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Join Dr. Kim Kutsch, the brilliant mind behind CariFree, as he explores the extraordinary lives of thought leaders in the dental industry, and beyond. Contrary to Ordinary explores further than dentistry - here we unravel the minds of change-makers, paradigm shifters, and world shakers.
Every two weeks, we dive into the stories of our remarkable guests—ordinary people who continually defy limits. Discover their tales of success, resilience, and self-awareness, and explore how they leverage these experiences not only to elevate dental practice and patient care but also to champion personal growth and entrepreneurship. Listen for captivating conversations with innovators who seamlessly blend art and technology, pursue curiosity, and create the truly extraordinary.
Contrary to Ordinary isn't your typical dentistry podcast—it's a vibrant community that's hit #1 in ‘Entrepreneurship,’ #3 in ‘Business,’ and #21 in ‘All Podcasts’ for a reason. We've had the pleasure of hosting inspiring guests like innovators, dental leaders, pioneering inventors, and artists, including Angus Walls, Machell Hudson, Dr. Simon McDonald, Dr. Bobby Birdi, Rella Christensen, Professor Phillip D. Marsh, Carmen Ohling, John Kois, Dr. Susan Maples, Doug Young, Colt Idol, Stephanie Staples, and many more who've graced our mic.
Each episode isn't just a listen; it's a lesson in living an extraordinary life authentically, embracing rebellion, and nurturing leadership. We dive into diverse topics, from mentoring, coaching, personal development, and work-life balance to self-awareness, emotional intelligence, leadership, storytelling, altruism, and motivation. And yes, we also cover dentistry—exploring natural dentists, dental health, dental laboratories, oral care, oral surgery, dental hygiene, caries disease, brushing teeth, and overall tooth care.
Tune in to Contrary to Ordinary for a unique blend of wisdom that goes beyond the ordinary and resonates with all aspects of life! This podcast aims to empower you to be extraordinary in your dental practice and improve not just your dental care but your overall life!
Do you have an extraordinary story you’d like to share with us? Or perhaps a question for Dr. Kutsch. Contact us on our Instagram, Facebook or Twitter today.
About Our Host:
Meet Dr. Kim Kutsch: a retired dentist with 40 years of experience, prolific writer, thought leader, inventor, and researcher in dental caries and minimally invasive dentistry, brings his insatiable curiosity to the forefront. Eager to learn from those breaking boundaries in dentistry, particularly in preventative and non-invasive dentistry approaches, Dr. Kutsch launched the Contrary to Ordinary podcast. As a keen creative and curious mind, Dr. Kutsch extends his podcast guest list to artists, entrepreneurs, and fascinating minds who have piqued his interest. He wants to learn from them and see how he can be inspired by their extraordinary ways of living and adapt his learnings into his own life and his business, CariFree.
About CariFree:
CariFree is the new model for oral health and cavity prevention. Dr. Kutsch is the CEO and founder of this business. They create cutting-edge technology and science-based solutions to common dental health concerns for the whole family, making it easy to banish cavities for good with preventive strategies over restorative procedures. Find out how dentists are using CariFree products to revolutionize their dental practices here: https://carifree.com/success-stories/.
Minal Sampat:
You have to be able to not just want to do something but do it. And that requires consistency over commitment. Rather be consistent every day than be committed. And I think that's a huge part of being a disciplined human. What time you wake up, how you start your day, following that schedule, understanding your priority and the tasks which are more important, not just because they're in your schedule, but what is the most important thing for me to get done today? I think Jeff Bezos said that for him, his day is successful if he can make two big decisions.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
On Contrary to Ordinary, we explore the motivations, lives and characters of innovators who see limitless potential around them. Through these conversations, we hope to provide insight into how you can emulate the mindsets of these extraordinary people, in your own life and work.
My name is Dr. Kim Kutsch, and I spent over 20 years in dentistry before creating CariFree. We offer a range of dental products to the industry and the public that promote the health and wellness of people suffering from the disease of caries.
