Robyn: authenticity and community at its core. I had a dentist who, loved her dogs, was obsessed with her dogs, and there was an abandoned, you know, lot down the way, you know, a couple blocks down.
And they worked with the city to redevelop that into a dog park and they worked with a bakery down the street to make special dog treats that. They have in their practice now for people to take home to their pups. You know, Those are the stories that I love.
Hi everyone. It's Anne Duffy and welcome to the Just DeW It podcast. I'm so happy that you're with me today. I have just a delightful young lady, that I've known for years, and she's just amazing. And let me tell you a little bit about her before we get started. Robyn Damaris. Is the Director of Operations of Phoenix Dental Agency, the comprehensive marketing arm of Productive Dentist Academy, with a passion for aligning marketing strategies with.
Anne: Practice goals. Robyn oversees the holistic approach that helps dentists clarify their message, connect authentically with patients, and achieve sustainable growth under her leadership. Phoenix Dental Agency has become known for its ability to transform dental marketing into an energizing and results driven experience, ensuring practices are not only seen, but celebrated in their communities.
Help me welcome the beautiful Robyn Damaris. How are you dear?
Robyn: I am fabulous. I'm happy to be here.
Anne: I am so proud of you. Okay, everybody that's listening, this is, uh. Fun fact, Robyn's first podcast, I've known her for years, right? Okay. So I love Productive Dentist Academy, and I remember seeing her at, I think it was a 20th anniversary celebration, and we were just talking.
I'm like, oh my gosh, Robyn, you need to share. This story with our community, with the Dew community. 'cause you are all dew. You are a dew extraordinaire. And, uh, she's gracing the cover of our winter edition. I know. So how did that make you feel? You were like, I I don't like to be in the front. I like to be in the back.
Robyn: Yeah.
I'm not normally a spotlight person. I like to be behind the scenes pulling the strings. So this is a new, exciting experience for me.
Anne: Oh my God. Well, it's about time because when you read your story and Ladies, please go, it's, up Live on our.life Dew Life website. I think it's gonna inspire you because there's a lot of Dos Robyn that like being in the background.
And then tell us a little bit about how you ended up a productive Dentist Academy. 'cause that has been really your, many, your career path right now. So how'd you end up there?
Robyn: Alright, so I've been with the Productive Dance Academy for about 15 years now through a series of crazy life events.
Kind of just found my way. To PDA, which you can read about in the article, how I wound up here. But, PDA has been, An amazing life changing thing for me. It's where I found a place that I could root down and like say, this is where my career is gonna be. This is where I'm gonna make the most impact in my life.
This is where I can build a bond with my team that they're like family, you know, 15 years later. So, while I found myself here, kind of randomly through, you know. Losing jobs and having to move and, you know, the craziness of life. once I found my way here, I kind of knew this was my place
Anne: I love that.
You know what you said. Yes. You know, you never gave up. Robyn and I love the story even about how you found your, love for marketing back in high school. Somebody saw something in you gave you a book and then you brought out this amazing career that you've had and, you know, just gave you the confidence that, I think I can do that.
And so I think that. We have to listen to others sometimes, don't we? they will pull out, what we're meant to do. 'cause they see something in us. And I, hope that if you see something in someone else, I know that you will, do your best to pull it out of them and, and give them that, extra lift to continue.
I also love the fact that. when you interviewed with PD eight, they didn't have a spot for you.
Robyn: Oh yeah, and it was a two hour long interview. Let me tell you. I was there with my design portfolio and my dental background and my accounting background and all these things, and we had just the greatest conversation, like old friends.
And at the end of it she said, well, I felt this position yesterday, but I really, really like you. So show up tomorrow. I'm gonna find something for you to do and You know what, she did it, she found something for me to do. I was assistant to the bookkeeper. I've been in the design department. I've worked in the closet.
I've done every job at the agency. Uh, I've helped grow it from two people to now 20. we've, uh, grown quite a bit and I've, worked in every spot in the company on my way to where I am now. But, yeah, you do have to listen to other people and you have to trust when other people do see that something in you.
I mean, every major pivot. My story was because of someone else. It was because I came into contact with someone who showed me something either about myself or about the world. That was important enough for me to follow.
Anne: Yeah. And that, I can't ever stop saying this about. one of the principles, good people find good people, right?
So, I mean, you know, just even having that, one-on-one. So I think you do have to keep saying yes, even though you're not even sure. 'cause I mean, I, you know, okay, well you can go work in the storage unit, but you're like, well, okay. And look where it has brought you now. So the Phoenix Dental Agency, I love Victoria and Bruce and God bless Bruce. Rest in peace. Dear Bruce, Baird just such an amazing man you know, we talked about Bruce right before we started here today, and you know, our thoughts go out to all the PDA family and to the world because a. Person, a gentle giant, has passed, but he's left his legacy right, Robyn?
