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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/.
Melissa Turner:
I'm 38 and it's still hard for me to believe in myself, but now when I look back over the past several years, it's always in retrospect I can see, "Oh, I did that. Wait, what? I did that?" That's where I can start to learn to believe in myself because that's a habit. That's a trait that you have to learn to do. I think it's becoming easier because I'm understanding more about who I am, and it's okay. I don't have to be like anybody else and they don't have to like me. I'm just going to do my thing. That's kind of where I am right now.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
On Contrary to Ordinary, we explore the motivation, 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 20 years ago. 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 dental caries.
This week's guest is the vibrant and multi-talented Melissa Turner. She is the senior executive consultant and chief hygiene officer at Cellerant Consulting Group, an incubator and accelerator for dental companies. Melissa is also the co-founder of the Denobi Awards, which celebrate the positive impact of dental professionals worldwide. Additionally, Melissa is a fellow podcaster, co-hosting Dentistry Gone Wild and I, Woman.
Now, you might hear some background noise during our conversation today. That's because I interviewed Melissa at SmileCon 2023, the dental industry's annual conference. Being around the extraordinary people who drive our industry forward is a pretty inspiring experience, a fitting backdrop for a conversation with someone as amazing as Melissa. In her early 20s, she moved frequently with her husband. That meant she had many different practices on her resume and found it hard to convince employers that she was available for the long term. However, Melissa, true to her resourceful nature, found an ingenious solution to this challenge.
Melissa Turner:
This was early probably 2010. I mean, it sounds funny, but it was really before the iPhone, before Uber, before all of these things that made careers and life convenient. What ended up happening was, "You know what? Instead of going on countless interviews, I'm just going to start temping." It was fantastic, and so I temped long-term, short-term, one day here, five days here.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Right. There's such a need in the market for that.
Melissa Turner:
Yeah. It was hard work going into a new office and not knowing what you're walking into and things like that, but what I learned... To this day then, it's been a valuable tool for my career. I know this was not your question, but those 10 years of working in a hundred different dental offices, seeing everything, it helped me see the big picture in dentistry and that has led me to where I am today. I'm always a big picture... You ask me a question, I'm going to go big picture, long term. That's my answer.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Everybody has an origin story. I want to talk about yours. Tell me about what were you like as a kid?
Melissa Turner:
Oh my goodness. Okay. My childhood is very unique. Grew up in Pennsylvania, heart of Amish country. All of my family was raised in that Amish Mennonite way, and so a lot of head coverings and horse and buggies and all of the-
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
I was going to say I've been there.
Melissa Turner:
Yes.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Horse and buggies. Yeah.
Melissa Turner:
It's fascinating.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
I mean, it's such an interesting place to go visit in the United States because you're not going to see it anywhere else. I mean, there are some communities and stuff up in Canada.
Melissa Turner:
But growing up there, it was just normal. But what that did was it allowed me to be in a roundabout way very unique, so we're talking about ordinary and extraordinary, because what the Amish and Mennonite are, they don't want to be in the world. They want to be separate from the world, so growing up it was always okay for me to be different than the world, right?
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Right.
Melissa Turner:
Then even when I wanted to leave my home and leave that background, they taught me that it's okay to be different so if I want to be different from my family and whatever, that's fine too. It's kind of this juxtaposition that happened. When I was a kid, I was very carefree, outside in the dirt all day long. It was wonderful. Youngest of four. And I was really shy.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
That I did not see coming because you're so outgoing now. To see you as a shy kid... I think that's an interesting background too because it gave you permission to be different.
Melissa Turner:
I was shy. All of my family, my cousins, my uncles and aunts, they were all business owners, right?
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Uh-huh.
Melissa Turner:
They owned their own farms or excavating businesses or some owned campgrounds, just random things, and so I think what we just talked about together, the shyness, the being different, the whatever, it's all come together to say, "Okay, Melissa, I can do whatever I want, really." It took me a while to be able to say that as a woman coming from that background I can launch businesses, I can do good in the world, I can make change. I can do that. I just need to do it.
