Matt Allen | Photograph by Adam Williams
Editor’s Note: This is from the monthly newspaper column related the We Are Chaffee Podcast, written by Adam Williams. The column is published in two newspapers local to Chaffee County, Colo.: the Chaffee County Times (Buena Vista) and The Mountain Mail (Salida).
“Welcome to the We Are Chaffee podcast, where I have conversations of community, humanness, and well-being with amazing people who are rooted in Chaffee County, Colorado,” as I say at the beginning of each show. Or something similar anyway. “Today, I’m talking with Matt Allen.”
Allen is a formerly practicing dentist who now is the CEO and co-founder of DifferentKind, a tech venture focused on making healthcare more human. As with so many of these We Are Chaffee conversations, Allen and I weaved through a broad scope of highlights and insights gained throughout his life. It’s amazing what we can cover in only 75 minutes of meaningful conversation.
I talked with him about how, having graduated as the valedictorian of his high school class in Prescott, Ariz., he almost dropped out of Pepperdine University only months later to dive full-time into his band in Los Angeles.
We talked about the relatively safe choice of becoming a dentist like his father, and then the risk of leaving it behind to start a tech company in Chaffee County. We also talked about a life-changing experience he had as a student abroad in Spain and the church-like experience of being a Liverpool F.C. fan.
We got into the wisdom of Father Richard Rohr and other philosophers, and talked about the two halves of life concept, which gets us to discussing how we see our roles as parents.
Allen also talked about the concept of motivational interviewing, which is a compassionate approach that lies at the heart of his dentistry and DifferentKind. He’s one of only three dentists in the world and the only one in the US with this specific training expertise.
We also talked about how he sees his company as a force for good in our community, and about the one thing he misses now that he’s no longer actively practicing as a dentist.
Here’s an excerpt from Allen on the podcast, talking about learning to move beyond his comfort zone and avoid regrets:
“A lot of my story involves me choosing things that were uncomfortable but not completely foreign. There is some recognition of what that thing was, whether that’s where I went to school or faith or whatever it might’ve been. It was different, but not too different. And I think the choice of being a dentist, while still one that I’m very glad that I did, was probably one of the safest choices that I had made.
“It was either, ‘I’m going to drop out of school and be a musician,’ which that would’ve been bananas. I was valedictorian in my high school and my parents would’ve freaked out. I think a lot of people would’ve freaked out in my family if I had chosen that route. And it was like, ‘Oh, I’m just going to be a dentist,’ and I think that that was pretty safe.
“I think if you look at the decisions now that I’m making in terms of starting a company, building a software company after being a dentist and not getting paid for two and a half years doing that, I’ve taken some pretty big risks. I realized, ‘Oh, these safe choices aren’t maybe the best expression of who I am as a person.’ I don’t think I would be happy with life if I was just continually making safe choices.”
“I definitely feel like now, I have been able to take risky decisions from the perspective of, ‘I will regret this if I don’t do it. I want to go down this road even if it’s hard, and I’ll regret it if I don’t do it, so let’s go.’”
Get to know Matt Allen on the We Are Chaffee podcast, which is supported by Chaffee County Public Health. Listen at wearechaffeepod.com and on all podcast players (e.g. Spotify, Apple Podcasts). The show also airs at 2 p.m. on Tuesdays on KHEN 106.9 FM community radio.
Adam Williams is host, producer and photographer of the We Are Chaffee Podcast. Listen and subscribe to the monthly email newsletter at wearechaffeepod.com. Follow @wearechaffeepod on Instagram.
