POPULARITY
Categories
Scegliere le 'metriche giuste' è sempre stato un tema delicato per i Customer Service Manager. Oggi, con l'integrazione dell'intelligenza artificiale, è necessario un approccio differente verso la scelta dei KPI. Paolo Fabrizio condivide la sua esperienza in questo podcast imperdibile.
In this episode of The Modern Hairstylist Podcast, Hunter Donia and Jodie Brown get into one of the most common and costly gaps Hunter is seeing with the salon owners he works with inside Mastermind: a lack of a clear, fair, and measurable growth path for the stylists on their team. Hunter pulls directly from real conversations he has been having with new Mastermind members to break down what a growth plan actually needs to look like, which KPIs actually matter, and why getting this right is one of the fastest ways to protect your revenue and retain your best people.This episode is for salon owners at every stage, whether you have one employee or ten, and it is equally relevant for stylists who have ever felt stuck, resentful, or like there was no future for them where they were working.Key Takeaways:
Join me on Substack! Look up my name.Today I'm joined by two economists who spent a decade inside a room most of us will never see — the basement of the U.S. Treasury Department — building the first database that ever linked confidential tax records to the individual owners of America's private businesses.Episode Sponsor: Fiscal AI is a modern data terminal that gives investors instant access to twenty years of financials, earnings transcripts, and extensive segment and KPI data—use my link for a two-week free trial plus 15% off: https://fiscal.ai/talkingbillions/Owen Zidar teaches at Princeton, Eric Zwick teaches at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and together they've written a book that completely reframed how I think about wealth in this country: The Everywhere Millionaire.Their argument, backed by data nobody had ever assembled before, is that America's real fortune isn't sitting with the Forbes 400 on the coasts — it's sitting with three million "ordinary" business owners: car dealers, dental practices, gutter manufacturers, hiding in plain sight in nearly every town in the country. They define an "everywhere millionaire" as a private business owner worth $5 million or more, and collectively, these three million households hold thirteen times the wealth of the Forbes 400.We trace the hidden engine behind that wealth, and they share story after story of the individuals who built it. We go beyond the economic power of this group into the political influence it quietly carries too.Their book is eye-opening and genuinely inspiring. It makes the case that the American Dream is very much alive, and that there are far more paths to it than most of us realize. Some readers may even find themselves seeing, for the first time, that they're not alone — that they're part of a much larger, wealthier, more established group than the billionaires who steal all the spotlight. And maybe that's exactly where they want to be: financially successful, politically influential, yet comfortably out of sight, living among the rest of us.Podcast Program – Disclosure StatementBlue Infinitas Capital, LLC is a registered investment adviser and the opinions expressed by the Firm's employees and podcast guests on this show are their own and do not reflect the opinions of Blue Infinitas Capital, LLC. All statements and opinions expressed are based upon information considered reliable although it should not be relied upon as such. Any statements or opinions are subject to change without notice.Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed.
"On est revenu au mode où le coût du mot va coûter très cher et de plus en plus cher,." Le D.E.V. de la semaine est Patrick Szymkowiak, fondateur de RTK. Il revient sur la genèse fulgurante de Rust Token Killer, un projet open source passé en quelques mois de l'expérimentation à des dizaines de milliers de stars sur GitHub. On creuse l'enjeu grandissant du coût des tokens et la nécessité d'optimiser l'usage des LLM, notamment pour garantir l'accessibilité et la sécurité des outils IA dans l'entreprise. Patrick partage aussi sa vision : demain, devs et non-devs utiliseront ces briques pour transformer leurs métiers, à condition de garder la main sur l'infrastructure. Et il souligne la dimension communautaire, clé du succès et de l'évolutivité de RTK.Chapitrages00:00:54 : Le coût des mots00:01:53 : Naissance de RTK00:03:22 : L'étincelle du token00:06:52 : Déterminisme et benchmarks00:10:13 : Pourquoi ça cartonne00:14:38 : Au-delà de Cloud Code00:18:45 : Pourquoi Rust00:21:06 : Mieux comprimer le contexte00:24:39 : Mesurer la compréhension00:26:57 : Résumer sans perdre le sens00:29:00 : La marée des PR00:35:01 : La guerre du token00:38:44 : L'avenir de RTK00:43:18 : Le token comme KPI ?00:46:28 : Les rituels de fin Liens évoqués pendant l'émission 1984 de Georges Orwell
Målstyrning med Planner Planner har fått en Mål-flik, och den dyker upp i dina planer just nu. Frågan är om det är riktig målstyrning eller en att-göra-lista med en finare rubrik ovanför. För att kunna svara på det behöver vi först få ordning på begreppen: Vad som skiljer en vision från ett mål, en KPI från ett nyckelresultat, och varför OKR kräver ett lager som Planner helt saknar. Vi tar också upp historien om Microsofts föregående verktyg för målstyrning: Viva Goals lades ner vid årsskiftet, och några månader senare kommer något betydligt enklare i Planner. Slutsatsen är ärlig, och den landar i en enda fråga du kan ställa nästa gång någon säger "vi kör målstyrning i Planner". AI-skolan del 8 – Microsoft Graph och WorkIQ Varje gång Copilot svarar på något om din organisation har den först frågat Microsoft Graph, och det gör den med funktionen WorkIQ. Ändå är Graph något de flesta bara hört nämnas i förbifarten, ett namn på en arkitekturbild och inget man kan peka på. I den här delen av AI-skolan reder vi ut vad Graph och WorkIQ faktiskt är, varför Copilot inte skulle fungera utan dem, och varför den förklarar både det Copilot hittar och det Copilot inte får se. Förstår du Graph och WorkIQ så förstår du varför behörigheter är den kanske viktigaste AI-frågan. Ordlistan bjuder på ett ord du säkert använt hundra gånger utan att riktigt kunna förklara det: API. Nyheter Word, Excel och PowerPoint får ett skrivfält direkt i Copilot-knappen, så du slipper öppna panelen alls. Brand Kits får två inställningar som gör att Copilot äntligen håller sig till mallen, och lyder instruktioner du skrivit in i mallens anteckningsfält. Teams låter dig sätta en påminnelse direkt på ett meddelande, och Purview får en retentionsregel som raderar filer ingen öppnat på länge, med den uttalade motiveringen att Copilot då svarar bättre.
CEREAL TALKのニュースレターはこちらhttps://cerealtalk.jp/(00:00) Business of Fashionが選ぶ「世界最高のファッションストア65選」(03:27) BoFの選考基準3段階(05:44) 独立系リテーラーのシェアが増加(09:18) AI時代になぜセレクトショップが求められるのか(12:01) 「摩擦としてのアクセス権」と「オーナーの世界観」(14:04) 第三者のコンテキストがエマージングブランドの認知を加速する(23:11) セレクトショップへの卸入りとブランド側のKPI設計(27:40) AIと「人間っぽさ」の境界線<メンバー>沼田 雄二朗https://twitter.com/Numauer宮武 徹郎https://twitter.com/tmiyatake1草野美木https://twitter.com/mikikusano
Oscar Health looks like a screaming buy — growing revenue, growing members, positive free cash flow. So why does the market keep discounting it? We ran the numbers.Oscar Health (OSCR) just posted strong headline numbers: member growth accelerating past 3 million, revenue climbing, free cash flow positive. Health insurers don't get valued like typical growth stocks — and free cash flow is one of the most misleading metrics you can use here.In this episode, we break down why insurance float — not free cash flow — is the real driver of Oscar's balance sheet, how the medical loss ratio (MLR) caps profitability by regulation, and why receivables and payables to CMS matter more than most investors realize. We also walk through two reverse DCF scenarios on GAAP earnings per share — a 10-year model and a more aggressive 3-year model — to see what growth rate the market is actually pricing into OSCR today.Think of it as a masterclass in valuing any financials-driven business — insurance, banks, specialty finance — differently than you'd value a software or semiconductor company. We also give a first look at the new investment thesis checklist tool and segment/KPI dashboard inside Semiconductor Insider.TIMESTAMPS0:00 - Why Oscar Health Looks Cheap (And Why That's Misleading)1:04 - Revenue, Member Growth & Free Cash Flow Overview2:00 - The Problem: Free Cash Flow Isn't Real Cash Flow Here2:40 - Medical Loss Ratio Explained: The 80% Rule3:03 - Insurance Float 101 (The Berkshire Hathaway Playbook)4:38 - Reading the Balance Sheet: Premiums, Payouts & SG&A5:24 - CMS Receivables & Payables: The Hidden ACA Liability7:00 - Reverse DCF: 10-Year vs. 3-Year Growth Scenarios9:07 - Building a Custom Investment Thesis Checklist10:40 - Final Takeaway: How to Actually Value Oscar Health—If you want the reasoning behind more names like this one, Semiconductor Insider covers the process in more depth. Get access to all our research, weekly live Q&A events, and a growing set of tools to build your process: https://www.chipstockinvestor.comAll our socials: https://linktr.ee/chipstockinvestorIf you're getting value from the show, follow so you don't miss the next one.—Disclosure: Some links above are affiliate links. If you buy something through them, we might earn a little coffee money — thanks for helping us (Kasey) fuel our caffeine addiction.Content in this episode is for general information or entertainment only and is not specific or individual investment advice. Forecasts and information presented may not develop as predicted, and there is no guarantee any strategies presented will be successful. All investing involves risk, and you could lose some or all of your principal. CSI doesn't own shares of Oscar Health.
Veel tandarts-eigenaren staan onder constante operationele druk. Ze blussen de hele dag brandjes, terwijl er tijd, energie en rendement weglekt door een gebrek aan systemen. In deze aflevering spreekt Ron Steenkist met Razek Sharif, tandarts-ondernemer en oprichter van Dental Manager. Samen bespreken ze hoe je van ad hoc werken naar een gestroomlijnd systeem gaat, inclusief een primeur over de inzet van AI-agents in de behandelkamer. In deze aflevering ontdek je: Waarom één centrale waarheid binnen je praktijk essentieel is voor rust. Hoe je eigenaarschap bij je team legt door het systeem leidend te maken. De manier waarop je kwaliteit borgt zonder afhankelijk te zijn van specifieke personen. Hoe AI-agents zoals “Julian” complexe taken zoals de roosterplanning van je overnemen. Waarom Management by Exception de enige manier is om als eigenaar grip te houden. Hoofdstukken: (00:00) Waarom je praktijk een systeem nodig heeft (06:10) De kracht van één centrale waarheid (10:13) Hoe je écht eigenaarschap bij je team legt (14:34) Kwaliteit borgen zonder afhankelijkheid van personen (26:24) Communicatie en feedback binnen een groeiend team (27:49) Sturen op KPI's: Kwaliteit versus omzet (37:48) Primeur: De inzet van AI-agents in de praktijk (43:50) Management by Exception en proactieve signalering Wil je de regie over je agenda en je energie terugkrijgen? Plan een kennissessie in via de website TandartsBusinessMentor of stuur een bericht via LinkedIn. Mijn boek “Agenda Vol, Batterij Leeg” is te bestellen. Bijgaand de link om dit te doen. tandartsbusinessmentor.plugandpay.nl/checkout/agenda-vol-batterij-leeg. Connect met mij, Ron Steenkist op LinkedIn. Connect met de gasten op Linkedin: Razek Sharif Website van Dentall Manager Deze podcast wordt ondersteund door Oase Dental en Payt Oase Dental. Voor contact kun je op deze pagina terecht. https://www.oase.dental Payt software. Voor informatie kan je op deze pagina terecht. https://paytsoftware.nl/
10多年前,一個目標消滅癌症的研究,意外發現了讓癌細胞惡化的物質,開啟外泌體研究之路,最終找到只能在特定條件產生、有助小鼠神經再生的外泌體。國家衛生研究院細胞及系統醫學研究所副所長李華容是台灣最早研究外泌體的人,在研究成果刊登在學術期刊後,不只吸引國內外藥廠與保養品開發商來談技轉,還接到許多病患家屬的來電:「我醫生說,如果我找到外泌體,他就可以幫我打。」 作為科學家,李華容不得不說出殘忍事實,研究還不能用到人體身上,但讓她更不解的是:「為什麼他們會接收到這種有落差的訊息?」 《報導者》記者黃浩珉在細胞療法的地下市場也看見類似亂象,外泌體被包裝成醫美、抗老,甚至癌症都能治的萬能商品,一針要價5千元至30萬元不等;銷售員以親身經驗招攬中上層階級客戶,利用科學資訊的不對等詐取民眾的荷包。然而,根據台灣法規外泌體只能外用,不可吃進肚裡,遑論注射進身體,全世界至今更是沒有半個拿到藥證的外泌體新藥,李華容的研究技轉還沒進入臨床實驗。 1970年代,被地下電台包裝成仙丹的黑藥丸,讓台灣成為洗腎王國;如今,換成各種不知來源與製程的外泌體、細胞治療四處流傳⋯⋯這集,請跟我們從一名科學家在外泌體研究路上的各種試錯與地下市場亂象開始,理解「外泌體」到底是什麼?又為什麼堅持將研究成果推向醫療臨床?從研究計劃、KPI設定到技轉審核,台灣政府若想為生技產業助攻還有哪些治理疏漏? 05:08 你能接受每次治療效果不一樣嗎?合法或非法,外泌體廣告不說的事 15:25 外泌體研究是意外:原本目標是消滅癌症,卻開啟支線任務 20:50 一旦劑量與保存方式改變,外泌體也有風險 24:31 那一通為兒求醫的媽媽來電,科學家最難開口的資訊落差真相 31:18 保養品廠商找上門,為什麼仍選擇更難走的藥物臨床開發? 44:01 國家怎麼支持新研究?國際審查是一種可能的方式? 48:50 「全球第一張外泌體藥證」口號背後,信心在哪?誰吐憂心? 來賓|國家衛生研究院細胞及系統醫學研究所副所長李華容、《報導者》記者黃浩珉 製作團隊|楊惠君、陳奕銓、陳思樺 攝影|陳奕銓
AI As Strategy Workshop: Work and Grow at the Speed of Your ThoughtsMost conversations about AI begin with the model. This workshop begins with the business.In this episode explores AI as a strategy question across ownership, ethics, operating design, pricing, and net new value. Raul breaks down the AI COO harness he built for Do Good Work, explains the 5 ingredients inside it, and shares practical examples of how agents support his work without taking control of the relationships or decisions that matter.Use the episode as a workshop with your team. By the end, you will have 2 questions to work through: what you wish your business could do today, and where your business model will need to evolve next.What You'll LearnWhy a good model is just a brilliant stranger, and what makes AI useful inside a real businessThe 3 parts of AI sovereignty: your data, the model, and the harness around bothHow the restaurant analogy explains orchestrators, agents, skills, hooks, memory, and rulesThe 5 ingredients every owned AI system needsWhy every product carries a belief about people, and how Raul's 9 operating values protect human flourishingWhy memory, security, compliance, and human approval have to be designed togetherThe difference between automation, augmentation, and net new value5 examples from Raul's AI COO, including daily briefings, content production, searchable business memory, relationship research, and quality controlHow AI moves value up the Service Stack toward judgment, transformation, accountability, and beliefThe 4 pricing choices in the New Value QuadrantWhy speed to value is becoming a critical measure for product and fulfillment teams2 reflection questions to help you decide where AI belongs in your businessChapters[00:00] Why I'm sharing this workshop [01:14] Work and grow at the speed of your thoughts [01:24] The goal: own your AI instead of only renting access [01:45] What the workshop will help you decide [02:10] Why I built my own AI COO [03:14] The experience that shaped what I built [03:48] AI sovereignty: data, model, and harness [04:33] Why a good model is just a brilliant stranger [05:17] The restaurant analogy for an AI harness [06:43] The 5 ingredients: agents, skills, hooks, memory, and rules [08:29] Human flourishing and the values inside the system [10:43] Why memory improves the system over time [11:08] Security, compliance, and human approval [12:04] One orchestrator with a team of specialists [14:06] What AI actually makes possible [14:38] Automation, augmentation, and net new value [19:54] Examples from inside my own AI COO [24:28] Quality loops and the chain [26:10] How AI moves value up the Service Stack [28:08] The AI pricing trap [29:40] How service business pricing is already changing [30:21] The 4 choices in the New Value Quadrant [34:46] Speed to value as a new KPI [35:31] Why the advantage window will not stay open forever [36:34] The written workshop and reflection questions [36:49] Question 1: what do you wish you could do but are not doing [38:34] Question 2: where will your business model evolve [39:37] The build manual and additional resourcesReflection Questions1. What do you wish you could do, but are not doing today?Name the bottleneck, opportunity, client outcome, product, or operating improvement you already know deserves attention. Then decide whether it is actually solvable with AI, which data and model it requires, what should live in the harness, and which decisions must stay human.2. Where will your business model evolve, or be forced to change?Review your value proposition, customer segments, channels, customer relationships, revenue structure, costs, and key partners. Look for where AI compresses an input and where that new capacity can create greater value for the people you serve.ResourcesFree Build ManualThe AI Growth Harness Manual: the open sourced architecture to build an owned AI system with your own agentMore on StrategyHow AI Will Evolve the 7 Parts of Your Consulting Business ModelOn Creating Net New ValueThe New Value Quadrant: How to Price in the Agentic EraThe Service Stack: What Remains When AI Eats Client Services
From Special Forces to Business Success: Ryan Adams, the Visionary Behind RhinoShield Florida. Traction, Rocket Fuel, KPI, EOS, Jacksonville Florida.
Patient financing is often treated like a last resort, but it may be one of the most powerful tools a dental practice has to help patients move forward with needed treatment while improving practice growth.Matt Brown, Dr. Andrew Vallo, and Chase from HFD discuss how financing can increase treatment acceptance, improve patient access, and create a more stable financial future for dental practices. They explore why practices should offer financing proactively, rather than waiting until a patient says they cannot afford care.You'll hear how financing can:Help patients access comprehensive treatmentIncrease average patient valueImprove treatment acceptance and collectionsGive patients more manageable monthly payment optionsSupport patients across different credit profilesReplace outdated assumptions about who should or should not applyBecome a measurable practice KPI through credit applicationsThe conversation also covers the importance of role-playing financing conversations with treatment coordinators, presenting specific approval amounts and monthly payments, and making financing part of a consistent patient experience, not an awkward final option.If you're a dentist, treatment coordinator, or practice leader looking for practical ways to remove financial barriers and grow your practice, this episode offers a fresh perspective on why patient financing can be a win for both the patient and the practice.
My guest today is Jared Dillian—former Lehman Brothers index-arbitrage and ETF trader, founder of the 18-year-old professional market letter The Daily Dirtnap, registered CTA, author of seven books, and an unusually multidimensional market thinker whose work joins macro trading, practical personal finance, risk control, writing, mental health, and electronic music.Today, are we talking about his new book The Awesome Portfolio, a simple, stress-free approach to investing.Episode Sponsor: Fiscal AI is a modern data terminal that gives investors instant access to twenty years of financials, earnings transcripts, and extensive segment and KPI data—use my link for a two-week free trial plus 15% off: https://fiscal.ai/talkingbillions/Jared unpacks the origin of The Awesome Portfolio — born from testing model portfolios with a subscriber-turned-advisor, later validated by Nick Maggiulli's own optimization research.Core thesis: "to make people make stupid decisions" is, in Jared's telling, the whole purpose of volatility — Vanguard's own data shows investors rarely capture the returns their funds actually post.Vanguard's "advisor alpha": simply having someone stop you from trading boosts returns by 3%. But Jared argues even a good advisor can't erase the stress of a 50% drawdown.The Awesome Portfolio's worst-ever year: down 12%, versus an 89% max drawdown for the S&P since 1929. "Drawdowns affect psychology."The "life hedge": your job and the market tend to move together, amplifying your life's volatility. The ideal hedge would move opposite — nothing fully does.Risk of ruin, via a $300M Powerball thought experiment: "wealthy people think about the risk of ruin and middle-class people don't."Reflexivity: the top 7 stocks make up 35% of the index, so buying the index means buying concentration.The five 20% slices — stocks, bonds, gold, cash, real estate — rebalanced once a year, deliberately simple.Why crypto got cut: even a small Bitcoin allocation would dominate investor attention and undercut the whole stress-free premise.Stress-tested against a literal nuclear war, Jared still can't find a scenario where all five assets fail together.Closing candor: "Books succeed when they tell people things they already believe" — which is why he expects pushback, not a bestseller.Podcast Program – Disclosure StatementBlue Infinitas Capital, LLC is a registered investment adviser and the opinions expressed by the Firm's employees and podcast guests on this show are their own and do not reflect the opinions of Blue Infinitas Capital, LLC. All statements and opinions expressed are based upon information considered reliable although it should not be relied upon as such. Any statements or opinions are subject to change without notice.Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed.
