Podcasts about dental team

Kiera and Kristy discuss ways your practice can completely “drain the lemon” of juice (aka, financial opportunity) without becoming completely overwhelmed. This happens by identifying a goal and reverse engineering it. Kiera and Kristy give numerous examples of how this works, as well as other opportunities for hidden value in your practice. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is such a special day. I hope you guys are having the best day because I'm having a great day because today I'm podcasting with our one and only Kristy Treasure, one of our incredible consultants. And I am so excited to have Kristy with us. Kristy, how are you doing today?   Kristy (00:17) Gosh, it's fantastic. The first day is spring and we're gonna bring some new life to clients here. Add potential clients, right?   Kiera Dent (00:24) I agree. I completely   agree with you, Kristy And honestly, if you guys have not met Kristy, Kristy is incredible. She's been on our team. Kristy, feel is just like the queen of wanting to have these amazing practices, just hit great numbers. Kristy loves numbers. She loves to dig in. And Kristy has this like very delicate leadership style. Like I watch you and I see you just transform practices. You gain their trust, you build their trust, you help team members.   I mean, offices who've said, Kiera I only want to work with you, are working with Kristy and loving her. And so it's just really fun, Kristy, to have someone who just is so passionate about dentistry. And I'm just so happy to have you on the podcast with me today. So that's a little intro to Kristy. If you haven't met her, haven't heard from her, you definitely need to. So Kristy, love having you on our team. It's always a treasure.   Kristy (01:11) Thank you. I love being here. It's a great culture and you know what? We just have fun serving clients and that's what it's about.   Kiera Dent (01:19) We totally do. And so Kristy, I want to join the podcast today because I feel I've been watching you consult some clients and I've been seeing it's fun in our morning huddle. Don't worry guys, in Dental Team we have a morning huddle. You can tell I used to be a dental assistant, team member, that's what I do. And so Kristy, we always share client wins and it's really fun because then we can share from consultants like, hey, what are you doing really well? What things are we doing well?   And Kristy, I've been watching, she's been posting up some really fun changes that she's been able to do with practices, so much so that offices who have never been able to hit certain dollar amounts in their production, things that they never believed were possible, getting overheads like, Kristy is burning and churning and doing it, it's like, Kristy, you come in with this like delicate wave of authority and it's just beautiful. And so I kind of wanted to talk, not necessarily specific to these practices.   But I mean, offices who have never had 100 grand, Kristy's been able to help them. Offices who have never been profitable, she's been able to help them. Offices who feel like they can't get their leadership team on board, Kristy's getting them. People who say like, we'll never be able to make an operations manual. I'm watching and Kristy you're just like getting these offices to navigate along. And so I thought today would be really fun for us to talk about maybe what are some of the tips or tricks. Again, not necessarily specific to these practices, but things you see overarching that really work to add.   production to a practice or get a team bought into it. So let's start first. mean, everybody always wants to geek out on numbers. So Kristy, what are some of the things that you've found are just really successful? I mean, you're an office manager of a very, very, very successful practice. You've consulted lots and lots and lots of practices even before coming to Dental A Team. You've got some history with you. So Kristy, let's kind of share some Kristy magic of what are some of the things you've seen that really help impact numbers in a practice quickly and easily with a whole team bought into that.   Kristy (03:06) Yeah, would say first off and foremost, like obviously picking maybe the top five metrics to start working on and every doctor in office talks about production and collection. And so starting with some of the basics that they already understand, but also like.   Figuring out that point, what are we working for? Not just in a five year or 10 year range. I mean, you talk about that all the time, but also what are we looking for this year? And then reverse engineering it. Because if we don't have a point to guide to,   It's just numbers and even when we're talking percentages, we can have 100 % of collections, but is it enough to pay the bills? Is it enough to do the goals that we're reaching for as a team? So definitely it's about starting where they're at and then letting them see something bigger, if you will.   Kiera Dent (04:07) And Kristy,   I think it's such a good thing because like when teams just feel like they're only about today, right? Like it's like, here's my daily bread today, but we don't understand the bigger picture. This is oftentimes when offices get fresher and they're like, my team isn't even looking down the line. They're not taking the ownership. They're not doing any of these things. So Kristy, how do you get a team to look further down the line and not feel the overwhelm, not feel like, cause you know, you come in and start to change. How do you have some tips to navigate with team members who maybe aren't as pro?   Getting into it.   Kristy (04:38) Yeah, I would say number one, I mean, we're starting out the year, we're ending first quarter. And so to think, ⁓ I want to hit a million dollars by the end of the year. That's such a big overwhelming number that we literally break it down. We can project out where are they currently, you know,   Where are their numbers currently projected to hit at the end of the year? And then reverse engineer that. Guys, my gosh, we're only $1,000 short a week. How could we go find $1,000?   right? And do what we do. It's all in the name of getting our patients healthy. you know, let breaking it down to that simple step and letting them achieve something daily, if not weekly, and showing them it's easy. And it all relates back to our why. Why did we get into dentistry? You know, it's to serve and get our patients healthy. So when we do that, and we know where we're headed, it's really easy to achieve.   and then just start building in the goals from there.   Kiera Dent (05:46) Mm-hmm, I agree   with you because I think in dentistry is so fun I mean a million seems so hard, but let's break it down like if we really want to do I mean Let's just do some fun math here. So we're gonna do a million. All right, so some offices. They're like, I've never hit a million Let's figure out a million. I think these are fun. Kristi and I do love numbers So I hope you do and if you don't I hope you take on our mantra of like I love numbers and numbers Love me. I want the numbers to love me. So let's enjoy that. So if we have a million we divide it by 12, okay   And this is just really rough math. There's more sophisticated ways to project this. That's 83,000 per month. Let's bump it up to 84 because it's 83,333. So let's just do 84,000. So if we're at 84,000 and then we know, let's say you're a practice that is only working four days a week, that's fine. You do not need to work five days. You don't need to work six days. Let's just do a four day work week. Cause I like to prove to people and Kristy, I know you do too. We don't have to work harder. Let's just work a little smarter.   So with that, let's say it's 16 days a month. Does that make sense? You got four days a week. Most months are four weeks. I get that there's a few more, which is why this is very loose. Don't worry if you do this, you'll slush in the right direction. So what that brings it down to is 52.50 per day. Now let's say in this practice that they have two hygienists. Usually a hygienist is producing about a thousand-ish rough numbers. That's 32.50 per day for an office. And so I think Kristy agreed with you.   When we look at that and we're like, all right, if we're only scheduled to 2,700 today, where can we go find that extra $600 or $500? And it's not saying we're over diagnosing patients. What we're doing is we're looking to see, could we add in some fluoride? Could we add in that FMX? How can we do better patient care? Oh my gosh, that patient only wanted to do one filling, but they're about to get numb. And that quad of filling seems a lot more enticing because they're about to get numb. It's crazy how like, you know, when I talk to patients and they say, oh,   I think I just want to this one filling. And then when they're about to get numb, it's like, Hey, we can actually do the whole quad. And they're like, yeah, we should actually do that. It's wild. That injection, you guys never, ever, ever, ever underestimate the power of an injection. ⁓ but the reality is this is how you can look for it. This is how it becomes fun. And I think helping teams and Kristy, do an amazing job with this, helping teams have fun with this. That's the whole point of a morning huddle. We go to morning huddle to huddle. How do we win the game? Just like a huddle in basketball or huddle in football.   How do we actually win the game? Where are we at? What's that extra five? I mean, I have been shocked when offices will implement pro, ⁓ fluoride, or they'll look for FMXs. We're like doing our x-rays on normal cadences, or we're even doing our comp exams. That will add up so fast for you. Adding a sealant, adding in quad dentistry rather than single tooth dentistry. You can find these things so easily. And so, Kristy, I think you do a beautiful job of that with your practices. And I'm just curious, like,   But what happens when you have that one team member in the back who's just like not having it? What do we do with them and how do you get those team members on board?   Kristy (08:46) Yeah, number one, most team members want something more for themselves, right? Whether it's a yearly raise or I don't know, maybe the office doesn't offer insurance and they want to offer insurance. And I'm like, well, let's find a way to offer it. You know, let's figure out how much it is. What does it cost? What do we have to do to show the doctor we can earn our way to doing it? So showing them that they can also achieve what they want. mean, honestly, today I had a   a team that was talking about taking time off between Christmas and New Year and possibly paying the team for that time off and surprising them. And I'm like, well, let's reverse engineer it, find out what do we have to do to pay for that. And then we can surprise that gift ahead of time because we can measure if we're on target for it. And...   give them that, gift them that time off if you will, but just again showing team what's in it for them and relating it again back to their why they got into dentistry which was to take great care of people.   And when you do it, we all reap the rewards. And I love that you said morning huddle because nine times out of 10, we have that treatment in our schedules already. And it's just having conversations with patients in a relationship fashion.   Many people think you have to have more new patients, right? We don't need more new patients. They're in our schedule and we have the opportunity to just do more on the patients we have. And if you don't believe me, have them run their unscheduled treatment report.   Kiera Dent (10:31) Amen to you, Kristy. And I agree with you tenfold. And that's why we consult so well together. And I really love that you said like, let's show them, let's gift them, let's figure out what our team wants. And that's what's actually so fun. Like this is why I love numbers. I hated numbers because I didn't understand them. But when you realize that numbers can just be the way to get whatever you want in life. Like it's just truly this really, really fun, dreamy, like you said, if they want to take time off between Christmas and New Year's,   Fantastic, let's figure out what that production would be. Let's figure out the cost of paying all the team members. It's very simple, it's not a hard equation to do. Then let's add that amount, divide it amongst the rest of the months of the year. You can literally pay for it. So offices who wanna go on trips, offices who wanna add in bonuses, offices who wanna pay for scrubs, like you name it, all these things can be paid for. And for people listening, this isn't too overdiagnosed on the patients. It's not like we're going hunting because we're like, we wanna go on that trip.   it's we are looking for the best patient care like Kristy said. We are looking for the little opportunities that we're not doing. And every practice is like, no, we're doing all this already. Yeah, right. I promise you, I've yet to see one office who has done every single thing perfectly 110%. And so I think like, let's drop that ego as well and look to see where it can be. And Kristy, I love that you bring it. As you were talking, I'm like, Kristy to me feels like the analogy of like squeezing the juice out of the lemon or squeezing the tube of toothpaste.   And Kristy is the gal who looks at your practice and you're like, my tube of toothpaste is empty. And she's like, yeah, let me show you. got like three more months where the toothpaste in this tube, like we are squeezing it rather than just going and looking to buy a brand new tube of toothpaste. And within your practice, there's so much more opportunity to like squeeze the juice, squeeze the opportunities rather than having to look outside. Yes, we still need to work on the outside pieces too, but then when we look inside, and I think that this is where you do such a great job, Kristy like.   Kristy (12:04) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (12:25) I tell you, Kristy can turn to practice so quickly. It's been magic to watch you, Kristy I'm like, this girl comes in and she just like hangs out. She's working with the team. She's tracking the numbers and la la la la la. The doctor's like, oh my gosh, we hit this and I didn't even know that was possible. But Kristy's squeezing juice. You're looking for the juice constantly. And so I'm just curious, other squeeze the juice, squeeze the tube of toothpaste? You said like new patients, you're looking for unscheduled treatment plans.   Kristy (12:30) you   Kiera Dent (12:53) We don't need the new patients. We're looking for just little, what are some of those other opportunities, Kristy, that like I spy with my little consultant eye, what do you see in there?   Kristy (13:02) Yeah.   Obviously there's a few areas, but one of the things too when we have limited coming in how many of those do we work to convert? I mean how many times do we schedule them for a half hour appointment when really if we just schedule them for an hour and trained up our assistants to have a conversation on the front end my gosh, if we could avoid future emergencies like this while you're here We could take a look at everything come up with a plan and still treat that tooth that's bothering you right so and if they're swollen   or in pain, at least scheduling them back to make sure, hey, you know, we could avoid future emergencies like this. Let's get you back and take a look at everything, but get you out of pain today. that's one area. And again, it's just taking and using what's already there and doing what's best for the patient, right? I mean, people only lose their teeth for a few reasons. Trauma.   Kiera Dent (13:53) Mm-hmm.   Kristy (13:59) Extensive decay, you know, so if we can avoid that just like you said the power of the shot if we could avoid Future damage and more cost wouldn't you agree we should take care of it today?   Kiera Dent (14:06) Hahaha!   Mm-hmm.   Also, did   you hear what Kristy said? Wouldn't you agree? And that's a very like amazing line to take into your practice if you're not using that right now. I love the LOEs being converted into a comp exam. It is one of the most incredible things that if a practice will take this on. And so we were like, but Kiera, Kristy, they're just coming in for pain. Like they're not gonna like it. Yeah, right. A, you have to remember no one wants to come to see you. And I'm sorry, dentist, but this is the reality. And there's like 1 % of the population who's a little bit odd and they actually love to come.   But that's like truth. And so they don't wanna come anyway. They're already in pain. So let's do them a service. Let's do them a favor. Let's take pictures of their entire mouth, AKA x-rays. Let's do a full comp exam. Yes, we're gonna take care of that problem tooth. Absolutely, 100 % we're gonna do that. But odds are, and every doctor and every team member knows this, if I've got one tooth that's looking pretty wild, odds are there's probably a few other places in that mouth that are going to have the same problem come upon them pretty soon. But I think it's also,   training the front office to say this, training the clinical team on how we present this and how we can do this, but also realizing this is a huge service and benefit to a patient. No patient wants to come back. They really do not. As much as they love you and as fun as you are and as great as your coffee bar is and as fun as your movies are, being at the dentist, even for me, I had to go to the dentist and I was like, gosh, really? Like this place. And I work with dentists. Like I've been a dental assistant. People just don't enjoy having their   someone awkwardly put their hands in your mouth. It's weird. It's a weird thing that we do and yet we love it. So Kristy, I love that. What are some other ideas that you have around? Because yes, convert the limited to comps. Any other things that you have around? And again, I don't want you to give all away your Kristy Sparkle. So like what's one or two more that you have of like being able to squeeze that juice, squeeze that tube of toothpaste?   Kristy (15:59) Well, I would say many times, especially for the dentist coming in or newly starting out having firm financial arrangements, know, and it's not firm doesn't mean strict necessarily, but it's it's comprehensive finances. You know, it's it's finding a plan to get all their treatment done. Even if you're phasing it out over time, but I would say really there's usually that low hanging fruit in AR or insurance that we can   just put in simple systems that go after that and stop it bleeding into, you know, aging out, if you will. So many times that's an area to start and just look at what our processes are. How are we collecting? Are we getting the good estimates to get the correct amount collected over the counter?   Kiera Dent (16:52) Okay, so   in that, agree with you, Kristy, because a lot of times people are like, we need to make more. And I'm like, you don't even need to make more. It's just hanging out in your AR. Like you've already done the work. We just need to collect the money for it. So you mentioned making sure that when we do this, we have good treatment plan estimates, which comes from good insurance verification, which comes from good entering of that. That's gonna help a lot. What are some of the other financial policies that you've found that tend to work really, really well for practices?   Kristy (17:17) Yeah, well, let me be clear that treatment plans are different than financial arrangements. Treatment plans are what we're going to do. Financial arrangements are how are we going to take care of it? And many times people are missing the how we're going to take care of it. They're like, yeah, they know the cost. We gave them the printout. But are we really solidifying how we're going to take care of it? You know, are you the type of patient that needs   to pay over time? Are we capturing exactly what they're doing, if you will?   Kiera Dent (17:50) Yeah, which is really smart because otherwise   it's a lingering, it's are we paying with cash? Are we paying with credit card? Are we paying with financing options? What are we doing with that? That's going to firm this up and I agree as soon as that gets dialed in and people panic. Like I don't wanna put this out there. And I'm like, where do we feel like we went back to the 1800s to where it's like, just put it on my tab. Like I still do not understand why dental practices get so nervous to ask patients to pay for something that they just received.   99 % of the time in today's world, we're having to prepay for these treatments before services are done. And I feel like dentistry, let's, let's come to the playing field. Let's get a little more current. Let's get a little bit more on the same page of the rest of the world. It's not weird. It's weird. The fact that we think it's weird. That's what's weird. Like it's okay to ask patients to pay for it. It's okay to expect them to have financials before they come in for treatment. That's normal. And then what we do is for all the patients that we've been like,   lollygagging on in the past, it's okay, it's all right, there's no judgment here. Those patients we start to collect when they come in. So we start to collect on that side, we can send statements to them, we can run our AR and we get better for future and we have them sign on those financial arrangements so that way there's no confusion. The only reason patients get frustrated with you is because expectations were missed. So I love what Kristy said with these financial arrangements. It's a beautiful way to not have expectations being missed and a really good way to squeeze some juice in your practice.   to find those little missing opportunities. Kristy, you've been a freaking dream. Are there any other little like secret nuggets that you feel like you wanna leave with our audience before we say goodbye today? Because honestly, I just have loved this and I enjoy the imagery. I'm gonna like have you, every time I see you now, I'm gonna think of you like squeezing the juice. Like I'll just think of you like, Kristy's over there taking lemons into lemonade. So any other last thoughts you have as we wrap up today?   Kristy (19:32) Yeah.   Yeah, actually you mentioned the financial arrangements and I just want to challenge people. literally, I almost love the practices where they say, see you later, send me a statement and flipping them to actually getting down payments or reservation fees for appointments. Like I've watched a practice go from literally that.   Kiera Dent (19:54) Yeah.   Kristy (20:04) to, my gosh, they're so excited because they are using Pre-Collect. But I also want to flip people's thinking. Just like you said earlier about patients not wanting to stay, don't put our own bias in it. Because I hear people say, well, we'll do a reservation for large appointments. I just want to challenge you that   allow that same opportunity even for the smaller payments. If I had $500 in my savings and you offered me to pay $250 today to reserve it and $250 when I come in, I very well may appreciate having that so it doesn't drain my savings or my checking or wherever I'm pulling that money from versus, hey, you could pay $50 today and now I have $450 to pay when I come back in. So I just challenge you to, you know, try.   gamify it a little bit and have fun with it and I promise your patients will appreciate it.   Kiera Dent (21:02) Kristy, I love that you said gamify it. I think I heard once at a conference I attended and they said, business is just a game. Like it's truly a game. And when you look at it, it takes the stress out of it. think running a successful practice can be a game, not our dentistry being a game for the patients, but a game of how we think about things. I mean, I look at like chess or my brother used to play strategic or.   There was another game like Clue. loved playing Clue. That was like my favorite game. mean, I was the Clue master. I won that game all the time. I would love somebody to like challenge me on it. But the reason those games are fun is because we challenge our thinking. We think outside the box. We make it fun. And so I love, Kristy, these ideas you brought to the table today are how can we think outside the box? How can we make it fun? And I agree with you, Kristy. It's crazy how when you just change your thinking,   Just a smidge, we're not asking you to like completely and obliterate who you've been all this time, but just a smidge, you will see magic happen in your practice. You will see more patients saying yes to you. You'll see more patients scheduling. You'll see your AR being chipped down. Doctors, you'll see more money coming into your bank account. So many wonderful things this way just to change it. And I love that you said like offer it to even the smaller ones. Why not? Cause you're right. That is a benefit to these other patients. They might say no, but they also might say yes. And then collections become so much easier. So Kristy.   It was so fun to have you on the podcast. I love you on our team. I love practices who get to work with you. I always feel like practices who get to Kristy truly get just such a treat to work with you because you really do find these little simple ways to help them hit goals and possibilities that they honestly never believed was possible. So thanks for being on the podcast with me today and being on our team. Of course, and for all of you listening, thank you for listening and we'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.   Kristy (22:42) Thank you.  

Episode Summary: This week, Sandy is fresh off an energizing Front Desk Pro seminar in Burbank, California—and she's bringing the heat! Dana and Sandy dive deep into a topic that every dental practice owner and manager needs to master: employee one-on-ones. From handling raise requests to increasing team engagement and reducing turnover, this episode is packed with real-world strategies and scripted verbal skills you can use right away. Sandy shares how acknowledgment and structure transform the culture of a practice, while Dana brings in heartfelt reminders of how leadership impacts lives beyond the workplace. Whether you're avoiding tough conversations or want to build a better team dynamic, this episode will give you the confidence (and language) to lead. In This Episode You'll Learn: Why repeat attendees at Front Desk Pro are proof that the system works What to say when a raise just isn't feasible right now The verbal skill every manager needs when a team member feels unappreciated How to handle “she's doing my job” type complaints without fueling gossip The surprising way asking employees to “write it up” filters noise from facts How to build review systems that actually get followed through Why one-on-ones aren't about raises—they're about retention, growth, and clarity A reflective exercise that helps you lead with legacy in mind 

Want to retain great employees and build a team that runs like a dream? It all starts with one-on-one conversations that count. In this episode of Dental Drill Bits, Sandy Pardue and Dana Salisbury share how regular one-on-one meetings can transform your culture, boost accountability, and keep your team growing in the right direction. They break down the timing, tools, and tone of a successful one-on-one—plus how to turn them into growth opportunities, not gripe sessions. If you want more engagement and less drama in your dental office, start here. What You'll Learn: How to set up meaningful one-on-ones with your team Why these meetings are more powerful than traditional reviews How to use self-evaluation tools to start real conversations What to document and track before each meeting How one-on-ones can reduce turnover and improve morale The role of emotional deposits and team development in retention Real Results in Action: Sandy and Dana discuss what happens when one-on-ones are done right—from better communication to uncovering training gaps before they become performance issues. Learn why most team breakdowns stem from a lack of connection, not capability.

If you've ever struggled with hiring the right people, fostering a positive workplace culture, or keeping your team engaged, you're not alone. But today's episode of The Raving Patients Podcast can help you change that. To break this down, I've invited Jonathan Bonanno, an expert in leadership development, workplace culture, and psychological safety. With a background in corporate consulting and dental practice optimization, Jonathan specializes in helping practices attract top talent, build cohesive teams, and create a thriving, productive work environment. In this conversation, we discuss: How to hire and retain top-tier dental talent The power of psychological safety in your practice Why toxic workplaces happen—and how to fix them Leadership strategies to strengthen your team and improve practice culture Combatting imposter syndrome and building confidence as a leader If you want to transform your dental practice into a place where both your team and patients thrive, this episode is a must-listen! — Key Takeaways Introduction and Event Overview (00:47) Jonathan Bonanno's Background and Expertise (01:49) Talent Optimization in Dental Practices (06:03) Improving Workplace Health and Behavior (11:10) Creating Psychological Safety in Teams (14:36) Leadership's Role in Workplace Culture (16:35) Understanding and Combating Imposter Syndrome (20:06) Exploring Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (23:43) Recognizing the Need for External Help (27:02) Lightning Round Q&A (28:10) — Connect with Jonathan Bonanno

Join us for an inspiring conversation with Kevin Henry, former editor of Dental Products Report and Dental Economics, and current editor-in-chief of DrBicuspid.com!

