Cassie Kellner [00:00:01]:
Welcome to The Bloom Effect. I'm your host, Cassie Kellner, former chairside assistant turned team coach and founder of Everbloom. This podcast is all about the real stuff. Honest combos, leadership lessons, and the heart behind thriving orthodontic teams. If you're ready to grow, lead and bloom, let's dive in.
Cassie Kellner [00:00:22]:
Welcome to The Bloom Effect. I am your host, Cassie Kellner. Today, I am thrilled to be joined on this pod with another ortho nerd, Tara Mayo. Welcome to The Bloom Effect, Tara.
Tara Mayo [00:00:40]:
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm so excited to be chatting with you today.
Cassie Kellner [00:00:45]:
I know this is so much fun. Okay. Tara and I met, and then we truly geeked out on chairside assisting. Like, we have very, very similar stories, which is fun. And I think that we need to give us assistance, a platform to chat through all the things. And, Tara, I always start this podcast asking my guests, who is Tara Mayo?
Tara Mayo [00:01:13]:
Oh, that's such a loaded question. So, Tara Mayo. I love orthodontics. I love teeth. I was. My career started really wonky. I know that I've shared this with you, but straight out of high school, I did massage therapy, and I guess that's where I learned that I just love to care for people. And then I answered an ad in the newspaper because the World Wide Web was brand new and. Right. So I don't even think I was 21 when I started as a sterilization tech in the office. So I answered an ad in the newspaper, got hired, worked a summer to learn how, like, the orthodontic office roles. At the time, I didn't realize the orthodontic assistant, the orthodontic office, was so different than the dentist office. And then I just fell in love with assisting. I remember the day that the first office I worked for asked me if I wanted to try to be a chairside assistant. And like I've mentioned to you, I was able to continuous tie or steel tie the social six on top really well. And I used my pinkies, and I never knew that using my pinkies was such a big deal.
Cassie Kellner [00:02:32]:
Right.
Tara Mayo [00:02:34]:
Right. You were in. And then I fell in love with managing the chair. I fell in love with creating the relationships with the parents, teaching them all the things that I was learning. I was really fortunate to work with a doctor who allowed me to ask questions chairside as long as they were intelligent questions and didn't put him in an awkward position. So then I ended up moving to Wilmington, North Carolina, then out to Washington State, because I'm A little bit of a freebird. And then I, then I moved back home to Virginia Beach, worked for the same practice with multiple doctors. Realized I preferred a single doctor practice. And then 2020 hit. And that's where I found myself. FaceTiming during the lockdown with a parent, a mom and a daughter. And the daughter had a dog leash. Get caught on our brackets and our braces and ripped a bunch of them off. And like, what do you do? What do you do as a parent? You know? And so that's when I instructed, like always for the last 16 years, instructed them to get a pair of toenail clippers, rub it down with alcohol and clip it. And when that happened, the wire flew. I realized they didn't have any safety goggles on. And it so. And the instrument obviously wasn't magnetized. But the biggest thing was, is that because she was in a beginning wire, one of those Nitinol wires, it sparked. And when that happened.
Cassie Kellner [00:04:21]:
Oh my gosh.
Tara Mayo [00:04:22]:
Right. I didn't even know that was a thing. And I don't think, I don't really think that dawns on anyone in the office because when you're in it, you don't realize the inconveniences of it. Of course.
Cassie Kellner [00:04:36]:
And toenail clippers, like seriously.
Tara Mayo [00:04:40]:
Right, Like. And I would find myself at the chair, you know, doing a start appointment. You get the braces on and 18 minutes, you're like, yes, I'm running on time. And then all of a sudden you come to the at home care instructions and next thing you know, you're 10 minutes over your chair time because you're managing the parent, the patient, answering questions, and you don't want to be rushed during that, but sometimes you have to be. But in those moments I was, I would find myself. Okay, so let's just, so we'll just start where it sparked.
Cassie Kellner [00:05:17]:
Okay? Okay. And go ahead.
