- PNC is proud to support Business Forward where community leaders discuss the issues confronting business in Central Illinois.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to Business Forward.

I'm your host Matt George.

Joining me tonight, Dr. Manny Valerin with Valerin Dental.

Welcome, Manny.

- Thanks, Matt.

Pleasure to be here.

- All right.

Let's talk.

So, how did you get into the business you're in?

Because, most people just think, "Oh, Manny's a dentist," but it's really more than that.

But, how did you even get into this profession?

- Good, I mean, gosh, goes back to like when I was a little kid.

And, like, people asked, "So, what do you want to do when you wanna grow up?"

And, I just kind of like had that feeling like, "Oh, you know, I want to be a dentist."

- [Matt George] Did you really?

- Yes, since like eight years old, somebody asked me, "What do you want?"

And, I had no family in the business or like in the profession, even in healthcare.

My dad was economist, and my mom worked in healthcare as a secretary, but it's not like, I never had that.

So, I was the first in my family to do something related with healthcare.

And, I didn't even know what it was, to tell you the truth.

I just, "Hey, that sounds kind of cool to do."

And, I just got on the path and I started doing the stuff.

I had a, I knew I was smart enough that I could do the workload, but the key is more if you have the skill set.

And, I'm actually glad I chose that.

Like, some people will say, "Well, why couldn't you do medicine?"

You know how professors tell me, "Medicine, why didn't you do that?

Like, you have the brains.

You could probably do that."

And, I found out over the years that actually I get too attached to the patients.

And, I could not, that's why I like smiles and stuff.

It makes, I think, life easier.

But, it was, it's a long road.

I mean, for dentistry you have to do your four years of undergrad, and then you go four years of dental school.

And then, I did two more years of internship in oral surgery, all this at Ohio State.

And then, two years of oral medicine in North Carolina, Charlotte, North Carolina.

What I left off the story is when we were in Charlotte, North Carolina doing my hospital training, I already had three kids.

And, I was so consumed with like learning and like gosh, I would love to take call, 'cause, if I take call that means I spend another night in the hospital, and then you can do more cases in the operating room.

And, for me, that was like extraordinary learning.

And then, they pay you to do that.

And, they give you food, you know, in the cafeteria.

And, I did not know what was, what's good out there.

Like, that's my life was school.

And, even my own kids, my wife would have to bring them in the parking lot of the hospital, so I'd get to like visit them, and I have a relation with them.

And then, the more call I take, they gave more meal points on my meal card.

And then, the good Friday nights out, it was bring the kids to the cafeteria at the Carolina's Medical Center.

And, they have a nice cafeteria, like the Sbarros and Burger Kings and like so like that was- - [Matt] So, you're all in?

It's your all in cafe.

- So, I was like, "Oh, come on guys.

I'm buying it."

And so, it was very nice formative years.

Even the kids kind of like saw the struggle.

They saw like we didn't have like this fancy house and that, because I was still like doing the school work.

Then, but to get there, it's a good story.

Because, even like when you were like even an athlete, in undergrad I did a triathlon.

And, it's by far most selfish sport you can do, because basically just, you don't want to count on anybody.

It's just yourself.

- [Matt George] Yeah.

- And then, you go to school, and school is always competing against your peers to be top in your class.

It's very individual, even when you're testing.

You don't test in group.

You test individually.

So, your form as a clinician on a very, you are on your own.

You have to figure that out all yourself.

And, that's a big difference when you start your own practice.

Just like a big leap from them, because it's not that easy to translate to work as a team.

And, that part was probably one of the biggest struggles that I had as a professional.

First to build your own team.

- [Matt George] Right.

- And then, trust the team.

And, that's the cool thing about sports, like you have somebody that you know- - [Matt George] Yeah.

- They're gonna do their job.

They're gonna watch your back or stuff.

And, in dentistry there's actually there is a team.

It depends how you wanna run it too.

And, like talking earlier, like you can just be an individual that owns the business.

Or, you can just be hired to work to somebody and just be part of that team.

