Some days, my team will look at me and say, “I really don’t want to do this today,” or “This SEO is can be so boring!” Of course, I get annoyed when people complain about having to do work because personally, I love it. My response is often something like, “Well, it’s not called ‘play’, it’s called ‘work’ for a reason.” Or sometimes I’ll say, “I know you enjoy a challenge, but we all have monotonous tasks that we have to accomplish and the challenge and fun will come.”
I’m sure you have days when you have to see that one patient. You know, the one that you dread seeing. She’s confrontational and rude and usually just draining (“Negative Nancy”). Sometimes it’s important to step back and remember why you became a a dentist, or in my situation, a dental marketer.
I think back to when I was that scared patient that really needed dental work and how a couple small procedures allowed me to smile with confidence, something I never could do before that moment. I think back to my very first client meeting and how I sat nervously in my suit explaining, “I can do this! Just give me a chance and you won’t regret it.”
I look back today, only 3 short years later, I see how far I’ve come and how far dentistry has come in a short period of time. No one had even heard of SEO. Now new clients think because they’ve done 5 minutes of research that they can do it themselves. I know they’ll think differently as I begin to explain our approach or recommended strategy.
After months of inching up on the rankings and bumping out our competition, we finally received some validation from one of our more challenging accounts. Our client emailed and said that he had talked to another marketing company that validated how well our SEO was done. They were impressed with how we got their listing to appear on the first page of Google. This moment of validation made every tedious day of SEO worth the work. I’ve been telling the client for 3 months that we’re “almost there” and now that we are there, the patients are finding him.
I sit back and think about that first meeting and instead of thinking about each time I told my employees to “work smarter and harder”. I think about that client that was SO close to shutting his doors but is now seeing growth for the first time in years. I think about that moment when a new client appeared on the first page of Google or when they held their first successful event and I remember what I’m really selling. I’m selling motivation and success. It’s worth every difficult day. You are selling health and I hope that with each “Negative Nancy” you meet a “Grateful Grace”.
TO MY CLIENTS: THANK YOU for making your patients smile. Thank you for trusting me with your dreams. Making your dreams come true, are making mine come true too. Focus on the moments that matter.