Tara Mayo [00:05:21]:
And so when I was instructing the mother to do this and she finally committed to clipping the wire with toenail clippers, it. The wire flew off, patient wasn't wearing any safety goggles and the wire sparked. And I don't think any of us in the field realized the chemical reaction between toenail clippers and a night and all wire. I mean, totally. Okay.
Cassie Kellner [00:05:45]:
I don't think I ever realized that. I've also not had children at home where I had to use a toenail clipper, so I can't relate. But I'm telling you right now, as someone who has a ton of orthodontic experience using a toenail Clipper would be my last resort, like in James.
Tara Mayo [00:06:01]:
It just sounds barbaric.
Cassie Kellner [00:06:02]:
Right.
Tara Mayo [00:06:03]:
And so I would find myself chairside giving the instructions after doing a start appointment. You know, I get the braces on, I get the doctor's attention on time. You know, wires are in, and I'm at 18 minutes. That is so exciting. Right. And then I come down to aftercare instructions. And as an assistant, I'm confidently telling a parent who's concerned about their child's diet. You know, people have a lot of dietary restrictions, anxieties, things, just quirky things. Then we all have them. But some children are on specific diets, and so they can only eat specific foods. And so when this parent is saying to me, well, they have to have this or they have to have that, and I'm explaining to them how to eat these items with braces. Not that anyone needs a Dorito, but, you know, just break off the small corners and little bits, get your Dorito on.
Cassie Kellner [00:07:03]:
You're like 13.
Tara Mayo [00:07:04]:
Right, right. But the point is, is that I would say to them, as long as you follow these instructions, then none of the bad things are going to happen. But if, if it does, you can always get a pair of dirty toenail clippers from your dad's drawer and clean them off. And I would make it a joke and just to like, lighten the load, you know, the, the anxiety of leaving the office with the braces. And it wasn't until that moment in 2020 when I'm FaceTiming during the lockdown did I realize how inconvenient and how scary that is. Because people already don't like dentistry.
Cassie Kellner [00:07:43]:
Yeah.
Tara Mayo [00:07:44]:
I mean, anxiety is real. And a lot of times parents have never had braces, so they don't know how to manage it.
Cassie Kellner [00:07:52]:
Yeah. You know, so, so then I'm assuming which we're going to get to this Brace Face. The concept of Brace Face was then created.
Tara Mayo [00:08:04]:
Yes.
Cassie Kellner [00:08:04]:
In that, like, aha moment. Let's go back to being chairside. Your experience as a chairside assistant. And we've talked about this before, and I think that this is so powerful. But the moment the Orthodontist. Okay, let's talk about an appointment. Right. So every, all, all those chairsides out there can relate. Right now, you seat your patient, you do what you have to do. In my opinion, the, the, the differentiator sometimes between a good assistant and a great assistant is the critical thinking that happens be for the Orthodontist comes over of, okay, I'm in this wire. Can I move to this Arch wire also did my last, the assistant who worked on this patient last write the treatment note up correctly to where now I have a path forward. I don't have to wait on anyone. I'm not twiddling my thumbs or going in starry and like scrolling on my phone because I'm just waiting for the doctor to come over, right? Like picture it. Picture all the things. The great assistant sits down, reads the treatment note because their team member who saw this patient last set them up for success. They're getting started chairside, they're moving the arch wire. They're getting that next one ready, potentially placing it depending on the Orthodontist comfort level. They, they're, they're doing all the things. Let's say this is a repo, right? We're in a repo appointment and we need to reposition. We're prepping, we're, we're, we're getting all that in. Okay. The doctor comes over, does the repo, puts the brackets back on. Okay. Everyone's following. Orthodontist leaves. Now you place that archewire back in. You finish up your appointment. Let's talk about the moment that the Orthodontist walks away from the chair before.
Tara Mayo [00:10:10]:
We even get there. You said something that was really, really important. Every office is so different, right? So, and every assistant is so different. The difference between a good and a great assistant within the assistance. Some assistants need an initial to be told what to do next, some assistants don't. And I think that there needs to be some conversation about that and training. Does the doctor like for assistance to get started or does that doctor prefer to come in and give an initial? There's no right or wrong way. But for me that's the first step because that's where I think some animosity can potentially grow between assistants. You know, because if you have one assistant who is able to get started and is constantly getting her appointments done or his appointment done and 20 minutes, but another assistant's not, there needs to be support there.
