Episode 310: How Social Media Transformed His Dental Practice with Dr. Milad Shadrooh
In today’s digital age, social media has become a powerful tool for businesses and entrepreneurs to reach their target audience and make a significant impact. One individual who has harnessed the power of social media to transform his business is Milad Shadrooh. Through his unique blend of character and personality, he has become a social media sensation, using music and humor to engage with his audience and promote dental health.
Dr. Milad Shadrooh, also known as the Singing Dentist, shares his journey of using social media to transform his dental practice. Growing up in a musical household, Milad always had a passion for music but was pushed towards a career in dentistry by his father. One day, he accidentally filmed himself rapping about root canal treatment and received positive feedback from viewers who found his videos entertaining and helpful. This inspired Milad to continue creating content that would educate and engage his audience. His videos went viral, reaching millions of views and attracting attention from major brands. Milad’s unique approach to dentistry has not only transformed his business but also helped change people’s perception of dentists and reduce dental anxiety.
While there have been challenges along the way, Milad’s positive mindset and focus on positive feedback have allowed him to overcome them and continue to thrive. As social media continues to evolve, Milad remains committed to using his platform to educate and inspire, raising awareness about the importance of dental health and the impact it can have on overall well-being.
Show Highlights:
- The guest’s journey from dentistry to social media sensation
- Impact of social media on Milad as a dentistry professional
- Milad’s approach to creating content and engaging with the community
- Opportunities and collaborations with brands
- Dealing with haters and negative comments
- The impact of COVID-19 on the dental industry
- The importance of embracing positive feedback
- Managing time and family support in social media work
Links Mentioned:
Check out Dr. Milad Shadrooh’s Instagram https://www.instagram.com/singingdentist/
Get your Business Growth Secrets SUCCESS PLANNER for FREE and profit like a pro: https://adamstottplanner.com/free-book47315172
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Watch the Episode on Adam’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/adamstottcoach?el=Pod
Connect with Adam on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adamstottcoach/?el=Pod
Join Adam’s network on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-stott-coach/?el=Pod
Business owners: Monetise social media, get more clients, increase your following and make more sales: https://socialmediamonetisation.com/unlockfb?el=Pod
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Transcript:
Please note this is a verbatim transcription from the original audio and therefore may include some minor grammatical errors.
[00:00:00] Adam Stott: Well, look we wanted to really bring someone to you that has lived the journey that we’re, we’ve been talking about today.
[00:00:06] And there is no doubt the singing dentist, my man, has done that and done it very successfully. So you’ve been on this huge journey where social media has transformed your results. It’s transformed your ability to get out to market. And we’ve got a group of business owners and entrepreneurs that are looking to take their markets by storm, and I thought it would be awesome to get you to come and share some of the lessons that you’ve learned, some of the stages you’ve been through.
[00:00:31] So why don’t we just start off with where did you start from? Let’s look, before you became a social media sensation, which is exactly what you’ve done, you’ve used character and personality to do that. Yeah. But where did you actually start off? What? What did that look like?
[00:00:44] Milad Shadrooh: So like my mom and my dad, and they did stuff.
[00:00:46] You know about that, right? When adults get together and do bits and then they created me. So I was born in Iran and music was a massive part of my life. My dad’s a record producer and we always had studio stuff in the house. So I grew up around music and I learned to play instruments, and it was always a massive part of what I am or what I wanted to do.
[00:01:02] My dad was very much of the opinion that. You must be Doctor. So basically I couldn’t really do the music thing and then he kind of guided me slash pushed me towards doing medicine. And then I did some work experience. Didn’t really like it, so I went to dental school, but throughout dental school I was still involved in music and I used to mc in the garage scene back in the day and I DJ and I still got produced like music stuff at home.
[00:01:25] And I still, I’m involved massively music. And then one day a patient didn’t turn up for root canal treatment, which everyone hates root canal, and it’s like horrible and I don’t even like it. And I just started rapping along to a song that was on the radio about root canal and I just freestyled it just made up as I did it and I thought it was quite funny.
[00:01:41] So I filmed myself on my phone doing it. And sent it to a friend of mine who’s also a dentist and he thought it was hilarious and he put it online. I told him not to put it online because dentists aren’t supposed to behave that way. We’re supposed to be serious and, you know, not fun people apparently.
[00:01:56] So he put it online and people started seeing it and watching it, and they’re kind of enjoying it and they, oh, I’ve never seen a dentist act like this. You know, this guy’s funny and my eyebrows doing their dance. I dunno what happened there. Just, they are my backing dancers. They come everywhere with me.
[00:02:09] So. Yeah. And it, I started to get messages from people and that is what made me kind of carry on doing it because the messages were along the lines of, you know, I’ve been a nervous patient forever and I hate the dentist and I haven’t been in years, but seeing your videos, it’s made me. Kind of lose that fear.
[00:02:27] Yeah, I really thought of that impact that, that could have. Yeah. Or my children. So the children really responded to it and it was like, my kids have, you know, so scared of the dentist. They hate going, but after watching your videos, they’re now able to go. And I actually remember one message specifically because I just had a daughter.
[00:02:41] So she was about six months and I was sitting downstairs with my wife, I’ll never forget it, and I got a message pop up and it was from a mom saying, My, you know, disabled daughter’s, never been to the dentist. She’s 11 years old. She’s super scared, never wanted to go. But off the back of watching your videos, she’s now said, mommy, I want to go to the dentist.
[00:02:57] And it seems like it’s a fun place to go. And having a daughter at that time, it really kind of hit her. And I was like, you know what? This stupid face of mine is actually doing some good, so let’s keep it going. Yeah. And then it was that kind of drove me and spurred me on to keep doing it. And I haven’t looked back since.
[00:03:13] It’s been an amazing journey and the stuff I’ve managed to do off the back of, it’s just incredible. So I’m very happy and honored to be here doing it.
[00:03:20] Adam Stott: So when you, so it started off with you just rapping along
[00:03:22] Milad Shadrooh: it was an accident. So that’s the thing again, I’d get loads of other messages and saying, oh my God, this is genius marketing.
[00:03:28] I. Like this guy is a genius for him to thought of, you know, writing songs about teeth. I was like, dude, it was never meant to be that. I wish I could claim that I’m a genius. And I did it for marketing. But no, it wasn’t that. It was just me having fun using my musical skills that I had, combining it with my dental knowledge.
