Joyce: I call it the Calm Compliance System. It's an entire system that covers all of those bases. We write up all the written policies and procedures required by OSHA.
Depending on where you're located, everybody has to have an exposure control plan, a hazard communication program, and all of those types of programs specific to your work site. We write that up for the office, and when we give it to them, it's completed.
You don't have to do anything with it. It's written up in the office name, the practice name, the doctor, all that stuff, based on the training that we provide.
They can add in other continuing education because we're nationally approved with AGD.
We also are approved with the Dental Board of California for CE, so we offer all of the required courses for license renewal in California.
Anne: Hello, everyone. It's Anne Duffy, and welcome to the Just DeW It podcast. I'm so happy to have this guest today. I've known her for a couple of years now, and she's just a light. Oh my gosh, she's a dear friend. She's a connector, and she is a DeW extraordinaire.
But before we get started, let me tell you a little bit about Joyce. Joyce Weeks, Master of Science, is the owner and lead educator of Dental Ed Inc., where she helps dental teams simplify compliance through engaging, practical education in OSHA, infection control, and California dental regulations.
Fun fact: she earned her master's degree in Ireland and learned to ride a Harley Sportster motorcycle at just 15 years old, which is a surprise to me. You are something, Joyce. Welcome, Joyce Weeks, to the Just DeW It podcast.
Joyce: Thank you so much, Anne. I'm so excited to be here.
Anne: Oh my gosh. How long have we known each other? I remember when I first met you, and I remember that you wrote for us in Dental Entrepreneur Woman. Your article got so much attention and so many eyeballs. How many years has it been?
Joyce: Three. I became owner of Dental Ed in 2023, and that was when I wanted to start looking at how to expand my company. It was recommended that I join DeW, and it was the best decision I ever made. That's when I met you.
Anne: Oh my God.
Joyce: On one of the coffee chats, I'm sure. I do the Tuesday ones because I'm on the West Coast.
Anne: I love that you show up, and I heard last Tuesday's DeW Connect was amazing.
Joyce: Oh my gosh. It was phenomenal.
Anne: Isn't that something?
Joyce: They just come out of nowhere sometimes. Sometimes it's just like we're catching up and hearing how things are going. Sometimes they're very business-minded. Then every once in a while, they just get you really deep in the feels. You're like, "Whoa."
Anne: Whoa. This is a different session. Where did that come from? But wow, isn't that so fun? They're not really scripted, which is lovely. I love how we're changing up the leaders because that gives it such a variety, and it's such a recipe, if you will, for success for us. It also gives the opportunity to host as a leader. It gets your leadership skills revved up a little bit. We're so lucky, but I feel like I've known you way longer than three years. What?
Joyce: I know. It's because of those conversations that have happened at the DeW chats. When you get to that level of conversation with people, because we've had such deep conversations together, it cuts through some of that surface-level stuff, and you develop those really deep connections. Then you feel like you've known each other your whole lives.
Anne: I know it, and that's why you can pick up the phone and call Adu. I love how you said you were referring so many people to JJ because of your strengths, which is number one: developer. I love reading the balcony of developer: developer grows talent in others, teacher, coach, enjoys helping others succeed, invests in others. That's the balcony. You were in the balcony because you're always, with your work and taking over the business. I'm so proud of you for that. And empathy. You've got to feel with your business and compliance, because I'm sure you get many calls where people are beside themselves, right? You're a fixer in those things.
Joyce: Absolutely.
Anne: And learner. If compliance is not changing all the time, I could never. You have to want to be a learner. It would kill me if I had to learn a new rule or a new state law every day, especially when you say California. And achiever. You get your articles in on time. You check all the boxes. You're so fun like that. Then consistency with compliance, because that is your main thing. That is your strength. Then you learn about that, and you put in the experience. It really is a superpower for you, Joyce, in your business. So no surprise that you followed in your mom's footsteps, and we'll talk a little bit about that later.
I want to start with you because you gave me a question, and I love it. You have taken the topic that most people dread, and I know that because I just came back from Dykema. I will tell you, Joyce, the topic was compliance because of AI.
Joyce: Really?
Anne: Yes. AI compliance. You've taken the topic most people dread, compliance, and helped transform it into something approachable and empowering. How have you changed the way dental teams think about compliance?