Cassie Kellner [00:11:15]:
Sure.
Tara Mayo [00:11:16]:
So I think that's the first thing.
Cassie Kellner [00:11:20]:
But.
Tara Mayo [00:11:22]:
And I got lost. Where was your next question?
Cassie Kellner [00:11:24]:
Wait, I want to, I actually want to talk to this because I think this is really important. I would say Orthodontists that are listening to this, it is your job and your duty to, to bring all of your assistants up to speed. So everyone should be the assistant who is self sufficient enough and understands the why and orthodontics enough to get to the point. Doesn't happen overnight, but to get to the Point of being able to start that appointment before you even walk over. Because 1. That is why we have so many dental assistants in an orthodontic practice. Right. But also we want to stay on time. And so I think there has to be a level of communication and trust and training that then everyone can. Can level up and. And be the assistant who seats, understands, and gets to move forward. There's obviously a training and a lull there, you know, if somebody's new and is really becoming comfortable. But I think that that's really important.
Tara Mayo [00:12:34]:
Because there's a big difference between taking out a 1622 Nitinol. Okay. Where there's space, and maybe we're gonna go into. Around steel wire to start closing space. But if you see somebody who has, you know, finishing wires and details, don't take that out. Don't take that. Don't take that out until the docs see. Right, right. Because even when you release the steel tie from a very active tooth, that tooth can move. And so if the Orthodontist comes over and sees that their detail didn't detail they're adding to, so then it's over correcting, you know. And so I just think that there has to be communication. Like, those are the fine details of being a chairside assistant. You know, when I'm starting to move a detailed wire around and I can see the teeth kind of moving.
Cassie Kellner [00:13:36]:
Yeah.
Tara Mayo [00:13:36]:
Like, yeah, I'm gonna pause or I can see. I would do this all the time. I would say, do you chew gum? And the assistant or the patient would look at me and like, no, no. Like, you naturally lie. Like, I know you're chewing gum because your wire is ratchet over to one side. And so I would then tell them, this was one of my favorite lines. We chew like a cow. We don't chew like an alligator. So with braces, you can't put too much food in your mouth at one time. You know, I would tell kids, don't just because all the dishes are dirty. Go wash a spoon. Don't get the big soup spoon and watch Scooby Doo and eat cereal at the same time. You got too much food in your mouth. You're chewing like this, you know, and so those little visuals help. But you can't, as an assistant and as a doctor, as a practice, you can't tell everyone all of those details. You know, you have to do it as they come. And so that's why I think the conversation around the doctor's recipe for treatment is so important. But to go back to it, it's like knowing the difference between the initial alignment phase and then the detailing phase and where the assistant skill is and then the open communication between the assistants.
Cassie Kellner [00:15:03]:
Yeah, absolutely.
Tara Mayo [00:15:04]:
Like, if you have a top dog assistant, let her be top dog, because then that's just going to help her help the rest of the team.
Cassie Kellner [00:15:12]:
Yeah.
Tara Mayo [00:15:13]:
You know, and then that comes to like the lead assistant, the treatment coordinator, all of all of the positions, communication that run back.
Cassie Kellner [00:15:22]:
I mean, oh, my gosh.
Tara Mayo [00:15:23]:
Right. And that's why Brace Face was created. Because I didn't, you know, as a mompreneur, I did not realize that what Brace Face was actually helping with until probably a few months ago. Honestly, where I really realized, okay, the doctor would be the one paying for these, but the office manager, the assistants, and the front desk staff are the ones benefiting from it. Within the office and then outside of the office, children are more encouraged to admit to their parents that they ate a candy bar, they broke a bracket, or something's poking them. If they know that their parents have a way to help them.
Cassie Kellner [00:16:13]:
Yeah.
