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Kiera talks with Chief Operations Manager Jeff and Dr. Andrew Sugg of Green Park Dentistry about identifying your dreams as dental leaders, and finding the path to get there.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is such a special magical day on the podcast. I have two of my absolute favorite human beings. We have known each other for so many years. They are incredible, incredible dentists, practice owners, managers, like you name it. These two men are some of the most brilliant people I've watched in dentistry and I've watched them grow from beginning, very basics.

to this masterpiece of their life, of their community, of this practice that I truly think is such an example in this world. So Jeff and Andrew, welcome to the show. How are you today?

Jeff & Andrew (00:33)

Great, thank you for having us. Doing well, thank you for having us.

Kiera Dent (00:37)

You're so welcome. And I know it'll get a little weird, because when there's three of us here, it's always like, who's supposed to talk? So I'll try really hard to just call someone out. But honestly, guys, how does it feel to be, and I'll ask Jeff first. So again, I'll just riff through this. How does it feel from when we first met to where you are today? How does it feel? What would you even say? What's a word? Or what's the expression of where you started to where you are today? How was that experience for you, Jeff?

Jeff & Andrew (00:42)

Yeah.

⁓ if I had to sum it up in a word, looking back at myself in this experience, I think my younger self would look at today and be astonished that one, this is the career path I'm in that I didn't set out to. ⁓ you know, two, I started in this dental industry with zero experience other than knowing Andrew and listening to what he talks about when he comes home, to today.

that we have gone from a team of seven in this tiny building with five ops we started with to now a team of 20, 17 ops in a 16,000 square foot building. I literally cannot, I have to pinch myself being like, we did this, take a minute, let's reflect. I'm still kind of coming down from all of the renovation and the moving and calibration. ⁓

So every now and then I have to remind myself like, wait, this is our place, we did this. So take a minute and reflect. And I'm still kind of battling with that because I'm used to going full force. So I'm astonished.

Kiera Dent (02:16)

It's amazing.

And Jeff, I'm so glad you said that. we've known each other. Jeff and Andrew have been clients of ours for years. This is like a client spotlight where we bring on people to just, I think, share their journey, share their experience. And for me to have like a proud mama moment of just being so freaking proud of where you are. And I agree, I'm astonished. It's not something when I met you too that I thought, would it be capable? But I do think it's all for all of us, like a pinch me moment. And for me,

What I love is seeing my favorite humans just flourish. And I feel like you guys give back to your team, you give back to your community. You're the good guys that I always want to win. And so I'm your biggest raving fan over here. Yes, have the life, have the experiences, do the things because you're just amazing humans that are contributing so much to this world. So I love that. Andrew, want to hear, and also Jeff, always you should just love Andrew so much and the fact that he brought you into dentistry. Welcome to the best profession ever. So kudos on that, Andrew.

Jeff & Andrew (03:07)

⁓ huh. Yes.

Thank you.

Kiera Dent (03:12)

What about for you? How's this journey been from where you started? You and Jeff, think it's like adorable. Jeff literally had no clue. I remember Jeff, you're like, I don't even know what these things.

Jeff & Andrew (03:20)

That's exactly what I was going to say. Like Andrew brought me and I was like, Hi, Kiera, I'm Jeff. And I don't know what I'm doing and I think I need your help. So I do have to throw in a kudos, a super thank you for guiding me and helping me get to this place. So yeah, you guys really helped kind of us.

Kiera Dent (03:32)

my gosh, I

can't take the huge credit. Tiffany has been like the mass superstar for you guys. I've been able to be the proud mom on the side that's just freaking rooting for you all day long. But yes, I do remember definitely like, hi, your adorable glasses. Like you guys were just like dressed in white I think the night I met you and hi guys, super nice to meet you. So, Andrew, didn't mean to cut you off, go ahead.

Jeff & Andrew (03:47)

No, it's okay.

I think that's it though, is you guys have really helped bridge that like my clinical side and love of dentistry and what I've always really enjoyed and still geek out over all the time. And you helped pull Jeff in and help him understand how he can kind of make this what he wanted to be. And I think that was something that kind of stuck with us ever since we first met y'all was that was on that weekend that we heard was

Like if you're not happy in your office, there's one person to blame and it's you, right? So it's like, you have the power, you have the energy, the time to put into that and kind of make it what you want. And I guess that's where like, my word would be excited. Cause I do feel like the more that we lean in and kind of just trust our gut and do the things that we kind of really want to do, it becomes more fun. We kind of are instilling in our team what you've instilled in us to kind of take that leadership and

work towards their goals and find their secret secrets that kind of stand out and really make them shine. And I think it's just, it's been really fulfilling and really exciting for us.

Kiera Dent (04:57)

That's amazing. And I think for both of you, I remember, I feel like there was a pivotal moment. I don't know what year it was, but I feel like there was a moment where you both just hunkered down of what do want our life to look like? What do we want our practice to be? What do we this to look like? And I feel like that was your, I call them lightning bolt moments. And I feel like it was just like, from there, I feel like that's where momentum just skyrocketed for you. And I don't know if you guys remember that from persons on the outside looking in.

That's something that I really watched, but I'm just curious, like, did you feel that way? I'll start with Andrew first on this one. Did you feel that way? And if you did, like, okay, give me the thumbs up or like, yes, did you feel that way? That's question one. Let me be a better host here. Andrew, did you feel that that was something that changed for you guys in your practice?

Jeff & Andrew (05:37)

Yes, no, I definitely did. it is hard though for me to put pinpoint. I think I had to lean into trusting having Jeff here and having you guys help him. It just allowed me to really focus and be that dreamer that I am. I'm definitely the dreamer. He's the implementer. So I think you helped us to find roles and understand kind of where we really can help each other, you know, kind of reach those goals together. So.

Yeah, I don't know the day or time, but I definitely felt like it was soon after meeting you guys and we just really felt like, okay, we can do this. it just, yeah, it's just magical. ⁓

Kiera Dent (06:14)

It's truly magical. Thank you. Jeff, what about for you?

Jeff & Andrew (06:18)

Yeah, ⁓ I remember several moments and I think a lot of ⁓ it was like a light bulb. I remember it was, you know, the career change and all that. It was hard for me, you know, going from the scientific, you know, yeah, marine geology, marine geophysics, so like offshore to now dealing with people.

Kiera Dent (06:22)

you

Is it geology? Am I like making that up?

Jeff & Andrew (06:43)

you patients, the public, it was crazy. I don't know what world I was in. But then I realized, you know, I was coming into the office. I am not enjoying coming into the office. I'm not enjoying this. And I started to see, you know, you know, at the time we called it staff or employees. And it was like that. Why are we doing what we're doing? Right. So you guys helped me realize that I'm the catalyst to change. We are. ⁓ And

Kiera Dent (06:43)

Yeah.

It's real!

Jeff & Andrew (07:11)

We had past experience of being treated poorly or maybe unfairly or just feeling unfulfilled. And I started to realize we're in this industry that I'm not enjoying going to work, so nobody else is enjoying going to work. Who can change it? That's me. And then I started to notice that it felt like people in their roles and their careers within the office felt unfulfilled or underappreciated. And it's like a dental assistant isn't just a dental assistant.

do the work that the dentist to allow the dentist to do his job. So without that, it's essential. So why don't we treat them like essential? So there was that moment that I walked into that door and I had you and Tiffany in my ear like, come in with a different energy, present differently. And I did, and I remember that moment. And I remember seeing people be like, whoa, this is a little different. Like, this could be a fun day. And I'm like, this is going to be a fun.

career. And then that started, okay, how can I make people's roles more fulfilling? How can we create growth opportunity? How can we show them that there's opportunity in our practice and they have the power to grasp that, to have a fulfilling life? We go to work every day for eight hours or longer, you know, so if they're not fulfilled there, how are we serving the people that are serving us?

Kiera Dent (08:38)

That's incredible. And I think Jeff, this just highlights a lot of your leadership and like the growth I've seen in you. I remember Cranky Jeff, who did not enjoy going to the wards. Like, what is it? Yeah.

Jeff & Andrew (08:45)

They call him Gilbert, that's my middle name. So that's

the ⁓ alias for Cranky Jeff.

Kiera Dent (08:53)

like it. Yeah, I do remember those days and you were not happy in this and I don't think Andrew was super happy. Andrew, you've always been like one of the most passionate dentists I've ever met, which is so fun to see you like light up when you talk about dentistry and do all the pieces. Jeff, on the other hand, I think you kind of like drug him into this like, Hey, I need you in here. Gilbert, it sounds like was the one that and then Jeff came to the scene realizing like the the space for you and Jeff, that's something I really love to highlight is I think so many leaders don't realize it's within them.

Jeff & Andrew (09:01)

you

Yeah.

Kiera Dent (09:21)

because it doesn't look the way that they thought it was going to be. I just I'm excited to get into that. And I'm just curious. So you briefly mentioned you guys had this small practice in my mind. It's like purple or pink walls. Is that really true? Like inside?

Jeff & Andrew (09:33)

It started

that way. It was like very dark green, brown, had purple. Yes, there was some magenta. Yeah. Yes. Very dark brown. Popcorn ceiling too. ⁓

Kiera Dent (09:39)

knew it. It was like a dollhouse in my mind. Like it was like this like little like very short like ceilings. ⁓

Yes, not that great.

I remember being like, Tiff, this is where they work. Like, okay, looks like this. Like, I mean, how could you not have fun, Jeff? There's like colors of every rainbow on all the walls for you. Like, okay. ⁓ but you guys went from this small building to now this massive practice. You've got all these team members. but something I, I'm probably going to like butcher your vision just a little bit. but I remember hearing it when you said it and it stuck with me again. I think I'll get like the gist of it, but I remember you saying like, we are going to be like,

Jeff & Andrew (09:51)

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Kiera Dent (10:17)

the dentist that the community chooses. Something like that. don't know how, I feel like I'm close to it, but I really loved that it was like, okay, we're gonna impact our community really largely. We want to be the place that our community chooses. And you did this whole expansion and I'm just curious, like, okay, what worked well? What didn't work well? What were like, let's just kind of go on like a fun road. I'm not gonna pick who like you guys can tag team over there, but I'm just curious of.

You went from Gilbert Jeff, who's angry to this like weird house that you're in to now this like amazing business building community. Like the impact you guys have in your community is amazing. You have all these team members. Like what were the highlights? were the like walk me through? I need to know what did you do right? What did you wish you would have done? What advice do you have for other people looking to go down this journey? That's something I think you've done so well.

but I think like it didn't come without a lot of learning and a lot of growth that I'd love you guys to just highlight. But also you did some things really freaking well too, so highlight that too. So ⁓ it's over to both of you, whomever wants to pick up the ball and run with it, it's yours. And tag team, because I'm sure both of you have very different perspectives on how that took place.

Jeff & Andrew (11:23)

Well,

I can start because I think one thing for me that's been really amazing is like, really, you guys helped be our cheerleaders to say like, hey, if you stick with these things, you stick with these systems, it's really allowed us to kind of be ourselves. And in a way, that's what feels unreal. Like it feels really magical that like we get to be ourselves every day. We get to stick to like what our core values are. And it feels lucky that people appreciate that. And that shouldn't be like.

rare in the world today, but it really does feel that way. So I feel really lucky to come to work. I feel lucky. get to be honest and authentic with the people around me. And I think ⁓ that's been like the biggest, coolest thing to me, like through all of this is I think having you all as cheerleaders, I was really like the biggest thing because you move into this building and increase in our team size is kind of like, that happening? And then I'm like, I'm going to go do the dentistry. You, you guys figure it out and you're like, yeah, we're to hire some people.

Kiera Dent (12:17)

Andrew's always pushing it off like, Jeff, I'm gonna

go do this, like good luck on all the fires. No wonder you a good one. I'll put it.

Jeff & Andrew (12:19)

Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, can you stop being

the dreamer for like a year? need a break. Stop dreaming. Come down for second. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. would say so, you know, kind of piggybacking off what we touched on earlier with elevating the team and that sort of thing. So when we did that, was kind of like positivity just keeps.

Kiera Dent (12:26)

He just can't stop. That's amazing.

Jeff & Andrew (12:46)

building, right? It's contagious. People want to be around it. People like it. They want to feel that way. So we did some work internally with the team and then we realized the team likes it. You know, this is real, you know? So then that immediately transfers to the patients and then to the community. So there's kind of like the little trickle effect there. So when patients start to come in and they're like, this is kind of fun. Everybody enjoys their job. I enjoy coming here. ⁓

or when I walk in, I feel happy, you know? It's like, that's the vibe we wanted and that Andrew and Dr. Parks, their dental work is exceptional. So pair it with that. And then the word gets out and it just continues to snowball. So as that's happening, we're like, maybe we should expand. Okay, so I think we can take on somebody else. Then we were, the plans kind of evolved and there was the first plan was to ⁓ double the size of the building that we were in.

Um, but then COVID hit. pre COVID we're like, we're going to do this. Let's plan it. We've got enough land to double the building. Let's get all this done. We actually used our waiting room as an extra spare room because we are kind of outgrowing our space. So business was getting bigger, but the project was not moving along at all. So we cut into the waiting room and we made six rooms and we're like, can we sustain this? Yes. We sustained it immediately. So, um,

Kiera Dent (14:04)

Yeah.

Clever.

Jeff & Andrew (14:14)

After COVID hit, said, shoot, what are we going to do? Like, we can't afford this expansion anymore. And then what does the timeline look like that just went out the window? we're like, let's pivot. If we were going to spend X amount of dollars here for this, it ended up being ⁓ about 2000 workable square feet that we would add to the practice. ⁓ So we started looking at, there buildings for sale around? And we kind of had a vision a long time ago.

Kiera Dent (14:37)

Mm-hmm.

Jeff & Andrew (14:45)

even before considering moving the practice itself, like there's some cool buildings in our community that could look beautiful. ⁓ So maybe we look into some of those ugly ones and that's what we end up doing. So we identified a building that was way bigger than what we needed. ⁓ However, the thing that we identified was the plumbing was around the exterior between the levels. So we thought that's super expensive.

Kiera Dent (14:58)

Hahaha

art.

Jeff & Andrew (15:13)

you know, ground up. So let's utilize some of this plumbing. We interviewed ⁓ several contractors. We chose one to do the original project expanding that building, but we chose another for this project because of our interview. So it took ⁓ a lot of back and forth to figure out who's going to work best with us and who's really going to build in some cost savings. Like with the building that we did buy,

We made sure that the contractor that we hired was going to retain as much material as they could. We had solid doors. like, save the doors. We'll paint them or reuse them. I don't want to buy a ton of new doors. we were able, the relationship started well. It ended well also, but that was the building blocks. Like, are you going to work with me or are you going to be like, let's tear it down and start fresh to make a buck? ⁓

Kiera Dent (15:53)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Jeff & Andrew (16:07)

So that was a huge win. So we made a really good relationship with the contractor there. And then ⁓ he guided us through. And I think, you know, in the planning stage, architecture and engineering took a lot. And those were, ⁓ those were really the holdup, pretty much the engineer. So I would say stress on the engineering part first, because it's hard to make changes later, just because they don't typically work as fast, I guess.

Kiera Dent (16:33)

for sure.

That's true. ⁓

Jeff & Andrew (16:36)

takes longer, or in our case it was.

But ⁓ I mean, it might seem like you're being redundant about layout and switches and these sort of things. ⁓ It's not. Visit the practice as many times as you can while it's in construction. Talk to everybody on a day-to-day basis. I popped in here so many times and was like, I don't like where that light is, or people don't always listen. it...

stinks to be like, hey, I prepared all this stuff and this is what I want done. This is where I want everything and nobody looks at it. So it's like, you got to be there in person and kind of guide them. ⁓

Yeah, well, I also kind of I think you kind of point out like to make is ⁓ we really stuck to like our our goals and just ambition and just knowing that like, hey, we're just doing good things. And we're just trying to do good for the community. And like, how can we expand? And it was scary at times expansion. It was always very scary till we got here. Like we say, jokingly, when we were at the old building and we come over here, even bringing the staff, you could tell everybody's like, what the heck, this place is really big. We're going to lose each other like

Kiera Dent (17:36)

As always.

Jeff & Andrew (17:46)

We're not going to hear in our old office, I could hear our front desk and I could actually like tell them like, actually don't do that. You know, like I can correct people from like the room, you know, down the hallway and here it is a lot more space, but it's like, once we got here, we're like, how the heck did we all fit there? And then you just quickly fill the space and it's really, it's exciting. Cause yeah, I don't know. ⁓ you just gotta really like trust in, ⁓ your, process and your values and what you're working towards. And I do feel like it has been.

Kiera Dent (17:46)

Hmm?

Jeff & Andrew (18:15)

building up, like we're going to celebrate our 10th year in practice next year. And I think that's what feels unreal. Oh my God, it's this year. next year. Yeah. Next year. Sorry. Oh, year. Yeah. Oh, see? Don't even know. We need a break. But it just flies by, right? Like it's just... Yeah, we celebrate every year. For sure. And I think that is like, it is just kind of in a way, you just kind of stick to like little goals, kind of just keep it moving those like, hey, how can we make this better? What can we do? Oh, we need space. How do we solve that problem?

Kiera Dent (18:26)

I don't know, it's just not dirty. Pop this celebration all the years. ⁓

Jeff & Andrew (18:43)

and necessity just helped kind of push us along. And yeah, I think if we would have done the building before COVID, we probably would still be in our old office and kind of wishing we had more space. But in a weird way, I'm really happy that things worked out the way they did. ⁓ yeah, we've ended up here. So it's been amazing. I'd say on a team perspective too, like the team was really scared to be honest, like moving over here. There were concerns. ⁓ But... ⁓

Kiera Dent (18:58)

always.

Jeff & Andrew (19:10)

You know, when we said it first, were like, we're do, we're, we're going to do this instead. And they were like, Oh, so I think keeping them regularly informed and kind of showing them the things that we're doing. like, we made them a part of the process so they could be excited about it. We took them to visit when milestones were done. We'd like, Hey, meet over there. We'll, we'll talk about it. Um, we kept them involved in the process. And I mean, we we weren't like financially open about all of the things, but it was nice to be able to like, listen, we've got to buy.

cabinets and cabinets cost this much money. You know what I mean? So ⁓ we could do it, but we have to do this. So we want to take care of it too. So it instilled value and it's still excitement. And then helping, you know, getting votes on like color choices or that sort of thing involved them. And then before the move, they were really nervous about what it was going to be like in a space as large bringing on new team members. So with the help from y'all Tiffany, we

Kiera Dent (19:42)

Yeah, yeah. huh.

Jeff & Andrew (20:08)

We were like, okay, everybody write down what the specific concerns are. And then we're going to talk about how we're going to combat that. ⁓ So we're going to prep you with like the solution before a problem even occurs. And that was, that was helpful. And then we did move in one weekend, long weekend ourselves with some movers. It was crazy. And everybody pitched in and everybody just had fun doing it. And it was Labor Day weekend, so we had an extra day. Yeah.

Kiera Dent (20:20)

So smart.

Amazing.

You're like, okay, we'll do it. I mean, Labor Day seems very fitting. It's labor, it's very intensive.

Jeff & Andrew (20:41)

I know, right?

Yeah. But we didn't require anybody. like, hey, we're doing this. Like nobody's required to, but if you want to, we would love it and we'll make it fun. And it was good. then like, what, less than a month after we got slammed at the hurricane in North Carolina, the mountain. So that was a hurdle. We had a generator that was took the longest to get in the last thing installed. One the expensive things we bought and they didn't hook it up. Because the gas inspection.

Kiera Dent (20:49)

and

Shoot. Uh-huh.

Thank

Jeff & Andrew (21:11)

So double check your inspections, make sure the gas inspection is ⁓ like.

Kiera Dent (21:14)

Yes.

Yeah, make sure

it's actually all prepped for in case of hurricane. But like, kudos to you guys. Like, I'm so proud of you and to hear, I love the two different perspectives. And I think something I hear is you are true to yourselves. want like, knowing that you want to be, like I said, I probably like butchered your vision just a little bit. Sorry on that. Like being the dentist that the community chooses and being the place that we can serve them. Well, you can only serve so many patients in six ops, which is like a makeshift six op. We were like five, realistically five and a half. So,

Jeff & Andrew (21:21)

Yeah.

Kiera Dent (21:48)

It's like, it's not like, if you build them, they will come. You guys already knew you had made this footprint. You knew what you wanted to do. I feel like you guys really hunkered in. You're like, we're going to be a part of this community. This is where we want to be. We want to change the lives of our employees. And I feel like in doing so, I think that almost gave you the, the steam. It's not like something I really love about both of you is on paper, you guys have really sexy numbers that I'm always like, love having them as clients. Like great job over there.

Jeff & Andrew (22:14)

Yeah.

Kiera Dent (22:15)

But as

human beings, mean, right? As a consultant, you're like, all right, like, look at my perfect, like, model students over here. Well, you guys are one of them. And I'm really proud of the numbers you put up, and I'm proud of the dentistry you do. But the piece is you grew because you wanted to for the impact. You didn't grow for the ego associated with it. And I think that that's so paramount because I think that that's why you guys still are happy. I think that's why you love coming to work.

going through that mayhem, if it's not your passion project, if it's not something you really want to do to serve and to give back and to have a bigger vision beyond the dollar signs, I think the dollar signs for you were secondary and the community and the impact was number one. And I think that's why, like, of course you got to pay for it. I mean, there's no doubt about that. I mean, maybe you guys are truly children of like the billionaires and who knows what world and I didn't know that about you. I'm pretty confident you're not yourself made of where you are over there, but like.

Jeff & Andrew (23:01)

No. ⁓

Kiera Dent (23:06)

Looking at that, feel like that's a huge probably differentiator of your success because it was built from passion, love, and a desire to give back while also being incredibly good. Like Andrew, you're an amazing clinician. And I think that having, like you said, Jeff, top-notch dentistry, Jeff, you're amazing at building this culture and this community of people that love and serve. I think combine that together, then want to give it back to your community. I feel like your success was inevitable and I'm just really proud of you. And Jeff, to hear about going to the inspections, I'm like, yeah, good for you because

How annoying is it when you walk in, like my husband and when we were building our house, they were gonna put our huge AC unit on the one side of our house that I could actually put like planter boxes and have stairs. And I was like, why don't we just move this over here? My husband tells me all the time, like, Kiera, that was one of your best moves. And I'm like, yes, because the function and the flow, like it would have been all of our neighbors. Where do you think their AC unit is? Right in the middle of the only usable space on the side of the house and they all put it. And I'm like, you're welcome. Or like little things like, like all of it.

Jeff & Andrew (23:56)

Yeah, everything. Yeah. Yeah.

Kiera Dent (24:03)

And so

just like making it a space that you wanna be in that you're proud of, I just really love and like hearing, I mean, you had an obstacle right after you started and I think some people could have gotten really down, but it's like, no, we built something bigger. It's not like a burn and churn. You guys wanna be there for the long haul. You want this to be a place you're proud of and I think that that just bleeds through. So I'm really proud of you and thanks for sharing that journey. And I wanna pivot to highlight both of you just a smidge because Andrew, I think you do something really special.

and you're able to mentor doctors really well. And I think that this is something that not all dentists are able to do. And Jeff, you're more than welcome to chime in on anything. Like at this point, guys, you should compliment one another. mean, hello, let me just make your life even better for you. But Andrew, can you walk us through, what do you feel are some of the things you do so superior? Like, I want you to brag a little bit. This is a moment where Kiera Dent is so freaking proud of you. Tiff is proud of you. Our company is proud of you. ⁓

because I think other people want to know how to do this. So I almost want to peel back the curtain just a little bit on what are some of the things you do really well in assembly? Like I said, Jeff, chime in too. Then we're going to reverse. We're going to talk about Jeff and Andrew, you can chime in on him. So like both of you can just schmooze each other tonight as well. You guys are going to have an amazing night post podcast. You're welcome. All right. But truly, Andrew, what are some of the things you feel set in part?

Jeff & Andrew (25:11)

Yeah, thank you.

Well,

that leads into a great, was going to say, like, I feel really lucky to have Jeff, obviously. And I know not everybody has a Jeff or can trust someone as much as I trust Jeff. But I think obviously it can be very hard on our marriage. So that's one side note. And I know like a lot of couples that that happens. But I think I have to always. Right? know. Two years ago, I was worried. And in gay years, that's like 40 years.

Kiera Dent (25:38)

I'm so proud of you. 10 years in and you still, I think, love each other, which is amazing. I think

everybody is. You're like, okay. But it's one of those things also though, I will say, like throwing it out to couples, when couples go through what you have gone through and you're able to like be through the thick and the thin of it, I will also give advice. Like when I watched people go through dental school, and Andrew, I'm sure you saw this, I was so angry at so many of our like friends that went through.

Jeff & Andrew (25:52)

you

Kiera Dent (26:05)

Like they went through the residencies, they got to the end and I'm like, you freaking made it. And that's when they get divorced. And I'm like, Oh, if you're to get divorced, get divorced during the hard times, but like you have made it. You've made it. And now it's like, it's a matter of like, we bonded together, we grew together. And I think like making sure that stays a priority in your marriage. You guys remember I was a marriage and finally therapist prior to this. Like that was my thing. I like, Oh, don't give up on what you like. You went through the freaking hardest years together. Now it's like, enjoy this amazing life we built together.

Jeff & Andrew (26:10)

Yeah.

Right, yeah. All right.

Yeah.

Yeah

Kiera Dent (26:35)

and don't lose sight of how grateful we are for one another. anyway, like off my

I hope all of you see the potential within yourselves and ⁓ I'd love to be a part of your story and your journey. So reach out, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on The Dental Team A Podcast.

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Tiff and Dana give guidance on how to successfully manage a practice through an office manager, including long-term business vision, powerful leadership, productive systems, and a ton more.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:01)

Hello Dental A Team listeners. Dana and I are back at it again today ⁓ with our podcasting spirits behind us and we are so excited to be here with you guys today. Gosh Dana, this is like the beginning of summer for us right now and no matter where you're at in the country, I think you've either been on summer for a few weeks or you're just barely getting there. feel like summer breaks are wild. Like Brody is in school two weeks past my niece. Like it's just been crazy but.

The most fun part about this for both of us is that, I don't know if you guys know this or not, we get asked this question a lot, where is your headquarters? Like, where are you guys based out of? And Dana and I, Britt and I, gosh, I think most of the consultants at this point are in Arizona. Our HQ is actually Reno, Nevada, but we work from home. So, fun part about podcasting during the summer is that each of us have some sort of little or family member or someone

At the door honestly like I had to text in our you know got a family chat go and that's like hey guys FYI and Dana's like let me put a sign on the door so Dana welcome I know I know being a mom is something that lights both of us up and I think one of the best I don't know most I don't know it was like fun parts of our relationship is being able to also laugh about what it's like to be a mom in

Arizona in the sports and in the summer and I love that about the two of us and Dana tell me what has what's the start of summer looking like for you guys over there you've got your I have it easy I will never never discredit the amount of moming that you do over there so tell me how is mom life today Dana

Dana (01:47)

it's good. You know, I mean,

it's wild, right? Like, there's a beauty of being able to work from home in that, like, I can very quickly throw chicken nuggets out the door and everybody is fed, right? Yes. But they like all summer long, there are no go zones, depending on what I am doing during the day. So like, if I am on calls, the front room is off limits, because it's directly beside my office. And so I can hear everything that you do.

The Dental A Team (01:58)

You just turn them down the whole way, get it. Yep.

I love

that.

Dana (02:17)

So I'm constantly like chunking my windows of time as to like where they can be in the house and I've had to put signs up because my neighbor kids also want to come get my kids and I'm like well we just can't knock on the door right now.

The Dental A Team (02:31)

Yeah,

yeah, please just give us a moment. I love that. And honestly, though, it's kind of ⁓ like time blocking for practices, right? Because like, when can you do certain procedures? Like you don't want, you know, sedation in the front room with everybody walking by, you've got to have a very specific place for the sedation and a very specific, like no-go zone of do not pass this line once we've started. So it kind of kind of makes me think

Dana (02:34)

Yeah.

question.

The Dental A Team (02:59)

of how synchronistic life is in general. I say this a lot, with clients that tell us work-life balance, right? We just talked to a client about this together recently, and I'm like, goodness gracious, like we just need a life-life balance, because if we take the systems that work in whatever aspect of life it's coming to you, and if you've got systems that are working at work,

you can probably duplicate them at home and vice versa. If you have systems that are working at home, you can probably take that same thought and that same theory and apply it at work. And it works truly like tremendously because your brain's already wired to think that way. So when you can just stop trying to recreate the wheel and use what you know works, applying it in all areas of your life, things just are easy. I feel like that's how you create easy discipline.

and how you create easy habits. So taking that like time blocking and room blocking and like, guys, from these hours, this is what you're gonna be doing. It's very similar. Billing, you know, all those things. Billing coordinators need to be like, don't bother me between these hours. It's just like, you've got your kids on the other side. I tell doctors constantly or office managers, leadership teams that people are people. We learn how we learn. And if we look at how we teach our children, we can duplicate that.

Dana (03:59)

Yeah.

Thank you.

The Dental A Team (04:18)

in training systems as well. So Dana, I just spiraled my whole brain right there. I love it. Thank you. Thanks for being such an incredible mom. You are truly impressive. And for those of you who don't know, she's got a slew of children and animals and happenings at her home constantly. And the way that you manage all of that truly is impressive. I think you're an incredible person, Dana.

Dana (04:41)

Thank you, Tib. It is a whole lot of winging it. So I appreciate that.

The Dental A Team (04:44)

But winging

it, I mean, I think we all wing it when it comes to parenting. I don't think anybody actually knows the step-by-step on what we're doing. So we're all winging it and we're all doing the best that we can, but you also make time for you. You make time for work. You make time for making sure that you're prioritizing what makes you happy and fulfilled because I think that is then teaching your children to do the same and it's super cool to watch. So having an almost grown kid.

I live vicariously through you watching you parent your children and it's super fun from over here. So thanks. Thanks for continuing to have more for us. I'm here for it. I'm here for it. And I hope all of you are here for it too. know you guys, I know you guys get a kick out of my questions I give to Dana because Dana just intrigues me her life and really her choices intrigue me. She's always got something that I'm like, give me all the goods. What can I do now? Brody brought home a soda the other day or I guess the water.

Dana (05:11)

you

Keep enjoying the video, Jeff.

you

The Dental A Team (05:38)

that you had mentioned a couple weeks ago and I was like, oh my gosh, I know what that is because Dana told me. So you guys, she's here for the tips. If you want them, write in, ask them. Ask Dana, go on Instagram on Mondays now I think it is. Mondays or Fridays, it pops up all week for me. I find them, but she's on there too you guys. She's constantly just divvying out the tips. Find Dana, she's our tip master. And today I'm going to pick your brain some Dana. I want to talk about really effectively

Dana (05:41)

you

The Dental A Team (06:06)

running a practice through an office manager. And doctors, I don't want you to hear that and think, OK, I don't have to listen to this. Let me go get my manager. Nope, this is for all of you guys. This is for everyone. This is for dentists, owners, office managers, leadership, anyone aspiring to become an office manager, anyone aspiring to just give good tips to the team. Office management can come in varying sizes. And the label office manager, we found even just in hiring consultants, right?

hiring when we were in practice that office manager really doesn't have a good definition for it in the industry. Anything can be an office manager. Most of the time, Dana, maybe you could speak to this as well, I have found that the office manager position, like quote unquote there, usually narrows into billing or dealing with upset patients and really doesn't broaden outside of that. Have you found that as well, Dana? Yeah.

Dana (07:04)

Mm Yeah. Yep.

And I usually feel like anytime it is promoted within right, it's typically like, well, she's really good in those insurance. So yeah, yep, I agree with you. Sometimes, you know, yeah, there's some HR pieces added in there or like, you know, I, but I feel like it does encompass mostly keeping track of AR and the money, which is fine.

The Dental A Team (07:11)

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think that's one aspect of it, right? And being able to oversee everything. So there's different avatars for a billing representative, a billing person, and most other positions in the practice. That's gonna come with a different kind of avatar. So depending on the type of office manager that you want in your practice, that's gonna be making a decision there on what your avatar is going to look like. And for us, your office manager in your practice is really helping to run the practice. think Dental A Team considers an office manager

like a secondary owner almost, right? You're looking at it as this is my practice. This is something that I'm fully invested in growing and I love it the same as I would if it were my own business. So that kind of investment really comes from a certain personality type and a certain leadership type. So that style of office manager is really what we're speaking to today. And there's nothing wrong with any type of office manager, any style, any avatar, like you do whatever your business needs.

is what your avatar needs to look like. So today we're speaking towards that different kind of mindset of really growing the practice and being fully invested in it. The reason that we look at it that way is we really think that there's two different minds between a dentist and the office manager that needs to push the agenda of the practice. Our dentist is kind of our idea maker. They're the person who's just coming up with all of the plans. And I think we all

can name a few of these. have one on our team. Ms. Kierdent is fantastic at this. She has the brains and the ideas behind most of the things that we do. And they're just shouting things out, right? They're like, my gosh, we could do this. We could do that. We could do this. And the team is like, stop changing things. Well, when you leave the practice management up to the dentist who's there to create ideas, and there's no one there to filter ideas through,

and to project manage when things do make it past go and we're like, yes, we're gonna do this. When it's all on the doctor, you are gonna suffer those changes consistently because no one's there to say, hey, is this projecting us towards the goals we're working on or is this confusing us and keeping us from reaching those goals? So then we do have teams that are in constant chaos and constant change and they're like, Dana, I can't take another word from this doctor. It's like, well, that's.

We gotta get the doctor out of that position. So that's the type of office manager we're speaking to today is a type of office manager that can say, yes, that's a fantastic idea. Let's see where it will take us. Is this going to push us towards those goals? I have to just brag a little on a client that I've worked with for a while now. Near and dear to my heart, like just two of my favorite humans in the whole world. And honestly, their whole practice is full of some of my favorite humans, but.

not that they didn't start as my favorite humans, but they didn't start there, right? They didn't start where they are today, years later. They started in a very different position. And when they came to me, their goals were to grow production. were like, everybody's goal, right? I want to grow production, which actually means I want to grow collections, right? I want more income. We want more saved on the side. They wanted to reinvest in the building. They wanted to do a little bit of a build out, but they knew that they didn't have a lot of space, so they needed to work with what they had.

And the dentist who was there, he really, really wanted to be a dentist. He loves having a business, but entrepreneurship just is a path for his dentistry. So he truly wants to be a dentist, and he wanted to do more surgery. He wanted to do more involved dentistry. So I was like, fantastic. Office manager, let's talk. Now this specific office manager had never been in dentistry before, at all.

at all, very different career path. could tell you all about it on a whole, it would take a whole podcast because the career is just so cool. Very different career path, probably about as far from dentistry as you could possibly get. And he made the decision to support the doctor and said, I'm going to figure this out. And he was a great manager, right? He managed expectations, but really felt stressed out, second guessed his decision.

He's like, don't think this was right for me. I don't think I'm cut out for this. And I was like, well, let's test the waters. Let's see. And we went down a journey together that has changed, I think, the course of both of our lives, probably. It's just been so cool to take this journey with them. But taking an office manager, Dana's done this too. I think all of us at some point have taken an office manager who's never worked in dentistry before and helped to create an amazing office manager.

So all of you dentists who are like, well, they don't have experience. It's not always necessary if the other pieces are there and if the dentistry can be taught if there's space for it. So keep that in mind. I don't I'm not telling you go find someone with no experience. I'm not telling you you have to have experience. Like I'm telling you it's just got to fit for you. This specific manager and a couple others that I've worked with didn't have that experience. And what we worked on then was what it takes to be an office manager, which is actually leadership.

And Dana, I know you work on this a lot with a lot of practices, starting with the leadership and really becoming the person that a team can look up to, starting with the culture and creating what you want your practice to look like. Because without that, Dana's freaking systems queen. But Dana, how difficult is it to create systems for a practice that we can't imagine what we want it to look like?

as compared to being able to imagine what we want the business and the practice to look like and what the leadership should look like, then the system's followed. Which do you feel like in your experience, especially with an office manager who's never been trained in dentistry, which do you feel like is the path that you take the most frequently?

Dana (13:06)

Thank

⁓ hands down it's building the vision and figuring out what you want because anywhere in dentistry when it comes to the schedule when it comes to your leadership team when it comes to goals like you have to know what you're trying to achieve before you build the pieces to achieve it

The Dental A Team (13:41)

Yeah, exactly. And I think a lot of people start with the systems, right, Dana? And that's where it gets really confusing. And it's like, the systems are so tailored to an individual. Systems are so tailored to a specific practice, and that practice is goals. So when you start out just blanket systems, it could be anything. You could create anything, and it will or won't work. It's it's hard to tell. It's like throwing spaghetti at a wall and hoping that it sticks, that it's done.

you just, don't know. But when you have a vision and you can create something that supports that vision, which you want that to ultimately look like, you're able to custom tailor it. And that's what we were able to do with this practice and working side by side with the office manager in leadership, teaching him how to speak to people, how to have conversations hard or easy, how to invest in other people and really showing him or giving him the opportunity to see what it feels like.

when you put yourself aside and you put someone else almost ahead of you without it being ahead of you. Like that's hard to say out loud. Like him investing in his team and his team's success in the practice gave him such a high, I couldn't even stop, like his trajectory. He was just running because he felt so good about having this higher purpose. And his higher purpose truly turned out to be

investing in ⁓ leading and guiding his team members for them to be their best selves. So within that, we learned, ⁓ what he learned is really like hiring and firing the systems behind a five star patient experience, the handoffs, like what creates this relationship that I'm having with my team members, with my team members and my patients. So it started to spin once we got some really good leadership footholds in there, some really good communication skills and practicing.

⁓ weeding out the team members that didn't need to be there and replacing them with team members that should be there, narrowing down those avatars, narrowing all of this down. He was really able to see how the slightest movements that he made truly affected every piece of the practice. He would move one needle just slightly. I always think of implant torquing, right? Like two millimeters is a lot when it comes to an implant. And that two millimeter change in a system

or in a statement or a word that you use can create a massive difference. It's the success or the failure of an implant. And same goes for everything you do in life. said earlier, everything you do, you just duplicate it. So if you're making a two millimeter change on an implant, what's going to happen in that respect when it comes to words, to leadership, and to guidance? And he truly took all of that and invested in people. And he said, hey, I'm learning too. Help me learn. And he got his team on board. It's been.

Incredible to see their success and so between the leadership and then the systems which gosh guys we talk systems constantly Dana Dana we did NDTR I Mean you guys are basic our basic core systems of Dental A Team truly work and they are case in point leadership is an ideal leadership is kind of that like personal side of it, there's not a

Dana (16:43)

you

The Dental A Team (16:59)

black and white, follow these steps and now you're a great leader. It's a learning system. It's something that is in you, something you have to desire, something you have to want. But the core systems, the handoffs, the NDTR, the ICRP, the communicating between team members, ⁓ gosh, blocked scheduling. We implemented blocked scheduling. We implemented time management skills. We implemented avatars for every team member, avatars for our patients, marketing.

All of the core pieces of what Dental A Team has to offer, we've implemented with this practice and gained his leadership skills as well as an entire team full of leaders at this point. They have leaders of departments, but you guys, every single team member on their team is a leader because they are manning their ships and they're acting as if they're leaders for the good of the practice overall. And it's been incredible. So that first year we worked on core systems of NDTR.

blocked scheduling and just literally ICRP handoffs to your side. Leadership in conjunction with that. So getting rid of some team members that no longer fit the needs of the practice or just weren't on board with the trajectory, replaced some great new team members in there, got them trained up. And you guys within that first year, remember their goals were to increase production, start a build out, right? And get the doctor doing dentistry.

So we were able to remove the doctor from a lot of those pieces, a lot of the decisions that he didn't have to make, we took them away from him. He didn't have to make them anymore and he trusted doctors, he trusted the process, he trusted the office manager. So things that the office manager could decide that if, you know what, if the office manager decided incorrectly, could be fixed, right? Or it's like, it's not that big of a deal. We could have gone the other way, but it's not that big of a deal, okay? Strategically moving those decisions over to the office manager.

We started doing that so that the doctor was in the chair more. He increased his surgery so much, you guys. increased, they were able to with one doctor and two hygienists, they were able to increase their production by $800,000 that first year just by narrowing down the systems and the leadership, getting the right people in the right seats, getting the right systems in place, using them and really knowing where they were going. And that first year was incredible. Stack on top of that.

They've decreased the decisions from the doctor, increased the amount of productivity that he was able to do without, by the way, expanding his hours. He stayed within the same hours. And we also, the end of that first year, got them ready for that associate space because they wanted to see that expansion. So they started the conversations on what it looked like to expand the physical building, and then what is it going to look like to add another dentist. And we projected.

five years out and then worked backwards on one, three and five years of even down to like how many hygienists and how many assistants will we need to hire? What will your overhead cost be based on current employee numbers, et cetera, all of those pieces. And we were able to just spear this incredible trajectory of growth, not even just for their first year, but gosh, five years later now, Dana, you know, they've got this massive building. They have impacted the community.

so much. Like there are people that come up to them on the streets of their community and thank them for what they were able to do for a friend or a family member, not even for themselves. They have had literal strangers say, I know who you are and you changed my friend's life. Like that's crazy, Dana, crazy. And to think that it started from leadership skills, just from someone who is invested in that blows my mind, you know?

Dana (20:53)

Yeah, yeah. And I think that it's when you have an office manager that can make a mindset shift of leading versus managing, right?

And I know it's called an office manager, right? So we can kind of get ourselves stuck in that place, but it's like managing is the tasks, right? That's the tasks, the leadership, right? That's the people and the culture. And when you have those pieces running smoothly, then the task part becomes so much easier. And so I do feel like that is when you have a manager who is focused on the people, the culture and leading.

leading to the tasks versus like being the one that feels like they have to complete all the tasks themselves.

The Dental A Team (21:35)

Yeah, yeah,

that's a great point. I love that because that's massive, I think for everyone listening. you've got, gosh, like if there's KPIs on you, right? There's a measurable that you're responsible for. I think one of the biggest things that we do really well, is getting people to understand you don't have to do all of the pieces to create that result. You just have to make sure the result happens.

To your point, a lot of managers and lot of doctors who are managing hold it all to themselves in order to manage the results to get the right result. But then we end up not having space for whatever it is that we need to get done, right? And we get lost in that and it gets a little chaotic. I know I've done that. I did that as a manager in practice and my team suffered tremendously because I kept everything. So one, I was not empowering my team.

I was basically telling them that they couldn't do it, right? They didn't know how to do it. I could do it better. I was overworked, overburdened and burnt out. I was angry constantly. Like I woke up one day and I was like, this is not who I am. What have I done? What have I done and how can I change this? And it was that exact thing. It was the fact that when you become an office manager, sometimes it feels like you're supposed to do all of the things.

And we forget that we have an entire team of people who want to help us. And I think Dana doctors do that too. We've seen that as well. And coaching them out of that, think is sometimes part of our biggest jobs as consultants. The biggest contributor is coaching them out of holding all of the cards to themselves. Would you agree?

Dana (23:26)

Yeah, yep, absolutely.

The Dental A Team (23:28)

Yeah. Well, guys, I know that sometimes we can chat and you can say, gosh, I see myself in that. I hear that. I've done that. ⁓ Or I want to do that or something similar. So I hope that today you heard something that you can take for face value, something that you can utilize if it's systems that you need to go back to. You guys, there's a slew of podcasts all over the place. We have a million of them.

Just search NDTR if you don't know what that is. We're not explaining it today because we've done it a million times. So search it on our website, you guys, on our website, TheDentalATeam.com. can go to podcasts and then you can search within our podcast. So search some of those systems, you guys. Search Avatar. Search all of those pieces and figure out where are you at right now and how can you guide yourself towards those goals. Dana, thank you so much for doing this podcast with me. I love our time together as always and I know.

It's busy season for everybody right now, so thank you for carving out the time. I appreciate you. Listeners, thank you so much for being here. We find this so valuable. We love our time together. You give us this opportunity to be quote unquote face to face. Thank goodness for visual podcasts nowadays. And you give us this opportunity to give our speech to the world. So thank you. Please drop us a five star review below and let us know how valuable you felt this was. And as always, reach out

Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. We're here to help. Thanks guys.

View Details

Kiera gives tips to get your practice to become one where team members have accountability and ownership.

1. Set clear expectations and empower decision-making.
2. Create measurable goals.
3. Celebrate those who achieve.

Episode resources:

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Schedule a Practice Assessment

Leave us a review

Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.834)

Hello, Dental A Team Listeners, this is Kiera, and I hope you are just having an amazing day. I hope that things are going so well for you. I hope that things are just really, really, really incredible for you. I am so excited to be podcasting with you. I just truly, truly love and adore all of you. And I just think that the world of dentistry is such a great place for us to be a part of. And so today I just wanted to dive in. I wanted to give you guys some tips. I wanted to have some fun with you today.

And a topic that comes up often is how do we honestly help our team have ownership and accountability? It's something I hear a lot on sales calls. It's things that I hear from clients of, Kiera, like I just want my team to want to own this company. I want them to be accountable. I want them to feel like they own part of this. And so I wanted to just dig into this because the reality is there are a lot of ways to do this. And I just want to ask you, what would it be like if every team member in your practice actually took ownership? Like, what would it look like?

So today let's talk about how to make this happen. The reality is when we have accountability, there is better basic care. There's higher efficiency. There's like we get stronger team engagement. We're able to have better profitability in the business. We're able to have a happier, more cohesive team. All these things are super, super powerful for you. And the reality is that these are gonna be some effective strategies to help you create that culture of ownership in your practice. So.

You guys know us, we are the Dental A team. We love what we do. We love being here with you. We love serving you. We love giving you tips and tricks to make your practice even better and easier. So that's what we're about. That's what we're here for. And we are so excited to have you here. The reality is we have coached hundreds of practices, thousands of team members and helped them figure out exactly how to give this ownership feel, how to give accountability feels, how to be able to do these things within your practice. And I'm happy to share those things with you.

We do work in person and virtually with practices. We work across the nation and we do it in a fun and effective way. We're truly the experts in consulting and it's something that I just love and obsess of working with clients. Today, I just want to do this quick short actionable episode with you guys so that way you guys could go implement them. I like it to be tactical, practical, having a good time. What do you say? I'm here for it. I hope you're here for it. So step one to get this ownership and accountability is

Kiera Dent (02:16.386)

Number one, you wanna have clear expectations and empower decision making. So something that we did just recently was we changed up job descriptions and we were able to make it to where people knew exactly what their decision making power was. And I thought that that was something so just weird. I was like, do people really need to have this? And what I realized is they do, they need to know, they need to know what is it? Like, what can I make decisions on? And Britt and I talked a little bit about these six principles.

of how to make decisions of like, number one is look into it, report it and I'll decide what to do. Number two is look into it, report alternatives with pros and cons and your recommendation. Number three is look into it, let me know what you intend to do, but don't do it unless I say yes. Number four is look into it, let me know what you intend to do and do it unless I say no. And five is take action, let me know what you did. Six is take action, no further contact required. And what's interesting is when you start to give team members

kind of even these levels, which one do you want them to do? How can they make it? What are the areas that they have control over to make decisions and really empowering your team? That way it doesn't fall all back onto to leaders. This really can help them start to feel a sense of ownership because now they know, they know their department, they know the areas that they can actually influence and impact because otherwise it just becomes blaming, it becomes waiting, it becomes like, hey, we don't really know. And so what you've got to do is you've really got to make sure that there's clear defined roles.

I notice the front office is often what I call sloppy soup. We don't know who's doing what, everybody's doing everything and no one is actually accountable. Nobody actually can do things. They have no idea what they're doing. And so let's get out of that. Let's figure out what are the clear roles, what are the responsibilities, and what is the KPI or key performance indicator? What is the number that that role is going to actually impact and have an effect over? That's really what we wanna look into. We wanna dive into that. That's gonna help them out.

Then within that, we help them also know what is your decision making authority and also who do you report to within that. What this now does is we've just set the rules of the game. Your team now knows who do I talk to? What can I make decisions over? What my number is? What my job is? There's a lot less confusion. And I know this sounds like so cliche and like, but Kara, that's really it. A lot of times the ownership just comes from a lack of clarity. It comes from a lack of, don't even know what I need to do. This is where we're going to be able to get.

Kiera Dent (04:36.27)

people super empowered, super on top of it, super on their A game and helping them to really be able to make decisions. A lot of times people don't have ownership, not because they don't care, because they don't want to, but because they honest to goodness just don't know, like they feel they can't take the ownership, they feel they can't make the decisions. So I have really loved those six areas of how can I get feedback? So when Brit has a project or we're working on something new, so let's say we're rolling out a new project or we're hiring a new team member.

I try hard to tell Britt like, okay, this is a number four. So look into it, let me know what you intend to do and do it unless I say no. And when you're working with new team members and new leaders, sometimes they are gonna be at this like look into it, report and I'll figure out what to do. But that doesn't give a lot of ownership. That gives a lot of dictation and dictatorship rather than ownership. And so if you really, really want to have your practice flourish, help them know what the clear expectations are, what their role is, and then what their decision-making authority is.

There's a practice that I watched do this really, really, really successfully. Well, and what's interesting is the owner doctor picks, like they are, they're growing, they have multiple practices, multiple locations. And the owner doctor picks and says like, this is where we're going to actually have the practice be after that, the team members get to make all the rest of the decisions and it's leadership and then the office managers. And I think what's really incredible about that of the rules of the game have been laid out and then they're allowed to make those decisions. How much ownership do think this practice has? It's insane.

and they fall through and they're accountable because they feel that they actually can contribute. They feel like they can own this. And I think that's one of the biggest pieces to helping your teams have that. So that's number one. So call to action on that is like, your key responsibilities, figure out the KPIs, get clear job descriptions, and then help them know what the decision-making power is. How can they do this? And even start using those six steps. They really, really, really do help. It's been incredible to watch it work out. Step two is going to be making sure that they have measurable goals and accountability system.

What we're gonna do is we've got job descriptions, it's defined, they know what their number is, but now like what are the goals? What are we even reaching for? And then how do we follow up on this? So Tiff and I were talking about this with a client and it's interesting because when you actually have strong accountability with your practice, team members flourish. But if we don't have accountability, we don't follow up if something's off track. We don't look into it and ask them like, hey, I noticed this, what is your plan to get this back on track? This is going to really struggle because A, our numbers are going to go down.

Kiera Dent (07:02.678)

And B, our accountability is really lacking. And it's wild because when you start to track your KPIs and we track them consistently, and then when they're off track, we figure out why and we get them back on track. Like it's this whole tracking progress and having follow through to make sure things are actually moving forward. Otherwise we just sit there. Otherwise team members are just like, well, we track numbers for the sake of tracking numbers, but what does it really matter? Or we don't even track numbers. You're looking for trends and we want to teach our team to look at these numbers, their KPIs, the numbers that they have.

We want to teach them to use these numbers to be able to be levers. and I talk about this often of how numbers are levers in a business. And once you know what your numbers are, you can actually then know, I raise our production? Do we need to increase our diagnosis? Do we need to increase our case acceptance? Do we need to decrease our costs? Do we need to make more outbound calls? Like what really needs to happen? And we utilize all those numbers to figure out exactly what we're doing with it. So it really becomes something of like,

tracking on a scorecard and all of our practices track it. We have team members tracking this. And then we teach leaders how to follow through with accountability. And accountability is really just being consistent in a lot of ways and empowering them like, hey, this number's off track. What's your game plan? What's your plan for it? And this way we can constantly review it. So we recommend tracking your numbers weekly and then reviewing them in depth monthly is what we do with a lot of our offices to make sure that our numbers are moving forward, that things are tracking in a really good way. This is what it's going to be. And what's crazy is

People who start using KPI trackers, people who start tracking their numbers with their team is going to be an area where they actually like truly they start hitting numbers that they've never hit and they're like, wow, just as tracking numbers, instantly we started to become more profitable. Instantly we start to have more production on the schedule. Why? Because we're focused on it. And what you focus on is what you're going to achieve. So if we're focusing on these numbers, you better believe they're going to start to increase. We then start to change systems and implement other pieces based on what the numbers are telling us.

Otherwise, we're not gonna change things. So this is where it's super powerful and super fun because now you've got numbers. You've got all these different pieces that are going to impact it and influence it that are really truly going to help you and your team thrive. So really building up a simple tracking system to track those KPIs weekly and monthly is going to exponentially help you. And then number three, when I think about ownership, like...

Kiera Dent (09:23.022)

I don't know how to say this in a polite way, so I'll just say it. I also think for owners realizing that your team, you are still the owner and team members might not take as much ownership and that's not to say there's anything wrong. So I think also being like realistic with what's going on with it, but then also really truly highlighting those who take ownership. So within our company, we have our team read extreme ownership. We have pens, I'm not even joking. I have it right here, I saw it.

Literally, extreme ownership. have pens, there we go, sorry, extreme ownership. And we share it with our team and we remind them that we want them to have extreme ownership. I want them to take ownership of their position. I want our leaders to take ownership of their departments within the realms. Remember, we put the bumper lanes there of what are the realms and what can they do? And then I want them to truly take ownership of their practice. I want to constantly highlight team members that are taking ownership.

So we put that in our Friday five shout outs. put that in our core value shout outs. I put that in highlights in the team chat of celebrating and encouraging when people are taking ownership. And then if someone's not having that honest conversation with them of, this is what I'm expecting. What's going on? What are the hurdles? What are the stumbling blocks and how can we overcome those together? That way we can truly own our business. And I think when I realized like bottom line is a lot of team members may never care about the business as much as I do. And that's okay.

I really hope you heard that. That's okay. But there will also be a lot of team members who do care about the business like you do. They care about it maybe even more than you do and that's really beautiful. And so hold on to those ones who are truly incredible and they own all their positions and then also be okay when people aren't necessarily that way. They don't necessarily care about it as much as you do. That's also okay. But we wanna create a culture of ownership. We wanna create a culture of accountability and follow through. We wanna create a culture.

where we're following through on numbers and KPIs. And that's something that we're super, super, super paramount about doing. This is going to help you really have it. And it's wild, because when I watch offices highlight people and shout people out and I watch it within our team and I watch it within other teams, people start to follow through on that. We had an ownership award all last year and it was really fun to see who was winning ownership and who was the person who was taking this on and who was getting those MVP awards. And what's wild is you will see an increase for Rao.

Kiera Dent (11:46.446)

you'll see an increase in culture and you'll see an increase in ownership being taken in your practice. So whatever you need to do to create a culture and recognition of that, I would recommend highly implementing that. So this was a quick down and dirty episode with you of these quick actionable items for you of number one, creating clear expectations and job descriptions, making sure that we really are super crystal clear and empower that decision-making ability. Then after that, we wanna make sure we've got tracking our KPIs with accountability and follow through.

So we don't just track for tracking, we track with actual follow through updates, making sure we're getting the results that we're looking for. And lastly, finding a way for us to celebrate those who are taking great ownership within our practice and our company, really truly empowering them, giving them the praise, giving them the recognition and teaching our team that this is the culture that we want. Giving them, like I said, the reading opportunities, different opportunities, letting them know this is the culture that we want to have.

We want extreme ownership. We want to have our team taking ownership. I want you to feel like this is your practice because it is. So if this is your practice, what do you want to do? How do we want to behave? What are the core values we want to be living by and really empowering your leadership team to influence and push that forward for you. The reality is this is going to be a way to help you increase ownership and accountability within your practice. And it seems so simple, but just because it's simple and easy does not mean that it's easy to execute on.

These things take office as time, it takes change, takes change to shift a culture, it takes change to implement ownership and accountability. And so really taking that on and committing to that, you are going to be so much happier in your practice. So with that, I honestly believe that if you want to build this high performing team with true accountability, ownership, really getting them to take it on, DM us, we're here to help you. This is what we do day in and day out. I would love to help you send us a message on Instagram.

or check out our website. We have a lot of leadership tips within our newsletter, so be sure to join our newsletter. Tons of free resources for you. And if you're like, hey, I wanna go to the next level, I want you to help our team, I want you to be able to do this, reach out. This is where we're able to help you get ownership and accountability within your practice. We have these conversations with your office manager, so you don't have to. We have these conversations with team members, so you don't have to. And it becomes something where we really can grow these teams to have high accountability, high ownership.

Kiera Dent (14:01.9)

and being able to have that culture within your practice. So reach out. This is truly what the Dental A team does. This is what we're about. This is what we love to do. We are truly the best in the business at doing this. And I know that if you implement these things, you are going to see a very different practice. You're gonna see so many great things happen that you will be shocked and so happy. And with that guys, always, always, always, always make sure that the culture that you want is the culture that you're creating. You as leaders are the ones who are creating the culture. So make sure it's the culture that you want.

And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

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Kiera is joined by Dr. Christy Moore of Moore Smiles to talk about how Dr. Moore has maintained her passion for dentistry over the decades, including providing solid leadership for your team, keeping an amazing culture, and branching out to services like Botox.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:01)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today I have such a special guest. I love this woman so much. She has been a client of ours. She's been a dear friend of mine. This woman just makes you want to be a better human. And she's an incredible dentist, has some really fun ideas. I want her to come on and just share like a super unique way she runs her practice and just let you guys know this woman who I've just been so lucky to know for so long. Welcome to the show, Christy Moore. How are you today, Christy?

Dr.Christy Moore (00:27)

I'm doing great, Kara. Thank you so much for that introduction. How about yourself?

Kiera Dent (00:30)

Yeah,

I'm doing really, really well. It's been a podcast full day, but it's been fun. You're my last podcast of the day. So always an exciting thing. But Christy, you're such an incredible human. I feel like the world needs more Christy's. So I feel like you should tell them a little bit about who you are, where you're practicing, a little bit about your journey to practice ownership. And then like I said, she's doing something so special that so many offices are trying to do that can't do it successfully and Christy, you've done it. So.

Dr.Christy Moore (00:45)

Thank you.

Kiera Dent (00:57)

Just kind of tell everybody, like, how did you get into dentistry? What's kind of your path to where we are today?

Dr.Christy Moore (01:03)

Yeah, so I actually started in dentistry all the way back in 1995, which was quite a few years ago. I started out as a dental assistant and then went to high-teen school, work, yeah.

Kiera Dent (01:13)

That's why I like you. I had no clue you

were a dentalist. This is why we connect, Christy, all right? It says so much about you now. I get it, I understand.

Dr.Christy Moore (01:18)

Yeah.

So I did, I did hygiene for about 10 years and then I went to dental school. I got out of dental school in 2012 and knew that I wanted to own my own practice and came out of the gate purchasing a practice from a previous Dr. Moore, no relation. We still kind of get people wanting to know like if that's my dad or my uncle, there's no relation whatsoever. But it came out in 2012, bought my own practice and started, started right out of the gate being an owner at that point.

Kiera Dent (01:52)

That's incredible. And do you regret it? Because so many students straight out of school are like, ah, like, I don't think I'm ready. most of them are like, no, just buy. Are you so glad you bought right from the get go? Or do wish you would have like done an associate ship if you could do it all over again?

Dr.Christy Moore (02:06)

I'm glad that I bought straight out of the gate. I kind of had an idea of like how I wanted to run the practice. I think being in dentistry for a few years before I even went to dental school, I knew what I liked, I knew what I didn't like. So being able to just start out and then own my own practice and then kind of build it from there was kind of nice.

You know, I didn't go in and change things immediately that the previous owner had been there for 40 years And so like I kind of slowly started implementing things and changing things like he didn't even have Computers so, you know you come out there's they were still scheduling on the little piece of you know The book we had to like erase it and all that stuff So ⁓ it we didn't have internet in the building, you know, and I come from like having internet. Yes. Yes 2012

Kiera Dent (02:50)

2012?

Dr.Christy Moore (02:53)

So it was an event to get things up to par. But I'm so glad that I did it that way because the team that I lost team members, of course, but then the team members that stuck it out with me, like I still have one to this day. And she's one of my ride or dies and just levered her dead.

Kiera Dent (03:04)

course.

That's amazing. I think that that's something like, I can't imagine. I mean, this is a true definition of a sleeping practice, Christy. Like I tell everybody, like, you want to buy a sleeping practice, like paper charts. I've never had anybody with no internet. And when I first started assisting, so let's think it would have been in 2003. So that's when I first heard we had a paper book and they like erased it, but that was 2003. I mean, you were multi-years post that and still

Dr.Christy Moore (03:35)

Mm-hmm.

yeah.

Kiera Dent (03:41)

Yeah, and I remember like erasing, like Terry was her name up front, it was my first office. They had the like suction, we're gonna spit in it. I thought it was disgusting, but I'm like, sweet, now don't have to worry about the UV light. I have no way to suction as an assistant, so that was kind of handy for me, but also disgusting. But I remember like, erase it out. I'm like, this seems so archaic, but YOLO. So here we go. Wow, okay. So then you bought the practice in 2012, no nothing.

Dr.Christy Moore (04:00)

Yes. Yes.

Kiera Dent (04:09)

kind of walk me through your practice journey. Like where did you go? Like how many team members? What was kind of the, I mean, you basically had like nothing but up from where you started. So that was a positive, like internet, paper charts. So kind of walk me through, you started there, where are you now today? What does your practice kind of look like? And then I'm gonna ask another question. I just wanna like get to that. Then I have.

Dr.Christy Moore (04:21)

Yes, yes.

Yeah, so when I started out, I bought the practice and we had two hygienists, an assistant and a lady up front. And when I came in and told them that we were gonna go, yeah.

Kiera Dent (04:40)

I wanted to die. You're like, I'm

gonna take away your paper and pencil and she's like, what? ⁓

Dr.Christy Moore (04:45)

yeah, she quit immediately. Like I told her we were

going to get the computers and she turned in her notice. So yeah, that was immediate. So that was like the first change I had to overcome. So that was kind of interesting. ⁓ But yeah, so every, it was always funny because every time we had a change, things just got better. Things got better each time, you know, and like even like one of the hygienists that I had.

Kiera Dent (04:51)

believe it.

Yeah.

Dr.Christy Moore (05:09)

I told them we were gonna get digital x-rays, know, because we still had the old school x-rays for a while. When we went and got the digital x-rays, she prayed that Jesus would come back because she didn't want to have to do the training. I was like, seriously? Like you prayed that so that we didn't have to do the training? But yeah, there's people, people don't really like change, I found out. So.

Kiera Dent (05:19)

What?

you

No, not at all.

Wow. I used to pray, I remember telling a dentist, I had a really strict dentist on our x-rays and I remember saying like, I hope I can make it into heaven if I can't pass x-rays off with you. Like I had a lot of sass as an assistant and that was what I was praying for Jesus for, but not to not have to learn it. Cause honestly, man, cause in dental school, like assisting school, I learned on film, like, which is so...

Dr.Christy Moore (05:42)

haha

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Kiera Dent (05:54)

embarrassing because I don't feel like I'm really that old but like truly I did. I remember taking the x-rays on Dexter and then when I went to a practice and it had digital I'm like hallelujah you can actually see where your misplacement of your x-ray machine is. I'm like this is so much faster like rather than waiting for it to come through then you're like oh shoot we cone cut and I had no clue like I can't imagine why anybody would be stressed to learn that because I'm like it was so much easier than film. So much easier.

Dr.Christy Moore (06:01)

yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yes, yes,

absolutely. But that was the thing, like I think that you were a better, you know, x-ray taker before because you did not want to have to wait, you know, five minutes and then retake it and made another one. So you're like, okay, I want to make sure that I know how to do this and do this efficiently so that I don't have to take it again.

Kiera Dent (06:39)

mean, maybe that is why, because I was the one who actually trained a lot of the Midwestern students on radiology. They were having the doctors teach it and I was like, listen, guys, I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but I know you're not good at this and I'm actually really good at this. So why don't I teach these doctors how to like crush their FMX rather than you like, I'm like, you cone cut left and right guys. Like again, nothing personal. I'm just really good at this. So, but yeah, maybe that's why, cause I did learn on film originally and then went to.

Dr.Christy Moore (06:59)

Yes.

Kiera Dent (07:06)

by digital, but okay. So you go through this, you have an assistant praying for Jesus to come such an afternoon. Just go, okay. Now, now where are you at, Christy? Where's, where's life on the practice for you?

Dr.Christy Moore (07:12)

Yes, yes.

So now

we ⁓ practice in Sweetwater, Tennessee. So it's a small rural town. I have no idea how many people are there, but it's not a whole lot. But it's funny because now we have three doctors. I think we have four assistants. We have four hygienists, a treatment coordinator, an office manager, and an insurance coordinator, and two girls up front.

Kiera Dent (07:43)

So, and she has internet and likes computers. So we're good on that. That's incredible. You went from two to four and are you working on a second location? I feel like I've heard from Tiffany, like there's a mix with your friend, but like, is there a second location, just a solo location? What's kind of your plan with

Dr.Christy Moore (07:47)

Yes. Yes.

It's a solo location, but I do have a friend that I went to dental school with and she actually is working in an office that's really just kind of down the street from me. And so we've been, I've been helping her quite a bit with that because she didn't really want to like, you know, run the practice or anything like that. And so I was like, well, I'll help you all that I can. So that's what we're kind of doing there, but it's an endo practice and I do not want to do endo at all.

Kiera Dent (08:26)

You're like,

you will say good friends, you do your thing, I'll do my thing. And yeah. Exactly. And I know Tip just loves you. She loves coming to you. I know something that you have highlighted for me, like just in my time knowing you is one, you're always so positive and you're so fun. You make me laugh. But I think about your Christmas parties, like your holiday parties with your team. It's like sleepover at Christy's house, which.

Dr.Christy Moore (08:30)

Yeah, I'll refer all my endopations to you.

Kiera Dent (08:48)

Most doctors would never do that. And I just love you like, yeah, they love it. They come over, we do party, we have a slumber party, which I just think says a lot about you. So I'm curious, Christy, like something I think you do really well. Don't worry, there is a teaser. I want you guys to hear something she does really special, but I think you also do incredible for culture. What would you say to like owner doctors going from where you were to where you are today, having the culture that you built? What are some of the tips that you think you've done specifically as the owner and with your team?

to have this amazing culture that you run, Christy. Like you just have a fun culture that's amazing.

Dr.Christy Moore (09:20)

⁓ I think that my biggest thing is that I just try to treat people and treat my team the way I would want to be treated. You know, I was a team member for so long that that's all that I really knew. And sometimes I think it kind of came back and bit me a little bit just because I did allow things to go on a little bit longer in the beginning. But ⁓ I think treating people the way that I wanted to be treated has just been my motto for everything. The same way it was like dental stuff. Like I do for people in their mouth what I would want done.

in my mouth, you know? So I think if you kind of live by those rules, then how can you go wrong?

Kiera Dent (09:57)

No, I agree with you. And Christy, this is just like your Southern hospitality. I'm always like, I want to go to Sweetwater and just have you be my dentist and work for you. Like just an amazing place that you do. I think kudos to you for doing that. I have a question. If you were to go back to 2012, you're buying this practice, what would be like the one, two or three, I'll allow it to three, things that you would tell yourself to get into place or things to know? Because I think so many owners are maybe where you were in 2012. Again, I have Wi-Fi.

probably have at least a computer in the practice. But you know, you never know. I'm always shocked at what I, I walked into this office, he's elite, you know him, he's in our group. And I walked into his practice, I've been coaching for a while, like this man is doing really, really well in his practice. And I walked in and I was like, you have paper charts? Like you didn't bother to tell me for a year that this was maybe an issue? And he was like, no, it's fine. And I'm like, it is not fine. Like, what are you doing?

Dr.Christy Moore (10:45)

you

It is not fine.

Kiera Dent (10:51)

like let's get you updated real quick. Kudos to him. I don't think usually doctors are that open to changing and he did so like mad kudos to him. I was like, Christy, I'll tell you off podcast air who this was and you will be shocked to like, wait, what? He's so like up to date on things. And I was like, okay, here we are. But if you could tell yourself back in 2012, what are like one, two or three things that you feel would just be good tips of advice for someone buying a practice or taking over a team or the growth you've had in the last 13 years?

to get to the level that you are, because you're still happy, you still love dentistry, you still enjoy it, like there's still sparkle in your eye, don't, like every time you come to our calls, I don't feel like Christy's like dead on the ground, like she hates her life. Like I know you have moments of that, but I still think you're very happy. So what would be some things you would tell yourself going back into that back in 2012?

Dr.Christy Moore (11:39)

I think one of the biggest things, this is like no plug for the DLAA team or anything like that, but ⁓ I did not get a coach until about three years out of practice. ⁓ So I had practiced three years, I really wasn't growing, I really wasn't like going backwards, but I really wasn't growing or anything like that. And so at that point, that's when I actually brought on a coach. And I didn't bring on a coach because I was seeking one out. I had one just kind of show up at the office. And then it's like, he's...

He's here, you know, like I can't like say, she's busy because, you know, he's sitting out in the reception room, like waiting for me. And so like, but it was one of the best things that I did. It was hard just because, you know, they offer advice that works for, you know, like a generalized, you know, group of dentists. ⁓ And so being able to take some of that advice, but also being able to put my own spin on it.

⁓ helped me out and I probably probably listening to the coaches a little bit more than what I did because they did allow grace for me to like drag my feet a little bit, you know, because there was things that had to be done that I didn't really want to do. ⁓ I'm you know, I've been on the disc profile for every, you know, so I'm definitely an IS. So I don't like to rock the boat and I like to have a good time. So like having tough conversations is one of the things that I do not like to do.

Kiera Dent (12:56)

Yes you are.

Dr.Christy Moore (13:05)

⁓ So the other thing that I think that I would probably do is like make sure that I'm reading more books, learning how to be a leader and how to have those conversations, how to have it in a way that it's not like, I'm being the bad guy or I'm having to, you know, like be mean to somebody, but actually being able just to talk to them and just a conversation. And I've heard you say this a million times, it's a conversation, not a confrontation. And just knowing that because being clear is kind and I...

not always as clear as what I needed to be. I just wanted everybody to have fun and like me and so I let things go that probably shouldn't have been able to continue. So that's probably the two biggest things is just working on myself as a leader and you know bringing somebody in to help me a little bit earlier. I'm glad that I did bring somebody in at three years ⁓ just because like I knew I didn't know what I didn't know.

And I was like, well, I I think I need to be growing a little bit more than what I am, you being right out of dental school. So bringing somebody in, was definitely something I'm glad I did. I just wish I would have done it a little bit sooner.

Kiera Dent (14:17)

Sure. And Christy, I'll take all the plugs. Like, of course, the Dental A Team, like, yeah, having a coach is always a good thing. We love you as a client. And Tip, I know I really just watched you grow. And I do think that having someone teach you what you don't know. And mean, Christy, you came in with a lot of experience. So even like dentists who weren't assistants, weren't hygienists, I mean, you already came with a pretty good dental pedigree chart to you ⁓ to have that. agree. And even for me, I'm like, I coach businesses and yet having a coach, having someone guide me that's been there, done that, done that successfully, I think.

Dr.Christy Moore (14:20)

Ha

Kiera Dent (14:47)

is so helpful and I agree the leadership piece it's like well you did four years of dental school to learn how to get that prep get that crown it's like well let's also do at least that amount of time to be leaders and leadership is not like something you you end up at you get your degree it's a forever journey so it's like all right here we are let's settle in like this is what we elected to do but Christy I do and Tiff will say that she's watched you grow a lot which is really fun for us to see you grow and evolve too ⁓ but

Dr.Christy Moore (15:01)

No. Yeah.

Kiera Dent (15:15)

I've teased this out a couple of times. Christy has the Botox practice. Like they, she actually has done it. She's cracked the code. So many offices are like, no, I only have Botox in here to do my own face. So Christy, I want to talk about this because I've been jonesing to talk about this. I secretly want to know too, but how on earth have you cracked the code to get Botox to be a profitable portion, a big piece of your practice? ⁓ Because I think like everybody wants to do this and no one knows how to do it. Like literally, I think you are my first office to ever.

actually have it be successful. So Christy, take us away on Botox. I know people, I'm I've been waiting to drop this because I'm like, it's going to be so great. No one knows how to do this other than Christy Moore. So let's let it rip.

Dr.Christy Moore (15:57)

Well, the thing too is like anybody can do it. Like if I can do it in Sweetwater, Tennessee, like anybody can do this anywhere. Actually, I started with the first course that I ever took was probably, I think it was like 2016 or something like that. And the only reason I took the course was because I had the girls in the office wanted me to do it and a couple of patients. Yeah. And so I went and took the course and while I was at the course, I ended up signing up for the TMD course like the next day. Like that wasn't even on the plan.

Kiera Dent (16:15)

Yep. ⁓

Dr.Christy Moore (16:26)

but I went ahead and signed up for that. And that was like a true passion for me just because I was like, wow, like this does more than just, you know, helps with wrinkles. This can actually help patients. This is problems that they're having when they come in the office. And so like I did that part and then I come back to work and it's like, okay, now what? You know, so like one of the things that I started doing was I was like, okay, girls, you got to get in the chair. We're going to do some, we're going to do some Botox on you, you know? And so that was kind of how it started. We, did the team members.

Kiera Dent (16:51)

Yeah.

Dr.Christy Moore (16:54)

I had a few steady patients that would come in, but it really didn't go quick. It was a slow going thing at first. ⁓ And then I started talking to patients about TMD issues, clenching and grinding, they're coming in with headaches. Men typically don't have pain associated with it, but a lot of women do. And so I would say, well, you know what? What's really helped me is that I can go in here and treat your masseters.

and with some Botox there and then that can help you quit clenching and it helps with headaches. I'm going over that and then their next thing out of their mouth is, well, if you can do my massagers, can you help my face too? And I'm like, oh, well, actually, yes, we can. We can help you out there. And then it just kind of get a little bit more, a few more patients, word of mouth. And it really wasn't until probably about two or three years ago.

you know, we just doing more and more people. And then I brought in a marketing person who's actually my daughter and she's my treatment coordinator as well. And she's just really put it out there on social media. And she got these PowerPoints together and this is what we play. Like it's in the reception room, it's in all the treatment rooms. And it's just like what can be done, what all we offer. And so from 2016 to now,

Like we've moved from just doing like Botox, but we kind of do like all the stuff. You know, we do filler, we do threads, we do smooth threads, we do lifting threads, we do micro-needling. And then we recently just got a laser as well. So, you know, that's one of the things that just kind of getting the word out and letting people know is the biggest hurdle. And that was probably the biggest thing that helped us for sure about getting the word out. Now we have people...

that call in and like we just recently had a guy call in and he wanted to a coupon. I want to know if we had coupons for the wife because he wanted to give her a gift certificate for a Botox. He found us online. So just getting the word out there is probably the hardest thing, but it's the best thing to do. treating your team members because they're walking advertisements. And who better to practice on than your team members because

Kiera Dent (18:55)

Thank

Dr.Christy Moore (19:11)

You know, if you mess up, which you can, you know, they're more forgiving and then you get, you know, the next time around you get another little chance to do it a little bit better. And then you're like, okay, now you're learning. So not only are you getting advertisement out there, but you're learning as you go too. And I've done like all kinds of training. And I don't just go with one person. Like I've done like several different.

I've done faces, I've done metastatics, I've done the AAFE, I did a couple of different individual people because I feel like if you can learn from everybody and take a little bit from everybody and then you bring it in and make it your own and I think that's kind what we've done at our little office.

Kiera Dent (19:56)

I love it, Christy. Okay, let's talk about it. A few things I've noticed is you guys have a big Botox sign in your practice. I think it's hot pink. Is this really true? I'm pretty sure. I thought about you, right? Okay, so.

Dr.Christy Moore (20:05)

Mm-hmm Yeah, we have a slideshow

and it's got it's got all the talks it's got everything on there. Yeah The neon sign Yeah

Kiera Dent (20:13)

Yeah, so one thing is, it's neon. That's what I'm saying.

It's like a tube neon, Botox across her wall sign that I'm like, okay, number one, yes. This is what I'm talking about. When you wanna market something and people are like, I can't get Botox. I'm like, well, nobody even knows that you even do it. So, Christy, you're like loud and bold about it. It's a hot pink sign that I remember. I saw people under it. I've seen it on your social. But one of the things, like how else?

Dr.Christy Moore (20:23)

Says less talks about it. Yeah.

yeah.

Kiera Dent (20:42)

I also love that you talked about you treatment plan it in. Like you as a dentist are treatment planning this Botox and looking at their masseter muscles, just like anything else. I feel like you've done a really good job of pulling that into just even do it clinically, not just aesthetically, which I think that's also really great. But what would you say if I'm a new dentist? And I also love these to have taken it from so many people because I did have someone give me Botox and I full blown got a halo.

Like it was so thick, it was so heavy. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I've never, like, I need my eyebrows off my eyes. Like get that up. It feels terrible. So I'm glad to hear that you're like just constantly going, but what would you say? Okay, new dentist, I just took the course. I'm super excited. I think one, it bold. Two, do the masseters. Cause that's a very easy way to start treatment planning and talking about it for word of mouth. But what else would you say to do? Like, I mean, you got the whole PowerPoint. So.

What would you say would be avenue one, two or three to really grow this to get it as a big portion of my practice?

Dr.Christy Moore (21:39)

Working on friends and family, working on your team, that's the number one thing. And then just getting it out there on social media. Having your team, even if you're doing injections on them, videoing that, getting out there and doing stuff. like Laken, she makes me do things that is uncomfortable for me. And so she's like, oh, you'll be fine. You're gonna get out here and you're gonna do it. She did like a...

a Facebook live where I'm doing filler and she asked me a question and I don't answer her and she's like, what? was like, well, maybe I didn't know the answer. So if I don't know the answer, I'm just not gonna answer you. And she's like, well, it's okay. I'm just doing filler words here. We're just trying to make the conversation go. And I'm like, okay. But getting out there and just letting people know, that is the biggest thing. It's new to our practice. It's, let's.

do specials, like we've done Botox parties. ⁓ We did like a Sips and Scans and Botox. We've done kind of all types of little things where we've actually give people discounts just to get them in. We've actually gone out and gave ⁓ like little coupons out to like the different salons in the area, just trying to get the word out there any way that we can to let people know, hey, we're doing this. Who's gonna know your face better than anybody than a dentist? I mean, we have like a whole semester on just

head and neck anatomy. And so like that's, it's just the thing that they're like, I didn't know a dentist could do that. And you know, and it's like, well, yeah, like we're probably really good at doing it. You know, just because we do know the muscles, we do know everything as far as like this works this way, this works that way, you know, making sure that you're treating the patient, not just the face, like making sure that we're, cause I do have people come in and they're like, well I want some Botox up here.

Kiera Dent (23:15)

Thank

Dr.Christy Moore (23:33)

And it may be like older ladies and like they've already got the hooded eyelids. And I'm like, honey, I can't do a lot of Botox up there. Like I can take away your wrinkles, but if I do that, like you're not gonna be able to hold your eyelids up. So it's gonna make it harder for you to see. When they're like, oh, well, I don't want that. So just kind of knowing your anatomy, knowing what muscles do what, and then not being afraid to go in and just try it. Just get in there and do it. It's not.

Even if you think you've messed somebody up, I mean, it's what, three months? So it's not anything that you can't recover from. And then patients are very forgiving. They're very understanding. ⁓ In my time of doing it, I've had two people that I've actually give a little crooked smile to. And both of them are like, it's okay. Don't worry about it. And I feel horrible. And they're like, no, it's okay. It'll be better. It's not really that noticeable. And I'm like,

Kiera Dent (24:06)

Exactly.

Dr.Christy Moore (24:31)

I notice it, you know? So I'm just doing it because people, want it. They don't want to go anywhere else. They want you to be able to do it. And if you can do it, then why not? You know? So I think that just not being afraid just to try it and do it and just, even if you're scared, like do it scared. Like I heard, I seen that the other day and it was like, you I'm nervous every time I get up and speak in front of somebody and they're like, well, how do you do it? He said, I just get up and do it scared. I'm like, that's...

Kiera Dent (24:42)

Mm-hmm.

Dr.Christy Moore (25:00)

That's so interesting because a lot of people, they're like, well, I'm scared. I'm not going to do it. And so if you don't do it, you're never going to not get scared or not get you. You got to get comfortable. You got to be comfortable being uncomfortable. And that's the only way to do it is just to get in there and do it.

Kiera Dent (25:17)

I agree. Christy, I love that. And I love that you just talked about, like, I think something that you did differently is you decided this would be a portion of your practice. It's not just for the ladies in the practice. You're like, no, we're going to have this as a portion. We're going to make this like it's a full procedure in our office. I'm not just doing it for like our team. And I think that that's something where you went in with that attitude. I think there's a huge passion that you have on it, but I agree. think there are girls like, Kiera, who does your Botox? I'm like, the dentist. And they're like, what?

Dr.Christy Moore (25:45)

Mm-hmm.

Kiera Dent (25:46)

And I'm like, yeah.

Dr.Christy Moore (25:46)

Yeah.

Kiera Dent (25:47)

And I also love dentists because I went to a dentist versus an esthetician versus an MD. I've gone through three different people. The esthetician gave me the most amount of Botox. That's the one where I got the hood. Like, believe it or not, she's the one who gave it to me. And like, the amount of Botox she put in me was incredible. Then I went to an MD who was doing it. And he also like it was a lot like my face was frozen solid, frozen, frozen. And I'm like, all right, so we're like,

he did bro-tox, which that's a good phrase. I think that if you wanted to target the men, he called it bro-tox for the men, which I that was super clever. But my husband even like, he could not move his face at all. So it was a little, in my opinion, excessive. But dentists I feel are more conservative on the botox level. You don't tend to go quite as much as the estheticians or the MDs, which I appreciate. ⁓ Like you said, you know the muscles, you know the anatomy super well. And I think like, go for it, have it as a portion.

Dr.Christy Moore (26:21)

Mm-hmm.

Kiera Dent (26:43)

So with your numbers, because Christy, I know you know your numbers, like what percentage of your practice does Botox bring in? Do you know that? I could be putting you on the spot. So maybe I'm like, you're taught her and I'm asking you questions you don't.

Dr.Christy Moore (26:53)

Yeah,

I'm not really 100 % sure to be honest with you. I would say it's at least probably at least 10%. You know, I would like for it to be more. And that's one of my goals is to get that side of the business to be, you know, grow and be more because like for me, like as a dentist, we hear all the time, you know, I hate the dentist. Oh, no offense, but I hate the dentist. Are you going to stick that needle in my mouth? Are you going to stick that in my guns? You know, I've never had one person ever say,

Kiera Dent (27:01)

I think so too.

Dr.Christy Moore (27:23)

I hate my injector. You know, are you going to stick that needle in my face? Like, no, they love you. They want the, and they, they, they will pay money for it. You don't have to worry about insurance, you know, when you're doing that part. So I would definitely like for that to be more like, if I can have my whole day just doing like the aesthetic stuff, like that would be my ideal day, you know, because that's, it's, it's almost like, it's like a masterpiece. You know, you've got, you've got this canvas and you're not changing people. You're just enhancing what they already have.

Kiera Dent (27:43)

was amazing.

Dr.Christy Moore (27:53)

You know, like I don't want to go in, my goal is that when somebody leaves the practice that they don't actually look like they've had Botox or they don't look like they've had filler. I want them to look fresh, not frozen, like you said. And so like, you know, that goes back to like knowing the muscles, watching the patient, treating the actual patient instead of like the cookie cutter, you know, oh, well, to treat the glabella, you know, you need, you know, 20 to 24 units, you know, to treat the frontalis, you need 20 to 24 units, you know.

It's like, okay, well, they pull really hard here, but they don't really pull hard here. So let's treat it this way, you know? And so, like, so, cause each one of them are like FDA approved for a certain amount, you know? And that, and that's like the standard, but everybody's different. And so that's my, you know, I just want to make sure that I treat the patients, treat the patient the way the patient needs to be treated.

Kiera Dent (28:30)

Yeah.

Amen. And I love that about Christy and I think like, okay, I just did some math. So let's say you have a million dollar practice 10 % that's 100 grand pulling in, which I know Christy, your practice is not the million dollar practice. You guys can do the math, you can figure it out. But like if it's 10 % think about that, that's an extra hundred thousand. The overhead on it's pretty minimal. It's a great piece. Like you said, you're able to do these extra pieces. And you're right, there's no insurance. People pay top dollar to stay looking young. It's incredible. Like

Dr.Christy Moore (29:11)

the

Kiera Dent (29:12)

⁓ I also was thinking of there's people all around here and they're called like the injection queen or they're like, so it's like really on their social media. It's not just their dentistry piece, but it's this whole portion of aesthetics that people then are coming for it because they want to look good. I saw an office at dental practice and they literally have a Botox membership plan. And I was like, that is freaking clever. Yeah, tell us about it. Okay, tell more about this. How does it work and do people really sign up for it? Cause I think it's so smart.

Dr.Christy Moore (29:32)

We have that. Yeah.

Absolutely,

absolutely they sign up for it. And so I, of course, I don't try to reinvent the wheel. I got it from somebody else, but it's basically a membership plan. They pay for 20 units for the year. So it's 20 units for four times throughout the year. If they don't use it, they lose it. But once they pay for that, so their initial upfront payment is probably a little bit more, but it ends up saving them about $300 throughout the year.

Kiera Dent (29:58)

Mm-hmm.

Dr.Christy Moore (30:07)

but it actually like they pre-play for 20 units each time. so, you know, so it's just, and then they get a discount on the actual dollar amount that they actually get. So, you know, like if you have somebody that typically gets 50 units, then they only have to pay for 30 units each time that they come in.

So it actually, and I tell them, they're like, ⁓ that's a whole lot better, because then my husband don't ask questions on, it's less, that's less about. And I'm like, yeah, absolutely. And I've had people actually even put money in, pay throughout that just so that they have it. And that's when I was like, well, why don't we do a membership plan? That makes it a whole lot easier. And also I wanted to reward my patients that have been loyal, that have been coming in. Times are changing, and so prices go up.

Kiera Dent (30:46)

yet.

Dr.Christy Moore (30:56)

And so like I didn't really want to have to like increase my price just because, know, you know, I've been doing it for a while. I've really not changed my price and I didn't want to have to change my price. So my people that have been coming in and loyal to me, I wanted to be able to give them, give back to them and give, you know, give them the opportunity to keep it at the price that I was doing it for. And so that's kind that was one of the other, you know, benefits for me is so that I could actually give back to those people that trusted me with their face.

when I was still learning and stuff. ⁓ And so it's worked out really well. I don't know how many people we have on it now, but we get people like just about every day when they come in, we'll have at least like one or two a week that'll sign up on the membership plan.

Kiera Dent (31:41)

which is so smart because Botox is like better than profies. Like they have to come in every three months rather than every six months. ⁓ It is something where I'm not gonna lie. Like my husband, it was random. He did tell me, I got it done. And a couple of days later, he didn't know. Cause I get it on the road, Christy. I'm one of those, I mean, I work with a lot of dentists. So when I'm traveling around, I get my face frozen and I came home and my husband's like, gosh, Kiera, you look a lot better. Like what, did you change your hair? And I was like,

Dr.Christy Moore (31:45)

Mm-hmm.

Kiera Dent (32:09)

No, my face just looks younger and you can definitely tell and I appreciate that. And when you get that reinforcement, you're like, yes, I'm going to keep up with this and I want to. And it's the only like proactive preventative way right now. Like there's biohacking on all the levels, but just having that as a piece for it. And so I think it's just an awesome, awesome thing to do. I love the membership plan. I love that you're growing it. Like this is where I saying, like you have cracked the code on how to do it. And I was like, I've got to dig into this. And I want people to hear because

Dr.Christy Moore (32:16)

Yes.

Kiera Dent (32:37)

I think Christy, it also keeps your excitement for dentistry alive. I think you get passionate because it's a new passion project. It's fun for you. It's something different. I love that you said like, I want you looking fresh, not frozen. It made me giggle. like, you want me to still look alive rather than dead in my coffin? Like, God, I agree. That's how I want to feel too. So thank you. ⁓ But any other thoughts you have of practices wanting to put in Botox or anything else about your practice? Because this is like

Dr.Christy Moore (32:44)

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Kiera Dent (33:02)

the nuts and bolts of what I want to talk about tonight. So any last thoughts you have around it, because I truly appreciate you just coming on and sharing what you're doing in your practice.

Dr.Christy Moore (33:11)

I think the biggest thing is just, you you just have to do it. You know, like I said before, if you're scared to do it, just do it scared. You know, after so many times, it's not as scary anymore. Like we actually have ⁓ in our schedule, like we have blocks for like our tox patients for them to come in. And so, you know, those may get filled, they may not get filled. But when they get filled, like it's always like, it's usually an extra anywhere between 500 to $1,000.

for just a little extra that doesn't really take me that long. Like I come in and I look and I'm like, okay, this is what we're gonna do. The girls draw it up, they have it already. I come back in, the face is clean, the photos are taken. We did injections and then the patient's out the door. And so it's basically like a hygiene check for me. So I'm in and out quick. But the patients have been in there with a team member, so they feel like they're getting heard.

Kiera Dent (34:00)

Mm-hmm.

Dr.Christy Moore (34:09)

They know all of their concerns are being addressed. so, you know, just having a team there that supports you and believes in you. And like once they believe in you, then, you know, then that's how the patients start believing in you.

Kiera Dent (34:22)

Awesome, Christy. I love that so much. I'm like, gosh, doctors, when you're complaining to us about your Delta Dental ⁓ exam pricing, well, maybe throw a little bit of those botox ones. Like you said, I'm like, $500 exam versus my $30 exam feels a little bit more fun, a little more fun for you. But Christy, kudos to it. And all of you listening, I hope you just took notes. You realize like you can add these as portions of your practice and not just like a small sliver, but a true like 10 % of your practice bringing that in.

having it be a big portion of it. And like you said, giving back to people. I prefer a dentist to do my Botox over an esthetician or an MD. And that's me personally, who's gone to several different people, people who are the best, people who are over that. And I mean, Botox are paying $10 to $12 a unit with Botox or Disport. That's a pretty good gig all the way around. And I just think it's a fun thing. So Christy, thanks for being in our life. These are the things, the way I found out was in our doctor mastermind. We have our doctor only, and I was like.

Christy's doing Botox, I'm gonna put it on the podcast and talk about this more. So this is fun stuff to also have you as a client, to have you in our life, to have you in our world. You just bring a wealth of goodness, Christy. So thanks for being on the podcast. I know it's the end of your day, so thanks for coming. Yeah, of course, super happy to have you. Of course. And for all of you listening, go figure out how to put Botox in your schedule. Go figure out how to do this. Do it scared, whatever it is for you, do it scared. If we can help in any way, reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening. We'll catch you next time.

Dr.Christy Moore (35:28)

Well, thank you.

Thank you.

Kiera Dent (35:47)

The Dental A Team podcast.

View Details

Kiera and Dana perform a practice autopsy mashup. In this episode, they specifically take a look at multi-location practices, and how to make all of them profitable instead of just one or two. Topics discussed include overhead, associates, marketing, and more.

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Transcript

Kiera Dent (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is such a special day. I have the one and only Dynamite Dana. I think that that's what we're sticking with. I think it's better than the other nickname that we came up with. But Dana, if you guys know her, you love her. She's been in a consultant with us for years. Dana, welcome to the show today. How are you?

Dana (00:17)

Yeah, good morning. Thanks for having me. I'm excited. I don't get much like podcast time with you. It's usually with him. So it's a fun morning for me.

Kiera Dent (00:26)

I

know Dana's a rock star. ⁓ I, yes, I can sell a little podcast and yes, that's fun to do, but it's more fun to have someone on here. So I sent Dana a message and I had it like in the afternoon. And then I was like, Ooh, my schedule changed and moved it to like first thing in the morning. So Dana, thanks for being easy to accommodate. but I think that that's you. You're just always there, always willing to help and offices love you for that. So

Dana (00:43)

Yeah.

Kiera Dent (00:51)

We have a fun topic, you guys. I love a good office autopsy. So Dana and are gonna kind of mash a couple practices together and dig into some practice profitability trends that we're seeing on an office autopsy. You ready for that today, Dana? Because I love these. Anything more than a good profitability story and how to get there, that's what it's about. And I think that that's what so many practices struggle with. They don't understand how to get profitable. They know that it's there. They know that it can be an illusion.

Dana (01:03)

Yeah, this is exciting.

Kiera Dent (01:18)

They know that it can be a reality for some. so Dana, I feel like some of the practices we've been dealing with lately, it's like actually making it turn into a reality rather than just as hope and a wish. So take it away. I know you've been working on this. I've been working on this. Let's have some fun today.

Dana (01:31)

Yeah, it's been really fun the past couple weeks. I've been like able to just do a lot of numbers crunching a lot of future projections a lot of like hey what effort is it gonna take to like get things where we want them to be and it's really fun to give owners like the possibilities of What they currently have or where they want to be and so it's just been really really interesting the last couple weeks getting to do that and getting

Kiera Dent (01:43)

you

Dana (02:02)

offices to see like where they want to put their energy where they may need to put their energy and so it's just been numbers aren't you know I'm learning to love numbers more and more ⁓

Kiera Dent (02:14)

Yes, did you hear that? Dana, did

you start out that way? Let's just let's just help listeners feel like is this a normal thing?

Dana (02:22)

No, I mean, I am a systems girl through and through. And so, you know, I know how important the numbers are. And of course, like those are pieces I look at. But really, really being able to manipulate the numbers, to be able to project things, that is something that I've really had to dig into more and more. And it's been fun for sure.

Kiera Dent (02:45)

Yeah, and I love the reason I highlight that is because for myself for Dana numbers were not something natural for some people it is just wired into you but I think for 90 % of human beings out there they would feel very similar to how you and I feel and so I just want to highlight that it's totally normal not to understand numbers but it is also normal to figure out how to use numbers and when you do it actually feels like like life becomes so much easier it's like

my gosh, there was an HOV lane this whole time. And I had no clue that there was like a fast pass, fast lane over there that if I would just learn my numbers and dig into it, I would honestly be able to do things a lot better. And so I think like, that's what makes me so excited Dana is this is where we also help practices. Like let's use the numbers to manipulate and actually do less work, more profitability and more ease. So kudos to you for digging in kudos for you, like admitting that systems are your gem, which I think it's easy, right? But to me, I'm like,

systems are only as valuable and only as important as the numbers are reflecting. Like, yes, we should put them in, but I'm like, if we're just putting systems in place, but we're not moving the dial, what does it matter? ⁓ You're going to be struggling. You're going to have financial stress. You're going to be like not happy. Use the numbers to figure out which system's broken and then go to work there. It becomes so much easier and less effort for sure.

Dana (04:02)

Yeah, yeah, it's pretty magical to see. So yeah.

Kiera Dent (04:05)

Right. All right.

So we have a couple of practices. We've got some that are multi locations. We've got some that are solo locations. And I think we should dig into some of these multi locations because multi locations I feel are like interesting families. And what I usually notice in multi locations, ⁓ oftentimes, depending upon the practice, these offices actually like one or two or three are super profitable. And then the other two are like sucking the practices dry.

And it's so interesting because we think like, let's get so many, which if your plan is like a DSO rollup or it's legacy, or you want to just expand your reach and you want to help more people, all those things are great and fine. but I think like figuring out how do I make my other locations profitable? Or if you're in a single location, I think a lot of these tactics will apply to you. So let's kind of dig into these multi-location places, Dana. ⁓ cause I think it's funny, like we've seen some offices where it's not funny. It's unfortunate that like two are doing so good. And so they expand and they open up more.

And then these other two are not doing so well. they're like two are profitable and two are not. So then we're not profitable all the way around and we're working our guts out. So let's talk about like, how do you fix that problem? And I think for solo practices, if you're in this boat, these things can apply to you too, if you're not as profitable, because I've also seen in solo practices where they've maybe added like a Medi Spa to it and maybe, and that's two technically different businesses under one roof.

If the spa is not doing well, like I just talked to someone the other day, their spa is sucking them dry, but the dental practice is doing well, but they think the practice needs help when it's like, no, no, no, the practice is fine. The Medi spa is the problem. Or if practices have multi locations, but it's all under one umbrella, they have no clue which practice is actually the problem practice. And I think that that's something we also see is they don't actually separate them out. So they're like, we don't even know which practice. So let's dive into it, Dana. You've been working with a couple like this. Let's kind of dig into some of your, your tips and tricks.

Dana (05:56)

Yeah, and that's honestly exactly what we did in the beginning is, hey, let's separate and let's look at numbers individually for each practice so we can see.

Kiera Dent (05:57)

you

Dana (06:06)

as a whole, are we doing? Yes. But where are we profitable and where aren't we so that we know, like you said, how we can hone in and target our efforts on the ones that need a little bit more of a boost or show a little bit more of opportunity. And so once we figured that out, then it really is looking at fixed costs for individual practices. It's looking at overhead expenses and then it is really projecting out what does it take to get it to where we want to be.

So what do we actually need? And in this instance, it was really cool to be able to even dive a little bit deeper as far as, okay, well, if we take the doctor, if we take the provider away from the profit that's like...

Kiera Dent (06:51)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. ⁓

Dana (06:51)

the practice is profitable and he's working in one of the other practices like what does that also cost the practice that is booming and so it's it was really fun to just map that out have them see that also too every time he's pulled to one of these other practices there is a cost to the

larger location. And so just getting them to see that it just helps him

make a better decision as far as

how much time that he is spending there versus associates and then getting the associates to help grow external practices. And it just, think gave him just a clearer picture. ⁓ And then we also looked at, okay, well, you know, considering investing in some marketing for these. So what does it take for how many new patients do we really need to get to that number? And then we kind of mapped it out and okay, well, what does the marketing spend look like for one year, for two years, for three years to get

there so then they had a timeline to ⁓ just be able to make decisions on.

Kiera Dent (07:57)

Mm

hmm. Yeah. No, Dana, you brought up so many good points. And I think like, let's drill down into this a little bit, because you like, these are the things where numbers become so fun, because now it's just a plus b equals c. But if we do a plus b plus c, that's going to equal d. If we take a minus b, add c, what does that equal? ⁓ And so that's really where it's like looking at this. And so I think for a lot of providers, especially our powerhouse providers that started the practice made these profits.

practices and then open multiples, there can be this thought process of, well, I have to be in the practice all the time. Otherwise, the practice doesn't make money. And I think that is one way to live. But let's also like, choose our own adventure books. Like, let's go back in time, like we could have at the end of that chapter, it says, okay, option one is you're going to actually continue working like this, and you are going to be the provider in four locations. Or we can have you be where we powerhouse you.

in one or two or maybe all four, but it's a very sustainable schedule for you. And we work to build up the associates and the hygiene department and we make it to where all of them are flourishing with or without you. And to me, I like to choose option B, you can choose option A if you want, but that's like a sure shot to burnout. And I think so many multi-practice owners actually do this, like I'm gonna go to all the practices because I'm the strong producer, I'm the strong provider, I need to get these things going and you can.

but it's like for how long and is there another path? So drilling it down, Dana, I think let's talk about like, how can they do this other path with ease? Like what are some of the tactical things that we've seen with practices you're working with, with other practices that we've worked with in the past? Like what are some of these like tactical pieces? how can we, because I think that illusion is so strong that I have to be the producer, I have to be the one who hits the numbers. What else can we do and how long is that timeline realistically?

Dana (09:47)

Yeah, I think the first and foremost is if you aren't going to be the provider in in the other practices It's really building strong associates really making sure that you're finding the right fit for Whether it's the main office whether it's one of the extension offices whatever it is that that associate really is the right fit and That you are calibrating really well and you are bringing in strong associates who want to grow these practices with you and alongside you because I get you can't be in every

practice you can but like you said it sure is a way to be exhausted and burnt out and start to just not love owning all of these practices.

Kiera Dent (10:28)

Mm-hmm. And like, let's so as you said that it makes me think about like when you buy a practice I remember I was working with this this potential client We were looking at the metrics of this practice and they realized that like 70 % of the production of this practice was actually being done By procedures that this dentist didn't do so was like, well good luck buying that practice You only can do 30 % of this production. So yes, they may have produced like 1.5 or 1.9 like whatever it is

but slash 70 % of that because you won't be able to produce that unless you bring an associate in. And so I think when you talked about like, are the monthly costs of this practice? What does it actually take us to run? Let's do our second location. Well, you're so used to your practice right now because you're probably doing these expanded procedures. You're probably doing these higher ones. And most of the time, what I see is doctors are like, well, I'm just going to hire someone who can do bread and butter dentistry as my associate. So then I can just do these big surgeries. Well, if that's the case, we need to figure out.

Practice number two or practice number three, A, what are the actual full costs of that practice and what do we need to produce? B, can we produce that on bread and butter or do we need to bring in your specialty? If we need to bring your specialty in or if we're going to pull you out of current option A, like where you currently are with an associate, how much of the dentistry is actually being done by your specialty services? And do you need to hire an associate that can do some of those specialty services as well? This is where the numbers become so paramount because it's like, we produced

1.5 or we produce two or we produce three. Now we're going to open our next location. But like Dana said, like bringing on an associate, it's not just a good fit. It's also making sure that they have the procedure makeup mix that can offset your production loss when you're gone. Or you get very strategic of, okay, when I am in practice A, I'm only doing these high end ones. So I'm producing this amount. They're, they're funneling these exams to me. You also have to be careful because if your associate doesn't do these high end procedures,

they're not going to look for in exams. So that's when you calibrate your associates, you calibrate your hygiene team to look for it. And when you get to multi offices, this is where Zoom and virtual meetings become paramount because you get all associates together and we all start looking for it. So we actually become referring partners to one another within the practices. And we also get our hygiene team and or AI to make sure that all the, of us are diagnosing the same level. So these are the things where I'm like, this actually can make your

multi-practice ownership way easier if you get these good foundations in place. And like you said, Dana, you find an associate who's like just as good, if not better, if you need them to be, but looking at the numbers because just because your practice is producing 2 million, 2.5, 3 million, wherever you are before you open your second location, maybe it's 1.5, look to see how much of that is done by your higher end services because typically an associate coming out of school

or a newer associate who's bread and butter dentistry is usually producing like five to 6,000 a day. Well, look at what you're producing. And if we brought someone in, can they produce that? Or if straight out of school, they're producing like 2,500. So you might need to scale up or have multi associates. But I think also being strategic when you open these practices of what do my doctors on the low end need to produce? Because I know they're going to produce lower at the beginning. How can I calibrate them and work with them every single month, every single week?

How can we take x-rays and make sure from the get-go these associates are doing really well? And also how can my hygiene team make sure that they're all calibrated to be doing the exams that we want? I think like those things might feel hard, but choose your heart in the scenario of I'd rather do that and know what I actually have to produce rather than just thinking we're gonna like stamp and repeat when you might be the higher producer. Dana, that was a lot of thoughts. What are your thoughts on that?

Dana (14:08)

No, I love that and you're exactly right. think looking at the service mix, knowing how much of your production comes from those things because then it's like how important is it to find that and what exactly am I looking for in an associate? you know, we talk about avatars a fair amount and it's just like that is what points you into building those pieces and honing in for exactly what you need to be successful.

Kiera Dent (14:34)

Mm-hmm, and I'm really big also on like how can we scrap the cost down at the beginning? Because gosh like I don't have children Dana you have four and so I think Question mark you you probably speak to this better than I can obviously you can't because you've gone through it But my hunch is when you have a baby, it's really hard and then as they get older You're like shoot. Let's have another baby and maybe you've forgotten how hard baby is when they're a baby Is this true or false? I just tell me how it is like

baby grows up and then you have the next baby like did you maybe forget how hard it was to have a brand new newborn and you're like tell me about that like how is that parenting

Dana (15:08)

yeah.

Well, yeah, for sure.

Your mind plays tricks on you and makes you think that it's going to be super simple. And yeah, it's just like each phase, right? You kind of forget how you look back, right? And you see the beautiful things, right? You see the things that were fun. You see how much they smelled so good and how little they were, you know, all those pieces. And yeah, you do remember or you do remember the highlights and you tend to forget like the long exhaust

you know, nights that can sometimes come with a little tiny human. So yeah.

Kiera Dent (15:43)

Yeah.

And I think that's about practice ownership too. So when you look at it, you have forgotten when you go to buy your second location, the scrap and the hard and all the things you did to build that thing to be successful. Like literally we forget, I forget, I mean, I was talking to Shelby and I'm like, I remember paying Tiffany on straight Venmo. Why she continued to work with me. I don't know my Venmo account. there's a max that you can send every single week, month.

And I'm like, Tiff, I hit my limit. Like, I'll have to send it to you when it resets in like three days. How on earth the Tiffany keep working with me is question number one I have. And number two, like, that's not even something that I even like remotely think about in today's world. Like, things are so set up, but you forget all of that. And so I think when we buy practice number two or practice number three, and we're looking at these costs, let's not go for the bougie luxury of exactly what we have. Let's figure out what are the things that are going to make it consistent. Same software, same exams, same like

a operatory setup if possible, because those things actually make you move quicker and then your practices become standardized. So when you go from location to location, it's much easier. But those are gonna be some of the things that also keep the costs lower. So we don't have to produce as much with you in there and still have it be profitable because you can have a practice that's only producing say 70,000 or 80,000 without you there at a 50 % overhead.

and still shelling out to you 20 to 30 % profit, depending upon how you're paying your associates. And that's still a great practice. It does not have to be producing the numbers if you keep your costs within reason. And so I think also being careful that if you're not there and we don't need all these, like we don't need all the marketing for the second location. We don't need all the implant supplies. Like if that's not a part in our associates not going to do it, then make sure that we're not incurring that cost. Because what that does is I think that this is where we then get into the struggle.

of the profitability of the multi-practices that then fluctuates because we're standardizing, but we're also trying to make all of them the exact same when maybe that's unnecessary. So I think that's one, but then you also talked about marketing because every new location has a different makeup. They're going to have a different makeup of patients. And just because it worked in one area for your marketing does not mean it works in another area. So Dana, let's do a little dig. We have a hypothetical for, for practice location, two practices are profitable. The other two aren't.

What are some of the steps or things that we should look for to get these other two profitable? Because we kind of talked about like before you buy a practice or if you're already in it, like here's some things to do or looking for these different associates, but like, shoot, I'm already in it. I've got two that are great, two that are bleeding. What do I do on these bleeding ones to make them healthy?

Dana (18:22)

Yeah. And I think it's multi-practice, single practice, whatever it is, it's knowing who you're trying to attract and where are they? And so it, you know,

If you're a pediatric practice, Well, who are the parents that we're targeting? Who are the moms that we're targeting? Where are they in the community? How can we get involved in the things that they're involved in? Whether it is even online Facebook groups or whatever it is. But I think it starts with knowing exactly who you want to walk through your door and where you find them around the location of the practice.

Kiera Dent (18:56)

Mm-hmm. And that's going to help because also pay attention because certain areas will attract different parents. Like there's different demographics. There's different socioeconomics. Like, so just because you're trying to attract the Lululemon mom for one practice, you might be attracting the Walmart Target mom at another location. Both moms are amazing. Both children will be great, but you've got to do like the Lululemon mom.

has very different marketing tactics and what you're going to do and what your giveaways might be in that practice or whatever you strive to do, how you're going to involve in the community. I'm going to be at the Pilates. I'm going to be at the juicer places. I'm going to be at like Elixir. Like that's what I'm doing for my Lululemon mom. I'm going to be like, they're probably at charter schools more than they're at public schools. That's going to be a different mom. And then my moms who are the target Walmart moms, I'm going to be at like the community centers. I'm going to be at the rec centers. I'm going to be at the YMCA. I'm going to be at

The I don't know like the moose lot like whatever those ones are where lots of kids go you guys I don't have kids so clearly I'm not great at this but like that's why I'm not a pediatric dentist either ⁓ But you look at it those moms are gonna be different The moms who are about Walmart are going to want someone who is cost of like so you might throw membership plans in there because they're more for that the lululemon mom's probably going to want more of like the Nutrition and what can I do and what's the highest quality? They're not going for like your lowest like

like give me a deal, but your Walmart and your Target mom probably is. And so again, there's nothing wrong with either mom, but your marketing strategies will probably need to change. So when you're looking at that profit margin or the bleeding practices, is our marketing working and do we need to change it up? Agreed. Do we have enough new patients for that? I also think I'd be looking at my costs. Like do, our staffing right? Cause some of these bleeding practices don't have enough patients that we might need to scale back our team.

at those locations to where maybe we're working two or three days. Like that's a bummer, but we're going to hire more part-time employees rather than full-time employees until we can build up to that. And these are decisions that I just want to highlight. CEOs, this is why we get paid what we get paid because our job is to make these hard decisions. Our job is to say like, we don't have the space for this. So we tell the team, you don't just have to go like whack, like, all right, we're out. It's like, Hey, we've got two months that we can do this and I need to get this patient up to this amount. This is our BAM. This is what we have to produce.

And if we don't, we're going to need to cut back to three days. Like it's just a black and white conversation, but your job as a CEO is to make sure you're not bleeding money and you get those practices profitable. It's also, what can we do? Can I, can I go in and mentor that associate doctor? Can they come and watch me? Can we assist each other? So that way they see how I'm doing these procedures and I can help them get more confident in it. Like what needs to happen to get that production number up? What, what do I need to do for my assisting team there?

So again, it's not, and I think for these multi-practice owners, I think one of my biggest tips is you are not the solution. Pretend you are a puppeteer behind the screen. How do you get all these practices profitable without you being the one? Dana, what are your thoughts about that? Cause that's how I feel, but I'm curious how you feel.

Dana (22:03)

Mm-hmm. No, I agree with you completely and I think that when they have the numbers when they look at those pieces when they can say, okay If I bring in an associate and they produce at this amount it will take me let's say While use pediatric as an example, they produce 300 an hour right or 300 per patient per new patient that comes in and then you can say okay Well, if we do it at that if we do it at the 450 level if we do it closer to the 700 per patient or per hour then

Kiera Dent (22:20)

Mm-hmm.

Dana (22:31)

it lets you see how quickly you can grow, how quickly you can get to the production that you need to cover your expenses, those pieces. And so I just think that you're 100 % right. And knowing the numbers to be able to make those decisions and make those critical cuts or those critical ⁓ avenues for success, it just truly, truly helps.

Kiera Dent (22:55)

And it all comes back to the numbers. And I think when you know your BAM, like a true BAM, we're talking bare ace minimum, we're not going again. It's, it's like, think back to when you started the practice, that's bare ace minimum. Like, what do I need to do to scrap it down? We're talking top ramen versus filet mignon. We'll get to the filets, but we need to start here, grow up to it. Again, choose your heart. For me, it's way harder to be not profitable and cash flowing negatively rather than not hiring as much or cutting my supplies down or

limiting what we're doing or changing my hours up until I can get it there. Now, Dana, let's go into a weird one because a lot of times owners think like, especially like solo practice owners, that if my practice isn't profitable, I'm going to scale it down to like two or three days and then I'm going to go moonlight at another practice. This is like a very hot debate that I have within myself. like, what are your thoughts about that? I have very strong opinions about this, but I'm super curious because

That can seem like a plausible idea, right? Like, let's go work somewhere else. Let's bring in the money to cover this one while I build it up. Give me some thoughts on that if your one practice isn't doing as well.

Dana (24:01)

Yeah. And you know, I can understand the notion of like wanting to do that, because it's like, I'm trying to stop the bleeding, or I'm trying to at least reduce the stress or reduce the feeling of this isn't growing fast enough, or it isn't as successful as they want. But then what you're doing is you're really limiting the potential, you're limiting the potential of the location that you already

have right to then go where you don't have unlimited potential. And so I just feel like to plug the energy and put the effort and put the focus on the practice versus I can understand the want to go find something that is steady and stable when this feels so uncertain or we don't know. But I do feel like you you put your energy and your focus on it and it will

be more profitable than if we went somewhere else where it's capped for sure.

Kiera Dent (24:57)

Mm

hmm. It's fun debate that I really love and I love the perspectives and I think there's no right answer. You've got to figure out what's right for you. But I am very similar to Dana in the sense of I feel when you have an out of a second practice that you moonlight at, ⁓ it doesn't force you to innovate in your space. It's kind of like a bandaid where it's like, okay, yeah, yeah, this can bleed kind of like a second location or a third location that's not as profitable and your first and second ones are just covering up the pain of it.

⁓ to where you're like all right we'll just go and we'll find money in another place versus like no if you have to sit in this place you will figure it out because there's no other option like the boats have been burned we have to figure out what we're going to do and we have to make this work and so that's kind of where i'm like sure i see it but i also think there has to be a date that's in stone of we will end by this time and i know i have to have it profitable

Same thing with your bleeding practices. I think when you put dates on it of like by this date, it has to be profitable and you have to have the self integrity within yourself that you will actually own that that you will work towards that because otherwise you said Dana like it's unlimited potential within your practice. It's also like you're limiting yourself by going to another location and I feel like if another location is easier for you, maybe being a practice owner is not right for you. And I say that with love and respect, like know thyself and be free.

⁓ because I feel like, when you burn the boat to innovate, find it. Shelby and I were talking the other day and we like throughout this goal and Shelby's like, Kiera, I don't even know how we're going to do that. We've never done that before. And I said, I don't know either. We're going to figure it out. Like that's just how you have to operate. Like, I don't know. And so whether it's, need a coach or you need someone to guide you like Dana, like sometimes we're in the thick of it. I have coaches. I can't see. I call Liz all the time. I'm like, Liz.

I need your perspective because I don't know and I'm in it and I need you to be a bird's eye view for me of like, where do I need to navigate through this? Because the option is to go through it. It's not to like jump off board. ⁓ but maybe you need a coach. Maybe you need to like look at the numbers and figure it out. Maybe you need to realize I'm not the solution for it. And if I'm not the solution, then what are my solutions in the, in the coloring box or in my toolbox? Like I think when you remove yourself and you say, because it's not sustainable.

Four practices, one doctor and trying to be the profit producer for all of them. Like that's a hard ask even for a short amount of time. Sure, you can do it, but it's not sustainable. Like you will burn out. And I see these doctors coming in like crisp fried, like ready to give up everything. They have nothing left. They're becoming numb. They're becoming like detached from family members. They don't even get excited for things that used to make them excited because they're literally burnt to a crisp. So it's not a sustainable model. So why are we doing it?

cause we think it's easier. like we think moonlighting is easier versus like, no, let's fix the problem. Let's have a date in stone and let's move on. So Dana, I freaking love these conversations because it helps me see like one, you've got to know your numbers. The numbers will tell you what to do or not to do. Two, I think you've got to be really confident in making the decisions. Three, let's set some dates in stone and make sure that we're actually committed to figuring out the problems by this date. We're not pumping more money into it. ⁓ honestly, like

If I was looking and I had practices that weren't profitable, I think the only areas I would spend money are possibly marketing, possibly, but there's so much free marketing that you can do. So let's not throw money there if we're actually losing money. I would spend money on a great consultant, someone who's been there, done it and done it successfully to move you there because sometimes when we're in the thick of our problems, we can't get out of it. So that is another cost that, but again, I talked to a doctor there on cashflow row right now is what I call it. And I said, all right.

You have two choices. You're either going to rise up or you're going to rise out. Like you take your, like choose your heart. And to me, I'd rather like pay the money and commit and make the decisions and like follow through or turn it over. Like you're in cashflow row. There's no other option for you. So you've got to execute. ⁓ and really, truly like those are the main things that I would spend money on. And then I would look to see how can I cut my expenses and what do I actually have to do and produce to take the stress off to become profitable or at least not losing money.

That's like my only focus for that time and I don't let anything else distract me. It's very hard to put those blinders on, but I think that's also where an accountability coach, a consultant. Yes, I will toot our own horn. Dental A Team is really, really good at this. We do not let you steer away from it. I know you want to talk about marketing and I know you want to talk about like, but we need these supplies. No, that's a distraction from what's really going on. We need to get profitable and that's production, collections and overhead reduction. Like that's all you need to do during those moments.

So let's figure it out and let's find the way and put those blinders on and commit that we will always be profitable. Dana, I'm off my soapbox. Any last thoughts you've got? Because I clearly am passionate about this.

Dana (29:42)

No, I love seeing the passion and you know, it just bleeds through in everything you do and and that's the passion that we have for our clients. And so when we see them in these situations and it's like, let's dig in together. Let's figure it out and put in the work.

Kiera Dent (29:55)

Yeah, Dana, brilliant. love that you have clients like this. love that I have clients like these are the puzzles we love to help you with. So whether you're a solo practitioner or you're a multi owner practitioner or you're thinking multi ownership, whatever it is, like I really do think having a coach hopefully before you get to this spot, if you're already in the spot, rock on, we can still help you. So I think like whether you're in it now, like get the help, like throw up the life raft right now before it's too late. I really, it,

It stresses me out when clients come in and they're on cashflow row. It's like, it's okay. And it's okay. And it doesn't mean you're a failure. It doesn't mean you weren't a bad, like you're a bad business owner or I should have seen this coming. No, you're a business owner. Like this is real life, but like, let's get the help before it gets to be like, really like the water's already up to our neck. Like let's get it. Whereas maybe at like our chest and we're feeling the pressure mount a little bit, but there's still a little bit of breathing room rather than when it's like up to our chin. That becomes a lot harder, but still doable.

⁓ Or like hey, let's be proactive kind of like I mean couples therapy I'm like, let's be proactive and do this before we need the divorce help like let's let's try and save the practices before so if we can help you I love to do practice growth calls with you like no pressure complementary to you We'll just look at the gaps in your practice give you a ton of value if it works for you and we're a great fit Awesome, we'd love to help you If not, you're gonna walk away from that of some awesome tips in value because I want you to see your blind spots And I want you to see the solutions ⁓

regardless. So reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com or book a call. Dana, love podcasting with you. Thanks for coming on early today. Thanks for being a great consultant. Thanks for loving our clients and just having that passion for their success. So fun to podcast with you today. Of course, and for all of you listening, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

Dana (31:32)

Thanks for having me.

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Tiff and Britt dive into the nitty-gritty details of turning all that CE energy you have into an implementable system in your practice. They give insight on establishing a point person, training the team, identifying patients, and more.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:01)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. Thank you for being back here with me and I have Miss Brittany Stone. What is it? No BS Brit. Miss BS Brit. I don't remember what Carrie calls you. This is one of them, right? One of them. But also soon to be Grand Canyon champion. If you didn't listen to our case acceptance one, go listen and hopefully soon we will have some results from Brit killing it. Yeah, you will be a survivor.

Britt (00:10)

What fun of them!

Winner survivor. One of the two. At least one.

The Dental A Team (00:29)

but then I wanna know how much you sleep on Saturday when you're done. So that'll be the big question. Exactly, yeah, how long does it take for you to get back on the bike once you're done? But thank you for being here with us today, Britt. I think we've gotten, I love podcasting with you, your hygiene brain, like Dana's hygiene brain, you guys just kind of come at it from a different angle. I know the rest of us all have dental assisting backgrounds and.

Britt (00:32)

Yeah, like that. I if I can reach my legs or not.

The Dental A Team (00:55)

you know, hygiene assisting, but that hygienist brain just shares a different section. ⁓ And I think you do really well relating with the doctors and kind of that support team space like we spoke to on the case acceptance one. So I'm excited for today, Brett. Thank you for being here. ⁓ You've got the Grand Canyon, but like, gosh, what else is what else is new and exciting? You just went to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants not too long ago. So that's true.

Britt (01:21)

conferences, I went to PNDC, that

was a good time. Luckily it was gorgeous weather there. mean, podcasting today is special. I wear my tooth earrings for us today since we're podcasting, know, just lots of fun things.

The Dental A Team (01:35)

Getting a little fancy. I like it. And you guys, so you just went to that conference, you went to the Arizona Dental Convention that was in March, right? I think that one's always March for like the last, I don't know, 50 years. It's always been in March. ⁓ And then you just went to the other one and then you're heading out again in a couple weeks to dentist advisors. Yeah.

Britt (01:55)

Yeah, Dentist Money Summit

is by Dentist Advisors, which will be in gorgeous Park City, Utah. So, you know, it's a rough life over here.

The Dental A Team (02:01)

Yeah, I

know, right? And actually it's perfect timing because they, I think we've all like our, our seasons were a little bit off this year. So we are barely getting hot, which normally we're at like 110 already, um, which has been fantastic in Arizona, but that meant that Nevada and, um, Salt Lake area, both Reno and Salt Lake area have had snow longer. So I think you're going to hit Salt Lake for Dentist Money Summit right as the like peak.

summer season starts. So you're gonna get some beautiful weather and I'm a little jealous. I will be in California or something like that. But anyways, somewhere.

Britt (02:36)

somewhere else. It'll be great.

And my second, my nephew, second of my nieces and nephews graduate. So I won't go to graduation, but I'll get to go. I'm like, I'll be coming like a couple weeks later to see you. So I'll go get to see them while I'm up there too.

The Dental A Team (02:50)

Okay.

Okay, good, good. I was like, wait a second, how do we get you there? That's good.

Britt (02:55)

I'm not fighting the crowd up there for graduation,

which he's like, mom, everybody graduates. I'm like, no, it's still a big deal. We'll just celebrate when I come see you on my own instead of along with everybody else.

The Dental A Team (03:06)

gosh,

that's funny. I was just talking over the weekend, we had a graduation party that we had to drop in on yesterday. So was like, gosh, I'm gonna have to, which is, I don't like thinking about it, but I have to start thinking about it that Brody's in a year. So was like, Aaron's like, is he gonna want a party? And he, said, no, he's gonna be the kid that's like, everybody graduates. It's fine. Like it's no big deal. But it is a big deal. same, Exactly.

Britt (03:26)

But they still want it, even though you know it, even though they're like, they're

disappointed, it's like, oh, come on. But like, they want it.

The Dental A Team (03:33)

Exactly. It's like my birthday where I was like, it's fine. Like just a dinner, but like, had they not done a big deal for my 40th, I probably would have, you know, been in shambles. So when it comes, he's surely going to want it, but graduation season is upon us and it's wild that we are in the space of life that we're experiencing it with them. think that's crazy. And anyways, you've got some fun travels. if you guys aren't heading CE events, make sure that you do and make sure that you check out.

a lot of RCE events. So if you're a listener, if you're a client, whatever, you're a listener and a client, like whatever you guys want, we have, what is it? Every third Wednesday, we have a CE webinar. We've got a really cool webinar coming up in August that we do. ⁓ Every year the content shifts and changes, but.

Britt (04:20)

to like check out our Instagram if you don't follow us. If I'm there, come find me. Let me know, message us. I got at PNUC to see a few clients which is really fun. It's always nice when we get to meet up in person. So, whether you're a client or just a listener, come find me.

The Dental A Team (04:22)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah,

especially in Brits position because you have a handful of your own clients, but you oversee a lot of the company. So you know all of the client names, but you don't get to see them and meet them. So I know I have a few clients that are asking if I was going to be there and I'm not. I was like, you got to go find, seek out Brit, like go meet Brit. So definitely, definitely follow the Instagram, make sure that you reach out to Brit.

If you're there, look for her, say hello, take a little picture with her, and then make sure you're hitting those CEs and make sure you're hitting all the free ones, you guys. We put out a ton of free CE and why not? Because I know you need to stack those hygienists and doctors. You guys need to stack those CE credits. So do it for free wherever you can. And then, like I tell one of my prized clients, set up a CE bucket so that you're saving money for the CE that's not free. And on that note...

I think, ⁓ we were actually just talking and I think it's funny because I do think this was like super high thing and right now it's like, I think it's kind of stabilized. It's not quite as sought after as heavily as it was, but for the clients that are doing it or still trying to implement it, there are still some really great CE avenues out there. Today we wanted to talk a little bit on the sleep apnea avenue, systems wise, not to sleep apnea. That's not our genre. You can go take CE for that, Britt can probably tell you a ton.

medically, but you know, that's not our genre, but our genre, our space, our niche is the systems behind it. And so on the note of CE and implementing, do think even if you're not doing sleep apnea, or you're not considering sleep apnea, a lot of what we talk about today is copy pasteable, like systems are systems, you guys, and we we overcomplicate it in life. And what we say for one thing can easily be duplicated and slightly altered for something else. So if there's CE that you're doing, which doctors we love you.

so much. And when you go to CE, you come back just like ecstatic. And if you didn't take team with you, you're the only one. And it's so hard sometimes to get that generating. Typically, it's that there's not, it's just all a fun idea. There's not a really good system behind it to get that momentum. So taking these systems, even what we talked about for sleep apnea, whatever CE you do, apply it to that. And like you said with the sleep apnea, if they're not taking team members, like it can be really hard to implement. And that's a space too.

if you can bring team members to any of that CE or sign them up for the webinar and get them included in it, I think that's a great space too. anyhow, sleep apnea side and system side, Britt, you've worked out the hygienist. So I know that this is some of the stuff like the questionnaire style and that stuff. Like what do you see and what you've actually helped practices implement the systems for sleep apnea. So what do you see as?

Britt (07:10)

Thank

The Dental A Team (07:24)

the biggest ticket items of implementing sleep apnea or just CE style in general that is easy, that's duplicatable like that.

Britt (07:34)

And I think sleep and my yo that's coming in pretty strong for a lot of people too. I think you can similar areas when it comes to looking to implement something successfully. I think that you would look for. So if you're doing one or the other, ⁓ number one, I think is making sure that our team knows what it is. Like Tiff said, doc, you can go to a CE and you get all excited and you understand all the things behind it to see all the dots connect and why this is so important.

because it is, but the team often is behind. So whenever you're looking to do something, you might just take a course as like an exploratory, right? And then you're like, no, this is something I really want to do. When you start to get into that phase of like, no, I really want to work on implementing this. I want you to look for things that are going to help train your team because your team is going to be needing to have 90 % of these conversations with patients and you're going to

Goal is for you not to have all of the conversations with all of the patients. The goal is for the team to be able to help support you, identify patients and start to educate patients and warm them up to the idea. Because just like for your team, it's kind of a newer thing or a different thing or something they don't know all the details about, it doesn't come easily to them. Patients even more so. So that's why our team needs to be really confident in knowing what it is, the reasons why, and being able to talk about it.

I think is number one place to start. Along with that, would say have someone call it your champion, call it your lead of that thing, whatever title you want to give them of someone who is going to be that person who is going to make sure the team has all the things. We educate the team on all the things and they're going to be the one to really ⁓ kind of take point on implementation and keeping this going and getting it to where it becomes a program that's ingrained within our practice.

we need someone to be that person. So from the get-go, education, someone who's gonna be a point person before we even start on implementing anything with our patients. So that would be my number one thing, Tiff, to start with is education and identify as someone who's gonna be the point person, because they're gonna start thinking of implementation, what are all the things we need in our practice to get this program going.

The Dental A Team (09:54)

Yeah, and even like ortho, I have like the same I'm thinking the same thought process because anything that you're trying to grow that doesn't you don't put attention on isn't going to grow. So to your champion conversation there, whether it's sleep, my ortho implants, like anything that's not crowns, fillings, bridges, you know, and even I do have a lot of practices that even do it for crowns, whatever that champion making sure there's a

Britt (09:57)

Hmm. Yeah.

The Dental A Team (10:22)

a job description. And I love that you said the education piece because that I think even when I've seen practices implement the champion space, it's still the education piece falls back to the doctor. But putting that I think that's brilliant putting that on the champion of scheduling out the lunch and learns making sure that they're doing the role playing with the with the team and that they're having these meetings with the team on the education and the why behind it, so that they can take that information and

and tackle it with the patients. And then it made me think too, like KPI is their key performance indicator. So that champion is responsible for seeing, how many times, how many patients do we need to talk to about this to get our case acceptance where we want it or to get that many cases? I know like for ortho, we might do, we want five starts this month or 10 starts this month. So then you look at how many patients do we need to talk to about ortho in order to get.

that because your case acceptance might be like 25%. So you're doing the math for that. then, Brett, I'm thinking that champion is then responsible for collecting the data from the team on how many patients do we talk to, how many patients signed up, and kind of championing all of the results and then looking at how do I control and manipulate the results based on the education implementations, all of those pieces.

Britt (11:46)

agreed and that's I think probably you Tiff right with clients. Like you said, the new thing, right? Name the new thing that we're doing within the office and you know, they want to do more of that thing and I'm like, alright, well, what's going on? Why aren't we even getting it presented to patients? What's happening? Well, we're just not talking about it, right? Like it really comes back to that. That's one of the biggest hurdles to get over is just talking about it and making sure patients know what it is.

The Dental A Team (12:05)

Yeah.

Britt (12:16)

what benefit it would be to them if they're a candidate, if this is something that they need. So that's why I say, make sure we've got that foundation first. And then we go into, okay, we've got a team more comfortable talking about it. How do we identify opportunities with patients? And then that's where we move into what kind of screening do we want for this specific treatment for sleep apnea? Then all right, what kind of screening do we wanna incorporate?

across the board. So it's not reliant on a human thinking, this one would be a candidate. Like, no, what are you screening to where we know when these things are checked or we get this answer to this question, they are someone then that we are going to talk to about a sleep appliance or sleep apnea, we're working on getting them tested, whatever it may be.

The Dental A Team (13:01)

Yeah. And within that, asking those leading questions so that the patient starts thinking, because I think like back to, I think a lot of people do ortho. So back to ortho, you come in and you're hot and heavy. Like I got to get, I'm getting ortho cases and the patient has not had any like leading questions to make them start thinking that there's a problem or a solution needed for a problem. And then you come in and you're like, have you ever thought about ortho? And they're like, no, I haven't.

Right? Because we didn't make them think about ortho kind of the same. Like, do you, you know, ⁓ I hear you might be a snorer, right? Or just coming in and being like, Hey, you've got these weird scallops on your tongue and I think you might need this. And then we just go on this tangent of sleep apnea and they're like, I have no issue sleeping. But if we start asking those leading questions of, do you find yourself tired in the middle of the day? does your partner, you know, do you wake your partner up a lot? Do you toss and turn a lot?

night? Like, are you getting up to use the restroom a lot at night? Like different things that are preheating and leading into there might be something going on there, I think is a space that we kind of overlook sometimes. And we just jump into this is the solution. And it kind of gets lost in translation. And then right on to like layering on top of that, you've got your questionnaire, you've got your team, they're ready to go. You've got all of these pieces.

there, you know what your lead and lag measures are, then you set like identifying the patients, we're identifying the patients and then that layer, like it never stops, there's always the next layer. And that next layer is okay, if we can identify the patients, now we get to track and see, are we getting those patients? So then we say, okay, well, most of my patient base is 18 to 26 years old.

might not be getting like that might not be the patient base you need for sleep apnea or for implants or whatever it is that you want to specialize in. then you've got to look and see, do I need to determine something different in my patient avatar to fit what I'm trying to implement what I'm trying to get because there's only so much you can do with the patients that you're getting in. So it just like keeps layering but comes down to I love like step one it feels like Brit from what you're saying is

Find that champion and make sure that champion is thoroughly educated in what their job is and what the procedure is so then they can, step two, help you to train the team, get the team on board, figure out the why. Step three, find the patients. Step four, how do we get more of those patients?

Britt (15:42)

Yeah, which I think then plays into marketing, right? Marketing at the end of the day is the number of times of exposure. So, right, when it comes down to it, then what are we putting out there? What do we have around our office? What, even if it's peripherally, are our patients seeing to know that this is a thing and that it exists? Because then it won't be as much of a surprise to them when we have a conversation or they're like, well, why aren't you know, I don't even know what that is. They at least, oh, I've seen XYZ about that.

thing in your office or on the TV out in the waiting room, whatever it may be, to start warming them up to it as well. And then depending on how much you want to grow that and be known for that thing, mean, Tiff is the marketing queen. Then there's like a lot more marketing that goes behind it.

The Dental A Team (16:29)

Yeah, I do love marketing. don't know why, but I really do. ⁓ But you're making me think of, because it's subliminal. I think that's why I love it. Because it's like, what can I do to make someone think this way, right? Like I love, I love the way the brain works. I love communication. That's why. So I'm thinking as you're speaking to that, like you're saying like have it off to the side and have it on a TV like 100 % because most of the time we're just being again, preheated.

to the possibility of needing something. So if you think of like a Doritos commercial, right? Like they don't just in the beginning come out with the, like they're not like Doritos, right? It's like, hey, we're grabbing some Doritos out of a chip bowl and all of the like tortilla chips, the unnamed tortilla chips over there is full, but the Doritos are like empty, but we're having conversation, we're having fun, we're in a party because now you're thinking about Doritos associated to fun. So that's how marketing works. It's like little snippets of

this thing and how it's going to benefit your life. Not just like, hey, have some Doritos. Because if somebody came by and they're like, hey, Doritos are amazing, have Doritos. They're just, they're so tasty, you're gonna love them. You're like, I'm okay actually, like, I don't need a Dorito, right? But if they're like, hey, like, let's have fun, let's have a party, let's get people talking, it's gonna be so amazing and you can have these Doritos over here that's gonna, everybody's gonna stand around the bowl and they're gonna socialize.

then you're like, yeah, let me try these Doritos. So it's kind of that same thing. Like how is this thing, this sleep apnea, this ortho, this Botox, these injectors, the fillables, how is this going to benefit the patient's life and speak to the benefits and the problem, not the solution? Because being like, Botox, Botox, Botox, Botox, right? Like Botox is cool, but like why do I want Botox? Because I wanna look 30 when I'm 45.

That's why I Botox. And when do I need to start? When I'm 28. Like, how do we get this subliminal messaging into different aspects of our practice and our speaking? And then what it also does is gets your team speaking that language too, because they're constantly seeing it. So they're constantly being reminded. And as you guys are checking on...

Britt (18:23)

Perfect.

The Dental A Team (18:44)

KPI is and how is it working and how is it growing? We're constantly coming back to this space that you're trying to implement and grow. Caveat of one at a time. Botox and color is fine. Sleep apnea.

Britt (18:56)

I was thinking the same exact thing.

The Dental A Team (19:01)

you can't come home and be like we're doing sleep apnea we're gonna ramp up our ortho and guess what guys I need five more implants and it's like I don't know which one to focus on so one major change at a time and let it sit let it ruminate and see how it goes I like six months at least for like a big implementation like that ⁓ but

Britt (19:22)

Be

good at that thing, right? I think that's when we do too much at once. You and your team, right? And the bigger the team, the more people you're trying to move. You're not gonna get good at it. And then let's be honest, if I'm not good at it, I'm not gonna do it as much. Let's just welcome to human nature again. Like it's a harder thing to do. It takes more effort. But if we focus on one and that one thing we get really good at and it becomes really easy, then that will stick and then we can move on to the next thing.

The Dental A Team (19:52)

Yep. Yep. And always come back again to everything else too, because I've had clients that I've done, you know, let's focus in on implants. we're getting we're talking about it this many times, we're getting this many, we're looking for this many, you know, whatever all the pieces so

we're speaking to implants, we get really good at that. And they're like, cool, like, I want to do more ortho. It's like, okay, well, now we're laying on ortho. But then they're like, hey, wait, I haven't done an implant. I'm like, well, why? Because you lost focus on the implants, because you're so focused on the ortho. So you've got to just layer it in there and be like, on top of like being good at this, we also need to become good at this. So don't lose sight of it or stop tracking the one because you layered on something else, you literally just layering another level to it. And now you're doing both because

honestly, just those two, right? Implants and ortho go hand in hand, you know, do ortho before you place the implants or do ortho so that you can place an implant because the space is too small. Like how are you, how can your team help layer those together and support you in getting those things done? And firstly, Baphne, it's exactly the same. How can your team support you in getting it done? Because you've got what? 1500 to 3000 patients. You've got a team of five to

25 30 you cannot do it all you've got to have at least one champion who is helping you and when you do have those spaces to Britt's point of not doing too many and losing sight if you have a champion of each your phone you they are focused on that thing and so they're ensuring their thing their needle is moving so you've got your

champion of sleep apnea that's like, hey guys, nope, we lost focus, don't forget. And you got your champion of ortho that's like, cool, I've got my metrics over here and making sure that those are staying in line.

Britt (21:41)

And I think once you start doing some cases, especially things where there's more of a knowledge gap, even in Visalign, right? Make sure you're getting results. So like you're getting testimonials, you're getting pictures at the end. Whenever there's a big investment, people want to know like what that means for them. Like what can that be for me? And so that's where

Having something to look at to see before and after and having testimonials for people goes a long ways, especially on things where there's more of a knowledge gap like sleep apnea. Because those patients are gonna really highlight what is important to them, which then is gonna be most likely what's important to all of your people that are in their same seat.

The Dental A Team (22:22)

Yeah, I love it. love it. one, step one, figure out what you're going to do. If it's sleep apnea, it's sleep apnea. One thing, choose the one that you're gonna focus on right now. Step two, figure out what your champion's position looks like or lead or whatever you wanna call it. Quarterback, I don't care what you call it. That position, what's that job description? What are the metrics? Like what does that person need to do? So step one, figure out what you're gonna do. Step two, find your champion.

Britt (22:26)

One thing, one thing.

The Dental A Team (22:52)

figure out what that champion's gonna do. Step three, train your team. Step four, do the thing and track the results every time. I think really easy duplicatable systems that we tagged here as like Sleepapnea, Myo, whatever you wanna focus it on, but literally this system can be duplicated for any major change you're trying to make in procedures within your practice. And then I think the last layer is

within your metrics, watch your marketing and figure out what needs to shift and change there. Brit, brilliant. Brilliant Brit. That's the one. Brilliant Brit. Brilliant Brit.

Britt (23:27)

That's the one I like

more. That's the better one.

The Dental A Team (23:32)

one

I'm gonna use. Brilliant Brit. ⁓ thank you or brainy Brit right but anyways thank you ⁓ for being here with me today for doing this. I knew ⁓ with the implementations you've done before with Sleep Apnea and Mayo you've worked with the you've worked with that before so I knew that you would have some great ideas so thank you so much for being here. I can't wait to hear from you on Saturday that you survived the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim happily and you're still smiling and you're just sleeping.

Britt (24:02)

Maybe I'll stream my before and after. We'll see. Maybe even with Dental A Team. We'll see. It depends on how bad it is afterwards.

The Dental A Team (24:08)

Yeah.

Oh my gosh, that's fair. Yeah, that's fair. You can at least share with me and then we can decide. everyone, go find your thing. What's your one thing right now? What are you going to put? This is something I've been living by. You guys, we can talk about the book. can Hello@TheDentalATeam.com and ask me for it. But what are you putting a 10x effort into? What's your 10x problem that you're putting 10x effort into? Choose that thing. Focus there. Go do it. Duplicate.

create a system that can be duplicated and have so much fun doing it. Again, if you need help with it, you have questions, you want recommendations, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. We are all here to help. We all help answer those questions. So reach out and as always drop us a five star review below. We love to hear that this was implementable for you, that it was helpful and any ideas you guys have for future ones, we're always open to those. So Britt, thank you for being here. Listeners, thank you for being here and we'll catch you next time.

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Kiera shares a key secret from the most recent Dental A-Team Summit: common traits of highest-performing and happiest practices.

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Transcript

Kiera Dent (00:01)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I am so excited to chat with you. I hope that you're just having an incredible day. I hope you're having an incredible life. I hope you remember that honestly, we are so blessed to be in dentistry. We are so blessed to live the lives that we do. You are making huge changes and I hope that you're always so proud of yourself and that you're remembering that what you're doing is truly changing lives. Today I wanted to pop on and I wanted to talk real quick about...

something that we did at our virtual summit in April. And I hope you were able to attend. you weren't, your calendars for next year. We are having it on April 24th, 2026. So mark your calendars now, plan to be there. I would love, love, love to see you there. Because this year our topic was on unlocking extraordinary leadership and profitability. And I think those things go hand in hand. And one of the quotes that we had in there was, extraordinary doesn't mean perfect.

And Simon Sinek has said, there is no such thing as a perfect leader, only one who learns, adapts and grows with their team. And I really, really loved this because we went through an entire model of what's extraordinary leadership, what's the extraordinary leadership formula. And then at the end, we actually went through this amazing thing of common themes of practices. And so what our team did is we actually started looking at all of the dental offices that we've consulted, that we've been a part of, that we've worked with over the years. And we started looking to see

What are maybe some of the common themes of awesome practices that have amazing leadership and practices who maybe have not so good of leadership? And so I thought today it would actually be really fun to hop on the podcast. And for those of who attended summit amazing, this is a nice recap for you. Hopefully to dive it in, there are no recordings of summit. So I thought this would be a fun thing to bring back to the table for you and something I really loved. And I thought about it so much. And also for those of you who might not have been able to attend

to help you start thinking because I found that when I can figure out what are the patterns, like Tony Robbins says, success leaves clues. And I think about this often of, okay, what are the clues of the successful practices? What are the clues of the offices that are doing things differently? What are the clues of the offices that struggle constantly versus the offices that do really well? And one thing that is always in common is there's always an amazing leader, always. They're always watching their numbers. So they make their decisions based on their numbers.

And the third thing is that they have these common themes. So our team actually went through and I remember asking our team, said, okay, let's look at these leaders. Let's look to see what are the themes? What are the pieces? are, like, what is it? And we picked out a couple of offices. We picked out some of these different things and we said, like, okay, here's these awesome offices. What do they have in common? What are the things that they're doing consistently? And let's see if we could build this like,

common theme. ⁓ let's go through it. And it was really a message. Amazing because when we were in summit, we had people I was like, okay, this isn't you. This is other practices, of course. But let's think of like, what are some of the not so good attributes of leadership? What do you think? Of course, this is not you. This is someone else. But what is it for you that that maybe would be like the not so good leadership again, and these are these are offices that could be doing great.

financially. But what I usually find are the great leaders are always the more successful and more profitable practices. So the not so good what they have, what they tend to have ⁓ is they don't trust their office manager or their leadership team. I'm always here for trust and verify, but to truly trust your office manager and to let them lead and to have them as a partner in the business and to hold them to that high level. They're also usually sometimes poor clinicians. ⁓ Again, I'm not a dentist. I'm not here for it.

But was interesting of like a lot of the practices that we see struggling, was the dentistry is actually not so good. And I feel like that kind of ⁓ like truly kind of revolves and it might reflect some possible pieces. So for that, just know, again, these are not all, but we started just looking at like, what were some of the common themes? They were poor leaders. So there's team turnover constantly. So they weren't having the conversations. They were trying to be people pleasers. They were trying to dance around the hard conversations.

⁓ Maybe we're talking bad about other team members. They were gossiping. But that was something, there was a team turnover constantly and people couldn't figure it out. I know there's one office that I can remember. Don't worry, I'll mash it up so you don't know who I'm going to talk about. ⁓ And they were just rude. They were constantly belittling their team. They were constantly putting them down. They were constantly just mean. And so on that, just realizing there was team turnover. Now team turnover can also be because you're not transparent.

not having conversations, it does not mean that you're people pleasing. They didn't implement strategies. They would take a lot of notes. They'd go to a lot of CE, but they didn't, they never implement. So it's just like we're, listening, listening, but we don't actually implement. We don't actually execute. Now remember these are the not so good leaders. Okay. They were highly driven by emotions. So emotions guide. They, I know when I first started, I was very turbulent as a leader and I was very driven by emotions rather than

What's ultimately in the best interest of the business? ⁓ I constantly ask that question. Like, I know I want to take care of you and I'd love to have you be a part of us. But the reality is I've got to drive this business by logic while having a heart and having, ⁓ definitely having some, some love that way too. They also don't look at their numbers. They don't look at their results. So not tracking numbers. They have no clue. It's like they are an ostrich in the sand. They don't want to look at them. They have no idea where their numbers are. When I asked like, how are you doing? It's, it's always like,

We don't really know. We just love to live in La La Land. ⁓ They do a lot of CE, but never implement similar to they don't implement strategies, especially in coaching clients. ⁓ They don't implement. They're like, they always have an excuse. So I think like lots and lots and lots of excuses is another sign of the not so good leaders that we see as common themes. Again, there's like variables, there's other things, but these were common themes of practices that when we meet them, we know that they're probably going to fail. These are common themes.

They have lots of coaches, but they don't trust and they don't execute. So they'll listen, they hire the coaches, they do the things, but they don't actually trust and they don't execute. So the coaches will talk to the team, they'll give them the strategies and they'll be like, yeah, yeah, we're not going to do that. Or, nope, I'm not going to execute that. Or they just don't follow through. They have no integrity on their word. They're half in on everything. So it's kind of like, yeah, we kind of do that. We kind of do this. We kind of do that. Just fully do it. Why not?

⁓ They want to pay to fix the problems with no self-realization identification that they might be the issue. So things like ego, fear, no accountability, everyone else is the problem. I see this often, they blame, they talk about like, my gosh, this person's so terrible or my gosh, like you'll never believe what happened to me. There's always an excuse for why they don't have the life that they wanna have or the practice that they want. So I'm super curious, like as you listen to that list, like I said, like.

⁓ This is a zone where honest to goodness, what are the not so good leaders and do you maybe have any of those attributes? Now let's flip the good side, all right? So these are, again, there's so many things I could have pulled out, but these are the ones that I looked at and I was like, my gosh, these are consistent themes of great leaders. So they're great implementers. They execute, they put things into play and they don't fall off. So they truly implement and they stick. They allow their teams to be free. ⁓ It's interesting. They...

They give them the parameters, they give them the vision, and then they allow the teams to create. They say, all right, here's the parameters of what we are as a culture. Now go create and be free. They're great at decision-making. They don't sit on it. They think about it. They use their numbers and they execute, which leads to the next one is they execute. They make the decision. They follow through. They move forward. If we tell them to do something, they get it done. They follow through on what they say. They own their word. They're consistent. They roll with the punches. It's not high. It's not low. It's just they roll right through.

They have long-term teams. These teams stay with them. They take care of their teams, but they're also honest with their teams and very much holding them to a high level and high standards. The good also live by high standards. They don't tolerate mediocrity. They truly don't. It's just, they cut it out. They move on and they are very, very methodical in their decisions. They make their decisions based on the numbers. They're great visionaries. They see where they want to go and they can truly inspire and rally a team on actual things that are going to happen rather than just theories and ideas.

And they know what they're working towards and they don't get distracted. They truly have these blinders. I feel like so many of them have discipline. So as like who they are, most of them all work out consistently. They have a strong workout routine. They are physically fit. They have date nights with their spouses or their significant others. They make time for their kids. They're very good with their time and time management. They prioritize. ⁓ They delegate really well. They focus on what's the most important for them. But it's interesting as you look at the difference between the two lists.

My question is, which list are you on more so? If I was Santa Claus and it's the naughty and nice list, as you go back and maybe it'd be worthwhile to stop and push pause on this podcast, it's a very short, concise podcast for you today, ⁓ go back and check off of like, how am I doing on this? Is this a trait of mine or is it not a trait of mine? Because the reality is I want you to be an incredible leader. I want you to be incredible human. I want you to truly be so.

such great leaders to be able to have the practice of your dreams and the life of your dreams. And it really does boil down to leaders. And so again, it was such a fun little thing. I thought I'd take like just a little snippet out of summit for you of the not so good and the good leadership. And for you, let's add more to the good. And if you need help with that, this is oftentimes where an outside person can help you see where are my gaps as a leader? Where can I grow? Where can I rise? How can I have these conversations? How can I nip things in the bud faster? How can I stay consistent to this?

You guys, wasn't a consistent human when I started and I had to put things into place to help me be consistent. It's muscle skills to be a great leader. It's not born into you. And so if we can help you reach out, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com, you guys truly flex those leadership muscles, commit to being that incredibly great leader for your practice. Your practice needs you, your team needs you, your patients need you. This is your time and you need you. So rise up, be that amazing leader. And if we can help reach out, hello, at the dental...

Hello@TheDentalATeam.com as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

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Tiff and Britt explain the right way to achieve case acceptance — without over-complicating or over-simplifying. Getting this down will increase trust among team members and help keep your schedules on track.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:01)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be here today. I have Miss Brittany Stone. I pull her in every now and again as often as I can to do recordings with me. And I love, love, love nothing more than having Britt here. I love having all of the consultants in a rotation, but Britt is, you know, a special OG podcaster.

She has been with me since the beginning of time on these podcasts, it feels like. So, Britt, thank you so much for being here today. How are you? It is a beautiful Monday morning for us. I'm actually a little warm. It's getting hotter in Phoenix again, but Britt, how are you today?

Britt (00:40)

I'm doing good. I mean, it's the time of year where shade is beautiful, right? Like it makes a big difference. And right now in the shade, it is still very nice. It's just the direct sunlight that's a little bit warmer. So it is a gorgeous day outside and I will still definitely go get out on a ride later today. So but happy to be here. It's always fun. I feel like we said it before like these are times like geek out together. So it's like hangout time, but we get everybody else to come along with us and listen to the fun things we chat

The Dental A Team (00:43)

Yes.

fair.

That's so true. I do love bringing them on rides. I always make Dana talk about like workout apparel and have something for me to do.

Britt (01:12)

Dana's like the

deaf queen. need something like Dana's got whatever it is that you need.

The Dental A Team (01:20)

know,

I know I love it. So I just pick and choose like what do I need from who's on who's on with me today and what can I gather from them and you are my outdoors like Dana's outdoors too, but she's my apparel and my protein. You're my like outdoors you're doing Grand Canyon this weekend, I was supposed to be doing it next weekend. I don't think I am but you are doing it Friday. So in just a couple days, are you prepped and ready? I don't know that there's every day that anyone says yes, I'm ready. But are you prepped and ready?

for the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim, guys. She is hiking from one rim of the canyon to the other rim of the canyon. It's a big deal.

Britt (01:54)

in one day.

yeah, it's four days away and I'm as ready as I'm gonna be. Like at this point, like let's go.

The Dental A Team (02:01)

Yeah.

I agree. agree. I'm near doing it in one day, which we had planned on doing as well. I was calculating the other day based on like how our hike was going what I felt like our timing was going to be. And I calculated with the addition of the extra like two ish miles because the bridge is closed. ⁓ I was thinking like a good 20 minute a mile pace obviously would get you to like 10 hours but then that's no breaks. That's a freaking hauling pace.

Britt (02:20)

Correct?

The Dental A Team (02:31)

So I thought for us it was gonna probably be like 12 to 13 hours. Is that what you're thinking? Yeah.

Britt (02:37)

Yeah, and I have to remind myself, like it's one of those things. I'm a power through girly for most things, but this is a marathon, not a sprint. And so from things I've read, they're like, take a break every hour, eat something every hour, make sure you're hydrating. So I'm gonna try to do that. And they say, get down the canyon in the first like third of whatever time you're planning and it's gonna take you like double that time to get out. So that's fun.

The Dental A Team (03:05)

good. Good. That's what I was thinking too. Like, take your time. That's what we were saying when we checked our pace, did like almost we did nine and a half, 10 miles, and kept like a 20 to 25 minute pace and it was fine. But it was like, that's a third of what we are going to be doing. so making sure that was to get down. So that was, you know, get down in that amount of time.

Britt (03:08)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (03:26)

But I'm excited for you. can't wait to hear about it. You're to have to post pictures, send them to our marketing team so that we can see a Duna-Lay team out on the rim to rim. It's something that our team has been actually talking about for a couple of years now. So Britt's going to be the first one to overcome that bucket list item for us and test it out. So she's our test queen.

Britt (03:44)

We'll see if

I go do it with you again when someone else wants to go do it or if it's like, I did that once, I'm good.

The Dental A Team (03:51)

Yeah, yeah, well, hopefully it's I'll do it with you again, because

it sounds like my Grand Canyon partner is you know, he's younger than me, but he's an old man and is falling apart. So he may not be able to do it. So you might have to do it with me later. So you just keep me posted. That's true. That's true. That's true.

Britt (04:04)

You and I can do it, and Damon will crush us all. We know this, but we can always go and do it. So yes, I will

keep you posted. I will take pictures. I know no matter what, it'll be gorgeous, and that's what it's all about.

The Dental A Team (04:15)

Yeah, good. I'm excited for it. And I just, I'm so impressed. So super cool. I can't wait to see pictures and everyone who's listening, you're welcome for the adventure there and keep your eyes peeled. If you don't know what the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim is, go look it up because you need to understand what she's doing. It's a big deal. ⁓ and Erin, it's a fee. And Erin keeps reminding me because, and I grew up in Arizona. And so I think that we've talked about this before. We think like,

Britt (04:34)

It's a scene.

The Dental A Team (04:43)

to the Grand Canyon. It's a giant hole in the ground. It's been there forever. I grew up here. It's not a big deal. And Aaron's like from Oregon. He's like, it's a one like it's one of the wonders of the world. And so we definitely take it for granted. So I'm sure a lot of listeners here like you guys are crazy, which actually that I was talking to him about this on Saturday while we were hiking and I'm like, gosh, I know I take this for granted. But I said, you know what, actually, it's kind of like in dentistry, when we're diagnosing and we're just like, you need this and we're using all this terminology that

us is so like second nature. It's so just ingrained in us and it makes sense. But to the other people, it doesn't. And I correlated that thought process of like, for me, the Grand Canyon is something that has and will always be there. And it's just like a part of my life. I take it for granted because I grew up in Arizona. I'm like, I've never even really spent time there because I'm like, Matt's there. I'll do it someday.

Britt (05:38)

I've it. I've seen it.

The Dental A Team (05:40)

And he's like, people come from out of the country to see the Grand Canyon. To me, that's freaking wild. But that's the difference, right? In communication, even, and understanding. And I think it flows that idea, that mindset of like, what are we taking for granted? What are we skimming past because it's natural for us or it's always there. And I think we skim past a lot of times, relationship building or ⁓

focusing on like the problem when we're treatment planning and jumping to the just the solution and speaking in words and terminology maybe that people don't necessarily like relate to and that relating piece is massive and it's kind of that same we all have spaces of life that we just take for granted and we skim past like the Grand Canyon and 7th wonder of the freaking world right it's that communication space and I think ⁓ on this Grand Canyon topic here

Britt (06:29)

you

The Dental A Team (06:36)

your case acceptance directly correlates. And I'm sure Erin was like, this is super cool. We're talking dentistry on our hike. I'm talking about the grand canyon. But it's so true. And Brett, have you seen that? I know you consult a lot of practices too. And have you seen that too, where it's like, gosh, we're just, and you've been a hygienist actually, right? So just speaking to the like solution, like, you need a crown, you need a bridge, you need an implant, you need full mouth reconstruction. And patients are like glazed over like, cool, really, really

Britt (06:42)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (07:05)

diving into that, Britt, what have you seen within that and how do we get back to like basics on how to simplify case acceptance increasing because we do overcomplicate it in my opinion.

Britt (07:18)

I agree, we overcomplicate it, but we also oversimplify at the same time. I think when it comes to talking to patients about things, because these are things that are, we don't even have to think about them. We are around all day long, this is what we're trained to do, so identifying it, knowing it's important, they're just things that come so easy to us, kind of like the Grand Canyon thing that I'm like, yeah, I've seen it a couple times, but you know, it's fine. ⁓

The Dental A Team (07:23)

Yeah.

there.

Britt (07:46)

But with patients, think often what we'll do is we will like gloss over parts of it to where, and we think that we can say like a couple words and like, you need this. And they're going to be like, yeah, absolutely. I need that. And they're going to make sure it gets done because in our brain it makes complete sense that that's what needs to happen. And I like to try to remind people when it comes to how we present treatment.

ultimately getting patients to the point of doing their treatment. Like that is truly where we are playing the advocate for that patient. And so in it, like, yes, it'll be thrown around that it sells all of these different things, but really it's how can I explain it in a way to where that patient one understands what's needed, what the problem is, what will happen if they don't do anything and how we can get that thing done.

And my job is to help to make that as simple, as clear as possible to where they understand it and they get that treatment done instead of sometimes just short-changing pieces of it to where they don't really understand and they're saying no. And I'm like, well, it's their choice. And I'm like, but did I really explain it to where they understand what choice they're making?

The Dental A Team (08:58)

Yeah, that's a really good point. I like how you said that like over complicating, but oversimplifying because there's that middle ground, right of like, walking, we're going too fast. And so we exhaust ourselves halfway through the Grand Canyon hike or we're going too slow. And now it's night when we're getting out and that's scary. So it's like finding that middle ground of pace to make the perfect run to run hike, I think it was actually perfect. had a client call last week that they were like,

And this I think is super common. We've heard this a million times, right? Like he's taking too long in the exams. He's explaining everything, right? It's like, okay, are they a details person? Are they a bullet point person? Really being able to gauge the human that you're talking to, the patient in the chair and getting some of that information. you mentioned like making sure the team is supporting the doctor. And I, when I speak to doctors in relation like this, I really like to call them the support team.

And I know everybody calls them like employees or my employees or they're my staff or they're my team. And if you attach that support team to it, like they're really here to support you. So having them help to prep the patient. So handoffs are essential and making sure like, ⁓ they know they bring led to the fact that there's potentially something going on here. So that's that co-diagnosis space, right? Which I think is a hard word to understand because the word diagnosis is in there and you're not actually diagnosing. You're just like,

leading them down a path that there may be a diagnosis, I think it gets a little confusing.

Britt (10:27)

diagnose, preheat, whatever term that you want to use, I'll tell you my view in my hygiene brain and I think, again as an assistant, you should think the same way. If I'm sitting there complaining about how long an exam is taking and it's not because the doctor is talking about personal stuff and chit chatting with this patient on the personal side of things, I didn't do my job well.

The Dental A Team (10:29)

3D.

Yes.

Britt (10:53)

Because if I did my job well, I would have already talked about most of those things to that patient, to where the doctor doesn't have to have that full conversation. I can recap it, say, hey, here's what's going on. Here's what I see. Here's what we talked about. We want to make sure you take a look at it, doc, to see what's needed and confirm, you know, if there's anything that's needed there. Cause then I, I've cut down 90 % of that conversation for them. And I like to be on time. I think most hygienists like to be on time.

One of the things that I loved about being a hygienist is like, I'm running my column. Like that's part of the beauty is that I have a lot of control over how that day runs. It's just my exam part. And I have a lot of control over how that exam goes if I prep.

The Dental A Team (11:37)

100 % agree. I had a client two weeks ago, speaking with a doctor because their team was like, Tiff, like, I can't get him into these other appointments. And these are running long and blah, blah, blah. So I go into the call thinking like, all right, I got to get this doctor in shape. Like, what is what is he doing that's holding them back from being on time in these other areas? And what it came down to realistically was the inconsistency in the information.

from the support team going to the doctors and the inconsistency in having a support team in the room with the doctor. And so when I go in like, okay, you gotta cut down exams. And he is like, well, that's cool. But like, it's so inconsistent. That makes me think, right? So you're saying pass off that information, gather the information, pass it off. I hated nothing more as a dental assistant than to be gathering the information and then it not being used.

And you know, that's still to this day. If I make something, if I create something, if I get the information and the data and then it's not, it's overlooked, it's not used, or I'm asked to create it again, I will freak out. It's just, it's just who I am as a human and Brit does really well with me. ⁓ but this team specifically, right. was intermittently, like sometimes they had it, sometimes they passed it off. Sometimes they did it. Sometimes they were in the room with him to anesthetize.

So they were giving a handoff like sometimes they weren't. So then what happens is you're training that doctor to not trust that the information's going to be there. So the team is upset and they're like, well, it's like he asks the questions as if we didn't do it correctly. And I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, I think he's asking the questions because he's not always trusting that it was done.

And now his routine is to just do it, whether you've done it or not. So to the support team and to the doctors who need to train their support team, train that consistency. And the inconsistency of it is what will break it apart. Your exams will go long and truth be told, your case acceptance decreases. The trust that you guys have, chair side, the communication and the relationship that you and your support team have, it builds the trust for the patient. They can feel it.

And when you pass off that information correctly, when you preheat the patient, you pass it off, you guys are in communication, you're in communication with the patient, the patient is like, this is fantastic, like this is going to save my tooth, this is going to get rid of this problem because we're speaking to the problem, the solution and the consequence, right? So what's the problem that we're fixing? And when we're all speaking that same language around the same thing, the patients are like, this is fantastic.

I do need this fixed and your case acceptance will increase. But if you doctors are carrying all the load or if hygienists are carrying the load and the doctors are like, cool story bro, whatever, we're not sharing it, right? We're not sharing the support there. Your case acceptance won't be as high as if those other pieces are in place. So, Brett, I think one of the pieces, speaking to the team that is inconsistent and speaking to the doctor, you pulled out one of my favorite words, control.

Britt (14:45)

Hahaha

The Dental A Team (14:45)

And I

like to speak to teams and doctors of like, yes, that's a problem. What is, what aspect of control do you have to fix that problem? Cause what happens is in human life in general, we get wrapped up in the problem and we're like, hands in the air. Like I didn't do it. That's on you. And we wait for someone else to fix it. But the reality is we do have some control over it. So doctors creating and forming those habits coming in and being like, Hey, what you got for me?

Instead of barreling in and being like, how's that tooth feeling? Let's look at your x-rays. Your consistency and your habit you form is to come into a room and acknowledge the team first, patient after.

Britt (15:29)

love that you brought up consistency, right? And when I'm consistent, right? We're humans of pattern, right? Like we like habits, we like to follow the same pattern. So agree, that's when I am a consistent human and doing things the same way. Then kind of like the control piece, I'm like, then I have more control if I'm consistent that I know that that other person is usually going to follow along for the

part and maybe we've got to have a conversation to clear something up but if they know what they can expect of me and I'm gonna show up for them every single time then it makes life a lot easier and so I think of it that way too like when I'm doing exams with doctors right usually if a doctor is gonna repeat everything I already talked about it's because I didn't hop in soon enough and give them enough of a like rundown of what we already had a conversation about so that's me so if they start doing that then that's a me problem okay I need to

hop in soon enough and make sure I give them a good enough recap of what we've already talked about so they don't need to repeat that conversation. I will tell you guys, doctors, you might have a hard time letting go of these things, but team members, ultimately doctors want to let go of these things and they want you to step up so they can and everything's gonna run much more efficiently when we can do that is when team members are able to take care of as much as they possibly can.

make your doctor's life as easy as possible by teeing them up and making I love it because I'm like, if I am on point in my communication, that doctor is just going to follow me. Even if I don't know that doctor very well, like I could, I've temped in offices before I could go temp in an office. And if I follow the same way I do it every single time, because it leads them right into what's next and what's needed. And then I happen to do my part and they finish it off. I guarantee you within a day of working with a brand new doctor.

I can have them in a flow of how I'm running hands down because I'm doing my part consistently.

The Dental A Team (17:30)

Agreed. I totally agree. I've done it. I've done the same thing. I've come as a dental assistant for an office and the doctor was like, this is amazing. I was like, I can't have it any other way because then I don't have control over the timing of the appointment and I'm responsible for your schedule being on time. And so if I allow you the control, you have no idea what time it is, you have no idea what's coming after this appointment. I do I have that information. And I'm responsible. People are going to come to me, right? That's what

this doctor was like, the assistants and the assistants like, well, the doctor and I'm like, well, it's the assistants like assistants, your goal, your job is to ensure that we're running on time and that the doctor has everything that they need. Now doctors, that doesn't mean you get to chat all day and blame it on the assistants. means you've got to follow their lead and you've got to train your assistants in what that needs to look like. And then your assistants train you and how they're going to do it. So you've to find a really great assistant or train a really great assistant to understand that and get it.

They're out there and they're freaking amazing. But the biggest piece there I think to speak to right is the control factor. What can you what aspect of control in this problem do you have? And if the problem is, is your case acceptance is not high enough. It's not always more calls you guys, it might be. But my goal as a treatment coordinator is that I don't have calls to make. So if there are a lot of calls to make, I usually tell practices if you've got a ton of money and outstanding treatment,

That's not actually your issue. Your issue is why aren't they accepting treatment planning? Why are they going on to a list to be called? So if you're like hammering calls, hammering calls, hammering calls, and that's the only thing you're focusing on, you're missing a huge aspect of case acceptance because there's a piece there that's not being hit on. And typically it's like that tit for tat space of like, well, he did this or she did this or hygienist did this, dental assistants aren't stepping up. Like, wait, how can I?

control the narrative and build a habit, form a habit out of this. So how can I get the support from my team? That comes down to I think, Britt, you nailed this of like, what do you want? So doctors, a limited exam, this is the one that gets the most wild because it could be anything. We don't know what the patient's coming in for. What are the three to five things, things of information, pieces of information that you want for every limited exam, right? Are they taking any medication?

Is the medication helping on a scale of one to 10? What does the pain feel like? When did it start? What have you done to try to help it so far? And then caveat, if it's a patient of record, did we diagnose something there, right? So like those are, that's the same thing for all exams. How can my team preheat my patient and support me in that? And then speaking to the problem, going back to the Grand Canyon, you know,

Britt (20:08)

I'm sorry.

The Dental A Team (20:23)

purse piece there, excuse me, the Grand Canyon piece there is how can we make sure that we're finding that perfect piece and we're not giving too much information overwhelming them and confusing them, but we're not oversimplifying where it's like, you need a phrenectomy and a triple crown and whatever, like these crazy words that they're just like glazed over, yeah, okay, and then we're wondering why they didn't accept, you gotta find that perfect piece in the middle.

Britt (20:40)

Yes.

The Dental A Team (20:49)

your support team, I think can help find that too. Because Britt, I'm sure there have been plenty of times where you're like, hey, this guy is like an in and out, like he just wants the information and then he'll ask questions. But then you probably had the ones too, where it's like, they want all the details. I've given them a ton. And we're going to pass it off because those ones, right, are the ones that get pretty lengthy.

Britt (21:09)

Yeah, and I know right in my personality, I am a detailed person. I like to understand all the things, but that is not everyone. And so surely I need to be aware of that. And then yes, I've got whatever you guys want in your process, right of how we talk about things when we follow the same process, we speak the same language, right? It makes everybody's life a lot easier and it makes us come across also more confident and polished to those patients so that they

understand, believe in, are ready to do the treatment that they need to take care of their oral health. But I think along with that is making sure that we are able to, ⁓ I don't know, just have it be really nice and smooth for that patient and be on point and adjust when needed for personality, right? So like I can identify and see pretty quickly someone who loves the details or I'm like, great, I'm gonna

I'm gonna make sure I give them the why. I still don't wanna spend waste time on unnecessary details, right? But I'm gonna make sure I give them the why. And you're right, my deep personalities, I mean, you guys, worked in Arlington, Virginia for how long? It is a big city and they are movers and shakers and you wanna talk about a straight personality, they've got them. So I'm like, I need to not make this person super annoyed by me. Here's the nuts and bolts. What questions do you have? Doctor will come in and let you know. Like keep it nice and simple.