I remember for a while after graduating high school, I was working in New Jersey for a while and I was getting antsy and I was just like, "Okay. I need to be creative. I need to..." What ended up happening over the next couple years is I... Looking back now it's so obvious, and it's never obvious in the moment, but looking back what I wanted is I wanted wherever I was working, the dentist, the owner to see me and to say, "Hey, I see potential in you. Do you want to be the hygiene lead? Do you want to be a manager? Do you want to take more responsibility?" But nobody did. I realized I can't just sit around and wait for somebody to happen to see the good in me, so I am just going to take initiative. I think that's been the story of my life since then is sure, I can wait around for other people to do good things, but why not just start it?
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Yeah. You bring up a really good point there. I was with Minal Sampat earlier this week, love Minal, and she said... Because I asked her about, "How did you do all this in your life?" She said, "You got to show up for yourself. If you don't show up for yourself, who's going to?" So much of success is being able to take that step, stand up for yourself. I think know what your vision, what your passion is, and being able to raise your hand and stand up and go, "I want to do that." Right?
Melissa Turner:
That's right. Now that I have kids, now it's even that much more important to make the world a better place. Not just make dentistry a better place, but the world for my girls. It's just that much stronger of a drive, so now I'm like, "Okay. Now what can I do?"
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Yeah, exactly.
Melissa Turner:
"What can I do?"
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
"How can I make this a better world for my own children?" Everybody has an origin story in dentistry. Did little 4-year-old Melissa playing out in the dirt, shy little Melissa, want to be a dental hygienist or go into the dental profession? Where did that come from? When did you make that decision and how did that come about?
Melissa Turner:
It's funny because I always joke anybody who's in dentistry, it's either because one of their family members was in dentistry or it's a random story that they made it into dentistry, like who would want to be a dentist? Who would want to be a hygienist? Who would want to be in the mouth? My ob-gyn says, she's like, "Melissa, I don't know how you do it in the mouth." I'm like, "Wait, what?"
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Right. This is so funny, Melissa.
What inspired you to be a change agent? Where did that come from? From this I'm thinking shy 4-year-old Melissa in the campground playing by herself, and then all of a sudden here you're out front and center, you are taking it on, you're taking the world on. I guess I hear some of that comes from you wanting to make the world a better place. Is that what drives you?
Melissa Turner:
I'm going to have to sleep on that for the week because that core of what does drive me, I want to make it better, but why do I want to make it better? That's the part that I'm like, "You know what? I don't know." It's not because it's bad. I think for me it's because... In dentistry specifically, I feel like I see where it's going. I know where it's going to be in 10 or 15 years. It's not that hard to figure out, and so I'm like, "Let's get there. Let's get faster. I can help with that." It's not even just in technology. I'm a huge tech nerd, right?
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Right.
Melissa Turner:
But it's with LGBTQ+, welcoming not just in the practice, but team members. It's welcoming them. It's welcoming women into leadership positions. It's the changing of the guard with the millennials and the boomers and all that jazz. It's all these changes that we knew were happening and they ended up happening all at once. I've been in dentistry 20 years. Never have I seen this much change happen at once. It's almost as if... I mean, especially over COVID, but even take away COVID, it's almost like we're floundering. We're not really sure what we're doing or how we're supposed to use this change to move forward.
I see it everywhere. I see it in practice owners and the teams and the DSOs. I see it everywhere, and I can't help but think, "Okay, we're all going to come out of this paradigm shift at some point, but what can I do now to just continue to help everybody forward because I don't mind change?" Or maybe I do and I just say that to cope, I don't know yet, but part of me... Because I think I am comfortable with change and because I do take initiative, I feel a sense of responsibility to this beloved industry to help it move. If there's a why I'm a change agent, it's that. It's because I love this industry. It's very traditional. I love it and it's my home. I've been in here since I was 19, right?
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Right. I don't know about you, but my favorite people in the world are dental professionals. They're people who are kind for a living, they care about people, they give back. I love being around dentists and hygienists and assistants and team members. It's just... They're my family. I love them to death.
