Smiles, Strength & Science: A Conversation with Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
00:39
Mara Kamat
Welcome back to In Her Land, the podcast where we explore the untold stories,quiet courage, and powerful pursuits of women shaping our world. I'm Mara Kamat.
01:10
Carrie Aguilar
And I'm Carrie Aguilar. And today's guest is not only a leader in her field,but someone near and dear to us, especially to Mara.
01:19
Mara Kamat
I'm thrilled to welcome my best friend, Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel. She'sheard all about it, she's. She's listened to it, and now we're so excited tohave her on it. Margaret is a powerhouse. She's an entrepreneur, she's amother, she's a dentist with a vision for whole person wellness. And she's amom who's navigating life with authenticity and grace.
01:43
Carrie Aguilar
Margaret, welcome to In Her Land. We're so happy you're here.
01:46
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Thank you so much for having me. It's amazing what you guys have created, andI'm just so excited to have a conversation with you both today. And Mara,really, thank you so much for being such an amazing friend.
01:57
Mara Kamat
So let's start first with your entrepreneurial journey. Margaret and I havebeen friends for quite some time. It's ironic how we met. I grew up with herhusband, Jonathan. My husband and I both grew up with him. And when I movedback to Cleveland, we ran into them at Lululemon, and her and I were fastfriends and have been friends ever since. And something that really isremarkable about Margaret is what a committed female entrepreneur she is. Talkto us about what it means to be a female entrepreneur and how you stepped intobuilding your business in a very male dominated field.
02:34
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
So traditionally and even today, dentistry is male dominated. When I got out ofschool, it was about my graduating class was about 40% female, so 60% male. Myjourney into entrepreneurship and my desire to open my own practice really camefrom me feeling always like I had something to prove, but also feeling like IWanted to be in control of what I was going to build. I felt like I was goingto have a lot to prove to this profession, both in Cleveland, but it extendedbeyond that. And I really wanted from that moment to go beyond and really reachaudiences nationally, possibly maybe one day internationally.
03:26
Carrie Aguilar
How did you start to grow your practice then?
03:29
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
I've always felt like I've had a lot to prove, and I was able to startdeveloping my vision early on for what I wanted my practice to look like. So Iwas brave in the sense that sometimes the patients that my dad had been takingcare of for years didn't fit the vision for the practice. And that's okaybecause ultimately I want to care for people that feel good in my practice andtrust me and align with that vision.
04:02
Carrie Aguilar
I love that.
04:03
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Yeah. And sometimes what I have to offer isn't for everybody. And patients,they're people, they can go and find a provider that fits with what they'relooking for. And so I let some patients go, but I created a vision and I let alot of people into the practice because I was clear on how I wanted to practicedentistry, how I wanted to make it different from what you might consider to bethe traditional form of dentistry. And I always wanted to be the best at what Ido. And so patients came in once they started to see what I was trying tocreate.
04:52
Carrie Aguilar
I love that.
04:53
Mara Kamat
So when you talk about being the best at what you do, you've often said, youknow, I offer what I would call high end dentistry. And in doing that, can youtalk about how you've infused artistry, innovation, collaboration, eventechnology into the nature of your work and the culture of your practice thatyou've built.
05:17
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Yeah. So wanting to be the best. Right. For me really means gathering as muchknowledge as I possibly can in my field, and even it spills over into medicine.Right. So we haven't touched on the fact that my husband, he's an ear, nose andthroat doctor and a facial plastic surgeon, so he's dual board certified. So weare obsessed with things from the neck up and we do a lot of reading ofliterature together. So not just in dentistry, but in medicine. And they'rereally so interconnected, you cannot separate them out. But in my quest forinnovation and technology, all of this, it comes from learning knowledge andbasically just trying to take what is current in dentistry and implement itinto the practice.
06:16
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
And the field has grown incredibly in terms of technology over the past 15 to20 years with, you know, digital everything. Right. 3D printing. Digitaldentistry is huge. And so, you know, you're seeing how you can improve patientoutcomes, whatever you're doing, by implementing technology, precision,accuracy, improvement in just patient experience, and being able to see thetechnologies out there. And we have literature to show that it's better. Youjust marry. You gobble it up, and you marry it and you implement it into thepractice. And so, for me, it's always been, I want to have the best amount ofknowledge so that I can share that with my patients to improve what we have todo for them. The artistry part and creativity, it's always kind of been insideme. I'm a ballet dancer, and I've always loved.
07:16
Carrie Aguilar
Oh, that's cool.