[00:03:45] And just making something presenting. Dental advice in a different package that people may respond to because it’s non-threatening. It’s not in a clinical environment. You’re watching it on your phone. And everything that I did, it all happened accidentally. I. But then I started to analyze it and it just made sense because all the videos are like this.
[00:04:03] So it’s me, my tripod in my surgery, and I’m talking directly at it, and it’s one take, so there’s no cuts in that. It’s one take as if I’m talking to you. And I’m looking down the barrel, so it’s like I’m giving you this advice directly to you and it’s one take. It’s no clever chops and edits and it’s proper terrible as well.
[00:04:21] Like my voice is awful, which is what adds to the, I think the comedic. Value because if I was an amazing singer, I don’t think it would bang as well. It’s ’cause I’m terrible. That’s what makes it funny. Actually, I’ll tell you a true story. I was gonna call myself the rapping dentist because I can rap. I can’t really sing.
[00:04:37] So I, I did the logo and I got well excited and I was like rapping dentist. And I wrote rapping dentist and I did my face and all that and I was so gassed and I went up to my dad and I said, dad, I’ve nailed it. What’d you think? He looked at it and went, Raping dentist. What’s this bullshit? I was like, dad, it’s rapping.
[00:04:53] You know rapping? There’s two peas, bro. Like we go no. It looks bad. Change this shit. I was like, all right. So he said, call yourself singing dentist. I was like, okay, I’ll have to sing now. Then, so. But it’s, I think because of the genius of my dad, I now sing. And that’s what adds to the value, right?
[00:05:08] And it singing has much more scope. So I attempt to do that, but it’s because of the way I do the content. So I’m just literally talking to you. And that’s what I think resonates well with people watching it. ’cause it’s much more easy to absorb when I’m talking down the barrel and it’s lo-fi and it’s not overproduced.
[00:05:24] So I think that would probably be one tip I would give. You don’t have to overproduce your content if you are. Just want to be personal with someone. And that’s what dentistry needed. Right? It didn’t need it to be AZZ and or mad. Just talk to people. And that’s one of the main things on social media, right?
[00:05:43] It’s the community that you’re building. Yeah. And if you’re gonna talk to your community, talk to them in a way that they feel like you’re talking to them. Absolutely. So it seemed to work for me and I just, I kept the formula the same. I’ve done a couple of little bits, bit different. Because you’ve gotta experiment sometimes, right?
[00:05:58] Yeah. You can’t just do the same thing all the time. But ultimately, that format just, and that
[00:06:02] Adam Stott: that’s got 3.6 million views, that video? Yeah.
[00:06:04] Milad Shadrooh: On my own YouTube channel that has 3.6. But when this one landed, It just went mad because at the time all the big pages posted it, so like Land bible, un Ladd, viral thread all the different pages posted and it had 48 million views on Ladd Bible, like 30 something on that combined.
[00:06:20] I think when I, from what I could see, it’s had about 200 million views. I. This one song and it went global as well. Thank you. It was mad. It got me onto Australian tv. I had to wake up some silly o clock to do Australian tv, like breakfast telly. So it got me on that. I did loads of it. It went to Germany, France, I did what was the other one?
[00:06:41] There was a really crazy TV show they wanted me to do as well. Anyway it went mad viral, but the biggest thing was Ed Sheeran saw it. And they, I was in at work and Radio One was on and it was News Beat Radio One. And they interviewed Ed because Ed wrote this song for Rihanna. Some of you may know this.
[00:06:56] And the actual final recording was his guide vocal that he sung and sent to Rihanna for her to rerecord it, but she didn’t like it. Huh. So he released it himself as the vocal and they, and he was telling this story and it was like, oh, have you seen the other versions of it? There’s this dentist version.
[00:07:11] He goes yeah, I’ve seen it. I think it’s brilliant. I was there working. I was, oh my God, I’ve made it like it was so good. And then his team reached out afterwards and he was doing some concerts at the Royal Labber Hall for the Teenage Cancer Trust. And they said, look, do you wanna come along? And kind of, you know, see some of the children backstage.
[00:07:27] And I was like, yeah, of course I’m unbelievable. Of course I come to the Royal Hall mad backstage. So I went and actually one of the kids came up to me and goes, I like your version better, you dunno. And then I was sitting backstage, and then literally, ed like kind of comes and walks past, and as he walked past, he made eye contact.
[00:07:44] And I was like, all right. He goes, all right. And he went past, I was like, oh, fuck I and he came back and he goes, You are the singing deadest. I was, oh my God, tell like Pop a cuddled him like he’s my boy. And we had a little chat and it was just unbelievable that me messing around in my surgery.
[00:07:57] He, that biggest global superstar of our time had seen it and he liked it. So it was all right. I didn’t get sued, which is amazing. So yeah, it done a lot for me. Done a lot.
[00:08:07] Adam Stott: What sort of opportunities is that led onto? I mean, then you became consistent. And you’ve done this consistently. So when you did it for the first time as an accident and you broke through, that’s awesome.
[00:08:19] When you’ve done the next ones, did you put more planning into it? How did you
[00:08:22] Milad Shadrooh: Absolutely. So, so the way the journey happened, so the first one was an accident and it was actually a parody of hotline bling by Drake. You used to call me or myself? That one. Yeah. And it was all about root canal, but I used a lot of dental terminology in it.
[00:08:34] And because I’m just doing it for just the laugh, it was never meant to go out. It was never meant to be a thing. But people started seeing it and they liked what I was doing. They liked the fact that dentist was kind of singing and talking about teeth, but they didn’t get a lot of what I was saying.
[00:08:45] ’cause it wasn’t done in. Like layman speech. So I thought, all right, let’s write one. Let’s see what we can actually do. And at the time, happy by Pharrell Williams was the big global song. It was on Despicable of Me Too, and everyone knew it. Adults knew it. That’s another key thing as well. You’ve gotta hit every demographic.
[00:09:00] ’cause dentistry, kids go, teenagers go, adults go. So I was like, right. My kids have gotta like it. But my mom has also gotta know what the song is because if you want that global appeal, ’cause that was my demographic, is everybody. So happy seemed to fit. ’cause everyone knew it. And I thought, right, what can I do with happy?