Joyce: My biggest focus when it comes to compliance is taking the fear out of it. I have found that most trainings around compliance focus on, if you don't do this, you're going to end up being fined X amount of money. You're going to get in trouble. Even advertisements for competitors that I see locally, they'll send letters and things like that to my clients. I don't even know the names of the companies, and I wouldn't tell them if I did. But it's like, "You're out of compliance with OSHA, and you have to do training in this amount of time, or you're going to get fined," and blah, blah, blah. OSHA doesn't do that. They're not sending those letters, and that's not how it works.
It's those massive scare tactics, and I find that unethical. So what we do instead is focus on, okay, these are the requirements, but this is why. This is the reason why we need to wear gloves. With my background in infectious disease, I have a master's in immunology and global health. My background is talking about infectious disease, and I know you've heard me talk about it. I go full geek.
Anne: I love it.
Joyce: I think it's just so interesting. As we know, when the person who's speaking is excited, it helps to get other people on board. But the main focus for me is finding a way to communicate that information in a way that's tangible and understandable. We break it down so that it's not like a typical person who's got way too many letters after their name and is still using all the scientific jargon. It's not approachable.
Anne: Yes.
Joyce: We'll use terms. I'll talk about bugs. I'll say the terms that we use colloquially with everybody, because I don't care. It's not about trying to sound a certain way. It's about making sure that we all are on the same page and understand. Once you have an understanding of what the purpose is and why these regulations exist, it helps to create ownership for the team.
It's like, I'm wearing a mask or I'm wearing gloves so that I'm protected and so my patients are protected from these specific diseases. This is how they're transmitted. It just helps us have a better understanding of the world we live in. There's no guessing.
Anne: That's really great. Bring it down to the fifth-grade level, if you will. But also with your background in science and immunology, my gosh, you know so much more. Dental people are geeky, too. They love hearing about that. I'm sure you're giving them information that they've never heard, never thought about, and made it like, well, this is a no-brainer. Let's get with the program. It makes it so easy. It also keeps you remembering things when you have the why behind it.
Joyce: That's a great point. I like to make it very simple because, in the classes I'm teaching, we often have people from various degree levels. We'll have front office who don't do anything in the back and might not have a science background, and then I have the doctor or hygienist or other team members who often have a four-year degree and also have an advanced degree, depending on where they're coming from. So I break it down, but then I can also add in, like when we're talking about HIV, I'll say CD4 cells or helper T cells. We'll use different terminology depending on the team and who it is. If they have specific questions, of course we talk about that, too.
Anne: Yes.
Joyce: We can go to the higher-level stuff if people care, but the empathy comes in, and I'm like, are they awake? Where are we going?
Anne: Well, you—
Joyce: Do you want more detail, or do I need to stop talking?
Anne: You have a good sense of humor as well because every time I'm on the phone with you or a Zoom or whatever, we're laughing. To make it not only understandable but fun is a gift, and I think you're going to be really busy going forward, Joyce, because that is the big talk. Not just with the bug thing, but the compliance on everything else that's coming out, because the government is looking at dentistry now. They used to be kind of asleep when it came to compliance and the laws and rules and regulations across the board. But now they're looking at it, especially with the corporate dental structure that's coming in. I guess that's good for everybody.
Joyce: Absolutely.
Anne: What do you think are the biggest compliance mistakes that you're seeing? Do you ever get surprised, or is there a common thread or one simple change every office could implement if they're listening this week?
Joyce: Yes, we get surprised. There's stuff out there that happens, and we're like, "Whoa. What? Okay, now we need to update what we're talking about because that's not good."
The thing that is probably one of the most common errors I see is treating compliance like a one-and-done: that you do the annual training, and then it's taken care of. It's a checked box. That's fairly common.
Also, doing training at a dental society or a big meeting, and it's not specific to your work site. OSHA requires that training is reflected for the specific needs of your office. So if you go to an outside source for training that's not done in-house, let's say you go to a dental society and complete an OSHA course, then you need to take the information learned at that training and go through it with your team. That's not the OSHA training for your team. That's just a review to make sure you cover X, Y, and Z back at your office, and you talk about the specific programs you have in place there.
The other aspect is doing ongoing training. That's actually also required. Depending on the size of your team, it might be monthly, it might be quarterly, but they need to be reviewing safety-related information with their teams on an ongoing basis. Neither of those things is fun to think about or exciting and interesting. Also, there are so many other aspects that need to be taken care of in the office, so it's really far down on the list. It's one of those things that gets put on the back burner, and people forget about it.