The Dental A Team (22:33)

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, I agree. think ⁓ these are all great points. I love everything you said, Britt, and coming from a hygienist mindset is perfect because that's doctors like that's what you need. You need a hygienist that's thinking that way too. Like, what does this patient need? How can I help the doctor to be successful in this exam and get that doctor going because a hygienist job, is patient care, education, and keeping on a schedule. And the control factor

a lot of hygienists will throw their hands in the air and be like, you know, I'm late again. Yeah, I'm late, but it's because well, how did how could I have adjusted what I did to ensure that we stayed on time so that that didn't happen? So I totally agree.

Britt (23:14)

Yeah, that's where

yeah, guide them you guys at if a doctor feels supported, right, and they feel like you've got it handled to where they can follow your lead for hygienist and assistance. They will do it like again, they they're watching how many columns and you're in charge of one or two, right? So like they've got a lot going on in their head if they can trust that their team is there to take care of them and guide them to the right thing in conversation and

assistance, a great assistant tells the doctor where to go and where they need to be right now. It makes everybody's life a lot easier, most importantly, doctor. And doctor, if your team is not doing that, I would say look at do they know what the expectation is? Do they know what they can do? And then are you allowing them to do it?

The Dental A Team (24:03)

Yeah, I think that's a great those are your great action items right there. Like what do want this to look like? Are you allowing them to do that? And what can you do to build those habits between yourself and the team to get those pieces going? So problem solution consequence always you guys that's easy. We all know that make sure you're speaking to the problem more than the solution. And getting that solidified. Make sure that those handoffs are there and that you guys are you guys are getting the information that you want. If you're not then ask for it just build them a template of what

Britt (24:06)

you

The Dental A Team (24:32)

information you want to get and then make sure that you're using it. You're taking it right. You're not just barreling in and the the team should know like hey grab the doctor's attention right away an introduction allowing for an introduction and the team needing to do an introduction will help save that every single time. So I love this Brett. Thank you. Thank you for doing the Grand Canyon first that you can let us know what it's like. I appreciate you.

Britt (24:55)

I'll film.

The Dental A Team (24:57)

I appreciate your input on this. You guys go increase your case acceptance. Again, if you're making massive amounts of calls, outgoing calls, try to fill a schedule and try to get the case acceptance, that means something internal prior to the patient's leaving is not working. There's a system, there's a step there that's not being dialed in. So look at the internal systems. Definitely always making calls, never forgetting about that, but the ultimate goal is that there's not calls to make.

Go get higher case acceptance. Britt, thank you so much for being here with me today. I hope you guys enjoyed this content. Listen back, take notes, do whatever you need to do. And as always, message us at Hello@TheDentalATeam.com for any questions, any resources. We are here to help you and go have a killer rest of your day.

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Kiera and Dana offer a life raft for businesses struggling to keep cash flow in the green, including specific steps to help get your practice back on course.

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Transcript

Kiera Dent (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I am jazzed. Dana, the one and only Dynamite Dana over there. She's on the podcast with me today. Dana, how are you today?

Dana (00:10)

doing pretty good. It's a beautiful day here and so I'm just excited to be on the podcast with you.

Kiera Dent (00:15)

Dana, I am so glad because you and I, feel like we're ships in the night. We see each other, we wave to each other. We love working together, but the reality of us like being on the same boat to talk to each other is few and far between, which is so ironic. But every time I see you in person, I'm like, Dana, we need to hang out more. Like, so it's fun to podcast, even though, I mean, it's a funny way to say hello. We're like here to do work, but at least we get to like have more interactions. So, ⁓ thanks for being on my ship today. I guess like welcome, welcome aboard, matey.

Dana (00:44)

Yeah,

happy to be here, Gatton.

Kiera Dent (00:48)

But today you guys, Dana and I, we were talking about like some burnout and cashflow row. So think about death row. We actually have a lot of clients that come to us. Thankfully, like once they become clients, they get off death row, cashflow row. But we thought about, think oftentimes burnout and cashflow row ⁓ go hand in hand. And so I figured, Dana, let's get into like, how do you get off of cashflow row? like death row,

you're about to go and like die like literally. ⁓ I feel it's becoming a bit more common than I've seen in the past. I'm super grateful and I just want to shout out and for all of you listening, if you're on cashflow row or you're on burnout row, ⁓ just like a huge hug, a huge hug of love, a huge hug of no judgment. Gosh, I get like emotional thinking about it I think it's so easy as a business owner to like just harp on yourself to just feel like

Like, why am I so dumb? Like, why can't I figure this out? Like, the mean girl or boy in your mind is just like vicious and wicked. And it makes me so angry that we're this way to ourselves as business owners. Cause I'm like, you know what? You're freaking strong. And like, you took these risks and like, you don't know what you're doing, but you know, you wanted to like build a great like culture for your team. You wanted to build this amazing life for your family. And yeah, it's hard. It's really hard to be a business owner. And I think I speak of this so candidly because

Like I've been on death row, like cashflow row. I've been on burnout row, like, and you just sit there and when you need to like have the most love and respect for yourself and grace, it's when we like punch ourselves and kick ourselves and yell at ourselves. And so ⁓ I thought it would be a really, ⁓ hopefully timely podcast for some of you listening of just love of no judgment, of encouragement, and maybe some like shining little stars when you need a North star right now, because

It can feel very daunting. And I want to tell you, you don't have to do it alone. ⁓ You telling yourself you're alone and on an island is your choice. And it's a choice that you don't have to stay with. There's so many ways we can help. I think even just like when we get clients that are on cashflow row, I feel like they feel they finally got a life raft sent to them when they didn't know it was even possible. And as consultants, think Dana and I and our whole consulting team are so passionate about getting you into cashflow positive and doing it with ease where it's not that hard. But

Like it wasn't overnight that you got here either. So it's not going to be overnight. get you out of there. We're to move you pretty quickly. Cause I think like, Hey, someone's like holding the lantern for you in this dark cave. Like, all right, here's the way out. can really, really help you. But really Dana, think like just again, I hope all of you listening know we come to you with love, with no judgment. You're not a terrible business owner. You're not dumb. You shouldn't have known this before. It's just, this is where we are kind of like a patient with perio, right? Like it's okay. Like this is where we are. And the great news is

There are solutions and there's a way out and there's a way to happiness again if you want. So Dana, that's kind of my like emotional pitch to start this off with. Any thoughts you have? Because I think you've seen quite a few come to you on Cash Flow Row from day one.

Dana (03:49)

This is.

Yeah, yeah. And I love just your vulnerability there, Kiera, as a business owner, because I say it to doctors all the time, like, whether it's a dental office, whether it's a consulting company, whatever business it is, it doesn't come with an instruction manual. And so we get in there with the best of intentions, we're ready to work hard, we put everything you have into it. And there are ebbs and flows in business. And sometimes it gets really, really hard. And you're right, it is the self talk that

that you have to take a look at and the blame that you put on yourself for being the reason why you got there. And you know what, it's okay, we're gonna figure it out ⁓ and we're gonna stop the bleeding and we're gonna start focusing on the things that are going to matter and are going to move it forward. And you know what, as a coach, I get the pleasure of cheering you along the way and sometimes kicking your booty when it's needed. And ⁓ it is, we are seeing it more and more and I think

it comes down to two, like knowing what cash you need, knowing what you're spending your cash on, and sometimes making some hard decisions based on that too.

Kiera Dent (05:05)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I think with that it's like awesome. Here we go Here's the blood like we're going to help you get out of that and I love that you said there's no instruction manual just like being a parent There's no instruction manual and so there are just different ways to do it So my big thing and in Dental A team, always like we are profitable We call it the yes model so you can say yes to everything you want in life and the Y stands for you as a person We're gonna focus on E stands for earnings and profitability

and S stands for systems and team development. So like those three things together are going to give you success with ease. So today, if you're on cashflow row or burnout row, I think oftentimes burnout comes because of cashflow. Like it is the scary piece to it. So with that, let's talk about like, what can we do if we're in cashflow row? What are some of the fastest things that will help people get out of cashflow? Dana, I'll let you take this. We're going to just kind of riff back and forth. Like you guys, this is unscripted. This is just from our knowledge of things that we do.

of like when we see offices and again this is coming from real life offices things we've actually done to get them off of cashflow row. Dana let's just riff because you've got a few that have just come and you've got a few that have been there and ⁓ they're doing well.

Dana (06:12)

Yeah, yeah, yeah,

I think it is. It's a reviewing of expenses. Is there anything we can cut that we're not cutting ourselves too lean though that we can't continue to grow? And then also, what do need to produce and produce it consistently?

Kiera Dent (06:27)

Yeah, I love that. So it's like we either need to increase our production or we need to decrease our expenses. And on the production, I will also say we need to make sure we're collecting. It's wild to me. I was talking to a doctor who's on quote unquote cashflow row and they said, Kiera, I have like $300,000 sitting in AR. And I was like, so you're really not on cashflow row. You've got the money. You just haven't collected it. So realizing that usually in dentistry, there's quite a few cashflow opportunities very quickly.

But I agree with you, Dana. Like step one is like, let's get our PNL and let's know our numbers. Is there anything on there? Like, and I'm talking like, you don't like, gosh, people get wild and they start cutting things that actually you need. Like I know your hygienists are expensive, but they also produce for you. I know billers can feel annoying, but they also collect money for you. I know your treatment coordinator can feel expensive, but they're putting money on your books. I know a consultant can feel like I'm going to cut. can do this on my own, but they're literally the only person holding you accountable and pushing you through and guiding you.

So it's one of those things of like, let's look to see like, what really is stuff to cut? And I'm talking like subscriptions that you're no longer using. This is one that it makes me wild. I don't understand this. It makes no sense to me. But when people are in cashflow row and the only thing I can come up with Dana is it's ego. That's all I can figure out. So I'm just saying to you like, Hey, I hear you. see you. Let's cut the ego and get you into cashflow positive. And then like rock on, do whatever you want from there is like holding onto equipment that you're not using. It's weird to me. Like,

Okay, so we're not like, we thought we were gonna do all these scans of the Itero. And if I look at the last six months, we literally have like taken three scans. Or I bought the CBCT, because I thought was gonna do all these implants, and I'm not doing implants. Or I have like multiple Iteros, but like we've cut back and we've scaled back like, so I only need one Itero instead of three Iteros. those are big expenses on your debt and your loan. Like, let's sell those, let's get rid of them. people, I don't know, it's like embarrassment or ego or like,

Maybe you're still like wishing for the good old glory day. I don't know what it is, but I'm like, get rid of that. Cut the cost. Like think in your own life. If you had a car that you had a car payment on, even though it's the nicest car and it's your dream car, but you can't afford food, you're going to get rid of that car. You're going to sell it and you're going to buy something more economical and affordable. Like let's just get rid of it. No one, no one cares. Like honestly, none of your colleagues know that you're selling the equipment off because you're freaking broke right now.

That's just you and it's okay. it truly like what can you get rid of? there equipment you're no longer using that you could sell that you could pawn off just to get you some cash flow quickly and cut some of that debt services? Like is there any debt service that we can get rid of for you? That's a question like but I think it's a very easy cut on the PNL. Dana thoughts on that.

Dana (09:02)

Yeah, I agree with you. then and again, I can't, I can't really decipher where it comes from. But I do you do see offices wanting to hold on to those things. And maybe it is like, well, we'll turn it around, and then I'll use it. Great, then we can get another one down the line. Right. But right now, what the immediate relief from dispensing of it will far outweigh hanging on to it until down the road, maybe we'll need it again.

Kiera Dent (09:27)

Exactly. Like it's okay. Like don't don't even stress about it. We're not we're not here for we're not here for that ego. So I think when we're looking at the PNL, let's look to see like go back to COVID days. If you were a business owner during COVID, I remember we scrubbed that PNL like, could we call the lenders? Could we put this on pause? Could we like get rid of this loan? Like those things I think are really important because that actually can free you up exponentially being buried in debt. I remember my husband when we were paying off his loans. Holy moly, he could not see outside of that debt for one second.

We can't get rid of our practice loan, but you could renegotiate your rent, like your lease. Those are things that you can do. I remember during COVID, people got very scrappy and I'm like, don't forget that scrap you just learned a few years ago. Like take those lessons and go through them. that's step one of, but be careful. Like Dana said, please don't cut things that are going, let's not cut the hygienist right away. Like I'm looking at what are the things that are nice to have, but not necessary to have. Let's cut those things.

⁓ well, I put consulting in a must have. think if they're a great consultant and they're holding you accountable and they're moving you forward, yeah, you better believe it's one of the best dollars you'll ever spend. Now, if you are not, ⁓ if they're not moving you forward, if they're just having like rando conversations with you, probably a good thing to move on. But again, you also should go to your consultant. They work for you and say, I am in cashflow row, which hopefully if they're a good consultant, they would know that. And it's like, we have to make this happen. Now there's no other options.

So after we do that, next step is let's look at our AR. Doctors, if you don't know how to run your AR, that's your aging report. Let's just go see how much money is sitting out in our AR. And let's see if it's patient portion that we could collect or if it's insurance and also why and how much is in our 30, 60, 90 and over 90 buckets. Because that over 90, like this sounds awkward, but doctors like truly you can call patients and you can collect. We can send text messages. I know that feels awkward. I know that doesn't feel like what you want to do.

But these are ways like there is cash there. Also, like, let's look at the protocol of how are we getting there? Are we not collecting when they get into the practice? We can start collecting when they come in. I was in an office yesterday and they're like, gosh, our accounts are all funky. And I was like, sweet. As soon as they walk in, let's collect the money before they even go to the back. They're like, but that's different. We've never done that. And I'm like, think about a hospital. You do that. Like you show up, you pay the money and then you go back, like switch it. It's not weird. People don't think it's weird.

It's very normal. So like, let's collect the money. Let's put some systems into place. So we stop getting into an AR crunch. And really making sure that that is something that we are very proactive on. Do you know other thoughts on AR? AR to me, think is just like this like, I don't know. It's like an endless pit. And I think I have it because when I first started the business, I had this endless pit of AR and I didn't even know it existed. And I'm like, oh, no wonder I'm broke. It's just because we're not collecting the money. And then I was like,

Sweet, let's change the system. That's a system you should put into place. But what are some other thoughts or systems you have around AR to help people get this cash?

Dana (12:16)

You

Yeah, I think AR it's it's kind of like culture. It's like a thing that you have to stay super super consistent on and work on all the time and I see it so oftentimes in practice. It's like well I pull it once a month and you know, like I that's when I work on it and I'm like no it's something that you have to set purposeful time aside. So whoever's responsibility it is making sure that every single week they have a chunk of time that can be dedicated solely to working on AR because it is also it can so

quickly grow when we haven't been paying attention to it. And so it's, I'd say, dedicated time for it and then find a cadence that works for you. Whether it's alternating patient and then insurance and then patient follow-up again and then more insurance follow-up, figure out however you can keep it super consistent and make sure you've got dedicated time every single week because it will quickly grow if we're not paying attention to it.

Kiera Dent (12:54)

Yes.

Yeah, it's a wild zone that I'm like, okay, ⁓ it's so crazy how fast it will grow on you. so it's, and just so you know how insurance works, if you don't understand this, I'm here to like give you a quick like, all right, this is how the snapshot works. So what it is, is you actually have it where like,

These insurance claims don't fall in like, okay, it's the 30th of the month. So now we go and that's when our 30 days fall into 60 days. Every day, money is moving from the 30 to 60, 60 to 90, 90, because it's based on when that claim sent. So you have to realize this money kind of like interest is how I feel of AR. It's constantly moving on you. So you can call it winning Wednesday, you can call it like taking cash on Tuesday, Thursday, but like literally have days set up for your biller and

This is a position and this is a job responsibility that I am very sticky on. They have to do it. I don't care if we're busy. don't care if patients are calling like, dang, I'm so busy. I had a patient, I can't pay your paycheck. Like that's the reality. They have to collect money. I do not care. Those are non-negotiables for me. It's two hours, Tuesday and Thursday, non-negotiables period. The house will not burn down. The practice will not burn down. Get your dang money because oftentimes that's all it is. And it's just being consistent. So billers,

Doctors, if you need to send this to your bill, like, Hey, we're on cashflow row billers. I'm talking to you. You have a responsibility to your doctor and to this office. They have produced. You need to collect this money. So get the good insurance verification, get the statements, call the insurance companies, figure out why our claims aren't getting paid. That's your job, honey. That's your job. And yes, your responsibility. Like if you want a paycheck, collect the money because that's where your paycheck's coming from. And so

and it's nothing wrong. We're not doing anything wrong. We've done the work. We did great work. Let's collect the money and make sure that we don't get this out of control. It like breaks my heart when doctors have no money and it's because team members, we let our doctors down. They did the work and honestly, team members, it breaks my heart and I'm here to say like, tis tis, shame on you. Be better than that. You are better than that. Collect the money and if you need help, tell your doctor like, hey, hire the dental team. Like we have literally brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars.

just by helping some billers because honestly, doctors, like I say, tisks on the team, which truly it is our fault, but they might not know how to do it or how to do it effectively. There's a lot of ways where we can chunk it. We can break it down. We can make it so much faster and easier for them. We can help them get rid of some of the bad debt. It's running reports differently. It's tagging things differently so they can work it. It becomes so much easier. So again, like if you're billing is a struggle, great opportunity for you to get some help and billers, please don't be afraid to ask for that help too. So.

I say that with a giant hug as well. I know it was like a stern hug, but really you've got to collect that money. So we've got cut your expenses. Look at that. Like debt services. What on earth? Just get rid of the debt. Get rid of anything you can. Next is going to be that we're collecting the money in the AR. Let's figure out how much we have there. And then next is going to be producing. Now I will go on a rant again, clearly cash and burnout. Like let's just not get there. Like I hate this. Let's get you out of there fast. ⁓

I really hate when doctors come on to calls with me and they're like, yeah, I I produced a million last year. And I'm like, that's awesome. And they're like, yeah, but we had to write off 50%. So we were only produced like 500,000. And I'm like, why did you tell me a million that only served you like high five, but you did not produce a million. I don't care that that's your office fee that feeds your ego only, but it's not real. And what you're doing is you're actually hurting yourself because you're, you're elusive to the fact that you're not producing a million, but you think you are.

but you're living on 500 bucks, it'd be like, or 500,000. It's like, oh, Dana, I make a million a year, but I only have like 90,000. Well, why are you telling me you have a million? You don't actually, like that's not even real money. That's monopoly money. I'm so glad we gave you some paper money. Like I get it, but you're in insurance. So like, let's live on real numbers so you can produce real numbers. Cause this is often where cashflow happens because you're like, well, we're making a million.

No, you're not. You're making 500,000. So either get out of network, which I strongly would not recommend, but do a block schedule, figure out how to produce, make sure you're diagnosing. And also when I hear about these cashflow row offices, normally, and doctors, I'm not a dentist, so I'm not here to tell you how to do it. I'm just here to say, whatever number you want and need to produce, you need to be diagnosing three times that amount. That's a statistic that's proven. You've got to be diagnosing enough to get that money on your schedule.

And the next piece is treatment coordinators and doctors. We've got to make sure we're closing that treatment and getting it on the books and doing quadrant dentistry, not just solo tooth. If we're watching, what are we watching for? If you're a watcher, you're scared to diagnose, just diagnose one more thing that you would normally watch. Just put it on the books. That's going to help you. But the reality is you, you truly have a moral obligation to diagnose your patients, ⁓ to tell them what needs to happen and to not judge them based on what you think their bank account is. Your job is to be a comprehensive dentist.

All right, Dana, I'm off my soapbox. You should take it away from me now. What are your thoughts on that?

Dana (18:17)

Thank

I love that and I do say yeah exactly we want to look at net numbers and if you're not happy with your adjustments then there are you know ways to tackle that through fee negotiations through you know looking at your numbers to see is it worth

changing some network status with one insurance company or making a little bit of a shift or do we just need to start, like you said, being strategic and block scheduling and maybe even one more step of, hey, yeah, we can block schedule and we've got to watch our insurance mix within our block schedule. All of those things are avenues. just kind of, you have to take a look at.

Kiera Dent (18:50)

Mm-hmm.

Dana (18:55)

the numbers and build it to be efficient, successful, get you to your goal and to also not cause burnout. I get so much pushback on block scheduling because it's like, well, my team knows how to schedule. Absolutely, right? But like, can I get you to goal with two, three crowns and a quadrant worth of fillings? Yes. Can I also get you to goal with 32, one surface fillings? Sure can. Those days feel super different.

Right? That's a lot of turnover, a lot of check in and check out and insurance verification and all of those things. And so when we build it more strategically, dang, those days feel really, really different to

Kiera Dent (19:23)

They do.

And I say this often, I'll say it again, if we have a bad schedule, that was our fault. Like I know you're like, well, patients, can like, they just want to go here. And I'm like, no, you led them there. You guide them. Doctors, are like, you are a clinician. You are an amazing doctor. We get to pick our schedule. And so like Dana said, let's build this. Let's make this incredible for us. But I think those are hopefully three quick ways for you to figure out your cashflow. If you're on cashflow row.

⁓ And please, the last thing I would say is bonus tip for you is cut the excuses. I think when people are on cashflow road, they like to sit here and excuse land. They like to sit here and blame land, which is normal. It's normal to be frustrated. It's normal to say, like it was this, it was that. was like, well, we can't hire people. Stop, stop. You're continuing this in a reality where it's like, it's just not true. I know it feels that way.

but we've got to stop the excuses. We've got to stop the blame and we've got to just say like, this is where we are. And the good news is this is what we're going to do to get out of it. It's hard. Like that takes mental discipline that you've got to have. But that's also where I think like a coach, a cheerleader, someone who's an ally with you. Like Dana said, sometimes it's a hug and sometimes it's a good like push because you need to be pushed. But hopefully these are a few things because I believe that the mental stress of cashflow row.

will create more burnout faster than anything else because you just sit here stressed out of your mind. So Dana, I hope you guys all like listen. I hope you take it. And if you are in cashflow row or you're on burnout row, please like reach out. We will do like a complimentary practice growth call with you. Like, let's see where your gaps are. Let's help you out. Let's get you out of this wildness because success with ease is very possible. And that's what I think Dana and Denali team in our.

whole company is passionate about is getting you the yes model, you as a human being so happy and fulfilled and having the life you want, getting the earnings and profit that you deserve that you are worthy of that you can totally have and getting the systems and team development to support those those top two things, just be able to say yes to whatever you want. So Dana, gosh, thanks for getting in this one. This is a solid and I just appreciate you loving our clients and getting them off of cashflow row and and into the happier land and for being on the podcast today.

Dana (21:49)

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. And you know, I just love being able to see clients like win when they came in feeling so burnt out. So it just fills me too. So appreciate it.

Kiera Dent (22:00)

⁓

I love it. Let's get you guys the W's. Let's get you those wins when you didn't think it was possible I think that's my favorite thing is turning the impossible into possible and helping you take dreams into reality So reach out hello at the Dental A team calm and as always thanks for listening We'll catch you next time on the Dental A team podcast

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Kiera reflects on some of her most memorable episodes and experiences across 1,000 episodes (!!!) of the Dental A-Team podcast!

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Kiera Dent (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today feels like a ridiculously special, amazing, incredible day. We are at 1,000 Dental A Team podcasts. Like, can you honestly believe this? I can't believe it. I can't believe that we have hit record on this podcast a thousand times. And honestly, I wanna say thank you to you as listeners, to all of you who have made this podcast a reality. If you're new to the show, welcome. I'm Kiera Dent. I love dentistry. I love making people happy. I love.

truly enjoying life. And this podcast came to me while Jason, my husband and I were hiking Yosemite. And I said, Hey, I've noticed that there's this area where they're unserved, where doctors and teams are not communicating on the same way. And like, there's really got to be a better way to help practices scale, to grow, to evolve. And being a team member myself and a business owner, I thought let's combine both of those perspectives. So truly it's an honor. ⁓

I honestly cannot believe that we are here. So if you've been here since episode one, please send me an email. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. I will send you a personalized thank you to you. I am just so honored. If you've been here for at least like 900 of them, let me know. But truly it's such an honor to be able to have this podcast where we're able to give back, to serve, to share, to laugh, to grow. This podcast has been such a healing space for me. And so today I thought it'd be really fun.

for us to actually go through some of our most powerful success networks that's helped hundreds of doctors. It helps you. And I've called it the yes model. ⁓ that's focusing, wow, that's focusing in on you being able to say you, earnings and systems and team development. So focusing on you as a person, helping make sure that you're profitable as a practice, and then having systems and team development in place ⁓ to make sure that you can really, truly say yes to everything in life that you want. Because I truly, truly, truly believe.

that running a practice, having a successful team, having a team of people that are accountable does not have to be hard. And so really that's been the whole purpose of this is to make it tactical, practical. And I thought like, Hey, this is going to be something really fun. We're actually going to pull from our framework. But what I'm going to do is I'm actually going to pull from past episodes, some of our hottest episodes, some of those fun episodes to kind of help you see how we can focus on you as a person, how we can focus on your earnings and profitability of the practice and helping with your systems and team development.

Now, something that is fun is that there actually were several episodes that were our top downloaded episodes over the years. And so this is just something fun if you enjoyed it, amazing, but truly we looked back and these ones stood out. And so our episodes were episode 469, 10 Practices in 2 Years with Lewis Chen. So such a fun one to inspire, to ignite, to help all of us like really just get, I remember that practice and I was like, my gosh, I thought I like.

rampaged up and in like two years we had three, but to do 10 practices in two years. Our other top downloaded episode is episode 501, What Office Managers Need to Know and really helping those office managers highlight, elevate. Being an office manager in dentistry, I feel is such a tricky zone because there's really no rule book for it. And that's what we tried to create at Dental A Team is what is an office manager supposed to do and giving support to office managers and doctors so you can truly have these incredible leaders in your practice.

And then our next most downloaded episode was episode 607, A Day to Remember. And that was actually released on Thanksgiving. So shout out to you guys for having these as the most popular downloaded episodes. But like I said, I want to give you guys that framework for being able to say yes to everything with some podcast tools. Don't worry. You want to go back and listen to them if you don't want to. But trying to chunk that so you can really look at your life and your practice.

Kiera Dent (03:41)

So breaking into the you section, this is about you as a person. This is about you being that visionary, that owner, that fulfilled human, because honestly, if you're not fulfilled and you're not happy with what you're doing, honestly, your practice can't be there. And when we build the yes model, we purposely put it in a specific order of you first, and we focus on you as a person. Then we focus on earnings and profitability. And then we focus on systems and team, because what I found is if we put them in this order,

You as a person first, kind like take the oxygen mask off of you, put it on you. Like you've to take care of yourself first before you can help other people. If we put that oxygen mask on yourself, then what we do from there is we can give and serve to other people. Then we focus on profit. Cause honestly, so much of stress comes from cashflow. Like honestly, the bulk of offices who sign up with us and not all, but a lot of them are struggling with cashflow. They're struggling with profitability. They're struggling to learn to read their numbers. And then we do systems and team development.

And a lot of times we think like, let's put the systems in place, cause that's gonna fix everything else. But what that does is it doesn't make sure that you are fulfilled and we know where you're headed as a person. So focusing on you as a doctor, scaling honestly starts with you, but that doesn't mean we're doing more. It means that you are the leader that your practice needs. You know where you're headed. You know what the direction of the practice is. And that's where this can all come together. So some of the episodes that we pulled out for you guys from all these thousands of episodes, like literally we have a thousand. ⁓

would be number 17. Like let's go way back in the archives. If you have not gone, you guys can always head on over to TheDentalATeam.com, click on podcasts. You can search any topic and you can go find all thousand episodes. But going back clear to episode 17, I love this one, is Goals are lost without Accountability. So when we're having those, like if you don't have accountability in your practice, if you don't have things to help keep your team accountable,

Honestly, doctors, you can have all the goals that you want, but you've got to have the accountability with it. And so I really love to help doctors and teams come together within Dental A Team and our consulting ⁓ to make sure that your goals are hit because we have accountability and that means your personal goals. So where you want to be and your professional goals. And we have a client that really like was struggling with some of their goals, but they knew where they wanted to go. They wanted to get a beach house. They wanted to be able to take care of their children in college.

⁓ And what was really lovely about that is because we knew where they were going to go, we were able to help hold them accountable to it. And then we were able to the E portion that we'll get to, we were able to help create the profitability within the practice using production and metrics to be able to help them get there. But really looking at goals are lost if you don't have accountability. Like truly, if no one's holding people accountable, you doctor have to do it all. But even a lot of times things just get lost. And so making sure

that we really are working through these different pieces to make sure that your goals are not just a wish and a hope, but they're actually being measured and we're tracking them. We're making sure you're living the dream life that you want to be living. that would be an episode. Another episode in here would be 551 Leaders, You Need to Decide and helping you as a leader know that your team can't read your mind. You've got to make decisions. More is lost through indecision than a wrong decision. I have a quote over here by Theodore Roosevelt that

any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The next best thing is the wrong thing. And the worst thing you can do is nothing. And so making sure that on there, you guys are making a decision. Doctors like you have to decide. You have to be clear. You have to know where you're going. And I think deciding the life you want to live. ⁓ I have a quote that we say often, your practice should serve you, not you serving your practice.

making sure it's really giving you that dream life. Otherwise, go be an associate, like honestly, but there shouldn't be the stress and the heartache. And I know that there's stress with running a business. That's not something that we can ever take away, but really making sure we're fulfilling your bucket, your cup, making sure you're taken care of is a big portion. ⁓ Episode 940 was another popular one, What Leaders Should Not Do.

I thought this is a really good one to help doctors like realizing your role has to change. You have to become this incredible person. We have to know where you're going. We have to know this vision. But honestly, like leaders, you should not be doing everything. You should not be fixing everything. Otherwise you're enabling. And I remember another great ⁓ thought is when we empower our teams without accountability, we actually create ⁓ entitlement. And so what are we doing and are we fixing everything and helping?

Like we think we're helping, but we're not actually having our team rise to the table. so really looking at like, these are the things not to do. These are things that won't help you become the leader and the person that your practice needs and really relies on you to be. So another great episode of what things should you not be doing. think that that sometimes helps again, because as the visionary, as the leader of the practice, as you, as a person, ⁓ making sure that you're not running yourself ragged, trying to make everybody else and pleasing everybody else. But that way you're truly working as a team.

You need to show up as a CEO. You need to show up as the dentist. But you also need to have good working hours and good life ⁓ balance and life happiness and making sure that you're fulfilled and that your cup is being full. Otherwise, you're going to burn out and really making sure we take care of you as a person. Last episode to highlight in the you section is 948, The CEO Visionary and The OM Implementer and pulling from EOS and traction where

We literally have like CEOs, you're the visionary and how to have your office manager really be a yin to your yang to help support, to help make the visions come to life, to help bring all these pieces to the table ⁓ really, really truly can help. How do these two roles operate and who should be doing what and getting and gaining that clarity because again, when we focus on you and we know where you want to go and we know the pieces.

Then you're able to settle into your role as CEO of the practice too. And you're able to settle into all these different pieces, but really looking at you as a person, like not doing more, you as a leader, you as the CEO, you as a spouse or a partner or a parent or a sibling or a child, whatever it is, but you showing up as the best version of you. so yes, these are.

four episodes a lot on leadership for you. But really in that section within the Yes Model, I want you to really look at your life and I want you to see, are you truly living your best life? Are you truly fulfilled? Are you delegating to your team? Are you leading your team? Are you ⁓ working hard? ⁓ Or are you doing things smarter and actually working?

happier and more enjoyable. When I ask you about your personal relationships and I ask you about your personal life, do you have an identity outside of work or is it just work? ⁓ Do you find joy in the little things or have you lost that joy and sparkle because you're so consumed with the business? Those would be some things and if we're not taking care of you, it might be time to give a little TLC. I remember there was a great ⁓ podcast guest.

And he said a comment, he said, we should take care of our billion dollar asset, AKA our body. And I've thought about that a lot of do we take care of us, our body, our mind, our psyche, our happiness, to make sure that we can show up as those leaders that our practice and our patients and our community needs. ⁓ And so this section, I really hope that you highlight, yes, being that leader who needs to evolve and rise, ⁓ but really making sure that you're the human that you wanna be.

we've got the North Star dotting to where you ultimately want to go and really just spending and highlighting that. Okay, so the question to that is what do you need to stop doing in your life right now? Practice or professional or personal or both. So that way your team can start owning more and also so you can start having more fun in life. What do you need to stop doing? Like literally I'm sitting there with you pretend I got my pen and paper and you're like, okay, Kiera.

This is what I need to do to feel more fulfilled, more happy, more like me. What do you need to stop doing? Notice I didn't say start because you want to go like, no, I need to start journaling. No, what do you need to stop? Cause I'm trying to help you see that a lot of times less is more and you actually can create more by doing less. All right, next up is earnings. Making sure that you have profit with purpose. Collections don't equal profits. And so...

What I've noticed is like in larger practices, oftentimes they do protect their margins and they measure what matters. And so really making sure that when we're looking at the numbers, so we're looking at our earnings, this is moving into the second portion of the yes model. ⁓ Are you paying attention? Are you using your numbers to guide every single decision in your practice? And what I've seen is when practices come to us in chaos and move into clarity and more into control and more into ease, they know their numbers forward and backward.

Like they truly know, they use their numbers to make decisions on who to hire. They know their top line numbers. And what I love about this, like with our clients, we work hard on getting them an overhead scorecard. ⁓ So they know what their overhead is. We look at their monthly costs slash their BAM, their bare ACE minimum. We're looking at projections in the practice of what do we need? How do we hire? We're looking at other pieces for that I really just love are looking at their overhead as well to make sure. we've got our overhead, we've got our monthly costs.

We've got our profit margins to make sure we're looking at debt services to make sure that with the debt services, we're still profitable and we have cashflow in the practice and that these practices are thriving. And then we use KPI scorecards to make sure that the metrics within the practice are leading to the profit for a profitable business to make sure that doctors have a cashflow. And also in there, we include to pay doctors, like doctors you've got to be paid, otherwise it's really hard. And so again, just because we're producing, producing and collecting drive me wild.

I don't care what you're producing on a gross level, I care what you're producing on a net level that we can actually collect. Gross is gonna feed the ego, net's gonna feed the family. So make sure we have those numbers dialed in. So when we're looking at this, I want you to make sure that what I'm producing is actually collectible and also that we're producing enough and collecting, but that we also have our expenses in line. So we try within our clients to have them at a 50 % overhead, 30 % doctor pay, 20 % profit.

Now, obviously those things can be impacted by other things, rising costs, different pieces, but really a quick benchmark for you. And a couple different ⁓ awesome podcasts to kind of tie into this to just go back through the archives would be episode 618, How to Make Your Practice Profitable. So a lot of times we think it's production. We think that we've got to like produce more and create more, but really sometimes you don't have to produce. can't produce our problems. So looking at our P &L, looking at our costs, getting our whole team on board, having KPIs, having accountability within our team.

really can drive more profit. ⁓ I remember in Traction, was like at the very end, I'm probably gonna slaughter this section of the book, but I remember them saying that a lot of times the profit margins don't get bigger, the bigger your business goes. So like the problem, like your problems just get bigger with the more you produce. So an example, like they said, like a $1 million business with a profit margin oftentimes has the same profit margin as a $10 million business, but the headaches are more. Now, of course, ⁓

10 % profit margin on a $1 business compared to a 10 % profit margin on a $10 million business, there's obviously going to be more dollars. But it's the question of could I have more profit in a smaller practice? I don't know, that's questions for you to answer versus maybe always growing and chasing the next thing. So really looking to see how can we make it more profitable? How can we squeeze more juice out of it? And this is actually really fun because when we interview consultants to come into our company, we actually look to see can they find...

how to make a practice more profitable with a basic scenario. Because at the end of the day, if we can make you more profitable doctors and you can use your business more efficiently and with less stress and like better utilization of team members, you actually are way less stressed because you have cashflow and monies aren't as big of a deal. And what I found is the bulk of stress comes from cashflow issues. So really doing that, another great episode from this would be episode 871, Increase Profitability with Your AR.

So looking at cashflow leaks that kill growth. So AR is a huge zone and a lot of practices are like, we don't have any money. And I'm like, you have 160,000 sitting in AR, you've already done the work, we just need to collect the money. So making sure that we are actually helping you and your team get that money that should be paid to you. I had an office on a coaching call and they're like, well, Kara, our front office feels bad for calling patients to collect bills. And I was like, they feel bad.

No, they're doing these patients a service. Like we did a great job. Now these patients should be so happy to pay for us. And the reality is we should never be chasing money. We should just be collecting at a time of service. So really helping that profitability with AR because collections you can produce all day long, but if we're not collecting your profit margin is going to really, really struggle. So a lot of times it's not even a production issue. It's just a collection issue. That's a very simple system, which will come next in the S model. But when we see the numbers and we see where the leaks are,

then we know which systems we need to put into place. So this is how like you as a person know where you're going. Then we look at your profit, the numbers will tell us where we actually have true broken problems within our practice. And then we build the systems to fix those problems. And then it just chips up the line and you're able to say yes to more in your life. Another great episode was 884 Use Hygiene to Increase Profitability. So making sure that your hygiene department is about 20 to 35%.

Wow, excuse me, 25 to 30 % of your revenue ⁓ in your practice, depending upon what it is, that's usually for a GP practice. Hygiene's obviously, ⁓ in a pediatric practice, it will be different. Same thing within surgery practices and also some big GP practices that are doing a lot of surgery, hygiene might not be able to keep up with it. Or if I've got a doctor that's maybe slowing down, hygiene's actually out producing the doctor. Well, that's a concern that shows me that that doctor's not diagnosing and there's something going on.

But really utilizing your hygiene department, making sure our hygiene department's very thorough. This again, if it's not, and we don't have enough ⁓ perio within our practice, if our hygiene department's not ⁓ calibrated, we're not aligned, that then is a system that we'd wanna put into place to make sure we're able to help that. So really just another great episode. then 890 was, episode 890 was Hacks for Increasing Profitability. So ⁓ just some different pieces of like, what do we do? How can we increase that profitability?

certain things that we look for are one, like what are we producing and collecting? So let's look there first. Two, we wanna look at our BAM, our barriers, minimum and our costs and making sure that it's realistic for there. ⁓ And then also looking to see, could we renegotiate some of our pieces? Could we look at our lease? Could we look at our rent? Could we look at ⁓ our marketing spend? Could we look at our payroll? And again, I'm not here to cut team members. Don't worry team members.

I just want to make sure that each team member is being maximized and utilized based on the profitability because we know that most businesses should be able to run on a 30 % allocation to payroll. And so looking to see, we utilizing and maximizing our resources like we should? So really just looking for some of those hacks for profitability. But I love that so many people are obsessed with production and I'm obsessed with profit because profits, what's going to feed you profits, what's going to help you profit is going to be the piece.

that's going to actually make you thrive rather than just survive. Production, if we're not collecting and we're not profitable, it does not matter. And I go to a lot of business conferences and I love, they're like, yeah, my business did 10 million last year. My business is 100 million. And I'm always like, I don't care. What's your profit margin? And a lot of them come back. I remember there was this guy and we were chatting and he has a $30 million business and yet his profit margin was 5%. And he's like, Carrie, you're honestly probably taking home more than I am.

on a smaller business. And so again, I don't care about your production and top line number. It does play a role, but what I care more about is are you profitable and are you obsessed with being as profitable as possible? Are you reviewing your PNL every single quarter? Are you looking at small cashflow leaks? Are we making sure that we're collecting the money of what we produce? Are we making sure that our write-offs and our insurance is correct? Are we making sure our hygiene department is... ⁓

appropriate and are we using like KPIs to track this and to measure this to make sure that we're actually doing it. So that's kind of within the earning section for little highlighted episodes for you. And so then some thoughts to wrap that up would be if you're producing more but taking home less, what number are you not watching in your practice? So really look at that and see, gosh, like I'm producing this, but I'm not taking home as much. What number or numbers are you not watching that maybe you should start watching Food for Thought and

put it into play, you'll be much happier when you're profitable. And then last but not least, this is one that everybody obsessed with, systems. We want systems care. Please, please give me systems. I just want my practice to run on autopilot. And like the answer is like, yes, we should put systems in. And I think about like McDonald's and Chick-fil-A and they're able to give a very incredible experience with systems. And Walt Disney said like, he's able to create predictable magic with the systems behind the scenes. And so for you and your practice, how can you create predictable experiences?

predictable revenue, predictable production through the systems. So a couple of great episodes that we had with systems, systemization I think is like sexy and not sexy, like cool, that's great. But like really, if you focus on you first, then you focus on the numbers, you then know which systems to put into place. So you don't have to actually do all the systems. People are like, here, I just need a whole systems like repertoire. And I'm like, no, you don't. You need the systems that are actually gonna get you the results. I believe that we should focus on results, not on busy work.

So a couple episodes that kind of just highlight some systems for you are episode 381 Systemization: Where to Start? It's a really good episode for you of like how to like you don't just build 100 SOPs just like we were talking about. You literally start with the systems that are going to impact your revenue and profitability first. And those are the ones we're going to build right away. So a good one to help you prioritize that because a lot of times it can feel very daunting. Like I'm trying to eat an elephant. So where do I start? ⁓ Episode 872 Are Your Systems Outdated? And so with that one, just because it worked in the past,

You gotta also update the systems. Do we have a new software? Do we have a new process? A lot of times these systems get like written and we're so excited we made our ops manual, but they get put on a shelf and cool, we never even touched them again. So making sure that you keep your systems up to date, that they're current, that everybody's using them and if you actually are using them, they don't get outdated. So having a set cadence and process for that. Episode 881, Priority Scheduling: Ideal Week and Ideal Schedules

So figuring out like, does our ideal week look like? What are our ideal schedules look like? And so with that, we can figure out how to schedule and do block scheduling to actually build, like that's a great system to put into place to help us get our profitability, to help us get our production, to then help us get the life that we want. So do you see how like the yes model at like, we start at the top with you, go to earnings, go to systems, and then we work on systems to impact the profit and production to impact you and your life. So really I'm obsessed with block scheduling. I obsessed with?

I deal weeks, I'm obsessed with being a master of time rather than time mastering you and really helping offices realize what needs to happen and prioritize. think prioritization is a really tricky thing for a lot of people and having a consultant or an outside view help you out, I think is something really magical. And then last but not least, episode 959, Build a Practice That Can Run Without You. This is what people ask for all the time. And so I love on this. You'll never have true freedom.

if the business only runs when you're there. And so looking at that of, like I said, Disney, Walt's not there and it's still able to run. Chick-fil-A, I don't even know who the owner is, you guys know, but like it's able to run without the owner being there. And so the owner I feel creates the vision and the magic. That's like what your secret sauce is. But the systems are so people can run and operate without you there. And for office managers, same thing with you. I hate the like, if you got hit by a bus, I'm like, I don't ever want to be hit by a bus.

So instead I'm like, if you were at home with a broken leg and then had two office managers literally be out with broken legs. So, ⁓ but I think it's a great example. So watch out, don't break your legs. But I said, if you were out, could the practice run and could you know that the practice isn't running, AKA with your KPI scorecard and being able to look at your numbers, would you know what system needs to be implemented and if systems were being followed or not when you're at home? And so oftentimes that helps you figure out, again, we look at our numbers to see which systems do we need to put into place.

But then beyond that, we're also going to look and say, all right, so these are the numbers that are telling us we have a broken system. But then when you're not there, does the practice still run without you? And does it still operate? And if you were to come in as a fly on a wall on a vacation, so pretend you're out on vacation, I surely have done this to my team. I'm out on vacation. I pop in a day earlier than they think I'm supposed to be back. Is the practice running the way that it should? That's how you know you have great systems and great leadership.

I don't believe that just good systems will create a great practice. You also need great leadership to ensure that they're staying accountable, that they're following systems, but also making sure that less is more. ⁓ The KISS model, keep it simple, silly. I prefer silly over stupid. But really look to see where are maybe the systems that we need to do. And I love in Dental A Team, we do our 12 systems. And that's something I really love to just kind of give an outline of which ones per month.

would help out. So just a quick overview of Dental A Team's systems for success. We say that January is office management, mastery and leadership. And if you guys want to go back in the archives, Tip and I actually did like, I think it was from November through December a few years ago, we went through every single one of these systems. We broke it down. We gave tactical tips for you on those. So January is office management, mastery and leadership. February is doctor optimization, making sure we're utilizing and maximizing everything within the office. March is billing with ease.

April is five-star patient experience, May is smooth scaling scheduling, June is maximized case acceptance, July is dynamite dental assistance, August is elevated hygiene, September is competent marketing, October is complete operations manual, November is practice profitability, and December is A-Team hiring and onboarding. And so utilizing these systems for you to look to see, and again, there's, that's kind of like a category overview, but looking to see where maybe some systems broken within that category.

that ultimately could impact our profit and production that ultimately impact us as individuals. And doctors, I know I highlighted you a lot about you as a person, but also your team members as human beings too. How can we make it easier? How can we make it more fun? How can we make it to where we have more fun at work, more enjoyable rather than more stress? I think is something super, super important. And so when you look at this, I think to wrap up our system section, what systems or system category in your practice

still depends on you and is it keeping you stuck in your practice or preventing the growth? Are you the bottleneck in an area? And to maybe just ask yourself, what is that and what's holding me back? So really, truly just some fun, like, my gosh, you guys, after a thousand episodes, ⁓ I think I can confidently come on here and say that the formula for growth hasn't changed. I think we've gotten smarter. We figured out what's the priority. How do we prioritize it for you?

the $5 million practices, the $2 million, the $1 million, the 500,000, the startup practice, they say yes to leadership clarity, profit strategy, and systems that scale. So that's you, right? Leadership clarity, you as a person being happy, earnings, profit strategy, and as systems for success that scale. Now again, systems that scale, so you're able to grow and you have options. This is truly what I think is so valuable, and I thought.

on a thousandth episode, we've got to have something very powerful, very impactful, giving you just kind of a recap of all the time together. Talk about how magical it is to be able to be here together, to be able to share. And what I will say is, ⁓ I'm obsessed with helping offices be able to say yes to more of their life, to be able to say yes to more of what they want, and to be able to get back their time, their team, their life. And that's something that I'm just obsessed with. So if you're looking for help with that, if you...

I want more yes in your life and less stress and more happiness. Truly I do believe and I've seen it work with hundreds of offices and something just so powerful to be able to share, to give to you. And I just wanna say thank you. Thank you for making the Dental A Team podcast real. Thank you for being listeners. Thank you for sharing this podcast with so many of your friends. Thank you for commenting. Thank you for tagging us while you're driving to work. Thank you for being dedicated listeners. Thank you for being clients that work with us.

Thank you for truly wanting to change and impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. It is truly an honor. I just feel so honored and I'm so freaking excited for the next thousand. So let's do it, let's rock. And at the end of the day, all of you, I want you truly remembering that dentistry is the greatest profession we could ever be a part of. I want you saying yes to more. If we can help you in any way, reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

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Kiera is joined by Mark Rasmussen, CEO of Moolah, to talk about the landscape of credit card fees and how to reduce them, membership discount plans, and other bonus features offered by the dental payment tech company.

(Pssst, Mark was last on episode 866, It’s Time to Modernize Payment Processing!)

Episode resources:

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Transcript

Kiera Dent (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I am super jazzed because I have a guest here who's going to help us with cashflow leaks, modernizing your practice, figuring out those membership plans, all the things that you need and want. We're going to talk about some case studies. This is one of my absolute favorite guests, Mark Rasmussen, CEO, owner, founder, Moolah. How are you today, Mark? Welcome to the show.

Mark Rasmussen (00:22)

Hey, Kara, I'm doing fantastic. I'm doing awesome. So, so, so it's connected with you and your listeners and excited to get into all this juicy good stuff about revenue and payments and modernizing things. Let's do it. I love it.

Kiera Dent (00:31)

Yeah.

Let's

do it. So I have a slight crush on Moolah. Like truly you guys like just make credit card processing easy. And so what I want to start off, if you guys don't listen, Mark and I have done other podcasts in the past together. ⁓ But I don't know, Mark, what you guys say on your email subject lines, like on your little, what is it your signature, but I feel like it should be like your new favorite credit card processing company. Like that's what I feel like Moolah's tagline should be because I wanted to do a couple case studies with you since we last chatted.

Mark Rasmussen (00:40)

Hahaha

Kiera Dent (01:05)

⁓ Mark knows, like, I do have a crush on Moolah. I try to get them to come and be our processor too.

Mark Rasmussen (01:10)

I need to like soundbite clip that,

like I have a crush on Moolah just like everywhere in social. I love that.

Kiera Dent (01:15)

I

do. do because I like companies that make things easy, but also are like the cheapest on the market and credit card fees are one of my biggest beefs. Like really truly I get annoyed when I look to see how much credit card fees are charging. And when you guys, ⁓ deadly team listeners, just so you know, I'm going to throw it out there. Like anybody who goes through our link literally saves 10 basis points. ⁓

on it, which is huge to get anywhere in the credit card industry. So you're getting below that 2.99. So you're getting 2.89 on cards not present and 2.39. And I hope that Mark, I'm allowed to say that because I'm just going to be bold and brazen. And if not, we'll cut that out. So don't stress about that.

Mark Rasmussen (01:52)

No, no, no, for sure. And

not only that, it's like, that's not just a like teaser rate, like they look, your practices will get that preferred rate forever, right, which is awesome. And, and it's like you and I were talking a little bit earlier, too, of like, a bit of shock and awe of like, I and myself as well, I've been seeing like some statements from potential practices. And I'm like, ⁓ my God, I'm like, I'm seeing like,

Kiera Dent (02:03)

which is so big and you don't add extra heat.

Mark Rasmussen (02:19)

six, seven, eight percent, like net effective rates. I know you were saying you have been seeing even higher. It's crazy. Yeah, that's crazy. It's almost criminal.

Kiera Dent (02:25)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, so it

does feel criminal because like here's the thing like you might get a cheaper rate somewhere else but when you look and dig into the details and this is where it feels annoying and obnoxious to me and doesn't happen right away it happens like when you've stopped looking at it you're like I've checked my credit card company for years they don't do anything and then all of a sudden it starts creeping up and being eerie and that's where I just get annoyed and that's why like I have a crush on Moolah because you guys don't do it and you guys stay consistent for it so

I felt Mark and I, you didn't listen to our last podcast, we'll definitely link it in the show notes for you. But Mark, I felt we should kick today off with some case studies because I have some clients that I've recommended over to Moolah. And I think my favorite one is we were looking and I had a practice and our overhead was high. So like this practice, they don't love to like look at numbers. They have an amazing CPA. Like I will say we do look at numbers, but they're kind of like, yeah, carry it. We'll just like out produce our problems a little bit. And that's fine. Like anybody can have that. But I said, Hey,

Mark Rasmussen (03:17)

Alright.

Kiera Dent (03:21)

Your credit card fees are really high. think that they were honestly like 10%. And I'm like, is that really true? Like that just seems outlandish. And they said, well, Kiera, we're in a contract. Mark, do you want to throw up with contracts? Tell me about credit card contracts.

Mark Rasmussen (03:33)

Oh, I hate contracts. I hate contracts

like really in anything in my life. I don't know. So yeah, but that's, it's just crazy. The industry for the longest time has like felt the need to like lock these business owners and not just Dennis, but business owners in like these typically it's like three year contracts. And then, you know, they'll have like termination fees. And so they take advantage of that. And like you were saying, I talked to so many practices are like, Oh, I'm paying X and you know, they were paying X the first month that they signed up.

And then they didn't look at it, like you said, and then six months later, eight months later, the processor started like nudging it up, nudging it up, nudging it up. And to the point where when you look at what their rates are, you know, two years from when they signed up, it's like almost 180 degrees difference. So yeah, please you guys out there, please make sure you stay on your credit card processing. Look at those month end statements. Look at, you know, what is being nudged up because

Kiera Dent (04:19)

Yeah.

Mark Rasmussen (04:28)

You know, they'll just slip it in a little statement message. They're not forthcoming about it. I promise you they're not like, shooting you multiple emails or calling you and be like, hey, we're going to increase your rate. No, no, no, no, no. They're going to slip it under the table and hope that you never pay attention to it, which is really what happens because you guys are all busy. You guys are all doing amazing care on patients and you're not paying attention to that. That's the reality.

Kiera Dent (04:49)

And it's creepy to me because it's also done on things that don't make sense. Like I feel like reading a credit card statement with what they're charging is like reading very highly processed foods. And I'm like, I have no clue what 90 % of these words are. And I feel like it's the same thing when you come to a credit card statement. And so back to this practice, what we did, there's two case studies I wanted to bring to the table today that are my own personal clients that I've referred over to Moolah that I signed up with Moolah. So this practice, again, overhead, let's out produce our problems.

Mark Rasmussen (05:00)

That's a good comparison, I like that.

Kiera Dent (05:18)

And it was wild because the first month they switched to Moolah, their CPA sent a letter to all of us and said like, hey, what'd you do? Did you switch credit card companies? Your fees are so much lower. Like that fast first month drop down. So we went from about a 10 % fee on what they're producing and collecting to then dropping it down to this 2.89 to 2.39, depending upon if card was present or not, which is super awesome also because then you can get cards.

Mark Rasmussen (05:28)

guys.

Kiera Dent (05:44)

on auto renew, like on just processing internally and you don't have to, like you can have cards present or not present within the practice, which is so awesome. ⁓ But I was shocked like that fast. And then another practice that we brought to Moolah, they were locked in with another credit card company. And so I didn't know you couldn't do this, Mark. So this was like rookie mistake on me. Like I was, I'm scrappy and I thought, well, okay, fine. You guys are in a contract. So.

just stop processing through that processor, switch everything over to Moolah. Well, you know this Mark and I was rookie so you know what happens. Do you know what happens with those companies?

Mark Rasmussen (06:21)

No,

listen, I said that a lot too because technically, really, if the practice is in a contract, and I've said that before, you probably have these miscellaneous junk fees, these monthly minimums that are gonna hit maybe 20, $30 a month. But even if you're paying that minimum and you saved thousands over here, who cares? Pay that minimum, just write that contract out. What happened here in this scenario? Okay.

Kiera Dent (06:44)

That was exactly what I said too. So

that's what, cause I was like, why not? I thought the exact same thing. I'm like, okay, if we're looking at, you're able to save 3%, 4 % like higher amounts and we're processing, even if you're processing a hundred thousand or 200,000, like that extra two, 3 % do the math. Like that's surely going to offset the cost. Well, what happened is we actually did that. So a client signed up with you guys. They did that. And we got a letter from the other processor saying,

Mark Rasmussen (06:54)

Yeah.

Kiera Dent (07:11)

that, we have a minimum and if we don't hit it, it was going to be substantial and to get out of contract, it was going to cost us a thousand dollars. So we literally said, fine, take the thousand dollars because we'd already saved that much through Moolah's savings to be able to like, we're just like, like it's a done deal. Like they were trying to threaten them with this thousand dollar fee, but we were like, that's so minimal to get us out of this contract based on how much we were saving. Now this practice was processing a decent chunk.

Mark Rasmussen (07:32)

Right. Right.

Kiera Dent (07:38)

But I think even if you're processing like 70,000, 80,000, that one, 2 % stacks up. Like it's insane how much we pay in credit card fees. So those are like the two that I wanted to bring to the, like I said, this is why I have a crush because I hate credit card fees so much. And that's going to lead into our next topic. But Mark, anything you want to add? Cause these were two cases that I've watched since we last met.

Mark Rasmussen (07:45)

yeah.

I love that.

Kiera Dent (08:00)

⁓ I'm constantly on the prowl for cheaper people. I love that you guys don't charge for the terminals. You have it set up the next day. There's no contracts. Like that's where I said, like it's your new favorite, like credit card processing. You don't increase the fees. You give our clients reduced rates. If you have multi locations, you guys also take care of those practices. Like it's amazing what you guys do. So that's my like pitch for Moolah, but if you want to add anything else.

Mark Rasmussen (08:22)

I love that. wanted to, because you just

like rang a memory. So what you were referring to in that practice, right, where like, okay, you can't just skate by and just pay the minimum, right? Or they were gonna hit him with his fee. Well, another thing I'm gonna tell your listeners out there is, listen, if you don't go with Moolah, great, do your homework. But one thing to look out that I've seen in contracts, which is crazy, is that sometimes you'll see a contract, all right, if you cancel early, it's like a 350 termination fee. Okay, fine.

but I've seen others out there where the processor says they try to enforce liquidated damages. So the processor will say, oh, we've been making, you're in a three year contract, on average we're making like, whatever, $500 a month on your processing. If you leave us now, it's not early termination fee, we're gonna calculate that $500 for the remaining 16, 17 months and they hit you with this liquidated damages thing, crazy. So just be on the lookout for that. If you're doing anywhere that's a contract,

Kiera Dent (08:57)

No.

Mark Rasmussen (09:20)

Look out for liquidated damages, that's no bueno, but better yet, find somebody that's just not gonna put you in a contract. Much easier.

Kiera Dent (09:26)

Yeah. And

also like, okay, Mark, help me understand. And maybe you don't know because you guys don't do this and that's okay. But to me, it feels really funny that I signed a contract with them and there's got to be something in the fine print because I'm like, how did they go from what they told me to being able to add all these extra surcharges later on and increase it when we're in a contract?

Mark Rasmussen (09:43)

for sure it's in the fine print.

yeah. It says that any, it basically says that any time at our discretion with 30 days notice, we can make an adjustment to any of your pre-schedule. And so they'll just do that. And then they'll just put a little message, you know, really small font in whatever kind of notification. And you know, in their minds, right? All right, well, we checked off the box. It's super shady. It sucks, but it's, you know, it's out there. Yeah.

Kiera Dent (10:05)

Yeah, it is what it is. And I would say

they'll like look at it because two clients that were in contract, we were able to send over every person that I've sent to you guys have just loved who you are, that it's easy, that it's fast, that it's the cheapest processing. And there's a few other features that I think we should talk about. I feel like I'm on like a Moolah sales pitch right now. Like I'm truly not. I just get giddy. Like if you guys hear me talk about Swell,

Mark Rasmussen (10:27)

Ha

Kiera Dent (10:30)

was Zeke and Google reviews. I have a crush on Swell. They just do Google reviews better than anyone else. And right now, Moolah for sure, you guys are taking the cake on being able to do credit card processing better than any other company that I've come across, which I think is amazing. And so something else that I think is ratcheting fees on practices when we're looking for some of these cashflow leaks is on membership plans. Now, I'm a huge proponent of membership plans. I also think with the economy, with where insurance is reimbursing, ⁓ people are starting to look at like

should we be going out of network? And my big proposal is, hey, yeah, of course, if you want to do that rock on, membership plans really can help with that. But ⁓ there are some membership companies that actually charge pretty outlandish fees. I never wanted to pay for that. I was scrappy in a practice. So what I did is I just charged the patient an annual fee. Well, that was like eight years ago that I was charging an annual fee. And I think you look at today's world, no one wants an annual fee anymore. They just want like a monthly fee and they want it to be low.

Mark Rasmussen (11:02)

for

Right. Right.

Kiera Dent (11:28)

But managing that is nonsense on my own paying for it. And Moolah, like I've heard through the grapevine, you guys are doing something with membership fees. Can we talk about the membership plans? Talk about how you guys do this. Is it easier? Is it something we can do? Because I think membership plans have to come into play with the insurance situation that offices are in. And also possibly a cash leak if you're paying for heavy management fees on your membership plans.

Mark Rasmussen (11:37)

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. So listen, membership discount plans. I've since I've been, I've only been in the industry, you know, dental industry for about four years now. And every year I feel like it's getting traction. More practices are asking about us. I have practices that are doing demos with us and they're like, Hey, I'm doing this demo is driving it because I heard you guys do, you know, membership, discount plan management. And so yes, the answer is we do. ⁓

And as you were looking to, there's a lot of great vendors in this space that just do that, right? And I'm not going to name any names, but there's a lot of great vendors, but they're not inexpensive. Like, you know, there's some decent SAS fees and then you pay per patient enrollment. ⁓ And so when it's, you know, when you look at the net net and you're like, okay, is this really making sense? So what's nice is that we have complete membership discount plan management built into the platform. You can create all your plans. ⁓ You can easily onboard the patient into the system.

Kiera Dent (12:21)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mark Rasmussen (12:48)

whether the patient wants to go monthly or annual, like you said, you were doing annual and a lot of the practices that I run into have historically been doing it annually, right? Because to think about billing it on a monthly basis has you like pulling your hair out. But the reality is that the patients and the consumers in the world that we live in, ⁓ everybody looks at whatever they're gonna bring into their life, whether it's a Netflix subscription or it's a car payment or it's anything else, everybody kind of looks at at a monthly basis.

Kiera Dent (13:02)

Too hard.

Mark Rasmussen (13:17)

And so that is what you want to be delivering. And so with the Moolah platform, you can absolutely manage an in-house membership discount plan and offer both annual and monthly options and truly set it and forget it. Not have to think about it. The system's going to run. The system's going to automatically post that payment into the ledger. In open dental, we even go a step further where when you enroll the patient into the membership, not only are we handling the billing element of it,

But we're also going into the PMS and we're associating that patient to that membership discount plan and keeping track. You know, that's what's really doing all the heavy lifting of keeping track of whatever the one free cleaning of the 10 % off services. And we keep that in lockstep. So if there was like a billing issue, we automatically disassociate the patient from the plan to really just kind of make it pain free. you know, membership discount plans are phenomenal. It's a win win for patients and practice. First of all, it brings some really great reoccurring

Kiera Dent (13:51)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mark Rasmussen (14:14)

like trackable revenue into the practice, right? Number two, it's bringing patients like butts in seats ⁓ as well. ⁓ Because the patient looks like, I'm paying $40 a month. I should use it. I should be in there. ⁓ And it's bringing value to the patient. So it's literally just a win-win all around. I really love that for, you know, when you're looking at out of network patients ⁓ and the absolutely, you know, the platform has it built in. So you guys, please, if you're looking at discount plans, memberships,

I encourage you to look at some of the other great vendors out there and then come take a look at us last and see like the value that you get that's included.

Kiera Dent (14:49)

That's awesome. Yeah. And again, like there are so many great people out there that are doing it. I just feel, ⁓ when I heard that you guys were doing membership plans, I was like, well, it kind of makes sense because you're already processing credit cards. Like you're already doing the processing. So now something else that is doing a processing is in my processor, into my software, which I just, that was so incredibly clever. And, ⁓ like again, I had another client who, who scoped you against other companies and they were like, gosh, like there's no fees.

Mark Rasmussen (15:03)

Great.

Kiera Dent (15:17)

compared to other companies with moolah. So that was something I was really excited about. I'm big on just, it's like my insurance. I've been with State Farm forever. And Jason and I giggled, we're like, we need to go and actually like assess and make sure that we're truly getting the best plans. And so I just think like it's good to periodically go and assess and make sure our credit card fees, what they were when we set up.

our membership plans making sense? Is it time to look to possibly renegotiate some certain things? And again, I'm not here to propose one company over another. Like Mark said, do your homework, figure out what's best because there's so many great companies out there. I just really love when it's simple and easy. And that's something I love about you guys, Mark, you guys have the fact that we can send patient statements and like have payments online and they can pay it all times of the day. Like just that alone boosts offices, collections with Moulin. So Mark, I want to go into a dicey topic with you though.

because this one's hot. We had it in our in-person ⁓ doctor and leadership mastermind when we were in Arizona and I loved it. It was like a hot, hot topic and heads up like this might be awkward for you. I don't think it will because of who you are, but there's the question of, and it was hot, like the room was split of people who were pro and con. So the question is with credit card fees being as much as they were, we talked about at the beginning, like ways that we can reduce it.

Mark Rasmussen (16:10)

Let's do it.

I know, I wanna hear what the feedback was, because I know where you're going.

Kiera Dent (16:40)

Then we talked about reducing membership plans. Now there's a question of, should we actually charge patients the credit card fees? Like this is becoming really popular and I don't blame businesses because inflation's high, labor is higher. So now we're trying to figure out like where could we cut? And so people are like, well, sweet, we're just gonna pass on the credit card fees to our patients. And the room was spicy. There was like people that were so pro and people that like literally people were bristly and it was a...

Mark Rasmussen (17:05)

Yeah.

Kiera Dent (17:06)

It was quite interesting. So your credit card company, which is where I feel like it's a little awkward to ask you this question, but I want to know, we pro, are we con? Should we charge the patients from your perspective? We're in 2025. So many companies do this. Should people be charging patients the credit card fee? Should they just raise their fees and bake it in? Like, what are your thoughts on this? Because my room was 50 50 split. And I will tell you some of the feedback if you want to hear it, cause it was quite interesting.

Mark Rasmussen (17:13)

Yeah.

Okay, okay.

I do. Okay, so the first

thing I want to point out is I expect you to say that the room is split, right? Like half of them are like, yeah, absolutely. You know, I'm not paying for my patients' reward points. And I think the other half of the room was like, yeah, but I'm worried about the optics. Does it look like we're trying to be cheesy or nickel and diming our patients, right? Those are the two ends that are battling each other. The interesting thing is that this hot topic, ⁓ if you would have asked that just three years ago,

Kiera Dent (17:38)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. No.

Mark Rasmussen (18:01)

it wouldn't have been 50 50. It

would have been like 80 90 % saying no way and 10 % made me do it. So the trend is is like it is going right and two or three years from now I have a feeling it's going to be like 80 % are doing it and 20 % are not doing it. So the cat is out of the bag. Let's just get that you know right out there in the open. What do I think about it? I'm to be super Switzerland about this and I'm going to say that I think

Kiera Dent (18:06)

Agreed. 100 % agree.

I would agree with you.

Remember he's

a credit card processing company.

Mark Rasmussen (18:31)

Well,

no, I'm going to say that I think that as a vendor who delivers credit card processing service, I think that I should enable our practices to make that choice for themselves. I think whatever you think you should do for your practice, I want to support it. So if you don't want to do surcharging, great, we love that. If you do want to do surcharging, great, I love that. I just want to give the tools to the practice so they can make that decision. Now, aside what I think about it,

It's a very interesting topic to talk about. Well, what is the net result? I like, all right, how does it work? What does it save? Let's get into it if I may. Okay, so there's a couple ways. There is absolutely there. There is, and there's a couple flavors to this. There's a couple flavors to this. ⁓ there, the, the, what that we do, let me talk about that first. So what we do is what's referred to as compliance surcharging and with compliance surcharging, what is, what you're doing is that

Kiera Dent (19:06)

I agree. Cause like, are there rules around it? Like, you actually have to do anything? Okay. I have no idea. Okay.

Mark Rasmussen (19:28)

When a customer's paying you with a credit card, the system, system, I'll just speak to our system, most others are similar, but when a patient is paying you, whether it's in practice on the device or whether you sent a text to pay or it's an online payment, our system automatically, real time, looks at the number that the patient put in or used on the terminal. And within a half a second, we're looking back at the credit card network before we even charge it, and we say, is this a credit or is this a debit? If the patient is paying with a credit card,

We then pop on the screen, either on their mobile device or on the terminal, we say, hey, we see you're using a credit card. We're going to add 2.99 % as a fee to you for using a credit card. If you want to use a debit card, you will avoid that fee. So in Compliance Surcharging, what I really like about that is that you're not charging us fee across debit and credit, right? You're still giving your patient the convenience of being able to pay with plastic.

Kiera Dent (20:19)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mark Rasmussen (20:25)

and still use a debit card because the reality is if you have a credit card in your wallet, there's probably 99 % chance you've got a Visa debit card in your wallet as well. And so you're not pulling away that convenience of them being able to pay plastic and just saying, hey, if you want to avoid that fee, pay cash or check. That's kind of archaic. So with compliance surcharging, you are going to offload your credit card fees to the patient, only the credit card fees. When they pay with a debit card, you will still pay for that, okay?

Kiera Dent (20:43)

I agree.

Mark Rasmussen (20:55)

With doing that with Moolah, if you're going to pay the debit fee and not pay the credit card fee, we see that the overall net effective rate for the practice ends up being below 1%. It ends up being like, I'm going to throw out a weird term that people are going, what the heck is that? It's usually going to be around 75 or 80 basis points. About three quarters of 1 % is going to be your net overall cost, which is huge savings, right? Huge savings.

Kiera Dent (21:07)

No.

Crazy, like insane. Just do

some math. If you did a million dollars and you were able to basically save, gosh, so much.

Mark Rasmussen (21:28)

No, let's just say,

the reality is you're probably saving one and a half percent. So on a million dollar practice, that practice is gonna put about $15,000 back to their bottom line. Like, and that's it, and it was painless. And you're still not really, yeah, exactly.

Kiera Dent (21:37)

Exactly.

And that's also for payments you're already collecting. Like this is already

money we're collecting, we just get to keep more of it rather than having the credit card processing fee.

Mark Rasmussen (21:47)

Yes.

And it doesn't need to like, you know, break brain cells for you to try and figure it out. Like the system is going to automatically calculate it. We're going to organize it. ⁓ It's just, it's painless. We're handling it in the PMS correctly. listen, the savings cannot be ignored. Like we talked about the cats out of the bag. You're going to see more businesses across more different verticals. ⁓ And the reality is

We've all been around it for a long, long time, right? Who's been doing it forever? Gas stations, right? We've seen it on there. Cash credit, right? That's been there forever. And we're all used to it. And you also typically see a lot when you're dealing with like state or federal agencies, you ever gone on and make an online tax payment, they usually charge a fee there. So it's just now getting more, you know, ⁓ rolling out. Yeah.

Kiera Dent (22:40)

Nail salons for the girls out there. We all know the

nail salons. They'll say like, it's a 3 % charge if you use credit card. I'm like, here's your cash. Like it's clever. They push us to what they want.

Mark Rasmussen (22:49)

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

So it is listen. So I, I believe in delivering the technology to our clients, I don't have an opinion one way or the other, whatever you feel is good. I will tell you though that I think a lot of practices, especially on the on the one half of the room that are like against it. I think what we're finding is that people are not pushing back as much as

you think they are because consumers are just getting used to it. And again, the fact that at least with our practices, you're still giving your patient the ability to have that convenience and pay with a debit card and not have the fee. If they were doing like the model where they call it, know, cash discount, where you're going to hit the debit card and you're going to hit the credit card, I think you get more pushback on that, but you're still giving that convenience. So yeah, I'm a fan of it. We get, like I said, more and more requests of it. ⁓

It's not going anywhere. yeah, we're here to support your practice. If you guys want to try it out, try it out and listen, here's the thing.

Kiera Dent (23:50)

Yeah.

How does it work in practice

though? Like, so someone's standing in front of me at a terminal, I'm collecting money in person. How does this work? Because it's not gonna pop up on my like treatment plan that I just gave them or on my ledger. So how do I do that?

Mark Rasmussen (24:00)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It'll pop up on the terminal.

so first thing we do, we give the practices, ⁓ you know, some template messaging and they'll just want to put up something by the front desk. And it says something to the effect of that, you know, this office adds a surcharge when using a credit card, ⁓ not beyond, you know, what our costs are, right? This is not a money, additional money revenue is trying to like, you know, make arbitrage between costs and no, I'm only going to pass off. And so.

Kiera Dent (24:32)

Great.

Mark Rasmussen (24:35)

the patient is aware of it, they've seen it, and then when they go to use it on the terminal, if they're in practice, when they go to run the credit card, it will pop up on the screen and your team can just show it to the patient, they'll see it, that it's adding it because they're using the credit card. And it'll give them an option if they want to accept it or if they want to back out of it and try again with a debit card and avoid the fee, really easy.

Kiera Dent (24:58)

Okay, that's actually really helpful. And now I have a question because I don't know this. How does this work? Because technically the practice is collecting more money, right? Like we are taking the fee plus the credit card fee. ⁓

Mark Rasmussen (25:10)

Let's say it's $100 and let's just say we're

adding that surcharge so now it's $103. Okay? Yeah. Yeah.

Kiera Dent (25:14)

Right, so that's $3 more per $100 transaction. But

does that impact them in tax? I would think no, because credit card companies still charging us the 3%. Like, how does this work? Are you following what I'm saying? how does this impact you?

Mark Rasmussen (25:26)

Yeah, I do. So you

don't have anything else to like, you know, break your brain on that. Our system, first of all, will break out the surcharge in the reporting. Okay. So it's really clean. Furthermore, the addition, the $103, right, like the customer got charged, the patient got charged $103. But our system automatically calculates it, that you have a fee of 3 % and that you surcharge the patient 3%. So the practice is still just going to get the full $100.

Kiera Dent (25:36)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mark Rasmussen (25:56)

It's as if they took a cash payment. So it's easy for them. They're not getting 10.99 at the $103, so to speak. It's just still truly only taking $100, which is great.

Kiera Dent (25:57)

Gotcha. Okay.

Mm-hmm. ⁓

Yeah, because that's what

I was curious like, and like some things have sales tax. So didn't know like surcharges, do they get taxed differently or is it just like accepting cash, same thing for a practice? Okay. Now, so that's really helpful. And that helps me see on the ledger. So are you guys synced into the PMS for it to say, because like if my ledger says a hundred dollars, but I'm now doing 3 % surcharge on it.

Mark Rasmussen (26:18)

Exactly, total amount, total amount, yeah.

Yes.

Kiera Dent (26:35)

I'm going to be posting $103. How do I make sure that all of my ledgers match up?

Mark Rasmussen (26:40)

So

we'll post $100 in the ledger, okay? And then we'll have a procedure code for the surcharge. And then we'll also have an offsetting so that it doesn't mess up your balance. So you can easily run reports based on the procedure code. I can see what my surcharge is, but it's not messing up and showing that, I took in $103 on this $100 transaction. So your ledger is gonna stay nice and clean.

and not be a nightmare, 100%.

Kiera Dent (27:10)

Okay,

because that's I was like, Oh, great. Because there was another office that I heard about. And Mark, I'm just curious about your opinion on this. And then we're gonna get back to this like spicy and thanks for walking through this. There was another practice, I've literally never heard of this before. So I'm curious if you have or if you recommend or don't this practice. So let's say a patient, the total is $100, they pay the $100, the practice literally posted on the ledger.

Mark Rasmussen (27:28)

Mm-hmm.

Kiera Dent (27:38)

instead of being $100 because now they lost $3, they posted $97 on the ledger and they were taking out the surcharge. Have you ever heard of that? Because I had never heard it. I was, do you recommend that? Because I've never recommended that, right? And I think as a patient, I'd feel really angry though. no, I gave you 100 bucks, but you gave me 97. Like I would just.

Mark Rasmussen (27:48)

I haven't.

That seems wonky. Yeah.

Right. Or

continue that on. How about now all of a sudden a week later you go to refund it and we're we're refunding you 97. You're like, no, no, no, I paid you 100. It's gonna be messed up in so many levels.

Kiera Dent (28:09)

Right. I was just curious.

I was like, I mean, maybe I'm archaic on how I do this. I used to just do it that way and then accept that that would just be a cost on my PNL. But now there's a way for you to actually offset it with the process. So my question is going back to that, that's actually helpful. Thank you. So if you're doing that, definitely recommend not doing that anymore. ⁓ But I was like, Hey, I've never heard of this. Maybe that is the right way to do the accounting on it. But it felt very messy to me. Now,

Do we as the practice need to put in the surcharge as that procedure code when we're charging that out or does Moolah automatically sync it in and put the surcharge of the procedure code?

Mark Rasmussen (28:48)

We have, yeah,

automatically done. There's nothing for you to do. Yeah. So during onboarding, we will set up, we will work with the practice, obviously. We'll make sure that we have a procedure code set up for them. And so during the onboarding, we'll have that so that when you do run a surcharge transaction like that, there's nothing you need to do. It'll all be handled in the ledger correctly.

Kiera Dent (28:51)

Amazing. I love it. This is why I said I have a preference on you.

and you're in all softwares. What softwares does Moolah sink into?

Mark Rasmussen (29:10)

Yes, so ⁓ Open Dental, ⁓ Dentrix, G7, and ⁓ newer server-based, not Ascend. And we're actually going to be ⁓ releasing, finally, this has been a long time coming, we're finally going live with Eagle Soft ⁓ Beta at end of next week. So Open Dental, Dentrix, and Eagle Soft. Yeah.

Kiera Dent (29:28)

Awesome.

That's awesome. Okay, very cool. And

then if you're not in one of those and you can just obviously add this in, it wouldn't be automatically synced. And I think like of those ones though, huge win this way. Okay, now we'll go back to the spicy. I will tell you guys how the room was divided. The room was divided, I'll be right. The do it, don't do it. And then the like, there's a middle ground, which I thought the middle ground was kind of convenient. ⁓ There wasn't, but I did see people like it. I did feel like it was like,

Mark Rasmussen (29:45)

Yes.

Was there any physical fighting going on? Okay.

Kiera Dent (30:00)

like politics and religion status. Like it was like very cut through the room. I do agree with you. And that's what I said. I was like, you guys, this 2025, this is going to take place in the future and it will be very common. just, think our early adopters going to stay or not. It's your choice. Um, I've always been of the opinion like, no, just bake it into your fee. And now I'm like, well, everybody's starting to charge for it. Like, why not? Um, so it was don't charge for it now. Another was like, no, put it in. People are doing it anyway. And the middle ground, which I thought was

Mark Rasmussen (30:02)

Right. Right, right, right.

Kiera Dent (30:30)

of a good way to do it is in person. They didn't charge a fee, but any of their online statements, they did charge a fee because they said most people who pay online know there's usually a service fee associated with it. So I thought that was kind of a, an easy way. If you guys are looking for a navigation through it. ⁓ but I think like, honestly, it's just like anything else, train your patients if you want to, but don't feel like you have to, I think it'd just be something to consider. So, but again,

Like get the reduction, like if nothing else, like switch to a processor that's going to be reduced fees anyway. So even if you want to continue offering it, you're still saving on that. Mark, I have one last thing that I wanted to dive into. I'm hearing from a lot of like integrated softwares. So like dental Intel and Flex and some of these other ones that literally make practice lives easier. They're having processors in there that are just integrated right into that. They're using it all the time.

Mark Rasmussen (31:20)

Yeah.

Kiera Dent (31:25)

How does Moolah play in those worlds? Like, do you get the same pricing? Do we not get the same pricing? Are some of those better because they're already bundled in? Again, I'm putting you on like really awkward topics, but I just want to know. I want to know how does this work.

Mark Rasmussen (31:35)

No, no, not at all. So listen, you mentioned Flex. We

love Flex, okay? I love Flex, not just because, yes, they're a partner of ours, right? And yes, your Mool account works beautifully and integrated with Flex. But I love Flex just because I think they're like cut from the same cloth that we are. Like we just, at the end of the day, we want to over-deliver, right? We want to over-deliver, whether it's technology, whether it's value, and they have that mindset. And so I love the Flex team. Full disclosure.

⁓ And so we've been an integrated partner with Flex for, gosh now, I think three years. So yeah, I think they deliver a ton of value to any open dental practice. So anybody out there for sure should check out Flex. They are amazing. Dental Intel. So we used to be, ⁓ not to bore the audience, but like we used to have an integration with Modento and then Dental Intel acquired Modento.

Kiera Dent (32:33)

Yep.

Mark Rasmussen (32:33)

and

then Dental Intel wanted to roll up their own integrated credit card processing. And so they have now. so, listen, ⁓ we wish Dental Intel the best, wish them well, but yeah, we're no longer integrated with Dental Intel, but yeah, Flex, we love Flex.

Kiera Dent (32:49)

Okay, because I was just curious. Now, I feel if it's bundled, is this a time where offices should just be strategic? I'm not saying anyone's doing it. I haven't looked at it. So I'm not here to like cast judge or I just want to make sure offices are being smart. I would think when they're bundled or they're integrated, offices should still check even using MULA. They should still be watching their credit card statements every single month, right? Like no matter what, just to always make sure things are staying clean and also before we sign up with anybody.

Mark Rasmussen (33:08)

Mm-hmm.

100%.

Kiera Dent (33:19)

Like literally read the fine print and look for it. Yes. No. I from like, let's just go all the way back.

Mark Rasmussen (33:23)

Yeah.

And I would always say that, you know, let's just take the Flex example. Flex has, you and I won't name anything, I'll let you guys out there, you go check it out to yourself, but there are three options. I encourage you, especially when we're talking about a vendor that you're looking at, and especially when this vendor that you're looking at revolves around your cashflow, right? Like it's a pretty integral part of a vendor that you're bringing into your ecosystem. call them, talk to them.

Kiera Dent (33:46)

Mm-hmm.

Mark Rasmussen (33:54)

Call in the middle of the day. Do they pick up the phone? Do they answer? Can you talk to somebody very easily? Like really pop the hood and take a look at who you're going to get in and do business with, especially when it's, you know, that vendor is like controlling your cash flow on a daily basis. So yes, please you guys out there, do your homework, look at the agreements, ask questions, and see what's right for you. Yeah.

Kiera Dent (34:10)

Yeah.

That's awesome. just, again,

I wanted to like go into it because these are things I'm hearing. I'm hearing people say like, this seamlessly integrates. I know you seamlessly integrate. I know you guys are constantly working to refine, to get into more and more practice management softwares to make it easier. Just Mark, as we wrap up, like this has been fun. I love the like, thanks for going into some of the spices with me. ⁓ But just as a quick rundown, like what are some of the features that Moola does? We talked about the membership plans. We did talk about that Dental A Team clients get 10 % basis points less for card present or card not present.

Mark Rasmussen (34:33)

Always is.

Yep.

Kiera Dent (34:47)

Which to me that alone, I would just look into it and see, like I said, two clients literally saved money by like dumping their contracts and moving over, which I think to me, like before I can have a crush on a company, I test them pretty heavily. So to see the proof in the pudding, I was so just elated and it made me even like you guys more. But what else does Moola do? Because I know you guys do a lot of other things that just make life easy.

Mark Rasmussen (35:05)

I love that. yeah, yeah. So

at the end of the day, we do a lot, but it's all payment related and will always be payment related, right? So we're focused on being like, we try to be like the end all be all payment solution for dentists. And so when you look at like, what does a dental office need from a payment perspective, ⁓ it's in practice payments, right? So we provide you guys the physical devices. So

No more having to buy rent or lease those terminals. We're going to include them. you know, not only, yeah, they're wireless. Yeah, they're really cool. Aesthetically, they look really good. Yeah. And, and here's the other great part too, that I think it's kind of underrated ⁓ is of course, not only did we include them. the practice didn't need to buy them, but like normally, you know, with our peers, you have to buy these devices and then you buy them and then it's like one year warranty, right? And then like Murphy's law always kicks in.

Kiera Dent (35:37)

They're awesome too. They're portable. They can go back to the hygiene operatories. It's amazing. So your hygienist can take it. Like they're awesome. It's so great.

Mark Rasmussen (36:01)

like it loves to do. like, okay, month 14, the device just, you know, went out on you. And then you're gonna sorry, you got to buy another five $600 device with mula you guys will literally never have hardware expense ever because we give them to you on the front end. And we will warranty them forever. As long as you're with us. I don't care four or five, six years. If there's new devices that come out and your guys age out, we're going to replace them. Even if you drop it off the counter and crack the screen.

We don't care, we're gonna replace it for you. There's no fear or premium. So, in practice payments, we have you covered there from a technology standpoint as well as a hardware standpoint. Moving on, there's also, have the ability to, like you were talking about earlier, store patient cards securely tokenized. Nothing's ever touching the practices servers. It's all on our servers, but it's giving you the convenience of having those stored cards for the patient. You can have as many stored cards as you want. You can even send a request to the patient.

before their appointment and the patient from easily from home from their mobile device could add their credit card. And so when they come in, it's already stored and it's available to use. So stored cards, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kiera Dent (37:07)

With that, can I ask, do you guys have

the compliance paperwork? Is there anything you have to do to get a patient to have a stored credit card that we can run for future payments? once insurance pays, because I know that's a big thing of storing cards on file, do you have anything with that? Because I know that this is a zone.

Mark Rasmussen (37:23)

Yep. What I...

Yeah, no. So it's very obvious as far as the process of the patient adding the card. Like when you send the message, it says, hey, would you like to securely store your card on file? Right? Beyond that, what I've seen some practices do is just they'll just include it in their overall like new patient intake forms and kind of include it in their terms of service of that. Hey, listen, if you want to store a card on file with us, you can. And you allow, once you store a card, you're giving us the authorization to utilize that card.

Kiera Dent (37:35)

Mm-hmm.

Mark Rasmussen (37:51)

for other future balances. As simple as that, that's all you need to do.

Kiera Dent (37:54)

which is so smart you

guys think about it. This is where so many other industries do this. They have a card on file. I mean, I go to the spa, my cards on file, they run that card when I'm gone, like I authorize it to happen. So they never out of money. They're never chasing money down. Like it just to me makes so much more sense of a way to process.

Mark Rasmussen (38:12)

Can you imagine if

Netflix or all the other subscriptions, if they had to wait for a payment every month and wait, come on, no. Subscription is the way, 100%. So, okay, so store card on file they get. The other thing they get is the ability to create and manage in-house payment plans. And of course, automatically post those payments to the ledger. We have some great things where if the payment fails, right? They're into the plan for three months and all of sudden the July payment fails.

Kiera Dent (38:18)

No. No.

Yeah.

Mark Rasmussen (38:41)

our system will automatically notify the practice, notify the patient, and what's cool is that the software will allow the patient to self-administer and fix it. So the software is not telling the patient, your card failed, call the front desk. No, we're gonna save a phone call there. The software will allow the patient to tell the software, okay, either A, try to charge that card again, or B, they can actually upload a new card on file.

So the cool stat on that is that in failed transactions in our payment plans, we see patients solving it between themselves and software within the first 24 hours at a rate of over 80%, which is huge. So payment plans, and then we talked about earlier, you also get the ability to manage any of your in-house membership or discount plans. ⁓ We have the collecting on a balance when the patient is out of practice, ⁓ sending a payment request either

Kiera Dent (39:20)

Holy cow, it's amazing.

Mark Rasmussen (39:37)

allocated or unallocated payment request can attach a statement. ⁓ We also have the ability to host a payment page on their website. So if you want to put a little navigation, click here to make an online after hours payment, we'll host that page for the practice. ⁓ So yeah, we really kind of just looked at it a full circle of like, where are all the payment touch points that our practice is dealing with, and just trying to deliver these really amazing tools. And again, as you know, our model.

⁓ There's never any monthly fees. There's never any set up fees. There's never any annual fees ⁓ All there are these two simple flat rates and again, you can cancel it anytime you want never locked in anything

Kiera Dent (40:18)

That's awesome. Mark, I appreciate this so much. How do people, like know they just connect with you, schedule a demo. You guys will look at their credit card processing, see how you guys can fix it. How do they connect with you specifically if they're interested? And specifically The Dental A Team, The Dental A Team, perks.

Mark Rasmussen (40:33)

I would recommend and maybe we can list this in the podcast, but there will be a specific Moolah URL. It's like forward slash The Dental A Team They should go there and then they can schedule a demo. And then if they go there, then we're going to know it came from you guys. That way we can get them that 10 basis point savings forever. So just schedule a demo with us and no pressure. We're like the most like

the least salesy organization I think that you guys will ever run into. All we wanna do is inform you. We wanna show you what we have. We're not for everybody. ⁓ But assuming that you guys love what you see, we encourage you to try us out and check us out and see if we're gonna be a great fit for your practice.

Kiera Dent (41:13)

Yeah, for sure. You guys, honestly, I love Moolah They're incredible. So on our website, we will link it. So the way you get to Moolah, it's on our website, TheDentalATeam.com. And then you can click on the About Partnerships Mulas right there. ⁓ And the actual, like if you guys want our direct link here, it would be TheDentalATeam.com slash partnerships slash Moolah. And that should take you right to Moolah's page. It's also mula.cc slash partners.

So that helps you guys will also link that in the show notes mark. I appreciate you guys so much Things are being on the podcast things are going through the spicy with me. I appreciate you so much

Mark Rasmussen (41:52)

Any time, love you guys, you guys are the best and ⁓ have a great rest of day.

Kiera Dent (41:58)

Hey, you too, for all of you listening. Thanks for listening and we'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.

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Tiff and Kristy discuss how to best support patients during limited exams, including centering your own team’s frame of mind, creating proper triage protocol, building trust through communication, and more.

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Transcript

Tiffanie (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are back today with some really, really exciting things. We speak to the doctors, we speak to the team side, and we really want that to come together in today's podcast. We've got a lot of information for you doctors, but then we've also got a lot of information for you to pass off and train your team members on or pass off this podcast, and we will help train your team members on this space just here within this podcast even.

Jam-packed with a ton of information. It's for everyone. Team members, if you're here listening and your doctor's not a listener, vice versa, send it on over because I do think this is going to be some great information for everyone to start implementing right away. So you guys, I have Kristy here with me today. You know her, you love her. I know her, I love her. There's just no one on this earth that will meet her and not love her. So Kristy, you are just an amazing human being. are an excellent coach.

and consultant. You've been doing this for many years and I am just constantly impressed by you and how you really work so well with doctors and especially team members. I've seen you really diffuse a lot of situations, handle with care, and you constantly make people feel seen and feel heard. So thank you for being here with me today, Kristy. And really before we pop into this, I'm going to

I like to surprise you and Dana. Dana will tell you I do this a lot. So something pops into my head and I'm like, actually, that's gonna be really great. I think before we even get started on this, you guys, so that you know, we're gonna be really, we're gonna be talking about how to really, really maximize a limited or an emergency exam and how to enlist the team to support and getting the most out of it for yourself and for your patients. So before we get started, Kristy I would love for you to share with everyone here today and myself.

on a couple of ideas or maybe even tools, I don't know, but how do you do so well at presenting yourself for other people to be able to feel so comfortable and the ability to allow people to be able to feel vulnerable in your space to be able to learn and to be able to make changes and impart changes with practices? Like, how is that?

I know it's a natural tendency of yours, but if there's anything you can help doctors and team members really learn on how to show up so that they can do that too, I guess is what I'm asking.

Kristy (02:35)

I suppose you're right. I think it does come natural to me. I'm a pretty great listener yet. Also, I think it's very important to validate people where they're at and never make them feel small. You know, Tiff, I do not like being in the limelight, but I get a lot of thrill out of watching other people's growth or really watching them and seeing their brilliance within them and making that shine, bringing it out.

I suppose I look again, it's meeting them where they're at, showing them maybe something different than they even thought possible for themselves and just touching on their brilliance. It's okay if we don't know everything right now, but dang, together we're gonna grow and we're gonna do this. So really just partnering with them and making them feel safe in that space, know, treating them like I would have wanted to be treated too. So, yeah.

Tiffanie (03:30)

Yeah, thank you. Thank you. And it sounds like

for implement implementation tools, it's really seeing people and acknowledging.

what it is that they're doing. if you've got a front office team member and you're like, gosh, like we've got 99 % of our patients confirmed for tomorrow, acknowledging that like, how did you do that? And really, like you said, partnering, I love that you use that word use it often, really partnering with that person and celebrating some of the things that they're doing really well. But also acknowledging there may be space for growth, we might have 99 % confirmations, but maybe we have

three, four, five hygiene openings on the same day. So acknowledging spaces that are going really well, but also that there is growth in everyone to be found and how do we layer on top of what we're doing really well already to create change in all of the areas to get the results we're after. Yeah? Yeah, yeah. So I love that theory and idea and I love how you do handle that. I think it's key and

Kristy (04:28)

You nailed it.

Tiffanie (04:36)

imparting any kind of change or any kind of just updates even, right? Like handbook updates, like all of those pieces that are scary to go back to your team and say, hey, we're going to change this, we're going to do it differently, because human nature says, no, keep doing it the same. Even if it's not working, this is comfortable. So I want to stay here with what I already know. So really being able to have that candor and be able to have those conversations and utilize communication really well to be able to impart the

the changes is going to be key. And then acknowledging once that change has happened, that it's working or not. So making sure we're tracking the results, but then also acknowledging the work that's being put in. think, Kristy, that's something you do really well is going back and saying, gosh, this is what we did. Look at how amazing these results are. This is what you guys put in. This is why it's working. And going back and re-acknowledging the steps that it's taking to do that.

Huge massive kudos to you, Kristy. I know you don't love the spotlight, but we're on a podcast, so your spotlight is always with me. I do think that really flows right into being able to maximize the limited exam.

Kristy (05:43)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (05:52)

There's so many spaces, there's so many spaces of growth, there's so much space of support for the team to give to the patient and to the doctor. And then also, I think everything you just said, Kristy, for team members, for doctors and team members to utilize, this works hand in hand with our patient base as well. With anyone, you guys take this home to your family and just be shocked at how amazing your kids' rooms will look if you utilize those communication tools and really acknowledge them for.

picking up that one stuffed animal when there's 15 more, like great, like let's get these other ones. So let's figure this out. Like really take these tools to any space of life, but it goes hand in hand with our patient communication as well. And the emergency slash limited exam space can be really tense for both of you. And it's a vulnerable space. Dentistry is a vulnerable space for patients anyways, but then knowing that gosh.

100 % something is wrong. Like, I'm stressed. I don't I'm stressed about cost. I'm stressed about what this is going to be. Is my tooth savable? Is it going to hurt? maybe it hurts now. There's so much emotion wrapped around these appointments that we've really got to handle them with care, love, candor, all of those spaces. Like Kristy like how is Kristy, put that in your head, what will Kristy do? How Kristy handle this this communication?

And how can your team support you in getting the best results and outcome for your patients? And Kristy, you and I were just chatting right before this and really talking about like the triage, incoming call, because we always say everything, right? Everything starts with the call. But how can that, in your opinion, Kristy, how can the front office team member taking that phone call, how can they support?

the back office dental assistant's hygienist doctor in that appointment. What's that first step look like for them to truly support this patient in getting the best care possible?

Kristy (07:47)

I love how you talked about the limited exam in the very beginning and opportunity. think number one, that's where we need to go. And also you mentioned about supporting them. They need us. And many times, I mean, you've been in the practice just like I have. You've been an assistant too when that limited exam has messed up your day and it just, you know.

Again, it maybe didn't make for a real positive day, but truly I think taking a step back and looking at it a little bit differently, really we all got into dentistry at the heart of it for some reason to care for other people. And yes, while it may mess up our day, those people truly are the ones that need us, probably the most, right? And so taking that step back and putting that frame of mind,

when that phone call comes in. And like you said, also triaging it, right? Sometimes it truly isn't the emergency that the patient thinks it is. So having a set protocol or questions that we can ask on the front, you know, I'll share with you. I love the, a scale of one to 10, how bad is it hurting today? And on that same scale of one to 10, you know, have you taken anything for it and where does it land when you take something on that same scale?

Because if they're at a nine for pain, but they take something and it subsides to a five, I may have a little bit of time to get them in and not necessarily mess up my schedule, right? But if it's a nine and nothing's helping, know, yeah, we got to find the best, worst, worst, best time, however you say that, to put them in. But really, it's an opportunity to make a difference for them and truly do what we-

Tiffanie (09:34)

I'm sorry.

Kristy (09:44)

What we love to do is care for people, right? And hopefully make a different outcome for them. So on the first call, we can make a difference. We can triage it to also help the best, but also take great care of the patient.

Tiffanie (09:58)

Absolutely. Yeah, I agree. And that triage you guys I would I would create I mean, I have them we can send them to you Hello@TheDentalATeam.com just ask us for them. I would create an intake card, an intake form. And what I used to do actually, when I was in the in the front office at my dental practice, I had it on like a sticky note or a card, it was laminated and it was up by my computer so that I would ask those questions and what I would do and what I encourage team members to do.

is to throw it into the notes section of the appointment. So how long has it hurt? Like Kristy said, on a scale of one to 10, what would you rate your pain today? Are you taking anything for it over the counter or otherwise? Have you ever had this looked at before? Is this the first time that this has occurred? And really, and what is it? What area of the mouth? What is happening? What are your symptoms?

And then now we can, that's a triage to be able to say, okay, where does this appointment go? I do have to say there are so many practices, so many dentists that reach out and they're like, Tiff, Kristy, Kiera, Dana, Britt, like on my schedule is nuts. And I can think of a doctor in specific that one of our first calls, he's like, Tiff, I have like 10 limited appointments a day.

And my if you called me today to schedule my limited availability is two weeks out. And I was like, what? That's wild. Like there's I have so many questions right now. Like, why are patients not getting treatment done? Are these new patients? It's so many questions like that is wild to me. And that's the extreme but I definitely have doctors who are like, hey, I've got I've got limited emergency exams air quotes there if you're listening in the car that are coming in and it's like, well, I had a filling done a week ago and it's still high. Okay.

we didn't triage then to figure out what the actual quote unquote emergency is. That's an office visit y'all. Like that's a, you know what, great, let's get you in where we can to get that adjusted. But I'm saving this spot here for someone who's in pain because they have a toothache, right? And I get you, I hear you team members, a high filling is going to cause pain.

Yes, get them in. Don't make them wait a week. Don't make them wait two weeks. Get them in. But the patient who calls if their face is swollen or their tooth has fractured or they just got into an accident.

I had a kid that fell at baseball practice and knocked his tooth out or broken. These, guys, how are we getting these patients in? So being able to triage that and asking the right questions ahead of time is gonna help you to manipulate the schedule accurately and really, like Kristy said, get those patients in where they need to be seen. And I have oftentimes myself taken phone calls that a patient is like...

You don't understand, I gotta get in and I'm like, okay, great. Like, let's talk through this. Let's let's talk about what you've got going on. And I'm like, okay, like it's 355. And you're all you're gonna survive. Let's get you in at 8am. Let's get you in at 9am with the doctor, we're going to be ready for you. We're going to be able to do treatment, we're going be able to do something to get you out of pain tomorrow.

let's get you in in the morning, right? Because it's like, okay, on the scale of I know dental emergencies, the person calling me doesn't have that same scale. And so to them, what they are experiencing is massive. But when the grand scheme of things to ask a team to stay late, probably not, and you can survive until tomorrow morning, right? So you get to triage these things and make the best schedule for you all.

and then also prep the team, you guys. I mentioned at the beginning that I'm putting all of those things in the appointment notes because I then want my dental assistant to be able to say, my gosh, Kristy.

Kristy (13:37)

Thank

Tiffanie (13:49)

Come on back, like let's get you taken care of. And then on the walk even, used to, as a dental assistant, I'd be like, Kristy, gosh, how are you feeling it? From the notes here, it looks like that upper right tooth is really bothering you. How are you doing? And I'm sitting Kristy down and I'm putting her bib on and I'm like, tell me more about it. It looks like you're taking ibuprofen and it's kind of reducing it. Have you tried anything else? Like now we're in conversation and Kristy, how does it feel on the other side to be like, my gosh, great.

They already, they took the information yesterday and now we're actually, we're in conversation about it. And Kristy, from your point of view, how does that conversation utilizing the information, which caveat you guys, if your front office team is putting the information in there and you're not using it, they're gonna stop putting it in there. And then you're gonna be upset that it's not in there. So make sure you're using it. But Kristy, from the patient standpoint and from your point of view, your perspective, how do you feel that conversation?

lands for the patient in respect to going back to what we talked about earlier with the communication. How does that help that open that space in those lines?

Kristy (14:54)

Yeah, I love that you bring that up because it is a true opportunity to make a huge difference and it really does elevate the patient's level of trust and we have to remember that those patients coming in on emergency are probably even a little higher level of anxiety than just the normal dental patient, right? Almost every person coming to the dental office, even if they don't mind it, have some level of anxiety.

And your limited exams or your limited emergency patients definitely probably are ratcheted up another level. being heard is huge in, you know, diminishing that anxiety and, or at least lessening it, right? And then just elevating that level of trust so that when you guys do diagnose something, figure out what's going on.

they're more likely to say yes to the treatment because you validated them, you heard them. How many times do we call the doctor's office, because we have to get in for a sore throat, and you go through every person and you think, why did I just tell the last five people? Because nobody listened to me. Everybody walked in and said the same thing. So I agree with you, Tiff, that is so huge. And I'm gonna even like maybe plant another seed of opportunity that if ever,

We talk about handoffs all the time with our clients, right? If ever you can have a new patient limited come in and the admin team walks them back and hands it off and gives them that information, wow, knock it out of the park. They're already like, whoa, this is very different than I've ever experienced. And they listened from the first phone call, right?

Tiffanie (16:41)

Yeah, yeah, I love that that elevated experience is what we're always after. And it's that concierge style. I know. I just got back from vacation. So it's super fresh for me and everybody. My boyfriend works for a company that is an incredible company and they have these trips that you can earn. And he he earns them. He's an incredible worker. And these trips are just incredible. And there I was sitting with someone and he said, gosh, it's so cool.

companies don't do this. Companies don't do things like this. Like he's like, my company got me the Calm app for a year. And I was like, well, bro, I love the Calm app and that $80. Like I hear, I hear why that would be great. But side note to that, you're right. Companies don't do this as like a bonus structure as an incentive, right. But what actually sticks out to me is not just the trip, right, because we can get myself

Kristy (17:15)

Just what?

Tiffanie (17:32)

to London somehow, some way I can get myself to London. What I can't and won't do is go the extra mile to have a tour agency right there scheduling everything. At my beck and call, I had someone that would tell me what the schedule was. The concierge members would schedule dinners for us. The show that I wanted to see, I could tell them to schedule it. That's the level.

of difference for me, because we can get ourselves anywhere, but going on a vacation like that, that the company set up so many spaces that you don't have to think about anything, is what makes these trips exciting to me, right? Yes, I acknowledge they're really cool, but what's cool about them is the level of service that we get at every step of the way.

Dental offices are on every corner, sometimes two or three in the same parking lot, you guys. Your concierge, your level of service that you're providing to the patients is what makes it stick. That's what you're here for and that's what's gonna make you feel the best. So I totally agree. What can we do for these patients to level it up that much more? And really to maximize those appointments, I know from...

me saying it from Kristy saying like do these things it sounds like more but it actually decreases the amount of time spent because you've you've quickly and easily created a relationship with a human and they're ready to then move forward to the next step they trust you the relationship is there they're hearing you because they felt heard and they're ready to push forward so even that concierge style on that first phone call and maybe even saying like gosh you know what

We've got this space to look at. I have an idea. What if we bring you in and we look at everything with a high focus on this area because my gut says if this is happening there, this isn't the only spot that's going to be troublesome. And I would rather give us the opportunity to catch it ahead and be proactive than wait for another call like this where you're in pain. So let's get you scheduled and let's get you scheduled for

a full exam and x-rays with a high focus on this area. I've just converted a limited exam into a comp exam. That's maximizing an emergency appointment. If I didn't convert it over the phone, dental assistant, hygienist, whoever's getting this limited exam, we're doing the same thing. Hey, I have an idea. Let's maximize your time here.

Let's be proactive and let's make sure there's nothing else in there that's going to pop up like this because I don't think you want to be in pain like this again, I venture to say. Let's make sure that everything else is taken care of as well with a high focus on this today. So making sure we're maximizing your time, the patient's time and your time and creating more value out of a very seemingly simple appointment. But it takes knowing what the patient is coming in for.

passing that information off, passing that information off to the doctor correctly, and making sure that everything that we're getting from the patient, all that information is being used. That's how you make those appointments maximized and how you efficiently and effectively use your time wisely. You guys know, if you've listened to anything at all, Kara always says, efficiency is my jam. It will be on my headstone, on my grave. That is locked in stone.

Kristy (21:00)

you

Tiffanie (21:04)

Listen to me when I save. This is how I personally have saved time and built stronger relationships very quickly with my patients in office and watched and trained practices to do it forever. So build that protocol and you guys, doctors, that protocol of information, the triage that we're gathering, it's based on the information that you want.

when you're gonna sit down and talk to that patient. What are the questions you are going to ask that patient that they can gather, your support team can gather the information ahead of time and give it to you, saving you that time and you can jump into relationship and diagnosis. What are those things that you want to know? Allow them to build that intake form, that triage form.

team members, support the doctor in utilizing that form, and support the whole team in scheduling properly based off that triage, and that's gonna be huge for you. And if you schedule optimally, you know what you're scheduling for, you guys, can probably even pop in some same day treatment very frequently, very often because you're already prepped. As a dental assistant, Kristy, there were so many times where I'd see an emergency, and I'm like, or I'd see an emergency of a patient that had been in and had a...

filling or a crown or whatever diagnosed on that tooth already. So I already had a pack ready to go so that when Doc confirmed what that treatment was, even a new patient saying this is my pain, like as a dental assistant, I'm like, okay, these are probably the two, three things that he's potentially diagnosing. Let me have these things prepped and ready for quick grab in case we can move forward with treatment today. And then I'm talking to my patient about that. Like, gosh, you know what?

Typically when I see this, I already know, I know what the options are, right? Typically when we see this, I usually see doctors say things like this.

I'm preheating and prepping that patient for what the doctor may come in and say. Again, doctors building that relationship. That's that co-diagnosis space. And dental assistants, do not do yourselves the disservice of thinking that you can't do that. It is not just for hygiene. Hygienists cannot diagnose. You cannot diagnose. But both of your positions can co-diagnose and support the patient and the doctor in moving forward with treatment.

So triage, make sure you've got something really easy for them to utilize. Implement it, get your hand off straight, you guys. Probably practice them, I love role playing those. And work to maximize your time by utilizing these systems, but also by saying, hey, let's get your whole mouth taken a look at today. We don't have to do everything, I don't even have to show you everything. I just need to know what's going on there and get a treatment plan so that we can move forward. I digress.

And I think, Kristy, I really feel like all of those spaces go straight back to the first conversation we had today of really opening up that communication and making those changes for the team, but also for the patients. And one thing I want to highlight before we finish, something I loved doing as a dental assistant for my, especially for my emergency patients, but any patients, something I loved doing, you guys, was really saying like, gosh, I know that this is rough for you, or know you've got, you know, this is

this might be overwhelming for you. But I want to highlight some things that are going really well. Two, one, you're here. You walked through my front doors. And my patients with the highest anxiety would cry when I would say that. I would say you're here, you're here with me. I'm not going to let you down. And I'm going to be here for the long haul. So number one, you're here. Number two, you're ready to take a proactive step. And again, I'm here for you. So just

Again, that relationship, being in relationship and Kristy, that goes back to like acknowledging. That's hard for a lot of patients walking through that door. It's hard. And when they're scared, gosh, I've had patients that they're like, no, I haven't been to the dentist since I was 12 and they're 42. I'm like, well, congratulations, here we are. And you've still got a lot of teeth in your mouth after 30 years. Like that's huge. So let's take a look. But Kristy.

I think we've given them a ton of information on how to maximize a limited exam appointment. What do you feel like if they could take one step today? Doctor might be listening to this, maybe it's Saturday or Tuesday night. What's one thing that our doctors listening today can do to get this process started for their practice?

Kristy (25:37)

Yeah, again, going back to what you said, really dialing into those questions and also, know, doctors remembering back when they very first started, they welcomed a lot of a limited exams, right? Like we wanted them. We used to cheer when we'd have them because we knew it was putting something in the chair and more than likely they had other things going on. So challenging them to kind of reframe it and look at it in that direction.

The other thing with doctors too, for limited, maybe when they come to morning huddle, they scan the schedule and see if I had to have an emergency today, where's the best time to put it? Because that's the other thing too, Tiff, when people call in and front office doesn't know where to put it and then they put them on hold forever because they gotta find somebody, identify those times, go through your questions that you would ask. And honestly, I also say doctors,

I know this is hard for you because you walk in the room and you kind of take charge, but be the guest in the room. Acknowledge the patient is sitting there. It'd be weird if you didn't, but then quickly turn to your assistant and let them hand off to you. Give them that space to do that. And like you said, it truly will save time because patient doesn't have to repeat themselves. And for the team members, you don't have to be afraid of leaving anything out. All you have to say is, hey,

May I share with Dr. Smith everything that we talked about, right? And then turn to the patient. Was there anything that I forgot or anything you want to add? Then you don't ever have to be afraid. You can feel confident. And if they speak more, so be it. You know what I mean? But those would be my tips there.

Tiffanie (27:23)

Yeah, I love it. And I think we wrap on that. So go do those things. Go create the best process possible for your patients and for your team. If it's working for your team, it works for your patients and your flow is great. And guess what? We hit goals and patients are happy and satisfied and teams happy. So go do all the things you guys. Thank you so much for listening. Kristy, thank you so much for being here and letting me surprise you and put you in the spotlight for so many things. So thank you for that. And you guys.

As always, drop us a five star review, let us know if this was great information, how much you loved it, and allow others to find it as well. Share with your friends, your coworkers, your doctors, if your team member's here, and doctors with your team members if you're a doctor here. So share with everyone, we wanna make sure that these protocols really get put into place, and if you need help with any of it, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. We are always here to help, and just so you know, when those do come in, I said it before, they do come to us consultants, so you are getting actual information, reliable.

And we are here to help. So thank you everyone and go have a great rest of your day.

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Fred Heppner of Arizona Transitions is back for part 2 of his chat with Kiera! Life comes at you fast, and sometimes, it comes in the form of a surprise. Kiera and Fred talk about creating an exit strategy today for your departure from dentistry, as well as what the economics look like for moving on from a practice.

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Transcript

Kiera Dent (00:01)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I am so excited for you to have part two of me and Fred Heppner going through associates, DSOs, how to really grow this. You guys, we had such an incredible first half of this episode. It was so long and so much information that I wanted to break it into two parts. So here's part two. I hope you enjoy. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

Kiera Dent (00:24)

should people be talking

when they're in their 20s 30s or is it something we're like start to think about it I know Ryan and I from Dentist advisors we we talk shop about this quite often of like there I mean there are studies that show that when you retire you actually start to atrophy in life and ⁓ there isn't as much of a purpose and so we talk often of like how can we continue that

mental stamina, the things that are going to fulfill us, whether it's working or something else of philanthropy, like whatever is going to keep you going as a human, whether you're working in the chair or you're not, I think is important. So that's I was curious of like, really probably connecting with you three to five years before we think we might retire, but with the caveat of, hey, if something were to happen to me, what would kind of be my exit strategy? your like death list like I do, like if I die, this is what's going to happen. It's creepy, but it's awesome.

Fred Heppner (01:15)

No, it's, it's creepy and it is awesome. And at the same time, it's a really good conversation to have because if we're three to five years out, then one of the first things to do is say, okay, so what's going to happen if you're not here? And that carries on to the discussion we had earlier. So once the discussion about, what do want to do when you, when you retire or you stop practicing dentistry, then the questions start coming up. What about the economics?

Kiera Dent (01:27)

Mm-hmm.

Fred Heppner (01:44)

So in any... Yep, absolutely.

Kiera Dent (01:44)

I was just going to say, like, is it sell? Is it DSO? it? And also, I mean, this

to me also, I think might exponentially accelerate some people's plans because the DSOs are hot and it's like 10x EBITDA. That might accelerate your retirement or your sell because you're on a wave right now that who knows if in the next 20, 30, 40 years we'll be there. Fred, I'm super curious, like, how is this whole DSO model maybe shifting it for transitions? Or is it? I'm curious.

Fred Heppner (02:13)

It is, it's shifted quite a bit, but what it's shifted is a real desire for dentists to be able to sell their businesses and release the management responsibility and to have somebody else take that over. 15, 20. Yeah. I just want to do, I just want to do dentistry. I don't want to manage a business. I don't want to manage people. Um, I don't want to run the company. I want to be able to practice my trade. Well,

Kiera Dent (02:22)

you

The dream for every business owner. ⁓

Exactly.

Fred Heppner (02:43)

I can tell you that in the last 15, 20 years, it's certainly exploded in dentistry and not in a bad way. And here's why. Dentists graduating from dental school today need a place to work. The banks that loan money to dentists to buy dental practices are looking for dentists that have a couple years experience in dentistry. They have a production track record. The banks can see what it is that the dentist can do. Chair aside.

a good credit score and some liquidity, usually 8 to 10 % of the purchase price of the business that they're looking at in cash. So one of the things to consider is graduating dentists should be able to make the minimum payments on their debt, on their student loans, on what debt they have, and begin to put money away as quickly as possible to gain some liquidity. So as we look at the equation of

what DSOs are doing, they're providing them with a place to work. Because as dentists come out, I mean, the majority of dental practices that I work with, maybe you can echo this or discuss it, are just single dentist practices. Right, they don't have a, somebody called it a plus one at some point time, and I thought, okay, that's decent. So you have the dentistry, but there's the ability to bring somebody on maybe one or two days a week. Well, that doesn't,

Kiera Dent (03:44)

Mm-hmm.

Totally same.

Mm-hmm.

Fred Heppner (04:09)

That doesn't feed a hungry young dentist coming out of dental school who really has a lot of debt and wants to begin to work and develop a way to reduce that debt. They're looking for four days a week, five. They might have a quality of life thing where they just want to work three tens and be off Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. That's okay. But the point is, is that most private practices don't have the capacity to be able to bring on a full-time dentist and feed them right away and keep them very busy. The DSOs, corporate dentistry,

Kiera Dent (04:19)

Right.

Fred Heppner (04:39)

have offices that can provide that place. So essentially, if a dentist comes out of school and begins to work, they may very well work for one of the corporate DSOs, which gives them experience. It gives them the ability to work five days a week. It gives them the ability to practice in what I call civilian dentistry out of dental school. And it gives them the opportunity to be able to see what it's really like. I can tell you, Kiera, that 15, I think 15 years ago,

Kiera Dent (04:57)

Mm-hmm.

Fred Heppner (05:08)

the most popular phone call I would get on my phone line was, hey, we just got 50 million from a private equity firm. We're starting a DSO, but we're different. And we want to buy practices from you because we heard you're good. And I just tell them, great, thanks very much. Get in line, register on my website. And when an opportunity comes up, I will email to you like I do everybody else the opportunity. Because most of my clients call and say, I...

Kiera Dent (05:17)

you

Fred Heppner (05:34)

Hard no to a DSO. I'm a private practitioner. I've got a legacy practice and I want to sell to another private dentist Okay, so that was the most popular second most popular call was I'm sick of working for a company find me a practice to buy Now it's shifted More so do I hear I'm sick of working for somebody else find me a private practice to buy I'm ready to go The the DSO calls have filtered off of it and I don't know that that's a global

Kiera Dent (05:48)

Mm-hmm. ⁓

Mm-hmm.

Fred Heppner (06:03)

representation of the DSOs starting to slow their buying and really focus on the profitability of the offices they have to really maintain the profitability due to higher interest rates. Maybe they're slowing down their buying. Who knows? The interesting thing about it is that it's somewhat of a closed loop in DSO work. You really can't get into and find out exactly what everybody is doing unless you're member of their organizations, which is fine. And I respect that.

Kiera Dent (06:12)

Yeah.

Fred Heppner (06:32)

private information, but it begs the question. And ultimately, if a dentist is looking to buy their own practice, eventually they're going to need those one to two years experience, liquidity, good credit score, in order for them to go to one of the commercial banks and say, I want to buy a practice and let me get a practice to buy and then we'll put it together. Okay? So I can tell you that private practice is alive and well.

Kiera Dent (06:55)

Mm-hmm.

Fred Heppner (07:02)

very bullish on the individual dentist who's out there still practicing and doing quite well. I can also tell you that those kinds of doctor to doctor transitions are extremely successful. The idea is some people who look at a transition like that would think, my gosh, the dentist leaves, all the patients will leave. They'll go somewhere else, they'll go to other practices. Well, if that was true, let's carry that forward. If that was true,

Kiera Dent (07:14)

Mm-hmm.

No.

Fred Heppner (07:28)

then that would mean that the loans that the dentist used to buy the practice would go in default, would they not? Because if all the patients left, there would be no revenue and they'd have to fold up camp and see you later, right? The default rate on dental practice loans still over the last 15, 20 years and even recently is 40 basis points. 100 basis points is 1%. 40 basis points is four tenths of 1%. So if you follow the math,

Kiera Dent (07:33)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Fred Heppner (07:58)

The default rate is less than half of 1 % on the billions of dollars that are loaned by banks for dentists to buy practices. They don't fail. Okay.

Kiera Dent (08:08)

Totally. They don't and they're such a

good investment. I think that that's why so many people like, that's why I think DSOs are buying up practices. ⁓ And I think that that's where so many private practice owners now, I would say I've watched where it used to be legacy practices and there's still legacy practice doctors who do not want to sell to a DSO. Like when they're there, they want to sell doctor to doctor, they want to bring in an associate, they want to bring in partners. I think

By default, dentistry tends to be a more humanistic, ⁓ very relationship model ⁓ versus I still think though, right now DSOs, you're right. I don't think people are getting as many calls. ⁓ But what I will say is my doctors are probably getting 20 to 30 emails every month from a DSO interested in buying their practice. So they are getting it as private practice owners. And so I think that that's where, ⁓ like I said, some people within the last eight years bought a practice as a private practice.

the DSOs, they were profitable. were within the metrics that the DSO wanted. And it just made sense. was like, I'm going to get 10x EBITDA on this. My EBITDA is great. No private party is going to pay me what this DSO is going to pay me. And while yes, I'd love it to maintain a legacy practice, I'm in my 30s and I could basically have retirement today. mean, there's more risk selling out because they have a lot of it in their stocks and there's a whole ⁓ game around that.

I think that that's where maybe some of the younger generation might be looking at transitions sooner than I think the more senior population of dentistry is. think that they're starting to be the shift and that's where I'm very curious of like, maybe conversations need to be had sooner. Maybe because DSOs are aggressive on the emails to the dentist. Like it is wild and they are sexy offers to them that are not always true. And that creeps me out too, because they're hearing a number. Like I had a doctor and he had a DSO.

Fred Heppner (09:49)

Yep. Yep.

Kiera Dent (10:04)

come to him and they said, Hey, we're going to give you 5 million. And he's like, here, it seems like a great deal. And I said, yeah, but you're going to do 5 million next year just in your own production. So that's actually a bad deal because you're already going to make that without selling to them and having to work for them for the next five to 10 years or like three to five is usually what their requirement is. So again, I think that this is where it's like, how do we cut through that noise to know when I do transition? Because I think people are getting asked to transition from private practice.

sooner. You're right, they go work at the DSO, they go to some of those bigger corporate practices to get the experience, then they go buy their private practice, and then it really is, or they do a startup. And then it's pretty aggressive because I think Wall Street's pretty hot right now and private equity is very, very luring, but they do have to hit certain requirements to join DSOs.

Fred Heppner (10:53)

Yeah. There are tons of verticals that people are getting into, the private equity is getting into, you're right. There's a ton of money at it. You know, I would tell you that the devil is in the details. It may very well be that there are transitions that occur where a DSO or a corporation acquires the assets of a private practice and the dentist stays and works back in the office. And that transition works swimmingly well for the dentist who sells for the DSO.

Kiera Dent (11:02)

Mm-hmm.

Fred Heppner (11:21)

And ultimately everything works out fine. There are others that don't and they're, they're out there. And I think what you mentioned earlier is, you know, I could get 5 million from my practice. Well, why would you, you will be able to make that in, your earnings in 2.3 years, whatever it might be, whatever the math pencils that be. But if you think about it, if it, if 10 times EBITDA is their offering price, what are, what are the details? How much cash at closing?

Kiera Dent (11:38)

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Fred Heppner (11:49)

Is there a work back or a work back arrangement where you will be paid to be the dentist? And what is your compensation? What are the benefits that you would receive? And what is the term of that work back arrangement? You're right. It's creeping up now more into five years. 15, 20 years ago, was maybe, you know, stay on one or two years and we're good. There's a claw back. There's a hold back provision that holds back part of the purchase price. And the dentist has to meet the

Kiera Dent (12:04)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Fred Heppner (12:17)

has to meet certain metrics from the trailing 12 months to be able to get that back. Well, let's pretend. Let's pretend that the DSO comes in and sets up the practice and nothing changes and the business continues to grow and develop because there's more marketing promotion and advertising. There's better cost control. There's just better stuff going on and that works. Well, what if it doesn't? What if all of a sudden the company comes in and says, we're changing these policies?

You were Delta Dental Premier, we're jumping into PPOs because we've got really good reimbursement rates on these 12 PPO contracts. Well, if that reimbursement rate drops from fee for service, does that hinder the doctor to be able to generate the income necessary for that hold back to be acquired in the next two to three years? And then there's equity. You mentioned that they offer a stock in the company to be able to ultimately participate in a

Kiera Dent (13:09)

Mm-hmm.

Fred Heppner (13:15)

recapitalization should that happen? Well, it'd be really interesting. You're going to love this one. I know you're going to love this one. So for any of your listeners, any of your A-Team clients, if they get approached by a DSO and they look at it and they think it's really, really good, have somebody look at it. What you will hear typically is you really don't need an advisor. You don't need an attorney. We've got all the contracts ready to go. You can come.

Kiera Dent (13:35)

Mm-hmm.

Lies. Lies.

Fred Heppner (13:44)

Exactly. You can just take all of this and we'll be good. Well, trust but verify. And ultimately a good team would be able to review these. I would be glad to review. I review paperwork all the time from dentists that are looking to transition. And if there's an equity piece in that offer, I turn around and contact the DSO on behalf of the client. And I say, we'd like to see your financials.

Kiera Dent (14:08)

Absolutely.

Fred Heppner (14:11)

What do you mean? Well, you're asking my client to acquire stock in your company in lieu of cash at closing. yeah, that's part of the deal. I need to see your financials. I need to advise my client on whether or not you have a healthy company and whether or not my client's going to be at risk by taking stock in your company. Well, nobody's ever asked us that. Well, I am. And doesn't it make sense? We've just provided to you tax returns, profit and loss statements, but sing along if you know the words, balance sheets, W-2, production reports, everything on the business.

Kiera Dent (14:21)

Yeah.

things.

Mm-hmm.

Fred Heppner (14:39)

And yet you're not willing to provide the other. Just provide the other. Show us that your business is solvent. Show it that it is something that my client would like to receive in stock. So, mon bro.

Kiera Dent (14:50)

And there's strategy

for tax around that too. there are benefits to having stock rather than all the cash at closing for your total dollar amount when you want to retire, but only if that stock actually is valuable.

Fred Heppner (15:05)

Pays back. Correct. Good. And that

is so brilliant. You see, you're good looking, you're smart, and that's a rare combination today. So, so, but think about it. You just mentioned something that people really don't think. If, if I have a practice and they give me 1.5 million chopped up into the ways that we've mentioned, and I have $200,000 worth of equity in the company, what if that $200,000 is half of 1 %? Well, when they recapitalize, I get half of 1 % of what proceeds, right?

Kiera Dent (15:09)

Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

I love it. It's such a...

Fred Heppner (15:35)

So map it out. Yeah, map it out. mean, can

you sell your practice twice? sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Kiera Dent (15:43)

And there's so many sticky pieces around it. And that's where I feel like it's just a, think this is where people get leery to do it. However, I think like there are some, you said, that go really, really well, but agreed. And when I look at this people like Kiera, like I thought about that doctor and I was like, so sweet. You're going to five mil. That's your 10 X. You're going to produce 5 million. Your overhead right now is sitting at a 50 % overhead. So right now you're taking 2.5. Let's say you do get a $5 million check.

you give me 10 taxes, it's barely over your 2.5, which you're already going to get next year. So like, yes, next year, you still have to pay taxes because you're at a 50 % overhead. So you will still get a small amount more of cash to you. But there's a lot of strategy that goes into that 2.5, pending upon what you need when you invest that, like for every million, it's about like on average, if it's in the stock market, about 35,000 right now is like a very, very, very loose number to like estimate your financial future. But I'm like,

you throw 2.5 into the stock market right now, we'll high five, you're making about 100K a year. Like that's just to me, those are the things that I feel you need to be really smart about to make sure that your practices are assets and not liabilities and something that really will provide the retirement for the work you've put in rather than it just feeling good in the moment, but not really giving the life you want.

Fred Heppner (16:59)

You know, excellent point. And what you also said earlier, just in passing was, what dentists could buy my practice. can't sell to a private dentist. I've got to sell to a DSO. ⁓ surprise, surprise. That's a myth. There are dentists who would, I can tell you right now, if you could give me your client's number, I'll buy her practice. Well, yeah, well, I mean, that's gonna, that's gonna pencil. So the, the point that I would make is know that

Kiera Dent (17:12)

It is a myth.

Right? I know, me too. I'm like, actually, actually I would.

Fred Heppner (17:29)

Dentists that are out there who are looking to buy really profitable practices and can meet the production goals. So there's an important aspect there. Your client's doing two and a half million in profit, five million in productivity on her own. If a person coming in to buy that won't be able to quite meet those production numbers, they may hire the client back for a year or two. The bank may want them to make sure that there's some kind of arrangement where they have some help.

But if a bank is looking at a practice that has that kind of liquidity and profitability, they'll gladly loan the money to the dentist if other measures are there because they know it's going to be paid back. So I want to dispel the myth that big practices with large productivity and big profitability are excluded from private practitioners being able to buy them. It's not true. Is it? Yeah.

Kiera Dent (18:10)

Mm-hmm.

I agree. They get nervous because of the debt,

but I have somebody that I know that just bought into a $2.5 million is how much they had to bring to the table. Plus they have their student loan debt, plus they have their house debt and they were able to do it to buy into a practice. so I'm like, I think let's not assume that that's the only route. think figure out what you want and there is a buyer based on the outcome you want. I think Fred, I want to switch gears because I want to ask some questions about associates.

because I think we've kind of gone through like private practice. There's so many things like make sure you're taken care of, make sure you know where you're going. But now I want to switch gears because I think this is something I get asked all the time. And so selfishly again, welcome to curious therapy with Fred. I want to know all the pieces. This is my podcast that you get to be a part of. No, it's for all of you. ⁓ we get asked often, how do you set up a great associate buy-in? So like, how do I buy these people and how do I tether them in? I think one of the greatest, I would say

Fred Heppner (19:06)

I'm listening.

Kiera Dent (19:19)

stressors and like blind spots in practices and the thing that can really hurt a practice is when they have an associate that associate leaving. ⁓ And so they want to like golden handcuff these associates, but they want it to be good for both parties. What are some of those associate transitions to retain associates to get them in as partners? Is it a good idea? Is it not a good idea? And I think like we can wrap on this because I, I'm super curious of like what you recommend to help with that transition.

Fred Heppner (19:45)

The

capacity for the business volume has to be there. You've got to have, not only are you working, but there's this phantom practice out there that you can't get to as the provider. And you need somebody to be able to get to that. So bringing on an associate to get to that phantom practice immediately creates incremental income, which is, to the owner of the business, very liquid.

Kiera Dent (20:03)

Mm-hmm.

Fred Heppner (20:07)

The cost associated with treating extra people during the course of the day is the associate's compensation and variable cost supplies in lab. And if you're ⁓ providing can-to-can technology and your lab costs are very low, but you're producing crowns in a day, for example, and using that kind of technology, then the cost associated with treating every incremental patient and creating that revenue is very low.

we're suggesting that the team in place can handle the extra work. We don't have to hire an extra assistant or hire an extra administrative person. So given those things.

⁓ One of the best transition plans, in my opinion, is one that has time built into it. The associate has to develop some traction. They have to generate some productivity. They have to show that they can produce the numbers. But more importantly, the outcomes are good. The treatment outcomes are successful. The patients are adapting to them. The team connects with them. This is a good relationship. As an aside, really quick, when you mention relationship business in dentistry,

I think DSOs traditionally are a transactional business. They're really focusing on the transaction, right? Private practice focuses on the relationship. Not to say that corporate dentistry doesn't focus on relationships. They're focused more so on the transactions. I might get ridiculed for that statement, but that's what I see. And that's my opinion.

Kiera Dent (21:19)

I would agree.

Sure,

sure.

Fred Heppner (21:36)

So back to the associate, need the associate to develop some traction. And essentially that traction comes from being in the office, seeing patients, working with the team, and ultimately getting feedback along the way. And I think that's a one to two year cycle. Will you know as a practitioner and owner of the business within the first one or two months, if the associate is working two or three days a week or four days a week, will you know, do they get along with the patients? Do they get along with the team? Yes. Will you know about treatment outcomes?

Kiera Dent (21:40)

Mm-hmm.

Fred Heppner (22:05)

To some degree, yes. So early on, you'll know if this is cut bait, this is not going to work. Or yes, this person's fitting in great, primarily because they were vetted. So quick, quick retract back to how do you hire them? Go through a long process of vetting. Don't just take the first one that appears. Get to know them, make sure they're going to integrate well. I see a lot of associate plans.

work real well when the dentist knows the dentist owner knows the associate coming on board from some past experience. Great example is the dentist associate grew up in town, did an internship kind of in the office as a sterilization tech, kind of worked in the office, found out that dentistry was their passion, went to college for undergrad, went to dental school for dental degree and came back to the town to work for that dentist. Right. Okay, good. So somebody you know, ⁓

Kiera Dent (22:38)

Mm-hmm.

Totally.

Fred Heppner (23:00)

son of doctor, owner's best friend. So there's history there. You know, the quality of the individual. Okay. So once traction is developed during the part of that associate agreement, there's some discussion about ownership and building an understanding of how the practice works so that when time comes to be a partner and buy in, there's already some traction. There's already some traction so that if the person elects to buy the seller out,

in a couple years, then they can switch roles. But there has to be some traction. One of the things that's really perilous is thinking about jumping into a practice and being a partner right away. If you want to practice and you do two million a year, hygiene does 500, you do 1.5. I'm going to come in and I want to be a partner of yours today because I've heard how great your practice is. And you have the physical plant capacity, you have the patient capacity, and I can step right in.

If I pay you half of the value of your practice today to buy in, we can split up the medicine and supplies and drugs. can split up the equipment. We can split up the office equipment. ⁓ we can split up all the operatories, but how do we sort out the patients? Because come Monday morning, say we close tomorrow, Friday, come Monday morning, I need to have in my schedule, the ability to generate half of the revenue in the business so that I can pay myself and I can pay.

to having bought in. that make sense? And that doesn't really happen easily when somebody just freshly wants to buy in as a partner. So fast forwarding to partnerships, which I hope we get a chance to talk a little bit about today, that associate has to be in that process, in that business for a period of time. And that traction needs to get up so that they've got productivity under their belt. And again, going back to what we talked about about banks,

Kiera Dent (24:32)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

I agree.

Fred Heppner (24:59)

they wanna see that that productivity is there, that they'll be able to generate it because they wanna make sure that they get the loan paid for. And a really good associate agreement has, in my opinion, good restrictive covenants, not to compete, not to solicit patients or staff. ⁓ In some states, that's not allowed. The FTC voted that associate agreements or employment agreements should not have restrictive covenants, but there's no legislation yet that has actually mandated that.

Kiera Dent (25:05)

Totally.

Fred Heppner (25:26)

So keep in mind that it's probably not appropriate to think that you'll be able to limit somebody's ability to work. Now for them to essentially buy your practice, for example, and you as a, agreement have a restrictive covenant that you will agree to that's different because somebody paid you good and valuable consideration money for you not to compete against them because they bought your business in an employment agreement. It's a little different.

Kiera Dent (25:49)

Mm-hmm.

Great.

Fred Heppner (25:56)

So if a dentist comes and works for another dentist who owns the business, and after a couple of months, it's just not gonna work out, they're not gonna have enough connection with the patient base to solicit patients or solicit staff or the team. They won't. So would it matter if there was a restrictive covenant in that initial agreement? Probably not.

because after a couple months, if they've alienated patients and alienated staff and they're not very good at dentistry, you want them out of there anyway, forget about the restrictive covenant, they could go work for somebody else close by. It's probably the same thing that'll happen.

Kiera Dent (26:36)

I think it's really wise because I think so many offices hire an associate, but they're so scared to move them along in two months. I think that was wise advice you listed. It is so much easier to move them on in two months than it is to keep them for six months, eight months, 10 months, and then realize their dentistry or their team connection or their patient connections not there. so ⁓ it's, it's be very intentional within those first 90 days and make sure that this will be a long-term fit. ⁓ You can see it in two months.

Fred Heppner (27:01)

So how does this,

you can, I'm sure you can. How does this sound? For the first six months of an associate agreement, maybe you don't have quite a good background, deep background about that individual, but you feel that they would be good in the practice. They come recommended by their instructors at university, at dental school. was highly, someone was highly recommended. How about a single page,

six month agreement that says you come to work for me, I will pay you this. And if you want to go, you can go. If I feel you need to go, I'm going to release you. It's an at will agreement, no restrictive covenants, nothing in it that locks anybody down. Because again, what I mentioned earlier is how much traction can you generate really in one or two, three, four months, because you'll know after four or five months that this is somebody really want to lock in at six months, develop a really strong, well-written attorney reviewed.

employment agreement that has restrictive covenants that has specific on how to redo cases in case they need to be done at the end of the employment agreement. Right. What do you think? I mean, does that give that give the opportunity?

Kiera Dent (28:08)

Sure.

I think,

I mean, I like it. think that the devil's advocate in me would say, I'm not sure that the ⁓

millennial Gen Z generation coming through would say yes to six months. I think that they're looking for more security. They're looking for more guarantees. They come in with a lot more debt and a lot more risk that I am really curious. As a business, I think it's freaking brilliant. As on the other side, I'm curious, would you be able to get candidates that would want to come or is it too risky of an offer?

Fred Heppner (28:43)

You mean,

yeah, do you mean the associate dentist coming on board is thinking more about themselves rather than the practice?

Kiera Dent (28:52)

I think with the associate offers that are given currently, ⁓ I think agreed. It does show that they're thinking about it, but I also feel for a practice making sure that they're competitive with offers. I don't love having to be ⁓ like with hygienists. I don't want to have to go chase them, but you have to at least be competitive with other people in the market. So I think I agree with you. I just feel for practices making sure that maybe

Fred Heppner (29:05)

⁓

I understand what you're saying.

Kiera Dent (29:19)

you are so competitive with other people and offer. So you do get the candidates, but you can have some of these ideas within like that I think would make you even maybe more attractive. So maybe it's a year that we're offering, but like, Hey, in the first six months, there's no restriction. There's no nothing. We add that in in six months. So that way you are competitive with other people. Cause I think associates, they need that security and I'm watching more and more come through. I mean, they're walking out with one mil plus 2 million in debt. Like, so I think that

I think to be competitive with others, might need to be a possibly. This is my hallucination that could possibly just make sure you're competitive.

Fred Heppner (29:53)

Well, well, no, you're

so you're right on you're in a you're in another section of what the employment agreement might look like called compensation and benefits. I'm looking at just the period of time that you would be that a dentist would be employed in the practice to determine if it's a right fit for them and if it's a right fit for the practice and if it's a right fit for the patients and the team. Compensation can say exactly what you were saying. Now,

Kiera Dent (30:16)

Right.

Fred Heppner (30:22)

Unfortunately, it isn't the responsibility of the practice to provide for somebody who is unproven in their debt or to satisfy their lifestyle requirements. Yes, they're competing with other organizations that are offering salary, health insurance, vision, life insurance policies, all of those benefits that come along with big corporations. However,

It's a private practice. And the sooner I think that dentists who are coming on as associates know the intricacies and the difficulties of running a business and also the rewards that come with it, they would understand better how those arrangements are made. And I've seen compensation programs set up where it's the greater of over two weeks, a compensation per day or a percentage of a certain amount over a certain amount of productivity. So you can meet those requirements. can kind of meet.

Kiera Dent (31:15)

Mm-hmm.

Fred Heppner (31:16)

Kind of need halfway in between.

Kiera Dent (31:18)

Yeah, and I think that that's where I was saying of I feel like making sure that you're meeting in the middle. I love the idea of being able to protect like, you're right, like not being stuck in this with someone who's not working out and getting stuck, I think is actually something that happens all the time with associates. ⁓ And so I think like, Fred, it was such a fun like,

chat about us. I agree, we need to chat more partnerships because now it's like, okay, we've got these associates, we've got some ideas on it. We've heard about figuring out where we want to go and how we're going to be able to get there and needing to think about our future life and how when we need to transition, you said the three to five years, I think looking for like, what do need to do to be able to buy a practice? If I want to buy a practice, what do need to get? Then we talked about like the DSO offers coming for private practices, and how to assess that through Fred.

And then we moved into associates. So Fred, like that was such a like smorgasbord of topics, which I love. And I think definitely reconnecting because I think there's the next step is like, how do we bring in these associates for partners if we want them? How can we build a legacy practice? That's not necessarily just the DSO. So I'd love to get you back on the podcast and chat partnerships and like alternative transitions beyond, but gosh, Fred, such a fun podcast today.

Fred Heppner (32:10)

It was fun.

I am

happy to do it anytime. I appreciate what you do for dentistry. So I'll absolutely support you and be glad to do it.

Kiera Dent (32:36)

Thank you. Well, Fred, as we wrap up today, were there any last thoughts you had to give to the listeners? And of course, ArizonaTransitions.com, ArizonaTransitions.gmail. If you're looking to transition or associates or what do I do or hey, Fred, I just need help. But any last thoughts you have as we wrap up today?

Fred Heppner (32:52)

Yeah, I think

I tell you a funny quip that I think resonates with most people that I talk to. Dentists are excellent at curing dental disease, at diagnosing conditions and recommending treatments and working with patients to get them well. And, ⁓ coming into an event like purchasing a practice or selling a practice where they've never done it before. They don't have the experience or the education.

going in to understand what to do. I would encourage them to get advice and guidance from a great team. ⁓ I have a deal with my dentist. Mike Smith is brilliant. He has a practice called the biting edge here in Phoenix and he's brilliant. And he and I have an agreement. I don't do my own dentistry.

And he doesn't do his own practice transition stuff or practice management stuff. He relies on me to do that because they're in the middle. meet. So I want him to cure my dental conditions and make sure I'm in the optimum dental health that I could be. And I'm to make sure that I provide the services to him so that if he's looking to acquire a practice or merge an office into his, or figure out how the next plan would be for his practice growth or his transition, that he's going to sit down with me because he understands that that's my expertise and he.

he benefits from.

Kiera Dent (34:15)

Yeah, I love that. That's such a good way to look at it. Let's sit in our lanes. Let's do what we're really good at and not try to be a one-stop shop. I think that that's brilliant, Fred. And I feel like for all those looking for the transitions for what do we do? How can I do it? Reach out, Fred. I think you're a wealth of knowledge. You've been in it for a long time and just truly so grateful to have you on the podcast today.

Fred Heppner (34:36)

It's my pleasure. Absolutely. Have a great day. Talk to you soon. Bye here.

Kiera Dent (34:39)

Awesome. Thank you. And thank you,

Fred. Thank you, all of you. And for all of you listening, thanks for listening. And I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

View Details

Kiera is joined by Fred Heppner of Arizona Transitions to talk through dental practice transitions. Their conversation includes when you should start thinking about your transition, what the economic outcomes will be any way you go, what a private indemnity group is (and how it can help), and more.

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Transcript

Kiera Dent (00:01)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I am so excited to welcome an incredible guest to our podcast, Fred Heppner. He's with Arizona Transitions. And honestly, I feel like right now in today's world, dentists need more than ever guidance and direction of like, what do we do? How do I transition my practice? What am I looking at for retirement? Do I go the DSO route? Do I do the legacy practice route? I just feel like there's so much confusion. And so trying to cut through that noise,

Fred is incredible. We met him and I just said, you know what? He's incredible. And so he said for him, it's whether a person is buying a dental practice or putting a dental practice up for sale, Fred truly can help you successfully navigate through that transition. He deals with complete transitions of dental offices and also practices securing a partner or an associate, which that is such a hard thing. Like, how do we do this? There's a million ways to slice and dice that pie because he's worked with so many different aspects of the dental industry. His experience allows him

to ensure that all parties are satisfied with the transition. So I'm super jazzed. Fred, welcome to the show today. How are you?

Fred Heppner (01:02)

I'm

doing great. Thank you, Kiera. I gotta meet this guy. Who is this guy, Fred?

Kiera Dent (01:06)

Well,

here he is, if I'm not mistaken. But truly, I'm so honored to have you on the podcast. When our team met you, they were like, Kiera, he's got to get on the podcast. And so just truly excited because like I said, this is a zone that I get excited to geek out on because we deal with it in consulting all the time. Our clients are constantly asking us like, what should we do? They want to bring on partners, they want to bring on associates, they want a retention model. ⁓ They want to know like,

I feel like your dental practice can be your greatest asset or your greatest burden, depending upon how you set it up. And so really being able to just dive in with you. And like I said, I think there's so much noise right now. The dentists are like, it's almost like ostrich in the sand. Like, I just don't want to even think about it. I'm going to put my head in the sand. I'm not going to pay attention. But the reality is like, let's educate, let's learn. Let's bring experts in like yourself. So that way dentists can feel more confident making the decision. I don't think it has to be scary. I don't think it's be daunting. We just need to be educated and.

Fred Heppner (01:41)

Yeah, I agree.

No.

Kiera Dent (02:05)

and hear wisdom and then do what feels right. So Fred, that was my intro, but anything else you want to add of how you got here or, mean, I'm just excited to riff with you today.

Fred Heppner (02:14)

I appreciate the opportunity and I can tell you even from what you just said back in, back in 1983, when I started in the business of dentistry, the interesting thing was I didn't hear very often, Hey, what's your transition plan? Because oftentimes dentists were really just going to build a practice and then that was going to be their retirement and they would sell their practice and retire. Financial planners were, were non-existent to a large degree. And it was early on that I heard somebody and it really resonated with me.

They asked a young dentist who had just taken ownership or started a practice, when are you going to hang up your hand piece? And the dentist kind of, I just got started. What do mean? When am going to hang it up? I got, you know, I got 20, 30 years here. No, no, no. The moment you take ownership of a business, you want to consider what your transition plan out would be early on so that it doesn't spring it on.

Kiera Dent (02:51)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Fred Heppner (03:09)

We may

talk here later on about, what happens if you're not there? What happens if there's an injury or disability or illness and you can't practice dentistry? Now what? And let's consider talking about that maybe later on. So early in the game, it's appropriate to have some kind of idea of some kind of transition plan. Transition plan doesn't mean I have to value my business. I have to procure a buyer act to make sure that financially qualified. I have to get a contract. I have to get a lease. That's not a transition plan. In simple, think.

Kiera Dent (03:21)

Yeah.

Fred Heppner (03:38)

The transition plan is what do you want to do when you sell your practice, when you move on from dentistry? And you know, as well as I do, you have clients who have been in dentistry and practice for 25, 30, 35, 40 years. And if they stopped doing something that they've been doing for three decades, what are they going to do with their time? And that's, that's really high on the scale of importance in a transition plan, because ultimately they're going to sit back and say,

Kiera Dent (03:53)

Mm hmm. Yeah.

Fred Heppner (04:08)

I don't know that I want to be home. I don't know that my spouse wants me to be home all day. And you have to think about these things. So it's much more than I have a practice to sell. I've got a purchase price. I have to figure out how I'm going to sell everything and my staff and my patients and so on. It's more than that. So I think in the initial phases of somebody considering what's my transition plan that can pull their head out of the sand and look at a spot and say, what do I really want to do if I

Kiera Dent (04:12)

Totally.

Fred Heppner (04:37)

If I don't do this, what will I do? And then feels a whole bunch of other questions into the play. Number one, how much am I going to make from selling my practice? What are the economic outcomes? How much in proceeds will I have after all the fees associated with selling the business and the taxes associated with paying for the proceeds? Now, what have I got left? What is that? What does that number look like? Well, I have no idea. Well, I need to find out. That's why I have a business.

Kiera Dent (05:05)

Mm-hmm.

Gosh, Fred, I am so grateful you brought this up because honestly, feel like so I don't know my financial advisor teases me all the time. He's incredible. And he's like, Kiera, you are the person that has every exit strategy. You're like, all right, so what's going to happen if this happens or what happens? And I love to play this game with my husband. I'm like, okay, so if there was a fire in our house in this location, how are we going to get out? Or if we had this, because I feel like when you have almost that North star, especially in your life of

Okay, this is how much I want when I wanna retire. This is when I wanna retire. This is like you said, if I want to, what am I gonna do when this doesn't, like when I'm no longer doing dentistry? Because you're right, I actually, ⁓ working at Midwestern ⁓ University in Arizona, I know a lot of dental students and I know a lot of dentists now. And ⁓ I've been gone from Midwestern for about now, about nine years. And ⁓ in those nine years, which does not seem that long, it's not even been a decade, ⁓

Fred Heppner (05:50)

Mm-hmm.

Kiera Dent (06:05)

There have been students who have gotten a disability. There have been students who have gotten cancer and can no longer practice dentistry. There are students that have already sold to DSOs. And I'm like, their life looks so different. The student I'm thinking about who ended up getting pretty sick and had to leave, thank goodness he had his ⁓ insurance on him, his disability insurance. But like when I met him,

there was no way that we ever would have thought like four or five years into practice. I went and saw him in his practice and now like he's not doing dentistry anymore. And so I think Fred, it's one of those things where I help him pray every dentist who's listening gets to work until they're 80, 90, however long they want to go that they get to practice their craft. but I think what you're talking about of let's think of what would I do if I couldn't do this anymore, whether by choice or whether by life, ⁓ and then be able to make decisions because I feel like

When you stair step it back, you're able to actually navigate today way more confidently than if you don't have a plan. And I think that gives you more security than anything else. ⁓

Fred Heppner (07:08)

Amen. And if your practice

is stable, strong, producing a good profit and you are able to not only retire debt, but start to put away for your own retirement, you are much more in a direction of control also. So retirement may not be a year or a number. It sometimes is an event because injury, disability, illness, sudden death have no discrimination. It can happen to anybody.

And if there isn't a plan in place for that, which I would recommend dentists look into, ⁓ if they don't have them in their community, forming private indemnity groups, disability coverage groups, where if a group of 16, 17 dentists that per oculi are in the same community and know each other and respect each other would agree that if anything were to happen, the group would get activated and it would cover the practice a day at a time on rotation for all the membership.

until the practitioner returns from the injury or disability or the practice is sold because the dentist is incapacitated and can't come back. As a side note, I want to mention to you that I do this for six different groups here in the Valley in Phoenix where I live. And there are anywhere from about 12 to 22 dentists in each of those groups.

So if you're listeners or if anybody in the A team wants to know more about forming groups, I'm happy to pay it forward, provide it for you. It's important. It's really something that dentists, we're invincible. Nothing's going to happen to us, especially when they're 30 years old and they just graduated from Midwestern and they bought their first practice and they're fired up. And it's like, they are looking at nothing other than growth, development, coaching. They're not even thinking if something were to happen to them. So.

Kiera Dent (08:38)

Mm-hmm.

hope. Right?

Mm-hmm.

Fred Heppner (08:57)

Just as an aside,

let's you and I make sure that we talk more. And for any dentists who want to develop those kinds of groups, it is invaluable. And there are tons of stories that I could impart to you and impart to anybody who's willing to listen about dentists that have a mishap. ⁓ Jim Jorgensen here in Phoenix ⁓ owns Squaw Peak Dental for years. He was in Vegas with his wife, Terry, midnight. They were up in the hotel room and he flatlined. He had a massive heart attack.

Kiera Dent (09:15)

Mm-hmm. Yep. Mm-hmm.

Fred Heppner (09:28)

She kept him going until the paramedics arrived. He survived. We activated the group. We covered his practice for three months. He came back, continued to practice. A year later, he sold it. So he couldn't have done that. He would have lost that asset and lost the value that that asset has on the open market if that group hadn't been in place. So.

Kiera Dent (09:39)

incredible.

Thank

I will. love that. And thank you for sharing that. And that's something I didn't even know existed. And I, I don't, I'm just very pro. Like, I remember when I was filling out our trust and I had to write my will and I was not very old, still like in my thirties, it was really weird. And it made me feel icky. And when you said the phrase earlier of like death, disability, illness, that has no discrimination. It hit me in my core of you're right. Like we do feel like we're invincible, but the reality is those three are hanging

out at any moment and we have no idea when they're going to strike us or our family or someone that we know. As icky as that is. And so I feel like it's like, let's just get, let's get prepared. Like when I had to figure out what's going to happen to me, if I ever am incapacitated and I called my brother, who's my power of attorney. I said, okay, this is what I want. Are you willing to do it? But now I don't like if it happens great. Like he knows, I know there's a plan in place and as much as I would hate for it to happen, there is a plan that's like, and I feel

Gosh, maybe I'm just a selfish egotistical human over here. It does give me a lot of empowerment to know that I know if something were to happen to me, things are good. And I will also say my whole team hates it, but I have an entire death plan of if Kiera Dent dies, I haven't made it so sweet that they want to kill me off. So like, that's my, that's my caveat. Like, let's not make it that good. But there's an entire plan because I realized...

If I don't have this plan in place, if things aren't able to be transferred quickly to people that I trust and that people need to execute on, this company would die and we would not be able to serve all the people that we have. And so as, as weird and as eerie as it is, I feel like Fred, there's so much empowerment that can happen because it's no longer scary. Just like getting an operations manual, just like getting all your systems in your practice in case someone leaves. I feel like it's the same thing for your business in your life. So Fred, like that's a great tip. And I think people should reach out and definitely connect with you.

Fred Heppner (11:42)

maybe

for another future podcast. Coming to an A-Team podcast near you,

Kiera Dent (11:44)

Like,

I mean, hey, I'm here for it.

Fred Heppner (11:50)

I don't know.

It's really important. People take it for granted. And it's interesting because the people that are in the groups that I have and sponsor just sitting back and say to themselves, why wouldn't anybody not be involved in this type of group? So good for future.

Kiera Dent (12:05)

That's helpful. Okay. All right. And Fred, just like, mean,

we'll, share it at the end too, but if people are interested, how do they connect with you? We'll just put it in the middle too. So people have the info and then of course we're going to continue on.

Fred Heppner (12:16)

ArizonaTransitions.com is my website. ArizonaTransitions@gmail.com is my email. Best way to reach you.

Kiera Dent (12:23)

And I'm sure people are

questioning, you work only in Arizona or do you work outside of Arizona just to clear that up for our listeners? Okay.

Fred Heppner (12:29)

Good. Time for a little backstory. So

back in 1983, when I started in dentistry, I was a, I was a business coach, similar to how you operate and develop business systems and coaching and training for dentists and their teams to grow and essentially develop profitable and enjoyable practices. I did that for about 20 years. And then about 22 years ago, I really saw a void in Phoenix where I live. moved here in 1995.

of the transition space. just didn't see dental practice transitions being done with integrity, in my opinion. They could have been, but I saw some of the aftermath because dentists would call me and say, hey, I just bought this practice. Can you help me? It's a mess. So I would go in and assist them. Well, slowly but surely, I saw an opportunity to be able to jump into the transitions realm. So I jumped deep into ⁓ classroom study and book work on how to do business evaluations correctly.

Kiera Dent (13:04)

Mm-hmm.

Fred Heppner (13:26)

the International Society of Business Analysts was my education forum. ⁓ Casey Conrad, who is brilliant, he taught me how to do business valuations correctly. And by the way, he writes the curriculum for the organizations that provide accreditation to people who want to be a business analyst. So I'm learning from the guy who teaches everybody. And then I started studying large contract negotiations.

Kiera Dent (13:45)

Mm-hmm. Amazing.

Fred Heppner (13:52)

As I developed that understanding and saw that there were things that I could contribute to, I jumped into that realm and became more of ⁓ a transition specialist here in the greater Phoenix area. Well, along the way, I came upon a group called American Dental Sales, which is a large cooperative of 40 dental practice transition specialists, 23 different companies. They cover all 50 states and they had a void in Arizona that they needed to fill. So they approached me and said, we'd like you to come on board.

⁓ I then met a guy named Hi Smith, who really was one of the preeminent dental practice brokers in the country. ⁓ He was in Naples, Florida. He had a place in Oregon, so he kind of commuted periodically. But Hi was very, very well regarded and still is. He's retired now. Hi was the transition specialist for the Pride Institute, a very well regarded practice management company out of California. And for 35 years.

Kiera Dent (14:44)

Mm-hmm.

Fred Heppner (14:50)

They referred all the business nationwide to High to develop any kind of transition plan or valuation or partnership or associate ship or practice sale. Well, he was a member of ADS and he actually, I want to say he took me under his wing to some degree because we just became very good friends and he became a really significant mentor of mine.

I fell ill and said, I'm not gonna be able to do this any longer, so you're gonna take over my book of business. and by the way, you're also gonna start doing seminars for the Pride Institute. And I'm gonna introduce you to the people over there so that when they need help, like I've been giving them for the last 30 years, you'll take over. So as a result, we were doing seminars all around the country. So four to five times a year, we'd be in Denver, Boston, Seattle, Orlando, Dallas, Chicago, Philadelphia, you name it.

Kiera Dent (15:30)

Mm-hmm.

Fred Heppner (15:43)

So people that would come to those meetings were Pride disciples, clients, and they would ask me to help them with their transition. So that became more of a establishing services for dentists that are outside of Arizona, not necessarily creating a footprint in each of those territories. The Pride Institute was purchased by Spear Practice Solutions about 10 or 12 years ago.

Kiera Dent (16:08)

Mm-hmm.

Fred Heppner (16:09)

So I got dragged kicking and screaming over to Spear and developed a really good relationship with the track practice growth partners at Spear and also Amy Morgan, who was the CEO at Pride out still with Spear. So that's the backstory to tell you that I've done transitions in 26 different States. And it's very easy for me to help provide consultation and guidance for transitions really anywhere.

Kiera Dent (16:12)

Thank

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Awesome.

Fred Heppner (16:39)

Florida, as an example, Florida requires a person to be a commercial real estate broker to broker business assets. So I have colleagues in Florida that I refer to. And with my affiliation with ADS, I have boots on the ground in pretty much every territory that if I don't think I can provide value to the client, I simply connect it with the people in my group and everything gets worked right.

Kiera Dent (17:04)

That's awesome.

That's amazing. And it's such a fun story.

mean, I think our our paths have crossed on probably several levels. One of my business coaches is former pride. And as soon as you said that, I was like, Oh, my gosh, I bet we both know Liz. I'm sure we and all the different pieces. But I love that because I figured Arizona transitions might some of the listeners might feel like you can't help them and assist them. So I really wanted to clear that up that it's all across the nation in different areas. So all right, Fred, let's dive into like walk us through I know you've got some

Fred Heppner (17:11)

Yeah, chances are.

yeah, ⁓ yeah, absolutely.

Kiera Dent (17:36)

points.

I know you've got some things of like, what is the transition plan? Like how do doctors get to that level? What do they need to do if they're transitioning? Now again, this doesn't mean you're selling. Right now, I think there's a lot of options to sell, but also like prepping in case life, one of those three mysterious, hopefully never coming to you, like orbs is how feel. I feel like they're like floating around and hopefully they never strike. But what do we do? What are kind of the steps? What are some of the things you have for that?

Fred Heppner (17:56)

Yeah, yeah.

Well,

I think the first step in any kind of relationship that I build with a client, it would be a true consultation. And in that sense, it's tell me what your ideal retirement plan or transition plan would look like. You've worked your practice for a number of years. At some point in time, you're going to decide that you will retire from the practice of dentistry. What do you want to do? What does that look like?

What would you be involved with? I'll give you a quick example. Jerry Cox, who's a dentist in Old Scottsdale here in Phoenix, called me and said, I'd like you to help me sell my practice. And I said, I'd be honored, thank you. So I went and saw him and we put together the plan and I asked him the question, what do you want to do? What do you want to do after you retire from practice? says, well, I like to do sculpture. And I said, really, Fred?

Kiera Dent (18:56)

you

Fred Heppner (18:57)

What have you done? kind of work have you done? He says, well, let me show you. He showed me pictures of the statue of Heather Farr. Heather Farr was an amateur golfer 25, 30 years ago or so, who played at ASU, who was an enormous success, played on the LPGA tour, and ultimately ⁓ developed breast cancer and died. Heather's statue ⁓ was sitting at Karsten Golf Course down near ASU, which they've now plowed.

Kiera Dent (19:20)

Wow.

Fred Heppner (19:27)

and also at Greyhawk Golf Club. And Jerry sculpted that statue. And I got goosebumps right now. Anyway, so as an example, Jerry has a studio at his house. He said, as soon as I sell, I'm doing that. So the point is in the transition planning phase, know what you want to do. Know what you will occupy your time. If it's turn.

Kiera Dent (19:33)

Wow. Yeah.

So Fred, I'm gonna just like ask questions right here because, and

I'm gonna talk for myself. So guys, like this is my own therapy session. So thank you for being a part and a fly on the wall. Like sometimes we don't know. ⁓ So like I feel I'm very much, I know I wanna retire. I know I want more free time, ⁓ but I literally sit here and this, it's like, know how you think about like how time truly never ends. And if you think about like too hard, it actually creeps you out. Like that's kinda how I feel about like retiring of like,

Well, I know I don't want to keep working this hard. Like I don't want to be putting in as many hours, but I still love the impact. I still love the legacy, but I don't quite know what that looks like. And I feel like a lot of times people in their thirties, in their twenties, in their forties, I think as you get later on in life, you probably have more of that clear picture. But what about for those that are very fresh, like that truly maybe some people do, maybe I'm, maybe I'm the only one on my own planet. I don't think I am, but like, what do you do if you don't know what you want to do?

Fred Heppner (20:46)

You're not alone. So good. part of the time, what did Chelsea, what did Kelsey Grammer say? I'm listening. So the, the, the idea is that there are portions of people that don't know. There are some that are very clear on what they want to do and there's some that are kind of, well, I'm not sure. My, my recommendation would be, think about it. Then don't answer right now, but think about it because I want you to know what you will be doing when.

Kiera Dent (20:48)

Thank you. Thanks for my therapy today, Fred. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Hahaha ⁓

Fred Heppner (21:16)

you stop doing this and it may change over time. It may kind of morph into, my God, I didn't know that I really enjoyed painting. Okay. Then, then that's maybe what you might do because as you retire from the proceeds of your sale of your business, you'll, you'll build out a studio in your home or in the Casita or wherever it is. So it, it's okay that you may not know. It's okay that a person may not know what they want to do, but it's important to start thinking about it.

Kiera Dent (21:26)

Mm-hmm.

Fred Heppner (21:47)

And then we can kind of move into the rest of the, ⁓ the rest of the questions, which I would say, is it a year that you'd like to finish working? Some dentists may want to finish when they're 55. Some may want to work until they're 65. Some may want to finish working when they're 50 or it might be a number. My investment portfolio has to be at $10 million liquid, not including asset hard assets like home.

vacation home, cars, anything like that, boats, whatever, ⁓ but that the liquid assets have a certain number because then I know through my financial planner, because he did a wealth timeline, another side note, right, Kiera? ⁓ He said that if you keep doing what you're doing and you retire at this age and you pull in social security and you have this mandatory required distributions from your portfolio,

Kiera Dent (22:16)

Mm-hmm.

Right? Exactly.

Fred Heppner (22:41)

you'll be able to have this much money when you're 99. So, and that's just a mathematical spreadsheet that most good financial planners have. And I highly recommend it for anybody who's in business, who's developing a portfolio for retirement. So it may not be, I don't know yet. Okay, good. Well think about it and know that I may circle back during our relationship and ask you, have you given much thought? Do know what you're going to do?

Kiera Dent (22:45)

Mm-hmm.

Fred Heppner (23:09)

Early on, is it important? Not as much as when it's a three to five year window. When it's a three to five year window from retirement, then we want to talk more significantly about it. Because that will be a good...

Kiera Dent (23:23)

got it because that's what I was curious I was like should people be talking

when they're in their 20s 30s or is it something we're like start to think about it I know Ryan and I from Dentist advisors we we talk shop about this quite often of like there I mean there are studies that show that when you retire you actually start to atrophy in life and ⁓ there isn't as much of a purpose and so we talk often of like how can we continue that

mental stamina, the things that are going to fulfill us, whether it's working or something else of philanthropy, like whatever is going to keep you going as a human, whether you're working in the chair or you're not, I think is important. So that's I was curious of like, really probably connecting with you three to five years before we think we might retire, but with the caveat of, hey, if something were to happen to me, what would kind of be my exit strategy? your like death list like I do, like if I die, this is what's going to happen. It's creepy, but it's awesome.

Fred Heppner (24:15)

No, it's, it's creepy and it is awesome. And at the same time, it's a really good conversation to have because if we're three to five years out, then one of the first things to do is say, okay, so what's going to happen if you're not here? And that carries on to the discussion we had earlier.

Kiera Dent (24:28)

Mm-hmm.

The Dental A Team (24:31)

Awesome. Thank you. And thank you, Fred. Thank you, all of you. And for all of you listening, thanks for listening. And I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

View Details

Tiff and Kristy talk about how to reach an ideal state: three-day work weeks and clearing that seven-figure mark. Their advice includes block scheduling, mining your patient base, aligning your team, and more.

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Transcript

Tiffanie (00:01)

Hello Dental A team. I am back here today with Kristy. I am so excited to be here, Kristy. And for those of you who maybe this is your first podcast with us, my name is Tiffanie and I am a dental consultant here with the Dental A Team. And as Kara said, we're taking over the podcast. So I've got Kristy, one of our other amazing and just beautifully minded and just sweetest ever.

consultants. Kristy, you are just one of the most amazing human beings I've ever met and I'm just so excited to have you here on the podcast with us as well as on our team. So happy Friday. It's Friday here for us and we are we've got a couple podcasts we're going through today, Kristy. I'm really excited for this one. But before we get started, how are you today?

Kristy (00:47)

doing wonderful. The weather's great and I'm here with you. It's equally ⁓ mutual feelings to be here with you and podcast for our people. So love it.

Tiffanie (00:59)

Amazing. Thank you. I'm glad you're having good weather. It's hot here. So be prepared for that. I know you're coming to Arizona soon. So it's very hot here right now and it should cool down a little bit next week while you're here though. So you should be fine. Maybe bring some of that nice weather with you. So today you guys, really want to chat. There's a few things I want to chat about and today on this podcast, I wanted to chat through

really making your life whatever it is that you want that to look like. And a lot of the doctors that we work with want to obviously cut down clinical hours. I think that's something that's on everyone's radar is really being able to.

Work the days of the week that you want to in the practice and then investing that additional time back into your family and into your personal life, your friends, all of those spaces that you would normally spend that time, whatever that looks like for you. And Kristy, we've talked about this a lot and I actually, have one plan I can think of off the top of my head right now that we have worked really hard to get his schedule and his intentionalities exactly what we're talking about today. And what he does so that everybody can hear is he works about three and a half

days per week and definitely definitely clears over seven figures and so what I wanted to talk about today is really how do we get to that three day per week clinical time and that seven figure mark that you know we're dentists here like you guys should be you guys should be making that if that's what you want to make you should be making that and how do we make that happen as a reality and when I first started working with this practice years and years ago he was like gosh I think you know Tiff

long-term, like within five years, this is what I want to be making, but I think I'm gonna have to add a fourth day a week. I'm gonna have to work Monday through Thursday. And I was like, well, maybe, but I mean, do you want to work Monday through Thursday? And at the time he said, I maybe by the time I get there, I do right now, I don't. Great, well, if you change your mind, then we can add it, but let's build this without that fourth day.

And he along the way decided, you know what, actually want to do two Thursdays a month because it fits, it just fits with his lifestyle, fits with what he wanted to do. So it turned into, you know, average of three and a half days per week. But he stuck to the idea of creating his practice to look like what he wanted it to look like. And I remember Kristy early on and still to this day sometimes that happens, but I remember early on him really acknowledging the fact

that this was what he wanted for himself, for his family. This is what he, you know, was active in his community and within his church. And he wanted this to be a reality for him. His opposing side, what was happening there, was that he was on a lot of dental forums with a lot of classmates and people he'd met at CE courses or wherever along the way. And he was really, really getting wrapped up in the numbers of it all and what...

what they're doing and having a bigger practice and adding operatories and adding an associate and five hygienists and he was thinking, gosh, to get where I want to go, all of these doctors feel like they've made it, you know, and do I then is that what I need to do to make it? And I think all of us do this, whatever position we hold, think even as like a mom, right? It's like just that compares the night as we look at other people.

other moms and we're like, how come I don't do that or should I be doing that or etc. And it's got to be so hard to live that way. Right. And really, really, what we had to do was we had to take a step back and think about what is the most important thing for you right now? What do you want your life to look like again? Right. And what does that mean in your life if you're posting?

And we had to create all of those spaces from a feeling standpoint and then implement them. So my story, that practice, know, it just pops into my head. He's the one that pops in my head when I think three days, seven figures. And he's just come such a long way and it's had its trials and its tribulations, but I really wanted to take a step back and look at what did we do? How did we create that for our clients?

and how do we help someone to get to that point? And Kristy, I know you've worked with a lot of practices as well, and you've helped dentists do the same thing. So I wanted to take them through some of those processes today and the build out of those goals with the intentionality behind it. Kristy, I know you...

work with a ton of practices and I know you've done this a million times and if I were to come to you and say, gosh, I have this dentist who wants to work three days a week, this is the amount of money that he or she wants to make, take home, the profit. What would be the first space you would, you would coach on? Where would you say, let's start here?

Kristy (06:04)

Yeah, I love that you're speaking that because again, we can make those goals. We just got to clearly define them. And to your point, I would definitely start with scheduling it, right? If that's what we need to make, let's reverse engineer it and block schedules so that we ensure that's happening. The other part that I would add in there is it's kind of funny that you're saying like three and a half days a week because ⁓

What we tend to see is when we do add those block schedule and doctors hit that three, three and a half days a week, they tend to be more profitable during the time that they're there rather than working five days a week. So yeah, most definitely I would start with number one, looking at that goal and then reverse engineering it into the schedule using their scheduling blocks.

Tiffanie (06:55)

For sure. I love what you said

there because it makes me think of, always tell my son like, gosh, you would take and I would too, right? If I gave you an hour in the morning to get ready, you would take the hour and be rushed.

But if I give you 30 minutes in the morning to get ready, you're gonna be ready at 28 minutes. Like you're gonna get it all in, you're still gonna get it done, you're just always gonna utilize the amount of time that you have. So what you said there is I do agree, I do see a lot of doctors that will work.

less clinical than other doctors and their intentionality behind getting the production in there, especially when there's a really good why behind it is so high that they work harder to get that production there and to maintain it. And so they actually do become a lot of times more profitable than doctors who are working maybe five days a week because their production is getting spread out, especially on the scheduling side for a team. They're like, well, I got to have something on Friday. We got it. We've got to be here. So

I'm gonna put this crown on Friday, whereas if we were only Monday through Wednesday, it would probably get stuck on Wednesday this week rather than Friday and giving so much availability to the patient. So I totally agree. And you're spot on with the goals. So that's exactly what we did. We said, okay, well, if you wanna make this much money, take home, what does that look like fixed cost-wise, overhead-wise? So we had to build out what that goal meant.

how we could get the practice to be profitable enough to make that much money as take home and then reverse engineer that. So we had to say, what does that look like? All the multiplication, the addition, all of those pieces. What does that look like in a production goal?

so that 98 % or higher of collections gets you to that profitability. Then you have to backtrack and say, well, great, this is how much money I need to make this year, maybe a million dollars, right? We wanna break one million this year. How do I do that? What does that look like per month in production?