[00:09:15] I mean, what the hell? And I just thought gappy. So I thought, if you don’t look after your teeth, you’ll end up gappy. So I thought, all right, so I wrote the song, I recorded it in exactly the same format in that horrible n h s blue tunic I was wearing that day, which I don’t even wear, but I have to put it, it’s like my cape.
[00:09:30] Oh, singing Dennis put this horrible blue thing on. And then I recorded that and I put that on my YouTube channel singing dentists at the time, not raping dentists. And then that did about half a million views in a week. And that showed me that people enjoyed it and there was a market for it.
[00:09:46] So then the next one, I waited though, because again, I realized I can’t do this all the time. People will get bored of it. Oh, not this guy again. So you’ve got you with social media, it’s like a wave. You’ll have peaks and then there’ll be inevitable times where you sort of have to let it die a little bit if you’re doing something niche and then come back again.
[00:10:01] And you just gotta be prepared for that. A lot of people get quite upset. It if they make content and it tanks, but you can’t get upset because it’s just, it’s what it is. It’s gonna tank occasionally. You can’t just hit every single time everything you make. And you might make something, spend loads of time on it and think it’s the best piece of content you’ve made and it tanks.
[00:10:17] And then you’ll do something else that takes you 10 seconds and it flies. So it’s just one of those things. Learn from it. Look at your analytics, analyze why you think that might not have done so well, and then just try something different. So for me, I couldn’t do it all the time, so I waited. So that was March time.
[00:10:32] Then that summer cheerleader was the big song. Ooh. I think I found myself a cheerleaders. I thought Cheerleader, cheerleader, sweet eater. Done. Let’s write a song about eating sweets. So then did a song about don’t eat sweets. Ooh, I think I found myself a cheerleader. There’s always a new hole when I see her lyrics bars.
[00:10:51] So we did that, and then that one did really well. So that’s what I would do. I would just wait for songs. That we’re doing well and then parody them. So that’s another thing. If you’re making content, look at what is popping, look at what’s viral now. Look at what everybody’s talking about and then give your opinion on it or make it relevant to your business.
[00:11:10] Make it relevant to your thing. Find something that you can tag onto. ’cause people are already searching for that anyway. So that just was the next thing, and I just kept it consistent. So that’s the other thing I’ve got three C’s with social media. One is your content. ’cause content’s got to be banging, and now you can’t get away with rubbish looking content either.
[00:11:27] Before it was kind of all right, everyone was putting up whatever, but now it’s gotta look good. The lighting’s gotta be good. The sound’s gotta be good. It’s gotta be choppy. You’ve gotta get your content right. The second is community. Like I said, you’ve gotta cater for your audience, obviously, but also chat to them.
[00:11:42] Engage on every post. Like I tell my family if I’m posting. 7:00 PM You can’t chat to me for an hour because I’m gonna respond to every single comment as it comes in. And not a comment with an emoji. Like I’ll actually comment based on what they’ve said. I’ll have banter with them because they know, then it’s me responding to them.
[00:11:59] And when you giving that energy to your audience, they’ll give you that energy back because you can’t just ghost people and expect, you’ve gotta think of social media as an extension of real life, right? If you came up to you and go, mate, I think you’re amazing. I just ghosted you. You wouldn’t think I’m amazing much longer, right?
[00:12:14] Yeah. So if you’ve written on my comment on content, this is amazing content, or I love this, why wouldn’t I say, thank you so much, man. Big up. So that’s the next part is your community. And the last C is consistency. Because without consistency, the algorithm kills you. Yeah. You’re dead. So once you are posting, you’ve just gotta keep posting.
[00:12:34] But bear in mind the other two, don’t just post nonsense, because then that’ll tank as well. Yeah, absolutely. So think about the content, think about your community that you’re posting for, and then just keep it consistent.
[00:12:44] Adam Stott: Awesome. And what sort of impact has this had on your business in terms of the actual business itself?
[00:12:50] Milad Shadrooh: Oh my Lord. So with dentistry, if you go onto most dental accounts, You’ll see teeth before and afters. Right? Nonstop. Oh, here’s some manky teeth. Look at how amazing I made them look. But how many, if I was a ear surgeon and you went on my page and all you saw was ear lobes, like how exciting is that?
[00:13:10] It’s not so showing teeth constantly. I don’t think that’s what it’s about. People will assume the dentist knows what he’s doing. How many people in this room right now will assume your dentist knows what they’re doing? They’ve passed their exams. They’ve got an office there. Hopefully he knows what he’s doing.
[00:13:24] Right? Okay. But you know nothing about him. You dunno what he looks like. You dunno what he sounds like you dunno any about his family. You know nothing about him. But then there’s another dude. There’s no teeth, but he seems like a funny, sick guy. Who you gonna go and see because you can look at them and go, this guy looks really entertaining this guy, just, all the teeth look great, but hopefully he knows what he’s doing and he’s, I’m going, he seems quite entertaining.
[00:13:45] Occasionally there’ll be some teeth. Oh yeah, okay. He obviously knows what he’s doing, but look, if he’s so funny, look at his eyebrows. So for me, it was more about showing me as an individual, because that’s such an important part of dentistry, the rapport between the patient and the dentist is key.
[00:14:00] Without that, there is no dentistry. If you don’t trust me enough. To let me put my fingers inside of you. Your mouth. Your mouth. I dunno what type you think I’m running. But we have to have that rapport.
[00:14:18] Adam Stott: We’re not there yet. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:14:20] Milad Shadrooh: How long have we got on for man? I got time. And genuinely that rapport building process starts on social media ’cause they’ll find me on social.
[00:14:27] So I’m building that rapport before they coming. So when they come in, they feel like they already know me. So we’re already a few steps ahead of that relationship building. Yeah. So it’s much easier for me to then. Chat the teeth. So let me get to know you then we can talk teeth. And so that for me made my business so people were coming from all over and I mean all over like abroad, I.
[00:14:47] They’ll just come on a plane to come and see me. I’m not even joking. And I’m, I feel bad then. So I’d lock off like hours because this person’s traveled hours to see me and they need one thing and I’m doing it and I’m sitting there for two hours. Fuck, you know, I could’ve done more patience here, but I didn’t know what I was gonna get.
