One of the most gratifying things for me as an educator is when I hear from clients who have implemented some of the strategies I've lectured on and been amazed with the results they get. It was actually quite simple, they'll say. I can't believe I haven't been doing this all along.

The flip side of that; however, are the ones who are quick to reject what they hear. I have heard all this before, they'll say. I already know all about that.

In many cases, I think they actually do know. The difference is the people in the first group are putting that knowledge into action with complete commitment. The others say they know it, and they'll say they've done it but if you probe deeper, you find that their implementation has been surface-level.

Let's take invitations as an example. A lot of dentists will say that they "get" the idea of encouraging patients to invite. These dentists say that they do things to encourage it, and that in fact they get invitations from their patients on a regular basis. Been there, done that.

But let's take a closer look, starting with the question of how often a patient should invite. If your answer is once a year, and you currently have a thousand patients, you should be looking at a thousand new patients a year. Even if the answer is once every five years, that still translates into 200 new patients a year. If you're not getting that many invitations, you haven't really mastered the invitation equation, even if you say you "get it."

There is a huge difference between "getting it" and "getting it done." So before you dismiss an idea as being "the same old thing," ask yourself how much you have truly embraced the strategy and what results you have to show for it. If the answer is anything less than optimal success, maybe you haven't really "done that" after all.


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