a dental background. They came from another background. And so maybe in banking or finance somewhere, and they were brought in to do this team, or maybe they were in the medical profession and dentistry is all new to them. So the checklist really helped them. Like, ⁓ I understand, we’re supposed to do that.

For the clinical part, it is not just OSHA, HIPAA, and infection control, but it’s maintenance. And maintenance is so important. There’s hygiene tips in there. So this tool, this calendar tool is really something for the entire office. So I’m super happy with it. It has just like.

Brett Allen (16:54)

Hmm.

It’s so

cool. guys when you got to go check it out. She was showing it to me and it’s like almost every day of the year is filled out with something that you need to do to check a box, be compliant, and it just helps your team stay organized. You don’t have to think about it. just OK, what’s it? What’s it today?

Tija Hunter (17:28)

Yeah,

what I gotta do today. And if you know me, it’s got motivational quotes in it. Yeah, yeah. Well, there’s resources for American Heart Association. There’s resources, like I said, for hygiene. There’s resources for oral cancer. There’s resources ⁓ for our sponsors. There’s resources for care credit. There’s resources for just a ton of stuff that people need and they can find it in one spot.

Brett Allen (17:33)

Yes, I love that. You never win if you never begin. Yeah.

I love it. ⁓

You know what I want to do? I’m going to say this. Anybody who signs up with us as a result of this episode, if you join Market Theory 2, you get the Karma calendar. We’ll cover that cost for you.

Tija Hunter (18:10)

⁓ my

gosh, that’s amazing. Thank you for.

Brett Allen (18:13)

Yeah,

I mean, well, you’re amazing for putting this together and the price you’re charging is like the value is immense. So, ⁓ yeah.

Tija Hunter (18:20)

Yes, I think so, but you know, ⁓

you got to raise the price. No, I’m teasing. I’m teasing.

Brett Allen (18:25)

You

get, yeah, well, it’s some, I can’t tell you how many times I talk with practices who don’t know just fundamental marketing things and numbers and metrics ⁓ and don’t have an awareness to things that are happening at the front desk with, you know, how patients are being booked or they don’t know certain numbers. And so it’s like, okay, well, let’s put these processes in place. We track the important things that are really telling you if your marketing’s working.

Tija Hunter (18:53)

Exactly.

Brett Allen (18:54)

This is another one of those things where it’s like, Hey, if you

don’t have a process in place, if you don’t have somebody on the team assigned to manage your compliance and, you don’t have all of this buttoned up, it could really, it could really bite you. Yeah.

Tija Hunter (19:09)

And I tell

teams and I tell consultants all the time, you can have a beautiful, aesthetically amazing practice. You can have all the front office protocols in place. We’re getting our ARs low. You know, we’ve got our claims are, you know, less than 30 days. We’ve got this going, we’ve got this going. We’re producing more than now than ever. Our schedule’s full.

Brett Allen (19:12)

Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Tija Hunter (19:35)

But if your back office is falling apart and you don’t even know it, something’s gonna happen, something’s gonna go. And ⁓ you gotta be prepared for that. I tell people all the time, have, doctors have spent a lot of money on their practice. A practice is not cheap. Building out an operatory is not cheap. It is super expensive and nobody goes into business to be a failure. Not one person that I know.

Brett Allen (19:39)

Yeah.

Yeah.

No.

Yeah,

Tija Hunter (20:05)

And so, right, right, how about that? Let’s go to Minecraft, little bit fun. So,

Brett Allen (20:05)

I’m gonna start this business and go bankrupt. Nobody said… Let’s go.

Tija Hunter (20:11)

you you’re investing all of that into it and making an investment in training your team in mandatory things they’re supposed to be trained on and getting them the workflow that they need. That is important. A lot of doctors will hire me because they’ll say,

I had, you know, so-and-so come in and coach them on the front desk. And then I had the hygiene coach come in on costume hygiene, but the assistants don’t have anybody to coach them. And I’m like, let me come in and do that. And so the assistants feel a little left out, which we do all the time. ⁓ But ⁓ I can bring that balance and give them something and make them feel amazing. And then I’m always going to be a resource for them, because that’s just what I do.

Brett Allen (20:39)

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

That’s awesome. where do we send people? Where do they get this calendar when it’s finally launched in a couple weeks?

Tija Hunter (21:04)

They’ll be able to go to rockstardentalassistant.com and they’ll be able to access the calendar from Rockstar. But it’s Karma calendar. It’s called Karma calendar with a K, karmacalendar.com is what it is, but you can access it. Yeah.

Brett Allen (21:07)

Okay.

I love that name by the way.

That’s great. Okay, so they can go there to get the calendar. This is great. It’s only $159 a year you guys. Like, duh, go buy it.

Tija Hunter (21:33)

Well, what’s great about digital, and I’m just so excited about this, is that all year long I’m going be adding content. So you’re going to be able to go in there and you’re going to be able to access a new sponsor. You’re going to be able to access anything I add to the calendar that I come across. ⁓ I’m throwing it all in there. I’ve got protocols in there for waterline. Everybody says,

Brett Allen (21:43)

Hmm

Mmm.