[00:15:02] Right. So, and this was before the Zoom thing? We’re hoping you’re gonna sing I think, yeah. I would. Sometimes if that’s what they come for, I’ll give ’em a little song. But did you hear that? Yeah. I’m not singing that you’ve heard the voice, right. I mean, allow it. So yeah, people were coming from all over and mostly children, parents would come to my clinic just because their children wanted to see me and because their children felt comfortable to come and see me.
[00:15:25] And then, You know, we would, we’d get the parents then, right? So it, the business went crazy. I used to do paid spend for specific cosmetic treatments, and we did Google paid stuff and a bit of social stuff. When I first started this as well, there was no Instagram. Instagram didn’t exist. It was YouTube was the primary video platform.
[00:15:45] Facebook was just sending pictures to. Your mate, like my mom wasn’t even on it. So then it developed into Facebook having more photo video content. So I started to go viral on Facebook. Then Instagram. Instagram was just the photo site at that point. And it had that really crappy logo of the camera, right?
[00:16:01] Yeah. Back in the day. And then it developed into other platforms. So then I moved on to different platforms, but at the time, I was just getting leads for free because they’d seen the videos. And so I stopped all the paid spend. So that made a big difference. I’m busier than ever. Created more profit with your business.
[00:16:16] Oh, massively. Yeah. But the hardest bit for me, and again, I don’t know what all the businesses are, but this is one element that is gonna be difficult for some of you potentially. It’s when you are the brand, individually, it’s you. So they want to see you. And that’s the bit I’m unscalable. My ethos is scalable.
[00:16:34] My. Brand could be scalable, but with dentistry, they want this. Yeah. And there’s only one of this, so that’s what makes it difficult, right? Yeah. That’s what makes it difficult. And you can’t be in 10 different places at once and you can’t multiply yourself. And I can’t teach somebody else to be like me.
[00:16:51] Because they’ll never be like me. What I can do though is tell you with enough faith that my team are a shadow of me and they are superb. But what they do, otherwise they wouldn’t be here. So I can vouch for my team and if you have enough faith in me, and you and I have brought that rapport, you will let them put their fingers in your mouth.
[00:17:08] Am I right? Talk to me Bosch. That’s what I’m saying. So. That’s something you have to take your patient on a journey with you. Right. And that’s how I make Is that a challenge for you? Yes, it is challenging initially. Yeah. ’cause some people will just not go anywhere else then. Yeah. Once they built that with you.
[00:17:23] So if I wanted to take a back step from it, a back seat from it, step back from it, it’s impossible. Because they just want you. And that’s the hard part of being in my industry. Certainly. Because you have that rapport. Rapport with your patients and they don’t wanna see anybody else. Right.
[00:17:38] It’s just gotta be you. And what I didn’t do, Very consciously was I didn’t then, you know, raise all my prices up. Crazy star. I didn’t even raise it at all. I still charge now what I charged six years ago because I didn’t want to suddenly be a bellend, pardon of my French, and just be like, right, well if you wanna see me, it’s now gonna cost you 300 pounds just to walk through the door.
[00:17:58] I was like, nah, bro. The whole point of me doing this was to make it. Better for everybody else. So I’m still the same guy. Come in and we’re still charge you the same. Stop it.
[00:18:10] Thanks. So, yeah it, that was a challenging part, but we just got so much busier. But then it’s about delegating and then my existing patient base, they started to see that as well. And for them it made big improvements as well. No one missed appointments anymore. Let me tell you my friend, no more missed appointments.
[00:18:28] So, yeah, that was good. And they. It was, I could see it on the comments as well. Occasionally someone would go, he’s my dentist, and they were like, he’s not. Yeah, he is. I could see that. It was so much fun that the comments, so yeah it, it made everything crazy style and then other opportunities start to come off the back of it.
[00:18:44] I literally became probably, I wouldn’t say the most famous dentist in the world, but probably one of, maybe top five for sure. And in within dentistry, dude, I’m like, Drake. I am the drizly of dentistry. My friend, lemme tell you, when I go to the N E C for the dental show, oh my God, that shit gets shut down.
[00:19:05] Lemme tell you. Yeah, no it was a lot. It’s a lot. And lots of opportunities came. Working with brands came along. Lecturing. I’m quite a shy person. I don’t even notice I’m, I could tell, I, I have difficulty public speaking, so, but no I used to teach before, but then suddenly more people want me to come and teach and do stuff and talk about teeth because, you know, the rooms would get packed out.
[00:19:27] So it’s helped me do a lot of stuff. I’ve launched like three other businesses off the back of it. Within dentistry, we have a training academy now where we run courses on cosmetic dentistry. I have dental products that are out there. We have a medical scrub company now, so you can look the part as well as feel the part.
[00:19:44] So yeah we you launched a book, right? Yeah. And I’ve got a book. Yeah. Bloody, oh, that book thing. That was amazing. So I’ve got a book deal, like a proper book deal with an actual publisher. I was on the ra, I was on like radio two, I think, doing a show and talking about stuff. And then as soon as I finished the show, the publisher just called me and said, you are so.
[00:20:00] Hilarious. Have you ever thought about writing a book? I was like, well, I did get a in G C S E English, so I’m sure I could do it, mate. Writing a book is no joke. Lemme tell you. It’s so hard when I would just sit in front of the screen and go, when the hell am I gonna write about? How’d you start? But I can talk.
[00:20:15] So I had a friend who did write books, so I was like, dude, can you help me write this thing? So he’d come to my house and we’d just talk for three hours, whereas he’d Dictaphone and everything. And then two weeks later, I’d have three chapters. It was amazing. Nice. But it sound, it was me.
[00:20:27] It sounded like me. ’cause it was my voice. And I’d then tweak it and it took a while to put this book together, but we did it. And actually, what’s it all about? So it’s called, the Whole Tooth Gets Me Every Time. So, and the follow up is, and nothing but the tooth. Yes. I don’t have a follow up, but maybe we should get one because the title’s amazing.
[00:20:49] Yeah, so it’s just the, it’s about dentistry. But a kind of another look at dentistry, things that you wouldn’t necessarily think so, like what goes on backstage at a clinic. People dunno, you turn up, the guy prods you and you leave. But just for him to be able to prod you, there’s so much that goes on all day long.