- [Matt George] Okay.

- But, when you are the quarterback on that team, or you're the leader of that team.

Well, it's up to you to find the right people that's gonna make that team.

- So, let me ask you this.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- Because, you went from Ohio State to Carolina to the Navy Hospital in Maryland.

And then, there was a little thing there that I was reading about you.

And, I've known you for a while, but I didn't know Scotland.

What?

- So, when I was doing oral medicine in North Carolina, my program sent me for two months to live in Scotland to learn how the oral medicine there, their hospital dentistry.

So, it kind of like gives you such a great perspective.

Again, I was, I live in this place that I will never live there, like something like that again.

But, it just gives you like open your mind on like what else is out there.

- [Matt George] That's crazy.

- So, when you come back, you're kind of like so motivated to like, okay, now I have all this knowledge.

What do I do with that?

And, not to get too cheesy, but there's this movie called Lucy with Scarlett Johansson, but that's not what I saw the movie, just because the movie plot is very good where she becomes like a super computer, and she gets a lot of knowledge.

And then, one of the lines in the movie was like, "So, what do you with all of this knowledge?"

And, the only thing valuable you can do with knowledge is pass it along.

- [Matt George] Good.

- Because if not it gets wasted.

- [Matt George] Right.

- So, that's one thing that the reason I was like, oh man, why Illinois?

Because the people say, "Why, you love Florida?"

I go to Florida as much as I can over to the coast to go on boats.

I love the water.

Peoria has one of the two training centers in the state of Illinois for general dentists.

- [Matt George] I did not know that.

- So, there's a GPR program.

It's an advanced training for dentists.

Like, what I did in the hospital, dentistry in North Carolina, they do have it here in Peoria.

- Oh.

- The OSF.

And, basically, when you finish the dental school, so I told you I did like 55 years a day.

- [Matt George] Go to (indistinct) school or something like that.

- Yeah.

I did not know.

- [Matt George] It felt like it.

- And then, how I got out of it is even a good story.

But, these professionals, they decide to do one more extra or two more extra years after they had their degree.

So, it's really, they're not just money hungry.

They're knowledge hungry.

- [Matt George] They're just constantly.

- Yeah.

I mean, you can become a professional student and never stop learning.

And like, actually, so my, the good story happened after I did the North Carolina training, I went to University of Chicago and applied for medical school.

And, I went to my interview for medical, there you can do your medical degree in oral surgeon degree.

And, my father in law, again I have three kids, who live in this tiny apartment in North Carolina.

And, my father in law told me, "Manny, you need to get a job.

This is enough."

And, actually by far one of the best advices.

- Yeah.

- I've gotten, because I didn't know there's a life.

I didn't know you can, oh, you can buy the food that you want.

You can buy shirts that are not just 20 bucks, the T-shirts, you can like get.

So, there's a more to it.

The more stuff you can give your kids.

So, we kind of like, even my oldest daughter, we try to make up for it, trying to help her even more, because, we know she never had like even when my youngest son has been exposed to.

So, that piece of advice, by far, was life changing.

And, what I did then, I join, my wife is from the Midwest.

She's so supportive.

I mean, I could not have gone this far if I wouldn't have had her.

And, even like for the kid part, this is a whole different story, but like how she helped with the business when we moved to Peoria, but before that, it was just the support that she's like, "Oh, you wanna get good at this."

Usually, when I pick a task, I just full post on it.

- [Matt George] You plow.

You just plow forward.

- I would say the last, the first 10 years of my career I wound up getting very good at doing root canals.

All my and like I took every course there is to do.

And then, the last, surgery, I was very good from like my training at Ohio State.

So, that part was fine.

So, they complimented with doing a root canal.

And then like, okay, what else can I do?

And then, technology was not the best thing, but like iPhones, how they were like in the early 2000s, like the then 2010s and when I bought the practice here in Peoria, after working 10 years of the Chicago area, the practice I bought here was the only one with some of the digital scanners, very primitive where to take photos of the teeth shapes.

And then, this machine will carve a structure they'll put on top of it.