To inspire the most effective team for your practice, Kiera shares three key attributes that need to exist among staff members: Trust and vulnerability Healthy debate Peer-to-peer accountability Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01.05) Hello, Dental A Team Listeners. This is Kiera and I am so excited for today's podcast. This is something that I've been working on with tons of teams and within our organization and just a lot of different fun things for you. So I hope you guys are having an incredible day. I hope you're ready for just some magic here. I hope you're ready for some podcast magic. I hope you're ready for some life magic. And I hope you just remember we are truly so blessed because we get to work in the incredible profession of dentistry. So I hope you just remember that. And as always, thank you all for being podcast listeners.   Don't forget to download, like, subscribe, share this, leave the reviews to keep this dental podcast serving all of you practices for free. That's how you guys can help us out is to go and share this with someone to give us those reviews, to share it in those Facebook groups because my goal is to have this podcast in the hands of every single Dental A team listener, every single dental, we need an edit. 52.   My goal is to have this in the hands of every single dental practice out there and so you can help make that dream a reality. So please share it, love it, like it, leave the reviews and just know I'm giving you a high five, a hug as appreciation and thank you. So let's get going today. Today I wanted to go through, I've talked about it a couple of times before, but there is a book by Patrick Lencioni called The Five Dysfunctions of Teams and I've talked about it before. It's one of my absolute favorite books.   on the podcast. have not booked Club This and I honestly should book Club This, but it's a really great one. And I was introduced to this book and I was told to literally use this book in like partnerships and different things. And if we don't have the core five layers of this, we actually have dysfunctional teams. And so me and some of my offices, we've been working on it and we realized that we don't want to have dysfunctional teams. We want to have functional teams. And what's another word for functional?   It's a winning team. And so if you're not familiar with it, I'll give you a quick rendition. I coach this with lots of offices and I think being an outsider, that's honestly why I love being a consultant. We are having the same thing within our company because sometimes just that outsider perspective can really, really help you and your team get on board and get into those levels that you need to have it. And so with Teams, I'll just introduce you to the five dysfunctions of a team or as we call it, we flipped it around of how to have the five elements of a winning team.   Kiera Dent (02:20.186) So it's in a triangle and at the bottom, it is actually with the bottom portion of the foundation of this triangle is called trust and vulnerability. And so if we have trust and vulnerability and it's not trust of like, if I delegate something to you, I know you're actually going to do it. Like that's one element of trust, but there's the other element of trust where I trust that I can say whatever needs to be said to you and know that there's not going to be backlash. There's a really great example think about in sports.   The quarterback is getting sacked and they go to the blocker and they say, hey, you've got a block for me. I need you to block. And the blocker is not like, the quarterback's so mad at me or the quarterback's feeling this or that because they have the conversation. But we have permission to give feedback and receive feedback. And I think really setting up your office to have those permission to play, permission to give the feedback, permission to have the conversations, permission to say what needs to be said so we can ultimately make our practice grow.   Now, of course, within trust and vulnerability, the way we say things and the way we present things will oftentimes make it so much better versus just saying what needs to be said. So I do believe that trust and vulnerability is an art more than it is a science. But if you can get your teams really having that trust and being able to call the shot, if you will, like in sports, because in sports, they're able to do that because they know how to win and they're willing to call each other out. They're willing to say what needs to be said because they want to win. And in Patrick Lanzione's book,   it really does give the formula of how we're able to win as a team. And so if we know how to quote unquote, put points on the scoreboard, and that doesn't necessarily mean revenue, it can, but if we know what winning looks like within a practice, then it's easier to have the trust and vulnerability, have the conversations. And I think the more you give your practice the permission to play, the permission to have the conversations, the easier it is. But this is a conversation that needs to be had. I go around to offices and I actually coach offices on how to do this, on how to have these   conversations on how to say the things because the reality is this is tricky. And in a lot of offices, this isn't real. If you speak up and you say your mind, you get fired. And so society has kind of taught us not to have this trust and vulnerability, not to say what needs to be said. And I'm here to say, why don't you have your practice be a different experience? Why don't you have your employment be a different experience? There's this whole buzzword of vulnerability and being authentic. And I think this is how we actually can create that as a real true piece within our organizations.   Kiera Dent (04:44.27) So once we go up the rung of the ladder, we've got trust and vulnerability. The next layer is healthy debate. So if we have this true trust and vulnerability with each other, we're actually going to have the healthy debate. We're gonna say what needs to be said and we don't come, I really help offices and teams realize we're not coming from our own selfish vantage point. Yes, we bring our vantage point there, but we're always working towards what's in the best interest of the business. And if the business and the practice is the root of what we're doing, then guess what? The healthy debate should be not if you're right or if I'm right.   but it's literally what's in the best interest of the business. And I think when offices do this and have the healthy debate and we have the conversations, hygienists bring their opinions, dental assistants bring their opinions, front office brings their opinions. And again, not to be right, but to figure out what's the best for the business and the practice and the patients instantly we're able to flourish, which then leads to the third rung on this ladder of our winning success pyramid. And that is commitment.   So whatever we healthy debate, whatever we decided meetings, we as a team actually commit and we're not having these side conversations. I always say, what needs to be said in a meeting needs to be said in the meeting. We're not having it go outside because once it goes outside, we've lost all of our trust and vulnerability. We've lost all of our ability to communicate with each other. All of that's gone. And so say it in the meeting. And if you don't say it in the meeting, that's on you. And you need to take the ownership of that and say, I didn't have trust and I didn't speak up and I didn't healthy debate it.   And that's on me because whatever's committed in that meeting, we commit and we move forward, which then leads to the fourth tier, which is peer to peer accountability. And I think what's really lovely in peer to peer accountability is let's go back to that sports analogy. They're having peer to peer, that quarterback's not running over to coach and saying, hey coach, could you tell the blocker to block for me? They're like, hey office manager, could you tell that assistant to have that route slip handed better to me? No, we've given permission to play.   We're calling the play, if you will, like block for me. I can't get sacked. We're not going to win. If you don't bring up a route that fully filled in that's, that's hurting me and the patient, the patient didn't get the best experience and nobody wins. And on peer to peer accountability, if we don't have that, we don't have the permission to play within our team. And we don't have the trust where teammates can call each other out so we can win again in a way that's with love and empathy and curiosity and also making it to where the patient wins, the team member wins and the practice wins.   Kiera Dent (07:03.234) That's what we're looking for. We want our patients to the best experience. And if we can't call each other out when a route slip is not handed off perfectly, or we don't have a perfect handoff, the patient didn't get the best experience because now they've left and we didn't get the correct information there. The treatment coordinator didn't get the best experience. They didn't win from that. The dental assistant or whomever dropped it off or the hygienist whomever dropped the patient off, they're not getting the best experience because they didn't even know it was a wrong handoff. And this is where we have that peer to peer accountability. And when you can get your practices to have peer to peer accountability,   your practice will flourish. And that's at the top of the triangle is winning. And in Patrick Lanziani's, it's the opposite and it's like inattention to results. And so this is the flip of how to have a winning model. And I just want to come on of like, if you can help your team realize trust and vulnerabilities where we should be spending 90 % of our time. So how can we build more trust within our teams? We can do trust exercises. We can be vulnerable. Trust exercises are not like I remember as a kid, my brother.   Remember the trust falls where it's like you have to trust that someone's behind you they're going to catch you? Like, yes, you could probably do that. But we're talking more trust of, can we say things? Maybe it's about being vulnerable with our lives of what we've gone through in our childhood. Like, hey, this is where I was born. This is the number of siblings I have in my family. And this is something I really struggled with in childhood. This is something that I really struggled with that made a big impact and a profound impact on me. And just thinking about, are there ways that we can actually get this to where   We're sharing and we're more open and the more vulnerable owners are here and the more they have trust in the more we actually call the things out of like, Hey, dental assistants, what's your perspective? I know that there's something there. The more we have permission to play, the more we have these trust conversations, the more we build trust amongst each other, the more we share things, the more we call each other out and say like, great job. was a great, that was a great blocker. That was a great handoff or Hey, I need this information from you. And we're not having the nitpicky, the   drama, the eye roll of like, my gosh, Keira just always wants a perfect handoff. Well, yeah, of course I do. That's our standard of winning. If I don't have a perfect handoff, how am supposed to have a perfect treatment plan for these patients and not to blame you? This is just the system that we have. So let's all work together. My job is to make sure I'm presenting perfect treatment plans. And I can't do that if I'm not getting perfect handoffs of the information that was said in the room. So all these little places are how you're able to build a winning team.   Kiera Dent (09:25.016) And this is what I obsess about. And this is what I love helping offices have because we focus so much on the skills. So many people are like, here, I want the systems. And yes, I've got the systems. Come, we have it, whether it's on our virtual or in-person. Come, I've got the systems for you. I have operations manuals. I've got the systems of morning huddle and route slips and handoffs and case acceptance and trackers and phone call trackers. And like literally any system you probably have ever wanted, I have a system for it. But that's 20%. It's just like in football, they can have all the plays.   But if they don't run the plays, they don't execute, they're not watching each other and they're helping because once you put the plays in action, AKA when you put the systems in action, customers come in, patients come in, people are coming different ways, other people are working, we've got lots of hands in the pot. The way you have the systems operate perfectly is being able to, have a great system, that's 20 % of this equation, but the other 80 % is being able to have this trust and vulnerability, the healthy debate, the commitment, the peer-to-peer accountability, and then we ultimately win as a team.   So if this resonates with you, try it out. Have the trust conversations with your practice. Have the trust conversations with your team. Have these conversations. And the more you have it, to me, it's how can we build more trust and vulnerability? So ways to do it, like I said, where are you from? How many siblings? And then tell something that you struggled with. Now, this is where you've got to be vulnerable. This is where you've got to set the stage as leaders.   of what's the level of vulnerability that we're going to have within our practice. What's the level of vulnerability? If it's like, you know, I really struggled being popular. That's something I struggled with. Well, your team can't relate with that, but maybe you struggled with weight loss when you were a child. Maybe you struggled being bullied as a child. Maybe you struggled like for me, I cheated in first grade because my brother was so freaking smart and I actually wasn't that smart. And my family was so insistent that we go to college and here I am not passing spelling tests. And so I literally cheated in school.   to get my mom to put my paper up on the wall because I wanted to be as good as my brother was. I really struggled in school and people look at me like, how is that even possible? You graduated from Valedictoria. Like, no, I freaking struggled and I had to work really hard at it I would throw my books across the room because I was so frustrated that like all of my other siblings got it and I just didn't. And yet I knew I had to get good grades because my parents couldn't afford to put me through college. And the expectation to my family was that I went to college.   Kiera Dent (11:42.244) Like that was something I really struggled with. And so I literally in first grade moved my books away. I put the test words right there. And I literally cheated on my test in first grade to make sure that I could have good grades. And I got called out on it I was super embarrassed. And I had to go home and tell my parents and I straight up lied to my parents that I was just looking at the floor. But it taught me a really good lesson that I'm not naturally smart. I actually have to work for this and I have to figure it out.   And that was something that I really struggled with as a child. And if you can come to the table where you actually can share and empathize, now it's like, all right, this is Kiera as a human. I'm not coming here because I'm better than you or I'm less than you. I'm coming here because I ultimately want to make our practice great. And if we can share those things with our team and we can expect that level of trust and vulnerability and you as the leader and the owner and the doctor and the office manager coming together and telling our team, like, we want to hear this.   Yes, there's navigation. can't tell you how many times I call it out in offices of like, Hey, like we could definitely say this with like a little more finesse, but you're right. Like this is spot on. This is what needed to be said. Let's practice our delivery and our approach for future. Those are the small things, but this is how I make practices exponentially grow. And if you don't have the trust and use you as the owner aren't doing this. That's where I love consulting offices. This is where I love. I help hundreds of offices do this. This is where I love teaching each other to how do we call each other out in the play?   How do we help each other realize when we're presenting treatment plans, we're planting weeds in our flower garden, aka we're saying words that's actually deterring patients from saying yes to us. And if I can't hear that internally, I need to trust my team to call me out on it and receive that with grace and humility and say, thank you. That's the way we're all able to win together. So this is an epitome of how you build a winning team. It's a great formula for you. Like I said, the book is incredible. Also something where we help with this, but I think...   For me even having an outsider that can help my team realize like, say the things and watching that consultant within our company navigate our team and help them have the trustable conversations, say what needs to be said, really commit. There's no side conversations. And when there are side conversations, how do we have grace and humility and help each other out is really what I'm passionate about. So if you realize like, my gosh, my team needs help with this, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com.   Kiera Dent (14:04.846) I'm here for you. can do a strategy call. can help you because so many people want the systems and don't realize the trust and vulnerability, the hard conversations that you don't even have to call them hard conversations. Let's just call them growth conversations. This is how you're ultimately going to flourish and win. And so I just encourage you to set up the winning model, encourage this model with your teams. It works. I've watched teams literally morph in a quarter, in a half a year, in a year into these thriving teams. when teams are disjointed or they're not hitting goals with ease,   Usually that that indicates to me that there's not a lot of trust of true trust and there's actually artificial harmony within that team And so just bringing that for you if I can help in any way I'm here for it and also just bringing it to light for you. So try it out Let me know and as always thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

On this episode of BUZZ, we explore the significance of team member bios on Dental Practice websites, emphasizing their role in building trust and fostering connections with patients. The discussion includes practical recommendations for creating engaging bios that highlight team members' expertise and personalities, ultimately enhancing patient experiences and Practice visibility.   Show Produced by Dentainment https://dentainment.com/

 Dentainment is a Digital Creative Marketing Agency, providing services to the Dental Community such as: Logo Design, Brand Identity, Dental Websites, Search Engine Optimization, Video Production, Social Media Management, Google AdWords Management, Voice Search Optimization and more.
 
 Discover the power of AI, video, social media, and more in ‘Best Dental Marketing,' the ultimate guide for Dental professionals looking to transform their marketing efforts and drive new patient growth. Learn more about Best Dental Marketing Here: https://bestdentalmarketing.com/
   Learn more about our sponsor Dental Year! Providing your Dental Practice with 365 Days of Marketing Inspiration. http://www.DentalYear.com

In this episode, Matt Brown and Dr. Andrew Vallo dive into the importance of incentivizing dental staff through bonus systems. They discuss the pros and cons of these structures, effective implementation strategies, and their impact on team motivation and productivity. Tune in for insights on clear communication and celebrating team successes while navigating the challenges of bonus systems!

Welcome to The Dental Brief - where we dive deep into the challenges and solutions that dental professionals face today. In this episode, we are excited to welcome Ella Mullokandoa, a seasoned dental hygienist and co-founder of Converge Dental. Ella shares her journey from clinical hygiene to helping dental practices grow organically by inspiring teams and fostering strong leadership. Tune in as we discuss team dynamics, cross-training, and strategies to attract the right candidates in an ever-evolving dental industry. Learn how to create an exceptional patient experience while building a thriving, cohesive practice environment.Don't miss these actionable insights to help you elevate your dental team and practice! ***** SPONSOR: – Omni Premier Marketing: https://omnipremier.com/dental-marketing/ CONNECT: – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedentalbrief/ – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedentalbriefpodcast/ – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dental-brief-podcast-564267217 – Patrick's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pchavoustie/– Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd08JzybKfNH0v12Q9jf50w WEBSITE: – https://dentalbrief.com/

