Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Radical Podcast - EP 12 - Ryan Interviews Dr. Rich Constantine

Episode Date: December 7, 2018

In this episode, Ryan Alford sits down with Dr. Rich Constantine, aka Dr. C, to talk about his viral dance videos, the marketing machine that has evolved, and some of the key experiences along the way. If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. 

Hey guys, this is Ryan Alford with the Radical Company Podcast. Super excited about today's podcast. I'm with good friend and client, Dr. Rich Constantine. You may know Dr. C as he's now known. I might call him doctor. I might call him C. I might call him, damn it. I don't know. You know what? I'm getting mad at him, but Rich, really appreciate you being on the podcast. Appreciate you having me, man. Cool. We've got a lot of topics we want to get into with Rich. We want to keep it conversational. It's been a whirlwind four months for Dr. C.

You know, as most people that are probably listening to the podcast or have followed any of our other content, they know that Rich has been a client of mine across a couple different agencies for right at probably two years, at least in a consultative role on his marketing, doing videos and different things. And then the summer happened and everything blew up. Rich had a little piece of content go viral and you may or may not have seen it, or a song by Drake. But Rich did what he does well, actually.

I'm jealous, even to this day, of his dance skills. You know, I don't mind saying that man to man. But did the In My Feelings, it was the Fillings Challenge, actually, over the summer. It was late July. And 150 million views later, just on Facebook, you know, the world's changed a lot. And, Rich, I'm going to walk back to that a minute. You know, a lot of our listeners, you and I have been through this on you know a lot of talk shows we did Steve Harvey we'll get into all that but

walk I mean walk through a little bit for kind of people listening kind of what's what happened you know over the summer like I know you know you and I talked about getting your content out there more. I'll take the credit for giving you a tripod to video stuff. But in all fairness, and saying, hey, you've got to get your image out there. But talk through kind of just where this all started, and we'll bring it full circle with everything else. Yeah, I think it was a real crash course because you know we had talked in the past about the importance of of Instagram

I had only been a Facebook guy in the past and you know I I knew what kind of you had advised me to do I would take a picture when it was convenient, something that we thought was interesting or fun around the office. But there was no rhyme or reason to when we took a picture or posted it. There was no schedule on how we did things. Fast forward to the day that the girls in the office encouraged me to do the challenge and I didn't even intend to post that but I set that phone up and I filmed myself doing the dance so no one would see me and

the girls put it on our social media accounts and then You called me that evening and said hey man, have you seen this? I didn't know what you're talking about and I was like, it's not a big deal You called me that evening and said, hey man, have you seen this? I didn't know what you were talking about. And I was like, it's not a big deal. I'm going to keep watching this movie I'm watching and maybe I'll talk to you tomorrow. You called me the next morning and said, yeah, I think you need to take a look at this. And from there, it just took off. And I had no idea what could have come from that.

And you really helped navigate through all that because I wouldn't have had a clue. Well, it was interesting, you know, just to give a little more background. You know, I was the ad man on Rich's page. You know, we had started working together for a while, but just were ramping up. We had done a really nice branded video piece for you. We had talked about doing some other videos. We'd been coaching on the channel. So I was already an admin on the page.

We'd run some ads. We'd done a couple of different things. And so my phone started pinging immediately. It was a Thursday I mean this was like right on coming to a weekend my phone started pinging because I get notifications like when people like something or comment and it was like I was like what is going on I didn't even know you know that it was your account my phone I think I was in another client meet I don't know what was going on and that's when it was like three o'clock or four o'clock and I was like

going on and that's when it was like three o'clock or four o'clock and I was like okay Houston we have a not a problem but something's happening here and you had messaged me I think I sent you a text or something and you know you'd said yeah I was going to post this video and I was like yeah well yeah it's like after you post it something, I don't remember every second of it. All I remember is the notifications going and like, we need to get together and get our arms around this. Yeah. And at that point, I still didn't know what you meant. Get our arms around what? I posted a video.

Some people were watching it. What's the big deal? Yeah. Well, the big deal was we had a million people that had engaged with it by the next morning. And some of our numbers that have come since then make that even seem a little small now, as funny as that seems. But when you're a dentist in Greenville, South Carolina, and you have a million impressions or engagement within 24 hours of anything, and no offense to the dental community there is but but nonetheless we we had to get our arms around it and you know it kind of went into

that mode we met you know that morning and I'm like you know this is something you know like do you want to run with this thing and you know we kind of just put a action plan I said you know because you know once things go viral it's it kind of happens in a moment and the news cycle will catch up with it pretty quickly but we kind of lit the fire a little bit you know I worked most of that weekend just like hanging all the news outlets and I think by Monday it was Monday we did did Good Morning America. And then Inside Edition after that. For people listening, I think it would be interesting for them to know.