And, I was like, "Oh, that's kind of fascinating, because you can use tech."

And, I'm kind of computer savvy then.

And, brought into the idea, the concept.

And, four years later, they were able to combine the digital scanning technology with 3D imaging for the face.

- [Matt George] Yeah.

- And, for bone and structure and stuff, and you can combine both.

And then, I got acquired that technology.

And now, you can do like guided surgery in your office.

And then, you can still do those restorations, but now more advanced designs and stuff.

And, so that complimented all the other stuff that I was doing, so.

- Let me stop you, 'cause I want to ask you.

You know, you were talking about being a professional student and then your father-in-law steps in and gives you that advice.

Was it the time to say, I didn't know how to be an entrepreneur or I didn't know how to take that next step, or did you just not even know that step was possible?

- The last.

- [Matt George] Okay.

- I did not know that's an option.

I didn't know that that was a possibility.

I really, they never expose through my learning career to the business component of it.

It was really just the- - [Matt George] Isn't that crazy?

- The clinical part that you're working on hard.

And, which nowadays, I mean, this is 20 years ago.

Now, they do more an effort to expose people, even myself when I have students come into the practice, I show them like there's more to it than just the clinical.

- [Matt George] Right.

- Even like to be your own, the owner, you have the options to do like how you take time off and whatnot.

- I think when you look at, like when I go to the dentist and I sit there and there's, it's nerve wracking sometimes.

You know?

- Yeah.

- It's like you get scared, or you don't want to eat something, 'cause you don't want them to see what's inside your mouth.

Or, you don't want it to hurt, or whatever the mental piece of it is to going to the dentist.

But, I think one of the, just knowing you and your personality and your team, I think one of the things that you do is you make the patient feel at ease.

And, I think if you take all the stuff that you started just talking about, the technology or, you know, I know you're cutting edge.

You're always taking that next step from the technology piece or from the learning piece.

Or, you're, we'll call it best in class.

But, there's a whole nother piece to being an entrepreneur, too.

That's building a team.

And, that's making the patient feel safe and at ease, correct?

- Correct.

Correct.

Yeah.

Like what you say, "How do you make people feel comfortable?"

That has to do a lot with personality.

Another thing I learn was, so when I was at Ohio, and this is not something that just happened.

I knew I was somewhat extrovert.

I never had a problem like making friends or talking, I'll talk to the wall if get bored.

But, when I was at Ohio, and then we're doing surgeries all the time.

And, I became a very good clinician, because I didn't have to talk to the patient.

So, what you do there is like "Oh, you're talking too much, man."

I'm gonna just, "How about being sedated?"

Instead, I'll put you to sleep, and then, I can do all my work a lot faster, right.

And then, I get done, and then I wake you up.

"Hey, how was it?"

"Oh, it was awesome."

So, what I missed there is I was not speaking, I was not talking to the patient.

I was not building relationships.

I was just like an, it's called like an intervention like specialist kind of the old word.

- [Matt George] Right.

- Like, I just do this thing.

And, I'm out.

And, I thought I was gonna do that route, do the oral surgery route.

And, because back in the day, I'll tell you like 20 something years ago, that was kind of like a stigma like, oh, if you become a surgeon, you're like more like praise up in the ladder in the profession for my career.

And, when I went to North Carolina, they did not let me do sedations.

They're like, "No.

You need to talk to the patient."

And like, you can only do, say like I was doing 10 a week, and they'd be like, "No.

You can only have to do one."

I'm like, "What?

What can I do with the other nine?"

So, I have to talk to them.

And, I found, I like to talk.

And, that's why when you tell me, "Man, you need to come here and talk about yourself."

- Oh, I know you like to talk.

- So, when they like, "Oh, you need to talk."

And, then like, oh my God, this is so cool.

And then, I get to know about you.

And, I get to know about your kids, and then I know what you'd like to do.

I'd learn about snowbirds.

I mean, you know in Costa Rica, where I'm really from, you don't hear about snowbirds.

I didn't even know that's a thing.