Then we say, okay, divide that by how many days per month we're working. So if we're working three days, right, it was probably about 12 days on average. So what does that look like every day? And how much production does that equate to? And I do have to say a caveat here.

because I think it's easy to say, yeah, but what about the fee schedules? Totally agree with you. You need to get your fee schedules up. Number one, if you can do anything about your fee schedules, go work on those. First and foremost, number one, get those things in line. But I do have to say this dentist I'm thinking of specifically is in the heart of a very saturated state and a very

difficult area to get ⁓ fees increased and he is PPO driven in lot of different directions. So it is possible. It just depends on what you're willing to do and then also what treatment you're doing. So what we have done with that is we've built out that block schedule. We've built out how his optimized days would look. So when is he doing his crown preps? When is he doing his large treatment? ⁓ Is he doing root canal?

love them. So which root canals is he doing if he's going to do them? Oral surgery, like what are we doing in those three days? And how do we build the production to match that daily goal? And then it was a, there, are there things that you want to be doing that maybe you're not doing a lot of yet? And he, this specific dentist, I've got another doctor, I've got a couple doctors that are like, yeah.

Tiff, I want to do implants and I want to do cosmetic cases. I want to build smiles and do smile design. And I'm like, well, great. If you can get one or two smile designs a month, are you kidding me? We're halfway there. So then what we had to do is we said, OK, great. Where would we do those in the schedule? When they come, where would we put them? And build that out as well. So the implant.

Obviously the implant placements like those were going to go first. Where are those going to be and how many implants do we need per year to help equate to that goal? then Kristy, I know you've done this a few times as well, looking at the marketing space, right? Because what do you feel like Kristy then?

We've got this goal set, we've got this block scheduling in place and we're like, okay, great. We want to do more implants and more cosmetic cases. Kristy, what would you then look for to increase those within the practice?

Kristy (11:38)

Yeah, well number one, I always like to go mining in our own patient base, you know, and I love that you mentioned like the service mix and doctors wanting to do specifically in this case, the implants, because it's funny how many times we hear that and then we go back and look like at the last 12 months and maybe they've done five implants, you know, I love doing them, but why aren't we doing them, right? And so just by recognizing that, putting a goal to it and then

Tiffanie (12:01)

Yeah.

Kristy (12:08)

consistently going back and measuring that. We've talked about this before Tiff, if I'm gonna go buy a white car of a specific brand, all of a sudden I start seeing all those. So to your point, I would go back to our patient base. I would definitely make sure the team is aware of that goal and then enroll the whole team on how do we find more of these patients that could use implants, right?

Then amongst our own patients when they're coming in, do they have missing teeth? Did we do a recent extraction, right? Have we discussed this before and it's time to bring it back up? So ideally that's where I would go because they're already in your practice, they love you, you've got a relationship with them and you'll be amazed at how many patients you'll find just by putting it front of mind and enrolling the whole team behind you to look for it.

Tiffanie (13:06)

I agree

and training them on the right questions, the right scenarios. Like what are we looking for? Are we looking for missing teeth? Are we looking for cracks? we like bringing that awareness? I totally agree. think everything we want is actually already here. We're just not tuned in to see it. So just like the car, we want the white Camaro because we never see a white Camaro. We make that decision to like, that's what I'm going to get. I'm going to get a white Camaro because no one has them, right? Or a purple Camaro because no one has them. And this

Kristy (13:35)

Thank

Tiffanie (13:36)

the next thing you know, you're like, well, shoot, I was wrong. There's a million of them. I want something different. And you're just going to keep going on that road because you brought the awareness to you. So I love that analogy. And I think it's so fitting for any, any treatment that you're trying to increase in your practice. It's already there. We're just not attuned to looking for it yet. So there's already opportunities there. How do we get the team members?

Kristy (13:41)

Thank

Tiffanie (14:04)

in line with seeing them to support you in the diagnosis. Now, the biggest thing I can say right now is if you have this goal or a different goal, I don't care what your goal is, if your goal is to work three days and make seven figures, that's fine. ⁓ Whatever your goal is, enlist your team in the support factor of achieving that goal.

because without them, it's all on you and there's no way, doctors, that you can do it all. You cannot, you will not remember.

all of these spaces to look for the implants, especially if you're like, well Tiff, gosh, Kristy, I want to do implants, I want to do cosmetic cases, I want to try all on fours, I want to, you know, I want to reduce the number of root canals I'm doing, but I want to do more extractions, like gosh, dang it, there's 16,000 different things that you could want to do that are top of mind on your brain, but what is the decision of today? What is our focus?

How are we gonna measure it and how are we gonna stay consistent? I've had multiple dentists ⁓ wanna add more implants and Kristy, I love how you said to go back through the inventory, because it's exactly where we started. Many, dentists have done this very successfully. I know with me, with you Kristy, with all of us and on their own, really looking at how many did I do? How many have I done? Because sometimes, right, we'll think,

you get your hair cut and you're like

10 people tell you, gosh, your hair looks amazing, right? And the one person is like, I don't know if I would have done bangs. Like that was a bold move, right? And the next thing you know, you're in the mirror going like, gosh, dang it, should I have done bangs? Because one person out of 11 said that, and that's what you remember. And so when it comes to this, think the same philosophy applies because you might think, gosh, I've done a million and you did two. Or you're like, I didn't do any. And you're like, oh my gosh, I did 16. How is that possible?

Kristy (15:40)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (16:04)

we weren't looking at it. And if you've done whatever number you've done, how do we increase and layer on top of that? Because if you could find five last year...

I guarantee there's probably 15 more that we either diagnosed and didn't get acceptance on, or we just didn't see. So Kristy, to your point, really adding that in to even your morning discussions of looking at the patients and saying, who's eligible for whatever treatment it is that you're focusing on? Do we have patients coming in today that are actually eligible for that treatment? Do we have patients that we've already diagnosed this on? Can we ask, why aren't we scheduled? What's holding us back from getting this treatment done? Why not today?

Where can we find those opportunities within the patient base we already have? And then dialing in your messaging to the community. Because you've got to start making sure that you're attracting the patients that are going to build your business to meet the goals that you want. We cannot.

Just like we can't make everybody happy, we cannot serve everyone in the dental community. You are built to serve the community that fits your desired outcome. So if you try to blanket, serve everyone, you're gonna get a crazy mixed bag and you're probably gonna be really stressed out. But if you commit to serving the people that fit your avatar and who you are,

you're going to be able to reach these goals really easily. So dial that in with your marketing company or your marketing gal at the practice, whatever that looks like, dial that in. I know I've had a couple of practices, Kristy, that have struggled with new patients or they've had a flood of new patients. And when we look at it, they've had a flood of new patients, but struggling to meet production goals. And I'm like, well, one, maybe we have too many new patients or two, what kind of new patients are you getting? And I've had

all kinds of scenarios, but one that comes up a lot is too many limited exams, and we're focusing on same day treatment or like quick turnaround and not converting to comps, which it's technically a new patient into the practice, so count it how you want to. But when we've got, I don't know, 40 new patients and 25 of them are limited exams, 15 are only new, we're gonna struggle. So, Kristy.

We've got a lot here ⁓ going on all kinds of different tangents here and we still have one more point that I wanted to get to, but let's recap. So we've got.

Kristy (18:29)

Bye.

Tiffanie (18:36)

building out the goal, reverse engineering that and making sure we've got block scheduling in place, which we're not going to clearly do like a huge block scheduling podcast today, but there are a million and you can email us Hello@TheDentalATeam.com for tips and tools as well. And then dialing in that marketing space to make sure we're getting the patients that we want internally marketing to our patients, making sure that we're speaking to them and then externally marketing to the patients that we want as well. And then Kristy this is a space, this next one that I'm going to

you to get to. This is a space I think you do really well with teams, so getting to the seven figures production is one space of it, the right patients, that's just one space of it. But we can produce all we want and if the money's not coming in you're not, you're just...

upside down and you guys are just tired. So Kristy, I can talk, we can both talk production for freaking days and marketing for days, but what do they need to do on the flip side of that and what support, again, from their team members do they need to make sure they have in order to reach this goal?

Kristy (19:39)

Yeah, absolutely. I always like to say, number one, let's start with ⁓ what is our parameters for the office? Your team members that are presenting finances, they need to have the understanding, what can they do? What are the tools in their tool belt ⁓ to offer to patients? And then it really is about getting creative. Even if the office is wanting everything paid in full on the day of service,

You know, are we letting patients walk out the door just because they can't pay it all at one time? You know, we could get creative and potentially even do like a layaway process, right? Or if these are big treatment plans, you know, do we have the right third party financing? There's specific finance companies that do larger amounts. And so getting to, you know, when we're presenting financials,

Tiffanie (20:28)

Yeah.

Kristy (20:37)

understanding truly what are the parameters, setting the realistic expectations within the office of what is our goal for finances. We want 98 % as a minimum goal for collections. So ideally we're meeting that. then also just making sure we have means for people to say yes financially, if you will.

Tiffanie (21:05)

Yeah, yeah, and I love the way that you go through that with your clients on getting that yes and getting the financial options dialed in because it is different for each doctor in a lot of ways. And in addition to that, making sure we have that follow up process. So if we can have the tools to treatment plan correctly, collect

in advance or on the day of treatment over the counter correctly, fantastic. And then on the flip side of that, we've got to have the systems in place for insurance claims follow ups. And then if there's anything outstanding after insurance for patients, how are we gonna get that money? How are they gonna pay? And what are our options for that? Because just like you said now, Kristy, making sure we have those options for treatment planning and case acceptance. Well, what do they do? What are their options if they have a bill?

leftover, is it the same? Like what does the team do with that? So I agree having those protocols written and having them dialed in and trained is massive. So thank you. That is a space I think you really thrive and I've watched you train, I've watched you train doctors on how to do collections. So I think that's impressive in itself. So I want to make sure you, you got all that out there. Thank you. So recapping, we've got

Making sure you guys know what it is that you want first and foremost. Know what it is that you want. Reverse engineer from there on how you're gonna get there. So build the financials out and then also build that block scheduling in there you guys. We harp on block scheduling and we're not the only consulting company that works with block scheduling and there's a reason for that because it freaking works. I just got off a call with the doctor an hour ago that was celebrating a 6 % decrease in overhead for quarter one because

is working, collecting is working, the protocols that they put into place and she specifically said the block scheduling is working. So this is within an hour of us recording this, go do it. And then making sure that your marketing is working internally and externally, you're attracting the patients that you want into your schedule and getting those collections processes in place you guys. If you don't have them, if you need help with any of this, you know to reach out, that's what we are here for.

We love giving information out. That's why we have all of these podcasts. I don't even know how many we have anymore. There's just a slew of them. whatever it is you need, just go to TheDentalATeam.com and search in the podcast tool bar and it will be there.

Kristy, parting words. I love, I know I shocked you with this, you're going to be shocked anymore, but I love your parting words always. So if you could wrap today's podcast into a bundle and impart some wisdom on these doctors that are listening, what would it be?

Kristy (23:48)

Yeah, I would say number one, track and measure, right? If that's your goal to do more of that, let's get more of it. Track and measure. When you have cases closed, really take a look at what did we do? Like how can we repeat what happened? Your conversations, everything, you know? And then when you are treatment planning implants, because we were talking about implants, say, and you have patients that leave and don't schedule.

Make sure your admin team or treatment coordinator, whoever is presenting that treatment, writes down what was the patient's words, what were their objections, because that's where our opportunity lies. And a lot of people automatically think it's a financial thing. And sometimes it's not financial. Sometimes it could be from the clinical side, how can we get better at presenting that treatment, expressing the benefits and

Tiffanie (24:34)

Thank you.

Kristy (24:43)

of doing the treatment, consequences of not having an implant, right? And add an expense if we don't do it. with that, really dial into those opportunities, celebrate your success, and then where the opportunity lies, we can certainly help bridge that gap for you. So, yeah.

Tiffanie (25:02)

I love that. Thank you.

Alright guys, you heard it from us here today. Go get to work, go build out those goals, go figure out what that looks like for you and for your lifestyle, what you want. And as always, drop us a five star review below so we know that this was helpful and beneficial for you and so that others can find it. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com is an easy way to find us or TheDentalATeam.com are all kinds of different avenues to chat with us. So if you need anything, when you need anything, and when you're ready to take that next step forward on creating this in your own

life, reach out, we're here to help you and we'll catch you next time.

View Details

Kiera and Kristy discuss ways your practice can completely “drain the lemon” of juice (aka, financial opportunity) without becoming completely overwhelmed. This happens by identifying a goal and reverse engineering it. Kiera and Kristy give numerous examples of how this works, as well as other opportunities for hidden value in your practice.

Episode resources:

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is such a special day. I hope you guys are having the best day because I'm having a great day because today I'm podcasting with our one and only Kristy Treasure, one of our incredible consultants. And I am so excited to have Kristy with us. Kristy, how are you doing today?

Kristy (00:17)

Gosh, it's fantastic. The first day is spring and we're gonna bring some new life to clients here. Add potential clients, right?

Kiera Dent (00:24)

I agree. I completely

agree with you, Kristy And honestly, if you guys have not met Kristy, Kristy is incredible. She's been on our team. Kristy, feel is just like the queen of wanting to have these amazing practices, just hit great numbers. Kristy loves numbers. She loves to dig in. And Kristy has this like very delicate leadership style. Like I watch you and I see you just transform practices. You gain their trust, you build their trust, you help team members.

I mean, offices who've said, Kiera I only want to work with you, are working with Kristy and loving her. And so it's just really fun, Kristy, to have someone who just is so passionate about dentistry. And I'm just so happy to have you on the podcast with me today. So that's a little intro to Kristy. If you haven't met her, haven't heard from her, you definitely need to. So Kristy, love having you on our team. It's always a treasure.

Kristy (01:11)

Thank you. I love being here. It's a great culture and you know what? We just have fun serving clients and that's what it's about.

Kiera Dent (01:19)

We totally do. And so Kristy, I want to join the podcast today because I feel I've been watching you consult some clients and I've been seeing it's fun in our morning huddle. Don't worry guys, in Dental Team we have a morning huddle. You can tell I used to be a dental assistant, team member, that's what I do. And so Kristy, we always share client wins and it's really fun because then we can share from consultants like, hey, what are you doing really well? What things are we doing well?

And Kristy, I've been watching, she's been posting up some really fun changes that she's been able to do with practices, so much so that offices who have never been able to hit certain dollar amounts in their production, things that they never believed were possible, getting overheads like, Kristy is burning and churning and doing it, it's like, Kristy, you come in with this like delicate wave of authority and it's just beautiful. And so I kind of wanted to talk, not necessarily specific to these practices.

But I mean, offices who have never had 100 grand, Kristy's been able to help them. Offices who have never been profitable, she's been able to help them. Offices who feel like they can't get their leadership team on board, Kristy's getting them. People who say like, we'll never be able to make an operations manual. I'm watching and Kristy you're just like getting these offices to navigate along. And so I thought today would be really fun for us to talk about maybe what are some of the tips or tricks. Again, not necessarily specific to these practices, but things you see overarching that really work to add.

production to a practice or get a team bought into it. So let's start first. mean, everybody always wants to geek out on numbers. So Kristy, what are some of the things that you've found are just really successful? I mean, you're an office manager of a very, very, very successful practice. You've consulted lots and lots and lots of practices even before coming to Dental A Team. You've got some history with you. So Kristy, let's kind of share some Kristy magic of what are some of the things you've seen that really help impact numbers in a practice quickly and easily with a whole team bought into that.

Kristy (03:06)

Yeah, would say first off and foremost, like obviously picking maybe the top five metrics to start working on and every doctor in office talks about production and collection. And so starting with some of the basics that they already understand, but also like.

Figuring out that point, what are we working for? Not just in a five year or 10 year range. I mean, you talk about that all the time, but also what are we looking for this year? And then reverse engineering it. Because if we don't have a point to guide to,

It's just numbers and even when we're talking percentages, we can have 100 % of collections, but is it enough to pay the bills? Is it enough to do the goals that we're reaching for as a team? So definitely it's about starting where they're at and then letting them see something bigger, if you will.

Kiera Dent (04:07)

And Kristy,

I think it's such a good thing because like when teams just feel like they're only about today, right? Like it's like, here's my daily bread today, but we don't understand the bigger picture. This is oftentimes when offices get fresher and they're like, my team isn't even looking down the line. They're not taking the ownership. They're not doing any of these things. So Kristy, how do you get a team to look further down the line and not feel the overwhelm, not feel like, cause you know, you come in and start to change. How do you have some tips to navigate with team members who maybe aren't as pro?

Getting into it.

Kristy (04:38)

Yeah, I would say number one, I mean, we're starting out the year, we're ending first quarter. And so to think, ⁓ I want to hit a million dollars by the end of the year. That's such a big overwhelming number that we literally break it down. We can project out where are they currently, you know,

Where are their numbers currently projected to hit at the end of the year? And then reverse engineer that. Guys, my gosh, we're only $1,000 short a week. How could we go find $1,000?

right? And do what we do. It's all in the name of getting our patients healthy. you know, let breaking it down to that simple step and letting them achieve something daily, if not weekly, and showing them it's easy. And it all relates back to our why. Why did we get into dentistry? You know, it's to serve and get our patients healthy. So when we do that, and we know where we're headed, it's really easy to achieve.

and then just start building in the goals from there.

Kiera Dent (05:46)

Mm-hmm, I agree

with you because I think in dentistry is so fun I mean a million seems so hard, but let's break it down like if we really want to do I mean Let's just do some fun math here. So we're gonna do a million. All right, so some offices. They're like, I've never hit a million Let's figure out a million. I think these are fun. Kristi and I do love numbers So I hope you do and if you don't I hope you take on our mantra of like I love numbers and numbers Love me. I want the numbers to love me. So let's enjoy that. So if we have a million we divide it by 12, okay

And this is just really rough math. There's more sophisticated ways to project this. That's 83,000 per month. Let's bump it up to 84 because it's 83,333. So let's just do 84,000. So if we're at 84,000 and then we know, let's say you're a practice that is only working four days a week, that's fine. You do not need to work five days. You don't need to work six days. Let's just do a four day work week. Cause I like to prove to people and Kristy, I know you do too. We don't have to work harder. Let's just work a little smarter.

So with that, let's say it's 16 days a month. Does that make sense? You got four days a week. Most months are four weeks. I get that there's a few more, which is why this is very loose. Don't worry if you do this, you'll slush in the right direction. So what that brings it down to is 52.50 per day. Now let's say in this practice that they have two hygienists. Usually a hygienist is producing about a thousand-ish rough numbers. That's 32.50 per day for an office. And so I think Kristy agreed with you.

When we look at that and we're like, all right, if we're only scheduled to 2,700 today, where can we go find that extra $600 or $500? And it's not saying we're over diagnosing patients. What we're doing is we're looking to see, could we add in some fluoride? Could we add in that FMX? How can we do better patient care? Oh my gosh, that patient only wanted to do one filling, but they're about to get numb. And that quad of filling seems a lot more enticing because they're about to get numb. It's crazy how like, you know, when I talk to patients and they say, oh,

I think I just want to this one filling. And then when they're about to get numb, it's like, Hey, we can actually do the whole quad. And they're like, yeah, we should actually do that. It's wild. That injection, you guys never, ever, ever, ever underestimate the power of an injection. ⁓ but the reality is this is how you can look for it. This is how it becomes fun. And I think helping teams and Kristy, do an amazing job with this, helping teams have fun with this. That's the whole point of a morning huddle. We go to morning huddle to huddle. How do we win the game? Just like a huddle in basketball or huddle in football.

How do we actually win the game? Where are we at? What's that extra five? I mean, I have been shocked when offices will implement pro, ⁓ fluoride, or they'll look for FMXs. We're like doing our x-rays on normal cadences, or we're even doing our comp exams. That will add up so fast for you. Adding a sealant, adding in quad dentistry rather than single tooth dentistry. You can find these things so easily. And so, Kristy, I think you do a beautiful job of that with your practices. And I'm just curious, like,

But what happens when you have that one team member in the back who's just like not having it? What do we do with them and how do you get those team members on board?

Kristy (08:46)

Yeah, number one, most team members want something more for themselves, right? Whether it's a yearly raise or I don't know, maybe the office doesn't offer insurance and they want to offer insurance. And I'm like, well, let's find a way to offer it. You know, let's figure out how much it is. What does it cost? What do we have to do to show the doctor we can earn our way to doing it? So showing them that they can also achieve what they want. mean, honestly, today I had a

a team that was talking about taking time off between Christmas and New Year and possibly paying the team for that time off and surprising them. And I'm like, well, let's reverse engineer it, find out what do we have to do to pay for that. And then we can surprise that gift ahead of time because we can measure if we're on target for it. And...

give them that, gift them that time off if you will, but just again showing team what's in it for them and relating it again back to their why they got into dentistry which was to take great care of people.

And when you do it, we all reap the rewards. And I love that you said morning huddle because nine times out of 10, we have that treatment in our schedules already. And it's just having conversations with patients in a relationship fashion.

Many people think you have to have more new patients, right? We don't need more new patients. They're in our schedule and we have the opportunity to just do more on the patients we have. And if you don't believe me, have them run their unscheduled treatment report.

Kiera Dent (10:31)

Amen to you, Kristy. And I agree with you tenfold. And that's why we consult so well together. And I really love that you said like, let's show them, let's gift them, let's figure out what our team wants. And that's what's actually so fun. Like this is why I love numbers. I hated numbers because I didn't understand them. But when you realize that numbers can just be the way to get whatever you want in life. Like it's just truly this really, really fun, dreamy, like you said, if they want to take time off between Christmas and New Year's,

Fantastic, let's figure out what that production would be. Let's figure out the cost of paying all the team members. It's very simple, it's not a hard equation to do. Then let's add that amount, divide it amongst the rest of the months of the year. You can literally pay for it. So offices who wanna go on trips, offices who wanna add in bonuses, offices who wanna pay for scrubs, like you name it, all these things can be paid for. And for people listening, this isn't too overdiagnosed on the patients. It's not like we're going hunting because we're like, we wanna go on that trip.

it's we are looking for the best patient care like Kristy said. We are looking for the little opportunities that we're not doing. And every practice is like, no, we're doing all this already. Yeah, right. I promise you, I've yet to see one office who has done every single thing perfectly 110%. And so I think like, let's drop that ego as well and look to see where it can be. And Kristy, I love that you bring it. As you were talking, I'm like, Kristy to me feels like the analogy of like squeezing the juice out of the lemon or squeezing the tube of toothpaste.

And Kristy is the gal who looks at your practice and you're like, my tube of toothpaste is empty. And she's like, yeah, let me show you. got like three more months where the toothpaste in this tube, like we are squeezing it rather than just going and looking to buy a brand new tube of toothpaste. And within your practice, there's so much more opportunity to like squeeze the juice, squeeze the opportunities rather than having to look outside. Yes, we still need to work on the outside pieces too, but then when we look inside, and I think that this is where you do such a great job, Kristy like.

Kristy (12:04)

Yeah.

Kiera Dent (12:25)

I tell you, Kristy can turn to practice so quickly. It's been magic to watch you, Kristy I'm like, this girl comes in and she just like hangs out. She's working with the team. She's tracking the numbers and la la la la la. The doctor's like, oh my gosh, we hit this and I didn't even know that was possible. But Kristy's squeezing juice. You're looking for the juice constantly. And so I'm just curious, other squeeze the juice, squeeze the tube of toothpaste? You said like new patients, you're looking for unscheduled treatment plans.

Kristy (12:30)

you

Kiera Dent (12:53)

We don't need the new patients. We're looking for just little, what are some of those other opportunities, Kristy, that like I spy with my little consultant eye, what do you see in there?

Kristy (13:02)

Yeah.

Obviously there's a few areas, but one of the things too when we have limited coming in how many of those do we work to convert? I mean how many times do we schedule them for a half hour appointment when really if we just schedule them for an hour and trained up our assistants to have a conversation on the front end my gosh, if we could avoid future emergencies like this while you're here We could take a look at everything come up with a plan and still treat that tooth that's bothering you right so and if they're swollen

or in pain, at least scheduling them back to make sure, hey, you know, we could avoid future emergencies like this. Let's get you back and take a look at everything, but get you out of pain today. that's one area. And again, it's just taking and using what's already there and doing what's best for the patient, right? I mean, people only lose their teeth for a few reasons. Trauma.

Kiera Dent (13:53)

Mm-hmm.

Kristy (13:59)

Extensive decay, you know, so if we can avoid that just like you said the power of the shot if we could avoid Future damage and more cost wouldn't you agree we should take care of it today?

Kiera Dent (14:06)

Hahaha!

Mm-hmm.

Also, did

you hear what Kristy said? Wouldn't you agree? And that's a very like amazing line to take into your practice if you're not using that right now. I love the LOEs being converted into a comp exam. It is one of the most incredible things that if a practice will take this on. And so we were like, but Kiera, Kristy, they're just coming in for pain. Like they're not gonna like it. Yeah, right. A, you have to remember no one wants to come to see you. And I'm sorry, dentist, but this is the reality. And there's like 1 % of the population who's a little bit odd and they actually love to come.

But that's like truth. And so they don't wanna come anyway. They're already in pain. So let's do them a service. Let's do them a favor. Let's take pictures of their entire mouth, AKA x-rays. Let's do a full comp exam. Yes, we're gonna take care of that problem tooth. Absolutely, 100 % we're gonna do that. But odds are, and every doctor and every team member knows this, if I've got one tooth that's looking pretty wild, odds are there's probably a few other places in that mouth that are going to have the same problem come upon them pretty soon. But I think it's also,

training the front office to say this, training the clinical team on how we present this and how we can do this, but also realizing this is a huge service and benefit to a patient. No patient wants to come back. They really do not. As much as they love you and as fun as you are and as great as your coffee bar is and as fun as your movies are, being at the dentist, even for me, I had to go to the dentist and I was like, gosh, really? Like this place. And I work with dentists. Like I've been a dental assistant. People just don't enjoy having their

someone awkwardly put their hands in your mouth. It's weird. It's a weird thing that we do and yet we love it. So Kristy, I love that. What are some other ideas that you have around? Because yes, convert the limited to comps. Any other things that you have around? And again, I don't want you to give all away your Kristy Sparkle. So like what's one or two more that you have of like being able to squeeze that juice, squeeze that tube of toothpaste?

Kristy (15:59)

Well, I would say many times, especially for the dentist coming in or newly starting out having firm financial arrangements, know, and it's not firm doesn't mean strict necessarily, but it's it's comprehensive finances. You know, it's it's finding a plan to get all their treatment done. Even if you're phasing it out over time, but I would say really there's usually that low hanging fruit in AR or insurance that we can

just put in simple systems that go after that and stop it bleeding into, you know, aging out, if you will. So many times that's an area to start and just look at what our processes are. How are we collecting? Are we getting the good estimates to get the correct amount collected over the counter?

Kiera Dent (16:52)

Okay, so

in that, agree with you, Kristy, because a lot of times people are like, we need to make more. And I'm like, you don't even need to make more. It's just hanging out in your AR. Like you've already done the work. We just need to collect the money for it. So you mentioned making sure that when we do this, we have good treatment plan estimates, which comes from good insurance verification, which comes from good entering of that. That's gonna help a lot. What are some of the other financial policies that you've found that tend to work really, really well for practices?

Kristy (17:17)

Yeah, well, let me be clear that treatment plans are different than financial arrangements. Treatment plans are what we're going to do. Financial arrangements are how are we going to take care of it? And many times people are missing the how we're going to take care of it. They're like, yeah, they know the cost. We gave them the printout. But are we really solidifying how we're going to take care of it? You know, are you the type of patient that needs

to pay over time? Are we capturing exactly what they're doing, if you will?

Kiera Dent (17:50)

Yeah, which is really smart because otherwise

it's a lingering, it's are we paying with cash? Are we paying with credit card? Are we paying with financing options? What are we doing with that? That's going to firm this up and I agree as soon as that gets dialed in and people panic. Like I don't wanna put this out there. And I'm like, where do we feel like we went back to the 1800s to where it's like, just put it on my tab. Like I still do not understand why dental practices get so nervous to ask patients to pay for something that they just received.

99 % of the time in today's world, we're having to prepay for these treatments before services are done. And I feel like dentistry, let's, let's come to the playing field. Let's get a little more current. Let's get a little bit more on the same page of the rest of the world. It's not weird. It's weird. The fact that we think it's weird. That's what's weird. Like it's okay to ask patients to pay for it. It's okay to expect them to have financials before they come in for treatment. That's normal. And then what we do is for all the patients that we've been like,

lollygagging on in the past, it's okay, it's all right, there's no judgment here. Those patients we start to collect when they come in. So we start to collect on that side, we can send statements to them, we can run our AR and we get better for future and we have them sign on those financial arrangements so that way there's no confusion. The only reason patients get frustrated with you is because expectations were missed. So I love what Kristy said with these financial arrangements. It's a beautiful way to not have expectations being missed and a really good way to squeeze some juice in your practice.

to find those little missing opportunities. Kristy, you've been a freaking dream. Are there any other little like secret nuggets that you feel like you wanna leave with our audience before we say goodbye today? Because honestly, I just have loved this and I enjoy the imagery. I'm gonna like have you, every time I see you now, I'm gonna think of you like squeezing the juice. Like I'll just think of you like, Kristy's over there taking lemons into lemonade. So any other last thoughts you have as we wrap up today?

Kristy (19:32)

Yeah.

Yeah, actually you mentioned the financial arrangements and I just want to challenge people. literally, I almost love the practices where they say, see you later, send me a statement and flipping them to actually getting down payments or reservation fees for appointments. Like I've watched a practice go from literally that.

Kiera Dent (19:54)

Yeah.

Kristy (20:04)

to, my gosh, they're so excited because they are using Pre-Collect. But I also want to flip people's thinking. Just like you said earlier about patients not wanting to stay, don't put our own bias in it. Because I hear people say, well, we'll do a reservation for large appointments. I just want to challenge you that

allow that same opportunity even for the smaller payments. If I had $500 in my savings and you offered me to pay $250 today to reserve it and $250 when I come in, I very well may appreciate having that so it doesn't drain my savings or my checking or wherever I'm pulling that money from versus, hey, you could pay $50 today and now I have $450 to pay when I come back in. So I just challenge you to, you know, try.

gamify it a little bit and have fun with it and I promise your patients will appreciate it.

Kiera Dent (21:02)

Kristy, I love that you said gamify it. I think I heard once at a conference I attended and they said, business is just a game. Like it's truly a game. And when you look at it, it takes the stress out of it. think running a successful practice can be a game, not our dentistry being a game for the patients, but a game of how we think about things. I mean, I look at like chess or my brother used to play strategic or.

There was another game like Clue. loved playing Clue. That was like my favorite game. mean, I was the Clue master. I won that game all the time. I would love somebody to like challenge me on it. But the reason those games are fun is because we challenge our thinking. We think outside the box. We make it fun. And so I love, Kristy, these ideas you brought to the table today are how can we think outside the box? How can we make it fun? And I agree with you, Kristy. It's crazy how when you just change your thinking,

Just a smidge, we're not asking you to like completely and obliterate who you've been all this time, but just a smidge, you will see magic happen in your practice. You will see more patients saying yes to you. You'll see more patients scheduling. You'll see your AR being chipped down. Doctors, you'll see more money coming into your bank account. So many wonderful things this way just to change it. And I love that you said like offer it to even the smaller ones. Why not? Cause you're right. That is a benefit to these other patients. They might say no, but they also might say yes. And then collections become so much easier. So Kristy.

It was so fun to have you on the podcast. I love you on our team. I love practices who get to work with you. I always feel like practices who get to Kristy truly get just such a treat to work with you because you really do find these little simple ways to help them hit goals and possibilities that they honestly never believed was possible. So thanks for being on the podcast with me today and being on our team. Of course, and for all of you listening, thank you for listening and we'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

Kristy (22:42)

Thank you.

View Details

Kiera and Tiff share highlights from the Dental A-Team Summit — the best one yet! They touch on communication, the life cycle of a business, keeping teams energized, and more.

Mark your calendars for the Dental A-Team Summit 2026!

Episode resources:

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

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Leave us a review

Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera and ⁓ gosh, today's a great day. I have the one and only Spiffy Tiffy on the podcast. I feel like we're going back to like OG status here, Tiff. Like it's been a while. Welcome to the podcast. How are you?

Tiffanie (00:14)

I'm good. Thank you. Luckily, Shelbi snuck a time in here for us. I mean, gosh, we've got a birthday podcast. We've got this coming up. Like we've got all kinds of stuff in the works, but I'll see you in a gear in a year. Right? That's all we get.

Kiera Dent (00:26)

I know, right? See ya! See you next

May. I'll see ya. No, I love it because honestly, you and I host, we podcast, you take a lot with the consultants and so ⁓ I selfishly put you in on my day of podcasting because I miss, I miss our OG days. I miss ⁓ us hanging out. I mean, I did take us on a hike and podcast. Like that was really going back in style. Supposedly the video works. If you guys saw it, give us a thumbs up. ⁓

We were both very awkwardly uncomfortable sitting up there, but it was awesome. And the things like this, got sunburned. So that was funny when we were up there, all the pieces, but it was a good time. And I felt like this back to our original roots, Tiff. Sometimes I think we need to remember where we came from and how we got here. So, I mean, I was just talking to Shelbi and Kristy and told them about our Venmo days and how you stayed with me through all these years. If you don't know the Venmo story,

Tiffanie (00:57)

There were so many courts.

I agree.

Here I am.

Kiera Dent (01:22)

When Tip first started, I paid her via Venmo and Venmo has maxes if you didn't know that. Tip was a 10.99, so I paid her via Venmo. I would not recommend this. And why Tiffanie stayed with me, I don't know because the Venmo would max and I'd have to text her and be like, hey, so it's maxed out. Give me like two days. It wasn't that I didn't have money. It's just that Venmo would max. So Tip, I don't know. Like how did you feel like that wasn't a shady business? That's question number one and then we'll get into our real topic today.

Tiffanie (01:31)

Thank you.

have no idea. Honestly, I don't have an answer for that. I truly just don't. I just trusted and I mean, by early on, it was like the first two months of working together and you didn't have employees yet. So I guess in the back of my mind, I was like, we're just creating the systems, like we're figuring it out. And worst case scenario, like I always, I always have a backup plan and I was still in my office. So it was like, that's fine. We're figuring this out. We're going to see how it works. And here we are almost eight years later.

Kiera Dent (01:51)

Ha

you

You are.

It's incredible. Nope. Definitely not Venmo. And it was funny because I was thinking back to like startup businesses and I did a podcast with someone else and we were talking about like, I think you forget when you like go to open your second location or your third of like, ⁓ yeah. Like we had to scrap it that hard when we first started. So Tiff, thanks for, thanks for being an OG, which stands for original gangster, not oldie, but goodie, but it's okay. If you want to do Kiera's style, I had to ask Tiff.

Tiffanie (02:18)

Not Venmo-ing.

Kiera Dent (02:44)

a things in my life. had to educate me on a few and that was one of them. was like, Tiff, does OG stand for? And here we are. So, Tiff, I figured with you and I on the podcast today, I thought it'd be really fun. You and I just in person did our fifth summit. Can you believe five summits? Like Tiff.

Tiffanie (02:49)

Luckily I'm all filtered.

No, when we had,

actually saw it on social media, on our social media. It said like, our fifth summit is coming. And I was like, oh my gosh, is that true? Like, you sent the postage on our Instagram and that's how I knew. So no, I can't believe that it was our fifth summit. It blew my mind when I saw that.

Kiera Dent (03:09)

you

Yeah, it was well and there was a point in time where I debated if I wanted to keep doing summits. And the only reason that I actually went through is because we started the summits. Our first one was in 2021. And I knew I would be able to remember how many we had done because 2021 is one, two is two, and I was like, we got to keep this up. Otherwise, I'm going to really get off count. So that's why I know it's the fifth because it's 2025.

⁓ But I think honestly, Tiff, you and I, I wanted to give some highlights. If you missed it, you missed out and you should definitely mark your calendars for next year. I will say with wild confidence and Tiff, I think you would agree of all the summits that we have put on, ⁓ this was by far, think our best production that we've ever done. I think it was our best content. I think it was our best flow. And like the feedback that we got from this summit was off the charts, like shocking how good it was. That's my opinion. Next year, it's April 24th. So if you missed us,

Tiffanie (03:45)

piece.

Kiera Dent (04:14)

this year, mark your calendars right now, block it out. It is a Friday. We do it for a half a day. It is CE. So you're definitely going to want to block April 24th, 2026. That's coming to you guys. But Tiff, I felt it was our best and I've got some ideas and we want to give some recaps, but what were kind of your takes on the summit this year?

Tiffanie (04:30)

Yeah, I think we just got it dialed in. We take feedback every time we do anything. Every time we consult a practice one-on-one, every time we group consult practices, webinars, like anything we do. So Summit, there's always been feedback requests. And I think we've done really well narrowing it down and figuring out what the biggest requests were. I think one of the major things that played to our advantage was really getting a ton of information in a short amount of time. I think,

crammed as much in, what do we do? Like four and a half hours as we have done in a day and a half. And we did really, really well. The presentation was clean. It was crisp. had a ton of engagement and honestly, we're still getting people scheduling the calls right now. ⁓ Today you've even done some during your podcasting day. I know just to make sure that everybody's gotten the resources that we had available. And I just think it was jam packed with a ton of information and

Kiera Dent (05:02)

Yeah, four and a half.

Yeah. ⁓

Tiffanie (05:28)

It stacks really, really well with the consulting that we do for our one-on-one clients and for our group consulting. It just honestly played right into how all of the consultants operate with all of our clients. So it was fantastic. I agree.

Kiera Dent (05:42)

Yeah, I thought it and I agree with you. think it was, ⁓ I think we really dug into this extraordinary and something Tiff, you and I, this was Tiff's vision. So Kiera's vision was summit, Tiff's vision were these in-person like doctor, leadership, masterminds. And you have been pushing me for probably what? Like four five years to do this. Like it has been, we're at five years then. It's been a solid push. I remember the day this came about, I think you do too. were, ⁓

Tiffanie (05:59)

Bye as long as we've been doing summit.

Kiera Dent (06:08)

definitely team was on a budget back in the day. And I still think to this day, even not on a budget tip and I would still do this. We're sharing a hotel room and we were sitting there chatting late at night. And I remember Tiff, you're like, Kiera, I have this vision of these in-person events where we get all our doctors together and we do like life and we do business. And I was like, I see it. And then you're like, and I also think we should have a coffee shop. Like it was like both mixed into one. I think the coffee shop also threw me cause I'm like, how are we going to do all that?

Tiffanie (06:29)

I'm

you

Kiera Dent (06:37)

But we literally came to it, by the way, just highlighting, you're in the blue shirt, I'm in the pink shirt today. How perfect is that? If you guys don't know, this is another vision. Tiff and I aren't going to be 90, 90 plus year old grannies. We have the same birthday. I'm gonna be cotton candy pink, Tiff's gonna be cotton candy blue. So whenever we show up this way, it always makes me giggle just how in sync we always are. But back to our vision of these in-person that Tiff had, I think it played into our summit of we're really getting intentional of like,

Tiffanie (06:56)

You can have steak.

Kiera Dent (07:06)

life on purpose and business on purpose. And so this year's theme was ⁓ unlocking, gosh, was unlocking extraordinary leadership and profitability. And what we wanted to do is I get really annoyed as a CEO when I do CE and it just is coming to me as the owner to then take it back and rally TIF. And honestly, when I've tried to come back and rally the whole team, I just noticed there was this disconnect. And I think as a company, we've always had this vision of like, it's dental, it's doctors and team. Like, look at our name.

Dental A Team doctors and team, like it really flies together. And so being able to bring teams together and doctors together in your office, in your space, but teach you life skills and dental skills. And Tiff, know like when you go to offices, people tell you all the time, like how grateful they are. You teach them life through dentistry. Like walk me through why you do that, how you do it. I know it's just like who you are as your DNA, but I think that's why you have so much passion for what we do.

Tiffanie (08:00)

Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. I truly believe that ⁓ if I can create passion in someone for what they do for a living, that they'll stay lifelong. think that, I don't know. I don't know, Kara. I think, like you said, it's just naturally ingrained in me. It's just who I am. I take a lot of...

what I learn personally, and I duplicate that and I kind of like copy and paste it onto who I am as a as a team member and as an employee because I don't believe I hate the term work life balance. ⁓ I have like a Jars and crazy because I live one life I have one life and I have different spaces of life for sure. But if I 100 % show up differently in every space of life, I'm going to feel like I'm running ragged. So if I can look at

Kiera Dent (08:31)

Ha ha!

Mm-hmm.

Tiffanie (08:48)

relationships as just relationships. And then there's the stack of like, intimate versus friendship, like for sure, there's that deviation. But if I can treat every relationship with the same basics, and communication with the same basics, then I'm not confusing myself. I'm not trying to be something I'm not, and I'm not working harder. You know, I love easy, you know, I love

nothing more than defined efficiencies. And like, that's a major efficiency in my life is really being able to stack a belief that I have and then copy and paste it into work. So the way that I communicate with you is the same way that I communicate with my boyfriend, Aaron, or my son Brody. It just, I'm using different words ⁓ to get a different, to get a point across. So when I go into practices and I work with teams and I work with doctors, that's the kind of stuff that I leave them.

So when I'm speaking about how we can communicate, I'm also mixing in how those communication tools not only have helped our company and UNI's communication tenfold, but also

how it helps me and my personal relationships at home. So I constantly, I think if you polled all of my offices, I don't think there's anyone out there who doesn't know who Brody is. He secretly probably hates that. He gets hellos, gets birthday cards, all these things. But I utilize him as such an example for how we can show up for our families and for our kids using the same tools. And so when I walk away and teams are saying that, they're saying, my gosh, Tiff, like.

Kiera Dent (10:00)

Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Tiffanie (10:17)

I went home and I talked to my husband last night and I had the first real conversation that I've been able to have with him in forever because I listened, because I used the tools that you told me to use on patients. So the way that you're listening to a patient, the way that you're putting your ego aside and allowing your patient to be the most important.

person in the room, sometimes we have to put that aside and allow our spouse to be the most important person in the room for the time being and have a conversation instead of having a telling where we kind of just sit and we just talk at each other. We're not actually listening. We're not actively engaged and jumping to the assumptions, all those pieces. So I think that's how I do it. And then I want like mass scale of that because I can only hit so many, so many people one-on-one.

And I think that's something that you and I have envisioned for the company for a really long time. We know that there's a limit of how many teams and how many doctors each consultant can affect. So being able to take these pieces and these skills and these developments that do smash life and work together on a mass scale like summit or these in-person events that we're doing now for our doctors and our leaders was really something that I think spoke to both of us to be able to just

get the message out, get things changed on a mass scale.

Kiera Dent (11:32)

Totally. And I think that that just ties right into our vision of Dental A Team is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. And we do that through expert consulting for dentists and teams. And you're right. Like it's funny, we always run into these zones of like, we've hit the ceiling, we've hit the ceiling of where we are. So how do we like turn and pivot and give more? Because as you were saying that I might actually think that that's the secret sauce to Dental A Team. I think we focus on life and business. We focus on you as a human and we do it through dentistry and like dentistry is our vehicle.

What did I say the other day? said, ⁓ life is my passion, dentistry is my avenue. And so really, or our platform. So we're able to come and like help you have this amazing life. And that's, think what all the summit was about. Like it was literally, how do we do this? And so we walked the participants through like, what does extraordinary mean to you? And so if you attended the summit, hopefully this is a good like analysis and like, how did you do and how are you doing? And kudos to all those who joined our Dental A Team family. By far, this was our best year of welcoming new offices in. And I think it just spoke to like,

the flow that we were in and the mission that we're about. And we really brought in our Dental A Team Success model and we call it the Yes Model. So you can say yes to more things in your life, to whatever you want. And the Y stands for you as a person and the E stands for earnings and profitability. The S stands for systems and team development. And when you add those three components together, you get success with E's. And Tiff, I think the U part was probably my favorite and funniest part of the entire thing we went through. There are these little.

human beings that we draw and we like break up all the parts of our life and Tiff did one of the funniest things she's ever done in front of me. And we were we were looking at her like current life and how her time was split up. And she'd never done this exercise. I was so excited to do it with her in real life. And then Tiff tell about your ideal life and what ⁓ what we uncovered. So like, okay, let me just give the vigil. Basically, what the idea was, and you can try this is you take like a little image of you as a human and you break it apart and you you look to see

like in your day in and day out life, just like Tiff said, it's not, we're breaking apart, like you, your life and your work balance, but it was like, how are you spending your time, cut up on a human body? kind of like, like if you think about those cows and they have like the meat chunks, like drawn out of them, like here's the filet, here's the ribeye, like kind of like that, but on you of like, where's my work? Where's my family? Where's my friends? Where's my hobbies? Where's my working out? Like whatever's important to you and like how much of your physical body, like in a visual of your full life,

How much of that are we spending in different areas and what does it look like? Like it's a really awesome, if you didn't get to participate in it, it was real fun. And then what we do, and we had like two little, little images next to each other. And then on the other side, we said, okay, this is what you're doing currently and this is what real life looks like. What would your ideal life look like? Like, what would you want to spend? Like, where would you put this? And it's so fascinating because where people put things, it actually says a lot about them. Like what you put on the legs and what you put on the feet and what you put on the arms and what you put across your heart, what you put on your head. Like it really helps to identify things. But tip.

Go ahead, take this away as long as you're not embarrassed by it, because it was so freaking funny of how this shook out in real time.

Tiffanie (14:30)

I mean, I've got

hundreds of people already, so why not just ramp it up? Now we've got thousands, I guess. That's fine. No, I never, nothing's, no, maybe some things are too far, I guess, but I'm an open book. So it was actually, it was really, really cool. And I had not done it yet. I've done other things similar to it. Even we have done similar things to it, but just really looking at

Kiera Dent (14:37)

Why not? Here we go.

Tiffanie (14:56)

I took it as like my vision of where I wanted my life to be. And then like, what is going to propel me there? Like what aspects of life and relationships, et cetera, will propel me to that vision? So kind of what we did in person in March. Yeah.

Kiera Dent (15:08)

And kudos to you, Tiff, because that's what it's supposed to be. Like it's literally

helping you see like, okay, where am I spending it? And then where do I want to become? And the idea is to help you visualize your future, but also take it in as an identity of you to help you actually see how you yourself is that identity of the future vision. So huge kudos. Tiffanie got it. That was the idea behind it. That's why we put it in a human form for you. It kind of looks weird. Like they like these weird little doll. I don't know. Like they look weird. We still are trying to work on it.

Tiffanie (15:34)

She likes to call them voodoo

dolls. They're funny.

Kiera Dent (15:36)

Shush, don't

say that. That's really going dark, Tiff. Go on, go on. She's sharing all my secrets.

Tiffanie (15:41)

you call them them. So maybe don't tell me those things because I'm an

open book apparently. So we did the first one and I was like, well, it was really good. It was enlightening. It was actually really cool. And afterwards, I keep thinking about like where things were in order with my chakras and all of that stuff that, you know, I'm obsessed with. So it really made a huge difference there. But I did my first one. And then what I did is I folded the paper. They're both on the same piece of paper. And I was like, I don't want my

Kiera Dent (15:48)

Bye!

Mm-hmm.

Tiffanie (16:11)

current layout to impact what I want my what I'm desiring. Right. So I folded in half so I couldn't see my current layout. Well, what that did was took away from my brain the pieces that I had on there. And I had everything on my future one on my what I want my ideal. I had everything duplicated on there just like different spaces except I forgot to put work on there.

So work got removed from my life. I don't know when this is happening, ⁓ but apparently, I don't know. I said, you know what, it's just because I don't have a work-life balance. I just have life and work is just integrated into every piece of my life because I enjoy it so much. So yeah, it was a really humorous event ⁓ during summit. know somebody said in one of the chats, what was it? Best resignation letter ever.

Kiera Dent (16:44)

you

you

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Exactly.

Tiffanie (17:07)

I was like, my gosh, that's

hilarious. That's amazing. So it was, it was funny. think that, I think that I have this innate ability to think of my life as what I want it to be and work supports it. And whatever it is that I'm doing, I make sure that I'm passionate about the avenues that I'm taking. I think that's why I do include so much life because life

like coaching and those pieces have just helped me so much in my personal life. And so as I looked at it and as I thought back about it, I'm like, gosh, it's just that those are the pieces that are insanely important to me and work is insanely important to me. But work is what propels those pieces in a lot of ways for me. And so thinking about like the amount of time separated out, I think just didn't feel right. You know what I mean? On that one, but it was hilarious. It was a great moment. If you were there.

Kiera Dent (17:58)

Mm hmm. It was really funny. It was really entertaining.

Tiffanie (18:03)

Yeah, it was super interesting.

Kiera Dent (18:03)

It was super entertaining. And it was it. But I think as you just said it, Tiff, and I didn't think about this at the time, I actually think it's awesome that your identity is not work. And I think that you as a human, like work is a part of it, life is a part of it. But work is not an identity piece of who you are. And I think that's been the case for so long. And I think for me, like work was such a huge identity piece for me that like we shifted it to where

it's not work and actually changed what I view about the company and now the company is my passion project. And so it gets lumped into my passions more so than it gets lumped into work. And it's even interesting the language. And so we really went through these pieces and it was awesome to go through and tip. Thanks for sharing that. And I just think like such a good visual. ⁓ it was funny because I was like, so tip, is this your resignation letter? Like on live screen and she's like, it's not, I promise. Like things are good.

⁓ But it was, it was quite interesting. And then we also went through like the life cycle of a business. And I think that actually was so telling. We pulled that from Tony Robbins and like, where are you on the life cycle of a business as you as a human? And it's been interesting is when we've talked to people post summit, they've said that that helps them just so much to see like, my gosh, like me as a human, I may be further along, but my business is at like this toddler stage. And so I need to hire people that are more in this younger energetic space because I'm over here on the other side, or I need to like,

kick it up and have this, or maybe my team is on this further side where they're maybe closer to retirement, but me as a new owner, I'm actually not there. And I thought it was just such an interesting spot for them to see where they were. And then of course we dug into the earnings, the money. So we walked through them through like profitability and overhead calculator and your monthly cost expenses. And then how do you figure this out? And how do you become profitable? And ⁓ really helping them see how like your supplies and your costs and your overhead directly impact your profit. And then

a couple quick ways for you to actually watch this, and that's through a KPI scorecard, and then also giving you then the systems, and we purposely hit two systems within, like we had you assess 12 systems on a 12 monthly basis, so that way you can keep them as a cadence, but then really diving into a couple that will boost your profitability and help your patients, and that was through block scheduling and case acceptance. So just a really fun way, and then after that, we hit.

Some of my favorite parts and some parts that people really loved, like I thought it was interesting when we went through like enemies of efficiency and the delegation ladder and like, where are you at and how much are you delegating? So many people said like, my name was in all these tiers of the delegation ladder. And then we actually went through case studies, like what are, like looking at hundreds and thousands of practices, I loved this part so much Tiff and we brought to the table like, what are the characteristics of these extraordinary leaders?

for teams and for owners. And then what are the ones of the not so good? Like it is not hard when we walk into a practice, when we look at these leaders, we can usually see, are they going to be successful or are they not within very short amount of time and even talking to them on the phone. ⁓ And so being able to go through that. I think just like the way it all stacked of like looking at you as a person, looking at your business, looking how they combine together and not be separated. And then like, shoot enemies of efficiency delegation, like just so many nuggets. And if you missed it,

reach out. There might be some things that we could share with you guys, but I hope you put it your calendar because I think one people left there inspired and excited. I've had people like I saw an office right after and they said, Kiera, like what you guys put together was so helpful and so impactful. And like I was able to take things and have tactical and like people had their teams there and they're like you teaching my team to think about our practice as a business, but also as a patient centered focus and also as us as humans, like

Where do you get that in CE anywhere else? And Tiff, really truly think that that's the secret sauce of what we've tried to create and what we have created for all these practices. So that's kind of like my nutshell of like, love the case studies. I love sharing what people do. Like I loved going through leadership and like the good and the not so good. And we actually had people like put in there, like, what do think good leaders are? And what do you think bad leaders are? And like the not so influential ones. And to see, because there are truly patterns and to like figure out the pattern and DNA of these great practices so you can go model and mirror it.

I just think was like freaking magic to share with people because we see it. They don't necessarily get to see it day in and day out.

Tiffanie (22:12)

Yeah, I totally agree. ⁓ I always tell my practices, my and my doctors, that my biggest goal is that the business works for them, not them working for the business. And I think the tools that we shared with them and the things that they could take home, the communication tools, the efficiency tools, all of those like, yes, models, everything that we sent them away with are easily, easily implemented, and will propel towards that goal where the business literally is supporting

your life and maybe, you know, right now today on your current little man, your little person, your, you know, work, your business might be a large portion of that human being. And it was for us for a long time because it had to be, it was a space that

We had to create that and we had to show up every day for the business so that eventually the business could show up for us. And I think we've gotten to the point now, both of us where this company and this business and the people that we have here with us on our side are supporting that vision and really things have started to shift. So on the life cycle of a business, like you might be in that stage where you are hungry to get your business running off the ground and you might be putting more in there than your future self wants. But guess what? If you know that vision, it's

super clear, you can make your business work for you so that you're not constantly working for your business and eventually it will turn

Kiera Dent (23:34)

And I think it's just a to me that's like what gets us excited like I love giving people their life back I love like tiff as much as I give you a hard time about having work off of there That was not the case a year ago Like you were stressed out of your mind about work And I think it would have taken a huge chunk and I was stressed a year ago about work too like I think it was a huge portion of our time our mental energy and I think like you and I have both helped each other get our lives back. I think that we are happier humans now

And so we're living proof of it, but then also to give practices their lives back, to give teams their lives back to, like there's an office that I'm super excited we're working with. And they said like, I'm sober out. feel like, and like the whole leadership team, they're like, we're the ones who are here after hours. We're the ones that are here before. We're the ones who are like, just they're like exhausted. They're like ringing a rag out and then you squeeze it even more trying to get like the last two drops of life out of them. And I said,

What would it be like if I told you that if you got out of here every day at five o'clock, you're not allowed to stay later, you're not allowed to come in earlier. And at the end of that week, you'd be able to go on a trip to Cabo or wherever you want to go, pick your dream location, Hawaii, the Caribbean. I don't care. You choose your place. Or if you want like, I don't know, say 50,000 bucks or whatever it is, could you get out on time? And they were all like, yes. And I said, so A, we know it's possible and B,

that's getting your life back. So first homework assignment working with us is everyone's out the door by five, at least one day this week. And it's crazy because just small little changes that don't seem huge help people get their life back. And Tiff, it was just so magical to be with you and to be in person with you and to present and to give this. And I think that that's probably why we were both so excited from it. Like we, felt like we were in Taylor Swift. Let me just give a little Swiftie, like the lavender haze. I felt like we were in the Dental A Team haze after the summit of just the

Tiffanie (25:19)

Thank

Kiera Dent (25:23)

euphoria of knowing we were able to give people their life back, their teams getting energized, giving them hope and excitement. Again, not just about a practice, but about a life. So those are kind of my takeaways to have any last thoughts you have, because I loved it. I'm so grateful you were a part of it. ⁓ Ride or die, cotton candy pink and blue for life, like truly just being able to deliver our magic and to change lives and to bless them through dentistry, I think is something that we both... ⁓

I think I took for granted for a hot minute and realized like what a beautiful blessing it is in the way we're doing it now versus stringing ourselves up to dry, doing it so hard, now doing it through passion and ease and flow rather than through force and pull like we did in the past.

Tiffanie (26:04)

I agree. Yeah, I totally agree. I did all of that. And I think having the team that we have behind us, the consultants who are here and they are so excited to help so many new clients this week, we have just seen such an influx of people ready to change their lives, ready to change what their business model looks like. And like you said, get their lives back. It's been just really incredible and watching our consulting team just rise to the occasion rally. I mean, we've got clients that just signed up this week that I've got Trish and Kristy and

Dana has already implemented tools. Dana has already within weeks found significant money issues and things going on that it's just really cool to be able to watch so many people outside of you and I be able to truly transform lives. And that's what that's what we're all about is really just creating the best for everyone that's involved.

Kiera Dent (26:57)

Yeah, Div, I love it and I agree. Our consultants are second to none. And so if you missed out, you did miss out. And put it on your calendar for next year. I do believe that Dental A Team Summit is next to none. We just have so much fun. We bring fun to CE and we make it enjoyable and easy. But I hope you choose to join us next year for sure.

But if you're thinking like what we just talked about, you want to know more about, or you want some tips for it, or you want some of the resources that we share, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. We'll happily like assess it with you and your practice. Like we have given so many tools out and so much help to all these practices, but I think truly giving you your life back, helping you help more patients and having more fun is what we're about. So Tip, thanks for being on the podcast. Thanks for doing Summit with me. ⁓ I enjoyed it and I just appreciate and adore you so much as a human and as a colleague, as a coworker, as a mentor, and just being in my life.

for who you are. So thanks for being here today. I super appreciate you.

Tiffanie (27:48)

Thank you. Thank you for having me and supporting me through my journey.

Kiera Dent (27:52)

And for all of you listening, thanks for listening and we'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

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Tiff and Dana discuss the numerous innovations happening in the field of pediatric dentistry, specifically minimally invasive care and maximizing shortened attention spans.

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Transcript:

Tiffanie (00:02.2)

Hello Dental A Team listeners. We are so excited to be back here with you. If you listened to an earlier podcast, I alluded to the fact that Dana and I were going to have some fun with a really cool podcast. I'm excited for this one. I think it took a little bit for us to prep for this one, but I think that's the world of dentistry for us. Dana, thank you for spending so much time with me this afternoon busting out a few podcasts here for the...

For the listeners, how are you this lovely afternoon?

Dana (00:33.698)

Doing good, doing good. I'm excited to be here. I've had to reframe my podcast time to Tiff time because it helps really get me pumped up and excited for it.

Tiffanie (00:39.768)

I'll make it.

Tiffanie (00:44.986)

I appreciate that. I love that so much. It is our time together. Kristy started saying the same thing too. And, I love getting you guys on here and I can't wait to get some with Trish and all the other consultants that, that we have. think it's just so valuable for us to get the time together, share ideas. Cause you know, we have, we have our consultant co-labs, but this seems to be where the most ideas just like randomly spur out. Cause it's almost like we're coaching.

when we talk about these things. So you're welcome to the world. Thank you to the world for joining us for our consultant time. It's my Dana time, my Britt time, my Kristy time. So thank you, Dana. I appreciate it. Today, I thought it would be fun. And I want to caveat this before I truly talk about what we're talking about. This is for everyone. We want to focus today on pediatric dentistry innovations. But

I really think that there's some valuable tips and tricks in here for everyone and not just pediatric practices. I know a lot of GP practices see many children. I know a lot of pediatric practices that refuse GP referrals, which I think is really funny. And I totally understand because when I was in my GP practice, it was like we would take kids, but the worst kids we did not. And so I totally get it. It just makes me chuckle every time.

Regardless, my oral surgery practices, you guys are seeing kiddos and by kiddos, mean like realistically 16 and under is what we're talking about here today. I know my my periopractices, sometimes you guys are seeing them too. My son plays lacrosse and gosh dang those teeth. just cringe every time something happens, mouth guard or not. I have seen, I don't know how many mouth guards fly across the field and they have stopped play because it's thank God. I thank God for this for these.

rules and regulations, but it's part of the uniform. And so if they're missing, if they if if the ref see it fly out of their mouth, they'll call the bell stop the game so they can go get it. But I'm like, you got hit so hard your mouth guard blew out. Anyway, it's periodontist. I know you're seeing kiddos too. So everyone's seeing kiddos. And today it's just pediatric dentistry innovations and

Tiffanie (02:57.342)

I think, Dana, you said it well just before we got on here. There's not a lot of exciting new things for pediatric dentistry or realistically right now for dentistry in general. We've kind of hit the space of, we're gonna try this stuff out for a little while. So I agree with you there, but I think we've come up with some really good things and tested and seen some amazing things that are working for the generations of kids that we have right now.

we were talking attention spans. So I know that that will come into play with some of the stuff we're speaking on today, but really, really honing in on, I think it's, again, it's going to come back to like that trust and that value and making sure that emotionally we're, we're emotionally evoking things for our patients, whether they're adults or children, so that they're comfortable, they're confident, they trust us and they want to return. For the kiddos, I get really emotional and

I just love on the pediatric practices. I myself could never work in a pediatric practice full time. There's no way. I don't have the patience for it, but man, do I value and appreciate the work that all of you guys are doing and Dana, that you were able, that you've done and are continuing to do in your efforts as well. Because to me, I've done mostly GP and oral surgery.

And I really had so many patients. I've met so many people that are so afraid of the dentist because they had a horrible experience as a child or because they had a parent who had a bad experience as a child that passed it on to them. Those were the worst for me, but I just value and appreciate the amazing pediatric practices who are out there doing amazing work and creating lasting.

impressions for people because you've really set them up for success in so many different places. So whether you're a GP, a specialty, a pediatric specialty, no matter what a lot of these pieces we're going to talk about today are really going to help you set the stage and the tone for these people's lives. And Dana, you've done pediatric dentistry. Thank you. Praise to you. I just, you know, I love kids, but this

Tiffanie (05:13.536)

I just don't have it in me and I know that about me. I can consult them and I can spend a day and a half in office with them and love on those kids while I'm there and then I'm exhausted and need to go home. So I love it. Thank you, Dana for being there. Dana, I actually I really loved some of the things you were talking about, like the continuation of products and services and stuff that we're already utilizing. think GP and pediatric offices are using a lot of those. Tell me

here with everyone listening a little bit about some of those pieces that you used and that you're seeing still lot of your pediatric practices are using and what have you seen just continue to innovate in the world of that.

Dana (05:53.472)

Yeah, I think one of the biggest things that pediatric practices are always looking at ways to innovate is minimally invasive care. So how can I get this kiddo treatment that they need improve what they came here with in a way that is as minimally as invasive as possible because of exactly what you said. think pediatric practices beyond yes, all practices have to work on experience pediatric practices are unique and they've got a parent experience and a patient experience and oftentimes the patient experience impacts the parents.

experience, as I can tell you my mom heart, just for my mom heart too. So I feel like they have worked really, really hard in trying to find ways to treat kiddos as minimally as they can, right? And but yet still getting some really great results. So they have found a lot of things, you know, we're even starting to see a little bit of like, you know, non injection.

Tiffanie (06:26.552)

Yeah.

Dana (06:49.088)

anesthetizing and things like that that really really, know, SDF has made huge leaps and bounds. There's Cura.now for... What's the word I'm looking for, Tiff?

Tiffanie (07:01.784)

Keep going.

Dana (07:02.7)

Yeah, and so there's just all sorts of ways that we treat kiddos now that like didn't exist before and that is truly because we're looking at ways to treat them that helps create that positive experience and doesn't put them fearful in the dental chair.

Tiffanie (07:16.492)

Yeah, well, even Dana, I'm thinking too, even fluoride has come world so that they're not swallowing it or it's not as toxic, I guess is the best word to use there, or difficult because remember it used to, gosh, I remember the trays, right? I remember trying to shove those trays in kids' mouths in my office and I'm like, this does not fit. The doctor's like, no, it's supposed to be too big and it's just like fluoride foam is everywhere. So thank heavens those are.

hopefully a thing of the past. But even in the world of fluoride for kiddos, like what have you seen in that world, Dana, that has transpired over the course of last few years?

Dana (07:57.036)

Yeah, I think, you know, obviously the big switch to the varnish, think to like, I mean, I've even seen some pediatric offices, like I had a pediatric dentist and she basically like reached out to all the pediatricians in the area and was like, fluoride these kiddos as early as possible. I'll teach you how I'll so it's just expanding like the reach on that too has been incredible. And I think just the education to the parent because kiddos, you know,

they expose themselves to a lot of acidic things now. Diets have changed a lot over recent years and things in our food have changed a ton. And so as much as they can also just educate the parent on those choices and like, hey, we can kind of counteract some of those choices with Laura. really want to...

do a ton of nutritional counseling happens in pediatric practices too, but it just kind of reinforces the need for as we see these things change, we've got to make sure that kiddos get access to that too.

Tiffanie (09:05.462)

Yeah, and I think that's space of innovation as well that you just mentioned, the nutritional counseling. That's not something that's always been there. It's been there to a level, right? We know like soda, and I remember telling kids or being told to swish with water after I ate my lunch at school because I wasn't going to carry my toothbrush, you're supposed to brush. Like I remember all of those pieces. But I think in the recent years, nutrition, I think nutritional counseling in general, in the health industry has become bigger.

situation. It's become a bigger conversation and I know even standing in office with my pediatric

practices, consulting them, watching them work with patients. I've been just amazed at the level of nutritional counseling that they're giving the kids and the parents. And like you said, we're working with the parents. It's two experiences there, but really honing in on what are you eating and how it's affecting. And I think one of the biggest spaces that I love the most, is really being able to see like...

acid reflux, right, for one thing, but even just like the tongue thrusting, the different habits that they're able to see because of what the mouth looks like, and then they're able to correct it so early on and really build lasting changes. They can tell just by different visual things within the mouth, right? If there's gut issues, does your kid have an allergy? Like, maybe you should go check this out. And they're referring them back to their

there are pediatricians to get nutritional counseling or to get these tests and things done, or there's a lot of them that can be done in dental practices now as well, but really honing in and looking further than we've ever looked before to ensure that these patients are as healthy as possible. And I think that's massive. That's a huge innovation within the pediatric world. And I think it's a really easy space for dentists and...

Tiffanie (10:58.924)

for pediatric dentists specifically to really get extra training in. It's offered, you know, everywhere. I've got, you know, we've got gym.

trainers doing stuff like that, taking courses like that. So to be able to have your degree that you've got, your doctorate that you've got, and then add that aspect to it is just really, really freaking cool, in my opinion, and saves so much time and trouble and probably saves the parents a lot of time and trouble in figuring things out or finding out too late. So that was a huge one that you mentioned there. I think one space

One, I love that you highlighted again that it's two experiences. It's the parent's experience and it's the patient's experience. And when I work with pediatric practices, like we're building out avatars to attract the parents that we want because they're gonna have the kids that we want. So we're not talking to the kids, they're not making the decision, we're speaking to the parents.

One thing that I hone in on is the avatar, but then the second step to that is how do we ensure that the parent wants to come back? How are we making them comfortable in the practice? How do we make them comfortable with the diagnosis, the conversations? How are we integrating them into all of this as well? And making sure, like you said, my mom at heart, that the patients are well cared for.

one space we're hitting with the generations, you know, the generations are getting further and further from us. But those generations that we're hitting now, there's a huge attention span differential between even our you know, teens right now already have like pretty low attention span compared though to like our

Tiffanie (12:40.408)

are four to eight to 10, like that 16, 13 to 16 is like, gosh dang it, this is kind of kind of annoying, you know, but then you get under 13. And it's like, holy cow, I've got about five seconds to grab your attention. And then you're gonna we were saying like, our kids keep saying, I'm bored. I'm bored. I'm like, oh my gosh, did I hear you say I'm bored before we get to the industry one more time, I'm gonna freak out. But their attention spans are so low. They're so small, because there's so much

stimulation, constantly going around, that we have to take that into consideration, I think, within the dental practice, because we've got to keep their attention, we've got to keep them excited and interested and build an experience that they don't walk away frustrated by, because the parents are taking into consideration their experience. Like, did you have coffee on hand? That's a huge one for the moms out there.

And then did the kid have a good experience? So I think those aspects are massive. And Dana, what did you, we talked earlier and you actually wrote this newsletter. So if you're getting this newsletter, good job, Dana wrote this one. If you're not getting our newsletters, you should go subscribe because they're pretty freaking awesome.

and they're written by the consultants if you didn't catch that there. So Dana, what are you suggesting the practices are seeing practices? I think this works for all practices, by the way, these ideas here, but specifically pediatric dentistry is going to thrive with it. What are you suggesting right now to a lot of your clients that they integrate and innovate within their practice to help keep those attention spans? like here, that they're excited and interested?

Dana (14:14.38)

Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's like a twofold. How do I keep them engaged and interested and excited and make dentistry fun? But then also, how do I kind of distract them so that I can do what I need to do in that short amount of time so that they stay comfortable and calm? And so I feel like we're looking kind of at a bunch of different tools. see, you know, I know there's lots of

TVs on the ceilings and and I'm even seeing some virtual reality. You know, kids are always like loving those oculus as I have a nephew that he's constantly like banging into the wall and you hear him on phone calls and I'm like, what's he doing? My sister was like, that's his oculus, his virtual reality game. And so it does allow you to kind of transport kiddos into the next world. So I think that it's, it's just coming up with how can we make dentistry fun? How can we make it engaging and make the patient feel like they're a part of the process? So these

Tiffanie (14:42.808)

Yeah.

Dana (15:08.494)

things that we use in general too but taking photos and showing them and talking about the icky bugs and like making it fun and in their terms and then also having tools on hand to be able to distract the kiddos that you can really do what you need to do very quickly very easily without minimal hands and minimal squirming so that again it creates that experience that you want them to have quick seamless easy in and out for them.

Tiffanie (15:33.344)

Yeah, yeah, the headphones are massive, right? I think the Oculus for the waiting room is brilliant. I know I've got to practice.

beautiful practice and she has a theater room and so they she's got like comfy chairs in there and that's dark and the movies going it's the same movie that's playing in the back and so the kids can go into the theater room but that oculus idea or the VR headsets whichever one you you choose is a great idea to have a little room where it's obviously the kids by themselves for

exactly what Dana said about her nephew, right? Kids are by themselves, but they're playing with that. used to do, I mean, gosh, this is so long ago, but I remember we used to have like a PlayStation one, you know, and it honestly drove me crazy. told you kids are not, I love kids, but.

Dana (16:06.446)

you

Tiffanie (16:20.728)

kids are not my jam for dentistry, but I would go crazy because it was the PlayStation one. So we had to flip the discs out, right? And so we had like 10 different games, but I had to keep them behind the counter and the kids would come up. But this is a little bit different where one, the kids know how to use this stuff. When we had the PlayStation, the kids did not know how to use a PlayStation. Kids were not like, they didn't understand it and they didn't get it. But now they're teaching us how to use this stuff. Like a six and eight year old could tell you how to use a VR headset.

My kid, he looks at something and he just knows. And I'm like, how did you figure that out? He's like, it's obvious. It's not obvious. I didn't get it. Right? Like, that was not obvious, but it's fine. So all these

these spaces of really making sure that they are super entertained. Like are we making them sit out there on their own phones or do we have things that they can do? Even as simple as like a coloring table. I know I had my boyfriend's kids the other day were walking through. It was old Navy and they were doing some sort of safety something. They had a table set up over the side with crayons and

coloring sheets, those kids flipped. They were so excited, screaming. It lasted about 10 seconds, right? Because it's going to be over quickly. But even just having something like that or having iPads with the color by number app, kids are obsessed with that right now. But making sure there's some sort of, like you said, that distraction, but also in the waiting area, like where are they sitting? And what are you making the parents do? You know, the parents are sitting in their school on their Instagram. So how are you keeping the kids entertained so that both parents or both

sides right are enjoying their time. So I love the VR headset. I love the the movies are still a pretty decent hit as long as you get bluey on there or something. I know it's got to be super relative. Apparently, the Disney movies are not super relative anymore. It's got to be bluey or bust.

Tiffanie (18:10.552)

But making sure we have those, think headsets in the back are really fantastic if they're going to be back there for a while. Or if you're going to be using the drill or anything like that, mean noise, have those noise canceling headphones so that they don't understand what's going on. And then one space too, Dana, that I think all practices are starting to implement. And I think it's brilliant for pediatric care because it makes it seamless and easy as the AI tools. So making sure you've got those AI tools, Pearl or

whatever it is that you decide to utilize, download it and working because I mean, Dana, how often did you see, I know just in our practice we'd be like, shoot, like that was hard to see or we just couldn't get to it that something could have been missed, but also like you said, super non-invasive attempts.

Dana (18:58.966)

Yeah, yeah, I think AI tools are great clinical AI tools are fantastic as far as helping us diagnose again with like minimal contact within the teeth or in the mouth for the patients. And then even AI for like having a chat for parents because parents right typically work when the office is working. That's why those middle hours are so hard to fill and ding ding pediatric practices, right? So if I've got an AI bot that can chat with my parents after work can get them scheduled can do those things. That makes it so much easier because again, like Tiff said, we've got two experiences

here but our target experience is that parent and so the more that we can make those things easy and again pediatric practices rely on volume right so bones are constantly

Last time I was in a pediatric practice for a visit I was just like the phone does not separate in there are hundreds of phone calls every single day and so having an AI tool that can get the ones that we miss or that can chat with the parent via text or can be available for after hours those types are crucial for pediatric practices because that is when the parent has free time

Tiffanie (20:00.504)

So.

Yeah, that's brilliant. That's brilliant. I think that's a wonderful tool. So AI in a lot of different areas. We've got the virtual reality headset, the Oculus or whichever you choose, AI pearl or whatever chair side to get as much value out of that appointment and that chair time as you can. And then also the AI communication tools. think that's brilliant. Virtual assistance is also a great way to handle that because they can work any hours. And so we've got a lot of practices

Pediatric or not that are utilizing virtual assistance to catch those after hours and also I know a lot of practices especially pediatric practices are closed on Fridays or they're closed on Mondays open on Friday So you've got that you've got that four-day work week three or four days and so

The AI tools, the communication tools or the virtual assistant can grab a lot of those missed opportunity phone calls. And I know from the marketing standpoint, working closely with the marketing company for a few of my clients, that is massive.

being able to bring either of those tools in to grab those calls has drastically changed the marketing efforts and increased their results tenfold just because the opportunities were getting missed while we were closed. So I love those and that's brilliant. I think there's a ton of tools here. think kids are digital natives. Kids know what's out there. They know when you're not a digital native. So watch out for that. They will tell you they will call you on it. And if your VR headset is

Tiffanie (21:33.07)

is like, I don't know, an Amazon $20 ordered one, they'll tell you. tell you. I'm not saying go spend a ton of money on it. I'm just saying make sure whatever you get is going to keep the attention span of the child and that the games that are on there are quality. I think movies, things like that are fantastic. So my suggestion, my action items for you, really look at the patient experience. Take your dentist cap off.

and say if I had to come here, what would I expect if my kid were coming here? What would I expect? And really look at what your systems and all the pieces that are keeping people's attention, what are those things doing to create that experience for your patient and your parent?

and really take inventory of those spaces. Is there something that we can innovate on that we can just make it better, make it new? You always want to have that seamless experience and make it high end. And if we stay where we are, never innovate or change, we will eventually just die. So don't let that happen. Dana, thank you so much for your nuggets. Thank you for being our pediatric brain here in The Dental A Team and for sharing those tips and tricks. I appreciate you being here today.

Dana (22:49.28)

Yep, I always have fun. Thanks for having me, Tiff.

Tiffanie (22:52.062)

Of of course. All right, guys, go take inventory, go figure out what it is that you need to innovate on, if anything, and leave us some comments in the section below. Five star reviews are always appreciated. If you've got tips and tricks that you can share with people, people really do go through and read those reviews. So if you've got some, drop them in those reviews. We want to hear them too. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com is how you can reach us. And if you are a practice who's ready to freaking innovate, let us know. We are here to help you along your journey. Dana, thanks

again and everyone we will catch you next time.

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Kiera and Tiff are tuning in from a hike to talk about their shared birthday (today, May 8!) and how their personal and business evolutions have morphed.

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Transcript

The Dental A Team (00:00.977)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and... Spiffy Tiffy. Oh my gosh. We are on a hike and we're in the middle of the wilderness. We're a hot mess right now. So Tiff flew in and we decided since we're actually together, we should do our birthday podcast together because little known fact, if you don't know, Tiff and I actually shared the best birthday in the entire world. Yeah, May 8th.

I think they knew that though. I think they did too and if you didn't well welcome and so I convinced if we were gonna go on a hike today and when we used to be like old school old school dental a team we used to go on hikes and podcast on a hike so we decided to We've got cords all over us. Like this is in our ear. We haven't done this in so long I feel like rookie move here So if the video turns out amazing and if it doesn't well Just imagine Tiff and I are sitting up on a hill on this bench

It was a beautiful hike up. We're in Reno, Nevada right now, but we get to celebrate our birthday and I wanted to riff this because May 8th is an incredible day. Tiff and I are both like so random. Tiff, we met. I feel like Tiff and I in the work world, we met on a blind date basically. Like we were set up by a mutual friend for Tiff to come and join and she is still on my phone Tiffany Trader DPP. Yep. DPP is the company that Kara previously owned that brought us together. it was DPP. Dental placement pros. Tiff was a recruiter and then

Recruiter turned consultant turned lead consultant. She's kind of done it all but if I feel like happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you. Gosh, it's like just right around the corner It is and so this is releasing on our actual birthday And so I thought a fun rift would be to if we are both about to enter a new decade of our lives And I thought about thinking about like decades decades in practice ownership decades in our life I don't know how you're feeling but going into our birthday this year

I've really been like on this mole of like, do I want to be in the next decade of my life? And what do want that to embody? And I know you and I are both kind of on that same path. It's really fun. It's been fun with you. think over the course of time, shoot girl, it's been almost eight years. Five, eight, eight years. That's actually cute. But just thinking about like, we've gone through so much together. And I think if we were to look back at when we first started the company.

The Dental A Team (02:14.635)

I feel like Tiff started it with me. Like seriously, you've been through 99.999 % of all of it. just thinking back of like, I think of who we were when we met versus who we are today and really like huge kudos to us of like both progressing and growing. But I'm like, Tiff, what does this next decade look for you? Like I thought, let's think about it. And like, maybe what was the decade before? What was that focused on? And then what are we going into for this next one? From your perspective, from my perspective and helping owners and like offices think about like.

when you first started your business, might look different and like, what are the different decades or even five years of your life? How do we kind of like capture that and maximize? To me, this I feel like is living life on purpose rather than just unconsciously going through the motions. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think it's actually it's a really fun conversation, not only because it's a fun conversation, but it's actually.

I think I can make it super applicable for life and for business in general. So whether you're a dental practice owner or you're an entrepreneur of your own or just whatever kind of business you're owning or working in or managing, I think I can make it pretty applicable because when you ask me that question, like, what am I going into? What did I come out of? Like, what does that look like? And I think we both are very intentional human beings. So we're always very intentional with our time and we're very intentional with like what's coming and how can we make the best or the most of what's coming.

And I can say this one's fun too and easy for me because I'm going into a whole new world of age. Going from 39 to 40, that whole new like 10 years, everybody looks at their lives in like 10 year segments. And going into 30, that life was how can I show up the most for my kid? Because Brody, you know, was at an age where he needed me.

He needed the best parent that he could have. He needed the happiest mom that he could have. And I was very intentional with who I was being and what kind of a life I was creating for us so that Brody could have the best experience as possible. So going into 30 was like, okay, how do I show up the best for my kid? Because he's at these formative years and ages that he just, needs me to continue showing up and how do I show up the best for him? So it was very much about my identity as a mom, I guess, and like reforming that.

The Dental A Team (04:27.144)

And allowing my work to be a part of that and a part of Brody's life and a part of showing him how to be a good employee and good team member and a good human when it comes to work as well. And it's fun actually going into this next decade because Brody and I hit milestones together, which is incredible. I didn't plan it that way, but it works out really nicely. And so as he is graduating high school and going on to college, I will be a year into 40.

And so I'm going into my 40s with this whole new mindset of how do I support my adult child the best, which frees up honestly like so much for space for me because he is going to be so independent. And when I think about that, it's crazy because now I have all this time for me and this space for me. So really like reforming what that looks like for work, for pleasure, other relationships in my life.

making sure that I'm super intentional still, but thinking about it in like a business mindset, it's kind of like the, last 10 years was like my teenage years. Um, those Brody's, you know, out of like middle adolescent to into his teen years and really being intentional with that time in the teen years of like grit and the hard and the, um, emotions and the

puberty and all of the changes and business does that too. It does. Right. So you get to like five years in business and you're like, okay, I still have like a screaming toddler. And then you get to 10 and you're like, okay, this is kind of cool. We're sustaining. And then you, that next 10 years, right? Like if we're getting to those markers is like, okay, now we're like in our adolescence or however you might want to look at it. But then you get to the space where it's like, wow, this has opened up and I have leads and I have people on my team that are

sustaining my business. So it's like having an adult child, right? Who's like in college. So I still have to like be there and hold accountability lines and like do so much of it and financially still have to be there. But then in the next, you know, one to six years from now, that's going to shift and change again, where it's like, now I'm like, maybe not finance, so financially tied and so emotionally invested. And when you look at your business, I think it's kind of the same trajectory. So

The Dental A Team (06:49.486)

That's my long-winded answer. I liked it. No, I love it a ton because like, so when we did Summit together and we talk about the life cycle of a business, which came from Tony Robbins, and it really does talk about like from toddler to like from birth to top like infant, then toddler, then you go into like your middle school years. I do remember Brody in his middle school. were going to like, Tiff was like on coaching calls. We were running to like after school pickups. We weren't like the longest line.

And then they go into like high school then they move into college and then it's kind of this prime and it's interesting because I think as you and I shift into these decades That are different like I agree with you. I think our 30s were so much of building us building a business building who we wanted to be I feel like so much of my identity and who I am Not that it's tied to the business. I think at the beginning it was and I think we both watched We watched a lot of that and then we realized like this was crushing us and crippling us and we had some really strong breaking points like you said I think it's like that

refining and redefining who we are and like what we actually want it to be because we're no longer in survival mode like thank heavens like cheers to that like we should cheers our microphones here we go but like cheers to that that we got out of survival mode because every business and I think every person goes into survival mode that it's almost like tiff I'm I'm a little scared but like beyond optimally optimistically hopeful

that we can like sit and take a breath and actually enjoy what we created and enjoy the life we created rather than trying to keep building. And I think like that's like the crusting it feels like we're headed into in business and life. Like, so to like what's on horizon for 40. I mean, for me, I know I've been looking at, and it's funny, you and I are actually gonna probably switch roles. You're about to be childless, like less dependent. And if everything goes the way that my life is shaking up, we will become very child dependent. Like babies were hoping like that becoming a portion of our life, which.

Honestly, it feels funny that you and I are constantly shifting lives, like literally shifting all the time. But also so beautiful that the different seasons of life, we can show it for each other in different ways. But like what's on the horizon for 40? Like what does 40 feel? Because I've been thinking like, what's the energy of that? What do want it to be? We think of this in business every year. There's an energy, there's a creation, there's a like a word that we have. But it is interesting to not feel so survival-ish, but more sustained. And like to me, it feels like we're headed into true prime.

The Dental A Team (09:08.765)

in business and true prime in life. So what's on Tiff's prime? Like Tiff's not, Brody's like full-time parent all the time anymore. Like he's weird. That's gotta part. You also feel weird. what's the vibes you're feeling for moving into that decade of your life? Yeah, I'm really excited. I think the human and the man that Brody has already become, he impresses me every single day. Like literally every day I'm He's an amazing human.

I feel so lucky that I've been a part. mean how he was so little I think it was eight when we met and so to watch Brody I feel like I didn't see the child like I I don't know Tiff is like brand-new newborn mom I have no clue and that feels like hard hard years of your life And I met you when he was eight but to watch you and him just this incredible bond and he's such an amazing human like kudos to you has got to feel really good of like moving into 40 you grew

you raise this human that's really going to go impact the world in such a special way. is. He is going to do something incredible. And I remember when he was an infant and when he was like a baby and a toddler, I remember reminiscing with his grandma, his dad's mom, that he was going to do something really incredible. And every year of his life, the two of us have just been like, he's going to do something incredible. So we have known since that baby came into this world that he was here to impact the world in really great ways.

Brody does a lot of it on his own, if I'm honest with you, like I love taking credit for it because I know that I do impact him and I know that the way I communicate and the person that I am definitely helps mold him. but we've had a village of people around him, you and Jason included, like that have just impacted who he is, but Brody just intuitively and innately knows how to be a good human and he trusts himself. He trusts his intuition and he just goes through life. So.

I'm really proud of him and it's fun to watch that. so I'm really excited. I'm so sad. Like, gosh, it's just like heart wrenching to think of how massive that changes and like how different life will look in a year. But I'm so excited to see him as an adult and like see him create his own life and all of his own adventures. So I'm really excited about that. And what the next decade looks like is, I don't know, it feels like,

The Dental A Team (11:24.478)

I feel like things are slowing down but still speedy at the same time, if that makes sense. Like there's a lot coming, a lot of trips and a lot of fun and Aaron and I's relationship is just incredible and there's a ton on the horizon there, I can tell, and with his two younger kids. But being able to be in a space and in a relationship that I can continue to soar and continue to.

find freedoms and share those and spread those with him and explore the world with him while still being a part of the kids' lives but not being dependent on for that. don't know how to say that. You're be the auntie. Yeah, I'm not raising the kids. I'm there to positively impact and to support Aaron in whatever ways that he needs, but he doesn't need me to raise the kids, which is freaking incredible. It's the best relationship I could have ever drummed up.

So like that's on the horizon fostering that relationship those relationships all three of them and their mom fostering a relationship with her. She's incredible and really I don't know intentionally devoting into that new space and area and allowing me and Brody to find a new Just a new adventure like for both of us. It's gonna be The next ten years is gonna be really shifty. I mean just think he's gonna go from

18 theoretically to 28 in a decade Jason I were talking of like how crazy is it that when you look at the decades of your life So like from 1 to 10 you go through a lot of school But from your 10 to 20 like you're finishing up high school So basically like almost 20 years those first two decades are so much school But then I feel that third decade the 20 to 30 is so much freaking growth. It's finishing college. It's figuring out who you are It's getting your first job. It's figuring out how life works and then I feel like your 30s to 40s for us at least we're like

building. Like it was the big build of who we are as people. It's building your, it was building the business together. It was building our identities. It was building, like you were building with your children, um, like just so many pieces. And then it feels like the forties, it's almost like you've crested the mountain, which that was cute. We're at the top of the mountain right now with podcasting, uh, and knowing that there's so much more ahead, it's not the, it's not the final peak. There's so many more peaks, but, uh, it doesn't feel as hard as it was to grind to this area. And I think for,

The Dental A Team (13:46.043)

For me, I'm not quite to 40. I'm very close to one year behind Tiff. So that's kind of fun to talk about. But I've been looking and I think for me, the 40s feel very much like we said, mean, moving into motherhood feels very thrilling and daunting all at the same time. Like me morphing into that. I've wanted this for so long. You know that you've gone through the journey with me for so much of it. But like, how does that shift me as a CEO, as a friend? Like I've watched you put Brody ahead always and to

to have that fierce love come into my life is something that I'm so excited to, like more find in Jason's relationship even more. But also it's very much I'm looking at my 40s, there's so much health and I think you and I are both hitting health harder than we ever have. Just to make sure that the body I have that I've been gifted with really can help me have the life that I wanna have till I'm 90, till 100. We have this great vision of us, we're both in pink and blue. Tiff and I have this vision of I'm in pink, she's in blue.

Tiff's gonna be the cotton candy blue granny. I'm gonna be the cotton candy pink granny. We have like, I'm gonna totally have pink hair. Tiff's gonna have blue hair. We're like cruising. Tiff, I don't know if I've told you, like it's gotten a bigger vision. We're gonna be on the beach somewhere. I've already thought through this, because it was originally like jazzy with this, but we're gonna have this like freaking villa of like all the awesome people that we wanna be around that are in this amazing villa.

We're going to have a tour if we have to be in Jazzy's. It's only because they're fun. have NOS on them. Well, they have the like sand tires. Yes, 100 % sand tires. And then we're going to have our own like private like boat and yachts that like we can have this trail go to. We're going to have people that live there. Like it's going to be the most amazing place. I'm so excited about it. Like living just our best lives. This will be your tree space, Tiff. Yeah, thank you, Will. You found it. just like making sure that I take care of my body now and really putting an emphasis on that.

to be able to sustain. But also I think, like you said, no longer so much focus on me personally, but being able to give more. It's a weird shift, but who knows? Shoot, having kids, I probably will be like, Tiff, I lied. I lied about all this. I had these grandiose ideas on that mountain and like, screw it. It's like just pure survival. But really I think that there's like impact, health, and a continuing morphing. But I think that this is evolution of souls. Like this is evolution of business. This is evolution of owners.

The Dental A Team (16:04.989)

And I think if you're a new owner, just realize it does get better. True or false, Tiff? my gosh, true. I actually, it's funny that you say that because I have an email ready to go for a client call today and my client's been a practice owner for like, gosh, just over six months now. And one of the action items is like, help me feel less crazy, right? Like he's like turmoiling all the time. And I thought to myself, as I was reading it this morning,

I was like, bro, it's not happening yet. Like you just got to sit tight and know that like that's where you're going to be for a hot minute. So, I feel like you said like the tens to the twenties to the thirties, right? And I felt like the twenties for me was like infancy again. Like the twenties was like, even infancies. I think twenties for me was like that two years to two years old to five years old age where you're just like, not sure how to be or how to act or how to communicate yet.

but you're trying everything and you're running as fast as you can and climbing things before somebody catches you. Yeah. And like asking for forgiveness, not remitting. I feel like that was my 20s. It's just like, what can I do? What can I get into? Like, how can I just be my most wild self? Yeah. have to like live wild and Well, it was like, how do I test the waters of being an adult? And how do I navigate this adult world and figure out what's okay and what's not? I kind of felt like that was my 20s and my 30s was like, okay.

Now I'm going to dial in who I am, but like the reality is, it was still just like testing the waters and like 40 is like, I'm my most confident self today than I have ever been. And I feel more true and aligned with who I am today, even than I did a year ago. And so something like, I feel like it's like, we say we're in a cocoon all the time and I feel like that's, I honestly haven't even.

I feel so guilty. There's so many like friend events and things that I just have pieced out on in the last year and maybe even two years, but specifically the last year I have super recluse just like gone inwards and really dedicated and devoted to really figuring out what the important pieces of my life are. Not that these friend events aren't important pieces. It was just like noise. And I had to, I had to reduce some of the noise.

The Dental A Team (18:17.468)

And I can see and I can feel that in the next six months to be here, like that will start opening back up again. But I had to recluse in order to be able to like see more clearly. Yeah. And I actually think it was it was I don't know if it was duly induced or if we were separately on the same track. But I think both you and I.

hit a breaking spot last year where we both broke, which is odd because we were so confident, but I think we broke on the noise and really, I know you took an inward step, I took an inward step, and we both were like, all right, independently and connected too, which is really interesting to look back on, Tim. I didn't realize how almost like same track we were on, just independently. It just looked a little differently. It did, but I agreed with you. was like...

cut out the noise, figure out what's really important, what really makes me happy rather than what I've always thought made me happy. And I think like to relate this back to offices, I think that there becomes noise in business too. I think that there was noise in dental lighting. I think that we were growing, we were really like after a shining star. And I remember, it was an interesting moment where you told me, were like, here we like kind of lost our vision and not kind of like we straight up lost it. It was like almost thrown in the trash on accident.

We were just chasing something, but we forgot why we forgot what we were doing. We forgot the everything that like it's something funny. I remember I was on a walk and I called you and I said, tip. Why does it have to this hard? And you said, I don't know, but it feels freaking hard right now. And I think right after that is when we both like hunkered in, we went inside and I mean, people said like, why haven't you guys been on the road? Well, this is why this is why we had to figure it out.

But it's so beautiful on the other side of it. I think as practice owners realizing like there is time to be quiet, there is time to internally reflect. Like just because you're at the prime right now doesn't mean you're gonna stay in prime. We know that we're headed towards this prime area, but it's also gonna be something done with intentionality. We're very intentional with all the hires we make. We're very intentional with the moves we make in the business. And I think this is so parallel to business and life. Like business to me is such a spiritual personal gain that I think teaches us so much about who we are as people if we want to.

The Dental A Team (20:24.689)

But I've learned so much through it. It's kind of fun to but I also think like celebrate the next decades that we're going to celebrate the awesome things are headed to but I would say in the last probably like one if not two years I think as people we figured out who we were And as the business we figured out who the business was and maybe as I'm saying this Maybe the business is also reflect you as a person. my gosh. It totally does. It's just absolutely reflects both of us

We try not to be in turmoil at the same time. Yeah, but it does. It absolutely reflects this. I think as you were saying all this, Karen, I think it's so precious and valuable. There's a space there that I was thinking, gosh, actually like us both were like, gosh, we had to clear out the noise. I think every chapter. All the pause was the timing. Hold that one.

Okay, I think what happens we go inwards right we had to clear out the noise we did we went inwards personally, but I'm thinking like Okay, how does this really exist you believe business is going through your businesses are going through the same things just like our business Whatever the life cycle so I'm thinking gosh I wouldn't I went internal and I had to like clear out some of the noise and to decide intentionally where I was spending the energy and my time I think that's like

you are a new patient, narrowing down what procedures you want to do. Because I think when you start out, when you're an infancy and toddler and adolescence of being a dentist, you are doing everything. You're like, what can I grab at that's going to bring in the revenue and get me profitable? And you're just go, go, go, go, go, do, do, do, do. And you have to do that. You have to. That's like starting a business. the waters. So too, it's like, what do I want to do? You can't figure out what you like or want to do if you haven't tried it.

We can't decide what sport we're going to play when we're a kid if our parents didn't allow us to try them all. So that's a parenting tip. True. I'm listening. I'm taking notes. Don't push them into one. Let them try and let them decide on their own. That's my parenting plug. But I'm thinking, gosh, you're like.

The Dental A Team (22:30.095)

noise is I don't want to do root canals anymore. Like I don't want to do this thing anymore. I don't want to have a doctor that's like, I don't want freaking do any more fillings. I'm like, stop doing filling. Yeah. Like it's fine. But you're at, he's at the point now that he can't do that. And I think that's the clear out the noise when it comes to a dental practice is what is noise? when I, a year ago, but however long it's been now.

When I was like, I can't do this anymore. I literally felt like I couldn't think like it was so noisy. Nothing was making me happy. Everything was just like a sword being poked at me. Everything that happened was something and I was like, this is not my natural state of being. So in my mind, when I feel out of my natural state of being, when I feel like things are hard, when I feel like things are chasing me and I'm chasing a golden carrot.

I know something has to give and that's that's when I when I either slow down enough to like clear out the noise or a break and last year I broke um but I I had to break in order to the change but that's where it is at your practice too so if you're in your practice and you're like this sucks Kara like I'm

This sucks and I can't do this anymore. ready to sell it. Can I just sell this? like, you can, let's prep it. Always be prepared to sell. So then by time we get through with that, they're like, actually, I kind of like this. We just had to out the noise. So you just have to clear out the noise and dial it in. Normally, what I find and what we found, right, is that we had lost our vision. So we were chasing everything instead of looking to accomplish our mission and our mission and bringing in things that supported that. We were chasing all of the things. So was like every client.

That's what Tony.

The Dental A Team (24:20.818)

So it was like every client is the client. Like every client is the one that we want. Instead of being like, what is the client? What does the client look like that supports our mission? Who's here to help us support our mission? And who's here to like, just go through an operations manual, just buy the operations manual. That's being freaking fast. If you're here to support our mission, we want to support you. That's what we had to do. That's what we had to come back to. So it's just like that.

clarifying moment as we were talking, I'm like, actually, as we went inside, and as I morphed and changed and figured out what I needed to clear out this year, that's exactly what it is. Totally. And Jeff, I love that you brought that up because there is so much noise. And I think there was so much fear that held us there. There's no way I can stop doing this. Like I remember we thought like, if we don't say yes to every single client that comes through and dental team isn't like providing for all of them, we're failing the mission rather than like

A, we're never gonna be able to serve everyone we want to and we're building things to be able to serve. That's why we do the podcast. That's the way we're able to serve every person that wants to be a part of this. But I think like before you get to that breaking spot, which I think you and I both, we learned a good lesson.

realize that you can actually say no to those fillings. You can say no to the root canals. You can say no to these things. Tiff and I were like, we don't want to travel. And Tiff, like, let's do in-person events. And I was like, I don't want to do those. And I'm so grateful we did it because they've been some of the most incredible things in hearing the clients. You had a vision that I couldn't see. And I also would say to owner doctors, don't be afraid to let your team help you find that vision while you're going through it. Tiff had the vision. She saw where we needed to go. I couldn't see it. And so trusting that Tiff.

whether it's for like, was like, shoot, Tiff, if this is what you want to do, take it and run with it. But truly, I'm so proud of you and so grateful for you because you saw the vision when I was blind and I couldn't see it. And I think having trusted people in your life, but realizing your life, like I think we get to do this one time. And that's why I'm super excited for us to be going to this decade. That's why I wanted to do this podcast with you. I was like, sure, can I rift about our birthday on my own? Yes.

The Dental A Team (26:20.617)

But I'd love to talk about it I think we bring different perspectives of your business is just like your life. So when you look at and I think one of the bigger things that I started looking at was when I'm 90, 100, 110, 120, when I look back, what am I going to want to be at that point in my life? How am going to want to act? What are the things I'm going to be proud of? What are the things that I'm going to be like? That was my legacy. I realized I wanted to leave a legacy and I wanted to have impact.

And Tiff, I know that's right aligned with what you are and what you want. And I know there's spaces in your own world that you want to do. We talked about it. There's other things. And so really becoming those people we want to be that we're proud of. And your business is the same. Like, you go to sell your business, what do you want them to look like? What's the legacy? How do you want this to play out? And I think that helps you make decisions more clearly. So I think, like, as we wrap this all up, like, hey, Tiff, happy birthday. Like, I'm excited. I'm excited for the 40s together to see, like, what we become and how we do.

Also in business, clear out the noise tip. think that was one of most beautiful things, clear that noise out, really hunker down. Like if you're in the beginning, you're gonna be hustling. Like realize it's the hustle, the grind. But if you're later on, realize that you can make changes to make life happier and that's also okay. I believe we get one life and we get to make it the best or the worst. And it's kind of like a schedule, like our schedule's terrible. We're like, you made it that way. Like you have the choice to change that. I think it's the same with your life. Like this is your life. Yes, we're all dealt cards.

but we're the ones who ultimately get to paint the canvas of what we want it to be. And Tiff, just, love you in my life. I love sharing the business with you. I love creating with you because you push me and inspire me in ways other people don't and you get it. And it's beautiful to create canvases together simultaneously and independently and just be huge raving fans of each other. And just so grateful for, for the life that we've been able to go on this journey with. Yeah, I don't know. Like I can't even say it better. And I think that we've created something really incredible.

The ability to share it with other people has been so much fun. Bring more people onto the team that can get behind what two girls trying to figure it out created. And it's just been really fun. Everything is done with intentionality. I think something you said made me think like just ownership of your life, ownership of your business. And at the end of the day, what do you want people to say about you?

The Dental A Team (28:33.342)

when you saw your practice, what kind of a business owner were you? Because I think we've all walked into or you've purchased the practices where the teams aren't talking so great about the previous owner or the patients are like, thank goodness or whatever. Be that guy that people are like, wait, where did he go? I always had so much fun and I wanted to talk with him or whatever. What do want people to say when you're done with whatever this piece of your life is? What will it look like when you're gone and take ownership of that?

and take ownership of the power and control that you have over it. Totally. And I'll say, Tiff, like just the silver lining for everybody listening, if you're going through the suck that Tiff and I went through, it does not matter where you are on the business life cycle, this will always hit you. So just know it's going to be there. So I think one, be very intentional with where it is. And Tiff, when you and I got more intentional, there you go. You're welcome. We got more intentional. Hiring became easier. Yeah.

We stopped trying to be everything for everyone. Like me as a CEO, I was like, fine, people are going to talk about me. That's fine. This is who I'm going to be. And this is Kira. This is the version I want to be. And I feel like I stepped into a role that I had never owned. We started hiring people with a lot more ease. We started attracting clients with a lot more ease and things really got better. So I think if you're in that space of just like, don't know, close down the noise, get really intentional. Where do you want to go? Who do you want to be? What are the things you want to be known for? What are the things you want to do? Get that vision boxed in.

We brought our leadership team together. got four of us like dialed in of exactly what we want to be together. And it's wild that in six short months from that first meeting to shoot, we're six months from that meeting. The ease and the flow that has come has been something that I can't even explain. It's magic. So go in, if we can help you out, if you're like, my gosh, guys, I'm living your life, call us. We don't just say that we need, we're here to consult you. are truly, we've been there, we've done successfully and we want to help you. So reach out, hello at thedentalateam.com.

Thanks for Rifton, happy birthday to us, happy birthday to all the maids, people out there. It's a national holiday, so I hope you go turn on some pink and blue lights on your house, wherever you are, celebrate Tiff and I, and Tiff, thanks for just being in my life. I just truly love and adore you, and it was really fun and special to do this. I agree, thank you for setting it up, and thank you for making it my life. Yeah. I'm proud of you. And for all of you listening, thank you for listening, and we'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

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Tiff and Dana talk about a large trend happening in dental practices this year: last-minute cancellations, and why it’s such a stressor for the doctors. They share how to notice the signs of no-shows further in advance, plus ways to troubleshoot the problem.

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Transcript

Tiffanie (00:01)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are so excited to be here with you today. I have the one and only Dana here with me. Dana, we're still working on that dynamite. Dana is my favorite nickname, but we'll see what Kara decides sticks. So.

Thank you, Dana, for being here with me today. If you guys are watching this podcast, which I think is still a weird concept in my brain, Dana has the most incredible hair today. Dana, I'm always impressed with your lovely loc. So thanks for coming ready to go today. How are you?

Dana (00:34)

doing good. Thank you. If you only knew how little time it took me and that's why it's consistent because it takes me no time to get it to do this. I'm excited to be here anytime I get with you on this podcast tip is special time. So

Tiffanie (00:42)

I love it.

Thank you. Thank you. And I do enjoy our time together. I'm trying to make sure we get that one on one time a couple more times per month than just podcasting. So thanks for being patient with me on that. Dana, I get to pick your brain all the time. We have a really fun one coming up here in a second that I know everyone's going to be really excited for. But right now, I really want to pick your brain a lot on cancellations and the cost of cancellations to a general practice. I know in

My client base, what I have seen and tell me Dana what you're seeing as well. I have seen this year just like a wild bag of like, patients coming? Are they not coming? Are they canceling? What are the reasons? Like it just feels like a mixed bag of information. Since realistically, I would say it probably, I think it started trickling around November, but January, February was wild. Weather was wild.

And then now that we're getting into, you know, summery months, we're getting out of spring and into summer months here in May, it just still seems to be like trends are just kind of cycling around that same space. are you seeing that with your clients you're working with and friends in the industry that you're chatting with as well?

Dana (02:03)

Yeah, I feel like it is a weekly basis where it's like, okay, how are things going? Well, the schedule was full, right? It was looking great and it just seems to be falling apart. So a lot, a lot of last minute cancellations where it is really hard for the team to pivot and pivot quickly in those instances.

Tiffanie (02:09)

Yeah.

Yeah, I totally agree. I totally agree. And so on one hand, I want you guys out there, doctors, team members, office managers, those of you who are listening today, on one hand, if this is something that you guys are coming up against this year, I want you to know that right now in 2025, this has been a trend that we've noticed within the dental community as a whole. today we really want to talk about the cost of those cancellations. I think it's great for doctors to know that information.

A lot of doctors do, lot of owners already have that information, but I think it's great for team members and office managers to really know the cost of that as well so that we can see why are the doctors harping on us, not just because they don't have patients, but why is it so stressful to them? And doctors, why am I feeling this internal stress? And then I've also got some tips in here, Dana and I have gone through that are ways for you to know that there's a problem, start noticing it more in advance.

and then ways to troubleshoot those problems as well. So first and foremost, I think, Dana, the most important thing to remember is that we've got to make sure that we've got a solid plan and a solid action, actionable pieces as far as our goals. If we don't know our goals, if we don't know where we're heading, then...

Like, what are we even doing? Right? So as long as we, as long as we can keep a good heading on our goals. And I mean, by that, like, what is our monthly goal? What is our daily goal? And then always looking at what have we done? Where are we going? And what's that gap in between? If we're not watching that gap in between, we can fall into a really scary space. And then it's that last week of the month that we've all lived where the office manager is like, okay, guys, we just need $30,000 in addition this week. Who needs ortho?

right? And we're like, scraping the bottom of the barrel trying to get that money in. But it's because we haven't watched all month where those numbers are at. making sure that we're always looking at that, and we're always paying attention to those things is going to be massively important. Now, Dana, I know you have a lot of practices that are tracking this, that are they're watching these trends. As far as like dollar per hour kind of cost to the practice and what this actually looks like in conjunction to the goals.

What are you seeing with your practices right now and what do you suggest they really start to watch?

Dana (04:39)

Yeah, I think that it is one just like you said, tracking and making sure that they know how much is open schedule time impacting their production and their ability to get to their goals. How much you know, if their hygiene team isn't getting to their 30 % or hitting their daily goal, is it because they just didn't have a full schedule of patients because that is pretty crucial for them to get to that point. Daily goals are set up with full schedules in mind, especially if we use block scheduling to get to daily goal. If

our blocks aren't full, we're not gonna get there. So I think it is tracking to be able to look and say, how much is it impacting our production and what are we losing when we have a hole in our schedule? Because sometimes when we can attach a monetary value to that actual appointment, it becomes a little bit more important. When we see, if we know that every time a restorative appointment is open, that that costs us

$1,000 right or $900, right? Well, then we know how much that's going to impact our goal if we know that every time a Recare patient doesn't show up that equals $230 well, then we can sure be strategic about how we make that gap up

Tiffanie (05:40)

Yeah.

Dana (05:56)

later in the month or later in the week and sometimes too for team members it's like oh we only have one cancellation well one cancellation for every 17 days that you're open when you know what that value of that appointment is it really really

You can see how it's impacting. And so I would say take a look at your doll, you know, your production per hour on both sides so that you know, when I've got an hour open, it's costing the practice this much. When I've got an hour and a half open, it's costing the practice that much. And that's just the missed dentistry. That's not the costs of the practice just to be open for that hour, right? Like there's all of those fixed costs that extend into that too. And so getting a real picture of what each hour in our practice leads to

Tiffanie (06:25)

Good job.

Dana (06:41)

production and expenses can just be so eye-opening on its impact.

Tiffanie (06:48)

I totally agree.

I think the actual cost, like if you look at it and we're looking at our goals, that actual cost is what is your dollar per hour? So like Dana said, it could be anywhere between $500 to $1,500 an hour on a doctor's schedule. And then again, that $100 to $300 on a hygiene schedule just really depends on what your practice's goals are and what you guys are set out to achieve. So if you've got $1,200 between doctor and hygiene, we've got a goal of $1,200 per hour and you've got those openings on the schedule, that's what the cost is.

that data that we've done really really well and we've done differently this year with our current clients is really having them go through and track the number of open hours on each provider's schedule. So the reason that we do that is last year

I had a couple of doctors that were really, really close to, one of them was really close, he was about $30,000 away from hitting the goal that he wanted. Another one was like $20,000 away from exceeding where he thought he would be this year. And I was like, gosh, wow, how did we get so close, but we missed it by that much. So what I did was I sat down and I looked through the whole year and I tallied.

doctor, open hours, hygiene, open hours. So whether that was cancellations, the schedule fell apart, who knows, but it was just open hours that were on the schedule that could have been scheduled, meaning that was an open block, nothing was there. And both of those doctors would have far exceeded what they anticipated had those been filled. Now,

We like to say a variation rate of about 5%. If you're more than 5 to 8 % on the long end, like 8 % is high.

If you're more than that in cancellations, you're in hot water. So even if we deducted that five to 8 % from that math that I did, we still would have hit those goals. And so it really brought a lot of reality into the situation. Like you were saying, Dana, to really be able to see what that gap is and why it happened. And I had a practice just the other day, she did fantastic. This office manager, she had the information before we even went into the call. one of the doctors, one of the owner doctors was really, really intrigued on why are we

just why are we short in collections and by that he was looking at QuickBooks, right? So why is the bank short? So because when we look at their data, when we look at their collections and their production, just looking at those straight from Dentrix, they were above 100 % on collections. So the team is like, bro, like we're at 102%. Like, what do you mean? And he's like, yeah, but there's no money. Like there's not the overhead, right? So the overhead is hitting well,

The office manager knew that we were going into this conversation. She knew that he was going to ask these questions and that I wasn't going to have that immediate information. So prior to the call, she went through the whole first quarter of the year. And what she did was not only she took cancellations on one side, because that was an aspect of it, but another piece that she took was we've had a lot of call outs from hygiene and ⁓ vacation.

And surgery, was a surgery that, you know, quote unquote, she's on her vacation. So we had a lot of time that there wasn't a hygienist available to see patients. And when she tallied that it was literally that missing piece and his mind was just blown and he was like, my gosh, thank you. He just needed the satisfaction of knowing what it was, right. But the cost of not only cancellations, but that missed opportunity of hygiene because there had been hygienists ill, there had been hygienists on PTF.

as a hygienist that had to have shoulder surgery, these things come up and they happen, but we're not always anticipating them and our goals get missed. So these cancellation spots where patients are calling and they're like, gosh, I just can't come in are even more important.

because there are times where we can't, we can do something about that. We can fill an open spot on the schedule. I can't do hygiene if I don't have a hygienist, a licensed hygienist there to take that spot. So those different spaces really took a toll. the cost on the practice, right? The cost of the cancellations is the dollar per hour, but then on a grander scale, it's like, what did we miss out that month and that quarter? And how did it impact our overhead? Because this example, all three examples,

the doctors were like, why is my overhead so high? Where's my profitability? Why is this sucking? Especially when you feel like we're rolling along pretty well. It's like, where's the profitability? Where is it missing? That's the big toll. And then also I think, Dana, the stress, like, gosh, being a team member and then like inefficiencies that it creates, the stress of having to save a patient or

Dana (11:22)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Tiffanie (11:40)

having to talk somebody into coming last minutes, the stress of knowing that there's a cancellation there and Doc's gonna, know, Doc and manager or owner or whomever is gonna come ask me questions. Like Dana, you've been in that position too. And even maybe even from a hygienist standpoint, the stress of having openings, like that's a cost as well. What was that for you and your perception as a provider and a team member, but then also as a consultant, what are you seeing there as far as the cost on a practice with those cancellations from an emotional standpoint?

Dana (12:09)

Yeah, I I think is I do this definitely something that weighs heavily on you because I mean, I'm very goal oriented. And so if you put a goal in front of me, I'm going to want to tackle it. And so it is a little bit defeating in that way. And then it's like, okay, well, I would have to book patients out, right. And sometimes even further than when they were due, right, just to have my schedule fall apart. And it's like, man, like I could have seen those people that I had to look out a little bit farther. So it is a stressful on a patient care level is stressful on a

goals level it's stressful on like hey I'm here and like I want to do things that are of value to the practice so yeah it plays a burden on everyone and so it's just something that's so important to look at and to set a game plan for and to tackle as a team.

Tiffanie (12:58)

Yeah, I totally agree. totally agree. Now areas that we'll tackle some areas where you can tell there's an issue, like not only you see like, my gosh, I feel like there's a lot of cancellations happening, but really just being able to see what that what that entails. So I think one space is open schedule, obviously, right? Open schedule. I think frustrated team members, Dana, do you agree? Yeah.

Dana (13:23)

Yeah, yeah,

because it's so much more work on the back end to save something that's fallen off or to fill something than it is to just be really good at reappointing from the beginning and being really good at creating value from the beginning. Those things are much easier than this stress and the crunch time of after the fact.

Tiffanie (13:45)

Yeah, totally agree. So upset team members, like stressed out front office team members, upset doctors, empty schedule, seeing repeat offenders. So patients that are repeatedly coming off of the schedule seem to cancellations. And you guys, I want to tackle a little bit too on why.

why this happens. There's a few things and I mean, you guys are going to tell me and your team is going to tell me patients are sick and patients can't come in because of work. Like I totally hear you. I get that. I understand. But what it boils down to the root cause in my opinion is a lack of a lack of systems or a lack of systems follow through. So lack of consistency. So ⁓ handoffs and patient buy-in might not be there. Team buy-in might not be there. Scheduling rules. So how do we form

and build the right schedule. If we're consistently behind on patients appointments, or they're taking longer than we said they would, they're not getting sat on time, like if we're showing that we don't value our schedule because our scheduling template isn't working for us and it's running us behind, I don't like we're telling the patients our schedules don't matter. I'm not sure why we expect a different result. On the other side, we expect our patients to, you know,

really, really take into consideration the schedule and to make that a top priority, but we're not even doing that. So hard truth, I think there. ⁓ If you're having these issues, if you're running behind, you're seeing high cancellations and you feel frantic, it's typically a reflection of the schedule that you're running. Right, Dana, do you agree? Am I just in mean?

Dana (15:23)

100 %

I hands down took the words that I say all the time and I'm like honestly it comes down to a lack of value and that's really hard for offices to hear but it is a lack of value on the appointment itself right we've not created enough value for the patient to feel like this is something I cannot miss and we also haven't valued it enough to ensure that we've done that.

Tiffanie (15:42)

Yeah.

Dana (15:47)

to ensure that we followed our systems that we've worked really hard to put into place. And so maybe we don't value those systems or we don't see their value. And so it truly comes down to just a lack of value on both ends.

Tiffanie (15:58)

I absolutely agree. Yeah, yeah. And the patient's buy in comes from value, you guys, and it takes multiple times. So some of the systems I think, Dana, that we can we can pop through a couple of systems that really, I think, stand out and helping that. And I think one space to remember is that we want to attract and we want to keep the patients that we want. Not every practice is built for every

patient, every person. So some patients are not going to respond well, they're not going to care, they're always going to cancel or they're going to hop. You know, I used to work in a dental practice that it was a heavy retirement community and we had a lot of, them in Arizona snowbirds. And so we had a lot of winter visitors and they were just special hoppers. We would see somebody on, you know, one new patient special that we were running at the time and we'd never see them again or we'd see them three years later trying to use another special.

always going to happen. So work really hard and aim to create systems that work for the patients that you want to keep. Who's your patient avatar that you're trying to attract to your practice? What will they appreciate about your communication about your systems? And don't be afraid to lose some patience to make room for the patients that will appreciate the systems you're putting into place. So that's my caveat. And to create that value. really Dana, that word that you use

there is spot on because that's really what it's all about. We're creating value, which creates retention and we're, we're selling not only a product, a dental product, we're selling a filling, right, but we're also selling an emotional product of how are they feeling when they're in our practice and our systems boil down to create to

being there to create feelings, to evoke emotions in patients so that they do see the value in that product that you're selling. So handoffs, you guys might hear this constantly. If you've ever listened to any podcast, NDTR, if you ever want to hear Dana and I talk about it, there's probably about 50. So go type in NDTR, Next Visit Date, Time, Recare. It's literally the perfect handoff situation. It's something we've used for years. It was something that and I trialed many years ago.

And it's worked so well in so many practices to turn around case acceptance, to turn around scheduling, and to really just turn around communication between front and back office that we continue to harp on it. So go type in NDTR on our website, TheDentalATeam.com. When you go to podcasts, you can search NDTR.

⁓ And I think treatment planning in general. So making sure those handoffs are right, treatment planning. And I think Dana too, like I stress to practices to treat re-care appointments very similarly. Like it's so easy to get into that routine of like, okay, let's just, let's schedule your next six months real quick. We'll pop it on the schedule. You can let me know as it gets in or, don't worry, they're scheduled. And it's like, we haven't built any value.

In my, we built the value of the appointment hygienist, like the value that you have built during that appointment 100%, but that patient has to remember to evoke that feeling in six months from now to keep that appointment on the schedule. So how are we building and creating that value for those appointments even thereafter? So Dana, like NDTR.

treatment planning, and then how do you suggest and how did you maybe even as a hygienist build that value for those re-care appointments when they're coming three, four, six months later?

Dana (19:25)

Yeah, I see it all the time. And I do think NDTR builds in some value in that and I've been getting a lot of doctors question like, hey, why do I have to ask about their re care? Right? Well, that is that is your chance to build value as the doctor that not only do I need to see you for that treatment, but it's super important to me as the doctor to see you in six months or whatever your regimented cleaning time is. So there is that but then I would use this as a hygienist myself every single patient before I scheduled.

Tiffanie (19:47)

Yep.

Dana (19:55)

They were given a reason why I needed to see them back. Right? So even my regular six months, and I learned this from an amazing coach, right? So I'm not even going to take credit for it, but it's something that like I did routinely that I instill in all of my hygiene teams that I work with. And that is every patient has to leave with a reason to return. Even if that is, my gosh, Mr. Smith, seeing you every six months has kept you looking so good. We need to make sure we keep that up.

Tiffanie (20:01)

⁓ I that.

Thank

Dana (20:25)

Let's get your next six month appointment scheduled. Even if Mr. Smith has zero issues, concerns, anything, right? Then my people with concerns, that's even more so. All right, so I need you to work on that flossing technique. We did have a fair amount of bleeding this time. My goal for you the next time you come in six months is you've been able to really target that in and we've got that bleeding reduced. I can't wait to see you in six months to check on it.

Tiffanie (20:27)

Beautiful.

Dana (20:49)

Right, so when giving them it's not just like let's get your routine appointment scheduled No, there is a reason why every single patient needs to be back in my chair at the recommended interval and

Sometimes too we would put little notes and it helped the front office, right? Hey, I know Dana really wanted to keep you on that six months She said you were looking so good last time. Is there any way we can make today work, right? So it was in my auto note I always put it in there and help the front office then they gave them the reason right? Hey, don't forget Dana wanted to check those bleeding points. How's that flossing going? Let's get you in today Let's make sure you're here so she can double check on that so it's something that I have used religiously and that I feel like truly does because

we do see that hygiene appointments, right? That's where a lot of the cancellations happen and that's because it's just the routine cleaning, right? Or the routine preventive. And so building that value in hygiene and you can do it with something so simple as just something you need to check on the next time that they're there.

Tiffanie (21:48)

Yeah, my gosh, Dana, was stop the podcast. That was all they needed. It's brilliant. Thank you. I love that. So I think that in itself is huge because that that went into the confirmations that went into saving the appointments and the pre scheduling. So I think that was huge, Dana, that little nugget was more than we could have ever asked for. Thank you.

Thank you. So, systems, guys, NDTR, go look it up, treatment planning. I love this idea of making sure every patient, whether they're coming in on doctor's schedule, whether they're coming in on hygiene schedule, they have a reason to come back. And remember, I mean, gosh, it makes perfect sense because...

your patients are coming back on your your dental schedule and your doctor's schedule because they have a reason because they have decay, broken tooth, missing tooth, whatever the case may be. So find that reason for their re care as well. And I love that you pointed out even the healthy patients you were like, let's keep this up. Let's keep that going. I can say I had my eye exam the other day and he was fantastic. And he was like, gosh, yeah, it hasn't changed a lot from last like he was just bringing up so much information from the last time and like can't wait to see it again next time. I was like, wow, this guy actually in a very short amount of time, I think I spent

five minutes with the man, ⁓ massive amounts of trust build and value. I truly will not go to another eye doctor as long as I can go to him. So just building that value, doesn't have to take a long time.

It just has to be massive amounts of value. So make sure you're under TR treatment planning, make sure there's a reason for them coming back. They're always scheduled to come back. Confirmations are in place and make sure that you're tracking your cancellation rates, you guys, and really seeing what the impact on the business is and sharing that with your team so that everyone's super aware. This awareness is meant to bring light to trends.

It is not meant to be a you guys suck, this is where we're at. It's a hey, this result sucks. Why is this happening? Let's look at our systems. I tell my teams all the time and I think Dana, you do too. I don't want you doing something that's not working. That is such a waste of time and I...

would gouge my own eyes out, I could not. There's no way I could live life like that. I did not expect other people to as well. So when we track these metrics, when we're looking at these trends, my goal is to ensure that we're only doing things that are getting the right results. And when we're not getting the results we want, we change the system because it's clearly not working. And when a team knows that that's

what we're looking for. I'm not looking at you that you suck unless you literally refuse to use the system. I'm not looking at you. I'm looking at the system. The system and the results are what we're tackling. We're not tackling people. We're never tackling each other. So

Dana (24:24)

Thank

Tiffanie (24:34)

Go into it that way. Track those cancellations. Look at the real cost to the business and then look at the systems that you have in place. Are you adding enough value to those appointments through your handoffs, through your treatment planning, through your discussions on why they need to come back and then through your confirmations. Are your confirmations working? we lax it easy asking and are we keeping a good schedule? Huge, huge. You will get back.

what you give. So make sure that what you're giving is freaking excellent. And Dana, thank you so much. That was a wonderful podcast. That was so many amazing nuggets. You guys go back, listen again, take notes. I'm telling you, Dana's brain, I always get something new out of it. Years and years later, consulting side by side, you still just always drop something on me that I'm like, dang, all my practices need to hear that. So Dana, thank you for being here with me today.

Dana (25:29)

Yeah, thanks for having me as always.

Tiffanie (25:31)

Of course, you know, I'll steal you anytime I can get you. So awesome, everyone. Go listen, take notes, go do the things, start tracking your cancellations, look at those systems and really start seeing the cost and the value that you're perceiving. Okay. Any questions?

Reach out to us, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com, if you need checkers, if you need more information on any of the things that we talked about, if you're interested in learning how to have someone like Dana give you amazing tips like that all the time, just off the cuff, please reach out. We are here for you guys. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. You can reach us.

on our website www.TheDentalATeam.com. We make it really, really easy for you guys. So reach out to us and drop us a five star review. We want to hear how amazing you thought Dana's nuggets were today. Thank you all. We'll catch you next time.

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A lot of practices are concerned about keeping their team members on board right now. In this episode, Kiera lays out 3 effective ways to create a workplace that employees want to show up to, leading to a happier office crew and happier patients.

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Transcript

Kiera Dent (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera, and I hope that you're just having the best day of your life. I hope that you are just truly, truly, truly remembering why you're even doing this. I hope you have a strong why. I hope you have a strong commitment. I hope you have just the best honest day-to-day. Dental A Team's purpose is to truly make your life better, to make running a dental practice easier, because I don't believe that being successful and profitable has to be hard.

I don't believe that having like great patients and great teams has to be a hard journey. So our job is to give you tactical tips that are able to implement immediately and make your life and your job even easier. Today, I wanted to pump you guys up because I believe that stronger teams, happier practice, this is where we're at. How do you actually boost team morale and job satisfaction? This is something that I feel is super common right now. People are like, Kiera, how do I get more team members to stay? And we just had an in-person.

event where doctors, we had doctors and leadership, so office managers there, and the doctor like, please just tell us like, what do you want? We will try our best to do this for you. And so the reality is a happy team leads to truly a thriving practice. And I don't believe that happy means you have to give everything to them. And so really how do we create a work environment where your team loves to show up every single day? This truly impacts patient care.

It impacts efficiency. It impacts the practice success. And so really I'm going to give you guys three of the most effective strategies that I've seen with hundreds of practices to truly boost job satisfaction today. You guys, we are the dental team. We are the experts and dentists and team training. We love to do this. We love to help you in your practice. And the reality is we have been able to help within our consulting, boost team morale, boost doctor morale, which ultimately leads to greater patient satisfaction and happiness.

So today, number one, it was interesting. were like, literally at this event, we were listing off all these things and asking the team members and the doctors were like, my gosh, like, just tell us. And one of the office managers raised her hand and she said, you know, a lot of these things are important. But the number one thing that's important to me is when my doctor says, hey, you did a great job. And I like, there it is again. Like it shows up constantly of creating a culture of recognition and appreciation and

when team members feel valued, I remember like the best thing my doctor could have told me was, Keri, like you did it, you like crushed it today. Like, I'm so grateful for you as my assistant. And I think like, we think that that doesn't matter, but when it's genuine and sincere, this is what our team members are craving. And so figure out a way where you can like recognize your team members, figure out a way where you have peer to peer, so it's not just leaning on you doctors. So office managers looking for this.

And then having personalized appreciation. And this is something where I really emphasize this heavy in our company, in our team, in our culture. So for example, you guys have heard me probably talk a million times about our morning huddle structure, where every Wednesday is core value shout out and every team member, it's kind of like popcorn. So if I'm going to start today, I'm going to shout out a team member for one of our core values. And then I choose that team member and then they'll shout someone else out. And even if like it's someone else, then great, no problem. We're just going to make sure that every person

shout someone out and it doesn't matter who got shout outs. But what the goal is, is that peer to peer recognition where we're looking for each other's strengths, we're looking for each other's greatness, We're looking to elevate and celebrate one another. We have every Friday 5 where we highlight different team members of great things that they've done, things that have gone really well. And I will tell you, this is one of the greatest ways to foster a great culture. And then other things that you can do is on you can personally

Shout out team members of what they're doing well and highlight them But really being genuine and I know some doctors like really struggle with this I even had a doctor who had like 17 members and they had seven little rocks in one pocket and Every time they would compliment a team member. They'd move one rock to one pocket So by the end of the day all seven rocks had to move for giving them appreciation I had another doctor who put an alarm on their phone to just

say thank you to their team members. And I know this feels so silly, but literally we had a team of doctors and a team of office managers all in a room and consistently they all said that feeling valued and appreciated was the number 1 thing. it didn't matter about the money. Of course these things need to be there. But truly, if you just create a simple recognition plan and start acknowledging your team members this week, I know that this will be a great way to boost that team morale and keep team retention.

So number two is going to be investing in growth and development. So different things, think team members love to know what is like my progression within my workplace. How can I grow? How can I get to the next level? How can I be like, what's this? And so we love to have tier programs for every single position within the practice. We share this with our clients where it's like, what does a dental assistant from here to here to here? What's that expectation of the skillset? Also, what's the growth potential financially? And so this way it's like, how can I grow?

Also within Dental A Team, offer, I have an X amount of dollars for continuing education for all of my team members that they can use every single year to learn other things. And it can even be things like if they want to learn about investing or they want to learn about budgeting and they want to take a Dave Ramsey course, that's totally fine because I want to invest in them as people and in professionals. And so how can we actually help them know like within their career, how they can grow in advance, but also then within their life, how can they grow in advance?

You know, Dental A Tetam, have done this and Britt and I have gone back and forth of, we want to like share dollar amounts? We not like there's pros and cons around it. But what I do like is the growth trajectory of what do these positions need to be? And it's something where I felt we were clear and I found out from our team, weren't as clear. so find ways for you to help your team know how to grow and advance within the practice. and then guess what? They'll tap out. There will be a tap out phase of every position and that's okay. At least they know that.

the expectations are not missed. And then that's when we start to provide CE for life, CE for these other things. And what I've seen is when offices invest in growth and development within their teams, it reenergizes them. think consulting is a great way for you to reenergize your team. And what we see is we usually see a 10 to 30 % increase in production just with coming into a practice, just with helping them, because the whole team now is super excited. They're all on board and we've literally been able to grow them.

And so I think this is a great thing within your one-on-ones. Find out what things are interested in, find out, roll out these tiers for every position so it's super crystal clear with each team member. And then within their one-on-ones monthly, within their evaluations, you're able to help them just see their growth and development. And I know teams really do care about that. Then there of course is going to be the piece of step three will be two things. So it's gonna like, there's one of communication and team bonding, honestly having it be a fun place to work.

So things that they get excited about, and I usually break this up by quarters, because there's four departments in a practice. We've got our doctors, front office, dental assistants, and hygienists. And if I put all those together, there's one group per quarter. Give them a budget, and we just build up this incredible space where we actually have fun as a team together. We go hang out. We do paint and wine nights. We go to sports games together. We go on a cruise. We go to the movies together. We go to a movie launch. I don't care what it is. And when all the different departments have to plan it, then guess what? We all show up for each other.

But having something that's just really fun. also think like potluck lunches can be an easy thing. can have, there's just like so many things you can do as a team. You can have a date night. can have, there's just finding ways to connect beyond work is going to be a really great way of just fun. Like I know so many team members watch other offices on social media and they're that office just looks like they're having a ton of fun all the time. And a lot of them really are. And so it's like, how can we actually have so much fun together as a team? We want to make sure that we are

teammates and my husband was talking to me, he works in the hospital and he works with a pretty large team and they said that our teams are becoming a lot of what communities used to be. Communities used to be like where you lived would be about like your politics and your religion and all these other things in your support system and your friends and work is now becoming that. And so finding ways to connect.

even as human beings, I think is a really, really great way to just have it be a fun place. And that doesn't mean you have to spend a lot of money. It could just be getting creative where we remember we're people in addition to being coworkers. And then of course, I will just say like a fourth bonus tip is going to be making sure that we are compensating our team appropriately and that our benefits are where they need to be. Even if you don't offer healthcare, you can offer a health stipend for like gym memberships or wellness. You can offer like a half day on certain days of the month, but

Getting feedback in a positive way, I think there's been some ways to have it negative, but figuring out what really is super important to your team is going to be great ways for you to just truly boost this team morale, boost this connection. And so really what we wanted to highlight is number one, the number one thing, like literally, I just did this like a couple of weeks ago. It is the recognition and appreciation. Number two is growth and development. Three is strength and communication and team bonding. And four is going to be making sure that you are compensating your team.

where you are adequate to where they're not stressed and you're able to have that. But I really think in that growth section, showing them the tiers, you've actually helped foster that as well. So this is where you can actually get like positive team culture. takes time. Culture is not something that's built overnight. Culture is not something that you just show up. It usually is quite a long turn, but it is undue dividends. And the reality is you've got to be able to create this thriving team culture. Otherwise you're going to be dealing with constant turnover.

constant chaos and that is not a fun space to be. So if you want some help, if you want to create that thriving team culture, DM us or visit our website and we will truly help you out. We've got some tips for you. I'm happy to share shout out jar pieces for you. I'm happy to share Friday five examples for you. I'm happy to share one-on-ones, tiers, whatever we can do to support you, DM us and ask for that or email us Hello@TheDentalATeam.com.

Truly subscribe to our podcast or our newsletter for more leadership strategies and tips and honestly share this with another office that you know could help, another team member that this could help because this is truly what the Dental A Team does. You're obsessed with this and if you are ready to boost your morale, build a higher performing team, reach out. Now is your time. This is not something that's hard. It can definitely be easy. It's something that we're obsessed with. Three simple tips and we would love to help you in any way we can. As always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

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Today’s case acceptance focus is all about presenting the treatment plan and sequencing. Kiera shares language to use and the kind of confidence to adopt when discussing game plans with patients, and why it will stop objections in their tracks nine times out of ten.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team Listeners, this is Kiera and I am so excited to welcome you back to part two of Treatment Planning Masters, increasing that case acceptance, getting you guys into the tactical, but you better believe if you have not listened to part one, get your booties back to part one and go listen, because if you don't fix your mindset, if you don't work on those items, everything I teach you today is going to be a little bit better for you. I promise you it will be a little bit better for you, but the real secret sauce to treatment planning is the words that you speak.

Words create worlds, you guys, and the words you're saying and how you're saying it how you're presenting it and the sequence you're doing is ultimately impacting your yeses, your nos, your full schedules or your not full schedules, helping you realize full case acceptance versus partial case acceptance. It's all within mindset. And I have literally a hundred percent done this for so many offices. So I can sit here confidently telling you, guys, you've got to do that. So if you're new to the podcast, welcome. I promise I don't usually start podcasts out this way. I usually tell you,

I hope you're freaking loving your day today. I hope you're having the best day and I hope you remember we are truly so blessed to work in dentistry. Dental A Team's mission is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible and we do that through expert consulting for dentists and teams. Honest to goodness, I can say very confidently that Dental A Team consulting is second to none. We are truly experts. We drive production. We drive overhead down. We drive teams to be incredible leaders and we do it in such a freaking fun, positive, easy way.

We help doctors get the lives of their dreams. Yes, you have to show up. I can't just do it for you, but I can promise you that Dental A Team Consultants are truly people that have passion, that have grit, that have solutions. And it is so fun to hear client success story after client success story after client success story, increasing their production to numbers they never thought that they could do, decreasing their overhead, having dream their vacation homes being built when they didn't even know how to take home a paycheck.

Just the life, the business, the teams, team members telling us that we have literally changed their lives, that we've helped them financially, that we've helped them personally, that we've helped them help more patients. This is why Dental A Team exists. This is what our mission is. And I hope that we can help you in your practice. If it ever resonates with you, I hope it does. DM us. We're on Instagram, Dental A Team. Also pop onto our website, TheDentalATeam.com. Click on a call. I'm happy to do a...

a complimentary practice assessment where we actually look at your whole practice and I'll kind of help you see the gaps and our team will help you see where are kind of the areas within your practice that you can exponentially improve. We have six proven areas that we know if you will tackle those six areas, you will truly find success with ease. And it's something where it's not hard. The secret to success is not hard. It's simple little changes, but being consistent and staying accountable. And I think our team does it.

in such a fun way. add the confetti, we add the sprinkles, we make you giggle. I have a client and we are always giggling and we have expanded him to multiple, multiple, multiple growth beyond anything this client could ever could imagine. And we do it with giggles and ease because honestly, business is a fun, it's a fun game if you allow it. So reach out if any of that resonates with you. I'd love to have you be a part of our Dental A Team family. I'd love to help you.

Live the life you deserve and to live the life of your dreams and get there even easier So with that here's part two of case acceptance treatment planning. Like I said, here's a tactical so I've got you're in the right mindset We're not planting weeds in our flower garden. If you have no clue what I'm talking about go listen to part one And if you are ready, you're like, okay care. I've got the mindset. I was practicing it all day yesterday and Like crazy it just happened patients are saying yes to me like Wow

What do you say? next up is going to be, all right, so now a patient has come. I am in the right mindset. This is going to be, doctors, I need you to be freaking comprehensive. Do not use little league words for major league problems. Tell them what's really going on and have confidence and let's use the terms of the great news is we're going to be able to get you healthy. I strongly encourage you doctors to use our NDTR, proven handoff. Tell them the next visit, the date to return, ND.

So next visit, date to return, T is how much time, and R stands for recall being scheduled. If you will follow that, I promise you, you are going to cut down half of the objections that your patients will have, and you're going to actually get them into the right frame of mind. So if you will do that, now treatment coordinators, we pick this up. So first steps first, I'm in the right mindset. Now I'm going to say, my gosh, Sarah, it's so great to see you. Dr. Taylor is absolutely incredible. You are in such good hands with Dr. Taylor. I know Dr. Taylor gave you a treatment plan.

we're going to get that taken care of. Let's get you scheduled. Dr. Taylor is super busy, so let's make sure we get that done. I've got Monday or Wednesday, one o'clock or two o'clock, which works best for you. Now you might be like, Kiera, what the heck? You didn't even present the treatment plan. You are right. Gold star. You figured it out. This is a subtle shift that will help you exponentially. And it's crazy. I just did this with the team and the team was like, are not going to like that. And there was one team member who piped up and was like, I actually do this and it works so well now.

Fun fact that team member is the one who's closing the 30 40 $50,000 cases So, you know just brush my shoulders off this works and this works for very large cases So all your poo pooing. Oh my gosh care. This isn't gonna work. Please I just encourage you you're listening to this and doctors give this to your teams and doctors listen to this as well because Doctors this I think is a little like seat

The secret to your success, one, you gotta be diagnosing as much as we need you to. So if you wanna be producing 100 grand a month, you've got to be diagnosing at least $300,000 a month. So I need you to diagnose, because if you're not diagnosing enough, no matter how great your treatment coordinator is, no matter how much we teach them, we don't have enough to fill your schedule to the schedule you want it to be. So doctors, we need you to diagnose and please do not ever over-diagnose. I know you're ethical. I know you're not looking for treatment that's not necessary.

but I do know that sometimes you might be so busy or sometimes you might be like, I don't really want to talk here. like, gosh, like I told her like the last seven times. Well, guess what? Maybe the eighth time she needs to hear it. Maybe she's ready to hear it. And also doctors work with your hygiene team. So they're teeing it up. You are the second person to tell this, not the first person to tell that doctors that will help you a ton. We have other podcasts on helping hygiene teams, T up treatment. So doctors, if you need that also utilizing AI software can really help you out if you're struggling to diagnose.

I think that these are some great investments that you could make if you're struggling to diagnose. So next thing is treatment coordinators, high five, it's your turn. Doctors done an incredible job. They teed it up. You go to schedule first. I've got Monday or Wednesday and you're like, but Kiera, they're going to be like, well, what does it cost? Well, A, stop thinking that and B, we're going to say amazing, Sarah. I am definitely going to go over that with you. I want to make sure we get you scheduled. That way we get this into Dr. Taylor's schedule because he's so busy.

Monday or Wednesday, which works best for you? And then we'll definitely talk about all that. I want you to be rock solid confident, which works best for you Monday or Wednesday? I've answered their questions. I've told them we're gonna talk about it. But what happens here that I really wanna highlight is you are putting the emphasis on we are doing treatment and the question is not, we doing treatment or are we not doing treatment? AKA when I present a treatment plan to you and I'm focused on that as number one, what I'm telling the patient is treatment is optional if you can afford it.

When I schedule them, what I'm saying is we're doing treatment and the question is, how are we going to pay for this? Those are the things that we have options for, not are we doing treatment or not? Because like I told you on the last podcast, I'm like, I will tell you forever, if a doctor diagnoses it and I believe that they are incredible dentists, my job is to schedule it as a treatment coordinator. No ifs, ands, or buts, I don't care. There are solutions. Remember, Cure is mantra. Everyone says yes, and there is always a solution and we will find it. So, Edify the Doctor.

Schedule first. I promise you if you will just do this one shift in the tactical, this is the 20 % now we're not in the 80 % psychology. We are now in the 20 % tactical. You will start to have more cases to close. 100 % this is going to be for you. So after we do that, then I'm gonna present the treatment plan and there is a sequence to presenting a treatment plan. If you even think about talking about insurance first, it's because you're afraid of numbers. It's because you're afraid that patients are going to say no to you. It's because you think insurance is the most important thing and it's not.

Insurance is just a coupon. Do not crutch on insurance. Stop it, because insurance does not matter unless you make it matter. So I present a treatment plan. I'm like, awesome. So Dr. Taylor, we presented this treatment. This is what we're going to be doing. Here's the total out of pocket for the treatment. This is what our insurance estimated payment is. This will be your total when I see you on Wednesday. Or if your practice does a deposit, it would be like, this is your total.

And today we're going to collect our 10%. So that'll be 421. I can do cash or card, which do you prefer? Do you feel my confidence? Do you feel this is what we're doing? This patient's like, my gosh, this is what I'm doing. I'm not talking this patient into it. The doctor diagnosed it. You're the one who got yourself into this opportunity. And now my job is to help you. If the patient has an objection, remember I said, do not freaking plant weeds in your flower garden. If the patient has an objection of like, hey, like, do have any payment options? They will ask you.

Now I will give you like if you want to have a little bit of a say, you can say, what questions do you have for me? I want you to be rock solid confident moving forward. You can also say, this is the total. Do you have savings or would you like to talk about third party financing? I would strongly encourage you not to use those last two until you try this one for about four weeks until you get like out of your awkwardness because all it is is just uncomfortable and you're so scared these people are gonna break up with you and they're not. They're not, they're just thinking about it.

But Notice I'm like, I've got Monday or Wednesday, which do you prefer? I can do cash or card, which do you prefer? I'm putting my focus on the right question. I'm not saying, do you want to do dentistry today? Yes or no? I'm not saying like, do you have money for this? Because if you don't like, okay, I'm scheduling you. I'm assuming the yes. I'm assuming this patient's going to take on. I am assuming that they are going to do treatment. Why would I assume otherwise? My thoughts create my reality. So why am I even going to think a thought of like,

they might say no. Great, if they say no, it's an opportunity for me. High five. And then I'm going to be silent. And so now objections to me, when I have objections and I promise you I'd give you objection know how today, the objections, because you're like, Kiera, tell us the objections. Like, this is where it's so hard. And I'll tell you, no, no, no. Everything above that will cut most of your objections. I hope you heard that. Everything above that from your psychology to the words you say, to the way you present treatment plans, to the way you schedule.

all of that will actually prevent 90 % of your objections. And then you just got to get good on those 10%. And for me, it's not an objection, it's an opportunity. So again, notice, I'm like, it's not an objection, it's just an opportunity for me. And when I look at an objection, I know that I just need to educate this patient more. They're just unsure. Now there are 10 % of patients, maybe 5%, that truly do need to talk to their spouses. And I'm not here to minimize that, but 95%, that's just to like, push back.

They aren't confident on something and your job is to figure that out. So whatever it is, I've got solutions for spouse, for work, for money, for time, for pain, for overwhelming, for deposit, you name it. I have literally not gotten an objection that someone has given me that I'm like, great, you've stumped me. I don't know what to do. No, there's always a solution and we will find it together. So what we'll do is for this, every objection, we validate them first. So let's say it's like, hey, Kara, I need to talk to my spouse before I can make this decision.

What I'm gonna say is, my gosh, Sarah, absolutely. I 100 % want you to talk to your spouse. I want you to be so confident moving forward. What questions do think your spouse is gonna have? That way I can prep you with those answers before you talk with them. What this does is Sarah is now going to tell me what her real problem is hidden behind the barrier of their spouse. Truth, she's going to. It happens every time. They'll be like, they're gonna be wondering about money or they're gonna be wondering how long will this work or they're gonna be wondering about how much time this will take.

Well, if I've done a really great handoff, it should never be time. It should be, they know when they need to come back and they know what they need to come back for. So then she's just gonna let me know and be like, my gosh, yeah, we can talk about payment options. Like, what were you kind of thinking? What's a ballpark? Do you have savings for this? And then I'm gonna present two options for financing. So care credit, CHERI, Proceed, Sunbit, like you name it. There's a ton of them out there. Whatever works best for your practice. 401k for bigger treatment plans. You can take out lots of different things.

There's so many things you can get a loan from the bank. That's now like, let's just get creative and work together and figure out what solution is gonna work for this patient. But for spouse, that's what I'm gonna say. When it comes to work, I'm gonna be like, my gosh, and notice you have to pay attention to the words I say, because the way I say it will influence it and you'll either get a yes or a no. So if they're like, Kiera, I gotta check my work schedule. I'm like, Sarah, my gosh, of course. Let's pop you in the schedule. I've got you on this date. That way I, Kiera, did see Kiera over here. Truth be told, I will freaking forget about you, because I've got so many patients.

I say, I would hate to forget about you and let you slip through the cracks. So this is just a reminder for me not to let you slip through the cracks. When you get to work, let me know if we need to move it, not a problem. Just give me a quick call. Sarah's like, absolutely. I don't want you to freaking forget about me. I'm so important. That's what Sarah's thinking. But if you say, Sarah, I would hate for you to forget, Sarah's like, I'm not gonna forget. So you've got to be careful of how you do that. So that's how we're gonna get around work. If it's money, we'd hide back to what they value. It will never be cheaper or more predictable than it is today.

Money, there's always a solution. This is how we're gonna get cosmetic function, cost, longevity, all those. can tie it back to any of those things. All of those things are going to help out. And so we just need to make sure that we're tying it back to their motivator. We tie it back to their worth it. We figure out like, all right, let's talk about what are some solutions that you have? What are some things? Again, I don't have to solve all their problems. What solutions do you have? What things can we figure out? Let's find a solution together. So tying it back. Time.

This should be coming through with the handoffs. There should not be an issue with time. It should be two hours. Hey, let's get you scheduled. They know the time if we've got great handoffs. It's very easy and or in scheduling, we've already handled that. So that shouldn't even be an objection for you anymore. Pain, the recovery time. We're honest with them. Like our goal is to not have you in hardly any pain. So most patients experience X, Y, Z. I promise you Dr. Taylor is incredible. I'm going to edify my doctor again. You are in incredible hands.

If I was in your shoes, I would feel very confident moving forward. You might be in a little bit of pain. Great news is our mouths are very fast healers. And so you should be in and out of pain pretty quickly. Being confident. Overwhelming, we've given them too much information. If you present it simply and you are not giving solutions to problems they didn't even think they had, you will not overwhelm your patient. I promise you. Because we keep it simple. We speak in simple terms. We don't have hard jargon for them. We're not speaking in like,

my gosh, and then there's a bone and then doctors, this is for you too. Stop overwhelming your patients with like, okay, and then we can do your bite and then we could do this and like, and then we can do a sinus lift on you. Stop. Make that treatment plan so simple for them so that way they feel confident moving forward. The enemy to execution is overwhelm and confusion. So make it simple so that way they don't feel that way. And same thing for treatment coordinators. And then deposit. This is what it is. I can do cash or card. What do you prefer? And like, I love my credit card at home.

Okay, alligator arms, we can either like you could do Zell, Venmo, like check with your account to see if there's ways that we could fix that. But also on that, be like, no problem. What time do think you'll be home? I'll give you a call and you can just give me that card over the phone. And then mark it down and call them. Every single objection has an answer. It has an answer. You just need to be willing to be scrappy and to find the solution.

So today I've walked you through the tactical of how we present the treatment plan, how we do the sequencing. There's a lot of other layers to this, but hopefully I gave you enough to go get started. And the reality is you might think you're doing this, but I promise you, you're missing something or it's one word you're not saying, or it's one little change. And that's why I love treatment planning because it's so, once you find that one little thing and you track your progress and you look back and you're like, all right, why didn't this one close? What did I say? Review it back, listen to it back.

you will then unlock being able to close every single patient who comes through and it becomes amazing and you'll feel so confident in yourself. So I encourage you to do this. And if you are like, huh, Kiera, I need help. Great. Dental A Team Consulting was built for you. It is a no judgment zone. It's a space where we truly will help you grow. And this is something we are so passionate about helping you become expert treatment planners, treatment presenters, increasing that case acceptance from doctor to team to treatment coordinators to where we truly are able.

to get these patients on our schedule. I'd love to help you and your team out. I'd love our team to be able to help you go to the heights you have and be able to help as many patients as we possibly can because they need your dentistry. They need your help. And I really would love to work with you. So DM us on Instagram, email us Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. Go to our website, TheDentalATeam.com. Click on a call. I'd love to chat with you. I'd love to help you, give you some free resources, some free value. We are here to serve you and to make sure that you're able to live the best absolute life you possibly can. And as always, thanks for listening.

and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

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Case acceptance is 80% psychology and 20% skill. Kiera gives tangible tips on how treatment coordinators and doctors can get in the right frame of mind for that successful case acceptance, including no more assuming someone’s financial capabilities, understanding people’s motivators, and learning the art of silence.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera, and I hope you are just having an incredible day today. I hope you are so jazzed and you are so excited about dentistry, because I'm excited about dentistry. You don't call us the Dental A Team for nothing. Our job is to help you in your practice become the A Team of dental offices. Honestly, I love this. I love what we do. I love talking to you. I love helping you and your team just become everything and more that you've ever hoped to be. So today, I hope you are ready. I just did a really incredible

team training with an office about case acceptance. And I realized, hey, maybe that's something where I can help you in your practice. I love doing this with teams. I have a couple of practices where I help their treatment coordinators. And we've actually been able to add multiple millions. And that's not an exaggeration, multiple millions to their practice. And the thing that I just love is when we increase our case acceptance from doctors and team members, we're able to help more patients. And that's what I tell everyone. are.

so blessed and so lucky to be able to be treatment coordinator masters and to be able to help more patients and to give patients this incredible life, to be able to give them the confidence, to be able to give them the smile, to be able to help their longevity. And I always enjoy hearing the objections. So it's a fun time. So we'll do a part one, part two of this podcast where I'll kind of break down case acceptance for you of kind of how I get team members into this mindset.

And then what I'll do part two of all the objections and how you can overcome objections and treatment planning. I think one of our greatest wins was when I had an office who literally was able to sell an electronic, like an electric toothbrush, which we all know is better than just a standard one to an Amish family. I was blown away. And it was because this treatment coordinator was able to provide so much value of what this patient actually needed and to help them have the best dental health. And I just...

I love treatment planning and case acceptance so much because to me it's helping more patients have healthier smiles, healthier mouths. And I just think it's one of the greatest gifts that we could ever, ever, ever, ever give our patients and our team. So I hope you're excited. I'll break it down for you in a couple of simple steps. These are some of the things that I do to get treatment coordinators and doctors in the right frame of mind. Because what I found is case acceptance is truly 80 % your psychology and what you're thinking and 20 % skill. So I'll give you both.

But really just wanting to break it down for you that so much of case acceptance is about Literally what you're thinking about. if you're new to the dental a team podcast, welcome. I'm Kiera Dent I'm your host I love all things dental and so much so that my last name is actually dent I created the dental a team consulting years ago when I left Midwestern University's dental college and working with so many of those dental students shout out to all of them and Realizing those students that I loved so much. We're going to go out into this

big bright world of dentistry and they were gonna need an advocate, someone who could vet companies for them, someone who could help guide them, someone who could help them understand what a P &L was, understanding what cashflow was, understanding the business aspect and the team aspect of dentistry, and that's how Dental A Team was born. So my first practice we took from 500,000 to 2.4 million in nine months and opened our second location. Dental A Team is a miracle grow for practices. We're able to increase.

your production, decrease your overhead and honestly decrease your stress and get a full doctor team experience. So that way doctors, don't just have to do this on your own. So that's a little bit about what Dental A Team is about. If you are part of our actual consulting dental family, welcome. I love you. I'm so grateful for you. It is truly one of the highlights of my entire life is watching offices succeed. Like we shout out office wins every single day in our team huddle. And when I hear offices who have broken a million or hit a hundred thousand for the first time or took home a paycheck for the first time or

got their team on board for the first time, literally, I light up, our team lights up because that's what we do. Our consultants are truly experts at what we do and we truly do love seeing your wins. Our tagline is your success and our passion. So our passion is seeing you successful. Our love of dentistry is being able to make sure you and your team are truly flourishing to help those patients get the best dentistry they can. So with that, setting up case acceptance is what I promise you are gonna come in part one of part two.

And like I said, we do this with teams. It's something really, really, really, I would say fulfilling for me to actually teach your teams how to present cases, how to help them. Like I said, I literally have a practice. We've got five offices and we have added multiple millions of dollars to their practices over the years of just working with their treatment coordinators and doctors. And it's funny, they have another person who watches their business and they said, what's happened?

how you guys grown so much and they said it all started when we hired The Dental A Team and just shout out to that practice and that owner and those owners at that, those locations because honestly, they don't just listen but they actually execute and they implement and we work on it and we listen to their treatment plans and we review and what I will tell you, one of my biggest secrets for it is it's usually one or two words that's making or breaking your case acceptance. And I hope you heard that. It's one or two words.

that's actually making or breaking patients saying yes or no to you. So that's where it's so fun. So, okay, Step 1 that I always like to tell people is, like I said, 80% psychology, 20% skill. So what you've got to do is You've got to literally be in the right mindset before you go in. So doctors, before you go in and present an exam, team members, before we go and talk about it, before we hand things off, treatment coordinators, before you even think about presenting a treatment plan, I want you to have the right frame of mind. Kiera Dent's frame of mind is

everyone says yes to me and there's always a solution. That's my mantra. That's what I say. That's what I think about. And this is when I used to not even be able to close $500 cases. I went from closing $500 cases all the way up to closing $50, $60, $70, $80,000 cases same day. I literally had no idea a credit card could go up to $80,000. I was like, whoa, we're buying a boat today. Like I didn't even know this was reality. But what I learned was it was my psychology. It was me realizing that this was not a big treatment plan. It's just a treatment plan. So that's the second step to this.

We actually cut out the emotion of it's not a big treatment plan. And what I love to do is I love to ask you right now to tell me and you can say this out loud. I know I'm not actually listening, but hopefully you're playing along with me today. It actually will make this really real for you. But What is the number for you that's your actual high dollar treatment plan? If I were to say, what's a big treatment plan for you? What's your number? Some people's $1000 some people's $5000, $10,000. What is your number?

I need you to tell me your number and do not sugarcoat to me. Don't go higher, don't go lower. If you're listening to this as a team, which, hey, that's a great idea. This is a great team training. You're getting it with me for free. But what is the number? And the reason I want to know this number is because no matter what, no matter what you're doing, guess what? That number actually is influencing you. And what I say is there's no judgment on treatment planning. I just need to know and you need to know.

what your number is so then we actually figure out where your ceiling is and how to go around it. When I start working with treatment coordinators, I usually say that I can typically tell when I look at a treatment tracker on a treatment coordinator what they're closing and it's usually close to us in their bank account. Dun dun dun dun dun, mic drop right there. The reason why is because we have this familiarity association where we think people are just like us and so I hear all the time of like, but Kiera, couldn't afford that or Kiera, could afford that or Kiera like,

That's like, it would be so hard for me as a parent to do this. And what we do is we try to put ourselves in other people's shoes, AKA empathy. But what we do on that is we actually close down a lot of cases that could be yeses because people are not just like us. Like I said, I didn't even know credit cards at the time could go up to $80,000. I had no idea. And had I assumed or projected or tried to be familiar with these patients, I would never have been able to close those cases. So what we wanna look at in these situations is,

We've got to cut the emotion. We've got to realize this is my ceiling and I'm going to get beyond that ceiling. Doctors, you have the same thing. You might walk into a room and you might think, my gosh, this patient is gonna think I'm buying my boat or they're paying for this. Whatever you're thinking about, patients actually pick up that energy vibe from you. And I know this sounds like woo woo.

but I will tell you I have taught so many people how to close cases and I'm freaking good at closing cases. Like I literally can walk into offices. I still test my skills when I walk into a practice because I really wanna make sure that what I'm teaching you is actually still working and it is. I have done it so many times successfully. So pick this up. We've got to cut the emotion and it's just a treatment plan. So I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever want to hear you ever again say, my gosh, it's a big treatment plan. Because what you do is you amp yourself up and you get all this energy behind it.

unnecessarily, and then you actually get like skittish and nervous and the patient feels that. I want to remind you, patients are not buying treatment plans, they're buying your confidence and a dream of their future life. So what I like to do is then next, figure out what kind of motivator this patient has. Is it cosmetic, function, cost, or longevity? I also found with treatment planning, sequence matters. So notice I said, is it cosmetic, function, cost, or longevity?

I did not start with cost and when I've done this in rooms and I've asked people and you can ask yourself right now, what is the number one motivator for you and your mouth? You're probably not gonna tell me it's cost. Believe it or not, you listen to those four. If you could only choose one, cost could be a portion of it, that's fine. But guess what, I could say, what is most important about your mouth and your smile? Is it cosmetic, function, cost or longevity? What would you tell me?

and I just sampled a room of probably 50 plus people and of those 50 plus people, three people it was cost. And the reason I like to highlight this is because we assume and we project because we wanna be familiar and close to these people that they're just like us and we think, my gosh, it's cost. If I were to sample an entire room of treatment coordinators across the nation, I promise you the number one thing people would tell me as to why they can't close cases is due to you got it cost.

But when I actually sample people and find out what's truly the most important for people, it's usually like 3 % of the room actually cares about cost. So I really, really, really want you to note that. And I want you to see that. With that, the next thing we're going to look at is, OK, now I know.

One, it's my psychology. Everyone says yes to me. There's always a solution and you can have whatever you want. You don't have to say that. But the reason I do that is because guess what? I walk in with pretty strong confidence. This patient is buying my confidence and I'm going forward knowing I'm going to figure out what motivates this person and I'm going to be able to help them say yes to this incredible life that they get to have with these teeth. Our teeth are literally the way we eat, talk, communicate, express our emotions. Like all of it. It's such an incredible thing for us to do.

We've cut the emotion, it's just a treatment plan. And then after that, what we're gonna do is we are going to make sure that we're not accidentally closing cases down before they even begin. And I say, don't create a solution to a problem they don't have. So a lot of times treatment coordinators, what they'll do is they'll start to like want to associate with this person and anticipate what objection they're gonna say so they don't quote unquote get broken up with. You're not about to get broken up with if a patient's silent.

They're just thinking through it. So what starts to happen is treatment coordinators and or doctors and team members start to ramble. We start to talk, we start to be like, my gosh, and what you end up doing is talking them out of treatment. So we need to also learn the art of silence. So once we present a treatment plan, once we do it, we want to ask them, what questions do you have? I want you to be rock solid, confident moving forward. Notice I'm teaching you sequence matters, putting things in order. What am I focusing on? Same thing when I do a treatment plan.

What am I focusing on? Am I focusing on insurance first? Am I focusing on how I want them to feel? Am I telling them, hey, what questions do you have for me? I want you rock solid confident. I'm telling them moving forward, this is how I want you to feel. What patients will do is they will actually follow through with you. It's going to be something wild for you. And so making sure that we're using language that's going to get our patients going where we want them to go. We're also making sure we're not planting, I call it weeds in our flower garden. So not.

accidentally creating solutions to problems they didn't say they had. So it's, hey, like, so we have financing options. Well, if they didn't say they have a financing issue, why are we offering financing options? Like, I know, like, it might be a lot of time. Why are you saying that? If they didn't say it, don't bring it up. Because what you do is you plant seeds. And I've talked about this on the podcast, and I think it's just a really good example. I went to PT one time and I had a really bad knee and hip pain.

And the PT was like, I noticed you didn't have insurance. I was like, yeah, I don't. And she's like, this might be really expensive for you. Thank you. I'm in pain. How many times do I need to come? And she's like, well, I don't know. How many times do you think you could afford it or come in? Girl, you just planted weeds in your flower garden. You just gave me all these objections that I was not even thinking about because you didn't stop talking to listen to me of what I actually said.

What I said is I'm in a lot of pain and I want to get out of pain. You then pick up, Kiera's number one motive is to get out of pain. So, hey, Kiera, the way we're going to be able to get you out of pain is we're going to see you three times a month. I'm going to see you for an hour. You're going to do exercises at home and we're going to get you out of pain in the next four months. Fan-freaking-tastic. Now, if I have an objection, I'm like, well, how much is that going to cost? Do you guys do payment plans? Let me bring that up, but pay attention to what your patients want. So,

These are just going to be a few little things for you. There's so many more things when I teach offices, like we need to edify our doctor. We need to tell this patient, my gosh, you are so lucky that Dr. Taylor is your doctor. Dr. Taylor is incredible. They're going to take great care of you. They do incredible dentistry. I am so excited for you to get treatment done with them. I have now put this patient on the winning team. They are buying my confidence. They are so excited about it and treatment coordinators. will give you a tip when doctors diagnose our job is to close. Did you hear that?

Doctors, when you diagnose, you should be able to expect and count on your team to close. I feel like when my doctor like diagnosis treatment, my job as a treatment coordinator is to get that patient on the schedule to figure out what their needs are and to be able to close that patient. So I need to figure out one, it's my mindset. Two, I need to make sure that I am not bringing emotion into this treatment plan. Three, I need to make sure that I'm presenting things in a right sequence based on what I'm focusing on to make sure that patient is focusing on the things that I need them to focus on.

Four, I need to make sure that I'm not planting any weeds in my flower garden and presenting solutions to problems they don't even have. And five, I need to make sure that I get this patient on the winning team. Doctors, you can say the same thing. You can present the treatment plan and say, my gosh, Kiera is an incredible treatment coordinator. She's gonna take great care of you. I know you're gonna really love her. I want you to be super confident moving forward. We have told them, we want them confident moving forward. We have told them that they're going to move forward.

Why on earth would we diagnose treatment and why on earth this patient come to the dentist if they don't want to move forward? Riddle me that. Think about that for a second where I was like, oh my gosh, they're gonna be so stressful. Insurance and money and teeth and pain. Well, yes, you're gonna create that. What you think about is what you create. And I will tell you this over and over and over again. So if you're like, oh, the patient can't afford it. Like the patients are saying no to me. You keep creating that. Care is as everyone says yes to me and there's always a solution and we will find it.

We will find it. Not I will find it, but we, me and the patient, we will figure this out. We will find a solution because I will close cases because if I believe in my doctor and I believe in the dentistry that they do, my job is to help this patient get the dentistry that they need done. We can then go in to so many different pieces of how we present this, how we talk about this, how we go into objections. Like I said, there will be a part two to this podcast. but really the reality is you've got to get this podcast. This one's about, you've got to be in the right freaking mindset.

before you even think about presenting a treatment plan. And usually we're like, Kara, tell me how to present the treatment plan. And I'm gonna say pause. And I want you to think about the treatment plan you're presenting, but I want you to think about the mindset, the sequence, what you are putting emphasis on because that's what your patients are responding to. You're like, patients aren't saying yes to me. Well, my question is, what is your sequence? What are you focusing on? What are you thinking about that might be influencing and not might that is influencing what your patients are responding to?

So it's wild when I start to get people in this mindset, when I start to help them realize like, okay, when I walk into the room, doctors, patients love you, they say yes to you when you are diagnosing comprehensive care. Whatever you feel is what this patient's going to respond to. Treatment coordinators, when they come up, it's an easy, it's an A plus B equals C. Fantastic, I'm gonna schedule you, present the treatment plan, bada bing, bada boom, we're gonna figure out the solutions. Notice I've cut the emotion. This patient's here, I didn't get them here. I did not brush their teeth, I did not floss for them.

They got themselves here. But the great news is my job is to help you get the great dentistry that's going to really truly make sure that you are taken care of. And that's what my job is to do. My job is to not like woe is you, like make you feel bad about this. My job is to have confidence. My job is to know that no matter what objection this patient gives me, I have a solution for it. And we are going to have a solution together. My job is also to help this patient figure out what their driver is by listening to them, paying attention. Like I said, it's 80 % psychology.

What is this patient's motivator? What is it that's driving them? Doctors, you can pay attention to this too when you go into the room. Look to see how do they talk? What do they tell you? What are the things when you emotionally connect with them? When you ask them about their life, what are they telling you? Link your treatment plans back to that. They tell you you've got kids and it's a mom. Reminder, she's worth it. She truly is worth it. If it's an elderly patient, remind them that your body deserves this nutrition. Like it's so great for you and it does so many things for you and it deserves that nutrition.

to truly make sure that you have the best quality of life you can. We can remind our patients of these things. It is an emotional purchase. They are not buying a filling. They're not buying a crown. They are buying the ability to eat. They are buying the ability to smile. They're buying the ability to make memories. They're buying the ability to communicate with confidence. That's what they're buying. And so when you walk into a treatment plan, this is how you become a treatment planning master, a case acceptance like guru. This is how you do it is it's.

start out with the right mindset. And this is what I get obsessed with because a lot of times we think we're doing all these pieces and we're not. And so what I want you to realize is the next podcast will be the tactical and you're like, okay, I'm going to like hurry up and listen to that high five. Thank you for being an avid listener. But number one, get this podcast dialed in first before you listen to the tactical, because if you don't fix your mindset, no matter what tactical piece I give you, you will always continue to get the same results where your focus goes, your energy flows.

where your energy flows, your focus goes, and it just goes around and around. So if I'm thinking patients will say no to me, that's going to become my reality. You create your reality. So if you've got patients saying no to you, you are creating it. So what paintbrush strokes do we need to remove? What thoughts do we need to remove? What new thoughts do we need to bring into it? What do I need to drop? I know what my number is of a high treatment plan. I need to drop that because there are no high treatment plans. There are just treatment plans. There is just dentistry. These are just people that deserve to have healthy mouths, healthy bodies.

healthy lives. That's what treatment planning's about. So I'm so jazzed. I hope you took a bunch from this. If you want, we do this with teams. And like I said, you want to believe that I can add a pay for our consulting in a couple sessions? Here we go. It's really such a beautiful thing. And to help teams become so confident to do this is truly a huge passion of Dental A Team. So if you're like, my gosh, I don't even know how to do this. I need you to listen to what I'm saying that I don't even realize I'm saying.

That's what we're experts in and I love to do this for teams. love to help you doctors out with this. So reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com and be sure to catch part two of this because I'm going to go into tactical on the next one, but promise me you will get your mindset right to help more patients. It is your moral and ethical obligation. And I hope you take that on seriously. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

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Tiff and Kristy look into re-care and re-activation in practices, including adopting a healthy mindset about patient outreach, encouraging medical readiness out of those patients, and steps your team can take today to ensure scheduling happens every time.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:02)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are back at you today. I have Ms. Kristy back with me today in the, we'll call it the studio. We're each in our own studio. We are here just so excited to bring you guys more value and more information and doctors who.

Kristy (00:02)

you

The Dental A Team (00:19)

Listen to us who come every week, who diligently are here supporting us. love you and appreciate you and Teams exactly the same. love you and appreciate you. Doctors, if you find value in this one today, I am super excited for you to have information today that you can share directly with your team. We are talking re-care and reactivation today. And Kristy, how are you doing today? Let's start there. How's Kristy's world?

Kristy (00:45)

my gosh, wonderful. It's been a good day. The weather's nice, had lots of client calls, being able to help people. And then ending up in the studio with you today. So it's a good day.

The Dental A Team (00:57)

Awesome. It's a beautiful Wednesday. I appreciate that. And I think it's a little, I think it's just cloudy. I can't say gloomy because you know, I'm in Phoenix, so I'm quite positive there's no actual rain coming. I think it's just a little cloudy, which is making me think I need to be outside later because it, you know, 96 might feel a little bit better with some cloud coverage. We'll see. We'll see. So I'm excited for you, Kristy. And I'm really excited for the clients that you've been able to help already so much. You've had, you got

Kristy (01:16)

.

The Dental A Team (01:27)

a handful, two handfuls even, clients under your belt and they're just seeing some incredible progress and I want to give you some massive shout outs and some massive kudos. You have built really strong relationships really quickly and made some massive impacts on personal and professional lives all the way across the country. I know you've even got right now a client as far as New Jersey.

and we are West Coast, you guys. So Kristy, thank you for everything that you pour into our company and into our clients and to the people here listening that you pour into our non-clients as well. So Kristy, kudos to you. Thank you for being here today. Yeah, I am really excited, you guys, to chat re-care and reactivation with you all. Really, the thought process here is like patients slipping through the cracks and...

Kristy (02:04)

Thank you.

The Dental A Team (02:17)

and patients that are maybe forgotten about. And they're forgotten about, but we still love them. So patients that listen, that just every now and again pop into dental podcasts, we love you. But really just talking about this from a standpoint of team and doctor perspective, and What can we do to ensure that these patients don't slip through the cracks or when they do, that we catch them again. And I have to say, been in the dental field for quite a while.

