Podcasts about Midwestern University

Kiera is joined by Fred Heppner of Arizona Transitions to talk through dental practice transitions. Their conversation includes when you should start thinking about your transition, what the economic outcomes will be any way you go, what a private indemnity group is (and how it can help), and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcrpt Kiera Dent (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I am so excited to welcome an incredible guest to our podcast, Fred Heppner. He's with Arizona Transitions. And honestly, I feel like right now in today's world, dentists need more than ever guidance and direction of like, what do we do? How do I transition my practice? What am I looking at for retirement? Do I go the DSO route? Do I do the legacy practice route? I just feel like there's so much confusion. And so trying to cut through that noise,   Fred is incredible. We met him and I just said, you know what? He's incredible. And so he said for him, it's whether a person is buying a dental practice or putting a dental practice up for sale, Fred truly can help you successfully navigate through that transition. He deals with complete transitions of dental offices and also practices securing a partner or an associate, which that is such a hard thing. Like, how do we do this? There's a million ways to slice and dice that pie because he's worked with so many different aspects of the dental industry. His experience allows him   to ensure that all parties are satisfied with the transition. So I'm super jazzed. Fred, welcome to the show today. How are you?   Fred Heppner (01:02) I'm   doing great. Thank you, Kiera. I gotta meet this guy. Who is this guy, Fred?   Kiera Dent (01:06) Well,   here he is, if I'm not mistaken. But truly, I'm so honored to have you on the podcast. When our team met you, they were like, Kiera, he's got to get on the podcast. And so just truly excited because like I said, this is a zone that I get excited to geek out on because we deal with it in consulting all the time. Our clients are constantly asking us like, what should we do? They want to bring on partners, they want to bring on associates, they want a retention model. ⁓ They want to know like,   I feel like your dental practice can be your greatest asset or your greatest burden, depending upon how you set it up. And so really being able to just dive in with you. And like I said, I think there's so much noise right now. The dentists are like, it's almost like ostrich in the sand. Like, I just don't want to even think about it. I'm going to put my head in the sand. I'm not going to pay attention. But the reality is like, let's educate, let's learn. Let's bring experts in like yourself. So that way dentists can feel more confident making the decision. I don't think it has to be scary. I don't think it's be daunting. We just need to be educated and.   Fred Heppner (01:41) Yeah, I agree.   No.   Kiera Dent (02:05) and hear wisdom and then do what feels right. So Fred, that was my intro, but anything else you want to add of how you got here or, mean, I'm just excited to riff with you today.   Fred Heppner (02:14) I appreciate the opportunity and I can tell you even from what you just said back in, back in 1983, when I started in the business of dentistry, the interesting thing was I didn't hear very often, Hey, what's your transition plan? Because oftentimes dentists were really just going to build a practice and then that was going to be their retirement and they would sell their practice and retire. Financial planners were, were non-existent to a large degree. And it was early on that I heard somebody and it really resonated with me.   They asked a young dentist who had just taken ownership or started a practice, when are you going to hang up your hand piece? And the dentist kind of, I just got started. What do mean? When am going to hang it up? I got, you know, I got 20, 30 years here. No, no, no. The moment you take ownership of a business, you want to consider what your transition plan out would be early on so that it doesn't spring it on.   Kiera Dent (02:51) Mm-hmm.   Mm-hmm.   Fred Heppner (03:09) We may   talk here later on about, what happens if you're not there? What happens if there's an injury or disability or illness and you can't practice dentistry? Now what? And let's consider talking about that maybe later on. So early in the game, it's appropriate to have some kind of idea of some kind of transition plan. Transition plan doesn't mean I have to value my business. I have to procure a buyer act to make sure that financially qualified. I have to get a contract. I have to get a lease. That's not a transition plan. In simple, think.   Kiera Dent (03:21) Yeah.   Fred Heppner (03:38) The transition plan is what do you want to do when you sell your practice, when you move on from dentistry? And you know, as well as I do, you have clients who have been in dentistry and practice for 25, 30, 35, 40 years. And if they stopped doing something that they've been doing for three decades, what are they going to do with their time? And that's, that's really high on the scale of importance in a transition plan, because ultimately they're going to sit back and say,   Kiera Dent (03:53) Mm hmm. Yeah.   Fred Heppner (04:08) I don't know that I want to be home. I don't know that my spouse wants me to be home all day. And you have to think about these things. So it's much more than I have a practice to sell. I've got a purchase price. I have to figure out how I'm going to sell everything and my staff and my patients and so on. It's more than that. So I think in the initial phases of somebody considering what's my transition plan that can pull their head out of the sand and look at a spot and say, what do I really want to do if I   Kiera Dent (04:12) Totally.   Fred Heppner (04:37) If I don't do this, what will I do? And then feels a whole bunch of other questions into the play. Number one, how much am I going to make from selling my practice? What are the economic outcomes? How much in proceeds will I have after all the fees associated with selling the business and the taxes associated with paying for the proceeds? Now, what have I got left? What is that? What does that number look like? Well, I have no idea. Well, I need to find out. That's why I have a business.   Kiera Dent (05:05) Mm-hmm.   Gosh, Fred, I am so grateful you brought this up because honestly, feel like so I don't know my financial advisor teases me all the time. He's incredible. And he's like, Kiera, you are the person that has every exit strategy. You're like, all right, so what's going to happen if this happens or what happens? And I love to play this game with my husband. I'm like, okay, so if there was a fire in our house in this location, how are we going to get out? Or if we had this, because I feel like when you have almost that North star, especially in your life of   Okay, this is how much I want when I wanna retire. This is when I wanna retire. This is like you said, if I want to, what am I gonna do when this doesn't, like when I'm no longer doing dentistry? Because you're right, I actually, ⁓ working at Midwestern ⁓ University in Arizona, I know a lot of dental students and I know a lot of dentists now. And ⁓ I've been gone from Midwestern for about now, about nine years. And ⁓ in those nine years, which does not seem that long, it's not even been a decade, ⁓   Fred Heppner (05:50) Mm-hmm.   Kiera Dent (06:05) There have been students who have gotten a disability. There have been students who have gotten cancer and can no longer practice dentistry. There are students that have already sold to DSOs. And I'm like, their life looks so different. The student I'm thinking about who ended up getting pretty sick and had to leave, thank goodness he had his ⁓ insurance on him, his disability insurance. But like when I met him,   there was no way that we ever would have thought like four or five years into practice. I went and saw him in his practice and now like he's not doing dentistry anymore. And so I think Fred, it's one of those things where I help him pray every dentist who's listening gets to work until they're 80, 90, however long they want to go that they get to practice their craft. but I think what you're talking about of let's think of what would I do if I couldn't do this anymore, whether by choice or whether by life, ⁓ and then be able to make decisions because I feel like   When you stair step it back, you're able to actually navigate today way more confidently than if you don't have a plan. And I think that gives you more security than anything else. ⁓   Fred Heppner (07:08) Amen. And if your practice   is stable, strong, producing a good profit and you are able to not only retire debt, but start to put away for your own retirement, you are much more in a direction of control also. So retirement may not be a year or a number. It sometimes is an event because injury, disability, illness, sudden death have no discrimination. It can happen to anybody.   And if there isn't a plan in place for that, which I would recommend dentists look into, ⁓ if they don't have them in their community, forming private indemnity groups, disability coverage groups, where if a group of 16, 17 dentists that per oculi are in the same community and know each other and respect each other would agree that if anything were to happen, the group would get activated and it would cover the practice a day at a time on rotation for all the membership.   until the practitioner returns from the injury or disability or the practice is sold because the dentist is incapacitated and can't come back. As a side note, I want to mention to you that I do this for six different groups here in the Valley in Phoenix where I live. And there are anywhere from about 12 to 22 dentists in each of those groups.   So if you're listeners or if anybody in the A team wants to know more about forming groups, I'm happy to pay it forward, provide it for you. It's important. It's really something that dentists, we're invincible. Nothing's going to happen to us, especially when they're 30 years old and they just graduated from Midwestern and they bought their first practice and they're fired up. And it's like, they are looking at nothing other than growth, development, coaching. They're not even thinking if something were to happen to them. So.   Kiera Dent (08:38) Mm-hmm.   hope. Right?   Mm-hmm.   Fred Heppner (08:57) Just as an aside,   let's you and I make sure that we talk more. And for any dentists who want to develop those kinds of groups, it is invaluable. And there are tons of stories that I could impart to you and impart to anybody who's willing to listen about dentists that have a mishap. ⁓ Jim Jorgensen here in Phoenix ⁓ owns Squaw Peak Dental for years. He was in Vegas with his wife, Terry, midnight. They were up in the hotel room and he flatlined. He had a massive heart attack.   Kiera Dent (09:15) Mm-hmm. Yep. Mm-hmm.   Fred Heppner (09:28) She kept him going until the paramedics arrived. He survived. We activated the group. We covered his practice for three months. He came back, continued to practice. A year later, he sold it. So he couldn't have done that. He would have lost that asset and lost the value that that asset has on the open market if that group hadn't been in place. So.   Kiera Dent (09:39) incredible.   Thank   I will. love that. And thank you for sharing that. And that's something I didn't even know existed. And I, I don't, I'm just very pro. Like, I remember when I was filling out our trust and I had to write my will and I was not very old, still like in my thirties, it was really weird. And it made me feel icky. And when you said the phrase earlier of like death, disability, illness, that has no discrimination. It hit me in my core of you're right. Like we do feel like we're invincible, but the reality is those three are hanging   out at any moment and we have no idea when they're going to strike us or our family or someone that we know. As icky as that is. And so I feel like it's like, let's just get, let's get prepared. Like when I had to figure out what's going to happen to me, if I ever am incapacitated and I called my brother, who's my power of attorney. I said, okay, this is what I want. Are you willing to do it? But now I don't like if it happens great. Like he knows, I know there's a plan in place and as much as I would hate for it to happen, there is a plan that's like, and I feel   Gosh, maybe I'm just a selfish egotistical human over here. It does give me a lot of empowerment to know that I know if something were to happen to me, things are good. And I will also say my whole team hates it, but I have an entire death plan of if Kiera Dent dies, I haven't made it so sweet that they want to kill me off. So like, that's my, that's my caveat. Like, let's not make it that good. But there's an entire plan because I realized...   If I don't have this plan in place, if things aren't able to be transferred quickly to people that I trust and that people need to execute on, this company would die and we would not be able to serve all the people that we have. And so as, as weird and as eerie as it is, I feel like Fred, there's so much empowerment that can happen because it's no longer scary. Just like getting an operations manual, just like getting all your systems in your practice in case someone leaves. I feel like it's the same thing for your business in your life. So Fred, like that's a great tip. And I think people should reach out and definitely connect with you.   Fred Heppner (11:42) maybe   for another future podcast. Coming to an A-Team podcast near you,   Kiera Dent (11:44) Like,   I mean, hey, I'm here for it.   Fred Heppner (11:50) I don't know.   It's really important. People take it for granted. And it's interesting because the people that are in the groups that I have and sponsor just sitting back and say to themselves, why wouldn't anybody not be involved in this type of group? So good for future.   Kiera Dent (12:05) That's helpful. Okay. All right. And Fred, just like, mean,   we'll, share it at the end too, but if people are interested, how do they connect with you? We'll just put it in the middle too. So people have the info and then of course we're going to continue on.   Fred Heppner (12:16) ArizonaTransitions.com is my website. ArizonaTransitions@gmail.com is my email. Best way to reach you.   Kiera Dent (12:23) And I'm sure people are   questioning, you work only in Arizona or do you work outside of Arizona just to clear that up for our listeners? Okay.   Fred Heppner (12:29) Good. Time for a little backstory. So   back in 1983, when I started in dentistry, I was a, I was a business coach, similar to how you operate and develop business systems and coaching and training for dentists and their teams to grow and essentially develop profitable and enjoyable practices. I did that for about 20 years. And then about 22 years ago, I really saw a void in Phoenix where I live. moved here in 1995.   of the transition space. just didn't see dental practice transitions being done with integrity, in my opinion. They could have been, but I saw some of the aftermath because dentists would call me and say, hey, I just bought this practice. Can you help me? It's a mess. So I would go in and assist them. Well, slowly but surely, I saw an opportunity to be able to jump into the transitions realm. So I jumped deep into ⁓ classroom study and book work on how to do business evaluations correctly.   Kiera Dent (13:04) Mm-hmm.   Fred Heppner (13:26) the International Society of Business Analysts was my education forum. ⁓ Casey Conrad, who is brilliant, he taught me how to do business valuations correctly. And by the way, he writes the curriculum for the organizations that provide accreditation to people who want to be a business analyst. So I'm learning from the guy who teaches everybody. And then I started studying large contract negotiations.   Kiera Dent (13:45) Mm-hmm. Amazing.   Fred Heppner (13:52) As I developed that understanding and saw that there were things that I could contribute to, I jumped into that realm and became more of ⁓ a transition specialist here in the greater Phoenix area. Well, along the way, I came upon a group called American Dental Sales, which is a large cooperative of 40 dental practice transition specialists, 23 different companies. They cover all 50 states and they had a void in Arizona that they needed to fill. So they approached me and said, we'd like you to come on board.   ⁓ I then met a guy named Hi Smith, who really was one of the preeminent dental practice brokers in the country. ⁓ He was in Naples, Florida. He had a place in Oregon, so he kind of commuted periodically. But Hi was very, very well regarded and still is. He's retired now. Hi was the transition specialist for the Pride Institute, a very well regarded practice management company out of California. And for 35 years.   Kiera Dent (14:44) Mm-hmm.   Fred Heppner (14:50) They referred all the business nationwide to High to develop any kind of transition plan or valuation or partnership or associate ship or practice sale. Well, he was a member of ADS and he actually, I want to say he took me under his wing to some degree because we just became very good friends and he became a really significant mentor of mine.   I fell ill and said, I'm not gonna be able to do this any longer, so you're gonna take over my book of business. and by the way, you're also gonna start doing seminars for the Pride Institute. And I'm gonna introduce you to the people over there so that when they need help, like I've been giving them for the last 30 years, you'll take over. So as a result, we were doing seminars all around the country. So four to five times a year, we'd be in Denver, Boston, Seattle, Orlando, Dallas, Chicago, Philadelphia, you name it.   Kiera Dent (15:30) Mm-hmm.   Fred Heppner (15:43) So people that would come to those meetings were Pride disciples, clients, and they would ask me to help them with their transition. So that became more of a establishing services for dentists that are outside of Arizona, not necessarily creating a footprint in each of those territories. The Pride Institute was purchased by Spear Practice Solutions about 10 or 12 years ago.   Kiera Dent (16:08) Mm-hmm.   Fred Heppner (16:09) So I got dragged kicking and screaming over to Spear and developed a really good relationship with the track practice growth partners at Spear and also Amy Morgan, who was the CEO at Pride out still with Spear. So that's the backstory to tell you that I've done transitions in 26 different States. And it's very easy for me to help provide consultation and guidance for transitions really anywhere.   Kiera Dent (16:12) Thank   Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.   Awesome.   Fred Heppner (16:39) Florida, as an example, Florida requires a person to be a commercial real estate broker to broker business assets. So I have colleagues in Florida that I refer to. And with my affiliation with ADS, I have boots on the ground in pretty much every territory that if I don't think I can provide value to the client, I simply connect it with the people in my group and everything gets worked right.   Kiera Dent (17:04) That's awesome.   That's amazing. And it's such a fun story.   mean, I think our our paths have crossed on probably several levels. One of my business coaches is former pride. And as soon as you said that, I was like, Oh, my gosh, I bet we both know Liz. I'm sure we and all the different pieces. But I love that because I figured Arizona transitions might some of the listeners might feel like you can't help them and assist them. So I really wanted to clear that up that it's all across the nation in different areas. So all right, Fred, let's dive into like walk us through I know you've got some   Fred Heppner (17:11) Yeah, chances are.   yeah, ⁓ yeah, absolutely.   Kiera Dent (17:36) points.   I know you've got some things of like, what is the transition plan? Like how do doctors get to that level? What do they need to do if they're transitioning? Now again, this doesn't mean you're selling. Right now, I think there's a lot of options to sell, but also like prepping in case life, one of those three mysterious, hopefully never coming to you, like orbs is how feel. I feel like they're like floating around and hopefully they never strike. But what do we do? What are kind of the steps? What are some of the things you have for that?   Fred Heppner (17:56) Yeah, yeah.   Well,   I think the first step in any kind of relationship that I build with a client, it would be a true consultation. And in that sense, it's tell me what your ideal retirement plan or transition plan would look like. You've worked your practice for a number of years. At some point in time, you're going to decide that you will retire from the practice of dentistry. What do you want to do? What does that look like?   What would you be involved with? I'll give you a quick example. Jerry Cox, who's a dentist in Old Scottsdale here in Phoenix, called me and said, I'd like you to help me sell my practice. And I said, I'd be honored, thank you. So I went and saw him and we put together the plan and I asked him the question, what do you want to do? What do you want to do after you retire from practice? says, well, I like to do sculpture. And I said, really, Fred?   Kiera Dent (18:56) you   Fred Heppner (18:57) What have you done? kind of work have you done? He says, well, let me show you. He showed me pictures of the statue of Heather Farr. Heather Farr was an amateur golfer 25, 30 years ago or so, who played at ASU, who was an enormous success, played on the LPGA tour, and ultimately ⁓ developed breast cancer and died. Heather's statue ⁓ was sitting at Karsten Golf Course down near ASU, which they've now plowed.   Kiera Dent (19:20) Wow.   Fred Heppner (19:27) and also at Greyhawk Golf Club. And Jerry sculpted that statue. And I got goosebumps right now. Anyway, so as an example, Jerry has a studio at his house. He said, as soon as I sell, I'm doing that. So the point is in the transition planning phase, know what you want to do. Know what you will occupy your time. If it's turn.   Kiera Dent (19:33) Wow. Yeah.   So Fred, I'm gonna just like ask questions right here because, and   I'm gonna talk for myself. So guys, like this is my own therapy session. So thank you for being a part and a fly on the wall. Like sometimes we don't know. ⁓ So like I feel I'm very much, I know I wanna retire. I know I want more free time, ⁓ but I literally sit here and this, it's like, know how you think about like how time truly never ends. And if you think about like too hard, it actually creeps you out. Like that's kinda how I feel about like retiring of like,   Well, I know I don't want to keep working this hard. Like I don't want to be putting in as many hours, but I still love the impact. I still love the legacy, but I don't quite know what that looks like. And I feel like a lot of times people in their thirties, in their twenties, in their forties, I think as you get later on in life, you probably have more of that clear picture. But what about for those that are very fresh, like that truly maybe some people do, maybe I'm, maybe I'm the only one on my own planet. I don't think I am, but like, what do you do if you don't know what you want to do?   Fred Heppner (20:46) You're not alone. So good. part of the time, what did Chelsea, what did Kelsey Grammer say? I'm listening. So the, the, the idea is that there are portions of people that don't know. There are some that are very clear on what they want to do and there's some that are kind of, well, I'm not sure. My, my recommendation would be, think about it. Then don't answer right now, but think about it because I want you to know what you will be doing when.   Kiera Dent (20:48) Thank you. Thanks for my therapy today, Fred. I appreciate it. Thank you.   Hahaha ⁓   Fred Heppner (21:16) you stop doing this and it may change over time. It may kind of morph into, my God, I didn't know that I really enjoyed painting. Okay. Then, then that's maybe what you might do because as you retire from the proceeds of your sale of your business, you'll, you'll build out a studio in your home or in the Casita or wherever it is. So it, it's okay that you may not know. It's okay that a person may not know what they want to do, but it's important to start thinking about it.   Kiera Dent (21:26) Mm-hmm.   Fred Heppner (21:47) And then we can kind of move into the rest of the, ⁓ the rest of the questions, which I would say, is it a year that you'd like to finish working? Some dentists may want to finish when they're 55. Some may want to work until they're 65. Some may want to finish working when they're 50 or it might be a number. My investment portfolio has to be at $10 million liquid, not including asset hard assets like home.   vacation home, cars, anything like that, boats, whatever, ⁓ but that the liquid assets have a certain number because then I know through my financial planner, because he did a wealth timeline, another side note, right, Kiera? ⁓ He said that if you keep doing what you're doing and you retire at this age and you pull in social security and you have this mandatory required distributions from your portfolio,   Kiera Dent (22:16) Mm-hmm.   Right? Exactly.   Fred Heppner (22:41) you'll be able to have this much money when you're 99. So, and that's just a mathematical spreadsheet that most good financial planners have. And I highly recommend it for anybody who's in business, who's developing a portfolio for retirement. So it may not be, I don't know yet. Okay, good. Well think about it and know that I may circle back during our relationship and ask you, have you given much thought? Do know what you're going to do?   Kiera Dent (22:45) Mm-hmm.   Fred Heppner (23:09) Early on, is it important? Not as much as when it's a three to five year window. When it's a three to five year window from retirement, then we want to talk more significantly about it. Because that will be a good...   Kiera Dent (23:23) got it because that's what I was curious I was like should people be talking   when they're in their 20s 30s or is it something we're like start to think about it I know Ryan and I from Dentist advisors we we talk shop about this quite often of like there I mean there are studies that show that when you retire you actually start to atrophy in life and ⁓ there isn't as much of a purpose and so we talk often of like how can we continue that   mental stamina, the things that are going to fulfill us, whether it's working or something else of philanthropy, like whatever is going to keep you going as a human, whether you're working in the chair or you're not, I think is important. So that's I was curious of like, really probably connecting with you three to five years before we think we might retire, but with the caveat of, hey, if something were to happen to me, what would kind of be my exit strategy? your like death list like I do, like if I die, this is what's going to happen. It's creepy, but it's awesome.   Fred Heppner (24:15) No, it's, it's creepy and it is awesome. And at the same time, it's a really good conversation to have because if we're three to five years out, then one of the first things to do is say, okay, so what's going to happen if you're not here? And that carries on to the discussion we had earlier.   Kiera Dent (24:28) Mm-hmm.   The Dental A Team (24:31) Awesome. Thank you. And thank you, Fred. Thank you, all of you. And for all of you listening, thanks for listening. And I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.  

For a long time the appendix was considered disposable. After all, millions of people have theirs removed each year and go on to live healthy lives. But as Heather F Smith, a professor of anatomy at Midwestern University tells Ian Sample, researchers are increasingly understanding what this small worm-shaped organ may be bringing to the table in terms of our health. Smith explains how the appendix is linked to both our immune system development and gut health, and why she thinks an increasing interest in the microbiome may bring it to greater prominence. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

Dean's Chat hosts, Drs. Jensen and Richey, welcome Dr. Kanika Kochhar to the podcast! Dr. Kochhar is currently practicing in Michigan. She began her career with her Bachelors of Science in Biopsyhoclogy, cognition and neuroscience at University of Michigan. Join us as we discuss this unique pre-med major and how it has influenced her interests in research and teaching.  She went on to complete her Masters in Biomedical Sciences at Midwestern University, and completed her Podiatric medical degree at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine. She completed her 3 yr surgical residency program with Katherine Shaw Bethea in Dixon IL.   Tune in, as we discuss the FIRST KSB Surgical escape room, what the development of this project looked like and what its like to orchestrate a large learning event focused on engagement, fun and skills acquisition! We also dive into the details of the BAKO Fellowship program and how this has impacted her career!  This episode is sponsored by Bako Diagnostics! Dr. Kochhar has been heavily involved in scholarly activities. Listen as she discusses how her 2 year research fellowship with the University of Michigan helped shape her research career. We will talk about mentorship, publication and development of research ideas into projects. We also discuss broader public health and volunteer initiatives that Dr. Kochhar has been a part of including her volunteer work with “Youth Summit at the Big House” which is focused on middle school students from across Southeast Michigan who are under-represented in the health sciences. She has helped educated students about the field of podiatry with use of virtual and augmented reality as well as 3D models depicting various pathologies  Join us, as we discuss all things podiatric medicine and surgery, including leadership, fellowships, learning, cognition, research and making an impact in your career.     https://bmef.org/  https://bmef.org/fellowships/  https://www.abfas.org/residents  https://www.apma.org/ https://www.acfas.org/

