Ep 589 · 54 min · Mon 26 Jan 2026

Meet Dr.Grillz: The Dentist Selling $5K Custom Pieces for Your Teeth

Maheer Shah, Dr Grillz

Maheer Shah, dentist and founder of Dr Grillz, shares how reputation-led growth and trust can outperform ads in modern ecommerce.

Play episode 589
0:00 54 min

In this episode

How Dr Grillz Turned a Passion Project into a Profitable Ecommerce Business

Probably the most common ecommerce story starts with a spreadsheet.
This one starts backstage at a DJ gig, a fresh dentistry degree, and a question that wouldn’t leave: why is it so hard to get grillz done properly in Australia?

In this episode of Add To Cart, Bushy chats with Maheer Shah, founder of Dr Grillz, a.k.a a dentist who turned a cultural obsession into a global, made-to-order ecommerce business. What began as a passion project quickly became something much bigger: a brand sitting at the intersection of self-expression, trust, and technology, built without a typical target market or ecommerce playbook.

It’s a conversation about visibility, belief, and what happens when you stop trying to sell to “everyone” and instead build something for the people who get it.


You need your 5000 really good loyal fans. And you have an amazing brand and business

Dr. Maheer Shah | Founder

Custom silver grillz by Dr. Grillz, handcrafted using dental-grade materials and designed for a precise, removable fit.
Custom silver grillz by Dr Grillz, handcrafted using dental-grade materials and designed for a precise, removable fit.

Today, we’re discussing…

  • Building visibility for a product that doesn’t fit a traditional ecommerce persona
  • Why psychographics matter more than demographics when your audience is everywhere
  • Turning a high-trust, bespoke product into a scalable ecommerce system
  • The role of culture, emotion, and status in purchase decisions
  • Using technology like 3D printing and AR to remove friction, not add hype
  • Why passion-led ideas aren’t “too niche”; they’re often the most defensible

Chapters

6:26 Understanding Grillz: The Art and Science
7:50 Target Market: Who Wears Grillz?
9:34 Building Trust: The Dentist’s Credibility
11:22 Capturing Transformation: The Customer Experience
15:15 Customisation and Fitment: The Grillz Process
18:18 Pricing and Perception: The Real Value of Grillz
22:00 Overcoming Self-Doubt
24:12 Grillz and Acceptance
27:42 The Revolution of 3D Printing in Dentistry
31:33 Overcoming Customer Objection
39:18 Building a Healthy Dental Journey
40:31 Status Quo in Traditional Professions


Read the full transcript Auto-generated

Dr. Mehir Shah: It was actually a porn star found my Instagram and she was like, can you make me grills as well? No one wants to buy cheap jewelry and no one's to say I spent money on cheap jewelry. They want to say I spent 50 grand on my grills. You need your like 10,000, 5,000, 10,000 really good, loyal fans and you have an amazing brand and business.

Nathan Bush: Hey, it's Nathan Bush or Bushy joining you from the land of the terrible people here in Brisbane, Australia. Welcome back to add to Cart. Today's episode is one of the most unique e commerce stories we've ever told. When the idea for today's guest came across my desk, I was so intrigued I could not say no. I had to know how this business works. What I didn't expect out of today's guest was how to build a business without search, volume, ads, even traditional e commerce playbooks. Most of what today's guest has been done has been custom and learnt and and built organically without the reliance on the normal playbook that we would have in e commerce. So without further ado, Today's guest is Dr. Mehir Shah. He is a qualified dentist and also the founder of Dr. Grills. That's right, grills, as in the things that you see in rapper's teeth. The metal, the jewelry, the shining things. He actually sells these online and he's built a premium custom grills business which sits at the intersection of dentistry, jewelry, culture and commerce. With average orders of around $700 and reaching a wide range of people from rappers to porn stars to kids who just want to look cool. It's a fascinating business, but it goes a lot deeper than just being an Instagram fad and that's what I found fascinating today. Now, if grills aren't your thing, and honestly I don't understand why they're not. If you are just interested in e commerce, you are going to get so much out of this still because. Because Mehir talks about how to create demand when customers aren't actually looking for what you sell. He's doing something that most people don't even know exist but kind of want. How to turn trust and credibility. He's a dentist and how to use that as a conversion lever and how to approach things from a system first perspective while delivering a really personal customer experience. Dr. Mahisha really surprised me with the depth of experience that he's looking to give his customers in not just giving them something shiny to put on their teeth, but to make sure that their whole mouth health is in Good working order. All right, before we get into today's episode, I wanna give a quick shout out to our sponsors, Shopify and Klaviyo, who are back on board for 2026. Thank you very much. Sponsoring add to cart. We love your support and appreciate having you on board. We couldn't think of two better technology partners to have in E commerce. All right, let's get into it. Here is our conversation with Dr. Mehir Shah, founder of Dr. Grylls. Dr. Mahir Shah, welcome to Add to Cart.

Dr. Mehir Shah: Thanks for having me, Nathan.

Nathan Bush: Oh, absolute pleasure. I am so pumped. When I saw your story come through from our producers and I had a look at your website, I was like, holy moly. We've never had someone like you on the show before. So I've got a thousand questions for you about what you're building with Dr. Grylls. But if I was to say to you at the start, you are a qualified dentist now running an E commerce business as well as your dental practice, which is called Dr. Grills, the E commerce business. Tell me about how those worlds came together. How are you managing dentistry and E commerce at the same time?

Dr. Mehir Shah: It's a great question. So the beauty of what Dr. Grylls is it's very organic. It all started really naturally. It was just me, my two best friends, we were on a little tour over Sydney and Melbourne, just following our favorite DJs at the time. And then I actually won backstage passes. Cause we were going to go see them three shows in a row. That's because we're going to miss them in Perth. So me and my buddies were like, let's go to Sydney and Melbourne. We watch them for three shows.

Nathan Bush: Who are your DJs? Would we know them?

Dr. Mehir Shah: These guys are called Flustered Armist. They're like kind of the fusion between EDM music and hip hop music.

Nathan Bush: Okay, you're way too cool for me.