Re-releasing one of DAT's most popular episodes! Dr. Jesse Green is back on the podcast to share more real-life experiences of a dentist. In this episode, Dr. Green shares with Kiera how to move your practice from being profitable to scalable. He shares specific insight about: How to become a training institution How to best back away from the business And how to overcome the fear of giving over your practice It may be a hard pill to swallow, stepping back into a role where you're no longer the primary profit generator, but Dr. Green shares how other doctors of all shapes and mindsets have managed to do so. About Dr. Green: Author, speaker, and entrepreneur, Dr. Jesse Green is a leading dental business coach. He established Savvy Dentist to support dentists to develop financial intelligence, have more time and work less, create high performance teams, and master the art of patient flow. Episode resources: Connect with Dr. Jesse Green Listen to episode 414, How To Be a Savvy Dentist Reach out to Kiera Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:05.806) Hey everyone, welcome to the Dental & Team podcast. I'm your host, Keira Dunt, and I had this crazy idea that maybe I could combine a doctor and a team member's perspective, because let's face it, dentistry can be a challenging profession with those two perspectives. I've been a dental assistant, treatment coordinator, scheduler, filler, office manager, regional manager, practice owner, and I have a team of traveling consultants where we have traveled to over 165 different offices coaching teams. Yep, we don't just understand you, we are you.   Our mission is to positively impact the world of dental. And I believe that this podcast is the greatest way I can help elevate teams, grow VIP experiences, reduce stress, and create A -Teams. Welcome to the Dental A -Team Podcast.   The Dental A Team (00:52.866) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kira and you guys, I have a very special guest that I am excited to bring to the show today. I was on his podcast just recently and obviously we want to have him back on our podcast, share a wealth of knowledge and believe it or not, he is actually from Australia. So it is early tomorrow and his time. he said Australia just opened up. So I think his highlight of his day was being able to get a haircut. think all of us here in the States can remember that day.   but I'm so, so excited to welcome Dr. Jesse Green to the show. How are you today? I'm really well, Kira. Thank you so much for having me on the program. I'm really, really, really, really happy to be here to talk to you today. absolutely. I'm so glad. And your haircut does look good. I see you on zoom. It does look nice. It good. It felt fantastic. Honestly, as well as things you appreciate the little things in life and you think how good is a haircut? It's   It's like this luxury that we used to take for granted. Now it feels very luxurious. I absolutely, remember luckily I had just come back from Antarctica when the pandemic hit and I had, so coming back from Antarctica, I got my hair done. got my eyelashes done. got my nails done. Cause I had been gone for three weeks anyway. And so I felt very lucky, but Ooh, towards the end of that shutdown, I was like, man, I was having to learn how to cut my husband's hair again. man. Took me back to pharmacy school days.   I agree. I remember a meme and they said, next time there's a pandemic, can we say that barbers and beauticians and cosmetologists can be considered essential business? And it's got this guy with hair cleared out into his nose. I felt it was very fitting. So, hundred percent. So Jesse, I just wanted to kind of talk to us about how you even got to where you are. I know the topic today that we want to go into is how to earn more while working less. You also talked about how to have a very   a productive associate dentist. So you've got a wealth of knowledge, but just so our listeners know, kind of just give us a quick background and bio on how you even became known as the person who earn more and work less because I'm so excited to learn about that today too. thank you so much. So I'm a dentist by profession. And so like most of your listeners, I did the usual dental school thing, but prior to dental school, I had a business and I was always   The Dental A Team (03:13.74) really interested and engaged in business, loved it. Did the university thing like everyone else, kind of then found my way into clinical practice and really knuckled down and focused on that. And then I was a dentist in the Navy and I learned a lot about leadership and process and, and organizational structure. And then when I went into my own practice, I did traditional practice management kind of teaching. And while it was good, it was fine. We certainly had a business.   producing good money, but in actual fact, I was so tired, so burnt out, so stressed out. My kids were little. was doing dentistry during my work day. Then I'd come home, have dinner with the kids, and then I'd be trying to do payroll or other, you know the how it goes. You know the story, right? And I was, and I was tired and stressed and burnt out. So what I did is I then sold that business and I didn't quite figure out how to fix it until I started a different business, which was around.   I was building websites, running SEO, PPC campaigns. And then it was when I ran that business and I kind of got out of the dental head space and went, my God, I remember all these lessons that I had when I was a kid with my first business that I'd learned that I didn't ever apply to my dental practice. I had this massive, honestly, it was a face palm. I mean, you just go, I can't believe I did that. Jesse, what were you thinking? Clearly not. So then I started thinking about all of the traditional.   practice management techniques and how we could adapt some of those and replace some of those so that businesses can have a true business rather than self -employment. So that's kind of how it came about. I love that because you're right. And the way you just described dentistry is how dentist life is working with so many dentists. I think that that's the life of an entrepreneur as well. I mean, you see lots of different businesses yourself and I think it's just that like, just never feels like there's enough hours in the day, but like you said,   There's got to be a better way to do this. think of it constantly. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I see a lot of people who are way more successful, very, profitable and they don't work crazy hours. They have a true life. Like how do they do that? So I'm excited to have you just dive into that. And I'm excited to see where this podcast rifts and goes to. I also love that you are a dentist as   The Dental A Team (05:31.352) That's why I wanted you on this show. Like let's talk about real life experiences of a dentist and how to, like you said, earn more and work less. That's a mantra that I have. We're actually working on an office manager planner that's called do less, create more. because I think it's really that mentality. So Jesse, take it away. I just want to hear like, your knowledge, tell us how to earn more and work less. Like you figured this out. So share the secrets with us. I'm ready.   Well, thank you. Thank you for that, for that, yeah, free rain. I'm also going to tell you that I learned it the hard way. I learned it. I learned it through experience. learned it easy way. I'm going to learn from you. Well, that's what we want. Right. That's what we're going to give our listeners. But the reason I say that is because everything I've done, I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, Kira. So I just want to start this conversation by saying, I'm not perfect. I didn't get this. wasn't, you   born with some sort of insider knowledge around this. had to learn this through trial and error and bumps and grazes and bruises. But think that's really important. I'm going to jump in right there because I think so often we sometimes hear people say, this is how I got there. And we think, well, they were just born that way, or it was just naturally given. And so I really love that. Like, Hey guys, with hard work, learning from great mentors like Jesse, you can be there too. And not limiting yourself is to me a huge, huge piece of what this is all about. So   Continue on. I'm cheering right alongside of you. Like, yes, go. You're not just this like dipped from, from heaven Hercules. man. If only, so here's what I learned. one of the things that I learned is we, we spend so much of our time doing clinical work and we do that because we want to make a dollar and we understand the necessity of making dollar, but it's also what I call a golden handcuffs. And at some point we need to.   lift our gaze from the patient who's in the dental chair in front of us and start surveying our surroundings. So typically there's a couple of different levels of practice that we see a profitable practice, scalable practice and a valuable practice. And so a profitable practice is that typical practice where the dentist is going to work, doing the dentistry, going home at night, doing the payroll sort of thing. And you can actually make quite good money out of that. mean, this is the trap is you get used to the money.   The Dental A Team (07:51.652) You get used to the toys, you get used to the lifestyle and you get on this treadmill and you keep thinking, my goodness, I've got all this stuff, but I don't have time for my kids. so working harder is not the answer. so let me just repeat that for all the dentists here who are really conscientious, who are normally the people that work hard, the good people that work hard. And we just want   not work quite so hard, but work a little differently. We want to shift our focus. And the way that we cross from a profitable business to a scalable business is by crossing what we call the leverage line. so the leverage line is at that point, you've got a practice owner who's no longer the primary revenue generator. You've created a team and this is your work, right? This is what you help a lot of people with creating what we call a self -managing team, a team of   that know what to do, they know how to do it. We've given them the resources to do their job really well. They know what success looks like. We've got some success metrics in place, but those people come internally motivated to do well. Okay. So we're not having to put the defibrillator on them every day to heart start them. They come with batteries included. And so when we've got a self -managing team and we've got our systems and processes, we're now starting to create some leverage.   How do we get to that point? How do we make that leap? And it is a bit of a leap. And because you guys are North American, I'll try and use a baseball metaphor to go from profitable business to scalable business. It's like going from first base in baseball to second base. can't get to second base by keeping one foot on first. There is a moment in time where you have to leave first base.   And you have to run towards second. And when you're in the middle of the two bases and you're not, you're not yet on second, but you've left first, it's uncomfortable. It's uncertain. And there's doubt. And so managing that emotional journey is really important because the natural tendency for us is to run back to what's comfortable rather than pushing forward. Now, the way we push forward is to understand that making money all day, every day.   The Dental A Team (10:09.217) is a great short -term fix, but it is also what's going to keep us stuck on first base. So we need to dedicate some of our time to building that team, to becoming really good at training people, to being really good at finding great talent, training great talent, bringing them on. And that means we need to take on a mindset of becoming almost a training institution so that we can take these wonderful people and get them up to speed so that they can join   The freeway, it's like an on -ramp onto the freeway, get them up to speed really, really well. When we do that, we build the resources for them to use. We now can start hiving off activities that we don't want to do. So that's where the delegation comes in. Now, of course, this is nothing new. This is quite rudimentary. It's quite basic, but what is the hard part is actually letting go. Kirit, let me ask you a question.   Of all the dentists you know, what proportion do you think tend to have perfectionistic tendencies? Oh, you know, every single one of them. Me included, me included. And that's what I did wrong in my first practice. That's what I did wrong. I had to learn and as I've gone through other businesses to learn that 80 % is okay. 80 % done by someone else is a hundred percent awesome. Yes.   Yes, I love that. Did you guys hear that? 80 % done is a hundred percent awesome. Yeah. So let's get our team members out there being prolific. They may not be perfect, but they'll be prolific. They'll get through a lot of work for you if we let them do it and we resist the urge to micromanage. So how do we get away from micromanaging? Now, one of my good friends and other dentists in the United States gave me a wonderful book called Turn the Ship Around.   And for your listeners there, I'd really encourage you to grab hold of it. The author is a wonderful guy, David Marquet. He's a US Navy submarine commander. And what he talks about is developing a leader -leader model. So rather than teaching people what to do or telling them what to do, we want to teach people how to think like us. Not just to do what we asked them to do or to be task -oriented, we want to develop their thinking. So when our team members come to us and say, yeah, Kira,   The Dental A Team (12:29.793) You know, this has happened. What should I do rather than because you've got the answers at your fingertips rather than saying, Hey Bob or Hey Mary or Hey Susie, this is what I think you should do and give them the answer. By doing that, we're actually training them to come to us all the time. So we want to be able to go with them and say, what do you think we could do? What else could we do? What risks do you see with that type of action? What do you think I'm thinking about and start that conversation so they can understand your thought process?   Now, again, it sounds really simple and it's simple, but not easy. Simple, but not easy. So that, would be a starting point there. Now I'm happy for you to guide me, direct me wherever you want me to go with this conversation. Okay. Number one, I love it because we just talked about number one is I think, I think for me it's accepting that I'm going to have to leap and go into that scary zone. Like you said, it is very easy. Like I think it's that, that control, that safety net   false security of, know that if I work here though, Jesse, I know I can make money. know I can sustain my lifestyle. I know that I can continue to live this way. However, I think it gets to a spot where when does that hamster will become no more? When do you want to say like, I don't want to do this anymore. I feel like until you get to that breaking point where you say enough's enough, you won't want to jump from first base to second base. you use that really great analogy.   But I think when you are there and I know I'm there, I say it all the time, I'm like, you know, there's gotta be a better way to do this. And I have the confidence in me. I've trained myself that, hey, Kira, you know that if it fails, guess what? Worst case scenarios, you're just gonna go back and do it all over again. Like I know I can grow a business. I know I can make it profitable. So like that's already a given and it doesn't matter recession, no recession, pandemic, whatever it is, I believe that people who can build businesses can do it again and again and again.   and so my thought is, so for me, it's a challenge and excitement of like, okay, fantastic. Like you said, this is a profitable business and now we're going into a scalable business. So that leap is, I really love that you talked about having that team do it for you. And I know I get guilty of this often today. I was about to answer an email and I was like, this is literally does not need my answer. I don't need to approve this. can, like, does it really matter? The answer is no. So I just wrote back and said, you have full control on this. I know you know it   The Dental A Team (14:55.363) Just, just take care of it. know you know what to do and you're going to do the best thing. I've trained them. I've trained them. Like you said, it's a training thing. I also loved a lot of the questions you mentioned of asking them to think like leaders and owners versus just telling them because that's more of a long -term game versus a short -term just constantly feeding them. So then I'm curious, like, okay, great. We've got an awesome team in play, but I feel like to really know that you've got this awesome team and play, you do have to make that jump to see does this team actually know how to execute? Because if you're always   They don't have to execute. that's where, that's where I actually go on vacation to see if they sink or swim. Like, good luck. Well, that's exactly, that's exactly the right. he's, that's a really good point you're bringing up and thank you for bringing up because you've actually, answered the question and one of my clients, is a lovely, lovely guy and, his name is Barry and Barry in our community takes more holidays than anyone I know. And he is a really good business owner.   And the way he started stress testing his system, stress testing his team was exactly that. He'd take a holiday. He had take note of what didn't work when he got back and he'd just make some notes and go, Hmm, I've got to fix that. Now I'd like to just leave your listeners with a thought process. Every headache, bottleneck, pain in the neck comes back to a deficiency of assets. So what do mean by   Specifically, there's lots of different types of assets, but in a dental practice, there's a couple of broad categories. There's, you know, there's the goodwill of the business, you know, the patient base, there's the team as an asset, there's the cash, there's the physical infrastructure. But what I'm referring to here specifically are the intellectual property assets. What are the systems, processes, checklists, cheat sheets, whatever else you need to have in place. So when it comes back to these bottlenecks or things that go wrong, we go, hmm.   What asset do we need to create in our business so that if I teach someone how to use that and they've now got the resource to do it and they've got the confidence to do it. If I go away next time, that thing should not break again. And so it's that constant iterative process. to take that metaphor or to give you another case study around that, one of my clients.   The Dental A Team (17:15.311) Uh, really lovely lady. Um, when she was working with us, she was taking home about $350 ,000 a year out of her practice. Yeah. Which is okay. She was working four days a week, about 46 weeks of the year. So it's 184 days. And what we did with her is we did exactly the process I've just shared with your listeners already. And she was able to take her take home money from 350 ,000 to about 1 .1 million and   a day and a quarter a week. So she went from four days a week to a day and a quarter. It wasn't really a day and a quarter week. was 65 days a year, but 65 divided by 52 is a day and a quarter on average. here's the thing. That was great. She loved it. And that's a wonderful headline number to talk about. it, and it makes me sound like an amazing coach. I'm not, she was an amazing client, but here's what I want to say. We made a mistake. This is, this is really important. It sounds   better than it is. The mistake was that in that time out, she went traveling around the world. This is pre -COVID. She went traveling around the world. And what happened is some of those systems, some of that team structure started to erode and to collapse. Yep. And what happened, so here's the thing, is when you get into that scalable space, that when you're starting to create that time, freedom and flexibility, you're still there as the leader.   You're still there setting the vision, the direction, the concept of just being absent. I don't think is entirely sustainable. I don't think you can be on the beach drinking Pina coladas 365 days a year. Maybe, maybe you can, but what we had to do for this client is we had to reinstall a leadership team. So this is the next thing is now we have to build a more robust structure for her. And now.   She still works less than 60 days a year. She's making more money than she was before, but now she's not the only leader in the practice. She's developed a leadership team as well. So I think, yeah, it sounded great upfront and it was great upfront, but she pulled out of the business too soon before she was replacing herself as a leader. And I think even with that team, she's still going to be there to walk the corridors, to set the vision,   The Dental A Team (19:33.227) Yeah. Be the culture champion to do all those sorts of things. Absolutely. And I love that you brought that up because I think so often there's kind of this mindset of if I do it right, I don't have to be at my job and it will be, I think my favorite phrases, it will, what do they say? It will just run on autopilot. That's the phrase that I hear often like, Kira, I just want my practice to run on autopilot. But I love that you point out as leaders, as CEOs, your job is to set the vision. Your job is, I like the phrase you use of culture champion.   really set those that that is your job to do and instill that it's there and to have a leadership team that can continue to drive forward. But my question is to you though, Jesse is what did she do to increase her income that much? She's working less. What were some of the things that she was able to do? Is that having, like you said, a rock star associate producer? Because a lot of times bringing in associates, people are scared they're going to make less. So can you give any insight of how was she able to have more take home pay working less hours? Because I think people kind of get funny in there and   feel that if they work less hours, their income will drop as well, which clearly you've proven. Don't leave your job. You still need to do your job of being there, making sure you're having those people in play. But what were some of the things she was able to do to increase that take -home pay for herself while working substantially less hours? Yeah. So it's a great question. And I also point out this was a two and a half year process as well. again,   I want to make sure we set the expectations of your listeners. is not a good thing. can't just do this tomorrow. I know it's not a magic button. There's no silver bullet. I'm sorry to be the one to, tell you that Santa's not real, but there's no magic bullet. so I feel like now, now I'm going to be unpopular. I hope none of the kids are listening. But look, here's what happened. You're absolutely right. She had very productive associates and what we did over that period of time.   is we were able to help those associates become more more productive. And there was three key things that those associates or three key skills that those associates needed to master. The first one was that they needed to master the ability to build their own appointment book. They need to build a following. So they needed to know a lot about internal marketing, making sure their patients were happy to give them a great clinical experience, clearly to make sure they get a great customer care experience.   The Dental A Team (21:54.541) But from the dentist's point of view to keep rebooking those patients to make sure they're coming back for their scheduled maintenance, we call it a recall system here. I'm not sure what the phrase would be. Same, same. So that makes sure they're coming back for their recall appointments, all of those sorts of things to make sure they're building value for those appointments so that the patients understand why they're coming back, why that treatment is important. The second skill they needed to learn was the ability to master case presentation.   Right? They needed to be able to offer treatment. Firstly, I beg your pardon, they needed to be able to comprehensively diagnose, you know, rather than patch and plug dentistry, they wanted to take a holistic view of the patient's mouth to recommend appropriate clinical care, the same sort of care that offer their mother, and then to be able to present that in a way such that it was accepted. So they needed to learn those skills. And the third skill that they needed to learn.   was the ability to deliver high quality work in an efficient manner. And that comes back to workflow, it comes back to utilizing your auxiliary staff, your dental assistants, other people, just the usual sorts of things about four handed dentistry, rubber dam techniques, all those sorts of clinical things. And to be able to do predictable, high quality dentistry efficiently. And that was the skills.   And the big mindset that united all of those three points, the mindset that those associates adopted was one of being an intrapreneur. So I like that phrase. Yeah. So they, they viewed themselves as their own unit within the business. know, they took responsibility for themselves. They took responsibility for their business. They took responsibility for their productivity.   they took responsibility for the clinical care. And that was a culture shift. It was a mindset piece. And again, that took a little bit of time. And so that was a key thing. Now, in addition to the associate dentists, I don't know exactly how this translates to the United States, but in Australia, we have oral health therapists and they're, they don't have a full dental degree, but they can do quite a lot of restorative dentistry. So what we did in that process,   The Dental A Team (24:09.419) is we used everyone's skillset to the maximum that we could. So we built the team up and we pushed the work down. So we trained the dentist, we trained the oral health therapist, we delegated everything that we could to the oral health therapist. So the dentist's work or the dentist's time was used for its highest and best use. And then that meant that the principal dentist was delegating to the associate dentist as well. So her time was used for his highest and best use.   And so it was just this process of training people, delegating, training people, delegating. And so that cycle continued. I really liked that you, just said that because I think so many, I'm curious, like you might have a, an answer to this because as you said that training up an associate dentist to take over your schedule, sometimes it was very scary, Jesse. some doctors feel like that's their identity.   that if an associate dentist takes over my book of business, I even have a practice anymore? And for your oral health therapists or specialists, we call those like EFTAs. So experienced, expanded function dental assistants that can literally do that. But I have quite a few offices that have these EFTA dental assistants and the dentist will not leave the room. They will do the filling even though they don't have to do the filling because now they have somebody that can do it for them. They could be seeing more patients.   People ask me often how I was able to 365 ,000 a month in a five -op practice. Well, we literally had three columns of doctor production and you better believe I had big production next to each other and we would prep, prep, and then we had like an implant that an assistant couldn't help us with. And then our assistants were working while our dentist was over doing high, high level implant sedation cases. And per hour we were cranking.   but we were very, very, very talented at what we did. We had lots of trainings with our assistants to make sure they were doing just as good, if not better clinical work. how do you, Jessie, what do you say to these people who hear you and they're like, that's a really great idea, but I like to do the fillings or I am scared that if I pass it to my associate, my associate is not as good as me. so, or I feel like it's ego. feel like ego just runs it so much   The Dental A Team (26:23.725) So many people stay in this loop for a long time because they aren't willing to train. So do you have any tips of thoughts for that? Maybe you experienced that, maybe this dentist experienced that because I don't think it's, I don't think the ego is bad. think the ego is a natural part of life. I also think being afraid to give up your practice that you've grown to someone else is a very normal feeling. But do you have any thoughts of how people can overcome that or how you've helped people overcome that fear? Are you guys sick of trying to figure it out on your   I know I am. When I'm trying to run a business, sometimes I just think like, there's got to be a better way to do this. And so for me, my answer has been to find someone who's done it and does it really, really, really well. Like I'm talking the best of the best of the best. I want someone who's been in my shoes, somebody who understands what I'm going through. When I was looking for the consulting business, I found a coach who literally has run a consulting business. Well, that seems like the perfect fit. So you guys right now,   We have a few spaces open in our platinum consulting that is in the consulting where we actually come to your practice. We help you get systems implemented. We don't just tell you what systems implement. We actually implement them with you and for you guys. It is one of the best investments I've ever made is to hire a coach who understands the business I'm in, who's lived it, who's done it. And that's what we in the dental team do. We literally physically fly to   So if you're sick of trying to figure it out on your own, if you just want somebody who understands you, join our platinum. I'd love to have you. I'd love to have our consulting team come out and see you, be in your office, be with your team and truly help you get onto the easy path of dentistry. It doesn't have to be hard. So join us in the platinum. We'd love to have you.   Yeah, sure. And it's a great question. It's probably the question that needs to be answered, isn't it? It's the thing like, yeah, Jesse, I get it intellectually. makes sense. I, you know, I see it all happening, but how do I do it? Right. So I, yeah, this is the emotional journey. This is the emotional journey. And this is why I mean managing the emotional journey is as important as managing the intellectual or the numbers journey around it. So you're absolutely correct. So,   The Dental A Team (28:39.947) I struggled with this as well. This was part of why my first practice, you know, I didn't scale it because I just had all this stuff. A couple of things I'll share with you, in no particular order. I'll drop out a few things and hopefully, God willing, I'll be able to tie these into a nice neat bow at the end of it. Perfect. So I remember a couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to go to Necker Island, Richard Branson's Island   We spent some time with Richard Branson and he was talking about how he runs all these businesses. And he made a comment, which I've read in one of his books as well. And that was about training. know, people often worry about, you know, if I train people up and they leave, you know, aren't I just training the competition, so to speak. And his point was, well, what if you don't train them and they stay? Great question. I like the flip of the mindset.   And I went, wow. So for me, that was a light bulb moment to really see my business as a training institution. Now, what we needed to do with the transition of patients from the principal to the associate, there's a couple of things around this. we have a process, which we call pass the baton and patient transfers. And essentially it's about handing over the patient and being for the associate to be able to leverage the relationship.   that the principal has with them. And I'll explain that in a moment. But if the principal is really worried, maybe just start handing over a few things. Maybe hand over one filling at a time. It doesn't have to be, I'm going to send my entire patient base to my associate in one fell swoop. Maybe let's get used to just handing off one particular procedure. Maybe it's a class one occlusal composite resin.   Maybe it's endodontic treatment. Maybe it's whatever it is that you don't love to do or in your heart of hearts, you know, it's not your strong suit because we all have clinical areas that we know we're not great at or not as strong as other areas. So let's think if you're worried, let's do a dip in the water, know, dip our toe in the water and see how we go. But the way to do that is really about saying, know, Kyra, there's this restoration that we need to do on the lower right -hand   The Dental A Team (30:58.823) And, you know, this is obviously not going to get any smaller. it's going to get bigger if we don't tackle it. And so, I really would like to see this tooth treated as a matter of priority. Now, the challenge I've got is that my diary, is full for the next couple of weeks or months, whatever it is. And I don't really want to wait that length of time to get onto this feeling. I think we need to do that sooner. What I'd really love to do is to book you in with my associate, Peter. Peter's a fantastic dentist. does this all day, every day. And in   Peter's the person I see for my own dentistry. What if we were to get this filling done with Peter and then we can pick up the rest of the treatment plan as we move forward from there. So even if it's just handing off a procedure here or there, just to get things moving, just to build that confidence and then over time we can start transferring patients more fully. And we can even get, if you want to, you can get into a shared care model. I've got a couple of clients that do shared care. So   The patient will come in, they'll have the restorative dentists doing the bread and butter restorative dentistry. We'll have our crown and bridge expert, which is the principal, doing the crown and bridge and the high production work. We'll have our therapist or hygienist doing the hygiene or whatever it is. So again, we can introduce that to new patients and say, here at our practice, we adopt a shared care model. And what that means is that every step of the journey, you are getting our very best team member for this particular part of the treatment plan.   I'm going to coordinate that treatment plan for you, but I'd like to introduce you to my colleagues as we go through this so that you can get the very best set of hands working on you as we go through this treatment plan. So that's another way of doing it as well. really love that, Jessie, because I think you brought up quite a few things that I would like to highlight. And number one is you edify every person who's going to be taking the treatment. And I can tell genuinely, you do think that they are really fantastic. You've done a great job training them.   So you have full confidence. And as a patient hearing that from my dentist that I love, and I mean, instantly I had this interesting thought of when we go to the hospital, we don't expect one doctor to take care of our entire body. have the endocrinologist, we have the heart and vascular, we have the neurosurgeon. So why do we expect everything to be the exact same in our mouth with just a dentist? And so I think like that was a mind shift I have never thought of. so I appreciate you saying that, helping me have a light bulb moment.   The Dental A Team (33:19.603) and I really love that you just edified every single person, like they're going to be fantastic. And you instilled your confidence in that other person. I am going to ask, as we wrap up, how do you, you specifically decide that you are ready to start having less production in your schedule? Because the fear I know a lot of dentists have, and I don't know this, I'm not a dentist. So it's that fear of, okay, Jesse, I heard you. I've trained my team up. I've got a great leadership team. I've heard.   And don't worry, we'll do another podcast guys. Jesse and I will get on another one. So you guys were learning from profitable to scalable. And then what was your last tier? What's the last year? Valuable. Valuable. Scalable to valuable. So we got to still learn how to get valuable. But reality is, okay, I've learned that I'm profitable. Now I'm going to go to scalable, but I'm real scared to have this associate and to start leveraging because I'm terrified that my paycheck is going to go down. So how do I   That that's not going to happen. How do you like make that leap? Because I think that that's what holds people in this circle forever. They're like, I'm fine. I'll just have one practice. I'm literally speaking to a dentist right now. I know he listens to this podcast. So I'm hoping that we can answer this. A couple of them, they're like, I don't want an associate. I don't want to give this over because I won't have anything to do. My paycheck will go down. So what do you say to them? How did you do that for you? So it's a really good, great question. And again, it's a really important question to answer. The key is this is it's   process of gradual reduction. not again, my client didn't go from 184 days to 65 days in one step. What we did is we looked at, if I stop working one day a week or half a day a week, how much am I producing in that half day, one day, whatever it is. For easy mathematics, let's just say I produce $5 ,000 a day. Ease of maths. Maybe it's more, maybe it's less, it doesn't really matter.   Let's just say, so if I give up a day of dentistry, I want to net $5 ,000 from my associate. Now, if we've trained our associates and they're productive, that's great. That's a big help. So A, we've got to train them to be productive first. But what I'd be saying is what do I need to, you know, what do I pay my associate? Now in Australia, our associates are often paid a commission of billings. that how works for you well? Yeah. So let's just say hypothetically,   The Dental A Team (35:42.594) 40%. So a dentist gets 40%. So we would get 3000 of a $5 ,000 associate day. That would mean if I was going to give up $5 ,000 of my own production, I would need net $5 ,000 back from the associate to be in the same financial position. And so then I work at how many associate days do I need to replace my one day with?   Okay, so in this example, it's roughly one and three quarter days of associate time. By the time I pay the associate their commission, that I would now be back to where I was previously. My paycheck remains the same. In fact, it's probably a little bit higher because I'm not paying for a dental assistant twice. I'm paying for it once with the associate. So all of those things would work out. Now,   This is a big question with a long answer that I'm trying to provide concisely. We would run some financial modeling on that and we would go, okay, what's my billing? What's my commission rates for the associates? What are they producing right now? How can we step them up? How can we help them produce more so that we're getting closer to a one -to -one trade? That's really what we're trying to get to.   I feel like that's a little bit of a messy explanation. I hope it landed. hope it makes sense. pretty clear because it just as simple math that is math of how much do I need my associate to work to replace my income? How do I get them there? How do I make them more productive? So that way at the end of the day, associates happy, they're doing super great. They're happy because we've got a very productive schedule for them. So they're killing it. And it's also replacing the income that I would quote unquote be losing. now I'm not losing.   I've actually created an engine that generates income when I'm not working, which then I'm guessing leads you into your valuable level. Yes. Is where that would go. So a hundred percent. just really quickly on that, that then ties into other conversations around capacity. It ties into conversations around patient flow. It ties into all of those other things that come off the back of that. For sure. Absolutely.   The Dental A Team (37:57.491) That's just like a whole nother can of worms. then it's like, well, great. That is a whole can of worms. can say that next time. know my associate, but I don't have space to put this associate. So now I've got to do a build out and now I've got to get them to produce even more because I got to pay for the build out to get them to produce enough. So it just feels like too hard. But like you said, financial modeling, I think is a great idea because when you can see it in writing, you start doing small chunks at it and you'll see that it will pay for itself. Like one operatory usually is paid for within one to two months of production maximum.   It doesn't take that long to pay off that operatory with production running through it. Then they're producing while you're producing. So you're actually not losing anything. And then they're making money when you're not on that day and they've already covered themselves and the practice can still continue on. there's, to me, I'm with you, Jessie. I see it. I've seen it done so many times, but also you and I are on the other side of this business model because we've seen it done so many times that we know it works. So then how does it kick off into valuable? I get a quick wrap up.   which I don't think is fair for you. So we'll definitely like do another one and talk more about this, but I love this idea of how you can earn more without work with working less. So keep, keep it going. I'm excited. I can get out on business all day long. So, well, I think we could do both do that. So I love this conversation. So do you remember we spoke about going from a profitable scale? All we needed to cross the leverage line to go from scalable to valuable. need to cross the enterprise line. So it's understanding what the drivers of enterprise value are.   And so there's a couple of things I just want to share with you around how I built that model. That model used to be called profitable, scalable, sellable. And I changed it because I'd have so many conversations with dentists where they'd be saying, you know, I don't really want to sell my practice. You know, I get it, but you could, and you could do it easily and for a lot of money. And so I changed the language from sellable to valuable because what we're creating there is an asset. Right. And   In profitable, you've created a job. In scalable, you've created a business. In valuable, you've created an asset. So this is the key transition and the mindset shifts as well. So you go from being self -employed in profitable to being a business owner in scalable to being an investor in valuable. That's the different mindset that we bring to this.   The Dental A Team (40:23.975) When we think about the enterprise value line, really what we're trying to do in all of this, the big drivers of enterprise value are really about risk management and how do we reduce risk and then how do we drive earnings. So if we look at the value, again, I know anyone listening to this is an expert in valuation, probably cringe when I say this, but value is often described as the repeatable sustainable earnings times a multiple.   So we want to drive the earnings, which we've spoken about briefly already, and we want to be able to have a higher multiple. And what determines that multiple a lot is risk. So how do we de -risk the practice? So if I'm going to sell that practice, how could the next person come in and reproduce my results consistently from day one? And that comes back to identifying risk. And the biggest risk, of course, is key person risk. Right.   So we want to be able to not just replace the principal dentist to create the leverage that we spoke about at Scalable, but we want to identify the other key people in our team. We want to make sure that we have built training pathways into the practice for all the roles, not just for the associate dentist, but for your dental assistants, for your therapists or hygienists, for your expanded function dental assistants, for your receptionists, for your practice managers, all of those people. So we want to be able to...   replace people. I'm not trying to diminish people as I say that we want to be able to replace people if someone leaves the team quickly, well and reliably. Yep. So it's about understanding that. again, the other thing that I spoke about, repeatable sustainable earnings. If you've ever looked at subscription models, you and I probably live in this world a   I don't know about your business, we run a subscription based business and subscription based businesses that recurring revenue is more valuable because it's more predictable. Now in dentistry, there's a lot of talk about, do I have a subscription model and membership model? And that you could definitely do that. That's fine. But interestingly, we have the recall system, like din as a subscription model. So I was thinking, was like, it's not membership guys. It's your patients are actually a membership program.   The Dental A Team (42:50.611) Like because it comes every six months and that's what insurance is set up. That is literally a subscription model. That's genius. I had never thought of it that way. It's right there for you, right? So we want to make sure that we are really dialing in that repeat business. We want to make sure that we have predictable income and we can project with confidence that, you know, you were doing $360 ,000 a month, I think you said. And so we want to be able to know that next month I'm going to do $360 ,000 as well.   And the month after that, and the month after that, what we don't want is a roller coaster of revenue. We want to see stability of earnings growth. So stability of earnings growth is a metric that Warren Buffett uses to value companies. And so we want to see stability of earnings growth while we're de -risking the business. So I'm sorry that I've kind of a whole lot of stuff in there. Don't apologize because this is actually one of the number one reasons I love to podcast is because I get to talk to really cool people like yourself.   I get a geek out on dentistry. got a geek out on business. The two things I actually love to talk about. And for me, it was fun because these are things that I think about independently, but I don't have a lot of people to talk to about this because I'm supposed to coach it to a lot of people. I'm sure you feel similarly. We have a lot of clients who are coaching this, but to have somebody that I can talk to about these things, geek out with you on it. And I love that you talked about this valuable asset because I love to not think of always having this   because I was actually just talking with another financial investor advisor, dentist advisors, Ryan and I had this conversation the other day and he was talking about how sometimes once our business becomes this profitable asset, sometimes it actually makes more sense to keep it versus sell it because you're actually more profitable long -term because you've created this money -making machine. You're giving amazing value. You're providing incredible jobs.   that it actually is way more profitable than selling it off for millions. And let's be real, most of the people who build these businesses are highly driven entrepreneurs. So give yourself six months and you'll be building another business. why not keep the one that's super profitable, keep that thing churning and use it for other ideas. So I love that you talked about it as an asset. I just hope that the people listening today, I did a podcast with an author, his name's Jeffrey Shaw. He did the self -employed life, very, very talented author.   The Dental A Team (45:11.387) And I remember he and I talked about what makes really successful business owners. And we think that the key tipping point is business intrigue. Those who are intrigued by business, these conversations you and I are having, Jesse, because these are the things that spur the innovation, that spur the hard work of building that training facility, that gets you to dig deep and build a team of leaders. So that way you can pivot from base to base, like we just discussed. So go from profitable, like you said, and I love the imagery of like you're self -employed. Then you become a business owner.   And then what did you call it? Remind me. Investor. An investor. Like even just those mindsets are such different mindsets of how you view your business and where you're providing it. So Jesse, I loved it. I thought it was one of my favorite podcasts actually, and I hope all the listeners did. So Jesse, know you obviously work with dentists. You are a dentist. If people want more, I know you've got your podcast as well. just kind of share how people can get more Jesse Brown in their life like I need in my life. Sure. Well, you can find me at SavvyDentist .com.   the podcast is there. Come and have a listen. This is the sort of stuff we talk about and, Kira and I come and listen to the conversation Kira and I had on my podcast, which was about recruitment and ice cream. It's really, it's a great episode that Kira shared with our audience. So, that was great, but yeah, head across to savvydentist .com or join us on the, in the Facebook group, savvy dentist Facebook group. And we'd love to see you there. So yeah, you just, it's brilliant. Brilliant. I love it so much, Jesse.   Guys, check it out. Jesse, thank you for your time. Thank you for, I mean, sharing your nice haircut with me too. It was so fun to sit here and just feel like we were hanging out together. when Australia opens up to the rest of the world, you'll be one of my first people I want to come see. So super great to have you. So thank you again for being here today. thank you so much for having me. And we can't wait to see you down under. It would be great to have you here and I'd love to catch up and have a beer. Absolutely. All right, you guys, thank you all for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental Elite Team podcast.   The Dental A Team (47:06.003) That wraps it up for another episode of the Dental A Team Podcast. Thank you so much for listening and we'll talk to you next  

Unlock the secrets to overcoming hiring challenges in the dental industry and discover strategies to build a thriving dental team. Special Guests: Ginny Hegarty For more information, show notes and transcripts visit https://www.ada.org/podcast

As orthodontic practice owners, we understand the importance of a positive and productive work environment. However, we often overlook the hidden burdens our team members may be carrying, which can hinder their performance and job satisfaction.During the recent AAO meeting, I had the pleasure of interacting with various dental team members about their experiences with remote monitoring.One common issue was that they were overwhelmed.This is something they will never tell you as the owner, but if removed from their plate, it can boost their motivation and productivity.So your task is to initiate open and honest conversations with your team members on some of the tasks you could remove from their plates to boost their productivity.  You might find your star player desires a different role that could help your practice.Tune in to learn more!Key TakeawaysIntro (00:00)Team members may not be honest about their job satisfaction (00:43)Ask your team what you can take off their plate (01:57)Don't waste your best talent on tasks that can be outsourced (02:32)Outsourcing can be a valuable tool (03:22)Prioritize optimizing your current team (05:23)Additional Resources- Dr. Glenn Krieger's Cell No: 469 610 9920- Visit our website at remoteresponse.com to learn more!- Register for the OrthoPreneurs Summit at Sea (2024): https://opsummitatsea.com/- For more information, visit: https://orthopreneurs.com/- Join our FREE Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/OrthoPreneurs

Welcome to the Pilot Episode of Dental Diaries!In this episode, your hosts Meredith and Aubrey discuss how you can improve the mood of your team. Aubrey shares three key strategies to bring a positive impact to the team: fostering a positive culture, complimenting team members, and starting the week with music and stories. This is important because maintaining a great attitude towards work leads to a successful practice.@00:54 Meredith and Aubrey@01:34 Mastermind Program@03:49 Positive Culture@05:04 "Kudos" Compliment@06:21 Team Music and StoriesAbout The Dental Diaries Podcast  Welcome to the 3D Dentist Team Podcast, The Dental Diaries, where we explore implementing the 3D dentist systems from a team perspective. Join me, Meredith, and my co host, Aubrey, as we share insights on cultivating growth and support within your dental team. Whether you're new to the dental field or a seasoned pro, our podcast dives into topics like effective team dynamics and patient care strategies.Expect engaging discussions and expert insights to elevate your dental practice. So hit subscribe and join us on this journey to transform your practice with the 3D Dentist team podcast, The Dental Diaries. And like always, keep flossing and stay bossing!Social MediaAubrey Rosenbaum Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/aubreylayne/LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aubrey-rosenbaum-000190120/Meredith Cooper JonesInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/merecoopjones/LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/merecoop/

In this episode of The Dental Economist Show, host Mike Huffaker is joined by Jan Jaffer, CEO of TREC Dental. Join them as they discuss the importance of culture, different approaches to growth, prioritizing patient care, and the future of dentistry.

Brandon Halcott, Co-founder of Seva Dental Team joins the Group Dentistry Now show. Brandon discusses: How he got into the dental industry His time with Tru Family Dental Starting another DSO, Seva Dental Team Current market conditions Much more To learn more about Seva Dental Team you can email Brandon Halcott at bhalcott@sevadentalteam.com   If you like our podcast, please give us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review on iTunes https://apple.co/2Nejsfa and a Thumbs Up on YouTube. Our podcast series brings you dental support organization and emerging dental group practice analysis, conversation, trends, news and events. Listen to leaders in the DSO and emerging dental group space talk about their challenges, successes, and the future of group dentistry. The Group Dentistry Now Show: The Voice of the DSO Industry has listeners across North & South America, Australia, Europe, and Asia. If you like our show, tell a friend or a colleague.

Ever pondered the perfect moment to introduce a fresh face to your dental squadron? Buckle up for a riveting journey with me, Dr. Paul Etchison, as we navigate the intricacies of adding an associate to your dental practice. DPH Legendary Coaches, Dr. Stephen Markowitz and Dr. Henry Ernst join the quest to decode the subtle clues that signal it's time for expansion. We dissect mental fortitude, patient statistics, and the joyous pivot from full-time clinician to strategic maestro. If your practice's patient base is ballooning or you're grappling with the nuances of mentorship, we're here to illuminate the path and share some chuckles along the way.But this isn't just about numbers and growth; it's about the culture of your practice. We chew over the 'QVC effect' of scheduling, the merits of part-time associates, and the unexpectedly hilarious side of car food blunders. Sure, you may expect sound advice on block scheduling and profit maximization, but you'll also get a heaping side of humor as we divulge personal tales of vehicular chaos and coffee catastrophes. For more information about taking your surgical training to the next level, check out Colorado Surgical Institute or text 970-420-6148 and ask for Chris Richards. DPH Coaching Operational Excellence: Strategies to streamline practice operations for efficiency and growth. Team Building and Leadership: Techniques to build a cohesive team and lead effectively. Financial Management: Guidance on managing the financial aspects of a dental practice for long-term success. Personal Development: Coaching on personal growth to enhance professional performance. Visit www.dentalpracticeheroes.com to Learn more Visit www.ColoradoSurgicalInstitute.com for more information about CE courses and get 10% off as a DPH listener!

