Hello everyone, this is Anne Duffy. Welcome to the Just DeW It podcast. I am here today with a dear friend, Mrs. Lisa Copeland. Say hi Lisa, and before we get started, let me tell you a little bit about her. Lisa Copeland and acclaimed dental team communication expert, author, gen X, and Ironman advocates for enhanced practice communications globally, a recipient of the CSP Award from the National Speakers Association, she stands among the top 17% of global speakers, one of three registered hygienists internationally to achieve this honor.
Anne: That's impressive. the Ironman leadership Building Communication, endurance in dentistry is her jam. What Endurance Sports taught me about leading dental teams with confidence, clarity, and grit. Is that what you speak on?
Lisa: I use the Ironman framework in a lot of my presentations because it's a metaphor for building strong communication.
it's part of who I am and it fits all the things that I did for training for an Ironman, the planning and the preparation. And that's the piece that a lot of people miss. And then the execution is just a celebration of all your hard work. And so the planning and the preparation is really the, missing piece for a lot of practices and a lot of teams.
So I use the Ironman as a metaphor for that.
Anne: Well, I think that's a good title for your book. That's really what I was getting at. Have you written that book?
Lisa: I did.
Anne: Well, there you go. Thank you. That's book Iron Out that
Lisa: Communications,
Anne: iron out Your Communication. That's what I was getting at, Lisa.
You're just amazing. And, welcome. And I'm so happy that you're here. I mean, that Iron Man tell me a little bit about that. I did not know that about you You're such a badass and then here you are. What made you wanna go in for that competition to begin with?
Lisa: You start small. You know, I grew up a competitive swimmer. I started when I was eight years old. I won the very first race I ever entered, and I became a swimmer for the rest of my life because of that, and my parents supported that and. Then I met my husband when I was living in DC and he moved to Singapore right after we had met and he called me up 'cause I was going over to visit.
and said, Hey, you used to be a swimmer, right? I said, yeah. And he said, do you wanna do a triathlon while we're here? I'll do the bike, you do the swim and I'll find a runner. I'm like, I haven't been in the pool in 10 years, but, okay. And so I did that and it was a small race, very short, and then you do a little bit longer, and then you do a half iron man, and then you think, well, I might as well just go for it.
And then after I finished, everybody says, are you gonna do another one? I'm like, of course I am. Because anybody can do one.
Anne: Oh my God. No. You're one of the few women that I know personally, that has done an Ironman competition. And I'm, really, very proud of you.
And it doesn't surprise me because when you stand on stage and you're speaking, you stand with authority and command. And I think that has a lot to do with, you know, why you like the competition that's like so cute that the story that you've won your first race and you just keep wanting to win.
Yes. And I think that's fantastic. That's wonderful. Well, I don't win
Lisa: an Iron Man's.
Anne: Yeah. Yeah. I just,
Lisa: my goal is to finish.
Anne: Yeah. Well, I think with that you compete with yourself, but I also like the idea that you're talking about that with dental practices and your coaching you have to crawl before you walk.
Exactly. But you also have to have a strategy and you have to be able to map that out. So tell me more a little about how you do that when you're coaching not only dental practices, but just on leadership in general.
Lisa: the biggest thing that Ironman taught me was it's an endurance sport.
you can't sprint through culture change you can't sprint through difficult conversations, It's, it's constantly. Creating that simple, clear language and you have to have recovery built in also. Mm-hmm. And I think people forget that piece because you're not always gonna be moving forward successfully.
Right. You've gotta stop and breathe and take a look at, okay, here's where we are, here's where we came from, but here's where we missed a few things. Like what can we do differently? And it's like getting injured in an Ironman I had to build in. Recovery time to take a step back, figure out what I needed to do to go forward and not to get, injured again.
And that's the same thing we have to do in leadership. You've always gotta be looking backwards before you try to move forward.
Anne: Wow. That's profound because I think a lot of people get stuck. When they feel like they've had an injury or they need to recover or they, feel like they've failed in some capacity of what they're trying to do and accomplish.
it's not a sprint. I like that. And I think that gives leaders, and especially in the dental industry, which is so difficult right now. the opportunity to recover, get back on the horse, so to speak, or get back you know, in the chair or with the drill in hand And, and what you said
Lisa: it's a mindset shift, it's not failure. It's, you know, you've overtrained or you've overdone it. You've, yeah, you've committed too much. so you just have to step back and figure out what could we do and how can we do it better? And sometimes that's where you need the guidance of a coach, because it's really hard.