Dr. Mehir Shah: Yeah, it was really underground back at the time. Like the first time we saw them was 20 bucks for the gig. And it was like one of the best gigs I ever saw. But I won backstage passes to meet them because I was going to see them like for the three shows. And then as soon as we walked in, they all had grills in. And then I was. I just graduated from dental school, maybe I was working about four months. So I was like, oh my God, where did you guys get these grills? And they're like, dude, this is so hard to find. We had to go to the hood in America to, you know, get these grills. And then, you know, the whole show, that last show, I was just kind of like sitting in my mind like, I can't believe these are so hard to find. And then we had a little kick on, little after party with my buddies and I was sitting there and I was like, I think I should get into making grills. And both of them were like, if you can do that, I'm going to buy them straight away. And one of my friends, his Instagram handles Perth White Boy, truly Perth White Boy. And he borrowed him, he scrounged all his money from his parents to buy. He was of my first customer. So then I just took a few photos of the boys, took a few photos of the grills, made a little. And the name Dr. Grylls just like fell into my lap that night. They were just like, you should be Dr. Grills. You're like, you're the man for it. So I just started an Instagram and I just put pictures of this up and that was, that was it. I didn't know anything about business. I'd only just done dental school. So like I was a certified nerd. But, but that was about it, right? And I was good at getting great, good, good grades in high school. But again, like I always found business came very naturally to me. I don't know if it's like an Indian thing. I know my surname, Shah means trader in like in Sanskrit. And it's like we've had that name for a thousand years. So basically my ancestors have just been traders.

Nathan Bush: And me here obviously means grills, right? So grills trader.

Dr. Mehir Shah: Me here actually means expert. So expert.

Nathan Bush: Expert Trader.

Dr. Mehir Shah: Yeah, Expert trader. So that's my name. So I just had to give it a crack. And then I started Instagram. Didn't know anything about marketing, didn't know anything about sales, operations, all these things. And then some people. He was actually a porn star. Found my Instagram and she was like, can you make me grills as well? And then that's when the journey whole started. So super organic, supernatural, not forced. And it's just taking me on the ride of a lifetime, wild.

Nathan Bush: Oh, I can't wait. I've got so many questions there, especially around your audience and some of the stories that you've had. But I know nothing. You say you know nothing about marketing when you first started. I know nothing about grills. How do they actually work?

Dr. Mehir Shah: So people have been putting gold on their teeth for like a thousand years. This is not a new thing. This. Humans have just been obsessed with the idea and not all humans Some humans, they're putting some. How do we put a diamond or a gem or some gold on our teeth? It's just like this ultimate status symbol, right? Like a tattoo involves some pain, piercing involves some pain. But to get gold in your teeth, and especially permanently, that is like a. You need an artist to do that, but it's some pain involved. Sometimes you destroy the tooth historically to do that. So people have been obsessed about this thing for a while. So the whole point of grills was, how can we do this without damaging your teeth? So the whole thing's a removable set. So it's like kind of like a little helmet that will slide on your tooth or a couple of teeth, and then you can wear it when you want.

Nathan Bush: But okay, so they're removable.

Dr. Mehir Shah: They're removable. That's the whole point. My job's a dentist. Like, I don't want to be destroying teeth just to make them look cool. So if we can do grills where you just take a mold and then you clip it on when you want, take it off when you, you know, you don't want it, go to work, that's the perfect solution.

Nathan Bush: Ah. Cause I was about to say you're not wearing grills right now. Do you rock them on the weekends?

Dr. Mehir Shah: I do, I do. I love them. I have. Problem is my teeth have shifted a little bit, so all my old sets don't fit anymore. So I need to get some new ones made. But I've got to get onto it, to be honest.

Nathan Bush: So you talked there around your demographic, and obviously your first customers there being musicians and porn stars. How do you describe who your target market is today?

Dr. Mehir Shah: I've done a couple of business courses since I've started, and that was always the first question. Identify your perfect ideal customer. Right? You gotta. Once you figure out your ideal or your typical customer, then you can build your whole brand around that. But that was the challenge I always had, was I had such a mixed bag of people that would come and come find me. I get, you know, guys in their 50s and 60s. I've had ladies in their 50s and 60s who are like, my whole dream is always had to have one gold tooth, and now I can finally get it. And then obviously I get the young guys. I get the soundcloud rappers. I get just the biggest mixed bags. So I find the best way to distill it is it's like a psychographic thing. It's like, what is the psychology behind these kind of people fundamentally, which is boldness, self expression, you know, Good sense of self identity, self image. They're willing to put, you know, be different. That's the thing they all had in common.

Nathan Bush: Is there a little bit of that? They do want that look and they want that self identity, but they also want a little bit of safety in terms of. That's why they would come to you as a professional dentist rather than go to a backyard operation.

Dr. Mehir Shah: Exactly. Yeah. That was usually the, the first thing they'll say because I asked, where did you find me? And they said, oh, you know, I found your page online and I like that you're a dentist. So that's why I've chosen to go with you. That was very commonly, that's what I heard.

Nathan Bush: And how do you maintain that trust? Because I could imagine trust is really key here with you at the forefront of this as a dentist, but also trying to keep the coolness of Dr. Grills, you know what I mean? Like, there's almost two things going here is like the dentist is the person that you usually go to as the sensible option. You're always like maintaining your teeth. It's the long term thing. Whereas grills, they're fun, they're flashy. How do you transfer your credibility as a dentist into the coolness of Dr. Grylls?

Dr. Mehir Shah: So depending on who it is, like number one as a dentist, like, make sure I'm up to date with all my training. Like, I've taken on a lot of training after university. I spent twice as much as I did in university after university on courses on, you know, veneers, smile makeovers, how to build new bikes, full mouth reconstruction, like done a lot of courses. But the coolness, I think that has to come from something authentic. And like, I really feel this brand is authentically me. And that is the feedback. My bestest, my closest friends say, like, this is just you, this is what you're about. You've been obsessed with music since I met you. You're into hip hop. You're just like that character. So I find that comes naturally for me because this is like my passion. Like it really is my passion. And it's also, I'm such a blessing to kind of be given this brand and be able to take it somewhere. Like, I think it's the coolest thing in the world. Putting gold in your teeth.

Nathan Bush: What's the weirdest request that you've had so far?

Dr. Mehir Shah: One always pops to mind when someone asks me that. I get a had a heavy metal drum. I think he was from Tasmania and he sent me a sketch and he all he wanted was black grills with the 1 inch spike that came out of each tooth. And he drew every tooth, every tooth. And I still don't know how he worked because I never got a picture. I never met him. His manager did all the correspondence. So he had literally like a 1 inch spike coming out of each of his 10 teeth. We did 10 teeth on each piece and it was so hard to cast because to make it all in one unit, you can imagine things just get thin. They can chip, they break, they warp. So. So we ended up having to 3D print it with a lab in New Zealand and then they sent it back for us to finish. That was a mission. But yeah, I'd say that was the coolest one. And we've done a couple of other crazy, crazy design, but nothing came compared to that, I'd say.

Nathan Bush: And do your clients normally come back to you with the after pictures? Because I could imagine there's a lot that goes into it when you're designing and you're building these and you're like, I just want to see them on the person because it's the grills that's attached to the person that really makes them come to life. Does that happen naturally?