An infected tooth can be among your most uncomfortable experiences - but a root canal treatment can help. If you're in need of such care near Braeburn, call Houston's Dentist 101 at +1-713-773-1300 or click https://txdentist101.com/ today! Dentist 101 of Houston City: Houston Address: 9180 Bellaire Blvd Website: https://www.txdentist101.com/ Phone: +1-713-773-1300 Email: txdentist101bellaire@gmail.com

‍‍Do you want show employee appreciation, but your budget feels tight when it comes time for bonuses? Join us in this fascinating episode, as we sit down with Shawn Peers, an expert in dental team dynamics, to discover the powerful impacts of spoiling your dental team with direction. In an industry often focused on patient care and latest dental technology, the importance of strong team dynamics, onboarding procedures, and continuous professional development is often overlooked. Shawn shares his insights on how aligning these aspects transforms your practice, resulting in increased morale, productivity, and ultimately profit.Swim against the current with Shawn as he dismantles common misconceptions that hold dental practices back from investing time in improving systems. Shawn stresses on slowing down to build solid foundations for your team, using tools like comprehensive onboarding processes that focus on training and building confidence in new staff members. The importance of fostering a culture of growth and continuous improvement within your practice is highlighted, with the instigation of dedicated team meetings to openly discuss issues and develop solutions.What You'll Learn in This Episode:The significant impact of directing and empowering your dental teamThe power of comprehensive and confidence-building onboarding processesBreaking down barriers to developing effective systems within your practiceThe importance of continuous improvement and fostering a culture of growthThe value of implementing dedicated team meetings for issue resolution and solution developmentHandling team dynamics and maintaining a harmonious work environmentTune into our conversation, as we delve into the heart of successful dental practice management. You wouldn't want to miss out on these game-changing strategies to inspire and empower your team!‍Learn More About the Ground Marketing Course Here:Website: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/the-ground-marketing-course-open-enrollment/‍You can reach out to Shawn Peers here:Website: https://dentalpeers.ca/Email: shawn@dentalpeers.caPhone: 613-867-8502‍If you want your questions answered on Monday Morning Episodes, ask me on these platforms:My Newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/The Dental Marketer Society Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2031814726927041‍Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors)‍Michael: Hey, Shawn, so talk to us. What's one piece of advice you can give us this Monday morning? Shawn: Hey, Michael, thanks for having me. But a one piece of advice and I'm going to give you one that sometimes gets me a little trouble when I say it right off the bat, because dentists give me kind of a screwed up face.Look, when I say it, I tell them. Don't be afraid to spoil your teams. And these days, you know, I kind of think you want to strike terror into the heart of the dentist, like post COVID, tell them that the key is they need to spoil their teams. Cause they're going to look at you and say, man, you didn't pay attention to what happened after COVID now, did you?You've seen how salaries have gone crazy. pay them enough. We can't keep them long enough. They just bounce around. They don't want to work as hard. They want easier work hours. They don't want to work any evenings at all. And you're sitting there telling me that the key to my success is going to be spoiling my team.You're nuts. You're just nuts. And I say, let me tell you a story and tell you a story about this one doctor who was going through all the same things that you're going through post COVID. And I talked to him about the importance of making sure you spoil your team, but you spoil them with direction. The key to it is, is you don't just spoil them and, and you know, like we've, we've heard all the talk about, Hey, if you want to keep team members on these, they've got to feel engaged.They've got to be feeling empowered. And I believe that a hundred percent, but you still need them to feel engaged and empowered To do what you want them to do. You can't tell them what they want to do. Cause you tell them they're just going to go. No one wants to be told what to do.So you, what you got to do is you've got to figure out how to allow them to do what you want them to do. So you've got to spoil them in the way that will encourage them that way. And a big part of that, what this dentist figured out, what he was really struggling with, same thing that everyone was. Team members were leaving.Someone else down the street was offering another 5, 10 an hour more. Gone. So he understood, look, I got to be competitive, right? I can't, you know, underpay people. The market has changed and I have to respond to that. But that's not keeping people loyal. So he embarked on this whole new onboarding system.And he spoiled them with the training. That gave them the confidence that they could come in and do their jobs in a relatively stress free environment because too often when we bring on new team members into the dental world, we just say Here's your desk. Here's your operatory. Have fun. you have any questions, just ask.There's your onboarding process. So this dentist has embarked on something where he doesn't even have anybody doing any solid work for two weeks. If they're a hygienist, they don't see a patient for two weeks. If they're an admin team member, they don't answer a phone for two weeks. The first week he has them just going over policy and procedures manuals.He has them doing Phone training, both for their video tutorials and, and one to one with a service that he's contracted out with. he does the same thing with his practice management system. Brings in all the video tutorials for them and also one to one training. That's the first week. The second week they come into the office, they're starting to do things, but mostly on an observation level.Occasionally showing a little bit about what they do. It's only after that second week that he starts to kind of unleash them. And he's got the happiest team he's ever had, while his colleagues around him are still complaining that people are leaving left, right, and center, and it's a, you know, it's just this musical chairs with one day they've got a team member, the next they don't.He's like, I got a full compliment. And they're happy. They're trained. They know what it is they're doing. They're not stressed trying to figure it out. So, he's spoiled them, but he's spoiled them in a way that he's given them the direction he wants them to go in, and he can now feel comfortable that he is allowing them to do what he wants them to do.That's how you spoil Michael: them. Gotcha. Okay. So then, that's spoiling with direction. I know you mentioned allow them to do what they want you to do. What you want them to do. Yeah. What you want them to do. Would that be? I guess so slowness plays part of that. It looks like it's a slow process, right? Because I feel like if you're like bringing somebody on, you're like, I need someone hygienist, right?Come on. Like, I need you to start working at least within the second week. How can we combat that feeling of I need you to hurry up? And, and I need you to come on for what I hired you for to, all right, take your time. And you know, Shawn: I mean, that's a psychological barrier know, we're just sort of geared in the world of dentistry that, you know, we don't take time out to really try to improve systems because anytime we do that, that means we're not producing.And the dentists that I've talked to that feel they've gotten to where they've, they've You know, not necessarily where they need to be, but they're in a better spot than where they would be. Otherwise, they've said they had to recognize that it meant taking a step back for a little while, and you do have to be prepared to look at it and say, okay, it means I got to shut down for certain meetings.Then we'll shut down. It's better to do that than try to cram a meeting into a lunch hour where people might be paying attention for 30 minutes, and that's not enough time to actually solve any issues that we might be wanting to discuss. So no resolutions are ever arrived at. We talk and we talk and nothing gets solved.So then the next people next thing you know, people are like, why bother with the meeting and they're tuned out for the whole thing anyway. So yeah, you take a little bit of less production that day, but the idea is to build it up so that it becomes more sustainable down the road. And that's what these dentists that are doing that figured out.You do have to be prepared to slow down. You do have to be prepared to train people. I can put somebody in to answer the phones today. I could put a hygienist in and not really introduce that person to the practice and where they're going to find everything and how we operate and how to put, notes into, into the computer system in the proper format, where we want them, all that kind of stuff.But I'm always going to be having to compensate for what I haven't shown that person, how I want things done. So yes, in the short term, It might seem like it's better than not having somebody in there at all because you're training them. But then when they get going, when they hit the ground running, they're able to go faster.They're able to learn new things quicker because the foundation's been set for them. And they are able to actually maintain that higher level of production for you going forward. Michael: I like that now. So when it comes to the retaining part, so let's just say we did that. We did the two weeks we onboarded them and it was fantastic.They love it. Now, where do you see, we need to start taking it slow again, or do we even need to start taking it slow again with our team? Shawn: to the extent that look we we still are always looking to improve our processes And that means we are going to have team meetings. Maybe we'll have a monthly team meeting.I'm a firm believer set the time aside and book at least two hours You know, never mind trying to squeeze it in for an hour at lunch. I've seen too many offices try to do that. Just doesn't work. You can't get the time in. So block off a good two hours, allow people, you know, a few minutes to get there because people are going to be late depending on when they excuse their last patient, they want to have a minute to wash up.If they need to clean up their operatory a little bit, deal with the instruments, get there, get a little bit of their lunch into them, say hi. And then you can start the meeting, you know, say 20 minutes or so into, into that time slot and then hold your meeting for an hour and 15 minutes or so, and then recognize it.Okay. Out of that, about that point in time, it's getting to say, let's say 20 to two. Now we're coming up on our two hour mark and people are starting to think about their two o'clock patients. So. Give them time again. So it's not so much that you're going slow, but you are going to be prepared to say, if we are serious about being in a state of continuous improvement, we do have to take a step back even for that moment, even for that one day a month.But if it helps us deal with open time, let's say, let's say that's a problem and you can come up with a solution that works better. You've identified what the issue is, and now you can bring everybody on board because you're talking about it and you're developing the policy that will help. Correct that issue.You'll fill in more open time. You'll make up for it. You'll more than make up for it. So it's not that you stay slow indefinitely. You'll have a period where, okay, we're going to take a pause today, but it's a productive pause because we're working on the business as a team. But we're not, you know, we don't, it's not that we want to just sort of be cushy and say, hey, don't work hard.We still, we still have expectations. We're still going to hold people accountable. But you spoil them in the right way and give them the tools and give them the expectations. A lot of times holding people accountable is easier than you think. People kind of get it in their heads. They think, oh, that's a hard conversation.Somebody didn't do the job well. And it's a hard conversation if you never set out the expectations. So the person's going, what? But if they knew what was expected and you gave them the training, they're kind of expecting and they kind of know if they fell short and you have to hold them accountable. So that's an easier conversation when you set the table properly.Michael: Gotcha. Now, have you ever seen this, uh, Sean, where people are spoiling their team, they feel like they're doing everything they can, but they're just not happy still. Shawn: Are you talking about the team now or Michael: yeah, the team, the team, like the team is like maybe they're. You spoil them. You feel like you're doing everything right as a practice owner, but then the team is not.They're still calling the shots that you almost feel like, ah, they're the ones who are the boss and I have to come to work for them and I have to bend over backwards for them. Shawn: you're doing it the right way, as a general rule, no, there are going to be occasional team members where they're just, Hey, you can't stop spoiling me.And, and those are ones that, you know, People have to recognize that and They're not just going to be impacting you. They're not just going to be impacting your production They're going to be impacting the other team members and occasionally that does mean We have to extend an invitation for that person to find their dental home in another location And that's okay.If as a team there still seems to be an issue Then sometimes what that takes is figuring out. Okay, we've got a disconnect here because I think i've Really pulled all the right strings here. what's going on? So, you know, you have to be open to having a frank dialogue and saying team I've been trying to do this what's happening people don't seem to be responding sometimes that becomes a conversation that I get involved with working with clients and teams because the dentists They're uncomfortable having it.They don't see it. The team is uncomfortable saying it to the dentist, but if they can build trust in a third party, you become that intermediary that can sort of bridge that gap for them a little bit. So I've certainly seen that happen. And it's just usually it's that issue that, what I thought I've communicated, you didn't hear.And that old idea that if you're not hearing what I'm saying, it makes it pretty tough to lead. Michael: Yeah. Shawn: So we just have to solve that communication problem. If there's an honest effort being made. By both sides, then it's always solvable, in my opinion. Michael: Awesome. So Shawn, where can people find you if they have any questions or concerns or anything like that?Shawn: You can reach out to me at Sean, S H A W N at dental peers dot C A D E N T A L P E E R S dot C A. That's one way you can just drop me an email, me a call, 613 867 8502, call or text. check me out at dentalpeers. com. www. dentalpeers. ca. Learn a little bit more about some of the crazy things I like to do to help the world of dentistry.Michael: Awesome, Sean. I appreciate you and everything you're doing at Dental Peers as well. We really appreciate you. And thank you so much for being with me on this Monday morning episode. Shawn: Appreciate it. The time. Thanks so much. great to be here, Michael.‍

706: Leading Beyond the Chair: 4 Key Pillars for Dental Team Success – Miranda BeesonIf you're not good with people, you won't have a great business — or a great life! Your first step is to master the four domains of emotional intelligence, and Kirk Behrendt brings back Miranda Beeson, one of ACT's amazing coaches, to teach you how. Get good at people, not just dentistry! To become an emotionally intelligent leader for yourself, your team, and your family, listen to Episode 706 of The Best Practices Show!Learn More About Miranda:Send Miranda an email: miranda@actdental.com Follow Miranda on ACT's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/actdentalSend Gina an email: gina@actdental.com More Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:Subscribe to The Best Practices Show: https://the-best-practices-show.captivate.fm/listenJoin The Best Practices Association: https://www.actdental.com/bpaJoin ACT's To The Top Study Club: https://www.actdental.com/tttSee the ACT Dental/BPA Live Event Schedule: https://www.actdental.com/eventGet The Best Practices Magazine for free: https://www.actdental.com/magazinePlease leave us a review on the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-best-practices-show-with-kirk-behrendt/id1223838218Episode Resources:Read Hidden Potential by Adam Grant: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/719611/hidden-potential-by-adam-grantTake the DiSC assessment: https://www.thediscpersonalitytest.comTake the Kolbe A Index: https://www.kolbe.comTake the Working Genius assessment: https://www.workinggenius.com/about/assessmentTake the Myers-Briggs assessment: https://www.themyersbriggs.com/en-USRead Thanks for the Feedback by Douglas Stone & Sheila Heen: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/313485/thanks-for-the-feedback-by-douglas-stone-and-sheila-heenRead The Outward Mindset by The Arbinger Institute: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/575042/the-outward-mindset-by-the-arbinger-instituteMain...

Practice owner Dr. Sarah Belderes joins Gary to talk about why building a great team is the key to growing your practice, how dentists can improve as leaders, and why restraint is such a big part of successful leadership.Connect with our Guest:Dr. Sarah Belderes Dentist at Sarah Belderes DDSWebsite: https://www.sarahbelderesdds.com/

It's important that you enjoy the people you employ.   In this episode, Dr. Dave explores the essence of culture-centric hiring within dental practices. With a blend of personal stories and seasoned advice, he guides us through the journey of creating a team that not only achieves professional excellence but also fosters a joyful and supportive atmosphere.  Discover the strategies to mold a practice where each member is passionately aligned with a unified vision of success. Define and Align: Learn to vividly articulate your practice's culture, drawing in individuals who not only share your core values and mission but are eager to contribute to them.   Beyond the Resume: Delve into the effectiveness of behavioral interviewing techniques to uncover candidates' true spirits, ensuring a match that extends well beyond mere technical abilities.   Team-Driven Hiring: Uncover the benefits of including your existing team in the hiring process, promoting a more integrated and harmonious workplace culture.   Tune in and revolutionize your hiring approach to assemble the ideal team that elevates your dental practice to unparalleled levels of harmony and success. Take the next step towards transforming your dental practice. Take Dr. Dave's Dentists Ascend Quiz to discover the hidden potential in your business.

Join Dr. Killeen as he delves into the Herzberg theory of motivation and its application in the dental workplace. Discover actionable insights to boost staff engagement and happiness, ultimately enhancing your practice's success. Tune in for expert advice on cultivating a motivated and cohesive dental team. For more information about Dr. Addison Killeen, visit: www.addisonkilleen.com or interact with him on a daily basis at www.DentalSuccessNetwork.com

Podcast Description: In this Dentistry's Growing with Grace event, Grace Rizza sits down with Megan Martin, a seasoned professional with extensive experience in the dental industry, to uncover the secrets to retention, team building, and fostering harmony within your dental team. With Megan's insider perspective, she dishes out insights on where dentists often miss the mark in their practices. From exploring the common reasons behind turnover in the dental field to offering practical advice for dental leaders, this podcast covers it all. Tune in to discover invaluable insights on creating a thriving and cohesive dental team, and learn the strategies needed to build and maintain a successful practice! Meet Grace Rizza: Grace Rizza is the CEO and founder of Identity Dental Marketing, which serves practices nationwide with ethical, effective marketing solutions. Today the company has helped to propel over 1,500 businesses to new levels of success. In her tenure as a business owner, Grace has authored countless industry-specific articles, podcasts, and blogs. She has spoken at dozens of dental meetings, including the Chicago Dental Society Midwinter Meeting, The Hinman Dental Meeting and the Greater New York Dental Meeting. Meet Megan Martin: Megan began her dental career as a pediatric dental assistant in New York before transitioning to North Carolina, where she quickly advanced into dental assisting and front desk roles. Recognized for her leadership potential, she moved into consulting, offering strategic guidance to dental practices. Megan's journey culminated in management, where she excelled in optimizing operations and fostering team cohesion.  Though no longer in the dental field, Megan's experiences continue to shape her leadership approach and fuel her passion for making a positive impact in her endeavors.

The Bulletproof Podcast Episode 336   HOSTS: Dr. Peter Boulden & Dr. Craig Spodak GUEST: Dr. Trey Tippit   TAKEAWAYS Building trust within a dental team is crucial for effective communication and collaboration. Addressing conflicts directly and openly can lead to better understanding and resolution. Commitment to the practice's goals and values is essential for team members to work together effectively. Creating a culture of accountability helps ensure that everyone takes responsibility for their actions and tasks. Decentralization and accountability are essential as a practice scales. Inattention to results can lead to stagnation and failure to grow. Motivating the team and creating alignment are crucial for success. Working on the business and involving the team are key aspects of effective leadership. Chapters 00:00 - Introduction and Mastermind Retreat 05:57 - Common Themes in Dental Practices 08:21 - Absence of Trust 15:48 - Fear of Conflict 20:29 - Lack of Commitment 26:54 - Avoidance of Accountability 35:00 - The Bystander Effect and Decentralization 38:07 - Motivating the Team 39:38 - Creating Alignment and Accountability 43:11 - The Power of a High-Performing Team 44:24 - Announcement: Bulletproof Summit     REFERENCES Bulletproof Summit Bulletproof Dental Practice

In this episode of the Daily Dental Podcast, join Dr. Killeen as he shares invaluable insights on supporting your dental team when facing challenging patient encounters. Drawing from real-life experiences and poignant examples, Dr. Killeen delves into effective strategies for handling situations ranging from minor disagreements to serious confrontations. Discover the importance of fostering a supportive environment within your practice, where every team member feels empowered and valued. Tune in to learn actionable techniques for responding to adversity with grace, ensuring your team feels confident and equipped to navigate any patient interaction, big or small. For more information about Dr. Addison Killeen, visit: www.addisonkilleen.com or interact with him on a daily basis at www.DentalSuccessNetwork.com

In this episode of The Dental Economist Show, host Mike Huffaker is joined by Brandon Robert Halcott, Co-Founder of Seva Dental Team. Join them as they explore ways of creating profitability in a dental business, the importance of technology, and the valuable lessons Brandon has learned from his years in the field.

In this episode of the Dental Assistant Nation podcast, Kevin Henry interviews Ann-Marie DePalma at the Yankee Dental Congress in Boston. Ann-Marie shares her unique career path, starting as a hygienist and later becoming a dental assistant. They discuss the impact of technology on the dental team and the importance of asking the right questions when adopting new technologies. They also explore the value of trade shows for education and networking. Ann-Marie emphasizes the importance of team education and communication, and suggests that teams can split up to attend different lectures and share their learnings. The episode concludes with Anne-Marie's contact information (annmariedepalma@gmail.com). Takeaways * Technology plays a significant role in dentistry and it is important for the dental team to stay informed and ask the right questions when adopting new technologies. *Trade shows provide valuable opportunities for education, networking, and staying up-to-date with the latest trends in the industry. *Team education and communication are crucial for the success of a dental practice. Everyone in the team should be involved in running team meetings and sharing knowledge. *Teams can split up to attend different lectures at conferences and then come together to share their learnings, fostering a culture of continuous learning and growth. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Background 02:23 Unique Career Path 03:20 Impact of Technology on the Dental Team 05:16 Involvement of Dental Team in Technology Decisions 06:43 Technology Trends and Impact on Dental Team 08:37 Value of Trade Shows 09:33 Importance of Team Education and Communication 11:01 Team Attendance at Lectures 11:48 Contact Information and Conclusion

If you want to have great oral health and a healthy life then you need to work with your dentist and hygienist as part of your team. Holistic dentist Dr Rachel Hall from Evolve Dental in Brisbane explains how the dentist can support you to prevent and heal gum disease as well as tooth decay and other dental issues that can devastate not only your smile but your health too. Your dentist should work with you to be your partner in achieving your dental health goals. How can you ensure you get the best advice and support from the dental team? In this episode find out how you can get more out of your dental visits to get your mouth healthier faster. www.holisiticdentistry.au www.evolvedental.com.au  

Join Dr. Etch and Dr. Justin Bhullar in this episode of the Dental Practice Heroes podcast as they tackle common challenges faced by dental practice owners. They discuss the importance of morning huddles, team meetings, and how to handle team members who don't fully engage in these essential activities. Key Takeaways: Dealing with Team Members Who Skip Meetings: Strategies for managing team members who don't attend meetings or show up late Importance of Setting Expectations: Emphasizing the need for clear expectations within the dental practice  Recruitment and Team Building: Insights into continuous recruitment and building a team that aligns with your practice's culture  Leading by Example: The significance of leading by example, especially in terms of punctuality and preparation for meetings Differentiating Between Huddles and Meetings: Understanding the purpose and importance of various types of meetings, including morning huddles, monthly meetings, and training sessions  Why You Should Listen: This episode is a must-listen for dental practice owners and managers who are looking to improve their team dynamics, enhance meeting effectiveness, and foster a culture of punctuality and engagement. Dr. Etch and Dr. Bhullar provide practical advice and real-world solutions to common management challenges in the dental office. DPH Coaching Operational Excellence: Strategies to streamline practice operations for efficiency and growth. Team Building and Leadership: Techniques to build a cohesive team and lead effectively. Financial Management: Guidance on managing the financial aspects of a dental practice for long-term success. Personal Development: Coaching on personal growth to enhance professional performance. Visit www.dentalpracticeheroes.com to Learn more

On this episode of BUZZ, we are joined by special guest Dr. Brad Braman of Empowered Dentist.  During our wide ranging conversation, we hone in on specific approaches to your Dental Practice that will enable more time to enjoy the world outiside of your offfice, as well as increased profitability, higher team morale and enhanced job satisfaction. To learn more about how Empowered Dentist can help you take back your life, please visit: https://empowereddentist.com/   Show Produced by Dentainment https://dentainment.com/ Dentainment is a Digital Creative Marketing Agency, providing services to the Dental Community such as: Logo Design Brand Identity Dental Websites Search Engine Optimization Video Production Social Media Management Google AdWords Management Voice Search Optimization and more   Discover the power of AI, video, social media, and more in ‘Best Dental Marketing,' the ultimate guide for Dental professionals looking to transform their marketing efforts and drive new patient growth. Learn more about Best Dental Marketing Here: https://bestdentalmarketing.com/   Learn more about our sponsor Dental Year! Providing your Dental Practice with 365 Days of Marketing Inspiration. http://www.DentalYear.com

Episode Summary: In this episode, Dr. Etch and Dr. Justin Bhullar delve into the crucial aspects of dental practice management, focusing on the effectiveness of team meetings and morning huddles. They share their experiences and strategies for making these gatherings more than just routine, but pivotal moments for setting the day's tone and aligning team goals. Why You Should Listen: Leadership and Team Dynamics: Understand the role of leadership in shaping a productive team environment.  Effective Meeting Strategies: Gain insights into conducting efficient and valuable team meetings and morning huddles.  Adapting to Team Size: Learn how to manage meetings effectively in practices with large teams. Creating a Positive Culture: Discover how acknowledging individual contributions can enhance team morale.  Practical Tips for Practice Management: Get actionable advice on managing your dental practice more effectively.  Key Takeaways: Leading by Example: The importance of leaders setting the right example in punctuality and preparation.  Setting Expectations and Creating Value: How to set clear expectations for meetings and add value to ensure team engagement.  Efficient Meeting Structures: Tips for organizing meetings that are effective, especially in larger practices.  Recognizing Personal Milestones: The impact of acknowledging personal events like birthdays in building a positive team culture.  Adapting Meeting Strategies: Tailoring meeting strategies to suit the unique needs of your practice.  DPH Coaching Operational Excellence: Strategies to streamline practice operations for efficiency and growth. Team Building and Leadership: Techniques to build a cohesive team and lead effectively. Financial Management: Guidance on managing the financial aspects of a dental practice for long-term success. Personal Development: Coaching on personal growth to enhance professional performance. Visit www.dentalpracticeheroes.com to Learn more

My guest on the show today is Brandon Halcott, a true entrepreneur. Brandon founded a company called Tru Family Dental, which was a roll up of dental practices that was sold to a private equity owned dental company a few years ago. Now, Brandon is at it again but this time is focused on building both a dental practice platform and one dedicated to engineering and architectural firms. In this fast moving conversation, we discussed: The journey that led to the founding of Tru Family dental; The opportunity that still exists to consolidate dental practices; What he finds interesting about engineering and architectural firms; How Brandon has chosen to fund and finance these companies; and How his approach is a little different from that of a typical private equity firm Listen to all Compounders Podcast episodes on either Apple or Spotify iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of SNN or its affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

Are you a dental practice owner looking to foster a team culture that's rooted in passion rather than just profit? This week, we're exploring the "Mercenary vs. Missionary" mindset with guidance from John Doerr, the legendary venture capitalist. His insights help us understand the crucial differences between team members who operate out of self-interest and those who are driven by a shared vision and dedication to your practice's success.   Delve into Doerr's perspective on why a missionary-driven team is the cornerstone of long-term success and patient satisfaction. Learn actionable steps to inspire a shift in your team's mindset, leading to improved care, stronger team cohesion, and enhanced practice growth. Discover how to identify mercenary traits and strategically transform them into missionary zeal that aligns with your practice's core values. For dental practice owners seeking to create a lasting impact and drive genuine success, this episode is your playbook. Tune in and learn how to lead your team towards a future where dedication and passion are the driving forces. Subscribe, rate, and review, and share this episode with peers who are just as dedicated to cultivating a thriving, mission-driven dental practice.   P.S. Reveal the hidden potential in your dental practice. Take the Dentists Ascend Quiz for your customized results.

