Dr Jason Collier of Southern Dental Implant Center: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Surgeon
Care for people and people will take care of you! I can think of countless times when I had a patient that was considered to be “difficult to deal with”. All of these people just want to feel heard, loved, respected, treated fairly and cared for. Although I haven’t been able to make everyone happy throughout my career due to unrealistic expectations…I have learned lessons in communication. I try to make all of my communication begin and end with my intent for love.
As part of my series about healthcare leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jason Collier.
Meet Jason Collier. A dental implant surgeon, single father of four, and now viral sensation with a simple mission: to spread goodness in the world, one cup of coffee at a time.
So how did this dentist find himself in the spotlight? Waking up one morning to texts, and comments from friends and family Jason found himself mistaken online for ANOTHER Jason Collier. In an effort to save his name, he created a post that soon went viral and brought thousands of others to have an interest in the “GOOD” Jason. After another video he posted went viral again, he figured he should use this leverage to give back, and “Good Guy Coffee” was born. Good Guy Coffee is a fair-trade, organic coffee company that gives back to organizations such as Children’s Hospital Women Against Abuse, and The Hoffman Process.
Tune in for “Coffee with Jason”, candid conversations with special guests on topics ranging from mindfulness, authenticity, presence, how to show up in relationships, entrepreneurship, wellness, health, meditation, and so much more. Jason is more than your average Joe spreading love through good conversation over a good cup of Joe.
Ride the wave with Jason, and follow him through his mission with his coffee, his dental implants, or tune into his new show, “Coffee with Jason.”
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! What is your “backstory”?
Of course. Thank you for your interest. So obviously there is a lot of back story that is extremely interesting…to me! LOL…and that is likely to be all who it would be interesting to. But seriously…it has been a magical road! I will however significantly cut it down to save room for everything else on the internet.
I was born the son of a father who was a welder/Vietnam marine veteran and a mother who has been a career nurse/nursing administrator. I played baseball as a boy…and had dreams of playing professional ball. At that age I did not know the power of a dream yet nor the power of a strong work ethic…and I allowed that dream to fade. The very next dream I adopted was that of becoming a surgeon…at age 11. Also at the age of 11 my father and lifelong best friend died very suddenly. It was on his 40th birthday, which also fell on Thanksgiving day. Later in life I was told that it was suicide…but did not know this as a young man. With a strong mother and loving support around me from others I progressively matured, made mistakes, grew, matured more, and never gave up my dream of becoming a surgeon. In college I learned how to study. I also learned the meaning of completely dedicating my life to something I strongly believed in and wanted for the ultimate goal of doing something greater than myself. I believed that in medicine I could be of very practical help to those in need, while also allowing me an avenue of helping the less fortunate…and use the natural abilities I had been given for good. After my first year in college I buckled down and became a studying machine! And I made excellent grades. As I approached the completion of my degree, I began to hear of certain aspects within the medical profession that I was not so excited about and turned me off to it in many ways…but then someone asked if I had ever considered dentistry. Really? Working in people’s mouths? Why would I want to do that? LOL
I decided to look into it more. Dentistry would allow me to do the same things I wanted within the general medical community. It would be very surgically related. It allowed me the opportunity to more practically own my own practice and control my environment. My schedule was much more flexible and relaxed. My family life would be much easier. The pay wasn’t too bad. It would allow me the opportunity to be a very practical help to people both medically and cosmetically. Being that I had always been very artistically driven, this excited me. Long story short, I took my entrance exam, did very well, got in on the first try, took to dental school like a baby duck on the water, taught underclassmen while still a student, graduated, while also focussing strongly on my continuing education. In doing so I received an award that I never knew existed…for receiving more continuing education than any other doctor in the state. Over time I became more and more skilled and specialized. The more I study and know, the more I realize what I do not know…while also finding better and better outcomes as I progress.
Can you share the interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
You know…people have a tendency to do and say the funniest things while sedated. My favorite was a sweet lady whom we had gotten to the state where she was very comfortable through the use of IV sedation. She was extremely happy with her results thus far. In an effort to show her appreciation she asked me if I would marry her. Certainly I very much appreciated the offer…but the moment was made slightly awkward due to the fact that her husband was in the corner of the room. I nervously looked over at him, relieved to see he was having a good laugh about it. Sheeew! That could have gone a number of different ways…but to end with everyone having a good laugh was the best case scenario.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
In my first few years in practice I gained a reputation for playing pranks on people in the office. One day after all of our patients had left for the day, my assistants got together and played one on me. My older assistant laid on the ground and pretended to be unconscious. One of my other assistants ran up to me and said we had an emergency. “It’s Donna. She went down to the lab.” She told me to hurry and started running down the hall. My mind immediately starts racing through all of my freshly studied emergency protocols. When I got to the lab, the light was off! Like what??? I stayed calm, got down to check on her and start my assessment. When I asked for the lights to come on, she had some kind of cream on her face to try to make me think she was foaming at the mouth or something. When I shook her to try to get a response, she tried to hold it in…but couldn’t. She and the rest of the team started laughing. I didn’t think it was as suuuuper funny as they did. The lesson I learned was to be careful playing too many pranks.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now?