279 | Verena Scheffczyk hat über 2.500 Gründern dabei geholfen, ihr Startup zu starten. Wie das heute mit KI geht, erzählt sie in dieser Folge. Mehr über Million Labs hier: https://millionlabs.com/start/Partner dieser Folge:PlaudRichtig gute Transkriptionen für Offline Meetings mit Plaud. Geh auf: https://de.plaud.ai/dpt10% Discount code: OPT10Mach das 1-minütige Quiz und finde eine Geschäftsidee, die zu dir passt: digitaleoptimisten.de/quiz. Mich erreichst du unter alexander@digitaleoptimisten.deSo erreichst du uns:Sprachnachricht senden: https://www.speakpipe.com/digitaleoptimistenEmail schreiben: alexander@digitaleoptimisten.deLearningsKI senkt Gründungskosten deutlichKI hat Entwicklungskosten stark gesenkt; MVPs kosteten früher 50.000 bis 100.000, heute reichen oft deutlich weniger, um eine erste Version zu bringen, in zwei bis drei Monaten auf den Markt zu gehen. Die Barriere fällt weiter, wodurch auch nicht-technische Gründer leichter loslegen können. Mit WIPECODING (2025) wird KI-Programmierung als neue Form des MVP-Buildings beschrieben, wodurch sich die Spielregeln weiter verschieben. Validierung vor BauentscheidungenTrotz KI-basiertem Bau verzichtet es nicht auf Validierung: 90 % der Startups scheitern, weil kein echter Marktbedarf besteht bzw. Kunden nicht zahlen wollen. Der signifikante Kern ist, dass Signale aus echten Nutzern wichtiger sind als einzelne Aussagen in Interviews; Demonstrationen, Landingpages und Clear Calls-to-Action liefern konkrete Validierungsergebnisse. Ein Preispunkt oder eine Early-Access-Option dient dabei als messbares Signal, ob Nutzer bereit sind zu zahlen oder sich zu engagieren. Start-Launch-Grow als ValidierungszyklusDas Framework beginnt mit Start – definierte Validierung in einer Nische und einer klaren Geografie; Launch baut eine minimale KI-Version mit Must-Haves, Grow testet drei Kanäle, um konstant Kunden zu gewinnen. Die Nische, eine klare Use-Case und Deutschland als Geography sind essenzielle Vorgaben, um das Experiment sauber zu halten und Iterationen zu ermöglichen. Time-to-Wow wird als KPI genutzt, um zu prüfen, welche Funktion den größten unmittelbaren Nutzen erzeugt. MVP-Fokus: drei KernfunktionenFür das MVP in komplexen Märkten reichen drei Kernfunktionen: Sprachaufnahme (Voice Input), automatische Ausgabe (Output) und eine sichtbare Juxtaposition in der App, um Nachwirkungen zu ermöglichen. Weitere Funktionen bleiben pending („Coming soon“), damit der Marktvalidierungsknüppel schnell greifbar bleibt. Die Vorgehensweise vermeidet umfangreiche Bürokratie oder vollständige Release-Pläne und fokussiert stattdessen auf greifbaren Wow-Maktor, der die Nutzerakzeptanz misst.KeywordsKünstliche Intelligenz Startups KostenreduktionMVP Kosten Reduktion KIStart Launch Grow FrameworkValidierung in Nische mit KITime-to-Wow KPIValidierung Landingpage mit KI StartupsPflanzenschutzmittel Digitalisierung LandwirteHaustiermarkt Abschiedsdienst PlattformDrei Channel Experimente im Grow FrameworkLandingpage Waitlist Pricing Early Access nutzenPrompting KI KostenClaude Code Claude Design ToolsNo-Code Tools Vergleich Make Airtable Replit Lovable
Transformation Tip“The greatest enemy to success is success.” — Steve and PeteSuccess can create a dangerous sense of comfort. When things are going well, it can be tempting to ease up, settle into what's working, and stop challenging the standards that got you there.In this episode, Steve and Pete explore what it takes to keep raising the bar when success makes it easy to coast.In this episode, we explore:Why success can actually put your standards at riskThe difference between setting high standards and actually executing themThree keys to maintaining high standards: focus, dedication, and teachabilityWhy leaders need to measure what truly matters — not simply what is easiest to trackHow KPIs can create meaningful accountability at every level of an organizationWhat makes a KPI worth tracking and sustainingWhy continued growth and learning are essential to avoiding mediocrityHow leaders can recognize the early signs of standards beginning to erodePractical ways to make high standards part of everyday team executionTransformation ApplicationThis week, take a closer look at one KPI you're tracking. Ask yourself: Is it truly measuring what matters? Is it measurable? Is it something worth sustaining for the long term?Connect On Social:Podcast Facebook PageSteve Facebook Steve InstagramSteve LinkedInPete FacebookPete Instagram Pete LinkedIn
Being a CEO dentist doesn't have to mean fewer patients. It means leading your business as intentionally as you are clinically. Kiera gives specific tips on how you, as a dental practice owner, can shift your mindset so you're operating like a CEO and your practice is humming. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today we're just gonna kind of like jump right into it. I hope it's an amazing day over there. And I hope, as you're listening, today this is going out to our dentist owners. and I think that a lot of dentists actually own a practice, but very few of them actually run it like a CEO. Is that fair? Would you agree? Would you not? what do you think? What do you think about that? Do you feel like that is And the way you'll know if you're running it like a CEO or if you're just being owned by it is do you feel trapped in your business or do you feel in control of your business? And I think I want to just kick this off because there are times, and I will tell you, once you hit one or the other, that's not forever. That state is not a forever state. So just because you might be there today doesn't mean you'll forever be there. So if you're trapped, great news, you won't always be there. If you're if you're feeling in control, great, you're not always going to be there either. But The goal is like being a CEO dentist doesn't mean that you're actually having to see fewer patients. It's about leading your business as intentionally as you are clinically. And being the leader of that, being the person who actually is setting the tone and being a CEO. And I think when I started my business, I didn't know what a CEO was. I did not know the difference between like owning a business and managing a business. Like I just thought you worked in it. but I think when I started looking at if I left tomorrow for two months, excluding your dentistry. Could my team function? Could my practice continue to grow? Do I have systems? Do I have processes? Do I have things in place to where I could do that? If the answer is no, then great, you're still managing your practice. If it is yes, then great, you're sipping into that CEO role. Does your team have the playbooks? Do they have that? And so today I just kind of want to dig into like a CEO Dentist playbook of like, how can you lead a practice that grows without you? I will say this is tricky. Like you still need to be the CEO, you still need to have a vision, but I think it's a lot of pieces will be on mindset shifts that we're able to have. what you can possibly do differently. And then like what are some habits that you can do to grow to have growth, profitability, and freedom. Now again, this is if you want to. You don't I also think some people get into this weird black and white. Like if it's this, it's that, or if I don't do this or I do do that. I hate when I say do do. Guys, you just heard it come through. but I hate when you don't have to have it just be black and white. All right. You don't have to have it where it's all or nothing. There can be an and You can be a great clinician and be a CEO. You can be a CEO and you can still be in your practice. You can step out of your practice. We just want to make sure that you are not just being a clinician. And if you want to, that's fine. But just make sure we have a CEO of your business. So know thyself and be free, I think is where it is. and if you want to look and think and lead like a CEO, these might be some great tips for you of some mindset shifts and what we what we should go through to help. The CEO Dentist focus on where your focus should be, what things you can prioritize. So even if today it feels impossible, at least you have a roadmap of how to get there. So number one, as a CEO, you own the vision, not every task. And I think that's a bold statement. Own the vision, not every task. Your job is not to do everything, your job is to create the direction. And this feels weird to me. This especially like dental assistant turned CEO. That's a weird shift. So you better believe I was the girl who did everything. My job is to look 10 steps ahead of my doctor. I'm supposed to be on point. I'm supposed to be doing these pieces. To have now an assistant who I'm like, hey, I need you looking 10 steps ahead of me. Where am I at? Like what things are coming down the line? That's weird. It's a weird shift for me. and but just helping you see like your job as a CEO is to own the vision. And most of the time you walk out of meetings without tasks. Now, if you are having tasks, that's okay, but make sure that they're truly CEO tasks that only you can do. And usually they tie to vision. Profit culture. That's pretty much, and sometimes it will be like leading edge of a new initiative. So if you're wanting to build out a surgery center in your business, you're probably gonna be doing that right alongside with it, with your with your office manager. So what it looks like when it's broken and you are not owning the vision, and every task is coming to you is team constantly asks you what to do. You priorities are changing weekly, doctors making every decision or a lot of the decisions, like what toys are we buying for the toy box? when should we schedule lunch? When should we have this person in? That means like you're still doing a lot of this, you're still managing your business, you're not leading and guiding it. So, like what a CEO dentist would do is you set a clear vision. This is where we're headed, this is where we're going. You have the priorities, this is what's happening in the next three months, and then you communicate what success looks like. So you see how there's a shift. The daily tasks are still getting done. You can still oversee them. You still have a manager who you meet with. But you're not the one doing this. You're not stamping off on that. And I will tell you, it's a really awkward, it's really weird, but it's very freeing. And ultimately what it does is it also like we're doing a mastermind talking about Dan Martell's buy back your time. And that one we've got to just make sure we figure it out. And we like when you buy back your time, I look at my tasks and I think if I can have anybody do this task for less than four X what my hourly rate is, I need to do it. And I need to push myself into my own comfort zone. And I need to be working on things that I can't also like right now. The projects I'm working on, like I can I can do my own confirmation calls, I could book my own travel, like I could stamp off on where team members are going and PTO and like lots of people can do that. What people can't do in our company is figure out where the next level of Dental A Team is going. And I that's my job. That's what I'm paid to do. That is literally Kiera's job. I still podcast with you guys, I still hang out, like. Other people can podcast, these are things that I really enjoy. But I've simplified it down. I only block this much time in my calendar. So I have much more of my time that's dedicated to building our company. No one else is doing that. I'm literally the only person that does it. So for you to go from solving daily problems to leading the quarterly planning, leading team priorities, having the team become proactive and less dependent on you. So that would be what success looks like. So that's building a leadership team. We love to do this. We help build leadership teams. We help you to run your quarterly meetings and Set up those rocks and teach the team how they're able to drive and influence rather than being dependent on the doctor. You're still there. You still get to help them. You still get to influence them. You still get to mentor them. Those pieces are going to be great for you. So what happens here is teams actually need you to be the lighthouse. And my team told me this. They said, Kiera, I know you want to be in the weeds with us, but we actually need you to be the lighthouse of like where the heck are we going? Because none of us can see that. And without your guidance and your direction, we're all going to be lost. And like I like shirk over here. To me, that sometimes doesn't feel as good because I can't check a check mark. And I know that sounds so ridiculous. And I think that sometimes this is why people do sit in the day-to-day manager rather than into the visionary CEO seat because the day-to-day tasks feel good. Having the like I'm just gonna call myself out. This is speaking to Kiera. I'm having an intervention with myself over here. This is where I am wanting to be important. me stamping off on things makes me feel like I have control. Me telling a team what to do, there's so many people that report to me. That's a freaking ego. My team does not need that. Do you know how many great leaders and managers I have in my team? They do not need me. I do not need to be stamping off on everything. Now, do we have a maturing team right now? Absolutely. Do we have a lot of like I feel like we shook the snow globe based on where we're headed? Absolutely. But that doesn't mean it's a forever seat for me. It's a temporary, it's an interim, and I know that they know that. So it's sitting there just in the interim. and so what I would do for this is help your team feel empowered, where we can we move you to what are the three goals for the practice? What are the quarterly plans? Who's responsible, not the dentist? And then questions that come to a doctor. I want you to truly start asking, like, is this something only I can do? And if so, solve it. And if not, start delegating and having empowering your team to do it. This will help you. This is going to have it. So That's CEO shift number one. Number two, I would say know your numbers that drive your business. and this I've talked about, I've harped on, there's so many podcasts on this. I just want you to know your performance. So you've got to look at your numbers before things feel wrong. You need to know numbers beyond production, and you need to make decisions on those numbers always. You gotta be looking at your KPI scorecard, your overhead, your PL. And every single month minimum, you are looking at like be the CFO. Like, A CEO works with a CFO, and until you're large enough, you need to know these numbers forward and backwards. Your office manager should be preparing them, you should be looking at them, but you have got to know the numbers of your business. I'm not saying you need to be the one who preps all the reports, but you have to know what's going on. So that way you're able to see, are we making money? Are we not making money? And I think so many dentists get into this hustle and bustle of like, I'm just gonna go produce, produce, produce. And I'm like, Do you realize that if you just spent a little bit of that production time on looking at your numbers, you would actually be able to know. rather than guess. You would be able to work less and create more. And so I just really think for you to start shifting. So number one is you got to set the vision and the culture and you got to have your team do it. You set the priorities, you define that where we're going and you communicate what success looks like. You're not solving every decision. Next step is you're using your numbers to make every single decision and you're having a monthly meeting on numbers. Money monthly meeting there you go money monthly meeting and you know what it is. You know your numbers today, forward and backward. You know what your overhead is. You know where we're spending more, you know where we're spending less. You know what your profit margins are, and you know what you need to produce to cover all your expenses, including paying yourself. You need to review that every single month at a minimum. Set it up with your CPA, force yourself. Like that's what I do. I have a meeting with my CPA. I don't really need to talk to them, but that's Kiera's time where it forces me to look at the numbers, to review where I'm at, to make sure that I'm making decisions based on that. And then the third thing is going from an operator to an owner. Is you've got to have leaders and systems so there's less dependency on you. so if we lucked again, I think about myself like if I were to leave, what things are gonna break in two months? That's where we start with those systems and that scalability. and what am I going to put into play? What am I going to do? What is going to happen? Like, where is this going to get resolved? And we start having those systems and those people built into those leadership spots. So I really want to make sure that you guys have that of this is where it's the systems, the structure and the scalability. And I think the Dental A Team does such a good job of this. Like we know the systems to put into place for you. Like they're very basic, they're very minimal. Most things can get resolved. We have decision trees that are in there. We help your leaders look at the numbers so they know how to make the decisions too while you're gone. And this way it continues to grow and there's no more dependency upon you. You can truly step away. So If you have this, I think that oftentimes doctors and office managers are firefighters and it's like, my gosh, care, I'm so exhausted and everything's coming to me. And it's like, okay, great, we're gonna make a list of everything coming to you. We're gonna chunk those into like what categories do they fit into. Then from there, we're gonna figure out who should be the owner of this, what protocols need to go into place, and what systems could reduce this. That way, when you go, then what we typically do is we recommend that you do actually schedule like a two-week, like start there. vacation where you're going to be gone and the practice is still going to operate. And we want to just see what breaks. We're going to do the same thing for our office manager because we want to be able to make sure that this practice can truly start to function without you. Now, again, I get to a spot and I'm like, I'm on this path and I want to be the CEO of it, and I don't want to be there every day where I have to be there. And then I actually like achieve it. And I'm like, my gosh, who is Kiera? What is it like? What is my life if this doesn't happen? And what's What's my own like what's my purpose? And I think this is where a lot of people get trapped in the cycle of your purpose is not to be doing tasks. Your purpose, like they still need you to set the vision. It's not something I can ever stamp off and say, I've done this, this, and this. I can't stamp a check mark on a vision. I can't step a check mark on a culture. Those things are almost like these soft skills, like they're they're soft. Like I can say I have a vision, I can say I have a mission statement. I can say we have a great culture. I do check, check, check. But ultimately they're intangibles. They're things that people feel. They're things that people experience. And honestly, when I get to a point where I'm like, wow, the business can run without me. Sometimes I go in and I create chaos because I want to be needed. And I want to just caution you that as you're going to this, whiplashing a team can actually be so detrimental to them. Sending them on, like, I want to be here. But then you come in and you undercut everybody. This is me talking to myself. I'm sure none of you do this. So sorry, Dental A Team. I do it. And it's I have to recognize that that's ego. That's not serving anybody, including myself. It's not serving my team. So if I have great leaders, which I do, I've got an amazing leadership team. But if I constantly go in and I'm answering questions in Slack and I'll calm myself out on this of like, that was wrong. That's not my place to overstep. And I need to connect in with the leader. you can have the best of intentions, but if you're not willing to let leaders grow, you're not willing to truly want to be the CEO, don't Preach it unless you actually are going to execute on it. You can have sluts like small setbacks, but you need to own it. You need to call yourself out and you need to move forward and your team needs to be able to trust you and have confidence with you. These are pieces that are non-negotiable for me. You have to check yourself and recognize that there's an ego that's chirping in the background, that's chirping. It's loud, it's annoying. It wants you to do all these things, but that doesn't mean that that's right. It doesn't mean that you should do that. It means that you have a chirpy ego that needs to zip it and you need to be the CEO. You need to trust your leaders. 80% of them doing it is better than 100% of you doing it. So when you look at this for this, what are kind of the steps of you owning the vision, not every single task, you knowing the numbers of your business and making decisions based on that? And then making sure you're truly building leaders and systems that reduce dependency on you and you truly are stepping into that CEO seat, you're trusting and empowering your leaders to do it. They can do it. Develop the leaders, create accountability and build systems for consistency. And if you struggle there, Reach out. That's what we're good at. We do this. We help you build the fundamentals for you. Get the vision in place. Teach you what your job description is. Call you out when you're stepping in your lane that you're not supposed to be in and say, get over there. They've got this. They can handle it. Teach your leaders how to run effective meetings, how to hold accountability lines. This is what it is. Your goal is not to be the busiest person in the practice. Your goal is to be the leader that helps your practice thrive and truly helps them and gets out of their freaking way. I'm thinking about a doctor right now, and this doctor says they want to be the CEO. They say they're not growing. They're at the office all the time. And I'm like, you've got a leadership team, but you get in their way. You want the chaos. You don't get out of there. You live in this chaos day in, day out. That's your emotional home, and you go there because it's comfortable for you. You have to start doing things differently if you want a different life. So this is a call out to all of you. If you really want to be the CEO of your practice, you've got to own that step out and get out of their way and get your chirpy ego to zip their lips. You've got to change how you lead. You've got to change how you're working. You've got to change the priorities you're doing. It's awkward. It's uncomfortable. I've surely sat in bed a few times and cried and been like, my team doesn't even need me. And then I like wipe my tears and I get up and I'm like, you will never say that again and you're going to move forward because they do need you. They just don't need you to do every task for them. I'm not an operator. I'm an owner of this business. My job is to lead. To guide, to mentor, and to be the one who is sharp and to create the space, to give me the space to dream, to figure out the next layer, to read the books, to move into the next evolution of growth. That's my job. No one else is doing that. And that's your job as well. So if you feel like your practice can't function without you, maybe it's time to step into the CEO role and like let's be more intentional and let's get them to be able to function without you. Next level of growth is gonna come from changing how you lead, not how hard you work. So. If you're ready to change, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. Come to webinars or whatever it is, but make the change now. Commit to that. And your CEO role can look very different. But ultimately, the goal is to not be the busiest person, but to be the person who guides, leads, and gets out of their way and empowers your team to do this without you. Set the vacation, set the deadline, and let's make it happen. This is what we do. We help you guys. So reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. Commit to being the CEO of your practice. You can do it. I know you can. I've been able to evolve. It's an evolution. This is why we have our mastermind in person. So doctors can talk to each other. They can share their woes. We can talk as CEOs together. We can talk about the things we're doing. We can call each other out because we see it in each other. Come be a part of that. Don't do this alone. It's really hard to do on your own. Come be a part of it. I'd love to have you be a part of it. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.