In this training video, titled "Leading with Confidence: Overcoming the Fear of Not Being Liked by Your Dental Team," Chelsea Myers, elite performance coach, provides essential guidance on mastering leadership skills and conquering the fear of not being liked by team members in the dental profession. Discover effective strategies and proven techniques that empower dental professionals to lead with confidence and create a harmonious work environment. Chelsea dives deep into the fear of not being liked, addressing common concerns that can hinder leadership development. Chelsea Myers, host, is the founder and CEO of Dental Life Coach (www.DentalLife.Coach). Dental Life Coach works with C-Suite, doctors, and teams to create scalable culture and increased profitability in some of the most successful dental support organizations.  Dental Life Coach tools and resources are making a marked improvement in the way that goals are achieved and leaders are developed. To learn more about Dental Life Coach, executive coaching for dentists, increasing case acceptance rates, talent retention, and creating scalable culture visit www.DentalLife.Coach  visit www.DentalLife.Coach.  //WATCH NEXT:  ⏭️ //COME SAY HI!

"How can authentic storytelling during interviews and a commitment to complete case acceptance revolutionize dental operations and patient management?" This question is answered in episode 120 of the Financial Flossing Podcast with host Ross Brannon and guest Caitlin Mendez, associated with Dental Success Network.  Caitlin Mendez shares her unique hiring approach and the challenges and solutions surrounding it. Caitlin emphasizes the importance of genuine interviews where potential employees tell true stories about their experiences. This way, one can gauge if the applicant aligns with the company's culture and values. She stresses the significance of past behavior as an indicator of future actions. Caitlin also touched upon the concept of complete case acceptance in dental operations. She highlighted the value in getting patients to commit to their entire treatment from day one, ensuring that schedules are filled, and cases aren't dropped halfway. Key Takeaways: ✅ Hiring is an imperfect art – Even experts like Jack Welch admitted to having a 70% success rate in hiring decisions. ✅ Past behavior as a future predictor – Past experiences and actions often give a glimpse into how a person might act in future situations. ✅ Complete case acceptance is crucial – Getting patients to commit to their entire treatment from the beginning ensures that they turn up for all appointments, leading to consistent revenue and better patient management. ✅ Clarity and Scorecards – Caitlin believes in providing clear expectations to team members. She uses scorecards that list 3-5 essential tasks. If these are achieved, the employee knows they are succeeding. How to Reach Caitlin: For more information or to get in touch, one can email her at coach@dentalsuccessnetwork.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"How can authentic storytelling during interviews and a commitment to complete case acceptance revolutionize dental operations and patient management?" This question is answered in episode 120 of the Financial Flossing Podcast with host Ross Brannon and guest Caitlin Mendez, associated with Dental Success Network.  Caitlin Mendez shares her unique hiring approach and the challenges and solutions surrounding it. Caitlin emphasizes the importance of genuine interviews where potential employees tell true stories about their experiences. This way, one can gauge if the applicant aligns with the company's culture and values. She stresses the significance of past behavior as an indicator of future actions. Caitlin also touched upon the concept of complete case acceptance in dental operations. She highlighted the value in getting patients to commit to their entire treatment from day one, ensuring that schedules are filled, and cases aren't dropped halfway. Key Takeaways: ✅ Hiring is an imperfect art – Even experts like Jack Welch admitted to having a 70% success rate in hiring decisions. ✅ Past behavior as a future predictor – Past experiences and actions often give a glimpse into how a person might act in future situations. ✅ Complete case acceptance is crucial – Getting patients to commit to their entire treatment from the beginning ensures that they turn up for all appointments, leading to consistent revenue and better patient management. ✅ Clarity and Scorecards – Caitlin believes in providing clear expectations to team members. She uses scorecards that list 3-5 essential tasks. If these are achieved, the employee knows they are succeeding. How to Reach Caitlin: For more information or to get in touch, one can email her at coach@dentalsuccessnetwork.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another informative episode of the Daily Dental Podcast! In this episode, we dive into the critical topic of hiring the right people for your dental office who can be trained effectively. Having a standard set for how you want your dental practice to run not only streamlines your operations but also plays a pivotal role in training and introducing new hires seamlessly. For more information about Dr. Addison Killeen, visit: www.addisonkilleen.com or interact with him on a daily basis at www.DentalSuccessNetwork.com

In this two-part series, veterinary dental specialist Dr. Brett Beckman interviews experienced technician Annie Mills about optimizing the veterinary dental team. Annie discusses the importance of a collaborative team approach, with clearly defined roles for the veterinarian, technician, and anesthetist. Learn how proper training and utilization of each team member's strengths can improve efficiency, outcomes, and quality of care. Gain perspective on transitioning from the outdated solo dental model to a modern team approach that mirrors human dentistry. Discover how to leverage the veterinary technician's skills to increase surgical speed and performance. Stay tuned for Part 2, coming next week!   Love Veterinary Dentistry?

Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer SocietyJoin my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/[Click here to leave a review on iTunes]‍‍Guest: Yolanda MangrumBusiness Name: Fortune ManagementCheck out Yolanda's Media:Website: https://www.fortunemgmt.com/Email: yolandamangrum@fortunemgmt.comPhone: 707-478-6394‍Other Mentions and Links:CostcoUCSFHire to InspireSuperCampDDS4KidsMother Teresa‍‍‍Host: Michael Arias‍Website: The Dental Marketer Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/‍Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society‍‍My Key Takeaways:Learn what you want to do in life and shape your practice to support that!Aligning core values and designating purposeful work is essential with new hires.We don't want head bobbers with no input in our team. If they are asking questions and engaging, they will be stronger leaders for their role!Responding to angry patients with an apology and offer to help will prove much more fruitful than defensiveness.We want to support our team members in solving the problems they have rather than just solving them for them.Each team member is a leader of their role. Let them have say in the areas that they are the expert!‍Please don't forget to share with us on Instagram when you are listening to the podcast AND if you are really wanting to show us love, then please leave a 5 star review on iTunes! [Click here to leave a review on iTunes]‍p.s. Some links are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with these products/ company, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money unless you feel you need them or that they will help you with your goals.‍Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors)Michael: Alright, it's time to talk with our featured guest, Dr. Yolanda Mangram. Yolanda, how's it going? Excellent. Excellent. That's wonderful to hear. So if you can tell us a little bit about your past, your present, how'd you get to where you are Yolanda: today? So, uh, Post dental school. I guess we can start there.I started a dental practice after two years of being out of dental school. Immediately after dental school, I went into being hired as a educator, the a professor at U C S F. And so I was teaching, two days a week. I was associating two days a week by the time that I started my practice and I was opening my practice two days a week.it was a busy, busy time for Michael: sure. Okay. So you opened your practice two days a week and two days a week you were working and two days a week you were educating. So you had one day Yolanda: Yeah. To go to Costco to buy stuff for the practice or to go to whatever. It was an Aaron's day.that's how I got started in the practice. Fast forward, I grew that practice to be basically what I felt was like a teenager. My baby kind of grew up to be a teenager and and I'd already had at that 0.2 babies. And I shaped my practice to be. The way I wanted it for my life.And so I had the great benefit of starting my practice pretty much six months out with a coach. and, you know, the big centering point was, what do you want in life? And let's shape your practice to be that. So at different times, I wanted to be at home to be able to, breastfeed or I wanted to be able to have certain times or days off so that I could pick up the kids.So the practice was kind of shifted and shaped to support that. fast forward, we were in this having kids stage. and I had a maternity leave and basically at that point it made sense that I have an associate. So we ended up having, coverage for the first baby, and then by the second baby she became a partner.so that I could have that life balance. What I didn't plan, 'cause that seemed like a logical thing, being a mom and do that. What I didn't plan was being approached to buy another practice. And I was like, oh no, that's not my plan. My plan is this. when this came about I actually took a different trajectory and did invest in another practice and we came up with a bigger why.And that y became our 10 year mission, in growing this second practice and that y became so big that, it meant that I actually would do something that I would've never, ever thought I would do, which is sell my baby, let my baby that grew up to be a teenager. Go on and exist.In my hometown and have me move one town over and grow a multi-specialty medical and dental practice. So that's where I am today. I have a 10,600 square foot building, 16 op operatory, a med spa, dental spa, and education center. all because of my big why. that I wanted to be able to have a practice, have the passion, in my practice, and also have all this dedicated time to support my family.we had this plan for 10 years. my kids were hitting junior high to do dental missions and to travel the world and to service. and that happened pre covid, thankfully. Because if it had happened a year later my 10 year goal would not have came to a full, existence.So we traveled to probably, I. Five or more countries. and the kids were homeschooled and we did a lot of family values, time in incorporating family values into, experiences through traveling and service. Michael: So you guys still do that right now? Yolanda: they're now in high school.we did it pre covid, and we've done only one mission post covid. we basically weave in. When we do traveling, there's always a way to do some service with it. Even concierge at Nice Hotels can set up a service mission for you. They can look into some local and find ways for you to do a give back, we've done it in Jamaica, Costa Rica.And those have been more just like checking with the local concierge and asking them how can we help? The other things that we did were more with organizations and they were like planned just to go for that. But almost always especially when you're traveling to these beautiful tropical countries, there's plenty of needs in those communities.So, One day excursion being of service is been the way that we've been, bringing our children into a give Michael: back. And they appreciate that. the people appreciate it, but your children will, you know what I mean? Like, it's gonna open up their give back even more.Right. Hospitality, things like that. that's really good. If we can rewind a little bit. You were hired as an educator. but that was Yolanda: immediately after dental school. Yeah I was very active in dental school and I've always been happy sharing and teaching. so about, for about three to four years, I was I don't know what the title was, but some kind of professor, like an assistant associate or somebody about professor at U C S F.I was low on the totem pole, but yes I did some education right after dental school and was teaching things like anesthetic and being on the clinic floor and. And that type of thing. And so all those education things, I was a dental assistant before I went into dental school.I went to lab, tech school before dental school. So that really helped to have a full experience of all the different fields in dentistry before, I opened up my practice 'cause I, I literally know how. It feels to be in each position in the practice, and there are challenges. So that's what's been a key success, I think to me in 2011, I wrote a book knowing that I wanted this mission to be able to travel with my kids. it's called Hire to Inspire. I've. Updated it, but I haven't published the newer version post 10 years after that. But hired to inspire, it was two things that I realized as an employer.One, I only wanted to work with happy people, and two, I only wanted to work in partnership with them. and that meant that I needed to be surrounded by leaders, people that were working on their leadership development. And I never wanna be in a management position. When I hire people in my practice, I sit down and I have a conversation with them about purpose Ikigai is a term in Japanese that's called your reason for being.We start from the very beginning, on our onboarding, which is part of the Hire to Inspire process, which is basically to, from the beginning, make sure that we have matching core values and that we have purposeful work. And so this may be only a point in time for you as far as this leveraging you to your next place.So I always say, you know, as long as this is your happy place. To come to work, then we're in alignment. But I only wanna work with happy people. So if we get to the place where you really, find that your passion is somewhere else, then I'm gonna help you to find your happy place.And that means we'll continue our journey, but in a different way. So you will go off to be, say, a hairdresser. Which ironically yesterday, one of my former employees did. or you'll, we'll stay here and we'll continue to grow together, but ultimately we all have to be continuing to grow and.Be passionate about our work. So Hire to Inspire was a shift in 2011 for me, and I literally took each chapter and I sat down and I read it out loud with my team, many of which are still here with me. many who also have came. And I've supported to go off into other areas. So, So the idea is just to continue to inspire them to look for what their purpose is.so that's our onboarding process is to really get things straight about our core values, who we are. I have a culture handbook that we go over, and we have what's called Operating Principles. Operating principles. Are basically staying, how we do things, why we do things what our why is, is really important.And basically team members. as people, we all want to do, a good job and feel good about our work. But we often don't know how. Or what the best way for that work to show up is. So the more clarity we can have, especially onboarding people, the better. right now we have 50 something people in our practice.Between the two practices. it's always a work. I'm the culture keeper. That's my role is to just keep the culture and it's not always easy. because everybody has different beliefs and things, but. Ultimately having good communication lines and having clarity around your values and, our why is how we, continue to ha live in a happy place and have, that line when you cross over, it's showtime, we're here to serve.Michael: Interesting. So you mentioned you only hire leaders. what's your hiring process look like? How do we even find leaders in that sense, or the ad and everything like that? You know what I mean? Yolanda: Yeah. That's the irony. Everybody can be a leader everybody is a leader to some degree.It's just how well developed are they? most importantly, Do they want to be developed in that way? That's probably number one is everybody in our practice, no matter what your role is, if your role is to clean the toilets, then you are the leader of cleaning the toilets.So we will listen to you when it comes to taking care of that. It doesn't matter what it is. you know, If you are, the Hy Hygienist, you're the leader of the periodontal therapy, and when it comes to you telling us what needs to happen in that department, you're the expert, you're the person who's going off and making a hyperfocus in that area.And so we're gonna, all collaborate on things, but at the same time you're the person steering the ship on that area. As a c e o, as an owner I have to be surrounded by smart people and I want people that are thinking, I want people that are speaking their mind. I don't want people just being head bobbers.Yep yep. Oh, that's not gonna work. Yep. She's gonna fail on that. Nope. I want them to say, I like where you're going, but maybe we need to consider a different direction. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah reasons, or have you considered this? Or, what's gonna happen with that?So I want people asking questions. Is it frustrating sometimes to be like all excited about doing something, but then have someone put all these questions around? Absolutely. So that's where I had to grow my own leadership. You know, I had to grow who I am to not have such an ego about me being all knowing, we do a collaborative process and everything is about leadership development. I personally, Don't want to be in a conversation where I'm managing something, because stressful at that point. If we're collaborating, if we're working towards brainstorming on how to make things better, then it's a very easy light energy um, process.Michael: Uhhuh, okay. So there has to be like a balance of with every person you find. Humility and confidence, basically. Right? Yeah. Because it's like you gotta be confident enough to know you're the leader for this, and you're gonna tell us how to do it. Give us instructions, manuals, things like that. SOPs, and then humble enough to, yeah, you're cleaning the toilets, but you're the leader for that right.Kind of thing. Yolanda: Whatever it is. to some degree. Um, We all have certain innate skills in certain ones and some things that we have to work on. it's progress over perfection, all the time.And then we're appreciating also that, failures lead to learning. there's um, many different keys in our development process in fact one historical thing that's shaped me and continued and those that have children highly recommend super camp. There's the eight keys of excellence.It has been a hundred percent woven into my structure of living my life. And, we actually weave it into our culture handbook. The eight Keys of Excellence with Super camp. And they have some education on bringing children and teaching children personal development skills.Early on I was a team leader, during undergrad, and so I did three or four years of that When I got out, I was really looking for that camp experience where personal development was forefront in having a team surrounding me with those kind of skillsets, communication, personal development, mindset, all of that.And so I looked and I, interviewed many different. Consultants. And I knew that I needed to have you know, this ongoing constant learning, environment. and after, probably more than a hundred different seminars of sitting in practice management, learning learning, learning what I could. I came across something called Fortune Management, and that's another part of my life now because I've been Coaching for now 10 years, but been coached for 25 years with Fortune Management and it's about extraordinary life, extraordinary practice.So that was the key thing when I had the startup. It's like, what do you want in life? Let's shape your practice to meet that. So fortune, has had a huge impact on me and my. thinking, my processing, our team development, super camp, this, personal development skills, started young.Yeah, I think that these things are a real big part of our development. The reality is, we don't get taught how to talk. We don't get taught how to have relationships, how to get through conflicts. There's a lot of conflicts that can happen in dental practices, and we need to learn how to, come out stronger on the other end.A bad review is an opportunity because it's a cry for help. It's a cry to say, Hey this happened to me. It's not easy to lean in on those things but if someone comes to you say in the office and they haven't actually sprayed it across the, Google and Yelp and all that, then they're coming to you with a concern, or you might call it a complaint, but then they're caring enough to share.So humility again, comes into the place of listening to understand. And also understanding that, we're never gonna be perfect. So if that was that one person's experience, what can we learn from that? Our team is encouraged to basically lean into issue processing, and that's a leadership skill too.Because at first a reaction would be go into defense mode. instead of just apologizing first and then, thinking them immediately for bringing the concern to you, it puts you in a different state.Now you're not in a defense state. know, I apologize for the impact that had on you. Certainly wasn't my intent. thank you for bringing this to my attention. I wanna help boom, you just say those things to anybody that is upset with you at any time. Now, what do you, how would you feel about that?Yeah. If I said that to you and you were upset with me how would you Michael: feel? I'd feel calm. I'd be like oh, oh wait. Okay. I feel, you know what? I feel heard validated like, oh, okay. You're, yes, you're listening to me. Yes. Yolanda: So part of fortune's training is to, understand that there are human needs, people have human needs, we don't know what's going on in their life.It's most likely more to do about them than it has to do with you, And to feel validated, that one, they're being seen, they're being heard and that they matter is huge. And then you get to choose from that point. How much of that is really mine and how much of it is theirs?there anything we could change in our systems or in our processes that could shift the dynamic here? 'cause we are practicing, so let's. Figure out how we can have an issue come up, but then make it better the next time, So we learn from it and we see that as an opportunity to grow.Versus when we're in a mode of defending, we're not in a mode of growing. So I highly encourage that in the leaders to be big instead of to be small. when you are, thinking small, you're in that defense mode. But when you're willing to set that aside and lean in and get curious about it and think like, how could that have happened?How could we have done better? Where did this, go to that side what's missing here? Oh, they don't really understand this part And the, key thing is, That you may get to the place where you totally understand that they don't know what they're talking about when they're talking to you, but if you shift right away into telling them something, you have to remember, are you in rapport with them now?What I said in the beginning that set the framework was to start to get rapport with you, Michael. Mm-hmm. I apologize. it's not my intention. I would never want you to feel like that. So now that was the beginning of rapport. And in our processes and fortune, there's the steps of enrollment, there's steps of getting into rapport with people. that we train, our team members to go through because rapport is everything. Rapport with your team members, rapport with your patients, rapport and influencing. You influence people all the time, getting really good at influencing it and really good at influencing yourself, like talking yourself off the ledge to be defensive.is a big deal. So those are some of the skills that we focus on in, in our leadership development. But basically everybody is in leadership development all the time. You never get out of that school. Michael: Gotcha. And you're a hundred percent right Yolanda, like when it comes to defending We've hear this all the time, they're like, it's good to apologize. It's good to say sorry. Right? It's super good to do that. But you try being the first one to do that, right? Yep. Then it becomes, oh my God. Well, If they say sorry, I can say sorry. You know what I mean? But you know, I'm the first one. I don't know. You know what I mean? Because then you start defensive mode. it takes a bigger viewpoint of there's a bigger thing happening here than just like that little, oh my gosh, we're arguing about the bad review or the defensive, or, I'm not paying you for this or that.There's a bigger picture that we gotta look into. Yeah. that's really valuable. Super camp, Yolanda: what is that? Yeah. Super camp is what's called quantum learning. And personal development. Super Camp is held on colleges all across the world. Actually. I even taught in Hong Kong. dental school got in the way, or I'd have been in many other countries, but, it's a really cool 10 day camp.It focuses on the eight keys of excellence one day, each skill is focused on, so eight keys of excellence. Is this, is it like living in the moment? I'm not gonna list all of 'em right now, but communications, speak with good purpose, failures lead to success. All amazing things to get straight in your head as you leap into the world, So basically you go through a 10 day. Personal development, but also there is these quantum learnings where you learn speed reading. different ways to look at math. s a t prep of some sort. Mm-hmm. So, it's a big impact.10 days. And I was able to be a team leader. It is not inexpensive to do that, and I certainly would've not been able to attend from a financial standpoint at that point. But as a team leader I got to absorb a lot of those teachings and I was taught to teach them. So, It was like the best of all worlds.Michael: Nice. Okay. So you were able to absorb as much and you still carry it on until today. Yeah. From what we're talking about, right? Yeah. One of the things I wanted to ask you is, it sounds like from the beginning you've had I guess like a mission or, my children.I wanna be with them. I wanna be with my family and everything like that. How did you keep that mission in front of your eyes this whole time? for example, I'm opening a practice, then you're just, that's my baby. I gotta do that practice. Then another one, oh, then we get mom guilt and stuff like that. How did you keep that mission in front of your Yolanda: eyes? Yeah, it's a daily mindset for sure. And it's what you're saying yes to, means what are you saying no to? you always have to look at your yeses and your nos.And you also have to be really focused on your, why Is it bringing you closer to your why? I certainly, I. Have made more mistakes than, it feels like anyone in making this mission come together. you know, and people think that success is just straight up, but it's like this, you know?Mm-hmm. you just dip and then you come back up and you dip and you come back up. you win, you lose, you win. You lose. it's just a matter of better the next time. And that's where leaning into issue, processing, leaning into, facing the things that didn't work.And it's about getting back on the bike and continuing to pedal. So I know that, with my kids it was definitely always the centering for me, and my why I was working and how we were developing the team members. The good thing is that I happen to be one of those people that really enjoy.Service and support, and I get a lot out of seeing people grow. More than my own successes. it gets me really excited to see someone figure something out and to have been, this little part of it, or maybe just enough to, get them to jump up.So in my lifetime in the beginning, We got a post-its and we got a big board and my husband and I boyfriend at the time, said, okay, what do we wanna accomplish with this practice? fast forward looking 10 years from now, looking 20 years from now, what do we wanna see after all of our years of work?And that's where. being in the future is really valuable because now you get your why, but then you have to come back and we have to be in now. What can we do now? What's the best resources now? Because if we're always just like dreamy, dreamy, dreamy over here, then we're not actually accomplishing things.And the other thing is, that if we're always looking back, What ifs? Should'ves. Could'ves. Wished of, you know, wished, wished, wished. If I'd only known then now we're not doing anything about the now. Things are not moving forward. They're just staying behind. So I think the present, the key, this is it, It's hugely beneficial to stay in the now. each one of those keys, the eight Keys of excellence really keeps me centered. Michael: Yeah, that's a really good point. I feel like if you stay in the, now you stop so much procrastinating 'cause of the future, right? You're like thinking of my why.Oh, I'm gonna get there. And then you eventually, you know what I mean? Or it's gonna get there. If you're in the now, you're like, okay, now I got to do this in that moment kind of thing. I only have Yolanda: now, right? Yeah. Yeah. I only have now Michael: really good. You mentioned, two words that I kind of want to ask you about issue processing.is Yolanda: that? So issue processing, this is where real leadership comes into play because, we look at, say an issue. maybe the phone's getting answered. Mm-hmm. You take an issue and we all, put our emotions aside and we at it and, how could we do that better?And if we are in a process of brainstorming with all these different people, like how can we get this better? How can we get this better? And the focus is around that one issue. Now some solutions start coming up. What I'm not a fan of is having someone hand me their monkey and then I'm supposed to put their monkey on my back.Basically, as a leader, their issues come up, but if they just wanna say, here's my problem, so I don't need people coming to me with their problems, basically, that's their monkeys, and I wanna be able to support people to figure things out. I wanna be able to support them to be making some decisions. In fact, we have a process called decision Tree.So basically my goal is to help them to know which decisions they need to just make and which decisions they need to bring to me. So in a tree, for instance, I'm the roots, you know, in the trunk, but I want my team members to make some branch decisions, or at least the leave leaf decisions.I don't want them bringing me all the leaves, I don't wanna be raking up all those leaves all the time because then that's a whole different level of energy. I want them to feel empowered to make some decisions. So when they're part of issue processing. Then they can understand like, how I'm thinking, what I'm thinking.for instance, a patient's upset and they're complaining about their crown. Maybe you don't give the entire crown away. Don't just say, we're gonna do it for free. Don't worry. I don't want you to be upset. Yeah. Maybe we come up with a better decision. So, As a leader, leading leaders, I'm careful to Squish them in a place when they've made a decision. And then I said that was a bad decision, so I have to develop them in that regard. So I want them to stay open to possibilities in that issue processing. I want them to have some. Initiative I want them to be willing to defend their decision.So why did you decide that? Why did you decide, not from a defense standpoint, but ex explain to me, help me understand. ' cause if I can understand why you did that and what you're thinking was, now I can put you on a different level of thinking because, obviously we can't give away every crown.How could I pay you? what else could have happened Is this, So now you've got that muscle built up and you're building their leadership muscles. So how we talk to them is really, really, important. Build up versus tear down. Michael: Yeah. You're teaching them basically how to make decisions, And I like that because they're not always gonna go to you and being like, what should I do? What should I do? What should I do? And then you're kind of like, man, I'm always having to tell you what to do. But I guess it comes back to us as a leader where we never help them develop that muscle, like you said.Yeah. Teach 'em to fish. Yeah. Yeah. Teaching to fish. I like that. So then if we fast forward a little bit more, you were approached to buy another practice. Yes. And your why changed? So what was your Yolanda: why before. So my why before had much to do with being able to have choice picking up my kids after school, be able to comfortably care for them as a mom, a working mom, Then when I took on the partner, I thought my why was gonna be so that I could be like p t a mom, you know, I could be very active in school and, spend a lot of volunteer hours doing things, but still make enough money and, be able to be at home. And so I was preparing for 50% work, type thing.and then this other big opportunity came up and, my knee jerk was, no, that's not my why. That would mess up that. And so then my husband and I sat down literally on the staircase up there We said, you know, what's the bigger picture here with raising these kids?You know, what do we want? What is our job as a parent? We wanna make sure that they have the values, and their own leadership to lead their own lives, if they're always dependent on us, that would be a problem. Not that I couldn't have done that as my other plan.There became this bigger opportunity because we literally have been in the same home, in the same town growing up in this little area. And we didn't really want them to just have this little microcosm of, of life. We wanted them to be have the humanity to understand the whole world and that the whole world was an opportunity for them.But how do you travel and. Expose them to things like that. in the current position I was in, even with bringing on an associate and now having that as an a partner, I was not necessarily making money unless I was there. So if I clocked out, say for a month, Then, my income stream is going way down.ultimately the idea of, go big or go home, I guess came in the thing is about being small. you either stay small or you go big and in the middle you get pounded on with all kinds of, business growth and changes. And that was something that was really clear.We were reaching the middle ground with that practice that had its own challenges, its own growth challenges. So ultimately, I. The goal of our family and the idea came into play to be able to travel with them. And for two years we did that. we homeschooled them. We traveled basically about every month. six weeks at a time was our biggest one. And then two weeks being gone was our normal time. So we'd come back, we'd go, so we were traveling a lot each place had a different perspective and a different reason for being there.But, what I needed to do for that is my team had to be able to take the reins and keep the practice going with or without me. I had to create this practice that these leaders could run the practice with me, still having my extraordinary life without them. this whole way of developing this leadership was a necessary process in order to accomplish my goal of being able to come and go as I want in my practice and have the extraordinary life or whatever life I want.Michael: that's what your why kind of evolved into. Yes. It's like I just want to do my own thing. Interesting. real quick, which place, 'cause you said each location gave you a different perspective, change your life. Which one to you was like, this one was a whole 360 Really changed my life, my perspective.Yolanda: I would say that one of my favorites was our Asian tour. I really, really love. Asia. And so that would be one of my favorites. And, post COVID, we haven't been able to get, back to Vietnam, but my plans and my involvement with d d s. Four kids.org continues.I still fundraise and do lots of things with DDS for kids. It's the number sign four. And Lon Jones, who's the founder of this, she's like a mother Theresa, x fold better. She's like this most beautiful person. And so having met her and having my kids get to know a person that's beautiful. So giving, who's, hasn't had children of her own, but she says the whole world is her children. And so she cares and loves and goes into all these different places to take care of them and make a difference. So having that impact and having my kids know.That type of person. Knowing you know, when we went to Haiti, That was a little much, that was a lot, much for me. Dr. Laurenti Barnett. He's been doing such amazing things in Haiti for so long, and I'm so grateful that we got that experience to go and do work there.there's so much going on there. Unfortunately, it's also so corrupt. and, got a lot of dangers I think for traveling. But Dr. Barnett and his, decades and decades of giving and service to Haiti and really helping has been beautiful.So, Having my kids, having had the influences of these people that do things like that, Michael: priceless. Yeah. Priceless. Yeah, man, that's beautiful. Okay. So then one of the last questions I wanted to ask you, Yolanda, is you mentioned made many mistakes, right? Yeah. So I guess from the moment you decided okay, I'm going to start my own practice, right? today, what's been some of your biggest struggles or fails or pitfalls? Yolanda: it has a lot to do with this leadership development. wasn't always as strong of a leader, I certainly had to lean in on, messing up certain relationships along the way because I wasn't, Ahead of this pre communication, I had to have things onboarded with team members, and not have it go longer term because I didn't have my vision or my communication about what I was looking to accomplish.So clearly documented, so clearly, able to reference. To where anybody walks into the practice that they can understand a direction. I think that we lost a lot of time and a lot of energy with emotions being misunderstood with different things because we didn't have those clear directions and, mistake or just journey.It was a journey. you journey through and you learn things along the way, and hopefully you don't have to keep making those mistakes over again. But I think the biggest thing is any team members, and there's been hundreds and hundreds of team members that I've had at this point.They've all taught me something. I've learned to be better because maybe I wasn't as good at the time. But how can I get better? How can I get better? Has been, definitely a support for me in this journey. Yeah, Michael: I like that. Thinking about each team member and looking at them and saying, can I learn from you?You know what I mean? Yeah. and it goes back to what you said, it's gonna be like this. Yes. sometimes right now, I know a lot of our listeners may be like, man, I'm trying to reach to that million dollars a year, mark, you're gonna get there, I feel. But then it's going to, there's still gonna be times where you're like, my team, it's worse. I'd rather sacrifice the money and, you know what I mean, Seasons. Two seasons. Yeah. Yolanda: Go through seasons learning's never out, at all.It's constantly about learning constant and never ending improvement all the time. And when you buy in and you get your team to buy into some of these belief systems, you accelerate. That was probably the smartest thing I ever did is from the beginning is, stay with a coach, keep a relationship.Have someone who's on the outside telling you, with all authenticity, then reality, you screwed up. this isn't being your best self. you're thinking small. Be big be the bigger person, apologize, 'cause team members can't do that to you, you're like, okay, you're fired. You know, it's like, it's, there's only so much that they're gonna be able to authentically be your board of directors. that's something to do easily is get a board of directors, get people, be a board of director for someone else, and, get mastermind groups together.and speak authentically to each other. you're not perfect. This could have gone better this way and recognize that when someone's giving you an opinion, there's plenty of 'em. Maybe that one is not exactly the right one too.Just because people have an opinion doesn't mean that you need to embrace that opinion too. think through it, continue to be a critical thinker. Michael: Wonderful. Yeah. Thank you so much, Yolanda, for being with us. It's been a pleasure. But before we say goodbye, can you tell our listeners where they can find you?Yolanda: You can find me Yolanda Mangram at Fortune Management, which is fortune mgmt.com. That's my email. Or you can call me on the phone seven oh seven, 4 7 8 6 3 9 4. I'm always happy to help, in any way. It's really a beautiful journey. And try to be really nice to yourself.Mm-hmm. You work really hard and your intentions are straight so, be nice to yourself. Self-talk and self-love is definitely where my focus is right now. We are type A people most of the time and we're pretty hard on ourselves. So as much as I was talking about being humble and taking on, all the learning moments, remember to also focus back on some self-love and giving yourself a lot of credit.Michael: Wonderful. Thank you so much Yolanda, for being with us guys. That's all gonna be in the show notes below, so definitely reach out to Yolanda and thank you for being with us. It's been a pleasure and we'll hear from you soon. Sounds great.‍‍‍