Dr. Mehir Shah: Not as much as I would like. I like would hound them. I'll say, I'll give you a discount, I'll give you a voucher if you can just send me a picture in once. A lot of people get their grills, they just, you know, they vanish. And that's why I'm trying to do as much in house as I can. So when they have their fitting, the day of their fitting, we try to make it an experience. Maybe whiten the teeth before they get the grills fit in. We take a bunch of pictures. Like I want to make that a big deal because that's where all my best content will come from, which is my best marketing. And also it's the best part of the sales journey or their, their customer experiences. You know, their grills are so non functional, right. So it's all about the emotion behind them and how it makes you feel and the build up. And they've had to wait for a couple of weeks. Whereas most of the jewelry you just buy online or you buy the jewelry shop and you leave. This is some patience involved. So the buildup is really intense. That's the whole reason I would love to have a shop one day is to capture that, capture that moment. Because once the girls go in, you know, you want to see the transformation that's kind of what it's about as well, it's about creating that transformation within someone of like a zero to hero, where you put the gold teeth in and the way you feel, the way you feel about yourself really transforms.

Nathan Bush: It must be hard because there'd be so much word of mouth and talkability when that moment comes. So if you've got a friend who rocks up and they've suddenly got grills, you're like, holy shit, that's really cool. Like. And you'd want to know the story of why and how and who did it. And all of that would happen a lot of the time without you even being part of the conversation. Which makes it hard for you, doesn't it?

Dr. Mehir Shah: It does, yeah. And now I'm finding work where, you know, my reputation's kind of getting out there and someone says, I heard about you, they book in straight away and then they're like, I just don't care how much I have to pay, I just want to get it done. Which is good as well, because I'm not having to be involved in the sales experience. But there's some moments, like you mentioned, where you'd love to just capture what's going on there.

Nathan Bush: So I talked me through the process because from what I can see, and you mentioned there, you know, that really involved process, your website is a WordPress website at the moment.

Dr. Mehir Shah: At the moment we're doing a complete rebuild off the website, which has taken forever, but it's nearly ready. There's a lot more features we're adding to it.

Nathan Bush: What are you moving to?

Dr. Mehir Shah: So it's still going to be based on WordPress, but we're going to change our custom builder into a 3D custom builder with augmented reality as well. So it'll be a QR code. You scan the QR code and then whatever you've designed will pop up on your teeth through like a selfie camera thing. So that's just part of the experience. But really this is what I've had done wrong for so long was I tried to have all my options on the website and there's so much customization and it was a bit overwhelming. Whereas really what I need to do is just get you in for a discovery call, find out your needs and then start the process there. And then you end up whatever you wanted anyway. But it's much smoother journey for the customer. Right? You just, well, you have step one. Just get in touch, let's have a call, let's chat, let's figure out your budget, let's figure out what you'd like to wear, what options you're after, and then we craft it for you. And I think that's the secret sauce for me.

Nathan Bush: So you've still got a custom website and it sounds like it's still gonna be fairly custom on WordPress with some cool features. And then are you getting customers that actually transact on the website or is it all manual call and build?

Dr. Mehir Shah: Yeah, so I'd say 50. 50. So we do get quite a bit coming online now. There's a lot more competitors over east. So I find my online sales might have come down a little bit, but my local sales have like tripled, maybe quadrupled. So I want to grow that online sales. Cause obviously it's a lot easier where it's nice where you just open your phone and orders come through. Person's gone through that journey by themselves. They know exactly what they want, they bought it and then you just have to do it. But then also you lose the connection. And a lot of what I do is cosmetic dentistry, high end dentistry, like aligners, veneers. So it'd be nice to offer those options as well and then tailor like a whole package. Let's get your whole mouth clean. Let's get your whole mouth healthy. Straighten your teeth if you want. Then the grills are like the little final touch, like sort of the, the cherry on top the end. That's the way I see the like the ultimate customer journey for me and with everything that I can offer and everything I've trained in is how do we look after you as a person. Not just make a quick grill and quick sale is.

Nathan Bush: That's cool.

Dr. Mehir Shah: Get a lot more lifetime value out of each of our customers as well.

Nathan Bush: That makes sense. And there's no point just putting grills over bad teeth because that's exactly cool.

Dr. Mehir Shah: Yeah, exactly. Not cool. It doesn't last. And it goes against one of our values, which is to be healthy. We work in healthy mouths. So the grills last?

Nathan Bush: Yeah. On the order from the website grills, how do you manage fitment for people who are just going in to buy something off the shelf? From a grills perspective, most people I could imagine don't know fitment for the mouth. How does that work?

Dr. Mehir Shah: So this is the system I kind of built. This would be around Covid time when I couldn't take any more sales. So once they make their order, they get sent a custom like a little kit and it's got a QR code on built into the box. So you scan that QR code takes you to a video that shows you step by step on how to do the fitting and has all the ingredients you need. You know, it's got the putty, the gloves, and a return satchel as well. And then they mix the putty, they take a mold. Once they've done the mold, they'll send a photo to us and then we can verify it. And if they mess it up, I just send them some extra putty. But I don't know what's happened in the last couple of years, but the kids have just become like mini dentists. And the quality of the molds they're doing are just amazing. Like, I haven't had to send that second round of putty. I can't tell you in like a couple of years because they're just nailing it. And like, I don't know, maybe the video is really good or they're watching online, but the kids are just nailing it. And it's blowing my mind a little bit because it took me so long to learn how to do a good mold. But I get these molds back and they're like pristine. So I get a photo of the mold or a video, I say give them a thumbs up, it's all good. And then it comes back express post to me, usually a couple of nights. And yeah, so it's this really nice, streamlined system. Obviously a lot of people just, they hate that idea. So I say just take that kit to your dentist and then their dentist can do it as well, which is again ideal option because they'll get their teeth clean, checked and then the dentist just does the mold. So you get a little mixed bag. But I'm finding yes, most of them are just nailing it. And so they take a mold themselves, Chuck in this return satchel drop in the post office and usually within a week it's, it's all done.

Nathan Bush: And are they selecting what jewelry they want on their grills or is it kind of a predetermined options for them to pick from?

Dr. Mehir Shah: There's both. We've got some pre designed options which are like, you know, the really popular ones, some canines or a double or a little open face with a heart, whatever those are. Like, I'd say the top 20 or 30 that are really popular, they're all available in the shop. So you just know, I want that one, I can buy it. But then there's also the customization ability where you want to have cup, chop and change a couple of teeth here, a couple of teeth there, or a bigger piece. Then that's available as well. And then if they have even crazier ideas, I literally can go off a sketch. So they can just send me a sketch. And then we've got some crazy ones where they've got like little spider man logos and all that kind of stuff. So that becomes like a computer assisted design sort of one. So that's where they pay a deposit for, I think it's like 250 bucks. Then we can literally 3D render whatever they want. And they can even pick different metals in that 3D render. So they can. And different colored stones. And my jeweler will send me that 3D render. I can send it to them. They confirm, okay, this is what I want. I want to change this. Da, da, da. And once they give us a thumbs up, then it gets made. And then once we've done that 3D render, we can also work out how much alloy we need, how many stones we need. And that gives us a better sort of better idea of the costing as well.