The work that builds wealth is usually not exciting.It is repetitive.In this episode of The Level Up Podcast, Paul Alex breaks down why consistent execution, strong systems, and boring routines often create more long-term value than constantly chasing new ideas.Starting something new feels exciting.Repeating the same proven process for the thousandth time does not.But that repetition is where efficiency, predictability, and stronger profit margins are built.In this episode, you'll learn:• Why constantly chasing new ideas can create operational chaos• How standard operating procedures improve consistency and scalability• Why repetitive sales, follow-up, and KPI tracking drive long-term results• How disciplined execution compounds into stronger business performance over timeThe truth is simple:You do not need a new strategy every week.You need to execute the right strategy consistently.Make the calls.Track the numbers.Follow up.Improve the system.Then repeat it long enough for the results to compound.The boring work builds the foundation.The foundation creates the freedom.Master the routine.Collect the discipline dividend.Your Network is your NETWORTH!Make sure to add me on all SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS:Instagram: https://jo.my/paulalex2024Facebook: https://jo.my/fbpaulalex2024YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGhDAD1JyGGzSQUPD9lc9HQLinkedIn: https://jo.my/inpaulalex2024Looking for a secondary source of income or want to become an entrepreneur? Check out one of my companies below to see if we can help you:www.CashSwipe.comFREE Copy of my book “Blue to Digital Gold - The New American Dream”www.officialPaulAlex.com
Work With Me To Scale Your Business: https://go.scalingwithsystems.com/Oz-Jimmy ———————————— Be On The Next Constraint Call: https://www.scalingwsystems.com/constraint-call-application ———————————— Watch Me Fix $1M+ Businesses Live: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF-fSrHojCgG8V5-7AKVrKgcbtsd-BXti&si=kEOVnNFnLhhhDbYA ———————————— Join Our Team: https://www.scalingwithsystems.com/careers ———————————— In this episode of the Constraint Call, Ravi helps Oz and Jimmy identify why their Spanish-language real estate advertising agency is relying too heavily on Jimmy to drive sales, then rebuilds the sales process around a one-call close, KPI-based team management, tiered calendar routing, and a higher-value backend offer. CHAPTERS: 00:00:00 Intro & the $120K Month 00:04:00 Pricing, Contracts & Margins 00:09:00 CAC to Lifetime Profit 00:12:00 Jimmy's Closing Advantage 00:14:28 The Two-Call Funnel Problem 00:18:00 The Sales Team Constraint 00:20:00 One-Call Close & KPIs 00:26:00 Re-Engineer the Sales Script 00:31:00 Tiered Calendar Routing 00:34:49 The Final Action Plan
Tiff and Pam talk about the current intersection of technology in the practice, and how using and understanding AI as a tool for busywork means you can focus on the tasks that really need that human touch. They talk about why training AI could be just as critical as training humans, where to look first when incorporating the software into your practice, how a staff member can serve as quality check for automated tasks, and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Tiffanie (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Tiff back with you here on the podcast. And we are in the studio today. I have myself and I have Miss Pam with me. And Pam is one of our prize possession consultants here at the Dental A Team. We have had Pam on our team for a little while now. And if you are special enough and blessed enough to work with her, you know exactly who she is and you have some solid foundational systems. Pam is a systems guru. She busts them out. And she holds accountability like I've never seen before. And when she learns something, she learns it forever. And I love getting to watch you, Pam, progress in your Dental A Team journey. I watch you like taking notes all the time on the systems that we, you know, hold tried and true. Yesterday Dana was talking about a couple of systems during our collaboration and I was like, gosh. She's just over there feverishly writing and I love it because I know exactly what's gonna happen. You're gonna like go back, you're gonna relearn Pamela (00:54) I was. Yes, I was. Tiffanie (00:58) it, and you're gonna teach it. And it was just really cool. So I love that, Pam. Thank you. And I love that you have these skill sets that you're able to then take and you help so many practices implement the same skill sets, like not just our systems, but how to retain it. You know how you retain it. But then you're also looking for how are other people retaining the things that they're learning so that you can help them grow in their learning as well. So it's just really cool to watch, Pam. Thank you for everything you do and thank Pamela (01:27) Thank you. Tiffanie (01:28) you for being here today. How are you? Pamela (01:31) you know, I'm doing fabulous and thank you. I appreciate all those kind words, Tiff. That was very nice. I think it's a unique and great time to be in dentistry. So v we've seen a lot of changes over the years and now we're to a stage that is changing very, very quickly. Tiffanie (01:50) I agree. I I love that you said that, Pam, because something that I think we've said in dentistry for a long time is that dentistry is really progressive in a lot of ways. I think there's a lot of things in dentistry that haven't changed and haven't progressed, like Rick canals, things like that are still being done similarly to how they were thirty years ago. But so much in dentistry is so progressive and it's changing all the time. But I I think we've always said that. But I think in the last five, six years that has Like us saying that before doesn't even make sense anymore. Like the progression we're seeing now is wild. Pamela (02:26) It's it's crazy. you know, I was thinking about this, and there are so many systems that we have done for years that we're not perfecting, right? That we still could perfect and are in addition to any AI stuff we have. But the interesting thing is is that now something that has been in scarcity our entire human existence or now or soon will become like an abundant commodity, which is intelligence, right? Tiffanie (02:53) Yeah. Yeah. Pamela (02:55) So I think that it's really wild to be thinking about that intelligence is a commodity and we can buy it. Tiffanie (03:03) Yeah, I think that's amazing. That was a great perspective. And you are not wrong. I listen to a lot of Pamela (03:07) Yeah. Tiffanie (03:09) podcasts and I know you do too that speak to that same thing. And I think both of our households house many conversations around that same thing. I think we we share that. Pamela (03:18) That is so true. It's so true. Tiffanie (03:22) Yeah. So with that, Pam, I think that's a great start. What are you seeing? expand on that for me. Like what are you seeing as far as I love that like intelligence is is a purchasable at this point. What are you seeing with your practices or just the research you're doing and the things you're hearing and and listening to within the dental world, narrow that down for us. What are you seeing from your perspective how that's changing dentistry? Pamela (03:48) Yeah, well I I think the the question is is how do we react to that reality, right? And a lot of practices are have not gotten into the AI and are now saying, okay, I want my insurance verification done, I want, you know, RCM done, the revenue cycle management done by AI, but it is a little daunting. Right? It is like I had one practice say yo well we have this company that's doing our RCM and and I said do you are you like what are you doing with it and they said nothing they do it and I'm like dear goodness gracious like there are you have to manage it unfortunately I think we're at a real a space where we're not the Ironman like Jarvis runs everything Tiffanie (04:43) Yeah. Pamela (04:43) you know stage we're at the Alexis and we have a lot of really smart AI tools. Most of them, I'm well, they're all sitting on top of separate systems and what we are contributing. I don't think we're pardon me quite to the point where it's an operating system as opposed to, you know, pieces. So I'm seeing practices now take those pieces, try to learn them, and then develop their skills even more in the stuff that they were doing. So what I mean by that is how are we, how are they actually doing at clean claims, right? Are they Tiffanie (05:23) Yeah. Pamela (05:24) getting the clean the claims clean before they send them in? how are they doing on you know managing the online scheduling? Are they reacting to that? And is all the patient's insurance information accurate before it goes to the AI? So that's that's what I'm seeing. That's a s a little bit of a struggle. Tiffanie (05:47) Yeah. I think something you pointed out there was that a lot of people a lot of people seem to be jumping headfirst and just like handing the keys over rather than allowing it to be a tool that they use still with oversight. And I noticed recently, even just on my chat GPT that I use down at the bottom, it's like, Hey FYI, these may be inaccurate. Like this is not to be taken as truth. Yeah. And I'm like, well Pamela (06:11) Yes, I j I saw that, yeah. So true. Tiffanie (06:16) We need that reminder though, kind of like the McDonald's coffee cup that now has, you know, since nineteen ninety or whatever it was, says that the contents are hot. Like humanity needs those reminders 'cause I think we're so it's like a it's a catch to me too, 'cause I do think we're so quick to jump onto things and try them. But Pamela (06:34) Mm-hmm. Tiffanie (06:34) at the same time we're like second guessing and thinking we can't and thinking they don't work, but we do latch on to certain things where we're just like, wait, that was expected. I expected to be able to drink my coffee as soon as you handed it to me. You know, that it wasn't gonna be scalding hot, that I could just just go. And same with the AI. I think there's so many aspects of it that we just expected all of the truth to be on the internet somewhere. We've been primed that the truth is on the internet and we just expected it to be true that now chat is like, hey, wait a second, like, hey, I'm just like your buddy who did the research online, the same as your friend next door. Like this Pamela (07:09) Right. Tiffanie (07:13) could be wrong. And I think it's an interesting thought because to your point of view, handing over your cycle management, your your revenue and all of that data, handing that over to AI and expecting it to just be perfect from here on out with no mistakes is wild. Right, but we're doing it. So many of us are doing it. Similarly to the online scheduling. I know we have a lot of practices and we have some doctors that have spoken for us at our events. we had one last September that our doctor focused on AI, and she pointed out the facts of needing to train their AI the same as they're training a human. Like you get a Pamela (07:51) Yeah, yes. Yes. Tiffanie (07:54) result and you're like, you got that result, you're fired, you're done, we give up. You say, actually, Let's tweak it to be what we want it to be. So we're saying yes and okay, cool. And let's do it this way. Let's move it this direction. with that statement, you also said insurance verifications, making sure they're accurate. And it made me think too, we've always said, you know, good information in is good information out, bad information in is bad information out. And I think That's the same with any of it, with any of the AI tools or any of it, right? The it can only scour the internet for so much information and find so much truth. With the good information in, that goes as far as everything. So whatever it is that we're asking and training these systems and these tools to produce is what we're going to get. So we're not spending the time with the AI and we're not spending the time saying, This is the result that I want, this is how I want you to get there. we're doing a disservice to ourselves just the same as so many people we were just talking about this. So many people are still misusing or underutilizing tools that we've had for gosh, at this point I always say 30 years, but at this point I think it's going on like 40 years, right? Like we've had these tools for Pamela (09:12) Exactly, yeah. Tiffanie (09:14) a long time. We're still Pamela (09:16) Yeah. Tiffanie (09:16) misusing them because I know both of us have walked into offices where they're like changing the prices in the treatment plan. And they're doing all this math and there's a calculator. I still have offices that have the calculators that have the tape, and I'm like, where are you even where do you buy the tape anymore? Right. But they do, they have this running tab. And I'm like, what are you doing? And they say, Well, it's never right. We always have a balance. And I'm like, Okay, this is like a band-aid fix, right? So no matter what technology you have, there's so much tech that saves us so much time. And that's the point of this conversation is what kind of tech is out there that can save our team Pamela (09:52) Mm. Tiffanie (09:53) time. And a lot of that time is for the administrative team, gives them the the chance to do other things, right? So automating things gets rid of busy work, allows them to do other things. But if we're not utilizing the tool correctly from the get-go, it's not saving the time because we're going back and fixing it anyway. So maybe we're saving time on we have an online scheduling app and it works. So our team maybe doesn't have to answer as many new patient calls. But then that same person is over here calculating by hand a treatment plan estimate. It's like, cool, well, we just like took nonsensical Pamela (10:28) Yeah. Tiffanie (10:29) time and put it into a nonsensical time suck again. So, Pam, how Pamela (10:33) Yeah. Yeah. Tiffanie (10:35) are you helping the chain offices to really utilize the tools to actually save the time? And when they're not, so like that situation, how do we how do we get to the bottom of it? Because for me, When I see somebody calculating treatment plan estimates because they always have a bill at the end, I'm like, cool, that's like a band-aid over this massive gash on your arm and it stopped the bleeding Pamela (10:59) Mm-hmm. Tiffanie (11:00) in that one spot, but it's not fixed. Like you still need stitches. How do we get to the bottom of it? And how do you help practices really figure out what truly is going to save them time and how they can get there? Pamela (11:14) Yeah, I think it goes back to basics. Before we layer on that AI piece of it, we have to have those basics in place. And you're right, there are a lot of practices and you know that are struggling with that. They're still doing things by hand. So, you know, have going back to the basics and having that correct verbiage, I think, is super important. to with the patient of knowing that. There may be, it is an estimation, and there may be a difference when once your insurance pays. And you can offer to the patient, you know, if you would like to call, I don't like doing predeterminations, pre-D, I'm kind of against them. A lot of people still do them for larger treatment. I understand that. but for if you are to, you know, tell a patient, look, if if it's a credit. we will get that credit right back to you within the month, right? have Tiffanie (12:12) Mm-hmm. Pamela (12:13) some sort of verbiage that gives you a little bit of out, but also be confident when you're prevent presenting those numbers if you've done the homework. So I think that's where it goes is back to the basics, making sure the basics are correct before you, you know, are giving that treatment plan to the patient. And then your verbiage is super important. And trusting it. Tiffanie (12:36) Yeah, I totally agree. And trusting it exactly. Being able to trust the system is huge. So making sure I think you're you're like spot on back to the basics, right? So making sure your verbiage is in line and making sure that the information that we're putting into the computer system is as accurate as possible. And you can use AI tools for that too, right? So we have Pamela (12:55) Right. Right. Tiffanie (12:56) AI tools this day and age that do insurance verifications and they upload it into the system. They do all of the pieces. But then again, back to what we said earlier and how you said like this practice is like, we don't even look at it, right? Same thing. Like if you're if you're paying for an AI bot to go scour, get the information, put it into your system, and then you're turning around and you're like, well, it's always wrong, right? I I always have a balance or a credit. And so I calculate it just to double check, like, okay, maybe we need to look to see. Further back, where is that miscalculation coming from? Because the insurance data in the system, the patient's data in the system, the right fee schedules, all of those pieces are feeding the tech and the intelligence, the information that it's spouting out to you. So it can only do so much. So if you've Pamela (13:47) Right. Tiffanie (13:48) got, you know, you didn't mark the you didn't you didn't tell the bot that you needed to mark that there was a downgrade. So you're you're having crowns come back and there's two hundred dollar balance because it was downgraded, right? Well, stop hand calculating that and tell the bot to do it differently. Tell the system to do it differently. Whatever your system Pamela (14:06) That's right. That's right. Tiffanie (14:08) is, there's a little button somewhere that you you click it and it says downgrades, right? Account for downgrades, etc. So utilizing those tools from the ground zero, I think is just massive and it's something that's been severely underutilized for a really long time. that needs to be right first. Because then if we go in and we layer these AI bots on top of that, that data is what they're working with. Just like Dentrix can only give you a treatment plan based on the information that you put in there. You put the fee schedule, you put the percentages, you put the treatment plan. You did all the buttons, you clicked and you put the treatment plan. It spouts out these numbers based on the information you put in it. The bot's going to do the same thing. So I think that's our soapbox bot. Pamela (14:55) yeah. Tiffanie (14:55) situation there, like we go on forever. Go for it. Pamela (14:59) Yeah, no, I I agree and a lot. a lot of practices are struggling with this and they're because they're getting this AI and saying, Hey, it's not worth it. Like I'm still having to call the insurance company, I'm still having to, you know, calculate by hand, right? And I think it it does go back, like we said, to the basics and really digging down on that. And I mean continue to use AI, but like you said. it's so interesting. You have to teach it, right? And you may not be able to look to say, this is the exact to the penny downgrade amount, but once you have taught it, you do need to trust it. Yeah. Yeah. Tiffanie (15:40) Yeah, I agree. I love it. Okay, what kind of tools? I've I've got a few, you know, that I'm I've been seeing the online scheduling, I think, is finally making it headway. It's been a tool that we've had for a really long time, but we've Pamela (15:55) Yes. Tiffanie (15:55) all been very afraid of it for good reasons. That's fine. But what are some other tools that you're seeing them implement? So AI bots, like what are what are your practices using them for that people could start looking at? Make sure their foundations are correct. Start looking into how could we automate some busy work to give my team back time? What are you seeing out there in in dentistry right now, Pam? Pamela (16:17) Yeah. definitely the RCM, the revenue cycle management. I think that AI does a really great job with that. But the thing I I spoke about earlier is I the and getting to the root of the problem, if you don't want to have to manage it more, then you have to make sure your claims are clean. And what does that mean? And that's going back to basics, truly, as well. Like, are we taking all the photos? Are we taking you know, all the blood points when probing. Are we doing are we doing everything we can do to make sure that they have as much information as they have. So I think RCM is kind of the number one I'm seeing. insurance verification, where a lot of practices are moving there. I think there's still a little struggle with that because we don't get the patient information a as quickly. And you know, I think most of the most of them say put it in two days before. Tiffanie (17:15) Yeah. Pamela (17:16) Patient communication, so even filling the schedule, right? texting people to say on an ASAP list, you know, those kind of things are being utilized very well. schedule optimum schedule optimization as well. So I think there are programs out there that help you say fill that schedule and say, here's the patients that would work in this hole, right? So I think it's We have to accept that AI is here, right? so I think very, very to your point is yes, training it, but also yes, we do have to learn it. And it it will be it's one of those things. We're kind of lifelong learners, people in dentistry, because we always have new things coming. And so we have to look at it like this. This is just a a piece to learn, and the more we can learn about it, the better. that we are gonna get. We can't just be afraid of it. I say dig right in, figure that, you know, whatever you're using, figure it out. Call the company, ask questions, ask the right questions, you know, what what how do I get my insurance verification better? You know, and let them help you and tell you because they know everyone doesn't know. And if you just like one and done, I'm leaving it alone, you're probably not gonna have as good of experience as you could have with it. Yeah. And so I think doctors Tiffanie (18:43) Yeah. Yeah, I love those. Pamela (18:45) need to be a little bit aware aware. It takes time to learn. It's not just plug Tiffanie (18:50) Yeah. Pamela (18:50) and play. Tiffanie (18:51) Yeah. And to piggyback off that, it sounds like making sure we still have KPIs in place, there's still somebody overseeing results, that somebody's still verifying that that employee, right, is doing the job right is key because if we're if we do have an AI bot that's helping with revenue cycle management, and then we're not looking at AR numbers, we're not seeing, you know, our over ninety. decrease or or is it increasing like we're not watching those KPI points. That's how it gets lost. Just the same as somebody with a great resume comes in and says, hey, I'm gonna clean up your AR for you. Pay me X amount of dollars and we stick them in a corner and never look at it. Right? It's the same thing. So making sure those KPIs are in place. I think there's a ton of AI style tools that have come out for front office administrative work, which makes sense. You know, that's that's where AI is in the administrative world right now as the recording of this podcast at least but something that I see a lot of practices using too and I think you have a few that are using them the like Pearl and Overjet AI systems for that second opinion at least I know a lot of doctors are liking that second opinion which has helped it's not I I think of it as busy work now but that like co-diagnosing space and really just that confidence in what I'm diagnosing seems to come across a lot more from the doctors and those tools have been super beneficial as well. So I think there's starting to be this massive shift in the AI tech kind of industry where there is going to be more coming out for the the back office as well. And I think Pam, a lot of insurances are actually using systems like Pearl and Overjet, those AI tools to read x-rays and process claims a lot faster too. Which to your point then they gotta be super clean. You're okay. Pamela (20:45) Well, yeah, and and sorry, I totally did not mean to interrupt you, but that that brings up something that I've thought about and I've heard from practices, a lot of claims are being denied, right? Tiffanie (20:58) Yeah. Pamela (20:58) More. I think it's up like by twenty percent over the last few Tiffanie (21:01) I agree. Pamela (21:01) years. And that's probably because they are using AI to read the x rays, and Tiffanie (21:09) Yeah. Pamela (21:09) there is no way the human eye can be as good as an the AI assistance, you know, the tech Tiffanie (21:19) Yeah. Yeah. Pamela (21:20) the the radiology it it it that is going to become an AI job. So just in general. Tiffanie (21:25) For sure. Pamela (21:26) And so reading reading X rays, they're they're proficient. They're they're extremely intelligent at it. And so we need to jump on that bandwagon to make sure that we are seeing everything too. But yeah, that's Tiffanie (21:40) Yeah, agreed. Pamela (21:41) very, very true. Tiffanie (21:42) Yeah. And the same as the other AI tools, they have their variances as well. And you train those Pamela (21:47) Mm-hmm. Tiffanie (21:47) tools too. And you train yourself to see like, okay, well, this variance of that is like that's that's pretty extreme. I'm not like my practice doesn't diagnose that way. Cool, that's a watch for you, right? But at least it's being pointed out and you can compare. You can look at okay, what did last time look like versus this time? Which is super cool because that's not something you can do. with just our eyes of that kind of comparison. Pamela (22:11) Yeah. Tiffanie (22:12) So whether you're diagnosing off of it or using it as a tool to see progress and change, train it, train it and train yourself just the same as you're training your scheduling bots. Pamela (22:22) I I agree a hundred percent. And it it does have to be managed, right? It it does have to we have to learn it and we have to manage and it i it's just not a one and done. Just yeah. So very sh very Tiffanie (22:33) Yeah. Yeah. Well, I love it. There's so much tech to be found. I think some key ones that we can kind of action item here to go explore at least. I love the online scheduling tools if you're not using them yet. I think they're worth it. they weren't always. They have turned a corner. They are worth it. and Pam, I think even the scheduling bots that answer, you know, new patient calls, things like that are taking over and they're doing really phenomenally. And then I think I would push to make sure your insurance information is accurate. obviously, you know, Pearl or Overjet kind of tools, those are phenomenal too. But I think starting with those scheduling and those insurances, if you're not using those tools yet, I think it's worth looking into because I really do think that revenue cycle management, all of those pieces are hugely beneficial at this point. So do your homework. Go ahead. Pamela (23:30) I agree and I think I think it yeah, do your homework and I think it's exciting what's happening in with the voice activation. I don't think it's quite Tiffanie (23:38) Mm-hmm. Pamela (23:39) there yet, but that is something I know dental offices are very hungry for. I know it's a little intimidating, but when it gets better, and I I think it's developed huge amount from when I was in the office because it d had Tiffanie (23:53) Yeah. Pamela (23:54) just started. and you know, I think Offices are really looking forward to that and doctors are looking for their notes to help with their notes, right? Tiffanie (24:05) Yeah. Pamela (24:05) So I think those are the two big areas that we want to watch Tiffanie (24:08) Yeah. Pamela (24:09) and really keep abreast of what's going on and you know, keep automating and you can do it slow and it shouldn't be intimidating. Tiffanie (24:18) Yeah, I completely agree. I think slow is fast these days. Everything's changing so much. It's worth it to do Pamela (24:24) Yeah. Tiffanie (24:25) your due diligence and make sure that you're using it correctly and to its full extent. So I love it. Thank you so much, Pam. This was a lot of fun. I know that the AI tech world is your jam. you do a lot of introspective work on it and just it's a big conversation topic for you. So thank you for Being on here with me today and being willing to share your knowledge. Pamela (24:49) Thank you, thank you. I love AI and I can't wait to buy a robot. Tiffanie (24:54) Yeah, no right. That's what a our we have an almost 13-year-old in the house and he's ready to buy one, ready to build them, ready to go. I love it. I love it. Of course. Pamela (25:02) I know, it's it's very cool. Well thank you for the time, Tiffanie. It was great to talk about this. Tiffanie (25:09) Thanks, fam. Awesome. Okay, listeners, share this with a buddy. share some information you might have. You might be trying something in your practice now. Drop us a five-star review below and call that out. People do read through those comments. or if you're on our socials, put it in the comments section. You guys have some conversations about this. There's a lot to be learned here and there's so much to be shared. I know we had a doctor speaking on how she's using AI, but then we also just had a massive conversation in our doctor's only mastermind last Tuesday about AI tools, AI bots, kind of how different practices are using them. So it's a huge conversation. Get it rolling in there, get on board with some other doctors and share these tools with each other. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. If you need anything from us at all, we are always happy to share all of the knowledge that we have and we're always happy to help you in your practice on your journey towards an amazing rest of the year. Thanks so much guys and we'll catch you next time.