And I was really young when I started in the dental industry. And for a long time, I worked for a really amazing, amazing man. He was, he's just one of my favorite human beings in the world. And this doctor was just incredible, but he is a bundle of energy. guys may have heard me talk about him before. He has so much energy and he's go, go, go all the time. And he is literally your true entrepreneur, right? Your true in...

just like visionary, right? Not integrator. He's your visionary. I was his integrator and constant idea factory and constant like fix this, let's do that, let's do this, let's implement. And I remember he harped on re-care constantly. He's like, we're not fucked out six months, then we're not doing our jobs right. And I used to, when I was young, be like, give it up. Like for the love, just let me live my life. Like stop telling me to make more re-care calls.

And I really just didn't understand. And I don't think he knew how to articulate, you know, the reasons behind it. And I think this comes up in a lot of practices for a lot of doctors and a lot of teams of making sure that we are making recare calls and docs. I have to tell you a little secret. it's a kept secret front office teams and back office teams alike. We like to keep it to ourselves, but we hate making calls. Nobody likes.

to make phone calls, okay? It's not fun. And we will do it for the right reasons and we will do it because we want you to have a thriving practice. But it's not like, gosh, guess what I can do right now? I have a couple minutes, I'm gonna pick up the phone, I'm gonna call some people. It's really the last thought. So I know it's shocking, I know it's hard to hear, but I think we have some tips and tricks today that will take some of that discomfort.

out and make it easy for team members. And also I think we can teach you how to articulate the reasons behind making sure that we have a really good re-care and reactivation program in place. And I want to speak to that first because I think it's the most important piece and the most important aspect of really getting anything done.

is the why behind it. And when you're asking someone else to do something for you, whether it's at home or it's at work or whatever, going into it with the attitude of because I told you to, like my mom used to when we were little, doesn't really work. People, especially adults, we've been hearing it our whole lives because I told you to, right? We didn't like it when we were little, we don't like it now. having that why behind it really stands out and makes it stand strong. And knowing why you want to

Kristy (05:09)

Thank

The Dental A Team (05:25)

pursue dentistry further, why you want to own a dental practice and why you are here impacting the community can really help motivate and drive a team. For me, and Kristy, I want your opinion on this as well, for me, when I think about re-care and reactivation, I think where are these patients going if they're not coming to us? And are they going anywhere else? So on the first hand, where are they going? I believe in the dentists that I work

for. I believe in him still today. And all the dentists that I have worked for all the dentists I have worked with, I believe in them and in you guys. And I believe that you are the best place that our patients can receive dental treatment. And I believe that because I don't know what they might get somewhere else. And I want to make sure that they are healthy. That's why I'm here healthy and happy and well taken care of. in order to ensure that I have to make sure that they are coming back to our

So for me, re-care, re-activation, I want to make sure that they're coming. Now, if they're not coming at all, they're not going anywhere. That's an even bigger scare for me because I want to ensure that if something were to happen, if something were to go wrong in their oral care, we can catch it very quickly. And so for me, when I come at it with a mindset of positively impacting our community, making sure people know

and are going to the safest best dentist in town, I'm making these phone calls from a much different state of mind because I'm not making them to help our practice. It is going to help. I'm making these phone calls to help the patients, to help the prospective patients because when you go at it from a help me, like, hey, I'm asking you for something, which is the unknown mindset is really come to our practice because it will help us.

That's the unknown subconscious mindset. But when we switch that and we say, hey, come to our practice because I want to make sure you're healthy, I'm doing this for you now. So when you can express that why, when you can have your team come at it from a different space of thinking, it feels better. And while still making 10, 20, 50 calls, whatever it might be, is not, you know,

I'm not jumping out of bed in the morning to make those calls. It is much easier to get through more calls and I'm gonna burn out slower than the other aspect of me asking for something. on the why, express that to your team. Why do you have all of these things and how can we shift their mindset to be coming from a space of helping the patients, like being an advocate for the patient rather than.

Kristy (07:57)

you

The Dental A Team (08:08)

really looking to fill the holes on the schedule is the only reason I'm calling you. As long as I'm calling you, it's also going to help that. It's a dual purpose. So, Kristy, that was my long-winded statement on it. How do you feel you come at those calls? I know you've made a million of these calls in your day as well. What was your mindset and how do you help train teams on that?

Kristy (08:30)

Yeah, I appreciate your sentiments on it. And I almost wonder if we work for the same doctor at some point. But with that being said, I'm with you. In the beginning, I think my doctor was more like he saw the holes in the schedule and then all of a sudden he came swooping up and kind of nagging almost, right? And it almost really dug our heels in for all of us that were up there.

Literally later when we sat down as a team and just like you were speaking at as a healthcare advocate we sat down and came up with our goal for our patients and You know, I hope you guys are doing this as a team too But one of our goals was to make sure all of our patients could be at medical readiness at any given time Right, and obviously we have to do that again within our patients lifestyle and budget but with that being said

if that's our goal for all of our patients and we understand why they're coming to the dentist, it just puts a different spin on it, right? And so even with that, when I'm looking at re-care and reactivation, I hope you guys will look at it a little bit differently too and see those patients that have outstanding treatment along with an unscheduled hygiene appointment, that they're not at that medical readiness and make it a goal to get them there.

you know, help them achieve optimal health, if you will.

The Dental A Team (09:57)

Yeah, that's a perfect

add on to the why is the patient goals. Like what is our, what are the goals that we have for our patients? And we talk goals all the time. So that should be a very easy concept to consider of those goals. That kind of makes me think of like our personal goals that we set every year, right? Like what are our, what are our goals for our patients? It's not monetary necessarily. It's really like, how are they feeling? What's our, our patient experience? So I think that was beautiful. Thank you for that addition. So you guys,

Mind frame is everything mindset is everything you guys hear me say all the time your words matter And I believe that with my whole heart so make sure that you guys are on the same page that your team is on the same page and that Team members that you are looking at it from the best view possible. You've got to make the calls regardless So how do you make it the most fun for you figure that out? either way, how are you gonna do it? How you gonna make it the most fun?

I think a couple of pieces that are super actionable, #1 make sure you know your why, make sure you know this mindset thing, but #2 making sure every patient leaves with an appointment is massive. And I know that sounds so kindergarten level, everybody leaves with an appointment, I hear you, but it's still happening in the world that patients are leaving without an appointment. So let's make sure that our patients never leave without an appointment. And then contrary to that or flip side of that, if a patient calls,

#1 we don't use the word cancel, delete that, cancel that from your, you know, verbiage. We don't use the word cancel because patients don't cancel. Patients move appointments. They reschedule and they barely even do that. We barely let them do that. We advocate for them and we make sure that they're seen in a timely manner and we go through all the steps. That's a different podcast. Today's podcast is make sure no one leaves without an appointment. And if they do call to reschedule or move the appointment,

make sure that that's what you're doing. I was in a practice the other day and I had so many phone calls. I'm like, where are all these patients? Why are they falling off the schedule? And then I hear, okay, got it. You want to cancel that? Okay, we'll call you. We'll call and follow up with you in a couple of weeks or we'll wait for you to call. And I was like, couch my eyes out. That's so much work you just created for yourself later. Golly, that might.

My jam, you guys, is efficiency and a life of ease. And I am telling you right now, I would rather spend the time advocating for the patient and fighting to keep them on the schedule right now than having to make that phone call to them later because I have to do re-care calls. If I can make sure I don't have a re-care list, like, hallelujah, I don't want to make those calls. So I...

would advocate for making sure that you keep them on the schedule. So, oh, totally understand that that time won't work. I've done my due diligence to try to save them on that time. Totally understand that time won't work. Let's work to find you an appointment time that will work. Is there a day or a time Monday through Thursday that typically works better for you?

Or is this, you know, one off occasion? So now I'm building the relationship with the patient, asking them why they can't come in, what's going on, how do we work around that? Now, where can we put the appointment that we know they can come in? Because that recare list gets longer, longer, longer, the more patients you allow to cancel off the schedule. So if we're asking our back office team, our hygienist and our dental assistants to schedule next visits, our front office team taking those phone calls needs to be really diligent about making sure that they stick on the schedule. So recare and reactivation starts

starts with making the appointment, it starts with keeping the appointment, and then next step is going to be really truly making those phone calls, making sure that you've got the automation set up. know most everyone is set up on some sort of a system that does confirmation calls or confirmation texts. All of those systems also do automated emails and text messages for re-care. So that's massive and making sure that those patient, you know,

the timeframes are chosen correctly, so it's going to those actual patients and that they're getting multiple reminders. And Kristy, how do you suggest those re-care, you know, that re-care touch point once they do follow the schedule or they weren't scheduled when they were, you know, supposed to be when they were in the office, et cetera, how do you suggest that re-care program really gets put into place?

Kristy (14:13)

Yeah,

just like you, I mean, I didn't enjoy making those calls and I know our teams don't, because we hear it every time we're there. Yet, it's a necessary thing. So because we all agree it is necessary and if those patients aren't on our schedule, are they truly healthy? We already talked about that. So I truly like to make daily efforts.

Print your reach your list. Look at not just who was past due, but look at be proactive and look at who's becoming due. If we're really working those lists and we can simultaneous, you take one, I take one, depending on who's making those calls in your office, but print that past due list and look at it. If there's a hundred names, because you know those lists can get pretty long and you just look at it like it's so daunting, but if there's a hundred people on that list,

Look at how many days this month we have, divide it by the days you're working and chunk it out and just make a goal. If that equates to two calls a day or five calls a day, make that your goal. When I think of it that way in a daily effort of phone calls, two or five calls a day is a lot easier than looking at a listing going 100 people. So that's how I tend to chunk it down with Teams and it seems like it goes over a lot better that way.

The Dental A Team (15:28)

Yeah.

I agree. I think that's brilliant. And as you're talking, I was thinking of a different podcast that we've done on the billing and adding it to the morning huddle. And as you're talking, I'm like, my gosh, yes, as you're pulling those lists, and as you're looking at your day, I know this is something, Kristy, that you've added within Ralph slips and morning huddles is looking to see is the patient coming in. So doctor side treatment, maybe that patient coming in, limited exam or a crown that was previously diagnosed, or they were here yesterday for their cleaning and they didn't

get rescheduled for their next cleaning. So making sure you've been as simple as looking at the patients that are coming in, do they have an upcoming visit and then family members. I would love knowing every time I walked into any establishment, they were here to take care of me and Brody.

I want you to advocate for both of us. that's brilliant. I love printing that and splitting it, splitting it amongst the teams, splitting it amongst the days, and then making sure that someone is responsible for making sure we have that addressed on our route slips and that morning huddle because...

Again, I'll say this time and time again, podcast and podcast again, it's easier to get the results from the patient standing in front of you than it is to get the results you're after over a phone call. You're basically trying to reconvince them of whatever it is. So if it's on scheduled treatment, re-care, anything you can think of, we're reconvincing them when we have to call them.

I think that's brilliant and it really sparked my thought there. making sure we know why, making sure we have the right verbiage on re-care and the right mindset. I think that mindset also plays, Kristy, into everyone leaving with an appointment because I know some hygienists that have stated to me that they feel like it's invasive and it's pushy and it's salesy. And as long as we have the right mindset, you guys, as long as we're advocating for the patient's health, that's what we're here for. So mindset, verbiage.

pull your re-care lists, make sure that you've got everybody who's coming, who's due and coming up due, can do past due, make sure you've got your automated services in place and that those are going out as well, you guys.

They, their studies, I put air quotes around, they say that it takes, I think this year they said 13. I've, you know, been working with seven times. I think it's 13 times now, but they say it takes anywhere between seven to 13 times hearing something before you're ready to purchase. And so you guys were working in a world of sales are everywhere. They're on our phones, they're on, you know, our

social media apps, they're on billboards, it's on commercials, it's on our music streaming services, everywhere we turn somebody's trying to sell us something and we're in a constant state of no.

And so in order to get people in the state of yes, we have to make sure that we're advocating for it and that we're doing a really great job to continue to remind them. It takes so many times for my eye doctor texting me and calling me and emailing me. It literally takes me being almost out of context when you're like, okay, fine, I'm ready to schedule, but they do it and I love it. And as aggravated as I might get because I'm like, stop.

I know that I need it because I'm your worst patient, you guys. I am the patient that requires 20 reminders to schedule the appointment because I'm busy. I'm on the road. I'm on calls. I'm in meetings. And I'm not the only one. I'm not alone in that.

So always look to treat Tiffanie and know that it's going to take a lot of times you guys are reminding. So making sure you've got your wire, your verbiage, your tool set, your automations up, and you've got a clear plan and directive for route slips and warning huddle slips for who's due, and then a clear directive on how are we going to make those calls. Reactivation real quick. We'll slide this one in there too. Reactivation is really easy and it's huge.

huge. I actually utilize reactivation in the marketing world because I think that there's nothing easier than bringing a patient you've already paid for back into your office. You paid for them once, there was marketing dollars spent somewhere that they came into your office and then they inactivated, which you guys means they haven't been seen in 18 months or longer.

Kristy (19:36)

We hope you a great summer. Happy New Year.

The Dental A Team (19:52)

So you've already spent the money on them. We're spending dollars on new patients. Why not reach out to these patients who just were forgotten about. They slipped through the cracks and get them back in the practice and add them back into your active patient count. So I think it's huge. I think it's a marketing effort. I think it's easy to add into your Recare program. It's just a reactivation program. We have a really easy one. If you want to reach out, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. We'll be happy to share it with you. And we've got verbiage tips and tools on there. And then as well as different

dates to set for making sure that those go out. And Kristy, re-care reactivation, it's just a massive, massive part of active patient count success in a practice. Is there anything you feel like, gosh Tiff, if we don't mention this one last thing, they're just without a loss. Is there anything else you can think of that we need to make sure we slide into today's podcast?

Kristy (20:45)

No,

think just I challenge you to look at it differently. I mean, you made mention earlier about monetary things and, know, from a patient perspective, if we're really looking at the patient, we know if they stay away, the cost gets greater. So if we're really being a steward to them monetarily, even fighting their fear, right, getting them in is the best thing to do. So.

I just challenge you to look at it a little bit differently, have fun and be in service to your patients.

The Dental A Team (21:19)

Beautiful

and we're gonna wrap with that you guys that was wonderful Kristy. Thank you so much Thank you for doing this podcast with me and going on this journey listeners Thank you for being here whether you're a current client a prospective client or someone who is just here to support the podcast We value you we appreciate you and we want to pour so much love and support into you There's anything that you guys heard today that you need more information on or you just want to comment on? You want us to know what your thoughts were? Please. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com

is our email and we will be happy to hear from you and we'll catch you next time.

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Kiera guides listeners in an activity that will help each person be more purposeful in how they’re going about their lives, and build a path toward ultimate fulfillment at life’s end.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.844)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I hope you are just having an incredible day. I hope things are going so well for you. I hope that you just, I don't know. I hope that as you look at your day, as you look at your life, you just remember, man, you are so lucky to be alive. You are so lucky to be here now during this time. I know things can be hard. It was really interesting. We always have a team huddle every single morning. You can tell Dental A Team was created by someone who worked in a dental practice.

and one of our team members said that she was really grateful for trials and challenges. And I just thought how, what a great mindset, that person has to just think of like, no matter what's going on in life, it's a great day. It's a great possibility. And I think that really ties into what I wanted to podcast about today is, living life on purpose rather than on autopilot. And it's something that has been, on my mind. It's something that we just did with our in-person.

event when we met with clients in person, which was super fun. If you weren't a part of it and you want to be a part of something like that, be sure to reach out. Hello at the dentalateam.com. If you are new to this podcast, welcome. I'm so happy you're here. I'm Kiera Dent. I love dentistry so much and I love helping dentists and teams align to have the best team experience, to have the best overall practice experience, to really help you just flourish and thrive and be living life on purpose. And so today,

I'm just really excited. This is something that I've been working on. It's been like a little labor of love because when we're bringing clients in person, I wanted it to be something where it was different. I wanted it to be something where it's not something that they've been privy to a lot. I wanted it to be something where it was getting them out of their norm and working on their life and also working on their business. So the theme of our in-person event was life on purpose and business on purpose.

What I kind of wanted to walk you guys through is just like a little snapshot of what we did in purpose in person and kind of like mapping your life on purpose. And I recently have gotten into Joe Dispenza in meditation. If you haven't gotten into that, rock on. Welcome. Joe Dispenza has been awesome. I feel like I understand meditation on a level that I never have understood. I went to a two day in person retreat and I feel like I started to learn.

Kiera Dent (02:24.736)

a lot about meditation and about how to get rid of depression and anxiety. And he talked about how we have depression when we're focused on the past and we have anxiety when we're focused on the future. And a lot of times our mind tends to live in the known, which is the unconscious mind rather than living in the conscious, which is the unknown. So known means that we predict what our patient schedule is going to be, what the patients will say, what our day is going to be. We get in our car, we drive home, we're on autopilot, we don't even remember driving home.

We wake up, we do the same routine and to kind of shake ourselves out of that and start to live life on purpose. And so through meditation and also through some life mapping that I kind of wanted to share with you today, to start to live life and to have fulfillment in business and to figure out how can you just be living your life on purpose. what we found out was like language really, really matters when you build this. And when I started looking at my life, I started realizing like,

When I look at my week, a lot of times my week is just filled with things that I have to do. And I feel like that's again, living my life on autopilot. So all these things get put upon me. I put them in my schedule. You've got patients, you've got work, you've got kids, you've got soccer, you've got dance, you've got making dinner. And how can we see and add the fulfillment or the sprinkle or the sparkles to our world? And so what we did with our clients is we actually took our lives and we put kind of the

the categories of our life. And so what are the categories? What are the things that we're working on? What are the pieces that we would be like in a day and day out?

what I want you to do, I just grabbed a notebook. What I want you to do is I want you to start to look to see how am I going to actually build this out? How am I going to, what are the categories of my life? What, like when I look at my to do and my week to do, what is that going to be? And you kind of just like dump it all out. Like what are those categories? So you've got your health, you've got your work, you've got all these different pieces. And to really just kind of look to see like I've got health, I've got business, I've got

Kiera Dent (04:30.882)

growth, I've got relationship, maybe there's some fun sprinkled in there, maybe there's kids, home to do's, what's all on your list? And then looking at that, and then I want you to think about, so you've got your list, so if you wanna do this in real time with me, that'd be great, pause it, build your categories of your life, and then I want you to think about where are you going to be when you're at the end of your life? So I just want you to like, let's go forward. I think of myself in a rocking chair.

I plan to have a really, really, really incredible, like I'm terrified of being in a, I don't know, like a rest home. Like it creeps me out, right? Cause we don't have kids and I'm like, gosh, like who's gonna take care of me? It creeps me out. Okay. So I have planned that I'm gonna have the most incredible rest home life. I'm gonna build this like villa on the beach. I'm gonna have awesome people that are there. I'm gonna have like friends that are there. I plan to have like a jazzy or a drone.

going to be on the water and I can like just jazzy out to my boat, get on the boat, go cruising around. Like I plan to have a jazzy with NOS. I really have like it's gonna be fun. And I'm like thinking like, okay, I'm sitting in my in like, a white rocking chair on my front porch, looking out and reflecting on my life. So whatever your place is, look back and I want you to just kind of think about what do want that life to feel like? What are some of the feelings like?

When you look back, what is the most successful, fulfilled, happy life that you could ever imagine? What does that look like for you? And to really, really think about that end of life. Again, I'm not going to give you an age because I think that's weird. Like, what if you live to like 180? What if you live to 200? What if you like, why are we putting an age on this? But to really think about what you want. And when we did this with our clients, one of the crazy things was that end of life actually didn't have a lot of work. There wasn't a lot of

are to do. So like you just listed those categories. And so then when we look at that, now what I want you to do is once you've kind of gone through that end of life, looking to see like what I want this to be, I've already told you like, I want to be healthy, I want to be strong, I want to have friends, I want to this like sick villa on the beach, like, I want to have like family around with me. That's what I see in like just having this life where I've traveled the world and I've made a huge impact in this world for good like

Kiera Dent (06:42.196)

That's the life where I see Kiera Dent with cotton candy, pink hair hanging out, but really feeling like I made this huge impact in this world. So then what you do is you go back and you actually look at the categories that you have and like what maybe needs to be added in. For me, I realized philanthropy, like something of impact needed to be added into my world. Also for me to have this sick villa, wealth had probably better be on my categories of things that aren't, they're on, these things I feel are not put upon you.

And this is where I feel like this is living life on purpose. It's not living life anymore on autopilot, but it's living life on purpose. And I was talking to the girl who I was going to like, hair girl, basically, we'll just explain it that way. And we were talking and she's like, I can't wait for my kids. Like they're about to be out of daycare and then I'm going to have all this money. And I was like, yeah, and with that money, you can like put it into Ally and you can get a higher yield savings. And then you could be looking at investments and building up your wealth. And I think I was even.

thinking in those terms, we don't do that on the day in day out unless we train ourselves to do that. And that's what I mean by living life on purpose and getting sighted for life on purpose. And who do you need to be today to have that life when we're looking back on it? So what categories do you maybe need to add into your world? And then this is where it actually became really fun is to take those categories. Cause like when I look at health and business and growth, like great. And that's kind of like my wheel of life. So,

but those things don't inspire me. And so taking those categories and actually adding some juice and some excitement to them. So for example, for me health, when I look at like working out, hard pass, no, I never wanna show up to that category and I'm not excited about it. So what I actually did is I renamed my health category. My health category is actually called honoring my body. And that to me feels so good.

I love to work out now because I'm honoring this incredible vessel that I get to be a part of. Like it's me and her for my entire life. Like when I wake up in the morning, I'm like, Hey gorgeous, like, Hey girl, like you're so strong. Like I'm here to support you. Like if she's not feeling well, I take care of her. don't push her. Like this is my incredible vessel that I get to have. And for me working out was not the thing that inspired me, but honoring my body. So it's the same category, but it's honoring my body.

Kiera Dent (08:59.534)

business, like at the time when I was making my categories, you better believe that business was really freaking hard for me. And I was just tired of it. And I didn't, I never got excited to wake up when I saw business on my schedule. So instead I named it my passion project. And now that is something that is so fun to show up for. Dental A Team is my passion project. And anytime I'm like, all right, we're going to go plan my week. Like what goes in the passion project and home, like home to do. So my gosh, I've got to fix this and I've got that. And I've got to like do the groceries and I've got to do the laundry.

None of that sounds fun, but instead I renamed my house category to creating our love nest for my relationship. Some people just want to put their spouse's name. For me, it's my forever love with Jason. That to me feels so much more exciting to show up to that category of my life. So the way I view my categories are kind of like, I have this like wheel or this box if you want. And like, these are almost like doors or like segments that make up Kiera.

and I don't just call it wealth. I call it wealth genius. Like I want to be a wealth genius. And, we have our philanthropy in there that just like, and that's my making an impact bucket. So for that, what the goal is, is with these categories, you actually start to live life on purpose of things that just get you excited. So when I show up to my life to do board, if you will, it's no longer this just life to do board, but it's actually a life on purpose that gets me excited.

Every week then when you go to plan, I look at my categories and I'm like, all right, what am I doing this week to honor my body? What am I doing this week for my forever love story with Jason? What am I doing this week for a Dental A Team passion project? What am I doing this week to build my love nest? What am I doing this week to build my wealth genius? And not every single week will there be things in there. I have a freaking fun bucket. It's called Add the Sprinkles. That one goes in there all the time. I have a mental health bucket of honoring my mind.

So you can just start to have these different categories. And what you do is when you look at your week and you look at things, one, we chunk those things together. So what can I do together to make more space and more time in my world? But also secondly, let me make sure that I'm well-rounded because if you were to think of all these categories, once you get them built and once you name them, if you were to have like, let's say a circle and you divided it. So let's say you have eight categories, you divide this circle into basically like eight pizza slices, okay? So that way it's like spokes on a wheel.

Kiera Dent (11:18.542)

And if I were to ask you of like, how, how are you feeling in your honoring your body bucket? Like that portion. you've colored in and like a full pizza triangle would be like a hundred percent. Like I am crushing like bodybuilders and like my personal trainer. probably killing it on the honoring her body for me. I feel like I'm like at a seven out of 10. So I'd colored into the seven out of 10. How do feel like I'm doing on Dental A Team passion project? I feel like I'm like at an eight right now on that. How do I feel about my relationship with Jason? So my forever love story with Jason, I'd put that to probably like a seven.

Right now, how do I feel like I'm doing on my fun and fulfillment? That one for me right now, fun has not been as much in my life. We've been doing a lot more like work things. So my fun right now is probably sitting at like a five. So great, still there. What about my wealth genius? Wealth genius, I'd probably put that right now at like six. So for you, filling in these categories and some of them when I first started, my wealth genius was like at a one, my philanthropy is like at a one.

And if you were to imagine again, think of that circle with the pizza slices. Once you've filled it in, pretend that's a wheel that would now spin for you. And how bumpy of a ride is that for you? This is where people feel they're out of balance. And this is where people feel they're not living life on purpose because our categories of work and kids are usually so high. But again, kids don't feel so fun. So what if it was like, I think one of our clients, they wrote, dad of the year. And I thought that was like just so stinking cute.

someone for their money section. I loved this. said it was like F you money. And I love that because the intensity behind that, like this, this person wanted it to be where no matter what happened in life, they were financially secure. And I love that. And that like, I was like, how do you feel showing up for that category in your life versus how it used to be? And he was like, I'm freaking pumped. And like dad of the year, like how much more exciting is it to go to the soccer games to be the dad of the year or the mom of the year or

I know Tiffany, she put in there Brody's magical life. And so showing up for things to help create Brody's magical life. And so the goal is that we look to see where is our will maybe a little off kilter, where is it maybe a little bumpy, and then where do we want to show up to our week? So when I start, I go on Sundays and I look at my week and I add in, yes, I've got a bunch of things, but they are now put for colors and I actually have added colors. So like Dental A Team is blue and.

Kiera Dent (13:32.878)

My fun is pink and my forever love story with Jason's like a pinkish red and our love nest is yellow So then when I look at my week, I actually start to paint in colors that make me excited and I don't need to have Five hours of Jason five hours of work to feel fulfilled for me. There's different amounts So for me just having one date night with Jason was no matter what we're doing We do that on Thursdays. That is me having this like really intentional connection with Jason for wealth

even if I were to spend like maybe 15 minutes or an hour, maybe listening to a wealth podcast or maybe like bigger pockets or learning about real estate or learning about, gosh, like rep status or learning about 401k versus Roth IRAs. There's a lot of things on Instagram that you can follow and then read deeper on it. There's a lot of wealth books. I've read so many wealth books over like the course of my time. really...

get obsessive about this because it's fun for me to figure out how to create generational wealth, how to help clients with generational wealth. Like I obsess about this. So adding in maybe 15 minutes or an hour where you look at that for me, even just adding in like 30 minutes of philanthropy, like what do I want that to look like? What are the things that I could get involved in? And what's crazy is when we do this, so I look at, we have 24 hours a day and we have seven days a week, which gives us 168 hours total.

Now, this is what's really fun. When I looked at this, I was like, all right, this is freaking wild. Okay? So our work week is 24 hours. We have 24 hours, seven days a week, which is 168 hours. Now, if I give you, and I'm gonna be pretty generous, eight hours of work times five days a week is 40 hours. And then if I have you sleeping eight hours a day, seven days a week, that's 56 hours. Now I know a lot of you aren't even doing that. So I feel like I'm being extra generous. That's 96 hours.

So of our 168 hours that we have in any given week, we take those work and that sleep out, that's 96 hours, you have 72 hours per week available. And my question is, are you living with those 72 hours on purpose? Are you living your work on purpose? You can also do this fun will at work so you can look at like my CEO time, my marketing time, my treatment planning time, my associate doctor time, my dental assistant time, like we can create categories of our business too.

Kiera Dent (15:51.094)

and look to see where do we maybe need to sprinkle those in within our eight hours so that way our business is on purpose as well. And what's really amazing is when you actually get into this, where you start to live life on purpose, when you start to prioritize living life on purpose and having business on purpose and thinking about where we need to go to have that incredible looking back on our life and just feeling so dreamy and so fulfilled. And I know when we have kids and we have work and we have stresses of finances and we have

all these different things, like my team members said, challenges are opportunities for us. When we're looking at that, are we truly living our life on purpose? Are you living your life on purpose? Do you maybe want to change to live your life on purpose? And that's what I get excited about within consulting. And we just hired a new team member and we've had a couple of clients join us recently, which love them. And I hope you're our next one to join us. But they said, Keira, I really love that this company is not about just work. It's about life and it's about being.

respectful and it's about having a purpose beyond just work. and that was one of the greatest compliments that I have heard from clients and team members, because I feel like if we're not living life on purpose, we're just on autopilot. don't want to get to my cure being whatever age she is and looking back and saying, gosh, I lived so much of my life on autopilot. I was managing my life. wasn't creating my life. And so today I'm imploring you and inviting you.

to start creating your life on purpose. And if this is something that you're like, gosh, I need a lot of help. need some help. don't even know where to start. Reach out. Hello at thedumbolyteam.com. But really, I hope that you just commit to living life on purpose. I hope that you commit to having your business on purpose, that you get out of the unconscious known and get into the conscious unknown where it's creative, it's playful, it's not stressful, it's magnetizing, it's euphoria.

because you're actually living the life of your dreams, not the life that you feel like you are just living day in and day out. And it takes time, it takes daily effort, it takes planning and it takes prepping it, right? But I believe anything worth doing is worth doing well. And so I just encourage you to do this. And if we can help in any way, reach out, hello at thedeadlineteam.com. If this inspires you, feel free to reach out. You can email us. I'm happy to share some of these tips with you, but really...

Kiera Dent (18:14.434)

Let's commit to living life on purpose and business on purpose. We get one life to live and let's make sure it's one that we are dang proud of when we're looking back, reminiscing and knowing that we truly created our life. We didn't just manage it. And with that, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

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Tiff and Kristy give tips on how to catch up on those collections fast, including a day-ahead assessment and treatment plan presentation. The advice given in this episode isn’t only effective for offices concerned about collections, but any office, regardless of what their bank account looks like.

Episode resources:

Sign up for Dental A-Team’s Virtual Summit 2025!

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Schedule a Practice Assessment

Leave us a review

Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.738)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera, and I hope you are just having an incredible day today. I hope you are so jazzed and you are so excited about dentistry, because I'm excited about dentistry. You don't call us the Dental A Team for nothing. Our job is to help you in your practice become the A Team of dental offices. Honestly, I love this. I love what we do. I love talking to you. I love helping you and your team just become everything and more that you've ever hoped to be. So today, I hope you are ready. I just did a really incredible

team training with an office about case acceptance. And I realized, hey, maybe that's something where I can help you in your practice. I love doing this with teams. I have a couple of practices where I help their treatment coordinators. And we've actually been able to add multiple millions. And that's not an exaggeration, multiple millions to their practice. And the thing that I just love is when we increase our case acceptance from doctors and team members, we're able to help more patients. And that's what I tell everyone. are.

so blessed and so lucky to be able to be treatment coordinator masters and to be able to help more patients and to give patients this incredible life, to be able to give them the confidence, to be able to give them the smile, to be able to help their longevity. And I always enjoy hearing the objections. So it's a fun time. So we'll do a part one, part two of this podcast where I'll kind of break down case acceptance for you of kind of how I get team members into this mindset.

And then what I'll do part two of all the objections and how you can overcome objections and treatment planning. I think one of our greatest wins was when I had an office who literally was able to sell an electronic, like an electric toothbrush, which we all know is better than just a standard one to an Amish family. I was blown away. And it was because this treatment coordinator was able to provide so much value of what this patient actually needed and to help them have the best dental health. And I just...

I love treatment planning and case acceptance so much because to me it's helping more patients have healthier smiles, healthier mouths. And I just think it's one of the greatest gifts that we could ever, ever, ever, ever give our patients and our team. So I hope you're excited. I'll break it down for you in a couple of simple steps. These are some of the things that I do to get treatment coordinators and doctors in the right frame of mind. Because what I found is case acceptance is truly 80 % your psychology and what you're thinking and 20 % skill. So I'll give you both.

Kiera Dent (02:19.79)

But really just wanting to break it down for you that so much of case acceptance is about Literally what you're thinking about. if you're new to the Dental A Team podcast, welcome. I'm Kiera Dent I'm your host I love all things dental and so much so that my last name is actually dent I created the Dental A Team consulting years ago when I left Midwestern University's dental college and working with so many of those dental students shout out to all of them and Realizing those students that I loved so much. We're going to go out into this

big bright world of dentistry and they were gonna need an advocate, someone who could vet companies for them, someone who could help guide them, someone who could help them understand what a P &L was, understanding what cashflow was, understanding the business aspect and the team aspect of dentistry, and that's how Dental A Team was born. So my first practice we took from 500,000 to 2.4 million in nine months and opened our second location. Dental A Team is a miracle grow for practices. We're able to increase.

your production, decrease your overhead and honestly decrease your stress and get a full doctor team experience. So that way doctors, don't just have to do this on your own. So that's a little bit about what Dental A Team is about. If you are part of our actual consulting dental family, welcome. I love you. I'm so grateful for you. It is truly one of the highlights of my entire life is watching offices succeed. Like we shout out office wins every single day in our team huddle. And when I hear offices who have broken a million or hit a hundred thousand for the first time or took home a paycheck for the first time or

got their team on board for the first time, literally, I light up, our team lights up because that's what we do. Our consultants are truly experts at what we do and we truly do love seeing your wins. Our tagline is your success and our passion. So our passion is seeing you successful. Our love of dentistry is being able to make sure you and your team are truly flourishing to help those patients get the best dentistry they can. So with that, setting up case acceptance is what I promise you are gonna come in part one of part two.

And like I said, we do this with teams. It's something really, really, really, I would say fulfilling for me to actually teach your teams how to present cases, how to help them. Like I said, I literally have a practice. We've got five offices and we have added multiple millions of dollars to their practices over the years of just working with their treatment coordinators and doctors. And it's funny, they have another person who watches their business and they said, what's happened?

Kiera Dent (04:39.342)

how you guys grown so much and they said it all started when we hired the Dental A Team and just shout out to that practice and that owner and those owners at that, those locations because honestly, they don't just listen but they actually execute and they implement and we work on it and we listen to their treatment plans and we review and what I will tell you, one of my biggest secrets for it is it's usually one or two words that's making or breaking your case acceptance. And I hope you heard that. It's one or two words.

that's actually making or breaking patients saying yes or no to you. So that's where it's so fun. So, okay, step one that I always like to tell people is, like I said, 80 % psychology, 20 % skill. So what you've got to do is you've got to literally be in the right mindset before you go in. So doctors, before you go in and present an exam, team members, before we go and talk about it, before we hand things off, treatment coordinators, before you even think about presenting a treatment plan, I want you to have the right frame of mind. Kiera Dent's frame of mind is...

Everyone says yes to me and there's always a solution. That's my mantra. That's what I say. That's what I think about. And this is when I used to not even be able to close $500 cases. I went from closing $500 cases all the way up to closing 50, 60, 70, $80,000 cases same day. I literally had no idea a credit card could go up to $80,000. I was like, whoa, we're buying a boat today. Like I didn't even know this was reality. But what I learned was it was my psychology. It was me realizing that this was not a big treatment plan. It's just a treatment plan. So that's the second step to this.

We actually cut out the emotion of it's not a big treatment plan. And what I love to do is I love to ask you right now to tell me, and you can say this out loud. I know I'm not actually listening, but hopefully you're playing along with me today. It actually will make this really real for you. But what is the number for you that's your actual high dollar treatment plan? If I were to say, what's a big treatment plan for you? What's your number? Some people's a thousand, some people's 5,000, $10,400. What is your number?

I need you to tell me your number and do not sugarcoat to me. Don't go higher, don't go lower. If you're listening to this as a team, which, hey, that's a great idea. This is a great team training. You're getting it with me for free. But what is the number? And the reason I want to know this number is because no matter what, no matter what you're doing, guess what? That number actually is influencing you. And what I say is there's no judgment on treatment planning. I just need to know and you need to know.

Kiera Dent (06:56.126)

what your number is so then we actually figure out where your ceiling is and how to go around it. When I start working with treatment coordinators, I usually say that I can typically tell when I look at a treatment tracker on a treatment coordinator what they're closing and it's usually close to us in their bank account. Dun dun dun dun dun, mic drop right there. The reason why is because we have this familiarity association where we think people are just like us and so I hear all the time of like, but Kiera, couldn't afford that or Kirea, could afford that or Kiera like,

That's like, it would be so hard for me as a parent to do this. And what we do is we try to put ourselves in other people's shoes, AKA empathy. But what we do on that is we actually close down a lot of cases that could be yeses because people are not just like us. Like I said, I didn't even know credit cards at the time could go up to $80,000. I had no idea. And had I assumed or projected or tried to be familiar with these patients, I would never have been able to close those cases. So what we wanna look at in these situations is,

We've got to cut the emotion. We've got to realize this is my ceiling and I'm going to get beyond that ceiling. Doctors, you have the same thing. You might walk into a room and you might think, my gosh, this patient is gonna think I'm buying my boat or they're paying for this. Whatever you're thinking about, patients actually pick up that energy vibe from you. And I know this sounds like woo woo.

but I will tell you I have taught so many people how to close cases and I'm freaking good at closing cases. Like I literally can walk into offices. I still test my skills when I walk into a practice because I really wanna make sure that what I'm teaching you is actually still working and it is. I have done it so many times successfully. So pick this up. We've got to cut the emotion and it's just a treatment plan. So I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever want to hear you ever again say, my gosh, it's a big treatment plan. Because what you do is you amp yourself up and you get all this energy behind it.

unnecessarily, and then you actually get like skittish and nervous and the patient feels that. I want to remind you, patients are not buying treatment plans, they're buying your confidence and a dream of their future life. So what I like to do is then next, figure out what kind of motivator this patient has. Is it cosmetic, function, cost, or longevity? I also found with treatment planning, sequence matters. So notice I said, is it cosmetic, function, cost, or longevity?

Kiera Dent (09:08.546)

I did not start with cost and when I've done this in rooms and I've asked people and you can ask yourself right now, what is the number one motivator for you and your mouth? You're probably not gonna tell me it's cost. Believe it or not, you listen to those four. If you could only choose one, cost could be a portion of it, that's fine. But guess what, I could say, what is most important about your mouth and your smile? Is it cosmetic, function, cost or longevity? What would you tell me?

and I just sampled a room of probably 50 plus people and of those 50 plus people, three people it was cost. And the reason I like to highlight this is because we assume and we project because we wanna be familiar and close to these people that they're just like us and we think, my gosh, it's cost. If I were to sample an entire room of treatment coordinators across the nation, I promise you the number one thing people would tell me as to why they can't close cases is due to you got it cost.

But when I actually sample people and find out what's truly the most important for people, it's usually like 3 % of the room actually cares about cost. So I really, really, really want you to note that. And I want you to see that. With that, the next thing we're going to look at is, OK, now I know.

One, it's my psychology. Everyone says yes to me. There's always a solution and you can have whatever you want. You don't have to say that. But the reason I do that is because guess what? I walk in with pretty strong confidence. This patient is buying my confidence and I'm going forward knowing I'm going to figure out what motivates this person and I'm going to be able to help them say yes to this incredible life that they get to have with these teeth. Our teeth are literally the way we eat, talk, communicate, express our emotions. Like all of it. It's such an incredible thing for us to do.

We've cut the emotion, it's just a treatment plan. And then after that, what we're gonna do is we are going to make sure that we're not accidentally closing cases down before they even begin. And I say, don't create a solution to a problem they don't have. So a lot of times treatment coordinators, what they'll do is they'll start to like want to associate with this person and anticipate what objection they're gonna say so they don't quote unquote get broken up with. You're not about to get broken up with if a patient's silent.

Kiera Dent (11:23.17)

They're just thinking through it. So what starts to happen is treatment coordinators and or doctors and team members start to ramble. We start to talk, we start to be like, my gosh, and what you end up doing is talking them out of treatment. So we need to also learn the art of silence. So once we present a treatment plan, once we do it, we want to ask them, what questions do you have? I want you to be rock solid, confident moving forward. Notice I'm teaching you sequence matters, putting things in order. What am I focusing on? Same thing when I do a treatment plan.

What am I focusing on? Am I focusing on insurance first? Am I focusing on how I want them to feel? Am I telling them, hey, what questions do you have for me? I want you rock solid confident. I'm telling them moving forward, this is how I want you to feel. What patients will do is they will actually follow through with you. It's going to be something wild for you. And so making sure that we're using language that's going to get our patients going where we want them to go. We're also making sure we're not planting, I call it weeds in our flower garden. So not.

accidentally creating solutions to problems they didn't say they had. So it's, hey, like, so we have financing options. Well, if they didn't say they have a financing issue, why are we offering financing options? Like, I know, like, it might be a lot of time. Why are you saying that? If they didn't say it, don't bring it up. Because what you do is you plant seeds. And I've talked about this on the podcast, and I think it's just a really good example. I went to PT one time and I had a really bad knee and hip pain.

And the PT was like, I noticed you didn't have insurance. I was like, yeah, I don't. And she's like, this might be really expensive for you. Thank you. I'm in pain. How many times do I need to come? And she's like, well, I don't know. How many times do you think you could afford it or come in? Girl, you just planted weeds in your flower garden. You just gave me all these objections that I was not even thinking about because you didn't stop talking to listen to me of what I actually said.

What I said is I'm in a lot of pain and I want to get out of pain. You then pick up, Kiera's number one motive is to get out of pain. So, hey, Kiera, the way we're going to be able to get you out of pain is we're going to see you three times a month. I'm going to see you for an hour. You're going to do exercises at home and we're going to get you out of pain in the next four months. Fan-freaking-tastic. Now, if I have an objection, I'm like, well, how much is that going to cost? Do you guys do payment plans? Let me bring that up, but pay attention to what your patients want. So,

Kiera Dent (13:42.978)

These are just going to be a few little things for you. There's so many more things when I teach offices, like we need to edify our doctor. We need to tell this patient, my gosh, you are so lucky that Dr. Taylor is your doctor. Dr. Taylor is incredible. They're going to take great care of you. They do incredible dentistry. I am so excited for you to get treatment done with them. I have now put this patient on the winning team. They are buying my confidence. They are so excited about it and treatment coordinators. will give you a tip when doctors diagnose our job is to close. Did you hear that?

Doctors, when you diagnose, you should be able to expect and count on your team to close. I feel like when my doctor like diagnosis treatment, my job as a treatment coordinator is to get that patient on the schedule to figure out what their needs are and to be able to close that patient. So I need to figure out one, it's my mindset. Two, I need to make sure that I am not bringing emotion into this treatment plan. Three, I need to make sure that I'm presenting things in a right sequence based on what I'm focusing on to make sure that patient is focusing on the things that I need them to focus on.

Four, I need to make sure that I'm not planting any weeds in my flower garden and presenting solutions to problems they don't even have. And five, I need to make sure that I get this patient on the winning team. Doctors, you can say the same thing. You can present the treatment plan and say, my gosh, Kiera is an incredible treatment coordinator. She's gonna take great care of you. I know you're gonna really love her. I want you to be super confident moving forward. We have told them, we want them confident moving forward. We have told them that they're going to move forward.

Why on earth would we diagnose treatment and why on earth this patient come to the dentist if they don't want to move forward? Riddle me that. Think about that for a second where I was like, oh my gosh, they're gonna be so stressful. Insurance and money and teeth and pain. Well, yes, you're gonna create that. What you think about is what you create. And I will tell you this over and over and over again. So if you're like, oh, the patient can't afford it. Like the patients are saying no to me. You keep creating that. Care is as everyone says yes to me and there's always a solution and we will find it.

We will find it. Not I will find it, but we, me and the patient, we will figure this out. We will find a solution because I will close cases because if I believe in my doctor and I believe in the dentistry that they do, my job is to help this patient get the dentistry that they need done. We can then go in to so many different pieces of how we present this, how we talk about this, how we go into objections. Like I said, there will be a part two to this podcast. but really the reality is you've got to get this podcast. This one's about, you've got to be in the right freaking mindset.

Kiera Dent (16:03.438)

before you even think about presenting a treatment plan. And usually we're like, Kara, tell me how to present the treatment plan. And I'm gonna say pause. And I want you to think about the treatment plan you're presenting, but I want you to think about the mindset, the sequence, what you are putting emphasis on because that's what your patients are responding to. You're like, patients aren't saying yes to me. Well, my question is, what is your sequence? What are you focusing on? What are you thinking about that might be influencing and not might that is influencing what your patients are responding to?

So it's wild when I start to get people in this mindset, when I start to help them realize like, okay, when I walk into the room, doctors, patients love you, they say yes to you when you are diagnosing comprehensive care. Whatever you feel is what this patient's going to respond to. Treatment coordinators, when they come up, it's an easy, it's an A plus B equals C. Fantastic, I'm gonna schedule you, present the treatment plan, bada bing, bada boom, we're gonna figure out the solutions. Notice I've cut the emotion. This patient's here, I didn't get them here. I did not brush their teeth, I did not floss for them.

They got themselves here. But the great news is my job is to help you get the great dentistry that's going to really truly make sure that you are taken care of. And that's what my job is to do. My job is to not like woe is you, like make you feel bad about this. My job is to have confidence. My job is to know that no matter what objection this patient gives me, I have a solution for it. And we are going to have a solution together. My job is also to help this patient figure out what their driver is by listening to them, paying attention. Like I said, it's 80 % psychology.

What is this patient's motivator? What is it that's driving them? Doctors, you can pay attention to this too when you go into the room. Look to see how do they talk? What do they tell you? What are the things when you emotionally connect with them? When you ask them about their life, what are they telling you? Link your treatment plans back to that. They tell you you've got kids and it's a mom. Reminder, she's worth it. She truly is worth it. If it's an elderly patient, remind them that your body deserves this nutrition. Like it's so great for you and it does so many things for you and it deserves that nutrition.

to truly make sure that you have the best quality of life you can. We can remind our patients of these things. It is an emotional purchase. They are not buying a filling. They're not buying a crown. They are buying the ability to eat. They are buying the ability to smile. They're buying the ability to make memories. They're buying the ability to communicate with confidence. That's what they're buying. And so when you walk into a treatment plan, this is how you become a treatment planning master, a case acceptance like guru. This is how you do it is it's.

Kiera Dent (18:26.196)

start out with the right mindset. And this is what I get obsessed with because a lot of times we think we're doing all these pieces and we're not. And so what I want you to realize is the next podcast will be the tactical and you're like, okay, I'm going to like hurry up and listen to that high five. Thank you for being an avid listener. But number one, get this podcast dialed in first before you listen to the tactical, because if you don't fix your mindset, no matter what tactical piece I give you, you will always continue to get the same results where your focus goes, your energy flows.

where your energy flows, your focus goes, and it just goes around and around. So if I'm thinking patients will say no to me, that's going to become my reality. You create your reality. So if you've got patients saying no to you, you are creating it. So what paintbrush strokes do we need to remove? What thoughts do we need to remove? What new thoughts do we need to bring into it? What do I need to drop? I know what my number is of a high treatment plan. I need to drop that because there are no high treatment plans. There are just treatment plans. There is just dentistry. These are just people that deserve to have healthy mouths, healthy bodies.

healthy lives. That's what treatment planning's about. So I'm so jazzed. I hope you took a bunch from this. If you want, we do this with teams. And like I said, you want to believe that I can add a pay for our consulting in a couple sessions? Here we go. It's really such a beautiful thing. And to help teams become so confident to do this is truly a huge passion of Dental A Team. So if you're like, my gosh, I don't even know how to do this. I need you to listen to what I'm saying that I don't even realize I'm saying.

That's what we're experts in and I love to do this for teams. love to help you doctors out with this. So reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com and be sure to catch part two of this because I'm going to go into tactical on the next one, but promise me you will get your mindset right to help more patients. It is your moral and ethical obligation. And I hope you take that on seriously. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

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Kiera shares a ton of fun ideas on ways to attract and engage with potential patients in your community. These range from a killer referral program, to considering the locations of where you’re advertising, and more.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:01.752)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I am just so excited to be chatting with you. I hope that your day is just going incredible. My day has been incredible. I have the opportunity to work with clients and just a fun coaching call day. And I always enjoy it. I enjoy helping clients. I enjoy helping you. I love to get on a podcast and I love to share. And with summer approaching, I thought it might be kind of fun to give you a quick tactical podcast where I talk about maybe some summer marketing ideas that maybe you haven't thought of. know

For a lot of practices, summertime can get a little bit slower or different things can happen for you. And so just maybe a quick tactical for you about maybe some ideas that you hadn't considered to grow your new patients during the summer. If you're planning and preparing now, that way you can have a more filled summer for you. As always, the Dental A Team, we are here to give you tactical practical tips, helping dentists and teams.

have an easier life, helping you have a better patient experience, helping you just have more fun in dentistry. That's what we're about. And that's what I hope you're about. And I hope you remember that you are truly in the best, most incredible profession you could ever be in, and that's in dentistry. If you love our podcast, I hope that you rate it, you review it, you share it, and you are able to just help us positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. So in today's episode, it will be short. It'll be technical.

I'm gonna break it down for you of just like I said, some summer marketing ideas that I think are a little outside the box thinking. So one thing to think of whenever we're going into marketing is we always wanna make sure that we're looking to see who is our patient and where are they located. So if you're trying to attract for pediatric practices, they're trying to attract moms, that's their ideal patient. I know you might think it's kiddos, but guess what? It's actually the mom. In some of my other practices, their patient base is more of a geriatric patient base.

For others, it's a transient. So you've got more new families moving into your area. And so when you're looking at that, paying attention to what is your patient base and where are they going to be hanging out, that's gonna impact some of these summer marketing ideas. So I think one of the easiest things is having a really, really great referral. I see this in the waiting rooms, I see this in practices, but making sure it's targeted to your patient base. I have a practice and I think this is just a huge shout out to this practice. They picked a KitchenAid.

Kiera Dent (02:19.562)

That was what they're giving away to their patient base. And the reason why this is so impressive is because they know their patient base and their ideal patient so well that one of their patients was actually at their child's birthday party telling every person who came to please become a patient because she wanted to win this KitchenAid so bad. This patient A is a raving fan, B took it to their child's birthday party and C this practice picked up a ton of patients because what gift they were giving away actually resonated with their patient base.

So I have a practice in there in like upstate Washington and it's like more of a outdoorsy area. So like a Traeger or a Blackstone works really well in their area. A practice in Texas, concerts were really big. So they gave away these very limited concert tickets. It was like one of the top best ones. A pediatric practice gave away some like Lulu or Aloe gift cards. So that was something that was super, super powerful for another practice.

but really just knowing your patient and what's going to resonate with them. But I think like something to really know is making sure that your practice is focused on internal and external marketing efforts. So when we do referrals and raffles within our practice, that's more internal. Yes, we're attracting external patients, but what we're doing is we're only able to connect with the patients that are coming to our practice. So we really wanna make sure that we're not just like...

only focusing on the internal and then looking for some of the external opportunities. So I thought like that would be something fun, a referral program, bring a friend, share a friend, having cards made so that way people can get really excited. And with some of the practices we work with, a lot of them are like, gosh, I wish I just had a card as the dentist or as team members, because when I'm out and about, people always ask like, where can I get it? And like, I wish I just had a card where I could just give it to them. I could put my phone number on it. So if they had any questions, they could contact me.

So just really looking to see what are some of these internal ways that are so simple that maybe we're just overlooking that could really help us, especially with summer on the horizon. Some other things like, depending upon where you are, if there's a school around you, looking for possibly around fall time where you might do something with clear aligners or whitening. Think about those seniors who might be needing to get senior photos and proms and end of year. Those could be some really good promos that you could possibly run in your area. Again, depending upon your patient base and what's around you.

Kiera Dent (04:39.178)

And now for some external ideas that I think are just kind of fun of look to see again, where is your patient base? So for like geriatric, they might be hanging out in some retirement homes, in retirement communities, maybe the YMCA club, like that's where these people are going to really congregate. And so could we put flyers there? Could we go to the retirement communities? Could we put on a wine and cheese evening for them? Could we put on some lectures, some lunch and learns for them?

Could we offer our membership program that's special for their residents in their area so that way if they don't have insurance, they're able to access our membership program, you're able to bring in a huge patient base, and you're also able to help and support these communities as well. And I really think some of those areas, like if you can actually access them and get in touch with them, think about if you're the preferred dentist for that retirement community, especially if you place implants, you do all on fours, that might be a really incredible area for you to go.

to access, to incorporate, to be with them. I also am really big on community. If you wanna be a community dentist, if your community is tight knit, which a lot of them are, where can you access? Can you get into county fairs? Could you be at some of the sports games? Could you be in any of those other areas where maybe your community's at? And that is more for branding, not necessarily for ROI of patients. So branding is something super important for you to have as well, where it's not necessarily just.

like, okay, great. Like I spent $5. Now we got a patient in a lot of times it's just awareness. It's just being there. And I use the example of the chiropractor in my hometown. They're Ellison chiropractic. And honestly, this chiropractor was everywhere. They were all of our high school games. They sponsored a lot of the football games. It was Ellison chiropractic, which makes sense. You know, these, these football teams, they were there. Our community was very tight knit. had

our high school colors were orange and black. Their colors of the chiropractor place was orange and black. So they had it everywhere. They were representing our school. They were representing our community. They were on the city council. Like they literally were everywhere. They're the chamber of commerce and everybody knew and everybody went to this chiropractor in our community. And so I've thought about dental practices of how can you be the town's dentist?

Kiera Dent (06:54.744)

How can you be the one that everybody knows, that everybody sees, that no matter where you are, people are like, hell, that's the dentist. Like that's our community dentist. So looking to see, is there a festival that you can attend? Can you get your name out there? Can you be a part of it? Can you have swag? I know there was a practice that we worked with that made mouth guards for all the football players on the high school teams.

So that way, and it had their school colors, but it also had that office's logo on it. And I just think that's so clever because this is branding. These are opportunities, but you've got to make sure that you're doing this based on what your patient base is. So if your patient base is elderly, you don't want to be supporting the high school. They find out a lot of people there. You might want to do TV commercials. I have a practice and they do TV commercials and my in-laws actually saw one of our practices. Like I saw them on TV and I was like, yeah, because

my elderly in-laws are watching TV. They're listening to the radio. That's where that patient base is. So those marketing dollars are actually making an impact. So looking to see maybe mailers, maybe mailers work in your area. Maybe there's a new housing development that you could go get in and you could again offer a membership program to them. So if they don't have insurance, you could be there, throw some testimonials in there. Maybe talk about your in-house plan and how great it is for patients within your practice. These are all little ways where if you get ahead of the summer slump,

or the September or slam dunk September that we're going to be able to have it. We're really truly just going to impact your community and maybe just get you out there. You could do a block party. So your community is out there. They're having a good time. Have like hot dogs. I know there was a practice and every Friday they'd hand out donuts on the corner. So everybody knew this dental practice. Like literally they were the practice of all practices and people would drive by, they'd get their donuts. They had their

practice name on a napkin, and that's what they were known for within their community. So I think knowing your practice, knowing what you can do internal, so having like a great referral or giveaway during the summer to really get people excited, making cards just so your practice and your team can actually give those away consistently, and then looking to see what can we do externally. I also think back like when you were starting your practice, how often did you go see specialists? And if you're a specialist, how often did you go see general practices?

Kiera Dent (09:09.646)

Are you dropping off goodie baskets? Are you going to say hello? Are you, I mean, for March Madness, I remember I used to love all the ortho offices because they'd bring us cookies all the time as a dental practice. But how often are we going and actually connecting with the specialist in our area or vice versa, the general practices? And I know that seems like, Kiera, I did that back in the day. I don't want to do that now. I want to remind you that grassroots marketing and face-to-face and referral marketing is one of the best things you can do.

So I have a practice and they're incorporating sleep. So they went and met the sleep doctor. They started getting a ton of referrals and vice versa. And now this doctor is actually taking on this dentist patients and kind of moved that doctor, the dentist, moved them to the top of the line at the sleep doctor's clinic. And I just think the power of relationships and the power of being known in your community and the power of really making an impact. Dental A team's big.

Big mission is to create an impact in the greatest way possible. And so we do it with dentists all across the nation. So we don't really get a community opportunity, but you and your practice can. You can make fun things in your area. And I think being cautious of our dollar spends, making sure we're tracking what we're doing. There's two sides of marketing. There's the actual like getting patients in and then there's the branding and awareness of your practice. And I think it's really important to not just do internal marketing, but also external marketing in some fun ways like this.

where you really get to make an impact because this is a community where you live. This is a community where maybe your kids grow up or your kids go to school or if you don't have a family, it's where your employees, kids and families are going. I think really as dental practices, we have such an incredible opportunity to impact, to flourish, to grow these communities by looking out. So just wanted to pop in with some quick tactical things for you for summer marketing, really easy of one, having our internal, two, having our external.

knowing who our patient base is, knowing the actual appropriate prizes and giveaways and fun things that we can do for that. And then last but not least, it's always making sure that you are just an incredible practice, that you are really giving top-notch dentistry, that you are creating an incredible VIP customer and patient experience where your team truly, 100%, is giving these patients something to rave about, something to be excited about.

Kiera Dent (11:27.244)

And this is something I love to do with offices. love to do with teams. love to do it in our consulting where we help offices figure out what is their niche, what makes you special, what makes you the best practice for somebody to come to, and then really highlighting that and making it such a full team experience. So that's something that we're passionate about in consulting. Our job is to help you grow, to flourish, to have your best life, but to get that from a doctor and a team where you guys are working in tandem together.

I really do believe that dentistry and running a successful practice does not need to be hard. so Dental A Team, the question is, what if this could be easy? Because with Dental A Team, can. And so if we can reach out, we can help you if this resonates with you. Email us, ask us for more ideas. I'm happy to have a call with your practice and give you some free resources and advice for your practice just to truly help youth flourish. And if you're like, gosh, I just need some help, reach out. This is the time. I know it takes a lot of humility to do that.

But why, why struggle when we have done this successfully for hundreds and thousands of offices? Why not yours? So reach out, I'd love to help you. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. Let's make this summer an incredible one. As always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.

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Kiera talks about the numerous shifts on the horizon in dentistry, what your practice can do to embrace the changes, and how Dental A-Team can help.

Episode resources:

Sign up for Dental A-Team’s Virtual Summit 2025!

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Schedule a Practice Assessment

Leave us a review

Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:01)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I am so excited to have you on the podcast today. I hope today is just an incredible day for you. And I hope you remember you are in the greatest industry possible. And today I'm really excited because I feel like there's some opportunities to discuss and challenges that I think offices are gonna be facing in the next five to 10 years. I wanted to pop on and just say like, hey, dentistry is changing fast. And my question is, are you and your practice gonna be ready to seize the opportunity or?

Honestly, are you going to be struggling and hanging out in the back? I think that there will be a lot of shifts. I think we've seen a lot of shifts in dentistry. And so really just popping on to help you look for different things for technology, patient experience, different things within the practice, and really be able to help you guys prepare and get your practice there. Do you guys know Dental A Team? We are here to serve. We are here to help you and your practice have the best experience. I truly do believe that running a dental practice that's profitable and successful does not need to be hard. It does not have to be crazy.

and it can actually be fun and we can get doctors and team members aligned to be able to work in tandem together. And so that's why we're here today. I'm super excited because honestly, staying ahead of these trends is going to help you have long-term practice success. I've really been watching in the offices that we consult, the ones that are adapting and early adapters to technology, I think are going to be in the forefront. And so really just looking at where you are in the life cycle of your practice, looking to see where you want to be in the next five to 10 years.

and not making decisions to sell or to go to a DSO or to stay in a legacy practice out of necessity, but actually out of choice. So number one, I think that AI is coming in. AI is coming in pretty popular. There's a lot of different things. So we're having it in diagnostics. So like Pearl and Overjet, they're able to help co-diagnose with you. There's 3D printing that's coming in. I know offices are using AI and creating bots. We have an office.

where they've created an actual 24 hour a day bot for their practice. And I really think right now is a time for you to be learning. So whether it's 3D printing within your practice, automating our patient communication, looking into AI like this practice where they have a bot, using chat GPT for other things, utilizing AI, think helping practices with case acceptance. We've talked with Pearl, I've had Pearl on the podcast before, but what's crazy cool about that is offices are utilizing it.

actually you're seeing like a 30 to 50 % increase in case acceptance just by using this AI assisted technology. And I prefer Pearl over Overjet. Honestly, I think that there's no wrong choice on it. But the reality is like, I think you've got to get these things in motion. You've got to start looking for them. Otherwise, I really am concerned for you as a practice that you will accidentally become outdated. So really making sure that you are, you're working through this, that you are adding these things in because I think

AI is going to rapidly take off. And if you're not prepared, I think you will be outdated. So that's opportunity number one. So I'd say get involved in some sort of AI, whatever it is, even if you just start dabbling in chat GPT every single day, whatever it is, but really starting to utilize that. Opportunity number two. Now these are the opportunities that I see in the next five to 10 years. I think they're hitting this now. But number two is going to be like looking at membership plans, fee-per-service.

looking at some of those things. Now I'm not here to say drop insurance plans. I've actually been, think a consultant who's been pretty adamant about hanging onto insurance plans for as long as you can, pending upon what you want to do for marketing. If you're an incredible marketer, rock on, you might not need it. But insurance is just going to be something where I feel over time, it's going to get a little bit funkier. I don't think you're going to see a huge increase in insurance funds. I could be totally off on this. I'm not stamping my like everything that I am, but I think like, let's pay attention to it and let's see.

costs are rising in dentistry, but insurance plans are not paying a lot. And so could we start to shift our patient base? Could we start to retain our patients and actually build this fee for service model in? Now you've got to be super careful and I'm going to put like huge asterisks and exclamation points and pieces around it because if you do not transition out of insurances correctly and have a plan and a process and a patient experience in place, you will get like, I've seen it be so bad for practices. So really I think like,

One, if you don't have an in-house membership plan, let's get that started. I'm very pro these. It allows you to have options in the future. It allows you to have different marketing strategies. I think a lot of people are just looking at benefits at a different way now. And I think it just helps you to not be as dependent upon insurance in the future. Then number two is assess your insurance plans. And let's see, are there maybe any insurance plans that we could drop that aren't really going to hurt your production? You really got to do this strategically. Otherwise it will burn you in the booty.

and I do not want you to be at that practice. I've had too many of those offices, so let's make sure you're not there. And then make sure that we're like really getting people sticky to our practice. I think this will be a really, really, really big change for people. And then also it's something where even as fee for service patients, if you can get them on membership plans, I can speak for myself. Being on a membership plan, I actually came in for my two cleanings as opposed to a fee for service patient who often will only come in one time.

So I think it's just another way for you to have more patient flow, more opportunities to diagnose by having that membership plan. I have a practice where they were, this is me as a patient, I was going to them and they had a membership program. The doctor left, branched off, opened up their own practice and they don't have a membership program. And I was like, well, sweet, maybe I'll just go to you once a year. This is as a consultant. I know I need to go in twice a year. I know I have amazing teeth, but I don't need to go twice a year. Like honestly, if I only go once a year, my teeth are probably fine.

but if they had put me on a membership plan, there are other opportunities. For example, you could offer me a night guard, you could do whitening on me, you could do fluoride treatments on me, but because they're not putting into place a membership plan, odds are I probably won't be going back. So look to see how can we actually get our patients to be retained in our practice, not dependent upon insurance. So when we start to trickle that down, we start to convert more and more of our patient base. And what I will say is a lot of practices have transitioned say,

30 % of their patient base over to a membership plan. They start practicing on this, they start getting used to it. So when they want to drop insurance plans, they have a solution that's been really ingrained into their practice. The team's really good. I'm obsessed with companies like Dental Menu. I think that they do a great job for membership programs. I think that they've got a great one built. BoomCloud Clear. So you can just take a look to see who you like the most for it. And then I'm really obsessed with Moola. Moola, I think is a great credit card processor for you.

that actually helps you with your membership programs in-house so you can actually save on your credit card fees. I'm really pro them. Any of these companies that I'm recommending today, be sure to tell them, Denali team, you heard it on the podcast because they actually have a referral pricing for you. So that's what I negotiate. We don't do hardly any affiliates within our company. I just negotiate the lowest fees for you. but really I think looking to see, I think it's an opportunity for you with insurance plans and the economy to start adding in a membership.

Opportunity number three for you is looking into, tell the dentistry I don't think like hot, hot, but I do think virtual consult and online payments. So how can we make things easier for people? So can we get a virtual consultation? Can we start to have, I know there's like, we've had other people on our podcast before where they do virtual, like your smile, what is it? Your virtual smile consult. And what you can do is you can actually do treatment planning. You can have new patients meet you.

You can have videos on your website where it's like, hey, I'm the doctor. They can actually ask questions to the doctor. I have seen a lot of this with bigger cases come into pretty strong effect. Also, if you're wanting to do say consultations where maybe we're doing bigger treatment plans or even like full mouth cosmetic, there's a lot of those that I think are out there to help virtually. I have a doctor and they do a lot of what's called hybrid. So all on X cases and there's a software they can literally use and show the patient their new smile sitting in the chair.

So I think whether you're having patients virtually meet you or if you're using that technology within the chair to help present your cases better, having online options, so online scheduling, online payments, those types of things I really think we need to get more into the virtual world. I think dentistry is a smidgey dated. So I would strongly recommend for you on this to see how can you actually add these pieces into your practice because I do think these are going to like enhance you and just be something patients are expecting. Right now patients are expecting online.

patient scheduling, they're looking for online payments. They're looking for, mean, think about it. If I want to have a consult, my husband and I, we've done IVF. I've talked about it a couple of times on the podcast. I did a virtual consultation with my IVF doctor in another state and we went and we went, now, if you know IVF, IVF's around a 20 to $25,000 process per cycle. And so thinking about that in comparison to dentistry, they literally did virtual consults with me so I could be out of state, I could fly in.

I didn't have to actually be there. And so looking to see, that's what modern medicine is doing. What things could we actually do in dentistry that might be able to help us out as well? So I really think looking for that, that's where I mentioned Moolah, they're great for online, your smile, your virtual, gosh, I'm like botching it. I think it's your smile virtual consult, virtual smile consult. Look it up, that one I'm not as strong on. But just see how can we incorporate some of these items within our practice.

And I would really say that when you do this, you're able to get those high case acceptance. You're able to have more patient acceptance. Think about it. We're paying bills online at night. We are also scheduling appointments. I am constantly on my phone in the middle of the day, at night, on the weekends, moving appointments around, looking to see. And I think if we're not offering that for our patients, we're actually gonna get left behind because patients might accidentally leave you to go to a practice that's actually more up to date. So definitely.

Let's get into how can we become more virtual online. I think it's a huge, huge, huge opportunity for practices. Like I said, I think those are the top three opportunities right now. So we've got AI, membership programs, and then getting more virtual. So virtual consults, virtual like having more available online options. And then I think two of the big challenges in the next five to 10 years, which I think we're seeing it, which I think tie into the opportunities are,

We know it's expensive to run a dental practice. And I think dentistry has had this like nice run for quite a few years, decades where they've been able to stay in a very profitable margin. Hence why DSOs have entered the playing field. And so I think with inflation, higher payroll, supply costs, I think that there's some things in there to pay attention. And number one is you've got to know your number. So I'm really pro overhead calculators, looking at it, having your team involved with you, making sure that all of you are on the same page.

Those are gonna be some really good ways for you guys to stay on top of it, not falling out behind the scenes and figuring it out. Then utilizing buying group things. So for example, Synergy is a great buying group. You buy from your own preferred vendor, but you just get a discount on your supplies. Why not do things like that? How can we actually look to see, can we hire hygienists in and then have a base plus commission? and I were on the podcast.

a couple of weeks ago talking about how we can incentivize hygienists and not have to have as high of payroll, but really looking to see what are the ways that we can do this, looking to see how we can increase our fees, doing a 5 % fee increase, negotiating with insurances or possibly dropping some of those lower paying ones. What are some of these pieces? And what I will say is When you watch your numbers and you analyze your overhead, I promise you, you will be more profitable. So right now we're like, gosh, it's so expensive, which I'm not here to say it's not.

But there's offices out there that are running at a 35% overhead. So that means there's 65% profit margin for them. So looking at that and knowing that there's practices that are able to do that, that means once we know it's possible, then we can look for how you can do it in your practice as well. Now I understand that there's different areas. California is expensive. Hawaii is expensive. Like I hear you, but that doesn't mean that it's impossible. And I think being a wise steward over your numbers is actually something that I really would implore you to do.

to make sure that as costs rise, you know what you're actually spending money on. So you can actually make better decisions. look to see, can we hire this person? Are we paying within the realm? What do we need to do? Could we add on other services within our practice? all on X cases, ortho cases, things like that. But I really think like it's a huge challenge that I think you've got to stay on top of. Otherwise, before you know it, you're gonna just be like inundated and not be able to hire team members because we weren't watching it. We didn't know our numbers. We didn't know what we needed to be producing.

We didn't build block schedules to make sure that our practice could actually run lean and efficiently. And then challenge two, which I think has been hitting hard, which we'll just kind of address, is like staffing shortages and team retention. But I will say that this is like an if. Like there's so many offices out there that I know have incredible cultures. And so what I really feel like needs to happen in this realm is you've got to be an office that in a place that people want to work for. I started noticing that the new currency is time.

Time is the new currency, I think, in where we're at right now. Time and compensation and being happy. But I don't think it's as high on compensation as people think it is. Yes, it's a piece, but I see team members that are getting paid less, but for great cultures are saying because they want this work-life balance. They want more time. They want to be able to be with their kids. They want to be able to feel appreciated with their boss. They want to feel like they're doing a great job. And that is more the currency of today. And so how can you build this culture where

We attract a bunch of people to our practice. We have team members that want to stay with us and that we actually know that, like, we're looking to see how can we maximize this. I am seeing a trend, I'm not saying this is how you have to be, but I am seeing a trend where there is a four-day work week of employees actually tends to lead to less burnout and less team turnover. I don't know what it is. My five-day practices tend to have a bit more of that, but the four-day, and again, they, so they're not,

just open four days or open five days, but they have these rotating shifts and rotating days where they're off. I have seen that that's helping. And so I really feel that when you can build this amazing culture, build it to be a place where you're excited about, add fun things in, watch your overhead, watch those costs. But I really think it's something that's possible. think back to why you started to practice. You wanted to change, you wanted to do things differently. You want to have a team where you were so excited. I know that's what I get excited about. love, I love having a team. love.

loving on them. I love giving them opportunities. I love seeing them flourish in their lives. I love being excited for the growth they're having and so really trying hard to build this incredible team culture to cut the team turnover, to keep it to where you're this like raved about practice where everybody wants to work for you. I think would really, really be an incredible thing for you to just take on. And I know we've heard about it, but I think like, look at your culture, look at the things. I had to do a deep dive of this last year.

Britt and I, sat there and we're like, all right, what is the team saying? What are the issues that we know we're seeing consistently? And what do we want to do to change to make this a better environment and a better space? And I feel that only teams in incredible culture, but there were things that we were struggling with. were things of that we needed to change. There were things that had shifted since I started the company. And I think you've got to stay on top of that. Otherwise, I think you can easily get outdated. So that's a quick wrap.

I think the biggest opportunities are definitely AI membership programs and then also getting virtual, like getting everything up to date and online. And then challenges of course are going to be higher costs and then staff shortages and team retention. But I honestly believe that those who adapt, those who innovate, those who listen to this and they don't just passively listen but actively implement are going to flourish. They say a lot of times the biggest millionaires and billionaires are born during times of hardship and harder times. And so I think

Instead of looking at this like, my gosh, the world is falling apart. Look at this. I'm like, this is the greatest time in dentistry. This is where you get to rise to the top. This is where adding customer service or doing unreasonable hospitality or being a different work culture will actually set you apart. Like you have a chance, like it's not all just set anymore. You have a chance to shuffle and ruffle and make your way to the top. And I honestly believe that you can future-proof your practice. You can get ahead of these trends. You can look ahead and

You can be the practice who is proactive and looked and saw where to get the worm and how to navigate your practice rather than being the one who wished that they would have innovated sooner. And so really just to call the action and truly if you want to future proof your practice, you want to get ahead of these, us. We're on Instagram, DentalATeam or email us, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com I'm happy to pop on a strategy session with you, give you a free practice assessment for your practice to look at maybe where the gaps are, maybe where your blind spots are, maybe we can help you out.

And honestly check out our newsletter. We have a newsletter that goes out so you can always subscribe go to our website TheDentalATeam.com We try to keep you guys on top of this of just insights and knowledge to where we can really help you and your practice thrive And so really this is truly what the Denali team does. This is who we are This is what we love to do and if you're ready to take on opportunities and overcome your challenges reach out Now's the time I do not believe that having a practice should be hard. I do not believe that these things are just

Let me talk about it. It's time to implement. time to take action. And it's time for you to be the elite practice that you were destined to be. And as always, thanks so much for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

View Details

Kiera is a guest on the Dentalligenstia Podcast, hosted by Nick Zagar and Remy Isdaner. She talks about the connection between success and knowing your practice’s numbers for the following:

1. Production
2. Overhead
3. Collection
4. New patients
5. Case acceptance

Kiera also gives tips on streamlining workflow, working through scratch starts, startup versus seasoned practice needs, and more.

Episode resources:

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:00.16)

Hello Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera and today I am so excited. I did an incredible podcast and I just thought it'd be fun for you guys to hear it, to listen to it. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast. Welcome to the Dentalligentsia podcast. I'm Nick Zager and we have Remy Isdaner, my partner, and we are Mirlo Real Estate Partners. Today we have a special guest, Kiera Dent from the Dental A Team. Welcome Kiera. Thanks guys. I'm super excited to be here.

I love what you guys are doing. I'm just jazz. And I'm glad that I didn't have to say the name of your podcast because I would have totally botched that. So thank you for taking that on for me. I love what you guys are doing. And I'm just super, super excited to be here. I love geeking about dentistry and business and all things. So thank you guys. I'm really honored to be here. We appreciate that. you know, our favorite clients are typically early to mid-career dentists. And we love what you do to support.

our mutual clients and really want to know a little bit more about you and why you do what you do. How did you get into this? Yeah, for sure. Well, luckily for both of us, we love the same type of clients. So it's really fun. I actually started my career in dentistry in high school. I was offered an opportunity to either go into nursing or dentistry. And I thought, hmm, I want to wear scrubs. Like that was my end goal. And I thought, learn the whole body or learn the mouth. I'm surely going dental route. So that was honest to goodness. The reason why I got into dentistry.

I was a dental assistant for years and then became office manager, treatment coordinator, scheduler, biller, you name it. I have not been a hygienist and I'm not a dentist, but my husband, he went to pharmacy school at Midwestern Arizona. And during that time, I'm a little hustler. I found out if I could work at the college, I'd get a discount on his tuition. And so I knew there was a dental college and so I found out, got a job at the dental college.

And I was super blessed, super fortunate. And I worked there for three years with dental students. And one of the students asked me while we were in school, she said, hey, Kiera, do you want to come help me open my practice in Colorado? And I was like, heck yeah. Dental assistant to practice owner. Like, this is a great plan. I never knew how I'd be able to do this. I'm not a dentist. And I'm like, I see what you guys do in dental school. Yes, I want to say yes to this. So I went and helped her open the practice in Colorado. And we took our office from 500,000 to 2.4 million.

The Dental A Team (02:25.773)

in nine months and opened our second location. And what I found from that was I learned a lot. We built a pretty big group of practices and I learned so much from that of what not to do. My marriage was about in shambles. Her marriage was about in shambles. My health was deteriorating. I was working from 2 a.m. till 10 p.m. trying to make these practices grow and I thought, well, shoot, one, if I could help her grow a practice, I wonder all my other students that I love.

Could I help them grow their practices and give them the confidence as well? And two, there's got to be a better way to do this than what I've been doing and what she's been doing. Like, yes, we have success on paper, but behind the scenes, we're deteriorating as human beings. And so that's really what spurred my passion. I never worked with a consulting company. Everything that Dental A Team's consulting is are things that I wish I would have had when I was a practice owner, things that I wish I would have known.

things to help all of my dental students. It's fun because it's becoming full circle. A lot of those students are now buying practices and coming and working with me, which is super fun. But really the passion comes from how can I help these dentists live their best lives, get the profitability they want, but also get their team bought in because most consulting companies work with just the dentist or just the team. And I thought, but if I can get the team on board, these dentists lives become a lot easier. And so it's really fun to talk about both sides of the coin.

And shoot my last name is Dent. So I think I was destined for this career path. It's not a stage name It's just the third fiance finally like I didn't get married I just took three fiancees to get a better last name So that's kind of my story and how I got into it and truly just love love this industry and love helping dentists Flourish and succeed and help more people But nursing never had a chance Yeah, I mean the scrubs if it would if they would have cuter scrubs than maybe but

The fact that I had the short path didn't just the mouth, but it's funny. I don't even get to wear scrubs anymore. like, man, that was a short lived moment. yeah, nursing. don't think I could do rectal trumpets. That's just like, I mean, I'll take the mouth all day long versus that. I don't think I could. I have such a gag reflex. I don't think I could honestly do it. Well, talk to us about some of your favorite client stories. gosh.

The Dental A Team (04:39.725)

So knowing that like the startup to the mid range are kind of the ideal clients, I was thinking of a couple and one comes to mind. He attended one of our summits. We have one in April every year for doctors and teams. And so he attended it. And I remember he had like a really funny name on his screen because I see all the participants. I really try to make our summits really engaging and active. And I remember it was iPhone. And so I just kept calling this person out. was like, hey, iPhone, how you doing over there?

just kept kind of like razz and I had no clue there's no camera on it just says iPhone and lo and behold iPhone decides to sign up with us and he had just bought his practice and paid in full for consulting which I was always like man that's a pretty like gutsy move you just bought a practice but I also like people that are gutsy and this committed to it and what was interesting is we'll call him iPhone if you listen to this you'll know exactly who I'm talking about but over the course it's been about two years now iPhone has gone from

Being a practice owner who literally knew nothing about ownership had a pretty seasoned team when they bought their practice And went through all these hard transitions like I'm telling you this was a labor of love on both sides the consulting side and his side from needing to transition out his office manager who was really really causing a lot of like Shakes within the practice and and driving the team in a direction. He didn't want to go

So learning how to hire, learning how to lead, learning how to present treatment plans, learning how to put KPIs into the practice. Like you want to talk about a jumpstart to business ownership. And I remember he's like, Kiera, I'm not even taking home a paycheck. And those moments always rock me because this is real life for a lot of dentists. And my goal is to help them get to taking home their paychecks quickly. And so about six months, he was taking a little bit, but we started like at six months, he was able to take his full paycheck and then fast forward to

I just saw him actually last weekend and he was sharing that now he's producing over 250,000 a month in his practice, collecting home a paycheck, has a new office manager that was sitting next to him. They've shifted the culture. This office manager said that this doctor like makes for Phil Seen, Heard and appreciated. He understands his KPIs. He's got a profitability margin of 60%, which makes me so proud.

The Dental A Team (06:59.629)

excuse me, his overhead 60 % profit margin of 40%. He knows his numbers. He knows how to look at it, getting ready to possibly expand his practice. But he said, we were just meeting last week and he said, Kiera, I want to give back because Dental A Team's given me so much. so having him help coach other practices now of things that he's learned really just inspires me. But I think about this man of...

like the rocky road he went on to get there. And I think that his journey is not unique. I think this is so common for so many owners who buy practices two, three, four years in, but to be able to have him be an example of what can happen and for him to be going from about 150,000 when he first bought the practice to now doing 250,000 a month, just to give him the confidence, I think as a leader, as a dentist, to get a team bought in and on board.

the fact that he knew his numbers and it's been, it'll be two years in April since he bought his practice and joined. And I think that is one of my most favorite stories because to see him excited about life, to see him excited about his practice when there were some dark days, I remember like his name, we'll just say iPhone was on our schedule a lot of times to give more support and to review resumes and to teach him how to hire for culture and to build a culture.

That is a magical experience. And there's, like I said, so many things from KPIs to numbers to culture to hiring to diagnosing and getting patients to accept you when the other dentist was still a part of the practice and moving on. He's honestly one of my favorite clients because I think his story is so relatable to how so many other people feel. And to see him now on the other side of it, truly beaming, I think is honestly one of my favorite stories. I have so many favorite stories.

But I think he's a really recent telling one that is just a fun success story to share with people. That's super cool. And he's got a great name. I know, right? iPhone. I'm like, it's easy because I was like, who is this? Who shows up? Like, I hate it on meetings. Like, get your name of who you really are because I want to call you. There's another, she's now a client. And I was speaking in person and, you know, front row, was like, hey, what's your name? And she's like, I'm going to be anonymous.

The Dental A Team (09:13.803)

So we have a running joke now that she's just anonymous, even though she's a client now. And she's like, I'm so glad. But now she's like, secretly optimistic anonymous. So, you know, we've kind of changed that around, but yeah, it's fun to have clients show their personalities. But yeah, if you're on an event, put your dang name on there. Otherwise, maybe you'll be iPhone forever. Fair enough. I'd rather be iPhone than anonymous, but point taken. I've got a serious question.

for you based on that great story, but first I'm gonna joke. So it's on record in our company, there's a iPhone, Samsung battle and I'm on the iPhone side and Nick's on the other side. And we have it on record here on this podcast that Nick said something to the effect of, that sounds awesome being iPhone or iPhones are awesome.

So just just want to make sure that that we're all in the same page there, you know, Remy I'm happy in our company. It's the same. It's like Apple versus HP I'm diehard Apple everything connects in so seamlessly. So Remy we're on the same. Yep. I phone over here It's definitely definitely for the Samsung. I'm sick of the green bubbles, but they are getting better now I can see that you're writing I can see that it's been read. So I mean, hey, they are making some progress, but that's been like, you know decades in the making speaking the same language

Okay, as promised, I'd start with jokes and then, you know, that was a great success story and your passion is clear. Let's talk about those KPIs. So what are some of the KPIs that young dentists, newer dentists should be looking for? And I asked that question and then also add a preface. We talk to doctors all the time who have no, it's clear they have no...

connection to what the business side of dentistry is doing in their own practice. And I get it, we get it, that they didn't set out to run a business necessarily. They set out to provide the best oral health to their community. But it is a business after all. And so what are some of the things that those young dentists should be looking for? Remy, I'm so grateful you asked this question. It was not pre-planned.

The Dental A Team (11:36.073)

My passion came actually from teaching people how to run successful businesses because as a business owner myself, profits seemed elusive. I remember like, what the heck is a freaking KPI? I didn't even know what that meant. And I really love in dental hygiene, there's no judgment. And I just want people to feel safe and confident to ask those questions. And I think dentists really feel this need to know everything because you are a doctor. And I just want to highlight that, guess what? None of them know it. Like 99 % of dentists that we work with

don't understand the business, but yet understanding the business and the numbers, I feel is like your treasure map to success. It helps you see where are broken systems in your practice to fix. So rather than just trying to pump a bunch of systems, let's look at the numbers to see which system we really can impact. Also, when you know your numbers, you can make smarter decisions of who to hire, when to hire, things like that. And so for people who don't understand KPIs, like I said, someone told me that I was a Dr. Seuss of systems. So I take that.

as a huge compliment to try and make it so simple for people. I believe KPIs are like the vitals of your practice. It's like when you go to the doctor, they always check your like height, weight, your blood pressure, your temperature. They're gonna check those things because if any of those things are out of whack, we're gonna have like an immediate plan. And I feel like that's similar to KPIs within a practice and KPIs can get a little extensive. So if we're talking about a brand new practice, things I start small and then we get bigger.

And so like main things that are really going to give you a nice suck on your business, if you're not careful are going to be your cashflow. So that's going to be your overhead. I'm watching your production and your collections because oftentimes the practice is producing enough, but your team's not collecting that money. So we want to make sure we have a 98 % collections ratio. I'm also going to watch your AR. So AR is your accounts receivable, checking from patient portion and insurance portion, because a lot of times practices actually have the money in their practice.

but they're not collecting, it's just kind of sitting there in overdue payments that are due to you, whether that's from patient or insurance. If we can look at those, we can figure out where's our collection problem. it we don't have clean claims sending to insurance or we're not collecting from patients and we're sending statements or we're not even calling. So I'm really gonna watch those super, super tight. And then if you want to go, excuse me, further down the line and things that I'll watch are gonna be like your lab costs, your supply costs, marketing can come into place.

The Dental A Team (14:00.685)

scheduling, we can look at your scheduling and see like number of new patients coming in. That's a big one that I really like to watch because if we're not getting enough new patients or on the flip side, we're attritioning, AKA we're not keeping them in for re-care and reappointment percentages. We can get a leaky bucket and just keep filling with new patients but not retaining the ones that we have. So I like to watch your attrition rate. I also like to look at your case acceptance. So what are you diagnosing and what's being accepted to see is it a diagnosis problem?

or is it an acceptance problem? Whatever doctors wanna make, there is a study and a standard of three times what you wanna produce is what you need to be diagnosing. So if you're not watching this diagnosis amount, you might not be diagnosing enough to be able to get what you want on your schedule for your production. So I like to watch that. And I like to watch your case acceptance of dollar for dollar. So if you're presenting a thousand dollar treatment plan, how much of that thousand is actually being accepted? Are we accepting 100 % of that? Are we accepting 50 % of that?

and then asking questions of why, because case acceptance is usually one or two words from our exam to our treatment coordinator. And then I like to watch your hygiene percentages. So what's your hygienist producing per hour? I like three times pay for PPO practices, and I like four times pay for fee for service practices, and that's on adjusted production. So let's not go off of gross, let's go off of adjusted. Gross feeds the ego, net feeds the family.

So let's not be feeding our egos. I know it feels really good to say you're producing 260, but if you can only collect 150 of that, let's live in real life world. So those would be some zones. And then like, again, if you want to go like next level, you're already doing that. Some things we found over the last year of tracking hundreds of offices were open time in a schedule and your dollar per hour production, because a lot of times just open time in schedules, we found you could actually hit your goal.

if we could fill those spaces and then figuring out protocols for your team just to keep that schedule full. So I said a lot of KPIs for you, but really your main ones, you've got to be watching our production, collection, overhead, new patients and case acceptance. If I could only pick five, those would be my top five that I would start with. And I'm going to give six, like your reappointment percentages. Cause if we're not reappointing, that's really going to kick you down later on. And it's going to make a lot more work for you. And I think those are some pretty easy ones to watch pretty quickly.

The Dental A Team (16:18.733)

but then also hopefully giving a lot of other ones for you to be able to watch in addition to that, that depending upon where you are in the journey of your practice, things to be looking at and doctors, you don't have to track all this. You get your team to track this for you. And then you get this lovely report that comes to your desk every week or every month. You review it, you assess it, and then you make the changes accordingly.

How do you help the practices that you're working with refine their systems to streamline their workflows to ultimately maximize their productivity? So Nick, on that, I'm just going to sound like a broken record. I literally look at their numbers, because whatever their numbers are looking at, these KPIs, that's going to tell us where the system's broken in addition to what your team is saying is a problem. So usually it's like communication or it's

low case acceptance or overhead or cashflow issues. And so what we're gonna do from there is we're gonna look to see what is the system in place. So if we're having an overhead issue and cashflow issue, well, I'm gonna look at the billing system. Like, let's look there, because that's where the money's at. So let's figure out what is our process, who's doing what, and where is the breakdown, and then we're gonna refine the system. I don't believe teams like to do hard things, and I don't like to do hard things, and so.

everything we implement should be easy because teams will gravitate towards ease and also not making someone remember things. So that's a true system. So we'll put in things like we can put automated notes or we can change our note templates if we're consistently missing something on our claims, we're gonna fix and adjust that system. We're also gonna look to see running certain reports that we put on an automated system for them. It's on a sheet for them. That way they don't have to remember to do this.

We create handoffs where it's on their route slip. So no one has to remember, like just with your memory, it's already built as a true system. And I think a lot about like McDonald's or Chick-fil-A or some of these companies that are able to mass produce and give you the same experience wherever you go. Well, let's build that and let's make a very simple system that everybody can follow rather than hoping and praying our team members remember and they don't drop the ball. So I'm going to look at those numbers. I'm going to look to see where the gap is and then dig deeper to find

The Dental A Team (18:33.461)

root problem and then add an automatic system as much as we can to fix that problem forever. Are you dealing, how much of your business are startups, scratch startups versus acquisitions, also new practice owners through acquisition versus, you know, I guess that's the question, those two paths.

I tend, and I think it's just due to who I am and the things I did, I tend to attract more acquisitions in our company. So we're probably 75 % acquisitions, 25 % scratch start. We've worked with a lot of scratch starts. We've done a lot of pieces with scratch starts. But for me, I'm of the opinion, it's already there. My job is just to come and be the miracle girl on a practice that's already there. I know that I can successfully add hundreds of thousands to a practice very quickly.

adjust their overhead and make them profitable within just a couple of months. Scratch starts, we can do the same thing, but there is more of building that base to get more people in to build it. However, you don't buy someone else's problems when you do a scratch start. So in Dental A team, again, I think it's due to my experience, the things I've done. Like I said, I took a practice from 500,000 to 2.4 million in nine months. I know which systems to quickly shift and adjust. I like to say that we're...

We're a miracle girl for practices. You just sprinkle us on and we watch it bloom. Scratch starts, like I said, usually I'm about six months to a year before we're gonna start to see that churn and burn. And it's just due to building that patient base, which doesn't exist in the scratch start typically. But again, we've had several scratch starts. We've had several be a very successful, but that would be the reason I think why. But again, I don't shy away from scratch starts. I've done plenty of scratch starts and I do love that you get to build everything that you want and it's brand new.

You get to set the systems up from day one. I just think I like to. It's already in place and now my job's just to optimize and magnify it and make it even stronger for them very quickly. But I'm a fast results person. I like to see results quickly. Scratch starts long term have amazing results. Short term they're a little bit harder to get that churn on. Sure. Are people, are dentists typically onboarding you during the acquisition process so you're already known to them and their, you know, their,

The Dental A Team (20:55.281)

They're acquiring with you on board versus an acquisition where things are just not, things don't feel right and they're not turning out the way the doctor planned or not as fast as they had hoped and then they're onboarding. So I think the doctors who do the best are the ones who bring us on usually month one or two before they open a practice. And I always say when you open a practice, it's like having a baby.

people nest the two months before they have the baby and then baby comes in, it's like screaming mayhem for about six months until you figure this out. And I really do believe that that's how practice ownership is. So the offices who I found do really, really, really well are the ones who bring us in one to two months before they actually add us into their loan of their additional cashflow that they need. So it's part of their purchase. That makes sense. Versus the ones that are like, Hey, I don't have cash, but I need help.

because every office does this, literally every single one of them they're in and I call it the six months shakeout. As soon as you buy a practice, it is bananas for six months. Like you have high costs, you have high expenses, nothing shaking out. You're trying to win over all these patients or bring in new patients. Like it's mayhem. And that's actually when you need consulting the most. Like you need someone to pull your head out of the sand, tell you do step one, step two, step three. This is where you actually need to focus rather than just being psycho and trying to like do all the things, but never getting anything done.

So I really love when they come. Otherwise, and I'll say, I'm really pro, of course, being a consultant, I'm pro this, I'm really pro hiring a consultant that can actually like put money on your books. So a lot of things people buy when they're buying a startup, they actually don't add revenue for them. So it's just a lot of cost without a lot of adding to it. And so there's lots of great consultants out there, but I'm really pro find someone who's done what you need to do successfully multiple times.

and bring them in because a consultant for us, our fee is guaranteed covered every single month. Like I'm never worried about that, but we tend to do two, three, four, five times our fee, adding that in in production and reduction of overhead for a practice very quickly. So I never worry about, I understand the owners do worry about fees because it can feel scary with everything you're adding on, but be intentional with what you're purchasing, what can add money to your books rather than just taking money off of your books.

The Dental A Team (23:19.462)

Go ahead, Nick. Well, I was going to switch gears into talking about building and developing a strong team, since you just mentioned that. And I wanted to start by actually saying that when we're working with a client and they're looking for, you know, to a relocation option or they're looking to buy a building or just a general lease, mean, these are all super negotiable things inside, you know, inside of their

you know their business world but you know the the You know the highest expense that they likely have is payroll and so they can't really That's not something you're not gonna retain high-level talent by you know negotiating like a like like a madman like you would with a landlord for example, and so I wanted to talk to you about what are key qualities that a you know a dental practice owner should look for when hiring

key team members. For sure. I'm so glad that you said that rented landlords are negotiable because I think people feel like it's fixed. And I'm like, no, listen, listen, this is why you need Nick and Remy. Talk to them. They'll help me negotiate this down. Agreed teams are a bit trickier to negotiate down here. You're not going to probably get the best people. No one wants to feel like they're being bought on sale to come onto your practice. but as a landlord, yeah, I want the best deal. My labs and my supplies, I want the best deal.

But for teams, so I'm gonna kind of give two different answers because I think startup practices versus maybe a little bit more seasoned in their career actually have two different needs typically. As a startup, I'm really pro them hiring basically an office manager that knows how to do a lot of the things that they don't know how to do. So we need someone who's strong with case acceptance, strong with billing, strong with leadership, strong with hiring, and it's going to be an expensive hire. But what that...

that expensive hire is going to do is going to exponentially grow your practice for you. While dentists are in the back doing dentistry, you have someone who's really your yin to yang in the front office for you. So I'm really pro and I'm really pro not hiring just one person, but two people in the front office. I've seen a lot of embezzlement in my time. I've seen a lot of just funny things going on in the front office. And also if you only have one person up front, you're literally like SOL, which stands for so out of luck.

The Dental A Team (25:38.758)

Um, in my opinion, like you really will be S O L if that one person leaves because you know nothing in the front office. So I'm super pro hiring those people and hiring really good talent when you're a startup. Now, if you're a little more seasoned, figure out what's going to be your yin and yang. If you've got a good biller or you can outsource your billing, um, maybe you don't need as high quality of, or as expensive of an hire that way. But what I have found is typically I like to see payroll around 30 % of your collection. So we're collecting a hundred thousand.

about is going to be spent for payroll costs, not including doctors. And so for that, that's also your fringe benefits, your 401k. And what I've seen with a lot of doctors is team members are only listening to their dollar per hour, but doctors, you're paying a lot more than just a dollar per hour. So we've actually created a really beautiful form for our offices that's kind of like their total compensation package that we recommend giving like once or twice a year to your team so they actually see what they're producing.

Now, hygienists are coming in as a really hot topic, depending upon the area you're in. And a lot of those are like, they're kicking that overhead, the payroll amount really high, but you need a hygienist because they're a producer. And so what's happening, we have a couple of hygienists on our team as consultants. And what they're recommending is let's have a really good base, base plus commission. And then looking back at your hygiene schedule to show this hygienist based on what we've already done. I don't like to live in like theories.

because no one wants to live in theories. They want to feel confident. So if I can hire hygienists for X amount that is fair within the market rate, but give them a commission, so anything they produce over that, showing on historical trends of what my practice has been doing, that's gonna help me keep my payroll costs lower, but I'm gonna be able to pay this hygienist more and be able to actually offset my payroll costs because they're producing more, but I can keep my payroll lower. So that's where I do think you can quote unquote negotiate.

But I really feel strongly, you've got to show them with confidence that they can do this and you've got to have an incredible culture. Culture and time tend to be the currency of hiring great team members right now. And so if you don't have a great culture, if you're not a great boss, you're not gonna hire great talent. I've seen offices paying their employees less than other people in the market, but they have such a great culture that team members want to stay. And then also looking at this time off, PTO is becoming a really hot topic and I feel like since 2020,

The Dental A Team (27:57.872)

We're seeing more of this lifestyle that people want to be living more so than like the 401k traditional benefits, depending upon the age of the person you're hiring. Cause I do think there's two different age groups that want two different things. And so being aware of that and cognitive, think you can get creative with what you're doing. So I think that's a lot of great ways to bring it on, but you've also got to be clear on what your culture is and what your tip is. And you've got to be careful not to hold onto those sour apples that are truly destroying your practice.

One of the best quotes I heard is, the worst thing you can do to your best employees is tolerate the poor performance of your worst employee. And so really being cognitive, and I know that's hard, but trusting and believing that you can bring these great people in. So we put awesome ads out. I tell people to write to their ideal person, figure out who they want of their ideal person, and then posting those ads consistently and following up can be really good ways to get it. And then like,

Great culture does not mean you give everything to your team. It also means that we hold them accountable, that we have structure, that we have systems in place, but giving them the autonomy within that to create what they want to. I think are some hopefully simple pieces based on where you are, of who to hire, how to keep those costs lower. Also, what a good framework of what your payroll should be. And then also realizing the amount of payroll you've got, that should be producing. So make sure that you're.

payroll dollars are actually giving you the production that you should be getting from it. And if not, maybe it's time to make a couple of changes that way too. Yeah, one, one always is, is trying to kind of create a culture that promotes accountability and collaboration and continuous improvement. And you can probably, you know, inside the mission statement of the, of the, of the practice kind of address some of those things so that you have some ground rules. But ultimately at the end of the day, it's about

the leadership and also needs to live those values as well. Yeah. And on that Nick, am really pro core values. When I first started, I heard a explanation of core values and they said, usually when you start a practice, you have three core things that really were the core of why you started this practice. So think back to what those three, those are like your true core. And when I thought back, I was like, yeah, for me it was do the right thing.

The Dental A Team (30:16.272)

have a ton of fun and make it easy for clients. So like those are my three. it's do the right thing, fun and ease. And then we have aspirational ones in addition to that, but really truly like our core values go on our job board. So like when we're hiring people, we say these are our core values, this is our company. Every Wednesday we're highlighting out team members that have been exhibiting core values within our company. So each team member shouts someone out about the core values. And I really have found that

That's how you build culture. Culture is a slow burn, but it's a consistent burn. And so if you have that and you really live, breathe and bring that in, your culture, it will take a little bit of time. say it's kind of like moving the Titanic, but the consistency piece will start to shift it to where you have that incredible culture. And then if you have someone who's not, have the one-on-one conversations rather than the full team conversation. Get really, really good at having uncomfortable conversations. I love the quote. I've added my own little.

sprinkles to it. I say your success and happiness that's care is added is directly proportional to the number of uncomfortable conversations you're willing to have. And I like adding happiness to it because I think like my success is one thing, but my success and my happiness, I want to be happy when I go to work. I want to have a great time. And so just getting really good with those uncomfortable conversations. And I say, it's a conversation. It's not a confrontation. And like, let's get to the root cause. Let's solve the problem rather than the person.

and let's move that forward. I think those are some hopeful quick tips for people to start to change that culture because it can be done and it's paramount for bringing in great team members as well. Well, that's a really important piece of the puzzle is communication, especially since everybody has a different communication style. you know, I wonder what your guidance is about how somebody who owns a practice can, you know,

can become a better communicator or overcome some of those challenges to be able to kind of understand how to communicate to different members of their staff or what have you. For sure. I'll give a couple of books. I believe there's so much wisdom found in the minds of men and authors. And so The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lanzione I think is a great one to figure out how to build that trust and healthy debate between you and your team members. so encouraging that.

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and digging down deep into that. Also, there's a lot of personality traits, tests that are out there. I really am pro disc. There's also a company called Culture Index, and I think they teach you a lot of how to communicate. And something I learned early in my career that I try to pass on to our clients is hire people who are complimentary to you, not necessarily the same as you. Your biller is going to have a very different personality than your scheduler.

I want a bubbly outgoing scheduler who just makes my patients feel incredible. And my biller, do not want them being the party scene. I want them to be the person who's so detailed on every single number. Well, those two personalities are also going to be different communication styles. My biller, can probably be a bit more direct with. My scheduler, might need to have a little more finesse with. The five love languages at work is another great way to see how do people prefer to be communicated with. And then also just asking. I think asking people of,

hey, like some people really wanna be direct and just told directly, other people need like the sandwich, the compliment, here's what we need to work on, the compliment, because otherwise they're gonna feel like they're an utter failure. And so I think as leaders learning, I used to always communicate the way I like to be communicated too. And I feel like that was so naive on my part, because that's how I prefer, does not mean that's how other people prefer. we have, when we hire new hires and we recommend this for our offices,

We actually have them take a quiz within our practice and it tells me their favorite things for appreciation. What is it? If I was to get them a gift, what would be something very meaningful to them? How do they prefer to be communicated with? Is it direct? Is it collaborative? And then we have them read the same book so that way we can speak in the same communication language with each other. And then coming in to when it's an uncomfortable conversation, owning that and saying, hey, like this is uncomfortable for me to say.

We address the root problem and then we ask for feedback of, Remy, how did that land? I want to make sure that what I was trying to convey is actually how you heard it. Then Remy can come back and say, Kiera, I felt like you thought I was a jerk and that I'm not working. And I'm like, my gosh, thank you for saying that. That's not at all how I was saying it. What did you hear? That way I can change this to make sure we're on the same page. That communication takes finesse, takes time, but I will say I would rather invest in that skill than having the constant turnover.

The Dental A Team (35:06.96)

train that's going on. And if you're in maybe a bad culture right now and you don't know how to fix it, anonymous surveys, we send them out for a lot of our clients when they're in this particular spot and start to ask honest feedback of what does this doctor or team need to do to change? What's causing the turnover? What's causing the breaks in the practice from the team members perspective? And then adjusting our communication styles accordingly to really try and help that communication. But I really love asking for feedback of how that landed.

I think that's one of the easiest ways to get that feedback very quickly on communication. So we've talked a bit about communication, I guess, with your own staff, but paramount to any successful dental practice, they need to have strong communication with their patients because enhancing a patient experience, I think, really kind of goes hand in hand with growth and all the other

types of things you need to consider to raise the, do better, I guess, for lack of better word. So. I think patient communication, you're right, it's paramount. And learning, I think that's handoffs. I think that's having everybody speaking the same thing, doctors giving good exams on that. But then also finding out what your patient drivers are similar to a team driver. What is ultimately their number one objective? Is it cosmetic?

Is it function, is it cost, or is it longevity? I said those in a very important order. believe order matters. Because if I put cost first, I'm highlighting cost. But if I put these in a very strategic way, I've done this with hundreds of offices, and we've asked thousands of patients, I will tell you 99 % the time it's not cost. It's usually function, it's longevity, cosmetic, how it looks. And then of course, figuring out within cost. But if you can figure that out from your patients and learn to communicate with them in their style, utilizing disc profiles as well.

You're exactly right, Nick. You'll get higher case acceptance, you'll have a better patient exam. If you have handoffs where everybody's speaking the same language and we're passing the baton off from person to person so that way nothing gets dropped, you will be shocked. We've increased case acceptance. I had a practice, they were getting about 25 to 30 % case acceptance and we literally got 100 % case acceptance that day just by changing a little bit of how we communicate in our handoffs.

The Dental A Team (37:27.462)

The patients would walk up to the front and say, doctor wants to see me back in two weeks for a crown for an hour, I need to get that scheduled. And if your patient is that clear and your communication is that clear, you can only imagine what that does for your practice and your production and your reviews, because that patient's not confused anymore, they literally know what to do.

The Dental A Team (37:50.822)

Can you share any practical tips on how dental teams can educate their patients more effectively about their oral health and treatment plans? Yeah. So I'm really pro hygiene. The hygienists have hopefully an hour with them. And so I'm really big on visuals. And so we work with our practices to build kind of like explaining it helping these patients see like on x-rays where you can use, there's a lot of AI softwares out there. I love Pearl. I love Overjet. They can help educate the patients of what's going on in their mouth.

And what I found for patients is there's a lot of mistrust. And I know dentists hate this analogy, but it is kind of like a mechanic. And so we're looking under the hood and the patient's like, I see nothing but black and white up on there, but you're telling me to like squint my eyes and there's a little cavity right here. So I think also helping train your patients of like, this is a good tooth. And this is a tooth where there is decay, showing intraoral photos for them, helping them so that way when they're going through their teeth, it's like, okay, tell me what you see on this tooth.

the more the patient can actually grasp it and understand it, the more they're going to actually accept that treatment. But in addition to that, one of my hygienists that's a consultant on our team, she gave me some really good advice and she said, never ever, ever use little league words for major league problems. I think oftentimes we don't want to offend the patient or want to make it feel better. And so we're like, well, there's this like little cavity. The tooth is bombed out. Like, why are we saying it's a little cavity rather than telling them like, this is what's going on now.

Yes, they're still finessed, so we don't wanna make them feel bad about it, but we also need to help them see the severity. And what I found is when you're confident in your diagnosis, when you're confident in how you're presenting treatment, your patients are actually buying your confidence, they're not buying the treatment. And so you being confident, and I've helped hundreds of them practice, I literally have an office and we've added multiple millions to their five locations by simply helping them present treatment better and stronger and more confidently, because truly the patient is buying your confidence. And so now, never over diagnosing.

but getting that patient to see it and truly telling them what's going on. And then I always love to say like, here's a comprehensive exam and the good news is, this is how we're going to get you like great back to great oral health and using the good news is, or the great news is that way the patient feels like there's hope and optimism and then giving them a really clear plan of where you want them to start. That way it doesn't feel overwhelming or daunting. Cause you can teach a patient all these things.

The Dental A Team (40:14.448)

They just need to know where to start and how you're gonna be able to help them get the success that they're looking for and to get back to oral health. Not all patients have it. And I say that not like these problems did not happen overnight. So it's not gonna get fixed overnight. Our bodies are always decaying. Like we're always like aging is as fun and thrilling as that is. Same thing with our teeth. And the great news is this is how we're gonna get you healthy.

We've talked a bit about, you know, communication and creating a strong relationship, I guess, with your patients. Talk to us a little bit about how dental practices can develop a strong presence inside their local community to build trust and attract more patients. Yeah, there's an office that I really love. We were just chatting with them and something that I think this office did so well is they have the goal to be

the hometown dentist in their city. That's the vision of their practice. They want all of their patients to feel that way. So it's a very large practice. They have 15 operatories and they've still been able to maintain that hometown feel and they're very connected to their community. Another practice they said that our goal is to change the way people feel about going to the dentist within our community. And so I think the way that you can get this like stamp in your community is one, having that be part of your vision where you want to be

that local dentist to your patients where it's that hometown dentist feel in your practice, then your practice, your patient experience will feel that way. But then these offices, the two that I explained, they're very involved in the Chamber of Commerce. They're very involved in the little league sports. They're very involved in giving back and providing for these communities. I have another dentist and she created what's called the Thrive Home, where it's literally being able to give back to the community with all the different specialties like OT.

PT, dentistry, to give back within the community. And I really think if that is something that is your MO, treating your patients that way, asking for their referrals and their reviews, and then also being able to have that presence. I know growing up, for me, our chiropractor was so well known, that chiropractor was everywhere. They were at all the football games, they were all the high school events, they were at the town hall, the chamber of commerce, like.

The Dental A Team (42:30.106)

Everybody knows that Ellison Chiropractic is the number one chiropractor in the area. And I will say it's because this family was so involved in the community. We saw them everywhere. And so I think how can you also do that and giving back to it? But I think my biggest recommendation, if you want to grow patients based on your community, I think it comes from genuine care and genuine authenticity that you actually love this community that you want to give back. If it's just to pull new patients in, there's other ways to do it.

But I think really, truly, you want to give back to that community you want to serve. I think patients will feel that when it's true and genuine and authentic. We understand how important marketing is to a practice and how it gets teeth through the door. And it's expensive, and it's money we're spending. But I think you hit the nail on the head. In addition to traditional marketing, there's so much more you can be doing in

involvement really is the key. The more involved you can be in your community, the better. Whether you want that hometown feel or you're focusing on productivity and efficiency and I think getting yourself out there and being a part of something is invaluable. That's great advice. When our clients hire us, it's normally because they

They feel totally lost. They're beginning the journey of practice ownership or real estate ownership. They have a lot of student debt. They are about to borrow a lot more money. And it's really scary. we try to really hold their hand through that process to kind of give them those tools so that they can ultimately make the right decisions.

for their practices real estate. And so it's really cool to hear you and how infectious your energy is and you have really good support systems for your clients to really ensure that they're not missing anything and are really maximizing their potential. And so that's really cool to...

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to hear from you. Switching gears a little bit, I want to talk about the future and industry trends to see if there's anything that you're seeing or anything that you think your clients are going to face in the next five to 10 years that they should be preparing for. Yeah. And Nick, thank you. I just wanted to highlight what you said because you're right, it's terrifying. It's terrifying to go into that much debt.

I remember I used to call my dentist 2.5 because we were 2.5 million debt. And I was like, that back straight because you need to keep these hands and that back good. And I would just always say like 2.5, 2.5 because we were 2.5 million debt. And I think that that's where my passion comes from profitability overhead systems because I know how daunting it can be to be an incredible clinician, to be an incredible business, to be an amazing practice, but not to have the cashflow to support what you just went into debt for.

And so that's really where I'm pro like know your numbers, use the systems, utilize your team because, and I will say this again and again and again, a dentist who is financially successful and secure is the best boss to have. And health health teams, want your dentist to be successful and profitable because they're more solid, they're more stable and they're not stressed out, which is going to make a better boss for you. And so agreed. It's very daunting. It feels very scary, but I will promise you if you know your numbers,

It can feel awful at the beginning, but it can actually make it so much better for you. So thank you for highlighting that Nick, because I think I've just seen so many students so stressed about cash and staying up at night. I've had it myself. And so speaking from real life experience, giving you the tools out of that dark hole, I think is one of the greatest gifts we can give to these dentists who are already giving the gift of smiles and confidence to all their patients. Being able to do that same for dentists is such an amazing thing. And now,

Speaking of like what's in the future, shoot, DSOs are on the horizon. I think an AI, like these are two hot conversations. My doctors tell me that they are probably getting a DSO offer at least three to four times a day. And that is ratcheting up. They're getting so many offers constantly from DSOs. They're finding them. And I don't blame them. I think Wall Street is smart. They've realized that dentistry is a great business to invest in. mean, we're hearing 50 % overhead. So we've got exponential profit within.

The Dental A Team (47:19.474)

Dental practices are profitable, typically speaking. And so I think that these are some things for doctors to be aware of. And I think educating yourself on making sure that you're selling or you're living your life the way you want to, rather than like just getting an offer on a bad day. So I think the DSO offers are dangerous because when you have a bad day in dentistry, it's very easy to look at that EBITDA number and say, I just want to sell. I want to get rid of all my problems, but I want to also caution and advise.

to know exactly what you're getting into because I've had some dentists sell. I think DSOs can be great for a lot of practices. I think MSOs can be great. I can see legacy practice and partnerships being great. There's so many amazing things and I don't think there's really a wrong route to go in dentistry. The wrong route I think is when you make an emotional decision that's not going to impact your life the way you want to. And so being very cautious, I think of when do I wanna sell and also what really is a good deal because I had a doctor and their epita,

They talked to some DSOs and he's like, cure it. It's going to be great. I'm going to get five mil for this. And I said, we'll call this one hometown. Like he's not the hometown, but like, we'll just call him. I got iPhone anonymous hometown now. So I was like hometown. I just want to point out that next year you're going to produce 5 million based on our block scheduling and also on the expansion of your practice that we just did. You are going to produce 5 million and they did. So I said, you're going to actually get short changed on this DSO deal. If you're like.

But if you're done with dentistry, it's a great deal. But also you're going to have to work for this person as an associate when you're going to make five mil next year, just in producing on your own and you don't even need to sell. This hometown does not want to be done with dentistry for about 10 years. So I said, you are shortchanging yourself where you can build this. You can exponentially expand into this, but you've got to make the decision of where you want to go and what you want to do. But the five million sounded so attractive to this doctor.

when they didn't realize that their practice was already producing that and would produce that with ease the next year. So I think like being really cautious of that, that you're not making, I feel like I'm so passionate because I feel like your business not only is providing for your life right now, but it's a long-term asset. And like what you guys do with the real estate, these are long-term assets that are building their wealth portfolios. Let's not, let's not do botchy investments, kind of like stocks, right? The stocks we all know just like dropped like, shoot, if you're watching that, you're going to freak out and you're going to want to sell everything.

The Dental A Team (49:40.68)

but they know be stable through your investments, stay steady and not make those irrational decisions I think is so paramount because the DSO offer seem very appealing right now, especially on those like hard dental days. So that's one that I think dentists really need to be cognitive and aware of and knowing what your end goal is, what your retirement goal is, what you ultimately wanna sell out for. So that way when these offers come through, you can be educated and educating yourself more because I promise you.

I do not believe DSOs are going away. think in the next decade to two decades, we will see dentistry become more similar to healthcare. I know I'm like very hated about this. I've had this opinion for several years. My husband works in standard medicine. He works for hospitals and I'm like, gosh, like what was going on in the hospital scene is now what we're starting to see in dentistry. It's not gonna be too long before they're all bought up, but I'm also watching standardized healthcare now trying to shift into private practices and get out of the DSO.

like with air quotes around it. So I think just being cognitive of what you want to do and what you want your legacy to be. But also I don't fault you. I mean, a lot of these dentists are going to be able to get incredible retirements that they may never have been able to get similar to people buying homes in COVID. Like they're getting insane value, insane interest rates. it can be a very wise financial investment deal for you, but just do your homework. Cause I've seen some DSOs go under and people have lost pretty much their entire retirement. So that would be something I definitely highlight on. And then also watching AI.

The doctors are not into AI, they've got to get into AI. That's where I mentioned Pearl and Overjet, they're helping with diagnosis. I can already see they're riding on the wall that insurance companies, guarantee you, are probably already using AI. And so making sure that you are staying at least up to par with insurance companies, if not further ahead. Utilizing virtual assistance, think staffing costs are going to continue to be skyrocketing. And so for that, what other things can we do? like...

Opportunities force innovation. And I think we're in an opportunity zone to force some innovation and to be on the cutting edge of that. I do think right now, doctors who are not online, depending upon where you are in your career, if you're not online, having a presence on social media, if you're not getting involved in AI, I am going to caution that I think those practices very easily could get left behind unintentionally to where it might be hard for them to come back. So just even dabbling in it, getting some team members that could help you with that, I think is super important. And I would say this year,

The Dental A Team (52:04.51)

I would add some sort of AI to your practice. Whatever you choose to do, just so you start to experience it, use it. There's so many things and I think honest in the next five years, I think AI is going to radically disrupt how practices are operating that I think it's important to like at least be dabbling so you're not completely left behind on accident.

You think the AI is, I mean, it's mind blowing and the applications just seem endless and hard to keep up with. you, so are you, if I hear you correctly, you're talking about AI integrations on like the practice management side of things versus patient care, right? Like patient care, so yeah. Yeah.

I think patient care is going to be tricky. I think until they get robots who are amazing, do think like the clinical side of dentistry probably will maintain pretty accurate. But I do think your front office and a lot of your systems will get changed. And I'll just highlight, there's a practice that we work with and she has, it's a pediatric practice. She's got incredible- call them? Sorry, what? What are we gonna call them? this one, we're gonna call this one, we'll just say jammin'.

so this one's jammin. I do like that we're naming all my offices. right. So jammin jammin has a pediatric practice. She's got an entire amazing team, but she has like eight support virtual assistants behind the scene for this practice. In addition, she has made her own AI bot called Amy and Amy. That's actual name of the AI bots. That one's real. didn't change it. mean, I should have called it like Joker, but like that's not really going to work jammin and Joker. This was actually called Amy. but Amy.

responds to to Jammin's practices day in and day out to make sure patients are happy. Now they live in a very affluent area, so it's very fast paced. But what I love about this doctor is she realized in order for me to keep my patients happy and to meet their demands, there's AI and I can create an AI bot that responds exactly how our practice would, but I'm actually not having to pay a team member, an actual human being to do this. And they're able to get all the needs met. That's what I mean by.

The Dental A Team (54:13.37)

looking to see where can AI integrate. And I think it's going to hit your front office faster. But I think like software is meh, like that one's tricky. Software's are tricky to me, but I'm like billing. I guarantee you AI is going to take that over for sure. Hands down. It's going to take it over. I think answering phones and scheduling phones, I think are, the way we send out claims for sure. Like that's all within your billing realm. there's some softwares that are trying to act as office managers. think reading X-rays are going to definitely be taken over by AI.

hands down and I am curious and I don't have an answer for it, but I'm super curious. How is that going to impact diagnosis? I work with some practices in Canada and Australia and they're more streamlined. There's not really a lot of change. Like it is what it is. It's standardized healthcare over there. And I'm curious with AI coming in and I know I'm going to be like, I might get ripped on this. I'm welcoming the reviews because I think it's worthwhile to talk about. I'm curious how AI is going to impact diagnosis.

And what can be diagnosed and what can be actually built out which leads me to believe similar to medicine That's why there's bill like they bill out every single possible code that they can't I mean for the gauze for the cotton and I'm super curious that I don't know I think it's worthwhile to look into is that gonna impact our diagnosis and how we're billing should I maybe be looking and knowing those codes more thoroughly? Depending upon how it's gonna be. I don't know. I think that that's huge speculation on my part, but I

I can't help but think that AI is going to impact our diagnosis in a big way. We're insurance companies, which then leads me to think companies might be leaving insurance. right, like we might be going more fee for service. So then you got to ramp up your marketing. But I think that's going to be a big spin that's probably going to be hitting us in the next couple of years.

The Dental A Team (56:02.27)

It's scary and exciting. don't know what else to Scary and exciting. It feels wild, right? But I'm like, don't think dentistry itself is going to change much. I still think we're going to have our craft. It's a very, very humanistic, very crafting. But I'm super intrigued. And I think for me, I'd rather take it on as like, let's be excited about it. Let's get into it. Let's see. How can we dabble? How can we influence it rather than being told like, is what's going to happen now?

I would prefer to be a pioneer through it and I think first office is to innovate. I I prefer to be like second, third, like I'm not gonna be like right on the first in case everything botches, but like second, third, get in there because these things, I don't think it's going to go away. I think it will adapt and morph, but I think it's here for a while. I hate that I didn't ask you this way earlier, but are you also, are you working with all different specialties or are you strictly general?

That's a great question. We actually work with all. So we have pediatric, GP, oral surgery. The only one we don't dabble in is ortho. I think there are some incredible consultants out there that do ortho. Ortho has its own software. It's its own beast. It's its own animal. I do work with ortho and GP, so we're very familiar with it. But ortho, I just think there's consultants that rock the ortho world, but all other specialties. We have clients within all of those and really love them in all their areas. We tend to specialize GP and pediatric, but we have clients of all.

all specialties minus ortho. Yeah, I The reason I asked is that I was speaking to, you know, an endo group who was actually starting to transition to fee for service. And I don't know, maybe that'd be a good introduction. Yeah. The fee for service world is weird. I really, offices want to cut. They want to just cut the insurance right now. And I'm like, hold please, before you do that, realize it's a retention piece for your patients. And if you don't have a great experience and you also don't have great systems in place,

and you also don't know how to maintain these patients, I had a practice to do this and they almost lost 50 % of their entire practice. So I'm really pro, like you can drop insurance and I'm not here to say not to, but I want you to be very thorough and educated on it and know worst case scenario, best case scenario. I think fee-for-service is gonna dip in a lot more, but if you're not careful, fee-for-service patients are free agents and never forget that. So they can go anywhere at any time. They're not tethered to you like they are with insurance. So making sure.

The Dental A Team (58:25.202)

before you start cutting and get all excited about fee-for-service, I'm here to say do it, but do it correctly. Because I think there's a right way and a wrong way to do it. And I've seen it hit practices really hard if they don't do it correctly. Good to know. The time we spend with people like you is meant to help dentists and really end support staff all around. And they all offer different types of great information and feedback.

But I have to say, I think you've provided a ton of detailed, thoughtful benchmarks and takeaways that I think will provide great benefit and value and hopefully interest people to reach out and get in touch with you. Because I think this is a lot of great content that people can use immediately. So at least to start to think about.

Thank you, Remy. I hope it bleeds through the passion that I have. And at the end of the day, I want the best practices to win. want you to serve patients at the highest level. so that's why I love to just share. I love to give. I love to educate. And if we're a good fit for you, amazing. I'd love to chat with you about that. But truly, thank you. That was a huge compliment, Remy, and I really appreciate that. It's our pleasure having you.

Yeah, on that note, if you have time, we have a few more questions that aren't maybe as practice related, but maybe a little bit more personal. We want to know what is the best advice you've ever received? gosh. This is, I do have time, so thank you. And the best advice I've ever received, gosh, I've had a lot of good advice. had a lot of really good mentors. The one that's popping into my mind right now, I think I'll just tie it all in.

Like, don't lose money. I think there's, I know that sounds so cliche, but I'm really pro on, I remember I was talking to a girl who wanted to start something and she's like, it's okay if I just break even. And I'm so glad I have this like tucked back in my brain of, no, businesses should produce profit. You should be making more than you're making as an associate. I understand it could take a year or two.

The Dental A Team (01:00:41.474)

But don't lose money. Like figure out ways to be profitable. Figure out ways to make sure that your business is serving you. Otherwise go be an associate. And I think like that one just has stuck with me for years and years and years tethered to always provide more value than you ever received back. Give and serve that comes from the go giver. I'm obsessed with that book. That one's what I started my company on. But always, always, always give more value than you, than you get in return.

And I think those two things married together will probably produce and ensure profitability and success for you long term too. That is a great book. Describe your perfect day. Are we talking work? Are we talking life? Just in general. Life. In general? I am a travel junkie. I love to travel. So a perfect day would be hanging out with my husband. We have a great time. I'd be traveling somewhere. So I prefer to be at a destination.

I love beach. know I have very fair skin, so the beach does not love me. So between the hours of 10 and two, I would definitely be taking a nap. So I avoid the lobster burns. But it would be, it'd be beaching. be with family. It would be just hanging out, having a good time. Or it would be like, I live to be on the water. So my husband and I, call it wake weenie Wednesday. People always giggle cause we do a weenie roast on the back of the boat. Like it's tons of fun. And I just think it's a funny like little.

play on words on that, but I love to wake surf. Like any day on the lake is my best freaking day of my life. And especially when we have friends, it's like summertime, you've got that like, it's like dusk and we are like roasting hot dogs on the back of the boat, having a good time with friends. That to me is heaven and pure happiness in life.

And yes, you can come for Wake Weenie Wednesday if you're out here. It's a great time and I think everybody should adopt it. It's a good time.

The Dental A Team (01:02:32.023)

Remy has a favorite question that he seems to Yeah, I hoping. try to give it to Nick periodically, but I appreciate that, OK, so some responses are pretty straightforward and others are quite wacky. So if we asked your parents what you do for a living, what might they say? Oh, my parents would tell you I do dental consulting. They'd tell you I ran a business for dental consulting.

And that's not half as hard as I thought it was gonna be. I thought you were gonna say, what would your parents describe you as a child? And I'm like, please don't ask that, because I was a heathen. That one is full blown. But what I do for work, they would tell you I own a dental consulting business. That's pretty good. We've actually never had anybody that we've talked to that parents actually really knew. Like my mom, for example, she might just call me right now and...

And then I can't answer and she'll be like, why can't you answer? Like, I don't understand. Like, what do you really do? what do you do that's so important that you can't so, you know, I mean, we get all kinds of things. What if you could I do lean on my parents a lot though. My parents know the days in and out. I'm the second of seven kids and I'm very close with both my parents. They live close to me too.

So I've been like, dad, I need you to watch the house. My dad though, he does think he should be my marketer for our company. he's like, here, I'll just fly around. I'll get all these clients and go golfing with him. And I'm like, dad, you will not be like doing any business. You'll just be shooting the breeze with them on the golf course. Like that's all you want. You want me to pay you to go golf in awesome places. that's what he, that's what he'd tell you. He's like, and she should hire me is what he would tell you. My mom on the other hand would, she would know where, I mean, I talked to my mom almost every day. So they would definitely know.

If you could go back in time and talk to your 20 year old self, what would you tell her?

The Dental A Team (01:04:27.703)

I would tell her that she's freaking killer and not to need the, that's what makes me emotional. Not to need the like approval of everybody. I think for a lot of my career, I was doing it to prove to my siblings. I mean, I was the second of seven kids. So very, a very successful family. My siblings are all really smart and I'm the only, I think I'm the only one in my family that doesn't have a master's degree.

I'm the only one who owns a business as well. But I think for so much of my life, I was trying to prove my worth to my parents, to my siblings, to my husband, to, I remember, we'll call this Dr. Jerk. That's that person's name. They told me that I would never be anything more than a dental assistant in my life. And so I think for so much of my life, I tried to prove, and I think trying to prove caused so much burnout for me too. Last summer was actually a really hard summer for me and I felt like I just,

The whole weight of the business crushed on me. I loved what I did. I love the passion that I have, but I think trying to make everybody happy, I forgot what made Kiera happy. And so it was good. I took a nice two month reset. was wake weaning Wednesday, every single day. So that was a positive. But I realized like, I like who I am and I'm incredible of who I am as a person and I don't need everyone's opinions. And I just saw a thing of like those who talk.

about you behind your back should stay behind you. And I've thought about that a lot of just knowing your worth intrinsically rather than needing the external validation, I think I would tell my 20 year old self, because I think it would save her a lot of heartache, a lot of undue stress and pressure and probably add a lot more sprinkles and happiness in life to listen to that advice. Kiera, thank you so much for opening up and sharing and giving all this great guidance and advice for our mutual clients. This was a lot of fun.

I'm super excited to put it out into the world and thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate you. Of course. Thank you for having me. And if there's any way I can serve or support, have a podcast, the dental a team, and if we can help anyone agreed mutual clients, just reach out. We do a free, like a complimentary practice assessments, like I'll happily go through your practice with you, give you tips, resources. If we're a good fit for you, amazing. if not, it's just amazing free value for you to just help you.

The Dental A Team (01:06:49.088)

truly be so successful. anyway, I can help you guys. This was truly so fun. Thank you for having me here. I truly, truly enjoyed it and just love what we're both doing for dentistry. pleasure, Kiera. Thank you. Bye.

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Tiff and Kristy give listeners examples of different practices that have different definitions of ‘thriving.’ They then provide questions each practice owner (or even team member) can ask themselves to identify what success looks like for them.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:02)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are so excited to be here with you today. My name is Tiffany. If you've never heard me on this podcast and you haven't been listening for long enough, then go back through, sift through. We've got so many episodes with so much amazing content and information for doctors and teams alike. There are very doctor-specific ones and very team-centric ones, but I do tell you this. Doctors, listen to them all because I want you to always know

what your teams are doing, what they should be doing, or what they could be doing. So there's a million different ideas in here. Please make sure you listen to all of them. We love you for that and we value you as a listener, client, prospective client, or just listener. Thank you guys so much. Kristy, I've got you back here today. I have stolen you today for quite a few episodes and I am so, so thankful for you carving out this time in your calendar, making sure that we could be here together.

I know we both really love this time together and I'm just super appreciative of it. So Kristy welcome and thank you for being here. Yeah. So I'm excited for today's podcast. One, because there's not a lot of structure to it. So it makes it fun for me. Cause I, you know, I just like to ramble sometimes. So just be here with it.

Kristy (01:05)

Thank you.

The Dental A Team (01:19)

I'm just kidding, but I am excited for today's podcast because I really love telling stories and I really love to utilize experiences that we have had, and teachings that we have done with other clients or things we've learned along the way. love utilizing those things to just provide more valuable information to the world. And today I want to, Kristy, just have conversation about the difference between surviving.

and thriving in the business owner world. And these two words, I love them because you know, they almost rhyme and that makes it fun. And I think our marketing department enjoys that. But I really love it because it's such a wide definition for anyone, right? Just surviving could be someone else's thriving. And someone else's thriving could be someone else's I'll never get their dreams.

Right? I think it's really interesting to chat about a subject like this because it is so in like independent, right? It's so dependent on the individual's dreams and what it means to them specifically. And Kristy, I think you have a really wonderful ability to articulate yourself really well.

and to see into spaces of life for people and with people. And I just think it's really cool that you can take a statement and really see further into it than maybe your average Joe might be able to see. And so I want to pick your brain a little bit on this and the idea of thriving or surviving. And it kind of makes me think of, you know, our onboarding call when we get a new client and we ask them, you know, what does success mean to you?

and what are your goals? mean we take them through this goal build out and Kristy what is this thriving or surviving like where does it take your brain? What do you think of and how do you think it relates to just dentistry right now?

Kristy (03:26)

Yeah, I'm with you. It is a vast subject, if you will, and it can mean different things to different people. Surviving could be that they just worked really hard and they're kind of burning out. They don't see the spark anymore, right? Yet, it could also mean that they're fearful. They don't know or they're unknowing of the next step. They don't know what's next.

for them. They feel like they want to do more, but they don't know how to do it. I think asking more questions when we get on these calls. And I love that you say that onboarding because they obviously come to us for a reason, but sometimes I think they are just surviving and they don't really even know what they're looking for yet. And same with thriving. mean, thriving, it almost sounds like it has a little more positive spin on it, but yet sometimes

The Dental A Team (04:16)

Yeah.

Kristy (04:25)

Our docs don't feel that way when they're thriving. They feel burnout as well. So it is a big topic on both sides.

The Dental A Team (04:29)

and

Yeah, I agree. And I think the difference there, right, or the space to find is the definition. And so, Docs, I think...

Figure out what thriving means to you. What is it that you're going for? What is it that you're here for? If we don't have a purpose driven behind us, right? We don't have anything driving us to our goals, then you could make that $300,000 this month that you wanted and it still might mean nothing or you might just be surviving because like Kristy said, you're burnt out. So what does thriving mean?

And I have, you know, I told you that we do this on our onboarding call. We chat with our doctors. We do this with every doctor that we work with. It's what is your business doing for your personal life?

How is your business projecting your personal life and what do you want your business to afford it? I work really hard with every client that I have and Kristy, I know that you do too because we believe, both of us believe so strongly in this. I want your business to work for you, not you to work for your business. And I want your business to be providing that life for you. And...

I've worked with a lot of clients over the years and Kristy, you've worked with a lot of clients over the years as well. And I have a few that really just come to mind for me. And my...

one of my all-time favorite practices that I have ever worked with and I will say that from the freaking rooftops, from the mountaintops, from everywhere. They're incredible human beings and I want to tell their story today because I think it's a really incredible space for everyone to find themselves a little bit in what this practice went through and where they are today.

And when I met this practice, they were pretty new to ownership. I think they were about three years in, a doctor and his husband. And they had just decided that his husband was going to leave his job, which is not in dental whatsoever. He has no dental knowledge and become the office manager.

And they decided this because it was the easy route and that it just kind of really made sense for them personally in a lot of different ways. So it made sense and it was all good. And they had a lot of ambition. They had a lot of change that needed to be made. And then they had a team that was just kind of upside down and at each other's throats. And they were three years into having taken over a practice and they really didn't lose a lot of team members in that takeover, which was impressive, but

We had a lot of cattiness going on in that practice. And one of the first things that I had them work on, they had been working with somebody already who was working on their numbers and telling them, gosh, you need to expand and you need more room, you need more space, and you can do so many cool things. And I sat them down and I said, yeah, absolutely, you can do all those things. That's not a question in my mind. But do you want to do those things? Why are you doing those things? Why did you become an office manager? Why did you become a dentist?

And how do we know when you've reached it? What does success look like to you guys? And I made them sit down and I made them figure it out together as a couple. And I made them figure it out individually within their own positions. And this process of really figuring out the impact that they needed and they wanted to make on the community.

turned into this incredible space of this dentist wanting to serve a community who is unserved and unseen within their

rural town community and it's just really impressive and so amazing and this community thrives with him like they just they know him for it and he's been able to make his name out of this this space because he really believes in it but really what it did was it allowed them to not only see the community aspect but to also see the team aspect and it

we worked together, Osmander and I have worked side by side for many years now and he is this incredible human that just said he wanted something different. He wanted to go home feeling different every day. He wanted his team to feel different every day and we worked through a lot of personal development spaces, a lot of leadership spaces and he has come just, I mean he's achieved so much but in the early stages it really was about him being able to see what he wanted his team to say about

the practice when they weren't at work. So when they're in the community, are they recommending my practice? When they're in the community, are they thinking about the office and are they representing the practice or are they just done working? And he wanted to build a community within their team. He wanted to build a place where his team felt loved and welcomed and all of these things. And that was to him what thriving as an office manager would be.

he would feel less stressed obviously and feel more in tune with his position. But if he had a team that could stand behind him and he had a team that he could say they were thriving, they were reaching goals, that to him was success. And we worked through so much leadership.

Gosh, tenfold with this team. got his entire team. They both did got their entire team invested in the leadership like space and in learning the leadership. Now doesn't mean they had leadership. They had a leadership team. They had a team that was invested in themselves and learning how to lead their own positions. And gosh, Kristy, they did it to do the add on. They did the add on within two years. They did the add on.

They did a full remodel of that practice within three years of us working together. I believe is what that was. We got the owner doctor to, he's in a space now where he's mostly surgery. He's got a thriving associate that he has mentored the heck out of and really, really done well on leading him to be a successful dentist and refers to him for his GP dentistry. gosh, recently purchased, they,

purchased a building that they also have suites in there that they're renting out to other people and that's this whole property management, but they've been able to because they wanted to make such a massive impact on their community. You guys, like they built this place for their community. They've built out a 16,000 square foot practice in their rural town.

And it's beautiful. is gosh, it's so beautiful. But the entire process, I have to say, the entire process was built around what could help our community. There was even talks of like

Kristy (11:04)

And, you know, it was a thank you.

The Dental A Team (11:18)

a gardening area there so that it can be, they want things to be more green, Like green, like reduce, reuse, recycle green, right? And they thought, gosh, if we had an area where the community, the local community could have herbs or gosh, they're here for their appointment and they needed some oregano for dinner tonight and we've got herbs over here that they can just pick and take home with them, that would serve our community. they, and every space it became, their thriving became a space of how are we serving our team and our

community in the best ways possible. I can't even tell you, think you can imagine 16,000 square feet, like what their revenue needs to be, what their profitability needs to be, like they have exponentially projected their personal lives and their business is working for them. And Kristy, it's just been so incredible to watch them come.

from the space that they were in, but really learn and be able to express what success looks like for them. And I think success doesn't have to be a 16,000 square foot building. Like it's beautiful, right? It is gorgeous. And I have other practices that are like, gosh, Tiff, no, like I want to work three and a half days a week. I have four operatories. I want two hygienists a day. And I want to work out of the other two operatories. And I hope that dentist is thriving.

And there are days he calls me and he's like, I'm only surviving. It definitely will come in waves and it has its ups and its downs, but he knows what success looks like for him as well. He knows what he wants to accomplish and he knows if he can do the amount of dentistry and impact the community in the ways that he wants to on three and a half days, that propels his personal life. He gets time with his kids, he gets time with his wife, he can take vacations, like all of these spaces. So two drastically different.

practices, but the point there, are you surviving? Are you thriving or just surviving? Is that they know the difference between that. And it is financial, they do have financial goals because that's how we we gain the profit. But in order to get to those financial goals, Kristy, we had to invest in the leadership and we had to define

those words, we had to know what does it mean to be thriving? What does success look like? And in the on the days when it's just surviving, what are we looking forward to? What are we looking towards? That gets us back in that thrive mindset. And it's just been so much fun, Kristy and I

Kristy (13:47)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (13:52)

I just love it and I wanted to make sure you guys heard those stories today because it's so incredible. Kristy, you have so many clients too that you have worked through as well. And what do you feel like when we have clients define and when you've worked with clients previously, when they define that success marker, what do you feel like the commonalities are that you see when people are like, yeah, that would be success for me?

Kristy (14:17)

Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head and that it's different for everyone. And I think that you truly have to get down to your emotional why, if you will. Because even though, I mean, we don't really work with any nonprofit people. So we all know that we have for-profit businesses. That just is a given. If we're not making a profit, then our business isn't successful.

in every one of our clients, it's so much more than that. It's what is it going to give them? And just like you said, I mean, we have the ones that work five days a week, and we have the ones that work two and a half, and they're not ever gonna work more than that. And that's okay. But it's, what is it giving them? And like you with these guys, it's about the community.

And for other ones, it could be about them spending time with family, right? And so everybody's why is different, but I guess the common theme, and when I really see, because we're going to use the words, thriving, not just the dentist, but the team, they have articulate, the dentist has articulated their why down to that emotional aspect, so clear that everybody knows what we're going for.

The Dental A Team (15:26)

Yeah.

Kristy (15:41)

And I would also say it's also taking a step back and investing in your team to find out what their why is. Because they're coming to work for a reason as well. And when we're all thriving and going in that same direction and it's meeting those needs for everyone, that's when you get that synergy and it just shines through. I mean, when you have a bad day, you know the why that you're working for on the good day.

The Dental A Team (16:10)

Yeah.

That's beautiful. I love the team aspect that you brought into that because it's so true. And I think I would just challenge everybody now to define those spaces. Like what is thriving? What is surviving and surviving you guys, especially when there's only the two words, right? It sounds like well, surviving is fantastic and surviving or dying. Like, that's not it at all. Surviving is sometimes I'm like, no, I'm happy to be surviving right now. Like I'm good. I am good. And surviving for me today is thriving. So

Kristy (16:30)

you

The Dental A Team (16:41)

find all of those spaces. What is thriving? Like what does success look like to you? What is surviving? What is that space? And what is the this is a panic button space. And I need I need to get out of here. I think

Define all three of those and really like Kristy said, go through that emotional space. Tie it to something that's insanely important to you because when it's insanely important to you, you won't let go of it. You will dig your heels in on those days when you're like, this is panic mode. I need to get back to surviving. How do I get out of this? You're gonna do it. You're gonna push it and you're gonna get all the way. You're gonna surpass surviving and get straight to thriving. So action items, you guys. What is your mission and vision?

What are they tied to? Because your mission and vision, especially in the dental world, can get a little clinically and it's like...

Kristy (17:30)

you

The Dental A Team (17:31)

I know,

just chat GPT, give chat GPT your, I always tell it like a millennial flair, like give it your tone. What do you need this to say? Right? Just make them not so stuffy, you guys, number one, but do your mission vision. Why are you here? Why did you become a dentist? What is it that you're after? Why do you own a practice? What are you trying to accomplish? And then what's your why behind that? What is it pushing for you personally? What is it doing for you in your personal life? What is your business affording you? Why are you

going to work every day. And then I would look at your core values. Do your core values align with your mission, vision, and why? And do they create a culture in your team that will project those into the?

existence, right? So if our core values are like totally off base, and not creating the culture that you want, tackle your core values and do those simultaneously with your team. I would say work them up on your own, know what yours are, and invite your team share them with your team and invite your team to give feedback to

Kristy (18:18)

you

The Dental A Team (18:35)

answer more questions to provide different angles, different points of view, and maybe even for them, I've had many teams really work their own personal core values. So if I know my core values as a human being, like who I am as a person outside of work, what my core values are, makes it very easy for me to be able to see how I align with the practice that I'm working with. So

Actionable items you guys to really be able to see this space doesn't have to and the reason I did not Have you office the reason I did not take today's podcast. Are you thriving or surviving? I could have talked financials with you guys. I could have said so many

thriving practices who see millions of dollars a year and 20 to 40 % profit in some practices, I could have taken you down those roads and let that be today's podcast. But I believe with my entire heart that that is not

the only reason that you could you could say you're thriving. I thriving is different for everyone. And that's the reason that we took today's podcast in this direction. Figure out what thriving means to you. If thriving means a $2.5 million practice per year, then fantastic. Let's get you there. But I still want that why I still want to know what 2.5 is going to do for you. I still want to know what that extra operatory is going to do for that practice and why we needed to remodel and why we needed a new building. I still want to know why

because I want to make sure that whatever it is that you're doing that you're spending your money on makes a difference in your life. So we could have talked financials and I can give you all those if you want to know, but I'm not here to give you a space where you can compare yourself to someone else's success. I'm here to say you've got to figure out what that success looks like and I will always ask you why every single time like the annoying little four year old that only knows the word why. So, Kristy, thank you so much for taking this

journey with us today. This was a really fun one for me. I know we both love the like leadership introspective personal emotional tie side of life so thank you for for taking that journey and will you will you wrap us leave the leave everyone with your take and and your perspective. I love when you do that for us and I'm here for it today.

Kristy (20:58)

Yeah, you know, I love that you didn't take the money route because I've had clients come in that are You know collecting six million dollars that aren't thriving, right? And so you're you're absolutely right But I think the last takeaway would be as you're defining those core values really get clear with your team I'll give you an example I had a doctor that one of his core values was lived by the golden rule and that can be I mean you would think it's pretty

crystal clear, but always explain what that looks like to you as the doctor when you're setting those. And then I challenge you guys as teams to what are some daily things that you can do that help achieve that? You know, so we're all rowing in the same direction. So give it a little bit of clarity, not just to find it, but explain what it means to you and share that part. Really, that comes from the heart.

Your teams appreciate it and then teams, you know, let your docs know what you will do to make that live, you know? So that would be my advice.

The Dental A Team (22:03)

That's beautiful. Thank you. Thank you, Kristy.

I hope that you guys loved this podcast today. I hope that you really listen to it and that you share it with the world. And I want to thank you for listening to us, for trusting us, for being here, for supporting us. Dental A Team is nothing without all of you. So thank you for being here. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. If you need help with anything or if you need help working out those goals or those definitions, we're here for you. And as always, drop us a five star review below. We'd love to hear from you guys and we love to know that this content matters.

The Dental A Team (22:39)

So till next time, we'll catch you later.

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Have you noticed signs of apathy in your practice? Does your job feel insurmountable? Kiera talks about telltale signs of burnout, how to help people bounce back from burnout, and ways to avoid burning out in the first place.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:01)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I am so happy you're here. I'm so happy that you're spending your time with us, that you are truly here committed to making your practice, your patient experience, your team experience that much better, which ultimately impacts your life. It ultimately impacts your profitability and it ultimately impacts the success that you have in this world. This is one of the greatest opportunities for you to truly live your dream life, to truly have everything and more. And that's what I love and I'm so passionate about. And so today,

I just wanted to talk about some telltale signs of burnout and what to do if you are a practice experiencing burnout or what to look for to avoid burnout. know burnout is one of these hot topics and I was talking to an office today and I thought, you know what? I need to podcast about that because offices feel alone. Offices feel like I'm the only one who's experiencing this. I'm the only one who feels this way. Like, gosh, I don't even know what to do. And so I feel like it's just a really...

important topic that I'm super passionate about that I am excited. So today, it's going to be a quick tactical one of what to do for burnout. What does that look like? What are some symptoms and then what to do to help with that? Because I think all of us can be in that space at one time or another. And so just noticing being able to have it, I've done some other ones. There's been some other doctors that have been guests on here. But I realized that today when I was talking to this office, I realized, my gosh, this doctor is just struggling from burnout.

And I don't think that they even realized that. And so just giving you some quick, like, these are some things to be aware of. But then in addition to that, I always love like, but what's the solution? How do I get out of this? Because burnout, think is a little bit of a buzzword. What are truly the steps out? So I'm really excited that you're here. If you're a part of the Dental A Team family, I'm so glad you're a part of it. I love our clients. We are a consulting company that works across the nation. I'm really trying to bring.

dentists and team members together because I think it's so tricky when doctors are consulted but the team's not or the team's consulted and the doctor's not but getting both parties on the same page to where we can really truly thrive we can gain a lot of traction and momentum within our practice having the best team and patient experience because I honestly believe that building a dental practice should be easy building a practical building a practical and profitable practice should be easy so with Dental A Team that's what we do that's what we're here for we're the masters at team and

and practice success. And really we've been there, we've done it, we've done it successfully many times and I hope to be able to help you in your practice. So today talking about burnout, this doctor called in and they were saying, Kiera, I need some help. I was like, all right, great, let's talk. And this doctor, what I started noticing was there was a lot of apathy. As they were talking, they just said, I know I should be doing this and I just don't. I know that I...

Like these are some issues that I'm struggling with and I've just said it a lot of times and I've just kind of given up asking for it. Like when I have patients there, like I know I should be diagnosing this and not that I'm not diagnosing, I'm diagnosing, but maybe I'm just not presenting all of it because I honestly don't want to tell the patient like you've got seven crowns. So you know what? This one, I could watch it. I started hearing and I know some of you were like, my gosh, I don't want you to judge this office.

Because guess what? hear this from a lot of practices and I'm not sitting here judging. I never sit here and think, wow, that doctor's crazy. I think, wow, that doctor is burnt out and we need to figure out why. Doctors at the end of their careers, they get this way too. Doctors when they are at different areas in their life, they get these things. And I really hope that today we come to this with love and empathy and no judgment and no judgment of yourself.

and no judgment of these offices. I'm mixing and mashing a bunch of offices together so that way you can't figure out who I'm talking about because I hear this from so many practices. But it's apathy. It's saying like, gosh, I just feel like I can't find the energy. I'm tired of just asking for this to be done. It's the insurmountable to-do list. It's the, I think like as I just took that breath, I think that's how they feel. It's like I have this never ending to-do list.

I don't quite know what I need to do. I'm tired. I've got things going. I know I could be doing better. Do I really want to? And it's just kind of like this swirl. I also notice when officers are really at a good burnout space, they swirl. They swirl a lot because honestly, I think that their mind is swirling and they're just like, I know I need to do this and I know I need to do that, but I'm so tired. Or gosh, like I just like, no matter how many times I like tried to take a step forward, I've got 10 steps back. And what I look for when I'm

when I'm seeing a practice, the first thing I'm gonna ask when I have a doctor who's in this space, those are some telltale signs. And then after that, we just get to a workspace where we actually stop caring, where you don't wanna come work, dentistry is not fun for you. And so what I get excited about is like, when I get to catch a doctor before they get to that where they've lost the interest, they're not excited about it, they still have a little bit of that spark and sparkle and they're like, hey,

I know I need some help and they reach out. That's like the prime spot. I love to catch them even before that, but hey, we can catch you at that spot. Fantastic. Because otherwise, like I said, you go into complete and total like shutdown and it's things. It's almost like the world loses its color. Food loses its taste. Things that you used to love. They just don't inspire you anymore. You start to detach. start to, it's hard to find the energy. It's hard to find the motivation. It's hard to get excited for things. You really are just sitting in this space of

I feel like it's almost complete overwhelming. So your system is just naturally shutting down and it's like, all right, we're just gonna like put a, we're gonna put a blanket on that. Like it's a fire and we need to put the fire blanket on it and just like put everything to baseline zero. So we're not having highs, we're not having lows. We're just gonna settle. And I think when I look at practices like this, that's the part I don't like because you got into dentistry because you love it. And so when I find doctors like this, one of the first questions I'm going to ask is, do you have a great office manager or right hand?

And a lot of times I will hear, and office managers, this is nothing on you, office managers, I hope if you're listening to this, you are picking up, that's why I do this podcast. So doctors and office managers can have conversations. You can talk about this. You can say, my gosh, like, hey, these things are things we need to talk about. And so with that, what I found is usually the office manager has been there for maybe a while, but the office manager is not truly managing. And so,

What I like to highlight on this to these offices is like this doctor, they'll something like, Kiera, just, I know I need to hire this person, but I can't get the ads. And I'm like, that's what your office manager should be doing. They should be placing the ads. They should be interviewing. You can help with the compensation, but they should be bringing that to you. Like literally owner doctors. That's what you should be relying on your office manager for. And office managers, this is what you are supposed to be doing as an office manager. And I know there's no rule book for office managers. So a lot of times it's just.

You didn't even know that this is part of your job description. So things like payroll, things like website, things like marketing, things like tracking our cases, things like figuring out new softwares in the practice, things like listening to podcasts. So kudos to all those office managers out there. Doctors, if you're office manager listens to the podcast, or if they haven't started, have them join us. It would be great. We try to talk about these things so you don't have to have the awkward conversation. We have it for you. But so many things that when I look at doctors lists, I'm like,

well, high five, all of these things that you're doing for the most part actually should be delegated out to your office manager or your leadership team. Now again, pending upon the size of your practice, but the reality is doctors, you're an owner. And so your job is to do dentistry and be an owner and a CEO of your practice. That's what your job is. It's not to be the manager. And so oftentimes I find that the burnout for a lot of doctors comes because they don't have a strong office manager next to them. And even if...

because a lot of people are like, Kiera, can't find an office manager or I don't want the office manager title in my practice. And I'm like, that's fine. So we can hire a personal assistant. We can hire an office manager. We can hire a front office lead. We can build you a leadership team. The point is you need more people to help run this ship because you are the one who's producing dentistry. And without you doing dentistry, the rest of these things aren't getting done. And so that's where you just feel this insurmountable. It's like the laundry got piled on top of you and there's no way to get this laundry off of you.

And so what you do instead is you just fall asleep under the pile. That's called burnout. And so when I look at this, I'm like, fantastic, let's look at your team. And I'm not here and in our consulting, it is very clear that we do not terminate team members. We give them an opportunity to rise up because like I said, a lot of office managers don't even know this is what they should be doing. They don't even know how to do it. They don't know how to have the conversations. They don't know how to run the meetings. Doctors get so tired of trying to implement a system and then it falls off. They get tired of trying to like be like,

broken record and just keep telling this team member, hey, I need you to do this. need you to do this. Doctors, it's not your world. It's not what you're there to do. It's not your job. Even as an owner, that's not your job. That's your manager and your leadership's opportunity. That's what they should be rising up to do. And so what I found that I really love is when we meet these offices, that's where I love coming in and being able to help out. Because what we do is we now get to help coach your office manager for you. We get to help say,

Great, tell me everything on your to-do list. This is who in your practice should be doing this project. This is who should be able to take care of these. This is how we start tracking your numbers. This is how we help you look at your numbers to make decisions on who you can hire, on what your overhead and profitability should be. Because a lot of times the burnout also comes from not knowing your numbers, not knowing what systems to put into place, not knowing what your office manager should even be doing, not knowing what you can hold your team accountable for.

And I think the hardest thing is I watch so many offices and so many doctors is you feel like you come out of dental school expected to know how to run a business as well. And we hear it all the time. We don't know how to run a business. We know we don't know how to, but no matter what, you're doctors. And so you think like, gosh, like I've got this doctor degree. I'm supposed to know how to do this. And so I feel like instead of stop, like stop thinking like that's what you are supposed to do. Let's come into reality of what you really do. So for doctors, what I really need from you is I need your vision.

I need to know what life you want to be living. And I need to know, we're gonna need to know your numbers as well. So we're gonna need to get that with your CPA. You don't even have to give it to us. We can work with your CPA. But those are the main things. And then I need you to be a great producer. I need you to be great at diagnosing and I need you to be great at taking feedback on your case acceptance. I'm not here to be a dentist at all. You get a diagnose, but I am here to teach you how to get more patients to say yes. So you being open to that, fantastic. And then be the eyes and ears. If things aren't going well, tell me. Tell us as your consultant.

how we can help you. But really doctors, that's your main thing. Set the vision, get us the numbers. Yes, you need to be good at spending your money. So like, let's make sure we don't go wild on that and then be a great producer and like, let us know if things aren't going well. You also have to be willing to communicate those things and letting us know what your dream life is. Because once we have that information, amazing. Now we get to take it to the team and now we get to figure out KPIs, tracking, teams, systems that need to go into place to get these things into play. And so what I like point out is

Doctors, you're kind of like Walt Disney. Your job is to set the vision of what you want your practice to be. And then your team's like Roy Disney, and they're gonna go put this into place. We just need that information from you. So I hope that that gives some reprieve to these poor offices that just feel like they're under this laundry pile of, gosh, we have so many, like, I don't even know where the socks go anymore. I know I put them away for years, but like, you're just so inundated with so many things, trying to be a great dentist, trying to be on all the time. Doctors, your job is hard.

You're doing dentistry, you're working in a finite space, you're trying to win patients over, you're diagnosing, you've got to make sure your team loves you. You work in very small proximity. And then on top of it, you've also got to do all these other things that realistically your manager should be doing for you and your team should be doing for you. And so being able to have those conversations of like, amazing, this is what my office manager should be doing and this is how they can do it. But I think doctors get so nervous because like, well, I don't know how to do this. How am supposed to tell them to do it? That's why I love being a consultant and a coach too, to office managers.

we get to coach that office manager on how they can have these conversations, on how to track these numbers, on how to look at the business. Because guess what? Office managers have also never been taught this. Even if they come from other practices, it's like trickled down through the grapevine. And so working with so many practices, we're able to see this is what elite managers do. This is what basic managers do. This is what leadership teams do. This is what a very junior leadership team can do. And then we grow them into more advanced. So wherever your practice is,

no matter where you are, if you're already there, helping them take on more tasks and duties and utilizing the numbers and really looking at the business as a business to make decisions that help you and really truly help you grow. But I really just hope that we've inspired doctors of these are some of the signs I see consistently. This is what you need next to you. And if you don't have that person, there's a great doctor that we work with that didn't have their right hand when we started with them.

And we worked with them and it was a good like six to eight months before we were able to find this right hand. And it was interesting. I saw this doctor and they told me, said, Kiera, I'm so grateful for your guys's guidance because I didn't even realize what could be possible. I didn't know what it would feel like to have an office manager who actually was a true manager, not just by title alone. Like I didn't even know how to tell them what to do. And you were able to be their coach just as much as you were able to be my coach. You're able to help me see the numbers to make decisions.

but you're able to help the manager have the uncomfortable conversations with team members. You're able to help them know how to put meetings into place of how to track KPIs and track numbers and get the whole team on board of how to present treatment plans and schedules and block schedules and all those things you hear about. Like you guys were actually able to teach my manager and you were able to be that resource for my manager when they didn't even know. And so really being able to partner in, I think it's just important for you to realize this is real life.

for so many practices. This is what hundreds of offices are dealing with. And my heart goes out to you because you don't have to live like this. There are other options. You can actually go home at the end of the day and be with your family. You can actually have a team that looks at the numbers and makes decisions that you don't have to make all the decisions. You can have a team where your office manager holds them all accountable and you don't have to. You can have a team where they literally rise up. And the great news is teams want to rise up. Teams want to make you so proud. Teams want you to go home.

I was talking to someone the other day about my personal life and they're like, Kiera, this is the best news ever. Like, this is what you've been working for. Now you get to go enjoy this life that you've worked so hard for. And hearing that, I just thought that's what your teams want for you doctors. They want you to be living this dream life. They want you to be home with your babies. They want you to be flourishing. They love you so much. And so realizing that there's another option if you want it. And so I just wanted to pop on of the solution is

helping your team take on the responsibilities of what they can do and what they should be doing, giving them the tools and the resources, hoping to highlight a lot of the tasks that doctors, this is what you should be doing and this is what your manager and your leadership team should be doing. All those other things, supplies, ordering, budgets, all of that, those go to team members. Doctors, yes, we teach you how to look at the numbers so you can make sure that your business is profitable and you can make decisions from there, but we do that in tandem with your office manager if you want.

I understand some people don't want to share all their numbers, but I will tell you having someone to shoulder this weight with you really is just going to be able to give you so much freedom and so much happiness. And so I felt like, man, I hear this all the time and maybe you don't realize that this is normal. Maybe you don't realize that these are signs that you're, you're headed towards burnout. Maybe you don't realize that this is the solution out of maybe you're sitting there and you're listening to this podcast at seven o'clock at night because you were hanging out at the practice because

You had to check the charts and you had to check this and you had to check that. like, you got to make sure it's all set up. The answer is no, you don't. There's other team members and other people who should be that want to, that want to rally with you. They may not just even know what it needs to be. And you don't know. So guess what? We've got the blind leading the blind. Neither of you know what you're supposed to do. Neither of you know where you're supposed to go. So it feels really hard to get out from underneath that tunnel, but I'm going to come in and shine the lantern for you. I'm going to come show you there is light at the end of that tunnel, that there are ways out.

that these things are possible for your practice and really truly taking it on, giving yourself that gift because running a practice doesn't have to be hard. Going through burnout doesn't have to be your reality. Being able to go home on time, be with your kiddos, be with your family, be with your friends, go and live your life, work as many days or as little days as you want, those are reality. And so knowing what that is, then we just work backwards. We get your team on board. Things that you love to do, fantastic. You can keep doing them. Things you don't like to do, fantastic. We take those off and we give that to someone else.

And we train your team of who should be doing what and how they can be doing it and really empowering your team to take this on as well. So that resonates with you. Take it on. This is the time. Live that life. It doesn't have to be hard. And if we can help you in that, please reach out. I'd love to help you with your practice. I'd love to take a look at it. I'd love to do whatever we can to make sure that you are living your best life because your life is important. You are worth it. You don't need to be sitting there and stressed out, apathetic, loss of life. The world doesn't seem to have as much color as it did. You don't need to live there.

Burnout's real. These problems are real and the solutions are also real. And so I'd love to chat with you. If that resonates with you, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com DM us on Instagram, dentalateam. We're happy to help you. And even if you're like, gosh, I just don't know, maybe I'm different, reach out because I promise you you're not so different. And there's a solution for you. And if I can give you the solution right away, easy, I will. And if we can work with your practice and your team, we're happy to do that too.

But really, I want you to commit to yourself that you deserve to live the best life and that you are going to live your best life and that you aren't going to deal with burnout any longer. And you're not going to even get yourself to that line if you're not there yet, but you're truly going to empower your team to be the incredible team that they are meant to be and that you are worthy of that and that your team is worthy of that. Guys, I just love you and I wish I could give you a giant hug and a high five and tell you you're doing an incredible job because you are. Reach out, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com

Give yourself a huge hug. Give yourself a high five. You're doing better than you think you are. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

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Tiff and Dana walk through different dental departments and share ideas many practices have used to keep things green, including reconsidering which items actually need to be disposable, reducing paper, reusing plastic, and more.

Episode resources:

Sign up for Dental A-Team’s Virtual Summit 2025!

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Leave us a review

Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:02)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I'm so excited to be here with you again. You know that I am just always so happy to bring Dana on the set with us and be here with you. We love sharing our tips. We love sharing our tricks. We love sharing our, I don't know, workout gear with you and all of the pieces and just sharing our lives with you. So we are both so excited to be here today. Dana, thank you for always being on board, for hopping on, for jumping in on any conversation. I know I spin you.

and throw you in some directions that you're not always expecting. So thank you for keeping up with me and knowing how to roll with the punches. How are you on this fine, fine afternoon?

Dana (00:42)

Doing good. I'm excited to be here. You know you're right. You keep me on my toes. I never really know what you're going to throw at me, but I leave with a smile on my face and having loved it. So I'm excited to be here too.

The Dental A Team (00:48)

That's true.

Perfect.

And now clients and non-clients and listeners here, you guys know that this is truly unscripted from our brains. We come up with topics, but we do riff here and we really pick each other's brains and really come up with solutions for things just the same as we do on your coaching calls. So when you guys bring stuff like this to us clients, this is how we roll. And for anyone who is wondering,

We do have conversations like this outside of the podcast world as well, as consultants are constantly talking to one another about things that we're seeing in practices, things we're experiencing when I need something, maybe I don't have an answer for it. Cause you guys, I know this is going to sound crazy and wild, but we do not know everything. I know it's a shocker. It's a shocker, but combined between all of us, we've got it pretty well handled. So if there's something I don't know,

or have questions on, I definitely, definitely throw it to my ladies and get those answers for you guys. So rest assured everyone, we're constantly collaborating just like we tell you to collaborate and we're constantly growing and learning ourselves. So Dana, thanks for being one of those beautiful ladies behind the scenes for me on so many occasions and I'm excited for today's topic. I...

I just barely prepped you with it, but it sounds like you've recently had a conversation like this with a practice and I'm excited for it. So think it's really something that has been coming around the dental scene for probably the past 10 or more even years, but really strong recently. listeners, we're going to talk today on some eco-friendly dental practice methods. And that doesn't just mean dentistry, but really a lot of the products and just what are we doing?

new out there right now to really go green and a lot of the practices and Dana with your conversation that you've just had with your practice recently I know you've got a lot of hot tips and tricks and there are other practices out there we both talked to as well but what do you have for us today on on that like what eco-friendly things did you guys chat about on that call?

Dana (03:04)

Yeah, and I think that it is just coming up with ways any ways that we can reuse, reduce and recycle things right When it comes to eco friendly offices And the biggest thing in dentistry is our disposables, right? So what are the things that we have that are disposables? Can we find a recyclable option? Or that we can reduce the number of disposable items that we're using or eliminate them altogether if it is, you know,

The Dental A Team (03:10)

Yeah.

Dana (03:31)

I'm all about sanitation, infection control, all of those things. But I think COVID put us in a little bit of like a redundancy mode in some of those areas. And so I feel like in the last 4 years, our disposables have gone up a ton. And our infection control, while those standards are great, I think even above and beyond what is really needed. And so I think it's just finding ways to navigate those things. And we tend to like put plastic over everything and just use

things that aren't super eco-friendly to keep like sanitization standards. And so we don't want to give up on those things, but there are a lot of new products and new technologies and things that we can use that aren't necessarily disposable like we're so used to them being.

The Dental A Team (04:19)

Yeah.

Yeah,

I love all of that. I totally agree with you and I hope everyone got the 90s child reference, the late 80s 90s child reference there, reduced, recycle. If everyone could see the commercial and hear the song, I would be even happier right now. I think it needs to come back. I agree. I do love the fact that you mentioned the disposable pieces and like the plastics on everything. And it's funny because I've

Dana (04:32)

Did you love it?

The Dental A Team (04:50)

I've done it myself and I've watched people put the plastics on and then take the plastics off and then like we're scrubbing everything still and so it's like gosh that's that redundancy space that is it necessary and is it always necessary for every appointment too?

know, because my implant placement appointment or extraction or perio surgery or SRP even is going to be a little messier, we'll say. It's going to look a little different than my limited exam with a PA where I'm not actually infiltrating any tooth structure whatsoever and everything's very clean. So are we taking that into consideration too, which I think leads into exactly where you said like, are we taking inventory of the disposables that we're using? Because do we need to

to

do we need to have disposable air water syringes? Number one, is that completely necessary? And do we need it on both air waters for the limited exam because they're both gonna be removed likely and tossed out after that appointment, especially if you've got.

sterile tech or another dental assistant or anybody coming into the room because they don't know what you touched and so they're going to dispose of anything that's disposable. So I think just taking into consideration too what the next appointment is.

what's actually necessary and only putting out the things that are necessary. for doctors listening, this definitely is an overhead situation. It's going to help supply cost immensely. But for everyone who's listening, this is a reduce, reuse, recycle situation of we've got to save the dang planet, you guys. We've got to do what we can to really make sure that we're not filling those landfills with unnecessary debris and that we're really doing the best that we can for the people that are.

the people that are here.

I think I still see Dana when I go in offices, I still see, you know, those dental assistants running around there. And I was this person, they just grabbed, you know, we've got a filling coming up and I just grab a stack of two by two by two. So just grab a stack or the hygienist, right? Just grab a stack instead of like, how many do I actually need? And my doctor, realistically, we only need two. If I'm cleaning off your instrument, you're passing it, you know, you, you pack the composite in there and I need to clean the instrument off before you pack more composite.

it's not going to take this whole stack. I'm never using all of those. And if I do need more, then I can get more. It's available. And same with hygiene, right? When you're going through and scaling, like you don't need a massive stack in most cases. You probably need two to four, I would assume, to really keep your instruments clean. So even just as simple as that. Now, Dana, I...

On the same subject, right, eco-friendly, what are you seeing practices do within the front office with paper? I know paper's always been a big thing. And then COVID happened. And like, I think we got paper crazy again, which was the exact opposite of what I thought would happen, but we got paper crazy again. And what are you seeing offices do now to try to combat that and switch things back around?

Dana (07:58)

Yeah, and I think it is. just going back to making sure that they're doing medical histories, like sending those to patients ahead of time and doing them electronically, doing their consents electronically when patients walk in, you know, using the iPads for new patient information, for treatment planning and presenting. So there's a lot of ways and not only, think that a lot of this is there's kind of like another benefit to it, right? We can switch everything to electronic, which is also going to save us a fair amount of time.

I was just in a practice recently and they were like, Hey, we're clocking a lot of overtime. And I'm like, front office, like, what are we doing with our overtime? And I'm not kidding you. They looked at me and said, well, we spend about two hours at the end of the day shredding. And I was just like, wait, what? So not only right, are we being eco-friendly by eliminating paperwork, we're truly eliminating work from our team two hours every day spent on shredding.

The Dental A Team (08:38)

Yeah, I knew you were going to say that. I had an office last week that said the same thing.

Dana (08:54)

then we're paying a shredding company to come and take our shreddables too. So it's like you said, it helps with supply costs and it helps with costs and it truly also buys us back time while also serving the environment and being really, you know, as eco-friendly in those instances as possible.

The Dental A Team (08:57)

Yeah.

Totally, totally agree. I literally had an office just, I think it was two weeks ago now, Trish and I went to an office and they had a massive shred pile and I was like, what are we shredding? Like, what do we have to shred if we're getting insurance verifications, like download it on the PC and then upload it into the document center, like all these different spaces. So being efficient and being innovative is gonna be huge. How can we reduce the amount of paper that we're using, the amount of ink that we're using, because those ink cartridges, they gotta be thrown.

away somewhere and they have to be picked up like it's this whole process just for ink cartridges. One space I know I work with a lot of teams on is route slips because yes yes yes yes to route slips. I want route slips but it doesn't mean it has to be individually printed every time. I have plenty of practices that do that and prefer it. I'm totally fine with it. I don't care what you guys decide to do but I have a lot of practices actually that pre-print

they'll print what they want a route slip to look like and then laminate it and they fill that out per patient. And so the night before or...

day of whatever, they fill these route slips out just the same as they would have printed them and then they're setting them on the counter. Most of the time it's like patient name, type of appointment and any balance that they might have. And then the back office is then filling out that NDTR space, the next visit date, time, re-care. And so there's really not a whole lot of extra that you need on your route slip. They should be pretty simple. If you've got, I have a lot of practices that have a lot of checklists and check systems on their route slips.

and I'm totally fine if you want them there. Again, I don't have a huge preference, but they're not necessary. I do think if you need an appointment check system, then maybe make a separate sheet that's laminated per appointment that the dental assistant or hygienist can keep and check off for that appointment, especially if you're gonna do the laminated version so the front office doesn't feel like they're filling a ton out as well.

route slips, I agree, any kind of forms or documents that you can automate and make them put them online, make sure all of your stuff is on your website, make sure that the forms are being texted and emailed to your patients prior like this is 2025. remember, gosh, I remember way back in like, how to be like 2009 2010. My doctor that I worked for was like one of the first doctors to he was always he's very innovative. So he's one of the doctors that's always got

the next best tech thing. And I remember way back in 2009, 2010, he came to me and he was like, we're doing a kiosk, Dent, a Dentrix has a kiosk, and everyone's going to check in on this little computer on this little desk in the corner. And it's going to automatically put the paperwork into our system. And it's going to be amazing. And I was like, no, it's not. And it was so clunky, and it was so hard, and so difficult. So

to my men and women of 2025 in the dental industry. If you didn't get to experience the pains of getting to where we are today, and you think today's paperwork is difficult, I have stories to tell you. It was ugly. It was so hard. Everyone hated it. It never transferred. It never uploaded correctly. Patients hated it. It was embarrassing. Oh my gosh, the day and age we live in today of automation just blows my mind. So every time

Dana (12:23)

Thanks

The Dental A Team (12:37)

I walk into a practice and they're like, it's too hard. I'm like, let me tell you and we get it done. So just go get it done guys. Dana, do you remember that? Were you one of those offices?

