Sometimes Maybe It's Better Just Being Lucky

Courtesy of her sister, Dani, Denise was part of our extended Temple City Dental Care family years before she ever joined us full time.

Denise, who had been Dani’s very first trainer, had loads of energy, the will to do the right thing, and years of experience working in pediatric dentistry. Don’t know about you guys but I’m always impressed by folks who can deal exclusively with little kids all day long under any circumstances…but in a dental chair?

When Denise was ready for a change, we really didn’t have a dental assistant opening. And Denise hadn’t had any administrative experience. But I’d never seen Denise speak into a phone without a smile.

Today, Denise is most often the first person you’ll see on arrival to our office; it’s not by accident.

We’ve always been committed to constantly training and learning. And I soon discovered Denise, like me, was a training/continuing education nerd; she read every self-improvement book she could get her hands on. And I thought we were the cool ones.

Denise soon mastered the phone skills just like I knew she would. And Denise soaked up training like a sponge. I had been doing the Chamber of Commerce breakfast tour for years and it was fun eating, BS-ing, and promoting USC Trojan Football domination a couple of times a month. It’s just that when we made the transition to Denise, we suddenly experienced a dramatic upturn in marketing effectiveness.

Denise established business relationships with the ease of Pavarotti humming the the Trojan Fight Song. Denise actually set up a speaking circuit where Pasadena Chamber members could meet, present, and share information and ideas with other professionals and their customers, clients, and patients. And even more impressive, Denise actually started her own coaching business; organizing her own take on the training she’d completed and then personalizing it to the benefit of other small businesses.

A few weeks ago, a speaker sharing a 25-second Chamber “commercial” moved Denise to tears. At the time, Denise was also steering our November marketing campaign; in the middle of the campaign, we entertained a visitor. We had lunch with Nancy Davidson, Executive Director of The Foundation for Living Beauty; and I don’t think any of us will ever be quite the same.

Living Beauty was founded in 2005; the organization provides emotional and physical support for women who have cancer. Nancy shared Living Beauty serves more than 450 women who are in various aspects of their “journey” with cancer. Nancy and her three-woman team organize and provide events, support groups, and resources; after about 5-minutes, we knew we wanted to be one of those resources.

But what could we do? How could we help? Sure, we could provide information and work at creating awareness but Denise and all of my co-workers aren’t a team by accident; they all really do want to make a difference by…like…yesterday.

We had adopted families in the past back when I was on the Haven House Board (Dani and extended family member, at the time, Denise would do all the wrapping.) Were there families in need; if so, could we help them have a real Holiday?

Within a few days, Nancy provided five families facing the hardship of cancer, low income, and the reality of a non-existent Holiday. And with Denise on point, along with her team, the gift lists provided by Nancy were filled almost overnight…not to mention additional clothing and even Christmas Trees.

We delivered the gifts last Monday. When you can make a difference for someone you’ve never met and you can smile and still can’t find a dry eye, you know you’ve had a pretty good day.

That’s when you know for sure what it feels like to be lucky.

Thanks Denise.