This week, I'm sitting down with the incredible Minal Sampat, a speaker, marketing strategist, coach, and bestselling author. Minal is a definition of a third culture kid. She began her life in India and moved to Saint Thomas in the US Virgin Islands as a child. Her final relocation was to the US, where she still lives today. Those early years left an impression on Minal and taught her a lot about the value of grit and determination. Two themes that we'll revisit later. She began her journey studying dentistry at Rutgers University, but something shifted and she started to set her sights on a new path.
Minal Sampat:
I was pre-dental at Rutgers and I majored in communication and minored in biology. And communication is public speaking and PR and marketing. And my parents, they are small business owners in the Virgin Islands. They own a jewelry store. I went from being surrounded in the dental world, as a young child, to being a teenager surrounded in a business world. And I saw the struggle. I saw the hustle. I saw them changing a life. I have to say thank you to my parents because they had a very comfortable life in India. They decided to move to the US because they wanted my brother and I to have the best options and choices that were available in the world. So, they gave up a very comfortable house, a very comfortable life, their family and friends, to come to the United States, so that my brother and I could have this, but we saw them struggle.
So, when I went to Rutgers, it was a dilemma for me because I was studying biology, but I was also studying this communication world, which was all marketing and business and PR, and I fell in love with it. It was a big struggle, a very big struggle to say, "Do I do marketing or do I do dentistry? Do I do marketing or do I do dentistry?"
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
I'm sitting here looking at you and one of my thoughts is, you'd have made an amazing dentist.
Minal Sampat:
You're kind.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
You'd have been amazing as a dentist. And then, you suddenly start talking about marketing and you just lit up. It was like a light went on in the room. And I wish people could see that, because obviously that passion that you have for marketing, you discovered that, right, while you were there? And you followed your passion and that takes a tremendous amount of courage. And what would you say to people who are hesitant, that have a passion and maybe for whatever reason are hesitant to follow it?
Minal Sampat:
I'll share what my college counselor shared. So, I actually went to my college counselor and I told her the dilemma, because you have to realize, I was taking my DATs, my file was ready, everything was ready to go and apply to dental school. And I kept having this feeling of, "No, you really want to be in this other world." And she told me something which changed me, these are her words, not mine. And she said, "I don't know if you believe in faith, but if you think you want to do something, you are already born with the power to do so."
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
That's a really powerful thought. What a beautiful statement.
Minal Sampat:
Isn't it? And so, anybody who's thinking that, I am a example of that. And when she said that to me is when I had goosebumps and I said, "Okay. I want to go for it."
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Sounds like she helped you over that tipping point and that gave you the courage or the inspiration to go ahead and say, "I want to do this." So, you took this big bold step, but you became a dental hygienist, is that right?
Minal Sampat:
Mm-hmm. I became a hygienist. So, what happened was as I was at Rutgers, pre-dental, in order for you to be in the pre-dental program, you have to shadow a dental practice. This was when I was a sophomore at Rutgers, I remember faxing, when faxing was a thing, I remember having paper resume and faxing it to all these places. And this dental practice, a pediatric orthodontic practice in New Jersey, huge practice, 25,000 patients. I sent them my resume, said, "I'm looking to shadow somebody." And they're like, "Come on in and shadow us." So, I did. I shadowed them.
And then, when I had the wonderful luck of graduating in 2008. So, this is me, decided not to go to dental school. The whole country, the whole world is in a shock pretty much. And so, in 2008, is when I called a bunch of places to get a job and I called this dental practice and I said, "Hey, remember me? I shadowed you two years ago. Looking for a job. Been eating Jell-O, want to eat spaghetti. I need to pay rent. Are you looking for somebody?" And the office manager, she's like, "Well, we are not hiring anybody, but come on in at noon." And I know that noon is their lunchtime.
So, I went in at noon, but the next thing I knew is I'm being interviewed by the owner, Dr. Cavan Brunsden, who's another mentor of mine. And then he came in and he said, "No idea what you're going to do at the practice, but we just like you, so we are just going to hire you and we'll just figure out where you fit." So, I did. They hired me and they trained me in all this stuff. And because marketing was my passion, I told them I really wanted to do marketing. So, I've been doing marketing all my life. I decided to go to hygiene school, to actually understand healthcare and patient communication and behavior. I only practiced hygiene about once a week for a few years. I haven't practiced since then. So, it's funny, it's the opposite effect. Usually, you have hygienists who do other careers. For me, I had a marketing career, hygiene was actually my side gig.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
So, you used that to go and learn more about the profession itself from the inside out.