Case acceptance is 80% psychology and 20% skill. Kiera gives tangible tips on how treatment coordinators and doctors can get in the right frame of mind for that successful case acceptance, including no more assuming someone's financial capabilities, understanding people's motivators, and learning the art of silence. 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 I hope you are just having an incredible day today. I hope you are so jazzed and you are so excited about dentistry, because I'm excited about dentistry. You don't call us the Dental A Team for nothing. Our job is to help you in your practice become the A Team of dental offices. Honestly, I love this. I love what we do. I love talking to you. I love helping you and your team just become everything and more that you've ever hoped to be. So today, I hope you are ready. I just did a really incredible   team training with an office about case acceptance. And I realized, hey, maybe that's something where I can help you in your practice. I love doing this with teams. I have a couple of practices where I help their treatment coordinators. And we've actually been able to add multiple millions. And that's not an exaggeration, multiple millions to their practice. And the thing that I just love is when we increase our case acceptance from doctors and team members, we're able to help more patients. And that's what I tell everyone. are.   so blessed and so lucky to be able to be treatment coordinator masters and to be able to help more patients and to give patients this incredible life, to be able to give them the confidence, to be able to give them the smile, to be able to help their longevity. And I always enjoy hearing the objections. So it's a fun time. So we'll do a part one, part two of this podcast where I'll kind of break down case acceptance for you of kind of how I get team members into this mindset.   And then what I'll do part two of all the objections and how you can overcome objections and treatment planning. I think one of our greatest wins was when I had an office who literally was able to sell an electronic, like an electric toothbrush, which we all know is better than just a standard one to an Amish family. I was blown away. And it was because this treatment coordinator was able to provide so much value of what this patient actually needed and to help them have the best dental health. And I just...   I love treatment planning and case acceptance so much because to me it's helping more patients have healthier smiles, healthier mouths. And I just think it's one of the greatest gifts that we could ever, ever, ever, ever give our patients and our team. So I hope you're excited. I'll break it down for you in a couple of simple steps. These are some of the things that I do to get treatment coordinators and doctors in the right frame of mind. Because what I found is case acceptance is truly 80 % your psychology and what you're thinking and 20 % skill. So I'll give you both.   But really just wanting to break it down for you that so much of case acceptance is about Literally what you're thinking about. if you're new to the dental a team podcast, welcome. I'm Kiera Dent I'm your host I love all things dental and so much so that my last name is actually dent I created the dental a team consulting years ago when I left Midwestern University's dental college and working with so many of those dental students shout out to all of them and Realizing those students that I loved so much. We're going to go out into this   big bright world of dentistry and they were gonna need an advocate, someone who could vet companies for them, someone who could help guide them, someone who could help them understand what a P &L was, understanding what cashflow was, understanding the business aspect and the team aspect of dentistry, and that's how Dental A Team was born. So my first practice we took from 500,000 to 2.4 million in nine months and opened our second location. Dental A Team is a miracle grow for practices. We're able to increase.   your production, decrease your overhead and honestly decrease your stress and get a full doctor team experience. So that way doctors, don't just have to do this on your own. So that's a little bit about what Dental A Team is about. If you are part of our actual consulting dental family, welcome. I love you. I'm so grateful for you. It is truly one of the highlights of my entire life is watching offices succeed. Like we shout out office wins every single day in our team huddle. And when I hear offices who have broken a million or hit a hundred thousand for the first time or took home a paycheck for the first time or   got their team on board for the first time, literally, I light up, our team lights up because that's what we do. Our consultants are truly experts at what we do and we truly do love seeing your wins. Our tagline is your success and our passion. So our passion is seeing you successful. Our love of dentistry is being able to make sure you and your team are truly flourishing to help those patients get the best dentistry they can. So with that, setting up case acceptance is what I promise you are gonna come in part one of part two.   And like I said, we do this with teams. It's something really, really, really, I would say fulfilling for me to actually teach your teams how to present cases, how to help them. Like I said, I literally have a practice. We've got five offices and we have added multiple millions of dollars to their practices over the years of just working with their treatment coordinators and doctors. And it's funny, they have another person who watches their business and they said, what's happened?   how you guys grown so much and they said it all started when we hired The Dental A Team and just shout out to that practice and that owner and those owners at that, those locations because honestly, they don't just listen but they actually execute and they implement and we work on it and we listen to their treatment plans and we review and what I will tell you, one of my biggest secrets for it is it's usually one or two words that's making or breaking your case acceptance. And I hope you heard that. It's one or two words.   that's actually making or breaking patients saying yes or no to you. So that's where it's so fun. So, okay, Step 1 that I always like to tell people is, like I said, 80% psychology, 20% skill. So what you've got to do is You've got to literally be in the right mindset before you go in. So doctors, before you go in and present an exam, team members, before we go and talk about it, before we hand things off, treatment coordinators, before you even think about presenting a treatment plan, I want you to have the right frame of mind. Kiera Dent's frame of mind is   everyone says yes to me and there's always a solution. That's my mantra. That's what I say. That's what I think about. And this is when I used to not even be able to close $500 cases. I went from closing $500 cases all the way up to closing $50, $60, $70, $80,000 cases same day. I literally had no idea a credit card could go up to $80,000. I was like, whoa, we're buying a boat today. Like I didn't even know this was reality. But what I learned was it was my psychology. It was me realizing that this was not a big treatment plan. It's just a treatment plan. So that's the second step to this.   We actually cut out the emotion of it's not a big treatment plan. And what I love to do is I love to ask you right now to tell me and you can say this out loud. I know I'm not actually listening, but hopefully you're playing along with me today. It actually will make this really real for you. But What is the number for you that's your actual high dollar treatment plan? If I were to say, what's a big treatment plan for you? What's your number? Some people's $1000 some people's $5000, $10,000. What is your number?   I need you to tell me your number and do not sugarcoat to me. Don't go higher, don't go lower. If you're listening to this as a team, which, hey, that's a great idea. This is a great team training. You're getting it with me for free. But what is the number? And the reason I want to know this number is because no matter what, no matter what you're doing, guess what? That number actually is influencing you. And what I say is there's no judgment on treatment planning. I just need to know and you need to know.   what your number is so then we actually figure out where your ceiling is and how to go around it. When I start working with treatment coordinators, I usually say that I can typically tell when I look at a treatment tracker on a treatment coordinator what they're closing and it's usually close to us in their bank account. Dun dun dun dun dun, mic drop right there. The reason why is because we have this familiarity association where we think people are just like us and so I hear all the time of like, but Kiera, couldn't afford that or Kiera, could afford that or Kiera like,   That's like, it would be so hard for me as a parent to do this. And what we do is we try to put ourselves in other people's shoes, AKA empathy. But what we do on that is we actually close down a lot of cases that could be yeses because people are not just like us. Like I said, I didn't even know credit cards at the time could go up to $80,000. I had no idea. And had I assumed or projected or tried to be familiar with these patients, I would never have been able to close those cases. So what we wanna look at in these situations is,   We've got to cut the emotion. We've got to realize this is my ceiling and I'm going to get beyond that ceiling. Doctors, you have the same thing. You might walk into a room and you might think, my gosh, this patient is gonna think I'm buying my boat or they're paying for this. Whatever you're thinking about, patients actually pick up that energy vibe from you. And I know this sounds like woo woo.   but I will tell you I have taught so many people how to close cases and I'm freaking good at closing cases. Like I literally can walk into offices. I still test my skills when I walk into a practice because I really wanna make sure that what I'm teaching you is actually still working and it is. I have done it so many times successfully. So pick this up. We've got to cut the emotion and it's just a treatment plan. So I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever want to hear you ever again say, my gosh, it's a big treatment plan. Because what you do is you amp yourself up and you get all this energy behind it.   unnecessarily, and then you actually get like skittish and nervous and the patient feels that. I want to remind you, patients are not buying treatment plans, they're buying your confidence and a dream of their future life. So what I like to do is then next, figure out what kind of motivator this patient has. Is it cosmetic, function, cost, or longevity? I also found with treatment planning, sequence matters. So notice I said, is it cosmetic, function, cost, or longevity?   I did not start with cost and when I've done this in rooms and I've asked people and you can ask yourself right now, what is the number one motivator for you and your mouth? You're probably not gonna tell me it's cost. Believe it or not, you listen to those four. If you could only choose one, cost could be a portion of it, that's fine. But guess what, I could say, what is most important about your mouth and your smile? Is it cosmetic, function, cost or longevity? What would you tell me?   and I just sampled a room of probably 50 plus people and of those 50 plus people, three people it was cost. And the reason I like to highlight this is because we assume and we project because we wanna be familiar and close to these people that they're just like us and we think, my gosh, it's cost. If I were to sample an entire room of treatment coordinators across the nation, I promise you the number one thing people would tell me as to why they can't close cases is due to you got it cost.   But when I actually sample people and find out what's truly the most important for people, it's usually like 3 % of the room actually cares about cost. So I really, really, really want you to note that. And I want you to see that. With that, the next thing we're going to look at is, OK, now I know.   One, it's my psychology. Everyone says yes to me. There's always a solution and you can have whatever you want. You don't have to say that. But the reason I do that is because guess what? I walk in with pretty strong confidence. This patient is buying my confidence and I'm going forward knowing I'm going to figure out what motivates this person and I'm going to be able to help them say yes to this incredible life that they get to have with these teeth. Our teeth are literally the way we eat, talk, communicate, express our emotions. Like all of it. It's such an incredible thing for us to do.   We've cut the emotion, it's just a treatment plan. And then after that, what we're gonna do is we are going to make sure that we're not accidentally closing cases down before they even begin. And I say, don't create a solution to a problem they don't have. So a lot of times treatment coordinators, what they'll do is they'll start to like want to associate with this person and anticipate what objection they're gonna say so they don't quote unquote get broken up with. You're not about to get broken up with if a patient's silent.   They're just thinking through it. So what starts to happen is treatment coordinators and or doctors and team members start to ramble. We start to talk, we start to be like, my gosh, and what you end up doing is talking them out of treatment. So we need to also learn the art of silence. So once we present a treatment plan, once we do it, we want to ask them, what questions do you have? I want you to be rock solid, confident moving forward. Notice I'm teaching you sequence matters, putting things in order. What am I focusing on? Same thing when I do a treatment plan.   What am I focusing on? Am I focusing on insurance first? Am I focusing on how I want them to feel? Am I telling them, hey, what questions do you have for me? I want you rock solid confident. I'm telling them moving forward, this is how I want you to feel. What patients will do is they will actually follow through with you. It's going to be something wild for you. And so making sure that we're using language that's going to get our patients going where we want them to go. We're also making sure we're not planting, I call it weeds in our flower garden. So not.   accidentally creating solutions to problems they didn't say they had. So it's, hey, like, so we have financing options. Well, if they didn't say they have a financing issue, why are we offering financing options? Like, I know, like, it might be a lot of time. Why are you saying that? If they didn't say it, don't bring it up. Because what you do is you plant seeds. And I've talked about this on the podcast, and I think it's just a really good example. I went to PT one time and I had a really bad knee and hip pain.   And the PT was like, I noticed you didn't have insurance. I was like, yeah, I don't. And she's like, this might be really expensive for you. Thank you. I'm in pain. How many times do I need to come? And she's like, well, I don't know. How many times do you think you could afford it or come in? Girl, you just planted weeds in your flower garden. You just gave me all these objections that I was not even thinking about because you didn't stop talking to listen to me of what I actually said.   What I said is I'm in a lot of pain and I want to get out of pain. You then pick up, Kiera's number one motive is to get out of pain. So, hey, Kiera, the way we're going to be able to get you out of pain is we're going to see you three times a month. I'm going to see you for an hour. You're going to do exercises at home and we're going to get you out of pain in the next four months. Fan-freaking-tastic. Now, if I have an objection, I'm like, well, how much is that going to cost? Do you guys do payment plans? Let me bring that up, but pay attention to what your patients want. So,   These are just going to be a few little things for you. There's so many more things when I teach offices, like we need to edify our doctor. We need to tell this patient, my gosh, you are so lucky that Dr. Taylor is your doctor. Dr. Taylor is incredible. They're going to take great care of you. They do incredible dentistry. I am so excited for you to get treatment done with them. I have now put this patient on the winning team. They are buying my confidence. They are so excited about it and treatment coordinators. will give you a tip when doctors diagnose our job is to close. Did you hear that?   Doctors, when you diagnose, you should be able to expect and count on your team to close. I feel like when my doctor like diagnosis treatment, my job as a treatment coordinator is to get that patient on the schedule to figure out what their needs are and to be able to close that patient. So I need to figure out one, it's my mindset. Two, I need to make sure that I am not bringing emotion into this treatment plan. Three, I need to make sure that I'm presenting things in a right sequence based on what I'm focusing on to make sure that patient is focusing on the things that I need them to focus on.   Four, I need to make sure that I'm not planting any weeds in my flower garden and presenting solutions to problems they don't even have. And five, I need to make sure that I get this patient on the winning team. Doctors, you can say the same thing. You can present the treatment plan and say, my gosh, Kiera is an incredible treatment coordinator. She's gonna take great care of you. I know you're gonna really love her. I want you to be super confident moving forward. We have told them, we want them confident moving forward. We have told them that they're going to move forward.   Why on earth would we diagnose treatment and why on earth this patient come to the dentist if they don't want to move forward? Riddle me that. Think about that for a second where I was like, oh my gosh, they're gonna be so stressful. Insurance and money and teeth and pain. Well, yes, you're gonna create that. What you think about is what you create. And I will tell you this over and over and over again. So if you're like, oh, the patient can't afford it. Like the patients are saying no to me. You keep creating that. Care is as everyone says yes to me and there's always a solution and we will find it.   We will find it. Not I will find it, but we, me and the patient, we will figure this out. We will find a solution because I will close cases because if I believe in my doctor and I believe in the dentistry that they do, my job is to help this patient get the dentistry that they need done. We can then go in to so many different pieces of how we present this, how we talk about this, how we go into objections. Like I said, there will be a part two to this podcast. but really the reality is you've got to get this podcast. This one's about, you've got to be in the right freaking mindset.   before you even think about presenting a treatment plan. And usually we're like, Kara, tell me how to present the treatment plan. And I'm gonna say pause. And I want you to think about the treatment plan you're presenting, but I want you to think about the mindset, the sequence, what you are putting emphasis on because that's what your patients are responding to. You're like, patients aren't saying yes to me. Well, my question is, what is your sequence? What are you focusing on? What are you thinking about that might be influencing and not might that is influencing what your patients are responding to?   So it's wild when I start to get people in this mindset, when I start to help them realize like, okay, when I walk into the room, doctors, patients love you, they say yes to you when you are diagnosing comprehensive care. Whatever you feel is what this patient's going to respond to. Treatment coordinators, when they come up, it's an easy, it's an A plus B equals C. Fantastic, I'm gonna schedule you, present the treatment plan, bada bing, bada boom, we're gonna figure out the solutions. Notice I've cut the emotion. This patient's here, I didn't get them here. I did not brush their teeth, I did not floss for them.   They got themselves here. But the great news is my job is to help you get the great dentistry that's going to really truly make sure that you are taken care of. And that's what my job is to do. My job is to not like woe is you, like make you feel bad about this. My job is to have confidence. My job is to know that no matter what objection this patient gives me, I have a solution for it. And we are going to have a solution together. My job is also to help this patient figure out what their driver is by listening to them, paying attention. Like I said, it's 80 % psychology.   What is this patient's motivator? What is it that's driving them? Doctors, you can pay attention to this too when you go into the room. Look to see how do they talk? What do they tell you? What are the things when you emotionally connect with them? When you ask them about their life, what are they telling you? Link your treatment plans back to that. They tell you you've got kids and it's a mom. Reminder, she's worth it. She truly is worth it. If it's an elderly patient, remind them that your body deserves this nutrition. Like it's so great for you and it does so many things for you and it deserves that nutrition.   to truly make sure that you have the best quality of life you can. We can remind our patients of these things. It is an emotional purchase. They are not buying a filling. They're not buying a crown. They are buying the ability to eat. They are buying the ability to smile. They're buying the ability to make memories. They're buying the ability to communicate with confidence. That's what they're buying. And so when you walk into a treatment plan, this is how you become a treatment planning master, a case acceptance like guru. This is how you do it is it's.   start out with the right mindset. And this is what I get obsessed with because a lot of times we think we're doing all these pieces and we're not. And so what I want you to realize is the next podcast will be the tactical and you're like, okay, I'm going to like hurry up and listen to that high five. Thank you for being an avid listener. But number one, get this podcast dialed in first before you listen to the tactical, because if you don't fix your mindset, no matter what tactical piece I give you, you will always continue to get the same results where your focus goes, your energy flows.   where your energy flows, your focus goes, and it just goes around and around. So if I'm thinking patients will say no to me, that's going to become my reality. You create your reality. So if you've got patients saying no to you, you are creating it. So what paintbrush strokes do we need to remove? What thoughts do we need to remove? What new thoughts do we need to bring into it? What do I need to drop? I know what my number is of a high treatment plan. I need to drop that because there are no high treatment plans. There are just treatment plans. There is just dentistry. These are just people that deserve to have healthy mouths, healthy bodies.   healthy lives. That's what treatment planning's about. So I'm so jazzed. I hope you took a bunch from this. If you want, we do this with teams. And like I said, you want to believe that I can add a pay for our consulting in a couple sessions? Here we go. It's really such a beautiful thing. And to help teams become so confident to do this is truly a huge passion of Dental A Team. So if you're like, my gosh, I don't even know how to do this. I need you to listen to what I'm saying that I don't even realize I'm saying.   That's what we're experts in and I love to do this for teams. love to help you doctors out with this. So reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com and be sure to catch part two of this because I'm going to go into tactical on the next one, but promise me you will get your mindset right to help more patients. It is your moral and ethical obligation. And I hope you take that on seriously. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.  

Host Polly Swingle is joined by Dr. TJ Hosa PT, DPT, and Mark Pedziwiatr MS, OTR/L, ATP, to discuss the ARC-EX by Onward Medical, the first system approved for non-invasive spinal cord stimulation for people with spinal cord injury (SCI). It is intended to deliver programmed, transcutaneous electrical spinal cord stimulation in conjunction with functional task practice in the clinic to improve hand sensation and strength in individuals between 18 and 75 years old that present with a chronic, non-progressive neurological deficit resulting from an incomplete spinal cord injury (C2-C8 inclusive). In 2024, the ARC-EX System was granted FDA clearance to market in the United States. You can learn more about this system for use in the clinical setting at www.onwd.com.Dr. TJ Hosa PT, DPT, earned his Bachelors Degree in Exercise Science from Ohio State University (2011) and Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Ohio University (2015).  TJ has been a Physical Therapist at The Recovery Project for 10 years.  He is the lead of the spinal cord injury and vestibular programs and has additional training in functional electrical stimulation (FES).  TJ also specializes in the implementation of high intensity therapy for patients with neuro diagnoses.  He is also certified in dry needling and has used it to treat spasticity and a multitude of pain syndromes.Mark Pedziwiatr MS, OTR/L, ATP, earned his Master's degree in Occupational Therapy from Midwestern University, where he conducted research on rehabilitation technology. As an occupational therapist, he brings experience across the continuum of care, including outpatient, inpatient, and acute-care settings. In his current role as a Therapy Consultant with Onward Medical, Mark leverages his clinical experience to support the integration and training of therapists in the use of ARC-EX within spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation clinics across the Midwest.Learn more about The Recovery Project! View our website at www.therecoveryproject.net Call us 855-877-1944 to become a patient Follow us on Instagram Like us on Facebook Thanks for listening!

Tiff and Kristy give tips on how to catch up on those collections fast, including a day-ahead assessment and treatment plan presentation. The advice given in this episode isn't only effective for offices concerned about collections, but any office, regardless of what their bank account looks like. Episode resources: Sign up for Dental A-Team's Virtual Summit 2025! Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.738) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera, and I hope you are just having an incredible day today. I hope you are so jazzed and you are so excited about dentistry, because I'm excited about dentistry. You don't call us the Dental A Team for nothing. Our job is to help you in your practice become the A Team of dental offices. Honestly, I love this. I love what we do. I love talking to you. I love helping you and your team just become everything and more that you've ever hoped to be. So today, I hope you are ready. I just did a really incredible   team training with an office about case acceptance. And I realized, hey, maybe that's something where I can help you in your practice. I love doing this with teams. I have a couple of practices where I help their treatment coordinators. And we've actually been able to add multiple millions. And that's not an exaggeration, multiple millions to their practice. And the thing that I just love is when we increase our case acceptance from doctors and team members, we're able to help more patients. And that's what I tell everyone. are.   so blessed and so lucky to be able to be treatment coordinator masters and to be able to help more patients and to give patients this incredible life, to be able to give them the confidence, to be able to give them the smile, to be able to help their longevity. And I always enjoy hearing the objections. So it's a fun time. So we'll do a part one, part two of this podcast where I'll kind of break down case acceptance for you of kind of how I get team members into this mindset.   And then what I'll do part two of all the objections and how you can overcome objections and treatment planning. I think one of our greatest wins was when I had an office who literally was able to sell an electronic, like an electric toothbrush, which we all know is better than just a standard one to an Amish family. I was blown away. And it was because this treatment coordinator was able to provide so much value of what this patient actually needed and to help them have the best dental health. And I just...   I love treatment planning and case acceptance so much because to me it's helping more patients have healthier smiles, healthier mouths. And I just think it's one of the greatest gifts that we could ever, ever, ever, ever give our patients and our team. So I hope you're excited. I'll break it down for you in a couple of simple steps. These are some of the things that I do to get treatment coordinators and doctors in the right frame of mind. Because what I found is case acceptance is truly 80 % your psychology and what you're thinking and 20 % skill. So I'll give you both.   Kiera Dent (02:19.79) But really just wanting to break it down for you that so much of case acceptance is about Literally what you're thinking about. if you're new to the Dental A Team podcast, welcome. I'm Kiera Dent I'm your host I love all things dental and so much so that my last name is actually dent I created the Dental A Team consulting years ago when I left Midwestern University's dental college and working with so many of those dental students shout out to all of them and Realizing those students that I loved so much. We're going to go out into this   big bright world of dentistry and they were gonna need an advocate, someone who could vet companies for them, someone who could help guide them, someone who could help them understand what a P &L was, understanding what cashflow was, understanding the business aspect and the team aspect of dentistry, and that's how Dental A Team was born. So my first practice we took from 500,000 to 2.4 million in nine months and opened our second location. Dental A Team is a miracle grow for practices. We're able to increase.   your production, decrease your overhead and honestly decrease your stress and get a full doctor team experience. So that way doctors, don't just have to do this on your own. So that's a little bit about what Dental A Team is about. If you are part of our actual consulting dental family, welcome. I love you. I'm so grateful for you. It is truly one of the highlights of my entire life is watching offices succeed. Like we shout out office wins every single day in our team huddle. And when I hear offices who have broken a million or hit a hundred thousand for the first time or took home a paycheck for the first time or   got their team on board for the first time, literally, I light up, our team lights up because that's what we do. Our consultants are truly experts at what we do and we truly do love seeing your wins. Our tagline is your success and our passion. So our passion is seeing you successful. Our love of dentistry is being able to make sure you and your team are truly flourishing to help those patients get the best dentistry they can. So with that, setting up case acceptance is what I promise you are gonna come in part one of part two.   And like I said, we do this with teams. It's something really, really, really, I would say fulfilling for me to actually teach your teams how to present cases, how to help them. Like I said, I literally have a practice. We've got five offices and we have added multiple millions of dollars to their practices over the years of just working with their treatment coordinators and doctors. And it's funny, they have another person who watches their business and they said, what's happened?   Kiera Dent (04:39.342) how you guys grown so much and they said it all started when we hired the Dental A Team and just shout out to that practice and that owner and those owners at that, those locations because honestly, they don't just listen but they actually execute and they implement and we work on it and we listen to their treatment plans and we review and what I will tell you, one of my biggest secrets for it is it's usually one or two words that's making or breaking your case acceptance. And I hope you heard that. It's one or two words.   that's actually making or breaking patients saying yes or no to you. So that's where it's so fun. So, okay, step one that I always like to tell people is, like I said, 80 % psychology, 20 % skill. So what you've got to do is you've got to literally be in the right mindset before you go in. So doctors, before you go in and present an exam, team members, before we go and talk about it, before we hand things off, treatment coordinators, before you even think about presenting a treatment plan, I want you to have the right frame of mind. Kiera Dent's frame of mind is...   Everyone says yes to me and there's always a solution. That's my mantra. That's what I say. That's what I think about. And this is when I used to not even be able to close $500 cases. I went from closing $500 cases all the way up to closing 50, 60, 70, $80,000 cases same day. I literally had no idea a credit card could go up to $80,000. I was like, whoa, we're buying a boat today. Like I didn't even know this was reality. But what I learned was it was my psychology. It was me realizing that this was not a big treatment plan. It's just a treatment plan. So that's the second step to this.   We actually cut out the emotion of it's not a big treatment plan. And what I love to do is I love to ask you right now to tell me, and you can say this out loud. I know I'm not actually listening, but hopefully you're playing along with me today. It actually will make this really real for you. But what is the number for you that's your actual high dollar treatment plan? If I were to say, what's a big treatment plan for you? What's your number? Some people's a thousand, some people's 5,000, $10,400. What is your number?   I need you to tell me your number and do not sugarcoat to me. Don't go higher, don't go lower. If you're listening to this as a team, which, hey, that's a great idea. This is a great team training. You're getting it with me for free. But what is the number? And the reason I want to know this number is because no matter what, no matter what you're doing, guess what? That number actually is influencing you. And what I say is there's no judgment on treatment planning. I just need to know and you need to know.   Kiera Dent (06:56.126) what your number is so then we actually figure out where your ceiling is and how to go around it. When I start working with treatment coordinators, I usually say that I can typically tell when I look at a treatment tracker on a treatment coordinator what they're closing and it's usually close to us in their bank account. Dun dun dun dun dun, mic drop right there. The reason why is because we have this familiarity association where we think people are just like us and so I hear all the time of like, but Kiera, couldn't afford that or Kirea, could afford that or Kiera like,   That's like, it would be so hard for me as a parent to do this. And what we do is we try to put ourselves in other people's shoes, AKA empathy. But what we do on that is we actually close down a lot of cases that could be yeses because people are not just like us. Like I said, I didn't even know credit cards at the time could go up to $80,000. I had no idea. And had I assumed or projected or tried to be familiar with these patients, I would never have been able to close those cases. So what we wanna look at in these situations is,   We've got to cut the emotion. We've got to realize this is my ceiling and I'm going to get beyond that ceiling. Doctors, you have the same thing. You might walk into a room and you might think, my gosh, this patient is gonna think I'm buying my boat or they're paying for this. Whatever you're thinking about, patients actually pick up that energy vibe from you. And I know this sounds like woo woo.   but I will tell you I have taught so many people how to close cases and I'm freaking good at closing cases. Like I literally can walk into offices. I still test my skills when I walk into a practice because I really wanna make sure that what I'm teaching you is actually still working and it is. I have done it so many times successfully. So pick this up. We've got to cut the emotion and it's just a treatment plan. So I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever want to hear you ever again say, my gosh, it's a big treatment plan. Because what you do is you amp yourself up and you get all this energy behind it.   unnecessarily, and then you actually get like skittish and nervous and the patient feels that. I want to remind you, patients are not buying treatment plans, they're buying your confidence and a dream of their future life. So what I like to do is then next, figure out what kind of motivator this patient has. Is it cosmetic, function, cost, or longevity? I also found with treatment planning, sequence matters. So notice I said, is it cosmetic, function, cost, or longevity?   Kiera Dent (09:08.546) I did not start with cost and when I've done this in rooms and I've asked people and you can ask yourself right now, what is the number one motivator for you and your mouth? You're probably not gonna tell me it's cost. Believe it or not, you listen to those four. If you could only choose one, cost could be a portion of it, that's fine. But guess what, I could say, what is most important about your mouth and your smile? Is it cosmetic, function, cost or longevity? What would you tell me?   and I just sampled a room of probably 50 plus people and of those 50 plus people, three people it was cost. And the reason I like to highlight this is because we assume and we project because we wanna be familiar and close to these people that they're just like us and we think, my gosh, it's cost. If I were to sample an entire room of treatment coordinators across the nation, I promise you the number one thing people would tell me as to why they can't close cases is due to you got it cost.   But when I actually sample people and find out what's truly the most important for people, it's usually like 3 % of the room actually cares about cost. So I really, really, really want you to note that. And I want you to see that. With that, the next thing we're going to look at is, OK, now I know.   One, it's my psychology. Everyone says yes to me. There's always a solution and you can have whatever you want. You don't have to say that. But the reason I do that is because guess what? I walk in with pretty strong confidence. This patient is buying my confidence and I'm going forward knowing I'm going to figure out what motivates this person and I'm going to be able to help them say yes to this incredible life that they get to have with these teeth. Our teeth are literally the way we eat, talk, communicate, express our emotions. Like all of it. It's such an incredible thing for us to do.   We've cut the emotion, it's just a treatment plan. And then after that, what we're gonna do is we are going to make sure that we're not accidentally closing cases down before they even begin. And I say, don't create a solution to a problem they don't have. So a lot of times treatment coordinators, what they'll do is they'll start to like want to associate with this person and anticipate what objection they're gonna say so they don't quote unquote get broken up with. You're not about to get broken up with if a patient's silent.   Kiera Dent (11:23.17) They're just thinking through it. So what starts to happen is treatment coordinators and or doctors and team members start to ramble. We start to talk, we start to be like, my gosh, and what you end up doing is talking them out of treatment. So we need to also learn the art of silence. So once we present a treatment plan, once we do it, we want to ask them, what questions do you have? I want you to be rock solid, confident moving forward. Notice I'm teaching you sequence matters, putting things in order. What am I focusing on? Same thing when I do a treatment plan.   What am I focusing on? Am I focusing on insurance first? Am I focusing on how I want them to feel? Am I telling them, hey, what questions do you have for me? I want you rock solid confident. I'm telling them moving forward, this is how I want you to feel. What patients will do is they will actually follow through with you. It's going to be something wild for you. And so making sure that we're using language that's going to get our patients going where we want them to go. We're also making sure we're not planting, I call it weeds in our flower garden. So not.   accidentally creating solutions to problems they didn't say they had. So it's, hey, like, so we have financing options. Well, if they didn't say they have a financing issue, why are we offering financing options? Like, I know, like, it might be a lot of time. Why are you saying that? If they didn't say it, don't bring it up. Because what you do is you plant seeds. And I've talked about this on the podcast, and I think it's just a really good example. I went to PT one time and I had a really bad knee and hip pain.   And the PT was like, I noticed you didn't have insurance. I was like, yeah, I don't. And she's like, this might be really expensive for you. Thank you. I'm in pain. How many times do I need to come? And she's like, well, I don't know. How many times do you think you could afford it or come in? Girl, you just planted weeds in your flower garden. You just gave me all these objections that I was not even thinking about because you didn't stop talking to listen to me of what I actually said.   What I said is I'm in a lot of pain and I want to get out of pain. You then pick up, Kiera's number one motive is to get out of pain. So, hey, Kiera, the way we're going to be able to get you out of pain is we're going to see you three times a month. I'm going to see you for an hour. You're going to do exercises at home and we're going to get you out of pain in the next four months. Fan-freaking-tastic. Now, if I have an objection, I'm like, well, how much is that going to cost? Do you guys do payment plans? Let me bring that up, but pay attention to what your patients want. So,   Kiera Dent (13:42.978) These are just going to be a few little things for you. There's so many more things when I teach offices, like we need to edify our doctor. We need to tell this patient, my gosh, you are so lucky that Dr. Taylor is your doctor. Dr. Taylor is incredible. They're going to take great care of you. They do incredible dentistry. I am so excited for you to get treatment done with them. I have now put this patient on the winning team. They are buying my confidence. They are so excited about it and treatment coordinators. will give you a tip when doctors diagnose our job is to close. Did you hear that?   Doctors, when you diagnose, you should be able to expect and count on your team to close. I feel like when my doctor like diagnosis treatment, my job as a treatment coordinator is to get that patient on the schedule to figure out what their needs are and to be able to close that patient. So I need to figure out one, it's my mindset. Two, I need to make sure that I am not bringing emotion into this treatment plan. Three, I need to make sure that I'm presenting things in a right sequence based on what I'm focusing on to make sure that patient is focusing on the things that I need them to focus on.   Four, I need to make sure that I'm not planting any weeds in my flower garden and presenting solutions to problems they don't even have. And five, I need to make sure that I get this patient on the winning team. Doctors, you can say the same thing. You can present the treatment plan and say, my gosh, Kiera is an incredible treatment coordinator. She's gonna take great care of you. I know you're gonna really love her. I want you to be super confident moving forward. We have told them, we want them confident moving forward. We have told them that they're going to move forward.   Why on earth would we diagnose treatment and why on earth this patient come to the dentist if they don't want to move forward? Riddle me that. Think about that for a second where I was like, oh my gosh, they're gonna be so stressful. Insurance and money and teeth and pain. Well, yes, you're gonna create that. What you think about is what you create. And I will tell you this over and over and over again. So if you're like, oh, the patient can't afford it. Like the patients are saying no to me. You keep creating that. Care is as everyone says yes to me and there's always a solution and we will find it.   We will find it. Not I will find it, but we, me and the patient, we will figure this out. We will find a solution because I will close cases because if I believe in my doctor and I believe in the dentistry that they do, my job is to help this patient get the dentistry that they need done. We can then go in to so many different pieces of how we present this, how we talk about this, how we go into objections. Like I said, there will be a part two to this podcast. but really the reality is you've got to get this podcast. This one's about, you've got to be in the right freaking mindset.   Kiera Dent (16:03.438) before you even think about presenting a treatment plan. And usually we're like, Kara, tell me how to present the treatment plan. And I'm gonna say pause. And I want you to think about the treatment plan you're presenting, but I want you to think about the mindset, the sequence, what you are putting emphasis on because that's what your patients are responding to. You're like, patients aren't saying yes to me. Well, my question is, what is your sequence? What are you focusing on? What are you thinking about that might be influencing and not might that is influencing what your patients are responding to?   So it's wild when I start to get people in this mindset, when I start to help them realize like, okay, when I walk into the room, doctors, patients love you, they say yes to you when you are diagnosing comprehensive care. Whatever you feel is what this patient's going to respond to. Treatment coordinators, when they come up, it's an easy, it's an A plus B equals C. Fantastic, I'm gonna schedule you, present the treatment plan, bada bing, bada boom, we're gonna figure out the solutions. Notice I've cut the emotion. This patient's here, I didn't get them here. I did not brush their teeth, I did not floss for them.   They got themselves here. But the great news is my job is to help you get the great dentistry that's going to really truly make sure that you are taken care of. And that's what my job is to do. My job is to not like woe is you, like make you feel bad about this. My job is to have confidence. My job is to know that no matter what objection this patient gives me, I have a solution for it. And we are going to have a solution together. My job is also to help this patient figure out what their driver is by listening to them, paying attention. Like I said, it's 80 % psychology.   What is this patient's motivator? What is it that's driving them? Doctors, you can pay attention to this too when you go into the room. Look to see how do they talk? What do they tell you? What are the things when you emotionally connect with them? When you ask them about their life, what are they telling you? Link your treatment plans back to that. They tell you you've got kids and it's a mom. Reminder, she's worth it. She truly is worth it. If it's an elderly patient, remind them that your body deserves this nutrition. Like it's so great for you and it does so many things for you and it deserves that nutrition.   to truly make sure that you have the best quality of life you can. We can remind our patients of these things. It is an emotional purchase. They are not buying a filling. They're not buying a crown. They are buying the ability to eat. They are buying the ability to smile. They're buying the ability to make memories. They're buying the ability to communicate with confidence. That's what they're buying. And so when you walk into a treatment plan, this is how you become a treatment planning master, a case acceptance like guru. This is how you do it is it's.   Kiera Dent (18:26.196) start out with the right mindset. And this is what I get obsessed with because a lot of times we think we're doing all these pieces and we're not. And so what I want you to realize is the next podcast will be the tactical and you're like, okay, I'm going to like hurry up and listen to that high five. Thank you for being an avid listener. But number one, get this podcast dialed in first before you listen to the tactical, because if you don't fix your mindset, no matter what tactical piece I give you, you will always continue to get the same results where your focus goes, your energy flows.   where your energy flows, your focus goes, and it just goes around and around. So if I'm thinking patients will say no to me, that's going to become my reality. You create your reality. So if you've got patients saying no to you, you are creating it. So what paintbrush strokes do we need to remove? What thoughts do we need to remove? What new thoughts do we need to bring into it? What do I need to drop? I know what my number is of a high treatment plan. I need to drop that because there are no high treatment plans. There are just treatment plans. There is just dentistry. These are just people that deserve to have healthy mouths, healthy bodies.   healthy lives. That's what treatment planning's about. So I'm so jazzed. I hope you took a bunch from this. If you want, we do this with teams. And like I said, you want to believe that I can add a pay for our consulting in a couple sessions? Here we go. It's really such a beautiful thing. And to help teams become so confident to do this is truly a huge passion of Dental A Team. So if you're like, my gosh, I don't even know how to do this. I need you to listen to what I'm saying that I don't even realize I'm saying.   That's what we're experts in and I love to do this for teams. love to help you doctors out with this. So reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com and be sure to catch part two of this because I'm going to go into tactical on the next one, but promise me you will get your mindset right to help more patients. It is your moral and ethical obligation. And I hope you take that on seriously. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.  