[00:21:06] And I want to give people an insight into the actual science of dentistry. What goes on in a dental clinic. There’s some myths. We bust and there’s a whole history of dentistry. I had to research actually what dentistry was and how it came about, and there were some mad practices that I didn’t even know was a thing.
[00:21:20] So that’s a really interesting chapter. It’s a little bit about me and kind of how I got into it, my story, but mostly it’s about just teeth and why teeth are actually amazing and why the mouth should be taken more seriously. Because we dissociate the mouth a little bit from our overall health. It’s a bit weird, you everyone knows about their heart, their lungs, their kidneys, their liver, their bones, their all the other organs, but you don’t think of the mouth as an organ and it’s vital.
[00:21:47] Without that, you are screwed. You ain’t eating, you’re not drinking, you’re not talking, you’re not communicating, you’re not smooching.
[00:21:55] So it’s a very, you look after, yeah, you gotta look after the mouth. But people don’t, and I think it’s because you go to your doctor mouth and eyes because you go to your doctor for everything except your teeth. And your eyeballs. But still, if you have a problem, medical problem with your eyes, you’re still back in hospital.
[00:22:12] But with dentistry, it’s always in, in a high street clinic, you’re just walking down a high street and seeing a dentist, so it feels a bit dissociated. And I wanted to put the mouth back in the body and say, look, guys, treat the mouth just like every other part of your body and take it serious. Invest in it because it’s such an important part of your body that we don’t think about it that way.
[00:22:29] And that’s a little bit about what the book’s about, just raising the profile of a mouth and even the tooth, those tiny little things in the mouth. They are un unbelievable structures, so I’m not like a tooth file or something, tooth file. But no they’re just amazing. So I wanted to let people know, look man, look after your teeth and it’ll look after you.
[00:22:47] Yeah. Awesome. So, yeah, so
[00:22:48] Adam Stott: that, so it’s led onto a book, it’s led onto Yes.
[00:22:50] Milad Shadrooh: Which is available on all good book outlets, by the way. The whole tooth. Yeah,
[00:22:54] Adam Stott: the whole tooth, yes. It’s led onto a book. It’s led onto you working with some big brands. Right. So a lot of the major brands like Listerine and Colgate.
[00:23:02] That’s right. Isn’t it? Oral B. You’ve gone on to work with them directly. Yep. How did that come about? Do you wanna talk a little bit about the opportunities up?
[00:23:09] Milad Shadrooh: So the brand work It. It would just come because they’ve seen the videos. Yeah. And then they’ll think because dentistry historically has been very boring.
[00:23:17] And it’s anxiety inducing for people, right? People don’t like going to the dentist. They find it scary. They find it nerve wracking. So for me it was about how we can bring some fun into it and show people that dentists are just normal people like you as well. And we can have a laugh and we are not horrible people there to just hurt you and take your money.
[00:23:34] So, because brands historically, dental brands have been very. Boring in a lot of what they do because the parent company of a dental company is always a pharmaceutical company, and pharmaceutical companies are just dry. So the adverts they put out are just dead, and the way they do their marketing is just a little bit old fashioned.
[00:23:54] And then, Suddenly there’s this funny dude that sings songs about teeth and people engage with, and he’s actually talking to people on a level where they’re listening. So for them it was like, let’s see what we can do with him. And a lot of them would give me freedom within my space to just come up with funny ways of doing it.
[00:24:10] And then that comes down to, I guess, my creativity. I’ve got an amazing team. We get together and we think about what content would work well. They’ll give us a brief of what they want us to talk about. And because I’ve got the dental knowledge, But I can make it fun and relatable. It just worked well for brands.
[00:24:25] We would, we, I’d work with them on projects and look at what they want to get across and then find the best way of getting that across to people. And I love that. That’s my favorite thing to do is gimme a brief and then let me come up with some content for it. ’cause it allows me to, Let the creativity flow and just see what comes out.
[00:24:40] And to have that creative license to do that, it’s really good. And some brands would’ve seen me on telly. So for a long period I was like the TV dentist guy. So I did this morning and Good Morning Britain and or any news outlets I’d be the guided wheel out. But with that stuff, it’s always reactionary.
[00:24:55] So there’ll be something in the press about teeth. Oh. Children’s teeth is really bad. Again, it’s been bad for eight years and nothing’s been done about it. It’s so bad. Now, n h s dentistry, you cannot find n h s dentist anywhere, so let’s bring this guy out to talk about it. So it’s always that, as opposed to them, we’ve gone back to them and say, listen, we could do a whole piece of mouth cancer.
[00:25:14] It’s like the fourth most common cancer. And if you get it and don’t know, your life is miserable if you survive. Let’s talk about it. ’cause everyone knows about breast thises. Everyone knows about testes. Yeah. Let’s talk about mouth. ’cause whether you’re a man or woman, you have a mouth and you can check it every day, but no one knows how to and no one does it.
[00:25:36] How do we do it then? Well, so, so you need basically smokers. Heavy smokers, heavy drinkers, and a combination of both. You are at the highest risk of developing mouth cancer, right? That’s fine. But anybody can still get it and it’s the biggest alarming thing is a ulcer that doesn’t heal. After about two weeks, I.
[00:25:56] So if you get an ulcer in your mouth, it’s gonna be painful. First couple of days checking. Yeah, right. It’s gonna be painful for the first two or three days. Then after that, it won’t be painful. And if after two weeks it hasn’t gone, go and see your dentist and get it checked. And it’s in gutter areas. So areas that are hard to see.
[00:26:11] So what you wanna do is stick your tongue out and turn it to one side. And look down the whole side of one. Look down the side of your tongue. Look down the other side of the tongue, lift the tongue up. Have a look underneath it, because that’s what ulcers like to lurk. The mean ones, and then right at the back of your mouth, behind where your last tooth would be.
[00:26:28] Check that and then on your palate. So you can do that every time you brush your teeth at nighttime. So do your brush, do your floss, spit out. Have a look. Stick your tongue out. Look to the side. Look underneath. Look at the back. Look at your cheeks. Look at your lip. You’re done. Take 20 seconds. Nice. And then if you see something that you don’t like, check it.