Dave Crysler breaks down Overall Equipment Effectiveness, the traditional manufacturing KPI that gets sold as a solution far more often than it gets used as a diagnostic. After a call with a machine monitoring vendor, Dave lays out what OEE actually measures, why two plants with identical scores can have nothing in common, and why a high number can sit right next to a growing backlog and shrinking profitability. This is the episode for the operator who has never tracked OEE and is being told they should. What You'll Discover: • What OEE actually measures and the three factors that multiply together to produce the score • Why the metric follows the problem, and what goes wrong when you pick the metric first • How two plants can both hit 85% while having completely unrelated issues driving the number • Why a metric that can be influenced without solving anything becomes a vanity metric • The blind spot nobody mentions: OEE never asks whether anybody ordered the parts • What happens when you drive up efficiency on a machine that is not your constraint • Why elevating a constraint usually takes ingenuity and conversations, not capital • The three conditions that make OEE genuinely worth tracking • How your lens of experience decides which solution you reach for, including Dave's own bias • The legal pad exercise you can run Monday morning without buying anything If your backlog is growing, your capacity feels constrained, or somebody just put a capital request for new equipment on your desk, this episode will save you from measuring the wrong machine. Before you buy sensors and software, there is a two week exercise with a notepad that will tell you more about your operation than a dashboard will. Dave walks through exactly how to run it.
Episode Summary I've had more conversations than I can count with law firm owners who tell me their team just isn't performing. More stress, more hours, more chasing, and somehow the numbers still don't move. In this episode I want to challenge that story, because in my experience it's rarely a staffing problem. It's an accountability gap, and that gap sits with the owner, not the team. I share what happened the year I tried to push my own firm past the $1.1M mark. I worked harder than I ever had. Revenue went up by $100k. Profit went down by $50k. It took me a while to admit that wasn't a team performance issue, it was a leadership one. I hadn't given my team anything real to be accountable to. This episode is part of the bigger conversation I have often in my law firm coaching work: growth doesn't create accountability, it exposes whether you already have it. If you're serious about law firm business coaching for your own firm, this is the structural piece that gets skipped most often. The core message I want you to sit with: your team will rise to the standard you actually measure and follow up on, not the one you're hoping for. What We'll Cover Why a busy, profitable looking firm can still be quietly leaking money The year my revenue went up and my profit went down, and what I learned from it Why loosely set KPIs function like decoration instead of accountability What happens when roles are vague and work turns into a hot potato nobody owns The four pillars I use to build real accountability into a firm The difference between visibility and micromanaging Why a KPI without a follow up conversation is just a spreadsheet One simple number you can start tracking this week What You'll Learn Why accountability is a system you build, not a personality trait you hope your staff have How to tell the difference between a real KPI and a vague target that just feels like one Why leading indicators like conversion rates matter as much as billables What a strong role description actually needs to include to stop work falling through the cracks How sending people their own numbers, not just tracking them yourself, changes behaviour Why consistency matters more than harshness when it comes to follow through You'll come away with a clearer picture of where the accountability gap sits in your own firm, and a practical first step to start closing it this week. Free Resources Wondering if the accountability gap in your firm is costing you more than you realise? I've got resources to help you dig in. My free resources cover the real nuts and bolts of running a law firm, from identifying profit leaks and getting clear on your numbers to building stronger systems and stepping back from being the bottleneck. Book a Free Law Firm Growth Strategy Call Scalable Law Accelerator Program Identifying Profit Leaks How to Make AI Recommend Your Law Firm (Free Guide) Is Your Team Actually the Problem, or Is It You? I want to be honest with you here. If your team isn't accountable right now, that's not a comment on their character. It's a comment on the structure you've given them to work inside. I see this constantly in my work as a law firm coach, and it's the first thing I look at with any firm I work with. If this episode sounds like your firm right now, this is exactly the kind of structural work I help with through law firm business coaching. Book a call with me and let's look at what's actually happening underneath your team's results. Book a Law Firm Growth Call Who's Still Waiting on You to Notice? Know a law firm owner who's constantly chasing their team, wondering why nothing gets done unless they're the one pushing it? Send them this episode. It might be the nudge they need to stop treating it as a staffing problem and start looking at the structure behind it. And if something in this episode made you rethink the way you work, I'd love to hear about it. Share your biggest takeaway on social media and tag me. I love seeing the shifts you're making inside your firm, even the small ones that, over time, add up to something much bigger. Apple Podcasts: Listen on Apple Spotify: Listen on Spotify YouTube: Watch on YouTube
Brandon Bateman of Bateman Collective has overseen more than $100 million in digital ad spend for the real estate investing community, and he comes on to hand investors the exact numbers they should track to know if their marketing is actually working. As David puts it, Brandon helps people make money while Simple CFO helps them keep it, the yin to the yang.This is an action-packed, notes-out episode. Brandon breaks down why underfunding a marketing channel is the worst mistake you can make, what percentage of revenue different exit strategies should spend on marketing, and the four KPIs that matter far more than the ROI number everyone fixates on. If you want your marketing to produce leads and profit, grab a pen for this one.Timeline Summary[2:13] – The most common financial mistake: overextending on marketing you can't sustain[3:00] – Why PPC needs six months of funding set aside and SEO needs 12 to 18[4:04] – The worst outcome: spending three months on SEO and quitting before any return[4:43] – PPC as a mid-term channel where leads come fast but the return takes time to dial in[5:59] – How pay-per-lead differs: zero ramp-up, but no optimization once you buy[8:10] – The credit-card-and-crossed-fingers client and why that's luck, not a strategy[9:31] – What percentage of revenue to spend on marketing, and why it depends on exit strategy[11:20] – Why flippers make money on the buy and the value add, and should run a wholesale company inside the flip[12:47] – The survey numbers: flippers around 20%, wholesalers 30 to 40% of revenue on marketing[14:06] – How to think about marketing spend on buy-and-hold rentals[16:00] – The two extremes: over-concentrated in one channel versus afraid to spend[17:38] – The client who spent the same and got the same, then realized he had to double spend to double revenue[19:58] – The four KPIs that matter when comparing marketing channels[20:36] – KPI one, ROI, and why it's overplayed as the only metric[21:22] – KPI two, lead quality measured as leads per contract, and how it drives your whole overhead[23:01] – KPI three, the scale and total volume a channel can produce[23:39] – KPI four, cash conversion cycle, and the hard-money-lending analogy that explains it[28:25] – The simplest first step for an investor who's never run paid ads[30:33] – Why you should get bad at sales on cheap leads before spending on $400 PPC leads5 Key TakeawaysDon't Underfund A Channel — The most common mistake is starting a channel you can't sustain. PPC needs about six months of budget set aside and SEO needs 12 to 18, or you'll quit before the return ever shows up.Marketing Spend Depends On Exit Strategy — Flippers averaged around 20% of revenue on marketing, wholesalers 30 to 40%. Flippers make money on both the buy and the value add, so a good flip should contain a profitable wholesale business inside it.Look Past ROI To Four KPIs — ROI matters but isn't the whole story. Compare channels on ROI, lead quality (leads per contract), total volume and scale, and cash conversion cycle to see which actually builds the better business.Lead Quality Sets Your Overhead — Fewer leads per contract means fewer salespeople, managers, and support staff. One client runs seven figures solo on PPC purely because the lead quality supports it.To Double Revenue, Double Spend — If you spend the same and do the same, don't expect growth. Scaling usually means lowering ROI a bit while increasing volume, which grows profit if the rest of the business can support it.Links & ResourcesBateman Collective — https://www.batemancollective.com Profit First for Real Estate Investing Free Workbooks — https://pfreiworkbook.com Simple CFO — https://simplecfo.com Profit First for Real Estate Investing by David Richter — https://profitfirstrei.comEnjoyed This Episode?If Brandon's four KPIs made you realize you've been judging your marketing on ROI alone, that's the upgrade worth acting on this week. Share this episode with an investor who's either blowing their budget or too scared to spend, and follow the show and leave a rating and review so more real estate investors can market smarter and keep more of what they make.
Jag pratar om att många företag har dashboards fulla av nyckeltal. Omsättning, marginal, leads, kundmöten, konvertering och kundnöjdhet följs noggrant. Men sedan händer… ingenting. Problemet är inte att företag mäter för lite, snarore motsatser att de mäter för mycket. När 15–20 nyckeltal samtidigt är viktiga blir det svårt att veta vad organisationen ska fokusera på. Men den största frågan är om siffrorna påverkar och förändrar människors sätt att arbeta. Ett nyckeltal som bara beskriver resultatet är rapportering. Ett nyckeltal blir ett styrmedel först när den leder till handling. Därför kan 3–5 genomtänkta KPI vara betydligt bättre än 20. Varje nyckeltal bör kopplas till ett konkret beteende och ett beslut. En KPI som inte förändrar ett beteende är värdelös.
What if I told you there's a guaranteed way to make your orthodontic practice more profitable—and it starts with identifying just ONE number?Most practice owners know they want more production, better profitability, or higher case acceptance. The problem is that knowing you want growth isn't the same as knowing exactly where to focus. In this Five Minute Friday, I'm challenging you to stop trying to fix everything and identify the one KPI that could make the biggest difference in your practice right now.
Bob Robotti stops by for a follow up episode. David Kessler, Portfolio Manager and Securities Analyst at Robotti & Company, is in the room with Bob to provide some additional analytical firepower. This conversation came about because Bill was researching the lumber supply chain, had a bit of recorder's block, and though "You know who I want to talk to? Bob Robotti." Bob said yes to the invite and this is the result.If this show speaks to you be sure to reach out to the team at Robotti & Company Advisors. Sponsorship InformationThank you to Trata for sponsoring the show.If you're listening to this podcast, you'll like Trata. Trata is buyside to buyside conversations on individual stocks. Trata makes finding a bull or bear on any stock as easy as clicking two buttons. Over 125 funds globally contribute that collectively cover 2000+ tickers. Trata raised over $3mm coming out of Y Combinator. Before you would track 13Fs, now you can understand what funds are actually thinking. You can join as a lurker or you can join as a contributor and Trata will pay you hundreds of dollars per call. For a free trial, go to trytrata.com/brew OG Sponsor Shoutout:Thank you to Fiscal.ai for sponsoring the show. DISCOUNT INFO: If you use the affiliate link fiscal.ai/brew, you will automatically get 2 weeks of Fiscal Pro for Free and if you find that you want to upgrade, my link will get you 15% off any paid plans. About Fiscal.aiFiscal.ai is the complete modern data terminal for global equities.The Fiscal.ai platform combines a powerful user experience with all the financial data capabilities that professional investors need. Users get up to 20 years of historical financials for all stocks globally that they can easily chart, compare, or export into their own models. And unlike legacy data terminals where it can take hours or even days, Fiscal.ai's data is updated within minutes of earnings reports. Fiscal.ai also tracks all the company-specific Segment & KPI data so you don't have to. Like to track Amazon's Cloud Revenue? They've got it.How about Spotify's premium subscribers? Or Google's quarterly paid clicks?They've got all of it.
Transaction volume across the country is down roughly 35% from a few years ago, and wholesalers and fix and flip investors are feeling it in every part of the business. Brian Snider walks through the top ten issues hitting real estate investors right now, from tighter underwriting and softening buyer demand to inconsistent marketing and thin exit strategies. He also covers where AI belongs in your workflow, why offers made is the one KPI worth tracking above closings or profit, and the budget rule he applies to every marketing channel he tests. KEY TALKING POINTS: 0:00 - Top 10 Issues Intro 2:40 - Tighter Underwriting 3:39 - Managing Your Data 5:16 - Using AI the Right Way 6:31 - Softening Buyer Demand 7:39 - Consistent Marketing 9:18 - Sales Conversion Skills 11:22 - Multiple Exit Strategies 12:19 - KPIs and Tracking Offers 13:52 - Finding Support & Community 15:03 - Outro LINKS: Instagram: Brian Snider https://www.instagram.com/theindysnider/ Website: Collective Genius https://thecollectivegenius.com/team-members/brian-snider/ Instagram: David Lecko https://www.instagram.com/dlecko Website: DealMachine https://www.dealmachine.com/pod Instagram: Ryan Haywood https://www.instagram.com/heritage_home_investments Website: Heritage Home Investments https://www.heritagehomeinvestments.com/
Key performance indicators are fundamental to a successful practice. But what about their dark side? Kiera shares how to know whether those metrics are telling you the right information or not, including what a false sense of KPI security can look like, common mistakes when reviewing those numbers, and how to keep your greater vision in tune with the indicators. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera, and today's topic makes me giggle. because I feel like I'm such like hot to trot on KPIs, and I talk about them all the time. And this is gonna be like the other side of the coin of KPIs. And are your KPIs actually lying to you? Dun dun dun, like are those metrics actually not telling you what you want to know on it, like makes me giggle. And I loved because we've been podcasting for golly, so many years. I mean, I think about the conversations we've had together, the tactical tips, the leadership growth, the confidence in becoming a CEO and running your business. And if you're not there, great. Come join us. Like let's take the easy route. You don't have to listen to all thousand plus episodes. you can take the like hit that easy button. My last name used to be Staples. So hit that easy button and come join us. But I felt like today would be a fun twist for myself as a podcaster and a podcast host of let's talk about like when do your KPIs actually lie to you because you can have some sexy numbers but still not be making money. And you'll be like, well what is going on? Right? Your CP is like, you're doing great. And you're like, but I feel broke. your trainer at the gym is like, you're doing great. And you're I don't have the six pack. I feel like KPIs can be lying to you. And so I think it's a like, let's make sure that our numbers are telling us the entire story. And let's make sure that if they're healthy, our practice really is healthy and you know how to use your KPIs rather than be used by those KPIs. So number one, I hope you're tracking KPIs. If you don't know what a KPI is, it's a key performance indicator. I call them the vitals of your practice. So let's make sure that our Our height, our weight, our blood pressure, our heart rate, all those are healthy and that they're tracking correctly. And if not, then like let's figure out how to fix those for your practice. Because they're not like our KPIs aren't a report card. They're KPIs are clues. And our whole consulting team, we have a KPI scorecard, and we all know that that is like the tip of the iceberg. And if one of those numbers is off or if all of them aren't looking right, we need to go and dig and dig and dig to make sure that they're correct. So I want to walk you guys through how something like KPIs can create some false sense of security, which ones to look for. What are some mistakes that people often have when they do review their numbers? And then what are like maybe a couple of ways for us to make sure that those metrics are actually helping you to make better decisions? So, as you guys know, we're Dental A Team. I'm Kiera Dent. I'm obsessed with all things dentistry and obsessed with you. I want you to have your yes success life. I want you to have everything you want. I want your practice to serve your life. I want you to be profitable and successful. I want you to have structure and systems and stability where you just feel confident to be able to scale to the level that you want. There is no Check mark and Dental A Team There is no you need to hit this level of practice ownership. It is what is your life? What is your dream? Let's make that a reality. And then let's make sure that you're doing it in the easiest, most efficient, fun way. Our job is to Posivate, impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. And I'm so happy you're here. If I could give you a giant hug, I would. If I could give you a high five and tell you you're doing better than you think you are, I would. So just take those today. Give yourself a squeeze, give yourself a high five. And just remember, as business owners, it can be hard, it can be challenging, but it doesn't need to be. So let's make sure that we're we're showing up, that we're rising up, and that we're being the best that we can be. And today I really want you to like stop chasing numbers and actually like understand your KPIs and what it's actually telling you. So step number one is gonna be like let's stop looking at KPIs in isolation. So like one KPI does not tell you the whole story. And so like a lot of times we'll say like production's up, we're all celebrating, but our profit's down. You're like, this doesn't make sense. Like we're producing more, but we're not profitable. Like it feels like this like very off-kilter scale. That's like, well, if production goes up, my profit should go up. But that's not always the case. What about like our new patients are up, but our schedule still isn't full? Like, what is this? Or maybe like collections, they're up, like we're hitting at collections, but our AR is growing and our bank accounts not getting better. Like, why? Like that number is healthy with air quotes. So what we've got to look for is like, what is the relationship between the numbers and what's the driving result of the KPI and using the KPI as a system, not just an isolated piece. So When we look at this, we want to make sure that like while production could be high, let's make sure our payroll and our overhead's actually where it needs to be. Because sometimes our production can go up and our payroll goes up. So we're hoping that production and profit go hand in hand, but sometimes they don't. So we need to figure out like numbers don't lie, but they can mislead us. So I don't want you sitting there like, well, my production's great. That could be false. Our profit could be high. That could be false. We need to be looking at the whole story, the entire, like it's. you know, I can have good blood pressure, but what if my heart's not doing as well? Or what if my, I don't know, my I don't know all the medical terms, but there's other things like what if my cholesterol's not doing well, but that would never show up if you're looking at my heart rate. So there's just different ways and I think it's the same thing. So when we look at the vitals, this is why we get labs that are comprehensive on us. That's why we look at multi data points of our bodies. It's the same thing with your practice. So let's make sure that it's like KPIs are clues, but they're not a conclusion. And you gotta know the whole the whole picture of this. So what I would do is like when we look at it, production should be tied. Like I usually look like my my first step is going to be looking at your production collection, making sure those are sitting at like a 98% ratio of each other. I'm looking at your like and I want net production, not gross production. Then I'm gonna be looking at the profitability of your practice because those ones are going to tell me a lot, just production collection and profitability. Those ones are going to tell me a lot. And if one of those is off, then I know can I go dig into this, this or this? Like If your production's not hitting what we need it to be, fantastic. We need to go dig. We need to look at our case acceptance. We need to look at our hygiene. We need to look at our period. Like those things are gonna help us. I'm gonna look at your block scheduling, but that's gonna dip. Now, if our collections, they could be high, but we need to make sure like again, if our profitability is not there, collections could be high, but what's our AR? Ped practices have like two to five million sitting in AR and they didn't even know that. Well, that would make sense when you're like, well gosh, I feel broke. You could be having 105% collections, but you're broke because we didn't collect that money last year or months prior. So again, they don't they need to go hand in hand, which then ties into like step two, which is going to be focus on the leading indicators, not the