Nathan Bush: What kind of price point are you talking? Because I could imagine on the upper side, you could go as far or as high as you wanted to. What's the usual entry point?

Dr. Mehir Shah: So according to my stripe, my average sale is about 770 bucks. So that usually cover two to three teeth in gold or in silver, that's maybe like four or five teeth. Chrome, I'd say. Yeah, it's a couple of teeth as well. That's usually an entry point. And then when you start adding more customization or diamonds, especially, you know, diamonds. For a full diamond tooth, it's about two grand for a removable one. So if you. Someone came in and they want like five or six diamond teeth or 10 diamond teeth, that's when those costs really go up. And I found, because I used to always chase, especially my early days, I was like, people just want to, you know, do you want to compete on cost? But I actually find that worse for my business because no one wants to buy cheap jewelry. And no one's to say I spent money on cheap jewelry. They want to say I spent 50 grand on my grills. It's same as your teeth, right? I found people who got their teeth done. It wasn't about even the teeth. It was about saying, I spent 50 grand on my teeth.

Nathan Bush: Yes.

Dr. Mehir Shah: So there's a psychology aspect to it where I just have to, just to put like, I guess demonstrate that value, really. But a lot of people, they just, they, they know that, you know, I want to. The rap songs all say, right, spent 20 grand. Eliante or Johnny Dang or whatever.

Nathan Bush: It's a status symbol.

Dr. Mehir Shah: It is status symbol completely.

Nathan Bush: Yeah. And you're a really key part of that, right? Because as you're talking, I'm like, it's a lot like tattoo artists, obviously, very different applications, but in terms of people have so much pride in saying, I've got a tattoo guy. And it's like, you are part of that story and it's a very emotional thing.

Dr. Mehir Shah: Yeah, definitely. And I have a few guys like that. They come in and, you know, you're just the guy. And then they just like to show with their friends. Oh, I spent this much money here.

Nathan Bush: I think that's a really interesting angle from a kid perspective. Not that we would go down this path a lot, but I'm just thinking about my son. He's 11, going on 20, loves rap, loves all that world. And I could imagine if I said to him, hey, you know, you can get grills and they're not permanent. You'd have to save your ass off to get them, but they're there. I could imagine how excited he would be at the prospect when he's 16, 17 of getting them. Do you have a lot of kids at that age coming through?

Dr. Mehir Shah: I say a lot. I usually try convince them to say, look, jaws are going to grow, your teeth are going to shift. This is just not going to fit. After a while, I've had maybe I can think of three that have come in. One came in with his dad. I think he's trying to drop like 1500 bucks on a full set of chrome grills. And even I was like, dude, I think you should spend this money on a car or something. Like, I think it's going to help you a bit better. And. Yeah, but they just, you know, it's in their mind. It's been in their mind for months. Like, yeah, who am I to tell them no? So then I, then I tried to leverage as a way to, okay, you're at the dentist now, look, you've got these dental problems. Like, you got to keep this clean and it's a good little angle for young people to start getting dent. I think dentistry is a bit cool and keep you looking after your teeth becomes a bit cooler. Keeping your teeth clean becomes a bit cooler. So I like it in that point of view. I'd love to push the young kids side in that way of promoting hygiene, promoting dental health as well.

Nathan Bush: Yeah. If you want girls, the best way is to clean your teeth, not get grills.

Dr. Mehir Shah: Yeah, exactly. I need to Promote that much more. Definitely. That stuff works.

Nathan Bush: And so from an E commerce perspective, you mentioned the WordPress, and it strikes me that a lot of what you've built, you've iterated over the way. And you talked about a systems approach where you've built systems. What's been your biggest challenge in making Grills a sustainable E commerce business?

Dr. Mehir Shah: Actually, say the biggest challenge is me. I don't know if it's my preconceived notions or me listening to what other people say and everyone going, is there really a market for grills? Is there really a market for grills? And I'm making heaps of sales and, you know, people are booking in, I'm getting contacts. I'm like, okay, obviously there's a need. But sometimes even in my head, I'm still. I don't know if this is going to really. I think it's just like a little hobby thing, but it's not. You know, you don't need a million customers. You need your like, 10,000, 5,000, 10,000 really good, loyal fans, and you have an amazing brand and business and you don't have to sell to everyone. I'd say that would be my. One of my biggest problems. And the second one is just running out of time. Like, yeah, if my dentistry is Cranking, I find Dr. Grills comes sort of second. And now I'm kind of flipping it and realizing, no, Dr. Grills is actually my. My biggest passion. And I got to build everything around that.

Nathan Bush: And what's stopping you from scaling it apart from time to.

Dr. Mehir Shah: Yeah, right now, the way I've structured it, everything's kind of separate. So my dentistry is really separate. My Dr. Grylls is separate. But the problem is Dr. Grylls generates a lot of my dentistry work now, and it's not filtering back into my doctor Grills business. So that's why we're going to restructure the whole thing, that I'm going to just become an employee of Dr. Grills and then everything goes to Dr. Grills. That's probably been the biggest bottleneck because the funds that Dr. Grills are earning isn't been coming back to Dr. Grylls. So once that happens and it's all filtering in, then you get a clearer

Nathan Bush: P and L and you'll be able

Dr. Mehir Shah: to reinvest and reinvest, get some finance, get a proper shop going. And I think having a brick and mortar shop is really the big next step for me now.

Nathan Bush: That's cool. So would you have it separate to the dentistry or just purely a Dr. Grills experience.

Dr. Mehir Shah: Yeah, no, I'm going to. I want to mix it all together. I want to turn dentistry on its head. Because other big problem is no one really wants to go to the dentist to get grills. Like, all the rap songs are about. You go to the jewelry store. You go to the jewelry store, get your teeth diced out, you get your chains, whatever. That's the experience. That's what's baked into the culture. And so it has to be that where you're going to a jewelry shop. But then the tech and the tools are all there for the dentistry to happen. That's, I think, going to really put me on the map and just create the most incredible set, like, customer Journey as well.

Nathan Bush: What do your dentistry friends or colleagues think about your. Your grills offshoot?