Anne: I've been in offices where you have a compliance officer, so to speak, in the office. But they don't have the time to learn what you're learning on a regular basis because it's constantly changing, and the world is constantly changing. I guess they would hire you to come in or check in. How does it work with your business?
Joyce: I'm happy to talk about that. We do provide the annual training for offices, but we've also developed, I call it the Calm Compliance System. It's an entire system that covers all of those bases. We write up all the written policies and procedures required by OSHA.
Depending on where you're located, everybody has to have an exposure control plan, a hazard communication program, and all of those types of programs specific to your work site. We write that up for the office, and when we give it to them, it's completed.
You don't have to do anything with it. It's written up in the office name, the practice name, the doctor, all that stuff, based on the training that we provide. Then, within our system on our website, you receive monthly emails from us that include the monthly trainings, that ongoing support I was talking about.
Once a month, it'll be like, "This month, they're going to cover workplace violence prevention," or, "This month, they're going to talk about bloodborne pathogens." So it's already created, and they get that reminder. Then we have three different tiers, so depending on what tier they choose for the level of support they need, they can add in other continuing education because we're nationally approved with AGD.
We also are approved with the Dental Board of California for CE, so we offer all of the required courses for license renewal in California.
Anne: Wow. It takes so much off their plate because some of the things you were talking about, like violence coming into the workplace, there are so many things that you just mentioned where people think, "That's not going to happen to me." Then when it does happen, if you're not prepared, who's responsible for that? That would be the leader of the team or the dentist. The employer is responsible for that.
My gosh, especially with the churn that we have right now with teams coming in and out, you have to make sure everybody's up to speed on where everything is, where the defibrillator is, all of the things that might occur. It's not if; it's when for most of these things when you talk to different offices about all the problems that we've had. You can have smooth sailing, but it just takes one big event to take the ship down. It's good to have you in their back pocket. I would say that's a lot of peace of mind for the leader of the team.
Joyce: Absolutely. A big part of it, too, and you mentioned this, the reason I created this program was staff turnover. So many offices are experiencing that right now, and some of it is expected. We have employees who move or have medical situations, pregnancy, maternity leave, all of those kinds of things. So it's very normal in any employment situation, but we're seeing a big increase in dental specifically.
We do have an entire program for how to train new employees and document that training, and also for temporary employees. So if you have an employee who goes on maternity leave and you have a long-term temp, then there's training needed for them. It's all done on our website. They have a video that those people can watch, and it goes through some basic information. Then we cover evacuation training.
My best friend is an industrial engineer, and she can create the evacuation map for offices.
Anne: Oh, that's amazing.
Joyce: She can draw it up for people. I know, isn't that crazy? She was sitting next to me at my house. She was moving, and she started drawing up the floor plan for her house. I was like, "What are you doing?" She's like, "I'm just planning where I'm going to put everything." And I'm like, "Oh my gosh. Can you do that digitally?" She's like, "Easily." I'm like, "You have no idea how much I need that."
Anne: Oh my God. Well, the answer's in the ladies' room apparently, again. It totally is. Again and again. We hear that all the time. Isn't that so funny? That's so fun. Now you get to work with her, and with the way digital is right now, you can do all of that. That's such a gift for an office. Thinking back on the offices I worked in, I wouldn't have any idea which would be the best way to get out of the office. I don't believe anybody ever told me, if there was a fire, where to go. Or if they did, I don't remember.
Those are things that you need, especially when you're in panic mode. Where do I go? How do I get out? I should pay more attention. It's just like how many times have we heard it on the airplane? We kind of know, but would we be able to do that if the plane was going down? Oh my gosh.
It's so cool. I love that you followed in the footsteps of your mom. Growing up with your mom being in this business, you watched, and then you decided to go to Ireland, and you went to school there, and then you got your master's. When did you decide to come back and realize that it was such a great fit to take over your mom's very successful business?
Joyce: I fell into it.
Anne: It wasn't like, "I'm going to do this now." So you moved back to San Diego to do your thesis research.
Joyce: I was doing HIV vaccine research at the Scripps Research Institute, and once I finished my thesis, I really wanted to teach about bloodborne pathogens. My mom was like, "Why don't you come with me? You can get some teaching experience," because I needed that to apply for a fellowship with the CDC at the time. This was back in 2014.