I wanna be a snowbird too.

- [Matt George] Right.

- So, stuff like that, that you will not know.

Like you said, like talking to other business owners, you don't know, because you need to talk to those people, see how those things run.

Like, how the other people's lives run.

So then, I got exposed to that, like when you said, "Manny, how come you didn't do this earlier?"

I didn't know that was an option.

And then, I realized I have an knack for like talk.

- [Matt George] That's awesome.

- And then, if people feel like you know what you're doing, they're like, you know what, this person might know what's going on, but the gray hair helps a little too now.

- It does.

Well, it brings ease.

- Right.

- And then, when you have no hair like me, it's you're all aboard.

(indistinct) so, let me ask you this.

- Right.

- You talk about and give credit to your team all the time.

- [Manny Valerin DDS] Right.

Absolutely.

- And, I do know and have been into your business, and you walk through that door and there's an experience there.

I mean, you know, you don't think of it that way with a dentist, but you do from the entrepreneurial side, you as the owner have to make sure that they're welcomed correctly, comfortable sitting there waiting because they're anxious.

- It's stressful.

Yeah.

- Then, they get back there, and I think that's what makes your business solid.

And, your team's a big part of that.

So, in your business that you have, how many do you ave on your team?

- Well, we started with, when I first moved to Peoria eight years ago, we have three.

Now we're 10.

- [Matt George] Okay.

- And, it was like, the best part of that is you get to hand pick who is doing what part of the equation.

The welcoming part, yes.

I want to make an experience.

Another thing that was very humbling professionally wise when I was in school, my goal was to be top of the line guy.

Yes, it's good for somebody to pat yourself on the back, but my patients do not care how I rank in my class.

They do not care.

- [Matt George] That's exactly right.

- They care how I listen to them, how well I treat them, like how well I care for them, not really clinically so much, but like if I really care for their wellbeing.

- [Matt George] The empathy piece.

- Correct.

And, for me it was so, I'll say upsetting at the beginning, because it was an ego bruiser.

Kind of like, because I was like, "You don't care how good?"

There was like, "Oh, this other dentist did this."

Like, yeah, but I'm better.

So, like, and they're like, they don't care.

And, for me, that was like a very humbling experience.

I heard from another professional was, "There's two kinds of guys.

Those that are humble and those about to get humble."

And, I was, I got humble.

I didn't see that, because in school they just teach you to be the best of your clinical component.

- [Matt George] Yeah.

But, you didn't know what you didn't know.

- Correct.

Correct.

But, it was very nice then, when I realized, okay, they don't care for that, so what do the people care?

So, then you start cater for that.

Another great learning thing was like, we're Disney people.

My wife, we totally free, we not met in that place back in school.

We would have met at Disneylovers.com, because we like really like Disney.

We probably were one of the first generations that went to like Orlando.

And, we, Disney Vacation Club and we like the way they welcome you.

Like, you go there and they say, like, "Welcome home," and, you're like, "Oh, yeah.

Thanks."

And, it's not home, but it feels good.

And like, I wanted to, because people complain about work.

And, like I love my work.

- [Matt George] Yeah.

- I really like to go to work, and I want people to feel that as well.

Like, it's not, yeah, it's a job, but the older you get you want to value your time.

Just because I like to be there does not mean like I want to be there all the time.

If I'm there I don't want to be just sitting doing nothing.

- [Matt George] Right.

- So, my staff understand this stuff where like they want to make sure it's not just productive for like the business part, but it's like we are actually doing something, not just doors open all the time, kind of like waiting for somebody to show up.

But like, actively doing stuff to make it work.

And, everybody's kind of like on the idea.

They bought into it.

So, that part works out pretty good.

- So, I want to read something.

So, on your website, I'm giving you something you can add to it.

- [Manny Valerin DDS] All right.

- So, you talk about on your website that, "You want the experience to be comfortable, confident and convenient."

But, I have another word for you.

- [Manny Valerin DDS] Mm-hmm (affirmative).

- Clean.

- [Manny Valerin DDS] All right.