Dr. Mehir Shah: I'd have to say almost every one of my bosses at the start would be like, yeah, you can do your grills here. It's fine. You know, they don't think, you know much, and then they see how many people start coming through, and the dollars, they start coming through. And I think every single one of my bosses had had a problem with it over the years. Like, I remember my first boss, yeah, he was really against it. He's like, this is not dentistry. This is just like some fad. Da, da, da, da, da. And most of my colleagues, like, I'd say the ones that are my friends, yeah, they think it's cool. But again, dentists are a weird bunch. Like, I don't know what it is about dentistry. It just attracts this weird type of nerdy person. And I even had a dental practice which I sold mid last year, and the whole premise was that we were going to do the business. And he was like, I want to bring you on because you can bring in lots of clients. And then he just. We still had a disagreement, and he just wanted it gone after a while. So I've. I've just found it just really clashes with the dentist's brain, I guess. Maybe it's not functional, but, you know, it's just a different aesthetic. Like, some people want super white teeth and some people want gold, and there's no right or wrong. I just. I just love it. I just think it looks really cool, and I just want to do it in a way that's not going to destroy their teeth. You know, I can do very minimal reduction of the teeth. I can drill away 0.3 millimeters. So you can go really fine with this stuff. There is a safe way to do It. That's kind of my philosophy. But I'd say the general dentist community doesn't like it, but there is probably 2%, 5% of them that do get around it. And those are like, usually my friends.

Nathan Bush: Yeah, I could just imagine if I took that putty into my dentist and said, hey, can you just frame my teeth up so that I can get some grills, though I would just get some weird looks.

Dr. Mehir Shah: Yeah, a lot just flat out say, no. They just say, we won't, we won't do it. And then it's just a. Just a headache. Like it doesn't cost them anything, doesn't do anything. But yeah.

Nathan Bush: What happens when 87 stores, one Shopify site, and a whole lot of disconnected data walk into a CRM? There's unfortunately no funny punchline here. For Intersport, it meant missed sales, slow reports, and a lot of guesswork. Each store had its own data. None of it talked. Enter Klaviyo. They helped unify it all online and in store so that intersport could finally track behavior, personalize offers, and hit the right customer at the right time. The result was one that any cranky sports coach would be proud of. CRM driven online sales were up nearly five times, and there was a 350% increase in returning customer rate. To learn how Klaviyo helps multi store brands like Intersport grow smarter, visit klaviyo.com au Tell me about 3D printing, because it sounds like you've gone deep down this rabbit hole and I'm really curious because, you know, if you talk about the trough of disillusionment, we might be in that point at the moment around 3D printing, where, you know, people were getting 3D printers for their home, and it was like playing around and making odd bits and pieces and desk ornaments and stuff. But it's never really gone anywhere. From a consumer perspective, how have you discovered the best way to use 3D printing in your business?

Dr. Mehir Shah: So 3D printing is probably, I would say, the biggest revolution in dentistry in the last 50 years. Because what it allows us is the problem with dentistry. We've got two ways of fixing teeth. We've got really one way, which I fix it in your mouth and you got to sculpt it all in your mouth, but then you got to stay with your mouth open. So if I'm trying to fix your whole mouth or a lot of teeth, you're gonna have to be in the chair for like four hours with your mouth open. And the other problem is trying to sculpt a perfect Tooth with your hand. Very difficult. And then the third problem is the material that we use, the plastic, every time you set it with the light, it shrinks a little bit and shrinks a little bit. So it puts little gaps in. It puts a lot of stress on the tooth that can break the tooth later on. So that's like all the downsides. And then we've only got that option or the top option, which is like porcelain or gold, which is, you know, very expensive, very slow to do, usually takes a couple of weeks. So there's nothing kind of in between. And 3D printing is just completely solve that middle. The middle option where I can just clean the tooth, I scan it, I did digitally design whatever needs to know, whatever's missing, and then I can just 3D print it out. But I can 3D print out 20 restorations at the same time in about less than half an hour.

Nathan Bush: And where are you doing that? Are you doing that in practice?

Dr. Mehir Shah: I'm doing that in practice. So my typical day with that would be my patient comes in the morning, we numb them, we clean out all the, you know, the decay, the bad stuff. We just shape their teeth. A lot of the front teeth, like veneers, we can do without any reduction of the teeth. So we can do with no drilling at all. And then we 3D print them out. The beauty of 3D printing is we can go so thin, so we can go 1 20th of a millimeter is how much the layers are built in. So that's how thin we can go. Whereas with porcelain, for the strength, you need some thickness. So the thickness comes from drilling the tooth back. Okay, so it solves that problem as well, but it's much stronger. And all the shrinkage is happening outside of the person's mouth, so we don't have those problems. And then they come back in the afternoon, and then I just stick everything in. And you can pretty much fix a whole mouth in a day, which is.

Nathan Bush: That's wild.

Dr. Mehir Shah: Amazing. And such a good way for me to practice. If I have one patient for the whole day, that I'm just focused on that one person, and they're in the chair for like two to three hours. That's like the most ultimate patient journey. The material is much better, and it's cost effective as well. So the efficiency savings I pass down to my patient. That's one passion about it.

Nathan Bush: Taking that into grills, has it allowed you to be more creative as well?

Dr. Mehir Shah: That's what's coming right now. So grills, what we'll do is we can do like the CAD design and, you know, then we make that 3D render and then I can 3D print that out before we commit to the metal part and the diamonds and all that. And. And then try it in their mouth. So we get like, we can do a lot of trial versions like that. My assistant's really. He's obsessed with grills, so he really wants to learn how to do the digital designing. So that's what he's learning right now. But it's mostly for. Yeah, the trial versions at the moment. Eventually when we do our own casting, then we can 3D print that actual pattern and cast whatever we've designed on the computer. It's in the pipeline. And now there's also ways to plate gold onto these 3D printed resins. So you can do trials or you can do like really cheap temporary grills which are just got like a little dip on them. If someone says, I want something for a night and I don't want to spend lots of money, Maybe we could 3D print something gold, plate it and it's very cost effective. And then if they lose it by the end of the day, doesn't matter. Yeah.

Nathan Bush: Wow, that's wild. And it kind of goes against. It's like that fake status then, isn't it? It's like, how can you just be it for a little while and show up and have that talkability. I can imagine then that that makes returns and refunds almost out of the picture for you.

Dr. Mehir Shah: Yeah, it does make it very difficult. I do always offer what we call a perfect fit guarantee. So unless that their grills are fitting comfortably perfectly and they're not falling out, and then they're really happy and then I'm happy. But I've had maybe two where we just couldn't get that result or that the way their teeth shaped is just. They've got too much of an undercut. They're just too painful. That's only once I've ever had that. And the other time was, yeah, this one girl and she just like, we've tried everything and the squirrels just don't stay on her teeth. So I'm happy to refund then, you know, I'd rather take a happy customer experience and just give them their money back than risking a bad review, bad reputation. It's not worth it. There's enough business to go around to be profitable, like without having to do that. But like you said, it's all custom made. So that's why I always take all payment upfront, even Online, because once that process has started, like, there's not going back at all.

Nathan Bush: What's the most common objection that you have to get over with new customers?