[00:26:45] If it’s still there, after two weeks, go and see your dentist. Nice because that could genuinely save your life and do it for your elderly family because it could save their life because it’s such a, it’s such a horrible cancer ’cause it’s so close to your lymph nodes. It very quickly spreads and in treatment of it, you’re literally removing like half of someone’s face, quality of life after that, if you survive, it is terrible.
[00:27:04] So catching it earlier, so, so important, but it’s so neglected. But how many of you knew about it up until five minutes ago? One, no. Two, three. Yeah. Because she’s in mental. Four in a room of how many people. Yeah. But how many of you know about breast cancer and how to check for it and Yeah. Yeah.
[00:27:18] Downstairs cancer. Right? Everything else. Skin cancer. Yeah. But oral cancer is just so neglected. Yeah. And it’s such an important part. But you go back to the news people, you’re like, put me on the tele, let do five minutes on it. I can bring you a patient whose life is drastically changed. Let’s do a case study.
[00:27:30] Let’s tell people and show them how to check it. It’s not, it’s mad, isn’t it? Right. Glamorous enough sometimes. So yeah, that’s what I’m trying to do with dentistry is just educate people on it. That’s awesome. And
[00:27:39] Adam Stott: I think the. You know, the growth. How did it feel to. Have that opportunity coming right. For you.
[00:27:46] Had you been working quite hard in your business prior? And was that really a liftoff moment for you?
[00:27:53] Milad Shadrooh: Yeah, so I, my business journey is quite unique as well. So in dentistry, you basically, you do five years of uni. And then you qualify as a dentist and then you have to do a one year training vocational training, they call it foundation training now.
[00:28:06] And that’s done in a clinic with an FD trainer. So as a dentist with experience who kind of takes you under their wing and shows you what to do in the real world. ’cause university dentistry and real world dentistry two compete different things. So you have that one year where you treat patients on the N H s and you learn a lot of your skill in that one year.
[00:28:22] Then after that, you’re free to do whatever. Some people stay in hospital dentistry and become specialists. Other people will go and carry on in A N H SS clinic. Other people will go out and set up a squat, dental practice privately and start marketing and get patients. So different things you can do. My journey, I, my plan was to go to America because I’ve got family there and I wanted to leave the uk.
[00:28:42] The weather’s bad. Like I just had family that I wanted to go and live in California, but the year I qualified, they changed the whole system. It used to be just exams and then if you know the exams, you get your Californian license. They changed it to two years university and it’s like $70,000 a year.
[00:28:56] I was like, God, I’m already in debt now. I can’t have another like 200 grand worth of debt. So I thought, what am I gonna do? And then a, my oral surgery tutor was like, look, there’s a friend of mine in Baying Stoke. And he’s looking for an associate. And I was like, what the hell is Baying Stoke Ralph?
[00:29:10] I’m from London, uba. Tell me about, and then I went to see Baying Stoke and it was all right. It was quite a nice part of town and I thought, all lemme, I’ll take this job. You on the job? Yeah, all I’ll have a job. Sweet. So I got a job 2004. So before you even qualified, I had a job and I’m still there now.
[00:29:24] It’s still the same clinic from when I qualified. So my trainer then four years later, sold to me even after a, the first couple of months said, look, if you ever wanna buy this business, it’s yours. You can have it. I was like, oh my God, what an amazing opportunity. So he sold me the business. He sold me the freehold of the building as well.
[00:29:40] Nice. And in 2000, so I started, 2004, 2008, he made me a partner. 2010, I bought everything off of him. And 2012 I started to specialize my practice into more cosmetic dental. And I’ve been there ever since. And we’ve added another surgery since and brought in loads of other dentists and specialists and things.
[00:29:58] And we’ve expanded the business a lot. So it started out just me and him, but I think all in about 18 members of staff now, just in the one site. And we kind of, people come in and out and we manage it. We’ve got loads of nurses and it’s all right. It’s good now, touch wood, but it’s got, it’s gone for a big transition and he became my associate then.
[00:30:15] So that role reversal was interesting, but I kept it as a partnership. Because I didn’t want, he’d been there like 30 years and I didn’t want his patients or his status to feel like it had changed or flipped. So people knew I was now part of the management team, but I didn’t want it to feel like he was now insignificant.
[00:30:35] I. Because he’d done so much for me. I ade him, he was like my mentor, right? So I didn’t want him to ever feel like he didn’t have that status. So we just kept it as a partnership, even though it was a hundred percent mine. So that’s important as well. Nice. And yeah, COVID came along. And shit on everything, didn’t it?
[00:30:50] So that was nice. So yeah, the covid big changes happened during Covid for us, is we had to shut down. Like we weren’t allowed to see patients. Everything closed for three months. We weren’t allowed to see people. People were in terrible situations, toothache, broken teeth. They just couldn’t come in.
[00:31:03] We’re like, dude, this is nonsense. It’s madness. We are probably the safest place to go. We’ve been wearing masks all, you’re not wearing masks now. I’ve been wearing masks for 10 years on my head. Like I’m used to this horrible existence in a mask. Like, why can I not see patients? We wear gloves, we wipe everything down.
[00:31:19] Everyone’s going, Tesco with a little mask on, but you can’t come into my clinic, which is sterilized to death. It was so dumb. It was just such a, Ugh, it was such a bad time. And patients said, all we could do is triage people. Oh. What’s the problem? I’m in pain. I’m dying, my face is hanging off. Have you done a hot salt, walty rinse?
[00:31:37] What is that nonsense? So that was a hard time for dentistry, man. And he retired at that time as I’m just too long in the game for this nonsense now, and I’m out. So that’s when he left. And yeah, we recovered from Covid, thankfully. And nothing’s changed. It’s still basically the same.
[00:31:52] The only thing that changed was the attitudes to dentistry. N h s Dentistry died when Covid came along. And that’s sadly the situation we’re in now. No dentist wants to service the n h s anymore because of that. And that’s why everyone’s struggling to find n h s dentists now. So the business of dentistry is massively changed in the uk Yeah.
[00:32:07] And they have to do something about it. ’cause it’s, there’s always gonna be people that just cannot access it and just don’t have the funds to pay privately. But on the flip side of it, dentistry is a business. It’s a healthcare business, but it’s a business. When you go to the hospital, it’s all funded by trusts and government money.