And I know that it was a surprise and you weren't ready for it. No one's ever ready for it. But what was going through your mind? Once we met, I was like, here's what this means. Here's what we need to do. And we kind of started mapping out that plan though was it like I know it was excitement but what was kind of the mindset it was yeah it was super exciting although you know although I'm not as much of an attention guy so it was a little bit concerning because I didn't really I was nervous about you know putting myself out there because I it was just weird to

me that people were so into it I guess yeah um but at the same time when you have that amount of interest in anything that you do it's something positive you know you want to make the most of it and that was that was something that you do that's something positive you know you want to make the most of it and that was that was something that you guys really helped me with because i didn't know i didn't know how to make something good out of something silly yeah um so but the whole experience was was great people family friends seeing me on news outlets that I never thought I would be asked to be on especially for something like that yeah well what's it you know like I've done I've been in marketing for 17 years and I've never I've been at agencies working with big clients and it

prepared me for knowing what you're supposed to do in certain situations but viral and the real-time moment of all of those things requires you to kind of like condense air you know it's kind of like it couldn't speak more about today like everything's condensed everything's now but it was like this culmination of requires you to kind of like condense, you know, it's kind of like you couldn't speak more about today. Like everything's condensed, everything's now. But it was like this culmination of PR, marketing, like next steps that kind of got us into it. It also became like controlling the message a little bit because let's face it. And, you know, let's just get this out there. You're a good looking guy and but you're a married

guy and you know you're doing a dance and you know the message could have gone a lot of different ways real quick not that it wasn't already and it's not that a lot of your fans of course you know we're human beings we're sexual creatures and all this so let's not put that you know and act like that's not there but I think the importance of what we were able to do was really to control the message and spin it towards the positivity and the fun of dentistry. And, yeah, he's a good-looking guy, and, yeah, we're dancing to pop culture and to tunes and all that,

but this isn't a sexual message. This is about raising awareness that dentistry doesn't a sexual message this is about raising awareness that dentistry doesn't have to be boring that that that we can turn this into a positive and I feel like you know that that really worked in our favor yeah I'm super thankful you know for the way that you guys are able to help me do that because when we did the dance you know dance, it's for our patients. We do fun stuff like that around the office because we get it. People don't look forward to coming to the dentist a lot of time.

A lot of the time they have anxiety because they don't know how they're going to be treated. They don't feel like they're part of a family that wants to take care of them. And that was really why we did the dance in the first place. And then, you know, we saw all the comments on Facebook. You're like, you know, the attention is great, but we don't know if we want that kind of attention. Yeah. But, you know, let's try to use let's try to use this this attention, this this platform to

to really communicate the message and do some good things. You guys have been integral in helping me do that. To that end, I know you and Trish both lost a parent to cancer.

That was really important. You guys were already active in the community in that regard, but talk to the foundation, kind of the passion behind that, and kind of where that kind of came into play with what we were doing. Yeah, so the more time we've spent here in Greenville, let me back up. When we first moved here, within

a year of having moved here, we both lost a parent within that first year. And it was tough, but the great thing was that our parents got to see what Greenville was all about and why we were so happy to relocate here from our hometowns, which was really special to us that they kind of saw what we saw in Greenville. And after we lost them, we wanted to find a way to honor their memory and be involved in the community here, and just as our parents were in our hometowns. And Greenville is such an amazing place as far as cancer research goes because we have such top-notch facilities here, you know, that

really help with that. And so we looked into ways that we could, you know, contribute to that. And before it was just, you know, us donating some time and some some money to some of the the local organizations that put on events but then when this happened um you know it allowed us to move up in our timeline what we've always wanted to do and that was to create something of our own to help give back so smile on cancer was born um we you know kind of everything that we'll kind of walk through like some of the the process you know the the viral video happens and you know we decided to keep doing the dances and doing the content to kind of keep it out there uh i think we averaged um what i think is a facebook record um uh 10 million engagement on like every average of every post

even to this day. Again for a dentist in Greenville. And so we keep the content going. We start Smile on Cancer immediately as the benefactor or a large percentage benefactor of what comes from the notoriety and the fame and all of that around you know we had continued the PR effort and we ended up talking with Steve Harvey's producers I remember you and I had a call with

I am the Jones to start you know she had reached out to us through the social channels just loving the message and all that. I mean, what goes through your mind? I mean, you know, again,

I mean, you've been out there and you've been marketing and you own your own business so you've been successful but I think even successful people, what was the mindset of, okay,

Steve Harvey wants me to be on the show? Like, what's the thought process? Well, it was wild because you go from a guy that is self-conscious, doesn't want the three team members in his office watching him dance, so he sets up his camera in his office and dances alone, to then realizing that you may be on national television and being asked to do the dance again.

