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Welcome [00:01:00] back folks. I’m glad to have you as always. Today’s episode is a wild departure from normal. It is not a clinical episode. It’s not a business episode. What it is an imitation of the show Hot Ones. So if you haven’t seen Hot Ones, the premise behind it is the host interviews a guest while the guest is eating increasingly hotter and hotter chicken wings.
So why is this even happening on the podcast? After Crafted Practice back in late July, early August, Dr. Chris Barnes, who was here for the event and I decided to sit down and have a little bit of fun with our mutual love of spicy food and hot wings. So we decided to shoot this video and have a conversation while we were both eating hotter and hotter wings from a place here in town.
So there’s a lot of pain. There’s a lot of laughing. We do have some conversations about testing. So I think there are a few things to take away.
To get the full [00:02:00] effect, I would absolutely recommend you check out the link in the show notes and go to the YouTube video where you can see us struggling through these hot chicken pieces but was a lot of fun. I hope that you take away at least a little something from our conversation, and if nothing else, maybe just laugh at us.
All right, let’s get to the audio from our Hot Ones imitation.
Hey everybody. Hey, welcome back to a special episode of The Testing Psychologist podcast. As you can see, this is a very unorthodox setup for the podcast. I am not in my office. I am not anywhere that you should be recording a podcast, but special occasions call for special measures.
I’ve got my good friend, Dr. Chris [00:03:00] Barnes with me today, who’s visiting in our hometown of Fort Collins, following the Crafted Practice retreat. We’ve decided to craft our own experiment here, where we’re going to model a podcast episode after the show Hot Ones, because of our shared love of hot sauce.
We have a great hot chicken place here in town, we’ve got the platter of hot chicken tenders lined up. We’re going to heat some hot tenders and we’re going to answer some questions and have some discussion about testing and see where this goes.
Thanks for being here. Chris, welcome to Fort Collins and welcome to a video episode with Testing Psychologist.
Dr. Chris: This is great. Every time Jeremy and I start talking about things, we usually come up with some pretty awful ideas that never make it to fruition and we’re going to see if this one should have been left on the floor. So we’ll see where this goes.
Dr. Sharp: Here we go folks. All right, so I’m going to kick this off, just to get the party started, we’ve got our first tender. This is the lowest [00:04:00] heat level. It is green chili.
Dr. Chris: Oh, thank you.
Dr. Sharp: Do with that what you will.
Dr. Chris: So fancy. All right, folks. Let’s cheer this up.
Dr. Sharp: Here we go.
Dr. Chris: Cheers. A little bit of salt up front. I’m good with that.
Dr. Sharp: Okay.
Dr. Chris: This is a good warm-up. I’m down with that. This is a warm-up. It’s nice. Getting the party started. Like the first paper we ever turned in graduate school. A little underwhelming, but still, there’s potential.
Dr. Sharp: Yes. I can taste the green chili, which is different than the rest of the tenders. They’re going to be red [00:05:00] chili. I’m not a hot sauce aficionado like you are. I’ll follow your lead, nice easy warm-up, not too spicy.
Dr. Chris: Great job. This place, it’s got a chance of potential. I think it’s going to be a good time.
Dr. Sharp: Okay. You have some questions, some topics?
Dr. Chris: Yes. It’s already starting to salivate. Getting ready for some more. All right, Jeremy. If Dave Matthews Band’s followers are called Ants, and Taylor Swift’s followers are called Swifts or Swifties, are your followers called Sharpies?
Dr. Sharp: I’m going to go no, right off the bat. That’s what my gut would say.
Dr. Chris: Okay.
Dr. Sharp: I don’t have a good backup, though. We can read some of that. We can workshop it. I would say something around testing.
Dr. Chris: I don’t think we’ll have to all, maybe this is a PG show.
Dr. Sharp: I think we know where that’s going.
Dr. Chris: It’s now, [00:06:00] unfortunately, going to be what is now the new name by default. Whoops. Alright, do you want to do two more? Do you want to get into some more chicken?
Dr. Sharp: Let’s do one more and then hit the chicken.
Dr. Chris: Alright. If you could describe your leadership style as a type of cheese, which would it be? You can’t choose Swiss.
Dr. Sharp: I cannot choose Swiss.
Dr. Chris: That’s an easy one. Got to take that off the table.
Dr. Sharp: Who made that question?
Dr. Chris: I did.