07:16
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Yeah. And I've loved to work with my hands, and so I've always felt this needto be creative. And dentistry is, like, such an amazing outlet for it, so.
07:25
Mara Kamat
And pausing Margaret on the creativity front, she has this superpower that Ihave to share with everybody. First of all, she is one of the most amazingcooks ever. But also she has this superpower where she can take anything inyour refrigerator, anything on your counter, and make it into this amazinggourmet meal. And so not only does she infuse this creativity in her dentistrypractice, but this is certainly a part of who she is and her life.
07:55
Carrie Aguilar
So you should come for dinner. Dinner at my house tonight.
07:58
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
We can do, like, we literally have.
08:01
Carrie Aguilar
Five things in our refrigerator at this.
08:02
Mara Kamat
Point, and I promise it'll be, like, one of the best meals you've ever had.
08:05
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Oh, thanks. Yeah, it's fun. I think you. Everyone should.
08:11
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah.
08:11
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Especially women who are under a lot of pressure. We look for outlets. Carrie,I'm sure you have something that, like, helps you.
08:19
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah.
08:19
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Just kind of called poshmark. Okay, so there you go, right?
08:22
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah.
08:23
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
The hunt.
08:24
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah. I'm obsessed with looking for great deals on amazing clothes and thingsfor my daughter and myself. Yeah. Sometimes my husband.
08:34
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
It's that little guilty pleasure or the release or the enjoyment. And, Mara,I'm sure you have your outlets to help you de stress or just get into thatmoment of, like, flow where your mind is kind of free.
08:46
Mara Kamat
Gardening, sleeping, exercising.
08:51
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Yeah.
08:51
Mara Kamat
Yeah.
08:52
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
It's amazing.
08:53
Carrie Aguilar
After this week, I've been thinking I need to get into gardening.
08:56
Mara Kamat
You can come over.
08:56
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah. Vegetable gardening. So I can save money on groceries.
08:59
Mara Kamat
You can come over. I'm already growing everything from seeds.
09:03
Carrie Aguilar
Exactly.
09:03
Mara Kamat
And they're beautifully blossomed, too, in my little growing station that Ihave in my garage.
09:08
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
And how satisfying is it to see, like, your garden literally physically grow insize? But all the things that you're able.
09:15
Mara Kamat
To produce, it's super satisfying. Until your friends, like Margaret, tell you,do not give me any more eggplants or zucchinis, Mara. We know you have grownthem by July.
09:26
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Too bad. I don't know what to do with. But dentistry is actually that. I reallylove what I do, and it's very artistic. And so I joke with my staff. I needthis day to be a flow day, which means I'm with a patient, and it's like apainting. It's artistic, and I need to just get in that zone. Don't interruptme. I want to do the artistry part. And that actually is very freeing for me.So I knew that as I'm building this practice, like, I love that stuff. Like thecosmetic. We call it cosmetic dentistry. It's kind of just a blanket term,because who wants dentistry? That doesn't look good. Everything should becosmetic or aesthetic. But I loved that part of it because there's so manyprecious details you get to honor and create.
10:17
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
And so you marry science and technology and artistry and. And this careerprobably couldn't have been better for me. I'm really lucky that I fell intoit.
10:27
Carrie Aguilar
That's really cool.
10:28
Mara Kamat
Something else I think you've done an amazing job of throughout the last decadeis you're committed to being seen as an expert in your field, and you'recommitted to continuous learning. Can you tell us a little bit about thatjourney? So you go to Arizona all the time and other places. Can you tell us alittle bit about that journey and how you kind of manage that in the midst ofhaving your own business, raising kids, being a wife, all the things.
10:55
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Yeah, I don't know how I managed that. It happens sometimes, right? You go dayby day. And I think. I guess I would say if you are passionate about something,it's easier to make it happen. Sometimes you don't recognize how it's unfoldingin front of you, like this amazing thing you guys have created, like a podcast.And. And so if you're passionate, you love it. It kind of. It happens.
11:22
Carrie Aguilar
You make the time.
11:23
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
You figure it out. In terms of this education piece, the year I graduateddental school, I was gifted a course, a continuing education course. Andthey're really expensive. Good. Continuing dental education is very expensive.So you could go for a weekend and spend $10,000 on a course. So you get out ofschool. And as a new dentist, it's not necessarily something you're gonna jumpinto, but it was a gift, and it was a gift Actually from my father in law, whohappens to be a dentist too. He's a specialist. And he was like, I want you tosee Dr. Frank Speer, who's probably one of the most hands down importantdentists in history.