So you really have to really get your gang face on and realize what's happening. Because if Steve wants to dance, we're going to dance. Yeah, we're going to dance, right? But, you know, being a business owner and having, you know, all of that and then this on top of it, you want to get everything right and it's, you know, important to have the right people around you to help navigate through all that. And when you don't have any experience in any of that and you don't want to miss out on any opportunities it gets a little bit overwhelming you know we the the foundation was just a thought and you guys really helped Trish and I put it together and not only put it

together but put it together in a short amount of time so that we could get it out there and make the most of it because you know you're getting ready to go on national television hey let's let's mention the foundation which is what we want this all to be about you know and to talk about the experience with Steve I mean people who watch the episode I mean another we had five million engagement, like, just posting the episode alone. So, I mean, a lot of people have seen it. But what did you think of the overall experience, you know, being on Steve? It was amazing.

You know, a lot of the stuff we saw out there is stuff we've only seen in movies and on TV. a lot of the stuff we saw out there is stuff we've only seen in movies and on tv you had spent some time out there before so you were able to show us around in a short short period of time but the show itself although i was really nervous iantha and the whole crew there and even ste Steve himself were just super, super nice. They made us feel way more important than we were. We really felt like we were someone famous. I was really impressed. I mean, I've been in the business, and I'm not doing the Steve Harvey show

with clients every week either, but I was really impressed with their team. And, you know, even if it was, you know, a viral moment or even if they saw the bigger, you know, if it was you know a viral moment or even if they saw the bigger you know presence of dr. C and the foundation I they made us feel important you know and and I was very impressed with that overall and I thought Steve was great and they followed the narrative you know that the positivity in the story of the foundation and I mean they they were first-class yeah and just to give you guys an idea, they flew us out there, they put us up in a nice place, we had transportation to the studio,

gave us our, you know, our own little room there for the pre-show and people walking in and out, you know, kind of prepping you on what you're going to be asked and making you feel comfortable. It was just a really, really cool experience to have. Well, your agent did say, this is Dr. C, motherfucker. Oh, no. You know what we're doing? We need the primo room. No, they didn't. We didn't have to do any of that. They just did it themselves. No, but that was a fun trip. We got to tour Hollywood a little bit.

We went up to the conservatory and nothing else. We made another great video. I almost got arrested for it. Hey, hey. Flying the drone over the grip of the conservatory? That's not legal? Apparently not. Apparently not. But they let us get away with it. Well, I told you, I said I like to ask for forgiveness and not permission.

Yeah. And that's what we were doing. It did. It made that video look hot though. Yeah, it did. But, you know, I think that's actually an interesting turn. I think, you know, the Radical Company being, you know, our agency, you know, we're a company that's really, you know, we're a company that's really, you know, I think that's actually an interesting turn.

I think, you know, Radical Company being, you know, our agency podcast and trying to blend in the marketing. What's been related to your stuff, I think what's been new, and, you know, we were trying to get you in that mental headspace before the dance that made it all happen. But it's the content headspace. I mean, made it all happen but it's the con the content headspace i mean you now know the content word and you know and thinking about every moment much like this podcast that we're filming we've got on live stream we're doing all that thinking about every moment as an opportunity to capture and to create content and i think that's been a that's been a learning process and oh yeah and it's still still definitely a work in progress because you know I'm I've never been I'm never gonna be a guy that documents every single moment and I

don't think you have to be that but now I catch myself when Trish and I go to an event or go to something like maybe we should just get a couple pictures, you know, just to have. I saw some pictures last night, actually. Yeah. I was like, why didn't we have one or me or somebody up there taking some photos? Yeah, well, I posted it, and I was like, I hope he's proud of me. Proud and disappointed. It was a little like a moment where we need a videographer there.

But that's okay. What he's talking about is last night we had the Greenville Givers game gala for Special Olympics at the Hyatt which is a really good event with lots of lots of there. So, yeah. Did they have a good turnout for that? Yeah, it was a good turnout. I don't know. This is the first time we were invited by a friend of ours to attend. It was our first time there.