Dr. Mehir Shah: It's funny because you think cost would be, but obviously cost isn't because they're. They're ready. They're ready to pay. You know, the way my sales process is built is I guess that the objections are handled a bit earlier. So I'd say the biggest objection is actually getting their teeth healthy and saying, like, look, you need to get your teeth cleaned or you've got to. We got some serious problems going on. That's, I would say, actually is the biggest objection. They're like, I don't want to deal with that. I don't care. I just want my gold teeth now. And so I've had to just kind of get a consent form and be like, look, these bruises. There's no guarantee how long they're going to last. They might stop fitting the tooth underneath. Compromise. Are you still happy to go ahead? And I have a one guy and he's. He's in a. What we call terminal dentition. So his teeth are just falling apart. There's infection, they're broken. And he just wanted something to get by, so we made him a grill. And he loves it and he keeps it in. And now, like, we've built such a good relationship that the next step will be and is kind of planning forward. Okay, now we're going to do the full mouth reconstruction. He's probably going to spend about 60 grand on it because he needs to. He needs a new mouth, basically. And so it has been a really good stepping stone that, okay, I got them what they wanted initially, and instead of just being like, nope, I'm not going to do it. Okay, I'll do it. But as long as, you know, this is what's coming and then, you know, the problems don't go away. So they do it. The teeth end up breaking. They do get a painful tooth. And then when that grill stops fitting, okay, now we're ready to do the work. So maybe it's just a stepping stone rather than just trying to force them into this way of, like, no, we have to get your mouth healthy first. I find that sometimes it's good to have these different pathways and be like, okay, your mouth is unhealthy. We'll get you to something to get you by when things fall apart. We're here for you. When to help you with the real project.

Nathan Bush: You're navigating some tricky conversations there, because I Can see, you know, obviously with all your training and your education, you're thinking long term, you know what can happen. And your customers are coming to you who are excited and they see the outcome or the, you know, the outcome that they want. They just want something that sparkles in their mouth. It's hard to get them in that right mindset to have the right conversation.

Dr. Mehir Shah: Yeah, it's definitely. My toxic trait is I'm a people pleaser as well. So I just want to be like, yeah, it's all good, we'll make it work, you know, and in my journey, I've learned like, you have to have that tough conversation early. Definitely with dentistry, like, you know, you just want to say, yep, no worries, we can do like a filling and then the tooth breaks and then you're the bad guy. Even though you kind of did tell them so. Now I think over 11 years of experience being a dentist, now you learn to be like, okay, we're definitely going to get you to that goal that you have, but we're just going to chip away these little things on the journey there. And then there's just the way to navigate it with your communication and not just being so forceful and just trying to, you know, especially when they come in really headstrong that I want to go down, you know, this is what I want. You kind of have to learn how to steer them into the direction you want rather than pushing too much because then they just get frustrated or they go to someone else who doesn't care and then they're in a worse situation five years down the line.

Nathan Bush: Yep, we've all been there, right? Slipping on a great looking pair of shoes, only to regret it a couple of hours later. Who knew that blisters could get blisters? Well, the founders of Frankie Ford did. And that's why they've created created a line of stylish podiatrist designed footwear that don't just look good, they actually feel good too. But what began as an online success story quickly stepped into the real world. With retail stores opening across the country. And when they moved to the Shopify plus plan and rolled out Shopify pods in store, Frankie4 really hit their stride. Now everything works together, from online browsing to install buying. It's one smooth, unified commerce experience for both customers and the Franke 4 team. And with the Shopify app store, they're able to test new features quickly to see what works. It's paying off too. With 170% increase in site visits, a 25% drop in return rates and more happy feet than ever. Streamlined, stable, seriously stylish. That's Franky4 on Shopify. To read more success stories like this, this search Shopify Case Studies online I'm interested in the new augmented reality experience that you've got coming up. And I know you've got a little bit of that on the website at the moment. Not truly augmented reality, but being able to kind of see how it looks. And I think for most people, like, it'd be interesting. I'd love to know your conversion rate from that experience into actually getting grills. But I can imagine for a lot of people it would be like being able to test different lip shades or different hair colors or watches even with no intention to over buy a Rolex, but they want to know what a Rolex looks like on their hand. Do you see that as being a great marketing tool for you in terms of just social content that people can have to get out there to go, hey, this is what I'd look like if I had this grill set.

Dr. Mehir Shah: That's exactly the reason I wanted to do it. It's not about, it's, yeah, it's just for the fun factor of trying to capture those people that are on the fringe that could never see themselves wearing it. I would never get a grill that would never be for me. But now suddenly they can just be, oh, let me just see what it looked like to have my two little teeth here gold. And it just sort of creates that gamification thing of, let me just try it. It's like, you know, you're like a little avatar or a sim or whatever and you get to mess around with that, with them without committing to anything. It's kind of that experience which can start to capture in more people. And I'm still working on this, but trying to build that sort of pipeline to capture all these people. And if maybe I won't convert them to a grills client, but maybe I can get their teeth clean. Maybe they want to straighten their teeth. Maybe they've got a wisdom tooth that's hurting and just trying to create that flow that just captures all these different people and then we can sort them and take them on their journey. Even if, even if they end up with just like a tiny little tooth gem or just some whitening. As I say, it's just to add a sparkle to your smile. And that can be anything from whitening to a diamond implant. Like whatever, whatever your heart desires.

Nathan Bush: Really love it. And in terms of building that out, are you building that from Scratch or is it something off the shelf that you're customizing now?

Dr. Mehir Shah: Definitely customizing. And we're trying to build it through go high level at the moment. So everything's trying to build built into go high level. Starting with the discovery call as like the step one and then the rest. I'm still piecing together with some of my marketing friends and some of my business mentors. Like that is the project for this month actually is. Let's rebuild this sales journey and sort of pipeline them into three different categories. So like green being mouse, healthy, regular dentist, good to go. Yellow is need some procedures before you've got some options they want to do first. Maybe they need the clean, maybe they need some whitening, whatever, have some feelings. And then they're good to go. And then the red categories. Okay, now they need serious major work that's going to stop them from getting the grill and just creating a process that filters them all in into one of those three pathways. And then having my staff and my support staff as like the next step of okay, you're in this category. This is your journey now. And that's going to be the secret to scaling, scaling, because it is still health care as well. And I still want the first thing to be a good medical history or good dental history. Like, how do we really take care of you as a person? Get your health really up there in the journey of getting you iced out as well.

Nathan Bush: I love that. So the grills is almost like the sign of not status where we were at the start. But you want it to be the sign of a healthy mouth because you've had everything else taken care of and it's kind of the cherry on top once everything else is pumping.