- And, the reason why I bring that up is, because I'm one of these germ freaks.

I was pre-COVID.

- [Manny Valerin DDS] Oh yeah.

- But, when COVID came, I remember sitting in your office and talking to you and you saying, "This is what we do, and this is how we sanitize everything."

And, it actually brought me at ease, because you're worried.

You know, you get worried about COVID.

- [Manny Valerin DDS] Yeah, right.

- It's saliva, and you're, you know, you're down there doing your thing.

- [Manny Valerin DDS] Right.

- And, everything else.

- [Manny Valerin DDS] Right.

- So, but you've always been that way, right?

- Correct.

- You've always been that safety, cleanliness.

But, I will say that your place is very clean.

So, you can take that advice and add it onto your website.

- Right.

Thanks, man.

I appreciate that.

That makes sense.

I had, one of my good friends, another specialist here in town, Dr. Fabian, he's a germophobe, which is funny, because his profession, what he does his work now is full of germs.

- [Matt George] Right.

- But, like talking to him, because I did feel the same.

Like, there's some things that I can do and there's some things I cannot do.

For example, I'm part of the, when I was, I cannot change diapers.

But, I can go and drain an abscess.

So, really, there's like some things, like there's like dirtiness, but there's some things you can get by.

But, at the office, it was like the previous owner, the guy I bought the practice from, Dr. Bergschneider, his mom was a microbiologist.

So, actually in that office, before I even came in- - [Matt George] Oh wow.

- They had one of the first autoclaves in the city because the mom happens to knew more about that then actually the dentists back in the early 1940s and stuff.

- [Matt George] That's pretty cool - So, that part, I kind of brother like the okay, let's stay top notch.

How do you keep up with things?

But, COVID changed some things.

I believe that, in general, because we, you know, we track where the focus, the infections, like where like, oh this is a bad infection coming from this place, or like this restaurant of like a big infection site.

Well, dental office were not.

And, part of it has to do with like all the protocols that we were doing from way before.

Like, when people say, "Oh, you have to wear a mask."

Like, yeah.

We wear a mask all the time, with gloves.

You have to wear gloves when you touch.

That's from the late 80s when HIV was happening, that's when you learn how to do that.

So, there's some things we've been doing where we know how to do it.

So, all this conversion, when they ask you, "Oh, you need to do this and this."

Like, for our business model was not that hard a covert, because we were like almost there.

If anything, it helped to make it more efficient, which I love.

Like, at one point, we had the people not waiting in the, not coming in the waiting room.

They have to wait in their car.

So, basically, it was just like a machine, where like you were in your car.

"Okay you can come in."

Boom.

You seat, get the stuff down.

Get out.

No in even how you take payments and stuff.

Like the protection.

We never had somebody coming in at the same time coming out.

So, it was playing like Tetris, like who does what.

It made us run so much leaner.

- Okay.

- People were not just, one thing that people complain, I don't like to go there and wait hours to be seen.

Well, that was not happening, because everything was just like on the, stay on the clock.

- [Matt George] Right.

- So, if anything, it improve our business model, because we're just way more efficient now.

- Okay.

So, you do the dental implants, the dentures, the cleanings, the crowns, the stuff that you would expect.

But, I want to tell a quick story.

You're probably gonna be mad at me for saying this, but so this goes back to the empathy piece, because, you know, all communities and all school districts have issues with oral health.

- [Manny Valerin DDS] Mm-hmm (affirmative).

- And so, I know, I was talking to an administrator and they said, "One of the biggest issues that we have at our school is that absenteeism is tied to bad oral health, for the kids," right.

So, there was a situation.

My wife Laura, and you know Laura well.

And, she called you.

I said, "Yeah, give him a call."

And, there was a student who really had never seen a dentist before.

And, it broke Laura's heart.

And, if you would've seen her come in.

Like, she was beside herself really, because it's just, you know, it breaks your heart.

And, long story short, you not only took care of the kid, but the kid's thriving today.

And, I truly think, it's because of that thing that you did.