Minal Sampat:
Well, you have to. Marketing, or business in general, is very different. When we talk about healthcare, when we share about healthcare, you have to put patients first. You have to put their needs first. What is the right treatment for them? What is good for them? You shouldn't be selling treatment because it's big bucks. You shouldn't be talking about doing things just because it makes you money. That's marketing in the other world. Like my parents own an e-commerce jewelry store. You go into the jewelry store, you're buying jewelry and there you're going to buy a ring, they're going to show you a bracelet, then they're going to show you earrings. You can't do that in healthcare. Patients have to come first.
So, this was a great way because that is what I believe in, and I think has been the biggest success for everything that I have done is because I get it, I'm a hygienist, I understand patients come first. We are going to, when I say market, we are going to communicate and share.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
So, what gave you the confidence to do that?
Minal Sampat:
To do marketing?
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Yeah.
Minal Sampat:
For me, like you said, it was something where one, I have to give credit where credit belongs. And as you can see in my life, I have had wonderful people who have been guiding lights. And I am standing on the shoulders of giants. Even Dr. Brunsden, who didn't want to hire anybody but decided to hire me anyways and allowed me to experiment and to do things in the dental world, and to come up with their social media and online. And I have a whole chapter on this, in my book, on chapter five, working at that practice. Where similar to what you said, they had a very good reputation, and I said, "Let's amplify that."
So, the marketing, to me, was always about amplify the good things on how we are changing lives, because if somebody else needs that, they should be able to find you. And that's all that is. So, it kind of became into that. And then as I was going through this, we were getting phone calls at the practice saying, "Who's doing your marketing? What's going on? How are things going?" So, in 2013 is when I decided, okay, let me open my own marketing strategy company and let's see how it goes. And that was a whole experience in itself because ... And I was in my 20s. Here's a 20-some-year-old girl coming into practice saying, "Hey, I can help you with your marketing strategy."
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Starting your own business is a significant endeavor. Among other things, you need grit to pull it off. In her book, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, author and psychologist, Angela Duckworth wrote, "The real reason that grit seems to predict success is that it enables you to do something else that predicts success. Conscientiously practicing your skills, determined to make yourself better. Like anything, building a business requires honing a set of key skills. These skills vary for everyone, but you need grit and determination to rise after every failed pitch or bad decision, aiming to improve both yourself and your business." For Minal, the early years of starting her business were nerve-wracking.
Minal Sampat:
It was great. It was scary. It was a risk. It was, again, you have to work a lot harder when you are somebody who's young, starting out, because people don't take you as seriously. And that's okay. That comes with it. You live a life, you have wisdom. When you're young, you don't have that wisdom yet. So, I can't blame people for that, but I was surrounded by great people too. So, we launched the company in 2013 by breaking a Guinness World Record. And what I did was I took-
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Okay, I want to hear about that.
Minal Sampat:
Well, I had to prove myself. I had to prove that I can do what I'm saying I could do. So, what I did was I took all my kind of my strategies, and I've always been obsessed with world records. So, this world record was broken in Times Square, New York, the year before. So, I mean, imagine Times Square, New York, and a startup company that's eating Jell-O, right? Right now, there's not much happening here.
So, we came up with this idea, my team and I, at that point. And so, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but October is also Dental Hygiene Awareness Month. And I'm a hygienist, I'm going through the dental world, and I'm also a marketing expert. So, we actually combined everything together and we came up with an event called Swish Away Breast Cancer. And we got over 1,500 people together at a local football stadium during a Thanksgiving game, a football game, where the cheerleaders were wearing pink, the football players were wearing pink, the mayor was there, TV2 was there. We got everybody together and we broke the world record for the most amount of people swishing mouthwash at the same time.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Oh, wow.