I mean, Bruce will always be sitting on your shoulder, I'm sure, and his gregarious laugh and his, support for all the people that he loved. But I think that it's so interesting that you can actually make something that actually is yours within the PDA. Family, and I love how your, employee owned or something like that.
I just love how they put that in place many years ago and it sure gives you confidence to be able to, first staying power, but also just, they are putting me first. Tell us a little bit about that.
Robyn: Bruce and Victoria are the most generous giving people that I've ever met in my existence.
And, when they made the decision to make our company an employee-owned company, they did it with so much integrity and they did it because they saw how hard we were all working together to build it. And it wasn't really about them, it was about the work that everybody was doing together, and they wanted to.
give back to us in a way. So, it was the kindest most wonderful thing that they did. And, you know, that was all pre pandemic and we still survived all of that. So, it's pretty amazing. And I can tell you the exact moment that Bruce's wounds clicked for me.
Okay. Uh, I had actually been at. PDA for a number of years before I started going to the live events. So I had been doing the marketing here for many of our clients and I knew who they were. They didn't know who I was. And I got my experience to go to the first, you know, world famous Productivity workshop from PDA.
And I heard Bruce speak to, you know, 120 people in this room and. In a matter of six hours, he changed their lives. And I remember watching a doctor, there was a husband, wife, dentist team there, and he was very well known. She was lesser known. They had separate practices. And I remember meeting her on, in the morning and then meeting her at the end of the day.
At the end of the day, she stood up in that room with 120 people and she cried and for the first time in her life, stood in her power and said, you know what? My husband is this great dentist, but I'm a good dentist too. And I have a successful practice that I built on my own. And I have a team that loves me and I can do this, and I can practice dentistry the way I wanna practice it.
Honestly, that's what Bruce taught. he was the first person to ever stand on a stage and say, you are allowed to practice the dentistry that you want to practice. You are allowed to take better care of your patients. You are allowed to give them better financing options. You don't have to, do what everybody else is doing in the industry, but you can say, you know what?
This is better for my patient. This will help them get healthier. So you're allowed to to be that dentist. And I think none of them had ever heard that before. And I saw this woman who I looked up to who I thought was so successful and powerful and like amazing, and to see her just kind of coming on that journey because of the words that Bruce spoke in that room.
Then you start listening. Right now I'm really listening to Bruce, and now I'm really seeing the impact, and I'm starting to hear the stories of dentist after dentist, after dentist, after dentist that, it's the message of comprehensive care. It's the message of helping people get healthy.
And like that was it for me. That was the moment where I, like I said, I'm in it now. Like this is my way that I can help people, on a major scale.
Anne: Yeah. that touches your heart. And then your whole being and then. turns your work into your calling.
Robyn: and really that's what it was. I think that a lot of people, they get a chance to make an impact on the world in this industry and they don't really ever get to zoom out and see that impact that they make.
Anne: Mm-hmm.
Robyn: I try really hard with my team to weave that into the day-to-day.
So for instance, we do an exercise where, uh, you know how like when you go to a dentist website, you're gonna go schedule an appointment? You're like, oh, I want my appointment at this date this time. And then there's that little box on the page that says, why do you wanna come and see us? Well, you know, some people fill out that box.
And I went and pulled a bunch of random entries from a bunch of random doctors in different places, what people put in that box. and I sat there and I read the answers to my team, and they were things like the grandma who hadn't met her grandchildren yet because she lost a front tooth and was too ashamed for her kids to know that.
She couldn't get it fixed and the person who hadn't smiled in public in 30 years.
Anne: Mm.
Robyn: You started this conversation talking about how smiley I am and how much I smile. I cannot imagine living my life for 30 years not being able to fully experience that joy. Yeah. So while I have these developers in these coders and these SEO people and making websites and stuff in the background.
They are making such an impact on people's lives that they don't even realize.
Anne: Mm-hmm.
Robyn: So when you, you gotta look for those little moments of impact that you have It's not just your client, but it's like your client is serving and who are they serving and who are they working with?
And rising tide floats all boats, right? You make the dentists successful, their team gets to be more successful, their patients get to be healthy. If my agency does well, my team does well, their families do well, you know, there's, this impact that trickles out where if you show up to work every day with like intention and integrity, and you do it the way it should be done with just the goodness in your heart, like.
impact is there, whether you choose to see it or not.
Anne: well generosity's contagious.
Robyn: Mm-hmm.