[00:32:25] I pay the bills. Me is me. Yeah. It’s a one man thing in my job. So if I’m not making a profit, no one’s getting seen. We shut down and then where are you gonna go? So yeah, that’s the hard thing when it’s healthcare. Because you’ve gotta charge people to look after them. Yeah.
[00:32:41] Adam Stott: They get, they definitely understand that, right?
[00:32:43] Yeah. Yeah. So, so I think that, you know, it’s been absolutely amazing hearing this story, and I think the message really is for people, if you bring your character, I mean, as you got massive character, everyone, yes or no? Yeah. If you bring your character, if you bring your personality into what you do, It can make a massive impact on you really getting your message across.
[00:33:06] I will ask you this question ’cause I think it’s really important. How did you deal with haters or messages from people? Oh yeah. Where didn’t, weren’t as enthusiastic. Oh my gosh. Because it’s never one way, is it? Right? Yeah. No. How did you handle that? Were you ever affected?
[00:33:21] Milad Shadrooh: So that, that is a very good question and that is a major part of it because when you go viral or when you do something that’s so outside of the box and you put yourself out there, not everyone’s gonna like it.
[00:33:30] And even though there, there’s a group as well that I’ll talk about, which I call like the fake trolls. They don’t even not like you, they just enjoy trolling. So that’s their hobby. Yeah. And then if you actually, I used to ignore all of it. I mean, I’d get some mad stuff though. Let’s find this guy and shoot him in the face.
[00:33:47] I’m like, wow, what happened to you bro? That you have this much like anger and aggression. Yeah. Did, did you lose your eyebrows? And now you have a problem with anybody with fantastic eyebrows? What is it with you? Anyway, so yeah, I’d get all sorts of bad, not this guy again. I want to, you know, punch him, let’s find out where he lives and you know, kidnap his kids.
[00:34:06] Honestly, mad stuff. It genuinely, and I mean this, it never affected me good because, I just know what social media is. I know what the world is and I know there’s people there, and there’d be, I would never reply, I’d never respond. I’d never get into it because that’s kind of the reaction they want.
[00:34:20] Yeah. So when you don’t reply, they get no reaction. They’ll just go control someone else. Yeah. But very occasionally, if I was in a cheeky mood, I’d be like, let’s have a little fun with this one right here and see what he says. So he, they’ll say something horrible and I’d reply like a, as if it was a computer.
[00:34:33] Thank you so much for your comment. This is the singing dentist and you know, we really appreciate your comment at this time. You know, how can I help? And genuinely I’d get, oh my God, you replied. I. I was like, bro, you just threatened to kill me and now you want to be, you wanna be friends?
[00:34:47] I’m like, yeah, I did reply. What’s up? He goes, oh mate, I’ve got the terrible thing with my teeth. Anything you can do. I was like, ah, send me a picture, man.
[00:34:54] And then they become a patient. I. Like I call security when they come in. You get me. I’m not stupid. But they’ve, I’ve had loads of trolls that have now become patients and they genuinely say they only do it just to get a reaction and they do that to everybody and then see who kind of responds.
[00:35:07] And I wouldn’t recommend responding to every single troll in the world, but occasionally I just, I dunno, I’ve got a gut feeling about this one. I lemme just have some fun with it and sometimes, They would just carry on trolling and then I’d just carry on having some fun for a little bit and then sack ’em off.
[00:35:19] But you have to be quite mentally strong and obviously have a good support. Support network. My family are amazing. My wife is amazing with it all. She’s quite introverted, which I think works well because if there was two of us, like me, I. That would be a problem in the household, man. So, yeah she doesn’t want any of that stuff and so she kinda holds the foot in the background.
[00:35:39] And my dad is super happy ’cause he always knew music was my thing, but he really wanted, ’cause he’s a musician and it’s hard. Music is such a hard gay man. It does. Basically, he always taught me one thing. He goes, it takes luck to make it, it takes talent to. Stay there basically. And if you’re not lucky, there’s so many amazing, talented musicians that you’ll never hear of.
[00:35:57] And there’s some pony ones that get on the charts
[00:35:59] Adam Stott: that’s really interesting. So I interviewed Levi Roots recently, and he talked about combining music with food. And the key to his success was to combine the music and the food together. Exactly what you just said in terms of music with dentistry, because music provokes emotions, right?
[00:36:15] Absolutely. Which emotions are what Move people. And if you move someone, you can move someone to take action. So it’s, if you do have musical talent, I. There’s no doubt that certainly in your living proof of it, can really move the needle in terms of absolutely. Getting your message out further. Right?
[00:36:31] Milad Shadrooh: A hundred percent. And it’s a new way of giving a message that no one would kind of expect. So that’s why my dad is super chafed and super proud ’cause he’s seen what the music side that I always had has managed to blossom into something and it’s been through dentistry that’s done it. So he’s supergas and he takes a lot of credit.
[00:36:44] See son, I told you, stay up, be doctor dad’s always right. So yeah, he, so because I’ve got a strong family network and good friends. The negative stuff never bothered me, and, but the biggest reason why it never bothered me is because of all the positivity that came out of it. When you’re getting so many messages of people telling you how you’ve affected their life and you’ve changed their life, and their children are different because of you, and they’re different because of you and how positively you’ve impacted them.
[00:37:11] If you were getting a thousand crappy comments and one good one, you know, okay, maybe don’t get a thousand, but that one still makes a lot of difference. But if you’re getting a thousand amazing comments, And one or two shit ones, who cares? Yeah. About those ones because you’re making a big difference.
[00:37:29] Adam Stott: The struggle for a lot of people is they would, a lot of people actually focus on the negative.
[00:37:33] Yeah. Massive all the time and that is the issue. Right. And they don’t see the positive. And I think what you said, embracing the positive is definitely a good tip for everyone because you know, every time you don’t go and. Speak your message, you’re actually doing a disservice to the people that need to hear it.
[00:37:51] Right?
[00:37:51] Milad Shadrooh: Absolutely. And also it’s down to your mindset, right? How you perceive that. If you perceive a negative comment as an attack or as a slight on you, then that’s your, I think that’s your problem. Yeah. That’s your mindset that’s taken like that. If you flip that and take it as feedback it’s negative feedback, but it’s feedback and what you do with feedback.
