Karen Phillips (UltraDent) "Passion in People"

Karen's story of working at UltraDent: When I started in dentistry as a dental assistant many years ago, I was actually quite shy and had been that way my whole life—through childhood and as a young adult. Quite shy! In a crowded room, I was always the wall flower, but I loved dental assisting. Then, when the opportunity to work for Ultradent came around, I started coming out of my shell as I had to go in to dental offices as a sales rep. 

Later, as a regional manager, again, I blossomed a little bit more. After a few years in that position, I became a product trainer and remember distinctly a few occasions where I would talk to my mother on the phone and say, “Oh, I have a class of 30 people to train today,” or “I’m going to speak at our National Sales Meeting and I have 100 people to present to.” One day she stopped me and said, “Oh my gosh, Karen, how do you do that? You’re SO shy!”

It stopped me in my tracks and it was an “Aha!” moment for me. That moment was a real marker for me in my career because I had almost forgotten that I used to be shy and to look back and go, “How did I get here?!” was amazing.

I realized, and told my mom, that when you love what you do, and you’re passionate about it, you gain confidence. I mean, I went from being incredibly timid to public speaking and presenting for a living!

I believe this all happened because Ultradent recognizes passion in people and fosters growth in those areas. That’s what I love the most about Ultradent. The only reason I’m in the position I am today as the director of U.S. sales is because Ultradent identified and recognized the passion I had for our products at the beginning, and helped me cultivate it and build on it by making me a trainer, which helped develop my skills further to help me become what I am today. I thank God for that and that I’m part of a company that does that for and with their people.