Tija Hunter (21:59)

What’s your waterline treatment? There’s a protocol in there. There’s a protocol for sport test because nobody, nobody, nobody does sport test right. And they send it off and they get the pass fail and it doesn’t end there. And so I wrote this book. I wrote this book. It is a sport test log book and it explains how to effectively log everything that you’re supposed to log and

Brett Allen (22:11)

I remember you talking about that, yeah.

Tija Hunter (22:29)

That’s in there. That is in there. You’re not paying extra for that. That book is $40, but you’re not paying it because you have it in there. ⁓ I have ⁓ just autoclave maintenance in there. I mean, and that’s another ton of question. ⁓ Handpiece maintenance, it’s in there. So there is just a ton of things available in there ⁓ and I can add more all the time. And then next year you can renew and

Brett Allen (22:32)

Good. Good.

And that’s in there. God, I love it.

Tija Hunter (22:59)

get all that again. And I love being able to do that rather than it was always done September 1st and then it was the same until September 1st of next year. And now I get to keep adding stuff to it. So I’m so happy about that.

Brett Allen (23:02)

That’s awesome.

That’s great. I think that, yeah, when this episode goes live, it’ll probably be a week until you’re launching. So it’ll be perfect timing. November 1st, karmacalendar.com. That’s where you guys can go to get that. ⁓ We’re about, ⁓ that’s right, Rockstar Dental Assistant. We’ll put links to both in the show notes. So if you’re driving or wherever you are, you can go back and find it. Tia, this has been a wonderful time to talk with you, get more about your story and what you’re doing to help the industry.

Tija Hunter (23:20)

Yeah, good.

or Rockstar, or Rockstar Devastation.

Thank

Brett Allen (23:44)

I always close with one golden nugget. ⁓ What’s, if you can think back in your career and your experience, what’s one epiphany that if you could help these doctors, these teams have this epiphany, it would have a ripple effect and really, really impact a lot of their, whatever it is for their practice, their happiness, their health, whatever. What’s that one thing that you think is the golden nugget?

Tija Hunter (24:06)

Yeah.

⁓ My golden nugget has always been spiritual. And I’m a believer in Jesus Christ and I put a lot of faith into that. So I guess I want to say faith, not just in whatever you believe in, but faith in yourself. ⁓ You’re absolutely more

Brett Allen (24:16)

Okay.

Tija Hunter (24:35)

capable of doing things than you never thought possible. I sit here and I own a restaurant down the street, a little cafe, coffee shop. That wasn’t even in the cards just a little over a year ago. It wasn’t even in the cards. You’re so more capable of doing things than you give yourself credit for. And I think a lot of times, especially dental assistants, we are, I talked to them on the day. They’re single moms. I was a single mom.

They’re single moms, they don’t know, have direction in life, they don’t know what they wanna do, this is a job for them. And I’m telling you what, this is an amazing career. It was an amazing career for me. And so really invest in yourself, invest in your education, and believe in yourself, because you can truly do anything you wanna do.

Brett Allen (25:25)

I love that. I’m a believer too. I’ve got my necklace that I wear every day. ⁓ Yeah. ⁓ Your little Jesuses, I’ve been to your cafe and you’ve got your little hidden Jesuses everywhere. I love it.

Tija Hunter (25:30)

I love it. I love it. I got my Jesus is everywhere. have a little. ⁓

Yep, they are

there everywhere on my dashboard right by my speedometer. It’s got to sit there because. He needs to help me slow down.

Brett Allen (25:43)

Yes. Yes, that’s so great.

I think you’re spot on. We are much more capable than we think we are. The one verse, Philippians 1.6, ⁓ he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. That hits home for me. ⁓ We have a work to do. We were put here for a reason to help other people and to do good.

Tija Hunter (25:53)

Yeah.

Amen. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

That’s exactly

right.

Brett Allen (26:13)

And oftentimes that’s more than you think you are capable of.

Tija Hunter (26:17)

Exactly.

When we get drawn into the day to day and the hustle and the bustle and the the hechnicness of it, but it really it really does not define who you are or what you’re capable of. And just a little bit of belief in yourself. It’s amazing.

Brett Allen (26:35)

Yeah,

absolutely. Well, this has been great. As always, Tia, it’s fun to talk with you, be with you. ⁓ If you guys have not heard the Collabricon episode, it’s been a few, it’s a while back. We’ll link to it. Collabricon’s coming up next month. Awesome group of ladies and event to take your whole team to. ⁓ And Tia, all the good that you’re doing in the industry with your book and the calendar now, this is so great. I was super excited to have you on the show.

Tija Hunter (26:55)

So excited.

Yeah, thank you dear. I appreciate it. I love it. Always good seeing you and I’ll see you at Rocky Mountain. I’m speaking there.

Brett Allen (27:11)

Yes, yes, I will see you there. That’ll be great. Well everybody, until next time on the Marketing32 show, have a great rest of your day, great rest of your week. Take care.

Tija Hunter (27:13)

Yeah.