Minal Sampat:
Because we wanted to talk about oral hygiene, we wanted to talk about breast cancer, spread awareness about it. And when that happened, we had TV2 and it became a huge thing. And then, DentistryIQ did an article on it and Huffington Post did an article on it, and it put me on the map.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Wow. It's interesting. I'm sure you had the challenges of doing a startup company. That's always a challenge. And I was reading, Ken Coleman has written a couple of books and he has an interesting thought process because I wanted to ask you about the work-life balance. And particularly when you are starting a company, your life is way out balance, right? And when it comes to work and life. And then his point was, that's a myth to begin with. There's no such thing as a work-life balance. There's seasons to your life and seasons to your work or your career. And when you're in your 20s, you got to pay your dues, right?
Minal Sampat:
Yeah. 100%.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
I mean, it's like, yeah, you're going to be spending more time focused on work or if you're trying to do a startup than you are maybe at home. But then by doing that, in the next season of your life, you have more time to do what you want. And as your life progresses, you have more and more time and freedom to be able to spend your life, spend your time the way that you want to. What are your thoughts on that?
Minal Sampat:
I completely agree. I don't think there is such a thing. Especially because if you're doing something that you're passionate about and that you truly care and you have a strong why behind it, I find that as entrepreneurs, if that's your journey, you're dreaming about it. There is no work-life balance. I get my best thoughts at 3:00 AM. Like, just last night, I woke up at 3:00 AM and I was typing on my phone, this idea I got, because you are dreaming about it, you're living it. It's natural to you. It's a part of who you are. So, how do you call that the work-life balance.
What I do agree with is, yes, you do have seasons, but so for example, what you said earlier in our interview today was the art of saying no, the ability to say no. And that is what I'm doing now, where I am saying no to more things, so I can say yes to the right things. And that, to me, is more of a balance compared to stop work at 5:00 PM. But when you are a startup, you can't stop work at 5:00 PM, because maybe the person who's calling you, they get off at work at 5:00 PM and the potential client can only talk to you at 6:30 PM when they get home. Then you get on the phone at 6:30 PM.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
You do what you have to do.
Minal Sampat:
Yeah.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Yeah. Does it feel like a job to you? Do you ever feel like you've got, "a job"? Quote, unquote.
Minal Sampat:
No, absolutely not. So, I guess, this is where balance plays into it too is, I'm picky with who I work with. I'm knocking on wood here. I'm lucky enough to have a business and to live a life where I'm able to help people who I know are the right fit for me and I'm the right fit for them. And then, I am able to direct people to the other professionals in our industry who may be the right fit for them.
So, because I do that, I feel that I don't have a job because even the people that I'm working with, the practices, the humans, the KOLs, everybody that I'm working with in the industry, even CariFree, right? I like you guys. So, it's very easy for me to work with all of these people. It's not a job because I like it.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Right. You get to work with people that you like.
Minal Sampat:
Yeah.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
And then, it doesn't feel like a job.
Minal Sampat:
No. A job, I think, sometimes it has a negative connotation, but sometimes it's you have to show up, you have to do it. I don't have to do it, because I love it and I like the people I'm doing it with.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Hey, Contrary to Ordinary listeners, I want to tell you a little bit about my company, CariFree. We offer affordable science-based solutions to common dental health concerns for the whole family. Banish cavities for good, and welcome in a healthy smile and a great first impression. Visit carifree.com for more details.
Getting into public speaking, how'd that feel for you? Was that scary or what was that whole experience like?
Minal Sampat:
Public speaking, I think, becomes harder. It's not something that people just think you go up and you do, right? I have had five speaker coaches. I even have a speaker coach right now, even though I'm speaking at all of these events and conferences. I think that you have to work on your craft. You have to be able to connect with people, and you have to be able to be on the journey that they are.
So, if you look at speaking as sales, you're not going to be a successful speaker. Dr. Paul Homoly is one of my speaker coaches. And Dr. Homoly would always say, "Are you a teacher or are you a speaker? And there's a difference between the two. Are you a professor or are you a speaker? Are you just going to give content or are you going to make a difference?" So, I think, once you understand the difference between the two, speaking becomes a lot easier because you are not just teaching or overwhelming somebody, you are making a difference. And as soon as you start speaking in a way that makes a difference, it's easy, because now there is a care, there is a why, there is a way for people to connect with you directly. And I think that's a powerful way for me to look into it and say that, yeah, that's what changed it.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
So, not just relaying or regurgitating information, but actually providing them with maybe a pathway to actually take that information and do something powerful in their life with it?