lagging ones or results. And this I think is really tricky with KPIs because a lot of our KPIs are lagging indicators, like production, collections, profitability, where the leading indicators, and I always hated lag and lead. I like, these people are so dumb. I don't understand it. Like, ugh, like. But they do like what leads into production? Well, that's gonna be unscheduled treatment. That's gonna be our case acceptance, that's gonna be our hygiene reappointment percentage, that's gonna be how full our schedule is, that's gonna look at our new patient conversion, it's gonna look at our block scheduling. Those are gonna be leading indicators. So we could be tracking how many unscheduled treatment calls did we make. We could be tracking what our case acceptance is to see are we closing enough cases? We should be looking at our hygiene reappointment rate that's gonna help me see if my hygiene schedule is full. We're gonna look to see how filled out our schedule is at certain points in the month to see are we filling enough? Are we diagnosing enough? We can also be looking at our diagnosis percentage and see how much we're actually diagnosing. All those things are gonna drive you to where you actually can see, is my practice healthy? Is my practice not healthy? So when we do these items together, they're going to give you visible warning signs before you hit a plummet. So if you're just looking at production, collection, profit, which are the main ones I go after, because like, hey, if those are there, they're usually pretty good. But what leads to it. And sometimes what can happen is collections can dip automatically very quickly and be like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Or production can drop really quickly. If you're not looking at case acceptance, unscheduled treatment, reappointment percentages, those quick items, you can get into hot water real fast because we could be like production, production, production, and then all of a sudden we have a September. Okay, well, why do we have a September? Please. And everyone's like, it's because kids go to school. And I'm like, is there a way though that even with kids going to school and this and that, if we knew that? If we strategically scheduled and we called all of our unscheduled treatment, because not everybody is going back to school, you still have elderly people that are not in that population. So what if in August we started targeting elderly populations that do not have kids at school? We're not targeting those younger families and we're making sure that they're in there, that they've got deposits paid for their treatment. We're calling on scheduled treatment starting in July. And August, we're calling our recare and we're making like 50 outbound calls a day. That's going to help proactively prevent this. Those are leading measures that don't hit us on the lag when our productions all of a sudden suck Tember. Can we look for this? Can we look cyclically across the board of which are my lower months? Can we schedule vacations during that time if we know they're historically lower? Can we proactively put like ortho cases? Let's do an Invisalign day where we actually pump our September. So we're always doing ortho and September like back to school braces or those types of things. Like, could you start doing some of those things? Those are leading indicators that make it to where. Before the production drops, we are proactively looking ahead. So I love to have KPIs that are leading and lagging, but the best KPIs are going to predict the future, not explain the past. So when I get my PL from ICPA, that's why you're all annoyed because you're like they said I did great, but now I feel broke. Well, it's because they're always looking one month retroactively and you're living in real time today. Your bank account doesn't match. Like you did great. And you're like, yeah, but I already spent it. It's because your PL is such a lagging measure. You get it, but there's nothing. So what's our leading? What could we be doing? What do we look at? Let's look ahead. Let's see how far booked out we are. Let's see our new patient conversion rate. Let's see how many case acceptance we have. Let's look at how many patients are on our unscheduled treatment list. Let's look at our recare list. Now, if those are up to date and current, then we know we need to be pumping more new patients in there. But if we're not watching those leading measures, which those are the annoying ones to track, those are the annoying ones. People don't want to live in leading measures. Nobody out there wants to be like, okay, care, I made my like 25 calls of unscheduled treatment today. Team members are like, I'm so busy answering the phone and just keeping the schedule full. But what they don't realize is if you make those outbound calls every single day, every day, non-negotiable, just like we brush our teeth, have that as part of it, those leading measures. If we are reviewing our cases every single week to see how we did so we can proactively improve our case acceptance every single week, we are proactively doing those things and we just stick them in on routine, you're not gonna have the dips nearly as often as you currently do. We tend to live in firefighting reactive KPIs. rather than in proactive looking to see what we can do. For us it was always like, okay, how many, how many calls have we booked? That is such a lagging measure versus how many outbounds did we make? We can control the outbounds, but yet so many people don't want to do that. So I'd recommend absolutely 100% step two is let's make sure we're also tracking leading measures, not just lagging measures. And then the other piece is like don't just chase a metric where we're ignoring like what actually is happening. Like why are we even looking at this metric? So if we're only looking at production, well then we can have like stress and we forget about patient experience and all that. So again, numbers are should be like like I feel like they're the table of contents of the book. And we don't miss the book because we read the table of contents. It gives us the quick highlight. But ultimately production's impacted by great patient experience. It's going to be impacted by having great case acceptance. It's gonna be having that warm connection with each other. And so when we look at these KPIs, and this is where a lot of times KPIs like they should drive behavior. Like they should tell us where we're lacking, where we're dropping the ball, where we could improve. They should be telling us what behavior should change in the practice. That's why we look at them as a key performance indicator. It's like the lights that pop up and they tell us like, hey, we're going too fast or we're going too slow. Like great, it should be telling us how we're tracking on those. But it shouldn't be replacing stress. And like that's the only thing we care about. we don't want to have it to where we're like so many times people are like, well, we could get more patients in if we just cut hygiene and we've dropped it to 45 minutes. And I'm like, you're not wrong. But like, what's our ultimate goal? Like, what are we ultimately trying to achieve? And is there a space where if we kept 60 minute hygiene appointments, could we maybe possibly serve our patients more? So let's do a focus of we're all gonna hit our fluoride. We're gonna do fluoride, that's a great thing. Then we're gonna move it into fluoride therapy where we do fluoride and toothpaste. Then we're gonna make sure that we're doing scans in the next six months. Like I do them in six month chunks for hygiene. I know like we can't like dump everything on the hygienist. They gotta have like a few things. If we know September's coming, let's start doing scans in Q2 so that way we have all of our orthoscans already pre-done for three months before we even get to that level where we start to have it where it's gonna drop on us. That's where we become obsessed with making sure we focus on the patients and we use our KPIs. To me, they're like a forecast and a projections if you use them correctly. They can also be a like nail in the coffin and you're like, well, shoot, our production's down, our collections are down, we got to fix that. So it's how can I look retroactively and see what do we do? How can I use leading measures to proactively make sure that we don't get into that? But then put those two together and ultimately tie those under the vision and the goal and make sure that they're driving us towards that. That's what it should be. The top of everything, the umbrella over all those. Like if you want to think of an umbrella and your KPIs are like the the spokes that hold the umbrella, the the core umbrella over the top is what's our vision and what's the purpose of our practice? and if your KPIs like if you're just production, production, production, that's not who you ultimately want to be. Like if we're just profit, profit, profit, like yeah, you should be. But ultimately, like, yeah, I'm gonna say like profit's number one. To me, we have a rule. We don't lose money. That's been my rule. That's been my standard since I started the company. And I stand by that because cash flow is the most scary thing as a business owner, in my opinion. so profit is number one for me, and I will always make decisions based on that. but profit in conjunction with possibly impacting the world, the dentistry in the greatest way possible. Pro profitability in conjunction with having a place where team members love to work. You can have both. It can be an and it doesn't need to be an or. You can have both of those. You can be obsessed with a patient experience and production. You can be obsessed with having the best patient experience and having a very profitable business. Both of those coexist. And so using your numbers as a compass, using them as a guide, and making sure that we're we're headed towards the ultimate destination of our our vision and our mission, which is why it doesn't only we do business fundamentals. We're going to work with you on getting your vision and your mission and your core values like. What ultimately is your goal as a business owner? What do you want your life to be? That's the ultimate goal. Jump more freedom. And guess what? It's written in pencil. You can erase it, you can redraw it any day you want. It doesn't have to be set in stone and like we we chiseled that sucker out. No, this is a like, it's in pencil. So what does I what do I want my life to look like today? Because when we achieve it, we might want it to look differently. Or as we're walking up that mountain, we might say, You know, I really thought that I only want to work three days, but I love dentistry and I want to work four days. I just want to do this type of procedure. Or I love to be in the practice, but I want to do two days clinical and I want to do two days of mentorship. That is totally allowed. Your business should just serve that. Your business should be the one that's there. So that's the ultimate arching is your KPIs then should be like the guiding pillars to that in leading and lagging measures. So this is where your KPIs, KPI numbers don't lie. But isolated numbers can definitely give false positives and false negatives if they're not seen altogether. So, like just a quick recap is don't look at your KPIs in just isolation. Make sure that we're tracking leading and lagging indicators. And then make sure that ultimately all of those are headed towards our greater vision of where we ultimately want to go. That's how we use KPIs. That's how we use numbers too, to make sure that we're actually headed in the direction we want to go. And you are welcome to have one of those in isolation. You're welcome to have KPIs that just sit on their own. You're welcome to have where we only are tracking lagging measures. You're welcome to have like we only think about our vision and our mission, and that's what we care about, and everything will follow. I will say you're welcome to do that. I would say an easier path that helps you have all the data and the best data points is going to be where you put all three of those together, where you're able to look at them simultaneously, use them as data points to ultimately make your best decisions because KPIs are incredibly powerful. But only if they're used correctly, even if they're used to be tools, not like like goals or stars to guide by, not sticks to beat ourselves with. I don't care. Like we're just we're like, I don't believe in failures. I just believe that there are results. So are we getting the result we're looking for or not? And if not, let's change and adjust. if we're constantly missing production, what are maybe a couple leading measures that we could do? Also having too many KPIs, you get lost in data and you can't actually see what you need to do. So simplifying it, having less is more. making sure we're actually tracking outcomes rather than activity. Like what I usually say like reduce unscheduled treatment by 10% every single month. So I don't care how many calls you make. Yes, I know I said like make 25 calls. You can do task or you can do outcome. I prefer outcome based, but you might just be starting out and can't figure out that outcome. So like let's start with 25 calls a day. It's easy, all of us can do it. We can track it. Ultimately the goal is that our schedule is always full and we're putting enough outbound calls to make sure that when patients are canceling, which is gonna happen, they're gonna move their appointments. that we're always able to get our schedule up to what we want it to be and we're not stressed, we're not going chaotic. So if you feel like you listen to this, you're like, you're I don't even know where to start, or like we're kind of doing this, we're halfway doing it, or I'm looking at this, but I don't know how to get my team bought into it. This is what we do. This is how we're able to help you. We're able to help you put it all together. Let's build your vision, let's build that mission, let's figure out where we're headed with no guilt, no judgment, just your life. Like, hey, grab the crayons, grab the confetti, like let's make what you want this life to be. Then let's figure out which KPIs are going to lead us to that. Let's figure out which leading measures we need to help your team get on board with and why. Get them bought into the vision and the mission. And then we're able to help maintain and contain that consistency for you. So this is the zone. You usually don't need like a lot more reports. We just need clarity to cut through and to look at the things that really matter and put them together so we're not doing them in isolation. So you're not getting hit with those surprises, but actually being able to be proactive on that. So this is where I'm obsessed with helping offices have their dream life, look at the numbers. use the numbers, not be used by the numbers and to get a team bought into it at whatever level you want. There is no set path. There is no set, every team has to do this. It's what's your vision, what's your life? How do we make sure that you're profitable and successful? And then how do we build the systems, the structure for scalability for you of whatever that looks like for you. So reach out. I'd love to help you out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.
Click here for the Free QuizYou've done the courses. You've read the books. You've done the therapy work. And you're still sitting there thinking, why can't I move?That isn't a knowledge problem. You already know the direction you need to move in. Something is stopping you from acting on it.In this episode I make the case that when something big goes, a marriage, a role, a title, a business, a person, what you actually lost was your container. That identity was doing a job for you. It was holding your emotions in place. And when it went, the emotions didn't go anywhere, they just lost their anchor. Which is exactly why it feels like a confidence problem, and exactly why treating it as one doesn't work.I share what I learned reading KPI spreadsheets as a partner in a FTSE 250 business, where I could tell you which person on a team was struggling before anyone said a word to me. And I give you five lessons you can use today.The five lessonsYou didn't lose your confidence, you lost your containerEmotions compound, and the danger is the delay, not the emotionYour emotions are data, and naming them changes your nervous systemEvery emotion needs a different solution, which is why the wrong course leaves you exactly where you startedSAS: space and self-regulate, before you decide anythingLesson four is the one almost nobody talks about, and it's the reason people spend thousands and come back feeling identical.Not sure which one is yours?I've built a short quiz that tells you which pattern is running things for you right now, with an audio to listen to based on your result. It takes a couple of minutes.Quiz - Click hereResearch mentioned in this episodeLieberman, M. D., Eisenberger, N. I., Crockett, M. J., Tom, S. M., Pfeifer, J. H., and Way, B. M. (2007). Putting Feelings Into Words: Affect Labeling Disrupts Amygdala Activity in Response to Affective Stimuli. Psychological Science, 18(5), 421 to 428.Kashdan, T. B., Barrett, L. F., and McKnight, P. E. (2015). Unpacking Emotion Differentiation. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24(1), 10 to 16. Note that this literature is largely correlational rather than causal.About Dr. Amen KaurDr. Amen Kaur is a trauma-informed who spent over 20 years in leadership, becoming a partner in a FTSE 250 business, before moving into helping women after major life transitions achieve their career and business goals through identity change & creating systems that help implement change.
Send us Fan MailMoney is easy to count, but the kind of wealth that actually lasts is harder to measure. We're talking about relationship capital: the trust, presence, and love you build in your family that becomes your real legacy. When life reaches its most fragile moments, nobody asks for a balance sheet. They ask for their people. That truth reframes everything about success, generational wealth, and what it means to leave something meaningful behind. We share a simple way to evaluate your “relational health” like a KPI, then we get practical with five communication frameworks that make hard conversations clearer and safer. You'll hear how to set up a clarifying conversation when something feels messy, how to approach a coaching conversation without damaging trust, and how a collaborative conversation can turn family planning into a shared win instead of a stress spiral. Then we lean into the two most overlooked tools for a strong family culture: caring conversations that communicate “I'm here,” and celebration conversations that mark progress and reinforce what's good. If you want better family communication, stronger relationships, and a legacy that your kids and grandkids can feel, this is a blueprint you can use right away. Subscribe, share this with someone you love, and leave a review. What kind of conversation do you need to start this week?Support the show
Culture doesn't scale a company - systems do. Kristin Oja built STAT Wellness from one location into a multi-state operation, and in this episode she's honest about what actually made it work: the people systems under the growth, not a bigger brand or budget.In this episode, Kerri walks through:Framing business growth in stages - childhood, adolescence, young adulthood - and what "tying knots" means before the next locationHiring for culture and growth mindset, not just skillThe two core values that run the business: relentless customer service and a growth mindsetRadical transparency with the team, including the financials, and how it built ownershipWhere transparency ends and leader boundaries beginUsing data and KPIs so decisions get made on numbers, not feelingsYOUR ACTION ITEM: Pick one number you've been running on gut, put a real KPI on it this week, and tell one teammate what it is.Scaling your team and your people systems still live in your head? Take the free HR Audit to see exactly where the gaps are before your next hire finds them. → saltandlightadvisors.com/hrauditResources to keep building:
What happens when AI eliminates the need for apprenticeships and reshapes entire industries? In this thought-provoking episode of The Greatness Machine, Taylor Welch dives deep into the evolving landscape of work, the role of AI in eliminating experience gaps, and why creators hold the key to the future. He explores the shift from consulting to education, the rising value of data and attention, and how time wealth is becoming the ultimate currency. If you're looking to stay ahead in a world where automation is rapidly changing the game, this conversation is a must-listen. In this episode, Darius and Taylor will discuss: (00:00) Introduction to Taylor Welch (01:45) Taylor's Origin Story and Early Career (05:58) Overcoming Overwhelm and Life Lessons (10:30) Bringing in a CEO: The Process and Lessons Learned (15:46) Scaling Consulting Businesses: Strategies and Models (20:25) The Role of AI in Business Scaling (24:40) Optimizing Team Performance and Talent Acquisition (30:25) The Importance of KPI and Performance Management (36:45) The Future of AI in Sales and Consulting (44:01) Understanding Time Wealth and Personal Fulfillment Taylor Welch is an entrepreneur, business consultant, and coach known for his impact in the online training and education industry. As the founder of Welch Equities, he leads a portfolio of businesses focused on driving economic growth through value-driven initiatives. His ventures span sales, marketing, finance, and operations, while also investing in small training and education brands. Committed to making people smarter, happier, and healthier, Taylor combines business success with a strong emphasis on family and personal fulfillment. Connect with Taylor: Website: https://taylorawelch.com/ Website: https://wealthyconsultant.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taylorawelch/ Twitter: https://x.com/taylorawelch/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/taylorawelch Connect with Darius: Website: https://therealdarius.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dariusmirshahzadeh/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imthedarius/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Thegreatnessmachine Book: The Core Value Equation https://www.amazon.com/Core-Value-Equation-Framework-Limitless/dp/1544506708 Write a review for The Greatness Machine using this link: https://ratethispodcast.com/spreadinggreatness.