The goal of this mini series is to spark conversations of these new tools and practices within the community of current and future medical practitioners and staff. It is important for medical professionals to have a say in how these AI tools impact practice to ensure practical and ethical use. Join us in discussions of the history of AI, machine and deep learning, computer visions, natural language processing, responsible AI, and so much more. Let's take a step into the future together.To kick off our first episode of this series we have Dr. Mehul Sheth, the medical director for health informatics for Illinois and Indiana based at Loyola. For his training, Dr. Sheth went to Midwestern University for medical school after which he completed a residency in pediatrics at University of Illinois Chicago. Dr. Sheth has been working in clinical informatics full-time for over 12 years most recently with oracle (formerly Cerner) where he was a member of the AI board and supported the development of machine learning algorithms and generative AI tools like Sax and Actions assist. In this episode we discuss various topics in AI and medicine including its history, capabilities and limitations, current applications, how to prepare for AI's impact in medicine, and a special announcement of a new AI elective at Stritch!Episode produced by: Rohan SethiEpisode recording date: 02/04/2025www.medicuspodcast.com | medicuspodcast@gmail.com | Donate: http://bit.ly/MedicusDonate

Our hosts, Drs. Jeffrey Jensen and Johanna Richey, welcome Marc Rademacher to Dean's Chat.  Marc is a 4th year student at the Arizona College of Podiatric Medicine (AZCPM), and he had the unique opportunity to represent Midwestern University in the "Amazon Prime: The College Tour!" https://www.thecollegetour.com/ https://www.thecollegetour.com/tour-colleges/midwestern-university/ Marc discussed that experience and we also discussed his 4 years at AZCPM, his memories of the first two years, his 3rd year rotations, and his 4th year of travel to clerkships around the USA!  His stories of travel with his parents joining for the long drive across the country left lifelong memories.   Dean's Chat viewers will remember Marc as a Co-host with Dr. Jensen interviewing Survivor participant, Dr. Joshua Wilder, in Episode 35.   https://youtu.be/-ApFq0GH3-4?si=a34dOg8LMuceVvcv Enjoy this discussion with a future leader in Podiatry! https://bakodx.com/ https://bmef.org/ www.explorepodmed.org https://podiatrist2be.com/  

This week, we share Chris and Rachel's Q&A session with Professor Danielle Reed and her students at Midwestern University. They discuss interdisciplinary collaboration, the importance of mindset in AAC implementation, how occupational therapists can work effectively with speech-language pathologists, and more!   Before the interview, Chris and Rachel touch on Chris's experience teaching AAC to pre-service occupational therapy students, emphasizing interdisciplinary collaboration, mindset shifts, and the importance of making communication fun and engaging.   Key Ideas This Week:  

Dean's Chat hosts, Dr. Jensen and Richey, welcome Dr. Tiffany Hughes to Dean's Chat!   Dr. Tiffany Hughes is Assistant Professor in the Master of Public Health Program at Midwestern. She holds a Ph.D. in Aging Studies, M.P.H. in Epidemiology, and M.B.A. in Healthcare Administration. She completed post-doctoral training at the University of Pittsburgh in geriatric psychiatry.  Her area of expertise is public health and aging with a focus on dementia and falls prevention.  She is also interested in geriatric education and providing experiential opportunities to get students interested in working with the aging population.  She became involved with the Walk with a Doc program and the Ohio Older Adult Falls Prevention Coalition while faculty at Youngstown State University. She is now a member of the Arizona Falls Prevention Coalition and their partner in the Walk with a Doc initiative with Midwestern University.  Listen as we discuss the topics that interested her as a young student and how this impacted her career. From dementia to fall risk, to prevention techniques and strategies to maintain mobility and independence we discuss how all these important topics are covered in multi-disciplinary ways. The Walk with a Doc program helps foster relationships for patients and hopes to “inspire communities through movement and conversation! With an aim to make health and happiness accessible to everyone, walk with a dock offers free walking programs in communities around the world led by local doctors, healthcare providers, or medical students. These ongoing events allow participants to safely walk, parentheses or role parentheses, learn about current health, topics, and meet new people.” Tune in as we discuss the Midwestern University first “Walk with a Doc” Event on the Glendale campus hosted by Dean's Chat co-host Dr. Richey! The event was a success with community, student, and faculty engagement on the topic of Fall Risk Reduction. We started the event with a welcome chat about the importance of activity/movement and its impact on fall risk reduction. In podiatry, our goal is focus on pain reduction and improvement of function specifically as it relates to the foot and ankle and lower extremity, so that our patients can maintain an active healthy lifestyle with the highest quality of life and maintain their independence. Falls are a significant problem in America. It is estimated that every second an older adult falls; One quarter of adults over 65 will hall at home and half won't tell their healthcare provider.  This leads to roughly 36 million falls, which account for ~8 million injuries contributing to 3 million Emergency Room visits and roughly 950,000 hospitalizations. What is truly alarming is that of these 950,000 hospitalizations, around 32,000 patients will die. While these are scary statistics, we focused our event on the empowerment that FALLS ARE PREVENTABLE!  There has been a lot of research around falls and fall risk prevention. We focused our discussion on the CDC's STEADI approach to fall risk reduction which includes “screening, assessing and intervening.” The STEADI approach has been clinically shown to reduce fall risk by 20%.  We distributed information to the participants about this method and discussed 3 key questions as we walked through campus. “Have you fallen in the past year?” “Do you feel unsteady when standing or walking?” “Do you worry about falling?” This helped spark conversation amongst the participants including our student “future doctors” about the importance of asking these 3 simple questions to normalize the discussion about fall risk. We hope you enjoy! https://walkwithadoc.org/ https://www.midwestern.edu/academics/degrees-programs/college-graduate-studies/master-arts-biomedical-sciences www.apma.org www.stepintopodiatry.com www.explorepodmed.org

1.35 million applicants received a military entrance physical from 2016 to 2020, and about 15% of them received an initial disqualification. More than half of these disqualified applicants sought a waiver, and they were more likely than not to get approved. This whole system can be frustrating and opaque, so in this episode we dive into the medical standards and waiver process with a guest who was deeply involved. Dr. Christopher D. Meyering is a board-certified Primary Care Sports Medicine physician. He attended medical school at the Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine, Midwestern University and subsequently completed his Family Medicine internship and residency training at DeWitt Army Community Hospital at Fort Belvoir, VA. Following a 2-year assignment in Germany, he completed a Sports Medicine Fellowship at the Tri-Service Primary Care Fellowship at Fort Belvoir, VA. He is certified by the American Board of Family Physicians with a Certificate of Added Qualification in Sports Medicine, and he is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Dr. Meyering retired from the U.S. Army after 21 years of Service which included 3 combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan as a Battalion Surgeon for Infantry, Armor, and Field Artillery units. Several key positions during his career were assignments as the Command Surgeon for the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command which oversees all recruiting and training for the entire U.S. Army; the Command Surgeon for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command which made him the medical waiver authority for the Army; and the Division Surgeon for the 1st Cavalry Division. Dr. Meyering was the Chief Medical Officer for the 2022 and 2024 DoD Warrior Games held in Orlando, FL. Additionally he was the co-medical lead for the 2021 Invictus Games held in The Hague, The Netherlands and for the 2023 Invictus Games in Dusseldorf, Germany. He is currently the Chief Medical Officer for all upcoming DoD Warrior Games and is the Medical Lead for Team U.S. at the 2025 Invictus Games in Vancouver and Whistler, Canada. He is the author of multiple peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and published abstracts, and he has presented at international and national conferences and events. He was previously the assistant team physician for George Mason University and covered all collegiate sports. He volunteered medical services at multiple levels and events to include the Marine Corps marathon, the Army 10 miler, the Augusta Half Iron Man Triathlon, All Army Wheelchair basketball, USA National and Golden Gloves Boxing events, Army combatives tournaments, professional fast pitch softball, and Special Olympics. We reference a lot of data from this AMSARA report "Accession Medical Standards Analysis and Research Activity"Some other relevant reporting on the issue includes this piece from The War Horse and this discussion of recent changes from AUSACOL (R) Meyering told a story about national media attention on some of his work, and you can find that coverage here

Jenna Hilton is a Certified Physician Assistant, specializing in Family, Internal Medicine, and Medical Aesthetics. She co-founded Vibrant EDU courses at Vibrant Skin Bar and regularly performs one-on-one training with fellow injectors. She teaches Aesthetic and Advanced Injectable Courses at the National Laser Institute, has been named Preceptor of the Year, and is an Adjunct Faculty Member at Midwestern University. In our conversation, Jenna and I discussed all things aesthetics, from detox and gut health to the importance of nutrient therapy in aesthetics. Jenna shares nutrients and supplements for treating acne, her systemic approach to patient healing, and the protein, nutrient deficiencies, and hormonal changes that affect aging patients. She also covers topical and stimulating treatments for hair loss patients, menopause-induced hormone imbalance changes that can be treated with bioidentical hormones, and the critical role of functional medicine in the constant evolution of the aesthetics industry. I'm your host, Evelyne Lambrecht, thank you for designing a well world with us.   Episode Resources: Jenna Hilton - https://vibrantskinbar.com/meet-the-staff/jenna-hilton/ Design for Health Resources: Designs for Health - https://www.designsforhealth.com/ Designs for Health Practitioner Exclusive Drug Nutrient Depletion and Interaction Checker - https://www.designsforhealth.com/drug-nutrient-interaction/ Visit the Designs for Health Research and Education Library which houses medical journals, protocols, webinars, and our blog. https://www.designsforhealth.com/research-and-education/education The Designs for Health Podcast is produced in partnership with Podfly Productions. Chapters: 00:00 Intro. 01:32 Detox and gut health conversations are lighting Jenna up in the new year. 1:56 Jenna's skin health journey as a passionate PA began in college with a roommate's fatal rash.  5:02 The importance of nutrient therapy in aesthetics.  6:18 Nutrients and supplements for treating acne at different stages of a patient's life.  9:21 Liposomal glutathione dosing for skin brightening and insights into melasma treatments and procedures. 14:00 Jenna's systemic approach to patient healing.  16:12 The ‘skintelligent' patient wants to age gracefully and focuses on gut and hormonal health in addition to outer aesthetics.  18:38 Protein, nutrient deficiencies, and hormonal changes that affect aging patients.  22:52 Lifestyle coaching in Jenna's office is supported in-house.  24:54 Post-procedure nutrient standard protocol for biostimulation and hair loss patients.  27:49 Topical and stimulating treatments for hair loss patients.  29:13 Hormone imbalance changes that are common in perimenopause and menopause that can be treated with bioidentical hormones.  32:25 Jenna's success story of pairing an aesthetic treatment with supplements for an incredible outcome.  33:51 The role of functional medicine in the constant evolution of the aesthetics industry.  35:50 Jenna's personal favorite supplements, current health practices, and the gut health/skin link that she has changed her mind about. 

Dean's Chat hosts,  Dr. Jeffrey Jensen  and Dr. Johanna Richey, are  joined by Dr. Wayne Bakotic and Dr. Warren Joseph on today's show discussing their careers and their specialties that overlap in dematopathology and infectious disease.   Discussions range from PCR testing for both fungus and bacteria, to their careers, their influence in the podiatric community, the advancement of AI in medicine, and relationship among specialists. A wonderful discussion, you'll wonder where 45 minutes went! Dr. Wayne L. Bakotic began his medical training with early acceptance into Barry University School of Podiatric Medicine where he completed his biomedical sciences degree through his podiatric medical studies. Prior to graduation, Dr. Bakotic left his podiatry training to initiate studies in Osteopathic medicine at Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine. It was, however, his time at Barry University which set the stage for his interest in podiatric pathology. After graduating with honors and completing his Doctor of Osteopathy in 1998, Dr. Bakotic continued his journey at Emory University School of Medicine where he gained training in anatomic and clinical pathology. He remained at Emory University to complete fellowship training in surgical pathology, Cytopathology and Dermatopathology, gaining board certification in anatomic pathology, clinical pathology, and Dermatopathology. In 2008 Dr. Bakotic co-founded Bako Diagnostics in Alpharetta, GA with the goal of serving the podiatric medical community and where he continues in the role of Chief Medical Officer.  Dr. Joseph a leader in our profession and a member of the Podiatric Hall of Fame. Dr. Joseph is a specialist in the treatment of lower extremity infectious diseases. He received his podiatric degree from the Wm. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine in Chicago. Dr Joseph completed his postgraduate training in podiatric medicine/surgery at St. Joseph's Hospital, and a fellowship in infectious diseases at Hahnemann University School of Medicine, both in Philadelphia. He is currently an Adjunct Clinical Professor at the Arizona College of Podiatric Medicine at Midwestern University in Glendale, AZ. Dr. Joseph is a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and is an author of the IDSA Diabetic Foot Infection Guidelines. He is also certified by the American Board of Podiatric Medicine and currently serves as Editor of the Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association. Dr Joseph lectures extensively and his presentations have focused on the treatment of bacterial and fungal infections of the lower extremity. He has authored close to 100 publications in the field of lower extremity infections. A fun discussion not only on Dr. Joseph's career but a look into his eclectic interests as well! Enjoy! https://bakodx.com/ https://bmef.org/ www.explorepodmed.org www.apma.org https://podiatrist2be.com/ https://higherlearninghub.com/    

Imagine detecting cancer with just a single drop of blood. In this episode of the Beautifully Broken Podcast, host Freddie Kimmel engages in a compelling conversation with Dr. Joshua Routh, MD, a distinguished expert in pathology and molecular oncology. Dr. Routh serves as the Laboratory Director for high-complexity clinical laboratories and holds the position of Associate Professor of Pathology at Midwestern University. He is also the Medical Director for Precision Epigenomics Inc., where he focuses on multi-cancer early detection tests.Together, they examine the science behind EPISEEK, discussing how it analyzes epigenetic markers in the blood to identify potential cancer signals. The conversation covers the importance of methylation in gene expression, the emotional implications of cancer testing, and who should consider getting tested. Dr. Routh emphasizes the need for patient autonomy and informed decision-making in the context of cancer screening. They also explore the advancements in multi-cancer early detection tests, focusing on the technology behind EPISEEK, its cost, and the current lack of insurance coverage. The discussion touches on the implications of abnormal test results, the importance of patient-doctor collaboration, and the need for a holistic approach to health that includes lifestyle factors. Additionally, they discuss the strengths and limitations of current cancer detection technologies and the importance of comprehensive health monitoring.Highlights1:32 Introduction: Personal Reflections on the Importance of Early Cancer Detection3:05 Understanding EpiSeek: A Breakthrough in Liquid Biopsy Technology for Cancer Detection5:40 The Science of EpiSeek: How It Works to Detect Cancer Early8:14 The Role of Methylation in Gene Expression and Its Link to Cancer Growth10:42 Gene Expression and Epigenetics: Why They Matter in Cancer Screening13:20 Interpreting Test Results: What to Do After Receiving an Abnormal Finding16:35 Who Should Get Tested? Assessing Risk Factors, Family History, and Lifestyle19:48 The Emotional Impact of Cancer Screening and the Decision Not to Test22:14 Comparing EpiSeq to Other Multi-Cancer Early Detection Tests25:52 Insurance Coverage for Multi-Cancer Tests: Current Challenges and Future Prospects29:30 Next Steps After an Abnormal Test Result: Further Screening and Actions33:40 The War on Cancer: How Lifestyle Choices Influence Cancer Risk36:15 - Evaluating the Strengths and Limitations of Current Cancer Detection Technologies40:28 - The Importance of Comprehensive Health Monitoring Beyond Single TestsUPGRADE YOUR WELLNESSEpiSeq Test: https://www.precision-epigenomics.com/episeqExclusive $50 Discount Offer (Valid Until August 1, 2025): https://www.precision-epigenomics.com/offerSilver Biotics Muscle Cream: https://www.silverbiotics.com (Use Code: BEAUTIFULLYBROKEN for Discount)Saga Bands: https://ca.saga.fitness/?ref=titvyccmCode: beautifullybrokenStemRegen: https://www.stemregen.co/products/stemregen?_ef_transaction_id=&oid=1&affid=52Code: beautifullybrokenLightPathLED https://lightpathled.pxf.io/c/3438432/2059835/25794Code: beautifullybroken CONNECT WITH FREDDIE Check out my website and store: (http://www.beautifullybroken.world) Instagram: (https://www.instagram.com/beautifullybroken.world/) YouTube: (https://www.youtube.com/@BeautifullyBrokenWorld)

Send us a textLooking at getting into compounding? Don't just dabble in it, go all in.That's the theme of this week's episode of The Bottom Line Pharmacy Podcast!Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP and Marketing guru Austin Murray of Sykes & Company, P.A. sat down with Dr. Kevin Borg PharmD, America's Pharmacist and owner of Potters House Apothecary and Prescott Compounding Pharmacy to discuss:The rise of GLP-1 compoundingChallenges faced with regulatory complianceImportance of quality and accounting in pharmacy operationsStay up to date on new episodes by liking and subscribing!Click below for the transcript:  (insert transcript link) More about our guest:  Dr. Kevin Borg, PharmD, FIACP, FACA, earned his doctorate in pharmacy at Midwestern University College of Pharmacy – Glendale, Arizona in 2001. As a pharmacy student, he was a member of the Rho Chi Honor Society and received many awards, including the Pfizer Outstanding Leadership Award and the Roche Pharmacy Communications Award. As an alumnus, Kevin was presented with the prestigious Littlejohn Award by Midwestern University, which honors the values of service, caring, and commitment to the industry. Dr. Borg started his career in retail pharmacy and later became the founding pharmacist-in-charge for a mail-order pharmacy specializing in the care of injured workers.In April of 2009, he realized his lifetime goal and opened Potter's House Apothecary in Peoria, Arizona, as President and CEO. This PCAB accredited compounding–only pharmacy business model has allowed Kevin to pursue his passion of assisting patients who present unique treatment needs. In April of 2021, Kevin purchased Prescott Compounding Pharmacy in Prescott, Arizona. He relocated the pharmacy and built another state-of-the-art compounding facility to meet current industry regulations and better serve the needs of the community.In 2014, Potter's House Apothecary was recognized for three local business awards, including the ASU W.P. Carey School of Business Spirit of Enterprise for Excellence in Entrepreneurship as a finalist. Phoenix Business Journal recognized Potter's House Apothecary as one of the Top 10 Best Places to Work for Small Businesses and as one of the Top 15 Fastest Growing Businesses in Arizona. Potter's House Apothecary also serves as a teaching pharmacy by precepting interns on a monthly basis to further the art and profession of compounding. The level of personal and community satisfaction can only be described as phenomenal!Stay connected with Dr. Kevin Borg, PharmD:Kevin Borg LinkedInPotters House Apothecary WebsitePrescott Compounding Pharmacy WebsitePotters House Apothecary InstagramPotters House Apothecary LinkedInStay connected with us:Facebook Twitter (X) LinkedIn InstagramMore resources about this topic:Podcast – Driving Independent Pharmacy Profitability in 2025Podcast – Legal Updates Impa

Kiera summarizes a practice that was struggling with cash flow. She breaks down what the Dental A-Team did to pull back the curtain and find out where cash was hiding, and what was done to fix the flow. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.814) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I hope today's incredible for you. I hope you are having the best life. I hope you're just enjoying everything and more. I really truly hope that things are just going so well for you. Don't forget guys, we truly live in the best industry, the best time, all the things are here for us. And so let's not forget how great things really are for us. As always, thanks for being a part of our Dental A Team podcast family. I adore you. I appreciate you. I respect you.   I look up to you. I want to be more like you, all the things. And I'm so, so, so, so, so happy that so many of you are a part of our family. If you guys remember, my mission is to positively impact the world in the greatest way possible. And we do that through expert consulting for dentists and teams. And so if you can share this podcast in a Facebook group or on your drive, us, share this with a colleague, share this with a coworker, share this with someone. Today's going to be an office autopsy.   and leave those Google reviews, those five star reviews on whatever streaming platform you're on. That helps us stay top ranked so more offices and more teams and more doctors just like you can be infused with positivity, tactical tips that are going to make your life, your practice extraordinary, easier and happier and more profitable. So I think it's a win-win-win and that's what we're all about at Dental A Team. That's what our consulting's about is how to help you create and achieve that extraordinary life that you've been looking for.   and do it with ease.   Kiera Dent (02:06.531) If you are new to the Dental Inn Team podcast, my name is Kiera Dent. Dent really is my last name and I do love what I do. I started this consulting company wanting to help the students of Midwestern University's dental college in Arizona. And I took a practice from 500,000 to 2.4 million with one of the doctors. She was incredible. We did incredible work. And I thought, man, if I could help her.   Maybe I can help other doctors too. And that's actually how Dental A Team started. I had never done consulting before. So everything you get within Dental A Team are things that I wish I would have had things that when we were scrambling, when we couldn't get our team bought in, when we couldn't hit goals, when everything seemed so hard, I wish I would have had these items. And so that's actually what the consulting company has been built upon has been created on is all of that. So that's what Dental A Team's about. And so for those of you who are new,   Every so often, I will do what's called an office autopsy, where I take you behind the scenes of one of our consulting clients. Yes, I do keep them anonymous. And sometimes I will mix and mingle so you can't quite figure out exactly who I'm talking about. And that's just to keep the practices anonymous. I do have permission to share. And these are just things that we've done with a practice. So today, and I love to walk you through because   When I was an office manager, when I owned my practices, we were just in our own silo place. And yet if I can share information with you, help the best practices win and thrive, that's what I'm about. Because I believe that we have a moral obligation within dentistry to help practices that are the best, provide the best dentistry for more patients and to help patients have the best experience. I really, really truly do believe that that's our moral mission. And so, and it's our ethical code and that's what we're here for. So with that, there was a practice.   They were an amazing office. And I remember this doctor called me, I was sitting on an airplane. I used to fly a lot more than I do today. We fly to our practices. We also have offices come together and we meet together for business and leadership events that are so fun. And we basically like get naked on our business in front of other people. And I think it's one of the most beautiful things. They're not physically naked. I feel like I need to like have a massive disclaimer on there. But basically, like we stripped down your business to the bare bones of   Kiera Dent (04:13.889) what is going on in your practice and what are the real things and what are the roadblocks with no nonsense. Like let's actually figure it out and then let's not spend our time fixing the 500 things that we could fix. A business will always have opportunities to fix and that's why it's a business. But the reality is I think as business owners and as leaders, our job is to sift through all the opportunities and pick the one, two or three items.   that are going to exponentially move us forward in the fastest, most effective, efficient way that will be the best for our teams, the best for our patients. And so that's where we strip it down to the bones, what's going on in the practice, and then we're able to help us identify what do we need to do over these next three months to make sure our practice is flourishing and thriving. And we do this in a group of like-minded doctors. We do this where you are really able to exponentially grow and we have your office manager come with you. Because when I attend events, I love them and I get hyped up.   but then I gotta go back and get my team hyped up. So we figured we are dentists and team consulting. We work with both. We don't just work with one or the other. We are comprehensive that way. And so really having this beautiful match made in heaven where the office managers also get to hot seat. They get to go through, they get to have these opportunities and they get to mix and mingle with other office managers to really pull and seep out the best of the best. So.   That's what we do. either go to you or we bring you together or a mixture of both. And it's so magical. And so this doctor called me and I was sitting on a plane and he was telling me how hard his practice was and how the collections were just struggling a lot. And he said, Keira, can you help me? And I said, well, actually, yeah, this is our specialty. My hunch is there's a lot more than just collections, but usually offices will reach out when cash flow is low. Obviously, right?   We're in panic. We need cash. How do we get this? Let's contact a consultant who's an expert consultant who's been there, done that, done that successfully multiple hundreds of times over and let's hire them. So cashflow, team turnover, culture, lack of vision, wanting to go to the next level. Sometimes there aren't really a lot of problems. I just want to go to the next level and what can we do for that? So those are usually the typical reasons why someone's going to actually reach out for consulting. And so this doctor, it was the cashflow, the cashflow issue.   Kiera Dent (06:25.187) Other times offices will also reach out for systems. I think that that's a very, very interesting thing too, to see, what are the systems we could be doing? So depending upon where they are in a practice, if they're like zero to a million, usually it's more about systems and foundations and leadership. If they're like a million to about that 5 million mark, it's usually optimization, leadership, cashflow sometimes in that area. And then if they're 5 million plus, usually it's like, let's take to the next level or like, let's get our systems dialed in or where can we do those small refinements?   And then when I'm hitting the offices that are like 10, 20 million, those ones are more like we're mass scaling. We're trying to get all the practices operating in the same direction. So, depending upon where you are, you may or may not fit. Maybe you're above, maybe you're below. Either way, that's really what they're looking for. So, this office, they're in that middle tier, the 1 million to 5 million range, but cash flow. Cash flow is hurting. They're struggling and they don't know why. So, going into the practice, first thing we did was we looked at immediately where can cash be hiding and cash can oftentimes be hiding.   in your AR accounts receivable and doctors I always feel so bad for you because you did the dentistry and yet we didn't collect and I always tell people I'm like how would you like to go to work and you go do the work and then you don't even get paid for the work and so that's where with teams I'm very adamant of you have to be collecting the money you have to be helping your doctor like we did the work we did great dentistry and we can expect patients to pay for that and so we immediately went to the AR and their AR was sky-high   and the money was right there. All the cash was there. Another practice we saw that there's $350,000 of AR sitting there. Well, no wonder our collections fell low because we've got AR there. So you need to put a system into this practice to actually start collecting the AR. So we started sending out statements. We had a process of when do we send the statements? How often do we send the statements? Who's working on these statements? What day are they working on the statements? Are we calling first, then texting, and then sending a paper statement? The answers are yes, we're doing those items.   but they didn't have it. And within a couple of months, this practice was able to collect over $200,000. You better believe that doctor saw the ROI of our consulting immediately. And now they also feel like they've got cashflow. But how did we get here and how do we stay out of there? So a lot of times in consulting, we go in and administer CPR immediately. I guarantee you when you get into consulting, there's usually a burning fire. And so we love to go in, we perform the CPR, we bring it back to life.   Kiera Dent (08:47.481) And then we're gonna check to see how can we prevent this from happening or what other areas can we optimize? And so with that, we came up with the follow-up, the collections procedure and how to get your collections and make sure we're watching that and have it as a whole team effort. So when patients are checking in, we're collecting, can we get credit cards on file so we're not having to call and chase these patients for statements? We are changing our verbiage of we collect at time of service rather than sending them a statement with insurance. We got better with our insurance verification so we could be more confident when we're presenting treatment plans and collecting balances.   I would much rather collect rather than have to go chase money. And I would rather give refunds rather than having to chase and get payments. And I think all of us would feel that way, right? We'd rather get our paychecks upfront rather than having to wait and hope that someone's willing to pay us. So this practice now is watching, keeping the collections at 98 % immediately fix the cashflow area for them. Other things that they were able to do was from there was helping the culture and fixing the culture because when cashflow is tight, doctors are stressed.   Like truly it just, and then it trickles down to the whole team, morale's low. Then we feel like we've got this desperation. We're constantly trying to get these patients to pay. And so helping them there. so then from there, what we did is we were able to help this practice focus on treatment that they actually love doing. And then brought on an associate to be able to do the treatment that the doctor didn't want to do, keeping the collections high, working on perfect handoffs, helping the hygiene team tee up treatment for this doctor.   and then be able to thrive and allow the office manager to truly manage the practice. So the doctor then is able to focus on doing dentistry. And we say like, you know, have you ever heard that like running a dental practice is hard? Well, that only team comes in and takes that stress away from you. So you can focus on being a dentist and doing what you love again. And that's where we shifted over and help your office manager do what they love. And that's the practice stats, the HR, the business management, training and coaching that office manager up to truly be almost like a COO.   of a practice to do the operations, to do the financials, to do the statistics, and managers love to do this if they've got the right DNA for it. So doctors love to do the dentistry piece, and office managers love to do the management piece. And so teaching both of them how to yin and yang together, so that way it could be this dynamic duo. It could be this incredible practice that's working, and then be able to let go of a lot of the admin pieces. So now this doctor is able to delegate to check in.   Kiera Dent (11:05.337) to verify to know these things are being taken care of. And they're able to figure out the top KPIs that this practice needs to be watching with collections is number one, because they know that that's their danger spot that they can get into hot water pretty quickly. But they have the process, they have the protocols, they have the system in place to where it's not team dependent, but it's system dependent. And now they're all able to watch their collections, manage the practice and the doctor is thriving. And it's interesting to watch this doctor from when they called me and I was sitting on the airplane and the stress and the   The true like despair, which this happens when I talk to offices and I truly like my heart and passion. say life is my passion, dentistry is my platform. I am obsessed with helping people have their lives that they want to live. I'm obsessed with giving people that freedom back. I'm obsessed with like unshackling the chains of practice ownership that can come.   Like I'm obsessed with helping doctors be free and still be so profitable and love doing dentistry. And all it is is right person, right seat that's accountable to their tasks and they actually know what they're doing. And so being able to give this doctor their life back, being able to give this office manager the skills and the tips and the tools to be able to be so successful and drive this practice forward is literally why Dental A Team was created. Your success as a practice is our freaking passion. We want you to be successful in life, in business, in team, in patient care.   And that's our passion and that's what we're dang good at. And so for this office, now what they're able to do is everyone's been able to rise to the occasion. They're able to attract and have great team members and patients come to their practice. It's less stressful, greater morale. They're not having to do as much busy work because we've got true, true, true, true engagement and interactions. We're collecting so cashflow is no longer an issue. We know what we need to produce. We've set up the block schedules. We set up the dollar per hour production. So now this practice knows what they need to produce.   And now the whole team knows this is what I'm responsible for. This is how I can help grow the practice. Every person's right person, right seat, doing what they love, their zone of genius. Of course there's zones that we don't like within our zone of genius, but most of their day is on stuff that they absolutely love. You could just imagine from where they were to where they are today and how much stress is gone. How much happiness has been brought in. How much better patient care is brought in. How much better the team is all working together.   Kiera Dent (13:22.665) This is what we do. This is where I love to like take the knife and cut back the curtain and show you this is what we do within a practice and how this took about a year to do. We immediately like I said, bring in that 200,000 cash. Sometimes we can turn a practice around that quickly. Other times it takes a little while to get there. Both are okay. It's okay. Because every practice is not on the same path and every practice doesn't need the same thing, which is why it's completely 100 % personalized to your practice, to your needs and to your vision.   I am not here with a cookie cutter model. We don't do that. We come in and we say, where do we need to administer CPR? What's the next layer? The next layer, where do you need to be in six months, 12 months, 24 months to be living the life you want, to have the practice of your dreams that's your reality and to be thriving, not just surviving. And so welcome to Dental A Team Consulting. Welcome to this practice. This is what we did. This is how we have it. Of course, there going to be other fires that come up. Of course, there are other things like case acceptance and handoffs and hygiene production per hour and...   Making sure that our morning huddles are effective and efficient But we're never gonna come in and do those items unless your practice actually needs them Why there's no reason to create busy work when you are already thriving in certain areas. So that's why teams love us That's why doctors love us because there's no busyness and people wonder like how long did that take care? Like I said, it was about an hour and or excuse me a year and then every month It's about an hour and a half of coaching time and then in between follow-up   working on it, but that's team training, that's doctor training, that's getting us focused and aligned, that's focusing on the most important things, that's doable and efficient. We're not here for inefficiencies. We're here to make your life easier, more effective, more productive, more fun. Like I said, you know how running a practice can be hard? Well, Dental A Team takes care of that so you can love being a dentist again and doing what you love. And that's what we're here for. And I would love you to be our next office autopsy practice. I would love to see where you are.   We have practices that are going from 1.5 million to 4.5 million in a year. We have offices adding $13 million of production. I have other offices that are getting their systems in place and they're actually able to decrease their overhead by five or 10%. I know those numbers don't feel as sexy as the 5 million or the 2 million, but guess what? Sometimes you don't need to be adding all those millions of dollars. You just need to be reducing the stress and getting your life back too. And so all of that.   Kiera Dent (15:38.869) Is what we love to do. It's all personalized It's all completely built around you your practice and what we see and we're gonna guide you through that And so I would love you to be a part of that Be our next office autopsy reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com We give you a complimentary call and we're going to give you massive value for your practice whether you work with us or not I hope you choose to I think Dental A Team's incredible come strip your practice to the bones be uncomfortable But that's where the uncomfort like in the uncomfortable is where the success lies   getting uncomfortable, recognizing like, hey, there's a better way to do this and I'm going to be brave enough to take that risk, to take that step and to do it with people that I trust, that I know, that I love, that are going to make sure I don't fall. And that's exactly what we do. So reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.