So I started following her. My dad was actually a dentist, so that's how my mom started the company back in 1988. She was working as a nurse, and all the regulations were changing. That was when HIV was being identified. It was certainly an issue, but nobody really knew exactly what was going on quite yet. Also, hepatitis B had been an issue for a while, so there were concerns with bloodborne pathogens and all that stuff.
Fast-forward to 2014. I started following my mom, going to different dental offices, and honestly, it was just so comfortable because I'd grown up after school going to my dad's office and hanging out with his staff. His office manager took me under her wing. Both of them, actually. They had two different office managers over the years, and they were both like second moms to me.
I just always felt so comfortable in a dental office. It was such an easy fit, and I loved what I was teaching about. It was really fun to see people have this new understanding of infectious disease, and that I was a little quirky and funny. It just fit. It just fit.
Anne: No pressure. I think it's like no pressure. You could really feel that. Then the whole idea of compliance exploded. Your mom had it going, and she was one of few. But now it is right up in front of everybody, especially since the pandemic. My gosh.
So many things come to mind. The pandemic was one, and then I was actually stuck with a Cavitron with an HIV patient, which was such a bizarre thing that happened. So many people we know, if we talk amongst ourselves, and at the DeW Connects, you're going to find so many experiences or things that have happened in the office that go in line with your training and could be of service to the provider and to the patient especially, right? What we don't know, we don't know. That is for sure.
You've learned some lessons. Your mom must be so proud of you. Is she totally retired?
Joyce: She stopped teaching in 2021, and then she fully retired in 2023.
Anne: When did you start to realize you were going to be taking over her business?
Joyce: My youngest was born in 2019, and I think at that point I was like, "Yes, this is..." Even before that, we'd been talking for years. At that stage, I was like, "Yes, this is what I'm going to do long term." During COVID, my degree just became even more important, and it was incredibly helpful with being able to communicate how we protect ourselves in a dental office and what we're supposed to do.
We had a lot of extra regulations in California. We always do, but even through that, one of them has stayed after. We have an aerosol transmissible diseases standard through Cal/OSHA, so that is still in effect to this day, to the best of my knowledge. You always want to do that caveat.
Anne: Wait a minute. It's only 11:30 Eastern Standard Time, so we'll give you a break on that.
Joyce: We'll get back to you if anything changes. We'll have a little asterisk at the bottom of the podcast, because who knows? It's California.
Anne: Love it.
Joyce: It's always evolving.
Anne: It's so funny that you decided to take all this education and didn't think about the connection until after. It was like, "Okay, well, I'll try this," like most of us. I'm an accidental entrepreneur, and I think most of us fall in. But you know what, Joyce? I heard this recently, especially lining up with our strengths: we don't find our calling. Our calling finds us.
Joyce: Absolutely.
Anne: Your excitement about this, it was such a natural fit. What have you learned about honoring a legacy while creating your own vision now?
Joyce: It's been a really neat transition. I have another trainer who works with me. She's been with me for eight years. I just adore her. Her name is April Corey. She's a hygienist.
I love hygienists. I love everybody on dental teams.
Anne: I know.
Joyce: But in my experience, hygienists are just super into compliance. It's really cool.
Anne: That's awesome.
Joyce: April found us, and she's been working with me since 2018. She's become one of my best friends. She's really helped support me with the transition because my mom created a very strong foundation in Southern California. We have clients we've worked with for 20-plus years who are still clients. It's amazing to have that level of longevity with people and trust.
What's happened through this transition is we've gone from the physical binder and the file box and the paperwork. I had a copy machine and all those things.
Anne: Oh, yes.
Joyce: Now everything is online. We do a folder system that's digital and all of that stuff, so we've totally shifted to paperless for our clients. Now I'm speaking, and we are doing consulting. We have primarily California clients, but we are also opening up nationally. She's just been a huge support in all areas, and I think having that team is a really important part of it.
Then also honoring the foundation that my mom built, which was really focused on always going back to what the regulation says.
Anne: Yes.
Joyce: It doesn't help anybody if I interpret the information and tell you what I think it says. It doesn't help anyone if I make up information or tell you what I think you should do. I need to look specifically at what those different regulations are from these different agencies and then teach that information to the office. That's how we approach teaching because there's enough confusion and misinformation out there.
Our job is, if you hear something different than what we say, let us know so that we can go back to those different regulations, contact these agencies directly, and get a clear answer for you instead of just continuing this nebulous cycle. That was really her superpower: cutting through the confusion and misinformation and going right back to the source.