Welcome to the Irreplaceable Dental Assistant podcast brought to you by DAME - Dental Assisting Made Easy. The safe space to be mentored, empowered, and equipped. We are with Tiffany Santana on the topic "Celebrating the Value You Bring to Your Dental Team". Please remember to subscribe, rate, and share. DAME - Dental Assisting Made Easy. We are better together! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dentalassistingmadeeasy/message

If you want to produce at the highest levels in dentistry, you've got to have a team that is amazingly trained, and trained the way YOU want things to be done. So today, let's look at some strategies for training your team.

Dr. Robert Dollfus graduated from Dental School at 26 years old and jumped right into working, he talks about earning respect from patients, trust, being a leader to his dental team, versatility, dental labs, and overall dentistry in Philadelphia. Don't miss this episode! Connect with Dr. Dollfus on instagram: @dr_rob_dentistry and email him at robertdollfusdmd@gmail.com Follow KJ & NuArt on Instagram: @kjeichstaedt & @lifeatnuartdental Follow Frank (Nu-Art's Owner, General Manager, & Lead Ceramist) on Instagram: @frankatnuartdental Subscribe today and tell a friend :)

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In this episode, Meredith and I talk about building a strong, culturally fit dental team that is crucial for maintaining workflow stability, even during staff changes or absences. Proactive hiring practices that prioritize values and attitudes alongside skills are key. Continuously seeking talent and nurturing a candidate pipeline reduces the impact of departures. By fostering a resilient team culture through proactive hiring, cross-training, open communication, and a growth mindset, we establish a solid foundation for seamless operations. Together, we can create a supportive, adaptable dental team that achieves sustainable successTimestamps:4:05 1: Reasons why people quit12:01 How Good Culturally Fit member works19:45 Pushing Team Members to Achieve Success25:11 Crafting the Positive Team Culture