Dana (12:47)

yeah. Yep. Yeah. And you know, I I'm all about like being on top of tech and being but sometimes I'm like, let's let it work its kinks out. Let's let it work its kinks out before we're like, maybe man number one on it.

The Dental A Team (12:53)

Yes.

Yes.

Literally, think yeah,

I think that the the rep just got to him and we were like one of the first I swear and I was like, oh for the love doctor and I'm like 20, you know 20 maybe 23 I guess back 23 24 back then but I'm just like baby I felt like like I don't know how to do this. Like are you kidding me? barely I I

was using dial-up in high school, okay? This kiosk, less than 10 years later, is blowing my mind. I can't, I can't with this kiosk, but today it's much different. So there's everyone, in case anyone wanted to know my age or how much of a...

Grandma, I am when it comes to tech, there's your answers. Dial up and kiosks and it was a pain and today I finally feel confident today with Canva and I've been working on that for I feel like two years. So here we are, here we are. But and then.

Dana (13:54)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (13:57)

On the space of eco-friendly, I think those are really, really fantastic ways. I've also heard, I don't have all the stats and the answers on it, but I do know that there's been a lot of research by a lot of doctors on different like vacuum systems for the suctions and different, I know there's a dry and a wet and one or the other, right? They both have their pros and their cons, but making sure those two, if you do find yourself in a situation where you need to replace your system, I know I've got a doctor that's working on that right now.

actually making sure you do your due diligence and research on that because there is a way per the stats at least to save a ton of water with the dry system and so I know even down to those pieces or a lot of the new data you might even know a lot of the more stats or whatever but a lot of the new

compressors and things are more energy efficient and lasting longer. It's kind of like the Energizer Bunny, like the batteries just keep getting better. So I know a lot of those spaces as well, and the hand pieces, electric, you know, motorized and all those different spaces. So there's a ton there. And Dana, what about for, I think hygiene department wise for you, what about the

Like the giveaway bags, all of those pieces, like what are you seeing practices do there?

Dana (15:17)

Yeah, I've had a lot of offices either nix the bags all together and just kind of like bundle them or switch to like a paper bag versus a plastic bag. Also to there are a ton of eco friendly home care products coming out and I'm not advocating for them. I think do your research, make sure they meet your standards for your patient. But there's, know, bamboo toothbrushes, there are now recyclable toothpaste containers and you can be a recycling center for them. There are also toothpaste tablets that like you just refill you can just get a sachet.

The Dental A Team (15:25)

Yeah.

That's cool.

Dana (15:46)

fancy words, Hachet, of the little tablets and you put them in your plastic container. So you just reuse that plastic container over and over again. So there's all kinds of eco-friendly home care products too that you can consider switching to. Just reduce waste, you know, from a patient perspective too. So I think all of those things are worth taking a look at.

The Dental A Team (15:46)

I do like that.

Dana (16:08)

Again, making sure as long as they meet the standards of your office and what you want your patient to utilize them for, if you can opt for an eco-friendly version and it's something that you're wanting to incorporate more of, I say go for it.

The Dental A Team (16:20)

Yeah, I love the toothpaste that you mentioned. know I've seen one of the hygienists that's been in my life. does a lot of, she just does a lot of this stuff and she does a lot of posting about it. And she posts the powder that comes in the little jar, right? Like, gosh, that's brilliant because you like the sachet, right? You're refilling that jar. And so it's a glass jar that you're refilling with the powder and you're just getting your toothbrush wet, dipping it in the powder and then brushing your teeth. And you just think about how many

Dana (16:33)

Mm-hmm.

The Dental A Team (16:50)

tubes of toothpaste run through your household, just your one household, how many tubes of toothpaste are thrown away on average, right? Probably somewhere between two to six a year, I can imagine, right? At least two to six a year for every household. If you can

teach your patients and educate your patients about products like that, that do work, do your research, right? I don't know which product was, I did not do the research on it, right? I did not buy it, I will do more research, but like do your research like Dana said and advocate for something you believe in, but make sure you're educating your patients too. So maybe you've got those things on hand at the dental practice, maybe those companies have disposable ones that you can give out.

Dana (17:18)

you

The Dental A Team (17:38)

And I've had a lot of practices too that have done away with like the bags and really they each time just ask the patient like, hey, do you use the disposable toothbrush? A lot of our patients, you guys, we've sold them electric toothbrushes. So a lot of our patients aren't using disposable toothbrushes. And I can tell you, most of the time those disposable toothbrushes are used for the guest bathroom for when somebody comes and forgot their toothbrush, right? That's what I did with them. That's what I do with them. That's where they are.

Dana (17:50)

That's for sure.

The Dental A Team (18:06)

So making sure we're asking those questions and only giving those things out as necessary because eventually they do go into the landfills and all those spaces. So take a look, look at what you can do, how you can make things a little better. Like can we install, I know in the house I'm like use the fans guys, like don't turn the AC on yet. I know it's.

96 degrees today. I hear you. I'm in Phoenix. I get it. But I'm like, none of the fans in the household are on and we're cranking the AC. Come on, like how can we be how can we be more economic and eco friendly in every aspect. So I think there's a lot of space in it for the dental in the dental practice. And then there's a lot of space for us to really educate our patients on how they can carry that through into their own homes. Yeah, Dana.

What do you think, I'm gonna do this to you again, what do you think are some good actionable items, especially because you just chatted with your own practice that you consult, what do you think are some good action items, some easy things that they can consider either watching or switching out or whatever that they can take away from today's chat?

Dana (19:10)

Yeah, I think first thing is just review your disposables, right? Is it necessary to use all of the things that you use? And is there there, you know, one that you can sterilize or you can reuse alternative? Make sure we're looking at just paper waste, right? How much have we shifted or can we shift electronically? It'll just help with efficiency too. So this is a win win on both sides. So take a look at paper use in the practice and then do some research on some eco-friendly products and see if your office is a good fit for them.

The Dental A Team (19:39)

I love it. I love it.

Thank you, Dana. Thank you for taking this adventure with me today. I was so happy to hear that you had just had this conversation with a practice recently, so that makes it very simple. So thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you, everyone here for listening. As always, we appreciate, value you. We are here for all of the things and we're here to support you. So drop us a five-star review. Always let us know if there's any topic you wish that we would talk about. Dana and I will get right on it. I promise you that. We need the ideas, you guys. So thank you. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com

Hello@TheDentalATeam.com and we'll catch you next time.

View Details

Kiera and Dana chat about ways dentists can go “beyond the chair” with passive income streams, including real estate, investments, speaking gigs, and more.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.802)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today, man, it's been way too long. I have the one and only Dana from our team. If you've known her, if you're here as like an OG, you know Dana from Donuts with Dana. Gosh, Dana, that's like way back in the archives. But if you're newer, you may have heard her as Dainey. I don't know if she loves that one. And then Dana, what was the one that I heard? I think it was like Dynamite Dana was the last one that I heard come through for you. So those are kind of when you're like morphing over time, but

Which one do you prefer, Dana? And welcome to the show.

Dana (00:32.799)

I I think the OG of donuts with Dana is probably the one that like will continue to stick.

Kiera Dent (00:39.342)

It's true. A lot of people like even at events and they see you, they're like, oh my gosh, it's donuts with Dana, which is so fun and so cute, but super happy to have you. Welcome to the show today. So grateful. You actually brought up a really interesting topic that I thought it'd be fun for us to dive into from a lot of your clients that you've been talking to of like, what are maybe some passive income ideas for dentists beyond the chair? Now let's just clarify. This does not mean that you have to actually like give up dentistry that you're not working, but

I think we have a lot of entrepreneurial minded dentists that are just starting to like get creative, want some ideas. So today, Dana and I are here to like pick your interests, just how you start thinking in different ideas. But Dana, give some more background. know this came from a lot of your clients. What are some of the things you've been seeing and hearing?

Dana (01:26.34)

Yeah, I do think that you're right. I think that if you are a business owner, right, if you're a practice owner, that just naturally comes to you. And I think that people that own businesses and people that have gone and graduated dental school and become leaders are just always looking for opportunity too. I think it's just a mindset thing in that group of people. So it's come up just on calls, like, what can I do? What are some things that I can do outside of the chair? And

some interesting things that some of even my clients do that I thought would be really fun to share, to help brainstorm and give some ideas.

Kiera Dent (02:02.542)

I love it. I love a good brainstorm session like this, Dana. So this is gonna be a little different podcast style for all of you coming on. Today it's more of a rift. It's more of a like, oh gosh, I think these are like a good think tank. My husband and I, we go hot tubbing and we call it our like tub talk. So it's not Ted talk, it's tub talk because that's where a lot of our best ideas come. today is a, it's donuts with Dana and Kiera. It's like dabbling in dentistry. Like, but I want it to be better than like,

dabbling outside of dentistry, maybe that's what it will have this brainstorm such as, because I agree with you, Dana, and I also think sharing some ideas that some of our clients do, obviously we mash and mix, so you can't really figure out who we're talking about, because I like to keep that private and confidential for them. But I think like, again, let's spur some ideas. So Dana, I've got some ideas, I know you have some, but let's take it on of what are some of the things that dentists can do for this passive income? But wait, before we go there, I also feel like it's important to say why.

Dana, you mentioned about like a lot of these offices, these dentists want something beyond just dentistry. I also think for me, it becomes an insurance policy. Like dentist, if these little hands right here, if they break, well, that's your livelihood. So I do think for some dentists having passive revenue, passive income, coming through generating different ideas means you're not as dependent upon your hands, but more able to do that out of like desire rather than necessity.

So I think it's a good morphing and it doesn't have as much stress and pressure from what I've seen from doctors that do it. But again, those are maybe just a few ideas within our dabbling in outside of dentistry talk today.

Dana (03:42.022)

Yeah, I think it's an exciting one and I will usually always preface the conversation with like make sure you have a good financial advisor too because some of the things is Make sure that the money you're currently making can also potentially make you money. So just really connecting with a strong financial advisor so that you can maximize the money that's coming into you from your practice, whether it's in investments, whether

It's in bonds, anything like that. Connect with a strong financial advisor and they can help walk you through any of these ideas we roll out today in our talk that just helps them make better decisions.

Kiera Dent (04:19.886)

Couldn't agree with you more because also it's fun when you start to make these extra passive income ones Don't forget depending upon how it's set up what it's structured what it is Well, this could also incur a higher tax bill for you. I'm never opposed to you made more money no, I've got more tax But if you don't plan and prepare for it then instantly that can become a cash flow crunch for you end of year So agreed and with all things we are not financial advisors. We are not here to give you legal counsel We're not here to give you financial counsel. We're just here to riff with you

And then you need to make sure that you take this on and get the appropriate advice for your specific needs because truth be told, it varies from client to client, state to state, location to location, and scenario to scenario. So what I do and what works for me, what Dana does, they're not the same, but again, today's a fun riff. So Dana, let's kick it off with what are some of these ideas that are brewing that you've heard?

Dana (05:06.222)

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I think real estate is definitely something that a lot of dentists look at as like a more of a passive. I It depends on how passive you want it to be versus how active you want it to be as far as a supplementary income. So I think real estate is one. I think silent business partner in a business that is of interest. I mean, we have a mutual client who I think is in real estate and maybe even a farm. So there's those things.

Kiera Dent (05:35.738)

huh, true, it's true.

Dana (05:39.352)

and I've got another office where she is a spokesperson for a pretty big oral health company. So she does podcasts for them. She writes articles for them. She speaks at some of the conventions that they are at. I have heard of a dentist who created webinar series on a procedure that he felt like he

was really strong in. And so I just feel like sometimes it just takes thinking outside the box, thinking about where your passions are, thinking about what you might enjoy spending your time if it's more of an active pursuit. So I think that there's endless ideas really.

Kiera Dent (06:20.226)

Mm-hmm agreed and I think like let's dig a little into real estate. Let's talk about this a little more I am no real estate professional on this there's different pieces, but we'll dabble a little bit venture out into that just so you can hear a few things because I am very passionate about real estate and I'm very intrigued by how to it started because I met some people at Tony Robbins like surprise surprise started chatting with them and I started meeting a doctor community surprise surprise because I wanted my husband

to look for ways to not have to be always working at the hospital. I think hospitals are a little more grueling than dentistry, not as forgiving. And literally there was no way for my husband to get out of it. And I thought, well, shoot, we don't have kids. I wanna travel. But you're my travel buddy and you're always at work. So I started meeting these people and we started talking. And something I really was impressed by was they actually started talking about how...

Like as doctors and dentists, we have it a little bit different. You don't have as captive an income as say a lot of medical professionals do. My husband, there was no way for him to make more money. Unlike in dentistry, you produce more, you're able to create more. And so what they do is there's actually a thing called rep status where you can actually, there's a couple different ways to do it. And again, I'm no guru on this. It's just giving you a couple of ideas to look at. But if you get rep status, so a lot of times people will have their spouse.

become the rep status. So for example, in my situation, let's say I didn't work at dental team, let's say I had a lesser job right now, I would not be the right candidate for this relationship. But Jason, he's working at the hospital. I'm a spouse, I'm staying at home with the kids, or I'm working maybe only part time, I have more hours. What we can actually do is I can take on rep status, so real estate professional status. And what I can actually do is I can offset with deductions within our real estate portfolio, all of Jason's tax within his W-2.

So it's a really good way for you to actually make more on a W-2 by offsetting. Now there's a secondary loophole on there for short-term real estate where you can be full-time working, but you can actually get short-term real estate in there and you can actually offset again through rep status. Now rep status are, there's like a lot of rules. So go read up on it, go talk to your financial advisor, go talk to your CPAs about how you get this rep status and see if it qualifies for you because like this is something my husband and I have looked into exponentially to figure out, hey,

Kiera Dent (08:38.68)

How could we offset this? Because if I can keep the taxes that I'm paying from our W-2, is there possibly a way that we could reinvest it? So now maybe you wanna do it, maybe you don't. There's also ways if you don't wanna be that involved and take that on, or you don't have a spouse or a partner that can help you with it, then other ways that you can do it are actually through syndications or being like Dana was mentioning of being a lesser buyer into it, where basically you just put money in.

Those ones, they're a dime a dozen. There's a ton of them. And so usually the best deals are found through networking. So if you're interested, odds are your financial advisor probably knows someone. I know there's quite a few dental groups. I will put some asterisks around that bet. Some of the dental groups that I heard, I will not mention names. There are some dental groups that were doing investments that actually a lot of dentists lost a lot of money on. So just make sure with any investment, guess what? It's risk. We're like high five. And the best advice I was ever given on investments was

same thing with like loaning money to people. Once that money is gone, I kiss it goodbye. Yes, I hope it comes back, but I have to be okay losing that money and it never coming back to me. So I think that there's other ways, but also let's not forget like investments, like putting money and maximize like for me, I utilize taxes and savings on the company. Those go into high yield savings accounts. I am still having true passive income off of those investments. They're not invested. They're just sitting there. I have to keep the money anyway. Why not have that?

come back to me and some returns that way too. But I think those are some fun ways to look into real estate in some different zones, which again, I didn't even realize it realize and my brother didn't realize and several people I've talked to about this real estate professional status that you can achieve that will truly offset those W-2 taxes. So looking into that might be a fun way for you to see it. I am one who I know I'm not going to be getting the phone call in the middle of the night. I'm not going to be going doing the plumbing. Jason, he built custom homes.

He still doesn't want to do it. We might do short-term rentals. And I was like, well, what are you going to do with the freaking snow, Jay? He was like, don't worry, Kiera, it will be an upfront cost, but we're putting heated driveways in. I'm never going to have to shovel them ever. No liability on us. just looking, and I know there's some really fun things, again, depending upon your area, but you can actually pick up some short-term rentals. Again, you've got to look at the areas. You've got to look at the zoning, but there's a lot of small houses that are like kit houses that are 20 grand, 30 grand, 40 grand. They literally come as a kit. You just need to...

Kiera Dent (10:59.358)

slab it and make sure that there's sewer and water to it. But those who can then rent out is like really cool Airbnbs too. Now Airbnb is hot topic right now. I don't know how much people are following it, but there are a lot of places that have been zoned for Airbnbs. Like we're even talking Dallas. I'm familiar with this because I live by Lake Tahoe. Lake Tahoe, a lot of those places were zoned for short-term rentals. And then after being purchased, so people have had these for years,

they're actually being rezoned into residential, which I think is totally shady. There's opinions on both sides of this of like, yes, but we need housing. And I'm like, yes, but they bought it. But again, it is another investment. So it's not an always guarantee. But Dana, I just went on a real estate rant. Any thoughts that you've got on that? Because I agree. think real estate is usually where a lot of people do venture in. I mean, there's storage units, there's short term rentals. Well, excuse me. There's like farms. There's other things you can get into a lot of these pieces. But again,

Be careful, do your homework and realize that money once it's gone, it's gone. Like hopefully it comes back to you, but maybe a few ideas in that realm too. Dana, thoughts, cause I really went on a rant on rep status.

Dana (12:05.72)

No, I love it. I think I learned something too during this podcast, which is awesome. And I agree with you. I think it just comes down to doing your research, knowing how much time you want to invest in something, knowing how much work you want to invest in something. And also too, how much money do you want wrapped up in things like that? And so I love that walkthrough of it.

Kiera Dent (12:25.664)

And Dana, as you said that, I also was thinking about Ryan Isaac with Dennis Advisors. He's my financial advisor and he reminds me that like really the biggest way to make wealth are independent businesses, real estate, and then like private equity and venture things where like you're going into venture capitalism. And so I also want to highlight while yes, we're talking about these getting outside of the chair, never forget that your business is your greatest asset in a lot of ways too. Now.

For me as a business owner, I sometimes love all my eggs in my own basket. Other times I absolutely hate that my eggs are all in my own basket. So, but never forget that sometimes even investing like hiring an associate in your practice or expanding what you're able to do in your practice or expanding your hours or opening up more chairs, that's also a way where you can get, I mean, truly, I'm not trying to like sound like unreasonable.

That's passive income. You have someone working for you. I get that you have to still own the business. You still have the liability on it. So it's not as passive as say a syndication, but you have somebody literally in your practice that's producing for you that they may be taking 30, 35%. Yes, you still have the additional overhead of your team, but that is passive in a lot of ways too. So I really want to highlight like, don't forget the greatest asset is your business, but you might want to have an insurance policy around that where you have other revenue streams, not just dependent upon the practice. Dana.

thoughts on that because I think people forget that their businesses are an asset as well.

Dana (13:52.536)

Yeah, I agree with you. you know what, too, I think that sometimes I've seen like even just getting creative with your space, right? There's offices that are doing dental assisting schools within their practices. I've got a couple offices where they've got myofunctional therapists coming in and they're renting space and they're using operatories that they're not ready to build out yet. So even if you have space within your practice, what can you do with that that can generate some passive income? And I love, like you said, like it is your number one investment and probably the

easiest, simplest way for you to continue to grow and expand your portfolio is growing and expanding your practice.

Kiera Dent (14:28.238)

And Dana, as you said that it reminded me, I have a friend who's a dermatologist up in New York. This woman was smart. There's a business that's doing it and I wish they were doing it a smidgey better. I've thought about doing it. But what they're actually doing is they're like renting out professional spaces to other professionals. So she's a dermatologist. She's only there three days a week and she literally rents her space out to like an optometrist or something. Like it's literally like someone within the healthcare field. She's like, here, I get paid to have my space.

by someone else coming and using it. So also maybe can you moonlight your practice? Who could come in? Like I love these had myel functional. I've seen some offices where they have a spa within like eyebrows, microblading, facials, like literally you don't even have to that as a service within your practice. It's just like one little nook, one little space or when you're not there after hours, obviously check your liability insurance with your building space. But I have seen a lot of offices doing that as well.

Like I think that that's so clever because I'm like, I already have this practice. I've already paid for it. And now I get to just have basically a renter within my space in a different zone. I love the dental assistant program. feel like it's a win-win. You're giving to the community. You're also able to cherry pick your best dental assistants. Like so many cool things for you to be able to do within your space. And some offices even have built like really cool lecture spaces and then they build a dental community and do study clubs within their area.

they get paid to host it at their location as well. You don't even have to be there. You can just have the space that somebody rents out from you. And hey, perk is you get all these these benefits of listening to these great speakers come in. We've done that in like several areas. We've spoken at those groups. I think it's a I think you're right. Like what do you have? What can you do? Jason and I love like we literally love in our tub talks to sit there and think of ways to make money. I will tell you door dashing is not my number one best idea. We did try it.

I was, I didn't realize like how hard it is to make money. Like it like humbled me a lot. But like there's so many little ways that you can actually do stuff outside. Like look at your home office, could you rent out spaces? Like there's just so many crazy cool things that we're able to do. I think you can create a lot of income in a lot of ways if you're creative with it. I also love the dental assistant one because you can have a dental assistant make more money by running the program for you. So you're getting the benefits, the assistant's able to grow and you're coming like

Kiera Dent (16:51.508)

wins all the way around, again, depending upon your state, because there are laws around it. But gosh, like I get nerdy on this type of stuff because it's fun to think outside the box for sure. So Dana, talk to me about speaking gigs, because I'm sure people are like, how do you get into that? How do these people get into this? Like writing webinars, becoming a keynote speaker, becoming an expert, writing blogs, because I think a lot of people have passion for that. But how do you actually do that and get into that?

Dana (17:16.826)

Yeah, and I think it comes down to the same thing that you said about real estate is networking, right? Going to conventions, starting by even writing things, right? And then and maybe speaking on a podcast, right? And then maybe writing a peer reviewed journal article, and then just growing those things, networking, reaching out and letting people know right? Companies that are a part of whatever you want to speak about letting them know that you know, you are experienced in that, that whatever it is topic.

And that you are available to speak I've had it I had one doctor that like just video like did a video presentation and sent it out to conventions and to people in that industry and Other office or other dentists that just started out small started out with simple articles started out just with networking letting companies and and Areas know that they were available

Kiera Dent (18:12.782)

brilliant and Dana as you said that I do agree like get on people's podcasts I can tell you how many clients have had like hey Keira I have this great idea of like selling charts or have this great idea that I'm super passionate about how to make composite crowns you guys I don't do any of that that's not stuff that I do I am NOT a clinician so we are a great podcast for you to get it then you say I've been like I've been on this podcast I've spoken to this place I love like just being a little scrappy there's several people that do things like this I also think if you're really passionate about something

Put it on your Instagram too. You can start to showcase your work. I know some people have become pretty popular on social media by doing cosmetic dentistry, by doing composite veneers in certain ways. like, I also think don't sell yourself short. There's probably some cool things that you do. And Dana, I'm just going to throw another idea because I forgot. I do have a client that does this. They are an expert witness. I want someone else to do it. Someone else go become an expert witness. Or if you are an expert witness, I want you to talk to me because I to put you on the podcast. Like you can get on with me.

but an expert witness is one, like I literally have a client and they tell me like, all right, Kara, gotta go meet with this person. And they make a truckload of money by being an expert witness as a dentist in like crimes. And I told my husband, was like, go be an expert witness in pharmacy. And he's like, I'm not doing that. I don't wanna get close. Like that creeps me out. But I'm just gonna throw, that's another random idea out there that I think again.

I'm hoping someone on the podcast is an expert witness. Please, I want to podcast with you. I want to hear your stories, your ventures. And for all of you listening, if you are someone who does real estate really, really well and you figured out the rep status or, I want someone who's not like dabbled in it, I want you to be a freaking expert on this. Like you've done at least a couple of things in it, or you're a speaker at locations where you're getting paid for that as a side gig, or you have a dental assistant program within your practice.

I want you to reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com because I'd love to get you on the podcast. think sharing our knowledge, sharing with each other, I think it's freaking fun. And I think like, Hey, let's all rise each other up because guess what? You're probably not going to be a forensic witness at the exact same space everyone else is like, they need tons of those people. So anyway, Dana, this was a fun rift for me. Thanks for, thanks for rifting with me. Any last thoughts you've got as we wrap up.

Dana (20:24.9)

I think just get creative, right? Find, figure out if there's something that you're passionate about. Figure it out if you have space for something. Figure out what it is that you really want to spend maybe some extra time doing. And there's definitely ideas that fall around it.

Kiera Dent (20:39.596)

I love it. Dana, thanks for bringing this brilliant idea. Thanks for doing dabbling outside of dentistry with me today. Dabbling outside of dentistry with Dana today. Thank you for that. It was always a good time. And for all of you listening, this is what we love to do. We love to help dentists get the freedom to be able to have the creative space to think outside of just their day in day out. So giving them the ability to build their practice, build their leadership teams, be able to create. So that way you're able to think outside and also to help offices think in these ways and get them connected to people.

that are resources. if this is your world, or you're like, Hey, I'd love to have a little more mind space out there. I'd love to have less stress on my practice and more creative space. Reach out. That's what we're experts at. We're helping to help you and your team. So reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening. Catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

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Kiera shares exactly how Dental A-Team helped a practice with over $2 million in accounts receivable break even — and learn how to never fall behind again.

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Transcript

Kiera Dent (00:01.848)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome to the podcast. I hope today you are truly just so happy. I hope that you are honestly just living your best life and I hope you know that you're truly doing better than you think you are. So you guys, this is where we are. We're here to help you. Dental A Team is obsessed about helping you and your team thrive. To be able to give you guys the guidance that you need to navigate the challenges that we have in dentistry. so welcome. This is what I'm obsessed with. I hope that you just know that I

I truly love and adore this podcast family. I'm so grateful for you. I'm grateful for you sharing this with your friends. I love, love, love seeing you tag us when you're driving to work or listening in the car or taking us on a road trip. And my goal is to be always something of value for you on this podcast that you can go and implement immediately to make your life and your practice even better. For those of you new, welcome. For those of you who are OGs, welcome. I'm so happy to have you here. As always, please.

like and subscribe and leave reviews for our podcast. That way we can reach all the practices truly out there. Right now we have impacted several, but I know there's thousands of other practices that we could reach and guide. And the only way I can do that is through your help of sharing this. So as always, if you've shared, thank you. I just gave you a high five or a hug to say thank you. And I'm so glad that you're here. All right. Today I'm going to give you some quick tacticals on some billing help.

how to handle old balances. think old balances are just annoying and I help practices with this all the time. Just to give you a little story, I kind of like stories on podcasts. I'm usually I'm here to rattle and roll and today I want to just take you down a little bit of memory lane. But there was a practice who reached out to us and wanted us to be a consultant for them and asked us to help them with their billing department. And I was like, all right, sure, like we do this. I'm more than happy to help you out. Let me know what you need. And this practice said,

Well, Kiera, our over 90 and our total amount is about 2 million. And I was like, that's all right. It's not the worst I've ever seen. Tell me a little bit more. And they said, we literally have no handle on what we're doing with billing. And I was like, fantastic. So we got on. We started working with, they had a few different practices, 2 million. Could you imagine? Like, this is why I get paid what I get paid. Because we go and we find these little money holes in the practice and we patch them up.

Kiera Dent (02:20.622)

and we're able to add all this money back into your practice and to help you put systems into place so this doesn't happen again. I think that's the biggest thing is let's make sure this does not happen again. And so with this practice, what we ended up doing was we started checking in Trulie every single week with this billing team. We created spreadsheets. We had them download the AR.

We prioritize which balances for them to go after first. And then we started like just chipping away at it. And we were heavy on our accountability. You better believe that I was hot to try on this practice. And it was every single week I was getting a report and update how many claims that they worked through. We looked to see, I think we had over 5,000 accounts to go through. So what we did is we said, all right, I'm gonna grab my calculator. I don't know off the top of my head. We said, all right, 5,000 accounts. We are working 20 days.

That means we need to get through 250 accounts per day. We had three people working on it. That meant 83 accounts per person. Now that's not realistic, right? And so what we did is we took those 5,000 accounts and we did that over three months before we ran a new AR account. That way they could feel like they could get through that because then you have 5,000 charts. We have 60 days to work, right? 20 days times three. And then we had three people working on it that broke it down to about 25 to 30 accounts per day.

that felt a lot more doable. Now remember, a lot of these accounts just needed to have a resubmit from insurance. It was a denied insurance claim because we didn't attach an attachment. Others, we just need to call and collect from a patient. Others, there was more work that needed to be done that we had to dig into. And then there was the dun-dun-dun-dun, old accounts. Like, what do I do with these old balances? We can't collect on them. And so that's really where we started to work. And so with this practice, it took us

Truly, I'm not exaggerating, it was about six months before we started to get a good handle on it. And then like at a year mark, they felt like very confident we were able to get through all the accounts. We had good processes in place. We started collecting when people were coming in the door and that way all those accounts of this billing team looked to see who on the schedule we could collect from. Because that then, instead of just these three people working on it, we also had all of our front office team working on it, all the back office team, we were prepping the route slips.

Kiera Dent (04:33.774)

which a lot of billers will tell me that just feels like a waste of time, Kara. I don't want to do that. I don't want to prep these charts. And I think, yeah, but think you probably see, I don't know, 25 to 70 patients per day. And if we could collect on all of those that come through and collect those balances, well, now I'm not having to go and like look for all this stuff everywhere else. I can just get this done like in real time. So again, I'm a person of let's work smarter, not harder. And so this practice started doing that. So that became a system of then we chart prep.

consistently making sure that, my gosh, like let's get all these patients there. We put into a process for the front office to collect at time of service when they checked in. And then we also made sure that we were really good on our treatment estimates to make sure that we didn't get into this hot water. And the reason this office got into hot water is not because they were doing anything wrong, but because this practice did not consistently work there.

their insurance. And so they got all these old accounts, they got all these old balances. And guess what? That's no fun for anybody. That's not fun for the patient. That's not fun for the practice. That's not fun for cashflow. That's not fun for the billers. I mean, gosh, like when I look at 5,000 accounts, I'm like, all right, we got to work. Like we've got our spreadsheet to get through. And so for these practices, I just want you to know that no matter where you are, there's still hope. If we can help you on that, by all means reach out. Even if you're not there yet, like that far.

Let's great, like let's catch it because the ultimate goal is that you have no more than one month's worth of production in your total AR. So if you're producing a hundred thousand, then guess what? I want no more than a hundred thousand in your AR at any given moment. Also, I really watch your over 90 accounts because those can tip to where they're no longer collectible. So what I recommend we do is when I'm working with a billing team is we're going to start with those big balances and then like, let's make a big hit. Like let's do a good impact.

So I have people put it on an Excel spreadsheet. We have it color coded. It's actually so simple. And once billers get into this rhythm and doctors, when you have it, it becomes truly like flawless. It's so beautiful. It's so easy to do. So we put it in there. We sort it. You can use it and sort the list and sort your AR list. So that way I can look usually within your over 90. It's usually held up in like five to 10 accounts. So what we do is we actually go hit those accounts that are going to give us the biggest bang for our buck and our time.

Kiera Dent (06:48.238)

and we're gonna go try and collect on those accounts, figure out what's going on with those accounts and try to collect. Now, when I have an office that has a lot of really, really, really old balances, there comes a question of, we just write this off as bad debt or do we try to collect? And my opinion is you did the work, let's try and collect whatever we possibly can. So on those offices, I usually send out statements. You'll be shocked at how much you actually can collect from those old balances, that old debt.

And then we go, we try to collect, I usually send one, two or three statements, depending upon the practice and the doctor's choice. I do not think it's aggressive to send three statements. I also call, I'm making sure I call these patients. You can even let them know like, hey, we're updating our system and we noticed there was an outstanding balance. So we needed to get that collected for you. This is the total. And I can take Visa or MasterCard, which do you prefer? Collect right over the phone. It's very simple. I know it feels weird. It's like, my gosh, we were supposed to have collected this a while ago.

Well, high five, we updated our system. Hashtag we updated to actually looking at it is what we're trying to tell people. We should have collected this. We didn't, but now we have a process in place where we do this every week. And then from there, what I like to do is have you guys truly start collecting on those calling. I am amazed at how many practices do not call. Also amazed at how many practices do not have an online payment portion. Well, that's a really easy way to get old balances. Cause if you're expecting them to call during working hours or send you a check,

or write their credit card on a little piece of paper and send it back to you. Well, we've just made it to where it's like so much of a time delay. Why not just have them get on the phone, get on a call with you and start making the outbound calls. I just gave you the script, use that for your team. That's how we start to work with these old balances. So now we've tried to collect everything. We're working on it. I also am very sticky that our billers are working at least two days a week. Billers, I'm going to tell you, you can work more efficiently. And I say that with grace and love and a hug.

Because I don't want you working on this all the time. What I want you doing is I want you clumping things together, clumping insurance plans together, looking for all the patients that I can call, working A to J and then my, what is it? JK, K to Z. So we work those every other week. We're sending out statements, we're sending out text messages, and we have a rhythm. I have a billing calendar that I share with offices so that way we don't get off track. Yeah, you're going to have some hard work to do at the beginning, but once we get this on track and we have a system, guess what? You'll have to work on it like two days a week.

Kiera Dent (09:08.75)

It really does cut down time and doctors, just so you know, again, that's pending upon the size of the practice. When we have multi-offices, it's a full-time job. When we're at one practice, one provider, it should be a two-day job for billing. Now billers might hear this and they might be angry with me. Billers, I'm saying that not because I think that you are doing things wrong. I'm just saying that most offices can do it that way. So let's give you the efficiency tips. Let's help you out. Let's make sure that you're able to do it too. That way you're able to...

Do this in the most effective and efficient way as possible. My goal is to not waste time. Let's not waste time on hard things, but let's actually do things that are fun. You can also outsource this to third party companies as well. That can also help. They're working. They're hugely less expensive. So if you're struggling with billing, those are some solutions. So I promise you old balances. We've now gone through, we've done all this. We still have debt.

We still have these balances that we can't collect. We've sent out our three statements. We've been contacting them. We've called them three times. This has also been documented in their ledger. So we know it's really been done. Doctors, can run reports when it's documented. I usually do made up codes for these, but that way doctors, can run reports to see how many of these procedures are actually being, or how many of these calls are being done consistently. okay. Now it's a choice. You have choices. So depending on how old it is, what I usually like to do is I run my AR report.

And then doctors, it's your decision here. I'm not going to tell you what to write off. All this money is technically owed to you. You did the work, so you get to decide what you want to do. I'll tell you my preference and I'll tell you what I usually recommend. But at the same time, this is your money and I want you to know you are entitled to every single penny that has been billed in the practice. I usually recommend anything below $20. If we can't collect it, it's not there. There's no way for us to collect it. Just write it all off. I also like to do this at a strategic time point.

where it's probably at end of year or end of quarter. So that way I know at this point in time, I wrote off all this bad debt because then we can move forward and we know that was like a bad time. We're never doing it again, but this was my one time. So anything $10 or less, $20 or less, just write that off, get that out of the accounts. It's gonna clear up quite a few accounts for you. Then, well, and before we do that, we've tried to collect also any person who has a balance on their account.

Kiera Dent (11:27.79)

I don't usually think sending someone to collections over $20, that's not my jam. I'm not usually a big proponent of collections, but again, every penny is entitled to you. So you decide what's best for you. So we write it off and then from there we get to start deciding what we're gonna do. Are we gonna call these patients and do a 50-50 split with them to where if they pay 50 % today, we're then gonna write off the additional 50%, but most likely they're probably not welcome back in the practice. Are we going to send them to collections?

Are we just going to say these balances are never going to be collected? And we like pick through them and decide, but doctors, once we have this bad debt, it's your decision to decide what are you going to do with it? Look to see how much it's there. Look to see how much we've contacted them, called them. Can we do anything else? And then we really get to decide, we write this off? Now, if you do write it off for bad debt, it does need to be adjusted off. There needs to be a note on that practice, on that patient. And that patient does not get to come back to the practice until they've paid their debt. Let's not get ourselves back into hot water.

but that's how we're gonna handle these old balances. And I know this feels like icky sticky, but when we get to this, like that practice, we worked on it six months, eight months, nine months. At the end of the year, we decided, we showed the doctor, we said, this is all, this is everything we've collected from this 2 million pile of these 5,000 accounts. And here we are. And I think we ended up writing off about $50,000 at the end of it, which that feels like a bad day, but $50,000 out of 2 million, I think they did a really, really great job.

We had bad systems in place. We didn't have people collecting consistently. And that was the reality of where we got. But they then moved forward and we made sure we were at 98 % collections. We kept that claim amount low. We kept our AR low. We made sure we never got over one month's worth of AR ever again. And this practice is happy skipping along, but it was hard work. So I want you to know that it is tricky, but it is doable. And this is hopefully a quick tip for you of how you're able to handle those balances.

Now there's a lot of other pieces, there's a lot of other options, there's a lot of different things. I just kind of gave you a highlight reel today that hopefully will take you through to see, all right, what is my AR? Am I at one month or less of my AR? What are my highest balances? And what are my oldest balances? Can I get those collected? And then what do I need to start writing off? So those would be some of my quick highlight tips for you to get started. You know at Dental A Team, our passion is making sure that you are so successful.

Kiera Dent (13:44.76)

that you're able to have the know-how, the things that you need to do, the things that will make you the most successful, and also the less stressed, and also to help your team, because I know doctors, you're not taught this in dental school, this is really tricky, and so this is what we're able to do. We're able to work with your billing team, we're able to work with your teammates, and the entire practice, including yourself, to understand A, what is the process, B, how do we get ourselves out of this mess, C, how do we never get there again, and D, how do we make sure that this is something that...

literally becomes a system that is forever running rather than something that's person dependent. So that's what we're about. If that resonates with you, I'd love to hear from you. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com or just go to our website and click on a call or DMS. Either way, I'm happy to help you. If you're in a billing sticky spot, I'm happy to assess it with you, give you some free guidance, get you on your way, but always reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.

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Kiera gives listeners a “choose your own adventure” challenge for planning practice growth. She touches on comparing your growth to others’, how and what to expand, taking advantage of opportunities (or not), and more.

Episode resources:

Sign up for Dental A-Team’s Virtual Summit 2025!

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

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Leave us a review

Transcript

Kiera Dent (00:00.856)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera, and I hope you are just having such an amazing day. I hope that you remember why you went into dentistry. I hope if yesterday was a bad day, today's a better day. And I hope that Dental A Team podcasts truly boost your spirits, lightens your mood, and gives you tactical tips that are gonna be able to make your life incredible because at Dental A Team, we're obsessed about making your life happy. So today, I wanted to get on of a choose your own adventure. This is kind of fun. I think it's fun to just kind of like...

dabble in where can our practice go? What are some ideas? What are some things to think about? And we do this with our clients. And I just got jazzed about this one today. It was a really fun one that I chatted about with another office. And I thought, I think our Dental A Team family needs to have this. So if you are new to our Dental A Team podcast, welcome. I'm Kiera Dent. Dent really is my last name. I just make the joke. That's not really a joke. It's my real life. I had to just get three fiancees to get this last name. I didn't marry any of them. I just married the last one and

I love dentistry, I love helping practices, our team loves helping offices. We truly are experts at what we do of helping doctors and teams come together to have the best practice, the best opportunities. We fly to your practice or we do it virtually. Both are super incredible. We also have an in-person doctor community that we go to as well, which is really magical. And really our goal is to make sure that you are living your best life, that you are profitable and that your team is thriving. And so really, and we're the experts.

that do this. We have been team members ourselves. Every one of our consultants have been team members. They grow multiple practices, to hundreds and hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars. So we, are experts at doing this and we love to just share resources to help you and your team be absolutely the most incredible that you possibly can be. So with that today, I wanted to just dabble on a choose your own adventure, giving you a short tactical choose your own adventure. So there's a practice. So this is kind of an office autopsy, if you will.

There's a practice and they started out kind of small. So they had a few ops and don't worry for all of you listening, I do smash a few practices together so you'll never know which practice I'm talking about. And I do that intentionally to keep practice confidentiality. So with that, this practice they started out kind of small. They had four operatories and they were in that practice for about five years. The doctor was taking on about 1800 patients solo. That's a lot of patients. And they were just booked out.

Kiera Dent (02:25.72)

They worked four days a week and they knew they wanted to expand. So they expanded to 10 operatories and within about two months of expanding, this is not an exaggeration, they had basically outgrown their space. So they had another associate that they hired. They brought in more hygienists. So they had four hygienists and they had an opportunity to add another associate and also another hygienist. And it kind of was coming to a crossroad of what do we do? And so I want to just place this for you in practices and I'm going to bring a bunch of

choose your own adventure because I think a lot of times thinking outside the box really becomes something we don't do. We feel like we're living in a day in and day out. And so this practice made me think of like, let me bring to the table some options that I've seen with other practices for you to not compare, but to create a What do I want my practice to look like? What do I want my life to look like? So step one is that I'm really, really pro whenever we work with an office is A, we've got to know what you want to do. And I usually like to do it in 2-5 years stints.

thinking about your kids, thinking about your age, thinking of who you are, where are you gonna be in the next 2-5 years? So when we look at that, But then I also wanna take it and expand you out to 10 years. Reason being is because decisions you make now actually might impact where you wanna be in 10 years. So for example, with that, if you were choosing your own adventure, let's say in the next 2-5 years, you're like, gosh, I really wanna scale back, I wanna be home with my kiddos, I wanna do some different things, that's really what I'm looking for in the next 2-5 years.

Well then kiddos get older, they're in school or maybe your kids are graduating and you're like, gosh, in like 10 years, I actually want to be building a bigger practice. With that, if we scale down now in the next 2-5 years, your 10 year plan is actually gonna really be a problem because now you're gonna have to build it back up because you scaled it back down. So maybe there's a way that we could get you to scale down now without killing your patient base that's going to help you within the next decade of your life.

So that's where I really love this choose your own adventure. And I get so giddy about this and I love helping doctors dream and I love building out dream boards with our doctors to help them see, all right, where do we wanna be in 2-5 years? But then where do we really wanna be in the next decade of our life and or the legacy of our practice? Because for some, some wanna grow these massive practices. For others, they wanna just have a solo practice. Something I'm really like, this is where I'm gonna get on a rant in a soap box.

Kiera Dent (04:44.738)

I get really frustrated with offices that are just growing for the sake of growing. They're looking on social media. feel like social media is such a blessing and a curse because we compare and we're like, gosh, like, what am I doing over here? I'm just schmucking over here and I'm not really building a practice. And my gosh, I only have four ops and they have like 17 ops. And what am I doing over here? And gosh, that one just grew. And this one has like 12 practices and like, I'm just sitting over here in four ops. And I really get annoyed by that because

There's no reason to grow unless that's ultimately going to serve your life. And I really want to hone that in today of is your practice serving your life or are you serving your practice? Because you can have whatever life you want to live. Some people who have 12 practices are like very miserable. Yeah, they look great on paper, but their life is miserable. And I think about that ballerina picture. If you haven't seen it, go do a quick search where a ballerina is on point. So that means they're standing on their tippy toes and they're in a beautiful ballet slipper.

And the picture says like, everybody wants to be a ballerina on point until they see the work that has to happen. And the other foot is like this bloody ripped up, like the toes are gnarly. And you think about like, you can't see that behind the beautiful ballet slipper of this gnarly foot that's been like beaten thrashed and like, just chewed up and spit out on the other side. And I think about that often about these offices, like, we don't see what their life is like, we don't see.

the problems that they're having. And I'm also not here to say that growing is bad either. I'm not here to say that if you're like 12 off, isn't it like, gosh, like my life's terrible and I wish I was a four off practice. I'm tired of the comparison. I'm tired of people just feeling like whatever they're doing is not good enough. And I think that that comes from comparison left and right. And so when we look at this, choose your own adventure, I also think it's choose our own adventure, but let's also choose the life we want to live. Choose the life that's going to make us freaking passionate. Choose the life that's just going to inspire us and do all the things that are.

are going to be great for us and then be able to just flourish from there as well. So when we say that, with this practice, the choice is where do I wanna be in two years? Where do I wanna be in five years? And where do I wanna be in the next decade? And then there's options that we can do. So for example, with a practice, four ops, they have a choice. We can expand, we can maybe go next door, we can maybe find an op within our practice.

Kiera Dent (07:06.574)

Um, but what is the reason why for this office, what they were doing is they had so many patients, tons of patients, they couldn't see them all. And so they wanted to expand. So they knocked out the wall. They made it a 10 out practice. They were only going to do eight. And I said, Nope, always go for more ops. You will never be sad about adding more ops in. This doctor was so grateful that they added more ops in, uh, gives more choices, more opportunities, especially when you're growing that way. So now it's a matter of, all right, what do want to do from here? Do we want to keep growing? So that would mean we might expand out, bring on other people.

Could we expand our hours so that we're not having to expand our days? Could we bring on more providers? What are some of the choices that we could do? And I think getting really creative in the space that you've got. So it's not always having to expand out, but could we add an operatory? Could we expand hours? Could we add another provider? Could we, if a doctor wants to pull back and only work two days for right now, but we don't want to drop our patient base, can they work two days and then maybe come in and do hygiene checks on another day to fill a doctor's schedule? I don't know what are the solutions? What are the things that we could do?

are the things that I really love for you to look at. So when we look at that then, the next thing we're gonna ask ourself is, this is why it's important to look at your two year and your five year and your 10 year. Then from there it's, okay, we could keep doing that, we could scale back. Or if we have too many patients, maybe we consider dropping a few insurance plans. But be careful, because if I drop those insurance plans and in a decade I want to grow my practice back up, well, it kind of is like cutting my arm off and then I need to use my arm in the future. So what are some solutions that we could do now?

Maybe with something where we say, is where we wanna be. This is what I want my life to look like for the next 20 years. Awesome. Then we know we can scale back. We can start to be more fee for service. I have a practice in there, six ops. And they're like, here, we're going out of network. And I was like, are you sure? And they're like, we don't freaking care. They have their new patients wait for three months. But guess what? They're busy and they know that they don't wanna expand any bigger. They want six ops. They wanna work four days a week. And they wanna be home with their kids for the next two decades of their life.

They are so clear that now they're making decisions that impact their life rather than dictate their life. And so that's really where it's choose your own adventure. Do you wanna maybe scale back and only work a couple days a week? Do you wanna be working five days a week? Do you wanna have you and one provider? Do you wanna have you and then two other providers so you can scale back and maybe do some other things? Do you want to build a bigger building? I know I've got some practices that are like 17 ops. Gosh, I've got one that I think is pulling in a 50 ops.

Kiera Dent (09:32.12)

practice. That's insanity to me. I'm like, you're going to have to be like a hospital with a parking garage. Like that's not even a joke. It's like a 50 bed hospital, but it's a 50 op practice. Those things sound so dreamy, but again, that's fun. And if that's your vision, but this doctor has been practicing for about 20 years, who's building a 50 op location. but looking to see what do we want to do? Also, I like if you're in this practice and we're kind of bursting at the seams, there's a practice that I've got where we expanded them out, similar to the one I was

alluding to at the beginning, they expanded out, they now have, think, 15 operatories, and they're like, we need more space. So they looked around, there's some real estate, and they're like, we're gonna build a surgery and a sleep center across the street, we're gonna keep this as our general. So are there other building locations, and do we wanna do more surgery or more sleep, or I have a practice that does a tongue and lip tie in their location, do we wanna add a dental assisting school, so that way, instead of it just being dentistry, we're also doing dental assisting.

So our building is being double utilized and we're able to have another revenue stream in there. Do we want to bring in other specialties under one roof? These are the conversations that get me so lit up because I feel like there's so many choose your own adventures, but it's really choose your life. So if we choose our life first, then these adventures can really make something exciting for us and make something really fun for us that you can then determine what you want to do, how you want to do it. But I think it's really important of two years, five years, and then 10 years. That way these mash up.

And so you might have opportunities right now and just because you have opportunities does not mean you need to take them. But I'm also very cautious of let's make sure we're not turning down opportunities too early or because we don't feel like we can get creative enough to think outside the box. And that's something I think as consultants, our job is really paramount to help offices do is to really 100 % help you think down the line, two years, five years, 10 years, what's gonna come your way? What do we need to do today to prepare you for?

the future. And I think that's something just really fun and consulting of where is your practice? Where is your life? What do you want to do? And getting into this creative space. And so for you, I'm curious. And if you want to email me, you want to pop on a call with me, I love to choose your own adventure with offices. Like, let's talk about the possibilities. Let's talk about what you're capable of doing. Let's talk about what options are available to you. Let's let's dream. Let's think like, we're maxed space. I love when people give me their problems. So hey, if you've got a big problem, like I had an office and like, Kiera,

Kiera Dent (11:55.734)

We cannot see any more patients. I found space for them to add a whole other hygiene operatory in their practice. You might not like it. Like I had a doctor and I found a whole other operatory and she's like, Kirea, but I don't want to like be that cramped. And I said, all right, then that's your choice because there is space for you to add another operatory. So I don't want to hear you can't. I want to hear that you're choosing right now because that's not your priority. So when we have that, that's what I love. Give me your juicy problems. I love to hear them. I love to figure out how we can think outside the box. I love to think of

What things have we not thought of? Like there's a practice and you're like, I can't get new patients in. I was like, all right, let's look. Could we add maybe a couple hygienists starting an hour earlier so when doctor comes in, they can catch all those hygiene exams and we can actually add quite a few more hygiene patients. Could we maybe run an afternoon of assisted hygiene? Could we maybe expand our hours? Could we bring on another provider? Like what are the tools in our toolbox? What are the crayons in our coloring box that we could actually start to use?

to look at our practice in a different lens. And that's honestly, think something beautiful about consulting is I don't live in your house. I don't get to be there just like you don't live in my house. And if you were to look at my house, you'd be like, Kiera, you could move your dishes over here, could put your silverware here and it would actually work a lot better. That's the beauty of not working in your practice with you is we're able to see outside of it and to help you choose your own adventure. So I'm just curious if you were this practice, what would you do? Would you expand your max out? You've already expanded out past your 10 operatories.

Would you expand? Would you drop insurance and stay where you're at? So you're working less but making more. Would you scale back your hours? Would you build a bigger building? Would you build a surgery center and just keep GP there? Would you expand your hours and maximize your space? Would you add a dental assisting school? Would you bring on another provider? So you've got three providers now, so that way you have more flexibility. What would be your dream?

I'd love to hear from you. Email me Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. I think it's fun because what's crazy about this is there's no wrong answer to this. I think there can be wrong timing, but I don't think there's a wrong answer. And so really looking at what your life is, two years, five years, 10 years, choose your own adventure. I'm here to help you in any way we can. If this resonates with you, if you're like, gosh, I just need someone who's outside my practice looking in, I'd love to help you reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. I'd love to hear what you would choose. And I want you to remember that

Kiera Dent (14:16.942)

everything within your practice you get to choose. You get to choose your life, you get to choose your practice, you get to choose your team. You get to choose and how blessed are we that we get to have these opportunities? How blessed are we that we get to have these problems? How blessed are we that we get to choose our own opportunities and our own adventures of what we want to do and what we make with our life as our opportunity? And so just challenge you and encourage you and implore you to make sure that you're living your life on purpose, that you are living the dream life that you want.

And as always, I just adore you and I hope you remember that. And I hope you know you're doing better than you think you are. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

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Dentistry has a unique space in the medical world when it comes to building relationships with its patients. Tiff and Dana discuss effective ways to create trust with your patients, including the critical foundations your practice can’t do without.

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Transcript

The Dental A Team (00:01.08)

Hello, dental A Team listeners. We are so excited to be here with you today. I have my gal, Dana, on the cast with me today, and I am just so excited. Dana, how are you today? How are you enjoying this heat that we've got coming through? I know up here in Phoenix it's hot down there by you. It's gotta be warm too, but how are you?

Dana (00:19.955)

I am actually enjoying this weather. I was out a lot this weekend for sports. I have some wacky tan lines, but I am loving the sunshine and the extra warm weather we've got.

The Dental A Team (00:30.958)

I it. I keep getting the like bottom of my legging to my sneaker little I got a nice tan right there on my leg and I think it's the only spot on my legs at all that even knows how to tan anymore. So I feel you.

Dana (00:45.779)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (00:47.086)

Today we have a really fun one, docs and teams that are listening and today's just all about relationship building. I really wanted to pick your brain today, Dana, and really see what you're doing with a lot of your practices, what you've done in practice, and very specifically maybe even like our pediatric practices that we have. What are we doing to keep the relationships?

with our patients to keep the patient. So how are we investing in those relationships from a doctor's standpoint and really from a team member standpoint as well? I know a lot of my doctors out there, we definitely focus in really heavily on the team side. What can the team be doing? How can the team build the relationships? And that is super, super, super important. But I want to stress the fact that this is for you guys today too.

It's very important also that you're building those relationships and that you're showing your team the kind of relationships that you want to have built so that they know what the heck you're looking for. So Dana, I'm excited for this one. I know we've got quite a few pediatric practices between the two of us and Christie's got some pediatric practices as well. So that's a space that I think is really fun in the relationship building area.

And it does translate to GP, to oral surgery, all those pieces as well. So if you guys are not pediatric and you're listening, don't fret, this is for you too. But I thought it would be fun actually to pull in some of that pediatric side because it's just so cool, in my opinion, what they do, right? First of all, that they are just serving so many amazing little humans and creating an experience that these patients are forever going to love the dentist, which I think is amazing.

but also they've got their hands kind of tied, especially when it comes to this relationship piece, because they're not, they are building a relationship with the patient, but their focus really is making sure that the parents are happy, that the parents understand what services are being rendered, why it's different, why their kids are getting such excellent treatment.

The Dental A Team (02:45.666)

Dana, how are you right now? You've got, I know one pediatric practice in general I'm thinking of, you've got quite a few, but one pediatric dentist in particular right now is really working on the new patient acquisition side. And a lot of that comes down to this patient relationship piece. So what do you suggest for your pediatric practices and really your general practices to really get that going and get that spearheaded for those?

Dana (03:10.299)

Yeah, I love this part of dentistry. think it's something that is like unique to dentistry as far as healthcare because we tend to see these patients multiple times for years and years. And so it's a unique space for dentistry and it's something that I think is so fun. And you're right with pediatric. I think that it's

twofold right they've got the kiddo and they've got the parent and because pediatric relies on volume of patients they've got to build relationships really really quickly too right because they are churning and cranking through patients and parents all day long and the first thing that I always say to any pediatric practice is you have to

The Dental A Team (03:39.192)

Yeah. Yeah.

They are.

Dana (03:50.877)

build the trust to be able to build the relationships. So as much as you can focus on the comfort pieces, the showtell do the walk them through everything. I love a pediatric practice that will pull the parent over and hey, let me show you right like, yes, we want to talk about flossing technique. Let me actually show you as I do it to your kiddo. Let me show you that spot that I'm talking about. Let me take a picture. Let me

walk you through it. And as I'm taking the picture, letting the kiddo know exactly what they're going to do each step of the way starts at one visuals, we can't really deny the things that we can see with our own eyes, right? And trust and comfort when we know everything that is going to come next, and what it's going to feel like and what it's going to look like and how we're going to navigate that together. I think that pediatric practices like creating that space is something that's truly magical.

and that a lot of general dentists can learn from because no matter what practice you're in, you're gonna have patients who are nervous, who are uncomfortable, who have anxiety. And I think kiddos like top the charts by 10, right? Because they're also little humans who are learning to manage those emotions too. And so if you can take any of those pieces that pediatric practices do really well and incorporate it into your general practice, but just that foundation of...

Trust and comfort will go a long way in building any sort of relationship, whether it's with the patient themselves, the kiddo or a parent.

The Dental A Team (05:20.298)

Yeah, I think that's brilliant. And it translates so well to continuing that relationship as they age. So building those relationships for the kiddos. I love the the sea show tell do right all those pieces of like, this is what we're even just this is what we're doing today. Let me show you let me let me teach you how to do this at home. Let me show you all these pieces. It's the same thing when we become adults, right? We should be translating those similar practices in building those relationships, but really

building a firm foundation of comfort for our patients. And part of that comfort level is really the amount of conversation we're willing to have with the patient. Sitting in silence, sitting there with a dental assistant or with a hygienist that's just like, I'm uncomfortable. I don't know what to say. It's awkward. So if they're not the ones initiating and creating the relationship or the doctors coming in and just going straight to work, not like...

opening it up, not being introduced to the room, not having those spaces where communication is really abundant can really hold a patient back from being open. And that openness, that vulnerability is what builds the relationship. So I think just as you do with your pediatric practices and then...

really taking a step back and reviewing the whole appointment, reviewing all of the information with the parent. We should be doing that in a GP, older adult practice as well for adolescents and adult patients and really sitting them down and covering what are we doing today? What questions do you have? Like let's really thoroughly go through this and make sure that you're comfortable before we start. So I think that's brilliant. I think it's awesome that we start at the pediatric ground level and really make the parents comfortable too.

And then for the, you know, GP practices, for my adult practices, if they're getting this kind of care for their child at the pediatric dentist, they're going to change some expectations in my opinion for what they should be receiving as well at their own practice. So really ramping those spaces up is going to be critical.

The Dental A Team (07:26.668)

communication is the center focus of it all. So with oral surgery practices, endo practices, perio practices, GP practices, and even pediatric practices, you guys, where does that start? Like consider where does the communication start? And I know I had a call with a doctor the other day that was like, gosh, my front team just still will not put in the notes on my limited.

emergency exams and it's driving them a little crazy. And it makes me think right there, right? That's an opportunity. It's a very easy opportunity to enhance and increase a relationship with the person just by letting them know.

we paid attention just by caring enough to have that information already ready to go. So if you're taking an emergency call, really documenting what it is that we chatted about or call for a filling that's high or anything at all that's out of the ordinary on treatment that was recommended, a patient might say, I don't know, a patient might even call and say, hey, I had a crown that was diagnosed, I never.

I never scheduled and now I'm in pain. Well, that needs to be documented. Schedule the crown, document the pain because when that patient comes in, we can really pour the love and the care and the attention into the situation rather than finding out firsthand. And the patients love that because they feel seen, they feel heard, and they feel valued. And Dana, from your experience even in office and working with practices, where else are you seeing some spaces that practices can really increase or

even just like capitalize on what they might already be doing to really build those relationships so that patients keep coming back and they refer other amazing people to our practices.

Dana (09:07.347)

Yeah, I've been coaching a lot of practices one thing is new patient paperwork, right? We've asked a lot of questions on that new patient paperwork and we ask them because it's a valuable information and so getting practices to build in part of their exam protocol and their prep for patient protocols We actually look at the answers and we notate them somewhere so that we remember to discuss them I've got a lot of practices that are incorporating smile Raiders to try to you know open ortho discussions and those are great absolutely, but we have to

The Dental A Team (09:11.277)

Yeah.

Dana (09:36.089)

engage in it. It's not enough just to ask it on a piece of paper. We have to actively look at it, plan, prep, and then actually bring it up and discuss it with the patient. So I think new patient paperwork is a space where a lot of practices have best intentions of getting that information and making it super personal. We just have to make sure that we're looking at it and we're translating it and we're talking about it in the exam for the patient to understand.

The Dental A Team (09:45.027)

Go.

Dana (09:59.895)

how that information corresponds to their care in your office. Same thing with new patient phone call, just like you gave an example of that limited saying that, you know, hey, I was scheduled for that crown and now I'm in pain, right? And notating the pain. Same thing on the phone call, the questions that you ask to make sure we get that information to the team and the team is prepped and ready so that they can dive in a little bit deeper with the patient and have the patient feel like, hey, man, they asked me those questions on the phone. They heard my answers. The team was prepped and ready.

for it and we jumped right in with my main concerns with the things that I'm here for. Even if it is just establishing care, right? Making sure that we are reinforcing that we know that that's why you're here because we took the time to get the information. So a lot of times we take the time to get all the information. We just don't actually utilize it with the patient.

The Dental A Team (10:50.414)

And I think that's a great action item you guys is really take that back to your teams of anywhere where we are gathering information making sure that it's put in the appropriate space and you guys that there's Consistency and where that space is so that everybody knows where to find it everybody knows where to put it But having that conversation with them of making sure that that information is put in that space and it's relayed to the next person Huge huge huge caveat here if we're putting the notes in the biggest

easiest way to deter a front office team from putting phone call notes in the appointment is for you to not use them. So if you're gonna ask for it, make sure you're using it. I don't know how many times when I was up front, somebody would come and they'd say he tipped it. Is this patient on any medications? Are they taking Tylenol or anything? Like I'm about to go get them. Like what's the stitch here? What's the scoop? And I would look at them and be like, did you read the notes?

I'm happy to have a conversation with you if we have to like that. I'm fine if you need clarifications, but I'm not I'm not going to double dip. So I'm either going to put the notes in or I'm going to talk to you every single time. I'm not I'm not going to double dip because I am not a person that will

work harder than she has to. So I'm not going to duplicate my efforts. I'm just going to do the path of least resistance and whatever is going to be the most efficient. And if they're not, the notes aren't being used for me, that's an inefficiency. I'm working for nothing. And so I'm going to reduce and remove the inefficiency and go with whatever the rest of the team is going to accept. So I would stop making the notes and then they'd get frustrated. So you just have to stick with it for an office teams.

Remind them, refer them back to the notes. They've got to get used to it. And back office teams and docs, just make sure you're utilizing those notes in the best ways you possibly can. On the notes of really building the relationship, I want to remind everyone that our words truly matter.

The Dental A Team (12:43.8)

The words that we use, the way in which we use them make a difference because the person you're talking to is interpreting those words and they're gonna interpret them however they see fit in that moment. So if we're not very careful with our words, we could turn a situation into something totally different. And it doesn't mean it It could be catastrophic, but it doesn't mean it's gonna be catastrophic every time. It just literally changes the tone.

in slight variances, dependent on what you're doing. And I have to tell you this story, Dana, and everyone listening, I have to tell you this story.

Aaron and I were out on Saturday. We went to our favorite little golf club, you know, restaurant, and he had just passed this really, really hard, crucial, studied for a year test, and we were celebrating him, and I was just so excited. And we're at the, we decided to sit at the bar because we did not make a reservation, and it was wild in there. But regardless, we're sitting there so I can hear other conversations going on. And the couple next to me, they wanted a recommendation on wine.

and they asked the bartender who came over, hey, which one do you think we should get? And the bartender, like it wasn't wrong, but immediately my brain was like, my gosh, I can fix this for you. It wasn't wrong, but the bartender said, well, I don't really drink wine, but I can tell you which ones are most asked for, which ones are the most popular.

And in my brain, I thought you just planted doubt in their minds on your recommendation because you told them an unnecessary statement. They didn't ask which wine would you drink. They asked which wine do you recommend? You planted a seed of doubt in the recommendation by saying that you don't drink wine. So the first statement was a negative. It was a defense to defend if you don't like the wine. It's not my fault because I don't drink wine. I know nothing about it.

The Dental A Team (14:41.646)

but let me give you a recommendation anyway. So he planted the seed of doubt in this couple's mind instead of just saying, oh yeah, for sure, let's take a look so I can tell you what our most popular wines are, what most people drink here at the restaurant. And if their follow-up was, what about you personally? Fine. But the statement out the gates was, I don't drink wine.

but I can tell you and I thought I looked at Aaron because my brain cannot ignore it and I looked at Aaron and I was like why is it so hard? It's not that was unnecessary. So my point in that is we sometimes say things that are just unnecessary statements to fill space.

And that space filler, just like corn and everything that we eat, is unnecessary and it's harmful. We have all these foods with all these fillers that are harmful, but it makes it look better. So you fill the void and you fill the statement with something that makes you feel better about how the outcome is going to happen. And what it can do is it can hurt the conversation. So I want everyone to really like...

Let that sink in and think about how what you say, the words that you use, and the way in which we state them really make a difference. And think about, I don't really drink wine, but what I can do is tell you what our most populars are compared to, my gosh, yeah, absolutely. Let me tell you what our most popular wines are, the ones that people are really loving right now.

It's a totally different situation because of trust. You lose trust when you start on a negative. So if a patient says, I'm off on Fridays, you had said, what day of the week works best for you? Knowing you were only open Monday through Thursday, you said what day of the week? Your patient says, I'm off on Fridays. That would be fantastic. And you're like, gosh, well, we're not open on Fridays. Is there another day? Well, now you just told me no. And I'm like, well, it's my day off.

The Dental A Team (16:45.292)

So now I'm in a different state and a different mood than I would have been if you had said, we're open Monday through Friday, which day in that portion of the week would work best for you. Now I know that's all I have to work with. And it just like...

Dana, that conversation, overhearing the conversation, like, I can't get it out of my head. This was days ago and it's still in my head. Like, I just want to help this man sell more wine. Like, he's gonna, he would sell so much more wine if he just changed the sentence slightly. He's still giving, he's not lying. He's not changing anything except removing the seed of doubt because the recommendations are gonna be the same either way.

And it's just been driving me crazy, Dana, driving me crazy. And these are spaces I know that you see in the practice too. So there's, you know, the one hand of scheduling, but where else do you see it? Like treatment planning, billing, like where else are you seeing that?

Dana (17:26.259)

Yeah.

Dana (17:38.013)

yeah, I see it in treatment planning all the time. We want to fill the space with we automatically jump to their financial concerns. And truly, it could just be that the patient's thinking about their work schedule and when they can find an hour of their time, right. So It happens in treatment planning all the time. It happens when we're bringing on a new doctor, right? It's a scheduling thing. But it's like, well, you know, are you willing to see this doctor? Do you want your doctor you always see? Well, you just like They probably would have had zero.

The Dental A Team (17:48.503)

Yeah.

Dana (18:02.589)

zero hesitation, they said they loved their appointment. They didn't complain at all about the new doctor that they saw, but you just planted that seed in their mind that it should be something that they should consider or be upset about. And so we do it all the time in dentistry. And I love love that you pointed that out and like truly be careful of those things and watch your words because again, that is part of relationship building, right? If if I make you feel like everything that you went through today was successful.

right? And that you won your visit, you got the doctor that you love you all those things. And then I plant that little bit of a seed, right? It's like you just chopped that relationship down. And you gave them something to be upset about or concerned about. And so I love that you pointed that out, because I don't think we often connect like our words with that relationship building, but it truly can impact an experience.

The Dental A Team (18:43.17)

Go.

Dana (18:58.971)

with something so simple like that.

The Dental A Team (19:00.926)

I totally agree. totally agree. Erin tells me constantly, babe, you're such a great communicator. I agree. I have taken a lot of communication courses. I can agree. I can figure out some dang good communication. But mostly, I'm choosing my words really wisely. And I'm manipulating how I form my sentence to get the results that I'm after. And the result that I want is that we stay in good communication, that we both stay in a positive state, even if one of us can't give the other what you want.

or it looks a little different. I'm here to ensure that the words that I use and the way that I structure my sentence and my statement doesn't put any negative feelings on you. I'm going, my best result is that we both walk away still happy, even if we didn't get what we thought we wanted. That's the result I'm after. I'm not here to talk anybody into anything they didn't want. Never. I could.

use my words to do just that. But my result is we're both leaving happy, no matter what the situation actually turned into, because we communicated so well through it. I might be telling you that I can't give you exactly what you asked for, but I'm going to find a solution around it to get as close as I can so that you still feel taken care of. And that's why communication to me is so...

so important and why the structure of the sentences, of the statements, and the words combined can make such a drastic difference. I don't know how many times I've heard people on the phone, no, actually we don't take that insurance.

We bill to them on your behalf, but we don't actually work with them. I'm like, my gosh, just say, goodness gracious, we have so many patients that come with that insurance. We know exactly how to work with them while we're out of network. We still obtain and receive as much of your benefits as we possibly can, and we work really hard on your behalf to ensure that you're happy. I don't know, say anything else, say anything under the sun different than what just came out. Just practice.

Dana (21:03.323)

Yeah.

you

The Dental A Team (21:08.174)

Practice getting the results that you want and let that result be that no matter what, we both walk away still happy.

Dana, this was fun. I love talking communication. I love relationships. I love diving in on it. And I think wrap us, I'm gonna let you wrap us up. Wrap us up on some, I know, I haven't shocked you with anything lately. So there you go. No, wrap us up with some like quick action items that you think I let you mostly talk about that or asked you to talk about the fetal stuff and all that. So what are some action items that our doctors and our teams can take away from today and really push forward with?

Dana (21:30.962)

No.

I see.

Dana (21:46.833)

Yeah, I think biggest thing is build trust focus on relationship building. I love that you said watch your words, make sure we're focusing on how we can win with the patient versus putting roadblocks in front of them. And the biggest thing as far as structure and systems is notes. Where are we putting the things that we find out about patients? How are we reviewing the intake of their paperwork or the phone call information that we get from them? And then where are we using that in our exam flow?

The Dental A Team (22:15.926)

Love it. Beautiful. Thank you.

Okay, you guys heard it from Dana. You heard it right here. Thank you so much, Dana, for being here with me today. You know I'm gonna pull you in for some more, so y'all will be hearing her voice in no time at all. Thank you everyone for being here, for being constant, just superheroes for us in this world and sharing us with everyone you know. We truly appreciate that. We are always looking to help and reach as many people in the dental community as we possibly can. So share this podcast with a friend. If you're a current client, thank you so

much. Share us with all your friends. If you're a soon-to-be client, we cannot wait to meet you. And for those listeners who are just on the fence and out there wondering, keep listening. We're here. We're always going to come back and we are always here when you're ready for us. So for now, we'll catch you guys later.

View Details

Kiera is joined by Dr. Robert DiPilla to talk about his world of dentistry, including the transition from cosmetic to holistic services, how he educated his patients, lessons learned during his multi-practice ownership, and more.

About Dr. DiPilla: Dr. Robert DiPilla studied dentistry at the University of Detroit-Mercy, and then went on to attain a Fellowship for Dental Implants at the Harvard Club. He was quickly recruited to Manhattan, where he honed his dentistry techniques, and had the opportunity to work on many high-profile clients. Dr. DiPilla became a partner at the renowned Rosenthal Dental Group on Madison Avenue, and earned the title “the dentist’s dentist” by his peers in the industry. Dr. DiPilla has had the privilege of perfecting the smiles of celebrity clientele such as Kathie Lee Gifford, Wayne Gretzky, Steve Duchesne, and Sarah Ferguson among others.

While Dr. DiPilla maintains a Manhattan office, he now focuses on the location where his career began in the Detroit Metropolitan area. He contributes regularly to nationally circulated trade publications, and continues to be recognized as a leader and expert resource in aesthetic dentistry.

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Transcript

Kiera Dent (00:00.768)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera And today I am so jazzed to have an incredible guest. We have been following this man. We've been wanting him on our podcast. He is incredible. And I feel like what he's doing is changing the way dentists are doing dentistry. I think he's kind of in this new age, new era, adapting with the times. And so was so excited to bring him on and have his knowledge. So welcome to the show, Dr. Robert DiPilla. How are you today?

Dr Robert DiPilla (00:25.484)

I'm doing well. Thank you very much. I'm excited to be on your show. There are so many great things about you and your show. I I once again, I went back to some of your podcasts and you some great, great guests on.

Kiera Dent (00:37.376)

Well, thank you. am quite shocked. Dental A Team is about to release their thousandth episode. And I was thinking, I cannot believe I've been on this microphone a thousand times. So I'm super honored that you are a part of that journey. And really everyone who listens to the podcast knows our ultimate goal at Dental A Team is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. so bringing guests on like yourself, people who are passionate about dentistry, making sure that we keep the passion alive in dentistry, making sure that people realize

I believe we're in the best industry we possibly could ever be in. And so I'm super excited because I feel like you're taking a new edge spin to some things in dentistry. So before we get into some of these fun topics, Dr. DiPilla, why don't you take us through kind of your journey? I know you have a pretty interesting route of how you were able to go from where you were and where you started in dentistry to where you are today. So if you kind of want to take us on your journey, that way the audience gets to know you as well.

Dr Robert DiPilla (01:31.854)

That journey starts 36 years ago. I graduated at the University of Detroit, Mercy in 1989, and I did a residency at Harvard at the Harvard Club for doing implants. And from that, I really was interested in the cosmetic realm. So you got to think about in the early 90s. And it was kind of like touched upon. And I was very fortunate.

to take a course with Bill Dickerson and Larry Rosenthal. And this is the first time they were together in doing these particular courses. And my first patient for my aesthetic course was my sister, believe it or not. when I mentioned this, it was an amazing journey. She was very appreciative. It was a great case. And from that, one interesting point.

Kiera Dent (02:16.68)

Wow, that's brave, an aesthetic course.

Dr Robert DiPilla (02:30.828)

when I was in the lecture and they were talking about different materials, different processes, the way to do things. I know once again, I just graduated, I did like a little surgical residency and I thought to myself, mean, the auditorium was packed, there's probably like a hundred students. And I'm like looking around and I'm thinking myself, am I the only dumb one here that doesn't know this?

I said, this is insane. And they're going over these seven different steps to do bonding and veneers. I'm like, my gosh, did I learn this in school? you

Kiera Dent (03:05.28)

Did I skip that day? I promise I didn't miss too many, right? That's what you're probably thinking, like I was there.

Dr Robert DiPilla (03:10.237)

I would promise I was there. But I promised myself since then, it was like a real, not say a low point in my life, but it was a low point in the sense of how come I didn't know this? And I kind of pride myself in understanding things and certain process and procedures. And I said, from that day, this will never happen again. So that journey led into teaching with Bill Dickerson before it was LVI and also

aesthetic advantage with Larry Rosenthal. And as you know, there were two separate groups and I had to make a decision on what camp was I going to go into. Was I going to do the LVI camp in Vegas? And mind you, I'm in Michigan. Or do I go to New York route? And my decision was New York was closer. So I went with Larry Rosenthal. So I was an instructor with him for about three or four years. And then I was invited to be a doctor in his office.

And I was there for a good 10 years. that journey right there was probably the highest point of my life in that particular aesthetic office. There was a lot of great contacts, a lot of great people that we met. And I always say everything is a blessing for me. I don't hold anything back as far as this was a disappointment. This didn't happen for me because I think everything is a growing experience.

So for me, being in Larry's office was really, truly, truly, like I said, a blessing. It was a great thing for my career. And then I knew that when I started having a family and kids, New York for me personally wasn't the place for me. Coming from the Midwest, Midwest values, I wanted to have the family where I grew up because my mom is still here and my extended family is here as well. So once again, from that, I left New York.

Kiera Dent (04:51.21)

You

Dr Robert DiPilla (05:01.806)

And then, but I kept a practice in New York as well, because I had a lot of patients to see. And I started my own practice in Birmingham, Michigan. And that was in 2000, probably 2003, 2004. And then from that, you know, we grew to five different practices. So it's been a really challenging once again, but it's been a great journey for us.

Kiera Dent (05:15.338)

Wow.

Kiera Dent (05:25.706)

That's incredible. And so I'm curious because when I first started as a dental assistant, one of the doctors that I worked for had a practice in California and Utah. And so every Thursday or Wednesday, I think it was, we would close out in California and he'd catch a flight and he'd go to his practice in Utah. He'd be there Thursday, Friday, fly home, and we do Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. So did you fly back and forth between your two practices?

Dr Robert DiPilla (05:45.93)

I did the same thing. When I moved back to Michigan, I would work in Michigan Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, would fly out to New York and work Thursday and Friday. And then plus New York's a great city and I stayed for the weekend and I flew back the first flight out 6 a.m. on Monday morning to make it to my practice at 9 a.m. So I did that for seven years. So back and forth. then once again,

Kiera Dent (05:56.106)

Yeah.

Kiera Dent (06:02.806)

sure.

you

Dr Robert DiPilla (06:12.462)

It was great. To me, people, how did you do that? Why did you do that? It was just my routine and it worked out really, really well. And then there was some point where I kind of have to slow down and kind of give that up a little bit because I wanted to build more practices in Michigan.

Kiera Dent (06:27.414)

Sure. No, that makes sense. And I was just curious because when that Dennis would do it, I thought like it was so wild, but it made sense of how he was able to have the two practices. So it's either you fly back and forth for a while or you get associates. Did you end up keeping that practice in New York or did you have an associate running it or did you end up selling it and then focus in Michigan?

Dr Robert DiPilla (06:45.186)

Yeah, no, I actually, believe it or not, a lot of my New York patients actually will fly to Michigan to have their work done. And then the rest is I gave it to a really good friend of mine, Dr. Michael Krause, that's in the city on 49th and Madison. So, you know, basically a lot of my patients just kind of ended up with him.

Kiera Dent (06:52.564)

Incredible.

Kiera Dent (07:06.728)

Amazing. And that's great to know. And I hope dentists heard that of when you are really great at your craft, they will fly, they will come to see you. And I think that that's something that's different in today's world. I think that it's very common for patients to fly other places rather than just going to their dentist down the street. I think people fly for different surgeries to different places. Now I think for your day in day out routine dental care, you'll probably stay closer to home. But also we only go six, like two times a year. So it's really not that much to travel if you want to.

Dr Robert DiPilla (07:25.919)

percent. Yeah.

Yeah.

Dr Robert DiPilla (07:34.798)

Yeah, there's a lot, know, as you know, there's a lot of patients that will seek out plastic surgeons and they will go to a certain destination if it's New York, LA or Miami. And that's the same thing with dentistry. I mean, I've been very fortunate. I've had a of patients from Miami that will fly up and for me to do their work, their veneers, New York, of course, all the way even from LA. So it's been it's been a wonderful thing. I'm very humbled, you know, to do that. I don't take that take that lightly.

Kiera Dent (07:40.214)

Mm-hmm.

Kiera Dent (08:02.812)

No, and I think that there's when you love what you do and you're really great at what you do, people fly. I mean, I am a dental snob. think being in dentistry, it makes me one of the worst patients. And so I'm always nervous. And so I do travel to dentists out of the state. And I think it's something of the world has changed. And so I love your journey. I love the passion you have. I love that you've built multiple practices. I think you bring an interesting perspective. And so I'm super curious because you've kind of gone into a holistic route as well. So

I'm curious, how do you go from dental implants, veneers, which feels very cosmetic, into holistic? Like what's kind of the bridge? How have you done that? Because I think people feel like I'm either traditional dentistry or I'm holistic dentistry. And I feel like you're bridging this gap. And I think the world is bridging this gap as well. I don't think it's as polarized as it used to be, but what's kind of your take on that and how did you transition? What got you excited about that? Give some insights.

Dr Robert DiPilla (08:53.684)

I mean, you

You know, for you as you know, being a hygienist, know, to me, for our patients, we want to make sure that they have a healthy foundation. a healthy foundation is the bone and also the gingival tissue. And, you know, it doesn't matter how great of a cosmetic dentist you are, how great of an implantologist you are, the tissue has to be stable. It has to be making sure that, you know, the oral microbiome is sufficient.

Kiera Dent (09:05.299)

Mm-hmm.

Dr Robert DiPilla (09:25.774)

You got to make sure that the biofilm is eliminated. And one of the biggest things that, I mentor 22 doctors here in Michigan, from guys who've just, guys or gals who've just been out a year and guys like myself that been out for 36 years. One of the things that I try to impress upon them is that don't be a mechanic of the mouth. And my feelings,

is that dental schools right now, and once again, different than my era, is just really, they're really teaching you how to pass the board exams. And then the real age of dentistry is what you get after as far as continued education. And I think it's really important, as you know, even being a hygienist, is that you have a patient that comes back, yet you did scaling and root planning.

Kiera Dent (10:01.694)

Right.

Dr Robert DiPilla (10:17.15)

and you see him back in three months and they're saying, yeah, I brush every day, I floss every day, I have the water pick that you recommended, I'm doing the oral care, I'm doing this. And they come back and it's like, my God, are you really flossing? Are you really brushing your teeth? No, no, I am. But why is that? Why are we doing maybe supervised neglect or super profis? The question comes in is that we have to understand why, my biggest thing is the why, why is that happening?

You know, we incorporated now we're doing genetic testing, we're doing saliva testing for our patients because as we know, a lot of, you know, reintroduction of refractory periodontitis that happens. So even the same thing with my hygienist, you know, we're very strong in continuing education. We're very strong in not just scaling and root planing teeth, just for the matter of fact of doing it. And one of the things that, you know, my hygienist, they all know,

is that if you're doing Scanlan Root Planning, what type of attachment do you want back? So I think you have to have a strong foundation in histology. You have to know the periodontium very, very well. And a lot of times in school, yeah, yeah, that was that class. I had it, but this is what I want to do. So I think for us in dentistry, you have to move away from being that mechanic of the mouth, because I can teach my assistant to prep a tooth, easy. But you have to understand the diagnosis and the

Kiera Dent (11:26.774)

you

Kiera Dent (11:38.368)

you

Dr Robert DiPilla (11:42.094)

And it also goes back to different materials. The whole rage now is zirconia, crowns, and it's a lot stronger. But is it really? Is it lithium disilicate, or is it philospathic porcelain? So I think there has to be an understanding of where to place those materials in the proper patients and proper occlusion. So because a salesperson comes in, oh, this is the latest and greatest, doesn't mean that you should buy it. So I think.

Kiera Dent (12:09.824)

for sure.

Dr Robert DiPilla (12:10.894)

For me, it's kind of taking a step back and understanding dental materials, understanding the periodontium, understanding all that. I the classes that we hated in school, believe it not, I've been doing this for 36, are probably the most important now than anything else.

Kiera Dent (12:25.67)

No, for sure. And I'm so grateful you talked about that because agreed like the healthy foundations, I think it's so easily overlooked. So I'm curious, how did you start to incorporate this with your patients? Because you didn't come out of school having this, you didn't learn all these things right away, you started incorporating it. I think people are oftentimes afraid to add this into their practices due to patient pushback. So how did you, how did you educate your patient base?

Dr Robert DiPilla (12:48.702)

Well, yeah, I think it's just having a good communication with your patient and being authentic. with our patients, we're there for them in a sense of we don't push anything, we don't sell anything, we just educate our patients. And a lot of times, if I've seen a patient for 10, 15, 20 years and I'm watching them get worse,

And, you know, I'll just have that, you know, that radical candor with them saying, hey, listen, you know, where do you want to go with this? What do you, how can I help you? You know, do you, mean, for some reason I'm watching you getting worse and I don't want that. So what can I do to help? And then we kind of castor them in that, in that direction as much as possible. You know, there's, we'll do a lot of like nutritional counseling and we see a lot of patients that, as you know, they come in, you know, they're not, they're not healthy. And I have the,

Kiera Dent (13:39.51)

All right.

Dr Robert DiPilla (13:42.21)

I guess the personality to talk to my patients and say, listen, I want you to see this person. I care about you. I've seen you for many, many times. And I just, you know, I see some things that I don't like. So what I want you to do, here's a referral. I want you to see them. And then nine out of 10 times they'll come back and say, my God, thank you so much. I didn't know I had this underlying condition.

Kiera Dent (14:07.84)

That's incredible. And I agree that education, I think is the new age of communication. I think a lot of patients want to understand more. think we live in this digital era where people are consuming so much more information rapidly and they want to be educated and they want to know what's going on. And I do think social media has, has ramped this up exponentially for people to want more education rather than just blindly following. And so I really love that you took it that way. I want to ask you a couple of questions about

growth of practices because I think so many people grow practices or they feel that they need to grow practices or they need to expand their practices. I'm curious after having done that, you've had practices in multiple states, you've grown your, like walk me through, like when do you grow as a dentist? When do you not grow as a dentist? What are some things that you learned through that growth of multi-practice ownership, especially with dentists that are in today's world? I think that there are some that are brand new.

There's the DSO on the radar and on the horizon for people. Walk me through some of your thoughts around this practice growth, multi-location, when do I grow, what do I do with DSOs? I'm super curious because you've done it and you've done it for a long time. What are some of your thoughts around that?

Dr Robert DiPilla (15:08.718)

100%.

Dr Robert DiPilla (15:17.582)

I'm going to let's go back when I was like I said, very fortunate to be in Larry Rosenthal's office in New York City. And everyone knows Larry Rosenthal is the premier, know, veneer office to go to. So I was once again, I was very, very fortunate to go there. But well, my dismay, I was the young kid.

Kiera Dent (15:37.364)

It's incredible, by the way. like, like, let's just stop for a second. Like, that's incredible that you got to work there with him.

Dr Robert DiPilla (15:44.622)

So think of a patient that's there, know, we had celebrity CEOs, we had every mogul you could imagine we had. And you got this young kid walking in and they're like, well, kid, move away, where's Larry? Where's Larry? So what I had to do, I had to kind of reinvent myself. And, you know, and I had to figure out what type of avatar patient, you know, do I want? And I think that it doesn't matter if I'm in New York, if I'm in Birmingham, Michigan.

Kiera Dent (15:44.947)

Yeah.

Kiera Dent (15:57.715)

Yeah.

Dr Robert DiPilla (16:11.274)

I'm if in Salt Lake City, Atlanta, doesn't matter. You just have to figure out what avatar do you want. And then you kind of go where that avatar is. So an example, this is what I did. So in New York City, I need to get a haircut. So for me, I went to the biggest celebrity hairstylist you can get. And it was Orbe in New York City. And why did I do

Kiera Dent (16:37.556)

Yeah. Okay. I mean, you do have great hair, by the way. So, I mean, it must have worked out for you. I like it. It looks great.

Dr Robert DiPilla (16:41.582)

Well, thank you so No way. It's not what it Well, thank you. So I went to Orbe and why did I go to see him? Because Orbe has what a lot of celebrity clientele. And for me, it was building a relationship with Orbe. You come in, your first appointment, who are you? What do you do? Oh my God, yeah, I have a dentist and that, that, that. As you know, when you say you're a dentist or a hygienist, oh, by the way, can you look at this?

Kiera Dent (17:10.633)

haha

Dr Robert DiPilla (17:11.758)

So what that does is that it kind of opens up the dialogue as much as possible. So from him, I've been seeing him for two to three years. And once again, it's something that you always have to continue going. If you do it once or twice and it doesn't work, well, that's not going to happen. So they go into the gym, you work out once or twice, you're not going to be in shape. it's of those things that you perpetually just have to do. So I was very fortunate seeing him for years. And from that,

Kiera Dent (17:32.083)

Right.

Dr Robert DiPilla (17:39.49)

I had my own celebrity clientele that came into Larry's office. It was great. All right, how about another one? So I was fortunate they had the LA Reebok Club where I used to live on the Upper West Side. And then joined a gym, of course. And I wanted to find out who was the best trainer who trained all the celebrities. And then once again, the same thing. So I think it's important.

Kiera Dent (17:44.308)

Mm-hmm.

Dr Robert DiPilla (18:06.818)

you know, to find out because I'm going tell you a lot of the celebrities and a lot of moguls, they're not calling to make the appointment. They have someone as an assistant to make their appointments for them. So I'll give you an example. I was working out in East Hampton for a little bit because I bought a house in in Amiganza. And as I was doing this renovation, I never really worked on Fridays, but in East Hampton, I worked some Fridays and I was fortunate

that I had a logistics manager for the Rolling Stones that came in. Built a relationship with her. And then from that, because she's a logistics manager, she does everything for the Stones. So I was very fortunate. She called me up, hey, Mick has a concert tonight at Madison Square Garden. He wants his teeth cleaned. He wants them checked out. Can you do it? Sure. What time? Nine o'clock at night. What?

Kiera Dent (18:39.082)

Well.

Kiera Dent (19:01.735)

I'm

Dr Robert DiPilla (19:03.342)

So those are the things that you have to do. If you want that type of avatar, you want that type of clientele, then you kind have to do whatever it takes to go above and beyond to make sure that that happens. So don't think that if you want that type of practice, there's going to be some sacrifices that you're going to have to do. So for me, my personal story, for me being in New York, I was so driven, driven, driven. That's all I did. That's all I did. And I was married at the...

at the time. you know, looking back in retrospect, it affected my marriage. So, you know, my ex-wife, we're great, we're still great friends, but it affected because I just, for me, I was driven. This is what I wanted to do. I was out. I was going to opening of galleries. I was opening up to restaurants and because I wanted to be successful. But with that, there are some consequences that come with it.

So you have to kind of be prepared. You they always say, you know, the balance of life, you know, what to do as far as your career and work. I mean, there is, but you're going to sacrifice, you know, somewhere. You can't have it all, as they say. So you're going to have to kind of give up some.

Kiera Dent (20:12.853)

Great.

Do you, looking back, are you grateful that you've made the decisions you've made or do you wish you would have done things differently? Like knowing what you know now. Walk me through because I think people people often wonder this.

Dr Robert DiPilla (20:26.466)

Yeah, there's no, for me, there's no regrets because even if there was a regret, I always look at it as something that will make me better down the road. mean, listen, we're all gonna have failures. Things are gonna happen, but you have to learn from that. I mean, for someone to say, this has never happened to me and da, da, da, either they're lying or they have not, they've just graduated yesterday. I didn't tell my associates the same thing and that they had a bad day.

Kiera Dent (20:49.724)

Yeah.

Dr Robert DiPilla (20:56.046)

patient was complaining or something, I said, listen, it's going to happen. As long as you know in your heart you did the right thing, that's all you can do.

Kiera Dent (21:05.593)

I that. And I appreciate that because I think so many times people feel like I should have known this right from the get go. But I think a lot of learning is experiencing too. And so going through it and making different decisions. And like you said, what's the type of life? What's the type of avatar do I want? And then crafting your practice around that. I really love that you highlight. I feel like you crafted your practice and your craft around the avatar, patient and life that you wanted.

I think at the beginning you probably hustled a lot more than you thought you would need to, but I think that that's the beginning of practice ownership. I think that's the beginning of any career. And then you're able to then start to curate it into what you wanted it to be. And I think so many dentists don't realize that that is a possibility for you if you want it to craft it for what you want.

Dr Robert DiPilla (21:50.486)

No, listen, mean, there's many different practices, as you know. There's the elite practices that are doing, know, veneers and an example who took over Larry Rosenthal's office is Mike Appa. Mike Appa is a great dentist. When I was leaving Larry's office, he was coming in and he took it to the next level. And I missed, from my era, we didn't really have Facebook or Instagram or anything like that. So I'm kind of like the, know, the lagger in that particular point.

But he took that and made it to a different level as far as his career going to Dubai. And now he has multiple, multiple practices. But once again, there is some sacrifices. I'm sure it has not come easy to him. He has put in a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of dedication to craft that for him. I look at it as, man, that's amazing. Good for him. Other people can get jealous of that.

but they don't understand the hard work what it takes to get there. It's like the basketball player, like, my God, he's making all this, how did he get that? But he forgot all the thousands and thousands of hours being in the gym and also practicing. Sometimes we forget that.

Kiera Dent (22:58.037)

Yeah.

Kiera Dent (23:03.55)

Right. Right. I think that it's been so just I love I love your passion. I love the life that you've lived. I love the I love that you were so committed to never being that person and then look at how that that drive and that determination took you from where you were to where you are today. I'm curious speaking to dentists who are maybe I don't know two three four years out.

What advice would you give them from all your years of practicing of the things you've been able to do, the clientele you've had, the team you had? What would be advice you'd give to that population of dentists right now? Knowing everything you know, knowing the climate, knowing the, like I said, DSOs are on the horizon. Do I become a private practice owner? Do I work corporate? Do I own multi-practices? What would you give? Again, we're talking four or five years out. I feel like this is right where they're starting to get that itch. They've got their, they figured a lot of things out.

Well, what advice would you have for that dentist?

Dr Robert DiPilla (23:57.454)

So it's funny that you say that because three of my associates, I have been out four to five years. And we get together, which is great, which I love is we get together once a month at my house over here and we kind of go over some kids' education things and just kind of talking to them as far as what their successes are, what their stresses are, and also what they're stuck. We call that three S's. And I always tell them, listen, I don't want you to be me.

Kiera Dent (24:03.528)

Mm-hmm.

Dr Robert DiPilla (24:27.5)

I want you to be you. If you're interested in Invisalign, then go for it. And I think that a lot of younger dentists feel that, my God, I have to do that endo. I have to do that extraction. I have to do that filling. I have to do this because there's so much money and debt from dental school and you can't do everything because something's gonna, you're gonna get hurt on one perspective.

My advice, I've been doing this, like I said, for 36 years, find out what you really, really love to do and then do that. Is it gonna pan off the next day? No, it's gonna take time. And I think we live in a world that it's instant gratification and everyone wants everything done yesterday. It's just the law of averages. You're just gonna have to do it, do it, do it, do it and keep it until you get there. For me, like I said, I was going for the implant route.

Kiera Dent (25:16.519)

Right.

Dr Robert DiPilla (25:26.474)

I loved surgery. And then I found that niche that I wanted to do was the aesthetic world. And then, okay, I'm doing some aesthetics. We're at Larry's office. We're doing 10 veneers on the bottom, 10 veneers on the top and the bottom. And I'm thinking to myself, yeah, the bite doesn't look that great. I said, well, there's something more to this. And then I went down to Rabbit Hole. I did Pete Dawson's chorus.

Kiera Dent (25:47.568)

I'm

Dr Robert DiPilla (25:55.746)

I remember at Panky. So I went another route as far as now doing full mouth rehabilitation. Going back to, you know, Facebook, Centric Relation, doing everything that needs to be done. How am supposed to get back to that? Right? And then, you know, getting there. So, you know, for me, that is my niche now. And from, you know, I'm building a bigger office in Birmingham. I think I'm crazy what I'm doing right now.

Kiera Dent (26:08.108)

The baseball, that's a throwback.

Dr Robert DiPilla (26:25.016)

but I still have passion for what I do. feel like, you when someone said, you've been out for 36 years, I feel like I've only been out for five years. I still love this profession. I love what it's given me, the opportunity, but sometimes I don't like the direction where it's going in. And that kind of goes back to what you mentioned about the DSOs. Don't get me wrong, I'm not popo-ing DSOs. I mean, I think there's a place for everyone.

Kiera Dent (26:33.611)

Yeah.

Kiera Dent (26:47.198)

Yeah, I'm curious on your take. You've been in this for a long time.

Dr Robert DiPilla (26:55.24)

I mean, know dentists are in Medicaid offices, great. We know that patients are in PPO offices, great. Fee for service, better. And then also group practices that, you know, my associates are in. And then there's DSOs. Once again, I'm fortunate to be part of Dicama's group, and it's one of the premier law firms that have put all the DSOs together.

Kiera Dent (27:06.698)

Yeah.

Kiera Dent (27:18.805)

Mm-hmm.

Dr Robert DiPilla (27:25.358)

And some are great, some are amazing, but some have failed. And I think one of the problems I feel that corporate has is that if you do the CEO, you're looking at what? You're looking at the numbers, you're looking at the metrics, right? You're looking at the KPIs. But if you're in the trenches, you can't treat every office as the same. It's different. The hygienist has a different personality. dentist has a personality. You have different patients, demographic of patients.

Kiera Dent (27:31.04)

Right.

Dr Robert DiPilla (27:54.648)

So I think for dentists, we're just a different animal as far as the field that we're in. It's very, very personal that we have as far as our offices. And like I said, I have five offices. All five are completely different. If I try to implement every single detail thing in Birmingham to do it in Detroit, no. Same thing in Detroit to do at Sinclair Shores, no. It has to be customized to that particular practice.

Kiera Dent (28:22.782)

Yeah, no, and I think that's such wise wisdom because working with hundreds of offices, I don't have an A to Z cookbook. I don't tell them like implement this. I know systems that will work, but we customize it to your area because the patient base, like you said in New York compared to Birmingham, Michigan, they're going to be very different patients. They're going to have different needs, different like all of it is different. The pace of it is going to be different. Your attrition rates will probably look differently. And so I agree with you completely that

Dr Robert DiPilla (28:36.046)

That's great.

Kiera Dent (28:52.52)

Everything is not apples to apples. I'm curious, how do you lead all five of those practices? Do you have, like, what does your team structure look like? Because so many people do get stressed out with multi-practice ownership. What have you done to reduce that stress level for yourself and make sure that they're all successful?

Dr Robert DiPilla (29:06.262)

Yeah. No, it's, we just had our all company meeting. I call it the summit meeting. And, you know, it's amazing that, you know, 10 years ago, I had one office and maybe four employees. Now I

Kiera Dent (29:13.672)

Thank you.

Kiera Dent (29:20.928)

Did you hear that everyone? 10 years ago. So this is something that in his 36 years of dentistry, he did 26 years. I also think people need to realize they sometimes feel like they're too old to open up multiple practices. They feel they're too far in their career. They needed to do this earlier. So I hope people are hearing your timeline of 26 years solo practice and now 10 years making five practices, but also there is a timeline around that. So continue please. But I just want to highlight, this was not an overnight thing for you either.

Dr Robert DiPilla (29:23.5)

Years ago, Yeah. Single practice.

Dr Robert DiPilla (29:51.054)

It's not. I'll go back and I'll tell you the reason why for that. And for me, like I said, going to New York, I wanted to be the best. I wanted to be that celebrity dentist. And when I came back to Michigan, I centered everything around me. People came, they flew in from out of state to see me. And one of the things, I can't scale me. And one of the things that I have to open up

Kiera Dent (30:12.63)

Yeah.

Dr Robert DiPilla (30:20.174)

the offices and kind of passed the baton to my other associates. So, you for me, that was like the biggest thing is the key is letting go. And like I said, we had a summit meeting two weeks ago. And like I said, I had five employees in one practice. Now I have five practices with close to 70 employees. You may say, my God, how do you do that? I hire smart people smarter than me.

Kiera Dent (30:43.082)

Yeah

Dr Robert DiPilla (30:49.79)

to do that. I have a great CFO. I have a great regional manager and I have great office managers. And one of the biggest things that we, we constant, constant role play a lot of the things that we do in the office. And why is that important? One of the things that we did when COVID happened, before we opened up, we had a month where we did Zoom calls.

like this, and we did a role play because when patients come back, they're gonna have questions. And what are we doing to protect them and ourselves? And it was really important for the front desk, it was really important for our managers, hygienists and assistants to make sure we're getting our message across. One of the things that I never wanna hear on the phone is if a patient asked a question,

and our front desk, our personal, I don't know. I don't know what we're doing. So, you to me, it's just having those questions answered. And what we did is I call it the kind of the soft opening, like what a restaurant would do before they opened up fully, they would kind of, you know, bring in some of their guests or their family members to have a soft opening. So that's what we usually do from that. But the main thing, you for me,

Kiera Dent (31:51.997)

That's

Dr Robert DiPilla (32:15.112)

is I just hire great people that are around me that will integrate the vision that I have. So there's a great book and I highly, highly recommend for dentists. And I know Gina Whitman very well, it's called Traction. I don't know if you've heard the book or. And it's amazing. And then the follow-up book is Rocket Fuel.

Kiera Dent (32:33.75)

We are diehard traction people. We help offices with it. It is incredible. Yes.

Kiera Dent (32:41.903)

Amen. When you were talking about integrator, was like, he's a visionary needs the integrator. Did you, did you hire?

Dr Robert DiPilla (32:45.198)

I'm the 100%. I mean, for me, I'm definitely the visionary. know what I want to see. And then my CFL is the integrator. I have so bad ADD, I'm like, don't squirrel. Okay, what happened over here? No, no, no, no, get on track. We gotta do this. So for me, like.

Kiera Dent (32:57.848)

you

Kiera Dent (33:03.382)

How did you find your CFO integrator? you go through one of Traction's hiring things? Did you find them through? How did you find that integrator? Because I think that's such a key piece in growth. How did you find yours?

Dr Robert DiPilla (33:14.572)

Well, luckily she was with us and within the company and we just hired up for her. She just went from low level to higher hiring and she got it. She understood the whole process. mean, when she read the book, she, I mean, my God, this is the missing piece for us. And I love that, that passion that she has for that and then just kind of put everything together. So I was very fortunate in that respect. But when we do our hiring,

Kiera Dent (33:21.462)

amazing.

Kiera Dent (33:32.118)

Yeah.

Dr Robert DiPilla (33:43.746)

We hire within our culture and who we are. And sometimes it's difficult to do that. We did that right after COVID because some people didn't feel like they wanted to come back or didn't feel safe to come back as far as some employees, which is fine. And there was a shortage of dental assistants and hygienists wasn't an issue for us. It was more assistance. And I hate to say that we hired people that weren't the right fit.

Kiera Dent (34:08.97)

Mm-hmm.

Dr Robert DiPilla (34:13.71)

And I'm going to tell you that was a big mistake because it's going to take you longer to find another person. So I'd have no one. do it myself compared to not have the same, the right person that would fit in our culture.

Kiera Dent (34:29.974)

I agree. That's wise wisdom. And I think so many people get desperate. And I mean, I've done it. I think we've all done it, right? We've all made those hires and we're like, agreed with you. We'd rather wait it out till the right person comes through rather than doing those desperate hires. And I think it's

Dr Robert DiPilla (34:41.966)

Yeah, it works out. And really works out. I'm a true believer that, I mean, there is a plan and you just kind of have to wait it out and it comes in because the same thing in our downtown Detroit office, we were waiting for someone and we thought someone, oh my God, she's going to be great. Oh my God, she's moving from Boston. She's going to come here. She's ran a periodontal office. Oh my God, we love her. And then got ghosted. Like what the hell happened? And then the next day,

Kiera Dent (35:07.38)

Mm-hmm.

Dr Robert DiPilla (35:10.85)

We got another resume. Lauren, I mean, amazing. I mean, just that blessing that comes through. So I think the best thing to do is just wait it out, hire within your culture. And if they don't fit, they're not the right team member for you.

Kiera Dent (35:28.916)

I love that. Dr. DiPilla, something I have found so fascinating with our podcast today, just so appreciative. I feel you have wisdom. And I think wisdom oftentimes lacks. And I think it comes from experience. I think you've learned from the things that you've done. I'm not saying you're old. I'm saying that I hear wisdom from you. And I think you had this wisdom even when you first started your career. I think you learned things. But I feel you lived your own.

Dr Robert DiPilla (35:42.114)

You're saying I'm

Kiera Dent (35:56.438)

I feel like you grew because you wanted to grow, not because you felt like you needed to. I feel like you waited when I'm sure a lot of your other colleagues were building multi-practices and you're like, this is what I'm enjoying doing. And what I've heard is as you've shifted and morphed throughout your career and the way you've presented it, it sounds like you've done it based on intrigue and curiosity and things that still keep the passion within you. And I feel like...

You're a great example of someone who can be practicing dentistry for 36 years and still have passion, fire and fuel behind it, rather than the what I see a lot of right now of burnout. And I was trying to put the pieces together as we were chatting and I'm like, I think honest to goodness, you've done everything because it was a passion and a curiosity and it fueled you rather than drained you. And I also really love that

you believe that there's a higher path for you. Like you said, it's just because one door is closing, it means the other door is opening, but that door is not quite ready yet. So be okay with this door closing. But that would how I would summarize you. Obviously, please fill in any gaps I may have missed. But I think that that's so refreshing to hear that I think a lot of us can take stock in and learn from you as well.

Dr Robert DiPilla (36:49.806)

100%.

Dr Robert DiPilla (37:05.474)

Wow, well, thank you for that. That's, thank you. But for me, right now, I think it's important to, like I said, pass the baton to my other dentist and kind of elevate them as much as possible. And I think if you're in a group practice or if you're in a single practice, sometimes we live on our own little island and you don't know where to do. would...

Kiera Dent (37:10.197)

You're welcome.

Dr Robert DiPilla (37:31.66)

get a couple of your friends, colleagues, whatever, just go out to a restaurant, hang out and kind of talk your story. Because we're all in it and we all go through the same things. And maybe I'm blessed with mental resiliency, I don't know. I mean, there's a lot of things that are kind of thrown at you. But for me, for my upbringing, mean, things bother me, don't get me wrong, I am human.

But I know that my purpose is stronger than the noise that hear that's behind me. And for me, where am I going to go from here? What's the next 10 years look like? And For me, my legacy and what I want to hear is that when I'm long gone and a patient goes to another dentist and says, hey, who's your other dentist? And I say, well, I went to DiPilla All I want to hear is that, you know what?

Yes, I heard great people. That's all I want to hear. You went to one of the best. That's it. That's all I want to hear. I mean, I that's my legacy is that make sure that we as a group, as a team or organization, we've done the right thing by you and also by the the patients and also our team too. We got to take care of our the team that supports us very,

Kiera Dent (38:54.25)

That's beautiful. And I think as you said that I think maybe a takeaway from today would be figure out the legacy that you want to leave. think that that legacy, just did a mastermind group with some people in person and I had them write when they were, you know, I didn't give them an age. I just said, when you're sitting back looking at your life, what do want to feel? What do you want to experience? And what do you want it to be said about you?

And it was crazy because people started making different decisions in that moment because the legacy of who they want to be and what they want to leave behind radically shifts what you're doing today. And I think that that's a beautiful takeaway from today. I have loved our conversation. I thoroughly enjoy you as a human. I think you're just doing a beautiful work, an example of keeping the passion alive in dentistry and doing great things no matter what's going on. any last thoughts you have, how can people connect with you?

Dr Robert DiPilla (39:34.926)

Thank you.

Dr Robert DiPilla (39:44.238)

I think for anyone guys who have been graduating, this is like the best time to be a dentist. I mean, I'm so excited. mean, the technology is amazing. Things that we used to do before and we can do now, digital workflow, 3D printing, AI, it's amazing. So, for me, I go into work every day. I'm very passionate what we need to do. But for me,

It's time for me to kind of like maybe work maybe in the chair once or twice a week and then work on the business. And that's where I'm more passionate about as well. And then kind of like I said, elevating everybody else. But once again, this has been a real, real pleasure and I can see your passion as well and much, success for yourself.

Kiera Dent (40:28.682)

Likewise, thank you so much for joining today, Dr. Tafilla. I hope everybody who's listened takes away a few golden nuggets and gems because I really do believe there was so much value and wisdom in this podcast today. I think that there's so much beauty. love podcasting with people like yourself that are just so optimistic of the future. So thank you for joining us and for all of you listening. Yes.

Dr Robert DiPilla (40:49.816)

My pleasure.

Kiera Dent (40:53.78)

All of you listening, thank you for joining us. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

View Details

Tiff and Kristy share not only how to cut down your accounts receivable, but also how to develop systems that will keep your AR low. They discuss time management, clear job descriptions, protocols, and more.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:01.752)

Hello, Dental A Team. I am so excited to be here with you. I have Kristy back here with me today, and we are excited to talk to you about a really fun subject today. It's not always the top of the fun list. think billing gets pushed down in the fun category, and a lot of people put a lot of stress on it, which I totally understand. But Kristy and I are here today.

to bring some fun to the billing department and to bring some fun around how to make billing work within your practice. Kristy, thank you so much for being here with me today. How are you?

Kristy (00:34.658)

Good! It's a good Monday!

The Dental A Team (00:37.955)

Good, I know. Our Mondays get busy here at the Dental A Team. They are our meeting days and our project days and they just, they get chock full of so much stuff every single week and we absolutely love them. We get to spend a lot of time prepping for our client calls and our client visits. A lot of us have client visits coming up soon and just getting all the things together. So Mondays are always a little chaotic. Kristy, in your...

In your experience, you've got a wealth of knowledge, a wealth of experience behind you. What was your favorite position or your favorite space to work when you were in practice?

Kristy (01:16.704)

interesting. Favorite Space was probably really helping getting patients the care they deserve, filling that patient advocate role. here's the thing, I know we're talking about AR today. If we

If we aren't cognizant of a patient's budget, we're really not doing good by them. So being cognizant and finding a way to fit it, you know, the care they need within their timeline and their budget is, it's rewarding.

The Dental A Team (01:50.047)

I love it. I totally agree with you. think making sure that we're giving them the best experience all the way around, no matter what is the best space to live in within a dental practice. can get homes fulfilled us. It gives us a purpose and a reason to be there. And on those notes, I think you're absolutely correct. If we don't know what the patient wants, what their desires are, what they can do, and we end up down a path.

that might not be the right fit for them and ends up not being the right fit for us because we end up in situations where we have high AR, outstanding claims, outstanding bills, all of those pieces. I also know one of the biggest reasons that people leave a dental practice or write a bad review, I have so many practices that are like, don't put me on swell, I want to have control over who gets reviews and who don't.

And I just think everybody should get a link for review. So I love advocating for that company and for within our marketing. But I know that the biggest reason that we're afraid of something like that and that people that patients leave their practice is for billing inconsistencies or billing issues. So really having standards and protocols and just everything wrapped around the billing department is so imperative and so important because even down to that patient advocate space.

When you're that patient advocate, which is also sometimes, you know, patient coordinator, front office check-in, like all of those are kind of wrapped around similar spaces within the practice. But when you're sitting in that space, Kristy, so many times you are walked into a really hard conversation because there was confusion over previous billing or you're the one that's responsible for collecting today's balance that's due or outstanding balances. And so you kind of walk into really uncomfortable situations because

you're not sure what it is sometimes, the patient doesn't know what it is, and sometimes that patient comes in upset. So knowing how to diffuse those situations too, think Kristy is a really great space and just builds that relationship as well. I think I love your answer.

Kristy (03:50.149)

Thank

The Dental A Team (03:51.193)

That's my wrap up there. So today I've brought Kristy here to talk with me and chat with me for you guys today about really cutting your AR down and hopefully building systems that keep it so that your AR doesn't get high. And just so you guys know, doctors, your AR is your accounts receivable. So this is money that's supposed to be coming to you, but hasn't made its way through the door yet. And so we're trying to get that money through that door into your bank account to help your overhead ultimately.

and by increasing your collection. So we really don't want a lot of money sitting out in that AR, in the accounts receivable, that outstanding collections. We really don't want a lot of money out there, but it is also flip side of that unrealistic. Many of you are like, I shouldn't have any AR. I should 100 % collect. While that is, you know, the dream, it is very unrealistic. So there will always be something outstanding, even if you're a free for service practice, in my opinion, there's always going to be something outstanding. So

Just building those systems and those protocols is going to be absolutely fantastic. And for you doctors that are listening today, which I hope you guys are here because I hope you're ready to cut your AR down or keep it from ever increasing, I want you guys to know the back end side as well, because I don't want you to be afraid of your billing department anymore or afraid of money. A lot of doctors, I think, steer away from even looking at bank accounts or overhead or...

Any of that I think we do in our personal lives too, just because there's so many misunderstandings. So if you can get involved in conversations like this today, really know the expectations of different spaces like that. I really think that it helps to build your confidence in moving forward and keeping those ARs from getting any higher. that's my caveat for today, doctors. I want you listening, I want you taking notes, and then want you taking it back to your team, because this is gonna take a whole team to get a lot of these things done. Kristy.

Where do you see the biggest hang up in practices you have worked with? You've worked in many practices, you've consulted many practices in your current clients too. Like, where do you see the biggest hang up when it comes to accounts receivable and that outstanding money? Where do you feel like, gosh, it's really just stuck here if we had to say one space.

Kristy (06:04.576)

one space. Honestly, probably in the insurance realm, verifying and getting the correct breakdown so that we're giving the proper estimates and therefore collecting the proper copays, right?

The Dental A Team (06:20.264)

I totally agree. Yeah. And I think that's a space that gets really confused. And I think doctors get very confused about it. Like, what is that supposed to look like? What should I be doing? What should I be expecting from my team? How can they get it all of those questions? So I totally agree. We have so many different podcasts on so many different aspects of that. We have so many clients that are working on all of those pieces as well within their consulting with us. But I agree that

You have to remember whatever you put into the system is as good as the information you're going to get out of the system. So while it's a computer, while it's software, like it's supposed to, you know, at one point be smarter than us, like it can only be as smart as we can make it. And so the information that you're putting in is going to spit out the information that you're going to get out of it. And if we're rushed, if we don't have clear clarity on what's expected or

clarity on what's the most important. Like things get muffled, things get confused. So I think when practices have high AR or to keep them from getting high AR, I always recommend like three basic things. The first thing is time management. We'll dive into time management. The second is ensuring you know what's the most important. So how do we figure out what's important and what's not important? And then the third is having really clear systems and protocols.

to be able to use. Those three things, you guys, if you have time management on your side, you can decipher what's important, what's not important, and you have really simple protocols and standards that you consistently use all the time, that's going to propel you to really have cut AR or no AR, or little, I should say minimal AR in the future. So.

Kristy, what are some areas that you've worked with your clients or you've worked with in the past that you can say, gosh, these really work in the time management realm? Where do you see things working over there for you?

Kristy (08:21.58)

Yeah, for time management, honestly, I think it's about dedicating the time and getting it into your schedule. We like to call it, you know, putting that power hour and really diving in and creating that time to focus on the AR.

The Dental A Team (08:36.616)

Yeah, yeah, I love a power hour because you can let it.

Kristy (08:43.694)

Okay, sorry.

The Dental A Team (08:46.026)

way because I think a power hour, I love power hour, I've used it in multiple facets. I used it in my personal life as well. Power hour, you guys, is so simple. It blows my mind every single time at how well it works, and I utilize it for all kinds of positions in the practice, but I think it's amazing for the billing rep position. So, Kristy, I love that you mentioned that the power hour, literally you just split an hour into like four chunks or two chunks, but you always make sure

that you've got it scheduled. So your time management piece, right, is making sure that you've got it scheduled somewhere. And then you've got your list of things that you're going to be doing within those 15 minutes. And you've got some sort of timer handy, even if it's your watch, if it's your phone, like whatever, you're gonna set for 15 minute timer. So you guys, it's that simple. And you're gonna say in the first 15 minutes, I'm gonna do X, and Z.

In the second 15 minutes, I'm gonna do ABC. In the third, and so on and so forth, and you're gonna set that timer for those 15 minutes where your billing rep is going to, you guys do this as well, you're gonna set that timer, and at that 15 minute mark, you're gonna take inventory and you're be like, okay, what did I get through? Did I get through the top most important items? Do I need to shift one down to the next 15 minutes or am I ready to move on to the next set of most important items? So.

I love that Kristy. So we have the power hour. What other things have you utilized?

Kristy (10:12.718)

yeah, Putting the block schedules into the appointment book so everybody knows that you are dedicating that time and working specifically on AR.

The Dental A Team (10:12.81)

sketchbook.

Kristy (10:29.022)

And I would also say be sure that we detail this because AR can be broken down into two different categories. We have the patient AR and the insurance AR. you know, dedicating time. And I would say, you know, weekly dedicating time to work on these and specific timeframes.

The Dental A Team (10:46.174)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (10:49.802)

I totally agree. I love that. And I think we think block scheduling and we think patient schedule only. And it's so interesting to me to consider any kind of system or protocol. Like there's so many spaces where it can be dropped, like copied and pasted into another aspect of life. And when we think about block scheduling, which we have talked about so much for patient schedules.

we can now copy and paste that into like even our personal lives, you guys, if I wanted to get crazy with it. But really, if we look at the positional duties, like what is it that I need to do as a billing representative and how do I block my schedule to fit that? I'm going to think, okay, just like thought, doctors, I made you go think, where should I do a root canal? Like where should my high priority pieces be? My high income procedures, where am I going to put those? Where should I do root canal?

flip-flop that over to your billing representative, right? And we're not gonna like call on patient balances at 7 a.m. So where is it likely that I'm gonna be able to call on patient balances? So I'm gonna build my schedule using time management skills that I know how to do because I know how to build a patient schedule. So if I start thinking of my duties, the things that I'm responsible for in whatever position I hold, even treatment coordinator, whatever position it is,

If you take that same thought process, look at the duties that you're responsible for, and then figure out how do I manage this in my day, what makes the most sense? So do I want to start my day at 7 a.m. or 8 a.m. with patient calls? Gosh, probably not. Or is it smarter to maybe check on unpaid claims at that time? If you start unpaid claims from 8 to 9 a.m., that's your power hour.

Right there, 8 to 9 a.m. I'm working on unpaid claims and I'm divvying it out by the 15 minutes or whatever, right? Or maybe by week, first week I'm doing zero to 30, second week I'm doing 31 to 60, et cetera. But if I'm divvying those hours out, I know the insurance companies are gonna be open at 8 a.m. no matter where I'm at in the country, right? If it's 8 a.m. Pacific, it's now 11 a.m. East. So I know no matter where I'm at in the country, if I start at 8 a.m.

The Dental A Team (13:05.931)

I can get a hold of the insurance companies. Then I move on to a patient, then I move on to statements or whatever, but I'm power blocking and utilizing locked scheduling rules to get the same results in my position as what I'm looking for in a patient's schedule. So you can literally copy and paste that over and manage those times. But something, Kristy, that I think gets lost in translation sometimes, you can think, power block, I'll time manage, sure.

But the second piece, right, first piece is time management, learning how to manage your time, learning how to see that. But the second piece, I can't time manage if I don't know what my duties are. So if we don't have job descriptions, if we haven't been taught how, you what are the results that are driving my position? Because those results that are driving my position that are within the job description, that's going to allow me to be able to see what's the most important thing. Because, Kristy, you said earlier too,

getting the information in is gonna affect the information out. But then we sit in this space, I think, of like trying to figure out, do I get the verification? Do I call on unpaid insurance claims? Do I call patients? Do I send statements? And we're just like, my gosh. And so how do you help doctors to be able to help their team really figure out what that driver is and to be able to say, this is the most important thing or this is where I can time manage these pieces because I can see

What I'm responsible for, how do you help doctors to really be able to help their billing departments figure that out?

Kristy (14:39.692)

Yeah.

Absolutely. So even with AR, there's the lag measure and the lead measure, right? So the lead measure part of it, I always feel is the verification process. So having somebody that's dedicated and is working ideally two days out in advance to get those benefit breakdowns. Obviously, our goal isn't to be insurance driven, but we want to be insurance accurate, again, so that people working and collecting over the counter have

that information and we're giving proper estimates and even making proper financial agreements, right? So first off, again, that pre-working ahead of getting the verification, but then also at time of, you know, it's one thing to treatment plans, but it's another to present and understand how the patient's going to take care of it with the financial arrangement. understanding

The Dental A Team (15:18.413)

Mm-hmm.

Kristy (15:40.114)

who's doing the verification, who's our treatment coordinators that are going to cement the financial plans. And then last piece of that is who will be doing the follow up. Who's doing the follow up on patient AR and who's doing the follow up on the insurance AR. So kind of just painting that clarity in the duties and then supporting each other in those blocked times, right? So each person has their dedicated time.

The Dental A Team (15:51.113)

That's it.

The Dental A Team (15:56.846)

Thank you.

The Dental A Team (16:07.852)

Yeah, exactly. And those job descriptions really narrow down to those results. Like, what is the result that we're after for the insurance verification, right? The result is that we're two days ahead on making sure that all the information is in the system. The result for the case acceptance is to ensure that we have, you know, 98 % case acceptance because we're living in a world of dreams, right? But we've got like 75 % case acceptance as our goal. So how do we do that?

and they all lead into each other. So what Kristy's like leading to, right, is if we can get that information right on the verification, now our treatment coordinator is able to present accurate or as close to accurate estimates as we can, which means that on the back end side of that, whether it's the treatment coordinator or checkout person collecting, they're collecting over the counter correctly, and our billing department hopefully has the least amount of money possible that they're chasing.

So I love that because it leads into one another. Now, sometimes you guys, your practice, you might only have one person or two people that are doing all three of those things. And that's okay too. You've got to figure out what are the most important things for my practice to know before a patient gets here? What are the most important pieces? Like, what am I going to be treatment planning? What kind of an estimate do I need to give to my patient?

that's the information that you need to get on your verification. So you might be able to really dwindle that down as compared to a practice that's got five or six part office people and they're doing surgeries and they're doing all on fours and they're doing an anesthesia in the office. Like all of these pieces that you might see other practices asking for, you might not need those. So really figuring out what is it that I need for my practice that I can get the right information and who's doing it.

The job descriptions are huge. When we know our lead measures, like what is it that I'm after? Now I can see, okay, is this affecting that? Like, is this going to positively impact that or is this busy work? Because sometimes we might get lost in, I don't know, confirmations, which are incredibly important, but is that my job? As a billing coordinator, right? Or if you've got two or three for an office who don't have...

The Dental A Team (18:19.893)

really segregated duties, I oftentimes will walk in and I'll see three or four different people, like, everyone's doing confirmation, like, well, we got to the appointments confirmed. Absolutely. But can one person do confirmations while someone else does something else? Because there are 5,000 things that we have to get done in a day. And if we're all doing confirmations, then we're probably only hitting five of the 5,000. So really figuring those spaces out.

making sure that it's twindled down so that somebody can say, okay, these are the most important tasks of my day today, and this is how I'm going to manage my time. Third to that is going to be the systems. You already, you know, alluded there and spoke about the systems of getting the information in. But then, Kristy, I think it's insanely important for a billing coordinator to have a system and a protocol for all of the other pieces. Like, I've seen so many practices I've walked in and they've got

I had a practice that had over $200,000 in outstanding claims, and I'm like, gosh, that makes me sweat, right? Because it's so stressful, and they're like, well, I call when I have time. Well, there's our time management space, and they don't know how important it is, right? So they don't know how to manage their time, they don't know when they should be calling, because they don't have it blocked out.

And then two, they're not understanding that this is one of the most important things that you could be doing in your position. So they're doing busy work. I've literally seen, I walked into a practice and I love this practice dearly. We've gotten so far. But I was watching the billing coordinator get interrupted because the billing coordinator was the only one who had the information in her head on the insurance metrics. And so the treatment coordinator would need her to do.

the estimates for the treatment coordinator, but then also she knew all the patients. So she was doing some of the like phone calls that were coming in and she was doing confirmations. And I was like, well, this is why you have $200,000 of insurance claims. Like it was wild. So that one, that one practice like encompasses all of these. The billing rep didn't know her job descriptions because she didn't know the most important pieces or she didn't know how to do them. So she wasn't doing them. She didn't know how to manage her time. And then the

The Dental A Team (20:29.266)

protocols just weren't set in place yet. So one of my favorite protocols is really making sure that you have at least one day a week that you've got dedicated time to work on unscheduled unpaid claims. And then also a separate, would do them on two separate days just because I don't like to do them all together. It's overwhelming for me, right? So I do one day of unpaid claims every week, some hours in there, and then I would do maybe two days later.

patient balances, calling on unpaid patient balances. So you can do them together. I don't care what you guys decide. That's how my brain works. But Kristy, that's how I like to do it, where it's like week one, you've got four different brackets, right, of unpaid money on both insurance and patient that you're working on. So I literally have practices, and the way I did it when I was in practice is that I just split it up by those four, right, those four brackets. So week one, I would do zero to 30.

week two, to 60, right? And so on. And then, Kristy, what I did as well is I started to rotate when those statements would go out or the reminders for those. So I'd be calling on one bracket and sending statements that same week for two brackets later so that hopefully by the time I got to them, they'd also received a statement. So they were getting statements.

phone calls, if I had to leave a message, I'd leave a text. Like this whole rotating system was put into place and I put it into place for a lot of practices and it's helped a ton of really being able to see how I needed to break out that week. And I think if I were to walk in to a new position and I didn't know that these were my metrics, I don't know that I would have been able to think, okay,

How do I take what my job is, what I'm supposed to do, and do it in a manner that I can get it done? So I would do those. one more piece I did forget, right? Splitting up the alphabet for your statements, you guys. Holy cow. Like, don't send them all at once, split them up. But Kristy, what else do you have? I know you work a ton on this stuff with a lot of practices. I see the emails and the texts like currently going back and forth and really dialing that in because dentists and doctors, owners, they don't really know that space.

Kristy (22:24.391)

Yeah

The Dental A Team (22:43.879)

So we've got rotating weeks, we've got patient and insurance, we've got all the pieces. What other piece do you feel like is super necessary to have within some sort of protocol for time management and all of those pieces?

Kristy (22:57.39)

Yeah, well, much like you, I love breaking it up. It serves for two purposes, right? Number one, it's more manageable for the team. And number two, it helps keep the revenue coming in all month long, right? And also you have to remember every time we send those statements, typically phone calls follow. So when they're doing them all at once, we're creating a huge load for the team. I like you identify daily, weekly and monthly duties and make sure I mean, I know we're

The Dental A Team (23:09.267)

Yes.

Kristy (23:27.344)

talking AR, but everything funnels into that, right? So make sure you're sending your claims every day, not once a week, not once a month, every day. Make sure we're posting every day those checks that are coming in. And I would also say weekly run your unclaimed or unattached procedures and any unsent claims, any unsent secondary claims, right?

The Dental A Team (23:34.899)

Yep.

The Dental A Team (23:52.113)

Yeah.

Kristy (23:55.61)

And like you, I like the technology. Utilize your text to pay feature too. Like once we enter those payments, don't wait for the end of the week to send a statement or end of the month to send a statement, right? Send a text to pay right then or the next day. And again, it's chunking it out so it's more manageable.

The Dental A Team (24:03.463)

Yes.

The Dental A Team (24:11.635)

Yeah.

Kristy (24:21.775)

And also you can make your calls with insurance, break it up by insurance company, right? Being more efficient with our time that we have blocked out.

The Dental A Team (24:28.052)

Thank

The Dental A Team (24:31.74)

Yeah, I love that. And I would even put that in my power blocking, right? If I knew that I might even say the first 15 minutes is going to be Delta from zero to 60 outstanding claims and my second might be met life or something like that. So I love that just makes my brain go, okay, actually with that idea, I can make it even more efficient than what I have been doing just by adding Kristy's idea to what I've been doing. So thank you, Kristy I think that was brilliant.

I think there's so much meat today to consume. There's so much information packed into this short, like just under 30 minute podcast. So I hope you guys have been taking notes. I really, really want you guys to learn how to cut your AR in half if it's already there or how to keep it from getting high. Remember, your AR should be less than one month's total production goal. So if your goal is 300,000.

You better be under that 300,000. If your goal is 60,000, you better be under 60,000. Like it doesn't matter. You need to be under one month's production goals and or whatever your consistent average is. So go work on those protocols. You guys, have three action items. You need time management. So figure out some time management skills, work with your team and teach them the copy and paste method. You guys already know so much about block scheduling. Make sure your job descriptions and the duties.

Number one, are divvied out between multiple people. And number two, super clear. Even if you only have two front office people, you guys, and they always say, no, it's fine, we do everything, we work together and we get through it. I want responsibilities to each person. They can still flip-flop, they can do whatever they want, but they need to be held accountable to certain items. I don't care how many people you have up there. So number two, job descriptions. Number three, set standards and protocols, especially around your billing, you guys.

Start from the beginning for sure. Make sure that the information going in is accurate, but right away you guys, if you're trying to cut down your AR, get those standards into place and make sure that they are working on these pieces. Because the thing I see most often is that we don't have time because there are other things that are taking precedence. And to me, that just tells me they don't know how to figure out what the most important thing is. And you've got to go back to step two, job descriptions. Hey.

The Dental A Team (26:50.167)

Kristy, thank you so much for being here today. I knew you'd have some brilliant, brilliant ideas. love, I am like efficiency minded and I go there, but then you always stack something, layer it, something else on top of that, or I'm like, my gosh, even that again would make it more efficient. So thank you so much for being here. Thank you for bringing your ideas. And Kristy, is there anything departing statement that you want to leave our doctors with today?

Kristy (27:15.5)

No, just have fun with it, you know, and be in relationship with your patients. If there's a little balance afterward, make that quick phone call. I mean, it could be as easy as, hey, know, insurance, there was a little bit remaining. Did you want to add it to your last auto debit or are we scheduling it for one more month? You know, really be in relationship because ultimately it's about getting them the care they deserve and collecting for the treatment you're doing. So, yeah.

The Dental A Team (27:42.232)

You always have a nugget at the end. Thank you so much. Doctors, I hope you loved this. Take this information back to your team. Share this podcast with them. Team members, if you're listening to it you're like, actually, my doc needs to know what I'm doing, send it over to your doc. Let them listen to it. And you guys always, always, always reach out with any questions, any concerns. If you need help with the protocols or more ideas, hello.

Kristy (27:45.294)

Of course.

The Dental A Team (28:05.418)

At thegeneralateam.com, we are always, always, always open to sharing all of our information and getting those things over to you. Thank you all, and we'll catch you next time.

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Kiera gives listeners 3 tactical tips on exactly how to find and put a stop to cash flow leaks and grow your practice exponentially.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.824)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome to today's show. You guys, I'm so excited to have you here. I absolutely love podcasting. I can honestly not believe that we have created as many podcasts as we have and thank you for being a part of this journey. So today, you guys, I wanted to just ask you that like, are you struggling with cashflow leaks in your practice? I think this is such a big hot topic for you that I cannot wait to go into it because honestly,

Every dollar leaking out of your practice is a dollar not reinvested into your growth. So really there's a few couple quick cashflow leaks that I see in tons of practices that I wanted to share with you. These small little changes, tweaks are going to add up to exponential amounts of cash in your practice just by stopping these small few cashflow leaks. We did a webinar on this the other day and it was super, super popular. So I thought I'd bring a few of those highlights over here to the podcast.

As always, you guys know we are the Dental A Team and our job is to help practices optimize profitability, increase their happiness and fulfillment and truly make teams and doctors get on the same page to be able to live the best life that they possibly can. That's what we're about, you guys. Honest to goodness, I do know that cash flow is the lifeblood of a practice and the way that we prevent these leaks and the way that we're able to grow our practices is by being great stewards over the businesses that we have. This is gonna be a short

actionable podcast for you. guys know I like tactical practical and I'm super happy you're here. If you're new to the show, welcome. I'm so glad you're here. If you've been an OG, which stands for original gangster, I used to think it was an oldie but goodie. I found out that that's not the case. If you're an OG, I'm so glad that you're here and that you've been on this journey with me. Please, please as always, leave a review if it's helpful for you and make sure that you're sharing this with friends because the reality is our goal is to positively impact the world.

in the greatest way possible. And the way we do that is through expert consulting for dentists and teams. So we are the Dr. Seuss of systems. We are the gurus of making practices, like truly be simple, living at profitable practice and making it simple. All right, are you ready for these three simple tips? I hope you are. Number one, I want you to, like I said, we just did this of how to stop these cashflow leaks. And what you wanna do is you wanna look at some numbers. So you wanna look at the last six months production.

Kiera Dent (02:18.902)

You want to look at the last six months collections. And then you also want to do your collection percentage per month and also your collection percentage over the last six months. The reason it's important for this is some months will actually have a lower collection percentage. That's okay. So for example, a lot of practices in December only worked 2 weeks. And so then you have to think that money rolls 30 days. And when it rolls 30 days, then what's going to happen is we're going to collect that money. So if in December we only did 50,000, then in January we did a hundred thousand.

Well, I only have 50,000 over here to collect to then be able to go into my 100,000. Well, that's going to be low collections. But over the course of the year, we should be averaging a 98 % collection amount. We also want look at our patient AR, our insurance AR, our adjustments, claims not sent to insurance, procedures not attached to insurance, P &L revenue matching collections, because a lot of times maybe we're not collecting even though it looks like we're collecting. So making sure money in the bank actually matches the money that's coming into the practice.

And then doing an overhead deep dive, are there things that we could cut, subscriptions we no longer need, things that we've been paying for forever, just like in personal finance, right? Like when you go look and you're like, my gosh, we're paying for all these subscriptions, we're not even using half of them, that's a cashflow leak. So a lot of common causes of cashflow leaks are going to be unnecessary adjustments in your practice, claims and procedures not sent to insurance. Literally this one report, have literally...

brought 50,000 into a practice in one simple report. So it's a huge, huge zone to take a look at. Over-the-counter collections, maybe those aren't up, they're not high enough. And then not having a good claim follow-up, insufficient AR follow-up. So claims are one thing, we're sending out those statements. And the other side is that we're actually looking at our AR, following up on those claims, making sure that they're not having denials, resubmits, those types of things, high expenses, and then not producing enough to cover our expenses. So.

A lot of these things come in tandem. And so I just wanted to walk you through a quick three things to do. So #1 I want you to really focus on tightening up that insurance and collections process. Like truly, truly, truly, how are we doing this? Because I brought in $1000s to a practice. There was an office I consulted in Oregon. We were able to take them from producing about a $100,000 to $150,000 by being in their practice one time. And in 30 days, they were up to that amount. People were like, Kiera, how did you do it? And I'm like, well, 1

Kiera Dent (04:37.1)

We've made the scheduling better and we presented full treatment. And 2 we were able to increase their collections simply by just collecting at the end of the appointment. And I know that sounds so like primary and so juvenile, but the reality is all of this is simple. It's very simple. And so I hope that you take this on and you realize that these are just simple things. So when we don't have a good insurance process and collection process, then what happens is we delay the money even further. Already with insurance as we're on a 30 day delay.

most of the time. You can actually be faster than that in practices. I have some offices that get paid in 2 weeks, but the reality is usually we're on a 30 day delay. So going back to our December example where we made 50,000, then we were produced 100,000, well, our collections are going to be down, but just think what if we actually are even further delayed? Well, that's going to send it down further and further and further. I've seen offices where in their over 90, they have tons and I'm talking millions sitting in their over 90. Well, that's very stressful because A,

that's money that should be collected. You did the work and B, if it gets too far out there, we actually can't collect from insurance. So what we wanna do is we wanna make sure that we're verifying the patient's insurance benefits before they come into the practice, make sure we have correct fee schedules attached so we're able to present correctly. Then we wanna make sure we're submitting claims within 24 hours at the most. I either like them submitted at the end of the day or the next day. Make sure all of our attachments, all of our narratives, all of our inter-orals, all of our x-rays are truly like attached correctly.

Clean claims out, clean claims in. Like we wanna make sure that we're paid and then make sure that we have an automated way to have like our balances collected once we get the insurance there. So we wanna be watching our insurance payments and we also wanna be watching our patient payments. So we wanna collect a time of service. So whatever their patient portion is, I strongly, strongly, strongly recommend that we collect at time of service. We're also watching for balances when patients are checking in that we're actually collecting at that time as well. So.

When they check in, if there's a balance, we collect right then and there. Also when we present treatment plans or when they're doing their treatment, we're collecting payment at that time as well. I understand they're not going to be perfect. I understand there's a lot of fear around this of, Kiera, what happens though if we misestimate? And I'm gonna say you become an amazing word ninja. I would much rather you collect rather than chase money. I think all of us would rather get paid rather than chasing our paychecks down the street. Same thing with patients. Once they're gone, there's no longer a need for them to be doing

Kiera Dent (07:00.35)

to paying for it. So I really, really, really, really, really encourage you to do this and then make sure that what we're doing is we're actually checking our insurance every single week. So we're checking and working those 30, 60, 90 day claims. We're making sure that we're working on the biggest balances first and then we're able to then chip away at it and collect. Patient portions, go call them. Please, please, please stop sending statements. Call those patients right now. Get them on the books. Make sure we're getting them taken care of.

That is one of the easiest ways to stop these cashflow leaks in your practice. So the goal is make sure great insurance verification is there, make sure we're submitting claims, and then make sure that we're actually speeding up our collection process by staying on top of it every single week, hitting those biggest balances. There's more in depth for it, but that's a quick highlight of what you can do. Step 2 is control our overhead and unnecessary expenses. So now we've talked about, we fixed the problem with hopefully collecting. We fixed the process of making sure that we're getting our payments faster.

And now we need to make sure we're looking at our overhead and the expenses to see what on there is unnecessary. Like I said, like all those subscriptions, I don't know how many times I see like in real life, we're paying for Netflix, we're paying for Hulu, we're paying for Amazon Prime, we're paying for all these different ones, but we're actually only using one or 2 of them. Could we cut some of those out? It doesn't change our quality of life, but it does change our bank account and small little things add up. I did a podcast on this, a little areas where you can find this in your overhead expenses.

But the reality is like, can you start to actually order your supplies through something like Synergy or Ordo, which are 2 great companies that are actually supply companies that do it in bulk to reduce, like you're getting the exact same product, but you're able to actually reduce the cost. Why not do that? Just asking questions like we're buying the same bread, let's get it for half off or pay full price. I'm gonna get it for half off. It's the same bread, same price, like same quality.

just different pricing because we're able to buy it through group pricing. So can we negotiate? Can we talk to our reps? Can we make sure? Also, can we set a supply budget for the person who's ordering? I like four to 5 % for supplies. You take your pick for ordering dental supplies. So last month we collected 100,000, 4,000 or 5,000 would be our supply budget. Give that budget on Excel tracker to your ordering team member and have them deduct down making sure they stay within budget.

Kiera Dent (09:16.856)

This way they're able to then assess and make sure we really are spending the appropriate amount. This gets them scrappy. They start looking for better deals, but it cuts those overhead expenses that are unnecessary for you. Can we also look for better lab deals? I know we love our lab person, but maybe there's a new lab that's come onto the scene that's just as good, if not better, but maybe not as high of pricing as our current labs. I'm not here to say cut dentistry for one second. I'm just saying kind of like car insurance, let's go look around and see. And I'm not saying that labs are equal. I understand that all labs are different.

and we wanna make sure we give our patients the highest quality. I'm just saying if you haven't looked for a while, let's see if we could get a different way to have a different lab fee for us. Can we negotiate other areas within like our subscriptions, looking to see what can we cut, going line by line by line to see are there extra expenses in there? I know like I pay for audible, but I switched over to Libby. Libby is great, I use a ton of it, I'm constantly on there. Do I still need my audible expense on the overhead?

Do we still need to be paying for the subscription? Like I know for us, we have a lot of subscriptions, a lot of softwares. Is there a software that we could get a discounted rate? What about our credit card processing fees? Could we maybe switch over to a company like Mula and maybe save on that? Honest to goodness, plug for Mula. If you're looking at credit card processors or you're questioning Mula, tell Mark from Mula that we sent you over there. Clients who I've recommended to Mula have loved it because they're cheaper.

They're more affordable, their rates are incredible, there's no contract, they're able to get their membership plans on it, they're saving money. Even that one or 2 % change on your credit card statement can radically increase the cashflow leaks in your practice. And then just like make sure that our payroll, like let's look at our human capital. I am not here to cut costs for payroll. I'm here to pay our team members insanely well, but let's make sure that can we re-utilize our human capital? Could we maybe outsource certain things that we don't need in-house?

What do we have? And let's just make sure that what we're doing and producing, we're adequately staffed, that we're adequately doing our jobs. And that if there's easier ways, like we've outsourced certain jobs for virtual assistants. And I know a lot of offices have done that and it's been great. It's been amazing. We've been able to benefit from it. You have opinions about that. I'm not here to tell you one way or another. I am here to say, maybe be open to the ideas around it, just to see what can we do. And so my call to action on tip number 2 for controlling overhead.

Kiera Dent (11:38.038)

and unnecessary expenses is go and do an expense audit and look to see what can we do to cut costs. Maybe there's nothing, but I promise you there's probably one, 2 or three things that you could actually change or adjust. I do this every single quarter. So when the quarter ends, the CPA sends me over a detailed P &L line by line by line. I'm looking at that to make sure that I'm actually staying in track. All right, step number three.

is I really want you to look at making sure that we're producing enough. So are we optimizing our schedule and are we producing enough? Because a lot of times cashflow leaks come from the insurance and the collections and the overhead, but maybe we need to also look at our scheduling to make sure we're productive on there. And we're also making sure that we're producing enough for our expenses. So what I like and what I prefer is 50 % for expenses is what your overhead should be, not including doctors.

So if we're producing 100,000, 50,000 should be our expenses. So trying to just get that into line for you. So now if I know my costs are 80,000, we'll just double that, we should be producing 160,000. So that's very loose math. Don't worry with our clients, I do this a lot more in depth. Not always can we get to 50 % in all states, but generally speaking, we're able to get there by doing a lot of these pieces. So now I'm gonna look at your schedule and see.

If we need to produce 160,000, A, do we have enough spots for new patients? B, do we have block scheduling in place to make sure that with the new patients, with the SRPs, with the perio maintenance, we're then able to produce what we need to produce for what we actually need to pay our practice. So if we need to produce 160,000, well, do we have enough blocks in there? And we figured out the puzzle pieces to make sure that we're actually able to produce that amount. And then when we do have cancellations or different things in there that we're

filling the schedule that we're doing the 15 minute quick fill that we're looking for little ways to optimize our schedule because a lot of times practices don't hit their overhead that they want to hit not because they don't have the space in their schedule but because they have so many open spaces. So what's your open time in your schedule? Let's look at that. Could we reduce that down? What are some different areas that we could really make this easier for you? And then making sure that we're actually hitting our goals consistently and we're working as a team for that. So.

Kiera Dent (13:50.828)

The reality is I have a lot of practices who do these things, not a lot, all of them. So as consultants, we're looking at what is your block schedule? How many new patients do we need to have? How many, can we optimize this? Let's look at your overhead month over month. Let's look at your collection percentages year over year. Let's make sure that we are actually collecting the amount that we need to. Let's look at the different items within. Let's track your KPIs monthly with you and look at all these expenses. I was on a call the other day and the doctor, we were like, gosh, their overheads high. And we looked.

We were spending a lot on marketing. We were spending a lot on supplies. so making these small little tweaks and changes are how we find the cashflow leaks. And I know you want this, maybe like ding, a little fairy godmother over here. Yes, I can do that as we're a one-on-one private consultant for you. But listening to the podcast, I want to encourage you to take these three steps on and to truly go and look at how is our collection process and what are we doing? Then I want you to look at your overhead and unnecessary expenses and then do an audit of your schedule to see

Hey, what adjustments could we make to make this actually be better? So these are some of the quick hits for you on the cashflow leaks that I know really can help you out and can grow your practice exponentially. This is what I'm passionate about if you can't tell. I love helping offices learn how to stop the cashflow leaks to be able to produce what they wanna produce and be able to provide the lifestyle that they want for themselves and for their team members. And it's through like little, little things like this. Consulting's nothing crazy or sexy.

The changes that we make in practices are usually so simple, but the simple things are not always easy. And so making sure you have an accountability buddy, someone who's gonna check in with you, someone who's gonna make sure you're doing this consistently, because consistency is key when it comes to these cashflow and overhead leaks. I'm so excited for you guys to try this. So if you want some help uncovering some cashflow leaks in your practice,

Just DM me or even go to our website, TheDentalATeam.com. We actually do a free practice assessment for offices where we look through to see what areas can we help you optimize your practice. So if that resonates with you, I'd love to chat with you. But truly you deserve to have the financial strength and the financial guidance that you truly want and deserve. And the reality is we're here for you. Denaliateam is here for you. We love and adore you. And I know that everything that you want that you are truly hoping to achieve.

Kiera Dent (16:10.368)

is going to be capable for you. So as always, thank you for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

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Block scheduling can transform your productivity into profitability. Kiera makes the implementation as easy as 1, 2, 3:

1. Identify your practice's production goals.
2. Design your ideal block schedule.
3. Implement, train, and track.

Episode resources:

Sign up for Dental A-Team’s Virtual Summit 2025!

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Schedule a Practice Assessment

Leave us a review

Transcript

kiera Dent (00:02.36)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today, I just really wanted to dive into, are you truly tired of missing production goals? Because if you are, block scheduling is honestly the secret to hitting them consistently with ease. And I know this is something that's talked about so often. So what I wanted to do is I wanted to break this down into three easy steps to make sure that you're able to do this with your team in a fun, effective, and just like overall amazing way for you.

Block scheduling can truly transform your productivity into profitability. And it's something as simple as doing a quick puzzle in your practice where we're able to add the pieces, have an incredible patient experience, incredible team experience, incredible doctor experience. And to me, that's a win-win-win. So for that, these three steps are going to really make it easy for you and your team to...

chunk this down into a tactical practical way. You guys, I'm Kiera Dent, owner and CEO of the Dental A Team, a consulting company where we are committed to not just understanding you, but actually being you. All of our consultants have worked in every position in the practice where we're able to understand what it's like to not be able to hit productivity goals, to schedule with no frustration, to have cancellations that are dropping off on us, to where we know what it's like to lose team members. All of those things are something that our Dental A Team

consultants are experts at and something that I'm really really proud of as a company because I know that when we understand you we're not just coming to you with theories and ideas but actual tips that have been proven, tried, consistent across hundreds of offices in all the states in multiple different countries to make sure that we're giving you guys efficiency that helps your team stay focused. So this is gonna be able to help you guys out and today it's gonna be short and actionable because I want you guys to able to take what we talk about and implement it today.

So step one is going to be identify your practices production goals. Now that what we got to do is we've got to look to see what did our practice produce last year and a healthy standard benchmark is that we want to actually be increasing a minimum of 10 % year over year. We also want to make sure that we've increased our fee schedules every single year and most practices go up about 5%. Now, if you're concerned about that with your fee for service patients or your out of pocket patients, I want to just remind you that this is standard across the board with most businesses to increase 5%.

Kiera Dent (02:14.402)

And if you wanna keep those preventative ones out, by all means go for it. I just wanna be able to remind you that by doing so, when we actually send our statements out to insurance and we bill out to insurance, it actually helps the insurance companies determine what the fee should be within our area. So I wanna make sure that we're not missing opportunities and possibly a membership plan could actually help our patients when we're concerned about those preventative services. So make sure that we know what we need to do for that 10 % growth.

make sure we understand how many days we're off in the practice. So I like to go through every single month. What are the vacations? What are the holidays? What are the times off? What are our high and low months across the board? I know for some pediatric practices, our certain months in the year are actually not great, but our summer months are incredible. I know for other areas based on where they are, they get a lot of snowfall in February. So February actually becomes a terrible month for them. There's also other offices where there's a notorious, suck timber or slam dunk September.

where we actually have a dip right after school gets back in session. So knowing those trends are actually gonna be able to know your practice's production goals to be able to hit them successfully. And while yes, this might take a little time for us to go through, map these things out, what it What it it does is it actually helps us go through and see what does our production need to be? How can we realistically hit it based on the days that we're working? What does each day need to be? What does each provider goal need to be for our doctors and our hygienists? And then we're able to actually bring all that information together.

and make a perfect puzzle for us. And then we start to place it into place. So when an office does this, usually I'm seeing a minimum of a 10 % increase, but oftentimes I'm seeing a 10, 20, 30, 40 % increase year over year. I've added multiple millions to practices and our consultants have done as well just by effective block scheduling where we're not increasing the new patients. We're not changing the hours that they're working. We're not adding more days for them to work. We're just being very consistent with how they actually schedule. And it's like I said, it's a puzzle.

I can put in five puzzle pieces of one type, or I can do five different puzzle pieces. Again, I put five puzzle pieces in same amount of time in a day, but I'm actually able to make a thousand dollars versus a $5,000 a day. It was crazy. had an office that I went into and I remember they had never been scheduled to 10, $10,000 in a day. And so when I went in and I showed them, here's how we can actually do 10,000, I scheduled them to 10,000 the next day. What was wild was the day I was there, they were producing 4,000.

Kiera Dent (04:35.778)

The next day I scheduled them to 10,000 showing them how to do this. And at the end of the $10,000 day, they looked at me high-fiving. We were out the door on time and they said, Kiera, that was actually easier than our day was yesterday when we only produced 4,000. And I said, it was just with blocks. It was just with us being strategic of where we put people as being intentional. And from there, we were actually able to be productive. So just helping you guys see, we've got to figure out what our specific production goals are before we restructure the schedule. That's step number one.

Step number two is design your ideal block schedule. Some doctors like to start early in the day with a crown. Some like to start later in the day with their crowns. Whatever it is, we need to design it of where do we actually want these to be? And I like high value, follow ups, zero dollar appointments. And instead of just saying a crown, I actually like to build a block schedule based on dollar amounts. Like I said, it's puzzle pieces. So that way if a crown or a quad of fills comes through, I know there are 1500 or a thousand, whatever it is, they're going into this block.

Blocks are held for us for 24 to 48 hours, pending upon your practice to make sure we're able to put the puzzle piece in that we want. We're able to actually map it out and we're able to then tell patients when they're coming up, hey, Dr. Smith likes to do crowns in the morning. I have an eight o'clock or a nine o'clock on Monday or Wednesday, which do you prefer? Now I'm not asking the patient, where do you wanna go? I'm literally asking the patient, this is what we do. This is where I can put you. This is how we do it. What works best for you?

We actually eliminate a lot of the excuses. We eliminate a lot of the frustration and we're directing and guiding the patient rather than trying to come back after they've told us they want a four o'clock when our doctor really doesn't do crowns at four o'clock. This is going to help you exponentially build the blocks. Also, I'm not putting implants and fillings next door to each other because that can get tricky. I'm not doing two crowns back to back where I can't see it. We're literally building a puzzle that our doctors can actually do. All of us get our lunches. All of us get out on time.

Doctors can get over to their hygiene exams. So I'm also then playing Sudoku across the board where I've got my doctor procedures, my new patients and my SRPs. Square up your SRPs and your implants. So that way the doctor can literally get the implant done and not have to go do the hygiene checks. It's a way for us to truly make a puzzle that's 80 to 90 % effective and efficient. So when we do that, that's step two of design our ideal block schedule and build that out. Now, the way I do this is I draft block schedules in Google Sheets.

Kiera Dent (06:58.242)

So in Excel, map it out of what the perfect amount is, put the dollar amounts there of what this is actually going to equate to for the day, and then figure out where my hygiene blocks need to be. I need to also figure out the number of new patients that we're seeing, the number of SRP and the number of perio maintenance blocks that I also need to add into my schedule to make sure I have enough hygiene hours to accommodate the patients that we have in there. So that's in how we're gonna draft this up. So that's gonna be what you'll need to do next is draft a block schedule template for your practice that will actually be effective.

And then step three is to implement it, train our team and track our progress. So what we do is we then go put it into place. I understand that hygiene is usually blocked out six months. And so that does take a little bit longer to get into place, but our doctors can get their blocks put in right away. And we need to train our team, put those blocks in, educate them of what do we do when a patient wants a four o'clock, but we only do crowns at two o'clock. And I want to just remind you that an ideal schedule for our doctor is an amazing schedule for our patients.

us being on time, us being happy as a team, us having our doctor fresh and prepped and ready to go is so much better for these patients than us like trying to shove them in because the reality is patients can adapt the schedule as long as we're using our words, which are free to be able to put our patients where we want them to go. So how do we do this? So we host a team meeting, we explain the block schedules, we assign a point person who's going to oversee and implement, and then we actually help them make sure of...

What happens when we put this in a block when we're not supposed to? What's the follow-up? And I really get offices to work on this for six weeks to two months where we are rock solid on this. And then we come back and we adjust it after that. So when I've done this, there was an office and they were producing about 2 million a year. We put in block schedule, like I said, no extra days, no extra time. So we went from 2 million up to 3.5 million simply by being effective with our time with block schedules. To me, that's a wild growth. We have gone

Exponentially, we've gone from 2 million to 3.5 just by putting these blocks in. were like, Kiera, patients are happier. Our team is happier. We're having our lunches on time. Our doctors are getting out on time. And to me, I just feel if those are the wins, then amazing, this is worth it. So for you getting your team excited about it, helping them see like, understand teams don't like change. Why do you think I love being the Dental A Team where we do this in a fun and effective way? I love to do this because I help teams see what's possible when it feels impossible.

Kiera Dent (09:18.488)

helping them see where we can create ease when there's chaos, helping them see how we can be more efficient rather than cumbersome. So the reality is block scheduling is going to change your life. It's going to help you be effectively productive. It's going to help you hit your goals with ease. One of my favorite quotes is by Walt Disney where he says that he was able to create predictable magic because of the systems behind the scenes. And so for you to be able to create predictable production with the systems behind the scenes of block scheduling to me is a gift that you can give yourself and your team this year.

So what I want you guys to know is this is going to honestly simplify your productivity and give you guys goals to be able to hit them with ease. You don't have to be perfect. We have those snow days. We have the slow summer days. We have the December that's only two weeks. We have all these different things put in so we know exactly what we need our blocks to be. And then we're able to hit our goals with ease and more consistency. I really don't love having success be happenstance where I'm like, will I get it or will I not? I like your success to be inevitable. And I believe that block scheduling is one of the greatest ways to do that.

So if you're interested, DMS or email us for a free block scheduling template, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com And as always, you guys, this is how we're able to help you run a successful dental practice with ease. I don't believe that running a practice should be hard. I believe that this could be easy. And I want you just to ask yourself, what if it could be easy? How would you feel? How would your team feel? How would your patients feel? Because that can be a reality. This is what the Dental A Team does. And if that's helpful for you, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

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Kiera touches base with doctors on how the first quarter of 2025 has gone. Ask yourself:

1. Are we tracking key performance indicators?
2. How’s the team efficiency and morale looking?
3. Do we need to adjust and refocus our annual goals?

Episode resources:

Sign up for Dental A-Team’s Virtual Summit 2025!

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Schedule a Practice Assessment

Leave us a review

Transcript

Kiera Dent (00:00.908)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera, and I hope you're having just an incredible day. I hope life is incredible for you. And today, I just wanna highlight that Q1 is almost over. Can you believe it? We're almost a fourth of the way through 2025. And today, I wanted to ask you, are you on track for your best year yet? Because I wanna make sure that we break this down to ensure that you are thriving in 2025 and that success is predictable for you rather than just happenstance. So today, you guys, if we go through...

that reviewing our Q1 of what we did well, what we missed, how we can improve, are we on track, are we off track? This is gonna really be able to help you find the opportunities for growth to make sure that you are thriving in 2025. Today, I'm gonna break it down into three simple steps for you, tactical, practical, as always. You guys know I'm Kiera Dent, owner and CEO of Dental A Team, where we are a consulting company founded upon making your life easy, more fun, and more fulfilled.

We do that through you as a person. We also do that through making sure you're profitable. Let's cut the stress. Let's make sure you're profitable. Aiming for at least 20 to 30 % true profit, post everything else. And then we also do it with system and team engagement and top to bottom systems for your team to thrive. Truly, it's what we're about. We love working with teams. We love working with dentists. Our consultants are experts in the field. They have been in every single position in the practice, making sure that your life is easy.

fun and that you feel like you have someone in your court with you that has the answers for you, has the solutions for you, and ensure that you are successful and profitable. So today, you guys, we are going to go through this. is going to be a concise action packed episode. cannot wait. So let's dive in. Step number one to make sure you are on track through Q1 is I want you to actually go back through and assess how do we do based on our metrics this year. If you are not tracking KPIs, key performance indicators, today is a great day to start that.

Your team should be tracking. We should be able to look at Q1 and see where were we on track, where were we off track, why were we off track and what's going forward. I love to be doing this every single week and then really assessing every single month. If you haven't gone to do that, rock on. It's the time to do it. You still have three quarters left. Let's make sure that you're super successful for that. So things that I like to look at are production, collections, new patients, case acceptance. We wanna make sure we've got our hygiene reappointment. What's our hygiene percentage?

Kiera Dent (02:16.354)

We wanna make sure we're looking, those are like the main key things. And then I really always dig into profitability. I, like I said, we aim for our offices to be at a 20 to 30 % profit margin, post paying their doctors. I like you to have free cashflow in there. And so really looking at that, but also if we can dig into the nitty gritties of how's our AR, how are our cases coming across? What are we presenting? What are we closing? How is our hygiene team producing? How are we doing with our new patient count? Are we getting those raving fan referrals?

And if not, what's the one area that we're gonna highlight or two or three in Q2 to make sure that we actually get on track. Also, we look at our annual goal, which I hope that you have said, because it gives us kind of the benchmarks. To me, these are like the mile markers. Q1 is a mile marker, Q2 is a mile marker, Q3 is a mile marker. To make sure in Q4, we actually hit where we were trying to go, we are at mile marker one of the year. Where are we at? What needs to be adjusted to make sure by Q4, we actually crush our goals and we do it with ease.

Did we maybe get hit with some snow? Did we maybe get hit with some sick days? What was it? Let's not make excuses. Let's learn from it and project and move forward. So right now I want you all to block out 30 minutes this week to go look through Q1 metrics and compare them to where we wanna be by the end of the year. I recommend doctors and office managers do this. Go and look at it separately and then come together collectively. You can also do this with your leadership team. It's a really great time for you to block that time out right now and make sure you're on track. All right, step number two.

evaluate our team's efficiency and morale. Why? Why? because if we don't have a team that's synergistic, we actually are not able to have long-term success. Think about when we watch sports. mean, hello, March Madness. Hello, football season. Hello, all of them. You can tell teams that are synergistic and working well together, and you can tell teams that aren't. And something that's really paramount in team synergy is can we tell each other when we're off track and not have it be eggshells? I really love the book, Five Dysfunctions by Patrick Lenziani.

It's really a great way for you to see your team health. There's also difficult conversations don't have to be hard. There's ways that we can, crucial conversations if we're struggling with this, but really how do we actually do this? And are we checking in one-on-one monthly with each of our team members and getting honest feedback? Are we celebrating the wins and acknowledging the shortcomings? Are we looking for support and training that we need to have? Where are we at? But this is something that's so important to have really truly team efficiency and morale, because if we're not operating as a strong team,

Kiera Dent (04:40.942)

we're not gonna make it to the finish line. And so having that like true focus right now on it is going to honestly be able to help you all truly flourish and thrive in 2025. All right, step three, I want you to adjust and refocus our annual goals. Looking at where we are, where we need to go, what do we need to be changing or adjusting to make sure that we're there? We might need to adjust right now. We might need to say like, we gotta be a little more flexible here.

This is something we didn't plan for. Maybe we lost an associate. Maybe we lost a hygienist. Maybe we lost an office manager. Some of those things, if they're out of our control and they truly will impact us, we do need to adjust. If we lost a provider, we've got to adjust those goals. Otherwise, we're chasing a dream that we can't quite get. And so I don't like to create excuses, but I also want to make sure that we have flexibility within the rigidity. So we've got the strong goals that we've set. We also have the flexibility of if life happens, we're not making excuses.

but we're actually coming to the table. So what do we actually need to do? Where are we at? What are the top priorities that we did really well in Q1? And what do we need to be setting up for Q2? I love the model of traction by Gina Wickman. This is something we work with a lot of our offices on. It's what we were building within our in-person community where we really are helping you assess your business every single quarter, just these simple three points. We have a deeper dive that we do within our teams to make sure that we're...

quickly adjusting, but not adjusting too quickly that we're able to give them the momentum and the traction that our teams need. So for this, like I said, we need to assess where we are, take 30 minutes and look to see where we are, what did we do well in Q1, where are we off track that we need to get back on track? Two, look at our team efficiency. How are we working together as a team and what do we need to change? And then three, adjust and refocus our goals to make sure moving into Q2 that we are actually set up for success.

I love this, so I want you to revisit your annual goals, break them into Q2 action steps. Like I said, I love to do it in traction. I love to do this with our offices. It's something very fun and fulfilling for me. We do it as a team. We have a coach that comes and meets our leadership team. We break it down to our departments and make it really easy. So three steps, you've got them. You know where we need to set the time aside now. Wherever you are on the journey, high five. This is where we are. We got here. And this is also, if there was a hard quarter, Tony Robbins is one of my favorites.

Kiera Dent (06:59.574)

And he says, if it's a hard quarter, something that's just really beaten us down, we just look at that and say, well, hello, we finally have a worthy opponent. If we're riding high, we're doing everything, we're on such a good roll. Amazing, ride that high, ride that wave because a worthy opponent will show up at some point. We do not fall apart, we do not break down. We look at it, we face it, we figure it out, and we rise again with a true plan.

You guys, it's truly so important for you to assess where we at. We have three more quarters. Let's make them the best quarters. Let's make sure you're thriving in 2025. I am happy to share with you a Q1 checklist, whatever we can do for you. DM us, email us, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com You guys, please subscribe. We have newsletters every single week that come out to you. So if you want, head on over to our website, TheDentalATeam.com for more dental leadership insights.

Dental A Team is truly committed to you thriving in 2025. And if you're like, Hey, I could really benefit from one-on-one of having someone there with me benefiting from a community that started to support you having a structure that, that air quotes forces, but we really do. hold you accountable to it to make sure you're deep diving on your business. Reach out. This is what we do. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com as always. Thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

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Tiff and Britt discuss how a practice that was upside down financially picked through their systems with a fine-toothed comb to find success — and how you and your team can avoid this scenario.

Episode resources:

Sign up for Dental A-Team’s Virtual Summit 2025!

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Schedule a Practice Assessment

Leave us a review

Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:02.146)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are back again. I kept Britt today. If you've listened to the other one, that it was a beautiful Friday morning. It's still a beautiful Friday morning. I made her stick around so I could do even more with her today on this podcasting adventure. I know you guys love hearing from Britt and I love chatting with her. So Britt, welcome. Welcome. How was your day? We're rolling into the weekend.

How much fun are you excited to have? You're feeling better, you were sick, you caught what everybody else has had, and I think you get a true weekend, right?

Britt (00:29.812)

everyone.

This weekend should be better than last weekend. Let's just say that. And it is gorgeous out here. So I mean, I might have been slightly annoyed at the birds chirping and I'm like, really? Like waking me up? That's what you're going to be annoyed about. Get over it. It's a nice day outside.

The Dental A Team (00:47.151)

Oh my gosh, okay, Cinderella. I love that. I love that. It is like, it's a week. I keep thinking, gosh, it's like unseasonably warm and like it's not, it's supposed to be 85 degrees next week, FYI, but this time of year, last year was cold. That was the abnormality. This is actually normal for Phoenix. So I keep having to remind myself of that because it is warm, but the birds are chirping. The dogs are barking across the street.

Britt (00:49.486)

I know.

The Dental A Team (01:14.987)

There's people walking by and they they get angry. It's all here and we're here for it. And so if you hear the birds, you hear the cats, you hear the dogs, just know we are a company that fully encompasses the animals. We love them and they're here with us today. So I love it. Well, today's content I'm actually really excited about. wanted to I wanted to take like an excerpt from

Britt (01:28.136)

you

The Dental A Team (01:41.68)

practice that I've worked a ton with over the last few years. are near and dear to my heart. Some of my favorite human beings in the whole world. Trish was on a call with me with them, consultant Trish, and she just, she texts me on the side. She's like, he is the sweetest man. I'm like, he really, really is. They are just such a sweet, sweet human and individuals, but I've taken some journeys with them financially. And with a lot of their, their team members and doctors and stuff. And I wanted to kind of

highlight a piece that we found that I don't think I even like always thought about. And I think those are the spaces that I actually love about consulting is one, a challenge. I always love a challenge and decided like we're doing a steps challenge. I'm like, I'm to win. Like I was already doing it, but now I'm like, I'm for sure doing it. So you challenge me and it's going to work.

Britt (02:28.029)

We're going to

Britt (02:34.419)

Game on.

The Dental A Team (02:35.088)

It is, it is. It works every time. Ask Kira, she says it, she screams it from the mountaintops. It really does work, I don't know why. So I love a challenge, I love learning, and I really love when it's like, oh my gosh, that was so obscure from the normal, and it's so cool to see what we were able to create and figure out. And we all know at this point in the game that we need 98 % collections across the board.

And we all know it's not always that way. And doctors, I really wanted to bring you this information and this story, right? Storytelling time. This story from something that I've witnessed, experienced and worked through because I want you guys to be able to take some tools back to your own practices and implement some things that are actually really easy that not everyone is always doing. So, Britt, you're here with me for this journey and I'm excited because it brings in some of those business pieces.

that I know we love chatting about. So we're gonna chat through some of it and then I wanna bring in your brain on like, how can we implement these things in every single practice? So biggest space walking in to this practice was their overhead. Like their overhead was out of control and they were making massive production for a single doctor to hygiene. They're at like 140 to 160 consistently. And their hygiene department, let's do through some like,

digging, right? I find their hygiene department is like 11 to 15 percent of their production. So this doctor is exhausted. He is just like not able to sleep at night because he's stressed. He's working really hard and their overhead is really high, like almost 80 percent when we started working together, almost 80 percent overhead. You guys, that's before paying him. That's before paying loans. And so they actually had to take loans out.

Britt (04:07.923)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (04:30.884)

to pay bills and pay loans, like this giant cycle, right? This just upside down, stressed mess. And he could not figure it out because production wise, right? He should be okay. But his overhead's almost 80 % and his doing calculations, right? And then like collections is like all over the place. One month, it's like 103%, one month it's 87%.

Then it's like 92 and it's just like jumping all over the place. Like what the heck is going on in this practice? Like the production is fairly consistent, right? But the collections is inconsistent and the overhead is consistently high. So from, I think from many people's standpoint, the number one thing you do, right? I had a doctor yesterday that I was talking to and he's like not as profitable as he wants to be and

I get it and we can make him more profitable working on it, but he's like, okay, so I need to produce more. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, you can't always outproduce the problem, right? And this practice is like that to a T because they are producing really well, but their overhead is still really high. And their collections, again, like they're collecting something, but it's just all over the place. So we had to like really do some...

weird tricks in my opinion. was just like, all right, we're gonna, we're gonna just dig in. We're gonna dive in. We're gonna figure some stuff out. So Brett, what we found one pre collections, right? love pre collects you guys. love pre collects, but what pre collects will do is inflate your collections. And so doctors implement pre collections, a hundred percent implement pre collections. But if you're going to implement when you implement pre collections,

Britt (06:19.931)

Laughter

The Dental A Team (06:21.144)

you have to pre-collect every time, right? So what they were doing is they were pre-collecting on large cases. They were doing full-mouth, like, large cases inconsistently. So they'd have two $50,000 cases in a month pre-collect that's, it's scheduled for next month, right? So they pre-collect for those two cases in January.

They do the cases in February and they don't schedule any cases for March. So then, Britt, what happened to February? Then we've got 103 % collections over here in January and then February is 87 % because we did the production and we didn't pre-collect for new surgeries.

Britt (07:05.713)

your collections are ahead of your production because you're ahead of time, a month ahead of time even.

The Dental A Team (07:08.795)

Yes.

a month ahead of time. And they were so upside down financially that the pre-collects were being used to pay bills. And so they'd pay down, they'd even pay down their loan that they got to pay bills. And then they'd have a low collections month and they'd have to use the loan, which I think personally, all of us have probably been in that situation in our personal lives at one point or another.

Britt (07:22.851)

Mmm.

The Dental A Team (07:39.046)

And it's always interesting to me the parallels there, because we like to think of business and personal finances so differently, but they are parallel. guys, money is money, business is business, life is life. But anyways, so then we figured out, okay, let's start pulling this money. So you pre-collect, you pull it, and you put it in a different bank account. So we started building their buckets, right? Their profit first style buckets without doing real profit first, because we couldn't. So we're...