Thank you for joining us for another episode of the Low Carb MD Podcast. Dr. Mohammed Alo is a cardiologist based out of northwest Ohio. Dr. Alo grew up in Toledo, Ohio, attended St. John's Jesuit High School and then went on to complete an Economics degree and graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Toledo. He worked in politics, business, computers, sales, and networking and then went to medical school in Chicago at Midwestern University's Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine. He has a passion for teaching and travels the country giving talks on various topics. Most of his lectures focus on teaching other physicians on various cardiology topics that span a wide gamut of topics from cardiology, to health and fitness, to diet and weight loss. Dr. Alo has countless research publications and articles in scientific, peer-reviewed journals. He's had thousands of articles published in magazines in print and online. In this episode, Drs. Tro and Mohammed talk about… (01:29) Why Dr. Mohammed chose to go into medicine and become a doctor (05:10) What Drs. Tro and Mohammed agree about (11:32) The genetics of familial hypercholesterolemia patients, how these patients are treated, and the health complications they face (23:41) Lifelong lowering of lipids, atherosclerosis, preventing atherosclerosis, and when to consider using medication (33:04) CCT scans, LDL, and high LDL's association with atherosclerosis (42:05) The power of zero study and coronary artery calcium in cardiac risk assessment (45:12) Tro's LDL levels and atherosclerotic/cardiac event risk (59:09) The findings of the ACCORD trial which studied the effects of intensive glucose lowering in the management of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (01:08:22) Pros and cons of statins and other drugs (01:16:04) Smoking and endothelium destruction; diabetes and cardiovascular risk (01:20:50) Whether or not plaque can be reduced/reversed (01:24:20) Fish oil pills, Colchicine, and cardiac health (01:30:03) Summing up points of disagreement as well as common ground For more information, please see the links below. Thank you for listening!   Links:   Dr. Mohammed Alo: Website: https://mohammedalo.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheMohammedAlo Cholesterol TRUTHS (book): https://www.dralo.net/cholesterol   Dr. Brian Lenzkes:  Website: https://arizonametabolichealth.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrianLenzkes?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author   Dr. Tro Kalayjian:  Website: https://www.doctortro.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DoctorTro Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doctortro/ SMHP Position Statement: https://journalofmetabolichealth.org/index.php/jmh/article/view/100#:~:text=The%20SMHP%20recommends%20open%20access,research%20on%20TCR%20for%20T1DM   Toward Health App Join a growing community of individuals who are improving their metabolic health; together.  Get started at your own pace with a self-guided curriculum developed by Dr. Tro and his care team, community chat, weekly meetings, courses, challenges, message boards and more.    Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/doctor-tro/id1588693888  Google: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.disciplemedia.doctortro&hl=en_US&gl=US Learn more: https://doctortro.com/community/ 

In this throwback episode of the Very Dental Student Podcast, host Mohamed Abo-Basha is joined by recent graduate (at the time) Dr. Kurren Virk!  Dr. Virk shares his experiences from dental school at Midwestern University, his advanced residency at the University of Oklahoma, and his extensive continuing education pursuits. The conversation covers Dr. Virk's motivations for choosing dentistry, the unique clinical opportunities at Midwestern, and the advanced cases he handled during his AGD residency. The episode also touches on Dr. Virk's approach to selecting a residency program and his ongoing job search post-residency. This episode provides valuable insights for dental students and new dentists aiming to enhance their clinical skills and career trajectories. Some links from the show: Dr. Kurren Virk's Instagram Join the Very Dental Facebook group using the password "Timmerman," Hornbrook" or "McWethy," "Papa Randy" or "Lipscomb!" The Very Dental Podcast network is and will remain free to download. If you'd like to support the shows you love at Very Dental then show a little love to the people that support us! -- Crazy Dental has everything you need from cotton rolls to equipment and everything in between and the best prices you'll find anywhere! If you head over to verydentalpodcast.com/crazy and use coupon code “VERYDENTAL10” you'll get another 10% off your order! Go save yourself some money and support the show all at the same time! -- The Wonderist Agency is basically a one stop shop for marketing your practice and your brand. From logo redesign to a full service marketing plan, the folks at Wonderist have you covered! Go check them out at verydentalpodcast.com/wonderist! -- Enova Illumination makes the very best in loupes and headlights, including their new ergonomic angled prism loupes! They also distribute loupe mounted cameras and even the amazing line of Zumax microscopes! If you want to help out the podcast while upping your magnification and headlight game, you need to head over to verydentalpodcast.com/enova to see their whole line of products! -- CAD-Ray offers the best service on a wide variety of digital scanners, printers, mills and even  their very own browser based design software, Clinux! CAD-Ray has been a huge supporter of the Very Dental Podcast Network and I can tell you that you'll get no better service on everything digital dentistry than the folks from CAD-Ray. Go check them out at verydentalpodcast.com/CADRay!    

** Join the MDA: michigandental.org/2025 In this conversation, Dr. Rachel Shaw shares her journey in dentistry, from her educational background at Midwestern University to her experiences as an associate and eventually becoming a practice owner. They discuss maternity leave as a dentist and balancing sharing the parenting load with your partner. She discusses the challenges of balancing family life with her career, the importance of mentorship in her early years, and her approach to patient care. Dr. Shaw also reflects on the impact of social media in changing perceptions of dentistry and offers advice for pre-dental students and new dentists navigating their careers. Dr. Rachel's tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/discover/dr-rachel-dentist Engage with the podcast on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/dentaldownloadpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Haley's Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/dr.haley.dds⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 

Season FOUR Episode SEVEN of the Your Story Our Fight® podcast welcomes Risa A. Regalado, RDH. Risa A. Regalado, RDH  is the youngest of 3 siblings (2 older brothers) and grew up in Laguna Niguel, Ca. Risa attended undergrad at UCSB, then dental hygiene at USC. She practiced hygiene for a decade in Santa Monica and Beverly Hills before moving to Arizona for dental school. Risa is currently a third year dental student at Midwestern University.

In this episode, we sit down with Emily Babcock, DHSc, PA-C, Associate Professor and Director of the Creighton University PA Program in Phoenix, Arizona. Dr. Babcock reflects on her journey from growing up in small-town Wisconsin to becoming a PA and leader in PA education. She shares insights from her career path, including her early passion for medicine, her education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her PA training at Midwestern University. Dr. Babcock also delves into the Creighton program's service-oriented mission, rooted in Jesuit principles, and provides valuable advice for future applicants on demonstrating a commitment to service and gaining meaningful healthcare experience. This episode is sponsored by Creighton University.   PA Path is produced by Association Briefings.

Dr. Tyler Kokjohn, now-retired Professor of Microbiology at Midwestern University and Project Core researcher, joins Jeff & Jer to talk about the latest developments in sci tech that will once and for all tell us whether there are alien hybrids, starseed, and Indigo children among us. Also, he talks about his time at his first UFO conference over the weekend, the UFO Congress in Arizona.  But most intriguing of all, he speaks candidly about his being a reformed debunker and gives us some real insights into the mind of the “nasty, noisy negativists,” as Stan Friedman was fond of saying. That, and a whole lot more including the limits of science, the near-death experience, the mysteries of consciousness, and helping Jeff gather evidence from his paranormal encounters. That's a lot of description because there's a lot here on this special, extensive interview! (originally aired 03.01.2012)

In this episode of Precept to Practice, host Kathy Schott speaks with Melissa McLean, Sue Cornell, and student pharmacists Nikesh Kumar and Justine Kaminski to explore a unique collaboration between Oswald's Pharmacy and Midwestern University. Together, they established a diabetes-focused screening service led by pharmacy students, providing patients with critical access to blood pressure and A1C screenings. This partnership highlights the powerful role community pharmacies play in healthcare and the growth opportunities for students to lead and learn in real-world settings. HostKathy Schott, PhDVice President, Education & OperationsCEimpactMelissa McLeanPharmacy ManagerOswald's PharmacyNaperville, ILSue CornellDirector of Experiential EducationProfessor of Pharmacy PracticeMidwestern UniversityDowners Grove, ILNikesh KumarPharmD Candidate 2025Midwestern UniversityDowners Grove, ILJustine KaminskiPharmD Candidate 2025Midwestern UniversityGet CE: CLICK HERE TO CPE CREDIT FOR THE COURSE!CPE Information Learning ObjectivesAt the end of this course, preceptors will be able to:1. Outline factors for consideration in developing a student-led screening service2. Recognize the educational, professional, and community-related advantages, as well as the logistical challenges, of involving students in community health services 0.05 CEU/0.5 HrUAN: 0107-0000-24-313-H99-PInitial release date: 11/20/2024Expiration date: 11/20/2027Additional CPE details can be found here.The speakers have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose.This program has been:Approved by the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy as education for Minnesota pharmacy preceptors.Reviewed by the Texas Consortium on Experiential Programs and has been designated as preceptor education and training for Texas preceptors.Follow CEimpact on Social Media:LinkedInInstagram