For you to look at, oh gosh, you know, how come I'm injured and, they're not. How come they're succeeding and I'm not? And that's where coaches really come in to see the overall picture and the 30,000 foot view versus it's not failure. It's you're gonna learn from this mistake and move forward even better.
Anne: I think so often they think it's this big shift, and it's usually just a little, you know, one degree shift. you just tweak it a little bit, tweak, your practice or your, endurance. Competition just a little bit. Mm-hmm. And you'll make it to the end and, you'll actually increase your time.
I mean, even, you know, in swimming, you know, if you just kick a little differently or, put your arm out and a little differently You can, it can add, seconds off your time.
Lisa: Yeah.
Anne: And I think that's sometimes goes unnoticed in, in dental. they're so head down, don't get outta the chair because that's where the, money is.
But, you could make it a. So much more enjoyable when you have a coach that's gonna get you through those times. Right? And that's what you really
Lisa: want is a career that you love and that everybody's committed to, you want loyalty from your team and you want everybody to be happy in their careers.
It's not looking at it as a job from eight to five.
Anne: Yeah. I think when you're focused on that, they will see that things will move more smoothly. You'll keep your team intact And I think in speaking of that, there's some, communication gaps and we see that all through the different career paths in dentistry right now.
Yeah. But what do you see are the biggest communication gaps in the dental practice?
Lisa: a lot of times leaders. They confuse speaking with communication. if nobody understands or more importantly, nobody takes action. Did you really communicate? Or did you just say the words, hoping that everybody would just move forward?
So you have to continually have that clear, simple language and use coaching loops. Is what I call it. So continual appreciation, continual communication, continual looking at the whole picture versus giving somebody feedback after something has already happened, like feedback. I'm not a big fan of that word because it's already happened, you can't change anything about it.
And then you have this negative experience of somebody telling you what you've done wrong. But if you. Our in a coaching loop, then everybody is on the same page all the time.
Anne: Mm-hmm. And I
Lisa: love that visual of, it's just a constant loop of communication.
Anne: Yeah. I love the distinction between feedback and that constant loop of communication, which is, it honestly brings me back to my parenting days.
And if I would've had you as a coach for parents, I, you probably do coach a lot of friends and family members, parenting
Lisa: Well, I don't know. You know, that's, people don't ask you for advice. When you're a family member.
Anne: Oh, well that's true. I've experienced that in my own life. Uh, but still, it kind of maps on to like just being able, like when you're a parent, you're just talking, talking, talking at them, and you're assuming that they're paying attention. And I guess that's actually, Rolls over into your husband and your, your friends and stuff like that.
So if that's what it just made me think. But I think the whole idea of having a coach be able to look from a higher level and see what's happening down in the, in the muck of things can really help the whole practice sing, the same song and, and win the same race, that's really what everybody wants to do.
They wanna have a great career,
Lisa: right.
Anne: you know, they don't want to not like their job. Yeah. Nice. If you don't have to keep moving around because as you and I both have experienced with people moving doesn't always make a difference. You sometimes have to look within yourself and say, well, who's the person here that is, yeah.
The constant maybe I need to like shift one degree's.
Lisa: Really hard for people. Yeah. Especially if they're unhappy in their jobs and they're not sure what to do or where to go. you look at the social media posts nowadays and everybody is just looking for something better rather than looking inward.
And that it's tough to do that. You know, nobody likes. Looking at themselves and realizing they're the problem.
But we all have that happen. it's part of growing, it's part of learning. It's especially part of being a leader. Good leaders look inward a lot.
Anne: And everybody. Has that opportunity to do that. if you're listening to this and you think, well, I'm really not a leader, I wasn't born to be a leader. I, think that with help of your friends and colleagues and a coach and, reading the right things and surrounding yourself with the right people, I think everybody can be transformed in some way or another.
Yeah. And, and roll into those leadership characteristics that are important.
Lisa: Well, it's funny you said that because I became the president of the National Speakers Association in Seattle, they had asked me to do it, and I said, I am not a leader. you got the wrong person. And they worked on me for two years, I had a mentor well, two actually, they said, you know, Lisa, you're a leader and you don't even know it.
they just kept pointing out, here, you just did that. That's leadership. You just did this. You got these people together. Right? I never considered myself a leader ever until that
Anne: time. and that's so cool that see, they saw something in you mm-hmm. And they didn't let you go.