I did just start a new coffee company recently called Good Guy Coffee. There is an interesting story that I tell about it on our website at www.GoodGuy.Coffee…but we sell an excellent fully organic, fair trade coffee out of Guatemala…and we are working on expanding soon! We have decided to give all of our profits to charity at least for the first few years. I am also working on a TV show project that is still currently under wraps but hopefully not for long.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
There was definitely not one person. There were so many! Two that stand out most though include my mother and a mentor through college name Paul Miller. I remember as a child my mother working with me on my homework every night. I learned to be thorough and to do something over and over until it was perfect. She taught me to carefully care for the sick and hurting through volunteering my time for multiple summers at the hospital. Here I grew to become comfortable with and love the medical field. As I grew and matured a friend and mentor stepped in as a significantly influential role in my life. He loved me as my authentic self…and encouraged me to dream big! He also led me where he could toward those dreams. Once while struggling with whether I had what it took to really achieve what I was dreaming about…he gave me an audio book called Goals, by Zig Ziglar. That short audio…changed. my. life. I listened to it over and over, took notes, and followed Zig’s advice…exactly. My life skyrocketed off from there! Thank you Paul Miller wherever you are!
Is there a particular book that made an impact on you? Can you share a story?
Goals, by Zig Ziglar was a major influence in my college years. More recently I have enjoyed The Way Of The Superior Man by David Deida and Awareness by Anthony De Mello. I guess I am too ADHD to read most books lol. I tend toward audio books. De Mello is such a good speaker and so funny…but also chops this book so full of wise insight. It doesn’t seem to matter where I start back into the book or how long it has been since the last time I listened. Every time I start back after a break I feel intellectually/spiritually fed within minutes. I am on my fifth time through the book I believe…and have my kids listening now too.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world? Soon after the purchase of my practice I decided to start a charitable program my team and I decided to call The Gift Of A Smile. I was looking for a particular way of using my unique skill set to give back to others. I had dentist friends who would volunteer for a day a year to de dentistry for the poor. I joined in a few of these efforts…but wanted to do more. The premise behind The Gift Of A Smile for us was to take nominations from individuals in our community for a potential candidate who had been serving their community or family in some extraordinary way. This person needed to have significant dental problems as well as the lack of funds to help themselves with it. We partnered with implant companies, bone graft companies, dental labs and dental supply companies as well as donated our time to provide the highest level of care we could come up with for that patient…and do it all completely free. On our first patient alone, we provided about $100,000 worth of free dental care at no charge…and changed her life. That taste for deep service became intoxicating for me…and we had to continue. We still take 1 patient a year to provide this level of care for…however some patients have rolled over into two years due to the extensive nature of what we provide.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story about how that was relevant to you in your own life?
On a sticky note over my light switch in my office I have the quote, “Eat the frog.” If you have to eat a frog, you can sit around in disgust over the fact you have to eat it. You can let it ruin your day, your week, your month…draining your energy and happiness that you could be fully devoting to other projects. The premise behind “Eat the frog” is if you know you have to eat a frog, don’t let it suck happiness from your life. Get it out of the way as soon as possible and move on to the things that bring you joy. Take the project you are dreading the most. Do that the first thing in the morning when you have your highest energy level…and the rest of your day you can pretty much guarantee will be downhill from there! I try to follow my own advice…but…obviously need the reminder on my office wall.
Can you share your top three “lifestyle tweaks” that will help people feel great?
Meditate, get to know and love your deep spiritual self, workout, eat fairly healthy :-), engage in a career that is a rewarding outlet for you, try to think outside the box just a little, let loose on occasion, and love hard and invest in those that are closest to you. That is my life in a nutshell.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Care for people and people will take care of you! I can think of countless times when I had a patient that was considered to be “difficult to deal with”. All of these people just want to feel heard, loved, respected, treated fairly and cared for. Although I haven’t been able to make everyone happy throughout my career due to unrealistic expectations…I have learned lessons in communication. I try to make all of my communication begin and end with my intent for love.
- Find an excellent consultant. Hire them early. Take out a loan if you have to…and follow their advice. A colleague of mine recommended a consultant to me midway through my career. When I looked into this consulting firm, I found it was very expensive. I put it off for years. One year I just decided I was ready to go to the next level and bit the bullet. It was a scary move but has now nearly doubled my yearly income after finding myself flat lined for years.
- Hire great people. Hiring great staff has been key to my success in caring for patients and building a business. I have hired people with decades of experience and I have hired people with non dental experience. The most important element that I have found is to hire people with the best attitude and work ethic. Everything else can be taught. Once I hired a waitress from a restaurant simply because she had such great customer service and I could tell she was sharp. She caught on quicker than anyone I had ever hired and became one of my best assistants to this day.
- I have learned to not be afraid to fire someone that needs to be released. People need to be allowed and encouraged to experience who they are to the fullest, and should be given the full freedom to do so. Sometimes that is under the employment of someone else. This was such a hard lesson for me and still is. But it is so important for their success as well as your own.
- When you have good team members, praise them and pay them well. A weakness of mine is to get focussed on a task or a goal and sometimes forget to encourage those in the trenches with me. Sometimes I am reminded by others or ideally remind myself that those people need to have deposits made into their emotional bank accounts more than withdrawals are made. All of the advice just given all comes down to again…loving people…and they will take care of you as well. I try to make it all start with love.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I would start the self awareness and love movement. Most of my poorer choices in life have stemmed from a lack of self awareness and love while the majority of my great decisions have come from their presence. The Hoffman Institute was an extremely powerful influence in my life toward self growth. I wish everyone could have that same experience…and would therefore be central to my movement.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
One of my favorite people on the planet is Dolly Parton. She is talented, completely authentic, loving, kind, successful yet humble and has given so much back to others. She is an inspiration to anyone…and in my own state of Tennessee! Dolly, let’s make it breakfast ok?
Dr Jason Collier of Southern Dental Implant Center: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