Kiera is a guest on Dr. Gallagher's Podcast in this crossover episode! There is a lot of important ground covered here, including how to establish the ideal practice flow, the differences in consulting between speciality and general practices, why being a human being feels like a lost art, how to hire the best people, and more. Episode resources: Listen to Dr. Gallagher's Podcast: Apple, Spotify, YouTube Reach out to Tiff, Britt, and Dana Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Brendan (00:02.346) Of the Dental A Team, this is Kiera Dent, right? So this is, I love that it's dent because there's dental dentin, part of the tooth and stuff. So it's just perfect. It really worked well. And you have a consulting agency, right? Dental A Team. And how many years have you been in around?   Kiera Dent (00:16.95) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (00:25.494) Thank you.   Kiera Dent (00:30.976) Yeah, so we've, the company is almost eight years old. She's about to have her eighth birthday in November, but yeah, it's been fun. It was a complete random idea that I came up with to start it, honestly, to help a bunch of dental students and here we are. So it's been a really fun place to be.   Brendan (00:49.738) Two more months and eight years, congrats!   Kiera Dent (00:51.796) I know. Thank you. Thank you. It came from, I worked at Midwestern University's Dental College for three years while my husband did pharmacy school. And one of the students straight out of school said, hey, Kiera, I want you to come help me start my practice. And I said, my gosh, like, absolutely. I've always wanted to be a practice owner. I was a dental assistant and a treatment coordinator and an office manager prior. And so I went and I helped her start her practice and   We took our practice from 500,000 to 2.4 million in nine months and opened our second location. And then I thought, my gosh, like if I could help her do this, there's all my other like favorite dental students. Like I'm sure I could probably be a resource and a help for them. And so that's really what spurred the consulting company. I had never worked with a consultant before. And then I started helping practices and adding, you know, 25,000 of production to their schedules very quickly. I was adding, increasing case acceptance to a hundred percent.   within one day and I just thought, okay, there's something about this and it doesn't have to be hard, but I'm gonna be a resource for all those dentists in school because you guys go to school and you're so passionate about what you're doing, but then there's the business side of it. And so if I could be a resource, a trusted resource, knowing what you're learning in school, so that way you guys can be so successful, positively impact your world, help your community, help your team, help your patients, and you guys are living your best lives.   That really is what spurred me into being a consultant. So here we are all with the love. have no clue what consultants should do. I just keep making up what I believe my students from Midwestern would want to have and just keep coming from love of you guys, just doing the best to support dentistry and us supporting you in that vision.   Brendan (02:30.004) Excellent. And so you're not at Midwestern anymore. That was only in the beginning for those years. So roughly eight years ago.   Kiera Dent (02:33.068) Mm -mm. Yep. Yep. I worked there for three years. No, so three years. And then I went and I worked in Colorado for two years. And then I started the company in 2016. Yeah, 2016. So it was great. It was a good time. And here we are now, eight years later.   Brendan (02:48.904) And in Colorado, that was the practice that you brought them from X to that would be roughly five X. Wow. Well done. Well done. So they started for a year there. You knew them. You had a good rapport, good relationship with them over a year or two. You grew it from that. then you're like, and that's when you decided, OK, let's scale. How did you take that next step from there? So it was just you working at her practice. Right. And then from there, you said.   Kiera Dent (02:55.008) Mm -hmm. Yeah. Thanks.   you   Kiera Dent (03:08.384) Totally.   Kiera Dent (03:13.344) Mm -hmm. Yep.   Brendan (03:16.136) So you don't work with her anymore. was like a see you later. I'm going to figure it better.   Kiera Dent (03:18.072) No. It was incredible. And we had such a good run. And I have to give mad kudos to her as a dentist, because I think we were really a dynamic duo. I came in with amazing like management and TC skills. We both didn't know what we were doing. And I think that that's part of doctors opening practices. But kudos to her for bringing me on because she knew I knew pieces she didn't know how to do.   but yeah, it was, I think more her vision. We both were very gung -ho. We wanted to serve more. We wanted to have a bigger impact and footprint. And so it was, we got this practice going and then we bought our second location and then there ended up getting like seven practices all together. But things I learned from that was, it was over the course of like five, six, I ended up leaving. She continued. and it was something very interesting that those are like sexy numbers to put up on a scoreboard and.   Brendan (04:00.019) In two years?   Kiera Dent (04:12.268) Everybody always has the bright eyes of like, my gosh, like how did you do that? But I think my obsession has come, like her and I were both on like death row. Like we were working 2 a to 10 p It was insanity to try and get that success. And while yes, there's sexy numbers on the board, we both realized that there's more to life than what we were doing. And are we gonna just like slay and try and drive this through or is there maybe something more to this? so yes, it was, we did part ways and I'm just so proud of everything that she created.   But I, like one, my marriage, my life, all of those things were falling apart. And I realized me traveling back and forth from Reno Tahoe area to Colorado all the time was just really hard on my marriage. I wasn't seeing my husband. I was completely anorexic. I was like 98 pounds and I'm 5 '8". And it was just, everything felt like it was deteriorating. And so that was where it had to be like, let's do a step back. Her life was deteriorating. And I thought...   there has to be a better way to success than what we've done. Like, yes, we've got sexy numbers to throw up on the board. Yes, we've got all these cool things, but is there not a better way that we can do this where you can have an incredible family and you can have incredible numbers and you can have a thriving business. And that really has become my passion and obsession is helping more dentists live a fulfilled life, hitting up those sexy big numbers or whatever they want to do, but still maintain their life, their identity, their freedom is really what I'm obsessed with within our company and our culture.   and really helping dentists get that life.   Brendan (05:41.89) yeah, and that's such a great pitch to where it's let's let's seize that life that we dreamed of again. love that now in where it started to get a little rocky there speaking of Colorado, but while it started to happen was that the first two years when you were there was that within the five six years when she scaled to seven or so practices first two   Kiera Dent (05:47.68) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (05:51.634) Hahaha   Kiera Dent (05:55.564) Mm   Kiera Dent (05:59.692) No, so that was my first two years. Yeah, absolutely. And both of us were there. And I think that that happens, right? You've got all the student debt. I used to call her 2.5, like when she's hunched over, not like good ergonomics. I'm like, hey, 2.5, we're 2.5 million debt. Like with student loans, the practice acquisition, within our first couple of months of owning the practice, our building was being torn down. So we had to move our patient base to another location, build up another practice. So   And I think oftentimes it's how people come out, right? Like you've got a lot of debt, you've been sitting in residency for so long, or you've been in school for so long or whatever it is, or you're an associate and you feel like, okay, I bought this practice. I think there's this like innate desire to just hit the ground running, but we forget that that can only sustain for so long. Like we are human bodies, we are not human robots. And realizing that there's...   so much that can happen. We also were very naive. We did not have systems in place and we just kept adding more fuel to our fire that was already burning and blazing bigger than we were. And so we got to a good place. We were hiring other doctors, but I think that that's where my obsession has come of, like, let's give systems. And I just got off a podcast with one of our doctors that we work with and her and her husband are kind of thriving and jamming the same way I was.   But what they've done differently is we like, we're really specific of let's get all these systems in place before we buy our second location. And like, let's slow to grow rather than like fly to die. Like it was a very different model and they're thriving and they're happy and their marriage is incredible. There's different, like both are available to us. I think I'd prefer, let's take the, take the sustainable route that's very doable that keeps your passion alive rather than killing you off at the beginning.   Brendan (07:46.548) Yeah, yeah. So when you translate into systems and processes, I, so coming from a clinician, a provider background system and processes, I have an idea, you know, like the system I'm thinking of is like the computer or no, but really in a practice setting, if I could just have some insight to what you mean behind that developing systems and processes before you buy that second practice, what were some of those systems, if I can, if I can know.   Kiera Dent (07:51.178) Of course.   Kiera Dent (08:01.321) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (08:06.102) Sure.   Kiera Dent (08:16.015) Of course, yeah. And this is what I just geek out on. This is why we have the podcast. It's like tactical, practical with ease. So it's like, do you have a process for how you're doing our billing process? And in Dental A Team, I actually made 12 categories that kind of fall within the 12 months of systems to have. So there's your office management. You've got your practice profitability and your numbers. We have our dental assistants and how we set up our rooms and our operatories. We have our handoffs. We have our   like how we hire and onboard people. We have our operations manual completed. We have our treatment tracker and case acceptance. We have our hygiene protocols to put those into play to make sure our hygiene teams diagnosing and we're treating patients the same way. We have our doctor optimization where we're really working on like, what are the clinical skill sets of our doctors and are we maximizing their skills within? And so those are what I mean by systems. And I'll be completely honest. We were like just two girls flying by the seat of our pants.   So like we did not have a process for billing. We did not have a process for scheduling. It was just like dump it in and we'll figure out how to do it versus like you can have, I mean, I've added multiple millions to people's schedules just by having block scheduling with ease and they're out by four o 'clock, they're out by three o 'clock. We're putting up really hard, like great numbers. The patients are happy, the team is happy. Like literally I have a practice that I took from 2 million to 4 .5 million just by changing their block scheduling.   And so it's like, these are the simple systems that maybe you don't have to go buy another practice unless a DSO or something like that is what you're trying to do. But let's make sure that we have those, because I've also gone to offices and they're like, we're completely maxed out on our space and I find an operatory there. We don't actually have to go buy a bigger building. We can keep it here. We can systematize it here. We can maximize, like, are we doing our handoffs? Are we collecting before they leave? Are we having proper treatment plans?   Are we tracking our case acceptance? Are we watching the things that like our hygiene teams doing? What's our hygienists producing per hour? Are there ways that we can help our patients more? What's our morning huddle? Those systems in place make it clockwork where it's very predictable magic behind the scenes. Like we know we will have magic in our practice because we have systems in place. And maybe we don't have to go for the multi -practices unless that's our drive and our desire, then by all means, let's do it.   Kiera Dent (10:37.408) but let's make it to where we can stamp it out. I promise you, like you look at McDonald's, think that's the easiest one. They were the crowning jewel of systems. They were not stamping this out haphazardly. They were looking for the efficiency and making it to where each new place would have the same exact experience just in a different location. What's your experience and your practice and how can you go replicate that with ease is really what I mean by systems behind the scenes.   Brendan (10:43.572) Mmm.   Brendan (11:01.556) Yeah, and were you doing all this at Midwestern?   Kiera Dent (11:05.67) No. So at Midwestern, if you recall, I feel like I was your tooth lunch lady. I handed out all the teeth, the composite, the like all the things I don't know in the simulation center. So I worked with the first and second year students and helped with the radiology and all of that. But prior to that, I was a dental assistant, a treatment coordinator, a scheduler, a biller. I just wanted to get a discount on my husband's tuition. I'll be fully honest. And it just had to work out. So then I became this cute little tooth lunch lady. Like, here's your teeth, here's your composite, here's your bands.   Brendan (11:32.958) Hahaha   Kiera Dent (11:34.99) And then went and helped her in Colorado and then started helping other dentists just really.   Brendan (11:40.084) Yeah. And Midwestern, because there are two Midwesterns, there's Arizona and Illinois, right? You were in Arizona, was going to say, because Reno, Nevada. Are you still in Reno, Nevada?   Kiera Dent (11:43.262) Arizona. We are. Yep. So we still live here. My husband ditches residency here because my family lives over in California. So it was the closest location without paying California tax. Yeah.   Brendan (11:57.16) Wonderful wonderful and just just just step back to being at Midwestern have you ever seen it like a show or a movie or something where The guy or girl moves the plant that's in the shade into the light and then all of a sudden the flower blooms I Feel like that's where you moved yourself out of the shade into the light not to make the old figurative But I literally see like because because now you're killing it you're consulting with all these practices and stuff doing so no, that's a really   Kiera Dent (12:11.338) Yes.   Kiera Dent (12:22.262) Thank you.   Brendan (12:25.662) First of all, the story is incredible because you've to appreciate someone who takes that hop, skip and a jump gets into the environment. That's a maybe it's a risk and it just they blossom. that's, you know, I don't want to, I don't want to be like a radio show here, but I, know, I really seek for the optimism in people's lives. There's a lot of fear going on these days. There's a lot of skepticism, a lot of conspiracies, and it's really nice to find let's let's hone back in together and let's really get into the nitty gritty of the good things.   Kiera Dent (12:37.568) Thank you.   Brendan (12:54.898) and success stories. yeah, so that's just, wanted to touch that really there because I really appreciate that. You know, we need, we need risk takers and we need to admire those and understand how they did it. Okay. So moving on, can you just shout out your podcast on, so everyone knows?   Kiera Dent (12:55.308) Totally.   Kiera Dent (12:58.7) Thank you.   Kiera Dent (13:07.916) Yeah, of course. Yeah, we have the Dental A Team podcast. Gosh, I think I'm about up to, we might have surpassed our 900 mark and headed towards our 1000 mark of episodes. So definitely try to have a ton of resources for free out there. And for any dentists out there listening or students, like I love the students. Clearly I have a very soft spot in my heart for students and residents, people who want to grow. But if you go to our website, TheDentalATeam.com, we have our podcast link.   And literally you go and you type in anything, treatment planning, scheduling, verbiage for dropping insurance, like you name it. I probably have a podcast or two on them and all of our databases there for you. So trying really hard just to give back. and like you said, my goal is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible and just remind us of how like blessed we are to be able to change people's lives through dentistry. And, I truly believe that owning a practice should not be hard. It does not need to be hard. You can still have everything you want. So yeah.   Our podcast, The Dental A Team, love to have you there. Thank you for that shout out.   Brendan (14:10.314) Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Now continuing, if you can do me a favor and on your Instagram, the bio, if you can just change, I think you changed the name of your handle, your organization, the company, the podcast, that handle changed in your bio. I think it's, might've been an older handle, but you can't click it is what I mean. We just got to fix that. That'll help out your followers so that they can make the link between you and you know, and your consulting group. Just something I noticed, but yeah. So, so moving on for there.   Kiera Dent (14:12.897) Yes.   Kiera Dent (14:19.965) Mm   Kiera Dent (14:26.842) sure.   Kiera Dent (14:32.118) Yeah.   Thank you.   Brendan (14:37.852) So you have the pockets you have on providers and stuff. You just had Dr. Jason Auer back on. I just saw him last week at the Amos conference, which is pretty cool. And I had him on the podcast last year. That's a lot of fun. How often do you meet with providers, owners, DSOs versus private practices? I'm curious what the percentages are there. And then the percentages of providers versus do you ever talk with other   Kiera Dent (14:43.36) Okay.   Brendan (15:06.74) people that consult for practices.   Kiera Dent (15:09.022) Yeah, for sure. So hopefully I understood your question. I'll answer and if I missed it, please, I'm here for it. But our consulting primarily focuses on GP practices. We have a really strong pediatric following as well. Some OS, some ortho. We kind of dabble in all of the specialties a little bit, but really GP and our niche is to work with the practice owners. We sometimes will work with their associates, so the doctors and then also the team. As I found,   Like we put so much out there for the doctors. Like everybody is targeting the doctors. Why would they not? The doctors are the buyer, the doctors are the ones running the practice. But I realized if we can elevate the team as well and we can teach the team to think like owners and we can get the team inspired and excited, that's 90 % of the battle of having a successful practice. So we coach both. We raise up office managers. We build leadership teams. We do quarterlies. I do work with startup practices all the way up to multi -level DSOs.   And so really kind of everything in between my sweet spots, usually the two, three, four, five locations is really what I love to do or practice owners who are wanting to grow and possibly sell to a DSO. I love the startups. love to give them the system so they really do well. Exponentially, we have an entire CE online database that's got operations manual and all those pieces, but really my body has physically been in over 250 dental practices. I used to travel about   265 days a year. And so I now have cut that back and I don't travel as much as I used to for work. I do more for fun, but that's really kind of our nutshell. And then we bring all of our doctors together and I love to get doctors to just share. from the brand new owner to the experienced owner, having them collaborate together in mastermind settings where there's so much knowledge, I get to see it. Most people don't get to be in 200 offices. They don't get to work with 200 teams.   But to bring all these teams together and bring all these doctors together, that's where we elevate and lift everybody up. And so it's really fun. So hopefully that answered your question, but if not, ask any other ones about that.   Brendan (17:15.124) Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that definitely answers it. And what kind of percentages are you at now versus in the beginning working with DSOs versus smaller private practices? I'm curious.   Kiera Dent (17:23.66) Gotcha. So we're more like, I would say 90 % are our private practices and 10 % are the DSOs. However, a lot of our practices do sell to those larger DSOs, which I think is just a common piece right now. But I am very pro not, I don't have a one size fits all. Our consulting is very much, what does that doctor want to do? And some doctors are like, Kiera, I get emails from DSOs every other day, but that's not what I want to do.   And my job's not to say like, let's build it to sell to a DSO. My job is to say, Brendan, what life do you want to have? What do we want to do? Where do you want to be? Like, what do you want your financial retirements to be? How much time do you want off from the practice? And let's build your practice to suit your life and fulfill your life. Because if you are happy and thriving, everything else will fall into place.   Brendan (18:10.516) Yeah, I would like everything else to fall into place one day. Hopefully nine months after graduating, that's the goal. I did already sign with a practice. It's a multi -practice out on Long Island. How many practices have you worked with on Long Island?   Kiera Dent (18:12.492) It will.   Kiera Dent (18:20.351) Amazing.   Long Island, I've actually had two over there. So I've definitely been up in that area. I had a practice in the Bronx, definitely not dental 365. I used to work with an office named Brian Stimler. He was out there and then there was another office in there just slipping. This was, mean, we're talking six years ago that was in Long Island. I like, I could see them. I just cannot remember their name. I'll look it up post show and let you know.   Brendan (18:27.786) 10 .0365, who, who, can I know?   Kiera Dent (18:46.829) But yeah, I'm flying out to Canadaigua on Sunday to go and work with a practice up there. So I still come out that way, but I don't have any more on Long Island.   Brendan (18:56.02) That's all right. Wow. Okay. So you're all over the U S Canada at all. Cause you mentioned.   Kiera Dent (18:59.198) Mm -hmm. So I have consulted in Canada. I've consulted in Australia and New Zealand as well. I was trying to do the whole international thing. We have lots of listeners international, which is super fun. But I almost got deported from Canada on one of my visits. after that, which I thought Canada of all the places. So almost the client told me just to say I was going for fun. so I did. They like searched my phone.   Brendan (19:15.546) What? How did that happen?   Kiera Dent (19:27.722) They were like, what are your clients? What do you do? Like, what do these friends do? They're dentists and they told me, technically I'm allowed to go over there to collect data without a visa, but if not, that they could deport me. I was so scared. I've never been that scared in my entire life. I was shaking. I definitely went and visited by Niagara Falls. Like I literally was a whole complete tourist. I told my clients like, I'm sorry, we'll not be doing anything. We still have a good giggle from that time. But yeah, after that, I just stopped.   Traveling International for development.   Brendan (19:57.802) Is that by plane, car? Like what?   Kiera Dent (20:00.308) It was in the airport. I should have. So it's funny. I was actually in Canandaigua and their practice was in Toronto and it was like a two, maybe a two hour drive across the border. And I should have done that. But my assistant at the time, like we were just new, we were young and I had someone booking travel for me. And so she flew me back to Newark and then flew me to Toronto. And when I did that going through Toronto customs, I was rookie.   The things I did wrong one I was dressed like a business professional on a Saturday Two I was trying to be so super ultra honest and put that I had peanuts like I had nuts in my bag Which was so dumb like I wasn't eating it there like I don't know what my thought process was on it And I remember getting a pink line across my little document going into Canada Which sent me to the right not to the left. I was sitting there waiting forever then I started to wonder like   Why am I in this line? Like usually this is a faster thing. Then I started to get nervous. like I have contracts and things like that in my email. Luckily when I got up there, the lady was not having any, anything like we were not getting onto good terms. Like they're very strict at border control. And luckily my, they're so mean.   Brendan (21:14.794) They are like for like it's good to be strict, but you're there for business. What's wrong with I don't like why are they stopping? I don't know what and the peanuts. What's wrong with peanuts?   Kiera Dent (21:22.152) So they say, are you bringing any nuts with you? And I was like, why did I say yes to that? Just don't eat them while you're over there if you accidentally, or throw them away. I don't know what my deal was. yeah, but then on my flight back, my client was like, you're fine. You got over. And I said, I don't think I'm fine. And truth be told, when I went back to the airport, there's a code that they'll put on some tickets. I couldn't check in. So when I was flying back, I wasn't allowed to check in on.   line said go to the airport. I printed my ticket and I got four S's on my boarding pass, which then meant I got searched up and down left and right. The really cool thing is because I do work in dental offices, my bag and my shoes actually flagged that I had bomb making materials on me. They asked what I do for work and what my husband does for work, found out we were in healthcare, which I mean, there are some things that we do have in dental offices that probably could contribute.   Brendan (21:56.554) no, yeah.   Kiera Dent (22:20.214) So when they found out I worked in healthcare, I was allowed to go, everything was fine. I got to the gate, I got searched again at the gate, and then finally I was able to fly back home. So I have never been so excited to see the US flag flying after. So that was my end of international consulting. I've still consulted people in Canada, but they have to come over to the US. I'll meet them right at the border, but we do it all in the US now. So that was a good lesson learned early on.   Brendan (22:46.665) Okay.   Yeah, yeah, fair enough. And you could probably do a bit virtual. Why do you need to meet in person? I'm curious.   Kiera Dent (22:54.74) Yeah. So that was like really what I built the company on and we've since shifted and whatnot. But what I found was like going to people's offices, like I went to one office, I'd been consulting them for about six months and I walked in and they had paper charts. Never once did paper charts come up on any of our calls. And I'm like, excuse me, we have paper charts in this office. Like how was that never a conversation? And what I realized is what me as a consultant might see that maybe isn't like   a good flow or good things, a dentist who's been doing this for years might not even know that that's abnormal. And so sometimes being able to see the practice can really help. It can really help us evaluate. We can get the team on board. So that's been something that's been really fun. But we've also now learned that, like, I think after seeing so many practices myself, we know a lot more of the questions to ask of the team pieces of the flow. There's different ways. mean, COVID really helped exponentially grow that virtual piece. And honestly, we can get, I would say,   We're like 98 % as good of results virtually as we were getting in person. So the only thing I think people miss is just like us being with their teams. So now we're flying all of our doctors and teams together. So we're still able to influence. And we learned through COVID, we did virtual team events and teams love it. Like we ship swag boxes and we really learned how to have this like fun, engaging experience virtually that teams get bought into. And then it's cheaper for the doctors not to have to fly an entire team.   Brendan (23:58.548) if could.   Kiera Dent (24:22.092) to a location as well.   Brendan (24:23.956) Right, right, right, right. I just thought of a couple things to ask you really quickly. Have you ever met Paul Vigario of SurfCT? No, okay, they're an IT company. They do a bunch of things, but you were mentioning kind of, I forget the exact word you used, but you were saying like building up and motivating the team of the dental office. He uses the word empower, which I thought was interesting. I didn't know if you guys had crossed paths or something, but he would be a good person to connections in the network. The other thing is I could,   Kiera Dent (24:31.658) I have not. That'd be a one.   Kiera Dent (24:42.221) Mm   Kiera Dent (24:50.944) Yeah.   Brendan (24:53.8) I wanted to ask you because you like to go your at least you started the business by going in person to these offices. Do you have any recommendations that you make as far as the flow? Because you have the waiting room and then you have the operatories and all double chairs. Maybe if consult consulting group, consult rooms and follow up rooms next to them. And then towards the end on the way out, it's different from the entrance because people got dental treatment and they got to make that payment. Hopefully before they leave the office. Is that anything that you evaluate and make better or   Kiera Dent (25:19.717) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (25:23.564) Totally. Yeah. One of my offices, they're a very big booming practice. They do over 14 million a year in one location. And I went up to their office and it's kind of my running joke. said, you guys, I don't even want to put this on my resume that I did this for your practice. We're talking big booming practice, huge practice. They've been doing amazing for years. What I implemented in their practice were flowers that I went and bought from the store.   and put in vases at their checkout location because what I noticed is they were not getting a high of cases closed because there was no privacy. It was too big of a thing. And I also noticed the flow was really confusing because people were coming from both directions and they were actually running into each other. Patients were backing up, patients were leaving. And I'm I'm kind of embarrassed that like, Kiera Dent came in, Dental A Team, and I put flowers on your checkout.   But what happened was their case acceptance skyrocketed. The patient flow I practiced with the entire team. Because what's crazy is those little things we don't think about, but the patient experience exponentially increases and our case acceptance goes up exponentially. So I'm like a miracle girl in practices. Case acceptance is my jam. Having really smooth flows for practices is really what I love to do. And so yes, in my perfect world, if I get to see your blueprints before you build the practice,   Always having an in and an out because it really helps but if like the practice is how it is Let's figure out flows Sometimes I'll just add a little bench by the checkout where people can actually seat their patients so the patient's not leaving the door Little different things where you can hand like a route slip or anything of communication like the baton passing between the front and the back office so that way everything is just so clean and what's going on between the front to the back and having that flow very   very easy. But yeah, that's something I really love to see. Because just one small little thing or in big offices, I do like a direction and a flow of traffic. So that way we're getting all patients going through one door, getting them to check out, there's a set process. I call it like the HOV lane or the like, so they're just a quick checkout, like a speedy checkout, send them to this person. If they're a longer one, put them here, have different people that are better with different skill sets at those two seats.   Brendan (27:16.394) Interesting.   Brendan (27:30.378) I like that.   Kiera Dent (27:41.61) Sometimes on the check -in, I'll have people take payments, so we're not backing them up. In really large practices, when they start to get bigger and bigger, I will start to have the clinical team, like very easy. If they just need a fluoride payment, just swipe that card in the back, very easy. We can get credit cards on file. And then there's checks and balances to make sure none of it gets missed because more hands in pots can oftentimes lead to chaos. But if it's a systematized way, you can do so much with a flow and make everybody's life so much easier.   Brendan (28:09.738) Absolutely. So then at least to my next question and right on that, virtually, how do you assess someone's patient flow and the routes and finding that HOV lane?   Kiera Dent (28:18.348) So, oftentimes we will still go to practices, but if I'm not in a practice, it's really simple. Like do a little FaceTime video with me, like walk me through your practice, show me what your patients are doing. and what's really fun about our consulting is when you've seen so many offices, you can like within 10 minutes of being in a practice, I already know what they could do to improve very quickly. Cause you just see it. It's like we're playing a game and I spot it. And so just do a fast, easy FaceTime. I've got an office right now and   We work through their entire flow virtually and everything's moving really well. So just an easy FaceTime or a Zoom will take me around the whole office and we can just pick up a small little change here or there.   Brendan (28:59.998) that a lot. Are you only working with general dentistry? Can you come over and work in oral surgery at least a little bit? Maybe.   Kiera Dent (29:05.782) course. Yeah, we have three OS offices right now. So yes, we do branch out to other specialties. OS is fun. I like working with GPs that did implants and things which I get there's a world of like OS you're more trained. GPs love to dabble. I think like I'm not here for that debate but I am here for I love OS. I think OS is so awesome the things that we can do for patients I think.   being able to give people confidence back, being able to do it with so much ease. I love surgery, I love surgery cases, I love implants, I love bone grafting. We did a ramus and we harvested the ramus for an implant and it did not go well. So I have a lot of respect for MaxoFacial who do it well because ours was not a good experience. But it's just fascinating the thing. So yes, we definitely work in OS and help with that.   Brendan (29:43.08) A lot of fun, yeah.   Kiera Dent (30:04.202) And they're just different things.   Brendan (30:04.532) You said, yeah, you said three office. Is it three different offices or like one organization or the three different organizations? Okay. Okay. It is one of the max. I'm curious, max, Dr. Iraq's.   Kiera Dent (30:09.652) Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. No, no. I would love to just go see how they do it because I think I'd learn so much. And that's the other fun thing. I am always, I tell offices, I'm like, I'm here to teach you any tip and piece that can make your life easier, but I'm also here to learn from you too. So much of what we do in our consulting, yes, came from experiences and things we brought to it.   But there's so many great ideas that I see in offices that I'm obsessed with. I've seen really awesome ways to cut down supply costs just with tip -out bins. I've seen awesome ways with flow. I've seen really awesome things with things you do in the waiting room. There's just so many cool things when you go and see offices. So I would love to go see Mac's offices. What are they doing? What's their patient experience like? What's their team experience like? Because offices...   Brendan (30:45.567) Mm.   Brendan (31:01.587) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (31:05.164) It's usually dependent upon the owner doctor. I'm like, you can easily, I usually within like five or 10 minutes of meeting a team, I can tell, will they be successful or not? And most of it is due to the owner doctor and how they are. Dr. Jason, he's incredible. He has such a heart of gold. He's very committed to where he's going. I'm like, he, he like plants success everywhere he goes because of who he is. like, his team of course is thriving. know they're thriving without even seeing his office. So yeah, it'd be really fun to go see him.   Brendan (31:14.452) Hmm   Brendan (31:34.132) They are, they really are. And you need to meet Megan Dwyer too. She's like his go -to, maybe you know of her though. Yeah, they are, their organization is pretty incredible. Of the DSOs, I would put them at the top of the list, I think. Moving forward, I'm very curious to see, because they're fairly new. They've been in it for a bit, but they're fairly new. I'm curious to see where they go. I still have a couple more questions if you have some more time. What's, so here's a quick one. What's something you like to spot the,   Kiera Dent (31:34.986) Thank   Kiera Dent (31:47.104) Mm   Kiera Dent (31:57.546) Yeah, of course I do. Yeah, absolutely.   Brendan (32:03.838) The gaps, I love that. What's one difference you see in oral surgery offices that's different from the general dentist office?   Kiera Dent (32:11.3) Wes is just big treatment plans most of the time. Like it's a, we're not, we're there to build a relationship. We're there to love them, but we're not there. Like you're not there Dennis forever. Like you guys are there for very much a specialty. And so like the way you schedule an OS practice compared to how I schedule a GP practice, the relationship building with an OS practice, a lot of it's going to be relationship building with all your GPS in the area where GPs.   are more about just attracting patients in. So that's something I see a lot, but OS is, I think OS is helping the doctors. OS has a reputation of like, pop that anesthetic in, take the teeth out and off they go. It's kind of a little bit more, it is a little more rash. And so just helping those doctors realize like that experience is getting you the reputation all the way out. Like you're an incredible surgeon.   Brendan (32:59.06) more rash. Yeah.   Kiera Dent (33:08.372) Make sure the bedside manners match your expertise. Make sure that patient feels your love for them because dentistry is such an intimate experience. Like nowhere do you let a stranger put their fingers in your mouth. Like it's just, weird. Like we literally let these strangers do it. It's very weird. And so helping those, is. And then a lot of OS, I noticed that they're such brilliant surgeons that they struggle with team dynamics a lot.   Brendan (33:19.388) It is. It's your mouth. Yeah.   Very vulnerable, yeah.   Kiera Dent (33:35.424) That's something I noticed more so in OS than I noticed in GP. so helping them see like you are this incredible surgeon and I want you to be the expert there. And I also want you to be a human to your team. Like Dr. Jason is, he is a very different OS. He doesn't have that chip. He doesn't have the, which I mean, my husband's in medicine too. And there's some surgeons who have that chip on their shoulder and they're total jerks. And like I watched even in the healthcare, some doctors are such   Brendan (33:36.088) Kiera Dent (34:03.67) jerks to their team. And I'm like, you get so much more further if your team's behind you than you do by like barking orders at them or telling them. And I understand surgery is stressful. Like if we mess up, the surgery has some not so great side effects to it. And so I understand the need for that perfection, but I'm like, teach your team with those perfect systems that you want it perfect every time and then love on them when they do great things too is something I noticed. Now that's not like   Brendan (34:13.524) Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (34:32.006) blanket statement because there's GP doctors that have that need that exact same advice. But that is something I think it's just OS is it's fast. It's like shucking teeth all day long and   Brendan (34:42.046) Yeah, no, it's so it's so disappointing though. And I completely connected with that. I'm surrounded by such brilliant people. Some of the people that have gotten just at my program, don't want to mention the program, but at my program surrounded by other oral surgery surgeons and residents that have gotten the top scores in the country. And but there's just such a disconnect where they're like, they just think it's taken out teeth. And I get made fun of for taking a long, I like to take a long time at the consult. I'll ask you three times before you walk out. Are there any questions that I can answer for you? You know, I don't care if that's annoying.   or if I'm taking too long and the assistants are bugging me or making fun of me from the hallway and stuff. But it's that patient experience. It's exactly what you said. And I make a lot of content on the side, make fun of that too. But no, I'm really connecting with you on that. It's such an important thing. And I cannot stand that ego. I don't care if you have a DDS and an MD. We are human beings. And outside of the clinic, you're Josh. You're just Peter. You know, I'm just Brendan, right?   Kiera Dent (35:38.956) Thank   Brendan (35:41.066) You're not talking to this and that. And you know, obviously there's so many amazing people out there and you know, those are some of my friends. So I'm not talking about them, but it's an interesting thing. It's so weird to find such a predominance of that ego and elevated mindset. And I've found dentists who are just the same exact thing too. For another time though, but yeah, feel like we're going on to that. But it does, comes down to the patient experience. And I really do appreciate that.   Kiera Dent (36:02.861) you   Kiera Dent (36:09.398) for sharing.   Brendan (36:11.074) man, I just missed there were another two things that I had lined up ready to go. shouldn't have said anything.   Kiera Dent (36:18.49) No, you're good. I think though, as you said that, I think the greatest thing that doctors can do is build that confidence in your patient. I tell all my treatment coordinators and consultors and doctors, I'm like, they are not here buying dentistry. They are buying your confidence. They are buying your, that you're going to get the best results because I'm like, people forget that like we live in dental Tinder.   Like there is another dentist, there's another maxofacial somewhere else that can get like, they can do the same thing. And I'm like, they're buying you, they're buying your confidence, they're buying what you can give them of the dream and the hope. And so yes, like I love to ask what questions do you have for me? I want you to be rock solid leaving here. That helps that patient know one, what questions do you have for me is great. It's open -ended. I'm getting them to say yes to me rather than no to me.   Two, I'm telling them how I want them to feel. I want them to feel rock solid, confident, moving forward. What questions do you have for me? If they tell me they want to check with their spouse, absolutely, I want you to check with your spouse. What questions do think your spouse will ask you? That way I can make sure you're fully prepared for it. That's my way I can get past it and find out what's really taking this patient back. When they're like, hey, I need to check my work schedule, absolutely no problem.   Let's add you to the schedule. So me, Kiera Dent, who's ditzy over here, doesn't forget about you, Brendan. I never want to let you slip through the cracks. I'll just pop you on the schedule. You give me a call when you get to work, if that doesn't work for you, because I would hate to let you slip through the cracks. So many little things where we're making that patient the VIP. I feel like in today's world, it's funny because we think that there's so much competition out there, but I'm like, it's actually really easy to stand out and it's called being kind. I think the world has gone through the COVID crank.   I think we've become very self -centered in a lot of ways in the world. And I'm like, the greatest way for us to give incredible patient experience is to be kind, to show up as a human being, to sit knee to knee with them on their level. Like you said, what questions do you have for me? I think we've kind of forgotten how to be human beings. We've become human robots. And that's how you can actually stand out in today's world. I'm like, it's such an easy way to get an edge is to just be kind and to treat them.   Kiera Dent (38:27.828) and make sure that they're rock solid confident is going to be the way to win those patients. And then like, I don't care whatever you do have great bedside manners. but I remember my ER doctor when I had an appendix burst, I loved my ER doctor, I loved him and he was so busy, but he made me feel so taken care of. And my husband went out to while I was waiting in the room and he's like, our doctor is literally running between rooms, but as soon as he gets the door, he like walks in so slow and like, Kiera I'm here, whatever questions you have.   and then would like book it as soon as he left the room. I never felt that rush. I felt like he was taking great care of me. And I think that's a great way for all dentists to have an edge and to win the patients that need to be served by you.   Brendan (39:11.21) Yeah, you need to have that humanistic quality to you it and just back to you were saying how it's like tinder There's always another it's like there's always gonna be another oral surgeon who's taller. There's always gonna be on their dentists That's better looking That's that's so funny And just just a few more questions. I I got back to it by the way the Within those first two years, I'm curious I want to just just if we could touch into the secret sauce a little bit here   Kiera Dent (39:23.628) Sure.   Kiera Dent (39:28.768) Yep. Good.   Brendan (39:40.884) Cause I'm going to start in this practice next August, August 15th. And I am, I want to, I want you to come over and do a whole revamp and we figure out what's going on. The offices, the practices, I'll pay for it. However we got to do it. But within those first two years, I'll be working for someone, but you were with someone who had started her own practice or was working in.   Kiera Dent (39:59.724) Nope, we started it. We bought it from a retiring doctor. Yep.   Brendan (40:01.61) Start from there. What were some of those key things, maybe two or three things, if you could touch on them that got her from the, regardless of the numbers, but what got really the scaling going? You said systems and processes, so you got those going. Is there another one or two things that I should be looking for in my first two years? I got a two -year contract, that's where I signed. I want to be a partner there one day. What's something I should be looking into to find or bring to the table to be that missing piece, if you can share something, one or two things.   Kiera Dent (40:19.724) Thank   Mm   Kiera Dent (40:29.78) Yeah, of course. So I think I'd find out where are the gaps in that practice right now. What are the things that the owner doctor maybe doesn't enjoy doing? Are they really amazing with numbers? Are they really amazing with the team? Are they really amazing clinicians? Because usually people have a natural gravitation to something. And so when I look at practices and partnerships, I work a lot with partners and helping doctors come together.   Brendan (40:40.36) you   Kiera Dent (40:55.94) is what's the complimentary piece? So like when I have a husband wife duo in a practice, I'm like, all right, one of you is probably naturally gifted with the team and one of you is probably naturally gifted with numbers. That usually tends to be the dynamic I see with partners. When there's multiple partners in there, we obviously bring different skill sets to the table. But I would say go find out as a partner, if your skill sets the team or if it's numbers, I also say that that can't be your crutch either.   You still need to go learn the other side of it. So that way you can be a resource for them. So just because you might not like numbers, go figure it out, figure out how they do the billing, go talk to the front office, have them like you sit in the chair and physically send the bill. So you understand what that process is like. So you know how you can help support your team as well. And also how you can check and audit the numbers in the books. I really love when doctors come in with an owner mindset and there's also gotta be a level of appreciation.   while there's also confidence. So recognizing that that doctor took all the risk to build this practice for you, I think goes a long way. But then at the same time, you need to come in with something that they don't have that you're going to bring in. really being observant of what don't they like or what are the gaps? How's the team doing? Are we doing team meetings, listening to podcasts? And then also remembering that you're a leader. So I think you leading, no matter if you care to do it or not.   as a doctor, you're just a natural leader to your team. We are always going to follow you. We're always going to respect you because you're our doctor. And so I think those are the pieces, but I feel pretend this was your practice. What things would you have to know? You'd have to know the numbers. You'd have to know what profitability is. You'd have to know what your EBITDA is. You'd have to know the billing processes. You'd have to know how to hire and fire. You'd have to know the HR portion of it. You also have to be a great clinician. And so as you like, usually I say your first six -ish months, you got to be a bang of   clinician. Like I need you to come in, I need you to produce, I want you to do all these things and really learn that mentorship piece and then like start to take on those little pieces of the practice ownership. So when you come to the table, you're not just bringing a check to buy into the practice, you're bringing skills that are very valuable to this practice that's complimentary to what they have already.   Brendan (43:05.994) Excellent and thank you for that. We actually are doing some stuff on the marketing side so I'm very glad that you mentioned those things. Okay great so we'll be touching base throughout next year. I start August 15th so we'll be doing that. We'll be touching base. Is your work expensive?   Kiera Dent (43:18.355) I'm caught.   Kiera Dent (43:28.199) Yeah, of course. So we do online and we do in person and really we try to customize it to your practice. And so all of our fees have always been covered by either the amount we reduce in your overhead or the production we add to your practice. I've never once not had our consulting paid for and we range anywhere from like ,600 a month all the way up to $4 ,500 a month, depending upon the amount that we would be doing, whether we're coming to your practice, whether we're coming out here.   what different pieces we're doing and how much hands -on. But really, my goal is how can we help people succeed and flourish is what I love to do.   Brendan (44:00.468) next one.   Brendan (44:06.354) Excellent. And you have a team, I'm sure you have other people who's Shelby, by the way, she's just, she helps coordinates things or.   Kiera Dent (44:12.441) Yes, Shelby is my executive assistant and our customer success. And she really so she does all of my scheduling and coordinating, which is incredible. And then she also takes care of all of our clients, too. So she's beautiful. She's incredible. I hired her. She was my next door neighbor, actually. And I was like, I was like, this girl takes care of my plants when I'm on the road. She just noticed my plants were dying and started watering them for me. She just like randomly check in on me. She was a waitress. And I'm like,   Brendan (44:28.468) Amazing! That's great!   Kiera Dent (44:40.138) This girl loves people so much. want her in my life and on my team. so, yeah, we've worked together for almost four years now and she's just truly incredible.   Brendan (44:50.922) That's amazing. that's so nice that it's like a family business. Yeah!   Kiera Dent (44:53.44) So look for good talent. I know, look for good talent everywhere. I've hired people from my next door neighbor. I've hired people from friends of friends. I've hired people from church. You always gotta be on the lookout for incredible talent because those people are the people you want in your life.   Brendan (45:09.428) How do you find the roles for them in your company? I'm curious, because with one of my marketing startups right now, with the co -founders, that's what we're looking for. We need this and this done. But then finding the right people, you know, on top of the day -to -day, the nine -to -five, you found people at church, neighbor. And they just happened to fit that thing that was missing at that one time, or they molded, you trained them. I'm curious.   Kiera Dent (45:23.98) Sure.   Kiera Dent (45:31.168) Thank   both. So I think it's important, like whenever I tell people like, hey, we're going to try and find a role. And we don't know, I just say, great, like, let's write down everything, like, just dump it all on a list of everything that you are either doing, or you need to delegate out or things you'd like to not be doing. And then let's see if we can cluster it. So can we lump tasks together? Like for me, I need someone to book my travel, I need someone to do my emails, check the mail, like take care of my clients when I was on the road.   All that really falls into an assistant role. And then I was able to go find that person. And when I first did it, just dumped everything on a list. I went back with a pink highlighter, my favorite color. And I'm like, these are things that truly only I can do. And it's a good ego test because 90 % of that list is not only you can do. They're probably like 5 or 10%. That truly are tasks that only you can do. And then I looked at the ones that took me the most amount of time. And then I was like, OK.   Who could I hire for this? And that's how I started hiring these different positions. Now, a lot of times, you kind of know an assistant role or an executive assistant role or a manager role or a marketing person. And then I'll either put posts out there, job postings out there. I write my posts. I hate jobs to where I'm like, I don't know. I make them very fun because I really love that person and I want them to come be with us and realize how great of a position this will be for them. But no, there's so much that can be done.   with freelancers, like my first personal assistant I hired for 500 bucks a month. like, I don't even know what I'm having you do, but like, know I need you. So like more tasks will come as you take on more things and I'll just like keep paying you. And so then they just morph. And usually those personal assistants or those assistants that are kind of at random, like jack of all trades, master of nothing, they really just... So I found my first one on Indeed. I hired her. I just put an ad out.   Brendan (47:20.446) Yeah. Where did you find that person, by the way?   Brendan (47:27.518) Thank you.   Kiera Dent (47:28.876) Viva HR is a great resource too, that I love. I'm happy to share a link with all the listeners. It's $99 a month and you can post on all the platforms, unlimited ads. And I was like spending $15 ,000 a year on job postings for a while. This has cut down a huge expense for us. So I do post there. but I write mine very fun. So I like talk about how fun our company is. I talk about our Disneyland retreats. go on, I talk about like, what's your favorite cupcake flavor. So that way it's just very intentional. And then for them to come back to me.   I do tell them they have to respond back with certain things. And if people don't do it, I just weed through. But yeah, the first personal assistant I hired, she was a college student. She came from a great company in the area. And she just loved me from day one. For personal assistants, I have a really good process that I'm happy to share with anyone trying to hire this role, where we make them do certain things like book a trip for me, schedule this dinner thing. And I look to see their thought processes and how long it takes them. So I kind of test them through the interview process.   So she was hired from Indeed. Another one was hired. Shelby was my next door neighbor. But yeah, they just come from all over random. But I found the best people for that role are usually from hospitality. So waitresses, servers, Starbucks. Anyone in that service tanning anything in that world where you've got to really be high end nice. I love a waitress or a waiter because they've got to watch so many people.   Brendan (48:26.388) Mmm.   Kiera Dent (48:53.376) They serve a bunch of people. They're very fast paced. Like that's a good person who matches me. I love to bring those people in. but yeah, that's, so that's where I find those people. But indeed, honestly, college towns, a lot of people in college town just want like, I don't need them full time. So they're really good role to bring in part time. But I found the ones that are in college usually are the best ones for that personal assistant. And then   Brendan (48:56.67) Yes.   Brendan (49:01.642) Speaking of tanning, yeah, this light isn't doing me any good. But all right, anyways, start, keep going, keep going. I'm very worried.   Kiera Dent (49:21.036) depending on what they're going into school for. Shelby was going to school for business administration, so it was a perfect match for her. My other one was going to school for teaching, so she was with me through the time she got her degree, and now we're still really good friends after that too.   Brendan (49:34.026) Amazing. You're brilliant. This is one system in process to another. I really appreciate this. I really do. Excellent.   Kiera Dent (49:38.73) Thank you. Thank you. I want to make your life easy. So whatever we can do to like simplify and ease people's lives. That's what we're here for.   Brendan (49:47.046) Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for coming on. No, I'm just now you're we're hitting the cap where there's there's a lot to take in here. Can you do me a favor and please go and take a look at Max's offices and everything like within this year so that afterwards that we can talk stealing double things.   Kiera Dent (50:04.46) Right. Exactly. Well, he's so great because he's been on your podcast earlier today. He just mentioned he was like, everybody thinks they're competitors. And the reality is we're not competitors. There's enough teeth to go around. There's enough like all, all ships rise, like all tides rise all ships. And I love that perspective. I'm like, we need more people like him. I guarantee you if you went and saw his offices, he'd take you around. And that's the type of doctors. Like, we attract these doctors.   Brendan (50:28.84) I did actually, yeah.   Kiera Dent (50:32.32) who want to give to others, who want to lift each other up, that want to share their best ideas. And that's what I'm committed to just creating more of because the more we celebrate, the more we share, the more we lift each other up and we give all these ideas, like I will happily give anything I can for you because the more you can succeed, the more you're going to rise other people up with you as well. So why not? The world needs more goodness and more positivity. So let's create it.   Brendan (50:56.21) It does. does. The one thing because he has a corporation now. It's a big organization. They're amazing. They're beautiful. But then there's going to be certain ceilings and walls and what you can and can't do. Unfortunately. And I was very I saw his offices and he is outstanding and his team is great. They're lot of fun. They're a lot of fun. And I I love that. But I just saw the path to kind of I don't know where I'm going to make it. And I want to try to go towards administrative in addition to   taking out teeth and doing the oral surgery. And I felt that in a DSO, there would be certain boundaries that might prevent that growth. And I'm sure you understand that, right? Especially with your story of the blossoming, right? So yeah, I could do, and then there was one person that their organization hired that I knew of that probably wouldn't work well, but butting heads kind of stuff. So you have to make decisions as you move on. So I'd be very curious if I was to work there.   Kiera Dent (51:47.148) Sure.   Brendan (51:52.126) We wouldn't have a future of a project together of building, creating systems and processes. So you know what I mean? Like, and this is kind of like how I like to connect. had a great conversation today. I can't thank you for not coming on. You have such a busy schedule. Shelby's great, by the way. I'm all over the place. It's only me here right now. And one day learning from you, maybe I could scale, but thank you so much for coming on. I'm going to, I'm going to be posting this on whatever platforms we can. I'm sorry that you're recording this with the backwards Riverside. Thanks.   Kiera Dent (51:57.299) Sure.   Kiera Dent (52:06.41) Thank you.   Brendan (52:21.78) for Shelby to putting that together though. Yeah, thank you. I know we're hitting that hour mark. So I want to be conscious of your time. Maybe we could do part two sometime in the future. Or maybe when you come through, if you can. Can I, I know you have a team now, in the future, revamping the practice and stuff. Is there a different price from getting you versus a team member, a delegate? How does that work?   Kiera Dent (52:22.841) Yeah, of course. Thank you.   Kiera Dent (52:31.18) Thank   Kiera Dent (52:34.516) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (52:45.453) Yeah, great question. I have always tried to make sure that whomever I hire is just as good as me, if not better. I even tell other people, I'm like, honestly, my consultants are usually better than me due to the fact that all they do is consulting. And so they're truly incredible for it. So I have never wanted to have a different fee for myself or for consultants. And so currently, it's the same fee. I just don't take on as many clients. However, with that said,   certain people that we've connected with and if I'm in the area and it works out, by all means, I'm happy to come. And even sometimes it's me plus a consultant because I just, my biggest expectation of ourselves is I feel like we have got to be there for clients. Like when I need my coach, I need her. And so we are so on top of it that I would never want to have it where I am busy, I'm on podcasts, the clients can't get in touch. So I always, if I even am on an office,   I pair myself with another consultant just so you guys always have support and you're never left due to the fact that I am busy and I do travel. absolutely, there's no extra fee if it's me or someone else. So yeah, that would be, but honestly, our consultants, I only bring on consultants in our company that have my experience or better, that they've had to grow multiple practices, that they have the dental experience, that they've got the passion for dentistry, that they've grown multiple practices.   because I don't feel like if you haven't been in their shoes, it's very hard to convince people of what to do or to even have that empathy. yeah, so that's how we operate. But now if I didn't bring on people that were just as good as me, if not better, I think that'd be a flaw of myself as well.   Brendan (54:23.924) That's such a good idea. Do you ever get all your teams, the consultants together on the podcast all at once? How often do you do that?   Kiera Dent (54:29.482) We do. actually did one. It was actually really weird to have all of us on there because like virtually you don't know who's goin