12:05
Carrie Aguilar
Oh, wow.
12:06
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
And he's actually living through this era. So he was giving a lecture and I gotto see it. It was on what we call the worn dentition. It doesn't matter. It's abig topic, okay. And I go to this course and I am in awe of the dentistry he'sdoing, the way he teaches, he's approachable, and it's clear. And I was just, Iwas in awe of him, but then also what he had created as a dentist. And I waslike, oh, my God, I want to be able to even just do this kind of dentistry. Andso he changed my path dramatically. And funny story, so I'm at this course andI don't really understand because I just graduated dental school. I don'tunderstand the professional world of dentistry. And I didn't know how big hewas of a name.
12:57
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
I mean, I'm sitting there in a conference room in Chicago and there's like overa thousand people, which is not easy to do. But I just didn't know his reach.So I get in the elevator with him, okay. And I just like it. Someone gets offand it's just us. And I just look at him and I just start spewing all thesecompliments at him, like, oh, my God, I can't believe this is so amazing. Andhe's looking at me and he doesn't say a word. Okay? There's this girl justspewing information at him, and he didn't know how to respond. And now I knowhim well, and he's a shy guy, so he probably didn't know what to say to me. ButI'm riding the elevator up and I don't realize that it dings. And it's thepenthouse.
13:40
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
And he goes, well, that's my floor. And he gets off. And I was like, oh, myGod, I was so embarrassed at that moment. And then I just ride back down, like,I totally missed my floor. I don't even know if I pushed the elevator button. Iwas enamored by this man. Fast forward. I, like, am addicted to continuingeducation for the reasons I talked about before. And it's in alignment withpassion and vision. But I went. There's a continuing education facility inArizona, in Scottsdale. And I go to the course there. So this one was, hetravels around the country lecturing. So I go to the main facility and I amlistening to the lectures and I went up to one of the teachers because this iswho I am, like, always something to prove.
14:27
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
And I'm like, I want to do this one day. I've just gotten out of school and helooks at me. He's an amazing man too. Again, talking about who are the leadersin the field? They're older men.
14:37
Carrie Aguilar
Right.
14:38
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
And some are going to be nurturing and see you for who you are and others aregoing to be nurturing to a degree with a condescending air. And others are justgoing to be mansplaining, unfortunately. But anyway, so one who's incrediblynurturing and saw me as a person was like, that's an amazing goal. I think youshould try and reach that. He was like, you keep coming and you keep working onthis and you'll be there one day. And it's exactly what I did. And I'm reallylucky to now be an educator for sphere. Sphere education. And so it's been anamazing journey in the field of dental education, but also being able to be thewoman.
15:26
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah, right, yeah, of course.
15:27
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
And like be on stage and say to all the other ladies, women, you can do thistoo if you really want it. Like it's possible. Yeah, yeah.
15:39
Mara Kamat
It's amazing to think about that energy and passion you have early in yourcareer. And I hope we all continue to take that forward. I know at times thatcertainly is something that's challenging for me and it's something that I haveto be conscious of because when you're young, there's a little bit of thatnaivete that you just go and do it.
15:58
Carrie Aguilar
Oh, good, you don't know any better. You're like, you're not jaded, you'll justsay whatever. And you just, you're not scared because you don't. Yeah, youdon't know any better.
16:08
Mara Kamat
So I always try to think like, how do I harness that energy? But in the spiritof that, I see another one of your passions that comes out in airway health. Mydaughter often breathes with her lips open or sleeps with her mouth open. AndMargaret's put a piece of tape on it.
16:24
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Yes.
16:24
Mara Kamat
Stop doing that, Olivia. Close your mouth. And so I know airway health issomething you're passionate about, but it's something I want our listeners tohear about as well because it's directly linked to our well being. So can youtell us a little bit about this topic?
16:38
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Absolutely. So as I'm developing my dental practice and gathering knowledge andI want to tie in my husband because of his ENT background, it is really helpfulto be plugged in with physician colleagues and be able to have conversationswith them. But back to this development and being.
16:57
Carrie Aguilar
Like plugged in with him. I'm just kidding.
17:00
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Kind of. Right. Sometimes, sometimes we're ships passing in the night, youknow. Yeah.
17:04
Mara Kamat
Their offices and practices are next to.
17:07
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Each other though, intentionally.
17:09
Mara Kamat
Yeah.