- Oh, thanks.

That was very cool.

Thanks.

Thanks.

- And, it's those types of things that no only just you, but your team, but also other professionals do under the radar to take care of our community.

And, you know, I'm a community guy, - [Manny Valerin DDS] Right.

- So, I always talk about it's your job to take care of the community.

- Yes.

- But, you know, you do things, you've done things in Honduras and Red Cross and Children's Home and American Heart Association.

You have Give Kids a Smile day.

And, how many toothbrushes and toothpastes and everything, kits have you given out and donate din your lifetime?

And, it may not seem like much at the time, but from someone that's actually in that business or was in that business and seeing the impact that it actually can make, it really warms your heart to know that there's people like you and Kristy and your team that do that for the community.

So, appreciate it.

- Thanks man.

Really didn't.

We don't do it for that.

We don't do it for that.

- I know you don't.

- I don't even want to talk about that, because you don't do that with the right hand when the left doesn't know.

- No, I know.

I debated on bringing it up, because you're not one of those guys, but.

- It is part of, like you mentioned, you have to give back to your community, because if you take care of your community, community will take care of you.

- [Matt George] Yeah.

- And, it's kind of like a given thing.

Like, I do have the option, I believe with my profession, like when I'm older, I can just do that, like retire and just do stuff like that.

One good story I have too, Dr. Brown, late Dr. Brown.

He just passed.

He's a former oral surgeon.

I met him at the restaurant with his brother a Paparazzi in the Heights.

And, he, great old story, and famous here in town.

He was doing the mobile clinic.

- [Matt George] Yeah,.

- Doing cleanings for kids.

And, it was in his late 80s.

And, I was like, "Dr. Brown, What are you doing?"

And, this is me at a younger.

- [Matt George] Got you.

- You know, like 15 years ago.

I was like, "What are you doing?

You're like a prestigious oral surgeon.

You're doing cleanings, cleaning teeth."

He was like, "Manny, I've done everything I want to do in my life.

I traveled the world.

I did every single hobby.

I played golf for 30 years after I retired.

And, this is what I want to do now.

I want to give out what the skills that I have."

So, I know that that will be one of the things that I will do.

- [Matt George] Cool.

- Give back .

Wherever I'm at.

Or sail the world, and just trade my services for food and gas money.

- You're joking kind of, but here's the thing.

Your hobby is sailing.

You go on some pretty big things.

I mean, you've been on America's Cup type stuff.

- [Manny Valerin DDS] Oh.

Yeah.

- Like, for people that are not into sailing, but you actually could, because when you go to, you could sail to other countries and actually take care of the kids.

- And help out yeah.

Right.

- The families, because you do have a talent.

It goes back to what you originally started talking about.

The learning piece, and you just want to keep learning.

Well, don't you want to take your talents and give back to others?

- [Manny Valerin DDS] Right.

- It's pretty cool stuff.

So, you're a family man.

You've got a great family.

You've got a fun business.

And, just real quick.

You don't need to really go into it, but do you put down like a marketing plan and a strategic plan?

Do you go that dep into the business, or do you just have your set, you know, flow of your business, and it is what it is?

- The secret recipe on it is Kristy.

- [Matt George] Well, I knew that.

I should have had her on.

- So, she, 'cause her background.

Marketing is her background.

- [Matt George] Yeah.

- So, actually, I got locked out on it.

I joke, 'cause, before we moved to Peoria, she had- - [Matt George] A business.

- Well, I was in another business with another dentist, working for another dentist.

We were partners, but she was a stay at home mom.

- So, she did it.

I got to cut you off.

- Then, like she's living the life.

It's like she's- - She's living the life, and she's the best part of your life.

- And then, when we move here, she stepped up, and then all her knowledge, she's the one that runs the whole thing, so.

- Well Valerin Dental.

That's awesome, Manny Valerin.

Thank you so much.

This wraps another show.

I'm Matt George.

And, this is Business Forward.

(upbeat music) - Thank you for tuning in to Business Forward brought to you by PNC.