Anne: And sometimes we don't even realize that it's possible. I mean, I think that just, pays it forward. That whole thing. Your, team is paying it forward. What they started at the beginning, and then everybody has bought in because they're living it and it's such a gift.
It's such a gift to love what you're doing, to love your work, and also to be able to impact that work. That is a true trickle down effect, right? So tell me a little bit about how you, create the story, because that's the other thing I loved about one of the first offices you worked in.
The ability to, you can have an impact in the community, and that's so important in dentistry. And I think sometimes they leave that on the back end. they don't give themselves permission to pull their head up out of the, operatory to see how they can really actually do both things, do good and build their practice and pour into the community.
Tell me about that that seems like. That's a thread that is in PDA.
Robyn: Yeah, doing good while doing good. It's an old Bruces from back in the day, but it means you can. Focus on your business and be successful in your practice, and also do good for your community and the people around you and be generous and do all those things.
They're not separate, but they're one and the same. my favorite stories from all the dentists that I've ever worked with are the ones who really. Dive into their communities or the ones who bring their own personal authenticity to the forefront. So like, you know, the dentist who works in the super medical building but she wants her office to feel like home.
So she learns how to bake fresh bread and starts bringing fresh baked bread loaves every morning to work with her so that her office smells like baked bread and then her patients get to take. Those home with them. Right. Wow. That is authenticity and community at its core. I had a dentist who, loved her dogs, was obsessed with her dogs, and there was an abandoned, you know, lot down the way, you know, a couple blocks down.
And they worked with the city to redevelop that into a dog park and they worked with a bakery down the street to make special dog treats that. They have in their practice now for people to take home to their pups. You know, Those are the stories that I love. You know, I have a doctor right now who's working with a local, closet, you know, like where they give away clothes and things like that.
Oh, okay. And they were doing like clothing drives and stuff. throughout the winter they went and did a whole giant bunch of snowmans and put them in all the clothes to promote the event. And the team just had fun building those and having fun doing that together. And those are the things that like.
Like matter when you're like a business owner, especially if you're in a small town. But like connecting with your community, but bringing whatever it is that's important to you, to that message and to that like action. Like that's important. That's what authenticity actually is.
Anne: Well, you've give 'em permission too.
I mean. Mm-hmm. Especially, I mean, no offense to the men. We love men. I, everybody knows that I love men, but I mean, men don't think that way sometimes. Mm-hmm. That's a little bit of a, feminine to put yourself out there with love. and no one's probably even asked them, what do you love to do and what would you like to bring to your community?
I mean, that's a question that probably, only a a marketing person like yourself, a marketing agency owner, would actually even think about it because you're drawing out. That individual, right? Mm-hmm. And letting them know that okay. I, I had a call yesterday with a do somebody has said the same thing to her.
you don't have to show up with makeup and all this sort of stuff. Just show up as you, that's what you need to do. And she was like, phew. Oh my God. I just love now I just love doing videos. 'cause I don't care about that other stuff. I'm being authentically myself and I feel like.
That is kind of like the easy button, but no one ever thinks about it that way. They think it's really hard. And being yourself really. is pretty easy, but you have to have somebody tell you it's okay. I believe that. Right. And that's what you
Robyn: do. Oh, absolutely. And you know what?
Marketing should be fun. It shouldn't be this big scary thing out there. Like, one common thing that comes up from our doctors is, they're terrified to use social media. Yeah. Like the doctors, they're terrified. They're like, oh, I don't know what to post. I, I don't know what to say.
I don't know what to put on there. I have to remind people social media is easy. Imagine all of your followers, like, close your eyes and imagine all the people that like and follow your page are standing in a room with you. What do you say to them? How you know? Yeah.
Anne: You're
Robyn: not gonna walk up to someone and be like, did you know dental implants come with this different type of titanium and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Like, that would be weird. you know, you're like, Hey. Did, you know, we went to this thing, we had this fun team activity. We're remodeling our building. Like, does anybody wanna come join us for this event? We're having this food drive in our practice. be a real human.
And that's how you social media it should be so easy, but people just, they put it on this pedestal and they think it's so scary and it's not. You just have to be you.
Anne: Yeah,
Robyn: people will love you.
Anne: I know. 'cause you're lovable and everybody is, everybody has gifts. I mean, it's just an incredible, and even with like, I'm thinking of the dentist that had a practice that didn't even realize that she could pat herself on the back.
That just gives you so much more fuel in your tank to get up the next day and like, okay, I'm making a difference. This is it. my word of the year, well, it was vulnerability for a nanosecond, but now it's giddy up. It's like giddy up when the, you're the horse. But I think that sometimes you just need that little nudge and somebody to say, Hey.