Dr. Sharp: These are for both of us, right?
Dr. Chris: I’m asking the questions that I made.
Dr. Sharp: Oh, you’re interviewing. Okay. Oh, I see where we’re headed with this. I’m also not a cheese expert, so I’m weighing it here as well, but I would say maybe an American cheese. Certainly flavorful and strong enough to make a difference and relatively mild, not going to come on super strong, but something that [00:07:00] you are glad that you have added to the sandwich, i.e. your work.
Dr. Chris: Very nice. Shall we?
Dr. Sharp: We shall. Let’s do it.
Dr. Chris: Alright, so let’s roll through what this one is.
Dr. Sharp: Yes, so this is where we get into flavors that are labeled any kind of hot. So this is just your basic hot.
Dr. Chris: Very appropriately identified basic hot.
Dr. Sharp: And just to clarify, I know there are some folks out there who are probably well-versed in this whole thing. This is Nashville Hot Chicken, a specific style that came out of the South, obviously different. These are not wings. It is Nashville hot chicken.
Dr. Chris: I forgot to choose already. I’m excited. Okay. Definitely hits a bit more potently, but a little more
sweet. [00:08:00] It like my 12-year-old attitude. It’s a little hard but sweet underneath, a little bit of spice, Dr. Sharp?
Dr. Sharp: I enjoy it. For me, this is the place where we get into some flavor. It’s pretty good balance of flavor. Typically, if I need the hot chicken from this restaurant, I am going one step up to get more heat in there. Still keeps the flavor but this is a good entree. I do like that little bit of soup. There is a texture thing for me that is really delightful about the breading and the frying.
Dr. Chris: I can already start to feel it build a bit. This is exciting. I’m already starting to fix a bit. This is not a bad sign. Great. Might be just the dry Colorado heat.
[00:09:00] Dr. Sharp: Alright, what do we got?Dr. Chris: Let’s do some more.
Dr. Sharp: Let’s do some more quick.
Dr. Chris: All right. There’s a word that starts with L and ends with Y and it describes me perfectly. What is it? Starts with L, and ends with Y.
Dr. Sharp: I’m going to stay around and say lazy.
Dr. Chris: That’s wrong. It is lovely. The word is lovely. Sorry, Jeremy.
Dr. Sharp: It’s a trick question.
Dr. Chris: 100% trick question. All right, so what are your thoughts on cottage cheese in the morning?
Dr. Sharp: Oh goodness, cottage cheese in the morning, I can’t say that I have ever eaten cottage cheese in the morning, which might make you wonder why did I choose that as a breakfast selection at the event I recently hosted.
Dr. Chris: It’s a conversation starter, is that why you chose it?
Dr. Sharp: It was a conversation starter.
Dr. Chris: It certainly was. Yes.
Dr. Sharp: I knew that people would have some reactions and I knew that people would be talking about it.
Dr. Chris: Very good.
Dr. Sharp: And it stirred things up, first thing in the morning, it got the feelings [00:10:00] going on. It got the discussion going. It loosened this up a little bit. It also helped me learn something about my guests, that is, to never offer cottage cheese in the morning.
Dr. Chris: You did learn that.
Dr. Sharp: Yeah. Your thoughts?
Dr. Chris: I have a texture thing. This texture is just about the only texture that I enjoy, and cottage cheese is definitely not this texture. I think everyone should do whatever they want to do as long as it hurts no one else, so if cottage cheese is your thing, then go for it but I’d rather not be in the same room.
Dr. Sharp: That’s fair.
Dr. Chris: Also, next year, please no cottage cheese. I think we’re good.
Dr. Sharp: I think we can agree.
Dr. Chris: Can the people agree? I believe we can all agree.
Dr. Sharp: I’ll be honest though, choosing meals for a huge group of people is my worst nightmare, but because I’m such a people pleaser and I’m like, how can I choose every single option so that someone will most likely have something they like?
Dr. Chris: Yes.
Dr. Sharp: So having to pick a limited selection of breakfast to the full [00:11:00] lunch for this event, it was tough.
Dr. Chris: And you still ended up with cottage cheese somehow.
Dr. Sharp: I trusted the venue. The venue, for some reason, had paired cottage cheese with the other selections that morning; the fruit, the […] and whatnot, and so I said, hey, this is a nice place. They know what they’re doing.
Dr. Chris: They must.