Melissa Turner:
Another important thing too is what I don't want is the generations in dentistry to be separate.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Mm-hmm.
Melissa Turner:
I don't want them to alienate each other, and so one of the roles I take on is I'm young-ish, but I'm still going to hang out and meet the older, wiser dental colleagues. I want to bridge that gap between the youngers and the elders in dentistry because we need the mentors, we need that flow of energy to make the industry succeed. If we're going to survive through this change, we all need to work together. It's not going to be age-based or color or skin-based or how-you-identify-based. We have to all work together and welcome it all, and that's what's going to make dentistry survive, that's what's going to make our practices thrive, and then in turn that's what's going to make our patients thrive, the trickle-down effect.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
I'm willing to bet that humans have been struggling with intergenerational collaboration since the dawn of time. George Orwell famously observed that each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it and wiser than the one that comes after it. We're all a little guilty of this mindset, and overcoming it requires critical thinking and a willingness to be humble. Author and researcher Lindsey Pollak has dedicated her career to exploring solutions for a more integrated workplace where both young and old can enhance each other's strengths. She calls this idea remixing, a blend of traditional and more modern techniques that help generations reach their full potential.
During her keynote speech at the 2022 National Collegiate Athletic Association Conference, Pollak said, "81% of people say that the vast majority of situations where they feel like there's some kind of generational divide going on comes down to communication. I assume that you're going to communicate one way and you assume that I'm going to communicate another way." Pollak says the best thing to do in this situation is to be generous and curious. If you are a leader or manager of other people, I believe it's an act of generosity to tell people how to communicate with you and to say, "Hey, you know what? I'm just not a texter. I don't like it. I'm sorry. But the best way to get in touch with me is to call me." And vice versa. We could all benefit from remixing our behavior a little, and communication is a good place to start. A great way to benefit from intergenerational wisdom, of course, is through mentors. Back to Melissa now to see who she looked up to.
Melissa Turner:
I think that the first person that comes to mind is my grandmother, who's no longer living.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Uh-huh.
Melissa Turner:
I think she was always so special to me because she was raised Amish Mennonite, but then she left that church, but she was just always sneaky and I loved it. Her husband would want her to cook dinner, but she'd do something funny to it and wink at me because she knew whatever she did was going to make him mad. It was funny. She was a sneaky, strong woman.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
So she was contrary.
Melissa Turner:
Yeah, she was contrary. Yes. Yes.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
She was a rebel.
Melissa Turner:
She's an inspiration.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Now I see where you get that. I see exactly... Your eyes light up when you talk about that and I'm like, "Okay, nailed it. I know where Melissa got this." Yeah.
Melissa Turner:
There you go. There you go. On my good days, I'm contrary. That's what it is. She is one of the ones... Again, same thing with my mom, but the female line in my family are very strong, hard workers, strong thinkers, they put up with a lot, as do we all, but another one of my mentors is my dad. This is where sometimes even walking into a room with strangers, it can be still hard sometimes. It's like, "Okay, I have to work up the courage, I have to work up the courage." I told him the other day, and he was laughing at this, I said, "Dad, sometimes when I walk into a room of strangers when I'm traveling, I have to get up the courage to be bold and go talk to people." I told him, I said, "I think to myself, 'What would Ed do?'" Because Ed just talks to everybody. He's like the mayor of... He's not the mayor, but he could be.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Never met a stranger.
Melissa Turner:
Exactly, and everybody feels comfortable around him. So when I'm thinking of mentors, they happen to be in my family but there's some not, but it's just these different characteristics that have helped me become who I am.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
I'm hearing from your grandmother that she was a rebel-
Melissa Turner:
Yes.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
... and strong women on your side of the family, so you had incredible role models modeling how to be strong. Your dad was very outgoing, so very courageous, fearless even walking into a room of strangers. Maybe a trait of your mentors that you've learned is fearless. Then from Anne Duffy, pursuit of excellence.