In this episode of Life Sciences 360, host Harsh Thakkar sits down with Marc Sheetz, Associate Dean of Research at Midwestern University's College of Pharmacy, to discuss the growing concern of antimicrobial resistance and the field of pharmacometrics. Marc sheds light on how pharmacometrics is shaping the future of medicine by using predictive models to personalize dosing, making drug treatments more effective while reducing toxicity. This episode dives deep into the intersection of pharmacometrics, AI, and machine learning, revealing how the future of patient care and treatment is rapidly evolving. Marc also shares insights from his current research in the infectious disease space, including his work with pediatric ICU patients.Chapters:00:00 Introduction00:03 Antibiotic Toxicity and Population Models01:02 The Importance of Antibiotics and Public Health Challenges01:22 Introduction to Pharmacometric Science03:12 Using Data in Medicine for Future Predictions06:01 Tailoring Drug Dosages for Individuals09:36 The Global Variation in Drug Dosages and Challenges14:44 The Future of Personalized Medicine and Precision Dosing21:39 The Intersection of AI, Machine Learning, and Pharmacometrics26:35 The Role of Technology in Medicine30:01 How Dosing Software and AI Are Enhancing Patient Care36:54 Innovation and Research Trends in Medicine- Connect with Marc Sheetz on Twitter: (https://twitter.com/IDPharmacometrics)  - Learn more about Midwestern University: (https://www.midwestern.edu)  - Follow Life Sciences 360 on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/life-sciences-360)--- Subscribe to our podcast for more insights on life sciences: 

So much of practice profitability comes from tracking supplies and overhead. Kiera pulls back the curtain on how practices can keep track of supplies, avoid shortages, and stay within budget. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.59) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome to the podcast. I hope you guys, it's crazy to think I've been doing this podcast for so long and I still get new ideas and that's thanks to you guys. So just so you know, the podcast is built for team members and teams, doctors and owners by team members and practice owners to give you guys the best tips and tricks to be able to share from hundreds of practices across the nation and across the globe to give you the shortcuts to success and to give you a community so you don't feel like you have to do this alone.   I was at my, my gosh, I'm going to say the words on the podcast. You guys, you're going to find out how old I am. I went to my 20 year high school reunion. I kid you not. And I was terrified to go. none of my friends from high school that I hung out with in high school were going. So I was going kind of solo and, and by like none of my friends, did know people, but they weren't like the close friends that I'd hung out with all the time. None of them were going. And I was super stressed and I didn't know if I wanted to go. And I almost bailed   about 20 times. And then I decided, you can always just leave. Just go say hello. You've already paid. It's right by my parents' house. It's not far away. And it was interesting because there was a girl that we weren't necessarily close in high school. I knew of her. She knew of me. But it was fun because she built a business. I built a business. And we were talking because when you're business owners, know there's not a lot of people you can actually geek out with all the time and talk to them about business strengths and weaknesses   She said to me, said, know, Kiera I'd really love to get with you more often because I feel like as business owners, we need that community and we need people that are like us to help us know that we're going through it. And I just thought, I am so lucky because my dentists do have a community and the dentist I consult have a community and they don't have to do this alone. And they're like, I've literally been there, done that and done it successfully. And our team has been there, done that and done it successfully. And we're able to share with you all the tips and all the tricks and all the things.   So that way you don't have to go through the hard things. If I could find somebody who has grown a consulting company, which I did, that's who I hired as my coach. but really just like leaning in. And then what I decided to do is our dentists, we actually meet the first Tuesday of every month. call that think tank Tuesday for our one -on -one clients. And then our group mastermind, which is so freaking fun. It's a really, really, really, really awesome community that I'm loving. And they get.   Kiera Dent (02:21.448) way more access than they even do on one -on -one. But every single week they come together for Ask Consultants Everything. And then we also have a mastermind where they get to come together as well. And my biggest piece was I was thinking back to why did I join Tony Robbins? And I thought I joined it for Tony Robbins, but I realized I joined it for a community of people that push me, that I'm not the smartest one in the room, that people can help me run my business in ways that I don't even know because community is what we're all here for. And so for you guys,   to just think like how blessed are we to have this podcast community to be able to come and share from hundreds of practices and get best ideas and to really get out there. Because what I found is in today's world, we don't have to be alone unless we want to. We don't have to do this on our own unless we want to. And I will literally give you every single piece of knowledge that I have anywhere and everywhere to make sure that you succeed and that you've lived the life you want. My goal is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible.   Dentistry is my platform and life is my passion to give you guys the life that you deserve, to give you the team and the skills for doctors and teams to flourish. So today I really wanted to just go through a quick tactical for you about inventory management, which is not my typical podcast style. Normally I'm more about life, but today I thought, let me give you guys some quick tips on how to do supplies and to keep track of your supplies and make sure that we don't have shortages, make sure that we're within budget.   And kind of just helping you and your team get on that because what I found is so much of profitability comes from tracking our supplies, tracking our overhead. And if we can get that dialed in, that's one less thing that we have to worry about. So, Hey, who's for ease. I'm here for ease because at the end of the day, we can do it the hard way or we can do it the easy way. And I would love to share with you the fastest, easiest tips I've learned. And then also what I expect from you as the community is if you have ways that I'm not talking about on the podcast, please email me. Hello @ TheDentalATeam.com   I'll either bring you on as a guest or we can take some of your ideas if you don't want to be a guest and share it because I believe that yes, while you're consuming and receiving, it's also important for you to give back. And I believe that the secret to living a fulfilled life is giving back and serving as well. There's so much fulfillment in my life to serve you and to give you these tips and to give you resources from other practices, but I wouldn't be able to give it to you without their experiences as well.   Kiera Dent (04:36.354) Whether that's you join us and become one of our ambassadors who actually get to help coach some of our doctors. Whether it's you become a client, we're able to help with that. Or you just email me in and share some of your greatest ideas. I would love that. I would love it so much and it will make you feel good because then you were able to share an idea. And everyone thinks their ideas are dumb and guess what? Going from hundreds of practices, most practices are actually not doing it. And some of my best ideas are the simplest things like an office had standup desk for their front office and I thought, gosh.   I wish so many other offices knew that. So no idea is dumb. And I just want you to not feel scared to share. And don't worry, I will always polish it up and make you sound like a million bucks. So you never, ever, ever, ever have to worry. Just email me Hello @ TheDentalATeam .com and be sure to give back. Cause I think that that's a great way for you to also feel fulfilled. So with supplies, number one, I like supplies to be at a four or a 5 % of total collections. So a great thing, there's a supply spreadsheet that I've given to a lot of our offices that we consult.   where it literally is just what are they doing for their ordering and then what is the budget? Because so often, like I was a dental assistant, I would just order what we had always ordered in the past. And that's actually not the best way to do inventory management and that we don't need to. So if we give them a 4%, so let's just make our math super simple. If we're collecting 100 ,000, 4 % is four grand, 5 % would be 5 ,000. And then what they do is, whoever's ordering, they just put it on a spreadsheet, they just deduct it down, and that's our budget for the month.   Now, something else that I love are clear tip out bins. I'm obsessed with going into offices and finding this beautiful blank wall and I found it in every practice. So don't think that your practice can't do it. Sometimes you have to get a little creative, but there's always space for it. But the clear bins, when I worked at Midwestern University's dental college in Arizona, we bought so much extra inventory because we couldn't see things. And think about our houses. Like, yes, we can tuck it in drawers, but we can't see things. And for inventory, we want to be able to see things.   to know how much do we actually have of things. And so even at the dental college, students would stock their drawers and we would go through so much composite because people would be hoarding composite. And so I'm also not obsessed with stocking rooms a ton, especially if you wanna get your inventory down and get your supplies lower, which you can absolutely do. And so what I love to do is have one, the spreadsheet and the budget. So whomever's ordering knows exactly how much they can spend.   Kiera Dent (06:54.83) Let's not have it be free reign. You can also do it for the front office. I know Amazon can really run quickly on us, but make them just track it on a quick, simple spreadsheet. That way we can always watch that and get that in control. I understand that if you order implants, you might need to go higher. If an office is doing implants, usually add together the supplies and the labs. I do about between 12 and 14%, again, depending upon the rest of your practice. I'm aiming for a 50 % overhead, excluding Dr. Pay. So you can kind of play with the numbers and figure   but a good like overall supply budget is like four to 5%. That does include hygiene supplies as well. And front office, I usually give them a half a percentage to 1 % for front office supplies. Again, look at your overhead, look at the percentages. We have an incredible overhead calculator that has it all broken down into the percentages of what we recommend for each category. And then you can use your P &L and plug it in and it's really awesome. So with that said, I love to get that budget set up. And then if we can, let's get those clear,   Clear bins set up so that way we can see. Some offices will draw a line on the bin of like when it gets down to here, this is when we order. So we can visually see and it becomes so fast. You can put tags, there's some inventory management where some people will tag it and then just scan it. Other people have the tags on the bin so it's very quick when we need to reorder, cuts down the time for us. I do really love some buying GPOs. Synergy is one, so be sure to let them know Dental A Team sent you.   I think they're great because they have a whole buying group. It's kind of like Costco where we get cheaper items because we're with the group of multiples. And I think Synergy is one of the best that allows you to still work with your preferred vendors. They do work primarily with Darby. However, with that said, you can still work with most of them and still get discounts. So yes, it might take a little bit of time to get up to date, but hey, if we can buy the same stuff and actually just save ourselves a couple hundred bucks a month or a couple thousand, isn't that worth it? I always say yes.   So that's another thing is to look into that synergy or a buying group such as that. If you have a buying group you love, please be sure to reach out, let me know. Hello @ TheDentalATeam .com. will happily vet them, find out about them and see if it's someone I would recommend to our community. But with that, then what we wanna do is we also wanna make sure that our team knows what our supplies need to be. And then everybody, I really am not obsessed with having things in operatories because if I have to stock.   Kiera Dent (09:11.724) six operatories with composite that can get very costly. And so also having tubs or those carts, if you don't know what I'm talking about, be sure to reach out. I'm happy to share pictures with you. But cart parking, and so we have like two carts for implants. We've got a cart for endo. We've got our composite, and you can have little tubs or bins. It just has everything in it. And think about how many doctors we have, how many providers. But then we just basically take it from sterile on our tray setup, take it to the room, we clean it all   put it away and off it goes. And then all I have to do is just stock the carts or the bins rather than stocking all the rooms. And I had a practice that we were actually able to cut down their supply costs exponentially due to the fact that we, all we had to do was literally just take it out of the operatories. And we were able to save so much because stocking each room was so costly and I'm having to stock basically six offices versus just having to stock those bins. The bins are also faster because I can look for it. We can fill it. And then it's all in sterile. Everything's there.   You can have drop downs. saw an office that actually had drop down bins. It's like a, I guess a clothing pull down, you know, like in closets where they're really tall. They did that for their sterile and it was amazing because they were able to have all their supplies right there. People were able to then just like restock the bins. And I did this at Midwestern when I was at the college. And what I found was I didn't have to have as many supplies because I was able to see everything. And also we had the tubs and the bins, so not as many things had to go.   And I think that's just a good way for you guys to get the supplies down to keep track the supplies to not have the supply shortages But again visually getting everything out. So if you were starting this sometimes even just in the operatories I do keep my disposables like cotton gauze floss things that we're using all the time that are very minimal cost Those stick in the operatories. You can also get the clear bins and stick them right behind your 12 o 'clock cabinet That way all those things are very easy. You can see them They're not very minimal things that we've got a stock, but really the bins are so easy   Offices love them. It might seem like a little bit change, but it makes it very, very, very simple for it. So a lot of those things, yes, I keep my disposables, my sections in the room. So those things are very simple. We use them all the time. Keep those there and they're not very costly, but the composite, the matrices bands, the impression material, all those things do become a little more costly. And so being able to cut those down really can save and then empower someone, empower them to be your supply champion, empower them   Kiera Dent (11:37.538) really be able to grow this and to, and get the person who's obsessed with like winning and figuring out how they can make ends meet. They're usually the person who really loves to be over supplies. And then they know their budget, they save the money and they're able to get it. Oftentimes buying deals when like a company has like buy two, get one free, run the numbers and make sure it's actually a good deal. Cause sometimes they're not that good of a deal. So there's my quick tactical practical for you of inventory management. Like I said,   Set up the spreadsheet with the budget, make sure we're tracking it, give the budgets to them, look at your overhead. Then the clear bins are a great thing. You can just Google them. There's a lot of them, like Z -Line, I think, is a company that has them. But just Google clear tip -out bins. They come in multiple sizes. You'll want a nice big wall. You can also put them in the operatories. Take things out of the operatory so it's all in one place. It's easier for people to track and manage. And then give someone the empowerment to just rock it and to make sure that we're never out of things.   I usually used to check my supplies like every week. My supply person usually gets one hour. It can be per week or every other week, depending upon how much you guys need to order. And that usually can keep the order going consistently. Yes, when we run this lien, we do have to order more often. But it's a great way to keep it to where we're not over bulking, over stocking, because we don't want to order as much. And then get into that GPO group buying. like Synergy, like I mentioned, can actually save you a lot of money.   for buying the exact same things you're already doing and you don't have to change. So check them out. Be sure to tell them, Dental A Team sent to you, if we can help you guys with this, get it set up, talk to your clinical team, get them excited and on board. That's what we're here for. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

For most men, especially many gay men, the size of their penis is directly related to their confidence. Whether it be the length or girth, many gay men allow there manhood to rule their world. No judgment, just speaking the truth. If you are a guy who struggles to love your penis, in a healthy way, Dr. Joel Pash shares how girth enhancement, might be an avenue for you to explore to bring you more confidence in your manhood. In this educational episode, we explore: How to embrace your penis size and love what you have A procedure you can have - safely - to enhance the girth of your penis The benefits of having more girth if that is what you desire About Dr. Joel Pash DR. JOEL PASH is the co-founder of The Upsize Clinic and the medical director of its San Francisco location. He completed medical school at Midwestern University in 2006. He then went on to complete a residency in Anesthesiology at the University of Calgary. Since finishing his residency in 2011, he has performed thousands of complex injectable procedures including nerve blocks, epidural and spinal injections, intravenous and arterial catheters and penile injections. He has published academic papers on subjects such as operating room management and pain management. He is on staff at several hospitals in Northern California as well as the two Upsize Clinic locations. Connect With Dr. Joel Website Instragram Hey Guys, Check This Out! Are you a guy who keeps struggling to do that thing? You know the thing you keep telling yourself and others you're going to do, but never do? Then it's time to get real and figure out why. Join the 40 Plus: Gay Men Gay Talk, monthly chats. They happen the third Monday of each month at 5:00 pm Pacific - Learn More! Also, join our Facebook Community - 40 Plus: Gay Men, Gay Talk Community Break free of fears. Make bold moves. Live life without apologies

On today's two-part episode, Mark interviews Dr. Soraya Safi, also known as the "Forever Associate Dentist." Dr. Safi shares her journey into dentistry, discussing her time at Midwestern University and the factors that led her to become a dental associate rather than a practice owner. They explore the challenges and rewards of being a long-term associate, including job options, mentorship, and navigating career transitions within the dental industry. Dr. Safi also offers valuable insights on what makes an ideal work environment for associates, and how dental practice owners can improve retention and satisfaction beyond financial compensation. EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.drsaficoaching.com https://www.truedentalsuccess.com Dental Success Network Subscribe to The Dentalpreneur Podcast

Dr Melody Medawar Rodarte is a double board-certified internist and obesity medicine specialist in Arizona. She was named one of Phoenix's Top Doctors in Obesity Medicine in 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. She obtained her doctorate of osteopathic medicine from Midwestern University in 2002. She is also Certified in hyperbaric medicine, wound care and medical aesthetics, as well as bioidentical hormone replacement. She absolutely loves personalized medicine and equipping her patients with tools to stay healthy as well as getting to the root causes of their illnesses. She has been married to her husband Tony for 26 years, and they have 21-year-old twins. They love to travel the world and serve both their community and internationally. They formed a nonprofit called The Compassion Alliance to help support first responders. ---------- Guiding Growth: Conversations with Community Leaders Join our hosts, Sarah Watts and Ben Kalkman, as we explore the human journey of leaders - their stories of humility, triumph, roadblocks, and lessons learned - as they reflect on how they became who they are today and share stories of inspiration and hope with listeners. We'll take away the title, just for a moment, and enjoy a connection with the soul. Be sure to subscribe to our show for more interviews with community leaders. This podcast is brought to you by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce and Modern Moments. Learn more about our show at https://guidinggrowth.co. View our Privacy Policy at https://modernmoments.com/privacy