Dr. Mehir Shah: And then it should be 10 years of just like your regular maintenance checkups, just hi, how you doing? Good to see you. But not getting back in the chair to patch something up, because I've done that my whole career. Where you've just done this patchy. This is what you're taught in dental schools, what we call like how to be a single tooth dentist, where you just learn how to fix one tooth really well. But that tooth is in a system and in a person that's in a dynamic environment. And that just only gets you so fast. So how do we get away from that patchy patch sort of style? And okay, maybe there might be a bit more upfront cost, but we can break that over with payment plans or whatever. But just getting all my patients, whether it be grills or not grills, into just A really stable, healthy mouth that for the next 10 years we're not getting back in the chair to pack something up. And this looks like you've had a big accident. It's just, that's the way dentistry should be. We're in the modern year of dentistry. It shouldn't be that, oh, every two years I need to get some maintenance done. If you imagine you had a car every two years, you'd have to, like, get some major reworks done. It's a complete dud. You'd fire your mechanic pretty quickly. So, yeah, that's the, that's the dream for me as well.

Nathan Bush: So question for you, Mehir. As a trained, qualified dentist who's gone into E commerce and is somewhat challenging the system or the preconceptions of your industry, what advice would you have for other professionals who might have a background in, say, medical or even trade or other very traditional industries and who have these ideas to go, actually, this is how we can come at it from a different angle and we can have a more modern approach. You've been at this game for 10 years. What are some of the key lessons that you think others could learn from as they learn to challenge the industry they're in?

Dr. Mehir Shah: So, like, you've got these two pathways, right? You've got the conventional pathway where, okay, you're gonna make everyone's no. 1, you're not gonna displease everyone. It's not, no one's gonna like you for it, but you're never going to step on any toes, right? But you're probably just going to have a really boring career. That's not inspiring. You're not going to get up and wake up every day jumping to get to work. That is what 90% of your colleagues are doing, right? And then there's the other option where you go down your path. You're going to live a very passionate life, you're going to have more problems, more challenges maybe, but you're going to be much more fulfilled. And, like, either option is not for everyone, right? So if you really feel you're one of these trades and you're a professional, but you've, you can see a better way of doing things or your own unique style. Like, my sister's a physio and she's just like this and she tried to go, she was like, I'm going to get a job in London, the High End clinic. And she's, she's not in. She's so not fulfilled by it. And I think if it's that thing that's sitting in the, you know, back of your mind before you go to bed. You're always thinking, oh, I could do this this way, I could do it this way. I could do it better than my bosses can do it. Just go for it. Even if you're going to be poor for a couple of months or a couple of years and you're still just making through, eventually your style gets out there and word gets out there and. And I told her the same thing. It's like the essence of good business is like relationships and innovation. And if you can do those two things and you're innovating, you will be successful. That's like, that is just good business. And it's like the fundamentals of good business, whether it be E commerce, whether it be like old brick and mortar, is just like building relationships, innovating and creating like a workflow that it's your own sort of proprietary, that will never go out of fashion. That is timeless. And I think it's been the, the best journey a human can go on personally.

Nathan Bush: And I love that. I love that you've split that out to say, look, there's a, you know, especially when you study at medical school, I could imagine there's a little bit of that. Well, I've done the hard yards. I've just got to cash in on it now for a while, or you can challenge the status quo. And to me, that seems to be a big part of it is you just got to make that decision, which path am I on? And then go for it, like, rather than being that limbo.

Dr. Mehir Shah: And it's okay to go down your conventional path. That's your normal job, you earn your income, you survive off that, and then you have your other passion project that might not be profit driven, might not be a business, and you just enjoy your life there, that, that, that's like a good life. That's what my parents did. And they're very happy people. You know, they don't get their passion out of work, but they very passionate in all the other things they do in their life. For me, I just knew I'm going to be spending a lot of my life at work and if I could be working with my friends on people I really like who I think are really cool and attracting clients that I'm inspired by that are interesting and just having cool conversations and try to work in a really cool environment, that's mine. And especially that has to be mine. This is what I've realized that brings me the most joy. So that's my path.

Nathan Bush: And I could imagine part of your marketing plan will have to be like, following DJs around the world and sponsoring music festivals and things like that.

Dr. Mehir Shah: Exactly. It's sponsoring fights. I'm really into, like my Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu. So we sponsored a few fights. Get some mouth guards in there. Like. Yeah. And that's where again, but like I said at the start, like my friend said, this business is just so you. So this is why I regret not pouring just even more effort into it over the past few years. But that was part of my upskilling and learning my trade really well.

Nathan Bush: Well, it's one of the most unique e commerce stories that we've heard on ADD to Cart and we appreciate you sharing it with us. What is the next 12 months? Where are the priorities for you and the Dr. Grylls team over the next 12 months?

Dr. Mehir Shah: So I kind of look at this year as a bit of a hard reset where I just want to scrap everything back and rebuild the customer journey. I remember, I don't know if I was on Instagram or I read it somewhere. There was this pillow company in Japan. I think it's been in business for like a couple of hundred years. And then someone gone and their customer, like, the sales process is so dialed in where they examine everything, they give you all the different trial versions, and you just end up with the solution that's perfect for you.

Nathan Bush: I saw that my wife sent me that clip on Instagram and I was like, I want that.

Dr. Mehir Shah: Yeah, it just blew my mind because I was like, I just want to spend the next 10 years refining that sales process for my clients. So it's so smooth, nothing gets missed. People get to exactly where they want to go. And I think that's. That's really what I want to spend the next 10 years building on. And then using my staff and all the tools that I have, I've got great team. I got all this, obviously, technology. This is the best time for any kind of technology for that sales process. We've got CRMs, we've got go high level, we've got, you know, calendar and all integrates together. So it's the coolest time and probably the easiest time. And we've got AI to put that together. So that's the dream. And then hopefully once that sales process is really, really smooth and the revenue is really cranking, then to create like a really nice brick and mortar store that is like all in one. Basically. It's got my studio, I can film a podcast in There. If I like to DJ as well, if I want to throw a gig there, I'll DJ in there. Like that's. Yeah. The dream for me right now is just to spend the time to do that. E commerce, obviously guys can get you so far, but for a service based business where you're doing work on clients, like really need somewhere for people to come.

Nathan Bush: Yeah.

Dr. Mehir Shah: And that's kind of the next step for me.

Nathan Bush: That's amazing. I think what comes through to me in our conversation is that you are definitely an innovator. You're a systems guy and you've got a vision and you, you. But underpinning all of this is a focus on the customer experience and the trust. Like, I think you could be a very flashy business in terms of Instagram famous and have a lot of shares and have a lot of views, but without a lot of substance. But it's very obvious to me that your customer experience and your trust and your credibility is the most important thing. And it may have even held you back from having some of that virality because you want to do things right. And I think that's a great approach. So you should be very proud of that.