Britt (07:41.651)

you

Britt (08:05.099)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (08:07.868)

pulling this money, planning for it, right? We're prepping for profit first. So we've got these buckets and I've got them starting to pull for lab because they were getting heat up, like, honestly, sometimes it was like 20 % lab bills. So we had to pull aside all this stuff and it was so fantastic to see the money moving in the right directions because it cleared things out of the way. And then we would like add it back in.

Britt (08:08.101)

of

The Dental A Team (08:35.6)

the month that we needed it, blah, blah, blah. So we were doing this like money moving, but the biggest piece of all that was like, okay, you guys level out your pre collects. You're going to be fine. Make sure you move the money. Make sure you've got the lab bills, lab expenses covered in a different account. The biggest piece of all Britt that blew my mind and the team found it. The team found it on their own as we're moving this money around. They're like separating it on my KPI sheet. have for them. So I'm like, okay, this is your collections.

This was your pre-collect. So this is your true collections. Your pre-collect were, that's gone. That's for next month. That's next month's money. This is your true collections. Their true collections tanked. And they're like, well, Tiff, we're actually, I'm seeing we're not actually collecting a lot over the counter. Like, well, that doesn't make any sense. What do mean you're not collecting? Like, so then collect, like get the money. And they said, well, everyone has credits on their accounts.

Britt (09:09.552)

Thank

The Dental A Team (09:34.066)

They found it. So the previous billing manager and treatment coordinator and front office total wasn't putting information into the system correctly or at all, right? They didn't have the insurance fee schedules in there. So we had already worked through a lot of that, right? The fee schedules, making sure all the insurance, making sure what goes out was correct because it was incorrect. That was already been, we've been solving that. But what

happened is she was guesstimating off of UCR, taking like 20 % ish off of UCR for treatment plans and collect over collecting for patients. then when insurance, which is great, I'd rather over collect than under collect. If you're going to pay attention to your credits and give credits back. We were not paying attention to the credits. And so Britt, all of these patients just like

Britt (10:17.875)

huh.

Britt (10:22.393)

Yes.

The Dental A Team (10:30.932)

thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars in credits of patients who were coming in. We had the treatment, we had the production, but we had already had the collection. So this is where it's like, truth be told, you cannot out-produce your overhead. Because if you produce and you've got $100,000 in collection or in credits, right? All of these patients are coming in for fillings and it's like a $56 copay, they've got $300 credit.

working away on on their account. So the money's already been there. The money's already paid the bills. They had to then on our KPI, I'm like, okay, well, we're going to do another column. Next column is like, how many patients, what was the amount of credits that you use today so that if we had collected it, I need to see from a financial standpoint, I need to be able to see if we had collected it, could, would our overhead be okay? Is the overhead issue because we can't collect that money or is it because we

Britt (11:10.318)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (11:29.616)

need to produce and collect more. So it was so hard to like see all of the pieces because there was so much chaos in the accounts that was so like hard to find. did an incredible job keying into tip. think it's the credits and I was like, my gosh, you just blew my mind, right? Like I didn't even think of this. I thought for sure the pre collects, like let's level those out. Let's always pre collect on everything. We changed that model.

Britt (11:44.945)

Yeah. Yeah.

The Dental A Team (11:56.072)

but that was only adding now to the credits. So it was like, holy cow, but it was really cool, Brett, to be able to see that's one layer that I think a lot of practices and a lot of practice owners forget to look at, right? We look at our AR, we look at our production, our collections, our new patients. We never really truly look at our credits. And these credits had our overhead at like 80 % and our collections was literally like,

Britt (11:58.928)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (12:24.18)

87 to 95 on a really like good month of no surgeries pre-scheduled. So it was wild to see, but then once we started accounting for that, it took about a year to really truly get through all of those credits or most of those credits that were coming in. So it took about a year, but being able to visually see on the overhead spreadsheets, on the KPIs, all of the money and where it was going, what it was allocated to helped them to be able to see

where they needed to move money to, pull money to, what needed to be done. He could project like, how long do I have to work this hard? Because he's got to produce as much as he can to get through the credits, plus get some collections in. So he truly had to just work his tail off for this year to really dial back some of those issues. But it was really fun to see, okay, these are all of the spaces that you've got to make sure you're paying attention to.

especially because, I think we've all experienced this. I mean, I did in practice too. I'm like, the billing rep has got it, right? So many owner doctors, that's, you want to be able to, and I'm not saying you can't trust, right? But human error is a thing and we don't always know what we don't know. And I think that this gal just didn't know how to do it any other way. So she was doing it the best she could and honestly, like more money, the better. So if you're going to, I want you to collect more.

if that's an opportunity, but we have to be able to give it back. Like we have to be able to watch those. So I'd rather over collect than have to track somebody down for a bill. Right. I totally agree with that theory, but if we're not watching it though, like it's wild. So Britt from business standpoint, right. We've got all of these moving pieces, like from a business standpoint, if this doctor or a doctor who might be in a similar situation, right. They're like nearing

Britt (14:03.431)

Agreed.

The Dental A Team (14:20.792)

what they thought was going to be retirement, right? They thought they were getting there. Now their business is like spiraling. I mean, I did, you know, I did my digging. We did it. We got through it. It took a while. The next year, like we decreased their overhead by 10 % in that year. The next year, we decreased it again, almost another 10%. Like they're down to like 55 to 60 % overhead. At this point, they're freaking

Swim and they're doing fantastic. Their team is doing great. They're able to do great things with their team and with their family. So we did it. But from a business standpoint, we had to get a lot of help in there, a lot of CPA and financial advisors and things. But from your perspective, just on the outside hearing that, what would you tackle or what would you tell a doctor? Implement this right now so that you know if these things are happening. Like how would a doctor

from your standpoint, and if you were, I'm the doctor and you're the consultant, what would you tell me to be watching and be prepped for so that I don't fall into a situation like that?

Britt (15:20.657)

laughter

Britt (15:28.113)

Yeah, and number one, think this is like one of great scenario tips. Like these are the things that consultants love puzzles. So like this is one of those that it's like, there's something, I know it is, we're gonna find it, but we gotta figure out what exactly is happening in a scenario. And this is, think, one example of sometimes situations that doctors can find themselves in where it's like, okay, shoot, we figured something out and yeah, that's

The Dental A Team (15:37.048)

Mm-hmm.

Britt (15:58.128)

sucks. It's crappy, right? And we lived the high life for a while, but we spent money that really wasn't our stuff for a little while. So now we've got to work through this in between period and get it filled a squeeze because it's like, all right, we are now collecting the more accurate amount and we're using up these credits. So that is why our cash flow is struggling big time right now. And so I think what I would tell doctors from that end is

The Dental A Team (15:59.362)

Yeah. Yeah.

The Dental A Team (16:06.604)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (16:19.801)

Listen.

Britt (16:25.683)

I think you've got to watch all the pieces and the real numbers. think a lot of times, right, especially with credits, like, it's like the, the like thing we don't talk about. It's like the terrible awful that it's like, man, we're just going to be like, we know it's over there, but we're just going to kind of ignore that it exists unless someone asks about it. then we'll look at it. And the better way to do it to avoid

The Dental A Team (16:45.069)

Yup.

Britt (16:50.887)

pitfalls like this is of course watch it like there's always going to be some over there yes and have a process for handling your credits to where One credit should always be audited before we're refunding make sure it's actually due to that patient before we refund it because that's also a scenario I've seen where it hits us on the cash flow side if we just refund and Sometimes there's an arrow error and it's not actually theirs. So I think watching your credits

Having a process for how we handle credits for a couple of reasons, cashflow reasons, and also know the laws of your state, like fun surprise if you don't know already. Each state treasury has laws on credits and how those should be handled. So make yourself aware of those and then create your system to meet your clients with it. And with that, it's usually great by x.

date, like if it's a credit higher than X amount, you have to like do your part to try to notify that patient. And then sometimes once it gets old enough, you've got to pay that to treasury like fun fact, also go look up your name to see if you've got any credits sitting out there that I do back to you. And like that's the proper way to go through it. So have a system for it. And I think don't be afraid of refunds. Yes, we always want to try to schedule appointments, get treatment time.

The Dental A Team (17:57.498)

So.

Britt (18:11.367)

Get them to use it. Like that is my ultimate goal is get them to use it in the office. But if not, make sure you've got a process because then it's more digestible amounts to refund instead of like big amounts that hit you when they're surprises. Surprises aren't fun. So as much as we can avoid surprises, let's do it and have a process for it. Now, if you're in a scenario like this doctor was where there's a lot of sitting out there, strategize how we can handle that. Cause we can't just go refund a hundred thousand dollars all at once.

The Dental A Team (18:12.942)

Go.

The Dental A Team (18:21.336)

Mm-hmm.

Britt (18:40.933)

So come up with a plan that's manageable that you can handle with your cashflow that you have to be able to work on getting that into a good place. And that's a lot of times with these things. takes, usually things take at least six months in a dental office, right? Big things like this, it's usually at least six months to put an FX into play, if not a year. So know that sometimes when you find these things are right, we start to put the fixes into play and then we start to clean up what's been there and it can take a little bit of time.

The Dental A Team (18:41.046)

Okay.

The Dental A Team (18:55.864)

Mm-hmm.

The Dental A Team (19:10.16)

Yeah, I agree. love all that. think I love the tertiary comments. I totally go figure it out guys. And most practices I think on that note will give like, well, I know for me when I was office manager of my practice, I had like a certain amount that was allocated every month for refunds. So I'd have 3000 or 5000 or whatever it was that was like, okay, this is what I have allocated that I can give back as refunds this month and the next.

Britt (19:16.411)

No.

The Dental A Team (19:36.078)

If another one came in, was like, cool, I'm gonna hit it next week, because it's next month or whatever that was, like that'll go into next month. So make sure you do have that solid plan. And I love all of that and make sure you're looking at it. I think that's the biggest piece here that Britt's highlighted. Just make sure you're pulling those. I think production collections, new patients, like those are making sure we're thriving. Your active patient count, we talk about those all the time. Those are the ones that like, yes, let's make sure we're thriving. Our AR, our insurance AR and our patient AR, so it's outstanding money.

But that AR can get super skewed, you guys, if you've got money sitting over in credits, because your AR total, usually, unless you click the little button that says not including credits, will deduct the credits from the total. So your AR might say, like, our total AR is $68,000, and you're like, I'm freaking killing it, right? And you could be, and that's totally fair. But make sure it's not deducting $50,000 of credits sitting over there.

Britt (20:27.059)

You

The Dental A Team (20:32.847)

that need to be addressed as well. I want you to...

Britt (20:35.155)

which is a good point if I think on knowing how your system does things. And that's why sometimes it's not as easy to see. I've even seen some where it's allocation issues, right? And skew things a little bit as well. So yeah, good point on knowing how your system accounts for things.

The Dental A Team (20:38.629)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (20:45.125)

Mm-hmm.

The Dental A Team (20:51.453)

Yeah, yeah, I've done it myself, like not clicked that little button and been like, oh, we're good this month. And then I'm like, wait, where are all these credits coming in from? As an as a manager, these are all things that I had to learn. Because again, you guys, unless you have a professional by your side, there's not a really great like go to school to be a dental, you know, professional like dentistry dentist, hygienist, dental assisting schools. I'll add those in there.

Britt (21:18.122)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (21:19.405)

haphazardly adding those in there, right? There's not a place for the front office, really, unless you have a coach or a consultant or someone who is able to train them on the things that we've learned across the board, across learning all of the things. There's business classes that a lot of us have taken. Britt's got freaking so much, so many beautiful degrees behind her name. Like, there's so much that can come from that, but there's so much that can be missed because we're literally just learning from the person who was in front of us and we're teaching ourselves. So just make sure.

Britt (21:37.572)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (21:49.37)

You know your stuff, you know how your system works, you know what your numbers mean. And if you have any doubts or suspicions or you're just like, gosh, I just want to make sure we're doing the best that we can reach out. You guys were here for it, whether you're a future client or you're like, I just need free information. Like you guys, we built this company on serving the dental community in the best ways we possibly can. And we will stay true to that. So reach out any questions you have. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com

I'm gonna put this caveat in there. We're not super pros at your dental software, but we can help you find the information and we can tell you what you should be looking for and what the stats should be. So reach out, you guys. Number one piece of information today, your number one to do, go figure out what your actual numbers are and figure out how your system is reporting them. Add them into your conversations with your office manager, your KPI reports, making sure that you're looking at those monthly, okay? Britt.

Thank you so much for taking this journey with me today. I love this. I told you like every time I'm like, okay, I'm gearing up. We're gonna figure this out. And it's just so much fun. I have so much fun with all with all of Dental A Teams clients in general. We have some of the most amazing people who partner up with us and team up with us. But I am partial to my clients. You know, I do. I have some incredible people that I get to talk to every single day. So.

Britt (22:47.027)

There's a fun one.

The Dental A Team (23:10.995)

Thank you for taking the journey with me. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com you guys for any information. TheDentalATeam.com there's all kinds of stuff on there. There's all kinds of free resources and you guys we do these fun practice assessments where we really help dial in on areas that you should be focused in on. These are free free information. It's a free what I think hour with our team. So I don't know why you wouldn't sign up for that. If you're a client you guys just text your consultant. I promise you they'll hop on a call so.

That's that. Leave us a five star review. can't wait to hear how much value you took from today's conversation. Britt, thank you so much for giving me your time today. It means a lot to me. And everyone will catch you next time.

View Details

Kiera walks listeners through five steps to understanding a profit and loss statement:

1. Know the structure
2. Follow the revenue streams
3. Track your spending
4. Calculate the ratios
5. Set financial goals

Episode resources:

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Transcript

Kiera Dent (00:03.726)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I just wanted to empower you with, if you're in the boat of struggling to understand your P &L, struggling to understand how to truly master your dental finances, you're not alone. This is common. This is what I'm obsessed with helping dental practices truly understand. And today I want to break it down into five simple steps to give you clarity, control, to really be able to understand your dental practice finances. So today,

I just wanted to let you know that when you understand your PNL, which is a profit and loss statement, it helps you just be able to know which metrics to move to understand how can I actually create better decisions to feel more empowered with my numbers. And so I want you just to know that there's five simple steps that I've learned that I wanted to bring to you to really help you understand this and to this year maybe embody the identity of I am a.

money master or I am a finance master or whatever it is where you really take control because at Dental A Team when we consult our practices we have hundreds of offices and we work virtually we work in person we work one-on-one we work group style but I found that like one of the biggest stressors for dentists is not understanding like how does the money work we understand the dental we don't understand the team per se front office is like I don't know but it's really like where is my money and how do I actually make my money work for me

And so understanding that, what does it mean to be profitable? We have overhead calculators, we have profitability scorecards for you that I really love helping our clients with. But really it's like, let me just break it down into the nuts and bolts. I am not a CPA. I will have that disclaimer out there. I just am going to break it down of like, how do I become a financial master? So today let's break it down into step one is understand the structure of your PNL. So a PNL is broken down into basically like our, our revenue, so our collections, and then our expenses from there.

and then that breaks it down into profit. Now, something that always gets a little funny is debt services. And if we've got loans or student loans or practice loans, sometimes those are associated with our P &L, other times they're not. And what we really care about as owners is cash, right? We want the cashflow, we wanna understand where that's at. And so if you understand that it's broken down into this where we've got money coming in, so those are our collections, we need to make sure our collections sit at 98%. So we produce, we collect money.

Kiera Dent (02:21.654)

those collections and then we spend money of our expenses. So payroll, rent, utilities, supplies, all of that paying you as a doctor as well. And then from there we have what's called our profit. And then after that we have our debt services and then that's our cashflow, but also cashflow then there's taxes that come out of it. And I think when you understand that instead of it being like, I don't have any money. We just understand that this is where it goes. And so if we're not tracked, if we're not tracking it, what happens is we're spending money.

We're spending more than we need. Like I had an office and they weren't tracking their supply spend. And so what happened is they were spending about 30,000 a month in one location. They're spending about $5,000 a month in another location. There's a discrepancy, but they didn't even realize that they were having this discrepancy until we started looking at their PNL. So once you start to monitor it, then we can actually get our supplies into more of like a 4 % of total collection. So if we're collecting a hundred thousand, 4 % of that would be $4,000. That's what we're allowed to spend for that month on supplies.

Well, now we have the budget. Now we can get it in alignment. We can actually track it and lean it down. Another officer looking at their P &Ls are doing it. They were at an 85 % overhead at the beginning of the year. By the end of the year, they were coming in at a 53 % overhead. So to me, it's just a math equation. One plus one equals two. How do we, we have money coming in, subtract the things we spend. We have profit leftover from there. We have our debt services and our tax that gives us our true cash at the end of it. So then number two is we got to focus on

What are the ways that we actually bring production and collections to the practice case? We've got our PNL. We understand how that's broken down. I also want you to know there's a chart of accounts that you can change that up. But step number two is we've got to focus on the revenue streams or the production of how do we actually get money on the books to be able to collect that? Are we being profitable in that zone? So there's different ways that we do this. So like hygiene, restorative, ortho, cosmetic, like different ways that we do it. And some offices actually like to track this and break it down. And you can actually put this on your PNL.

You can literally put down how much production has come from restorative, how much production comes from hygiene, how much production comes from ortho, and then you can break down the collections that we have from that as well. So this is something really awesome to see how much of my practice is hygiene, how much of my practice is on implants or all on fours, how much of my practice is ortho. I have a pediatric practice and they really love to track their ortho amount of it because they want to see how much of their practice is truly ortho. Do we need to spend more marketing money there or do we not? This really helps you be able to see

Kiera Dent (04:45.64)

What services should we continue? Which ones are the highest revenue? Do we need to change our fees on it? Do we need to look at different ways to break this down? It's really, really, really fun. And so then I can look at what promos we put in the practice. Where do I put my blocks? What block scheduling do I need to have more of? What marketing do I need to spend to make sure we're getting the correct revenue or production streams of the correct patients? We're treatment planning it. We look at our treatment tracker to see, are we actually bringing this in? We can actually increase profitability without needing more patients if we follow this. So

A quick action item on that is maybe talking to your CPA about breaking down your revenue by services of what's coming into the practice to see where most of your income is actually coming from in the practice. Super enlightening when you start to look at this. Step three is now going to be looking at what we're spending. OK. And on the chart of accounts, if it's not broken down, you can ask your CPA to break it down. I've mentioned on prior podcasts that we were spending about fifteen thousand dollars on hiring once upon a time, but I didn't even know that's how much I was spending.

This last year, they had all of my marketing lumped into one. So I actually asked them to break it out. How much am I spending on the website? How much am I spending on events? How much am I spending on our ads that we're running? All these different little pieces, because I wanted to get more granular and understand where are the dollars going and what, if I spend a dollar, it coming back to me and what is it? So thanks for you on looking at your expenses. We usually have payroll, we have rent, we have supplies, we have labs, other things. We have our marketing, CE, consulting. We're going to want to look at

Maybe you have our associate doctors on there, but what are these different pieces and payroll? Oftentimes it's all the fringe benefits that go on to it as well. So making sure are the additional pieces of like our 401ks and our health benefits. What is all that going? Cause that does go into payroll. What's our payroll tax on that employee? Gosh, that was a fun day when I learned like what? So this also just helps you look at it. And then what we want to do is we want to look to see, there ways that we can cut costs? So going back to that example of cutting supplies,

Well, this office was just ordering through one supplier. There's companies like Ordo or Synergy or different group buying areas where you can still go through your same preferred vendor, but we can just get it on a discount rate. So for example, kind of like using Costco, like I can go and buy my, I thought Costco was ridiculous on their rotisserie chickens. Like they're $5 or I can go to Safeway and spend $9. I'm still getting a rotisserie chicken. It's just how much am I spending for it?

Kiera Dent (07:10.742)

Now I get that food's a little bit of a funny analogy because food is not equal across all stores. So let's do something a little bit easier. I could spend, you know, I can have my car insurance, like again, through Costco versus through someone else. We're just trying to get our reduced costs, still getting the same quality, but could we reduce those costs? Other times just giving a budget, me realizing that I'm spending 15 grand on hiring. Well, there's a great company called Viva HR. If you do Viva HR slash Dental A Team or just DM me or

email us Hello@TheDentalATeam.com literally spend $100 a month on unlimited ads. So took a $15,000 spend down to a $1,200 spend right there. I freed up over 10 grand. I mean, we're talking more like 13 grand that I was able to then save and allocate somewhere else just by switching that one thing. I'm still doing the same thing. I'm still posting the same ads. I just use Viva HR rather than spending it on indeed, but I never would have known that if I would have been tracking this.

So this is where can we look at it? So what I recommend, and we haven't broken down into percentages on our overhead calculator that we've created for our clients, but you wanna categorize your expenses and look for areas where we can cut unnecessary costs. And also what's the percentage of our total collections that we're collecting that we can actually minimize and make sure that we're with the alignment of what's recommended. So for example, like I said, supplies are usually at 4%. Payroll is between 25 to 30%. So making it get all the way down, but also,

Those percentages are just baselines. If you want more profitability, can we shave a half our percentage? Can we shave 1 % and still maintain the quality of our practice? That's a question for you to answer, but great ways to analyze this. So that would be action item on this is let's categorize your expenses, look to see where we can cut, look to see the percentages to make sure what is in there. Is it allocated correctly? Meaning did they put actual supplies in supplies or did I get labs in there as well so that when my numbers are wrong and what other ways can I change that?

Okay, step four is now we wanna calculate our ratios. So on that, we're going to wanna figure out like, what is our profit margin? What's our payroll ratios? Like I was saying of those percentages, this is now where we break it down. If I'm spending $10,000 on payroll out of 100,000, well, that's a great gig and I probably don't have enough people on there and I have space within, because I'm only at 10 % and I could go up to 30 % again, depending upon what I want my profit margin to be.

Kiera Dent (09:33.39)

I target with all expenses paid for offices to be a 20 or 30 % profit margin. So that means, cause overhead and profit get a little funny, overhead means all of our expenses, I like you to hit around a 50%. So if I've collected a hundred grand, I don't want you spending more than about 50,000. That leaves 50,000 here. We pay our doctors here. The goal is to leave about 20 to 30 grand if we're on this hundred thousand collection practice of true profit. Now of that profit, we, like I said, you can have debt services there and also taxes.

and depending upon the tax bracket you're in, that can actually make a pretty big difference. If I'm collecting 20 grand, I'm really not collecting 20 grand because I owe taxes on that. So that's a big asterisk around cashflow of how to master this and how to look at this, but making sure we're at the correct percentages for it to then gauge where are we at. So figure out what your, what our costs are, get them in in the pieces, and then figure out the percentages of each one of them, making sure that we're actually at the correct ratio.

of what it should be. In Dental A Team we're high on payroll because the bulk of our company is team. I don't have a physical location. I don't have a place that goes. Our product is our consulting. So my payroll is much higher than 30%. I pay a lot in payroll, but that's also, that's my product for you. have a lot of product in your practice of the supplies that go into it. We don't really have a lot of supplies that go into ours. I have a lot of software that I spend on. So everyone's going to be a little bit different, but we do have categories for dentists that we recommend.

Like I said, payroll 25 to 30 % supplies at 4%. Labs are 9 % combined together. Those are between 13 to 14%, especially if you're on an implant practice marketing. If you're growing, it can go all the way up to 5 to 7%. If you're lower, it should be a 2 to 3 % again, pending upon your goals and also pending upon where we want our profit margins to be. I really love my doctors to be paid at least a 30 % and they're also can get in to a little variable of do we pay our doctors as associates if you're an owner or not?

Kiera's opinion, and I know, like I said, I'm not a CPA. My opinion is I like to help practices exit out of the practice if they want to. Meaning, if you want to own your practice and not have it dependent upon you, that's what I like to grow for offices. So they have the option if they want to, or if any life circumstances happen, they're not handcuffed of, I don't have anything else I can do because I'm no longer practicing dentistry. To me, that's a very scary spot to be in. So what I do like to do is pay my dentist as an associate and as an owner.

Kiera Dent (11:56.386)

because that way if I ever want to replace my doctor, I already have on my P &L paying them as an associate, not just as an owner or actually taking $0, which often happens because of distribution. Now your CPA can help you advise on tax strategy because there are strategies of how much you quote unquote pay yourself. But the way we have it is we just break it down and you don't necessarily have to run it through payroll. We're just making sure that our P &L matches so we know how much profit we'd have if any life circumstances happen to you.

All right, and now step five for you. Step five is we wanna set financial goals and track our progress. So like I said, where are you wanting to be on your profit margin? Do you wanna be, where are we at baseline today and then where do you wanna get to? And then we look at the pieces for it. Just like on a family budget, if we say we wanna save for a car or we wanna save for Disneyland or we wanna go on a trip to the Bahamas, well, now we start to save and we start looking at our expenses of well, what could we eliminate? Maybe we don't need Netflix anymore. Maybe we don't need a DoorDash. Maybe we don't need internet. Maybe we need to...

add an extra job to it to be able to pay for this. But it's the same thing in a practice. If we want to have profitability or we want to have long-term financial success or we want to be set up for financial freedom, what do I need my business to profit to be able to go after it? And how do I look at this? So then we look for how can I increase my production of higher revenue generating pieces that we enjoy doing? Maybe All On X, maybe Ortho, maybe same day crowns, whatever it is for you, how can we add more of that to our schedule?

How can we decrease the expenses or be smarter instead of just paying straight through a supplier? Could we work with a bigger supply company, like I mentioned, kind of like Costco and get a discounted rate for that? Could I do that and save money on things I'm already buying? And then we're gonna wanna make sure we get those profit target margins, the percentages, based on the industry benchmarks, like I mentioned to you, to really be able to grow for this. And so it's really fun if we look at those little items,

It just becomes a shave of a half a percentage here, a 1 % there, a couple dollars here, increasing our production, using better block scheduling that really makes us where we then are tracking our progress. And it's really fun when you can get an office manager and a leadership team bought into this with you as well, which is why we share it on the podcast, because when they're all tracking and they're all aligned and we know what our profit margins need to be, it becomes much easier. And so if there was a practice,

Kiera Dent (14:17.262)

Like I said, we track with them quarterly, we're watching it they went from that 85 % overhead all the way down to 53%. Well, let me just do some simple math for you. Pretend that practice was only, let's say that they collected a million dollars that year, okay? So they did a million and that they were at an 85 % overhead. That would mean that on a million dollars, and let's say a million was true profit. So we've got a million, we've got 85 % overhead. That practice was collecting or like take home.

not including tax and all the other things, 150,000 out of a million. Now I understand. Now, if they're able to go, that was an 85 % overhead. If they go, so still a million dollar practice, down to 53 % overhead, what that does is that actually moves them into 530,000 is now their costs, right? Did you follow my math on that? 530,000. if they, and from there, so that means they're taking home 470,000.

That just simple shift, they didn't increase their production. They just reduced their expenses. Again, a million dollar practice, 150 to 470. That's a really big swing. You don't have to do anything more. We just had to be smarter with our dollars. So when you look at that and you think about that, that's where numbers get really fun for me. And that's where I love to empower doctors, leadership teams to how can we actually achieve this? So my goal for you would be let's set a financial goal for the next quarter.

Based on your P &L review, do we wanna cut down our supplies? Do we wanna increase our production? Do we wanna add our block schedules? What do we wanna do in there? Because this then will literally help you exponentially grow to your financial freedom. So as a quick recap of these five simple steps are one, understand the structure of your P &L. Two, focus on the revenue or production streams that we can add in. Three, analyze our expenses. Four, calculate the ratio. So again, the percentages of them and get those into industry standards.

And five, set financial goals to track the progress and actually see where we want to be. It's such fun for me because this is how you actually are able to exponentially have your business work for you. You not working for your business. You don't have to do more work. You don't have to more patient flow. None of those things. We just have to be smarter with how we're utilizing our money, how we're collecting collections, impact that how we're spending our money, making sure we've got budgets in place for our team. Teams will follow suit. We just need to get this set up for them. So this is where it's really fun. And honestly, you understanding your PNL.

Kiera Dent (16:43.158)

It allows you to just make informed decisions, increase your profitability, AKA take home pay and grow your dental practice. And then the next step of this will be how do we actually keep the money that we're making that becomes so fun. So I'm happy to go through this. If you guys want, I can go through a PNL piece with you. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com or go to our website and just book a call. We can do a practice assessment with you, totally free complimentary on my side because this is really where I love to just truly empower doctors and owners to take.

the like bull by the horns, you're already doing the dentistry. Let's have you now be compensated for that and do it in a fun way where you now feel like you were in financial control for yourself. So this is literally what the Dental A Team does in consulting. If this is helpful for you, you want one on one help, you want us to dive into your practice more in depth. Like I said, we have that complimentary assessment for you. Click the link or come work with us. I'd love to have you because this would really be a zone. You can DM us on social media, the Dental A team. So Dental A team is our hashtag.

or you can email us Hello@TheDentalATeam.com This is truly the zone though. Become a financial master this year. You will be so happy that you did this. This is a gift you can give yourself. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

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Even if retirement is a long, long way off, it’s important to have an exit strategy ready to go. Tiff and Britt discuss both the emotional and business sides of things of making sure your practice is in order, including debt awareness, numbers in different scenarios, passive income possibilities, and more.

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Transcript

The Dental A Team (00:01.588)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I'm so excited to be here this morning. I don't know what time it is while you're listening here, but today it is a beautiful sunny Friday morning that I'm recording here with Britt. The one and only when I get her on these podcasts, I just soak it all up because I don't schedule her often. It's few and far Between. She's a busy lady. So, Britt, thank you so much for being here with me this Friday morning, and we are just kicking off the weekend in the right headspace.

And I'm so excited to chat these contents with you today. How are you, Britt?

Britt (00:33.486)

I'm doing great, Tiff. Thanks for having me on. You know, it's always like hangout time for us consultants, even though, yes, hopefully are providing value to all our listeners. That's our ultimate goal, but it's fun for us to get to chat about these things.

The Dental A Team (00:46.145)

I agree. I agree. had asked Kristy yesterday, I just messaged her, I'm like, how are you doing? Our consultant, Kristy, you guys know her. And I'm like, how can I support you? Like, how are things going? And she's like, I just missed my Tiff time. And my response was, we've got podcasting soon. So.

Britt (01:01.518)

Exactly.

The Dental A Team (01:07.913)

I like our one on ones. You guys, tell you to do monthly one on ones just so you know, we do monthly one on ones in our company. And then our podcasting time. I'm like, gosh dang it. actually, for a virtual company, I think we do fairly decent, but I love these podcasting hours. I'm excited today because just in case no one understands or knows this already, if you know, no BS, Britt is gonna call you today.

Britt (01:09.537)

you

The Dental A Team (01:34.209)

You know, Brit, you know that she's got a, like this business sense that she just knows. Like, you know, there's just things in life you just know. You just intuitively know, you're like, I don't know, it just makes sense to me. That's business for Brit. And I love watching you just work in that zone for our company, but then also for the clients that you've worked with and helping us consultants just learn so much more about that business side.

And today, your idea was so brilliant. That's what I'm saying, like your business. I'm like, leadership. And she's like, actually, let's talk about this. And I really wanted to bring Britt on today to pick her mind on how you doctors, you practice owners can really start preparing for your exit. know Dana and I've talked about this before and really talked about, even if you don't think, you're like, Tiff, I'm not.

I'm not leaving, like I just started. You're like fantastic, but you should always be prepping and planning for your exit because you just need never know when you're going to be like, I want a sabbatical and you're up and I don't want to my practice anymore. So you should always be prepping and planning for that. And my ideas, know, Britt's like, no, let's talk about this. I think it's brilliant. So we really, really want to take a look at the business side and how you can not only prep emotionally with your

leadership team with your ops manual. We already talked about a lot of that stuff on another podcast and Britt here is gonna bring us some information on really how to prep the business side. How do you prep your finances? How do you make sure that your practice is sellable? What are the pieces that that actually entails? And how do you make sure that you have it in order? I love to tell doctors all the time, evaluate your practice constantly, because you just wanna know. It's like never knowing the value and the worth of your home. I know my...

My lending team and my realtor team, they send me evaluations of my home every six months by email. And it's just really cool to see where the market's at. And so I think taking that mindset and applying it to your business is also really fantastic. So Britt, I'm excited for today. I know the listeners are excited today. I actually, know personally because I hear it and I think you need to hear this today.

Britt (03:20.834)

Yeah.

Britt (03:41.358)

Thank

The Dental A Team (03:41.983)

I actually hear from a lot of our listeners and a lot of my clients who listen how excited they get when you do come on. So I do want you to know that. I know it's not your favorite space. know you don't love that on a public forum, but I think it's really fantastic and you just bring such a wealth of knowledge. what do you see being like the biggest pieces that's like, let's start easy, let's start simple.

Britt (03:51.214)

Thanks, Ted.

The Dental A Team (04:09.099)

and then expand and really dive into like nitty gritties. So where do you see on like an umbrella scope of overarching, this would be a really great place to start to really start prepping your business for an owner's exit, whether they're dental or not.

Britt (04:23.33)

Yeah. So I kind of have the mindset, right? There's always, lots of things that go through my head, but working with clients and I tell them this, I'm like, ultimately, I always want you to be thinking about your business as like, it is truly an asset to you and what is the value of that asset that you have for, you know, so that it can be worth as much as possible whenever it is that you decide to sell it. So like even starting from the beginning of your career,

The Dental A Team (04:49.622)

Mm-hmm.

Britt (04:53.07)

Kind of knowing long-term goals even. I think we've seen probably to have plenty of people who even fresh out of school go into a lot of debt, like they're already in debt and they go into a lot of debt when it comes to purchasing a practice. like even when you're going into purchase a practice thinking about, right, what are my long-term goals? How long might it take for me to pay this off?

The Dental A Team (05:06.755)

Thanks.

Britt (05:13.762)

you know, how much value equity am I going to have within this business even? And just start having that in mind because I think it helps to guide your decisions knowing that like, yeah, sometimes we're going to make a big investment and say, yeah, I'm in this for the next 15 years for sure. No problem whatsoever. Awesome. Take on something that you know that at the end of 15 years that you're going to be able to have it in a spot to where great, that's going to be a fantastic asset. And then whether I actually want

The Dental A Team (05:23.9)

Thank you.

Britt (05:42.966)

to move on or retire in 15 years or whether I decide to stay here, totally fine. You're in a fantastic spot to have the ability to make that decision, whatever way you want to go. So I think starting from the beginning, always thinking of your business in that way. And so of course, that's what we do with a lot of practices, right? Like ultimately, when we want to grow it, we want to grow your bottom line, right? Profit at the end of the day. And when it comes to thinking of the value of your practice, kind of like

debt to EBITDA multiplier, right? So like ultimately when you sell EBITDA is the thing we want to focus on. And so really making sure that we're driving that profitability while you're still able to live a comfortable life, obviously, and take care of everything you need in the practice, but always working to grow that profit and grow that EBITDA so that your value of your practice, you kind of always have an idea of where it's at.

The Dental A Team (06:14.327)

Mm-hmm.

The Dental A Team (06:25.564)

Yeah.

Britt (06:37.216)

I would say check in from time to time even to say, great, how much debt do I still have left? What would my practice be worth? What could I walk away with maybe as far as selling it? What the value would be to me? I think those are some things just to kind of think about in the background and start to look at some of those numbers. The other thing I think it comes down to is sometimes I'll have clients come to me or even on sales calls come in and they're like, well, think I want to sell. I'm not sure. I want to be able to retire. And I'm like, have you

Do you know what you need to retire? Like, do you know what you want that life to look like? Because honestly, that's even the first step. So I know, all right, will the value out of this practice that I will have in 15 years based on what I've paid off, what it's potentially worth, is that enough for me to have the life that I want? Or am I going to get that point and be stuck? I think that's ultimately, I don't want anybody to feel like, my gosh, I'm stuck.

The Dental A Team (07:07.269)

.

The Dental A Team (07:15.204)

Thanks.

Britt (07:31.852)

and they have to keep going and they're not happy. I want you to be happy in the position and feel like you've got choices. So I think that kind of overarching view of things. So ultimately, always think about your business as an asset, right? Make decisions accordingly, financially on that end. And then also have an idea of when you might want to retire, right? Or how long you may need to work in order to retire in the fashion that you want to be able to retire.

Because again, that's just, I think, mindset for you and also mindset around decisions you make for the business. Because if I might want to sell at that time or I might want to transition to associates and still be an owner, cut back days, whatever it may be, if I kind of have a point of where I'm wanting to sell, I'm to make some decisions accordingly along the way to where I want my like peak value point to ultimately line up with when I might be ready to sell.

And so that's going to impact how much debt am I taking on, right? At what points do I want to move to another big building that's going to put me in a bunch of debt? Or I'm so close to that point, let's just crank up however much we can make this practice worth so it's ready to sell when I want to. Those are some of the big picture things in my mind that kind of play into long-term view.

The Dental A Team (08:29.337)

Mm-hmm.

Britt (08:54.606)

current decisions even from the get go of buying a practice and then as you make decisions, you know, along the way throughout your career, always making sure that you keep that

The Dental A Team (09:05.269)

Sure, thank you. Question, said to really be watching your EBITDA, will you, for the public here, just explain why and what EBITDA is and how they should be evaluating that monthly in comparison, right? Because we look at overhead and we look at profit, but then EBITDA is like the separate piece that you need to know, but it's not the profit debt. It's not all encompassing that you actually need to know to move forward with your...

today, but it's Ibara. Will you explain the difference there? Because I think a lot of people get stuck on Ibara, number one, and the definition of it, but then a lot of people get stuck on only focusing on that, but then they miss these other pieces over here and vice versa, look only at these pieces and never at Ibara. So can you just explain what Ibara is and how it plays a role coinciding with overhead profit and the month-to-month movements, but not being your sole focus?

Britt (09:59.522)

Good questions. And there's some other like detailed things I'll talk about when it comes to like when you're actually starting to like get more to that point where you're thinking more seriously. Some things I play around with even on the PNL, I'm playing around with numbers to start to prepare yourself for what that will look like. And like even a yes, there's a long term definition of it, which I think we get lost in. But ultimately, right.

The Dental A Team (10:22.522)

Mm-hmm.

Britt (10:24.97)

It comes down to what are the true operating expenses for that business. So it is not your debt. It is not some of the other fancy terms. It's not taking into account taxes. Right. But truly day to day operations of the business. What does that cost? So think of it in that way. Some things to think about. Right. Some of our private practices, Dr. Own, Single Dr. Own.

Right, we'll say overhead and then doctor pay usually falls below the line. When it comes to thinking of EBITDA, ultimately you're gonna have to replace yourself. That's gonna be part of operating expenses. And so that's where I'm like, all right, when you start really thinking about it, shift some things around, because like your, know, things that you might have running through the business that you like, parts of being a business owner that you pay for through the company, along with your.

The Dental A Team (10:57.671)

.

Britt (11:16.968)

know, accountant's advice that you're following those rules. I start to pull those things out because that's not really within your overhead. And then I start moving above the line as if you are paying yourself as an associate because that's gonna be an expense of running the business, which is gonna give you a good idea of like, what are the true operating expenses? And then...

The Dental A Team (11:34.446)

Okay.

Britt (11:42.786)

depending on kind of what route you want to go, whether it's like, I'm prepping to sell, then great, let's work with your accountant, clean some things up ahead of time, clean them up. So then you've got good financial statements when you go into the actual like true valuation phase of getting ready to sell, that it's all like really clean and easy for them to see what the EBITDA is and what the value of the practice is going to be.

And so you might need to shift some things around and work with your accountant so that you're prepped for that. So it's not like, a month ago you started moving some stuff around and it looks kind of sketch. So let's get ready for it farther ahead of that. And then also knowing what direction you want to go. So whether it's just you that you're going to have to replace. So moving you above the line, paying you as an associate above the line, technically. And then if you're wanting to say, hey, what if I replace myself? And these are even some numbers.

The Dental A Team (12:27.08)

you

Britt (12:38.456)

that I also just recommend you play around with just to know your options. So it's not a, yes, there's feelings, but like also make a smart decision behind like the financial pieces on it as well. So if you're saying, Hey, what if I did just bring on an associate, right? And even have them just run it and take my place. yeah, I run some of the business stuff. All right. Well, what if I paid myself as a CEO of the practice?

and then paid an associate, like what would my numbers look like in that scenario? Or if it's like, yeah, I'll run it, I own it, I'll just pay an associate and then I'll just take distributions, what might that look like if I go that route? So that's where I like to, ahead of time, and even sometimes way ahead of time, I tell doctors, just cause you start like looking at some of this doesn't mean that you have to make a move. Cause you know, they're not sure, but I'm like, I'd like you to know your options. And again, I don't like you to feel stuck. So,

The Dental A Team (13:08.328)

you

The Dental A Team (13:28.296)

Hmm.

Britt (13:35.114)

Know your options, know what you can or can't do on your personal and financially what needs to be done. And then look at the numbers and be smart from there. So yeah, EBITDA gets scary, work with your accountant, they can kind of help you with some of that. But really think of it as what does it take to run the business? That's ultimately what we're looking at when it comes to that overhead expense and playing around and looking at EBITDA.

The Dental A Team (14:01.514)

Awesome. Thank you. I think there's a few pieces in there that I want to acknowledge for purposes of like professionals. You're mentioning accountants, things like that. A lot of the stuff that you've mentioned, I think there's three professionals I can think of off the top of my head immediately that are going to be key in making sure that you are lining things up correctly. Because like you said, even if you're doing it for six months, they still could be like, well, why are you doing this? Right?

Britt (14:03.726)

you

The Dental A Team (14:28.426)

So it's kind of like when you go to buy a house and they're like, well, where did this money come from? And you're like, well, my grandma gave it to me because I was buying a house. And they're like, that's weird. So can you afford the house? Right? So it's kind of like that where it's like, well, where did this come from? So the three professionals I can think of, right? Number one, consultant, obviously, because they're going to be able to, like Brittany's doing right now, steer you in the right directions and give you advice off of things that we've seen before, we've done with practices before, and really be able to do the checks and balances on all spectrums.

then you have your accountant, your CPA, your lawyer, right? All of that space right there that accountant, CPA, they're going to be able to tell you what it needs to look like. And I guess there's probably four, right? Because then you've got your broker to do your valuation, you've got your evaluation team there. But then also, I think a financial planner would be really, really beneficial in all of this because they see your finances from a different point than the CPA does. So when you combine a CPA and a financial planner, I feel like that's the magic sauce because the CPA is like,

Britt (15:10.968)

Okay.

The Dental A Team (15:27.807)

black and white, like this is what it looks like in a finance planner. It's like, well, if we play with it like this, like we could make it look like this. And then doing it in conjunction with your CPA really can like level some of those things out. But then you also mentioned, making sure earlier, earlier that you know your retirement and like the length of time that that is. So your financial planner, your CPA can help with that. Absolutely. But I think from a financial planner standpoint, they have better resources and tools than the CPA actually has access to.

Britt (15:32.366)

Okay.

Britt (15:41.612)

Mm-hmm.

The Dental A Team (15:57.683)

And so when you plan for that and then you work with your CPA, you plan for your retirement, you're like, okay, this is what it needs to look like. My financial planner's got that. My CPA is gonna make sure that that money gets to my financial planner because he's making sure she's making sure that it's all coming in. I think all of those spaces right there really help to dial that in. And then.

with the going back to the EBITDA, I wanted to get that out there because I know there's a lot of spaces that people are like, wait, who can, who would do this for me? Is that you? And I'm like, I don't do that, but I can tell you who to go to. Right. So those are the people I would tell you to go to if you had asked us. Now, going back to the EBITDA, you mentioned, Britt, a few times, pay yourself as an associate. And I wanted to clarify on that because when you're owner doctor, you're like, this is my collections. Everything is your collections, right? Everything that goes into

Britt (16:24.974)

Yep.

The Dental A Team (16:45.074)

your QuickBooks, everything that goes into your account is your collections because you own the practice. But to clarify, we're paying yourself as an associate, how would you pay an associate, right? You're not going to pay an associate based off of what hygiene has allocated over to them or what you have allocated to you. So you're going to look and correct me if I'm wrong, Britt, but when you say that, my brain says, okay, I'm going to pull my production. So if I'm the operating doctor,

I'm going to pull my production and my collections separate from the practice full collections because that's what I would be paying an associate on would be that 20 % or not 20 % probably, sorry guys, 32 % or whatever. Sorry, associates, I do love you, but 20 % popped in. But that 30 % of my produced collections, I'm going to pay off of that.

Britt (17:27.148)

No.

The Dental A Team (17:36.299)

not the total practice collections, which is what we're looking at our EBITDA from. So I want to make sure that that clarifier is there. And that's what then would go like, quote unquote, above the line to see. So I think overhead, we talk about being like your true overhead is if you sold the practice, this is what a doctor would take on. So it's not including your loans, it's not including your owner pay, but then your EBITDA to say like what they need to collect to be successful would include that doctor associate pay. Is that right, Britt? Am I?

Britt (18:05.838)

So you are accounting wise, accounting for yourself and yes, just you based on your collections, right? What it would cost to replace you. That's what you're moving above the line. And I'll add this caveat to it. Exactly how you get paid that amount and additional amount beyond that, because yes, you'll take more than that, right? As the owner.

The Dental A Team (18:06.005)

Clarifying that, okay?

Britt (18:32.088)

how you pay yourself, whether W-2, whether taken as a distribution, right? That can still be paid to you in whatever way you would like it to be paid to you based on working with your accountant for what's gonna be most beneficial tax-wise. But I want it to be accounted for above the line to replace you. And then with that, I also wanna make a note on this. As you run some numbers, if you're looking to completely replace yourself,

Usually our owner doctors are really good producers and finding associates. We love our associates, but them coming into this new practice, not having been there as long as you have been, usually their production is not going to be the same as yours. So that's where I'm like, play, play around with some numbers. And that's obviously I love to do this because like, so work with a consultant, right? We can run through some of this stuff with you.

The Dental A Team (19:01.388)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (19:16.203)

Thank

Britt (19:26.446)

Again, I like you going in with eyes wide open because we've worked with some doctors, right? And some, everybody has it at times. like, well, I should just sell it. And it's like, whoa, whoa, hold on. Let's see what this asset is worth. Even if you cut days back and bring in an associate, right? What can you still be making where some of that is even passive income or work yourself out of it?

The Dental A Team (19:36.063)

Yeah.

Britt (19:50.702)

what could the passive income look like for you with like, yeah, you're going to have to do some things in the business, but for how much time is that worth it to you? that's where I'm like, play through all the options, like get creative with it. There's a lot you can do. That's not your traditional, well, I'm retiring. I have to sell it. It's a different landscape these days. So there's a lot of options out there. I'll also make a plug for, I think most brokers we know and talk to brokers know it's like a, it's a, there's a long like,

The Dental A Team (20:10.443)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (20:18.992)

Okay.

Britt (20:20.718)

period of getting to know a broker, right? Because you'll reach out to him and it's like, I'm just trying to get an idea. And good brokers know that and good brokers are going to help to talk you through pros and cons and work with you through things. so knowing that like, hey, you can engage that relationship at an early point to get the value of your practice. And just to kind of understand the landscape of what's going on, especially knowing, right, depending on your area, depending on your type of practice.

The Dental A Team (20:48.22)

Mm-hmm.

Britt (20:49.55)

They will know what practices are most attractive depending on who you might want to sell to and how long it might take in some areas to find a buyer, again, which is just good information to have a current market to know. It adds into your timeline, right? And a lot of times we've got our doctor owners that'll be like, yeah, I think I'm ready to like retire. And that's where I'm like.

The Dental A Team (21:07.404)

Go.

Britt (21:14.702)

Like it's going to take a little time and I want you to know things ahead of time so that you can be prepared for it. And when you're ready to go, you've got all the information to have it work out as beneficial to you as possible instead of being like, well, I'm done. Let's figure it out. Let's go. And you start to make rash decisions and that asset is it, you don't take advantage of it as much as you think. Like it is, but it's just not as valuable as it could be. So yeah.

The Dental A Team (21:33.388)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (21:37.038)

It's no longer an asset, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think that's great advice. I'm thinking like, because I have had that where doctors are like, I'm done, I'm out, I got to get out of this. Like, I'm like, well, if you're in the got to get out of this phase, like, that is just not the place to be living in. For either side, right? Like, you need to get out of that. I see that. But also for if you're offloading the practice, like this is going to be, this could be a really sketchy situation. So I think

for dentists and practice owners or business owners in general, earlier, when we first started, you said, always think of the long game. So I think when you think you're five to 10 years out from retirement, your financial planner should have this information. You should know when is a good timeframe for you to retire. And when you're five to 10 years out from that, think this is right when you should start.

moving all these pieces into place and at least have that knowledge because you don't want to even get two years out and be like, all right, Tiff, I got two years. And I'm like, shoot, I got a lot of stuff this goes into two years. Like it just takes, I think it just takes more knowledge and you really want to go into it from the sounds of all these pieces you put together today, Britt, thank you for that. It sounds like you just want to go in with the most amount of knowledge possible to make the best decisions possible because they're no longer

an emotionally based decision. Now they're a black and white, this is what's best for me emotionally, physically, mentally, financially decision because you've gathered so much information. So yeah.

Britt (23:12.672)

it helps on the emotional side of things, right? Sometimes even just knowing, hey, if I go five more years, right, the value difference of this is gonna be X, Y, Z. Is that worth it to me, right? And it may not be or it might be, right? So again, it just kind of, and sometimes I'm like, for that, yeah, I can do five more years for that dollar amount. So yeah, it just helps you to be able to make the wisest decisions, I think.

The Dental A Team (23:26.083)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (23:34.319)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (23:41.551)

I love it. Thank you. So if we had to give them three steps that they could take today to push forward towards just even the knowledge, what do you think those top three items would be?

Britt (23:52.61)

Yep. I would say have an idea and it doesn't have to be set in stone when you might want to retire or start to step back from the practice. I think that would be number one thing, which along with that then comes like knowing what you need to retire. like plan for that. Have an idea of a timeframe. Again, it doesn't have to happen, but you've got an idea of that timeframe. I think

Make sure you're looking at your financial statements and looking at it not only from a sense of overhead, but look at it from a sense of value. So looking for that EBITDA, what's that profit kind of number? What is the value of the practice? And then use that information to help make decisions in the practice. So you don't find yourself in a situation while I've made so many, like I've gotten in debt on so many things.

Even if you sell the practice, you've still got your debt that you need to pay so that you can make smart decisions with it. I think those would be my top three things. And then as you get closer, right, to the time when you're like, you know, I'd like to know the value just because I'm probably heading towards that within the next decade even. Then there would be some other steps, but that would be my main three for anyone, no matter what stage you're in going into buying a practice, having owned it for a while. Those would be my top

The Dental A Team (24:47.034)

Mm-hmm.

The Dental A Team (25:12.786)

Awesome, thank you. You guys, this was a chock-hole of a ton of information. I hope if you're driving, you have saved this or you do save this so that you can go back through and take some notes. If you weren't driving, I hope you were feverishly taking notes because there was just a ton of information here. Thank you, Britt.

Britt (25:14.264)

Bye.

The Dental A Team (25:30.161)

I knew you would come to the table with just so much with that business brain of yours. So you guys go take a look at these pieces. And if you've done some of them and you're past those three steps we just gave you, then pull out other steps from this conversation. Make sure you've got those professionals on your side. Make sure that you reach out when you do need help. Or you guys, if you ever need a recommendation.

For professionals too, we work with a lot of companies side by side simultaneously with them. We talk with them on behalf of clients and with clients. And so just know we have these resources for you. Just reach out and we are happy to help you. As always, come stop by if you're not yet a client of ours or you're just looking for information on your practice on goods in the beds and the hot ticket spots. Our team is always here to help.

really dial in biggest issues or biggest spaces of work for you, whether you're a client or not. So please reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com or TheDentalATeam.com. You can sign up right there as well to chat with our team to really just evaluate where you're at with your practice. And as always, leave us a five-star review. We love to hear how much you enjoyed this.

content and we love to see what you enjoyed the most of so we can recreate that and continue on those paths. So everyone, thank you so much. Britt, thank you so much for being here with me today and we'll catch you guys next time.

View Details

Bringing on an associate is a big move for any practices, and while the benefits fill out a long list, the way it’s done will have lingering impacts, for better or worse. Kiera gives three actionable tips on how to make the transition a smooth one for all involved.

1. Find an associate who fits your clinical and cultural model
2. Schedule a team meeting with the associate
3. Establish regular check-ups with doctor feedback

Episode resources:

Sign up for Dental A-Team’s Virtual Summit 2025!

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Schedule a Practice Assessment

Leave us a review

Transcript

Kiera Dent (00:00.45)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today, you guys, are you struggling to onboard a new associate without team tension? I know that this can be a tricky problem that a lot of our offices faces. And so these three steps will make the process smooth and successful. Honestly, onboarding an associate is such a critical piece. You're bringing on this new doctor, they already love you, they already know our existing team, and now we're bringing someone new in that's gonna help us help serve more patients. It's going to help our team be able to get those hygiene checks on time.

going to be able to help us expand our clinical suite. So whatever the reason for onboarding an associate, it oftentimes comes down to that team buy-in, not having the team tension, getting the patient retention. And so the goal is today, I'm going to walk you through really three simple steps for you to be able to onboard this associate with ease and success.

I am Kiera Dent. Dental A Team was created to really help give you guys wisdom and knowledge out in the field to have a trusted expert, someone who's been there, done that, done that successfully multiple times. Honest to goodness, our consultants are incredible. They really have real life experience. Every consultant on the Dental A Team has to have real life experience in the practice.

clinically and for an office. They've had to grow multiple practices exponentially. They've had to work through these kinks. So when we give you tips and advice is not because we're just here talking about theories and what we hope works. It's because we've been there, done that and done that successfully. Honestly, onboarding an associate is going to affect your long-term harmony. This is where it's going to be amazing for your team with harmony, but also productivity. And so today is going to be short, actionable episode. And honestly, you guys are going to want to wait till the end because I walk you through the three steps.

And then at the very end, I'm gonna wrap it up for you of exactly how you can do this with simplicity. So step one is you need to actually find an associate who fits your clinical and cultural model. This is really paramount because a lot of times we just want an associate. We just think, let's bring someone in. But what we forget is these patients have been coming to us as a clinician, as a practice, as a culture, and that's what we've actually built. So there's a lot about branding in other companies. Well, in your dental practice, you have to realize you as the dentist, you as your clinical skill set has actually been built.

Kiera Dent (02:08.034)

to be able to be a culture that your patients are accustomed to. So it's crazy because we just think we just need to hire an associate. No, actually looking to see are they clinically the same as you or adding to your skillset and also do they fit your cultural model. It's wild because if you'll just take the time to find this person who fits not being desperate but actually using the time to find them is really going to help. Now people ask me, Kiera, where actually can I go to find these associates because it can be tricky. And what I say is let's start talking with the community.

Talk to the dental colleges that are around you. Talk to your Henry Schein rep or your Patterson rep. Start talking to different offices because they might know someone. Get to the country club. A lot of deals have been made on golf courses that I've heard. Go to yoga studios, different places where people will be and start talking and networking and letting them know who you're looking for. Also let your team know, hey, we're looking for this. This is who we're looking for. Do you know anybody? Because your team can really be an advocate for you.

In addition to that, I like to build pipelines. So if you know family members that are going to dental college or you have friends, but somehow getting really intertwined into that, that dental college around you, in addition to being able to work with residencies and G, your, your practices that way, that's going to help you actually exponentially become stronger to get this pipeline of people there. So really looking for someone who fits your clinical and cultural model is going to help you exponentially because they're going to subscribe to the models like you do.

They're going to act like you do. They're going to have the feel of it. And really, like I said, this is all about your brand. And so it's interesting because I've actually seen there was an office that I consulted and what happened with them is they brought on an associate. They thought that they were great. They had the clinical skills that they needed, but culturally they weren't aligned and the hygiene team started to get frustrated because this doctor was actually not following protocol within the practice. So whenever the two different doctors came in,

the hygienist were trying to adapt to each different doctor, the exams weren't consistent, the treatment planning wasn't consistent. And yes, there will be varying shades of this, but really making sure that in the interviewing process, this associate aligns is actually gonna prevent that team tension in the future. So truly, before you hire, clarify what your core values are of your practice and the clinical expectations that you have before you even go out to hire. Now, if you already have someone, that's okay, there's still things that we can do.

Kiera Dent (04:25.88)

but really making sure that they're like almost this little perfect outline of what you're looking for because just like when we want to go buy a car, when we say, want to buy this G wagon or I want to buy this Toyota Corolla or I want to buy this Tesla. What happens is we start to see that car everywhere. Well, same thing's going to actually happen with your associates. When you know exactly what your crystal clear on, go for it. That's going to help you actually sift through and find the person that's going to work great for your practice.

Step number two is going to be once we get our associate, we know that they're going to be great. We need to actually have a team meeting and buy-in. Letting our team actually ask the questions because what happens is a lot of times the team tension just comes from fear. It's not that they don't want to onboard our associates. It's not that they don't want our practice to be successful. It's just fear. It's the, about this? What about that? What about my patience? And so what's going to happen is when we have an effective meeting with our team,

we're going to introduce the associate and their strengths, making sure we highlight why did we bring this person in specifically? What is it about them? Don't forget, this is about the branding, making sure that they're branded, making sure that they fit our brand of the company. And then we open up the floor of team questions and letting the team, like, what are your concerns? What do you think patients will feel? Because the more the team can air this out, the more we're going to be able to find solutions. And what I found is let's address them in, in person, in our meeting, but also have your office manager or a team member

actually take notes to where there's verbiage in their scripting because what we hear is not actually what we retain. And so just giving your team the tips and the tools of amazing, this is how Dr. Sarah is going to do a great job on our clinical experts or what's going to happen if they have redo treatment, what do we do then? And so that's really going to be able to help your team feel confident because now they've got the what happens when and here's the solution. And if you write that up, it's very simple.

This will help long-term and also we really want to like boost why this associate is going to be great for the practice. Now a question that you could also ask to follow up on this is what qualities do you think would help our new associate succeed here? Because these are also going to be things of what can we do to make sure this associate does great here? How do you think we need to behave? What do you think the things we need to do are going to be this way this associate is truly successful and set up for success within our practice?

Kiera Dent (06:37.838)

And what I found is when the team is bought in and they're bought into the associate, they're excited about the associate, they've had their questions answered, that team rallies around this associate. That team is super excited to recommend this associate for treatment. They're excited to recommend this associate for other patients in the practice. And something that really gets squirrely with teams is who's gonna see the new patients? Who does the hygiene exams? What can this doctor do? And as a team member myself,

I'm always looking at their clinical suite. And so making sure that that team knows perfect, we're gonna onboard them this way. We're gonna actually check their work with x-rays post-treatment. It's okay, we do this for the first three months. That way we don't have to do redos. Me and the doctor are actually gonna be working together. So the doctor and the associate will work together on monthly calibration meetings, weekly calibration meetings. They're also gonna calibrate with the hygiene team and really truly setting these in your schedules from the get-go will honestly help you onboard this associate with success. So what I like to do is,

the, the call to action on step two would be schedule a team meeting before the associates first day and set the stage for success. I usually like it to be a week or two before we type up that protocol for them. They know what's going to go on. They're able to meet this associate. They're able to get excited for the associate. And I also prep the associate like come in and be a human. They want to see your fun side. They want to see your clinical side. So if you can also show examples of case works that that associates done in the past, that also can really give the team buy-in for this as well.

And then step three of this process is going to be onboarding this associate successfully with daily, weekly, and monthly check-ins with consistent team and doctor feedback. Now I know this feels weird and a lot of doctors get funny because like, but they're a doctor and I'm a doctor and I don't ever want to undermine them. And what I, what I want to recommend and really emphasize for you is you are the expert in your practice. That doctor is an incredible dentist. That's why you're hiring them, but they don't know how to be an incredible dentist in your practice with your team in the ways that you guys have set it up of the culture of your practice.

So we're not here to tell them how to do dentistry. Maybe there's a few things that we do need to correct or to change or to calibrate on, but the bulk is how do we do it within our practice? And so there's onboarding checklists that we really love to do of how they can shadow. I really love to dovetail. So that means the doctor watches one procedure and then you watch one procedure. And I know this sounds annoying because usually when we want to hire an associate, we want them yesterday and we want to just fill their schedule.

Kiera Dent (08:56.44)

But I say if we slow down to speed up at the beginning, this is actually gonna help you be very successful with your associate, be very successful with their onboarding and catch the issues quickly and give the honest feedback before it becomes harder to give the feedback. The longer we go without giving that associate feedback, the harder it will be for them later on to take that. So it's giving the shadowing, maybe dovetailing. I use the same dovetail where it's one appointment then the next appointment. We go back and forth and we watch each other. Have them hear you do exams. You hear them do exams.

This allows you to calibrate very quickly. And I know it feels annoying, but I promise you, if you'll do this, that doctor will be able to produce for you so much faster than you think they'll be able to. So then from there, what we're going to do is we do a weekly where we actually calibrate with them and doctors, strongly recommend you put this in your schedule. We calibrate with them. We pull up X-rays just like going back to dental school. What's the FMX? What do you see in this X-ray? What am I, what do I see? We don't actually talk about it out loud, but we write it down and then compare notes.

We calibrate with our hygiene team. And if you have a really calibrated hygiene team, they should be able to tee up the treatment for the doctor. And then the doctor's then really just gonna have to come in and swing and make it happen. But that doctor might see things differently. And so really, what do we do if we see things differently? How do we calibrate our hygiene team? I recommend this takes about three months of being very intentional with it, meeting every week, meeting monthly and giving the feedback and doing true formal check-ins for both the associate and the team. Asking the team, how are they doing? Asking your hygiene team how they're doing.

giving the feedback of the positives and the areas to improve early on is going to fix that. Like I said, I'm very big when you onboard to make sure you're taking x-rays pre and post treatment. I know it sounds funny, but you really can get a lot further ahead if you're willing to take these quick steps. having a really structured check-in will help. And like I said, I have it in office and what was funny about them was it wasn't even funny. was just really like, truly it was sad because they had this amazing associate.

They brought them in. They didn't want to check the work. They didn't want to do the onboarding. They were like, they're just an amazing clinician. Let's go. Well, three, four months in, they started seeing a lot of redos and a lot of patient sensitivity and a lot of patient complaints. So they started looking, they started looking at the x-rays. had a lead assistant that sat with that doctor and started realizing there were open margins. Well, now it comes to the spot of they've been working with us for four months. We have all these patient treatments that's been done. We know we've got four months of not as great ideal dentistry. What do we do now?

Kiera Dent (11:17.826)

They ended up having to terminate that doctor and they had to do, was about eight months of redo dentistry that they had to do. And I thought we could have swallowed our egos. We could have swallowed our pride. We could have been here. We're here to help you. And let's fix these problems and issues before they become big issues. That's a much easier conversation to have than one after they've been in the practice for four months. It was awful for this practice. It was hard. And they have committed that every time they now bring on an associate, they always do the onboarding. They always do the calibrations. They always take the X-rays.

And also another tip is adding a lead assistant with that associate as soon as they start really sets them up for success because that assistant can see a lot of things that maybe we don't see otherwise when we're not in the operatory with them. So really having that, and I say map out your 30, 60, 90 day plan. What are you doing daily? What are we doing weekly? How do we make sure that they know how we treatment plan a crown? How do we treatment plan a root canal? How do we treatment plan and talk about implants? If they don't do this type of treatment, who do they refer with air quotes in our practice?

is really gonna set this associate up for success. So as a quick recap of how we onboard an associate effectively without team tension and amazing team buy-in is number one, we wanna make sure that we're hiring an associate that has our clinical and culture skillset. That's number one. Make sure we've got the DNA right of the correct person, because that's gonna help us exponentially. Number two is have a team meeting where we're able to actually talk through what does this associate need to be successful.

What are our questions? And we write it up a protocol for the team to follow. What do we say to patients? How do we introduce? Where do the new patients go, et cetera. And then step three is going to actually 100 % onboard this associate correctly with check-ins, calibration, and consistent feedback, 30, 60, 90 days, and possibly even beyond. And when you do this, this is going to be an incredible way for you to onboard them, have successful team buy-in, and hopefully incredible successful associate success.

I think one of my practices that I'm just really, really proud of within Dental A Teams Consulting is they were able to bring on two brand new straight out of school graduates. And they really were intentional about how they did it. They got the DNA right. They had a team buy-in of how we're going to do this. We set up the schedule appropriately. We figured out what this associate doctor needed. The associate doctors were mentored every single week. The hygiene team gave a lot of feedback. The dental assistant team gave a lot of feedback. And within nine months, their associates were producing about 100,000 a month.

Kiera Dent (13:42.156)

And to me, that's an incredible success story of we slowed down to speed up and look at the success that they were having. So with that, I really hope that you guys are able to take this to implement, to get excited for it. And if you're onboarding soon or thinking about us, DM us or email us, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com for an onboarding checklist that we can share a sample of what this looks like. And always like subscribe for more tips on leadership and success in your dental practice.

This is truly what the Dental A Team does and we help offices overcome these issues and overcome these struggle points to make it very successful for you and your team. So if that's helpful, reach out, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

View Details

Kiera reminds dentists to prioritize wellness and support in their day-to-day.

Episode resources:

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:01.006)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and happy National Dentist Day. I felt like today would be such a great day for us to highlight how we can support dentists on mental health, wellness, and excellence on National Dentist Day because I believe that dentistry can be a lonely profession. I believe that I've seen so many dentists feel alone and isolated like they're on their own island. And so today I just wanted to highlight and celebrate.

how much dentists do and also how dentists can help themselves, but also how your team can help support our doctors that do so much for us. So today, you guys, honestly, dentists face unique challenges. And so today I just wanted to have it be a powerful reminder that prioritizing wellness and support in our profession is necessary. It's needed. It's such a lonely profession in so many ways, if we choose. And I don't want us to choose that. I want us to choose a vibrant, a happy, a fulfilling

space in dentistry. And that's honestly what Dental A Team is about. We created this podcast to positively impact the world of dentistry. Our mission is to truly impact the world in the greatest way possible. And we do that through expert consulting for dentists and teams. And so really helping you see that there's two sides to this coin. There's ways that we can see that it's a lonely field and we can also see that it's a very fulfilling field. And so today I just really hope that you take some tips from today. I'll give you three simple steps of how we're able to really take care of ourselves through self-care.

through mental health and also team collaboration in dentistry. I'm really a big proponent of mental health, especially in dentistry. And so today I just wanted to walk you through, you guys know the Dental A team, we're here to support you. We have consultants that are truly in every position in the dental practice. We come into your practices. We coach you virtually. We help you. are your advocates in dentistry. We're your advocates in business. We're your advocates for having the life on your terms.

Like I've said many times, life is my passion, dentistry is my platform and helping you truly be the fulfilled dentist that you were created to be. I love focusing on you as a person, on your profitability of your practice and then on systems and team development for your practice and really making that be an achievable piece for you. And so today, you guys, I do believe that there is a balance needed between professional success and personal wellness. And I don't believe that it has to be one or the other, it's an and. And so really giving you some quick tips today.

Kiera Dent (02:19.418)

of some concise value-packed information that hopefully will be able to help you as we celebrate National Dentist Day. So number one, step one is to prioritize mental health and stress management. And I think the word prioritize in choosing that I am someone who does prioritize mental health and stress management. There've been studies that have been done that show that the workforce used to be one where it was more physical labor and so really taking care of our bodies. And now we've moved into this space where it's a very mental

world where so much of it is in the mental cognitive constantly running and it never shuts off. And I believe for dentists you have the mental where it never shuts off, but you also have the physical exhaustion of truly doing dentistry all day long and your bodies and making sure you've got the ergonomics. so being able to have that mental health and stress management where we have some shutoff time, where we do build the muscle of our brain. I remember I was in therapy and I said like, I can go and I can work out, but what can I do for my mind? And that's where we

we start to create the, if you will, the workout or the, the mental strength building through meditation and through silence and through some of that downtime shut off to allow ourselves to actually have that calm, have that space. so some key strategies for better mental health are mindfulness and stress relief practices like meditation. I'm a big believer. I read Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. So if you're interested in a book, I love some tacticals for you.

That wouldn't really help me see how I could have a miracle morning of meditation, journaling, taking some time for me. And I really would encourage you to schedule 10 minutes a day or even just one minute a day for you to have mindfulness and reflection starting today. Do yourself a favor. It's National Dentist Day. Buy yourself the gift, the gift of time, the gift of mental clarity, the gift of

of really taking care and honoring yourself. And for me, I was able to do a shift of, like to honor my body. This incredible body that does so much for me is where my mental health journey started and to relieve the stress. So whatever it is for you, for me, it's hiking, it's being outside. So I love to meditate and I love to go for a morning walk to give my brain a shower. So whatever it is for you, giving yourself the gift, because if we can take care of ourselves, then we're able to give in support to so many others. And so dentists really,

Kiera Dent (04:35.662)

being aware that you have the physical demands and you also have the emotional cognitive demands that are on you. And so having that, I also believe sometimes having a therapist can actually be a great thing for you within this mental health and stress management strategy that you create. And then also there's other things of joining communities of like-minded people like you. I believe that really can help and that's something I'm very passionate about. That's why we're bringing our dentists together because so many times as a consultant, I hear hundreds of offices.

and they have the same issues and the same concerns just colored in a little bit different way. so bringing our doctors together in person through our masterminds and through our in-person events really is a great way for our doctors to feel the support to say, I'm not alone. And when I hear dentists who have connected say, Kiera, I'm so grateful to know I'm not the only one. I think that can also boost that. So I would encourage you to schedule one minute to 10 minutes of just you time through meditation.

through stress relief, we're off the phones, we're off the screens, we're not listening to things, we're not trying to solve the problems of the world, but we just take that moment and reflect starting today. Step two is team members. This is for team members of how you can support your dentist. I do believe that teams, can really support our doctors by champion for them, helping our doctors get out on time, doing things for our doctors so that way we can...

Let them have the as much as we can take off their shoulders. So having our room set up and ready to go when doctors come in, so they're not looking for it. Hygienist calibrating. So that way your doctors have consistent exams. So when they walk in, they're able to get in, have a great exam and leave the room. Office managers, what your doctor asks you being really mindful and intentional to take notes and to follow up and to come back to your doctor. So they're not having to have the mental stress of trying to remember all the things they've asked for, but you proactively being on top of that.

Also making sure we're hitting our production goals and our profitability goals and our billing and keeping that AR down. I think are some really great ways to help support our doctor. And then also scheduling a schedule that's realistic for that doctor to be able to get through and not have to be superhuman and be in like five rooms at a different time or all at the same time. To me, that feels so unfair for that doctor. We expect so many things from our dentists. so teams, feel really being proactive on how we can help our doctor look to see because

Kiera Dent (06:53.912)

Your doctor, as an owner, can tell you, is constantly thinking of ways that they can help make you happier too. And so if we can be a yin and yang team together where we're all looking out for how can we help each other. But those are some quick tips, I think, from doctors and from owners and from CEOs that I've heard that if team members would just rally in those little areas, typically the things that cause the most stress for our doctors are unproductive schedules. working and not making money.

not collecting and not having that 98 % collections and then also team morale and problems. And then there's a million other things, but I think those things really are some, some clutch things for teams to support. so teams also, I would encourage you check in with your doctor, especially office managers. You're the one closest ask your doctor, Hey, how are you doing? And what can I do to alleviate stress for you? Because I want to remind you, there's so much weight that none of our teams can see.

When I was a team member, didn't realize how much weight was on my doctor and my owner that I couldn't see. so really like seeing that weight that we don't even know and lifting in these little ways, I think can really help. And doctors, going to encourage you to ask for the help. I know we think as CEOs and owners, we're expected to do it all and have all the answers and you're a doctor. And what I will tell you is that's a great way to be lonely, overwhelmed and come unraveled versus there is another alternative that I'd love to offer as a perspective where you can actually have a team that supports you, that trusts you.

that rallies around you that wants you to be the best that you can possibly be and really truly creating that type of a culture that allows freedom, allows creativity, that allows fulfillment rather than being completely like smothered by your practice and feeling like you have to do it all. Both are available to you and I might encourage that today you actually choose this path and a great way for this is have a team meeting.

to discuss that every ways that our team can lift and maybe say, hey, this could really help me out if you could do X and each of us brings only one thing for one person. So not one person is getting 75 different things, but we're being intentional and cognitive of that. But how can we lift that burden? And a lot of times those burdens aren't even known. And so speaking up and having a team where we're collective with this, because the reality is most of us can take on one little piece that would actually chip away the burden of somebody that's very heavy. And then step three is,

Kiera Dent (09:05.73)

I believe committing to lifelong learning and professional growth can also really help and this ties into a community. But finding ways to stay inspired, finding ways to get excited about what you're doing in dentistry rather than the day in day out mundane. And so finding ways where we can have continuous growth, we can find ways to stay engaged. I know for me, I accidentally got to a spot where I got disengaged. I lost the passion. I lost my why. I lost, why am I even doing this? I love what I do, but I'm stagnant.

And it was because I wasn't growing, I wasn't evolving. And so go to CE courses, schedule one in that really gets you excited. What do you really want to learn this year? What's kind of a pain point for me this year? It's marketing. And I'm super jazzed, even though it sounds daunting to me, but I'm super excited to learn the ins and outs of marketing, to take on AI courses, to figure out how I can incorporate that into the consulting company and then bring it also to our dental practices. But something that's going to engage me. I really have found that a lot of our doctors and myself included as a CEO,

getting in a community or a mastermind group with professionals, like where you can talk to them about these issues, you can be with them. I learned so much in person and that's why Dental A Team has brought in person to the table, to the scenes in 2025. I know when people have little kids or family agreement arrangements, it can be tricky, but I want to just remind you it's about a day and a half, at least that's Dental A Teams. It's a day and a half where you leave the practice, you leave your family.

and you go and you energize and you fill your cup. So then you're able to give to all these people so much more. And I think we, oftentimes make it bigger than it really is. It's a day and a half. So I'm giving up three days max of time to fuel my soul. And I think when we remind ourselves that we're worth that, but that's something essential. That's as essential as eating and having oxygen, at least for my soul and for me as a CEO and for a lot of the dentists that I consult and that our team consult, that's the equivalent of oxygen. And so really being able to have that of having a peer group,

And then really for yourself, just like, what do you want to evolve and to grow into set one or two of those that really just juices your life and gets you excited. I found that doctors, when they've joined groups, so a lot of our consulting clients, we have about a hundred clients and this year I'm excited. We're definitely going to be bringing on at least 200 and we've done it in a way where it will still feel very intimate, very small because I hate going into groups where I feel like I'm just one of the crowd. so

Kiera Dent (11:25.156)

keeping it to where you feel very connected, very tethered, but also being able to expand our reach to more practices and to get more people connected. That's something I'm super jazzed about. And what I found is when dentists come together, when they see each other, when they meet with each other, their happiness goes up, their productivity goes up, their stress goes down, their team engagement goes up, because we don't just do this for doctors. We actually bring your office manager or a leader in person for you, because I found that that was the hardest thing. I go, get all excited about CE,

then I have no one to implement with me. And so not having that be the problem for you, but bringing you together. So productivity goes up, happiness goes up, stress goes down, team engagement goes up and ease comes into place and having friends. was like, gosh, it's like six wins right there. Just by being a part of something professional that stimulates you have a community of like-minded people for you. So like I said, three ways to do it are one, prioritize your mental health and set aside time to meditate, to do something for your mental wellness and stress management.

Number two is have a team that supports you and surrounds you and make sure that you are supported as a dentist and also dentists, you're asking for that help, not just burying yourself. And number three is having a support group and CE that energizes you and jazzes you and makes you so excited to continue and to be engaged are three great ways for you to be able to celebrate your mental health, your wellness and your fulfillment. This is truly the zone where you're gonna be able to have long-term success. We're not playing for the short game.

We're playing for the long game. We're playing for you to be fulfilled and happy for long-term success. And so I want you guys to know that I'm here. DM me, ask for help, reach out. If you want to come join us in person, I'd love to have you. These are some things that we can do. I'm happy to share with you my favorite meditation that I do, whatever I can do. So DM me for any tips. The Dental A Team, we're on Instagram, we're on all the platforms, we're on LinkedIn. You can message me directly.

And then also subscribe for more Leadership Insights where we celebrate you. We help you be a successful, thriving dentist and team. And if this can be a support for you, if you need one-on-one help or you're like, it would really help if I just had a coach in my corner, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com This is what we do. This is what we're experts at. And this is our passion. It's your success is our passion. And that's what we're here for. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.

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Tiff and Kristy explain how viewing claims as stories can improve how practices can streamline that process. They touch on doctor-led language to use from start to finish, how artificial intelligence can improve the process, safety protocols to implement, and more.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:01.881)

Hello Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be here with you today. I have the one and only this Kristy back on the podcast today. She has done at least one other podcast with me so far. Kristy is a consultant here on our team. If you have not gotten the chance to meet her yet, please hop on over to our social or hangouts. We've got our

Doctor Collab that we do every single month and our doctor and team kind of round table get together that she's at every single week. So if you're a current client, you know where to find her. I hope that you've had the chance to meet her. If you are a listener and not yet a client and you haven't met Kristy yet, Kristy, welcome. We are just so excited to have you here. And I know I probably don't say this enough, but I'm just so happy to have you on the team and Dental A Team is so happy and so proud.

to welcome you into our team and our family. You've been here now for, it feels like forever, like you started with us seven, eight years ago, but you've been here now for, gosh, I'll go on your fourth month and I'm so excited. You've got so many amazing things under your belt and your wealth of knowledge is massive. So, Kristy, how are you today? Thank you for being here, but how are you doing? You're pumped?

Kristy (00:57.848)

Thank

Kristy (01:15.502)

Yes, Mary Pump. It's a subject that is near and dear and and help benefit doctors and teams. So I'm excited to be here. Thank you.

The Dental A Team (01:25.134)

Good, you're welcome, you're welcome. And I do kind of try to make sure that when I do pick the topics that we're going to talk about and who's going to talk about them with me, I do kind of choose based on your passion because I know all of us can do most of the things. Like all of us have been around a block of time or two, but I know we all each have our individual passions set aside of things that really, really drive us or areas where

You've seen incredible massive results and Kristy, this one today, I actually think you've seen massive results on a client already that you've been working one-on-one with when it comes to this subject matter. So I think it's really cool. Thank you for being here with us. Doctors who are joining us today and team members alike, I'm really excited for this one. Our main goal at Dental A Team is to produce results for you. We want you to have a thriving.

Wonderful practice and business that supports a lifestyle that you want to live. So our goal is always to increase profitability, increase joy and happiness, and make sure that your business is supporting that life and it's working for you, not you always looking for your business. So our subject matter today, I want you guys, doctors, and then team members who are listening to it that maybe your doctor sent it to you or hasn't listened to it yet. Make sure that you guys actually truly do listen to this one. The title.

is going to be, it's going to say something, I don't know yet around optimizing claim results. And I don't want it to just get shuffled over to your team because docs were actually speaking to you guys today. Team members can pick up the bits and pieces as well, because I think you are going to be able to do that in tandem. But docs, these are areas actually where you can help hold some accountability lines and where you can help provide a ton of value and information back into optimizing your claims for the best results. The reason that we talk about this, reason it's so important

is because, gosh, a lot of your money's actually tied up in claims processing. Even if you're a fee-for-service practice, if you're sending claims on behalf of the client, on behalf of the patients, by any means, you're getting a lot of money wrapped up and tied into the claims. And then you've got a whole human, a whole body, who's wrapped up in not only sending those claims and like doing their best to get as much money as they can in as possible, but they're also spending a lot of time on the phone with insurance companies.

The Dental A Team (03:48.763)

with the claims departments trying to get that money into the practice. So if we can streamline a lot of those places and spaces and just get that money returned as soon as that claim's received, I think it just helps to reduce a lot of the overload, reduce a lot of the work and overhead in a lot of spaces. So today is all about how you guys, doctors, and your back office support team can help optimize those claims.

so that your billing department can just shoot them off easy peasy style. And then also kind of like some futuristic talk on some things that we see coming down the pipeline. So Kristy, I mentioned that you've already got a couple of practices really, actually, I've seen quite a few of your practices already, working on streamlining their claims processes. A lot of doctors who are learning how to do the claims themselves just so that they can help their team and support their team. And I think it's brilliant actually because those doctors now see it from a different angle.

So it's kind of like, yeah, they do need that thing. Like that thing that I'm like, it's fine, dental assistant that we didn't get it, it's okay. Now their brains are like, no, actually we do need it in order to get paid. So I think it's brilliant that you have a lot of them doing that. But with that said, Kristy, what are some key spaces that you really had your current doctors now or doctors you've worked with in the past and doctors you will work with in the future? Where do you have them really focusing a lot of energy on?

to ensure that those claims processes are optimized and can just be sent out really easily.

Kristy (05:17.644)

Yeah, honestly, Tiff, I believe it's in the tools, you know. A lot of it is our x-rays, intra-oral pictures, and even clinical notes, if you will. And we can dive deeper into each of those, but definitely utilizing the tools and making the most of each of them. Really, that claim has to tell a story, right? And it tells a story of what happened from start to finish with the patient.

The Dental A Team (05:48.273)

Yeah, I love that. And I love that you mentioned those pieces. And I think specifically, like, we'll dive into the x-rays because I think that one's pretty common. We've been doing that for a long time, but then I to take a lot more time on a couple of the other pieces that are in tandem there. But on the x-rays, I've been a dental assistant, right? And I've been like, it's OK. It's fine. Or like, dang it, doctor. Like, do I really have to retake that x-ray? Because like, I've taken 16 already on this patient. So what is it that they're looking for?

Kristy (05:50.446)

you

The Dental A Team (06:17.318)

on the x-ray that you can help key in. So when a doctor walks in and sees that x-ray, if it doesn't have these parameters or if it's, you know, cut over here, like what should they have set in place where even the dental assistant or hygienist knows, actually that's a retake, like I need to retake that. What are those spaces that most of the time, if a claim's lucky enough to get to the doctor auditor, what are they looking for specifically that you know of on those x-rays?

Kristy (06:43.596)

Yeah, obviously depending on what procedure we're doing, again, the x-ray has to tell a story, right? So if for some reason we're doing a crown and you cut off the clinical portion of the crown, that x-ray probably isn't gonna work. So a lot of people think, we need a PPA for a crown and they're getting the apex of the tooth when really we need to see that clinical portion of the crown. But again, it's a two dimensional

The Dental A Team (07:10.782)

Yeah.

Kristy (07:13.52)

right? So if that x-ray isn't showing the fracture or the break, we have to use our other tools or pull them into it. But specifically for the x-rays, thinking is this capturing what I'm seeing visually in the mouth as well, right?

The Dental A Team (07:29.501)

Yeah, yeah, that's brilliant. I love that you said that's got to have the crown if you're doing the crown, you got to the crown of the tooth, you got to have the top there. So because I know sometimes they do get cut, right, we'll get the apex really well. And then we're like, okay, but I've got two x-rays, if you smash them together, I've got both of the pieces. It's like maybe sometimes, or a bite wing. But also, I think, and I've done this a time like with your premolars, right, if you don't have it just right, then you're, you're not getting just the individual tooth right now, I've got overlap.

So then it's kind of hard to, especially I know for me when I was a dental assistant, I would overlap a lot, right? In the beginning, especially, but I'd be like, come on. And the doctor's like, okay, but it's an open margin on the current crown. And I can't see that. I can visually in the mouth, but on the x-ray, I can't see the ledge because there's an overlap. So making sure too, I think for going backwards a little even, maybe even at diagnosis, that makes me think like, when you diagnose it,

making sure you're putting the reason for the diagnosis in your notes so that when you go back to it, that patient now comes back in for that treatment. Even the dental assistant, if that's today you're taking the x-ray, right, can look at why are we doing this? I would love for the dental assistant and the support team to know why we're doing things, no matter what. So why are we doing this? Because even at that point, she or he can look at that x-ray and be like, okay, does that make sense in conjunction?

Does this x-ray make sense and work in conjunction with the reason that I read for that? So making sure maybe even from a doctor's standpoint that we're always vocalizing it and then it's getting in those clinical notes at diagnosis. And then we're teaching and training our team to utilize those pieces just as much as they do. What's your thought on that? And then I think that kind of slides into then also intraoral photos.

Always, if you can do an x-ray and an intraoral photo, I think the insurance companies are like, great, you just made my job easy. Now I've got everything and it's quick to pass it in as a paid claim. What are your thoughts on those pieces?

Kristy (09:30.22)

Yeah, I think there's two things there, Tip. You pretty much mentioned an app diagnosis, and that's a huge proponent of this because many times we're not doing that treatment same day. And from a time standpoint, right, we don't want doctor to have to come back in and re-diagnose it because we've put the picture up there and he can't even see why we're doing it, right? So again, that x-ray needs to show a story. And if it doesn't, then to piggyback on what you said, let's make

The Dental A Team (09:52.093)

Thank you.

Kristy (10:00.154)

sure we're using our intraoral pictures to take a picture if it's not showing the abfraction or you know the broken tooth or just the reason why we're doing it because again from a claim standpoint we're at we're sending that in and asking them to pay on something for treatment that we've done and if they can't see it because they don't have the pleasure of having a patient sit in front of them right so making sure we're utilizing that but

The Dental A Team (10:24.004)

Yeah. Yeah.

Kristy (10:30.134)

like I said from a time standpoint making sure that clinical note says why are we doing this and be specific you know not just that there's a crack in the tooth but maybe it's a distal buckle fracture running across the floor of the tooth or you know be very specific so they don't have to go back and re-diagnose at time of treatment as well.

The Dental A Team (10:42.992)

Yeah. Yeah.

The Dental A Team (10:53.535)

I agree. think you encompassed all of those pieces there. The x-ray that needs to show the pieces, the intra-oral photos, but then also the clinical notes, the pre-clinical notes for sure, right? The clinical notes at the exam date, but then also you kind of mentioned like, where is it? So even if it's on the, even if it is in the exam notes, it needs to come back again and follow through to the clinical notes on the day the treatment was done. Because now what I'm thinking, if I'm doing these pieces, right? I'm thinking, okay, what's the person like,

behind me, the next person that has to have a touch point on this patient's case, what are they going to need in order to do their jobs the best? And my billing coordinator was always like, I just need more information. I need better descriptors or better adjectives even, making sure, like you said, we're really encompassing where that fracture is, maybe how big it is. I know there's a lot of buildups out there that are done because keywords, 75 % or more of the tooth structure has been lost.

you've lost three out of four cusps, you've lost like how much of that tooth is missing, how much of the tooth was replaced. Those pieces actually do, I think, tend to make a difference and those pieces come from your clinical side. So your doctor's vocalizing those pieces and oftentimes docs, you are vocalizing those pieces, but it's not always getting translated into the notes. So making sure you're training your team on how important that is because now your billing coordinator can go in and just copy and paste that clinical note.

they're not a clinician. They shouldn't be writing their own stories, right? They shouldn't be trying to depict their own story from piecing all these things together. They should be able to go to your clinical notes, copy what it says, and paste it for the doctor who's going to be looking at it on claim state. My opinion or my concern, right, would be if there's not enough easy data to read, to see, to just say an easy yes, I think it's an easy no. And so I think

We have to assume, right, that insurance companies are, we know everyone's out, every business is there to make a profit. Insurance companies are not different than that. So for them to say yes, absolutely, to every single claim, like, that's just not, it's never going to happen in the world we live in today. So to assume that they want to say no, you've got to convince them to say yes. I think that kind of a mindset, Kristy, keeps you in the space

The Dental A Team (13:20.065)

on the clinical side of how do I convince someone who's not sitting here in my chair with my eyes seeing this patient right now, how do I convince them out of no to say, yes, this patient needed that? How do you, how do you feel about that kind of mindset? And have you seen that with doctors? Like how does a doctor, from your standpoint, you do fantastic at mindset and, leadership and training. How would you help a doctor kind of sit in that kind of a mindset?

is it's very easy to be like, I hate insurance companies, I'm not doing this. It's so easy to get to that space of like, I'm over it, I'm not doing this anymore, but how do we keep them in that space of no, I'm actually here to convince them that it's a yes.

Kristy (14:01.408)

Yeah, I think part of it is just really taking the time to see it from their standpoint, right? And making sure, I mean, just in anything we want to know that

The Dental A Team (14:08.58)

Thank

Kristy (14:16.14)

we're doing the right thing, right? So as long as we're coming in it with that mindset that there is without a shadow of a doubt, again, even a doctor going from the diagnostic phase to having the treatment, right? How many times have we seen a doctor come back in and go, now, why did we treat a plant of crown on this too? Right? So if we have that doubt, because we don't have that narrative, why would the insurance company not have that same doubt, right? So just flipping

The Dental A Team (14:31.15)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (14:45.218)

Yeah. Yeah.

Kristy (14:46.164)

that script to go, I know our doctors are doing good care and doing what's right for the patient, we just need that data to support what we're doing. So easily coming from that perspective, it usually flips the doctors, you know, to thinking. Yeah, thinking the other way. So.

The Dental A Team (15:03.502)

mindset. Yeah, that's beautiful. That's beautiful. And I think that helps too then to think, okay, well, what x-rays, you know, what x-rays do I need? And what intra-orals? If I couldn't see this patient's mouth today, what pictures would I potentially need in order to confirm or deny that yes, I do in fact need to do this treatment? So if I, I might think if I'm a, if I'm a doctor clinician, I might think, okay, if I go back two weeks ago,

look through the diagnosis that I did, could I say yes or no, like support these diagnoses based on the data that I have at hand. And that I think kind of helps flip that script too. And realistically, think regardless, it's probably just good common practice to have a lot of that stuff on hand anyway, because it's not just the dental insurance. There's other board cases and things like that that

You really do. Having the stuff behind you is just a safety protocol. And while it might take a couple extra seconds, like chair time and while the patient's in there, I think it saves potentially a really long, rigorous amount of time later on both aspects. Fighting for a claim to get paid and then prepping for something unthinkable. You guys, we always have to think of worst-case scenario. How do I get prepped for that? Because if we're not prepped for it it happens, well, shoot.

I've seen it happen, right? And I'm like, girl, I don't know, my hands are tied. But I think that kind of mindset you're describing really would go hand in hand and just be a safety protocol for a practice. So making sure we've got all of those. And I know, gosh, a long time ago, because I was in practice taking x-rays at this time, which was feels like a whole lifetime ago at this point, but they really started requiring even in our PAs and intraorals for anterior fillings, which at that point,

I was like, throw the claims in the air, I'm over this. That's ridiculous. But when we started taking, we started implementing them in the practice, taking those PAs once a year, we found decay that we didn't find before. We were like, well, shoot, this is why things like that happen. So x-rays like apex and crown of the tooth for sure, but also making sure like even if it's just fillings, you've got the data to back it up. Intraorals, I think always.

Kristy (16:59.918)

You

The Dental A Team (17:24.102)

I just love interaurals for everything, and I think a lot of people take the extra aural photos now too, which are insanely helpful, especially for the like, bruxism and the wear, things like that. But then you mentioned also the clinical notes, making sure those clinical notes are really dialed in and they say what you need it to say in a clinical way. Your clinical notes don't have to be readable by layman's term, right? They need to be, they need to work for doctor's terms. They need to work for your terms. So making sure those pieces are there.

Before we just stick to those three, before we got started today, you actually even mentioned like AI. And I think AI is just like this crazy thing that's just, I mean, the amount of like emails that my boyfriend has written with his AI tool that have gotten him way past like the point of, you know, like he thought this was never going to be resolved. And then he's got email held, like it's been insane. So I'm so excited. And I know the world is excited for all this AI stuff to come in.

Kristy (18:04.718)

Thank

The Dental A Team (18:24.369)

But I'm excited to see how it really truly benefits the patient. And so Kristy, just ideas out there, like how do you think these AI pieces, Pearl and all of these companies and even just writing narratives, but how do you feel like that's gonna play a role in optimizing the claims and really helping practices get that, get them cleaned up faster?

Kristy (18:44.076)

Yeah, I'm going to take one step back and then go forward on AI, but because you did such a good job on the intraoral pictures too, I want to also make a comment here about that too. It's not just in the doctor's realm, but also in the hygiene realm too. Like when hygiene is doing perio measurements, right? And they're diagnosing for perio, snap an intraoral picture of that bleeding. That picture will go

The Dental A Team (19:01.232)

Mm-hmm. That's it.

The Dental A Team (19:12.589)

Yeah.

Kristy (19:14.01)

long way when you're doing your perio services. But with that being said, that also ties to the AI because what I'm seeing with AI is the offices that have it, they are not getting the rejected claims because the AI is so consistent in measuring the amount of tooth structure, right? The amount of decay, the bone levels. And so it just, it doesn't lie.

The Dental A Team (19:28.637)

Yeah.

Kristy (19:42.702)

It is consistent and there's no bias within the AI. So truly, I have yet to find a claim that has been sent to insurance that has x-rays, intraoral pictures, and or AI technology attached to validate the treatment they've done. I have not heard of anybody have a claim denied. Yeah.

The Dental A Team (19:59.238)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (20:05.57)

That's amazing. I think one thing that I heard too, I don't know if it's implemented yet, but I can't imagine that it won't be, is the insurance companies actually having their own on their side that you send in your x-rays, you send in those those pieces and they shoot it through their own AI spaces. And so then it's like confirming your AI and your diagnosis or your no AI if you didn't send it, but it kind of feels like even

not having that tool within your practice is like, that's again that like safety protocol, like what are all the safety measurements I can put into place to make sure that I'm covered? It almost feels like one of those systems or tools might be just a good safety net for that. Have you seen, I mean, I know we don't work with the insurance companies, but have you heard of that yet or in your speakings? No? Yeah.

Kristy (20:53.546)

Yeah, sorry, I have heard that. In fact, one of the things that we've talked about from an insurance perspective is insurance companies know more about doctors than doctors know about them. I bet if you asked an insurance company how many crowns a doctor did, they could answer that question so much faster than even the doctor. And so, yeah, we would be fooling ourselves to think insurance companies are not using AI on us as well.

The Dental A Team (21:11.081)

That's fair.

The Dental A Team (21:22.131)

Totally, totally fair point. Because even just pulling like how many claims it takes us, we're like, I don't know, where do I find that information? And we're like, hobbling back and forth trying to find it. That's a really good point. They just click a button and they know it. I love that. So from a clinician standpoint, from our doctor's standpoint, I think they have a ton of control over the tools they're using to diagnose and then passing those tools. I think that's how I would.

want a doctor to think about it, right? Like, what tools did I utilize to diagnose this because someone else has to diagnose it without the patient in front of them and confirm my diagnosis, which is annoying. I agree with you guys. I'm 100 % behind you on that, but it's the way it is. safety protocols put into place, safety nets are clinical x-rays, clinically readable x-rays, intra-orals, notes. And something we didn't really hit on...

But I think you mentioned earlier, Kristy, that I think is really important with the notes is the note templates. So making sure, right, that the doc can have, even your support team should be able to fill in a lot of the clinical note for you because they're there to dictate what you're saying. And so they can dictate that and then utilize that template. And the doctor then goes back later to confirm, just like the other guys are confirming for you, that those notes are correct. Now, Kristy,

Do you do it the same way? I'm assuming, right, because we all have been in this world together for a long time in the dental world, but do you do the same thing and train your dentist to train their team members to do that as well? Fill in the templates, the support team supporting them, filling in those templates.

Kristy (22:59.618)

Yeah, I know there are a lot of doctors that like to do their notes because they want to make sure the details are there. But having those templates and the doctors can create those templates, right, for each procedure. We still want them to be custom notes, right? But the basis for what we do, like usually there's only a few types of anesthetic we use or how many different composite materials do we use? You know what I mean? We can have those basics in there and then the doctor can

The Dental A Team (23:26.748)

Okay.

Kristy (23:29.592)

go back and verify anything that the assistant has updated and if there's anything to add they can do it and sign off on those notes but absolutely having those templates can can help time wise and I will also say you know with the notes and billing insurances back in the day we used all these cam narratives and guys if you're doing that we need to get out of that habit truly it has to be a custom note and you're

seeing it more and more where they want it cropped, you know, they want it taken from the actual narrative in the clinical note. So it's very important that we do have those details in there.

The Dental A Team (24:00.651)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (24:11.78)

I love that and I totally agree and I think that also then if our team is supporting us in that and getting them done, I have a lot of doctors that are like, I'm so far behind on notes, I've got two weeks worth and I'm like, oh my gosh, to me, I'm like, that's two weeks worth of claims that probably have not seen the light of day except for your profis that have gone out.

That also helps clean that up where if our support team is doing them, our doctors are going back through adding their snippets that they need to, but confirming it, signing it off. now tomorrow my billing rep can get in first thing in the morning and send all of today's claims off. So I think it helps. We're talking about optimizing, like we want to optimize in every level. want all those safety nets together of how did I diagnose this? How do I confirm it? But then also we want it all prepped and ready to go. So our team can take it and just get it out there. The longer it sits there.

the worse it gets. There's timely filing for sure, which is a year, but you guys have to think, I have a year, that's awesome. But if I wait three months because I didn't get my notes done and then my girls have to fight to get it paid, like it's just not worth it and you're overhead. So great points, Kristy. So optimizing claims, if we're to it up, you guys, literally, I think Kristy, the best thing we can like summarize all this is how did I diagnose it?

And what are those safety nets? And how am I going to allow someone who's not sitting here to diagnose it and confirm it? So x-rays clinically, readable x-rays, intraoral photos. I love that you said the perio as well. I know the calculus, the nasty like, you know, behind the teeth pictures, those are always fantastic as well. And then notes, I think the templates is a brilliant idea. And adding that AI piece in there, I think is like the biggest safety net of all because it's all there.

One thing I do want to mention, and I know this because I've got a lot of doctors who are like, oh, I didn't even look for the x-ray until after the fact. And it happens. It's whatever, right? We've got, you diagnose it, you do it, whatever. If you get in the habit of, your x-ray is not up on the screen, you don't touch a tooth, you'll never run into that again. We used to run into it in my practice constantly. And my billing rep was like, I don't know what to do because we're not going to get these claims paid. And so we made a rule if the x-ray was not up.

The Dental A Team (26:28.428)

you didn't touch the tooth. one space there, but make sure your x-rays are readable. They're up. You're looking at them. Your notes are super, super duper clear. Your intro aural follow it. And you guys, think AI is probably worth looking into if you're not using it already. If you have it you're not using it, go freaking get trained and use it. Kristy, any last tidbits or thoughts on any of that that you want to wrap up for them?

Kristy (26:48.782)

Absolutely.

Kristy (26:55.104)

Yeah, I all of that I agree with you 100 % and I also think just so you know, we mentioned it used to be a year filing for claims. There's some of them that are getting down to 90 days, we may even see some less. So guys forming these habits today are going to reap rewards. And I will also say, many times, it's the office right waiting for that insurance money. You also touched on fee for service. That's very important.

The Dental A Team (27:07.138)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (27:16.845)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (27:23.65)

Yeah.

Kristy (27:25.008)

If we're asking patients to pay fee for service, we want them to get their money right away as well, right? That helps them stuck to your office. So all of it comes full circle to help each other.

The Dental A Team (27:31.896)

Thank you.

The Dental A Team (27:37.71)

Those were amazing points. Thank you, Kristi. I knew there was, I could tell there was something in there. You're like, nope, I got a little extra. I love it. I love podcasting with you. Thank you so much for being here with us today. You really do have this brain that just like you hear something and then it expands and you're like, okay, but and, and I love the way the way you present it. So thank you so much for being here with us today. Doctors, I hope if you are driving, you're going to re-listen to this. If you weren't driving, you were feverishly taking notes. Team, if your doctor hasn't heard this one yet,

send it over to him or her. It's a big one for them to be able to really support you guys and vice versa. This is all encompassing you guys. If we want to optimize the claims process, we want to optimize getting these things done, we all have to work together from start to finish. So ensure these things are put into place, fill the habits, do the things now that might take a little extra time upfront so that you're saving time and energy and work later. We want you to be insanely profitable. We want you to love your life. These are really easy ways that you can start doing that.

right away. So Kristi, thank you so much everyone. Thank you for being here. Drop us a five star review. We love to hear from you guys, especially when it comes to topics like this. How helpful was the information we want to hear from you? If you need help, if you want notes, templates, if you want ideas, if you're a current client, reach out to your consultant. We are all here to love on you. If you're not yet a client or you're just a listener for now, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com and you can hop over to our website.

and we've got our practice assessments up there. thanks again, Kristy, everyone. We'll catch you next time.

View Details

Kiera shares a secret weapon to high morale in the office place: celebrations. There are three steps to maximize the fun while keeping everything running smoothly:

1. Create a birthday and celebration system.
2. Incorporate monthly team events.
3. Make recognition public and consistent.

Episode resources:

Sign up for Dental A-Team’s Virtual Summit 2025!

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Schedule a Practice Assessment

Leave us a review

Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.792)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I just want to ask you, do you really want a happier and more engaged team? Do you want to be able to know that they're going to be incredible with you? I do believe that celebrations are the secret weapon to building a positive culture. And today is a special day because it's Dental A Team's podcast fifth birthday. And so I thought it was just such a special time. You guys, this podcast has been running for so long. I am so grateful for you for being a part of it. And I just thought, hey,

Well, one of the greatest things is while we're celebrating Dental A Teams podcast birthday, let's teach you the secret weapon to building that positive, effective team culture. So you guys, the reality is when we acknowledge milestones, when we acknowledge celebrations, when we acknowledge things that our team is doing well, what that does is it puts our focus on the things we actually want our team to do. We put a focus on them as a human being. We put our focus on them actually being more of what we want them to become. And so what that does is it actually improves morale.

increases retention and that ultimately equals overall productivity. What's really awesome about this is people are looking for like, how do I hire? How do I bring on a team? Well, if it's a great place to work, people want to work with you. And a lot of times these celebrations are that secret weapon because it becomes fun. It becomes life. It becomes the things that we want to do. So in celebration of Dental A Team's fifth birthday, I cannot believe we've been doing the podcast for this long. Kudos and appreciation to all of you for being here. I just want to say thank you for being here.

And let's roll in three quick steps where you're able to use and maximize these celebrations to boost the morale that your team wants. Dental A Team was created for you. This podcast was created to bridge the gap between where we are and where we want to be. I try to create this in a quick tactical, practical way for you to be able to take this, celebrate your team, have the fun with your team and be able to truly live life. My passion is life and my platform is dentistry. And so that's why we've created this podcast and our goal in our dental consulting company is to make your life easier.

to make it easy to implement systems, to make it easy to achieve the life that you desire to be, to make it easier to have a team that's rallied around their doctor and it's truly supporting and serving their team, their community, their patients with ease. So that's what Dental A Team's all about. This is gonna be a short, actionable episode where honestly you can go take these tips and implement them today. So step one is.

Kiera Dent (02:17.53)

create a birthday and celebration system. I know this sounds so silly, but the reality is I love to build things on systems because they're automated. We don't have to think about it just like our morning routines. I don't have to think about how I'm going to do my hair. I don't have to think about how I'm gonna put my makeup on. I don't have to think about if I'm going to brush my teeth or not. It's a system that we've automatically done and by default as humans, we love to create automations. We love to simplify because it's less brain power. So let's create this into a way where it's a system.

that we can then add the sprinkles, we can add the intentionality behind, but we have the system for success. So birthdays and milestones matter for team connection. It's something where when people feel recognized, they feel special. And some people like to be recognized in public, other people like to be recognized in private. But as human beings, there is a need for us to be significant, to be recognized, to realize that we have purpose in this world. And so some key elements in the celebration system is...

we have to actually have a calendar with the team birthdays and work anniversaries on there. And then someone needs to actually be accountable for overseeing these. And then we need to personalize the experience for each person. So for us, we actually have a Google calendar called birthdays. Our client birthdays go on there. Our team birthdays go on there. Our work anniversaries go on there. And then what we have from there is we actually have a built into on their one to three year birthdays. This is what we get on our one to three year anniversaries. This is what we get.

three to five and so on. And it's actually built into a place. So that way we've taken the thought process of what do we do? And now we can customize it for each team member. So they feel special. Some dental offices love to do lunches for their teams on birthdays and anniversaries. Some people love to do flowers. Some people love to do gifts. Some people love to just write letters to them. Some people they can have like a big board in the break room for that team member where they're able to put up why we love this person. Some people do like, what does this person bring to the table? Like what are their key strengths that we're so grateful for?

And it's wild because if you did this throughout an entire year, imagine having some nice sticky notes in your office where that person on their work anniversary, we said, why Sarah is such a valuable player in our team. And that's up there. And then we put up John, and then we put up, I don't know, Brittany, and then we have Tiffany, and then we have Shelby, and we have Dr. John, whatever it is, we put those up and we actually can start to see this creation of this beautiful team that we've created and all the strengths that we bring to the table to make our team incredible.

Kiera Dent (04:32.204)

that becomes a powerful culture that you're starting to create as well. So what I've seen is offices who really take the time to be intentional with team members, team members stay, they feel important. They feel like they're cared about. They feel like they matter. And so even if it seems silly to you, this is a great way for you to give back. And also for me as a leader, I found that it makes me actually intentional and to remember why I love and appreciate this team member and pulls me out of the day to day.

and becomes intentional with that person as a one-on-one focus. So what we need to do is create a shared birthday calendar this week and assign a celebration leader. I think it's a really fun way. Have somebody who's just fun, they love to do this, this can be their job, give them a budget. That way we actually have a true system of our birthday and celebration system. What do we do? How often do we do it to recognize our team members? Now, the second piece we're gonna do, step two is incorporate monthly team events. So we're taking this one step further. I literally have a budget on my PNL and my chart of accounts.

that is team birthdays and anniversaries, team outings and events. So actually start to build this as a budget for you so that way you can incorporate these things and we know how much we can spend, what we're allowed to do to make sure we still maintain that profitability as well. So when we incorporate monthly team events, this is fun. It strengthens relationships, it strengthens bonds, it allows us to get close together. And what I like to do, since there's usually three departments within a practice,

We've got our front office team, our hygiene team, our dental assistant team. You can also throw in your doctor team. So you could do hygiene and DAs, whatever you want to do. But every quarter there's three months. Every year there's four quarters. So however you want to break it up, but I like to actually assign teams out to this, give them their budget and then they create activities. And these could be themed lunches and potlucks. I had an office and they called it dip day. And I really loved that. So they would do it like once a month, everybody would bring in their favorite dips and they'd have a potluck one day.

a month. That's super easy. Minimal costs to the team becomes something very fun that they're all able to participate in. But having something like that can really be fun for it. You can also do team building activities. Like I've seen offices do escape rooms or wine and paint nights, or they go to games like the, I don't know, whatever your team is, the Yankees game or whatever it is, but you actually plan these outings for your team. We can even go volunteer. You can have where we give back. have opportunities to serve together as a team.

Kiera Dent (06:49.422)

but team building activities really can grow and bond you guys together. And then you can also do celebrations of like when we hit milestones, maybe when we hit our first million or maybe when we hit our first 2 million or maybe when we get our first 100 Google reviews or whatever it is we're trying to achieve. Maybe it's when we get our block schedule in place, like whatever it is, these can be really fun things for you, but they're planned, the whole team knows. And what I found is when you break it up by department, your team actually has more buy-in for it because now people know what it feels like to have it.

And I, as a leader, feel like there's so much on my plate. That's why we need our celebration champion who really takes this on. They've got their budget. They're excited. They're jazzed. And now you just get to show up and be a player with it is really fun. So what's really incredible about this is offices who start to do this, you don't see the immediate effects. I know we like to get the positive reinforcement. We want this to hit us right away, but just so you know, this might take a year before your team starts to buy into it. But I want you to know we're playing the long-term game of retention of team like

satisfaction of love and connection of that morale because when people really feel like they've got each other's backs when they feel like they're a true team, this is when they get there. They're just sports team. I'm a BYU fan. Judge me or love me. It's your choice. But what was interesting is this year BYU actually had one of their best years. They've had a terrible, terrible, terrible time. And something that their coach talked about was he actually took the team at the beginning and they went up into the mountains in Utah and they bonded as a team.

And they actually had one of their best seasons that they've ever had. And I truly believe it was because they bonded together as a team. They did things that were outside of just practice and football to make them human. It's becoming a humanized experience. And I think that's the currency in today's world. And so having somebody be the person who plans these team events, whether it's the month or a quarter, I don't care, you choose, but really that's gonna be step two of incorporate monthly team events or quarterly into your practice.

And then step three of this awesome thing is make recognition public and consistent. And there's a million different ways to do it. But what I do believe is what we focus on is where our energy will flow. And so if we're focused on the great things of our team, if we're focused on the good things people are doing, rather than the negative, we actually create more of that behavior. And for me, I'm really pro of how can I teach all of you how to get more of what we want and less of what we don't want? Well, public recognition being consistent.

Kiera Dent (09:07.19)

is a very key piece of this. And so this will be shout outs and team meetings or social media posts highlighting team achievements or a team starboard or a high five kudos jar or any of those things where it's public and it's consistent. I have an office that I really love and what they do is once a month they actually have all the shout outs in a jar and they pull out a winner of it and the winner gets either like a personalized gift or a gift card. But then the...

that I really love is everybody wins because everybody gets their shout outs for that month of what people have said about them, what people have recognized about them. And leaders, you do need to set the stage on this. We need it to be something that's intentional. We need our team to know that we're serious. It's not just like, Kiera showed up today. That actually can actually hurt our culture rather than inspire our culture. And so if I do notice those things in the shout out jars, I actually do have a conversation.

to make sure that team knows that they're actually hurting rather than helping. And that's unacceptable within our culture. And they have an opportunity to change or they have an opportunity to leave if that behavior doesn't change. And so with this though, we have on our Wednesday mornings, Wednesdays are core value shout out day at Dental A Team We have our core values in every team member. No one's assigned to go. Everybody does have an opportunity to go, but the first person starts and they shout someone out of where they saw that person exhibiting the core value. I love it. It's a two fold because not only am I then

pushing culture within our company, but our team members are recognizing one another for the core values that they're doing. And what's always beautiful to me is each team member usually says like, gosh, I have like two or three that I could give out today, or I could highlight every team member. And that's what I want our teams thinking about. I want them to think about how great these people are, how wonderful these people are, how lucky we are to work together. Of course, there's going to be like issues. Of course, there'll be

frustrations, but if the bulk of what we're seeing are the positives, I believe that's how we're able to build an incredible culture. whatever it is, I would recommend that you implement a weekly recognition ritual in your practice starting next week. Like we can get this started. You can roll out Wednesdays of core value shout out. could roll out the high five jar. could roll out whatever it is, but we've got this where we've got birthdays and anniversaries. That's step one, where we celebrate those and we have someone championing over that in our celebration committee.

Kiera Dent (11:16.728)

We have team events that we do monthly or quarterly. And then we have consistent weekly recognition that's public and consistent. So whatever it is, those would be the steps, the three steps for you to really be able to put into place a birthday and celebration system, which again, sounds so silly, but the goal is for us to truly be able to grow our engagement, to grow our community within our team, to grow the culture, to grow the bonds that we have, to have fun with each other.

to remember that we're not just colleagues, but we're human beings on the other side of that. So this is where we're gonna be able to shift and have small celebrations, create big shifts in culture and retention. I do want to be very honest with you that this is something that does take a hot minute. When I first started implementing these items, I didn't see the immediate results, but just like going to the gym, when we go and we start doing sit-ups, we don't walk out with a six pack as much as I wish we could. It does take time, it does take consistency, but I want you to know.

that while we don't necessarily see the results just like working out, the results are actually being built. We just can't visibly see them with our eyeballs, but they are being built within the internal. And so remember that these small consistent pieces have somebody set up to do it, have a lot of fun for it. If you guys want to DM us for any ideas that we have, I'm happy to share checklists with you. I'm happy to share kudos jars, shout out things that we do, our core values so you can see how that's done. Whatever I can do to support you, DM us to get started.

And always subscribe to the podcast, more leadership tips for your dental practice to thrive and grow. And just know that truly what we just talked about is exactly what the Dental A Team does. We go from the systems of the practice and the dentistry to the humans of the practice that create and make the practice thrive. And if that's something that resonates with you and you're interested in finding out more of consulting would be right for you, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com I'd love to help you. I'd love to support you. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

View Details

Kiera shares the most common problems dental practices face — scheduling inefficiencies, high overhead costs, and patient retention — and how to fix them.

Episode resources:

Sign up for Dental A-Team’s Virtual Summit 2025!

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Schedule a Practice Assessment

Leave us a review

Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.93)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today, I just wanna come in here. I've been kind of doing a little bit of research out there and I wanted to help you see that every practice is facing challenges. And really the key is knowing how to turn those problems into opportunities. I love just thinking about, we've got to find ways to turn these problems into opportunities because it can be a problem or an opportunity, depending upon how you choose to view it.

And so today I wanted to just kind of dive into the most common problems that dentists face and actionable solutions for you to actually overcome them. Because reality is if you can know what they are, you can game plan with it. You then are gonna be able to help serve more patients, help your practice, help your team, which is what Dental A Team is all about. Dental A Team was founded to help dentists and teams truly bridge the gap to have more fun, less stress, more profitability, serve patients on a higher level.

and to be able to do it with ease and fun. I love to think about it as like popping confetti when we're coming in to help you with systems. We are not your traditional consulting company. So many offices have told me, Kiera, you guys literally have revolutionized how consulting works. My team loves you. My team's excited for you to come in and you don't just help us with dentistry, but you actually help make us better people. And so that's what we're all about. And I believe honestly that while problems are common with the right systems and the right mindsets, you can actually solve them pretty quickly and effectively. You don't actually have to struggle with it. So,

super fast, actionable episode three of the top problems and how to solve them. So problem number one that I see consistently are scheduling inefficiencies. This is, think, one of the biggest bulk, the biggest beast of all of dentistry is that people really truly don't know how to schedule and schedule effectively and scheduling is an art. It's not a science, but why do we wanna have like unicorns out there when we can just schedule it effectively and efficiently? And what we actually found are...

A lot of offices, when we did deep dives, they missed their financial goals. They missed their production goals, not because they actually weren't able to, but because of open time within their schedule. True. So we've started tracking open time and schedules and realize if we would have just filled those effectively, you would have hit your goals with ease. And so how do we actually get our practices to look at the unproductive gaps, last minute cancellations, overbooking, not scheduling strategically. And the simple solution is block scheduling, also confirming appointments 48 hours in advance.

Kiera Dent (02:18.338)

And then also what's our cancellation policy within our practice? A lot of offices we have changed our model to when we call a patient, we want them to confirm their appointment. And if they haven't confirmed within 48 hours, we literally have a voicemail and let them know we will be moving your appointment. Now we actually pull it off the schedule. We can still see them when we come in. Fantastic. If not, we have solutions for that. But literally we start to retrain our patients. And then also our cancellation policy is if they call me to cancel today and it's less than 48 hours, they get moved out six weeks.

and then we move them forward. But everybody following this policy starts to retrain your patients so we stop having these gaps. I want you to think about your practice as are people so committed to coming to your office just like they do their hair appointments, their nail appointments, any of those like their doctor appointments where they know it takes months and months to get into. Do we have that high level of customer service, high level of customer care? Now, of course, if they call us within 48 hours, fantastic, they're an incredible patient.

But otherwise we are going to make sure that we start to train them. And we also do this with our new patients when they call us. So we're training our new patients at the beginning. They have to send their paperwork in 48 hours before their appointment to make sure their appointment's confirmed. These little things will actually fix the problem. Now cancellations, I don't allow cancellations via voicemail. I change voicemails. I also don't allow cancellations via text message. So we train our teams that these are things that we can't have happen. This is how we respond to the patient.

The reason being is if I can get them on the phone, I can usually find a solution to their problem, keep them on the schedule, figure out what the problem is. Maybe they think it's gonna be too much time. Maybe they just need to scooch down 20 or 30 minutes and I have that availability. But getting them on the phone rather than just the simple text for them to cancel can actually fill your schedule. So when I have practices implement, whether it's the new patient policy of having them confirm their appointment by giving paperwork back, whether it's that we...

have patients they have to call you back to confirm their appointment. Otherwise we scooch them off. We utilize the model of not allowing cancellations via voicemail or text message. Practices literally boost their production by at least 15 to 20 % because now we've got all these holes filled and we're actually able to fix the problem. Some other offices implement deposits or different pieces to that. So right now I would recommend review your current scheduling system and figure out where are the gaps.

Kiera Dent (04:35.828)

what's happening, what's happening consistently, not what we think, but what we actually know. A practice told me we were getting tons of cancellations and I said, fantastic, I want you to track it for 30 days and I want you to let me know what type of cancellations are coming through. And turns out they actually are only having about six. Now, just so you know, a common thing is you will actually have like one to 2 % of your total practice will cancel and that's okay. Like that's normal. We need to not hope and pray every single person.

actually shows up for it, let's add a one or two percent cancellation per day. That way our goals are not having to be perfect, but we can actually have that that room for life happening. That's actually going to set you up for better success as well. OK, problem number two, high overhead costs, really struggling to get our finances in order. And so like rising costs and payroll supplies, like everything with inflation right now, that's really a struggle. And so offices are having this squeeze of how do I manage the overhead of the practice?

the lower reimbursement rates, being able to produce. And what it is is number one, we've got to look at our P &L and know our numbers. Like that's the number one solution is knowing it and figuring out a plan and having budgets for it. Two, we got to figure out, can we increase our insurance rates with our insurance providers? Or can we actually start to diagnose different procedures that are not dependent within insurance, like implants, full ortho, all on X cases, different things that we could bring to the practice that would actually help us be more productive.

Can we also have budgets in place so that way everybody is able to know what we're actually going for and targeting for these overhead costs? Are we monitoring this consistently? Are we removing things that are unnecessary while also making sure that our schedule is productive? And so something that I found is when offices start to just track and monitor weekly with KPIs and the monthly reviewing their PNL, like literally I have a meeting with my CPA every single month. And when I do that, what happens is I actually am accountable to reviewing my numbers.

My CPA is accountable to making sure it's done on time. So I have timely numbers and metrics so I can use them as a guide. and I have budgets to where we know and we look through it every single month to make sure are we on track? Are we off track and why? We set up budgets for team expenses, team outings, team events, marketing, gifts for clients, all those little things that we forget about. Put that into your budget as you build these budgets out. So we better plan, we better project, we better prepare.

Kiera Dent (06:58.316)

This is going to help with high overhead costs. And a big piece on this is also maintaining your team and keeping team and longer team retention, which leads into amazing team celebrations, amazing team culture. This is going to help. So I would recommend weekly adding some CEO time into your schedule. 30 minutes to one hour is really going to help you to schedule your P and L to be able to look for areas to cut unnecessary expenses. And I always set up quarterly with my CPA that they send me all of my expenses for that quarter.

me and the office manager, Britt, we review them, every single one of them, same with Shelby, making sure nothing's in there that's overpaid, underpaid, and that our budgets are actually correct. All right, problem number three, patient retention and challenges. So like keeping these patients, and so patients not coming for followups, they're leaving for other providers, and so it's really this like game of, I mean, even myself, I went to a practice, I'm a fee for service patient, the office did not let me know that the doctor that I had been seeing,

because I work across the nation. I can go to any dentist. Like I do not need to have a set dentist. But I like the consistency. But knowing that about me, and I've been very honest with this practice is I want the same dentist and I want the same hygienist so I have consistent care. Otherwise, it doesn't matter if I keep coming to the same dentist. So I went into my appointment, fee for service patient, they didn't tell me that the dentist had actually left the practice and they were just going to put me in with a brand new dentist. That irritated me so much because I'm like, you didn't tell me.

I wasted my time, I blocked two hours of my schedule and that was so frustrating. And I'm like, that could have been prevented by them just calling me and saying, hey, this is where we're at. We wanna make sure you're taken care of and caring about me as a person. The reality is I'm not actually going back to that practice. I'm looking for another office. But it's something so simple of that. I'm a fee for service patient. I literally pay cash for every one of my visits. I am the dream patient to come in financially. You might think otherwise of my personality. Maybe you wouldn't want me, that's okay.

But just thinking of, have no insurance, I have minimal effort, I come in consistently, I make my appointments, I pay cash for everything I do, and yet one simple phone call of patient care and love and attention, I'm leaving and I'm going to go put that money to someone else. So for this, the solution is like, let's build really strong patient relationships. Let's have really strong systems. Let's make sure that we're offering payment plans within our practice. Let's make sure that our hygiene team is reappointing their patients. Let's say, make sure every patient is leaving.

Kiera Dent (09:22.878)

as a raving fan and also with an appointment. And so really looking at that experience, and this doesn't mean we have to go and do more. It just means we need to be really intentional of right now patients are free agents. Right now a lot of patients are shopping, but the answer is they're not just necessarily shopping for lower prices. I think patients are shopping for love. And I was coaching in office the other day and I told them, said, one way for you to set yourself apart right now is just to be kind.

If you remember and you've been listening since COVID, welcome and thank you. If you're new to this show, welcome. I'm so happy you're here. But in COVID, I called it the COVID crank. I said, think here we are five years later, we're still some people, like we forgot about customer service. We forgot about caring about people. We forgot about making these relationships intentional. And what I found is when we're not intentional with people, people leave, but just even being like an ounce of kind, an ounce of intentionality, an ounce of thought.

You actually can turn a ton of patients into raving fans with minimal effort. So I would say right now is an opportunity for you to be kind, for you to do things a little bit differently, not more, just differently, be kind, be intentional, look for that. What are follow-up calls that we could do and different things. And what I found is offices, I have offices that are raving bands. Like literally there was an office and they were doing like a new patient giveaway. And I kid you not, they had a patient.

So they had a good giveaway. So kudos to this office. They had a patient at their daughter's like birthday party telling everybody you need to join my dentist. They're the best dentist. Everybody loves them. Yes, she had a little bit of ulterior motives because she wanted to win the giveaway. It was a KitchenAid. Just so you know, I'm sure everybody was wondering what it was. But the radical thing about this is this woman at a birthday party was advocating for this practice. And my thoughts are, do you have patients like that that are raving about you that are telling the community that are being a part of it?

And if not, what are some of the things that we can do? And a good way for you to look at this or what are your top 10 patients that you absolutely love? You get so excited to see them on the schedule. Who are they? What are they? Why do we love them? Are there certain patterns and trends of those top 10 patients? And then let's maybe look at 10 patients who haven't returned and can we actually call them and reach out to them personally and offer that kindness find out why my like just try and get them scheduled assume that they're coming there. If they tell us that they've left, be honest and ask for the feedback of, you help me understand just for future?

Kiera Dent (11:44.792)

just true honest feedback and you become a human of why did you leave our practice? That way it doesn't happen to future patients. And when you come in as a human, you'll be shocked at how much your patients respond to you. So here's a couple, like the quick top three things that I've noticed are scheduling and efficiencies, high overhead costs and patient retention, making sure we're retaining those patients. And those are some of the common three problems that I really see. Yes, there's other things. Yes, there's team turnover. Yes, there's hiring hygienists.

Yes, there's all these things, but these are quick things that are within our control. Hiring and hygienist goes into that being kind, amazing practice. Do you also have a team of raving people on your team as a bonus piece for hiring? Do you have an incredible reputation where people want to work for you? It has taken me years and years and years, but it is the most magical thing when I interview people, when people say, Kiera, I've been following for you for years and I've been waiting to work with the Dental A Team.

I hope that your practice has a similar sentiment that people are dying to work with you, that they're waiting to work with you, that they're so excited that there's an opening within your practice because that means you've got raving fan team members. So for that, I just want you to know that every single practice faces challenges, every single one of us do, but being proactive on our solutions, finding true solutions and fixing it forever. We don't just fix it once and one and done. Like we want to fix this forever, not just band-aids, but actual true solutions. So if these sound...

similar to you, if you're like, my gosh, like Kiera you're talking right to me, DM me or visit our website. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com I'm happy to go through a free complimentary practice assessment with you where we like look at your practice with you and we will give you a ton of value, whether you work with us or don't. But just to really kind of give you some of those blind spots. And if you're looking for a consultant, you're like, gosh, it would really just help to have someone with me. I'd love to work with you. I'd love to help you reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com This is the time.

Subscribe to our newsletters for more dental practice tips. You can share this episode with colleagues. This just helps us all rise and to truly impact and inspire. And the reality is dentistry can be hard, but if we do it together, we're all in this together. And I challenge you to be kind, to realize that these problems are just opportunities if we choose to see it that way. And to remember we are truly in the best, best, best industry we could ever be in. We change lives, we get to benefit and impact. And I want you to remember that this is magic that we're creating.

Kiera Dent (14:04.364)

We won't get to do this forever. So let's optimize the time that we have. Let's maximize and let's enjoy. And as always reach out if I can help you. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com As always, thanks for listening. Catch you next time on The Dental A Team podcast.

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Kiera and Britt continue their conversation from episode 958, Hiring Hygienists in Today’s Economy, by discussing the shifting landscape of hygiene. This includes the pros and cons of assisted hygiene, shortened appointments, practices without hygienists, and more.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.73)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and the one and only Brittany Stone coming back for part two of our hygiene conversation. welcome back. How are you?

Britt (00:09.332)

It's always fun when you start off with my full name, so I'm like, alright, let's go!

Kiera Dent (00:12.304)

It is funny. You do range from Britney, Britt, like no BS Britt to B. B has recently come in. How do you feel about just B? I hope it comes across as like nice, but then I realized like, B could be taken wrong. So I never say the, hey B.

Britt (00:28.75)

You're not the only one. I'm fine with it because it's easy and I'm like shoot you grew up with the initials BS like what are you gonna do?

Kiera Dent (00:37.904)

Well, I never want to like sometimes when I call you and I'm like, hey B and I'm like, I hope it lands as like, like love. Yeah. Yeah. It's not meant for any other letters. But Britt and I, if you didn't listen to our other podcasts, Britt and I were chatting shop about how to hide like hire hygienists in today's economy. And with Britt bringing a hygiene perspective, if you don't know, Britt used to be hygienist.

Britt (00:46.83)

It's Brett. stands for Brett.

Britt (00:52.748)

Yeah.

Kiera Dent (01:07.3)

Great. How long has it been since you graduated from a hygiene school? Let's just give people your scene.

Britt (01:10.05)

Kiera.

You're gonna age me a little bit here.

Kiera Dent (01:16.162)

Okay, don't feel age. The only reason I asked for it, so before you answer, just know my reasoning so you don't have to answer. I was just thinking because I wanted people to know you've been in the field for like enough time to give weight to your answers. But maybe we don't need to do that. Maybe it's been there for longer than five years. Shut, I didn't even know. All right, well, you have been in it for a long time.

Britt (01:31.512)

That's fine. Eighteen, Kiera, eighteen.

Britt (01:40.378)

I'll say this, was a young graduate from high school, so I'll give you that. That pushed me a year ahead, but 07 is when I graduated, so this year we'll make it 18.

Kiera Dent (01:49.111)

No way.

Kiera Dent (01:52.996)

Dang girl, I didn't even know. Okay, so Britt really has a lot of weight and you did hygiene for, and then Britt went from hygiene to then office management of a pretty large DSO and then came consulting and now does consulting and operations. So.

Britt (02:06.38)

Yeah, I did full-time hygiene for a decade. So I'm like a solid, five full-time, full-time, 40 hours for a decade.

Kiera Dent (02:09.21)

Did you really?

Wow. Man, I really like there's some moments that I just see you as a hygienist. Like I can just picture you walking up with your like, it's not a swagger, but you have a can't that you definitely walk. And I can see you walking up, getting your patient. Hey B, how's your swagger? But.

Britt (02:28.11)

You can call it swagger, I'll take swagger. don't know what else to

Kiera Dent (02:35.736)

Yeah, so I'm like, just, could imagine you being a hygienist sometimes, but then you're like, Britt the consultant, Britt operations, Britt, my yin and yang. So anyway, well, that's fun. That's a fun. Okay. So to give Britt credit, she did hygiene for a decade. I won't say anything about loops, Britt. We will not discuss that on this episode. We will.

Britt (02:56.238)

I mean, I just changed myself a little bit. you know, we talk about it. I would have to know if I was a full-time clinical, for sure.

Kiera Dent (03:01.752)

Of course. Yeah, of course. I know you would. You don't, you stay very current. I do appreciate that you stay very current with hygiene. You attend hygiene CE all the time. So what we were talking about in the last episode that this would be part two of was we talked about kind of like, do we, how do we work with the compensation pieces of hygiene? And then talking about it from a business standpoint and a doctor standpoint and a hygienist standpoint.

and really bringing those two perspectives to the table, which is what the podcast has been built to do is bring different perspectives. And something I just want to reiterate today, if you missed the last one is that the things Britt and I talk about today are going to be perspectives and never meant to weaponize. So doctors, can't weaponize it against hygienists and hygienists, can't weaponize it against doctors. And so really just setting the stage today of let's have an open conversation around where are we at the dynamics. there's no.

there's no like hiding the fact that it has been hard to hire hygienists since COVID. It's it we thought that it would probably be four years, maybe five years before the hygiene shortage caught up. I still think it's in like massive catch up time, then you tack in inflation on it. So raise like the amount people are coming out asking from school, but I, I mean, I don't really want to ask, but I am going to ask I'm sure hygiene has been like

attempting field to go back into. I'm like, you work at Dental A Team but you've got hygiene over there. And it just keeps like getting bigger and bigger and bigger. I think if I was in your shoes, I might just contemplate it here and there, especially on days when it maybe isn't your favorite day at Dental A Team, which is hopefully like one and every moon. I know what happens. We just had it like a week ago.

Britt (04:31.822)

Everybody's got a day there right like it happens but I Mean here's the I I love hygiene and I left it loving it so like that's the thing is I and I'm like I still go back I still double from time to time, but I'm going back full-time I The things that are appealing right hygienist know what do I love? It's like

Pretty predictable, right? Like you got a job, 100 % predictable, but my hours I'm gonna work, I know my schedule. If I can get the doctor to work with me, I can manage running on time. like, and then when I'm done at the end of the day, I go home and I don't have to take it. Like there's nothing for me to do outside of the office other than like learning stuff, but there's nothing to do outside. like, those are the, we know that those are the perks of hygiene.

Kiera Dent (05:02.692)

That does fit you so much, Britt. The stability, the...

Britt (05:29.23)

and that's part of why I loved it is because of those reasons. Do I debate going back? I don't know. I enjoy what I do now. It's different, right? Like you grow and you morph into different things and it's fun to take the next step. And can I go back to it? Sure. Would it be different? 100%.

Kiera Dent (05:47.888)

Hahaha

fair. I was just curious because I mean, like I know I've looked at what I want to go back into management, what I want to go run a regional, what I want to run a DSO. And for me, there was like a lot of fun in it. There's a lot of fun in being in a system. But I think I agree with you. I feel like I have morphed and evolved into things that I really enjoy. Like I really enjoy the creativity aspect. Do I sometimes wish, Britt, like sometimes I do miss the like, go in, just like you know your day.

You don't have to like be thinking and creating nonstop and you leave at the end of the day and like, we're done, we're done versus here. Ideas will continue to, I mean, I saw you last night. You're building a whole spreadsheet, which is fun, but it never shuts off unlike at the dental office. So different, different times. But what we were wanting to chat about is we talked about compensation on the last one. And now it's coming into how can offices kind of like did a really great job of like paying your junior.

Britt (06:33.269)

Yeah, yeah.

Kiera Dent (06:46.692)

like fresh out of school and it's based on skill set, not based on longevity or tenure. Then we morphed into talking about what do we do for base versus commission if offices can't afford it and different ways to navigate that. And so I wanted to just kind of finish up that conversation with a few other ideas of what's hygiene's take as a landscape of assisted hygiene and shortened appointments. Because as we were discussing on the last episode,

it's kind of coming to this like necessity and survival mode for practices of like, hey, we're like running such a high number up for hygienists. So what this is truly called is innovation and things are changing and shifting and adapting due to the nature of lower reimbursement rates of insurance, inflation has come up, there's a hygiene crunch. So hygienists are coming up as a higher paid profession than what they were even four or five years ago. And so it's kind of like, well, what do we do?

what about assisted hygiene? What about shortened appointments so that way we can have more appointments? And again, I'm not here to advocate for it. I'm just saying like, this is the reality of what doctors are thinking of. And it's the thinking of this. They're also thinking of do I bring a doctor and instead of hiring a hygienist, they're thinking of do I do a hygiene less practice? So I'm just curious, let's talk assisted hygiene first, give me kind of a hygiene perspective on because I don't I don't know how it feels as a hygienist. So you get to speak, I know every hygienist is different, but like just what you hear from colleagues in your perspective.

Britt (07:59.361)

Huh.

Britt (08:06.85)

heterogeneous is different and I feel like it's a it's one of those polarizing things that I think there's people that love it and either you love it or you're not really a fan of it I feel like so that's like the that's the I don't see a lot of in between or it's like sure I'll do it for a little while while we hire like even I would do it maybe for a little bit while we hire someone but it's it's not my jam I can't say that I love it when it comes to

Kiera Dent (08:31.738)

Tell me why, why don't you like it? Like what is it about assisted hygiene just from a hygienist perspective that's almost like a grind for you that you're like, I'll do it for a little bit. Cause I hear that all the time, like I'll do it for little bit. Like what is it from a hygienist perspective that makes that a bit trickier?

Britt (08:46.446)

I think the piece that makes it tricky is like you're just, I don't know, probably part of why we get into what we do is like the one-on-one with patients and interacting with them and being able to ensure like from kind of beginning to end, right? The team has an impact, but I'm...

I'm giving them a good experience from beginning to end that doesn't feel rushed, that doesn't feel jumbled. And so I think that's for me personally, and I think some other hygienists, it feels like, great, I'm popping in, I'm in their mouth pretty much the whole time that I'm in there, and then I'm popping out and going on to the next one. I don't think it has to be exactly like that, but I think that's how it can feel from the hygiene side. I think having a really good assistant can make it much more doable. I think how you schedule it, how stack that.

Assisted hygienist can definitely make a difference on how much time you've got to interact. like, do hygienists, we like a little bit of control. I don't know, probably. And so it's just like, I know I've reviewed the things. I think that's probably the difference between hygienist and doctor is I'm not leaving it to an assistant to review medical history or ask the questions or hear what's going on and gathering it. Like I get to do that from beginning to end when I'm.

Kiera Dent (09:41.411)

Yeah.

Britt (10:00.332)

So it's just a little different when you've got the assisted hygiene in there.

Kiera Dent (10:03.834)

So, and I'm also curious, like, I've never really scaled teeth for real. I mean, I kinda, in Utah, as an assistant, I was supposed to be able to profite, and I'm like, I don't even know what I'm supposed to do. There was one time I pretended to scale because my hygienist was late, so I just like, I didn't even actually really touch their teeth. just, you know, like, did a little tap, tap, tap, waiting for this dang hygienist to come, and I was like, yeah, we'll just like get started. I didn't do a darn thing. So I don't actually know what it feels like to scale that much. I'm curious, like, on a body.

Britt (10:18.744)

you

Kiera Dent (10:33.622)

Does it like hurt your hands? Does it, is it exhausting to just go because you don't really get any break or reprieve? You're just going nonstop. I'm just curious or to like the ultrasonics and things like that now help that make it easier for you. I don't really know the mechanics of that.

Britt (10:48.994)

So yeah, scaling time, like absolutely. Does technology help? Yes, I'm a big fan. I will say it. Polish first. Polish first. If you're not polishing first, you're spending a lot of time on stuff that you don't have to be spending time on. And I'm a big fan of ultrasonic or piezo. I will use it on pretty much everyone. Like even my kids because they got a lot of plaque and I can polish and I can get a lot done with that that doesn't sound or feel the same as scaling. And so I'm a big fan of it.

Kiera Dent (11:06.117)

Mm-hmm.

Britt (11:18.636)

And then so like So there's a lot you can do to help minimize it But that's the piece of doing assisted hygiene usually it's if I've got an assistant if they can polish right they're doing They're doing all the easy stuff and so it is me just doing what's the stuff that I only I can do? Pia's own hand skill, right? And so like it's more of that every day and it does hygienist need dentist hygienist assistance, right? We all need to take care of our bodies because it's

It is a more physically taxing job than people think that it is. And so taking care of yourself, making sure you're doing some stretches. And so, yeah, it is a little bit more physically taxing to do assistive tithing, but it's a lot better than it used to be because we got a lot better tools than we used to have.

Kiera Dent (12:02.607)

Right. Okay. So that actually helps. And so I'm curious, like, let's just throw out a scenario. And Britt, this week, I mean, we talked to offices about this in our consulting where, so let's say a hygienist, I'm going to use really easy numbers because I don't want to get wild. Let's say a hygienist is $30 an hour, which some of you are laughing at me. I know that's not even in the realm of your hygienist. I'm very aware of this. I also don't want to throw ranges out there intentionally on the. Exactly. There's also a reason I'm not throwing high ranges out there because I don't want to set standards that are not.

Britt (12:24.366)

a bit apathetic.

Kiera Dent (12:31.056)

Realistic for your area. I feel like 30 is a safe number for me So if I'm hiring a hygienist at 30 and I bring on another hygienist for 30 That would be $60 an hour that I'm paying of compensation for it Well in this area if my hygienist is 30 odds are I could probably get an assistant for between like 17 to 20 realistically if my hygienist is only at 30 I think that that's like a fair number probably more like 15 in that area, but let's say you're there at 20 just for easy math I've got $30 for hygiene. I've got $20 for an assistant

I actually have $10 of extra, if you're following my math, $10 of extra that's not being paid. Britt, what are your thoughts of if an office takes that $10 and even if they pay a hygienist say 35 an hour during assisted hygiene time versus just 30, does that actually make any difference for a hygienist? I know some can do more. Some it's gonna be like, you're paid 30, now I'm paying you 40 during your assisted hygiene days. Tell me like how that is from an office standpoint.

because there's obviously different compensation amounts we're going to be doing. And from a hygienist standpoint, does that feel better? Does that make it easier? Is that like, sure, I'll take on a couple assisted hygiene days. I'm always pro don't run assisted hygiene every single day. I think that does burn your hygienist out. Usually if I recommend it, it's either for a day or a half a day for a hygienist, but trying to make it, but like, is that necessary, Britt, from your perspective from hygiene?

Britt (13:50.786)

mean, yes, some degree of compensation difference 100 % if you're running assisted hygiene. I know on the last episode we talked about a base plus commission. I like that even for assisted hygiene because, if we're doing assisted hygiene, we should be producing more. And so again, I do like that model because it naturally adjusts things and compensates accordingly. So yes, I do think there should be some sort of compensation that's more on those days. And I do like it when it's

Kiera Dent (14:01.775)

Mm-hmm.

Kiera Dent (14:11.972)

Mm-hmm.

Britt (14:20.494)

Base Plus Commission. Now I've got some, I've had one client where it's nice when you have a group of hygienists. I do love an office with a few. And they did, they rotated an assisted hygiene day through all of them. And they were like fighting over who got the assisted hygiene day. Like they wanted it, right? Like, and it's because yeah, they make more on those days and they were compensated based on their production was a part of it. And so they loved having those days to get a little bit more of a boost. And it was almost like

Kiera Dent (14:34.743)

They do!

Britt (14:46.862)

when we don't need it anymore what's going to happen because they all like getting that little bit of extra income coming from.

Kiera Dent (14:53.368)

And so how do you even win over a team to do it? Because I agree, and I actually hear that more than I hear the opposite. I hear more hygienists actually enjoy it more than they thought they would. I hear a lot of them figure it out, especially when that's not my everyday. think if they had to do it every day, it'd be a little bit more taxing. But think about it. You've got four hygienists. We add an extra column of hygiene four days a week. We've literally brought in a whole extra hygienist without bringing a hygienist on. So I think it's a very creative way to do it. But how do I even like?

package this, you know I look at in sales terms, like how do I even like convince a team that this is a great idea to trial it out rather than just the resistance of hygienist saying no, just like you said, no, I want my patient care. I want to own over this. Like I want A to Z. I hear all the time we're going to have the patient care. It's going to be disrupted. And I'm like, well, it can be, or it could actually be more awesome. How do you win a team over to even be open to trying it?

Britt (15:47.084)

Yeah, I think it depends on the office scenario, right? Like what's the reason, what's the why that we're doing it? And I'm a big fan of like, hey, let's try it first, right? Like I'm not saying you have to do it forever. I'm not saying you have to do it every day, but like, let's try it and let's figure out a system that feels comfortable and meets our like standard of care that we want to provide. So let's start easy, let's work through it, let's train up an assistant. do think.

Cystid Hygiene needs one of your best assistants to be helping in Cystid Hygiene to make it run smooth and give those patients that great experience. And so let's work through the system and see how it goes. like, yeah, it's going to be compensated. If I've got a hygienist who's a gunner and likes to run and does not like to stop, then that's usually my first one. Then I'm like, great, let's team up. Let's get that figured out and see how it goes first. And then word can kind of spread because usually they'll do really well.

Kiera Dent (16:14.681)

I agree.

Kiera Dent (16:34.448)

Hmm.

Britt (16:42.062)

And so yeah, sometimes it's a personality thing, right? Some will love it, some will struggle a little bit. Sometimes there's people that like are gonna be your ones to help you figure it out. And some are like, well, once I see someone else do it and like, oh, that's not so bad. All right, then I'll go ahead and do it. So I think depending on the reason why, I think trying it first, I agree with you, not an everyday thing. It can even be like start with half a day and see how it goes and just start to figure out to find the rhythm of it.

Because I think when you find the rhythm of it and you're like, yeah, that works really well, then it's like, OK, like we can do more of this. And I think it can run.

Kiera Dent (17:18.276)

And I'm really grateful that you shared about the office that you have, that they all want it and they enjoy it because I think that that actually can be the reality of what can happen from it. And I'm really big when you roll it out, agreed. Having not a great assistant really will actually make this harder. So do not go and hire a brand new fresh off the street assistant that does not know what they're doing, can't take great x-rays, can't move through because hygienist having someone that they trust that they can lean on, that they know is going to do a great job.

If they can polish, that's a great way for them to be able to use it. And then really also another big piece are no new patients, no SRP, no perio maintenance put in that. It's really just pro fees because that's gonna make it so much cleaner for them to be able to run this effectively. And you're running it on the half an hour. And then doctors, you have to be very strategic when you go in for exams. And doctors, you cannot be late on assisted hygiene because that will throw your whole hygiene. Like it's a domino and it will be good part.

Britt (18:12.302)

That's the quickest way to take your hygienist off when you're asking them to do assisted hygiene. 100%. That's the way. That's the way to do it.

Kiera Dent (18:15.44)

And that's not like, we'll be there, we'll be there. It's like, you've got to get up and jump. But that's also with hygienists too, making sure that we're giving our doctors enough time. Like I try to ask hygienists to give a 30 minute window of exam time where a doctor could come in. So that way doctors can find the end time of prep, come and get their exams done and keep everybody on schedule. So hygienists plug there, try really hard because I know there's some hygienists who love to alert right at the end of the appointment. And then they're fresh when doctor doesn't come in.

Well, like let's notify when they could come in. Like let's take our x-rays the first 15 minutes and then try to get doctors out at that. I try to have them out. Please do.

Britt (18:51.934)

I'll one-up you a little bit on that as soon as diagnostics are done. As soon as my diagnostics are done and they've got x-rays, they've got period charting photos, I'm letting them know. Come at any time. I'm happy to have you. And of course, there's a bunch of plaque that's gonna make it more difficult once I've got that done, but I'm gonna notify them. at any time.

Kiera Dent (19:04.856)

Yes.

Kiera Dent (19:12.536)

And then doctors, I try to have you out at the quarter to the hour, meaning like you're not walking into the exam, you're walking out of the exam. So that allows hygienists to polish floss, wrap up, get everything done, get the patient out, flip the room and get their next patient back on time. So I think that that's something that before I maybe rolled out assisted hygiene doctors, I might take that on with the hygiene team. Like let's get really good on our exams. Let's calibrate those exams up so they can be more efficient. Let's do the, I have a better.

I haven't told you my new acronym. It's not iCrap. So if you've been listening to me, I have a new one. It's called iCreep. So it's iCreep when you come in that's introduction, compliment, recap, and then a personal note. And if hygienist can get really good at that handoff when doctors come in or assistance, and then doctors are really good on their NDTR, so wrapping up your treatment plans, that's gonna really help that synergy. And then also maybe doing what would doctor do to diagnose and to help tee up treatment. I think that that can just...

Again, we're all working together to make those exams as efficient as possible while also giving the best patient care. But I creep, that's my new one. It's not I, Sierra. It is, I creep. Someone was like, creep, and I was like, amazing. I wish it could be CPR. I've been working to figure out different letter and words. So to be determined, but okay, let's like, go ahead.

Britt (20:16.11)

It's a step better. It's a step better than the last one.

Britt (20:28.014)

Real quick, one more thing on the exams, because with a really good assistant on exams, the other thing I think about, and that for me as a hygienist I care about as well, is making sure treatment is teed up really well.

Kiera Dent (20:40.675)

of greed.

Britt (20:41.59)

Patients aren't having to repeat themselves and get frustrated and then not wanting to get treatment done just because they feel like they're not being listened to. So that communication piece and having an assistant who's really strong who can relay that information to doctor if they're the ones that are going to be in there for the exam and make sure that it's teed up really well for the doctor and they can speak to it is huge because that's, I don't want to, you know, rob Peter to pay Paul, right? I don't want to.

have not so great exams and not close as much treatment by adding an assisted hygiene, I'd rather leave it and get really good exams and really good case acceptance. Overall as a business, that's gonna help me a little bit more. So just making sure that again, that assistance key, really quality exams for your patients, even though you're working assisted hygiene, make sure that experience is stellar and 100 % can be done. It just takes a really good team to work together with a hygienist and assistant.

Kiera Dent (21:35.0)

Yeah, that's a great point because you can have forms where the hygienist can document it in there because people are in opposite rooms. But getting a good role and a good synergy is going to make this so much better for setting this up for success. And I think the answer is I actually don't think hygienists hate assisted hygiene as much. think it's there's quite a few little like tick boxes that if you can check them off, have a good assistant have good exams.

have doctors in and out on time, have the assistant really, really solid with being able to tee up the treatment and close the cases, have someone that has a similar vibe to the hygiene team that cares about these patients a ton. I think if you can check those boxes, and then you also compensate higher. There's so many little pieces that everybody's super excited about to do it, but I think if you're missing any of those six, it does not feel as good to try. okay.

Britt (22:14.701)

Mm-hmm.

Britt (22:24.022)

Yeah, and patients are used to working with two people, right? So that's even, it's like, yeah, it's one more person in the mix, but on the doctor's side, there's two of you. So having an assistant with hygiene, isn't that big of a deal? Seeing the same two faces every time, like they'll be fine with it. Cause I know that can be a concern. I'm like, they're used to having two people on the doctor's side.

Kiera Dent (22:41.104)

I see the same. I'm like, just because we're not used to it doesn't mean it's odd for the patient. I tell doctors when you're onboarding an associate, I'm like, you can assist each other. And I know that feels weird to you, to the patient, they're used to someone else in there. To hygienist, they're used to people switching rooms. it's not something, if we're not weird about it, your patient won't be weird about it. But I think we feel very awkward because we feel uncomfortable. But just not projecting that onto your patient. Cause I don't think it's as much as you might think it is. So, okay,

Britt (23:10.316)

And ender fun for assisted hygiene, I always have someone to pair your chart for me. So I'll take that as a win.

Kiera Dent (23:15.28)

True, that is a big win. mean, truth, you're not having to call for it. Okay, the hot topic of shorter appointment times. I'm talking, I've heard 50 minute appointments, 45 minute appointments. Is this doable, Britt? And I think I'm gonna know your answer, I also, like come from both, come from hygiene, Britt, and operations, Britt. Bring both of those Brits to the table and you answer. I'm curious.

Britt (23:40.11)

And I'll say this, I have worked in offices with all of the above, right? So I've done all of the above.

Kiera Dent (23:44.42)

came. Her bigade you guys have idea. Good thing we plugged that at the beginning.

Britt (23:49.038)

So all are doable. I think there's a couple of things that make a difference when it comes to shortening appointments, depending on what type of experience you want them to have, right? That's an important part to consider for doctors. Depending on our pay or mix, what we need to do in order to the business running, that's something to consider. And then also how efficient we are.

Kiera Dent (24:11.376)

true.

Britt (24:17.07)

as a team and like doctor doing exams, right? That's an important piece of it. And then another one is our patient base slash how good are we at keeping them healthy and not giving ourselves a lot of work every single time our patients come in. If you know what I'm saying, those bloody profusers, they're a lot of work. So if I'm treating period appropriately, I'm educating my patients, they're coming in regularly.

Kiera Dent (24:30.85)

you

Kiera Dent (24:36.089)

I do.

Britt (24:42.734)

We all know those are patients that are a lot easier to see and more efficient most of the time. And yeah, there's gonna be even working on shorter appointment times, there's gonna be some. Like you know that person that's like an advanced period patient and I'm like, I cannot in my right moral standing do that in 45 minutes, it's gonna be an hour. There's gotta be some of that liberty where needed.

Kiera Dent (25:03.888)

Yeah, I agree. So I think the hard thing of switching appointment times is I do think it becomes an all model because for me to shift it, it feels like a daunting project to shift from 60 minutes to 45 minutes. Now I'm moving everything up. My exam times don't hit at the same time anymore. Things just are moving all around. that's a huge jump.

Britt (25:18.99)

Mm-hmm.

Britt (25:29.804)

And 60 to 45 is a big jump. I wouldn't go that far if we're going to play around with times. Maybe you could go from 60 to 50. Most offices are running on 10 minute increments. So you can make that shift. And it's just you've got to be really on point to run that efficiently, because the quality's still got to be there. It's just we've got to be able to run really efficiently.

Kiera Dent (25:45.208)

I agree.

Britt (25:57.944)

And I'll add this, and depending on what I was expected within that appointment as well, right? If we want the hygienist to be super comprehensive, we want them to get scans done, we want them to collect a lot of information for us, like, I map it out, right? That takes me two minutes, that takes me three minutes. Like, what's reasonable in an appointment for us to get done by the minute mapped out and then make your decision?

Kiera Dent (26:11.002)

Mm-hmm.

Kiera Dent (26:19.652)

I think that that's a wise and don't go for your fastest hygienist and don't go for your slowest hygienist. Let's find that middle ground of what's reasonable between the two because you do have some. mean, Britt and I, can even hear in our, the way we talk, we've got different tempos. mean, but you can guess who's a little bit faster and who's a little bit slower between me and Britt. And sometimes it's really good. Like Britt slowing me down and me speeding her up. And I think Britt and I would both agree that a happy medium between the two of us is the right spot to be, which is usually where we end just in

Britt (26:33.752)

huh.

Britt (26:41.87)

Mm-hmm.

Britt (26:48.814)

Yeah. And a team working together really well, right? Especially when I was working on 45 and 50 minutes. I mean, we had a fantastic clinical coordinator, right? So if my next patient was here and there was a room to be had even for a few minutes to get x-rays done, and someone was available, they were getting those x-rays done and getting it started. So it's a different tempo and pace you run on. And it does take full team support. It's not going to be like, oh, well, they're early. Oh, they're here. We have space to see them.

Kiera Dent (26:49.561)

in decisions.

Britt (27:18.058)

start getting them taken care of so that it helps your team members out and we get them out as efficiently as possible.

Kiera Dent (27:24.464)

So that's a good point because then it becomes, it's not just the hygienist. Cause I think 60 minutes is kind of like hygiene does their own thing. We want them to do everything on shorter appointment times. We are trying to get more, more bodies in and out. But I did the math and it's like, if I'm going from 60 to 50, I'm getting 10 extra minutes per appointment. That's going to give me 80 minutes in a day, but that's not enough for me to get two extra appointments unless I do a 50 minute plus an additional like 30 minute. And so I would ask the question, Britt, and I don't know if

Britt (27:32.897)

Mm-hmm.

Kiera Dent (27:53.36)

you run the numbers or not on it. I mean, I haven't, so that's why I'm asking. But if I've got a hygiene team that does take ortho scans for us when we do ortho, I've got a hygiene team who's taking CBCTs for implants and we're teeing it up for all on X cases. If they're looking for sleep and we're doing snore tests on them, does it really make sense to get me one more hygiene patient for hygiene? Or does it make sense to look to optimize the additional services? Now I get like, we might be trying to get

because I'm like, well, what's the reason we're doing it? If we're trying to shorten the appointment times because we have too many patients, maybe it's worth looking at our fees. But if we're trying to get more patients in to optimize our hygienist pay, to be able to pay them and compensate for the amount of production they're doing. And I know a lot of offices don't pay hygienists for those scans. Like if you do a night guard scan or you do an ortho scan, it goes to the doctor, which I understand because the doctor is going to need to do a lot. But I'm just curious, like to me, it makes a little bit more sense, possibly.

If my hygienist have 60 minutes, I'm already there, why don't I try to optimize and maximize that appointment, paying them maybe a little bit of these scans that I want to be done so that way they can hit their production number, but it benefits the office on a bigger scale. What are your thoughts on that, Britt?

Britt (29:05.61)

where I think it comes back to what type of experience, what type of office, what's your vision. It comes back to ultimately write any business. It comes back to the volume value question. By cutting time, we're choosing volume. By using that time better, we're choosing value.

Kiera Dent (29:20.208)

Mm-hmm.

Britt (29:26.318)

It's going to be a personal preference. I'm not going to say there's a right or wrong answer in that because there's a lot of factors depending on kind of what your payer mix is like. I definitely have some areas that even for me, I tried to move that culture of the area, if I tried to move that patient at the speed that I need for a 45 minute appointment, they are not going to love it. Even though I might be the most pleasant human being they've ever interacted with because the pace that they run is a little bit slower, right? And so...

Kiera Dent (29:50.916)

Yeah.

Britt (29:56.334)

right when I was running 45 minutes, we were right outside of DC. Those people don't want to be there that long. Right. And they were, you know, demographic was easy for us to run them through. And so they didn't mind the fast pace and we still connected, but we were able to run like that. So I think it comes back to overall experience on what you want to have. and there's no right or wrong, but I love making more use of the time we have, which is where I think hygienist functioning to the

the height of their capability, right? If you can use laser and that's something your office wants to bring in, great. That's something that can be an adjunct service that adds to the production. You know, what can you do for the patient? I think not only on the hygiene side, but that's where I think it really is a team to where what can I do in scans, in pictures, in educating patients about treatment options, talking to them about what do they really value? What do they really want? Are there cosmetic things that they're looking for?

Kiera Dent (30:29.232)

Mm-hmm.

Britt (30:53.24)

There's a lot you can do and I think that's for hygienists to realize if we do well overall, right, everybody wins. So when we're able to get where we need to production collection wise as an office overall, it makes it easier for us to say, yeah, that time is useful. We're making good use of it on the hygiene side. Let's keep our appointments at 60 minutes. Or if it's like, hey, we're not, we either need to do that and get things up or.

we're going to have to evaluate and make some decisions because sometimes there's just business decisions that need to be made and we need to figure out how to adapt and innovate.

Kiera Dent (31:28.324)

Yeah, right. That was such an insightful piece. And as you were talking, I just thought, I hope offices are listening because I think that this is just a really good, like, this is where we, have to get into the, are we doing this? What are additional pieces rather than just the like quick surface level decision? Because I think there's so many pieces below it. Like you said, demographics, DC, 45 minutes makes a ton of sense. Those people are faster in and out. They're younger population. Like it's an easier model to roll that.

Britt (31:56.268)

Mm-hmm.

Kiera Dent (31:56.396)

versus maybe let's say some areas in Arizona, like you might not have a same, you might have it like in Scottsdale Tempe, but if we're going a little further out to maybe some of those senior centers, that's not an ideal model for maybe an older population base. So really like you said, and I think like volume versus value, and I don't think it's the value that we're bringing to the patient. It's the value of are we doing ortho? Are we adding these adjunct services to it? You obviously add value to your patients, but are we doing a lot of people?

or are we doing less people but more extensive? That's gonna be a clinical or a business decision and also a clinical decision and also a cultural decision of what you ultimately want your practice to be. But I get it, you gotta make these decisions, you gotta make the business run. I would just caution, don't make the quick decision because I think there's multi-layers below each of them to really consider. So hygiene Britt, thanks for coming today. Any last thoughts you've got as we wrap up? Assisted hygiene, shorter appointments, I think they are really good perspectives to bring.

Britt (32:55.822)

I think my last thing I like that you said, right, don't make the quick decision, evaluate it. And I think even hygienist, right, it's easy for us as team members, I do the same thing, right? I can see my world and what it's gonna impact for me, but I understand there's more behind it than just my view. And so really taking a good look overall and seeing what's gonna be the best decision. And yeah, how we're functioning now might make us think that we need to make this decision, but maybe we can keep running and function a little different to where we don't have to make that change.

Kiera Dent (33:25.52)

I think it's a really good perspective. if you guys are in this debacle, we're speaking to your souls. This is what we love to do with our practices is really weigh the pros and cons and help the office make the best decision for their practice, not just a decision and really thinking through the, all the different pieces and then executing and getting your whole team on board, helping the team see the pieces so you can really be successful. So reach out if we can help. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com thanks for being with me today. I appreciate it.

Britt (33:53.196)

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Kiera Dent (33:54.648)

Of course, and for all of you listening, thanks for listening. And we'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

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Tiff and Kristy talk about how doctors can get to that point where their practice can function with and without them, including taking a good and hard look at your numbers, dialing in your BAM, encouraging delegation and accountability, and more.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:01.676)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. my gosh, I'm so excited for today. I know you guys diligently listen constantly that you're here, that you're here for us, and we just love you and we value you and we appreciate you. We recently had some virtual events and it's just been really cool to see the masses show up in such incredible support for who we are, what we do for this community, and just all of the outpour of love. So we want to say thank you guys for

being listeners for always showing up for us. We hope we do the same for you, that we always show up for you. And I'm just so excited for today. I have with me today the one and only Miss Kristy. She is a consultant here on our team. If you have not gotten to meet her yet, you are doing yourself a disservice. I'm excited for you to hear from her today. We've got a really great conversation we're about to have. And honestly, guys, Kristy is just this incredible wealth of knowledge. She has been such an asset to our team.

such an asset to the consultant team alone and her clients that she works one-on-one with are just already raving about her. So we are so excited. Kristy, welcome to the platform. I know this is our first podcast and you came in, you know, late to the podcasting game, I'm going to call it, where it's video too. So it's like not to be, you know, overwhelming or put you on a pedestal or anything here, right? But I'm just super excited to have you here. And I know that the

Doctors who are listening today are just going to get so much valuable information. So, Kristy, thank you for being here today. Thank you for carving out the time in your schedule for this. And gosh, how are you? You're in Idaho right now, but soon, guys, she will be with me in Arizona, don't you fret. It is down the pipeline for her, but you're in Idaho right now, so what's the weather like? You know, it's drastically different from here. What's the weather like? How are you, Kristy? How are you on this fine recording Friday morning?

Kristy (01:38.274)

Yeah.

Kristy (01:52.95)

Love it. I'm happy to be here with you. Nervous for the first podcast, but we're going to do it because it's all about serving the doctors. actually, I'm excited to get to Arizona. It's snowing this morning. So yeah, I'm ready. I'm ready for some warm weather.

The Dental A Team (02:11.754)

Good. I'm excited for you to be here too. Phoenix has no snow. I don't know that Flagstaff even has real snow right now. I have no idea. But Phoenix has no snow and it's a brisk, like, I don't know, probably 60 degrees. It was 38 this morning though. Anyways, I'm excited you're here, Kristy. Thank you. And doctors, team members who are listening, leaders, office managers, today is going to be super fun. I've probed some tips and probed Kristy's brain today.

on a subject matter that I think she's actually really smart on. I think we all work really hard with our doctors to help you guys work yourselves out of the business. Like that's the ultimate goal. Whether you work out of the business or not, whether you're like, gosh, no, I actually really love this stuff, Tiff. I want to do the admin stuff. I don't care. But I want you to have that opportunity to be able to say yes or no, I want to do those things. So building and creating a business that can work without you is our ultimate goal. Like a profitable...

survivable business that works for you, that you can take a step back and say, gosh, you know what? I want to go to Aruba for a month and I think my team's going to be fine and my business can survive. I want you to be able to make those decisions. So today, that's what we're going to be talking about you guys. How do we create a sustainable business that can survive with and without you? Not or with and without you so that you get to make that decision. And Kristy, I know we

have a ton of clients that we work with this every single day. And I think both of us, both you and I kind of have that mindset of like, cool, these are the places that we're going, but forever more, like I want you to always be thinking.

Forevermore, I want you to always be thinking, how do I work myself out of the business? Like, how do I make sure that I'm ready to go and I can take that vacation or whatever? So I know, Kristy, that's something that we work on a lot. And I have some ideas, and I know you do too, and I want to pick your brain some today. So first and foremost, I think one of the spaces I want to start with is really the overhead and the profitability. That's a huge focus of DEML-A team for

The Dental A Team (04:15.605)

all of the consulting that we do. I know we do a ton of team training and I know that's what a lot of people come to us for is for that team training for the systems. But you guys, the reality is if we're not focusing on your overhead, your profitability and the metrics of your business, there's no telling if that training is even beneficial for you guys. I could train somebody to do something, but is it actually making a result in your practice? And are you able to pull that back into that profitability space? So as your...

Working yourself out of the business, air quotes were there for those of you who are listening, not watching. As you're working yourself out of the business here, I want you to really sincerely be focused on the numbers and the metrics of your practice. What is your overhead out? Where is your true profitability? And Kristy, I think we can both agree, true profitability is like such a vague statement in dentistry because...

Everybody says your overhead should be like 50%, right? 50 % or less, and your profitability should be at least 20%. Well, guess what, guys? Nobody talks about the loans, paying yourself, the taxes. Like, all of those extra pieces aren't always talked about. So, Kristy, know this is something, forecasting is something that you're really fantastic at and you work really hard with your clients at.

Within that world of trying to make sure that we're prepped to exit the practice at some point, how do you implement with your teams and your practices that overhead profitability piece so that your doctors know what to look for so they can say, hey, I think I'm ready for that step?

Kristy (05:45.718)

Yeah, absolutely. Honestly, I think it's obviously projecting out, looking at what is it gonna take? What do I need to make this happen? And then reverse engineering it from there. Really dialing in to what will it take every single month for me to be away from the practice? What is that number that I need? And then working it backward to find that goal.

The Dental A Team (06:07.103)

Thank

The Dental A Team (06:15.978)

Yeah, I actually love that you said that. That's a beautiful, beautiful way to look at it because you guys, if you know what your BAM is, right, your bare ace minimum is how we say that at the Dental A Team, your bare ace minimum, how do we get to what that overhead needs to be? So if you know at X amount of dollars, your overhead, your true overhead, so that true overhead, right, is anything above the line. So anything that if someone were to purchase your practice today, they'd take those over. That does not include your owner pay.

Okay, your loans and your taxes, those are after bottom line, right? So your bottom line, if you say, okay, if I make Epsilon dollars, that's gonna get me to 50 % overhead, how much of that production or collections, right? Production turns into collections. How much of that money is coming from the treatment that I'm providing for my practice right now? So if you're the owner slash doctor and you're still clinical chair side, you need to take a look.

then at how much of that overhead piece is within your control as a provider. Because if you're looking to work yourself out of the business, you want to just be the overseer, you want to go on vacation for a month, you have to replace that production slash collections somehow. So then if you know what that bare ace minimum is to get to that profitability that you want and keep your business thriving, now you can look at what Chrissy is saying, like projecting and looking at every single month.

How do we replace that income? How do we replace that production and collections to ensure that the business is still moving forward? Now, in order to get that number, which is step one, I believe, in working yourself out of the business is knowing your freaking numbers, is really to look at where are you now? What's your overhead now? What is it after you pay yourself, et cetera? What's your true profitability? And where do you actually want it to be? So if you have an overhead of, I don't know, 60%.

Right? It's not horrible. Honestly, 55 to 65 % for people who aren't always like looking at it, don't know their numbers is pretty common. 55 to 65%. So maybe you're at 60%. Maybe you're at 80%. Okay, great. Well, I got to 80 % by collecting X amount of dollars. So if I want to lower that percentage, right, there's things to play with, right? Within your metrics, there are things to play with. Maybe you've got areas that we can slim down. But also if I were to increase my collections,

The Dental A Team (08:38.078)

with that decrease my overhead. So that's what Kristy's saying there, like really looking at what is our various minimum and then how do you now create that into someone else's schedule so that you're not the main provider. I love that Kristy. I think within that same conversation is really bringing in the leadership aspects of the practice and so you know your numbers, you're learning your business, you're you pedal to the metal, you're freaking figuring it out and who's supporting you.

Do you have an office manager who's trained to support you in those pieces? Are you still doing all of the admin work that an office manager truly could do? And do you have a leadership team set up within your practice who can create those spaces for you? And Kristy, you work a lot on leadership development, just like as a person for yourself and then as a person for your doctors. And then within that office manager and leadership positions too, how do you see an office's

You know, square one, no leadership, just a doctor thinks they might have somebody for an office manager compared to, I don't know, six months a year down the road, that doctor made the decision. They've got the rockin' office manager and they're making the leadership team. How do you feel that helps in the doctor's personal life? Like, how does that relieve stress for the doctor? You know, how does that relieve pressure from the doctor? What does that lifestyle change like once they implement and truly just go for it on a leadership standpoint?

Kristy (10:04.48)

Absolutely, truly it's that trust, right? It's a transfer of trust and having a peace of mind that the people that are in the leadership are living up to the same vision and mission of the practice and...

really developing the team below them and elevating them to a level, if you will, to help them grow and sustain that mission for the doctor. But really, when you delegate that and you see them rising to that occasion, it gives you that personal satisfaction too, if you will.

The Dental A Team (10:47.076)

Yeah, yeah, totally. I agree. And that trust aspect that you're talking about, think it's just like trusting anyone in your life to do anything. you when you're a parent and you trust a friend or a family member to pick your kids up from school, like, how much stress does that relief from you not having to be the one that does it or you got a carpool situation like

Any of those spaces are going to correlate back to it. And I totally agree with that because I think when you can dig in, you can get that office manager fully trained. can get a leadership team that's rising up to the occasion and able to take some of that load off of your plate. You now have space and energy to do other things. And in my opinion, when you're a practice owner, your job is to create something really, really freaking cool.