Kiera joins Haley Schultz on The Dental Download podcast to talk about maximizing associate dentistry. They discuss how to go about learning about numbers, overhead, meeting cadence, leadership and more, as well as the Dental A-Team's educational resource for new dental school grads. Episode resources: Listen and subscribe to The Dental Download podcast Listen to episode 654, Behind the Curtain of Dentistry Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.91) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera, and I am so excited because I actually did an amazing podcast with Haley from Dental Download, and it was all about associates, and I really feel like you guys are going to love it. And so I wanted to actually do a crossover episode on our podcast, so I really hope you guys enjoy. It was all about associates, getting you guys a ton of perks, coming out of school. I think it's great for you guys, and I hope you really enjoy it.    Haley Schultz  All right, hello, everyone. Welcome back for another episode. I know last time I had you on, we talked a lot about kind of the business side of dentistry and a lot of what you do with improving practices. But today I thought we could talk more about kind of advice for people that are going in as associates. So maybe they're not owners yet, but how can they maximize that time to kind of be prepared for ownership? So I'd love kind of your opinion. So if someone is going in as an associate for their first time at an office,   Kiera Dent (01:20.878) Thank you.   Kiera Dent (01:33.806) Thank you.   Haley Schultz (01:39.466) What are some things that they can do or maybe what should they be trying to learn from the owner to get themselves prepared for ownership down the line?   Hey, I'm so glad you asked this question because I did work at Midwestern University's dental college for three years in Arizona and I just want to like plant a seed and then I'll answer your question. So planting the seed is I've talked to so many owner doctors. I know the students and I feel like sometimes what students do because they're in such a learning phase, right? I worked with hundreds of them and so many of them told me Kiera.   I know you told me this before, but I really wish I would have just taken the plunge into ownership. Initially, I was so afraid to do it, but really like an associateship is, it is beautiful, but I think it's kind of like dental school, right? You're D1, D2, D3, D4. It's almost like you guys have this path of D1, two, three, four, associateship, and then I'll become ready for it, or even residency associateship, then I'm ready for ownership. And I think it's similar. I mean, we don't have children. You can use this example. I've heard it many times of...   You're never really ready when you get married. You're never really ready for children, but you jump in and you know you're going to be able to figure it out and we learn it along the way. So I just want to plant a seed. Um, almost every single owner I've ever talked to asking about their associate path. They all have told me, I wish I would have just straight on into ownership. So I'm just going to plant some seeds out there. It does not mean you need to do it because I know it can feel scary, but maybe just like percolate on that a little bit. So if you do elect to, cause I think most people go into associateship cause you feel like.   I'm not prepared. And I want to say that most dental students, I'm saying most, you know yourself, so go for it what it is. But most dental students are actually more prepared than they think they are. You don't have as much like quote unquote, real life experience. And so I think the, the part that feels daunting is you don't really know how to like run a team. You don't know how to do the billing aspect of it. You don't know how it's, it's the nuances of running a business. But what I want to let you know is most associates in that they're super proactive, just like some of those students in school.   Kiera Dent (03:38.094) owning a business is still gonna feel very daunting when you do get to that point. So just throwing those ideas out there, like the pieces you don't know about ownership that you're scared about, it's gonna hit you when you do buy the practice regardless. So, but if I was saying like, okay, I know I wanna go into an associateship, I know I wanna go in and I wanna own, basically I'm gonna take this time as like my mini residency in business. That's how I would treat this as an associate of.   But that doesn't mean you're, I mean, cause you're also trying to learn like, Oh, I got to get my hand skills up and I've got to get my speed up and I've got to figure out how to work with an assistant. I think there's that piece that is beautiful that an associateship does allow you to do. But on the flip side of that, if you're going to go be an associate, I would definitely go learn all the billing and all the front office and go sit with the biller and say, Hey, I'm Haley. I have no clue what I'm doing here. I want to learn how to submit claims and just sit with them. They'll laugh at you. They'll giggle with you and be like, I have no idea what I'm doing.   teach me how to do this, and then you actually submit claims. You actually call on the insurance plans. You actually answer the phone and schedule a patient. You actually go through and you present a treatment plan with the treatment coordinator. You listen to them. Listening and observing is different than doing. And so I really would just take it as like, that's my mini residency because the business aspect is going to be the part that's going to rock your world of managing the team, of reading the books, getting the PNL.   I would talk to your owner doctor and say, hey, I'm super intrigued by business. Can you teach me? Like, I want to see how you look at your P &L. How do you talk to your bookkeeper? They might be willing to share. And if they're not, then hey, rock on. Come talk to me and I'll show you how to do a P &L. But really, I think that that's the pieces that are going to maximize you. You've got to learn the numbered aspects of the KPIs, the overhead, the bookkeeping, financial, the legal aspect. Like, that's the whole business side. And then the flip side is the billing, the office management.   how we run our meetings, what's the cadence. Those are, I think are the two pieces in addition to getting your hand skills up that really is, I think a great way for you to maximize your associateship if you elect to go that route. But remember sitting in someone's house, like think of us growing up in our parents homes. We lived in a home. We saw our parents pay the mortgage. We saw them pay the bills. So we saw it, but until you have that ownership piece on you, it is a magnitude that I don't think there's really a way to prepare you. You like,   Kiera Dent (05:55.662) It's up to here at your neck of like, oh my gosh, I have so much debt. And so just realizing that I haven't found a great simulator to prepare you for real life, just like our parents couldn't prepare us for marriage. Like we watch our parents with marriage. We watch tons of people with it, but living a day in and day out, I think there is an element that really you just have to jump in and then gain the mental stamina and grit. I think is the best advice of how can I manage those emotions, master my emotions to ride the tidal waves of life and not get thrown off.   Yeah, that's great insight. And I'm curious in terms of if you do work with doctors right out of school that are going into ownership, are you working with many people right when they are getting started on they just bought their practice from ground zero or are you mostly having clients come in years into ownership and like, okay, we need to turn things around, we're struggling with this?   Yeah. So, Haley, I'm glad you asked and you actually inspired me on our last podcast. I realized our consulting company didn't really have something that I felt was affordable for new grads. And I felt like that was just a zone. And we know my model is I just want to serve and help as many dentists as we possibly can to like love life and enjoy the aspects. So we actually just created a part of our consulting that is way more budget friendly, but gives the foundations.   of the practice, it's more of a kind of like there is some DIY, but also you get massive access to the consultants. It is more in a group setting mastermind style. So you're learning from other doctors. You can ask your questions. We almost walk you through, not almost, we do. We walk you through like the 12 systems of how to set up your practice based on the months of the year to like get you in this good place. But it's way, way, way more budget friendly because I can do it on more of a math scale. And then when you're ready, you can add on calls and whatnot, because I just noticed that was a gap.   And I feel like it's a gap in a lot of consulting because it's like kind of like financial advisors and me and Ryan Isaac, like we talk about this all the time. Like dentists, when you get out of school, you need a financial advisor to make these decisions, but financial advisors usually don't take you until you're making over a million. Well, same thing with consultants. Like we don't want to deal with they, you don't have the money. That just seems ludicrous to me. Cause then like you said, you're in hot water and now we're trying to bail you out of it. So, um, I'm actually really excited. We have.   Kiera Dent (08:11.118) quite a few new like brand new doctors in there. We've got some existing doctors too, because I didn't want to just like only have newbie docs. Like we do have some advanced doctors. So, and it's just been really, really fun to see it evolve, but the doctors are loving it because it's doctor and team. And we'll talk about it more at the end, but truly any person who comes from this podcast, just mention it. You guys are getting 25 % off your monthly fee for life because I want students to feel confident owning practices.   I want you to feel like you've got resources of a consultant on demand basically, because you're going to have a ton of questions. I know what you're going to go through. And I just saw that was a gap. So, math kudos to you of just planting the seed. And then our team went to work and we built a product that is beyond beautiful. And you get nine hours of consultant access per week or per month, excuse me, which right now most clients are only getting an hour and a half of time from a consultant. So we tried to just like...   maximize it. Yes, it's in a group setting, but I believe that there's a massive, massive, massive advancement. Think about in class, students raise their hand and they ask questions that you never would have thought of, but you at least get the answer to it, similar to our consulting, and you still can have access to answer all your questions. I just thought that that was a gap, so we decided to roll that out, and so 100%. Then there's also a lot of clients that when you're going to buy a practice, I think this is really important to note.   you usually see the cost of the practice and so you go to the bank to get that. And I recommended for years, ask for a little, like I'm talking 50 to 100K more of working capital if you can. And that's what you invest in CE and consulting and equipment because that's going to propel your business forward. It's not the actual line item of my practices as much. Tack it on and say, I'm hiring a consultant or convince the practice you're buying to hire a consultant. So it goes into the roll up fee.   Those are the things to do so that way you have the funds available when you really need the help the most.   Haley Schultz (10:07.85) That's awesome that you created that program. That's exactly like there was definitely a need for it. So I'm excited to know that that's available now for people. But when it comes to again, an associate perspective, and I mean, it can just be anything you're seeing with your clients for if they need to increase production, if that's one of their problems that maybe they're not producing enough. Do you feel like the time needs to be   Yeah.   Haley Schultz (10:31.082) towards clinical skills, actual CE, or is a lot of time it more communication skills that people need to really increase that production.   Hmm. I think that there's gosh like like tenfold I think there's a lot of things that can go into it and so I'll just kind of like hit the high points number one I think given a lengthy amount of time Students and new doctors tend to take that amount of time. So my biggest piece is timing yourself There's these cool little blocks on Amazon and you can get your assistant to do it where you can like wipe it and it can be clean But you can actually flip the timer once you walk into the operatory and see how long it's taking you to actually prep the crown. I   in addition to going and getting the exams and see how long your exams are taking you and just start timing yourself. It's kind of like when we train for like marathons or you're training for your race times. And if we're not tracking our metrics, you're actually not able to improve that. So I found like one of the biggest pieces of increasing production is just being able to shave off one, two, three, four minutes. That's going to radically help you. If you can shave five or 10 minutes for every procedure in a day, you're actually opening up space to add in one or two more procedures.   and you're getting that dollar per hour production up. That's also gonna track you in on your dollar per hour for production. And so, not on the, don't get wild on me. Let's not go for our gross. Let's go for our true like office fees of like what the insurance will pay you. So go off that number. But when you actually start tracking what your dollar per hour is, most associate doctors come out and they're producing about 500 per hour. So like trying to get us into that $4 ,000 a day.   But if you can get that up to even $600 an hour or up to $700 an hour and you productively schedule your day, that radically will increase that production. And so, and then also having confidence in yourself and pushing yourself, like you're going to get into a bind. And that's where I think communication skills come into play. If you know, I can push myself on my procedures and I can get my hand skills faster. I just need to have the word ninja skills to communicate to a patient in case something goes awry. Guys, it's dentistry. You are a real life artist working in someone's mouth.   Kiera Dent (12:34.83) own that and be okay with him. Be like, you know what? Things just didn't quite go as planned. Push the next patient down. You learn, but don't get scared of that because you're learning. It's like a child who falls off a bike. They're not, they need to get back on that bike and keep riding. Same thing with you. So I really feel like tracking your production per hour, timing yourself and making sure it's there. And then figuring out like what takes you a long time. Is it the crown prep? Is it because you're not using your assistants and so many associates right out of school don't use their assistants. Like I am an assistant.   Let me help you. Let me hand you the instruments because it's crazy. We think like, I'll just grab it. It's faster. No, if you can keep your hands right in the mouth and you've got a really good assistant that constantly is sending it to you and they're right there, your production is going to go up exponentially because, and then also have your assistant. Like I recommend associates going into a practice and find the most seasoned assistant and ask them like, Hey, when do I need to go to an exam? Like almost have them guide you.   of when you need to be leaving the room. Cause that assistant knows your most optimal time. Like get out of here. I'm going to take an X -ray and then get back in here in five minutes. And we're going to keep rocking and rolling. So I oftentimes, my opinion is when associates go work for practices to give that associate the most seasoned assistant. I know the doctor never wants to give their perfect assistant up, but that assistant is going to force an associate to move faster, show you how to really get the rope. So I think there's like multifaceted. Usually it's not CE right out of school. You might be struggling with like,   sensitivity on that, just get your owner doctor to come in and assist you, or you go assist your owner doctor and figure out like, how do they actually put the band then? How do they cure? When are they doing these things and pay attention to almost their efficiency flow? And I think if associates will also do that, like, I know it sounds weird to go assist them, but you're watching to see how quickly they move and when do they go do the exams? And I think you working with your owner doctor a little bit more can really increase that production up for you. So tracking your numbers.   figuring out how much time it really does take you, shaving it off one or two minutes every time to just get it a little bit more efficient, seeing that owner doctor and then getting those beautiful communication skills with your patient of like, it was a day today and this is just real life dentistry and real life and thank you for waiting. Never apologize. I think a good phrase is like, thank you so much for waiting. I really appreciate it and let's get rocking and rolling. Don't be like, I'm so sorry, I'm so, cause you put yourself in a wrong phase.   Kiera Dent (14:55.566) Thank you so much for waiting. Let's get rocking and rolling. I always give my best patient care to every patient and then figure out where you went awry that day and make it better the next day is what I'd recommend.   I love all those tips. And when it comes to communication skills in terms of like case acceptance, I know a lot of offices now have treatment coordinators anyways, so the doctors aren't so much like selling treatment anymore in a lot of cases, but at the end of the day, like the patients want to ask the doctor questions. So what are some things that you recommend people kind of hone in on when it comes to discussing treatment with patients?   Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (15:32.59) This will be my favorite thing that I'll ever give everyone. Doctors, remember you are selling treatment and they're buying your confidence. So many doctors push off like, oh, it's a TC. And the TC's are like, no, no, no, you T for me. You've got to get this T'd up for me and you're confident. And you've helped this patient realize this is what they need. So a lot of doctors feel bad because they don't want to give bad news. And I'm like, you're not giving bad news. You're just educating them what the state of the mouth is in. That patient, they made choices.   they chose to drink the diet sodas, they chose to like sip on this, like those are choices they made. Educate them and then always end it with like, and the great news is we're going to be able to get you healthy, I'm here for you. And then this is what I say of your best case acceptance tip and I call it NDTR is my perfect handoff. And I think in my, what I love and associates love this is it kind of gives you a framework of how do I do my exam? So I recommend comprehensive exam, walk them through it.   tell them everything that's going on and then you do NDTR. You can remember New Dentist, Tough Road, Newter, Nevada Dentist, Totally Rock. Like I've heard all the things, Never Date the Rookie. Like however you want to remember this, I don't care. But someone says Newter and that just makes me giggle. But it's next visit, the date to return, how much time is needed and make sure their re -care is scheduled. So at the end of it, and I call like putting a bow on your treatment plan package.   And so it's like, all right, Haley, I want to get you back. Like the great news is we're going to be able to get you healthy. And I'm excited to get your mouth healthy and clean again. So I want to see you back in about two weeks. We're going to get started on the upper right. We're going to get, take care of that crown and that root canal for you. It's going to take me about two hours for that. And I want to make sure you've got your cleaning scheduled. What questions do you have for me? Um, I want to make sure you're super confident. I didn't ask, do you have questions? I told them what needs to happen. They're super clear because oftentimes patients feel like.   Well, where are we starting? And a lot of new grads, especially really get funky on their, on their exam. Cause like in school, someone else does it. They bring them back. Like they have to come back. They're here for like 500 hours. Cause you guys have to get all the checks on it. And so in private practice, they have to know where you're starting. You have to know where you're starting and you'll get faster at that. So worst case scenarios, you just start in the upper right. Always like, okay, I go up for right. Like that's always my go -to until I get better at like where my chief concern is. But it's, I want to see you back in about two weeks.   Kiera Dent (17:52.654) Or if you know your schedule is wide open, I want to see you back in about a week. It's going to take me two hours for this. Please don't underestimate or overestimate. Like let's try and get that dialed in. This is where you also time yourself. So you're more confident on giving that timing. But if you will do that pretty bow and your team takes that up and they use that perfect bow, your treatment coordinator now can say, all right, Haley, let's get you scheduled. You're going to come back with Dr. Schultz. She's incredible. She wants you back in one week. So I'm going to schedule you on Wednesday at this time. She needs two hours for the crown, the root canal.   and then they'll go over the finances. Doctors, you are convincing this patient, they're buying your confidence. That's what they're buying. They're not buying the crown, they're not buying the root canal. And I do think you having that confidence and not like, well, you know, you kind of had this. And I'll say a lot of females tend to be a little more passive on their diagnosing. And I just want to give the female doctors the bike, girls, like we can do this and you are totally capable and like, don't feel bad about it. Cause I think we have these empathetic hearts.   Go in and diagnose confidently because they're buying your confidence is what they're buying. And looking at you, are you the person who can truly make my mouth healthy again? That's what I'm buying. And I'm looking at you of like, are you sure? And the more confident you doctors are, men have it too, don't worry. But I just watch it and Haley, you're a female, so I think I'm talking more to you than anyone else. But like truly, I hope that all doctors have the confidence in themselves. Another question is like, hey, how long have you been practicing dentistry? Four years.   You guys have been practicing for four years. Don't tell them you're brand new out of school. Like they don't need to know that move along. It's fine. In a year, you're going to look back at your treatment and be like, wow, that was terrible. It was the best you did at that time. And you're always going to judge yourself as you move on. And that's how you make yourself better. So like, don't feel bad about it. You can always fix it and you move on and you just make it better and better and better every single day.   That was good advice as well. And before we wrap up, I know you've already given us like so many great pearls, but I like to give people a chance for just like any closing thoughts in terms of advice for dentists that are just getting started.   Kiera Dent (19:53.934) when you have way more skills than you think you do. And I think like having that confidence within you, you went to a great school and you're going to make mistakes. And I remember, so I started with a dental, a dentist, she was straight out of school and we started our first practice and we took our practice from 500 ,000 to 2 .4 million in nine months as a brand new grad. So I like to paint that story, not that you need to do that, but I love to hear what's possible because then you can expand what's possible for you. And I remember there was one night we were sitting there and she,   bombed a root canal. Like I'm telling you, it was a bomb. Like we broke off a file. Like it was awful. And I remember we were sitting there at the end of the day and I said, you're better than this. And I remember she was like, wow, you're like cut throat when she's down. But I think it was one of the best things I ever said because she is better than that. And she knew she's better than that. And so because like she made that one mistake, she could have let that haunt her or she can make it like make her better. And so you will make mistakes. And that's part of being a dentist.   but it's how quickly can you recover from that mistake and make it better and realizing nothing is permanent in dentistry. Like everything can be fixed, everything can be resolved. Like most of the time we're probably not gonna kill a patient. So our risk isn't super high. And I just really wanna give you that vote of confidence that you are well -trained, you are going to learn, you are going to make mistakes and that's part of the journey, but the faster you can learn from that mistake and do better and be better.   the better you're going to be for those patients. And to me, I feel like as a dentist, this isn't about you. It's about you being the best for your patients and giving them the best clinical care. And when you remove yourself from it and your ego and realize I got to be the best for this patient, it gives you that motivation to rise up, to do the best treatment plans, to give them the confidence of when they need to come back, to realize like, if they don't come to me and I know I'm a good dentist, they're going to go to someone else who might not be as good of a dentist. And I owe it to my patients to be giving them the best dentistry possible.   We only have our 32, which most of us only have 28 teeth. We get one set and you as a dentist, I want you to take that on and realize you are the best for those patients. Rise up to the level you're capable of and believe in yourself more than you give yourself credit. Cause gosh, I've seen a lot of rough dentistry and most students coming out of school are not that way. You've been trained, grow, evolve and realize you've got so much potential in you. Don't give up. Even when you have that bad case, do better, be better and come in tomorrow and be better.   Haley Schultz Thank you so much and thank you again for your time today.   Kiera Dent Of course, thank you. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

Dean's Chat hosts Drs. Jeffrey Jensen and Johanna Richey are joined by Midwestern University colleagues, Drs. David McVey and Charlotte Bloch from the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP) at Midwestern University. The Arizona College of Podiatric Medicine's (AZCPM) faculty works with the team at ORSP when collaborating on research with students, and this episode highlights the effort required to create meaningful research, and submit for Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval. We also discuss common obtacles, solutions, ways to dial in research objectives, and statistical analysis. Research is a team effort, but the roadmap is available to make it less daunting! Enjoy this thoughtful discussion! https://deanschat.com/ https://bakodx.com/ https://bmef.org/ www.explorepodmed.org https://podiatrist2be.com/ https://higherlearninghub.com/  

Segment 1: Tom Gimbel, founder and CEO of LaSalle Network, joins John to talk about unemployment rising, the difficulty some people are going to have finding a job, and his thoughts on a new law in Australia that give employees the right to ignore work calls after hours. Segment 2: Philippe Weiss, President, Seyfarth at Work, talks to John […]

Every 3rd Thursday at 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time, the Dental A-Team hosts a free webinar on what should've been taught in dental school, but probably wasn't. Topics can include how to make your practice run smoother, how to think about DSOs, life as an associate, and more! Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.722) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome. Welcome to the show. I hope you guys are having such an incredible day I hope that you love the fact that you get to work in dentistry and I know sometimes we can forget how great our life is I know sometimes we can get caught up in the minutia of the patients the schedule the turnover That sometimes we forget and I have this cute little quote right here. So if you guys are watching, I have an office who gave this to me They know I usually leave them with a good quote and it says now and then   It's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy. And so today I hope that you pause in your pursuit of greatness and remember to just be happy, to be happy for the life that you're living, whether it's where you want it to be or whether it's not where you want it to be, to be happy that you're alive and that you have more days that you get to choose what you want to do. I was sitting on a plane flying and I sat next to a man and it was his birthday. And if I remember right, he was turning 90 and I said,   what does someone at 90 wish for on their birthday? And he said, I wish for more birthdays. And I've thought about that a lot of, I be like, if I was 90 and my wish would be to be wishing for more birthdays, what would I, what would I be thinking about today? What would I be wishing when I turned 90 and wishing for more birthdays? Would I have wished that I would do today? And I think one of the biggest things I've come to is to just enjoy.   to enjoy the life I'm living, I think there's so much of this like hustle mentality and you look on social media and we often feel like we're not doing enough or that we're not being enough or that all these things and I'm like, since when has that become culture? I was at another conference and they said that one of the greatest problems that our society is facing right now is social media and all the quote unquote criticism or people's opinions and that's preventing people from trying and.   from living their life. And I thought about that a lot that, you know, is this something that we are doing to ourselves? Is this something that we could possibly, possibly, you know, work through? And I just think maybe instead of being so afraid and maybe instead of always on the pursuit and looking at what if we changed it and we enjoyed it? What if we did things just because we enjoy that? And this is something where I'm speaking more to myself than probably any of you have.   Kiera Dent (02:21.836) I don't always have to be productive. And I think half of the game of life is to learn to love the life we're living and to really be content in that life that we're living. And so for each of you today, again, I hope that you pause in your pursuit of whatever you're pursuing and remember just to be happy today and to give yourself that great gift. As always, you guys, I hope that you just know how much I love you on our podcast family and thank you for making this podcast an incredible podcast. Thank you for making us one of the top dental podcasts out there.   your reviews of the podcast, you sharing it, you tagging us, you sending in feedback of what topics you want me to speak about and our team to speak about at Hello @ The Dental A Team .com really helps us make sure that we're relevant for you because at the end of the day, this podcast is not for me. I love the podcast. I enjoy podcasting with you, but at the end of the day, this podcast was made for you to give you the shortcuts to success, to give you a community of people, to help you feel like you're not alone, to give you the tactical practical tips.   of what you could and should be doing. And I hope that you're taking that on. I also believe in our mission is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. And that might seem like a, like a funny mission for people, but I believe that there's so much good in this world. I believe that dentistry is incredible. I believe that working in a dental practice and giving people the confidence of their smiles and their being able to give them their, their lives back is something that we, we are so blessed to work in this industry. And   I just hope today that you remember that and just know I'm grateful for you and to continue to please share this podcast, to leave the reviews, to let me know things that we can do to make this even better and more of a great resource for you. I always want to remind you all to go onto our website, TheDentalATeam.com and click on our podcast tab. There are hundreds, literally almost thousands of episodes for you built for you and your team, built for the tactical practical for you to share with your team.   to give you the resources, any topic that you could ever imagine. I guarantee you we have a podcast on it. So go check those out. And if you ever need any help, always reach out. Hello @ TheDentalATeam .com. I'm always here to help you support you because I want you to succeed radically and just enjoy the life that you've been blessed with. So today I wanted to quickly, there was a question that came up of what they should have taught you in dental school. And it's funny to me because I actually did my story, my journey, if you're new to the podcast, welcome.   Kiera Dent (04:42.01) I actually was a dental assistant and then I became a treatment coordinator and a scheduler and a biller and an office manager. And then I actually worked at a dental college at Midwestern University in Arizona while my husband attended pharmacy school. And when I was there, I remember I got the job and people asked me, Kiera why are you wanting to leave clinical practice and go into this education? And there was two reasons, but in my interview, what I said was reason number one is,   I wanted to have a bigger impact and I knew I could not have that impact sitting in a clinical setting because I wanted to impact and inspire future dentists of how great this profession is. So that was my motivating reason. And I hadn't even thought about it until I was asked the question because my number one reason I was trying to get the job was because I wanted a discount on my husband's tuition. But I remember when I had my last day at my dental office. This is a little personal for me. I was working as a dental assistant and   I remember I was curling my hair and I had the thought, Kiera you're probably not going to be in clinical dentistry again. And I wasn't, I was front office. And then I went into the dental college and I am so thankful that I worked there because one, I got to see what it's like for dentists and new dentists coming into the field of what your education's like. And mad kudos to Midwestern university in Arizona. Kudos to Dr. Gilpatrick and Dr. Brad Smith and Dr. Polito and Dr.   so many Dr. Kramer and there were so many doctors that I worked with that truly are just incredible people. Like I have so many fun memories. I had such a good time. I decided to prank the dental students. I would make them like, my gosh, the things that I did at that dental college, I am so happy that they let me just be who I am and have fun with the holidays and make dental school fun for them. But what I really saw was one,   There's so much clinical, there's so much of you learning how to do your .O .D .s and drop the box and get the perfect contacts that I think that there was so much about owning a practice that was maybe left and how to manage a team because you're such great clinicians and you love to be clinicians. And so I actually went and helped one of the students start her practice and I was a practice owner with her in Colorado. And we took our first practice from 500 ,000 to 2 .4 million in nine months and opened our second location.   Kiera Dent (06:56.21) And if you think that that was a smooth, easy path, well, you should have known that both of us were basically on divorce row. I was on suicide's door. Like it was not a pretty scene and success oftentimes can come, but at what expense? so looking back at that, that's actually why I started the consulting company. Cause I thought if I could help her grow, what about all these other students that I know? And so shout out to all my Midwestern students. but I think a lot of things that they maybe should have taught you in dental school. This is not going to be a whole summary because at the end of the day,   This is just a small piece, but I do want to let you know that we have monthly webinars to teach you a lot of these topics. And they're free. They're free CE. We call them Thirsty Thursday. It's on the third Thursday. So it's easy for you to remember. It's for those who are thirsty for more. And we do it on the third Thursday. And it is at 4 .30 PM Pacific time, 7 .30 Eastern. Free CE for you about things that you guys can learn and things that they should have taught you in dental school or things that they should teach you in a practice or.   how you can make your practice run easier. And we have amazing guests that I vetted. We teach you a lot of content, but really wanting that to come for you guys. but a few things that I feel if I were to be able to talk to my students right now from Midwestern that I love so much of what did they not teach you in dental schools? Number one, you're probably more prepared than you think you are. And that's not going for every student. I know there were some students who needed it, but as I watched people become practice owners,   Generally speaking, the students are actually pretty darn well prepared. And no matter how much more preparing you do, and no matter how much we do of this or that, you're probably still going to have, you're going to have concerns. And I remember when me and that student, opened our practice and we were producing like crazy mistakes happened, things happened. We didn't know what we were doing. I felt like we were two girls playing house and had no clue what we were doing. But I think isn't that life. Remember the first day you joined dental school or the first time you went to   your first day working in a practice or your first day working on a live patient versus the Dexter. I think none of us feel prepared. And I think that that is good because it keeps us safe, but also I think it might keep us too safe. And so I wish that in dental school, our students would have learned that like, you're more prepared than you think you are at least at Midwestern. Now know that there's some colleges that maybe aren't as strong, but, you're probably more prepared than you think you are. And the other one is if you want to open a practice,   Kiera Dent (09:12.224) open a practice. know there's a lot of commentary about DSOs and should we still open it and private practice and at the end of the day, I think that itch will never leave you. So if you have the itch to open a practice and to own, you probably are in the right shoes and to go for it. And I'm not saying to just haphazardly do it. That's why there's consultants. That's why there's coaches. That's why I'm obsessed with what we do because I wanted all of my students to have a resource in the industry where they could count on me. They could trust me to vet people.   to lead them through it, to have no judgment, to answer the questions of what is a PNL or what are KPIs or what are all these things that I feel like I should know but I don't know. Let's stop shoulding on ourselves and let's just ask the questions and let's get the resources. But truly I wish that they would have taught you that you can own a practice and every doctor I've talked to for the most part, I'd say 90 % of them say, I wish I would have opened a practice sooner because I was more ready than I thought I was.   Now on the flip side, I would also say I want you to learn a lot about your front office. I want you to learn the billing because I think that that's where doctors actually have a lot of worry and a lot of problems. And so that's actually why I created the virtual academy within Demilay team where I have literally CE courses for office management and billing. And they're not long, but taking the time just to understand and to get a lay of the land. So when you do have a team, you can truly help them. You know how to check and make sure your finances are correct.   you know how to bill so that way you're never worried about your finances. And I wish that they would have told you that in dental school. Like, here's some pieces, here's some resources, learn this piece. Also the difference between cashflow and profitability and like what it is and how like it doesn't matter what you're producing, it matters what you're taking home. That's the biggest ticket because that's ultimately what like that's what we're working for. And   I wish that there would have been some more conversation on that. And then I really truly wish in dental school, they would have taught the students to take their third and fourth years and treat them like mini resonancies, get the reps in, learn to get your speed up, learn to get your injections where they don't hurt, learn those things of the bedside manners and take the feedback from your professors. The girl that I worked with, she had done, gosh, I'm probably making this up, but over 200 crowns. And she practiced, people were like, there's no way.   Kiera Dent (11:26.284) She was practicing, practicing on type it on. She was doing the reps and getting the reps and people were like, how did you guys hit the ground running from day one? Well, once she's an incredible dentist, like mad kudos to her, but two, she put the time in and the reps and she literally treated her third and fourth year as a mini residency and just did the reps and did the pieces to get herself the confidence. going into private practice, she was there. I also wish that they would have taught you guys to be confident in your exams. I love NDTR. If you're a podcast listener, phenomenal. If you're new to it, welcome.   NDTR is my favorite exams, especially for new doctors. Cause it gives you kind of like a mental process of what to follow. Now you can think of the acronym as neuter. You can think of it as never date the rookie. You can think of it new dentist, tough road. You can think of it as Nevada dentist, totally rock. I don't care how you remember this acronym, but it's the next visit, the date to return, how much time is needed. And then is there recare scheduled for them? And what that does is it helps dentists to really get into those minds of how to do the exam effectively for patients to know exactly what do need to come back   When do I need to come back? And how much time is this going to take? Because what you've done is you've just eliminated the three biggest objections that patients have when saying yes or no to treatment. And I really just think that those are some pieces that I feel like the profitability of the cashflow, how to run a business, knowing the front office and the billing, and then also like how to do really effective and efficient exams. Those are things that I think in dental school would have been so helpful for you to learn. I wish they would have done like a cost analysis for you of   as an associate, if you're taking an in an associate ship, how do you know what you're going to be making? Like, I don't care if it's 30 % across the board. What does that look like and what is their production and what's 30 % of a hundred thousand dollar a month practice versus maybe 25 % of a $450 ,000 a month practice? And how many new patients are you getting and how to like vet those associate ships a little bit better to know financially what's going to make sense for you? What are the best opportunities for you? What is the mentorship piece?   What's the line between being humble and confident versus cocky and prideful? Those are things that I feel as new dentists coming into the scene really can benefit you. And this is what I'm obsessed with doing webinars on for you guys and doing resources for you and creating the podcast. And then also coaching. I coach a lot of new doctors as soon as they bought practices or even as associates of how they can actually increase their production and how they can be stronger leaders as doctors. And I think that those would be a few things   Kiera Dent (13:49.294) maybe could have been taught in dental school for you. Of course, there's like a myriad of other things, but those are just some tips of the iceberg. So always, always, always, I try to create free resources for students, those who are on a budget, doctors who are on a budget. know buying a practice is expensive. We were, I called my doctor 2 .5. As I watched that spine, it's 2 .5. And you can guess that was maybe a magic number of how much we were in the hole. And I think about that. It's okay. The money will come if you're a good dentist.   The money will come, like constantly improve your skillset. I also wish I would have taught you guys how to do implants. Like implants are the day and the age of today. Sleep apnea, how to like adjust your bites, things like that, that I think you guys just struggle with when you're first out of school. But really building that confidence in you. And I just want to let you know that you are truly more prepared than you think you are. And I'm saying that for like 90%. Some of you still need the help, all right? But most of you are truly doing.   a work than you think you are. And so please join us. Thursday, Thursday is the third Thursday of every month at 4 .30 PM Pacific, 7 .30 Eastern. I'd love to have you there. You get free CE and also topics like this, topics where we help you. You can always submit in topics you'd love us to do the CE on. Hello @ TheDentalATeam .com. You're also welcome to reach out and ask these things, but truly my obsession is helping you be confident in who you   confident in running a business, confident in knowing the numbers, confident in running a team with strong leadership and giving you that peace of mind and letting you know that you're doing a better job than you think you are. So that's kind of my tips for you guys. I know there's plenty others. If you have some things that you wish that they would have taught you in dental school, please email me. I'd love to know from dentists and different perspectives. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. As always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.  