Dr. Mehir Shah: Thank you. Thank you. I think you nailed it. It has been slower. It's been crazy to watch my competitors blow up, you know, on, on alongside me. But now I find the work just finds you, like when you have that reputation and reputation goes so far and we don't really focus on building that as much anymore because it's easy to fake. Right. On Instagram, you can create your own reputation or your own image however you want to. But I'm hitting this point where the words getting out there and like, for example, today I had a very quiet day. Almost two bookings, I think two checkups. And by yesterday it's fully booked. It's got high end work. Someone just booked in, you know, two, three hours of high end work. And that's quite amazing. No marketing, no ad spend. And that's. We forget about that side because we're so driven on, you know, pumping ads, pumping ads, pumping ads. And actually that's just one of many pathways to build leads and build work.

Nathan Bush: Yeah, great point. I can't let you leave without asking you for a personal recommendation. If I was to go get grills tomorrow as the host of this podcast, and I've been very conscious about my teeth actually, while speaking to you, if I was to go get Grylls tomorrow, what would be your recommendation to me based on what you know of me from Our chat so far, what would you recommend for me?

Dr. Mehir Shah: First question I need to know is do you wear more silver or do you wear more gold?

Nathan Bush: I'm more of a silver guy.

Dr. Mehir Shah: Okay. And would you be going for a more subtle aesthetic or a more like you want to make a bit more of a statement?

Nathan Bush: I'm making statements here. We're all out.

Dr. Mehir Shah: Okay, look, I think the most timeless piece, the best one to start with especially for you would be just some silver canines, some silver fangs on the bottom. It would be still a bit subtle, still a bit dominant as well. Great place to start. And then you can build off that as well. We can add some more sets and build off that. So I think that's a great place to start.

Nathan Bush: There we go. All right, well you've got me thinking now and maybe the next Add to Cart event I'll be. I'll be turning up wearing my silver canines.

Dr. Mehir Shah: Yes.

Nathan Bush: How cool. I love, I love what you're doing. Dr. Mahir Shah, thank you so much for joining us on Add to Cart. If people want to go and check out what you are doing and perhaps play around with the different grills options, what's the best way for them to do that?

Dr. Mehir Shah: So best way to chat with me or find out what I'm doing. Instagram drdrgrills with a Z. That's the easiest way to find me. See what we're up to. You can probably get the most live updates. If you want to make some grill, try some grills. The old builder is custom.Dr.grills.com but the new one's going to be coming, I'd say in the end of next month and that will be just on drgs.com youm'll see, it's like a 3D builder. There'll be a QR code, try out some sets, see what you like, send me some screenshots and if you're confused, just draw something or send me a picture and then we can chat and we can make something amazing for you.

Nathan Bush: That's awesome. I expect to be rocking up at all the e commerce events this year just with everyone just rocking grills.

Dr. Mehir Shah: Oh, that's the dream. That's the dream.

Nathan Bush: Oh good. Dr. Mehir Shah, thank you so much for joining us on Add to Card.

Dr. Mehir Shah: Thanks for having me, Nathan. Great to chat.

Nathan Bush: I'd never met Dr. Mehir Shah before that and I was fully expecting this to be a huge Instagram and social play but everything came back to looking after the wellness and the health of their customers. And I wasn't expecting that. So I love when those conversations take a little bit of a different turn to where we thought they'd go. In fact, he was very open that he hasn't leveraged the social opportunity that is there with Dr. Grylls. I can't wait to watch them over the next 12 to 24 months to see if they crack that as well. But there was plenty in there to take away if you are an E commerce professional or a founder looking to improve your experience. And I've got three lessons that I want you to take away. Number one one, if you have a complicated product or you require your customers to be doing something in the process, take the time to make sure your instructional content is set up correctly in that it's easy to understand and that it's pretty straightforward so that the customers can get in and do it. When Dr. Mehir Shah talked about young kids being able to mold their own teeth to be able to come up with the at home mold kits, he was blown away by how well they could do that. I've got a feeling that they didn't learn that themselves. That he put a lot of thought and because he is actually a dentist, knew how to do it and could explain it to others, that that's the reason that was so successful. That in itself means that the System works for Dr. Mahisha and Dr. Grylls because it reduces errors, reduces support requests and it increases customer confidence that they're going to get something that fits well. The result is a much smoother process in a really critical area that could blow things apart and cause a lot of costs and a lot of chaos or really streamline the operation. Now, you might not have something that is as unique as Dr. Grills in your business, but even if you think about things like fitment guides, where do you need to put the effort in to reduce those returns? Do you need to up your effort with those fitment guides guides to reduce returns, increase customer confidence and get more conversions. Those are some critical pain points where you need to put those efforts in to make sure the communication is really clear. The second thing I got out of that was don't be scared of premium pricing. I love there where Mehir talked about that. Big part of what they do with Dr. Grills is being able to say, hey, I've got $20,000 worth of jewelry in my mouth. That is actually part of it. And when you think about luxury fashion, that's essentially what the labels are saying, hey, I can afford this. The pricing is a huge part of the value proposition when buying. However, most of us spend most of our days thinking about how do we actually make things cheaper, how do we reduce the cost? Now, it's not going to be right for everyone. But if you put your focus on identity, self status, personal transformation, how can you use those messages to not just justify a price point, but to potentially increase a price point Long term, that has a huge amplification effect. And number three, trust can outperform ads as a growth lever. But in the long term, I have no doubt that Dr. Grills could be a viral Instagram success and it could take a week to do that. They could do that overnight. However, if they did that, the team probably won't keep up with the demand. Customers won't get the same experience and they won't be serving their overall mission of overall better mouth health. So they've taken that approach of do a soft, steady and trusted approach to make sure that everyone who comes in has a great experience. Of course they're going to come up against competitors who pump money into ads with some flashy UGC and some great imagery that will go viral. It's a really great viral category. But will they be able to service them and have the experience that Mehir and the team are looking for long term? I don't think so. So I really like their approach that they have gone for that trust approach, especially with his dentist background. Think about that. As you're pumping money into the meta machine, are you doing it from a position of trust and credibility or is it actually taking some of that away? That's it for this week. What an amazingly awesome, unique episode. If you want to come in and discuss that episode, or perhaps the types of grills that you're going to get the next conference, come on over to the Add to Cart community and you can join over 600 e commerce professionals who are sharing every day some of their challenges, some of their questions, and getting the help that they need, all within our free community. You can join that on Add to Cart and of course, if you haven't already hit subscribe wherever you're listening, Spotify, YouTube, Apple, wherever it is. And we will be bringing you new E Commerce stories until next time. Thanks again to our sponsors, Shopify and Klaviyo. We'll see you next week on Add to Cart.

Tagged

  • Brand and Storytelling
  • Customer Experience and Retention
  • Founder Story
Add To Cart is brought to you by
Gold partners of Australia's ecommerce podcast
Primary episodes · Mondays and Wednesdays

Other episodes you might like