You're creating a space that people can come and love to work. So you're creating an avenue and a lifestyle for people. I don't know if you realize that. Your team, your employees, you're creating a life for them by creating an incredible life for yourself. So when you open up those spaces and you delegate those things off and you trust your team to take them on with accountability, there's always accountability coming back. That's how trust is earned and how trust is maintained.

When you delegate those things off and that accountability is there, the pieces are there and you trust them to do it, it opens up the space to have time to ensure that what you're creating still lines up with your vision. It still lines up with what your mission is as a dental practitioner and having a dental practice within your community. So then having a leadership team and within that same vein, like having core values, mission, vision, those are clear for you. They're clear for your team.

especially your leadership team, those pieces give us a heading of where we need to go. And those pieces now for your leadership team are developing autonomy within the leadership team, autonomy within decisions. I want you guys to think about, want you to take like 30 seconds, doctors, and I want you to just think of all of the ridiculous questions that you have been asked in the last three business days within your office, that you're just like,

The Dental A Team (13:02.245)

Why is this coming to me? I had a doctor out in California that I worked with for a little while and he is so amazing and he is just like this knowledge factory. Like he just soaks it all up and he's constantly learning and learning and learning. And so he's got, you know, that's own aspect of stress of his own that he's consuming constantly and creating constantly. And then we'd get on a call and he's like, my gosh, they asked me, why isn't Dentrix pulling up? He's like, I

I'm doing a root canal. I know. hey, what are we getting for lunch for the meeting today? He's like, I don't know. I'm doing an exam. Like, the amount of questions that come to you guys when you're chair side or when you're doing the thing that only you can do, remember, only you can fill this tooth. Only you can do this root canal. When those questions come to you, your brain has to stop what it's doing.

restart on whatever the question was, catch up, maybe even answer it, or at least get frustrated, stop, restart, come back again. And not only does it take more time, but you lose that value of who you are, how you're showing up for the patient and for your team in those moments. So those are the spaces I want you guys to think about. What are the things that are coming to you that's like, why am I doing this? Or I don't want to answer this question, or I'm in the middle of something.

Is that something that if trained correctly and given the right boundaries for autonomy, someone else could do for you? Because I think that's likely something that Kristy's talking about here, that you delegate off and you build that trust with that other person, with that accountability coming back. And Kristy, know you actually, you've got a ton of amazing doctors under your belt actually.

I have to brag on Dental A Team. I don't know what we do. I don't know what we do, right? But we attract the most incredible people into our company to work for us and with us, and into our client base to work with us. So we really, really have some incredible people. And you guys listening, I think we attracted you as well, and that means you're freaking incredible too. So kudos to all of you guys. I don't know what we do right, but we are so happy with the people we get to work with. And Kristy, you've got a handful of

The Dental A Team (15:25.628)

two handfuls more maybe, of incredible doctors that you're working with and leaders. And what are some ways that you've helped them? Because you do have some doctors who are really kind of fresh into this idea of delegating things off and building a lifestyle within their business where they could say, I want to take vacation. How do you help them to really figure those things out that they can delegate off and then to trust the process and stick with it?

Kristy (15:52.066)

Yeah, well first and foremost, I always like them to create a list. Like sit down and really think about all of those things you're doing and divide them out. Like is it something you enjoy doing? Is it something only you can do? Is it something that maybe you don't like to do? You know what I mean? And really create those lists and start.

The Dental A Team (16:15.227)

Yeah.

Kristy (16:19.338)

organizing them in that way so that you can start getting clear on the things that you want to delegate out. But then the other flip side of that TIF I would say is getting them to see that they're actually stifling the growth of the team and leadership beneath them.

when they are holding it so close to the vest. And, you know, when, maybe you can remember the saying, but we only rise as high as, do you remember the saying?

The Dental A Team (16:49.232)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, as we're allowed to, as we're given the space for. Yeah.

Kristy (16:52.834)

Yeah, yeah. you know, flipping it that way and getting them to see that, you know, by you hanging on to this so tightly, you're not allowing your team to grow and develop and support you in the way that they truly want to.

The Dental A Team (17:07.036)

Yeah.

Yeah, I think that one hits home for a lot of people. That was a really great way to take that because I know, especially the doctors we work with, they are in the business of growing themselves and growing the people around them. I just had a conversation this morning with a doctor and his office manager wife who were like, gosh, dang it, how do I get them to want to learn more? And I'm like, well, they have to want it first, but then you have to allow the space. I think that's like nail on the head because

you're not allowing that space, you're not giving the opportunity, they're only going to arise to the limits that you set for them, that you allow for them. That's the boundary, right? Like that's the standard. You've set the standard to here and until you move that bar, giving them more opportunity, they're going to keep hitting that standard. And I actually, it's come up a lot this week because I had a conversation yesterday with the regional manager that was like,

How do I get this? How do I do this? And I'm like, gosh dang it. You have to pave the path, right? And it's hard. can be a lot of work and it takes a lot of consistency and it takes a lot of desire on your part to truly want the results. So what is the results you're looking for? Do you want autonomous leaders? Do you want this stuff off of your plate? Do you want a business that works for you that you can say, I'm gonna take a vacation? Because if you do,

You're going to pave that path and you're going to do the hard work now to reap the rewards and the benefits later. Because if you do that hard work now and you say, I'm going to raise the standards, I'm going to delegate things off, I'm going to give them the opportunity for growth, I'm going watch them blossom and I'm going to hold the accountability line so that I can continue to trust that it's being done. It takes consistency. My practice I spoke to this morning, I was like, don't give up.

The Dental A Team (18:58.643)

Just because you said this is what you want doesn't mean they're going to turn around and do it. It's just, it's likely not going to happen that way because human nature just doesn't work that way. I wish it did. I truly wish it did, but it doesn't. I forget things, right? Kira will ask me to do something. And if Kira doesn't stay on top of me or we don't create like a system of accountability to report back that it's been done or to report back weekly on certain stats, it doesn't get done because I'll forget. I will get inundated with so many other things.

and will forget. And she loves me. She thinks I'm an incredible leader, but it frustrates the heck out of her. So we've figured out how to make sure that those report back systems are there. So I love that because that growth space is huge for both of you guys. And like I said, the doctors that we attract, I know this is what you want for them. Even if you're like, I don't care, Kristy, don't care, Tiff, I don't need to work myself out of the business I just started. Cool.

Guess what? You're still going to work yourself out of the business, but you actually love growing other people. I know that that's a space in you. I know it's spark that lights up in you because I know that's the type of humans that we attract in the Dental A Team. So if that's true and if that's what you want, help grow those people. And that will progress this so much faster than you could ever imagine. And I think all of those pieces, right, put together overhead and profitability first.

Teach your office manager how to shoot for overhead profitability and the numbers that you need. Figure out what that looks like to work yourself out of the business. Build an autonomous as you can leadership team. Continue working with them and you guys make sure that there are plenty of meetings for accountability set up. Accountability and forward progress. Constantly looking at the pieces we should have done. So accountability and looking at what's to come. The forward progress. And you guys make sure everyone knows.

Core values, vision, mission. You have to know them. You have to be solid on them. Your leadership team has to be solid on them. They have to live and breathe them and the rest of the team will follow. That's why they're the leadership team. The rest of the team will follow them. I think this is huge and I'm so excited. Kristy, out of all of those pieces, overhead, office manager and leadership team, the meetings, core value, vision, mission, out of all of those pieces, I'm just like,

The Dental A Team (21:25.043)

wondering what is your favorite space to work with doctors on?

Kristy (21:29.883)

really... Ooh! Favorite space.

Honestly, think, well, there's two, getting them to dial into what they really want. You know, what is that number metric? Because so many people get afraid of the metric, you know, and the metrics only a North Star was here say North Star to guide us. so being very clear on that, but then also really develop developing their leadership, you know, especially when doctors are open to it, you know, most

The Dental A Team (21:48.576)

Mm-hmm.

The Dental A Team (21:52.989)

Yeah, yeah.

Kristy (22:05.134)

of them are thriving in wanting or desire, I guess it would be a better word, desire to grow their people. And you you even mentioned something earlier, even if they're not looking to get out of the practice right now, starting this early and developing the team early, my gosh, that just creates more success within that timeline, you know, so.

The Dental A Team (22:05.62)

Mm-hmm.

Kristy (22:30.498)

The leadership part is really fun to watch unfold, you know?

The Dental A Team (22:34.696)

Yeah, I agree. I agree. And I think I wanted to ask because I thought I knew I was like, I think I know. But I also feel like within that space, because I you and I are both similar in that we love growing people. We love growing the leadership we love when not we love nothing more than when we can help something on the business side that they're like, Whoa, actually, you just blew my mind. And that's my whole life. And we're like, yes, yes, your your whole life. So I know we're both

Kristy (22:58.507)

Thank

The Dental A Team (23:02.534)

like running down that road. But what I've noticed, and I think you probably have too, and the coaching that you've done for so many years as well, is like, that's a space that all of these other pieces fall into. Because you can't grow just that, in my opinion, without growing the other pieces. And you can't grow, you can grow, you can grow numbers, overhead profitability, and not grow leadership, but you're stuck. You're like, you're stuck in this space. You can't grow out of that stuck.

without that leadership development within yourself and within your team. So I think that's why we love it so much because it creates so much opportunity for everything else to fall into place when we can dive in and figure out our why, what are we even here for and how we're going to get there. So thank you for letting me pick your brain on that, Kristy. I loved it. Gosh, this was a really fun conversation, you guys. I, Kristy, thank you so much for riffing with me, letting me.

Pull out the big questions and just for being here with me. I truly appreciate and value your time so much. And you guys listening, gosh dang it, action items, here they come. I need you to evaluate where you're at. Like, what are your numbers? What's your BAM? What's your bare-ace minimum? Where do you want to go in comparison and create that roadmap? And if you guys need help with that, you know to reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com I don't know how many times I have to say it, we're here for you. So.

Create that number. What is that number? What does it look like? What does it need to look like? And when are you working yourself out of the business? Create that whole roadmap, you guys. Leadership. Develop yourself. You cannot develop leaders if you are not developing yourself. You can do them simultaneously, but you can't make other people become something you're not willing to become. So develop your leadership skills, develop your leadership team, create autonomy within that. Lots of meetings for accountability.

Mission, vision, core values, you guys, those are huge in my books. That's your heading and probably goes right back to that step one action item that I just gave you. So go to the things you guys, it might feel cumbersome right now. It might feel like, dang it, Kristy, you're giving me a whole lot of things to do this weekend. But guess what? You're going to do this now and it's going to take this X amount of time, maybe three hours, and it's going to save you time in the long run, because if you wait,

The Dental A Team (25:28.684)

you're gonna get to the end and you're gonna be like, I need out of this and you're not ready. But if you do it now, you can get to the end and be ready. It's gonna be so much more work if you're to a point where you need out and you're not ready than doing the hard work now and being ready when you get there. Kristy, thank you for your time. Thank you for traveling down this fun podcasting world with me. I truly appreciate you and I value your input. So thank you for being here.

Kristy (25:56.504)

Thank you for having me. And I would also say, Tiff, we're gonna come to that point, right? We're gonna travel down the line that you talked about, and we can either do it by default or we can do it with intention. So hopefully, it'll take your advice and we'll be intentional about it. So, fun

The Dental A Team (25:58.876)

Of course.

The Dental A Team (26:10.739)

The Dental A Team (26:15.871)

I love it. Thank you. You guys, I hope you picked up on the fact that Kristy has some freaking nuggets that she drops, and I am so excited for you guys to partake in these nuggets. Kristy, I will surely have you back on for so many more podcasts, and the world needs to hear them. I get them constantly, and I'm just like, dang, that was good. And so I'm excited for everybody else to hear them. Thank you for that. It was truly invaluable. You guys, go do the hard things. And while you're at it...

Leave us a five star review because we love to hear from you here on this podcast and also on Google. We need them everywhere. We love them. We want to know that we're doing right by you. So tell us that you enjoyed it. Tell us if there's something different that you'd like to hear. You know we want all the feedback. So leave us a five star review. You guys, if you haven't done it yet, you can sign up for a strategy call with our team. Current clients, you get those all the time. If you need a strategy call, tell your consultant, non-current clients, if you want a free call.

to just dive in and figure out where you are and where you need to start. Sign up for a strategy call. They're free, they're fun, and it really gives you a great direction, whether you're going to become a client with us or not, get that strategy call in there. Have so much fun. Thank you for joining. Thank you for being a podcast listener, and we will catch you guys next time.

View Details

Kiera and Britt have a deep discussion on the ins and outs of hygiene right now, including what’s on hygiene grads’ minds, the right ranges for skill sets, how different practices are staying scrappy amid the dearth of hygienists, and more.

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Transcript

Kiera Dent (00:00.822)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I have Brittany Stone, the one and only No BS Britt. And today I'm asking her to play Hygiene Britt. If you didn't know, it's actually fun. It is. And it was funny because yesterday, Britt and I actually like had, we were heavy in Dental A Team mode. And then I called Britt back probably like a minute later and I said, Hey Britt, can you be Hygiene Britt for me? Cause I have a hygiene question.

Britt (00:26.988)

you

Kiera Dent (00:29.102)

So Britt, welcome to the show today. How are you?

Britt (00:32.308)

I'm good, how are you doing?

Kiera Dent (00:34.23)

I'm great. How does it feel to be hygiene Britt? Like go from, mean, you're Dental A Team's operations manager, you're also consultant, like all the things. How does it feel like go back into that clinical space sometimes?

Britt (00:45.678)

I mean, hygiene are roots, man. Like that's the beginning. So it feels to me, I know you guys haven't known me as like hygienist. Like, yes, I know hygiene stuff, but you never worked with me clinically as a hygienist. But to me, I'm like, yeah, that's me.

Kiera Dent (00:54.872)

true.

Kiera Dent (01:00.91)

I'm glad because it is fun. I actually was talking to Jason last night after you and I had chatted and I said, Jay, it was actually really fun to talk to Britt about like where we started. I mean, I'm dental assistant, Kiera, office manager, Kiera, treatment coordinator, Kiera. No one's known me as that in Dental A Team. And so I'm just going to throw it out there because you never know who's listening to the podcast and who would ever like take me up on this idea. But if there's someone out there,

that would love to allow Dental A Team to come in for one day and go back to our roots. So Britt, we probably have to do this in Arizona, because I think you're only licensed in certain states, right? Okay, so Arizona offices, if you know someone in Arizona, all of our crew will be there in March and there might be a few other times, but I think it'd be funny to see a Dental A Team take over. Like how would it be for Tip to be an assistant?

Britt (01:35.318)

Yeah, currently still just Arizona. My OG state over here.

Kiera Dent (01:52.462)

me to either be an assistant or a treatment coordinator, and Dana to go back into hygiene and just see like how it would run. if anybody's open to letting us come back into our, like put the scrubs on and just see like, shoot, we'll cover for a day for you guys.

Britt (02:01.198)

.

Britt (02:06.358)

It would be like a good and wild time all at the same time because I think we're all a little bit more maybe assertive than we might have been in some of our olden days in those positions.

Kiera Dent (02:14.038)

Hahaha

Kiera Dent (02:18.316)

I agree. And this is why I want to see like what would Dental A Team do if we were all put into one office at one time. So anyway, if you're interested, email me Hello@TheDentalATeam.com This isn't a passive ask. This is like, I really think it'd be so fun. We've talked about it so many times, like what would it be like? So, Hey, if you're ever interested in Dental A Team.

Britt (02:23.046)

Yeah.

Britt (02:35.982)

Usually what we do is we say if we could all only be one role, so no doubling up on roles, this is the game Kiera likes to play, who would be which role within the office is usually how this goes. yeah, not to say we don't get along, we would have a fantastic time, but you'd get a lot of ideas that they would run quick, I'll tell you that.

Kiera Dent (02:45.118)

I do.

Kiera Dent (02:49.762)

and

Kiera Dent (02:55.608)

Thank

Kiera Dent (02:58.99)

Well, and I'm like, believe it or not, I would actually not go for office manager. So I'm out on that. Shelby will probably take on office manager role, even though she's never done it, she'll do great. But it is kind of funny, Tiffany, we were talking the other day and I said, Tiff, I remember being a dental assistant and I had hours of time sitting there like root canals, crown preps, where I just thought of all these ideas and Tiff's like, I would like, I literally would hate if you actually went back to that and had that much time to think of ideas.

Britt (03:08.014)

Thank you.

Kiera Dent (03:26.904)

Fair enough. anyway, throwing it out there, Britt and I have a good time, but truly I do think it'd be fun if an office allowed us to come and just like see what would happen if all of us went back into it. You might hate it. Don't worry, doctors. You can still keep like one or two main assistants. Like we won't fully do it, but like we're, we think we'd be the A team. I'm just curious if we'd actually be rated A, B, C or D going back in as a whole team. Exactly. But on that note, pivoting into what we want to chat about.

Britt (03:47.327)

Put our money where our mouth is. Is that what you're saying?

Kiera Dent (03:55.96)

Britt and I wanted to get on the podcast and I really wanted Britt to be on this podcast with me because Britt is a hygienist and believe it or not, I have had actually some clients ask Britt and Dana like, hey, if you ever want to like leave consulting and come back to hygiene, hey, poo poo on you, that's terrible, don't do that. We don't poach your people, don't poach ours. But it is interesting because I do know that hygiene is a hot topic and so I thought Britt, if we came on the podcast today and we actually chatted about...

Britt (04:08.174)

Thank

Britt (04:12.056)

you

Kiera Dent (04:22.508)

All right, let's talk about hygiene. How do we get hygienists? How can we hire? How can we attract? What are maybe some out of the box thinking today? And also doing on both sides of the coin because I do know we have hygienists that do listen to the podcast as well. So shout out to you listening in and educating yourself and understanding kind of the predicament the doctors are in because it's this constant, like I do feel over the last four years since COVID, the hygiene pay range has like just like escalated up this ladder, which is making it hard for practices to stay profitable, which then leads to if

The practices can't maintain profitability. I do actually wonder and this is kind of just my thoughts and I'm sure Britt you've thought of it. Will there come a point where hygienists are actually asking for too much that dentists say it's not worth it for hygienists? I'm just going to hire a dentist. So I'm just like just so we know and I want hygienists. So it's going to be kind of like a really open conversation. My goal today is that none of what we bring ever should be weaponized against people. So there might be some ideas discussed hygienists if we're talking about certain things to me. This is not always on where you can go in.

take this to your doctor and demand certain things and doctors if that happens, like it sounds like that's a great opportunity to coach that hygienist out and bring someone else in and vice versa. Hygienists and doctors, like doctors not weaponizing and saying, hygienists we're so high, I can't afford to do this or things like that. I think really understanding the dynamics of where we're at, I think is gonna be a good conversation. So Britt, you, hi, Janice Britt, welcome to the scene, hello.

Britt (05:45.454)

Thank you. I'll put that hat on. And it's all in fairness, right? I think that's what it comes down to in any working relationship. And even when it comes down to talking about things like compensation, like it should be a conversation for both sides, right? And sometimes there's things that can be done. Sometimes there's things that can't be done. And sometimes performance-wise, it doesn't warrant being done. So I think that's just the mindset to go into it with always when it comes to those conversations is it is a conversation. It should be a conversation.

demands back and forth and finding the best fair solution.

Kiera Dent (06:20.502)

Yeah, absolutely. And Britt, I'm so glad that you're open to this. And Britt, the reason I love her in operations next to me, like I feel like her and I are really good yin and yang. think Britt and I truly, we have very different personalities. We have very different mindsets. We have very different pieces. And I think when you can bring those two perspectives to the table, I'm very strong entrepreneur. I'm very strong business. very, like Britt will tell you, I come in very strong on those and Britt will come in very strong on team.

Britt (06:32.876)

you

Kiera Dent (06:45.282)

I think that to have someone like that in your corner to me is invaluable because it allows Britt and I to really, like we say hash, like we really do go back and forth knowing that our ultimate goal is to land on what's fair and best for the business, what's fair and best for the patients, what's fair and best for our team, what's fair and best for every player in the scene and the arena. And I believe when you can have these conversations, you can get there. So Britt, I wanna just kick off.

It's something that's come up and I'm just curious from your perspective as a hygienist, because you are a senior hygienist. You've been in the ranks. You haven't been there as a brand new grad. And there are some hygienists who are feeling like these new grads are coming out asking for quite a lot. I've actually been told that a lot of the hygiene teachers are actually telling them to ask for higher amounts. And I'm really curious, like, do you feel that there should be ranges where if you've been out of school for say zero to five years, it's kind of like this is your range.

if you've been out of school from five to 10 years or 10 years plus, because some of those senior hygienists do feel like, hey, I've been in here, I've been running the ranks. And then I'll give you the flip side that I also think of, but sometimes my senior hygienist might not be as up to date as my brand new grads out of school. So there's this like, there is an experience piece of you've been with the patients longer, but sometimes like, I know certain hygienists don't do as much perio, whereas new grads do more perio sometimes. So.

Again, I'm not here to judge the hygiene world. I'm just curious, Britt, from your perspective, being a hygienist who's been in the realm for a while, what's your take on like, should there be ranges based on experience or is it on performance? Like, what's kind of some metrics that you see that would be beneficial when we're looking at compensation to be fair across the board?

Britt (08:22.414)

I mean, you know fairness is a big thing to me, right? So I and this will be a probably to some maybe not the most popular opinion But I do think it's the fairest and I no matter the role right whether it's a hygienist whether it's an assistant whether it's a front desk whether it's an associate coming in I'm big on it comes down to skill set and what are they able to do? Right? What what's their skill set in the position? How are they able to perform? What things can they be?

responsible for and own and make sure that they get done. Now with a new grad, would I probably be a little bit conservative on what they start them out with and say, hey, here's your path forward, right? Once you show me XYZ, you're running on time, you're making sure your diagnostics are quality, all those things, this is your path forward as far as compensation goes. But I do think it should be a skill set based compensation, not just like tenure based compensation. I'm not a big fan of tenure overall, no matter like

Kiera Dent (09:21.517)

Mm-hmm.

Britt (09:22.176)

like where it is. The thing that I will say along with that though is to make sure that our owners, right, whoever's making those decisions on compensation, that we keep it all fair. So I think sometimes some of those more senior ones, maybe they've stayed at a rate for a really long time and maybe haven't been increased according to inflation or what they're paying other people now. And so like that piece needs to be fair as well. So make sure, I'm a big fan of tears, what's

the skills and make sure that it stays within those tiers. And yeah, if you've been with me for a long time and you've got a full set of skills for hygiene and you do really well, you should be at the top end of that top tier. And if not, then we need to have a conversation and talk about it and see how we can get you there. Because that's ultimately my goal for any of my team members is how do we get you performing to the top of your skill set, your ability or your license. And with that should come like fair compensation that comes along with it.

Kiera Dent (10:22.392)

So, okay, I really like that. I've got two follow-ups on that. One is what are like set skillsets that could be ranging someone up? Are we just talking perio? Are we talking laser? Are we talking like, what is it that is specifically for hygiene, the skillset? And I do love, I hope you guys all asked like that, like every person should be performing at the top of their license. So that's follow up question number one. Second is gonna be about a compensation question. So what are those skills that you feel will range them up exponentially?

Britt (10:50.252)

Yep, so for me, like basic skills, running on time. If you have an anesthesia license, you're doing your anesthesia, if that's allowed within your state. Chart audits are good. You're getting everything that needs to be done, that your charting is complete. You're getting all your diagnostics done. You're coming prepared to huddle. You're being a team player. All of those things are kind of like my basic level stuff.

Kiera Dent (11:16.846)

Should they like interjecting real quick on that? Should they be hitting a certain production amount or is it more just those? It's like, what is the production amount that they should be hitting in like basic skill level before they even move on?

Britt (11:29.038)

Yep. I think whatever your basic goal is, I'm usually depending on the area, depending on your PPO fee for service, right? There's going to be a little bit of a difference, but I'm usually like a 12 to 1500 is usually around kind of like my base, depending on if you're PPO or if you're fee for service kind of on that upper range. And then as you as you one, I think get more confident with perio, have those conversations, perio percentage rate, that's case acceptance for peri

percentage rate would be a next level to look at. So not only are you having the conversations, right, you can do it, but how effective are you educating patients in advocating form to get the treatment done that's needed? So this is where a few more specific metrics are gonna come into play. So per year percentage is gonna start to come into play looking at jumping to that next level. I'm also gonna start looking at how well are you setting up doctor and teeing up doctor for treatment.

That's going to be my mid range that they need to be able to have those conversations. TFDoctor, be a partner in that conversation. So that's kind of like my mid range ones and my high range ones I'm going to tie in. Yeah.

what's your case acceptance coming out of your room? How well are you supporting the doctor and advocating for those patients? Having conversations because at some point with hygiene, right, there's clinical skills and with those, right, doctors should be checking, sure, check my perio from time to time on my charting to make sure we're aligned. Yes, if I'm missing stuff that I shouldn't be missing, then like absolutely those should be things that are talked about and would keep me in that like basic pay range if I'm not doing well at my job.

But to get up into that advanced pay range, it comes to a lot of the soft skills. Are you adding in that scan? Are you on board? Are you advocating for the practice and getting things done? Are you talking about treatment? Do you have good case acceptance coming out of your room? It's a lot of those soft skills and showing initiative instead of like, no, that's too much. I'm not going to do that. It's almost like a difference in personality and an initiative once you get to those higher range and you know them, you see those hygienists that are just rock stars and they're like, yep, they will

Britt (13:34.33)

help out, they are a team player. Yep, I can get that done. I've got time to do it. They are having the conversations, they're supporting the doctor really well. That's my top tier. That's what I ultimately want everyone to be.

Kiera Dent (13:47.918)

And I think that actually really helped in like that 1500 that 1200 range like there has been a model out there of like three times their pay and I'm just curious Britt. Is that even a realistic number from your perspective now of three times a hygienist pay? I do say for fee for service usually at a four or four point five times their pay but with PPO schedules and with the new rate of hygienist coming out, do you still feel like three times their pay is fair?

Britt (14:14.242)

I think it is a great starting point, right? There's across the country, and this is where like you can pull the economics of it into it, right? Depending on the area, depending on how many hygienists there are.

Like that's something that we, I think, have seen across the board that impacts higher ranges or lower ranges, right? That's the way a free economy works. Welcome to it. So, right, depending on the area, I would say yes, that is, everyone should be shooting to hit that. And some of our areas where

you know, it's a little bit more competitive or depending on, you know, well, we'll throw it out there. State laws, different things that have to be offered, right? That impacts the price and how expensive it can be to pay a hygienist. And I'll say to my hygienist, you guys are worth it, right? Especially you're that top tier hygienist. Like you guys are worth it. But from a business standpoint, there's like we got to we got to stay profitable at the end of the day. And so I do think that three times fee for service

us up to like four times pay is a great place to start. And if we are not there, then we need to start looking at other factors. Is it reasonable? Most of time, yes, 100 % it is. Some cases, depending on the area where there's like those shortage, those higher ranges, like it's a little bit more of a struggle. And that's where it comes to the conversation of, all right.

hygiene or associate. And we've definitely had those practices where it's like, for what I'm paying this hygienist, I can have an associate who can not only do hygiene, but can also do treatment. Which direction should I go?

Kiera Dent (15:38.862)

Mm-hmm.

Kiera Dent (15:48.96)

I agree. I think, I think the hygiene world, like making sure that it's cognitive of that too, because I think it could be a dangerous zone where without trying hygienists actually like work themselves out of the marketplace. I agree. think hygienists is such a valuable player on the team. And so just making sure that like we're cognitive of that. And I love that, Britt, you bring that from a hygiene perspective. I will also say though, I don't just think it's fully on the hygienist. And Britt, I know you agree with this completely that

Britt (16:15.555)

Mm-hmm.

Kiera Dent (16:16.334)

looking for that three times and instead of saying like we can't get there, let's look to see how could we get there. So it has the office actually looked at their fees and are we making sure that our fees are competitive, that we're negotiating with the insurances. This doesn't mean you have to drop in and drop your insurance plans, but it does mean we need to be very effective with it. Looking to see can we add in laser? Can we add in PRP or PRF? Can we add in some of those adjunct services? Are we adding fluoride? Are we getting all of our x-rays on the right series?

Are we billing out the correct comp exams for it? Are we looking for those additional pieces and looking for like, what are all the codes that we can bill out within hygiene? Of course, not over diagnosing things out or billing things out. But I think like, let's also look at medicine. They bill for the gauze, they bill for the cotton, they bill for all these things. And I'm not here to say like nickel and dime your patients, but I am here to say.

I think they're starting to become a world where we've got to start being more proactive on what we do, bill out to insurances to hit the rates that the hygienists need to be producing as opposed to just doing what we've always done. So I think like as an office collectively working in conjunction with a hygienist, let's not just throw our hands in the air and say like, they're too expensive. There's no way they'll hit it. No, that's not true. There's actually a lot of hygienists who are being paid those higher ranges and they are producing three, four times their pay. I have hygienists in...

less affluent areas able to hit that. And so it's kind of like the four minute mile. People thought it couldn't happen, couldn't happen, couldn't happen. Well, I think sometimes it's telling us it can't be done. We actually find ways to make that true rather than saying, hey, other offices are doing that. Let's get creative and let's let's let's work together and figure out what we can do. So I want to maybe have some commentary. Please do.

Britt (17:51.118)

Yeah, I want to make a quick plug on this because I know I threw out there like there does come a point where like sometimes we sit there and we contemplate of like associate or not the hygienist and me do I want doctors doing hygiene? No, I don't. don't. No. Do doctors want to be doing hygiene? No.

Kiera Dent (18:04.27)

No, I don't either and I'm not even a hygienist.

Now.

Britt (18:11.072)

No, they don't want to, right? So like it's not an ideal solution, but when it comes to a business being able to survive and stay profitable and keep running to take care of patients and provide livelihoods for everybody, like some that's the that's the business side of my brain that it's like sometimes those are things that we have to contemplate and see what's the best decision moving forward.

Kiera Dent (18:30.296)

for sure. And I'm glad you put that because the ultimate goal is to not replace hygienists. The ultimate goal is no. But I think it's like, look at other businesses. Do you think other businesses wanted to convert to AI? The answer is probably not. But due to necessity of profitability, like to me, that becomes a survival skill. Like is this business going to live or die? They're going to find ways to live. That's a natural human tendency. And so I think it's like, let's partner together. Let's find the solutions. I even have some practices who have elected to go

Britt (18:35.598)

I don't want that.

Kiera Dent (18:59.064)

hygiene, like no hygiene in their practices. so knowing that, like, but again, this is just getting scrappy. This is doctors just like, we have to find a way to survive. think it's

Britt (19:01.71)

Mm-hmm.

Britt (19:08.14)

And out of necessity, if they can't find one, right? Like sometimes that's kind of been the state that some of them have been in, so.

Kiera Dent (19:15.342)

for sure. So Britt on that we did talk about like baseline pay and we talked about longevity of it. What happens when you have a seasoned team that has been there? And we've got hygienists, they love the practice, they love the things they're doing. recruiters are pretty impressive these days. Like I do feel everybody's being bombarded with other offers constantly. And it's like you might be very happy. But hey, like sometimes dollars do count. What do you do for a practice?

when like these new grads are coming out and let's say they're asking because like right now I have a practice and the new grads like literally looking on indeed all practices hiring right now are like $5 an hour more than what they're currently paying like their highest hygienist. Like what do you do in that realm because like if you've got three or four hygienists now I've got to increase everybody $5 an hour just to be able to bring one new hygienist in. I think this is where it's like this wave of constantly like chasing a number but it's not just one person I'm chasing it's multiples.

what do you recommend for businesses and new grads? Because I'm like, if I tell this new grad, like, well, this is where we'll start to, I've got seven other offices willing to offer this hygienist that they only need one hygienist. They can do it because the finances make sense for them. What do we do in those scenarios to help these practices out?

Britt (20:27.724)

Yeah, I think having a community near you to know kind of what people are really getting paid, right? There will always be, especially in your more like city, right, areas, there's always going to be someone out there who can pay more.

There's gonna be an offer on the table somewhere. I always say question that. Know what you're getting into on those ones that are like real high from everybody else. But I think it's a real question of what are you ultimately looking for? One, with that higher rate you better believe you're still, you're gonna have to make your way, right? To make it worth paying you that amount. So that's gonna be there.

Also, you know, what do you value in the people you work with and the type of things that are being done and the care that's being provided in practice not taking a hit at anybody but I'm like that's an overall it's not just a dollar like sure you can go out and you just want to pick a job based on dollar Go for it. If you want it's risky in my opinion Look at the whole picture and see kind of what you're gonna be living because we spend a lot of time at work, right? It's a it's a big part of our life and we spend a lot of time and I don't know I take a lot of pride in where I work. So I care about when

the people and what we do. And I hope that's the same for our providers out there, for our hygienists out there. But I think take a look overall.

And then I think when it comes to those rates, so have a community know what like the actual rates are not just the jobs that are out there and what people are getting paid. Make sure you're competitive like 100 % the rates need to be competitive and if you fall in behind some unlike yeah we might need to see what we can do and see if we can start to get back within the range of the market to stay competitive. And then

Britt (22:16.45)

that also I think brings confidence in knowing you're offering something fair, right? So if I'm like, if I know, hey, it's competitive, it's fair.

We're a great place to work. I always want to get people in to come meet us, experience us, because again, it's more than just a dollar. If they're making a decision just off of a dollar, they're probably not the right person for me anyways. So I want to get them in, let them see the whole picture. And then, you know, when it comes down to it, at the end of the day, I can offer what I can offer and offer a path of like, hey, this is where it starts. And here's what you can do moving forward in the potential. But we're getting to know each other. And

I'll say this recently, especially for assistants as well, because I think it's the same, similar scenario in assistant world, is some of the doctors that know their affair, they come in, they're confident.

have people who like them and they're like, okay, you know, not to say it always happens, right? It won't always, but it's more likely to happen instead of just chasing a dollar amount and trying to like outbid someone. So I think still be confident in your moves. Don't jump too fast. Make sure you're competitive. Make sure you're allowing people to see the whole picture of you. I'll add to that. Make sure you're actually a good place to work along with that so that you attract people.

Kiera Dent (23:12.878)

Right.

Kiera Dent (23:32.398)

Agreed.

Britt (23:34.382)

because I think trends and you'll see articles and research out there, money matters and there's always going to be those people where money is their top priority, but life I think these days matters to people a little bit more.

Kiera Dent (23:46.22)

I would agree. think that that's something that the shift of the, think money used to be the currency that people were going after. And I think now it's time and lifestyle that is the new currency. so realizing that and recognizing that, Britt, let's say an office, the going rate is higher than what you are really like able to afford in your practice. What's your take on offering like a lower base, but commission from a hygienist? Like does this, I don't know how it lands for hygienist. Is it like, well, I want the guarantee of like knowing that I can

let's say it's $5 different between offices, but this office is really struggling, but they can offer you the commission base. How attractive is that to a hygienist? I have my opinions, but I'm not a hygienist. So I'm just curious from your state, what you hear from colleagues in the industry. Cause I know you see very connected to the hygiene world. What are you kind of hearing around?

Britt (24:33.42)

Yeah, I think it's a super fair model. I know when I was managing, that's the model we were off. I want you to know that you can count on something that's reliable, right? So that's where I do like having a base that's very reasonable, that's very fair, that is an amount that easily hygienists should be able to produce and make that and cover themselves.

But for those who do like hustle, right? They're not gonna be like, well, I've got an opening, I'll just go home. Or like, I'll just like chill. Like they want to work. They wanna keep people on their schedule. They want to be supportive of the team. They should make more. And so it's even just a fair from a multiple hygienist in an office. I'm like, yeah, yeah.

working hard I should make a little bit more than the person that's kind of slacking off a little bit. And so I like that model to where one you know what you can count on because there's that base there. And then yeah commission is going to be ultimately whatever you want it to be right? Like that's where you've got some control and if it's a commission based on production or adjusted production or collections whatever route the doctor ends up going

fees rise in the practice, right? That's you naturally kind of build in that increase over the years as office fees change.

Kiera Dent (25:56.782)

Fair, that's a good point. And Britt, I have so many more questions I wanna ask. I think for today, keeping it here, I really also think one thing to plug on the commission that I think Britt, you and I have done a really good job. Like, mad kudos to you within our company, because we do offer our consultants based in commission. So I think like we can actually speak to this model pretty well. But something I really pride ourselves on is we actually go and look at real numbers. I don't want to be going for my best hygienist and offering off of my best hygienist.

We want to find an average between like our lowest producing hygienist and our highest producing because I would rather set a clear expectation with that hygienist coming in of like, if you do basically like bare minimum, this is what you'll be making. And then if you choose to like go more, which there are opportunities, this is the range you could do. And literally when we do offers, we literally show a hygienist or like in our instance, it's a consultant. Here's what it is. Here's what the averages are.

And for me, I think that actually makes me way more confident going in because I'm not offering the highest end. We have we have consultants that produce a lot more than other consultants. But I don't want because that just sets an expectation for that hygienist coming in. This is what I think I'm going to be paid. And then when I'm not, they get angry with you versus it being like, this is where I think it's very fair. This is very realistic. This is the time frame. Realistically, I think you can hit it. This is an average day. Here's our actual numbers. This is an actual hygiene schedule.

So that way I really do think that that will make you more confident when offering. If you can't offer say that $5 more or you want to bring people in and maybe you're a little bit less than that. You don't want to raise your entire hygiene team. And again, hygienist, it's not because I don't want to raise you. Like I just want to make that super clear as a business owner. I want to pay my entire team exponentially well. Like truly this is like my heart of hearts. Like Britt knows this. I'm constantly looking like how can we raise people? How can we do it?

Britt (27:38.413)

Thank

Kiera Dent (27:40.918)

I also know as a business owner, my job is to make sure I keep the business profitable because if I don't, I've actually heard every person that we serve in the community of patients. I've heard our entire team of being able to afford it. And also I don't want to be stressed as a business owner, like fully. would, I like, I love you and I want to pay you. I also want to be able to sleep at night and not constantly stressing of do I need to take a second mortgage out on my home? So like just understanding it's, it's a business, it's a person, it's a human, but I think be fair with your numbers that you offer.

And Britt, I do want to do another episode. I'll just tee it up of what do hygienists feel about assisted hygiene? Cause it is a model that's starting to come as popularity of not being able to find hygienists. Is it something of we like it, we don't. Also, I know there's conversations around, we shorten hygiene appointments to be able to see more patients as insurances aren't reimbursing as much. So I definitely want to like tee it up of having a few more hygiene conversations. But Britt on this, thank you for giving you the perspective of like the ranges of how to pay and what you feel about base plus commission.

Britt (28:13.528)

Thank

Kiera Dent (28:38.874)

Hopefully we were able to give you guys some tips on how can we attract these people. think like you said, Britt, having a great place and a great reputation within the community, having longevity of team members, it's been shocking. Britt and I have been doing interviews and I don't know if you picked up on it, Britt, but the last, I think two or three interviews we've done, one of the questions they've asked is how long is your longest team member and can we ask why they've stayed? It's been shocking to me that that's a question that has come through. It's been consistent.

Britt (29:02.156)

Consistent. 100%.

Kiera Dent (29:05.132)

And I'm thinking it's because people really want to work in places long-term and there's so much jostling that I think they're also wondering, are employers keeping team members too? So just note, that's been a very random comment that's come through on our last very, and we're talking like yesterday. We just had an interview yesterday, that question was asked, so it's very real. But Brittany, any last thoughts you've got you want to wrap up today? I appreciate your Brittany hygiene today, coming to the table for the perspectives.

Britt (29:29.102)

No, I just, I think it's a good conversation and agreed on running numbers and especially if you're wanting to maybe like transition within your practice, right? Hygiene wanting to propose it or doctors wanting to like switch over so that it's a much more sustainable model for you. Run the numbers and see what it looks like, right? That's reality and I'm with you on like low and high end when it comes to hiring. Worst thing you can do is set expectations you're not gonna meet.

Kiera Dent (29:54.094)

Agreed Well, Britt, thanks for being on the pod. You guys, appreciate you. We will definitely come back. I know there's lots of questions. I know this is hot right now. So, Britt and will definitely podcast again about assisted hygiene, what we do for shrinking hours. Is that even doable from a hygienist perspective? Or is that like, no, there's other solutions because I know everybody right now is just trying to find solutions for the pickle that we're in wanting to maintain and...

really pay these hygienists what we believe that they deserve. So Britt, thanks for being on it. And for all of you, if we can help you and your hygiene team, if these are issues you're struggling with, if you're like, am just like hitting my head against a wall. I don't really know what to do. Reach out. That's what we do. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com And as always, thanks for listening and we'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.

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It’s time for a Dental A-Team office spotlight! Dana shares with Tiff how she’s worked with a practice that started off with room for financial growth, and began adding in auxiliary procedures without losing control of the business.

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Transcript

The Dental A Team (00:01.415)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be here. This is, I think, Dana and I, we get our like, alone time, our us time when we come in here to podcast. So I love, and I love that it switched to videos, however long ago that was. I remember in the beginning I was like, dang it, I can't wear my like, comfy leggings anymore, but whatever. Here we are, we gotta have our hair done, we gotta have our makeup done, it's great. But Dana, I love getting the time with you, so thank you so much for being here with me today. How are you on this beautiful Friday?

in Arizona.

Dana (00:31.822)

doing really good. It's a little bit chillier, but I'm learning to like, you know, find some happiness in that even when I'm freezing outside of softball games.

The Dental A Team (00:34.928)

No!

The Dental A Team (00:41.702)

Yes, yes, and you're colder down there than I am up here in Phoenix. But I had a client the other day, well, actually it wasn't, was Eve, our marketing gal. I don't know if you were on that call, but she was like, I was like, it's cold, because honestly, in the mornings here in Phoenix, it's like 35 degrees. And that's cold to me, right? And she's like, you can't complain that it's cold. It's eight degrees here, whatever it was. And I was like, actually, this has been my whole week. I've been saying this to people.

I decided, I chose, to live somewhere that's supposed to be warm. So when it's not warm, I get to complain. I don't complain when it's 120 outside and I'm like, I chose this. I wanted warm. So when it's freezing cold and I'm getting breeze warnings on my freaking phone, that's when I'm going to complain. Same with Florida right now. I saw it snowing recently on the beaches in Florida. anyways, thank you. That's our Arizona Girl Tangent.

Dana (01:27.896)

I

The Dental A Team (01:38.169)

We like the heat, that's why we're here. And Dana grew up in the cold. So I feel like if you're saying it's cold, it's freaking cold.

Dana (01:45.9)

I will say, you know, I always use the excuse that like, you know, my body acclimated to the heat. So now 32 degrees is in fact freezing for me.

The Dental A Team (01:55.466)

It is. It is. It is. And my son always says like the Arizona, the desert, like there's just not a lot of insulation in the desert. And so desert nights are freaking cold. They are wild and it drops so quickly. As soon as that sun gets on the other side of the mountain, it's freezing cold. So he's always like, yeah, it's the desert nights. That's fair. I appreciate it when it goes.

when it drops the 30 degrees in the summer to 90 degrees at 8 p.m. I appreciate that, but the 30 degree swing in the winter, a little bit rougher. So happy Arizona girls. So I'm excited Dana today because I really wanted to client wins, client pieces. And I feel like we're always dedicated to systems and I love that. And we're dedicated to growth, which I think this conversation falls into both of them. But really, you've had some really impressive growth with

a lot of your practices, all of your practices. But one in particular we were chatting about earlier this morning that I think would be a really fun conversation for a lot of our doctors because the growth that your doctor has seen within this practice and practices has been really, really fun. And I think what we chatted about earlier, you hit on a lot of different areas that I think a lot of practices are actually in.

at the same time. know what you were speaking on. I had some practices there and I really want to just pick your brain on some tips and some tricks on that. So Dana, your practice, I think you mentioned a few things, right? But one of the biggest pieces I wanted to like hear from you, one, obviously like financial wins. has that grown? Because I know that was a really big space for profit. The profitability of this dentist was fairly low and you were able to help

that increase, but then also this specific dentist has added in a lot of auxiliary procedures that I've seen a lot of doctors going to courses for Botox and tongue ties, lip ties, all of those different pieces and separating those out from our GP stuff, which I think also helps the profitability.

The Dental A Team (04:05.878)

So the way you guys have done this practice and taken those spaces, always focusing in on the profitability and the growth of the practice, but figuring out how we can create it into like quote unquote departments to increase the value and to increase that profitability is really cool. So slew of questions within that, but take us through Dana first steps. Like how did you figure out where the profitability was lacking and how did you figure out how to increase that?

because then that led into her being able to add more procedures. think adding more procedures before we know where the profitability is and before we know where the money is going, adding in those extra procedures can be really, really difficult. So it's already hard enough. And how did you help her figure that out and then slide into being able to add more procedures?

Dana (04:55.596)

Yeah, this is this is just been a really fun practice for me too, because it helped to show like, when you truly focus on comprehensive dentistry and all the things that you can provide for the patient, not only is it great for your patient, but it massively helps production too. And so this was a really fun practice to kind of highlight that and to kind of take, take them through it.

And I will say like the first part of it really was honing in on their systems and making sure they were most efficient block scheduling was huge and being able to say, okay, this is how you're scheduling now if we block scheduled everything out and we follow the schedule pretty much to a tee look at the growth that you could have just by Maximizing the things that you currently do. So that was where we started kind of in year one So year one was really developing systems to make sure that the new patients that we were bringing in we kept

The Dental A Team (05:24.383)

Thank you.

The Dental A Team (05:34.867)

Awesome.

Dana (05:46.082)

Right? And the practice actually continued to truly grow in patient number too. So, you know, making sure that we honed in on re-care systems, making sure we honed in on reactivation systems. And then it was really cool that once we got systems under our belt, now let's focus on big picture things. And so let's focus on, we've maximized kind of, one cool thing that we did is we separated out, she does a really heavy load of,

The Dental A Team (05:46.345)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (06:03.232)

Okay.

Dana (06:15.948)

you know, there's tongue ties and all sorts of adjunct procedures. And, and so we actually separated those things out. And it's actually a business within a business, which then really helps her see numbers as far as general dentistry and some of her adjunct services that she provides. And so that really helped bring in a lot of clarity because we could start to look at individual numbers separately. We could start to separate new patients. So new patients for this avenue who were more fluid patients. So they would come to those things. And yeah, we worked on a whole lot on converting them over into

The Dental A Team (06:18.675)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (06:23.56)

Awesome.

The Dental A Team (06:41.584)

Yeah.

Dana (06:45.874)

the general side, but that we could really look at those things independently to hone in on.

growth for each side. And what's been really fun is as we've separated them out, we've actually even separated out the days. So she now has like, you know, more like tongue tie days and general days and it helps her team to and we now are to the point where she actually gets to do more of the things that she loves, which are those adjunct things and bringing in an associate to

The Dental A Team (06:53.661)

Mm.

Dana (07:20.184)

helped continue to grow the general dentistry side. So it's been really, really fun. But I think the biggest thing is mapping out your schedule to make sure that it works, mapping out your schedule where you can add more of the things. What does that look like? And being able to look at those numbers consistently.

The Dental A Team (07:36.957)

Yeah, I love that perspective in most pieces and I know there's been a heavy push for the associates and making sure that the people who are there, the doctors who are already there and the doctors who are coming are really making sure that their schedules are in alignment and that they make sense. one thing that you said was like a business within a business and I just love that model. I've done it for a few practices as well where

It's like, this is the thing that we love and we want to do. This is our passion project business. How do we supplement now our practice that's already thriving and doing well with our passion project business? And I think that might be a space that some dentists going to the CE and they're like, I'm passionate about this thing. I think that's sometimes the space that gets overlooked is we've got to have the profitability and the thriving on just

practice, like we're doing really well, we're getting the new patients, we're getting the pieces because we want that to be supplemental. And yes, you're going to decrease your GP work. So it's going to take some of that load, right? So we're just kind of shifting some of that production and collections every now and again, but it should increase as well because it should be higher value, right? So watching you do this with this specific client and watching you add in those tongue and lip tie for sure, but the oral surgery pieces that they're doing and all of the different

modalities, the Botox and fillers, and like there's this practice has a few different avenues that they're working towards supplementing that GP. So it is really cool because in my opinion when I've done this with practices, you now have two different pools of patient avatars to pull from for one single practice. And when I think about it from a marketing standpoint, it's super awesome because now we've got two avenues to take this and I have

I have a dentist that I work with who wants to do a ton of practice or cosmetic dentistry, right within his practice. And he's definitely gotten to the point where his GP is pretty well oiled over there. And so now what we've done with his marketing dollars is really switched some of that funnel to focus in on consults.

The Dental A Team (09:49.658)

So it's a new patient, but we're categorizing it differently. We're tracking it differently. And I think that's likely what you've done with this practice and the doctors who are there at that practice doing all of these other pieces is funneling in those consults, smile makeovers. A lot of practices are doing those because we're looking at new patients on a GP side and 25 to 30 new patients on a full-time doctor on the GP side, standard. That's what we want. But when we're part-time on a GP side, we're looking for, you know, 12 to 15.

And then when we're part time on a a oral surgery, a cosmetic, whatever is going on over here side, now we want to see how many consults do we need to get to our case acceptance. So then it's like it's this big spiral when we're adding these new pieces in, because now your case acceptance is in play as well. And your consults, especially for bigger procedures, higher value dollars like

longer appointments, just a different set of pieces. Your case acceptance is not going to be the same as your GP. So having a consultant on your side that can help separate those pieces, separate the information, separate the understanding, separate the marketing of it and strategize how to get those to work together feels like a no brainer because I cannot imagine being on the business owner doctor side where I've just taken all this CE.

super passionate about something. I already have a business I'm trying to work in and then trying to get home, train my team, get the patients. Like trying to do all of that as one human being, the person who's doing it feels really hard. So when you see when you came in or this client came in, right? I think if I remember correctly, this specific client already had some of this stuff under their belt and they already had providers like trying to

generate this within the practice? So how did you, as the third party, the consultant looking over the overarching pieces, how were you able to kind of almost slow it down and speed it up at the same time to extract those pieces and allow it to be so fluid?

Dana (11:59.938)

Yeah. And I really think that it really comes down to, we've got to look at these in two different, we've got to make sure that we look at these things as two different things because a patient that's coming in for general and a patient's coming in for the other side, they're looking for different things. They value different things. Their experience needs to be different. Our systems need to be different. The way we schedule them needs to be different. And when this client first came in, it was like,

there were all these providers providing this, all kind of at the same time, right? So we're running this side at the same time we're running this side and providers are hopping back and forth. And then, you know, an adjunct provider that was in there to do another specialty service had to hop in and it was, it was, they were doing well at it, but it felt so stressful for them.

The Dental A Team (12:32.02)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (12:46.547)

Yeah. Yeah.

Dana (12:47.17)

And it felt so like we're never gonna grow any of the pieces because where we're living right now is so, so stressful and chaotic and a little bit discombobulated, rightfully so. And so when we decided to say, okay, no, let's separate the two, let's look at them very differently, let's build the pieces that work for both.

The Dental A Team (12:58.389)

Yeah.

Dana (13:06.808)

places and let's understand that like you said, two different patient avatars, two different patient flows, two different patient experiences. And when we actually separated them out, looked at how we could streamline both sides, general and the other side, and we built out a schedule that worked to have them both.

The Dental A Team (13:23.06)

.

Dana (13:27.278)

be there. And I mean, this client even went on to create just an even an amazing separate space for these patients. And that does help create all of this. But it really took at like, let's look at both of these take different things, right? They take different

The Dental A Team (13:28.514)

Yeah. That's awesome.

The Dental A Team (13:42.52)

Yeah.

Dana (13:43.246)

Conversations they take a different amounts of hands-on approach they take a different way of treatment planning and presenting things and outlining consoles differently and so until we separated them It was functioning and they were doing okay, but it felt really hard Yeah, figuring out a way to make them both feel easier

The Dental A Team (13:55.976)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (14:00.06)

Yeah, it's chaos. Yeah.

The Dental A Team (14:07.515)

Mm-hmm.

Dana (14:08.434)

and how we can maximize both ends. I feel like that was where the win was and really started to paint a much clearer picture of how you can continue to grow both ends to feed each other.

The Dental A Team (14:21.725)

Totally. think what you did there too, and as you're talking, I'm like envisioning it all, is you really extracted what would simplify it down. And it's just like anything when you go try to do something and it's there's 15 different things that can be done. Picking the right first step is usually the most difficult, right? Picking like what do I do next that's going to move the needle? And I think

my opinion is that's one of the reasons that we pulled back from pushing forward with things is we just can't figure out what that next step is. So you were able to make this massive thing two smaller things, and two smaller things is much easier to dissect and figure out than one massive piece. So you kind of separating them made it so that it was easier to look at them as individuals instead of instead of one monster to take care of.

think as you're talking to what you did is you were able to not only yourself, but have your dentist or doctor sit in the patient's seat. So it's almost like you got her and the team and everybody, but in that mindset of if I'm coming to you for this procedure, who am I? What kind of a person am I? What are the things that I like building out that avatar? But you have to sit, you have to like turn on that brain.

of that person who's looking for that procedure and then separating that. Because like you said, a patient who's coming and they're just like, just need a cleaning compared to a patient who's like, hey, I've been thinking about this for a while. I need ortho, right? You do whatever, smile design. You do, I see you do this. Like that patient's mindset drastically different than the patient who's just coming for a cleaning. So separating those out and creating that space.

where it is like the consults. And you understand you're likely going to need more of the consults over here to get the case acceptance and get the ball rolling. Then you do maybe even your new patients. Like that ratio is going to be a little bit different, but you are able to separate that out for them. So I have a ton of doctors. Like we both have so many doctors that are doing so much CE in the last three years. Like CE the last three years has been the word of the freaking year.

The Dental A Team (16:42.647)

And so many of them get so hyped coming out of their course and their class. But then again, it's that next step. think sedation has been huge and implementing sedation can be tough. think oral surgery procedures in a GP practice has been huge or pediatric practices implementing more tongue and lip ties. GP practice is going to more cosmetic services, the Botox, the fillers, all of those pieces and they get there. And then they're like, okay,

but I have so much going on. I have a full schedule. I have chaos in my schedule already. I have patients that are getting seated late. I have team turnover. And so then they get there and it's so defeating sometimes to just get to the front door and be like, I'm gonna do this. And then it's like, but the chaos I already have is taking my whole schedule. I don't have time for this. And...

what do you do in those instances where they truly like, it's chaotic. It sounds to me like you've answered some of that, like some of the systems, but what are those systems that help reduce that immediate overwhelming chaos where they can see the pockets of time to implement something new?

Dana (17:53.356)

Yeah. And I think for this practice in particular, their biggest barrier was her having these other things made it really easy for them to... And let me preface this by this particular doctor's goal was to build both...

areas, right? Yes, they wanted to do these things, but they still wanted their general dentistry to thrive because we wanted to bring in other associates and we wanted to continue to grow that part. And so where it became a barrier was the teams. If there was a hole in the schedule, or if there was the team's easy reaction was, we can fill it with a tongue tie, or we can fill it with a bowtie filler or we can. And that's great in that like, production did keep growing. But the vision of the practice then, it was like,

The Dental A Team (18:12.3)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (18:31.913)

Yeah.

Dana (18:41.654)

we were growing one side more heavily than the other and that wasn't the ultimate goal. And so I think that it is building in the space.

The Dental A Team (18:46.283)

Yeah.

Dana (18:51.786)

for those things to where it doesn't feel chaotic. And so if you say, Hey, I want to add on Botox and filler, okay, well, let's decide let's pick the times when okay, four o'clock are going to be our Botox and filler consults. And we're building that into that template. If we say, Hey, I want to do more all in excess, great. How many more do you want to do? two of them. Okay, well, let's book out a surgery day, right? Or let's book out a surgery morning. And we have to have the room for it in our schedule to be able to consistently add it in and do the things. And sometimes

The Dental A Team (18:55.221)

Yeah.

Dana (19:21.7)

with bigger procedures, like the key to utilizing them to grow your practice is to do them consistently, not sporadically, right? And so often we're like, hey, I want to do all the nexes or I want to do big surgeries. And it's like, well, I'll add them when I find them. No, you've got to build the time into the schedule. You've got to build them in consistently. And then you've got to work really hard to find them to fill those spots.

The Dental A Team (19:30.72)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (19:44.854)

Yeah.

Dana (19:45.59)

And so it's sometimes just flipping that mindset of this is something I'd love to add. Well, if you want to, how much of it do you want to add and where can we actually put it in that it's in there consistently and continues to grow?

The Dental A Team (19:58.636)

I love those words of wisdom. I have a few practices that have implemented surgeries and things like that. I have one practice in particular that I've worked really hard with on becoming mostly an oral surgery GP practice. And that's something that there's currently struggling with is, and it's, it's kind of coming from the doctor of like, just plug it in and know what a surgery is more important, get the surgery patient in and move the other patients and narrowing them down to those days.

is so valuable because then you know how many you need. You know that you can or can't fill it. You know what the GP site is. It just clarifies so many pieces. So I love that. I think that's surely step one in implementing anything new is just deciding where is it going to go. I know I have a ton of doctors that will do root canals on Wednesday mornings. Like I only do root canals Wednesday mornings. Perfect. Do root canals only Wednesday mornings. What does that need to look like? And I think what you said there

is key in the beginning you said you did the block scheduling and got the GP side done, handled. Like let's get consistent with what we're already doing. Let's learn how to do it with what we're already doing before we add another aspect that just confuses and creates chaos and more change to the team. So if the team can get really good at what you're already doing, it's much simpler to add another aspect in there, because it's just layering then.

on top of what you're doing, now you're just layering something else. that's so cool. I'm so impressed with everything you've been able to do with this client and all of your clients, but this one's a fun one for me to watch grow. I know all of our clients are so valuable to us and she's just, she's in a lot of things with us. So it's just really cool to hear all of these pieces and to watch you be able to pick those pieces out and teach everyone a couple lessons here and there. So thank you for letting me.

that out of you and pick your brain on it today. Dana, you are an incredible consultant and your clients are so so lucky to have you and just keep up the amazing work. I think this is incredible.

Dana (22:05.378)

Thanks, and I will say a lot of this is just to the hard work and effort that her and her team put into things to get the results. so just shout out to them too.

The Dental A Team (22:16.366)

I agree. I agree. you're coming to work with us, you're coming to see us, know we are here for you. We support you and we will hold you accountable to those ding ding buyers. And as long as you're willing to put in that work on the other side, because I can't be in the practice for you, but as long as you're willing to put in that work on the other side, if you're ready to make those changes, holy cow, it's exponential what we can do with you. So thank you, Dana. That was an awesome shout out. I'm sure they appreciate it as well.

You guys go look at what you're already doing. I know everyone out there is looking for something more they can add. What value, more value can they bring to their patients? But look at what you're already doing first. Take Dana's tips today and look at how can we create more systems or create more efficiency in what we're already doing so that we can layer something new on top of it. If you need help, if you have questions, if you're looking to do block scheduling and you need help with that, you've already got CE, like whatever it is you guys, we're here for it.

want to answer your questions, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com is an easy space for that. You can send things in if you're a client already, reach out to your consultant if you have anything exciting you want us to know or help with. And as always, thank you so much for listening. Drop a five star review below, we'd love to hear it. And if you are a soon to be client, or just someone who wants an assessment, don't forget we do our free practice assessments with anybody who wants to sign up for them. Our clients have already had them on whether you've had that one specifically or one

similar to it with your consultant, but anybody who's not a client yet, please go do it just for fun. Sometimes it's good to know. So thank you, everyone. Dana, thank you. And we'll catch you guys next time.

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Kiera walks listeners through easy but critical accounts receivable systems to implement in your practice so you never have to face a financial crisis again.

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Transcript

Kiera Dent (00:00.932)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I just wanted to ask, are you struggling with cashflow because of overdue payments or you don't know how to do your AR or billing just fills out of hand? Well, great news. Healthy AR is an incredible way for you to keep your practice profitable and successful. And today we're going to dive into it and give you some really incredible systems to help you actually keep this on top so that way you don't ever feel like you're in a financial crisis again. So hooray, hooray. I'm so excited.

I hope you're ready for it. I hope you're just having an incredible day today. I know talking AR is not always super fun, but honestly having a well-managed AR system, being able to track to follow up to figure out where the gaps are really can give you confidence. So I wanna give you guys three quick actionable tips to be able to take this and have a healthy AR. You guys know the Dental A Team's all about practical tactical, making your life easier, making you super successful and happy.

doing it with ease, having a fun time with doctors and team members. So we are able to possibly impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. So let's kick it off you guys, because honestly, AR is one of the most overlooked areas. It feels taboo. feels like we don't really know. So what are we even going to do? So like, let's just dive into this and really get it there. So number one is to set up clear payment policies and make sure that we're upfront with our patient. And if you don't have this, adding it onto your treatment plans, adding it into your practice,

Don't worry, everyone has this. So it doesn't need to feel scary or daunting or my gosh, like we're changing everything on our patients. You're not, we're just being very clear upfront. And what this does is it actually makes it easier for your front office to be confident with their treatment planning, to be confident with their scheduling, because now we all know the rules of the game. We know what we're doing and we don't have to be rude about it. We don't have to be mean about it. We just need to be crystal clear so people know the rules of the game of our practice. So a couple of quick tips are.

we do require payment at the time of service. I know back in time we used to not, but this is something that we do for routine procedures. And yes, we estimate and we go in, we try to maximize everything that we have within our practice by getting insurance estimates. But the reality is sometimes we aren't gonna be able to get that correct. Insurances aren't even accurate until we bill out. And so we don't crutch on that and bill out and then collect money. We collect, we estimate the best that we can. We collect at the time of service.

Kiera Dent (02:18.604)

and then we're able to let them know if they have a balance or if they have a credit. Hopefully we're getting close. I'd prefer credits more than I'd prefer balances. I don't like to chase money, but you choose how you want to do that. And then making sure we have really good payment options like Cherry or Sunbit or some of those other ones are really great ones. We actually have some offices that have a really beautiful spreadsheet where we have all the different payment options that we can offer. I only like offering one, two or three max of payment options.

but for your practice to know all the different carriers, like I said, Cherry and Sumbit, Cherry tends to be really high right now of a great financial one, Care Credit always is the top one, but having some of those options so that way we as the practice aren't carrying the bulk of this debt, but we're able to have options for our patient can help you get that better case acceptance and also keep us out of that financial pickle. So, and then also helping our patients have a clear financial policy and I actually have a practice that worked on this and

They were saying like a couple of things like they had six steps on it. And I really loved this of one is like no future scheduling until the payment, their balance is paid. And I think that really helps because then we're not just adding to the debt and we help our patients know like we've got to get this taken care of before we're able to schedule you for more treatment. Then we expect full payment on the first day or we're able to go like two payments half and half. So sometimes for crowns we'll do 50 % today, 50 % upon crown seat.

Those are some great things. I don't go beyond two payments within the practice. Otherwise they go into third party financing. You also, if you are struggling with this for larger payments or treatment plans, so you can decide is it 2000, is it 4000, is it 10,000, you choose. But I usually do a deposit and some people will have higher deposits, but let's say it's a 2000, you can do 10 % of that. So that would be $200. I like a 10%. I think it's easy. I think it also

for a patient who wasn't expecting to do treatment, it's not as daunting for them. So giving that 10 % down payment could also help out. And then really making sure that we are staying on top of our AR, which is going to lead into the next point, making sure that our accounts aren't going past hopefully 60 days in general. I know we might have higher AR right now where they're into that 90 days, meaning we've done treatment and 90 days have passed since we've made payment. And then making sure that we have a good collection policy as well.

Kiera Dent (04:39.266)

really making sure all those pieces are there is going to help. And we communicate this to our patients. And if we'll communicate it to our patients, then they know the rules of the game. So for that, when offices start to do this, they start to have patients understand that we make payments, that we only do two payments in-house, that we are collecting at the time of service, that we are making sure that they have these financial policies written. We're not allowing more treatment to stack up on delinquent accounts. What happens is that practice actually starts to

become profitable and they start to get more cashflow. Patients start to pay their balances and it's crazy because just asking for the financial money really actually helps a ton. And it's weird because you just think, all I did was ask for the money. Well, yeah, I have a practice that I was able to add over $20,000 per month to their schedule. And they said, Kiera how are you able to do that? One, it's through some tactics, but two, it was just stopping at the front desk and collecting the money before the patient left. Like it sounds so simple, but really,

just collecting and a lot of offices are even putting credit cards on file, which can really help. So number two, so that's like step one is like, let's collect the money before it goes back. Let's make sure we're checking upon check-in to collect the balances. Let's make sure we're collecting on checkout so we're not following up with all this money. And then number two for this healthy AR is we've got to have a strong follow-up system for outstanding balances. So what I like to do is I like to run the AR report at the beginning of the month. I like to put it into a Google Sheets file.

And then I like to actually have it color coordinated of what area is this account at? Are we on statement one, statement two, statement three? Before I ever send out statements, we always, always, always call. Hey, Kiera great news, your insurance paid. The balance is left, remaining is this amount. I can do Visa or MasterCard over the phone, which do you prefer? This way I'm collecting balances instead of just sending statements. I know a lot of offices love to send statements. It feels really great. We love to.

send it out, send it through the mail, make it feel like we're really moving the needle forward. But if we would just pick up the phone and call, I even tell some offices like we're going green, we're trying to save on paper and stamps, so we're collecting this. There's also a lot of companies like Mula, I really love Mula, and you can actually text the statement to your patient, which can help. But please, let's not lose the power of calling them, because calling and collecting payment can really, really help a lot. So making sure we have this where it's automated.

Kiera Dent (06:58.168)

Patients can pay online if we don't have that, that's going to be something that they really need to do. Like I said, Mula is coming in as one of my top companies for processing right now based on their fees and also the availability to send electronic statements to have it link into the patient ledger. I think they're doing a really great job. And then making sure we're actually tracking that entire scorecard of the AR on our Google Sheets or whatever you wanna do. But I like it color coordinated and then I like the doctor and the billing representative.

To meet together at the end of every month, we see how many first statements, how many collections we made, how many 60 day, how many 90 day, and then are there any that need to go to collections or do we need to figure out what to do with that account? I am not here for an advocate of whatever is right or wrong. You get to decide what's best for your practice, but we've got to have a way to follow up on this. And insurances should be receiving statements 15 to 30 days. Following up on them more consistently can actually help us get payments quicker. So making sure we're also sending clean claims.

So everything's attached, everything's put together. So we're not getting things back because we didn't do our part, making sure everything's being submitted on the first run, I really think can help it out. And so when offices do this, what's interesting is we've been able to actually pay for all of our consulting in very quickly because we've taught the office how to go and collect the money that is already in the accounts. And so, and it's crazy because I'm like, you already did the work, let's just collect the money. And so sometimes it is on sending statements, sometimes it's calling the patients, but it's crazy how just even.

connecting in with your patients really can help them realize that like we just have this money that's outstanding, let's get it paid. So right now I would figure out, can you get with Mula, can you have an automated system to be able to send out statements and then have someone who oversees AR and they follow up on it every single week. That's something we're really gonna need to make sure it's taken care of. I like Tuesdays and Thursdays for billing days, you do it whatever you need to do. Not the full day, usually a four hour chunk is probably pretty good for.

Most practices, every practice is different, but that would be a good one. And then step three, pretty simple, is we've got to review our AR metrics and take actions. So this is what I was talking about, the doctor and the billing representative meeting together, and we've got to monitor our 30, 60, 90, and over 90 days where we're at. So the zero to 30, 60 to 90, over 90, we've got to make sure, and what I like is of all of those accounts, we're never over one month's worth of collections. And so I try really hard to get that down.

Kiera Dent (09:16.868)

Over 90 should be less than 10 % of total AR. I even like it to be chipped down to like 5 % of that. So if you know the metrics that we need to do, we've got to be collecting. And if our team knows our goal is to collect in 30 days always, we get better at insurance verification, we get better at collecting, we get better at watching our AR, we get better at all these different things, then we truly have a system that works. And then making sure that it's in there so the doctor can take a look at it so you can see how many first statements, second statements, third statements, you can even make a

little dummy codes that you attach to each patient's ledger. So at the end of the month, you can actually run a report to see how many statements really went out of first, second, third. I don't go past three. I do not want it going past three. And if you call on the first one, usually we're not getting to a second one. We're setting up options. We have payment options if necessary that are external, not internal, that really, really can help you. for me, I would, if I was a dentist, I would have my billing meeting set up. I would expect my team to get through that entire AR list within a month.

I don't care how many accounts are on there. We might have some cleanup to do, but getting through that, and I have an office where we were able to take them from about a 65 % collection ratio. It was really drastic, all the way up to 98%, but we had to go back three years to clean it up. And there's a lot of them that we weren't able to collect them because we'd waited too long, but it was a process. I think we had about 10,000 accounts we had to go through, but this team was diligent. They were dedicated. It was hard, but we were able to actually make progress.

And it was so fun for them to actually build the system and for the doctors to understand and the team to understand and they'll never get into that position again. And so really going through these three steps, like I mentioned, of clear financial policies with our patients and collecting before they go back and also when we do time of service, we have a full follow-up system of how do we have it? How do we submit our statements? Do we call for it? How do we have this? And then we review it every single month with our doctor and billing.

a team member meeting, it's really gonna help you guys stay on track and be able to get this healthy AR. So the reality is we've got to enforce this. We've got to make sure that we're following up on it, that we're expecting to be at 98 % collection and that we actually go through with this because right now is the time like you've done the work, let's collect the money. And so if this is something that you are like, gosh, like Carrie, you're just speaking my language, reach out, DM us, I'm happy to show you some AR tactics that we've done for other practices, give you some resources and tips.

Kiera Dent (11:36.32)

or head on over to our website, TheDentalATeam.com and just book a call. And I'm happy to go through it with you and give you some, some complimentary value and practice assessment to see where you're at, the great things you're doing in areas that we can help out. This is what we're obsessed with doing. And Dental A Team does this. This is what we do for our practices. This is why we have the systems. This is why we have the systems for success for you. And I'd love to help you. So when, when you're ready and if you're ready to boost and master your AR and cashflow reach out, we're ready for you. And I'd love to help you, but truly commit to

being a master of AR and having that healthy cashflow, you're doing the work, get paid for the work you do. You deserve it. You're worth it. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

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It’s not difficult to enter a practice and feel whether a team is synergistic and they love each other versus if they have animosity and do not get along. Kiera gives advice for spreading love to team members and patients, and establishing a culture of appreciation beyond Valentine’s Day.

Episode resources:

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:01.23)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and it is the season and the month of love. And honestly, Valentine's Day and February isn't just about hearts and chocolates. It's truly the perfect time to show appreciation to your team and patients if you desire. So today we're going to teach you some simple, impactful ways to spread love in your dental practice, because why not? One of my favorite quotes is to spread love like confetti. And I think in today's world and in Dental A Team's mission to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible,

Why not spread love, spread kindness, spread joy to our team and our patients. So just wanted to give you guys a couple quick tips on how you're able to do that. You guys know that this is something that I'm really passionate. I'm really passionate about you loving your job, you loving your life, loving your patients, impacting your community and your team to ultimately live the most fulfilled and impactful life. Showing love and appreciation increases our morale in our practices. It increases retention and the overall practice culture where patients feel that love.

crazy because when I walk into an office when consulting, you can feel if a team is synergistic and they love each other versus if they're animosity and they do not get along with one another. And so really just something for you to highlight that people can feel the energy. And so let's spread that love in a quick action packed episode for you today on the season of love. So number one, step one is show love to your team. I do believe that it comes from when we

recognize and appreciate our team's hard work when we show that love to one another. That's really how we're able to highlight and enhance in some quick easy ways that I think are love appropriate within the workforce, our right personal thank you notes to each team member, maybe once a quarter, we we bust out the thank you cards and we write them. It's crazy how a little pen and paper can really make a big impact for people. You guys could also have like around Valentine's Day, maybe have a Valentine's Day themed lunch or treat where

We really do maybe exchange Valentine's Day gifts with one another, like go back to the time where we wrote Valentine's for one another. And also like we've talked about in other times of creating a shout out board where you can write kind notes to each other. I've seen offices where they just have a whiteboard there where people just write a quick note of like, here you crushed it today or Sarah, you crushed it today and we just leave it. And it's almost like our wall of love. And you can even create a wall of love where we just like stamp them up there or on shout out jars. We post those up there because again, showing love to one another.

Kiera Dent (02:25.7)

It creates a habit, creates a pattern. creates a way for us too of how we operate. And so just again, thinking of that. And so my suggestion for you is pick one of those ideas. Are we going to do thank you notes to one another? Are we going to have a lunch of a Valentine's themed? Are we going to get those little Valentine's boxes back out? Are we going to have a shout out board for one another? What are we going to do to implement kindness and love within our practice? And then step two is now we've done it to our teams. We've taken care of ourselves.

Now we're going to spread this to our patients. And so what can we do to show love to our patients? And what's crazy is when people feel loved, they're actually very bound. There's a retention piece. There's a loyalty piece because people feel that love and that genuine appreciation. And so little things for them that we can do of you can send heartfelt emails or text messages to patients. We could even have little hearts this month and write little love notes to our patients of how much we appreciate them. You could highlight one patient.

that you just every day to have them be the patient of the day. We could actually create a social media post highlight, make sure it's a HIPAA and you've got consents for it. A patient appreciation and highlight the patients to like why we really love them and why they love their smile. So lots of different ways where we can show them. But I think that intentionality, there's a book called Unreasonable Hospitality. And I loved in there where they had like this whole little like craft kit is how I imagine it. I've never been there.

But where they were allowed to, they really encouraged their team to create magic moments for their guests, for these people who would attend the restaurant. so having a way for your team to produce this unreasonable hospitality, if we know someone's having a baby or we know someone's getting married or we know someone's it's their birthday or like just having a little, like I said, a little craft station where we can do these things on an intentional basis every single day to really create magic and to spread love to our patients. It's crazy how just a small little intentional thing

I mean, I can't imagine it's never happened to me, but could you just imagine if your hygienist in your little goodie bag wrote you a handwritten note, like again, like a little heart or a little card, like, Kiera, I just really always look forward to when you come. You're one of my favorite patients. And I just want you to know how much I really appreciate you and do it without any expectation other than just giving the gift of love to this person. I think that this would actually really truly grow your practice, grow your,

Kiera Dent (04:47.136)

retention, grow your patient base. And then another idea is think about our online reviews. Yes, we respond to those reviews for Google Analytics and for different pieces. But what would it be like if you actually wrote a personalized letter to each person who left your view, thanking them for that review, or a personalized letter to each person who referred someone to your practice? It just seems crazy how this intentionality of personalization and creating magic for our patients and spreading the love.

really would be able to be something. I think in the month of February, it's a fun time for us to pick one patient focused, like idea where we can show them the love and implement it, whether before Valentine's day or after Valentine's day you choose, but really like how can we create this magic for our patients? And then step three is foster the culture beyond Valentine's day. Like how do we foster this culture of appreciation and love beyond? And I think a lot of the pieces for this were,

talking about things of creating the magic moments, creating the shout out boards, but maybe for this ideas are we start a monthly recognition program for team and patients. How can we recognize somebody every single month that really we just love and we want to like shower them with love, sprinkle them with the confetti of love. Maybe we also do positive feedback, like the shout out jars, the kudos jars, keep the board going of how much we love each other. Maybe these things like that. And what you can do is even like rotate. I like to have systems and cadences. So maybe it's.

Kiera's day is on Monday and Kiera goes and writes love notes to each team member every single Monday. Every Tuesday it's Britt's turn to do it. Every Wednesday is Tiff's turn to do it. But really like finding a way to have this where it becomes, yes it will be quote unquote forced at the beginning, but then becomes automatic in the longterm. We could also do quarterly patient appreciation events. So I've seen offices, one of my favorite offices that I've seen is they had donuts on the corner. offices like patients would be driving all the time for high school.

and they had donuts and they just like gave a little like, love our patients and they would do it. And people in the community knew about this all the time. I have an office where they're gonna start running promos of if your name is blank, come in and get free whitening. We love our patients. We love to have them smile bright and something like that where it's just fun things where we're showing appreciation, we're showing love, we're able to give back. These are ways that we're able to make this not just be about Valentine's Day and the month of love.

Kiera Dent (07:00.9)

But like I said, spreading love like confetti all year long. And so I would plan one appreciation initiative. So what we're gonna do this year of are we doing recognition for patients and team? Are we going to have a quarterly event? Are we gonna do donuts? But the goal is not to cost a lot of money, not to create more busy work for you, but to really be in the habit of adding love for our team and our patients. I feel like our world has become such a world.

where we've forgotten to be humans. We've forgotten to be, we've forgotten to love. We're so automated, we're so into AI and automations and doing and maximizing and optimizing that we've forgotten to just love. We've forgotten what our center is, what our core is, what it means to be a human being, not a human doing, but a human being, being intentional, being in that spirit to really create magic. So I think a good book is Unreasonable Hospitality.

to just think of how can we create magic and love moments more often, to have that be the culture and the feel. And I know families who have love, you can feel it when you walk into a home, relationships that are very centered on love. You can feel that when you're around them, why not make your practice a space where people feel loved, they feel accepted, they don't feel judged. They feel like they're special, but they're important. Everyone in this world is looking for that, whether big or small, they're looking for that. So like I said, we've got the three steps of number one, show love to our team.

Number two, spread love to our patients. And number three, have that culture of appreciation beyond just Valentine's Day in the month of February. This is how we're able to change the world. This is how we're able to create magic. This is how we're able to change people's lives just by coming to the dentist. And if we see that by, we're not just changing their smiles, we're changing them as a human. It's what we do in consulting. Yes, I'm here to talk to you about profitability and systems and consulting, but I believe in changing the human. I believe in impacting the soul.

I believe in having you have your dream life as team members and as owners to really give you the best life you can possibly have. And we do that through love. Love is the connector. Love is the bridge. Love is what makes us so happy. So I encourage you to truly like, if you're ready to spread love in the practices, like share, tag us. Like that would be my, my action for you is go spread love and tag the Dental A Team. Um, on Instagram, I would love to just have like it flooding of

Kiera Dent (09:22.358)

an initiative of all the podcast listeners. Let's just make it this month of love where we're tagging, we're spreading, we're saying hello. Can we add love into Facebook groups? Can we share this podcast with someone that we love? Where can we do that? And truly, this is a way that we're able to give back. if this is what you want and you want a team that's not just about systems, you want consulting that's not just about the dentistry. Yes, that's what we do, but it's more about being, it's more about intentionality, it's more about love.

reach out. This is what we do. when we are ready, we're ready for you. And so reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com or just go click and book a call for a complimentary practice assessment for you and your team to just show you value and insights and help you. Because at the end of the day, the mission of Dental A Team's podcast and Dental A Team is from love. Loving my Midwestern students when I worked with them to give them resources to then loving our dental offices and loving them as people to give them the resources.

to change their lives, to change their communities and have this impact that goes far beyond our dental practice and our space. It blesses our families, it blesses our teams, it blesses our patients. And so really, that's what we're about. I'm so happy you're here. So go spread love like confetti. Know that I love you, that you're doing better than you think you are. Give yourself the grace, the kudos, make magic moments for those patients and let me know. And I cannot wait to see you guys. Tag me, DM me. This is where we're at. I would love to get Valentine's from you.

I love Valentine's, so send them out, spread them out, give those love bombs to people around you, inside and out, and so truly, this is the time. It's your time to spread love like confetti to change the world. And as always, thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

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Kiera talks about the power of ‘state of the company’ meetings, how to set them up, how to roll them out, and how to continue having them quarter after quarter.

Episode resources:

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.802)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today I just wanna ask you the question of does your team know where you're going and what you're trying to achieve as a practice? And if the answer is not absolutely 100 % yes, if you came into our practice, Kiera, and asked every person, then today this episode is for you. And it's something beautiful that we've just recently learned that I'm so excited to share with you to make your life easier, to get your team aligned, to get them all rolling in the same direction.

and I just tested it on my team and we're testing it with offices and the feedback has been outstanding of better team buy-in, more clarity and easier ability to row in the same direction. Dental A Team is here for you. We love to support you. Our mission is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. And I'm so honored that you're here as part of our podcast family. All of our consultants, we work with you virtually or one-on-one, in person.

or on the screen, we make sure that you are thriving and that you are living your best self. It can be hard, it can be lonely, but it doesn't have to be. And that's what Dental A Team was created. And that's why we created the podcast was to give you tactical tips to make sure that your world is easier, more efficient, and that you're able to feel not alone, but supported in the world of dentistry. All right, so today we're gonna rock this out. This is something from Traction. You know that I'm a huge fan of Gina Wickman and I'm gonna break down three simple steps of the state of the company.

The state of the company is something to do after your quarterly meetings. So you go as a leadership team, you meet, you have a quarterly meeting. We do this with our clients. We work with this within our mastermind group. It's so fun. And I'm so excited to help people really deep dive on the businesses. I've done a lot of research over the years to make sure that I'm able to deliver the best of the best to you. So we meet with our leadership team. We work on our action items.

We're able to figure out what's the focus. What are our annual goals? What are our quarterly goals that we need to do? And the leadership team gets crystal crystal clear. We're able to have the uncomfortable conversations, solve the issues. That step one is you've got to have your annual meetings to make sure that you are then focused on where are we going? And then also breaking it down into our quarterly meetings. So step one of the state of the company, getting your whole team rowing in the correct vision is number one, leadership team needs to meet annually and quarterly to set the vision, to set the focus, to say where they're going.

Kiera Dent (02:13.454)

I love it to be leadership teams because I feel like that's where we can really get to the nitty gritty, the juicy. I have an office and they're truly remarkable and I absolutely love them. And what's really fun is the leadership teams able to come hash it out. What does hygiene want? What did dental assistants want? What does front office need? What did the doctors need? What does the practice need from all those different perspectives? And it's been amazing to watch them go from a $3.5 million practice up to a $6 million practice in one year.

by simply getting their leadership team aligned and then rolling this out to their departments. So step one is leadership team needs alignment annually and quarterly. Step two is now you prepare for what the team needs to hear and this is called the state of the company. The state of the company feels like I should have a top hat on and that I should be Abe Lincoln and it felt really funny to me. But really what it is is it's a snapshot of where is the company at? What has happened? Where are we at and where are we going? And it was crazy because as I was doing it, it's a one hour meeting with your team.

but you need to prepare for this. So that step two is prepare for the state of the company meeting. And on that, what we do is, like I said, where have we been, where are we going, and what do we need to do to change? What are updates on the company? Where are our goals? What were the quarterly rocks that we just set in traction terms that we then are going to be able to take to our team and deliver in a clear, concise manner? This is usually done by your office manager. Office managers prepare it, they put it together.

Doctors, you're going to be the one who presents it or whomever the lead of the team is ultimately. So for me and my company, I'm the one who gets to deliver the state of the company. So step one, leadership team needs to work together. They need to create the annual and the quarterly goals. Step two is office manager and doctor need to combine together to figure out what exactly are we needing to do to make this state of the company report there. We build it. Britt kudos to her on our team. She built it in the most beautiful format. So we had it at the top. We have it mapped out.

Here's where we were, here's where we're going. If there's a gap, so if it's Q1 and we're behind, what's the gap? What have we learned and why are we here? It was a really beautiful conversation between Britt and myself where we were able to really assess how did we get here? Why are we here? And what are we going to do moving forward? For me, I don't believe in failures, I believe in results. So what are the results and why did we get here? And what are we going to do to move forward and to learn from that? Step three is now hold your state of the company meeting. I plan and prep an hour with our team.

Kiera Dent (04:31.564)

We do it at the beginning of each quarter. So we roll it out to them. And what we do is we actually show, I share screened this document that Britt and I had put together. I go through it I really empower the team and I talk to the team, this is where we are. This is the nuts and bolts. These are the facts. This is what needs to happen in order for us to move forward. This is the reason that we're doing these goals. And it's really to me, the state of the company addresses more giving the why behind along with the tangibles of what needs to happen. So it's why did we get here?

Why are we wanting to implement for our company this year? It's marketing masters and AI innovation. We're adding that in because I believe if we look down the line dentistry is going to be shifting heavily. And so we need to be ahead of that. We need to be ahead of the curve. We need to see, we need to build different ways for people to be coming to our company. We need to be having a way to truly, if our mission is to reach out to all the dental practices, we've got to be building different funnels, different methods, different models from what we've been doing and be ahead of that.

but me educating my team and teaching them, this is why we're doing it. Now the team has what I call the lock and loaded buy-in because now they're clear. And I had no clue how this would land. We ran it for an hour, gave them all the information. had it prepped. We asked them for questions. And then I actually wasn't there the next day. And Britt actually asked the team for feedback of, you want this every quarter? Do you not? And it has been an outstanding resounding. We loved that. And it's been so interesting to hear throughout the week, throughout the trickling.

of Kiera, feel so much more clear. Kiera, I feel like I understand where we're going. Kiera, I'm so grateful that you took the time. It was broken down in such simple steps for us. And what was great for me as a leader was I was able actually to do a deep dive on my practice, my business to see what were the strengths, what were the weaknesses, why did I get here? Ask the hard questions and for Britt and I to align and then lock and load our team in the synergy and the energy of having a team drive this forward for you is there.

Teams often just need clarity. They need to understand the why. They need to understand why are we doing this? Where are we going and what is the purpose of this? And then like I said, they lock and load and they're rock solid with you executing, taking ownership. I have seen teams that do this, elevate the ownership, elevate the clarity, elevate the synergy of them all rolling together. So my question is, do you want a team that's rolling together with ease, efficiency and effectiveness? The state of the company, the quarterly address.

Kiera Dent (06:51.916)

is something that I would strongly recommend with these three points to add into your practice. Feel free, I'm happy to share a sample of what we've done so that way you can see it so you can kick it off to share it with your team. Like I said, we pulled this from Gina Wickman Traction and built it up Dental A Team's version of how we wanted to do this, giving you the resources because my goal is to make dentistry easy, to make running a practice easy, to make it to where this isn't hard for you because really running a practice can be easy. Being a profitable dentist can be easy.

being fulfilled and not having to do it all can be a reality. Having a team that rallies and is so incredibly accountable can be a reality. And that's what Dental A Team does. So if that's of interest for you, reach out, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com We do a one hour free practice assessment for you, where I literally deep dive with you, your practice, where you're at, some of these huge hits that need to happen in order for your practice to flourish and for you to have the life that you're wanting. So reach out, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com

You'll get a ton of value. You'll be able to have clarity of where your practice goes. And if we're a great fit for you, I'd love to work with you as always. Thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

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Tiff and Dana share common pitfalls that scale back your practice’s production — and what to do to address them. Included solutions are Dental A-Team’s scorecard and a fixed cost spreadsheet, which you can reach out to the DAT for help on: hello@thedentalateam.com.

Episode resources:

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Schedule a Practice Assessment

Leave us a review

Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:01.967)

Hello, Dental A Team podcast listeners. I am so excited to be here with you today. This is Tiffanie. I never introduced myself, which is weird. Hopefully there's like some sort of intro that goes to that. just thought of that. Anyhow, here we are. Another day, another podcast. And first and foremost, I want to thank all of you guys who listen. I know we get a lot of practice assessment.

schedules from people who listen to our podcasts. That's how you guys are finding us. And it just means a lot to us that you're here, that you're with us, that you're supporting us. We want to support you and we are doing forever. As far as I can tell, we're doing new free practice assessments for practices all over, all over the country, all over the world. Sometimes we get Canadian practices and it's super cool. I know we've worked with practices all the way in New Zealand and it's just really cool. And these complimentary practice assessment tools.

are fantastic because we really are helping you deep dive and figure out where your focus should be or could be to get you to the results that you're looking to gain, whether you're gonna work with us one-on-one in a group fashion or just continue being a listener no matter what. We love doing these complimentary practice assessments with you guys. And it's just really fun. It's so cool to see where dentistry is at and where you guys are at.

wins and the struggles you guys are having and it's just, it's super awesome. So thank you to everybody who's here with us today. We are excited to take you on this journey with us and doctors and practice owners, leaders, whoever's here today. I really wanted to chat here. I've got my girl Dana with me and I wanted to chat about projections, scheduling, reaching goals. I think that's a huge focus.

for everyone always needs to reach goals, right? But I think in 2025 so far, Dana, like we need to heavily focus on this because 2024, there was a lot that happened in 2024. It was a weird, it was a wild year, right? Like was so weird. It felt like, okay, we're getting momentum with everyone. And then it was like two steps forward, one step back, five steps forward, three steps back. And it was like, gosh, we're getting momentum. But it was an uphill battle in 2024. I don't know what happened, but holy cow, this year feels cleaner already. It feels different.

Dana (01:57.805)

wild.

The Dental A Team (02:17.795)

And I think everyone's kind of shifted their focus to the areas to be able to see what's the most important. So I'm excited to chat with you about that today, Dana, and I hope our listeners are excited for this one. I wanted to just have a conversation around what impacts production from a schedule standpoint, not technical scheduling, right? Not our blog scheduling. We've done a million freaking podcasts on that. Dana and I are not doing that today.

Dana (02:45.276)

No?

The Dental A Team (02:47.601)

But really those other pieces that impact it and how doctors can and practice owners can look at these factors and project. It's still early enough in the year that if you haven't done this yet, get on it. It's totally fine and look for those pieces. So I wanted to pick your brain a little bit Dana and I think let's take it in the space of let's talk about the things that can impact and then let's talk about how we can.

project that and fix it and work it into our goals. So what are the spaces Dana that you have, your clients, and I think we likely do this the same, but what spaces and what do you have your clients look for when they are getting prepped for that next year? We're into the year and we're trying to figure out what's going on, what things impact production goals from a scheduling standpoint like that that you guys are taking a look at.

Dana (03:37.388)

Yeah, I love this topic because I do think when we think about production and impacts on production, we go right to scheduling, we go right to those pieces. And so I love that today is a little bit different. And I think that sometimes we just forget that like taking a vacation is going to impact production, having holidays in there, holidays will sometimes fall on work days and sometimes not.

you know, yearly, they're different. so looking at how many holidays do we have in there looking at, if we're going to take CE, how much of that is time away from the office, team meetings and quarterly meetings and admin time, knowing all of those things, right? All of those things impact your production because then that isn't necessarily time spent taking care of patients. It's definitely needed. It's time spent working on the business. It's time spent training and, working on all of our processes. So

The Dental A Team (04:21.495)

So.

Dana (04:27.664)

let's not not do it because it affects production, right? Knowing it will impact your production and being able to combat that is definitely super helpful.

The Dental A Team (04:31.174)

Yeah, yeah.

The Dental A Team (04:40.57)

Yeah, I totally agree. think CE is something that a lot of doctors will find on a whim or be like, I need to take this course. You need to block me out these days. And if we're not projecting and planning for that or accommodating the schedule in other places, it really impacts it. I had a client that I was chatting with last week, an office manager, and she's like, Tiff, what the heck do I do? Like they want to make XML this month, but they took between the two doctors, they took two weeks off. And I'm like, well,

This is the shared reality, right? So their reality is they're not looking at that. They're not thinking about that. Your reality is that you have to get it on the schedule. And so that's the first place you look when they come to you and tell you to shut down days is you're like, well, what am I supposed to do with this? So coming to that shared reality is huge and trying to project as much as you can the CE that you want to take this year or

estimating how much CE you're willing to take time off for is always huge as well. I know I've got a few doctors that don't know when they want to take vacation or where they want to go or if they want it. And I say, you know what? That's totally fine. In the perfect world, how much vacation time do you want to take with your family? And I have one doctor that said four to six weeks. I said, great. Then plan for six. I want you to take six weeks out of your productive

numbers, days of work, right, take those six weeks out of that productive time, now estimate what you can do and how we can bump those goals. Because the reality is we need to increase production and collections by seven to ten percent every year to keep up with inflation. And team members that are listening, every year, no matter what, you're going to get a new goal. It's going to be different than it was last year. And guess what? We're doing things on the other side to help you with that.

just FYI, you're going to get a bigger goal every year. Soap. Soapbox. The days of the year that we're willing, that we're able to work, right, impact if how easily or how difficult it's going to be to get to that goal. So we've got to say, okay, this is our goal, this is the number of days we're working with, what do have to do every day to get to that goal? So it's not necessarily, this is how many days I have to work, what is my goal, it's, this is what I need to do, this is how many days I

The Dental A Team (07:03.878)

I have that I'm working, how do we fix that? So I love that. And I've had a lot of doctors in the last couple of years that have really learned to just say, okay, well, I don't have it planned yet, but I would love to take three CEs this year, because I want them and I need them. And I'd love to take this much vacation with my family. Great. Swipe it off, figure it out, we move on. Other pieces that I know have come into play, in the dental industry. So

Guess what, guys? We've got a lot of babies that come along. Maternity and paternity leave is a real thing. Like, we're family. We're healthcare providers, so we are family-oriented beings. So making sure that we're considering that as well. I know a lot of offices that are like, shoot, I didn't even think about the fact that my hygienist is going to be out for three months starting in June, and what am I supposed to do? And it's May. And I'm like, my gosh.

Dana (07:59.95)

you

The Dental A Team (08:00.052)

Why didn't Oyrin want this information? You know, it's just like those pieces we forget about. So I love that. Like, Observed Holidays, which 2024 taught us a lesson if we were not pre-planning for Observed Holidays because Christmas and New Year's landed on wild days for that year, and it really, really messed with December production. 2025, it's similar. It's at least towards the end of the week, so you can work the beginning of both.

Dana (08:03.246)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (08:29.897)

but observed holidays and how much time are you gonna give yourself and your team off during those holidays? CE, how much do you want to on vacations? How much do you want to take? How much do you aspire to take? Always go big, because you can work extra days. Team vacations, especially when it comes to providers, so associates and hygienists, you've gotta make sure we're prepped for that. Maternity and paternity leave.

making sure we're prepped for all of those situations and scenarios, and I'm sure there are some that I didn't even think about, that impact it. I do have doctors that will take some time off and then they'll work maybe extra Fridays or they'll work extra long on Thursdays where they normally would have done some admin work, which I don't love you guys getting rid of admin work. and you said, know, admin hours and meeting hours, things like that, making sure we're accounting for those things. But if you can,

pick up extra days for sure. I'm never gonna turn that down and neither will your schedulers. But making sure we're prepping and planning for that. some tools, Day, let's talk about some tools that we have that we have our clients utilize and then also that you guys who aren't yet clients, your listeners, use tools like this or reach out and we can help you with tools like this. Really narrowing in and making things easy is...

what I love in life. I hate... doesn't mean things are never going to be hard. I hate hard forever. I want hard right now, so maybe it's time consuming right now, but it's going to save me pain later. That's what I want to do. So, Dana, we have our projections sheet, so maybe talk about our projections sheet a little bit and our scorecard and how those combine and then how you're using that now two months into the year with your clients to really assess and see.

Dana (09:59.5)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (10:21.856)

how their goals are going for them as we're rounding out middle of Q1.

Dana (10:26.092)

Yeah, so I love our projection sheet and I feel like in 2024 I used it more than ever because 2024 was wild so let's prep and make sure 2025 stays a little less wild than 2024 was.

The Dental A Team (10:32.031)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (10:37.896)

Absolutely.

Dana (10:38.766)

And so really, it truly is it's mapping out I go through every month of the year with the client, how many working days are we going to have for each provider, including hygiene. And some of that does take prep work as far as hey, I need you to get that information from your heart to can they do they have any idea when they're going to take vacations? Do they have any idea and then honestly, if we don't, okay, well, how much PTO do they have and we build that in just saying like, okay, well, we know they're probably going to use their two weeks of PTO somewhere. So if we even it out throughout the

The Dental A Team (10:53.716)

Mm-hmm.

The Dental A Team (11:01.909)

Yeah.

Dana (11:08.72)

quarters, at least we kind of have the number of days that we're working with. And so we'll go through and we'll say, where do you want to end up next year, right? We'll base it on this year, we'll look at all sorts of things. And then we go through that sheet together and we basically say, okay, if these are the number of working days, if this is the number of providers we have available, this is what it's going to take every single day from each provider to get you to your ultimate goal. So it's kind of some reverse engineering, but it also is some planning and prepping.

The Dental A Team (11:34.315)

Yeah.

Dana (11:38.83)

And I love that meeting with clients because a lot of that goes like a lot of things go into that projection sheet. And I love that you said, okay, well, how many CE days do you want to take? Sometimes actually CE comes down to what do we have for a CE budget next year? And then of that budget, okay, well, that can likely get you two to three CE courses, which then helps with our projections that way. So it is a lot of planning and prepping that goes into it. But I think that it really helps.

got them down to the penny what needs to happen every single day in each month and really gives them a roadmap that then as the year starts going and we bring in our scorecard we're constantly paying attention to where are we to getting to that and following that roadmap that we set out at the end of the year prior. So it's a really cool combination of tools and and I love to see especially this year is like we're

The Dental A Team (12:21.32)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (12:30.802)

Yeah.

Dana (12:38.704)

really customizing and tightening of the scorecard that it constantly has them assessing gaps, it constantly has them going back to that initial roadmap we set, and then like you said, really just looking for opportunities of what is the thing we need to focus on right now.

The Dental A Team (12:56.073)

I love that. think you nailed it with those. The projection sheet is huge. And then coupling it with the scorecard and a piece that made me think of that's on the scorecard. And we purposely put it on the scorecard because this made a massive impact on goals being reached last year. I think every year, but last year, it really showed its face is the number of hours that were left.

open on the schedule, so they were not filled with production either in hygiene or on the doctor's schedule. So when you look at the projections, you're like, great, this is awesome. This is if I were full to 100%, this is what my estimated production could be by provider. But then when you get in there and you start utilizing the scorecard and you're looking at the production, you compare the two, you're like, why am I off and why is it hard to reach these goals? Or why am I just not there yet? Why am I not reaching this goal yet?

A lot of times it's lost in those pieces that we haven't always paid a lot of attention to, or just like we could, we should, why isn't it happening? I'm not sure. Looking at those open hours and even taking into account maybe, know, with that, that you're likely going to have like 3 % or so left open on the schedule. But looking at those open hours and saying, great, well, if I multiplied these open hours by that producer's average dollar per hour, that's going to show me I probably could have made that goal.

really focusing the attention in on there and bringing it back then to the schedulers and treatment planners and full team of handoffs and all of those pieces we talk about because of schedule working takes the full practice. So it takes you guys projecting, you guys prepping and planning takes, you know, the back office and front office working really hard together to ensure that our patients are the healthiest they possibly can be. Dana, you mentioned CE budget.

And that made me think of the other tools that we're utilizing that I hope other practices that are not yet Delay Team clients are utilizing as well. that's in the, which goes along with that projection, right? The fixed cost spreadsheets, making sure you know what your fixed costs are. That's also part of that planning and projecting because if you're fixed costs and your bare minimum production and collections that you need in order to have the overhead that you want,

The Dental A Team (15:12.587)

If those aren't in alignment, right, with your projections, your projections are low, we might need to look then and say, okay, well, where can we add days back in? Because if we're not combining all of that information, again, we're just not seeing all the levels. It's like not seeing all of the colors. It's like being colorblind to orange, right? You can't see orange anywhere and you're just missing all of these flowers and things that could light up your life. It's like.

not being able to see those pieces. So the fixed cost spreadsheet and knowing what are the fixed costs, what are my average payrolls, what are my average supplies, what should this look like? Then you look at what that needs to be, what are my projections, and what can I do then minus those fixed costs? What would my overhead look like if this is the projection for that month? So then tackling that and looking at that growth percentage and profit percentage,

opportunity allows you then to again look at what you're projecting and what you're taking time off for and evaluate what do I need to do to change that result or it's perfect. And Dana, I you've been working a lot, a lot, a lot with the fixed cost spreadsheet. How has that impacted the being able to project and impact the schedule for the clients that you've got utilizing that spreadsheet?

Dana (16:35.374)

Yeah, I really used to fix costs heavily this year because I do feel like that was part of the wild of 2024 is you know with everything going on and things are just more expensive wages are higher and I feel like practices we're seeing really good growth as far as looking at production but offices who weren't keeping quite an eye on expenses got some surprises because it ended up that like

The Dental A Team (16:41.294)

Mm-hmm.

The Dental A Team (16:56.345)

Yeah.

Dana (17:03.36)

you know, we set goals based on the numbers from the previous year. And so then when this year's expenses are quite a bit higher, and they're not watching them, or that's not something, you know, that they consistently look at, it just became more necessary this year to ensure that they knew where their fixed costs were. And they also knew that, okay, if it's outside of this, right, that is like,

The Dental A Team (17:07.769)

Mm-hmm.

The Dental A Team (17:17.051)

you

Dana (17:28.31)

an alert that like we need to take a deeper dive into this and we need to really keep an eye on it. So it was something that I really incorporated in 2024. And again, this year, I love that it is part of our scorecard and the things that we're really tracking with clients because that was an area that really hit offices hard. was like, were just giving raises and we were just saying, yep, you know what, I think I can extend my pay range for this new position to this and, just making some of these

The Dental A Team (17:29.614)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (17:56.641)

Mm-hmm.

Dana (17:58.186)

decisions like a little bit on the fly without crunching and saying, All right, well, what does that look like on the expense side? Or how much does that actually add to my BAM and my bottom line? And so I think that that it really was impactful this last year. And so, you know, I with you, I'm encouraging offices, even those listening to really make sure that that is a number that you know.

The Dental A Team (18:08.548)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (18:22.36)

For sure, and I think you're 100 % right because our goal is to be profitable and to have a thriving business that patients can continue to come to. But when we're making decisions without knowing the full spectrum, makes it really difficult. And to combine those pieces into what you just said, the...

holiday situation at the end of the year. I know I had a lot of clients and it was like November, December. They're like, Tiff, we decided to just take the two weeks off. And it's like, my gosh, like you just deleted four days out of December and that's massive. So going from a 16 day month to a 12 day month, like if you're averaging, you know, $10,000 a day, that's 40 grand that we've now deleted at the end of the year. There's nowhere else to put that. So being able to know.

Is that 40 grand going to affect the profit, the profitability and the overhead of the practice? Do I have that saved somewhere to cover it because I'm not collecting that 40 grand in January from December, right? So having that fixed cost information and what your bare minimum is to know where your overhead will be to know, can I actually deduct 40 grand from my production?

and be okay because I've got a couple practices now, you know, into January, February that are like, Tip, why is my collections low? And I'm like, well, girl, you took two weeks off in December and we collect on a lag when it comes to dental insurances. So I'm not surprised that it was a little low in January. So I think that was brilliant to really be able to combine all of those pieces. And again, that's like missing a color in the rainbow spectrum of colors, whatever. Like, you can't, you've got to look at it all.

Dana (19:51.595)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (20:09.444)

And if any of those pieces aren't missing, it could be really detrimental to the practice. So I think that was really cool, Dana. Thank you for bringing that up. You guys, it's simple. Even though it's February, if you haven't done this yet, like, that's okay. It's not December. You guys, you're not telling me in November, you're taking four days off in December. So guess what? It's only February. It's only whatever month you decided to live, you decided to listen to this in, go do these things. So look at, if you don't have the spreadsheets, if you're not one of our clients, then...

Dana (20:26.67)

Thank you.

The Dental A Team (20:37.805)

Create one. All you have to do is know what you can work and what your estimated dollar per hours are or reach out to us. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com We're happy to help you with some ideas and some tools as well. Again, we are doing our complimentary practice assessments. Always TheDentalATeam.com That'll pop up. You can sign up for one those. This is definitely something that we talk about on those a lot. So we always look at your profitability. We always look at how the business can grow clients and non-clients. We like to help you guys with all of that. So

Dana, thank you. Thank you, thank you. Thank you for being such a huge advocate of the business side of all of this and really helping your clients and all of everyone to see those pieces and for helping on the back end so much of the creation of all of these pieces. It was a huge project within our company to ensure that we had it dialed in as much as we.

have the knowledge for now or know to look at. So thank you so much for that. Thank you for this conversation today and freaking rock it out. Your clients are doing amazing and I love seeing you all, you and your clients just thrive in those worlds. So super cool. Awesome. Guys, go do the things. Like I said, it's gonna take some time upfront, but it's gonna save you.

pain in the long run. So do the hard right now, save yourself pain and hard later. Get those numbers dialed in. Dana had some amazing tips and tools today within all of those different areas and realms to look for. Don't forget the meetings, you guys, I think that's a space that a lot of us miss. Meetings, CE credits, those hours, those pieces like that that you're taking off in admin hours. So make sure you're calculating correctly.

Go look at what can impact your production and your schedule and work with your team to make sure you guys are doing the best ever possible. Dana, thank you for being here with me today. I loved this conversation. Your brain is incredible and I don't, that's it. Like you're just freaking amazing. I don't know how you do it and I just love it. So thank you so much.

Dana (22:37.826)

Thanks for having me and right back at you, Tiff.

The Dental A Team (22:40.263)

Thank you. Thank you. All right, guys, let us know what you thought about this. We'd love to see a five-star review and letting us know how much help this information was or what have you. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com And we can't wait to see you guys, if you are not yet a client, on a complimentary practice assessment because I really, really, really want you to get dialed in this year, no matter what that looks like for us and you. And keep listening, you guys. We're gonna always have some amazing content here for you. Catch you next time.

View Details

Kiera is joined by Mike and Stephanie Walton of Walton Family Dentistry in Bardstown, Kentucky. For the past almost year, the Waltons have not had a hygienist in their office. They talk with Kiera about why they were struggling to keep one staffed, what led them to stop having one in the first place, and how they efficiently and profitably operate to this day without a hygienist.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:05.844)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera and today is such a special episode. I am so excited. I am being joined by our incredible clients. I've got Mike and Stephanie Walton. They are running such an incredible practice. They are doing something so different, so unique, and I just wanted them to come on and share just about themselves. I think they're just a great example for so many offices out there. So Stephanie and Mike, welcome to the show. How are you today?

Mike Walton (00:30.602)

Doing great, doing great. Thanks for having us on.

Stephanie (00:33.948)

Thank you so much.

Kiera Dent (00:35.114)

Yes, absolutely. And I'll do better. I'll ask like Mike this, Stephanie that, because I know when there's three of us on here, can get a little funny, I'll just have Mike, I'll have you kind of kick this off. You two are incredible. I finally met you for the first time. We've worked together for so long. Tiffanie's your main consultant, but it was really dreamy when I got to meet you in June at the Dennis Money Show with Dennis Advisors.

Stephanie (00:39.209)

.

Kiera Dent (00:59.07)

So super fun, I'm excited to see you guys in person really soon too, but Mike, I'll have you just kick us off, kind of tell us a little bit about your practice, where you guys are at, kind of the dynamics of what you guys do in your practice. So the audience gets to know Mike and Stephanie Walton's office.

Mike Walton (01:11.809)

Great. So we are central Kentucky, little south of Louisville. So we're in a town called Bardstown. That's the bourbon capital of the world and the most beautiful small town award that we've received as well.

Stephanie (01:27.244)

In America.

Kiera Dent (01:28.69)

I agree. And you also bring the best candies and treats with you. Like they loaded us up when they came and met us. Bourbon Central, it was amazing. It was great. I was so like, it was so, the Carmel Stephanie, top notch, incredible. That was my favorite. So thank you.

Mike Walton (01:43.318)

Well, and Kara, have to say, you know, when I first saw you there, you know, of course we've seen each other on the think tank and, I saw you across the room and I was like, Hey, there's Kara. And I was like, she probably don't know who I am. We've never met before officially.

Stephanie (01:44.759)

You're welcome. Majestics.

Kiera Dent (01:46.961)

Exactly.

Kiera Dent (02:01.086)

I did it. Well, cause you know, you guys can see Mike, like there's video of him, Mike always, so we have, meant in think tank, which is our doctor mastermind every the first Tuesday of every month that we have. And Mike always wears his Yankees hat. Always. He always has a hat on. So even tonight I'm like, Mike, what are you doing? I'm not even going to recognize you. And you're right. I was like, where's your Yankees hat? That's fair. All right. So you guys are in Kentucky.

Mike Walton (02:19.4)

I'm saving it for next season.

Kiera Dent (02:27.103)

Tell us kind of the dynamics of your practice. How long have you been practicing? What does this practice look like?

Mike Walton (02:30.026)

So I've been practicing, it'll be 22 years in June. Started out in partnerships and then went out on my own about six years ago. So we are a small office where you are about five operatories. It's one doctor. And then right now it's four assistants, two front desk and then office manager.

Stephanie (02:35.246)

you

Kiera Dent (02:56.552)

And did you hear there's no hygienist, which is what we're going to lead into of how Mike went from a hygiene practice where he had hygienist to the shortage. was crunch time. Like he couldn't figure out how to, like it was so hard to hire. And so that's what I'm super excited to talk about. There was literally four assistants, no hygienist. Stephanie, tell us about your place. How are you in the practice? How did you get involved? I mean, you must really love Mike to be working there. You're even like scrubbed up over there, girl. It's not like you just shop. Tell us kind of how you.

Stephanie (03:07.129)

you

So I could tell that he was kind of unhappy at the last place and I was like, you know, it doesn't have to be that way. And so we started doing some research about how to open an office because they don't tell you a lot of business in dental school. And I had my own career and we had three little kids, but I wanted him to be happy. And we found ideal practices and they helped us open the office up and it was well worth the money.

And so that's how I got in there with him. And it was just he and I and an assistant and a hygienist when we started. And now we have two wonderful girls at the front desk. And so they do the majority of running the day-to-day stuff and I get to do the stuff that expands the practice and things like that. So we've come a long way, especially with your all's help.

Kiera Dent (04:16.54)

amazing. Tiffanie loves you. She raves about you. guys, every time you're on her coaching call schedule, Tiffanie is like, I get to talk to the Waltons today. Like truly, it has been such an incredible relationship. She adores you. And Stephanie, I love that you love Mike so much. And I think that that's just so telling of who you two are as a couple, what your practice is, the vibe you have, really just coming together as a couple. So now everyone is wondering and I'm wondering, like, how did you guys even come to this decision to have no hygiene? And how is that even like

operating. Like I need to know this because when you mentioned it on think tank, I didn't realize because I'm not on all of your calls that you literally had zero hygienist in your practice and it's been that way for a little while. So whomever wants to like take this on, I don't know whose brainy idea it was, like how did you guys even come to this decision and how is it going and give me all the things.

Mike Walton (05:04.002)

Well, I think what kind of led to, know, after COVID came through, you know, the number of hygienists went way down and, you know, it was constant turnover. It was, you know, they were in such demand and every office needed them that it was constantly training and getting them adapted to how we like things done. And then

Stephanie (05:19.492)

Okay.

Mike Walton (05:30.66)

somebody else would make a better offer and then they would go. And you know, their schedule would be booked out six to eight months and they'd give you a two week notice. And it was super stressful because you know, then we're faced with, well, we're running an ad, there's no way we're gonna get somebody to replace you in two weeks. And it got to the point where it was like, do we reschedule all these people or do we squeeze them in? And we were squeezing them in.

Kiera Dent (05:34.666)

Mm.

Kiera Dent (05:42.377)

Yep.

Mike Walton (06:00.778)

And it was stress and stress and stress and more stress. And then we got to the point where we're like, we can't do this anymore. and you know, you'd go through the cycle where you'd finally get somebody to bite on your ad, you'd get them in the office. And then, you know, I think about every maybe three or four months, it was turnover. And we were going through the same thing again. And we finally got, we're like, how do we, how do we get out of this terrible cycle of.

Stephanie (06:19.136)

you

Mike Walton (06:30.441)

of one, having to train, and two, having to deal with a six month schedule that's booked out for a two week notice. And the team was feeling that too. It wasn't just us because they were picking up a lot of the slack. And so we were like, gosh, if we keep doing this, they're going to get frustrated. We're going to lose the whole team. And then what are we going to do?

Stephanie (06:53.736)

And we have a wonderful team. The assistants are wonderful and the two at the front desk, shout out to Haley and Jessica. They are great.

Kiera Dent (07:03.346)

Yeah. Stephanie, how did you feel going through this? Did you agree with Mike? Were you like, let's just cut bait and try and see if we can figure this out? Or were you like, let's not do that. I mean, the traditional model is we need hygienists. We know we need two hygienists for every doctor. Like, Stephanie, what was your take? Because I think if I was in your shoes, I have a reasonable level of risk, but I'm also very risk adverse. And so how is it for you? I mean, this is your livelihood. You two are a couple in this. You went away. You've given up your career. You're in this now. Stephanie, how is that for you?

making this decision to go hygiene-less in a practice.

Stephanie (07:36.508)

you end up with kind of your opposite when you marry you know and so I'm the kind of like let's don't miss the boat and he's like that let's not rock the boat kind of person so so this was my idea like I was like

Kiera Dent (07:48.042)

Okay. I love it. I knew it was. I didn't even know, but I was like, I bet it was Stephanie's. Just knowing you two, I'm like, I bet.

Mike Walton (07:54.627)

But that's what I was gonna say is that I think you're directing this question to the wrong person.

Kiera Dent (08:02.612)

Yeah

Stephanie (08:03.274)

So I'm always like, well, what about this? And what about this? And what about this? And they're like, you're wearing us out. And so I try not to change too many things. But at the same time, I'm like, if anybody has any ideas, that's the great thing about small business and not having anybody to be your boss. You can try it. And if it doesn't work, you try something else.

Kiera Dent (08:26.47)

Exactly. Stephanie, what was your career prior to joining the dental practice? Where did you come from? What were you doing? I know you had three littles. So what did you do beforehand?

Stephanie (08:34.462)

was an occupational therapist. So I did, you know, worked at the hospital post, you know, rehab for strokes and hip replacements and things like that. So it comes in handy telling him about ergonomics and protecting that because I had patients that were former dentists. And so I can help the assistants and hygienists. We had one when we switched to this model and assistant

that was having some ulnar nerve impingement because she was doing so much of the same task. And so I was teaching her about ulnar nerve glides and ergonomics and stuff. So that's what I did before.

Kiera Dent (09:13.564)

I love it. And so what's fun about that is I wanted to highlight that because I think so often having a fresh perspective like you'd have Stephanie of we're running a ragged race and Mike, I think we're in dental. We're so ingrained in dental. That's why it's really fun to have consultants or have other business people or have someone else's perspective. So Stephanie, how did you pitch this and what was your reasoning? Like walk me through, how did you even say like we're getting rid of the hygienist? Like forget it, Mike. We're going to go for this. Walk me through kind of your thought process of even how you

thought to do this and then I'm excited to hear Mike how you guys actually ended up doing it.

Stephanie (09:46.832)

You know, I don't even know if I'm on a lot of different forums and a lot of just to learn podcasts, consume, you know, and I don't know if somebody else was doing it or if it was like a hybrid from like accelerated hygiene or if it was just the fact that can we entertain the idea of not having that position in the office.

and then boost the wonderful people that we do have, you know, could we make that work? Because I'm kind of like, you know, out of the box, you know, well, have we ever tried this before? And, you know, I watch a lot of Simon Sinek, you know, you can have anything you want as long as you don't hurt anybody else in the process, you know? So.

Kiera Dent (10:29.224)

Yep, yep.

Kiera Dent (10:33.13)

Mm hmm. All right. So Mike, she pitches this to you. Let's get rid of hygiene. I can only imagine a dentist's worst nightmare is, hey, you want to start scaling teeth again? So I'm just dying to know, Mike, how did this pitch go? I'm imagining Shark Tank. Stephanie's got the like white boards. Like we could do this. We can think outside the box. And Mike, you're like, but this means I have to scale again. So Mike, how did this go for you? Give me come because I guarantee you dentists listening are like

I'm hanging up. Like I'm not even gonna listen. How did this dentist even say yes to wanting to do hygiene again? Because I imagine that that's how it's rolling in your practice right now. Well.

Mike Walton (11:04.144)

Well, you know, we've been married. We've been married for it'll be 24 years this year and together for 31 years. And I learned a long time ago that I say, you're right. you know, it doesn't take a lot of fight anymore to kind of get me to go along because

Kiera Dent (11:13.374)

Wow, congrats.

Kiera Dent (11:22.942)

Yeah

Mike Walton (11:28.956)

She does a lot of that research and a lot of that background. You know, I've always been more of the technician and she kind of says, hey, if you think about this, you think about that. And she's got a good way of presenting it to where it makes all the sense in the world. You know, I think there were some logistical things that were kind of popping in both of our heads of how does this work? But also from her background as an occupational therapist, she is...

Stephanie (11:38.526)

.

Mike Walton (11:57.744)

incredibly structured and organized. And so it, you know, she took a lot of that on and kind of said, Hey, what if we do this? What if we do that? And I was like, I couldn't find anything to argue with other than, you know, in dental school, I remember graduating dental school thinking, well, that's the last prophy I'm ever going to do. and you know, I kind of dreaded it going into it at first, but you know, it's not, it's not bad. know, right now I'm still like, you know,

Stephanie (12:02.157)

.

Mike Walton (12:25.787)

I'm not gonna do any scaling and root planing. you know, I say we're hygienist-less. We do have one of our old hygienists that does come in and do our scaling and root planing for us. And we set her up every couple of weeks and with a full schedule and she's fantastic. And she comes in and takes care of us with that. But we do all the paramedinance and all the pro fees. you know, it took a little time to kind of get into that groove because we were trying to figure out, we do it all?

all hygiene in one day and all restorative in another day or do we mix and match it? And we decided and figured out that it was more efficient and profitable to kind of break it up and do it day by day. we got one day or I guess we work four days a week. So in a two week span, we got eight work days and we'll do several days of just hygiene and several days of restorative.

Stephanie (13:22.5)

Three.

Mike Walton (13:24.859)

and we kind of alternate those doors. So yeah, so like today was a full day of hygiene for me. So we had three operatories of hygiene just back to back to back and ran all day like that.

Kiera Dent (13:27.316)

So you do a full day. It's a full day. Go ahead.

Stephanie (13:27.383)

you

Kiera Dent (13:40.668)

Amazing. And so you basically are doing triple accelerated hygiene. You've got your assistants who are over a column and then you basically just go in scale. You can do the exam at the same time. So that is convenient. Is that how it operates? Now I'm dying to know the logistics. All right, so we've got three columns of hygiene that we're doing, which is why we have our assistants. How does that work for you, Mike? Are you just scaling, they're polishing, they're taking the x-rays?

Mike Walton (13:42.594)

Thank

Kiera Dent (14:07.282)

and do you stagger your schedule so that way you're able to get to all of them or are they blocked on the hour just like a regular hygiene schedule?

Mike Walton (14:12.26)

So good question. We do not stagger them. We kind of have them on our appointments. I'm trying to think of what's the best way to start here.

Stephanie (14:29.31)

The front desk does a really good job of mixing patients that need x-rays with patients that don't need x-rays. So that's kind of the substitute for staggering and the DAs do too, looking forward.

Mike Walton (14:33.186)

Yes.

Kiera Dent (14:35.978)

Amazing.

Mike Walton (14:37.518)

Yeah. So yeah, we'll have somebody that needs x-rays and two that don't. And so what happens is I'll start out and I'll just scale. As soon as they get the first three patients back, I'll scale one. The other assistant is getting all the data and profi. And then the other one's doing the x-rays. And so they're a little bit behind that second one. And then it kind of staggers when I need to go into each room, if that makes sense.

Kiera Dent (15:07.614)

Mm-hmm, it does.

Mike Walton (15:08.043)

And then, you know, that's what it is. It's just kind of a bounce, room to room to room, and then they got time to turn over, and then we bounce room to room to room again.

Stephanie (15:20.476)

And we're real fortunate in the state of Kentucky because the dental assistants can do everything but the scaling. With the certification, they can do the coronal polishing. They can do, we trained them to do period charting. We trained them to do everything but the scaling and of course the diagnosing. And that has worked out tremendously well as far as that. But they can do everything. They can do sealants, can do flora, they can do polishing.

Kiera Dent (15:20.659)

Amazing.

Stephanie (15:48.785)

They can establish rapport and so they fill that time with what we call how's your mama experience, you know, because that's what it is when people come in, we say how, you know, how are you doing? How's your mom? And we know that good.

Kiera Dent (15:54.984)

Yeah.

Kiera Dent (16:00.095)

Mm-hmm.

Right. And in the state of Kentucky, because I don't know all the laws, are they, when we go to the restorative side, can they act as like F does in others or are they, they do fillings? Can they do crown preps? Like you obviously prep. that, does that work for you? Because I'm just trying to figure out logistics on restorative day, because I'm guessing you've got quite a few columns of restorative. Is that how your, your assistants work?

Mike Walton (16:22.74)

Right, right, exactly. yeah, anything that is reversible they can do. And so they are all extended duty certified.

And that's kind of how we run. Whatever they can do, they are allowed to do, they do, and they do it well. You know, that was one of the...

Kiera Dent (16:46.473)

Right?

Stephanie (16:47.311)

And the great part about that is, is they understand the restorative part when it comes to treatment planning during a hygiene appointment. And the hygienists always struggled with that. They knew hygiene inside and out, everything about that. But when it came to treatment planning, the process of extractions and dentures or whatever it may be, they didn't understand that. And these dental assistants understand it forwards and backwards. And so they're his right hand in the restorative. And so when it comes to treatment planning,

Kiera Dent (16:55.156)

Totally.

Kiera Dent (17:09.258)

right.

Stephanie (17:17.147)

They already know how he likes it, the procedure process, the steps of it. And so even the treatment planning is so much better because they understand the restorative part where the hygienist really didn't.

Mike Walton (17:21.558)

All right.

Kiera Dent (17:30.394)

That's a good point Stephanie and I hadn't actually not thought about that. Like you're right. They're probably teeing up treatments so much better. They don't even need to know what would doctor do because they know they've assisted you and as an assistant, I'm like, I know what my doctor is going to do. You're so intimate with your doctor that you really do know. That's actually like a plug for people that want to go fully hygiene, hygiene less like you guys have. If you're looking at assisted hygiene, that assistant really can tee up a lot of treatment if they've worked with a doctor and they are an experienced assistant.

Stephanie (17:36.078)

Yes.

Mike Walton (17:36.469)

you

Stephanie (17:39.856)

Yes.

Mike Walton (17:42.101)

Okay.

Kiera Dent (17:58.346)

That's a really big pro that I had not thought of. So Mike, is it for you as a dentist, like scaling all day long? Are you okay with it? Do you like the piezo? Walk me through, how many months has this been since you guys have gone to this model?

Mike Walton (18:06.516)

It was probably May when we started doing this. Yeah, yeah. And so it was tough at first because it's a whole different positioning. know, it was, I would end the day and could hardly, you know, stand up straight. you know, it's taken a long time to try to figure out

Kiera Dent (18:15.754)

Okay, so we're like nine months, 10 months in.

Kiera Dent (18:27.145)

Yeah.

Stephanie (18:29.765)

It's.

Mike Walton (18:35.858)

where proper position was, you know, cause it had been so long since I'd done it. But you know, the last, probably the last month or two, month and a half, it's gotten to where I found that groove and I get in. it's not, you know, it's not that strenuous on me as it was in the beginning. You know, I think that was one of the things early on that we thought, gosh, we might not be able to pull this off because it was so hard, you know, physically, but.

Kiera Dent (18:41.833)

Right?

Stephanie (18:58.051)

Okay.

Mike Walton (19:05.363)

I think we just kept working and of course, know, Stephanie's got a lot of good input on how to do things with the ergonomics and, you know, if I was complaining about something bothering me, she's like, try this, try that. And so, you know, that all kind of panned out and, you know, I think with the assistants learning new skills and taking on more responsibility, they really like, they've run with it, you know, it's pushing there.

Stephanie (19:27.051)

Okay.

Mike Walton (19:35.388)

their level of importance up in the office and they appreciate that and I appreciate that. It kind of makes their job more fulfilling and it allows us to get through the day. We tend to on time a lot better than we did before. I think one of the nicest things is that there's no interruption. When you had a hygienist, was no matter what you were doing, was constantly, I'm ready for a check.

Stephanie (19:53.614)

Okay.

Kiera Dent (19:54.834)

I bet.

Kiera Dent (20:01.279)

Mm-hmm.

Mike Walton (20:04.518)

and you'd have to stop and get up and go check and then you come back and then it seemed like as soon as you sat down and put your gloves on and got your fingers wet, it was time for a check again. And so we don't have that anymore. And so that's like a huge stress reliever. And because you're not having to get up and down all the time, it allows you to schedule more efficiently. know, it...

Kiera Dent (20:14.461)

Right.

Kiera Dent (20:26.856)

I was going to say, I bet on restorative, can actually do a lot more restorative faster and more efficiently and actually get more done than you were prior. Have you noticed that to be true?

Mike Walton (20:37.027)

It has because and you know just kind of jumping a little bit into probably what you would ask down the road, but you know I think our our overall production has gone down a little bit just because we Yeah So like it's it's gone down a little bit just because we can't see as many patients anymore

Stephanie (20:50.092)

Okay.

Kiera Dent (20:52.262)

Yep, you knew, you know me. Of course I want to know like what are the numbers?

Mike Walton (21:01.584)

So we had to scale back just a little bit to make it work with the amount of appointments that we had possibly available. But with how efficient we are now with the scheduling, the profitability has gone up. And I had those numbers and I did that on a presentation with another mastermind group and I don't have it right in front of me, but I don't know, do you remember what those were Stephanie or no?

Kiera Dent (21:02.634)

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie (21:26.668)

Not exactly, we took home more is what it came down to and our team did. Like we were able to give raises, we were able to share that because we didn't have that hygiene overhead. But another good point is that we had to set aside specific time in the schedule, make appointments, make events.

Kiera Dent (21:33.353)

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie (21:45.75)

to formalize their training with how to do period charting to his standards, how to do these skills to his standards. It's like everything else you had to put it on the schedule so that everybody could check it off. And so it's kind of like a loss in the beginning, but it pays off in spades down the road because they feel confident about it. And it's like they're their patients, you know, and they're, you know, in charge of it.

Kiera Dent (21:48.383)

Yeah.

Stephanie (22:11.335)

and responsible for it and they're very proud of how many skills they have now and you know so they were kind of hesitant at first because it's just like it's unknown and you know I don't know if I can do that and but you know by checking off and feeling confident you know it's made the biggest difference.

Kiera Dent (22:30.75)

That's amazing. And as an assistant myself, and I know tips and assistant as well, it actually is really fun to think of elevating assistants to give them more skill sets, things that they can do giving them that autonomy. It actually kind of comes down to an ortho assistant model where they're able to do so much more while still being able to have the the general side where we get to do all the fun, like I call it the blood and guts of dentistry, like ortho is so clean, which hygiene is so clean with air quotes around it.

Mike Walton (22:45.23)

you

Kiera Dent (22:58.538)

And so I think you've actually blended for assistance because I was always envious of the ortho assistance. I'm like, gosh, they get to do so much. They get to do so much more than I do. So I think like really incredible work agreed. think I'd be nervous to take this on and be like, if we're doing hygiene, but I think also way to give them a huge elevation piece. So, and it's also fun to hear about your numbers. I would imagine without that hygiene expense that you will be more profitable. So you run

When you run restorative days, you run three columns of restorative on that, or how many columns of restorative do you normally do?

Mike Walton (23:30.189)

three and then. We'll have a foot. We've got a fourth room that if we have kids we can squeeze in a fourth. Yeah, yeah.

Stephanie (23:42.692)

that are assistant only.

Kiera Dent (23:44.842)

Sure. Okay, so we're running three columns of hygiene on one day, then three columns of restorative, which you can. Now you can have them shorter appointments. You can get in and out. You can utilize your assistants more. So they're having fun too. They have a hygiene day, then restorative day, hygiene. So it breaks up their model too. They're not running all the time. But I'm curious. I always think like long-term, like, do you guys wanna go back to hygiene and or would you hire another dentist?

So then Mike, you and another dentist are doing this hygiene model. can see, cause I'm thinking, well shoot, you're seeing three columns of hygiene. You're probably only seeing two before, but we're seeing three columns, but just not consistently across the time. So what are your kind of your long-term pieces? You took home more, you had a little drop in production. I'm super curious like to see a full year of this. Like will the numbers come back up now that everybody's trained? We kind of have this whole model, but what's kind of in the long-term scope? Are you thinking of another doctor or maybe looking for hygienists?

or like, no, we're gonna just ride this out for a little while.

Mike Walton (24:41.671)

I think the plan is gonna be to kind of ride it out. We kind of talked about if you brought on another doctor, are they gonna buy into doing hygiene like we have? I think that's a hard pill to swallow until you've had the heartache and the upset that we had with maintaining a hygienist. So I think it's gonna be kind of ride it out and see how things go.

Stephanie (25:00.407)

.

Kiera Dent (25:03.486)

Right.

Mike Walton (25:12.317)

Is there ever a time where you'd have a hygienist back in? Absolutely. I think there's some things that have to change market-wise and availability-wise and knowing that security because I think that's one of the biggest things that the patients have noticed is they're getting consistency with the same person. And we're...

Stephanie (25:34.233)

They love seeing the doctor. There's no pushback to not having a hygienist. They are very excited to have more time with him.

Kiera Dent (25:34.495)

Right.

Mike Walton (25:41.29)

And, you know, and I think we're getting into that cycle where from when we started, we're seeing the six month, you know, group coming back through and they're like, you know, we had so much turnover that every time they came, it was a different person. And now there, there's like, I get to the same person again. And, and so, you know, that's a, that's a good feeling for them too. And, you know, I think that that would be the limitation on a hygienist is one, no one, you know,

Kiera Dent (25:42.889)

I believe it.

Stephanie (25:59.533)

you

Mike Walton (26:09.994)

If I could guarantee that they would be here long term, absolutely. Or if the market were to change to where there was a surplus that you felt like that was gonna drive them to stay for a long time, I think that's where the change would come in that perspective.

Kiera Dent (26:31.582)

Wow. I'm so intrigued and I'm sure listeners are just beyond intrigued by this. It is fun to know about the numbers. It's fun to hear. And I remember Mike in our mastermind that we were chatting, you literally said like, I wouldn't go back. You're like, it was the best thing we ever did. And I'm like, we're getting on the podcast because it's such a anomaly. think it's, it shows your guys's grit. It shows your determination. I love Stephanie, you pushing to think outside the box. So I'm just curious, like with this.

Stephanie (26:52.164)

.

Kiera Dent (27:00.202)

What would you say are like the best benefits? mean, Mike, I've heard a few come through from you benefits and Stephanie, you just said them. So I'll list a few and see if there's anything I might have missed was something I love that you said they get consistency with the, with the doctor, like they're seeing Mike, they're seeing him more often. Um, I think Mike, for you not having to get the, we're ready for a check. We're ready for a check. Like you feel like you can just get in and almost like do your thing every single day. I also heard the assistants have been able to rise up. You've been able to

probably pay them more than they would normally make, which also then retains your assistance and makes them more sticky to you, I would presume. But any other things that you've seen that have been positives of moving to a hygiene-less model?

Stephanie (27:38.747)

Well, I want to speak to that because the team is so much more unified because and they're candid with us because everybody feels like they're on the same level.

Kiera Dent (27:44.681)

Interesting.

Stephanie (27:48.192)

Like there's no hierarchy in the office. The back office people are candid with the front office people and telling us how we can schedule more efficiently. The front office people are telling the back office people you need to document this so we're getting paid quicker. It's like the barriers have been broken down. Like everybody's on the same level and that has unified the team, I think, like we didn't anticipate.

Kiera Dent (28:17.574)

I wouldn't have thought that either. I could see like some divides, but I also think when you go through quote unquote hard times, which you were, you were losing hygienists consistently. We're having to pick up the slack. That's stressful. We've got all these columns of hygiene. It does bring people together when they go through that. And I bet this team is pretty rock solid sticky with you for quite some time going through this, which I think is awesome. Mike, anything you've seen that you want to add to that or Stephanie, either one of you.

Mike Walton (28:40.738)

you know, I think those are the big highlights. you know, it's, it's, it seemed like there was always tension before and we don't have that. Like Stephanie said, it's, you know, that, that unifying of the team and it's because everybody's, you know, pulling, you know, a very important role in the office and making it work and everybody's establishing that relationship and

Stephanie (29:09.907)

All right.

Mike Walton (29:10.817)

It's kind of like not your right hand talking to your left hand. It's like having one big hand and it's all just working together. And I did look up while you all were talking a minute ago, I pulled up the other presentation I had with the profitability. So this was when we were four months into it. Our payroll overhead was falling between 15 and 18%.

Stephanie (29:18.016)

Okay.

Kiera Dent (29:18.58)

Yeah.

Stephanie (29:25.633)

Okay.

Kiera Dent (29:26.89)

Oh yeah, I wanna know these. I love numbers.

Mike Walton (29:37.284)

because we lost the payroll for the hygienist. Our average overhead for that four months was 48%. And then our overall production was steady, but our profitability was up 27 % over the same four month period the year before. So.

Kiera Dent (29:38.504)

Wow.

Kiera Dent (29:47.306)

amazing.

Kiera Dent (29:56.854)

That's insane. And to hear payroll numbers coming in at, you know, 15, 18 % when right now people are struggling to keep it at 30, 34, 35%. Everything's rising up. And so that had to just feel good to, I mean, I don't know, Mike, I saw both, I saw you for many months. And I just remember the stress, like so many think tanks, you're like, can't find a hygienist, we just lost a hygienist. And I feel like the stress and the

angst that you are going through and watching you two tonight, you just seem like, yep, we have a plan and I'm wondering if there's now, do you feel more certainty? And I think Stephanie will come to you on this one. Is there more certainty that like your success, your future's in your hands or does it feel like there's more stress because now it's all on you? has it, has it freed you up? Has it created more stress? What do you feel Stephanie from your perspective?

Stephanie (30:46.206)

think making this change has recreated more stress at all. I enjoy this. I worry about it being physically hard on him, but I enjoy the team being a lot happier when they come in and them feeling fulfilled. And I think that decreases our worry. And I think a lot of people that own practices are worried that people, if you rub them the wrong way, they're just going to leave.

If you ask them to do one more thing, they're just going to leave. And that was a constant stress for us. And I don't feel like that with this group. So, you know, I don't know if it's going to be a long-term option because, you know, I worry about the wear and tear on him, but they seem to really care about each other. it's...

Kiera Dent (31:15.604)

Right?

Mike Walton (31:15.811)

Thank

Kiera Dent (31:18.442)

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie (31:39.249)

Yeah, it's working for now and we just need to watch trends and see if it's going to continue to work or if we need to pivot.

Kiera Dent (31:48.212)

Sure, I love that. Mike, what about for you?

Mike Walton (31:49.637)

you know, I think, I think the excess of stress is kind of what pushed us to make the change. And I would say that definitely the, you know, since we've made it just with the demeanor and the whole office and, and the, the lack of the headache of constantly replacing somebody is, I mean, that's taken mountains of stress away. And, and, you know, I mean,

I think that was the most valuable thing that we've done is relieving that stress because it was taken as toll. It was pretty hard on us.

Kiera Dent (32:31.006)

believe it. How does it feel Mike for you being like Stephanie was saying you are now the hygienist and the dentist and so like those two hands I always told my dentist every night I'm like hey keep those hands good because that's my job I tell him like when you walk through the crosswalk put your hands up so in case like the car hits you like they just take your body out but your hands are still good but truly I was like you are my job Mike how is that for you like you are the hygienist you are the dentist it is you in that practice

Stephanie (32:35.292)

.

Kiera Dent (32:58.524)

Is there stress on you feeling that or is like, well, I'm to do what I can do. And Hey, worst case scenario, I'm going to find someone to replace me if I have to. What, does that feel?

Stephanie (33:05.843)

So I think that was something that was really eating at him. And then we sat down with Matt at the dental advisors. And once we got the disability insurance in place and everything was, we have a contingency plan. So if the works were to happen, for whatever that the team is provided for for a little while, and then we have.

Kiera Dent (33:16.446)

Mm.

Kiera Dent (33:21.712)

Tell

Stephanie (33:30.649)

And I think that's, and Mike, you need to speak to this. I think that made him feel a whole lot better because there was a lot of responsibility on his shoulders is just having those contingency plans if something bad were to happen.

Mike Walton (33:44.404)

Right and like what she was saying, you you kind of carry that load of everything is dependent on me and what happens and You know, I think that's just seeing the numbers, you know once you see the numbers just like anything that it Relieves you a little bit and you know that hey, you know, you don't want the worst to happen but if it does you know things are provided for you know, as far as

Kiera Dent (33:45.224)

For sure.

Stephanie (34:10.606)

you

Mike Walton (34:11.42)

you know, hands and things go, you know, I see lots of people that go through years of work and I think if anything, my hands are good. It was my back that I was worried about, but you know, I think just repositioning and kind of paying attention and listening to your body too that, you know, I, I've had hygienists that only hand scale and you know, and I'm like, use the use of ultrasonic, you know, that's what it's there for. It's meant to save your hands. And so

Kiera Dent (34:22.472)

you

Kiera Dent (34:38.833)

Exactly.

Stephanie (34:40.133)

.

Mike Walton (34:40.315)

You know, I do most everything ultrasonic and if I can't get to ultrasonic, I hand scale and like I said, it's not, you know, I don't pay a whole lot of attention to that wear and tear, you know, because it's so minimal. But, you know, it's one of those things that, you know, at first I thought I wasn't going to like, but I've always been the talker with the patients too. And it's like, now I've got a little extra time to talk, you know?

Kiera Dent (35:07.751)

Yeah.

Mike Walton (35:10.746)

I think it's been a good change.

Kiera Dent (35:11.058)

I bet.

Kiera Dent (35:14.842)

It's such a fun thing and I'm so grateful you guys were willing to come on and share and definitely love you guys as clients, love seeing your success, love seeing the change. love just you sharing your experience. It's really fun. So just super appreciative of you coming on. And of course my mind's thinking like, well, if you guys are gonna stay this model, you might as well go fee for service. Like you've already got a huge tether to these patients, make more, it can do less.

bring on another doctor that could swap you out. Hi Jenna. So really fun past for you in the future. I'm just curious as we wrap up tonight, like so appreciative. Any last thoughts, maybe things I didn't ask that I should have asked or things that you're like, Kiera, this would be really helpful for practice thinking about doing this. Stephanie, I'll pivot to you first and then we'll wrap with you, Mike. Anything I maybe didn't ask or something you want to add as we wrap up tonight.

Stephanie (36:00.993)

So it probably helps us tremendously that we do not have contracts with any insurance. So we're not straight up fee for service, but we do get full fee now. So that probably makes it a little bit more doable for us, but it also adds a little bit of stress on our wonderful front desk people because they're having those hard conversations.

Kiera Dent (36:10.398)

Yes.

Stephanie (36:20.951)

And then another barrier was there are only so many hygiene spots that we could fit in a calendar year. So we could literally with only one doctor see probably 2300 hygiene appointments in a year. And so we had probably 4,000 active patients when this was going on. And so we were like, what do we do? And Mike said, you know, a little bit of health issues. And so we wanted to decrease the stress. We're at a point where we could do that. And so

Kiera Dent (36:38.376)

Yeah, the big cut.

Stephanie (36:50.006)

we had to like downsize some patients and I bet every office would like to downsize some patients. And we just started with the people that gave him the highest stress or didn't value keeping their appointments. And we enacted a super strict cancellation policy, which is a little bit of a hard conversation for the front desk, but it's a little work upfront that pays off in spades and...

Kiera Dent (36:55.946)

Hahaha

Stephanie (37:17.353)

And it's kind of like people are coming to the understanding that this more of a specialist type office. If they truly value coming to see Dr. Walton, which they love seeing him because of that relationship, you know, they're going to keep that appointment. They're going to book it far out. And so we got to kind of let some people go that didn't respect, you know, his time or we didn't enjoy seeing necessarily. So, you know, I think that was, you know,

something that was hard that we didn't anticipate. But I think it's kind of a good thing in the long run.

Kiera Dent (37:53.596)

Yeah, no, and you're right, that is a big downsize, but it's also an upgrade in life and fulfillment and happiness. And I tell a lot of offices, like the best gift, there was one dentist I worked with and they said every year for the holidays, the gift they gave was like, the employees could go through the list of patients of which ones give us the heartache, which ones are the ones that like we just grown, and we're going to dismiss them and we're going to actually like fire them as patients in a very respectful way, send them to another office.

But elevating that, like it's crazy how much that can do for your morale. I only work with clients that I like. That's part of the Dental A Teams model. Like, yes, I understand that there'll be some tricky ones, but we really only, we like to work with our clients. love, and I love the name, my day is full of all the clients that I love working with. And I know Tip feels the same way. So I can only imagine giving yourself that life upgrade was incredible. So thanks for that. That's a, that's also a good, think, key point, cause you're right. Limited space. What do we do with that? And based on where you are in your career path,

It makes sense to possibly downsize. Who knows how much longer we want to practice, but I think if you're really early on in your practice, that'd be something to really consider because downsizing a practice and then if you ever bring in doctors, you're going to need to re-increase that. think that's something that was a wise decision based on where you are. So Mike, anything for you you wanted to add or highlight?

Mike Walton (39:07.389)

Well, I think the only thing that Stephanie didn't mention, I'm going blank here now, but it was... What was I going to say?

Kiera Dent (39:23.624)

I chatted too long for you, Mike.

Mike Walton (39:23.896)

Caught me off guard there. Oh, I know, was when we made that change, one of the other difficult things was, you had six months of hygiene people that you had to reschedule to the days that you were seeing hygiene. And so that was a tremendous load on the front desk as well to move all of those patients and get them lined up on the days that we deemed as the hygiene days. But that was for...

six months and we've made it through that and you know that's a huge load off of their shoulders now and yeah yeah.

Stephanie (39:58.002)

.

Shout out to Jessica.

Kiera Dent (40:01.93)

Right. It is something where I think you guys have really painted a picture of it's short-term pain for long-term gain. Yes, those are annoying. Yes, those things are just obnoxious. And I think a lot of people aren't willing to do the short-term pain. So they stay in long-term pain thinking that that's easier. And so it is annoying as a front office to move patients, but it's what the benefit going to be. Like we have a pediatric practice that I worked with and we got the doctor where she has

We work just ops in the morning and then we do all hygiene in the afternoon. So it's a similar, it's just split days for them. And she's so much happier, but they had to move. I mean, we're talking pediatrics. That's just like so many little appointments in a day. But that team, hunkered in just like your team did. And it's amazing at how happy this team has become, how much happier the patients are, how much more efficient they are with their time. So mad kudos to you and your team. Yes.

Stephanie (40:55.583)

And add those hard conversations about that. that's what people, a lot of people don't want to do is have those hard conversations to have the long-term benefit.

Mike Walton (40:57.526)

All

Stephanie (41:06.927)

That's what we've experienced is they just, even the doctors, they just avoid those hard conversations, tell them what they want to hear and just get out and.

Kiera Dent (41:16.604)

Yeah, and then here we are. So I'm so proud of you. I know Tiff has been proud of you. I know she's been a huge instrumental part to help you guys navigate through this and just work with it and just like really I think the tenacity, the grit and the love that you have is just so incredible. So thank you. I know it's late for you. You guys are East Coast. I'm West Coast. So thank you for taking time. You had a full day today. But really, just thanks for sharing your experience. And I think for offices listening, I think think outside the box like Stephanie and I Mike and go through those

the pains, you will, it's the pain, the pain of holding on and like having that constant replacement, or is the pain of let's figure this out so we're not there. And I'm so excited, like, thanks for letting me, you know, eat my popcorn on the sideline of your life and watch to see how this unfolds. I think you have so many fun things to see how does this year shake out? Is this something we want to do long term? Or is it something where no, maybe we might go back to a more traditional, maybe we do a hybrid of what we've done and what we used to do. I'm really excited to see the future and I think it's bright and

Mike Walton (42:03.859)

Yes, thanks.

Kiera Dent (42:13.588)

hallelujah, you're not in the hygiene debacle anymore for now. We'll see what changes in the future, but mad appreciation to both of you.

Stephanie (42:20.239)

Thank you for letting us share our story.

Kiera Dent (42:23.58)

Of course. All right, you guys, that wraps it up. And for all of you listening, thank you for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

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Artificial intelligence is steadily growing as a presence in our personal and professional lives. In this episode, Tiff and Dana talk about how AI can be used effectively in practices, game-changing technology in recent years, and the never-out-of-style human interaction among it all.

Episode resources:

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Transcript

The Dental A Team (00:01.681)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited. We are second month of a new year, and that means you should be tracking your goals. If you're a Dental A Team client, you have this amazing new scorecard that we've introduced that my personal clients have freaking loved. And being able to see where those goals are so quickly in the month and being able to track along and see what we need to do to pivot or change or continue growth has been really cool. So welcome to new month, new year.

knew you. Dana, thank you so much for being here with me. I know you have a ton of clients that have been onboarded with that scorecard and doing super well as well. How is this new year treating you? This 2025, how's it going, Dana?

Dana (00:46.03)

Oh, it's going pretty well. Happy New Year to you and everyone listening. Yeah, I'm super excited about the scorecard. Clients seem to really like it and I think it'll just be a game changer for 2025 to keep everybody just intentional and focused on the things to move forward. So I'm really looking forward to 2025.

The Dental A Team (01:04.136)

Yeah, me too. Me too. I have a client that I talked to actually this morning that was like, well, we needed to make some adjustments to the scorecard to fit their practice, which is why we say that we're customizable because anything that we do, it's got to be custom fit to that practice. So we had made some adjustments in there and then.

I was like, you know, you guys, know that you're tracking everything. Like this office manager is meticulously tracking everything in the practice. So I said, this is like an overview. Like my meticulous tracker is like an overview for you guys. So make it your own. Let's figure it out. But I told her there's so many practices out there that don't know what to track or how to track it or how to see the trends within the numbers. And her mind was just blown.

She's the wife, they've owned the dental practice for years and years and years and years. They've been in dentistry forever. So she's learned all of that along the way, but she was just mind blown at how some people just don't know. And I didn't know when I first started managing, I was like, what do all these numbers mean? And we all have to learn somewhere. So it's just been really cool to watch everyone continue that growth in the new year and really, like you said, track along with those goals and see.

what can be done to manipulate and change the results to create something magical. Whatever it is that you want, can change those tracking metrics and change those results to create something really cool. Within that conversation, I'm excited about today, because today, Dana, we just prepped for this. And I think your track that you're thinking for this conversation today is so beautiful. We talk a lot about new dental tech is what I'll air quote it as.

kind of like new things on the scene. And it's really easy to talk about scanners and lasers and all of those CBCTs and all the different things in the practice that we can implement kind of in the clinical aspect. I really love what you are talking about now with all the other pieces. There's so much AI coming into play. And that's what you had mentioned Dana. And I really want to chat about that because it's so cool.

The Dental A Team (03:06.342)

I know I chat GPT, especially on my personal side. like, I create and think of so much stuff, you know, for Dental A Team, I'm sure you do the same, you create so much for us and our content. I know on my personal side, I'm like, Ben, chat GPT, tell me what to do. that, like, AI has really come into play strong, I would say in the last year. And this year, even a month and a half or whatever into the year feels like

Like it's a do or die. Like you're using AI. There's just no two ways about it. So how have you seen in your practices currently, the AI bots come into play and all those pieces aside from chat GPT that can help with the patient response. But how have you seen those AI tools really be being implemented? And then I want to think about how do we see like the future, what that's going to look like as well.

Dana (03:58.528)

Yeah, I think it's actually pretty incredible some of the new like dental AI stuff that's coming out essentially now you can use AI to be almost like a receptionist or a part of especially your front office team. Lots of dental tech companies coming out with

They can, you know, the chat bot or the AI bot can take care of missed calls or after hours calls. So now patients can have communication with you 24 hours a day, not just when your office is open. Being able to log into your system and actually schedule the patient without you there.

The Dental A Team (04:35.067)

Mm-hmm.

Dana (04:38.23)

and doing it really actually pretty well. And then sending, you know, a lot of the AI, the reception, it's like, then they send you, you know, an overview of the call so that you know exactly what was said, you can add in any notes that you want. So it truly can be as if they called while somebody was in the practice. And so AI is really coming in strong this year, especially in the dental world. And I'm excited, you know, I know a lot of offices in my calls, it's like they struggle with call volume, and they struggle with

The Dental A Team (05:06.285)

That's nice.

Dana (05:08.685)

getting their team members to be able to handle the volume of calls that are coming in and still get their tasks done. So when you have something that can easily handle that overflow and keep you going and keep you moving forward and you can still have a pulse on it, I think it's actually really cool.

The Dental A Team (05:14.163)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (05:23.313)

I agree, and it makes me think of vacation time too, because there's so many practices that don't have 20 team members that if people are taking vacation or if doctor wants to take vacation, there's not two associates to take over the schedule. And so it's like the practice is closing down. But one of the biggest fears I think a lot of practice owners have is shutting down the practice means there could be a week or how many other days of patient calls and patient interactions that are missed.

Sometimes we don't have the staff to be like, hey, sometimes they want to take vacation with you, know, or the same time as you. So that's what it made me think of too, is, well, grab a bot for, you know, that we have somebody maybe checking in on it and looking at it. Obviously, we don't fully trust it yet. They haven't taken over the world just yet. But having somebody monitor it, but for vacations, things like that, you said the after hours kind of extends into that. Or Fridays, a lot of doctors, and it's a lot of new patient opportunities on Fridays because...

dentistry. You know, we love being off on Fridays as often as we can as well. But a lot of companies are actually off on Fridays or have flex Fridays. And so sometimes I think for the just humans in general for the population, Fridays are kind of a catch up day where we're making appointments, we're calling in, we're asking questions and we're getting appointments done. And so we miss a lot of opportunities there. And the dreaded Monday fell apart.

Dana (06:44.91)

Mm-hmm.

The Dental A Team (06:45.046)

So, you know, it might still fall apart. You might still get those calls, but at least it's not walking into 30 voicemails on Monday morning and then being like, oh my gosh, everything we talked about in huddle is just completely destroyed because everybody fell off the schedule or whatever. So I love that. I love that. Have you seen to I know there's a lot of third party companies, Modento and Dental Intel and Diversion, all those companies. Have you seen to I haven't like looked into it. So I'm asking.

For reals, if they're using any of those tools yet within their stuff, think Modento had some stuff like on the wire. I'm not sure, but, any opportunities or anything for like confirmations, right? Cause I know, I guess like Modento has done voicemail jobs. So it's like, we're already partially there with like voicemail jobs and the automated, voicemails or phone calls for re-care and things like that. So how do you think that'll affect having the AI bot I feel like is so much more.

customizable and you can like give it rules. can give it lingo and verbiage and just kind of different things. So how do you see that transitioning for companies like that too?

Dana (07:55.734)

Yeah, I can't say that I've seen any of the companies integrate it yet. I do think it's coming, but I do think some of the newer companies that are doing AI really well and are coming out, they are offering those things like confirmation calls, like re care calls. You can get your basically AI receptionist to do those things for you. And truly, I think because it is customizable, it also does feel more as if it is a human versus those automated text messages that as much as we try to make them warm and

The Dental A Team (08:19.937)

Yeah. Yeah.

Dana (08:25.592)

friendly and specific and just from our office, right? AI, think is a little bit of a step above that.

The Dental A Team (08:33.717)

Yeah, I agree. I agree. think it's caveat, I know I said chat GPT and I know a lot of people love verbiage. think Dana and I get a lot of, and the other, other consultants as well. But I know Dana and I for sure get up so many text messages or emails of like, how do I say this? I want to say this to my team or I want to tell my doctor this. How do I, how do I do this? Give me words. I have a couple of practices that just call it like tiffisms and like what would tiff say? And I'm like, holy cow.

which I love and I love verbiage and I love communication. like, warning, I guess, or a reminder, if you are going to chat GPT or whatever AI, any of that stuff, just make sure that you guys are still looking at it and personalizing it, especially if it's you throw some, I've seen a lot of people throw things into a program like chat GPT.

that spits out like a patient response. And sometimes it is robotic, because it is a robot. It's not a human on the other side. They did as good as they could so far with it, and they do really great job. But sometimes those things can still come off, like you said, Dana, a little cold or harsh. And so I just stress the importance of taking it, making it your own. I say the same thing about my verbiage when I give it to people. This is a template. I love giving templates, and I want you to make it your own, because it should sound like you. It shouldn't sound like...

a robot a shouldn't sound like a script, it should sound like you still. So no matter how you're getting those verbiage tips and tools or what you're choosing to do with it, just make sure there's a human interaction side of it, and you're bringing that humanization back to it. That's my warning, my caveat there, because I do use it occasionally, or sometimes my brain's just dead at the end of the day, and I'm like, my gosh, how do I make this recipe? Gosh, I'm...

ChatGPT is becoming a best friend in my personal life, feel like. But aside from the AI stuff, or you're in transition with the AI stuff, I think that pulls into that teledentistry side as well. Because I know a lot of practices that are still doing a lot of teledentistry. Obviously, it was huge during quote unquote COVID times. But I think it spurred something for us in the availability to create more opportunities for our patients. So a lot of practices are doing the cosmetic

The Dental A Team (10:50.787)

consults virtually. And it's really cool smile designs, smile makeover, all of these different variations of a teledentistry appointment. And I'm thinking with that kind of AI kind of smashing those two together, because that's an easy opportunity to allow an AI bot or someone to schedule those appointments and have someone who's like over the cosmetic consults when you don't have the opportunity or availability in the practice.

So teledentistry is still really, really a fantastic idea, I think, and something that we don't consider tech in our brains, but it kind of is. And it's kind of cool to be able to say, let's take a half day Thursday and take three hours in the afternoon and bust out three cosmetic consults or more. And I've seen a lot of success with that. Dana, have you seen that as well? You still have a lot of clients who are using teledentistry or considering it.

Dana (11:45.036)

Yeah, they do definitely do for different types of consultations and even I have one office that will do teledentistry to like pre-screen for limited right to see if this is something I just need to refer out or do we need to see you in the office? So they'll use it for that to end some PEDS offices using it for like surgery or sedation consulting and I have one office that's even trying to do some just case presentations or treatment.

The Dental A Team (12:14.493)

yeah.

Dana (12:14.786)

presentations if the patient left the office, right, and they can't come in, just doing that too. So I think using the technology at your fingertips that make it that it's convenient for the patient, that it's easy for you, I think take advantage of it where you can within your practice.

The Dental A Team (12:31.234)

Yeah, that's a great idea doing the consults because a lot of practices will have those monster treatment plans. So it's like, okay, let's have you back in for a consult. And we know that's difficult to get patients to come back in, especially if we're not accomplishing something, right? They're not getting treatment that day. So I always tell clients who are doing that style of treatment planning, it's totally fine. And I love it. But just make sure maybe we do fillings with that.

treatment console, but I think that's a great idea to doing it by zoom or Google meet or any of those platforms really are a lot of them have free up to while Google meet is free, right for however long you want it, but even zoom has up to I think 35 or 40 minutes of free information that you don't have to pay for. So that's a really great idea because then it just locks it in and I think we've all become accustomed to this being like being in person, you know, I think virtual.

has become the norm. It's almost weird to constantly be in person with people. Again, thank you, 2020. And I think it's worked out well for the dental industry. So that's a great idea to be able to do those bigger consults. And I too have some pediatric practices, even the moms who are moms and something happens and we're like, I got to get my kid in. Like right now you got to look at this. And a lot of my pediatric practices will.

do the same thing where they'll take a picture, send it in, or let's hop on a Zoom call or Google Meet, and they'll kind of tell the parent how to angle the camera or what have you to show whatever it is. I mean, I remember one time I brought Brody all the way in and I was working in office and I'm like, you have to look at this and it was literally nothing. It was like, he's like, you are just being so silly. You are in dentistry.

you know these things, but as you put your mom hat on and you're like, I don't know anything, my kid, like something happened, you just have to look. And so I can't even imagine being outside of dentistry and something happening to my kid and really not having any of that background knowledge. So for my pediatric practices, it's been really beneficial to be able to do things like that and take some of that stuff off their plates. And for pediatric practices too, with the AI conversation, like they're seeing so many patients.

The Dental A Team (14:44.728)

in any given day, right? They're seeing 45 to 80 patients any given day with one doctor, let alone, you've got practices that have two or three doctors, they're seeing a lot of patients. So for a front office team to have to keep up with the confirmations, even the check-in, the check-out, like, you've got to understand they're spread so thin, and then they've got phone calls coming in and they've got new patients to schedule, and it's hard in a GP practice to be working on the hour, but in

peed practices, right? We're really, Dana, working on the 15 minutes. And so every 15 minutes, you have anywhere from one to six to eight patients coming and going every 15 minutes. So I think that's a great idea to really be able to add that tech into practices like that. I love it. I love it. And I love the, I just love the transitions dentistry takes. We think back, gosh.

Dana (15:17.774)

Mm-hmm.

The Dental A Team (15:42.844)

Even three years ago, it was like, oh, let's do a scanner, right? We're doing that whole mouth scans was like crazy town. And it's like, now you're doing a whole mouth scan before you ever get to my practice. You're taking pictures of your mouth just so my doctor can do a virtual consult with you and doesn't have to be in the practice. So think it's really cool. Um, hygiene side, I know we've talked lasers before and I think that's still like one of the

Dana (15:47.816)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (16:10.541)

one of the latest and the greatest, but what have you really seen the hygiene side? I know I pick your brain on this a lot, be able to implement maybe not, you know, virtual or AI or whatever, but just how have scanners and CBCTs and all of this new-ish, right, within the last five, maybe even 10 years, how has that impacted the hygiene visits and the care that hygienists have been able to provide to the patients in your opinion?

Dana (16:37.676)

Yeah, I think the technology advances in lasers, in all of the microscope and the saliva testing and all of the things that are coming out for hygiene right now. It really just allows you to give more individualized care, that you have more options to get the patient in your chair, the best result for them, because patients come in very unique varieties.

The Dental A Team (16:56.881)

Yeah.

Dana (16:59.968)

every single day and so being able to say, I have this thing that's going to benefit you. I have this thing that I know will make this area better and being able to have more choices of those to be able to give individualized care.

And individualized instruction too. I not even just things in the office, the technology that's available even over the counter to patients to help with home care, to help with the things that hygienists are talking about those things every day. And so I think the technology has been a game changer in the last decade as far as being able to get patients results from adjunct treatments or different products or different.

The Dental A Team (17:29.117)

you

Dana (17:40.108)

things that are available now that just weren't.

And things that don't necessarily so much of the hygiene products that existed before and still do right it It's patient compliance. So as long as patient does it does it correctly they get results and now there's so many things that actually if I do this in my chair you get the results so I don't it's not so reliant on Patient compliance and patient following through and patient stepping it up It's great come more often and I can do this come more often and I can oversee this and I can get you the results Which I think is incredible

The Dental A Team (17:43.447)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (17:52.123)

Mm-hmm.

The Dental A Team (17:59.686)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (18:07.731)

Yeah.

Dana (18:13.264)

you

The Dental A Team (18:14.173)

I agree. I love that conversation of just come more often and something that we've always been afraid of. Having that conversation with our patients, which has always interested me, because I mean, we tie ourselves by these rules that we feel like we're in place by the companies we won't mention today. We won't go on that tangent, but we do like put ourselves in this little box. And it's like, if we are here actually for the patient's best benefit, then all of these things

Come into play for that. Come into the practice more frequently. Get your testing done. Like, let's figure out what your saliva tells us. How can we positively impact your dental health and your full body health just by the foods that you're eating or things you're drinking, which is insane and so cool. And again, couple of that with a results-driven conversation over a virtual call. Like, that's incredible. So you can help them.

just in so many different ways. And as you're talking, was thinking, gosh, thinking about how different tools like AI can help support the team that you have. I think the first thing, especially from a front office standpoint is like, you're going to replace me with a robot. We're all going to be replaced with robots one day, right? Like 50 years down the road, guess what? I don't know. But the point of all of those tools is not to replace the humans.

that we love and want on our team, it's to provide them support so that they can do more and do better for the patients that are coming in, the other humans. So it's like, these tools are being integrated to help support you to give a better experience for the patient base.

and to support the patients in their overall health. If I have more time to spend even interacting and having a simple conversation face-to-face with a patient who's in the practice because an AI bot is scheduling someone for me, that patient is likely to say, yeah, that sounds great. I'm gonna stop drinking coffee because it's tearing up my insights based on this test you just gave me results for. Like getting people to the level where they're comfortable.

The Dental A Team (20:26.63)

Right? They're open that vulnerability space of just having that human interaction. So if we can take confirmations off of your plate, if we can take these things off of the humans and allow human human contact and conversation and AI or bots to text messages, like I don't need to send the text messages. Somebody else, know, a bot can do that. A service can do that. I want to be human interaction. I don't need to be electronic interaction. So.

It's really cool. Thank you, for that conversation. You've got my brain thinking, you know, and hopefully those who are listening got your brain thinking too and you enjoyed this conversation as much as I did. Dana, think we always like to leave with action items, right? And I think action items right now are really that conversation of how can I support my team with tools like this or where do...

Dana (20:58.638)

No.

The Dental A Team (21:18.249)

Where do my team members need support so that they can have that more human interaction? So I think that's an item Dana and tell me if there's something to add or if you want to spin this a little bit. But I think that's the conversation and the action item is to really just start thinking about how your patient experience might be better or how your team's experience might be better by utilizing some of those tools. Can we do teledentistry appointments for

you know, and not calling it tele dentistry, calling it your consults. Can we do consults by virtual? Can we get a bot or an offsite virtual assistant, someone that can help support our team? I that's your action item guys. Dana, what are your thoughts? What do you want to lead them with today?

Dana (22:03.276)

Yeah, no, I love that and I think that, you know, leaders, practice owners take time even every year to just look at office optimization and is there a new technology? Is there a new product? Is there a new service or something that can help me optimize, whether it's my patient experience or my team or, you know, services that I've got.

for patients, think it's just a great time to sit down and look for opportunities there and how can you, like you said, optimize and help, not necessarily take away.

The Dental A Team (22:35.533)

I love it. Good. I love the word optimize. Good word to pull out there. All right, guys. This was a fun conversation. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I hope you got some good tips or sometimes hearing something that you've heard before will spin you to think, okay, gosh, now I really actually need to do this or yeah, that was a cool thing I forgot about. So have fun with it. Go enjoy it. Optimize your practice. Go optimize your team.

and really, really truly support your team and your patients in the best ways possible. And that's how it comes back to you and they will support you in the best ways possible. So leave us a review below. We love a five star that tells us how much you loved this. Tell us what you loved about it. And if there's anything else you guys ever want to hear, please make sure you send it along. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com And if you need any help with your practice or you need ideas, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com is an easy way to get that as well.

you can pop over to TheDentalATeam.com and sign up for a practice assessment if you're not already a Dental A Team client. We love to just honestly give you guys ideas and tools. So thank you so much, Dana. Thank you for being here with me today and we'll catch you guys next time.

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Do you ever feel like there’s too much happening in dentistry to keep your head on straight? Kiera talks about 4 ways you can stay up to date without being overwhelmed:

1. Listen to podcasts
2. Attend conferences
3. Join a consulting group
4. Find what you’re passionate about

Episode resources:

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Schedule a Practice Assessment

Leave us a review

Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.554)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome to the podcast. I hope today is just a magical day for you. I hope that you're having just a great time and I hope that you just remember that we're in the greatest space possible. We get to be in dentistry. We get to help people. We get to literally help people have greater smiles and greater happiness in life. And I think that that is one of the most incredible things that we get to be a part of. So thank you for being a part of our family. Thank you for being on the podcast with us.

Thank you for listening in, get ready. We're gonna actually start to have a lot of you join us on the podcast. I have a new idea that's ready to trickle out and I hope you are excited for it. I wanna get to know more of you. I want to hear from more of you. So get ready, it's coming for you. Today is going to be kind of a funny topic. I thought it was funny. I have our team, they're super kind, our marketing team, shout out to them. They actually go and they read Facebook groups and they read.

different areas, they read a lot of dental information and they're constantly watching things and they listen for what you guys are emailing in on, which you could always email me a podcast topic. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. I love to hear from you. love pen pals. and so our team, they go out and they scope and I read this one and I said, I don't want to podcast on that. and then I read through, they have a nice list for me of about seven pages of topics for me, which is super nice. And this topic was on there like,

It was here. And then I looked on the list and it was here again. And I thought, okay, fine. I will talk about a topic. And I hope that this is helpful for you. And the question is like how to stay updated on all the new dental technology and how to keep my team educated and up to date with the latest techniques and technology. And to me, this feels like a no brainer, but I realized this is obviously a question that you guys have. So let's answer it. All right. So welcome to the Dental A Team Podcast. I'm going to teach you how to do this, how we do it, how we help other offices do it.

And again, something that I thought was so just everyday knowledge isn't. So here we go. That's why we had the podcast. That's why we share. And if you love our podcast, please do me a solid favor, go like, review and share with somebody today. Okay, so ways that we were able to do this. Number one, you're doing a great job. You're listening to a podcast. So high five there. I try really hard to bring people to the industry that I've met, that I talk to, but it is tricky. And it's like, how do we know that these people are the best? So find somebody who's a trusted source.

Kiera Dent (02:19.774)

within the industry that you can trust. I have prided myself for years that I started Dental A Team because of Midwestern students. Shout out to all my Midwestern students out there. I noticed that in dental school, they were gonna get freaking eaten alive coming out into the world of dentistry. And it's like, how do you trust different reps? Because people are so good at selling you on the latest technology and the latest this and the latest that, that it's kind of scary.

And so that was something that I wanted to do is to be a resource, to be a beacon, to help you know, these are people I've vetted. Just so you know, any sponsor I bring on, they have to work with us. They have to do different pieces. They have to let me beta test on them of other practices before I will even introduce them. So I have quite a few people in the back burner at all times that I'm testing, that I'm vetting, that I wanna make sure that they're getting results before I bring them onto the podcast. I got burned a little bit early on. And also if you listen to past podcasts,

that company might not stay the top of the list. I'm constantly looking for it and I tell offices like you might not get to be or sponsors. I will always be looking and if someone comes in better than you, they will get promoted from me. So I think that that's one zone. Like I've told Zeke at Swell, if anybody comes onto the market that's better doing Google reviews than him, I will definitely promote them. As of today,

Zeke is still the number one way that I get Google reviews for clients. They tell me all the time, Kiera, but we have it in this software, this software. I say, guess what? Zeke does it for, think like 149 or 199 a month. And I have offices who I literally beta tested on who got over 50 reviews in one month from using Swell. They have grown their practice from having like three new patients a month, I'm not joking, to having over 45 new patients a month by using Swell. People ask, how did you do it, Kiera? And I'm like, honestly, it was Google reviews and time. That's it.