Dr. Sharp: And here we go with cottage cheese. Literally, before we even started the event, we were talking about how bad it was.
Dr. Chris: This is wonderful. That’s how the world turns, folks. I love it. All right, shall we?
Dr. Sharp: Another bite.
Dr. Chris: Let’s go. Another bite. Would you care to introduce this flavor?
Dr. Sharp: Yes. This flavor is called Nashville Hot.
Dr. Chris: Keep your fork on your side, please. I don’t know how much you got. There you go.
Dr. Sharp: There we go. Didn’t want to offend the sensibilities, here we go.
Dr. Chris: I’m sure that he will take care of any germ that’s there.
Dr. Sharp: Nashville Hot.
Dr. Chris: That’s the name of this one.
Dr. Sharp: Yes.
Dr. Chris: It’s the style and the name. [00:12:00] Original, how could we go wrong? Cheers. Still maintains the crunch. I feel like this might be a bit of a creeper here. I’m feeling it.
Dr. Sharp: I agree. I don’t know. What’s playing it cool?
Dr. Chris: Maybe it’s a dud, which is famous last words, by the way. I might go in for a little more on this one, sorry.
Dr. Sharp: Go for it. A spice question for someone who deals with a lot of spice, is there an acclimation factor; have we built up some kind of tolerance at this point that it might wash out the heat a bit, or is that a myth?
Dr. Chris: You mean in our session now or in our own progression as a human?
Dr. Sharp: Let’s do both.
Dr. Chris: I think that we all can build tolerance to hard things. [00:13:00] That’s why I’m a good dad, because I can do really hard things like parent. I think spice is one of those things that I, as a child, I was always drawn to spicier things. So I think I have had some more experience with it. I don’t think that makes it less spicy overall. Even the same spice can hit me differently on different days.
I do know, though, that when I do progressions, I oftentimes want to miss or skip the beginning ones because I don’t think they’re going to do much, but it has a synergistic effect as it continues to roll through the process. I think we did the right thing by starting with the lowest of them and progressing through. I don’t know as if that one was living up to what I had hoped, though.
Dr. Sharp: It almost makes me wonder if we switched the flavors accidentally somehow.
Dr. Chris: That would be my fault because everything’s always my fault. I’ll happily accept that.
Dr. Sharp: I didn’t say that.
Dr. Chris: I know. That’s a joke because I’m perfect and nothing’s my fault. That’s also a joke.
Dr. Sharp: Okay. Between the two deep flavor, [00:14:00] it is creeping a little bit around the bottom of the dome, whatever but that was less hot than I would have expected.
Dr. Chris: I do concur. However, it is fitting in a different part of the palette. So we’ll give it that. The second one’s my favorite one so far. I feel like it was easy, delicious.
Dr. Sharp: I’m with you.
Dr. Chris: It’s great. I haven’t steered me wrong yet.
Dr. Sharp: You got two more. Do you have any questions?
Dr. Chris: I always have lots of questions. In fact, I thought them through and wrote them down. We’re going to play a game. We’re going to call it smash or pass. I’m going to say a word. Smash is yes, I love it. Pass, no thank you.
Dr. Sharp: Okay.
Dr. Chris: I say a word. You like it, you say smash. If you don’t, pass.
Dr. Sharp: Great.
Dr. Chris: It’s going to be fast, okay?
Dr. Sharp: Okay.
Dr. Chris: Roll fast. Don’t overthink it. Don’t rush hard. Cilantro.
Dr. Sharp: Smash.
Dr. Chris: Pineapple and ham pizza.
Dr. Sharp: Pass.
Dr. Chris: Kombucha.
Dr. Sharp: Pass.
Dr. Chris: That was tentative, but we’ll go with it. [00:15:00] Bungee jumping.
Dr. Sharp: Pass
Dr. Chris: Breaking apart a KitKat to eat it.
Dr. Sharp: Smash.
Dr. Chris: Salt and vinegar potato chips.
Dr. Sharp: Smash.
Dr. Chris: Mowing your lawn in alternative directions every time.
Dr. Sharp: Pass.
Dr. Chris: Waking up at 5.00 AM regularly.
Dr. Sharp: Pass.
Dr. Chris: Sunset is better than sunrise.
Dr. Sharp: Smash.
Dr. Chris: The coolest thing you’ve done today is recording this video.
Dr. Sharp: Smash.