This Episode is Sponsored by: Dandy | The Fully Digital, US-based Dental LabTo check out Dandy's FREE KPI E-Book click here: https://www.meetdandy.com/learning-center/ebooks/dental-industry-kpis/‍For a completely FREE 3Shape Trios 3 scanner & $250 in lab credit click here: https://www.meetdandy.com/affiliate/tdm !‍‍‍Guest: Paul EtchisonBusiness Name: Dental Practice HeroesCheck out Paul's Media:Website: https://dentalpracticeheroes.com/Dental Practice Heroes Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dental-practice-heroes-podcast/id1315253777Dental Practice Hero: From Ordinary Practice to Extraordinary Experience: https://www.amazon.com/Dental-Practice-Hero-Extraordinary-Experience/dp/099978630X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1680206813&sr=1-1Dental Practice Hero II: How a 3 Day Work Week Can Give You the Life You Want: https://www.amazon.com/Dental-Practice-Hero-II-Sequel/dp/1736658972/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1680206741&sr=1-2Dental Business Mentor:  www.dentalbusinessmentor.com‍‍Other Mentions and Links:Dr. Etchison on Episode 300!Dr. Etchison on MMM [INTERNAL MARKETING] SMALL DETAILS THAT MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE IN TEAM COMMUNICATION!Delta DentalKeurigMB2Goldman SachsDie With Zero - Bill PerkinsInvisalignThe Top 5 Regrets of the Dying - Bronnie WareThe Four - Scott Galloway‍‍Host: Michael Arias‍Website: The Dental Marketer Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/‍Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society‍‍My Key Takeaways:Try giving your team the autonomy to own tasks and you may be surprised at what they're capable of!Never be afraid of you or your team messing up. This is an important part of the process of growing!Seniority is NOT always the best indicator of competency in a role.The meaning behind the task is far more important that what you're doing to complete it.Don't criticize team members for dropping the ball. Work together to find a better way to do things!Try to not be afraid of "doing nothing," as this is essential for recharging your creativity.‍Please don't forget to share with us on Instagram when you are listening to the podcast AND if you are really wanting to show us love, then please leave a 5 star review on iTunes! [Click here to leave a review on iTunes]‍p.s. Some links are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with these products/ company, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money unless you feel you need them or that they will help you with your goals.‍Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors)Michael: All right. It's time to talk with our featured guests returning guests, Paul Etchison. How's it going, man? Paul: Good. It's going good. Thanks for having me back. I really appreciate it. Michael: No, man. I appreciate it. You've been on the Monday Morning marketing episode, and we're gonna put a link to that in the show notes, but you were also on episode 300 Nelson Ridge Family Dental.Mm-hmm. You just sold right? Paul: Not that long ago. I, well, I sold, yeah, I, I sold to, uh, A D S O about two and a half years ago. So I'm still doing it. I'm still there. I'm still part of it, but my, my part of it is a little bit different now, I guess, than it was in the past, but it's, it's good. I'm, I'm excited for the future and, and I'm coming up on the end of my contract with them, but, um, no intentions on leaving, so I'll be there for long term, which my team is happy to hear.Can we Michael: talk about like, the of that? Like why, how much did you sell for and stuff like that, or no? Paul: Um, no, probably not. Okay. Okay. Then why did you sell? Why did I sell? Um, you know, for me it was coming outta covid. I just like, it was so good. Just not have the practice. I mean, and some people like missed going to work.I didn't miss it at all. I, I mean, I thought I was like really like laid back and I felt like my leads were running a lot of stuff. And then when we shut down for 11 weeks and the practice went away and all the stress went away, it was just like, I just, this weight lifted. And then I, I said when we come back, I'm doing things differently.I, I'm not letting this, I mean, it, it was just like this, realize how much it was in my life, how much it was like taking over like my psyche and just like always occupying my mind. And, and then we came back from Covid and, and we had all these massive other things to deal with, like regulations and, and we're still worried about the virus and stuff.But once things got back to business as usual, I said, Hey man, I'm doing something different. Started exploring the idea of. Man, do I, could I get, what kind of like money could I get for this practice? What does it make sure sense like financially long term to do this and then come, really come to grips with the fact that.Coming to Grip with that. It wasn't so final. Like if I loved being a dental practice owner and I sold it and it was horrible and I hated the corporation and I just wanted my baby back and I just wanted to own my practice again, I could go and I can open another one. You know? So like that was like coming four C full circle, saying like, this is not as final as I think.It's just, it's a new chapter in my life. It's a new part. It was like I did it right when I was 39. Right now I'm 41. And, um, I, I'm not sure what the next 10 years are gonna be about, but what's cool is that I feel like I'm finally doing stuff because I want to do it. And, and I know, like me saying that I wanna stay at the practice, I know I wanna stay there, whereas I.Three years ago. It's cuz I have to, I mean, I own so much of it. Um, I own just a small percent. I, I could tell I own 15% at this time. Um, I just don't know cuz I know they're always like doing new contracts. They don't like us sharing like, the details of what we sold and what we sold. But, but right now I own 15% at this point.And, um, it's something that I still enjoy doing. And some people would say we, 15%, is it really worth it for you to even show up? I can tell you that I, I had tried to take three, four weeks off because of a hernia surgery, and then I got covid and, and then I had a vacation mixed in there too. right before I got covid and having a whole month off of work.I mean, it's great to get caught up on Netflix. It's great to read a lot of books. At a certain point I was like, dude, this is like test out retirement and I don't like it. I want to go back to work. So this brings this whole different attitude when I'm at the practice. No. Now do I wanna be there five days a week, four days a week?No. I don't even wanna be there that I'm, like, I'm there like two, five and a half hour days a week. That's it. But that's, that's a comfortable level for me just to kind of stay involved, stay in it, uh, talk with my leads, run the practice. Um, see some patients and that's, that's, that's a good level for me. I don't want any more than that, but, a lot easier to step back once you've sold a lot of equity because it's just not as much risk.But way I'm living now. I could have lived it as a hundred percent owner than, you know, I didn't need to sell to do it. I just had to sell to realize it. Michael: what I was gonna ask you. Do you think it's possible for someone to be like, I only wanna do like two clinical days, three clinical days, and.Do whatever I want after other days. Right. Be with family and all that stuff. I mean, that's what I think a lot of people jump into ownership for not to be like, I wanna work forever and do all this. Yeah. It's more like I wanna have an imprint on the community, but at the same time I wanna work less, call my own hours.And it really doesn't always work out that way though. Paul: Well, I, I think you can and you, you need to have leaders at the practice that are running things for you. And I had a leadership team. Long before I sold, like I would say I had 'em like two and a half, three years before I established like an hygiene lead, an assistant lead.I had my office manager, an insurance lead, and essentially, like I said, man, before Covid I'd be like, they do everything. But then one co once Covid happened, I was like, dude, I still do a lot. So after I sold and there wasn't as much incentive to really push production and, grow the practice and even though we're still growing like crazy, then I stepped back and I said, Hey, You guys know how I wanna do things?Can you guys, like, just like when there's interpersonal stuff, can you deal with it with a new department and just come get me if you really, really need me. If, if something happens with the patient, can you guys just take care of it like I would And they're just like, I could totally do this. And then they did.And it was, it was just weird because I went through like this like three month period of. Wow, everything's running so great at the practice. Nobody's complaining. Nobody's saying like, is upset about anything. And then I, I asked my, my assistant lead who's actually, I put her, I turned under my clinical lead now cuz she's kind of like the manager for everyone on the clinical side.She's like, dude, like, man, it just feels so good. Like there's nothing going on. She's like, dude, there's tons of stuff going on. She's like, do you wanna know about 'em? She's like, you said you didn't wanna know. And I said, gosh, if you think I need to know about 'em, she's like, I don't think you do. They're under control.And it was just like this liberating feeling of why. Wow. Like the practice is always gonna have issues. Somebody always has to deal with them, but all of a sudden it didn't have to be me. And I just kinda stepped back and I just trusted them. And I, like I said, I could have did that at a hundred percent owner.It's a lot easier to do when you own 15% because the risk isn't there if the practice crash isn't burns, you know, um, doesn't hurt me that bad, but at the same time, like if I did it as a hundred percent owner and it really caused a lot of issues. Like, I would've found out about it. I would've pivoted, I would've addressed it.It was just, I just think I was too scared to relinquish that control of something that was a hundred percent mine. I was just, I couldn't let go and get out of the way. But once I did, man, that was the game changer. It was just getting out of the way and trusting my people who have been with me for a long time, who I trust, who, who have seen how I lead.And hopefully some of that has rubbed off on them and they do the right thing and. Dude, it's never run so well. I, I, I'm just I'm blown away by how well, uh, of a job they're doing. They're just doing so well. Hmm. Michael: I like that. When, when you said, Hey, man, only come and get me when you really needed me.What is that? Like? What, how do they know what is really needed? Right. Kind of thing. Yeah. Cause it's like you can be, I don't wanna bother Paul with that. I don't wanna bother Paul with that, but in your mind you're like, dang, I want to. That's embezzlement. I'm wanting to know that. Paul: Right. I think that would be, that would be one. Um, I'm trying to think of some recent situation. Like, okay, I'll give you an instance that was pretty recent is we had an assistant that was, uh, just a great person, great with the patients, uh, super cool to be around, but when they ran behind out on schedules, she would kind of lose it and just, just overwhelm and just certain behavioral things would come out in her that were just not appropriate.Um, just anger, you know, anger and frustration. Just couldn't hide it. And, um, my assistant lead, my, my clinical lead sat down with her and she had a conversation about it. Things got better for a little bit. She sat down and had another conversation about her, about it. What, like two, three weeks later when start, things started reverting back, and then she actually like wrote, documented this meeting like, this is what needs to change.This is your understanding that if this doesn't change, then it's, this might be a termination thing. And then when it got to me, it was like, Hey, I'm doing everything I can. this girl is just making my life just, every, I hear her name every two days I hear something about her that she did.Mm-hmm. She's like, I think we really need to start considering talking or letting her go. So then at that point, I had a conversation with her and things got better, like they usually do for about two, three weeks. And then, um, I had another conversation with her and it was, it was, it was hard because, She knew I was having her conversation with her, and she's like, Hey, I know what you're talking about. I know I need to change the stuff. I'm gonna get better. Like, da da, da. She's like, you know what, this person, this, this and this need to change. And I just had to cut her off. I'm like, Hey, I'm so sorry.Today's your last day. We just can't do it anymore. so that was, that was my involvement. I had to let her go. But I mean, other than that, it's like big stuff. Like right now we're dropping Delta. We just, we just sent her a letter to Delta to get out of that network. coming up with some kind of ideas with the front desk.Why is the front desk, why are people upset with who's doing what? How can we balance duties out? So it's all this interpersonal stuff. Like, like I walked up to the desk and, and somebody was rude to me and they responded rude. I don't deal with that no more. You know that they, they can handle that. They handled the scheduling, they handle the offs when people are taken off the duplication days.everything. They're the ones having the one-on-ones, they're the ones giving the raises. Um, I mean, with my permission obviously, and yeah, I'm just, it's just, I, it's high level stuff. Like my high level right now where I'm at, where there's no noise and I'm just saying, Hey, we're working on getting out a network.That's what we're doing. We're getting on networks. We're at capacity. We need to get our networks. What are we doing? How are we gonna organize the front desk to ride this experience? How are we gonna train these people on the verbiages that they have to use to be an auto network dentist? How are we gonna talk to patients about this?Let's organize what we're gonna put on a mailer. So I'm just doing like, stuff like that, but it is just so nice to get outta that noise of the interpersonal stuff, man. Cuz we got 43 employees and always something, and I just, sometimes I'm like, why can't people just be cool?Just be cool. Please. Just why can't you just be cool? And they're, it's just, it's not possible. You know, like there's always something going on. People are, um, everyone's got their emotional stuff and their own psychology, and people have expectations that don't get met by other people, and they're disappointed and, and people can be mean, you know?Yeah, no. So, so sometimes you gotta get involved in that. But, um, yeah, for the most part, I'm not part of that. I'm, I'm doing the high level stuff, which is, it's so much fun, man. I love it. So it's, it's, it's part of the practice that I really do enjoy. Do Michael: you ever review it like when it comes to your, your leads, like hey, we have a monthly review or a monthly, I don't know, meeting or whatever with just the leads and we're like, okay.And then that's when you can kind of say like, Hey, that was a red, or do you give them red flags? Like, this is when, when things should be brought up to me. Right. Anything below that? No. Kind Paul: of things like that. You know, I never had to really do that cuz I think they, there was a part of me that was really like kinda like, just take care of it.I don't wanna know about it. And there was a part of me that was this kinda like miserable boss where. They were almost scared to bring me stuff. So I think when it got to the point where I was like, Hey, just take care of it, they had a pretty good idea of what I didn't want to deal with and I don't, I don't know, ma, maybe I trained the people good.Maybe they're just wonderful people. It's really hard to say. I mean, they're definitely wonderful people, but, um, I haven't had to set too many expectations with, or what I want them to do. I mean, I told 'em what I want to do, but it's just been like little things here and there like. Correction. Like, Hey, I want you to take care of this.You know, I want you to, I, I, this is what I want to happen. I don't care how you do it. Just what do you think? Can you run with it? They're like, yeah, I'll run with it. And, and even like the people that aren't my leads, like my one, one of my assistants was like, I think we should get the coffee bar back.Cause we took it away during Covid. I'm like, yeah, okay, yeah, I'll get a Keurig, I'll find some like cabinet or something like this. And then it's like three weeks later she's like, Hey, where's the coffee bar? I'm like, dude, you know me. I, it's on my to-do list. I'm never gonna get to it. Do you wanna run with it?She's like, I'd love to. And then one day I just came in and there's a nice piece of furniture, fits the fridge right in it, it's all stocked. It's got the espresso machine. And I'm just like, dude, you killed it. This is awesome. Like, I would've never, I wouldn't have did this, I would've just stuck like a damn keigan, like a stool or something.like that, you know? And like, we're good. There you go, girls. You know? So it's, um, but I think we really sell ourselves short and we don't realize how much our team wants to do if you give them the autonomy to do stuff. And, and I would just beg any listeners to try to say, Hey man, like what if I just.What if I let somebody run with something and what, and what's the worst that can happen? You know, maybe you have an upset customer patient. it's not gonna crash your business. It would just, nothing that happens within one week, one month even that you do for 3, 4, 6 months is gonna crash your business.I mean, to, to crash your business so that it burns completely. You'd have to really screw things up for a long time. You know, you'll have time to pivot and, and adjust and, and sometimes they. can't really think of any really main situations that's happened, but I mean, they're gonna have situations where they kinda screw up and that's cool too.You know, I, I'm totally cool with that. I screwed things up. Um, I handle situations not as gracefully as I would in retrospect sometimes. A lot of times maybe. I think it's just part of that learning experience and growing into becoming a leader, but it's. Man, my leadership skills grew a whole lot when I stepped in a leadership position.So if we want to build up the leadership people, like our, our leadership team and build them up, we gotta get outta the way and let them step in that position. And they gotta get some bumps and bruises too. Yeah, Michael: no, yeah, you're right. I think it's kind of difficult, especially at the beginning stages when you're like fingers on the trigger on everything, right?Like, it's like, this is my baby. Like I need to watch everything. And you only have like one or two. So can I ask you if, if like somebody who had like, I don't know, three, four employees right now At the beginning, right? Yeah. Starting up. and they're like, man, Paul, I want you to train me like you done it and I want you to help me find leaders.Mm-hmm. So I can train them to be leaders just like you. Cuz I'm, I'm assuming like it's best to do that at the very beginning, right? Mm-hmm. Like, this is the set, this is who I wanna find. Who'd you Paul: do that? Well, I, I would say if anyone's that small, I don't think you really need the leaders yet. I think you can like, kind of get outta the way for some people in your team.I don't think it's established leaders yet. And the reason I say that is because all of my leads were never my longest employees. In, in that position. Like my assistant lead was not my longest assistant. my insurance lead was not the longest front desk person. Same thing with my front desk lead.They weren't my longest standing seniority person. So what we did is we got to a point, and this is what I would recommend to people, I probably could have did it earlier than I did it, but we got to a point, maybe like 12, 15 people where started changing policies and how we were doing things, and it just kept coming up where someone's like, I didn't know we were doing it that way.I do. We talked about at the meeting, oh, I didn't make the meeting. Or it was like, oh, I didn't hear that. I didn't realize, oh yeah, I forgot. You know, it's just like we started having all these communication breakdowns and then, and I was always big on I wanna meet one-on-one with every single team member and a certain point, man, it, that takes a long ass time.Mm-hmm. We got like 15 people that's why we established the leadership teams. And what we did is we had everybody do like a, you know, anonymous ballot. So we said, you know, nominate your top three people for front desk lead for assistant lead. And we did like the ranked ballot system. So if like you were the first choice, you got three points.If you were some second choice, you got two points just in case, like somebody was, not everybody's first choice, but they were most, most people's second choice, they would get picked over. And then I took 'em home and I counted 'em. And there was part of me that was like, if they don't pick the people, I pick, I'm just gonna lie about the results and say, this is who it was, because I wanted them to own it.But they actually did. I mean, it was like, it was like unanimous and. The team knows who the leaders are. So I would say you gotta get a little bit, I mean, you can't make a lead lead assistant if you've got two assistants, cuz you got, then you got the lead and the not lead. You know, I would think you gotta get like three, four people in each department before you do it.Now an office manager, I think that's a leadership position you could get right away. And that's somebody who you can trust and who can take care of the payroll stuff and could take care of stuff like knowing what people are making. yeah, that was something that I did pretty early and I would, I'd recommend doing that and.You know, like my office manager role, what she does now is very different than what she did like eight years ago. and I just had somebody ask me recently, like, did you have a job description for office manager? I'm like, no. Like, it just like over time you just keep dumping things like, Hey man, like can you take care of this thing for me every month?Yeah, I could do that. Cool. it just frees up you like, it frees it's a, it's delegation and, and you have to train 'em on it and, um, they'll do as much as you allow 'em to, you know, and I, I think you gotta give the. You gotta do the public blessing with the team. Like, Hey, this person was used to be your peer.Now they're, now they're, you know, they're stepping into a new leadership role. You know, we're all friends here and they're not above you, but they are gonna take over a lot of stuff for me, and I want you to treat them as you would treat me the same respect. but yeah, man, it, it, it's, there's so many people that want their office manager and they, they hire, hey, hiring office manager.And people say, Ooh, I got six years office manager experience. Dude, half these Office of Injuries don't know from shit. Like, they're like, I don't mean swear. nobody's put 'em in a position to really lead and just kind of run with things and, and be a self-starter.just because you know everything about insurance and you can present treatment plans doesn't make you an office manager. So, I would urge anyone who wants to do this to, to really just say, Hey, this is what I want. This kind of, I want you to be this for the office. I want you to be able to handle disagreements between people.When an upset patient calls, I want you to take care of it and just, just make it right without asking me for permission. Like, you don't need my permission. And just go with that. And as time goes, it will evolve that that role will evolve. But man, you're gonna get some really valuable people, people on your team, and they're gonna be valuable.People that won't wanna lead because they love their jobs, they love that autonomy, they love the role they're in. Um, we just gotta, we gotta allow them to have it. Michael: Okay. What policies did you start changing when you started, like miscommunication Paul: and things like that? Oh, I don't remember what it was. It might have been, I, I think the big one was with ortho, is that we just, so we didn't forget to send the stuff out.We started putting the models in a bin on my desk so that I could pull the models out, write up the diagnosis, and pull the stuff up so that I didn't forget that they didn't, it was like a backstop to say, Hey, like if the stuff doesn't go out, Here's, here's our, second parachute.And I think, I think it was something like that. But I mean, just things like, just random stuff like this is our procedures cuz we've always been really big on procedures. I don't have to double check it that everybody has done their part. Mm-hmm. I want to create ways that they just get done.And I can be assured that the previous part was done. Cuz there's so much in the dental office where we're so dependent on the previous step being done correctly. Like, I mean, dude, if the, if the insurance gets verified incorrectly, Then the treatment plan's incorrect, then the payment's incorrect. Then you, you gotta take an E o B and you gotta collect it and you now you gotta balance.Now that's incorrect. Now the patient's pissed cuz you're incorrect. And it all this stuff just trickles down just because that insurance wasn't put incorrectly, you know? Mm-hmm. So, and there's so much like that in a dental office. So we've always been big on creating like things like that and trying to create these secondary, we call 'em backstops, just in case it falls through the cracks, we'll catch it.And sometimes we don't, you know, but that's always a, a product of we dropped the ball. Okay guys, we dropped the ball. What happened? Talk to me about it. Let's not make anyone feel guilty. Let's not criticize each other. Let's just collaborate as a team and come up with a solution so that we can not do this again.I have coaching clients that are always like, dude, like, I can't believe you have problems like this in your practice. Dude, my practice is just like, Everybody else's, it's never gonna be without problems. I don't care how tight your systems are, we are humans and humans make mistakes.Mm-hmm. And we forget things and we have emotions and, and those emotions affect our decisions and our behaviors. And it's a complex world and yeah. There's always gonna be a drop in the ball in somewhere, you know? It just happens. Michael: Yeah. How many days were you practicing before you Paul: sold? So before I sold, I was at three days a week.So I was doing three days a week. it should have been two days a week. And the one day was like my, like, Hey, let's lead, let's talk with my teams. let's train people day. But what was started happening was I was always getting booked on that day. The front desk would book me. Mm-hmm. Because they knew I was gonna be there.Like, Hey, do you mind like just seeing this one patient, you're gonna be here. Right. I just take like 10 minutes. I mean, it, it is, I love, love when the team's like, dude, just, just come do this with me and just take like five minutes. I'm like, dude, got. 20 people that wanna do something with me for five minutes.and you probably get it, you get people call, Hey, can I pick your brain for 10 minutes? It's never 10 minutes, you know, it's always like an hour. So it's like, so, um, I forgot what you, where was he going with this? What did you ask me? My, how many, how you practicing? You said three days?Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And I had that one day that it was still like, they would just book me. So they put one patient in there and then they'd see us was seeing a patient, so they put another one. So eventually I just stopped coming in on Monday. I said, Hey, I'm done on Mondays. I'm not doing it. so then it was just two full days a week, which eventually we got to two half days a week.And I think now I'm. More like one and a half days a week. I take off like two or three weeks every month. But I, I'm not really practicing that much. I mean, last year we, we would say a really highly productive dentist, like, man, if you could produce a million with your own hands, I think last year I did like 360,000.It wasn't a lot, but that's all I wanna do. So that's cool with me. And now that I'm like partly paid as an associate with the dsl, Some of my paychecks for every two weeks are pretty laughable. it's like, oh, well you are two weeks and you made a hundred bucks.All right, cool. You know, it's like, cuz, but I'm cool with that cuz I'll take time off and, and I'm not, I'm not a producer anymore. I'm much more valuable to the practice as a leader and a trainer and just, um, reaping the benefits of ownership. Even though I still own, I don't own a hundred percent. I'm still reaping a lot of benefits from owning this large practice.Michael: Yeah. Okay man. So you were practicing three days. Before, now you're at two days a week, right? Like about two, two half days, five hour days. Two, two and a half days. Yeah. why did you sell them? Paul: you know, as you're looking at the dollars, you, there was always this fear of delta for so many, I mean, I have Delta's, 35% of my practice.There was always this fear that my whole business model could change by the stroke of a pen. You know, we were, I 85% p p o, 15% cash. Um, 35% Delta Premier p o. And it was just like looking at the numbers, there's this consolidation happening in the industry. It's like, things are hot. It's like we're the, we're like where the housing market was like last summer, you know, it's like, This is the time to sell if I can sell. So it was just looking at numbers, looking at what I have saved up, looking at what, and I've always been doing like real estate investing, so I've got some passive income on the side coming from there. Oh. And just being like, can I. Float with this? Yeah. I mean, could it be really lucrative?Yeah. I mean, it's been better than ever thought it could be. I mean, one of the great things I know I'm not doing a plug for, for MB two by any means, but one of the great things is they let us to, they let us invest in the company. And that's worked out really, really well. So I've actually made way more by selling than I would've keeping the ownership, if you can believe it.Now is, is, are those returns gonna be here five, 10 years from now? I don't know. This is half because private equity really likes dentistry right now. but I can say there's a lot of ill feelings towards corporate, um, with my corporation. I don't feel that, I don't think any of the members do. And I will tell you, I didn't lose a single team member during the transition.And for all intents and purposes, my team doesn't even know they exist. You know, it's, it's, it's still my practice and I think that's kind of what they're not saying. There's not some crappy ones out there that we should stay away from, but, I'm really happy with the decision that I made with mine.Michael: Yeah. I've been hearing a lot about MB two actually. Like where they, so what, what do they do? Are they just A D S O? Paul: Yeah. I mean, they call themselves A D P O, which is just, I think, just a way to brand themselves different from the D S O nastiness, uh, D P O P standing for partnership. And, um, you know, they just handle some stuff on the backend.They, they handle my insurance collections and that stuff like that. They do the credentialing, they do the hr, they do, um, my marketing. Um, they do pretty much anything I ask them for that they can help me admin, backend wise, talking to the companies and, and getting in increases in the fee schedule, stuff like that.But I mean, for, for the most part, I mean, I have a regional manager, her name's that she's great. And she's just like, gosh, I, I just hadn't been in practice forever. I feel like you never want me to come there. Like, I wanna do something for you. Like, what can I do? And I'm like, mm-hmm. We're good. We're totally good.So they're cool with, like, they trust their partners to run the practices the way they, they want to, cuz they're very selective with who they partner with too. Mm-hmm. Um, and they just let us do what we want. You know, I'm, I'm still running it, it still feels like it's a hundred percent my practice. I, I make all the decisions.If I need help, I reach out. If I don't want help, I don't. And for me, my practice was running pretty well. It was pretty systematized already. Last thing I wanted was a corporation to come in here and tell me, tell us how to do things. My team would've hated me. So, um, I, I found the group that would allow me to continue my autonomy and running the practice the way that I want to and taking care of patients the way I want to.So, I mean, they're there for help, but I mean, for the most part it's, we've just banded together and we get the benefits of being a group. And we get the support that by no means are they the group that if you're like, dude, I can't do this anymore. I just want someone to come in and take over my practice and run it.That's not the group. You know, there's, there's other groups that'll do that. And I think, I think that sounds really good, but you're probably gonna be miserable. You sign up with a group like that, you're not gonna about Michael: that. Yeah. So then you mainly kind of did it for, I mean, how long were you running this on your own Nelson?Paul: Um, right about eight years. Eight years. Michael: Eight years, okay. Do you feel like it was, at one point you were kind of like, I don't want the weight of the world right now on me as of for right now, at least maybe later on, but right now I don't kind of thing. Is that what it Paul: was? It was, yeah. Absolutely, man.It was, it was just a heavy weight. That's the best way I could describe it. It was just always freaking there. And, and there was, and, and I've also done like life coaching and I've, I've always been a big fan of therapy and I've always been working with a therapist on and off for my, my whole maybe the past 15 years of my life.And, um, it was just heavy man and it was just always there. And it was spilling over into other relationships where I was just kind of just grumpy, man. I was just overwhelmed and pissed off. And, It just seemed like my whole entire, as this practice grew from, you know, just me and three other girls to like this 45 person team and other doctors and specialists and stuff, and I just felt like this house of car is just gonna tip.Any moment what is gonna be the, what's gonna be the Goldman Sachs of this practice, you know, like, what is, what's gonna happen? And, um, I felt like that the whole time that I was the a hundred percent owner that it was. And so it's me. It's my thought process, it's my mindset. it's my makeup of my just general relationship with anxiety and how I look at things.But that can make me a very good leader and a very good business owner because I'm striving to try to get something that's gonna make me feel better. But at the same time, it's also like a curse because I never get to really feel comfortable about it. Mm-hmm. So for me, it was I just wanted that comfort.I wanted to feel comfort. And it took, you know, some like, things happened in my life, like read a certain book, like some like aha moments. Um, one of the books was like, die was Zero. I'm not sure if you read with that, but it kind of talked about how we like build this big nest egg so that we can just retire when it's like, dude, we don't know how much time we have.And if you take any money to the grave with you, essentially worked for that for free. That was free work you did, cuz you never got to enjoy the fruits of that labor. So why the hell try to save everything and start trying to enjoy life now? Man, I can go hiking, I can climb mountains, I can do all this stuff.I might not be able to do that when I'm 50. I can play golf, like I can play golf five days a week if I want right now. And um, Monday my back might not allow me to do that. So why am I waiting until like, to build this big thing before I can retire? So I've kind of entered into this almost like mini retirement phase where, I would say like, it's not retirement, but it's, it's, it is freedom.You know? Mm-hmm. It would be like the fire principles, I suppose. so it's like, dude, like that's totally cool. Like, you crazy. You're 39 years old. What the heck are you doing? Like, are you gonna do for the rest of your life? I'm like, I don't know. I'd love to be a fireman.Apparently I'm too old for that. I guess you gotta be like 30 or something. I don't know. I'd like to go do something different, you know? And, uh, I don't know what that's gonna be. And you know what, if it's really dentistry and I just really love it and I wanna own a hundred percent practice, I go do it again.I'll do it faster, I'll do it better. And um, yeah, I'll do it better than I did it last time. You know, I, I'm comfortable with that, that, I can do that. And then as a fail safe, I can always go back to just for doing dentistry five days a week as an associate. If I like, I mean, I can do whatever. How can I want?so, but, but I've got that comfort now and, and I was always seeking that, which is I think is part of the motivation behind me reaching all these success points. Cuz I was trying to find something, man, once I get that, it's gonna feel good, it's gonna feel different. It never did. I had everything I needed the whole time.It just had to get to the end to kind of realize that. Yeah. Michael: Do you think maybe you kind of, like you were thinking you were reaching something, but really you were kind of running away from something? Hmm. You know what I mean? Like maybe something in the past where you're like, I, I never want to feel that feeling again.I never wanna get to that situation again. And you just kept running and running and running. Maybe Paul: I, I think for me, I was running away from just a general sense of anxiety and for me to stay busy at work, felt good. You know, and, and people like, I like to say, man, I grinded these years, man. I grinded so hard.It wasn't a grind. I mean, it was hard, but it was like, I was drawn to it. I liked doing it. I didn't like sitting, I hate sitting. to the detriment of my family, it was hard just to sit and just be, it was always like, man, I should get some more stuff done. What do I got to do? Like, what do I gotta do this week?I should get it done so I, so I can relax. And then what would happen is I would get all the stuff done and I wouldn't relax. I'd be thinking about, man, what else can I do? And, um, Just got myself really overbooked with, I mean, with the podcast, with the writing and, uh, the practice and the real estate and, and doing like separate, like just teaching videos, coaching, consulting and stuff.I mean, I was just overbooked it was like I just wasn't comfortable sitting and through therapy through my life coach. My life coach really made a really big difference. And she even said like, I took my coaching clients. I cut 'em down from 15 to five. And she said, what do you think about making a commitment for the next six months that you won't take on any projects?I said, sure, let's, let's do it. So we committed to it, but damn, it was hard. cuz I started having all this time that I wasn't used to. I'm like, what do I do with this time? I'm like, I should start another project. Maybe I'll write another book. Maybe I'll do this. And I'm like, no, no more projects until six months from now.And through that process, it's almost like I discovered this part of myself that I was kind of. Not comfortable with was just doing nothing. Just watching tv, just like sitting, putting my daughter to bed and, and laying in bed with her for like 45 minutes to an hour and just talking to her about her day.Whereas I would be like, okay, I gotta get these kids to bed. I got stuff to do. committing to a one, one or two date nights with my wife every week, like, as like a priority. Like, it's not like we can, if we can find time and, and not to say that my relationships with my family was bad before, but.Man, it, it's night and day to how it is now, but I had to, it was uncomfortable at first to sit and just be idle because it felt, that's what it felt like to me. It felt like idleness and I didn't like that. But then I had to start realizing then, and then you, connect and you're like, man, I really like this.This is okay. Like I don't have to be running and. in rat racing my whole entire life, what the hell is it worth? And just looking at what are we doing this for? Like this, these deep like spiritual, like conscious, like, the spirituality of like, what are we here for? What are, what are, what is our purpose?What are we here to do? And so it was just everything kind of happened in a succession and I think it happened for a reason. I wish I could have skipped a lot of parts of it. But I don't think I would've came out to where I'm at if I did skip those parts. So it's like if I could change things, I would've done 'em differently, but I wouldn't know what I know if I hadn't done things the way I did 'em.Michael: Mm-hmm. Yeah, man, that's true. Like, I remember I used to feel bad all the time about like relaxing, you know what I mean? Yeah. And then you go on social media and people are like, I'm hustling, I'm grinding, and all these things. Yeah. And I, I feel like whenever you're, not doing nothing, like when you're doing nothing kind of thing, That's when a lot of creativity can spark.But we live in a day and age where we call that boredom. Yeah. And so we're like, oh, he's just bored. But we gotta be good with that. We gotta be good with feeling like we're not doing nothing for, you know what I mean? Like being in the moment kind of thing. Absolutely. Um, or else for ne we not, you can tell the world's not creative as much as it used to be.Right. We're just like regurgitating stuff from the past and the past and the past and cuz we can't. We feel guilty for relaxing, I guess, Paul: huh? Well, I'll, I'll tell you something I do, and this is gonna sound like some like major, like old man stuff for people, but like, I got this recliner in my bedroom and, and people always come in my bedroom and they say, why is this recliner not based on the tv?Because you can't see, you can't see the TV from the recliner. And it, it, it was like originally bought as like, I wanna read in this chair. But you know, a lot of times, like, dude, I just sit in that chair and it's right by a window. Open the window, listen to birds. And I just sit, man. And sometimes I fall asleep and sometimes I don't.And it's just nice just to, it's relaxing, but it's, it's not me relaxing watching something being distracted. It's me just sitting with my thoughts, just focusing on my breath, and just chilling out. And for me before that would be like, dude, Do something. Look at all this time, you're wasting doing nothing.That's not a waste of time. That is for me. And that's what recharges me and makes me feel good. And I, I never realized it before. Mm-hmm. Michael: I like that man. So then when did the second book come out? Like was that out of, uh, Paul: After six months or so, you, you'll, you'll, this is all tied together now, where this book came from.This, I wrote this during Covid. So this was me being home with nothing to do 24 hours a day and being like, I got all this time. Let's write another book. And you know what, what I realized my first book was kind of where I was at the time that I wrote it. And, and the books are, they're always written about two years before they come out.So, the first book was about running an amazing practice. This book was about how I stepped out of the chair. And what I noticed in my income as well, the growth, growth of the practice, when I started just like leading and training and like realizing that I'm more valuable as a trainer than I am as a producer.Cuz there was a certain point where I looked at my practice and I said, okay, like if I treat myself as an associate and I pay myself 30% of my production, how much did I take home last year? That was because I got paid 30% of my production and it was like 15%. So the other 85% of my take home income was because I was an owner.But then I was spending 90% of my time doing production activities and maybe 10% doing ownership a activities. So as much as my patients love me and they wanna see me, and the Hi Jess, love working with me and everyone wants to work with Dr. Etch, I was way more valuable spreading my uh, Training and, and what I knew and helping other people grow at the practice I was monetarily and for, for them too, like, I mean, just being present and working with people.Um, I was more valuable doing that. It was much more, uh, financially rewarding and it was me producing dentistry. And that kind of made me realize, man, I'm just, I just stopped doing fillings, eventually stopped doing crowns. stop doing endo and, and now all I do is I do banded bracket on kids in Invisalign.You know, that's pretty much my whole five and a half hour day. And then my other five hour day is just me doing like veneers and placing an implant or two. But, I think next year I only have maybe eight of those days that I booked for 2024. And so it's, I'm sorry, 2023. I think I only have eight of those days that I'm doing that.And the team might wrote me into doing some more, but I kind of don't want to, I just wanna, I love doing ortho. Yeah. I's, uh, the other part's starting to wear on me? ortho is predictable and everything else in dentistry to me is it's, it's unpredictable. I mean, to some extent, and I just think I don't like that level of predictability or of unpredictability.I don't have that level of unpredictability with my team, you know, with my team. So it's doing what I enjoy doing, and it's what the practice needs. Every practice needs a person. I mean, if you could focus full time on running your practice, Man, what would your practice do? So that, that's the purpose of the book, is like, how do we get ourselves outta the chair?And for me it's a lot of leadership principles such as like you owning everything like your locus of control, I call it. Um, balancing your, your regular workload with what I call celebratory work with. Just like this is the stuff, this is the investments in time, this is you training someone else to do something.This is your delegation. just making sure that you've got a compass that's, that's guiding you, that every decision, little decision you make is taking you there. there's a lot of mindset stuff that I think is more important than the actual mechanics. The second half of the book talks about the mechanics and what I think are the best systems, the best things for treatment plan, presentation, what things we can train our team on to make our practices better. But I think ultimately that beginning part of the book, that first half is what's really important. That's the leadership. That's communication. How do we deal with team? What kind of attitude do we approach?Conflict? What kind of attitude do we approach growth and, and collaboration? And, and that's kind of all in there because I think that's something I've learned. Maybe I had an inclination. I was kind of lucky that this came easy to me. But, um, That's what I think has made the biggest difference in my practice.It's not the what, it's the how we've done it and, and, and the meaning behind it rather than the actual, this is what we did. If that makes sense. Michael: Yeah, yeah. No, no, no, no, no. Uh uh, uh, instructions are always better, right? Like, give me the meat and potatoes of everything. Not so much like the, nobody wants to fluff, right?Mm-hmm. Uh, of anything. But, um, I think that's really interesting when it comes to the marketing side of your practice. Mm-hmm. And, um, Your systems? How did that come along? Paul: For marketing specifically, you mean? Yeah. Yeah. So for marketing, we used to try a lot of modalities. We would try like, I mean we tried like the ads, the sponsorships and stuff like that, and we still do some team sponsorships, but I would say we don't do mailers anymore.It's kind of just come into what I think is the most important is just seo your digital image, like your DI digital reputation. And making sure that when people are searching you, that uh, you show up and that you have a nice website and, uh, some nice media and pictures and, and videos on there to back it up.And then it's like, I mean, marketing, we're trying to generate a phone call. We've gotta follow through by having nice patient experience on that end. I don't think the majority of our patients come from either the internet or existing patients. Typically right now are seeing about 180 new patients a month.We've seen when we came six months after Covid, when we had a ton of availability, we saw like 230, which was a huge indicator to me that, man, we could really blow these doors open if we could find some more hygienists. But, yeah, I haven't cracked that. Not yet. I haven't figured that one out yet. I don't know where they all went.They all went, moved some island or something. Yeah. And uh, I think the biggest thing is, is for us is digital. I mean, we pay per click, um, just Facebook stuff and, you know, and I, I tell my coaching clients all the time, You'd be blown away how many new patients you could see if one, you stayed open late or two when you saw a new patient.You tried to get the rest of the family to book if when they came in there for visit. And I can't tell you how many coaching classes don't do that. They're just like, man, like we just started getting so many new patients. Cuz we just started asking. And it's not like you're asking like, Hey, you got anybody looking?You know anyone looking for a good dentistry? It's not doing that. It's saying, Hey, is there anyone else in your family you wanna make an appointment for? And then they'll say, oh, my husband, he's, he's busy. I'll have him call. Well, why don't we just make an appointment and he can call if it, when it gets closer, he'll get some reminder texts if he needs to change it.Okay. You know, you just get him on the schedule and not be pushy. I mean, but, um, doesn't cost a sign. Yeah. I mean that's just, that's just normal. That's just having a checkout protocol that your team follows and you just hold them accountable to it. Yeah, you're right. That's Michael: not being pushy. It's just like, it's being easy.Like, hey, let's just get 'em on that, you know what I mean? Like, put him on there. Right now it's no, no, no issue. You know what I m

Workplace “culture” isn't a fluffy corporate buzzword that's code for office parties—it's the very lifeblood of productive dental practices. Despite all the talk about “culture,” few people understand what it really is. This is unfortunate for dentistry, where culture is the secret to building strong teams and productive practices, especially now that most dentists are dealing with a staffing crisis. In this episode of The Patient First Podcast, you'll learn exactly what “culture” means in the context of a dental practice and what it takes to create a strong culture that keeps the business moving forward. I'm Dr. Bryan Laskin, founder of Upgrade Dental and Toothapps®, and a dentist and entrepreneur who has learned the value of knowing your culture and hiring to match it. Register for free for the webinar "The Secret To Winning The 2nd Half of Your Dental Career." Become an Insanely Productive Dentist. Explore more online webinars and CE courses: UpgradeDental.com