Minal Sampat:
And empowering them to do it. It's different when ... Like, right now, we are sharing all these stories and I'm being very honest with the people who have changed me and have allowed me to do better. In that same way, if they're listening to something, like you said, and somebody will be like, "Well, I can do what she's doing." Or, "I can be there." And that's amazing. Being able to share in a way that not only just says, "Here's A," but empowers them on the pathway to A, and say, "I can do this. I can make this happen." And that's the best feeling a speaker can get is when somebody leaves the room and is like, "That was amazing. I want to do that. I know how to do it, and I'm going to do it."
I just recently got an email from a 70-year-old dentist who shot me an email and said, "I just heard you speak. I just made my first LinkedIn post, and I'm 70 years old. Thank you so much." And it's like, yes, that's a win. That's what you want at the end of the day. So, if they can just feel it in themselves and they will just say, "I want to do this." That's a win.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
And that's a reward for you.
Minal Sampat:
Yeah, that's a win.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
What question do you get asked most frequently from your audiences?
Minal Sampat:
Where do I buy my shoes?
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Okay. I didn't expect that one. I didn't see that one coming. But actually, okay, I get that. So actually, now you have me curious, where do you get your shoes?
Minal Sampat:
Everywhere. I say, I do not discriminate. I buy them everywhere. It's just a shoe. But work-wise, one of the questions that I get asked a lot is, how do I find time to do this? Because we are overwhelmed. We are in a busy world. We have busy businesses. How do I find time to do it? And I always say either if you're passionate about it, you will find time because you want to do it and you could put an hour away. If not, you delegate it, just like everything else. So, if it's important, you delegate it. So, that's the question that I get a lot.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Okay. And I think time management is critical. And I think one thing I see in extraordinary people is that they're very effective with their time management. They focus on things that are important. They have a clear idea of what's most critical. Here's 20 tasks and which one is the most critical to do first? And I think that separates extraordinary people and their accomplishments, or their ability to be effective and productive from people who just gravitate ... They get lost in the tasks and they don't ever stop ... They're doing something that really has no significance at all. They spend all their time, waste their time on something that's really not that important, and they don't sit and strategically plan, "Okay. This is job one." Right? "This is job one, and I'm putting my focus there." And I see that in extraordinary people.
Minal's best-selling book, Why Your Marketing Is Killing Your Business: And What To Do About It, addresses the problem many business owners encounter, they put way too much time and resources into their marketing and get nothing in return. Described by one reviewer as, "A fresh take on business marketing that is desperately needed in today's business climate. Minal's book is an easily digestible guide to thinking differently about engaging with customers, old and new. I highly recommend it." And as a teaser, Minal is going to share some insights with us now.
Minal Sampat:
You have to be able to not just want to do something but do it. And that requires not commitment. So, one of my business coaches, Mark LeBlanc, he always says, "Consistency over commitment. Rather be consistent every day than be committed." And I think that's a huge part of being a disciplined human. What time you wake up, how you start your day, following that schedule. Understanding your priority and the tasks which are more important, not just because they're in your schedule, but what is the most important thing for me to get done today? I think Jeff Bezos said that for him, his day is successful if he can make two big decisions. He said he's fine if he can make two big decisions. So, when I look at so many of these successful people, extraordinary people, I always see them sharing traits of, let's make this happen and this is how we are going to do it. So, discipline is a huge factor for me.
Also, giving. I think in order for you to be somebody who wants to do amazing things, if you are not a giver, it doesn't work. My grandfather was homeless, was on the streets in India, and I'm living in the world power in this country. I mean, going from a grandfather who was on the streets, to living this life, you don't get there unless you are able to give, unless you are able to volunteer, to provide, to give back to humanity in some sort of way. Those are, I think, discipline and giving are the two big factors for me.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
There's a saying that 90% of success is just showing up, right? And that's what I'm hearing from you is showing up every day.