Tara Mayo [00:16:13]:
Right now you've got an assistant telling a parent right in front of the patient, okay, all you need is to follow these instructions, then nothing bad will happen, and then you're going to be good. You'll have your braces off in two years. So as a child, what like in office expectation, at home realities. And it's so weird because recently I realized, okay, the Orthodontist is responsible for the braces and the smile, but the patient is responsible for the management.
Cassie Kellner [00:16:52]:
Sure.
Tara Mayo [00:16:55]:
And I don't think. And then they're responsible for the management.
Cassie Kellner [00:16:58]:
Such a good line. I hope everyone listening is like, is using that in their. In. In their bonding appointments.
Tara Mayo [00:17:07]:
Well, it's. And it's crazy because we expect them to maintain their braces, but we don't give them any of the proper instruments. But I think for at home use, we should say tools. Even though I did work for one Orthodontist who told me very early in my career that he was not a mechanic, he was a doctor. And we have instruments, not tools. And to this day, I still feel it's like unnatural to say tools, but at home, I can't say instruments. That's just. It creates so much anxiety.
Cassie Kellner [00:17:43]:
You know, the imposter syndrome hits when you say instrument and you give someone an instrument to take home.
Tara Mayo [00:17:49]:
Right. They're like, this is. Yeah, this is scary. This is. I'm sorry, this is stainless steel. I'm like, yeah, it really works. It's just like your toenail clipper.
Cassie Kellner [00:17:59]:
Like, did you.
Tara Mayo [00:18:00]:
They're the same. But this is not scary because it's a nail tool.
Cassie Kellner [00:18:05]:
Yeah.
Tara Mayo [00:18:06]:
It's still gross to put it in your mouth, right?
Cassie Kellner [00:18:10]:
Yeah.
Tara Mayo [00:18:10]:
I'm sorry. This cuticle trimmer is way scarier than a distal end cutter to me, but it's only because I'm so desensitized. Like, sure. This is not going to cut me.
Cassie Kellner [00:18:20]:
Yeah, yeah.
Tara Mayo [00:18:21]:
That sucker.
Cassie Kellner [00:18:22]:
So let's talk about what exactly. What was the biggest problem that you were solving? And what is Brace Face? Like? Tell people what this is.
Tara Mayo [00:18:35]:
So Brace face is a very fun kit. Okay. That's. It's got, like, a hard shell to it. You can use your HSA to purch purchase it. You can travel with it because TSA won't stop you. I was able to get it in and out of California twice. Just right there in my carry on. My co founder, Ashley, we were assistants together at the very first practice and just had a wonderful working relationship. And then over the years, during COVID we were sharing different emergency call stories, and that's when we both agreed. I was like, why don't we just make a kit? So. So that's what we did. So it travels, travel ball, all the things, and it gives you a magnetized instrument tool at home, which we all know what a distal end cutter is. It's got this flat side, has a little cutout so that you can get way far in the back and clip those wires. And then we have a plugger. The plugger is there to help instead of a pencil eraser. Right. So we're recommending in the office, chair side, toenail clippers, tweezers, and a pencil eraser. Like what? So distal end cutter to clip wires, where you just are faced with something that you're like, I don't even know how to handle this. We're out of town. No more searching for doctors. Calling your doctor, waiting for someone to call you back.
Cassie Kellner [00:20:00]:
Yeah.
Tara Mayo [00:20:00]:
Different states. And then referring patients to the AAO website to find somebody. It's just crazy. It's like, I just want to get my kid out of pain. So distilling cutter, plugger. We all know this. You want to know what my favorite way to use this is? We all know that when you have braces on and you throw too much food in your mouth at one time, whether it be popcorn, peanuts, whatever it is, and you get something stuck between, like, your bicuspids in that wire in that little sweet spot, and you can feel the pressure on your Teeth. And you're like, oh, my gosh, if I move, it's going to break. Well, the way the plugger is designed, right. It fits right underneath there and just pops it out. No brackets are broken. And then we have the Math-Owl. It makes that fun clicking noise everybody likes. Love it. So instead of tweezers. Right? So instead of tweezers, I don't. I don't want patients to be changing their colors. I don't want them to be taking out their. Their wires before a dental appointment. If you watch TikTok and, you know, you see some of these people doing that, that's not what Brace Face is for. It's for parents who want to be able to manage their life. We also have quick reference cards that give you a brief description, truly a brief description of each instrument. And then the QR code takes you to a how to video, because if you're camping, you may not be able to find it or find a dentist or an Orthodontist or even have cell phone reception. And then we have the famous tooth chart, because Orthodontists count teeth differently. And even. What I don't. Yeah, right. Like counting one through 16 on top. Now we count one to eight. One to eight in quadrants, because that's how we work. So this just helps parents better communicate with the front desk so that the front desk isn't accidentally mis-scheduling a band appointment for a bond appointment.