Melissa Turner:
Inspiration, bright light. What would bright light mean? Not happiness, but purity, just encouraging and inspiring, empowering. It's all of those combined.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
And coming from a genuine place and being authentic.
Melissa Turner:
Yes. Yes. Yeah.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Yeah. Does that land?
Melissa Turner:
Yes. That's exactly it.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Here's a fun question.
Melissa Turner:
Okay.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Melissa, you are extraordinary. The question I've got for you, is that something that you were born with, is it something that you learned or is it something that you chose or is it a combination of all three?
Melissa Turner:
Yes. Yes, yes, and yes.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Yes, yes, and yes. That you have... It was just innate. God baked it into your DNA. Some of it you learned from the role models and the mentors, and then some of it was, it sounds to me because I'm listening to these as you're sharing these stories, walking into a room and forcing myself, "What would Ed do? I'm going to go introduce myself. It's really uncomfortable for me, but I'm going to go just be bold and introduce myself to some strangers." It sounds like a real conscious choice, right? So yes, yes, and yes.
Melissa Turner:
Yeah, but I think the choice is the beauty of it because I can choose not to do that every day, and sometimes I don't, but to have that choice to be that person... I mean, I want everybody to have... We all have that choice. It's just a matter of what it means to you to have that choice and what comes out of it. I think for me, I do have to consciously wake up and have the choice to be contrary, be extraordinary or to just keep going. It is a choice. I think you have to have that choice, otherwise it's not going to be meaningful.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Do you find, Melissa, as you take more of those risks, you become more bold, do you find that it gets easier over time to do that?
Melissa Turner:
Yes. Yes. Sometimes I can get lonely. Leadership is lonely, right?
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Yeah.
Melissa Turner:
But it gets easier. I think it gets easier because it's just the new norm, right?
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Yeah.
Melissa Turner:
Part of my growing up, I never really believed in myself. I'm 38 and it's still hard for me to believe in myself, but now when I look back over the past several years, it's always in retrospect I can see, "Oh, I did that. Wait, what? I did that?" That's where I can start to learn to believe in myself because that's a habit. That's a trait that you have to learn to do. I think it's becoming easier because I'm understanding more about who I am, and it's okay. I don't have to be like anybody else and they don't have to like me. I'm just going to do my thing. That's kind of where I am right now.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Yeah. Being the best Melissa Turner, the best version of you that you can be.
Melissa Turner:
I like that. Yeah. I like that.
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. Vanish cavities for good and welcome in a healthy smile and a great first impression. Visit carifree.com for more details.
You started a podcast, I, Woman. I'm intrigued. I haven't listened to your podcast but I'm going to. I, Woman. Tell me about that and how'd that come about.
Melissa Turner:
Okay. One of my best friends in dentistry, her name is Sonya Dunbar. She is a hoot and a holler, and she's also my business partner in a couple of things we do. I, Woman is one of those. What we want is to empower women not just in dentistry, but in business. When we know that women can be empowered, then we know that everybody else who's on the fringe can be empowered too, so that's one of the underlying missions of I, Woman. It's I, Woman, and then the tagline is, "Unleashing your inner roar in the boardroom, the bedroom, and beyond." This is for women in business, C-suite executives, founders, and it's taken off outside of dentistry very nicely. We only have four episodes out there, but it's just Sonya and I bantering about stories that we've lived through. We walk into a boardroom, it's a blonde woman in a room full of men, and it's hard. It's very hard. It's very hard to be taken seriously, it's very hard to be comfortable, to feel safe. It's very hard, and then the things that people say to you is... That's another story too.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Oh yeah. But I'm just picturing that, and I can see we all have these biases and judgments and images. The blonde woman executive walks into a room full of men in their power suits and their power watches and I can immediately get a sense for that. I mean, I can feel the intimidation of that and the attitudes of it. Those are changing, and people like you are making that change, right?