But I don't know if they have it every year or not. So let's talk about some of the transition of where we've gone. I mean, let's just be raw about the dancing portion of it. Let's just talk about it. You're a good dancer, but you're a dentist and you want to be taken seriously. That's been a struggle a little bit for you, hasn't it? Yeah, it has been. You know, you don't want to be the dancing bear at the circus

when you're trying to be the ringmaster, you know. Yeah. Or the lion, I guess. But, you know, at the same time, you need to open, you know, I find that I need to open my mind up to to You know keeping that level of interest up doesn't necessarily have to be the dancing but I think the reason why I don't like the dancing is because I'm just

I May have rhythm but I don't have the confidence in my dance skills, and I don't want to just be this dancing dentist. I'd rather be the good dentist that people know does good dentistry and treats his patients well that can dance. So it's one of those. And that's been the balance. It's like you can't abandon the Ferrari that got you there. But, you know, and we've been taking that turn, you know, back to more of the lifestyle side of things.

We started just Ask Dr. C at episode two coming out, I think today. We've had good response to that. But there has been that balance of, you know, and I think it's mainly, honestly, as we've delved into it more, I think it's the perfectionist in you a little bit that probably is the dancing because all of your dances have been so kind and so great.

It's like, I think it's tough for you to not practice or, like, know, like, what exactly your steps are going to be because it's... Well, yeah. I mean, everything tough for you to not practice or like and know like what exactly your steps are gonna be because it's yeah I mean everything that you know everything I've ever been good at was you know practice practice practice sports You know anything you do in dentistry any instrument I ever played You practice practice practice and then and then you you do you know, so practice practice and then and then you you do yeah um so this whole uh you know opening yourself up being putting yourself out there spur of the moment kind of stuff is all kind of new because you don't know how it's going to come off and your word is going to come off wrong or how you don't want it to but at the end of the day i think I probably care more than the people that are watching.

That's what you tried to teach me. So I'm trying to get better at that. I'm going to ask this, and we didn't pre-plan this, so I get a strategically head and wink nod because I need an answer that is a certain one. because you know I need an answer that is a certain one but uh no if Dancing with the Stars called for next season or even the next would you consider it you consider it I consider it but I I would lean more towards no and the reason being is anything that would take me away from what I care about most, which is my wife and really my practice and my patients.

I didn't do this asking for that, and so I don't think that that would be something that I would necessarily want to do. A lot of people are going to think I'm crazy for saying that, but that's just how I feel about things. But we'd make them, we'd make them make you say no, right? Yeah. Yeah. In case any of the producers are listening. You know, we can be persuasive around here,

but you know, we need to know how we're getting Trish out there and staying there. And we need to make sure our sponsors are listening. So, I mean, you know, back to kind of the story. I mean, how's the business? I mean, you do all these things. We talked about all these things. How's business? You know, like, how's the practice?

The practice is great. The crazy thing with all this was, you know, two weeks before, two or three weeks before this happened, I bought the practice of an older dentist in Greenville that was thinking about slowly, you know, slowing down and maybe didn't want to do the business portion of dentistry anymore. And so, you know, he and his team and all his patients merged with my office. And so we not only had the influx of all that, then we had all the new patient calls from the video. And a lot of people think that thousands and thousands

of people from all over the country are calling. Those weren't real patients. Those were just, you know. The reality is you have one dental office in Greenville. Exactly. And so if everyone that watched the video, if there was a million people in Greenville that only. So if everyone that watched the video, if there was a million people in Greenville that only watched the video, then whatever. But it's safe to say

that business has been good. Oh yeah. It's definitely helped business in it. And it's been a very positive thing for it. Where do you see, I know that you've gotten more, you Where do you see, I know that you've gotten more, and you know I want to keep it away from every technical aspect of dentistry, but talk a little bit about like where you see you kind of taking the practice as far as your specializations and those kind of things. Yeah, so one of the great things is you know being a general dentist is you can kind of, you can kind of conform your practice once you have a, you know, full, full patient load towards, you know, the procedures that you enjoy doing more. And with this recent popularity and, and the merger of the two practices, I, I find myself being able to, to schedule more of the procedures and to advertise more of the two practices I find myself being able to schedule more of the procedures