Cassie Kellner [00:22:01]:
Well, and let's get real, right? Parent calls in, and the child has called from school or sent an SOS text like, oh, my gosh, everything's broken. Everything. You know, and. And the parent calls the practice, and they're like, basically, my child has debonded their entire mouth. And then they come in and it's like a color tie or like their power chain has slipped or, you know, and it's not as, like, emergent as we thought. And. But we don't have the adequate questions to ask. They don't have something like this at home, and now they have to miss practice. Or maybe they live in a rural area and they have to drive, you know, 45 minutes just to get there. This, in my opinion, in my experience, like, this just solves so much of that. And that's why those cards are my favorite part, because you and I are very comfortable with instruments. But let me tell you, my neighbor is not, like, there's no way. But if she has a guide where she doesn't have to take off work, pull her child out of school or sports or camp or whatever it is. Right. Then now we have this guide that we can use at home. I just. It's so.
Tara Mayo [00:23:20]:
I just don't understand. Like, to me, it just doesn't make any sense. Especially post COVID when why offices don't have an emergency cell phone. One of the offices that I worked with, the office I was working with when COVID happened, we had an on call phone and the assistants rotated this on call phone. I was constantly texting with patients. Hey, send me a picture. You know, if that on call phone went to the receptionist or the office manager during business hours. Anyone living in a rural. Rural area.
Cassie Kellner [00:23:55]:
Yeah.
Tara Mayo [00:23:56]:
Could text a picture. You know, like, okay, if you're in your sol, take a picture. Child sends it to the parent, parent sends it to the phone. Then the assistant, one of the staff members is able to triage. That. That took no time. No time at all.
Cassie Kellner [00:24:13]:
I am. This is embarrassing. I used to have an emergency pager. Like, there wasn't even a phone. There was not texting. Like, I had a pager. And then I'd have to call into the practice and. And, and listen to a specific voicemail that the pager would then pull me to. And then I could contact the parent and whatever and do all the things. Right. But it was a pager. Like, the pager would go off.
Tara Mayo [00:24:45]:
We were so patient. We were so patient. Like, I'm sorry if I had to, like, wait that long. Like, okay, sit there and hold. Just sit there and hold your wire. We're all gonna eat dinner. You know? And so it just makes so much sense to me because if a parent. Now this is where it's got gotten kind of tricky with sales since we've launched with Brace Face. Because once again, these are all problems. I hate to say it like this, but these are problems that the patient needs to deal with.
Cassie Kellner [00:25:16]:
Yeah.
Tara Mayo [00:25:17]:
If they live far away from the office, they're the one who signed the contract. It's not the doctor's responsibility to make sure that they get back to the office within business hours. Right. So. But I see orthodontic offices baking cookies, doing contests.
Cassie Kellner [00:25:34]:
Yeah.
Tara Mayo [00:25:35]:
A lot of Orthodontists have their own YouTube channels and the. And you know, parents. Who's your ortho? Where do you go? You know, they come in like, groups.
Cassie Kellner [00:25:45]:
Yeah.
Tara Mayo [00:25:46]:
And it's like a lot of that could be solved if you just gave parents the correct tools to manage their part at home.
Cassie Kellner [00:25:57]:
Yeah.