And so for that, I will promote them. And so when you're curious about how do we find this up to date of new technologies, I think listening to podcasts and listening to trusted sources out there, like AI and different pieces, I also think going to conferences. So the way I actually meet a ton of our sponsors and speakers and different people are through conferences. I go to these conventions and I go meet people and then I go test their products and then I work with them and I figure out and I have a lot of our clients are beta testers for me and they'll try them out and I get free trials for them.

Kiera Dent (04:35.566)

but going to your conferences in your areas, not only is great for a CE, but go meet people. And I know it can be annoying to be sold all the time, but it can be helpful. And so for example, like right now, the greatest AI on the market is between Overjet and Pearl. Those are the top two for adding AI onto your X-rays to help you co-diagnose, to helping you with that. They're the best on the market. I love Pearl. That's the one we've selected to go with. We have an affiliate relationship with them where I get the most preferred pricing for all of our clients.

So if you're interested in that, be sure to reach out. We can help you connect with them and get that discounted rate. But this is how we do it. Also, I think online, like watching reels as silly as that sounds, but there's a lot on Instagram and TikTok and things like that. But then questioning it as well of is this really real and what really is needed for my practice? So right now AI is hot. So let's be looking at AI and what things could we implement into our practice. And it's one of those things I don't like to be the earliest adopter, but I also don't want to be the person who never adopted and I actually got left behind.

So when we're looking for this new technology, we're looking for these new things, attending those pieces, watching it, and then doing our own individual research. Like you can email me anytime, hey Kiera, have you heard about this company? I love it when people do that. Cause one, you expose me to other companies and two, I'm able to then go research them, vet them, and then bring it to the podcast and share. Because my goal is within our community, within consulting, I love it. We bring our offices together. And this is actually how I also learn about a lot of things. And that would be my third point of like, join a consulting group.

I know I'm a consultant, so hopefully you want to choose the Dental A Team, but join a consulting group that brings people together, that shares. We bring our doctors together every single month, and then we meet in person actually twice a year. And it's because I want you to mastermind and I want you to talk to each other, and I want you to figure out what are the best ideas, what are the best resources, who are you using for this, who are you using for that? Because just hearing and talking with other people, it's like, my gosh, I didn't even know that. In our company, we call it Tip Tuesday.

And every Tuesday, our team member brings pieces to the tables. Like today, Shelby brought like a window cleaner. And it seems so silly, but I think back to community, right? Think back to back in the day when we didn't have technology and we weren't all connected virtually, we were connected in person. And when you're in person, you chat. And when you chat, you share your secrets and you share the best things that work for you. And so like Shelby sharing a glass cleaner that's $2.89 on Amazon, life-changing.

Kiera Dent (06:59.234)

But without community and without chatting, that's something that I would have just gone on my merry way continuing to buy Windex that is the strongest being promoted product out there. And it sounds so silly, but it's tips like that. What are the little things you're doing in your practice? What are the elite practices doing? What are other offices doing? And let's all share. And it's not just the elite practices. It's a lot of startups. Startups are scrappy. They've got other resources. But like I talked to my gym trainer and we used to virtually coach. And then I went in person with her.

And instantly I'm connected to people for the podcast and people for social media and different people for whatever it is because I'm with her. And so getting together with a consulting group that meets in person or meets virtually that shares ideas, our community goes wild and it's incredible to see them all sharing, hey, what cosmetic group do you want to go to? Or, hey, what's a great resource for this? Or what's a great thing for that? But being a part of a group of community of trusted colleagues, I also think is a great way to stay on top of it. Now, how do we get our team educated on it?

I think that there's other ways like you can take them to courses. So look to see, I usually try to do things within our team that I want to learn. So let's say we wanna learn marketing. We're gonna take our team to marketing events. We're going to find coaches for marketing. We're gonna find events around it. If you wanna do cosmetic, let's do cosmetic. Let's bring it to the office. Again, that's why I love consulting is because we literally fly to the office and we show you guys what you can implement within your practice that can help with it. So finding those things, but...

Also on your leadership team, get them fired up. Hygenist will go and look for research and information and see E that's going to make them so excited and so fun that they're excited about with laser and PRF and PRP and what can we do for snoring and different pieces like that. But find what you're passionate about. And that's also another way, because I think sometimes we get so inundated with technology that we miss what we're actually passionate about. And so really helping you realize this can be fun. You don't have to be.

over the top and like, my gosh, I'm missing out on all of this. I would say in a simple form of number one, plan to go to at least one dental convention every single year. I don't care what it is. I don't care where you go. I don't care if wanna travel out of state, but that's gonna be your best way to bring those people in because those conferences are constantly looking for sponsors and people and a lot of the newer companies, a lot of the OG companies.

Kiera Dent (09:13.528)

they tend to attend these conferences. If you're not in a big area where maybe a lot of people won't come to it, go to some of the bigger ones like RMDC in Colorado, Chicago Midwinter, Dicama. Some of these are really big ones that will bring more people in for you. And you don't have to even go for the CE. Just go walk the vendor halls, go see who this is there, and then go do some research on it. Next would be, would say, listen to podcasts and attend free webinars. Our company puts on the third Thursday of every single month, we do a free CE webinar.

And I do that intentionally to bring great people to the audience, to share with you other people that are out there, to get all these different pieces of technology and sponsors and vendors and different things that will make your office easier, attend those. So I would pick once a year, go to a conference every month, find some sort of CE, whether it's a book, whether it's a webinar or something that's going to get you educated. And then the third thing I would say is to join a group, a consulting group, because honestly, that's where it's the networking, it's the community, it's sharing.

that you're going to learn all these different pieces. It's too hard to do it on your own. And so find someone. And of course, I would love Dental A Team to be your preferred consultant. I'd love us to help take you to the next level. I'd love to expose you and your team. We have virtual, we have in-person and we have in-person events and we have in-office visits as well where we come to your practice and we also meet together as a community, as a collective group. We do it on Friday and Saturday. It's really fun. It's really exciting. And it's a really great time to just connect to

to share and I think that you doing those items, you will stay up to date. There's no way you can't stay up to date as long as the consultant is innovative. And of course, I'm going to like toot my own horn. We're one of the youngest consulting companies out there. I'm nervous for us to become an older one, but I've tried really hard to keep myself young. Being a millennial, I'm very tech savvy. I'm very aggressive on research and knowledge and innovating and implementing ideas because I know that if we don't, be dated very quickly. And so,

also finding someone who is maybe a little bit younger on that. Like I look for social people that are in their twenties because they're going to innovate even better than I will. And so those would be some of my suggestions of how you can stay up to date, how you can stay current, how you can make sure that you're gathering all these research, these resources, and then realize I'm not going to catch them all, but I'm going to focus on the ones that turn my practice to ease efficiency in the areas I want. And that's what I'm going to do. And I guarantee you, if you do that, you will be so happy. So

Kiera Dent (11:36.386)

Hopefully those gave you some ideas. Like I said, this was a topic that I thought everybody already knew, but in digging into it, I realized this can feel daunting and it can feel like I'm always behind, but I think breaking it down to your annual, your monthly, and then also joining a group. Again, like I said, I'd love you to be a part of it. I think those three things will keep you current and will keep your team current as well. And as always, if we can help you reach out, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com You guys are incredible. We're doing an incredible work. There's amazing things coming into dentistry. And I would say do not get left behind.

but stay current. And then I guess my fourth final tip for you would be commit to implementing at least one item of new technology every single year. And I think if you do those items, you will always stay up to date. I'm happy to share a ton of our resources. So reach out, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

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Did you know you’re losing $600,000 to $1 million by having open time in your schedule? Kiera talks about what is likely impacting your schedule and how to fix it (without working overtime).

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.974)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is just a great day and I hope you're having a great day. I hope that you remember you are changing people's lives through dentistry. Like what you're doing, know billing, hygiene, hygiene checks, dentistry, doing the exams, doing the numbers, looking at the profitability, running the business doesn't feel like you're changing lives, but you are. You're giving people the confidence of their smiles and their healthy mouths. You're helping them have long-term systemic health. You're saving them from period disease. You're helping them have like

preventing the risk of cardiovascular disease. You are doing such a great service in this world and you're also helping more people smile more confidently, changing their lives exponentially. And just remember you're doing so much good. So let's keep it up. And I'm here to give you all the tactical practical tips, infusing your world with positivity and changing this world in the greatest way possible. If you love the podcast, leave us a review, share it with a friend, do something of goodness today. You guys just stay here and listen on your own.

Share with someone, send it to a doctor, send it to a team member, send it to a colleague, whomever it is, put it in a Facebook group, tag me. I'd love to see a picture of you where you're at. Tag us. It makes me so happy to get to know you instead of just talking to you. So share, I'd love to hear from you. And thank you for being a part of our family. Make sure that you guys are sharing though. keeps us at the top of the list. And my goal is to bring you massive value that you naturally want to be sharing. And so today my massive value is...

how to give you back like 600 to a million dollars to your practice. You on board with that? Does that sound dreamy enough for you to share with someone to listen in to take some notes? I hope so because Tiff and I were actually talking the other day and she was like, Kiera, it's so interesting. I talked to practices and like, I'm not hitting my numbers. I can't afford these things. I can't do this. And the answer is that's true. But there's a simple, simple, simple solution. And then we're going to, I'll give you two. That's actually helping you.

miss this money and it's so simple and yet we look at over all the time and it's your schedule being open. I know, I know. I took you to the top and brought you down to the bottom. What, Kiera, you want to tell me that? Yes, your schedule being open because if we take your hourly production and your hygiene's hourly production and we go and look at your open time in your schedule, if you just filled your schedule, it's like we calculated it. It's 600 to a million dollars in most practices by just having open time in their schedule.

Kiera Dent (02:24.216)

which then you're like, well, I can't afford these things. can't do it. Well, yeah, because your schedule's open. And so I want to give you some tips. Like I said, it seems kind of like, gosh, OK, we're going to do this. We are going to do this because 600 to a million just with an open schedule. So what impacts our schedule being open? Cancellations, not closing treatment, not getting patients to schedule, not reappointing our patients, not having a cancellation policy within our practice.

Those things create open schedules. And then also I'm going to lovingly and directly say not having our team focused and obsessed on filling the schedule. Offices who are obsessed with filling the schedule, meaning we have it to 90 to 95 % to goal every single day are the offices that are freaking killing it. The other offices are like, we tried our best. See you later. It's five. No. As a front office team member, the expectation and the agreement we made was I was not allowed to leave for the day.

unless my schedule for the next day was full. Now people tell me, Kiera, we fill our schedule, it's full at the end of the day and I come in in the morning and I have voicemails canceling my whole day out. Well, phenomenal, you don't have a cancellation policy. Number one, don't let them leave a voicemail to cancel. It's way too easy to break up with someone on a voicemail. So let's eliminate that. On your voicemail, can say, thank you for calling, if you have an emergency here, this is. Also, we do require.

Kiera Dent (03:56.866)

Also, we do require a 48 hour notice for any appointment changes and we do not accept those via voicemail. Give us a call back during normal business hours to move your appointment or reappoint your appointment. That was really, really clunky. Call back during business hours to reappoint or reschedule your dental appointment. Also, text messages, I do not accept them via text message. I tell them, hey, thank you for reaching out. We can't take any appointment changes via text. Give me a quick call and I'll help you get this taken care of.

Amazing. They text you. So we don't have to worry about that. My dermatologist literally has no voicemail. I kid you not, there is no way for me to leave them a voicemail after hours for cancellation. They don't have it and they have a policy that if we don't have a 48 hour notice that we have a credit card on file and it's a hundred dollar fee, you can choose whatever you want. I'm not here to advocate that you should charge fees. I'm not here to say you should have a credit card on file, but I am saying you need to have a policy that your whole team is behind.

I'm very big on you are a specialist, you are a doctor's office and patients should value your time. So whether we're having them leave you on, they put a deposit down, there's a credit card on file, but every specialist, I'm talking IVF, dermatologists, doctors, like everybody in healthcare has a credit card on file. And if you choose not to show for that appointment and you don't give them a 48 hour notice, there is a deposit that's non-refundable that they do take. Now you don't have to do that, but you do have to have a policy.

Some offices, if you choose to cancel or reschedule your appointment, I never use the word cancel, they just reschedule because I have no one who cancels on me. They reschedule their appointment. If they choose not to do it within 48 hours, that's okay. We push them out six weeks or 12 weeks, whatever it is, and then we move them forward after they've waited for about four weeks. If they continue to do it, so it's a three strike policy for me, if they choose to continue to do that, then they actually get put on what's called our walk-in.

list like, Hey, care, it sounds like you're super, super busy. We're actually not going to reschedule this appointment for you. just give me a call and you'll be on a same day walk in, that we'll be able to get you in if we have availability that day. but either way, there's a set policy and we're going to start to train our patients. So our patients stop canceling off of our schedules because remember 600 to a million, just by having open schedules is something we need to stop. And so looking at this, you can also have them sign that they understand that these things are happening, but really

Kiera Dent (06:18.958)

getting super clear on what our cancellation policy is, having everybody follow through on it and making sure, and you're not being a jerk. You're just saying like, these are the rules of our game. We want you to play the game with us. These are the rules. Do we agree that we're both going to play by them? Absolutely. Yes. Phenomenal. Come to our practice. We're going to be on time for you. We're going to get you back and we're going to make sure that we see you and we have the adequate time for you. That's how we play the rules of the game. So number one, keeping our schedules full. We don't take those cancellations.

We make sure that at the end of the day, our schedules are always filled, filled up to goal. We call, you guys, I used to call all the time and I got so good when patients called to cancel and I'm like, my gosh, Mrs. Jones, tell me what's going on. like, I hope you're doing okay. Tell me what's going on. And I find out what her problem is and then I find the solution. Mrs. Jones, doctor was so excited to see you today. I understand you have a work meeting. Like thank you for letting me know. We do require a 48 hour notice for any appointment changes.

Let's see, I could actually like if we could get you in and out by two o'clock today, does that work for you? Yep, that works great. Amazing. Mrs. Jones is in my schedule. I just move her time. We move along. There's so many ways that we can keep patients on the schedule. We can let them know like, hey, like I have people that like I can't make it send an Uber. If they're a big case, send an Uber to the patient. But you've got to have some solutions for them to where patients are staying on our schedule. And I feel like this is where if you own

and your friend office owns that the schedule will be full and that's what their agreement with you is. Excellent. Hold them to that level. And people are like, but Kiera, patients are canceling for sure. Let's count for a 10 % cancellation. Like that's normal, but guess what? We've still got to keep 90 % of it full. We still have to go through that open time. Hygienist not hitting their goals. does it do to open time? Anytime we have open time on the schedule or if we like finish with a patient on time or like, let's say it's an hour and we finish at 45 minutes.

For every 15 minute increments, let's have people make five phone calls. So we've got outbound calls going all the time to make sure our schedule is always getting full with people coming in. This is how we keep our schedules full. This is how we own it. This is how. And then the next thing is doctors needs to be diagnosing. I shouldn't share our secrets. We have a question for consultants interviewing for our company, and I'm always looking to see if they can catch it. It's the hardest one for them to catch. It's the schedule is so busy, but we're not hitting goal.

Kiera Dent (08:42.052)

Well, usually that's because doctors not diagnosing enough. So let's check at that. And doctors, this is not me saying you're doing anything wrong. But what I am going to say is, we being comprehensive and are we diagnosing comprehensively for that patient? Are we doing quad dentistry or are we like watching a lot of things because we don't want to have the conversations of treatments needed? That's a question you get to answer. I'm not your dentist. I'm not a doctor. You get to tell me that. I'm just here to ask you the question. So when we look at that, if we're not able to hit goal and we don't have these schedules filled,

Is it because we're not presenting enough treatment? Is it because we're not closing enough treatment? And are we not calibrated between hygiene for an office and doctors to make sure that all of us are actually on the same page with each other and that we're closing all these cases? Are we reviewing our cases together? Are we looking to see what's going on with these cases? Are we looking to find out why is it not closing? We presented it this way. Are we recording ourselves and listening to them back to find out what are we saying that's not having these cases closed? Because patients are the dentist. They want dentistry. And I want you to remember that. There's an office that I coach in there.

team is incredible. We have added so much to their practice and helped so many more patients. And one of their treatment coordinators, says, she's like, Kiera, when people come to the dentist, they want to do dentistry. So they want to do dentistry. My job is to make sure that they get the dentistry done. Like they're here. And I was like, that is the most beautiful way to think about this because you're right. They're at the dentist. They're here. They're giving up their time to be here. Let's make sure that we're giving them the information that they need. We're helping them. We're guiding them. And we're actually helping them have good, clean, healthy mouths.

That's what we're here for. And so for you guys looking to see these are easy ways for us to actually add money to our schedule. We can afford things, but money is being lost because the team's not unified. So if all of us know no one gets to leave, it's not just the front office. No one leaves until our schedule is full. Well, hygienist, reappoint. You should be at 98 % reappointment. Let's not ask like, Hey, Kiera, do you want to schedule back? It's Kiera, we're going to schedule your six months. I've got you on May 5th at 8 a.m. same time as now.

Can't wait to see you in May and then I'm gonna walk you up to the front if May 5th doesn't work for me I'm going to let you know we always remind them like we do require 48-hour notice for any appointment changes 48 hours and then I also really big on unconfirmed appointments because the schedule can look totally full But if they're not confirmed, they're probably not gonna show and so what's our policy for that? I do have some offices where we call the patients and say hey I've got to hear from you today If not, I am going to need to reschedule your appointment. They scooch off the appointment

Kiera Dent (11:07.914)

we fill it with someone who's guaranteed to come. If that patient comes, I get to have the fun conversation with them. Notice it's fun. Hey, awesome. Again, these are the rules of our game. We called you, we told you we needed to hear from you. And because we didn't hear from you, we did pull you off the schedule. If I have time that day, I'm going to scoot them in. I'm not going to do the whole thing. If I don't, I'm going to say like, I am going to reschedule you. Let's get you back at this time. I do need you to confirm your appointments because we have, we have so many patients that we want to see that every patient does need to confirm their appointment. Great.

They know the rules of the game. You can even tell your patients new year, new start. This is what we require. So patients do need to give a confirmation. Otherwise we will be moving you off the schedule. It's totally fine. But these little areas and people are like, gosh, Keira, is it really worth it? To me, 600 to a million is definitely worth it. I'm not working any extra days. I'm not working any extra hours. I'm literally working the exact same time. I'm just making sure my schedule is full every day. If you wanted to change one thing in 2025,

Keep your schedule full and have the entire team unified on this. I guarantee you, you will see results. Guaranteed. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Guaranteed. You can have it there. But it's a whole team effort. And I promise you, goals will be hit easier. Your team will do better. You'll serve more patients, and you will work less. People are like, Kiera, how do you cut down from five days to four days? You have full schedules. You're able to do it.

we're and we're better with our block scheduling and we map it out. So we're super productive every time. So doctors are diagnosing treatment, treatment coordinators are closing cases. Hygienists are reappointing and schedulers are filling the schedule. The whole team is ticking together and we can actually consolidate. can expand whatever your goals and dreams and desires are. And we have good block schedules in there to fill it full. Then if we can't fill a block with what we're supposed to, we have a 24 hour hold on that. And then if we can't, fill it with something that's going to be productive for it, whether it's an emergency.

We also schedule emergency times in our schedule. Scheduling is so clutch in a practice. And yet I feel like we just haphazardly oftentimes do it. It's so easy. It's so easy to add production to offices, schedules, and consulting because we work on this. We train the team. We watch it. We see it. We make sure they're productive. And then from there, we're able to help offices grow exponentially. So go look to see how to add $600 to a million to your practice. And if we can help you.

Kiera Dent (13:28.056)

We're experts at this. We're really, really good at it. We're really good at helping your team with the verbiage. We're good at helping them understand like how we change the voicemail and what do we do with the upset patients and how do we handle this? Reach out. It's easier to do it with a buddy. So reach out. Hello @ TheDentalATeam.com And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

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Kiera gives insight into how CEOs and office managers (or dreamers and task-drivers) can effectively work together to run the ideal dental practice — without stepping on each other’s toes.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:01.646)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I am so excited to be on the podcast. I'm excited to be podcasting with you. I hope that your new year is rocking and rolling and I hope that you are just enjoying your time working in dental practices because remember, we are so blessed and so lucky to be working in an industry that literally changes lives. I believe that dentistry is the best possible industry for us to be a part of and you get to make people's literal smiles come true. So as always,

Thank you for being a part of our Dental A Team family. Please be sure that you are always leaving us review, sharing us with other people. That is how you keep us as the top dental podcast out there. And I just want to say for every one of you that has done it, truly thank you. Thank you for sharing this podcast with others. Thank you for being on our journey. And for those of you that are new, welcome. I want you guys to remember we are getting up there on our numbers of podcasts. So we are in the 900s, almost breaking about a thousand episodes.

I cannot believe I have made that many episodes. That's a lot of episodes. And sometimes it might feel daunting or you might forget that this is a resource in your back pocket. So always head on over to TheDentalATeam.com click on our podcast page and you are able to then go search every episode. So if you have like, wanna know information about cancellations or I wanna know about partnerships or I wanna know about buy-ins or I Kiera talked about Pearl AI, but I can't remember where that was at.

go search our podcast in any episode that I have ever recorded for you of all those thousands of episodes, because there'll be more coming, you will literally be able to go find any one of them. So just be sure put that in your resource pocket. A lot of people want to know like, how do get our hygiene? How do we do perio? How do we do fluoride? How do we run effective meetings? How do we run quarterly meetings? Any of those things literally, I want you to think about this as your Google or your AI for you.

It's all there. There's a ton of it. have verbiage for you. I have information for you. So be sure that you're always using those as resources for you because I believe in working smarter, not harder. And I'm always here committed to sharing the top tips and tricks for you. So today I just wanted to dive into a really fun topic that I think is great for you guys. I think it's something that I get asked a lot. It's something that I'm excited about and really helping you understand kind of what a CEO visionary

Kiera Dent (02:14.816)

and an office manager, implementer or integrator role should look like and how you can have this in your practice. Because as I'm watching offices and as I'm coaching practices, I'm noticing that dentists, when they start to move into this CEO role, they actually don't know what the heck they're supposed to do. It feels very weird. It feels very awkward. It feels like I don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing. And so giving you guys some tips of what does this relationship even look like? So.

There's a great book. guys know I'm a huge faction, a huge fan of traction. Merged those together and had faction come out. Huge fan of traction by Gina Wickman. We help a lot of offices, Dental A Team's version of traction where we actually help you build leadership teams. We help you get quarterly goals in place. We help you with accountability, tracking data, scorecards, write people, write seats. So if that's something you're interested, be sure to reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com Super, super, super fun and very effective.

We have a lot of offices that we've worked with for years on this and being dental experts, we're able to help solve a lot of the problems that come up. Whereas some of the other implementers or integrators, they really can't help with that. So it's a really fun niche that we're a part of that I absolutely love. So if you're interested in that, how do I set up these leadership teams or quarterlies, be sure to reach out. I'd love to help you. But in doing that, Gina Wickman wrote another book called Rocket Fuel. And Rocket Fuel, I think is a really lovely book that kind of splits apart this visionary role.

and this integrator role. And not all CEO doctors are visionaries and not all office managers are integrators. And so really figuring out and dialing in, what does this relationship look like? Like what should a CEO do? What should a doctor do? What should an office manager do? I think this dynamic can actually get really tricky and it can get really hard for people. And you might not know exactly what does this look like and how can we maximize it? And so I just kind of wanted to come on and paint a picture. Now, again, this is a picture that's painted.

But it's a, I would say it's made with markers that you can erase or it's one of those like, remember the Etch-A-Sketch that you're able to use like with the sand and you'd like etch it out and then could like shake it up and erase it. That's what I think that this picture and this dynamic should look like for you where it's not perfect. It's not something that you have to do, but this is gonna kind of just give a sketch and an outline of like, what does a visionary do? What does an integrator do? And doctors, a lot of times what I'm seeing is,

Kiera Dent (04:33.43)

you come in and you've been a clinician and then you're like, okay, I've mastered my dream. I've made this a reality. I have taken it to where I no longer have to do clinical all the time. I've hired associates, we've onboarded associates and now what do I do? And what you tend to default into is more of the office manager role, which is fine if you enjoy management, but if you don't, don't slip down into that. And also you might not be the best for this role. You might not be as good at communicating.

I learned like know thyself and be free I think is the best thing I could ever tell you. And so what is your role and what do you like love to do and what if I were looking at your energy sucks in life versus the things that light your fire. What we're trying to do is get everybody into those zones of genius. There's some great books out there. There's some good places where you can kind of look to see what are the tasks. Do I enjoy them? Am I good at them? Am I not good at them? I've done some podcasts on that where you can honestly quadrant yourself into like these are tasks that I love doing and I'm good at.

These are tasks that I don't enjoy doing, but I'm good at them. These are tasks that I am not good at and don't enjoy doing. And these are tasks that I can train people on. So there's kind of some quadrants. And the goal is first to have like 90 % of our day in the quadrant of these are tasks that I'm good at and that I actually enjoy doing. So if we can get you guys there, phenomenal. That's what we're trying to work on. so helping visionaries see, I think so often as doctors are producers in their

these drivers and they've been like with an eight to five schedule moving into what I call more of a creative visionary. It's a very different space. And a little while ago I was on a trip and I realized that the creative mind is so much different than the structured mind. So when I want to create my best ideas, well, if I put it into my calendar, Kiera, you're going to go create at this time. I don't. And I started noticing my marketing team was doing this. They would be their most creative.

when they were in the middle of the night. A lot of my marketers would work at two, three, four a.m. They would sleep in and then they'd come and I was like, this is such a weird world. Like I'm used to the dental office and we have patients at seven a.m. and we're done at five p.m. And that's just the life we live. But that's a very structured schedule versus this creative schedule. And doctors and visionaries start to move into more of this creative schedule, which is not an eight to five per se. It is not forcing ideas and creativity to come.

Kiera Dent (06:52.48)

It is having more space, but I think visionaries oftentimes don't give themselves the space because they're like in this very rigid mindset. And so just kind of, again, like I said, painting this picture with an Etch-A-Sketch where we can shake it off. We can decide which things we want to do, which things we don't want to do, but helping office managers and doctors kind of learn this relationship. So doctors don't accidentally get into the office manager's lane and office managers allow the doctors the freedom and flexibility to become these CEOs and these visionaries.

that they want to be. Now, if you are a doctor and you're not a visionary, that's okay. You do not need to be. Some doctors are incredible, incredible, incredible implementers, and they actually hire someone like another doctor or maybe a CEO to come in to be that visionary role. And that's okay. So again, this is an Etch A Sketch. It's not a perfect painted canvas that we can't change in a race and add different lines to it. It's just a picture. But typically speaking, a CEO who's a visionary, their main pieces are vision,

growth, sometimes they add numbers in there and culture. And usually if I like box it out, that's going to be the three things that that visionary is responsible for. They usually leave meetings. They don't have, they don't have a lot of to-dos. They don't have a lot of items. They come in, they give the vision, they help build the culture. And that's really what they're supposed to do. and a lot of times people who are in this role, they don't think that that's actually that hard or

it's needed or it's like, I remember when I heard like, okay, these are what I'm supposed to do. I was like, that's it? Like, aren't I supposed to do more than that? you know, that's it. I'm just supposed to have the vision and culture and like kind of the numbers. And that's like, no, it's like 20 ideas, big problem solving, relationships, culture. That's like what it is. And...

I think sometimes we take for granted that that's a talent. That's something we're built with and not everybody is coming up with 20 ideas on a regular basis. Like if you are someone like myself, we're like the ideas keep coming. Tiffanie Trader, if you know her, you, I'm sure you do. You love her on the podcast. Tiff will say, I told her on her tombstone, I will write the Tiff died being the efficiency queen. And she told me on my tombstone, she will write Kiera. Like I have a great idea. I'm constantly calling my team. I'm like, Shelbi, I got a great idea. Tiff, I've got a great idea.

Kiera Dent (09:17.254)

I've got this great idea. Hey Eve, I've got this great idea. Jacintha, I've got this great idea. Dana, I've got this great idea. If that's not you, you might not be that visionary CEO role, but that's like what they do. 20 big ideas, creativity problem solving, big relationships and culture. Now for me, I do enjoy numbers. Numbers like light my fire. So I have it on there. That's what I like to do. And then also something else for me that I'm really good at that's a piece in our company is speaking and being a public figure. Now, surprise, surprise, right? I'm on the podcast all the time. I enjoy it. I'm speaking at events.

That's what my role is as the visionary. Now the integrator role or usually an office manager and not all office managers are created equal. I used to be an office manager and how good do you think I was at this? The answer was not very good. I was able to morph and shift into it, but a company I really love is Culture Index. If you're not familiar with them, reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com I've got some great contacts. I think it's really, really fascinating. their whole model, it's kind of like Disc or Myers or Briggs or Colby.

but what they do is they actually have you in culture index look to see who are you in your natural habitat and like things you naturally are good at and then how are you performing in your work position. And the goal is that the top box and the bottom box are pretty similar. So me in my happiest state, I would be actually doing things like I would do them naturally. So for me, I like a lot of autonomy. I love a lot of people. I like things to move fast and I like to be creative and I'll have like details when I need them.

That's my perfect world. So me being in an integrator role or an office manager role, that's way more like way less autonomy, more people, I'm good with the people. But then also having to do so many numbers and metrics and checklist and protocols and thoroughness. my gosh, I did not enjoy that. But yeah, I wanted the title of office manager because I felt like that was the only space that I could grow into. And so office managers listening to this as well, know thyself and be free as well.

because I actually made a much better treatment coordinator than I did an office manager, but my ego got in the way of that. I think being careful as we etch a sketch this out of our best role, our best space is let's not be putting ourselves into a box that we actually aren't incredible at. So the office manager or integrator role, according to EOS traction version, their job is to lead, manage and hold accountable. Lead, manage, hold accountable. Their profit and loss, the business plan, remove obstacles and barriers, social projects and logic. And I have over here like,

Kiera Dent (11:39.48)

Projects A to Z, that's the lead managing accountability. They're doing like the one-on-ones, a lot of HR, a lot of like managing the team, it's lead managing accountability, the profit and loss with the numbers. Like I said, I put numbers in me, but that should really fall under the integrator. So they're watching it. They're moving, they're removing the obstacles, barriers. They're working on these projects. So all those different pieces, like when you hear the podcast of like, hey, you should implement a treatment tracker or you should implement an AR protocol or this is a billing protocol. That's all this integrator's job.

Like they're literally like these little machines that love to execute and implement projects. They love project management, softwares. They love to have checklists. They love to have Excel spreadsheets. They love to distract this off. They're obsessed with the numbers and that's really what their role is. And so you've got this visionary who's creating a ton of ideas. It's culture that's very extroverted. And then you have this integrator who's usually oftentimes more introverted, but loves to lead, manage and hold accountable, loves to do these different pieces. That's really what we're looking for. And so as you're doing this,

Again, it's an Etch A Sketch and not every relationship's the same, but this is a good way for you to map out like, okay, do these things lighten me up? Do I love to create the ideas? Do I love to have problem solving and like thinking outside the box? My team comes to all the time, they're like, Kiera, I had this big problem, we don't know what to do. Before I answer, which is so hard for me, because I'm ready to go all the time, is what solutions did you guys have? Because I want to empower my team that they can solve these problems without me. But if they can't figure it out, it's really big like,

coming up with a new product launch in our company or coming up with a different way that we do things, that's my bread and butter. That's where I sit, that's where I create, that's where I come up with these ideas. And sometimes it takes me 10 minutes to create an idea. Other times it's like seven months to create an idea. So again, creativity doesn't strike all at once, it doesn't come all the way, but that's really kind of helping you see the CEO and this integrator role work in tandem. Now it can be tricky and you're not always going to get it right, but I think seeing it more and more

what your role should be or could be or can morph into, I think is very empowering for both parties. And just know that when you're in the right person in the right seat, things move so easily. They don't get stuck. don't get, like, it's not like a traffic jam. It flows. And it was crazy because I watched in office and when they finally put, it was hard because they had someone who is in a hygiene coordinator or a hygiene lead role. And this hygienist wasn't the right hygienist for it.

Kiera Dent (14:03.02)

and the hygiene team didn't do well, they didn't innovate, they didn't create, and they just were not the right hygienist to lead this department. They were an outstanding hygienist. They produced really well, they were amazing, but they weren't the best leader to lead their department. And it was crazy because that team, was really hard. was like, whew, like I feel stressed for them. Having that conversation and having that team member step down from leadership. And I don't actually love that we call it step down because it feels like a demotion. It feels like we didn't do well enough.

But being the right person in the right seat is not a demotion. It's recognizing I'm good at this or I'm not good at this and I need to remove myself for the betterment of the team, of our patients, of our practice. And so when they switched this lead out, the hygiene team flourished. And it was crazy because they actually brought in a lead that was less experienced, less knowledgeable, had not been in the field for as long, but was incredible at leading, managing, and holding accountable a team. And so sometimes we think seniority equates to leadership.

Sometimes we think that we should put people in so they stay with us. But the reality is not everyone wants to be a leader. Not everyone wants to grow into that. Not everybody is actually a good leader who wants to be a good leader. And so know thyself and be free. Build this Etch A Sketch photo of what your practice looks like and what you enjoy doing. And for me, I have this giant sticky note behind where I am in my office that has me of what I want to do as the CEO and visionary for me.

And it helps me stay very crystal clear. Literally it says vision, growth, numbers, future products, ideation, creating, solve big problems, speak and leave. I don't like to do the logistics of speaking. I hate setting up the booth. It stresses me out. I don't like having to deal with the partners. Like I love all those pieces, but I hate doing that plus speaking because it's two different brains and I get so anxious about it. Like literally anxious when I have to do it. I'm good at it and I can do it, but you put me in the box, that zone of I'm good at it, but I hate doing it.

is enough to make somebody go crazy and wanna quit their job. I unfortunately can't quit my job sometimes. Unfortunately, I can't quit it, right? But just thinking about this of how can we help ourselves be happier and set up for more success, I think is a really great way for you to view it. So hopefully today that was able to give you guys some clarity, some ideas around it, help you start to etch a sketch your own world. And sometimes we just need an outside perspective to help us see. I hired another coach. Don't worry, I'm the queen of coaching over here. I do not hire multiple coaches at the same time.

Kiera Dent (16:26.798)

I'm very strategic with who I hire so I don't get consultant paralysis. But I hired another coach who helped me see what my visionary role needed to be, who helped me see who I wanted to become, helped me see what I should or shouldn't say yes to, who helped me see that what I've been in the past is not who I need to be to get the company to where I want it to be. And it was the most liberating, freeing, exhilarating moment of my life. And I love to do this for practices. This is what I geek out about is because I've done it.

Our company's done it, we've successfully done it, and now let us help you. So if this is something that just lights your fire, but you don't quite know how to do it, reach out, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com I'd love to chat with you. And as always, thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.

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Tiff and Britt give tangible tips for creating a wealth plan of action. They cover everything from knowing what your ideal work-life balance is, when you hope to retire, the right systems you can create now to set you on your path, and a ton more.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:01.504)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners and welcome back. I am here again with Miss Britt. Brilliant Brain Britt is what I've dubbed her today on some awesome business tips and insider tips, things that we've learned along the way, things that Britt has actually gone to school for. So welcome to that. Thank you, Britt.

Britt (00:19.787)

Real life is cool, Cliff. Real life is cool, too.

The Dental A Team (00:25.935)

Fair, fair. But I do love picking your brain for it on these pieces because little do many people know you do have a degree in healthcare management. I think it's really, really freaking cool. And not just any degree, like you have, you know, your master's degree in this and it's really freaking cool you guys because

It means not only do we have, you know, the knowledge that we've all picked up along the way and we've taken courses and CE and all these things and learned and learned how to use freaking Excel and things like that. But Britt also has that side of it that I get to pick her brain on things that just really, really helps you guys learn how to manage your business. So we all do have the real life training, but Britt, I think it's really cool when we get to utilize your degree and you get to utilize it in our company, I think.

I assume you do, but it's really cool when you get to do this stuff. So thank you for being here with me today, Britt, letting me pick that beautiful brain of yours. And just for always being here for us, you are an amazing human being and anything that I need, you're like, yep, we'll figure it out. So thank you for recording with me. How are you doing today, Britt?

Britt (01:15.638)

Mm-hmm.

Britt (01:34.127)

I'm doing well, thanks Tiff. These are fun combos because one, like we both have years of experience in dental and so, and worked with a lot of clients. So it's fun just to kind of talk about ideas and cool things we've seen and what we've learned along the way.

The Dental A Team (01:49.156)

Yeah, I agree. I agree. And today is one of my favorite conversations. I love nothing more than to help a doctor and a business owner of any caliber and degree learn how to make their business work for them and then not spending so much time working for their business. Like you guys became business owners, you became practice owners so that you can have your own business, you could make your own hours and you get into it and you're like, gosh dang it.

Brit, this sucks, I'm working all the time. And it's like, yeah, you will do that for a little while for businesses and it'll come back around every now and again as well. But really looking at how we can plan and project for the future so that you can make that switch at some point and it flips to where the business really is creating the lifestyle of your dreams. And that's something that we work really hard at. I know we work with mostly entrepreneurs, which means.

We work with visionaries, we work with the people who have the big dreams, and then we get to help implementers, office managers typically, right? And doctors learn how to be an implementer from a visionary, but we get to work on the implementation side of really finding the strategies and keying in on the pieces that are going to help us get to that big vision that you want, doctors. So we have other podcasts, a ton of podcasts that'll talk about how we've helped other doctors do those things. I want you to listen to those. I want you to never feel like you're alone.

We are here for you today. I'm actually really excited about this one today strategic wealth management and really planning for that in the future. And Brett, this is going to be a lot of conversation from you. So I hope you're ready. I hope you've got all your words ready to be used today. I know I use a lot of words in a day and I feel like I never run out, but you might run out. I don't know. But I hope you're ready for this because this one is this one. I'm letting you take over quite a bit here on the strategic planning because

I think you do above and beyond look further than a lot of people even look, and look further than maybe some of our listeners are even thinking about. A lot of our doctors are younger, you know, they're 50 and under, and these generations right here, and these two, know, generations, the 30 to 50 generations, we're not always thinking of our retirement. I don't know what happened to us, but we kind of forgot that piece was going to come one day.

The Dental A Team (04:08.186)

for a lot of us. So really looking and making sure that we're considering those pieces and you do that well. You go retirement, I think you go retirement first, like what's our retirement plan and then five to 10 years. so, Britt, take us through some of the pieces that you work with clients on and you've worked with, you know, clients even before you were with the Dental A Team. I'm really making sure that we're looking at our wealth management from a long-term and a short-term.

How do you help people prep for that? What's the first space you look for?

Britt (04:38.719)

Yeah, this is always fun and that's why I love lately I've been on some of our free assessment calls right even with clients coming in to say like all right where are we at you know how can we help you and this is always an important thing that I want to know is right how long do they see themselves owning a business or doing dentistry both really because it just helps us to figure out

We talked about this already even with KPIs. I'm like, what's the future? And then I work my way back. So I'm like, all right, what's the long term? Where are we wanting to go? If it's like, I know I've got at least 15 years of me. Great. Awesome. Like that at least gives us a starting point of where we think we're going and how long we need this business to be producing or the value we need from it for how long you're going to be retired. And so that's where I start is thinking, okay.

So for those of you out there that don't know right now, number one action item, it doesn't have to be exact, right? You don't have to do it, but like, what would you love to be your age of retirement to where at least you're not sitting in the chair anymore doing dentistry? That's an important number. One, for you to know, and two, get a good financial advisor, because they need to know that number, because then you're going to work with them to figure out what lifestyle do you want? How long do we think you're going to, you know?

The Dental A Team (05:35.121)

Thank

The Dental A Team (05:51.538)

Thank

Britt (05:57.333)

live on this great earth and live an awesome life and how much money is that gonna take? So we know, all right, what value do we need in investments, in an account, within your practice, because that's an asset for you as well. How much wealth do we need to build for you to be ready to retire by that point in time? And so, yes, even if we, whether a client says it or not, I'm always thinking about what's that ultimate point? What's the end point we're working towards and how are we gonna get there? Or at least I wanna get you in a position to where

The Dental A Team (05:59.314)

Thank

Britt (06:27.317)

you have the choice to do that, right? You don't have to, but I never want a client to get to the end to where they're like either physically can't do it or something else and they're not set up to be able to live a great life and enjoy it for the rest of their days. So always thinking that big and then thinking about like, all right, and kind of, there any milestones? Some doctors know right away, hey, I want to work down my clinical days and we'll spend more time with family.

The Dental A Team (06:29.009)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (06:51.955)

you

Britt (06:52.423)

Awesome. Let's figure that out. Some are like, no, I want to work and do you know, be in the chair. That's the part I love for as long as I can. Fantastic. That just kind of helps us to see what are the pieces we have. I love it. I think Kira was saying the other day.

life is ultimately just like a series of algebra equations, right? Like everything you look at, it's like, all right, I've got A and C, what B do I need to get to C type of a thing, right? So that's kind of how I look at this is, all right, where do we ultimately need to go? What do we need this asset, this practice to become to do its part in that grand scheme of things? So knowing that first, and then with the practice, it's like, all right, great.

The Dental A Team (07:12.253)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (07:19.111)

Yeah.

Britt (07:35.687)

Either, what do we need to build in value of building this up to where what's our EBITDA? What could I sell it for? Not saying you're going to sell it, but I always want it to be worth as much as possible.

And also like what do need to be making from that practice? Some people they need the full salary of doing the clinical and you know making a lot out of that practice for a certain amount of time and then even just knowing of like all right once I've done that for 10 years I don't have to I can but I don't have to I could always bring in an associate and make X amount off of you know profit from the practice You know based on kind of what we estimate there will be so that's kind of how I work it We've got to know the end

The Dental A Team (07:46.034)

Agree.

Britt (08:15.769)

goal, financial advisors, know dentist advisors are one of our favorites, but working with someone to help you see theoretically when you would retire, what amount do need by then, what current assets do you have, and then we help you on the practice part. What do we need that practice to be or what do we need your income to be from that practice to get you where you need to go. So there's my like long-winded explanation tip.

The Dental A Team (08:30.451)

The Dental A Team (08:38.781)

Yeah.

It was long way to do it short. You accomplished both. You accomplished both. So I agree with the retirement piece and I think I always look like five to 10 years, right? But you're right. That retirement piece is so important. I have had doctors that have come in maybe later in their career with Dental A Team and they're like, gosh, Dental A Team, I'm ready for you and guess what? I'm tired.

And it's like, okay, well, where are we? So now we're like trying to pick up steam towards the end of their career when they didn't see that coming. Or they had an injury or I had a doctor this year that had some really big health scares this year and he wasn't ready. He's like, I know that he's not ready to retire and he wasn't ready to start thinking about it, but he had to. He was forced into that space and that's so much harder and so much scarier than it needs to be.

if we just plan and project a little bit further. So it opened me up too. It opened my eyes up like, gosh dang it, we've got to be on this no matter what. Always be prepared to sell whether you think you're going to sell or not. Always have a business that's sellable and always have a plan for that retirement piece. I think on our side, the Dental A Team comes in for both. We come in for that strategy. We're like, gosh, what do we need that to look like? Where do we want to go? How are we going to get there? How can we?

build this out together? And then how do we get everything systematized to where it needs to be? Get your money coming in. So our side is like, how do we get the money? How do we get the profit? How do get you to be more profitable? How do we get EBITDA up? How do we do these pieces strategically to ensure that you're prepped and ready to go? And then on the financial advisor standpoint, they're going to look at what does it take to live your current lifestyle? Is that current lifestyle what you're going to want to sustain forever?

The Dental A Team (10:28.948)

based on the rates of inflation, what will this look like year over year over year for how long, like Britt said, do we think you're going to, you know, what's your life expectancy, your projection, they're gonna go, they're gonna go as long as they think that they can for you. And then it tells us how much do we need to be pushing into your retirement all the time to get there. So the financial advisor helps with the logistics, they have these really cool, freaking systems behind the scenes that they just.

plug a couple numbers into and it tells this projection and I'm like, are you freaking kidding me? That is so beautiful. But that it helps us on our side to be able to pair those pieces together and say, okay, I had a doctor this year that he's like, Tiff, like, I'm getting tired and I need to speed this up. And I was like, well, get your financial advisor on the phone. Like, let's figure this out. And he's got to pump $12,000 a month into his retirement.

Britt (11:20.791)

Mm-hmm.

The Dental A Team (11:20.801)

That's into his retirement in order to be ready for the projection he just gave his FA, his financial advisor. That's a huge chunk. Like that's a drastic change from what we were doing before. I think we doubled it. He was at like six or eight thousand, depending on what the month looked like. We doubled that. So having those projections early on, that's the strategic wealth management, right? Like wealth management is current. Like what do want your life to look like now?

And what do want your life to look like for the rest of your life? Wealth management is let us help you bring the money in. Let us help you get the money, get profitable or be profitable where you're at, whether you use it only to or not. Like get profitable within your business and then manage where that's going thereafter. Investments and CDs or IRAs or whatever it is that you've got your retirement, your 401k is like.

Britt (12:02.059)

Mm-hmm.

The Dental A Team (12:14.763)

What do you have going on on the other side that's generating income off of that income so that you can keep up with the inflation? You can keep up with all of the pieces that you want your life to look like and combining those, I think is the superhuman power. And with the right systems in place, the right training, the right people behind the scenes, a lot of practices are experiencing turnover, right? The last, I'd say five years, we've seen more turnover than we ever had before. People are like,

I'm in dentistry for 17 years or I've been at this practice for 22 years. Like we don't see that anymore. But with those systems in place, that doesn't have to affect the profitability. And I think before we were seeing that that was affecting the profitability because we were losing people.

and we were so dependent on the people and their knowledge, it was negatively impacting your strategic wealth management. Like it was negatively impacting the projection for your retirement. And one thing that we've learned in the dental field in general is to not be people dependent. So we're taking those systems and those pieces and able to duplicate them, teaching you guys the business side that you've never learned and making sure that all of that combined

is strategizing, like you said, Brit, for forever. Like, this is not just for today or just till retirement, this is for forever. So I love it and I love this topic because I just, I want everyone to understand how important it is to have those conversations and like you said, work backwards. We kind of work, I think a lot of us work from like, here I am, where do I want to go? And so we think how do we stack on top of

where I'm at, but you're saying like flip that board upside down and say, I'm going here. How do I, how can I work backwards from where I want to be and strategize? And it's brilliant. Yeah.

Britt (14:08.031)

and you can always add more on, right? But that's like, that's where I need to be. So no matter what, whatever we work towards, that's where we've got to hit. And it just also helps you to make smart decisions about your practice. I think that most doctors would agree. Every doctor has a sell the practice day from time to time where they're just like, can't do this anymore. It's like, it's okay.

The Dental A Team (14:27.521)

Yeah. Today is the day. Yeah.

Britt (14:30.455)

Wait a minute, it'll be fine. But in those moments, especially as you get more mature in your career, I just talked to recently a potential client and he's like, well, physically and all this, do I sell or if I'm going to stay, then I want to bring in an associate to not have to work as many days. I'm like,

we can absolutely help you if that's the direction you want to go. You need to know first what you need, right? Like that's, you need to know the need first. And then, cause chatting with you, I'm like, you, it sounds like you're ready to go like live the retired life, right? And enjoy your family and do all of those things, which if you can, then great, why not? Then you know, you can make that choice confidently and be prepared for it. But until you talk to someone for financial to see what's your plan for retirement.

The Dental A Team (14:57.741)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (15:05.239)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (15:10.466)

Hmm.

Britt (15:19.191)

What assets do you have? What does that look like? I'm like, I don't, can't, one, I can't advise you even on anything. Ultimately you're a choice, but I'm like, even knowing what direction to go, that's what you need to do first. And then from there.

Make the decision and you want to stay in there like then absolutely come to us. We'll help you grow. We'll help you bring out an associate. We'll help you make it something that's also going to be valuable to sell while keeping in mind like yeah, don't go if you don't need a bunch of equipment, don't go buy a bunch because maybe only need it for like five, 10 years and then you're going to be selling it. So it just helps us to make smarter decisions.

The Dental A Team (15:47.19)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (15:51.226)

I totally agree. I totally agree. And I think at the beginning about you said like, you can add to it, like, don't think that because you set this, this star, this ladder, it's like, I have to do these things. It's not that rigid. It's flexible. The money side, the financial investing, the retirement. Yeah, for sure. Like your financial advisor is going to get you set up and he or she is going to take you the way like find, find someone you trust, find someone who knows the information, let them help you.

Britt (15:57.995)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (16:20.341)

Also work closely. I always say work with your financial advisor and your CPA super closely. And even if they can communicate, it's really smart because your CPA is going to have a like right now mindset and your financial advisor's got to what's later look like and you've got to combine those. adding in your consultant piece is huge. I have a lot of clients that I'm talking to, both of them with them or getting information from my client that they're sending. Cause I'm like, cool, if your financial advisor wants us to do that.

This is how we're going to move that needle. Cool. Your CPA wants you to be prepped for those taxes. This is how we move that needle. Let's get this bucket going over here. Cause they're going to have some of those like obscure plans. They're like, do you need to do this? And then they're like, okay, have fun. Good luck. And then they're gone. But then you're sitting there like, okay, cool. But how am I supposed to get five, 10 % more profitable this year than I was last year? I can't just wish it into existence. So there's a few pieces there. It's ever changing.

Britt (17:19.297)

Mm-hmm.

The Dental A Team (17:19.587)

just like the world of finance is ever changing. So we can add to and we can subtract at any point and change the trajectory. That's the really fun part of the black and white side of watching your practice by numbers standpoint. We see those trends and we're like, great, let's move it a centimeter, right? Let's move it a millimeter and completely change it. I always tell doctors, if you torqued that implant,

a millimeter too short or a millimeter too far, right? You're gonna get a drastically different situation than if it was spot on. If you're like, I don't know if this is spot on, you go a little bit further, that millimeter counts. So thinking that we have to rehaul everything is like saying we have to rehaul the implant. No, you just need to torque it, right? So then we just gotta, we just gotta torque it another millimeter to see or back it off the millimeter to see where we're gonna take it next. And I do have a practice that,

The doctor when we first started was like, in 10 years I wanted to look like this, in five years I to look like this. Well, in three years, we're at three year mark, he's like, I actually don't want those things, Tiff. Cool, cool, that changes it then, right? That changes the trajectory. He's like, I actually want that money then to go to this. It's the same money, but we're putting it on a different focus because his agenda has lined up differently. The things he thought he wanted for his family three years ago.

are very different than the things he's realized he wants for his family now. So setting those sites, but knowing that they don't have to be rigid, they can be flexible. You've just got to be working with the right people. And Britt, you said it earlier, like making sure you've got somebody on the system side that's really helping implement and strategizing with you and making sure you've got somebody that's strategizing on the financial side as well. Britt, I love your brain. Thank you. Thank you.

Britt (19:06.871)

It's fun to know a good amount about this too, right? So this is like the fun to see like both sides of it. And those, I don't know, it's part of the why, right? We care about our clients, why and their ultimate goal, right? And then as people as well, which I know you do big time. And I feel like that's

The Dental A Team (19:22.734)

I think it's...

Britt (19:23.575)

part of it that I'm like, do you, should be like, how do you want to enjoy life, especially like as you retire, being able to enjoy family and grandkids before you aren't physically as able to do things. So that's part, that's why it's part of it. Cause we care about you as people and we want to make sure that ultimately your business feeds that.

The Dental A Team (19:41.697)

I totally agree. totally agree. Actual items are really easy, you guys, like for us. Actual items are easy for us. For you, you've got to start dreaming if you haven't dreamt yet. And you guys, I think most of us dream and we're like, this is the thing I want. And then we just kind of like sit on it because we don't know that we deserve it yet or that we've made it to that point. I've got a lot of younger doctors. They're like, I don't make enough to talk to a financial advisor. Yes, you do. Everyone at Dental Assistance listening today.

Britt (20:06.547)

Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

The Dental A Team (20:09.808)

Treatment coordinators listening today, you make enough to talk to a financial advisor. Everyone should be talking to someone who can help advise them and managing their money and doctors, you especially like, what is it going to look like? How can I make sure that my business is sellable and that I've got my life and my family's life, my kids lives ready to go, whatever that looks like. So step one, dream bigger, dream further, dream and plan for your retirement as weird as that might sound for.

our new grads, I want you to think about when you want to retire and maybe plan a couple years ahead of that even if you think you want to retire at 65 or 70 or whatever age that might be, maybe plan for retirement when you're super young to 60. Like give yourself that flexibility because why not? Then you've got the last five to 10 years to just be like, no, I'm selling today, right? So plan ahead. So think big, dream big, you guys. Come up with that projection. What's your age range?

Chat with your consultant. If you're already working with Dental A Team, you've got a consultant in your back pocket. Chat with one of us on how to get there. If you don't, give us a chat, like give us a call. We're doing these free assessment calls. and Kira and Shelby and the brains behind these things are huge. So you don't even have to be a client with us to help get some of that assessment going. And then three, make sure you've got a financial advisor and a plan for that strategic wealth management. Britt, is there anything you can think of that...

we've missed or you want to re-highlight or anything before we say goodbye.

Britt (21:36.381)

The only thing is you start somewhere and then that's where you at least do a check-in at least every year with whoever's helping you with their finances to say on track off track anything change awesome keep going so that's only addition is it's not a set it and forget it it's a make sure at least every year minimum you're checking in on where your assets are at

The Dental A Team (21:56.285)

Totally agree. I love it. Thank you, Britt. This has been so much fun. This is one of my favorite conversations as well. So I'm super glad that we got to have this today. You guys, you heard it here first, I hope, or second or 15th. I don't care. I hope something hit today that you're like, yes, I've got to go do that. I want you to prep. I want you to plan. I want you to talk to the right people. Let us know how we can help you reach out to your consultant. If you're already a client, if you're a future client, hop on for a free assessment call.

And if you're just someone who's like, I need an assessment, hop on a free assessment call, we're here for it. But reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com with questions, with comments, with feedback. We want to hear from you guys and we want to help you plan for your best and brightest futures. Thank you, Dental A Team listeners, and we'll catch you next time.

View Details

Kiera points listeners to where opportunity for hidden savings or additional value could be lurking in your profit and loss statements.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.942)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today I just want to have a really fun podcast with you. I want to talk about some possible ways of hidden value, how to trim some fat in the practice. think these are just some fun things that I don't think we often think about that really can actually add pennies, dollars, Benjamins, thousands into your pocket with minimal effort. As always, thanks for being a part of our Dental A Team podcast family. I adore you.

I appreciate you. If I was with you right now, I'd be telling you, you're doing way better than you think you are. And my mission is to positively impact the world in the greatest way possible. Life is my passion. Dentistry is my platform. And I am here to infuse you with positivity of tactical tips of sharing how you can be living your best life. Life, the life you were destined and meant to live and doing it through dentistry because I'm obsessed with helping you guys give back to people, share with people and become who you were ultimately meant to be. With that, you're loving this podcast,

Go leave us the review, share this with someone because for me to get this into the hands of every single person, every single dentist in this world, I need your help to do it. So please truly go share, share this with someone. And today let's start talking about ways that we can trim the fat, find the hidden value of just little things that we might not be thinking about. My husband does this. He is the guru in our family of looking at our expenses and figuring out what things are we not doing.

of just little tiny things of hidden fees. So you can do this in your personal life and your professional life. And something my husband and I were talking about is we don't have this on a set cadence, right? And so how can we set this on a set cadence? So if you're using a software, our company uses ClickUp. I would not recommend it for most practices. I usually recommend Asana or Trello or Basecamp. Asana is my go-to. Monday.com is another great one. Those are all really good ones, but put this as a reoccurring task. So every year we actually look at these things. And then I do set as a reoccurring task.

every single quarter. My bookkeepers know, so email your CPAs today. Hello, CPAs. Super excited to talk to you. I need you to send me a detailed P &L at the end of every single quarter. I set up myself reminders in my inbox. You can set it up in your project management software, whatever it is, but have a reminder to review your P &L. And I think review your business P &L and your life P &L every quarter. And if you go through every single line item, you will find little areas, but a few things for you today of hidden costs, hidden value, things that you could be doing.

Kiera Dent (02:20.834)

Number one is your insurance. My husband, he's a pharmacist and we have disability insurance, we have life insurance, and there will actually come a point in time, potentially, that you actually no longer need this insurance. For dentists, I'm strongly advocating for you to always carry your disability insurance in case anything happens. I've had so many dentists actually have fluke weird things, like I had a dentist in their 30s have a stroke, I had a dentist in their 20s get cancer, I had a dentist who had tingling in their hands and they actually have

something in their neck, you never know when something weird is going to happen in dentistry. Your hands are really what are going to be able to make it to where you can be successful in your career. but assessing it. I know for us with our our insurance, it's usually we do a lot of research when we buy our cars or our house or our practice or we're getting out of school, but then we never go and reassess it. And so check to make sure are we really like are we paying more than we should be?

Is there a better carrier out there? Are there new people on the market that could be better for us? And just go check instead of just paying that premium every single month, go and look, can we trim the fat? And I know this sounds annoying and you're like, gosh, I don't want to do it. Delegate this to someone, have your managers look into it for you if you want to. But the point is look to make sure that we're not just passively paying our insurances, but we're actively looking to make sure, are we getting the best rates? Are we getting the best fees? Could we negotiate our lease and our rent? That's another zone.

all the different areas that we've negotiated, let's make sure we're looking back. And I think insurance is a really, really big one. The next one is internet. Internet goes up on us, cable, our subscriptions. Can we get those discounted? I know a lot of times with insurance, give you a promo, or excuse me, internet. They give you a promo for a while. And can you cancel it and restart it? Please do it on a weekend. We do not want it disrupting patient care. But can we cancel it and actually get reduced fees? And I know it doesn't sound that great. It's like, OK, well, maybe I could get 50 bucks.

Well, 50 bucks over the course of a year is 600 bucks. And so if we look at that, I know 600, you're like, but Kiera, we're doing like 4 million. I agree with you, but $600. It's the principle of continually looking for where can we trim the fat? So we're always staying at our peak because we never know. And so we're always looking at these things, trimming little hidden costs. These things add up. So let's say we're able to save $200 on our insurance. We're able to save 50 bucks on our internet. Then the next one is credit card fees.

Kiera Dent (04:44.834)

I'm going to be a huge advocate for you looking at credit card fees and not just being like with the person that you started the practice with. Credit cards are notorious for tacking on these extra additional fees that you don't even know what they are to where you're paying 7 % on your credit card transactions. That's ludicrous. There's companies like Bestcard or Moolah. can definitely, we have affiliate relationships with them that we can connect you with and you can get the best prices and promos with them. You get terminals for free. You should be paying...

two to three percent max on your credit card transactions. And so when you look at that, paying an additional four percent on credit card transaction fees, that is so much. So let's say you're a four million dollar practice. OK, let's say that you let's actually I'll just do two million. OK, let's come down a little bit. So a two million dollar practice, you transact all of that and we're paying an extra four percent. That's an additional eighty thousand dollars just because we weren't wise stewards over and like looking to trim the fat.

looking at these items. This is where we look at it. Every single month my credit card company sends it to me. You can send it to your manager. Do the quick math. How much was it? How much of that percentage did they take out? Because it doesn't seem like a lot. But what is the true percentage? For me, I try to average 2.7 to 2.9 because we don't take actual cards. You guys actually do a lot of actual cards in the practice. I know you have a lot of cards on file. What can we do to get that reduced down? And there's also companies like Dental Merchant Advocate that can actually go through your credit card statement, see how they can save.

They do a 50-50 split so they take 50 % of the savings and you get 50 % of the savings So it's a great company They can reduce it for you But also go and look at these other companies and see could you also reduce your own fees for you? So look at that look to see look at the credit card fees. What are you being charged for me? I also have a bunch of credit cards that charge me annual fees Could we be getting the same points or better points from other credit cards? Of course talk to your financial advisors because I know opening and closing credits can actually hurt you and help you depending upon how you do it

But are there other ones that you could be doing that would actually give you better rates, give you better return? Being just intentional with the credit cards. We put so much money on our company cards. Are we still in the best credit card for our business and for the savings that we could be getting? Or are they charging us? Again, we don't fall in love with it. Things change. So let's make sure we're always being so strong. Same thing with your labs. Are there better labs out there? Are there better supplies out there that we could go and work with? I know that there's some great companies like Ordo, O-R-D-O.

Kiera Dent (07:09.114)

They can actually get you reductions on your supplies. I know you love your suppliers and I'm not here to say not to, but there are better ways to do it you can actually save a lot of money. There's buying groups. If you want some help, email me Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. You can literally work with your same exact suppliers, but you can save exponent. Like we're talking thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars. To me, these are the simple things that put money in your pocket. And like we said, $200 on our insurance, 50 bucks here, 80,000 with our credit card fees.

with our supplies, a lot of offices are saving hundreds of thousands. Like I am telling you in the hundred thousand right there, we're up to 180,000. If we could save a hundred thousand on our supplies labs, getting a reduction without losing it. You could bring in a 3d printer and not have to pay for those night guards or orthotrains. Now, of course, make sure that you are trained and you're not hurting patients to try and cut costs, but there's a lot of things we can order. A lot of things. I have offices that order things on Amazon or different suppliers, but check to make sure that the fees haven't gone up.

because they do everything goes up and let's make sure that we're actually paying the best fees. And are there other people coming to the game that could be possibly just as good if not better. So looking for that. Other things, cell phones. I know this sounds silly. I've been with Verizon. my gosh. For like 20 years. I kid you not. And there's another cell phone company called Visible that's new to the market and they're $25 a month for unlimited data. I sound like I'm on a Visible commercial. $25 a month.

unlimited data, unlimited call, text, everything. And I watched for a while to see, they actually really good? My family has been on them $25 a month for a cell phone. And yet most of us are probably paying like 70, $80 a month for our cell phones. That's a simple switch. It runs off the Verizon towers. The only con is if you go out of the country, you do need to have a SIM card there. That's the only con they don't have international currently. I guarantee you they'll get there. But $25 just for cell phones. That's like,

right there, let's just do another 50 bucks for us. So we've got 200 for our insurance, 50 for our internet, 50 for our phones. That's $300 right there. That's 3,600 bucks that you like just in those simple savings, not to mention the 80,000 on credit card fees and the 100,000 on supplies. But this is where we trim the fat. This is where we're able to find little simple things. This is where we're good stewards. we can pay. I think it's always funny. I don't think about like gauze. If gauze is the exact same, but I could pay

Kiera Dent (09:35.962)

$200 for gauze or I could pay 20 bucks for gauze. It's exact same, same packaging, same gauze, everything. It's not like the string gauze. Don't worry. I know that there are some better products out there that we pay for. But why on earth would I be paying 10 times the amount just because I wasn't willing to go and do some research? Now doctors, your time is very valuable. So I'm not going to say that these are necessary things for you to go do, but for your office managers, have them go look into this, have them do the research for this, but be intentional. I mean, you're spending money. Why don't we make sure we're spending it?

in the most effective way possible and keeping the most amount of money in your book and your in your pocket. This is how we keep profitability. This is how you're able to afford consultants. This is how you're able to afford coaches is how you're able to afford CBCT. This is how you're able to afford the CE and why not be smart with our finances. And I want to tell you, I believe that the best doctors that are good owners are the ones who fall in love with their numbers, who have the discipline of looking annually, quarterly.

They do a full financial review, a whole assessment. Take a look at these items. Look to see the hidden. We look at them like, we just don't feel like we have enough money. Well, I know $3,600 doesn't feel like a lot, but guess what? Every single month, that was $300. What if we could put those $300 to a team member and be able to hire somebody who has higher value? We maybe can't afford that hygienist because they want $47 and we're only paying 45.

Well, that $2 per hour might just got made up for because we just cut down our internet bill by just making one phone call. These little areas are where you become incredible practices. And so I just want to give you some ideas to get your brain stirring. If you have some good ideas of where you've trimmed the fat or some great resources or some great suppliers or some great dental pieces that you've been able to find, let me know, email me Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. I think it's always so fun to share with you the best ideas. That's why I love the podcast. That's why I love to consult because I love to

Share. love to bring our doctors together. I love our community that shares the best resources, how to get things cheaper, how to save money, looking for different ways to do it. Because if we can be better, we can hire better people. We can hire more team members and have them work in great places. We can grow your practice exponentially because we trimmed the fat in the areas that really it didn't make a difference. Our internet is same internet. We're just paying cheaper.

Kiera Dent (11:53.282)

Our cell phone could potentially be better or worse. If you hate visible, I'm really sorry, but take a look at it. Like that's saving. You could put your whole family on it. Think of now, instead of just you, you've got four or five, six people saving 50 bucks a month. Well, now that's instantly a lot better deal than just yourself. So look at all these different things. Could you get like a Spotify plan and share it with family members and everybody's paying less? Could we get a Netflix family plan and be doing less? All those dollars, it seems like $2 here, $10 there, $5.

When you add it up every single month, I look at my credit card bill and it's usually for 20, 30, $40 Amazon purchases that add up to 2000, 4,000, 5,000, 6,000, 10,000 of $20 transactions. So why not get the $20 savings, the $30 savings, the $50 savings, more money back to you on things you're already using. You're just being smart with it. So like I said, if you've got other great ideas, send them on over. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com be smart.

Save money, get cash in your pocket. And if we can help you in any way, reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

View Details

Tiff and Britt provide a play-by-play of what one practice did over the course of one year to go from producing $1.2 million to $2.5 million. This includes having the right systems in place and the right people in the right seats.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:02.09)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be here with you today. We are doing something really exciting. I have Brilliant Brain Britt with me today. I'll say that three times fast. I love it. It's sticking today. It's sticking. But I'm super excited to do this podcast today. This is something we don't always do. We're just trying to mix it in for you guys so that you guys can really feel a connection to other

Britt (00:14.852)

Thanks.

The Dental A Team (00:30.767)

human beings. That is something that Dental A Team works really hard on and this year in 2025, it's a really, really major focus for us is to have all of our doctors that are a part of Dental A Team to have other doctors and other practice owners and leadership people to communicate with because I think sometimes we feel like we're on our own little island in dentistry and there's a dentist on every corner in most cities and states but we still feel like we're alone.

We really want you to have that connection piece that's really big for us this year and always has been. And Britt and I, Britt, I have you here today. We are going to talk about a practice transformation. This is a client that I think no names used, right? But I think this is a client situation and the statistics is something that we see a lot. This is a very common practice that came into the Dental A Team and then...

Britt (01:13.221)

you

The Dental A Team (01:24.237)

Honestly, the results that we saw were pretty common as well. Like this isn't something that I think preface this with that everyone gets the same results every time. It definitely takes a lot of parts and pieces moving together at the same time to make sure that the results are there. Everyone sees results, but.

really looking at the transformation of this practice and I want you guys out there to think how can I see myself in their shoes? How can I see myself in what they're doing or what they're looking for? It's gonna be really huge today. So Brett, I'm excited for this one. How are you doing? How excited are you? What's life like over there?

Britt (02:02.821)

Good, you know, it's always fun. just think of right recently we wrote a bunch of cards to clients and it's just a fun time to sit back and think about, oh, look at, look at all that we've accomplished together. Look at how much fun it is. So I kind of feel like that's like this transformation day is talking about, oh my gosh, it's so fun to think about all that can be done and all the fun things we've done with our clients.

The Dental A Team (02:23.888)

I totally agree. And those cards were so much fun to hear, right? I love thinking about, I was thinking about them the other day. I'm like, gosh, I can't wait for them to like, I'm sure you guys have gotten them now and opened them and I've heard from a few clients, but I love bragging on results and I love bragging on people. And one of the biggest pieces that we work really hard with our clients on, I've said this a million times, but it's making sure that the business is working for them and not just them working for the business. a lot of...

clients, a lot of potential clients, know, the clients that are coming in and doing practice assessments with you guys and looking at what could my life with the Dental A Team look like and what should I be focusing on within that practice assessment. Our clients that we have now, future clients that will come and a lot of you guys out there listening are really looking for very similar things. And the practice we're going to talk about today, that transformation today is, gosh, this is somebody who we worked just.

so close with and we love them to pieces and in 12 months, so you guys know, we were able to take this practice, this practice and their consultant, they went from 1.2 million and their practice they were doing okay, right? 1.2 million is not bad, but they were kind of tired, they were exhausted, they had two young kids at home that they wanted to be at home with and they were working a lot of hours, they were trying to implement the systems, trying to get everything going.

and just putting a lot of work into this practice to really get it to where they wanted it. What they wanted, you know, was more income. They wanted more profitability. They wanted to be able to take some time off clinically to be with their family and build a life outside of the practice. And I think a lot of the people we talk to, that's the space you guys are in too. Whether you've got littles at home, graduated kids at home, no kids at all, future family, no future family, like no matter what.

I think everybody's in the business of getting time back and wherever you're applying that to doesn't matter. It's just not being handcuffed to what you're doing every day, but what you're doing every day to allow you to have the life of your dreams. And that's where this practice was. And within 12 months, I want you guys to know the pieces that we're going to talk about today.

The Dental A Team (04:33.842)

are just some implementables that we worked on with this practice that their consultant worked really hard with them to implement. Went from $1.2 million in their practice in 12 months to a $2.5 million practice. So they doubled their production and their collections. Collections stayed right in line with their production. You guys, that's a piece I want you to understand and know. Your production can double, but your collections also has to double. You've got to make sure you're staying in that 98 % or higher.

They did that. So their overhead dropped as well significantly. They went down about 10 % in that year. So they increased their production collections, decreased their overhead by about 10 % and their hygiene, which we push, you know, I really want to see your hygiene to three to 3.3 times their rate of pay. This practice is hygiene went above and beyond and we're doing about five times their rate of pay. So there's probably, you know, some fee for services in their low PPO, you know, signups. They've got only a couple PPO's and

high reimbursements, but I want those are all a part of those that puzzle you guys. So I really want to dive into how they did this and Britt just objectively, if you have a practice that comes in, you're doing a lot of these practice assessments yourself as well with the with the team, but a practice comes in and they're like, gosh, we're doing fine. Like we're decent. We're at one point two million. I've got two kids at home. I'm tired. I'm working a lot. I want to be home more like

Objectively, what are some of the first questions that you ask or you're looking for to know where to take this practice with their systems?

Britt (06:07.159)

I think systems and people, right? I think that's two things within even this case is looking at what systems do we have running and what people do we have helping to run things that aren't just doctor. I think it's common, That sometimes, not sometimes, often we will have doctors come in and they're doing a lot of things on the business side or keeping track of front desk. They're doing a lot of pieces that aren't the most productive thing for them to be doing.

The Dental A Team (06:22.77)

you

The Dental A Team (06:34.897)

Yeah.

Britt (06:36.365)

And so looking for what are those opportunities of either gaps in systems to where we just don't have a plan for things, we need to shore some things up and if we're a little bit more intentional about what we're doing every day, we're gonna get better results. And then number two is how can we get the right people in the right seats that allows everybody to function at the height of their ability. And when we've got those two things like rockin' and rollin' with this transformation that we have.

The Dental A Team (06:58.215)

Yeah.

Britt (07:05.445)

it just runs smoother and especially for doctors, right? Then you've got a little more time and you can focus most of your energy on patient care and doing some of those bigger cases, you know, having even just more mental space and exams to talk about optional things, to the opportunity to do more work. And so that's kind of what I'm looking for. like, all right.

The Dental A Team (07:20.381)

Mm-hmm.

Britt (07:26.051)

What systems and what people do we have? How much is that doctor into and what can we start to transform on both sides to make the most of everybody?

The Dental A Team (07:36.628)

Yeah, it was just brilliant because this practice in specific that we're talking about, those were the pieces they were lacking. They didn't have an office manager or a leadership team. They didn't have a team. They were passing things off to you. They weren't delegating things. So this doctor comes in and two young children, and wanting more time at home, exhausted and not able to push the production and the collections in the ways that they wanted to.

you look at it and you're like, yeah, because you're doing everything. So if we're holding all of the cards ourselves, whether we're the manager or the doctor or whoever it might be, if we're holding all the cards, I think of it as like, you're trying to hit each one of those pieces and your capacity is only so big. So what happens is

You're managing the growth. You're also performing the dentistry. You're making sure that the patients are happy. You're making sure the team's happy. You've got your hands in so many different pots that you've only got a little bit. You've only got so much of you, right? There's only so much of you. The capacity is only so large. You only have so much to divvy out. And so when you have so many spaces that you're putting little pieces of yourself into, not to mention the things at home, you're actually decreasing the value.

of what each of those spaces is getting of you. Because you can only give so much and that's what spreading yourself then is, right? You can only give so much of yourself to each one of those spaces. So if you were to take a step back and think, well, what parts of this am I doing that someone else could do if I had the right person in place? And I think that's the first space that they really worked on with this client was taking that step back and saying, if we had a manager in place,

What are the things you're doing today that a manager could take off of your plate? That just alone, I think the concept and idea of having someone to delegate, that alone frees up so much space in your brain because it gives you a way out, it gives you an option and some clarity. So they worked really hard on this with this practice to really look at if we could hire the right manager, what would we delegate to him or her?

The Dental A Team (09:44.211)

And then they did it. And I know this consultant very, very closely worked very closely with this practice in the hiring, as well as all of us consultants do. We definitely help hire. We've definitely done interviews. I've done a million interviews for a few practices that really to make sure we're getting the right person, but they worked really hard on the hiring the right person and then training that person to take a lot of those tasks on. So Britt, when you have that office manager, cause you're saying like the people and the systems, right?

So when we have that office manager in place that can take some of those pieces from the doctor, what does that open up for the doctor capacity and space wise? then what can, know, I told you a lot of our clients and a lot of our listeners are in the same place. The financials might be different, the numbers might be different, but the problems are usually the same. So if we can get that right person or train the person who's there now to do some of those pieces, what has that been allowing? What did it allow this doctor to do with their lives?

Britt (10:41.283)

Yeah, I think like I said, it's a mental capacity one, even like chair time, right, might open some of it up for you. Family time, it opens some of it up for you. And the thing is not only are you passing things off to office manager, you are also, that office manager can shore up things that we know need to be done that haven't been happening, right? So AR, we need stronger systems or we've had them, but nobody's following them.

The Dental A Team (11:03.797)

Mm-hmm.

Britt (11:07.883)

office manager can take on a lot of those pieces to help drive us forward as well.

The Dental A Team (11:12.948)

For sure, I totally agree. So I think some of the pieces that this doctor specifically had right were not the right, maybe not even the right systems for the right people. Because I think a lot of you guys listening can see yourselves in this doctor's shoes. Like I said, the numbers might be different. The problems are usually about the same. They just might be on a different level. So part of that and what Britt, you just said too, is really looking at

where are we spreading ourselves then? What are the important pieces that only you can do, doctor? So one piece that we took with this practice alone was to say, dentist, what can you do? You are the only one who can perform the dentistry right now. We don't have an associate, we don't have anybody else, which if there's an associate with a whole other world of problems, we're going to keep it to you. What are the things that only you can do? And you are the one who's providing the dentistry. You're the clinician.

Only you can do the exams, only you can recommend treatment, only you can perform the treatment, only you can run your business from these standpoints. So how do we get those pieces on you? And then how do we divvy out the other pieces? Typically, the stresses are going to come from like Britt just said, and I'm sure this practice had this as well, the AR, right? The accounts receivable, the collections, is the money coming in? And do we have a point person?

appointed to watch those pieces. So that maybe your office manager, it may be a billing person, but ultimately your office manager is going to watch all of those pieces. So what we did with this practice, their consultant strategized with them and built a plan for that office manager. And I know I've done this with a lot of clients as well. What is the training plan going to look like? Who are we hiring? So what's the avatar of the human being that we need? What are the things that we need that human being to perform?

How are we going to strategically train them to take these pieces on from you? And then we trajectory, we have this trajectory and we project when can you say, yes, these things are off my plate? So is it six months from now? Is it nine months from now? What does that look like that these things are off of your plate? And how are we gonna track those trends? So we wouldn't have these stats 1.2 to 2.5, five times the rate of pay and hygiene decreased overhead by 10%.

The Dental A Team (13:22.695)

if we weren't tracking the trends and tracking how the systems were being implemented and put into place. So space one, you guys, they hired an office manager and this office manager came in and freaking killed it. This office manager came in, trained with the consultant, trained with the doctor, the doctor delegated, the doctor built the trust with the office manager and the office manager increased the collections through the AR as well. AR and like over the counters, all of those pieces.

They made sure that they were tracking the trends, they were attacking the systems that needed to be attacked, and they kept building. The momentum started and they kept going. On the other side of that, the doctor, right? Talk, maybe speak a little bit to that capacity side of the doctor. You mentioned, you know, mental capacity. If you're doing all these pieces, your exams, like, what does that look like now? We've removed that obstacle of no office manager. Now what can we implement and expect from the doctor?

Britt (14:20.931)

Yeah, so from the doctor, just that mental space, right? We all know when we're really busy, someone comes to you, you need an answer, whether it's a patient, whether it's a team member. Sometimes you just end up making decisions on things that.

if you weren't so rushed, like you would have maybe gotten a little more information and made a different decision that might have been a better decision in that moment. So I think that's part of it. think treatment planning, one where they just don't feel that they're so frazzled going from thing to thing where.

The Dental A Team (14:42.901)

Yeah.

Britt (14:51.747)

not only they're taking care of patients, they're trying to tackle some business things and take care of things in the midst of the day. And so when we're able to even just compartmentalize that, pass some things off, make specific time to get things done, they can be very patient present, which I think one, not only helps them as a doctor, also helps them to hold their clinical team accountable because they should be preheating and helping the doctor and talking about things. Sometimes when we're exhausted, it's like,

The Dental A Team (15:11.212)

Yeah.

Britt (15:18.637)

I don't even want to tackle that conversation right now. I'll just do it right like that's human nature. I think everybody does it in those moments where you're just exhausted and stressed. So when we can remove that from doctor

you can show up for that clinical team, them little more accountable and have a little bit more mental energy to talk to patients about things or maybe even improve on how we're presenting things or how we're handing things off, not only for a doctor, but the entire clinical team to function a little bit better. And I think with office manager, right? And with this client, one of the things...

on top of taking delegated tasks was someone very dedicated to schedule, scheduling well, making sure that patients are getting in there. And so that alone was a huge piece and switching and getting that production, that revenue to grow is scheduling is huge and keeping it full and not having piddly days where you work really hard and don't make anything.

The Dental A Team (15:59.065)

See you.

The Dental A Team (16:07.864)

I totally agree. And one piece that they, I know that the consultant talked about too on that same standpoint, right? We optimized how the team is doing everything and figured out the systems that needed to be there. But part of those systems were the meetings.

making sure that there was a great cadence, that the communication was there. And even, even doctors who are listening now, they're like, I can kind of see myself there, but I have an office manager and he or she is fantastic. And that's great. And you're still looking for that space in that area of growth. could be as simple as the communication. How is, how is your communication with the team? How are you communicating with your office manager? This specific practice was doing weekly meetings with the office manager and really got that cadence down and really got a good momentum on the meetings because

Now they're talking about the goals. So when we're, and we've talked about this, you guys, there's a couple podcasts recently you can listen to. When you're looking at the goals and you're constantly looking at where are we trying to go and where have we been, what's that gap in between, you're able to then strategize and say together, what do we need to do to get to that point? Because you're not going to say, you're not going to call me and be like, Tiff, we went from 1.5 or 1.2 to 2.5 and I just hired an office manager. That's all it took. It might.

That'd be super freaking cool, right? But likely there's a lot more work that goes into it. So hiring the right person, having right people, right seat, having the training and having the systems and then having the strategy, which is something that I think a lot of doctors need help working through. actually had someone who's really close to me the other day. He's like, I don't understand like this, like a successful doctor, like you're not, they're not your ideal client. And like, yeah, they are.

Britt (17:56.567)

Yeah

The Dental A Team (17:56.837)

I mean, yeah, they are. He's like, well, they've already done it. I'm like, yeah, but sometimes they can't see through the weeds of where they want to go. And they see this vision and they see, okay, I've gotten this far. Is this my cap? Because I really think it'd be cool to do X, Y, and Z. Or I just want a little bit more. And sometimes it's easy to the want, to have that want and have that desire. But the strategy piece...

is a little bit more difficult and sometimes it takes that third party perspective. So this client, making sure that they worked really closely with their consultant on what that strategy needed to look like, the team training, the delegation, the meeting, setting the right cadence for their calls, making sure that they showed up every single time that they were in it to win it. They did the hard things. They did the implementations. We can only do so much. You can't implement it and do it for you. But making sure that they were doing it. This doctor put in a lot of work.

But on the flip side, they got time back with their kids, they decreased overhead, which increased their profitability, increased their profitability with production and collections, right? And increased just their hygiene rate of pay, five times their rate of pay. Like that's huge, that's above and beyond what we push for. But they did those hard things, right? People write seat, write training, write strategy and systems, and making sure you know where you're trying to go.

Britt (19:15.107)

Mm-hmm.

The Dental A Team (19:20.377)

and doing those hard things. And Britt, I think my big question to you is can anyone do this? Like even if these aren't your exact numbers, right? You can see yourself somewhere in this story. Can anyone have these results?

Britt (19:35.333)

I think anyone can definitely get the improvement, right? And there's gonna be some fat, welcome to the realist. Anyone can do it grow. I don't care what space you're in. I don't care what's going on within the practice right now. Everyone has the opportunity to grow and comes in at a point where it's like, all right, you might've been doing really well, great. How do we take you to the next level and grow you even more?

The Dental A Team (19:42.159)

Hahaha

The Dental A Team (19:58.168)

Okay.

Britt (19:59.109)

And there are some where it's like, hey, I'm functioning, right? Decent, but I can't figure out how to get beyond that. And we've got the space, we've got the potential and they can get those results, right? So anyone can make the change and get results. And I think with this factor, it's not just hiring an office manager like you said.

There's also accountability, because sometimes it takes more than one, honestly, to find the right person. So you've got to have the accountability along with it while delegating things and getting someone who can really own that role. And you can do it. You can get the results that you want and get your practice functioning to its full capacity no matter who you are. Just by taking a little bit help and guidance on the way.

The Dental A Team (20:21.296)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (20:37.213)

Totally agree. Yeah, which it should. Like I told this friend who made that comment to me, was like, gosh dang it, do you know how many business ideas I have had in the last five, 10 years of my life that have never gone anywhere because I didn't have somebody sitting behind me. Like, did you do that thing? Did you do that thing? Because I'm like, I don't know what the next step would be. Like if I'm truly going to do something and go to the next level, no matter what it is, if it's my wealth management, if it's...

Britt (20:53.784)

huh.

The Dental A Team (21:04.476)

He's doing something within Dental A Team on a course, right? Creating something new. I can have the idea, but sometimes I need that coach behind me, even if it's just Britt on my own team being like, your next step is, and sometimes we just need that. And I think that's what this doctor came in, like exhausted, knew what he wanted, but just was like spread too thin. It's too hard to fix it all. We need that third party perspective sometimes to be like, no, this is, this is where we start.

If we start right here, clear that up, it leaves space to now double up and apply that space that you've got towards this thing to move that needle, but we've got to free up that space first. So 100 % think you're right.

Britt (21:44.486)

and even just coming up with the ideas, right? Or like some, can think of one client in particular where it's like, I'm maxed on space, which absolutely they were, they were maxed on space and like doing really well. We were able to grow a little bit in that space. And I remember from the beginning, we started working together and I'm like, okay, like.

The Dental A Team (21:53.872)

Mm-hmm.

Britt (22:04.771)

What, right? Big picture. What's your plan? Right? Are you wanting to just maximize this space? Are you wanting to try and get into a bigger space for you? Have you thought associate? And it's like, well, I mean, maybe if something came along and like he just moved into a new building that's big enough and he's like, I want to get my associate on coming on so I can start to back days. I'm like, great. We're in a different spot. It's still not my vision, but I'm like, I'm going to find some ideas. So you know what could be if that aligns with your vision and where you want to go.

The Dental A Team (22:07.152)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (22:18.0)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (22:24.582)

Yep.

The Dental A Team (22:34.205)

Totally agree. Totally agree. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. This stuff lights me up and being able to see this kind of growth or the potential in people and for people I think is huge. And that's kind what you're saying. Like your potential could be this, like where do we want to take it is the next question. But this is what I see as possible for you. And I know you guys are doing that a lot on the practice assessment that a lot of, a lot of, hopeful Dental A Team clients or, you know, just getting information people are doing with you guys is

This is where you're at. This is where I think you could go. This is the trajectory. So I think it's really cool. We do a lot of these for all of you guys. Anyone who wants one can call. If you're a Dental A Team client, you know, we work with you guys constantly on making sure that we're setting those goals. So I love it. I think anyone can have this. Like you said, Britt, anyone can have this as long as you'd want it. If this is what you want, or if you want just a little bit of growth, you want whatever, you can have whatever you want. You just have to be willing to do the work and make the changes with.

some guidance and accountability. That's something that we do really well over here. Guidance, accountability, strategy, all of those pieces. So you tell us what you need. If you found yourself in this predicament or you found yourself in this story and you're like, take me to that next level, I'm tired too, or I'm not tired yet, but I'm afraid I'm gonna get there, call us. Send us an email, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com We're always here for you guys. We are so excited to bring you information like this, to bring you the tips and the guidelines.

Britt (23:51.418)

Ha

The Dental A Team (24:01.275)

Brett, thank you for taking this trail with me on this transformation and for your brilliant tips here. think the listeners are lucky to have you. So, Brett, thank you for being here with me today. Awesome.

Britt (24:14.309)

Absolutely. You're the leader. You get to lead all the things here on podcasts and it's always fun to chat with you. I don't know. I always love the yin and yang. I love when people have different ideas. That's probably the fun of consulting is there's a million different ideas and let's talk about it.

The Dental A Team (24:30.162)

I totally agree. I totally agree with that. Well, thank you for the accolades there. All right, guys, five star review below. Let us know that you love this content. If you see yourself in this, if you see yourself out of it, you want more information, reach out to us. You can schedule a free practice assessment with us. You can reach out to us, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com Message us here on all the...

Insta's, the Facebook's, the TikTok's, wherever you can find us, we're there on all of it. So thank you guys so much. Go enjoy your day. Let us know how we can best serve you and we'll catch you next time.

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Kiera lists a series of questions listeners can ask themselves when they’re feeling a lack of passion for their job, life, relationships, and more.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.994)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I hope today is just a great day for you. I hope that you're loving your life. I hope that you are enjoying being in dentistry. And if you're having a bad day, well, let's chalk it up. Hopefully you only have like 10 % of your days that are bad and 90 % of your days that are good. I believe that we are truly in the best profession. We get to change people's lives. We get to do dentistry for people. We get to help people in ways that they didn't know. The smile is the universal hello. And we're able to give people confidence where they didn't feel like they have.

We're able to give people a way to give nutrients to their bodies, a way to communicate with people. And we're doing that through dentistry. So I'm just excited for you and I love it I hope that you do too. And remember, Dental A Team's mission is to positively impact the world in the greatest way possible. And we do that through expert consulting for dentists and teams. And so if this podcast is serving you, blessing you, sharing, you've taken any tip, please share it with somebody. Please help us get this podcast into the hands of every single dentist, every single practice.

Because I believe that that's how we'll be able to achieve our mission of impacting the world in the greatest way possible Today I wanted to dive in to just a fun topic of how to recreate passion I think it's very easy to lose passion. We've been doing things for a long time. It's day in day out We've been working hard. We've been taking on the challenges. We're on opera like smooth operating wherever you are

How do we recreate the passion in our lives? How do we get that passion back? And I can speak from personal experience on this. I lost my passion. I truly did. It was a grind for me. Work was no longer fun for me. And not to say I didn't enjoy my clients, because I always loved my clients. And I love podcasting. So those were still really fun things for me. But overall, being a CEO and

dealing with the struggles, I had some really, really hard things in the business. And I think that's oftentimes when it like kind of sucks the wind out of us and we lose passion. We can lose passion when family life is hard. We can lose passion when it just feels like it's Groundhog's Day. Go in, say hello, do the same thing, leave. And so just trying to help you think of how can we reignite that passion? And I put on here, there's lots of different ways, but today I wanted to dive into the art of play.

Kiera Dent (02:19.59)

and bringing more play into our lives and realizing that I think sometimes we make our jobs and our careers be a one-stop shop for everything we're doing. We literally are sitting here saying like, needs to be my fulfillment piece. needs to be my significance piece. It needs to be my challenge. It needs to be my financial piece. It needs like, it needs to be the space where I feel loved, all these different things. And yet that's a lot to put on one space. I understand that we spend a lot of our time there, but when we lose the passion,

One, I would ask, are there things that we could delegate off? I made a whole list over here of the things that I just don't like doing anymore and where I was getting like into the suck of losing my passion and realized could those things be delegated? Could I hire somebody for those? Could those things get off of my plate successfully? And the answer was yes. So we hired somebody new, we delegated some tasks and I got really, really super clear on what things do I absolutely love doing day in and day out of my life.

I love working with my clients. I love doing numbers. I love the podcast. I love doing events. love speaking. What I don't enjoy doing are like all the little like nuances around all of it. And I've got a team. And so that was just also me realizing I'm in the wrong spot. I've been staying there with my hands in the pot for so long and I need to trust my team and I need to truly empower them that they are brilliant. They're more brilliant than I am and to remove myself. So that's one big passion suck is.

Are we maybe doing things that don't bring us the passion that suck the passion that someone better than us who loves to do it could actually take on. that's step number one. Step number two is what are we doing outside of work and where are our hobbies at? And I remember sitting in therapy trying to figure this out. bought Simon Sinek's like, find your why. My why was there. It just got buried. My why has always been there is to positively impact the world in the greatest way possible. And it's through expert consulting for dentists and teams. Like my why is still there. I still know exactly why I do this. I understand it.

And it just got buried and I forgot. I truly forgot and I believe I've got lots of whys. But that was like the big thing of like, why am I doing this? But I realized I didn't have any passions. I didn't have friends. There was a book I read a while ago called Find Your Tribe. I like it. I will say it's extra churchy. I mean, I am religious and it was a little extra even for myself. So if you can, if you could read past that or if that doesn't bother you, I just want to, I want to give a disclaimer on it. But the book is really good and she talks a lot about

Kiera Dent (04:42.616)

finding five people within a five mile radius of friends. And this is where play comes into play. I did not mean that play on words. So this is where play comes into play and not a play on words. There you go. But what are you doing that's fun? What are you doing as adults for play? Are you into pickleball? Can you get into sports? you, and not that you have to, it's like not kid sports or not hanging out with friends because your kids are that, like, what do do that's soul filling for you?

And I remember sitting there thinking like, honestly don't know. It's almost like I lost myself and I needed to date myself again. You know how couples, they fall out of love because they forget to date each other. Like what they were doing when they were dating, they've stopped doing and in doing so, they actually fell out of love with each other accidentally. And so have we also like fallen out of passion with ourselves because we forgot what even makes us human. We've gotten to our careers. We've become the bosses. We've become, we've been working hard. We...

get lost in the shuffle of kids and family and all the different pieces that we get lost in that we forgot what even makes us a human. And this is where the art of play comes in to play. What do we do for fun? And so I remember I was like, but a lot of these things for me, and I will just speak very candidly and you can judge me or you can like me. This is Kiera Dent, real and raw. I said a comment in therapy. I said, a lot of these things feel stupid to me because they don't make money.

And I think about like buy back your time and who not how, and I know my dollar per hour and it's like, play does not equate to my dollar per hour. And yet my therapist said, but Kiera play is so much of life that isn't going to have a financial ROI. And can you do something just because you enjoy it and not have to feel productive, not have to feel like it has an ROI on it. And she's like, you can still love your work. You can still enjoy that, but there's this whole side of our lives.

that won't ever have an ROI. It won't ever make you money, but it actually will make you money because you're happier and you're more fulfilled and you're more fueled. And then you're actually going to want to go work more because you're happy because as soon as you're done with work, you go play. It's like this whole thing of recess. Think about in school, we work hard and we go play and we have recess. We get done with the day and we go play outside with our friends. We would call up our friends and we'd have play dates all the time. And yet as adults, what are we doing to play? And it doesn't mean that we're just sitting in front of a TV and vegging and numbing our minds.

Kiera Dent (07:08.47)

It doesn't mean that we're drinking and numbing our minds. It means what are we doing to fuel our souls? What are we doing that makes us excited? And so we started listing off ideas and she was like, okay, Kiera. And I'm like, you want me to go book club with people? I was like, this is stupid. said, you want me to go craft with people? This feels so dumb to me. I'm like, you want me to go join a sports team? This also feels so dumb to me because it feels like, no, I need to be at work. Like my dollar per hour is this and I know I can produce that. And yet the play is where passion is.

And so she said, Kiera, feel uncomfortable and do it anyway. And I want that to be your motto. Feel uncomfortable, do it anyway. So that means I feel uncomfortable at a book club, do it anyway. I feel uncomfortable going to the, like calling friends, getting my five friends within five miles and saying, hey, let's meet up for lunch or hey, like, let me have you over and have a party. I feel uncomfortable dressing up for a Halloween party and going to it.

I feel uncomfortable carving pumpkins with people and I sit there and the business still chicks. But when we get into play, we actually forget. I feel really ridiculous going and painting ceramics with my dad. took my dad, said, my dad and I call it fun Fridays. And my dad comes up, he lives about two hours away and we went and we painted ceramics together. And my dad said, Kiera, why do you like to do this? And I said, dad, I like to just have mindless chit chat where I'm just sitting here talking with you and where like painting gives us an activity to do together.

And so I feel ridiculous doing it, but do it anyway, going hiking. And then once I started doing a lot of these items of play, I started to realize like one, your mind gets distracted and then great ideas come for work. So it felt like like a double win. Two, there's more to who I am than just work. I now know I enjoy crafting, like going and doing those paint things with my dad. I love hiking and I really enjoy being outdoors. I fell in love with boating this summer.

Like I got really, really, really good at wake surfing. I mean, you guys, I'm not a pro. I'll get better next year, but I nailed a 360 and it was so fun for me. And we call it wake weenie Wednesday and we have a bunch of friends come join us and we do a weenie roast on the back of the boat after we're done surfing for an entire night. And I realized like, that was where play came back in for me. That's where my passion came back in because I love to be out on the lake. I love to be outdoors.

Kiera Dent (09:32.39)

I started reading a ton of books with my sisters. would do like just dumb things. I would go meet friends and just go to Costco and go shopping with them and their kids. But having something more than work can infuse passion back into your life. You can feel dead and numb and just apathetic to the world. And the way we can infuse that passion is like I said, figure out what's causing that and let's get rid of it. And then let's give our minds a space where they can actually go and have fun.

Let's go play, let's go hit it hard. Jason and I have an alarm where it goes off at 6 10 every single night. And we don't talk about work anymore. We talk about other things. And we don't just veg out in front of the TV, but we do fun things. We invite friends over, we go see people. And we always have an excuse not to do it. But why don't we make reasons why we want to do it? And there's a balance. Sometimes fun and play is taking a nap. Sometimes fun and play is sitting on the couch and doing absolutely nothing. Sometimes fun and play is writing in your journal.

Sometimes fun and play is being active and athletic. Sometimes fun and play is gardening. Sometimes fun and play is doing household chores because you know when you're organizing your personal life, it's actually organizing your business life. You know that there's different ways that you generate, organize, and destroy in your life, but that infuses the passion back for you. Find a coach, find a therapist, figure out what's causing it back for you. But that is some tips of how can we reignite the passion for us. And I truly do believe there's an art of play.

And I think a lot of us, think there's some people that I just admire and they're such fun doctors and they're playing and they're having a good time with their team. like life is always a good time. My dad is one of those people. Every time I call my dad, like he's just giggling and like things are just fun for him. And so it's like having more fun. Life is meant to be fun. Yes, of course there will be hard times. There will be struggles, but to me, I want a life that's fun. I want a life that's fulfilled. I want my life to be fun filled to pull from one of the doctors that I talked to.

And that doesn't mean that we're oblivious to what's going on, but there's more created outside of us than just our practices. And that doesn't mean we have to give up the passion for working. That doesn't mean we have to not enjoy our work. Work can be so fulfilling for us, but it's having that mixture of play and work and fun that really can reignite the passion. And so try those things out. Don't go through it alone.

Kiera Dent (11:51.118)

I also think making sure you reach out to friends. You have a good group of people. I worked so hard. You guys, it's funny. People tell me all the time, Kiera, you're such a social butterfly. And I'm like, I am. But for me to have like true friends that I allow to see the good, the bad, the ugly of me. On the podcast, I want to show up and be the perfect person for you guys. I want to be an incredible consultant. And I feel like I leave my life at the door and I come and I serve and I want to be that. I don't, you guys don't need to know my whole life.

But I also need to have friends that can be there, that can support me when things are hard, that can support me when things are great, that I can be unapologetically myself. I can be whatever version I want to be around those friends and they aren't necessarily work friends. They're people outside of that. They're people that just inspire you and make you want to be better. And then you do the things that really, really, really fuel your soul. like email me Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. Tell me what you do to ignite the passion and what do you do for fun?

What are the ways that you brought back the art of play in your life or what things do you want to do? I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to hear your ideas. And if I can be a resource for you or our consultants can help you delegate those tasks, get your team on board, take those projects away from you and not to have you feel awkward about asking them to do it. I'd love to help you. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com And as always, thanks for listening. Go have so much fun. Make yourself a promise that you are going to have more happy fun days than you will have sad days.

and I promise you your life will become that way. You deserve it. So go live that and have more fun in life. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

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Kiera summarizes a practice that was struggling with cash flow. She breaks down what the Dental A-Team did to pull back the curtain and find out where cash was hiding, and what was done to fix the flow.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.814)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I hope today's incredible for you. I hope you are having the best life. I hope you're just enjoying everything and more. I really truly hope that things are just going so well for you. Don't forget guys, we truly live in the best industry, the best time, all the things are here for us. And so let's not forget how great things really are for us. As always, thanks for being a part of our Dental A Team podcast family. I adore you. I appreciate you. I respect you.

I look up to you. I want to be more like you, all the things. And I'm so, so, so, so, so happy that so many of you are a part of our family. If you guys remember, my mission is to positively impact the world in the greatest way possible. And we do that through expert consulting for dentists and teams. And so if you can share this podcast in a Facebook group or on your drive, us, share this with a colleague, share this with a coworker, share this with someone. Today's going to be an office autopsy.

and leave those Google reviews, those five star reviews on whatever streaming platform you're on. That helps us stay top ranked so more offices and more teams and more doctors just like you can be infused with positivity, tactical tips that are going to make your life, your practice extraordinary, easier and happier and more profitable. So I think it's a win-win-win and that's what we're all about at Dental A Team. That's what our consulting's about is how to help you create and achieve that extraordinary life that you've been looking for.

and do it with ease.

Kiera Dent (02:06.531)

If you are new to the Dental Inn Team podcast, my name is Kiera Dent. Dent really is my last name and I do love what I do. I started this consulting company wanting to help the students of Midwestern University's dental college in Arizona. And I took a practice from 500,000 to 2.4 million with one of the doctors. She was incredible. We did incredible work. And I thought, man, if I could help her.

Maybe I can help other doctors too. And that's actually how Dental A Team started. I had never done consulting before. So everything you get within Dental A Team are things that I wish I would have had things that when we were scrambling, when we couldn't get our team bought in, when we couldn't hit goals, when everything seemed so hard, I wish I would have had these items. And so that's actually what the consulting company has been built upon has been created on is all of that. So that's what Dental A Team's about. And so for those of you who are new,

Every so often, I will do what's called an office autopsy, where I take you behind the scenes of one of our consulting clients. Yes, I do keep them anonymous. And sometimes I will mix and mingle so you can't quite figure out exactly who I'm talking about. And that's just to keep the practices anonymous. I do have permission to share. And these are just things that we've done with a practice. So today, and I love to walk you through because

When I was an office manager, when I owned my practices, we were just in our own silo place. And yet if I can share information with you, help the best practices win and thrive, that's what I'm about. Because I believe that we have a moral obligation within dentistry to help practices that are the best, provide the best dentistry for more patients and to help patients have the best experience. I really, really truly do believe that that's our moral mission. And so, and it's our ethical code and that's what we're here for. So with that, there was a practice.

They were an amazing office. And I remember this doctor called me, I was sitting on an airplane. I used to fly a lot more than I do today. We fly to our practices. We also have offices come together and we meet together for business and leadership events that are so fun. And we basically like get naked on our business in front of other people. And I think it's one of the most beautiful things. They're not physically naked. I feel like I need to like have a massive disclaimer on there. But basically, like we stripped down your business to the bare bones of

Kiera Dent (04:13.889)

what is going on in your practice and what are the real things and what are the roadblocks with no nonsense. Like let's actually figure it out and then let's not spend our time fixing the 500 things that we could fix. A business will always have opportunities to fix and that's why it's a business. But the reality is I think as business owners and as leaders, our job is to sift through all the opportunities and pick the one, two or three items.

that are going to exponentially move us forward in the fastest, most effective, efficient way that will be the best for our teams, the best for our patients. And so that's where we strip it down to the bones, what's going on in the practice, and then we're able to help us identify what do we need to do over these next three months to make sure our practice is flourishing and thriving. And we do this in a group of like-minded doctors. We do this where you are really able to exponentially grow and we have your office manager come with you. Because when I attend events, I love them and I get hyped up.

but then I gotta go back and get my team hyped up. So we figured we are dentists and team consulting. We work with both. We don't just work with one or the other. We are comprehensive that way. And so really having this beautiful match made in heaven where the office managers also get to hot seat. They get to go through, they get to have these opportunities and they get to mix and mingle with other office managers to really pull and seep out the best of the best. So.

That's what we do. either go to you or we bring you together or a mixture of both. And it's so magical. And so this doctor called me and I was sitting on a plane and he was telling me how hard his practice was and how the collections were just struggling a lot. And he said, Keira, can you help me? And I said, well, actually, yeah, this is our specialty. My hunch is there's a lot more than just collections, but usually offices will reach out when cash flow is low. Obviously, right?

We're in panic. We need cash. How do we get this? Let's contact a consultant who's an expert consultant who's been there, done that, done that successfully multiple hundreds of times over and let's hire them. So cashflow, team turnover, culture, lack of vision, wanting to go to the next level. Sometimes there aren't really a lot of problems. I just want to go to the next level and what can we do for that? So those are usually the typical reasons why someone's going to actually reach out for consulting. And so this doctor, it was the cashflow, the cashflow issue.

Kiera Dent (06:25.187)

Other times offices will also reach out for systems. I think that that's a very, very interesting thing too, to see, what are the systems we could be doing? So depending upon where they are in a practice, if they're like zero to a million, usually it's more about systems and foundations and leadership. If they're like a million to about that 5 million mark, it's usually optimization, leadership, cashflow sometimes in that area. And then if they're 5 million plus, usually it's like, let's take to the next level or like, let's get our systems dialed in or where can we do those small refinements?

And then when I'm hitting the offices that are like 10, 20 million, those ones are more like we're mass scaling. We're trying to get all the practices operating in the same direction. So, depending upon where you are, you may or may not fit. Maybe you're above, maybe you're below. Either way, that's really what they're looking for. So, this office, they're in that middle tier, the 1 million to 5 million range, but cash flow. Cash flow is hurting. They're struggling and they don't know why. So, going into the practice, first thing we did was we looked at immediately where can cash be hiding and cash can oftentimes be hiding.

in your AR accounts receivable and doctors I always feel so bad for you because you did the dentistry and yet we didn't collect and I always tell people I'm like how would you like to go to work and you go do the work and then you don't even get paid for the work and so that's where with teams I'm very adamant of you have to be collecting the money you have to be helping your doctor like we did the work we did great dentistry and we can expect patients to pay for that and so we immediately went to the AR and their AR was sky-high

and the money was right there. All the cash was there. Another practice we saw that there's $350,000 of AR sitting there. Well, no wonder our collections fell low because we've got AR there. So you need to put a system into this practice to actually start collecting the AR. So we started sending out statements. We had a process of when do we send the statements? How often do we send the statements? Who's working on these statements? What day are they working on the statements? Are we calling first, then texting, and then sending a paper statement? The answers are yes, we're doing those items.

but they didn't have it. And within a couple of months, this practice was able to collect over $200,000. You better believe that doctor saw the ROI of our consulting immediately. And now they also feel like they've got cashflow. But how did we get here and how do we stay out of there? So a lot of times in consulting, we go in and administer CPR immediately. I guarantee you when you get into consulting, there's usually a burning fire. And so we love to go in, we perform the CPR, we bring it back to life.

Kiera Dent (08:47.481)

And then we're gonna check to see how can we prevent this from happening or what other areas can we optimize? And so with that, we came up with the follow-up, the collections procedure and how to get your collections and make sure we're watching that and have it as a whole team effort. So when patients are checking in, we're collecting, can we get credit cards on file so we're not having to call and chase these patients for statements? We are changing our verbiage of we collect at time of service rather than sending them a statement with insurance. We got better with our insurance verification so we could be more confident when we're presenting treatment plans and collecting balances.

I would much rather collect rather than have to go chase money. And I would rather give refunds rather than having to chase and get payments. And I think all of us would feel that way, right? We'd rather get our paychecks upfront rather than having to wait and hope that someone's willing to pay us. So this practice now is watching, keeping the collections at 98 % immediately fix the cashflow area for them. Other things that they were able to do was from there was helping the culture and fixing the culture because when cashflow is tight, doctors are stressed.

Like truly it just, and then it trickles down to the whole team, morale's low. Then we feel like we've got this desperation. We're constantly trying to get these patients to pay. And so helping them there. so then from there, what we did is we were able to help this practice focus on treatment that they actually love doing. And then brought on an associate to be able to do the treatment that the doctor didn't want to do, keeping the collections high, working on perfect handoffs, helping the hygiene team tee up treatment for this doctor.

and then be able to thrive and allow the office manager to truly manage the practice. So the doctor then is able to focus on doing dentistry. And we say like, you know, have you ever heard that like running a dental practice is hard? Well, that only team comes in and takes that stress away from you. So you can focus on being a dentist and doing what you love again. And that's where we shifted over and help your office manager do what they love. And that's the practice stats, the HR, the business management, training and coaching that office manager up to truly be almost like a COO.

of a practice to do the operations, to do the financials, to do the statistics, and managers love to do this if they've got the right DNA for it. So doctors love to do the dentistry piece, and office managers love to do the management piece. And so teaching both of them how to yin and yang together, so that way it could be this dynamic duo. It could be this incredible practice that's working, and then be able to let go of a lot of the admin pieces. So now this doctor is able to delegate to check in.

Kiera Dent (11:05.337)

to verify to know these things are being taken care of. And they're able to figure out the top KPIs that this practice needs to be watching with collections is number one, because they know that that's their danger spot that they can get into hot water pretty quickly. But they have the process, they have the protocols, they have the system in place to where it's not team dependent, but it's system dependent. And now they're all able to watch their collections, manage the practice and the doctor is thriving. And it's interesting to watch this doctor from when they called me and I was sitting on the airplane and the stress and the

The true like despair, which this happens when I talk to offices and I truly like my heart and passion. say life is my passion, dentistry is my platform. I am obsessed with helping people have their lives that they want to live. I'm obsessed with giving people that freedom back. I'm obsessed with like unshackling the chains of practice ownership that can come.

Like I'm obsessed with helping doctors be free and still be so profitable and love doing dentistry. And all it is is right person, right seat that's accountable to their tasks and they actually know what they're doing. And so being able to give this doctor their life back, being able to give this office manager the skills and the tips and the tools to be able to be so successful and drive this practice forward is literally why Dental A Team was created. Your success as a practice is our freaking passion. We want you to be successful in life, in business, in team, in patient care.

And that's our passion and that's what we're dang good at. And so for this office, now what they're able to do is everyone's been able to rise to the occasion. They're able to attract and have great team members and patients come to their practice. It's less stressful, greater morale. They're not having to do as much busy work because we've got true, true, true, true engagement and interactions. We're collecting so cashflow is no longer an issue. We know what we need to produce. We've set up the block schedules. We set up the dollar per hour production. So now this practice knows what they need to produce.

And now the whole team knows this is what I'm responsible for. This is how I can help grow the practice. Every person's right person, right seat, doing what they love, their zone of genius. Of course there's zones that we don't like within our zone of genius, but most of their day is on stuff that they absolutely love. You could just imagine from where they were to where they are today and how much stress is gone. How much happiness has been brought in. How much better patient care is brought in. How much better the team is all working together.

Kiera Dent (13:22.665)

This is what we do. This is where I love to like take the knife and cut back the curtain and show you this is what we do within a practice and how this took about a year to do. We immediately like I said, bring in that 200,000 cash. Sometimes we can turn a practice around that quickly. Other times it takes a little while to get there. Both are okay. It's okay. Because every practice is not on the same path and every practice doesn't need the same thing, which is why it's completely 100 % personalized to your practice, to your needs and to your vision.

I am not here with a cookie cutter model. We don't do that. We come in and we say, where do we need to administer CPR? What's the next layer? The next layer, where do you need to be in six months, 12 months, 24 months to be living the life you want, to have the practice of your dreams that's your reality and to be thriving, not just surviving. And so welcome to Dental A Team Consulting. Welcome to this practice. This is what we did. This is how we have it. Of course, there going to be other fires that come up. Of course, there are other things like case acceptance and handoffs and hygiene production per hour and...

Making sure that our morning huddles are effective and efficient But we're never gonna come in and do those items unless your practice actually needs them Why there's no reason to create busy work when you are already thriving in certain areas. So that's why teams love us That's why doctors love us because there's no busyness and people wonder like how long did that take care? Like I said, it was about an hour and or excuse me a year and then every month It's about an hour and a half of coaching time and then in between follow-up

working on it, but that's team training, that's doctor training, that's getting us focused and aligned, that's focusing on the most important things, that's doable and efficient. We're not here for inefficiencies. We're here to make your life easier, more effective, more productive, more fun. Like I said, you know how running a practice can be hard? Well, Dental A Team takes care of that so you can love being a dentist again and doing what you love. And that's what we're here for. And I would love you to be our next office autopsy practice. I would love to see where you are.

We have practices that are going from 1.5 million to 4.5 million in a year. We have offices adding $13 million of production. I have other offices that are getting their systems in place and they're actually able to decrease their overhead by five or 10%. I know those numbers don't feel as sexy as the 5 million or the 2 million, but guess what? Sometimes you don't need to be adding all those millions of dollars. You just need to be reducing the stress and getting your life back too. And so all of that.

Kiera Dent (15:38.869)

Is what we love to do. It's all personalized It's all completely built around you your practice and what we see and we're gonna guide you through that And so I would love you to be a part of that Be our next office autopsy reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com We give you a complimentary call and we're going to give you massive value for your practice whether you work with us or not I hope you choose to I think Dental A Team's incredible come strip your practice to the bones be uncomfortable But that's where the uncomfort like in the uncomfortable is where the success lies

getting uncomfortable, recognizing like, hey, there's a better way to do this and I'm going to be brave enough to take that risk, to take that step and to do it with people that I trust, that I know, that I love, that are going to make sure I don't fall. And that's exactly what we do. So reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.

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Loneliness and social isolation are factors in an epidemic across the United States. Kiera takes the time to talk about ways to fight back the loneliness in our everyday lives.

Episode resources:

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.9)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I hope you're having a great day. I hope things are going so good in your world. I'm so grateful you're a part of the podcast family. I really enjoy podcasting. enjoy, gosh, we're coming up on what is it? Our fifth year. gosh. I think even maybe our sixth year. The podcast is released in 2019. So yeah, we're coming up on its sixth birthday this year. my gosh.

I'm gonna have to fact check myself. Let's just say, Dental A Team is gonna be six years old. That's insanity to me. Maybe it's five years. Might be five? It's gotta be six though. Happy birthday Dental A Team podcast. But if you've been with me, I've enjoyed it. I enjoy the time. I'm so grateful for each of you. And I hope that I've been able to give you tactical practical tips and infuse your world with positivity, truly, because my mission is to positively impact the world in the greatest way possible. And I currently do that through consulting, expert consulting for doctors and teams.

So today I wanted to talk to you about something that I think a lot of us are seeing. It's interesting because there is something we have leadership, we have solo practices and loneliness. And there's some studies that have come out. So this one's from The Guardian, just recently released. And they're talking about how loneliness, it says more broadly, lacking social connection can increase the risk of premature death as much as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.

In addition, poor or insufficient social connection is associated with increased risk of disease, including a 29 % increased risk of heart disease and a 32 % increased risk of stroke. That to me is astronomical. And so I was thinking about it, like literally they're showing that loneliness is actually worse for us than 15 cigarettes a day. can kill you faster than that. And yet like smoking was one of the greatest like killers of the world. And so thinking about this of like,

what causes this and like, you know, leadership is lonely. Owning a practice is lonely. Being a CEO is lonely. I'm sure hygienists and dental assistants, we can feel it's lonely. And yet we're working with so many people, but yet it's a lonely space. so realizing that loneliness is such a prevalent piece and it actually is shown to kill more people. What do we do for this? And they say loneliness is as bad for our bodies as it is for our minds. There's doctors

Kiera Dent (02:27.95)

The US top doctor surgeon general Vivek Murthy is so worried that last year he issues an urgent warning about the epidemic of loneliness and social isolation. These are not quite the same thing though there is a big overlap. Social isolation describes an objective lack of social connections while loneliness is all about perception. You can be lonely without being socially isolated and if you're lucky, vice versa. And so just looking at this like we used to be in a society that was so connected.

Right? Like you think about communities and you think about tribes and we think about going back to even archaic times where people were in tribes and there were cavemen and cavewomen and we all hung out. And then you think about like when my husband, I went to Bali, families live together in these communities and you don't leave them and you stay with them. And there's such a community and camaraderie and everybody knows what's going on and you're there. And I think in, in the U S especially social media came out. Right? So we're

We're more connected, but we're actually more lonely than ever before. And they also were talking about in this article that people are actually afraid to admit. It says many of us struggle to admit we are lonely. There is a tremendous stigness, says Mark Rowland of the Mental Health Foundation. And so looking at this, it's like...

Kiera Dent (03:47.214)

How do we combat this? Leadership's lonely. Owning a practice is lonely. And on this one, says, like, loneliness is not insurmountable at any stage of life. But it's very difficult when it's, let's say, rusting away at your mental and emotional life without you even naming it. Bringing it into the light and sharing with yourself and then with others is really the first step of breaking the cycle. And so today, I just kind of wanted to talk about

What can we do to combat loneliness? They have some ideas in this article of what you can do. They say, you know, try to keep busy, have hobbies like gardening, jigsaw puzzles. They also said it's important that these things are fun or fulfilling. Be careful about working too hard or watching TV shows simply as a distraction. They will only delay or suppress your feelings and could actually make your mental health worse. And then they talk about like stimulate your mind. So podcasts kudos to you on being on podcasts.

comedy, fitness, like work related, whatever, get moving. Physical exercise can help with loneliness. Try to engage with the people you meet. And I think about how often do we go to Starbucks or are we on a train or are we at a coffee shop or are we at the grocery store and we've got AirPods in, we've got our phones up. I mean, so often I think our phone is our best friend. I was at a bachelorette party and I don't drink. And so I'm always the DD with my Shirley Temple and

they were all dancing and I kind of just felt like I would and I also watch all the stuff. So that's kind of my world. And I remember sitting there and I felt very lonely and yet I'm in a room of a ton of people. Instead of talking to someone, what do I do? I grab my phone and I instantly look at my phone to make myself not feel as lonely and like look at social media and feel like I'm doing something to connect. But like talk to people, say hi, ask them about themselves. I think we've lost the art of communicating with people. I remember talking to someone and they said that

they, excuse me, that they did, they have a, some of them they're dating and they don't even see each other and they're just like 30 minutes away. And I thought, my gosh, like, no wonder we're so lonely. and they also said in this article, find people who get you, spend time with pets, try to use social media in a positive way. And then talking to therapists can also help. And I was just thinking like,

Kiera Dent (06:09.124)

These are really, really, really important things and like prolonged social isolation and loneliness are truly like so close to smoking. What are we doing with it and how can we stop it and what can we do to combat it? And so I was just thinking for you, what are you doing to combat your loneliness? Do you have friends? Do you talk to people? Are we so on our phones and social media all the time? Do we put our phones down and do we engage with the people around us? Do we build hobbies?

we go to the gym? I will tell you, I am not a gym human. But I actually am now. And I love going to the gym because it gave me people around me so I didn't feel as alone. Talking to family members, but having people around you and I think having five friends within five miles is so paramount, true friends that you can talk to that you can tell things to. But even within leadership and in a practice, I found it's always super helpful to have mentors to have a community to have people who get me.

I joined Tony Robbins because those are entrepreneurs who go through the same struggles I do. I made a friend group within that group and we meet every single quarter and we talk about like, what are we going through and how can we help each other and where are our numbers at? And we work through the pieces of it. And I'm so grateful for that. My team, we're all a virtual team and yet we communicate all the time with each other, but I miss the in-person engagement. And so we are bringing our team together.

more consistently and meeting with each other face to face to combat that loneliness. But for leaders, where are you going and where are you communicating? And do you have a network? For me, my coaches are huge for me. And yet I think that there's importance for loneliness to combat it, to have coaches that we pay for and to have mentors and mentees and communities, but then to also have our own personal. Do you have friends? Do you have people that you talk to? Do you have hobbies? Like,

Jason and I, I love the memes that are going around of like when my extroverted self makes plans and my introverted self has to fulfill those plans. And I keep saying like, I want more friends and I want to have more people around us. I, cause there is, it's a lonely world. And the way that you're able to then share with people is by knowing them and getting to know them and spending time with them allows you to open up and to share your struggles and to share your life. But without that, it's tricky unless they're paid as like a therapist or a coach.

Kiera Dent (08:29.732)

And I remember there was one night we were invited to a birthday party and I'm like, my gosh, it's the weekend. I don't want to go. I've output so much energy at work this whole week. I just want to recuperate and recover. And there are times to do that, but it was so fun because I'm like, okay, we'll just go for like 15 or 30 minutes. And sometimes I think that's all we have to do for ourselves is it's 15 or 30 minutes that we're going to go, but we're at least going to go socially engaged. And it was actually so much fun. And we ended up staying for three hours and

had the best time and we were so fulfilled and it was so good to spend time with friends because then we saw them the next day and like that's how you build these things. But I do think it takes intentionality. I don't think it just happens. But I think realizing everyone's lonely. Everybody is sad. I mean, I think it's varying degrees, but a lot of people feel like people don't like them. A lot of people feel like what's wrong with me and why does everybody else like them? It's socially perceived like falsehoods. They're not.

It's not real. All of us feel the same way. And so how can we combat this? Because if we realize that loneliness is as deadly as cigarettes, 15 cigarettes a day, that's a lot. And then it's also increased risk of disease, like heart disease and stroke. Well, I think that it's time for us to combat this loneliness. And so I think join a community, be a part of a community. I don't care if it's working out. I don't care where it is, but like,

It's going to feel uncomfortable. Do it anyway. It's okay. You're going to be uncomfortable at the beginning. Join a group. That's honestly why Dental A Team is bringing our people in person because I got so tired of hearing our offices are so lonely. They feel isolated when I'm like, you don't have to be, you don't have to be alone. You don't have to do this alone. There's so many people around us, but I think it's also proximity. Proximity makes things easier. I know I can attend virtual events with Tony Robbins and talk to people online, but when I go to the actual event,

Even though I drag my feet and I don't want to go and I'm a social person, you guys, like I enjoy people, on the culture index. I'm literally in the like 99th percentile of liking people. Like truly I like people and I drag my feet and I don't want to go to these things, but when I'm there, I meet people and you talk and you have the side conversations and our doctors coming in person, they go and they hang out with each other. And so many people say like, yes, the content is great, but meeting people in person and sharing.

Kiera Dent (10:49.692)

a drink with them or hanging out with them at the coffee shop the next morning. That's where bonds are formed. That's where friendships are made. That's where that's where we're able to help serve and lift each other up. And we do it for doctors and office managers because leadership, business and leadership can be very lonely. Can is the key word. does not have to be. It's a matter of how are you doing it? What are you doing? And like, what are you doing proactively to prevent the loneliness? But I think being aware of it, knowing that it's very real, not doing it alone.

is something I'm very pro. I'm very pro mental health. I'm very pro having a therapist. I'm pro having a community. I'm pro having a coach. I'm pro those things because I know that like we've combated so many things in this world. We've beat hunger for the most part. And I understand there's countries that don't have it. I'm not here to sound like I'm not aware of that. I think for the bulk of us here in the US, hunger has been something that's been eliminated for us. And I think that we do have an effort to help other people.

Even people in the US who are struggling with that, but I think the bulk of the people listening to the podcast probably are not struggling with hunger right now. Most of us aren't struggling with where we're going to be living. Most of us aren't struggling with household duties. We have washers, we have dishwashers that we don't have to do those things. We can go to the grocery stores and have food at our fingertips. We don't have to make our own clothes anymore. And yet the next zone that I think we're facing is truly like an epidemic is loneliness.

before it was like, what are we going to eat? We had to like send out hunters and gatherers and go get our food every single day. And then it was, how are we going to survive and have shelter and not have someone come murder us? And now that, that it's not perfect, but it is less. and then it's like, then how do we like get food that's affordable? And we've gotten like that down exponentially that I think now it's, it's loneliness and having friends and having community and having people around us and supporting us.

we've tackled so many things and we've helped on so many levels that now how can we stop this epidemic of loneliness? And I would say today, I encourage you to share this podcast with one person and have them become a friend. I would also encourage you to get five friends within five miles, not just remote friends, but five friends within five miles. I'd also recommend you get a coach within your industry to help you. So if that's management, if that's leader dentists, if it's us, if it's someone else, phenomenal.

Kiera Dent (13:10.48)

But have somebody who can be there who can guide you through your business decision So you don't have to do that alone and then I'd really encourage you to do a hobby that gets you out of your house We figured out like we have Instacart. We have things that deliver for us. We have uber eats We don't have to go anywhere but force yourself to go somewhere and when you're there put your phone away and say hi Engage in a conversation. It feels awkward. It feels awkward for me every single time But it's also the way that we're able to combat this we're able to to bond to forge

and to make it to where we actually are thriving rather than killing ourselves off due to being lonely. And if we can help in any way, if I can be a friend for you, if we can be a consultant for you, if I can guide you in a right direction, I'm here for it because mental health is real. Loneliness is real. Feeling alone is real. Feeling like you have to do this on your own is real. But I also want to say that they can also be false. They can also be things that we can...

not to say that they're false and your feelings aren't valid because they are, but it's also, could just be that there's ways that we can help solve it and we can solve it forever for you and get you a community, get you around people. found when I like, instead of being so isolated, I actually went external and I started talking with people and I hired a coach that was a trainer for the gym. And I talked to my business coach to help me go through it. And I brought my team in person and I joined a community of people.

That's where you start to feel fulfilled and you don't feel lonely. Cause when you have something that comes up against you, you have a resource of people around you and it's not just on you. So I'm going to encourage you to stop living lonely and to, to forge those friendships this year, for your own health. I don't want you to die. I don't want you to be gone. The world needs you. And so let's do this together. And I'm here to help and support you email me, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. see all your emails. I see all your messages and I will respond to you. So reach out.

Whether I can help you as a friend or as a consultant or both. I want to make sure that you're, you know that there's support out there and you don't have to be lonely. Come be in person with us. Come hang out with us. Come have fun. Whether that's your comfort zone or your uncomfort zone, it's good for you for growth personally and professionally. So come be with us. I'd love to have you be a part of it. Reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

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When it comes to owning and operating multiple dental practices, not everything runs the same. That’s a common surprise for those overseeing multiple practices. In this episode, Tiff and Britt discuss where practices often fall short in keeping things running smoothly across all offices, and how to set yourself up for success.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:01.134)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am back today with, I've got a new nickname, brilliant brain Britt, triple B, brilliant brain Britt. I like it. I'm back here for some fun business talk today. are working hard, Britt and I, I hold her business brain for a few different podcasts today and we're working hard to make sure you guys that you've just got some really, really successful business tips and tools early on in the year.

Britt (00:09.18)

I'm going get some

The Dental A Team (00:28.014)

going to be all year long that you're getting business tips. Like always, we love the business side of dentistry because we really, really want your business to work for you, not you work for your business. So we work really hard with all of our clients and all of you listeners to make sure that you have the tips for success there. But today I've pulled Britt on a few different items. We just got done chatting some about really starting your 2025 off right, which was a little bit of a review of how to end Q4 and get prepped for 2025.

but I wanted you guys to have all of those goodies. So if you haven't listened to that yet, you don't have to do it before today. Listen to today, but they can go backwards and listen to that one as well. Today though, Britt, you have, this in your background. Like this is something that you've done. We've both had our hands in it, but you have like honestly and truly just managed multiple practices and really helped set them up for success. You've done transitions, like you've done it all. So I really wanted to bring you on today to pick your brain on some of the pieces that.

are super important and paramount in learning, maybe prior to would probably be, you know, helpful, but a lot of us are not in that situation. A lot of, a lot of doctors listening today already own multiple locations. And so really knowing what they can do and what they can learn and what they should be looking out for is kind of what I'm interested in today for multi-practices. Before we pop in though, how are you today? How is, how's Britt's beautiful brain doing?

Britt (01:53.724)

It's doing good today. It's it's not too early. Britt's brain super early is not always the best. I gotta have a little time to warm up with the day. That's that's how I work or late nights. That's that's my brain time really. So everybody works a little different, but I'm good. It's not too early. I get to sit here and chat with you about I don't know this kind of stuff is fun. Growth is fun. Different ideas are fun, so it's going to be a good time.

The Dental A Team (02:18.394)

I agree. I agree. And your brain just works like this, like numbers, the black and white of it all. Like I've given you kudos before, know, you do really well at seeing the gray too and working through the gray to find the black and white, which I think in business is incredibly, incredibly paramount to success. Working with people is not always the easiest thing in the world. I tell all of my doctors and my office managers that the hardest part about your job is going to be managing the people.

But you do really well with it because of that aspect. So I think it's really, really important to say that now because I think doctors listening and managers listening, whomever business owners are listening, that's a space for you to learn to utilize that black and white data, but to bring in that personal side and to bring in that emotional side without letting the emotions take over the results, I guess. so, Britt, that's something I really want to pick your brain on, but

From the tactical standpoint, what are a few things going into multi-practice ownership, or maybe they already own, right, but hopefully going into, what are some key pieces that they should really be prepped for, looking for, tracking, to know that they're on the path for success for both of them, and what should those look like? Should they be the same? What's the easiest way to go about this when you're taking on a new practice?

Britt (03:43.098)

Yeah, number one thing is have a practice, have your flagship running really well and strong systems in your flagship before you start taking on another one is the ideal way to do it, right? Learn how to manage what is one location before you start multiplying that stress or management of all the locations. And with multiples, it's a different mindset. And I think that's where

The Dental A Team (04:01.624)

I agree.

Britt (04:09.562)

We work with a lot of private practice and even multiples that are private practice and people that are like maybe even transitioning to DSO because it's one of those scenarios to where like the same thing doesn't work for everyone. So that's, do a lot with our practices that are custom and it's like, all right, where are we going? What are we doing? What's it going to look like? What's the feel you want behind it? And when you start, when you know that you want to potentially even go multiples and you're starting with one location, I want you to put like the multiple brain on.

The Dental A Team (04:21.478)

Yeah.

Britt (04:38.192)

We don't have them yet, but we want to start building things to where there are systems that can easily be transitioned into multiples. What I mean by that is, yes, there are going to be some steady things that are like, great, the way we do AR and send statements is going to be the same way we send statements all across all locations. The way we budget for supplies is going to be the same way we budget for supplies across all locations. But make sure you're keeping things really clean bookwise and especially at

The Dental A Team (04:45.956)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (05:07.051)

Mm-hmm.

Britt (05:07.356)

when you start getting into multiples and thinking bigger. So for example, let's say, great, now we've got a couple locations, great, we can share resources. shoot, we ran out of something. Great, go grab some from the other location. You wanna track all those things and pay it from the appropriate business so that each business independently is going to look like the reality and the numbers will be the reality and it's not getting mucked up by the other.

And so you actually know how to, one, drive each individual practice, and then two, know like, all right, when we pull those numbers together, what does the organization look like with all offices together? So it's a little bit of a different mindset when you're doing all the pieces. So great, accounting-wise, that's gonna be one piece that you wanna think of. Hiring team members even, great, what's our onboarding? It's not just gonna be one location, we're gonna be working towards more, so we wanna have a strong system.

The Dental A Team (05:45.157)

Okay.

Britt (06:04.024)

Systems awesome what things can be easily translated across all offices and then where is that great to where each office has a little bit of room for their interpretation on specific things and especially if you're wanting to Let's say I know some that they've got like a PPO practice and then a fee-for-service practice If you know that's the direction you want to go then all right create systems that can work for both And then we just customize some pieces of it based on the location

So big things I think are accounting, planning systems for multiple locations, and also leadership and mindset. Going from a team that's at one location and they think that's what it is, teams get scared of change. so prepping the team or getting them on board that like, this is the direction we're going. This is what we ultimately want. So they're on board to help. And when you get that next location, they...

The Dental A Team (06:32.997)

Mm-hmm.

Britt (06:58.46)

even though it may not really even impact them, but they get scared. What does that mean for us? What are we gonna look like? How's the culture gonna change? All those pieces. So those are some of my most important ones is just thinking multiples, even if you're only a one to start with, and that's the direction you wanna go.

The Dental A Team (07:15.827)

Totally agree. Yeah, I have a few practices, a few practice owners that I've chatted with that they're like, okay, so like, I'm just going to open a second location and restart. I'm going to try again. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I totally understand that. But it's kind of like, we're driving our car and like the wheels, you know, are a little looser or they need air, the tires are like something like, you know, mechanically is just not right. And we're like,

scrap it, or just, I'll keep this car and I'll keep paying for it, but I'm just gonna get a new one that might be a little bit better. It's kind of what I feel like when they say that, right? Like, just fix the things. You can do that. You can have to. You can have an old car and a new car if you want both. You could sell the old car and buy a new car if you want to do that, but don't keep an old car and keep paying for it when it's broken and then get a new car and start paying for that too.

an absurd waste of money and resources. So I think of it like that. And I have had a few practice owners that are like, but this one is just like, I'm racking my brain like, cool, we haven't found the root cause yet then. So when you're digging into those pieces and really looking at why is my now this is gonna be my flagship. So how do I operate this as my flagship practice? How do I make sure that this practice is the practice model that I want my next practice to look like? And it might be.

It might be a little bit different. said, you know, PPO practice and a fee for service practice. I've got a couple of practices that run similar to that. I've got, I've got one doctor that has three locations that two of them are like PPO style, but they operate as a fee for service. Cause that's just the level of care that they put into everything. But then he's also got a Medicaid practice that's like obscure on the side. That's like, that's a little bit of an uphill battle, but they're, they're so different, but they.

Team-wise, they try to operate very similarly or just, you know, the fee-for-service and the PPO standpoints, but operationally, making sure, like you said, that those systems that we have in place, I want your patient experience to be the same no matter what type of practice you own, right? I want your accounting to be the same. I want it to be super clean no matter what. And the space that you mentioned there with the accounting that gets really muddled and mucky,

The Dental A Team (09:36.583)

is when we don't keep those books clean, especially, no matter what, you've got two different sets of bills, right, of outgoing money that's coming with each practice, no matter what. Well, even if you have one entity and one business name that owns two practices, you still have to separate that in some way. And a lot of you guys are going out and you're getting associates who want to partner in to one of them or...

I know a practice that opened a specialty practice with her best friend. And I was like, super clear from the get-go, we've got to make sure these are super separated. making sure, again, one's paying the other. And an office manager who may act as a regional-ish, you've got to dial that in. How are we paying her when she's on board?

Britt (10:09.788)

Thank

The Dental A Team (10:27.763)

And she's doing hours for the second practice. What does that look? Who's paying for that? Because if our flagship practice pays for everything and now our flagship practices at 80 % overhead and tanking in our second practice, isn't making money yet. We've got an issue there because the books are so confusing. and Britt, just to spiral down that one, when we don't have super clean books like that, what are the negative implications as far as like taxes and just.

Why is it so important from the get-go that this is clean?

Britt (11:00.836)

Yeah, it just it can just get

wild like you said even taxes what business is it coming from what's getting paid by whom and Some things that can get really wild like you said and I'm all for right economies of scale or a thing That's part of the reason of going into multiples. So just make sure it's being allocated correctly You've got a regional manager Maybe there's or an om that's maybe doing 50 50 or 75 25 then great just split their salary right 25 from the smaller one 75 from the other one

I'm just thinking that sense also because you want goals and you want your office managers to be responsible for helping you reach them including overhead So you just don't want it to get mucky to where one we've got excuses that we're like, it's just this right? We're human beings We will all will try to find any reason to like justify why we are where we are instead of digging in to see what's going on and So having it really clean gives honest numbers so people know exactly what they're responsible for

The Dental A Team (11:54.005)

Mm-hmm.

Britt (12:02.268)

They know if we're shooting for a goal, we're shooting for overhead, if we're working to control things, it's really clean for them to do so and it's fair in how we're doing it. then correct, valuation for businesses, right? Even for that, ultimately it's gonna come from like, yes, your EBITDA, but like profitability is gonna be a factor. so, and...

The Dental A Team (12:21.425)

Exactly.

Britt (12:25.208)

If someone comes in and they start looking at things and maybe there was a shift at some point, they're like, two months ago you decided to sell and it's looking real different, it's gonna raise some questions that might be concerning. So keep it clean from the get go if you need to sell one or even just for valuation purposes, if you need to leverage those practices to go buy more locations, you just wanna keep everything clean, because if not, it just creates a lot more questions and it may hinder you from.

The Dental A Team (12:35.989)

Yeah.

Britt (12:51.59)

getting finances or being able to hold team members accountable and also knowing which practices really need some attention or may or may not be doing well.

The Dental A Team (13:00.277)

Yeah, I love that. So it sounds like you need a really great CPA. You need a really good bookkeeper that knows multiples. Yeah, a really great bookkeeper. I do have some doctors who are their own bookkeepers and I'm okay with that, but you gotta be really good at it and a really great payroll company that probably comes with.

Britt (13:04.746)

that most multiples are left.

The Dental A Team (13:18.199)

those two options to make sure that everything's super clean. And then I think, like you said, the office manager situation, making sure that she or he knows where the money's coming from too. And if they're employed now, like if they're getting paychecks from both, that's different. Like that's gonna look different to them on their W-2 side. It's gonna look different to you. Is one business paying, like is the corporation paying the salary and the businesses are paying the corporation? Like you've got to figure those pieces out.

Ask the right questions, ask the right people, make sure that you've got all of those super clean. As far as like that's one major piece of it. So I want to make sure we get that out from the get go. As far as systems go, making sure, operations spaniel and training. Like you mentioned earlier, your team, your culture, it should be stellar. It should be rock solid because honestly, most of the time when we...

see multi-practice locations, we're taking over another practice, right? We're buying a practice from a retiring doctor or whatever, and we're taking over a practice, taking over a team. And so if we've got a really stellar team that understands what we're doing, understands what our goals are, understands our systems and can say, yeah, heck yeah, like let's do this and let's make some more patients really, really in fantastic health, they can then help you duplicate what you've done.

into the next practice and help to welcome those team members. I think one of the most stressful parts of ever taking over any practice, whether it's your first, your second, your 15th, is the people aspect of it. And how many are we going to be able to retain? How do we tell them? When do we tell them? What's their reaction going to be? How do we get them on our systems? Well, the same as we do anything, we, you know, go in, be yourself.

and look at what's working and what's not working. Start with areas that's not working instead of coming in, in my opinion, and being like, this is our book, this is how you're going to be. But if you do what Brett said in the beginning and really make sure that your team is solid and that you've got those systems in place, you've got that culture, I think that team could be super paramount in training and helping to find those systems and really even, I don't know, Brett, going in and being like, that's really cool how you do that.

The Dental A Team (15:32.249)

I think that might be more efficient than how we've been doing it. Let's ask doctor, let's ask office manager, because I actually really like that and having that open mind because your way might, like I know our way, we've got a million ways to do anything. And the reason I think we're successful is that we customize it to the practice. And oftentimes I'll go in and be like, oh, that's not how I told someone to do it yesterday, but this is how I want you to do it. Cause this is what's going to be best for you. So having that open mind and having that team mindset ready to go also takes that

barking off the doctor and makes it so that you can kind of copy and paste. How do you feel about that, Britt? What are your thoughts on that?

Britt (16:09.36)

You hit another big point, agreed with you, right? So having that strong, for a lot of reasons, right? Again, change in people, we don't always love it. It's a transition. So even if they just know you've got a strong culture, they meet team members, right? And they see how great you are. It's gonna make the transition of that new practice a little easier and also set the standard of like, and this is who we are. like, rise to the occasion, cause this is how we function and it's great. And you wanna be great.

The Dental A Team (16:29.666)

Yeah.

Britt (16:35.608)

with us, right? You also hit on an important point of trying to get things off the doctor. That's the next, right? Also with multiples, I'm thinking of systems and multiples. How can your people help you and how can they report up to you? I think of it as I don't have children, but I'm like, once you're outnumbered, right? So like, great, usually parents, it's like two, all right, we can each take one, but then you get throw a third in there and someone's out doing something wild while you're trying to manage to.

The Dental A Team (16:37.261)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (16:54.578)

Yeah.

Britt (17:03.374)

And so I think with locations too, right? Two offices, it's like, all right, if you're in clinical full-time, like it's going to be crazy. If you've got a little time and you're still doing kind of all the things, you don't really have a strong OM, doing a lot of it for you in the practice, you've now just doubled your work with another location if you're going off of that same model. So.

The Dental A Team (17:12.067)

I agree.

Britt (17:24.026)

training people to help you, getting office managers in place, getting things made to where they're reporting up to you. If you don't have to do it, you're starting to pass them off and you focus on the high level things that need to be done. Cause that's, can think of a client right now. We just had this conversation cause like he's still doing bookkeeping and all sorts of stuff. I'm like.

You're going to, you're at three now. We just got three. It's going to get wild real fast for you if you don't start kind of planning for other people to help you do some of the things that they can.

The Dental A Team (17:54.905)

Yeah, yeah. Do you think that they have to have leadership teams in place before they have a 2nd or 3rd or 4th location? How do you feel about that?

Britt (18:06.46)

Absolutely, think even just for the second one, Because when, especially if you're transitioning a practice, right, CEO, which is owner, right, going into multiple locations, big responsibilities for you are gonna be culture, vision, and like ultimately making sure you're holding people accountable, that we're profitable and we're growing. So you're gonna need to spend time at that new location.

The Dental A Team (18:20.762)

Okay.

The Dental A Team (18:26.52)

Yeah.

Britt (18:30.676)

One, to just see what's going on, right? And to help see where things need to be done and observe and build relationships and set culture with that new team that you've got over there. So you're going to get pulled to that new location.

And this is where I don't want you guys going crazy. It should be something you enjoy. Like, yes, it's a time of a season of a little bit more effort and time, but I don't want you to go wild. If you've got an OM at your other location, then it's like, sure, I'm around. You got major things that need to be done awesome. But I can go spend a couple of weeks at the new location getting them onboarded and getting good relationships with those people while my OM is handling things at the other location. So it makes your life so much easier. If not, it gets wild. And I think doctors all know this.

The Dental A Team (19:00.292)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (19:07.631)

For sure.

Britt (19:13.572)

Right? When doctors not in the office or O.M.s not in the office, what usually happens Tiff

The Dental A Team (19:20.257)

Yep, the team goes crazy. It gets wild.

Britt (19:22.81)

Yep, they start to get distracted and like, great, I want you to enjoy each other, but like, we've got to get work done. So you need someone there to make sure things are getting done and holding people accountable when you're not physically in the office.

The Dental A Team (19:28.314)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (19:35.216)

Totally agree. I think it comes down to the ease as well. Like when I've got a lead hygienist, a lead dental assistant, a lead front office, whether it's just my TC is, you know, my lead and it's just that she does really well managing the schedule and managing the people to make sure it's working and whether you call them leads or not, like quarterbacks or go to, like, I don't care what you call them. It doesn't have to be something crazy. It doesn't have to mean

pay raises, doesn't have to mean all this crazy stuff. It's just that you've got those people that the team knows they can count on and that you can count on to carry out your culture when you're gone. And the culture is, you know, how are we getting to our goals in the best ways possible and serving our patients the best? I assume most of our listeners are in that kind of a category, but making sure that that's there so that you can focus some attention on another practice location when you need to. I know it's like,

really hard when the doctor's not in the prac- in any of the practices, right? The doctor is typically the one that carries most of the culture and the person who most prac- most, team members like to go to. But when you instill that culture and you infuse it into the other people and you have right people, right seat, which is a totally different podcast and something you guys should go listen to, that comes naturally for the people and naturally your team gravitates towards those people.

pretty quickly. It may take some implementation, may take some, you know, multiple meetings, et cetera, but making sure that you have that in place, I think, is a really big and important piece. So, multi-practice locations, there's a lot of things I think we could dive into. We could spend two hours talking about it today, but the biggest pieces I think that you hit on beautifully was making sure we have our accounts super clean. That includes our patient accounts, right? Making sure those systems are clean. But making sure you have systems for your accounting, your banking,

your taxes per location and per entity is really big, making sure that it's clean, it's crisp, it's clear. Anybody from the outside looking in can figure it out because it's so clean. Making sure that you have your operational systems at your flagship and your culture at your flagship ready to be duplicated. Could you look at, can you look at your practice today and say, yes, this is what I want to do again?

Britt (21:50.641)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (21:50.716)

This is the practice I want to own again. And can I didn't duplicate that over here. If not, we've got work to do and that's okay. We just find the root causes. And then three, really making sure that you've got a leadership team on board to help you out with it. And I do have to caveat that one. Sometimes people write seat, like sometimes we put somebody in a leadership position and they're good for now. And then we get to a space where we're bigger and it doesn't work. And that's okay too. can switch things around. So I feel like those are the three top.

pieces, the accounts, the systems, and the culture to really dive into this early in the game. And then

Britt (22:24.646)

Yeah.

Britt (22:28.486)

You said something really good as well, right? Even in putting people in like leadership or leads.

The Dental A Team (22:30.963)

Yeah.

Britt (22:34.332)

I'm all for responsibility for title. Like try it out and see how they do before you give an actual title to something. I know manager is a term, like I get it, but it's like, I don't know. Like the power that can come can turn some people sometimes. I'm like, great. It might be, you're the point person for this office. You are maybe front desk lead or whatever it may be. People are like, well, we don't have a manager. Well, you go to TIFF, right? TIFF's responsible for that if you need something. So I will highlight that as you get the right

The Dental A Team (22:47.101)

Hmm.

The Dental A Team (22:59.803)

Yeah.

Britt (23:04.286)

people in the right seats is don't move too fast on giving titles and getting yourself in a scenario that's going to be a crappy one to get yourself out of.

The Dental A Team (23:05.861)

I agree.

The Dental A Team (23:12.766)

I agree. think you highlighted that clarity. TIF is the one you go to for that. So when they know where they need to go for something, that's really all they need. They don't need to know, like, she's the lead. It's just that they need to know who can I trust for this information? When I have this issue arise, who can I trust to help me get a resolution for it?

So I love that clarity. So I love it, you guys. I hope those of you who are considering multipractice or have multipractice that you guys took some tidbits from today, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com If this is something that interested you, you need more information. We're here for it. If you're a client like texture consultant, if you're a future client, we can't wait to help you onboard your new.

practices and if you're a forever listener and you're not going to be a client, we love you too and we want to make sure that you have the resources as well. So please make sure you reach out. We are here for all of you. We want to make sure that you're super successful. Britt, you're a brilliant brain. Had it again. Thank you so much for that information. I think those are three really, really easy spaces to start with a lot of details. There's a lot that goes into those, but those are three spaces that we can consume and start working at. So thank you for being here with me today, Britt.

Alright, Dental A Team listeners, I love you, Britt. I love you guys. I want to hear from you. I want to know that this was an amazing podcast. I'll leave it's a five star review below. Let us know what else we can do to help you and reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com Britt, thank you as always and hope you have a great rest of your day. Thanks. Bye guys.

Britt (24:41.722)

You too.

View Details

Kiera is joined by DAT Consultant Dana Morsell to talk about common leadership pitfalls, and how you can overcome them. They discuss such points as:

• Thinking you have to make all the decisions
• Navigating a lack of creativity or problem-solving
• Being too focused on goals, and not enough on happiness
• And more

Episode resources:

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Join Dental A-Team Consulting

Leave us a review

Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.758)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is a great day. I have the one and only Dana Morselle on the podcast. Everybody who works with her loves her. She won our review challenge. If you want to help Dana out and you love her on the podcast, go leave us a Google review. Make her even the more triumphant winner. But really, like it would be awesome. We have a goal to hit 100 Google reviews before the end of the year. So you guys do it for your practices. We're asking you now help us out. If you love this podcast, go leave it.

Dana, how did it feel to win the Google review? Like most loved consultant apparently, according to those reviews, how did that feel for you?

Dana (00:34.995)

It was awesome. It felt really good. I wouldn't say most loved. I think that I have some viable competitors that are amazing. And it just felt good to see the love, not just for me, but I think for Dental A Team and all the things that we bring. I think being able to make an impact is so special to me. so, you know, seeing it in words just brought a lot of joy.

Kiera Dent (00:40.836)

you

Kiera Dent (00:57.732)

Mm-hmm.

Kiera Dent (01:01.856)

I agree. It was actually so incredible because I think that that's the proof, right? That's the proof of what we do. it's the proof of our clients showing up as well as the proof of our consulting works. Our consulting gets results. Our consulting changes lives. Like I say often, life is my passion and dentistry is my platform. so helping people have their most dreamy lives and doing it through dentistry and helping the systems and the pieces and helping evolve these leaders and

Day in day out loving them. I'm so excited 2025 we are doing in person events for business and leadership and I'm so excited to meet people more face to face and to have more collaboration and to have these brilliant offices and Offices who feel like they're not doing so well All of them are brilliant in their own way and helping them see that they have a special sauce even if they feel like

I'm less than I know when I go to groups, I'm like, what the heck do I have to bring to the table? And I think that that's just so unfortunate that as humans, we've trained ourselves to think that we're less than when as children, we were brought into this world believing that we're more than and so helping people realize they have something to bring to the table and what do you have to give and what can you share to help these other offices flourish? Gosh, this is what I'm here for. This is what we're about. So bring it on. If you want to be a part of our inner circle, reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com.

All of our clients were super pumped to have you, but yeah, reach out. is limited spacing. And so our venue has been booked. It's in Scottsdale, Arizona. And so if you want to be a part of that, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com have virtual and in-person, so be sure to check out. But Dana, on the topic of leadership, so business and leadership is really what we're focused on. You had an interesting point of on-call that we're always talking about, like leaders, leaders, leaders, and what should leaders do? But Dana, brilliant. Bring in the topic for today and let's dive right in.

Dana (02:49.661)

Sure, so today I thought it would be fun to take a look at the flip side and like what are things that leaders commonly do that they should stop doing or are barriers or are holding them back?

Kiera Dent (02:59.536)

I love it. Like the flip side of leadership, because you're right, like, leadership can feel like you've got to do, do, do, do, but actually, there's a lot of don't do and stop doing. So Dana, take it away. Let's get into this juicy. I'm really excited for leaders to hear. I actually think it's a breath of fresh air for leaders. Like, there's something I can stop doing. Amazing. I'm like pen and paper in hand. Let's go.

Dana (03:22.781)

Yeah, yeah, and I think number one is stop feeling like, for me, that I've been talking about lately, is stop feeling like you have to make all of the decisions. And I think that as leaders and as practice owners, we feel like I have to be the one to make all the decisions. I have to be available for everyone to come to me with everything. And I think that going in with the mindset of stop doing that.

because you have capable people around you. That's why you hired them. That's why you brought them on. And so I've just been talking about it so much lately and it is understand that your team has the potential to make decisions and to find solutions and to do the things alongside you and with you and you don't always have to be the decision maker.

Kiera Dent (04:14.76)

Amen to that. And I think it's tricky because I think we're so I'm almost like attuned to speaking up so quickly. And I know I was just in a leadership meeting with our leadership team. And I literally had to sit there and bite my tongue. But you're right, Dana. You want the team to come up with the solutions. You want them to struggle. You want them to throw out ideas that aren't the best ideas. Allow them, because that's how you actually got good at making decisions as a leader. And I find so often,

Like I think about, I want robots or do I want humans that think and take responsibility for their actions? The more they do it, yeah, they're going to fail. But like, is it really failing or is it actually just learning? Some things will be wrong. but ask the team. And I think a good way to redirect, if you're like me and it's like, I have the answer. I have the answer. I have the answer. Like, I just want to keep giving them the answers and telling them is what do you guys think? And then I literally have to sit there and in my mind, like count to 10, like one, two.

Like let there be silence because if you can let there be silence, they'll start to realize you are not going to always give the answers. And what do you think? And asking maybe some of your quieter team members, like, what do you think? What do you think would be the solutions? Our quietest team member is Shelbi and Shelbi sits and observes and Shelbi has wisdom beyond. But sometimes unless prompted, she won't speak up. And so really giving some of them an opportunity to might help you. So I love that, Dana. What happens if your team has a really dumb idea though? Like that's a real thing. Like, okay.

I'm not gonna have the solutions, but they come in and it is like, no, what do you say then? Cause you don't want to disempower them, but you also don't want to be the one who's like making all the decisions. How do you navigate that?

Dana (05:55.793)

Yeah, and I think if there's any part of it that you can take that is good, right? Consider that. And then I think, you know what? Keep bringing those ideas. I love that you spoke up today. Keep those ideas coming. You don't have to say that it was a terrible idea. You also don't have to necessarily acknowledge that it was a great idea. But what you want to do is keep the focus on keep bringing them to me. Keep speaking up. Like so proud of you for being confident to share an idea today.

Kiera Dent (06:23.14)

Mm-hmm. And I also think like another piece on it is asking your team like what What what do you think we should do about this? So instead of it like I know we'll have in our slack chat of hey I have this question What do you guys like what do you think and I love to redirect and be like hey? Why don't you tell me what you think first? And then I can give you some solutions and say I want you to do this because I always want you coming with solutions I always want you coming with answers because I like what if I'm not here one day?

I need to make sure I'm training you all to be able to make decisions just as good or better than I am. And if you have that mindset and the team knows that, now they're empowered to do it. So tip number one, leaders, stop making all the decisions and empower your team to do. All right? I love it, Dana. What else? What else do you have for leaders to stop doing?

Dana (07:07.528)

So one thing that I have been thinking about lately is, it's going to come up, you have to hear me out on this one, right? so, it stopped being so goal focused in that don't put goals over happiness.

Kiera Dent (07:15.722)

Okay, I don't know what she's about to say, it's surprise for me too.

Kiera Dent (07:29.188)

you

Dana (07:29.201)

And I feel like so often I keep seeing that like, yes, we want to build goals. We want to talk about goals, but also need to assess that are these goals that you're setting just because you want to achieve something or you want to win or you want to just go to the next level, but yet they don't bring you happiness. So when I say don't be so goal focused, is be happiness focused too.

Kiera Dent (07:51.556)

Yeah.

I think a good, as you were saying that it made me think of like, is it ego focused or is it happiness focused? And Tiff actually gave me some really good feedbacks. I'll speak to this. She said, Kiera, I think you need to stop and enjoy where we've been and where we are. She said, I think it's really hard for you because like I am a driver and I want to keep going. But she's like, but Kiera, you being happy with where we are does not mean we're not going to work on goals as much. It doesn't mean that we're not going to keep growing. It doesn't mean that you're becoming a lazy boss. She's like, it

really is appreciating and being happy with where we are. And Jason says it to me all the time, my husband, he's like, Kiera, like, why is life so good? And I'm like, what are you talking about? We have all these other things that we to be working towards. But I think it's right. Like it is, it's sacrificing the happiness and the joy that the goal is even supposed to bring you. Like if the, if the goal is not bringing happiness, then what the heck are we doing other than feeding egos? And happiness is a much faster drug than ego. Like it's very much, it will, it will be longer term. It will help you so much more. It's more fulfilling. It's more

sustaining. actually really love that. I think it's like make sure that these goals are actually driving happiness and maybe not just ego too.

Dana (08:59.399)

Yeah, I agree. I feel like sometimes we build goals and then we lose our why we're even doing it to begin with. And so I think resetting and looking at that, and it doesn't necessarily mean we don't set goals or we don't focus on the goals. Sometimes it is just like, what is our perspective on the goal and what it brings to us?

Kiera Dent (09:16.101)

Yeah, because a lot of goals, I actually had a epiphany this year. I've got these goals and these numbers and they mean nothing. Like they're just numbers that are arbitrarily put there. Do we still as a team, you want to work towards that? And now the goals are funnier. Like they're, they're fun goals that like the whole team's rallied behind. And I, I had to take a step back to see when I set the goals originally, they were meant to serve a purpose, but is it still serving that purpose anymore? Or do I need to redirect and reconsider?

because sometimes I think we put ourselves in a pressure cooker trying to hit this goal that we said, rather than being like, let's have a redirect, let's have a reassess of where my life is today. And do I still want those same things? And I think it's very important. That's why I love our quarterlies. That's why we do our, the way we're setting up our consulting is checking in quarterly to make sure are we still headed on the path we want to go to, checking in annually, where are we going? And like helping you really build those maps.

to make sure and then giving you the permission to recreate the canvas because you're not the same person you were when you built these originally and your life looks different and you look different and you're like for me, shoot, we went from like this wild out audacious goal to like, let's do something that's actually sustainable and more fun rather than this crazy audacious one. It doesn't mean we don't want to grow, but we don't want to grow just for the sake of growing. We want to grow because it's fun and it's intentional. And I think that's brilliant of being intentional with your goal setting.

and being happy with it rather than just striving. And both are good. So don't feel like we're saying like, schmuck. Like, no, you don't need to. You can do both. That's brilliant. All right. What else do you have? I love these, Dana. I had not thought of this.

Dana (10:43.549)

Yeah.

Dana (10:49.039)

Okay, yeah. I think one thing is for leaders, stop feeling like you can push your team from behind. And what I mean by that is just listening to a podcast and they just kept saying it over and over and it resonated with me so much when thinking of my clients and that is like leaders go first. And making sure that if you want a team that is accountable, you are accountable to them first. If you want...

a team that prioritizes the growth of the practice or prioritizes the practice, you also have to do that. so oftentimes I think we just think we can either drag them behind us or we can shove them through the hole without stepping forward and leading from the

Kiera Dent (11:29.122)

you

Kiera Dent (11:35.414)

Yeah, that's a really good point, Dana, because leaders need to lead. Like you're leading, you are guiding them, you are showing them. And I think like going back to the first point we talked about though, within that is leaders guide, but just because you're accountable, or just because you're proactive, or just because you're driving for this, does not mean you then go and do for each other person that's not doing it. It's hold them accountable to it and have agreements and expectations with each other.

of this is what we're agreeing to. We heard in our leadership meeting, like, let's not have expectations, let's have agreements. Expectations feel like they're placed on us, agreements feel like we agree to it. And so it's like, we have the agreement that we're accountable. These are the items we're accountable to. What's getting in the way, and I do expect you to rise up and own your piece in this as well. But I agree with you, Dana. It's very hard to say, like, do as I say, not as I do. And I've, gosh, it's been like something.

I was not super good with follow through when I started the company. Like it was my greatest like Achilles heel. And I just thought I can sit here and say like, I'm not good at this. Or how am supposed to expect a team to follow through? How am I supposed to expect a team to show up if I don't show up consistently? And so I think it's brilliant. Like you do need to set the example and you do need to hold them there, but not do it for them at the same time, especially those high drivers. I know I love to do. like, it's okay, Dana, I can help with this or it's okay, Tiff. I can help with that. That's not helping. That's hindering.

And then everything's on me. And I think reading the book, the one minute manager meets the monkey. I think that's the one that's like, don't take other people's monkeys because you're a good, a good leader. A good leader actually encourages them to figure out how to handle their issues, how to take care of them without you taking it on. You remove the roadblocks, you set the set the example, set the guiding star, and then make sure that they're rising up to do it as well. Like that's true leadership. It's not doing, it's not pushing, it's not shoving. It's a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant Dana.

And why is it hard? I think it is hard. Because I people are like, no, I want them to show up on time, but the doctor doesn't show up on time. No, I want them to be accountable, but you don't send your clin checks on. And you don't follow through on the things you said you would do. How do you balance that? I think I've got an idea, but what's your idea?

Dana (13:44.615)

think that when you see things not happening the way that you want them, first self-assess. And I know self-assessment can be really hard and often difficult. But if you keep feeling like, I'm running into this roadblock of, yeah, reliability, well, self-assess first and say, am I inspiring and showing reliability in myself? Or what we seem to lack accountability as a team. The team lacks, like, we'll take

self-assess first and say, there any part of this that maybe I am portraying or that I own or that I could do to inspire them to be better at that area?

Kiera Dent (14:23.212)

Yeah, no, I think it's really, really wise to do that self assessment. And then I think also, maybe pick your one, two or three things that you actually want to do. For me, it's high accountability. Like Dana will know if I put it in there, like I will not. How long did I do Friday five until I delegated it to Britt? Like it was it was forever. The team knows I will always follow up on it. They know that I'm going to hit my due dates like I will hit my rocks like that is who I'm going to be because I'm

I don't feel like it is fair to set a standard that I'm not willing to. And if we drop the ball, I will own that, but I'm not going to make excuses for it either. so I think it's like, but those are my main things, like be accountable, get your job done and hit the numbers that you agreed to hitting. And then like do what you say you're going to do and follow through on that. But that's the accountability piece. And I realized that I'm not perfect at that, but it's like...

But we keep showing up and we keep striving to be better. And the reality was I have to set myself a bajillion reminders. I have a reminder for Friday five. I have a reminder for my tasks. I look at my rocks and I'm like, okay, I know I've got a busy week, but I've got to get these things done. I will work late on certain days, but that was due to poor planning, not because I want people working late. Like that was on me. But if I committed and I agreed to that, I need to show up if I want my team to show up as well. And so I think for you leaders as well listening to that.

You're not going to be perfect on everything. And I think it's pick your three things that really matter to you. And for me, it's accountability. It's doing what you're saying you're going to do, which is that, and hit the numbers that you agree to and get the results that we agreed to. Like that's really, like, I want you getting those pieces done. I need to do the same thing. I need to show up on it. But I think like, that's, think how you can not spin so far on like, I want everything perfect. It's not going to be that way. Like let's stop, let's stop setting that bar for ourselves.

And let's focus on the three areas that you really want. And I think that that's actually better leadership. It's smarter leadership, and it's actually growing it with them too.

Dana (16:17.245)

Yeah, yep. And then actually segues right into what I was thinking of as my last thing and that is stop not giving yourselves grace. Because I feel like I hear so much on calls and on some of the events that we do. It's just like, I'm just not a great leader. I'm a terrible leader. And I often want to say because you are so concerned about it, right? That honestly is a sign that you can be a great one.

And so I think that oftentimes leaders hold themselves to just unrealistic expectations or they don't realize that, you know what, like leaders aren't born, they're made or they're grown. And that like, there's just always space for growth. And sometimes you just have to give yourself grace to get there. And to know that, know what, I'm going to seek out the knowledge. I'm going to seek out a coach. I'm going to listen to podcasts. I'm going to read books and I'm going to get there. But I'm also going to give myself grace in the meantime.

Kiera Dent (17:10.776)

As you said that it like actually made me want to just cry because it's like gosh like I had not thought about How hard we work as leaders and how how much love there is I think in leadership and it made me think of I was talking to a doctor last night and She's just like, you know, I'm just not I'm not good and she said I'm so good at self sabotaging and and self sacrificing myself and That also made me kind of stop in the moment of like but why?

I truly do believe that we get what we focus on and I think that there's this space that we think it's humility, but it's actually Deteriorating you as a soul and so it's like if I'm constantly sitting here thinking I'm not a good leader I'm not doing that we actually make that into a reality the strongest force in human nature is to act consistent with who we believe we are not who we actually are and so to this doctor I said well gently I might suggest that we stop with the self-sabotage and start with the self like

lift and I think it's so we're so afraid of ego. We're so afraid of not being this humble leader that we self-sabotage and deteriorate ourselves and like think we're awful and beat ourselves up but it's like you beat yourself up so many times it's very hard to come back up and so I really did love that Dana like give grace have the humility and really focus on what kind of a leader you want to be and even if you're not that maybe even asking yourself like a leader who has grace or a leader who like I think about

have my my hero leaders. And I think about them and I'm like, okay, so what would we'll just use Tony Robbins, you guys all know I'm a huge Tony Robbins fan, like, what would Tony Robbins do in this example, or my really good friend Pierce, he's a really strong CEO. And I'm like, well, what would Pierce do in this moment, and I start to act like that leader and I start to become that leader. But I do love that Dana of becoming like giving the grace. It's a and I love that you said it's a journey. It's not a it's not a destination. It's a journey. We're forever going to be striving and it's like,

If I realize that it's a lifelong journey, I'm not going to be sprinting and destroying myself at the get go. I'm going to be giving the grace, the constant validation. And I think like be your own best cheerleader too. Like I think I'm a dang good freaking leader. I think there's areas to grow. think there's areas to zone and then go pick mentors. Like you said, go choose people that are really good in those areas. I think that's why I love consulting is we're able to give them good examples of leaders and also why we're bringing our doctors together. I'm just going to like throw another plug for that.

Kiera Dent (19:37.218)

Because when you see other people, you stop comparing upon an invisible measuring stick and you start to realize how good you're doing. And then maybe looking to see other people that can help you become 1 % better rather than striving for this unattainable perfection that's just an illusion and honestly the lowest standard that you could ever achieve. Perfection is the lowest standard because you'll never achieve it. And it's truly, in my opinion, dumb to say that I want to be this perfect leader or I need to do these things. It's dumb. It's unrealistic. So why are we even doing that?

I want to be a leader who gives grace. want to be a leader who leads from the front. I want to be a leader who does what I say I'm going to do and holds my team to the same standards. I'm going to be a leader who has goals that inspire me and makes me happy. I'm going to be a leader who allows my team to make decisions because I trust that my team is better than me. I trust that I surround myself with people that are brilliant because what we believe in our teams is actually who they become. It's not who they actually are. It's what we believe that they're capable of. They rise or fall to that standard.

And I think we do as leaders as well.

Well, Dana, that was such a fun, different topic, a different spin to leadership of what leaders should stop doing. And I think that's brilliant. And Dana, I think you do such a beautiful job of growing leaders and teaching offices how to be strong leaders from the doctors to the office managers to the team leads and just really giving them that guidance. And I think that that's probably a passion project that you have, which is why you're so passionate about it for sure. Yeah.

Dana (21:05.191)

Okay.

Kiera Dent (21:06.926)

Well, for all of you listening, stop doing these items. Start becoming that leader that you are destined to be. Your team needs you. Your team needs you to be that leader. And honestly, I think leadership can be lonely, but it doesn't have to be. So get the support, have the friends, have the people in your corner, have Dana in your corner, have Dental A Team in your corner, have someone in your corner that knows how to lead to give you that guidance. And stop beating yourselves up about it too. And if we can help you, here for you. Reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com.

And as always, thank you, Dana, for being on the podcast today. was always just a good time with you. Of course, and for all of you listening, thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

View Details

Figuring out how to drink from the firehouse of the new year can be overwhelming. Tiff and Britt give suggestions on where to start your journey to improving your practice’s growth, or perfecting your scheduling, or addressing high cancellations — or whatever your goal is in 2025.

Episode resources:

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Join Dental A-Team Consulting

Leave us a review

Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:00.983)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be here with you today. I have pulled in the one and only Britt. We still need a really strong nickname for you, Britt, but I'm just excited to be here with you today. And I love Britt. People call me Tiff. I love Britt. I feel like it's just like rolls off the tongue. So we'll just, we'll stick with that for now, but we're here in the new year. I'm excited to have these conversations. I've pulled you for a few podcasts today and I just think that you are going to be so stellar.

at the content that we're gonna talk about. And doctors, I hope you're here to freaking learn. Britt, one of her nicknames is No BS Britt. So welcome to that. And I say that today because we're gonna be just talking a lot of business in a lot of the podcasts that we're recording today, but especially this one and some planning for the year. We're in 2025 now. So I wanna make sure you guys are just totally prepped and planned for it. So Britt, how are you on this fine, beautiful morning in Arizona today?

Britt (00:56.718)

mean I'm great. It's a sunny day every day pretty much here. So you got to love it. I love that. I'm like, I mean, there's a few nicknames out there, but I don't like spiffy Tiffy is such a good one that like, I don't know if the rest of us will get one that's like that same level, which is deserved. But yeah, so I've got a few but nothing quite like spiffy Tiffy.

The Dental A Team (01:09.455)

I know.

The Dental A Team (01:17.303)

I know, you had to come in early, you know? The nickname game started earlier than everyone else got here. That must be what it is, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. think things just, my grandma called me Tiffy my whole life growing up. I was Tiffy. And so I think things just rhyme with Tiffy better, you know? It's like a hard end at Britt or Tiff. So it was easy to, it was easy to monopolize on that one. But it is.

Britt (01:19.266)

I know.

Britt (01:24.137)

It just takes some years. Eventually we'll get there.

The Dental A Team (01:45.709)

It is always sunny. I feel like this year I decided, or not this year, I guess last year, I told my son, I said, I think we just need to stop pretending like we live in a state or a space of life that actually has a winter. People who live in the tropics, they just realize, guess what? It's just going to be tropical. Like we're not going to get a winter and that's okay. And I think in Arizona and Phoenix, at least, like that's the life we need to start living. Stop pretending like it's going to be sweater weather. It's not going to happen.

So here we are. Yeah.

Britt (02:15.414)

saying, it's warmer this year. Every year we say like, it should be cooler. Like exactly, like it is what it is and you know what? I'm happy for it. I am perfectly fine not having freezing weather.

The Dental A Team (02:21.603)

Yeah.