What happens when a 40-year-old legal data company decides its employees should start building their own software? This week on we talk with Best Lawyers CEO Phillip Greer and Senior Vice President of Research and Product Strategy Elizabeth Petit about an internal AI transformation that reaches far beyond adding ChatGPT to the corporate toolkit. Best Lawyers is experimenting with generative engine optimization, internal agentic systems, vibe coding, and an AI development environment where employees across research, finance, marketing, and other departments build applications around the company's data.Greer begins with a challenge facing every law firm marketing team: traditional search is changing. Google AI Overviews and answer engines such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini increasingly give users answers without sending them to the familiar list of blue links. Greer argues that SEO still matters, but law firms now need to think about Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO, and the signals AI systems use when deciding which sources deserve trust. Structured data, schema markup, substantive content, and third-party validation all become part of the equation. For Best Lawyers, its long history of peer-reviewed rankings offers an interesting advantage. The company's data serves as an independent signal that AI systems might weigh differently from content produced by a firm's own marketing department.Petit explains how Best Lawyers is applying the same thinking to legal marketing through Smithy AI, a system designed to help attorneys and law firm marketers develop profile content without endlessly copying the same biography across websites. Smithy draws from Best Lawyers' structured information and existing lawyer content to produce a starting point that attorneys and marketers then edit. The larger goal is authenticity. As generative systems make producing generic legal content almost effortless, Greer argues that distinctive expertise, voice, and credible third-party signals become more valuable rather than less.The conversation then moves inside Best Lawyers, where Greer has taken a far more unusual approach to AI adoption. After building a secure data layer connecting systems including SQL databases, HubSpot, Gong, Google Analytics, and accounting data, he created an internal Best Lawyers App Store where employees use natural language to build applications against company data. What began with roughly 30 percent of the workforce vibe coding has grown to around 40 percent, according to Greer. Petit describes building research and KPI dashboards despite coming from a research rather than software engineering background. Projects that once required Excel formulas, Power BI reports, development queues, and weeks of waiting now sometimes move from a question at 9:30 to a working internal application by 10:30.That shift also changes the role of professional software engineers. Rather than spending their time building another reporting screen or internal form, Best Lawyers' engineers increasingly concentrate on architecture, data infrastructure, performance, governance, and the guardrails surrounding employee-built applications. Greer describes moving parts of the company's data architecture toward Elasticsearch and developing “Bestie,” an internal agentic AI team member. Yet speed introduces another problem. Petit and Greer describe an “AI vampire” effect, where instant feedback encourages people to keep working because the machine never gets tired, goes home, or stops responding. Human judgment includes knowing when the human needs to stop.Listen on mobile platforms: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Substack[Special Thanks to Legal Technology Hub for their sponsoring this episode.]Email: geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.comMusic: Jerry David DeCicca
Anika sat down with Leysan Zigangirova to explore how marketing leadership must evolve as artificial intelligence makes content creation almost free. The conversation revealed a crucial truth: AI cannot replace human judgment, strategic risk-taking, or deep audience insight. Leysan's 15-plus-year background spanning Procter & Gamble, Philip Morris, Microsoft, Nebius, and now Async offered practical insights into transitioning from consumer marketing to tech startups, rebranding major products, and keeping human taste at the center of innovation. In This Episode The early career roots in consumer market intelligence at P&G and managing the Marlboro Gold original rebrand Shifting from fast-moving consumer goods to enterprise tech at Microsoft Building Yandex Cloud from scratch and leading the visual identity and brand name creation for Nebius Taking a 15-country sabbatical around the world and how it built mental agility for the AI era Why marketing must share a revenue KPI with sales to eliminate department silos The danger of waiting for perfect data versus making bold, human-driven decisions Why Async shifted from Podcastle to focus on asynchronous creativity and editing co-creation The growing importance of human taste as a competitive advantage against AI-generated "slop" Timestamps 04:11 — Managing the Marlboro Lights rebrand to Marlboro Gold and navigating ethical challenges within restricted tobacco markets. 07:13 — Transitioning into the technology sector at Microsoft and working on the Azure cloud rollout. 08:58 — Building Yandex Cloud from scratch and co-founding the brand identity for Nebius, leading to $700 million in strategic financing. 10:33 — Taking a life-changing 15-country global sabbatical and using that mental agility to adapt to fast-paced AI environments. 16:11 — Unifying metrics: Why marketing and sales must share revenue KPIs to build trust and eliminate departmental silos. 18:37 — Navigating uncertainty: The danger of waiting for complete data and why human risk-taking separates leaders from AI. 21:30 — Balancing AI automation with human judgment, resource reality, and operational limitations. 23:48 — The evolution of Async: Transitioning from Podcastle to an AI-native editing co-pilot for asynchronous creativity. 25:44 — The value of human taste: Why subjective perspective and authentic quality serve as the ultimate competitive defense against AI "slop". 31:47 — Advice for modern founders: Starting with core user conversations and anchoring strategy in founder passion. Key Insights & Takeaways Insight 1: AI Lacks Resource Reality and Risk-Taking While AI optimizes productivity and text/image generation, it cannot comprehend internal team dynamics, operational capabilities, or resource realities. Furthermore, AI avoids risk, whereas human leadership relies on making bold decisions with incomplete data. Insight 2: Marketing Must Share Revenue KPIs Treating marketing purely as a brand equity exercise builds a wall between departments. When marketing shares a revenue KPI with sales, data tracking improves, inter-departmental hostility dissolves, and both teams work cohesively. Insight 3: Speed Trumps Perfect Data in Fast-Moving Markets Planning cycles have shrunk from annual strategies down to monthly or bi-weekly alignments. Waiting for complete data causes organizations to miss their window; modern leaders must embrace calculated risks and navigate blind spots faster than competitors. Insight 4: Human Taste is the Ultimate Competitive Advantage As AI-generated content increases, the internet is flooded with low-quality "slop". True market distinction stems from human taste, subjective perspective, and genuine emotional connections that technology cannot replicate. Insight 5: Rebranding Requires a Deep Structural Pivot A successful rebrand goes far beyond semantics. When Podcastle evolved into Async, it mirrored a complete structural shift toward asynchronous video creation, ensuring the brand identity aligned directly with evolving user needs and product reality. Resources & Links Mentioned Async (formerly Podcastle) Nebius Microsoft Azure About Leysan Zigangirova Leysan Zigangirova is a seasoned marketing leader with over 15 years of experience scaling global brands. Starting her career in consumer and market intelligence at Procter & Gamble and managing iconic portfolios at Philip Morris, she later transitioned into technology. She spent four years at Microsoft, helped build Yandex Cloud from scratch as a founding member, created the brand identity for Nebius—which attracted $700 million in financing—and traveled across 15 countries on a life-changing sabbatical. Today, she serves as the Chief Marketing Officer at Async, helping creators and teams embrace asynchronous video creation and AI-driven editing. Connect with Leysan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lzigangirova/ Website: https://async.com Like the show? Leave us a rating or review: https://lovethepodcast.com/67940257010b317cdaa9d857Follow the Show: https://followthepodcast.com/67940257010b317cdaa9d857Send a Message: https://podcastfeedback.com/67940257010b317cdaa9d857Check out our Website: https://www.yourbrandamplified.comSpeak to my Delphi Clone: https://www.delphi.ai/amplifywithanika Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
The Nick Hiter Show — You'll Never Outlive Your Self-ImageIn this one, I get into what really separates the people who perform under pressure from the people who fold — and it starts with pace. I break down why pace is the ultimate KPI, how streamlining communication turns weeks of work into minutes, and why the way you talk to yourself sets the ceiling on everything you do in public. I open up about a wild stretch of work across time zones, a massive faith-and-film project, and the lesson that keeps proving itself: you have to go first, stay calm, and remove the emotion so the message stays clear. We get into the Parable of the Talents and capacity-based trust, why comfort can quietly become a trap, and how studying the leaders I've been around — Troy, Brad, and others — taught me that nobody wins on accident.Key Takeaways:- Pace is the real KPI — but the right pace depends on the size of the deal.- Enrich communication first: clarity and speed beat volume every time.- To play at that level, you have to pay at that level.- Go first — you can't ask people to do what you haven't done yourself.- Emotion is a tool; the moment it overrides the message, you've lost the point.- Respond, don't react — process the emotion privately, then say the clean version.- You'll never outlive your own self-image, so talk to yourself like a hero.- The Parable of the Talents: burying opportunity out of fear is the real failure.- Comfort can be a calling — or a trap; know which season you're in.- Replicating yourself means building someone who can do it better than you.Follow and contact:Instagram: @nickhiterNickhiter.comSubscribe on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/NickHiterFollow and Rate us on Spotify: https://spotify.com/NickHiterFollow and Rate us on Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/NickHiterFollow and Rate us on iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/NickHiter
You may be tracking KPIs in your dental practice, but do you know what those numbers are actually telling you? In this episode, Kirk Behrendt talks with Adriana Booth, an ACT Dental coach, about how key performance indicators reveal the health of your systems, team, patient care, and business.You'll learn how to interpret KPIs as diagnostic tools, identify the systems influencing your numbers, focus your team on meaningful improvements, and make steady progress without chasing perfection. To understand what your practice data is really telling you, listen to Episode 1089 of The Best Practices Show!Main Takeaways:Every KPI is influenced by multiple systems and should not be interpreted as having only one cause.KPIs can help measure both the health of the practice and the quality of patient care.Teams should ask which system produced a result instead of assigning blame to an individual.New patient growth can be affected by referrals, phone conversion, the first-visit experience, treatment presentation, and follow-up systems.High numbers of unscheduled active patients can indicate weaknesses in reappointment, recare, or other patient-retention systems.Tracking KPI trends over time provides more useful information than relying on assumptions or memory.Practices can create meaningful improvement by selecting a few important KPIs and improving the systems that influence them quarter over quarter.Episode Chapters:00:00 What KPIs can reveal about a dental practice.03:01 Using KPIs as feedback instead of judgment.05:40 Why every KPI is influenced by multiple systems.06:38 Systems that can affect new patient growth.08:30 What unscheduled active patients can reveal about a practice.09:32 KPIs as measures of practice health and patient health.11:12 How periodontal percentages can reflect patient-care outcomes.12:45 Stop asking who is responsible and start examining the system.14:38 Using collection percentage to identify system improvements.17:38 What a high broken appointment percentage can indicate.22:44 Focusing on progress rather than perfection.24:48 Choosing a few KPIs to improve each quarter.26:34 Using the KPI analysis activity to better understand practice metrics.28:50 Resources for KPI improvement and coaching support.Guest Bio:Adriana Booth is a Lead Practice Coach who partners with dentists and their teams to cultivate leadership skills, drive practice growth, and streamline business practices. With nearly three decades of experience in the dental industry, Adriana brings a deep passion for professional development, high-level training, and systems creation to her coaching.As a dental hygienist committed to continuing education and personal growth, she thrives on helping practices achieve their full potential. Adriana holds a BS in Dental Hygiene from West Liberty University/O'Hehir University and remains actively engaged in the dental community through study clubs and professional networks.Now based in Teays Valley, WV, Adriana enjoys fitness, reading, quality time with family, and exploring the outdoors with her Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Beau Duke.Episode Resources:KPI Analysis Activity: https://join.actdental.com/c/resources/kpi-analysis-activity More Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:Contact Gina to learn more about ACT: gina@actdental.comThe Best Practices Show: https://www.actdental.com/podcast/Smile Source Community Hub: https://www.actdental.com/community-hubUpcoming Events & Workshops: https://www.actdental.com/events/Smile Source: https://www.smilesource.com/Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.comSubscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com
AI带来的焦虑,真的只是“会不会被机器替代”吗?这一轮技术浪潮真正冲击的,可能并不只是某一种专业或某一类职业,而是我们过去赖以获得安全感的那套人生路径:读一个“好专业”、拿一个好学历、进入一家好公司,再沿着一条相对确定的职业道路走下去。本期「贝望录」,Bessie 和社会学博士、播客主理人付宇,以及长期站在企业与人才之间观察商业与教育的凛十七,一起聊聊AI时代年轻人的职业焦虑。从付宇2023年决定离开数据科学领域转向市场营销的经历,到企业裁员、大学专业选择,我们试着回答:当AI正在快速改变“专业技能”的价值,年轻人究竟该靠什么建立自己的竞争力?我们也聊到复旦大学“学生出题挑战AI”的考试,以及英国年轻人选择学徒制而非大学的故事。当答案越来越容易获得,真正重要的也许不再是掌握多少知识,而是批判性思维、学习能力、共情、合作,以及独立判断的能力。这一期没有标准答案。我们更想讨论的是:当“确定性”越来越难以获得,我们是不是应该换一种方式理解职业、教育和人生选择,不是去追逐一条“不会被淘汰”的路,而是在熟练应用AI工具之外也多一点探索自己的能力、兴趣,以及那些看似暂时无用、却可能在未来成为底牌的“冗余”。【本节目由Withinlink碚曦投资协作体出品】【嘉宾】付宇播客「轻刀快马」主播,复旦大学社会学博士凛十七播客「了路浪」主播,纽约大学硕士,目前就职于某商学院【主持】李倩玲 Bessie Lee广告营销行业资深从业者,商业观察者【本期内容提要】00:13为什么这一期要聊年轻人的AI焦虑?02:32AI焦虑没有国界,英国年轻人与中国年轻人正在面对相似的问题。04:26AI技能岗位增长,传统事务性岗位却在减少,文科生真的迎来机会了吗?05:35“文科生也能去大厂”,付宇觉得这个说法很奇怪07:37付宇为什么在2023年选择离开数据科学家的领域14:25企业用裁员应对AI,是“降本增效”还是懒惰的管理?16:17AI时代真正危险的是“半吊子技能”20:45AI可以让你什么都做,但“什么都能做”不等于真正有价值21:04企业的“正确决定”到底是什么?又是对谁正确?24:35从工业革命到互联网,历次技术变革都曾制造就业焦虑26:45这一次AI的不同是它开始直接冲击人的创造力28:23AI会创造新工作吗?也许未来会增长的是与情绪、共情相关的职业32:53当连计算机都无法保证就业,我们是不是该换一种方式提问?34:24目前看到的翻译、导游等职业重新回潮其实是旧职业的复兴37:12别追逐“最热门的职业”,先想清楚自己的特长和价值在哪里38:42社交媒体为什么会不断放大年轻人的AI焦虑?41:47限制未成年人使用社交媒体,真的能解决问题吗?43:17与其替孩子屏蔽信息,不如教他们如何判断信息45:58一个县城小孩刷了一个半小时短视频带来的思考是父母真的有能力陪伴吗?51:05平台、政策、商业KPI之间,谁该为孩子的数字生活负责?53:06一个17岁男孩为什么放弃大学,选择去BMW做学徒?56:36为什么中国父母依然如此执着于“上大学”?58:30大学文凭曾经意味着什么?学历背后是一整套社会流动机制01:02:08十年前与今天,年轻人读MBA的目的发生了什么变化?01:06:23复旦“学生出题挑战AI”抛出的问题是当AI负责答题,学生还能学什么?01:09:35AI时代的大学,到底应该培养什么?01:11:39批判性思维、学习、共情、协作:AI时代的五种元能力01:14:50大学不只是课堂,也是训练人与人关系的环境。01:17:04别把思考外包给AI,要学习在使用AI的同时训练判断力01:20:42给年轻人的父母的建议是别再用过去的经验规划孩子的未来01:24:09付宇为什么喜欢给自己制造“冗余”?01:28:36凛十七认为不要只追逐外界的标准答案,兴趣也可以成为人生的线索01:32:27这一期没有答案,但确定的是AI焦虑不是年轻人的错01:33:42减少被算法占据的时间,把精力还给真实的人和真实的世界【后期制作】Jean【收听方式】推荐您使用Apple Podcast、小宇宙APP、喜马拉雅FM、荔枝播客、网易云音乐、QQ音乐、华为播客、Spotify或任意泛用型播客客户端订阅收听《贝望录》。【互动方式】微博:@贝望录微信公众号:贝望录+商务合作:beiwanglu@withinlink.com
Brews and Tiny Teeth, The Unfiltered Pediatric Dentistry Podcast
In this quick episode, I wanted to review how I calculate the most important KPI in my practice. As practice owners, it's critical to know your numbers. I like to stay hands-on with my bookkeeping so I can watch my expenses. I'm going to review how I calculate my specific daily BAM, and how I account for an additional risk premium as a practice owner vs staying an associate.
You can be profitable and still run out of cash.In this supercut episode of Owned and Operated, featuring insights from several episodes, John Wilson breaks down the cash flow, sales, and KPI systems that helped him scale a home service business from $1M to roughly $40M in revenue.Learn why profit doesn't equal cash, how to improve average ticket by solving higher-value problems, and the five numbers every home service owner should track to find problems faster and scale with more control.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━In This Episode━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• Why profitable home service businesses still run out of cash• How to improve cash flow and get paid faster• The systems John would implement at $1M in revenue• How to increase average ticket with a value ladder• Why training and ride-alongs drive better sales performance• The 5 KPIs every home service owner should track• How to diagnose lead, booking, closing, and average ticket problems• Why “number of options” is a critical sales metric• How scorecards and daily KPIs create accountability━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Connect━━━━━━━━━━━━━━John Wilsonhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbwilson1/Jack Carrhttps://x.com/thehvacjackOwned and Operatedhttps://www.ownedandoperated.com/━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Sponsors━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Service ScalersGet more high quality leads with marketing built for home service companies. Book a free strategy call with Service Scalers and see what's driving real jobs: https://os.servicescalers.com/go/oao_podcast/referral/podcastQuick StaffersHire trained HVAC and plumbing CSRs without the overhead of traditional hiring. Save $500 on your first placement with Quick Staffers: https://www.quickstaffers.com/Send Us Mail!More Ways To Connect with O&OJohn's Podcast YouTube ChannelOwned and Operated Newsletter Bonus Videos From JohnLeave a ReviewJohn Wilson, CEO of Wilson CompaniesJack Carr, CEO of Rapid HVAC
Send us Fan MailA practice hired a provider in January. The hire was right and she was generating revenue from day one. By March the practice was sixty thousand dollars short and could not make payroll, because nobody had modeled what cash looks like in month two when you are carrying a full salary and the claims are still in the pipeline. This episode builds the model that would have caught it, and it is not the binder kind. In this episode: The seven moments when a practice actually needs a financial model The six components that matter, and the ones you can skip How to calculate net revenue per visit and why everything else depends on it The cash flow projection that shows what a profit and loss statement cannot Break-even, translated into a daily schedule number The five numbers each seat in the practice needs to see RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE 1. Practice Financial Health Dashboard (free Excel workbook) The workbook version of the model in this episode. Revenue per visit, the fixed and variable expense split, a 24 month cash flow projection with the payment lag already built in, and the break-even math. You enter your numbers, it does the arithmetic. eligibility.natrevmd.com/free-practice-financial-health-dashboard-for-physicians-natrevmd 2. The RECOVER Diagnostic (two minutes) A short set of questions about how your practice runs. At the end you get a read on where the revenue is leaking and which fix we would put first if it were our practice. eligibility.natrevmd.com/recover-quiz-lp 3. Protecting Your Visits From Downcoding (free live session, Wednesday August 26, 4:00 to 5:00 PM CST) Stephanie Hilliard, CPC, on keeping visits from being downcoded and documenting medical decision making that supports a successful appeal. Every registrant gets the physician toolkit: the 90-Second MDM Note Builder, the Is This Really a Level 4 annotated casebook, an EHR SmartPhrase starter pack, the MDM or Time decision card, and the Hidden Work reference. eligibility.natrevmd.com/em-downcoding-webinar 4. The 30-Day Revenue Recovery Plan (free PDF) If the model says the practice should be fine and the cash still is not there, this is the first month of fixes we run, sequenced so you are not repairing six things at once. eligibility.natrevmd.com/nrc/-30day-revenue-recovery-plan SYSTEM 1: WHEN A PRACTICE ACTUALLY NEEDS A PLAN Four triggers, not a continuous ritual. Starting the practice, adding a provider, opening a second location, adding a service line, seeking financing, a partnership or buy-in, and a sale or transition. The one owners skip most often is adding a provider, because the hire feels like a revenue decision. In the first sixty to a hundred and twenty days it is a cost decision: the salary starts on day one, the claims do not pay for thirty to forty five days, and full schedule utilization takes another sixty to a hundred and twenty days after that. SYSTEM 2: THE SIX COMPONENTS THAT MATTER The clinical model sets the ceiling on revenue. The revenue model converts capacity into cash through payer mix and net collection rate. The expense structure separates the fixed floor from the variable layer. The cash flow projection makes the payment lag visible month by month, which is what reveals a profitable practice running out of money. The break-even analysis turns the whole model into one daily schedule number. And the KPI dashboard is what keeps the plan alive after it is built. SYSTEM 3: WHAT MAKES IT A DECISION TOOL Three scenarios instead of one, and the downside case is the one that sets your reserve requirement. Stress tests on every assumption, because knowing which ones are high-sensitivity is how you know what to watch after launch. And an operating translation, so the model becomes three or four numbers each person in the practice can act on rather than a file nobody opens. THE CALCULATION, WORKED IN FULL Net revenue per visit $130.63 net revenue per visit Break-even, for a practice with $180,000 in monthly fixed expenses: $180,000 / $131 net revenue per visit = 1,374 visits per month 1,374 / 22 working days / 2 providers = 31 visits per provider per day to break even THREE ACTIONS THIS WEEK 1. Calculate your net revenue per visit. 2. Calculate your break-even visit count. Total fixed monthly expenses divided by net revenue per visit, then divided by working days and providers. That is your daily target. 3. Before any significant decision this quarter, sketch a 90 day cash flow. New expense from day one, revenue with the payment lag applied. If the balance goes negative, you now know the reserve required to fund through it. EPISODE BREAKDOWN 00:00 The hire that nearly broke a practice 00:40 What a business plan actually is 02:30 System 1: the four triggers 08:00 System 2: the six components that matter 09:30 Net revenue per visit 13:00 The cash flow projection 15:30 Break-even as a daily number 18:00 System 3: three scenarios 19:30 Stress-testing assumptions 21:00 The five numbers each seat needs 23:00 What to do this week
A CMO Confidential Interview with Kristin Wozniak, Chief Growth Officer and Data Officer at Cosmo5, formerly SVP Analytics and Strategy at Cossette Media. Kristin discusses why she believes many leaders have developed an unhealthy obsession with data, how "the need for certainty" stifles innovation, and Goodhart's law, which states "when a measure becomes a target, it's no longer a good measure." Key topics include:- The risk of constantly wanting more data and dashboards- The need for "buddy metrics"- Why you should link KPI's, compensation, and business results- The concepts of "AI Brain Fry" and "Hiding Behind the Data"Chapters
Are you measuring the right numbers in your cabinet shop or just staying busy? In this episode, Dominic Rubino sits down with business coach and entrepreneur Adam Sylvester to discuss the key performance indicators that separate profitable cabinet shops from those constantly struggling with cash flow. You'll learn why tracking more numbers isn't the answer, how revenue per employee can transform your hiring decisions, why your close rate may be telling you you're underpriced, and how focusing on the right KPI can improve every area of your business. In this episode: • The one KPI every profitable business tracks • Why most owners focus on the wrong numbers • Revenue per employee explained • How pricing impacts long-term profitability • Why winning too many jobs can actually hurt your business • Building a business that's profitable not just busy • Leadership lessons that improve company culture Whether you own a cabinet shop, remodeling company, or trades business, these insights will help you make smarter decisions and build a stronger company.