Tara Mayo [00:25:58]:
Like, so going back real quick, circling back around the child, if the child knows or the patient knows that the parent has a way to help them. The child's going to go to the parent and say, I did something. Can you take a look? Then the parent is actually going to look and say, let me see, I've got the Brace Face kit. Let me see what I could do in there. And so then they attempt to do something. The parents paying a car payment for these braces, they're not going to intentionally screw it up or take the braces off. Right.
Cassie Kellner [00:26:34]:
And if they're not comfortable and it's like something really wild. Of course, that's an entire different situation. Scenario where quick fixes.
Tara Mayo [00:26:42]:
Correct, correct. Like, how many times have you had a parent call the emergency line? I'm not sure if this is a real emergency. Yeah, it's like it's braces. It's not like, this is not brain surgery. No one's bleeding. Like, I, I understand the wire might.
Cassie Kellner [00:26:55]:
Be in that scenario.
Tara Mayo [00:26:57]:
Right, right, right. I understand that wire might be jabbing you, but if you don't move your mouth, then it doesn't hurt. Right. So. So we can fix it.
Cassie Kellner [00:27:07]:
So.
Tara Mayo [00:27:07]:
So if the parent goes and takes a look inside the child's mouth, then they're going to call the office. Then that gives the office the opportunity to triage that and prepare for it so that the assistant is able to properly manage their tray setups for the day.
Cassie Kellner [00:27:23]:
Yeah.
Tara Mayo [00:27:24]:
Right. So if you have the parent who says, oh, all the braces are off, what kind of tray setup are you going to have as an assistant? You're going to have the bands out, band glue, bonding brackets, because you're not going to be able to micro etch 15 brackets. You know, you're thinking worst case scenario, because what, you're just going to rebound.
Cassie Kellner [00:27:47]:
It's an initial bond all over again. Right.
Tara Mayo [00:27:49]:
And they just paid upwards of $7,200.
Cassie Kellner [00:27:55]:
Yeah.
Tara Mayo [00:27:55]:
You think the Orthodontist is going to say, oh, by the way, this is going to be another $86 because I need to get my cost for the braces.
Cassie Kellner [00:28:03]:
Yeah. No, no.
Tara Mayo [00:28:05]:
That patient's gonna say, rip up my contract. I'm leaving. So the doctor's losing money on supplies, materials, and payroll because the assistant has to be there. So that's where I just think that Brace Face. Even though the Orthodontist would be the one that would be purchasing Brace Face, I. Instead of baking cookies, instead of doing all of these contests, I mean, the contests are fun and the cookies are wonderful. Don't get me wrong.
Cassie Kellner [00:28:35]:
Yeah. But from assistance, honestly, they're a patient Experience. But why not add this on to the patient experience or swap it out.
Tara Mayo [00:28:43]:
Depending on what your style is. Right. Or just completely at it, you know, and the patient is still the one who's going to be paying for it because it's their convenience, you know, if they're living far out. Oh, I'm gonna need that because I can't be coming here, you know, every three weeks.
Cassie Kellner [00:29:02]:
Yeah. Where can they find the Brace Face kit? Tara, what is your website?
Tara Mayo [00:29:07]:
So it is bracefacekit.com and then also ask her local Orthodontist and they can contact us too. We're on social media, Instagram, Facebook. And The Bloom Effect is also helping. Thank you, by the way. And then on our website, we launched in March. And so we're early, early stage startup. We're two moms. And so we're juggling entrepreneurship, our lives, and other companies to put food on our table.
Cassie Kellner [00:29:39]:
Moms just solving a problem that have true, true knowledge in this industry. And I think it's a really, really cool thing. I saw Brace Face before you and I even met. And I, in my head, I thought, and I told you this when we first connected. I was like, oh, I'm gonna need to buy each one of these kits for all of my neighbors so that when their kids are in, because our kids are young, when all of our kids are in braces, like collectively at the same time, because it's gonna happen. I can go over. This was my thought. I can go over and fix all the things for them, right. And show them how to do it and then they'll be able to do it through for all their kids, you know, going forward. But then you showed me the, the video piece, the QR code, and I was like, okay, this is like amazing. So anyway, I'm going to be purchasing these and just like handing them out in my area because it's so smart.