Melissa Turner:
Yeah. That's part of the reason, if you see me or if you see Sonya on the exhibit floor anywhere, we're always super ourselves. That happens to mean that we're super feminine. We're always going to be in fancy clothes and not lots of makeup, but good-looking makeup. We're unashamed to be feminine because for so long, society has taught us that women in business and women in dentistry should look like the man. If we can be truly ourselves, then hopefully we can swing that needle and help that move forward. It's okay.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Let me tell you, you look beautiful today.
Melissa Turner:
Thank you.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
I commented on your dress the moment you walked in and your shoes, and so I love the fact that you have the courage. I love your podcast, by the way. I haven't listened to it and I love it already because I love the thought of a woman standing up and saying, "I'm empowering myself as a woman, and I want to empower all the women around me" Because you go, girl. Because I raised my daughter. I didn't want her living in a world where artificial ceilings were placed on her. I wanted her to be able to do... Our daughters do whatever that it is you want because if you can think about it, you can accomplish it. There are no limitations placed on you. I just think... I hope as a society, we're kind of moving away from that, but it's change agents like you that I think are empowering and giving permission and inspiring other women to do that.
Melissa Turner:
I sure hope so. If it's for anything, it's for that. Yeah.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
On top of everything else that you've done, you created the Denobi Gala Awards. Tell me about that.
Melissa Turner:
Okay. It might come as a surprise to you, but no, it won't. Basically, again this is with my best friend, Sonya Dunbar. She and I are co-founders of this.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
You two are dangerous together, you know that right?
Melissa Turner:
We are dangerous. What we did, again and this is in the same genre of we want to support those in the industry who are undersupported, we want to highlight those who are out of the box, who don't look like the typical winners, so what we did several years back was we did a review of a lot of the award programs in dentistry at that time. Since then, there's been a lot more. We found that most of them were for dentists only or they were lifetime achievement awards. Nobody wants to win an award when you're old and gray, okay? So there's that. We had these plans to do a dental Oscars. That's what it's exactly mimicked off of. We tried to call it Dentistry Oscars but there was a lot of trademark issues, if you can believe that.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Melissa Turner:
What we did over COVID, we realized dentistry needed help. We realized that we were all depressed, we were all struggling, and we're like, "You know what? Can we fast track Denobis and start this right now?" The premise with Denobis is we want to reach into any corner of dentistry and uncover those who don't think they deserve anything, but folks who are doing good in the here and now and making change. It's not a popularity contest. There's no voting. You can nominate people. There's no voting, though. Anybody in dentistry can win, you don't have to be a clinician, as long as you have a role. This is worldwide. We have winners fly in. You should see me that night.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
This is so cool. I want to go attend this. I just want to see this.
Melissa Turner:
Okay. In March. But we get all dolled up and then I just cry the whole night and my makeup just goes away.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Oh, I bet.
Melissa Turner:
It's so great. We have 10 winners are announced that night, 10 individual winners, and then one clinical team is also awarded. I want to do more for the teams in the future because the clinical teams themselves as units don't often get recognized, and so that's another underserved population in our industry.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Yeah. Yeah. Unrecognized. Yeah.
Melissa Turner:
Yes. Yeah. That's what Denobis is. It was funny, the first year everybody was like, "Is this spam? What is this?" They'd get the email they were nominated and we were like, "No, just-"
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
It was like me saying "what is this?. Oh, yeah. I'm sure.
Melissa Turner:
Yes, yes. "What is this?"
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Yeah. "What is this? That's spam." But so good for you. Good on you doing that because I think one of the things... I started interviewing extraordinary people that I've had just the absolute blessing in my life and career to meet, a lot of them inside dentistry, a lot of them outside of dentistry, but what I've learned through this podcast experience is the more I look around, the more extraordinary people I see everywhere. It might be an Uber driver or it might be a waiter or a waitress in a restaurant working their tail off and trying so hard to provide really good service for you and maybe she's a single mom and she's trying to support her children and struggling through all of that. I look at the extraordinary efforts of so many people and they're everywhere. It's really opened my mind to there's a lot of people that don't get recognized who are doing extraordinary things, so good for you for creating awards and a red carpet and naming it after an autocorrect. That's so fun. I love that. That's so fun.