Rereleasing one of DAT's most popular episodes! Want to know the secret to wowing your patients? Kiera shares it in THIS episode. Some spoilers to ask yourself: What experience do you want your patients to have when they enter your practice? Fun? Relaxing? Modern? What companies have the type of experience you want your patients to have? The Dental A-Team's model companies are, for example, Disneyland, Amazon, Apple, and Google. What would mimicking those companies' experiences feel like in your practice? How can you ensure that every team member provides the same experience? Once these questions are answered, you can roll your practice's vibe into your social media and other marketing efforts. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:05.742) Hey everyone, welcome to The Dental A Team podcast. I'm your host, Kiera Dent, 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, pillar, 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 (00:51.064) Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and all right, let's chat about how you guys can do the patient experience. As you guys know, patient experience is something really big in every single practice and making sure you guys are really solid and set for it is a huge indicating factor. What do I mean by patient experience? Patient experience is everything from A to Z. How do we answer the phones? How do we walk our patients back to the rooms? How do we present treatment plans?   Honestly, the number one thing you should be asking when you dive into this patient experience is, what do we want our patients to experience? Okay, so let's start there. I'm gonna walk this down with you guys. What companies, what experience do you want your patients to have? I would start there. Do you want it to feel spa -like? Do you want it to feel fun and peppy? Do you want it to feel relaxing? Do you want it to feel professional? Do you want it to feel modern and chic?   Do you want it to feel family -friendly? Every single one of those you guys could feel a different color scheme You could feel a different style You could have just a completely different experience based on what you want your patients to experience So at Dental A Team, I want everybody to have an incredible experience and that means I want it to be fun I want us to be very approachable very Just I always say I'm cured it from the block. I'm not a dentist. We're not scary So we have cartoon characters   We want you to feel like it is very doable. We want it to be very simple and we want to have a lot of ease. That is what we want our clients to feel. And we want them to feel that they're going to get results and they're going to get massive results working with us. That is the experience. I want you to walk in with the most white glove. We take care of you. You have never been treated better by another company. We respond within 24 hours. That is the vibe of Dental A Team. And I will tell you that did not come overnight. We have worked really hard on that.   We used to not have VIP patient experience. We used to have a lot of struggles in our company, but that is the experience. When I think of a client calling us, I want them to have happy people on the other side. I want us to be very complimentary. I want us to be very understanding. I want you to have a ton of fun when you work with us while seeing insane results. That was my vision for Dental A Team, and yet it's changed over the years. So that's first and foremost, like what is the actual experience that you want? Number   The Dental A Team (03:15.424) is come up with companies that resemble the experience you want. So the companies we model off after our Disneyland, you guys think about Disneyland, they go above and beyond on every single thing that they do. That's what I want Denali team to be. I want our company to go above and beyond. I want us to do things to just blow your minds like our swag boxes for summit. Super fun. All of our clients just got a book called the Humanized Leader by Mary Pat Knight. I want to surprise and dazzle our clients.   with amazing value. Everything we ever do has value behind it. Disneyland, everything they do is to create magic. That is something, that's a company we model after. We also model after Amazon. Amazon is insanely easy. Everybody uses them. They are the best out there right now. Okay? So Amazon's a huge company we model after. We also model after Apple in the sense that everything they do, you guys can judge me or not, you can agree or disagree. Apple, everything they do is very simple.   It's very easy to use. Children can use an iPhone. AirPods connect in. They think of little easy ways to make it all connect together. Of course, it doesn't always work. That's OK. But even like the boxes that they send to you are amazing and simple, a simple design, easy to use. I love that everything's white. All the cords are white. Everything is square. It's very clean cut. They have a very strong brand. That's what we thought. So those are the companies we model after Disneyland, Apple.   Google, Google's another one that we model after, because Google is so simple. They're on top of it. They have a very fun culture. Their employees love to be there. How many of you have wished that there was an easy way to get that dang operations manual done? Well, guess what? We are here to deliver. That's right. Join us for an entire eight hours and get eight hours of CE, Friday, September 17th, for our operations manual creation. That's right. We are literally going to walk you and your team through step by   workshop style. It's virtual and you're going to get that operations manual started and quite a few pieces completed. So join us on Friday, September 17th. Utilize our coupon code podcast ops. That's podcast OPS. Head on over to thedenaliateam .com backslash events. I cannot wait to see you. Let's get that operations manual done, done and done. Bring your entire team and I'll see you guys there.   The Dental A Team (05:36.952) So I would choose number one, what's the experience you want your patients to have? And then number two, what are some companies that your practice models after? What's really helpful is what I'm trying to do is paint pictures for your team members to be able to model and mirror. All of us use Amazon, all of us use Apple, all of us use Google, all of us, hopefully, and if not, call me up, I'll be your friend, have gone to Disneyland. So those are very easy pictures for my team to understand. These are the companies we wanna be   This is the experience that we want our clients to feel. And so for you guys in your dental practices, creating this patient experience is going to be tenfold for you. You're going to be able to have them then tangibly taste it, feel it, experience it. And then from there, we start to fine tune our handoffs, our phone calls, because now I can think of, OK, if I was working at Disneyland, how would I answer the phone? Well, I'm going to answer it a lot differently than when I say,   We are always amazing on our customer service, right? Like people can physically feel the difference. They can see it. If I were working at Google, how would I treat our clients? How would I treat our patients? If we were Amazon, Amazon's quick. If something's not delivered to your house, no problem. They fix it for you. That's the type of culture that we want our patients to experience. So I really want you guys to pay attention to what is your patient experience? What do you want your clients to have? And then what are the companies that you're practice models after? Choose them.   Doctors, this is usually driven by you, office managers you can influence. We've got to make sure it's the feel, vibe. Our dental practice in Colorado was a very hipster feel. We wanted people to feel like it was modern, it was chic. Because we literally played Drake. That was the music we played. We did not appeal to all clients and that was fine. Our doctor had a mohawk, she called it a prohawk. We had a very, very unique practice. We had modern, we were downtown Denver and that was the vibe we wanted. We had modern art in there.   And it was a very fun, different culture vibe. We attracted those people. We wanted them to have this very chic experience. So we had this coffee bar, we had different menus, we had different pieces because that was the vibe we wanted them to have. I did not tell them companies we should have modeled after. That would have helped my team understand more tangibly all of us being able to offer the exact same patient experience. And then you want to make sure every team is providing the exact same type of patient experience. You don't want them to go to Kiera and have one experience.   The Dental A Team (08:00.802) and then go to Tiffany and have another experience. You want it to be a very similar experience whether they see your dental assistant, your hygienist, your front office, the dentist. All of us are speaking similar languages. And not all of us have to have same personalities. Tiffany, Brittany, and I all have very different personalities. Yet we all have the same type of style, the same type of fun, but yet we come with our own flair to it. And that's what you want to make sure your practice is doing. I'm really impressed.   with offices that are able to be consistent on their patient experience. If you guys have not read the E -Myth Revisited, read it. There's a really great story where they talk about the haircut. It's a famous, famous example where this guy goes in to get his haircut and the first time he gets like a neck massage, he gets a glass of brandy, I think, and gets an amazing haircut. The next time he goes in, they don't give him the head massage, they give him a glass of brandy. The next time he goes in, he gets a head massage.   but no brandy. And the idea behind it was he actually stopped going because it was not consistent. And so having a consistent patient experience every time they call, how are we answering the phone? How do we handle their billing? How do we handle their handoffs? How do we communicate inpatient charts to ensure that every patient's having the exact same experience? These are pieces that are really going to grow your practice, which it sounds silly, it sounds ridiculous, but that consistency piece is going to help   I know a lot of consultants, actually just sent Brittany and Tiffany into an office that I was in. Yes, they're going to bring a different flair. However, the experience, not the how -to, but the experience, the way our clients felt of positive, they're able to do this, that they feel empowered, that it was a fun experience, that it was done with ease. All of that, our client should have picked up. It should have felt like Disneyland. It should have felt like Apple and Google and Amazon. That's how it should have felt.   And I know that office felt that way and they felt massive value from it. So that way your team can start to feel that way. Then you guys can go on to a fun brainstorming exercise of, so let's say our practice was Nordstrom. That was the example of the dental college I was at. Midwestern University in Arizona, the dean told us, Kiera, I want our office, our dental practice to feel like Nordstrom. Great, I got it. He was like, you always have excessive composite out for them.   The Dental A Team (10:20.118) We never have it feel like we're running out on supplies. You go above and beyond. Yes, that meant that I had to definitely go into some of those students' drawers and recoup all the composite that they were hoarding because they were scared that we wouldn't have enough. However, my job was to always make sure that there was more than enough out there because he wanted them to feel like they were at the Nordstrom of dental schools. And that was literally what we created. So let's say you'd say your practice is the Nordstrom of dental practices. How would you treat your patients?   Well, when they come in, you're probably gonna give them a really nice folder. They're probably gonna have nice velvet or leather chairs to sit in. It's gonna be very relaxed. You're gonna be playing more spa -like music. Your team member's gonna come out and call them by name and not shout across the waiting room. You're gonna escort them back. You're probably gonna have very neutral, beautiful colors in there. All these things are the experience that that patient's having, and then staying consistent with that patient experience is going to allow your entire team   to deliver again and again and again. And people love consistency. People love knowing that when they come to the dental practice, it's going to be the same. It does not matter if you change team members. Like I get it, it's the great resignation across the nation. I understand. But what is the experience they're getting? What do you want them to? Have you even thought about these things? Cause I know I haven't. And then I don't even know where I made it up. just, I hope I probably read it in a book, but I just thought I need my team to be able to understand who we are and what we are and what we're not.   This is kind of part of marketing as well, because then that will fall into your social media. It will come across on all your marketing materials that go out. Every marketing material that we send out to people should be fun, should be positive, should be lighthearted and empowering. That is the vibe. That's what we're pushing out. It should be easy. Our podcast is always quick, easy, down and dirty things you can implement. There is a reason that is our brand, that is our style. So once you guys figure out this patient experience, then roll it into your marketing, then roll it into your social media. But practice this.   Ask your team, have them feel it, talk about it every single week, literally in the Dental A Team. You guys, one of the reasons I love doing the podcast is because I got so sick of listening to certain podcasts where people would say something on the podcast and I'd go meet them in real life and that wasn't how they were. And I've tried and vowed that if I say something on the podcast, guys, I'm sure I've made some mistakes. I try really, really, really hard to be honest and authentic. So when I say that we do this every week, that is not an exaggeration.   The Dental A Team (12:43.118) every single week in our level 10 meeting with our whole team, whether I'm present or not, they just did the meeting without me today, we go over our core values, the companies we model after, and what our experience is every single time. I don't say our experience is what our niche is, what our mission and vision statements are, what our core values are, and the companies we model after every single week, because I believe this is something that should be over -communicated so your whole team knows what they should be experiencing and what you want your patients to experience. So with that, guys,   Action time is come up with the feel you want them to feel. Come up with the companies you want them to model after. Come up with what that experience should feel like within, like tangible. So what should our handouts be? What should our phone calls be? What should, when they walk into the office, what should it be? What should they be getting for their injections? How should we be explaining Perio? Every single one of those pieces. And then over communicate it every single week. Ask your team. Continue to refine, refine, refine.   because patient experience is all about consistency and making sure your team knows that this is your culture because I believe patient experience number one is driven by culture. All right, you guys, as always, thank you for listening. If you find this podcast helpful, download it, subscribe to our podcast, share this with a friend, leave us a review. I love hearing from you or email us, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. I'd love to hear from you. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.   The Dental A Team (14:06.062) 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 time.

Rachel Jensen has a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (PsyD) from Midwestern University, Glendale, AZ where she also received a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology (M.A.). Prior to that, Rachel received a Masters degree in Counseling (MC) from Arizona State University as well. Her previous clinical training experiences have included providing EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) therapy, conducting neurofeedback, and administering psychological assessments at a neuropsychology private practice & providing varied forms of psychotherapy to both individuals and groups in community mental health settings. As part of her background, she has been able to provide therapy and assessment services to individuals of diverse races, sexual orientations, religions, socioeconomic statuses, and ages as well as presenting concerns (i.e., individuals & couples, communication, boundaries, grief & loss, anxiety, depression, self-esteem, life transitions, trauma).

Get Started With Muscle Activation Techniques® To Keep Your Muscles Strong & Functioning Well: http://vagaro.com/muscleactivationschaumburg/services How can you exercise every day no matter what else is filling your schedule or what you are feeling in your body? We laid out a simple framework to follow to do exactly this for the medical students at Midwestern University, and on this week's episode of the Exercise Is Health® podcast, we are sharing the final pieces of this framework. We provide the steps to implement everything you learn and give you the plan to follow to do so consistently. If you are struggling to workout on a regular basis, this episode has what you need to overcome that challenge once and for all. Check out all the details in this week's episode! Ready to schedule your first Muscle Activation Techniques® session with us? Click here to get started: http://vagaro.com/muscleactivationschaumburg/services  Would you like to have our guidance implementing the 4 Exercise For Life Principles while you workout?  Join the Exercise For Life Membership for free for 30 days! Just head to www.exerciseforlifestudios.com to get started! Did you find this episode helpful? Let us know by leaving us a rating and review on the following platforms:  – Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/exercise-is-health/id1330420565 – Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6H1CneHjsPiPStrAeFTP25?si=X1IuXkp0T1KCv3gCtt3j5g  Want to grab a free copy of our best-selling book, “The Exercise For Life Method”? Click here to order yours while copies are still available! www.exerciseforlifemethod.com Just cover the cost of shipping and handling to have it delivered right to you.  Follow us on Instagram for more exercise tips and content about MAT® here: – Muscle Activation Schaumburg: @muscleactivationschaumburg  – Julie Cates: @julcates  – Charlie Cates: @charliecates

Get Started With Muscle Activation Techniques® To Keep Your Muscles Strong & Functioning Well: http://vagaro.com/muscleactivationschaumburg/services Is it possible to workout every single day and do so in a way that doesn't leave your body feeling achy and sore no matter how crazy your schedule is? This was the exact topic we discussed with medical students at Midwestern University in December of 2023. On this week's episode of the Exercise Is Health® podcast, we are playing Part 1 of our discussion with these students, diving into what exactly needs to happen in order to exercise every single day without issues or concerns. If you are struggling to get your workouts in consistently, listen up!  This episode shares the first part of a framework that can help you change that once and for all. Check out all the details in this week's episode! Ready to schedule your first Muscle Activation Techniques® session with us? Click here to get started: http://vagaro.com/muscleactivationschaumburg/services Would you like to have our guidance implementing the 4 Exercise For Life Principles while you workout? Join the Exercise For Life Membership for free for 30 days! Just head to www.exerciseforlifestudios.com to get started! Did you find this episode helpful? Let us know by leaving us a rating and review on the following platforms:  – Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/exercise-is-health/id1330420565 – Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6H1CneHjsPiPStrAeFTP25?si=X1IuXkp0T1KCv3gCtt3j5g  Want to grab a free copy of our best-selling book, “The Exercise For Life Method”? Click here to order yours while copies are still available! www.exerciseforlifemethod.com Just cover the cost of shipping and handling to have it delivered right to you. Follow us on Instagram for more exercise tips and content about MAT® here: – Muscle Activation Schaumburg: @muscleactivationschaumburg  – Julie Cates: @julcates  – Charlie Cates: @charliecates

In this episode of Dean's Chat, Dr.'s Jeffrey Jensen and Dr. Johanna Richey are joined by Dr. Janna Kroleski,, a colleague from the Arizona College of Podiatric Medicine (AZCPM). They discuss Dr. Kroleski's  journey in podiatric medicine, starting from her undergraduate studies to attending podiatric medical school at the Kent State University College of Podiatric Medicine, through residency and now at AZCPM!   Dr. Kroleski shares how she entered into podiatric medicine as a 2nd generation podiatrist.   She directs courses in both the Podiatric Medicine and Podiatric Surgery curriculum, and practices in the Foot and Ankle Center at Midwestern University's Multispecialty Clinic.  We also discuss work/life balance with juggling the practice, teaching and family responsibilities. Tune in for a great episode with Dr. Janna Kroleski!    https://explorepodmed.org https://deanschat.com/ https://podiatrist2be.com/ https://higherlearninghub.com/  

Dean's Chat host, Dr. Jeffrey Jensen, is joined by Dr. Warren S. Joseph, fresh off a cruise to Greece and Malta with his better half, Judy.  This is Warren's second appearance on the podcast.  Today our discussion focuses on the Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association (JAPMA).    Dr. Joseph is a leader in our profession and a member of the Podiatric Hall of Fame. Dr. Joseph is a specialist in the treatment of lower extremity infectious diseases. He received his podiatric degree from the Wm. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine in Chicago. Dr Joseph completed his postgraduate training in podiatric medicine/surgery at St. Joseph's Hospital, and a fellowship in infectious diseases at Hahnemann University School of Medicine, both in Philadelphia. He is currently an Adjunct Clinical Professor at the Arizona College of Podiatric Medicine at Midwestern University in Glendale, AZ.  Dr. Joseph is a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and is an author of the IDSA Diabetic Foot Infection Guidelines. He is also certified by the American Board of Podiatric Medicine and currently serves as Editor of the Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association. Dr Joseph lectures extensively and his presentations have focused on the treatment of bacterial and fungal infections of the lower extremity. He has authored close to 100 publications in the field of lower extremity infections. A fun discussion not only on Dr. Joseph's career but a look into his eclectic interests as well!  Throughout his professional journey, Dr. Joseph has been deeply committed to education, actively engaging in student and resident mentorship. Dr. Joseph firmly believes that education is a noble pursuit and considers it one of the most important aspects of professional development. He was honored to officially join the faculty at the Arizona College of Podiatric Medicine as an adjunct clinical professor, further contributing to the field. Additionally, he has successfully initiated and managed residency programs in the past. Dr. Joseph can be contacted at wsjoseph@APMA.org for questions regarding research or publications in JAPMA.  In this episode, Dr. Joseph discusses his love of theater!  Check out the links below with Sutton Foster on her roles from Tony Award winning Anything Goes and as Mrs. Lovett from Sweeney Todd. Enjoy!  https://youtu.be/j3b5XRd15KM?si=3aM7OL4bTzyxBwu8 https://youtu.be/JsBCezjnoQk?si=JnPLSW894oyHktxI https://youtu.be/BKgWfWQs8ws?si=N2sXBEGqbVSHHTwc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wslzJW02e0w&t=395s&pp=ygUac3V0dG9uIGZvc3RlciBzd2VlbmV5IHRvZGQ%3D   https://explorepodmed.org   https://deanschat.com/  

Back by popular demand, we have Victoria Bledsoe as a guest today. In this episode, we delve into the transformative power of holistic healing. Join us as we uncover powerful modalities that can assist in disease recovery, featuring inspiring stories of individuals who have successfully navigated their path to wellness. Learn how to kickstart your healing journey, the expected timelines for recovery, and the best practices to prevent disease. Tune in for expert insights and practical tips to help you achieve and maintain optimal health naturally. Victoria Bledsoe is a Certified Massage Therapist that specializes in Energy Medicine and Reflexology. She is a master herbalist and the founder and CEO of Alchemie Botanicals LLC. Victoria is currently earning her Certification in Naturopathy. Victoria has been in private practice for the past 28 years. She has been a speaker at the Indiana Brain Association annual conference, as well Indiana University, Ball State, Purdue, and the Indiana Neo-natal Nursing Convention. Victoria throughout many of the years helping countless individuals utilizing her expertise taught at Midwestern University in Phoenix. She is a Mother of 3 and a Grandmother of 7. In her spare time Victoria enjoys kayaking, hiking , gardening and reading. Follow Victoria ➡️ ▪️ https://www.alchemiellc.net/ ▪️ https://www.facebook.com/alchemiebotanicalsIN In this episode: ▪️ How do you begin the process of healing from a disease? ▪️ Organic Food Difference ▪️ How did you discover how to recover from a disease? ▪️ How long does it take to get yourself well? ▪️ What types of modalities can assist in the healing process? ▪️ How do you prevent disease? ▪️ Food as medicine - what you need to know ▶️Do you live in Indiana? Schedule a free consultation on my website:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://thefunctionalnursepractitioner.com/ ▶️Interested in Wellness Coaching? Let's connect: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeRDrTZ5alShvx8ECfRSlo41GnHRZKfkahsL35jnWdyWWD6IQ/viewform?usp=sf_link ☑️Get The Free Perimenopause and Menopause Guide: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc1FIJQB8LponpGhZJUOWzy7n-EG0bhMHNXoee4UNNUh0HZBA/viewform?usp=sf_link ☑️Get The Free Ultimate Gluten-Free Guide: ⁠⁠⁠https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdAablKVoiwsbQPFRMel2GN0pL99AzYhBDm-TOGkdLoTZ-6Rg/viewform?usp=sf_link⁠⁠

Sugg v. Midwestern University

Mark is a clinical assistant professor at Midwestern University in Glendale, Arizona. He specializes is spine and persistent pain conditions. He works in clinic where he sees patients and mentors physical therapy students. He also runs Modern Pain Care a company focused on educating health care professionals on pain science and person centered healthcare. He also hosts the Modern Pain Podcast where he interviews clinicians, researchers, and patients to better help everyone understand and manage pain. The doors of Mark's next cohort of the Modern Pain Pro membership close on May 7th! sign up before then to be a part of this community ⁠https://modernpainpro.com/⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/⁠mkargeladpt __________________________________________________ FOR THERAPISTS WHO WANT TO OFFER INTENSIVES TO CLIENTS Join me + 20 other speaks at the Therapy Intensive Summit! ⁠https://chronicillnesstherapist--kaleidoscopecounselingstl.thrivecart.com/tis-vip-all-access-pass/⁠ __________________________________________________ Connect with Destiny email: ⁠⁠⁠destiny@destinywinters.com⁠⁠⁠  IG: @the.chronicillnesstherapist.com website: ⁠⁠⁠thechronicillnesstherapist.com⁠⁠⁠ ***If you like any of The Chronic Illness Therapist episodes, please leave a review! Reviews tell the app, “hey, people like this! Show it in the algorithm to more people!” :) FREE DOWNLOADS: - “Mastering Pacing: How Slowing Down Helps you Speed up” ⁠https://spring-lion-815.myflodesk.com/eswknvrdsc⁠ - “6 Ways To Help Your Partner Understand Your Chronic Illness” - download at this link ⁠⁠⁠https://view.flodesk.com/pages/628c0317081c14b7b35ee9de⁠⁠⁠ FOR THERAPISTS - FREE CONSULT GROUP every third Friday of the month from 1-2:30pm EST. Join the email list here for updates: ⁠⁠⁠https://view.flodesk.com/pages/633e2980409cbc0f983fcee8⁠⁠⁠ Disclaimer: Everything we talk about here is just meant to be general education and information. It's not intended as personal mental health or medical advice. If you have any questions related to your unique circumstances, please contact a licensed therapist or medical professional in your state of residence. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/citherapist/message

Mark is a clinical assistant professor at Midwestern University in Glendale, Arizona. He specializes is spine and persistent pain conditions. He works in clinic where he sees patients and mentors physical therapy students. He also runs Modern Pain Care a company focused on educating health care professionals on pain science and person centered healthcare. He also hosts the Modern Pain Podcast where he interviews clinicians, researchers, and patients to better help everyone understand and manage pain. The doors of Mark's next cohort of the Modern Pain Pro membership close on May 7th! sign up before then to be a part of this community https://modernpainpro.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mkargeladpt __________________________________________________ FOR THERAPISTS WHO WANT TO OFFER INTENSIVES TO CLIENTS Join me + 20 other speaks at the Therapy Intensive Summit! https://chronicillnesstherapist--kaleidoscopecounselingstl.thrivecart.com/tis-vip-all-access-pass/ __________________________________________________ Connect with Destiny email: ⁠⁠⁠destiny@destinywinters.com⁠⁠⁠  IG: @the.chronicillnesstherapist.com website: ⁠⁠⁠thechronicillnesstherapist.com⁠⁠⁠ ***If you like any of The Chronic Illness Therapist episodes, please leave a review! Reviews tell the app, “hey, people like this! Show it in the algorithm to more people!” :) FREE DOWNLOADS: - “Mastering Pacing: How Slowing Down Helps you Speed up” https://spring-lion-815.myflodesk.com/eswknvrdsc - “6 Ways To Help Your Partner Understand Your Chronic Illness” - download at this link ⁠⁠⁠https://view.flodesk.com/pages/628c0317081c14b7b35ee9de⁠⁠⁠ FOR THERAPISTS - FREE CONSULT GROUP every third Friday of the month from 1-2:30pm EST. Join the email list here for updates: ⁠⁠⁠https://view.flodesk.com/pages/633e2980409cbc0f983fcee8⁠⁠⁠ Disclaimer: Everything we talk about here is just meant to be general education and information. It's not intended as personal mental health or medical advice. If you have any questions related to your unique circumstances, please contact a licensed therapist or medical professional in your state of residence. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/citherapist/message

While the path to multi-store ownership may look different for everyone, the principles remain the same.From his first location in 2011 to over 20 stores in 2024, Hashim Zaibak's rule for managing multiple stores has remained the same - “I take care of the people who are going to take care of the people who are going to take care of the customers”On this episode of The Bottom Line Pharmacy Podcast, we sit down with Hashim Zaibak, PharmD, CEO of Hayat Pharmacy and NCPA Ownership Workshop extraordinaire to discuss how to manage multiple stores, the NCPA Ownership Workshop, opportunities pharmacies have with clinical services, being recognized as a provider, and more! Did you like this episode? We share insights for Independent Pharmacy Owners every other Thursday. Stay up to date on new episodes by liking and subscribing! Click here to learn more about our podcast team and previous episodes.Click here for the transcriptMore about our guest:Dr. Hashim Zaibak, PharmD is the Founder and CEO of Hayat Pharmacy, an independent pharmacy with over 20 locations serving the Milwaukee area.Dr. Zaibak started his career as a pharmacist in 1999 after graduating from the University of Illinois‐Chicago. With over fifteen years of experience, he has seen the industry from multiple vantage points.Dr. Zaibak has over six years of experience as a Clinical Instructor to help train pharmacy students from six pharmacy schools in the Wisconsin and Illinois area (Concordia University, Rosalind Franklin University, University of Wisconsin, University of Illinois, Midwestern University, and MCW School of Pharmacy). As recognition of Hashim's excellent service to the community, he was named the 2014 Pharmacist of the Year by Pharmacy Development Services and Health Mart's 2014 Pharmacy of the Year.Want to learn more about Hashim and Hayat Pharmacy? Click below to check them out!Hashim Zaibak LinkedInHayat Pharmacy WebsiteHayat Pharmacy FacebookHayat Pharmacy Twitter (X)Hayat Pharmacy LinkedInStay connected with us on social media:Facebook Twitter (X) LinkedIn Instagram  CPA's: Scotty Sykes – CPA, CFP LinkedIn Scotty Sykes – CPA, CFP Twitter Bonnie Bond – CPA LinkedIn Bonnie Bond – CPA Twitter  More resources about this topic:  Article – Multiple Stores and Real Estate Ownership Client Testimonial – Managing Multiple Stores 

Roman Somogy, third year optometry student at Midwestern University’s Chicago College of Optometry, joins John Williams to talk about his path to eventually becoming an optometrist, what you can learn about the body by studying eyes, and what we need to know about safely viewing the solar eclipse.

Roman Somogy, third year optometry student at Midwestern University’s Chicago College of Optometry, joins John Williams to talk about his path to eventually becoming an optometrist, what you can learn about the body by studying eyes, and what we need to know about safely viewing the solar eclipse.

Roman Somogy, third year optometry student at Midwestern University’s Chicago College of Optometry, joins John Williams to talk about his path to eventually becoming an optometrist, what you can learn about the body by studying eyes, and what we need to know about safely viewing the solar eclipse.

In today's episode, we'll journey through the lush landscapes of plant medicine, unraveling the mysteries and marvels of herbal healing. Victoria will share her invaluable insights into the world of botanicals, shedding light on how these natural wonders can nurture our bodies and soothe our spirits. But that's not all—get ready to lean in as Victoria reveals her top 3 herbs for health and wellness. These aren't just any plants; they're the crème de la crème of the herbal kingdom, each with its own unique properties and health benefits. Whether you're a seasoned herbalist or just starting to dip your toes into the waters of plant-based healing, you're in for a treat. So brew yourself a cup of herbal tea, settle in, and let's embark on this green journey with the extraordinary Victoria Bledsoe. This is an episode you won't want to miss! Victoria Bledsoe is a Certified Massage Therapist that specializes in Energy Medicine and Reflexology. She is a master herbalist and the founder and CEO of Alchemie Botanicals LLC. Victoria is currently earning her certification in Naturopathy. Victoria has been in private practice for the past 28 years. She has been a speaker at the Indiana Brain Association annual conference, as well Indiana University, Ball State, Purdue, and the Indiana Neo-natal Nursing Convention. Victoria throughout many of the years helping countless individuals utilizing her expertise taught at Midwestern University in Phoenix. She is a mother of 3 and a grandmother of 7. In her spare time Victoria enjoys kayaking, hiking, gardening, and reading. Follow Victoria ➡️ ▪️ https://www.alchemiellc.net/ ▪️ https://www.facebook.com/alchemiebotanicalsIN ☑️Get The Free Ultimate Gluten-Free Guide: ⁠⁠⁠https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdAablKVoiwsbQPFRMel2GN0pL99AzYhBDm-TOGkdLoTZ-6Rg/viewform?usp=sf_link⁠⁠ ▶️Stuffed Mushrooms Recipe: https://youtu.be/BqdLD5I3MGk?si=vVd9KLR7cRH4dDDM

Nominate your veterinary hero here.  Ryane E. Englar, DVM, DABVP (Canine and Feline Practice) graduated from Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in 2008. She practiced as an associate veterinarian in companion animal practice before transitioning into academia to advocate for companion animal primary care. She debuted as an Instructor of the Community Practice Service at Cornell University. She then transitioned into several roles as founding faculty – most notably developing the communication and clinical skills curricula at Midwestern University and Kansas State University respectively. In February 2020, Dr. Englar reprised her role of founding faculty when she joined the University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine. She currently serves as a dual appointment Associate Professor of Practice and the Executive Director of Clinical and Professional Skills. Dr. Englar is passionate about advancing education for generalists by thinking outside of the box to develop course materials for the hands-on learner. She is a prolific textbook writer. When Dr. Englar is not teaching or advancing companion animal primary care, she trains in the art of ballroom dancing and competes nationally with her instructor, Lowell Fox. 

Join Dr. Jeffrey Jensen and Dr. Joanna Richey as they interview Dr. Jamie Mieras, a successful podiatric physician from Boulder, CO, on Dean's Chat. Dr. Mieras shares her journey in podiatry, from her undergraduate studies in biology to her surgical residency training.  Dr. Mieras graduated from the University of Boulder with a degree in Biology. She went on to graduate from the Arizona College of Podiatric Medicine at Midwestern University and then did her surgical residency training with the Scripps San Diego Residency Program. Dr. Mieras has worked in a variety of clinical practice settings including rural medicine, private practice, and hospital-based networks. She has trained residents in the Legacy Portland program and talks about how all of these opportunities carry tradeoffs. Tune in as we discuss the challenges in decision-making and how to set up frameworks of thinking. Dr. Mieras shares her experiences as an ultra-runner and flight instructor. Join us as we discuss the beautiful cross-comparisons of her experiences with the various ebbs and flows of life; In this episode she talks about engaging in the life you want to live, balancing the preparation, execution, and success of life at any stage. Dr. Mieras highlights how preparation and support are key to success in any endeavor. Dr. Mieras' experience in running a 100-mile race showcased the importance of thorough preparation and having a strong support system.  Jamie emphasized the significance of preparation, such as training to run through fatigue, understanding the course, and having the necessary gear and nutrition planned out. This level of preparation allowed her to tackle the challenges of the race effectively. Additionally, having a support group at aid stations and a pacer during the race was crucial. The aid stations provided essential food and support, while the pacer offered encouragement and motivation to keep going. Furthermore, Jamie's experience demonstrated the need for mental preparation and self-motivation. There were moments during the race when she felt tired, wanted to quit, or faced mental barriers. In these instances, having a pacer and relying on her own mental strength helped Jamie push through and continue moving forward towards her goal. Overall, Dr. Mieras' experience as a physician and ultra-runner underscores the significance of self-motivation and perseverance in pursuing and accomplishing challenging goals. These qualities are essential for staying committed, overcoming obstacles, and ultimately achieving success in any endeavor. https://explorepodmed.org/ Dean's Chat Website Dean's Chat Episodes Dean's Chat Blog Why Podiatric Medicine?  Become a Podiatric Physician https://lelandjaffedpm.com