Tara Mayo [00:30:40]:
We have, we have the black case, that's really sleek and like I said, we have the white one. It was actually like a manufacturing mistake, but I actually like it. It's because the company is black and white. You know, like, it is very black and white. It's. Do you want to deal with the anxiety when it happens or do you want to prevent it? Yeah, I personally want to be prepared because I was actually one of the trips going to California, there was a kid on the plane who broke. Was eating one of the biscuits and like flipped out one of the wires. Didn't break the wire. But you know how if you're have an extraction Space, the long span of wire will pop out. And so that's what happened. And I saw the mother. I didn't have the courage at the time because we were super young, and Brace Face, but I saw the mother fixing it with tweezers really quickly, and I'm like, okay, yes, that works. The child had, like, a 2x4 treatment on. But at the same time, how much nicer is it to know that you have everything that you need in one kit? Not that cheap plastic start bag that so many practices have, or they buy tumblers. They spend so much money to give you floss, wax, and a cup and a toothbrush that really, all I want is to be able to handle, do what I need to do when I need to do it.
Cassie Kellner [00:32:14]:
Tara, I. I just. I truly can't thank you enough for joining me. This has been absolutely incredible. And for all the fellow ortho nerds out there, where are you?
Tara Mayo [00:32:26]:
Can we find it? Where. Where are the girl? Where are the ortho nerds? Because we need more advocation. You know, I know.
Cassie Kellner [00:32:33]:
You know, do yourself a favor. It's braceface kit.com, right? Am I getting that right?
Tara Mayo [00:32:38]:
Bracefacekit.com.
Cassie Kellner [00:32:40]:
I just. I'm excited to see this thing take off. And I love. Again, as another fellow nerd that loves orthodontics, I love what you're doing, and I love that you've shifted your mindset and are doing something new and done a massive pivot. So thank you so much.
Tara Mayo [00:32:57]:
Well, you have helped me. I mean, what, like, three conversations that we've had after meeting on LinkedIn, I just. Next podcast, we're gonna have to talk about how we actually linked up, because that is just super crazy. But, yeah, finding. Seeing what you're doing with The Bloom Effect is also amazing. And advocating for patients, I will tell you, Cassie has absolutely been instrumental in helping me with our messaging to the orthodontic office. Because it's a real thing. Assistants need help assisting and also guidance.
Cassie Kellner [00:33:32]:
I'll say this until the day I leave this industry, which will won't be.
Tara Mayo [00:33:39]:
I'm sorry, I will die in this industry. How many retainers do you have? Are you kidding me? Like, you probably have three sets of retainers.
Cassie Kellner [00:33:48]:
Oh, gosh. And I don't wear any of them. Let's get real. I'm like the world. Oh, gosh, Tara. The worst patient ever. Do you not see this diastema? That's a whole other podcast.
Tara Mayo [00:33:58]:
Come on. I've created two diastemas and patient with patients. You know, like they came in wanting a space. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. No, no, no.
Cassie Kellner [00:34:08]:
I, I, I will say this. Like, I, I love this. I love what you're doing. I love meeting fellow chairside assistants. And the point to what I was just making is I will advocate for them until the day I die because I love this industry and, and chairsides. It's where I began and it's, it's like my, it's everything to me. So thank you for joining me. It's been so much fun and we'd love to have you back on. I really wish Brace Face all the best.
Tara Mayo [00:34:45]:
Thank you. Thank you.
Cassie Kellner [00:34:48]:
Thank you for joining me on The Bloom Effect, where we keep it real, keep it growing, and always keep it team first. If today's episode sparked something for you, an idea, a shift, or just a reminder that you're not alone, take a second and share it with your team or a fellow ortho leader. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss a convo. And if you're loving the show, leave a review. It helps more practices find us and join the movement. And if you're ready to bring this kind of energy into your practice, visit DiscoverEverbloom.com to learn more about working together. Until next time. Keep leading with heart, keep building with intention, and keep blooming right where you're planted.