Minal Sampat:
Mm-hmm.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
That consistency of getting out of bed, having that schedule, being disciplined, making two decisions, important decisions, but prioritizing your time and being effective. That sounds like how you define that.
Minal Sampat:
100%. Even with my book, I decided to write my book in March, and the book was done in September, and it was ready to go out in December. And that's nine months for an entire book to that happen. But that can only happen if you're disciplined and getting that done compared to, "I want to write..." I listen to so many people, they reach out to me and they're like, "Minal, it's been two years. I want to write this book." "Oh, it's been three years, it's been five years. Oh, I have this idea." And then, "Oh no, somebody else took my idea." And then it's, "Did you do anything about the idea you had?" "Oh, no." Then you can't blame the person who made it happen either, right?
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Yeah. That's funny. I was just going to bring that up, because you've written a book, and anybody that's written a book knows what it takes to write a book. Right? Because it takes a tremendous amount of time, more time than you would begin to imagine, and it takes a tremendous amount of discipline. And I hear so often is, "Oh, I'm going to write a book." Or, "I want to write a book." And they never do. And the extraordinary people actually write the book. Right? They actually put the pen to paper and they put in the work and actually put out the book.
And I've written five books, so I know what it takes. And I'm working on a book right now, on extraordinary people. And I know how much discipline, and it takes time. Nine months, that's actually a pretty short period of time to write a book in. A lot of authors that I know will spend a year or two years, a pretty intense amount of time, to write a book and put it together. And then, it takes editors and publishers. I mean, it's a lot of-
Minal Sampat:
It's a whole thing.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
It's the whole thing. Right? And so, it's one thing to say, "I want to write a book." It's a whole different thing to actually write a book.
Minal Sampat:
For me, I always believe that you want to delegate to the people who are good at the stuff that you suck at. Just be honest about it. I always tell people, it's empowering to know what you're good at. It's enlightening to know what you're not good at. And accepting that simple fact and saying, "I am not good at this task, but I know brilliant, amazing humans who are." Work with them, give them the money that they deserve and make it happen.
So, I actually got a team of five people together, and we all had our tasks, and I had a deadline, and the deadline was September, the book has to be done, and by December it has to be done and ready. And then, I launched it and I published it in January on Amazon, and within 24 hours, it became a bestseller in Amazon in four countries. But there was also a system to that. There was an Amazon expert on board that we had, who knew when to publish it, how to publish it, the keywords it needs, how many books we have to buy, how we are going to do it.
There was a marketing strategy. When the book was done in September, I knew that in order for me to make it a best ... Because it was a goal. The goal was, I'm going to make this a Amazon bestseller, because I'm going to publish on Amazon. I'm going to make this an Amazon bestseller. And we knew that you have to have X amount, it was like 3, 400 books that had to be sold within just the first hour, or something similar to that. And I said, "Well, who's going to buy books? Readers."
So, our entire marketing strategy from September to December, once the book was done, was everywhere I went in the world, maybe I was in Portugal, I was in the Caribbean, I was all over the US, wherever I went, I went to all the libraries. And I took pictures of the authors, I took pictures of the books, I took pictures of me reading the books, and we started sharing all about books on my marketing and my social media, on my online blogs, on my email going out. And we didn't mention anything about the book, me, my book or anything like that, but just books in general.
So, what happened was there was a audience ready who were readers, because who are the people interacting with your posts about books? Other readers, other people who read books or write books. So, we had a very strong audience. So, as soon as I announced it in January, within that first hour, the books were sold and we were already going to hit. And the Amazon expert got on the phone with me and said, "We are going to make this goal." Like, "Okay, we just did it in the US. Let's get it in Canada, Australia."
And this is what I mean is, set a goal. If it is to write a book, great. If it is to write an Amazon bestseller, better. But set a goal, reverse engineer the goal and say, "What do I have to do to make this happen?" Create deadlines. Figure out what you're good at. Figure out what you should be delegating outside. Find the people that will be great at that job. And then just make it happen. Simple deadlines. One thing a day. Like, for me, it was when I was writing a book, I had to make a decision about the book every single day.