Watch or listen to episode 329 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, in which Neil chatted with Andrew Taylor, Senior Manager of Club Social Strategy for the NFL. Andrew has worked across a variety of sports: a pro baseball team in Adelaide, Australia, then MLB, the NBA, four years at Greenfly, and now the NFL. We get into why social touches everything and content distribution strategy, the helmets-off content that outperforms everything else across NFL clubs, how a fan actually gets built from a food video to a game, why follower count is a barometer and not a KPI, and what selling baseball to Australia taught him about the NFL’s push abroad. THE 13-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE PODCAST! 111 minute duration. Listen on Apple, Spotify and YouTube
Welcome back to Fraudology.Today's a solo episode built around a study that puts a real number on something fraud leaders have been debating for years: does organizational convergence for fraud actually move the needle on performance, or is it just an org chart trend?For years, we've all benchmarked ourselves the same way. Approval rate here, chargeback rate there, maybe a manual review rate if we're being thorough. But the problem I've seen play out in company after company is this: optimize your approval rate, and your chargeback rate quietly creeps up. Optimize your chargeback rate by blocking more, and your approval rate takes the hit. You're never seeing the whole picture, just one lever moving at the expense of the other.The Precise Yes metric is the headline finding from a new Liminal and Accertify study, but the study itself is much bigger than one metric. It surveyed 250 senior fraud, security, and risk leaders across five industry verticals specifically to test the thesis of organizational convergence for fraud and cybersecurity. I walk through what the data says, what forms of convergence actually improve fraud performance, and which ones don't move the needle at all.This is a data-heavy episode, and I mean that as a compliment to the study. If you've ever needed a fraud KPI for CFO reporting that actually captures the full tradeoff between approvals and fraud loss, this is the one to bring back to your team. What you'll hear in this episode:How the Precise Yes metric is calculated, and why approval rate vs chargeback rate alone can hide the real story of your fraud programWhy organizational convergence for fraud and cybersecurity is being driven by operational necessity, not executive mandates, and what that means for how teams are actually changingWhy login has become the new fraud control point, with account takeover, credential stuffing, and bot attacks all converging at that stageWhy 63.6% of organizations still cannot distinguish a cyber attack from a fraud attack in real time, and what that costs them operationallyHow CISO fraud ownership is showing up earlier in the vendor decision process, and why board level fraud reporting is becoming a real governance topicWhy partial integration is the highest-performing model for organizational convergence for fraud, and why pushing to full structural integration can actually erode the domain expertise that makes teams effectiveWhy sharing just two or more use cases between fraud and cyber teams is the real performance tipping point, delivering a 1.5x improvement in fraud performance scoresWhy separate budgets between fraud and cyber teams actually outperform unified ones, contradicting one of the most common assumptions about convergenceHow fraud metrics by industry vertical vary, including why ecommerce and retail lead the pack while marketplaces lag significantly behindWhat the study found on agentic commerce fraud controls and synthetic identity fraud in ecommerce specificallyWho should listen:Fraud leaders looking for a fraud KPI for CFO reporting that captures the real tradeoff between approvals and fraud loss.Anyone building a business case for fraud and cybersecurity convergence and needing real data to support it.CISOs and security leaders increasingly involved in fraud tool evaluation and vendor decisions.Fraud teams trying to figure out where to start with shared fraud and cyber use cases without a full reorg.Ecommerce and marketplace fraud professionals wanting an ecommerce fraud benchmarking study to compare their own performance against.Anyone responsible for board level fraud reporting or making the case for fraud visibility at the executive level.
Most companies think investing in the latest technology will set them apart. While AI handles simple, routine inquiries, Nate Spears of ClearSource explains why software alone fails to deliver: everyone now has access to the exact same tools. As automation takes over basic tasks, frontline agents are left to manage complex, stressful customer interactions that require genuine human skill. So what actually separates companies with deeply loyal customers from those relying on the same equipment as everyone else? In this episode of Doing CX Right, you'll learn 5 practical strategies to attract top talent and strengthen your frontline. This episode is for any leader who wants to build the ultimate leadership advantage AI cannot replicate: a winning culture that inspires people to give their best because of how you lead them. Actionable Takeaways Start hiring differently this week. Replace "tell us about your greatest achievement" with "tell me about a time you worked hard for something," and "tell me about a time you got feedback you did not like." Listen for humble, hungry, and smart. Then promote the people who exhibit these traits and remove those who set a standard of mediocrity. Audit your environment for friction. Walk through the policies and processes your team interacts with daily. Which ones make their job easier? Which ones make it harder? Pick one policy or process that is creating friction and change it this week. Then ask your team what else is in the way. Reframe one metric. Pick your most feared KPI, probably handle time. Sit down with your leaders and answer this: What is the right amount of time to actually help this customer well? Make that your target. When someone misses it, ask what got in the way instead of why they broke the rule. Measure feelings at key moments. Start asking customers one question at three specific moments in their journey: how do you feel right now? Track the trend. You will find the actual problems, and they will not be where your current metrics point. Model discretionary effort for your team first. Commit to one one-on-one per week without canceling. Show up early to solve a problem one of your people is facing. Demonstrate what discretionary effort looks like before asking them to give it to customers. And more as you'll hear in this episode. Learn more about ClearSource, whose cutting-edge solutions seamlessly blend artificial intelligence, speech analytics, generative AI, workforce management, agent assist, and automation, empowering you to deliver unparalleled customer experiences that drive growth and loyalty. Have a question or thoughts to share? Leave a voice message: https://www.speakpipe.com/StacySherman Subscribe to Doing CX Right℠ newsletter for proven strategies to boost revenue, retention, and brand reputation. #ClearsourcePartner
Kim Bohr is CEO at SparkEffect, where she helps executive teams navigate disruption, organizational change, and emerging technology without sacrificing trust.With more than 25 years of cross-functional leadership experience, Kim advises leaders on aligning business strategy with human-centered practices that strengthen performance and relationships. Her work includes the SparkEffect Trust Elasticity™ framework, designed to help organizations evaluate and strengthen trust during periods of change.Kim is also a board advisor, adjunct lecturer, speaker, host of the Courage to Advance podcast, and author of Successes, Failures & Lessons Learned.SHOW SUMMARYWhat if every interaction with a buyer is either building trust or quietly eroding it?In this episode of Selling from the Heart, Larry Levine and Darrell Amy welcome Kim Bohr to explore what it takes to build and protect trust in a world shaped by AI, disruption, informed buyers, and constant change.Kim explains why authentic selling begins with genuinely believing that what you offer will improve the customer's work or life. She shares how trust is created through consistent patterns, honest communication, and actions that demonstrate you truly have the customer's best interests at heart.The conversation also explores the changing role of sales professionals. Buyers may have more information than ever, but they still need someone who can provide context, ask thoughtful questions, connect the dots, and understand the realities behind their decisions. Kim challenges sellers to use AI to eliminate repetitive work—not replace critical thinking, curiosity, vulnerability, or human connection.KEY TAKEAWAYSServe before you sell. Believe in the value you bring before asking someone to buy.Trust is built through consistent patterns between what you say and what customers experience.Admitting when you don't know something can build more trust than pretending you do.Buyers may have information, but they still need sales professionals who can provide context and connect the dots.AI should support critical thinking and human connection—not replace them.Reinvest time saved through automation into research, better conversations, and stronger relationships.Understand the entire buying team, not just the person signing the agreement.Trust can be measured and should be treated as a meaningful business KPI.HIGHLIGHT QUOTESDo I genuinely believe that whatever I'm offering is going to help this person's work and life get easier?Every single interaction we have, whether it's human to human or from a digital lens, trust is either being built or eroded.Our job is to help them see what they may not be able to connect the dots on.Just because I know they can use what I have doesn't mean I understand the problem.Trust can be measured, and it is as important as any other KPI you are tracking.ADDITIONAL RESOURCESExplore the secrets of heart-centered leadership and thriving workplace cultures with Culture from the Heart Podcast! Nominate a visionary CEO at www.culturefromtheheart.com!Listen to Larry Levine's Bestselling Book: Selling in a Post-Trust World! Now available on Audible! Transform your sales approach with insights that matter. Subscribe to The Selling from the Heart Podcast Youtube Channel! Stay updated with the latest episodes and leadership tips: Selling from the Heart YouTubeGet Your Daily Dose of Inspiration:Click Here for Your Daily Dose
On today's episode, Part 2 of the same keynote, Dr. Mark Costes continues his tactical playbook for building a more effective, systemized dental practice. He breaks down the five core steps of leadership, explains how to set clear expectations, and shares practical frameworks for accountability, team meetings, performance reviews, feedback, and KPI tracking. Mark also covers the hidden cost of turnover, how to evaluate culture and alignment, why organizational charts matter, and how tools like time journals, end-of-day protocols, and downtime systems can help a practice run more efficiently without everything flowing through the owner. Be sure to check out the full episode from the Dentalpreneur Podcast! EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.truedentalsuccess.com Dental Success Network Subscribe to The Dentalpreneur Podcast
In this episode, ecommerce entrepreneur Josh Hadley shares his weekly operating system for structuring a productive business week. He argues that most business owners don't have a time problem, they have a calendar problem. Josh breaks down his weekday by day: Monday for KPI reviews and one-on-ones, Tuesday for deep work on growth initiatives, Wednesday for consolidated meetings, Thursday for strategy and product development, and Friday for planning and documentation. His core principles include protecting deep work, grouping meetings, reviewing before reacting, and using the calendar strategically to drive real business growth.Bullet Points:Weekly operating system for structuring business activitiesImportance of addressing calendar issues over time managementStrategies for protecting deep work and minimizing distractionsDetailed breakdown of a structured weekly scheduleFocus on reviewing key performance indicators (KPIs) and cash flow forecastingEmphasis on deep, uninterrupted work days for growth initiativesMeeting-heavy days for consolidating discussions and maximizing efficiencyStrategic planning and product development sessionsDocumentation of processes and decision-making frameworksCore principles for effective time management and productivity in businessTimestamps:00:00:00 The Calendar ProblemMost business owners don't have a time issue, but a calendar problem, getting hijacked by distractions instead of focusing.00:01:54 Introduction to the Weekly Operating SystemJosh introduces his weekly operating system for running an eight-figure brand, designed to protect attention and align leaders.00:02:56 Monday: Grounding the Week in RealityMonday's focus is on reviewing KPIs, ensuring the team met goals, and identifying what is off track.00:04:03 Monday: Cash Flow ForecastingThe second priority is reviewing the 12-month cash flow forecast to understand the business's financial health and available resources.00:05:47 Monday: Auditing Personal TimeThe speaker audits his previous week's time to identify distractions and improve productivity, sometimes using a time-tracking app.00:06:46 Monday: One-on-One MeetingsThe rest of Monday is for one-on-one meetings with direct reports to set strategy, solve bottlenecks, and provide direction.00:08:37 Tuesday: Protected Deep WorkTuesday is dedicated to deep, uninterrupted work on growth initiatives, with a brief leadership huddle to start the day.00:11:33 Tuesday: Structuring MeetingsAny necessary meetings on Tuesdays, like vendor calls or interviews, are scheduled back-to-back at the end of the day.00:12:21 Wednesday: The Meeting DayWednesday is a deliberately meeting-heavy day, consolidating recurring discussions, including a 90-minute leadership meeting to solve business issues.00:13:18 Thursday: Strategy and ProductsThursdays are for zooming out from daily operations to focus on strategy, future hiring needs, and new product innovation.00:16:19 Friday: Planning and DocumentingFriday is for solidifying the week's takeaways, proactively planning the next week, and documenting knowledge to scale the business.00:18:06 Key Principles of the ScheduleThe speaker outlines six key principles behind his schedule, including giving each day a job and protecting deep work.Links and Mentions:E-commerce Platforms Mentioned: "00:00:30" CEO Dashboard Podcast Episode: "00:04:03" Weekly Cash Flow Planning Podcast Episode: "00:04:58" Timing App: "00:06:43" Conducting a Two Week Time Study Podcast Episode: "00:06:46"Transcript:Josh Hadley 00:00:00 Most business owners don't actually have a time issue. They have a calendar problem. Today I'm going to be sharing with you how to structure your week properly so that you are focused on the right things so that you can scale not only an eight figure business, but a nine figure business and beyond. Welcome to the Ecomm Breakthrough Podcast. I'm Josh Hadley. I've scaled my own ecommerce brand from 0 to 8 figures, and I'm actively building towards nine figures in sales. This podcast is where I document that journey and share the systems, the strategies, and the lessons learned in real time so that you can learn what actually matters and scale your own business. My name is Josh Hadley. First and foremost, I'm a man of faith. I'm a husband to a beautiful wife and a father of four children. I have been selling in the e-commerce space for over a decade, doing over $20 million in annual revenue and doing multi-million on sales channels such as Amazon, TikTok, Shop and Shopify. I am also the host of the number one business strategy podcast for ecommerce entrepreneurs, and that is E-com breakthrough.Josh Hadley 00:00:57 Today, I want to share with you exactly how you should be structuring your week in order to ensure that your focus is on the highest priorities, rather than getting caught up in just putting out fires and basically dealing with the thick of thin things. So I'm sharing this with you from my exact like schedule, in my exact structure that I have in my own business. For you to be able to use that as like a framework to structure your own week. So here's the problem. Most founders don't have a time issue. You actually have a calendar problem. And the reason why is because, like you're just getting hijacked by slack email, reactive meetings, WhatsApp notifications, a bunch of different like mastermind groups that you're in that are slacking you or texting you, etc. and ask me why. I know that because like, I was the guy who used to have that happening to me all the time, but now I literally turn my phone on silent mode and do not disturb mode, and I ignore the WhatsApp messages that are happening throughout the day.Josh Hadley 00:01:54 And to be honest with you, I'm frankly amazed how much interaction is happening during the day when people theoretically should be working on their business. Instead, they're reaching out and asking questions or predictions about this. You know, travel hacks about that. All those things are good, and they are decent conversations to have. However, I'm not going to sacrifice my time in my deep work that's actually going to grow the business to go chit chat and have random side conversations. Because actually, the moment you like are distracted and turn your attention to something else, it's ten times harder to bring it back to the focus that you originally had. So this is the exact weekly operating system that I use to run our eight figure brand, and how I protect my attention, align my leaders, and carve out enough time to actually move the business forward, rather than just kind of like staying stationary and keeping up with just the regular admin of maintaining the business as it is today. Let's dive into Monday. Monday is one of the most important days in the entire business.Josh Hadley 00:02:56 And it's not only important for me, but this carries out through the rest of my leaders Their Mondays are structured very, very similar to mine, and Monday is about grounding the entire week in reality, not urgency. Right? It's this is where the strategic planning and prioritization really comes into play here. Okay, before anything else gets my attention, I review what happened this previous week. So let's talk about that. The very first thing that I do Monday mornings is I'm looking at my weekly KPI tracker. And if you're wondering, well, what KPIs does Josh actually track and look at? If you go check ...