Dr. Chris: Love it. Let’s go. I like this. We were talking earlier, I flew into Colorado 10 days ago, it was a Sunday night, probably got here at 12.30 AM Colorado time. It’s 2.30 AM Michigan time, my kids were a mess.
Ever since we’ve been here, I feel like Colorado’s trying to kill me. There were fires the day afterward; several fires, interfering with all of our plans. It’s been 100 degrees. It’s 20 degrees higher usual. It’s hot.
We went to Pike’s Peak, which is a view you can see at the top of this mountain here. As soon as we got off the train, everyone’s hair was sticking up in the air. After we descended the [00:16:00] mountain and went to the town below flash floods; the question I have is, what is the most unexpected thing that’s going to try to kill me between now and tomorrow when I fly away, what should I be on the lookout for?
Dr. Sharp: Okay. I might put my money on rattlesnake just hanging out in the sun when you least expect it. It could be a college student under the influence of Colorado’s favorite substance skateboarding across the street.
Dr. Chris: Very good, yes. What if I’m skateboarding with them under that same influence? I’m just joking, by the way.
Dr. Sharp: Those are my top two choices.
Dr. Chris: You didn’t say hot chicken, so that’s a good sign.
Dr. Sharp: I think it’s a sign that we should keep going.
Dr. Chris: Let’s go.
Dr. Sharp: Okay, so the next flavor we have is called White Hot. I’m not sure if you can see it in the frame. It’s got two toothpicks in it. That’s a double warning to anyone who might try to [00:17:00] eat it, which we are going to do right now but it’s called White Hot. It’s one step from the top.
Dr. Chris: Can’t wait.
Dr. Sharp: Ready?
Dr. Chris: Thank you. That is some Colorado hospitality right there, folks.
Dr. Sharp: Colorado’s kindness, that’s what we’ll all say.
Dr. Chris: We’ll all say it from here, moving forward, Dr. Sharp. I cut a small piece off this, oh, and then I was going to eat that gigantic piece, but I feel like I need to go all in on this so we’re going to take a monster bite.
Dr. Sharp: Oh my gosh, I’m impressed.
Dr. Chris: Here we are.
Dr. Sharp: I’m impressed.
Dr. Chris: Pray for me, everyone.
Dr. Sharp: I’d be a little scared.
Dr. Chris: I’m very scared.
Dr. Sharp: White Hot. Getting hot, a little bit. It’s still slow.
Dr. Chris: I might regret that one. That one took me a little bit harder than I thought it would. The flavor is there. That’s back of the mouth, [00:18:00] roof. How do you say?
Dr. Sharp: I would say the roof of the mouth.
Dr. Chris: Roof of the mouth. Others may say roof. This one has my heart racing a little bit. The flavor’s there. I feel like I’m at that critical moment; that moment we all get to where we can either retreat or we can persevere. I think we persevere and regret every second of it afterward.
Dr. Sharp: There’s no turning back.
Dr. Chris: There is no turning back.
Dr. Sharp: We committed ourselves. Yes. It’s building. It’s definitely.
Dr. Chris: That was a bad, this is making up for the one that I think we were giving a little bit of a hard time, earlier. We shouldn’t have done that.
Dr. Sharp: Certainly. No. You eat a lot of spicy foods; you get into the hot sauce world much more than I do.
Do you have a sense just from the taste of what kind of peppers we’re working with here, any dominant flavor profiles, or is that too much?
[00:19:00] Dr. Chris: Of course, everyone’s going to fact-check this, I think that there is quite a bit of cayenne pepper in hot chicken. Oh my God, this is awful. I am really hurting right now. It’s coming out all.I’ve made hot chicken before where, I’ve grilled it or I’ve done whatever traditionally, of course, fried it, you dip it in an oil with a cayenne. I think they dip that in some lava.
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Let’s get back to the podcast.
It’s coming on strong.
Dr. Chris: Yes.
Dr. Sharp: It’s not getting any cooler.
Dr. Chris: It’s to the point where it’s almost difficult to breathe without further exacerbating the heat.
Dr. Sharp: I know that point.
Dr. Chris: I love it.
Dr. Sharp: I also love it. Let’s talk about that, I’m getting it right around the outside edges of the tongue on the side, the underneath. This is where it gets a little potentially embarrassing because we’re going to start to make some faces that I’m trying my best to hold this under control, but it’s pretty hot. What was I going to say?
Dr. Chris: It’s already starting to affect our cognition.