So, one day I had to make a decision about the book. It didn't matter how busy that day was, if I was on a plane, if I was speaking, if I was with a client. Nope, one decision I have to make about the book. And because it was a discipline of getting that done, it happened. It's about showing up. If you don't show up for yourself, then who will? I think, again, we get riled up into this world of the latest trend and the latest whatever is the next thing, and the shiny object, right? And for a lot of marketing companies it's their job to sell you the shiny object. "How dare you not be doing TikTok? There must be something wrong with you. You must do TikTok." Or, "You must do this." Right? And I have seen this happen over and over again through successes is there is too much marketing. People are smart, consumers are smart. It's not about marketing, but how you leverage marketing.
So, I'll give you guys an example, whoever's watching this. So, as a strategist, what I like to do is take whatever marketing you have and then you maximize it, you leverage it, so you're not spending more money. So, let's say that you all have a website. On your website, you probably have an about us page. And on your about us page, you probably have a photo of the doctor, maybe in the white coat, hands crossed, little smirk sideways. And then right next to that photo is the bio of the doctor. And it goes something like, where they grew up, where they went to school, all the accolades they have, the organizations they belong to, the memberships. And then at the end it says, "During free time, the doctor likes to go skiing." That's pretty much most of the about us page. That's marketing. Marketing is let's have a website and we need to have an about us page because that's the second most frequented page on your website. After the home page, people go to about us, because they want to get to know you.
Now, let's change that to marketing strategy. So, I am a hygienist, pediatric hygienist. Let's just say that you were to go to this pediatric dental practice. It's the website. And on that is an about us page. And instead of that photo and the bio, there's a video and the video goes something like this. "Hi, my name is Minal Sampat, and I am honored to be a part of this wonderful pediatric dental practice. One of my favorite things to do is to laugh. I have that big belly laugh that you could just hear from the other room. But when I'm looking at photos of me as a child, growing up in India, I wasn't laughing as big or smiling as much, because I was embarrassed. I had black spots on my teeth. Today, I am a pediatric dental hygienist because I don't want any child to feel like they cannot smile big or laugh loud. I look forward to meeting you and your family."
And right underneath that video are three bullet points of my accolades, my schools, and my membership. That is how you leverage what you do, right? Because what relates to you more. So, in your marketing, if you're focusing on one, who your audience is. In this case, I'm talking to parents who are scared about bringing their kids to a pediatric practice because they probably had horrible experiences. They're looking for somebody who has been on that journey and they can connect. Right? So, the first thing is who is my audience?
The second thing is, am I relaying to them what I want them to know? And all of us have that. Nobody just woke up one morning and say, "I'm going to be a dentist." There's a story there. There is a reason you're a dentist. There are all these careers in the world. Why dentistry? Why are you a hygienist and assistant? Why are you a dentist? Right? Why do you do what you do? So, if you just take that one moment and share that simple why and relayed that, you'll be shocked how many people engage with your message and say, "Yeah, this is where I want to go, because this human understands it." Right? So, audience, understanding your audience and then relaying your message to that audience, those are the two foundations that you need for any marketing.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
All right. Minal, I want to thank you so much for being here with us today. You are such an inspiration. I so much enjoyed learning about your life story, and I feel like I really know you, and I hope that all of our listeners feel like they know you. And if they get an opportunity to see you or be in your audience at some point in time, have a better understanding of who you are. And I know they're all going to be focused on, what shoe is she wearing today? But what a privilege it is to just have shared this time with you. So, thank you so much.
Minal Sampat:
No, thank you, for having me. This was amazing and I'm honored to be a part of it. I appreciate it. Thank you.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Yeah. Thank you so much, Minal Sampat, for joining me today. And thank you for going on this inspiring journey with me. Around here, we aim to inspire and create connections. We can't do it without you.
If this conversation moved you, made you smile, or scratched that little itch of curiosity today, please share it with the extraordinary people in your life. And if you do one thing today, let it be extraordinary. Bye, for now.