This Episode is Sponsored by: Dandy | The Fully Digital, US-based Dental Lab‍For a completely FREE 3Shape Trios 3 scanner & $250 in lab credit click here: https://www.meetdandy.com/affiliate/tdm !‍‍Guest: Amy MurrayBusiness Name: Dental Practice Management AgencyCheck out Amy's Media:‍Website: https://www.dentalpracticemanagementagency.com/‍‍Other Mentions and Links:University of TampaEaglesoftIndeedDISC AssessmentMarissa NicholsonDental IntelBraving Video - Renee BrownShrekUnreasonable Hospitality - Will Guidara ‍‍Host: Michael Arias‍Website: The Dental Marketer Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/‍Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society‍‍My Key Takeaways:Try not to talk over your patients! Instead, be an active listener to really hear the issues and concerns they have.Resumes only show technical qualifications, so always request a cover letter from applicants to really hone in on values and personalities!Always acknowledge patients when they walk in the door! Even just a smile and a wave can make all the difference.Engaging workshops and motivating projects are essential to an effective team meeting system.Having a third party coach that can see your practice from a bird's eye view is a valuable asset!‍Please don't forget to share with us on Instagram when you are listening to the podcast AND if you are really wanting to show us love, then please leave a 5 star review on iTunes! [Click here to leave a review on iTunes]‍p.s. Some links are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with these products/ company, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money unless you feel you need them or that they will help you with your goals.This Episode is Sponsored by: Dandy | The Fully Digital, US-based Dental Lab‍For a completely FREE 3Shape Trios 3 scanner & $250 in lab credit click here: https://www.meetdandy.com/affiliate/tdm !‍Thank you for supporting the podcast by checking out our sponsors!‍Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors)Michael: Amy, how's it going? Good, how Amy: are Michael: you? I'm doing pretty good. Thanks for asking. If you don't mind me asking, where are you located Amy: right now? I'm actually in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, so right outside of Denver. Michael: Nice. Okay, wonderful.So if you can tell us a little bit about your past, your present, how'd you get to where you are Amy: today? Well, let's see. I've been in dentistry 25 years. Um, how much time do we have? So I've been in dentistry five years and it's pretty exciting. I started off as a dental assistant and then I moved my way over into administrative roles.So I was a treatment plan coordinator, receptionist, financial coordinator. Moved myself up to an office manager, decided at one point in my life I wanted to go back to college and get my bachelors degree and become a dentist, and that didn't work out very well. I actually fell in love with the topic of sociology applied sociology's degree in as soon as I graduated from University of Tampa Dentistry Concierge in Tampa.Absolutely loved it. Um, from there I had an opportunity to move to Colorado and became a technology advisor. So I'd go into dental offices, I would teach about eaglesoft conversions, um, digital CAD cam training. And then from there I started my consulting role, uh, took a little bit of a time, a break and works for a sleep apnea company for devices and integrations into practice.And now I'm back dental coaching and consulting. Okay. Michael: Wow. So you were able to, you did technology training? Amy: I did, Michael: yes. Okay. Wow. So that's interesting. A a lot of this. So then go back to applied sociology. That's what you started falling in love with more. Why? Amy: Oh, well, I took a class in inorganic chemistry, not once, but twice.And so we didn't agree with, I took a class cause I had to in sociology. My PE professor walked in and, uh, he didn't look like a normal professor. And so I, I sat back and I opened myself up to this class. And what I loved about it is that it allowed me to learn more about, race, ethnic background, gender, um, age.And it really breaks it down into how societies work and how they function with one another. And it's so applicable as to what I do today. Okay. Michael: Okay, so then, so what you do today, how does those two mesh together? Amy: How do they correlate? Well, you know, every day as a dental consultant is something new. So in saying that, I have wonderful clients that I work with.They're, they're, they're the best in the business, I feel. And what I love about them is they are female, they're male, they're different age brackets. They come from different backgrounds and they're personal influences. Their professionals, where they went to dental schools, where they did their undergrad.And so having this sociology background, I can help in understanding how they wanna grow their business and also the element of their team member. Team members come from so many different backgrounds. It's like a melting pot. So to be able to really understand them and the ways of communication and how different cultures, genders, ages, blend, that's how you get a beautiful practice.So that's how I see they've kind of correlated. Michael: Mm-hmm. Okay. Gotcha. So this all kind of stems. From the, so how does that apply when you're hiring, I guess a team, you're finding a team member, you're looking for them. We don't, I mean, do we wanna look at their like, oh, okay. Tell me more about your upbringing, or how does that work?Amy: So, you know, it's quite interesting. I love the hiring pro, uh, process that we do with the agency. Uh, we place an ad, it's typically on indeed, When, um, individuals are applying, we do ask for them to place a cover letter, because a resume only shows me where you work and what your job responsibilities are.A cover letter is huge. That's you telling me with your verbiage, who you are, where you excel, what's your background. I, I love a cover letter. That's just wonderful for me. After I received that, I actually called the doctor, or I call the applicant, and the first question I ask them is, tell me a little bit about yourself.Such a really simple question. However, it's a very powerful, whenever I ask that question, I'm not really focusing on the personal, I wanna hear about your business. I wanna hear how you've, you know, grown your career. Where are you at, things of that nature. Then I'll ask for them, what's important for you in a dental practice to be a part of a team?What is important to you? So I capitalize on those things. From there, I actually ask them if I can send them what's called a DISC assessment. And the DISC assessment actually helps me learn what is the best way that they like to communicate. Michael: Okay. So there's like a system to it, a strategy. Yeah, very much so.When it comes to the cover letter to you, what are things you look at where this is a wonderful, like this is should be framed, cover letter or one that's like, this is nothing, this doesn't tell me anything. Amy: Wonderful, wonderful. Uh, question. So in a cover letter, what I wanna look for is a, that you can spell.That's huge. Right? And grammatically, you know, actually how to place those punctuations. Cause think about it, in our industry right now and dentistry, we do a lot of emails, we do a lot of text messages as well. So grammatically, uh, you wanna be on point. Also, you wanna have a beautiful tonality as well. I want something that's really strike me.So what are the words that you're using?What wrong, uh, verbiage and powerful words are you putting in there for me to be like, okay, this person actually has like, much better, much better, has stepped up the game. So that's what I look for. Michael: Okay. Now, so it doesn't, there's no length that you're also looking for like, oh, it has to be like 10. Amy: Oh, no.Now I always say, show me what you have. Show me who you are and why is it that you are wanting to apply for this position? Michael: Okay, that's interesting. So then you, after you decided, we rewind a little bit back to you, you went to apply sociology, you learned, and then you decided to go into some positions where you're, you know, teaching technology a rep and things like that.And then you switched to consulting. Amy: I did. Why I did, I was actually in a training class. I was training a, uh, software and I had this beautiful person named Marissa Nicholson join in on my training. I had no idea who she was. Uh, her client and her, um, team members. She took me aside afterwards and she says, oh my gosh, you had such a plethora of knowledge, not only about the software, you were giving tips and tricks about how to run an administrative role.I said, yes. I said, well, that's what I used to do in my past. And she says, have you ever thought about dental coaching and dental consulting? I was flabbergasted. I said, wow, you think that I'm good enough for that? She says, I think you're amazing. Okay. And so we started working together at that point. And it's been a beautiful friendship and a professional relationship since then.Michael: And so that was the kickstart, the inspiration, the motivation to go into that? Yes. Very interesting. Yeah. Now, when it comes to an administrative role, you said, because that's, I would say that's your forte. Wouldn't that be your area of expertise? Yes. Amy: That, uh, preservation of culture in the practice.Communication. Oh, yes. Michael: Okay, so when it, well, two questions, but the first one, when it comes to an administrative role, break it down for us. What are some things we need to absolutely have to create that system for an administrative role? And then what are some things that are not as important that we feel maybe are highlighted too much in social media or other stuff?Amy: Mm-hmm. That's a good question. Uh, I would say for an administrative role, what's super important is for somebody, To greet patients, answer the phone with a smile, put a smile on your face, you change your physiology. It's amazing the verbiage and the tonality that comes outta your mouth. So I always think that it's somebody who is charismatic, who's very positive, who wants to be there, and who wants to be a team member.They want to learn from there. I would say open communication. I feel as though in our administrative roles right now, we don't have a lot of people that are considered active listeners. We have a lot of people that want to talk over, talk over the patient. The patients are calling you because they need you, and you need to be the active listener.Ask powerful and appropriate questions. Make sure that you're hearing what the patient has to say. Repeat back to the patient what you heard them say to make sure you're capturing it so eloquently, and then take care of what the need is that the patient's asking for. Michael: Gotcha. What powerful and appropriate questions can you like prep us for that normally happen?Amy: Definitely. I always like to, first I thank patients who call, so if it is calling Dr. Speedo's office, you wanna greet them and you wanna say Thank you for choosing Speedo Family Dentistry. This is Amy, I can help you. It's powerful in that introduction because A, it identifies you know who I am. Thank you so much for choosing.If you could choose anybody, and I'm the person that's gonna be able to help you. From there, I like to ask them. Well, typically at that point they tell me what it is that they need. Mm-hmm. So I'm quiet and so it's appropriate for me to ask the next question. I always like to ask, are you a patient of record?And if they say Yes, I've been there before, that's awesome. If they say, no, I've never seen this dentist before. I said, that's great. Welcome to your new dental home. I'm very happy to take care of you. How can I best support you? Or how can I help you? Mm-hmm. And then from there, again, I'm an active listener.I listen to what the patient says and what it is that they need. If they're calling for a traditional profi appointment cleaning appointment, or if they need to get in and have their emergency met, then I'm asking a more key question. What are you feeling? Can you describe to me what location of the mouth is it?So I like to ask all those fun key questions. It's like an onion. You wanna pull back the layers and keep asking and asking until you get exactly what it's. Michael: Nice. Yeah. I feel like sometimes Amy, I remember when I was in the front, sometimes it would be like I'm rushing it, you know what I mean? The phone drinking, somebody just walked in and I'm like, okay, even though we have another front office.And so when it comes to asking questions, it, two things I feel like it made me realize is one. I'm rushing it. And then the second it's like, Hey, how's everything coming along? Is it good? Is it bad? I'm, I'm giving them options to answer instead of being comfortable with the silence. So how can we be better with, comfortable with, you know what I mean?Like asking 'em a question and then shutting up. And then the second thing would be, um, how do we handle not rushing it? Amy: Definitely not rushing am it's, it's hard, right? That's a double-edged sword, especially being in, um, a very busy practice. Uh, as an administrator, you have people walking in, you have people giving you handoffs from the back.Uh, you have other lines that are ringing. I always like to say that when a patient walks in, you should acknowledge them, acknowledge them with your eyes, even if you're on the phone, acknowledge 'em with their hand, um, and smile. So they know you're gonna be with them momentarily. What's most important, especially if there's a new patient on the phone, you never, ever, ever want, stop that conversation.That's why I initially asked in the beginning, are you a patient of record? Are you a new patient? If they're a patient of record and I have all these other things that are happening, I'm very candid with the patient of record and say, you're extremely important to me. Could you please tell me what I can do to help you?And then if it's something that I can call them back, I will gladly take their number and let them know I will call you back in the next five to 10 minutes. You gotta hold it to your word though. Mm-hmm. You gotta call him back five to 10 minutes. If it's a new patient, I'll simply roll through and do what I need to do.Um, I also would hope that I would have strong enough administrators and team members that are cross trained, that if I'm focused on something, they can also help. But I believe that if you just simply smile and acknowledge and let people know, they generally get that queue and know that you'll be with them as quickly as possible.Michael: Gotcha. Okay. So it involves also like. Letting the team members know, kind of Right. Maybe would you recommend like having like a, a signal or something when you're feeling like, okay, I have too much going on, and, you know, or, or what do you think? Yeah, Amy: yeah, you could actually, I mean, we use this for hygiene all the time with the agency, which I love.We have, uh, different colored cards. So what that means is we have green, if things are going good, there's, there's no. There's, there's not a lot of time that are on this phone call. We have yellow. Yellow is like, Ooh, this is a little bit tricky. Patient's asking a couple of questions, and then we have Ray, oh my gosh.They have a whole lot of things that they wanna get across to us. So what you can do is you can have those series of cards and as somebody walks up without you mouthing anything, miss what the patient's saying. You can easily slide over a card and, and so they know. Mm-hmm. Now that's a visual cue, and then they can know that if it's yellow or red, hey, I need to take care of this patient.Our administrator is really focused. Michael: Gotcha. Okay. I like that. The card situation. Yeah. I feel like whenever you're stuck in a situation when you're with a team and you're having a hard time, there should be like a signal or something. Okay. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yes. Amy: Yeah. There totally should be. There should be.So, yeah. Uh, we help our teams with that, so it's just a fun idea. Michael: Nice. That's wonderful. And so then you also mentioned one of your area of expertise is maintaining the team culture. Mm-hmm. And so first, how do we even. Find the, like I, for example, I'm just gonna give you an example. Like if I go, Amy, I want my culture to be happy.Do we do, how do we go from there? What do we figure Amy: out? So of course I'm gonna ask you what does happy mean to you? Like, give me some more words. That's just a real general, um, description. So I said, give some more words, more specific. Are you looking for team members? Are you wanting to preserve something that people are excited to come to work day?That you're gonna be excited to, um, I don't know, answer the phone every day, things of that nature. Right. So the way that we go about preservation for positive culture in a practice is we actually do what's called observation. With the agency, which I love because this allows us to be able to float from front to back.We watch admin side, we watch our das with our doctors, we watch hygiene, and we do this because there's certain key words that we want to see how the teams are interacting with each other and then also with the patients. So that's huge. not only do we do the observations and we're very candid, we give great feedback, constructive feedback to our team members and to our doctors as well to accelerate that.We also provide monthly team meetings. Which, uh, we, as the business coaches and consultants, we run those. And what I love about them is that we have an agenda. We do fun workshops, we focus on communication. We do disc presentation, so we'll take disc off of everybody and we'll do a fun presentation on that.Um, we'll actually talk about better strategies of how information is given and received by team members as well. Michael: Okay. So then when it comes to the observation part, what are some things you've seen that you can share with us? Like the three most common, this is what happens and this is the solution for why we can stop making that happen when it comes to a problem.Amy: Yeah, so definitely one of the things that we like to observe is the handoff. Those are critical, right? We like to know exactly, uh, that. Hy I'm gonna use hygiene, for example, if that's okay. Mm-hmm. Hygienist is in with the patient, right? It's a very, uh, it's like a dance of a relationship, right? The, the patient is gonna tell the hygienist more than they're gonna tell the doctor sometimes.So what we like to do is we like to have the hygienist, uh, after they do it, the tore of the mouth. That they specifically write down things and they also tell the patient, Hey, you, I'm a little bit concerned. I see some things here, but let's confer with the doctor. When the doctor comes in. It's important, doctor. It's still great for the hygienist to say, you know, uh, Dr. Sido, today we're seeing Mrs. Jones, and what I saw with Mrs. Jones was X, Y, and z. I'm curious about this. Could you please take a look at this and then to go in if there's perio concerns or anything of that nature? there, the doctor's gonna do their dance, but the doctor is listening to the hygienist.That's the beauty of it, right? That the hygienist is actually pointing out areas. And from there, what I love is that the doctor is gonna confer. Yep. You know you are exactly right. I see what you're seeing. Let's go ahead and get this patient scheduled. I'll see you in the next week, two weeks. There's a time and urgency.That's that appointment. So now the patient's, not the patient has heard what they need to have done. Not once, but twice. And then the third time is when they're handed off from the hygienist to the administrator. So the patient is now hearing what they need three times. This is a beautiful dance because us as humans, we don't listen to things.We don't grasp them one time. So by the time we're ready to get appointed, we're now hearing it three times and we know that is an urgency because the doctor has placed that. That really helps in the scheduling of practice. Michael: Mm. It helps finalize it, right? Yeah. Yeah. Like to, to get it in there. Interesting. So do you ever feel, Amy, when you're doing the observations like. Team members act or perform kind of thing in front of you, right? And then they go back to like, because I mean, somebody watching, somebody's watching me. So I'm like, I gotta turn it on. And then maybe like somebody else is like Amy, he really doesn't act like that around here.He just, you know what I mean? Does that happen? Amy: Oh, it happens all the time. Happens all the time. Um, a lot of times myself, uh, Marissa and Nicholson and Chris Hamal, the main coaches, uh, we actually don't do a lot of the observations. We have our administrators, we have two administrators, uh, Jamia and Alexa, who actually go in on our behalf because we know how our team members act.So if it's a different set of eyes, they might get a different reaction as well. you know, we're humans, so we go straight into our automatic, it's what we know. And if we know that somebody's watching us, like you said, we can step up our game a little bit and then we kinda fall back. Um, we definitely go in.We try not to let everybody know that we're coming in so we can actually see them in their natural, uh, capabilities and where they land. Some of the times it's inevitable. If they see us, they see us. Uh, but a lot of times what we do like to do is kinda go in on the stealth mode and a different set of eyes.It might get a different return. So Michael: yeah. Okay. That's interesting. So then how can we main, we figured out how we can find the culture. How do we maintain it? Amy: Maintaining. So it's critical to have those monthly team meetings. A lot of offices, the moment you say, oh, let's have a meeting, all of a sudden people are like, no, I don't wanna have a meeting.Cause it's just by PowerPoint or there's people complaining and that's no fun, right? Mm-hmm. Uh, so I always like to say team meetings need to be motivated. Be transparent with your team about your numbers. We use a great digital software platform, Intel, and I love dental Intel. It only works with certain softwares, however, it will take within that software and put it in a dashboard, um, metric.so doctors are really transparent with their teams and you're gonna get the best outta your teams. Now, they're also held accountable for daily goals. For DR. And hygiene as well. from there I always like to do what I like to call personal and professional check-in, so gimme one one of each and everybody around the room does that.And I love it because a lot of times our teams don't have time to get to know each other, so everybody shares something great that's happened with them personally and professionally. Very clear about numbers. And then I'll actually bring in a workshop. Workshops are huge. You can go on YouTube and actually Google different type of inspirational videos.Brown is one of our. And you can pull from what she's saying and you can actually make that into a really small workshop. Ask your team powerful questions, have them work together and that is beautiful. Cause at the end of the day, you're preserving that culture cuz you're teaching everybody how to properly communicate.Michael: Yeah. What have been some amazing workshops that you've done, Amy? Well, I Amy: love disc. Disc is my favorite. When we make it really fun, we actually use the movie Shrek as a part of our disc presentation. Mm-hmm. Because, uh, you have the dominant person, you have the other person who's very interactive. You have the one that needs and the one that needs consistency. And, uh, so this has to be my absolute favorite. Second would be braving, uh, by Brene Brown. Mm-hmm. It's actually teaching everybody how to trust a team member and how a person needs to be what's called a vault. And when you tell somebody something who is a bolt, you know that they are gonna take whatever you say, to their grave.And so I love that one as well. And it's really learning how to trust one another, which a lot of times is a work in progress. Huh? Michael: Can you give us some steps right now on how we can tell our team, like you, you need to trust, you need to trust Suzy Bell, like, you know what I mean? How can we, yeah. What are some things we can do?Amy: Well, definitely I always say if you have an upset with somebody, you have to go directly to that person, right? And you have to clear the air. A lot of times it's very difficult to do. We do teach people how to do that so they feel comfortable in their own skin and to be able to go to that person. We also like to talk about how in breathing that it's super important to know that. When you set that positive culture in the practice and you know that I can go and I can talk to this person, and this person is not going to, uh, take what I say, take it outta context, share it with other people, um, we teach them that you'll have a beautiful friendship and professionalism for the rest of your life.Right, and it's really, it's learning to like and love each other. And that disc plays an important role because it's how, how can I read that person? Are they very direct? Are they mostly like a high, they're not. Listen, So it's really understanding the disc part and establishing those parameters and boundaries, um, for giving in, receiving information, and the, the three all work together, so Beautiful.Michael: Nice. When you do these workshops and assessments, or even before that, what do you do when you notice there's a team member who you're like, you don't fit, man. Like, you just don't, you're. You're negative or something. Like what? What happens with that? Amy: Ooh. Those are what I like to call crucial conversations.Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. Uh, you even see it outside of the team meeting, you can pretty much pick it up pretty quickly, right. Um, what I like to do, always like to believe in the beauty of everyone. I will ask the doctor if it's okay for me to take that team member aside and really one-on-one. I'll ask the team member, are you doing okay?That's the first thing I'll ask them. If they say, yes, I'm doing fine. Say, okay, well I've noticed that there's a little bit of, um, you're not being your best self. And what I mean by that is I see so much beauty in you. How Courtney does that sound right? Me? Just saying that I see the beauty in you. It's true though.Cause look, I just said it to you and you smiled and you left. Mm-hmm. Right? Made you feel good. I see the beauty in you and I can see that you are so much more than what you're giving right now. So how can I get the very best out of you? And usually once I do that, even if you are the highest in their D category of dominant.I can get a pretty good response back and I kinda figure out what's going on with them. Michael: Gotcha. Also, you normally see that in the dominance. Like people who are like I, you know what Do you think it's that? Because it's like somebody else is coming into here and I run it kind of thing? Or, or no? Amy: Oh yeah.Oh yeah. Some of the highs, I love them. Each category has a special place in my heart, but the highs, they're gonna tell you what they need and what they want and everything else just doesn't really matter to them. It's okay. They have a special place in this world. to teach them to be more open and better communicators.That's where I kind of land when I ask them those questions. Michael: Gotcha. I have a question for you then, because I guess what do you do when, what is the best way, if you can tell, like the listeners, this will help facilitate the coach coaching consultant team or coaching consultant practice. So much easier if you do these steps.If you don't, you're gonna put the blame on me, or you're gonna put the blame on somebody else. You're just not gonna see the results you want. What would help Amy: with that? Well, I would say definitely, uh, look at a dental coach, right? They are, I know a lot of doctors are like, gosh, you know, I have, I have so many overhead expenses, and, and it can be costly.I understand that. Hiring a dental coach is taking a third party person who is actually looking for the betterment of you for the betterment of your practice and keeping your team sustainable. And that's huge. I feel as though, uh, bringing somebody on board who has the outside perspective that can look in and be very honest with you.I am honest with all of my clients. Good, better, indifferent at the beginning of our relationship. I tell them at times, you may not like what I'm gonna say, and I understand that I am looking out for the betterment for you guys to be successful. I always tell my my wonderful clients as well, I, I don't plan on being with you forever and ever.Amen. I'm gonna teach you the tools and I want you to fly, and if you need me to come back to redirect, I'm gonna be there. but we are together for a period of time. So a lot of times doctors think, oh my gosh, I'm gonna get this consultant. They're gonna be with me forever. And sustainability and financial agreements, um, our agency doesn't operate like that.Again, we will, uh, teach you how to fish and then we want you to go up and be completely successful and we'll always be your biggest cheerleaders. Michael: Okay. So it's mainly like the communication that you want. All the time. Right to, yeah. Let them know like, hey, yeah. Be, because I remember we, we would have a lot of coaches and consultants, like even with Somewhere, I'm like, where do you come from?Like, you know what I mean? Like, I've never heard of some of these before. Like I'm just like, where are you? Right? And so I never knew what they did in the sense of, oh, now we're just taking Medicaid or Medicare. You know what I mean? Now we're just doing something else. And I would see them kind of run through the door.And I remember our office manager sometimes or other people, they'd be like, yeah, you know what, they don't know what they're talking about. Yeah. They're not gonna come in here and fix it. And I'm like, maybe if we were more flexible, it would've worked. Or maybe if they knew what they were, you know what I mean?Kinda Amy: thing. Yes, yes. It's very, very true. It's very, very true. I always love to give team members, I always like to let them know I am joining to help you grow. A lot of times when team members hear the word consultant or business coach, they automatically think that they're not gonna have a job.And that's scary. So of course their defenses are already up. So when Chris, Marissa, or myself go into a practice, we always introduce us who we are. I give them my background. I always say to administrators, I used to do what you did. I know how important your role is. Mm-hmm. And I'm here to help you.You had three things. Three things you love in this practice, tell me. And then they'll tell me. I said, okay, if you had three things that you wanna make better in this practice, what are they? And I asked every single team member that question, and let me tell you, nine times outta 10, they're all saying the same thing.They might say it differently, there's a common thread. And that's when I typically take that common thread back to the doctor and I say, okay, so this is what I'm hearing. This is what I'm seeing. But I like to let the team members know that I'm there for them. I want them to grow and for them to be successful.Michael: Mm. Okay. I like that. Three common things, you know what I mean? Yeah. Especially if they're all like, what's this one person? Then, you know, like, ok, then we gotta get rid of that one person. Whatever. Interesting. I'm kinda ok. Yeah. Yeah. So these next questions are just to get into the head of someone who isn't totally involved on the clinical side of dentistry, working every day in the mouth, right?Yeah. What would you like to see more from a dentist? Amy: Oh goodness. What I would love to see more from a dentist is, Look at your team members, be appreciative of your team members, and know that they are there every day, day in and day out to make you better and to support you. I think a lot of times as dentists, we overlook that.They are so worried about, um, overhead, right? Getting more new patients. How do I market myself better? There's so many things that they're thinking of, and a lot of times we really don't look inside and we really don't appreciate the team that is supporting us and helping us grow. So what I mean by that is I always tell my doctors once a quarter, do an activity with your team.Show them how much you appreciate them. My goodness. Um, order, coffee, things of that nature. It's the small things that really mean a lot. one workshop that we do, it's really great, we talk about value, um, morals and values, and I learn while the doctors there, what their team member values. And some of the times the doctors sit back and they're like, I never knew that that's what they needed.That's what them going in the day. So I, I feel as though that type is, um, really gonna make it better for, for the, for the dentist all the way around. Michael: Mm. Okay. I like that. Like doing activities with them, letting them know you appreciate them. Yeah. Um, understanding that it is true. You need them to, you know what I mean?You need Amy: them. Yeah. You need them. Michael: They're important. Okay. All right. So next question is right now. What do you dislike or hate about dentistry? Amy: Oh, goodness. That's a tough question. I would have to say, uh, what I dislike with dentistry right now is, um, everybody is looking for new patients, right? The, the dentist believe that more new patients I have is the bigger and better that I'm gonna grow, and they miss that.They miss what's most important. What's most important is the current patients that you're serving. So what do I mean by that? Well, when your patients walk, the first question that your administrator needs to ask is, how is your visit today? That's such an important question because that one question, if they had a great visit and the patient responds, oh, it was awesome.It was great. That is so wonderful. We are accepting new patients. Do you know of anybody who's looking for a new dental home? And then again, active listeners don't say anything. Mm-hmm. Don't say anything. And if they say, well, you know, I don't know. Here's some of our cards. We love patients just like you.So if you do, please send them our way. What a beautiful compliment you just gave somebody. Right? And positivity. They're gonna go and they're probably gonna tell other people. And by organic growth, we're getting new patients. And I think that if dentists would take a moment and take a step back and really listen to what I have to say in regards to that, you would be amazed what you would get.Mm, Michael: doing that with every single patient, right? Every single patient. Amy: And it flows, it really does flow. Uh, at first when you tell administrators to do this, they look at you and they say, I don't have enough. That's what they say. I don't enough time. You actually do have enough time. It really just rolls off so easily because you know Mrs.Jones, you know she's amazing and you want more people like her. So give her that beautiful compliment and let her know you guys are looking for new patients and when you want people just like her. Mm-hmm. Michael: Beautiful. I like that. I like that a lot. Okay, so focus on the internal marketing kind of thing.Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. And then right now, what do you absolutely love about dentistry? Amy: What I love about dentistry is, um, all the beautiful team members that I get to work with and the wonderful clients that I have. It's super important. With our agency, we focus on the quality of our clients, not the quantity.The quantity doesn't define us. What definitely defines us as the quality. I love the fact that, um, my clients know they can call me whatever time, day or night, and I'm gonna be there for them even on the weekend. I cherish them. I cherish our relationship. I love the fact that they were like a, they opened their kimona for me to come into their practice and to help them succeed.So, being an open dentist, it really does open you up to so many capabilities and possibilities. It's pretty awesome. That's what I really love about dentistry now. Nice. How Michael: does, let me ask you side note, how does that affect your, I guess, like personal life? If they're always like, you can call me no matter what, whenever.All the time. Yeah. What does that look like? Amy: Oh, it's great. It really is. Uh, a lot of times they don't always take me up on that. However, if it's a nine one emergency, they know that I'm gonna be there. You know, Chris, Marissa, myself, we do like to spend time with our families and outta town. The beauty about our working relationship is that we will cover for one another as well.Mm-hmm. So we communicate if somebody's gonna be non-available, that person, the other coach will be responsible to take those calls. So I try to kinda balance it the best as possible. But again, it comes down to the quality of my clients and not the quantity. I, I love them all dearly and I wanna take the very best care of them.So whatever it takes. Michael: Yeah, that's nice. That's wonderful. And then to you thinking of the general population, what needs to change for people to be more open to dentistry? Amy: Well, you know, unfortunately we live in a populace where we have a lot of patients who are very fearful of the dentist. And so they won't go, and I'd like to think that, you know, unfortunately, fortunately, COVID actually brought a lot of attention to this because it's the oral cavity, right?Oral cavity is the gateway to your systemic health. And so what I'm really, really hoping is, is that people will take their oral health very seriously. So where does that come from? It actually comes from, um, you know, children being in school and they have a hygienist.embrace your child to take them. Find a great dentist that suits you. as a patient, when you call a dental office, ask specific questions. Ask how long have they been in dentistry? What do they special? Do they do history? Uh, let let the administrator know. If you're high fear, you know, gosh, I just don't like coming to the dentist.Right? And find that right practice. That's going to love you and support you and help you in your dental journey. Okay. Michael: I like that a lot. And then, what's one of the best advice you've ever received that you can share with our listeners? Oh, Amy: in general. In general? Mm-hmm. In general, um, you know, One of our, uh, Chris Oval, this one is the best for me.I've gotten better. I've gotten better. I was not the person who was always on time, right? Mm-hmm. And I love philosophy. If you're on time, you're late, so you need to be early. And that's considered on time. I think that that was actually the best piece of advice she has ever given to me and has shown me.Because for me, when you're early to something, it shows that person that you're meeting, Hey, I'm here undivided attention. I'm waiting for you. I'm excited to meet you. So I always like to live with that, that theory of if I'm early, I'm one time. Yeah. And I'm winning. And it shows that person that they're very important.Nice. Michael: Wonderful. Awesome. Amy, thank you so much for being with us. It's been a pleasure. But before we say goodbye, can you tell our listeners where they can find you? Amy: Oh, yes, you can. You can go to www.dentalpracticemanagementagency.com and you will find myself, Marissa Nicholson and Chris Hamal. Awesome. Michael: So guys, that's gonna be in the show notes below.And Amy, thank you so much for being with us. It's been a pleasure, and we'll hear from you soon. Amy: Thank you so much. It was a pleasure.

Hey doctor, do you want a great team who handles everything exactly how they're supposed to? Does that sound like magic? It's actually simpler than you might think. Over the years I developed a process in my dental practice called “trust, but verify.” Join me to learn what this can look like in your practice.

In this episode, I discuss the unfair advantages of creating group flow with your dental team. So if you want to learn ultra-valuable team-building lessons from improv comedians and The Beatles… If you want to create extreme employee performance improvements… If you want to unleash innovation and creativity so you can have the best culture of any business in town… Tune in now!   Join The Leading Dentist Collective – the free collaborative community for single-location dental practice owners who want to unleash their people, profits, and purpose.   You can find show notes and more information by clicking this link: https://bit.ly/dental-team-collaboration   Relentless Dentist is a dental podcast by Dr. Dave Maloley.

How do you hire people in the dental office? If you always hire on skill, but are still struggling to maintain your systems, you may want to look at hiring on personality instead. Join Dr. Bruce B. Baird as he shares how hiring dental team on personality, not skill, saved his systems and solidified his dental office culture.