Dr. Sharp: I feel like we’d be some kind of hallucinatory desert mushroom or something, [00:22:00] but it is got the adrenaline pumping. This is as often annoying.
Dr. Chris: It becomes slightly awful. I love it. I’m getting it much more the back of the roof of my mouth. Definitely, the more I breathe across my tongue, the more I’m not enjoying it. I feel the wind as the spigot has been turned. Slow drip right now. I feel your comment. It’s going to be great.
This dry heat, I know, going back is 100 degrees. Everyone was trying to be very kind and say it was a dry heat. It was pretty hot. Not as hot as these things. Oh, Lord.
Dr. Sharp: We’re glad that we’re in this together.
Dr. Chris: We are in this together. In fact, the more we talk to each other, the more twins we become, it seems. Even the stuff I make up about your family proved to be true for a while.
Dr. Sharp: It’s true. Why don’t you tell people that story just to clarify that a bit?
Dr. Chris: Jeremy and I have been on the interwebs [00:23:00] together for some time. He is far more famous than I am for very good reasons. We met up in, was it AACN in Chicago?
Dr. Sharp: Yes. 2019.
Dr. Chris: 2019.
Dr. Sharp: Chicago.
Dr. Chris: It’s our 5-year anniversary. This is great, round numbers. It’s the hot chicken Jubilee. We went out to dinner, had a fabulous time. It was about a 30-minute taxi ride up the journey.
Dr. Sharp: Yes.
Dr. Chris: That was a long one, but we got to chit-chat. It was nice. We’re getting to chit-chat each other a little bit better. Ate a great meal. Jeremy broke all kinds of his own rules and I felt like the devil on his shoulder. It’s fantastic.
Dr. Sharp: It was incredible.
Dr. Chris: Drove back to Chicago, it was much less time, maybe 15. The traffic had died down quite a bit. Felt like we got to know each other quite a bit. The more we were talking, it felt like our lives were aligned.
Let’s fast forward about five years, which was just about five days ago when I met his wife and I said, oh, it’s so interesting how your husband and I, it’s so many similarities. In fact, I can’t believe that we even got married in our parents’ front yards just like you [00:24:00] guys. Carrie looked at me, shook her head to the side, and said, what are you talking about?
So for the rest of the day, I was struggling to find deep within me the reason I was thinking that detail was somehow true. Turns out it was another psychologist I know but for the past three or four years, I had believed that to be true. In my eyes, it will never not be true.
Dr. Sharp: I’m okay with that.
Dr. Chris: It’s good. I’m happy everyone’s having a good time.
Dr. Sharp: Speaking of having a good time, this is not necessarily dying down from my standpoint but I think we should keep moving.
Dr. Chris: Shall we?
Dr. Sharp: Yeah.
Dr. Chris: Let’s do this.
Dr. Sharp: Into the fire.
Dr. Chris: Let me cut you a piece so I can have a few more moments here to gather myself. I challenge you, Dr. Sharp, to the larger half this time.
Dr. Sharp: Sure.
Dr. Chris: Unless you feel like that’s unfair because this is a monster than it is supposed to be. What is this?
Dr. Sharp: The flavor here is called flammable solid.
[00:25:00] Dr. Chris: Flammable solid?Dr. Sharp: It’s called a flammable solid.
Dr. Chris: I can’t wait. In true form, I’m going all in on this too.
Dr. Sharp: I’m a little scared.
Dr. Chris: Whatever the spiritual beliefs are, please just send some energy that way for us. Cheers. That wasn’t a bad idea. I think we’ll be all right. We’re not going to be all right.
Dr. Sharp: No.
Dr. Chris: I’m a stream of consciousness, Jeremy, tell me what’s going on through your head.
Dr. Sharp: The first bite immediately scared. I feel like it hit fast.
Dr. Chris: This is really awful.
Dr. Sharp: It hit a lot faster than the others, which [00:26:00] makes me think, okay, one of two things, it’s either super-hot and spicy and it’s inbuilt from there, which could be a complete disaster, or this is a different kind of pepper of some sort, and it’s going to hit quick in the beginning and then back off. I don’t know.
Dr. Chris: Only one way to find out.
Dr. Sharp: I’m also trying to strategically tuck it into my cheek so that it doesn’t touch any other part of my mouth.
Dr. Chris: Jeremy, okay, that’s great.
Dr. Sharp: It’s not working.
