In 2005, Dr. Maze’s long-time Patterson sales representative and good friend Doug Blunt, who also is her patient, invited her and her husband, Chris, to attend a Mercer Leadership Seminar with him in San Francisco. Blunt felt that it would be helpful for professionals to advise her on the proper financial foundation for a new building.
When they returned from the seminar, the couple was inspired to start saving money for a new practice. A year later, Dr. Maze brought her entire staff to Florida for another Mercer seminar. There she and her team were recognized for the practice’s recent growth, and she received additional advice and encouragement to build her own practice. She didn’t act immediately, though. “The new office talks went on for years. I would meet with Doug and the guys from Patterson, and we’d talk about planning and preparing, but I didn’t jump right into it,” Dr. Maze said.
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What finally inspired her to act was when, in 2007, Dr. Maze’s partner put up for sale the building where their practice and three other businesses were housed. She knew she’d either have to buy the building and gut it, build a new office or continue to lease elsewhere.
Dr. Maze met with her accountant, received coaching from Blunt, as well as Mercer, and did a lot of soul-searching. She committed to proceeding with a new build, only to learn that her husband had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. With his full support, however, she decided to move forward with the new building.
Before the Build
Dr. Maze had been a longtime Patterson customer and purchased everything from supplies to equipment, but one of Blunt’s most important contributions to the new build wasn’t something she could purchase – it was his assurance that she’d made the right decision. “One of the things Doug brought to the new practice was the inspiration to do it. He always gave me the support I needed,” Dr. Maze said.
Blunt explained that the trust Dr. Maze placed in him and Patterson was one reason he was so dedicated to getting her new practice right. “[Dr. Maze and her husband] fully trusted us. We had a lot of responsibility on our hands. I still feel a responsibility to be a big support, because they have that deep level of trust,” he said.
Since it had been her dream for so long, Dr. Maze had very specific ideas about the new practice. She already had selected the lot on which she wanted to build the new practice. “Every day on my drive to and from work, I passed a beautiful wooded lot,” she said. “I always said to myself, that would be a great place to have a dental office – very quiet and serene.”
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