[00:38:11] You listen to it, you learn from it, and you try and tweak it. Now, if someone says, I wanna kill you, that’s okay. How do I take that? Why does he want to kill me? Let me analyze that. It’s not that, but if someone gives you a negative bit of feed, you know, a bad comment, just look into it and think what could have triggered that emotion for them If it’s a serious one.
[00:38:29] And then look at what that happened, how that may have made them feel like sometimes. So my songs right? I use kind of comedy to want to inspire change, right? But let’s say someone is gappy and they’ve had a really tough time because they’ve lost teeth. The reason why they lost teeth, they might get offended by my song saying, you might be gappy if you don’t brush your teeth.
[00:38:49] So I get a message saying, well, I lost my teeth because of X, Y, Z, I had a road traffic accident. Right? Okay. So then I’ll respond to them and say, look, I totally understand what’s the situation now. And I’ll do my best to then try and help them, even though they may have been offended by my messaging.
[00:39:03] I say, this isn’t directed at you. I’m trying to change attitudes and perceptions of the preventable diseases. What you’ve had done what’s happened to you was a freak accident. So sorry to hear that, but how can I help you? What’s the situation now? Have you had your teeth replaced? No. Okay, well, he here, your options, where are you based?
[00:39:17] Skor. Okay, that’s not close to me, but have you had a chat with your dentist about X, Y, Z? ’cause these are your options. So I’ll take that negative and just try and help the person as much as possible. So it’s about putting time, but all of that is time. And that’s sadly free time. You ain’t getting paid for that on social media.
[00:39:35] Yeah, but you’ve gotta think of that as brand building. How much would you pay for marketing? Think of that as free marketing, because when you give time to people, your marketing, yourself and family members have gotta be on board. If you wanna go on that journey, they’ve gotta know this is work. And that’s when it becomes hard to juggle it because you’ve got your nine to five and then come seven o’clock, you’ve got another job on your phone.
[00:39:56] How did your family members take that?
[00:39:59] Adam Stott: Have the, and how have you managed it? Is there any techniques that you’ve used or any things you’ve done differently to manage that?
[00:40:04] Milad Shadrooh: Yeah, just conversations and letting them know that this is what it is and this is life. It’s hard. I think keeping a diary is probably your best bet.
[00:40:13] I have a couple of diaries. I have one that I use all the time. Then I have one that my beautiful management have set up that I never use, which is bad. Then I’ve got the most important one, the one that my wife writes in. Yeah. That lives in the kitchen. And she writes with a pen. Yeah. I’m like, babe, I’m not there.
[00:40:32] So how have you put this in? And I dunno, it’s happening, but it’s coordinating those diaries and putting in time for it. ’cause being on social media is work and I break it down into an hour, right? So if you don’t know what you’re doing that hour, I’ll take an hour and I’ll split it into four 15 minute segments.
[00:40:46] Nice. 15 minutes. I will look at my own profile, look at my analytics, look at what worked well, look at what didn’t, and start to come up with some content ideas. Another 15 minutes I will go and look at similar accounts to me. My competitors, I have none, but no, I’ll, you know, other dentists, what are they doing?
[00:41:04] How are they marketing? What type of content have they made? And then I’ll engage. So 15 minutes I’ll engage with other similar accounts. Then another 15 minutes I’ll engage with. Not similar accounts, but accounts I think are doing well. So in a completely different industry to me, but has some relevance.
[00:41:19] I look at fitness accounts, I’ll look at hospitality accounts because that first element of walking into the dental clinic is all hospitality. Forget teeth. If you don’t feel comfortable in my building, how am I gonna even do teeth on you? So I’ll look at hospitality. What are they doing well? What does their waiting rooms look like?
[00:41:33] What does that hotel lobby look like? And then I’ll engage with some of that. And in the last 15 minutes, again, I’ll go back and I’ll. As evaluate what I’ve learned in the last 30 minutes and look at some little trinkets I can take outta that for either content or for my own business.
[00:41:46] That’s one hour. Yeah. Lock off an hour a day and do that four, 15 minute chunks.
[00:41:52] Adam Stott: It’s having that preparation, that organization not getting lost. Yeah. And being a producer rather than a consumer. Absolutely. That wasn’t consumer mentality. That was producer
[00:42:00] Milad Shadrooh: dude that scrolling on that mindless scrolling on Insta just kills brain cells.
[00:42:07] A hundred percent and kills teeth. It. Well, yeah. ’cause you’re grinding. ’cause you’re so stressed. So you’ve gotta have a plan as to what you’re doing. And if it means cleaning up your social media account and just unfollowing people that are not relevant to what you’re doing, unfollow it. Yeah, and don’t feel no way because you can have a personal account and follow them, but on your business thing, it’s got to be relevant so you’re fed.
[00:42:27] ’cause the algorithm will feed you what it thinks you want. And if you’re mindlessly scrolling on nonsense, we’ll just keep feeding you more nonsense, which takes your time away from planning on what you should be doing with your business. So follow the relevant accounts, spend time doing it, and then when you’re gonna post, put a time aside.
[00:42:44] Your post can’t be, oh, lemme just post now and then, because I’m leaving the house post and bounce because you’re gonna ghost all of them comments that are come and it’s that first 10, 15 minutes where the engagement is so important after you’ve posted where that keeps it going. Because if people are engaging and then you engage back.
[00:43:01] The algorithm will think, okay, well this is an interesting post. ’cause it’s getting some hits on it. It’s getting some interaction on it. People are sharing it, people are saving it. So then it will show it to more people and then it’ll go from there. If you dead it off in 15 minutes, there is no bringing back to life a dead post.
[00:43:15] You can’t spend money on a dead post. It’s dead. You can only spend money. That’s why it’s called boosting. It’s not called C P R. Yeah, reviving. Reviving, yeah, exactly. It’s not reviving, it’s boosting. So the post has already gotta be doing well organically. Then you can put some pay behind it and boost it.
[00:43:31] And the way you get that organic is by you being present. And actually giving people time. Yeah. So that’s it. So how do you do it? Planning, put it in your diary. Know that’s what it is, and accept the fact that’s part of your job.