Right. and you were also receptive. I mean, you know, you kind of back off a little bit, but there you go. That's a great example. And we can, you know, and I hope that you're listening out there, you know, you can be a leader too, because If Lisa could be a leader and I could be a leader, I think women especially don't set out to be a leader, so to speak, but it comes naturally, especially, you know, when you get to be your late thirties or forties, those leadership skills that you had winning that race at eight years old, start to show up and you start to believe that, yeah, maybe it is for me.
Lisa: also we're having mentors. I mean, I've had mentors all my life, coaches and mentors, and. They see things in you that you can't see in yourself. And then they help you have them become a bigger part of your personality and learn how to use 'em.
But I think sometimes you couldn't do that on your own.
Anne: Yeah. I think it builds the confidence. The belief. Mm-hmm. That okay. I am the person meant to lead this group. That's huge because I didn't really know what the CSP was until a couple of friends of mine received it. Joanne Major's, one of them.
Yep. I love her. And she was like, I had ours with
Lisa: the same year.
Anne: You did? Yeah. Oh my gosh. I wish I would've gone to that. That would've been a great year. you and I didn't know each other back then. I think that's been a long time ago. But congratulations on that, because a lot of people would think that that's just somebody that they vote on.
But no, you earned that spot. Oh yeah. And to be 17%. The global speakers. One of three. Yeah. Registered dental hygienists internationally. I mean, Lisa. Dang.
Lisa: That's a big thank you.
Anne: Big thing. So again, if you're listening to this, and you hear that someone is a CSP speaker you know, hello?
Hello. I honor that. But so funny too about how you were the Ironman, now that you've attained that and president of the Seattle, national Speakers Association. Mm-hmm. I mean, these are big titles and kind of quirky that you were like, well, that's not for me. I'm not the leader, but yes, you are.
Right. And that's super. So who knows going forward, miss, gen X here, she's, who knows? Look out Lisa Copeland. So a quick win technique listeners can use to build their communication confidence. What would you say?
Lisa: If you're delivering a really important point, right?
Let's say I'm giving a, manager meeting and I'm trying to really get people to understand how important something is. Deliver your message. You wanna stand still. Stand with confidence and deliver the message and don't be moving. I have a friend bill Staton. He's in NSA. He's a amazing keynote speaker, and I learned this from him probably 25 years ago.
He always tells people never deliver the punchline while you're moving, because you lose credibility, you lose your audience confidence, and you lose authority. so stand still, create your presence and deliver that message. And people will listen and they'll understand, oh, this is important.
I better listen up. It creates a completely different moment for you to deliver that message in.
Anne: Wow. That is profound. I wish I would've had that before I went to Oklahoma for the keynote. I just made, you know, the joke was I was, you know, in my seventies before I, I had a keynote. I'll tell you why I love that. Because I was just at a conference and one of the keynotes, she did move back and forth. You know, a lot of times they move on the stage, work the stage, work the stage, and I was getting a little dizzy and she's like a, well-known speaker and I was really surprised and I, kind of lost her message a little bit in that mm-hmm.
Movement. And so that's just again, a one degree shift. Thank you very much. Yes. To a whole lesson, to actually stand tall and as they said, I love marvel's, miss Nasal. I've been saying tits up. Shoulders back and, deliver the, punchline, which is fantastic. I know there's a lot of people out here that would like to have their message communicated.
Well, how do they get in touch with you, Lisa, if they were looking to work with you or they wanna see Some of you just did a, podcast recently, well, a couple of podcasts, but also just did a webinar with Kelly Dugan, our, one of our sisters. Yeah. So how do we find you? show notes.
So Communicate with
Lisa: Influence is my website, and you can contact me through there. You can, see all of the topics of presentations that I have. And then I also have a, coaching page. So I help people with speaker packets as well as, presentation development and delivery coaching.
But that's probably the best way to get all, as much information about me as you can. And you can contact me and schedule a, phone call from there. Or a zoom meeting, whatever you like, a zoom
Anne: meeting or whatever. or meet up at the DO retreat, Lisa was there last year and we're having it at the Valentine Resort Hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina, November 13th through 15.
So many amazing women, just like Lisa Copeland will be there. we'll be networking and, uh, sharing stories and, finding ways, to collaborate, with each other. So, you know, meet us there in November and. Most importantly, everybody that's listening to this today to remember to keep doing you.
Thank you, Lisa. Come back and see me. Okay. My pleasure. Thanks for the invitation, Anne. You bet. Alright, love. Take care everybody.