17:09
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
So we did that two years ago. We built next to one another. But, you know, I'mon this journey of gaining knowledge and this whole arena of dentistry, it, weconsider it to be airway dentistry is developing too. And so I'm learning. Andanother mentor of mine is Dr. Jeff Rouse. He's another male, but sees me as acolleague and has been incredibly, you know, supportive of my journey. He, wecall him the airway God. Right. So there's all this information coming out onhow we breathe and sleep. It's really so intimately connected to our oralhealth and our overall health. So I'm basically seeing that what I can do as adentist dramatically impacts one's overall health. So the slogan I have for mydental practice is dentistry designed for health and well being.
18:10
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
So I've been very intentional in trying to create a practice where I helppeople be healthier overall. Like as a person.
18:20
Carrie Aguilar
Awesome.
18:21
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
And airway is that really important connection, that peace. So when we look atpatients who have damage to their teeth or they're unhappy with their smile, weask more questions about their overall health history and their human history,because most of the time the pieces of their medical history, the issues thatthey're experiencing, can be somewhat related to their oral health and thedamage or what we're trying to fix. So in my practice, we are able to, we makea joke, but we can literally do a lot of, to help a person sleep better,breathe better, be healthier, even if it's a GI or a gut thing, because it'sall connected to your oral health. And dentists that are properly trained canreally change people's lives. So breathing is really important.
19:22
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Basically, when you think about the purpose of the face, it's to communicate,to breathe and to eat. And as dentists, that's what we do. Someone needs to beable to speak well. Well, if they have a tongue tie, their speech is impacted.If they don't use their orofacial musculature properly, they may have some sortof speech complications. That's dentistry can help that diagnose it. And Treatit. And then you think about the next part. Reason for our face, we need tobreathe. So I like to say that the floor of the nose, it's the roof of themouth, so that's the same bone. The top jaw is literally the nose, too. So ifyou can't breathe well through your nose, it's probably also partly due to theway your jaw structure is. And beyond that, the top and bottom jaw are. Whatare those?
20:17
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Are the bones that create your airway.
20:20
Carrie Aguilar
So what are, like, examples of questions that you ask just out of curiosity,when you're meeting with patients that potentially different than what I wouldsay a general dentist asks?
20:31
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Yeah, so when a new patient comes into my practice, I spend over an hour withthem.
20:37
Carrie Aguilar
Oh, wow.
20:38
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Yeah. And that is partially an examination, but it's a conversation about theirgoals for their oral health. But also we talk about their own overall healthgoals and life goals. Almost like people will say to me, well, I want to livetill I'm 100, and I want to have my teeth. And I'm like, talk to me about that.What does that look like to you? The wellness space is so huge nowadays. So alot of people are on a wellness journey, and they'll say, I've had gut issuesforever. Well, where does the gut start? It starts in the mouth. It's one tube.Got to swallow the food. The oral microbiome is. Is intimately linked to thegut microbiome.
21:22
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
So I talk to patients, like I said before, their health and human history, butwe talk about what their goals are before we proceed into what I would considerto be a pretty extensive evaluation. And I might work with someone's physicianor physicians to help them. I might get them connected to other doctors ifthey're looking.
21:42
Carrie Aguilar
That's really interesting.
21:44
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
It's really fun. And it's also, in my personal opinion, it's where dentistryshould be.
21:51
Carrie Aguilar
That's really cool, Margaret.
21:52
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Thanks. I mean, I'm on a quest to help people. I want to be able to changelives. It's really nice being in private practice, too. It's really nice tohave a relationship with your patients. In a world of. In medicine now where,like, that's almost dead. I'd like to be. To be able to provide that for peoplewho are looking for it.
22:12
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah.
22:13
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
So, yeah. So this whole airway thing is this journey. I've gained so muchknowledge, and I just love to be able to share how I can help people with it.And sometimes patients come in. People come in, they have no idea. They are nothappy with their front teeth because they look worn or they don't feel likethey show enough of them. And it's because it's secondary to the fact thatmaybe their jaws didn't develop the right way or because they wore them downbecause they're grinding at night, which is actually a marker or sleepdisordered breathing.
22:46
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
And so to be able to give them that information and then not just provide thembeautiful teeth, because I love to do that artist part, of course, But I alsowant to make them healthier so that they don't have a heart attack or aren't athigh risk.