How do you manage money more effectively? How can you stop being surprised by taxes? How do you turn your cashflow into something predictable? Kiera answers these questions and more, with three monthly habits you can build to create profitability. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today's topic is one of my favorite. It's money, taxes, and making a money-making machine. Yeah. Yay. Let's talk money and taxes. Because honestly, this is what everybody hates. And I'm not a CPA. I'm not a financial advisor. I'm none of those things. I'm just a girl who loves to help practices be more profitable. Help dentists like make and keep the money that they deserve, but doing it in an ethical way as a smart business owner. Because honestly, do you know how many people come to me and they're Kiera, I just want to become the CEO of my business because I don't get it, I don't know how. And I love Helping people become competent running their businesses through systems, team, vision, you name it. I love to do it with you. So what I found is like a lot of times doctors don't have a production problem. They have a money management problem because you don't freaking know how to do it. You learned how to drop that box. You learned how to make that. This one was funny, guys. Like, why in dental school did they tell you you're doing an I L F filling? Like, come on. Like I remember seeing that and I was like, wow, dentistry. Or like I love when there's new people and they're like, Yeah, doc, we need a B O. And I'm like, All right, or we could do like an OB, like it's fine, whatever. Or like I remember someone was like, What's a do? A DO I was like, my gosh, that's hilarious. So there's so many things like you've learned all that, but you didn't learn how to like manage your money and talk about it. So I have seen so many practices where they're a multi-million dollar office, but guess what? They're strapped for cash, they're not able to do these things. And the goal is not to like just produce more, it's to build a practice that creates consistent wealth for you. Now, team members listening, I want you to know you want your doctor. To be insanely wealthy. Like you do. You want the practice to be wealthy because you want it to be cash flowing positive. Because if it is, you're happy. It's more stable, it's more confident. And I'm not saying like, I want your doctor to be wealthy. I want them to do well. You do too. Because guess what? If they're doing great, that means you're doing great. So I want you guys to walk like, how do we manage money money monthly? How do we stop getting surprised by taxes? And this is Kiera's tactical way of doing it. Talk to your CPAs. I'm not able to be that person, but I'm gonna give you some quick tips that work really well. And then make sure your CPA validates and does it that's best for you. And then also, like, how can we turn this into predictable cash flow? Like that's what you're looking for. So let's do it. And to me, this is where I just see so many. We work with hundreds of offices across the nation. We're Dental A Team, we're experts in dental consulting. We work with dentists and teams. We either are virtual or in person, we're obsessed with making your life better. We call it the yes success model, where it's focused on you, your vision, your team, getting that organized, business fundamentals, earnings and profitability. And then system structure and scalability. Like, how do we take it and turn it into that? That's what you're looking for. You want to make more money, you want to have less time that's spent in the office, you want to have more efficiencies. Like, let's do that together. That's what we're about. And really, today I get jazzed about this because so many offices are like, Kiera, I don't know where my money went. Guess what? I was that way too. Like, truly, it's so obnoxious. Because I know you are producing it. You need to just make it. Like, and how scary. I think about poor dentists. Like, You go out, you do your fillings, you don't know if you're gonna get paid for it. You hope and pray that someone's collecting that money, but you will literally have no idea. Then the next thing is you get slapped with taxes, and you're like, my gosh, I have no money. Let's get you money. Like you went to dental school, you have so much debt on you, like you deserve to be a profitable business owner. So, like I said, just three things. Sorry about that. I'm just gonna yank this. Three things that you can do that are monthly habits to create profitability. You good with that? Let's get profitability. cash flow and financial confidence. Here we go. So number one, dun dun dun dun, it's super sexy and not. All you gotta do, you gotta review your numbers every single month. Not when you're nervous, but as a consistent thing. You can join me. I've talked about it so many times. I call it the MMs. It's morning money meditation. That's it. Just do it. Like roll over. I turn on the call map or I'm into Joe Dispenser right now. there was another one I was listening to for a hot minute. I think it was called I don't even remember. Was called. I can't even tell you guys. I don't remember. It was like this activations, I think is what it was called. That one was a fun one. It was like manifesting like multiple millions, like whatever you want do. but I meditate, I get my mind right, and then I look at my bank account. So join me on it. But I feel like a lot of times people just they don't know it, they don't get it, they just hope their CPA does it. my financial advisor will get it. I don't need to look at this. I'm just gonna do dentistry. Like, no, pull your head out of the sand. You are a business owner, you've got to look at it. So We review our numbers before there's a problem, not when something fills off. So things to be looking at on a constant basis. What is our collection and production ratio? And I'm talking production in net, not gross. We got to be able to make sure, like, I don't care. I know Delta Dental's terrible. Guess what? That's all you can collect. So stop feeding your ego. Let's feed the family. Let's look at real numbers. What is that percentage? It needs to be at 98%. Half of you have a money issue, not because you have a money issue, it's because your team's not collecting. Teams, collect the money. We did the work. Collect the money, fight with insurance, fight, fight, fight, get that money. Like you've got to. So we need to know what those two numbers are and you need to be at 98% collections. Okay. That's number one on your money. Number two is what's your overhead? Should be at 50% or less, 20% doctor pay. You gotta do this. What are we spending in those categories? So I like to look at our payroll percentage. I like to look at our supplies, labs. those are like the main big ticket items within that 50%. Doctor should pay should be sitting between 20 and 30%. All right, let's look at that. Then beyond that, there's also probably money sitting in your AR. We should never have more than one month's worth of AR sitting there. So if you're producing $200,000, your total AR should never be more than $200,000. That's just the way the game works. So those are things we're gonna look at. All right. You gotta look at did we hit our goals, production, collection? What's our overhead? Did we overspend? Why? What improved and what did it? So we're gonna look at our PL. So I look at. All of our team, all of our clients, they're on add it to analytics. So you usually have an online analytic. We build a KPI scorecard for all of our clients. Every client has it. So we're looking at what's our goal? What's our production? Is it red or green for that week or that month? Is it red or green for the collections? What's our collection percentage this month? What's our collection percentage year today? Because some months are gonna be low, some months are gonna be high. That's normal business. But we got to make sure we're collecting enough for our BAM, our bare ace minimum. And if not, we need to have savings for that. All right, so we have all that. Then we also have an overhead calculator. I love the overhead calculator. I'm obsessed with it. We finally nailed this overhead calculator. Like it is, it's dreamy. Because what we do, I like to see this. It's a rolling month. So for those of you watching, great. I'm gonna share a screen. For those of you who are listening to the podcast, I'll explain it. Don't worry. So on here we have a scorecard. So this is one of my favorites. It's the overhead one. So what we do is we have our goals. So we set in our goals. Like payrolls 30%, supplies are 5%, labs 7%, facility and equipment 8%, advertising 2%, less you're in growth mode, office supplies less than 1%, insurance half a percentage, professional services. We put in there your consulting fee. You're welcome. I want you to see that you can pay for consulting and be profitable. Bank charges and fees, I hope and pray they're less than 3%. They should be lower. And if not, you can get with Moolah. Phone internet utilities, less than 5% or 0.5, excuse me. And then other is usually 1%. All that totals up to 60%. That means our doctor pay is probably gonna be sitting in at 20% or 30%. How can we trim this? A lot of people can produce more and have less payroll. We can outsource different things. Could we get our supplies lower? Can we order things differently? Labs, like let's look at that facility and equipment. Can we get that lower? Can we reduce our rent? Advertising, office supplies, could we get that down to a half a percentage? Professional services, like what if we got it to 1%? Or one of the fastest, easiest ways is we boost our production. And it's gonna actually offset it and get it to a 50% overhead. Then what's amazing is we have our year to date. So what is it? What's our collection amount? We always want watch that. Year to date, and then we do a difference. So what's amazing is as you scroll through, we do January, February, March, April, we have our total overhead. What's our doctor W2? What's our doctor distribution, doctor salary? I want to see what percentage it is. This really quickly shows you what's my overhead, what's my doctorate, and then what's my EBITDA or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. What's our total expenses, not including debt services? What's that? We want that to be sitting at 80% or less. And it gives us a dollar amount. So we're able to see it month over month and then year to date where we sit. What's the net profit? So in this practice, because they're at 60%, their net profit can only be at 10% unless our doctor pays lower. I don't really care how you do it because distributions are distributions. So if you want to take the profit, you want to leave it in the business, you got to make sure that the practice is paying for your life. Then we have all of our debt services. This is usually where people get stuck on cash. You're stuck on cash. Because you have your profit, but then your profit doesn't pay for your debt services. And then after your debt services, those debt services a lot of times are not tax deductible. So then you're getting whipped on the other side with your taxes. It's really just this like yin and yang back and forth. Then we look at it. Now, taxes, we put it at 37%. Talks to your CPA. That's the highest tax bracket. You might not be there based on what your profitability is. But we have all this. So this way everything's dialed in. Every single month we're looking it over. I'm obsessed with this because I love it. I made my CPA make one of these. What's our difference? How is this? What's our year to date? We go over this every single freaking month. Give the PL. Let's fill this in. Let's teach you how to do it this way. The more intimate you are with the numbers. I know people are like, I don't want to fill this in. Can you do it for me? No. I'll teach you one time, but then you're gonna fill this in. Why? Because if you look at this every month, think you're gonna get better? Yes, because what you track and measure improves. Okay. So that's what we're looking at. When we talk about our numbers, when we talk about these different things. This is how you review your numbers monthly. I kid you not. Now, my gym trainer, I'm gonna talk about her a lot. You guys, I went on a really incredible gym training. All right. I decided when I turned 40, which I'm still like anybody who's got some good tips for like I'm halfway to 80. Do you guys realize that? Like, shoot, that's a moment, okay? Like, that's a moment that I'm still processing. Anyway, I decided I was going to be fit and 40. And I was like, I'm gonna be the best shape of my life. So my trainer and I have been working out with her for about two years. We set a goal. I hired this incredible photographer. His name is Kai York. He's out of Spain. Go check him out. His photography is absolutely incredible. And I was like, I'm gonna do this incredible fitness journey. And I'll tell you, she was like, Kiera, you've been working out for two years with me. She said, if you want to get to what you want, you've got to start tracking your metrics. And I was like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Food, food, food. Daddy daddy da. I'm so busy, blah, blah, blah, blah. Then I was like, fine. So she made me do this like intake form again. And the intake form said, How committed are you? And I remember writing, I'm 100% committed. How committed are you? So I went back to the coach. He guys, I'm a little sassy. My coach and I have come to like this really good place with each other. we have a very great relationship, and I'm super thankful for her. And what was crazy is I went all in. I am on 80 days of tracking my macros 100%. I usually hit it right on track every single time. I'm not perfect, but I am consistent. I weigh in every single day that I'm home. So we weigh in, measure, do all the measurements every single day consistently. We were like three months into this journey. And I was a girl who was anorexic as a girl who was like never gonna get on a scale. I was like, I don't track it. And she said, Kiera, like we worked a lot on this of anorexia things. And if it ever got to a spot where I felt like it was trickling back. It was a no-go. But she helped me see that like I'm just using this information to be able to make changes in my life. I was using this information to see, okay, if I ate certain things, how does that impact my weight? I wasn't going after a certain number on the scale. Our ultimate goal, because my my vision is that when I'm 90, I can freaking run faster than my grandkids or people younger than me. I want to be this like freaking ripped 90-year-old lady with cotton candy pink hair. Like that's that's really the vision. I don't want to be frail. I don't want to be feeble. Yes, I'll sit there and like crochet and knit. I'm still gonna do like some like granny things. I wanna do that. That like feels exciting for me. But I want to be like so strong. So it wasn't about a number on the scale, it wasn't about a body fat percentage. It was truly I want to be in the best shape of my life that's physically strong. Like I wanna be strong. I want to be strong, like not skinny. Like I used to be going after being super skinny. now it's a how can I have like the strongest and take care of my body? The whole reason I bring this up is because when I track and measure, I got the results I wanted. The first time in my life, I've said, I want a six-pack, I want a six pack, but she's like, Kiera, you've got to track and you gotta measure and you've got to look at it. We use it as data and we make decisions based on that. I bring that up because I feel like your metrics and your numbers, looking at them monthly, looking at them daily, looking at them weekly are the same thing. We don't get obsessive. Like for me, I could have gotten very obsessive and gotten right back into habits of anorexia. That's not the path. The path is to be my strongest, most fit self for you. Your path is we're gonna be the most profitable fit practice that you can have. We gotta track it, we gotta measure it, and we gotta look at it constantly. But that way we make decisions based on it. So I want you looking at this. This is how you're going to be able to be financially free. This is how you're gonna have money. You're gonna be able to be like into that predictable money-making machine for you that's profitable. You're gonna have profitability, you're gonna have cash flow, and you're gonna have financial confidence. You've got to track and measure, otherwise it will never improve. And I'm just saying, like. So we have a KPI scorecard that's gonna track your collections, your production, your payroll, your overhead, your profitability, our AR. Then we're gonna have like if one of those is off, then we can dig deeper. But if you look at those at a high level, just like I'm tracking my metrics, I promise you you will improve. What gets measured, like improves. So let's do it. Let's do it together. and I believe your story tells, like your numbers will tell a story long before your bank account does. And it's a way for you to track and measure, it's a way for you to validate. so Put it on your calendar, have a nice little financial date with yourself. also have this in leadership. Our leadership team looks at our KPIs every single week. Every week, non-negotiable. That's what we do. And some people are like, well, I don't want my team to know numbers. Yeah, it freaks me out sometimes. But guess what? This is part of the game of business. And if I can't trust my leadership team to know my numbers, they might not be the right leadership team for me. Leadership team members, your doctors need to have profit. They've got to pay taxes on that. They got to be able to take care of themselves. And guess what? They work hard. Let them have big dreams and visions. Just like you have big dreams and visions. Let's make sure we make both come true. Kate, now number two. I'm off my rant. I hope you guys loved it because I loved it. Number two is we got to do whatever your CPA tells you. I'm not a CPA. I can't really like get into that lane. And I'm not trying to get into that lane. I'm just saying for me, taxes were my biggest enemy. At the end of the year, I had a huge tax bill that I had not been saving for. And I know my was like, but Kiera, it's great. You get all this money. And I'm like, yay, but I don't have that money. I spent it. Like, I don't know, people spend their paychecks. It's just like mystery. And I don't like living in this like, can I spend the money? Can I not spend the money? That never feels good to me. So what I decided to do with my CPA is we put it together and every single month I was like, this is a freaking equation, guys. Whatever my profit is, I need to just save that much money. Like that's it. Why do we like wait up for a quarter or wait up for six months or wait till the end of the year? And then I'm like, shoot, you want me to pay how much? Like, where's that money? To me, I'm very proactive. I hate being reactive. So I had my CPA work with me. You can talk to your CPA. They can do this for you. Say, I don't like the quarterlies. I like to save it. For me, I personally put mine over an ally, A-L-L-Y. I know their interest rates are not as good as they used to be, dang it. But I'm still making money on that. And then I've got the money set aside. So when they ask me for my quarterly, they ask me for my end of year. I'm not freaking out about this money, but non-negotiable for cure dent before the end of the month, every single month, that money moves. Non-negoti, I don't care what it is. I move away a distribution. So I have put money, it's profit first model. I do money for taxes. I do money for our BAM for our company to make sure we have that. And then I do our profit moves every single month, non-negotiable. I don't care if it's a good month. I don't care if it's a bad month. But what that does is it forces me to make sure our collections are in place. Do this. You guys are totally able to do this. Okay. So what happens is every single month, my CPA tells me, Kiera, this is where you were. This is your profit. This is how much money you need to put away for taxes. Is it technically retroactive? Yes. So in June, I'll be moving money for May. Okay. So some months you're going to have a really high month. Then you get September. That's really fun. You still got to find the money because guess what? It doesn't change. You have to go find that money. I move that money out of my bank account into a third party account. So it sits over an ally. It does accrue interest over there, but it sits there. I don't touch it. It only is paid for taxes and I have them labeled into buckets. So it's my taxes, what's my company? Bam. And it moves. This is a disciplined skill. You do not need to have this hard. For me, I also realized it was taxes, it was tithing or charitable contributions. And then like 401k. So when I used to do a SEP IRA, that was a fun throw because I had to pay that money too. Then I also have end of year bonuses. I hate doing this in December. Like I hated December. I used to dread December. I'd cry every December. Let's stop that. Whatever money you're paying out, if you know you're paying bonuses at the end of the year, let's figure out what it is divided by 12. Let's set that money aside every single month. That way you have it available. I will tell you this will reduce your financial stress faster than anything else. So let's just do it. And for me, taxes, it's just an operating expense. For me, like that's just part of doing business. I don't, it's not, it's not like money lost. It's just a line item. Like I just need to put it in the bank account. What I also love is because I save every single month. So I kid you not, this is what Care does. I'm happy to put you on my like, I don't really have a text thread, but pretend I do. If you want to be a part of it, great. By the end of the month, every month before the calendar flips to the next month, my money has moved. Non-negotiable, it will move. So I do have a doctor where we like text at the end of the month to make sure we're both moving money. and so what I do is I move it. What happens is at the end of the year, typically we're making expenses or doing corporate expenses, things like that, capital expenses, excuse me. And when that happens, from there, what we're able to do is we're then able to determine what our tax bill is going to be at the end of the year. Every year that I have done this, where I save every month, I do 37%, like or whatever your tax bracket is, talk to your CPA. At the end of the year, every year, I'm eight years strong on this. So I feel like it's a pretty good track record to be sharing information. Every single year, I've saved more money than I actually need to pay for taxes. How many of you have done that? Like, that's it, because I put it on my goalboard. I said, That's it. I'm gonna become a freaking tax expert. I read tax books, I like talked to my CPA. I was like, I am sick of crying in December. We're gonna resolve this forever. Now every single year I have more money than what I used to have. And I say that that's my tax refund. It's been a very long time since as a business owner actually get a tax refund, but that's the way I'm able to have a tax refund. And then I use that money for whatever because it's free. Like I don't have to be worried. I can spend it. And what we do is we make sure the business has enough to pay for my partial life. We have enough to save for taxes. And then whatever's left over to me, that's your like, it's your tax refund. Enjoy that, baby. Like have a good time. I also always have money for quarterlies. I have money set aside for that. So I've never stressed out. So when the CPA says carry you owe X amount, I'm like, yep, here we go. Off it goes. And I accrued interest on So I feel even happier because I've been accruing interest on that money and I've been saving it. So tax planning is cash flow planning because most of the time I've noticed that business owners get stuck on their taxes. It's cash flow and it's very stressful. So I genuinely believe like your IRS bill should never be your largest surprise. Like, guys, you can do this. So I set up a meeting with my financial my CPA and my financial advisors. I meet with them every single month. And then I do usually mid year. So it's coming up right now. I'll be meeting with my CPA. Where am I at? What have I paid? What do I still need to have? Where are we projected? Am I high? Am I low? What do we have that at? Every single month they tell me how much I need to save for taxes. Your CPA works for you. Make them work for you. So reserve it. Now, if we're behind, because a few years I've been behind. But guess what? If I'm doing that meeting in June or July, I have six months to make up that cash. Or if you guys have like some of you are paying back taxes and it just breaks my heart and I'm sorry. So what we do is we just pay a little extra every single month and we just set that. So whatever they tell me, tack on 10% of my debt, we're gonna pay that down, we're gonna pay that back. There's ways that you can do this, and I'm happy to work through any of it. This is what we talk about in our mastermind. Like, pick my brain because I got so sick of crying. Like I said, I'm not a CPA. Your CPAs tell you all that. I'll just tell you I'm a I'm an entrepreneur over here and a true business owner. It's had to figure out how to make money not be stressful and actually have a cash flow. All right. Number three is how do we make this like predictable cash flow for you? So I think for you, next is going to be like this is all dentistry. So how do we convert like production into profit? So being a good dentist. So we're gonna have strong case acceptance. Make sure patients are saying yes to your dentistry, collections percentage at 98%. Make sure overhead's where it needs to be. Let's make sure our schedule is scheduled efficiently. Let's make sure that we've got consistent patient and team retention. two practices honestly can collect the exact same amount. One's gonna have profit and wealth, the other one's gonna have stress and overhead. Like the difference is our systems and are we staying consistent? What's our morning huddle? Like I was just in a practice, they're doing so well. And I was like, hey, we're not talking a huddle about how we win. Like let's let's add that in. So they're prepping. I promise you their production's gonna go up every single time I'm in office, their production spikes. It's just that's a little Dental A Team magic because people get excited, their production goes up. But you've got to have those. Like you've got to have consistent systems. We've got to have consistent case acceptance, consistent schedules, consistent collections. Like those things have to be there. We have to control our overhead and see it. Consistency is not sexy, but it's how you get results. I hope you heard that. Consistency is not sexy, but it's how you get results. It's not perfection. I did not say you have be perfect. You guys, when I'm doing my cut, I was in the best shape of my life. I'm still so proud of myself. I wasn't perfect. You better believe I still ate Reese's Easter eggs, guys. I freaking love those. You want to make me happy? Ship me those. Please. Like, I love them. they have to be the big eggs, not the little ones. The peanut butter to chocolate ratio is very different. And I peel off all the chocolate. I just want the peanut butter. Like, I'm there for it. I still ate those. I wasn't perfect. At the end, I was perfect. I was literally just eating chicken, rice, and almonds. Like, ugh, chicken for breakfast. Yeah, that was the next level moment. but I was perfect for two weeks. But I was consistent. I wasn't perfect. You don't have to be perfect. You do need to be consistent. So having those systems, and I want you guys to just look to see in your practice where is one money, like where is it leaking in your practice? Is it in our case acceptance? Is it in our scheduling? Is it in our collections? Is it in us not looking at our overhead? And let's fix it this quarter. Let's set that as a quarterly rock. Let's get it fixed. So, as a quick review, I've ranted on this. I hope you guys loved it. But like truly, I want this to be like money and taxes. And how do you get out of the rut? And how do you stop crying? How do you actually have cash flow, not cash slow? Like, let's get the cash flow, guys. you gotta review your numbers monthly. I'd recommend it's actually weekly, but start with monthly. You gotta plan for taxes every single month. And then we gotta build systems that turn it production into profit. Like just focus on those ones that are gonna put money on your books. You've got to be able to have this financial confidence. Like it's not a hope, a wish, a prayer. It's by being consistent. It's about being stable. I know that I'm gonna always have money for taxes. Always. Like that's just a discipline. That's a standard, and I will not go below that. I will not ever go below. Like that's just my standard. We gotta cut, we gotta figure it out. And I love it because it forces me to innovate, forces me to squeeze the juice. Like I will pay myself. I'm not gonna sit here and not like you people just need to live below their means. Like, save 10%. I've always paid 10% to charitable contributions. I'll tell you if you don't do that, I'm not saying you gotta do charitable contributions, but they have shown that people that do save and don't live on everything that they spend. Actually, you're able to be like the most successful people. That was a great study. I didn't even know it. And I heard it and I was like, wow. But I think it's because it forces us to see that you don't have to live on every single penny that comes through. You're actually able to live below your means, set these as standards, make them and be disciplined. And if you're not great at this, reach out. I love to help people with this. Like you don't have to have this be unpredictable anymore. We can get it to where it's cash flow confident. And I want you to be confident. So reach out. I do believe that financial success is not good luck. It is just having systems and consistency. That's all it is. So reach out. I'd love to help you understand your numbers. I'd love to help you improve this. I'd love to have you have a practice that really does create genuine true wealth for you. I've got doctors that are asking me for a private mastermind where it's like, how do we wealth generate beyond? So first step is to stabilize, next step is to have structure, next step is to scale. So reach out. I'd love to help you. I'd love to help you guys create real wealth. Your practices should be assets, not liabilities. So let's get it to where it's cash flowing positive. again, it can really truly be yours. I went from crying all the time to feeling confident as a business owner and I love to share that with people. So reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.
Most LinkedIn users are missing one of the most important analytics updates the platform has released.Likes, comments, and even total impressions only tell part of the story.LinkedIn has quietly introduced a much more valuable KPI inside your analytics: Discovery.Under your impression analytics, you'll now see two categories:• In-network impressions: People who already follow you or are connected to you.• Out-of-network impressions: People who don't follow you and aren't connected to you.Here's why this matters.If the majority of your impressions are coming from your existing network, you're primarily reaching the same audience over and over again.But if a growing percentage of your impressions are coming from out-of-network viewers, LinkedIn is signaling that your content is valuable enough to recommend to people who have never heard of you before.That is how real audience growth happens.In my opinion, this is one of the healthiest KPIs to track because it shows whether your content is expanding beyond your current circle rather than simply recycling within it.Now, that doesn't mean in-network impressions are bad. Your existing audience should absolutely continue seeing your content. But if your goal is to attract new clients, grow your authority, and consistently reach fresh audiences, you want to see your out-of-network percentage increasing over time.Instead of asking, "How many impressions did this post get?"Start asking, "Who generated those impressions?"That's a much more meaningful question.Focus on creating content that teaches, sparks thoughtful conversations, and keeps people reading. When LinkedIn sees people finding value in what you share, it's far more likely to introduce your content to people outside your existing network.Growth doesn't happen by talking to the same people louder.It happens when LinkedIn starts introducing you to the people who don't know you yet.Don't forget to sign up for our FREE LinkedIn Content Roadmap workshop here:https://www.thetimetogrow.com/LinkedInContentRoadmap