Anne: Wow. That so lines up with your strengths because you can't wait to learn more about it.
Joyce: We go deep.
Anne: Kill me.
Joyce: April's like, "I went down another rabbit hole." I'm like, "Yes, we did."
Anne: Then the consistency. It's really black and white when it comes to regulations.
Joyce: It is.
Anne: There's no—
Joyce: I don't like ambiguity, so it's great. It's really good with my strengths.
Anne: I know it. The gray area, forget that gray area. Plus, I'm looking at your office, and it's so clean. I do not want you to see my office in the background because I have papers everywhere. I'm still half paper, half online.
Joyce: Oh, this is curated. Don't look at the rest of my office.
Anne: Oh, okay.
Joyce: There's a spot of it that's not, so don't feel bad.
Anne: Thank you for being—
Joyce: I've lived in this. This is lived in.
Anne: This is love and purpose. Thank you for being normal. I love that.
Joyce: I'm normal. I'm very normal.
Anne: You're not. You have a superpower, and it is compliance and OSHA and education and infection control. I'm so proud of you, and I love that you brought such gravitas to the company with your background in education and your love for that. I know that anyone listening, I can't wait to see your team grow. I love that you've been with April for eight years. That says a lot about you and your leadership skills as well, Joyce. It's just been a lovely thing to know you so well.
Tell me parting words for today because you're headed on a little trip with your beautiful family and a little life balance here, work-life balance. I'm very impressed with that as well. But give us some parting words. If somebody's wondering, "Hey, I don't know what to do."
Joyce: Ask for help. Get a village. Find your people. I think sometimes we have a perception that everybody else has it figured out, and I'm alone, and I don't know. Sometimes it's about not being vulnerable with everybody but showing up.
I saw the email that you sent recently, like, "If you want to be on the podcast, reach out. If you want to do this, reach out." I was like, "I totally did that." I wanted to do the podcast, so I sent you an email. I was like, "How do I do it? I want to be on the podcast. It looks amazing. Plus, I get to spend time with you, which is my favorite."
Anne: Oh my God.
Joyce: So it's a win-win. I think it's really scary to put ourselves out there. It's really important to do that, too, because nobody knows what we're thinking. Nobody knows what's on our minds and what we're feeling unless we have the ability to communicate that. It's really important. We can't read each other's minds, right?
Show up for the DeW Connect. Come and get to know each other. If you're in the Mastermind, show up for those. Just do the best you can to be available because I'm so looking forward to the retreat in November. I get to see all these people that I've gotten to know virtually in person. Yes, the side benefit is growing the business and doing all of those things, but for me, DeW is really more about establishing those connections and those relationships.
Anne: It's so sweet. I didn't really mean about DeW so much, but just in general, and thank you for saying that. Because of DeW, that's probably why I feel like I know you so well, because you have shown up, Joyce. You have spilled it out there because it's a beautiful community, and it's a vault, but it's also very caring and sharing. Who do we know? How can we help? How can I help you, and how can you help me?
Thank you for saying that, and I just can't wait to see you at our November retreat in Charlotte, North Carolina, November 12 through 14. We've got plenty of seats available, but you have to sign up, and you have to show up because we will sell out. We always do, but I just want to make sure that you know you're welcome at our table.
Don't be afraid to come in because you're going to find somebody that's going to hold your hand and then cheerlead. As Sonya Dunbar says, "Clap like a seal for your success," because there's no scarcity mentality here. We love you, and I have goosebumps. This was wonderful.
Tell your mom, give her a big hug. I only wish one of my children would have followed in either my footsteps or my husband's footsteps, but they're doing their own thing. Because we did strengths so long ago with our family, 20 years, they actually are leaning into their own strengths, and they love what they do. That's the important thing. Like I said to you, your calling has found you.
Thank you for this time today. I love you. Have a fantastic trip.
Joyce: Love you. Thank you.
Anne: I'll see you at the next DeW Connect. Oh, wait a minute. How do we get in touch with you?
Joyce: My website is dentaledinc.com, and my email is contact@dentaledinc.com.
Anne: Dental Ed Inc.
Joyce: Ed Inc.
Anne: I love it. That's what you do, and that'll be in the show notes. Thank you again.
Have a great day, everybody, and remember, if you're listening, keep doing you. See you next time. Bye.