23:00
Mara Kamat
For Alzheimer's or, like, even with young kids. One of the things I reallyappreciated in Margaret is my daughter. One of my daughters was not sleepingfrom a very young age. Like 2, 3. It was like I could not get her to sleep forthe life of me. And Margaret's like, we need to do a sleep study. And so we dida sleep study on her at, I think, three or four years old. And then that led usdown this entire journey of realizing, hey, she needs to see an ent. She needsher tonsils out. She had developed adhd, to be totally honest. And some ofthat, maybe it was linked to sleep deprivation over time because she wasn'tsleeping.
23:39
Mara Kamat
But the minute we got those tonsils out and then started some intervention andsupport with orthodontia and Margaret, you know, her ability to sleep shiftedimmediately, and that changed her overall demeanor, her ability to focus inschool, you know, so many things. And so it's been a journey. It's a journeythat we're still on from age 4 to now. She is 12, but Margaret and sometimesher husband, like, that's part of that journey to help us problem solve andrecognize what was happening.
24:16
Carrie Aguilar
That's awesome.
24:17
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Thanks. Yeah. It is truly, like, one of my greatest pleasures to be able to,you know, help. Help get people healthier, especially kids. So the amazingthing about kids and all of the things Mara just brought up, so ADHD oftentimesis. And literature will say, like, up to 50% of ADHD diagnoses is just amisdiagnosis for sleep apnea in children. Wow. Yeah. And so that. That'smedical literature. That's like, that's out there. But we also know, even withan ADHD diagnosis, it's intimately linked to sleep quality. So. And we all feelthis, right. When sleep quality deteriorates, how is our emotional stability?
25:06
Mara Kamat
We were just talking about it this morning.
25:08
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Yeah. Like, how. How do overall. And so when we're treating kids and it's allliterature based. If we're looking for signs and we're asking questions abouthow a child sleeps, how their face is growing, because like I said, the bonesof the face make up your airway. And so very young, you can see developmentalchange in the face that is a clear indication that a child is not breathingwell. And we can change that in dentistry, and that's what we do. And it's soincredible to be able to help kids alongside physician colleagues. And it givesdentistry such a. Like a deeper and more important place in the world ofmedicine and caring for people. And that's important to me.
26:04
Carrie Aguilar
You don't.
26:04
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Yeah, sorry. No, no. I could go on forever about just like wax poetic aboutairway dentistry and faces and helping kids.
26:12
Carrie Aguilar
I think it's so interesting because. Well, two things. Number one is, I thinkhistorically, one of the things that I have seen or is in my mind sounds soweird, but health, like, your body is different than your mouth. I don't knowwhy, but I've always just thought, like, okay, your teeth, you go to a dentist.Your body, you go to a doctor. That's different than a dentist. And a coupleyears ago, I actually had an infection in my mouth for like over a year that Iwas just. I didn't want to go to a dent. I didn't like my dentist at the time,so I avoided. This is not my friend, by the way. This was like when I was inPhoenix. Just want to say that. But anyways. And I just.
26:53
Carrie Aguilar
I remember I was feeling ill, I was not feeling well, and I finally was like,you know what? I'm just going to go to this dentist. I feel like I had adeposit of something right here. And the dentist was like, you have a terribleinfection. We need to take this out. But also I need to give you antibiotics.And this is really bad. Why didn't you. And there was no reason, like, I.There's literally. I was working on. I mean, I had plenty of money. Literallyno reason why I shouldn't have just a year before been into the dentist to see.But it was literally because I was like, oh, well, that was just, you know,it's a dental thing. I didn't. I was just like putting it off. So anyways, Ithink it's like a mindset thing. And so that's number one.
27:38
Carrie Aguilar
So I love the fact that you are literally, like marrying and like bringingforward the importance of, you know, it's. It's like whole body health. Andnumber two is actually the reason why I got turned on to you in the first placeis not through Mara. It was actually through social media. You and your husbanddo these walk in talks that started just randomly coming up on my feed. Can youkind of break down what you do?
28:04
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
We call them Sunday morning chat, but on Sunday mornings, our kids are atSunday school. And so our passions really do overlap a lot. And we thought, whynot just put out there what we talk about all the time.
28:17
Carrie Aguilar
How did you come up with that idea?
28:19
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Actually, you know what? It might have been my next door neighborhood. He waslike, you should record this. I think were sitting there talking aboutsomething, and our friends know as we're like, hanging out. We always get intothis conversation about, like, teeth and health. Sometimes I sound the brokenrecord because I'm like, that person really should be breathing through theirnose. And they can't. And even my kids will be like, mom, look like that kid.You know, their mouth's way open, like they need you. So anyway, I think ournext door neighbor, long story short, was like, the stuff you're talking aboutis interesting.