Dr. Chris: I don’t know what you can do to defend against this other than having Vaseline over the top of everything in your mouth, which would maybe work. Oh my God. This is not fun. I’m having a hard time focusing.
In Fort Collins, we’ve been eating some great meals such as tonight. Oh, this is awful. We’ve had some really nice meals. Lots of tasty treats throughout the entire week. If we were back at the retreat last week, [00:27:00] and we were in the middle of a presentation, and I pulled out a bag of salami out of my pocket, would you eat any?
Dr. Sharp: In the middle of a presentation?
Dr. Chris: Not your presentation.
Dr. Sharp: Just any presentation?
Dr. Chris: Yes.
Dr. Sharp: So basically like do I like salami?
Dr. Chris: Then I pull out of my pocket in a bag.
Dr. Sharp: What kind of bag?
Dr. Chris: A Ziploc bag. I love how you have so many considerations about all the variables.
Dr. Sharp: How old is this salami?
Dr. Chris: It’s appropriately aged. It was refrigerated properly the night prior.
Dr. Sharp: Okay.
Dr. Chris: The answer should have been yes or no, Dr. Sharp.
Dr. Sharp: I’m going to say yes.
Dr. Chris: I love it. This is why we get along so well. This last question I got, oh my God, many of the psychologists I interact with, especially at the level of business, where they’re running practices, they oftentimes will say, you know this business stuff, this is the stuff we don’t get taught in graduate [00:28:00] school. I’m sure everyone’s said it. Everyone’s heard it. Dr. Sharp, what would you not teach in a graduate psychological program?
Dr. Sharp: Ooh, like what would I not teach in order to make room for business class?
Dr. Chris: Yes.
Dr. Sharp: It’s a wonderful question. Personally speaking, for where I’m at in my career, we had a class called history of Psychology. I feel like it honestly duplicated a lot of the content from undergraduate, and it was just a recitation of psychology through the ages of our forefathers. Lord knows, we probably omitted any number of people of color, and women from that history. I would say, let’s throw that out. Let’s teach a business class.
Dr. Chris: Yes, with all due respect to all those in academia teaching that class right now.
Dr. Sharp: Of course.
Dr. Chris: His information will be in the show notes. Please contact him.
Dr. Sharp: But as far as the information that I am not [00:29:00] using currently in my life, that’s what I’ll probably get rid of.
Dr. Chris: Okay, so no phonology? You’re not using phonology?
Dr. Sharp: I’m not.
Dr. Chris: Okay.
Dr. Sharp: What about you?
Dr. Chris: I don’t think so.
Dr. Sharp: I let go of it like three years.
Dr. Chris: That’s good.
Dr. Sharp: How would you answer that question? That’s a great question.
Dr. Chris: What would I not teach? I think this may be controversial, I would not teach individual domains. I would teach integrative from the start in just about everything.
Dr. Sharp: Oh, okay.
Dr. Chris: I’m sweating so badly right now. I would definitely want people to understand cognitive assessment. I would definitely want people to understand the assessment of a muted personality. I definitely want some of the nerdy neuropsychology stuff.
I’m a big fan of how does it all works together and how do we all weave them together in such a way that suits our clients to identify strengths. Especially, if it can help them compensate or work with some of the weaknesses that they’ve identified. So I think it should be a gigantic mix from the beginning, [00:30:00] lots of tears right from the beginning, because it would be incredibly hard.
Dr. Sharp: I agree.
Dr. Chris: We can do hard things just as we’ve proven here tonight.
Dr. Sharp: We can do hard things. I like that you’re drilling down specifically on assessment teaching and just to piggyback on that, it’s really like …
Dr. Chris: I think we need to eat more or go against the show or something.
Dr. Sharp: Yeah, it’s very hot. I would certainly question whether we need to “learn” how to write the results in a report. Do we really need to learn how to write the WISC is a 5 composite intelligence test to make the following domains? This is what it may, I don’t know, I think we just know that. I’m not sure of writing that over and over don’t do anything.
Dr. Chris: Right. I think we should also get students to dictate [00:31:00] from the beginning into their computer, into their phone. I think we all sit at computers way too often, and speaking is much more quick than typing. Eating the extra chicken was not also a very good idea.
Just the little tips and tricks along the way that can speed things up for us, especially those who do choose to enter any sort of writing profession outside of grant writing, et cetera, because that has to be something you want to speak. I’m so surprised how much I can get done when I just sit and scream in a microphone for a bit.