Melissa Turner:
Well, and even... It's really funny. Sometimes when people realize that they've been nominated, it's not infrequent that they'll call me and say, "Melissa, I'm not really that kind of a person to walk up on a stage and receive an award. That's just not who I am." I'm like, "I know. That's why you're winning this award, right?"
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Exactly. Yeah.
Melissa Turner:
"That's okay. Don't do it for you. Do it for your team. Do it for your family. It's okay if you don't want the award. People have turned it down because..." I'm like, "No, this is not for you. It's for the greater good." It's a very interesting thing.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
It's always a challenge to give recognition to the people who don't have a shiny job title or lots of accolades under their belts. Often the extraordinary people on the frontline working to make the world better never get their moment in the spotlight. The great UCLA basketball coach John Wooden famously said, "The true test of a man's character is what he does when no one is watching." I think it enriches our lives to see those hidden people be acknowledged. Inspiration is infectious, and exposure to extraordinary people can give us hope and direction in our lives and careers. If you're doing something extraordinary and aren't getting recognized for it, then I want to speak to you directly for a moment and say you're doing amazing work and people like you make the world go round. Keep it up and don't lose heart. I'm rooting for you even if you aren't rooting for yourself right now.
Melissa had an interesting revelation for me as we began to wrap up our conversation, something not many people know about her.
Melissa Turner:
Well, I was in a rock band growing up.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
You were in a rock band.
Melissa Turner:
In my early 20s.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Get out of here.
Melissa Turner:
Jet-black hair, gauged-
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Joan and the Jetts.
Melissa Turner:
Yeah. Gauged ears. Yeah. There you go. I'm a musician.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
That is so cool. What did you play?
Melissa Turner:
I play keys and I did some backups.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Play the keys and backup. Yeah. What was the name of your group?
Melissa Turner:
It's called Waiting for Cadence.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Waiting for Cadence. Okay.
Melissa Turner:
Yes. Yes. But then I played in several other, you know-
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Uh-huh. Yeah.
Melissa Turner:
... here, there, and everywhere and garage bands.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
That is so cool. Yeah. The last question. I really appreciate you coming on today. Last question. What's the one piece of advice that you would give to every young dental professional to help them move to create their preferred life and career? What piece of advice would you give them?
Melissa Turner:
This is a piece of advice that I had to learn to give myself and then likewise my husband, Andrew, has given it to me multiple times, and it's this. It's allow yourself to change. Allow yourself. It's okay to change. If you wake up tomorrow and you want to do a complete 180, it's okay. It's fine. Then on the same hand, allow those around you to change. Oftentimes when we get in a marriage or a friendship, you can start to predict what they're going to say, right?
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Oh yeah.
Melissa Turner:
Then you don't even listen because, "Oh, I know what you're going to say." But by doing that, you're not allowing them to change if they want to and you're boxing them in. One of the biggest gifts that my husband has given me and that I've given myself is the fact that I can wake up tomorrow and if I want to go jet-black hair, if I want to speak Spanish tomorrow, whatever the change is you want it be.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Whatever it is that you want to, you can be.
Melissa Turner:
You can do it. It's okay to change, and it's okay to do it overnight. You don't have to stay how you are. You don't have to gradually change into this new person. For folks who are starting out in dentistry, I think that's the biggest thing. Sure, you might become an associate or you might get a job here or there, but it's okay to change that. You don't have to stay in there. You don't have to stay in the situation that you've created yourself. You can change and you can do it right away, and you don't need an excuse to change. You can just do it. That would be my biggest piece of advice.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Thank you. That is such a jewel. Thank you so much for that.
Melissa Turner:
That is so sweet. Thank you, thank you.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Hey, thank you.
Melissa Turner:
This was a blast.
Dr. Kim Kutsch:
Thank you so much, Melissa Turner, 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. If you do one thing today, let it be extraordinary. Bye for now.