28:51
Mara Kamat
Record it, Margaret. Let's talk about the wild, beautiful ride of being aworking mom. Our listeners hear me talk about being a multidimensional human,and you are definitely the definition of a multidimensional human. You'repassionate about cooking, about skating, about being a female entrepreneur. Youalso have a daughter who's an elite athlete. Tell us a little bit about how youbalance the being a mom, running a thriving practice, doing community work, andbeing a thought leader in your field.
29:26
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Thank you, Mara. So complimentary. I struggle with this. This year I hired alife coach to, you know, try to help me find that elusive sense of balance andpresence. I think one of the things I struggle with most is when you'rejuggling all these different things, how present you feel through them. And Iwas craving that. You can go through the motions, right? Like to get thingsdone. But what I was really lacking was being present in those moments,especially for your children. And my daughter ice skates. She found her love inice skating from a young age, and she's pursuing it. She'll tell you she reallywants to take it far. And so that requires me to be a momager.
30:18
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
And so I often say my other career is the momager, like a Jenner situation,where I like to pour a lot of my energy into it. But I also wanted to feel morepresent. So I having worked with a life coach, and I want to be there for my. Ihave a son. I want to be there for him, through his activities and his, youknow, his up, his growing, and even for my husband, like, there's all thesethings. So I think one of the. Really, the best parts so far of having had alife coach is we talk about seasons in life and just like, acknowledging theseseasons. So if you want to be present, you probably can't evenly juggle all thethings at one time. So be mindful of the season you're in.
31:05
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
If I'm in a season, and this year, I think we've been really lucky. I thinkwe're in a season where I've been able to maybe prioritize things that I hadn'tin the almost 15 years I've been developing myself as a dentist. I'm trying tobe more present for my children and my friends and my hive, my family. And sothat's a season. And so maybe I'm not doing as much development in my dentalpractice, but I'm helping my kids a little more. And so just like I said, justfiguring out where does that energy belong a little more. And that's how Ithink I'm trying to juggle it all, is you have all these things. They alreadyexist in your life, and sometimes one has to take priority over another, andthat needs to be okay.
31:55
Carrie Aguilar
Because that's the season had to let go of anything.
31:59
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Yes. Yeah, I have. I loved, and I still will come back to it. I'd love to be,you know, in the community service realm and just donating time andvolunteering, and I've not been able to place that as a priority in my life asmuch right now. So I still like to do philanthropic work when I can, but itused to be a big part of my younger life, and right now it's just. It's not asmuch because.
32:32
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah, I understand.
32:33
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
It's the season. I'm in between the practice and the passion I have forcontinuing dental education and growing that aspect of myself and then alsobeing there for my family.
32:43
Mara Kamat
We always like to end our episode with this one. Margaret, if you could go backand give your younger self, like, one piece of advice, what would you tell youryounger self?
32:54
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
If I had the opportunity to go back and talk to my younger self, I think Iwould say, slow down. You're always looking to the future. You know, what'snext? What do I have to prove? Where am I going? Sometimes you just have to sitin the moment and just, again. Right. Striving for presence. Just acknowledgewhat has been created, what is going on that is good or bad around you just bein it. Right? That's the fabric of life. Take it in. Don't always look towhat's next. So younger self, current self. Right. Breathe in the season, bepresent in it and try to really just pause and say, let's not think aboutwhat's next.
33:49
Mara Kamat
Just enjoy it.
33:50
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Yeah. Enjoy the ride.
33:52
Carrie Aguilar
And what's one thing you want women listening to remember about their ownstrength?
33:56
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Be brave. You can pursue your passion. Don't hold back. Right. This worldoftentimes will tell you that's too difficult or that's too hard or that's notwhere you belong. But listen to your inner self. Be brave and pursue.
34:20
Mara Kamat
Thank you, Margaret. It's been such a beautiful conversation. Always fun tospend time with you and we just appreciate your honesty, authenticity, and theinsight that you shared with our listeners today.
34:34
Carrie Aguilar
Agree. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and your story with us.
34:38
Dr. Margaret Richards Frankel
Kerry Mara, thank you so much. This was really amazing. Thank you for lettingme talk about my journey just to be among two amazing professional women andshare our insights and hopefully help others. This is, this has been so great.So thank you.
34:51
Carrie Aguilar
Thanks for listening to In Her Land. Don't forget to subscribe. Leave us areview and share this episode with one of the women or many of the women whoinspire you.
35:01
Mara Kamat
Until next time, stay grounded, stay brave and make space to do what makes youhappy.