Dr. Sharp: It’s much easier to edit than to create, at least for me. Dictation gets over that initial combo if you just talk into the microphone and see what comes out.
Dr. Chris: Yes, indeed. What kind of tips and tricks do you have that you tend to integrate to your workflow, whether it be for writing or for just getting notes on the paper?
Dr. Sharp: Yeah, for sure. Lots of thoughts on that. First of all, I type everything and so I take notes on everything that’s all possible.
[00:32:00] Dr. Chris: Afterwards, you’ll conceptualize all of this for us.Dr. Sharp: Yeah.
Dr. Chris: Show notes. Love it.
Dr. Sharp: Yes. I like to avoid saying the same thing twice in a report. That’s one of the rules that I talk with our trainees and staff about. We should not be saying the same thing twice. Put it in the history, you don’t have to say necessarily in other sections of the board. There are lots of things.
Dr. Chris: Anything with a microphone that you can get secure information into is your friend. Walking from your car to your office, in between, whatever, just start spinning into something, I think it’s the best thing to do.
Dr. Sharp: Follow your lead.
Dr. Chris: You got to keep going. The more I stop, the worse it gets, which means, we have to stop eventually. And that’s when the fun really begins.
I have a few other dentists’ offices in the building that I have my suite in, they’re always asking me what I’m doing on my way in because they always see me [00:33:00] talking to my phone and it’s turning on my lights through some sort of a system, but I’m just getting my to-do list done in the minute it takes me to walk in, it’s been a significant game changer for me.
Then of course, after we have those random things pop into our head, just without a note, somehow dictated into that’s, I have all my students do it. They start dictating day 1. I think they try to write a lot more because they’re used to it, but I always encourage them to dictate as much as possible. You can tidy it up later.
Dr. Sharp: Absolutely. That definitely made a difference.
Dr. Chris: Just go with it, Jeremy. You can’t stop now.
Dr. Sharp: I thought I was doing okay. Those two extra bites. Even the simple act of dictating or typing the history after the day of the [00:34:00] intake, whatever means you have, maybe there’s software involved, maybe you’re actually typing or dictating it, but doing it the day of the intake. So a lot of the time, I would just move on to the next thing, next appointment, next task. So I started building in an extra hour just on the calendar event for the intake so that it gave me a bigger window to dedicate time to the intake.
Dr. Chris: And then the report becomes less of an animal at that point, too. You got the notes done for the intake. You got some nuance, you forget who the kid is. If they go on vacation, you can always refer back up to speed much more quickly.
Dr. Sharp: Yes.
Dr. Chris: These are the things they don’t teach in graduate school.
Dr. Sharp: They sure don’t.
Dr. Chris: They don’t. Okay.
Dr. Sharp: All right. So we’ve finished off flammable solid, white hot, I still have some bite of something over here.
Dr. Chris: It doesn’t matter.
Dr. Sharp: It’s going to get lost in any other flavors that we’ve been [00:35:00] eating over the past half hour but I think this turned out well.
Dr. Chris: Yes, this was not a flop. I guess maybe only the data will tell. It was fun doing it regardless.
Dr. Sharp: Absolutely. Thanks for taking part in this experiment. I’m really struggling.
Dr. Chris: Yes. I should have brought a shirt to change. This has been awful.
Dr. Sharp: But a pleasure to endure with.
Dr. Chris: Always there. Look forward to our next fiesta, whatever it may be.
Dr. Sharp: Absolutely.
Dr. Chris: Thank you.
Dr. Sharp: All right, y’all. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode, always grateful to have you here. I hope that you take away some information that you can implement in your practice and in your life. Any resources that we mentioned during the episode will be listed in the show notes so make sure to check those out.
If you like what you hear on the podcast, I would be so grateful if you left a review on iTunes or Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
[00:36:00] If you’re a practice owner or aspiring practice owner, I’d invite you to check out The Testing Psychologist mastermind groups. I have mastermind groups at every stage of practice development; beginner, intermediate, and advanced. We have homework, we have accountability, we have support, we have resources. These groups are amazing. We do a lot of work and a lot of connecting.If that sounds interesting to you, you can check out the details at thetestingpsychologist.com/consulting. You can sign up for a pre-group phone call, we will chat and figure out if a group could be a good fit for you.
Thanks so much.
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