This is you, be you, and it's gonna be okay. And that's just so interesting though, that you have come this far from a young gal in high school where one of your professors gave you a book on mm-hmm. Advertising and here you are pouring into all these offices that everyone's different.
what's your first. Meeting, like when you start with a new office or a new practice,
Robyn: oh, we start with an interview to ask you all the questions we need to know, to find out what makes you, you. So, you know, we ask you things about like, what drives you every day?
Why did you become a dentist? What's your vision for your practice? What do you wanna be known for? we go through the in depth of like, kind of their vision of what they want it to be, and then we create their marketing message based off of that.
Like, what is authentic to you? We have some doctors where their practices are very religious and they want their message to be very one way. Oh, we have some doctors that are like, no, we are the technology all day people. I only wanna, you know, so we have people that have very different belief systems.
They serve different patients and different markets and things like that. So, that interview is really important. We call it putting together a brand. And what we do is we go through this really long in depth interview, and then we write up, on one page, it's the elevator pitch, right? This is what we believe, this is how we talk about ourselves.
Something that your team can read and follow along and buy into your mission and your vision as a practice owner.
Anne: that's fabulous because, you know, I truly believe that most of the doctors that you start working with. Probably no one has ever asked them what their vision is. They didn't even know what vision actually meant because again, they're so busy getting their degrees and learning and there's just such a big learning curve that never ends in dentistry.
But just to be able to have somebody care deeply and then Kind of the community that you have built is so loving. I feel like it's like sitting around in a living room and, you know, maybe you've cracked a beer or had a cup of tea and you're just talking to friends.
And I noticed this when I was at the 20th anniversary. Everybody in that room, not only. Was eager to meet the other people in the room. It was just a big family. It was a big family, and the energy was amazing. I'm so happy that you guys are still rocking and rolling. and lastly Robyn, what would you say to somebody that's looking to grow in their, business and their lives?
I mean, what would you say to your younger self as you look back?
Robyn: I wish I would have paid attention a little bit more, a little earlier on. It took me a minute to really catch on to the fact that I was making an impact on other people, in a positive way. And it,took me a little bit to get there, but, when you're just starting this stuff like.
A lot of times, you have to think about your own vision for your future. Mm-hmm. Right? Like, we do this with the doctors who already have their practices going and their team members hired and stuff like that. But if you're starting up a new venture, really think about like what it is your end goal is, when you zoom out, you know, not like the first client you're gonna have, but when you zoom out. Oh, okay. What is that big picture, that end goal that you're looking to kind of make, come to fruition, I guess. And now that I'm like the leader of Phoenix Agencymy vision has shifted.
I've zoomed further, right? So now I'm able to look at My own team and their, futures outside of just our clients and their futures. So like really just paying attention and,just be intentional every day.
Anne: Well, and that's like wanting the best for the people that you're working with, not holding them back.
And that's what, they have done for you and now you're, paying that forward, to your team, which is, absolutely beautiful.
one of the things that you said also that just meant so much to me is continue to do what you love, find what you love, and then do that, which means living in your strengths, right? You know what your strengths are, and surround yourself with the right people, and that's what you've done.
I'm so proud of you. I'm so loving you on our cover. You deserve to be there and, and wishing you all the best as you grow. PDA and, Phoenix Dental Agency and every person that comes in your path. So, Robyn Deez, how do we find you? Tell us, because I know that if you're listening, you wanna get some of your wisdom and, and if you're practice and you're looking for the, perfect fit, I think we found one.
Robyn: All right you can check us out@phoenixdentalagency.com. we have all sorts of new products launching. We're integrating AI with stuff. Our internal marketing program is recovering millions of dollars in lost revenue for our dentists. We have a lot of really great. Things that are going on, and we are growing and growing.
we do in-office photos and videos and, the full marketing agency experience. So check us out, Phoenix dental agency.com and uh, you know, give us a shout
Anne: and give us a shout. And, can we see you on Instagram or are you,do you even have an Instagram account? Because I know a lot of women in marketing.
Robyn: I have no idea. don't, I don't Instagram. But, you can find the Productive Dentist Academy and, follow along with all of our stuff there.
Anne: Oh, it's lovely, lovely, lovely. All right, dear. Well, it wasan honor to have you give Ben Lund. He's,a big part of this as well, and Victoria Peterson and Reagan, and all those beautiful souls that you work with on a daily basis.
Give him our love from dental, entrepreneur, woman, and if you're listening to me today, and Robyn, please remember the most important thing as I think you learn from today is to keep doing you. Thank you, Robyn. Have a great week, and I'll see you at the next show.
