https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBSxnl4wTvk How EndoConnect Can Improve Endodontic Care for Both Practices and Patients Carrie: Welcome back to the Jameson Files. I'm your host, Carrie Weber. Dr. Randy Middleton, of Dallas, Texas, thank you so much for joining me today.  Dr. Randy Middleton is an endodontist in the Dallas Fort Worth area, and he has started a new company called EndoConnect. He is on a mission to help make the referral process of the endo needs in a general practice as easy as possible by providing a service that makes that in-house for general practices. Dr. Middleton, I'd love to learn a little bit more about your services through EndoConnect, but before we do that, let's back up a little bit and would you mind telling the listeners and viewers a little bit about your backstory? What led you to endodontics and what ultimately led you to the path that you're on today in your professional career? The Beginning of EndoConnect Dr. Middleton: So I found endodontics actually in dental school. It was something I was drawn to– the actual work itself, the meticulous nature of doing the actual procedures attracted me. So I just ran with it from there. That was probably my second or third year in dental school, so I had a lot of time to reflect on what practice life looks like. It never seemed right to me to duplicate everything that a general dentist has, an office, the chairs, the staff. Everything is literally a carbon copy, but down the street, and it just didn't seem right. I thought there's a better way for this. Patients don't like traveling. It's hard to collaborate on cases when you're down the street. So I always thought this would be something I did, and it's slowly building, so I'm excited for the future.  Carrie: So exciting! For some time, you've been doing this on your own. You’ve been going into the practices, you bring your assistance, you bring all of the equipment that you need, and you basically are collaborating and partnering with these practices, providing your endodontic services however many days a month that they need you there, correct? Dr. Middleton: That's right. It's interesting that it can grow organically, you know, just vendors and assistants and dentists. Everybody you know knows 10 more people, and it's really grown bigger than I thought it would without a whole lot of advertising, at least so far. Carrie: Yes. What's interesting to me is when this started taking off, had you known about this model before or is this something that you took the lead on and said, why don't I just come to you? How did this really begin? Dr. Middleton: Well, I kind of conceptualized it loosely in dental school and then residency. Then I was actually connected with a DSO, which had the same model. And I thought that I would just link up with them. And then as I got my footing there and learned the business side of it– things that I like and things that I can do better. And then it grew in parallel. It started with vendors, and I've found connections through hygienists that I've met. Word of mouth is very powerful. The Advantages of Formal Marketing Over Word-of-Mouth Carrie: That leads me to something interesting. You said just a minute ago that this has really started pretty organically. You made one connection, and then the word got out about you and that this was something that you would provide. You had mentioned that to this point it's been organic, but you are definitely a forward thinker in terms of all aspects of marketing your business. You really do put your own effort forward to help that word-of-mouth marketing grow. But also you're investing in your own marketing efforts and you've been trying to do that since I've met you. So how do you see marketing in terms of its role that it plays in your career in this particular approach to endodontics that you're taking? Dr. Middleton: Word of mouth isn't direct.