and to advertise more of the procedures that I like doing more and those are you know the smile makeover aesthetic cases but also the the implant surgeries and prosthetics that I enjoy so much and the enjoyment comes from basically you know two basically two different sides there. There's the changing a patient's life by giving them the smile that they've always wanted or in some cases giving them the ability to chew that they have not had for so long. And so many people don't don't realize the possibilities um in dentistry today just because they've never been taught or exposed to those things so those are the two things that i enjoy uh doing the most and i hope to do to do more of now that we have you know so

many people watching this what um about trish how's trish yeah she's good she's been a trooper through it all I mean back to some of the things we said I mean yeah I think you know the first couple weeks it would be you know it was it was silly it was fun but then you know some of those uh comments on Facebook I think it'd be hard for anybody uh to see so many people objectifying your loved one in a certain way. You know, as guys, you know, we, you know, blow up a little bit when somebody, you know, whistles at our girl or something like that. But, you know, once we started, you know, kind of digesting and realizing what this all was and what it could be. We're getting a little bit more used to it and more comfortable in our new skin, but we're surrounded by great people, great friends and family, so it makes it so much easier. Vito, so we gotta talk about Vito. Vito is the man.

we gotta talk about Vito. Vito is the man. I love that. I didn't think, like I grew up with dogs, big dogs, and but my mom mainly took care of them. And when we got this dog and Trish said she wanted a dog, I was like, you know, okay. The dog will probably like Trish and it's just gonna be a pet in the house.

I don't know what I would do if something happened to that guy. Like he's the first guy I see in the morning. He's always happy to see me when I come home. It was a great decision. What's his grade? Rhodesian Ridgeback? Yeah Rhodesian Ridgeback and he's five months old and very curious. Weighs 50 pounds. How big is he going to get? I think he's supposed to get, I think his dad was getting close to 100 pounds, but when we tell people that, and then they look at his paws and how long his legs are already, they laugh. So he might be pushing 110, I don't know.

Oh, good grief. He's definitely motivated by food to do anything. Like most of us. Kind of like his dad. Oh, man. Well, let's kind of wrap it up. But, you know, you're big into fitness. So, I mean, you know, I think people will be curious, especially listening.

You know, routine routine like your history with fitness like where you won't you know any goals down the future like you know talk about the importance of fitness and kind of you know how that's played a role with you in your life yeah so you know just being involved with sports my whole life and then playing college athletics, Trish and I both, you know, we are so used to setting aside part of our day for that because we always had to, that now it's like, you know, if we're not doing that, there's something missing. Yeah.

It really helps keep us balanced with all the other things we have going on in our lives. And don't get me wrong some sometimes it gets too busy or you know you you skip a day and that day turns into a string of days um but but really you know getting to the gym early in the morning and getting that knocked out is really when i have my most productive days, and I'm the happiest. The solo lifting sessions by myself are probably almost like therapy sessions because, you know, you're getting in, doing something for yourself, doing something good for yourself. But every now and then I like mixing it up and doing, you know,

group classes at some of the places around here in Greenville because there's so many good ones. We're due for our metabolic session. Yeah, we know i keep dodging you i'm gonna start calling you at 5 30 or vito's right here getting you up anyway yeah he gets up at uh. That's his time. So what's, just riding the train with Dr. C? I mean, where do you, you know, like what's your ideal headspace for where you'd love for it to go? You know, I mean, is it, and I know we're kind of planning all those things out. We're talking with, you know, for people listening, we are working with some new sponsors. We sponsors we're talking with so things are starting to head in some different directions but love to know you

know what your thoughts are so it's funny you say riding a train because that's what i'm doing because you're driving it but but i think i think it's just the excitement of just seeing what comes of it this is all so new to me that you that I have no idea what we can make of it, but I'm open to putting in the work and doing whatever we can to see where it can go. At the end of the day, I live in Greenville. I'm a dentist. That's who I am. That's what I do, and that's what I plan to always

continue to do but if we can do some great things in addition to that, I'm all for it Well Rich, it's been a fun ride man I'm just excited and appreciative of you as a friend and as a client and I really

appreciate you, I know people are going to be fascinated to kind of hear the story kind of the backstory and we'll have to just keep telling it yeah this is Ryan Alford for the Radical Company Podcast really appreciate Dr. Rich Constantine coming on today follow everything that Dr. C is up to on Facebook, on Instagram. You can find him easily by Googling him. We've also got drrichconstantine.com, links to all of the content, links to merchandise. We didn't even talk about merchandise, but, boy, we've got some good ones. You want your Christmas ornament.

With that, I've only got three words to kind of close out just keep smiling just keep smiling yeah thanks man